Trump accuses Pentagon leaders of wanting to ‘fight wars’ to make defense companies rich

Jeff Schogol in Task and Purpose: President Donald Trump blasted the Pentagon’s leadership on Monday for allegedly caring about defense industry more than U.S. service members. “I'm not saying the military's in love with me – the soldiers are,” the president said at a White House news conference. “The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.” Trump also said that his desire to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria now that the...

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9/4/20 James Carden on the Rotten Alliance between Liberals and Neocons

Scott interviews James Carden about his latest article, which explores the recent return of many prominent neocons to the Democratic Party in opposition to Trump. Carden reminds us that during the 1960s a group of hawkish Democrats moved over to side with the Republicans in response to some of the radical social movements in America at that time, thus founding the neoconservative movement. Now, as we near the end of Trump's first term, many of them are supporting Biden—and it's easy to see why, says Carden: Biden and Harris represent the exact same establishment foreign policy consensus...

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9/5/20 Gareth Porter on Trump’s First Term Foreign Policy Record

Gareth Porter discusses President Trump's foreign policy as we near the end of his first term. The story of Trump's time in office, as everyone knows, has been that despite his sense for the futility and unpopularity of America's endless wars, he, like Obama before him, hasn't been able to resist the pressures of the military-industrial complex and actually follow through with ending them. The news in Afghanistan is somewhat positive, where Trump has put Zalmay Khalilzad in charge of negotiating a U.S. withdrawal. But Porter is concerned that because there are no stipulations about peace...

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9/4/20 David Henderson on the Supposed Economic Threat of China

Scott interviews David Henderson about the threat to the U.S. posed by China's growing stature as an economic powerhouse. In general, Henderson thinks that such concerns are overblown, citing the real economic figures behind the trade relationship. In particular, he explains the way that losses from outsourcing tend to be concentrated to a few employees in a specific industry, whereas the (much larger) gains to are spread out over a whole population of consumers. This results in a skewed narrative that Americans are losing out on global trade with China. He also dispels the myth that America...

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9/4/20 Trevor Timm on the Vindication of Edward Snowden

Trevor Timm discusses an important new ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which says that the NSA's mass data-gathering program, famously exposed by Edward Snowden, was illegal all along. It also came out during the court proceedings that not a single act of terrorism was ever prevented by the program. This ruling is a major vindication of Snowden's decision, and may bring him one step closer to exoneration. Discussed on the show: "James Clapper denies lying to Congress about NSA surveillance program" (AP News) "State Department Cables" (WikiLeaks) "Afghan War Logs" (WikiLeaks)...

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Rest In Peace Kevin Zeese

The great peace activist and writer Kevin Zeese died this morning. He apparently had a heart attack last night. This is a terrible loss for our movement. I must have interviewed him 25 times or so over the years. Here's his Antiwar.com archive too. Kevin was a good man. https://twitter.com/medeabenjamin/status/1302611748613238784 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei4rdIFLfgA

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