Scott interviews Trita Parsi about his paper concerning the intervention of Middle East powers over the last decade. Parsi and his coauthor Matthew Petti found that, contrary to the picture often painted of one malign actor driving all the instability, there are really six Middle Eastern countries engaging in a lot of foreign intervention. Iran, which is currently the U.S. foreign policy establishment’s favorite villain, is no more interventionist than the other five. And that most instability in the modern Middle East can be traced back to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Finally,...
Presidency
COI #152: Vaccine Passports, Mask Mandates & Booster Shots
On COI #152, Kyle Anzalone and Will Porter discuss the state of the US Covid regime. An increasing number of federal agencies, state and local governments are requiring employees to be vaccinated. The mandates are not limited to government employees as an increasing number of private companies are requiring employees and patients to receive the jab. Several states are rolling out mandates for masks, especially in schools. However, there is some question as to what it means to be “fully vaccinated,” as the Biden administration has urged all adults to receive booster shots within 8 months...
News Roundup 4/28/21
US News Louisiana police placed a GPS tracker on a woman’s car. When she removed it, they demanded the tracker back. [Link] In addition to the $2 trillion covid relief bill and the proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill, Biden now wants to pass a $1.8 trillion bill to support children and families. [Link] Private asset funds are starting new finds to buy assets from the older funds. [Link] The F-35 program will be at an 800 engine deficit by 2030. The lack of engines will ground half of the fleet. [Link] A US Coast Guard ship is in the Black Sea. [Link] Afghanistan The US Ambassador to...
3/26/21 Jim Bovard on the Government Cover-Up of the Waco Massacre
Scott talks to Jim Bovard about the Waco massacre, and especially the second investigation into the government's actions, led by Senator John Danforth in 1999. After new evidence emerged that contradicted the official government story, another investigation was conducted, but Bovard says that its mission all along was really just to whitewash the government's malfeasance. Danforth was a moderate Republican and a darling of the establishment, who had his eyes on the vice presidency in the Bush administration. He did his cover-up job effectively, as Bovard outlines in a new piece; the...
The Establishment Will Never Let Us Leave Afghanistan
With the 20th anniversary of the Afghanistan war now just around the corner, Americans might reasonably wonder whether the nation’s longest war is ever going to end. After carefully considering the question, two retired four-star generals, two former U.S. senators, three ambassadors, a former national security adviser, and several other august personages have weighed in with an opinion: not if they can help it. Policy wonks who have been waiting with bated breath can now exhale: the congressionally mandated Afghanistan Study Group (ASG) has published its findings. The panel of grandees...
1/28/21 Gareth Porter: Biden’s Coercive Iran Policy Threatens New Regional Crisis
Gareth Porter discusses U.S. relations with Iran, especially the ways the policies of the Biden administration might differ from those of the Trump administration. Even though the JCPOA was one of the signature accomplishments of the Obama presidency, and even though Trump came under sharp criticism from Obama supporters for pulling out of the agreement, Porter does not consider it at all a sure thing that Biden will simply rejoin the deal as it stands. The narrative that many Obama officials put forward at the time was that Iran was forced to come to the table because of America's...
1/22/21 Steve Ellner on the Attempted US Destruction of Venezuela
Steve Ellner discusses the economic and political situation in Venezuela, and the U.S. role in pushing the country to where it is today. Ellner dispels a common misconception, which is that foreign influence has had little to do with Venezuela's recent problems compared to mismanagement by the socialist governments of Chavez and Maduro. This has certainly played some role, Ellner concedes, as have falling oil prices, but he insists that by far the greater factor has been U.S. meddling during the Obama and Trump administrations. Under the Trump administration in particular, says Ellner,...
Kevin Gosztola: No Pardons For Edward Snowden Or Julian Assange
"NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, who was the first to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act under Trump, and former CIA officer John Kiriakou pursued pardons. They were effectively denied as well. On January 17, the New York Times reported that an associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Kiriakou a pardon would cost him $2 million. "I laughed. Two million bucks—are you out of your mind?" Kiriakou told the Times. "Even if I had two million bucks, I wouldn't spend it to recover a $700,000 pension." The report exposed a sliver of the corruption around pardons in the final days of the...
Today’s Riot
I'm swamped editing the book, but just a couple quick things about today's riot at the capitol: Biden did not steal 5 states. Trump lost. That's the deal. Trump's refusal to concede and long delay before telling people to go home today is a goddam disgrace. Still, the media claiming this was a coup and an insurrection is overblown. The few who broke in were no armed, organized militia. It was just amped-up mob members acting out. Not a justification, just real context. The silver lining of the crisis of confidence in America's rotten institutions is seriously tempered by the fact that the...
How State Legislators Can End Our Endless Wars
While President Trump was negotiating yet another peace agreement this week — this time between Israel and Morocco — his enemies beat the drums of war in their ongoing effort to overthrow the America First foreign policy. It’s sad that throughout the entirety of Mr. Trump’s presidency, the swamp has worked around the clock to dismantle his efforts toward peace. Even worse, with the passage of the disastrous, $740.5 billion 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), it appears the neocons and pro-war left will soon regain the levers of federal power, plunging America into another four...
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