Scott interviews Aaron Maté on a new report by a group of OPCW whistleblowers alleging more misconduct from the organization. Just like in the famous case at Douma, where scant findings were used to justify retributive action against the Assad government while exculpatory evidence was deliberately excluded, these employees say that a similarly misleading incident took place in the case of an alleged attack in the Syrian town of Ltamenah in 2017. In fact they claim that an entire special team, supposedly set up to conduct thorough and unbiased investigations of incidents during the Syrian civil war actually had directives to find a way to blame everything that it could on Assad in order to justify military action against him. The new report exposes some of this subterfuge by analyzing both the technical details and the political motivations of the actors involved. Scott and Maté also discuss the ridiculous “Russiagate” hoax, which continues to rear its ugly head in the mainstream media.

Discussed on the show:

“Exclusive: OPCW insiders slam ‘compromised’ new Syria chemical weapons probe” (The Grayzone)

Aaron Maté is a former host and producer at The Real News and writes regularly at The Nation. Follow him on Twitter @AaronJMate.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqDNtDND1B0

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis joins the show to talk about Trump’s apparent interest in getting U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. Trump has signaled that the coronavirus crisis might be an excuse to get out—after all if America is having trouble taking care of things at home, why should it wastefully expend resources abroad? For this fairly logical position, the media is doing everything it can to portray Trump as deranged and reckless. Davis and Scott support leaving Afghanistan by whatever means necessary, since the war has been a fool’s errand from the very beginning.

Discussed on the show:

The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies

“U.S. officials misled the public about the war in Afghanistan, confidential documents reveal” (Washington Post)

Obama’s Wars

“Secret Annexes Can Khalilzad Deliver Afghan Peace for Trump?” (Time)

“Trump tells advisers U.S. should pull troops as Afghanistan COVID-19 outbreak looms” (NBC)

Daniel Davis did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during his time in the army. He writes a weekly column for National Interest and is the author of the reports “Dereliction of Duty II: Senior Military Leaders’ Loss of Integrity Wounds Afghan War Effort” and “Go Big or Go Deep: An Analysis of Strategy Options on Afghanistan.” Find him on Twitter @DanielLDavis1.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptDaniel L. Davis 0:10

All right shall welcome it's Scott Horton shelf. I am the director of the libertarian Institute editorial director of anti war.com, author of the book fool's errand, time to end the war in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at scotthorton.org dot org. We can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also [email protected]. Slash Scott Horton show. Aren't you guys online I've got retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis, an American hero, not for his military service, but for his great whistleblowing at the end of the Afghan surge in 2012. He broke ranks and went public Blick and announced David Petraeus for lying to the American people into the US Congress, about the state of that war, and what needed to happen. And he's been fighting for an end to it, and a rational foreign policy ever since then to welcome back to the show. How you doing, Danny?

Thanks, God, I love to be on your show. Thanks for having me.

Scott Horton 1:19

Very happy to have you here. So and I could have mentioned you were in Iraq War One iraq war to Afghanistan. And you know what, actually, let's talk about this a little bit your tour in Afghanistan, you had a especially kind of unique view of the war rather than being stationed just here. There. You are all over the country. On that last tour there, right.

Daniel L. Davis 1:42

Yeah, I was working for an organization called the rapid equipping force, which was basically a created offshoot under the Army's g three the operations department in the Pentagon, for the purpose of trying to shorten the amount of time from the the point where an organization You know, brigade says, Hey, we need this kind of equipment, we need this thing we didn't know we needed until we got on the ground, you know, the normal acquisition process would have taken longer than a than a tour last.

Mike Swanson discusses all the money the U.S. government has pumped into the economy in order to combat the economic effects of the coronavirus, and what effects these stimulus measures are likely to have. Even though an huge increase in the money supply would normally lead to price inflation, Swanson says that the simultaneous deflationary pressures from all the shutdown of the economy could offset any inflation, at least until things reopen and we’re on our way out of the recession. This also means that wages might not rise and progress toward economic recovery could be slow. Just about the only thing investors can do, he explains, is to buy gold and silver, since traditional diversification strategies aren’t reliable right now.

Discussed on the show:

“Is This a Liquidity Crisis or a Solvency Crisis? It Matters to Fed” (WSJ)

Big Debt Crises

Mike Swanson provides investment advice at wallstreetwindow.com and is the author of The War State: The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite. He also works with the Neopolis Media Group, a group of historians, educators, authors, researchers, and free speech advocates who endeavor to provide original and engaging content, including The Ochelli Effect, and The Lone Gunman Podcast.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABPV7oWoVyk

Scott talks to William Van Wagenen about his recent Libertarian Institute article exploring the extremist roots of Syria’s civil war. Contrary to the popular narrative, according to which peaceful, secular, democratic protestors were met with violence by the Syrian government, Van Wagenen explains that Muslim Brotherhood activists were really inciting the protests and attacking Syrian security forces from the very beginning. Though the government has undoubtedly killed its own citizens, this was not a case of peaceful demonstrators being met with force, but one of force being met with force. Not to mention, of course, the fact that America’s support for “moderate rebels” has turned out to be, as usual, support for some of the most brutal and radical islamist militants.

Discussed on the show:

“The Salafist Roots of the Syrian Uprising” (The Libertarian Institute)

“Coping with Crumbling States: A Western and Israeli Balance of Power Strategy for the Levant by David Wurmser 1996” (The Scott Horton Show)

William Van Wagenen has a BA in German literature From Brigham Young University and an MA in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. You can read more of his writings at the Libertarian Institute. Follow him on Twitter @wvanwagenen.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed. The full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys introducing William Van Wagenen. He is regular writer for the libertarian Institute. And he's got another one on Syria here. The Salafist roots of the Syrian uprising. Welcome back to the show, William How you doing?

William Van Wagenen 0:55

Hey, I'm doing well appreciate appreciate you letting me on. How are you?

Scott Horton 0:59

I'm doing great. Pretty You're joining us here today and listen to another masterpiece. And you sure don't what I don't know, eight or 10 of these for the institute so far, and they're just great. Especially going back to the early history of the Syrian war there. So here you're addressing the all important question, I guess, of the origin of the war. The common narrative is that peaceful protesters went outside to protest, and then the government shot them and that radicalize them and the protest movement turned into a war. Is that about right?

William Van Wagenen 1:36

Yeah, so that's the, the standard narrative. And in that the thing that never gets mentioned, is, you know, what was going on in the Salafist community in Syria at the time, in that mainstream narrative, there were just the peaceful democratic secular protesters and there's no mention made of the salt This community, what Salafist activists were up to what Muslim Brotherhood activists were up to. And so there's a, if you just take a closer look, it turns out that Salafist community was really active. And they were, in my view, in the view of some of the scholars that I Syrian scholars that I cited in the paper, it was,

Mitchell Plitnick talks to Scott about the dizzying state of the Israeli elections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally formed a government after three rounds of elections that looked to be tilting toward his main rival, Benny Gantz. Plitnick theorizes that Gantz simply is not as savvy a career politician as Netanyahu is, and in part he just got tired of the endless fight. He may even have used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to call off his campaign. Now his coalition has supposedly entered a power sharing agreement with Netanyahu, in which the latter will serve as prime minister for 18 months with Gantz as his deputy, before the two switch roles. Scott and Plitnick are virtually certain that Netanyahu will find a way to avoid following through on this agreement, all the while avoiding prosecution for his corruption charges. In the meantime, Israel’s brutal subjugation of the Palestinians continues apace.

Discussed on the show:

“Israel’s unity government protects Netanyahu from prosecution, paves the way for annexation” (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)

Mitchell Plitnick is president of ReThinking Foreign Policy. His writing has appeared in Ha’aretz, the New Republic, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many other outlets, and he has regularly offered commentary in a wide range of radio and television outlets including PBS News Hour and the O’Reilly Factor. Follow him on Twitter @MJPlitnick.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:00

For Pacifica radio, April 26 2020. I'm Scott Horton. This is anti war radio.

Alright y'all Welcome to show it is anti war radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm the editorial director of anti war calm and author of the book fool's errand time to end the war in Afghanistan. You can find my full interview archive, more than 5000 of them now going back to 2003 at Scott horton.org. All right, you guys introducing Mitchell Plitnick. He is the president of rethinking foreign policy and he's got a new piece at the Quincy Institute for Responsible statecraft. And it's called Israel's unity government protects Netanyahu from prosecution paves the way for annexation. Welcome back to the show, Mitchell. How you doing?

Mitchell Plitnick 1:03

I'm doing all right. How are you?

Scott Horton 1:04

I'm doing great. appreciate you joining us today here. So first of all, can you take us back here? This is the third election or the fourth election that they've had in a row. They're trying to figure out who can form a majority in the Israeli Knesset, and they finally got it done by having the two major opponents compromise and join in a coalition government together. Is that it?

Mitchell Plitnick 1:26

Right. This is the third election in just over a year. And you know, in the end, what they came to was something they could have come to after the first election, if they, you know, had so chosen. It came about because some right wing parties, particularly the Israel as our home used to have a new party of Avigdor Lieberman decided they would not join a coalition with Netanyahu. So that sort of tipped a balance. The problem from the other side was that in order for the opposition led by Benny guns to form a government, they would have had to have the support of The joint list,

Scott talks to Grant Smith about his organization’s Freedom of Information lawsuit against the IRS, an attempt to get the agency to reveal its policies on tax-exempt organizations overseas. Of particular interest is the shocking fact that billions of dollars of tax-deductible money has been donated by American taxpayers in recent years to fund organizations that build settlements on Palestinian land. This makes no sense, says Smith, since the point of such tax policies is to offset “public good” costs that would otherwise be shouldered by the U.S. government. Not only do these activities service no such need, they are actually causing great harm to Palestinians.

Discussed on the show:

“IRS Must Describe Its Search for Israeli Settlement Policies” (Antiwar.com Original)Neutrality Act of 1794Foreign Agents Registration ActArms Export Control Act“1/10/20 Grant Smith on the Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board” (The Libertarian Institute)

Grant F. Smith is the author of a number of books including Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, Divert!, and most recently The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed. The full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys on the line. I've got the great Grant F. Smith. He is the founder and director of the Institute for Research, Middle Eastern policy, that's IR map, IR MEP, ir mip.org. And he wrote a bunch of great books, including big Israel and the latest, the Israel lobby. enters state government, Rise of the Virginia Israel advisory board. Welcome back to the show, Grant. How you doing?

Grant F. Smith 1:08

Hey, I'm doing well. Scott, thanks for having me on. Again.

Scott Horton 1:10

Very happy to have you here. Let's talk about this new [email protected]. IRS must describe its search for Israeli settlement policies. Yeah. So it turns out that people can donate to Israeli racial colonies on the West Bank, and write it off on their taxes, just like when they donate to the Israeli Defense Forces, is that correct?

Grant F. Smith 1:38

That is correct, creates a huge tax gap. And as I argue there's really no demonstrated social welfare benefit to it. That's why you're supposed to be able to get tax exemptions is there supposed to be some offsetting activity that relieves the US government of a burden, but there's no evidence of that. And again, It's worse than in the case of the settlements where you've just got active displacement, which seems to fit the exact letter of the neutrality act of 1794 that US citizens aren't allowed to kind of declare a slow motion war against any group overseas. That's Congress's job to declare those slow motion laws against people overseas. So it's, it's an interesting question.

Jim Bovard is back with an update in the Duncan Lemp case. Lemp was killed in a pre-dawn no-knock SWAT raid on his home last month, during which police allegedly fired directly into his bedroom window, where he slept beside his pregnant girlfriend. The police have changed their official story three times already, apparently trying to cover up what is almost certainly a wrongful killing. They claim that they received an anonymous tip regarding firearms offenses, which in their eyes evidently justifies a deadly nighttime SWAT raid. Bovard and Scott fear that because of the special legal protections afforded to the police in this country, the officers responsible will face few consequences and the department will not be held to account. People who care about this case, however, must be sure not to let it fade from the public eye.

Discussed on the show:

“Did Maryland Police Shoot and Kill a Sleeping Man?” (The American Conservative)“The Mystery Deepens Over the Pre-Dawn Police Killing of Duncan Lemp” (The American Conservative)“Duncan Lemp’s Parents Threatened With Jail For Protesting His Killing” (The American Conservative)“Tamir Rice’s Basically Reasonable Murder” (Simple Justice)

Jim Bovard is a columnist for USA Today and the author of Public Policy Hooligan: Rollicking and Wrangling from Helltown to Washington. Find all of his books and read his work on his website and follow him on Twitter @JimBovard.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, y'all welcome it's Scott Horton Show. I am the director of the Libertarian Institute editorial director of antiwar.com, author of the book Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at ScottHorton.org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed. The full archive is also available at youtube.com/ScottHortonShow. All right, you guys on the line. I've got the great Jim Bovard, author of public policy hooligan and attention deficit democracy in a bunch of great books like that. And he is writing at the American Conservative magazine. Duncan lambs parents threatened with jail for protesting his killing the third In a series over there, welcome back to the show. How you doing, Jim?

Jim Bovard 1:03

Hey Scott, thanks for having me back.

Scott Horton 1:05

Really happy to have you on the show here. And people should know that. The first one here at TAC is called didn't Maryland police shoot and kill a sleeping man, followed by the mystery deepens over the pre dawn police killing of Duncan limp and then now the latest hear about his parents being threatened with jail for protesting the killing. But if you could for people not familiar, can we go back to the night of was it March 12th. And the raid on this guy's house?

Jim Bovard 1:38

Yeah, it was. It was the morning of March 12 at 4:30am and Duncan lab was living in with his family in a very affluent part of montgomery county in Potomac quiet neighborhood. the montgomery county police said they had got an anonymous tip two months earlier that he had a a firearm and he was, according to that place he's prohibited from having firearms due to a juvenile conviction. The family's lawyers say that's not true. But the cops went and built a case up,

William Arkin comes back on the show to discuss continuity planning in the U.S. government. He notes that the measures being taken in Washington D.C. to ensure the integrity of a constitutional government during an emergency are somewhat at odds with the steps that the highest ranking politicians are themselves taking. For example, even as helicopter teams stand at the ready to evacuate the chain of command at a moment’s notice, President Trump and Vice President Pence have not separated themselves in the way that might usually be expected during a crisis. In addition to evacuation, there are many other measures being taken that the the public isn’t aware of in the slightest. This leads to a tension that is of great concern to Arkin: If continuity of government is not a pressing concern right now, why are we devoting so much money and so many greatly needed personnel to the effort? And if it is something we should be worried about, why is it being conducted so secretly that it seriously undermines public confidence that the rule of constitutional law will be upheld?

Discussed on the show:

“Exclusive: As Washington DC Faces Coronavirus Spike, Secret Military Task Force Prepares to Secure the Capital” (Newsweek)Rex 84Operation Garden PlotRumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy

William Arkin is a military intelligence analyst, activist, author, journalist, academic and consultant. His award-winning reporting has appeared on the front pages of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He is the author of American Coup: How a Terrified Government Is Destroying the Constitution. Follow him on Twitter @warkin.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:00

For Pacifica radio, April 19 2020. I'm Scott Horton. This is anti war radio.

All right, you guys, welcome to show. It is anti war radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm the editorial director of anti war calm and author of the book fool's errand time to end the war in Afghanistan. If I my full interview archive, or the 5000 of them now going back to 2003 for you at scotthorton.org dot org. All right, you guys introducing William Arkin, this time writing for Newsweek, of course author of the book, American coup, and we spoke about a month ago about the military's preparedness for the worst case scenario with outbreak of the Coronavirus here. And now he's got a follow up article about it in Newsweek as Washington in DC faces Coronavirus, Spike secret military Task Force prepares to secure the Capitol. Welcome back to the show. Bill. How are you doing?

William Arkin 1:08

Hey, thanks for having me on. Again, Scott.

Scott Horton 1:10

Very happy to have you here and very interested in this piece. It seems like possibly the worst case scenario with the virus outbreak, at least for this spike has not come true. New York, of course, has been hit really hard and a lot of people have died. But I think we're probably expecting things to be probably a bit worse than they are. And yet in this article, it doesn't sound like that is reflected in the government's plans here. They seem to be what it begins, you say that, you know, they're worried about the plague crippling the capital, but I clicked on the Johns Hopkins map and it seems like the deaths are still in the low double digi...

Scott talks to Richard Booth about his investigative journalism into the real story behind the Oklahoma City bombing and its subsequent investigation. Booth goes over some of the main holes in the official narrative, which was largely constructed in order depict Timothy McVeigh as a lone actor because his likely co-conspirators—members of a well-known neo-Nazi group—are suspected to have had ties as government informants. This is at best embarrassing, and at worst criminal. All of Booth’s great work is now available at The Libertarian Institute.

Discussed on the show:

"The Ultimate Okalahoma City Bombing Archive" (LibertarianInstitute.org/okc)“Timothy McVeigh, Suspects, Visit Strip Club in Weeks Before Bombing” (The Libertarian Institute)“The Secret Rulers of the World (TV Mini-Series 2001– )” (IMDb)“Terror from Within (TV Movie 2002)” (IMDb)Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed–and Why It Still MattersThe Secret Life of Bill Clinton: The Unreported Stories“Waco: The Rules of Engagement (1997)” (IMDb)“In Search of John Doe No. 2: The Story the Feds Never Told About the Oklahoma City Bombing” (Mother Jones)

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhlt_ynqcw4

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show Transcript

Scott Horton 0:10

All right, shall welcome it's Scott Horton show. I am the director of the libertarian Institute editorial director of anti war.com, author of the book fool's errand, time to end the war in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at Scott horton.org. You can also sign up for the podcast feed. Full archive is also [email protected]. Slash Scott Horton show.

All right, you guys on the line. I've got Richard booth. He is an independent journalist. And he has specialized in the cover up and the real story behind the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19 1995. And we have now at the Libertarian Institute reproduced his entire research archive of documents and very good journalistic reports on this story. And all of that is available at libertarian institute.org/OKC will have every single thing you need. And it's really mostly a repository of firsthand sources of documents for researchers to base their journalism off of. And there's some good journalism in there too, but it's a lot of raw intelligence, as they would put it, and absolutely can serve as the basis of all kinds of new great investigative journalist reports if investigative journalists would feel so inclined to do so. For example, Richards article that we're running on the libertarian Institute front page right now, Timothy McVeigh suspects, visit strip club in weeks before bombing. Welcome back to the show. How you doing, Richard?

Richard Booth 2:12

Very good. Thank you for having me, Scott.

Scott Horton 2:15

Man, I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the work that you've put into this and then letting us mirror it all at the libertarian Institute. We'll be keeping this archive for safekeeping from now on at libertarian institute.org/OKC. But let's start with this article. McVeigh went to the strip club and he was with some people and none of them were Terry Nichols. Is that right?

Richard Booth 2:41

That's right.

Reason Magazine senior editor Jacob Sullum talks to Scott about some of the latest coronavirus news. He comments on President Trump’s headline-making claim that he has the sole authority to decide if and when the economy would reopen, which Sullum asserts really belongs to the governors. Trump has backed away from his claim, but he still appears to support making progress toward reopening businesses sooner rather than later. Doing so would probably be a good thing, says Sullum, since the economic toll of the current measures have already been devastating, and only continue to get worse. Sullum reminds us that political decisions are often made with respect to the obvious consequences, and rarely to the unseen ones. For us, this means that politicians are likely to be overcautious in shutting things down without properly considering the massive toll to both the economy and to human life that is sure to result from such drastic restrictions.

Discussed on the show:

“Trump Can Encourage States to Lift Their COVID-19 Lockdowns, but He Can’t Decree That Outcome (Reason)“The ‘False Debate’ About Reopening the Economy Is the One That Ignores the Enormous Human Cost of Sweeping COVID-19 Control Measures” (Reason)“U.N. warns economic downturn could kill hundreds of thousands of children in 2020” (Reuters)“L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva Says Gun Dealers Are ‘Nonessential.’ The Department of Homeland Security Disagrees.” (Reason/)

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason and a nationally syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jacobsullum.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1KGye7S3pk7XXJT6TzrbFephGDbdhYznTa.

The following is an automatically generated transcript.

Show TranscriptScott Horton 0:10

All right, shall Welcome to the Scott Horton show. I am the director of the libertarian Institute editorial director of anti war.com, author of the book fool's errand, time to end the war in Afghanistan. And I've recorded more than 5000 interviews going back to 2003, all of which are available at scotthorton.org dot org. You can also sign up to the podcast feed full archive is also [email protected]. Slash Scott Horton show. All right, you guys introducing Jacob solem. He is senior editor over at reason magazine. Welcome back to the show. Jacob How are you doing?

Jacob Sullum 0:48

I'm doing all right. Thanks for having me.

Scott Horton 0:50

It's almost a stretch to say back to the show because it's been so long but I really appreciate you joining us here today. And boy, we have a bunch of important stuff. To talk about but I think if it's all right, I'd like to start with this article that you wrote. And Trump can encourage states to lift their COVID-19 lockdowns, but he can't decree that outcome. And this is the story of how Donald Trump made 10 thurs out of the liberal media for a day earlier this week by declaring that he has some kind of total power. What is up with that?

Jacob Sullum 1:26

Well, Trump frequently asserts powers he does not actually Have I mentioned a few in that post things he said in the past, where he clearly does not have the power that he's claiming. This is another example of that. I mean, historically, it's clear that the primary responsibility for responding to epidemics through quarantines in particular but other measures as well rests with the states that is a power that was reserved to the States under the Constitution.