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Frida Berrigan was five years old at the time of the Three Mile Island disaster, which marks her first memory of a life centered around anti-nuclear activism, as both of her parents, renowned Catholic nuclear activists Liz McAllister and Phil Berrigan, spent most of her childhood in and out of prison for their acts of civil disobedience. Berrigan joins the show to share her story.

Discussed on the show:

"Nuclear weapons ruined my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way" (Waging Nonviolence)

Plowshares movement

The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

The Nuns, The Priests, and The Bombs

"The Day After" (IMDb)

Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Kings Bay Plowshares

Frida Berrigan is a columnist for Waging Nonviolence and the author of It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood. Find her work at Waging Nonviolence.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

At its heart, Agorism is a pragmatic philosophy. It is about doing what is best for you and your family. It doesn't waste time worrying about the silly people who try and hold us back. But, even though we try and live outside of the system, it is possible for even an agorist to get stuck. One cancer that pops up in agorism is the cancer of absolutism.

Agorists say that we are all about freedom and doing what we want, but then too many turn around and begin making absolute statements about what we can and cannot do. For example, they might say that agorists DON'T vote. Or, agorists ONLY buy locally sourced food. Some go so far as to say that agorists DON'T join religions or take part in anything that involves vertical hierarchies and power structures. You might agree with some or all of these, but the problem comes when we insist that these apply to ALL agorists. That just isn't how agorism works. You don't tell me what I can and cannot do, or what I must and must not do. Those are my decisions to make for me, and your decisions to make for you.

Unlike many other agorists, I sometimes vote. Does this make me a bad agorist? Some would say that this is anti-agorist, but to me, it is an expression of the pragmatic nature of agorism. I own my home, but unfortunately, my city insists that I pay a property tax which is essential feudal land rent. If I don't pay, then the city will seize my home. As much as I hate paying it, I still do it because I don't want to lose my home. I make a pragmatic value judgment. Is it worth more to me not to pay the tax and lose my home? Or, is it worth more to me to keep my home by paying taxes? As I said earlier, I do the latter. Despite hating taxation, I pay because the consequences are even more undesirable.

Now, if I see that there is a measure on the ballot to raise property taxes, I have a couple of options. First, I could thumb my nose at voting, sit on my moral high horse, and then feel good about myself as I pay higher property taxes. Or, I could make a pragmatic value judgment, hold my nose, and vote not to raise property taxes and then enjoy potentially not having to pay more property taxes... at least for that year.

If I were an absolutist on not voting, then I would be creating an artificial barrier between myself and potential benefits for my life. I don't want to pay my city any more than I have to, and if I have to pull a lever to lessen the load, it is ultimately a small price to pay.

When we become absolutists, we put artificial limits on our lives. We essentially do the government's job for them. Agorism has a lot more gray area than other ideologies, and I like that. Life is not black and white, and when we force life into those categories, we ultimately make life worse for ourselves.

So, embrace the gray. Don't be afraid of pragmatism. Do what is best for you and your family. We can agree that you shouldn't hurt people or take their stuff. Outside of that, anything goes. It's your choice to make.

Originally posted at: https://technoagorist.com/5

Techno-Agorist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjWlrSuf4b4eApnFX9o82BA

Techno-Agorist on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/techno-agorist/id1458773157

Techno-Agorist is a production of the MLGA Network. Find more great content at: https://mlganetwork.com

Conn Hallinan joins the show to explain the political situation in Turkey, where President Recep Erdogan has been consolidating power away from the parliament and into a strong executive. The problem, explains Hallinan, is that a groundswell of Kurdish voters has wrested local control from Erdogan in lots of municipal elections, and after having campaigned partially on an anti-Kurdish nationalist platform, Erdogan might now have to make nice with them in order to get anything done.

Discussed on the show:

"“Revenge of the Kurds”: Erdogan’s Missteps Are Piling Up" (FPIF)

Conn Hallinan is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus. Hallinan is a recipient of a Project Censored "Real News Award" and formerly headed the University of Santa Cruz’s journalism program.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

Stephen Zunes talks about democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's shameful record on foreign policy—the real reason he shouldn't be president. In the senate, Biden was a champion of deposing Saddam Hussein all along, explains Zunes, and his claims of merely wanting weapons inspections in Iraq should be disregarded. Setting aside the disturbing evidence of Biden's inappropriate touching of young girls, his record on U.S. foreign policy should disqualify him from our approval.

Discussed on the show:

"The Other Reason Biden Shouldn’t Run" (Progressive.org)

"A Debate on Sen. Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy Record Between Steve Clemons and Stephen Zunes" (Democracy Now!)

"Nuland-Pyatt leaked phone conversation _COMPLETE with SUBTITLES" (YouTube)

"Report: Biden Got Prosecutor Investigating His Son's Firm Fired" (Law & Crime)

Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution and Civil Resistance Against Coups: A Comparative and Historical Perspective. Find him on Twitter @SZunes. 

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

Scott talks to Independent Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn about ISIS, who, despite claims of their defeat, are back waging a guerrilla campaign in Iraq.

Discussed on the show:

We Can Finish ISIS - but Only if the West Winds Down Its Proxy Wars (Independent)

How the Islamic State's Brutal Project Was Finally Overthrown (Independent)

“Undefeated, ISIS Is Back in Iraq” (New York Review of Books)

Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and the author of The Age of Jihad and Chaos & Caliphate.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

David Stockman offers his take on the end of the Russia investigation. He points out that the Mueller report categorically denies just about every allegation made by President Trump's opponents, including the surveillance of his campaign based on false information about Carter Page, and the ever-popular "Trump Tower meeting." Scott and Stockman both worry that too many American democrats have the attitude, "even if Russiagate is made up, anything is justified in bringing Trump down."

Discussed on the show:

"No Joy In Never-Trumpville: Mighty Mueller Has Struck Out" (Antiwar.com)

"PEAK TRUMP, IMPENDING CRISES, ESSENTIAL INFO & ACTION" (Contra Corner)

Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp And The Fantasy Of MAGA

"Russiagate Skeptics" (Foreign Policy Follies)

Colour revolution

"US-Funded Neo-Nazis in Ukraine Mentor US White Supremacists" (Consortiumnews)

Tulsi Gabbard on Twitter: "Trump/Pence continue to try to hide the truth from their Christian supporters..."

David Stockman is the ultimate Washington insider turned iconoclast. He began his career in Washington as a young man and quickly rose through the ranks of the Republican Party to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street. He is the author of Trumped!, The Triumph of Politics, and his history of the financial crisis, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.

At tax time each year, I am always reminded of the value of life. While we pay taxes using money, the reality is that we ultimately only have one real currency to spend, and it is our lives. Our lives are each unique, one of a kind, and they are the most valuable resources on the earth. But, like all valuable resources, our lives are limited. We only have one life to live, and we measure that life in terms of time.

Imagine that your life will last eighty-five years. That means that you have eighty-five years of life to spend or 744,600 hours to spend. Over the course of your life, whether you realize it or not, you are spending that time. Every moment is a value judgment of what you want to spend your time on. If you spend two hours watching an enjoyable movie, you have traded two hours of your seven hundred something thousand hours to gain the pleasure and enjoyment that came from watching it.

When you work at a job, you are literally trading chunks of your life, of your limited time, to gain another kind of currency that is more easily traded for goods and services. If you spend X number of hours of your limited life to gain Y amount of money, that money is actually the physical manifestation of your time investment. It is the physical manifestation of the time that you spent to receive it. If you hold that money in your hand, you are holding the physical manifestation of part of your life.

As an agorist, I realize that I own my life. I know that my time is mine to spend, and the things that I trade parts of my life for are mine to keep. Tax time reminds me of the value of life because taxation is, unfortunately, where a group of people decide that they are allowed to literally steal chunks of your life from you. As they see it, your life is theirs to spend.

Agorism is fundamentally opposed to this way of thinking because agorism understands that our lives are our own and what we do with our lives are up to us. There will only be one me in all of human history. There will only be one you in all of human history. It feels like an understatement to say that life is invaluable. There is no adequate word to describe how valuable each of our lives are. We each exist for a short time, and live a completely unique life with entirely unique experiences. Nobody will ever live your life ever again. This currency of each of our lives can only be spent once.

So, make the most of your life. Do your best to spend it in ways that best benefit you and your family, not megalomaniacs on counterfeit thrones.

Originally posted at: https://technoagorist.com/4

Techno-Agorist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjWlrSuf4b4eApnFX9o82BA

Techno-Agorist on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/techno-agorist/id1458773157

Techno-Agorist is a production of the MLGA Network. Find more great content at: https://mlganetwork.com

On FPF #341, I discuss a former Marine being held on an extradition request from Spain for stealing electronics from the North Korean embassy in Madrid. The break-in occurred in the days leading up to Trump's second summit with Kim Jong-un. While few details of the break-in are known, the case against the Marine may help to shed some light on who broke into the embassy and what they were after. I update the planning for regime change in Venezuela, human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, and SEALs being told to keep quiet about war crimes. 

Links

Max Blumenthal - CSIS meeting

Moon of Alabama - NK embassy break-in 

SHS - Jason Ditz

SHS - Max Blumenthal

In 1999, a teenager named Shawn Fanning creating a file sharing application called Napster which took the world by storm. This application revolutionized how MP3 audio files could be shared. Anybody who was into computers at that time can remember how amazing it was to log into there and instantly find nearly any MP3 file that you wanted. One of the things that made Napster so cool was that it did not actually host the files which you downloaded using the application. Instead, Napster was a p2p or "person to person" application. When you wanted an audio file, Napster would connect your computer with another person's computer who had that file and then your computer would download the file directly from them. Then, once you had downloaded the files, your computer would begin sharing them as well.

Some people didn't like this. One of my favorite bands, Metallica, and their drummer, Lars Ulrich, led the charge to stop Napster. Metallica claimed that people were sharing their music and that they were being more-or-less being cheated out of potential profits.

Now, I can understand why Metallica would want people to purchase their music rather than download it from other people's computers. I can't fault them for being reluctant to change their profit model in the midst of changing technology. But, history is full of industries growing and changing as a result of technology. Most people prefer the status quo. It feels safe and predictable. Technology, though, is not safe and predictable. Innovation happens, new technologies appear, and people and industries then need to adjust to the new norm. Wheelwrights and the wooden-wheel-making industry used to be central to everyday life. But, when the technological landscape changed, that industry all but died out. I can understand why the wheelwrights would have preferred to continue doing what they were doing, but they eventually had to change their profit models, they had to find new ways to use their skills to make a living.

Well, the music industry did not want to change, they did not want to update their profit models in the midst of changing technology. So, they decided to use government violence to try and stop the technology. They wanted to prevent people from sharing files between their computers. But, I have to stop here and ask a question. Who owns your computer? Who owns my computer? Who has the right to decided what your hardware can and cannot be used for? Did Lars Ulrich and Metallica buy your computer? Do they own your hard drive? Do outdated record companies have more rights over your own property than you do?

Questions like this always come back to property rights, and the reality is that what you do with your property in your home is your decision and your decision alone. Your property, your choice. Our rights only extend only to our own property, despite the machinations of politicians, regressives, and luddites. Some people will always be around to pretend that they have more rights over your life and your property than you do, but an agorist doesn't care. We do what is best for ourselves and our families. We embrace technology and don't use violence to prop up dying profit models.

Even though the entertainment industry still has a long way to go, Napster and the people who shared files person to person ended up changing the face of entertainment. Since that time, we have seen the birth of iTunes and Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, and countless other places where you can go to get music, movies, and other forms of entertainment on demand. Those all came about because of changing technology and a population who refused to limit themselves when better means of media consumption came along.

Don't be like Lars Ulrich and Metallica, trying to control what others do. Instead, be an agorist and make the most of your time, energy, and property.

Peter Van Buren joins the show for an update on the aftermath of the Mueller report. Although some commentators are claiming that the report's findings are inconclusive with respect to President Trump's conduct during the campaign, Van Buren reminds us that the question was, all along, whether Trump or members of his team colluded with Russians to swing the election in his favor. The report concludes that there's no evidence of this, nor for obstruction of justice. So Van Buren wants to know: when exactly did Mueller know that there was no evidence of collusion, and why didn't he say so as soon as he knew?

Discussed on the show:

"Mueller Time is Finally Over" (The American Conservative)

"Mueller is Investigating Trump as a Russian Asset" (NY Mag)

"The 25 subplots to watch in the Mueller Investigation" (Politico)

"Warren Commission Report: Table of Contents" (National Archives)

Starr Report

Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal, or Bitcoin: 1Ct2FmcGrAGX56RnDtN9HncYghXfvF2GAh.