Scott talks to Peter Van Buren about the resurgence of the narrative that Russia is interfering in American elections, this time in the form of apparent support both for Trump’s reelection and for Bernie Sanders to get the Democratic nomination. Van Buren notes that fortunately voters don’t seem to be buying it this time around—both Trump and Sanders’ approval ratings improved in the days following the stories about supposed Russian interference. But he warns that we should always be wary of deep state interference in electoral politics, since they do have tremendous power to disrupt things behind the scenes. He also gives his thoughts on the coronavirus, and its effect on the global economy in particular, which he says is mostly due to unfounded and irrational fear, but could be the spark that lights the fuse on the coming recession.
Discussed on the show:
- Russiagate II: Return Of The Low Intelligence Zombies” (The American Conservative)
- “There’s Still Little Evidence That Russia’s 2016 Social Media Efforts Did Much of Anything” (Washington Post)
- “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” (BBC News)
- “Russia Isn’t Dividing Us — Our Leaders Are ” (Rolling Stone)
- “What Mike Pence’s past says about his ability to lead on coronavirus” (Vox)
- “The Democrats’ Narrative Of Gloom Won’t Fly In 2020” (The American Conservative)
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: 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.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org