Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews - 2/15/24 Jim Bovard on the TSA, Biden’s Age and Washington’s War on Our Liberties

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

Jim Bovard returns to the show to discuss some of his recent articles. They talk about Ted Cruz and the TSA, the Special Counsel’s verdict on Biden, new revelations about the Federal Government’s economic surveillance of Americans and more. Discussed on the show: Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty by Jim Bovard “Cancun Ted Cruz wants to make politicians a privileged caste at airports” (New York Post) “Biden is not fit for president if he’s not fit to prosecute” (New York Post) “Guilty But Clueless: Special Counsel Verdict On Biden” (Libertarian Institute) The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America's Soldiers by Joseph Hickman Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden by Branko Marcetic “Biden’s Big Brother teams are now watching what you BUY — hope you pay in cash” (New York Post) Jim Bovard is a columnist and the author of Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty. 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: Moon Does Artisan Coffee; Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott’s interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, y'all, welcome to the Scott Horton Show. I'm the director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of anti-war.com, author of the book, Fool's Aaron, Time to End the War in Afghanistan, and The Brand New, Enough Already, Time to End the War on Terrorism. And I've recorded more than 5,500 interviews since 2004. almost all on foreign policy and all available for you at scothorton dot for you can sign up the podcast feed there and the full interview archive is also available at youtube.com slash scott horton's show hey guys online i got james bovard well jim bovard we call him and uh he wrote the book last rights the death of american liberty get it like he's a priest and Liberties on its deathbed. Well, you know, and it's a play on lost rights from the 1990s, and it's such a great book.

And I'm real proud of it, too, because the Libertarian Institute published it, and I know that the people who already read it liked it as much as I did, and I know that all the people who are going to read it are also going to like it a lot. And also, probably be a little bit depressed about what you learn when you read it, too, because it's kind of a bummer. But it's a fun read for a bummer, and I like it. I know you will. And also, of course, you know, he writes for us at the Institute where he's senior fellow, and he writes at the New York Post because he's a big shot like that. Welcome back to the show. Jim, how you doing? Hey, Scott, thanks for having me on. Thanks for your kind words. And I have a new, I have a new blurb for the book. It's a fun read for a bummer.

There you go. I'm going to add this to the blurb list for the book. I appreciate that. Hell yeah, man. Well, there, I thought of something that was worth a little something. And no, it really is such a great thing. I mean, I had to read it for, like, the one last edit. But I remember when I was reading it, thinking to myself, man, this is so good. I love it when James Beauvard writes books. They're awesome. And I read a few.

Hell yeah. Well, thanks for the encouragement. Thanks for getting the book out there. And, you know, looking forward to raising more hell with that with the book and with Libertarian Institute. Hell yeah, man. All right. Well, listen, let's talk about some. things that you wrote for the New York Post there. Let's start with Ted Cruz, because he's

nominally from Texas. I don't know where he's really from, but he's my enemy rather than my representative, Cancun, Ted Cruz, wants to make politicians a privileged cast at the airports. So somehow if there was like a graph of this, it would be my outrage crossed with my absolute lack of shock and surprise at what scum this guy Ted Cruz is and how he thinks America is supposed to work. Get them, Jim. Well, it's, yeah, so Ted Cruz is, was pushing an amendment to an aviation bill that would require the TSA to give special treatment to members of Congress to escort them through airports and basically let them go through. the screening process secretly, so that they would not have to deal with low lives like

you and I at the airport, so they would not be jive for double-crossing taxpayers and betraying the Constitution, and they would not be heckled. And so Ted Cruz wants to kind of have politicians as a privileged cast, and what makes us especially odious is neither Cruz nor the Vast majority of other members of Congress, give a damn when the TSA molests innocent people, grandmothers, teenagers, rednecks. I mean, and there's a bunch of lawsuits right now from women who are suing them because the TSA forced them to endure a strip search to prove that their menstrual pad was actually in use. And there was a line that, you know, so the, TSA is fighting these in federal court. Federal lawyers say, well, forcing a woman to endure a

strip search to show her bloody menstrual pad. That was simply a petty oppression. It wasn't a big deal and the court should disregard it. I don't know. There's, you know, there's a lot of tough women in Texas. I would not tell them that because you get your ass kicked. Oh, just a petty oppression. That's all that is. Petty oppression. A strip search. Well, you know, you know, people have to, People undress when they go to the gym. So, I mean, you have federal agents taking you to a private room, forcing you to take off your pants. Well, that doesn't really matter. You know, it's the same as when you were taking gym class in high school.

This is the kind of stuff they say. Justice Department says this in their court briefs. It isn't just some affid PR spokesman. This is how they vindicate themselves in federal court for trampling Americans' constitutional rights. That's incredible. And now, there's a little bit of Stanley Milgram kind of thing going on here, too, right? Where they're not really cops, and they can't make you do anything other than miss your flight. But you could just tell them, hell no, I'm not taking off my pants for you.

I guess I'm just going home and you can go to hell. And they can't lay a hand on you for that, right? Well, the TSA can summon people to have you arrested. And there was a huge fight. But for refusing a strip search? Um, I think so. It's, it's a gray area. So, I mean, what, what people need to keep in mind, the simple tip of the day is never go to a private room with a TSA. TSA agent. It's sort of like some devious uncle at a family gathering when you're eight years old. Because you force them to do whatever they want to do in public, get it on videotape. If the TSA gives you shit, put it online and let it go Yeah. And always insult and degrade the humanity of the TSA employees. I always do. I never miss an opportunity to tell them what scum they are. And they should have to endure that from every single

person going through that every time. Well, it's just, it's a bizarre situation because you had the TSA, TSA was a pain in the ass from the time it was started. But then in 2010, they started, they impose these whole body scanners using radiation to take naked photos of travelers to put in their dossier or elsewhere or you know to share among themselves and laugh and oh yeah here

I'm afraid this guy will never be a porn star oh oh oh yeah so there was actually a funny case the TSA agents were going through that scanner to test it when it

was first rolled out and there was a TSA agent who got arrested for attacking the other guys working there because they had made fun of the size of his endowment because he was rather lacking. Well, he's a federal employee, but that's a different story. Yeah, of course. Well, why do you think he's a federal employee? Speaking of which, Ted Cruz, this scum, I mean, does he even have to fly commercial with the rest of us anyway?

Not very often, I bet. Yeah, man. Some corporations flying him around. But I guess, go ahead. Part of what I was, when I was reading up about this, you know, I saw, I forgot the original alert on this, but then I was reading about this. And it turned out that Cruz, I guess, his safe airport travel specialized screening process fix might have been forged because of his experience in Bozeman, Montana, in 2020,

he was, Cruz and missed the flight. And so he was tearing a new one to the airport, some of the airline staff. It was so vehement that a policeman was summoned to help settle things down. But the airport admitted, you know, the problem was the airport official failed to recognize Ted Cruz as a U.S. senator. Uh-huh. Yeah, exactly. What were they supposed to do, turn the plane around and come back and get Senator Ted? Is he such a special guy?

I don't know. But so I was trying to figure, you know, it's always a question, what does Ted Cruz want? And so he was wanting his special treatment, a special process. So I was wondering if Cruz would want a course of trumpeters to herald the entry of lawmakers into airport terminals. Yeah. And it makes you wonder, too, is his problem that he has to wade in line and get there an hour early. and, you know, get felt up. He doesn't have to do that because, you know, people were making some comments on the piece,

and they were saying, you know, you go to Washington National Airport in D.C. T.S.A. is already doing this people. Yeah, I bet. Yeah. I haven't verified that, but it sounds plausible. And also, you know, for a guy like him, he clearly doesn't care about other people having their rights violated or being inconvenience. I think he probably just is more afraid than anything of standing in line. for an hour around his constituents who might start talking to him about what a scumbag he is.

And then how's he supposed to answer that? Of course, he wouldn't have anything to say. It's a, no, I'm sorry. Well, it's a hell of a thing that instead of fixing TSA for everybody else, people in Congress want to further exempt themselves from the law and all the aggravations. They're inflicting on everybody else because as Congress said bankrolls TSA, Congress is responsible, and they've done very poor, if any, oversight, except, no, so there's, you know, there's basically a one exception. TSA's making a big point now that they're trying to give special treatment to transgender people, because if they go through the whole body scanner, then things show up on the x-ray that, well, that's not supposed to be there. And so they're kind of getting a, they're getting a get out of grope free card in some cases.

And as someone who's gotten, as someone who got hammered or, you know, grope because of, because their stupid scanner alerted for the zipper on my Levi's jeans, it's like, you know, this agency's almost makes me cynical. Yeah, it's completely crazy that we put up with this at all. And, you know, I admit it, I pay the extortion. I'm not doing the eyeball scan, but I pay the extortion, what, $85 every five years or whatever, to get the pre-check. Because otherwise, it's just, you know, taking off your shoes, take your laptop out of your backpack, take off your hat and your jacket. Meanwhile, I pay them $85, and I don't have to take my laptop out of my backpack or take off my hat or my jacket or my shoes.

Well, what difference is made there? There's, you know, the whole thing is, uh, it's such a racket. And, you know, I am confessing to giving into it because, I mean, man, I just missed too many flights where I just decide I can't do this anymore. Man, this is standing in line for an hour. Um, or more while these goons. And they're never in a hurry. They act like they don't even know that they're at an airport and people got a plane to catch, you know? Like I can feel Ted Cruz's frustration in Bozeman. You know what I mean? Although he probably was just late. but if you get if you miss your flight because of these security goons i mean you're not supposed to threaten them and stuff but it's understandable how you'd want to it's a very bad idea yeah very bad idea scott you know it's just like you know okay um it's possible to uh to make verbal jives but you know um there was um i had a story when i was coming out of uh Dallas When I was there in November, I was flying out, and the TSA agent takes my bag. Oh, we got her problem with this.

She pulls it aside. She goes through it. She searches up and out. And then she finds it. I had a half a jar of peanut butter. And she says, you can't take this because it's a liquid. I said it's peanut butter. It's not a liquid.

It's a liquid. I have to seize it. And so I just kind of shrugged. And some guy comes up to me and says, well, are you pissed off because TSA took your peanut butter? And I just smiled and I said, I'll settle scores with them later. Yeah, there you go. That's right. Yeah.

Do they know I write for the post? Yeah. Well, for the post. And I did a story for Mises on that as well. And Bill Anderson was saying, yeah, I read that lot about you're going to settle the score. And they're all, I hope he's not going to shoot up the airport. Yeah, Jim. We all know you'd carry a 357.

no man Jim's not dangerous he's a pen mightier than the sword type but you know seriously this actually happened I mean I've been through this enough times where you know they take a microphone

and then pretend to not understand what it is and to think that oh maybe there's a bomb in there and let me just look at and it's not like it's not like the guy's smelling it or like really trying to see if somehow if he like took the screws out of it like could there be a bomb in there he's just looking at it like it's gonna say on the side of it yeah horton hit a bomb in this microphone so he's gonna look at it for 35 seconds and then put it back in the bag and i swear to god this is true the last time out i'm almost certain this is the last time i flew oh it was yeah it was because it was when i went to do tim pool's show and i brought my skateboard with me and the guy sat there and pretended to inspect me

my skateboard. Which, like, it doesn't have an internal compartment of any kind, right? It's just essentially maple plywood with trucks and wheels on it. Like, what's to inspect? And he's just

looking carefully at it. And you got to want, and they're doing this to everybody, or, you know, there's so-called random inspection. But they're doing this all day, every day to people. Looking at the tread of their shoes or whatever it is, pretending to investigate. The whole thing is so crazy.

It's like a TV show, like some kind of farce. Well, yeah, and it's a kind of farce, which I thought would end at some point, but no, it's still going. And it's just, it's, it's bizarre. And it's sad that people put up with it and it's sad that Congress rolls over for it. But, you know, at least it keeps the fires of my cynicism and yours burning hot. yeah that's true i mean it does it pisses me off and it it does uh keep me on my vendetta not that there's any turning back now yeah yeah i'm gonna say it's sort of late for you to go moderate to us all right well speaking of which i don't like the president that much and

you've been writing some funny stuff about him for the institute and for the new york post as well and um man especially he got in so much trouble the other day when the special prosecutor who was sent to investigate the classified files in his garage said what in his report there, Jim, exactly? Well, he said that what Biden had violated the law. He retained and disclosed classified information, but it wasn't really, it wasn't a crime. He wasn't guilty because he was hopelessly clueless about his own. life and career. And then he cites examples in there too, right? Oh, there was some really good stuff that

was, you know, I was trying to elbow here and there and try and get stuff in some lines I get in some places, other lines I got in elsewhere. So the report said, quote, Biden did not remember when he was vice president forgetting when his term ended. Pathetically, Biden asked the interviewers, when did I stop being vice president? Amazing. And it was fascinating. And then he even got it wrong, right, and said, what was that? 2013, when that was halfway through, of course.

Yep. So there was a line which I had in there. I said, you know, if Biden is reelected, the official oath of office should be modified to promise to faithfully execute the office of the president on days that I remember that I'm president. Yeah, seriously, man. And then, and speaking of which, he couldn't remember when his son died, which is funny because he brings that up all the time.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it's the bow card. It's the bow get out of jail card. And it's, yeah, he was, and it was funny because, well, it's tragic. His son died, but the special counsel pointed out that Biden didn't know within several years when his son died, and then Biden viciously attacked the special counsel in the press conference on Thursday night, and that was, and the former Attorney General Eric Holder said that the special counsel Robert Hur was a rube for asking about that. And then it turns out it was

Biden who raised the subject. It wasn't the special counsel. Yeah, of course it was, because he always brings that up and oh my goodness he always lies he's i mean this has happened what four or six times or somewhere at least four or five times he has said that his son was killed in iraq or died in iraq and at one point snopes did a thing where they said you know they weren't questioning the accusation of whether he said it because people tried to deny that he's ever claimed that now which is ridiculous they just fact check whether that's where Beau died or not. And they said, no, that's wrong. He did not. And I think there is a strong case, and this is what Biden's sort of kind of means, that his son probably

got brain cancer from the burn pits in Iraq and or in Kosovo, where he was also stationed, because that's happened. And he read about his son. In fact, I'm pretty sure, Jim, if I remember the anecdote, right, that it's an interview on PBS News Hour, where they tell him in the interview That, you know, this guy, Joseph Hicks, who's the great whistleblower of the CIA murders at Guantanamo's secret CIA site in 2006, same guy. He wrote a book called The Burn Pits, and he has a whole chapter about your son in there. Did you know that? And the idea is that maybe he got cancer from these burn pits. And Biden goes, no way, really?

I didn't know about that. I'll have to read that. And that happens, like, right there live during the interview. And then that was what happened is, and I think. Hickman's probably right about that. And so that was how he learned about that. But then he gets to just embellish the hell out of it. And he said over and over and over again that his son died in Iraq or even was killed in Iraq, making it sound like he was trading rounds with al-Qaeda in Iraq and got one, you know, fell in battle like a hero or whatever. And he does bring it up all the time,

including, I don't know if you remember during the campaign, there were two veterans who confronted him and said, hey, we fought in that war, and you lied us into it and sent us into it. And we're mad about that. And he goes, oh, yeah, well, my son died in it. And the one guy says, okay, but we didn't say anything about your son. And he goes, yeah, well, you better not, too, because he's my boy. And then that's it. That's how he gets to change the subject from his responsibility for murdering his own son with brain cancer to death? Well, I wouldn't say he murdered his own son, but, you know, his hands are not clean. That's for sure.

Yeah, his hands are not clean, but it's a mess at so many different levels. I'm just kind of, it's amazing how much he's gotten away with. So, but so, so there was some really funny details in this, there, in that report. The White House was really working. worried that the report might have jolting photos of the classified documents. I mean, and that's what it had. I mean, there was, I mean, but who among us has not stored notebooks full of top secret information underneath their television?

Yeah, seriously. Like finding in Delaware. I actually probably have a couple, but listen, I mean, I'm probably not typical either. Hey, y'all, I got a new coffee sponsor, Moondose Artisan Coffee at Moondosartisan Coffee.com. When I wake up in the morning, I feel like my brain is all dried out. I need to pour a hot mug of rich, tasty coffee all over it to get it back working again, like 10W30 for the Noggin. Though not necessary, it helps if the coffee tastes good.

Well, Moondos Artisan Coffee does taste good. They get the best beans from all around the world, and they don't burn them. Support the show and support your brain at Moondoseartisancoffee.com. Just click the link at the right margin at Scott Horton.org. Hey, guys, I had some wasps in my house, so I shot them to death with my trusty bug assault 3.0 model with the improved salt reservoir and bar safety. I don't have a deal with them, but the show does earn a kickback every time you get a bug assault or anything else you buy from Amazon.com by way of the link in the right-hand margin on the front page at Scott Horton.org, so keep that in mind. And don't worry about the mess. Your wife will clean it up.

Well, folks, sad to say, they lied us into war. All of them. World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq War I, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq War II, Libya, Syria, Yemen, all of them. But now you can get the e-book, All the War Lies, by me, for free. Just sign up the email list at the bottom of the page at Scott Horton.org, or go to Scotthorton.org slash subscribe. Get all the war lies by me for free. And then you'll never have to believe them again. Searchlight Pictures presents The Roses, only in theaters August 29th. From the director of Meet the Parents and the writer of Poor Things comes The Roses, starring Academy Award winner,

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So this is not the same as Donald Trump, who literally was the president, and can declassify things by wishing it so. Maybe not even out loud. I don't know. Yeah, I'm very uncomfortable with that, but that's a whole different subject. But it's just, you know, Biden's, it's actually funny to see how he and the White House have tried to push back on this. But, you know, I think that they need to have, you know, have a change of subject to have a Russian bomb go off in space or something. Yeah.

Because there is really not any defense for this. And, you know, there was a funny time going on this. my article on this first came out in the New York Post around 6.30, maybe 638 on Thursday evening. And I was saying, well, this is, you know, the situation looks really bad for the president. The thing he needs to do is have a press conference to clear the air and settle these things and, you know, maybe reestablish his credibility. An hour later, he does that and like, okay, maybe my advice wasn't good. Oh, man. Yeah, no, they should not pay any attention to you, Bovar.

Well, hey, I had to, I had a good. So Biden, after that devil called the press conference, some fashion advisor, a New York Post ran this story by this lady who was giving Joe Biden fashion advice. And it was like, so I saw that and it's like, you know, I don't think so. Because she was saying, like, you know, Biden needs to start wearing these fancy leather baseball caps that cost $950. And I was thinking, you know, Biden doesn't need to do that because he's already going to get the votes from Martha's Vineyard and Beverly Hills. Yeah, seriously. But the thing, but if Biden wants to, you know, do well in the South, he needs to wear a hat like mine, a railroad engineer cap.

There you go, man. I could see that. And that is part of his whole stick, right, is, you know, the Amtrak rails and all that. Amtrak rails, and, you know, the thing you should wear in Iowa is a John Deere hat. But instead, you get these fashion advisors telling him to act like John Kerry doing windsurfing in 2004. Yeah. Well, I expect him to listen to them. You know what I mean?

They always do. What he needs is a dunce cap up there. And, you know, that press conference was such a disaster. watching that thing, which I appreciate you tricking him into doing that and everything. Yeah, I sure the New York Post has a lot of pull in the White House there, but... Well, they don't know. They're a bunch of stupid kids. But, you know, like, he... I love the way almost everything out of the guy's mouth is a non-sequitur. Right. So the lady in the press says, you know, the public is concerned. And he goes, no, that's your judgment.

you like you start screaming at her and then he goes that's not what the press thinks and it's like well yeah but she didn't say that she was said the public and then yeah but that is what the press thinks because she's the press and she's asking the questions

so like even then he's kind of not it doesn't make any sense whatsoever and and then he's just screaming at her it just reinforces the idea for anybody who knows any real old people that like yeah the dementia did sometimes get ornery when they can't make sense out of things.

You know, he kind of reminds you. Yeah, it's, you know, there was people were saying online that it was a deep state that had pulled his strings of whatever to get him to go out and do that press conference. I don't know. That's probably not true. But, I mean, I would be, I'm fascinated to know if it was Biden insisting that he do that or if it was his masterminds that insisted he go out there because it was such an unmitigated disaster, and it's the, you know, he was playing the bow card. He says,

he says, I wear the, I wear the rosary, which he gave, I wear that every day, the rosary that, the, the bow wore that he got it, Our Lady of, and then his voice faded off because he forgot the church's name. That's so funny. And then I saw in your Libertarian Institute piece, too, He says, I like the red states and the green states. Oh, the red states and the green states. This is a new way. And so I'm thinking a state is a green state if 20% of the people own a Tesla. Yeah, there you go.

Well, and there, yeah, speaking of Martha's Vineyard, I mean, I don't even know if you get that in Massachusetts or in Oregon or whatever, right? What are the percentages there? Yeah, it's looking kind of dicey. But the thing that ties into your neighborhood was, was, he's. his revelation that the president of Mexico is in charge of the border of Gaza. Oh, right. Yeah, that was the same press conference, right, where he said that. It was the same press conference.

And I was sitting there, and I was thinking, God, during, I've got to update my article, I've been busting a half for six hours and keep going. And then it's like, wait a minute, Mexico. Where did that come from? Right. I mean, it's easy. Mexico, Gaza. I mean, did I miss something?

How are I going to fit all these scrups and under my word limit here, man? Oh, that's it. Yeah, well, the word of them is blown to pieces. Yeah, man. Well, and you know what, and this didn't get that much attention to, although I did see one kind of leftist activists on Twitter note that never even mind him calling Egypt to Mexico there. He was claiming that Egypt wouldn't allow any aid in, and then he got on the phone and had CC, you know, twisted his arm to get Egypt to let the aid in to Gaza, and he deserves a big point. pat on the back for that. But that's a lie. That never happened at all, whether he's talking about Mexico or not, or, you know, and of course, he's the one helping the Israelis kill all those people. So he wants to claim credit for letting a little bit of aid in or something. This is completely crazy. And so that got washed away by the fact that he called Egypt, Mexico,

because everybody's like, wait, which crisis is he talking about now? But he also wasn't even right either yeah it's just level after level of bizarreness and and it's and it's um it's going to be fun i think the white house is going to feel that they have to put him out in public more because they can't hide him in the basement after this but it's like you know it's um it's it might be like some old cars you know it kind of reminds me of a uh a uh an old girlfriend long ago had a old dodge dart and you know it wasn't doing so well and so we finally decided we had to get rid of it and so I'm driving down the US one you know outside of you know Maryland suburbs and the problem was it had a loose rod in the engine so at any point you're waiting for that rod to go in the

engine to blow up so you're riding along you're not wearing a seat belt in case you need to get out of the car because of cars and flames and you're thinking well let's find one more junkyard. Maybe they'll give us 50 bucks for it. And yeah, that's kind of where the Biden presidency is at this point. There's a couple of loose rods. You don't know what it's going to blow up, but I don't know if anybody's going to give you $50. Seriously, man. And honestly, and this goes for Trump to a degree as well, that either of these guys could drop dead, you know, or fall up or down the stairs. Or die of unknown causes, if you know what I mean. Well, yeah. And, you know, I think Trump probably should be more worried about the secret police doing him in, but I could see some ambitious Democrats thinking that, boy, they better stop their guy before, you know, and in a fallen empire like this, what's the more to prevent them now?

You know what I mean? From going that far? Yep, it's a mess. It is. It's completely crazy. But look back to your question about who decided to put him out there? I bet it was him I mean that's the thing

I keep finding myself wondering who's in charge up there but I think that's the answer right is Joe Biden's in charge he's the president he's the one who and I'm sure the interagency tries to come to consensus on as much as they can but he's the one who breaks the tie when his staff

disagrees the secretary's state can't really take control over the government and neither can the national security advisor I don't know how much power his chief of staff has or if anybody writes much about that. And Biden, of course, has always wanted to be president his whole life. And the more demented he is probably the more just kind of, you know, angry and jealous of his own power he is too. And so, well, there's a, there's a huge

factor too. Biden got elected the Senate, I think, in 70, 1972. So for over 50 years, he's had vast numbers of people blowing smoke up his ass. And he's supposed to be some great visionary and great humanitarian, this, that, and the other. He's actually from a state where once you get into power, it's really hard to get you out of power. That was his secret to his career. And plus, I mean, he's sold out as, well, it's not possible to sell out principles that you don't have. I mean, but he's been a Washington player by going along with most of the bad things the government wanted to do were the powers of B1 to do.

And it's like, but it's this, it's a horrible way to choose a national leader. Yeah, seriously. Hey, did you know this one? I learned this from a Bronco March Teach's book, Yesterday's Man about Biden. The first thing he did when he got to the U.S. Senate in 1973 was denounce Richard Nixon for his hasty and precipitous withdrawal from Vietnam. Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that.

is that just incredible or what this is the guy he's the president of united states right now yeah well and was it was the second thing he did was buying buying the biggest mansion in delaware probably yeah on a down payment from a credit car company yeah it's just kind of like you know his entire life history is like wow but i guess a lot of people felt they'd benefit from putting him in that place so there he is yep yeah seriously Well, and, you know, look, as long as we're picking on his dementedness, I saw some lady, I'm sorry, and I got what Biden's got, too. I can't remember it well enough, but I saw a lady on Twitter who is like a Democrat partisan say, oh, yeah, and I guess you just preferred the guy who, and then she had a big list of Trump's recent screw-ups, including he called Orban, the president of Hungary. he got him confused with Erdogan

and called him the president of Turkey and then he also had apparently this whole rant about Nikki Haley and it wasn't just that he screwed up her name and transposed a little thing even the Mexico

Egypt thing there could almost just be like a misspoke in the simplest way but Trump had a thing where it was all Nikki Haley's fault that January 6th happened because she's Nancy Pelosi, and she's in charge of security at the Capitol there that day. And she didn't call the police out in all of this.

And it's like, dude, this isn't Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat Speaker of the House. This is your primary opponent in the Republican Party, your former ambassador to the United Nations, right? Wow. Somebody. That's pretty bad. And there was two or three more on her list. I forgot what all they were. But, yeah, those are some pretty serious slip up.

right there too. And he's, what, two or three years younger than Biden, but they're both way too old for this. I agree. I mean, Trump in his prime had a quick mind, not a deep mind, perhaps maybe it's deeper than a look, but he was quick. But, you know, his glory, his mental glory days are past. Yeah, seriously. And you know what, I admit, I kind of like to see him get his vengeance, but that's about the only thing that he's really running on is please let me get my vengeance. And I'm like, ah, okay. I really hate the same people he hates a lot, you know, I don't know. But I'm not sure about putting anyone that out of his mind back in there, you know, not that it's up to me. Well, I mean, and it's just sad. He doesn't seem to have

learned anything much from his failures of his first tournament to hear some of his people yapping about slapping a big across-the-board tariff on all imports, it's like, okay, so you failed Econ 101 at University of Pennsylvania. Don't punish us forever because of your failure. Yeah, seriously. And again, yeah, after they already had four years at that and got nothing to trouble for it. Oh, it's a mess. A huge mess for American agriculture and other industries as well. so yeah um well and anyway we let's not get started on the whole list of all the things that he did wrong because that's a hell of a lot but um it is it's such a crazy situation i had this uh interview earlier today with peter st ange who's this uh Austrian school economist

who's been making these great youtube videos lately and we were talking about just the rock and the hard place that the federal reserve is in and the whole political system where they really need a crash right now and the inflation is causing so many problems but the crash will doom the president and so they're caught in this terrible rock and a hard place situation where they're probably going to start cutting

or at least hold where they are and pray the crash doesn't come until after the election but and it's all because of the obvious priority that anyone would know that no one would argue, that the Federal Reserve is part of the plot to make sure that Biden is reelected. Right? The entire establishment is doing everything they can to say that it doesn't matter if it's the other major party. This candidate is illegitimate and you can't have him.

Wow. Yeah, there's so many levels of BS. It's frustrating. Yeah. And especially I think about the situation that. the Fed chairman is in where they really wanted to raise the interest rates and go ahead and cause the crash now but now they can't they should have done it last year it's a mess it's such a mess yeah man all right listen there's one more thing i want to ask you about before i let you go here this is a yeah maybe i should ask you about this one first because you could argue it's the most important one really here uh again new york post Biden's big brother teams are now watching what you buy hope you pay in cash and you know this has always been my paranoia and I've always tried to spend cash instead of cards

because I just don't want everything in the world on my permanent record but of course we live in the world with the IRS so you got to keep close track so you can try to write things off and get away with enough to live on around here but then it's come to it now it ain't the future it's now that you have the feds

in, you know, domestic criminal police, not just like intelligence services sitting on the stuff in a database somewhere, but you got feds investigating people based on completely legal purchases that what their algorithms say are suspicious, Jim, and how suspicious? What the hell is this? Well, it's one more level of absurdity from the Biden's Treasury Department. which is pressuring banks to track these type of purchases. But for instance, if someone buys a hat at a Bass Pro Shop, boom, that can be added to their financial records, the feds are tracking. And the same for people who purchase Bibles or, quote, other media containing extremist

views, as the House Judiciary Committee said. Wow. So this is like, and so this is a, the Treasury Department's got a financial, Crimes Enforcement Network known as FinCEN, and it has a very broad definition of suspicious behavior, and it could include your bus

tickets, rental cars, plane tickets, or travel to areas with no apparent purpose. Hey, I was there at Waco for a good reason. Yeah, seriously. Although one that I think that they probably wouldn't approve of. It's funny the way all the different interviews

are tying together on the show today. We had to talk earlier with Kevin Gostela about how the government, the British government, and the American government, echoing them say that, well, Julian Assange is not a responsible journalist. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm still waiting for Lewis Free to say that about me. Yeah, I know. But, yeah, so now look, the Bass Pro Shop, let's guess that some percentage of the audience maybe he leans left and they don't know what a Bass Pro Shop.

shop is, but I think like, are they that bad? I don't know. I mean, they're not everywhere. I don't think, but like Dick's sporting goods. Can we go with that? Is that, is that better for your audience? Well, I don't know. I mean, I was just going to say, like, if people don't know, wouldn't it be fair to say that, like, the entire right half of the American population, even, not just country, but the entire, like, from the suburbs and to the right of there, have all been to bass pro shop and bought something right like i don't yeah uh bass pro shop or or cabellas places like that uh but but somebody was speculating was that yeah well the you know the reason they're worried about bass pro shops is these extremists go there and buy bear spray to attack

the police at the u.s capital so that that's a very broad definition of collective guilt yeah it's completely nuts and of course they sell yeah i was just that one recently. They sell, what, ATVs and T-shirts and hats and I'm probably making this up, like, what, bows and arrows and stuff like that,

fishing gear and... Yeah, dangerous shit. Yeah, man. And so then the algorithm says that then if I go and buy a fish and pull and a MAGA hat, or maybe I get a Bass Pro Shop hat here and a MAGA hat

there, then and oh, and I go to church, that's enough to get me investigated or that's enough to get what to happen to me now? Well, if you add that to the other stuff in your dossier, it's certainly enough. But it's this, it's these, these, these feds are casting such a broad definition of extremism to justify tracking these kind of things. But in Washington, anyone who doesn't worship the federal government is considered an extremist. I mean, you know, to be honest, some people think of even me as an extremist.

I can't believe that. It happens, yes. I'm sad. I failed as a Boy Scout. I failed. What's funny is, and people can read all these, I think, at Jimbovar.com. I know they're on your Wikipedia page is all of the government agents and department and agency heads who have denounced you for your various books and articles denounced. them over the years. There's a lot of fun to read. Some real badges of honor that you wear

there. I mean, life needs entertainment value. Hell yeah. Man, so, but this is like, I don't know, is this the same old shit or this is some kind of Rubicon is really being crossed here, man, where they're just. It's somewhere in between because it's just, it's great. You got the Congressman Jim Jordan House Judiciary Committee probing this stuff and putting the information information out. I mean, I think this kind of stuff has been going on for a long time, but we're learning a lot more about it because the GOP captured Congress in 2022. So, but it's, what frustrates me is it may be they're doing things that are much, much worse that we've not yet heard about. Yeah, seriously. Well, and even the stuff that we do know about, like from the Snowden revelations, about how much the intelligence community shares. That's wild. Yeah. Yep.

Where the FBI just gets to go rummaging through whatever the NSA's got, and they got anything and everything. So pretty bad. And then, well, anyway, it's been a long day. I'll let you go. Thank you, Jim, for all your great work at the Institute, for your great book and all your great articles here and at the New York Post as well. Appreciate you. Hey, thanks so much, Scott. Thanks for having me on.

Keep up the hell-raising. Hell yeah. All right you guys, that's a great Jim Bovard, and you got to check out his new book. Last Rights, The Death of American Liberty. The Scott Horton Show, Anti-War Radio, can be heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in L.A. APSRadio.com, anti-war.com, Scotthorton.org, and Libertarian Institute.org.