Provoked with Darryl Cooper and Scott Horton

• EP:19 [GUEST] - Ronald Dodson :The Shutdown Isn't About Money / It's About Power

  Start with the trenches, not the slogans. We open with Daryl’s new MartyrMade series that tells World War II from the German perspective, beginning in World War I to show how ordinary men were swept by trauma, propaganda, and deprivation into choices that later hardened into catastrophe. The aim is clarity, not absolution—humanize even the “enemy,” and you gain the tools to see your own era more honestly.From that lens, we shift to power now. Guest Ronald Dodson explains why a government shutdown can reveal a rare opportunity to cut through the administrative state. OMB’s role in classifying “non‑essential” positions and triggering reduction‑in‑force plans isn’t bean counting; it’s a constitutional lever. We explore Article II authority, what it should mean for presidential control of the executive branch, and how to draw a hard line against Bush‑era claims of boundless commander‑in‑chief power. Elections only matter if executives can direct and dismiss, and if Congress stops outsourcing lawmaking to regulators.Foreign policy exposes the costs of an unaccountable machine. The Cold War built a global apparatus that never stood down: covert wars that try to conscript the Pentagon, a CIA culture that glorifies operating beyond rules, and procurement fantasies like the F‑35 that attempt to be everything and end up fragile. We weigh a bold corrective—moving CIA operations into DIA under military accountability—and trace how empires force universal solutions while rivals need only local answers. That asymmetry drains treasure and invites strategic overreach.Can we return to an old republic? No—but we can recover representative control. That means narrowing delegations, demanding real budgets instead of endless CRs, restoring presidential direction over agencies, and designing reforms that face forward rather than worship nostalgia. Along the way, expect sharp debate, concrete mechanics, and a throughline: stories that humanize the past can help us govern the present.If this episode challenged your assumptions or gave you a new frame to think with, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/provoked-with-darryl-cooper-and-scott-horton/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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• EP:18 [GUEST] : Glenn Greenwald - The Fall of John Bolton (Audio Enhanced)

  If you caught the live show you know we had some significant audio trouble. We remixed the portions of the live show to enhance the audio as best we could. While it's not perfect, this version is significantly better than that version on the live tab of the YouTube channel. We hope to have the audio issues resolved soon. Our apology for the trouble.What happens when you tug at the thread of a nation’s favorite story? We open with Daryl Cooper’s new MartyrMade series reframing World War II from the German perspective and explore why questioning the “Good War” myth shakes the foundations of America’s modern identity. If FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower are the real architects of the current state, then our sacred narrative doesn’t just sit in museums—it drives policy, budgets, and the way the press polices debate.Glenn Greenwald jumps in to break down the John Bolton indictment with the kind of specificity most headlines skip. We talk alleged Gmail and AOL spillage of crown-jewel secrets, how Iran reportedly exploited those lapses, and why the Espionage Act keeps crushing conscience-driven whistleblowers while sparing the powerful. From Petraeus’s slap on the wrist to Panetta’s Hollywood handoffs, we map a two-tier secrets system and ask whether this case finally dents elite impunity. We also trace Bolton’s role in wrecking the North Korea deal that nudged Pyongyang toward the bomb—proof that bluster can be more dangerous than it looks.Then we look south. Carrier groups, F-35Bs, Poseidons, Reapers, and Night Stalkers in the Caribbean don’t spell “routine.” The stated drug-war rationale rings thin when northern Mexico would be the obvious target. Oil interests, China’s footprint, and a familiar search for pretext suggest a risk of sliding into a conflict that won’t resemble Panama—more like a grinding regional mess with real costs and no clear gains. It’s the same pattern: narrative first, justification second, escalation third.Across it all, we connect the dots between myth, law, and power. Reframing history tests the permissions our leaders claim. Prosecuting Bolton tests whether insiders finally face the rules they wrote for everyone else. Posturing near Venezuela tests whether we’ve learned anything from the last twenty years. Join us, challenge the story, and if this conversation hits a nerve, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more people can find it.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/provoked-with-darryl-cooper-and-scott-horton/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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• EP:17 - LIVE : Deal or Deception? Peace or Just Politics? Inside the Israel–Hamas Deal

  A “ceasefire” that still features explosions doesn’t deserve the name. Scott Horton, and guest host Kyle Anzalone dig into what’s actually happening in Gaza right now—why strikes continue, how Israeli forces are repositioning instead of leaving, and what the Lebanon “truce” teaches us about violations becoming a daily routine. From there, we trace the political chess behind the deal: Trump’s pressure on Netanyahu, Kushner’s handshake-first style, and the side understandings that let Israel snap back to war at the first alleged breach. Phase A promises hostages and more aid; Phase B whispers about withdrawal and reconstruction. The text is vague. The incentives are not.We map the tripwires that could unravel everything: a landscape seeded with unexploded ordnance, fragmented command across shattered neighborhoods, and continued occupation that heightens the chance of a single incident becoming pretext. Aid numbers sound big until you compare them to need—warehouses emptied, infrastructure erased, and malnutrition spreading. When institutions like schools, mosques, and hospitals are targeted, communities lose their anchors. The human cost isn’t just today’s body count; it’s the trauma curve of an entire generation: orphans, amputees who require surgeries as they grow, and children whose brains and futures are shaped by hunger and fear.We widen the lens to Iran, where deterrence dynamics after the 12-day exchange leave room for miscalculation. Claims about destroyed nuclear sites are overstated; the real question is whether Tehran rebuilds, leverages restraint, or gets painted into a corner. Then we pivot to Venezuela, where sanctions strangled the economy and fueled migration—and where Washington now flirts with escalation under a drug-war banner. Installing a friendly figurehead is not a strategy; it’s an ignition source. Even those who dislike Maduro will resist a foreign imposition, and any strike invites regional blowback, oil shocks, and a crisis that doesn’t stay within borders.Under it all runs a simple throughline: wars are driven by incentives. Politicians, lobbies, contractors, and media ecosystems gain from “flexible” ceasefires, permanent emergencies, and righteous strikes that never quite end. If we want real de-escalation, we have to insist on terms that can’t be gamed: open access for aid, verifiable withdrawals, clear red lines against collective punishment, and real accountability when they’re crossed. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who follows foreign policy, and leave a review with your biggest question—what would it take to make a ceasefire mean cease fire?Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/provoked-with-darryl-cooper-and-scott-horton/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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• EP:16 - LIVE - SPECIAL GUEST: Max Blumenthal - Gaza, Propaganda, and Power

  Start with the question everyone dodges: why did October 7 happen—and why did the story that followed look so different from the facts on the ground? We sit down with Max Blumenthal to trace the long arc from siege and failed truces to an operation designed to seize leverage through captives, disrupt the Abraham Accords, and force a political reset. From Sinwar’s rise and an overland breach that stunned the Gaza Division to the chaos around the Nova festival, we map the day’s hard realities—and the decisions that magnified them.Then we go after the narratives. Atrocity Inc isn’t a contrarian hot take; it’s a methodical look at claims that raced around the world: “beheaded babies,” mass rape, and other shock headlines that shaped a public mandate for a maximal war. We weigh what’s proven and what collapsed under scrutiny, how the Hannibal Directive became “mass Hannibal,” and why Apache pilots firing with thin intel likely torched scores of vehicles carrying civilians. This isn’t exculpation of crimes by militants; it’s a demand that evidence—not atrocity inflation—set the limits of force.Finally, we pull back the lens. Israeli politics and media culture—judicial fights, messianic factions, and a siege mentality trained from adolescence—collide with a public that wants hostages home even as leaders move the goalposts. We talk incentives, not slogans: how negotiation looks when the only leverage is human, why foreknowledge claims miss structural failures, and what it would take to stop a war that metastasized on the back of myth.If you care about truth in wartime, hostages returning alive, and policy made on verifiable facts, this conversation will give you a sharper map. Listen, share with someone who follows the headlines, and tell us: which claim did you once believe—and what changed your mind? Subscribe for more grounded, evidence-driven episodes, and leave a review to help others find the show.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/provoked-with-darryl-cooper-and-scott-horton/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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• EP:15 - LIVE - SPECIAL GUEST - Auron MacIntyre : The Reason Magazine Hit Piece

  Start with a simple claim: rules only matter if everyone believes they bind everyone. From there, we pull a thread through media smears, unequal justice, and the hard truth that modern politics already runs on “exceptions” to the rules. We’re not romanticizing power or hunting for a strongman; we’re asking why the ordinary law—applied evenly—feels so rare, and what it would take to make it normal again.With Auron MacIntyre joining us, we put Carl Schmitt in his place: not as a mentor to emulate, but as a mapmaker of uncomfortable terrain. His line about the “sovereign” deciding when rules don’t apply rings familiar after years of emergency orders, selective prosecutions, and agencies governing by letter instead of law. We trace how the administrative state grew behind judicial deference, how anarcho-tyranny rewards street violence while penalizing technicalities, and why calling this out gets mislabeled as extremism. The punchline isn’t “break the system”; it’s the opposite—use the laws we have, evenly and transparently, to reestablish the baseline that protects all sides.We also press a cultural point that legalisms dodge: a constitution is a living practice, not just language. Rome stayed a republic when Romans honored republican limits; paper alone couldn’t save it when belief died. Translate that to today and a path emerges: shorten emergencies, narrow agency deference, prosecute violence consistently, and end back-channel censorship. If platforms truly host criminal coordination, use existing statutes narrowly; if government leans on companies to silence lawful speech, treat it as state action and stop it. And amid heated foreign policy rhetoric, we draw a boundary—no outside government should set our domestic speech norms or enforcement priorities.Call it a restoration agenda: fewer exceptions, more accountability, and a civic culture that takes equal protection seriously. If that resonates, subscribe, share this episode, and leave a review with your take on the single reform that would rebuild trust fastest.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/provoked-with-darryl-cooper-and-scott-horton/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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