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Matt Mackowiak's Mack On Politics

Smart political talk every week from Austin, Texas political consultant Matt Mackowiak, who has served in senior roles for two U.S. Senators and the Bush administration.
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Matt Mackowiak's Mack On Politics
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Now displaying: June, 2019
Jun 24, 2019

Iran is the subject of our 142nd episode.

Former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker served in the Middle East for much of his career, representing the U.S. in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In this conversation, we explore President Trump’s decision to pull back on a planned military strike, what a proportionate response to Iran shooting down an American drone would be, whether reopening negotiations is a worthy strategic goal, how the US can restore deterrence, whether the ‘Maximum Pressure’ campaign is working, how our allies in the region may be viewing this, what the chances of war are, and what it was like to be stationed in Iran in 1972.

Jun 21, 2019

Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) is our guest for the 141st episode.

The humanitarian crisis at the southern border is our subject.

In this conversation, we discuss how he sees the problem, what the Democrats’ position is, what reforms he’d like to see, how the asylum process is broken, how he has used procedural tactics to draw attention to the issue, and whether it’s all been worth it.

Jun 14, 2019

Brad Thor is the guest for the 140th episode.

He is a New York Times bestselling author of thrillers who has sold more than 15 million books.

His newest book, “Backlash”, will be released on June 25.

In this conversation, we discuss what he tries to do in each of his books, how this book looks at cold weather survival tactics, how training is integral to his characters, how common ‘snatch and grab’ operations are, how private intelligence companies operate, how he’s cooperated with the U.S. government, whether operatives like Scot Harvath really exist, how he learned enough about Russia, whether his books will be made into films, and what his writing process is.

Jun 4, 2019

The CIA is the subject of the 139th episode.

Our guest is Nada Bakos, former CIA analyst and author of “The Targeter: My Life in the CIA, Hunting Terrorists and Challenging the White House”.

In this conversation, we discuss how she overcame confidentiality process delays to get the book published, the importance of having women in CIA leadership, her role analyzing Iraq and 9/11, her role writing the President’s Daily Brief, the Bin Laden manhunt, her role as the targeting officer for al-Zarqawi, the current threat from ISIS and al Qaeda, and her favorite depiction of the intel community in popular culture.

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