Rational Security: The “Don’t Call It a Comeback (Because I’m Technically Still on Leave)” Edition
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2024
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were finally reunited to talk through the week’s big natsec stories, including:
- “First is the Worst.” The historic first criminal trial of a former president has commenced in New York state courts. Both sides have sketched out their cases in opening arguments. What will the charges being brought against former President Trump relating to alleged hush money payments on his behalf mean for him and his 2024 presidential campaign?
- “Fair Whither Friend.” After months of delay that have, by some accounts, pushed Ukraine dangerously close to defeat, the House has finally passed legislation that would provide them with essential foreign assistance, alongside other aid packages for Israel and Taiwan as well as a handful of related foreign affairs measures. What is good, bad, and ugly about the package that finally got through? And what do the dynamics of its passage mean for other U.S. foreign policy interests in the near term?
- “The Clock is Tocking.” Among the side measures passed by the House and likely to be enacted into law is a bill targeting the popular social media platform TikTok — one that would ban that platform if its owners, ByteDance, do not divest due to concerns with the degree of control the Chinese government may have over it. But is this sort of regulation of a social media platform constitutional? And is banning one good policy?
For object lessons, Alan finally put down the damn remote and recommended an actual book, Charles Mann’s “The Wizard and the Prophet,” about the competing, prescient visions of the future put forward by early 20th-century scientists William Vogt and Norman Borlaug. Quinta picked it up and urged listeners to check out the new documentary “Stormy,” about Stormy Daniels and the impact her alleged involvement with former President Trump and its aftermath has had on her life. And Scott shouted out one of his favorite purveyors of the silver screen, Alamo Drafthouse, and their thoughtful “sensory friendly” showings that turn up the lights and down the noise for those with young children or sensory sensitivities — something that recently allowed him and his wife to see “Dune 2” in the theater with a newborn in tow.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the Lawfair Podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of Lawfair at Patreon.com slash Lawfair. That's Patreon.com |
| 0:16.4 | slash Lawfair. Also check out Lawfair's other podcast offerings. rational security, chatter, lawfare no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:30.7 | Scott, welcome back. How does it feel to be a, I don't want to say new dad, a renewed dad? |
| 0:36.5 | A renewed dad, we need to put that on a t-shirt. I don't know how we could pop this out. |
| 0:40.0 | It just sounds like you're a nude dad though. |
| 0:42.8 | That's the problem, which is not what you want. |
| 0:45.4 | Not what you're going for this week at least. |
| 0:47.1 | We'll see. |
| 0:48.3 | I'm good. |
| 0:49.0 | I'm very sleep deprived, but not, like, |
| 0:51.4 | definitely not twice as sleep deprived as I was before so I think that's |
| 0:54.3 | a win right there this is definitely like you didn't have an extra sleep deprived unit of |
| 0:59.1 | capacity like yeah like you're right like it's not twice as bad it's like 1.4 times as bad, but I was already really tired when I had my second kid. |
| 1:05.7 | I didn't have an extra 0.4 unit of capacity. |
| 1:08.0 | I didn't think I did. |
| 1:09.0 | I did, I did, I did foolishly agree to give a talk, like two weeks into having a baby, |
| 1:17.6 | which was the stupidest thing I've done, |
| 1:19.8 | because I was so |
| 1:20.8 | – how angry is your life about that? She signed off. She signed off in advance. because I was so |
| 1:23.9 | angry is your wife about that? |
... |
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