The “Exit, Pursued by a Bear Cub” Edition

Rational Security

The Lawfare Institute

Foreignpolicy, Nationalsecurity, News, Government, Politics, Middleeast

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2024

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by co-host emeritus Benjamin Wittes to talk through the week's very big national security news stories, including:

“The Waiting Game.” The Middle East is on edge this week as it awaits a possible attack by Iran or Hezbollah on Israel in response to the suspected assassination of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders last week, including the chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed while visiting Tehran for the swearing in of its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. What might a response look like, if there is one? And what does it mean for the region, including the prospects of a Gaza ceasefire?
“Stay Weird, Austin.” Just days after the announcement of a long-negotiated plea deal for three of the four remaining defendants in the military commission trial relating to the 9/11 attacks, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin took the surprising and still largely unexplained move of intervening to rescind that deal and remove the convening authority that had approved it. What can explain Austin’s actions? What will they mean for the future of the military commissions?
“A Favorable Exchange Rate.” In a surprise move, the Biden administration and several European allies concluded a massive prisoner exchange with Russia, which resulted in the release of 16 detained U.S. and European nationals and Russian dissidents, among them Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. In exchange, Russia received eight Russian agents, including convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov. Is this a win for the Biden administration? What does it tell us about the state of hostage politics—and its future?

For object lessons, Alan expressed his new passion for pottery. Quinta endorsed synchronized/artistic swimming as her favorite Olympic event, thanks in part to a surprise cameo from Jason Momoa. Scott recommended the movie Thelma for a funny and compassionate take on aging. And Ben shared how a recent near-death experience led him to dump chalk dust outside the Russian Embassy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So Scott I hear that you have thoughts on a story about our future president
0:06.4	R.FK. Jr. and a bear. But I have purposefully not clicked on any of the links
0:11.5	because I kind of don't want to know, but tell me what is happening here.
0:16.8	It's been a tumultuous couple weeks in politics. A pretty entertaining one if you really appreciate political theater,
0:22.0	but there really is nothing I've ever
0:24.4	seen quite like the amazing video RFK released where he is explaining for some reason to
0:29.9	Roseanne Barr the fact that he once took a dead bear cub, got a little hammered in New York
0:36.1	and dropped, I guess his friends got a little hammered in New York, not him, and then dropped
0:39.8	it in Central Park.
0:40.8	Yeah, he swears he was entirely sober. Certainly that's what the photo of him
0:44.3	jamming his hand in the dead bear cub's mouth certainly suggests. It is the wildest thing I have ever heard.
0:52.3	What was the bear cub already dead did he kill a bear
0:56.8	cup no he did not kill the bear cub he found the bear cub dead okay that's a lot that's important and then he collected the bear cub because that's what you do when you find a dead bear cub you put it in your car and then he brought it to New York City because that's what you do with a dead bear cub. And then he had a dinner to get to or a flight to catch. I forget which it was, somewhere where you couldn't bring a dead bear cub.
1:25.4	So he decided, as one does, to leave it in Central Park and make it look like it was the result of a bicycling accident as one does.
1:37.0	I will just say the amazing part about this video is watching Roseanne Barr's face as she reacts to the story because it's like she's not
1:45.4	somebody you would expect to be able to genuinely shock and put in a position
1:48.9	where she's like, uh oh I think I might be in over my head of all people in our nation and yet that is distinctly the look on her face for the last like three quarters of this video just to the point where he picks up the bear that's where she's looking a little upset and then it goes a lot further than
2:04.4	that I mean it's genuinely kind of amazing and one of the best pieces of political
2:08.3	theater I have seen this cycle yet I just I can't wait to see what the next few
2:12.2	months bring us.
2:13.0	Does it make you more or less likely to vote for him for President Scott?
2:18.0	Now that I know that he didn't kill the bear, that makes it better.
	...

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