This week, Alan, Quinta and Scott celebrated the impending New Year by answering some questions and sharing some object lessons submitted by Rational Security listeners. They discussed:
- If you could only have one paid news subscription, which would it be?
- How do you think the U.S. will respond if Israeli policies towards Palestinians continue to deteriorate?
- Why does former President Trump’s direction to his former associates not to cooperate with the January 6 committee not constitute witness tampering?
- Why are Tweets not subject to prepublication review?
- What are the United States’ greatest vulnerabilities?
- What are the odds of a major nuclear incident in the next 70 years?
- What is the January 6 committee investigating other than the actions of former President Trump and his associates?
- Do you think the courts or Congress will rein in the executive branch’s control over classified information?
- How will Finland’s purchase of U.S. F-35s change the regional security calculus?
- What do you do to sound good on podcasts?
- And most importantly: which holiday movie is most relevant to the current state of international relations?
As for object lessons, listeners: recommended the “Fat Leonard” and “Orientalist Express” podcasts; endorsed the book “Shorting the Grid” by Meredith Angwin; noted the existence of the iPhone game “Free Assange” by none other than RT (i.e., Russia Today); corrected Scott’s mistake regarding what’s happening with the long lost musical sequence from “The Muppet Christmas Carol”; recommended adding bourbon to Quinta’s easy pie dough recipe; seconded Alan’s earlier endorsement of the spaetzle maker; and shouted out Purdue University for the civic education program they recently implemented for all incoming students.
Leave a Reply