Friday Round Up! 2/9/24

SCOTUS decides to save itself and leave the rest of us on a sinking ship.

I’m at a conference in Miami for the National Constitution Center, where I had the honor and pleasure of being on a panel with Judge Michael Luttig and legal commentator Sarah Isgur. Given that it was right on the heels of the Supreme Court’s oral argument on Thursday regarding Colorado’s disqualification of Trump from the state’s ballot, the title of the panel, “The Trump Cases: What Comes Next?”, seemed especially fitting. Suffice it to say that my Titanic metaphor explaining where we are with Trump resonated with the audience. Judge Luttig closed the panel by reminding everyone that the Titanic ended up on the bottom of the ocean, leading to speculation afterwards over whether he intended the ship to represent the Constitution or Trump. Either way, it’s clear from the oral argument that the SCOTUS justices are the first class passengers who shoved everyone else out of the way to grab the few available lifeboats, leaving the rest of us on the ship.

I have to get back to my panels, but you’ll get my full thoughts on the Supreme Court argument in this week’s podcast with Renato, which we recorded late on Thursday night. I’ll discuss more in coming posts.

Noteworthy clips from this week:

• I offered some thoughts on Secretary Mayorkas’ impeachment vote earlier this week (which now feels like a million news cycles ago):

Upcoming events (please note a few events that had to be rescheduled):

• DATE CHANGE! Wine & Fries Happy Hour with George Conway, Friday, February 16, 6 p.m. EST. So I completely forget that tomorrow is the Super Bowl and it turns out George is in Las Vegas. BUT we’ll get the full scoop on that plus his thoughts on all things Trump next week. I know this will be a ton of fun. Zoom link will be sent to Wine & Fries (founding) members three hours before the event.

• DATE/TIME CHANGE! Guest Speaker Nina Jankowicz, Thursday, February 22, 3 p.m. EST. I’m thrilled to have Nina, Vice President of the Center for Information Resilience and author of How to Lose the Information War and How to be a Woman Online, join our class to discuss social media, disinformation, and what we can learn from other countries tackling this problem around the world. Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers three hours before the discussion, and will be recorded and posted for paid subscribers the following day.

• Guest Speaker Barb McQuade, Thursday, March 28, 4 p.m. EST. Barb will be a guest speaker for my class, Preserving Democracy in the (Dis)Information Age. Barb is about to release her book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America, and I’m excited to get her perspective on where we are as we head into the 2024 election. Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers three hours before the discussion, and will be recorded and posted for paid subscribers the following day.

• Freedom Academy Book Club, Date/Time TBA (likely early April).  We’ll be discussing Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America with author Andrew McKevitt. Drew’s book illuminates how our society became so saturated with guns, and how gun ownership intersects with race, politics, and money. This discussion will be recorded and posted for paid subscribers.

Have a wonderful weekend!