Good Morning:
The estimable Mikhaila Fogel, who served some years back as an associate editor at Lawfare, used to warn others at Lawfare HQ: “Never upset the masks.”
One of the masks fell off the wall the other day. Expect a natural disaster or some other cataclysm imminently.
I don’t believe in omens, as a general rule, but this is serious.
#DogShirtTV has been very active this week. On Monday, the estimable Jonathan Rauch was on the show to discuss the apocalypse:
On Tuesday, my childhood friend Jordan Ellenberg—who’s Clark Kent personality is being a math professor at the University of Wisconsin—came on to discuss how he secretly controls the weather:
The podcast version is available here:
And yesterday, the estimable Dave Willner, a veritable content moderation guru, came on to walk me through what likely happened when Facebook took down my open letter to then-Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov:
The podcast version is available here.
If I do say so myself, the Willner episode is, as a matter of craft, one of the best interviews I have ever done—a detailed tour of the choices and difficulties of content moderation all told through the tale of my letter to the Russian ambassador, the details of which are available here:
We continue the #DogShirtTV streak today with the estimable former Rep. Tom Malinowski at 4:00 pm. Malinowski has the distinction of being the only member in the history of the House of Representatives to have joined In Lieu of Fun from the rotunda of the Capitol. He is also the only member of the House to have made a video about me in Hindi.
And a reminder that next week, the estimable Pete Strzok will be joining me on the show—wearing a dog shirt:
Access to the studio for the Malinowski, Strzok and other future events is available for paid subscribers below the paywall.
I have decided to make a small change to #DogShirtTV based on the first few weeks of experience with it: After the Strzok show, I am getting rid of the YouTube livestream.
All shows will still be available on YouTube, to be clear, but they will not be live. I will post them, along with the podcast, shortly after the show airs live. I am still working on standardizing the times, but the podcast and the YouTube show will be synchronized.
The reason is simple: the audio and video quality on the livestream is erratic. Often, it’s fine. But sometimes it has not been good. The recorded version, by contrast, is always pristine. So the last week or so, I have been live-streaming and then also posting the recorded version as the quality is so much better. If I’m doing the latter anyway, there really is no reason to do the former. So I will continue to do both up through the Strzok show, and thereafter will post the recorded YouTube version only.
This means that the live experience will be reserved for the paid subscribers, who get to ask questions, participate in the famed Greek Chorus live chat, and generally have that cool in-studio experience. Subscribers also get the smug satisfaction of knowing that they are supporting laser operations directed at Russian diplomatic facilities around Washington and the world.
Speaking of #SpecialMilitaryOperations, #LordLaser and #LadyLaser have been discussing the matter, and they both feel that they should do something between now and Election Day to support the democratic forces in the United States. They are thinking about swing states. They are thinking about drama (they always do). They are thinking about encouraging voting. They are interested in high-impact, high-visibility statements.
And they are looking for ideas.
Please leave any suggestions in the comments.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the angler fish, about which you need to know some true facts:
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