Rational Security: The 'Toodle 2020-Two Doo' Edition

For their end-of-the-year episode, Alan, Quinta, and Scott took on a number of hard-hitting questions posed by you, the listeners, including:

• What did Quinta mean when she referenced "the radical political statement" of the Star Wars series Andor?
• How should we grade Biden as a foreign policy president? Has he made America credible again?
• Will recent mass shootings make Congress more open to any sort of "domestic terrorism" legislation?
• What delay tactics did former President Trump use in the courts, and what can be done to stop others from doing the same?
• Who wins, werewolf or vampire? And how?
• How would the Afghan Adjustment Act provide legal protections for Afghans who fled the Taliban in the final days of the U.S. military presence? And what is stopping Congress from enacting it?
• Why has the United States let Turkey bully Stockholm and Helsinki over NATO membership? 
• How can we get Americans to care about foreign policy? 
• Which Muppet does each host identify with most strongly and why?

They also passed along listener-submitted object lessons, including:

• The World Affairs Councils of America network, a group of grassroots nonprofits from all over the country that are dedicated to promoting international affairs knowledge at the local level. 
• “How Not to Network a Nation” by Benjamin Peters, an interesting book that contrasts the Soviet and American attempts to build early computer networks, focusing on the competition that made the Soviet attempts flounder, and the state-subsidized programs that made the American attempts succeed.
• Net Assessment, the War on the Rocks' bi-weekly journal club podcast that the listener considers the "serious and professional" Rational Security (cue Quinta's eye-rolling).
• Bag Man, a seven-part podcast miniseries by Rachel Maddow about the Spiro Agnew scandal.

Finally, listener Mike shared his favorite cocktail of the year—a variant of the standard Gold Rush formula that swaps Nocino or another walnut liqueur out for a third of the honey syrup—and asked each host their own. Alan endorsed any and all cocktails involving miso paste. Quinta endorsed her old stand-by the Dark and Stormy, while also recommending hot mulled cider for the season (which Scott supplemented by recommending the addition of some citrus fruit, demerara sugar, and star anise, plus a spike of bourbon and cognac). And Scott passed along the Diplomatic Handshake, a phenomenal cocktail from Local Jones in Denver, CO, the recipe for which he'll share on social media as soon as he has their permission...

Happy holidays everyone, and here's hoping for a fantastic New Year! We will see you in 2023...