Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/

Ronald Reagan carried a gun in his briefcase when he was president. According to Edmund Morris’ pseudo-historical memoir of Reagan, Dutch, Reagan got the gun in Iowa. “It is a fact … that RR did acquire a 1934 Walther PPK .380 pocket-sized police pistol early in his stay in Des Moines and kept it lovingly the rest of his life,” Morris wrote. “He even toted it in his briefcase as president.”

Reagan was obsessed with the idea that he was a target of assassination and had been since his days as the president of the Screen Actors Guild in the 1940s.

That’s just one of the bits of ephemera from this episode of Angry Planet where we’re joined by historian Rick Perlstein who is on the ground at the Republican National Convention. On Saturday, a gunman took a shot at former President Donald Trump. He missed, clipping his ear.

What can the lives of past assassins, both failed and successful tell us about Thomas Matthew Crooks? What is the duty of the historian at this moment? Is political violence on the rise in America or is this all business as usual?

Join us as we ask these questions and attempt to find some answers.

You Are Entering the Infernal Triangle

Gunman’s Phone Had Details About Both Trump and Biden, F.B.I. Officials Say

A Blind Spot and a Lost Trail: How the Gunman Got So Close to Trump

‘Stay Strapped or Get Clapped’

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/

On July 1, 2024 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that American presidents have immunity for “official acts” committed while in office. In the dissent opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised an interesting hypothetical.

“When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune.”

It’s the kind of hypothetical situation that people would roll their eyes at during a dinner party. Now it’s on everyone’s minds and in an official Supreme Court ruling. The president can order it, but that doesn’t mean the operators would carry it out. It also doesn’t mean state and local authorities would look the other way.

On this episode of Angry Planet, Army lieutenant colonel and judge advocate Dan Maurer comes on the program to take the SEAL Team 6 hypothetical seriously. Maurer is an expert military legal scholar who was willing to answer our questions, no matter how absurd they might be.

Want to know what happens if the President hires Pinkertons? Interested in a definition of an “official act” or want an explanation of what the long term consequences of this might be? Looking for a bit of hope that cuts through the hysteria. We can help with that. We also ask a very silly question about Delta Force.

Maurer also wrote about the topic in Lawfare.

Can the Military Disobey Orders in the SEAL Team 6 Hypothetical?

Click here to join the Angry Planet Discord.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.com/

Influence campaigns, both subtle and unsubtle, are as old as statecraft. Agencies like the CIA, KGB, and Israel’s Mossad have all attempted to force friends and rivals to change. It doesn’t work as often as you’d think. Subversion campaigns are often so secretive that their effectiveness is hard to quantify. But Lennart Maschmeyer decided to try.

Maschmeyer is on this episode of Angry Planet to tell us all about the limits of cyber war and subversion operations. It’s the subject of his new book Subversion: From Covert Operations to Cyber Conflict. Maschmeyer is a senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich and his book is a deep look at what works and what doesn’t when countries try to influence each other. It throws cold water on Russia’s much-hyped “Hybrid War” and the idea of cyber Pearl Harbor.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.