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At Steven K’s suggestion, we’ll discuss small modular reactors (SMRs) and their role in combatting climate change. He provided a YouTube link with a brief description of how these systems work and, if I recall correctly, some pros and cons. This particular link isn’t my favorite (I found the presenter distracting) but, through the magic of YouTube’s recommendation technology, there are lots of other SMR video choices available nearby. Here’s another possibility.

I assume we’ll also spend some time more broadly discussing the relative merits of nuclear vs. wind vs. solar power (and, maybe, hydro, etc.).

The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States submitted its report to the President earlier this month. The Commission was formed in April 2021 to analyze the principal arguments for and against Supreme Court reform.

On Monday, we’ll discuss the report (all 294 pages, so think twice before hitting “Print”) and our own thoughts on the pros and cons of the various reform initiatives evaluated. Here’s a link to the whitehouse.gov page describing the Commission itself.

Executive Privilege

Last Monday, we chose “executive privilege” (in the context of the Federal government) as the topic for Monday, 20 December. I found a pretty comprehensive article on the subject in Wikipedia.

There are a number of ways I can think of to approach this topic, including:

Who should be able to assert executive privilege, and under what circumstances?

In particular, should a former president (he who shall not be named) or a former member of the executive branch be able to assert executive privilege, and under what circumstances?

Do the answers to the previous questions change, depending on which branch of government (Congress or the judiciary) has subpoenaed testimony or documents over which the privilege is asserted? If so, why?

Under what circumstances should a claim of executive privilege be deemed to have been waived, for example by prior publication? Would the waiver apply only in the case of prior publication by the person claiming the privilege?

I’m sure there are other questions that can be raised about executive privilege.