Freedom on Fire Screening

Freedom Under Fire 

Exclusive Screening, Discussion,

 and Members-Only Reception

Tuesday, November 29th, 2022, 6:00-8:00 pm ET 

Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St, New York, NY 10003

Acclaimed director Evgeny Afineevsky has been on the ground covering the conflict in Ukraine, finding the best and worst humanity has to offer during this war that has rocked Europe. The Common Good is honored to present an exclusive screening of the groundbreaking Freedom Under Fire documentary at New York’s iconic Village Cinema followed by a post-screening discussion with the director.

Members of the Common Good are invited to attend an exclusive reception hosted by Julia Haart after the event.

About the Film and its Director:

Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International  Film Festival, where it was recognized with the Kineo Award, It was selected for screenings at film festivals around the world, and has received numerous awards and honors, including at the Hamptons International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Brizzolara Family Foundation Award for Films of Conflict &  Resolution. 

Born in Russia, the director, Evgeny Afineevsky, is an Israeli-American film director, producer and cinematographer who is Oscar and Emmy nominated for his documentary Winter on Fire. He has filmed extensively in conflict zones in Ukraine and Syria, creating moving documentaries about the human toll and the political manipulations that fuel these conflicts. Afineevsky built his filmmaking career on providing a first-hand account of conflict, even if it means putting his own life in danger. Afineevsky's tenacity in his storytelling ultimately attracted the unwanted attention of Russian intelligence agents, who continue to track him and his work. Come meet him at our exclusive screening November 29th.

Born in Russia, the director, Evgeny Afineevsky, is an Israeli-American film director, producer and cinematographer who is Oscar and Emmy nominated for his documentary Winter on Fire. He has filmed extensively in conflict zones in Ukraine and Syria, creating moving documentaries about the human toll and the political manipulations that fuel these conflicts.  Afineevsky built his filmmaking career on providing a first-hand account of conflict, even if it means putting his own life in danger. Afineevsky's tenacity in his storytelling ultimately attracted the unwanted attention of Russian intelligence agents, who continue to track him and his work. Come meet him at our exclusive screening November 29th.

Hamas & Gaza: Where Does Israel Go From Here?

ABOUT THE EVENT

What ignited the conflict in Gaza? With a fragile truce and a now a possible change in Israel’s leadership, what is the path forward? Join former Mossad chief, Efraim Halevy, who served under five Israeli Prime Ministers, for a candid analysis of Israel’s multiple predicaments, internally and externally. Leading this conversation is good friend of The Common Good, Rick Salomon is a CEO, and Harvard-trained lawyer.

 Tuesday, June 8th, 1-2:00pm ET

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EFRAIM HALEVY

Joining us from Israel, we will have Efraim Halevy. A lawyer and an Israeli intelligence expert, Halevy was the ninth director of Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel, responsible for intelligence collection, covert operations, and counter-terrorism He also served as the 4th head of the Israeli National Security Council. Above all, Halevy may be remembered for his part in bringing about the Israel–Jordan peace treaty.

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RICK SALOMON

Rick Salomon is a CEO, Harvard-trained lawyer who has organized and moderated a diverse set of programs, including on the Middle East, for a host of organizations, including the 92Y, Temple Emanu-El's Streicker Center, and the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, which he co-founded and where he sits on the Board.

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Voting Rights and American Democracy

ABOUT THE EVENT

Voting rights around the country are being severely curtailed. In fact, according to the Brennan Center, as of March 24, legislators have introduced 361 bills with restrictive provisions in 47 states. That’s 108 more than the 253 restrictive bills tallied as of February 19, 2021 — a 43 percent increase in little more than a month. With instances of voter fraud virtually nonexistent, the rationale for much of this legislation is dubious at best. Voting rights shouldn’t be a partisan issue. 

Join The Common Good and experts, Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, Carol Anderson, author and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University, and David Litt, author and former speechwriter to President Obama.

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Michael Waldman is president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. A nonpartisan law and policy institute that focuses on improving systems of democracy and justice, the Brennan Center is a leading national voice on voting rights, money in politics, criminal justice reform, and constitutional law. Waldman, a constitutional lawyer and writer who is an expert on the presidency and American democracy, has led the Center since 2005.

Waldman was director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1999, serving as assistant to the president. He was responsible for writing or editing nearly two thousand speeches, including four State of the Union and two inaugural addresses. He was special assistant to the president for policy coordination from 1993 to 1995.

He is the author of The Fight to Vote (Simon & Schuster, 2016), a history of the struggle to win voting rights for all citizens. The Washington Post wrote, “Waldman’s important and engaging account demonstrates that over the long term, the power of the democratic ideal prevails — as long as the people so demand.” The Wall Street Journal called it “an engaging, concise history of American voting practices,” and the Miami Herald described it as “an important history in an election year.” The Fight to Vote was a Washington Post notable nonfiction book for 2016 and a History Book Club main selection.

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Carol Anderson is Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Professor Anderson’s research and teaching focus on public policy; particularly the ways that domestic and international policies intersect through the issues of race, justice and equality in the United States.

Professor Anderson is the author of Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African-American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955, which was published by Cambridge University Press and awarded both the Gustavus Myers and Myrna Bernath Book Awards. In her second monograph, Bourgeois Radicals: The NAACP and the Struggle for Colonial Liberation, 1941-1960, also published by Cambridge, Professor
Anderson uncovered the long-hidden and important role of the nation’s most powerful civil rights organization in the fight for the liberation of peoples of color in Africa and Asia. Professor Anderson's most recent work, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, was published by Bloomsbury and a finalist for the PEN/Galbraith Award in Non-fiction and a National Book Award Longlist finalist in Non-fiction.

Her research has garnered substantial fellowships and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ford Foundation, National Humanities Center, Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (The Big Ten and the University of Chicago), and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

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David Litt entered the White House as a speechwriter in 2011, and left in 2016 as a senior presidential speechwriter and special assistant to the president. In addition to writing remarks for President Barack Obama on a wide range of domestic policy issues, David served as the lead joke writer for several White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologues. Since leaving government, David's work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Boston Globe, among others. From 2016-2018 he was the head writer and producer for Funny Or Die D.C., and he has developed TV pilots for Comedy Central and ABC. 

David's New York Times bestselling memoir, Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years, was published in 2017. His second book, Democracy in One Book Or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think, was published in June 2020.

The Rise and Threat of Right Wing Domestic Terrorism

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According to the Department of Homeland Security, "domestic violent extremism poses the most lethal, persistent terrorism-related threat to our homeland today." Join our stellar group as they discuss this metastasizing threat, and what can be done to fight it.

Thursday, May 20th, 2021

5:00pm-6:00pm EST

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Jeh Johnson served as President Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017. Prior to this, he served as General Counsel for the Department of Defense, acting as one of the legal architects for the US military’s counter-terrorism mission.

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Michael German is a former FBI agent and current fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program. At the FBI, German specialized in domestic terrorism, often going undercover to investigate violent white supremacist organizations.

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Robert Pape is the Director of the Chicago Project on Security & Threats, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, Pape is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in terrorism studies.

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As Vice President of the Center on Extremism, Oren Segal and his team combat extremism, terrorism and all forms of hate in the real world and online. Recognized as the foremost authority on extremism, the Center provides resources, expertise and training which enables law enforcement, public officials and internet and technology companies to identify and counter emerging threats.  

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The Common Good is pleased to announce that we’re reteaming with CSPAN to air this event.

Biden's First 100 Days

ABOUT THE EVENT

OK, Joe Biden has served for 100 days as President. He enjoys fairly high favorability ratings but can they last? What’s the Biden agenda and effect? We’ll leave that to our expert panel to decipher. The Common Good is thrilled to welcome top White House insiders Anita Dunn and David Frum - and leading the conversation is Presidential historian and TCG Honorary Advisory Board Member Douglas Brinkley, to give us the good, the bad, and the normal of President Biden’s first 100 days.

Thursday, May 6th, 2021

5:00pm-6:00pm

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David Frum is a staff writer at the Atlantic. Frum is the author of ten books, most recently TRUMPOCALYPSE: Restoring American Democracy(HarperCollins, 2020). His first book, Dead Right, won praise from William F. Buckley as “the most refreshing intellectual experience in a generation” and from Frank Rich in the New York Times as “the smartest book written from the inside about the American conservative movement.” In National Review, John Podhoretz hailed Frum’s history of the 1970s, How We Got Here, as “an audacious act of revisionism, written in a voice and style so original it deserves to be called revolutionary.” Arianna Huffington said of Frum’s 2012 novel, Patriots, “David Frum is someone who fearlessly speaks his mind, regardless of where the chips may fall, so it’s no surprise he’s able to convey so much truth in his fiction.” Frum’s memoir of his service in the George W. Bush administration, The Right Man, was a New York Times bestseller, as was his 2018 book, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic.

David Frum has been active in Republican politics since the first Reagan campaign of 1980. From 2014 through 2017, Frum served as chairman of the board of trustees of the leading UK center-right think tank, Policy Exchange. In 2001-2002, he served as speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush.

David Frum holds a BA and MA in history from Yale and a law degree from Harvard, where he served as President of the Federalist Society.

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Douglas Brinkley is one of the most prominent historians in the U.S. — and CNN's presidential historian - having charted American history and significant figures for decades. He is also the official Presidential Historian for The New York Historical Society, an essayist, and a prolific and renowned biographer. He has published over three dozen highly acclaimed books, including many discerning biographies and shrewdly edited collections of presidents and presidential records. His subjects have ranged from Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, FDR, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon to the life of Rosa Parks, Hurricane Katrina, the space race and American Catholicism.

Currently, Brinkley is an esteemed professor at Rice University as the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History,  He is also a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. His early teaching career included positions at the U.S. Naval Academy, Princeton, and Hofstra University. At Hofstra, he spearheaded an acclaimed American Odyssey course which took students across the country in a sleeper bus, visiting historical sites and meeting with cultural icons and is the subject of his travelogue The Majic Bus.

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“Global Challenges: Facts and Fears in our New Era” with Richard Haass and Robert Wolf

The Common Good presented a timely conference call with President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass as he spoke to us about international affairs, national security, and what the next chapter in humanities book will look like, moderated by former Chairman and CEO of UBS America Robert Wolf. 

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Dr. Richard Haass is a veteran diplomat and a prominent voice on American foreign policy who is currently serving his seventeenth year as President of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, think tank, publisher, and educational institution dedicated to being a resource to help people better understand the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. 

Haass previously served as the Director of Policy Planning under President Bush from 2001-2003. Dr. Haass also served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and U.S. envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process.

Robert Wolf is the Founder of 32 Advisors, a holding company which includes the direct investing arm 32 Ventures, the bi-partisan economic insights platform Strategic Worldviews and the Flint, Michigan accelerator group 100K Ventures.

Prior to forming 32 Advisors, Robert spent 18 years at UBS, a global financial services firm. There he held several senior positions including Chairman and CEO of UBS Americas and President and Chief Operating Officer of the Investment Bank.

Robert held three Presidential appointments under President Obama; as a member of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board from 2009-2011, the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness from 2011-2013 and the Export Council from 2014-2016. In 2012 Robert was on the Homeland Security Advisory Council's Border Infrastructure Task Force.

“The New Political Landscape: The Coronavirus Impact on the 2020 Election” with Donna Brazile

The Common Good presented an important political briefing with Donna Brazile, renowned political strategist and former Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Ms. Brazile discussed a plethora of topics including the Coronavirus crisis, the government’s response and the effects on the political landscape relating to the upcoming election. 

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Former Chair of the DNC and current commentator on Fox News, Donna Brazile joined The Common good to share her expertise and experience on the Coronavirus cr...

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About Donna Brazile:

Veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile is Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee, former National Chair of the Democratic National Committee as well as the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. She is also an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, and television political commentator, and was the first African-American woman to run a major-party political campaign. 

 Author of the best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, Ms. Brazile is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a syndicated newspaper columnist for Universal Uclick, a columnist for Ms. Magazine, and O, the Oprah Magazine, an on-air contributor to CNN, and ABC, where she regularly appears on ABC’s This Week.  In March of 2019, she joined FOX News where she serves as a contributor.

An evening with Steve Bannon

The Common Good hosted an evening with former White House Chief Strategist and former executive chairman of Breitbart News, Steve Bannon. The conversation was moderated by John Avlon, Senior news correspondent for CNN.

Discussed at the event were topics including Globalism, nationalism, The growing threat of an emergent China, and election interference during the 2016 election.

Steve Bannon is a former Media executive, Political Strategist, and White House Staff member. He is also one of the co-founders of Breitbart News.

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Nouriel Roubini: Global Economic Risks

The Common Good hosted a special discussion where world renowned economist Nouriel Roubini discussed a variety of tail risks for the global economy and markets. Including: Brexit, US-China trade and tech tensions, US-Iran relations and the risk of an Oil-Price shock. He also answered questions from those attending, addressing the likelihood of an imminent economic recession, as well as the changing methods of tracking and understanding the economy. After the event, our host provided guests with a lovely dinner.

Nouriel Roubini is a Professor of Economics and International Business at New York University Stern School of Business. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, an independent, global macroeconomic and market strategy research firm.

The Rise of Lincoln & U.S. Division

The Common Good was proud to present a special discussion between Sidney Blumenthal, author, journalist, and past Presidential advisor, and John Avlon, CNN anchor, Senior Political Analyst and author. They dove into one of the most divisive periods in American history, the unlikely political ascendance of President Abraham Lincoln, and how Lincoln’s story is relevant today. The event was in co-sponsorship with Cooper Union and held in their Great Hall - the site where Lincoln gave one of the most important speeches in US history.

Sidney Blumenthal is an acclaimed journalist and author of many books including A Self-Made Man, Wrestling with His Angel and All the Powers of Earth, the first three volumes in his five-volume biography series The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln that the New York Times book review has called “Magisterial...A vividly written, wide-ranging and often surprising account of the president-to-be.” He is the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post and Washington editor and writer for The New Yorker. His books include the bestselling The Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment, and The Permanent Campaign. He was the executive producer of the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, directed by Alex Gibney, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary of 2007.

John Avlon is senior political analyst and anchor at CNN. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief and managing director of The Daily Beast between 2013 and 2018, during which time the site's traffic more than doubled to over one million readers a day while winning 17 journalism awards. He is the author of the books Independent Nation, Wingnuts, and Washington’s Farewell as well as co-editor of the acclaimed Deadline Artists journalism anthologies. Avlon served as chief speechwriter to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists award for best online column in 2012. He lives with his wife Margaret Hoover, the author of American Individualism, host of PBS’s Firing Line and a CNN contributor, and their two children in New York. He is now working on a book about Lincoln.

Watch the full event below:

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The Great Hack

The Common Good hosted a special screening of the Netflix documentary The Great Hack, and a riveting conversation with Brittany Kaiser, whistle-blower formerly at Cambridge Analytica, Director Jehane Noujaim, and Founder & CEO of The Common Good Patricia Duff.

Data has surpassed oil as the world’s most valuable asset. It’s being weaponized to wage cultural and political warfare. People everywhere are in a battle for control of our most intimate personal details. From award-winning filmmakers Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, The Great Hack uncovers the dark world of data exploitation with astounding access to the personal journeys of key players on different sides of the explosive Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data scandal.

The Great Hack is alarming - it shows how data is being used to hijack our elections and our democracy and how the internet is being used not only for information, but as a weapon. Citizens’ data is collected without their knowledge or permission, often for alarming reasons. Data is being used to drive wedges of fear and hate between us in order for one side to win elections, undermining our democracy and putting us all at risk. What do we give up when we tap that phone or keyboard and share ourselves in the digital age? Are our old democratic institutions too susceptible? What reforms do we need?

Brittany, Jehane and Patricia dove into these topics in discussion following the film, looking at legislation on the table to protect us and addressed how we can educate society to be less vulnerable to online targeting, sharing shocking revelations about the extent of information collected on us through digital data, and warning that even if social media ceases to exist, the data never does.

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Brittany Kaiser is an American former business development director for Cambridge Analytica which collapsed after details of its misuse of Facebook data were revealed to have potentially impacted voting in the U.K and the U.S. Kaiser testified about her involvement in the work of Cambridge Analytica before the U.K. Parliament and in private before the Mueller Investigation. She is the founder of the #OwnYourData campaign and cofounder of the Digital Asset Trade Association (DATA), a nonprofit lobbying firm advancing legislative and policy reform to protect the rights of individuals to control their own digital assets.

Jehane Noujaim is an Academy Award nominated director and one of two non-fiction directors to have won the Directors Guild Award twice. Her Oscar nominated film, The Square (2013), won the Audience Award both at Sundance and Toronto. Noujaim has produced and directed other award-winning films including Rafea: Solar Mama (2013), Control Room (2004) and Startup.com (2001). In 2006, Noujaim was awarded the TED prize which she used to create Pangea Day. Noujaim’s work has been nominated by the DGA, IDA, Independent Spirit and several Critics Association Awards. Noujaim’s most recent release was an animated feature, The Breadwinner (2017) which she executive produced with Angelina Jolie and which was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award.

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Athens Democracy Forum

Members of The Common Good had the special opportunity to attend the Athens Democracy Forum, a pivotal conference addressing the impact of the current feeble state of democracy on our world and on businesses alike.

The Athens Democracy Forum was hosted by New York Times Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen and programmed by editorial board member Serge Schmemann, and was held by the Democracy and Culture Foundation, an independent nonprofit entity, in association with The New York Times. The conference coincides with the Arraiolos Group meeting, bringing together various European Union heads of state in Athens.

The theme was “Reinventing Democracy: New Models for Our Changing World”.

The key topics that were discussed include:

• We and Them: The Tectonic Plates of Nationalism and Multiculturalism

• The Echo Chamber and the Agora: The Use and Abuse of New and Social Media

• The Cost of Inequality: Where Has All the Money Gone?

• Back to Basics: What Must Be Done to Restore Faith in Democracy

The 2019 Athens Democracy Forum gathered acclaimed speakers including: 

•  Prokopios Pavlopoulos, President of Greece

• Michael Higgins, President of Ireland  

• Juan Manuel Santos, Former President, Republic of Colombia

• Bernard-Henri Levy, French Philosopher

• Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner

• Wole Soyinka, Poet and Nobel Literature Laureate

• Eleni Kounalakis, Lieutenant Governor, State of California

• HE Laura Chinchilla, Former President of Costa Rica

• Margot Wallstrom, Foreign Minister of Sweden

• Ivan Krastev, Centre for Liberal Studies

• Maria Schmidt, Advisor to PM Victor Orban

• George Papandreou, Former Prime Minister of Greece

• Jay Weatherill, Industry Professor, University of South Australia

• Kassem Eid, Palestinian-Syrian Refugee

• Sergei Karaganov, Russian Council of Foreign Policy

• Anna Diamantopoulou, Former EU Commissioner

• Katharina Schulze, Leader of the Alliance ‘90/The Greens in Germany

•  Ory Okolloh, Activist & Managing Director, Luminate Africa

• Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Youth Envoy

• Paul Polman, Former C.E.O., Unilever and Co-Founder & Chair, Imagine 

• Kostas Bakoyannis, Mayor of Athens

•  Annika Savill, Executive Head UNDEF

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Siege: Trump Under Fire

The Common Good hosted a special discussion with Michael Wolff, New York Times bestselling author and journalist to discuss his book, Siege: Trump Under Fire. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Fire and Fury.

Just one year into Donald Trump’s term as president, Michael Wolff told the electrifying story of a White House consumed by controversy, chaos, and intense rivalries. Fire and Fury, an instant sensation, defined the first phase of the Trump administration; now, in Siege, Wolff has written an equally essential and explosive book about a presidency that is under fire from almost every side.

At the outset of Trump’s second year as president, his situation is profoundly different. No longer tempered by experienced advisers, he is more impulsive and volatile than ever. But the wheels of justice are inexorably turning: Robert Mueller’s “witch hunt” haunts Trump every day, and other federal prosecutors are taking a deep dive into his business affairs. Many in the political establishment―even some members of his own administration―have turned on him and are dedicated to bringing him down. The Democrats see victory at the polls, and perhaps impeachment, in front of them. Trump, meanwhile, is certain he is invincible, making him all the more exposed and vulnerable. Week by week, as Trump becomes increasingly erratic, the question that lies at the heart of his tenure becomes ever more urgent: Will this most abnormal of presidencies at last reach the breaking point and implode?

Both a riveting narrative and a brilliant front-lines report, Siege provides an alarming and indelible portrait of a president like no other. Surrounded by enemies and blind to his peril, Trump is a raging, self-destructive inferno―and the most divisive leader in American history.

"...it was a quiet weekend in Southampton, small family dinners, punctuated by a Common Good conversation with Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, and now The Siege: Trump Under Fire. Bonnie Lautenberg, widow of Senator Frank Lautenberg, and accomplished photographer, hosted in her lovely Watermill home, filled with her pictures of moments in history, captured during her fascinating life with Frank, and her new series of film stills married with artwork from the same period. To Wolff’s credit, or was it … when asked if he would comment on Epstein (before his demise), he said ‘No’." - Debbie Bancroft, New York Social Diary

Michael Wolffe is an American journalist, author, columnist and internet entrepreneur. He’s the founder of the news aggregation website ‘Newser’. His books include Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House (2018) and Burn rate: How I survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet (1998). He’s written columns for publications like The Hollywood Reporter and USA Today. Wolf was born on August 27, 1953 in Paterson, New Jersey. His father, Lewis, worked in advertising, while his mother, Marguerite, worked as a newspaper reporter. He attended Vassar College followed by Columbia University.

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2020 Presidential Candidates Series: Governor Steve Bullock

The Common Good was proud to present a special discussion with presidential candidate Governor Steve Bullock as part of the Presidential Candidate Series. Governor Bullock spoke on trying to win back middle America with centrist progressive approaches around healthcare, Medicaid, pre-Kindergarten, and STEM education, supporting reproductive freedoms and LGBTQ+ rights, and getting dark money out of politics. This event space was graciously provided by First Republic Bank and hosted by Rohan Dalal.

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Governor Steve Bullock is a politician, attorney, and former professor. He was elected Montana’s 24th Governor in 2012 and reelected in 2016. Throughout his career Bullock has emphasizes his desire to bring people together and bridge partisan divides. As Governor, he has fought on behalf of workers, students, and families, working with a Republican legislature to expand Medicaid, pass an Earned Income Tax Credit, and establish the state’s first public pre-K. He was also the first governor in the country to protect net neutrality through Executive Order.

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Meet & Greet: Representative Steve Cohen

The Common Good was proud to present a special meet and greet with Congressman Steve Cohen [D-TN], hosted by Charles Myers, Chairman, and Jason Press, Senior Partner, Signum Global.

As a member of the important House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Cohen plays a crucial role in oversight of the Executive Branch and a check and balance on possible wrongdoings or overreaches. He has already overseen testimony from Attorney General William Barr, Michael Cohen, and other members of the Trump administration. As calls for impeachment continue to grow following the Mueller report, Congressman Cohen has become a lead voice for a vigorous approach to these investigations.

Congressman Steve Cohen has represented Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District since 2007. His thoughtful legislation on civil rights and justice has distinguished him throughout his tenure, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi dubbing him “the conscience of the freshman class” in 2008. Prior to his election to the United States House of Representatives, he served for 24 years in the Tennessee State Senate. He currently serves several House Committees including the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the House Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.

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Art and Activism in Amsterdam with Ai Weiwei

The Common Good offered an extraordinary opportunity in Amsterdam with one of the world’s most important living artists/dissidents, Ai Weiwei. He discussed the artist’s responsibility in this new age. Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most prominent contemporary artists and a renowned political activist. Dictatorship, human rights abuses, damage to the environment, the suffering of refugees – in his work, Ai Weiwei uncompromisingly addresses the most urgent issues facing the world today. His political activism and creative brilliance made him one of the world’s most appreciated and relevant artists, at great personal risk: he was arrested, had his passport confiscated and his studio destroyed by the authorities.

This was made possible with a partnership with the Nexus Institute and Nexus Institute President Rob Riemen.

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and activist. His activity as a dissident has gone hand in hand with his artistic career and he has continued to produce work testifying to his political beliefs while at the same time making plenty of room for creativity and experimentation. (1)

After returning to China from his studies abroad, Ai contributed to the establishment of Beijing’s East Village, a community of avant-garde artists. In 1997, he co-founded the China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), one of the first independent art spaces in China. In 2003, Ai started his own architecture practice, FAKE Design. In 2007, as a participant of documenta 12, Ai brought 1001 Chinese citizens to Kassel as part of his Fairytale project. In 2008, Ai and the Swiss architecture team of Herzog and de Meuron designed the Beijing National Stadium. Recently, Ai Weiwei’s film Human Flow participed in the 74th Venice International Film Festival. (1)

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(1) Material from the Galleria Continua website.

The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019

The Common Good Forum is an annual program presenting headline issues and the most important, forward-looking ideas affecting public policy and our lives. This year we built a remarkable roster for our annual event, with 30+ participants from government, media, business, foreign affairs and tech, as well as public policy activists.

Our theme this year was

“Rethinking the Democracy Compact”

The very foundations of our nation and the global order have shifted: institutions and gatekeepers are bypassed, societal norms are reorienting and governments are being rearranged - for better or worse. What drives these changes? How do they impact our democracy’s future? Most importantly, how can we harness them?

We presented fascinating discussions on the global transformations underway – greatest international threats and changes from new geopolitical escalations and vacuums; national challenges and our inability to confront our biggest transformations from broken government to gross economic disparities and climate change; growing a vibrant economy and jobs for today and tomorrow; the high-tech and social media revolution and its dangers and opportunities; our shifting political realities, the 2020 race and the impact of activism, immigration, populism, and identity; Fake news and pressure on journalism and freedom of the press here abroad; new scientific and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and gene editing – in short, configuring anew for a society that is human-centred, inclusive and sustainable.   

Agenda:

Welcome

Patricia Duff, Founder, The Common Good

Smithsonian Briefing: “The Future of the Women’s Museum”

Emily Rafferty, Karri Brady and Wendy Pangburn

Changemaker Scholarships

Jamie Margolin, age 17 and Alexandria Villaseñor, age 13. Presented by ABC’s Juju Chang and Sharon Patrick

Women & Power

Kay Koplovitz, Mia Love, Sally Quinn, and Alessandra Stanley. Moderated by Juju Chang

The Road to 2020: Leaders & Ideas

Matt Bennett, Margaret Hoover, Steve Israel, Claire McCaskill, and Rick Tyler. Moderated by Errol Louis.

Can’t We All Just Get Along? How Washington Can Best Serve the Nation”

Senator Doug Jones

Renewing Democracy

Max Boot, Nicole Austin-Hillery, Cohen Curtis, and Michael Waldman. Moderated by Ari Melber

Growing a Fair Economy

Alan Schwartz and Stephanie Ruhle

Artificial Intelligence & Warfare

Major General (Ret.) Dr. Robert Latiff

World View: Security Challenges & Opportunities

Ambassador Bill Burns, Ambassador Nicholas Burns and Former Congressman Jane Harman. Moderated by Edward Luce

Rule of Law, Corruption, and Abuse of Power

Bill Browder and Preet Bharara. Moderated by John Avlon

Journalism & Democracy

Tom Brokaw, Lesley Stahl, and Sir Harry Evans

Citizen Activism & TRIBUTE TO robert f. kennedy

Kerry Kennedy

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Fareed Zakaria

American Spirit Awardees

Sir Harry Evans

Courage in Journalism

Lesley Stahl

Courage in Journalism

Preet Bharara

Distinguished Public Service

Bill Browder

Citizen Activism

Changemaker Scholarship Recipients

Jamie Margolin

Climate Change Action

Alexandria Villasenor

Climate Change Action

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Discussion with Ambassador Martin Indyk

The Common Good presented a timely discussion with Ambassador Martin Indyk, US ambassador to Israel 1995-1997 & 2000-2001, regarding the Israeli election on April 9th and the resulting impact on the region.

“Change may be afoot in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a 10th term but faces strong competition from General Benny Gantz and his recently formed Israel Resilience Party (Hosen LeYisrael).  If Netanyahu is ousted, this could reverberate across the region and the world – peace, war, it all hangs in the balance. How will this election and its potentially surprising results pan out? Ambassador Indyk will provide us with necessary insight into how the election unfolded, the results, and what it means for Israel and the world”

Ambassador Martin Indyk was US ambassador to Israel from 1995-1997 and 2000-2001, and long has been a diplomat and foreign relations analyst with expertise in the Middle East. Indyk served as ambassador during the Clinton administration, and also took on the role of Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs. During the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Indyk as Washington’s special Middle East envoy. His diplomatic expertise is lauded by politicians in the USA, Israel, and Palestinian alike. Presently, Indyk is the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution, an American research group specializing in social sciences.

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Vicky Ward Investigative Reporter and New York Times bestselling author "Kushner, Inc."

The Common Good was proud to present a very timely discussion with investigative reporter and New York Times bestselling author Vicky Ward on “Kushner, Inc.” Ward will unpack the story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s rise to extraordinary power in Trump’s White House. This event was hosted by Ambassador Joseph R. Paolino.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are the self-styled Prince and Princess of America. Their swift, gilded rise to extraordinary power in Donald Trump’s White House is unprecedented and dangerous. In Kushner, Inc., investigative journalist Vicky Ward digs beneath the myth the couple has created, depicting themselves as the voices of reason in an otherwise crazy presidency, and reveals that Jared and Ivanka are not just the President’s chief enablers: they, like him, appear disdainful of rules, of laws, and of ethics. They are entitled inheritors of the worst kind; their combination of ignorance, arrogance, and an insatiable lust for power has caused havoc all over the world, and may threaten the democracy of the United States.

Ward follows their trajectory from New Jersey and New York City to the White House, where the couple’s many forays into policy-making and national security have mocked long-standing U.S. policy and protocol. They have pursued an agenda that could increase their wealth while their actions have mostly gone unchecked. In Kushner, Inc., Ward holds Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump accountable: she unveils the couple’s self-serving transactional motivations and how those have propelled them into the highest levels of the US government where no one, the President included, has been able to stop them.

Vicky Ward: Vicky Ward is a New York Times bestselling author, investigative reporter, and magazine columnist. She is the author of bestselling books The Liar’s Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How one Building Broke the World’s Toughest Tycoons (Wiley). She is an editor at large at HuffPost and HuffPost’s long-form magazine, Highline, as well as Town & Country magazine. She was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair for eleven years, where she covered politics, finance, art, and culture.

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Political Briefing: "Election 2020: Messaging and Strategy"

The Common Good was proud to present a very important discussion with Guy Cecil. Chairman, Priorities USA, on “Election 2020: Messaging and Strategy”. What are the issues and messages that moved voters in 2018? What are the powerhouse approaches in 2018? He has spent years on the forefront of the national and local political arena working with numerous campaigns across the country. This event was hosted by Karen and Dennis Mehiel.

LISTEN:

WATCH:

Guy Cecil is one of America’s leading political strategists. He is currently the Chairman of Priorities USA Action, and independent political action committee, and the Founder of Miles Strategies. Guy has more than 15 years of experience managing high-profile political, non-profit, and corporate issue advocacy campaigns, including having served as Executive Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He is recognized as a leading Democratic strategist with experience in every region of the country, including senate races in 35 states.

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