A Baby in a Bomb Shelter and Medieval Giraffes
Happy Memorial Day
Good Morning:
Especially to this baby, seen here spending the night in a bomb shelter in Kyiv.
While she slept, her mother, the very estimable and very sleep-deprived
, crept up to street level to do a Substack Live with me:
A reminder that our #SpecialTrollingSale is still going on:
Also if you want to support this baby, you can subscribe to
:
Just saying.
Friday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Alicia Wanless got a list of silly icebreaker questions from her publisher and wanted to workshop some answers, so she dragged in the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher, the estimable Genevieve DellaFera, and me to answer them with her. In the process, we debated the purpose of hypothetical time travel, got corrected on Tokugawa Japan by the estimable Carol from the Collegium, and pondered the logistics of bringing Wikipedia to a desert island:
The Situation
In my “The Situation” column on Friday, I begged off the sort of protection against antisemitism the Trump administration is offering me:
I am a proud Jew. I recently learned that my genetic material is 100 percent Ashkenazi Jewish. Not 90 percent. Not 97 percent. Not 99 percent. One hundred freakin’ percent. I’m a purebred; my veins course with a kind of Ashkenazi Jewish blood from concentrate. It’s genetic diseases and neuroses all the way down. I’m the real deal, folks. If anyone should be excited about blowing up whole universities and revoking student visas and locking up legal permanent residents over anti-Israel activities, it should be me.
And yet I find myself strangely ungrateful for the administration’s actions on my behalf.
Friday On Lawfare
Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett
Charting a Path Forward for the U.S.-Ukraine Minerals Deal
Tyson Barker and Mustafa Nayyem discuss the future of the agreement granting the United States preferential access to Ukraine’s critical minerals and establishing a fund to facilitate Ukraine's recovery. Barker and Nayyem outline how the U.S. can maximize its investment by involving the private sector via the Development Finance Corporation and increasing collaboration between the U.S. and Ukrainian defense industrial bases.
As it comes into force, the agreement goes further than any previous policy in anchoring the Trump Administration to Ukraine and its allies. It recognizes Russia’s full-scale invasion; affirms America’s desire for a free, sovereign, and secure Ukraine; recognizes that pulling Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit requires an unimpeded path to EU accession; cuts off any actors—including China—that financed or supplied “Russia’s war machine” from benefiting from the fund’s work on Ukraine’s reconstruction; creates a reconstruction fund management system between the U.S. and Ukraine; and recognizes that near- and mid-term profitability must be baked into Ukraine’s reconstruction—not merely as a payment scheme to the U.S., and certainly not as compensation for past assistance supporting Ukraine’s survival.
Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Pardon
Kimberly Wehle reviews Jeffrey Toobin’s “The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy,” in which Toobin examines President Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon President Richard Nixon for his role in Watergate. Wehle highlights the book’s poignant contrast of how past conceptions of political integrity and accountability in public office compare to the contemporary landscape of presidential misconduct and the pardon power.
As Toobin repeatedly notes throughout the book, pardons are essentially political acts, not legal ones. “For better and worse,” he quips, “pardons operate like X-rays into the souls of presidents.” Pardons have an ancient lineage, predating even the New Testament account of Pontius Pilate’s refusal to grant one to Jesus. In common law England, from which the Constitution’s pardon power is derived, a primary purpose underlying the monarch’s granting of pardons was mercy. In England, criminal jury trials did not appear until the 12th century, and criminal punishments were harsh. Kings also used pardons to foster reconciliation after a national disturbance, which today is known as “amnesty.” And they used them as well for patronage and self-dealing.
Telegram Is Cooperating With Authorities, For Now
In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren discusses Telegram’s closure of two online black markets and increased compliance with law enforcement, Meta’s role in the internet fraud economy, and new European Union sanctions targeting Russia’s disinformation networks.
Although Wired and Elliptic's prodding may have been the proximate cause of action, we think the person ultimately responsible for Telegram's improved responsiveness is the company's CEO, Pavel Durov. He was arrested in France last August on charges including being complicit in the administration of an online platform to enable organized crime and illicit transactions. The prosecutor's office told Wired they issued an arrest warrant for Durov after realizing just how many investigations were being stymied by Telegram. The company had failed to respond to 2,460 legal requests between 2013 and 2024.
Podcasts
On Lawfare Daily, Justin Sherman sits down with Philip R. Reitinger and Komal Bazaz Smith to discuss critical cybersecurity issues facing core internet infrastructure, how better data could help inform internet security efforts, and the future of internet security.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the giraffe, seen here recognizing itself in the other—a baby non-giraffe.
In honor of today’s Beast, say hello to a baby of a different species—or a human baby who is very different from you.
In further honor of today’s Beast, I (EJ Wittes) went to my usual archive of medieval bestiaries in search of depictions of giraffes. I instead found an object lesson in the difficulties of illustration.
In a 13th century encyclopedia, the giraffe is described as being horse-like, but of different colors in the front and the back. The artist produced this illustration:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Dog Shirt Daily to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
 | A guest post by
|