Everything Is Bad For You
Except #DogShirtTV
Good Morning:
Yes, everything is bad for you.
Yes. Everything is bad for you.
It means you buy it a ring and start calling caterers.
But don’t bother engaging your core. Like everything, it’s bad for you.
Yes. I know all of them. And I’m past the age where I take standardized tests.
They are bad for you.
Here’s the one thing that isn’t bad for you. A sale on #DogShirtDaily:
Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, we had an absolute banger of an episode, and had you been there live you would have experienced a special tingling feeling that you can’t quite describe.
The estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher came on to show off her hair and discuss our latest shenanigans. The estimable Minna Ålander showed up to talk NATO policy. Frank jumped in from the Greek Chorus with questions about the latest SCOTUS arguments. And the estimable Anastasiia Lapatina gave us a live tour of a Norwegian town on the Russian border and introduced us to the extremely estimable Thomas Nilsen, the editor of a local paper covering Russian aggression in the Arctic:
All of which brings us to…
The Cause Of The Day
Today’s cause is the Barents Observer, a journalist-owned online newspaper covering the Euro-Arctic region and northern Russia in both English and Russian.
The Euro-Arctic and the circumpolar region more generally is a crucial location when it comes to issues like climate change and ecology, the international energy and communications industries, and the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide. The Barents Observer provides independent local news coverage on all these issues in the Euro-Arctic, a crucial service to the local population, who need independent media, and to anyone worldwide who cares about these issues and wants access to on-the-ground coverage.
They also annoy Vladimir Putin. The Barents Observer has provided a home for several exiled Russian journalists to continue reporting on the situation inside Russia. Their content is bilingual in English and Russian, and they work hard to ensure that the site remains available to Russian internet users despite Kremlin censorship. The Russians have spent a decade trying various tactics to shut the Barents Observer down. In fact, the Russian Prosecutor General’s office declared them an “undesirable organization” just a few months ago. As a final inducement to support them, I include the Prosecutor General’s statement on the Barents Observer here in full (translated by Google):
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation has declared the activities of the foreign non-governmental organization The Independent Barents Observer AS (Norway), which is the owner of the online publication The Barents Observer, undesirable.
A significant portion of the published materials have a clearly anti-Russian orientation. It is noteworthy that they are being prepared by citizens of the Russian Federation who have left the country and are included in the register of foreign agents or in the list of terrorists and extremists.
The articles are aimed at stimulating protest sentiments among the population of the northern regions of Russia, tightening anti-Russian sanctions, and the need to increase NATO's military presence at our borders. A significant amount of information disseminated by the organization is devoted to discrediting the activities of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The authors do not neglect the propaganda of non-traditional values.
The publication of materials in Russian is financed by foreign non-governmental organizations whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Stimulate protest sentiments among the northern Russian population? Tighten anti-Russian sanctions? And increase NATO’s military presence on Russian borders? Sign me up!
Yesterday On Lawfare
Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett
The Return of Schedule F
Nick Bednar discusses the Trump administration's proposed reinstatement of Schedule F—now known as Schedule Policy/Career—which would reclassify many federal positions to strip them of removal protections. Bednar warns that Schedule Policy/Career will further politicize the civil service and thereby diminish the capacity and effectiveness of federal agencies.
What effects will Schedule Policy/Career have on the federal workforce? At its core, Schedule Policy/Career will politicize the federal workforce by making it easier to remove federal employees perceived as resisting the president or his agenda. The American Federation of Government Employees has described Schedule Policy/Career as a “shameless attempt to politicize the federal workforce.” Shortly after the original inception of Schedule F, Ron Sanders—the chair the Federal Salary Council in the first Trump administration—submitted a resignation letter, explaining, “[I]t is clear that its stated purpose notwithstanding, the Executive Order is nothing more than a smokescreen for what is clearly an attempt to require the political loyalty of those who advise the President, or failing that, to enable their removal with little if any due process.”
The Shifting Landscape of U.S.-China Economic Relations
In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Philip Luck and Richard Gray discuss China’s efforts to formalize its export controls regime in domestic and international law. Luck and Gray emphasize that in contrast to China’s growing influence, the United States is weakening its own international standing and ability to win an economic war by shuttering foreign aid programs and antagonizing allies.
China’s legal influence is both organic and strategic. Given its sheer economic and political weight, it inevitably shapes global legal norms—whether through direct legal cooperation or the adoption of Chinese legal standards by countries seeking closer ties. As China formalizes its legal system, cooperates with aligned states on extraterritorial matters, and plays a leading role in nascent legal domains, including artificial intelligence, climate, and maritime, the global legal environment is becoming increasingly complex for the United States.
Ceding American Biodefense Is a Gift to Russia
Daniel P. Regan argues that the Trump administration’s cuts to federal programs related to biosecurity and biological weapons—unless soon restored—will embolden Russia to deploy large-scale biological attacks in Ukraine and beyond.
If left unchecked, Russia and potentially other adversaries will continue to exploit these lapses in U.S. deterrence against the development and use of biological threats. To put it bluntly, it is now a risk that Putin and his regime will use biological weapons with impunity, all while the United States loses its influence and ability to detect biothreats of all types. There is no good reason to walk that path. Both American and global security will be much better served if the Trump administration reverts to its previous strengths and restores the processes and investments needed to make sure such terrible weapons are never used.
On AI Policy, Congress Shouldn’t Cut States off at the Knees
State Sen. Katie Fry Hester and Gary Marcus share an open letter criticizing a preemption provision in a federal budget bill that would place a 10 year moratorium on state artificial intelligence (AI) regulations. Marcus and Hester highlight Congress’s own inaction on AI, arguing that states are one of the few actors working to mitigate AI’s harms.
At a time when voters are demanding protection—and global leaders are sounding the alarm—Congress should not tie the hands of the only actors currently positioned to lead. A decade of deregulation isn’t a path forward. It’s an abdication of responsibility.
Podcasts
On Lawfare Daily, I sit down with Anna Bower, Quinta Jurecic, Roger Parloff, and James Pearce to discuss legal challenges against President Donald Trump’s executive actions, including the Friday hearing in the Abrego Garcia litigation, the Supreme Court’s ruling in an Alien Enemies Act case, and oral arguments at the Court over the birthright citizenship executive order.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the robin, seen here in some bizarre new iteration of the Judgement of Solomon:
In honor of today’s Beasts, out-stubborn your opponent. Just keep shoving. They’ll have to give up eventually.
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