I Don't Need A Cane Sword

I can't seem to convince the algorithm of this.

Good Evening:

The algorithm has made another weird judgment about me: I need a cane sword. I cannot fathom what pattern of searches or purchases has convinced it of this fact, but it is committed. Wherever I turn on Instagram or Facebook, someone is trying to sell me a sword embedded in a cane.

I don’t need a cane. I walk just fine.

I don’t need a sword either.

The algorithm gets certain things about me dead on: I like lasers. I like camera equipment. I like sound equipment. I’m a sucker for a good gadget.

But it has these weird ideas about me too. I don’t need a can sword, guys.

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Today on #DogShirtTV, the dog was once again on my shirt.

In non-puppy related news, the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher and I talked about how exactly JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, and the gang managed to leak military plans on a group chat, and the estimable Anna Bower came by and talked about her ongoing search for the administrator of DOGE:

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A Conversation With Shane Harris

I had one today:

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The Situation

In today’s “The Situation” column, I call upon the Atlantic to publish the full text thread from the Signal group that journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly given access to, in which senior government officials planned a military operation in Yemen. I praise the Atlantic for excluding highly sensitive information from the initial report, but argue that top officials’ assertions that the chat did not contain classified information requires that the documents be released:

The administration is playing a dirty game of chicken here. They are betting that Goldberg and the Atlantic’s staff are sufficiently responsible that the administration officials can lie with impunity to the Senate Intelligence Committee knowing that Goldberg is sitting on the documents that will prove it, and that he will not release the material because he knows it should be protected from public view.

But that’s not how classified information works. And it’s not how the relationship between government and the press should work either.

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Today On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett

The Khalil Case and the Difference Lawful Permanent Resident Status Makes

Peter Margulies and David A. Martin argue that—absent a “clear statement” from Congress that the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act invoked in the case of Mahmoud Khalil applies to the deportation of a lawful permanent resident (LPR)—courts should hold that the provision does not pertain to LPRs because of the rigorous inquiry required by the statute’s two-tier structure:

Congress was strikingly cautious in the sequence of enactments that led up to the 1990 adoption of the two-tiered State Department role. That caution suggests a reading that protects LPRs’ reliance interests: excluding LPRs from the removal provision’s scope, in the absence of a clear statement from Congress.

Applied to LPRs, a broad interpretation of the secretary of state’s authority under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(C) would upset legitimate expectations. The Due Process Clause requires that individuals receive fair notice of the risk of government sanctions or coercion. Vague and unduly broad standards, such as the criterion in 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(C), undermine notice. Vague criteria play “gotcha” with their targets, forcing individuals to guess which conduct will land them on the wrong side of the law. Just as important, vague criteria give government officials vast discretion on whom they will select as the targets of state coercion, raising the risk of targeting opposing political views or membership in a particular ethnic group.

Inside the Fourth EU Cyber Sanctions Package

Stefan Soesanto discusses how international coordination efforts and the Estonian government’s public attribution of a cyberattack to a Russian military unit played a key role in shaping recent European Union sanctions against Russia, more than four years after the attack:

But why did the European Union impose sanctions so late after the fact? Much of the answer lies in Estonian domestic politics rather than the speed of the sanctions process on the EU level. Additionally, the U.S. and other allies played an unprecedented role in sharing crucial intelligence for attribution purposes with Estonia and other EU members that these states would have had difficulty collecting by themselves. The Estonian case has the potential to reshape the EU cyber sanctions regime by encouraging more public attribution statements from member states, pushing for tangible impacts on adversarial operators, and streamlining international intelligence coordination efforts.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Tom Kent joins me to discuss Trump’s executive order dismantling Voice of America and Radio Free Europe:

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the standard-winged nightjar, which earns the title today for trying way too hard. Normally, it looks like this:

But when mating season comes, it needs to show off, so it grows these:

This is what it looks like flying with them:

Video Source

It’s too much, dude. She should love you without the enormous feathers. You deserve better.

In honor of today’s Beast, go on your next date without makeup.