My Failed Attempt to Get a New Passport
Good Morning:
Okay, folks, you subscribe to my personal site, you’re gonna get some personal griping. Sorry, but that’s just how it is. I went to the post office yesterday for my passport application appointment—and got stood up by the passport folks. A lot of other people did too. Apparently, the passport people at my local post office—despite having made an appointment with me—just decided not to show up. In honor of this event, I am sharing my passport photographs from my first two passports.
I have a new passport application appointment for Wednesday. We’ll see if anyone shows up this time.
Doesn’t this gripping tale make you want to subscribe?
MARA Book Club Scheduling Update
We now have date and time for the next few MARA book club meetings:
The film discussion of “Ben Between Africa” with Ari Ali will take place on Jan. 5 at 5:00 pm. Ali informs me that she has extended the virtual screening through Jan. 5 for the benefit of MARA Book Club members. She has also arranged things so that you can watch the film any time, not merely at the listed scheduled times, once you have a ticket—which you can do here.
The discussion with Stephen Marche of “The Next Civil War” will take place on Jan. 11 at 6:00 pm.
As I mentioned yesterday, February’s guest will be the very estimable Kori Schake, author of the new book, The “State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States.” This event will take place on February 15, 2026 at 6:00 pm. Schake has named has her fiction wine pairing Phil Klay’s book, “Redeployment.”
A reminder that these events are for paid subscribers only and video of them—unlike regular episodes of #DogShirtTV—are not made generally available. If you want to participate, all you need to do is click this button:
Operation Brahms
And so we come to the genuinely beautiful, Op. 21 Variations on an Original Theme, performed here by the titanic Brahms interpreter, Sviatoslav Richter in 1988:
Brahms wrote a number of piano variations pieces, most of them based on themes by others. We already saw his variations on a theme by his mentor, Robert Schumann, for example. This piece, however, is unusual for him in that the theme itself is original. Because Brahms was such a spectacularly great melodist, that makes the piece—in my view, anyway—unusually rich, and a bit of a harbinger of some of Brahms’s mid- and later period piano music.
This will never rank up there with the greatest of the Brahms piano music, but it’s a beautiful little piece and well worth 16 minutes and 9 seconds of your time on a Tuesday.
This morning on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Mike Feinberg asked for book recommendations for his new baby. He’s looking for things to read to the baby—other than Kash Patel’s book—over the first four years. I gave my recommendations on the show. You should leave your recommendations in the comments:
Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Caitlin Tulloch of GiveDirectly came on the show to tell us about a radical approach to ending poverty: just giving poor people money. It’s a pretty great conversation:
The Situation
In yesterday’s “The Situation” column, I wonder whom prosecutors consulted before trying to indict Letitia James a third time, given that the U.S. Attorney’s Manual directs them not to present a no-billed case to another grand jury without permission from the “responsible United States attorney.”
So I, needless to say, have a few questions:
First, did prosecutors seek approval for resubmitting the case to any “responsible United States Attorney”—as the provision requires—at all or did they simply defy it?
Second, if they did seek and obtained approval for resubmitting the case, who granted it? Specifically, did Halligan—whom Judge Currie just ruled is not the U.S. attorney—grant approval for the third indictment of James?
Third, if that is what happened, is that action not in some tension with Judge Currie’s ruling?
And finally, fourth, if someone other than Halligan approved the resubmission, who was it and what authority does that person have to act as the “responsible United States Attorney” in the Eastern District of Virginia?
Yesterday On Lawfare
Compiled by the estimable Isabel Arroyo
The Pentagon’s Operational Technology Problem
Jim Dempsey and Andrew Grotto examine the U.S.’s spotty regulatory framework governing cybersecurity for operational technology (OT) critical to military preparedness. The authors outline specific ways the Pentagon could address those regulatory gaps using its power to set standards for services it purchases.
It is unlikely that a system of laws and regulations for OT cybersecurity will be stitched together to cover these holes anytime soon. Therefore, the Pentagon should use the lever that, for all of its limitations, may be the most flexible and most impactful: the power to set standards for the services it purchases. Currently, however, the U.S. military lacks contract language defining cybersecurity controls for OT. The procurement mandates that do exist focus on IT, not OT.
The European Union Changes Course on Digital Legislation
Mark MacCarthy and Kenneth Propp explain the proposed changes to European digital regulations in a new omnibus package, which policymakers hope will strengthen Europe’s tech industry. MacCarthy and Propp caution that the U.S.’s deregulatory approach is not necessarily something that Europe should emulate and urge European lawmakers to implement more active industrial policy measures.
The European Commission has not caved under the pressure of the Trump administration and big tech companies. Rather, the goal of the reforms is transparently to jump-start a homegrown European tech industry. In his comments on the release of the proposal, EU economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis emphasized the commission’s “commitment to give EU businesses more space to innovate and grow.”
But the commission might well be choosing the wrong policy lever to achieve that result. It is unclear to what extent the omnibus reforms will encourage EU firms to enter the AI market in Europe or expand their operations there. U.S. tech companies regularly complain about regulatory cost burdens, but are digital regulations actual barriers to entry and expansion that enter into the business calculations of European tech companies?
Cutting Off Hamas’s European Fundraising Spigot
In the latest installment of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Michael Jacobson and Matthew Levitt argue that multiple European countries have not done enough to prevent “sham charities” within their borders from funding Hamas and call for action from the European Union.
Some European governments, such as Germany and the Netherlands, have taken these responsibilities seriously and acted against Hamas funding networks within their borders. Many others have not. For example, Hamas has been active for years in Belgium and Italy, but the governments there have taken little action. In 2024, in response to a parliamentary inquiry, the Belgian justice minister confirmed that Hamas was continuing to operate in the country through shell companies, but more than a year later, the government has yet to crack down on these networks. And there are no indications Italy has taken steps to cut off Hamas’s fundraising to follow up on the U.S. designations of Italy-based Hamas entities and individuals over the past year.
Podcasts
On Lawfare Daily, Anna Bower, Eric Columbus, Molly Roberts, and Loren Voss join me to discuss the upcoming contempt hearings in J.G.G. v. Trump, the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE custody, domestic deployments litigation, and more.
On Scaling Laws, Alan Rozenshtein, Kevin Frazier, and Jakub Kraus discuss President Trump’s new executive order on federally preempting state AI laws, the politics of AI regulation and the split between Silicon Valley Republicans and MAGA populists, and the administration’s decision to let Nvidia export H200 chips to China.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the lobster, seen here succeeding in not being eaten:
In honor of today’s Beast, if someone tries to eat you today, fend them off with a pair of chopsticks.
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