Smearing Avocado on Our Faces
It's all to protest tariffs
Good Evening:
Okay, yeah, I don’t usually release the raw footage of #getreadywithme videos, but the estimable
had a sufficiently joyous time smearing avocado on our faces that I thought I would release the full, unedited version.The edited, much shorter version will be coming soon in all the usual places.
Friday on #DogShirtTV, I was cruelly abandoned by my guest just moments before the show and was left, bereft and alone, to soldier on. Luckily, the estimable Laura Donna, the estimable Joel Woodward, and, of course, the estimable John Hawkinson came to my rescue. We talked Chuck Schumer, trolley problems, and approaches to disinformation.
The Situation
My Friday “The Situation” got bumped to today—which is to say I was late in writing it. It’s about the “Full-Scale Situation,” which began almost two months ago and is ongoing unto this very day:
One of the striking features of the Full-Scale Situation has been that it encompasses just about everything.
It involves a wholesale reorientation of American foreign policy—one in which the government imagines traditional friends to be foes and foes to be friends, one in which it openly contemplates territorial annexation of allied countries, one in which tariffs on America’s largest trading partners strobe on and off almost randomly, one in which the government snuffs out foreign assistance like a city in a blackout, and one in which the official policy statements of the United States propose the ethnic cleansing of two million Palestinians from Gaza and the land’s redevelopment as beachfront property.
This alone would be an earthquake.
But it is not alone. The Full-Scale Situation also involves a war on the federal bureaucracy and the dismantling of entire federal agencies—one in which federal workers across the government have been dismissed without undue care for legalities, one in which millions of others fear for their jobs, one in which entire functions of the federal government have been summarily eliminated, one which inverts the entire purpose of certain agencies, and one in which a quasi-presidential, quasi-agency spies on federal workers and demands they account for themselves.
This alone would also be an earthquake.
But again there is more. The Full-Scale Situation also involves major attempts to arrogate legislative power to the executive branch—in which an outside billionaire directs unilateral cuts to federal spending and the firings of federal workers, in which the government simply refuses to spend money duly appropriate by Congress and previously obligated by the executive branch, in which the president assumes the authority to reinterpret the Constitution by executive order, and in which Congress sits passively by and lets the courts sort out how much of its authority the the raiders get to keep.
This alone would also be an earthquake.
And yet there is still more. Because the Full-Scale Situation also involves an aggressive attempt to remake the governmental institutions that wield coercive power against Americans—one in which the president installs loyalist hacks atop the FBI and his own lawyers atop the Justice Department, one in which attorneys who worked on prosecuting the president and those who committed violence on his behalf have been fired without undue concern for legalities, and one in which the FBI director’s name still graces a wine label.
This alone would also constitute an earthquake.
And yet there is still more. The Full-Scale Situation also involves on overt shift in both civil and criminal enforcement, toward Lucius Cornelius Sulla’s motto of “no better friend, no worse enemy”—one in which sex traffickers and violent insurrectionists and murder for hire convicts and corrupt mayors walk away scott free while universities and law firms and other institutions the administration associates with its political foes come under punishing administrative pressure.
This too would be an earthquake all by itself.
Friday On Lawfare
Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett
Amid Federal Push for AI Innovation, Who Will Look Out for Consumers?
Kevin Frazier argues that in the absence of robust federal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), state attorneys general (AGs) are uniquely positioned to shield consumers from bad actors by enforcing consumer protection laws. Frazier describes how AGs have thus far successfully prosecuted AI misuse, but notes that they will need increased technical support to keep pace with AI innovation:
AGs, unlike the aforementioned legislators, have broad mandates to look out for consumers and to punish AI companies that release harmful products or rely on deceptive marketing schemes. Enforcement of state unfair and deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) statutes by state AGs has long served as one of the primary means of achieving this balance. UDAPs are technology agnostic. They do not directly stymie AI development and research. Instead, UDAPs prevent private actors from engaging in certain practices that result in consumer harm. This iterative, responsive approach to safeguarding consumers may represent a preferable approach to AI-specific legislation that may gravitate too far toward one end of the aforementioned balance.
Don’t Use Shutdown Plans to Slash the Federal Workforce
Bridget Dooling explains why the government’s plan to implement reductions in force (RIFs) targeted at federal employees that do not work during government shutdowns threatens the separation of powers and introduces political manipulation into what is usually an orderly process:
It might seem like a quick and easy way to figure out whose jobs are important is to see who needs to work during a shutdown, call those people “essential,” and fire everyone else. But in truth, measures prepared for shutdowns have little to do with the kinds of considerations that go into RIFs. By seeking to combine two mismatched categories, the executive order misuses RIFs, misunderstands shutdown plans, and introduces political manipulation into what is meant to be an orderly process for winding down unneeded positions.
Outside America, Musk's X is a Foreign Influence Threat
In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren discusses the growing global backlash against the proliferation of misinformation and right-wing propaganda on Elon Musk’s X, mass firings at United States intelligence agencies, and a recent report on a cybercrime cartel known as the Scam Empire:
X isn't TikTok, but in many ways it's actually worse. X actively promotes CEO Elon Musk's hard-right, fascist ideology, while interference on TikTok is mostly a theoretical risk. TikTok might be up to something and might improperly use its influence one day. Musk's interference on X, on the other hand, is as subtle as a brick to the head.
Podcasts
On Lawfare Daily, Renee DiResta sits down with Ravi Iyer, Jacob Mchangama, and Glen Weyl to talk about content moderation, designing a prosocial media for the future, and how the way a social media platform is built influences how users interact with a platform:
Videos
On March 14 at 4 p.m. ET, I spoke to Scott R. Anderson, Matthew Boaz, and Anna Bower about the status of the civil litigation against President Donald Trump’s executive actions, including the freezing of the disbursement of federal funds, the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the firing of probationary employees.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the ribbon eel, seen here displaying its support for Ukrainian sovereignty and independence:
In honor of today’s Beast, display your support for Ukrainian sovereignty and independence at a Russian embassy near you!
Three Celebrations of the Ides of March
As Dog Shirt Daily’s resident classics nerd, I (EJ Wittes) celebrate the Ides of March each year as a great festival of history and historic shortsightedness and incompetence. Let it stand as a reminder to all that political violence—which we oppose—is a particularly ineffective tool if you do not also have a plan for what to do once you’ve finished stabbing.
In celebration of history’s most famous assassination, I bring you art, history, and comedy:
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