The Behemoth And The Badger

Which will be the #BeastOfTheDay? Plus, the cacti fight it out.

Good Evening:

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Today on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher and I discussed last weekend’s protests, as well as some protests of our own. We talked about my latest #SpecialMilitaryOperation and Holly’s latest YouTube project: a series on South African wine. The estimable John Hawkinson was reminded that he once bought me a trolley, with which to create trolley problems. I still need to do that.

Also, the cacti did battle. And it was a rout.

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Today On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett

The Tangled History of the State Secrets Privilege

Jeffrey Vagle examines the origins and development of the state secrets privilege though significant Supreme Court rulings including United States v. Reynolds and Totten v. United States. Vagle argues that courts should more critically assess government assertions of the privilege and be careful not to conflate the privilege with the bar for litigation set out in Totten:

It is the duty of courts to ensure fair adjudication of claims, including those that may involve matters of foreign policy or national security. This duty extends to the careful evaluation of assertions of the state secrets privilege by the government. As the Reynolds Court put it, “judicial control over the evidence in a case cannot be abdicated to the caprice of executive officers.” That Court’s “formula of compromise” was intended to provide a balance between the national security concerns of the government and the legitimate rights of citizens seeking redress and access to necessary documents to support their claims, insisting that judges “must be satisfied from all the evidence and circumstances” as to the dangers asserted by the government regarding the production of certain evidence.

How Will Artificial Intelligence Impact Battlefield Operations?

David Kirichenko discusses the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into military operations, particularly in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Kirichenko emphasizes that although AI has the potential to enhance precision and reduce civilian casualties, it also poses significant risks, including the possibility of an escalated arms race and an over-reliance on technology:

The stalemate remains today. As a result, both Ukraine and Russia are scrambling to find short-term technological breakthroughs wherever possible. The war’s technological race has become a fight for drone supremacy. In this battle for drone supremacy, AI-enabled drones will evolve and potentially turn warfare into a battle of algorithms. The side with the fastest and most adaptive AI will dominate, accelerating target identification and execution within the kill chain, where speed and precision become the ultimate advantages. The more data and sensory inputs fed into the algorithms, the more precise and lethal AI-driven targeting systems will become.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Scott R. Anderson sits down with Peter Harrell and Jennifer Hillman to talk about the new global tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed last week and whether his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose them will survive judicial scrutiny:

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We have discussed at some length whether the cat named Behemoth is eligible to be the #BeastOftheDay:

Domestic dogs and cats, under the #BeastlyRules, are ineligible to be #BeastOfTheDay without performing an act of valor. So the question here is whether growing as large as

Renee DiResta

’s cat has grown constitutes an act of valor. On the one hand, the cat is impressively large. On the other hand, as best as we can tell, Behemoth’s size in and of itself does not constitute—as the dictionary defines valor— “great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.” Rather, the act of valor here may belong to Renee, who informs me that Behemoth bites, who endeavored to pick him up anyway

In any event, we determined that Behemoth is not eligible to be #BeastOfTheDay but is a most impressive beast who has achieved great size.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the badger, seen here admiring a piece of badger-related protest art:

No, really. This photo, which won last year’s UK Wildlife Photography People’s Choice Award, was taken as part of a project to preserve badger habitats and oppose badger culling in the UK.

In honor of today’s Beast, appreciate some protest art—perferrably protest art that is, in fact, about you. And get yourself photographed doing it.

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When I (EJ Wittes) swung by Saturday’s protest, I was aggravated to see someone present with a poster depicting a guillotine. Since then, as I’ve seen photos from the protests across the country, I’ve encountered more guillotine positivity: