The Face of Insurrection
And we had her on #DogShirtTV
Good Evening:
Today on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher and I welcomed the face of insurrection herself, Katie Shmatsina, a Belarussian think tanker convicted in absentia of seditious conspiracy to talk about the situation in Belarus, her asylum process in the US, and other cheerful subjects. One thing about Katie is that she can seem cheerful about just about anything.
Also, a pardoned January 6th insurrectionist has just opened a diner in Belarus. Why? Because we are in the stupidest possible timeline:
The Cause of the Day
Today’s organization is the Trans Doe Task Force, a group dedicated to locating transgender missing persons and identifying their remains.
Transgender people are four times more likely than cis people to be victims of violent crime. But when trans people are murdered or go missing, the tools that law enforcement uses to find missing persons or identify remains often fail. If a trans person has been unable to obtain a legal name change or updated documentation, for example, then law enforcement won’t know the name the victim used or what they looked like. If a recovered body is assumed to be cisgender based on physical characteristics, law enforcement won’t be able to match them to missing persons reports. As state and federal governments make it increasingly difficult or even impossible to obtain legal recognition for transgender status, this problem will only worsen—even as murders of trans people have doubled in the last decade.
The Trans Doe Task Force is a volunteer organization which works to identify remains of transgender victims and assist in missing persons investigations. The task force provides free forensic genetic genealogical services to law enforcement in cases with unidentified remains suspected to be of transgender people. It hosts a database of missing persons reports with accurate gender identity information, which it makes available to law enforcement. It provides assistance to families and friends of missing trans people who need help communicating with law enforcement about the missing person’s transgender status. It also provides training for law enforcement and medical examiners. In 2024, the group was able to give names to four previously unidentified bodies. It also began a collaboration with the Colombian government on identifying LGBTQ victims of the armed conflict there.
For more on the Trans Doe Task Force, check out this Vice article and this article from Xtra.
A reminder about yesterday’s cause of the day, for which—the estimable Lauren Buitta informs me—we raised about $3,400:
And a reminder about Monday’s cause, for which we appear to have raised about $3,000:
The Situation: The FBI Director Can’t Be A Liar
In today’s “The Situation” column, I discuss Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) letter alleging that Kash Patel directed the firings of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) personnel and the accompanying revelation that he may have perjured himself when testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee:
To be clear, I do not know whether Durbin’s information is true or not. In my view, as I argued before these allegations arose, Patel showed a lack of candor that should preclude his confirmation even if Durbin has this specific matter all wrong. That said, voting to confirm the man when the committee’s ranking member has made a specific allegation of misconduct against him, and an allegation as well that he lied before the committee about that misconduct, should be unthinkable.
Today On Lawfare
President Trump’s Campaign of ‘Structural Deregulation’
Jody Freeman and Sharon Jacobs evaluate the Trump administration’s unprecedented push to weaken the federal government—including dismantling agencies, and asserting control over the civil service—through the lens of structural deregulation. Freeman and Jacobs note that even if Congress and the courts successfully intervene, the damage that has already been done will have long lasting consequences:
A point of definition: Structural deregulation is distinct from standard, “run-of-the-mill” deregulation that aims to weaken or rescind certain agency rules or policies but falls short of a wholesale attack on agency capacity. Standard deregulation might include regulatory rollbacks that weaken health, safety, financial, or labor standards. Such rollbacks take time, require public input, are subject to judicial review, and can more easily be undone by later administrations. By contrast, structural deregulation is more radical—it cuts at the core of agency expertise and competence and harms agencies in systemic ways that are hard to challenge and difficult to reverse, by tearing at institutional memory and corroding agency culture. It can happen relatively quickly and indiscriminately. Structural deregulation erodes an agency’s leadership, staffing, resource base, expertise, and reputation—which agencies require to accomplish their statutory tasks. Even when rules and laws are designed to prevent it, by the time the legal system catches up with structural deregulation, the damage may already be done.
A Parting CyberQuest
Anthony Rutkowski discusses how the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent attempt to declare cybersecurity authority highlights the need for effective public network infrastructure cybersecurity in the United States:
The implementation of comprehensive U.S. public network infrastructure cybersecurity has been lacking for decades for lack of Congress sorting out the issues of competence and regulatory jurisdiction following major service provisioning technological change. The U.S. is perhaps the only country that has failed to resolve this essential cybersecurity requirement conundrum and instantiate a solution in organic law. Providers need to not only demonstrate an effective risk management framework but also implement network resilience by design and continuing critical security controls. It seems late to be making those changes now, and the FCC’s unilateral pursuit of authority here through a summary declaration of authority is a reminder of the continuing need.
Podcasts
On Lawfare Daily, Alan Rozenshtein sits down with Jack Goldsmith to discuss his recent Lawfare article about the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States and its implications for executive power. They talk about how the ruling extends beyond presidential immunity, the broader shift toward a maximalist theory of executive authority, and what this means for the future of American democracy:
On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson, Anna Bower, Tyler McBrien, Nastya Lapatina, and Joel Braunold discuss the major national security news of the past week, including President Donald Trump assertion that the U.S. will “own” Gaza, Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Ukraine, and the Justice Department’s dismissal of corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams:
Videos
On Feb. 14 at 4 p.m. ET, I will sit down with Anderson, Bower, and Roger Parloff to discuss the status of the civil litigation against President Trump’s executive actions, including the attempts to dismantle U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, his firing of inspector generals, and the attempt to fire FBI agents and employees:
Documents
Caroline Cornett shares an executive order purporting to implement the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agenda by limiting agencies to hiring one worker for every four that depart and integrating DOGE Team Leads into agencies.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is a lying lyrebird who lies:
In honor of today’s Beast, pull the fire alarm in your office building. If the bird can get away with it, why shouldn’t you?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Dog Shirt Daily to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
 | A guest post by
|