What's Not In My Bag?

Amazon tells me it's actually what's not in the bag that matters.

Good Afternoon:

Greetings from a windowless bunker hotel in an undisclosed location in or around Kharkiv. I just did an impromptu episode of #DogShirtDaily, which was cut off by internet issues. It was not, I want to stress, cut off by a missile or drone strike, just routine connectivity issues no doubt associated with power issues in a conflict zone.

I’m fine, really, and thought this was a good time to release my latest video, edited as always by the most estimable Katherine Pompilio.

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Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher brought me up to date on the protests in Minnesota, and I told her all about the city of Odesa:

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Yesterday On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Marissa Wang

Unpacking the Trump Administration’s Plans for Venezuela’s Oil Revenue

Scott R. Anderson and Alex Zerden explain how the Trump administration’s plan to route revenue from Venezuelan oil exports through Qatar reflects a deeper level of pragmatic legal risk management than what might appear.

As suspect as it may seem, the Trump administration’s handling of Venezuela’s oil assets follows a familiar policy logic. If the Trump administration wants Venezuela to be able to use its oil revenue to rebuild its oil sector, it needs to protect it from Venezuela’s numerous creditors’ efforts to collect. In the long term, this may be achievable through the U.S.-based mechanism established by Executive Order 14,373. But when it came to the first, urgently needed tranche of Venezuelan oil revenue, Congress’s decision to strip the executive branch of the ability to insulate Venezuela from terrorism-related claims—as well as tensions within the Trump administration’s own recognition policies towards Venezuela—made that mechanism an unsuitably risky one. Channeling the initial transaction overseas bought the administration time to resolve these issues—and the need to do so quickly could understandably have led to Qatar as a familiar place for doing so.

The Dangerous Drift to Redefine Protest as Terrorism

Thomas E. Brzozowski argues that U.S. national security law is dangerously drifting toward treating protest and civil disobedience as domestic terrorism. Drawing from historical patterns seen in the Palmer Raids, COINTELPRO, and more, Brzozowski contends that modern frameworks invite ideological policing that weaken civil liberties.

This paradox—that civil disobedience can be simultaneously illegal and constitutionally protected—has been a constant source of tension in the U.S. But how the law talks about it has changed. Increasingly, the language of national security is creeping into spaces once governed by public-order statutes and First Amendment doctrine. We are no longer debating whether protesters who break the law should face charges. The new question is whether they should be investigated as terrorists.

Can Pakistan Contain the Violent Politics of Blasphemy?

In the latest edition of Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay series, Adam Weinstein and Michael Kugelman assess the effectiveness of Pakistan’s renewed ban on the Pakistani Taliban. Weinstein and Kugelman unpack how the ban has reduced extremist mobilization and violence, but leaves the underlying threat of the organization unresolved.

But Pakistan now faces a fundamental policy dilemma—one that policymakers have grappled with for decades but have not been able to properly address. Pakistan may not be a radicalized society, but radical ideas do resonate across wide swaths of the population and enable TLP and its ilk to mobilize in large numbers. The decision to ban TLP after quelling its recent protest risks further instability if its support base takes issue with the move and pledges fresh mobilizations against it. So far this has not occurred.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Eric Columbus sits down with Anna Bower, Roger Parloff, and Molly Roberts to discuss the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s search of the election center in Fulton County, Georgia, the arrest of protestors in Minnesota, a 9th Circuit decision regarding temporary protected status for Venezuelans, and more.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the kestrel, seen here facing unusual parenting difficulties:

Video Source

In honor of today’s Beast, battle the forces of nature itself and triumph.