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Good Morning:

In case what was missing from your life was ostriches having sex, the estimable

Holly Berkley Fletcher

has you covered.

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Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, I launched my new reality show—Real Housewives of the Justice Department—to an awed audience of the estimable

Eve gaumond

and the estimable Mike Feinberg. Then we talked about guns and the people who own them.

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Yesterday On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Mary Ford

The Awkward History of Russia’s Recent Recognition of the Taliban

Emily Hoge discusses the historical context surrounding Russia’s decision to recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan—including the defeat of the Soviets by the mujahideen more than 30 years ago—and explains how the Kremlin and its supporters have rewritten the history of the Soviet-Afghan War.

The recognition isn’t a sudden move. It reflects the steady improvement of the relationship between Russia and the Taliban over the past decade. In the years before the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, Russia had begun to covertly cultivate ties with the Taliban as it sought to hedge its bets ahead of the impending American exit from the country. During the fall of Kabul, as droves of foreign embassies shuttered and evacuated staff in advance of a Taliban takeover, Russia was one of few countries to keep its embassy open, with diplomatic staff making public pronouncements about how safe they felt in the city—even as bombings and firefights broke out around them.

Crossing the Rubicon: U.S. Government Cash for Human Rights Violations

Sarah Harrison explains how the Trump administration has used existing loopholes in various legal statutes to justify President Donald Trump’s payment to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in exchange for the prolonged arbitrary detention of hundreds of men at CECOT.

But, setting aside the many other important legal issues at play here, President Trump’s payment to another country invites the question of how such a scheme could be legally possible. And the answer appears to be found in the various loopholes that exist in relevant U.S. statutes, which have provided a pathway for the use of U.S. security assistance for the explicit purpose of imprisoning hundreds of people in prolonged detention without charges or trial. Congress should act to fix them.

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, David Noll joins Alan Rozenshtein to discuss his latest Lawfare Research report, “Civil Contempt Against a Defiant Executive,” non-custodial sanctions, and the arrest power of U.S. Marshals.

On Scaling Laws, Kevin Frazier sits down with Cass Madison and Zach Boyd to discuss how state governments are responding to artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and Boyd’s experience leading one of the most innovative state AI offices.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the kangaroo, seen here contributing to a sunset tableau:

Video Source

In honor of today’s Beast, find a puddle to splash in.

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Real Housewives of the Justice Department

When I (

EJ Wittes

) heard today’s show, a question occurred to me: If the Justice Department is now part of the Real Housewives franchise, what is Pam Bondi’s tagline?

For those of you who don’t know, the Real Housewives are introduced at the beginning of each episode with a tagline. For a sense of what that means, watch as much of this video as you can without doing violence to either your eyes or your computer. Sixty seconds or so should give you the idea.

So, what inane, threatening, catty piece of bullshit does Pam Bondi say to the camera at the beginning of every episode? What about Kash Patel? Bongino? Jeanine Fucking Pirro?

Readers. Brainstorm with me. Leave suggestions in the comments.