Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

this is kind of like if Pete Hegseth ran for mayor of Tehran

👀 pay attention to who is paying for in person face time with congressional staff. Especially on the most lavish trips. It will show up in law i.e what they heard over beers and in political culture i.e. a transactional view of public service. @sludge.bsky.social

There are more instances of United States Citizens being detained by ICE than there are of illegal immigrants voting in elections.

Billionaires’ % share of federal election spending in:

2008: 0.3%

2024: 19%

@nytimes.com #GildedAge
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/u...

Grammarly Pulls Down Explosively Controversial Feature That Impersonates Writers Without Their Permission Shishir Mehrotra, CEO of Grammarly's owner Superhuman, has announced that the company is "disabling" a feature that impersonated journalists.

BREAKING: Grammarly is pulling down its explosively controversial feature that impersonates writers without their consent

futurism.com/artificial-i...

what in the world

This escalated fast, in a good way.

ICE Lawyer Who Told Judge She Was Overwhelmed Seeks New Role: Lawmaker

The ICE lawyer who admitted to a judge earlier this year that she as overwhelmed by the workload (drawing lots of headlines) is now running for Congress, challenging Ilhan Omar in the Dem primary. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/u...

<Back> to Return Previous Next Send Actions Translate News: News Story 101) *PENTAGON OFFICIALS MET WITH LAWMAKERS ON IRAN ON TUESDAY: NYT BFW 16:35 102) *NYT CITES 3 PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING ON IRAN BFW 16:33 103) *PENTAGON SAYS IRAN WAR COST MORE THAN $11B IN FIRST WEEK: NYT BFW 16:33 03/11/2026 16:31:40[NYT]  Billion By Catie Edmondson (New York Times) -- In a Capitol Hill briefing, officials gave their most comprehensive assessment of the cost of the first six days of the war, but the number omitted several aspects of the operation. Pentagon officials told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that they estimated the cost of the war against Iran had exceeded $11.3 billion in the first six days alone, according to three people familiar with the briefing. The estimate did not include many of the costs associated with the operation, such as the buildup of military hardware and personnel ahead of the first strikes. For that reason, lawmakers expect the number to grow considerably as the Pentagon continues to calculate the costs that accumulated just in the first week. Still, it appeared to be the most comprehensive assessment Congress had received so far amid mounting questions about the objectives, scope and time frame for the war. The New York Times and The Washington Post reported earlier that defense officials had said in recent congressional briefings that the military used up $5.6 billion of munitions in the first two days of the war. That is a far larger amount and munitions burn rate than had been publicly disclosed. The Center for Strategic and International Studies had estimated that the first 100 hours of the operation cost $3.7 billion, or $891.4 million each day. The first wave of the bombardment used weapons including the AGM-154 glide bomb, which can cost from $578,000 to $836,000. The Navy …

$2bn/day, with $2.8bn/day in munitions alone over the first two days. I tend to think of myself as a Large Number Scale Understander but this is just mind-boggling amounts of money.

The case of temporary visitors was more complicated at common law. The parents, if lawfully present, were under the temporary protection of the sovereign. That is why one judge in a famous case, Lynch v. Clarke, held in 1844 that a child born of temporary sojourners was a citizen. But the rule was contested because of increasing international travel and the resulting dual allegiances. Joseph Story suggested that an exception for temporary visitors would be a “reasonable qualification” to the rule. Henry St. George Tucker in his treatise stated flatly that temporary visitors fell outside the common-law

I'm afraid I can't just sit here and say nothing when another law professor gives false testimony to Congress about the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Ilan Wurman has given false testimony to Congress, being fully on notice of the falsity. I do not think this is fairly debatable. 1.

The fundamental mistake that the conservative legal movement made in looking at the Warren Court was assuming that it was all power and zero parts persuasion, so all they had to do was capture the institution. They were, I think, half right, but that other half is very important.

UKRAINE HAS DRIVEN 12km INTO RUSSIAN LINES AMD REGAINED 400KM IN THE SOUTH EAST

The ISW has finally confirmed its assessment that Ukraine - which has seemingly stopped its advance for now, presumably to consolidate its gains, retook 400kmsq and penetrated 12km
into Russian held territory on the

Sure sounds like somebody at DOGE took the Social Security numbers and personal information of every American on record, and put it on a thumb drive to bring home to Elon Musk’s AI company.

Devastating reporting. Like RFK Jr., Kristi Noem, and Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth is reshaping his department to indiscriminately kill tons and tons of children.

A major throughline of the Trump administration.

If/when a deMAGAfication of US ever occurs it must begin with the Roberts Court without which none of this would be possible

Trump just rolled out a cruel anti-trans prison policy doctors are calling ‘dangerous’ A new Bureau of Prisons move requiring that transgender inmates be tapered off their hormones could bring serious health consequences, physicians and advocates warn.

NEWS: The Trump administration is forcing transgender inmates to detransition by implementing a new policy that would withhold their medical treatment in a way that puts clinicians in conflict with ethics and patients in danger.

www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Navy has refused near-daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war on Iran, saying the risk of attacks is too high for now, according to sources familiar ..

www.marketscreener.com/news/us-navy...

This dead-eyed cretin is effectively illiterate, but if anyone ever pressed Donald Trump or Elon Musk like this in an interview, they would sound exactly the same

“.. The advice signals a recalibration by the White House — and reflects growing concern among some Republicans that Democrats are successfully framing Trump's immigration policy as overly sweeping and indiscriminate.”

@axios.com
www.axios.com/2026/03/10/w...

trump and the republicans' plan is to keep the united states as a market-of-last-resort for the saudis and other countries with big oil reserves as the rest of the world transitions to solar+batteries+EVs

The trailer for EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU FOR MONEY. In select theaters starting April 17th 🍿🤑🤣

This was such a good job by the NYT's Shawn McCreesh.

He asked a very pointed and direct question to Trump about the school bombing, leading the president to corner himself (was he claiming the US sold Iran Tomahawks???) before admitting he doesn't "know enough" and will abide by the final report.

'We’re scared.' Latin American players on edge as ICE tactics intensify Major League Baseball players and managers express fear and concern over increased immigration enforcement.

Apparently Eugenio Suarez had his citizenship application taken off the books because he's Venezuelan and his response was "it is what it is."

Signs you might be a far right authoritarian party (#3330):

Chicago law firm leading push to appoint special prosecutor to target ICE, Border Patrol agents The firm, Loevy and Loevy, said 200 individuals and organizations are supporting a petition to appoint an outsider to the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, who has spent wee...

A high-powered Chicago law firm announced a plan Monday to push for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate and potentially charge the agents who carried out Operation Midway Blitz.

@sophiesherry.bsky.social reports: chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/0...

Musk is just one example. A huge chunk of Silicon Valley bowed down to Trump, ranging between the begrudging, the opportunistic, and the enthusiastic. Professor Francesca Bria has referred to the emerging: “Authoritarian Stack“— “a network of firms, funds, and political actors turning core state functions into private platforms.” She points out that the key actors in the Silicon Valley right — including Anduril, Palantir and venture capital funders like AndreessenHorowitz — are closely connected and working with one another. They also, crucially, share an ideology that places them as empire-makers able to compete with sovereign states. Another example: Larry Ellison joined phone calls about overturning the 2020 election, and Trump has enabled him and his son to expand their media empire via TikTok, Paramount (including CBS News) and now Warner (including CNN). Also: HBO, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, TNT.

Larry Ellison is another example of the authoritarian stack in government. Oracle is a long-time government contractor, unlike some newer members of the stack, and Ellison is now using his fortune to build a media empire that will be critical of Dems. Why keep paying him?

Procurement, Capacity and Soverignity When your contractors are also your enemy

New, from me: Trump's retribution against Anthropic is over the top. But it should cause Democrats to think about how they will deal with contractors like Musk or Ellison when they return to power.
What do you do with vendors working to oppose you? 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/procuremen...

He has also deported dozens of dissidents back to Iran, where they were likely executed.

Full disclosure: I met with the minority staffers and helped strategize and explained the history.

Ilan is taking his historical fiction on the road. It’s amazing what sloppy and methodless historical scholarship can do for one’s career.

The path from "I am not sure if the case in favor of brightright citizenship is as one-sided as people says it is" to "Senate commitee hearing witness against birthright citizenship" is apparently a straight line.