Extremists Target the U.S. Power Grid | Higher Immigration of Higher Interest Rates | Solar Geoengineering, and more

This type of tracking is new for the military, as prior to 2021, there was no requirement to do so. As part of its ongoing efforts to confront racially-motivated, anti-government or otherwise violent domestic extremism, the Defense Department has asked the military services to compile data on every report taken and every investigation launched into what’s referred to as “prohibited activities.” The most recent data was compiled as part of a larger IG evaluation of several DoD and service-specific reports issued in 2021 and 2022, including from DoD IG, Army IG and the Government Accountability Office, that deal with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the department. The main problem the IG found with these efforts is that the services don’t use the same terminology across the board, making it difficult to present department-wide data. For example, the Army and Air Force Departments use the same terms as the FBI and the Homeland Security Department to describe different kinds of violent domestic extremism, as required by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, but the Navy Department has its own terms, the IG found.

TamTam Deletes Channels Promoting Neo-Nazi Accelerationism and Terror  (EFP)
Following a report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), TamTam, a Russia-based messenger platform, has removed 18 channels endorsing neo-Nazi accelerationism and acts of terrorism. The channels posted bomb-making instructions and encouraged other activities meant to create “a climate of anxiety” and fear. CEP reported the channels to the communications app, citing the platform’s regulations that prohibit users from promoting and calling “for violence and cruelty, committing suicide and other illegal and immoral acts,” and promoting “extremism (or) terrorism” related to “ethnical or national identity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious opinions, age, limited physical or mental abilities or diseases.” The successful effort with TamTam follows CEP’s success in preventing sales of a neo-Nazi edition of the infamous antisemitic book The International Jew by Barnes & Noble. The channels removed by TamTam posted guides on how to make explosives, the manifestos of several white supremacist mass shooters; videos from several neo-Nazi groups including the Atomwaffen Division, the National Socialist Order, The Base, and Feuerkrieg Division; a recently released propaganda video that encourages acts of terrorism and praises individuals who have committed acts of white supremacist violence; and a neo-Nazi accelerationist book that calls for lone actor violence, workplace violence, attacks on infrastructure, law enforcement, politicians, people of color, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Latinos, and LGBTQ+ people.

Los Angeles Bans New Oil Wells, Plans to Close Existing Ones  (Anne C. Mulkern, Scientific American)
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Friday to ban new oil and gas wells in the city and eventually close existing ones.

Solar Geoengineering: The Case for Research Part II  (Charles Corbett and Michelle Melton, Lawfare)
We know very little about the consequences of stratospheric aerosol injection deployment, making it too early to draw conclusions about the desirability or inevitability of geoengineering deployment or the governance structures necessary to regulate it.

Court Implodes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Defense (and the Errant Judge Who Bought It)  (Kimberly Wehle, The Bulwark)
Last Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit finally put to rest the special master nonsense that Donald Trump set in motion late August, when he persuaded U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to interfere with the FBI’s investigation of his illegal harboring of classified and other presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Special Counsel Jack Smith can now proceed apace with the investigation.
What’s remarkable about the decision is not the outcome—anyone with a passing legal education could see that Cannon’s ruling was indefensible. It’s how the panel of three judges utterly demolished Trump and Cannon both, in unforgiving language inspired by foundational principles of constitutional restraint.
Especially notable is that, like Cannon, two of the judges—Elizabeth Grant and Andrew Brasher—were appointed by former President Trump. Judge Grant clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Brasher previously served as a law clerk to the third judge on the Eleventh Circuit panel, William Pryor, who was appointed by George W. Bush. Given the exhausting polarization of party politics these days—and how it has infected a faction of the U.S. Supreme Court—the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Trump v. United States stands as a triumph for the Constitution and the rule of law.
The court made a few things very clear: The FBI acted entirely by the book, which nobody disputes, including Trump. Cannon had no constitutional (that is, “jurisdictional”) authority to do what she did—unless a former president is somehow extra-special and above the laws that apply to everyone else. Cannon assumed Trump is. He’s not.

How the Supreme Court Could Reshape Social Media  (Andrew Egger and Harvest Prude, The Dispatch)
Internet companies might lose some protection from legal liability for user-generated content.