"Anthropic will reject a 'best and final offer' to continue working with the US military, according to its chief Dario Amodei, setting up a legal fight between one of America’s leading AI labs and the Pentagon." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Before Ellison controls Warner/HBO/CNN, people should be telling the company they will be cancelling their subscriptions if this merger with Paramount goes forward www.change.org/p/stop-the-c...

In light of Kansas’ attempt to strip transgender people of their driver’s licenses, it’s important to understand something: The legal attacks we are seeing on transgender people are genocidal. www.importantcontext.news/p/experts-wa...

Breaking: Netflix Backs Out of Warner Bros. Bidding, Paramount Set to Win

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are arguing that former President Bill Clinton's appearance for a deposition sets a precedent that should apply to President Donald Trump as well. https://to.pbs.org/4kUdRWG

Just the flatout most racist encapsulation of Trump's policies of importing "refugees" who even Afrikaner politicians in South Africa say don't face persecution.

Fascinating new research paper asks: why did Biden receive so little political credit for his enormous investments in manufacturing? Turns out people give all the credit to governors (ironically, in this case, mostly red-state governors who were hostile to the policy!).

Glad that @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social was able to make this happen but also let’s not normalize a system in which the secret police kidnap students and then they are released only because the mayor makes a call to the president.

DNC is enthusiastically supporting Mamdani now. better late than never I suppose.

"Birds in the United States are not only declining, but they are declining faster, especially in areas with intensive agriculture...Overall drops in bird population, measured from 1987 to 2021, were sharpest in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role." Gift link

Wow. Ellie Aghayeva — the Columbia student detained by ICE this morning — has been released and posted this on her Instagram. Comes after NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressed his concern on the arrest to Trump in a meeting just earlier.

"The United States government has imposed a modern form of outlawry on an acclaimed human rights and Middle East scholar, UN independent expert, wife, and mother of a U.S. citizen"

Explosive, exclusive article in Wall Street Journal, documenting some of 1st results of Trump rollbacks: U.S. Power-Plant Pollution Rose Sharply in 2025. Rising emissions coincide with Trump administration’s push for coal use & rollback of Biden-era climate regulations. www.wsj.com/us-news/clim...

Exclusive: The US aims to process 4,500 refugee applications from white South Africans per month, far above President Trump's stated refugee-program cap, and is installing trailers on embassy property in Pretoria to support the effort, a US contracting document said reut.rs/47auEyY

Republicans don’t yet have the votes to confirm Casey Means as Surgeon General. Murkowski and Collins are expressing their “concern” theatrics that usually precede one of them voting yes and the other no, but only after the vote is already safe. Disgraced doctor Bill Cassidy won’t comment.

The left is not "missing out" on AI. It's winning the argument. Americans worry about AI and dislike tech CEOs. They're mobilizing against data centers. They support regulation, even refusal. Calls for the left to embrace AI are an effort to change the terms of the debate in Silicon Valley's favor.

Judge clears Trump to move forward with his privately funded rebuild of the White House. Via Politico.

Things that should have prevented any political career and sent the subject fleeing into the mountains.

Breaking news: A federal judge found that the IRS violated federal law “approximately 42,695 times” when it shared confidential taxpayer addresses with immigration enforcement officials last summer.

I first wrote about ICE's use of ruses and misrepresentations — which are explicitly recommended in their training manuals — almost eight years ago. This sounds like a particularly bold implementation but this has been part of their toolkit for a long time

For the many Platner fans here, Peters is a white supremacist, Holocast denying / antisemetic, virulently anti-trans anti-gay right-wing influencer. There's no lack of people making similar points that Platner could be reading and promoting who are not nazis.

Over at the newsletter I wrote about how the right wing, corporate U.S. press is utterly dedicated to derailing AOC's pursuit of higher office:

Trump's Labor Department just proposed a pro-business rule would make it easier for companies to classify more workers as independent contractors rather than employees -Rescinds Biden era definition -Implications for gig workers, construction, truck drivers & many more

As the U.S. doubles down on glyphosate, a widely cited study asserting its safety has been retracted after it was discovered the paper was ghostwritten by Monsanto employees. This incident, and ghostwriting in general, harms scientific integrity, writes Naomi Oreskes. https://scim.ag/4rIIu4a

Hopefully this will clear up any lingering questions

In shocking news, Columbia University's decision to appease fascist demands did not buy them reprieve, it encouraged the fascists to make more demands and conduct more abuses. If only there were precedent for this. Maybe Columbia's leaders could ask the history or political science departments.

NEW: Guards have taken away crayons, colored pencils & paper during recent room searches at Dilley, according to detainees and others. After one inspection, the children just “cried and cried and cried,” a mother said. The facility denies the claims. By @mckenziefunk.com @micarosenberg.bsky.social

Republicans: great news we have a new healthcare plan that bills you every month and ALSO allows you to pay the full cost of any treatment People : so whats our benefit Republicans : what do you mean your benefit

NEW: On Wednesday, the government stopped supporting FPDS.gov, an indispensable resource for finding what ICE, the FBI, and every other agency is buying. Its replacement site completely sucks.

Doozy of a story from @kieraevebutler.bsky.social One expert “referred to Taylor and other nuclear start-up founders as “nuke bros” who “don’t know what they don’t know.” “ www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"It also raises a question about how high up the organizational chart AI will be able to move as its use expands at major companies. Even some CEOs, such as Google's Sundar Pichai, have said that AI could replace them eventually. www.businessinsider.com/uber-employe...

I'm a cognitive scientist with an interest in epistemic vigilance, and this essay that's been going around gave me pause. I don't think it's straightforward to apply the concept of epistemic vigilance to interactions with LLMs, as this essay does. 🧵/ sbgeoaiphd.github.io/rotating_the...

ICE is struggling to keep pace with vetting new hires during its historic recruitment push, so it's hiring officers before completing standard checks. The agency fired five people after belatedly finding that they had outstanding warrants for their arrest. www.reuters.com/world/ice-st...

NEW: Black voters in Mississippi are on the brink of a major victory — a federal judge ordered the state to redraw its state supreme court districts to ensure greater Black representation. But GOP lawmakers are dragging their feet for now, looking toward SCOTUS & its Callais order to "save" them:

After the arrests of powerful men across the world, you might be asking why the US has so much trouble holding its leaders accountable for lawbreaking. Since Nixon, all three branches of government have worked hard to ensure they can break the law with impunity www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

NEW: (gift) A Miami Herald Investigation: How Jeffrey Epstein Beat the Justice System by @jkbjournalist.bsky.social and @clurhealy.bsky.social www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

🚨 JUST IN: Minimal enrichment capacity may be exactly what the Trump administration needs to get a better nuclear deal and avert a military conflict with Iran, Mark Goodman (@markwgoodman.bsky.social) writes in @thebulletin.org. #Iran #enrichment #proliferation #nukesky

1) Danish conservatives had been gaining in the polls and finally took the lead last fall. 2) Trump threatened war over Greenland. 3) The right’s polling tanked and the center-left bloc could win. 4) The center-left* prime minister calls an early election for March 24 apnews.com/article/denm...

Some points on possible strikes on Iran:🧵1/x

This is the swamp in which we work. To pretend that these men are exceptional mistakes the deep misogyny & racism built into American higher ed. These same men have fashioned themselves as heterodox thinkers against the world of woke but this is who they really are. www.chronicle.com/article/unma...

States are suing Kalshi/Polymarket as illegal casinos, but Trump's Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed brief in opposition to the states saying they are the industry’s exclusive regulator- and have CEOs of Polymarket and Kalshi on CFTC advisory committee. prospect.org/2026/02/26/p...

“‘The persecution is the point,’ said Rep. Abi Boatman, a Wichita Democrat and the only transgender member of the Legislature, who received the [Kansas Dept of Revenue] notice on Wednesday.” To underscore that: a Kansas state legislator is among those whose driver’s license will be voided. (🎁 link:)

This 🧵 is extremely comprehensive about USDA's bipartisan industry capture and the horrific conditions for meatpacking workers and the animals they slaughter. I'd add, the land grant university system is captured too, and always happy to produce small science results that the industry wants.

join me: www.zeffy.com/en-US/donati...

NYT adds important context for this reporting on Kash Patel and Susie Wiles (plus oddity of Patel being Reuters' source for his own grievance) [1] "Requests for phone records are common in complex criminal investigations to establish timelines and provide proof of communication."

Wow

NEW: SCOTUS rejects private prison company GEO Group's attempt at avoiding accountability. A long-delayed lawsuit challenging GEO Group's treatment of people in immigration detention can proceed again. A unanimous decision that matters — especially now. Tonight, at Law Dork:

Turns out, Trump has gutted the government's anti-trafficking office. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

Kansas is sending letters to trans people telling them that their licenses will be revoked as of tomorrow and that they risk arrest for driving on a suspended license. This is pure cruelty. www.erininthemorning.com/p/kansas-sen...

Meanwhile Nick Shirley, the dipshit MAGA influencer who started this whole racist panic about fraud at Somali-run daycares, is saying “EXPOSE IT ALL” in response to a deeply antisemitic video about ”New Jersey’s Jewish Invasion”