curated news excerpts & citations
Slate: The Iranians Offered a Good Deal. Here’s Why Trump Might Not Take It.
If President Donald Trump rejects the deal that Iranians offered at their talks in Geneva, it can be for only one of two reasons: Either he doesn’t want a deal—or he doesn’t want a deal that resembles President Barack Obama’s 2014 accord, which Trump tore up in 2018 after calling it “the worst deal ever.”
In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Trump said he would prefer to settle the current crisis through diplomacy, but only if Tehran’s leaders said they “will never have a nuclear weapon”—words, Trump claimed, that “we haven’t heard.”
Actually, they have spoken those words, many times, though of course it’s another matter whether we should trust them. Iran is also a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which makes the same pledge.
(Slate more…)
WSJ: Iran Is Far From Building ICBMs, Experts Say, Despite Trump Warning
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Washington Post: The hypothetical nuclear attack that escalated the Pentagon’s showdown with Anthropic
Start-up Anthropic and the U.S. military are careening toward a clash over government use of artificial intelligence — and whether it should be allowed to kill.
AXIOS: Pentagon blacklists Anthropic, labels AI company “supply chain risk”
President Trump said Friday the U.S. government would blacklist Anthropic, and the Pentagon declared the company a “supply chain risk,” in the most consequential and controversial policy decision to date at the intersection of artificial intelligence and national security.
The big picture: Anthropic rebuffed the Pentagon’s demand to lift all safeguards on the military’s use of its model, Claude, due to its concerns about the use of AI for mass domestic surveillance and the development of weapons that fire without human involvement.
(AXIOS more…)Register: Trump orders purge of ‘woke’ Anthropic from government
Scott Aaronson: Anthropic: Stay strong!
NY Times: Pentagon Fires Another Laser at a Drone, Prompting a New Air Closure
After the downing of a Customs and Border Protection drone, the F.A.A. closed the airspace above Fort Hancock, Texas.
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – February 27, 2026
On Monday, February 23, Daniel Ruetenik, Pat Milton, and Cara Tabachnick of CBS News reported a newly uncovered document in the Epstein files shows that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was running an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and fourteen other people for drug trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering.
This investigation—which is different from the sex trafficking case under way when he died—began on December 17, 2010, under the Obama administration and was still operating in 2015. A heavily redacted document in the Epstein files from the director of the DEA’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) said “DEA reporting indicates the above individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City.” The investigation was named “Chain Reaction.”
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, described OCDETF as “a premier task force set up to identify, disrupt and dismantle major organized crime and drug trafficking operations.” It “worked with partners across federal agencies to conduct sophisticated investigations into transnational organized crime and money laundering. OCDETF frequently targeted dangerous drug cartels , the Russian mafia and violent gangs moving fentanyl and weapons.” The Trump administration dismantled OCDETF.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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CNN Business: Wholesale inflation was hotter than expected in January as tariffs threaten to push up prices for consumers
The prices businesses pay to each other took a sharp turn higher in January, new data showed Friday, indicating that more tariff-related price increases could be still to come.
(CNN Business more…)CNBC: Trump administration faces first big tariff refund court deadline on Friday
James Eagle: There is always a reason investors sell
The chart is crowded with red dots. Each marks a moment that felt decisive at the time. Bankruptcies. Downgrades. Sovereign crises. Government shutdowns. Flash crashes. Trade wars. Ebola. Brexit. Oil collapses. Record point declines.
Each headline carried urgency. Each felt like a turning point.
And yet the line moves steadily upward.
From the financial crisis trough in 2009 to the end of the decade, the S&P 500 delivered nearly 500% in total return. The interruptions are visible. They are also temporary. The market absorbed each shock, paused, corrected and resumed.
What the chart captures is not complacency. It is resilience. Markets discount risk continuously. What feels unprecedented in the moment tends to fade into the longer trend.
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(James Eagle more…)
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CBS: Man killed on speedboat off Cuba lived in U.S. for 20 years and had “obsessive” quest for Cuba’s freedom, brother says
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Independent: New ICE lockup in Arizona will exceed intended capacity by more than 50%, docs show
The 500-bed facility in Marana will be expected to house up to 775 people, according to federal procurement documents
Daily Kos: 911 calls reveal brutal condition for kids at Trump’s detention centers
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Daily Beast: Reason Trump Tapped ICE Barbie for Top DHS Job Exposed
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Daily Kos: Hegseth turns War Department on the scouts
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
- January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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