Fletch

WSJ ‹ Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Is Dead:.... Last Updated: Feb. 28, 2026 at 9:41pm ET • LIVE 1 hour ago U.S. Strikes in Middle East Use Anthropic, Hours After Trump Ban

WSJ PATRICK SISON/ASSOCIATED PRESS Within hours of declaring that the federal government will end its use of artificial-intelligence tools made by tech company Anthropic, President Trump launched a major air attack in Iran with the help of those very same tools. Commands around the world, including U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, use Anthropic's Claude AI tool, people familiar with the matter confirmed. Centcom declined to comment about specific systems being used in its ongoing operation against Iran. The command uses the tool for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios even as tension between the company and Pentagon ratcheted up, the people said, highlighting how embedded the AI tools are in military operations. The administration and Anthropic have been feuding for months over how its AI models can be used by the Pentagon. Trump on Friday ordered agencies to stop working with the company and the Defense Department designated it a security threat and risk to its supply chain.

lol even though they banned them the government used Claude anyway. Slop strategies for the Epic Bacon War. This could not have gone worse for Altman
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

The real story is that foreign govts try to "interfere" all the time. In 2020 and 2024 we had mechanisms to catch them, call them out, & mitigate damage. Now, those mechanims are gone & the Trump admin would prefer to exploit "foreign interference" to justify a federal take-over of elections.

OpenAI posted the terms of the deal. Reveals that it absolutely does allow for domestic surveillance. EO 12333 is how the NSA hides its domestic surveillance by capturing communications by tapping into lines *outside the US* even if it contains info from/on US persons.

openai.com/index/our-ag...

It’s insane this is legal. People around Trump are profiting off war and death. I’m introducing legislation ASAP to ban this.

“The support comes as rural hospital closures have left tens of millions of people with fewer health care options.

The East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, now named after Parton, has operated with an ‘open-door” policy that no child would be denied care …’”

Here’s something I know will be controversial but shouldn’t be: America and the world would be much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much better off if Kamala Harris were President right now.

The big winners today are defense contractors, oil companies, the Epstein class, and Donald Trump—who is making deals all over the Middle East to acquire land and increase his net worth.

‘Diversionary war’: Trump wants to distract Americans from scandals at home | Christopher S Chivvis From Epstein to tariffs: the strikes function as an attempt to hijack the global narrative and drown out domestic scandal with the thunder of cruise missiles

‘Diversionary war’: Trump wants to distract Americans from scandals at home | Christopher S Chivvis

Deeply conflicted, Kushner represents the U.S. in high-stakes negotiations with Iran Today in Geneva, Switzerland, Jared Kushner will represent the United States in meetings with Iranian officials — a last-ditch effort to avoid war.

Just a reminder: instead of an actual diplomat, we sent Trump’s deeply compromised son-in-law as the lead negotiator to avert war with Iran.

popular.info/p/deeply-con...

Just thinking about how lots of people in the White House are making money off of this

There’s a tweet for everything

A lot of my academic focuses on public attitudes about foreign policy and the use of force. The just initiated bombing of Iran lacks many of the components that build and sustain domestic support for military action.

Silicon Valley Rallies Behind Anthropic in A.I. Clash With Trump

A strong sign of hope for our future, from a most unexpected source.

REGIONAL WAR HAS STARTED

-US-Israel strategic attacks on Iranian leadership
-US Navy attacking Iranian Navy. USAF attacking ballistic missile facilities

Iran has retaliated with successful ballistic missile attacks against Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar.

Is Jeffrey Epstein the first person to start a war posthumously?

Voting rights groups sue Georgia for refusing to release voter purge records Without full access to the records, plaintiffs say they cannot determine whether eligible voters were wrongly removed.

🚨BREAKING: Pro-voting groups sued Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) for refusing to turn over key records related to his office’s sweeping 2025 voter roll purge — a purge that canceled nearly 471,000 registrations, about 6% of the state’s voters. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

ADDED BONUS for you Gout victims, like myself: Organ meats will send you to the 3rd ring of Hell in pain. Liver? Yeah that's a week of having your foot up. RFK is just a fucking lunatic.

CIDRAP: 2025 measles resurgence carries estimated $244 million price tag

by Laine Bergeson @cidrap.bsky.social

bit.ly/4u3IMUS

The ‘Crazy’ Plot to Release the Epstein Files How an unlikely duo of lawmakers partnered with victims to try to hold the powerful accountable

At least 6 Trump Cabinet members or senior administration officials were in contact with Epstein. It is unclear if these relationships w/ Epstein were raised in background checks or security clearances. Every agency involved declined to answer my questions. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Trump hung USA hockey team out to dry with 'oldest game in his book': analyst President Donald Trump had fun posing for photo-ops with the U.S. Men's Hockey Team after their Olympic Win — and the players, after going out of their way to pump up the president and denigrate the accomplishment of the women's team, ultimately got nothing out of it but controversy and bad PR, Alex...

Trump hung USA hockey team out to dry with 'oldest game in his book': analyst

What this means for our customers Secretary Hegseth has implied this designation would restrict anyone who does business with the military from doing business with Anthropic. The Secretary does not have the statutory authority to back up this statement. Legally, a supply chain risk designation under 10 USC 3252 can only extend to the use of Claude as part of Department of War contracts—it cannot affect how contractors use Claude to serve other customers.

shorter Anthropic: lol fuck you, you’re way out over your skis and we’re going to beat your asses in court

probably overestimating things but the Anthropic move feels like a major flashpoint.

I think the administration is going to eat shit on this but if they don’t this will be a significant turning point towards a Bad Future.

When there are no laws meaningfully regulating military AI use, the Pentagon’s promise to use AI “lawfully” mean almost nothing. The authoritarian AI crisis has arrived www.platformer.news/anthropic-pe...

The US has NEVER deployed this much military force against a potential enemy without launching a strike.

Right now, 40–50% of deployable US air power is massed near Iran.

George Redis: Army veteran George Redis deployed to Iraq. Came home. Got a job.

Then ICE put him on the ground, drove him to processing, and threw him in solitary — no phone call, no lawyer.

He sat in the chamber last night. His presence was a message.

Ep. 449 👉 https://lnk.ink/IA449POD

Anthropic says Pentagon's "final offer" is unacceptable The company is facing a Friday night deadline to comply or face potentially huge consequences.

Good on you, Anthropic.

Refreshing to see someone standing up for what’s right and the best interests of the American people. Because it’s clearly not happening from the Pentagon political leadership and propagandists.

www.axios.com/2026/02/26/a...

Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War A statement from our CEO on national security uses of AI

wow: anthropic are sticking by their guns — or, rather, not sticking by the Pengaton's. amodei says the company won't drop safeguards against using its AI to power fully autonomous weapons or mass surveillance, per DoD demands, and will take what punishment it gets www.anthropic.com/news/stateme...

So I just got a statement from California AG Bonta's office:
"Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal. These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review"