John Vaillant

Push from Saudis, Israel helped move Trump to attack Iran President Trump launched a wide-ranging attack on Iran after weeks-long lobbying by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East: Israel and Saudi Arabia.

According to WaPo, Saudi Crown Prince MBS, who has invested in excess of $3 bn in Trump family businesses, made multiple private phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating a US attack on Iran, despite his public support for a diplomatic solution. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Pape's book studying whether or not air power succeeds is called "Bombing to Win".

Spoiler: No one ever wins.
Read the gist here:
escalationtrap.substack.com/p/the-smart-...

YouTube video by The Telegraph Trump attacks Iran with 'major combat operations' to oust regime - what next?

A more sober and nuanced take on this morning's events: #IranWar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_8T...

Imagine those eyes looking into yours at close range . . .

Ohboy

Peatland lakes in the Congo Basin release carbon that is thousands of years old Over thousands of years, the swamps and peatlands in the Congo Basin have accumulated and stored huge amounts of carbon. A research team led by ETH Zurich has now shown that large lakes in this ecosys...

The Congo Basin is emitting large volumes of CO2 via peatland lakes. Over thousands of years, the swamps and peatlands have accumulated and stored huge amounts of carbon, which they are now releasing with long-term impacts on the global climate. 
ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
#emissions #wetlands #Congo

American Taliban:

Hard not to see this as deliberate political disinformation central to a key wedge issue targeted at a large voting block with potential language limitations early in a municipal election season.

In other words, lying on purpose so you can win.

Twice. #Vancouver

Goebbels

Every accusation is a confession from the Trump regime and the MAGAts: pedophilia, dementia, incompetence, un American, Trump crime family, running the economy to the ground, cozying with our enemies around the world, censorship of free speech and of course the biggie, destroying the United States!

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

Anthropic (Claude), in their dealings with the Republican regime, come out looking pretty good.

Anthropic doesn't want to enable unbridled domestic surveillance and automated killing machines.

The Republican regime wants AI-powered surveillance, killing machines.

www.anthropic.com/news/stateme...

Government documents reveal Big Bend border wall details as opposition grows U.S. Customs and Border Protection has in recent weeks sent letters to local property owners in the path of potential border wall building. The documents reveal new details on the plan, which has garn...

Insane potential desecration of a national treasure. www.marfapublicradio.org/news/2026-02...

People keep comparing MAGA/ICE/CBP/MAHA to 1930s Germany.

It's also more and more like late 1960s China, during Cultural Revolution. Or mid 1970s Cambodia, during "Year Zero."

A war against knowledge itself.

thehill.com/policy/defen...

An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

I wrote about this in Fire Weather (ch. 22)
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554938...

With no end in sight to dry days and high wildfire risk, Colorado eyes a task force Warmest start to a water year in 131 years has experts forming coalition of agencies focused on water, agriculture and emergency management.

With no end in sight to dry days and high wildfire risk, Colorado eyes a task force coloradosun.com/2026/02/26/c...

YouTube video by Foreign Affairs Stephen Walt: America the Predatory Hegemon | Foreign Affairs Interview

Predatory Hegemony:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNV-...
via @foreignaffairs.com

How extreme weather is leaving thousands of homes uninsurable In this week’s newsletter: The climate crisis is making insurance unaffordable for many – and it should worry all of us, even if we think we’re safe from floods, wildfires and hurricanes

"Mortgage prisoners” are people who cannot sell because their homes are too flood-prone to insure, and fears of banks facing rising defaults. And the climate crisis is just getting started
#GlobalCarbonFeeAndDividendPetition
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Border wall is closing in on Texas’ Big Bend country Residents and elected officials are speaking out against a proposed border barrier through Texas’ biggest state park and one of the jewels of the national park system.

Links:

www.texastribune.org/2026/02/23/t...

www.fox7austin.com/news/border-...

www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adve...

David Ellison will soon control CNN. In response, I wrote to Democracy Docket subscribers today about the importance and urgency of building a strong independent media ecosystem.

Whether it is Democracy Docket or another independent news outlet, please support one today. bit.ly/4qmEiFz

Anthropic CEO Amodei says Pentagon's threats 'do not change our position' on AI Anthropic said its negotiations with the DoD are still ongoing.

Finally, a CEO with a real spine in this new era!

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says the company “cannot in good conscience” agree to allow the Department of Defense to use its AI models in all lawful use cases.

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

Robert F Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure In his first speech as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out a plan to restore trust. The COVID-19 pandemic saw public faith in Federal health...

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

The cover of this week's Lancet, featuring RFK Jr:

one day, maybe, Alberta will recognize how perfect its drilling skills are for geothermal...
#drillbabydrill

For the first time in decades, more people left the United States than arrived. As enforcement tightens and visa flows slow, foreign records show a parallel shift: growing numbers of Americans are establishing lives abroad.
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/americans-...

This map shows which states with full Democratic control in the state government have bans on 287(g) agreements. Maryland, Maine, and New Mexico join six other blue states—California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington—in adopting laws to ban local and state agencies from partnering with ICE’s 287(g) program. New Jersey has a ban in place through an executive directive, though the state’s outgoing governor vetoed a bill that would have codified it into law in January. Four states under full Democratic control—Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia—still have local or state agencies that have joined the 287(g) program, though there is currently active legislation in at least three of those states to limit or end these contracts.

This year, Maryland, Maine, and New Mexico have joined six other blue states in banning local and state agencies from partnering with ICE in its 287(g) program. Four states under full Democratic control still have local or state agreements with ICE.

boltsmag.org/marylan...

Leader of Columbia Brain Institute Quits Over Friendship With Epstein

Gift link from the NYT story about Axel and Epstein. When I was at Columbia he ran a lab where sexual harassment of women was business as usual. We all knew. We all warned each other.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/n...

You have some of the best, most skilled workers in the country, #Alberta. You can do this!
#EnergyTransition #abpoli #cdnpoli

The Abundance Gang Has a Big AI Problem The faddish political movement’s ties to industry figures may help attract funding, but it comes with a political cost.

Please keep your eye on this development. I'm glad more outlets are writing about it. Democrats are accepting money from Silicon Valley bros spending MILLIONS to advance AI, Crypto, de-regulation and "pro-growth" policies

newrepublic.com/article/2064...

Burning question (with an obvious answer)

The Minerals Council of Australia spending over $10,000 a day on political advertising on Facebook. Would love to see what the additional spend is on all the other social media platforms.