“‘We did not protect President Trump.’ That is what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on January 30, after what he described as the final release of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It turns out that was not true. According to a new report by NPR, the DOJ is withholding ‘more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, as well as notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor.’ The New York Times also reported Wednesday that the DOJ withheld summaries of three FBI interviews with the woman about her interactions with Trump. They released a fourth FBI interview, where the woman made allegations about Epstein.” (02/26/26)
“Millions are failing college math. Advocates say the problem isn’t students, but decades-old curricula requiring Cold War-era algebra skills.” (02/26/26)
“In The Argument, Kelsey Piper gives a good description of the ways that AIs are more than just ‘next-token predictors’ or ‘stochastic parrots’ — for example, they also use fine-tuning and RLHF. But commenters, while appreciating the subtleties she introduces, object that they’re still just extra layers on top of a machine that basically runs on next-token prediction. … I want to approach this from a different direction. I think overemphasizing next-token prediction is a confusion of levels. On the levels where AI is a next-token predictor, you are also a next-token (technically: next-sense-datum) predictor. On the levels where you’re not a next-token predictor, AI isn’t one either.” (02/26/26)
“Iran won’t capitulate under threat, forfeiting major national interests because Trump told it to. His track record suggests he doesn’t have the stomach or strategic foresight for protracted conflict, and will back down if things get difficult, which makes Iranian leaders think they can weather an assault. And they have strong domestic political incentives to resist, fearing that weakness against foreign pressure could fracture the regime or encourage domestic opponents. That leaves the U.S. choosing between another round of limited bombing that accomplishes little, a bigger campaign to collapse the regime with no apparent plan for what comes after, backing down in embarrassing fashion, or an empty ‘deal’ Trump can lie about that, at best, kicks the can down the road and makes the problem even harder to solve. It’s easy to predict which option he’ll pick.” (02/26/26)
“The surge in support for Australia’s populist right-wing party One Nation suggests that immigration restrictionism has become increasingly popular with voters: a political trajectory that echoes that of many other Western nations.” (02/26/26)
“The Trump administration has accused China of secretly testing a nuclear weapon in 2020. The group that monitors nuclear tests worldwide, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), says it couldn’t confirm a test actually occurred. China has rejected the accusations, calling them a distortion of its nuclear policy. Instead of treating this as a technical disagreement for international institutions to sort out, the Trump administration appears to be using these claims to push for restarting U.S. nuclear testing ‘on an equal basis.'” (02/26/26)
“Almost nobody noticed earlier this month when the New York Daily News announced what felt like a 500th round of layoffs. Not long ago, the venerable working-class tabloid behind ‘FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD’ would have been the ideal outlet for demystifying the prodigious evils of the Uptown Epstein network for outer-borough New Yorkers who elected Zohran Mamdani. But the latest iteration of ‘New York’s Hometown Newspaper’ has all of four reporters covering national news. The ‘adults in the room’ always say a conspiracy theory becomes less plausible for every individual and institution it implicates. But the Epstein network is so vast and so varied it would suggest that the conspiracy is the system, if we had any institutions capable of making sense of it.” (02/26/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“In a landmark 6–3 decision issued on February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his statutory authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from nearly every trading partner under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977. Yet within hours of the decision, the administration made clear that its tariff strategy was far from finished. By pivoting to alternative statutory authorities dating from the 1930s, 1960s, and 1970s, the White House signaled that while one legal pathway had been closed, others remain available. The practical result is not policy clarity but continued regime uncertainty, an outcome that carries real economic costs.” (02/26/26)
“The DEI practices at America’s colleges and universities have been justly criticized for being anti-meritorious, unconstitutional, racist, and costly. However, a recent lawsuit against UCLA’s medical school suggests that its discriminatory admissions policies could potentially have negative public-health consequences, as well. That’s quite an indictment against what has long been regarded as a premier medical school.” (02/26/26)
