Source: Common Dreams
“Bettors on the prediction platform Polymarket made a killing with suspiciously timed wagers that the United States would attack Iran by February 28, the day President Donald Trump announced a bombing campaign against the Middle East nation. Bloomberg reported that six accounts on Polymarket, all newly created this month, ‘made around $1 million in profit’ by betting on the timing of the US attack on Iran. The accounts, according to Bloomberg, ‘had only ever placed bets on when US strikes might occur’, and ‘some of their shares were purchased, in some cases at roughly a dime apiece, hours before the first explosions were reported in Tehran.’ One account with the name Magamyman raked in over $515,000 by betting roughly $87,000 that ‘the US strikes Iran by February 28, 2026.'” (03/01/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/insane-this-is-legal-bettors-make-huge-profits-from-suspiciously-timed-wagers-on-iran-war
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland
“For decades, France has been urging Europe to become more independent of the United States in the security arena. But most Europeans paid no heed to this useful proposal. They grew fat and happy under the U.S. security umbrella during the Cold War, and especially after the Soviet threat receded. Most European nations spent too little on their own defense, instead using the savings to compete with U.S. companies and run expansive social welfare programs. The European Union added another layer to Europe’s already overregulated economies. Although the Biden and Trump administrations have successfully pressured those countries to increase defense spending incrementally, they need even greater funding increases if they want to achieve greater independence from the now clearly unreliable United States.” (02/27/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/27/west-europe-us-unreliable-ally-strategic-autonomy/
Source: NBC 4 New York
“A federal judge on Friday extended an order protecting refugees in Minnesota who are lawfully in the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration policy turns the ‘American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.’ U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by advocates for refugees to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction while the case develops further. The order applies only in Minnesota. But the implications of a new national policy on refugees that the Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 18 were a major part of the discussion at a hearing held by the judge the next day.” (02/28/26)
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/federal-judge-extends-order-protecting-refugees-minnesota/6470621/
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Danielle Allen on Why Technocratic Liberalism Failed.” (02/28/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/danielle-allen
Source: hypertext
by Nicole Schneidman
“If AI is not deliberately designed to advance democracy, it can empower authoritarians. We should not assume they will only be in China.” (02/27/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/we-will-never-grow-out-of-our-tech
Source: The Intercept
by David Bralow
“The Trump administration is embracing an intimidation strategy to silence critical media coverage. Here’s how it works: A federal agency launches a pretextual investigation into a perceived enemy, keeps the investigation open to coerce compliance, and resists any effort to have a court review the lawfulness of the agency’s actions. There’s no better example than the Federal Trade Commission’s retaliatory investigation of Media Matters for America for its critical coverage of one of the Trump administration’s most powerful allies. Such investigations aim stifle speech and chill the questioning of those in power. They’re an acute danger to nonprofit organizations that Americans rely on for critical information. That’s why 17 nonprofit organizations, led by The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.” (02/27/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/02/27/trump-media-matters-free-speech/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“A candidate for the United Kingdom’s left-wing Green Party has comfortably won a closely-watched election for a vacant parliamentary seat, delivering an embarrassing defeat for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in one of its former strongholds. Results announced Friday showed the Greens’ Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old councillor and plumber, had won 40.7 percent of the vote in the by-election in Gorton and Denton, a constituency in Greater Manchester that has been considered a secure Labour seat for almost a century. In an outcome that analysts said pointed to the fracturing of the UK’s traditional two-party politics, the hard-right candidate for the populist, anti-immigration Reform finished in second place.” (02/27/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/27/green-party-wins-uk-by-election-in-blow-to-labour-pm-starmer
Source: The Atlantic
“What Do the People Building AI Believe?” (02/27/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/02/what-do-the-people-building-ai-believe/686173
Source: Orange County Register
by Veronique de Rugy
“Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling that the White House’s widespread “emergency” tariffs were illegal, President Donald Trump moved to install 10% across-the-board tariffs under a different alleged authority. He later said he would raise that rate to 15% and delivered a combative response in the State of the Union. The trade war isn’t ending. It’s just changing ZIP codes. What won’t change is the propaganda coming from the White House, which insists that Americans don’t pay the costs. Consider what follows as a guide to the fallacy-filled arguments that you’ll soon hear more of.” (02/27/26)
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/27/veronique-de-rugy-why-trumps-tariffs-are-a-losing-game/
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“What started as a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery became an unconditional surrender Thursday. Netflix had a deal in place for a couple of months, but Paramount, under the direction of MAGA heir David Ellison, made a hostile takeover bid, and this week upped its offer from $30 to $31 a share for all of WBD, including its cable channels. The total purchase comes to $111 billion, and on Thursday the WBD board pronounced the offer superior to Netflix’s, giving the streamer four days to match it. Netflix, whose CEO was at the White House on Thursday (what was he told?), barely needed an hour, dropping its effort. So what many see as a worst-case scenario is realized: the Ellison family wresting control of two major movie studios, CBS, HBO, CNN, and secondarily TikTok. There are certainly echoes of media-political consolidation as we see in dictatorships the world over.” (02/27/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/27/states-can-block-paramount-warner-deal/
