Joshua Benton

Last night I discussed the lack of a cohesive reason for the war, little knowing about this “reason.”

I’d say “holy crap,” but I’ll avoid “holy” for now.

U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military

EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints.

One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…

This has been the default mode for most NY Times columnists over last decade, even (perhaps especially) those who have lucrative campus teaching/speaking gigs

Anthropic and Alignment Anthropic is in a standoff with the Department of War; while the company’s concerns are legitimate, it position is intolerable and misaligned with reality.

the contortions here are very funny if you're familiar with (a) ben's stance on other tech cos and (b) his objections to antitrust action. do we think he's aware that he's describing and endorsing fascism? stratechery.com/2026/anthrop...

"The shared ownership of CBS and CNN could also raise concerns over consolidation in news media, but that might be less relevant to federal regulators given the Ellisons’ alignment with Mr. Trump, Mr. Baer said. The Ellisons won out last week in a heated battle to acquire Warner Bros. over Netflix, which had reached a deal to buy the company in December. The father and son started a hostile bidding war, eventually winning over Warner Bros. with a “superior” bid. Larry Ellison personally lobbied Mr. Trump in favor of his son’s bid. David Ellison, who hired an antitrust official from Mr. Trump’s first term as his top lawyer, has become a presence in Washington. At the State of the Union on Tuesday night, he attended as a guest of Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina."

you're describing corruption, you've just softened the language to the point where you've...helped them hide or downplay corruption from your readership

Paramount Won Over Warner Bros. Now for the Regulators.

here too, the reader walks away with no impression that the deal is about cementing right wing information control, or that federal regulators no longer function (literally whatsoever!) due to corruption

Fox’s Lachlan Murdoch Expects Regulators to Put Conditions on Paramount-WBD Merger Lachlan Murdoch added that he anticipates CNN under David Ellison will remain a "strong competitor" to Fox News

I'd like you to observe the press pantomime that this is a normal media deal in a country with functioning regulators

Headline: 6 Conservative Voters React to Attacks on Iran Ahead of the Texas Primaries Dek: President Trump said the attacks were necessary for U.S. security and to free the Iranian people from oppression. Do people who support him agree?

1/2
No snark: Congrats and respect to whoever at @nytimes.com has changed hed/dek on this story.

(Story is about 6 voters, none of whom has ever voted for a Democrat, w views on Iran war. See next item for original presentation, implying they were just some sample panel of "voters.")

In fact, Amodei already answered the question: if nuclear weapons were developed by a private company, and that private company sought to dictate terms to the U.S. military, the U.S. would absolutely be incentivized to destroy that company. The reason goes back to the question of international law, North Korea, and the rest: International law is ultimately a function of power; might makes right. There are some categories of capabilities — like nuclear weapons — that are sufficiently powerful to fundamentally affect the U.S.’s freedom of action; we can bomb Iran, but we can’t North Korea. To the extent that AI is on the level of nuclear weapons — or beyond — is the extent that Amodei and Anthropic are building a power base that potentially rivals the U.S. military. Anthropic talks a lot about alignment; this insistence on controlling the U.S. military, however, is fundamentally misaligned with reality. Current AI models are obviously not yet so powerful that they rival the U.S. military; if that is the trajectory, however — and no one has been more vocal in arguing for that trajectory than Amodei — then it seems to me the choice facing the U.S. is actually quite binary: Option 1 is that Anthropic accepts a subservient position relative to the U.S. government, and does not seek to retain ultimate decision-making power about how its models are used, instead leaving that to Congress and the President. Option 2 is that the U.S. government either destroys Anthropic or removes Amodei.

Ben Thompson making a full-throated case for fascism here stratechery.com/2026/anthrop...

Trump campaign peace promises loom large over wartime presidency The "anti-war" candidate has bombed seven countries and launched a new regime-change war in Iran.

💥 No president in the modern era has ordered more military strikes against as many different countries as Donald Trump.

He's attacked 7 nations, three of which had never been targeted by U.S. military strikes. He authorized more individual air strikes in 2025 than Biden did in four years.

I think it's best for everyone to understand that the unified class project of billionaires right now is to do to white collar workers what globalization and neoliberalism did to blue collar workers.

As often happens the more aggressive Times home-page headline conflicts with the article headline --and neither represents the article.

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

“John, the old conferences did not care about diversity. I suggest you not either,” Jeffrey Epstein wrote in response to an email about the programming. “The women are all weak, and a distraction sorry.”
19thnews.org/2026/02/epst...

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

In 2018, an elite group of academics and scientists planned an exclusive retreat. The guests were picked by prominent New York literary agent John Brockman.

The problem? Brockman added two women to the list, and his biggest funder — Jeffrey Epstein — wanted them out.

@jkutzie.bsky.social reports

I hope every editor, publisher and owner of a news outlet that’s bent the knee at the first sign of trouble from these clowns feels the full force of the shame history will heap upon them. All they had to do was say “nah, we good” and keep it moving but they sold their sacred duty for nothing

BRB, writing Bari Weiss a sternly-worded letter about how outraged I am to see her contributing to CANCEL CULTURE like this.

It's Official: the Cybertruck is More Explosive than the Ford Pinto - FuelArc News We now have a full year of data for the Cybertruck, and a strange preponderance of headlines about Cybertrucks exploding into flames, including several fatalities. That’s more than enough data to comp...

The Ford Pinto had a death rate of 85 people for 10 million cars sold. The Cybertruck hasn't sold 10 million, but the fatality rate so far maths out to 1,452 people killed per 10 million sold.

The Cybertruck may be the deadliest road car, for the occupants, ever sold.

fuelarc.com/evs/its-offi...

I love that Anthropic is somehow both a big powerful ai lab with such powerful unique tech and also a tiny small bean trembling in fear and screaming in agony that somebody was able to extract the value of its product by using its outputs. Both hypocritical and pathetic. Washed.

This chart says it all

Timely essay from @joshuabenton.com. News publishers won't leave extractive platforms without viable alternatives. Ideally, news publishers could own their distribution layer while still reaching mass audiences. I think atproto can offer that, but we need to build a lot more.

Elon Musk Wants to Build an A.I. Satellite Factory on the Moon

AI satellite factory on the moon? Giant space catapult? Self-sustaining city on the moon? A billion daily active users on X?

Elon Musk made all these predictions in an internal meeting with xAI employees last night. We listened in.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/t...

Will Lewis steps down as Washington Post publisher and CEO after job cuts British journalist’s tenure was controversial after being appointed by Jeff Bezos to turn around the newspaper

In my 30 years in journalism, I don't believe I've seen anyone beclown himself as thoroughly and as profoundly as Will Lewis has. Good riddance.

www.ft.com/content/5fa6...

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is supposed to, among other things, report to Congress if the CIA, for example, is violating our civil liberties.

It is supposed to have 5 members and needs 3 for a quorum.

Right now it has 1 member.

Wyden doing what he can, but we need more light.

Hours after @jmitchellnews.bsky.social's piece appeared at @mississippitoday.org the visitor brochures were returned. Good news.

What a piece of shit

I hope Oklahoma enjoyed having smart people with options joining their universities

I didn’t get into this but I will say that this comment by Kelly absolutely made me think of the Nazi fixation on “degenerate” are and the classification of such artists as ill or culturally deleterious.

But not Matt Damon playing Odysseus lol

You should’ve heard me when I was watching the trailer with my spouse. “Matt Fucking Damon?” (Who still owes me a classroom visit tbh)

7 days after cancer surgery. I will stand with @postguild.bsky.social til my lungs collapse.

also reunited with @karenattiah.bsky.social

I have zero memory of this piece I wrote 15 years ago about Susan Sontag, New Urbanism, news avoidance, @alexanderchee.bsky.social, and pageviews, but I just stumbled upon it and it was actually pretty good?

www.niemanlab.org/2010/05/food...