Tim Karr

Escalation is real.

Rubio: “Let me tell you, Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics.”

Anthropic’s AI tool Claude central to U.S. campaign in Iran, amid a bitter feud Anthropic’s AI tool Claude is playing a key role in the U.S. military’s campaign in Iran, amid a bitter fight with the Pentagon over the terms of its use in war.

Interesting! Anthropic's Claude, the AI tool that the Pentagon famously banned last week, continues to play a crucial role in the U.S. military campaign in Iran, three people familiar with the situation told the @washingtonpost.com:
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Five Ways the Paramount-WBD Merger Is Bad News for Us All This disastrous merger would diminish consumer choices — and allow one family to manipulate so much of our supposedly free and independent media.

With so much at stake it’s worth examining the serious consequences that would result from a Paramount/WBD merger, which would allow one family to transform so much supposedly free & independent media into mouthpieces of Trump's far-right agenda.

I list five:

www.freepress.net/blog/five-wa...

Trump FCC's equal-time crackdown doesn't apply equally—or at all—to talk radio FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's unequal enforcement of the equal-time rule.

Jon Brodkin exposes the nonsense & hypocrisy driving Chairman Carr's claims that equal-time rules must apply to late-night comedians (like Colbert) who broadcast newsworthy interviews with political candidates.

Funny thing, Carr didn't seem to mind when Sean Hannity did the same over the air.

... And despite OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's claim that his technology would not be used for "autonomous killing systems," the company is now redefining what that actually means so it can profit from the trillion-dollar military technological complex:

www.freepress.net/blog/big-tec...

OpenAI to work with Pentagon after Anthropic dropped by Trump over company’s ethics concerns CEO Sam Altman claims military will not use AI product for autonomous killing systems or mass surveillance

Its principal investors include Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and SoftBank.

Wannabe peace negotiator Jared Kushner is also involved, recently investing $1 billion through his equity firm Thrive Capital.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

OpenAi was originally conceived as a public-benefit corporation that was *dedicated to ensuring that artificial intelligence benefits humanity*.

From the @theguardian.com report:

Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than ‘speed of thought’ Speed and scale of US military’s AI war planning raises fears human decision-making may be sidelined

Terminator (1984) seems more and more prophetic by the day:

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.

Losing the War on Truth Iran and what to make of it

"If we accept that nothing is true, we find ourselves among aspiring and real dictators who have good stories and media monopolies," writes @timothysnyder.bsky.social.

"American power is being used to destroy the order that America made..."

snyder.substack.com/p/losing-the...

An Illegal, Unjustified War Underscores Danger of Media Consolidation We need diverse, critical news coverage more than ever

"Even if CNN survives in some form, Ellison/Weiss control would quickly destroy its credibility, leaving viewers outside the MAGA cult with few choices," writes @jenrubin.bsky.social.

"Creating a national news desert may be autocrats’ goal."

contrarian.substack.com/p/an-illegal...

On the Media The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger examine threats to free speech and government transparency, cast a skeptical eye on media coverage of the week’s big stories and unravel hidden political narratives in everything we read, watch and hear.

“Media capture,” is a phrase scholars have been using to describe the phenomena of public interests losing possession of the press to political and corporate players. @victorpickard.bsky.social on why the American system was set up to be snatched away from the start lnk.to/onthemedia/b...

Woman who attended SOTU to highlight her arrest without cause arrested without cause at SOTU.
““I just stood up. I stood silently, with no signs. I was not blocking anyone’s view of the hall. And then I was arrested.”

U.S. Strikes in Middle East Use Anthropic, Hours After Trump Ban 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 hel...

Claude goes to war in Iran: "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."

The Mirage of Preemption The Constitutional and Strategic Costs of Trump’s New War in Iran

"We are not merely witnessing a lapse in judgment," writes @nolanhigdon.bsky.social, "but a stark reminder that the modern presidency now operates with the unilateral authority of the very monarchy this nation was founded to overrule."

nolanhigdon.substack.com/p/the-mirage...

Iran Things that Got Memory Holed, Including the So-Called Negotiators, Steve and Jared - emptywheel There are a number of facts about Iran that are being memory holed by significant swaths of the public. There’s the fact that Iran’s conflict with the west doesn’t just go back 47 years, to 1979, when...

Iran Things that Got Memory Holed, Including the So-Called Negotiators, Steve and Jared

emptywheel.net/iran-things-...

Claims of 40 dead after an Israeli airstrike on a elementary girl’s school in Iran
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

Opinion | Why Have You Started This War, Mr. President?

One word that's missing from this morning's NYT editorial board piece on the Iran strikes:

"Esptein"

Question asked, but not fully answered.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/o...

Public Media’s Promise Was Never the Problem This is the moment to find a better solution. But the winning coalition must be as broad and as honest as the problem is large.

Trump's demolition of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting "has made the stakes impossible to ignore," writes @juliorvarela.com.

"If anything, the wreckage has made the case for acting with more urgency than ever before" to build a public media that serves all the people in the United States.

Trump's Minister of Propaganda plays his part.

CNN Braces for Ellison's Control With David Ellison poised to take control of Warner Bros. Discovery, a chill has settled over CNN as staffers fear for the future. "The panic at CNN right now is off the charts," an insider tells Stat...

"Inside CNN, alarm bells went off as staffers began to panic over the suddenly very real prospect that they could be working for Bari Weiss before the end of the year," reports @oliverdarcy.bsky.social.

"'We are doomed,' one staffer candidly said. 'We are f**ked,' said another."

Poor Anderson Cooper just can't get out from under the thumb of the Ellisons.

Left a crumbling and corrupted CBS for his safer perch at CNN; and now he's soon to be dealing with the same bosses.

Media Control / Paramount Merger / Warner Bros. / Acquisition

Paramount Skydance’s Takeover of Warner Bros. Is Bad News for Workers, Consumers and Free Expression The idea that Paramount should be allowed to control CBS and CNN should be unthinkable, especially given its track record of turning the Tiffany Network into a trash heap.

“In any normal administration this merger would be a non-starter. In this one, the corruption & capitulation of the Ellison family is the selling point," @notaaroncraig.bsky.social says about Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros, which would give the Trump-friendly Ellisons control of both CBS & CNN.

Big Tech Goes to War Big Tech’s largest firms are supplying the U.S. government with the tools it needs to go to war against Trump’s imagined enemies, both foreign and domestic.

...It’s a different compact than the one Eisenhower warned us against — but one with similarly devastating impacts.

//ends

People Are Paying Millions to Dine With Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago Business leaders are paying as much as $5 million to meet one-on-one with the president at his Florida compound, sources tell WIRED, while others are paying $1 million apiece to dine with him in a gro...

...Their execs are regularly Lear-jetting to Mar-a-Lago to offer support and curry favor.

The message behind their money is clear: “Give us military and surveillance contracts and we’ll help spread Trump’s authoritarian gospel to billions of people who use our platforms every day...”

Trump White House ballroom financed by Big Tech and these other corporate donors Big Tech and other publicly traded companies are helping to finance the $300 million White House ballroom planned by President Donald Trump.

...And these examples are just scratching the surface of the Silicon Valley War economy.

Rather than challenge a dictatorial regime Big Tech's biggest players are contributing tens of millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign, inaugural ceremonies and other schemes...

Who Owns X In 2024, X owner Elon Musk contributed nearly $300 million to help Trump win the White House. Now Trump is returning the favor in every way possible.

...Elon Musk has joined the military space race. His rocket and satellite company SpaceX is a primary contractor with the U.S. Space Force, and holds a $1.8 billion classified contract with the National Reconnaissance Office...

www.freepress.net/who-owns-med...

Hundreds of Google workers demand firm cuts ties with ICE More than 900 Google employees signed a letter opposing company links to federal immigration actions.

...Despite once pledging that they would not allow use of company technology to harm people, Sundar Pichai's Google is now doing business with ICE while vying for government contracts involving cloud-computing services, artificial-intelligence tools and state-surveillance technology...