February 28, 2026

@8:36 pm ET, MS NOW is reporting that Iran's state teevee is acknowledging that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead. 

As RAS pointed out earlier, Trump's "Board of Peace" has launched its first war, suggesting it is already "Bored of Peace." 

Peace* President* Starts “Ultimate War of Choice.” David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has embarked on the ultimate war of choice. He was not driven by an immediate threat. There was no race for a bomb. Iran is further from the capability to build a nuclear weapon today than it has been in several years, thanks largely to the success of the president’s previous strike on Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, in June.... His own Defense Intelligence Agency concluded last year that it would be a decade before Iran could get past the technological and production hurdles to produce a significant arsenal. And there were no indications of a coming Iranian attack on the United States, its allies or its bases in the region.... Unlike past presidents putting American forces at risk..., Mr. Trump did not spend months building a case for war. He never presented evidence of an imminent threat, or answered the question of why a nuclear program he claimed he had 'obliterated' eight months ago was now on the brink of revival. His pretaped video, released in the middle of the night as the missiles started exploding in Tehran, recited a list of long-running grievances with Iran, including its brutal use of terror.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sanger argues that Trump went to war "largely because he apparently sensed a remarkable moment of weakness for the government — and an opportunity for the United States to topple Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps...." Sanger is attributing to Trump a quasi-valid, semi-acceptable reason for striking Iran. That, IMO, is a disservice to reality -- and to journalism. My guess is that Trump did it to (a) distract MAGAts from the accusation -- which finally got a lot of attention this week -- that he had sexually and physically abused a young girl; and (b) to entertain himself with the pretense he is a war hero. (It was only this week that he said he was disappointed he couldn't award himself the highest military decoration: the Medal of Honor. And after Trump & Netanyahu struck Iran's nuclear facilities in June, he said both of them were war heroes because of the strikes. Pocketa-pocketa.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Ah, I see where contributor Jeanne agrees with me on (a) (see today's Comments) & Steve M. -- though he disagrees on (a) -- agrees with me on (b): ~~~

     ~~~  Steve M.: "This is the foreign policy equivalent of the ballroom or the arch. So what if it destabilizes the world and gets a lot of innocent people killed? It makes Trump feel special." Steve also argues that all those anti-war MAGAts woke up this morning reborn as pro-war propagandists. ~~~

     ~~~ Phillips O'Brien suggests a third motive: "Remember [Trump] is laser-focussed on the 2026 elections now. I think we can assume ... that he believes a successful military operation to overthrow the Iranian regime will reap him major political benefits. For he certainly does not care about the Iranian people...." MB: All of these motives seem plausible to me. And they may all be true. 

Here is the transcript of Donald Trump's recorded remarks about the U.S./Israeli war against Iran, via the AP. 

France 24: "US-Israeli air strikes killed at least 85 people at a girls’ school in southern Iran, Iran's judiciary said. The state-run IRNA news agency reported the strike happened in Minab in Iran’s Hormozgan province. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has a base in the city." 

Watchdog or Lapdog?? Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “The Pentagon’s new inspector general has frozen a proposal to evaluate military targeting in the Trump administration’s strikes on boats suspected of smuggling cocaine from South America, telling his staff he wanted to consult department leadership before deciding whether the review [-- which he said could become highly political --] should go forward.... The project’s fate has emerged as an early test of [Platte] Moring’s tenure [as Pentagon I.G.] and of the independence of the watchdog system.... Days after taking office last year..., [Donald] Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general, including the Pentagon’s watchdog.... [Will] the replacement inspectors general would act independently or see themselves as part of his administration’s political team[?] Mr. Trump later nominated Mr. Moring, who had worked as a Pentagon lawyer for the first Trump administration and has no previous inspector general experience.... The Senate confirmed him in a party-line vote on a large slate of Trump nominees in late December....”

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: “A small stable of doctors gave V.I.P. medical services to [Jeffrey Epstein] and the women around him. Some doctors bent or broke the ethical rules of their profession.... Mr. Epstein also used the doctors to manipulate young women from overseas who were having sex with him, according to a tranche of Epstein-related documents released by the government in January. He directed women to get pelvic exams, liposuction and mole removals, and paid for a range of specialty treatments, from $800-an-hour psychiatric therapy to a root canal. Sometimes, he abruptly cut off the women’s care.... Mr. Epstein rewarded his preferred doctors with hefty payments, Apple Watches, introductions to celebrities and vacations on his private island and his New Mexico ranch.... Mr. Epstein wrote large checks for some doctors’ research projects and charity work. And he donated more than $375,000 to Mount Sinai, much of it to a breast cancer center at the hospital run by Dr. Eva Dubin, who dated him for many years in the 1980s. Dr. Dubin became Mr. Epstein’s conduit to Mount Sinai....”

According to NBC News (story linked below) Donald Trump dressed down Kash Patel for his locker-room antics in Milan. Let's see how Trump likes this front-page NYT story: ~~~ 

Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: “To an extent not previously reported, [Alexis] Wilkins is escorted in her travels by Special Weapons and Tactics team members drawn from F.B.I. field offices around the country. SWAT teams are chiefly trained to arrest violent criminals, free hostages and thwart terrorists. But [FBI Director Kash] Patel’s demand that rotating SWAT teams provide his girlfriend with security for singing appearances, personal engagements and errands is unprecedented in the F.B.I., former agents said.... Soon after becoming F.B.I. director last February, Mr. Patel beefed up staffing in Nashville, where Ms. Wilkins lives, then assigned a SWAT team composed of four agents and two vehicles to protect her full-time, said an F.B.I. official briefed on the plans. Mr. Patel overrode F.B.I. advice that such an unprecedented arrangement first undergo a legal review, the official said. Past directors’ spouses were protected while traveling with them, but did not get a personal government detail.” 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

⭐The Peace* President* Sends Kids to War. The pinned item from a New York Times liveblog: “The United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, according to American and Israeli officials, following weeks of threats by ... [Donald] Trump to launch a major assault. Massive explosions resounded in the Iranian capital of Tehran; it was not immediately clear what the American and Israeli strikes were targeting. Tehran residents reported seeing smoke rising from the district where the presidential palace and the National Security Council were also located.... American and Iranian officials held a last-ditch round of mediated talks in Switzerland on Thursday over Tehran’s nuclear program. But the talks ended without a breakthrough, apparently paving the way for the strike. Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, announced the strike in a statement, adding that the country would be under a state of emergency.” The link to this liveblog is a gift link. ~~~

Tyler Pager: “... [Donald] Trump confirms the U.S. military has begun 'major combat operations' in Iran. He posted an eight-minute-long video on Truth Social.”  

Tyler Pager: “... [Donald] Trump, in a video posted on Truth Social, said: 'Our objective is to the defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.'” 

Eric Schmitt: “... [Donald] Trump said that, as a result of the U.S. military operation, 'We may have casualties.' Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had warned Trump in private high-level meetings that American troops could be killed or injured in a war with Iran.”

Tyler Pager: “In his taped remarks, President Trump urged the Iranian people to “take over your government” once the military action is completed. 'This will be probably your only chance for generations,' he said. 'For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond.'”

David Sanger: “Trump’s statements effectively differentiated his war aims now from those last June. The targets back then were deeply buried nuclear facilities, most of them far from civilian populations. The sites that appear to have been hit today are at the core of Iran’s cities and its leadership compounds, and the goal as described by Trump is clearly different — to wipe out the leadership and make way for a revolution.... There are almost no successful examples in modern history of regime change through an air campaign. But administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have made clear they imagine a swift campaign with no U.S. troops on the ground.”...

“Trump’s call for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard forces to surrender, with the promise of complete immunity, added a particularly unusual element to the speech. Because the campaign appears to be largely an air operation, there is no one for them to surrender to, no one to take them prisoner or to implement Trump’s offer of 'total immunity.' It may have simply been intended to sow doubt in the ranks if they believed the government was going to collapse.”  

Aaron Boxerman: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announced in a video statement that Israel and the United States had launched a 'joint operation' against what he called the 'existential threat' posed by Iran. He said the American-Israeli attack against the Iranian government could 'create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands.'”  

Robert Jimison: “The constitution grants Congress alone the power to formally declare war.... In his video remarks, the president indicated that he understood this operation to be a war, citing the possibility of American 'casualties that often happens in war.' His declaration that 'no president was willing to do what I am willing to tonight' speaks to the likely unilateral decision-making from the White House.”...

“Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was not notified of the strikes in advance, his spokesman said.”  

Mark Landler: “President Emmanuel Macron of France said the outbreak of war between United States, Israel and Iran had 'grave consequences for international peace and security.' He called for a stop to the 'ongoing escalation' and said Iran had no choice but to negotiate an end to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Macron said France would deploy resources at the request of its partners, and called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.”   

Aaron Boxerman: “Badr Albusaidi, the Omani foreign minister who was mediating between the United States and Iran before the attacks, criticized Mr. Trump’s decision to escalate.'”

Abdi Dahir: “... Tehran acted swiftly on its promise to hit back, targeting U.S. interests across the Middle East in a wide-ranging retaliation that risks a broader regional conflict.” 

 Julian Barnes: “The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said he had warned the administration in a meeting with Congressional leaders last week that military action in the Middle East 'never ends well.' Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut said: 'Everything I have heard from the administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame.'”

Anton Troianovski: “The U.S. Agency for Global Media said it had 'significantly expanded' Voice of America’s Persian-language service in recent months and was broadcasting Trump’s speech announcing today’s attack 'to the brave people of Iran across every available platform, including satellite.' The agency’s head, Kari Lake, the right-wing firebrand who has overseen enormous cuts to U.S.-funded media abroad, posted on X: 'Iran will be FREE.'...

“The U.S. government’s overall messaging to the Iranian people was muddled. There was no additional information on how Iranian soldiers and police officers were supposed to carry out Trump’s demand that they surrender. And it was unclear how deeply Voice of America and other U.S.-funded media would be able to cover the war in the wake of last year’s extensive cuts.” 

Steven Erlanger: “Britain, France and Germany have issued a joint statement that fell short of complete support for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. [Their leaders] called for a resumption of negotiations and urged the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution.”  

Farnaz Fassihi: “The U.N. Security Council will convene an emergency meeting on Saturday after[n]oon on the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, following requests by France, Bahrain and Iran.” 

Aaron Boxerman: “The Israeli military just said it began another wave of attacks on Iranian aerial defense and missile launches in central Iran.” 

Somini Sengupta: “The U.S. Maritime Administration, a government agency, has advised American commercial ships to stay away from the Persian Gulf area, including the Strait of Hormuz.” 

Ephrat Livni: “President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are 'safe and sound,' Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, told ABC News in an interview. The statement came around the same time that ... Benjamin Netanyahu ... said there were 'many indications' that Iran’s Supreme Leader had been killed.” 

Christine Chung: “... a wide corridor of airspace over the Middle East has been closed, with Israel, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan shutting down air traffic. About 1,600 flights to and from the region had been canceled on Saturday, and major airports, including Dubai International in the United Arab Emirates and Ben Gurion in Israel have been closed. Airlines serving the region, including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Gulf Air, and Oman Air are scrambling to suspend flights and divert them far from affected areas. They are also issuing waivers for passengers to rebook or cancel their flights.”

Linda Qiu: Donald “Trump, in announcing a military campaign against Iran early Saturday, asserted he had done so because of 'imminent threats' posed by the regime. He laid out his justifications in an eight-minute video he shared on social media. But three of his key claims — blaming Iran for a terrorist attack in 2000, characterizing its nuclear program as destroyed by previous American strikes, and warning that its weapons could soon reach the United States — were inaccurate. Here’s a fact-check.” 

Johnatan Reiss: “Israel’s military spokesman said Israeli forces had killed several top Iranian defense officials this morning. They included Iran’s defense minister, Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh; the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour; and a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Shamkhani. The spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said nothing about Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”

Somini Sengupta: “U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent attacks by Iran on its neighbors, at a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council.” 

⭐Zolan Kanno-Youngs: Donald “Trump just announced on social media that Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, is dead....

“In his social media post announcing the death of Ayatollah Khamenei..., [Mr.] Trump said without providing evidence that he is hearing Iranian security forces “no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us.” ”

Somini Sengupta: “Russia called the U.S. and Israeli strikes “reckless” and a violation of international law.” 

Ephrat Livni: “The deaths of the daughter, son-in-law and grandson of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, were confirmed, according to Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency on Sunday morning in Iran. One of his daughters-in-law was also killed, the news agency said.”

Farnaz Fassihi: “A new round of airstrikes on Iran has started in the early hours of Sunday morning local time, according to Iranians speaking live from Tehran on the social media application ClubHouse....

“For supporters of Iran’s leader, a day and night of anxiety and speculation about the fate of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came to an end with a brief, one line announcement that he had been killed. State television broadcast melancholy verses from the Quran.... Iran announced 40 days of official mourning and a seven-day national holiday to commemorate the death Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”   

     ~~~ The AP's live updates are here. 

Marie: I don't know about you, but all this killing in my name makes me sick to my stomach.

Here is YouTube video of Trump's remarks this morning. He sounds weird; he looks weird. He is weird. 

Giselle Ewing of Politico: “Some of ... Donald Trump’s Capitol Hill critics were quick to condemn his administration’s military action against Iran early Saturday, criticizing what they described as an unjustified act of war that hadn’t been approved by Congress.... Other lawmakers, including longtime Iran hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) rejoiced at the joint U.S.-Israel operation, calling it  'necessary and long justified.'” 

Marie: In one way, this is a traditional war: old men killing young people. 

Karim Sadjadpour of the Atlantic gets to the heart of it: “The immediate trigger for this crisis was the massacre of tens of thousands of Iranians whom Trump incited, and then abandoned, and now has called upon to rise up. He has chosen military action with an unclear endgame, relegating the U.S. military, regional partners, and 92 million Iranians to serve as anxious participants in an unscripted geopolitical drama. That is the ultimate hubris: a president more focused on the spectacle of power than its consequences, facing off against a martyrdom-obsessed theocrat who is more prepared to see his nation burn than his own power extinguished.” Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link.

New York Times Editors: “In his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised voters that he would end wars, not start them. Over the past year, he has instead ordered military strikes in seven nations.... He has offered no credible explanation for why he is risking the lives of our service members and inviting a major reprisal from Iran. Nor has he involved Congress, which the Constitution grants the sole power to declare war. He has issued a series of shifting partial justifications, including his sporadic support for the heroic Iranian people ... and his demand that Iran forswear its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. That Mr. Trump declared the Iranian nuclear program 'obliterated' by the strike in June — a claim belied by both U.S. intelligence and this new attack — underscores how little regard Mr. Trump has for his duty to tell the truth when committing American armed forces to battle. It also shows how little faith American citizens should place in his assurances about the goals and results of his growing list of military adventures.” Update: the link has been changed to what appears to be a gift link.

Marie: I've been trying to figure out what this A.I. hoohah with Drunk Pete is all about. And I think I've finally got it now. ~~~

~~~ Adam Satariano, et al., of the New York Times: “The fight between the Department of Defense and the artificial intelligence company Anthropic has ostensibly been about a $200 million contract over the use of A.I. in classified systems. But as the two sides careen toward a 5:01 p.m. Friday deadline over terms of the contract, far more is at stake. Amid the legalese and heated rhetoric are questions being asked globally about how to use A.I., what the technology’s risks are and who gets to decide on setting any limits — the makers of A.I. or national governments.... The clash centers on the Pentagon’s use of a classified version of Anthropic’s A.I. model, Claude. The company wants to embed safeguards in its technology to prevent its use for mass domestic surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons with no humans in the loop. The Pentagon has said that it has no plans to use the technology for those purposes, but that a private contractor cannot decide how its tools will be lawfully used for national security, just as a weapons manufacturer does not determine where its missiles are dropped....

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News contributor who has lashed out at policies and companies he sees as too liberal, wants to aggressively integrate A.I. in war planning and weapons development. Mr. Hegseth is echoing his boss, President Trump, who has made the expansion of A.I. a cornerstone of his policies.But Anthropic, a five-year-old company worth about $380 billion, has staked its reputation on A.I. safety and raised concerns about the technology’s dangers, even as it has collaborated with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies. It is the only A.I. company currently operating on the Pentagon’s classified systems.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Is the Trump administration punishing Anthropic because it’s refusing to help mass surveil American communities or build killer robots? -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), on X ~~~

     ~~~ Update 1. Julian Barnes & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Friday ordered all federal agencies to stop using artificial intelligence technology made by Anthropic, a directive that could vastly complicate government intelligence analysis and defense work. Writing on Truth Social, Mr. Trump used harsh words for Anthropic, describing it as a 'radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about.' Shortly after Mr. Trump’s announcement, and 13 minutes after a Pentagon deadline, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a 'supply-chain risk to national security.' The label means that no contractor or supplier that works with the military can do business with Anthropic. Later on Friday, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said that it had reached an agreement with the Defense Department to provide its A.I. technology for classified systems.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's obvious that the "risks to national security" are Drunk Pete & his boss, who is, at this moment, singing the John McCain classic "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran." ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2. Cade Metz of the New York Times: “OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said on Friday that it had reached an agreement with the Pentagon to provide its artificial intelligence technologies for classified systems, just hours after ... [Donald] Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using A.I. technology made by rival Anthropic. Under the deal, OpenAI agreed to let the Pentagon use its A.I. systems for any lawful purpose. The San Francisco company also said it had found a way to ensure that its technologies would not be applied for domestic surveillance in the United States or with autonomous weapons by installing specific technical guardrails on its systems. 'In all of our interactions, the DoW displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome,' Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said in a social media post, using the initials for the Department of War, the administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense.” MB: I'll bet. An Axios report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I might agree with the Pentagon, if Dr. Strangelove & Buck Turgidson weren't running the show. But they are, and there's no trusting them to be prudent. One need look no further than down this page to see where Trump's flacks at the IRS broke the law tens of thousands of times to share confidential taxpayer information with ICE Barbie. So you don't think Drunk Pete would illegally surveil Americans if it suited him? Of if Trump told him to? Of course he would. Then he'd send it all over to Trump on an unsecure app. Like in a tweet. Update: I wrote this before Trump & Drunk Pete executed their melodramatic retaliatory moves against Anthropic, wherein they proved my point. ~~~

     ~~~ Brendan Bordelon of Politico: “The high-stakes standoff between the Trump administration and artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is sparking fears in Silicon Valley, on Capitol Hill and across K Street of a fundamental shift in the balance of power between Washington and the AI industry.... Donald Trump’s fiery attack on the company escalated the feud on Friday, as he ordered a government-wide boycott of Anthropic’s Claude AI model and threatened the company with prosecution if it doesn’t cooperate with agencies winding down their use of the technology.... Anthropic said late Friday that it would go to court if the administration followed through on its threat to label the company a danger to national security.” Update: the Washington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Maria Curi of Axios: "Anthropic vowed to challenge the Pentagon in court over its blacklisting of the company for refusing to lift all safeguards on the military's use of its model, Claude — adding it's 'deeply saddened' by the escalating dispute.... The frontier AI company is doing what few other companies have done since Trump's second term began — directly and publicly challenging the administration.... 'No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons,' Anthropic said in a statement Friday night, underscoring its key objection's to the Pentagon's demands."

~~~ Pete Is a Bigoted Bully. Tara Copp of the Washington Post: “Scouting America, the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts, will make several concessions to the Pentagon — including getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limiting participation to those joining in their biological gender — to retain its longtime relationship with the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday. In exchange, the group for now will be able to keep its name and girls will still be able to join. However, Hegseth said that Scouting America will remain under a Defense Department review.... Hegseth had used the threat of pulling all military support from the group — including kicking Scout troops off military bases — to force it to make changes that better align with his personal views and those of the Trump administration.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ As I Was Saying. Nicholas Slayton of Task & Purpose: “The Department of Defense is blocking active-duty troops from attending graduate-level education at Ivy League schools and other top universities, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Friday. Hegseth announced the move Friday afternoon in a video posted to social media. He accused the universities of being “breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination” and said that the ban would go into effect for the 2026-2027 academic year. The move effectively ends troops’ participation in higher learning at some of the top universities in the country.... Hegesth ... said that the universities are teaching the 'enemy’s wicked ideologies.' The ban includes universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Columbia and 'many others.' A full list of impacted schools was not given.”

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Former President Bill Clinton said he 'saw nothing' and did nothing wrong when he associated with Jeffrey Epstein decades ago, as he sat for nearly six hours of closed-door questioning on Friday by the House Oversight Committee. Mr. Clinton’s sworn deposition made him the first president in history to be forced to testify before Congress against his will. His appearance reflected how Republicans in Congress have shifted the focus of their investigation into Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, away from ... [Donald] Trump and prominent Republicans who associated with him and toward Democrats.... In an opening statement that he posted on social media, Mr. Clinton acknowledged that he had a relationship with Mr. Epstein and that he was willing to answer questions about it. But he insisted that he never knew about Mr. Epstein’s crimes and cut off his association with him long before his first guilty plea on sex crimes charges.” 

Ryan Reilly, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump was disappointed in FBI Director Kash Patel’s behavior at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and conveyed his displeasure in a conversation with him.... Patel, an avid hockey fan, could be seen [in a viral video] chugging a beer and banging on a table, while yelling in an exuberant display of celebration. Trump — who does not drink — told Patel he was unhappy not only with that scene, but also with Patel’s use of government aircraft for the trip to Milan, Italy, according to the person familiar with the matter."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: “Two federal judges have raised concerns about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s use of social media to publicize a wave of arrests last month of people charged with interfering with federal officers during an immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota. In an order earlier this week, Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster said Bondi’s posts on X including the names and, in many instances, photographs of the defendants shortly after their arrests 'violated a court order' placing those cases under seal.... At a hearing in a separate Minneapolis case last week, another magistrate judge, Shannon Elkins, directed prosecutors to 'address whether the public posting of photographs violated the Court’s sealing order.' The government missed a deadline Tuesday to respond. Elkins later agreed to extend the deadline until Monday.”

Ai-eee! The Worst of the Worst!

Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “A 20-year-old freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts said she would remain in Honduras on Friday, the deadline that a judge had given the Trump administration for facilitating her return to the United States after it violated a court order by mistakenly deporting her. The government had arranged for a plane on Friday that would have brought the student, Any Lucia López Belloza, back to the United States. But her lawyers said she chose not to board, believing that she would be immediately detained on arrival and deported again. They pointed to a Thursday court filing by the Justice Department noting 'ICE’s intent to effectuate' her 'final order of removal after she is returned.' 

“In a tearful video call on Friday with journalists, Ms. López said a representative from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had tried to persuade her to return to the United States by wrongly suggesting that she was likely to be set free upon her return. 'An officer told me again and again that I will be released once I landed in the United States,' she said.... Ivonne Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the immigration advocacy group FWD.us, who ... joined a call with Ms. López and the ICE employee[, said,] 'He said very likely you will be freed, and that the only way to know for sure is to get on the plane.' Her legal team said she would continue to fight in court for her permanent return to the United States.”

Brendan Rascius of the Independent: “Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem created 'significant' security risks at U.S. airports by permitting passengers to proceed through security checkpoints with their shoes on, according to a new report. The no-shoes rule was instituted nationwide by the Transportation Security Administration in 2006, after a British man attempted to blow up an American Airlines plane with explosives concealed in his footwear. In July, Noem scrapped the rule, ​​putting an end to a policy that had long frustrated travelers and was seen by many Americans as ineffective. But in November, a classified report by the inspector general at DHS concluded that some full-body scanners operated by TSA are incapable of screening shoes, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.... 

“When Noem’s office was informed of the findings, it reportedly didn’t take action to remedy it. Instead, the office prohibited it from being published and increased its level of classification, sources told the WSJ.... The DHS inspector general [subsequently] wrote a letter to members of Congress stating that, as of February, the department and TSA had not answered requests to address the apparent security lapse. It noted that the department was legally bound to create a plan to remedy the issue by January 30 — three months after the report was filed.”

A Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros merger is an antitrust disaster threatening higher prices and fewer choices for American families.... A handful of Trump-aligned billionaires are trying to seize control of what you watch and charge you whatever price they want. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in a statement ~~~

~~~ Coral Marcos of the Guardian & Agencies: “Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said his office will investigate a possible merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery, hours after Netflix backed away from a planned takeover. 'Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal,' Bonta said in a post on X. 'These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.'... The merger poses a risk for California’s economy. Paramount’s bid is likely to raise concerns about job cuts in the state, which also dogged Netflix’s bid. Paramount sees $6bn in cost 'synergies' in the deal, which typically means massive layoffs, reducing the number of suppliers, squeezing existing contractors for better terms after the two companies merge or other reductions.” ~~~

One family is about to control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok,.... Block this rotten deal. -- Ivaro Bedova (D), former FTC commissioner, in a post on X  ~~~ 

~~~ Daniel Arkin of NBC News: "Democratic lawmakers and California’s attorney general expressed deep skepticism about Paramount Skydance’s potential takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix abruptly pulled out of the bidding war Thursday, the latest twist in a contentious and politically loaded corporate drama." ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Guardian: “A veteran CBS News producer who is leaving the network after 46 years has suggested that political bias is at play at the network in a farewell memo sent to colleagues on Friday afternoon. 'We’ve been reading a lot of goodbyes lately and here I am headed out the door. It’s too soon, even after 46 years,' Mary Walsh wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the Guardian. 'But maybe it’s for the best. We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.' The memo comes a day after CBS News owner Paramount Skydance emerged as the likely victor in a takeover fight for Warner Bros Discovery, owner of CNN. CBS is now headed by Bari Weiss, a conservative commentator turned media entrepreneur, whose appointment was seen as a fillip to the Trump administration.” Read on.

Peter Applebome of the New York Times: “Neil Sedaka, who went from classical music prodigy to precocious songwriter to teenage idol to pop music fixture in a celebrated career that spanned seven decades, died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 86.” 

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California. Shawn Hubler & Dana Goldstein of the New York Times: “The Los Angeles Unified School District placed its superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, on paid administrative leave Friday, two days after the F.B.I. raided his home and his office, throwing the nation’s second-largest school district into turmoil. The board of education announced the decision without further comment after back-to-back emergency closed sessions this week. The superintendent has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but concern has mounted in recent days for the stability of the district and the roughly 400,000 students it serves. Mr. Carvalho’s interim replacement will be Andres Chait, a district veteran who has served as chief of school operations. The vote was unanimous.”

Texas Senate Race. Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "Former Vice President Kamala Harris has recorded a robocall for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett to turn out voters for the Dallas congresswoman in Tuesday’s hard-fought Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.... The call gives Crockett a boost from one of her party’s biggest stars in the homestretch of her primary against state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin. They are vying to win the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is in his own hotly contested primary." The article includes audio of Harris' robocall.

“Press 2 for English in a Heavy Spanish Accent.” Washington State. Cedar Attanasio of the AP: “For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who have requested automated service in Spanish have instead heard an AI voice speaking English in a strong Spanish accent. The agency has since apologized and says it fixed the problem.... [For some callers], it was a like a scene out of 'Parks and Recreation,' a mockumentary-style comedy show that satires local government.... As of Thursday morning, the call line still put on the voice after a message, in English, acknowledging that the some translation services were not functioning properly.... DOL said Amazon provides the platform for the phone service and declined interview requests.” The report includes audio of the AI-generated "Spanish" option.