Elisabeth R. Anker

This wins Headline of the Week

Trump demands Iran's 'unconditional surrender' as Israel says it hit leadership bunker 'with 50 jets' Tehran residents tell BBC Persian

In just six days we’ve gone from “Iranians take over your country” to “we’re open to talking with the new leadership of the regime” to “I want to pick the new leader” to now “unconditional surrender”.

A “concept of a plan”, indeed.

www.bbc.com/news/live/ce...

Maybe I'm kirking out but the unreality of this war is wild. People posting that thousands of Kurds are fighting the regime for the CIA, while the Kurds say it isn't happening. Every video of a missile attack I just have to assume is AI whether it is real or not.

‘Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat The chat is the subject of a Florida International University police investigation.

The secretary of Miami-Dade County’s GOP started a group chat for conservative students — and within 3 weeks, it was filled with over 400 instances of the N-word, Nazi rhetoric and writings of "dozens of ways of violently killing Black people"

There was that Epstein text exchange with Bannon where he said "Trump doesn't respect anyone who agrees to his demands" and never has that been more apparent than every newspaper/university/law firm getting their shit double-owned by the guy they bent over for in the first place.

The entire Democratic strategy debate — "moderate" or move left? fight or compromise? — is based on a misreading of data. Voters don't think Dems are too progressive; they think Dems are weak. The actual math on what to do about this isn't even close!
New: www.gelliottmorris.com/p/new-poll-d...

why do people vote against their best interests? because one side says “THEY are coming for YOU and i will fight them” and the other side says “well you know they have a point and even though i disagree i will work with them on this”

Frito Lay corn chips

Every day in 2026 is like exponentially worse than the day before

Two photos from April 2023: Bill Connolly gesturing while speaking, manuscript in hand; and a group at a restaurant, smiling for the camera: Jane Bennett, Michael Whinston, Bonnie Honig, Cristina Beltrán, and Bill Connolly.

Bonnie, I feel genuine gratitude for the opportunity to chat with Bill at the April 2023 celebration of your "Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics." I'd heard wonderful things about him for years, and he did not disappoint. A terrible loss.

We were just talking about this Matthew — these pictures are stunning ❤️

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

The richest man owns X.

The second and third richest men control Google.

The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post.

And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros.

See the problem here?

A mass security force now the size of the planet's 13th largest army lying about seemingly every single cruel act they do is already bad enough. It's worse if half of Congress is calculating they are better off voting to give it even more money, than fearing any sort-of public recourse for doing so.

Who wants to live like this??

I wanted to go on here to pass on that the brilliant political theorist and more importantly fabulous human being Bill Connolly passed away yesterday. This is such a loss, I'll have more to say later but for now my heart breaks.

William E. Connolly Obituary February 25, 2026 - Eclipse Funeral Care View William E. Connolly's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

Bill Connolly died yesterday and he was one of the good ones. It kills me that he was taken while our politics are like this. He deserved to outlive the bastards. I guess we’ll have to take it from here. But let me say: for depth of understanding, empathy & moral clarity, this man had few rivals /1

this is beautiful. Thanks for it. Sending hugs to you Bonnie.

This is so sad. I invited Bill to come to UM-Flint to speak and surprisingly, he came. We drove all around Flint and he showed me where his old house used to be (sadly, like so much in Flint, it's now a vacant lot. His path from son of a sit down striker, to BA at UM-Flint, UM-Ann Arbor 1/

Wow, what an experience. I know how much flint meant to him too!

I wanted to go on here to pass on that the brilliant political theorist and more importantly fabulous human being Bill Connolly passed away yesterday. This is such a loss, I'll have more to say later but for now my heart breaks.

Trump’s Epstein Scandal Takes Damning Turn as Dem Drops New Bombshell As new revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein saga threaten the president, a legal expert decodes what we just learned—and lays out a roadmap to what will happen now.

"We are dealing now with an allegation that the president of the US raped and sexually assaulted a child and is now using his DOJ to try to cover that up."

If you want to understand latest Epstein revelations, @leahlitman.bsky.social explains them clearly on our pod:
newrepublic.com/article/2070...

The Kids Trump Sent to ICE’s Dilley Detention Center ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of...

We obtained the Dilley detention center’s 911 call logs.

Among them are pleas for help for toddlers having trouble breathing, a pregnant woman who passed out and an elementary-school-aged girl having seizures.

Relevant to this soft-glam fascist's comments today, there's a bill in Florida to ban prescribing birth control to minors—or even giving teens information about it—without parental consent. It's called HB 173
The attacks on contraception are, and have been, in motion

Blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol dies in Buffalo. A nearly blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol miles from his home dies in Buffalo after having been missing for nearly a week.

Our federal government killed a disabled genocide survivor and is covering up for a child rapist. And that is just today’s news. It is just unconscionable to be treating this as normal or acceptable in any way.
www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/25/b...

Blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol dies in Buffalo. A nearly blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol miles from his home dies in Buffalo after having been missing for nearly a week.

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Rohingya refugee from Burma, was nearly blind and spoke no English.

He was dropped off by agents in Buffalo on the other side of town from his home. His family was not notified of his release. Police are investigating.

www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/25/b...

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump

The New York Times has joined CNN and NBC in confirming Roger Sollenberger's reporting that the DOJ is withholding several FBI interviews with a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her as a child

📣📣📣

Opinion | This Theory Explains Trump’s Baffling Foreign Policy

Not sure if you saw this recent piece by my colleague Abe Newman, but he makes an aligned argument: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/o...

this 100%

One thing the Trump admin and the tech oligarchs have in common is that folks at the top don’t really have jobs. They have fiefdoms. They want to turn the spiderman doctrine on its head: with great power comes no responsibility. Responsibility is for faceless underlings.