Featured

Trump: Iran asked me to be Supreme Leader, but I said no thanks

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Featured

‘Men need to be perp-walked’ after Epstein files release, Massie tells BBC

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Buried.News

The stories buried under the noise

Primary focus

Trump fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary

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Featured

The Trump gold coin is not normal : Consider This from NPR

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Featured

White House Confronted Over Huge Bets Made Minutes Before Trump’s Big War Move

A $580 million burst of oil-futures selling minutes before Trump’s Iran “talks” post raises a basic public-interest question: did anyone trade on advance knowledge of a market-moving national security decision?

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Norms Impact

Hakeem Jeffries won’t commit to blocking additional Iran war funding

A president launched military action and Congress failed to enforce war-powers limits, leaving future Iran war funding to be decided without a settled legislative restraint.

Congress

Mar 8, 2026

Sources

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/hakeem-jeffries-wont-commit-iran-war-funding-defense-department-rcna262271

Summary

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he would not commit to blocking any future supplemental funding request for the U.S. war in Iran. Congress is weighing additional wartime appropriations after passing a $900 billion defense bill in December, even as lawmakers failed to pass a war powers resolution meant to restrict military action. The practical consequence is that a future White House request for more war funding could advance without a firm commitment from House Democratic leadership to use funding leverage to constrain the operation.

Reality Check

When a war proceeds without effective war-powers enforcement, the funding process becomes the default substitute for constitutional authorization, and that shifts real control of war-making toward the executive. Normalizing supplemental war appropriations after lawmakers fail to restrict military action trains Congress to react financially rather than decide strategically, weakening separation-of-powers guardrails. The long-term risk is a durable precedent in which major military operations continue first and receive meaningful democratic accountability only after the fact—if at all.

Detail

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he would not commit to blocking additional funding for the war in Iran if the White House requests it, stating, “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” He said the president has “failed to make its case” for the war and that President Donald Trump would need to provide a “compelling rationale” to gain support on Capitol Hill.

Congress approved a $900 billion defense spending bill last year as part of annual appropriations, and the president signed it into law in December. Since the U.S. began its military operation in Iran, lawmakers have discussed whether additional defense spending will be needed. After a classified Senate briefing Tuesday, Sen. Chris Coons said he expects a supplemental funding request and would support funding for troops while calling for open hearings about planning failures and losses.

Officials have not said whether they will seek supplemental funding, but have floated invoking the Defense Production Act to increase munitions supply.

Norms Impact

Anthropic ditches its core safety promise in the middle of an AI red line fight with the Pentagon | CNN Business

A federal contracting ultimatum collides with a private company’s retreat from hard AI safety commitments, normalizing government leverage over guardrails that protect citizens from surveillance and misuse.

Executive

Feb 25, 2026

⚖ Legal Exposure

Ethics Violation

Likely Unlawful

Potentially Criminal

Likely Criminal

Level 2 exposure: the article describes high-level executive pressure tying a major Pentagon contract and potential blacklisting to Anthropic’s rollback of safeguards, raising serious investigative concerns about improper influence and politicized procurement. However, the facts presented do not allege personal enrichment or a thing-of-value to an official, so the classic structural quid-pro-quo corruption elements are not established in the article.