“It is clear now that many Republicans saw constitutional fealty as a nice talking point, a way to skewer Democrats for their unpatriotic rejection of the American founding. But it appears that some Republicans’ own constitutionalism runs about as deep as Trump’s understanding of economics. They favor the Constitution when it thwarts the Democrats. They favor it because it is old and vaguely patriotic. Its antique and loopy cursive make for a beautiful backdrop for a speech. Like the flag itself, it’s the kind of thing you can hug (awkwardly). But it isn’t the kind of thing you think about.” (02/22/26)
“Former senior FBI official David Sundberg announced Monday that he plans to run for Congress this year in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District. Sundberg is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., which he has held since he won a special election in 1981. The district covers southern Maryland and portions of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties. Cook Political Report rates it as a solid Democratic seat in this year’s midterm elections. Sundberg, who joined the FBI in 2002, previously served as the assistant director in charge of its Washington field office during the Biden administration and was notified in late January 2025, just days after President Donald Trump took office, that he was going to lose his job. His termination was among a number of firings of top FBI officials at the beginning of Trump’s second term.” (02/23/26)
“I adored Chomsky growing up. I knew the man through his work as a tireless crusader for the voiceless and the disenfranchised. His writings strongly informed my own writings and beliefs. But his relationship with billionaire child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has been exposed to be far more significant and far more sinister than a handful of chance encounters. Quite the contrary, Chomsky appears to have been complicit in a garish attempt to rehabilitate this man’s flagging reputation in hopes of allowing him to get away with his sundry predations a second time. And once again, there is a line of well-intentioned, thoughtful people curling around the block, waiting on bated breath to make the same tired old excuses.” (02/22/26)
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reelected to the top post of the ruling Workers’ Party, with delegates crediting him for bolstering the country’s nuclear arsenal and strengthening its regional standing, state media reported Monday. The report from the party congress, a major propaganda spectacle where Kim is expected to outline his political and military goals for the next five years, suggests he will double down on accelerating a nuclear arsenal already equipped with missiles capable of threatening Asian U.S. allies and the American mainland. The party also released a new roster for its powerful Central Committee that confirmed a generational shift in Kim’s leadership circle, with aging military chiefs and the 76-year-old head of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament among dozens replaced in the 138-member body.” (02/22/26)
“Last Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court tariff decision was a workmanlike exercise of statutory analysis. The reaction from the administration was not. President Trump impugned the integrity and patriotism of the justices, claiming that ‘the court has been swayed by foreign interests.’ … When Trump announced tariffs on any country that did not agree with his plans to seize Greenland, or increased tariffs on Brazil because Brazil’s Supreme Court refused to reverse the conviction of former President Bolsonaro, a friend of Trump, he was broadcasting to the court that his interpretation of the law had no limits. In light of those actual examples, it was a surprise that there were any justices willing to uphold the president’s view of his tariff power.” (02/22/26)
“Violent clashes erupted in parts of western Mexico on Sunday amid a military operation that led to the death of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader, triggering widespread security concerns throughout the region. Mexican security forces killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as ‘El Mencho,’ during an operation in the western state of Jalisco, Mexico’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on X. It said he was wounded during the raid in the town of Tapalpa and died while being flown to Mexico City. The state of Jalisco is the base of the cartel known for trafficking huge quantities of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.” (02/23/26)
“With not just one — but two — carrier battle groups now steaming in circles somewhere off the coast of Oman out of the range of Iranian missiles, we are all left with the head-scratching question: what is it, exactly, that the United States hopes to accomplish with another round of air strikes on Iran? Trump hasn’t told us. The latest crisis du jour with Iran illustrates the strategic swamp willingly stepped into not just by Donald Trump but his predecessors as well. The swamp is built on a singular and hopelessly misguided assumption: that the use of force either by stand-off, limited strikes from 12,000 feet or even invasions will somehow solve complex political problems on the ground below.” (02/22/26)
