According to the Congressional Research Service, there are a number of legal questions that will come into play if Trump goes ahead with this declaration. These include whether the current situation at the border “rise[s] to the level of a ‘national emergency’,” and whether it’s appropriate for the military to even get involved.

The president’s request for $5.7 billion in wall funding represents more than half of the $10.3 billion appropriated for military construction this year and would mean sidelining politically popular projects. That could particularly hit military families, with the government slated to spend $1.6 billion of that budget on family housing, $352 million for medical facilities, and $267 million on educational facilities.

Congress will or won’t challenge him and the courts will or won’t uphold his authority in this area. And today’s event certainly won’t convince anyone who wasn’t already convinced by the last time that Trump made these arguments, or the time before that. It’s just remarkable that the president of the United States gives this kind of performance.

Can Netanyahu say that Poles helped Nazis kill Jews?

He can, but very gingerly, at least if he wants to keep Israeli ties with Poland intact. So it was that the most serious apparent faux pas of the trip, but had nothing to do with the summit, Iran or the Arab world.

It had everything to do with the historical existential threat of antisemitism, eastern European Jewish history, the trauma of the Holocaust and the complex Israeli-Polish relationship.

That attempt to quiet Israeli and Jewish outrage at Poland’s law was widely condemned as a concession to Holocaust revisionism, including by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. In an effort to rescue the upcoming Visgrad gathering, which Netanyahu has highlighted in campaign ads as evidence of his international prestige, his office released a statement blaming any misunderstanding on the media.

When all this drama was over, after a replacement plane was found, a moment before the longed-for takeoff for home, Netanyahu’s real talent manifested itself: always having it both ways and avoiding a clear statement. When he was asked to clarify on camera what exactly he meant and whether the Poles had collaborated with the Nazis, he answered “Shir will respond,” referring to his spokeswoman. A grand evasive move to end his grand journey.

While joining anti-Israel propagandists who deliberately rewrite history in order to strip Israel of legitimacy as a Jewish state, Amnesty’s new campaign includes another insidious layer. By waging war on Jewish and Christian places of pilgrimage, it seeks to stigmatize Jews and Christians the world over for engaging with and discovering their cultural, religious, and historical heritage. While it speaks about multinational corporations, Amnesty’s ire is in fact intended for synagogues, churches, community centers, and youth groups around the globe looking to celebrate their faith and learn about their past.

“Israeli forces unlawfully killed Palestinian civilians, including children,” Amnesty International recently wrote. Israel’s discrimination “against Arab and other minorities” has led to “systemic disparities in areas including political representation, criminal justice and economic opportunity,” Freedom House, the democracy watchdog, noted. And Israel’s prime minister is a corrupt politician with a fondness for far-right demagogues, as many writers have argued.

You can agree or disagree with each of these criticisms on the merits, but there is nothing inherently bigoted about them. Criticism of Israel, including harsh condemnation, is not the same thing as anti-Semitism.

In Amnesty’s antisemitic narrative, the Israeli government and others “use [] archaeology and tourism as cover for removing the Palestinian residents of Silwan and installing settlers,” and “the settlers in Hebron see tourism as one way of strengthening their position… As with most Amnesty publications, there is no meaningful research methodology, and the resulting analysis reflects this.

…it doesn’t matter how much money Kaepernick ultimately receives from the NFL; what matters is that he bested a league that has a long history of pummeling its opposition in court, especially players… There are some who already are criticizing Kaepernick for settling, not realizing how rare it is to see the NFL backed into a corner, especially by a player.

In a business where the agenda is making money, there is no reason why teams should be forced to employ controversial figures just so they appear socially “woke.” It’s bad business, just like handing Kaepernick and Reid money because the market wasn’t that interested in them.

Maybe the settlement provides the NFL a chance for another type of growth. Edwards maintained there’s the burden of an “issue drift” with Kaepernick that can be compared to fallout from the refusal by Rosa Parks to sit in the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955… As it stands now, history will not look kindly on the NFL – especially if Kaepernick never plays another down in the league.

Amazon has decided to take its marbles and go home. The richest guy in the world has been defeated by community organizers in Queens, after immigrants, workers and local small businesses stood up and won. It’s astounding. This might not really be over yet. But it’s over enough to consider what happened, why, and what it means. First, it’s a gigantic blow against the neoliberal economic view that has dominated America and the world since the formation of the unholy alliance between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

What exactly do Amazon’s opponents have to celebrate? Ending the race to the bottom of corporate welfare? Nope. Blocking Amazon’s development of facial recognition software — or ICE’s use of it? Nope. Better working conditions or union representation for Amazon workers? Nope. They have succeeded in eliminating billions of dollars in revenue to make desperately needed investments in public transit and affordable housing harder not easier. They have succeeded in eliminating more than 25,000 jobs, about 40% of which don’t require a college degree, that New York City residents need and want.

Amazon — and its founder — are known for penny-pinching relative to their size and wealth — one reason, perhaps, for the company’s success. But as the company grows in size and power, penny pinching won’t always cut it with the public — and the sudden Queens pullout may come back to haunt Amazon’s brand over the long term.

“They missed an opportunity to build perceptions of their corporate citizenship, which is going to be more important as they’ve gotten so colossal,” Adamson added.