The president could risk overplaying his hand by whipping up his base over allegations against the investigation that could yet prove exaggerated or unfounded. And his involvement in promoting these allegations against the FBI may automatically dissuade much of the public, Democrats, and media from taking the situation seriously…

One GOP operative said Trump should rely on advisers to lay out the case against the Justice Department “instead of blurting out the first thing that comes to [his] mind.”

Hillary Clinton’s sure victory certainly also explains the likely warping of the FISA courts by FBI careerists seeking to use a suspect dossier to surveille Trump associates — and the apparent requests by Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and others to read surveilled transcripts of Trump associates, unmask names, and leak them to pet reporters. Again, all these insiders were playing the careerist odds. What we view as reprehensible behavior, they at the time considered wise investments that would earn rewards with an ascendant President Hillary Clinton.

Republicans who have viewed the Nunes document will have you believe it’s incredibly explosive. Congressman Matt Gaetz said it’s “jaw-dropping,” and called for its public release. Representative Steve King said it was “worse than Watergate.” Over the past week, thousands of Americans—as well as likely bots linked to Russia—have flooded Twitter with the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo…

Nunes has successfully manufactured a controversy designed to undermine the Justice Department’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia…

Police investigators cannot at this stage point to any concrete action Netanyahu may have allegedly taken to help Shimron promote the deal, but they believe there is still justification to collect his testimony, and, if the need arises, question him under caution.

“This issue has existed almost since the beginning of the investigation,” a law enforcement official said, “and it appears to be just a matter of time before this move is approved by the attorney general.”

Netanyahu has said he did not know his attorney was involved in pushing the deal. “Time after time, they try in a forced manner to tie the prime minister to the submarine affair, at a time when the justice minister has made it clear that the prime minister isn’t suspected in the matter,” Netanyahu stated in response to the report over the weekend. “We have heard many prophesies over time and a lot of speculation about ‘what is likely to be,’ but one thing is clear: There won’t be anything because there was nothing.”

Avi Gabbay, the leader of the opposition Zionist Union faction, said Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must take a leave of absence if he is declared a suspect in the ongoing police investigation into suspected graft in the purchase of naval vessels from a German shipbuilder….

Netanyahu is not currently a suspect, but it was reported this week that he may be designated one as police consider questioning him under caution.

The Russians are not yet the region’s final arbiters. But they are already influential enough to be able to veto any regional settlement they don’t like. And their involvement in the Middle East is also a reminder of how the Russians may succeed in inserting themselves as key players in other parts of the world as well.

It is legitimate to ask why Netanyahu needs to make the pilgrimage to the Kremlin whenever Russia initiates a move on Syria. After all, Putin is well aware of Israel’s interests, headed by preventing Iranian entrenchment to its north and turning Syria into part of the northern front that Tehran is forming against the Jewish state.

The reason for this is that the reality on the ground—including the process of establishing Iran’s foothold in Syria—is constantly changing. It is similar to a kaleidoscope in which each image displayed is unlike the previous one. This is the case in Syria and this time also in Lebanon.

…the real hegemon in [Syria] is Russia. President Vladimir Putin knows that convincing the Sunni rebel groups to lay down their weapons as part of an effective peace agreement will be a lot more difficult if Iran retains a large presence in the country…

Yet Iran’s biggest problems in Syria are the United States and Israel. The former has maintained its military presence in the country, even after having defeated ISIS, in order to prevent Iran from consolidating control. And Israel’s potent air force would never allow a meaningful Iranian military presence in Syria.

President Trump is expected to seize the bully pulpit during his State of the Union address to outline a path forward on expiring protections for children brought to this country illegally by their parents. But since the outline of his plan is already garnering resistance from the GOP’s right flank — not to mention requisite Democrats – Tuesday night’s speech could test the limits of the president’s power over his own base of support on immigration policy.

President Donald Trump has done something that has eluded the Republican Party for nearly a decade: He has outlined the possibility of broad immigration reform.

Trump’s immigration framework is far from perfect. But the fact that it is being criticized by the extreme wing of his party should be taken as a sign of hope that it just may be the basis for bipartisan discussion.

The White House’s immigration plan is not a “compromise.” It’s not a “generous” deal for Democrats, and it’s not full of “concessions.” It’s a sleight of hand designed to help the far right shove through sharp new limits on legal immigration, under the pretense of moderation and reasonableness.

Supposedly this immigration framework includes “concessions” to Democrats because it involves protections for “dreamers,” the young undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children.

But here’s the thing: Nearly everyone, Democrat and Republican, wants to protect dreamers.

…for many Egyptians, was Mr. Pence’s failure to comment on the bizarre travesty of democracy Mr. Sissi was enacting around his visit. On Friday, just before the vice president’s arrival, the strongman officially announced that he would be a candidate in the presidential election in March. That he will be the only serious contender is not because Egyptians have no interest in alternatives. Before Mr. Sissi’s announcement, two potentially potent rivals, former prime minister and air force chief Ahmed Shafiq and Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, the nephew of a former president, were driven out of the race. Mr. Shafiq was detained incommunicado until he yielded.

With Egypt’s path to democracy increasingly fading, a State Department spokesman told Al-Monitor that Trump’s team has kept up Obama-era plans to limit security assistance to counterterrorism, border security, Sinai security and maritime security. The United States also hasn’t signed a long-term memorandum of understanding to lock in its annual assistance package, as it has done with other allies in the region such as Israel and Jordan that receive more than $1 billion in annual aid.

El-Sissi has often said he wants to establish a modern civil state in Egypt, but his policies have raised questions over whether he actually believes in democratic principles. His public discourse has almost exclusively been focused on the fight against Islamic militants, efforts to revive an ailing economy and the infrastructure “mega projects” he has overseen.

He has meanwhile overseen one of the harshest crackdowns in memory, jailing thousands of Islamists along with activists behind the 2011 uprising. He also has silenced most of his critics, severely restricted the work of rights groups and blocked scores of online news sites.

Disappointment is essential to awards shows. It’s simple math: With roughly five nominees per category and only one winner, there’s bound to be plenty of sighing from partisans of the four who lost out. The only way to abolish disappointment from awards shows would be to abolish awards shows altogether, and who would want that?

Undeniably, the most talked-about segment of Sunday night’s Grammys telecast was also its most ill-considered: a skit centered on the “spoken-word auditions” for the audio version of Michael Wolff’s dubious Washington tell-all, Fire and Fury…

After a cavalcade of celebrities had read aloud from and riffed on Wolff’s book, the sketch reached its crescendo when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared as the final guest star. Clinton’s appearance held obvious political and comedy value, but it cheapened the night’s thematic condemnations of predatory men and their enablers.

So far, the Recording Academy has largely avoided the sort of criticism over lack of diversity that’s been leveled at the Oscars. But hours after men swept all but one of the categories given out on live television, #GrammysSoMale was trending.

Kesha’s impassioned performance of “Praying” was certainly the highlight of this year’s Grammys, but the audience’s emotional response to the anthem of female-empowerment appeared to be skin-deep when the song lost to Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” for pop solo performance.

Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening–on a lucky day–without having encountered more than one or two of these phenomena.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are engines of change (as the poet said), windows on the world and lighthouses erected in the sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.

A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not to function?