Monday, February 23, 2026
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Supreme Court gives Trump — and the rest of the GOP — a gift in disguise
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/21/politics/tariffs-ruling-supreme-court-trump-gop
In the long run, the court might have saved him from himself — at least politically.
That’s because, while the decision is clearly a major setback for Trump’s agenda, it also strips him of tools that seemed to cause short-term economic damage to the country, and that were clearly doing short-term political damage to Trump’s party.
It was fortuitous that the Supreme Court’s decision came Friday. Just 90 minutes before it landed, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced the gross domestic product had grown at just a 1.4% annualized rate in the fourth quarter. That made 2025 the second-worst year for GDP growth since 2016.
In other words, the stock market aside, the economy isn’t doing great.
At the very least, they gave Americans a reason to blame Trump for economic hardships. Trump voluntarily took ownership of a struggling economy, using a method that economists widely predicted would cause more problems, at least in the near term.
US ambassador causes uproar by claiming Israel has a right to much of the Middle East
Arab and Muslim nations on Saturday sharply condemned comments by the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who said Israel has a right to much of the Middle East.
Huckabee made the comments in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired Friday. Carlson said that according to the Bible, the descendants of Abraham would receive land that today would include essentially the entire Middle East, and asked Huckabee if Israel had a right to that land.
Huckabee responded: “It would be fine if they took it all.” Huckabee added, however, that Israel was not looking to expand its territory and has a right to security in the land it legitimately holds.
His comments sparked immediate backlash from neighboring Egypt and Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States.
Bypassing court ruling, Trump imposes 15% US global tariff under alternative mechanism
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would impose a 15% global tariff on US imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, after the country’s Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff program.
The move came less than 24 hours after Trump announced a 10% across-the-board tariff on Friday after the court’s decision. The president on Saturday upped the rate to 15%.
The ruling found that Trump had exceeded his authority when he imposed an array of higher rates under an economic emergency law.
The new levies are grounded in a separate but untested law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15% but requires congressional approval to extend them after 150 days. No US president has previously invoked Section 122, and its use could lead to further legal challenges.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he would use the 150-day period to work on issuing other “legally permissible” tariffs. The administration intends to rely on two other statutes that permit import taxes on specific products or countries based on investigations into national security or unfair trade practices.
Tremors in Washington: The targeted campaign to turn Christians against Israel
Tremors in Washington: The targeted campaign to turn Christians against Israel
In countries across the region, Christian communities are persecuted and even massacred. By contrast, Christians in Israel are protected by law with full civil rights, representation, and security.
In several meetings at Republican offices, I was unexpectedly asked about an online campaign targeting Christians, claiming Israel discriminates against them, and that Israel did nothing to protect Christians from being killed in Syria I was stunned. While only a handful raised the issue, the fact that multiple members independently flagged it suggested a coordinated pattern. One congressman even asked me directly to investigate further, warning of tremendous political damage should this narrative spread.
The concern is real. One member put it plainly: Should a bloc of Republican representatives be swayed by this misinformation enough to vote with Democrats against legislation that includes funding for Israel, it would not only harm the Jewish state, it would hurt America. Many security and defense bills serve core US interests as well; voting them down to not "support" Israel also weakens America strategically.
The End of Rule of Law in America
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/law-america-trump-constitution/682793/
The 47th president seems to wish he were king—and he is willing to destroy what is precious about this country to get what he wants.
The president of the United States appears to have long ago forgotten that Americans fought the Revolutionary War not merely to secure their independence from the British monarchy but to establish a government of laws, not of men, so that they and future generations of Americans would never again be subject to the whims of a tyrannical king. As Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense in 1776, “For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”
The Golden Calf and the Mishkan
https://etzion.org.il/en/tanakh/torah/sefer-shemot/parashat-ki-tisa/ki-tisa-golden-calf-and-mishkan
When was the command to build the Mishkan issued? The commentators struggled with the question of whether the command to build the Mishkan (chapters 25-31) was given during the period of Moshe's first ascent to Mount Sinai – before the sin of the golden calf (chapter 32) – or perhaps only during the period of his third ascent in order to receive the second set of tablets – in the wake of the sin of the golden calf. In practice, the building of the Mishkan began only after Moshe's third descent from the mountain, but when was the command to build the Mishkan issued? This question is related to another question: Is the Mishkan a reaction to the sin of the golden calf, or did the idea of the Mishkan precede the golden calf, such that there is no connection between the two?
Mishkan was a drastic change in the nature of Judaism to make it more tangible after the Golden Calf
Sforno (Shemos 25:08)And so should you make [it]. Hashem’s presence would dwell among them only by means of the Tabernacle. This was a step down from what He had promised them before the sin of the Calf, “In every place that I permit My Name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you” (20:21).
He made a fake ICE deportation tip line. Then a kindergarten teacher called.
A Nashville comedian’s deportation hotline, set up as a joke, has gone viral among viewers who say it shows the “banality of evil personified.”
What began as a comedy routine has become one of the most viral pieces of social satire during President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation campaign. The kindergarten video has been watched more than 20 million times on TikTok and exploded across Facebook, Reddit and YouTube, where one commenter called it “one of the most creative, nonviolent and effective acts of resistance” they’d ever seen.
Republicans breathe sigh of relief as Supreme Court axes Trump tariffs
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5748394-republicans-supreme-court-trump-tariffs/
The Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down the sweeping global tariffs at the heart of President Trump’s economic policies has produced enormous cracks in the GOP’s outward show of party unity.
After spending the past year rallying behind Trump on virtually every facet of his second-term agenda, Republican lawmakers spanning the ideological spectrum are publicly praising the decision as a victory for free trade, the separation of powers, or both.
Many Republicans, however, have been reluctant to voice their concerns with Trump’s tariffs out loud, for fear of becoming a target of the president and the army of MAGA loyalists he still commands. Indeed, many GOP lawmakers abandoned their previous free-trade positions to support the tariffs over the last year. A vote last week in the House condemning Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, for instance, won the support of only six Republicans.