Madison and the Founders of his generation had it right: what Trump is doing violates both the Constitution and the foundational norms of democracy… Operation Epstein Fury — with a bonus to help Bibi get re-elected so he doesn't have to face charges for his criminal behavior — is rolling on as Trump ignores the constitutional requirement that only Congress can declare war. He's also violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973 that dictates the president, if he reacts to an actual attack on America like Pearl Harbor, must notify Congress within 48 hours and have authorization within 60 days. In this case there was no actual or even imminent attack against America. To further confuse things, Trump is throwing the Iranian protestors under the bus by saying that he's willing to talk with the Iranian regime now that Kahmenei is dead, much like he crapped on pro-democracy voters and protestors in Venezuela when he kept that repressive regime intact after illegally removing Maduro and promising democracy.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Trump has illegally, unconstitutionally attacked Iran in collaboration with his fellow felon Netanyahu. — Will this finally get Epstein off the front page and give Trump his excuse to declare an emergency to rig the elections? — Speaking of panicked Republicans, after they stripped Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies from millions of Americans, causing insurance bills to double and triple, they're facing a wave of outrage. — Does the arrest of a Columbia University Student show that we've lost our civil society? — Is CNN the new CBS? — Trump's inflation heats up from tariffs. — Bowing to chemical industry donations, Trump officials are killing off the system that protects families and communities from chemical disasters like explosions, spills, and fires at chemical facilities. — Crazy Alert! Trump viewed Noem's shooting her puppy in the face as an asset.

Trump's attack on elected officials of color isn't just ugly rhetoric, it's a calculated attempt to redefine who gets to belong in this democracy… Donald Trump didn't merely criticize his political opponents this week, both at the SOTU and from his office yesterday morning. He went on a racist rant that would have embarrassed a talk radio shock jock (if it didn't get them fired), much less a head of state. After Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shouted "shame" and "liar" during his State of the Union and walked out in protest, Trump took to social media to sneer that they had "the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people" and were "LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick" who "look like they should be institutionalized." He labeled them "Low IQ" — his favorite slur for women, Black, and Hispanic people — and suggested they be sent back "from where they came." He lumped in Robert De Niro as "Trump Deranged," "demented," and possibly "criminal" for criticizing him. This is the president of the United States talking.

The national debt isn't the cause of our problems: it's the receipt. It's the paper trail of the largest upward transfer of wealth in 250 years of American history… Tonight is the State of the Union speech. If it follows the routine of previous GOP presidencies, Trump will use our national debt as an excuse to call for more tax breaks for billionaires along with drastic cuts to social spending, just like Reagan, Bush, and Bush did. "The national debt is the United States' next great war," Jodey Arrington, the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, thundered this month about our $38 trillion national debt and $1 trillion annual interest payments on that debt. If we're going to use his war analogy to describe this very real crisis, the first shots were fired in 1981, when Republicans' so-called supply-side tax cuts began a forty-five-year upward transfer of over $50 trillion in wealth that made billionaires fabulously rich while it hollowed out our nation's Treasury. They stole $38 trillion from our government, and another $12 trillion (at least) from working class families via wage freezes and the destruction of unions.