This is the core of the reasoning, on pages 40-41:

“At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches. Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the President, the Congress could not legislate, the Executive could not prosecute and the Judiciary could not review. We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter. Careful evaluation of these concerns leads us to conclude that there is no functional justification for immunizing former Presidents from federal prosecution in general or for immunizing former President Trump from the specific charges in the Indictment. In so holding, we act, “not in derogation of the separation of powers, but to maintain their proper balance.” See Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 754.

For a long time, Netanyahu played a game of divide and conquer, seeking a tame but viable Hamas in Gaza to act as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and ensure that there was no progress toward a Palestinian state. Now Israel faces an entirely different strategic quandary.

The United States, the ultimate guarantor of Israeli security, has suddenly revived, with urgency, the idea of a two-state outcome, which Netanyahu has resisted for decades. Israel is more internationally isolated. Settlers are demanding a rapid ratcheting-up of forces in the West Bank; and in many cases, with little training, they are themselves being recruited into the military that is charged, at least officially, with preventing them from attacking their Palestinian neighbors.

Hamas has only become more popular in the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority remains weak. Abbas, who has ruled without an election since 2005, is now 88, and he has no clear successor. An educated younger generation of Palestinians finds itself without any hope for its future. Weapons have flooded into the West Bank from Jordan and elsewhere. Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, says that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are “under tremendous pressure” because “the people want us to do something, they want us to launch war on Israel.” Abbas has never publicly condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which infuriates Netanyahu.

A third intifada is not impossible. The level of Palestinian anger, combined with settler violence, is combustible. But prodded by the United States, Shtayyeh says “we have been using every possible way and measure to disengage the West Bank from what is happening in Gaza.”

Nancy Pelosi’s call for the F.B.I. to investigate whether pro-Palestinian protesters have links to Russian money was remarkably foolish. Her best move now would be to stop trying to explain and to acknowledge she was wrong.

…Nobody has seriously suggested that Russia is behind the protests, and Pelosi presented no evidence. Her spokesperson subsequently referred to a social-media post by Ian Bremmer, a well-respected political scientist, to the effect that the Gaza war and related chaos benefit Putin. I emailed Bremmer, and he expanded the thought in response: “The Middle East war took Putin’s Ukraine invasion off the headlines and made it a lower policy priority for the Americans. Not to mention he benefits from chaos in the region and higher oil prices. As global leaders go, Russia’s president is among those most interested in seeing the war continue.”

That’s a perfectly reasonable analysis, one I share. Of course Putin is happy with the chaos. But it’s quite a leap to suggest that he’s behind it or to smear the thousands of Americans who earnestly believe that the carnage in Gaza — where 26,000 people have been killed, most of the population displaced and vast areas devastated — should be stopped. Many Israelis are also demanding that their government try to negotiate a cease-fire to free the remaining Israeli hostages.

To conflate their sentiments with Russian meddling or the Ukraine war is not only uncalled-for and wrong, but also damaging to President Biden. Many of the protesters Pelosi tarnished are Democrats, and many Democrats are already unhappy with the administration’s stance on the war. This can only alienate them further.

Gift link https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/24/opinion/thepoint/pelosi-gaza-protesters-russia?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Today she’s typically described as a former advice columnist — but that term doesn’t really do justice to E. Jean Carroll’s career pre-Donald Trump. Long before she was one of the longest-serving advice columnists in America, Ms. Carroll blazed trails as a gonzo-style journalist The Times once called “feminism’s answer to Hunter Thompson.”

She profiled Lyle Lovett and went camping with the notorious New York curmudgeon Fran Lebovitz for a cover story in Outside. She wrote a famous piece on Dan Rather for Esquire, appeared in the “Best American Crime Writing,” and was the first female contributing editor at Playboy — back when people really did read it for the articles.

…as I sat in court in Manhattan last week, watching Mr. Trump glare and mumble at the back of Ms. Carroll’s head — she sat two rows in front of him, pin straight in her chair, the first time she’s been near this man in nearly 30 years — I couldn’t stop thinking that this trial was also about something else: the value of a woman, long past middle age, who dared to claim she indeed still had value. Just how radical was it for Ms. Carroll, 80, to demand that she was worth something?

…When I talked to Deborah Tuerkheimer, a law professor at Northwestern whose book “Credible” examines why we disbelieve allegations of sexual abuse, she told me that Mr. Trump’s team was “trying to show that she was already past her prime,” that she had “withered on the vine and so whatever was left of her wasn’t enough to warrant a hefty damage award.” She also told me there is no precedent for a case like Ms. Carroll’s, in part because it is so unusual for a woman her age to come forward. Part of that has to do with stigma (people are deeply uncomfortable with the combination of older women and sexual assault, and Ms. Carroll was 52 when the assault took place) and also with statutes of limitations. But it makes her “all the more radical,” Ms. Tuerkheimer said — an 80-year-old woman proclaiming she wasn’t done yet, that her reputation was worth something and that she was owed money from the person who’d trashed it.

More at gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/opinion/e-jean-carroll-audacity-donald-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth month, a coalition of Black faith leaders is pressuring the Biden administration to push for a cease-fire — a campaign spurred in part by their parishioners, who are increasingly distressed by the suffering of Palestinians and critical of the president’s response to it. More than 1,000 Black pastors representing hundreds of thousands of congregants nationwide have issued the demand. In sit-down meetings with White House officials, and through open letters and advertisements, ministers have made a moral case for President Biden and his administration to press Israel to stop its offensive operations in Gaza, which have killed thousands of civilians. They are also calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas and an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.The effort at persuasion also carries a political warning, detailed in interviews with a dozen Black faith leaders and their allies. Many of their parishioners, these pastors said, are so dismayed by the president’s posture toward the war that their support for his re-election bid could be imperiled.

…The coalition of Black clergy pushing Mr. Biden for a cease-fire is diverse, from conservative-leaning Southern Baptists to more progressive nondenominational congregations in the Midwest and Northeast…“Black clergy have seen war, militarism, poverty and racism all connected,” said Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network, whose members lead roughly 15 million Black churchgoers. She helped coordinate recent meetings between the White House and faith leaders. “But the Israel-Gaza war, unlike Iran and Afghanistan, has evoked the kind of deep-seated angst among Black people that I have not seen since the civil rights movement.”

…the pastors’ Palestinian allies in the United States, Gaza and the West Bank have sought their assistance on behalf of civilians suffering under Israel’s counteroffensive. And the pastors have gotten an earful from their own congregants, especially younger churchgoers, about the conflict and Mr. Biden’s full-throated support for Israel. That sentiment more broadly reflects a strong sense of solidarity between Black Americans and Palestinians that has shaped opinion since the war began.

“We see them as a part of us,” said the Rev. Cynthia Hale, the founder and senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga. “They are oppressed people. We are oppressed people.”

More at gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/28/us/politics/black-pastors-biden-gaza-israel.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Back in Waukee, Brad Remsburg was wearing a North Face puffy vest, sitting in a booth and explaining why he liked Haley — she was an alternative to the former president.

“I will not vote for Trump,” explained Remsburg, who’s in medical sales and was joined by his son, a former Iowa State offensive lineman.

The elder Remsburg said he was basically a Republican until Trump came along and is now hoping there’s a path back.

Same with Bruce Norquist, who was a table over and retired as an Army lieutenant colonel at NorthCom and now works in computer security.

“Trump is a fool, he’s too divisive,” said Norquist. (An Aberdeen, S.D., native, Norquist first came to Washington as an intern for Aberdeen’s own Tom Daschle.)

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/10/haley-iowa-2024-primary-trump-00134703