As a political junkie, I get lots of e-mail pleas from politicians and political advocacy groups. Today, I got one from US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Well, not exactly. That's what the "from" header said, but the message was signed "Team AOC" and delivered via Daily Kos.

In early 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump pronounced himself "neutral" in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He also expressed pessimism that a deal between the two sides was even possible: "I have friends of mine that are tremendous business-people, that are really great negotiators, [and] they say it's not doable."

As I write this, US president Donald Trump has yet to deliver his 2020 State of the Union address. For two reasons, we don't have to wait for that speech, or for the Democratic response, to discuss the state of the union. First, we know that he'll say what presidents always say (the state of the union is strong, etc, because of his policies) and that the Democratic response will be the standard opposition party response (the state of the union would be better if we were in charge).

According to its website, Shields of Strength "provides fashionable, functional, and durable Christian fitness jewelry and accessories." Those items include military "dog tags" engraved with quotes from scripture and sometimes the logo of the armed forces branch the customer belongs to. When the Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained, the Marine Corps Trademark Licensing Office ordered the company to stop combining scripture references and the Corps' emblem.