Interesting. Rukmini Callimachi is a correspondent for The New York Times covering ISIS & al-Qaeda and an analyst for NBC and MSNBC. 

2. In fact the evidence pointing to that came as three discrete facts: a) A pattern of travel showing Suleimani was in Syria, Lebanon & Iraq to meet with Shia proxies known to have an offensive position to the US. (As one source said that’s just “business as usual” for Suleimani)

— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) January 4, 2020

4. And finally, a) and b) were read in the context of c) Iran’s increasingly bellicose position towards American interests in Iraq, including the attack that killed a U.S. contractor and the recent protest outside the American embassy.

— Rukmini

Trump in 2011:

“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate…So the only way he figures he’s going to get reelected, and as sure as you’re sitting there, is to start a war with Iran.” pic.twitter.com/CCKsY7SKoV

— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) January 3, 2020

Narcissists are big on projection.

The thing that annoys me most about that clip though is the last thing he says – Isn’t it pathetic.

What is “it”? The thing Trump predicts Obama will do. It’s a prediction, it’s about the future, so Trump can’t know it will happen. He couldn’t know that even if his reasons for thinking so (or pretending to think so) were good as … Read the rest

Trump spends a very hefty percentage of his time on the golf course – hefty as in around 20%.

In one way that’s a good thing, because while he’s golfing he’s not shit-tweeting or Putin-kissing or world-destroying. In another way it’s contemptible, because he decided to take on this formidable job and he’s not even giving it his full attention. (An even heftier percentage of his time is taken up with watching Fox News.)

CNN has collected some figures.

According to CNN’s tally, he has spent at least 252 days at a Trump golf club and 333 days at a Trump property as President.

This year alone, he spent at least 86 days at a golf club, despite a

It’s always worse. Greg Sargent at the Post sums up the new evidence on how bad it is:

If Mitch McConnell is going to pull off his scheme to turn President Trump’s impeachment trial into a quick and painless sham with no witnesses, the Senate majority leader needs the story to be covered as a conventional Washington standoff — one that portrays both sides as maneuvering for advantage in an equivalently political manner.

But extraordinary new revelations in the New York Times about Trump’s corrupt freezing of military aid to Ukraine will — or should — make this much harder to get away with.

Not everything is left v right, Dems v Republicans, Big End v Little End. Much … Read the rest

I thought a nice stocking present would be a sampling of the thoughts of several prominent “mental health experts” on Trump’s Letter to Pelosi, via Salon.

Dr. Bandy Lee:

This letter is a very obvious demonstration of Donald Trump’s severe mental compromise. His assertions should alarm not only those who believe that a president of the United States and a commander-in-chief of the world’s most powerful military should be mentally sound, but also those who are concerned about the potential implications of such a compromised individual bringing out pathological elements in his supporters and in society in general. I have been following and interpreting Donald Trump’s tweets as a public service, since merely reading them “gaslights” you and reforms

Trump is mad at wind now.

“I’ve studied it better than anybody I know,” the president asserted in a bizarre segment from a weekend speech to young conservatives in West Palm Beach, Florida, close to his winter retreat at Mar-a-Lago where he is spending the holidays.

President Trump: "I never understood wind, you know I know windmills very much. I've studied it better than anybody." pic.twitter.com/0U432SgNA2

— The Hill (@thehill) December 22, 2019

I particularly like “You know we have a world, right? So…the world is tynee.”

“They’re made in China and Germany mostly,” Trump said of wind turbines, of which there are more than 57,000 across the US, according to the American Wind Energy Association. “But

No. Absolutely not. No.

There’s my “absolutist belief” for you, if you want one.

No, Trump was not “just riffing.” They don’t get to brush off disgusting sadistic contemptuous cruelty that way, least of all coming from the president of the US.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Thursday on ABC’s Good Morning America that she did not know why Trump decided to suggest that Dingell was in hell. “You’d have to talk to the president about that,” she said.

But Grisham added that Trump is a “counter-puncher,” and suggested Trump was venting his frustration after being impeached by the House. “It was a very, very supportive and wild crowd and he was just riffing on some

Trump’s latest befoulment.

Trump laments that Debbie Dingell voted to impeach him despite the fact that he allowed the normal state funeral to proceed for her late husband, former Rep. John Dingell. Trump then suggests John Dingell is in hell — to audible groans. pic.twitter.com/wsYfddNIA9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 19, 2019

The “maybe he’s looking up” is bad enough, but my disgust was already on Full from his sarcastic contemptuous mimicry of Debbie Dingell talking to him on the phone, in a breathy soft weak beseeching voice. It’s disgusting in its contempt for women, and it’s also disgusting in that what he was trying to convey and mock was her emotion over the, you know, death of her husband… Read the rest

Interesting point.

Mitch McConnell is going to have to swear an oath to be impartial.

Now, broadly speaking, it’s bound to be difficult to impossible to make an airtight case that X is not impartial, because we can’t see inside each other’s heads. But if X comes right out and says – on national tv at that – “There will be no difference between the President’s position and our position as to how to handle this,” then that’s your airtight case.

Not that I think it will matter. The criminals have seized the engine room and they are never giving it back.… Read the rest

Well said.

What Trump SHOULD’VE said:

Russia, if you’re listening, but out of our elections.

But, he didn’t. His corrupt intent was apparent in 2016 & still apparent to this day. #ImpeachmentHearingpic.twitter.com/YifmGLreqh

— Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) December 4, 2019

… Read the rest

Trump will save us all from the treacherous war on the word…”Thanksgiving”?

Conservative media and some Republicans have for years claimed that Christmas is under attack, turning some people’s decision to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” during the month of December into a culture war touchstone to try to spark outrage on the right. Trump has embraced the “war on Christmas” narrative, and now he’s taking it a step further: he’s claiming liberals are out to get Thanksgiving, too.

At a rally in Florida on Tuesday, the president confoundingly reassured supporters that he wouldn’t let the “radical left” change Thanksgiving’s name. “As we gather for Thanksgiving, you know, some people want to change the name Thanksgiving. They don’t

What did the Trump know and when did he know it? The Times says before he unfroze the aid to Ukraine. Oops.

President Trump had already been briefed on a whistle-blower’s complaint about his dealings with Ukraine when he unfroze military aid for the country in September, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers from the White House counsel’s office told Mr. Trump in late August about the complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether they were legally required to give it to Congress, the people said.

Here’s a detail I didn’t know:

The whistle-blower complaint, which would typically be submitted to lawmakers who have oversight of the intelligence agencies, first came to light as

Another skull added to Trump’s belt:

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was fired Sunday by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who ordered that a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of murder be allowed to remain in the elite commando corps, the Defense Department said.

Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation after President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher would retain the gold Trident insignia signifying his status as a member of the Sea, Air, and Land Teams, or SEALs. Spencer told reporters on Friday that he believed the review process over Gallagher’s status should go forward.

In a letter to Trump, Spencer said he acknowledged his “termination,” saying the president deserved a Navy secretary “who is aligned

A clever parody:

President Donald Trump is increasingly morphing the White House residence into a second Oval. It’s become the place where Trump feels most productive, where he avoids meddling by his staff and where he speed-dials his network of confidantes, GOP lawmakers and TV pundits.

Heh, “productive,” that’s a good one. Also “meddling” – because he thinks he’s the god-emperor with infinite powers, geddit?

Maintaining a sanctuary to work and think has taken on greater importance for the president as he increasingly feels under siege by the Democratic impeachment inquiry.

Hahahahaha to work and think, oh that’s hilarious, I’m out of breath from laughing.

“The Oval presents itself as historic and it gives off a sense of

Oh, it turns out that the day Trump told Sondland “I WANT NOTHiNG I WANT NOTHiNG” was September 9, the day – here, Matt Lewis explains:

It’s important to note the timing of Trump’s “I want nothing..I want no quid pro quo” statement to Sondland: It occurred on September 9, the exact same day the House Intel Committee received the whistleblower’s complaint….

Most of the exculpatory evidence Republicans cite consists of things that happened AFTER Trump and Republicans realized the whistleblower had reported Trump’s activities.

No wonder he was in a bad mood.

Marc Ambinder adds:

Which is why the President would use that specific phrase — he knew he was being accused of precisely that.

Trump did a quick cameo in the White House backyard. He took notes with him, in giant letters, so that he wouldn’t forget what he was supposed to say.

Now “I WANT NOTHING” is trending on Twitter.

He wrote that weird note himself. He always writes in all caps, like a true illiterate. All caps but he still dots the i.

THiS iS THE FiNAL WORD FROM THE PRES OF THE US, he wrote. Oh yes? So he’s resigning?… Read the rest

Charles Pierce at Esquire says things are speeding up on Trump’s train to the cliff edge.

The latest burst of hail comes from a federal appeals court in Washington. From the Washington Post:

The request followed closely on the heels of Friday’s conviction of longtime Trump friend Roger Stone. Testimony and evidence at his trial appeared to cast doubt on written replies from Trump to Mueller about the president’s knowledge about attempts by his 2016 campaign to learn more about the release of hacked Democratic emails by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. “Did the president lie? Was the president not truthful in his responses to the Mueller investigation,” General Counsel Douglas N. Letter said. “The House is trying to determine