A WAR PRESIDENT?

Bush got Saddam Hussein, Obama got Bin Laden. You know Trump wanted a big name for his collection too

https://www.axios.com/us-iran-war-footing-qasem-soleimani-airstrike-13cbe74f-9095-47b4-8d03-85f1e702f447.html
"In killing General Soleimani," the N.Y. Times reports, "Trump took an action that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had rejected, fearing it would lead to war between the United States and Iran." . . .

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/soleimani-trump-muhandis-iran-iraq.html
The United States is now at war with Iran. . . . It is hard to discern how Trump, who ordered the assassination personally, thinks this will play out. On New Year’s Eve, he told reporters that he wanted peace with Iran. . . [read on] 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/3/21048033/trump-iran-war-qassem-suleimani-retaliation
Why this situation is so damn scary . . .

Safer?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/3/1909256/-Mike-Pompeo-claims-killing-Soleimani-made-Americans-safer-as-his-own-department-tells-them-to-run
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was out to cheerlead in the wake of U.S. airstrikes that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani . . . “The world is a much safer place today. I can assure you that Americans in the region are much safer.” 

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/state-department-leave-iraq-trump-attack-iranian-leader
State Dept Urges US Citizens To Leave Iraq After Trump-Authorized Strike On Iranian Leader   

"A war footing"

https://www.axios.com/us-iran-war-footing-qasem-soleimani-airstrike-13cbe74f-9095-47b4-8d03-85f1e702f447.html 
A few months ago, Trump was musing about bringing U.S. troops home from the Middle East, and to let others fight it out in the sand. Now, he’s adding forces, and they’re necessarily on a war footing . . . Trump now has to prepare for an extreme backlash from Iran — and likely intensified attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East, and anywhere else within Iran’s planning reach.

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/u-s-deploys-additional-troops-to-middle-east/
The U.S. will deploy thousands of additional troops to the Middle East as tensions with Iran mount . . .

[NB: Expect this to become a big factor in impeachment: "How can the Dems undermine the authority of the Commander in Chief at a time of international crisis?"]

Here it comes: https://www.thedailybeast.com/foxs-stuart-varney-you-cant-impeach-a-president-who-just-killed-a-terrorist
Fox’s Stuart Varney Wonders: Why Would You Impeach a President Who Just Killed a Terrorist?

"War" with Iran?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iran-trump-soleimani-response_n_5e0fbe4fc5b6b5a713ba3e26
Khamenei has vowed “forceful revenge” against the U.S. for Soleimani’s death . . . Already backed into a corner by Trump’s maximum pressure campaign of economic sanctions, analysts expect that Iran will retaliate but say a traditional military conflict isn’t something Tehran considers advantageous. “Iran has known for a very long time that it can’t win in any kind of conventional military warfare with the United States, but it has proven to be very sophisticated at asymmetric warfare,” Ellie Geranmayeh, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told HuffPost . . . [I]t’s much more adept at relying on insurgent-style attacks and proxies to exert its influence. Iran cultivated a wide network of pro-Iranian militias under Soleimani’s leadership, and it’s possible that after his death those become the primary actors in responding to his killing. The U.S. has a wide range of interests, assets and allies that could all become targets for an Iranian response. These range from embassies and consulates to shipping routes and oil facilities . . . Iran may additionally target U.S. partners in the Middle East, which would threaten to draw more actors into the conflict . . . Iran and its proxies could also seek to target U.S. personnel in the region or carry out their own assassinations, an extreme option that would almost certainly lead to further escalations in the conflict . . . Military action is also not Iran’s only avenue for responding to Soleimani’s death. Since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 and has since imposed harsh economic sanctions, Iran has continually threatened to no longer comply with the agreement to curb its nuclear program and has taken provocative but largely reversible steps to increase its uranium enrichment. Prior to Soleimani’s death, Iran was expected to issue a statement on its nuclear plans next week and may use the opportunity to announce a more aggressive move away from the nuclear deal and towards weapons-level enrichment. There is also the potential for Iran to carry out cyber attacks against the U.S. as a means of avoiding conventional conflict . . .

A president shouldn't carry out a major act like this without even informing, let alone consulting, the "Gang of Eight" in Congress. But Trump did tell Lindsey Graham . . . during a golf outing

https://www.thedailybeast.com/lindsey-graham-claims-he-was-briefed-about-suleimani-strike-during-trump-golf-trip 

Idiot

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/eric-trump-telegraphed-strike-against-iran/
Eric Trump Hinted at Strike Against Iran . . . In a now deleted tweet, Eric Trump apparently knew about the U.S. strike against an Iran military commander — and hinted to the world about it — two days before it happened. Said Trump: “Bout to open up a big ol’ can of whoop ass #DontMessWithTheBest #USAUSAUSA” 

More: https://www.theroot.com/eric-trump-might-be-the-dumbest-trump-out-of-all-the-tr-1821743300

[NB: So Trump won't tell duly elected public officials because (he says) he can't trust them to keep it secret, but he does tell his moronic son -- who doesn't.]

By the way, thinking back I see this story about New Year's resolutions in a new light

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-new-year-resolution_n_5e0c228ee4b0b2520d1bf1a9

Speaking at a party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, first lady Melania Trump said her resolution is for “peace in the world.” The president wouldn’t give his . . .

More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-told-mar-a-lago-pals-to-expect-big-iran-action-days-before-soleimanis-death

In the five days prior to launching a strike that killed Iran’s most important military leader, Donald Trump roamed the halls of Mar-a-Lago, his private resort in Florida, and started dropping hints to close associates and club-goers that something huge was coming . . . Trump began telling friends and allies hanging at his perennial vacation getaway that he was working on a “big” response to the Iranian regime that they would be hearing or reading about very “soon.” Two of these sources tell The Daily Beast that the president specifically mentioned he’d been in close contact with his top national-security and military advisers on gaming out options for an aggressive action that could quickly materialize. “He kept saying, ‘You’ll see,’” one of the sources recalled . . .

The Decision

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/how-trump-decided-to-kill-an-iranian-general/

“When President Trump’s national security team came to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, they weren’t expecting him to approve an operation to kill Gen. Qassem Suleimani. . . . Why Trump chose this moment to explore an operation against the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, after tolerating Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf for months, was a matter of debate within his own administration. Officials gave differing and incomplete accounts of the intelligence they said prompted Trump to act. Some said they were stunned by his decision, which could lead to war with one of America’s oldest adversaries in the Middle East.”

Trump on Obama, 2011

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/01/hypocrisy-thy-name-donald-trump  

“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective. So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected — and as sure as you're sitting there — is to start a war with Iran.”

More: https://www.vox.com/2020/1/3/21048155/trump-obama-war-iran-tweets

[NB: Another example of Trump projection: he thinks presidents think this way, because HE thinks this way.]

Who was Qassem Suleimani?
 
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/03/trump-is-now-guilty-of-reckless-endangerment/ 

More: https://www.vox.com/2020/1/3/21048079/trump-pompeo-iran-lies 
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went on CNN earlier this morning to explain that the Trump administration killed a top Iranian general to forestall an “imminent threat” and that the decision to do so “saved American lives.” . . . It’s obviously possible, in theory, that this is true. But it’s somewhat at odds with the Department of Defense’s statement last night which said merely that Suleimani was “actively developing plans” for attacks and that the American bombing was “aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans” rather than disrupting an ongoing one. . . . 

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-response-soleimani-strike-stop-war
While railing against Soleimani for “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel,” Trump boasted about how his administration “caught him in the act and terminated him.” . . . The President went on to argue that Soleimani was killed “to stop a war” and that his administration does not seek regime change. “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,” Trump said.

https://www.vox.com/2020/1/3/21048012/iran-general-killed-qasem-soleimani-legality 

The most significant question has to do with whether the alleged threat from Suleimani and Iran was “imminent,” meaning was it absolutely necessary to act when we did in order to neutralize an attack? If it was, the president has the authority to authorize a strike. If not, well, it’s complicated...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/trump-soleimani-iran-strike-legal-justification.html
Can the President Just Kill Anyone He Wants Now?

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/3/1909275/-At-a-time-when-Trump-needs-credibility-most-he-s-already-destroyed-it-on-the-world-stage
"The Pentagon is still scrambling right now to tell a story of, Why now? The 'Why now?' is sort of a central question that the Trump administration hasn't really explained." Cooper said she wasn't sure there was any "game plan at this point" in the aftermath of the strike that killed Soleimani. The lack of administration planning has been particularly evident in the fact that the administration failed to brief the Gang of Eight congressional leaders in advance of the strike, along with the notable absence of administration officials who were prepared to explain the strike shortly after its execution. In fact, all that was presented in the immediate aftermath of the attack was an American flag tweeted out by Trump . . .

Reactions from the two parties

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/3/21047994/iran-general-soleimani-killed-response-congress-democrats 

In other investigation news . . .

This is a single-sourced story, and I tend to be suspicious about these. But if true, it is huge (thanks to DK for the lead)

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/3/1909205/-Explosive-report-indicates-that-Donald-Trump-s-loans-from-Deutsche-Bank-were-back-by-Russia 
According to Forensic News, Trump’s loans from Deutsche Bank were underwritten by a Russian state-owned bank. That news reportedly comes from a whistleblower with access to documents from both Deutsche Bank and Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank. VTB Bank was also the proposed lender on the never-completed Trump Tower Moscow project. The question of why Deutsche Bank would extend a series of huge loans to Trump has been dangling since before he ever announced his candidacy for president on a golden escalator ride. When Trump first went to Deutsche Bank, he was worse than broke. He had just finished bankrupting multiple casinos in New Jersey, and then had convinced investors to back a takeover of those casinos at a fraction of the original value. Then Trump deliberately allowed the investment group to go bankrupt so he could grab the whole deal himself at a fraction of what his investors had paid. Then he went bankrupt. Again. And along the way he was socked with a massive fine for money laundering at his now bankrupt (again) casino. Trump was so fiscally radioactive that no American bank would let him in the door. But Deutsche Bank turned around and gifted Trump with loans that gave him a fresh start and an apparently miracle turnaround of his New York real estate empire. Those loans have always been the subject of head-scratching over just what Deutsche Bank could have been thinking...

Mitch McConnell says the Trump impeachment trial should be handled just like the Clinton impeachment trial -- no witnesses. Only one problem with that

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mcconnell-schumer-standoff-impeachment-lingers
During his remarks on the floor Friday, Schumer pointedly reminded McConnell that witnesses were brought to the Senate during Clinton’s impeachment. “Leader McConnell’s comparisons to 1999 are hopelessly flawed and inaccurate,” he said. “There were witnesses in 1999, Leader McConnell. You want the precedent of 1999, there were witnesses as there were in every single impeachment trial of a president in history. It would be a break in precedent for there not to be witnesses.”

More: https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/pelosi-slams-mcconnell-for-being-part-of-cover-up/ 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement: "Today, Leader McConnell made clear that he will feebly comply with President Trump’s cover-up of his abuses of power and will be an accomplice to that cover-up. Leader McConnell is doubling down on his violation of his oath, even after the exposure of new, deeply incriminating documents this week which provide further evidence of what we know: President Trump abused the power of his office for personal, political gain." 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/impeachment-senate-trial-stalemate.html
The Impeachment Stalemate Is Working Fine for Democrats

These three Senate Repubs could decide the process on an impeachment trial

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/3/21031425/senate-impeachment-trial-lisa-murkowski-mitt-romney-susan-collins

More: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/03/democrats-trump-trial-vote-092990
Senate Democrats are expected to almost unanimously declare President Donald Trump guilty at the end of his impeachment trial. But senators across the party’s spectrum insist they haven't made up their mind. It’s a bid to entice a handful of Senate Republicans to join their push for new documents and witnesses involved in the president’s Ukraine scandal, particularly those who have expressed dismay with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vow to coordinate closely with the White House...

A novel legal theory

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/doj-on-mcgahn-courts-have-no-role-in-fights-between-congress-white-house
Federal courts should not rule on separation-of-powers disputes between Congress and the White House, the Justice Department argued Friday. The oral arguments came in D.C. federal appeals court as the House Judiciary Committee seeks to enforce a subpoena it issued in April for testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn. . . . [read on] 

And another one

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/appeals-hearing-house-judiciary-committee-mueller-grand-jury-docs
Trump Judge Suggests DOJ Could Ignore Order OKing Release Of Mueller Grand Jury Docs 

And another one

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/white-house-withholds-20-emails-on-ukraine-aid/
“The Trump administration disclosed on Friday that there were 20 emails between a top aide to President Trump’s acting chief of staff and a colleague at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget discussing the freeze of a congressionally mandated military aid package for Ukraine . . . But in response to a court order that it swiftly process those pages in response to a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, lawsuit filed by The New York Times, the Office of Management and Budget delivered a terse letter saying it would not turn over any of the 40 pages of emails — not even with redactions.”

[NB: It goes without saying, but this is what guilty poeple do.] 

Of course

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/new-mueller-docs-tie-manafort-more-closely-to-ukraine-pressure-campaign
New Mueller Docs Tie Manafort More Closely To Ukraine Pressure Campaign 

More: https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/01/03/how-paul-manafort-lied-to-mueller-to-protect-jared-kushner/

In other news . . .

Another woman

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/courtney-friel-donald-trump-kiss_n_5e0f164cc5b6b5a713b8af65
Former Fox News reporter Courtney Friel says that Donald Trump propositioned her before he was elected president while both were married, and that the come-on compromised her reporting on his presidential campaign. Friel wrote in her new memoir “Tonight At 10: Kicking Booze and Breaking News” that Trump called her “the hottest one at Fox News” . . . Trump, in a phone call, complimented Friel’s work and asked about career goals before getting more personal, she wrote. “Out of nowhere, he said: ‘You should come up to my office sometime, so we can kiss.’” . . .

Will attacking Iran help Trump's re-election?

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/trump-war-iran-election-nuclear-obama.html 
A poll earlier this summer found that just 18 percent of Americans prefer to “take military action against Iran” as against 78 percent wanting to “rely mainly on economic and diplomatic efforts.” . . . [read on] 

Interestingly, Fox World is not totally on board with the Suleimani attack

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/soleimani-strike-fox-news-reaction

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/01/did-donald-trump-just-end-tucker-carlsons

Chicken or egg? https://crooksandliars.com/2020/01/hours-after-fox-anchor-promoted-military
Hours After Fox Anchor Pushed Iran Military Strike, Soleimani Was Killed

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-biggest-fox-news-boosters-suddenly-stop-railing-against-deep-state-intelligence
Suddenly, it appears the U.S. intelligence community is back in good standing over at Fox News. . . .

Trump points to the stock market (as long as it's going up) as an indicator of economic vitality. It isn't. Serious people look at indicators like these

https://www.axios.com/us-manufacturing-index-ism-lowest-great-recession-af6fb388-9cee-4944-8955-6aec166671ea.html
The Institute of Supply Management's index of manufacturing activity released Friday hit its lowest level since the end of the Great Recession in December. . . It shows worsening conditions for the U.S. manufacturing sector, which has been in contraction for five straight months, and reignites concerns about the trade war's impact on the economy. . . 

An assault on social programs

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/01/raw-data-new-snap-rules-will-cut-benefit-rolls/
New SNAP Rules Will Cut Benefit Rolls

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/trump-will-further-weaken-fair-housing-laws/
Trump Will Further Weaken Fair Housing Laws 

Trump's dilemma

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/trump-needs-to-coax-more-votes-from-a-shrinking-base/
Trump Needs to Coax More Votes from a Shrinking Base 

More: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-evangelical-coalition-launch_n_5e0f5854e4b0b2520d2084c3
Donald Trump is launching “Evangelicals for Trump” . . .

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/476730-trump-rallies-evangelical-supporters-we-have-god-on-our-side
Trump rallies evangelical supporters: 'We have God on our side'

[NB: As the old joke goes, "What do you mean WE?"]

Another GOPer retires from Congress -- that's more than two dozen now

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/476649-gop-rep-phil-roe-wont-seek-reelection

Elizabeth Warren's quarterly fundraising drops, Amy Klobuchar's doubles

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/warrens-fundraising-dips-slightly/

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/03/klobuchar-raised-more-than-11-million/

Bonus item: The Ten Most Outrageous Obama Scandals

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/01/daily-show-presents-top-ten-obama-scandals

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TAKING CREDIT

In the lead-up to the election, we are going to see lots of lists of Trump's accomplishments and "promises kept." They will include many exaggerations and lies -- and won't include the failures and promises broken. But we will also see a few things he can claim no credit for at all

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/veterans-healthcare-trump-accomplishment-signed-law-obama
Trump Lists Vets Bill As 2019 Accomplishment. But Obama Signed It Into Law.

More: https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1212108666108645378
Farmers benefit from @realDonaldTrump policies . . .

https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1212081485613805570
Latinos flourishing under @realDonaldTrump policies . . .

https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1212095578458378240
@realDonaldTrump is strengthening our trade deals . . .

More: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/02/politics/donald-trump-took-credit-for-what/index.html
10 of the most questionable things Trump's claimed credit for

Trump is crowing about the economy, his biggest advantage headed into the fall election. But the Fed (the Fed he loves to insult) has more to do with it than he does

https://www.axios.com/jerome-powell-interest-rates-2019-73b78462-04f8-4f77-8aff-eee25f35f803.html

The stock market is going up AT THE SAME STEADY RATE that it has been going up since 1975. It has nothing to do with Trump

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/01/the-stock-market-looks-totally-normal/

Trump wants to pardon another killer

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-considers-pardoning-blackwater-mercenary-convicted-of-murder
Less than two months after granting clemency to three convicted or accused war criminals, Donald Trump is considering pardoning a man convicted of murder in one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq war . . . Trump is still quietly weighing pardoning at least one employee of the private army Blackwater, Nicholas Slatten. Convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, Slatten, a former U.S. Army sniper, took part in the contractor’s infamous 2007 massacre at the Nisour Square traffic circle in Baghdad. Blackwater was founded by Trump ally Erik Prince . . .

Trump orders a major escalation in tensions with Iran. No one knows where this goes next

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/2/1909116/-Iraqi-state-TV-Key-Iranian-military-leader-killed-in-airstrike-at-Baghdad-airport
A three-rocket attack on the Baghdad International Airport has resulted in the death of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force General Qasem Solemani . . . US officials told Reuters news agency they had carried out strikes against targets linked to Iran but gave no further details. . . . The Popular Mobilisation Forces, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, told Reuters that Gen Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis had been killed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-strike-kills-qassem-soleimani-irans-most-important-military-commander
U.S. Strike Kills Iran’s Most Important Military Commander 

More: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/soleimani-trump-iran-iraq-093102 

Clueless

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/trump-north-korea-iran-clueless.html
Trump Is Clueless on Iran and North Korea

What goes around . . .

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-old-tweets-barack-obama-iran_n_5e0efa06c5b6b5a713b86f2c
A number of President Donald Trump’s old tweets that claimed his predecessor Barack Obama would bomb Iran to boost his polling numbers are going viral again after a U.S. airstrike that killed Iran’s top general. . . . 

In other investigation news . . .

The Senate just can't get away with a trial without witnesses and documents. It is clear now that unreleased documents and witnesses will be damning for Trump
 
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/2/1909016/-Unredacted-emails-show-OMB-officials-knowingly-engaged-in-conspiracy-to-hide-illegal-action-by-Trump
Unredacted versions of White House memos, obtained by the website Just Security, confirm that the decision to withhold U.S. military assistance from Ukraine came straight from Donald Trump. Those memos show rapidly escalating concern from officials at both the White House and the Pentagon who saw that Trump’s actions in delaying the release of the aide were both illegal and likely to generate a political firestorm. And they demonstrate that by the time Trump called the Ukrainian president, officials at the Office of Management and Budget were actively engaged in disguising the truth and conspiring to deceive both Congress and the public. . . [read on]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/explosive-new-emails-add-to-pile-of-evidence-that-trump-personally-ordered-ukraine-aid-freeze
“Clear direction from POTUS to hold,” he said. The brief, explosive sentence was one of several emails detailing the President’s orders. . . .  

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/politics/unredacted-ukraine-documents-pentagon-concerns/index.html
The documents, including emails from officials at the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget that were released under court order last month but were either partially or completely blacked out . . . They also raise serious questions about why the newly revealed contents were redacted by the Trump administration in the first place amid congressional oversight efforts and court orders in Freedom of Information Act litigation. "These redactions at least raise eyebrows. The categories that the Freedom of Information Act allows the government to withhold are sufficiently vague that it's hard to say whether these redactions were actually in violation of that law," said Josh Geltzer, executive director and visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. "But does it appear suspicious given the damning nature of what was withheld, and the current government's obvious motivation for withholding it," he told CNN. . . .

More: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/02/the-pressure-for-impeachment-witnesses-continues-to-swell/
The Pressure for Impeachment Witnesses Continues to Swell 

Will John Bolton be forced to testify?

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/john-bolton-has-no-excuse-not-testify-now

Mueller docs released

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/read-newly-released-memos-on-muellers-russia-probe-including-witness-interviews

Mitch McConnell continues to demand no witnesses -- and the only answer is to take the decision out of his hands

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/2/1908744/-Daily-Kos-writer-Joan-McCarter-McConnell-willing-to-break-everything-to-stymie-impeachment
“The traditional media is catching on to just how bad he has been over the years. And, I think on impeachment, he really blew it by saying flat out, ‘Yeah, I’m coordinating with the White House, and I’m just going to do whatever Trump wants. There’s no question he’s not going to be acquitted, I’ve already made up my mind. . . . It really was sort of astounding that he would be just so bald-faced in saying that. And I think finally, finally, that was just a little bit too far for the traditional media, even.” “People have become completely normalized to [McConnell’s obstructionism] … it’s interesting to me that it took impeachment for people to see just how radical, just how extremist Mitch McConnell can be on these things—how willing he is to break everything” . . .

In other news . . .

Trump claims a "massive" fourth quarter fundraising total ($46 million). But the six leading Dems are splitting up over $155 million

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/trump-campaign-fundraising-46-million-092579  

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/democrats-2020-huge-donor-windfall-093034
 
It's what they do

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-campaign-official-consent-decree-leaked-tape
The end of a court decree that barred so-called “ballot security” activity by certain Republicans is a big deal for President Trump’s re-election efforts. An audio tape of Trump campaign official Justin Clark describing Election Day plans for 2020 made headlines last month for Clark’s reference to the “suppressing” of votes Republicans have “traditionally” done . . . The Republican National Committee entered into the consent after being sued for targeting minority voters with discriminatory tactics in the name of “ballot security.” In private remarks recorded in Wisconsin last November, Clark explained “what is going to be different about Election Day operations in 2020 versus 2016.” “First and foremost the consent decree is gone,” he said. Clark went on to discuss the financial and institutional benefits of having the Republican National Committee take the lead on poll watching and other Election Day operations . . . Marc Elias, a Democratic election law attorney, told TPM that the decree being lifted will be “enormously consequential, because this will be the first presidential cycle in which the RNC will be able to directly coordinate these poll monitoring and [ballot] challenge programs.” . . . “Now that the consent decree is gone, and Trump has taken over the RNC as well as many state activities, I am very concerned they’re going to up their activities here, in an effort to prevent minorities from voting,” Hasen told TPM. “The tape is just further confirmation that that is a risk.” 

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wisconsin-voter-purge-conservative-2020-elections
Conservative Group Pushes For Immediate Voter Purge In Wisconsin
 
Those of us in Illinois know that former Democratic governor Rod Blagojevich is corrupt . . . and stupid. But this take a lot of gall, even for him

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/blagojevich-pardon-trump-lincoln-impeachment
In Apparent Pardon Play, Blagojevich Writes From Prison That Dems Would Impeach Lincoln

NH unions that backed Bernie in 2016 aren't backing him this time. That's an ominous trend

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/bernie-sanders-new-hampshire-unions-092271

Biden has his best fundraising quarter so far

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/02/biden-raises-23-million-top-result-092759

A deceptively edited video of Biden goes viral

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/clip-of-biden-suggesting-far-right-idea-is-a-deceptive-edit.html

More: https://crooksandliars.com/2020/01/viral-edited-video-biden-warning-shot
Doubt Everything

Sean Hannity of Fox World served as a backchannel between Trump and Paul Manafort

https://www.thedailybeast.com/paul-manafort-said-sean-hannity-served-as-his-trump-backchannel-docs
Manafort did not speak to Trump or anyone closely associated with the president or his legal team besides Hannity around the time that The New York Times and other outlets reported on a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner and a lawyer linked to the Kremlin. Manafort described Hannity as a close friend and “certainly a backchannel” to Trump, saying that he understood Hannity was in communication with the president. “Manafort knew Hannity was speaking to Trump because Hannity would tell Manafort to hang in there, that he had been talking to Trump, that Trump had his back, and things like that,” the memos said. “Manafort understood his conversations with Hannity to be a message from Trump.” . . .

Bonus item: The Poor Little Rich Girl and Boy Genius get to accompany Daddy to Davos

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/01/ivanka-trump-jared-presidential-delegationdavos-092374 

***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

INSIDE THE BUBBLE

Why Trump loves going to Mar-a-Lago

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/01/trump-mar-a-lago-091764

Trump loves to be around people while at the resort, said several people familiar with the president’s time there. . . . “He can’t stand to be criticized or challenged. And when he asks you, ‘How am I doing?’ you just say ‘You’re doing great,’ that’s it, that’s what he wants to hear,” said Leamer, who has talked with Trump many times at Mar-a-Lago over the years. “The people around him are increasingly the true believers and it’s almost like a religious revival when he shows up there. They jump up and down, they shout, they scream his praises,” he added.

One thing foreign leaders have learned: if you flatter Trump personally, you can get away with almost anything

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-kim-jong-un-nuclear-testing-threat_n_5e0c5efec5b6b5a713b4dca4
Trump Shrugs Off Kim Jong Un’s Nuclear Testing Threat: ‘He Likes Me’

More: https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-trump-kim-bromance-on-rocks.html
Trump's national security adviser apparently doesn't know that Kim Jong Un's family name is Kim . . . [read on]

Trump has no policy for dealing with Iran: he killed Obama's deal, which successfully suppressed Iran's nuclear program, and he followed the lead of whatever Saudi Arabia and Israel wanted. Now at a moment of crisis he's got nothing but bluster

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/trump-put-himself-irans-mercy/604321/
Over the last 18 months, Donald Trump has picked a fight with Iran that he won’t end and can’t win. That fight has had horrifying consequences for the Iranian people, led Tehran to restart its nuclear program, and now left parts of the American embassy compound in Baghdad in flames. In the days and weeks to come, Trump’s policy will likely lead either to war or additional American humiliation, or both. . . . [read on]

In other news . . .

Trump is using loopholes in the tax law to give corporations even bigger tax breaks

https://www.salon.com/2020/01/01/trump-administration-is-quietly-gutting-tax-law-to-give-big-new-breaks-to-corporations/ 

Trump's pal

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/01/netanyahu-seeks-immunity-from-prosecution/
Netanyahu Seeks Immunity from Prosecution

25 of Trump's wildest lies and quirky claims

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cnn-donald-trump-wildest-lines-2019_n_5e0c4966e4b0843d360ce3d1

Elizabeth Warren tries to undo her biggest strategic mistake

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/01/warren-rarely-mentions-medicare-for-all-now/
Warren Rarely Mentions ‘Medicare for All’ Now

Why do young voters hate Pete Buttigieg?

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/01/pete-buttigieg-enrages-left-liberals-2020-091479
Asked for comment for this article, a representative from the Buttigieg campaign told Politico that staffers are occasionally vexed by the cold reception to a platform that’s well to the left of any recent Democratic presidential nominee. [read on]

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/27/aoc-president-sanders-089617 
“The future of the Democratic Party is not Pete Buttigieg. It’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” said Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, president of the California Young Democrats . . .

More: https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/01/buttigieg-raised-nearly-25-million-in-q4/
Buttigieg Raised Nearly $25 Million in Q4

Sanders raises $35 million

https://politicalwire.com/2020/01/02/sanders-raised-nearly-35-million-in-q4/

Bonus item: Bad dog!

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/21/1907237/-Cartoon-Bad-dog

***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

2020

As we embark on a new year -- hopefully Trump's last in office: a look back, and a look forward

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ex-bush-aides-trump-pelosi-trial_n_5e0b0b59e4b0b2520d1a96ac
Two former aides to President George W. Bush have put forward a theory for why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is currently delaying sending the articles of impeachment of President Donald Trump to the Senate. Paul Rosenzweig, who served as deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security in the Bush administration, tweeted Monday that Pelosi could want to ensure Trump “is still under impeachment” over the Ukraine scandal when he delivers a State of the Union address on Feb 4. . . . “Imagine what it would be like if he got to give the SOTU having been cleared by the Senate ― it would be a full-blown triumphal rant,” wrote Rosenzweig. “But if the impeachment is still pending, it might, instead, be an unhinged narcissistic screed of almost unimaginable insanity,” he continued. “Just think of how painful it would be for 53 Republican Senators to sit in the halls of Congress, watching a live meltdown on national TV. That, alone, would be worth the price of admission.” . . . David Frum, a former speechwriter for Bush . . . cited and expanded on Rosenzweig’s idea . . . “If there’s been a trial and there’s been a sham hearing and the Senate has slapped together an acquittal, imagine the tone of President Trump on the 4th of February, triumphal, obnoxious, overbearing, ‘I win, I win, you lose, you lose’ . . . If the impeachment is still pending on the 4th of February, can you imagine how insane that State of the Union is going to be?” he added. “It’s going to be like the Twitter feed. “It’s going to be like the Christmas Twitter feed when the family is all gone.” “It’s going to be an hour of paranoia and grievance and narcissism of a kind that is going to, as Paul suggests, that will terrify even many of its supporters,” Frum concluded. 

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/31/1906296/-The-year-in-Pelosi-owning-Trump
Let’s just take a moment to appreciate several of the iconic moments that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi provided the country over the past year on the way to besting Donald Trump Every. Damn. Time. [read on] 

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/12/31/the-seeds-of-theocratic-authoritarianism-are-being-planted/

Since it became obvious that Attorney General William Barr manipulated the release of the Mueller report in an attempt to exonerate Donald Trump, people have been asking the questions posed recently by Katherine Stewart and Caroline Fredrickson. Why would a seemingly respectable, semiretired lion of the Washington establishment undermine the institutions he is sworn to uphold, incinerate his own reputation, and appear to willfully misrepresent the reports of special prosecutors and inspectors general, all to defend one of the most lawless and corrupt presidents in American history? . . . Initially we heard a lot about Barr being part of a group of Republicans who are dedicated to the concept of a “unitary executive.” That was affirmed by the attorney general’s recent speech to the Federalist Society. It was, however, Barr’s speech at Notre Dame that led many of us to look at little deeper into what motivates this attorney general. He blamed “secularists” for moral chaos and posited that “free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people.” Stewart and Fredrickson point out that these views are foundational for Barr. This form of “religious liberty” is not a mere side issue for Mr. Barr, or for the other religious nationalists who have come to dominate the Republican Party. Mr. Barr has made this clear. All the problems of modernity — “the wreckage of the family,” “record levels of depression and mental illness,” “drug addiction” and “senseless violence” — stem from the loss of a strict interpretation of the Christian religion. As Joan Walsh recently pointed out, a look at Barr’s history demonstrates that he has been “neck-deep in extremist Catholic institutions.” One of the more interesting is the Catholic Information Center. . . [read on]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/31/1906136/-Let-s-dare-to-dream-that-Trump-and-Republicans-get-absolutely-crushed-in-2020
Let's dare to dream that Trump and Republicans get absolutely crushed in 2020 [read on]

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is under attack. Trump goes golfing

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/baghdad-embassy-under-attack-trump-tweets 

More: https://www.axios.com/trumps-new-years-crisis-a09f3bfb-b18e-4833-ab8e-84c719bbf69f.html
The storming of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad has launched one of the biggest foreign policy crises of the Trump presidency. . . . Outside the embassy, "thousands of protesters and militia fighters [were] chanting 'Death to America,' throwing rocks, covering the walls with graffiti and demanding that the United States withdraw" from Iraq, the N.Y. Times reports. "[M]any were members of Kataib Hezbollah," which is backed by Iran.

Trump: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1212121012151689217
"The U.S. Embassy in Iraq is, & has been for hours, SAFE! Many of our great Warfighters, together with the most lethal military equipment in the world, was immediately rushed to the site . . . Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!"

 

[NB: In the end he cancelled the golfing and had "meetings" at the golf club.]

 

What ending the Iran deal has cost us

 

https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/who-is-trump-listening-to-on-iran.html

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/31/trump-maximum-pressure-iraq-091773

 

Trump bragged about pulling troops out of the Middle East -- now he's sending them back in

 

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/12/29/new-in-2020-will-trump-pull-the-us-military-out-of-iraq-and-syria/

 

https://www.axios.com/us-embassy-attack-750-troops-deployed-iraq-2ecf4632-2143-4531-bc1a-936cfd5e6553.html

 

Trump crows about his great new trade deal with China. We still haven't seen what's in it

 

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/12/when-do-we-get-to-see-the-trade-deal-mr-president/

 

Another Trump failure

 

https://www.axios.com/kim-jong-un-north-korea-strategic-weapon-fd099675-c563-4052-adc2-ca11098a0c80.html

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in a New Year's speech that his country would abandon a self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, declaring that there "will never be denuclearization on the Korean peninsula" unless the U.S. drops its "hostile" policies, according to state media. . . .

 

In other investigation news . . .

 

Democrat Doug Jones (AL) generated a lot of excitement among Trump supporters when he said there were "gaps" in the impeachment case. They thought that meant he would vote to acquit. That's not what it meant

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doug-jones-trump-senate-trial-editorial_n_5e0b0211c5b6b5a713b35794

Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) on Monday broke down why he believes it is essential that key witnesses be allowed to testify in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump over the Ukraine scandal. . . .

Here is the big problem for the Senate Repubs: new disclosures are breaking on the Ukraine scandal at such a rate that if they rush through a Senate trial without witnesses (which is an oxymoron), something is near certain to break afterwards that condemns their rush to judgment

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/30/1908643/-Another-court-ruling-heightens-the-potential-for-more-Ukraine-bombshells-to-drop

A second GOP senator speaks out against McConnell's plan to railroad an acquittal for Trump. One more and it gets interesting . . .

https://politicalwire.com/2019/12/31/collins-calls-mcconnells-comments-inappropriate/

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/31/susan-collins-is-open-to-calling-witnesses-in-president-trumps-senate-impeachment-trial/

Giuliani, for the defense

https://www.thedailybeast.com/giuliani-says-hes-prepared-to-do-demonstrations-at-trumps-impeachment-trial
“I would testify, I would, um, do demonstrations. I’d give lectures, I’d give summations. Or, I’d do what I do best, I’d try the case. I’d love to try the case. Well I don’t know if anybody would have the courage to give me the case, but, uh, if you give me the case, I will prosecute it as a racketeering case, which I kind of invented anyway,” Giuliani said . . .

He also dodged a question about whether he had any plans for another trip to Ukraine, an activity that has been at the center of the impeachment proceedings against Trump . . . So far, however, despite Trump claiming Giuliani would be filing a report with the Justice Department on his Ukraine findings and Giuliani saying he planned to brief the Senate on the matter, his findings have apparently not been embraced as the smoking gun against Democrats that he believed they would be. As The Daily Beast reported earlier this week, some Republican senators have actively avoided Giuliani . . .

In other news . . .

Remember those minuscule one-time bonuses companies came out with right after the massive Trump corporate tax cut? It was apparent at the time that it was just a token gesture, not a structural adjustment to higher wages or investment in better jobs. Now the other shoe drops

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/31/att-touted-worker-bonuses-after-3-billion-trump-tax-cut-now-its-outsourcing-thousands-of-jobs/
AT&T touted worker bonuses after $3 billion Trump tax cut. Now it’s outsourcing thousands of jobs

Trump's war on science

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/12/even-trumps-own-scientists-say-he-ignores-science/

https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/some-alternative-facts-are-going-to.html

All the ways Obama was not like Trump -- in pictures

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/31/1908255/-Cheers-and-Jeers-2019-Flashback-Denied-Part-II

We won't repeat again Trump's attacks on Obama for golfing, and his own promises during the 2016 campaign that he would be "too busy" for golfing

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/31/president-trump-spent-one-of-every-five-days-at-a-golf-club-in-2019-report/ 
President Trump spent one of every five days at a golf club in 2019

Republicans know the demographic trends are stacked against them. Their only chance of staying in power is through voter suppression and heavily partisan redistricting

https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/where-this-is-headed-by-bloggersrus.html

This is important: California's new data privacy law

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/30/21030754/ccpa-california-privacy-law-rights-explained
Your data, whether it’s your name, your location, or your shopping habits, has been a commodity for decades now. Collected, bought, sold, shared, transferred — however businesses get it, a lot of them have access to a lot of information about you. They use it in ways you never agreed to (and often that you’re not even aware of), and they make a lot of money off of it. And there wasn’t much you could do to stop them. That’s about to change … to a point. . . .

More: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/california-consumer-privacy-act-explained_n_5e0649b9c5b6b5a713adf862 

Three ways to protect yourself from disinformation

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/3-easy-ways-protect-yourself-media 

A sad symbol of something, I suppose

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/newseum-closing-2019_n_5e0b65e2c5b6b5a713b41ece
The Newseum, the Washington, D.C., museum dedicated to journalism, is welcoming visitors for one final time on Tuesday before closing its doors due to a financial shortfall. . . .

Bonus item: Political cartoons of 2019

https://www.politico.com/gallery/2019/12/30/cartoon-carousel-year-in-review-003686

Extra bonus item: Dave Barry on a year to forget

https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/people/dave-barry-s-year-in-review-well-that-was-something/article_bc4b8ef8-04b4-5744-9faa-04eb6f6c898e.html 

Extra extra bonus item: TPM's "Golden Duke" winners

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/golden-dukes/announcing-the-2019-golden-duke-winners 

[NB: Last chance to squeeze in all of those "end of the year" rankings.]

***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***