Claire McCaskill tells us what we already suspect – Senate Republicans know Trump is many cards short of a deck but they keep shtum because Republicans.

In the interview, the blunt-speaking Missouri Democrat, reflecting on her election loss to Republican Josh Hawley — a political novice whom she also referred to as a “bright shining object” — also didn’t mince words for the Republican Party.

While she warned that history “will judge some of my colleagues harshly that they didn’t stand up to this President at some of the moments where he has been unhinged about particularly the rule of law,” she also said that GOP senators have privately conceded they can’t speak out against Trump because of backlash they’d

Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice in the Times yesterday:

This country’s national security decision-making process is more broken than at any time since the National Security Act became law in 1947. Nothing illustrates this dangerous dysfunction more starkly than President Trump’s reckless, unilateral decisions to announce the sudden withdrawal of all 2,000 United States troops from Syria and to remove 7,000 from Afghanistan.

These decisions went against the advice of the president’s top advisers, blindsided our allies and Congress, and delivered early Christmas presents to our adversaries from Russia and Iran to Hezbollah and the Taliban. The costs of this chaos are enormous, starting with the blunt, unnerving resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, one of the last

Can you put in a word for the Feds and federal contractors whose paychecks you took away for Christmas?

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 24, 2018

… Read the rest

Once again Peter Tatchell steps in to patronize women and tell us how to do better.

Martina #Navratilova tweets (& then deletes) rant about #trans athletes She promises to educate herself. Her tweet was wrong but she's apologised. Plus one misguided tweet does not cancel out her decades of equality activism. Time to forgive & move on https://t.co/twOuT4KISq

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) December 23, 2018

There was no “rant.” She doesn’t need to “educate herself” (Peter Tatchell, on the other hand…). Her tweet was not wrong and she shouldn’t have to apologize. Her tweet was not “misguided” and she doesn’t need to be “forgiven” by Peter Tatchell.

https://twitter.com/Jessie_XL/status/1077000297640349696

Peter- what the hell has got into you? She didn’t “rant”- what’s

The Treasury Secretary causes the Dow to plunge.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened sharply lower Monday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin shocked investors worldwide over the weekend by tweeting that he had spoken to the CEOs of the six largest U.S. banks to ensure they were liquid.

He really did – he tweeted it.

Today I convened individual calls with the CEOs of the nation's six largest banks. See attached statement. pic.twitter.com/YzuSamMyeT

— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) December 23, 2018

The Post was predicting it last night.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin startled financial analysts, bankers and economists on Sunday by issuing an unusual statement declaring that the nation’s six largest banks had ample credit to extend to American

The current public meltdown.

Mitch McConnell just told a group of people, and me, that he has been in the U.S. Senate for 32 years and the last two have been by far the best & most productive of his career. Tax & Regulation Cuts, VA Choice, Farm Bill, Criminal Justice Reform, Judgeships & much more. Great!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

The most important way to stop gangs, drugs, human trafficking and massive crime is at our Southern Border. We need Border Security, and as EVERYONE knows, you can’t have Border Security without a Wall. The Drones & Technology are just bells and whistles. Safety for America!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

“The

Another patronizing “here’s how you be perfect like me” thread from some authenticated woke genius, a thread full of glib claims that fall apart if you breathe on them and smug instructions on how high to jump when we’re told to jump.

https://twitter.com/EscapologistFi/status/1076587235246567429

Bad beginning, taking “cis” as 1) a meaningful and useful descriptive and 2) an obviously privileged and dominant group that needs to check itself. I don’t recognize “not thinking I’m the sex I’m not” as a form of privilege, any more than I recognize “not thinking I’m a bird” as a form of privilege. The word “cis” is pretty much designed to make people feel guilty and defensive simply for not having a bizarre delusion. Granted, it’s … Read the rest

Julie Bindel on the potential peak trans moment:

The latest target in the vicious and often violent war being raged by extreme trans activists is one of my all-time heroes – the world tennis champion and LGBT rights campaigner, Martina Navratilova.

Navratilova has been accused of being ‘transphobic’ as a result of a tweet responding to a question from a follower about transgender women in sport.

‘Clearly that can’t be right. You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard’, tweeted Martina.

‘For me it’s all about fairness. Which means taking every case individually…

Freedom Caucus dude tells unpaid federal workers they chose this.

To the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who will work without pay or be furloughed over the holidays if there is a government shutdown, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) says it is just part of the risk of working in public service.

Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a leading conservative voice urging President Trump not to accept a short-term spending bill absent funding for a border wall, was responding to reporters who asked about Transportation Security Administration and Border Patrol agents who would be required to continue working on Christmas without getting a paycheck.

Takes some gall, doesn’t it – requiring people to work without … Read the rest

Lili Loufbourow at Slate puts a pin in the category of the Old Boy.

The Old Boy needs attention as well as power, and with this presidency, the former has finally trumped the latter. The results are disconcerting. So is the troubling scope of the problem. From Trump to Brett Kavanaugh, from Les Moonves to Jeffrey Epstein: This year we saw with startling clarity that what many of the nation’s powerful men share is less talent and vision than arbitrary cruelty, pleasure in retribution, bullying, shouting, sneering, a sense that they’re above consequences, and an unusual dependence on golf—the traits of aging manchildren.

…

Trump’s mainstreaming of Old Boy behavior set the stage for the biggest Old Boy spectacle

So philosophy instructor and prize-winning cyclist Rachel McKinnon decided it was time to take on Martina Navratilova.

Welp, guess Navratilova is transphobic. https://t.co/Wv3ScAziBV

— Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) December 20, 2018

[Navratilova deleted that tweet in response to McKinnon’s bullying.]

No, you are not "pro- trans people" if you say that trans women with a penis must not compete in women's sport. That's transphobic.

Genitals do not play sports. What part of a penis is related to tennis? How does that 'level' any playing field? https://t.co/h7ZLsCVOQy

— Dr. Rachel McKinnon (@rachelvmckinnon) December 20, 2018

You said that trans women with a penis shouldn't compete in women's categories. No one is misrepresenting you. You were really clear. https://t.co/7ewgu8d5Hy

— Dr. Rachel