I can tell by how many of you are NOT clicking on the feature that you are skeptical any form of Obamacare repeal is really happening AGAIN. Some skepticism is understandable given the GOP’s track record this year, but this is very much for real.

Many Americans have feelings of shock, embarrassment or just serial cringing watching Donald Trump’s presidential tweets. But intelligence professionals have noted for months that it also provides a priceless channel of information for foreign intelligence services trying to understand the President’s state of mind. All countries diplomatic personnel and intelligence analysts devote immense time and resources to understanding the views, motivations, weaknesses and agendas of key foreign leaders. Trump’s often erratic and impulsive tweeting patterns reveals sleeping patterns, moods, what makes Trump angry, what he’s focused on, who he’s hating or cuddling up to at a given moment. In some cases, his tweets actually having geolocations turned on. So they know precisely where he was. But there’s yet another dimension to Trump’s tweeting and generally impulsive nature and it bears on the Russia investigation. Read More

We have four open positions we are currently hiring for at TPM, one an existing but vacant position and three new positions: Senior Editor, Prime Editor, Assistant Editor and a third reporter to join our Investigations Desk team. Today we’re posting our listing for our Investigations Desk reporter position.

Full listing after the jump.

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It appears that Senate leadership is prepared to include repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate in their big tax cut bill, which is expected to come to a vote the week after Thanksgiving. Here we go again.

Jeff Sessions is considering appointing a new special counsel to probe things President Trump said he wants investigated about Hillary Clinton and James Comey. Read More

It reads like pulp fiction. But according to The New Yorker, back in the eighties, as local DA in his early thirties, Roy Moore was banned from his hometown mall because of cruising the facility for teenage girls. Read More

It now seems increasingly clear – because of the lack of any credible alternative explanation – that the White House is trying to squeeze AT&T because of the President’s vendetta against CNN. Rupert Murdoch’s role in the story is just the latest new development. But there’s something else I wanted to share, courtesy of a lawyer friend. Read More

Here’s an interesting, prescient read from former Obama White House Counsel Bob Bauer, writing at justsecurity.org back in July. Note the reference to Wikileaks in light of the news this afternoon of a correspondence between Donald Trump, Jr. and Wikileaks.

Here’s the key passage … Read More

Just to state it explicitly, there is absolutely no way Roy Moore is going to sue the Washington Post over their reporting on his dating teenagers when he was in his early thirties. This is likely obvious to most. But I wanted to make it clear in case there’s any question. As a public figure, the standard Moore would have to meet to sustain a suit is all be impossible. Particularly, as a candidate in a major election, his behavior is inherently newsworthy and closest to the more civically important forms of speech. Even if you assume for the sake of conversation that all the accusers are lying, that wouldn’t be enough for Moore to win a suit. Since he is a public figure he would have to show actual malice in the Post’s reporting. That essentially means that the Post knew the allegations were false or had a reckless disregard for the truth, simply didn’t care. The depth of the sourcing which is visible in the story makes that all but impossible. Moore knows all this. This is just a way to signal to low information voters or ones desperate to believe him that he’s fighting the charges rather than admitting their truth. He’s not suing anyone.