In response to Rep. Tlaib’s mofo comment, Pelosi says: “I probably have a generational reaction to it, but in any event, I’m not in the censorship business,” which is basically the perfect reply.

There are issues that divide Republicans and Democrats that sometimes benefit the GOP and at another time the Democrats.  Universal healthcare and abortion are issues like this. And so might be the issue of the border wall.  If so, the Democrats should be very careful. What follows is a comment on politics, not policy.

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GOPer at center of NC election fraud scandal asks court to declare him the winner.

When President Trump has his angry, teary monologue with the painting of Hillary in the White House, it’ll be a pool spray. We’re halfway there.

With surprisingly little interest in or urgency about the shutdown now approaching its third week, Washington is now abuzz with the whipped up spat between President Trump and Mitt Romney after Romney wrote an unflattering oped in The Washington Post. Robert Costa says Trump’s critics see an opening and that one of his top advisors is getting calls from GOP donors asking Romney to challenge President Trump in 2020. Let’s please get real about this. Mitt Romney isn’t going to challenge anyone. President Trump won’t face any real challenge to his nomination and Romney’s oped was at best a mild rebuke. Read More

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has communicated with flight controllers in Laurel, Maryland after a flyby of a distant orb named ‘Ultima Thule’ far beyond Pluto.

Happy New Year.

I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it. pic.twitter.com/IHI7JvePnI

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 29, 2018

I went back and forth a few times about writing this post. But here goes. We were thinking earlier this month of doing a TPM Gift Guide, recommendations for holiday gifts. We ended up not doing that and I did my standard book recommendations list. But I had knocking around my head one gift or thing that I really did want to recommend. Now, just to reassure you, I’m not planning on getting into the tech review or tech recommendation business. But again, this was one thing I got this year that seemed dramatically better than any version of the same thing I’d used before. So I thought I’d share my experience. Read More

After meeting with Trump, Graham now says US is in a “pause situation” on Syria and that the President is reevaluating his decision.

Graham: Trump now in a "pause situation" on Syria pullout. pic.twitter.com/NWlxDayu9c

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 30, 2018