monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Also just politically. Nobody with any planned future in the party is as yet speaking out strongly against Trump. Things will have to degrade quite a bit further for such a step to be taken.

North Korea has confirmed it test-fired a new type of a ballistic missile, a significant escalation from the short-range tests it has conducted since May.

The missile - which was able to carry a nuclear weapon - was the North's 11th test this year.

But this one, fired from a platform at sea, was capable of being launched from a submarine.

Being submarine-capable is important as it means North Korea could launch missiles far outside its territory.

According to South Korean officials, the missile flew about 450km (280 miles) and reached an altitude of 910km before landing in the sea.

That means the missile flew twice as high as the International Space Station, but previous North Korean tests have gone higher.

It came down in the Sea of Japan, also known in South Korea as the East Sea. Japan said it landed in its exclusive economic zone - a band of 200km around Japanese territory.

The test came hours after North Korea said nuclear talks with the US would resume.

Declassified Emails Reveal Ghadaffi was brutally murdered because France wanted to maintain their financial stranglehold on African Nations.

One of the over 3,000 new Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department on 2016 New Year’s Eve, contain damning evidence of Western nations using NATO as a tool to topple Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. The NATO overthrow was not for the protection of the people, but instead it was to thwart Gaddafi’s attempt to create a gold-backed African currency to compete with the Western central banking monopoly.

The April 2011 email, sent to the Secretary of State Hillary by unofficial adviser and longtime Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal with the subject line “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold,” reveals predatory Western intentions.

The emails indicate the French-led NATO military initiative in Libya was also driven by a desire to gain access to a greater share of Libyan oil production, and to undermine a long term plan by Gaddafi to supplant France as the dominant power in the Francophone Africa region.

Edit: For instance, there appears to be a riff growing in the Pence camp against tRump camp.

“There are those that think I’m a very stable genius.”

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume defended a Reuters reporter who angered President Trump with a question during a Wednesday news conference, claiming the reporter's question was "valid" and saying the president "freaking out" doesn't help his cause.

"This was a harshly worded attack. He attacked Jeff Mason, you know, accused him of being 'fake news' and all that, when he asked a perfectly valid question," Hume said about Trump on Wednesday on "The Story with Martha MacCallum."

Bill Kristol
@BillKristol
Trump and his agents will engage in the politics of personal destruction. But they’ll also embrace the politics of institutional destruction, and the politics of civic destruction. How many Republicans will break with Trump and put country first?

Others have been pointing in this direction but let's make it clear.

Trump's overall strategy right now (and it is mirrored by various Fox celebrities and other right wing media) is this:

If you continue this impeachment investigation of me, my family and my administration then you will be beset by massive civic disorder and possible violent, armed civil war.

Rush Limbaugh is following in President Trump’s footsteps in attacking Fox News.

During an episode of his namesake radio show Wednesday, conservative radio giant Rush Limbaugh took aim at Fox News — where he’s been a regular guest — for featuring “Never Trumpers” in its coverage on Trump’s infamous July call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Limbaugh then said that Fox News should change its name to the “Fox Never Trumper Network” because “they’re bringing in Democrats like [former chair of the Democratic National Committee] Donna Brazile.”

Trump Says China ‘Should Investigate The Bidens’

To prove a point, Trump steps out onto Fifth Avenue and shoots himself.

Quote:

Trump Says China ‘Should Investigate The Bidens’

TPM

Because he's a strategic genius.