Putin loses another ally

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will resign according to what I can only imagine to be gleeful "sources in the intelligence community," officially because of her husband's cancer diagnosis. Her ties to Russia have been well-known for years. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin must be furious.

Meanwhile:

• The OAFPOTUS's "Deserving Fascist Slush Fund" hit a snag last night as Republican Congressional leaders buggered off for the holiday rather than vote on it.
• The slush fund, which could well be DOA given how many Republican senators the OAFPOTUS pissed off this week, is the most corrupt proposal in US history, which shouldn't surprise anyone but is nonetheless shocking.
• Radley Balko takes us through the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and the brazen lies that Immigration and Customs Enforcement have told about the case.
• Prosecutors in Chicago committed actual misconduct according to the judge overseeing the "Broadview Six" case, so she dismissed the entire thing with prejudice.

The upshot may be, as James Fallows suggests, that we have turned a corner on the OAFPOTUS. That won't make the Republican Party any less corrupt or authoritarian as a whole, but we may finally be seeing Republicans in Congress fed up with the insanity. The insanity they supported until now, I should note.

OK, back to work I go, hoping against history that my own party's leadership can get their heads out of each other's asses long enough to win back Congress in five months. With the New York Times, Quinnipac University, and AltasIntel all having us above +10% on the generic ballot, at least we'll have numbers if not an actual strategy.