Turkey is recruiting and retraining Isis fighters to lead its invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, according to an ex-Isis source.

“Most of those who are fighting in Afrin against the Kurds are Isis, though Turkey has trained them to change their assault tactics,” said Faraj, a former Isis fighter from north-east Syria who remains in close touch with the jihadi movement.

WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul D. Ryan faced a backlash on Saturday after he pointed to a secretary’s $1.50 weekly increase in take-home pay as a sign of the Republican tax plan’s success.

“A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week ....

NYT: Trump had in the audience the parents and siblings of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was sentenced to 15 years in a North Korean forced-labor camp, and who died after being sent back to the United States with severe injuries. He seemed to be using Warmbier’s death to propagandize for war: “Tonight we pledge to honor Otto’s memory with total American resolve.”

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona is expected to deliver a floor speech on Wednesday in which he will compare President Donald Trump's attacks on the news media to the rhetoric of late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.....Flake will criticize the President for calling the news media the "enemy of the people," calling it "an assault as unprecedented as it is unwarranted."

University Medical Center spokesman: We share the shock and disappointment of many who have viewed the video. In the end we clearly failed to fulfill our mission with this patient."

"I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the president's historical accomplishments in the first year of (Trump's) presidency."

3 Days ago: Rebekah Mercer said in the statement that she and her father, Robert Mercer, the former co-chief executive officer of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, would not finance Bannon projects. The Mercers and their fortune have been a mainstay of Bannon’s political operation.

Congratulation time for the Narcissist in Chief ! Exquisite, fantastic, the best !

Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

Across the Midwest, an estimated 600 workers were notified they were being laid off by the company on December 16, a week before AT&T announced it was doling out $1,000 bonuses to 200,000 of its employees in celebration of the Republican Party’s tax overhaul...“How can you lay people off and then give them $1,000 and say that there’s going to be more jobs available?" Joseph Blanco, president of Local 6360 Communication Workers of America Union in Kansas City..

This shameful reversal by the Trump Administration shows that big corporate money and special interest influence now rule again in Republican-controlled Washington,” Dayton said in a statement. “We will have to uncover why the financial interests of a large Chilean corporation, with a terrible environmental record, has trumped the need to protect Minnesota’s priceless Boundary Waters Canoe Area.”

Trump Labor Department: Restaurant owners should get the tips and use them as they see fit. It will trickle down to the indentured servers and dishwashers! Of course Trump owns many restaurants..... employees are guaranteed the not yet lowered fed $7.25/hr minimum wage, Make Restaurants Great Again!

Prominent conspiracy theorist and Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones will soon be broadcast on FM radio from downtown Chicago, according to a radio station owner who has won FCC approval to place a transmitter on the roof of Trump Tower....

"I think we should look at Trump's criticism.....against institutions. That's the playbook of every would-be dictator. And Trump is very consistent in his attacks against U.S. institutions, U.S. electoral system, free press, now law enforcement. And it's worrisome because that's what every dictator did starting his campaign on destroying the pillars of democracy... I think the fact is that many people are just losing their faith in the FBI, in other law enforcement offices, in the free press. They buy the concept of 'fake news' and deep state.

CNN - A power outage at the world's busiest airport left thousands of passengers stranded in dark terminals and in planes sitting on the tarmac, as a ground stop for Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International disrupted air travel across the United States.

CDC Trump forbidden words: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” Orwell's 1984 novel Newspeak was a controlled language, of limited vocabulary, meant to limit the freedom of thought —personal identity, self-expression, free will—that ideologically threatens the regime of Big Brother

Some House Republicans believe that Congress should cut Americans off government anti-poverty programs in part to help grow the national economy.

“For us to achieve 3 percent GDP growth over the next 10 years from tax reform, we have to have welfare reform." Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa)

Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move.

It's a win-win-win for Trump.

If blood is shed, it supports the Muslim Travel Ban. The move thrills the evangelical fundamentalists as it is a precursor for The Rapture. Last but not least, Trump can tout his bold insanity to the cheers of the mob at his next Adoration Rally.