Jim Mattis and I Fought Together.  No One Called Him Mad Dog.  —  Jim Mattis was a scholar of war, blunt, courageous and loyal to his troops.  Our enemies will cheer his departure.  —  Mr. Nagl is a former Army officer.  —  I met Jim Mattis in Anbar Province, Iraq, in 2004.

Treasury secretary startles Wall Street with unusual pre-Christmas calls to top bank CEOs  —  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin startled financial analysts, bankers and economists on Sunday by issuing an unusual s declaring that the nation's six largest banks had ample credit to extend to American businesses and households.

Supreme Court Intervenes In Apparent Mystery Mueller Case  —  Chief Justice John Roberts stayed a subpoena and contempt order in a case that likely arose from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in a Sunday night order.  —  Sunday's order could mark the first time that the Supreme Court …

How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings  —  The New York Times reviewed hundreds of documents including police reports, bank records and investigator notes from a decade of mass shootings.  Many of the killers built their stockpiles of high-powered weapons with the convenience of credit.

Trump Rings in the New Year in the Worst Possible Way  —  One week sums up a failing presidency.  —  There are many reasons to be optimistic about 2019.  The increasingly isolated man in the Oval Office is not one of them.  —  With the first two years of Donald Trump's presidency drawing to a close …

Court says Justice Ginsburg up and working after surgery  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is up and working as she recuperates from cancer surgery.  —  A spokeswoman for the court, Kathy Arberg, also says that Ginsburg remained in New York at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Sunday.

Trump says he had a “long” call with Turkish president Erdogan  —  Days after announcing the U.S. would exit Syria, President Trump tweeted: … Why it matters: Turkey is also the country that was most active in sharing information about the Saudi killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump's Populist Schism Over Syria  —  His troop-withdrawal plan is politically risky.  The Republican base is more hawkish than isolationist.  —  The most surprising thing about President Trump's decision to overrule his top advisers and withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and Afghanistan isn't that it was improvised and disruptive.

Bottleneck at Printers Has Derailed Some Holiday Book Sales  —  This year has been, much to everyone's surprise, a blockbuster for the publishing industry.  Despite the relentless news cycle, readers have bought books in droves.  Hardcover sales are up, and unit sales at independent bookstores have risen 5 percent.

The ‘all-I-want-for-Christmas-is-$5- billion-for-the-wall’ shutdown  —  It's the “All-I-Want-For-Christmas-is-$5- billion-for-the-wall” shutdown of 2018.  Well, actually $2.6 billion.  OK, $2 billion.  Or the “Please just give us something” shutdown.  —  The partial government closure …

Schiff: Democrats will subpoena Mueller report if Trump tries to hide it  —  Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says Democrats will subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller's report if President Trump tries to invoke executive privilege to keep it secret.