None of This Is Normal

[bodysong]

BLOTUS Trumpypants Dunce-Cap tweets about Hunter, and golfs
on his private property, on Sunday

(Nothing is over, until the Fat Man in Orange make-up sings.)

Trump orders withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria,
days after Pentagon downplays possibility

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...087baa-edbb-11e9-b2da-606ba1ef30e3_story.html

Trump cuts and runs, ordering full retreat of U.S. forces in Syria

Daily Kos

@emptywheel

Remind me. Secretary of State @SecPompeo was part
of a years-long investigation bc Obama did not get a drone
over to Benghazi quickly after an unexpected attack, and
he's defending Trump's cut-and-run in advance of Turkish
attack Trump green-lighted?

5 hours ago

 

[bodysong]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...t-battle-turkeys-offensive-after-trump-orders

Trump, meanwhile, tweeted Sunday that his administration is in talks
with members of Congress from both political parties regarding "
imposing powerful sanctions on Turkey." Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
criticized that strategy, responding to the president on Twitter:

First you were ok to green light it, and now
want to dive into an economic war with Turkey
by imposing crippling sanctions them?

Was this the strategy all along or were you just too incompetent
to talk it through with him on that phone call?

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 13, 2019

'Everything Trump Touches Dies'

- Rick Wilson

Dan Rather ✓
Twitter › DanRather

The debacle unfolding in Syria and ricocheting around the Middle East
cannot be separated from a much larger tragic yet predictable narrative.

4 hours ago

 

[magicalmoments]

All politicians are hypocrites and liars and billionaire businessmen are hypocrites and liars on steriods, just the way the world is.

However, Sec. Pompeo is a special case. Apart from trump himself who is clearly mentally ill, Pompeo is by far the most blatant of the current crop of professional politicians. I am at a loss to understand how he can perform his job. No-one in any other govt in the world would trust a word he says.

I am going to enjoy seeing trump throw him under the bus eventually.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Daily Kos

@emptywheel

Remind me. Secretary of State @SecPompeo was part
of a years-long investigation bc Obama did not get a drone
over to Benghazi quickly after an unexpected attack, and
he's defending Trump's cut-and-run in advance of Turkish
attack Trump green-lighted?

5 hours ago

Trump isn't in command of the Turkish military, he didn't green light any of their attacks.

 

[bodysong]

October 14, 2019

Turkey widens invasion as Syrian army returns to northeast

U.S. forces battled to contain the deployment of Syrian regime
troops on Monday, as President Bashar al-Assad ordered his forces
into several sensitive areas.

10.14.19

U.S. Forces Try to Stop Syrian Regime Forces From Helping Kurds Fight Turkey

U.S. intervened to stop some Syrian and Russian forces advancing
into the region to support the Kurds sparking fears of dangerous
flash points.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-fo...regime-forces-from-helping-kurds-fight-turkey

Kurds strike deal to bring Assad’s Syrian troops back into Kurdish areas

The Kurds traded two border towns for assistance.

October 14, 2019

In a late afternoon announcement Monday, (Presiderp Donald Trumpypants)
declared he would sanction Turkey, a NATO ally of the U.S., for its attack
on the Kurdish people in northeast Syria—an attack that took place after
Trump greenlit the assault on October 7 by withdrawing American personnel
from the area.

"Too little, too late," tweeted Harvard's Nicholas Burns.
"None of this would have been necessary if Trump had
kept our troops in place."

Trump reportedly made the decision after a phone call with Turkish
President Recep Erdoğan on October 6. By Monday, domestic political
backlash was overwhelming and Trump offered up sanctions.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...o-late-critics-pan-trump-plan-sanction-turkey

The Turkish invasion of northern Syria comes after the Kurds’ former ally,
the U.S., ordered its troops to withdraw from the border zone.
The Kurds then struck a deal Sunday with Syrian government
forces to fend off the Turkish offensive, now in its sixth day.

Despite the criticism from its NATO allies, Turkey showed little
sign of relenting its military offensive against Kurdish groups in
northern Syria, in its sixth day.

 

[bodysong]

U.S. military keeps 50 nuclear weapons on Turkish airbase,
and now they're 'Erdogan's hostages'

October 14, 2019

The chaos resulting from Donald Trump's seemingly out-of-the-blue
decision to withdraw U.S. troops from their positions in Kurdish-
held Syria, greenlighting an all-out Turkish invasion, continues
to grow. Trump's move was so precipitous that U.S. forces in
the region were caught completely unaware. That includes
U.S. nuclear forces.

As reported by The New York Times: "[O]ver the weekend,
State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing
plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that
the United States had long stored, under American control, at
Incirlik Air Base in Turkey."


They didn't move them, the Times reports.

"Those weapons, one senior official said, were now essentially Erdogan's hostages."

What happens to those 50 nuclear weapons now is a bit dicey.
Turkish forces have been firing at U.S. troops in Syria—
or were, until Trump responded by ordering a full retreat,
fleeing the Turkish advance. There is word that Turkish-allied
forces have been releasing ISIS prisoners as they advance,
as well. U.S. military officials now have to decide whether
to leave the nuclear weapons in Turkey, under the assumption
that U.S.-Turkish relations will not collapse completely in
coming days, or hastily fly them out.

Trump pulled the stunt as an evening tantrum just to show his own advisers
that they were not the boss of him ?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/world/middleeast/trump-turkey-syria.html

Daily Kos

 

[bodysong]

14 Oct 2019

The former US national security adviser, John Bolton, was reportedly
so alarmed at a back-channel effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate
Donald Trump’s political rivals that he told a senior aide to report it
to White House lawyers.

Congressional testimony given by John Bolton's former aide,
Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert in the White House-
Hill, the British-born former senior director for Europe
and Russia on the National Security Council, spoke to
three House committees for 10 hours.

Hill also testified on Monday morning before three congressional
committees about Trump’s decision, taken despite strenuous objections
from aides including herself, to recall the US ambassador to Ukraine,
Marie Yovanovitch.

Yovanovitch said in an opening statement released to the press-
“But individuals who have been named in the press as contacts
of Mr Giuliani may well have believed that their personal
financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption
policy in Ukraine.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/14/fiona-hill-testimony-trump-impeachment-inquiry


As the curtain behind the Ukraine scandal has been slowly pulled back,
it has become increasingly clear that Trump stands almost alone
within his own administration in his coldness toward Ukraine.

Trump had to turn over his Ukraine policy to an outside, Russian-paid
lawyer. (Extortion of Ukraine.)

Trump is facing impeachment over his campaign to withhold diplomatic
recognition and military aid from Ukraine while working covertly
in an alliance with pro-Russian political actors in that country.
Meanwhile, Trump suddenly and impulsively engineered a
U-turn in American policy toward Syria to the direct benefit
of Russia and its regional proxies.

Trump is currently enduring a domestic crisis (the Ukraine scandal)
and a foreign one (the Syria debacle). One of these crises —
green-lighting a Turkish invasion of Syria — had no plausible
connection to his own political self-interest. Both have
transpired because Trump took reckless and self-destructive
actions that happened to follow the course of action (that)
Russia desired.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/trump-impeachment-ukraine-syria-turkey-russia-putin.html

 

[bodysong]

BBC has shown Russians strolling through
formerly defended American bases in Syria.

Why are American troops that defended the Kurds in Syria,
being re-deployed in Iraq ?

How the U.S. Military Will Carry Out a Hasty, Risky Withdrawal From Syria

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/world/middleeast/turkey-syria-kurds-troops.html

October 14, 2019

Trump administration announced on Friday afternoon that it’s sending
2,800 more American troops to Saudi Arabia.

Presiderp Trumpypants said-

“The relationship has been very good. And they buy hundreds of billions
of dollars’ worth of merchandise from us, not only military equipment.
In military equipment, about $110 billion. It’s millions of jobs.

"Now, with that being said, we are sending troops and other things
to the Middle East to help Saudi Arabia. But are you ready?
Saudi Arabia, at my request, has agreed to pay us for everything
we’re doing. That’s a first. But Saudi Arabia – and other countries,
too, now – but Saudi Arabia has agreed to pay us for everything
we’re doing to help them. And we appreciate that.”

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-curious-defense-deploying-more-troops-saudi-arabia

U.S. to send 1,800 additional troops to Saudi Arabia
to boost defenses against Iran

October 11, 2019

The Pentagon will deploy an additional 1,800 troops to Saudi Arabia,
senior defense officials said Friday, a modest increase in the U.S.
military’s presence in the Middle East meant to deter Iranian
aggression.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...8c8de6-ec42-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html

 

[bodysong]

October 15, 2019

The world's journalists, reporters, media, have written down what
credible sources have said-

Trump gave the green-light to Turkey's invasion of Syria.

Trump could have said no.

"The United States of America did not give a green light to
Turkey to invade Syria," Pence said.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/770209247/u-s-imposes-sanctions-on-turkey-for-invasion-of-syria

 

[bodysong]

So, now Trump is renting out American military forces
as his own private mercenaries, to protect Saudi Arabian
interests ?

One hand washes the other, and everyone's back gets scratched.
Everyone in on the deal is covered with human blood.

 

[LincolnDuncan]

I'm watching the world news and wondering if people are enjoying the show in Syria. American Troops getting punked by Turkish troops. All of those armies in a small space, what could go wrong? It will be amazing if the world survives this scene without the next world war.

 

[magicalmoments]

Don't worry, trump has arranged for Russian troops to protect Syrian Kurds from the Turks.

Now... What happens when Russian troops start killing NATO allies (Turks) to protect USA allies (Kurds).

Could get complicated. I'm sure trump, being the chosen one with great and unmatched wisdom, oh, and being a stable genius will have secret plan that will solve the entire dilemma. Just like he had for Isis.

 

[bodysong]

All roads lead to Putin': Nancy Pelosi explains what she was saying
to Trump in That Picture

October 17, 2019

- Laura Clawson

No wonder Donald Trump had a meltdown in his meeting with House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats on Wednesday. Asked about
the picture Trump used to try to embarrass her—an attempt that backlashed
on him badly—Pelosi told reporters that “at that moment, I was probably
saying, ‘All roads lead to Putin.’”

Gee, nothing there for Trump to be sensitive about.

But Pelosi reported more meltdown fuel, too: “If the president is saying,
‘I said during the campaign I was going to take the troops home,’
then is ‘home’ Saudi Arabia?”

(Trump reportedly responded to Pelosi that Saudi Arabia is paying for
U.S. troop presence, so apparently now he’s using the U.S. military
as mercenaries.)

And Pelosi also highlighted the 354-to-60 House vote
“disapproving of his Syria actions,” a strong bipartisan
rebuke to Trump.

Daily Kos

 

[bodysong]

Trump must have gained something he really needed,
in his "deal" with Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

He just gave Trurkey everything it wanted.

Dead Eyed Mike Pence just said so.

Kurdish forces, their families, and others have five days
to withdraw from their own homes, after which Turkey
will control the region.

US vice president Mike Pence on Thursday announced that the Turkish
president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had agreed to a ceasefire in Syria,
where Turkey had launched an offensive on Kurdish forces once allied
with the US in the fight against the Islamic State group. Ankara will
suspend its operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the
next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/v...key-have-agreed-to-a-ceasefire-in-syria-video

What does Erdogan have that Trump wants ?

- Kathleen Parker

October 15, 2019

Trump is a wheeler-dealer. He wouldn’t cut such a deal without something
in return. He already has two towers in Istanbul, so that’s probably not on
his to-do list. What does Erdogan have that Trump wants?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...faf45e-ef80-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html

Trump's furor only increased each time he was confronted with reality.
Asked earlier about Erdogan rejecting a cease-fire, Trump shot back:
“He didn’t say that at all.”

(Erdogan said: “We will never declare a cease-fire.”)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...d=lk_inline_manual_20&tid=lk_inline_manual_21

Russia and the United States are gradually starting to resume cooperation
on cyber security, TASS news agency cited the head of Russia’s FSB
Federal Security Service as saying on Thursday.

Russia’s bilateral relations with the United States are at post-Cold War
lows, strained by an array of issues including U.S. allegations that
Russia meddled in the U.S. 2016 presidential election.

“...we are restoring these (cyber security) relations,”
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said.

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/10/wtf-us-resumes-cybersecurity-cooperation

 

[bodysong]

Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking separately,
emphasized that the agreement was only a “pause” in the Turkish
incursion into Syria, and that the Turkish military effort would end
only after the Kurds had fully withdrawn and their military positions
within the border zone were dismantled.

“We got what we wanted,” Cavusoglu said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/world/middleeast/trump-turkey-invasion-syria.html

Pence insisted that the agreement did not amount to an abandonment
of the Kurds.

The agreement came after five hours of talks that began with a
one-on-one meeting between Pence and Erdogan.

Pence arrived at the Turkish presidential palace just before 3:30 p.m.
local time Thursday and was quickly ushered into the meeting with
only Erdogan and two translators. The session, which was scheduled
to be a 10-minute precursor to a longer expanded bilateral meeting
including Pompeo and others, lasted more than an hour.

When Pence landed Thursday, he was immediately faced with reports
that Erdogan had told a Turkish news organization that he threw an
Oct. 9 letter from Trump into “a bin.” The White House on Wednesday
released the text of the letter in which Trump admonished Erdogan not
to be “a tough guy.”

“You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people,
and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy —
and I will,” Trump wrote.

The next day, Erdogan launched the military assault into Syria.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-17/pence-faces-tough-turkey-task

 

[bodysong]

Putin desires that Trump create chaos, destroy cohesion, spread dismay

Pence’s mission in Turkey to clean up Trump’s colossal foreign policy failure
is off to a shaky start

October 17, 2019

Vice President Mike Pence has received a less than
enthusiastic response in Turkey

Pence is accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
and both are supposedly meeting with Erdogan, but coverage
will be limited. Washington Post reporters say that Erdogan is
not allowing press into the meetings or even in the palace,
“despite the vice president’s team pushing for access to the
beginning of the bilateral meeting.”

Judging by the initial photograph, it’s off to a bad start.
Note the customary display of both country’s flags in the
background has been dispensed with—

this is all on Erdogan’s terms.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/pe...reign-policy-failure-is-off-to-a-shaky-start/

 

[magicalmoments]

Trumps personal letter to erdogan!!??

This is evidence of the chosen ones stable genius and great and unmatched wisdom at work. Clearly the worlds greatest deal maker at is performing at the top of his game. Now watch him fail to destroy the Turkish economy. He hasn't got the nuts.

What a moron.

 

[bodysong]

Nancy Pelosi ✓
Twitter › SpeakerPelosi

Yesterday, @realDonaldTrump’s top staffer joined Trump, his lawyer,
and his diplomats in confessing that the Trump Admin used taxpayer-
funded military aid to pressure Ukraine into interfering in the 2020
election.

There’s a simple question facing Republicans now. #TruthExposed

3 hours ago

Nancy Pelosi

 

[bodysong]

There’s another reason this Mulvaney walkback is highly implausible:

Let’s go to the timeline

Trump floated this theory as early as April 2017. In an interview with
the Associated Press, Trump noted that the DNC brought in cybersecurity
firm Crowdstrike, “owned by a very rich Ukrainian,” to investigate the
hack, asking: “Why didn’t they allow the FBI to investigate the server?”

Basically, the theory is that the server’s evidence that Ukraine, not Russia,
did the hack was either withheld from or covered up by the FBI. As Glenn
Kessler notes, it’s “based on virtually no evidence.” Scott Shane has also
comprehensively debunked this narrative.

What’s more, since the spring of 2017, Trump has floated a partial version
of the theory — focused on the debunked idea that the FBI’s failure to get
the server is scandalous — at least 20 times, according to The Post’s fact-
checking database.

Given the overwhelming public evidence that what Trump and Giuliani
really wanted investigated was that bundle of conspiracy theories, that
conclusion is increasingly inescapable: Hundreds of millions of dollars
in military aid were leveraged to pressure Ukraine to help corrupt the
factual record about the 2016 election, and to corrupt the 2020 election
on Trump’s behalf as well.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...lkback-doesnt-pass-laugh-test-heres-timeline/

 

[bodysong]

The son of one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal defenders
has a new gig in Trump’s Justice Department. Brady Toensing—
whose mother Victoria Toensing and and step-father Joe diGenova
are key players in the rapidly growing Ukraine scandal—
joined the DOJ in June as a senior counsel in its Office
of Legal Policy.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/brady-toensing-justice-department/

Mother Jones ✓
Twitter › MotherJones

The Trump administration's strategy appears designed to generate
long-running court battles that could help the president run out the
clock.

55 minutes ago

 

[bodysong]

Three Amigos

Ukraine scandal

Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union
Kurt Volker, then an envoy to Ukraine for its peace negotiations
Energy Secretary Rick Perry

Portland's own wealthy hotelier and Trump crony Gordon Sondland
testified before congress saying that he disagreed with Trump putting
Giuliani in charge of pressuring Ukraine leadership into investigating
the president's opponents, but he didn't know how serious (read: illegal)
it was until later.

UH-HUH. Nobody believes you, dummy!

Keep boycotting Sondland's hotels.

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blo...berg-defends-selling-ads-to-lying-politicians

 

[bodysong]

Presiderp's double dealing, two-faced, split tongue, deal

"You get a deal! Turkey, we are giving the farm away to you!"

"Loyal Syrian Kurds, that gave 11,000 lives to fight ISIS ?"
"Fuck you, and goodbye. Turkey's military forces are busy
moving on, to destroy the next town."

Trump's Turkey deal hands power to Ankara and leaves Syrian Kurds for dead

Washington had been in touch with the actual combatants on
the ground, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),
but appears to have sold them a completely different deal.

The SDF commander, Mazloum Kobani, said he had agreed
with the Americans that there would be a ceasefire in two
areas about 100km apart, along the border where there was
heavy fighting, Ras al-Ain, and Tal Abyad.

“As far as he is concerned the ceasefire is only where there’s
active fighting and he totally rejects the idea of any kind of
withdrawal, any removal of heavy weapons,” said Charles
Lister, a Syria expert at the Middle East Institute.

“So everyone seems to be talking a different language,
which can only spell more trouble.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...er-to-ankara-and-leaves-syrian-kurds-for-dead

Donald Trump said the US had to let Kurdish allies and Turkey
'fight a little while' before agreeing to a five-day ceasefire with
Ankara. In a rally held in Texas, he said: 'Sometimes you have
to let them fight like two kids in a lot, you gotta let them fight,
and then you pull them apart.'

Turkey launched its cross-border offensive in northern Syria
on 9 October following Trump's decision to withdraw US
troops from the region (and re-deploy the troops, in order
that they protect Saudi Arabia's interests.)

 

[bodysong]

Donald Trump’s sanity is not the question.
The real issue is how he got into office

- Gary Younge

18 Oct 2019

It is deeply worrying that the executive powers of the presidency lie
in the hands of a man who is at one and the same time so brittle,
aggressive, vindictive, ridiculous and self-obsessed.

He is a misogynist, a racist, a xenophobe and a nationalist.
Those are not psychological descriptors but political ones,
fortified by systems and ideology.

Politically, his tantrums invariably find their mark in the weak,
the poor, the dark, the female, the Muslim, the marginalised
and the foreigner.

These inclinations were clear when he stood for the presidency.
He has been every bit as bigoted, undisciplined, indiscreet, thin-
skinned and braggadocious as his campaign promised.

And he won.

(Read this part-

"Even his thuggish “America first” foreign policy stands as part of a tradition.")

In other words, this particular form of insanity – if that is what it is –
enjoys mass, if not majority, support, institutional defence and historical
precedent.

What he does is the heart and essence of his age; he actualises his
age.” (The Age of The Perfect Combination of Excessive Wealth
Accumulation and Undue Influence, and the Accumulation of
Subversive, Treacherous Republican Networks)

As such, in his desire to blame everyone but himself, in his lies,
bullying, despotism, insecurity, ineptitude, cheating, scapegoating,
preening self-regard, vanity and ignorance, Trump is an emblem
of the free-market, white supremacist nationalism that is ascendant
in this moment.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ity-free-market-white-supremacist-nationalism

 

[seeshelly]

Trump derangement syndrome

Trump derangement syndrome rides again. Global warming! Trump is a Russian agent! The Bidden attack! Oh-me-oh-my! I can't wait until the next news cycle so that I will not what I am supposed to believe next.

 

[OrLaTime]

Trump derangement syndrome rides again. Global warming! Trump is a Russian agent! The Bidden attack! Oh-me-oh-my! I can't wait until the next news cycle so that I will not what I am supposed to believe next.

Shove your head deeper in a hole

Next? Trump lets the Turks take back “their” Aegean islands

Just watch

The man has no soul, or brain, do you?