This morning, the Washington Post published The Afghanistan Papers, so-named as a tribute to Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers. It’s hardly surprising that what we learn from the collection of documents is that the US has been lying about Afghanistan since the very earliest days of the war: A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. … Read More
At NATO, World Leaders Laugh About — Well, AT — Trump
This is embarrassing. Trump was asked about the video while taking questions from reporters ahead of a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. “Well, he’s two-faced,” the president said. After a long pause, he added, “He’s a nice guy. I find him to be a very nice guy.” Trump said the comments had stemmed from his pressuring Mr. Trudeau … Read More
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS Leader, Killed In Daring Raid, But Trump Don’t Get No Respect
Listen, it;s great that our forces in Syria, relying on information from the Kurds (and possibly those in al-Baghdadi’s inner circle) took out the military and spiritual leader of ISIS, even though the operation was hastily put together because Trump pulled our troops out of Syria without, you know, checking with anybody. But the second I heard the news, my … Read More
I Can’t Believe This A-Hole Is President: Part LXVII
When gently corrected by one of the astronauts about how other women have spacewalked, Donald Trump uses his middle finger to "fix" his hair. How is this even real life? pic.twitter.com/9bnj7XfY1m — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 21, 2019 "We never agreed to protect the Kurds…we never agreed to protect the Kurds for the rest of their lives," Trump said at … Read More
The Cease Fire That Wasn’t
So Trump sent this embarrassing letter a couple days ago: Oh my God. A “deal”??? It didn’t go over well in Turkey either Wow. #Erdogan tells news conference the letter sent by @realDonaldTrump telling him not to be a ‘tough guy’ wasn’t in line with diplomatic or political customs. He said they wouldn’t forget the lack of respect. “When the … Read More
Trump’s “America First” Means We Have No Influence Anymore
Donald Trump sure has made the rest of the world respect us: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected a U.S. offer to mediate a cease-firebetween Turkish forces and Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria….“The terrorists should drop their weapons and leave the area that we have identified as the safe zone,” he said in a speech Wednesday to the Turkish parliament. He vowed to press … Read More
Trump’s Inexplicable Turkey Policy Raises Questions Of Loyalty To America
Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds will likely go down as the greatest American foreign policy disaster since the invasion of Iraq. While the cost, destruction, death toll and moral miasma of the invasion of Iraq are unparalleled, the Kurdish betrayal is uniquely bad in a key way: America’s imperialist misadventures against perceived enemies are sadly commonplace, but rarely have we … Read More
Turkey Bombs US Forces, Apparently By Mistake
War is messy. War is unpredictable. An unstable peace is prefereable to a war. And this is why: A contingent of U.S. Special Forces has been caught up in Turkish shelling against U.S.-backed Kurdish positions in northern Syria. Newsweek has learned through both an Iraqi Kurdish intelligence official and senior Pentagon official that Special Forces operating in the Mashtenour hill … Read More
Yup. Sure Looks Like Trump’s Entire Ukraine ‘Anti-corruption’ Team Was Corrupt—And Funded By An Unnamed Russian Source
It was already clear that the whole scheme that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani had cooked up in Ukraine was to extort an entire nation and grossly distort U.S. foreign policy merely for the purpose of smearing Joe Biden. But a series of arrests and grand jury indictments on Thursday drove home the point that Giuliani wasn’t alone in his shuttle-shakedown between … Read More
More Trump Crimey-ness
Having trouble keeping track: President Donald Trump pressed former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help persuade the Department of Justice to drop a criminal case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader in a 2017 Oval Office meeting, Bloomberg reported Wednesday night.Tillerson reportedly refused, saying the move would constitute an interference in an active investigation. He repeated his objections to then-chief … Read More
Turkey Now Heading Into Syria
Sorry Kurds. A bad situation in Northeast Syria is about to get much worse. Sources say that US officials have just informed the Syrian Kurds that Turkey is likely to attack on air and ground in next 24 hours. The United States, per Trmp’s ill-advised pullout, will do nothing. Targets are Tal Abyad and Ras al Ayn. Ironically Tal Abyad … Read More
Document Dump: Senate Report On Russian Interference In 2016 Election
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Russian ratfucking in the 2016 election was released today and it didn’t tell us much we didn’t already know, or hadn’t already intuited, but it told us a lot more about what we already knew or already had intuited. What is significant, of course, is that this comes from the Republican-majority Senate. From the report itself: … Read More
Putin’s Poolboy Reverses US Policy On Turkey
He didn’t consult allies. He didn’t consult Congress – even Republicans. I’m not sure he even consulted his advisers. But I’ll give dollars to donuts he talked to Putin about this. This morning, Americans woke to this… out of the blue: So President Trump has given his endorsement for a Turkish military operation that would sweep away American-backed Kurdish forces … Read More
Document Dump: Senate Report On How NRA Became A Russian Asset
The National Rifle Association acted as a “foreign asset” for Russia in the period leading up to the 2016 election, according to a new investigation unveiled Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Drawing on contemporaneous emails and private interviews, an 18-month probe by the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic staff found that the NRA underwrote political access for Russian nationals Maria … Read More
Our Next Conflict In The Middle East?
Two oil fields in Saudi Arabia were attacked on Saturday. In short, A drone strike was said to have knocked out half of the Saudis’ daily oil production. The Houthi rebel group in Yemen assumed responsibility, but many were doubtful. Trump, exhibiting an embarrassing toadie-ism, tweeted: Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know … Read More