Your Once and Final Supreme Double Impeachee

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Erdogan: You and what army?

[masser]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

... to the tender mercies of the Turks...

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Il Duce, having abruptly ordered US troops out of northern Syria, thereby abandoning the Syrian Kurds to the tender mercies of the Turks, and subsequently saying the Kurds, our allies against IS (if you want to make their heads explode, call them khawarij) are more of a terror threat than IS, has now sent two guys named Mike to tell Turkey's dictator president Erdogan to cease fire. I can see it now...

TWO GUYS NAMED MIKE: We hereby order you to cease fire!

Erdogan: You and what army?

I suggest turning off CNN for a few days ... the above 'analysis' completely ignores the fact there is a ready answer to 'what army?', in the form of the presence of the actual Syrian military and its allied Russian forces, who most definitely are insisting on a say on the matter. Some links for readers interested in getting beyond the DOD/MSM propaganda:

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_...ation-ttg.html

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/1...for-syria.html

The New York Times falsely headlines: In ‘Cave-In,’ Trump Cease-Fire Cements Turkey’s Gains in Syria

The cease-fire agreement reached with Turkey by Vice President Mike Pence amounts to a near-total victory for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who gains territory, pays little in penalties and appears to have outmaneuvered President Trump.

The best that can be said for the agreement is that it may stop the killing in the Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. But the cost for Kurds, longtime American allies in the fight against the Islamic State, is severe: Even Pentagon officials were mystified about where tens of thousands of displaced Kurds would go, as they moved south from the Turkey-Syria border as required by the deal — if they agree to go at all.
...
Military officials said they were stunned that the agreement essentially allowed Turkey to annex a portion of Syria, displace tens of thousands of Kurdish residents and wipe away years of counterterrorism gains against the Islamic State.

The U.S. can not "allow Turkey to annex a portion of Syria". The U.S. does not own Syria. It is completely bollocks to think that it has the power to allow Turkey to annex parts of it.

Turkey will not "gain territory". There will be no Turkish "security corridor". The Kurdish civilians in Kobani, Ras al Ain and Qamishli areas will not go anywhere. The Turks will not touch those Kurdish majority areas because they are, or soon will be, under control of the Syrian government and its army.

[image]

The picture, taken yesterday, shows the Syrian-Turkish border crossing north of Kobani. The Syrian army took control of it and raised the Syrian flag. There are no longer any Kurdish forces there that could threaten Turkey.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu confirmed that Turkey agrees with the Syrian government moves:

Russia "promised that the PKK or YPG will not be on the other side of the border," Cavusoglu said in an interview with the BBC. "If Russia, accompanied by the Syrian army, removes YPG elements from the region, we will not oppose this."

Even partisan Syrians opposed to its government recognize the ploy:

Rami Jarrah @RamiJarrah - 12:53 UTC · Oct 17, 2019
Turkey’s foreign minister once again reiterates that if Russia and the Syrian regime take over border areas they will not object, as long as the PYD are expelled.
This has to be the easiest land grab opportunity Assad has had since the war started.

These moves have been planned all along. The Turkish invasion in northeast Syria was designed to give Trump a reason to withdraw U.S. troops. It was designed to push the Kurdish forces to finally submit to the Syrian government. Behind the scene Russia had already organized the replacement of the Kurdish forces with Syrian government troops. It has coordinated the Syrian army moves with the U.S. military. Turkey had agreed that Syrian government control would be sufficient to alleviate its concern about a Kurdish guerilla and a Kurdish proto-state at its border. Any further Turkish invasion of Syria is thereby unnecessary.

The plan has everyone winning. Turkey will be free of a Kurdish threat. Syria regains its territory. The U.S. can leave without further trouble. Russia and Iran gain standing. The Kurds get taken care of.

The 'ceasefire' and the retreat of the armed Kurdish groups from the border, which is claimed to have been negotiated yesterday between Pence and Erdogan, had already been decided on before the U.S. announced its withdrawal from Syria...

(See original MofA article for embedded story links.)

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

I suggest turning off CNN for a few days ...

I don't know what you're talking about. That means we're even on this point.

Behind the scene Russia had already organized the replacement of the Kurdish forces with Syrian government troops. It has coordinated the Syrian army moves with the U.S. military. Turkey had agreed that Syrian government control would be sufficient to alleviate its concern about a Kurdish guerilla and a Kurdish proto-state at its border. Any further Turkish invasion of Syria is thereby unnecessary.

So, you're saying that the US Admin is merely following a script written by the Russians.

And what about the Kurds, whom the Turks have given 4 days to bug out of 2700 square miles where they've been living since who knows when or they start shooting again, assuming they have actually stopped shooting?

Originally Posted by Darth Vader

The Kurds get taken care of.

You can say that again -- in Armenian!

[ewmayer]

o Democrats Are Hypocrites for Condemning Trump Over Syria | Peter Beinart, The Atlantic: Presidential hopefuls blasted Trump for abandoning the Kurds—but want the U.S. to pull out of Afghanistan under similar conditions.

The parallels between Afghanistan and northern Syria aren’t merely humanitarian. In condemning Trump’s actions in Syria, Warren accused him of having “helped ISIS get another foothold, a new lease on life.” But experts forecast a similar terrorist resurgence if Warren carries out her proposed Afghan withdrawal. Following a unilateral American departure, the Rand report predicts, “extremist groups, including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, [will] gain additional scope to organize, recruit, and initiate terrorist attacks against U.S. regional and homeland targets.” In their joint statement, the nine former American diplomats envision “an Afghan civil war in which the Islamic State (IS) presence could expand its already strong foothold” and “the Taliban would maintain their alliance with al-Qaeda. All of this could prove catastrophic for US national security as it relates to our fight against both al-Qaeda and IS.”

Erm, yes, well, about that noble U.S. fight against Islamist extremism, that deserves a closer look, again using Syria and the jihadi proxies Turkey is using there as a lens:

o US Has Backed 21 of the 28 ‘Crazy’ Militias Leading Turkey’s Brutal Invasion of Northern Syria | Consortium News: New data from Turkey reveals almost all the mercenary force of “Arab militias” getting slammed by former and current U.S. officials were armed and trained in the past by the CIA and Pentagon, reports Max Blumenthal.

Footage showing members of Turkey’s mercenary “national army” executing Kurdish captives as they led the Turkish invasion of northern Syria touched off a national outrage, provoking U.S. government officials, pundits and major politicians to rage against their brutality.

In The Washington Post, a U.S. official condemned the militias as a “crazy and unreliable.” Another official called them “thugs and bandits and pirates that should be wiped off the face of the earth.” Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the scene as a “sickening horror,” blaming President Donald Trump exclusively for the atrocities.

But the fighters involved in the atrocities in northern Syria were not just random tribesmen assembled into an ad hoc army. In fact, many were former members of the Free Syrian Army, the force once armed by the CIA and Pentagon and branded as “moderate rebels.” This disturbing context was conveniently omitted from the breathless denunciations made by U.S. officials and Western pundits.

According to a research paper published this October by the pro-government Turkish think tank, SETA, “Out of the 28 factions [in the Turkish mercenary force], 21 were previously supported by the United States, three of them via the Pentagon’s program to combat DAESH. Eighteen of these factions were supplied by the CIA via the MOM Operations Room in Turkey, a joint intelligence operation room of the ‘Friends of Syria’ to support the armed opposition. Fourteen factions of the 28 were also recipients of the U.S.-supplied TOW anti-tank guided missiles.” (A graph by SETA naming the various militias and the type of U.S. support they received is at the end of this article).

In other words, virtually the entire apparatus of insurgents arrayed against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime — and armed and equipped under the Obama administration — has been repurposed by the Turkish military to serve as the spearhead of its brutal invasion of northern Syria. The leader of this force is Salim Idriss, now the “defense minister” of Syria’s Turkish-backed “interim government.” He’s the same figure who hosted John McCain when the late senator made his infamous 2013 incursion into Syria.

The “sickening horror” this collection of extremists is carrying out against Kurds is, in fact, the same one it imposed on Syrians across the country for the past seven years. Before, when their goal was regime change in Damascus, they had the blessing and wholehearted support of official Washington. But now that they are slaughtering members of a much more loyal U.S. proxy force, their former patrons and enablers are rushing to denounce them as “bandits and pirates.”

o “Russian Asset” Is A Meaningless Noise War Pigs Make With Their Face Holes | Caitlin Johnstone

Both Tulsi Gabbard and the Green Party of the United States have issued scorching rebukes of Hillary Clinton for baseless accusations the former Secretary of State made during a recent interview claiming that both Gabbard and former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein are aligned with the Russian government.

“I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate,” Clinton said in a transparent reference to Gabbard. “She’s the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far. And that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she’s also a Russian asset.”

Clinton provided no evidence for her outlandish claims, because she does not have any. Gabbard has repeatedly denied centrist conspiracy theories that she intends to run as a third-party candidate, a claim which establishment pundits have been making more and more often because they know there will never be any consequences when their claims are disproven. There is no evidence of any kind connecting either Jill Stein or Tulsi Gabbard to the Russian government.

Of course, this total lack of evidence hasn’t dissuaded Clintonites from falling all over themselves trying to justify Mommy’s claims anyway.

Gabbard - who unlike HRH HRC has actually seen the Imperium's wars firsthand, rather than just dispatching legions of nameless, faceless Deplorables to fight and die in them - had a wonderfully tart reply:


Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a ...
... concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and ...
... powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose.

It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies. Join the race directly.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Trump drops plan to host G-7 at his Doral golf resort

That man is corruption itself.

He blamed his reversal on "Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility," but was actually faced with a revolt by usually supine R's, who were perhaps frightened by the prospect of hundreds of thousands of trick-or-treaters showing up in DC shouting "Cleanse with Fire!" and intent on burning both the White House and the US Capitol Building to the ground.

[kladner]

"At cost" can have highly flexible meanings when Trump is involved.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ubs/736618001/
Golf carts are not the only "costs" either.

In August, USA TODAY first reported that the Secret Service can no longer pay the overtime for hundreds of agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission – in large part due to the sheer size of Trump's family and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast. Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.

The service's luxury portable restroom spending for the clubs has also increased since August.
A recent switch in restroom providers also appears to have cost the agency extra. The agency signed a contract with Sanitary Solutions Inc. for $5,365 on Sept. 21. The previous contract with Imperial Restrooms was $3,300 from Aug. 21.
The total the agency has spent on portable bathrooms, a mobile office and ballistic glass at Trump’s New Jersey golf course rings in at $53,316.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Il Duce told an energy summit in Pittsburgh that we’re building a wall in Colorado. Everyone applauded.

We will now read from the Book of Matthew, Chapter 15, verse 14...

Folks in Colorado are having a field day ridiculing the statement.

His attempts to say he was "kidding" or otherwise to explain it away are pathetic. The man is incapable of admitting he simply screwed up.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Trump says Islamic State leader dead after US raid in Syria

Trump said he watched the operation from the White House Situation room as it played out live "as though you were watching a movie." He suggested he may order the release of the video so that the world knows al-Baghdadi did not die of a hero and spent his final moments "crying, "whimpering" and "screaming."

IMO this guy badly needed killing. Apparently he detonated an explosive vest and took his kids with him. May he rest in pieces.

Some free advice, Mr. President: Before you decide to release the video of his last moments, you might want to get a translation of exactly what he was "crying, "whimpering" and "screaming" before he blew himself up.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Trump draws boos when introduced to crowd at World Series

At the end of the third inning, ballpark video screens carried a salute to U.S. service members that drew cheers throughout the stadium. When the video cut to Trump and his entourage and the loudspeakers announced the Trumps, cheers abruptly turned into a torrent of boos and heckling. Chants of “Lock him up!” broke out in some sections.

Trump appeared unfazed and continued waving. Later, some fans behind home plate held a sign reading “VETERANS FOR IMPEACHMENT”. Another banner appeared during the game: “IMPEACH TRUMP!”

The president was on hand for seven innings before heading back to the White House. The Astros took a 3-2 series lead with a 7-1 victory in Game 5.

The President complained that the booing fans had committed "treason," and that the "disloyal" Nationals had thrown the game just to spite him.

Attorney-General William Barr announced a criminal investigation.

[retina]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Trump draws boos when introduced to crowd at World SeriesThe President complained that the booing fans had committed "treason," and that the "disloyal" Nationals had thrown the game just to spite him.

Attorney-General William Barr announced a criminal investigation.

Wow, you can't make this stuff up. So now (pretending) to like the pres is a requirement for remaining out of prison. Reminds me of some other countries where at least they don't even try to pretend they are a democracy with freedom.