“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Sun Tzu – The Art of War
“There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.”
[Walt Kelly, from the introduction to the Pogo Papers]
pre-Columbus day celebrations are in order this coming weekend
the hill:
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) has signed an executive order declaring the second Monday of October, which is federally recognized as Columbus Day, Indigenous People’s Day.
Re the above cartoon:
Scum POTUS is up and tweeting. No name Democrat seems to be fighting back.
Walt Kelly, the Pogo Song
I don’t know enough about the issues to comment on this one, but this is an interesting editorial about Poland.
In Defense of Poland’s Ruling Party
according to david Ignatius on mojo this a.m. turkey has started invading Syria from north at the same time Russian military coming up from south heading toward Kurds who may have to flee abandoning the watch over that 10,000 + group of isis prisoners.
APnews:
AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Warning of a “humanitarian catastrophe,” Syrian Kurdish forces who are allied with the United States issued a general mobilization call Wednesday as Turkey threatened to invade northeastern Syria.
The Turkish operation would ignite new fighting in Syria’s 8-year-old war, potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of people, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights reported that people had begun fleeing the border town of Tal Abyad. Kurdish politician Nawaf Khalil, who is in northern Syria, said some people were leaving the town for villages farther south.
[…]
In its call for a general mobilization, the local civilian Kurdish authority known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, also asked the international community to live up to its responsibilities as “a humanitarian catastrophe might befall our people.”
“We call upon our people, of all ethnic groups, to move toward areas close to the border with Turkey to carry out acts of resistance during this sensitive historical time,” it said, adding that the mobilization would last for three days.
The Kurds also said that they want the U.S.-led coalition to set up a no-fly zone in northeastern Syria to protect the civilian population from Turkish airstrikes.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish group urged Moscow to broker and guarantee talks with the Syrian government in Damascus in light of Turkey’s planned military operation. The Syrian Kurdish-led administration said in a statement it is responding positively to calls from Moscow encouraging the Kurds and the Syrian government to settle their difference through talks.
[continues]
a little help and heads up from his friends – the dam is breaking
the hill:
Christopher Ruddy, CEO of the conservative news organization Newsmax and a longtime confidant of President Trump, said Tuesday that the House’s formal impeachment inquiry is a “mortal threat” to Trump’s presidency.
“I believe it’s a mortal threat to his presidency. He certainly should treat it that way,” Ruddy, who said that he spoke to Trump after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the inquiry last month, said on CNN.
The Newsmax CEO justified his stance by noting the growing public support for impeachment, pointing to recent polls that show a majority of Americans endorsing an inquiry into the president.
“The number of people saying the president should be impeached is increasing. Not significantly, but it’s moving in a bad direction for the president. So I do think it should be treated very seriously,” Ruddy said, before arguing that Trump did not commit a crime in his dealings with Ukraine.
[continues}
Putin’s Puppet is masquerading as POTUS. He is abandoning allies in favor of his Turkish and Russian business partners. How do you own a President enough that he will kill friends? Make room reservations.
Gee, this year’s old persons’ flu shots are really powerful. Had mine around lunch-time yesterday and it put me on my butt for the rest of the day. My shoulder is still swollen and uncomfortable. Still, it’s better than the disease itself.
Happy anniversary birthday to John Lennon
Flatus… I’ve heard that same thing from younger people. I get mine tomorrow.
I feel truly saddened and angry about what is happening to our Kurdish allies. We will need a prez who can rebuild and repair (if it is possible) our foreign relationships. It’s why I’m still considering Biden. Although, I do think Warren will hire the best and brightest… and listen to them.
Speaking of the best and brightest (not)
failed former rep gowdy is hiring on to trump’s sinking defense team. Apparently, private practice was pretty quiet.
Lindsey Graham – Mr. Situational ethics
it must be a strange place in Grahams head these days
Impeachment might win in the Senate if they add this Kurdish move. Republicans are certainly way more worked up about that.
SFB’s “no cooperation with the “unconstitutional” impeachment inquiry” is just fucking unbelievable. He won’t win this – regardless of the fact that there was a vote to open an inquiry in the Clinton and Nixon impeachments (Yes, I know…Nixon…). The House has exclusive responsibility over impeachment, so SFB doesn’t get to dictate how it will occur.
As for our support of our allies the Kurds, SFB has shown that the USA is not a reliable partner. All I can say is good luck to the Kurds with the Turks – they’ll need it, and they won’t get it from us, or so it would seem. Sad day for America’s standing on the world stage.
Take heart, Renee, I had my flu shot last week and had no problems. Mrs. P had hers, too and her arm was mildly sore the next day, fine the day after that. I guess it depends on your arm.
Biden is on my “I’ll vote for him but” list. The pack is now
Warren, Buttiege, O’Rourke, Castro with reservations
Harris, Klobuchar, and Booker – Happily
Reject unless I can’t get out of it: Yang, Steyer,
Hell no: Sanders, Gabbard, Williamson
tough talk from editorial board for NJ star ledger:
Did we betray the Kurds for Trump Towers?
Donald Trump has already put his presidency on the line, by acting like Tony Soprano with the leader of Ukraine.
That phone call was a shakedown for a political favor, with a thinly-veiled threat to withhold foreign aid the small nation relies on to fend off Russian aggression.
Now, following another phone call between Trump and Turkey’s president, we are suddenly pulling back U.S. troops to make way for Turkey’s planned invasion to clear the Kurds out of the border zone in Syria.
It blindsided the Pentagon, and both houses of Congress: The Kurds were our strongest allies in taking back territory from ISIS. Yet Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers them terrorists.
And astonishingly, Trump is now abandoning them to die.
It makes you wonder what exactly was said during that phone conversation, too. Trump is an admirer of strongmen, and has a lucrative property in Istanbul, one he’s acknowledged could affect his decision-making.
“I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” Trump told Breitbart radio during his campaign. “It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it’s two.”
We withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from Ukraine, potentially because Trump wanted the country to dig up some dirt on his 2020 rival. Are we now allowing Turkey to come in and massacre the Kurds, because of his business interests?
We don’t know, and that’s the point. We can’t even trust our own president to put America’s interests first. It’s like Trump’s telling take on Saudi Arabia: “They buy apartments from me,” he said. “They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
He’s been hiding his tax returns that might reveal other foreign connections that influence his policies. He’s been churning up business for his hotels after the Group of 7 summit of world leaders, suggesting its next location should be – where else? – his luxury golf resort in Florida.
The House is currently investigating whether foreign officials tried to curry favor with Trump by booking rooms at his hotels but never staying in them. And was it pure coincidence that Ivanka got more than a dozen trademarks in China while he was in trade talks?
This betrayal of the Kurds isn’t just a dishonorable outrage. It has real national security consequences. It undermines our ability to get other allies to fight with us, because they don’t know if we’ll turn on them.
And it puts us in potential danger. This doesn’t mean we’re quitting Syria altogether, where we still have about 1,000 troops, and bringing Americans home, as Trump has suggested. Right now, we are simply getting out of the way of any Turkish attack.
If Turkey crushes the Kurds, and the tens of thousands of ISIS fighters they are holding prisoner escape, they could return to being active terrorists who might attack us, particularly our troops still in Syria.
Meanwhile, we are left to question the motivation behind Trump’s decision. Is this about the lives of Americans and Kurdish people? Or protecting a business partnership with Turkey worth millions to him?
We shouldn’t have to wonder. Yet until Trump releases all his tax returns, and divests from his global businesses, this will always be an easy way for a foreign official to exert leverage on him – much like he’s accused of doing with Ukraine.
Thanks to Trump’s personal history of grift, the message to our allies across the globe is clear: The blood you shed for America means nothing. Come back when you’ve got something lucrative to offer him.
patd, I also heard this on mojo. “according to david Ignatius on mojo this a.m. turkey has started invading Syria from north at the same time Russian military coming up from south heading toward Kurds who may have to flee abandoning the watch over that 10,000 + group of isis prisoners.
And finally a few repubes are speaking out. Guess it takes the end of the world. Oh, am I being hyperbolic?
If the dems don’t do something soon it’ll be the 2024 elections. Trey Gowdy and his mouth BENGAZI are back!
people say i’m crazy
here you go, patd:
the hill‘s newest poll
Gowdy having to work for the team is very karmic. He’s got it coming.
10 to 1 he bails……
gowdy gwan hafta wuk fo julie annie, en dat skung, he bite. Yassuh, enny stink too.
Mr Crawford,
In my bedtime reading I came across mention that the late Florida judge, joseph peel, was a graduate of Stetson College. To the best of your recollection, sir, was there a cautionary tale, a campus boogeyman or even some such thing as a commode, memorializing said judge in your day at the august institution ?
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