US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

A contingent of U.S. Special Forces has been caught up in Turkish shelling against U.S.-backed Kurdish positions in northern Syria, days after President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart he would withdraw U.S. troops from certain positions in the area.

Newsweek has learned through both an Iraqi Kurdish intelligence official and senior Pentagon official that Special Forces operating on Mashtenour hill in the majority-Kurdish city of Kobani fell under artillery fire from Turkish forces conducting their so-called "Operation Peace Spring" against Kurdish fighters backed by the U.S. but considered terrorist organizations by Turkey.

The senior Pentagon official said that Turkish forces should be aware of U.S. positions "down to the grid." The official could not specify the exact number of personnel present, but indicated they were "small numbers below company level," so somewhere between 15 and 100 troops.

https://www.newsweek.com/us-troops-syria-turkey-1464727

if you weren't with us at normandy, you were against us at normandy

Only 3 days after Trump said:

US official tells @NBCNews no US troops have left Syria. They are not packing. No orders to pack. So, Trump’s apparent green light to Turkey for a military operation against the Kurds has trigged confusion and panic, but not real change, for now.

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 8, 2019

Turkish shelling against U.S.-backed Kurdish positions

i thought they weren't backed by the US any longer?

So Trump left our troops in a Benghazi like situation?

it's considerably worse than that

some gave all (for Trump Towers Istanbul)

Coalition official tells me after Turkish bombing near US base Mashtenour hill: “They know we are there, we told them our position. There’s no other target in the area. They’re trying to drive us out. If Turkey can get us to leave so they can seige Kobane, it’s all over.”

— Josie Ensor (@Josiensor) October 11, 2019

wonder how many Republicans are going to give a shit about Trump directly getting our troops blown up

lol these were immediately leaked to the Post as well

The White House accidentally sent Democrats a list of talking points related to ex-Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s Friday House deposition, two sources with knowledge of the email told The Hill, the second time in a month the administration has sent its Ukraine talking points to Democrats.

The email included guidance for Republicans seeking to defend the president from potentially damaging witness testimony from an ambassador who was removed from her post in May under controversial circumstances.

In copies of the guidance shared with The Hill, The White House encouraged Republicans to adopt a series of messages designed to turn the tables back on Democrats, including attacks on House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) handling of the probe.

Yovanovitch told House lawmakers that she was removed after “a concerted campaign against” her from President Trump and his allies.

She also said in her opening statement that the State Department had "been under pressure from the president to remove me since the summer of 2018."

Yovanovitch’s ouster came two months before Trump’s July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president — now at the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry — in which Trump asked Kiev to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 presidential candidate.

“We are not concerned with any information Yovanovitch might share, because the President did nothing wrong,” the White House email meant for Republicans said. “But we are concerned that Schiff is putting her a precarious position by having her testify in secret without State Department lawyers be present.”

"It raises serious questions about why Schiff is willing to put career officials in such risky situations while bullying them with legally unfounded threats of obstruction charges," the email continued.

It added that Schiff "is willing to ride roughshod over fair process and to use career officials to further a baseless political objective."

The email marks the second time the White House has unintentionally sent talking points to Democrats in recent weeks, after an administration official inadvertently emailed them suggested rhetoric defending the July 25 phone call.

The White House did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

wonder how many Republicans are going to give a shit about Trump directly getting our troops blown up

tbf a lot of the GOP hawks are super-pissed about this already

btw i wonder how "inadvertent" that email was

yeah I don't know if even the White House is dumb enough to do it twice

"without State Department lawyers be present"

Why can't they get one person who reads and writes English to help draft these things?

btw i wonder how "inadvertent" that email was

Again, like I said above, their corruption is directly matched by their incompetence.

Jacob Wohl’s latest fake accuser says Wohl tricked him into making allegations against Kamala Harris, convincing him he was just auditioning for a fictional Spike TV show. https://t.co/LK97Iy3XRG

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 11, 2019

Why are we giving Wohl attention? He’s been outed as a fraudster. This behavior just seems self destructive.

Don't count the kid out, I hear there's a position open at Fox News

I hope that piece of shit destroys himself

it's weird how most ppl who aren't Extremely Online don't know who Wohl is.

i feel like if there was a hapless idiot liberal troll attempting to bring down GOP pols and constantly sticking his dick in a hive of bees he would more or less be the Face of the Democratic Party in a matter of just a few Fox News cycles.

“A senior Pentagon official said shelling was so heavy that the U.S. personnel considered firing back in self-defense.” https://t.co/by7aleTUXq

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 11, 2019

Wasn't that idiot Wohl already charged with a felony?

Anyway, this Turkey mess. What a historically disastrous error, just the sort of thing you'd expect from an inept buffoon. Asshole talks to Turkey, Turkey says it's going to invade and kill Kurds, asshole says sure, go ahead, and says the troops are leaving. Seemingly moments later, Turkey starts doing just what it said it was going to do, all the GOP (and, well, everyone) says asshole made a historic mistake, so asshole goes into CYA mode and threatens Turkey with sanctions? As if he didn't know what was going to happen. Which, hell, maybe he didn't, because he is a moron, and explicitly telling him something is no guarantee he will hear it. What a stupid piece of shit.

Wohl is going to court very soon on felony charges, gotta get in the grift while the griftin's good.

I don’t know how to describe Giuliani’s response to my follow up question so I’m just going to include a screen shot here. pic.twitter.com/Yv8hqfB9kx

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 11, 2019

quite seriously the Dems need to talk about this shit with Turkey over and over again, make the dot-connecting between Trump's decision and this all the more explicit than it already is. I think the Ukraine stuff is taking center stage and meanwhile this is something that should get just as much notice.

But what the Dems really need is more vacation time

It's probably difficult for Trump to remember if Rudy is his attorney because they only ever met that one time at that fundraiser years ago and probably only exchanged a word or two.

He takes photographs with tons of people

omar otm. NO ONE IN THE GOVERNMENT BESIDES TRUMP wanted turkey to invade syria, without even giving the kurdish forces a chance to secure their ISIS captives or hand them over to US custody. it is INCOHERENT. and it was done impulsively, at the direct request of erdogan.

if trump supporters can't understand that, maybe they're dumb. never wanted to float this possibility before.

decisions are either being made randomly or due to pure venality.

i think the trump voters don't care about most of this stuff but you'd imagine that they'd care that he has literally put the sacred american troops in danger? maybe not tho, who knows

He takes photographs with tons of people

he gets filmed kissing tons of mayors in drag

that Nuzzi stream of tweets is hilarious

"trump voters" are not a monolith. there's "people who voted for Trump" and there's "people who would gladly tongue-bathe his balls for all eternity".

i guess. i think even in the mainstream, anti-trump press, there should be more coverage of the turkish invasion of syria.

rather than, like, millennial journalists snarkily posting their texts with trump goons

i agree that this is just...unthinkably stupid and obvious, especially when paired with the infamous tweet which was about that same dumbass decision "“As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!)"

- however -

is there reported anywhere else yet? don't see it in my usual boring news spots (nyt/washpo/guardian/tuckercarlson)

CNN has been running with Shep Smith's exit for hours now as their big font front page headline news

Who would have guessed it?

It’s a near certainty that Dmytro Firtash is mixed up in this. He’s in Vienna fighting extradition to the US and has just replaced his legal team with two Giuliani associates (diGenova and Toensing).

― ShariVari, Friday, 11 October 2019

is there reported anywhere else yet? don't see it in my usual boring news spots (nyt/washpo/guardian/tuckercarlson)

― It is my great honor to post on this messageboard! (Karl Malone), Friday, October 11, 2019 7:31 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The times had it at the top yesterday but the columnists mostly were still talking about ukraine. Which is a big story too, but this one seems like such a clean shot. It’s a decision no one but trump seems to have agreed with.

Also, it seems impulsive, but didn’t mattis resign a few years ago because trump threatened to do this? How long has he been thinking of ditching the kurds and more importantly why?

bc the sdf are lefties prob

Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security since April and the fourth person to serve in that post since the Trump presidency began, submitted his resignation to the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

Lot of totally cool, normal, perfect things happening every 15 minutes lately.

Ah, Rudy.

hE RESPONDED
good to know the president’s lawyer responds to prank texts
our nation is run by senescent crime goons pic.twitter.com/CVi7ETPTF8

— Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) October 12, 2019

"I think we should stop texting about the crimes and just tell them over the phone so the crimes don’t leave little crime footprints"

First as tragedy, then as farce:

This is so insanely melodramatic and overwrought and the last few seconds still somehow manage to come as a shock. Just...wait for it. pic.twitter.com/7BBB9EXNdJ

— jordan (@JordanUhl) October 12, 2019

lmao
cometh the hour, cometh the [spoiler]

what the fuck

i remember reading a few months (or days?!) ago how the Murdoch kids were starting to strategize long-term and preparing to tack twd the center

this^ acutually sounds like undiluted Stephen MIller, you have to wonder if Barr didn't bring an entire script to that recent lunch w/ Rupert and they just decided nah fuck it let's go all in

"i'm talkin' bout the 1850's"

"idunnameanawarr"

oh bannon i didn't watch to the end

“Emotional Civil War”

They must have put half an inch of pancake makeup on Bannon for that.