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BY SARAH LAZARUS & CROOKED MEDIA Monday, October 14, 2019 |
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| WHY SO SYRIA |
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| The Turkish invasion of Syria, an atrocity that President Trump set into motion for reasons only he seems to know, has reached its sixth day. The deteriorating situation confirms critics’ worst fears about the U.S. withdrawal from the Turkish-Syrian border, and continues to draw bipartisan condemnation. Here’s the latest.
What’s happening?
But they’ll still be in prison, right?
Unclear. The ISIS fighters were being guarded by the Kurds, who are now pretty focused on not getting wiped out by Turkey. Five men already escaped amidst shelling of a Kurdish-run prison on Friday, and more than 500 women connected to ISIS escaped from a camp for displaced families after a Turkish airstrike. One of the big fears here is that if enough ISIS fighters escape, they may be able to re-establish control over territory in the region.
What’s the response?
Bottom line: This is an ongoing catastrophe, and we deserve to know why it’s happening. Congress should demand access to the transcript of Trump’s phone call with Erdogan during which he greenlighted the invasion, and all relevant documentation of Trump’s business interests in Turkey. If Republicans intend to help Trump cover up his conflicts of interest, they should be forced to vote on it. |
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| A violent video depicting a fake President Trump shooting and stabbing members of the press aired publicly at his Miami resort last week, during a three-day conference sponsored by the pro-Trump group, American Priority. The video, which is an edited scene from the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, depicts a man with Trump’s head opening fire in “The Church of Fake News” on people who have Trump’s critics or news logos superimposed over their faces.
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| Twelve candidates on one stage. Will it be a fruitful debate, a night of chaos, or a staged reading of 12 Angry Men? We’re about to find out.
Sign up for our What A Debate newsletter for a recap of tomorrow (Tuesday) night's debate: https://votesaveamerica.com/subscribe
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Pod Save America will be out on Wednesday after the debate -so you can hear the takes there too! |
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| Fiona Hill, President Trump’s former Russia Advisor, testified for 10 hours on Capitol Hill Monday, under subpoena from impeachment investigators who anticipated the White House would try to block her appearance. Ambassador Gordon Sondland will testify Thursday, and plans to tell investigators that he doesn’t know if the president was telling the truth when he claimed there was “no quid pro quo” in his scheme to coerce Ukraine to manufacture dirt about Joe Biden. (Spoiler: in an M. Night Shyamalan-style twist, he was not telling the truth.)
A Fort Worth, TX, police officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in her own home on Saturday. Jefferson’s neighbor called a non-emergency number after noticing her doors were open late at night. One of the responding police officers saw Jefferson through the window and, seconds after yelling at her to put her hands up, fired a fatal shot through the glass. The officer, Aaron Dean, has resigned and been taken into custody.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has held a series of meetings with influential conservatives, including Lindsey Graham and Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The scuttlebutt in Silicon Valley is that Zuckerberg is sucking up to the Trump administration to deter Attorney General Bill Barr and the Justice Department from attempting to break up the company. That would explain Facebook’s garbage new policy of allowing politicians to spread disinformation on its platform, which Elizabeth Warren has challenged with an intentionally false ad of her own.
Hunter Biden will step down from the board of a Chinese investment company, and says he won’t work for foreign companies if his father is elected. In response to questions about his son, Joe Biden had this to say: “No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in meetings as if they are a cabinet member, will have any business relationship with anyone that relates to foreign corporation or government. Period.” An analog subtweet, very retro.
At least two people are dead and one remains missing after a Hard Rock Hotel under construction collapsed in New Orleans, LA, on Saturday. Eighteen more were taken to the hospital with injuries.
The president of NBC news has issued a memo calling Ronan Farrow’s book Catch and Kill “a smear.” In the book, Farrow reports that Harvey Weinstein pressured NBC into shutting down his reporting—an allegation NBC vehemently denies. It warms our hearts to see that companies caught up in #MeToo scandals have learned so much about accountability.
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn’t abandoned the idea of running for president if Joe Biden drops out. If there’s one thing we’ve heard from Democratic voters across the country, it’s that this primary simply has too few candidates, and not enough of them are billionaires.
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| Kim Jong Un may be hiding a disastrous African swine fever outbreak in North Korea—a “hog apocalypse,” as Bloomberg put it. North Korea has reported only one outbreak, even as the fever has spread across East Asia, but infected wild boars found near the border area between North and South Korea have aroused suspicion that the dictatorship is hiding the truth. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service says that African swine fever has spread to almost all areas of North Korea. The fever isn’t known to harm humans but kills most pigs within a week, which is a huge problem for the food supply: pork accounts for about 80% of North Korea’s protein consumption. A small silver lining: it appears there is another way to kill 30-50 feral hogs. |
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| A new California law will guarantee meals to all students, putting an end to “lunch shaming.” The bill, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed on Saturday, will require public schools to provide state-reimbursable meals to every student, even if their parents have unpaid meal fees. In a statement, Newsom referred to third-grader Ryan Kyote, who used his allowance to pay off his classmates’ lunch debts earlier this year, after seeing a news story about a 5-year old who was denied lunch at school because she couldn’t afford it. Newsom thanked Kyote for his empathy, and courage in bringing awareness to the issue. |
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