There has been a lot of debate the last few days regarding Donald Trump's announcement to withdraw troops from Syria.

There has been a lot of debate the last few days regarding Donald Trump's announcement to withdraw troops from Syria. It feels like a lot of people are opposing this mainly because it came from Trump. The real issue are however not the US soldiers in Syria - who are there rather illegally btw. This article may help shining a bit of light on the situation:

This is not about where US troops are stationed. The two thousand US soldiers at issue are a drop in the bucket in terms of the number of armed fighters in Syria today. They have not been on the frontlines of the fighting the way that the US military was in Iraq. The withdrawal of these soldiers is not the important thing here. What matters is that Trump’s announcement is a message to Erdoğan indicating that there will be no consequences if the Turkish state invades Rojava.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll oversimplify and say that today, there are roughly five sides in the Syrian civil war: loyalist, Turkish, jihadi, Kurdish, and rebel. At the conclusion of this text, an appendix explores the narratives that characterize each of these sides.

Each of these sides stands in different relation to the others. I’ll list the relations of each group to the others, starting with the other group that they are most closely affiliated with and ending with the groups they are most opposed to:

Loyalist: Kurdish, Turkish, jihadi, rebel
Rebel: Turkish, jihadi, Kurdish, loyalist
Turkish: rebel, jihadi, loyalist, Kurdish
Kurdish: loyalist, rebel, Turkish, jihadi
Jihadi: rebel, Turkish, Kurdish and loyalist

This may be helpful in visualizing which groups could be capable of compromising and which are irreversibly at odds. Again, remember, I am generalizing a lot.

https://enoughisenough14.org/2018/12/29/the-threat-to-rojava-an-anarchist-in-syria-speaks-on-the-real-meaning-of-trumps-withdrawal/
https://enoughisenough14.org/2018/12/29/the-threat-to-rojava-an-anarchist-in-syria-speaks-on-the-real-meaning-of-trumps-withdrawal/

🎶On the seventh day of shutdown the POTUS said to me:

🎶On the seventh day of shutdown the POTUS said to me:
I'll shut the border down!
Look here, our Navy SEALS!
This is a witch hunt!
Stop the caravan!
I never liked Mattis!
I need a Chief of Staff!
I want my wall, so give me money!🎶
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/28/trump-mexico-border-wall-democrats-fund-shutdown

Ave Maria, the atheist version

Ave Maria, the atheist version

Originally shared by Sabine Hossenfelder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd5hT7Zv0rk&feature=autoshare

Just enjoy the holidays!

Just enjoy the holidays!

Via Hartmut Noack

Originally shared by Laura Natale

See? In Germany, even the roads are paved with chocolate...

See? In Germany, even the roads are paved with chocolate...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/12/chocolate/

Come again? Cold war is running at full steam!

Come again? Cold war is running at full steam!
https://www.defensenews.com/outlook/2018/12/10/nato-secretary-general-the-cold-war-is-over-but-big-challenges-remain/

Blue passportesses!

Blue passportesses!

#brexit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjp5OmoDYQM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjp5OmoDYQM

And now all together!

And now all together!

Originally shared by Dan J. Wilcox

🎶🎶 Come on everybody, sing along with me 🎶🎶

Just two years ago, Donald Trump made some remarks that are "remarkable" when seen again today:

Just two years ago, Donald Trump made some remarks that are "remarkable" when seen again today:

Trump last week accused Clinton of turning the State Department “into her private hedge fund.” “The Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return,” he said then. “It's a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens.”

Well said...

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-clinton-foundation-224287

Via João Rita


Originally shared by Eduardo Ramirez

Surprise, Mr.

Surprise, Mr. Bannon! Not every country has monetized politics to the same degree as the US, where anyone with enough money may buy as many politicians as they can...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/21/steve-bannons-rightwing-europe-operation-undermined-by-election-laws

Arrest her, she's making sense!

Arrest her, she's making sense! Who knows, next she might want to make voting equally easy for everyone. Heresy! If she gets through with that, the US might one day actually become a democracy, how strange a thought is that!
http://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wants-replace-columbus-day-holiday-election-day-1221904

Good point...

Good point...

Originally shared by Dan J. Wilcox

Oh, burn!

👊

There we go again.

There we go again. The publishers have lobbied for their money printing machine for quite some time. They got one in Germany, but then noticed that when they use it, they will stab themselves in the back.

The ideal legislation would guarantee them an income, no matter what happens and what other people may want to do. But just like they can't come up with a satisfiable business model in this era, they can't find how to write such legislation. If they do ask Google (The relevant law in Germany has the nickname Lex Google, because it was clearly aimed at Google, while also hurting others.) to pay for news snippets, Google will simply terminate news and the publishers will see an immense drop in visitors, which leads to an equal drop in ad revenue.

The law the Guardian talks about has been pushed by Axel Voss, a CDU MEP who emphasized how all those poor artists and content creators need to be protected.
https://qz.com/1389385/article-11-and-article-13-axel-voss-is-surprised-by-eu-copyright-law/

Not surprisingly, all those articles that actually meant to protect artists etc were weakened or eliminated behind closed doors as soon as the European Parliament had voted for this law. Publishers won again and Mr. Voss will very likely receive a nice Christmas bonus from his masters.
https://netzpolitik.org/2018/urheberrecht-aerger-im-eu-parlament-ueber-verwaesserten-schutz-fuer-kuenstler/
(German only, sorry)

Unfortunately, history needs to repeat again and again. Btw, the Guardian article mentions something the publishers always distort in their arguments: Google is not making money from news, there are no ads. And if learn-resistant publishers get their way, soon it will be hard to find news - at least in Europe...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/18/google-news-may-shut-over-eu-plans-to-charge-tax-for-links

Coming from General Bone Spurs, those words have an immense weight...

Coming from General Bone Spurs, those words have an immense weight...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/13/trump-macron-eu-army-german-second-world-war

Makes sense.

Makes sense.

Via Kristian Köhntopp

Originally shared by Irreverent Monk

Today's motivational thought:

No sense in being pessimistic. It wouldn't work anyway.

Gigi, Guardian of the Gingerbread

Gigi, Guardian of the Gingerbread

Amazing Ukrainian democratic freedom fighters - OK, they carry Nazi symbols.

Amazing Ukrainian democratic freedom fighters - OK, they carry Nazi symbols. OK, they do the Nazi salute. But they can't be Nazis, no (living) Ukrainian politician sees any Nazis around...

Via Neesee M Clément

Originally shared by Graham Phillips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dAS3VZCZ_E&feature=autoshare

Never happens when I send a message...

Never happens when I send a message...

Originally shared by H George Tavakoli

Thank you for your service!

Thank you for your service!

Fits right in with people taking money from child cancer charities...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/09/matthew-whitaker-acting-attorney-general-wpm-scam

Title

Originally shared by H George Tavakoli