Amy Siskind:

Our country is already an authoritarian state from a practical standpoint: one person is making all major decisions, both foreign and domestic. He refuses to follow the law or recognize the Constitution. So long as the GOP enables him, things will only get worse.

Indeed. This has been the case from the moment he took office. He does what he feels like and no one so far can stop him.

Fox News Pentagon reporter Lucas Tomlinson:

Syrian Kurds under bombardment from Turkish jets urgently request air support from U.S. and “No fly zone” to protect civilians: SDF statement

Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin responds:

The US military has been ordered by President Trump

Turkey has accepted Trump’s green light to invade northern Syria.

Turkish warplanes have bombed parts of north-eastern Syria at the start of an offensive which could lead to conflict with Kurdish-led allies of the US.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the operation was to create a “safe zone” cleared of Kurdish militias which will also house Syrian refugees.

…

The Kurds – key US allies in defeating IS in Syria – guard thousands of IS fighters and their relatives in prisons and camps in areas under their control and it is unclear whether they will continue to be safely detained.

Turkish ground forces have been massing on the border. The offensive was launched just days after President Donald

Why Trump’s sudden Syria move was such a catastrophically bad idea:

As President Trump defends his decision to pull away some U.S. troops from Syria’s border with Turkey, the president’s former envoy for the fight against the so-called Islamic State is raising alarms about how potentially destabilizing the move can be for the region.

Brett McGurk, who resigned from Trump’s national security team in December and also served in the Obama and Bush administrations, tells NPR that Trump making such a drastic announcement shortly after speaking with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned a vital foreign policy decision into a potential crisis.

“Presidents do a lot of things, but the most consequential are decisions of war and peace

While awaiting developments in the impeachment process, I stumble over (sigh) Tim Minchin being a jackass.

I’m excited that so many people are so interested in the @OldVicTheatre at the moment! I look forward to hearing more about what you think of their amazing shows, fantastic community outreach programs, training & scholarships, and the wonderful work they’ve done over the…

… last 2 years to fund-raise for & carry out a complex renovation to make this historic 200 yr old building accessible for those who don’t do stairs 😊❤️. The Old Vic is not tax-payer funded, but does amazing work, carried out by passionate people who think very carefully..

… about the art they generate, the environment they create,

The Guardian updates:

Trump has reacted to the latest subpoena of one of his administration officials by attacking the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee.

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

Hasn’t Adam Schiff been fully discredited by now? Do we have to continue listening to his lies?

16K 9:06 AM – Oct 8, 2019

Gordon Sondland said in a statement earlier today that he was “profoundly disappointed” he could not appear before Congress, so it will likely be much harder for Trump to prevent him from testifying now that he has been subpoenaed.

On the one hand they can’t – legally speaking – just ignore a subpoena; on the other hand these are Trump and the trumpies, so … Read the rest

We need some refreshment.

… Read the rest

It appears that the sequence of events was: Erdoğan said Turkey was about to invade Syria, and Trump said “Great! I’ll take our troops out!”

Donald Trump got “rolled” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a National Security Council source with direct knowledge of the discussions told Newsweek.

In a scheduled phone call on Sunday afternoon between President Trump and President Erdogan, Trump said he would withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria. The phone call was scheduled after Turkey announced it was planning to invade Syria, and hours after Erdogan reinforced his army units at the Syrian-Turkish border and issued his strongest threat to launch a military incursion, according to the National Security Council official to whom Newsweek

Sarah Ditum:

Just spent twenty minutes on the phone angrily telling the features ed – who approached me, commissioned me, and to whom I made myself available for any rewrites all for a derisory 50 quid fee (important enough issue to take a hit on the rate, I thought) – that he’s a coward

Sarah wrote one of the articles.

She adds:

Unbelievable as it seems, the issue of whether women should have toilets is incendiary. I agreed to write for the Stage in good faith, believing they intended to give a platform to an important conversation. That was my mistake and god do I regret it.

You can read the column here, on my website, and decide

And speaking of the difference between Identifying As and actually being…Trump an hour ago:

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!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over…….the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!

Francis Wheen:

“My name is Ozymandias,

Wait hold the presses it turns out that identifying as is not enough. It all depends on…er…um…

…making a tangible change?

Whether they transitioned or not depends on if they made a tangible change either medically or through documentation (social transition). Just asserting your identity is absolutely your right, but it doesn’t mean you transitioned.

It doesn’t? But we’ve been told and told and told it does. We’ve been told that just asserting your identity is absolutely all it takes, and that any skepticism is a phobic crime against humanity.

It seems it’s going to turn out that that rule holds for trans people (definitely including those who just assert their identity) and not for former … Read the rest

It’s wrong from the headline on.

I was harassed at an In-N-Out bathroom for being a black trans woman

No. Not for being either black or trans, and not exactly harassed either, although that bit is tricky.

Subhead:

Ahead of a crucial supreme court decision, LeahAnn Mitchell writes about her experience with discrimination

That is, a guy who calls himself LeahAnn writes about his experience of using a women’s toilet.

“Is there a man in the bathroom?”

I was seated on the toilet in the stall of a women’s restroom of an In-N-Out when I heard the manager yell.

I had stopped at the burger restaurant in the Bay Area for a late lunch last spring, and was alone in