Donald Russia Acts Again

Maryland senator Chris Van Holland and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham (two days before video below)

released a bill Wednesday that threatens a series of economic sanctions against Turkey for its incursion, and Van Hollen claimed Sunday that “momentum is building for the Congress to act” amid the dayslong Turkish assault.

“Congress is going to first call upon the president to do the right thing, but since we can't count on that, we will have this bipartisan legislation that will impose very stiff sanctions on Turkey until they stop their aggression and withdraw their forces,” he said.

Van Hollen also blasted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s announcement Friday that Trump would sign an executive order granting the Treasury Department, in consultation with the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “very significant new sanctions authorities” against Turkey.

While Mnuchin warned the administration “can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to,” he stressed that “there are no sanctions at this time” against Ankara.

“For God's sakes, what are they waiting for, right? People are being killed right now,” Van Hollen said Sunday.

It took a while for some of us to figure it out, but now we have a pretty good idea what they were waiting for because  

Commander of Kurdish forces in #Syria to US official:

"I need to know if u are capable of protecting my people, stopping these bombs falling on us or not... If not, I need to make a deal w/Russia & regime now & invite their planes to protect this region”https://t.co/WmhracL2qs

— Robert Malley (@Rob_Malley) October 12, 2019

We are capable but Donald Trump is not willing, and that commander probably realizes by now that the President of the USA is eager to expand Russian influence in the Middle East. Speaking on Wednesday, the President 

seemed unconcerned by warnings that thousands of other ISIS fighters — and thousands of their family members who are held in separate facilities in the region, including many who still sympathize with the extremist group — could escape amid mounting chaos.

"Well they're going to be escaping to Europe, that's where they want to go, they want to go back to their homes," Mr. Trump said at the White House.

That should do wonders for the European security.   It's as though Vladimir Putin, always on the lookout to bust up the European Union, had suggested to his Washington friend that there is no better way to punish European nations, a prime aim of President Trump, than to invite ISIL terrorists to travel west into the European mainland.

Trump's motivation is increasingly becoming clear.  But even during campaign 2016, Slate's Franklin Foer recognized

Having a friend in the Kremlin would help Trump fulfill his longtime dream of planting his name in the Moscow skyline—a dream that he pursued even as he organized his presidential campaign. “Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment,” he once said. “We will be in Moscow at some point.”

The next thing you know, he'll get himself photographed in front of a Russian battleship. Oh, wait- he took care of that on Sunday morning:

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