After greenlighting Turkey's invasion of Kurdish-held Syria by evacuating U.S. troops, Trump realized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was making a fool of him and sent a bizarre letter his way. The letter promised to destroy the Turkish economy, saying "Don't be a tough guy. — Read the rest

One can always use some good life advice, no matter the source!

Donald Trump to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, on the occasion of his slaughtering of Kurds and Syria power-grab with Russia:

"Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (previously) was dealt a stinging rebuke in March, when voters in Istanbul overthrew his AK Party, which had run the city for 25 years; Erdogan had previously said "whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey." — Read the rest

New video hit the internet today showing the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, looking on as armed security guards from his entourage violently attacked protesters demonstrating outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington. — Read the rest

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House today.

While the two authoritarian heads of state chatted, Erdogan's thugs beat the crap out of Kurdish protesters nearby. — Read the rest

Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to meet with the classified-information-leaking U.S. President Donald Trump one day after this story breaks. — Read the rest

Earlier this month, Wikileaks published a database of six years' of email from AKP, Turkey's ruling party — but as outside experts have plumbed that database, all they can find is archives from public mailing lists, old spam, and some sensitive personal information from private citizens.

When German chancellor Angela Merkel allowed the prosecution of a comedian who had insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, some thought it was strategic: that by doing so, it exposed the country's ancient ban on insulting heads of state to broad legal scrutiny. — Read the rest

The Turkish government privately contacted Germany's ambassador to demand the censorship of a video satirizing the thin-skinned, famously corrupt Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he of the 1,000-room palace whose erection required the razing of a nature preserve.

Italian police spokesman Lt. Colonel Domenico Grimaldi says that Bilal Erdoğan was able to jump bail on money laundering charges because the Saudi embassy paid the mafia to help get him clear, assisting them with fraudulent diplomatic papers and a Saudi prince disguise.

The White Palace in Ankara has 1.6m square feet of floorspace, and features thousands of trees imported from Italy at a cost of up to $10,000 each; the taxpayer-footed electricity bill from the palace will run $313K/month.

Everyone is aware of Donald Trump's fascination with murderous autocrats, but a troubling report by CNN's Jim Sciutto reveals the depth of Trump's admiration and envy for dictators, including his shocking praise for Adolf Hitler.

Sciutto interviewed advisers such as retired Gen. — Read the rest

With Hungary's far-right Viktor Orban abstaining—and leaving the room to avoid being present for the vote—the other 26 leaders of the European Union unanimously agreed to begin accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova.

Mr Zelensky was delighted by the EU's announcement: "This is a victory for Ukraine.

Stop having elections in the United States, writes Adam Grant in The New York Times. Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, proposes using sortition (random lottery) instead of elections to select government officials, including presidents, legislators, governors, and judges. — Read the rest

Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk makes a lot of noise about free speech but doesn't appear to stand by it. Having called himself a "free speech absolutist," Musk has sought to obscure the sources of content on Twitter, reduce restrictions on hateful content, and mislabel news sources to create confusion. — Read the rest

The United States State Department has honored the Turkish embassy's request to refer to change the spelling of "Turkey" to Türkiye.

"The department will use the spelling that you saw today in most of our formal diplomatic and bilateral contexts, including in public communications, but the conventional name can also be used if it is in furtherance of broader public understanding," [US State Department spokesperson Ned] Price said. — Read the rest

A bomb killed six passers-by in a bustling pedestrian shopping avenue in Istanbul on Sunday, hurting dozens more. Footage taken by nearby security cameras shows the blast originated in a bag or case left by a bench.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blast a "treacherous attack" and said its perpetrators would be punished.

Finland, along with their Nordic neighbors in Sweden, have recently made the bid for official NATO membership. To celebrate this news, the Olaf Brewing out of Savonlinna, Finland has brewed a special NATO-themed lager, dry-hopped with Cold War military tensions. — Read the rest

Speaking through a pound-and-a-half of pancake makeup, televangelist and noted very stable genius Pat Robertson came out of retirement to explain what's really going on with Putin and Ukraine. Robertson — whose looking more and more like David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" episode of The Outer Limits — says his god is "compelling" Putin to wage war in Ukraine to set the stage for the utimate End Times war in Israel. — Read the rest