Did He Or Didn’t He? Catalonia’s Independence Is Umm…Unclear: Outside the Catalan regional Parliament building in Barcelona on Tuesday night, huge crowds waited for Carles Puigdemont, the leader of Catalonia, to declare their independence from Spain. That did not happen. Puigdemont instead made a confusing speech in which he appeared to declare independence from Spain, before immediately suspending that decision to allow for more “dialogue” with leaders in Madrid. Puigdemont was facing the unenviable task of preserving unity among his fragile coalition of separatists, who are debating whether or not to provoke a head-on confrontation with Madrid that could leave Catalonia without any administrative autonomy. Instead, Puigdemont’s speech only deepened the confusion, but perhaps deliberately so. By restating Catalonia’s right to independence, he continued to anger opponents of secession. But by refusing to begin the secession process immediately, he frustrated some of his allies in the independence movement, who felt he had not taken a decisive enough stance.

Turkey No Longer Recognizes the Authority of US Ambassador: On Sunday, a decision was made to temporarily stop issuing non-immigrant visas at the US embassy and consulates in Turkey after the arrest of Metin Topuz, a Turkish employee working at the embassy. Turkish authorities have accused Topuz of having links to exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the Turkish government says orchestrated a failed coup in the country in July 2016. Topuz is the second embassy staff member to be arrested on such charges in the past year. On Monday, US Ambassador to Turkey John Bass released a video message detailing his concerns over the arrest and subsequent treatment of Topuz. Bass said the US hopes the suspension of visa services will not last long, but added, “at this time we can’t predict how long it will take to resolve this matter.” In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that his country no longer recognizes the authority of Ambassador Bass and that he was no longer considered a representative of the United States in Turkey.

Democrats Dealings with Harvey Weinstein’s Dollars: It took five days, but Hillary Clinton finally condemned disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein on Tuesday, marking her first public comments on the matter since a stunning article in The New York Times detailed decades of sexual harassment by Weinstein. Weinstein was fired three days later by the company he founded. Later on Tuesday (which means it also took them five days to make a comment), the Obamas made a statement that similarly expressed disgust at Weinstein’s reported actions.  

Weinstein has been a major Democratic Party donor who bundled (someone who gathers donations from others into large sums) funds for the party’s political campaigns. His ties to the Clintons goes back decades, from the Clinton presidency to Hillary Clinton’s successful campaign for the Senate to both of Clinton’s failed presidential bids. The Obamas’ ties with Weinstein were significant as well. Besides supporting Obama’s 2012 presidential bid as a bundler, Weinstein was a guest at a star-studded White House birthday party for Obama in 2016, and the Obamas’ eldest daughter Malia interned at the Weinstein Company for several months this year. Neither Clinton’s nor the Obamas’ statements made any mention of Weinstein’s “sizable donations to the Clinton and Obama war chests.” That’s. So. Totally. Shocking. No?

The office of former Vice President Joe Biden declined to comment. Many Democratic members of Congress have repudiated Weinstein, with some going so far as to send donations given by Weinstein to charity.

President Trump’s Tweet Wars & Name-Calling: President Trump needs allies in his cabinet and the Congress to help him accomplish his political agenda. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Trump administration it’s that Trump seems to enjoy bantering with enemies than deal making with allies. Trump has Twitter attacked practically all of who is typically thought of as a President’s ally. Like his attorney general, his secretary of state, and the Republican leaders of both congressional houses. Trump most recently expanded his tweet wars towards Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he ridiculed the senator’s height with a derogatory new nickname, “Liddle Bob”.

Trump had supposedly told associates during the transition that he wouldn’t consider Corker, who is 5′ 7″ tall, for Secretary of State because he was too short. Instead, Trump picked Rex Tillerson, who is almost the president’s height, but whose own relationship with Trump has deteriorated to the point that he was said to have called the president a “moron.” Trump said in an interview he didn’t think Tillerson had actually said that, but added ” if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare I.Q. tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

Trump had lunch with Tillerson on Tuesday at the White House, along with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Before lunch Trump told reporters he didn’t think he had undercut Tillerson with the I.Q. comment. “I didn’t undercut anybody,” he said, sitting next to Kissinger, whose I.Q. is generally not questioned. “I don’t believe in undercutting people.” Tell that to the people Trump used belittling nicknames against during the campaign:  Florida Senator Marco Rubio (“Little Marco”),  Texas Senator Ted Cruz (“Lyin’ Ted”), former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (“Low Energy Jeb”),  and Hillary Clinton (“Crooked Hillary.”)

The Demise of Deadly ISIS: Just three short years ago the world became acutely aware of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, (also called ISIL or ISIS), a Sunni militant group who had grown in power once the US forces left Iraq during Obama’s presidency. ISIS’s goal was to build a medieval-style Islamic state, or caliphate, spanning the borders of Iraq and Syria. Their first major assault in Iraq was on Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, on June 10, 2014. Thereafter the group controlled a large swath of Iraq’s north, displacing hundreds of thousands of refugees and killing hundreds of Iraqi soldiers and police.

ISIS fighters carried out terrifying acts of wide scale brutality. They sent young male fighters on suicide missions, and later women and children civilians in towns they captured. They videotaped beheadings to stream on social media. Their conviction was to fight or die, and their savagery was horrific.

During the last three years US-led coalition airstrikes and a wide range of militias and national armies on the ground have been able to slowly overcome the group. Finally, in July, 2017, the ISIS stronghold of Mosul was recaptured  after a nine-month battle, and  the group began losing ground in Iraq. Then last week, after coalition forces were able to recaptured Hawija, a city about 40 miles west of Kirkuk, something not imagined began happening – once fearsome ISIS fighters were surrendering in droves.

Nearly 1,000 suspected militants have surrendered to Kurdish forces near Kirkuk. And unlike the battle for Mosul, Kurdish officials said the terrorist group “put up no fight at all, other than planting bombs and booby traps.” Now only a small strip of territory along Syria’s border remains in ISIS’ control.

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