The big story with regard to the impeachment inquiry over the weekend is that EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland -- one of the diplomats who orchestrated relations between Trump and Ukraine, and who is on the other side of several of the texts that strongly suggests a quid pro quo -- will testify this week over the objections of Trump and the State Department. According to The Washington Post, Sondland will testify that when he texted that there was no quid pro quo to another diplomat concerned that military aid was being tied to political aid that it was Trump who directly relayed the message to him.

By Sept. 9, Sondland, however, had grown increasingly concerned, as military funding for Ukraine now appeared tied to the statement as well. The person said Sondland was never briefed about Biden being part of the issue and was not aware of it until the transcript of the phone call was released. "If he had known earlier, he never would have touched this."

It's bullshit that Sondland didn't know that Biden was involved in the investigation, but it's important here to note that Sondland also believed military aid was being tied to the investigation, and that Trump is the one who tried to cover his ass by directly relaying the "no quid pro quo" message to Sondland.

For the moment, that's it for impeachment news, although note that Fiona Hill, Trump's former top Russia adviser, is expected to testify in front of the House today. I expect she will echo much of what Marie Yovanovitch said on Friday with regard to morale.

Indeed, the State Department's morale has bottomed out, because career diplomats are being used by Trump for political purposes. Likewise, morale in the military is also in a terrible place, after Trump pulled U.S. forces out of Syria and left our Kurdish allies unprotected. From The Times:

But now, with the White House revoking protection for these Kurdish fighters, some of the Special Forces officers who battled alongside the Kurds say they feel deep remorse at orders to abandon their allies.

"They trusted us and we broke that trust," one Army officer who has worked alongside the Kurds in northern Syria said last week in a telephone interview. "It's a stain on the American conscience."

"I'm ashamed," said another officer who had also served in northern Syria. Both officers spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals from their chains of command.

Meanwhile, General John Allen -- a retired four-star general -- is saying what a lot of folks in the military believe right now: "There is blood on Trump's hands for abandoning our Kurdish allies." The atrocities committed in Syria over the weekend were horrific, so much so that the Kurds have been forced to strike a deal with Syria's Russian-backed President Bashar al-Assad, who is sending in troops to stave off the Turkish offensive.

So, basically, we lost an ally to the Russians and the Iranians, hundreds of ISIS supports have escaped their prisons, Kurds are being massacred, Turks are committing war crimes, Europeans are freaking out because this mess creates a huge security risk for them.

This is 100 percent Trump's fault. Apparently, he and Erdogan were in a toxic pissing match and both men called each other's bluff. This entire mess started because one authoritarian leader said to the other, "I'm going to start a war," and the other one was like, "Go ahead, I dare you," and the first one was, "OK, I will," and the second one was like, "Fine, but I'm pulling our troops, and you'll have to own the mess," and Erdogan was like, "Whatever," and Trump was like, "Whatever." And now hundreds are dead.

And the big winner in all of this is Putin. From the AP:

The U.S. military withdrawal from northern Syria before a Turkish offensive leaves Russia as the ultimate power broker, allowing it to help negotiate a potential agreement between Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Kurds who were abandoned by Washington.

And in Ukraine, where the new president saw his image dented by a U.S. impeachment inquiry, Russia may use the volatility to push for a deal that would secure its leverage over its western neighbor.

Worth emphasising the scale of the disaster Trump has wrought in the week since his call with Erdogan. 1. Revived Isis. 2. Cemented Assad's grip on Syria. 3. Handed Russia yet another geopolitical windfall. 4. Betrayed the Kurds. 5. Immeasurably harmed US power. Thread 1.

— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) October 14, 2019

Meanwhile, the President's supporters are also showing a video that depicts Trump "shooting, stabbing and brutally assaulting" members of the media during a pro-Trump conference at Trump's Miami resort.

Several of Mr. Trump's top surrogates -- including his son Donald Trump Jr., his former spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis -- were scheduled to speak at the three-day conference, which was held by a pro-Trump group, American Priority, at Trump National Doral Miami. Ms. Sanders and a person close to Mr. Trump's son said on Sunday that they did not see the video at the conference.

The video, which includes the logo for Mr. Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, comprises a series of internet memes. The most violent clip shows Mr. Trump's head superimposed on the body of a man opening fire inside the "Church of Fake News" on parishioners who have the faces of his critics or the logos of media organizations superimposed on their bodies. It appears to be an edited scene of a church massacre from the 2014 dark comedy film "Kingsman: The Secret Service."

Jesus Christ.

He shot a person with BLM superimposed on their face in the fucking head I'm speechless

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) October 14, 2019