Posts on Sunday, August 15, 2021
Kandahar, Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, the presidential palace, Bagram Air Base–all fell within hours of President Joe Biden’s order to bug out of Afghanistan posthaste.
Another “last helicopter” lifting away from an American embassy in a sign of defeat.
Just last month, President Biden swore that this was a scene that would never occur. He infamously claimed that pulling out of Afghanistan would never be like that scene in Saigon in 1975.
“The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy
It is not unusual to see traffic snarls in Southern California, but it is rare when a large animal is the cause of the tangle.
That is what happened in Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday evening when a bull was spotted trotting down the 15 Freeway, KTLA reported.
The incident took place when the bull jumped from its trailer onto the northbound 15 located south of Baseline Road, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officials explained in a Facebook post.
Officers answered the call and found the bull, whose name is Ferdinand, walking down the middle of the road.
Illegal migrant landings have increased by nearly sevenfold since leftist Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese took over from Matteo Salvini in 2019. Earlier this week, Ms Lamorgese, a member of the leftist Democratic Party (PD), admitted that she could not stop the wave of new landings of illegal immigrants that continue to arrive on the shores of Sicily.(Snip)
However, just two years ago, when League (Lega) leader Matteo Salvini served as interior minister in a populist coalition government with the Five Star Movement, he succeeded in dramatically reducing landings to just 4,120 from January 1st to August 10th, 2019. The number of landings has increased
Washington—The Biden administration has approved a significant and permanent increase in the levels of food stamp assistance available to needy families—the largest single increase in the program’s history. Starting in October, average benefits for food stamps (officially known as the SNAP program) will rise more than 25 percent above pre-pandemic levels. The increased assistance will be available indefinitely to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries. The aid boost was first reported by The New York Times and the details were confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture.(Snip)The aid boost is being packaged as a major revision of the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan.
A DoorDash deliveryman who went viral last week for leaving a passive aggressive note for a “habitual non-tipper” now says the stunt “never happened.” “Amy is real, she’s a real habitual non-tripper, but I did not leave the note at Amy’s thing,” TikTok user @frenchfrythug posted on Saturday—four days after he shared a now-unavailable video claiming to have left the note along with the female customer’s order. “If you can’t afford to tip then you should go pick it up yourself,” the note said, according to Insider.(Snip)A subsequent video showed @frenchfrythug supposedly distributing the money he said he received from strangers on Venmo
The president of the COP26 United Nations climate change conference has admitted he still drives a diesel vehicle, the latest hypocrisy for green revolutionary Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his climate spokesman said she doesn’t want an electric car. The prime minister announced in November 2020 a ban on buying new fossil fuel vehicles by 2030—and even hybrids by 2035—as part of his “Green Industrial Revolution”.(Snip)Last week, the government’s climate cheerleader Allegra Stratton admitted that she was not interested in buying an electric car—“I don’t fancy it just yet”—because the time it takes to charge them causes disruption to long journeys
Scotland’s left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) government has issued official guidance to schools saying they can assist supposedly transgender pupils to change their gender identity from the age of four, without telling their parents. In a 70-page document backed by controversial LGBTQ groups such as Stonewall, Scottish schools are advised by Scotland’s devolved administration—roughly equivalent to a state government in the United States—that children can “come out” as transgender “at any age”, and should be supported to change their gender identity even from the earliest year of primary school, where the youngest pupils are aged four or five.
Accountability for Afghanistan
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It is probably too much to expect that there will be accountability for the debacle in Afghanistan–we have a Democratic president, after all. But we can still hope.
We can turn to the foreign press for their perspectives on what is happening. France24 posted this video of chaos at Kabul’s airport: The British press is unsparing. From the London Times:
The almost overnight withdrawal of the vast bulk of American troops last month, followed by their counterparts from other Nato countries, set the stage for the collapse of the demoralised Afghan forces.
The Afghan air force has struggled to keep its fleet maintained after the disappearance of civilian contractors
Biden officials admit miscalculation as
Afghanistan’s national forces
and government rapidly fall replies
Afghanistan’s national forces
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President Joe Biden and his administration struggled Sunday to project order amid a race by American and other foreign personnel to evacuate Afghanistan as Taliban fighters entered Kabul.
The rapid fall of Afghanistan’s national forces and government has come as a shock to Biden and senior members of his administration, who only last month believed it could take months before the civilian government in Kabul fell – allowing a period of time after American troops left before the full consequences of the withdrawal were laid bare. [Snip] Biden is expected to address the nation in the next few days
Antony Blinken insisted Sunday the scene in Afghanistan is not comparable to the fall of Saigon as he diverted blame for the Taliban take over on Trump, Republicans and Afghan security forces. The Secretary of State said the images emerging from Afghanistan, including personnel being airlifted out of the embassy in Kabul, is 'standard operating procedure'.'This is being done in a very deliberate way. It's being done in an orderly way. And it's being done with American forces there to make sure we can do it in a safe way,' he said in an interview with ABC News' This Week on Sunday morning.
With Afghanistan on fire, the airport in chaos, and uncertainty on how all US personnel will make it out alive, the recriminations for what is still transpiring are in full swing. You’ll be less than shocked to learn that some are blaming Donald Trump, who hasn’t been president for the last seven months.
On the other hand, those living within the confines of our current reality are pointing the finger where it belongs, toward the current President of the United States. While Joe Biden had previously taken credit for his supposedly fabulous withdrawal plan, he’s now desperately trying to pass the buck, be it to Republicans or
Presidential historian and CNN contributor Tim Naftali argued that it’s fair to compare the Fall of Saigon to Kabul’s descent into chaos, now that the Taliban has taken control of the Afghanistan capital.Naftali joined CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday to discuss the implications of Kabul’s fall and the US’ scramble to evacuate allies and American citizens from the country. Whitfield noted that the conversation was occurring hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken went on a media tour to defend the Biden administration’s approach, where the secretary of state insisted there was no comparison between Kabul and the end of the Vietnam War.
The president of Afghanistan has reportedly fled the country, the United States flag was taken down at the embassy and secreted away with the ambassador, and throngs of people were seen on video desperately trying to climb into the back of American military cargo planes before takeoff with reports the airport was under fire from the Taliban. That’s the state President Biden left Afghanistan in and CNN’s Jake Tapper was out to hold him to account during Sunday’s State of the Union, thrashing Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the process.
Tapper came out of the gates on fire,
The Bagram Air Base in Kabul, Afghanistan has reportedly surrendered to the Taliban. According to reports on Sunday, the Afghan military handed the base to the Taliban after militant forces entered Kabul.The base is known to house prisoners from both Taliban and Islamic State groups who have been classified as terrorist fighters and who have now been freed since the invasion. The Taliban has suggested it’s trying to take over the capital and claimed they want to bring peace once they do. Bagram was built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and occupied by U.S. and NATO forces until July.
On "Sunday Night in America," Congressman Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J. called on President Joe Biden and several other Democrat leaders to resign following the disaster in Afghanistan.Following Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops, Taliban forces quickly seized control of Afghanistan, leading to the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country.Fox News host Trey Gowdy asked the congressmen, "how did we get to this point in Afghanistan?""My God, it is one of the darkest, most embarrassing days we’ve had in our country, and it’s a tremendous embarrassment for the Biden administration.," Van Drew said.
A Taliban spokesman still has an active Twitter account, despite the platform's suspension of former President Donald Trump for “hateful” and “violent” content.The Taliban is actively moving to retake Afghanistan after U.S. withdrawal, with countless men, women, and children in danger for their lives.Twitter account @Zabehulah_M33, describes itself as the "[o]fficial Twitter Account of the Spokesman of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid."Some on Twitter noticed the hypocrisy.“Taliban's official spokesman has an active Twitter account. Meanwhile, the former President of the United States remains banned,”
The Twin Cities metro is home to one of the largest Somali populations in the country.
Now, Minneapolis Public Schools is launching a new course that spotlights the Somali language and culture.
"I felt isolated from learning about my culture," said Jama Ahmed, a Minneapolis Public Schools student.
"I would just feel lonely at times learning about other cultures and not being able to see my own," he added.
Washington— House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is proposing a procedural vote this month that would set up future passage of two economic measures crucial to President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, a move Democratic leaders hope will win must-have votes from unhappy party moderates.In a letter Sunday to Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that the House will take a single vote that would clear an initial hurdle for both a budget resolution and a separate infrastructure bill. The budget blueprint would open the gate for Congress to later consider a separate, $3.5 trillion, 10-year bill for health, education and environment programs.Nine centrist Democrats said Friday they would oppose the budget resolution until
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reportedly said he was 'beyond disappointed' with the Afghan army's capitulation to the Taliban and added: 'You can't buy willpower, and you can't buy leadership.' The Pentagon chief is said to have made remarks during a call with other US government members Sunday, as the Afghan capital began to fall to the Taliban, its US embassy closed, and the number of American troops deployed there rose by 1,000 to 6,000. Austin and fellow intelligence officials blame the Afghan army for not opposing the Taliban in a more prominent way, FOX News reported.
White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci on Aug. 15 downplayed a recent study from a prominent medical research center that deemed the Pfizer vaccine less effective than the Moderna vaccine.
The Mayo Clinic and Cambridge-based biotech company nference, found in the study that both mRNA COVID-19 vaccines’ effectiveness dropped in the month of July. The researchers, while saying the vaccines provided good protection against the virus, found that Moderna’s vaccine effectiveness was 76 percent, as compared with Pfizer’s 42 percent.
“That study … is a pre-print study, it hasn’t been fully peer-reviewed,” Fauci said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” of the recent Mayo-nference study’s findings,
Moments ago, President Trump called on Joe Biden to resign from office after yet another monumental failure, this time on the foreign policy front.As the crisis has continued to worsen in Afghanistan, Biden has been largely silent, mainly issuing boilerplate Twitter responses and casually telling the country he’ll update us on the situation “in a couple of days”.In response, President Trump issued the following blistering statement: “It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen in Afghanistan, along with
Republicans lambasted Joe Biden for 'going on vacation' on Sunday as he remained silent on Afghanistan while the capital city of Kabul was overrun by the Taliban and the president hunkered down at Camp David. 'First thing's first, why is Joe Biden on vacation, why hasn't his administration taken a single question? This is an embarrassment,' Ohio Representative Jim Jordan told Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures. The Republican congressman and Trump ally also tweeted on Sunday: 'America's in crisis. Afghanistan's in chaos. Why's Joe Biden on vacation?'
This is embarrassing.The White House on Sunday tweeted a photo of Dementia Joe sitting by himself as Afghanistan falls to the Taliban. The Taliban seized US weapons, munitions and military equipment such as armored tanks and military vehicles.The US is currently evacuating the country.Instead of addressing the American people or meeting in the Situation Room with US Generals, Joe Biden is all alone in an empty room miles away looking confused.“This morning, the President and Vice President met with their national security team and senior officials to hear updates on the draw down of our civilian personnel in Afghanistan, evacuations of SIV applicants and other Afghan allies,
Republican members of Congress criticized President Biden on Sunday for spending time at the Camp David presidential retreat instead of the White House as the Taliban fought to finalize a takeover of Afghanistan.
"Why is Joe Biden on vacation?" asked Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on "Sunday Morning Futures." "I don't think he's taken one question from the press this entire weekend, so this is a frightening situation."
Fox News confirmed on Sunday morning that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as Taliban fighters entered Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
"Why is Joe Biden hiding?" asked Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Far-left MSNBC host Joy Reid is metaphorically getting an earful after comparing the Taliban in Afghanistan to the religious right in America.The liberal network’s resident alarmist, if not conspiracy theorist, who Tucker Carlson has irreverently nicknamed the “race lady,” offered some wisdom to her two million Twitter followers as insurgent Taliban forces are on the verge of taking total control of their country:“This is the real-life Handmaid’s Tale. A true cautionary tale for the U.S., which has our own far religious right dreaming of a theocracy that would impose a particular brand of Christianity, drive women from the workforce and solely into childbirth, and control all politics,”
California Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu is under scrutiny for two $25,000 payments he made to Stanford University years before his son was accepted to the school. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that Lieu made donations totaling $51,046 to his alma-mater between February 2016 and June 2018. This includes two donations of the substantial sum of $25,000, one in September 2017 and one in June 2018. According to his Instagram bio, one of Lieu's sons is about to start college as a freshman at Stanford, due to graduate in 2025. The fact that Lieu suddenly gave so generously to the school in the years before his son was accepted
What’s Thanksgiving without a juicy, fresh turkey? More Americans may soon find out.Meat producers and distributors are sounding the alarm over a turkey shortage that has supermarkets and other food retailers scrambling to get ready for the holiday, The Post has learned.The shortfall is expected to mainly affect fresh turkeys and birds under 16 pounds, which tend to be the most popular, sources said.Extra large, frozen birds will be easier to find, sources explained. But they’re labor intensive for cooks, and therefore less desirable. To properly defrost a 20 pound bird, for example, can take up to six days.
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant based in Las Vegas died Tuesday from COVID-19, according to his family and co-workers.
Maurice "Reggie" Shepperson, a native New Yorker whose brightly colored pants earned him the nickname Skittles during training in 2014, tested positive for the coronavirus in early July and had been fighting it in a hospital for a month, according to Marcia Hildreth, a Southwest flight attendant who called him her best friend. He was on a ventilator and died early Tuesday, his mother, Dawn Shepperson, told USA TODAY. A nurse told her it was from COVID-19.
A Taliban commander claimed he spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay in a triumphant speech from inside the Presidential Palace in Kabul as the militants declared an Islamic state of Afghanistan after the country's president joined thousands of Afghan nationals in a mass exodus. Taliban fighters stormed the ancient palace on Sunday and demanded a 'peaceful transfer of power' as the capital city descended into chaos, with US helicopters evacuating diplomats from the embassy in scenes echoing the 1975 Fall of Saigon which followed the Vietnam War.The Al-Jazeera news channel livestreamed the press conference from inside the palace, which showed a group of Taliban fighters sitting at the President's desk
Florida's DeSantis Is Just Trolling the
Media With Another Bold Move and
It's Fantastic to Watch replies
Media With Another Bold Move and
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The new meltdown over Governor Ron DeSantis’s management of COVID-19 in Florida could be the most ridiculous one to date. The corporate media is upset that Florida will now count deaths on the date they occur rather than the date they get reported. Some journalists do not understand that the curve will be normalized, but the area under the curve will remain the same.
Georgia’s COVID-19 dashboard allows users to select whether they want to view deaths according to the date they happened or when the state received the report. When you look at the graph by day reported, you can see gaps on weekends,
Another 1,000 soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne have been ordered to head directly to Afghanistan's capital instead of Kuwait to assist in the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Afghans who assisted the U.S. mission, a U.S. official told ABC News. That brings the total number of U.S. troops being sent back to Afghanistan to 6,000. The increase of service members to Kabul follows Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, meeting with representatives of the Taliban earlier Sunday in Doha, Qatar, to inform them not to interfere with the U.S. mission at the airport, according to a
Mexico City—A Carnival cruise on which 27 people tested positive for COVID-19 just before the ship made a stop in Belize City this week was headed back to Galveston, Texas Friday after stopping in Mexico. The positive cases were among 26 crew members and one passenger on the Carnival Vista, which is carrying over 1,400 crew and nearly 3,000 passengers, the Belize Tourism Board said in a statement.(Snip)All 27 were vaccinated, had mild or no symptoms, and were in isolation, according to the statement. The tourism board said 99.98% of the ship’s crew was vaccinated, as well as 96.5% of its passengers.
Chicago—Gerrit Cole will start for the Yankees on Monday when they face the Angels in The Bronx, in what will be his first game back since hitting the COVID IL after experiencing what he called “mild” symptoms. The right-hander was part of the team’s latest outbreak and said he doesn’t have an explanation for why they’ve been hit so hard by the virus this season—or what the players and staff can do differently. “If I had an idea what behavior I did or how I got it, I’d certainly advocate for an adjustment," Cole said Sunday before the Yankees played their series finale
The Scale of Humiliation
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To reprise a line from a decade-old column of mine:
Afghanistan is about Afghanistan – if you're Afghan or Pakistani. But, if you're Russian or Chinese or Iranian or European, Afghanistan is about America.
(Snip) Here's the scoop from USA Today:
Taliban's Afghanistan Advance Tests Biden's 'America Is Back' Foreign Policy Promise
Kabul Could Fall To The Taliban Within 90 Days, U.S. Intelligence Warns
Thank you, geniuses. That was Thursday. So it turned out to be well within ninety hours - which is close enough for US intelligence work.
Was this the same "seventeen intelligence agencies" who all agreed Russia had meddled in the 2016 election - and with whose collective intelligence only a fool
The Taliban has entered the presidential palace in the capital city Kabul and is now in control of the entire country, according to a highly placed source. The group is soon expected to declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
An anonymous source inside the Afghan Defense Ministry confirmed the high ranking source’s report of the seizure of the presidential palace, which The Times of India has also reported.
President Ashraf Ghani left Kabul after stepping down from power on Sunday. Rumors of his resignation had been circulating since Friday, while fears of the Taliban attacking the capital were also high that night.
Joe Biden insisted last month that there's no way his troop withdrawal from Afghanistan would lead to a Saigon-like situation with Americans emergency evacuated out of the U.S. embassy in Kabul by helicopter.'There's going to be no circumstance where you're going to see people being lifted off the roof of a (sic) embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,' the president said during a press conference on July 8, 2021.Biden insisted during that press conference that the U.S. would not succumb to the Taliban once troops were withdrawn
Behold Barack Antoinette
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WASHINGTON — Jay Gatsby gave big, lavish, new-money parties at his sprawling mansion on the water because he wanted to seem cool. He wanted Daisy to notice him.
Barack Obama gave a big, lavish, new-money party at his sprawling mansion on the water because he wanted to seem cool. Being cool is important to him.
One difference is that Gatsby opened his house to the uninvited. Obama closed his house to many of the invited after getting flak for hosting “a celebrity mosh pit,” as Stephen Colbert called it, while officials were telling people to mask back up.
Look, very few Americans want Americans to keep fighting in Afghanistan. Twenty years – 19 of them mission creep — is more than enough time to do it, if you can. But there’s withdrawing, and then there is fleeing. The American president is fleeing. Like every president, Joe Biden has numerous problems. Many, in fact, are of his own making. Like withdrawing during the peak Afghan fighting season, instead of waiting for winter. With Afghanistan well on the way to falling quickly to the Taliban and a record number of illegals breaching our southern border, Joe Biden has gone on vacation. Literally. The pressure
Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday President Bidens and Trump shoulder the blame for the unfolding “catastrophe” in Afghanistan. The Wyoming Republican and member of the House Armed Services Committee said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” the situation in Afghanistan was avoidable, and the fallout will tarnish the nation’s image on the world stage for years to come. “I think that, absolutely, President Biden bears responsibility for making this decision, but there is no question that President Trump, his administration, [former Secretary Mike] Pompeo, they also bear very significant responsibility for this,” Ms. Cheney said. “They walked down this path of legitimizing the Taliban, of perpetuating this fantasy,
U.S. Embassy Tells Americans in Kabul
to ‘Shelter in Place,’ Airport
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to ‘Shelter in Place,’ Airport
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The U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Americans to “shelter in place” in a security warning on Sunday, noting that there were reports of gunfire on the city airport. In a series of two alerts, the embassy initially said it had suspended consular services and warned Americans not to come to the embassy building or the airport. However, a revised alert sent less than 30 minutes later removed the warning not to come to the Embassy or airport. Both alerts said the airport may be the target of gunfire. (Tweet) “The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly including at the
We’re seeing a tragedy happening in Afghanistan because of Joe Biden’s precipitous withdrawal without apparently any real preparation with the Afghan government or understanding the movement of the Taliban.
Now that the Taliban are moving into Kabul, we likely will not be able to save thousands of our allies who are now behind enemy lines. Hopefully, we’re able to get our own people out in time — even that may be a question now.
On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price talked about having “weeks” to get people out,
'Named & Shamed' - IRS Lists The Record
Number Of Wealthy Americans Becoming
Ex-Americans In 2020 replies
Number Of Wealthy Americans Becoming
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The number of wealthy Americans with assets over $2 million who renounced their citizenship has surged amid socioeconomic despair, political firestorms, and an unrelenting virus pandemic sparking increasingly freedom-destroying mandates from the 'petty tyrants' - as Rand Paul described them - in Washington. Earlier this year, we noted 6,705 Americans gave up their citizenship in 2020, a 260% increase from 2019 when 2,577 renounced their citizenship. People fleeing the country tend to have the economic mobility to do so and seek tax haven countries. They also seek areas that are safer (free of social unrest) and have more freedoms.
The grieving mother of Ashli Babbitt has revealed that an aide to Senator Dianne Feinstein scolded her saying, “your daughter should not have stormed the Capitol,” when she called in an attempt to get more information about her death.Babbitt’s mother, Micki Witthoeft detailed her awful experience with Feinstein’s office during an interview with Dinesh D’Souza this week.
Witthoeft said that the first time she called the office,
People keep sending me emails about a Wall St Journal article [SEE HERE] highlighting John Durham and a grand jury receiving evidence. According to the article: “Special Counsel John Durham, appointed during the Trump administration to examine the origins of the FBI’s 2016 Russia probe, is presenting evidence to a grand jury and preparing a lengthy report expected to be completed in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter.” The article goes on to say Durham is looking into whether any informant or tipster to the FBI intentionally gave false information, ergo they have committed a crime:…“Mr. Durham has been examining potential criminal charges against several
“Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as President Biden on Afghanistan,” begins Mike Allen’s Axios report on the imminent fall of the Afghan national government to the Taliban.
Just five weeks ago, Biden assured Americans “[T]he likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” What made that prediction ludicrous even at the time was that his own generals had been telling him that there were very few reliable units in the Afghan army that could resist the Taliban. The endgame was always going to be played out swiftly
Joe Biden might just have secured his place as the most incompetent president of the United States in history, but Nancy Pelosi long ago secured her place as the most purposely divisive, partisan political hack to ever wield the Speaker’s gavel.
The detached-from-reality statement released by the 81-year-old Pelosi on Sunday praising Biden’s disastrous handling of the embarrassing “Escape from Afghanistan” merely secured her position in the top slot.
“The President is to be commended for the clarity of purpose of his statement on Afghanistan and the actions he has taken.”
While you’re letting that sink in
Border Patrol agents in Calif. take fire
from Mexican side of border while
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from Mexican side of border while
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U.S. Border Patrol agents operating in a California mountain range to apprehend migrants who cross into the country illegally were fired on by someone across the border in Mexico last week, reports said on Sunday.The incident is among the latest act of violence directed at U.S. immigration agents and officials along the border, the agency noted, adding that there have been no arrests made in connection with the shooting.According to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Saturday, Border Patrol agents “were the target of multiple shots” fired at them near Otay Mountain around 9 p.m. on Aug. 9.
Today, as things further deteriorate in Afghanistan, a question popped into my head — where’s Kamala Harris? The vice president hasn’t spoken publicly since the chaos started, mimicking the disappearing act she pulled early in Joe Biden’s presidency. Over the past weeks, she’s been the subject of several hit pieces as well, likely sourced from within the White House.
What is her response to the disaster currently playing out?
Then Larry O’Connor reminded me of Harris’ statement back in April on the withdrawal, and I believe it’s going to be very relevant going forward, as Biden looks to shiv someone in the back to avoid blame.
Larry Elder, prominent conservative talk radio host and a leading candidate in the California gubernatorial recall election, vows to end mask and vaccine mandates in the Golden State if elected.“When I become governor, assuming there are mandates for masks and statewide mandates for vaccines, they will be suspended right away,” said Elder during a news conference on Zoom, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle. “This is America. We have freedom in America.”While Elder himself has been vaccinated and believes “vaccines work” he said he doesn’t believe the government should decide for people.
Afghanistan fell to the Taliban much faster than President Joe Biden and his top military leaders predicted, a Sunday report from Axios reveals.Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told a bipartisan group of senators during a Sunday call that a past assessment of how soon the terrorist groups will reemerge in Afghanistan will drastically speed up due to the events over the last week.On the call with Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked if they will revise the assessment given to Congress in June that classified a 'medium' risk
Who’d a thunk it? Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Politico (both of whom had multiple reporters) and a host of other mainstream media suspects, including the Associated Press, got to ask a single question Friday at Larry Elder’s first online Zoom press conference for the California gubernatorial recall. The likes of the Bay Area Yu Channel, the Sing Tao Daily and Lynn Ku of KTSF did. If you enjoy seeing MSM stuffed shirts being upended, it was quite a hoot. A reporter from the LAT—I won’t name him out of a courtesy he didn’t seem to have himself—was throwing a tantrum in the Zoom chat room due to his CORRECTION*
Prince Charles paid tribute to his younger sister Princess Anne with an adorable throwback snap as she turned 71 today.
The Prince of Wales, 72, led well-wishes to his younger sister this morning with a sweet photograph of the pair as children sitting in their prams in the Clarence House garden in 1951.
It showed Charles squeezing the hand of a one-year-old Anne, with royal watchers dubbing the image 'lovely' and hailing the Princess Royal 'one of our strongest royal ladies'.
President Biden must take responsibility for his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, as Taliban warlords roll into its capital Kabul, a top US general has warned. General David Petraeus the former Commander of US and International Forces in Afghanistan, is calling the withdrawal a 'serious mistake' and says the decision could be 'catastrophic for the United States and the world'. 'This is an enormous national security setback and it is on the verge of getting much worse unless we decide to take really significant action,' Petraeus told host WABC Radio Rita Cosby. 'The outcome, whether it is the Taliban taking over the country or it's the kind of civil
Biden Never Saw What Hit Him
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The most tragic thing about Joe Biden’s cascade of failures is what it reveals about the man and his leadership team as a whole. He never had the capability to anticipate the problems which now overwhelm him and still less appears to possess the capacity to improvise a solution. Reality, so long kept at bay by the media narrative, is now inside his OODA loop and pulling ahead.
What began with the border crisis was joined by the covid outbreak. The trillions of dollars in stimulus turned on him to become inflation. Without a pause Afghanistan came out of the box months ahead of his scenario. Now with stunning speed,
Listening to radical activists, you might be fooled into thinking that the government’s demonstrably illegal eviction moratorium had no downside whatsoever. In fact, the only harm done was to rich, white property owners who could afford to give their tenants a small break in rent during the COVID crisis.
That’s not even close to being true. There are plenty of victims of the government’s eviction moratorium — just like there are winners and losers every time the government chooses to “help” people. The problem comes from those who pretend there are only happy winners when the government prevents commerce from going on.
For decades, Joe Biden has touted himself as a foreign policy genius. As a United States senator, he never had to make a decision or bear responsibility for running off at the mouth. As vice-president, he was given backwaters such as Ukraine that he reportedly turned into a family piggy bank. But now he is president. He owns the utter disaster that Afghanistan has become; and the sudden about-face of the Pentagon to send 3,000 fully-armed combat troops back into the fray shows that even the woke military bosses Biden installed can wake up and smell the coffee. Would Donald Trump have done this differently? CORRECTION*
Taco bout the future of fast food! Taco Bell unveiled renderings of its latest drive-thru concept—which features an elevated kitchen and “gravity-defying” food delivery system. The high-tech takeout spots will use a “proprietary lift system” to pass food from the 3,000 square-foot kitchen to the four drive-thru lanes sitting below, the California-based chain said in a news release Thursday. The fast-food joint will break ground on the first of the new restaurants in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota later this month.(Snip)The goal of the new Taco Bell Defy concept is to get diners-on-the-go back on the road quickly
Killing Art
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I recently had occasion to quote Charles Péguy’s observation, from a 1905 essay called “Notre Patrie,” that “It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.”
The cowardice in question can be intellectual or moral as well as physical, something that is vividly illustrated by Holland Cotter’s moist, mincing, over-the-shoulder-glancing review for the New York Times of a small but exquisite exhibition of paintings by the great Venetian Renaissance painter we know as Titian (d. 1576). (Snip)Wafting off almost every syllable of Cotter’s summary is a timid ideological subservience that combines stunning historical obtuseness with a hothouse moral smugness
How a decade-long beef at a NYC public
housing complex led to the murder
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housing complex led to the murder
of a federal witness replies
A Brooklyn woman deftly navigated the rival gangs that controlled her East New York housing project for most of her life. Two bullets through her thigh and a drug charge inspired her to cooperate with the feds—a decision that got her killed. Shatavia Walls’s shooting death, which resulted in charges against three reputed gangsters last week, was the culmination of years dodging bullets in the Pink Houses she called home.(Snip)Walls grew up in Building 10 of the Pink Houses, which is aligned with the Ninedee Gang, court papers show. She married Kevin St. Hill, who is awaiting sentencing for gang charges related to his role
As we look at the disgraceful coda of the Global War on Terror and the tens of thousands of our countrymen who have been maimed or killed with scant results, it is clear to all but few (sadly, those few seem to occupy a lot of Defense Department jobs and think tank posts), there must be a better way to fight our wars. If we look to history, and even demands from the anti-war Left, we might find a better way forward.
Afghanistan Veteran Pens Heartbreaking
Letter Describing What It's Like
Coming Home From Combat replies
Letter Describing What It's Like
Coming Home From Combat replies
As of this writing, Taliban forces have just entered Kabul, Afghanistan, the terrorist group’s leaders say that no force will be used to take the city, and both Taliban and Afghanistan government leaders say they’re working to negotiate a peaceful transfer of power to a “transitional government.” US Embassy staffers are being ferried from the Embassy to safety via Chinook helicopter after destroying records so that when the Embassy itself soon falls/is abandoned the Taliban won’t obtain information that could be used to hurt Americans or American interests. Instead of a troop withdrawal, 5,000 members of the United States Military are now headed to Afghanistan to oversee our retreat.
With the 20th anniversary of 9-11 approaching, there is an effort to educate children on the terrorist attacks.The 9-11 Memorial and Museum launched a fund at NeverForget.org to support its educational programs. President of the Museum Alice Greenwald encourages donations and wants instructors to go to 911Memorial.Org for guidance. “Teachers can learn about our lesson plans, the anniversary in the schools webinar, the digital downloadable poster exhibitions and all the other resources that are available for both students and teachers.”She says the webinar features first person accounts including family members who lost loved ones and first responders.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. The Taliban, which for hours had been in the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic throughout the day as helicopters raced overhead to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out. Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule CORRECTION*
The depth of Joe Biden’s ineptitude is stunning. Nothing he’s done in his first seven months has shown a breadth of competency – but his failure with Afghanistan has moved to the top of the list of failures. Biden made promises he couldn’t keep.Just hours after “guaranteeing “ that Kabul would not be a repeat to Saigon 1975, with helicopters evacuating personnel from the roof our embassy, that is precisely what is happening.Biden issued a paper tiger, “Play nice or I’ll get really mad” warning to the Taliban that, no doubt, was met with ridicule and mocking laughter. The Taliban will do as they wish,
President Joe Biden issued a statement Saturday blaming former President Donald Trump after the Taliban rapidly took control of the majority of Afghanistan’s major cities.“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor,” Biden wrote, complaining that Trump negotiated a deal “that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001.”Biden also noted that Trump had set the troop withdrawal date of May 1 and reduced troop levels to 2,500. The president said he had the choice of either following through with Trump’s withdrawal plan or sending more troops back into Afghanistan to secure the country.
Ashli Babbitt’s mom rips Pelosi, Feinstein,
claims questions about daughter’s death
going unanswered replies
claims questions about daughter’s death
going unanswered replies
The grieving mother of Ashli Babbitt, the U.S. Air Force veteran who was fatally shot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, says neither Nancy Pelosi nor Dianne Feinstein – nor any other current elected official, Democrat or Republican, has reached out to her regarding questions about her daughter’s death. California resident Micki Witthoeft spoke out last week in a podcast conversation with conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza. She also said no one from the Biden administration or the Justice Department has answered her questions, including about the identity of the law enforcement officer seen on video firing his weapon at Babbitt.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, effectively leaving Afghanistan in Taliban control. TOLO Newsfirst reported Ghani’s departure on social media Sunday morning. Fox News confirmed that Ghani and a core team of close allies were flown out around 10 am EST. “That’s it. It’s over,” a U.S. official told Fox News, according to reporter Lucas Tomlinson. (Tweet) This is a breaking news story, please refresh the page for updates.
Teachers from states banning mask mandates
are speaking out. Here's what
they want you to know replies
are speaking out. Here's what
they want you to know replies
Teachers are already struggling to do their job during a pandemic. But it's worse for those working in states where mask mandates are prohibited.
Some fear students who aren't eligible for vaccines may die. Others worry about having to enforce social distancing. Or they worry about bringing the virus home to family.
Afghan citizens face executions, forced marriages and other possible war crimes as the Taliban sweeps across the country, wrestling control from ineffective government forces as the U.S. troop withdrawal nears, according to U.S. officials and watchdog groups.
The militants have seized territory at an alarming rate while Afghan government troops and their allied militias fail to put up an effective resistance – surrendering at times without even putting up a fight.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul said Wednesday that it was receiving reports that Taliban members were executing surrendering Afghan troops and unlawfully detaining some members of the government, including military leaders, provincial officials and police officers.
Helicopters busily rescued personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, just weeks after President Joe Biden promised that there was “no circumstance” in which that spectacle, remembered from Vietnam, would recur.
Images of the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) are seared into the American imagination as a memory of humiliating defeat, as U.S. promises of security for South Vietnam collapsed withOn July 8, Biden had the following exchange with a reporter after remarks on the upcoming withdrawal from Afghanistan:
Q Mr. President, some Vietnamese veterans see echoes
Based on the news photos seen on Twitter, the Taliban is at the gates of Kabul, and the Saigon-style U.S. evacuations have begun. (Snip for tweet) AP, Bloomberg and Al-Arabiya are reporting that the Taliban is streaming into Kabul from all sides, and control every provincial capital. The terrorists are flying abandoned U.S. helicopters, posing with our abandoned guns, and parading in abandoned U.S. vehicles, with its "commanders" dancing with glee. In Kabul, the airport is jammed, the bank runs are starting,
Levin: Biden operating 'the most diabolical
presidency and Democratic Party
probably since slavery' replies
presidency and Democratic Party
probably since slavery' replies
President Biden is engineering the "most diabolical presidency and most diabolical Democratic Party, probably since slavery," former Reagan Justice Department chief of staff Mark Levin said Sunday on "Life, Liberty & Levin." Hosting guests Stephen Moore and Stephen Miller, Levin called the sudden "Marxist" lurch of the federal government a "massive de-growth movement dress[ed] up as climate change and the Green New Deal." He added that congressional Democrats with Biden's blessing seek to permanently transform America from a capitalist model to one that is far to the left by ushering in "American Marxism" through massive legislative bills disguised as "infrastructure" and "voting rights."
A new report alleges DNA testing confirms Ilhan Omar was married to her biological brother Ahmed Elmi. The two were allegedly married to bypass immigration laws. Omar has never been indicted on this crime.The test results were originally posted on GOP strategist Anton Lazzaro‘s Facebook page. He was arrested hours later by the feds on sex trafficking charges. Evidence emerged earlier that Rep. Ilhan Omar did indeed marry her brother, and that her real name may actually be Ilhan Nur Said.
The Afghan government outpost in Imam Sahib, a district of northern Kunduz province, held out for two months after being surrounded by the Taliban. At first, elite commando units would come once a week on a resupply run. Then, these runs became more scarce, as did the supplies.
“In the last days, there was no food, no water and no weapons,” said trooper Taj Mohammad, 38. Fleeing in one armored personnel carrier and one Ford Ranger, the remaining men finally made a run to the relative safety of the provincial capital, which collapsed weeks later. They left behind another 11 APCs to the Taliban.
A man was stabbed and a radio reporter was attacked on Saturday when a massive brawl erupted outside Los Angeles City Hall between suspected Antifa activists and protesters decrying vaccine mandates. At about 2pm, a group of people holding American flags and signs calling for 'medical freedom' arrived at City Hall for the rally, the Los Angeles Police Department and local media said. Counterprotesters quickly gathered nearby. About half an hour later, a fight broke out between the groups of protesters and counterprotesters. Counterprotesters were seen dressed in all black while anti-vaccine demonstrators were seen draped in American flag clothing and various Trump memorabilia.
Taliban fighters have entered Kabul and are seeking a 'peaceful transfer of power' with gunfire heard near the presidential palace as the extremists seized huge swathes of the country in the wake of the US military departure.The militants were seen in the districts of Kalakan, Qarabagh and Paghman hours after taking control of Jalalabad, the most recent major Afghan city to fall to the insurgents as they make huge gains across Afghanistan.The US evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter as a Taliban spokesman said they were looking for a 'peaceful surrender' of the capital after meeting little resistance,
The surge of the Taliban and the ongoing collapse of the Afghan government is a tragic development for many Afghans, particularly women and those who have been associated with American forces. It's also a disgrace and significant setback for both the Biden administration and for the U.S. itself. The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan began with President Trump, who said Americans were tired of an war with no end in sight. He was correct. Americans were tired of seeing our brave young soldiers coming home with their arms, legs, and faces blown off or not coming home at all. What was it for?
Taliban fighters entered the outskirts of Afghanistan's capital Kabul from all sides on Sunday as panicked workers fled government offices and helicopters began landing at the US Embassy in the Afghan capital, further tightening the militants' grip on the country. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments. Taliban fighters were on Sunday in the districts of Kalakan, Qarabagh and Paghman, three Afghan officials told the AP. The militants have pledged not to take the capital “by force” as sporadic gunfire could be heard in the capital.
Brian Kolfage, an airman who survived losing both legs and an arm in Iraq, started a fundraiser to build a wall on our Southern border. The project took off, a lot of money flowed in, and the federal government promptly went after Kolfage, accusing him of defrauding those who donated money. This post is not about Kolfage’s guilt or innocence on the charges against him. It is, instead, about allegations that the government is effectively torturing him by denying him access to a medicine that controls the nerve pain resulting from his leg amputations.
We know that the government has been exceptionally vicious in its prosecution against Kolfage.
Hundreds of migrants have been left stranded after being expelled from the US under the Biden administration's 'cruel, unlawful and ineffective' immigration rules.
Central American families with young children have been forced to travel through three countries in the space of 24 hours, with many being dropped in remote jungle outposts along the Guatemalan border after being denied entry into the US.The expulsion is part of the Biden administration's new measure which aims to make it harder for migrants to return to the US border to seek asylum in the future.
Last weekend, former President Barack Obama decided to throw himself a massive 60th birthday party at his home on Martha’s Vineyard.The party was ignored by Democrats but greatly criticized by Republicans considering Democrats have been the group who have pushed the most extreme COVID regulations against the American people and they didn’t seem to care about Obama’s super spreader birthday party.Karma just hit back.According to a new report released by the Daily Mail, at least 74 people on Martha’s Vineyard have tested positive
Another massive wildfire erupted in Utah on Saturday and torched more than 3,000 acres in the span of a few hours as 6,000 people were placed under evacuation orders. The Parleys Canyon Fire broke out at around 2pm on the south side of Parleys Canyon near Highway I-80. All residents of Summit Park, Pinebrook, Mill Creek Canyon, Timberline, and Lambs Canyon are being asked to evacuate.Some residents are refusing to evacuate, causing stress to first responders as it is interfering with their efforts to extinguish the fire and 'putting first responders in danger.' Six-thousand to 8,000 homes are at risk of being affected as the fire has grown
Gun-toting Taliban fighters were seen on video lounging in the opulent palace of an Afghanistan warlord after taking over Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the country’s last key cities to fall to the rapidly-moving insurgents, according to a report.The surreal scene of the insurrectionists relaxing on gold-plated furniture and admiring possessions in the ornate home of military leader Abdul Rashid Dostum — a US ally — was captured on footage circulating on social media Saturday, according to Saudi Arabi-based news channel Al Arabiya.Dostum, a former Afghan vice president, is one of two notorious strongmen in the region who fled over the border into Uzbekistan Saturday
Reality Bites Biden’s Policies
replies
Wretchard summarizes Biden’s challenging week and notes the challenges are going to get even bigger:
Joe Biden is facing simultaneous challenges.
The collapse of Afghanistan in place of a “decent interval”;
The resurgence of the Covid Delta variant in place of the anticipated reopening of society;
Looming inflation and economic problems in place of the anticipated boom.
The unending border crisis.
It’s a dramatic reversal of fortune on all fronts. Biden failed to anticipate either the events or their speed and intensity and there is little to suggest he can handle the second order crises that is coming in its wake.
Reality has gotten inside Joe’s OODA loop.
As the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack looms, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum is crying poverty for the second year in a row. This time, it says it can’t afford to mount special exhibitions planned to mark the two-decade milestone.
In 2020, the twin-beam “Tribute in Light” was canceled only to win a last-minute reprieve after soon-to-be-ex Gov. Cuomo pitched in state resources. But no such bailout appears in the offing this time.
In fact, this year, the museum is shamefully restricting the reading-of-the-names ceremony exclusively to the families of 9/11 victims. No hero firefighters, cops, first responders or emergency workers,
The Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan’s Jalalabad without a fight, according to officials and a resident, effectively leaving the capital, Kabul, as the last major urban area under government control.
The key eastern city, which is also the capital of Nangarhar province, fell early on Sunday morning. Its fall followed the Taliban’s seizure of the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The armed group posted photos online on Sunday showing its members in the governor’s office in Jalalabad.
“We woke up this morning to the Taliban white flags all over the city,” said resident Ahmad Wali, confirming the Taliban’s social media claim. “They entered without fighting,”
What will it take for Joe Biden to admit he is disastrously wrong about Afghanistan? The US leader struck a defiant pose last week. Sounding like a slightly desperate Olympics coach, he told Afghans it was their country. If they want it, they have to fight for it. In American politics-speak, this is called tough love. Without the love.
Biden has more hands-on foreign policy experience than any president since George HW Bush. That doesn’t mean he knows what he’s doing. Opinion polls suggest his abrupt Afghan withdrawal has majority public support. That doesn’t mean Americans will remain indifferent as the carnage and misery mount.
The Fulton County election case has a hearing scheduled for September 20. And it will have new respondents added to the case: Ruby Freeman, Keisha Dixon, Wandrea Moss, and Happy Faces Personnel Group.
Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Shaye Moss were central to the after-hours ballot-counting operation at State Farm Arena during the 2020 election. Now, they’re finally going to face serious questioning as a part of “discovery” proceedings related to a Fulton County election lawsuit.
Freeman is notorious for being suspected of election malfeasance during the 2020 election.
‘If the Taliban find me, they will kill
me and my family,’ says abandoned
Afghan interpreter replies
me and my family,’ says abandoned
Afghan interpreter replies
It’s been years since Haji and his wife have had a good night’s sleep.
“All night, my wife wakes up,” says Haji. “She’s scared. If [she hears] somebody is coming, she calls me, ‘Haji, someone is coming!’”
His wife says the first thing she does is hide the children.
“Then I get up and go to the door to see what is going on. If there are Taliban, I tell them no one is at home,” she says.
Haji’s English has become tentative since CNN first met him 10 years ago, during an embed with the US Marine Corps in Afghanistan. But his message cuts
Former CIA Director and retired Army general David Petraeus called the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan "disastrous" and "catastrophic" -- not only for the U.S. but the world, in a Friday interview.
"This is an enormous national security setback and it is on the verge of getting much worse unless we decide to take really significant action," Petraeus told host Rita Cosby on "The Rita Cosby Show" on WABC Radio.
The former commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan described the domino effect that occurred once the U.S. pulled the bulk of its remaining troops out of the nation. The U.S. withdrawal prompted the swift removal
Taliban fighters have conquered the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, ransacking the palatial home of General Rashid Dostum, a U.S.-aligned warlord, as President Joe Biden “braces for a brutal loss,” in the words of Axios, a D.C. political news website.
Dostum helped lead the initial movement to overthrow the Taliban after the terror attacks of 9/11. He had also served as Vice President of the country for several years.
The UK Daily Mail showed images of Taliban fighters lounging in his luxurious chairs and enjoying his golden tea set, obtained via Twitter. The Daily Mail reported:
Dostum was a key US ally during the 20 year campaign
We’re one month out from the California recall election and the polls have continued to tighten, though most of them predict Newsom surviving by a slim margin. Perhaps it’s the unexpected closeness of the vote that moved the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times to publish a beseeching letter to Californians, urging them to not be tempted into opting for some new blood in the Governor’s mansion. Their concern for the welfare of the state (or should we simply say “the welfare state?”) seems touching, but the editors also don’t do a very good job of hiding their real reason
Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw all military forces from Afghanistan, while explicitly deriding the idea that the Taliban would quickly take over the country. He was wrong. Now he has been reduced to pleading with the Taliban to be nice, lest they forfeit their entitlement to foreign aid. We have to go back at least to the Carter administration to find such pathetic behavior by a president.
Having grossly miscalculated the situation in Afghanistan, Biden is now scrambling to return forces to that country, equivalent to those he just withdrew. His only goal at this point is to get American citizens out before we see pictures of helicopters
The country is in the midst of, by far, the most chaotic week of Joe Biden’s presidency. Where is he? Well, he’s at Camp David for the next five days, after being in Delaware for most of the previous week. Does that sound normal for a president in the current situation? To be hidden away on a quasi-vacation while Afghanistan collapses and inflation soars?
Yet, here we are, with the reality that Biden isn’t the president we need, but he’s the president we have. Now, he has awakened from his slumber to deliver a truly awful statement on Afghanistan, assuming he had any involvement in drafting it
America the Violent
replies
Another horrific instance of violence in America occurred on August 7: the killing of Chicago police officer Ella French and the shooting of her partner. The two brothers arrested in this case include 21-year-old Emonte Morgan, who received a sentence of probation in 2019 for robbery in lieu of jail time. His brother, Eric Morgan, was also on probation.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot's tepid response to the killing was a statement that it's "time for us to come together as a city." When Lightfoot visited the hospitalized officer, dozens of Chicago police officers reportedly turned their backs on her, and she was "scolded" by the officer's father.