Posts on Wednesday, August 25, 2021
The UK Government is now in a race against time to airlift nearly 2,000 Afghan interpreters and other staff who worked for Britain out of Kabul amid a growing backlash at Joe Biden over his decision to stick to his August 31 withdrawal deadline. The interpreters are understood to have been deemed eligible to come to the UK and have passed security checks but remain on the ground at Kabul airport.The Pentagon briefed this afternoon that there are currently 10,000 people in total waiting at the airport for a flight out of the capital. Mr Biden sparked fury yesterday by 'point blank' refusing G7 calls to push back
U.S. troops have not rescued any Americans in Afghanistan outside of Kabul, though they have the capability to do so, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Only three rescue missions have been conducted by American soldiers since the Taliban took over the country, according to military officials. But all three took place within Kabul, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.
“Could it be done outside Kabul, if needed? We have the capability,” he said.
“I’m not suggesting that it would be well outside of Kabul. I’m not suggesting that it would be throughout the whole countryside,” he added later. “When I said ‘outside Kabul,’ I’m talking about relatively close by.
The U.S. and U.K. officials are warning American and British citizens to leave the vicinity of the Kabul airport immediately. [BBC Alert Here – and – State Dept. Alert Here].
The State Department warning reads:
“Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative (Snip)
U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately.” (link)
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was caught flat-footed during the daily press briefing when she was asked about a group of California students who are trapped in Afghanistan. Psaki was asked Wednesday if she knew about an LA Times report that a group of students and their parents from California's El Cajon Valley School District are currently stranded in Afghanistan. (Snip) The reporter noted that the students and their families are "apparently stranded in Afghanistan, having traveled there? I don't I don't know for certain." Psaki then replied, "I certainly don't have additional information on that. I know, as
“The Science says.”
The phrase has become one of the most popular mottos in the popular discourse of our day. Science—with hard facts and without fallacies or errors—has become a knockout argument for any policy discussion. When Science says something, we should immediately end our debate—regardless of whether the point of discussion is the coronavirus, climate change, or some other economic policy.
The Science has spoken
Bedford Park, the Bronx—The NYPD on Tuesday released shocking video of a woman randomly shoving a toddler to the ground as she stood on a Bronx street with her mother. According to police, it happened around 8:45 a.m. as the mom and her 2-year-old daughter were exiting a building on East 198th Street, in the Bedford Park area. Suddenly, an unidentified woman approached them from behind and pushed the little girl down to the ground, causing her to hit her head on the pavement, authorities said.(Snip)The woman police are looking for was described as between the ages of 35 and 45, about 5 feet,
A Raleigh mother has filed a federal lawsuit against the TSA, arguing that the airport security agency violated her transgender teenager’s rights by requiring a strip-search at the airport. Jamii Erway, 15 at the time, had a valid boarding pass when she passed through security in 2019. When she triggered a “false positive,” the lawsuit said, a TSA screener told her she would have to have her genitals inspected in a private room.(Snip)On its website, the TSA advises transgender passengers that a security officer will press a button designating male or female “based on how you present yourself.” “The machine has software that looks at the anatomy
New Zealand has extended its national lockdown by at least four days as it tries to contain the highly infectious Delta variant. The country first went into lockdown on August 17 after it detected a single COVID-19 case in Auckland, which health officials assumed was Delta. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday that the infected individual had returned from Sydney, Australia - a COVID-19 hotspot - and arrived in Auckland, the country's largest city, on August 7. By the time it was announced on Monday that the lockdown was being extended, the outbreak was responsible for 107 cases, according to
A Johnston County high school teacher has been sent home for refusing to follow the school district’s requirement to wear a face mask in school.
Aurora Preston, an English teacher at South Johnston High School in Four Oaks, argues that it should be her constitutional right whether she wears a face mask. She faces up to nine weeks of unpaid leave and could lose her job as a result of her decision to not mask up on campus. “It is not the job of government agencies to dictate when and where it is appropriate to utilize the rights afforded to me by being a citizen of the US,” Preston said
Topline The United States and two of its allies warned people to stay away from some of the Kabul airport’s entrances Wednesday, citing security concerns, as a frenzied U.S.-led evacuation effort in the Taliban-controlled city faces terrorist threats and a looming Aug. 31 deadline. Key Facts
Early Thursday morning in Kabul time, the U.S. Embassy issued an alert telling Americans not to go to the Kabul airport without instructions from U.S. officials, and urging Americans at three of the U.S.-occupied airfield’s entrances — Abbey Gate, East Gate and North Gate — to “leave immediately.”
British and Australian authorities also warned people
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul sent out an alert Wednesday evening advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the capital city's airport. "Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so," the security alert read. "U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately." The embassy warned Americans to be aware of their surroundings at all times, follow the
WASHINGTON — The United States has been battling the Taliban and their militant partners in Afghanistan, al-Qaida and the Haqqani network, for 20 years.
But the biggest immediate threat to both the Americans and the Taliban as the United States escalates its evacuation at the Kabul airport before an Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline is a common rival that is lesser known: Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the terrorist group’s affiliate in Afghanistan.
Created six years ago by disaffected Pakistani Taliban, ISIS-K has carried out dozens of attacks in Afghanistan this year. U.S. military and intelligence analysts say threats from the group include a bomb-laden truck, suicide bombers infiltrating the crowd
Dressed in white coats and carrying stethoscopes, three young men walked unchallenged into Kabul's 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital and made their way to the upper floors.Then, outside the building, situated opposite the heavily fortified US Embassy, there was a loud bang.The noise, from the detonating suicide vest of a comrade, acted as a signal for the trio to pull a selection of hand grenades and AK-47 assault rifles from beneath their medical clothing, before opening fire.By the time the chaos had died down, several hours later, more than 30 doctors
The Day Afghanistan Died
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If you’ve read the plethora of post-mortem reports on Afghanistan, there are plenty of enemies to go around, from corruption, to incompetent leadership, to 20 years of rosy assessments from our own defense establishment. For me, there is a single day that Afghanistan died, and it was June 16, 2021.
I have spent my entire adult life studying insurgency and terrorism, sometimes with books and research, other times from the barrel of a gun, and because of it, I have learned Napoleon’s ultimate truth: In warfare, the moral is to the physical as three is to one. Insurgency as a form of warfare
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Wednesday banning government entities from enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the state regardless of a vaccine’s approval status with the FDA.
“Vaccine requirements and exemptions have historically been determined by the legislature, and their involvement is particularly important to avoid a patchwork of vaccine mandates across Texas,” Abbott said.
Abbott is also adding the issue to the current Special Session agenda.
The order comes after the governor had previously banned public schools and local governments from enacting their own vaccine mandates
WASHINGTON- The Miami-based leader of the Proud Boys, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio Jr., has been sentenced to five months in jail for burning a Black Lives Matter banner and bringing high-capacity magazines into Washington, D.C., during a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.Tarrio was sentenced to 155 days in jail on Monday by the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on one count of destruction of property and one count of attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device. He had previously pleaded guilty to the charges in July and told media outlets shortly after the Dec. 12 pro-Trump rally
Everything woke turns to sh**.”President Donald Trump. The New Orleans Saints are giving away tickets to their game with the Jaguars after implementing their plan to force fans to be vaccinated or provide a negative test prior to the game.The Daily Caller reports. Tickets to the Saints/Jaguars game are outrageously cheap.The Saints are playing the first game in the NFL to require fans to be vaccinated or provide a negative PCR COVID-19 test. What has that done to ticket prices for Monday night? Driven them straight into the ground.They’re giving away tickets online.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Wednesday that President Joe Biden still intends to campaign for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in the Sep. 14 California recall election, despite the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.“I can confirm, the president does still plan to go and campaign for Governor Newsom in California … that is still certainly his plan,” Psaki said.Psaki added that she did not have any particular dates or details about Biden’s plans to travel to, and campaign in, California.Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder (R) leads most opinion polls among potential replacements for Newsom,
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that 'of course' the US policy is still not to negotiate with terrorists, as Biden administration officials say they are relying on the Taliban to allow safe passage of Americans and American allies to Kabul airport.'Why haven't we heard the president say, 'The United States does not negotiate with terrorists?' Is that still U.S. policy?' Fox News' Peter Doocy asked the press secretary at a daily briefing. 'Well, of course it is, Peter,' Psaki replied. 'But I would also say that there's a reality that the Taliban is currently controlling large swaths of Afghanistan.
The police officer who shot dead Ashli Babbitt during the Capitol riot will reveal his identity on Thursday when he sits down for a television interview to explain how the tragic events unfolded.Babbitt, 35, was the only person killed during the insurrection when the officer opened fire as a MAGA mob stormed through the Rotunda. 'Speaking out and revealing his identity publicly for the first time, the officer will share his perspective on the events of that day, including the aftermath of the deadly insurrection and the threats he has received,'
NEW YORK/LONDON - The Taliban stopped an Afghan United Nations staff member as he tried to reach Kabul airport on Sunday. They searched his vehicle and found his U.N. identification. Then they beat him. On Monday, three unknown men visited the home of another U.N. staff member who was at work at the time. They asked his son where his father was, and accused him of lying: "We know his location and what he does." The incidents are among dozens contained in an internal U.N. security document seen by Reuters that describes veiled threats, the looting of U.N. offices and
Dynasty star Michael Nader has died at the age of 76 just ten days after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, his wife Jodi Lister shared on Wednesday.The actor was best known for playing Dex Dexter, the handsome husband of Joan Collins' cunning villain, Alexis Carrington, on the hit eighties TV show Dynasty, and he also found fame playing Susan Lucci’s supportive husband Dimitri Marick on the soap opera All My Children.News of Nader's passing was shared by his grieving wife in a Facebook post, with Lister revealing that her husband died at their home in Northern California on Monday,
Breaking: Bigtime ‘Never Trumper’
Suffers Devastating Political Blow
in Home State of Illinois replies
Suffers Devastating Political Blow
in Home State of Illinois replies
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, self-imagined Trump nemesis and the sobbing simp on Nancy Pelosi’s Jan. 6 committee, just received some devastating political news.He’s out. Or, that is, he soon will be, after his seat is removed through redistricting in his home state of Illinois. (Tweet) Newsmax’s Emerald Robinson also shared the news: (Tweet) The most hilarious piece of news coming out of this is that Kinzinger anticipated this and declared he will seek higher office if this dark day for his political future ever arrived.“Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the most prominent Republican in Illinois, said if Democrats carve up his congressional district in the pending remap,
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is demanding that the Biden administration take in hundreds of thousands of Aghan refugees even as the U.S. military struggling to get all Americans out of the war-torn country ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline.The New York leftist told The Independent that Biden should set, as a minimum, the acceptance of 200,000 Afghans into the U.S. as the country exits its longest war. She added those refugees should be permanently resettled and eventually granted naturalized American citizenship.“I believe we need to move and the administration needs to move as quickly as possible and as expansively as possible
It was a high Watt-age performance that occurred during a “crossfire hurricane.”The late and great Charlie Watts managed to end his storied career of nearly 60 years with The Rolling Stones with a bang — by putting on an electrifying final show at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, as a hurricane loomed. At the time, fans had no idea that August 30, 2019, would be the last time they’d see Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Watts share the stage, Rolling Stone reported. In fact, the “No Filter” tour’s final leg got off to a rocky start: Initially, the concert was postponed from April to August
Taliban Asks Women To Stay Home Because
Their Fighters ‘Have Not Been
Yet Trained’ To Respect Them replies
Their Fighters ‘Have Not Been
Yet Trained’ To Respect Them replies
The Taliban introduced a policy Tuesday calling on Afghan women to remain at home because many of their fighters are new and “have not yet been trained” to respect women.Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s longtime spokesman, called it a “temporary” measure intended to protect women until the Islamist militant group’s newly declared government could ensure their safety, The New York Times reported. He said women should stay home “until we have a new procedure,” adding that “their salaries will be paid in their homes.”“We are worried our forces who are new and have not been yet trained very well may mistreat women,”
Dozens of California students and parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip to the country.More than 20 students and 16 parents from the Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon, Calif., visited Afghanistan on summer vacation. Now they are among thousands of people who are waiting to leave the country amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal that has caused political unrest across the nation, according to the Los Angeles Times.Cajon Valley Superintendent David Miyashiro alerted school board members on Tuesday that he would be meeting with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to discuss the situation, the Times noted.
Up to 1,500 Americans are still trapped in Afghanistan and the U.S. is still relying on the Taliban to allow safe passage to Kabul airport with just six days before the August 31 deadline, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a press conference on Wednesday.Blinken gave his first briefing on the airlift operation and the bid to get all citizens and Afghan allies out amid reports the CIA has joined U.S. troops in helicopter rescue missions outside the airport perimeter. Thousands of people are still trying to leave Afghanistan as U.S. troops start leaving and evacuation flights begin to wrap up, but are being stopped and beaten
Macalester College announced on Monday that they will divest all of their publicly traded oil and gas investments, including from Enbridge, Inc., in response to the student divestment proposal in the protest of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline replacement project.
According to the college, the Board of Trustees of Macalester College decided to:
Divest of all dedicated, publicly traded oil and gas assets, including all shares of Enbridge, Inc.
Wednesday, hundreds of protesters gathered amid a four-day event calling on state and federal leaders to stop the progress of Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline.
Protesters were gathering for the "Treaties not Tar Sands Rally to Stop Line 3" at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.
"I think my whole life and my whole history is defined by water," Karen Goulet, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe who is helping to lead the rally, said in a statement.
The U.S. will reportedly approve a COVID-19 coronavirus booster shot in six months, rather than eight, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report comes the same day that Pfizer said that it has started the application process for a third dose of its vaccine for everyone ages 16 and older. The company said it will complete the application with the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this week. The FDA earlier this month said transplant recipients or others with weakened immune systems can get an extra dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Then last week, U.S. health officials announced plans
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan, a figure that suggests this part of the U.S.-led airlift could be completed before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline. Untold thousands of at-risk Afghans, however, are struggling to get into the Kabul airport.
Blinken said the State Department estimates there were about 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan when the airlift began Aug. 14, and that about 4,500 of them have been evacuated so far. The 6,000 figure is the first public estimate by the State Department of how many Americans were seeking to get out when the Taliban
Congress provided hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up the nation’s election system against cyberattacks and other threats, but roughly two-thirds of the money remained unspent just weeks before last year’s presidential election. A recently released federal report says the states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories had spent a little more than $255 million of $805 million in election security grants through Sept. 30 of last year, the latest figures available. States were given leeway on how and when to spend their shares because election concerns and potential vulnerabilities of voting systems vary widely across the country. Several election officials cited two main reasons
President Joe Biden on Wednesday joked with an NBC reporter about the evacuation in Afghanistan as thousands, including many Americans, struggle to get out of the war-torn country as the Taliban takes over. Biden, after he made remarks at cybersecurity summit featuring several prominent business executives, was asked by NBC's Peter Alexander what he would do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the August 31st deadline to withdraw U.S. troops. 'You'll be the first person I call,' Biden joked in response. White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden's remarks, pointing out the president has given numerous updates and gotten many briefings on the situation in Afghanistan.
American civilians and Afghan allies have just 72 hours before evacuations from Kabul end, a former CIA officer and terrorism expert has claimed.
Sam Faddis, who served as the head of the Counter Terrorism Center's Weapons of Mass Destruction unit, said sources in the Pentagon, military officers in Kabul and other former intelligence agency officers have told him that flights for civilians out of the Afghan capital will actually end in the next three days.
The alleged deadline has not been officially announced or verified, but raises fears that American citizens could be left behind in the Taliban-occupied city.
The city’s likely next mayor scrolled through his phone for over five minutes struggling to find proof that he’s been vaccinated against the coronavirus—before he could get in to his own press conference. “You don’t mind a photo of it, right?” Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams asked a security guard outside the NYC College of Technology Wednesday where the Brooklyn borough president was scheduled to speak about cybersecurity.
“I’m just finding my photo of my vaccination card,” Adams told CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez who approached him a couple minutes into the awkward ordeal. Finally Adams made a phone call to his office when he couldn’t find
Who are the Taliban?
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The Taliban were removed from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001, but the group has seized control of the country once again following a rapid offensive.
The capital, Kabul, was the last major city to fall to the offensive that began months ago but accelerated as the hardline Islamists gained control of territories.
The group entered direct talks with the US back in 2018, and in February 2020 the two sides struck a peace deal that committed the US to withdrawal and the Taliban to preventing attacks on US forces. Other promises included not allowing al-Qaeda or other militants to operate in areas it controlled and proceeding with national peace
A Georgia man “randomly” shot and killed a tourist dining outside with his family in Miami Beach, then danced over the body, cops and a witness at the disturbing scene said. Tamarius David, 22, of Norcross, Georgia, allegedly opened fire on Dustin Wakefield, 21, from close range as he was eating in the outdoor section of La Cerveceria de Barrio on Miami Beach’s famous Ocean Drive on Tuesday night, CBS Miami reported. “After the shooting, he was dancing on top of the guy,” a witness, who didn’t want to be identified, told the news station. Wakefield, who was on vacation from Castlerock, Colorado, attempted to protect his 1-year-old son
Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is notably less effective six months after the second dose is administered, a new study finds. Researchers from King's College London in the UK analyzed COVID-19 testing data and found the vaccine's effectiveness falls from 88 percent to 77 percent after five to six months. They could not determine whether the lower effectiveness caused an increase in hospitalizations or deaths. The findings could spell trouble in the U.S., where more than 100 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine - especially as the Indian 'Delta' variant continues to spread, causing cases to surge. Federal officials hope
The U.S. military launched another helicopter rescue mission outside the Kabul airport last night to rescue 'less than' 20 Americans, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby revealed Wednesday.
This is the third time American forces have launched helicopters to rescue Americans outside the airport.
"Last night, during the period of darkness, there was an operation to be able to go out and safely evacuate evacuees back into Kabul," U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor told reporters during a briefing. "They are at Hamid Karzai International Airport and they are preparing to be evacuated."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday slammed the rogue trip by two House members to Afghanistan during the ongoing and dangerous military evacuation effort from Kabul.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said Reps. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., and Seth Moulton, D-Mass., wanted to "freelance on their own" when the pair of lawmakers this week traveled to Afghanistan without the approval of the leadership. She said the trip put them at risk and strained resources that should have gone to evacuating Americans and others.
"This is deadly serious," Pelosi said at a Capitol news conference Wednesday. "You do not want members to go."
President Biden is struggling to provide a message of strength and confidence amid international scorn and uncertainty over his handling of the U.S. military drawdown in Afghanistan — showing up late to speeches, refusing to answer reporters' questions, and largely avoiding the White House press corps ever since Taliban insurgents took over the country in a matter of days.
Biden's remarks Tuesday from the White House were delayed more than four hours after being rescheduled twice, and the U.S. evacuation effort in Afghanistan was the last topic he addressed after touting his Build Back Better agenda.
Some Afghans at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, are using American passports that do not belong to them in an attempt to be approved for resettlement in the United States, NBC News reports.
At the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, NBC News reports that State Department officials have detailed five cases where Afghans attempted to use fraudulent American passports to try to get on flights bound for the U.S.
In addition, NBC News reports that vital biometric screening of Afghans looking to come to the U.S. is not being conducted at the airport in Kabul.
Editor’s Note: Shortly after publication, CNN and Fox News reported that the state department official misinformed lawmakers during the briefing and the 4,100 figure is not accurate. This article will be updated with further details after Secretary of State Blinken’s briefing. The State Department revealed Wednesday to congressional staffers that 4,100 U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan and wish to be evacuated, multiple outlets reported.
Not all of those Americans are in and around Kabul, the capital of the nation where the airport is situated, a Senate aid told CNN.
As part of the U.S. airlift mission, 4,400 Americans successfully traveled to the Kabul airport
Rep. Adam Kinzinger is likely to lose his House seat after Illinois Democrats redraw the state map for the post-2020 redistricting cycle, according to a Politico report on Wednesday.
Kinzinger, who rose to prominence in the Trump era as a vocal critic of the former president, has represented Illinois' 16th Congressional District, which covers the exurbs of Chicago, since 2013.
Democratic state lawmakers, who are in control of Illinois' redistricting map, are planning to remove Kinzinger's seat, sources familiar with the process told Politico. If that happens, Kinzinger may have to run for another office in the blue-leaning state should he choose to remain an elected official next year.
About only 5 percent of the people the United States has evacuated from Afghanistan are Americans seeking safe passage home.
More than 82,300 have been airlifted from Kabul since the government’s collapse nearly two weeks ago, but the Pentagon says that, as of Wednesday, only 4,400 Americans were rescued in those evacuation operations.(tweet) (snip)The State Department also confirmed that a majority of the people whisked away on flights from Kabul are not U.S. citizens.
All US service members must get their Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible now that the Pfizer-BioNTech jab is fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). More than 800,000 service members out of around 1.4 million still need to get their shots, according to Pentagon data.
Those who haven't gotten a shot face a wide range of punishments if they don't, with the most severe being an investigation and court martial. Of active duty forces, 68 percent are fully vaccinated and 76 percent have at least one dose, according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby. Data is less clear for reserve and National Guard
Hey, Biden Voters!
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Damn you all.
You’re American citizens, with the right to vote in presidential elections.
For four years, we had a president who, over the course of a single term, managed to undo a great deal of the mischief wrought, and a great many of the mistakes made, by his recent predecessors. Trump revived America’s economy, shored up Americans’ individual liberties, forged several remarkable peace agreements, and greatly strengthened our international position—thus firmly checking the ambitions of our powerful adversaries.
But, Biden voters, he had a personality that rubbed you the wrong way. He wrote nasty tweets. In the language of TV production, he was too “hot.” You wanted “cool.”
Protector of Strangers
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Theoxeny is a theme in Greek mythology in which mortals demonstrate their virtue by extending hospitality to a complete stranger, usually one who is humble like a beggar or a poor traveler. The stranger turns out to be a deity in disguise. The man who is a generous host, thus displaying his piety, is rewarded, (snip)In the past week, all corners of the ruling class have demanded that America import as many Afghans as possible. Granted, none of the people demanding the importation of these Neolithic barbarians plans to house them in his home. It is not about actually helping the people they claim to love.
The U.S. military is leaving behind 75,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons and 208 airplanes/helicopters in Afghanistan as the Taliban takes control of the country, according to the watchdog group Open the Books. “We've made the Taliban into a major U.S. arms dealer for the next decade,” said Adam Andrzejewski, CEO & founder of Open the Books. “They now control 75,000 military vehicles. This is about 50,000 tactical vehicles, 20,000 Humvees they control about 1,000 mine-resistant vehicles, and even about 150 armored personnel carriers.”
In the wake of infighting within his own party, the Pennsylvania Senate's top Republican said this week he supports a "thorough forensic audit of recent elections — including the use of our subpoena powers."President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) made the comment in an op-ed published Monday after he faced blowback for removing Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) as lead of the chamber's election integrity review. Corman instead shifted the responsibility to Senate Local Government Committee Chairman Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro) after criticizing Mastriano for what he described as chasing headlines and "grandstanding at rallies."
America just doesn’t have a good “feeling” about Vice President Kamala Harris.
Going back 28 years in NBC polling, no other new vice president has been welcomed so coldly by Americans as the Democrat and first woman in the job.
In the latest survey, pollster Bill McInturff pointed out her low positive rating, at 37%, and tweeted this morning, “VP Harris has lowest feeling thermometer of any first year VP going back to Gore in 1993 with an unprecedented ‘very negative’ rating on @NBCNews survey tracking.”
Albany, N.Y.—New York Gov. Kathy Hochul promised more government transparency on her first day in office and by day’s end her administration had quietly delivered it by acknowledging nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state from COVID-19 than had been publicized by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo. New York now reports nearly 55,400 people have died of COVID-19 in New York, based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC, up from about 43,400 that Gov. Cuomo had reported to the public as of Monday, his last day in office. “We’re now releasing more data than had been released before publicly, so people know the nursing home deaths
Convicted pedophiles have been living in city homeless shelters near elementary schools in a clear violation of state law — and bureaucrats in Albany and New York are frantically trying to duck the blame by pointing fingers at each other.
A frightening state Senate report that will be made public on Monday shocked officials into freezing the release of all parole-eligible perverts from prison until authorities can fix a system that allowed child predators to reside within 1,000 feet of schools.
Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it will impose a $200 monthly surcharge in its health plan to employees who haven't been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's full approval of the Pfizer COVID vaccine this week, the Atlanta-based airline is now taking a more hardline approach to vaccinations among its employees. It's the latest corporation to impose stricter COVID-19 personnel policies given the legal protections offered by the FDA's full approval of a vaccine. Chief executive Ed Bastian announced the insurance surcharge along with a number of other policy changes for the unvaccinated in an employee memo Wednesday.
Conservative radio host Larry Elder told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday evening that he would welcome the prospect of President Joe Biden campaigning for incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in the recall election.Biden issued a message of support for Newsom earlier this month. (Tweet) Vice President Kamala Harris, a former U.S. Senator from the state, will campaign with Newsom in the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday.(Newsom has reciprocated the support by telling reporters that he is “incredibly proud” of Biden, even after the Afghanistan disaster began to unfold.)Elder spoke exclusively to Breitbart News after
‘No one’ is transgender, Virginia
bishop says: ‘A truth reflected
in every cell of the body’ replies
bishop says: ‘A truth reflected
in every cell of the body’ replies
A Washington-area Catholic bishop has issued a letter rebutting the transgender movement root and branch, calling gender reassignment “wrong and harmful” and saying everyone is male or female as seen in that person’s body. “The Church teaches that a person is created male or female,” Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington wrote. “No one ‘is’ transgender.”
The document titled “A Catechesis on the Human Person and Gender Ideology” notes that public schools “aggressively promote” what the bishop called “a false understanding of the human person in their advocacy of gender ideology.” “Parents with children in public school must… be even more vigilant and vocal against this false and harmful
Washington high school under fire for
requiring students to wear ‘ankle
monitors’ for COVID tracing replies
requiring students to wear ‘ankle
monitors’ for COVID tracing replies
Each day we get closer and closer to a “Minority Report” world where your every move is tracked and recorded. When restaurants began to reopen last year, many required that you sign a roster in order to dine in so that if anyone on the list contracted COVID (added to which they would have to tell the restaurant) everyone on the guestlist for that day would be notified. Now we are witnessing from afar a nationwide manhunt in Australia for a guy who sneezed in an elevator without covering his mouth nor wearing a mask. There was no one on the elevator with him.
Vice President Kamala Harris laid flowers Wednesday at the Hanoi memorial site where late Sen. John McCain was shot down in 1967 by the North Vietnamese when he was a Navy fighter pilot.Standing in the pouring rain, Harris noted that Wednesday marked three years since McCain died from brain cancer on Aug. 25, 2018. The vice president visited the memorial after concluding her bilateral meetings with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and
Bloodied and beaten by Taliban guards - this was the fate of one Australian citizen as he tried to reach Kabul airport as the Islamists defied Joe Biden's demand to let evacuation flights continue unimpeded with just hours left to get civilians out of the country. The man, who was born overseas but has a wife in Adelaide and a brother in Sydney, was beaten as he headed to the airport today along with his cousins - thought to include three men and two women - who were also beaten by the Taliban before the family was hauled away.Video shows the man with blood running down his face
What I Learned From Helpless Refugees
in a War Zone That Heartless Joe
Biden Really Should Know replies
in a War Zone That Heartless Joe
Biden Really Should Know replies
They squat on the roadside, feet filthy in broken sandals, eyes empty, faces averted. Their belongings are few. Most were abandoned on their long flight from fear. Or stolen at gunpoint by armed marauders. Comfort to these lost souls is a foreign word. Hoping seems dangerous. They try to forget sights they’ve seen. They have no idea where they’re going. The scenes you see these days on TV of refugees in Afghanistan or Syria or anywhere convulsed by war are truly awful. [Snip]
But, honestly, the terrible scenes of death and fear and children lost to families are nowhere near the truth on-site.
He's just celebrated his 75th birthday but it looks like the party is well and truly over for Bill Clinton.Seen in these exclusive pictures obtained by DailyMail.com, the former president and wife Hillary, 73, looked more like glum and glummer than a couple enjoying the Hampton's sunshine when they went for a stroll on the beach earlier on Tuesday. And perhaps it's little wonder. Because, while the Clintons have long since enjoyed an annual getaway to the Hamptons town of Amagansett, there is no escaping the past. On September 7 the scandal that has dogged Clinton through the years is set to resurface once more as
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee demanded an investigation Wednesday into allegations that Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani embezzled millions of U.S. taxpayer funds before fleeing the embattled country. Mr. Ghani hastily escaped the country last week just hours before the capital, Kabul, fell to the Taliban. He later turned up in the United Arab Emirates, which accepted him on humanitarian grounds. Shortly after his departure, a Russian embassy spokesperson told the media that Mr. Ghani tried to fit as much money as possible in a helicopter but left some of the cash on the tarmac because there wasn’t enough room. Some of the cash reportedly was stuffed
Get ready to hear a lot about ISIS-K between now and August 31. Joe Biden mentioned the Islamic State offshoot in his speech yesterday as a reason to stick to his bug-out deadline in Afghanistan. Biden called them “a sworn enemy of the Taliban,” and claimed that they are mustering forces for an attack on both the US and Taliban at the airport in Kabul:(Video)There are real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration. The longer we stay, starting with the acute and growing risk of an attack by a terrorist group known as ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan —
The announcement yesterday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that it has granted full approval to Pfizer for its Covid-19 vaccine is not surprising to many people who have been watching all of the Operation Warp Speed fast-tracking, moving of barriers, and rule-bending for vaccine makers. Here are 10 reasons why the FDA “gold standard” stamp of approval doesn’t mean anything about protecting citizens’ health and safety but has everything to do with erasing liability and giving governments and businesses the gumption to coerce injections on employees and consumers.
Former California Democratic majority
leader endorses Larry Elder in campaign
against Gov. Newsom replies
leader endorses Larry Elder in campaign
against Gov. Newsom replies
The former Democratic majority leader for the California state Senate, Gloria Romero, endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder in a campaign video. "Our public schools need big change. I’m Gloria Romero; I was the majority leader of Democrats in the state senate. I believe in charter schools and and school choice. So does Larry Elder — but not Gavin Newsom. He shut our public schools while he sent his kids to private schools," Romero says in a video released by the Elder campaign. "Yes: I’m a Democrat. But the recall of Newsom is not about political party. It’s about Newsom. Larry Elder for governor," she adds.
The Biden White House granted the Chinese Communist Party-linked firm Huawei – which was crippled by Trump-era sanctions – licenses to purchase American auto chips, according to reports. The decision follows the Beijing-backed tech firm hiring several lobbyists, including the brother of Biden’s White House Counselor Steve Ricchetti and CNN guests who have pushed the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. The reported approval follows a Trump-era crackdown on the telecommunications firm, which has extensive links to both the Chinese Communist Party.
When Afghanistan’s now-deposed President Ashraf Ghani visited President Joe Biden in the White House in late June, he expressed some concerns about how the U.S. planned to evacuate people ahead of the troop withdrawal from his country. Ghani said he worried that a planned massive airlift of U.S. citizens and Afghan nationals who had helped the U.S. would send a disheartening signal and undermine confidence in his government’s ability to fight the Taliban, according to a senior administration official familiar with the discussions. Biden and his advisors listened, the official says, and in mid-July they decided to move ahead with
Facing the political fight of his life and sinking polls indicating he could lose in the Sept. 14 recall election, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is now plagued by rising concerns over alleged voter fraud after the Secretary of State's Office sent out mail ballots to 20 million voters.
Earlier in the year, the state legislature passed a measure to send out mail ballots to every registered voter whether they asked for one or not. Newsom's opponents argue this was done as a way to protect him from losing, suggesting the only way he could win was through fraud.
Two members of Congress caused a stir when they made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan Tuesday to witness the evacuation operation at Kabul’s international airport firsthand. Reps. Seth Moulton and Peter Meijer infuriated White House, Pentagon, and State Department officials who accused them of using vital resources in the midst of the chaotic American withdrawal.(Snip) “As Members of Congress, we have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch,’” the two said. “We conducted this visit in secret, speaking about it only after our departure, to minimize the risk and disruption to the people on the ground, and because we were there to gather information, not to grandstand.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned Tuesday that if Illinois' COVID metrics don't decline, "significantly greater mitigations" could be imposed in the state. (Snip) Pritzker said heightened mitigations could include things like "phases," which brought restrictions on both a regional and statewide level earlier in the pandemic, though he did not offer many specifics.
"Those are things that we don't want to go back to," he said, "Those are, you know, phases, situations, things on the menu that I think we don't want to go to but right now."
Pritzker noted that increased mitigations have already been implemented across the state, including an indoor mask mandate in schools, a vaccine mandate for state employees
A Virus More Potent than COVID
replies
Shame and blame are animating features of the Critical Race movement. The latest example of Critical Race Theory can be found in the article from Inside Higher Ed and is titled "Camera's On: Surveillance in the Time of COVID-19." Author Margaret Finders "(pronouns: she, her, hers) is former chair and professor in the department of education at Augsburg University and Joaquin Muñoz (he/him/his pronouns) is assistant professor in the American Indian studies department at the university."The authors claim that asking students to keep cameras on during synchronous online class sessions is actually
Well before he became the Democratic presidential nominee and even before then-Sen. Kamala Harris bowed out of the 2020 campaign before the first primary vote was even cast, Joe Biden was being urged, pressured, steamrolled, whatever you want to call it by the mainstream media and “woke” Democrats into picking a female as his running mate, preferably a black female.A number of women were floated as possibilities. And despite numerous allegations of inappropriate touching, hair sniffing, and even one allegation of rape, one by one any of the “#BelieveAllWomen” ladies said to be under consideration by Biden let interviewers know in so many words that they’d be honored to accept
When President Joe Biden met with this year’s WNBA champions Seattle Storm in the White House on Monday, he took a symbolic knee, apparently to show he’s Woke. No surprise. He just took a knee before the Taliban, too, after the terrorist group’s humiliating rejection of his request for an “extension” on his Aug. 31 deadline for evacuating Afghanistan.
Biden’s plans, if you can call them that, to get Americans out of Afghanistan have been an epic disaster. It’s almost impossible to exaggerate the incompetence and duplicity of Biden and his administration.
A former British Royal Marine and founder of a sanctuary for stray animals in Afghanistan is desperately trying to fly out over 100 animals and dozens of workers before next week’s evacuation deadline, a report said.Paul “Pen” Farthing, 57, said supporters of his organization, Nowzad, have raised enough money to pay for a cargo plane out of Kabul — but British officials said there are “thousands and thousands” of people who need to be prioritized first.All of the animals — 94 dogs and 79 cats — have been moved the charity’s three locations in the war-torn country to its headquarters in Kabul
Neville Chamberlain can rest easy. He is no longer the most shameful appeaser in modern history. Joe Biden is the new champion of cowards.Biden didn’t just blink in the face of terror. He is groveling before the Taliban, acknowledging their victory and laying the groundwork for their legitimacy as the rulers of Afghanistan.Who could imagine any American president allowing murderous thugs to set the terms of our military’s surrender? But that’s what has been happening and it crystalized Tuesday. The Taliban declared that no more Afghans should go to the Kabul airport,
Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI) made a secret visit to Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday where they learned that evacuations cannot be completed by President Joe Biden’s August 31 deadline, according to commanders in charge of the situation.
In a joint statement, Moulton and Meijer said their surprise mission was to “conduct oversight on the mission to evacuate Americans and our allies,” arguing that Members of Congress “have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch.”
For most Americans, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) was all but anonymous until he appeared on Saturday Night Live to accept the apology of a “comedian” who had mocked his eye patch. Crenshaw wears that patch in place of the eye he lost while serving in Iraq, but he didn’t respond to the SNL cheap shot with anger. His reaction to our president’s latest Afghanistan blunder was a different story. Upon learning of President Biden’s pathetic capitulation to the Taliban’s latest demand that all U.S. troops be withdrawn by August 31 even if some Americans and allies had to be left behind, Crenshaw responded as follows during a Politico Playbook interview:
The Good News—A COVID-19 Update
replies
Now that we have had 18 months to “slow the spread” it is time to take stock of the pandemic. We have learned many good things that the media and our pandemic managers rarely report. Most fundamentally, we do not need to be afraid of COVID-19 anymore. The media and some government health authorities are still pushing hysteria and fear, but that should not prevail. (snip) Globally, the survival rate for COVID-19 is 99.8%. Under the age of 70, the survival rate for COVID-19 is 99.97%. (snip) Early outpatient treatment should be adopted immediately for COVID-19. Hydroxychloroquine works. Ivermectin works.
A Republican House member is clapping back at Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her hypocritical requirement that all members wear masks though video surfaced of her attending a swanky event near her home in California over the weekend where she and nearly all guests were dining maskless and in close quarters.
“Pelosi has decreed–she’s like the Gestapo, I call her a ‘Gestapelosi,’ m-m-k? Gestapelosi has decreed that members must wear masks or get fined. Then, staff members can be arrested and jailed. She is the Gestapelosi. It’s unbelievable that she’s doing this kind of stuff,” Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said during a presser Monday afternoon.
The Taliban announced that they expected America to be out of Afghanistan as of August 31, even though there are tens of thousands of American citizens and Afghan allies still trapped in the country. Joe Biden did not tell the Taliban to go pound sand. Instead, he meekly agreed provided that America was still allowed to get Westerners and certain Afghan citizens to the Kabul airport during that time. Even the G7 leaders who were thrilled with Biden in June are unhappy.
Thanks to the news out of Afghanistan, Jen Psaki’s recent admission that the executive branch has been colluding with the tech giants to suppress free speech, has apparently passed into the ether with far less scrutiny than it deserves. In fact, this is such a clear violation of the First Amendment that it defies any obvious logic or rationale. But Psaki’s announcement isn’t the first act in this play; it’s only the most recent act in the left’s years-long flouting of the rule of law.
Kamala Harris discussed Christmas shopping and climate change but failed to mention the current crisis in Afghanistan during her major foreign policy speech on Monday.
Harris, addressing a roundtable of business leaders before her speech, warned that climate change and the pandemic have contributed to supply chain issues, The New York Times reported, and suggested parents should consider getting Christmas presents now.
'The stories that we are now hearing about the caution that if you want to have Christmas toys for your children, it might now be might be the time to start buying them, because the delay may be many, many months,' she said.
Roughly 3,800 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan since July 29, with an estimated 8,000 remaining in the country, an official with direct knowledge of the situation told the Daily Caller on Tuesday. The official told the Caller that it seems “doubtful we are going to bring in 8,000 more Americans” between now and the Aug. 31 deadline.
The number has been masked by the White House and Pentagon in recent days, with Pentagon press secretary John Kirby saying Monday that “several thousand” Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan.
Longtime conservative commentator and vocal critic of former President Trump Bill Kristol on Tuesday endorsed Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race.
Kristol is one of 17 Republicans who will formally endorse the former governor on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
“He’s a moderate Democrat, and he’s not going to shut down Virginia’s business success, economic success and so forth. He’s the kind of Democrat I’m comfortable supporting,” Kristol told the Post.
Oregon has become the first state to order residents to wear masks outdoors in public—even if they have been vaccinated—amid a fresh surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations. In an announcement on Twitter, Governor Kate Brown announced that everyone over the age of five will be required to wear masks when gathering outside 'where physical distancing is not possible,' regardless of their vaccination status, starting on Friday August 27.(Snip)The new mandate does not apply to children under the age of five, the homeless, people engaged in competitive sports and those delivering an outdoor speech or performance.
Illinois sex ed classes to teach gender
expression as early as K-2 starting
next school year replies
expression as early as K-2 starting
next school year replies
Starting next school year, schools in Illinois teaching sexual education lessons will start as early as kindergarten.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed Senate Bill 818, which his office said will modernize sex education standards with age-appropriate content for grades K-12.
The measure requires the Illinois State Board of Education to provide the standards for schools that teach sex education by August 2022. Schools don't need to adopt the standards unless they teach sex ed. Parents will be able to opt their children out.