Tuesday, August 31, 2021

If you want honesty.. read this article!

 The Bitter Truth: There’s Still No Rhyme or Reason to COVID-19

The stats defy the spin: This pandemic does not hinge on whether the governor is a Democrat or Republican, whether restrictions are tight or loose. It does not care...
Two presidents. Fifty states. One-hundred-and-ninety-five countries. A multitude of different approaches. And still, there’s no rhyme or reason to this pandemic. Vaccines help a great deal. That much we know. Beyond that, though, the coverage of the virus has mostly been partisanship and witchcraft. Here, current as of today, is the per-state death chart per 100,000 people in the United States:
What Griffin, O’Brien, and others wanted the Times to say was that Red States Are Bad and Blue States Are Good — or, perhaps, as Paul Krugman argued over the weekend, that the North Is Good and the South Is Bad, Just Like During the Civil War. But this simply isn’t correct. If it were, what could possibly account for the death-rate pairings of New York and Mississippi? Of Alabama and Connecticut? Of Michigan and Arkansas? Of Texas and Delaware? Of Idaho and Colorado? For months, many in the press have banged on and on and on about Florida’s governor and then been shocked to learn that, even after a terrible spike — a spike that, mercifully, is beginning to fade — Florida’s record remains better than those of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Michigan, and Illinois; that the number of children who have died in Florida (per capita) is not only exactly in line with the national average, but around five times lower than D.C.’s number, and just over half of New York’s; that, far from lagging behind, Florida’s vaccination rate is above the national average; and that, despite having a disproportionately old population, Florida sits in the bottom half for deaths among senior citizens. The state of Louisiana, which seems to get hit around the same time as Florida each time there is a wave of COVID-19 infections, currently boasts many policies that Florida does not — among them, an ongoing indoor mask mandate that applies even to the vaccinated, a statewide school-mask mandate for all students over the age of five, and, in the city of New Orleans, a system of vaccine passports. Despite this, Louisiana’s death rate is the fourth worst in the nation, while Florida — which has a much older population (as of 2020, Florida has the largest senior population in the union; Louisiana’s is 42nd) — sits in 20th place. What gives?

Since the Democrats believe everything they are told from the Government!

 This is quite literally from the Biden White House two weeks ago!

AUGUST 17, 2021 

MS. PSAKI: We are — there have been — how the process works, I should say — I’ll tell you — is that there are individuals who will self-identify as American citizens — that number is around 11,000. Beyond that — around the country — beyond that, though, there are individuals who may not have self-identified, who may come and request assistance and come to the airport.

Q So, just to confirm, 11,000 in the entire country, not just in Kabul?

MS. PSAKI: Well, I would just say, that’s the self-identified number, right? So — but we will continue to provide assistance. And we are prioritizing American citizens. We are also working to get additional officials out who have played an important role.

But wait?

AUGUST 30, 2021

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that some 6,000 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan so far. The Biden administration is still trying to determine how many Americans are left in the country who want to leave ahead of Tuesday's self-imposed deadline to withdraw U.S. troops, Psaki said. She believes the number is small
_______

Of course we actually left on Monday fairly early in the day after giving up and running away, so that 6000 American evacuated was not going to increase to any degree if at all. Moreover, the 11,000 figure that she provided were only those who had self identified themselves. That same day (August 17th) the White house put out a statement saying that the number of Americans could be as high as 15,000. 

So two weeks ago the White House told us that there were no less than 11,000 Americans and that there might be as many as 15,000.  Yesterday we were told that 6000 of them were evacuated. Today we are being told that only a few hundred remain?

At which point in time has the White House been lying to us? I ask our Democratic friends out there who seem to be believe EVERYTHING they are told from the Democratic White House, even the numbers that tend to make other numbers look like a lie?

The difference between a liberal and a Democrat

I know several genuine liberals and then I know quite a few Democrats. Obviously one can be both, but at the end of the day there is a difference between someone who is at the core "liberal" versus someone who is at the core a "Democrat". 

The current situation in Afghanistan is a perfect example. I have had discussions with some people whom I consider liberal. In some cases extremely liberal (such as my wife). On the flip side we have all seen the discussions here on this board from people who are pretty much 100% full on Democrats. 

The difference between the two discussions are night and day. 

For instance, during a discussion with someone who would rather gouge their own eyes out than vote for 99% of Republicans, the concept that our Government killed terrorists (rather than just a random family) was literally laughable. As in there was chuckles involved as this ultra-liberal suggested that you would be an idiot to trust what the government is telling us right now in Afghanistan. The idea that this drone attack was likely a major fuckup was a perfectly acceptable conclusion to this particular ultra-liberal, because as a liberal (rather than a Democrat) they feel absolutely zero need to "defend" the actions of the President just because he happens to be a Democrat. 

Because neither of us have any stake in defending Biden or the Administration in general, we both are able to simply look at the facts as they exist and draw an open and honest conclusion based on those facts (not just what we are told). In fact, what we are being told is almost irrelevant. As a child of the 60s and 70s, trust me when I say that a true liberal always has a bit of distrust for the Government (no matter who is in charge) and generally wants to draw their own conclusions. 

In fact, the real time concept that what is happening on the ground (in general) is a total disaster was not an argument (because it shouldn't be) but rather just a precursor to a more philosophical discussion on what we have been doing there and what ultimately we should be doing in these situations. It's amazing how much better and more informative these discussions are when it's not partisan and not everything is about trying to compare Biden to Trump. At the core, the Afghanistan situation should be about 95% about our foreign policy and philosophies in general and maybe 5%  about Biden's ability to handle a crisis and whether Trump would have done better.

I can have these discussions with true liberals, because they stand behind core principles and core beliefs not partisanship and politicians. With a Democrat you can never get past the partisanship and loyalty to Party to ever get to a point where there is a real discussion about much of anything. It always crumbles into blind partisanship, bias confirmation, and cognitive dissonance...  and almost inevitably slides into the abyss of personal attacks and name calling. 


Vaccines are proving less effective than originally thought.

COVID-19 live updates: Vaccine protection against hospitalization is dropping slightly, CDC says
The COVID-19 vaccines' ability to keep people out of the hospital appears to be dropping slightly, particularly for those 75 and older, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday during an advisory panel.  The latest CDC analysis estimates that the ability of the COVID vaccines to keep a person out of the hospital is now between 75% to 95%.
Just 61.2% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So this quickly went from something that was nearly foolproof (like Biden's plan) to something that is 75-95 percent successful in keeping you out of the hospital. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of even the unvaccinated do not go to the Hospital and the fatality rates are still in the low tenths of a percent among those who get it. So those numbers are hard to actually read. 

If they are saying that in comparison to an unvaccinated person, it would between 75-95 percent of those hospitalizations (which I suspect it means) - then it's still a wise choice to take the vaccination. But if that number becomes closer to 75% than 95% and continues to drop, then the vaccine will not have lived up to the promises. 

Lastly, the article states that "just" 61.2% of the population eligible for the vaccine are vaccinated. That is actually not that far off from the original 70% that Dr Fauci determined would bring us herd immunity. Perhaps the last 8.8% will really make all the difference in the world, but I suspect once we get to 70% - they will ask for 80% - then they will ask for 90% - etc... etc... etc...  

Monday, August 30, 2021

Because there is no actual way to defend Biden!


 

We're not gonna get everyone out?

Biden Administration pulling out completely - leaving Americans behind 

Yes, because we had 14,000 and evacuated about 6500 and that leaves the number in the low hundreds, according to Biden math. At least they admitted that they left some people behind. I guess it would have been difficult to claim otherwise, since we will no doubt see proof of Americans still in Afghanistan. No way to block them from Social Media or block loved ones who are missing them back here.

But to say there are just a few hundred, allows for the idea that even if it seems like more people are saying they are still in Afghanistan, we can never really know the true number. I mean who is going to count and how are they going to count? 

Best guess is that we left somewhere in the low thousands behind. That is an avoidable tragedy and forever a stain on the Biden legacy.  

President is not gonna answer ganistan now??

A little pounding of the lectern to make the point clear!  

I mean, the gall of this reporter wanting to ask the President of the United States a question about Afghanistan? Doesn't she realize that the American public will be told what they will be told when they are told from who tells them when the Biden handlers make it so?  

Btw... that is the second press conference in a row where he admits to not making his own decisions as to taking questions from the press. Someone is telling him what to do, and apparently he is obliging them (kind of). 

So CNN and others now reporting that the drone targeting a vehicle actually hit a house and killed a family...

EVACUATIONS ENDING. US LEAVES AMID ISIS FIRE. TAIL TUCKED SQUARELY BETWEEN LEGS

9 family members killed after US strike in residential area of Kabul, eyewitnesses 
From CNN's Sandi Sidhu, Nick Paton Walsh, and Tim Lister
Nine members of one family were killed in a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighborhood of Kabul, according to a relative of those killed. Those killed included six children, the youngest being a 2-year-old girl, the brother of one of the dead told a local journalist working with CNN. He said the people killed were his brother Zamaray (40 years old), Naseer (30), Zameer (20), Faisal (10), Farzad (9), Armin (4), Benyamin (3), Ayat (2) and Sumaya (2). The brother cried as he told the journalist that they were “an ordinary family.” “We are not ISIS or Daesh and this was a family home — where my brothers lived with their families,” he said.

The original story from the Biden Administration maintained that the drone was successful and there was no civilian casualties. Of course, how can the United States make these claims when they have no people on the ground to actually verify anything? In fact, if they didn't have intelligence to determine how long the Afghans could hold Kabul, how could we actually know where to locate a suicide bombing attempt in a city where we are on our way out? 

However, the stories originally being reported in the international press from reporters on the ground stated that the missile hit a house, not a car. At the time, there was no indication that it was even a US Missile. Not more than 12 hours later, it would appear that even American press are reporting the drone attack as hitting a house and killing a family of nine. No word on whether these same reporters are accepting the story that it also killed the target. 

The story from the Biden Administration was shaky at best. By the time they reported that they had taken out two terrorists attempting to attack the airport, there was news footage all around the world of smoke coming up from a residential area that appeared to have leveled a building (thought to be a random house). 

The story migrated into the idea that there was so many explosives in the vehicles that secondary explosions were set off and possibly did damage around that area. Then for a while, there was talk of a second blast that was being pushed as responsible for the house bombing. Of course, the scenes from on the ground being shown everywhere didn't show any evidence either secondary explosions or a second explosion. Just the one explosion and the one set of smoke that had already been pinpointed to a house.

So what is the "real story" here folks? Did the US actually stave off a terror threat and kill two terrorists with a vehicle full of explosives? If so, there really doesn't appear to be much tangible evidence of that? Or did they actually hit a house and kill a family and then tell everyone that they killed terrorists? Unders normal circumstances I would never believe that the US would make that sort of mistake and play it off as a success.... but then again, that has been the modus operandi of the Administration's handling of this entire Afghanistan fiasco.

Meanwhile, reports are that things are extremely dangerous and violatable at the airport and that evacuations have slowed to a slow crawl.  Missiles are being lobbed at the airport and have been for several hours. The US (however) contends that they have not ended evacuation efforts and will continue flights through the deadline.  


Marine Lt. Col. Stu Scheller not only fired, but military wants to treat him as a mental health threat?

The military brass failed miserably in Afghanistan, but apparently this guy needs to be held accountable for calling them out
Now, after his last video, the leadership is clearly not going to take it and they are moving against him because he’s gotten far too much attention. As we previously reported, they had already relieved him of his command. Now the USMC is going to paint him as having mental health problems and being a “threat” because he spoke about bringing the “system down.”
There’s nothing in his video that indicates that he’s a threat to anyone, he’s a bringer of truth that explodes the narrative that they want to pitch so they’re going to paint him as a nut and try to do him in. Talk about a scary reaction by the leadership to being questioned, bringing power to bear against someone who asks for accountability. They’re also doing this because dissent on the issue of what the leadership did in Afghanistan has been growing and they’re going to try to make an example of him to prevent anyone else from doing the same thing in the future.

Right, I believe that everyone watched the video and understood that this was a man willing to say what others within the military were not saying. Politicians were saying it. The media has been saying it. Civilian citizens have been saying it. We all know it's true. But obviously they can have none of any service people criticizing leadership. 

Is this man any sort of threat to take down the US Government or lead a revolt? Of course not. Is he mentally unfit because he questioned the Afghan operation? Of course not. In fact, I would toss out the argument that people who believe it would take a mentally unfit person to criticize the Afghan pullout would be mentally ill themselves. 

The difference being is that these people are concocting a hypothetical whereas they make an argument that an otherwise top notch Marine is now a threat to the country because he believes people need to be held accountable. Meanwhile, those responsible for this fiasco put thousands of lives in danger and we have tangibly lost the lives of 13 service heroes. They act as if they deserve a medal for valor for how well they planned and executed this. 

If the deaths of American soldiers due to mistakes at the top are not reason enough to hold people accountable, then I am not sure what is? But this is the Biden Administration. Nothing is their fault. Ever. It's always someone else's fault.


Sunday, August 29, 2021

US Claims responsibility for bomb that went off in Kabul. Small child reportedly killed in separate explosion?

Officials say bomb was targeting another suicide bomber. Local police have said casualties include one small child

  • A child has been killed in an explosion as the US launched a military strike targeting ISIS-K militants in Kabul 
  • Explosion has been heard in Kabul just hours after the US Embassy ordered all staff to leave the airport
  • Security official from the recently deposed government said it was a rocket that hit a house
  • Joe Biden has said that commanders informed him an attack is 'highly likely' in the next 24-36 hours
  • It follows the US drone strike on ISIS-K in revenge for the suicide blast in Kabul that killed 13 US 
  • Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said US should have warned the group before strike on ISIS-K

A child in Kabul has been killed in an explosion as the US launched a military strike targeting a vehicle containing 'multiple suicide bombers' driving to the Afghan airport, just hours after Joe Biden warned of the possibility of another jihadist atrocity following this week's attack.

Two US officials speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that American forces launched a strike in the capital city targeting suspected ISIS-K militants who were aiming to attack Hamid Karzai International Airport, where Afghans are trying to flee the Taliban.

A Kabul police chief later claimed that a child had been killed after a rocket struck a house in the Khajeh Baghra area to the north-west of the airport, in what is thought to be a separate incident. Two witnesses said the blast appeared to have been caused by a rocket. 


So US officials say this was a US Strike that was targeting the vehicle of another  ISIS-K suicide bomber that was in the area. They claim that the suicide bombers were killed with no casualties, but that it triggered multiple other explosions. The bomb that blew up the house (which is the only thing being confirmed by local police) was supposedly a separate incident that coincidently took place at pretty much the same time. 

Of course, this could be propaganda from either side. Obviously the Biden Administration has not been honest in all of this, and it would be foolish to totally trust the Taliban. But from what we can literally see the bomb did appear to hit a house and there appeared to be casualties based on emergency vehicles, etc. There doesn't appear to be two separate explosions (from the footage we see) much less an original explosion, which triggered other explosions, that took place while a separate bomb hit a house and killed a child. One would expect more than just one isolated area of fire and smoke.

We have no confirmation from any local sources of a car explosion or any dead ISIS-K members. So, of course, critics of the United States will believe that they hit a random house and killed a small child. 

All we know is that Kabul has another bombing (at least) and that people were asked to stay away from the airport (again) and we are running out of time. Even if everything we claim is true, the idea that things have escalated while we are on the final days of evacuations is more reason to believe that the manner in which we went about our withdrawal was even more deeply flawed than we originally even thought.

Why didn't we wait for another couple of days before escalating the situation with random retaliatory strikes? Wait till Americans were no longer vulnerable and until we had finished the largest amounts of evacuations we could have. 


IDA could hit category 5 by the time it hits Louisiana

The fact that they will likely get hit with enormous damages and possibly even some loss of life seems almost an afterthought in what has now becomes a total Biden led clusterfuck that once was America. 


Yeah, things certainly feel more stable and less frantic now that Donald Trump is no longer in charge!

Covid models predict another 100,000 deaths by end of November from Virus Biden said he would stop in its tracks!

Total and complete failure by the President

The U.S. is projected to see nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths between now and December 1, according to the nation's most closely watched forecasting model. But health experts say that toll could be cut in half if nearly everyone wore a mask in public spaces.
Sure fire plan? Sure Joe! 
"Behavior is really going to determine if, when and how sustainably the current wave subsides," said Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. "We cannot stop Delta in its tracks, but we can change our behavior overnight."

So according to this, even if we do everything right (which is never going to happen) we will still see 50,000 deaths by the end of the year. More to the point these sorts of "predictions" based on events that will never happen (everyone wearing paper or light cloth over their mouths 100% of the time) are predetermined "I told you so" arguments that are designed to second guess and point fingers. These people know that Americans are going to die regardless, but want to preload some blame. 

There has yet to be a single statistical empirical study that has shown mask wearing is a significance deterrent to the spread of Covid. Studies have ranged from those that say masks provide a small degree of protection to studies that have found quite literally no statistical difference between areas that have mask mandates and areas that do not. There is no actual data or empirical study that suggests mask wearing cuts the spread in half. 

This article touches on the idea that Vaccinations are still moving forward. Suggesting that some states that have been lagging behind are catching up. We are now at 62% of the population with at least one dose. Fauci and others suggested that the magic number is 70%. That would require somewhere in the vicinity of another 66 million doses being applied. At a million a day, this would be completed sometime around the beginning of November. We could push that number up and get to 70% sooner. 

But does anyone truly expect that the 70% number Fauci and gang originally suggested will still be the number when we hit it? It's a moving target. We all know that. When we get to 70% and people are still dying, they will say 80%.  It is just the nature of the beast. They really are shooting from the hip here as we move forward.

At this rate, by the time Biden hits his first year anniversary as President the number of Covid deaths on his watch will have surpassed the number of deaths on Trump's watch.

Sure fire plan? Sure Joe! 

Compounding the errors. Timing is always of the essence...

So there was an attack against vulnerable Americans and Afghans trying to escape the self-inflicted chaos that is Afghanistan. This attack killed over a dozen Marines and a hundred people overall. We still remain vulnerable as we speak. In fact, just as vulnerable as we were during the first attack. Now we have credible threats of more attacks taking place over the next couple of days (before the deadline).  

After the deadline, even Joe Biden's self proclaimed security guards and friends (The Taliban) are offering that Americans staying behind will be in even more danger (especially if we are still operating as a military or evacuating people). Get out by August 31st or else is the message.

So as we are desperately trying to get as many Americans out as we can over the next couple of days here, we are now experience additional threats of "retaliation" from the drone strikes that apparently killed an unknown planner or two somewhere miles and miles away from Kabul. Yesterday we lost valuable time which we can never get back as Americans were once again told to stay away from the Airport. We garnered those retaliatory threats with the timing of our retaliation. We played their game and lost.

The question becomes if you are going to retaliate, why retaliate while your own citizens are still in a vulnerable state? Could the drone strike not waited till we were out of  Kabul and no longer had vulnerable Americans sitting in Afghanistan? 

The answer seems to be politics. The drone strike was an obvious attempt to provide a narrative that Joe Biden is on top of this and that he was not taking it lying down. But most of the time quickly thrown together plans are not the best plans. They are simply a reaction, rather than a well thought out plan. Didn't Biden and his advisors think about whether or not our own actions would trigger another reaction from the Taliban or ISIS-K?

Everyone knows that the 13 service people are on the head of the President. Any other attacks in or around the airport are also now on his head, as are anyone who cannot get out because we had to give up evacuation time dealing with a triggered threat of retaliation. This was not a well thought out plan as it pertained to the safety of our Americans. But it appears that politics were more important. 


Sunday Funnies










































Saturday, August 28, 2021

The issue is ultimately about taking some responsibility...

Our military and our allies no longer trust Biden
President Biden has lost the trust of the military, our allies — and the American people. In April, the president promised that troops would come home from Afghanistan “responsibly, deliberately, and safely,” downplaying any risk associated with withdrawal.
Today, he says the “evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul was going to be hard and painful no matter when it started, when we began.”
After a Kabul airport attack that killed 13 American servicemen, at least 90 Afghans, Biden has done nothing but deflect responsibility for the biggest foreign policy blunder in decades.

Sometimes you just have to say you were wrong, you are sorry, and you promise to do better in the future. But someone who never admits they were wrong, never apologizes for failures, and is never willing to change course will never become a better person. 

An analogy. Those programmers who refuse to accept that there is bugs in the code and that those bugs will have to be fixed will always put out on inferior product that doesn't work. If that programmer simply insists that the bugs don't exist, that the product is just so complicated that it will never work quite as some expect, and passes the buck without offering a solution will ultimately lose business and likely their job as a programmer.

Joe Biden would have been better off accepting that they made mistakes and suggested to the public that they are working to get better. Heads should have rolled and he should have set up internal investigations into what went wrong. 

But he seems to be doubling down on the idea that he and everyone in his team did swimmingly. He will likely not fire anyone for fear that it would be seen as a political failure. Rather he will rely on people nobody should be relying on when the next big decision comes along. Keeping in mind that every President makes big decisions all the time. 

Let's be clear here folks. We have some big issues that have either been almost ignored to fucked up royally. 

To the degree that Covid is making the deadly comeback, the powers to be have offered nothing other than sanctimonious lectures and finger pointing. Perhaps a plan of some sort that does not involve Dr Fauci demanding that nobody vaccinated is getting sick, when every day that is proven more and more untrue? Other countries have plans in place that involve treatments and things other than admonishments of those who do not trust the people who continue to lie to us.

We have had disaster at the border due to Biden decisions and lack of planning.  We currently move forward without any real plan to stop that or even an acknowledgement that anything is wrong. To the degree that it is wrong is only argued to be someone else's fault. In fact, there seems to be little interest in even looking into any plan for the border. We just let if fester.

Inflation? Well that will just miraculously go away on it's own according to those apparently advising the President. But if magic anti-inflation incantations don't work then we will just spend more Government money (which Econ 101 suggests will create more inflation). But if it doesn't just go away or gets worse with more spending? Well we have nothing because our leadership won't accept that it's a problem.

See the pattern here? The Biden administration first denies any problems. If that doesn't work, then they find a scapegoat (generally Trump or conservatives) to blame it on. Then they basically make an argument that either there is nothing that can be done or that the situation will works it's way out on it's own. What they never, ever, ever do is provide any sort of plan to fix... anything.

Yeah... that is why everyone is losing or have already lost confidence in Biden.  


Texas House passes their election bill...

“We are disappointed that a few Democrats chose to return to the floor,” the 30 Democrats said in a joint statement on Friday. “We feel betrayed and heartbroken, but our resolve is strong and this fight is not over.”


Yeah, actually the fight is pretty much over. There will be some quibbling during the reconciliation of the House and Senate bills, but it will pass and pass shortly. The left will no doubt continue with their barrage of lawsuits (that take place anytime anything happens that they do not like) but there is nothing in this bill that is remotely unconstitutional or illegal. 

A few thoughts on Michael Byrd and his shooting of Ashli Babbit

Official story doesn't hold up to video evidence


So by now everyone knows that Michael Byrd has come out and identified himself as the shooter of Ashli Babbit. While a white officer who kills a black man ends up in jail, the black officer who kills an unarmed white woman gets to go on national television and claim to be a hero.

Now on the surface there seems to be some logic or justification for what happened. At least on the surface and if you take everything being said at face value. But the truth is that much of what is being stated on the surface does not appear to be true. 

Byrd claims that they believed that the rioters had shot people, in spite of the fact that nobody other than Byrd used a gun that day. He could not have personally heard any shots and there would have been no official reports of shots being fired (as there were none). 

Byrd claims that he believes his saved lives. Again, none of the rioters that got into the building had been violent. Nobody inside the Capitol building (other than Byrd) was even seriously injured. There is no reason why Byrd would have received any credible reports of violence in the building, as there had not been any. Lastly, neither Babbit or the people with her were armed. Byrd and the other officers were. 

Byrd claimed to have provided several warnings to Babbit. This is disputed by others who were there and there is no video evidence that Byrd had made any real attempts to warn Babbit of anything. Watching the video, Byrd was out of view and around the corner in another hallway as babbit came through the window. Byrd appears to come out into that hallway long enough to fire a shot, and then went back around the corner. Byrd was far enough away to had waited to see if Babbit was armed or looked as if she was a credible threat once she got through the window. 

What seems the most likely is that Byrd simply panicked. After watching bloody riots all summer and seeing the violence from both sides, he likely assumed that there was some sort of armed violent killer making their way through the window.  He may have been under the false assumption that there really was an armed insurrection taking place. He simply didn't have the restraint or the patience to correctly assess what was happening. 

This is bad judgement that lead to an awful mistake made in the line of duty. I don't believe this is necessarily murder (as a matter of practical law) just as I didn't really believe that Chauvin's back restraint was murder. But the reality is that in 2021 if a Cop makes a bad judgement and someone dies because of it, they certainly face the very real possibility of being charged with a crime.

At the end of the day there is certainly a different set of standards being applied for Michael Byrd that most police officers do not enjoy. At best he is an unseasoned police officer who panicked and an unarmed non-violent military veteran is dead because of his judgement. I can live with the idea that a white cop goes to jail and a black cop doesn't.  But there is little practical reason to believe that this does not warrant him being relieved of duty. He is obviously not fit for duty.


Friday, August 27, 2021

Biden Administration math

Who can reconcile this? 


  • At the beginning of the week, the Administration suggested that there were approximately 14,000 Americans in Afghanistan to evacuate.
  • As of today, they are suggesting that about 5100 Americans have been evacuated overall. 
  • They claimed two days ago that they have less than 1500 left to evacuate.

Am I the only one confused by this?

Since when did the Tal-eh-ban become the Toli-bun?