The Biden administration's handling of our military's withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a messaging disaster. There was a lack of clarity from the White House communications shop, a lack of transparency from the State Department and Department of Defense (DOD) and, most importantly, the appearance of unpreparedness from the president of the United States.
Thankfully, the administration appears to have turned a corner. Over 70,000 Americans and Afghan allies have been evacuated from Kabul, a number that seemed impossible when the capital of Afghanistan initially fell. This has still not inoculated President Biden from criticism. Initially, the administration appeared flatfooted and unable to adjust to the realities on the ground, and that criticism has come from both Republicans and Democrats alike.
As Biden's poll numbers indicate, his handling of Afghanistan has been the lowest point polling-wise in his presidency. Fair or not, the president has been held accountable for the quagmire we currently find ourselves in. The Bush administration made the decision to invade Afghanistan after the attacks on 9/11, but it will be the Biden administration that, for better or worse, will be remembered for leaving Afghanistan. Withdrawing from Afghanistan was never going to be an easy task; that's partly why previous administrations have only committed to drawing down troops, not ending our engagement in a 20-year war. But Biden has a unique perspective that no other president in modern history can share - he was the father of a son who served in a combat zone, Iraq. And while I may disagree with the lack of cohesive message surrounding the initial fall of Kabul and the administration's frustratingly slow explanation for the path forward, it's increasingly difficult to criticize the response a week out. What looked to be a political and humanitarian disaster has increasingly been an opportunity for the Biden administration to rise to the occasion and course correct.
It's not as if this administration has a history of mismanagement or blatant incompetence - the opposite is true. Whether you voted for or even like Biden, it's hard to argue with the results of the first seven months of his administration. On the president's first day in office, a little over 2 million Americans were fully vaccinated and a little over 15 million had received one dose of the vaccination. As we head into the end of August, over 171 million Americans are fully vaccinated and over 200 million Americans have at least one dose of the vaccine. That's nothing short of a miracle. But for the irresponsible messaging emanating from right-wing media and governors looking to run for president, we could have seen actual herd immunity.
Combine the Biden administration's COVID-19 response with their handling of the economy, and Afghanistan begins to look like an outlier, not at all the norm. According to recent reports, the U.S. economy grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter. That rate of growth outpaces almost all presidents in modern history. As much as Republicans have attempted to criticize and delegitimize Biden's handling of the economy, policies like The American Recovery Act have infused the economy with much-needed aid and created new jobs in major industries like hospitality. Passing an infrastructure bill will only help to boost what had been a lagging economy as a result of the previous administration's failure to adequately implement "infrastructure week" or acknowledge the reality of the nation's COVID-19 crisis. The same cannot be said about the Biden administration's response to COVID-19 or the economy.
The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol spoke out for the first time on Thursday, contending that he “saved countless lives” when protecting lawmakers against the violent rioters.
The officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, was publicly identified for the first time since the incident during an interview on “NBC Nightly News,” which aired Thursday evening.
ADVERTISING
Byrd said he does not doubt that he made the right decision while protecting the Capitol during the deadly riot, telling host Lester Holt, “I know that day I saved countless lives.”
“I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job,” he added.
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and a supporter of former President Trump, was one of five people who died as a result of the Jan. 6 riot, when a violent, pro-Trump mob descended on the Capitol complex in an attempt to delay the certification of the Electoral College vote for the 2020 presidential election.
Babbitt was shot when she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby, located just off the House floor. A group of people crashed through a window in the gallery, which Babbitt then attempted to climb through.
Byrd fired one shot, hitting Babbitt in the left shoulder.
The officer is speaking out publicly for the first time after the Capitol Police released a statement on Monday which said that Byrd’s “conduct was lawful and within Department policy, contending that officers are permitted to use deadly force “only when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury.”
Byrd, as a result, will not face any disciplinary action.
That statement did not identify Byrd by name.
Byrd, during the interview, discussed in detail the moments leading up to when he fired at Babbitt, telling Holt: “I tried to wait as long as I could.”
He said he “hoped and prayed” that nobody would try to enter the doors he was guarding, but their “failure to comply required” him to “take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”
Byrd at one point during the riots was inside the House chamber, where a number of lawmakers were seeking cover. He told Holt that he gave one critical instruction to the members on the floor: to remove their congressional pins so they would blend in.
“One of the things that was imperative was to inform the members to remove their pins to allow them to blend in,” Byrd said. “To remove their jackets, to look like staff as much as possible.”
Byrd soon after rushed out of the chamber and, along with a few other officers, created a makeshift barricade with furniture. He said it was at that point, when “the chants got louder,” that he knew the mob was approaching.
“At that point is when I realized they’re here,” Byrd said. “The chants got louder. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it sounded like hundreds of people outside of that door.”
Trump claimed in July that the officer who shot Babbitt, now identified as Byrd, had “no reason” to shoot her.
When Holt asked Byrd about the political implications that followed his decision to use his weapon on Jan. 6, the officer rejected the notion among some that he had a political agenda.
“I do my job for Republican, for Democrat, for white, for Black, red, blue, green,” he said. “I don’t care about your affiliation.”
Updated Aug. 27, 2021 3:29AM ET Published Aug. 26, 2021 9:45PM ET
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty
Republican lawmakers, former officials in Donald Trump’s administration, and conservative commentators are reacting to Thursday’s horrific Kabul attack by not only condemning the Biden administration—they’re also calling for a re-invasion of Afghanistan.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), long an Afghanistan war hawk who recently called on President Joe Biden to be “impeached” for the withdrawal, demanded on Twitter that the administration “reestablish our presence in Bagram as an alternative to the Kabul airport, saying it was a “problem of will” that it hadn’t been done yet.
______
Do you really think that we should reinvade Afghanistan?
Combine the Biden administration's COVID-19 response with their handling of the economy, and Afghanistan begins to look like an outlier, not at all the norm. According to recent reports, the U.S. economy grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter. That rate of growth outpaces almost all presidents in modern history.
As of September 1st the news coverage will be about the economy, as we end a 20 year old war.
Byrd is what you get when law enforcement adopts affirmative action hiring policies and hires a certain percentage of morons to fill a racial diversity quota.
This dumb fuck couldn't even manage to take a shit without fucking it up and leaving his service weapon in a public restroom.
And he has the unmitigated gall to portray himself as the victim.
I sincerely hope he falls prey to the very worst humanity has to offer.
And it was not surprising to see MSDNC celebrate this murderer. MSDNC loves murderers who focus on shooting and killing republicans.
See: Hodgkinson, James. Maddow fan and Bernie-bro.
It would be much more difficult than in Kabul Afghanistan.
Three Aircraft Carriers. Dozens Of Stealth Fighters. A Powerful Allied Battle Group Has Gathered Near China. Forbes - 2 days ago
Three aircraft carriers embarking two different models of F-35 stealth fighter have assembled in the waters around Okinawa.
The three-carrier group, with two American flattops and one British one, is among the most powerful naval formations to appear anywhere in many years.
And it’s not hard to understand the timing and location. The Chinese navy in recent weeks has been rehearsing an invasion of Taiwan. The three carriers are a warning—that an attack on the island democracy could have profound consequences.
The three flattops converged from separate directions. HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy’s new conventionally-fueled carrier, along with her British, American and Dutch escorts for several weeks now has been crisscrossing the Western Pacific.
The 919-foot carrier with two squadrons of F-35B jump jets aboard—one from the Royal Air Force and another from the U.S. Marine Corps—departed the United Kingdom for her maiden cruise back in May, sailed through the Mediterranean and across the Indian Ocean to reach the Pacific via the Singapore Strait.
USS America was the first American flattop to join up with Queen Elizabeth. America, an 844-foot amphibious assault ship with a conventional powerplant, functions as a light carrier when she embarks a squadron or two of F-35Bs. She sails from Japan, usually in the company of destroyers and other amphibious ships from the U.S. 7th Fleet.
America and Queen Elizabeth spent last week refueling each other’s F-35s in a so-called “cross-decking” exercise. “This interaction showcased how quickly and seamlessly the U.S. and U.K. can fold together our combined air power and execute highly intricate and sustained flight operations to devastatingly lethal effect,” said Capt. Ken Ward, America’s skipper.
The San Diego-based, nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Carl Vinson, carrying a squadron of catapult-launched F-35Cs, approached America and Queen Elizabeth from the east on Wednesday.
Twitter-user @duandang tracked the 1,092-foot Vinson, not by looking for the carrier herself, but by noting the radio transponder belonging to one of the flattop’s CMV-22B supply tiltrotors.
Together, the three carriers and their escorts possess more firepower than the entire fleets of most countries. The Chinese navy at present deploys just two flattops—both similar to Queen Elizabeth in size and capability.
Queen Elizabeth has 16 F-35Bs aboard. The Japan-based F-35B squadron that embarks on America has 10 jets. It’s not clear how many are aboard America right now. Vinson is the first of the U.S. Navy’s 10 supercarriers to sail with an F-35C squadron, 10 jets strong. The flattop also embarks around three dozen F/A-18E/F fighters and six EA-18G electronic-attack jets.
Add it up. That’s up to 36 F-35s plus another 40 or so F-18s. A three-deck carrier group with nearly 80 fast jets, half of them stealthy. The flattops’ dozen or so escorts and several attached submarines add hundreds of long-range missiles, including potentially scores of land-attack cruise missiles, to the mix.
The F-35 is the most obvious symbol of the group’s destructive potential. “Nothing even comes close!” said Capt. Richard LeBron, commodore of America’s Amphibious Squadron 11. “There is no better aviation platform to support 7th Fleet’s mission to ensure the United States can freely operate wherever and whenever it must, in alignment with international norms, standards, rules and laws.”
Taiwan’s independence is the norm at stake. The Chinese navy this summer has escalated its preparations for a possible assault across the Taiwan Strait. Most alarmingly, the navy has mobilized some of the civilian transport vessels the Chinese military would depend on to carry potentially hundreds of thousands of invading troops.
Rip those stars off your pathetic nostalgia costumes and resign. Quit. Tell that crusty Pinocchio in the White House and the faculty lounge Geppettos tugging his strings that you will have no more to do with his human centipede of failure in Kabul.
It’s not hard – your stars are right there, generals, right on the shoulders of those new uniforms you decided to adopt with the express purpose of evoking World War II and the memory of victory over a modern, peer-competitor military. Maybe, you thought, wearing winner’s gear would ease the pain of getting creamed by a bunch of Seventh Century throwbacks.
Yeah, we know your boss is a senile old fool with delusions of competence. His failure will be addressed at the ballot box. But your failure, generals and admirals, is something only you can address, at least until President DeSantis comes and separates the wheat from the chaff in the Pentagon.
Yeah, we know, you have to follow the orders of the civilian authorities – though not if it’s Trump, since he was not part of the in-crowd you aspired to join as adjunct military members. Your passive-aggressive mutiny against the guy the American people elected set back civil-military relations 250 years. You took the one institution most Americans still trusted and turned it into a roiling cauldron of hot garbage. And don’t try to hide behind “You gotta support the troops.” We do. But you suck, and we know you suck, and you know you suck.
CARTOONS | CHIP BOK VIEW CARTOON If you didn’t suck, you’d have quit. When President Durwood told you to ditch Bagram Air Base, you joint chiefs should have got together, realized this was going to get a bunch of the guys that America entrusted to you killed, and decided to resign. You can’t disobey, but you can take a stand.
Well, you did take a kind of stand. You just stood there. As one sergeant major told me today, the newest second lieutenant would identify this op as a disaster in the making. Now, far be it from me to contradict an E9, but I expect he would agree that even the greenest Girl Scout recruit would ask, “What the unholy hell are you idiots thinking, pulling the military out and giving up our secure airbase before you’ve completed your noncombatant evacuation operation?”
You could have quit. You could have salvaged some shred of honor after your years of total failure, but making a stand would come at the expense of your careers.
Yet it would have worked. A bunch of generals saying “No more?” That would have forced the politicians to do a rethink. But you just saluted, same as the guys who enabled Vietnam – something Army schools used to tell us (before they hired faculties full of pronoun people) we officers needed to do if the time came.
GOP hawks and Trumpworld figures are not only condemning President Joe Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal; they're calling for a full-on re-invasion of Afghanistan.
GOP hawks and Trumpworld figures are not only condemning President Joe Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal; they're calling for a full-on re-invasion of Afghanistan.
A flat out LIE, but one you have no shame in stooping to in order to save your drooling feckless fucktard.
I'm sure he is. I'm sure there's no shortage of dead tin-horn, crackpot, tyrants cheering Sloppy Joe from the cheap seats. Everything is proceeding exactly as we had predicted, with 100% failure on every front:
Foreign, domestic, energy policy, economic policy resulting in runaway inflation, defense policy delivering a predictable result when you put 'woke' idiots in charge...
Every single bit of where we are today was fully expected and Slow Joe an da Ho did not fail to deliver.
There is one thing of which I am 100%, without a fucking doubt certain of right now:
Every single American, military or civilian, still in Afghanistan wishes Trump was president right now.
The day following the Jan. 6 insurrection, DeAnna Lorraine declared that she “never felt more pride” than she did watching “American patriots” storm the U.S. Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Now Lorraine is claiming that the insurrection was an FBI set-up “to frame Trump supporters and conservatives.”Shane Vaughn assures his followers that former President Donald Trump doesn’t actually support COVID-19 vaccines and just says that he does for political purposes.Dave Hayes thinks that Trump allowed vaccine makers to ignore all safety protocols in order to rush dangerous COVID-19 vaccines to market so pharmaceutical companies would be sued out of existence: “What if this whole thing is a freakin’ set-up to take down Big Pharma?”Josh Bernstein says that the “deep state” includes not only U.S. intelligence agencies, but also the media, every politician, higher education, and even “the sandwich shop owners” in Washington, D.C. Right-wing activists are demanding that PolitiFact be kicked out of the International Fact-Checking Network, which is dedicated to promoting best practices among fact-checkers.Finally, a little over 60 days ago, Stew Peters warned that if Trump “doesn’t come back within the next 60 days, I believe that we are looking at an extinction-level event.” Have we gone extinct yet?
Every single bit of where we are today was fully expected and Slow Joe an da Ho did not fail to deliver.
Adding misogenist behavior to the Olinski Beaners and Mooslimbs bigotry to the list of the racist rodent bastardized world.
There is one thing of which I am 100%, without a fucking doubt certain of right now:
Every single American, military or civilian, still in Afghanistan wishes Trump was president right now.
That's all the alky, or anyone on the left for that matter, cares about.
Messaging, optics, political survival.
Those fucking moose-limb savages could've killed 10,000 servicemen, and all the assholes like alky can think about is how Slow Joe an da Ho survive it politically.
So... Biden and his merry band of asshats were prepared to gift pallets of cash to the Tally-Bon, just like 0linsky did to Iran.:
On August 14, Secretary of State Blinken spoke with Afghanistan’s former president and promised that the Biden administration would provide a bulk shipment of dollars.
The next day Kabul fell.
On that same call, Afghanistan’s former leader had agreed to surrender power to the Taliban.
The Biden administration had effectively agreed to provide a massive infusion of cash to the Taliban. But the final deal fell through, the Afghan government fled, and the Taliban took Kabul.
The bulk shipment of dollars never did arrive.
Biden’s diplomats scrambled to evacuate from Kabul. Ajmal Ahmady, the governor of DAB, Afghanistan's central bank, already had a ticket and headed to the airport. He managed to get on a military plane.
Since then he's tweeted that he was warned that the Taliban had come looking for him.
The Taliban were hoping to get their hands on Afghanistan’s money, but much of it is in the United States. The most tangible part of Afghanistan’s assets, $1.3 billion in gold, is sitting in downtown Manhattan, a little bit south of Ground Zero, in the vaults of the Federal Reserve.
If there were any justice, that money would be used to compensate the police officers, firefighters, and workers who died on that day or later on from ailments related to 9/11.
Meanwhile, all the Taliban have to do is fly into JFK, take an Uber to 33 Liberty Street, and ask to be taken down to the basement to see all the bars of gold. And even in Biden’s America and De Blasio’s New York City, they might have trouble walking away with over a billion in gold bars.
Not unless they trade their camos and kameezes for Black Lives Matter t-shirts.
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration last week canceled bulk shipments of dollars headed for Afghanistan as Taliban fighters were poised to take control of the capital city of Kabul, part of a continuing scramble to keep hundreds of millions of dollars out of the hands of the terrorist group, according to people familiar with the matter.
WASHINGTON — More than 200 retired generals and admirals endorsed Joe Biden for president in a letter published Thursday, saying he had the character and judgment to serve as commander-in-chief instead of President Donald Trump, who has failed "to meet challenges large or small."
Some of the officers who signed the letter supporting Biden had retired only in the past few years, including Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump before he retired in August 2019; Vice Adm. Gardner Howe, a Navy SEAL leader who also retired last year; and retired Adm. Paul Zukunft, who oversaw the Coast Guard until 2018.
The list of signatories featured 22 retired four-star military officers, among them Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, who oversaw all U.S. forces in the Pacific from 2012 to 2015, and Adm. Harry Ulrich, who commanded U.S. naval forces in Europe during President George W. Bush's administration.
2020 ELECTION More than 200 retired generals, admirals endorse Biden, including some who served under Trump "Our allies no longer trust or respect us, and our enemies no longer fear us," the former officers and officials wrote in a letter released Thursday. Donald Trump,Mark Esper,Paul Selva,Mike Pence Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, now retired, right, stands with President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Vice President Mike Pence during a welcoming ceremony for Esper at the Pentagon on July 25, 2019. Selva was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time. Alex Brandon / AP file Sept. 24, 2020, 5:30 AM EDT By Courtney Kube and Dan De Luce WASHINGTON — More than 200 retired generals and admirals endorsed Joe Biden for president in a letter published Thursday, saying he had the character and judgment to serve as commander-in-chief instead of President Donald Trump, who has failed "to meet challenges large or small."
Some of the officers who signed the letter supporting Biden had retired only in the past few years, including Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump before he retired in August 2019; Vice Adm. Gardner Howe, a Navy SEAL leader who also retired last year; and retired Adm. Paul Zukunft, who oversaw the Coast Guard until 2018.
Click here to read the letter
The list of signatories featured 22 retired four-star military officers, among them Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, who oversaw all U.S. forces in the Pacific from 2012 to 2015, and Adm. Harry Ulrich, who commanded U.S. naval forces in Europe during President George W. Bush's administration.
IMAGE: Adm. Samuel Locklear at the Pentagon in 2014 Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, now retired, speaks at the Pentagon in 2014.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images file The retired top brass signed the letter backing Biden along with nearly 300 other former national security officials and diplomats. William Webster, the former director of the CIA and the FBI, was among the signatories, along with five former defense secretaries: William Perry, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta and Ash Carter.
"My own personal view is that I have a duty to be involved in civic matters of the nation that I'm a citizen" of, retired Adm. Steve Abbot said of his decision to sign the letter.
[...]
In August, more than 70 former senior national security officials — most of them Republicans who worked in previous GOP administrations — issued a similar letter throwing their support behind Biden, arguing that Trump had undermined America's role in the world. In the 2016 election, dozens of former Republican senior national security officials came out against Trump and became known as "Never Trump" Republicans. Many were blacklisted for jobs in the Trump administration for having signed the letters.
Trump Doubles Down on Claim He Destroyed ISIS August 27, 2021 at 8:07 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment
Despite a deadly terrorist attack by ISIS in Afghanistan yesterday, former President Donald Trump claimed in a Fox News interview that he “knocked out 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate” but that a “new ISIS” has formed: “ISIS-X.”
He added: “That’s the new ISIS-X, where they broke away — or ISIS-K. They’ll have an ISIS-X pretty soon, which is gonna be worse than ISIS-K.”
Quote of the Day August 27, 2021 at 7:57 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 3 Comments “We’re probably going to have to go back in when al-Qaeda resurrects itself, as they will with this Taliban.” — Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, telling CNN the U.S. the war on terrorism will continue to be based In Afghanistan.
Breyer Struggling with Retirement Decision August 27, 2021 at 7:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 26 Comments
Adam Liptak: “Justice Stephen G. Breyer says he is struggling to decide when to retire from the Supreme Court and is taking account of a host of factors, including who will name his successor.”
Breyer recalled what Justice Antonin Scalia had told him: “He said, ‘I don’t want somebody appointed who will just reverse everything I’ve done for the last 25 years.’”
What’s Fueling the Red State-Blue State Covid Gap August 27, 2021 at 7:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 20 Comments
Philip Bump: “What we can say is that on every metric except deaths, the gap between blue and red states on population-adjusted measures is wider now than it has been at any prior point in the pandemic.”
“What the above graphs also show is how deadly the virus was when it first emerged, slamming states in the vicinity of New York City in particular. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about treatment and developed new medicines, vaccines and techniques for treating the virus and slowing its spread.”
“The problem is that not all of those lessons are being heeded.”
Tax Debate Will Make or Break Biden’s Agenda August 27, 2021 at 7:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments
Bloomberg: “Moderate and progressive Democrats are on a collision course over how to pay for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, a disagreement that has the potential to stall the legislation or sink it entirely.”
“Moderates want a smaller overall package of tax increases and are hesitating on some of Biden’s plans. Progressives view a total rewrite of the tax code as a moral imperative in order to fund social programs and climate measures as well as address a widening wealth gap.”
Said House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA): “Sometimes in congressional life people want their dessert without having their vegetables. That generally doesn’t work with revenue.”
Finger Pointing In the White House August 27, 2021 at 6:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments
David Ignatius: “The catastrophe in Kabul has spawned some finger-pointing and second-guessing in what has been a congenial Biden administration. To some White House officials, the military followed Biden’s order to withdraw troops all too quickly, with its commander and most forces gone by early July.”
“The Pentagon counters that the timetable was explicitly endorsed by the White House. Officials across the government complain that the State Department failed to reduce staffing at the embassy soon enough or to prepare visa paperwork for the thousands of Afghan civilians who would need to be evacuated if Kabul fell. And while the CIA warned that the Afghan government was shaky, even pessimists thought it might not fall until October or November.”
“Biden sought to calm that discord Thursday with an embrace of a military that is grieving. But rest assured: When the histories are written, there will be enough blame for all to share. For today, too much sorrow.”
Biden Faces a Tragedy He Pledged to Avoid August 27, 2021 at 6:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 44 Comments
New York Times: “America’s tumultuous exit from Afghanistan has dragged down Mr. Biden’s approval ratings, and the bombings on Thursday surely will open him up to political criticism. But it was unclear what the damage would be to his presidency in the long term, as he exits a war that most Americans want out of as well.”
“Before the attacks, the president’s aides said privately that they did not believe there would be long-term political damage to Mr. Biden, especially as the military successfully evacuated more than 100,000 people in less than two weeks. But the deaths of American service members — and scores of Afghans — could scramble those calculations.”
Washington Post: “Thursday’s carnage, which also killed dozens of Afghan civilians, further isolated Biden from global and domestic allies, many of whom have been critical of the speed of the withdrawal and of the president’s sticking to an Aug. 31 deadline that many of them regard as artificial.”
Evacuation Flights Resume from Kabul August 27, 2021 at 6:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 31 Comments
Associated Press: “Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover and killed more than 100. The U.S. says further attempted attacks are expected ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.”
“As the call to prayer echoed through Kabul with the whine of departing planes, the anxious crowd outside the airport was as large as ever. In one location, dozens of Taliban members with heavy weapons about 500 meters from the airport were preventing anyone from venturing forward.”
Axios: “Most NATO allies have now ended their evacuation operations, including for their own civilians. Those already inside the airport are being flown out, but the gates are closed and Americans and Afghans alike have been urged to stay away.”
While Milley and Austin were standing around jerking each other off, this happened:
With the Taliban growing more violent and adding checkpoints near Kabul's airport, an all-volunteer group of American veterans of the Afghan war launched a final daring mission on Wednesday night dubbed the "Pineapple Express" to shepherd hundreds of at-risk Afghan elite forces and their families to safety, members of the group told ABC News.
Moving after nightfall in near-pitch black darkness and extremely dangerous conditions, the group said it worked unofficially in tandem with the United States military and U.S. embassy to move people, sometimes one person at a time, or in pairs, but rarely more than a small bunch, inside the wire of the U.S. military-controlled side of Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Not one of the "Republican hawks" has called for the re-invasion of Afghanistan. For Senator Graham of South Carolina the inflate his call to re-open Bagram air base to facilitate the evacuation as an invasion.
The rest of them were harshly critical of Joe Biden's feckless decision to bug out.
This is flat out irresponsible journalism and political hackery posing as journalism.
Despite a deadly terrorist attack by ISIS in Afghanistan yesterday, former President Donald Trump claimed in a Fox News interview that he “knocked out 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate” but that a “new ISIS” has formed: “ISIS-X.”
Well gee... why is the Reverend peddling lies?
The new ISIS-K is actually a splinter group that separated from the Taliban and did so fairly recently. Stating this is not a lie, but a fact. The only thing that made this an "ISIS" attack was that different people using a similar name (ISIS-K) attacked Kabul.
The fact that former Taliban are calling themselves ISIS-K does not do anything to show that the original ISIS is still around and well in Afghanistan.
But... then again. Some people are not that bright and easy to lie to. Simple semantics like this can sway their thinking, especially in times of emotional crisis.
Hard to take, Reverend.
But Biden is a disaster and based on what I read from liberals there is not a one of them interested in fixing any of the "real" problems in Afghanistan or actually holding anyone accountable. They are "only" interested in moving the narrative and the politics of the situation.
The question you have to ask yourself. Is Biden and his advisors coming up with a plan to same Americans in Afghanistan or a plan to save his Presidency from a political standpoint?
Aug 24 (Reuters) - The Biden administration said on Tuesday it would take steps to restart the federal oil and gas leasing program in the next week and plans to hold a Gulf of Mexico auction as soon as October, court papers showed.
The move comes two months after the U.S Interior Department first said it would comply with a June 15 federal judge's order blocking its months-long pause in oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters.
That order was a blow to a key White House effort to address climate change by reining in fossil fuel extraction.
U.S. President Joe Biden paused the oil and gas leasing program in January, pending an analysis of its impacts on the environment and value to taxpayers. Interior said in a statement that it is still conducting that review.
Ch aka Scott, who is famous for his pretzeling thread comments, accused our President of pretzeling in his speech yesterday.
No.
All you have to do is watch the video and see how a President of the United States SHOULD respond to this sort of disaster.
It is a disaster long in the making, and historians will find plenty of people to blame.
But Biden spoke fittingly and convincingly, not with the blustering self promotion of his successor, but as a man we can trust to take the measures now called for.
THE PRESIDENT: Been a tough day. This evening in Kabul, as you all know, terrorists attacked — that we’ve been talking about and worried about, that the intelligence community has assessed has [was] undertaken — an attack — by a group known as ISIS-K — took the lives of American service members standing guard at the airport, and wounded several others seriously. They also wounded a number of civilians, and civilians were killed as well.
I’ve been engaged all day and in constant contact with the military commanders here in Washington, the Pentagon, as well as in Afghanistan and Doha. And my commanders here in Washington and in the field have been on this with great detail, and you’ve had a chance to speak to some, so far.
The situation on the ground is still evolving, and I’m constantly being updated.
These American service members who gave their lives — it’s an overused word, but it’s totally appropriate — they were heroes. Heroes who have been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.
They were part of an airlift, an evacuation effort unlike any seen in history, with more than 100,000 American citizens, American partners, Afghans who helped us, and others taken to safety in the last 11 days. Just in the last 12 hours or so, another 7,000 have gotten out.
They were part of the bravest, most capable, and the most selfless military on the face of the Earth. And they were part of, simply, what I call the “backbone of America.” They’re the spine of America, the best the country has to offer.
Jill and I — our hearts ache, like I’m sure all of you do as well, for all those Afghan families who have lost loved ones, including small children, or been wounded in this vicious attack. And we’re outraged as well as heartbroken.
We have some sense, like many of you do, what the families of these brave heroes are feeling today. You get this feeling like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest; there’s no way out. My heart aches for you.
But I know this: We have a continuing obligation, a sacred obligation to all of you — the families of those heroes. That obligation is not temporary; it lasts forever.
The lives we lost today were lives given in the service of liberty, the service of security, in the service of others, in the service of America. They aren't suckers or losers.
Like their fellow brothers and sisters in arms who died defending our vision and our values in the struggle against terrorism of — the fallen this day, they’re part of a great and noble company of American heroes.
To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.
Over the past few weeks — I know you’re — many of you are probably tired of hearing me say it — we’ve been made aware by our intelligence community that the ISIS-K — an arch-enemy of the Taliban; people who were freed when both those prisons were opened — has been planning a complex set of attacks on the United States personnel and others.
This is why, from the outset, I’ve repeatedly said this mission was extraordinarily dangerous and why I have been so determined to limit the duration of this mission.
And as General McKenzie said, this is why our mission was designed — this is the way it was designed to operate: operate under severe stress and attack. We’ve known that from the beginning.
And as I’ve been in constant contact with our senior military leaders — and I mean constant, around the clock — and our commanders on the ground and throughout the day, they made it clear that we can and we must complete this mission, and we will. And that’s what I’ve ordered them to do.
I’ve also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership, and facilities. We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose, and the moment of our choosing.
Here is what you need to know: These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans who are there. We will get out our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on.
We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation.
As Rat takes another up his ass!!!!!!!! BWAAAAAAPAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! When did Trump get his bone spurs note?????? The ultimate chickenshit that we all knew at the time were nothing but rich frauds!!!!!!!
All you have to do is watch the video and see how a President of the United States SHOULD respond to this sort of disaster.
Reverend...
With all due respect the speech was a flop by all accounts and he even made the mistake of telling Americans that as President he is being "instructed" as to which media members to call on.
But if you really want to see how this particular President has handled this crisis... you don't watch a speech.
You watch the news of 13 dead American soldiers and at least a 100 civilians. You look at the video of the bombs going off. You look at the pictures of the dead and injured.
That, Reverend is what this President is responsible for.
His speech? Who the fuck cares about a speech. If it was your wife dead because of this President absolute incompetence I hope to got you love her enough not to have been appeased by a half assed teleprompter fucking speech.
But thanks for proving that you can miss the point no matter what.
Reality: Over a hundred people are dead (including 13 dead American soldiers) in a terrorist attack made possible because of possibly the most completely botched military withdrawal in American history.
The Reverend: Well that's okay. The President gave a 30 minute speech so everything is good.
But it did bring focus and understanding and even solace to many who needed it.
It did nothing of the sort. It was a word salad of gibberish culminating in Sloppy Joe blaming Trump, and then telling us all he has to be instructed on which sycophantic reporter to call on.
Solace? Everyone I've spoken to about this is harboring a white-hot rage towards this buffoon.
Trump was impeached for a fucking phone call while this imbecile has caused the most colossal foreign policy/military blunder in the history of the republic.
The speech did not make "everything good." But it did bring focus and understanding and even solace to many who needed it.
No Reverend.
When Americans die, President's speak. They get ZERO credit for doing what is expected of them. Perhaps if the speech is good or even reasonable someone might take comfort it it.
But there was not a single apology involved to those who died. Not a single time where the President acted as if he understood that this was in any way his fault. Only a guy standing up there with almost no real energy telling everyone that he has done nothing wrong and while ultimately the buck stops with him, that doesn't mean it's his fault. He passed the buck, praised himself, and demanded that everything is going fine and that they are making no changes to anything.
As an American who cares about the lives of service men and women, I took no comfort in that speech. It only exposed our President as a feeble old man who was "INSTRUCTED" by someone as to whom he should call on from the press as if he is a child who cannot think for himself. Which by the way, he proved, when he struggled to answer what appeared to be the only unscripted question he took.
I suppose you believe that after that glorious "I have a dream" caliber speech by Biden that everyone will forget that dead Marines and dead civilians and Biden's approvals will skyrocket back into the mid 50s again.
54 comments:
What should've been an easy 9-0 turns out to be 6-3. Unbelievable.
(CNN)The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration's Covid-related eviction moratorium.
Read the ruling and dissent here:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/26/politics/supreme-court-ruling-biden-eviction/index.html
The Biden administration's handling of our military's withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a messaging disaster. There was a lack of clarity from the White House communications shop, a lack of transparency from the State Department and Department of Defense (DOD) and, most importantly, the appearance of unpreparedness from the president of the United States.
Thankfully, the administration appears to have turned a corner. Over 70,000 Americans and Afghan allies have been evacuated from Kabul, a number that seemed impossible when the capital of Afghanistan initially fell. This has still not inoculated President Biden from criticism. Initially, the administration appeared flatfooted and unable to adjust to the realities on the ground, and that criticism has come from both Republicans and Democrats alike.
As Biden's poll numbers indicate, his handling of Afghanistan has been the lowest point polling-wise in his presidency. Fair or not, the president has been held accountable for the quagmire we currently find ourselves in. The Bush administration made the decision to invade Afghanistan after the attacks on 9/11, but it will be the Biden administration that, for better or worse, will be remembered for leaving Afghanistan. Withdrawing from Afghanistan was never going to be an easy task; that's partly why previous administrations have only committed to drawing down troops, not ending our engagement in a 20-year war. But Biden has a unique perspective that no other president in modern history can share - he was the father of a son who served in a combat zone, Iraq. And while I may disagree with the lack of cohesive message surrounding the initial fall of Kabul and the administration's frustratingly slow explanation for the path forward, it's increasingly difficult to criticize the response a week out. What looked to be a political and humanitarian disaster has increasingly been an opportunity for the Biden administration to rise to the occasion and course correct.
It's not as if this administration has a history of mismanagement or blatant incompetence - the opposite is true. Whether you voted for or even like Biden, it's hard to argue with the results of the first seven months of his administration. On the president's first day in office, a little over 2 million Americans were fully vaccinated and a little over 15 million had received one dose of the vaccination. As we head into the end of August, over 171 million Americans are fully vaccinated and over 200 million Americans have at least one dose of the vaccine. That's nothing short of a miracle. But for the irresponsible messaging emanating from right-wing media and governors looking to run for president, we could have seen actual herd immunity.
Combine the Biden administration's COVID-19 response with their handling of the economy, and Afghanistan begins to look like an outlier, not at all the norm. According to recent reports, the U.S. economy grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter. That rate of growth outpaces almost all presidents in modern history. As much as Republicans have attempted to criticize and delegitimize Biden's handling of the economy, policies like The American Recovery Act have infused the economy with much-needed aid and created new jobs in major industries like hospitality. Passing an infrastructure bill will only help to boost what had been a lagging economy as a result of the previous administration's failure to adequately implement "infrastructure week" or acknowledge the reality of the nation's COVID-19 crisis. The same cannot be said about the Biden administration's response to COVID-19 or the economy.
Show your plagiarism, drunkard:
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/569573-bidens-stumble-on-afghanistan-shouldnt-overshadow-what-hes-accomplished
BY MYCHAEL SCHNELL4,719TWEET SHARE MORE
The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol spoke out for the first time on Thursday, contending that he “saved countless lives” when protecting lawmakers against the violent rioters.
The officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, was publicly identified for the first time since the incident during an interview on “NBC Nightly News,” which aired Thursday evening.
ADVERTISING
Byrd said he does not doubt that he made the right decision while protecting the Capitol during the deadly riot, telling host Lester Holt, “I know that day I saved countless lives.”
“I know members of Congress, as well as my fellow officers and staff, were in jeopardy and in serious danger. And that’s my job,” he added.
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and a supporter of former President Trump, was one of five people who died as a result of the Jan. 6 riot, when a violent, pro-Trump mob descended on the Capitol complex in an attempt to delay the certification of the Electoral College vote for the 2020 presidential election.
Babbitt was shot when she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby, located just off the House floor. A group of people crashed through a window in the gallery, which Babbitt then attempted to climb through.
Byrd fired one shot, hitting Babbitt in the left shoulder.
The officer is speaking out publicly for the first time after the Capitol Police released a statement on Monday which said that Byrd’s “conduct was lawful and within Department policy, contending that officers are permitted to use deadly force “only when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury.”
Byrd, as a result, will not face any disciplinary action.
That statement did not identify Byrd by name.
Byrd, during the interview, discussed in detail the moments leading up to when he fired at Babbitt, telling Holt: “I tried to wait as long as I could.”
He said he “hoped and prayed” that nobody would try to enter the doors he was guarding, but their “failure to comply required” him to “take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.”
Byrd at one point during the riots was inside the House chamber, where a number of lawmakers were seeking cover. He told Holt that he gave one critical instruction to the members on the floor: to remove their congressional pins so they would blend in.
“One of the things that was imperative was to inform the members to remove their pins to allow them to blend in,” Byrd said. “To remove their jackets, to look like staff as much as possible.”
Byrd soon after rushed out of the chamber and, along with a few other officers, created a makeshift barricade with furniture. He said it was at that point, when “the chants got louder,” that he knew the mob was approaching.
“At that point is when I realized they’re here,” Byrd said. “The chants got louder. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it sounded like hundreds of people outside of that door.”
Trump claimed in July that the officer who shot Babbitt, now identified as Byrd, had “no reason” to shoot her.
When Holt asked Byrd about the political implications that followed his decision to use his weapon on Jan. 6, the officer rejected the notion among some that he had a political agenda.
“I do my job for Republican, for Democrat, for white, for Black, red, blue, green,” he said. “I don’t care about your affiliation.”
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/569648-capitol-police-officer-who-shot-ashli-babbit-says-he-saved-lives-on
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/569573-bidens-stumble-on-afghanistan-shouldnt-overshadow-what-hes-accomplished
GOP Hawks Rage: We Want Our Forever War Back
'WAR DOGS ARE HUNGRY’
Justin Baragona
Sam Brodey
Asawin Suebsaeng
Updated Aug. 27, 2021 3:29AM ET Published Aug. 26, 2021 9:45PM ET
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty
Republican lawmakers, former officials in Donald Trump’s administration, and conservative commentators are reacting to Thursday’s horrific Kabul attack by not only condemning the Biden administration—they’re also calling for a re-invasion of Afghanistan.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), long an Afghanistan war hawk who recently called on President Joe Biden to be “impeached” for the withdrawal, demanded on Twitter that the administration “reestablish our presence in Bagram as an alternative to the Kabul airport, saying it was a “problem of will” that it hadn’t been done yet.
______
Do you really think that we should reinvade Afghanistan?
And the alky-lanche of spam begins.
In other news, the liberal scumbags at 'Vice' tweeted this yesterday and for reasons no one knows, deleted the tweet:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E9vz3FFWYAchkz4?format=jpg&name=900x900
While many vets are being outed as far-right extremists, one branch keeps popping up when it comes to neo-Nazis: The United States Marine Corps.
Combine the Biden administration's COVID-19 response with their handling of the economy, and Afghanistan begins to look like an outlier, not at all the norm. According to recent reports, the U.S. economy grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter. That rate of growth outpaces almost all presidents in modern history.
As of September 1st the news coverage will be about the economy, as we end a 20 year old war.
Byrd is what you get when law enforcement adopts affirmative action hiring policies and hires a certain percentage of morons to fill a racial diversity quota.
This dumb fuck couldn't even manage to take a shit without fucking it up and leaving his service weapon in a public restroom.
And he has the unmitigated gall to portray himself as the victim.
I sincerely hope he falls prey to the very worst humanity has to offer.
And it was not surprising to see MSDNC celebrate this murderer. MSDNC loves murderers who focus on shooting and killing republicans.
See: Hodgkinson, James. Maddow fan and Bernie-bro.
Clueless 'woke' fuckstick Milley Vanilli:
"Bagram is not necessary, tactically or operationally for what we are going to try to do here with Afghanistan".
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1431026724465258500
Remember China China China?
It would be much more difficult than in Kabul Afghanistan.
Three Aircraft Carriers. Dozens Of Stealth Fighters. A Powerful Allied Battle Group Has Gathered Near China.
Forbes - 2 days ago
Three aircraft carriers embarking two different models of F-35 stealth fighter have assembled in the waters around Okinawa.
The three-carrier group, with two American flattops and one British one, is among the most powerful naval formations to appear anywhere in many years.
And it’s not hard to understand the timing and location. The Chinese navy in recent weeks has been rehearsing an invasion of Taiwan. The three carriers are a warning—that an attack on the island democracy could have profound consequences.
The three flattops converged from separate directions. HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy’s new conventionally-fueled carrier, along with her British, American and Dutch escorts for several weeks now has been crisscrossing the Western Pacific.
The 919-foot carrier with two squadrons of F-35B jump jets aboard—one from the Royal Air Force and another from the U.S. Marine Corps—departed the United Kingdom for her maiden cruise back in May, sailed through the Mediterranean and across the Indian Ocean to reach the Pacific via the Singapore Strait.
USS America was the first American flattop to join up with Queen Elizabeth. America, an 844-foot amphibious assault ship with a conventional powerplant, functions as a light carrier when she embarks a squadron or two of F-35Bs. She sails from Japan, usually in the company of destroyers and other amphibious ships from the U.S. 7th Fleet.
America and Queen Elizabeth spent last week refueling each other’s F-35s in a so-called “cross-decking” exercise. “This interaction showcased how quickly and seamlessly the U.S. and U.K. can fold together our combined air power and execute highly intricate and sustained flight operations to devastatingly lethal effect,” said Capt. Ken Ward, America’s skipper.
The San Diego-based, nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Carl Vinson, carrying a squadron of catapult-launched F-35Cs, approached America and Queen Elizabeth from the east on Wednesday.
Twitter-user @duandang tracked the 1,092-foot Vinson, not by looking for the carrier herself, but by noting the radio transponder belonging to one of the flattop’s CMV-22B supply tiltrotors.
Together, the three carriers and their escorts possess more firepower than the entire fleets of most countries. The Chinese navy at present deploys just two flattops—both similar to Queen Elizabeth in size and capability.
Queen Elizabeth has 16 F-35Bs aboard. The Japan-based F-35B squadron that embarks on America has 10 jets. It’s not clear how many are aboard America right now. Vinson is the first of the U.S. Navy’s 10 supercarriers to sail with an F-35C squadron, 10 jets strong. The flattop also embarks around three dozen F/A-18E/F fighters and six EA-18G electronic-attack jets.
Add it up. That’s up to 36 F-35s plus another 40 or so F-18s. A three-deck carrier group with nearly 80 fast jets, half of them stealthy. The flattops’ dozen or so escorts and several attached submarines add hundreds of long-range missiles, including potentially scores of land-attack cruise missiles, to the mix.
The F-35 is the most obvious symbol of the group’s destructive potential. “Nothing even comes close!” said Capt. Richard LeBron, commodore of America’s Amphibious Squadron 11. “There is no better aviation platform to support 7th Fleet’s mission to ensure the United States can freely operate wherever and whenever it must, in alignment with international norms, standards, rules and laws.”
Taiwan’s independence is the norm at stake. The Chinese navy this summer has escalated its preparations for a possible assault across the Taiwan Strait. Most alarmingly, the navy has mobilized some of the civilian transport vessels the Chinese military would depend on to carry potentially hundreds of thousands of invading troops.
https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0bcqi5oE?share_id=eyJ1c2VyaWQiOjk5ODEwMTM0LCJkb2NfaWQiOiIwYmNxaTVvRSIsInRpbWVzdGFtcCI6MTYzMDA2MDY3NDQyOX0=&s=a7&pd=06knAsNf&hl=en_US
Resign
Rip those stars off your pathetic nostalgia costumes and resign. Quit. Tell that crusty Pinocchio in the White House and the faculty lounge Geppettos tugging his strings that you will have no more to do with his human centipede of failure in Kabul.
It’s not hard – your stars are right there, generals, right on the shoulders of those new uniforms you decided to adopt with the express purpose of evoking World War II and the memory of victory over a modern, peer-competitor military. Maybe, you thought, wearing winner’s gear would ease the pain of getting creamed by a bunch of Seventh Century throwbacks.
Yeah, we know your boss is a senile old fool with delusions of competence. His failure will be addressed at the ballot box. But your failure, generals and admirals, is something only you can address, at least until President DeSantis comes and separates the wheat from the chaff in the Pentagon.
Yeah, we know, you have to follow the orders of the civilian authorities – though not if it’s Trump, since he was not part of the in-crowd you aspired to join as adjunct military members. Your passive-aggressive mutiny against the guy the American people elected set back civil-military relations 250 years. You took the one institution most Americans still trusted and turned it into a roiling cauldron of hot garbage. And don’t try to hide behind “You gotta support the troops.” We do. But you suck, and we know you suck, and you know you suck.
CARTOONS | CHIP BOK
VIEW CARTOON
If you didn’t suck, you’d have quit. When President Durwood told you to ditch Bagram Air Base, you joint chiefs should have got together, realized this was going to get a bunch of the guys that America entrusted to you killed, and decided to resign. You can’t disobey, but you can take a stand.
Well, you did take a kind of stand. You just stood there. As one sergeant major told me today, the newest second lieutenant would identify this op as a disaster in the making. Now, far be it from me to contradict an E9, but I expect he would agree that even the greenest Girl Scout recruit would ask, “What the unholy hell are you idiots thinking, pulling the military out and giving up our secure airbase before you’ve completed your noncombatant evacuation operation?”
You could have quit. You could have salvaged some shred of honor after your years of total failure, but making a stand would come at the expense of your careers.
Yet it would have worked. A bunch of generals saying “No more?” That would have forced the politicians to do a rethink. But you just saluted, same as the guys who enabled Vietnam – something Army schools used to tell us (before they hired faculties full of pronoun people) we officers needed to do if the time came.
You chose not to.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2021/08/27/resign-n2594830
NEW from @sambrodey, @swin24 and me
GOP hawks and Trumpworld figures are not only condemning President Joe Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal; they're calling for a full-on re-invasion of Afghanistan.
https://t.co/AQZVWnLTPG
Mousoulni is cheering from hell.
GOP hawks and Trumpworld figures are not only condemning President Joe Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal; they're calling for a full-on re-invasion of Afghanistan.
A flat out LIE, but one you have no shame in stooping to in order to save your drooling feckless fucktard.
Mousoulni is cheering from hell.
You mean Mussolini, alky historian live asshole?
LOL.
I'm sure he is. I'm sure there's no shortage of dead tin-horn, crackpot, tyrants cheering Sloppy Joe from the cheap seats. Everything is proceeding exactly as we had predicted, with 100% failure on every front:
Foreign, domestic, energy policy, economic policy resulting in runaway inflation, defense policy delivering a predictable result when you put 'woke' idiots in charge...
Every single bit of where we are today was fully expected and Slow Joe an da Ho did not fail to deliver.
There is one thing of which I am 100%, without a fucking doubt certain of right now:
Every single American, military or civilian, still in Afghanistan wishes Trump was president right now.
Right Wing Bonus Tracks: The Very Deep State
By Kyle Mantyla | August 26, 2021 5:30 pm
The day following the Jan. 6 insurrection, DeAnna Lorraine declared that she “never felt more pride” than she did watching “American patriots” storm the U.S. Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Now Lorraine is claiming that the insurrection was an FBI set-up “to frame Trump supporters and conservatives.”Shane Vaughn assures his followers that former President Donald Trump doesn’t actually support COVID-19 vaccines and just says that he does for political purposes.Dave Hayes thinks that Trump allowed vaccine makers to ignore all safety protocols in order to rush dangerous COVID-19 vaccines to market so pharmaceutical companies would be sued out of existence: “What if this whole thing is a freakin’ set-up to take down Big Pharma?”Josh Bernstein says that the “deep state” includes not only U.S. intelligence agencies, but also the media, every politician, higher education, and even “the sandwich shop owners” in Washington, D.C.
Right-wing activists are demanding that PolitiFact be kicked out of the International Fact-Checking Network, which is dedicated to promoting best practices among fact-checkers.Finally, a little over 60 days ago, Stew Peters warned that if Trump “doesn’t come back within the next 60 days, I believe that we are looking at an extinction-level event.” Have we gone extinct yet?
Every single bit of where we are today was fully expected and Slow Joe an da Ho did not fail to deliver.
Adding misogenist behavior to the Olinski Beaners and Mooslimbs bigotry to the list of the racist rodent bastardized world.
There is one thing of which I am 100%, without a fucking doubt certain of right now:
Every single American, military or civilian, still in Afghanistan wishes Trump was president right now.
https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-afghanistan-re-invasion/
https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-afghanistan-re-invasion/
The Biden administration's handling of our military's withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a messaging disaster.
Messaging disaster???
No a flat out disaster
Jeez
Unlike donnies unmitigated failure on covid and the economy he killed!!!
The buck stops with me, but its not my fault. It's Trump's fault.
This guy is no leader.
Dopey speaks out from his fantasy planet.
Messaging disaster???
No a flat out disaster
Jeez
That's all the alky, or anyone on the left for that matter, cares about.
Messaging, optics, political survival.
Those fucking moose-limb savages could've killed 10,000 servicemen, and all the assholes like alky can think about is how Slow Joe an da Ho survive it politically.
So... Biden and his merry band of asshats were prepared to gift pallets of cash to the Tally-Bon, just like 0linsky did to Iran.:
On August 14, Secretary of State Blinken spoke with Afghanistan’s former president and promised that the Biden administration would provide a bulk shipment of dollars.
The next day Kabul fell.
On that same call, Afghanistan’s former leader had agreed to surrender power to the Taliban.
The Biden administration had effectively agreed to provide a massive infusion of cash to the Taliban. But the final deal fell through, the Afghan government fled, and the Taliban took Kabul.
The bulk shipment of dollars never did arrive.
Biden’s diplomats scrambled to evacuate from Kabul. Ajmal Ahmady, the governor of DAB, Afghanistan's central bank, already had a ticket and headed to the airport. He managed to get on a military plane.
Since then he's tweeted that he was warned that the Taliban had come looking for him.
The Taliban were hoping to get their hands on Afghanistan’s money, but much of it is in the United States. The most tangible part of Afghanistan’s assets, $1.3 billion in gold, is sitting in downtown Manhattan, a little bit south of Ground Zero, in the vaults of the Federal Reserve.
If there were any justice, that money would be used to compensate the police officers, firefighters, and workers who died on that day or later on from ailments related to 9/11.
Meanwhile, all the Taliban have to do is fly into JFK, take an Uber to 33 Liberty Street, and ask to be taken down to the basement to see all the bars of gold. And even in Biden’s America and De Blasio’s New York City, they might have trouble walking away with over a billion in gold bars.
Not unless they trade their camos and kameezes for Black Lives Matter t-shirts.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/biden-tried-send-pallets-cash-taliban-kabul-fell-daniel-greenfield/
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration last week canceled bulk shipments of dollars headed for Afghanistan as Taliban fighters were poised to take control of the capital city of Kabul, part of a continuing scramble to keep hundreds of millions of dollars out of the hands of the terrorist group, according to people familiar with the matter.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-halted-dollar-shipments-to-afghanistan-to-keep-cash-out-of-talibans-hands-11629233621
Evergreen:
WASHINGTON — More than 200 retired generals and admirals endorsed Joe Biden for president in a letter published Thursday, saying he had the character and judgment to serve as commander-in-chief instead of President Donald Trump, who has failed "to meet challenges large or small."
Some of the officers who signed the letter supporting Biden had retired only in the past few years, including Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump before he retired in August 2019; Vice Adm. Gardner Howe, a Navy SEAL leader who also retired last year; and retired Adm. Paul Zukunft, who oversaw the Coast Guard until 2018.
The list of signatories featured 22 retired four-star military officers, among them Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, who oversaw all U.S. forces in the Pacific from 2012 to 2015, and Adm. Harry Ulrich, who commanded U.S. naval forces in Europe during President George W. Bush's administration.
2020 ELECTION
More than 200 retired generals, admirals endorse Biden, including some who served under Trump
"Our allies no longer trust or respect us, and our enemies no longer fear us," the former officers and officials wrote in a letter released Thursday.
Donald Trump,Mark Esper,Paul Selva,Mike Pence
Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, now retired, right, stands with President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Vice President Mike Pence during a welcoming ceremony for Esper at the Pentagon on July 25, 2019. Selva was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time. Alex Brandon / AP file
Sept. 24, 2020, 5:30 AM EDT
By Courtney Kube and Dan De Luce
WASHINGTON — More than 200 retired generals and admirals endorsed Joe Biden for president in a letter published Thursday, saying he had the character and judgment to serve as commander-in-chief instead of President Donald Trump, who has failed "to meet challenges large or small."
Some of the officers who signed the letter supporting Biden had retired only in the past few years, including Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump before he retired in August 2019; Vice Adm. Gardner Howe, a Navy SEAL leader who also retired last year; and retired Adm. Paul Zukunft, who oversaw the Coast Guard until 2018.
Click here to read the letter
The list of signatories featured 22 retired four-star military officers, among them Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, who oversaw all U.S. forces in the Pacific from 2012 to 2015, and Adm. Harry Ulrich, who commanded U.S. naval forces in Europe during President George W. Bush's administration.
IMAGE: Adm. Samuel Locklear at the Pentagon in 2014
Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, now retired, speaks at the Pentagon in 2014.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images file
The retired top brass signed the letter backing Biden along with nearly 300 other former national security officials and diplomats. William Webster, the former director of the CIA and the FBI, was among the signatories, along with five former defense secretaries: William Perry, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta and Ash Carter.
"My own personal view is that I have a duty to be involved in civic matters of the nation that I'm a citizen" of, retired Adm. Steve Abbot said of his decision to sign the letter.
[...]
In August, more than 70 former senior national security officials — most of them Republicans who worked in previous GOP administrations — issued a similar letter throwing their support behind Biden, arguing that Trump had undermined America's role in the world. In the 2016 election, dozens of former Republican senior national security officials came out against Trump and became known as "Never Trump" Republicans. Many were blacklisted for jobs in the Trump administration for having signed the letters.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/more-200-retired-generals-admirals-endorse-biden-including-some-who-n1240842
"Ladies and gentlemen, they gave me a list here, the first person I was instructed to call on was Kelly O'Donnell."
He can't even wipe his own ass.
Trump Doubles Down on Claim He Destroyed ISIS
August 27, 2021 at 8:07 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment
Despite a deadly terrorist attack by ISIS in Afghanistan yesterday, former President Donald Trump claimed in a Fox News interview that he “knocked out 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate” but that a “new ISIS” has formed: “ISIS-X.”
He added: “That’s the new ISIS-X, where they broke away — or ISIS-K. They’ll have an ISIS-X pretty soon, which is gonna be worse than ISIS-K.”
Quote of the Day
August 27, 2021 at 7:57 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 3 Comments
“We’re probably going to have to go back in when al-Qaeda resurrects itself, as they will with this Taliban.”
— Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, telling CNN the U.S. the war on terrorism will continue to be based In Afghanistan.
Breyer Struggling with Retirement Decision
August 27, 2021 at 7:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 26 Comments
Adam Liptak: “Justice Stephen G. Breyer says he is struggling to decide when to retire from the Supreme Court and is taking account of a host of factors, including who will name his successor.”
Breyer recalled what Justice Antonin Scalia had told him: “He said, ‘I don’t want somebody appointed who will just reverse everything I’ve done for the last 25 years.’”
What’s Fueling the Red State-Blue State Covid Gap
August 27, 2021 at 7:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 20 Comments
Philip Bump: “What we can say is that on every metric except deaths, the gap between blue and red states on population-adjusted measures is wider now than it has been at any prior point in the pandemic.”
“What the above graphs also show is how deadly the virus was when it first emerged, slamming states in the vicinity of New York City in particular. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about treatment and developed new medicines, vaccines and techniques for treating the virus and slowing its spread.”
“The problem is that not all of those lessons are being heeded.”
Tax Debate Will Make or Break Biden’s Agenda
August 27, 2021 at 7:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments
Bloomberg: “Moderate and progressive Democrats are on a collision course over how to pay for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, a disagreement that has the potential to stall the legislation or sink it entirely.”
“Moderates want a smaller overall package of tax increases and are hesitating on some of Biden’s plans. Progressives view a total rewrite of the tax code as a moral imperative in order to fund social programs and climate measures as well as address a widening wealth gap.”
Said House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA): “Sometimes in congressional life people want their dessert without having their vegetables. That generally doesn’t work with revenue.”
Finger Pointing In the White House
August 27, 2021 at 6:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments
David Ignatius: “The catastrophe in Kabul has spawned some finger-pointing and second-guessing in what has been a congenial Biden administration. To some White House officials, the military followed Biden’s order to withdraw troops all too quickly, with its commander and most forces gone by early July.”
“The Pentagon counters that the timetable was explicitly endorsed by the White House. Officials across the government complain that the State Department failed to reduce staffing at the embassy soon enough or to prepare visa paperwork for the thousands of Afghan civilians who would need to be evacuated if Kabul fell. And while the CIA warned that the Afghan government was shaky, even pessimists thought it might not fall until October or November.”
“Biden sought to calm that discord Thursday with an embrace of a military that is grieving. But rest assured: When the histories are written, there will be enough blame for all to share. For today, too much sorrow.”
Biden Faces a Tragedy He Pledged to Avoid
August 27, 2021 at 6:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 44 Comments
New York Times: “America’s tumultuous exit from Afghanistan has dragged down Mr. Biden’s approval ratings, and the bombings on Thursday surely will open him up to political criticism. But it was unclear what the damage would be to his presidency in the long term, as he exits a war that most Americans want out of as well.”
“Before the attacks, the president’s aides said privately that they did not believe there would be long-term political damage to Mr. Biden, especially as the military successfully evacuated more than 100,000 people in less than two weeks. But the deaths of American service members — and scores of Afghans — could scramble those calculations.”
Washington Post: “Thursday’s carnage, which also killed dozens of Afghan civilians, further isolated Biden from global and domestic allies, many of whom have been critical of the speed of the withdrawal and of the president’s sticking to an Aug. 31 deadline that many of them regard as artificial.”
Evacuation Flights Resume from Kabul
August 27, 2021 at 6:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 31 Comments
Associated Press: “Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover and killed more than 100. The U.S. says further attempted attacks are expected ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.”
“As the call to prayer echoed through Kabul with the whine of departing planes, the anxious crowd outside the airport was as large as ever. In one location, dozens of Taliban members with heavy weapons about 500 meters from the airport were preventing anyone from venturing forward.”
Axios: “Most NATO allies have now ended their evacuation operations, including for their own civilians. Those already inside the airport are being flown out, but the gates are closed and Americans and Afghans alike have been urged to stay away.”
While Milley and Austin were standing around jerking each other off, this happened:
With the Taliban growing more violent and adding checkpoints near Kabul's airport, an all-volunteer group of American veterans of the Afghan war launched a final daring mission on Wednesday night dubbed the "Pineapple Express" to shepherd hundreds of at-risk Afghan elite forces and their families to safety, members of the group told ABC News.
Moving after nightfall in near-pitch black darkness and extremely dangerous conditions, the group said it worked unofficially in tandem with the United States military and U.S. embassy to move people, sometimes one person at a time, or in pairs, but rarely more than a small bunch, inside the wire of the U.S. military-controlled side of Hamid Karzai International Airport.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/us-special-operations-vets-carry-090023869.html
Republican hawks are 'calling for a re-invasion of Afghanistan': report
Not one of the "Republican hawks" has called for the re-invasion of Afghanistan. For Senator Graham of South Carolina the inflate his call to re-open Bagram air base to facilitate the evacuation as an invasion.
The rest of them were harshly critical of Joe Biden's feckless decision to bug out.
This is flat out irresponsible journalism and political hackery posing as journalism.
FAILURE:
https://media.breitbart.com/media/2021/08/Joe-Biden-hand-wringing-Getty-640x480.jpg
This is flat out irresponsible journalism and political hackery posing as journalism.
Otherwise known as The Daily Beast
Despite a deadly terrorist attack by ISIS in Afghanistan yesterday, former President Donald Trump claimed in a Fox News interview that he “knocked out 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate” but that a “new ISIS” has formed: “ISIS-X.”
Well gee... why is the Reverend peddling lies?
The new ISIS-K is actually a splinter group that separated from the Taliban and did so fairly recently. Stating this is not a lie, but a fact. The only thing that made this an "ISIS" attack was that different people using a similar name (ISIS-K) attacked Kabul.
The fact that former Taliban are calling themselves ISIS-K does not do anything to show that the original ISIS is still around and well in Afghanistan.
But... then again. Some people are not that bright and easy to lie to. Simple semantics like this can sway their thinking, especially in times of emotional crisis.
Hard to take, Reverend.
But Biden is a disaster and based on what I read from liberals there is not a one of them interested in fixing any of the "real" problems in Afghanistan or actually holding anyone accountable. They are "only" interested in moving the narrative and the politics of the situation.
The question you have to ask yourself. Is Biden and his advisors coming up with a plan to same Americans in Afghanistan or a plan to save his Presidency from a political standpoint?
Aug 24 (Reuters) - The Biden administration said on Tuesday it would take steps to restart the federal oil and gas leasing program in the next week and plans to hold a Gulf of Mexico auction as soon as October, court papers showed.
The move comes two months after the U.S Interior Department first said it would comply with a June 15 federal judge's order blocking its months-long pause in oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters.
That order was a blow to a key White House effort to address climate change by reining in fossil fuel extraction.
U.S. President Joe Biden paused the oil and gas leasing program in January, pending an analysis of its impacts on the environment and value to taxpayers. Interior said in a statement that it is still conducting that review.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-says-taking-steps-restart-oil-gas-leasing-2021-08-25/
Ch aka Scott, who is famous for his pretzeling thread comments, accused our President of pretzeling in his speech yesterday.
No.
All you have to do is watch the video and see how a President of the United States SHOULD respond to this sort of disaster.
It is a disaster long in the making, and historians will find plenty of people to blame.
But Biden spoke fittingly and convincingly, not with the blustering self promotion of his successor, but as a man we can trust to take the measures now called for.
THE PRESIDENT: Been a tough day. This evening in Kabul, as you all know, terrorists attacked — that we’ve been talking about and worried about, that the intelligence community has assessed has [was] undertaken — an attack — by a group known as ISIS-K — took the lives of American service members standing guard at the airport, and wounded several others seriously. They also wounded a number of civilians, and civilians were killed as well.
I’ve been engaged all day and in constant contact with the military commanders here in Washington, the Pentagon, as well as in Afghanistan and Doha. And my commanders here in Washington and in the field have been on this with great detail, and you’ve had a chance to speak to some, so far.
The situation on the ground is still evolving, and I’m constantly being updated.
These American service members who gave their lives — it’s an overused word, but it’s totally appropriate — they were heroes. Heroes who have been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.
They were part of an airlift, an evacuation effort unlike any seen in history, with more than 100,000 American citizens, American partners, Afghans who helped us, and others taken to safety in the last 11 days. Just in the last 12 hours or so, another 7,000 have gotten out.
They were part of the bravest, most capable, and the most selfless military on the face of the Earth. And they were part of, simply, what I call the “backbone of America.” They’re the spine of America, the best the country has to offer.
Jill and I — our hearts ache, like I’m sure all of you do as well, for all those Afghan families who have lost loved ones, including small children, or been wounded in this vicious attack. And we’re outraged as well as heartbroken.
We have some sense, like many of you do, what the families of these brave heroes are feeling today. You get this feeling like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest; there’s no way out. My heart aches for you.
But I know this: We have a continuing obligation, a sacred obligation to all of you — the families of those heroes. That obligation is not temporary; it lasts forever.
The lives we lost today were lives given in the service of liberty, the service of security, in the service of others, in the service of America. They aren't suckers or losers.
Like their fellow brothers and sisters in arms who died defending our vision and our values in the struggle against terrorism of — the fallen this day, they’re part of a great and noble company of American heroes.
To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.
Over the past few weeks — I know you’re — many of you are probably tired of hearing me say it — we’ve been made aware by our intelligence community that the ISIS-K — an arch-enemy of the Taliban; people who were freed when both those prisons were opened — has been planning a complex set of attacks on the United States personnel and others.
This is why, from the outset, I’ve repeatedly said this mission was extraordinarily dangerous and why I have been so determined to limit the duration of this mission.
And as General McKenzie said, this is why our mission was designed — this is the way it was designed to operate: operate under severe stress and attack. We’ve known that from the beginning.
And as I’ve been in constant contact with our senior military leaders — and I mean constant, around the clock — and our commanders on the ground and throughout the day, they made it clear that we can and we must complete this mission, and we will. And that’s what I’ve ordered them to do.
I’ve also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership, and facilities. We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose, and the moment of our choosing.
Here is what you need to know: These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans who are there. We will get out our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on.
We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation.
America will not be intimidated.
America will not be intimidated.
As we surrender and retreat.
LOL.
The Dead Soilders are mearly a "messaging problem" so said Roger.
Can James, Roger and Denny be on thier best behavior today?.
As Rat takes another up his ass!!!!!!!! BWAAAAAAPAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! When did Trump get his bone spurs note?????? The ultimate chickenshit that we all knew at the time were nothing but rich frauds!!!!!!!
All you have to do is watch the video and see how a President of the United States SHOULD respond to this sort of disaster.
Reverend...
With all due respect the speech was a flop by all accounts and he even made the mistake of telling Americans that as President he is being "instructed" as to which media members to call on.
But if you really want to see how this particular President has handled this crisis... you don't watch a speech.
You watch the news of 13 dead American soldiers and at least a 100 civilians. You look at the video of the bombs going off. You look at the pictures of the dead and injured.
That, Reverend is what this President is responsible for.
His speech? Who the fuck cares about a speech. If it was your wife dead because of this President absolute incompetence I hope to got you love her enough not to have been appeased by a half assed teleprompter fucking speech.
But thanks for proving that you can miss the point no matter what.
Thanks for showing us again that you do not understand what American greatness really is.
Reality: Over a hundred people are dead (including 13 dead American soldiers) in a terrorist attack made possible because of possibly the most completely botched military withdrawal in American history.
The Reverend: Well that's okay. The President gave a 30 minute speech so everything is good.
What a fucking brain dead tone deaf idiot!
When Ch has to resort to the f word, it is obvious he is wounded.
The speech did not make "everything good." But it did bring focus and understanding and even solace to many who needed it.
Flags are now at half mast, and they are fluttering in our hearts for heroes who this President would never call suckers and losers.
The speech also fittingly strengthend our resolve.
But it did bring focus and understanding and even solace to many who needed it.
It did nothing of the sort. It was a word salad of gibberish culminating in Sloppy Joe blaming Trump, and then telling us all he has to be instructed on which sycophantic reporter to call on.
Solace? Everyone I've spoken to about this is harboring a white-hot rage towards this buffoon.
Trump was impeached for a fucking phone call while this imbecile has caused the most colossal foreign policy/military blunder in the history of the republic.
The speech did not make "everything good." But it did bring focus and understanding and even solace to many who needed it.
No Reverend.
When Americans die, President's speak. They get ZERO credit for doing what is expected of them. Perhaps if the speech is good or even reasonable someone might take comfort it it.
But there was not a single apology involved to those who died. Not a single time where the President acted as if he understood that this was in any way his fault. Only a guy standing up there with almost no real energy telling everyone that he has done nothing wrong and while ultimately the buck stops with him, that doesn't mean it's his fault. He passed the buck, praised himself, and demanded that everything is going fine and that they are making no changes to anything.
As an American who cares about the lives of service men and women, I took no comfort in that speech. It only exposed our President as a feeble old man who was "INSTRUCTED" by someone as to whom he should call on from the press as if he is a child who cannot think for himself. Which by the way, he proved, when he struggled to answer what appeared to be the only unscripted question he took.
...the most colossal foreign policy/military blunder in the history of the republic.
_________
I thought that was President Cheney's invasion of Iraq.
So Reverend...
I suppose you believe that after that glorious "I have a dream" caliber speech by Biden that everyone will forget that dead Marines and dead civilians and Biden's approvals will skyrocket back into the mid 50s again.
Because, ultimately that is what is important.
Please tell us James.
"JamesNewLeaf August 27, 2021 at 8:14 AM
Thanks for showing us again that you do not understand what American greatness really is"
In your own words make your best intellectual case .
Post a Comment