Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Afghanistan. Show all posts

Friday, March 10, 2023

Stuff that's been in the news since March 6th

 Xi Jinpingpong blamed the US for the first time for his domestic failures, according to the Wall Street Journal. He's a commie reactionary with Chinese characteristics. Not a good sign of what's to come.

Some cracker Republican in Florida wants bloggers to register like lobbyists, and Ron DeSantis finally came out against that, thankfully. A little late, though. Newt beat him to it.

Vivek Ramaswamy says CPAC shook him down for $$$$ in exchange for which they'd see to it he did better in the straw poll. There's no report that Matt Schlapp also asked for a reach-around.

LIBOR surpassed 5% for the first time in 15 years on Monday.

Georgia fired up a nuclear power reactor this week. The country now has 93 operating. 67 were never finished after Three Mile Island. 

A dog and her pups were rescued alive and well from a basement in Turkey more than a month after the Feb 6 earthquake. The death toll is up to 52k.

Thousands of Iranian schoolgirls are being systematically poisoned in Iran. There was a similar incident in Afghanistan during the first Obama administration. Rag-headed heathen bastards.

South Africa is going the way of Rhodesia. 

The UST yield curve aggregate made a new high 4.674% Wednesday v Fed Funds Effective Rate 4.57.

The Obama of Big Oil said peak production from 2019 will never be surpassed.

Pundits who predict inflation won't spiral like the 1970s fail to understand that the price of energy inputs is determinative. Unless energy costs come down big, we're in for it.

Cumulative deaths per million from C-19 in the US are 3,285. In Africa just 181. Follow the science.

The tide is turning on the Wuhan Lab Leak Theory of the origin of C-19 in the press.

Anthony Fauci has authored a paper in CELL which calls for better vaccines than the ones we've got, whether experimental or not. No kidding.

Silicon Valley Bank failed today, the first failure since 2020 when there were four. There was a huge flight to safety. Stocks sold off and longer dated Treasuries rallied 3.45%. The yield curve aggregate plunged 230bp, 3.82%.

Full time employment rose a little in Feb to 49.66% of civilian population. The average last year was 50.1%. 

Monday, November 7, 2022

Meanwhile Joe Biden and the Democrats who cut and ran from Afghanistan fell far short of military recruitment even after cutting goals

 The US Army was 25% short, while all the other branches had to dip into delayed-entry recruits to make their goals for this cycle. 

Active duty military fell to 1.347m in 2020 from 1.388m in 2019.

In 2021 we're down to 1.195m, a year over year decline of 11.3% and 13.9% from 2019.

Look at this fearsome lot. These supposedly still meet US Army standards.

I'm sure our enemies tremble with fear.

 



Sunday, September 18, 2022

Once again, it was the idiot liberal Republican George H. W. Bush who advanced the anti-capitalist Democrat global warming agenda

 . . . the Inflation Reduction Act was signed by President Biden earlier this summer. It had been thirty years and sixty-five days since President George H.W. Bush signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Rio de Janeiro.

Here.

George also spawned the redundant hate crime legislation, huge increases to LEGAL immigration, wheel-chair access at every intersection's crosswalk among other expensive accommodations for the ambulatory handicapped, who in 2016 are fewer than 7% of the population, an unchastened Saddam Hussein, and READ MY LIPS . . . NEW TAXES.

Oh yeah. He also literally spawned the guy who didn't keep America safe on 911 and gave us the expensive nation-building wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the insidious Patriot Act, but don't get me started.

Everything BUSH has been terrible for America, which is saying a lot when everything Democrat always is anyway.  

Monday, August 15, 2022

Biden lied about American citizens left in Afghanistan saying only 100 remained after the pullout when over 800 have been rescued in the interim

 Republican efforts in Congress are responsible for the new information coming to light.

It is unclear how many American citizens still remain in Afghanistan.

Nor is anything said about the fate of tens of thousands of Afghan friends of the US who never made it out despite American promises to bring them here.

600 legal permanent residents of the US have also been rescued.

Story.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Hi, I'm president Joe Biden and the buck stops with COVID-19, Vladimir Putin, and high fuel costs, not with me

 Joe just wants you to forget that his anti-fossil fuel policies pushed gasoline from $2.09 to $3.44 in one year from his election, that he did nothing to dampen the NATO connections with Ukraine which have inflamed Putin, and that he failed to shut down the virus.

He also omits that his ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan broadcast the very weakness which was later on display when he promised Putin that US and NATO troops would not get involved in Ukraine. 

"Step right this way, Vladimir!"





Friday, March 4, 2022

Remember when The White House was patting itself on the back for evacuating 120k from Afghanistan in 17 days?

 It's always better to rely on yourself. The government will screw up a 2-car funeral.




Friday, January 14, 2022

Democrats won control of all the important levers of federal government in 2020, but "democracy is on life support"

I'll say.

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Sean Davis of The Federalist only pretends that wars in Ukraine and Taiwan will be wars of our choosing

We can bolster the defenses of these nominally free states in order to prevent Russia and China from attacking them, or we can do what he says and do nothing, inviting their demise.

He is profoundly mistaken.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/12/09/following-debacles-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-failed-interventionists-are-now-agitating-for-wars-in-ukraine-and-taiwan/


Tuesday, September 28, 2021

General McKenzie in Qatar told Taliban to stay out of Kabul or he would bomb them: They didn't and he didn't

Kind of hard to have any credibility when your commander in chief has none.

Biden signaled surrender already in early May, much earlier than hitherto reported; that's why the country collapsed like a house of cards.

Defeat in Afghanistan was a CHOICE made by the Democrat president, no different than the Vietnam defeat was a choice, made by the Democrat Congress of the time, of which Biden was also a part, which cut off funding to the government of South Vietnam.

The contractors which were necessary to the mission of the Afghan Army were already pulling out by the time of the May 8 Biden meeting where discussion of evacuating Afghan SIVs was supposedly excluded for fear of destabilizing the Ghani government, much earlier than has been reported until now:

At the time of the May meeting, Taliban forces were engaged in a countrywide offensive and were already capturing key territory in the west and outside Kabul, the nation's capital. U.S.-funded private contractors, meanwhile, were flying out of the country as part of the American troop withdrawal. The Afghan military needed the contractors to keep its air force flying. ... On Aug. 8, McKenzie delivered his findings to Milley, who in turn shared them with Austin. McKenzie warned that Kabul would be encircled in 30-60 days and that the city and the whole country could fall within weeks or a couple of months at most.

Story.

Friday, September 17, 2021

After Biden's disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan, General Milley's disgraceful check on President Trump, now we learn of the appearance of Federal Reserve corruption

The reputation of major US institutions is headed to hell in a handbasket.

Fed Chief Powell, other officials owned securities central bank bought during Covid pandemic

Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the nonprofit Better Markets, said if some of these Fed actions are not against the rules, the rules need to change.

“To think that such trading is acceptable because it is supposedly allowed by Fed’s current policies only highlights that the Fed’s policies are woefully deficient,” Kelleher told CNBC.

 

Monday, September 6, 2021

Joe Biden's Jul 23 phone call with Afghan President Ghani shows him unfit to be Commander in Chief, but not for the reason being trotted out

Everyone on the right is fixated on Joe Biden encouraging Ghani to paint a rosier picture to the press about the progress of the war in exchange for "aid".

In other words, Joe was trying to bribe Ghani to lie. The scenario is very reminiscent of VP Joe Biden's intimidation of the Ukrainians involving his threat to withhold US aid unless they fired a prosecutor who was looking into the Ukrainian activities of Biden's son, Hunter.

But this framing is a diversion, and a misrepresentation.

The call, to the extent Reuters has reported on it, shows Ghani reciting a litany of woe to Joe Biden about how catastrophe is imminent.

In what world does it make sense for Joe to respond to that with the offer of "aid" to a man who is clearly convinced that the end is nigh? Ghani was reciting that litany because everything was falling apart precisely because of the American pull-out. Just three weeks prior the US pulled out of Bagram in the dead of night Jul 2, from which point everything began to cascade out of control.

Ghani had to find what he was hearing from Biden incredible, in particular the promise of "continued close air support".

But close air support had already been withdrawn from Jul 2. It wasn't "continuing". It had already ended weeks prior. That was the problem, AND BIDEN DIDN'T KNOW IT. And even if he once knew it because his generals and advisers told him, HE FORGOT IT. Biden is behaving in the call as if he has resources at his command which are no longer there.

Imagine being Ghani having to deal with such unreality coming out of the mouth of the American president.

By the time of the call, Jul 23, the US withdrawal was already more than 95% complete according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, as reported by CNBC on Jul 21:

At the Pentagon on Wednesday, the nation’s highest military officer told reporters that the U.S. has completed more than 95% of the herculean task of withdrawing from Afghanistan.

“The sheer volume of movement involved in this operation has been extraordinary,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, adding that the U.S. conducted more than 980 airlifts of cargo in less than three months.

“Furthermore, all the military operating bases, outside of Kabul, have been fully transferred to the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Afghan security forces.”

Joe Biden was in no position to act as Commander in Chief in Afghanistan on Jul 23 because there was nothing left to command. In truth, he hasn't been fit since before the election, during which he campaigned from the safety of a bunker, protected by the media in the tank for him.

His unfitness for the duties of the office is self-evident to anyone paying attention day to day, except that everyone pretends not to see.

They just smile and pass.

But Ghani didn't pretend. He prepared himself an out. That's why he escaped and is alive today and living in the UAE.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, is living in la la land.

Thursday, September 2, 2021

While America has been bogged down in Afghanistan, China has been building nukes

 From Bill Gertz:


China is building a third missile field that will hold more than 100 new DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles, The Washington Times has learned.

Construction of a silo array for DF-41s was identified from satellite imagery by U.S. intelligence agencies in the past several weeks and appears equal in size to two other new Chinese missile fields recently identified, according to Pentagon officials familiar with intelligence reports on the strategic development.

Adm. Charles Richard, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said Thursday that the first two missile fields being built are part of China‘s “explosive” expansion of nuclear forces. ...

Analysts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, first told The Washington Post in June that commercial satellite photos had revealed the construction of scores of silos near Yumen in China‘s Gansu province for the new missiles. Some missile sites were placed underneath a 230-foot cover in an attempt to conceal the silos from the prying eyes of satellite spies.

Last month, the Federation of American Scientists discovered the second DF-41 field some 240 miles northwest of Yumen near the city of Hami in Xinjiang Province. Xinjiang is also the location of China‘s active nuclear testing site, which the Pentagon said recently had begun increased operations after years of limited, irregular activity.

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear policymaker, said the discovery of a new missile field is significant and indicates that Beijing’s ICBM force will soon be more powerful than U.S. nuclear forces were at the height of the Cold War.

“It is now beyond any reasonable doubt that China is going for large-scale strategic nuclear superiority over the U.S.,” said Mr. Schneider, now with the National Institute for Public Policy. “The new silos will give China the ability to deploy thousands of strategic nuclear warheads on DF-41 ICBMs.”

Mr. Schneider said he believes the main motivation for the large buildup is that Beijing is planning some type of military action in the next few years and hopes to deter a U.S. military response to action against one of China‘s neighbors, such as Taiwan. ...

Until the discovery of the DF-41 silos, China‘s land-based, silo-deployed ICBM force consisted of around 20 DF-5 ICBMs.

More.

 

 

Monday, August 30, 2021

Honestly I don't understand how General McKenzie can continue to serve under a Commander in Chief Surrender Monkey and do his bidding with a straight face or a clear conscience

 

U.S. Central Command chief Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, who served multiple tours in Afghanistan, as did his son, appeared somewhat stunned when he spoke to the press on Monday, detailing surprisingly civil interactions with Taliban commanders who oversee the network he has fought to defeat for two decades. When asked how he felt about that, he demurred. 

"I was very conflicted," McKenzie said in a candid moment during a televised briefing at the Pentagon from his headquarters in Tampa, Florida. "I am going to be thinking about that in the days ahead." 

He described Taliban cooperation with the U.S. evacuation mission in recent days as "actually very helpful and useful to us as we closed down operations."

McKenzie detailed that despite assertions from Biden and other top leaders, the U.S. did not withdraw all of its own citizens, nor the Afghans it had pledged it would protect in exchange for their cooperation in the war effort. The military presence on the ground at the airport retained the ability to bring them out of the country, but many were not able to get to the airfield amid the chaos in the capital city. 

"The military phase is over, but our desire to bring these people out remains as intense as it was before," McKenzie said. "The Department of State will now take the lead on it." 

The U.S. would not have been able to accomplish that mission if it had stayed for an additional week or so, he added, batting down suggestions from Capitol Hill and elsewhere that Biden should have ordered an extension to his deadline. ...

McKenzie assesses as many as 2,000 "Hardcore ISIS fighters" are operating in Afghanistan now, some of whom were freed in recent days from jails the U.S. originally ran at Bagram and elsewhere. 

"That's going to be a challenge for the Taliban, I believe, in the days ahead," McKenzie said.

More. 





Al Qaeda is now free to move about the country . . . of Afghanistan

 The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies reported Monday that Osama bin Laden's chief of security returned to his hometown in Afghanistan earlier in the day accompanied by a band of heavily armed Taliban fighters in brand new military trucks. 

"The video of al Haq is evidence that Al Qaeda commanders now feel secure enough to appear publicly in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan," the foundation's Bill Roggio wrote in an analysis note.

More.

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Biden kills one in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, with drone strike after Kabul airport suicide bombing kills 13 Americans

 Story.

This response epitomizes what has been wrong with US policy in Afghanistan since 9/11, and everywhere, frankly.

America treats this like a matter of law enforcement instead of like what it is, a war.

It cannot bring itself to punish the nation and destroy its ability to make war, pretending justice for an individual is sufficient. 

That's why we've been there for 20 years, hunting down individuals. We make fine but false distinctions between ISIS, al-Qaeda, Taliban, etc., instead of destroying them all.

The Taliban, now America's chosen people in Afghanistan, has simply run out the clock and exhausted us with our own inadequate, enervated Rules of Engagement.

Trump used to understand this but quickly was co-opted by The Blob, because his character was and remains weak, the fundamental reason why his presidency was such a disappointment.

 


 

Friday, August 27, 2021

Yesterday Trump would have destroyed all the equipment on the way out of Afghanistan, today on Hannity he would have kept Bagram Airfield

 What will it be tomorrow?

He's an incoherent lunatic.

Taliban blunders story by NBC is complete rubbish designed to absolve the Taliban: What the Taliban did was intentional and precisely gives them the cover these naive reporters bought hook, line and sinker

In their push to retake Afghanistan, the Taliban made the security situation much more precarious by breaking prisoners out of prisons — including hardcore fighters housed at Bagram Air Base, Taliban officials acknowledged to NBC News.

Two Taliban leaders said in an interview that their biggest blunder was “releasing thousands of prisoners, among them hardcore Islamic State commanders, master trainers and bomb-makers. They were very trained people, and they are now organizing themselves.”

The Taliban itself was never designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, but the Haqqani network, which has close ties to Al Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence, has long held that distinction.

More

The idea that the Taliban is not a terror organization is a lie, a fiction maintained by our lunatic US State Department and its friends in the press.

White House: Yes, The Taliban Is a Terrorist Organization   

GOP accuse Obama of "negotiating with terrorists," WH says Bergdahl was POW.

But Tuesday White House National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden noted that the Taliban was added to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) by executive order in July 2002, even if it is not listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the State Department. Either designation triggers asset freezes, according to the State Department, though they can differ on other restrictions imposed on the target organization. The Treasury Department told ABC News the Taliban is still on their SDGT list.