Sunday, August 29, 2021
LOL Mike "Mish" Shedlock goes full Keynes on C19 vaccines
Israel's high vaccination rate isn't high enough. The country jumped out ahead of all other countries on vaccines, and 78% of eligible Israelis over 12 years old are vaccinated.
More.
Mish is a long time popularizer of the Austrian School of Economics.
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Biden kills one in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, with drone strike after Kabul airport suicide bombing kills 13 Americans
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.
LOL California's Governor Newsom takes drastic action to make it look like he's not a total raving lunatic as recall vote looms Sep 14
And so temporarily, or so they say, the state has been forced to set up five natural gas power plants in order to avoid rolling blackouts. This move is the result of an emergency order signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month.
More.
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.
Damn fool Trump should just shut up and go away
"Prudence" might as well be an Arabic word to Trump. He knows nothing, and is incapable of knowing. He is a foolish, destructive spendthrift, who would have pulled entirely out of Afghanistan, same as Joe Biden.
There is no final difference between the two men.
Thursday, August 26, 2021
General McKenzie in particular, CENTCOM Commander since 2019, strongly echoed the Trump agreement with the Taliban after Feb 29, 2020, stating explicitly the intention to "go to zero" troops and partner with the Taliban, the terrorists
CENTCOM has no comment today about this revelation that it has given a list to the Taliban of the people the US wants evacauated from Kabul
U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that's prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials.
More.
General Kenneth McKenzie, elevated to CENTCOM Commander by Trump in 2019: "we share a common purpose" with the Taliban and they are "useful to work with"
Did Trump and Pompeo get the gimcrack foreign policy from the military, or was it the other way around?
David French was right about Trump's agreement with the terrorists in his column on March 3, 2020
There is a difference between peace and retreat. The Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban represents a full retreat. It’s an agreement that most Republicans would deplore if a Democrat president made the deal, and they’d be right to be angry.
More.
The country wasn't paying attention, however. The pandemic was all anyone could talk about.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Sean Hannity told a whopper today just after 4pm Eastern: He said Trump's agreement with the Taliban let the US keep Bagram Airfield
This is simply false.
Under the terms of the agreement, the US agreed to withdraw initially from 5 bases, and then from "all remaining bases".
There is no such provision as claimed by Hannity.
Trump would have presided over a complete withdrawal of all US and Coalition forces from Afghanistan had he been re-elected.
Conservative talk radio has been pretending for a week that Donald Trump intended a different outcome than a complete withdrawal.
It's just not true.
Trump not only committed the sin of negotiating with terrorists, he tried to pass them off as new partners in the war on terror, making our continued presence moot, which is utterly absurd.
Ever had Trump Wine? A Trump Steak? A degree from Trump University?
Donald Trump is responsible for the framework leading to the debacle we are witnessing in Afghanistan under Joe Biden.
They are a pair of Pontius Pilates, washing their hands of the country.
Laugh of the Day: Peter Meijer, MI-03, the Republican version of drama queen AOC, pulls stunt and flies into Kabul
Peter Meijer, billionaire scion, West Point drop out, & leader of an aimless, mediocre life, is a drama queen who desperately wants to cover himself with the patina of the brave soldier in extreme circumstances one last time before it's all over. Just like Jan 6.
Mike Pompeo pretends it was smart diplomacy to negotiate with terrorists in the first place, and to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan