crickets
crickets's JournalThat makes much more sense. Thank you!
I had a hard time believing Joe would even think to look at his watch during a ceremony this solemn. Parker Molloy does a great job of breaking down the entire scenario, including how Fox not only misled their viewers with lies, but manipulated the video to make the moment seem longer than it was.
The unmanipulated video is very clear. He waits with hand on heart until every soldier is driven away and gone, and the glance at his watch is so brief as to be almost unnoticed. Given how much was going on at the time, including an impending hurricane, I give him a pass for that brief glance.
"Abandoning" is what we did to the Kurds.
It was absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable. Where was the media outrage then?
Looks like Alex may be pivoting to engage in some CYA because of his Jan 6 activities.
The feds have already come after his videographer and fellow Infowars host Owen Shroyer.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/08/capitol-riot-charges-against-an-infowars-host-could-spell-trouble-for-alex-jones/
https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/08/20/the-how-of-owen-shroyers-arrest/
He helped to publicize and fund the events of Jan 6.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a35371842/alex-jones-publix-caroline-wren-julie-jenkins-fancelli-trump/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/31/politics/alex-jones-rally-organization-efforts/index.html
He definitely participated.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-said-in-the-lead-up-to-the-capitol-riot/
He's next. And he knows it.
GA Mayors like Keisha Lance Bottoms have been trying hard to do the right thing,
but goodness knows Kemp can't have that. Masks are not going to cause undue hardships or business shutdowns, no matter how determined Kemp is to conflate these issues. He's willing to credit tfg with vaccines but unwilling to actually encourage vaccinations. Tch, and up to now, Kemp's complete lack of leadership re Covid had been flying under the radar compared to DeSantis and Abbott.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/atlanta-mayor-keisha-lance-bottoms-indoor-mask-mandate/85-2ef25acd-e0db-4c06-9413-009822630616 - JUL 28
According to a release from the mayor's office, the mandate requires a face mask or cloth covering over a person's nose and mouth while indoors at a public place, including private businesses and establishments in the City of Atlanta. [snip]
“Public health experts overwhelmingly agree, and data has proved, that wearing a face covering helps slow the spread of this deadly virus,” Mayor Bottoms said. “As COVID-19 rates increase, we must remain vigilant, wear a mask, follow CDC guidelines and other measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our communities.” [snip]
Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp also announced earlier Wednesday that Georgia will not lockdown and he will not be issuing a statewide mask mandate.
https://www.newsweek.com/atlanta-mayor-bottoms-blasts-gov-kemps-ban-mask-vaccine-mandates-businesses-1621744 - AUG 21
Bottoms, a Democrat, said that the order is nothing but politics.
"We're entering political season, and we'll see political theatrics," she said. "But when it comes to this pandemic, that's not sound decision-making. I can't begin to make sense of it. I can't make sense of it last year and I can't make sense of it this year."
On Thursday, Kemp signed an executive order banning vaccine and mask mandates for businesses amid a highly transmissible Delta variant.
Well, RP's latest rant will clear your sinuses right up.
There is no way on god's green earth that some rando from Lansdale, PA came up with a Nuremberg Code argument against masks without some help. (Apologies to all the sane people in Lansdale, but you know I'm right.) Where did she get it from? *drumroll* Facebook. Yes, I'm as shocked as you are.
"This shit is just neighbors attacking neighbors."
No, this shit is the astro-turfiest thing to come along since the Tea Party, and somebody is having a high time (and probably making some Koch money) stuffing the skulls of the gullible idiots (and the just plain hateful) over at Facebook with all kinds of nonsense.
"It's less 1776 and more Lord of the Flies."
Bingo.
Reuters: Evacuations from Afghanistan by country
https://twitter.com/i/events/1428395280945274890https://www.reuters.com/world/evacuations-afghanistan-by-country-2021-08-18/
Includes update on numbers evacuated by the US, as well as future numbers expected. 16 countries in addition to the US and EU are listed, some with links to further information. Though some countries have evacuated numbers in the hundreds or thousands, others have only evacuated a handful so far. Not all countries listed show future plans for evacuations.
Great article, babylonsister.
It clearly lays out Biden's reasoning. Unlike the generals, Biden learned the lesson about nation building in Afghanistan. He knew what they did not want to admit: that we were wasting our time, resources, and personnel. It was time to go. Good for him for standing firm and getting us out of there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/17/us/politics/biden-afghanistan-withdrawal.html
They were told, Zero meant zero.
In that moment, the war — which had been debated across four presidents, prosecuted with thousands of commando raids, cost 2,400 American fatalities and 20,000 injured, with progress never quite being made — began its final chapter. It will be over, Mr. Biden has promised, by the 20th anniversary of the attacks that stunned the world and led to more than 13,000 airstrikes.
How this last chapter of the American adventure in Afghanistan will end is a story that remains to be written.
Apologies that this article is behind a paywall. It also does an excellent job in laying out Biden's reasons for leaving.
As for the chaos over the past weekend, indications are that those who say they didn't know should have had an inkling that there would be no 'decent interval' with Afghanistan.
See the Afghanistan Papers:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/documents-database/
That said, even those who knew the Taliban would take over soon were caught flat-footed by how quickly the army and the government melted away. Ghani's own people were taken by surprise that he fled so quickly. Shame and blame for that is on Ghani, and no fault of Biden at all.
Absolutely.
https://twitter.com/BregmanPs/status/1427701547283189761Replying to @itsJeffTiedrich
And what Pompeo discussed with the new leader Mullah Baradar when they met in Qatar after the election. This may be why they blocked Biden s transition team from getting access to state dept material.
2:39 PM · Aug 17, 2021
Pentagon blocked Biden's intelligence transition team from meeting with agencies - DEC 5, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/04/politics/pentagon-biden-transition-intelligence/index.html
At that point, the Biden team's requests would be reviewed by the Defense Department's general counsel and Kash Patel, the Trump loyalist appointed to lead the Pentagon's transition last month amid President Donald Trump's purge of civilian leadership at the department. [snip]
"[Director of National Intelligence John] Ratcliffe was hot. He saw it as insubordination," the former intelligence official said. "It was his authority as DNI to set the stage for and processes of the transition." [snip]
Trump appointed Patel and Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the acting under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, to their posts as part of a slew of major changes at the Pentagon, where he has jettisoned much of the civilian leadership in recent weeks, replacing them with political loyalists as his administration winds to a close.
Oh, there are so many questions to be asked.
"During that time, he worked closely with Zbigniew Brzezinski"
https://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/brzezinski_interviewBehold, what is old is new again.
The article circulated back in the day when Bush/Cheney were talking about going to Afghanistan, and it is unsurprising to see it circulating again today. As it should.
Thank you, David Rothkopf.
I hear some commentators saying Biden didn't explain why events unfolded as they did. But he did. They just don't want to hear the reasons he gave...that the Afghan military and government provided zero resistance and rejected taking steps to enable earlier evacuations.
4:35 PM · Aug 16, 2021
"and government" -- One thing Biden didn't mention specifically was that a certain individual involved in that plan decided to desert the country early, with no warning. The US plan to leave did not take place in a vacuum. There are some logistical elements beyond Biden's control. This was one of them:
https://twitter.com/Rover829/status/1427354474159513608
Bloomberg: Afghan and Taliban negotiators reached a deal for a 2-week ceasefire in exchange for President Ashraf Ghani’s resignation and the start of talks on setting up a transitional government. But it collapsed when Ghani fled the country, sources say
[image]
Afghan Cease-Fire Deal Struck in Doha Collapsed After Ghani Fled
The weeks leading up to Kabul’s collapse saw a flurry of diplomatic activity by the U.S. and its allies in Qatar aimed at heading off exactly the chaotic scenes in the Afghan capital that have so...
bloomberg.com
3:40 PM · Aug 16, 2021
I admire the hell out of Biden for taking his lumps with the statement, "I am President of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me." That took courage and integrity. Thanks, Joe.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/16/remarks-by-president-biden-on-afghanistan/
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