It’s just arrived – 17:15 hrs CDT – at Al Udeid Air Base at Doha Qatar
Last U.S. military plane carrying troops with call sign MOOSE94, its all over. Hamid Karzai Airport now under #Taliban control pic.twitter.com/wvKl9p4sig
— M Zafar (@ice_koool) August 30, 2021
Last US troops have departed Afghanistan
The Pentagon announced Monday that all U.S. troops have departed Afghanistan. The final C-17 carrying service members lifted off from the Kabul airport at 3:29 pm U.S. Eastern Time.
The removal of U.S. troops meets the Aug. 31 deadline the Biden administration agreed to with the Taliban, officially drawing the country’s longest-ever conflict to an end.
The Thirteen-Hundred-And-Eighty-Nine-Year War
During an interview regarding the recent suicide attack on Kabul airport, a former Navy SEAL quipped that no one making military decisions for the United States seems to have read a history book. Lack of knowledge, he implied, is partly why America is suffering a humiliating and unconscionable defeat in Afghanistan.
Here, then, is a short skeletal history of Muslim-Christian relations beginning with Islam’s founding in 622 AD by Muhammad, an Arab military leader intent on unifying the Arab world and conquering the rest. The lessons learned might put us on the right path forward.
Muhammad died in 632 and, soon thereafter, his followers began Muslim military advances into the Christian Levant. In your mind’s eye, if you can picture the Mediterranean Sea on your left, the landmass to its right – Syria, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and part of Turkey—is known as the Levant, which means the place where the sun rises. A great trading center in ancient and medieval times, conquering the Levant was the Muslims’ first great conquest over the Christian Greeks at the Battle of Yarmuk, in 636, only four years after Muhammad’s death. Jerusalem surrendered in 638.
Islam pushed on vigorously after this battle, sweeping over North Africa, uniting Arab countries, and setting its sights on conquering Constantinople, the Greek capital. Today, Constantinople is known as Istanbul and is part of Turkey. In 717, however, at what is known as the Siege of Constantinople, 80,000 Muslim troops and 1,880 galleys laid siege to the city. Possessing the equivalent of napalm, a fire that is very difficult to put out, the Greeks set fire to the galleys and after a year of siege and attack without success, Muslim forces retreated.
This Christian victory is thought to have slowed Muslim conquest of Europe but Islam penetrated Europe by crossing the Gibraltar Strait into Spain. Not content, in 732, Muslim forces moved north into what is now France. At this time France, western Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands were part of the Frankish Empire, led by Charles Martel, or Charles the Hammer, and his victory over the Muslim attack at the Battle of Tours, in France, is credited with reversing Islam’s spread in Europe. Christianity, not fully established in Western Europe at this time, began to unify Western Civilization around the Roman Catholic Church.
So, here is one of the great moments of history. Were it not for Charles Martel, Europe would have been swept up in the advance of Islam instead of the advance of Christianity. One of the differences is Christianity’s mental openness to science and intellectual inquiry – hence the rise of the great universities of Europe and Europe’s eventual influence on America.
The story does not end here. The struggle continued back and forth for another 1,289 years. Muslim Turks defeated the Christian Greeks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The Greeks had re-conquered the Levant in the 1100s but lost again at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Back and forth it went. Muslim victories – then Christian victories – finally ending at the Siege of Acre in 1291 when the last of the Crusader influence was dispelled from the Holy Lands and the Hospitallers moved to Cyprus and Rhodes, where they held out until 1523.
Islam had conquered Spain. Islam had conquered the Holy Lands. Islam had conquered the Levant.
Islam laid siege to the Greek capital, Constantinople, which surrendered in 1453. That surrender marks the end of the Roman Empire and a victory for the Muslim Ottomans.
Painstakingly, Western Civilization began to fight back. Spain was re-conquered at the Battle of Navas de Tolosa in 1212.
[if I may interject, this isn’t correct. While the battle was a major turning point, the final battle of the Reconquista was in 1492 .ed]
A fleet of the Holy League, mostly from Spain and Venice, fought the last rowing naval battle at Lepanto, in 1571, routing the Muslims. Finally, in 1683, the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire fought it out literally at the gates of Vienna. The Ottoman defeat there meant that Islam ceased to be a menace to the West, especially with the Ottoman Empire’s and caliphate’s final dissolution on March 23, 1924, after World War I.
America was colonized by Christian Europe, specifically Protestant Christian Europe, beginning in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia, and Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. Americans take for granted the intense battle for humanity’s mind that this history represents. The notion of natural individual rights through a Creator; the notion of the development of the person (male or female); the notion of personal Liberty; the notion of people as a reflection of the divine—the undergirding of our way of life is the result of being on the Western side of this war.
We are now at the Battle of Afghanistan, 2021. Because our military and political leaders have not read a history book, they deem it a 20-year war, but they are wrong. It is a thirteen-hundred-and-eighty-nine-year war that we will lose because we do not know we are in it.
The Navy SEAL was right. Our political and military leaders make decisions without a clue. We had a stable and neutralized position in Afghanistan, with very few troops, that served as a check on Islamic Jihad and the rise of an Islamic caliphate and harsh Sharia Law.
We do not need to be there to nation-build—something that anyone who knows history knows cannot be successful. We are there because Islam decided to attack the West once again in 2001. We are there to save Western Civilization. We cannot allow a humiliating defeat.
Let me restate my position on ‘Climate Change’.
When the elitists, who say climate change is a real problem, begin living their lives like it is a real problem, I’ll begin to consider that it may be a real problem. As to the rest of this academic BS? You already know my position.
No, The Climate Chupacabra Doesn’t Cause “Gun” Violence
Bloomberg’s anti-Bill of Rights publication The Trace recently ran an article speculating about a causal link between climate change and “gun” violence. The article, which is an interview of Rutgers University–Camden professor Daniel Semenza, checks every fashionable academic fad: climate change, “gun” violence, inequality, you name it.
Cited in the article and professor Semenza’s Twitter thread (Archive link) are a couple of academic papers that posit a link between climate change and violent crime based on speculative models. One cited paper establishes an incontrovertible connection between weather and crime in Chicago based on real data. However, the article as a whole takes a giant leap from crime data in a specific locale tied to weather to massive speculative claims on a causal link between climate change and “gun” violence. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, something that’s missing in the article.
Gun violence tends to cluster in more disadvantaged areas where people are interacting, engaging, and getting into conflicts over smaller things, shows of disrespect, and interpersonal issues that happened with family and friends. When it’s hot outside, we’re more frustrated, and it’s easier to get angry. You throw a bunch of guns into the mix and you can see how violence can ensue.
Shootings spike in summer months, and that’s often because in the communities where gun violence is high, a lot of people don’t have air conditioning or they live in smaller homes where they’re not comfortable, so they go outside more.
Although this seems plausible, I cannot help but point out that the country I grew up in – India – is a mostly sweltering hot country with a population of 1.3 billion. I don’t recall people being nasty because of the weather. I grew up without air conditioning in summers that could get up to 120ºF; we couldn’t even run cheap ceiling fans to keep us cool because the power supply was so unreliable and spotty. (It was truly a democratic socialist wonderland.)
My story isn’t unique by any measure; hundreds of millions of people coped with the summer heat without killing one another over small insults. Indian food requires a lot of prep and women managed to cook for their families in front of a hot stove in a hot kitchen without turning knives into assault weapons. Granted India wasn’t violence-free despite its image in the West as the birthplace of Gandhian non-violent political struggle, the country was and is by and large good, and the people are decent despite the hot weather and endemic poverty.
So, what was different there? Maybe a culture that respects life? Or a family structure that’s largely intact despite horrible poverty? A respect for your elders? Religiosity? That’s for sociologists to study and figure out.
There are lots of tall claims about what climate change can cause, scary enough that it almost has the mythical stature of the Chupacabra. (Check out: “A complete list of things caused by global warming,” and “Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions.”). One common claim is that impacts on food production will lead to violence, something that has failed the real world test. Another common claim is that climate change drives wars; that also lacks concrete proof. Climate alarmism goes back decades; read this article published June 29 1989, titled, “U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked,” and see how many of those claims have come to fruition. (While you’re at it, look at the current version of the article on The Associated Press website and notice how the headline and date of publication have been memory holed.)
Despite the provocative headline above, I don’t think climate change is something humanity should take lightly; I won’t get into that, but what I do take serious issue with is the exploitation of climate change alarmism to push every far-Left agenda item that many of us oppose: top-down economic planning and control, micromanaging the lives of the hoi polloi, controlling their food choices, transportation choices and lifestyle choices, while the elites shamelessly fly in on private jets to congregate on an island in the middle of a pandemic for an ex-President’s glitzy birthday party.
For a long time, we have seen the CDC camel trying to stick its nose under the Second Amendment tent using the ruse that “gun” violence is a public health issue. What’s next? The United States Geological Survey (USGS) mucking around with the Second Amendment using climate change as a pretext?
Every time permitless carry becomes the law of a state, the same ‘blood will flow in the streets’ whining is heard from the same morons.
Wackos Dial Up the Fear, Disinformation As Constitutional Carry Becomes Law in Texas Wednesday
“When it comes down to it, it’s just a sense of disappointment that the bill ultimately was passed,” Kevin Lawrence, executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association, told the Texas Tribune.
There was some pretense on the eve of the 2021 legislative session among Republican state leaders to promise tightened gun laws and improved background checks, with the people’s memories still fresh of mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick both offered rhetorical assurances.
Instead, the state’s ruling party supported multiple bills that make it even easier to legally brandish a gun in public. Anyone 21 years or older who doesn’t have a felony or domestic violence record will be free to carry a gun. A training course on gun safety is not required. Just get your gun and start packing.
How many Texans will pack a gun, come Sept. 1, in their vehicles, their carry bags and purses, or on their bodies? Why do we need guns to live our daily lives? What purpose will drive people to carry a handgun as if it were, like a smartphone or wallet, part of being dressed and ready to go?
— Robert Rivard in New gun laws in Texas will surely lead to more gun violence
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were at the Dover Air Force Base Sunday morning for the dignified transfer of 11 of the 13 service members who lost their lives on Thursday. While there, the president actually checked his watch. And he wasn’t subtle about it, not even close to it.
Can confirmhttps://t.co/rJmY5wsJoU
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 29, 2021
Again, the president wasn’t even subtle about it. The fact that it looks as if this is one of his more cognizant moments–though that’s not saying much–doesn’t help his case.
The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of 13 service members who were supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. They died Aug. 26, 2021, as the result of an enemy attack while supporting non-combatant evacuation operations in Kabul, Afghanistan. The incident is under investigation.
For the Marine Corps, the deceased are:
Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California.
Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California.
Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska.
Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California.
Staff Sergeant Darin T. Hoover, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan W. Page, Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, and Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California. For more information, media may contact IMEFCOMMSTRAT@USMC.MIL.
Sgt. Nicole L. Gee was assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 24, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. For more information, media may contact IIMEFCOMMSTRAT@USMC.MIL.
Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo was assigned to 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Naval Support Activity Bahrain. For more information, media may contact MARCENTCOMMSTRAT@USMC.MIL.
For the Navy, the deceased is:
Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio.
Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak was assigned to 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California. For more information on Hospitalman Soviak, media may contact the U.S. Navy Office of Information at PTGN_CHINFONEWSDESK@navy.mil.
For the Army, the deceased is:
Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee.
Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss was assigned to 9th PSYOP Battalion, 8th PSYOP Group, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. For more information on Staff Sgt. Knauss, members of the media may contact Maj. Dan Lessard, Public Affairs Officer, 1st Special Forces Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at 910-908-3947 or by email at: daniel.j.lessard.mil@socom.mil.
Lott blows away one false myth about gun ownership after another. As Andrew Pollack’s Foreward notes; “Learn the actual facts that debunk them.” From myths about mass public shootings to suicides to gun ownership rates and crime to gun free zones, Lott addresses the claims you frequently hear in the media and explains what is wrong with those claims. “John Lott has been giving us the facts about guns for decades.
Finally clear to all that one party in America has an anti-Second Amendment platform and wants to disarm you. Now you need to arm yourself with the Truth. Buy and read Gun Control Myths today. Before it’s too late.” Sebastian Gorka Ph.D.,host of AMERICAN First, former Strategist to President Trump “John Lott shows that the media and many politicians are biased against guns.
For example, many stories are written in the media about shooters, but very few about defensive uses of guns. Similarly, he shows that some gun control policies are actually counterproductive. Shooters seek out gun-free zones. If we banned “assault” weapons, shooters might shift to larger hunting guns. The book is copiously footnoted. It is full of statistical and graphical analysis, so that his points are easily grasped and persuasive. Anyone who advocates gun control and does not seriously consider John’s work is negligent.
Any journalist who does not at least consider John’s work is committing journalistic malpractice.” Paul H. Rubin, Dobbs Professor of Economics Emeritus, Emory University “We have John Lott to thank for once again providing factual and empirical based research to counter the anti gun movement’s well funded and organized campaign based on nothing more than slogans, myths and propaganda designed to demonize supporters of our cherished Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.” David Clarke Sheriff(RET) Milwaukee County “John Lott is the go-to expert when it comes to protecting the second amendment.
Without the second amendment Americans could be stripped of our right to arm ourselves against aggressors. Arm yourselves with knowledge by reading “Gun Control Myths” and join me in protecting the Second Amendment.” Eric Bolling Host “AMERICA This Week” Sinclair Broadcast
People, not guns, are the problem
One of the significant concerns held by the founders of our country was that the government not be allowed to get too big. Our system of government is constructed in such a fashion the people are in charge, not the elected politicians. The politicians are elected to do the will of the people.
The Second Amendment provides that citizens can freely possess firearms. The rationale is for citizens to be able to protect themselves from a government that grows too large. The Second Amendment has been under assault for many years. As the government has grown larger and larger, the pressure in Congress to abolish the personal ownership of arms has been increasing year after year.
The primary argument being pushed to abolish the Second Amendment is focused on civilian gun violence in our streets. Is it a problem? Absolutely. Is removing firearms from the hands of citizens the answer? In my opinion, this is the absolute wrong approach to gun violence in the street. Disarming good, responsible gun owners only gives the upper hand to those bent on doing mayhem in our communities.
The focus on removing gun violence from the streets must be concentrated on the people committing the shootings.
In my 83 times riding this rock we call Earth around the sun, I will raise my right hand and swear, I have never witnessed a gun jumping off the table, running into the street and shooting someone.
A gun is manufactured from metal, plastic, wood and a few other inanimate materials. Some are engraved with beautiful designs. Others are plain and simple. However, to my knowledge, there isn’t a firearm in the U.S.A. that has a brain of its own, has the ability to jump out of its place of storage, run out into the street, pick out a specific individual and shoot them.
The person holding the firearm is the cause of the shooting incident. It is the person who picks up this inanimate object, aims it, squeezes the trigger. And the firearm discharges as it was designed to do once it is in the hands of a person.
It is the person, not the firearm, that causes the shooting to occur.
Knives kill, cars kill, trucks kill, sledgehammers kill, bricks kill and any one of a hundred other inanimate objects used in a manner that results in death.
Where is the cry to eliminate any of these objects? There is none. Nada. Zip. Only deafening silence.
What we need to hear is support for reforming our seriously broken welfare system. Look at the statistics. Where is the highest majority of shooting crimes occurring? In the government housing projects and inner-city ghettos. Interestingly, all were created by government programs to, supposedly, lift people out of poverty. In reality, many of these programs were developed to assure a particular block of votes. It has worked.
Let’s use some of the millions of dollars spent, or should I say wasted each day, to build an education system that works. A system that teaches the young how to survive in the adult business world. Pride in heritage must be emphasized. Law and order brought to the neighborhood. Respect for each other and for people they meet in the future.
Will this fix it overnight? Absolutely not. This project will require thousands of hours and extreme dedication from the people working it even to give it a glimmer of a chance to work. I suspect some will be surprised at the amount of help that will come from the gun owner community. Once it is established, this is not another congressional “feel good” project.
The gun is not at fault; blame for misuse lies with the person holding the firearm.
Train young people to respect firearms and use them properly. Train young people to respect each other. Train young people to take responsibility for their actions. Train young people on the proper way to use a checkbook. Train young people on how to succeed in a work environment. Train up each new generation to leave things in a better condition than they found them.
Will the shootings go away? After a time, yes. Once the young people learn to respect others and themselves, the guns will stay in the drawer and no longer jump out to shoot someone.
Jim Ross Lightfoot
Former United States Representative from Iowa.
BLUF:
Most people realize [that] people who wish them to be disarmed do so because they wish to do things that would be difficult to accomplish if the people were armed.
Conventional Excuse for Gun Confiscation: The Taliban Will Protect You
The classic case for confiscation of weapons in Western Civilization in the last hundred years, is the government will defend you. You do not need weapons to defend yourself. The Taliban is reported to have emulated this Western propaganda in Kabul, after taking over in August of 2021.
KABUL, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, started collecting weapons from civilians on Monday because people no longer need them for personal protection, a Taliban official said.
“We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians,” the official told Reuters.
The Taliban are following a long tradition of disarming individuals under the pretext individuals do not need weapons because the government will protect them. The Taliban feels the need to add a caveat:
As governments became more sophisticated in their need to dissimulate, they often claim the government will protect people, so they do not need weapons.
It is a claim made in the English experience with gun control. Joyce Lee Malcolm documents this in her scholarly book “Guns and Violence: The English Experience”. On page 176, she documents a significant expansion of the law against the carry of weapons in 1953. Sir Lionel Heald, the Attorney General, is promoting the bill. He says: It is the duty of society to protect them, and they should not have to do that… The argument of self-defense is one to which, perhaps, we should not attach too much weight.
Self-defense was specifically eliminated as a reason to have a firearm in English, Canadian, and later, Australian law.
Gun control laws, and the number of legal, or even illegal firearms, have not shown any correlation to violent crime.
They show an unwillingness of governments to trust their people with weapons.
Most European gun control laws were created after World War I and before World War II, for political purposes, not crime control. Murder rates were essentially unchanged, although, as expected, there was a spike during World War II.
In India, the British instituted weapons control after the Mutiny/uprising in 1857. It was clear the purpose was to prevent uprisings. Most gun control laws were the result of conquest and war.
Misleading the people who are governed in order to disarm them has a long and unpleasant history. Niccoló Machiavelli, known as the father of modern political science, states deception when disarming people is a necessary thing.
“For it is enough to ask a man to give up his arms, without telling him that you intend killing him with them; after you have the arms in hand, then you can do your will with them.” The Discourses, end of chapter XLIV
In the Koran, it is permissible to lie and deceive in order to gain an advantage to advance the cause of Islam.
Most people realize people who wish them to be disarmed do so because they wish to do things that would be difficult to accomplish if the people were armed.
The Afghan revolt against the Soviet-installed regime started with the puppet government’s attempt to disarm Afghans.
This is not an auspicious start for a new Taliban government. Afghans love their weapons. Afghanistan is a land of warring tribes. A man is expected to be able to defend himself and his tribe.
The Nancy Lanza Test for Gun Control Proposals
This Tuesday, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) published an op-ed at The Philadelphia Inquirer touting universal background checks as a means to saving lives. Tom Knighton has already taken on her misleading op-ed and I recommend that you read his article.
The 800 lb. gorilla in the room that’s missing in Giffords’ article is that the man who shot her passed a background check when he bought the pistol he used in his crime.
That alone undermines Giffords’ claim in a big way. And it’s not just him; most perpetrators in highly publicized mass attacks that I can think of – Sutherland Springs, Orlando, San Bernardino, Las Vegas, Charleston – you name it, all of them passed background checks and in some cases, with glaring governmental incompetence. (Others got their guns through theft and straw purchases.)
Universal background checks simply take the existing background check system and mandate, in an unenforceable way, that all firearms transfers be subject to background checks. This will make no difference in crime because those citizens who will subject themselves to an unenforceable law are by nature law-abiding and the least likely to pose a threat to others. A name that comes to mind as an example of such a citizen is Nancy Lanza.
Nancy Lanza is the benchmark that those who propose new gun control laws must justify their proposals against. Not only would she have passed any background check – universal or otherwise – she would also have met the incrementally higher bars that the Gun Grab Lobby wants to subject ordinary citizens to.
Private citizens doing what passes for the President of the U.S. dithers.
US special operations vets carry out daring mission to save Afghan allies
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.
The Pineapple Express’ mission was underway Thursday when the attack occurred in Kabul. A suicide bomber believed to have been an ISIS fighter killed at least 13 U.S. service members — 10 U.S. Marines, a Navy corpsman, an Army soldier and another service member — and wounded 15 other service members, according to U.S. officials.
Question O’ The Day
Jen Psaki asked:
Does Biden believe he was given bad advice by his generals?
Will he ask for any resignations?
“No to both of those questions.”
Comment O’ The Day
So this disaster was by design? Cool, cool. Nothing to see there.
Like this political grandstanding will actually go anywhere
House Republicans Introduce Articles Of Impeachment For Secretary Of State Antony Blinken
Two House Republicans introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary Of State Antony Blinken on Friday, saying he failed at his job after at least 13 U.S. service members were killed in one of the deadliest days for U.S. service members in Afghanistan in over a decade.
Republican Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Andy Harris of Maryland introduced the resolution, obtained by the Daily Caller, saying President Joe Biden and specifically, Blinken are solely responsible for the ongoing bloodshed in Afghanistan.
“The Biden Administration’s handling of Afghanistan has been an unmitigated catastrophe. This preventable tragedy rests solely on the shoulders of President Biden and his Administration, and in particular the Secretary of State. We are the most powerful nation on the planet, and we must make clear to the Taliban that we will stay to get our people out as long as that takes,” Harris said in a statement.
“Secretary Blinken’s complete and utter failure of managing this avoidable catastrophe makes him unfit for leadership, and I hope my colleagues will join me in pushing for his removal,” Harris added.
Moms Demand Action manage to amass seven (7!) for a gun control protest
You’d think they’d get the message that this point of view isn’t very popular
Man who forced his way into Newport Beach home is shot, killed by occupant
An occupant of a Newport Beach [California] home shot and killed a man on Thursday morning, Aug. 26, after the man forced his way into the residence, police said.
Officers responded to a call in the area of Redlands Drive and Indus Street in Newport Heights shortly after 4 a.m. about a man who seemed to be having a mental health crisis or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He “forcibly” entered the home and was shot by someone inside, authorities said in a news release.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene, said Heather Rangel, a spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Police Department. She said there is no ongoing threat to the neighborhood.
The identity of the dead man and other details surrounding the case were not released as of Thursday afternoon.
The investigation is continuing.
Early June Milley said it was tactically possible to accomplish the mission from Kabul to a Congressional hearing. Even interrupted Austin to say it. Milley is the weak link and needs to go.
— Tom Orlando (@Tommyzeros) August 27, 2021
So, we abandoned Bagram air base because SloJoe wanted the Kabul embassy secured with no additional troops brought into the country.
Not because of Trump.
And apparently General Milley didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to ‘advise’ SloJoe about the risks from this that we’ve all seen since Bagram was abandoned.
The FDA did NOT grant full approval to the Pfizer shots
You may have heard that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot received FDA approval this past Monday. Politicians, national health officials, and journalists are breathless with excitement about how this approval will finally induce the remaining “vaccine-hesitant” into stepping forward to receive their jab. The FDA even has a press release on its website about it.
There’s just one problem.
If you read the actual letters that the FDA sent to Pfizer on August 23, 2021, you’ll see that the FDA did no such thing. In the sense that the term “FDA approval” is generally understood, this drug is not approved by the FDA. It is still under EUA (Emergency Use Authorization). It is still an experimental drug.
The FDA sent two letters. The first one was a letter of BLA (Biologics License Application) approval, and the second was a letter of EUA extension to COMIRNATY.
The BLA approval letter approves Pfizer’s application for a license to label its COVID-19 drug with the brand name COMIRNATY. This letter also spells out the terms and requirements for nine additional clinical trials over five years, and yearly status reports, to study the acknowledged occurrences of myocarditis and pericarditis that have followed the administering of the Pfizer shots. This license to label and manufacture is not a full approval of the drug, which clearly is still subject to many years of clinical trials.
The EUA extension letter extends the term of the EUA for the current drug and authorizes (licenses) the experimental use of the brand-name drug COMIRNATY. In the first paragraph on page 2, this letter references the license approval letter. In the second paragraph on page 2, the August 12 EUA is re-issued to include the name-branded drug in the emergency use authorization, and to add “language regarding warnings and precautions related to myocarditis and pericarditis.” In the last paragraph on page 4, the EUA nature of the drugs is re-iterated, and COMIRNATY is additionally authorized for use for individuals aged 12 through 15 years.
The mRNA gene therapy shots are still experimental. Mandating them is still wrong — by a wide variety of ethical standards.
Dr. Meryl Nass, M.D. found the truths that the FDA buried in the blather of these letters and offers a theory about why it was done this way. The drug-manufacturers were granted immunity from liability for the drugs produced under the EUAs. The granting of the license re-applies the customary liability for injury and death caused by the product. Pfizer, the health officials, and the politicians get to take a fictitious victory lap for the “approval,” while Pfizer-BioNTech continues to stealthily enjoy immunity from product liability because there are many millions of the unlicensed doses on the shelves and in the manufacturing pipeline that will be administered first. The licensed version will not arrive on shelves or be jabbed into arms for many months to come.
Of great concern, considering the factual content of the FDA EUA letters to Pfizer, is the breezy way the press release on the FDA website repeatedly uses the words “approve” and “approval” in reference to the Pfizer drug. If only there were a word for intentionally saying things to the public that do not match reality…
COMIRNATY seems like an unusual name for anything, much less a cutting-edge-technology gene therapy. Out of idle curiosity, I ran the name through an anagram solver. For a result, it gave TIROMANCY, which is divination or prophecy by examining how curds form during the coagulation of cheese. How apropos. That’s something I’m willing to try for forecasting the results of the next election!
Wendy’s reformulates its French fries
Culinary leaders from the Dublin, Ohio-based burger chain said the process of reformulating the skin-on fries was a months-long journey.
The new French fry was designed to retain heat and crispness for between 15 and 30 minutes to accommodate the brand’s growth in drive-thru, carry-out and other off-premises sales channels, said John Li, Wendy’s vice president of culinary innovation.
“They are cut above, literally,” said Emily Kessler, Wendy’s senior specialist for culinary and innovation, in a Zoom press conference Thursday. “And that’s because these not-exactly-square French fries are by design.
“One side is built with a thicker side, and it’s built for heat retention, while the other side is thinner and that’s really to enhance crispiness because we know our customers want hot and crispy fries every time,” Kessler said.
The company last overhauled its fries in November 2010 when it moved to skin-on potatoes.
The Danger of Biden’s Fragile Ego
Yes, Joe Biden is a weak, narcissistic man. And he knows it. This is the danger.
When weak men want to prove to the world (literally to the world in this case) that they are not the weak men we all see that they are, there is a danger that they will present some grand gesture of strength to overcompensate for their weakness.
In the case of Joe Biden, this grand gesture of strength will be at the expense of young Americans who wear the uniform of our military. The very real danger right now is that this president will try to prove his courage and strength by exploiting the courage and strength of our troops by putting them in even greater danger than they already are due to this president’s weakness.
Look at who Joe Biden is.
He is a weak man who likes to talk tough.
Remember when he tried to show how he’d take on Donald Trump as the Democratic Party’s candidate? He was in the midst of a crowded primary for the nomination, and he needed to project strength. So how does a guy like Joe Biden do that?
Former Vice President Joe Biden said he would “beat the hell out of” President Donald Trump if they were in high school over his crude comments about women.
“When a guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it’ and then said, ‘I made a mistake,'” Biden said Tuesday of Trump, according to video of the remarks posted on Facebook by the University of Miami College Democrats.
“They asked me would I like to debate this gentleman, and I said no. I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him,'” said Biden, getting laughter and applause from the crowd at the University of Miami.
Think about some of the other bizarre moments in Biden’s recent past.
The infamous “Cornpop” rant. The entire bizarre, rambling story was meant to project what a tough guy he is.
In Biden’s telling, CornPop was a “bad dude” who “ran a bunch of bad boys”, was armed with a straight-razor and backed by other gang members. And he was threatening to “cut” the future vice-president.
Instead of calling the police, Biden met CornPop and his cronies head on, having armed himself with a 6ft chain. After a standoff, CornPop backed down.
Do you see? Biden, the skinny white guy, confronted the bad dude who ran with a bad gang, and he made the scary black dude back down. Forget the inherent racist tropes built into Biden’s yarn, the whole point is to project an image of Biden as the tough guy.
He does this all the time.
Remember when a voter in Michigan confronted him during the campaign? Biden’s response was to tell the voter he was “full of sh**” and called him “a horse’s ass.”
Time and time again throughout his career, Biden has defaulted to the faux tough-guy stance with over-the-top gritted teeth and threats of physical violence against a political foe to prove his point. It’s become a joke, but only because we all know what a buffoon he is and how his tough-guy posturing doesn’t square with his legacy as a weak man who will do what he is told and has never really shown personal strength in standing for anything.
This is who Joe Biden is and always has been.
The only difference is that now he has the constitutionally granted powers of Commander-in-Chief to use our military to back up his empty threats and to project the strength that he doesn’t have.
We must be wary of this.
America will instinctively and reflexively want to rally around any show of strength and retaliation that is framed as a response to these terror attacks. We must be wary that the response to these terrorists is about our dead Marines and the safety and security of Americans still in Afghanistan and not an egotistical reflex of a weak man who is backed into a political corner of his own making.
Weakness begets weakness, and poor decisions beget more poor decisions. Biden has always stood for one thing and one thing only: His own narcissistic political advancement. Until now, it was pathetic and pitiable. Now, it’s deadly.
