SIV fiasco

The debate over the tragedy in Afghanistan has swirled around why the U.S. was so slow in evacuating Afghan allies eligible for Special Immigrant visas (SIVs). There are many reasons. One is that the Trump administration intentionally broke the SIV processing system in 2017 creating a huge backlog of Afghan partners who could have been evacuated earlier.

The system was so gummed up that, by early 2021, the average wait time for an SIV had soared to well over two years.

[...]

In 2006, Congress established SIVs for Iraqis and Afghans who had worked for the U.S. military and U.S. government agencies. Initially, SIV issuance was painfully slow. Only 371 Iraqi and Afghan principal applicants (plus family members) received SIVs in 2008, as former employees on the list were being targeted for murder in Iraq.

[...]

The number of Iraqi SIVs increased from 172 in 2008 to 1,418 in 2009 and 940 in 2010. We made progress and saved lives.

In 2011, two individuals who entered the U.S. as refugees were indicted for seeking to aid terrorists in Iraq. The vetting system was tightened and SIV issuances decreased before picking up again.

[...]

In 2017, the new administration tried to implement a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and ordered the implementation of “extreme vetting” of foreign nationals, including SIV applicants.

Under the White House’s direction, and Department of Homeland Security leadership, Washington agencies proposed new and in some cases duplicative and impractical vetting procedures.

[...]

The White House announced the new vetting system in an executive order on Sept. 24, 2017, including specific country exclusions.

[...]

[T]he Trump administration would systematically strip personnel in various agencies from refugee and SIV processing, reassigning law enforcement and intelligence officials to other duties. Even minor or ambiguous issues could bring vetting to a standstill.

[...]

In effect, President Trump and aide Stephen Miller greatly increased the vetting workload and then starved the system of resources to do the job.

The number of SIVs issued dropped by the hundreds. Iraqi SIVs fell from 557 in 2017 to 152 in 2019; the number of Afghan SIVs went from 4,120 in 2017 to 1,799 in 2020, as the number of applicants ballooned.

The processing time for Afghan SIV applicants in early 2021 reached 703 days.

[...]

In June, Secretary Blinken added 50 additional State Department personnel to process SIV applications. That is an important step. The U.S. Government also moved to eliminate unnecessary procedures and bring greater information technology resources to bear on the process.

  The Hill

Okay, but there was that original insane plan to have the last person out on the anniversary of the twin towers destruction (who came up with that one?), and at any rate, why wait until June to do that?

Many factors contributed to the SIV backlog that resulted in the desperate crowds at Kabul’s airport, including delays due to COVID-19 and incomplete applications. But thousands of SIV applicants should have and could have been moved sooner if the Trump administration had not deliberately broken the SIV processing system.

And if the Biden Administration had moved on it in February or March.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hypocritical much?

Or maybe he just means NOW is the time to put America before politics.  Up until now, not so much.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

US military out of Afghanistan

For now anyway.

America’s longest war came to an end just before midnight local time in Afghanistan, when the last evacuation flight flew out of Kabul airport.

A C-17 military transport plane took off carrying the US commander who oversaw the evacuation operation, Maj Gen Christopher Donahue of the 82nd Airborne Division, and the acting US ambassador, Ross Wilson, who were the last two Americans to step off the tarmac in Kabul, minutes before the 31 August deadline.

[...]

The US gave up its last toehold in Kabul to the guerrilla group it ousted with initial ease in 2001, marking a defeat on the scale of Vietnam.

There was no fanfare or ceremony, and no handing over of flags to Kabul’s new masters. All remaining armoured vehicles and other military equipment items were destroyed or rendered useless and the Taliban were notified of the last flight.

[...]

US diplomatic operations have now been moved from Kabul to Qatar.

[...]

More than 100 Americans remain in Afghanistan who wanted to leave but were unable to get on the last flights, [US secretary of state Antony Blinken] said, but that the State Department would keep working to get them out.

He reiterated a pledge to hold the Taliban to their commitments to let people leave the country and said it was time to “learn lessons” from the US’s 20-year presence in Afghanistan.

  Guardian

Fat chance.

[...]

The head of US Central Command, Gen Kenneth McKenzie, announced [...] “The cost was 2,461 US service members and civilians killed and more than 20,000 who were injured.”

What about Afghanis? NATO personnel?

Nearly 50,000 Afghan civilians and 70,000 Afghan soldiers and police are estimated to have died in the violence since 2001.

Jesus. Almost as many civilians as fighters. (And perhaps they were undercounted.)

In the last 24 hours of the US presence, about 1,000 Afghans were evacuated who had worked for or with the US, bringing the total civilian evacuation carried out this month to 123,000. Of that total, 79,000 were flown out by the US military, including 6,000 US nationals.

It was the biggest noncombatant evacuation in US military history. McKenzie called it a “monumental achievement”, noting it included three helicopter extractions of 185 stranded Americans and 21 Germans.

On top of that, special forces brought 2,017 vulnerable Afghans, 1,064 American citizens and 127 nationals from third countries to the airport by road.

And 13 killed by ISIS-K (ISKP) doing it.

How long before we get pulled back in? Not long, I'll wager. Trying to get out that last 100 Americans.

There were no evacuees left behind on the tarmac but McKenzie admitted: “There’s a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out.” He said that would now be the task of the diplomats.

Good luck with that.

“The Taliban has made commitments on safe passage and the world will hold them to their commitments.”

Read: Military.

The best-equipped military in the history of the world, turned out to be no match for the patience of a brutal, unrelenting Taliban.

“You have the watches,” the Taliban are fond of saying. “We have the time.”

  Guardian

UPDATE:

Despicable prick

Whatever happened to Trump's campaign stance of ending all foreign wars?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

This country gets scarier by the day

Happy Birthday and RIP Molly Ivins (8/30/44 - 1/31/07)

Missing Molly

Speaking in Berkeley 2004

I'm coming up short on pity

Caleb Wallace, 30, who created the San Angelo Freedom Defenders, a group that held a rally to combat "COVID-19 tyranny," died after spending more than a month in the hospital, according to a message posted by his wife, Jessica Wallace, on a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover his hospital bills.

  The Hill

A vaccination and mask would have been a lot cheaper.

Caleb Wallace was a staunch critic of wearing masks to curb the spread of the virus, frequently questioning the science behind face coverings and dismissing them as an effective way to fight the pandemic.

He organized a “Freedom Rally” in July 2020 for people who were “sick of the government being in control of our lives,” the San Angelo Standard-Times reported.

[...]

Caleb Wallace reportedly started feeling symptoms associated with COVID-19 — shortness of breath, high fever and a dry cough — on July 26, and they worsened the next day, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.

He initially refused to go to the hospital and get tested for the virus, instead opting to take ivermectin — an anti-parasite medication used mostly in livestock that the Food and Drug Administration recently urged people not to take to treat COVID-19 — along with high doses of Vitamin C, zinc aspirin and an inhaler.

On July 30, however, a relative took him to the hospital, where he remained until his death.

I'd like to hear what he had to say those last few days.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

US retaliates against ISIS in Afghanistan - kills children

FUBAR.

The U.S. launched a drone strike on Sunday targeting a vehicle that presented an "imminent ISIS-K threat" to Kabul’s international airport, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said in a statement.

[...]

"Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material. We are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time."

[...]

President Biden said on Saturday that U.S. commanders in Afghanistan told him earlier in the day that the threat of another terrorist attack near Kabul's airport was "highly likely in the next 24-36 hours."

[...]

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul released an alert late Saturday that Americans should "immediately" leave the airport area due to "a specific, credible threat.

  Axios

And go where?

“U.S. military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International airport,” Navy Capt. Bill Urban, the Centcom spokesman, said in a statement Sunday morning.

“We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material,” he said. “We are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time. We remain vigilant for potential future threats.”

Earlier Sunday, the Taliban said that a U.S. airstrike targeted a suicide bomber in a vehicle Sunday who wanted to attack the Kabul international airport amid the American military’s evacuation there.

There were few initial details about the incident, as well as a rocket that struck a neighborhood just northwest of the airport, killing a child.

  Air Force Times

The Sunday drone strike comes after the U.S. said it killed two ISIS-K targets on Friday night in response to the Kabul airport bombing, which killed as many as 170 people, in addition to 13 U.S. service members.

President Joe Biden has given the Pentagon the “green light” to strike any targets affiliated with the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, ISIS-K, the group responsible for the attack, without seeking White House approval, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the operation.

Senior Pentagon leaders already had this authority, but Biden reaffirmed it in instructions to the military on Friday, one of the officials said.

The president’s “guidance is to just do it,” the person said. “If we find more, we will strike them.”

[...]

As of Saturday, more than 117,000 people have been evacuated, with a majority being Afghans, according to Taylor. Approximately 5,400 evacuees are American citizens.

"Despite the treacherous situation in Kabul, we are continuing to evacuate civilians, Biden said Saturday. "Yesterday, we brought out another 6,800 people, including hundreds of Americans. And today, we discussed the ongoing preparations to help people continue to leave Afghanistan after our military departs."

The Pentagon on Saturday released the names of the 13 U.S. servicemembers killed in the airport suicide bombing, whose remains were being flown to the United States.

The 11 Marines are Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah; Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts; Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California; Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska; Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana; Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas; Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri; Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming; Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, and Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California. Also killed were Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio, and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee.

  Politico

UPDATE:

The attack happened on the same Kabul street where the extended family lived, adding to the bloodshed and chaos of the last days of the US military presence. Among the dead were three children aged two, two children aged three and two older children.

Reports from Kabul suggested some of the children had run out to greet one of the adults killed, an NGO worker, as he returned home.

A relative of the victims, Ramin Yousufi, told the BBC that the youngest victim was two-year-old Sumaya, and the oldest child was Farzad, 12.

“It’s wrong, it’s a brutal attack, and it’s happened based on wrong information,” he told the broadcaster. “Why have they killed our family? Our children? They are so burnt out we cannot identify their bodies, their faces.”

Another relative said the family had applied for evacuation to the US and were waiting to be called to Kabul airport.

US military officials continued to insist that the strike hit an IS car bomb, pointing to “secondary explosions” at the scene. That conflicted with reports from Kabul that the targeted vehicle belonged to a civilian and that children were in it when it was struck by a missile from a US drone.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, announced an investigation, adding: “We take steps to avoid civilian casualties in every scenario, probably more than almost any country in the world.”

  Guardian

Probably. That sounds better than Trump bluster. But let's face it, we drop bombs on more people than any other country in the world. So there's that

UPDATE 9/12:  The target was a man with his family delivering water.

UPDATE 9/17:

Stand by intel leading to a strike on 10 civilians?  The target was a man delivering water to his home. His kids were collateral damage when they came out to help him.

Hurricane Ida giving Afghanistan fiasco a break

Powerful Hurricane Ida slammed onto the Louisiana coast Sunday, a Category 4 storm wielding winds of 150 mph, life-threatening storm surge and potentially catastrophic rainfall.

[...]

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said the storm could be the most powerful to pound the state in more than 160 years. Hurricane Katrina, which flooded most of New Orleans, killing almost 2,000 people and causing damages estimated at $125 billion, made landfall 16 years ago to the day – as a Category 3 storm.

Edwards acknowledged Sunday that the state faced a difficult few weeks. But he said levees rebuilt in the wake of Katrina should stand up to the challenge and help minimize the carnage.

"All the models that we've seen ... show the hurricane storm damage risk reduction system will hold and perform as intended," Gov. John Bel Edwards said. "Will it be tested? Yes. But it was built for this moment."

  MSN

Judge Parker slays the Kraken

Federal Judge Linda Parker came down HARD on [attorneys Lin] Wood and [Sidney] Powell, ordering they be referred for a "professional conduct investigation" in the states in which they are barred, which could lead to their disbarment.

[...]

“This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process. It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.”

[...]

Lesser known attorneys, including: Julia Haller, Emily Newman, Brandon Johnson, Howard Kleinhendler, Scott Hagerstrom, Gregory Rohl, and Stefanie Lynn Junttila [were also sanctioned].

[...]

In addition to possible disbarment, the "Kraken" lawyers will also need to pay for 12 hours of continuing legal education (CLE classes) on pleading standards and election law.

  Crooks & Liars

Haller and Newman were former Trump officials, serving in Housing and Urban Development and Homeland Security, respectively. Kleinhendler has taken up multiple causes of the political right after the election, which were ripped apart by federal judges.

[...]

“Plaintiffs’ lawyers brazenly assert that they ‘would file the same complaints again,'” her ruling notes. “They make this assertion even after witnessing the events of January 6 and the dangers posed by narratives like the one counsel crafted here. An attorney who willingly continues to assert claims doomed to fail, and which have incited violence before, must be deemed to be acting with an improper motive.”sFull of indignation and spanning 110 pages, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker‘s ruling reads like a treatise on the judiciary’s role in protecting the democratic process.

[...]

Parker’s pronouncement was similarly unequivocal that “this case was never about fraud,” a phrase she emphasized in italics.

“[I]t was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” she added, in her own emphasis.

“While there are many arenas—including print, television, and social media—where protestations, conjecture, and speculation may be advanced, such expressions are neither permitted nor welcomed in a court of law,” she added in her ruling. “And while we as a country pride ourselves on the freedoms embodied within the First Amendment, it is well-established that an attorney’s freedom of speech is circumscribed upon ‘entering’ the courtroom.”

[...]

“Once it appeared that their preferred political candidate’s grasp on the presidency was slipping away, Plaintiffs’ counsel helped mold the predetermined narrative about election fraud by lodging this federal lawsuit based on evidence that they actively refused to investigate or question with the requisite level of professional skepticism—and this refusal was to ensure that the evidence conformed with the predetermined narrative (a narrative that has had dangerous and violent consequences),” her ruling states. “Plaintiffs’ counsel’s politically motivated accusations, allegations, and gamesmanship may be protected by the First Amendment when posted on Twitter, shared on Telegram, or repeated on television. The nation’s courts, however, are reserved for hearing legitimate causes of action.”

[...]

“Indeed, attorneys take an oath to uphold and honor our legal system,” Parker wrote. “The sanctity of both the courtroom and the litigation process are preserved only when attorneys adhere to this oath and follow the rules, and only when courts impose sanctions when attorneys do not. And despite the haze of confusion, commotion, and chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs’ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way.”

[...]

Parker also ordered that the attorneys pay [legal] fees.

  Law and Crime

And Bobby Kennedy is still dead

Out in time to see and partake of what his pivotal act created.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

You know what's dividing this country?

This shit...

If you won't get vaccinated for any reason other than medical, then you should have to give up your hospital bed when someone else needs it for a condition they couldn't prevent with a simple vaccination.

Another Jan 6 civil suit

As soon as the GOP retakes the House, Joe Biden will be impeached

Breyer needs to step down NOW

The debacle in Afghanistan (plus the census gerrymandering to come) has most likely handed the GOP the Senate and probably the House as well in 2022. If the Dems want to have any victories at all, they've got two years to win them.

[Supreme Court Justice Stephen] Breyer, who at 83 years old is the oldest member sitting on the court, has been cagey about any potential retirement plans in the face of a political pressure campaign to get him to step down while Democrats control the White House and the Senate.

In an interview with the New York Times timed to the release of his forthcoming book, Breyer indicated he is still weighing his decision.

[...]

Breyer also expressed reservations about proposals to dramatically alter the Supreme Court, such as expanding the number of justices as some progressives have suggested. The justice said proponents should “think twice, at least,” before such an undertaking.

“If A can do it, B can do it. And what are you going to have when you have A and B doing it?” he said.

Breyer said his concern is that such machinations risk undermining the court’s legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

  Politico

Read the room, pal. That's already been done.

Breyer also signaled that he did not want to follow in the path of Scalia or Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both of whom died while serving on the Supreme Court in recent years. Those vacancies immediately became bitter political battles that were ultimately won by Republicans and shifted the ideological balance of the court to the right.

“I don’t think I’m going to stay there till I die — hope not,” Breyer said.

We ALL hope not.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The count

The number of Afghans killed in a suicide bomb attack on Kabul airport on Thursday has risen to 79, a hospital official told Reuters on Friday.

More than 120 people were wounded, some were still in hospital but many had returned home, the official said.

US forces helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee new Taliban rule were on alert on Friday after the Islamic State attack, which also killed 13 US.service members.

  The Guardian

Thirteen!

As I write this, the count of Afghans killed has risen to 169.  ISIS have claimed responsibility. Biden may not be the only one to blame, but he'll be the one to shoulder it. And this:

US President Joe Biden said “there may have been” a list of names of vulnerable Afghans given to the Taliban in an effort to facilitate United States evacuations from the country, as reported by an American news site.

  alJazeera

Are you fucking kidding me?

The comments came after Biden was asked about a Politico news site report on Thursday that said the US provided the names of American citizens, green-card holders, and Afghans eligible for expedited US visas to the Taliban to help those fleeing the country gain access to the airport.

[...]

“There may have been. But I know of no circumstance. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, that here’s the names of 12 people, they’re coming, let them through. It could very well have happened,” said Biden.

Making it absolutely obvious that it did.

Meanwhile, a United Nations report warned last week the Taliban was intensifying its search for people who supported American and NATO forces.

Afghan campaigners have been engaged in climate activism and social justice work in their country.

“Everybody is scared and feeling quite hopeless as the situation is rapidly deteriorating,” said Sarah Greenfield Clark, co-founder of Climate 2025, a non-profit that supports emerging movements.

“We need help. Fridays for Future is a relatively new organisation. We need better links with established humanitarian NGOs and experienced contacts to help us put these names on evacuation lists,” Greenfield Clark said on the phone from London. “These people’s lives are in danger.”

FFF activists have been trying to get the names and details of Afghan campaigners and their families on to evacuation lists with officials coordinating flights and aid agencies.

But eight days after the first calls for help were made, there had been no response, said those working on the rescue.

“Countries around the world are now indicating a withdrawal of state forces from Afghanistan over the coming days, leaving many FFF activists in grave danger,” Fridays for Future said in a statement, calling for a coordinated humanitarian effort as time runs out.

“Me and the other activists feel as though we are being abandoned, even by the organisations we have worked closely with over the years,” an unnamed 24-year-old climate campaigner based in Kabul was quoted as saying in FFF’s statement.

“We feel that no one can know what we are going through, and that the rest of the world will just continue on as normal and we will be completely forgotten about after [August] 31st. No one has the will to help us,” the activist added.

  Guardian

UPDATE:

FUBAR

Warnings of an ISIS attack were accurate.

Multiple U.S. troops and civilians were injured when two explosions shook the area outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in rapid succession this morning, where the United States and NATO allies had been evacuating thousands of people from the city, the Pentagon confirmed.

[...]

Kirby also confirmed a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, roughly 300 meters from the site of the first detonation. British troops had been using the hotel as a base for evacuating UK personnel.

An ISIS militant wearing a suicide vest was responsible for the first bombing, two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the situation told POLITICO, detonating around 5 p.m. local time just outside Abbey gate.

  Politico

So will Biden send in more troops? Are we back in the war?

NATO troops have been ordered to leave the airport gates immediately, two people said.

[...]

On Wednesday evening local time in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued an alert warning Americans to avoid the area “[b]ecause of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport.”

Less than an hour before confirming the explosion, Kirby said the evacuation was continuing and committed to relocating “as many people as we can until the end of the mission.”

As of early Thursday morning, the White House said the total number of people evacuated from Kabul since the operation began on Aug. 14 was 95,700, including 13,400 in the last 24 hours.

[...]

In the last day, the Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, had denied that an airport attack had been imminent, telling The Associated Press about the warnings: “It’s not correct.”

We have gotten ourselves into a nightmare.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Conservative Supreme Court reinstates Trump's 'Stay in Mexico' immigration policy

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oooops

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

To be clear: Republicans are the problem

In all states.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

To be clear: Republicans are the problem

At least in Florida.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Collecting the receipts

UPDATE:

Follow Scott MacFarlane

Agencies are also asked to relay “all documents and communications related to the mental stability of Donald Trump or his fitness for office” following Jan. 6, when a mob of the Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

The documents, if provided, could offer new insight into whether former Vice President Pence and Trump’s Cabinet members were considering taking action following numerous reports that administration officials were considering invoking the 25th Amendment during Trump’s last two weeks in office.

During that period, the House passed a symbolic measure encouraging Pence to invoke the amendment. Pence responded at the time by saying he did not believe “such a course of action is in the best interest of our nation.”

[...]

The committee also appears to be searching for any resistance Trump may have faced near the end of his administration, asking numerous agencies for communications “relating to defying orders from the president.”

  The Hill

NC stirs the pot

Judges have restored voting rights to an estimated 55,000 North Carolinians on parole or probation for a felony.

GOP state lawmakers, who were defending the law in court, plan to appeal Monday’s ruling to a higher court. But if the ruling is upheld on appeal, then people convicted of felonies in North Carolina will regain their right to vote once they leave prison.

  Raleigh News & Observer

They'll appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court and hope their once hoped tools will rule in their favor.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Advice to the Ivermectin crowd

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh my

His company is not big enough to continue without him???

UPDATE:  Cyber Ninjas has five members.  Two others are also sick.

No wonder the GOP is desperate to restrict voting

Dare we hope?

What will the Senate do?

He won't do that again

Vaccination encouragement will be thrown out of his repertoire.  He audience-tested it and it flopped.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Bingo.

It's Sunday

Afghanistan: The bottom line

Americans stuck in Afghanistan

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a security alert on Saturday cautioning Americans seeking to evacuate Afghanistan about going to the airport in the country's capital, citing “potential security threats.”

[...]

“Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” the alert stated.

  The Hill

It's going to be hard to leave if you can't travel to the airport.

The embassy alert Saturday followed another issued three days earlier that warned the U.S. “cannot ensure safe passage” to the airport in Kabul. “The security situation in Kabul continues to change quickly, including at the airport,” that alert read.

[...]

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on a call Friday afternoon that he was “aware” that Afghans and Americans who were trying to make their way to the airport in Kabul “have been harassed or even beaten by the Taliban.”

Austin's remarks contrasted with President Biden's comments earlier Friday at the White House, when he claimed “where we have seen challenges for Americans we have thus far been able to resolve them.”

"We have no indication that they haven't been able to get in Kabul through the airport," Biden asserted of Americans, despite reporting on the ground indicating chaos at Taliban checkpoints. "We've made an agreement with the Taliban. Thus far, they've allowed them to go through."

[...]

Biden said on Friday that the U.S. would do “everything that we can to provide safe evacuation for our Afghan allies, partners, and Afghans who might be targeted because of their association with the United States.”

It's looking like we can't do enough.

Embassy staff on Saturday urged Americans and their relatives who have not filled out their repatriation assistance requests to fill out the form as quickly as possible and told U.S. citizens not to contact the embassy about details regarding their flights.

I have to wonder why all of this wasn't being done since the moment Trump made the deal with the Taliban (leaving then presdient Ghani out of the deal-making altogether) to pull out troops.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

FBI finds no organized plot for the January 6 coup attempt

Despite the adoption of the term by many in the media, there has been a growing disconnect with the actual cases in court. Indeed, a new report from Reuters disclosed that the FBI has apparently struggled to support the account of a coordinated “insurrection” on Jan. 6. Reuters’ FBI sources said that, despite months of intense investigation, they could find "scant evidence" of any "organized plot" and instead found that virtually all of the cases are “one-offs.” One agent explained: “Ninety to 95 percent of these are one-off cases. Then you have 5 percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages."

In other words, they found a protest that became a runaway riot as insufficient security preparations quickly collapsed. While there clearly were those set upon trashing the Capitol, most people were shown milling about in the halls; many took selfies and actively described the scene on social media.

  The Hill

So, if it wasn't an organized plot, and they didn't go there with the intent to storm the capitol, doesn't that strengthen the case for charging Trump with incitement to violence?

More than 570 people have been arrested, but only 40 face conspiracy charges. Those charges are often based on prior discussions about trying to enter Congress or bringing material to use in the riot; some clearly came prepared for rioting with ropes, chemical irritants and other materials.

Sounds like a coordinated insurrection to me.

Many of us remain disgusted and angered by the Jan. 6 riot — but it was a riot. It also was a desecration. These people deserve to be punished, particularly those who went with an intent to try to enter the Congress. The question is whether you can have an insurrection without anyone actually insurrecting. That Zen-like question may find its way into the hearings of some pending cases.

Their intent was to stop Joe Biden being inaugurated and keep Trump in the White House. They entered the Congress because that's where the final tally was being officiated, claiming to be ready to kill people to stop it.

Calling these people “rioters" does not minimize what they did — or undermine the legitimacy of their punishment. However, there is wisdom and even the chance for resolution when we “call things by their proper name.”

Yes. They were insurrectionists.

Guess who wrote this article? Jonathan Turley.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Afghanistan: The Guardian online front page August 21, 2021

Links:

‘Trapped in hell’: Kabul airport chaos casts doubt on US promise of safe evacuation

Taliban: Top leader flies into Kabul to establish new Afghan regime

US: Biden to ‘mobilize every resource’ to get Americans home

Australia: Rescue missions hampered by Taliban violence

Europe: Greece extends border wall to deter Afghans trying to reach Europe

Refugees: How many are being evacuated and where to?

Afghanistan: Desperate crowds, empty flights and rage in Afghanistan at governments who failed to plan

Cleaning up Trump's mess

A widely used pesticide that could cause potential health issues in children will no longer be used on food in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday, reversing a Trump-era decision not to ban the controversial chemical.

"Today EPA is taking an overdue step to protect public health. Ending the use of chlorpyrifos on food will help to ensure children, farmworkers, and all people are protected from the potentially dangerous consequences of this pesticide," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

"After the delays and denials of the prior administration, EPA will follow the science and put health and safety first," he added. The statement said the agency would revoke all "tolerances" for chlorpyrifos, which is used on crops including soybeans, broccoli, cauliflower, and fruit and nut trees and also has "non-food uses." The chemical has "been associated with potential neurological effects in children," the statement said.

  CNN

Wrong target

And they should be reimbursed.  But not by Arizona taxpayers.  They should be reimbursed by the Arizona Republican Party.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

This will probably raise the vaccination rate...

Nikki Haley is still a turd in a cesspool

Treasury trying to block Taliban access to its money

They could probably sell some of the helicopters and other heavy defense equipment they scored from the Americans to cover it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Haiti can never catch a break

Jesus Fucking Christ

We couldn't even manage to protect identity devices???

THE TALIBAN HAVE seized U.S. military biometrics devices that could aid in the identification of Afghans who assisted coalition forces, current and former military officials have told The Intercept.

The devices, known as HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment, were seized last week during the Taliban’s offensive, according to a Joint Special Operations Command official and three former U.S. military personnel, all of whom worried that sensitive data they contain could be used by the Taliban. HIIDE devices contain identifying biometric data such as iris scans and fingerprints, as well as biographical information, and are used to access large centralized databases. It’s unclear how much of the U.S. military’s biometric database on the Afghan population has been compromised.

[...]

“We processed thousands of locals a day, had to ID, sweep for suicide vests, weapons, intel gathering, etc.” a U.S. military contractor explained. “[HIIDE] was used as a biometric ID tool to help ID locals working for the coalition.”

  The Intercept

That's it. No more foreign intervention. The United States military is incompetent to operate in foreign countries. And we aren't even competent to get those people out. Hide is all they can do. Their lives are forfeit. And probably the lives of their relatives. For the love of Pete.

A spokesperson for the Defense Intelligence Agency referred questions to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which did not respond to a request for comment.

I bet not.

Because this was not bad enough:

Billions of dollars of U.S. weapons are now in the hands of the Taliban following the quick collapse of Afghan security forces that were trained to use the military equipment.

Among the items seized by the Taliban are Black Hawk helicopters and A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft.

Photos have also circulated of Taliban fighters clutching U.S.-made M4 carbines and M16 rifles instead of their iconic AK-47s. And the militants have been spotted with U.S. Humvees and mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles.

[...]

“Clearly, this is an indictment of the U.S. security cooperation enterprise broadly,” [said Elias Yousif, deputy director of the Center for International Policy’s Security Assistance Monitor]. “It really should raise a lot of concerns about what is the wider enterprise that is going on every single day, whether that's in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia.”

[...]

It is unclear exactly how many weapons have fallen into the hands of the Taliban, but the Biden administration has acknowledged it’s a “fair amount.”

  The Hill

Oh, it's more than fair.

Jesus wept

More than one way to skin a cat

 

UPDATE:  Ditto another school district.

No comment

 

Could the Taliban really modernize? Give women some rights?

Taliban have sought to portray themselves as more moderate than when they imposed a brutal rule in the late 1990s. But many Afghans remain skeptical.

[...]

The Taliban declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee their rule.

  NPR

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Don't blame the CDC

We were woefully unprepared.  (And we had an incompetent and resistant president.)

The CDC relies on states to identify and monitor viral outbreaks that, if uncontrolled, can kill thousands of people. But the coronavirus exposed a patchwork system in which state officials struggled to control the spread of Covid-19 because their outdated surveillance systems did not allow them to collect and analyze data in real-time.

[...]

Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC under President Barack Obama, acknowledged the failings at a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in March: “Our nation had a patchwork of underfunded, understaffed, poorly coordinated health departments and decades out-of-date data systems — none of which were equipped to handle a modern-day public health crisis.”

[...]

The same problems may be even more threatening in the next act of the Covid drama.

  Politico

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Reversing the reversal

A federal judge has ordered the Biden administration to reinstate the "Remain in Mexico" policy that had been put in place by the Trump administration, stating that President Biden's White House had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in ending the program.

As CBS News reported, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said in his ruling on Friday that the Biden administration had violated procedural laws and failed to see "several of the main benefits" of the Remain in Mexico policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).

In June, the Biden administration formally ended Trump's immigration policy, which required asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico as their cases awaited trial in the U.S.

Biden suspended the program on his first day in office.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Saigon revisited

That'll be an anti-Biden clip on a never-ending loop.

Whoa, North Carolina, are you sure you want to move this fast?

"We will have moved the needle and made North Carolina no longer at the very bottom of the barrel of states," said Drew Reisinger, the register of deeds in Buncombe County. But, he said, "we're still going to be putting a lot of children in harm's way."

  NPR

No shit.

The state is currently one of 13 that allow children under 16 to wed. [...] Nine of those states have no set minimum age, the group says, relying instead on case law or a judge's ruling.

[...]

Under current North Carolina law, children as young as 14 can get married if they become pregnant and if a judge allows it. Otherwise, children can wed as young as 16 with parental permission. Alaska is the only other state whose law expressly allows marriages as young as 14.

[...]

Sawyer sponsored a bill that would have raised the age to 18. Instead, a compromise measure that won unanimous support from the Senate in May and the House this week would raise the minimum marriage age to 16 with no exceptions, including pregnancy. And even those 16 or 17 would need parental permission or a judge's decision that the marriage would "serve the best interest of an underage party."

There'll be some judges who become known for their "leniency".

The legislation needs one more Senate vote before heading to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's desk, probably this week, where it's likely to be signed into law.

Unchained at Last and the International Center for Research on Women are among groups pushing states to raise the marriage age to 18, with no exceptions. Six states have reached that standard — most recently New York last month.

Not a good spot to be in

President Biden announced on Saturday that the U.S. would send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan to assist with evacuating U.S. personnel amid a rapidly deteriorating situation as the Taliban continue to overtake major provinces and cities in the region.

[...]



The president added that around 5,000 troops would be deployed to help draw down its embassy staff and evacuate Afghans — more troops than the 3,000 previously announced would be deployed for the effort on Thursday.

A Defense official told Reuters that only 1,000 new troops would be added to the country. The number includes the 3,000 troops scheduled to be deployed over the week and 1,000 troops already on the ground.   The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: