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Afghan chaos undercuts Biden's promise of competence


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2021 Aug 18, 2:48pm   161,699 views  1,308 comments

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The shambolic unravelling of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan comes from a yet to be written textbook of "how to lose at everything". Warnings hadn't been heeded, intelligence was clearly totally inadequate, planning was lamentable, execution woeful.

Let's just focus in on one thing - although there are any number that are worthy of examination.
The withdrawal came during the "fighting season" - a phrase I have to say I have always found rather odd. But in Afghanistan there is a fighting season which starts in spring - and then in winter, when the country freezes over, there is a time when the Taliban go home to their tribal homelands. Did no-one think that it might have been better to have ordered the withdrawal for the dead of winter when Taliban forces weren't there, poised to fill the vacuum?

The end result might have been the same - a Taliban takeover - but it would have almost certainly led to a more orderly drawdown. Yet the Biden administration wanted an eye-catching date. They wanted the withdrawal completed by 11 September. Twenty years on from 9/11 - an artificial, self-imposed deadline.

...

Biden's election campaign could be boiled down to three messages to distinguish himself from Donald Trump. First, he would be more empathetic. He would be more competent. And instead of "America First", it would be replaced by the mantra "America is back".
But in his address yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of empathy towards the thousands of Afghans who've helped Americans these past 20 years. On competence, even his biggest cheerleaders would struggle to say the withdrawal of American troops has been anything other than shambolic.
And after the bewildering events of the past few days, how exactly is America back?

...

But on the policy itself, Joe Biden is utterly defiant. He summoned up his inner Harry Truman and made clear in his speech that the buck stops with him. He was, however, happy to distribute blame in much the same way that a muck spreader disperses manure in all directions. The Afghan leadership weren't up to it, the Afghan armed forces had no fight in them; Donald Trump had negotiated a bad deal.

...

A fascinating nugget from a briefing that's just been given by Joe Biden's National Security Adviser. Since the fall of Kabul, Jake Sullivan revealed, Biden hadn't spoken to another world leader. Wasn't that just a bit surprising, given that there were a lot of other nations - including Britain - who'd committed vast resources to Afghanistan?

...

When the G7 gathered in Cornwall and the Nato nations met in Brussels the sense of relief was palpable among the prime ministers and presidents that a more outward looking American president was in charge. But given what has unfolded - how America has been humiliated, how Joe Biden embarked on a policy he was cautioned against by these leaders - there is now a good deal more wariness.
And who will feel they have gained most from America's departure - apart from the Taliban, of course? Why, three countries near Afghanistan - Russia, Iran and China. I'm not sure that is what Joe Biden had in mind when he said after his inauguration that "America is back".



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58252174?source=patrick.net

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1148   Patrick   2024 Mar 31, 3:24pm  

https://sashastone.substack.com/p/biden-admin-deliberately-provokes


As a former Democrat, it was easy for me to see the strategy. Provoke the Right, get all of the self-important narcissists on social media to harumph and huff and puff, and just like that, you’ve rallied the base. Political viagra for a dying campaign. It’s just so cynical. So cruel.

The reaction is the action. ...

As I’ve said before, the Christians were on the right side of history during slavery and they’re on the right side of history now. Going to war on them, as the Biden administration is doing, just means that the Democrats will own every terrible thing that comes next. All of the lawsuits. All of the documentaries. All of the memoirs. Do not let them slime their way out of it. They had all of the information they needed to protect kids and they refused.

Children growing up in America now have no way out. They are encouraged to head down this path and only the strongest of parents can stop them. Everywhere they look, they see the same messaging, that there is something wrong with being straight or heterosexual or white. Since they can’t un-white themselves, all they can change is their gender. If they change that, suddenly, they are in one of the sacred, protected groups and are celebrated on a day like today. ...

There doesn’t seem to be any way out except to elect Republicans to, at the very least, separate this ideology from government, and from public schools. And again, if this ideology was not directly harming women, girls and boys I would not care. You do you. But that isn’t what’s happening.

Children’s programming, books, and movies are now required to be “inclusive” so that everyone must accept their cult-like mandate that children choose their own genders and that they’ll kill themselves if they aren’t allowed to take puberty blockers and head toward sterilization.

They grow up with this madness being shoved down their throats and very few people who have the courage to stand up and say STEP OFF YOU CULTISH FREAKS. Not on my watch. No, instead we have compliant, mealy-mouthed cowards who are too afraid of being called transphobic and having their careers ruined.

Billboard Chris is out there every single day fighting for kids. And God bless him.

We need an army of Billboard Chris’s. We don’t have them. So we have to vote the Democrats out. It’s not going to be easy. They have all the power and the money. The one thing they don’t have is the truth. As long as their ideology is rooted in fanaticism and delusion, it will eventually collapse.

What they have coming is entirely of their own making. They have made it impossible for reasonable people to be both accepting and protective. They’ve pushed all of us too far. And now, they’ll have to suffer the consequences.

Anyway, Happy Easter.
1150   Patrick   2024 Mar 31, 9:05pm  

https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/pawn-shop-inventories-are-exploding-as-the-failing-u-s-economy-hammers-those-at-the-bottom-of-the-economic-food-chain/


When the economy is doing well, pawn shop inventories tend to go down because people aren’t pawning much stuff and there is lots of buying going on.

But when the economy is not doing well, pawn shop inventories tend to go up because people are pawning lots of stuff for fast cash and there aren’t as many buyers as there were during the good times.

So what are we seeing during the early stages of 2024?

One pawn shop owner that was recently interviewed by USA Today admitted that he has “a glut of inventory” right now…


Pretty much every poor person should be able to clearly see how disastrous Biden's occupation of the White House has been for them personally.
1152   HeadSet   2024 Apr 1, 6:22am  

Patrick says

Pretty much every poor person should be able to clearly see how disastrous Biden's occupation of the White House has been for them personally.

That is working poor. The single mom managing a department at Target sees this. The folks on welfare or federal checks see pay raises to compensate. Even so, Dem voters blame "greedy corporations" for high prices.
1158   Patrick   2024 Apr 10, 3:29pm  

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/consequences-day-april-xx-2024-c


Thanks, Joe Biden! The Wall Street Journal ran a story yesterday headlined, “Russia and China Double Down on Defying U.S.” I would just like to take a moment to point out, don’t cancel me, that Russia and China were always adversaries until Joe Biden invaded the White House. Just saying.

Days after Joe Biden “urgently” called President Xi on Friday — for the first time since 2022 — and warned the Chinese leader to stop helping Russia or else face sanctions, and we mean it this time, Russia and China yesterday publicly pledged to “deepen their growing alliance and shared opposition to what they describe as the U.S.’s attempts to dominate the world order.”

While NATO leaders increase their deranged threats to supply another $100 billion to Ukraine and even send NATO troops there, Russia and China are sending a clear message that Russia will not face NATO alone in the event of a direct kinetic conflict. That is a clear message that, unfortunately, Joe Biden cannot hear, since the batteries in his hearing aids have run down.

In the aftermath of Joe’s sanctions catastrophe against Russia, which just poured jet fuel into Russia’s economy while leading the United States’ economy to the brink of a tall cliff, the Biden Administration’s threats to sanction China seem particularly hollow:

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen repeated Biden’s concerns during a visit to China this week, telling officials that Chinese companies that aid in Russia’s military procurement “will face significant consequences.”

Please, no more significant consequences. I don’t know how many more “significant consequences” we can take.
1177   Patrick   2024 Apr 29, 12:01pm  

https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/pep-talk-on-a-dark-day


What’s most appalling is that our governing apparatus is visibly willing that to happen. When Barack Obama warned America to not underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to fuck things up, was that some kind of joke? After all, it was Mr. Obama and his fellow blobsters — the cabal of Intel spooks, covert Marxist bureaucrats, lawfare ninjas, globalist megalomaniacs, post-liberal think tankers, weapons grifters, degenerate billionaires, and assorted mentally-ill camp followers — who inflicted Joe Biden on the body politic. And then ran him on the country like some demon algorithm designed to wreck the USA as fast as possible. ...

And how did the opposition to that epic divergence into bad faith turn so flabby? How did the Republican Party roll over and wheeze so feebly while the FBI ran amok swatting grandmothers in dawn raids, and the US attorney general made justice a whore, and a Republican Congress allowed the Frankenstein agency of Homeland Security to flood the country with its enemies and give them gobs of operational cash? If Mr. Trump was unappetizing to them as a leader, why were they unable to produce an alternative figure of standing and stature at least equally resolute? They look like traitors and cowards. ...

Meanwhile, prepare for action. It’s obvious that the enemies of the people don’t intend to rest. They are going to try to play out this string to the last move because otherwise a lot of them will be going to jail, or might even hang for their wickedness. Once they turned criminal, there was no turning back. They have dishonored themselves and they’re trying to dishonor their country.
1184   Ceffer   2024 May 3, 10:02pm  

I have to admit, this one cracked me up.
Patrick says




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