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Afghan chaos undercuts Biden's promise of competence


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2021 Aug 18, 2:48pm   163,705 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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1263   Patrick   2024 Jul 3, 9:19pm  

https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/breaking-who-is-running-america-565


No White House since the Richard Nixon administration ever employed 500 staffers until Biden became president. The Biden White House employed 560 in FY2021; 474 in FY2022; 524 in FY2023; and the headcount increased by 41, to 565 this year.

Biden employs 152 more staffers than Trump (413) (FY2020) and 97 more than Obama (468) (FY2012) at the same point in their respective presidencies.
1266   Patrick   2024 Jul 13, 10:06am  

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/generic-vegetable-friday-july-12


Yesterday, President Generic Vegetable held what the White House disastrously called a “big boy” press conference — I am not making that up — and gaslighting corporate media mostly rated his performance at a six-point-five out of ten. But Joe’s regular-as-clockwork gaffes are now part of the entreé.

We begin with this fantastic headline and cover pic from the rollicking crew at the UK Daily Mail:




... Biden’s “big boy” press conference might be remembered better not for Joe’s malapropisms, but rather for the crowd’s reaction to them. Shortly before the press conference, Joe awkwardly introduced Ukraine’s former President Zelensky as “President Putin,” and the poor Eastern European bureaucrat’s facial expression was a mixture of sudden alarm and panic. ...

Continuing the theme, later in the presser Biden labeled Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.” The camera panned to his frozen cabinet, doing their best impressions of gothic statuary, but — their eyes. Their eyes gave it away. They clearly all wished they were anywhere else, willing their souls to leave their bodies and join Lloyd Austin’s unannounced visit to the hospital quiet room back in December, or perhaps mentally rehearsing their parole release appeal speeches. ..

True to form, the next drip dropped yesterday in a widely reported story that showed up in The Hill, headlined “Milwaukee radio station edited Biden interview before air, at campaign’s request.” The gist was that Biden’s handlers requested removal of two short segments of President Vegetable yammering semi-coherently about black folks, and the station obliged.

But the delayed disclosure of the deleted tapes was even worse for Biden than just airing the awkward segments would have been. Now, the two gaffes are getting even more attention than they would have otherwise, what with the Administration’s failed, Nixonian coverup.


What were the edited out remarks?
1267   HeadSet   2024 Jul 13, 11:08am  

Patrick says

What were the edited out remarks?

The first clip that was taken out of the original interview includes Biden saying he has “more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined, and in major positions, Cabinet positions.”

The second clip that was taken out of the interview is Biden talking about Trump’s call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five.

“I don’t know if they even call for their hanging or not, but he — but they said … convicted of murder,” Biden said.
1268   Patrick   2024 Jul 14, 9:28am  

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/still-strong-sunday-july-14-2024


The discussion of how the shooting affects presidential politics began within minutes. Axios ran a story this morning headlined, “Biden campaign faces delicate moment after shocking attack on Trump.” It reported that Biden’s campaign has understandably pulled down its campaign ads, since they universally described Trump as a Hitlerian dictator who must be stopped at all costs.

At minimum, it appears the Biden Campaign must develop a new slogan. ...

At least two lifelong democrat billionaires, already leaning Republican, were moved by the emotions of last night’s events to formally endorse Trump for President. Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Capital... And Elon Musk, who has been working himself up to it, but had not yet formally endorsed the President ...
1285   Patrick   2024 Jul 19, 2:00pm  

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/united-friday-july-19-2024-c-and


So … if Biden isn’t getting out, then what’s the story? The story is they are trying to push Biden down the short stairs, and fast. But Biden is acting like an elderly relative who can no longer be trusted to drive safely but refuses to hand over the car keys. It’s a problem.

Thus behold the democrats’ sneaky campaign of lying leaks and ugly whispers from anonymous sources to corporate media’s eager ears. It is nothing short of a Stalinist party purge of all Bidenites. The headlines ramped up the poisonous vitriol, and it was nearly impossible to find a single supportive headline.

All the Dems’ favorite tools of character assassination came out of the rhetorical Swiss Army Knife yesterday, beginning with appeals to authority. The Washington Post deployed Democrats’ favorite former president, running the headline, "Obama tells allies Biden’s path to winning reelection has greatly diminished.” The New Yorker invoked experts to do its dirty work: “Doctors Are Increasingly Worried About Biden.” ...

But the Democrats face an intractable problem. Joe Biden continues to publicly and loudly insist he is not dropping out and he’s going to keep driving as much as he wants. After all, Joe won fifty state primaries fair and square. What about democracy?

Like relatives who hate conflict and wonder what’s the harm of letting them keep driving, since they only go to bingo and the store, many rank-and-file democrats who just voted for Biden, and have been repeatedly reassured by experts that he remains “sharp as a tack,” are now baffled by the sudden, treacherous plot to boil President Cabbage. They smell a corporate media rat.

I checked in on some comments and discovered lots of regular voter sentiments like this one:




Now, that’s real unity! We’ve been trying to warn them that the corporate media monster they created would one day be turned on them.
1287   Patrick   2024 Jul 19, 5:23pm  

https://notthebee.com/article/biden-would-like-to-remind-you-that-he-nominated-the-black-man-as-the-secretary-of-defense-or-maybe-to-the-supreme-court-not-sure


Folks, this is Joe Biden doing his best during an interview with Black Entertainment Television:

And so, it's all about — it's all about treating people with dignity. And it's about making sure that we're coming — for example, look at the heat I'm getting because I named, a, uh, the, uh, secretary of defense, the black man — I named Ketanji Brown, I mean, because of the people I've named.
1288   Patrick   2024 Jul 19, 5:37pm  

https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/slowly-then-all-at-once


As the sun sets on “Joe Biden’s” career, what’s left of his campaign runs an ad in which he promises “to finish the job.” Sounds kind of sinister now, doesn’t it, like something a crime boss might tell his caporegimes? And for sure the country is suffering from this three-year-plus reign-of-terror against common sense and common decency. The wreckage is everywhere, all over this land. “Defending our Democracy,” my ass.

The party big dawgs have paid their terminal visit to the old grifter bringing the sad news that it’s over. Of course, this excites several new headaches for them. Foremost: how can “JB” bow out of the election on account of mental infirmity but still remain president? Even if they call it something else, make some other excuse, the whole world knows now that the president is gone in the head. There are six months remaining to the end of his term and a lot of urgent issues requiring a president’s attention. ...

But then there’s always HRC. She’s been laying back alertly, waiting for an opening to swoop in on her leathery wings and cast a fresh spell over the batshit-crazy women who, in recent times, comprise the party’s base. At one point, not many years ago, the party was broke and had to be bailed-out by the Clinton Foundation. To what extent does that entity still own the DNC, and especially its cargo of super-delegates? I guess we’re going to find out.

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