Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Just saw it. Time to retire, Mitch

[iam416]

With all these strokes going around why can't one land on Wiz? JFC. We can't catch a break.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Seconded.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Infinitied.

[THE_WIZARD_]

unbelievably harsh

[THE_WIZARD_]

How long before the Loons start blaming Idalia on MAGA/Climate Change...

[crashcourse]

along those lines--fast forward to judith curry climatologist from georgia tech

https://twitter.com/i/status/1696697568401424650

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Curry

[CGVT]

It is blowing quite a bit harder than when I took this video and there is a lot more debris in my yard now, but I think it will be past us in about an hour or two.

[AlabamAlum]

Glad everyone is okay.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Sounds like most of FL may have dodged a bullet...although I hear there is a lot of flooding. Two deaths from auto accidents. Could have been worse.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Two years after President Joe Biden’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, he still won’t take responsibility.

But the blame is unquestionable and not just because the buck stops on his desk.

Biden literally set the dates for the pullout — unbelievably choosing Sept. 11 at first, before he got talked into an Aug. 31 deadline.

And he repeatedly overruled his top military advisers on what to abandon when, crucially pulling US forces from the Bagram base (in the middle of the night!) far too soon for the safety of Americans still in Kabul.

His team knew it was handing the country back to the Taliban, but for months, until the withdrawal started to go wrong, it blithely assumed the enemy wouldn’t immediately advance as the Americans — including civilians at Bagram critical to the Afghan Army’s airpower — left.



So as the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban entered Kabul in late August, the Bidenites had no Plan B. President

After decades schmoozing overseas as a senator and then veep, Biden deemed himself a total foreign-policy expert: “One aide recalled that he would say, ‘You foreign-policy guys, you think this is all pretty complicated. But it’s just like family dynamics.’ Diplomacy, in Biden’s view, was akin to persuading a pain-in-the-ass uncle to stop drinking so much.”

He played military genius, too: By ordering the pullout in the fall, he set it in prime campaigning season, with the Taliban utterly free to move right in as the Afghan Army disintegrated. Protesters shout anti-US slogans during a protest condemning President Joe Biden’s decision on frozen Afghan assets. AP
Indeed, as Foer reports, “The Taliban leadership didn’t want to invade Kabul until after the American departure. But their soldiers had conquered territory without even firing a shot.” The troops walked to the city’s gates — and then right on in. “In their path, Afghan soldiers simply walked away from checkpoints. Taliban units kept drifting in the direction of the presidential palace.”

White House directives had left Gen. Frank McKenzie without the US troops to control the city, so Washington had to basically ask the Taliban to take over, shocking Taliban Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar: “Because he didn’t speak English, he wanted his adviser to confirm his understanding. ‘Is he saying that he won’t attack us if we go in?’ His adviser told him that he had heard correctly.”

And in the final chaotic days, Biden . . . micromanaged: “The president’s instinct was to throw himself into the intricacies of troubleshooting. Why don’t we have them meet in parking lots? Can’t we leave the airport and pick them up?” — obliging top aides to “kick around Biden’s proposed solutions with colleagues to determine their plausibility, which was usually low.”

He even demanded that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan focus on tracking individual cases: “Three buses of women at the Kabul Serena Hotel kept running into logistical obstacles. [Biden] told Sullivan, ‘I want to know what happens to them. I want to know when they make it to the airport.’ When the president heard these stories, he would become engrossed in solving the practical challenge of getting people to the airport, mapping routes through the city.”

Despite it all, Biden couldn’t see the big picture: “So much of the commentary felt overheated to him. He said to an aide: Either the press is losing its mind, or I am.”

Hmm.

It wasn’t the press.

Only meeting family of soldiers who’d died seemed to wake him up: “Of all the moments in August, this was the one that caused the president to second-guess himself. He asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki: Did I do something wrong? Maybe I should have handled that differently.”

[THE_WIZARD_]

The entire Biden Administration has been one unmitigated disaster. We should have listened to Obama when he was quoted saying "...never underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up..."

[CGVT]

BDS

[THE_WIZARD_]

heh

[Dr. Strangelove]

As dumb as the Michigan GOP is, fellas, Arizona gives them a run for their money.