Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Biden himself
White House aka Political Staff
The Pentagon
Intelligence Agencies
State Dept

Obviously Biden's at the top so he takes the most heat but I don't know if he made this decision all by himself, if he listened to political advisors too much (Ron Klain perhaps), or if the Pentagon, CIA, or State fed him bad info that led him to genuinely believe the Afghan govt could hold its own into next year. Things are moving too fast and there's too much "cover your ass" already in motion to know who's predominantly to blame.

The evacuation is a mess. I'm guessing #2 is probably gonna happen too.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I have no idea why they didn't begin evacuating civilians prior to the start of the final 2500 troops shutting down shop. The only attempt to explain it I've seen says they thought if every American civilian ran for the exits, the Afghan Army and govt would've immediately collapsed. They thought the Afghans would hold out better if we "expressed confidence" in them. That was utterly delusional if that's why they chose to do what they did but I've heard no other explanation. I can't imagine the Pentagon recommended troops out first, then civilians after that, Mr. President.

[iam416]

The execution has “politics” written all over it. Not to say the military can’t fuck things up, but expediency was a political imperative driven by the Chairman himself (IMO).

[crashcourse]

ashli babbitt to me looked like she was smashing or breaking into a window that went down a hallway where the veep an a few congressman likely were attempt to escape

If you were at home and somebody smashed your window and you shot them you are well within your rights. same likely can be said for a capital police stopping intruders from entering a wing with as many congressman as there were

shame about watts, would have guess richards a long time ago. neil pert, eddie van halen, dusty hill, tom petty, all gone the last few years


you would have thought blinkin would know who the president of afghanistan was--he was only 6 years offhttps://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/us-secretary-state-antony-blinken-mistakens-ashraf-ghani-hamid-karzai-interview-slip-up-watch-1844299-2021-08-23

so they have flown out a shitload of afghanis the last week--maybe close to 100K? makes you wonder how close they are looking at these refugees or if they are flying out anybody who gets inside that airport--cant believe they would turn anybody away in that chaos if they got by the taliban checkpoints

[crashcourse]

heres a nice little list for you

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamand...h=1d22575341db

what Joe left behind
2,000 Armored Vehicles Including Humvees and MRAP’s
-75,989 Total Vehicles: FMTV, M35, Ford Rangers, Ford F350, Ford Vans, Toyota Pickups, Armored Security Vehicles etc
-45 UH-60 Blachhawk Helicopters
-50 MD530G Scout Attack Choppers
-ScanEagle Military Drones
-30 Military Version Cessnas
-4 C-130’s
-29 Brazilian made A-29 Super Tocano Ground Attack Aircraft
208+ Aircraft Total
-At least 600,000+ Small arms M16, M249 SAWs, M24 Sniper Systems, 50 Calibers, 1,394 M203 Grenade Launchers, M134 Mini Gun, 20mm Gatling Guns and Ammunition
-61,000 M203 Rounds
-20,040 Grenades
-Howitzers
-Mortars +1,000’s of Rounds
-162,000 pieces of Encrypted Military Comunications Gear
-16,000+ Night Vision Goggles
-Newest Technology Night Vision Scopes
-Thermal Scopes and Thermal Mono Googles
-10,000 2.75 inch Air to Ground Rockets
-Recconaissance Equipment (ISR)
-Laser Aiming Units
-Explosives Ordnance C-4, Semtex, Detonators, Shaped Charges, Thermite, Incendiaries, AP/API/APIT
-2,520 Bombs
-Administration Encrypted Cell Phones and Laptops all operational
-Pallets with Millions of Dollars in US Currency
-Millions of Rounds of Ammunition including but not limited to 20,150,600 rounds of 7.62mm, 9,000,000 rounds of 50.caliber
-Large Stockpile of Plate Carriers and Body Armor
-US Military HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment Biometrics
-Lots of Heavy Equipment Including Bull Dozers, Backhoes, Dump Trucks, Excavators

[Jeff Buchanan]

ATTN Jeff

For all of September and October, the Bahamas are banning any cruise ship from docking in its ports unless all passengers have been vaccinated. This is causing most of the major cruise to ignore the DeSantis edict and require proof of vaccination for anyone on a cruise that stops in the Bahamas. Would imagine other Caribbean countries could follow if they haven't already. Disney is the latest to comply with the Bahamian order

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisond...h=5cc4f4fc1866

DSL, there's a lot subtlety to how the cruise lines are dealing with the Desantis ban on FL businesses asking for proof of vaccination to enter/receive service. Of the major lines that include Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean (these three dominate the market place) only RCL elected to pursue a return to sailing on a CDC defined pathway that allowed restarts with hybrid guest manifests at 90% vaxed.

To do this, RCL had to complete 3-5 day test cruises observed by CDC inspectors. The purpose was to demonstrate health protocols were in place to prevent what happened in March of 2020 from happening again. I think 12 RCL ships have done this and are now making revenue sailings. RCL made a point of choosing this pathway to return to sailing to allow more families to cruise .....that is their thing. Carnival and Norwegian chose not to restart or restart from ports outside FL. Norwegian sued requesting a PI against the Desantis rule and the court granted it pending outcome of litigation. Carnival, also requiring vaccination to board, is now sailing out of FL under the PI. Technically, so is RCL and soon Disney who will require vaccination to sail.

Celebrity, an RCL co-brand, asks guests to voluntarily disclose their vax status to board. They have been sailing since June 26th out of Port Everglades apparently successfully dancing around the Desantis rule. If you wouldn't voluntarily disclose, and still wanted to sail, you had to follow strict protocols involving masking, restricted entry to places/events aboard ship and other inconvenient mitigation measures. Celebrity essentially managed bookings to insure the CSO mandated 95% vax rate to avoid doing test sailings. The ship I'm sailing on is 98% vaxed and the 2% unvaxed are under 12.

Nassau, Bahamas is an important cruise port. The only line that is impacted by this ruling is RCL. The Bahamian authorities work with the others sailing at 95% vaxed and above. RCL is now requiring vaccination to board ships with itineraries that include Nassau, including one RCL ship that is home ported in Nassau.

Its a nothing burger. Stuff the press likes to pile on the cruise industry over.

[Obi-Jon]

The Cubans have published an open letter to Biden for sanctions to be lifted so that covid vaccine would become better available to Cuba.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/8/24/an-open-letter-to-president-biden-on-covid-19-vaccines-for-cuba

My response would be an open response stating not until you provide the equipment, documentation and place of origin of the weapon being used against American diplomats and citizens resulting the "Havana Syndrome". If fact, I would tighten the screws even more.

[Dr. Strangelove]

SHOT

Dennis Prager, the brilliant talk show host, advises you ignore your doctor if he cautions you against taking ivermectin to treat covid. He says that by listening to the Dennis Prager program you are more informed than practically any doctor, most of whom are the equivalent of a general studies professor.

CHASER

A dozen Tractor Supply stores in Oklahoma say livestock-grade ivermectin is flying off the shelves. They run out as soon as a new shipment arrives. Doctors caution a feed store is not the appropriate place to be buying medicine for yourself.

https://kfor.com/news/local/do-not-t...t-consumption/

[Jeff Buchanan]

Decent pay-walled article in the Economist this evening recounting the events and mood of the G7 that met today via Zoom to discuss Afghanistan. I'm in general agreement with posters here, especially Mike's posts, on the shit-show this has turned into and the potential bad outcomes that might ensue.

OTH, I keep falling back on who gives a fuck. That does not mean that we shouldn't get American citizens or select Afghanies that worked closely with the US and it's allies out of that shit-hole. That is baseline but, getting out other Afghanies who just don't want to be ruled by a 15th century group of goat herders that are misogynists and pedophiles...... sorry, deal with it.

I can see why the Taliban doesn't want a brain drain. I'd call their position on this, publicly stated, is a positive sign for Afghanies who are uncomfortable with the Taliban. The Taliban locking immigration up to keep its brainy elite in country is no different than what's going on now in multiple autocratic regimes. We accept it in the West as what some of the world is like.

The alliances with the Taliban that will emerge between surrounding nations, Russia and China is complicated and lends itself to reducing any leverage that the G7 might think they have to diplomatically extract concessions from the Taliban. But the G7 does have leverage and it does not involve military leverage. It's mostly economic and financial. The author of the Economist piece argues that is limited as all kinds of revenue and trade pass through check-points between neighbors that are controlled by the Taliban. Makes sense but there is more to it than just that.

The UN Security Council, OTH, controls sanctions and the IMF controls the flow of money to a certain degree. The US froze billions of dollars in assets held by Afghanistan in banks the US has the authority to do that last week. Both Russia and China, voting members of the US Security Council, would look incredibly bad if they vetoed sanctions on the Taliban if they started loping heads of women off.

My take on Boris Johnson, who chaired the G7 meeting, was that he is a political realist. What goes on in Afghanistan going forward is largely out of the control of the West. However the Taliban who will seek international recognition won't become a member of the accepted civilized order if they act like they did a decade ago, blowing shit up and killing people in a cancel culture op that rivals what's going on in the US .... heh.

Like the SARS2 pandemic, Afghanistan is not as bad as it is made to look by the media. Real Politik ultimately trumps that bull-shit.

[Dr. Strangelove]

heres a nice little list for you

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamand...h=1d22575341db

what Joe left behind
2,000 Armored Vehicles Including Humvees and MRAP’s
-75,989 Total Vehicles: FMTV, M35, Ford Rangers, Ford F350, Ford Vans, Toyota Pickups, Armored Security Vehicles etc
-45 UH-60 Blachhawk Helicopters
-50 MD530G Scout Attack Choppers
-ScanEagle Military Drones
-30 Military Version Cessnas
-4 C-130’s
-29 Brazilian made A-29 Super Tocano Ground Attack Aircraft
208+ Aircraft Total
-At least 600,000+ Small arms M16, M249 SAWs, M24 Sniper Systems, 50 Calibers, 1,394 M203 Grenade Launchers, M134 Mini Gun, 20mm Gatling Guns and Ammunition
-61,000 M203 Rounds
-20,040 Grenades
-Howitzers
-Mortars +1,000’s of Rounds
-162,000 pieces of Encrypted Military Comunications Gear
-16,000+ Night Vision Goggles
-Newest Technology Night Vision Scopes
-Thermal Scopes and Thermal Mono Googles
-10,000 2.75 inch Air to Ground Rockets
-Recconaissance Equipment (ISR)
-Laser Aiming Units
-Explosives Ordnance C-4, Semtex, Detonators, Shaped Charges, Thermite, Incendiaries, AP/API/APIT
-2,520 Bombs
-Administration Encrypted Cell Phones and Laptops all operational
-Pallets with Millions of Dollars in US Currency
-Millions of Rounds of Ammunition including but not limited to 20,150,600 rounds of 7.62mm, 9,000,000 rounds of 50.caliber
-Large Stockpile of Plate Carriers and Body Armor
-US Military HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment Biometrics
-Lots of Heavy Equipment Including Bull Dozers, Backhoes, Dump Trucks, Excavators

Should we have first gone around trying to get all this stuff back, crash, is that what you're saying? Evacuate but also completely disarm the Afghan army at the same time? I'm far from an expert on any of it but I doubt any of this stuff is a top military secret. And anything we've been giving to the Afghan Army has undoubtedly been sold to or getting captured by the Taliban for 15+ years.

This list reflects the amount of money and effort Dubya and Barack wasted on Afghanistan, not "what Joe left behind".

[Obi-Jon]

Half that stuff went to Iran and Whereverstan with the melting Afgan army. The other half was probably already sold on the black market. I'd be surprised (and disappointed) if we didn't use thermite on the aircraft before abandoning the bases.

[Da Geezer]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that the SC held yesterday (6-3) that the Executive Branch must reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy, which Biden unilaterally and without congressional approval, overturned by executive order.

Now we will see if Joe will ignore this decision like he did with the decision on the rental and eviction moratorium. This is a really dangerous time for the balance of powers doctrine in the US.

[iam416]

They slapped DJT down on a couple of occasions for not following Administrative Law procedures. Now it's Chairman Big Rig's turn to feel the sting.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that the SC held yesterday (6-3) that the Executive Branch must reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy, which Biden unilaterally and without congressional approval, overturned by executive order.

Now we will see if Joe will ignore this decision like he did with the decision on the rental and eviction moratorium. This is a really dangerous time for the balance of powers doctrine in the US.

Biden doesn't need congressional approval to end the "Remain in Mexico" policy. The courts found he broke the law by not putting the policy through the normal review process before changing it. He could still end it if he really wants to but it'll take months if not a year to go through the standard procedures. Not precisely sure on the timeframe.

Not surprised by this decision but it comes through what critics call the "Shadow Docket' where we technically don't know the actual vote. It was probably 6-3 but technically could have been 5-4. We'll never know because Shadow Docket decisions don't require Justices to go on the record how they decided. We only know when they choose to make clear they dissent (as the 3 liberal justices did here). But nothing requires them to publicly announce they dissent like in a normal court decision.

It's like when Certiorari is denied. Unless individual justices speak up, you'll never really know who wanted the case heard and who did not.

Incidentally Trump requested a record 28 emergency stays from the SC during his one term. He won 11 times. Biden is 0 for 1.

[iam416]

Charles Cooke -- short, to the point and spot on re the Progs unemployment benefits issues: https://www.nationalreview.com/corne...utm_term=first

Heh. Ah, how times have changed.