BarretWallace

The Taliban now have our hardened military sites, vehicles, abandoned weaponry (all intended for the Afghanistan peacekeeping allies we had there)… they’ve occupied Kabul, control every major city in the nation. Nothing short of major military action would seem likely to change the current situation, and maybe that would only be a holding action at best. This is the culmination of four United States administration efforts, extending over 20 years.
 
 It’s appalling. I’m not suggesting any other outcome than a reversion to autocracy and a terrorist state was possible, I don’t know enough to competently opine on the likelihood of that. But the manner in which we exit, after the sheer quantity of blood and ordinance expended, leaves much to be desired. These folks are not going to be our friends, to put it lightly.
 
The “forever war” is just not really paying off in any meaningful way in my opinion. It’s depressing.

Yeah, things are moving fast.
 
The Taliban has announced an interim government and a new head of government.
 
Taliban forces have entered Kabul to "prevent looting". And not just Kabul in general but occupying the presidential palace (which is kind of the facepalm event for an enemy force entering your capital city).
 
The US embassy has announced that it has ceased all operations. The military is trying to figure out how to evacuate the embassy personnel since the airport is taking fire. 1400 of the embassy employees are US citizens, 2600 embassy employees are not US citizens. No word on whether non-citizen employee will be evacuated or not. 
 
Since the city is invaded and the airport is taking fire, expect commercial airlines to cease operations. Over the past week, every seat on every commercial flight has been full as anyone with a valid passport has been fleeing the country.
 
There were approximately 71,000 Afghan translators who worked for the US military (that number including their families) still in Afghanistan waiting endlessly on US embassy personnel to process their visa paperwork. Thousands of that number have been waiting years for the embassy to process their paperwork.
 
Two weeks ago, the administration announced that we would also evacuate Afghan translators and their families who had worked for US non-profits and US news organizations. There's no official tally announced about how many people that was but I'd estimate they were talking over 100,000 people...who are still in Afghanistan because there wasn't even an existing program to, in theory, start getting them out of the country.
 
The 3000 troops Biden announced last Friday to be sent to Afghanistan to secure the embassy and the airport have started to arrive. Since the embassy has already lowered its flag and ceased operations, if those troops are used for embassy purposes at all, it'd be to run around the city and fighting the Taliban while collecting embassy personnel who haven't managed to get themselves to the airport on their own. (The embassy in one of its last acts warned Americans to shelter in place and not try to make it to the airport since there were Taliban out on the streets shooting people.)
 
The 5000 additional troops Biden announced yesterday to be sent to Afghanistan to stabilize Kabul during the evacuation...if they still deploy, they'll be landing in a Taliban-controlled airport and city. 
 
The embassy personnel had started yesterday destroying hardware and paperwork in anticipation of having to abandon the embassy some time in the next couple of weeks. Considering that the fall of the embassy seems to have come slightly ahead of schedule, I'm wondering if the destruction is complete or whether random bits of embassy hardware and software will be finding its way into the hands of everyone who we wouldn't want to have it.

My local classic rock radio morning show does not deny all the bad stuff going on.  What they do is continue to mention what is still right with the world, often in simple day to day interactions at the grocery store, a restaurant, etc.  Their frequent reminders that there's still good in this world are wonderfully refreshing.

My local classic rock radio morning show does not deny all the bad stuff going on.  What they do is continue to mention what is still right with the world, often in simple day to day interactions at the grocery store, a restaurant, etc.  Their frequent reminders that there's still good in this world are wonderfully refreshing.

My local classic rock radio morning show does not deny all the bad stuff going on.  What they do is continue to mention what is still right with the world, often in simple day to day interactions at the grocery store, a restaurant, etc.  Their frequent reminders that there's still good in this world are wonderfully refreshing.

My local classic rock radio morning show does not deny all the bad stuff going on.  What they do is continue to mention what is still right with the world, often in simple day to day interactions at the grocery store, a restaurant, etc.  Their frequent reminders that there's still good in this world are wonderfully refreshing.

My local classic rock radio morning show does not deny all the bad stuff going on.  What they do is continue to mention what is still right with the world, often in simple day to day interactions at the grocery store, a restaurant, etc.  Their frequent reminders that there's still good in this world are wonderfully refreshing.

I will grant that I didn't bother scanning down too far, but they seemed largely business as usual.  
Which is more depressing than anything.
 
One comment might be the closest to capturing the state of things.  "I just simply can't believe ANY news program.  Lies from all sides...."  It's not whether you agree with it, but the degree of distrust and disillusionment it suggests.  I rather suspect that comment represents the silent third camp that is larger than we expect.
 
Could also be a consequence of the emotional battering that's been *so* intense for the last 20 months or so.

A good friend of mine, Ryan Kemp, was (posthumously) thanked in the credits for being such a fan.
 

What examination?  
 
The Democrats, IMO, wouldn't need to.  I felt in 2015 and 2016 that Hillary was the worst possible Democratic candidate because she, more than any other, would galvanize the Republicans.  Trump's 1000 times worse in this regard.  If he somehow got the nomination, you'll have *every* Democrat making sure to vote, restrictions be damned.  Get it done SOMEHOW.  A second term is the absolute, worst-case scenario....in part because if it *could* happen, Trump would very likely have both the Senate and House.  And the Supreme Court.  Yes indeed, the apocalypse has arrived.
 
Go through it.  If Trump showed momentum in early primaries, odds are that more Congressional Republican nominees would be vocal Trumpists.  If he could win the election, they're very likely to ride in on his coattails.    It is IMO a VERY real concern that a second-term Trump would have a rubber-stamp Congress.  He wouldn't have a rubber-stamp Court, but there's too much of a chance that they'd let him get away with FAR too much.
 
Potentially more interesting would be the degree to which other Republicans try to use these against Trump.

Third Officer Who Responded To Capitol Riot Has Died By Suicide
 
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gunther-hashida-officer-dead-capitol-riot_n_61083cafe4b064678eebfb24

Typical entitled person. She's sorry for the damage it's caused her kids and her social life but not one bit of remorse for the victims. 

Unlike tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes... COVID is covert. The casualties from the virus die relatively quietly, out of sight of most people. Even though it's as bad as or worse than any of those in its own way, there is no imagery of spectacular devastation to galvanize the public into taking serious action. For that reason it's also easier for politicians and media to turn people away from vaccination.

For something like Covid to be taken seriously by the population at large, people would have to drop dead in the streets like 28 days. The fact that so many have died is easily discounted by that was some other country, an error in the news, government lying, Covid only takes the old, whatever.
 
To show people they are being stupid, people would have to start dropping across their towns faster than ambulances could pick them up and take them to the hospital
CES

There's a difference between voicing your opinion and being an a-hole. At least justice was served in the latter case.

National case counts clearly trending upward again. 
 
I will hazard a forecast that one of two scenarios will occur:
there will be a peak in case counts about a week into August, and then they'll trend downward again. case counts will go level in mid-August, and then spike hard in late August/early September.  Not a big a spike as last December & January, but much higher than anyone currently thinks possible.

The commanding general of Fort Rucker has announced that the Alabama military base will require service members not wearing face masks "to show proof of vaccination" while on duty to combat rising COVID-19 cases.
 
https://news.yahoo.com/alabama-military-1st-u-order-054315608.html

Tennessee abandons vaccine outreach to minors — not just for COVID-19

It gets uglier
 
Tennessee top vaccine official received muzzle in mail at office before she was fired