A Kinder, Gentler Taliban?

The Daily Caller is reporting that Afghans who helped America or American allies in any way are getting letters pinned to their front doors at night (“night letters”) telling them to attend a Taliban-conducted court or face death.

The article reports:

One of those to receive a warning was Naz, a 34-year-old father-of-six whose construction company helped the UK military build roads in Helmand and the runway at Camp Bastion.

He had applied for sanctuary in Britain under ARAP, the Afghan relocation programme, but had been rejected.

Naz said yesterday: ‘The letter was official and stamped by the Taliban. It is a clear message that they want to kill me. If I attend the court, I will be punished with my life.

If I don’t, they will kill me – that is why I am in hiding, trying to find a way to escape. But I need help.’

Another victim, a former British military translator, was warned he was a ‘spy of the infidel’ and must give himself up or pay with his life.

A third night letter warned the brother of an interpreter that he had been sentenced to death for sheltering him while a fourth was found in the shoe of an ex-British military translator as he left prayers at a mosque.

The letters are a traditional Afghan method of intimidation. They were used by mujahideen fighters during the Soviet occupation and then by the Taliban as both a propaganda tool and a threat. Often used in rural communities, they are now being widely circulated in cities.

A related article in the U.K. Daily Mail reports:

For Naz, the letter was specific. It named his father and their village and was stamped by the Islamic Emirate. 

The warning said he had been a ‘slave’ of Nato forces and had ignored warnings to stop working with them.

He was ordered to ‘present yourself’ to the court otherwise it would be ‘forwarded to the Sharia Court of Appeal where the judgment of death penalty will be passed in your absence. This would be the path you have chosen for yourself’.

Naz said: ‘The message of night letters is clear: you must comply or die. We have moved but we can’t keep moving. We must escape.’

There is no good news in this surrender. It was time to leave Afghanistan, but we could have done it very differently.

This Is Where We Are

Yesterday Ed Morrissey posted an article at Hot Air detailing some of the players and events in recent days in Afghanistan.

The article quotes one of President Biden’s recent statements about Afghanistan:

Look, let’s put this thing in perspective here. What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as — as well as getting Osama bin Laden. And we did.

Well, not so fast.

The article reports:

Say, remember when Joe Biden assured us that al-Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan? Ten days later, the security chief for Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora returned to his home province in Nangarhar, amid adulation — and Taliban protection. Amin ul-Haq even flashed a thumbs-up to his admirers out an open window as Taliban troops waved his car through a checkpoint.

In FDD’s Long War Journal, Bill Roggio reports:

Dr. Amin al Haq, the former head of bin Laden’s Black Guard, was captured on video in a large convoy as it traveled through a checkpoint in Nangarhar province. Haq was accompanied by a large convoy of heavily armed Taliban fighters in brand new SUVs. A small crowd flocked to Haq to shake his hand and take selfies with him.

The video of al Haq is evidence that Al Qaeda commanders now feel secure enough to appear publicly in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The article at Hot Air includes a screenshot of the Taliban’s new arsenal:

I don’t care how much the media spins this–it is not good news.

 

These Are Very Special Americans

On Friday, The New York Post reported that a group of retired military veterans has been rescuing our Afghan allies from Afghanistan.

The article reports:

A group of highly trained US military veterans has been secretly rescuing hundreds of allied operatives from Afghanistan — volunteering over fears those allies would otherwise be left for dead, according to a report.

The weeklong secret operation dubbed “Pineapple Express” has been carried out by a group of special ops veterans including retired Green Berets and SEAL Team commanders, they told ABC News.

They were driven by deep frustration “that our own government didn’t do this,” former Navy SEAL Jason Redman told ABC.

“We did what we should do, as Americans,” he said.

They initially formed to rescue an ex-Afghan commando who was getting death threats from the Taliban for having worked with US special forces and elite SEAL Team Six, ABC said.

…“I have been involved in some of the most incredible missions and operations that a special forces guy could be a part of, and I have never been a part of anything more incredible than this,” Gant (Maj. Jim Gant, a retired Green Beret) insisted.

“The bravery and courage and commitment of my brothers and sisters in the Pineapple community was greater than the US commitment on the battlefield,” he said.

The volunteer force was led by another retired Green Beret commander, Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who told ABC the team was proud to have helped “dozens of high-risk individuals, families with small children, orphans, and pregnant women.”

“This Herculean effort couldn’t have been done without the unofficial heroes inside the airfield who defied their orders to not help beyond the airport perimeter, by wading into sewage canals and pulling in these targeted people who were flashing pineapples on their phones,” Mann said.

…Some of those rescued said they witnessed people just inches away from them being killed, while others refused to leave unless their family members were also evacuated.

“Leaving a man behind is not in our SEAL ethos. Many Afghans have a stronger vision of our democratic values than many Americans do,” said Dan O’Shea, a retired SEAL commander and former counterinsurgency adviser in Afghanistan.

The article concludes:

Former deputy assistant secretary of defense Mick Mulroy said the task force felt it was their duty to save allies who “never wavered” in supporting the US.

“I and many of my friends are here today because of their bravery in battle. We owe them all effort to get them out and honor our word,” Mulroy said.

Men like these give me hope for the future of America. They are truly leaders.

I Wish They Would At Least Get Their Stories Straight

One of the various methods police use to catch criminals is to separate the people apprehended at a crime scene and have them tell their stories separately without being able to hear each other. Generally the truth will be found somewhere in the contradictions. Right now we seem to be getting a number of contradicting stories from the Biden administration on Afghanistan.

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about one of those contradictions. In this case, the story and the contradiction both came from the same person.

The article reports:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed Sunday that the United States had not given lists of American citizens and allies to the Taliban.

Blinken joined “Meet the Press” with NBC’s Chuck Todd and disputed the accuracy of reports indicating U.S. officials had handed over lists of people the Taliban should allow through checkpoints and into the airport in Kabul. Just moments later, however, Blinken appeared to concede that U.S. officials had handed over passenger manifests for busloads of Afghan allies who were supposed to be allowed through security.

…“Chuck, it’s simply not the case. The idea that we’ve done anything to put at further risk those that were trying to help leave the country is simply wrong. And the idea that we shared lists of Americans or others with the Taliban is simply wrong,” Blinken immediately pushed back.

“What was shared?” Todd pressed.

Blinken went on to detail the lists of people U.S. officials had given to the Taliban in order to ensure their safe passage.

“When you’re trying to get a bus or a group of people through and you need to show a manifest to do that — particularly in cases where people don’t have the necessary credentials on them or documents on them — then you’ll share names of the lists of people on the bus so they can be assured those are the people we’re looking to bring in. By definition, that’s exactly what’s happened,” Blinken said.

“We’ve gotten 5,500 American citizens out of Afghanistan,” Blinken continued, saying again that the U.S. had provided passenger manifests or verified the names of individuals — especially those who might not have proper documentation on them.

“But the idea that we put anyone in any further jeopardy is simply wrong,” he concluded.

If you were dealing with humane, rational people who are willing to help you evacuate Americans and friendly Afghans from Afghanistan, that might be a reasonable course of action. However, if you are dealing with people who routinely cut people’s heads off for any minor slight or infraction, you might want to reconsider giving them a list of  your allies. I really can’t believe that the people in our State Department are that naive. Unfortunately if they are not that naive, this is being done on purpose. That thought is even more scary.

This Is A Problem

Just the News is reporting today that there were major chain of custody violations in the handling of mail-in ballots in DeKalb County, Georgia, in the 2020 election.

The article reports:

More than 70% of the 61,731 absentee ballots put in drop boxes in the November 2020 presidential election in DeKalb County, Georgia, were counted and certified by officials, despite violating chain of custody requirements.

The exact number of ballots was 43,907, according to the Georgia State News. The ballots were counted and certified by county and state officials, the news outlet says.

The chain of custody requirements are set forth in Georgia Emergency Rule 183-1-14-1.8-.14, put into effect by the Georgia State Election Board in July 2020.

The rule states absentee ballots placed in drop boxes “shall be immediately transported to the county registrar” by the two-person collection team. The team is required to sign a ballot-transfer form indicating the number of ballots picked up, the time the ballots were picked up and the location of the drop box.

The rule also states the county registrar or a designee “thereof shall sign the ballot transfer form upon receipt of the ballots from the collection team.”

It is interesting that the greatest concerns about election fraud in the 2020 election are centered in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These states represent 73 electoral college votes. There are also a number of anomalies in the election–bellwether counties that voted 18 to 1 for President Trump, states that have voted for the same candidate for eighty years suddenly voting differently, and other usually bellwether counties that supported President Trump.

Some states are already adding laws that will help protect election integrity. That’s a good thing. The place fraud is easiest is mail-in ballots. However, the electronic age also opens the door for electronic tampering of election results. Even though the machines that scan the votes are generally not hooked up to the internet, as soon as the election head puts the election results on a thumb drive to report them, those results have entered the cloud. We need to find a way to secure the electronic reporting of our elections. We also need to keep all electronic tallying in the United States. Having overseas servers tabulating American voting is not a good idea.

 

Some Good News

On Saturday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the successful rescue of 47 human trafficking victims in twelve states.

The article reports:

A human trafficking operation joined by 12 states has rescued 47 victims and arrested 102 people, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced on Aug. 27.

“Using both buyer-centric and victim-centric ‘sting’ human trafficking operations, Missouri and participating states were able to rescue 47 victims and sex workers and provide needed medical services to 41, and arrested 102 across the country in connection with human trafficking,” the Missouri Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

According to the information provided by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, the operation rescued victims and made arrests in 12 states.

Missouri: four victims rescued, two arrests made.

Illinois: one victim rescued, three arrests made.

Iowa: 11 arrests made, a large amount of currency has been seized.

Kentucky: 21 adult victims rescued, two minor victims rescued, 46 arrests made.

Minnesota: eight victims rescued, three arrests made.

Nebraska: seven arrests made.

North Dakota: six victims rescued, three arrests made.

Oklahoma: one victim rescued, seven arrests made.

Tennessee: four arrests made.

Texas: four victims rescued, two arrests made.

Wisconsin: five arrests made.

South Dakota: nine arrests made.

The article concludes:

“Operation United Front was an unprecedented human trafficking operation that brought together law enforcement agencies from different jurisdictions—something that rarely happens. When we all come together, we can affect change and more effectively fight human trafficking, a crime that is often multi-jurisdictional in nature,” Schmitt said.

According to data collected by the FBI, there were 1,883 human trafficking offenses reported in 2019, with 875 of the offenses cleared or closed, including 18 offenses that involved minor victims under the age of 18.

The terms “cleared” or “closed” usually mean that law enforcement departments have made arrests, the suspects have been charged, cases have been turned over to the court for prosecution, or the offender has been identified.

This is a national problem that is being exacerbated by the border policies of the Biden administration. Many of the so-called family units coming in are cartel members bringing in young victims of sex trafficking. We need to close the southern border and increase our efforts to end this horrific crime.

Exactly Who Is Unvaccinated?

The mainstream media is telling us that a large percentage of the people who have not received the Covid vaccine are Trump supporters. This is somewhat illogical since President Trump was the one who cut through the red tape to make the vaccine possible. It is also interesting that President Biden and Vice-President Harris both badmouthed the vaccine during the Trump presidency–stating more than once that they did not trust it. So where are we now?

The American Thinker posted an article today with some of the statistics on who is vaccinated and who is not.

The article reports:

At present, the U.S. is 51 percent fully vaccinated. While that may not seem like success, if you break it down the numbers are more favorable. 62 percent of adults and 81 percent of the elderly are fully vaccinated. Another segment of the population has natural immunity based on having had COVID. Given natural infection as a second and more robust pathway toward herd immunity, America has done well.

For whatever reason, the media and much of the medical profession has consistently downplayed the immunity based on having had Covid.

The article continues:

Who isn’t yet vaccinated in America and why? There is vaccine hesitancy, which according to Wikipedia “is a delay in acceptance, or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services.” It’s not simple and straightforward, either. “Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context specific, varying across time, place and vaccines. It is influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience, a fear of needles, or a lack of understanding about how vaccines work.”

Last March, Forbes reported that 49 percent of Republican men and 47 percent of Trump supporters will refuse any vaccine, setting the narrative for who is to blame now for the delta variant surge. Unknown then but known now is that the vaccines don’t prevent infection or transmission. According to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: “Vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus.”

Former CIA and NSA Director General Michael Hayden agrees with Forbes and his intelligence expertise leads him to conclude that Trump supporters are “our Taliban” and that “the MAGA wearing unvaxxed” deplorables should be sent to Afghanistan, presumably to be left to the whims of the real Taliban. I wonder if he wants unvaxxed Democrats, including blacks, of whom the majority are unvaxxed, to be sent to their deaths in Afghanistan?

Sounds like a really nice guy. I wonder if he has ever read the U.S. Constitution.

The vaccines do however reduce the risk of severe illness and death, allowing many to suffer milder infection, gaining natural immunity, and pushing the country closer to herd immunity where COVID becomes a seasonal nuisance like influenza.

What is the media not saying about the vaccine-hesitant?

As reported in Summit News, “A new report by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh has found that the most highly educated Americans are also the most vaccine hesitant.” This was not a survey of a few hundred, but of 5 million Americans.

They found a U-shaped curve with the greatest hesitancy among the least and most educated. “The most common concern for those who are hesitant to take the vaccine is potential side effects, with a lack of trust in government close behind in second.”

So much for the media narrative that only the missing-teeth, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal Trump supporters are against vaccination.

Someday I hope the media will start telling us the truth about vaccines and herd immunity. Until then, Americans have the right to be skeptical.

Not Surprising

There are still enough rumblings around about the 2020 presidential election to cause me to wonder if we will ever know the truth. Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about some new information that further indicates that there could have been massive cheating.

The article reports:

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) said on Friday that 82,766 mail ballots sent to voters in Wisconsin’s November 2020 presidential election “went missing or undeliverable,” a number more than four times greater than Joe Biden’s 20,682 vote certified margin of victory in the state.

More than 1.6 million votes were cast in the November 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin, and Biden’s certified margin of victory was just 1.2 percent of all votes cast.

The article continues:

“83K mail ballots went missing or undeliverable amid 20k vote margin of victory in WI 2020 Presidential,” the headline read in a statement that accompanied the release of a report by PILF on Friday morning.

“We now know the cost of the rush to mail balloting – lost ballots. The federal data show the 2020 election had more mail ballots that were never counted than the margin of victory in the Presidential election in Wisconsin. This isn’t the way to run an election. Mail ballots invite error, disenfranchisement of voters, and puts the inept U.S. Post Office determining the outcome of elections,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in the statement.

The report showed that, unlike the results of the 2012 and 2016, the number of “missing or undeliverable” mail ballots in 2020 exceeded the margin of victory in the election to determine which presidential candidate would be awarded the state’s ten electoral college votes.

In 2020, for instance, 1.4 million ballots were mailed to Wisconsin voters, which was 86 percent of the 1.6 million votes cast. (emphasis added)

In 2005 the bi-partisan Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, led by Democrat President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican who served in the George H.W. Bush administration, analyzed the US election system and made recommendations to preserve election integrity.

The website pure integrity for Michigan elections notes the following:

The Carter Center, founded by the former president and first lady Rosalynn Carter, is affiliated with Emory University and promotes peace and democracy efforts globally and domestically. 

Carter Center press release in May said the commission report “noted among its many findings and recommendations that because it takes place outside the regulated environment of local polling locations, voting by mail creates increased logistical challenges and the potential for vote fraud, especially if safeguards are lacking or when candidates or political party activists are allowed to handle mail-in or absentee ballots.”

“However, the Carter-Baker Commission found that where safeguards for ballot integrity are in place—for example in Oregon, where the entire state has voted by mail since 1998—there was little evidence of voter fraud,” the Carter Center statement continued. 

The commission’s main recommendations on vote-by-mail and absentee voting were to increase research on vote-by-mail (and early voting) and to eliminate the practice of allowing candidates or party workers to pick up and deliver absentee ballots.  

We need to look at the reforms the Commission recommended and put them in place.

Recognizing “Spin” Preparation

One of things I have recently noticed and wondered about is the recent statement from the Biden administration that all Americans who want to come home from Afghanistan will get home. That’s an interesting wording of the concept of no man left behind. On Thursday, Katie Pavlich posted an article at Townhall that might provide some insight into the wording of that statement.

The article reports:

“Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home.” – President Joe Biden, August 20, 2021 

That’s been the talking point from a number of Biden administration officials over the past week as the situation in Afghanistan continued to deteriorate. If you’re an American who wants to leave Afghanistan, Biden will ensure your departure. This is a lie. 

A close look at the language, combined with the official policy that the United States will be leaving the country on August 31 even as the airport in Kabul is blocked off by miles of Taliban checkpoints, gives away Biden’s strategy. 

Americans can’t safely get to the airport and the administration knows it. They’ve had their passports confiscated and destroyed by the Taliban. They’ve been beaten in their attempt to follow instructions from the U.S. government. 

When the mission to get Americans out of the country fails, Biden will blame the Americans for “not wanting to leave” or for not properly getting in touch with the State Department to file their paperwork. Keep in mind the Taliban has seized cell towers and shut off electricity in a number of areas, making it impossible to receive updated instructions from the U.S. government about how to proceed. 

For days, the State Department has told Americans to go to the airport, not to go to the airport, to go to the airport, and yet, they are already being blamed for their demise. 

“People chose not to leave. That’s their business,” Acting U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson told CBS News in an interview this week.  

The article notes:

“The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden said during a press conference on July 8.

This was a lie and Biden told it anyway while Americans stood in harm’s way.

In just a few short days, pointing fingers at stranded Americans will continue to be the cynical, despicable excuse for the administration’s decision to leave our fellow countrymen behind. It will be invoked after President Biden allowed the Taliban to overtake the country in record time, abandoning Americans behind enemy lines.

This is the money statement:

“We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission,” Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said, indicating the mission is to leave on August 31, not to get Americans out.

That is not what our mission should be. Our mission should be to remove those Americans and our allies who are in danger.

The article concludes:

By August 31, Americans who can’t make it to the airport due to suicide bombings, Taliban checkpoints and Biden’s incompetence, will be abandoned. Without U.S. troops in the country to get them out, they are all but doomed.

The only hope I see in this is that there are a number of private groups working hard to get Americans and American allies out of Afghanistan. That is not the way it should be, but at least that fact might lessen the number of people who are being killed by the Taliban now or will be killed by the Taliban when we leave.

Modified Good News

On Wednesday I reported that the Supreme Court had struck down the CDC’s extension of the eviction moratorium (article here). However, the celebration may have been a bit premature.

Yesterday NewsMax reported the following:

The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August.

The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The justices rejected the administration’s arguments in support of the CDC’s authority.

“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court wrote.

Just for the record, I don’t believe that Congress has the authority to specifically authorize a moratorium on evictions. An eviction is usually the result of someone either not paying their rent or destroying the rental property. Those events are usually detailed in a contract that the renter signs with the Landlord. That contract requires the payment of rent and puts certain requirements on the tenant for the upkeep of the property. For Congress to interfere in a private contract between the renter and the Land goes against the private property rights guaranteed by our Constitution. A Supreme Court that was actually upholding the U.S. Constitution would strike down any law from Congress that interfered with private property rights.

Good News

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported that New York City Police Benevolent Association (PBA) President Patrick Lynch stated in an email that if New York City puts a vaccine mandate in place for police officers, the organization will take legal action.

The article reports:

City workers in New York must either get a COVID-19 shot or submit to weekly testing, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, announced last month. More recently, de Blasio announced that teachers and other school staffers must get a vaccine or face termination.

While New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on NY1 last last year that officers wouldn’t be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine, that has changed.

Asked this week if he would support a mandate, Shea said he would.

“One hundred percent. I think we’re well past that time. We lost three members last week, two of them to COVID, and I think it’s all unnecessary to some degree,” he said. “Everyone, I think, all across this country really should be embracing these vaccines.”

Shea noted that the Pfizer vaccine was fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration before adding, “I think everyone should be lining up to get it that hasn’t gotten it yet.”

Notice that no one demanding universal vaccines is allowing for people who have natural immunity because they have previously had and recovered from Covid. Recent studies show that natural immunity is not only longer lasting than the shot but is better protection against the Delta variant of the disease. Why is natural immunity being ignored?

When The Deep State Fights With Itself

One of the most troubling pieces of news to come out of Afghanistan recently was the fact that evidently America had turned over to the Taliban a list of all Americans in the country and all Afghans who had helped the Americans. I think most Americans question the wisdom of that decision. Not only is the decision seemingly unwise, it makes no sense. Actually, when you look at the agencies involved, it makes perfect sense.

The Conservative Treehouse posted an article today explaining the ‘teams’ and what is actually involved.

The article reports:

There are two puzzle pieces that help to make sense of the Politico report about “U.S. Officials” giving the Taliban a list of American and U.S. Afghan names to allow through the checkpoints. {GO DEEP 1 and GO DEEP 2}  However, if you don’t understand the two dueling power teams -each attempting to position- it doesn’t make sense.

Remember, the State Dept (DoS) and CIA are one team.  The White House and Pentagon are another team.

♦ TEAM One – The Department of State is aligned with the CIA.  Their media PR firms are CNN, CNNi and the Washington Post. Their ideology is favorable to the United Nations.  Their internal corruption is generally driven by relationship with foreign actors.  References: Hillary Clinton, Clinton Global Initiative, John McCain, Qatar, Muslim Brotherhood, Samantha Powers, Susan Rice, Cass Sunstein, Brookings Institute, Lawfare, China-centric, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Council on Foreign Relations.

♦ TEAM Two – The White House is aligned with the Pentagon (DoD) and National Security Council (NSC).  Their media PR firms are domestic in nature. New York Times, Politico, etc.  Their internal corruption is generally driven by domestic influence.  References: Barack Obama, George Bush, Wall St, Big Banks, Multinational Corporations, Defense Contractors, FBI (state police), Judicial Branch, and community activists writ large.

Both teams are highly political. However, the State Dept/CIA team consider themselves above political changes; essentially the deeper Deep State.

With the DoS/CIA aligned with CNN/WaPo, when the Pentagon needs to defend their specific interests in crisis management, they must go elsewhere, hence Politico.

The article notes:

So it’s fair to say the aggrieved party is the Pentagon in this scenario…. which aligns with Politico receiving the information from the military perspective.

Applying the dynamic of interests from the previous history between the teams, it would appear the State Dept. and CIA gave the Taliban the list.

Indeed, the quick dispatch of the problem of stranded Americans is a ‘toxically political’ priority issue for the State Department.  Additionally, the previous meeting between CIA Director William J Burns and the Taliban leadership now takes on a fulsome context.

It was a decision by the DoS and CIA to share the list and get the evacuation facilitated in the most expedient fashion possible. However, from a tactical perspective it put the Pentagon, charged with Kabul airport security, in a slightly compromised position.

Both teams were responsible for the Afghanistan mess. In the aftermath of the mess; and with the current situation in/around Kabul, each team is positioning to avoid scrutiny. Scrutiny on either team runs the risk of identifying massive corruption; so the objective is to push the spotlight onto the other team. State Dept. blames White House/Pentagon…. Pentagon/White House looking to avoid sunlight.

The Pentagon (arrows) is supposed to working in coordination with State (olive branch), but both institutions are corrupt regarding Afghanistan; so it’s a game of hot potato. If the executive office wasn’t corrupt, the eagle would be having whiplash; alas, the White House was/is an active participant. [So much for school civic ‘checks-n-balances’ eh?]

Externally, we are seeing the executive appointed heads of each faction battling for position on behalf of their institution. The media get to pick and choose which faction they will support. CNN will support the State Dept. ABC, CBS, NBC will lean slightly toward the White House/Pentagon.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. The Conservative Treehouse has historically been proved accurate and quite a bit ahead of the curve.

This Is Not Reassuring

Yesterday WND posted an article about the Afghan refugees we are screening in Qatar.

The article reports:

Among the evacuees from Kabul are as many as 100 Afghans who are on intelligence agency terrorist watch lists, including one with potential ties to ISIS, a U.S. official warned Tuesday.

The Afghans, who have been flown to Qatar, are candidates for entry to the United States through Special Immigration Visas (SIV).

The U.S. official told Defense One that at least 100 have been flagged as possible matches to intelligence agency watch lists by the Defense Department’s Automated Biometric Identification System.

A State Department spokesman told DailyMail.com that all SIV applicants are being screened before they are allowed entry into the United States.

The article notes:

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby assured reporters Monday that the Afghans allowed into the United States are undergoing “robust screening.”

However, as Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer argues, the British also have “robust screening.” But a report Tuesday by Sky News illustrates “the unavoidable difficulties involved in this process.”

The British broadcaster reported “a person from Afghanistan on the UK’s no-fly list has been flown into Birmingham as part of the British evacuation operation in a potential security breach.”

We know from experience that the leaders of terrorists groups are not stupid. Why wouldn’t they exploit the chaos in Afghanistan and the chaos at America’s southern border to bring terrorists into America? Our current President has put the lives of all Americans in danger with his domestic and foreign policies.

While We Are All Watching Afghanistan…

On Tuesday while everyone was focused on Afghanistan, the House of Representatives approved $3.5 trillion budget resolution and advanced a bipartisan infrastructure bill. So what is in the bill?

Yesterday The New York Post reported on some aspects of the bill.

The article reports:

House Democrats are now writing their version of the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” bill, detailing all the wish-list items they mean to ram through with zero Republican votes — including a host of economy-killing tax hikes.

No matter that the Trump-era tax cuts were bringing the best working-class wage gains in years before COVID hit: Dems mean to reverse them all and then some.

The Senate blueprint for the bill, for example, moves the corporate income-tax rate to 28 percent from the 21 percent level set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It also follows President Joe Biden’s call to double the federal capital-gains tax.

Both moves would slow the kind of business investment that allows for new jobs and rising wages.

President Trump’s economic policies were the reason the economy grew so well during the early years of his presidency and recovered so quickly from the Covid pandemic. Reversing those policies will have an adverse impact on the American economy.

Unincorporated businesses will be hit by increases in the top personal-income-tax rate. Some Democrats are calling for steep hikes in that area. They are obviously unaware that this will cause many small business to close (or they don’t care). Since the small business is the backbone of the American economy, one wonders why the Democrats would want to tax them out of existence. This is also one way to eliminate the middle class.

The article concludes:

The House might also take up Sen. Liz Warren’s push for a special 7 percent surtax on corporate profits above $100 million or embrace new “green” taxes on the fuels that still provide nearly all of America’s power.

All to help fund a host of new or enlarged social programs that would vastly increase the ranks of Dem-supporting government-employee unions, as well as green-energy spending that would likely reward Democrat-friendly companies.

We are not looking at tax policies that will help grow the American economy. We are looking at tax policies that will help grow dependency on government.

Does Anyone Actually Believe This?

Yesterday Newsbusters posted an article about some recent reporting done by Newsweek. Newsweek posted the following headline, “Seeking World Recognition, Taliban Vows to Help Fight Terror and Climate Change.” I am willing to believe that the Taliban seeks world recognition. I am not willing to believe that they will help fight terrorism and climate change.

Newsbusters reports:

Newsweek Senior Writer of Foreign Policy Tom O’Connor pushed how Taliban Cultural Commission member Abdul Qahar Balkhi “told Newsweek that his group sought worldwide recognition of the Islamic Emirate.” Balkhi propagandized to the outlet how the organization’s drive for “recognition” would be bolstered in part by the terror group’s commitment to “fight terror” and so-called climate change. “‘We hope not only to be recognized by regional countries but the entire world at large as the legitimate representative government of the people of Afghanistan,’” Balkhi said in part, according to Newsweek.

It is damning that a U.S. publication would lower itself so far down the eco-extremist cesspool that it would attempt to humanize an Islamic terrorist group currently slaughtering people in Afghanistan as a result of President Joe Biden’s massive foreign policy failure.

The article at Newsbusters concludes:

Newsweek’s decision to provide a megaphone to the Taliban wasn’t the first time a prominent outlet has tried to nonsensically lump the terrorist group and climate change together. Recently, CBS News published an outrageous story blaming climate change for the Taliban’s rise. CBS News climate and energy reporter Cara Korte’s absurd story was headlined: “How climate change helped strengthen the Taliban.”

But O’Connor’s Taliban spin was horrific in another context as well. The United Nations reported in July that “[m]ore women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since records began in 2009.” The UN said these records followed “the Taliban offensive to take territory from Government forces.” But that didn’t stop O’Connor from summarizing the Taliban’s absurdity that “militants would never again be allowed to launch attacks against other countries” in the first paragraph of his story.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact Newsweek and hold it to account for pushing the Taliban’s talking points.

Anyone who relies on the mainstream media as their only news source at this time is not hearing the truth. The lies that they are hearing endanger themselves and our country.

Good News From The Supreme Court

Yesterday The Conservative Treehouse reported that the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Biden administration is required to reinstate the “remain in Mexico” policy put in place by the Trump administration. The policy requires people seeking asylum in America to remain in Mexico while they await hearings in the United States. Theoretically this prevents the problem of asylum seekers simply not showing up for their hearings, disappearing into the country, and working illegally. This policy also provides a small degree of protection against the continued spread of the coronavirus.

What has been happening is that people coming across the border illegally have been flown to various parts of the country and released. Because there is very little, if any, corona virus testing of illegals, we were essentially seeding the coronavirus throughout the country. Requiring people to remain in Mexico will limit some of this.

There is, however, the matter of whether or not the Biden administration will abide by this decision. The Biden administration does have a history of ignoring the law when the law is in conflict with their desired policy. The moratorium on evictions was illegal–it was government interference in a contract–and the Biden administration still declared it law. There are a lot of reasons to impeach this President, but unfortunately impeachment (even if it were possible) would install a President even less able to do the job.

 

How Much Military Equipment Did We Leave Behind?

Our obvious priority as a country should be to get all Americans and Afghans who helped America out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible. However, as we do that, we should consider how much military equipment we left behind for the Taliban (equipment that will be reverse engineered by the Russians and the Chinese and put to use by the Iranians).

Yesterday Just the News posted an article with the numbers. Congratulations, American taxpayers, you are now funding the military of the Taliban, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and China.

The article reports:

The U.S. military is leaving behind 75,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons and 208 airplanes/helicopters in Afghanistan as the Taliban takes control of the country, according to the watchdog group Open the Books.

“We’ve made the Taliban into a major U.S. arms dealer for the next decade,” said Adam Andrzejewski, CEO & founder of Open the Books. “They now control 75,000 military vehicles. This is about 50,000 tactical vehicles, 20,000 Humvees they control about 1,000 mine-resistant vehicles, and even about 150 armored personnel carriers.”

In total, the U.S. government spent an estimated $83 billion of taxpayer funds on weapons, vehicles and airplanes for the Afghan military. 

…Andrzejewski said his organization “found a Federal Audit that detailed up to $200 million worth of drones that had disappeared,” adding that “we don’t know where 600,000 weapons are within the country.” 

The Taliban also reportedly has access to biometrics data of Afghans that helped U.S. forces during the war.

The last sentence is the one that scares me the most. We have turned those people over to the Taliban to be tortured and killed.

This Is What Desperation Looks Like

Remember when you were a child or were raising children and anything bad that was done in the house was done by “not me”? It seems as if the Biden administration learned that lesson well. They are desperately trying to avoid responsibility for the humanitarian disaster that is unfolding in Afghanistan.

Yesterday Breitbart reported that CBS News is claiming that climate change is responsible for strengthening the Taliban. Really? President Jefferson was dealing with the Barbary Pirates during his term as President. Did climate change strengthen them?

The article at Breitbart reports:

CBS News has blamed “climate change” for abetting the Taliban in their rise to power in Afghanistan, insisting that global warming has forced farmers into debt and into the arms of the Taliban.

In a risible report that has been compared to spoofs in the Babylon Bee and the Onion, CBS News asserted last week that Afghan farmers struggle to maintain productive crops and thus have to borrow funds to survive.

“When Afghans can’t pay off lenders, the Taliban often steps in to sow government resentment,” CBS News declared in its airtight “gotcha” report.

“If you’ve lost your crop and land or the Afghan government hasn’t paid enough attention then of course, the Taliban can come and exploit it,” the article states, citing Kamal Alam, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center.

CBS News does not bother explaining how “drought” and “flood-ravaged soil,” which have been a constant in Afghanistan for ages, are suddenly the result of “climate change.” They seem to assume that any weather-related phenomenon, no matter how commonplace, must somehow be related to global warming.

The article concludes:

In 2014, Charles B. Strozier, professor of history at the City University of New York, asserted that “environmental stressors and political violence are connected in surprising ways” and suggested driving hybrid cars as a way to thwart the Taliban’s war on girls.

“If more Americans knew how glacial melt contributes to catastrophic weather in Afghanistan — potentially strengthening the Taliban and imperiling Afghan girls who want to attend school — would we drive more hybrids and use millions fewer plastic bags?” Strozier asked rhetorically. “How would elections and legislation be influenced?”

I hate to disagree with the learned professor, but Islam has been waging war on women long before the automobile was invented. Sharia Law is the basis for the Taliban’s war on girls. Sharia Law goes back to the founding of Islam. While limiting our carbon footprint is an admirable goal, it will not improve the lives of the women left behind in Afghanistan.

Posted on Facebook today by Senator Rand Paul. Let’s not forget that although getting Americans out of Afghanistan has to be a priority, there are other issues:

Who doesn’t like a good piece of cheese? Whether its cheddar, Swiss, provolone, or simply American cheese, everybody has their preference. And thanks to USAID, your new favorite might eventually be from Sjenica, Serbia! That’s right! USAID spent part of a $22 million “Sustainable Local Development Project” training the staff at the Regional Center for Agricultural Development (RCAD) in Sjenica, Serbia, to follow the cheese standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and help producers adopt best practices. USAID reports the head of the center as stating, “Our ultimate goal is to be able to guarantee the Sjenica cheese standards and quality to the consumers in the EU, US, and further.”
What tangible skills did USAID help impart? Well, “RCAD’s staff was trained to introduce and implement ISO standards, to properly sample milk and meat products at local farms, to calibrate laboratory equipment, and to advise farmers on improving the safety and quality of their products,” a company that implemented the overall Development Project reported. “The project also trained 30 dairy and livestock farmers and processors on how to improve production practices and meet laboratory standards,” they noted, going on to also say it “engaged a local backstopping expert to assist the laboratory staff during critical phases of the accreditation process. …”
In recent years on the domestic side, the U.S. has been experiencing a massive, historic cheese surplus, one that would eventually hit 1.4 billion pounds — which NPR noted in its report “means that there is enough cheese sitting in cold storage to wrap around the U.S. Capitol.” So American dairy farmers dealing with the realities of this situation might be cheesed off to learn their government worked to strengthen competition and the European cheese market — using their own tax dollars to boot.

 

 

My How Things Have Changed

On September 1, 2020, CNN posted an article titled, “Past vaccine disasters show why rushing a coronavirus vaccine now would be ‘colossally stupid’.” Wow.

The article reports:

Vaccine experts are warning the federal government against rushing out a coronavirus vaccine before testing has shown it’s both safe and effective. Decades of history show why they’re right.

Their concern that the FDA may be moving too quickly heightened when FDA Commissioner Dr. Steven Hahn told the Financial Times that his agency could consider an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a Covid-19 vaccine before late stage clinical trials are complete if the data show strong enough evidence it would protect people.

The commissioner has the authority to allow unapproved medical products to be used in an emergency when there are no adequate or approved alternatives. An EUA is not the same as full approval and it can be withdrawn.

The article reports:

Markel (Dr. Howard Markel, a pediatrician, distinguished professor, and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan) said people’s mistrust of the system makes the idea that the FDA would rush this process before late stage clinical trials are complete “colossally stupid.”

“This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard this administration say,” Markel said. “All it takes is one bad side effect to basically botch a vaccine program that we desperately need against this virus. It’s a prescription for disaster.”

FDA Commissioner Hahn said that the vaccine decision will be based on data, not politics, but Kinch (Michael Kinch, a professor of radiation oncology in the school of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis) shares Markel’s concern.

“This could do substantial damage,” Kinch said. Kinch, who is a patient in one of the vaccine trials himself, said the clinical trial process needs to be followed to the end. A too-early EUA for a vaccine could cause a “nightmare scenario,” for a few reasons.

One, the vaccine may not be safe. Two, if it is not safe, people will lose faith in vaccines. Three, if a vaccine doesn’t offer complete protection, people will have a false sense of security and increase their risk. Four, if a substandard vaccine gets an EUA, a better vaccine may never get approval, because people would be reluctant to enroll in trials and risk getting a placebo instead of a vaccine.

“People are going to die unnecessarily if we take chances with this,” Kinch said. “We’ve got to get this right.”

If you notice that this is an unusual point of view from CNN, look at the date of the article–it was posted when Donald Trump was President. The mainstream media did everything it could to undermine the vaccine and question its effectiveness. The irony is that they were actually right–there are legitimate questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness and safety. However, I posted this article so that people would see the contrast between what the media was saying then and the media’s current support of vaccine mandates. Unfortunately the coronavirus is political. It has been from the start.

 

 

We Need To Secure All Of Our Elections

Yesterday KTLA Los Angeles reported that 300 election recall ballots were found in a vehicle where a felon was found passed out with drugs, a loaded firearm and multiple driver’s licenses one week ago, authorities said Monday.  How did 300 election recall ballots wind up in the same car? Obviously 300 ballots alone will not change the outcome of the recall election, but how many other questionable ballots are floating around the state?

The article reports:

Officers also discovered a loaded firearm, methamphetamine, thousands of pieces of mail, a scale, and multiple California drivers licenses and credit cards that were in other people’s names, a police news release stated. Xanax pills were also located on the unidentified male subject, who authorities described as a felon.

He was arrested on suspicion of a number of offenses, including weapons violations, narcotics and forgery violations.

Providing an update on the case Monday, police said the department’s Special Investigations Division has partnered with the U.S. Postal Service and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Offices Public Integrity Unit to look into the matter.

“Investigators are trying to figure out how the election ballots ended up in the suspect’s vehicle and what their intent was in having them,” police officials said in a statement. “This is an isolated incident and is not related to any additional thefts of election ballots.”

Why are the investigators so sure this is an isolated incident? If the person had multiple driver’s licenses, credit cards, etc., it is quite possible he was not working alone.

The article concludes:

No further details about the incident have been released.

The discovery came the same day that absentee ballots were mailed out to registered California voters for the upcoming Sept. 14 recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Any voter whose ballot was determined to have been taken in the theft will get a new one prior to the election, according to police.

They reminded community members to report any suspicious election activity by calling 310-328-3456.

All registered California voters may apply for an absentee ballot and vote by mail. Any registered voter may become a permanent vote-by-mail voter. Permanent vote-by-mail voters will automatically receive a vote-by-mail ballot for each election. Vote-by-mail is the place where most voter fraud occurs. By setting up a permanent vote-by-mail system, the state is opening the gate for voter fraud. If I move out of California and still have relatives there for a mailing address, I can vote by mail no matter where I live.

 

 

What IS Possible

Yesterday The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about the rescue of a Washington Post reporter in Afghanistan.

The article reports:

A Washington Post reporter has shared how British troops helped her and friends flee Afghanistan – as pressure mounts over US forces’ continued refusal to leave Kabul airport.    

Susannah George told of how she and the paper’s Afghan staff were able to latch on to a separate evacuation led by UK troops, after spotting them and asking for help to flee. 

That saw them hurriedly travel along a road to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Airport in armored cars driven by private security guards.

Those roads were being guarded from Taliban interference by UK service personnel, before making it to the security gate of the airport itself, which was manned by American troops. 

George did not offer further comment on the troops who helped save her, but the UK’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) have been drafted in to rescue Britons trapped in the war-torn country.

Her difficult journey contradicts President Biden’s assertion that anyone with an American passports would be allowed through checkpoints. 

Her story also illustrates the fact that with the proper equipment people can be safely and successfully evacuated from Afghanistan.

The article concludes:

Kabul airport has been the scene of chaos as Westerners and visa holders desperately trying to get to their flights say they are unable to check in because of the crowd of up to 50,000 desperate locals who are gathering at the gates.

At the main entrance, Taliban fighters periodically fire into the air to clear the crowd in an attempt to disperse the crowd – but video of the fighters unleashing a volley of automatic fire shows the terrifying gauntlet evacuees have to negotiate.

Taliban fighters were seen shooting over the heads of crowds, striking people with rifles, while those on the ground reported beatings and whippings being dished out seemingly at random.

Crowds have also gathered at the entrance to the military wing of the airport, which is guarded by US and British troops who have been firing into the air to disperse the crowds.

Westerners face a race against time to get out of Kabul, with control of the airport resting on the up to 60,000 troops.

Joe Biden has said they will stay until all US citizens are evacuated, but there are suspicions among British troops that they could leave abruptly – leaving the 600 British unable to keep operating to evacuate UK nationals and interpreters.

UK troops have said that firing warning shots is a last resort, the Taliban are causing pandemonium and were filmed today shooting from the hip just yards away from women and children, and whacking people with the butts of their rifles.

Such is the desperation among crowds at the airport that women have resorted to passing babies over barbed wire to soldiers in a vain attempt to get them out of the country.

We have the troops and the resources to successfully evacuate all Americans and those who helped us from Afghanistan. We need to do that.

The Next Step

Just the News is reporting today:

The Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine became the first Monday morning to receive full FDA approval. The two-dose immunization was initially the first to receive emergency use authorization in December of 2020.

The Biden administration, local governments, and some employers hope that the full approval means Americans who have, until now, been skeptical about receiving an unauthorized jab, will have their fears reduced and opt to receive the inoculation. The full approval is expected to lead to more businesses and institutions requiring vaccinations for employees and students.

This move paves the way for the healthcare tyranny many of us have feared.

On August 7th Global Research posted the following:

Open Letter to the Unvaccinated

You are not alone! As of 28 July 2021, 29% of Canadians have not received a COVID-19 vaccine, and an additional 14% have received one shot. In the US and in the European Union, less than half the population is fully vaccinated, and even in Israel, the “world’s lab” according to Pfizer, one third of people remain completely unvaccinated. Politicians and the media have taken a uniform view, scapegoating the unvaccinated for the troubles that have ensued after eighteen months of fearmongering and lockdowns. It’s time to set the record straight.

It is entirely reasonable and legitimate to say ‘no’ to insufficiently tested vaccines for which there is no reliable science. You have a right to assert guardianship of your body and to refuse medical treatments if you see fit. You are right to say ‘no’ to a violation of your dignity, your integrity and your bodily autonomy. It is your body, and you have the right to choose. You are right to fight for your children against their mass vaccination in school.

You are right to question whether free and informed consent is at all possible under present circumstances. Long-term effects are unknown. Transgenerational effects are unknown. Vaccine-induced deregulation of natural immunity is unknown. Potential harm is unknown as the adverse event reporting is delayed, incomplete and inconsistent between jurisdictions.

You are being targeted by mainstream media, government social engineering campaigns, unjust rules and policies, collaborating employers, and the social-media mob.

You are being told that you are now the problem and that the world cannot get back to normal unless you get vaccinated.

You are being viciously scapegoated by propaganda and pressured by others around you. Remember; there is nothing wrong with you.

You are inaccurately accused of being a factory for new SARS-CoV-2 variants, when in fact, according to leading scientists, your natural immune system generates immunity to multiple components of the virus. This will promote your protection against a vast range of viral variants and abrogates further spread to anyone else.

You are justified in demanding independent peer-reviewed studies, not funded by multinational pharmaceutical companies. All the peer-reviewed studies of short-term safety and short-term efficacy have been funded, organized, coordinated, and supported by these for-profit corporations; and none of the study data have been made public or available to researchers who don’t work for these companies.

You are right to question the preliminary vaccine trial results. The claimed high values of relative efficacy rely on small numbers of tenuously determined “infections.”  The studies were also not blind, where people giving the injections admittedly knew or could deduce whether they were injecting the experimental vaccine or the placebo. This is not acceptable scientific methodology for vaccine trials.

You are correct in your calls for a diversity of scientific opinions. Like in nature, we need a polyculture of information and its interpretations. And we don’t have that right now. Choosing not to take the vaccine is holding space for reason, transparency and accountability to emerge. You are right to ask, ‘What comes next when we give away authority over our own bodies?’

Do not be intimidated. You are showing resilience, integrity and grit. You are coming together in your communities, making plans to help one another and standing for scientific accountability and free speech, which are required for society to thrive. We are among many who stand with you.

Angela Durante, PhD
Denis Rancourt, PhD
Claus Rinner, PhD
Laurent Leduc, PhD
Donald Welsh, PhD
John Zwaagstra, PhD
Jan Vrbik, PhD
Valentina Capurri, PhD

There are two sides to this story. Unfortunately the media is only reporting one of them. Please do your own research on the vaccines and their safety.