The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Where Is Biden? UPDATED: The Big Lie of ‘Fighting Indefinitely’ in Afghanistan

Posted on | August 16, 2021 | Comments Off on Where Is Biden? UPDATED: The Big Lie of ‘Fighting Indefinitely’ in Afghanistan

Probably snorting coke off a Chinese hooker’s tits.

Oh, wait . . . You meant Joe Biden?

Well, our alleged President is preparing to deliver a nationally televised speech in which he will, predictably, blame everyone else but himself for the dreadful mess he’s made of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the media are spinning so hard they’re liable to go whirling off into orbit any moment now. NBC White House correspondent Monica Alba, acting as propagandist for the Biden regime, complained that “Republicans have seized on” the visual comparison between the situation in Kabul in 2021 and Saigon in 1975. Yes, I missed the memo from GOP headquarters and was left wondering whether to “seize” or “pounce” on this comparison. Last week, we were all pouncing, but now we’re back to seizing again.

UPDATED: Biden’s speech was a masterpiece of mendacity. The heart of it was a deliberate misrepresentation of the situation:

In his remarks, Biden insisted the rapid collapse of the country only reinforced his belief that bringing troops home was the right thing to do.
‘American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,’ he said.
Biden also pointed a finger at former President Donald Trump’s agreement with the Taliban to pull out American troops by May 1, 2021.
‘So I’m left again to ask of those who argue that we should stay: How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war, when Afghan troops will not?’ Biden said.
‘How many more lives, American lives is it worth? How many endless rows of head stones at Arlington National Cemetery?’
‘I’m clear in my answer: I will not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past. The mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the United States,’ he continued.
‘Of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country. Of attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces,’ the president added.

This was not the issue, because our troops were not — repeat, were not — “fighting in a war and dying in a war” when Biden took office. There was no prospect of “endless rows of head stones” from casualties in Afghanistan, and no matter how many times Biden repeats this idea, it is and always was a false dilemma. U.S. combat casualties in Afghanistan since 2017 had been minimal — you can look it up. Even in the worst year in Afghanistan, our total KIA (killed in action) was less than the number of people shot to death in Chicago so far this year. In the four years 2017-2020, the total number of U.S. fatalities in Afghanistan (including accidents, etc.) was 63 — an average of about 16 a year. So this insistence from Biden that the U.S. forces in Afghanistan were “fighting indefinitely” in a civil war that was producing “endless rows” of casualties is simply false — unless you consider the current situation in Chicago an “endless deployment” from which we must hastily evacuate our forces.




 

Category: Foreigners, Joe Biden

Rule 5 Sunday: Death Goddess On The Beach

Posted on | August 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Death Goddess On The Beach

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Fresh out of inspiration and energy this week. Have a Sumerian death goddess in a swimsuit.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Ereshkigal is thinking maybe a one-piece would have been more appropriate.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1442, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Mileage Tax Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Sturgis 2021, Beloe Zlato, Atlantic Crossing, Noor Inayat Khan, More Beloe Zlato, Lucy Boyton, Friday 13th Rule 5, and Wahid Murati

A View From The Beach: The Ratcatcher – Daniela Melchoir, Good Lord!, Fish Pic Friday – Alex Vandegrift, Thursday Tanlines, To Fix the Bay, Fix the Farms, Oregon, My Oregon, Some Wednesday Wetness, Oregon, My Oregon, A Tuesday Tune – The Chase,The Monday Morning Stimulus, RIP: Markie Post, Election 2020 Never Rests, Palm Sunday and It Seems Like There’s Plenty to Go Around

Proof Positive: Vintage Babe Of The Week Remembered

Brian Noggle: Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth

Thanks to everyone for the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

Complete Disaster in Afghanistan Doesn’t Interrupt Senile Joe Biden’s Vacation

Posted on | August 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Complete Disaster in Afghanistan Doesn’t Interrupt Senile Joe Biden’s Vacation

There is no way to alleviate the political damage Joe Biden has suffered as the Taliban captured Kabul today except, perhaps, by keeping Biden hidden away at Camp David, while the administration’s various spin doctors are deployed to major media outlets to make excuses:

President Joe Biden remained hidden at the presidential retreat at Camp David on Sunday as the Taliban swiftly seized control of Afghanistan.
But a senior administration official indicated to reporters Sunday evening that Biden might address the country “in the next few days,” according to reports.
It remains unclear whether Biden will speak from Camp David or return to the White House to deliver his speech, the reports noted.
The president was previously scheduled to return to the White House on Wednesday.
Biden has not spoken publicly on Afghanistan since Tuesday after expressing optimism that the leaders of the Afghan government would rally to defend their country. . . .
Biden told reporters Tuesday he did not regret his decisions on Afghanistan, leaving the following day for the rest of his August vacation in Delaware before he shifted his vacation to Camp David on Friday. . . .
On Saturday, the White House released a 600-word statement from Biden defending his decision to leave Afghanistan and blaming former President Donald Trump for empowering the Taliban.
On Sunday, the White House sent Secretary of State Tony Blinken to speak about the crisis on the Sunday cable and network news shows.
But Biden has remained off-camera as images and footage of the Taliban entering Kabul flooded onto various forms of media.

Gosh, if they can’t blame Trump for this debacle, who will they blame?

Great job you’re doing there, Kamala.

Even liberal journalists like Mike Allen can’t hide the truth:

Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as President Biden on Afghanistan. . . .
Just five weeks ago, President Biden assured Americans: “[T]he likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
In April, Biden said: “We will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit. We’ll do it responsibly, deliberately, and safely.”
This morning, the Taliban is entering the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, “from all sides,” a senior Afghan official told Reuters. Jalalabad, the last major city besides the capital not held by the Taliban, fell earlier today.
Afghan forces today surrendered Bagram Air Base, the Grand Central of America’s longest war, to the Taliban.
CNN showed video of choppers over Kabul — believed to be ferrying U.S. diplomats to the airport. . . .
Ryan Crocker, a U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan under President Obama, said last weekend on ABC’s “This Week”: “I think it is already an indelible stain on his presidency.”

A few quick headlines:

Final Failure in Afghanistan Is Biden’s to Own
— David E. Singer, New York Times

Biden Ordered Afghanistan Withdrawal Against Warnings From Top Generals: Report
— Mike Miller, Red State

Biden’s Betrayal of Afghans Will Live in Infamy
— George Packer, The Atlantic

All Biden Had to Do Was … Nothing
— John Podhoretz, Commentary

All of those stories are worth reading in their entirety, but the last one from Podhoretz captures how unnecessary this disaster was:

Had Joe Biden done nothing, Afghanistan would not have fallen to the Taliban today. Had he just let the status quo continue, the status quo would have continued. Afghanistan would have plodded along and we would have kept the Taliban from power with a small force of American military personnel among whose ranks there had not been a single fatality since March 2020—17 months without a death. Keep that in mind as you listen to and watch people try to analyze away the horror that has befallen the Afghan people. The idea being retailed by the increasingly defeatist left and the increasingly isolationist right is that what has happened was inevitable. It was the opposite of inevitable. It wouldn’t have happened if Biden hadn’t acted.

Look, a U.S. Army infantry company is about 150 men. At no time in the three or four years prior to Biden becoming president had the Taliban been willing to fight even a company-size action against U.S. troops. Earlier today (“Afghanistan and Chicago”), I explained that in the worst year in Afghanistan, U.S. forces suffered a total of 440 troops killed in action, which is less than the number shot and killed so far this year in Chicago. But the Biden administration is not abandoning Chicago, are they? And I’m willing to shrug off Podhoretz’s jab at the “increasingly isolationist right” because the point he’s making is absolutely correct — our forces in Afghanistan weren’t actually fighting a war, because the Taliban were afraid to fight them. Instead, our troops in Afghanistan were just keeping the peace, and with as much or more success as the police in Chicago. While keeping our troops deployed over there may have been expensive, what the hell do we have a military for, anyway? I mean, if we’re not occasionally gonna bust some heads, why even have a military? Whatever else you might say about Afghanistan, it was an excellent training ground, a chance for our forces to engage in firefights with actual enemies every once in a while. Maybe that wasn’t a “vital U.S. national interest,” but it was not entirely without value, either.

There may be an “increasingly isolationist right” that fails to appreciate that assessment, but I’m not trying to win any popularity contests, and nobody at the Pentagon has ever sought my advice, so anyone who wants to criticize me is wasting their time. Certainly, it’s not as if I have any influence over the Biden administration, and do not let anyone deceive you — Biden 100% owns this catastrophe:

Was it inevitable that it had to end up this way? Having this happen in this disastrously humiliating way was not inevitable. That’s completely all on Joe Biden, the guy who has been wrong about everything for the past forty years.
Early in July, when Joe Biden still had the opportunity to do things but was sitting on his hands acting as though he had all the time in the world, he claimed it wasn’t inevitable that the Taliban would take over again, despite the fact the U.S. intelligence was predicting it would happen.
“There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,” Biden said when asked about the possibility of an airlift off as happened in 1975 during the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

Joe Biden is already The Worst President Ever. As has been said, comparing Biden to Jimmy Carter is an insult — to Jimmy Carter.

Remember: 81 million people allegedly voted for this senile fool. If you don’t want to blame Biden, blame the idiots who elected him.




 

Category: Democrats, Foreigners, Military

‘Mostly Peaceful’ Stabbing: Antifa Attacks Demonstration Against Vaccine Mandate

Posted on | August 15, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Stabbing: Antifa Attacks Demonstration Against Vaccine Mandate

The news media playing their “both sides” game:

One man was stabbed Saturday during dueling demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles over the contentious issue of mandatory vaccinations against the coronavirus, according to Los Angeles police.
At least 500 demonstrators protesting against mandatory vaccinations and counterprotesters had gathered at the south lawn of Los Angeles City Hall at 2 p.m., said LAPD Lt. Raul Jovel, spokesman for the department.
Around 2:30 p.m., a fight broke out among 20 to 30 protesters and counter-protesters in front of the LAPD headquarters, across the street from City Hall, leading to the stabbing, Jovel said. The victim, a man in his 20s, was stabbed at least once in the chest.
The man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was in serious condition, LAPD Officer Mike Lopez said.
Witnesses told police the assailant was a man dressed in all black, police said.
The department said no arrests had been made but officers were in the process of taking a large number of reports from those involved in the melee or were witnesses, Jovel said. A number of people were battered in the fight, including one news reporter, he said. . . .
Police were still sorting out what led to the fight and the role the assailant and victim played in the opposing demonstrations.
Most of the crowds had cleared from the area by 5 p.m.
The organizers of the “choose freedom march” called out against “medical tyranny, mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports.”
One hour earlier, an opposing group staged a counter-protest at the same location that organizers are calling “no safe space for fascists.”
The opposing rallies came as vaccine mandates continue to proliferate across California.
The Los Angeles City Council voted earlier this week to have the city attorney draw up an ordinance requiring proof of at least partial vaccination to enter many public indoor spaces in the city, including restaurants, bars, gyms, concert venues, movie theaters and even retail establishments.

You would not know, from reading that article, what really happened: The peaceful protesters — the ones who are against the mandates — were attacked by the violent Antifa mob, including one guy who jumped into the melee and stabbed one of the anti-vax protesters. But this is portrayed neutrally — “a fight broke out” — as if it were impossible to determine who the aggressors were in this violence.

The media and Antifa are on the same side, and thus it behooves the media to obscure the fact that their allies caused the violence.




 

Category: California, Crime, Media Bias

Afghanistan and Chicago

Posted on | August 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Afghanistan and Chicago

“I don’t know what everybody thought would happen. It’s literally history repeating itself. . . . No foresight in what enemy was being fought. Conventional war doesn’t beat an insurgency, period.”

Such is the sober assessment of what’s happening in Afghanistan from one military source who has seen that particular s***hole country. There seems to be a general feeling in the military that after achieving the original objective of the mission in Afghanistan — chasing al-Qaeda out of the country — the objective was then changed to something that was never going to happen, i.e., creating a modern “democracy” there.

Longtime national security adviser K.T. McFarland says:

The truth is the Afghan war was lost 19 years ago when we switched from our original mission of destroying Al Qaeda to a new mission – nation building a modern Afghanistan.
Our leaders wanted to turn one of the most backward, corrupt, illiterate, desolate, tribal countries in the world into a democracy that would rebuff Al Qaeda.
Our military efforts were doomed from the start when we tried to create a sophisticated Afghan military that relied on American forces, air support and intelligence.
Our original goal in Afghanistan was straightforward – kill those who killed our people. We sent a small contingent of American special forces in right after the Sept. 11 attacks and they succeeded brilliantly.
Within three months our troops, working alongside Afghan tribal leaders, destroyed most of Al Qaeda. They had the few hundred remaining fighters surrounded, including Usama Bin Laden, huddled in the caves of the Hindu Kush mountains separating Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Instead of finishing them off then and there or pursuing them through the mountains and into the tribal regions of Pakistan to destroy them, we inexplicably let them slip away.
We paid Pakistan handsomely, year after year, to finish off Al Qaeda for us. While they happily pocketed our aid, they never went after Bin Laden, and let his organization survive and even grow.
Instead, we stuck around Afghanistan consumed by Mission Impossible. We lost over 2,000 Americans, tens of thousands of Americans were injured, and over a trillion dollars wasted.

Remember the elections in Afghanistan? All those women voters with purple ink on their fingers? That was a very bad omen. Given all the misery caused by “women’s rights” in America, why did anyone think it was a good idea to impose “women’s rights” on Afghanistan?

K.T. McFarland mentions the casualties. In the worst year in Afghanistan, 2010, the U.S. suffered 440 troops killed in action.

So far this year in Chicago, 480 people have been shot to death.

When will the U.S. begin its withdrawal from Chicago?

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

And perhaps I should point out that Chicago is known to harbor anti-American terrorists. But why bring up Bill Ayers at this late date?




 

Category: Foreigners, Joe Biden, Military

Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster

Posted on | August 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Biden’s Afghanistan Disaster

Of course, anyone could have predicted his excuse: “Orange Man Bad!”

President Joe Biden issued a statement Saturday blaming former President Donald Trump after the Taliban rapidly took control of the majority of Afghanistan’s major cities.
“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor,” Biden wrote, complaining that Trump negotiated a deal “that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001.”
Biden also noted that Trump had set the troop withdrawal date of May 1 and reduced troop levels to 2,500.
The president said he had the choice of either following through with Trump’s withdrawal plan or sending more troops back into Afghanistan to secure the country.
But Biden set a later date for withdrawal, choosing a new deadline of September 11th before walking it back to August 31.
“I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats,” he said. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”
On Saturday, Biden announced his decision to surge 5,000 American troops into Afghanistan to help ensure the safe evacuation of American personal.
Despite the president blaming his predecessor, Biden signaled he was disillusioned by the Afghanistan conflict:

One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence, would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. An endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.

Biden’s remarks were sharply different from his tone just a month ago when he indicated the Taliban takeover of the country was not inevitable.
“So the question now is, where do they go from here?” Biden said in July about the Taliban’s failure to negotiate a deal with the Afghan government. “The jury is still out. But the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

Why did he think it was “highly unlikely”? Probably because he was listening to the Deep State “experts” of the intelligence community.

All these State Department and CIA geniuses with their degrees in international relations from Georgetown, Harvard, Yale — if you want to blame someone, put the blame where it really belongs.




 

Category: Foreigners, Joe Biden, Military

In The Mailbox: 08.14.21 (Saturday Night Special Edition)

Posted on | August 15, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.14.21 (Saturday Night Special Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Too much good(sic) stuff to wait until Monday.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL WE SAY IT’S OVER!

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Crime Surge In San Francisco & The Prosecutor Who Made It Happen
Red Pilled Jew: The Avalanche Has Already Started
EBL: The Fall Of Afghanistan, also, Leaving Afghanistan
Twitchy: Liz Cheney Calls Fall Of Afghanistan a “Trump/Biden Calamity” And People Have Thoughts, also, “Now Every Taliban Fighter Gets His Own Humvee”
Louder With Crowder: Project Veritas Scores Major Court Victory Against NYT
Vox Popoli: Mr. Buchanan’s Questions, Another Day, Another Gatekeeper, and A Rapid & Unexpected Collapse
According To Hoyt: Death & Absence
Monster Hunter Nation: Back From The Book Tour, also, Gun Runner Is Up For A Dragon Award
Stoic Observations: Cultural Appropriation & Privilege – Obligatory Seriousness
Gab News: A Response To Dan Bongino

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: On The David Hiscox Show, also, End Of Empire
American Conservative: The Crisis Of Confidence In America’s Military
American Greatness: DOJ’s “Troubling” Discovery Delays, also, Their Collective Comes For Our Republic
American Power: Biden’s Failure In Afghanistan
American Thinker: The Agenda For Serfdom In The Land Of The Free
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Mileage Tax Friday
Babalu Blog: The Inhumane Conditions Of Cuba’s “Revolutionary” Healthcare, also, Seventh High-Ranking Cuban Officer Dies In Less Than A Month
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For August 13
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted Americans, also, Boeing Returning Starliner To Factory
Cafe Hayek: Unmasking GMU Officials’ COVID Hypocrisy
CDR Salamander: Disrupt The Navy’s Operational Model To Counter Red China
Da Tech Guy: Nineteen Senate Republicans Proved That Our Two-Party System Is Now Completely Dysfunctional, also, Democrats Nostalgic For The Jim Crow Era & Occasional Cortex As Turk
Don Surber: Dealing With The Dan Crenshaws, also, The Racism Of Diversity
First Street Journal: So Much For Andy Beshear Asking, also, Killadelphia
The Geller Report: Majority Of Registered Democrats Now Prefer Socialism To Capitalism, also, Marine Commandant Says “No Mandatory Vaccination For My Marines”
Hogewash: False Charge Against Christina Pushaw Dropped, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
Hollywood In Toto: It’s Official – Woke Elites Bullied Brooklyn Nine-Nine To Pander To #BLM, also, Andrew “Dice” Clay Says What We’re All Thinking About Him
The Lid: Thirty Years Ago, Al Sharpton Incited The Crown Heights Pogrom
Legal Insurrection: Lincoln Project’s Latest Ad Targeting Abbott & DeSantis Hits Home Run – With Their Leftist Base, also, Panic Porn – Media Buried Key Detail About Florida Teachers Dying Of COVID
Michelle Malkin: COVID, Catholics, & Illegal Alien Charities, also, The Worst O-Limp-Ics Ever
Nebraska Energy Observer: Synchronicity & History
Outkick: Jay Cutler Dropped From Uber Promo Over His Stance Against Masking Kids, also, No Fans For Little League World Series Because COVID
Power Line: The Disaster Of Green Energy, also, Biden’s Shameful Afghanistan Retreat
Shark Tank: Nikki Fried Masks Up, Then Masks Down
Shot In The Dark: This Is Not How Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. Did It, also, Nationwrecking
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – Dirty Rock Lyrics
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, also, House Democrats Urge Lifting Venezuela Sanctions
Transterrestrial Musings: The “Infrastructure” Bill, also, Haiti
Victory Girls: Administration Begs, Taliban Swarms, & Americans Deploy, also, Judge Rules Remain In Mexico Policy Must Resume
Volokh Conspiracy: Avenatti’s Libel Suit Against Fox Thrown Out Of Court
Weasel Zippers: “This Is Unsustainable…These Numbers Cannot Continue”, also, West Point Indoctrinating Cadets With Marxism?
The Federalist: Hunter Biden’s Russian Whore Videos Indict Both His Father And The Intelligence Community, also, Biden Begs The Arabs For Oil While Halting Alaska Oil Production
Mark Steyn: We Have Met The Enemy, Part XVI, also, Up The Khyber

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Category: Linkagery

FMJRA 2.0: Sweet Jane

Posted on | August 15, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Sweet Jane

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Normally I’d just blow off a missed Friday night link post, but a lot of people sent stuff in, which you deserve to see tonight and not on Monday morning. So there’ll be a rare Saturday Night In The Mailbox after I get done with this.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Violence Against Women Update
First Street Journal
Bacon Time
The Political Hat
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: Crossing The Streams
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
EBL
Proof Positive

FMJRA 2.0: Will You Stay Down On Your Knees?
A View From The Beach
EBL

Mass Murder in Texas: Can You Guess Why National Media Have Ignored This?
EBL
Proof Positive

The Magic ‘D’
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.09.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

CUOMO ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.10.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Number 10 for the Win
EBL

Rebekah Jones: Still Lying
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.13.21 (Afternoon Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Top linkers for the week ending August 13:

  1.  EBL (11)
  2.  (tied) A View From The Beach and 357 Magnum (6)
  3.  Proof Positive (5)

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Category: FMJRA Award
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