Mask mandate and use efficacy for COVID-19 containment in US States

Damian D. Guerra^1,*, Daniel J. Guerra²

¹Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, United States of America;
²Authentic Biochemistry, VerEvMed, Clarkston, Washington, United States of America

Background: COVID-19 pandemic mitigation requires evidence-based strategies. Because COVID-19 can spread via respired droplets, most US states mandated mask use in public settings. Randomized control trials have not clearly demonstrated mask efficacy against respiratory viruses, and observational studies conflict on whether mask use predicts lower infection rates. We hypothesized that statewide mask mandates and mask use were associated with lower COVID-19 case growth rates in the United States.

Methods: We calculated total COVID-19 case growth and mask use for the continental United States with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. We estimated post-mask mandate case growth in non-mandate states using median issuance dates of neighboring states with mandates.

Results: Earlier mask mandates were not associated with lower total cases or lower maximum growth rates. Earlier mandates were weakly associated with lower minimum COVID-19 growth rates. Mask use predicted lower minimum but not lower maximum growth rates. Growth rates and total growth were comparable between US states in the first and last mask use quintiles during the Fall-Winter wave. These observations persisted for both natural logarithmic and fold growth models and when adjusting for differences in US state population density.

Conclusions: We did not observe association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states. COVID-19 mitigation requires further research and use of existing efficacious strategies, most notably vaccination.

https://escipub.com/irjph-2021-08-1005/

A pair of top Food and Drug Administration vaccine regulators are reportedly planning to resign in protest over the Biden administration’s push to encourage booster shots for COVID-19 vaccine recipients.

The two regulators, Dr. Marion Gruber and Dr. Philip Krause, are stepping down in October and November, respectively, according to The New York Times.

The resignations come after weeks of an aggressive blitz by the Biden administration to encourage Americans to get a booster shot if they’ve received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

An @US_FDA spokesperson confirms departure of @FDACBER‘s Dr. Marion Gruber and Dr. Phil Krause

Email from Dr. Peter Marks announcing the “two retirements” calls Dr. Gruber’s departure “a huge loss” and thanks Dr. Krause for “incredible contributions to public health” https://t.co/Ko5KzfhZzc pic.twitter.com/e5aolUwQ6v

— Alexander Tin (@Alexander_Tin) August 31, 2021

Trending:Biden Officials Turn on Him, Reveal How They Really Feel About Afghanistan Withdrawal

Gruber, the director of the vaccines office at the FDA, and Krause, her deputy, do not believe there is enough data to justify booster shots for the public, the Times reported.

Both had reportedly seen the White House’s push for booster shots as putting unnecessary pressure on the FDA to quickly authorize the doses without the needed data.

The pair were also frustrated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its advisory committee for playing a large role in decisions they believed were solely up to the FDA, CNBC reported.

Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, announced in an email to employees that he would serve as acting director of the vaccines office until a permanent successor is found, according to the Times.

“Thank you so much to Marion and Phil for all that they have contributed and continue to contribute to the agency, and thanks so much to each of you for all that you do every day,” Marks wrote in the email, according to CNBC.

The White House coronavirus response coordinator, Jeffrey D. Zients, when asked by reporters about the resignations, said booster shots were dependent on FDA review.

“As our medical experts laid out, having reviewed all the available data, it is in their clinical judgment that it is time to prepare Americans for a booster shot,” Zients said in a briefing, according to the Times.

The FDA is planning to hold a public panel meeting to discuss the booster shots, the outlet reported. The agency is also planning to determine whether vaccines should be made available to children under 12.

Johnson & Johnson last week became the latest company to announce the results of booster shot trials, claiming that participants had a ninefold increase in antibodies after the booster.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has also reportedly discussed a recurring vaccine schedule with the White House.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently required all military service members to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but has not yet mandated the booster shots.

Zients has hinted that the Biden administration is seeking to require employers to implement vaccine mandates to drive up vaccination numbers.

The FDA fully approved the Pfizer vaccine for those 16 and older last month, paving the way for vaccine mandates and possibly booster shots.

Top FDA Vaccine Regulators Resign in Protest, Reportedly Point the Finger at White House (westernjournal.com)

How does a leader decide what to do?

The most logical response is: “Cui bono?”—”Who benefits?”—from the decision.

If some policy benefits your country most, you should, within moral bounds, pursue it.

If your enemies benefit most, you should avoid it.

I’d be curious to learn what answer proponents of America leaving Afghanistan—conservative or liberal—would give to the question, “Cui bono?”

I can say that until this moment, I have not read or heard a single cogent argument from proponents of American withdrawal as to how exactly it benefits America.

“Twenty years is too long,” or its variant, “we have to end these endless wars,” the most commonly offered argument for withdrawal, has nothing to do with benefiting America.

It is an emotional sentiment, not a rational argument.

The withdrawal has already cost us in a single day more service members’ lives than we lost on any one day in Afghanistan since June 2014, seven years ago.

The number of American servicemen killed in Afghanistan per year from 2015 to 2020 is respectively 22, 9, 14, 14, 21, and 11. No one can seriously argue that we are leaving Afghanistan because of high American casualties.

So, while America doesn’t benefit at all from leaving Afghanistan, it does get hurt.

The damage to the reputation of America—as an ally and as a strong country—is not easily overstated.

The damage done to NATO, whose members President Joe Biden didn’t bother to consult, is greater than any damage former President Donald Trump—whom the left-wing mainstream media constantly attacked for damaging NATO—was alleged to have done.

On the other hand, “Cui bono?” has some very clear answers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, every Islamic terror group in the world and every other anti-American regime and movement.

In the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro compiled a list of recent Western weakness in the face of tyrants and the commensurate strengthening of those tyrants:

“The West’s abandonment of Hong Kong in the face of Chinese aggression last year.

“The West’s continuing desire for a rapprochement with the Iranian mullahcracy.

“The West’s routine appeasement of Russia.

“All speak to the unwillingness of the West—and the West’s leader, the United States—to stand up for allies anywhere on earth.

“Afghanistan is simply the latest, and by far the most stunning, example of abandonment of an American ally …

“China’s Global Times, a Communist Party mouthpiece, chortled, ‘From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and U.S. military won’t come to help. As a result (Taiwan) will quickly surrender.’

“Indeed, given the window presented by the Biden administration, it would be somewhat of a surprise if China didn’t attempt some sort of action against Taiwan in the next few years …

“Foreign policy abhors vacuums, and the United States has now created one. That means that erstwhile American allies will begin to play footsie with countries like Russia and China, believing that American commitments mean little. They have reason for such suspicions, obviously.”

The effects on Americans’ perceptions of the military constitute another terrible price paid by leaving Afghanistan. More and more Americans see the military as more concerned with fighting white supremacy in America and transphobia in the military than with fighting for the supremacy of freedom on earth. This is new. And it will have a devastating effect on both America and the military. One obvious consequence: Who will want to enlist in a woke military? (Perhaps that’s the goal.)

It seems that every generation has to relearn the basic laws of life, such as this one: There are many bad people and many bad countries in the world, and only a fear of good countries prevents them from conquering other countries.

There is less fear of good countries in the world today than at any time since World War II. And that is especially so because the good countries are preoccupied with their own alleged evils rather than with the world’s real evils.

Cui Bono? Who Benefits From the Afghanistan Withdrawal? (theepochtimes.com)

State Department official ‘haunted’ by failure to assist special immigrant visa applicants

The majority of Afghan special immigrant visa applicants who aided U.S. forces did not safely exit Afghanistan before the Biden administration withdrew, the State Department said on Wednesday.

A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Politico he and his team are “haunted” by the failure to assist applicants, many of whom were translators and aides for U.S. forces for decades in Afghanistan, often in life-or-death situations. The United States opened up 34,500 slots for SIV applicants, but an estimated 50,000 Afghans were interested in applying.

“There were days it did not work well,” a State Department official said. “We had a couple of instances where buses were a mix of foreign nationals and Afghan local employees of other missions, and the Talibs would only let pass the foreign nationals, and they turned away or they held at that location the Afghan citizens who were on that particular movement.”

Taliban checkpoints at the Kabul airport and nearby—as well as brutal killings of Afghans suspected of working with the United States—hindered the evacuation of some translators.

One Afghan interpreter who was left behind had rescued President Joe Biden during a 2008 visit to Afghanistan. Biden and former senators Chuck Hagel (R.) and John Kerry (D.) landed in a dangerous valley during a snowstorm and required evacuation with the assistance of the translator. He is now hiding out in Afghanistan with his wife and four children.

“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” the translator told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “Don’t forget me here.”

Another translator who was unable to secure a safe exit from Afghanistan expressed fear to the Washington Free Beacon that he would be killed if spotted by the Taliban. Up to 200 Americans, including dozens of children, also remain in the Taliban-controlled country.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) ripped the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal in a Tuesday statement.

“President Biden prioritized political considerations over American lives and national security,” Cruz said. “He imposed an artificial deadline untethered from conditions on the ground, and refused to adjust or adapt even as the Taliban swept across Afghanistan and catastrophes mounted. He met his artificial deadline but broke all the promises he made to the American people. … And he dragged our nation into a crippling, humiliating defeat that has shaken our allies and emboldened our enemies.”

Majority of Afghan Allies Not Out of Afghanistan, State Department Says (freebeacon.com)

Facebook and Instagram removed Shana Chappell’s posts criticizing Biden

A Republican congresswoman is pushing Facebook and Instagram to explain why they censored posts critical of President Biden by the mother of a Marine killed in Afghanistan, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri to explain why the social media sites removed posts by Shana Chappell that criticized Biden for the debacle in Afghanistan and his allegedly callous behavior at the transfer of her son’s remains.

Chappell’s Instagram account was suspended and one of her Facebook posts was hidden, although both were later restored. Facebook, which owns Instagram, said Chappell’s Instagram account was “incorrectly deleted.” When asked for clarification on why Chappell’s Instagram account was removed, a spokesman said the platform does not “comment on how enforcements occurred.”

Tenney wants the companies to explain their behavior. “Our Gold Star families and the American public deserve better than this,” she wrote. “After sacrificing so much for the safety and security of our Nation, their speech should not be stifled by faceless Silicon Valley censors.”

Facebook and Instagram have come under fire for unclear or partisan content moderation. Facebook has “downranked” articles that argued COVID-19 escaped a Chinese lab. Tenney serves on the House GOP’s “Tech Task Force,” which is preparing a legislative package to tackle the power of major tech companies.

In the letter, Tenney expressed concerns about politically motivated censorship. “I am aware that the White House acknowledged it would be flagging for Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, posts it deemed ‘problematic.’ Weaponizing the power of the Executive Branch against an open public discourse is wholly un-American, and it would be a crucial error for Instagram to assist in this.”

Biden has not shied away from exerting leverage over Facebook. In June, he accused the platform of “killing people” by allowing “misinformation” about COVID on the site. Multiple former Facebook executives serve in the Biden White House.

According to a Facebook spokesman, Chappell’s “tribute to her heroic son does not violate any of our policies.” Chappell said that after she posted about her son, Instagram began flagging her older posts and warned that her account would be deleted if she continued posting. It is unclear what triggered the warnings on older posts.

GOP Congresswoman Asks Facebook To Explain Suspension of Gold Star Mother (freebeacon.com)

CalPERS has $490 million tied up in companies funding Belt and Road

California’s state pension invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese state-owned enterprises linked to the People’s Liberation Army, according to records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) had more than $3 billion invested in Chinese companies, including 14 state-controlled enterprises blacklisted by the Trump administration, as of June 2020. Many of these companies are funding the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project Beijing is using to expand its geopolitical and military influence.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.), who recently praised a Chinese-owned media company for its “journalistic integrity,” has not commented on CalPERS’s Chinese investments. It is a notable silence from the embattled governor, who has called on CalPERS, the country’s largest public pension system, to divest from tobacco companies and companies linked to the Turkish government. Newsom faces a recall election on Sept. 14.

CalPERS had more than $450 million invested in 14 Chinese companies the Trump administration put on an investment blacklist last year because of their ties to the Chinese military. President Donald Trump’s executive order, which the Biden administration has continued, prohibited Americans from investing in companies that aid the Chinese military.

It is unclear whether CalPERS has complied with the executive order by divesting in the blacklisted companies. The pension fund declined the Free Beacon‘s requests for comment. CalPERS had more than $490 million invested in seven Chinese state-owned enterprises that, while not on the U.S. blacklist, are funding the Belt and Road Initiative, according to its 2020 investment report. CalPERS invested in some of the Chinese companies as early as 2016, records show.

Two companies in the CalPERS portfolio—China Merchants Port and CITIC—control ports in Sri Lanka and Myanmar that the People’s Liberation Army has used for military exercises. CalPERS had $3.7 million invested in China Merchants Port and $110 million in CITIC as of June 2020.

CalPERS, which has more than $400 billion in assets under management, also had $5 million invested in China State Construction Co., which has built roads and bridges in Asia, Africa, and the United States as part of Belt and Road. China State Construction is one of the firms on the Trump administration investment blacklist.

CalPERS had another $6 million invested in China Communications Construction Company, a state-owned company that U.S. officials have said is building military installations in the South China Sea in violation of agreements that China has with its neighbors. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo singled out China Communications Construction last year as one of the “weapons” Beijing uses to impose an expansionist agenda.

The pension fund has hundreds of millions of dollars more invested in some of China’s largest lenders, including $185 million invested in China Construction Bank. China Construction has invested $405 billion in 176 Belt and Road projects. China Merchants Bank and Bank of China, two other state-owned enterprises in the CalPERS portfolio, are invested heavily in Belt and Road projects.

CalPERS has come under scrutiny from state and national lawmakers over its investments in Chinese companies. The fund’s critics say the investments not only aid the Chinese Communist Party but also create financial risk for the state’s pensioners because of the lack of transparency into the operations of Chinese firms.

“CalPERS would do well on its own to reconsider some of its billions of dollars of investments in China just for the fact that immediate international turmoil produces large uncertainties for California retirees,” said Lance Christensen, the chief operating officer at the California Policy Center, a conservative think tank.

Some investment managers are reportedly reconsidering investments in China because of the government’s crackdown on tech companies and other for-profit companies. Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges lost $400 billion in value in July amid a series of regulatory crackdowns orchestrated by the Chinese government, the Wall Street Journal reported.

CalPERS’s former head under Newsom, Ben Meng, is an American citizen of Chinese origin. Prior to leading CalPERs, he worked in China as the deputy chief investment officer of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange. In that role, he oversaw $3 trillion of foreign-exchange reserves.

During Meng’s time at CalPERS, Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) criticized Meng’s membership in China’s Thousand Talents Program, which the nation uses for espionage. Banks wrote to Newsom suggesting the governor fire Meng, a power Newsom does not technically have.

“Governor Newsom, if it were up to me, I would fire Mr. Meng immediately,” Banks wrote in a February 2020 letter. Banks took specific issue with Chinese companies like Hikvision, for example, that are used by China to further its detention of Uyghurs. CalPERS responded by calling Banks’s letter a “politically opportunistic attempt to force us to divest, undermining our ability to perform our fiduciary duty to provide retirement security to California’s public employees.”

Last year, Banks and Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) called on Newsom and CalPERS to divest from Chinese state-owned companies. CalPERS rejected the requests, saying that its portfolio largely mirrors investments in the MSCI and FTSE stock indices. MSCI has said it is divesting from the 14 companies on the federal blacklist, but it is not clear whether CalPERS plans to follow MSCI’s lead.

While Newsom does not directly control CalPERs, he has actively used his bully pulpit as a statewide elected official to force the agency’s investment decisions in the past. In 2019, he signed an executive order directing CalPERS and other state pension funds to invest in green energy companies in order to fight climate change.

In 2016, then-Lt. Gov. Newsom urged CalPERS not to reverse a decision to prohibit investment in tobacco companies. He said CalPERS would be “investing in death” if it allowed investments in Big Tobacco. CalPERS voted later that year to expand its prohibition on tobacco investments.

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2018, Newsom called on CalPERS to divest from Turkish companies because of the regime’s refusal to recognize the mass murder of Armenians in 1915.

“It is wrong of us as a state … to invest in Turkish businesses. It’s time for divestment at the [University of California] and CalPERS,” Newsom said at a rally outside the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles.

Newsom has not made a similar demand of CalPERS regarding China, even though both the Trump and Biden administrations have said that the government is carrying out genocide against Muslims in Western China.

“Gov. Gavin Newsom is quick to leverage his position on issues like climate change by outlawing gas-powered cars or other similar mandates, but slow to speak out on government investments in China, where their environmental and labor record is abysmal,” said Christensen, the official at the California Policy Center.

Newsom’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

California’s State Pension Invests Millions in Chinese State-Owned Companies (freebeacon.com)

Sen. Hagerty: ‘We have someone not even qualified for a security clearance at the center of Biden’s incompetently planned withdrawal”

Pentagon strategy chief Colin Kahl is in the hot seat over his role in the Biden administration’s bungled Afghanistan withdrawal, four months after Senate Republicans unanimously opposed his nomination and warned that his appointment would be disastrous for national defense policy.

Kahl, the civilian head of policy planning at the Department of Defense and third highest ranking department official, has been a key player in planning for the Afghanistan withdrawal and the day-to-day policy decisions on the ground. While several Biden administration officials have been publicly defending the president’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, Republican foreign policy leaders say Kahl is the behind-the-scenes player largely responsible for the botched evacuation of Afghanistan and decision to leave Americans stranded in the country. The GOP lawmakers, who also have criticized Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, now say their fears about Kahl’s lack of fitness for the role are coming to pass.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon that Kahl “should never have been nominated by the president or confirmed by the Senate” and should be held responsible for the Biden administration’s failures in Afghanistan, including for the hundreds of Americans who have reportedly been left behind. “In Kahl, we have someone not even qualified for a security clearance at the center of President Biden’s incompetently planned and disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), another member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon that Kahl and Pentagon leadership “are more worried about woke messaging than combat readiness. And the entire White House national security team is being bullied by a band of medieval terrorists. They are overseeing America’s decline, and it is an absolute disgrace.”

The criticism of Kahl comes as lawmakers are demanding the resignation of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley over the handling of the Afghanistan exit, which led to a Taliban takeover of the country and a chaotic and deadly evacuation effort. While senior State Department and Pentagon officials have come under the microscope in the wake of the Biden administration’s evacuation from Afghanistan, Kahl has largely avoided public scrutiny. Leading GOP foreign policy voices and national security establishment insiders, however, say that Kahl was not prepared for a senior Pentagon job and that this lack of preparation contributed to the administration’s failure to plan for the Taliban’s rise. The Biden administration rammed Kahl’s appointment through Congress this year, even in the face of significant Republican opposition. As Afghanistan fell apart in the past several weeks, Kahl’s opponents began to lay blame for the crisis on his office, which is tasked with providing day-to-day policy advice to the Pentagon’s military leaders.

As undersecretary of defense for policy, Kahl has played a leading role in crafting the withdrawal strategy. During a strategy call last week, military commanders warned Kahl and other Pentagon leaders about an imminent “mass casualty” attack expected to take place near Abbey Gate last week, according to notes from the classified session obtained by Politico. Kahl and the other officials reportedly declined to close the gate due to concerns that it would impede the evacuation process. The next day, a suicide bomber killed 13 service members in the same location.

On the call, Kahl and other officials were also reportedly told that the United States would not be able to evacuate every American from the country, an outcome that the Biden administration had promised to prevent. Kahl expressed concern about the optics, reportedly worrying that “history will judge us by those final images.”

Kahl “owns the [Department of Defense’s] failure to plan and implement a withdrawal that wouldn’t dishonor our veterans, our military, and our values,” said Josh Block, a foreign policy scholar at the Hudson Institute and former Clinton administration State Department official.

Block said Kahl is “unqualified for his job, a liability to American national security” and “needs to be removed or made to resign.”

Calls for Kahl’s resignation come just months after his bruising confirmation battle, during which he faced scrutiny for his Twitter attacks on Republicans, his advocacy for the Iran nuclear deal, and his record of inaccurate foreign policy predictions.

Kahl was confirmed in a divisive, party-line vote after he apologized for his years of inflammatory tweets, including blasting the GOP as the “party of ethnic cleansing” and a “clown show.”

Kahl, who served in the State Department under President Obama, was a top advocate of the nuclear deal with Iran and has spoken at multiple events hosted by the National Iranian American Council, a pro-Iranian regime lobbying group.

He opposed a 2017 bill to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the nexus for Iran’s global terrorism operations. Kahl also protested the Trump administration’s assassination of Iranian terror chief Qassem Soleimani, which he described as “the equivalent of another country taking out the director of the CIA, secretary of defense, and shadow secretary of state all rolled into one.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), in a speech he made this spring in opposition to Kahl’s nomination, said the nominee was “wrong about nearly every important foreign policy decision of the last decade.”

Cotton noted that Kahl in 2010 dismissed concerns about a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, which he said was “very unlikely to trigger a dramatic uptick in violence”—a prediction that was proven wrong after terrorists seized a large portion of Iraq. Kahl also predicted that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would prompt a third intifada and that Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and later assassination of Soleimani would spark a war with Tehran.

“Mr. Kahl’s inability to accurately assess these events almost defies probability,” said Cotton.

Republicans Blame Pentagon Planner Colin Kahl for Bungled Afghanistan Strategy (freebeacon.com)

“Abracadabra!” “Alakazam!” “Presto-chango!” These common refrains are employed by magicians to signal the climax of their seemingly supernatural trick. As a child, I was fascinated by masters of deception. Among other magician’s tricks, the “sleight of hand” was my obsession. Equally stunning and perplexing, I was left puzzled time and again by the clever illusion. Try as I might, I could not manage to figure it out.

With study, I discovered the mastery behind the sleight-of-hand ploy: deception. The phrase refers to a clever act designed for two purposes—entertainment and manipulation of the onlooker. Drawing the spectator in by an intimate and captivating movement of the hands, the spectator never captures the moment they are duped into thinking they were not tricked. The bottom line is that, if you do not closely observe the magician’s hands, you will be fooled into looking in the wrong direction. Ultimately, you will believe what the magician wants you to think—that magic made the trick happen.

Today, I am often reminded of the sleight of hand when I feel drawn into false narratives perpetuated by our state and nation’s elected officials. Among our nation’s leaders, Governor Gavin Newsom has claimed center stage in attempting to deceive California residents that the Sept. 14 Gubernatorial Recall Election is nothing more than a “Republican” brainchild.

You will note that every ballot mailed to California voters is accompanied by a voter’s guide that describes the recall as the result of machinations at the national level by the Republican Party and supporters of former President Donald Trump. More precisely, the guide includes a statement from Governor Newsom asserting that this election is happening because the Republican National Committee (RNC) is determined to seize power in California.

This kind of talk is nothing new. Back in March, Newsom was quoted as saying the push for the vote was a “Republican recall backed by the RNC, anti-mask and anti-vax extremists, and pro-Trump forces who want to overturn the last election and have opposed much of what we have done to fight the pandemic.”

Again, this was hardly an isolated incident. Newsom has consistently described the upcoming election in speeches, public statements, and social media posts as a “Republican-led recall.” He’s also made regular digs at the national Republican Party, linking his own political fortunes to developments in other parts of the country. On Aug. 16, for example, he wrote in a Twitter post: “Republicans want to drive CA off the same cliff as FL and TX.”

Under these circumstances, it’s no wonder that Orrin Heatlie and Mike Netter, the leading proponents of the recall campaign, took to the courts recently.

In early August, Heatlie and Netter sued Secretary of State Shirley Weber over the language of the voter’s guide. They argued in their initial petition that Newsom ought to be ordered to revise the text of his statement in the guide to remove claims that the recall election was being spearheaded on a national level by the Republican Party and by Trump supporters. They called those claims “at best misleading, at worst flat-out false, and in all events a hyperbolic outrage,” and they requested that the court instruct the governor to remove text that accuses Republicans of abusing California’s recall laws in a bid to grasp power in the state.

Instead of holding Newsom’s false narratives accountable, Presiding Judge Laurie Earl issued a tentative ruling approving of Newsom’s false propaganda. As a result of Judge Earl’s ruling, households across California are receiving false and deceptive information about the movement behind the recall election.

What those households will not read about is the fact that many of the 46 candidates named as possible alternatives to Newsom in the second section of the recall ballot are not Republicans.

They will not read about the fact that neither the RNC nor the California Republican Party has endorsed any candidate in the recall election.

They will not read about the fact that the Democratic Party has taken up Newsom’s cause on a national level, with top-level politicians such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) making public statements urging voters in California to support the governor.

They will not read about the small business owners who resent Newsom’s embrace of restrictive public health measures that leave them struggling to keep their doors open and keep their employees on the roster.

They will not read about the parents who are worried about their kids’ ability to make up for all the learning they missed while Newsom closed the doors to public schools, all the while sending his own children to private school.

They will not read about the many individual voters—Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and others—who have been willing to go on record urging that Newsom be recalled.

Of course, they will be able to read what proponents of the recall say in their own statement. (After all, the voter’s guide gives space to both sides.) But they will also be presented with Newsom’s narrow and distorted assertions about the nature of the recall campaign.

That’s a shame. The governor should not downplay the numerous and imminent reasons California voters of all stripes have found to vote him out of office.

We ought to remember that California residents elect its governor to invoke truth, promote accountability and transparency, regardless of where their party loyalties lie. The governor should not deceptively control narratives behind elections and ignore the obvious plight of so many in the Golden State. With an unprecedented homelessness crisis, rising unemployment, and a broken education system, Newsom is in no position to suggest that a recall election was conceived only by members of the Republican Party.

The bottom line is that, like the sleight-of-hand trick, Governor Newsom wants you to blindly buy into his “Republican power grab” recall narrative while distracting you from the truth many of us already know: Californians across the political spectrum are collectively calling for a change in leadership.

Governor Newsom’s ‘Sleight of Hand’ (theepochtimes.com)

A reconfigured global elite are shaping up around a new kind of vision for transforming our world. They’ve called their neo-socialist and multilateral vision the Green New Deal.

Joe Biden’s White House team are core players in this vision, as they seek to reinvent Roosevelt’s original 1930s New Deal into a contemporary twenty-first century Democratic Party platform.

But there are also other important players pushing this neo-socialist dream.

One has been the European Union’s large and well-organised green lobby. Another has been Klaus Schwab (economist and founder of the World Economic Forum), who has used Davos to push his vision of a “Great Reset” of the global economy.

Those getting on board with the Green New Deal are the usual advocates of state interventionism, big government, and multilateral globalism. But surprisingly this new elite is a mix of left-liberals, socialists, Greens, bureaucrats, and university researchers/experts. More surprising is that sections of the business elite are also climbing on board what they believe will be a gravy train.

It appears business is motivated by two factors. First, they are afraid of activist pressure. Second, their marketing departments are telling them there are great public relations kudos to be had in signing up to the now fashionable narratives of saving victims, saving the planet, and distancing themselves from left-leaning stereotypes of greedy uncaring capitalists.

So now we have woke businesses greenwashing their brands plus learning to make profits out of the Green New Deal’s neo-socialist strategy to tear up our old infrastructure and replace them with new ones at great expense to the taxpayer. Who knew socialism could be profitable.

But one of the most fascinating features of this trend is how enthralled legacy media journalists are with the green narratives underpinning this emergent global elite.

Journalists who would normally ask questions about self-interest, crooked narratives, and obvious propaganda now meekly buy into the trendy narratives. Indeed journalists are now being told that applying the journalistic principle of balance is a bad thing when reporting on issues like climate change.

Instead, journalists are being taught that it is fine to advocate for green climate change messages. We even have global media like the BBC instructing their journalists not to be balanced on climate change.

In a climate when green activism is now normalised in media newsrooms, it is hardly surprising that we see journalists treating green experts as media darlings, and as a result, those same green experts are no longer challenged by probing journalistic questions.

Instead, what emerges is a de facto partnership between the media, climate change scientists, and activists wherein journalists start to construct pro-green (propaganda-like) stories.

One way of explaining this partnership is to see it as part of the phenomenon of an emergent global elite for whom left-wing “progressivism” has become a kind of secularised religion, built around saving the many kinds of victims we apparently have today.

These victims can be those conventionally beloved by socialists—the poor. They can also be the new victims beloved by identity politics—LGBTQI, Indigenous or ethnic minorities. Or victims beloved by feminists—women persecuted by the patriarchy. Or the victims can now even be non-human—whales, polar bears, coral reefs, nature, or the planet.

What binds all these victims is that they need to be saved by a self-selecting elite of people who have married elements of the narratives of left-liberalism and neo-Marxism.

This elite first emerged in the United States and then spread to the rest of the western world. And now, like a virus, it is also spreading to places like the European Union (EU).

It is an elite who have proven highly susceptible to catching the green virus. Significantly, enormous progress has been made in capturing western universities, the global media, the education system, and the many bureaucracies across the Anglo world and EU.

The result has been the growth of an alliance between left-liberal, progressive politicians; academics; journalists; and bureaucrats.

Once the universities were captured by this progressive-left, universities were used to teach a new “way of seeing” and a “new way of speaking about” the world.

Thus, universities become the source of what is termed ‘woke’ and green narratives; while the media and internet are used to disseminate their tales. In addition, as universities produced more of these progressive and Green “experts,” journalists rely on them to justify their own work—creating an ongoing cycle.

Importantly, since universities teach journalism, public relations and marketing the communication industries are filled with those taught the woke discourses beloved by the globalised elite.

Not surprisingly, the resultant spread of progressivism within the communications industry means progressives are also becoming well placed—and more skilled—at spreading their own ideologies, while shutting down opposing views.

Indeed the Left are so successful that much of the world in the Biden era is starting to feel a bit like a mixture of the hard authoritarianism of George Orwell’s 1984 and the soft authoritarianism of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”

The proliferation of both discourse around the Green New Deal, and the expanding power of a medical autocracy calling the shots over COVID-19, are two indicators of the way the global elite are becoming successful at promoting only their views while undercutting all others.

The universities have also given birth to “experts” who believe that secular science can fix everything thereby removing the need for religion or traditional knowledge.

At a deeper level, German existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche saw this rot beginning when Western thinkers “killed God” in the 19th century, and from that wrong turn has evolved the secularist, social engineers of today.

But at a more institutional level, I think American conservative philosopher Paul Gottfried was correct that the problem lies in today’s overly interventionist governments imposing social therapy measures upon their citizens.

His argument was that this began during the post-second World War era in the United States—specifically with Paul Lazarsfeld’s Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University in the 1940s to 1950—and in the growth of the 1960s U.S. government-led social engineering policies (for example, affirmative action new migration laws).

And today, we see the modern manifestation of such a long-running trend in state-run welfare systems, the Green New Deal, and the COVID-19 medical autocracy.

Significantly, Lazarsfeld’s behavioural science was built on the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School’s idea of an “Authoritarian Personality”—a personality type that is submissive and obedient to authority—as well as the notion that experts should learn to manage and control the population better (using psychology, behavioural sciences, public opinion research, public relations, and spin-doctoring). This, in turn, can help stop the re-emergence of “bad ideas” like nationalism or traditionalism.

Lazarsfeld founded an American tradition of academic thinking about how the media could be used to promote “good” (progressive) ideas and shut down “bad” ideas.

Lazarsfeld’s centre employed many Frankfurt School members and so opened the door to the merging of left-liberal and neo-Marxist ideas, which has further contributed to the growth of the progressive elite.

With Biden in office, this elite now has a great base to work from to disseminate their preferred ideological narratives including the virtues of big government, green activism, and multilateral interventionism to save its so-called “victims.”

And because the 2000 anti-Trump crusade helped cement the alliance between left-leaning politicians, activists, mainstream liberal media journalists, U.S.-owned tech giants; and the university sector, we can now expect to see a period of intensified dissemination of “progressive” narratives plus simultaneous attempts at discourse closure aimed at closing-down and disrupting narratives that the Left loves to hate.

Global Elite Latches Onto Neo-Socialist Vision: The Green New Deal (theepochtimes.com)

A great number of people were shocked by the result of the 2020 presidential election, but Curtis Bowers (former Republican member of the House of Representatives) might not have been. Although he never described himself as a prophet, he indeed foresaw in 2015, or earlier, that 2016 would be the last time in his lifetime to see a conservative president elected. In other words, he worried that the political environment in the United States would continue to deteriorate or radicalize unless a miracle were to happen.

Bowers and his interviewees in the documentary “AGENDA 2: Masters of Deceit“ talked about possible electoral manipulation and fraud, but that was not the main factor that led him to make such a judgment about the future of America’s political arena. The basis for his conclusion was simply demographic trends.

According to Bowers’ study, in 1980, about 40 percent of the U.S. population held conservative political views, 50 percent were undecided, and only 10 percent were liberal. The trend was that both the conservative and undecided populations were shrinking. In 2012, the conservative dropped to 30 percent, while the liberal grew to 30 percent, making the two evenly matched. By 2036, the conservative and undecided are projected to fall further to 10 percent and 20 percent respectively, while the liberal might grow to 70 percent accordingly.

For conservatives, if Bowers’ analysis and predictions are accurate, it will indicate the United States is becoming a socialist or communist country. Could there be anything more frightening than that?

Bowers himself was not willing to accept this too. However, he was aware that American conservatives must force themselves to rationally recognize this dire situation and act vigorously to salvage it, rather than simply pinning their hopes for a turnaround on the next election.

What has caused this trend in the proportion of political leanings? The direct answer from Bowers is the left is capturing 85 percent of young Americans each year. They achieved this not because they had magic powers. Rather, they had a long-standing agenda, a communist agenda, to undermine, infiltrate and control the family, the church, the state, the media, the schools, and many more institutions that influence the worldview of the youth.

In the “Communist Manifesto,” Karl Marx called on his followers to destroy all traditional political systems, economic models, religious beliefs, moral values, family structures, and so on. And these did prevail in the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and some other countries.

At the end of the Cold War, many Americans once believed they had defeated or even eliminated communism. Bowers was one of them. But the first-hand experience in 1992 changed his view. He attended a communist strategy meeting at the campus of the University of California, Berkley. He was shocked to learn that the communists were still or had always been seriously planning to change America to be more in line with their views. What surprised him more was the rapidity with which the Communists were achieving their goals. This led him to drop his prior work and devote himself to researching and exposing the Communist destruction in the United States.

In his first award-winning documentary “AGENDA: Grinding America Down,” Bowers uses a wealth of facts and data to demonstrate that communism is not dead or gone, but has deliberately, yet unwittingly, orchestrated and driven changes in American values over the past decades.

The most convincing witnesses were the communists themselves. In 1958, W. Cleon Skousen listed 45 goals of the communists to infiltrate and convert the United States, in his book “The Naked Communist.” These 45 goals cover everything from influencing specific policies to corrupting American culture. Examples include capturing one or both of America’s political parties; controlling key positions in radio, TV, and pictures; presenting homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as normal and healthy; replacing revealed religion with social religion; discrediting the American founding fathers; encouraging easy divorce, and more. Please watch the documentary for details.

The sequel documentary “AGENDA 2: Masters of Deceit” explains the reasons why communism has not died out. In defiance of moral principles, the communists and those who were duped masterfully kept changing their names, coining new terms, and winning the cognitive war repeatedly like a duck to water. For example, in Fabian socialism, a denomination of communism, deception is their motto. Another branch, the Frankfurt School, boasted they could convince students that snow is black through distorted interpretations and truth subjectivism in education.

Bowers notes that no matter how catchy the slogans of the communists and the left are, they aim to establish big government and foster dependence on it. Julia Irish, a family therapist, gave “AGENDA 2: Masters of Deceit” five stars and commented, “Our children are being lost. We are well into creating a third generation of state dependents.” But Julia believes all people want self-esteem, so she doesn’t think young people will spontaneously and willingly rely on and support big government, instead, they have been simply indoctrinated to think that way. “The result is depression, anxiety, drug dependence, domestic abuse and poverty.”

Bowers’ remark that 2016 would be the last time in his life to see a conservative president elected may leave many in despair. It was like a lady in the audience crying sadly after a screening of the documentary “AGENDA.” The reason was that a male audience member affirmed Bowers’ research, declaring, “I am a professor at this college, I am a communist, and we will win because we are taking all of your children.”

Tanya Wright, an author for the Natural Homeschool, has a different feeling. “I don’t think this is a fear-mongering documentary,” Wright writes, “it was a desperate call to arms to those who have ears to hear.” I agree.

If Bowers were that pessimistic, he wouldn’t have his entire family committed to going around and presenting these documentaries. He clarified his genuine thought by quoting Sun Tzu, “If you know yourself, you will have a 50 percent chance to win the battle. If you know your enemy, you will have a 50 percent chance to win. But, if you know yourself AND your enemy, you will have a 100 percent chance to win.” Bowers hopes Americans rediscover their identity and values, understand the dangers they are in and who their enemies are, and then act quickly to defend themselves and finally win.

The change in the demographic ratio of conservatives, undecideds, and liberals in the United States is ongoing. In the documentary “AGENDA 2,” Star Parker suggests, “The only way you are going to reverse the trend is to begin to interject a biblical worldview back into the hearts and minds of our youth.” I agree, while it is easier said than done. People who believe in God must also consider the cunning and temptations of satan to walk their path steadily. In this regard, “The Specter of Communism” series from The Epoch Times illustrate it best. So my suggestion is to watch both Agenda documentaries and “The Specter of Communism” series as a collection.

The Terrifying Prophecy of Bowers and the Only Way to Stop It (theepochtimes.com)

Hillhouse Capital – a private equity firm funded by America’s top universities and is invested in companies including Zoom and Apple – struck a $1.5 billion deal with a Chinese Communist Party-owned investment fund.

Hillhouse Capital partnered with the “wholly state-owned” Hangzhou Capitol on a billion-dollar fund “to invest in sectors including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and new energy vehicles,” according to Chinese state-run media outlet China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Hillhouse Capital, which was funded with $20 million in seed capital from the Yale University Endowment, is reported to be backed by America’s most prestigious universities. Following a Stanford University investment of $200 million in 2015, the fund was “investing money for at least six of the 10 wealthiest universities in the U.S.,” including Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has also invested nearly $1 billion with the Beijing-based fund.

These investments are now being used, however, to contribute to the growth of the Chinese Communist Party.

A press release from Hangzhou Capital – which pledges to be “guided by Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era” – reveals that its partnership with Hillhouse Capital is part of a broader Chinese regime-backed effort to turn the city into a “leading and exemplary benchmark for national advancement.”

“The implementation of the “National Digital Economy First City” strategy focuses on value investment to empower outstanding enterprise development, optimizes industrial layout and accelerates the cultivation of new kinetic energy, and creates new impetus for Hangzhou to become a model city ​​for high-quality development and construction of a common prosperity demonstration zone in Zhejiang Province,” the group adds. 

Hillhouse Capital’s partnership with a Chinese state-owned enterprise also calls into question its sizable investments in companies such as Zoom, Uber, Apple, TikTok parent company ByteDance.

MUST READ:  Biden White House Approves Licensing Deal For Chinese Communist Party-Linked Huawei, Reversing Trump-Era Hardline.

Article Seven of China’s National Intelligence law stipulates that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work according to law.”

Investment Firm Backed By Top American Universities Partners With ‘Socialist’ China-Backed Fund. – The National Pulse

With the United States completely withdrawn militarily from Afghanistan since the nation’s involvement after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and with the Taliban terrorist group having seized troves of U.S. weapons, Afghans living in New York hope that by force of miracle, stabilization can come to their home country.

The Epoch Times reached out to members of the Afghan community in New York to get their thoughts on the situation.

Fakhrudin Fakhrudin works in an Indian beauty salon, owned by his wife, who is originally from India.

His family cannot come to the United States, they have told him over the phone that the situation is “very bad.”

“One hundred percent bad. because you can’t find f0od, you can’t find anything. They’re scared of Taiban because they work with the government,” he told The Epoch Times.

His sister’s husband and son worked for the now overthrown Afghan government.

Fakhrudin said that the Taliban are systematically looking for people that worked for the government.

“Now they are looking [for the people who worked for the government] door to door,” Fakhrudin said.

“One girl worked with the police. She’s a neighbor of my sister. They took her eyes off with a knife, twice. The Taliban, I swear to God.”

Fakhrudin has been in the United States for 50 years. He wants to tell the U.S. government as a citizen that the Afghan people need help.

“[Afghan] people need help, they need help very badly because a lot of them worked with the government, and now they are hiding.”

“There’s nothing that we can do, people are just suffering over there,” he concluded.

Karimullah Faizy’s parents were born and grew up in Afghanistan and moved to the United States in the 90s. He runs a restaurant that is owned by his father in Long Island, New York.

“The U.S. government, the way they just left and they left everybody and they left their weapons, just for the Taliban to use it. And now they’re obviously using it against us,” said Faizy.

“Twelve soldiers just died. And it was a very bad decision for [America] just to leave, leave all their Blackhawk Hawk helicopters … And now we just left.”

Faizy’s father is gathering some money to send to his uncle in Afghanistan, whose house was bombed two weeks ago and only half of it remains.

He shared a video with The Epoch Times that shows the ruins of the home.

“They just surrendered, and now the Taliban are taking over the soldiers and using our own equipment. And sooner or later, they’re going to have to go back,” said Faizy.

“People and soldiers dying, and all the money being spent on this … is just very sad and tragic, especially for the people living there, the innocent civilians, and you can see they’re just leaving in helicopters … it’s sad [in] our hearts and we’re praying for them.”

Salimi Popal, originally from Kandahar, Afghanistan, has been living in the United States for 13 years, working 12 hours a day in his food cart in Flushing, Queens.

It was reported recently that the Taliban banned female voices and music from airing on the radio in Kandahar.

His brother, cousin, grandfather, and children all live in the United States. Any extra money he has, he sends to his family in Afghanistan.

He believes in peace and says all the people of Afghanistan are his family, and hopes that the situation can be stable in his home country.

“So bad,” he said, of his family’s situation, “there are no more doctors available.”

Nevertheless, he has hope that things might not go downhill.

“Now it’s too early, because I don’t know what will happen with this new regime,” Popal said.

He emphasized that “maybe,” gradually it would be ok.

“[Let’s] wait. He [the leader] said that ‘I don’t want to kill anybody, free everybody,’ everybody is ok now, the country is ok now, the cities are ok now, everybody is quiet, people are very happy now, because [people] like that nobody dies.”

“Afghanistan people are not terrorists, they are people like you, like me,” Popal asserted. “Taliban speak the same language, how could I think they are different people.”

“Let’s wait, everybody says ‘wait,’” he said. “Everybody, different countries are waiting to see what will happen—later.”

‘They’re Looking for Them Door to Door’: Afghans in New York React to Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan (theepochtimes.com)

Court filings say John Pierce hospitalized with COVID-19, while others say he’s suffering from another condition

An attorney who’s representing 17 defendants accused of taking part in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach has disappeared, possibly suffering from COVID-19, according to am Aug. 30 court filing.

Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips said in a court document (pdf) that nearly 20 cases related to the Jan. 6 incident aren’t proceeding after John Pierce, the lawyer for the defense, went missing.

Pierce is “reportedly ill with COVID-19, on a ventilator, and unresponsive,” according to the filing. Pierce’s law firm associate, Ryan Marshall—who isn’t a licensed attorney—has been appearing in Pierce’s place at court hearings and proceedings. Marshall was also the one who revealed Pierce’s alleged hospitalization and condition.

The lawyer, who generally posts on Twitter several times per day, hasn’t posted since Aug. 20.

“Because Mr. Pierce is unavailable and Mr. Marshall cannot ethically or legally represent Mr. Pierce’s clients, the government is making the court aware of Mr. Pierce’s reported illness so that it can take any steps it believes necessary to ensure the defendant’s rights are adequately protected while Mr. Pierce remains hospitalized,” Phillips said.

But later in the court filing, the U.S. attorney’s office said it had obtained “conflicting information about Mr. Pierce’s health and whereabouts.”

When it was revealed publicly that Pierce was hospitalized with COVID-19, a report from NPR, citing unnamed sources, said that he may have been suffering from dehydration and exhaustion and that he’s believed to have symptoms related to COVID-19.

And a colleague of Pierce, Brody Womack, told Business Insider that Pierce “appears to have been suffering from dehydration and exhaustion in relation to his tireless work on behalf of his clients, including the many defendants he represents in connection with the January 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol.”

On Aug. 26, Marshall appeared in place of Pierce, telling a U.S. attorney’s assistant that he hasn’t had any contact with Pierce and noting that one of his friends “had told him that Mr. Pierce was sick with COVID-19 and another had said he was not,” the filing states.

“From the government’s perspective, given Mr. Pierce’s reported illness and the fact that Mr. Marshall is not a licensed attorney, this case is effectively at a standstill,” Phillips’ office stated.

Even though Marshall “has been the government’s main or sole point of contact for many of the defendants represented by Mr. Pierce, the government does not believe it appropriate to continue to communicate with him in Mr. Pierce’s absence, during which he would necessarily be acting without supervision by a licensed attorney,” the court document reads.

Some of Pierce’s clients said they’re starting to become concerned.

Paul Rae, an alleged Proud Boy from Florida who has pleaded not guilty, told ABC News on Aug. 30 that he’s “a bit concerned” about his lawyer’s health and the overall situation regarding his representation. An associate of Pierce told him that the attorney isn’t on a ventilator and that he’s recovering, Rae said.

“Unless I’m being lied to, I’m hearing ‘Don’t be concerned,’” Rae told the network. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

The Epoch Times contacted Pierce’s office for comment. When reached for comment via telephone, the phone lines for his law firm appeared to be disconnected.

Lawyer Representing 17 Jan. 6 Defendants Has Mysteriously Gone Missing: Court Filings (theepochtimes.com)

Democrat Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar has been accused of possibly committing a felony by not properly reporting her income and assets in the financial disclosure reports she sent to the House of Representatives.

The accusations came from the conservative watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), which demanded that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) look into the reason Rep. Omar’s financial disclosures do not refer to the income she may have received from her memoir that she published in May 2020, The Daily Caller reported.

It also wants to know why, it believes, her new husband’s consulting firm was undervalued after it made around $3 million from Rep. Omar’s campaign from 2018 through 2020.

“Representative Omar’s apparent disclosure omissions and misreporting violate House ethics rules, the Ethics in Government act, and possibly 18 U.S.C. 1001, a felony with penalties up to five years in prison for making false statements in a matter before the legislative branch,” it said in its complaint. “There is clearly more than ‘reasonable cause to believe’ that disclosure violations may have occurred.”

In a message to the Daily Caller News Foundation a spokesperson for Rep. Omar accused NPLC of being a “far-right group.”

“The NPLC a [sic] far-right group with ties to the Trump campaign known for filing specious claims, including trying to challenge the constitutionality of the Mueller investigation,” spokesman Jeremy Slevin said. “We see this complaint for what it is: a completely political document, and not one with legal validity.”

The DCNF first reported on Aug. 17 that Omar did not report in her 2020 financial disclosure any income or royalties she may have received from her memoir, “This Is What America Looks Like,” which was first released in May 2020. Forbes reported in January 2019 that the lawmaker signed a deal for the memoir worth between $100,000 and $250,000

Lawmakers are required to report any income sources over $200 in their financial disclosures, the NLPC noted in its complaint.

Omar’s 2019 and 2018 financial disclosures also contained no reference to her book or any advance she may have received from it.

Slevin told the DCNF on Aug. 17 that Omar “has been in full compliance with House Ethics rules. She has reported everything that needed to be reported on the financial disclosure form accurately.”

But this is not the only time Rep. Omar has faced controversy. In June Rep. Omar made comments that many believed to be anti-Semitic.

During an interview on CNN, Omar told host Jake Tapper that she did not regret comparing the U.S. and Israel to terrorist organizations.

Below is a transcript of the exchange:

OMAR: “If you are in someone’s backyard, can you say you are defending yourself?”

TAPPER: “It’s a good question. On the subject of the Middle East, you have said, as you know, many of your fellow House Democrats after comments you made earlier this month about the U.S. and Israel, you were questioning Secretary of State Blinken about where victims of war crimes could get justice. You made comments to him and also you tweeted: ‘We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.’ Ultimately, Democratic leaders said that equating the U.S. and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban ‘foments prejudice.’ And as you know, a group of Jewish House Democrats wrote a letter to President Biden saying that accusing Israel of acts of terror, as you and other members of the Squad have done, is anti-Semitic. Do you regret these comments?”

OMAR: “I don’t.”

Later in the segment, Tapper asked:

In 2019, you said lawmakers support Israel because it’s ‘all about the Benjamins,’ which implies that politicians only support Israel because of money. There was a tweet from 2012 when you said Israel had hypnotized the world. Do you understand why some of your fellow House Democrats, especially Jews, find that language anti-Semitic?

Omar responded by attacking her own colleagues and didn’t accept any responsibility for her comments.

“I have welcomed anytime my colleagues have asked to have a conversation to learn from them, for them to learn from me,” Omar said.

“I think it’s really important for these members to realize that they haven’t been partners in justice. They haven’t been equally engaging in seeking justice around the world and I think I will continue to do that,” she added.

Omar declared: “It is important for me as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don’t, to be a voice in finding accountability, asking for mechanisms for justice for those who are maligned, oppressed and who have had injustice done to them.”

Dem Rep. Omar Accused Of Committing A Felony In Her Financial Disclosure Forms | Conservative Brief

Former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles spoke with Sean Hannity Tuesday night on the disaster unfolding in Afghanistan, saying he has never seen a President or administration turn its back on the American people like Joe Biden’s White House.

“In my history of government service, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a constellation of officials from the National Security Advisor, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, President, and Vice President who have turned their backs on Americans,” said Charles.

“Some resignations are in line,” he added.

Charles’ assessment is not un-common. New polls show sagging support for Joe Biden and his administration.

A new survey from Morning Consult spells more bad news for Joe Biden, with roughly 6 in 10 saying the country has “seriously gone off on the wrong track.”

“The study, conducted from Saturday to Monday, found that 61 percent of respondents believe the country is on the wrong track, compared to just 39 percent who say the country is ‘going in the right direction,’” reports The Hill.

“The survey also found a record-low overall approval rating for Biden at 47 percent, with 49 percent saying they disapproved of the president’s job performance overall,” adds the website.

6 in 10 say US has “seriously gone off on the wrong track”: poll https://t.co/nX5L22jmkL pic.twitter.com/d3bahrBc88

— The Hill (@thehill) September 1, 2021

The poll reflects a series of scandals, mistakes, and outright failures of the Biden administration in recent months.

Watch the former officials’ comments above.

EX STATE DEPT OFFICIAL: I’ve Never Seen an Entire Admin ‘Turn Their Backs on Americans’ | Sean Hannity

One small business owner in Florida has had enough with the Biden Administration and its supporters, posting an emotional message on the door just hours after more than a dozen US troops were murdered in Afghanistan.

Angie Ugarte, owner of the DeBary Diner, said felt compelled to make the statement after the deadly terror attack and President’s inept response.

“If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless, inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House that is complicit in the death of our servicemen and women in Afghanistan, please take your business elsewhere,” stated the signage.

“God bless America and God bless our soldiers,” concluded the note.

The message was added to the door the same day a suicide blast killed 13 US Service Members at Kabul’s International Airport.

The owner of DeBary Diner, posted the sign.

“If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless , inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House… please take your business elsewhere.”https://t.co/rogEyWFo7Q

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 31, 2021

“I was just angry. I was just let down. I felt like one of those mothers, or wives, or sisters who were gonna get that knock on the door,” said Ugarte.

“If you really, really still stand behind what’s allowed this to happen and the way it happened – which was unnecessary then I really don’t want to be associated with you in any way and I certainly don’t want your business,” she added.

‘TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE’: Diner Posts Fiery Message to Biden Supporters After Kabul Terror Strike | Sean Hannity

No mention of US-funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) “remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19,” according to an unclassified report released on Aug. 27. “Two hypotheses are plausible,” the report explains, “natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.”

In May, when President Joe Biden urged the agencies to “redouble” their efforts to find the origin of the virus, the IC had “coalesced around two likely scenarios but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” he said in a statement. To reach essentially the same conclusion now, the IC must have ignored major revelations, and there’s more to the story.

For Angelo Codevilla, a former staffer with the Senate Intelligence Committee, Biden’s call to redouble efforts was “a comical attempt to avoid being discredited by the unraveling narrative that China’s role in the pandemic is another manifestation of racism.” In addition, “U.S. intelligence does not possess hard facts to prove exactly what happened in that lab, nor does U.S. intelligence have sources in China, human or technical, placed and uncompromised, capable of yielding such information.”

Codevilla, a former professor of international relations at Boston University, predicted that “the report will stop short of a full-on indictment of China, instead urging increased transparency through ‘cooperation.’ The chances of this report mentioning U.S. funding for ‘gain of function’ research are zero.”

True to form, the Aug. 27 report contends that “China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19.” Gain-of-function research is not mentioned, an unforgivable oversight.

Gain-of-function research manipulates viruses to make them more lethal and transmissible. Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to conduct gain-of-function research, once banned in the United States.

Money is fungible and the WIV is not accountable to American taxpayers. Fauci initially opposed President Trump’s ban on travel from China and maintained the theory that the virus that causes COVID-19 developed naturally in the wild. When scientists found evidence that the virus had been engineered, the NIAID boss pressured them to change their view.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), believed “the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan was from a laboratory. You know, escaped.” For holding that view, Redfield began to receive death threats. As he told reporters in March of 2020, “I was threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis.” Embattled Americans might expect the vaunted intelligence community to take notice of such threats, along with other developments now a matter of record.

Chinese national Dr. Xiangguo Qiu transferred a cargo of deadly pathogens from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) to the WIV. One of the pathogens was the Henipah virus, and samples from early Wuhan COVID-19 patients show the presence of genetically modified Henipah virus, according to The Epoch Times.

The genetic manipulation was the finding of Dr. Steven Quay, a Seattle-based physician, scientist, and former faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In COVID-19 samples uploaded by scientists at the WIV shortly after China informed the World Health Organization about the outbreak, Quay found “genetic manipulation of the Nipah virus [a type of Henipah virus], which is more lethal than Ebola,” he told The Epoch Times.

Quay also co-authored an opinion piece, titled, “The Science Suggests a Wuhan Lab Leak,” noting that the COVID-19 pathogen has a genetic footprint never observed in a natural coronavirus. “In gain-of-function research, a microbiologist can increase the lethality of a coronavirus enormously by splicing a special sequence into its genome at a prime location.” The result of similar experiments “has always been supercharged viruses.”

Quay is also the author of the manuscript, “A Bayesian analysis concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived.”

Embattled Americans might expect their intelligence community to take notice of major scientific developments like that. Americans might also wonder what the nation’s “medical CIA” might know.

The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), a division of the CDC, is tasked to prevent dangerous viruses from arriving on American soil. Despite boots on the ground in China, the EIS failed to prevent the virus from arriving stateside. What the medical CIA knows about the origin of the virus would be of great interest, but nobody from the EIS has testified to Congress under oath.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier began her career with the EIS and in early 2020, as director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), she briefed reporters on a “novel” coronavirus from China. When asked about travelers from Wuhan to the United States, Messonnier told reporters that was “not something that I’m at liberty to talk about today.” Americans might expect their intelligence agencies to identify the official or politician who slapped that gag order on the CDC official, and explain what it was intended to hide.

Messonnier suddenly resigned from the CDC in May and has yet to testify. Another missing witness is Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance. A recent report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee found “strong evidence that Daszak is the public face of a CCP [Chinese Communist Party] disinformation campaign designed to suppress discussion about a possible lab leak.”

The Aug. 27 report claims the intelligence community examined “all available intelligence reporting and other information.” That is clearly a stretch, and embattled Americans could be forgiven for regarding it as a coverup, or worse.

According to the Aug. 27 report, “the virus was not developed as a biological weapon.” In addition, “the IC assesses China’s officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged.” That ignores the experience of Qiu, who worked closely with four facilities believed to be involved in China’s biological weapons development, including the WIV, where she transferred the cargo of deadly pathogens.

Most agencies involved with the report believe “SARS-CoV-2 probably was not genetically engineered.” That ignores the published work of Quay, who found “genetic manipulation” of the Nipah virus, and showed how gain-of-function research makes viruses “supercharged.”

Had the intelligence agencies investigated the latest scientific evidence, the death threats to Redfield, the resignation of Messonnier, and the mysterious Epidemic Intelligence Service, they might not remain divided on the origin of COVID-19.

As it stands, a dubious and evasive report will help China hinder investigation of the pandemic that has harmed millions of Americans and people around the world.

Latest US Intel Report Helps China Hinder Probe Into COVID-19 Origin (theepochtimes.com)

The White House issued a major clarification in the transcript from Joe Biden’s address on Afghanistan Tuesday afternoon; stating the actual number of Americans that got out of the country was 98%, not 90% as said by the President during the speech.

“Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave.  Most of those who remain are dual citizens, long-time residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan,” said Biden.

“The bottom line: Ninety [Ninety-eight] percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave,” states the transcript on the official White House webpage.

President Biden defended his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan during the address, labeling the effort an “extraordinary success.”

“No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will to do it, and we did it today. The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill and bravery and selflessness courage of the United States Military,” said the President.

The US Embassy in Afghanistan posted a dire message on its official webpage Tuesday, saying the office has “suspended operations” and Americans can no longer rely on “United States government assistance.”

“The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations on August 31, 2021.  While the U.S. government has withdrawn its personnel from Kabul, we will continue to assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar,” states the memo.

“The Embassy will continue to provide information via the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), the Embassy web page, Travel.State.Gov, and Facebook and Twitter.  Consular services remain available outside Afghanistan.  To locate the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate click here,” adds the warning.

“Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance,” warns the message.

Read the full report at the NY Post.

CLUELESS JOE? White House ‘Corrects’ Biden’s Claim 90% of Americans Got Out of Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

Biden pressured Ghani to ‘project a different picture’

President Biden stressed the need for changing the “perception” of the Taliban’s progress in Afghanistan, “whether it is true or not,” during a phone call with former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani less than four weeks before Kabul collapsed, according to a new report.

According to a transcript of the July 23 presidential call reviewed by Reuters, Biden didn’t anticipate the Taliban’s rapid advance across Afghanistan, which ended when they stormed Kabul on Aug. 15 and Ghani fled the presidential palace. Instead, Biden focused much of the 14-minute call on the Afghan government’s “perception” problem, Reuters reported.

BIDEN BREAKS PROMISE TO ‘STAY’ IN AFGHANISTAN UNTIL EVERY AMERICAN EVACUATED

“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

At the time of the call, the Taliban controlled about half of Afghanistan’s district centers. Biden urged Ghani to hold a press conference with other prominent Afghan leaders to outline a new military strategy, which he argued would “change perception, and that will change an awful lot I think,” Reuters reported.

“We are going to continue to fight hard, diplomatically, politically, economically, to make sure your government not only survives, but is sustained and grows,” Biden said.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed similar concerns in a follow-up call with Ghani later that day, which did not include Biden, Reuters reported.

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“The perception in the United States, in Europe and the media sort of thing is a narrative of Taliban momentum, and a narrative of Taliban victory,” Milley reportedly said. “And we need to collectively demonstrate and try to turn that perception, that narrative around.”

The White House on Tuesday declined to comment on the call when reached by Reuters. 

Biden pressed Afghan president to change ‘perception’ that Taliban was winning, ‘whether true or not’ | Fox News

After previously ignoring their Advisory Committee, the Biden Admin FDA didn’t even bother to “hold a formal advisory committee meeting to discuss Pfizer’s application for full approval of its covid-19 vaccine” See: “Covid-19: FDA set to grant full approval to Pfizer vaccine without public discussion of data” BMJ 2021; 374 (20 August 2021) BMJ 2021;374:n2086 By Gareth Iacobucci, The BMJ- https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2021/08/23/covid-19-fda-set-to-grant-full-approval-to-pfizer-mrna-covid-vaccine-without-public-discussion-of-data-there-is-no-control-group-either/

Update: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2021/08/25/fda-only-renewed-emergency-use-authorization-for-pfizer-approval-was-for-biontechs-comirnaty-with-years-of-additional-safety-studies-required-thru-2027/

“Three experts have now resigned from a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee after the agency approved an Alzheimer’s drug called Aduhelm against the wishes of nearly every member on the panel.” https://www.npr.org/2021/06/11/1005567149/3-experts-have-resigned-from-an-fda-committee-over-alzheimers-drug-approval It may be four, because there are four vacancies listed: https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/peripheral-and-central-nervous-system-drugs-advisory-committee/peripheral-and-central-nervous-system-drugs-advisory-committee-roster

From Dr. Aaron Kesselheim’s resignation letter from the FDA Advisory Committee (June 10, 2021):

“For both eteplirsen and aducanumab, the decisions by FDA administrators to ignore the Advisory Committee’s clear recommendations led to their approval of two highly problematic drugs that offered little evidence that they would meaningfully benefit patients suffering from these devastating conditions. This will undermine the care of these patients, public trust in the FDA, the pursuit of useful therapeutic innovation, and the affordability of the health care system.”

“With eteplirsen, the AdComm and FDA’s own scientific staff reported that there was no convincing evidence that the drug worked; both groups were overruled by FDA leadership, which approved the drug based on considerations (including concerns about the sponsor’s finances) that were not part of the Advisory Committee’s discussions.

This week, the aducanumab decision by FDA administrators was probably the worst drug approval decision in recent US history. At the last minute the agency switched its review to the Accelerated Approval pathway based on the debatable premise that the drug’s effect on the brain amyloid was likely to help patients with Alzheimer’s disease. But, this pivotal question was not discussed at the Advisory Committee meeting and its premise was specifically excluded from discussion, as the FDA said “We’re not using the myeloid as a surrogate for efficacy.” At our public meeting, concerns about trial data from one of the FDA’s own reviewers were not given adequate time for discussion, and some of the questions FDA asked the committee were worded in a way that seemed slanted to yield responses that would favor the drug’s approval.

“I believed in the value of Advisory Committees to provide a way for outside experts to provide science-based guidance to the agency on its drug approval decisions. But after my experience on this Advisory Committee for both the eteplirsen and now the aducanumab discussions, it is clear to me that the FDA is not presently capable of adequately integrating the Committee’s scientific recommendations into its approval decisions.” (Retyped, to facilitate reading, from the original letter found below and here: https://archive.ph/uPSXj There could be a typo. We make no guarantees. The original is always the original.)

The original letter is here:

It’s also found here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E3jKN4GWYAUGj9U.png

IS BIDEN USING THIS DRUG? THAT MIGHT PROVIDE A CLUE AS TO ITS EFFECTIVENESS.
After reading the letter, now see FDA’s blah, blah, blah:
“FDA Grants Accelerated Approval for Alzheimer’s Drug
For Immediate Release:
June 07, 2021

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Aduhelm (aducanumab) for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, a debilitating disease affecting 6.2 million Americans. Aduhelm was approved using the accelerated approval pathway, which can be used for a drug for a serious or life-threatening illness that provides a meaningful therapeutic advantage over existing treatments.

Accelerated approval can be based on the drug’s effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict a clinical benefit to patients, with a required post-approval trial to verify that the drug provides the expected clinical benefit. 

“Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating illness that can have a profound impact on the lives of people diagnosed with the disease as well as their loved ones,” said Patrizia Cavazzoni, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Currently available therapies only treat symptoms of the disease; this treatment option is the first therapy to target and affect the underlying disease process of Alzheimer’s. As we have learned from the fight against cancer, the accelerated approval pathway can bring therapies to patients faster while spurring more research and innovation.”

Alzheimer’s is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually, the ability to carry out simple tasks.

While the specific causes of Alzheimer’s disease are not fully known, it is characterized by changes in the brain—including amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary, or tau, tangles—that result in loss of neurons and their connections. These changes affect a person’s ability to remember and think.
Aduhelm represents a first-of-its-kind treatment approved for Alzheimer’s disease. It is the first new treatment approved for Alzheimer’s since 2003 and is the first therapy that targets the fundamental pathophysiology of the disease.

Researchers evaluated Aduhelm’s efficacy in three separate studies representing a total of 3,482 patients. The studies consisted of double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled dose-ranging studies in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Patients receiving the treatment had significant dose-and time-dependent reduction of amyloid beta plaque, while patients in the control arm of the studies had no reduction of amyloid beta plaque.

These results support the accelerated approval of Aduhelm, which is based on the surrogate endpoint of reduction of amyloid beta plaque in the brain—a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Amyloid beta plaque was quantified using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to estimate the brain levels of amyloid beta plaque in a composite of brain regions expected to be widely affected by Alzheimer’s disease pathology compared to a brain region expected to be spared of such pathology. 

The prescribing information for Aduhelm includes a warning for amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA), which most commonly presents as temporary swelling in areas of the brain that usually resolves over time and does not cause symptoms, though some people may have symptoms such as headache, confusion, dizziness, vision changes, or nausea. Another warning for Aduhelm is for a risk of hypersensitivity reactions, including angioedema and urticaria. The most common side effects of Aduhelm were ARIA, headache, fall, diarrhea, and confusion/delirium/altered mental status/disorientation.  

Under the accelerated approval provisions, which provide patients suffering from the disease earlier access to the treatment, the FDA is requiring the company, Biogen, to conduct a new randomized, controlled clinical trial to verify the drug’s clinical benefit. If the trial fails to verify clinical benefit, the FDA may initiate proceedings to withdraw approval of the drug.

Aduhelm was granted Fast Track designation, which seeks to expedite the development and review of drugs that are intended to treat serious conditions where initial evidence showed the potential to address an unmet medical need. 
Aduhelm is made by Biogen of Cambridge, Massachusetts”. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-grants-accelerated-approval-alzheimers-drug

FDA Ignored Advisory Committee Recommendations & Approved Drugs that “Offered Little Evidence That They Would Meaningfully Benefit Patients” (June Resignation Letter); FDA Didn’t Bother to Convene Advisory Committee for Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA Covid Vaccine Approval | Mining Awareness + (wordpress.com)

Democrats have several major crises hurting the country spinning out of control at the same time.

But what are they concerned with? Spending trillions of dollars we don’t have, and taxing Americans into oblivion.

The border is a mess, inflation is out of control, the Biden just handed Afghanistan to the Taliban on a silver platter, plus $85 billion of our military equipment.

Yet Democrats instead want to expand socialism in America. They’re even admitting that their big spending push will transform the American economy.

But they have a big problem. In order to push their radical spending, they need to raise the debt ceiling.

Obviously, taxes can’t pay for all the crazy stuff Pelosi wants. But she doesn’t want the blame for our massive national debt.

She’s pressuring Republicans to own the debt. But they are firing back, “You’re on your own.”

From Fox News:

More than 100 House Republicans signed a letter Monday promising not to vote to increase the debt ceiling under any circumstances…

“In order for this spending to occur, our nation’s debt limit will have to be increased significantly. Because Democrats are responsible for the spending, they need to take responsibility for increasing the debt ceiling.”

Republicans in the House were bypassed by Pelosi when she approved Biden’s radical $3.5 trillion expansion of the welfare state.

Not one Republican voted for this radical spending bill. Now, they are telling Pelosi they will not vote to increase the debt ceiling to make this spending possible.

It’s no secret Democrats seem to love spending other people’s money. But Biden’s radical socialist agenda is just too expensive.

Even with all the tax increases he’s planning, he can’t pay for it all.

So, Pelosi and her cohorts have to approve raising our nation’s debt ceiling. Meaning, of course, we will be spending even more money we don’t have.

The nation will have to borrow that money from global lenders, to avoid more inflation and other problems.

What happens when our credit runs dry? What if China (our biggest lender) demands we pay them back?

Democrats are running out the clock by expanding our debt, getting more Americans hooked on welfare while importing more workers from over the border.

Pelosi doesn’t seem to care. Rumors suggest she’s bailing after 2022, anyway. She did her damage to the country and will probably retire to Martha’s Vineyard or something.

The rest of us? We’ll have to live with all the damage she’s caused.

Key Takeaways:

• Over 100 House Republicans are refusing to support Pelosi’s raised debt ceiling.
• The nation’s debt ceiling must be raised to push Biden’s socialist agenda.
• Democrats wanted to share the blame with Republican lawmakers.

Nancy Pelosi Just Ran Into 100-Strong GOP Brick Wall – House Republicans Sign Letter Refusing To Raise Her Debt Ceiling (thepatriotjournal.com)

Throughout his long political career, President Joe Biden has interacted with countless people both at home and abroad. It would be impossible to remember each and every one of them, especially given his declining cognitive abilities.

However, you would think that a man who rescued him from a snowy valley 13 years ago might stick in his mind. If Biden does remember, his actions certainly don’t show it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, an Afghan interpreter named Mohammed assisted in the rescue of then-Sens. Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel and John Kerry in February 2008. Now Biden has stranded him in Afghanistan.

Mohammed, his wife and his four children have been trying unsuccessfully for years to safely leave the country.

When the last United States plane left Afghanistan on Monday, he and his family were left behind.

The family is now hiding from the Taliban as they hope to be rescued even after the U.S. effectively handed the country over to the radical extremist group.

“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” Mohammed, who did not use his full name due to safety concerns, told The Wall Street Journal. “Don’t forget me here.”

Mohammed was 36 years old in 2008 and was working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. During a trip to Afghanistan that year, two Black Hawk helicopters carrying Biden, Kerry and Hagel were forced to make an emergency landing due to a severe snowstorm.

“As a private security team with the former firm Blackwater and U.S. Army soldiers monitored for any nearby Taliban fighters, the crew sent out an urgent call for help,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

“At Bagram Air Field, Mohammed jumped in a Humvee with a Quick Reaction Force from the Arizona National Guard working with the 82nd Airborne Division and drove hours into the nearby mountains to rescue them.”

Thanks to Mohammed, the three U.S. senators escaped. One of them is now the president of the United States, and another serves in his administration. But when it came time for the American politicians to return the favor, they failed to do so.

Mohammed was trying to get out of Afghanistan well before the Taliban takeover. According to The Wall Street Journal, he originally applied for a special immigrant visa in June.

“His selfless service to our military men and women is just the kind of service I wish more Americans displayed,” Lt. Col. Andrew R. Till wrote in support of Mohammed at the time.

However, when the defense contractor who employed Mohammed lost necessary records, Mohammed’s visa application became one of many stuck in limbo.

Once the Taliban took over, Mohammed made his way to the Kabul airport to try to escape that way. U.S. forces then told him he could be allowed in the airport, but his wife and children could not.

“If you can only help one Afghan, choose [Mohammed],” said Shawn O’Brien, an Army combat veteran who served with him in 2008. “He earned it.”

Biden himself has attempted to use the 2008 incident as a political talking point.

“If you want to know where al-Qaida lives, you want to know where [Osama] bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me,” he said on the campaign trail in October of that year.

“Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down … in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.”

While Biden did not hesitate to reference the incident for political gain, he has conveniently forgotten about one of his rescuers in that hero’s darkest hour. It’s just another example of the utter lack of compassion in Biden’s heart.

Afghan Interpreter Who Rescued Biden from Snowy Afghanistan Valley in 2008 Gets Left Behind by US (westernjournal.com)

Actress Rose McGowan pulled no punches recently when she discussed Oprah Winfrey’s connection to alleged sexual abuser and record executive, Russell Simmons.

At least 13 women say Simmons harassed, assaulted, or raped them. Several of those women say they were under 18 at the time of the incidents.

At one time, Winfrey was attached to executive produce a film titled “On the Record” about their claims, but she later backed out, reportedly at the behest of Tina Tchen, the former head of the MeToo non-profit Time’s Up. Tchen’s group was ostensibly founded to support victims of sexual abuse in Hollywood, but it became embroiled in scandal when it was revealed that she advised disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on a letter intended to discredit one of his accusers. Tchen, a former Obama White House staffer, and Roberta Kaplan, chairwoman of the Time’s Up board, ultimately resigned.

Winfrey admitted to Fox News that Simmons had pressured her to walk away from the documentary, but she insisted that that had nothing to do with her decision. “I want it to be known that I unequivocally believe and support the women,” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the time, adding, “Their stories deserve to be told and heard.”

After Winfrey announced she was backing away from the film, Apple dropped plans to air it on its streaming platform.

In apparent reference to this, McGowan tweeted Sunday, “I am glad more are seeing the ugly truth of Oprah. I wish she were real, but she isn’t. From being pals with Weinstein to abandoning & destroying Russell Simmon’s victims, she is about supporting a sick power structure for personal gain, she is as fake as they come.”

Alongside her comments, McGowan posted a photo of Winfrey kissing convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein’s cheek at an awards dinner.

That same day, McGowan retweeted a comment from a fan who said that many people already believed that Winfrey was a hypocrite, but because they lacked powerful positions, they were ignored.

“Love lots of people [saw] her for who she was,” said an account by the name of Miss Freethinking Independent. “The problem is those that saw her for who she was just happened to be poor. It wasn’t until you spoke out & never backed down that it became widely known. You gapped the bridges between the poor and the elites by exposing the corrupt.”

McGowan also struck out at A-lister Reese Witherspoon for her vocal support of Time’s Up.

In honor of Women’s Equality Day on August 26, Witherspoon tweeted, “HUGE appreciation for all the women who came before us that made this day possible … Let’s keep pushing for more ways to protect our rights and create equality for women everywhere.”

McGowan replied, “Maybe consider working with real activists instead of sham organizations like Time’s Up.”

Witherspoon has offered no comment about the revelations that Time’s Up assisted Cuomo.

Rose McGowan Hits Oprah As Hypocrite: ‘She Is About Supporting A Sick Power Structure’ | The Daily Wire

In Washington, things have gone off the rails in a hurry. Many blame an invigorated unthinking progressive agenda for broken government. And they are correct. Think about it.

How else would you characterize the utterly failed “Let’s get out of Afghanistan overnight” move by a president who seemingly had little interest in the advice of his generals or diplomats?

Speaking of which, who made the call to shut down the contractors who maintained American-made Afghan air assets?

You do not have to be a West Point graduate to question why we would give away our dominant advantage (air power) and leave the critical airbase at Bagram on a battlefield populated by seventh-century religious warriors. Or why we would leave so many military assets (vehicles, weapons, helicopters, night-vision goggles, etc.) to the Taliban. Or why our soldiers were ordered to abandon the country before every last U.S. citizen was accounted for and safe.

This last question is, of course, the most important and the most baffling.

Today, the president’s press flack won’t even admit Americans are “stranded,” but the anguished calls for help by trapped Americans and our Afghan allies in and around the Kabul airport (and Thursday’s horrific bomb attacks) speak to a terribly broken policy.

How else would one characterize the chaos at our southern border as an estimated two million people will have migrated by the end of the year?

To make matters worse, an understaffed Border Patrol and a declawed ICE are in no position to stop the tons of fentanyl, COVID-positive migrants and sex traffickers that are the tangible results of a broken policy.

Note that the person allegedly in charge of border security has been on her second foreign junket to Southeast Asia.

How else would you characterize the historic level of violence in cities that have indulged the ludicrous crime-producing “defund the police” movement?

A glance at murder and other violent crime statistics from any of these progressive cities reminds us that the suspension of enforcement against so-called minor crimes and the pro-offender mindset of so many big-city (Soros-sponsored) prosecutors has made life significantly worse off for the good and law-abiding people living in deteriorating marginal neighborhoods.

Whatever did happen to that “let’s replace the police with social workers” initiative?

How else would you characterize a president who just last week begged OPEC to increase its (fossil fuel) oil production in the face of rapidly spiking gasoline prices and increasing world demand?

This pitiful picture is juxtaposed against the greatest accomplishment of the Trump administration: an American natural gas revolution. America’s vast supply of natural gas and modern drilling techniques helped achieve independence (production of more domestic energy than we consume) by Trump’s third year in office. And all during a time greenhouse gas emissions continue to decline.Related:Dennis Prager: Who Benefits from Biden Deserting Afghanistan? America’s Enemies, That’s Who

How else would you characterize school systems that no longer care to teach the three “Rs” and no longer engage in objective measures of academic performance?

You can blame social justice warriors (and their compatriots in the teachers unions) who have infiltrated our local public school boards in order to indoctrinate our kids (as young as kindergarten age) with their unique curriculum of sex- and race-based instruction.

That their campaign is playing out against a backdrop of consistently underperforming (what used to be called “failing”) public schools in our most marginal neighborhoods is not lost on the commonsense majority.

Hence, a newly invigorated parent-teacher resistance to the woke mob’s agenda is born, as well as a new front in America’s culture wars.

How else would you characterize voting “reforms” that eliminate photo identification, scrubbing of voter rolls, signature matches on the inside and outside of mail-in ballots, and vote-counting transparency requirements?

Mistrust of our voting processes ran high among Democrats in 2016 and even higher among Republicans in 2020. Why in the world would either the states or the federal government want to further complicate the way we cast and count votes in our country?

How else would you characterize our out-of-control federal spending and the sudden re-emergence of inflation — that terrible debilitating tax on our nation’s poor that so many in Washington are soft-peddling?

There is a method to the madness, however, as today’s spiking inflation numbers bring back memories of the bad ‘ol days of the 1970s.

A bottom line emerges: What had been working during the Trump era had to be broken (such was the principle and all-consuming commitment of Biden 2020) regardless of consequence.

Indeed, from an incremental, secure withdrawal in Afghanistan to “Stay in Mexico” at the border to re-funding the police in our cities to real American energy independence from the gas fields to school choice in our classrooms, America was heading in the right direction. And then there was a worldwide pandemic — and an election. And now there are predictable short and long-term consequences.

Today, the breaking of Trump-era initiatives proceeds apace. This is what happens under single-party government. It is not a pretty sight. Broken never is.

Bob Ehrlich: We’re Suffering Because Biden Had to Reverse Every Trump Decision, Especially the Successful Ones (westernjournal.com)

President Joe Biden waived a mandate in June that would have forced the Pentagon to provide a detailed report to Congress about the risks of leaving Afghanistan.

Under the federal statute, the administration was barred from reducing troops in Afghanistan below 2,000 without first briefing Congress about the expected impact on U.S. counterterrorism operations and the risk to American personnel. Biden waived the mandate in June, arguing that providing this information to Congress could undermine “the national security interests of the United States.”

The Biden administration spent months assuring Congress that the U.S.-trained Afghan forces would be able to forestall a Taliban takeover when American troops left the country on a pre-determined deadline. That assessment was proven wrong days after the withdrawal, when the Taliban overran the Afghan National Army and seized control of Kabul, forcing a chaotic evacuation of U.S. personnel and allies.

National security experts and Republican lawmakers told the Washington Free Beacon that the waiver blocked Congress and the public from reviewing the administration’s internal national security assessments prior to the withdrawal—details that could have been used to prevent or minimize the catastrophe currently unfolding in the war-torn country.

“If we had answers to these questions we might not be in the horrible debacle we’re in now,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who in April wrote about the statute and the likelihood that the administration would try to dodge it.

“I think the fact that they used the national security waiver to refuse to answer these questions in the light of day tells me their answers could not have stood up to scrutiny,” Bowman said.

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the administration should be held accountable for withholding this information from Congress.

“It is increasingly clear that President Biden never had a plan in place to safely withdraw from Afghanistan, so it is no surprise he never shared it with Congress like the law requires,” said Tenney. “As we work to complete the critical mission of bringing every American and Afghan ally home, we must also be pressing for answers and accountability. I am calling on Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to begin the impeachment process in the House immediately to determine how this crisis became such a catastrophe and to hold Biden accountable for his failure to lead.”

A senior congressional aide said Biden’s waiver showed a “blatant disregard for conditions on the ground,” noting that a State Department cable in June warned about the potential for an imminent Taliban takeover of Kabul after the United States pulled out.

“Against the advice of the military, the [intelligence community], and our diplomats—as evidenced by the dissent cable—the Biden administration continued its blind rush to the exits without regard for the consequences,” said the aide. “Apart from the collapse of the Afghan government and the humanitarian catastrophe at the airport, we are just now seeing the long-term implications of this rushed withdrawal, to include a renewed terror threat against U.S. interests, the proliferation of captured equipment, and the loss of hard-earned rights for Afghanistan’s women and girls.”

The law, which was instituted as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, prohibited the Department of Defense from using its budget to reduce troop levels without first providing Congress with a report about the impact a withdrawal would have on the “ongoing U.S. counterterrorism mission against the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and associated forces; the risk to U.S. personnel in Afghanistan; and the risk for the expansion of existing or the formation of new international terrorist safe havens inside Afghanistan.”

The Pentagon was also required to provide details on “the threat posed by the Taliban and other terrorist organizations in Afghanistan” and “the capacity of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to effectively prevent or defend against attacks by the Taliban.”

Biden said he would waive the requirement because he “determined that a waiver of the limitation under subsection 1215(a) is important to the national security interests of the United States” in a June 8 letter to Congress.

“We will withdraw responsibly, deliberately, and safely, in full coordination with our allies and partners,” wrote Biden. “Our NATO allies and operational partners, who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us for almost 20 years and who have also made great sacrifices, will now withdraw alongside our forces as we stand by our enduring principle of ‘in together, out together.'”

Biden Waived Congressional Mandate for Report on Afghanistan Withdrawal Risks (freebeacon.com)

Attendees violated New Mexico’s indoor mask mandate, putting lives at risk

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary in history, married her longtime partner Skip Sayre on Saturday at a tribal resort in New Mexico. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), the failed presidential candidate best known for pretending to be Native American, was among the celebrities in attendance.

Photos obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show Haaland, Warren, and other wedding guests partying indoors without masks in blatant violation of New Mexico’s public health restrictions. On Aug. 17, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D., N.M.) issued a statewide order reimposing an indoor mask mandate to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“The re-implemented mask requirement applies to all individuals aged 2 and older in all indoor public settings—except when eating or drinking,” the governor’s press release for the order states. “The indoor mask requirement will be effective Friday, Aug. 20. It will remain in effect until at least September 15.”

An Interior Department spokesman, who is a former employee of Media Matters for America, told the Free Beacon guests at the wedding “were required to be vaccinated and wear masks” in accordance with “CDC guidance and New Mexico’s public health orders,” but did not comment on the photographic evidence that contradicted this claim.

Lujan Grisham’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the apparent violation of the state’s mask mandate.

Politico‘s Playbook newsletter also reported, without evidence, that “guests were required to be vaccinated and wear masks.” The news blog published two photos of the married couple posing outdoors, but none from the ceremony or reception, which appears to have taken place indoors.

In one photo, Haaland and Sayre are embracing on the dance floor. Neither are wearing masks, though Haaland appears to be holding one in her hand. Another photo shows Haaland sitting next to Rep. Sharice Davids (D., Kan.), an actual Native American who has bragged that “all my heroes killed colonizers.” The women were unmasked, even though they were not eating or drinking. Another photo shows Warren smiling without a mask as she poses with a fan.

“Bruce and I were so happy to celebrate Deb and Skip this weekend,” Warren wrote on Facebook. Her office did not return a request for comment on the countless lives endangered by the senator’s reckless behavior.

Haaland’s wedding is the most recent example of Democratic politicians flouting government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions while insisting that everyone else follow the rules. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D., N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, lectured Americans about the importance of wearing masks, yet defied a State Department “do not travel” warning by attending a maskless wedding in France earlier this month.

Former president Barack Obama threw himself a massive birthday party at his $17.5 million estate on Martha’s Vineyard, which coincided with a spike in COVID-19 that is threatening to overrun the island’s only hospital. Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, D.C., attended a maskless indoor wedding earlier this summer, less than 24 hours after she mandated the use of masks indoors. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) has violated his own health and safety guidelines on numerous occasions.

More than 227,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since President Joe Biden took office.

PHOTOS: Elizabeth Warren Partied Maskless With Actual Native Americans at Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s Wedding (freebeacon.com)

A Florida-based coalition of lawyers says that it’s going to represent thousands of U.S. airline workers seeking a religious exemption from mandatory COVID-19 vaccines.

Liberty Counsel, an international group that advocates for religious freedom, said at least 3,000 employees representing 15 airlines in the United States and abroad have come forward asking for legal help.

“We’re working with people in a lot of different airlines,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver told The Epoch Times. “They come directly to us to contact us. [The number is] quite large.”

Staver said the airline workers include pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, and gate checkers—“all are represented.”

“We basically walk them through the process,” he said. “These people were working during the pandemic. Now they’re being told to get the shots or they’re being terminated.”

On Aug. 6, United Airlines became the first major U.S. airline to require mandatory vaccinations for all 67,000 employees by Oct. 25 under threat of termination.

The Chicago-based airline estimates 80 percent of employees have received the shot, while more than 95 percent of pilots have already done so.

A United Airlines media relations spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the company has a “very narrow reasonable accommodation process for those who qualify for medical or religious exemptions.”

“We do not have additional information to share at this time beyond what was sent to employees earlier this month in [a corporate] memo,” the spokesperson said.

Staver noted that the vaccine mandates are causing severe mental stress among airline employees industrywide, resulting in accidents on the ground in some cases.

Staver said United Airlines is also challenging employees to prove their religious conviction to qualify for a religious exemption. To be eligible, he said, they have to show they’re a follower of a recognized religion with a history of opposition to vaccines. They also need to include a letter from the clergy stating their sincere religious belief.

“They’re trying to intimidate them, and in some cases, [employees] believe they have no other alternative,” he said.

On Aug. 24, Delta Air Lines announced vaccines would be required for an estimated 68,000 employees and that about 75 percent have complied. Those that refuse the vaccines will be subject to a $200 monthly surcharge.

“We’ve always known the vaccinations are the most effective tool to keep our people safe and healthy in the face of this global health crisis,” Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said in a statement. “That’s why we’re taking additional, robust actions to increase our vaccinations rate.”

Earlier in August, Hawaiian Airlines and Frontier Airlines announced mandatory vaccines for their employees. Alaska Airlines is considering implementing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its 20,000 employees.

Staver said that despite full legal immunity granted to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, private employers could still be held liable for any adverse reaction to the shots.

As of Aug. 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 13,500 deaths associated with COVID-19 injections through its voluntary reporting system.

Lawyers Helping Airline Workers Land Religious Waivers Against COVID-19 Vaccines (theepochtimes.com)

On Sunday morning, former President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, compared Americans who oppose getting vaccinated or wearing masks to the Islamic terrorists who attacked Kabul airport and killed 13 members of the United states military.

Duncan tweeted, “Have you noticed how strikingly similar both the mindsets and actions are between the suicide bombers at Kabul’s airport, and the anti-mask and anti-vax people here? They both blow themselves up, inflict harm on those around them, and are convinced they are fighting for freedom.”

Have you noticed how strikingly similar both the mindsets and actions are between the suicide bombers at Kabul’s airport, and the anti-mask and anti-vax people here?
They both blow themselves up, inflict harm on those around them, and are convinced they are fighting for freedom.

— Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) August 29, 2021

Rep. Dan Crenshaw took no prisoners in his response, snapping, “Wow you’re a real piece of human garbage.”

Wow you’re a real piece of human garbage. https://t.co/xN7ZbKOWHt

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 29, 2021

He added, “Btw this guys was Secretary of Education under Obama/Biden. Will Biden denounce him?”

Btw this guys was Secretary of Education under Obama/Biden.

Will Biden denounce him?

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 29, 2021

Crenshaw wasn’t alone in his criticism:

GOP Congresswoman Mary Miller: “Secretary Duncan, this is a very sick thing to say during the dignified transfer of 13 US service members lost in the attack.”

Secretary Duncan, this is a very sick thing to say during the dignified transfer of 13 US service members lost in the attack. https://t.co/InRkOTmk6t

— Congresswoman Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) August 30, 2021

Former Congressman Jason Lewis: “Well no…you miserable son-of-a-bitch. But I have noticed how ISIS and the Obama/Biden 2.0 administration both seek to create fear in the minds of their neighbors in order to take away freedom of choice and push an oppressive agenda. But of course I would never compare the two…”

Well no…you miserable son-of-a-bitch. But I have noticed how ISIS and the Obama/Biden 2.0 administration both seek to create fear in the minds of their neighbors in order to take away freedom of choice and push an oppressive agenda. But of course I would never compare the two… https://t.co/SQivA9uVg7

— Jason Lewis (@LewisForMN) August 29, 2021

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro:  “Feel free to travel to Kabul any time and report from on the ground about those similarities.”

Feel free to travel to Kabul any time and report from on the ground about those similarities https://t.co/HPOTrNz7AB

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 30, 2021

Human Events’ Jack Posobiec: “This was an Obama Cabinet member. This is what they think of you.”

This was an Obama Cabinet member. This is what they think of you. https://t.co/4yAV6d02KZ

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 29, 2021

Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was murdered in the Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018: “When you ran the Department of Ed your policies encouraged districts to ignore threats to our nation’s schools where they festered. It led to Parkland. Delete your account.”

When you ran the Department of Ed your policies encouraged districts to ignore threats to our nation’s schools where they festered. It led to Parkland.

Delete your account. https://t.co/x6WHdK2Yil

— Ryan Petty (@rpetty) August 29, 2021

Journalist Beverly Hallberg: “So because I have an autoimmune disease and waiting for clinical trials (also have natural immunity), the former Secretary of Ed thinks that I’m just as bad as suicide bombers. Got it.”

So because I have an autoimmune disease and waiting for clinical trials (also have natural immunity), the former Secretary of Ed thinks that I’m just as bad as suicide bombers. Got it. https://t.co/vK01nqG0Qe

— Beverly Hallberg (@BeverlyHallberg) August 30, 2021

Real Clear Investigations’ Mark Hemingway: “This man was in charge of public education in America.”

This man was in charge of public education in America. https://t.co/AAaSi3fi1S

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) August 30, 2021

The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf: “If they were actually ‘strikingly similar’ many people would have no preference as to which to share a community with but in fact, no one is ambivalent on that question.”

If they were actually “strikingly similar” many people would have no preference as to which to share a community with but in fact, no one is ambivalent on that question. https://t.co/nitHM2uZUM

— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) August 30, 2021

WEX Magazine’s Jay Caruso: “It is not surprising that Duncan blew through $7 billion in five years to ‘fix crumbling schools’ and failed.”

It is not surprising that Duncan blew through $7 billion in five years to “fix crumbling schools” and failed.

— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) August 30, 2021

Radio host Dan O’Donnell: “Have you noticed how strikingly similar both your intelligence level and logical reasoning capability are to those of a tree stump?”

Have you noticed how strikingly similar both your intelligence level and logical reasoning capability are to those of a tree stump? https://t.co/yYaM02F3CL

— Dan O’Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) August 29, 2021

Duncan went to college with Robert Runcie, later the superintendent of Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) at the time of the Parkland shooting. Duncan hired Runcie to run Chicago Public School district’s IT office, then later when Runcie applied for the superintendent job in Broward gave Runcie a glowing reference.

As The Daily Wire reported:

As superintendent, Runcie convinced the Broward County taxpayers to fund an $800 million bond initiative called “Safety, Music, Renovation, and Technology,” or “SMART.” According to Florida TaxWatch, in the first four years of the SMART bond’s existence, the district only spent 5% of the money on safety projects, which was far below what the district was claiming to be spending.

Obama Education Secretary Compares Anti-Maskers To Kabul Terrorists. Crenshaw: ‘Wow. You’re A Real Piece Of Garbage’ | The Daily Wire

On the heels of what sounded like a disastrous meeting between President Joe Biden and family members of those killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul last week, GOP members of Congress said that one of their Democratic colleagues blocked the names of the 13 deceased service members from being read on the floor Tuesday.

While members of one Gold Star family walked out of a meeting with President Joe Biden before he even got a chance to speak with them, one Democrat shut down Republican veterans who wanted to read off the names of those lost.

This is all terrible.

During a pro forma session, a group of Republicans gathered on the House floor to introduce a bill to demand accountability from the Biden administration over its handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

On Monday, the last troops pulled out of the country, ending the 20-year war in which several of the GOP members served. The Taliban appeared to mark the occasion by hanging a person by the neck from one of the Black Hawk helicopters that Biden left behind.

Trending:Biden Sounds Like He Has a Bout of Dementia When Trying to Talk: ‘I’m Here, Uh, Uh, Uh, Eh’

The GOP contingent of Republican veterans said House leadership refused to recognize their attempt to read the names of the 12 Marines and one Navy corpsman who lost their lives in an ISIS-K suicide bomb attack outside an entrance to the Kabul airport on Thursday in the final days of the chaotic evacuation.

“We gaveled in, had a prayer, said the Pledge of Allegiance, took a moment of silence with pretty much all Republican veterans, then asked to be recognized to read names and bring up Afghanistan legislation. They did not acknowledge us and just closed the House down,” Florida Rep. Brian Mast, himself a combat veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan, told The Floridian on Tuesday.

Fox News reported that the bill was introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and would have required the Biden administration to establish a plan to bring the Americans still trapped in Afghanistan safely home. The State Department said Monday the number of Americans left behind when troops withdrew is in the “low hundreds.”

Yet when the group of roughly 30 Republicans tried to get recognition to introduce their bill and read the names of the deceased service members, they were gaveled out by Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, who was presiding over the chamber.

“How can you not read the names?” one member shouted, according to the Washington Examiner. “Turn your back on our country,” another yelled.

Illinois Rep. Mary Miller called Dingell’s move “shameful” on Twitter.

Democrats just shut down the House Floor when Afghanistan veterans stood up to speak.

Shameful.

— Congresswoman Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) August 31, 2021

“Don’t you think our military deserves better?” Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida tweeted.

How badly do Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats want to cover up this Afghanistan debacle?

They just blocked Members of Congress from reading the names of the service members who sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan last week.

Don’t you think our military deserves better?

— Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) August 31, 2021

Related:‘Blood on Your Hands’: Biden Slammed by Furious Relatives of Abandoned Afghans in WH Protest

“We had hoped to have an opportunity to be recognized to move a bill by veteran Mike Gallagher. It’s very simple what we’re requesting,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said at a news conference later in the day, according to Fox. “What is the plan to bring Americans home safely? Not some, but every single American?”

“Speaker Pelosi, now is not the time to act like you could not see us on the floor,” he added. “Now is not the time to hide. We are a co-equal branch.”

The Examiner noted that while Republicans had expected their bill to be blocked on the floor, they “hope that bipartisan support can grow for the bill as they start on a variety of actions to hold the Biden administration accountable for the chaotic withdrawal” and they have something else up their sleeve.

“The next opportunity is a committee markup session for the annual spending bill that funds the U.S. Military, the National Defense Authorization Act. Proposed Republican amendments include requiring an accounting of what equipment was left behind, an explanation for why Bagram Air Base was abandoned, and regular congressional briefings on the groups that will form because of the withdrawal,” the outlet explained.

These are all certainly pressing issues — and it doesn’t bode well for the Washington Democratic establishment that Pelosi’s cohorts in the House responded to this demand for accountability by not only ignoring the members who wished to speak, including veterans who served in the very war that Biden so disastrously ended, but also ignoring a request to read the names of those last 13 lives lost in the conflict.

It’s unthinkable that Americans were abandoned to the hands of a murderous terrorist regime, and you’d think that there would easily be bipartisan support for a bill demanding the Biden administration come up with a plan to recover them.

Will the Democrats just ignore the names of American civilians killed when the harrowing stories of what the Taliban has done to them start trickling in, like they ignored the names of our honorable service members on the House floor?

Dem Congresswoman Blocks Names of 13 Dead Service Members from Being Read on House Floor (westernjournal.com)

On Saturday, The Washington Post published a detailed account of events that occurred on Aug. 15, the day the city of Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Six writers collaborated on the article, which they inform readers is the result of “nearly two dozen interviews with U.S. and Afghan officials, a Taliban commander and residents of the city.” Most of these sources wished to remain anonymous.

Buried deep down in the lengthy piece came this startling revelation: “In a hastily arranged in-person meeting, senior U.S. military leaders in Doha — including [Gen. Kenneth] McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command — spoke with Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban’s political wing.”

According to the U.S. official, Baradar said, “We have a problem. We have two options to deal with it: You [the United States military] take responsibility for securing Kabul or you have to allow us to do it.”

“Throughout the day, Biden had remained resolute in his decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan. The collapse of the Afghan government hadn’t changed his mind,” the Post reported.Trending:Biden Sounds Like He Has a Bout of Dementia When Trying to Talk: ‘I’m Here, Uh, Uh, Uh, Eh’

“McKenzie, aware of those orders, told Baradar that the U.S. mission was only to evacuate American citizens, Afghan allies and others at risk. The United States, he told Baradar, needed the airport to do that.

“On the spot, an understanding was reached, according to two other U.S. officials: The United States could have the airport until Aug. 31. But the Taliban would control the city.”

So, according to three U.S. officials, the Taliban offered U.S. military leaders the chance to secure the Kabul airport as they evacuated Americans and Afghan allies, and they declined. This is remarkable.

Although the Post did not report that President Joe Biden made this decision, I can’t imagine that McKenzie would have signed off on something so monumental without the authorization of the commander in chief.Do you think the Biden administration should have accepted the Taliban’s offer to control the airport during the evacuation?Yes No
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Given the opportunity to bring in the additional troops that would be necessary to control the city during the evacuation period, the Biden administration chose to rely upon terrorists to provide protection.

The gravity of this miscalculation cannot be overstated.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, fearing a grisly execution at the hands of the Taliban, had already fled the presidential palace, and lawlessness was spreading throughout the city when this fateful meeting took place. The unthinkable had happened. The U.S.-backed Afghan government, which the Biden administration had expected to hold on for at least six months, had surrendered to the terrorists without a single shot being fired.

Afghanistan was engulfed in crisis, and thousands of American lives were in danger — and an even larger number of Afghan lives.

Still, the arrogant, stubborn and senile U.S. president chose the easier, softer way — the path of least resistance.Related:Dem Congresswoman Blocks Names of 13 Dead Service Members from Being Read on House Floor

When historians look back on pivotal events, they identify crucial decisions made at key moments that changed everything. This will be one of those.

The Biden administration’s previous blunders, such as withdrawing troops before evacuating U.S. and Afghan citizens and abandoning Bagram Airfield, had brought us to this point. The administration was fully aware the evacuation was going to be dangerous and messy, yet it foolishly turned down the chance to take control of the city.

Thirteen U.S. service members lost their lives Thursday after the Taliban allowed an ISIS-K suicide bomber through a checkpoint outside the airport, something that likely wouldn’t have happened if U.S. troops had controlled the city.

Retired U.S. Army General Don Bolduc joined Fox News’ Steve Hilton on his Sunday night show, “The Next Revolution.”

https://video.foxnews.com/v/video-embed.html?video_id=6270115931001&loc=westernjournal.com&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fbiden-turned-offer-taliban-allow-us-control-kabul-airport-aug-31-report%2F&_xcf=

Hilton asked Bolduc to weigh in on this story. Bolduc said, “It’s complete and utter incompetence. … What a difference it would have made for us to have Kabul. They wouldn’t have been able to get close to the airfield. We wouldn’t have had this explosion. We wouldn’t have had these 13 deaths. We wouldn’t have Kabul, a city that was thriving, now is an utter cesspool.”

“If that was offered and the decision was not to accept that, then that is not only incompetence, but it’s absolute bad military judgment.”

Biden Turned Down Offer from Taliban to Allow US to Control Kabul Airport Until Aug. 31: Report (westernjournal.com)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) fired off a letter Thursday, excoriating the Biden administration over their “reckless immigration policies” and demanded the “immediate” end of “unvetted” illegal immigrants being funneled into his state.

If Biden won’t deport the illegals, DeSantis suggested the administration direct them to a different state that supports the “flouting of our immigration laws” — not Florida.

“While Floridians are working to ensure that criminal aliens are not released back into our communities, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appears to be hard at work resettling ever-larger numbers of illegal aliens who have no lawful status under federal immigration law from the southwest border to Florida,” the governor wrote in the five-page letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “I ask that DHS immediately cease any further resettlement of illegal aliens in Florida and that the aliens instead be removed from the United States or resettled in states that support the administration’s continued flouting of our immigration laws.”

“Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of Florida and the American people, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that your department is aiding and abetting on the southwest border,” DeSantis said.

In a statement about the letter, the Republican further blasted: “President Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and their administration have refused to fulfill their responsibility to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress and the resulting influx of unvetted illegal aliens endangers our national security and undermines the socioeconomic wellbeing of hardworking American citizens. Unfortunately, even though the federal government is responsible for immigration enforcement, it is the states who bear the brunt of this administration’s reckless immigration policies.”

“I have been to the border and I observed firsthand the chaos that this administration’s policies have created. To fill the void left by the federal government, Florida deployed its own law enforcement officers to the border, and they’ve (been) told that many of the illegal aliens apprehended there plan to end up in Florida. Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of our citizens, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that this administration is aiding and abetting, and frankly encouraging, on the southwest border,” DeSantis elaborated.

The press release noted the following:

• The number of encounters at the southwest border have skyrocketed from 78,417 in January 2021 to 212,672 in July 2021, a 171% increase and the highest in more than 20 years.
• The number of illegal aliens who were issued a notice to appear or order of recognizance and subsequently released by the Border Patrol in July alone was a staggering 59,691, a massive increase from the 1,324 in this category who were released in January. By contrast, in the last full month of the Trump administration, only 17 aliens in this category were released.

DeSantis also requested DHS provide more information about the illegals to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) by September 30, 2021. The press released outlined the following matters:

• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida;
• the names and destination of the illegal aliens;
• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who were tested for COVID-19 and the results of such tests;
• the identities of illegal aliens who have criminal records and who have previously entered the U.S. illegally; and
• the number and identity of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who have failed to appear for their removal proceedings.

In the lengthy letter, the governor said he’s “under no illusion” the Biden administration will reverse course but emphasized that “the states, not the federal government, bear the brunt of this administration’s lawless immigration policies.”

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DeSantis Warns Biden: Deport Or Send ‘Unvetted’ Illegals To Democrat-Run States, Not Florida | The Daily Wire

The United States shared lists of names with the Taliban, U.S. officials confirmed on Aug. 29, as they disputed accusations that the terrorist group was given the identity of many Americans and Afghans trying to flee Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the information was shared with the Taliban.

Blinken said there were certain times when the Taliban was given lists of people on buses that were en route to the U.S.-held airport in Kabul and needed to get through Taliban checkpoints.

“You’ll share names on a list of people on the bus so they can be assured that those are people that we’re looking to bring in,” Blinken told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“And by definition, that’s exactly what happened.”

Sullivan disputed a report that the United States gave a list of names to the Taliban but indicated that some identities were shared.

“We have given no list of all of the American SIV holders to the Taliban or any other kind of big list,” he said, referring to Special Immigrant Visas, which are given to Afghans.

But he didn’t deny that other lists were handed over and appeared to suggest that, in some cases, they had been.

Sullivan spoke about situations in which buses of Afghans and others were headed to the airport but had to go through Taliban checkpoints.

“That is the type of coordination we’ve done with the Taliban. That has resulted in journalists and women and pilots and other SIVs being able to get through and get on planes and out of the country,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

President Joe Biden last week didn’t deny that his administration shared lists of American names with the Taliban, telling reporters: “There have been occasions where our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said: ‘This bus is coming through with X number of people on it, made up of the following group of people. We want you to let that bus or that group through.’”

Biden also said he couldn’t confirm whether there’s been a list.

“There may have been, but I know of no circumstance. It doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, that, ‘Here’s the names of 12 people; they’re coming. Let them through.’ It could very well have happened.”

Asked about those remarks on Aug. 30, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said there may be cases in which commanders on the ground are sharing names with the Taliban.

“I think we can all agree there’s a big difference between providing the list of people who want to depart proactively and working at the moment on the ground in a coordinated tactical way to get people out and evacuated and save their lives,” she said.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), on ABC’s “This Week,” denounced the sharing of names with the Taliban.

“They passed a list of American citizens and America’s closest allies, people who fought alongside us, they passed those lists to the Taliban, relying on them, thinking they could trust on them. It was stupid then. It’s insane now. And their plan still seems to be ‘Let’s rely on the Taliban,’” Sasse said.

The U.S. military is leading an effort to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans and nationals from various countries from Afghanistan before the military withdraws, a pullout currently slated to take place on Aug. 31.

U.S. troops hold the airport in Kabul, but the Taliban controls everywhere else in the city, making it a necessity to pass through Taliban checkpoints to reach the facility.

Asked if the United States would continue coordinating with the Taliban after the withdrawal, with an eye toward combating ISIS, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to answer on Aug. 30.

“I don’t think it’s useful to get into hypothetical operations, future operations one way or the other,” he said.

US Officials: Lists of Names Were Shared With Taliban (theepochtimes.com)

As the world watches events in Afghanistan unfold, many have started to wonder what the Taliban rule means for the future of the country’s opium production.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of the opium poppy, which is the raw material for heroin, one of the world’s deadliest drugs. The country accounted for nearly 83 percent of global opium production between 2015 and 2020, according to estimates of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). And it’s a key supplier for heroin markets across Europe and Asia.

The U.S. military presence failed to curtail opium production throughout the Afghan countryside. For two decades, opiate economy, which includes cultivation of the poppy, processing into heroin, and trafficking, has been a major source of cash for Afghanistan.

Despite its anti-heroin rhetoric, the Taliban has benefited greatly from this opium poppy economy and become a major player in the world’s drug trade.

In its first official press conference in Kabul, the Taliban pledged to end opium cultivation in Afghanistan, in an effort to gain acceptance from the international community.

“Today, when we entered Kabul, we saw a large number of our youth who was sitting under the bridges or next to the walls and they were using narcotics. This was so unfortunate,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters on Aug. 17.

“From now on, Afghanistan will be a narcotics-free country, but it needs international assistance,” he said, adding that foreign aid is needed to help Afghan farmers switch to alternative crops.

Afghanistan is noted for its high-quality fruits including pomegranates, grapes, and melons. Various international organizations in the past have helped Afghan families grow pomegranates, for example, as an important alternative to opium.

Despite its agriculture sector and rich mineral resources, the country has been critically dependent on foreign aid, which has dried up with the Taliban takeover.

International donors had been providing 75 percent of the Afghan government’s operating budget, Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors at the Brookings Institution, wrote in a Chatham House report.

The Biden administration froze nearly $9 billion in Afghan government reserves that were held in the United States. The International Monetary Fund also blocked Afghanistan from receiving nearly $440 million in funds that were scheduled to be sent earlier. And the German government announced a suspension of $300 million in development aid budgeted for this year.

Financial sanctions will also make it difficult for international organizations to provide humanitarian aid to Afghan families.

Hence, the country is expected to drift into a humanitarian and financial crisis soon, according to experts, which may lead the new regime to increase illicit activities, including drug trafficking.

“The immediate effects of the financial squeeze in place is that cash liquidity in Afghanistan may drop, which will drive up inflation—including food prices—while disadvantaging Afghanistan’s poorest and the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people,” Felbab-Brown wrote.

As in the past, she noted, those who attempt to ban poppy cultivation in rural areas can “find themselves facing significant losses of political capital and violent opposition.”

Gretchen Peters, executive director at the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime, believes the Taliban shouldn’t be trusted when it comes to its promises to eradicate the poppy trade.

“They pulled a maneuver like that back in the ’90s. They did actually succeed in banning farmers from growing poppy for a year,” she told NPR.

“But the secret was the Taliban were actually sitting on these huge, vast stores of opium. The price of opium went through the roof, and they sold it and made a lot more money than they had the year previous.”

According to Peters, the Taliban will now have full access to the capacities and institutions of state, including its banking system, airlines, and border crossings, which would make its drug trafficking a lot easier.

Recently, poppy cultivation has expanded in most regions of the country, soaring 37 percent in the past year alone, according to UNODC.

Amid Sanctions, Taliban Expected to Double Down on Drug Trafficking (theepochtimes.com)

U.S. consumer confidence fell in August to its lowest level in six months, driven by concerns about the spread of the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus and surging prices.

The Conference Board said in an Aug. 31 report that its consumer confidence index fell from a reading of 125.1 in July to 113.8 in August.

“Consumer confidence retreated in August to its lowest level since February 2021 (95.2),” Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board, in a statement. “Concerns about the Delta variant—and, to a lesser degree, rising gas and food prices—resulted in a less favorable view of current economic conditions and short-term growth prospects.”

Two other gauges, one assessing current economic conditions and the other reflecting consumers’ future outlook over the short-term, also declined.

The present situation index, which measures consumers’ assessment of current business and jobs market conditions, fell from 157.2 in July to 147.3 in August. Broken down into their respective components, 19.9 percent of consumers said current business conditions were “good” in August, down from 24.6 percent in the prior month. At the same time, 24.0 percent said conditions were “bad,” up from 20.0 percent in July.

Consumers’ assessment of current labor market conditions remained largely unchanged over the month, with 54.6 percent saying jobs were “plentiful” in August compared to 55.2 percent expressing the same view in July. At the same time, 11.8 percent of consumers said jobs were “hard to get” in August, a slight drop from 11.1 percent in July.

The drop in consumers’ assessment of current labor market conditions comes despite businesses reporting difficulty hiring workers and as the number of job openings in the United States has surged to a record high. The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released Aug. 9, showed that the number of job vacancies jumped by 590,000 to 10.1 million on the last day of June, led by gains in professional and business services, retail trade, and accommodation and food services.

“This is by far the record amount of job openings the economy has ever had. This historically elevated level makes clear that we have a severe worker shortage that threatens what should be a prolonged economic boom,” Curtis Dubay, senior economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a note.

At the same time, the JOLTS report showed that employers hired 6.7 million workers in June, with some economists saying the mismatch between vacancies and hiring is problematic.

“The biggest problem is getting workers to fill the historically large amount of open jobs,” Dubay wrote. “The enormous number of job openings is holding the economy back from reaching its potential.”

Future Outlook

The Conference Board’s expectations index, which is based on a short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions, fell from 103.8 in July to 91.4 in August. As was the case with the present conditions index, the six months hence gauge saw the biggest decline in the area of business conditions, while both the labor market outlook and that of consumers’ financial prospects ticked down by smaller amounts.

In August, 22.9 percent of consumers expected business conditions would improve in six months, down from 30.9 percent in July. Short-term labor market optimism in August fell to 23 percent, down from 25.5 percent in July. Nearly 18 percent of consumers said in August they expect their incomes to increase over the short term, down from 20 percent in July.

“While the resurgence of COVID-19 and inflation concerns have dampened confidence, it is too soon to conclude this decline will result in consumers significantly curtailing their spending in the months ahead,” Franco said in a statement.

Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, accounting for around two-thirds of economic output.

Recent Commerce Department data showed consumer spending in July grew by a tepid 0.3 percent, a far slower pace than the 1.1 percent pace of growth in the prior month and a sign that the economic recovery may be losing steam in the third quarter.

Still, the foundation for the economic recovery appears relatively solid, with the Commerce Department report showing wages rising and a boost in savings, giving American consumers more spending potential to unlock going forward, even as the rise in infections clouds the outlook.

A separate sentiment gauge published last week echoed the Conference Board’s findings, also citing the Delta variant and inflation as factors. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 70.3 in August, the lowest level since 2011.

“Consumers’ extreme reactions were due to the surging Delta variant, higher inflation, slower wage growth, and smaller declines in unemployment,” Richard Curtin, the survey director, said in a statement. “The extraordinary falloff in sentiment also reflects an emotional response, from dashed hopes that the pandemic would soon end and lives could return to normal.”

While the spread of the Delta variant has led economists to trim their forecasts for growth in the current quarter, analysts still believe if COVID-19 cases fall in the final months of 2021, the country will experience its strongest growth this year in decades.

Consumer Confidence Falls to 6-Month Low on COVID-19 and Inflation Worries (theepochtimes.com)

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday acknowledged that Americans were stranded in Afghanistan despite earlier comments to the contrary made by White House officials. He said it’s not clear how many remain.

“Right now I think the tools we have available to us and that we’re going to use as a U.S. government is going to be more in the diplomatic, economic lanes, and we don’t really see a military role right now,” Kirby told MSNBC on Tuesday morning when asked if the U.S. military would play a role in rescuing those individuals.

When asked about whether the State Department could help evacuate Americans from the country amid Taliban terrorist rule, Kirby said that it will be similar to how the United States extracts its citizens from other countries.

“It’s not completely unlike the way we do it elsewhere around the world. We have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time and we do everything we can to try to facilitate safe passage,” Kirby said, which appeared to contradict comments made by White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Aug. 23 when she said it is wrong to refer to Americans stuck in Afghanistan as being stranded there.

During an exchange with a reporter last week, Psaki said, “I think it’s irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home.” Meanwhile, President Joe Biden, during an ABC News earlier this month, vowed that the United States would evacuate every American who wanted to leave the country.

Also in the interview, Kirby said that the United States has “leverage” over the Taliban to “hold them to account,” adding “it’s going to be a whole-of-government effort, but I don’t see a military role at this time.”

Some Americans who remain in Afghanistan said they attempted to evacuate but weren’t successful.

“The last flight is gone and we’re left behind,” a U.S. citizen using a moniker said on Monday during a CNN interview.

Abound 6,000 U.S. citizens were flown out between Aug. 14 and Aug. 31, but “under 200, and likely close to 100,” are still in the country, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

“We’re trying to determine exactly how many. We’re going through manifests and calling and texting through our lists, and we will have more details to share as soon as possible,” he said. “Part of the challenge with fixing a precise number is that there are longtime residents of Afghanistan who have American passports and who are trying to determine whether or not they wanted to leave.”

The remarks come as the final U.S. military flight out of Kabul was carried out on Monday, effectively leaving most of the country under Taliban control.

Pentagon Acknowledges Americans ‘Stranded’ in Afghanistan After Pullout (theepochtimes.com)

On August 18th 2021, The National Pulse exclusively reported that President Biden’s State Department had killed off plans for a “Crisis and Contingency Response” bureau which may have had “profound consequences,” according to a stunning new report by Vanity Fair published Monday.

“In July, at Antony Blinken’s State Department, bureaucratic decisions affecting the Afghan withdrawal, one insider said, were ‘slightly more organized than a Choose Your Own Adventure novel’,” the article begins, before detailing how newly minted Crisis and Contingency Response (CCR) bureau director Dr. William Walters had resigned on July 9th of this year.

Crisis and Contingency Response.

As the Taliban took Kabul, The National Pulse reported that a bureau green-lit by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Trump administration had been canceled by Biden’s pick for the role, Anthony Blinken.

Following our reporting, a number of left-wing outfits such as Politifact and Media Matters sought to discredit our reporting.

Now, a new report from Vanity Fair sheds more light on the “turf wars” inside the State Department that led to the rushed and botched evacuation from Afghanistan at departmental and political levels.

The Vanity Fair report also notes that while Biden’s State Department is claiming the CCR never existed, it is also making moves to inform Congress of the bureau’s abolition, as required by U.S. law:

A week later, on August 19, State’s Ned Price would tell reporters, in a sort of semantic jujitsu, that CCR was never actually created, which begs the question: Why have Price’s colleagues at State been preparing to notify Congress of a decision to “abolish” something that never existed?

The academic debate over CCR’s existence, however, obscures a far more elemental issue, which, at this date, remains unresolved: Why did Antony Blinken and his lieutenants rejigger and possibly degrade State’s in-house crisis planning and response capabilities on the eve of ending the longest war in American history?

Profound Consequences.

While publicly refuting the claims that the CCR had been canceled, and simultaneously claiming no competencies were lost in the move, Antony Blinken lauded Dr. Walters’s work in running CCR’s predecessor and his team known as “Op-Med”. In May, while setting up to destroy the Trump-era plans for a formal response unit inside the State Department, Blinken told Vanity Fair the unit was a “lifeline for the Department of State and the American people. Though perhaps lesser known outside of the Department, it’s vital to our operations. That’s because OpMed provides the platform and personnel to save American lives around the world, especially in times of crisis.”

Shortly after, “Blinken approved a recommendation against upgrading OpMed into a bureau. A unit distinguished by its ability to blow through bureaucratic wickets would instead be forced to play ‘Mother May I,’ answering to a series of administrators: a director, an acting undersecretary, and on up to the deputy secretary for management and resources (DMR). To outsiders, this might seem like a low-stakes game of Jenga in reverse. But the move, which blindsided many, appeared to have profound consequences.”MUST READ:  Joe Biden Must Resign.

It was at this point Walters chose to step down.

“I am resigning,” he told Blinken, face-to-face, explaining that the destruction of CCR bureau would “marginalize” his team and hinder State’s ability to respond to threats to U.S. citizens abroad.

“Sir, you deserve to have leaders who can get behind the decisions you make. I can’t do that. So I’m leaving,” he said.

Meta-Ignorance.

One source told Vanity Fair‘s Adam Ciralsky that the State Department was plagued by “pathologic optimism.” Other State Department sources said the problem was hubris.

Eliminating CCR and degrading OpMed, without clearly defined alternatives, was evidence, they said, of meta-ignorance (known in psychology circles as the Dunning-Kruger effect); America’s diplomats, in the view of these insiders, were ignorant of their own ignorance.

So while the Taliban captured city upon city, and Team Biden began plans for the evacuation of U.S. troops, civilians, diplomats, and those eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), his State Department was hindering a potential response.

Never-Trumpism Kills.

“Though it was founded during Obama’s second term, OpMed found its footing during the pandemic, much of which coincided with Trump’s frenzied final year in office,” Vanity Fair asserts.

In fact, President Trump explicitly stated in a comment to The National Pulse:

“My Administration prioritized keeping Americans safe, Biden leaves them behind. Canceling this successful Trump Administration program before the withdrawal that would have helped tens of thousands Americans reach home is beyond disgraceful. Our withdrawal was conditions-based and perfect, it would have been flawlessly executed and nobody would have even known we left. The Biden execution and withdrawal is perhaps the greatest embarrassment to our Country in History, both as a military and humanitarian operation.”

By September 2020, Secretary Pompeo had advanced the plans for a dedicated bureau to “synchronize Department capabilities including aviation, logistics, and medical support to disasters abroad, both natural and man-made, including the outbreak of infectious disease.”

Never-Trumpism inside the State Department, coupled with Team Biden’s skepticism of anything Trump-related appear to have been the concoction that brought down the CCR:

The move to make OpMed a bureau continued right up until Trump left office. An Executive Resources Board met and approved establishing the position of CCR coordinator as well as Doc Walters’s promotion to the civil service’s senior executive ranks. An action memo, which Pompeo approved on January 15, describes Walters’s new role as follows, “The CCR coordinator is an assistant secretary-equivalent position responsible for the development, resourcing, deployment, maintenance, and oversight of the Department’s medical, aviation, and logistics support capabilities to address contingency planning and crisis preparedness and response in accordance with applicable laws and Presidential policy in those instances where traditional mechanisms are not available or cannot address the need.

Another source close to Pompeo put it this way, “We needed to have a world-class organization that was ‘fit for purpose.’ What we had been doing previously was playing pickup games. What the secretary recognized is [that] if we’re going to be agile and have the ability to proactively respond…we’ve got to have a unit that could do operational planning and contingency scenarios and have the right capabilities and skill set, all in one, so that we can go to them when the decision is made and they can execute the hell out of it and we we can do it well.” Pompeo, said the source, wanted to eliminate silos and create an outfit with “a clear chain of command on who’s got the operational execution.”

In discussions shortly after the Biden inauguration, Trump-era official Brian Bulatao would even warn his Biden-era counterpart Brian McKeon: “CCR needs to endure… There are those in the building that are going to tell you that it’s not necessary, that it’s redundant because they’re envious of [OpMed’s] capabilities and they want to protect their turf. But they don’t know how to do it [themselves].”MUST READ:  CORTES: Mass Migration Was Never Part of America’s $2 Trillion Afghan Debacle.

The warning was not heeded, and neither Blinken nor McKeon have yet answered for, let alone resigned because of this decision.

‘Choose Your Own Adventure’.

A call hosted on July 14th 2021 saw Larry Padget, director of the Bureau of Medical Services, break the news that CCR would not be proceeding as planned by the Trump administration.

Tiffany Reeser, a senior policy official, explained: “I think there was an impression, given [Blinken’s] decision, with [McKeon’s] recommendation… that there was going to be a 25-point plan dropped on all of us for how this decision was going to be implemented. That’s not the case. This is, I would say, slightly more organized than a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.”

Manmeet Thind, an OpMed-adjacent attorney, warned: “Now, suddenly, you have more layers of bureaucracy, and as we all know, that’s going to slow response. And at the end of the day, that’s going to affect lives.”

It did.

The whole debacle led Texas Congressman Michael McCaul to tell Vanity Fair: “Call it OpMed, or CCR, or whatever you want… the point is the Department had these people, and their experience was a huge asset. We chose not to draw upon them until it was almost too late—after the Taliban had overrun the country, and tens of thousands of people had to be evacuated in a matter of days. We should have started sooner, and we should have used our A-team. The tragedy we’ve seen unfold—people stranded, American lives lost—reflects…disorganization, mismanagement, and, worst of all, utter neglect.”

‘Meta-Ignorance’ with ‘Profound Consequences’ – U.S. Govt’s Crisis Response Director Resigned After Biden’s State Dept Canceled ‘Lifeline’ Group Over Trump Links. (thenationalpulse.com)

Tanner Cross refused to call students by pronouns divergent from their biological sex

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled in favor of an elementary school teacher who was suspended for criticizing the district’s proposed transgender policies.

The commonwealth’s highest court on Monday rejected Loudoun County Public Schools’ appeal to suspend Tanner Cross, a physical education teacher who was placed on administrative leave in May for criticizing the district’s proposed policies for transgender students. Cross won a temporary injunction in the state’s 12th circuit court in June and subsequently was allowed to return to the classroom.

The district did not make an adequate case for reversing the lower court’s June decision, reaffirming Cross’s win, the Virginia Supreme Court said Monday.

In its appeal, Loudoun County Public Schools claimed that Cross’s religious and speech protections are secondary to students’ rights to comfort.

“While LCPS respects the rights of public-school employees to free speech and free exercise of religion, those rights do not outweigh the rights of students to be educated in a supportive and nurturing environment,” the district claimed.

Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D.) last year approved a measure requiring public schools to create and implement protections for transgender students by the 2021-2022 school year. Pursuant to that law, Loudoun school officials proposed updated guidelines that would allow transgender students to access traditionally sex-discriminated spaces like restrooms and sports teams.

The updated policies, which the school board approved on Aug. 11, also require teachers to call students by selected names and pronouns that align with their “gender identity.” Cross spoke out against that provision in a May 25 school board meeting, days before he was suspended.

“I love all of my students, but I would never lie to them regardless of the consequences,” Cross said. “I’m a teacher, but I serve God first and I will not affirm a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it’s against my religion, it’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child, and it’s sinning against our God.”

District officials claimed Cross’s statement had a “disruptive impact” on the school community.

Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal nonprofit that defended Cross, says teachers should not be forced to comply with such policies.

“Teachers shouldn’t be forced to promote ideologies that are harmful to their students and that their beliefs are false, nor should they be silenced for commentating at a public meeting,” senior counsel Tyson Langhofer said in a statement on Monday.

Langhofer said Alliance Defending Freedom amended its lawsuit after the district updated its policies for transgender students.

Students in Loudoun County Public Schools, one of the wealthiest districts in the country, returned to the classroom on Aug. 26.

Virginia Supreme Court Backs Teacher Ousted for Rejecting Trans Policies (freebeacon.com)

Anthony Eid now tasked with redrawing Michigan’s political districts

A Bernie Sanders-backing 29-year-old won a coveted position to redraw Michigan’s political districts as part of a self-described “independent” bloc of redistricting commissioners that could redefine the state’s electoral landscape for the next decade.

Medical student Anthony Eid applied to serve on the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission as an independent in May 2020, stating that he does not “affiliate with either the Republican or Democratic Party.” A Washington Free Beacon review of his social media presence, however, shows that Eid has long supported members of the Democratic Party’s liberal wing.

Eid now holds a crucial vote on the 13-member commission, which consists of four Democrats, four Republicans, and five independents. In order to enact a proposed map, at least seven members—including two Democrats, two Republicans, and two independents—must vote for it. The boundaries will stay in place until the next census in 2030.

Eid acknowledged in May that commission applicants were asked to “self-identify” their partisan affiliation. He also said he did “not think anyone who was selected misrepresented themselves.” While Eid’s application states he supports “candidates in each party … for different reasons,” he has not publicly backed a Republican candidate for office. He did, however, write he was “proud to live in a state that voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary” in 2016. 

Months later, the “independent” endorsed then-Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison (D.)—who Sanders also backed—for Democratic National Committee chair. Eid went on to repeatedly promote Sanders-supported candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed, who ran to the left of Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer in a failed 2018 primary campaign.

Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission spokesman Edward Woods III told the Free Beacon the commission does not vet its commissioners’ stated political affiliations.

“The Constitution only requires the applicant to identify their affiliation,” Woods said. “In Michigan, it is either the Democrats, Republicans, or neither the Democrats nor Republicans. The Commission does not vet or choose candidates.”

The state legislature has historically handled redistricting in Michigan. But in 2018, voters passed a ballot initiative granting that power to a newly created redistricting commission. The change came as Republicans held control of both chambers of the state legislature. 

The Michigan group behind the initiative, Voters Not Politicians, received $250,000 from the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which is chaired by former Obama administration attorney general Eric Holder. The group is directly affiliated with the Democratic Party, and former president Barack Obama is also involved in its efforts.

Eid was one of more than 9,300 Michigan voters who applied to serve on the committee. An outside firm hired by the state then randomly selected 200 semifinalists, consisting of 60 Democrats, 60 Republicans, and 80 independents. After leaders in the state legislature removed 20 applicants, the state randomly selected the commission’s final 13 members. 

As a commissioner, Eid will help determine which part of the state will lose a representative, as Michigan is set to lose a House seat prior to the 2022 midterms due to slow population growth.

Eid’s support of Ellison came just months after the Minnesota attorney general faced criticism over his ties to Nation of Islam leader and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. Ellison defended Farrakhan and embraced black separatism in a string of columns he wrote in the late 1980s and 1990s. While he renounced the Nation of Islam in 2006 and claimed he had “no additional involvement” with Farrakhan, Ellison attended a private event with Farrakhan and then-Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in 2013.

In addition to his support for Sanders, Ellison, and El-Sayed, Eid retweeted messages from Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow that touted the Michigan Democrats’ opposition to the confirmation of Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Voters Not Politicians and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee did not return requests for comment.

‘Independent’ Michigan Redistricting Commissioner Actually a Bernie Bro (freebeacon.com)

‘It is now time for a reckoning,’ Rep. Chip Roy says

Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas) called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) to reconvene Congress for hearings on President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Madam Speaker, you have a duty to call Congress back to Washington and begin hearings immediately,” Roy wrote. “America does not run away. We do not leave our brothers and sisters behind. We do not aid and abet the enemy.”

Pelosi has stalled efforts to apply congressional accountability to the Biden administration for its missteps in the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Democrats blocked an oversight measure authored by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) on Tuesday, leaving questions unanswered for Republicans demanding transparency regarding the Afghan withdrawal. The House of Representatives has been out of session since July 30.

Pelosi did not return a request for comment.

The Texas Republican also called for the resignation of both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as senior national security staff for “effectively abandon[ing]” military service members who risked their lives in Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal.

Roy joins a growing chorus of Republicans and some Democrats who have expressed outrage over the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis. As many as 200 U.S. citizens remain stranded in the country. The terrorist group has held another American—Navy veteran Mark Frerichs—hostage for more than a year.

“We do know that the Taliban is now stronger than ever before; they now have access to the sensitive biometric database of our Afghan allies and now control billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military equipment,” Roy wrote. “We know that 13 U.S. service members were killed in the process. … With an arbitrary and unnecessary deadline imposed by the commander-in-chief having come and gone, it is now time for a reckoning.”

“The president made the morally indefensible decision to leave Americans behind,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said. “Dishonor was the president’s choice.”

House Republican Demands Pelosi Reconvene Congress for Hearings on Biden’s Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal (freebeacon.com)

Emergency evacuations operations coordinator resigned over decision

The State Department’s decision to abolish a crisis response bureau, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, “mucked up America’s exit from Afghanistan” and prompted the resignation of the department’s top physician, according to a new report in Vanity Fair.

The Free Beacon reported earlier this month that the State Department moved in June to dissolve the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR), a Trump-era project that was meant to coordinate the evacuation of Americans from hotspots overseas. The decision was made just months before the Biden administration pulled U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and sparked a chaotic rescue effort that sources inside and outside of the State Department said could have been bolstered by the CCR.

The Biden administration’s decision to scuttle the CCR bureau prompted the resignation of William Walters, the State Department’s top physician and coordinator of emergency evacuation operations, according to Vanity Fair.

“I am resigning,” Walters reportedly told Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, saying that Blinken’s “decision not to move forward with the establishment of the CCR bureau, which Walters had been slated to lead, was a mistake.”

“Given simmering tensions in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Walters said, he believed that throwing out plans for the new unit … would impact State’s ability to respond to threats to U.S. diplomats and citizens abroad,” Vanity Fair wrote.

These concerns came to fruition months later, as the State Department scrambled to evacuate Americans stranded in Taliban-controlled Kabul, where many Americans remain trapped after the Biden administration’s decision to not keep troops in the country past Aug. 31.

Blinken originally expressed support for the CCR bureau before delegating responsibility for it to his deputy, Brian McKeon, according to Vanity Fair.

The Free Beacon obtained a memo signed by McKeon authorizing the CCR bureau’s termination.

While the “fact checking” website PolitiFact attempted to downplay and undercut the Free Beacon’s reporting, the Vanity Fair article provides confirmation about the CCR bureau’s fate.

State Department Decision to Abolish Crisis Response Bureau ‘Mucked Up’ Afghanistan Exit, Report Says (freebeacon.com)

Jamaal Bowman has formed close ties to controversial Turkish group

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) attended a fundraiser hosted last month by a Turkish-American advocacy group with close ties to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose members were on hand in 2017 when the Turkish leader’s bodyguards beat peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C.

Two officials with the Turkish American National Steering Committee, a nonprofit cofounded by a relative of Erdogan’s, hosted the “meet and greet” fundraiser for Bowman at a restaurant in New Jersey on Aug. 7. Bowman, an acolyte of the “Squad,” appeared at two of the committee’s events in May, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The committee has been accused of working as an influence group for the Erdogan regime. Founded in 2016, the Steering Committee has hosted Erdogan at multiple events in the United States and frequently holds protests supporting Erdogan-backed causes. It lobbied aggressively against the U.S. government’s recognition of the Ottoman Empire’s genocide of Armenians. Officials with the Steering Committee, including Erdogan relative Halil Mutlu, accompanied Erdogan’s delegation in May 2017 when his bodyguards attacked peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington.

“[The Steering Committee] operates as an Erdogan front, one of many astroturf groups advancing this dictator’s anti-American agenda in Washington, D.C.,” Aram Suren Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told the Free Beacon in June.

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who has been targeted by the Erdogan regime, said Bowman was “siding with the most dictatorial elements in Turkey” by appearing at Steering Committee events.

Rubin said Bowman was “symbolically spitting on Turkish journalists and progressives imprisoned by the Erdogan regime, and giving solace to a group on the wrong side of the attack on Americans in the heart of Washington, D.C.”

Bowman’s blind eye to Erdogan’s crackdown in Turkey is a stark contrast to his support for left-wing causes at home. Bowman supports the movement to defund police departments and has said he wants to “disarm the police.”

Bowman posed for photographs with Mutlu at the recent fundraiser and at a previous event held by the committee. Mutlu and other officials with the committee contributed more than $6,750 to Bowman’s congressional campaign last year. The group supported Bowman’s primary challenge against former representative Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), who was a staunch critic of the Erdogan regime.

Relations between the United States and Turkey have deteriorated in recent years as Erdogan has purged Turkish media companies, schools, and the military of his critics. Turkey has become one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists.

The Steering Committee’s close ties to the Turkish government were on display days before the group hosted the Bowman fundraiser. Mutlu, who is Erdogan’s cousin, met in Ankara on July 26 with Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his deputy.

According to a post on the Steering Committee’s Facebook page, Mutlu told the Turkish officials that the group would “reach out to the U.S. political leaders, media, and public” regarding U.S.-Turkey relations. The Steering Committee also boasted that it has representatives throughout the United States “who communicate and educate the local leaders on issues related to Turkey and the Turkish community.”

Bowman’s office and the Turkish American National Steering Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Squad Member Was Guest of Honor at Fundraiser Hosted By Pro-Erdogan Group (freebeacon.com)

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.31.21

A recent interview with Joe Biden went viral on social media Tuesday showing the Commander-in-Chief vowing to keep troops in Afghanistan until all Americans can be evacuated from the country.

Despite the pledge, hundreds of Americans remain in the country after the President removed all US forces.

“Are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to get out, gets out?” asked ABC News George Stephanopoulos two weeks ago.

“Yes, yes!” insisted Biden. “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out!”

Flashback … from two weeks ago:

Biden pledges to stay in Afghanistan until every American is out; “we’re going to stay to get them all out.” pic.twitter.com/94IKhNGMHR

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 31, 2021

The US Embassy in Afghanistan posted a dire message on its official webpage Tuesday, saying the office has “suspended operations” and Americans can no longer rely on “United States government assistance.”

“The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations on August 31, 2021.  While the U.S. government has withdrawn its personnel from Kabul, we will continue to assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar,” states the memo.

“The Embassy will continue to provide information via the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), the Embassy web page, Travel.State.Gov, and Facebook and Twitter.  Consular services remain available outside Afghanistan.  To locate the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate click here,” adds the warning.

“Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance,” warns the message.

Latest security alert on US Embassy In Afghanistan website: “Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.” pic.twitter.com/d2DujvpSZ2

— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) August 31, 2021

Read the full memo below:

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations on August 31, 2021.  While the U.S. government has withdrawn its personnel from Kabul, we will continue to assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar.

The Embassy will continue to provide information via the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), the Embassy web page, Travel.State.Gov, and Facebook and Twitter.  Consular services remain available outside Afghanistan.  To locate the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate click here.

The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.  U.S. citizens still in country should:

• Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)

to receive security updates and ensure you can be located in an emergency.

• Review your personal security plans.
• Be aware of your surroundings and local security developments at all times.
• Keep a low profile.
• Notify a trusted person of your travel and movement plans.
• Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.
• Monitor local media.
• Please review, “What the Department of State Can and Can’t Do in a Crisis.”

Resources for U.S. citizens in Afghanistan:

• State Department – Consular Affairs Afghanistan Call Center
  833-741-2777 or 606-260-4379
• AfghanistanACS@state.gov
• Embassy Citizens’ Services Page
• Afghanistan Country Information
• Afghanistan Travel Advisory
• Visit the Department of Homeland Security’s website on the latest travel restrictions to the United States.
• Refer to our website for the latest Alerts and Messages for U.S. citizens.
• Consult the CDC website for the most up-to-date information related to COVID-19.
• Visit our Embassy webpage on COVID-19 for information on conditions in Afghanistan.
• Visit the COVID-19 crisis page on travel.state.gov for the latest information.
• Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to ensure you receive Alerts and other information

FLASHBACK 2 WEEKS: Biden Says ‘We’re Going to Stay’ Until All Citizens Are Out of Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

Almost 100 generals and admirals wrote a letter calling for the resignations of Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Mark Milley after the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“The hasty retreat has left initial estimates at ~15,000 Americans stranded in dangerous areas controlled by a brutal enemy along with ~25,000 Afghan citizens who supported American forces,” the letter said. “What should have happened upon learning of the Commander in Chief’s (President Biden’s) plan to quickly withdraw our forces and close the important power projection base Bagram, without adequate plans and forces in place to conduct the entire operation in an orderly fashion?”

“As principal military advisors to the CINC/President, the SECDEF and CJCS should have recommended against this dangerous withdrawal in the strongest possible terms,” the letter continued. “If they did not do everything within their authority to stop the hasty withdrawal, they should resign. Conversely, if they did do everything within their ability to persuade the CINC/President to not hastily exit the country without ensuring the safety of our citizens and Afghans loyal to America, then they should have resigned in protest as a matter of conscience and public statement.”

“The consequences of this disaster are enormous and will reverberate for decades beginning with the safety of Americans and Afghans who are unable to move safely to evacuation points; therefore, being de facto hostages of the Taliban at this time,” the letter added. “The death and torture of Afghans has already begun and will result in a human tragedy of major proportions. The loss of billions of dollars in advanced military equipment and supplies falling into the hands of our enemies is catastrophic. The damage to the reputation of the United States is indescribable. We are now seen, and will be seen for many years, as an unreliable partner in any multinational agreement or operation. Trust in the United States is irreparably damaged.”

The letter warned that America’s primary adversaries would be strengthened by the withdrawal. “China benefits the most followed by Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and others,” the letter said. “Terrorists around the world are emboldened and able to pass freely into our country through our open border with Mexico.”

Generals And Admirals Call For Resignations Of Milley And Austin | The Jeffrey Lord

LOS ANGELES— Sunday evening I was standing in an excited crowd at a Long Beach fundraiser for Larry Elder’s California gubernatorial campaign when I received a text with the headline “Gov. Newsom Pivots Recall Speeches To Attack Larry Elder’s Political Opinions.”

The article was from the California Globe, a publication I had never heard of, and was dated Aug. 17, ages ago in the whirlwind pace of today’s politics, but it caught my eye because it quoted extensively from Gavin Newsom’s stump speech, which ran in part:

“Though we defeated Trump, we didn’t defeat Trumpism. Trumpism is still alive and well, even here in the state of California. If you don’t believe me, just consider the likely person to enter an oath of office, to enter in the governor’s office in just a matter of weeks if we don’t reject this recall.”

“Don’t think for a second that this recall is not about all of you. It’s about each and every one of us and the values we hold dear.”

I immediately thought of an editor at the Los Angeles Times who, during a Zoom interview with Elder, accused the talk show host of much the same thing, being out of synch with the values of the state.

But just what are those California values everyone is supposed to hold so dear Newsom was speaking about? And are they in the process of changing or going back to something from years ago that was lost?

In a sense, the current governor and the editor of the state’s most prominent paper are correct, this recall election is about values.

But are they the values of a rich class that has, for years and years, sent their kids to private schools while they—at the insistence of all-powerful teachers’ unions—deny poor minority children “school choice” and force them into schools like the one Larry Elder attended years back in South Central, Crenshaw High, from which, just recently, but two percent of students passed a basic math proficiency test?

It would be interesting to know what Crenshaw was like when Elder attended compared to today.

And now these same supposed progressives want to teach Crenshaw students Critical Race Theory and the concurrent anti-racism, an approach to education likely to bring that two percent to zero.

There’s nothing like reverse racism to enlighten the young mind and develop responsible adults, according to Democrat (and Newsom) “values.” Don’t worry about fathers in the home. That’s so 1950s.

From their vocal, enthusiastic responses to Elder’s speech, it was clear CRT and the Afghanistan debacle were the two issues most on the minds of the fundraiser crowd Sunday night.

The escalating violent crime in the streets in every major California city, not to mention the rest of the country, came in a not-so-distant third with the myriad COVID duplicities, masks (no one there wore one) and the lockdowns just behind.

Only twice before in my life have I seen a candidate received with so much excitement and enthusiasm: Trump and Bobby Kennedy, the latter ironic since this Elder event occurred almost simultaneous to the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who shot Bobby and one of the first active jihadists on our soil.

Before the speech, I had wandered through the crowd, asking people, essentially at random, even though I knew this was a skewed sample, if they thought Elder could actually win.

Skewed or not, the answers were astonishingly uniform and direct: “Yes, if they don’t cheat.”

I discovered too that I wasn’t the only California ex-pat there, visiting from another state. There were others I met from Tennessee, as well as Texas, Florida, and South Carolina, flown in for the occasion.

When, in his speech, Elder mentioned that this was the first time in the history of California that more people were leaving the state than coming in, a woman screamed out “You win and we’ll come back!”

The crowd roared.

What everyone there seemed to know and clearly Elder himself knew from the content of his speech, his eagerness for the “bully pulpit” to talk about things that are almost never talked about honestly (i.e., race in America), is that this California gubernatorial recall election had morphed into a contest of truly epochal importance, almost the equivalent of a presidential election, even a crucial one, with the soul of the nation literally hanging in the balance.

If Elder wins, the people there clearly thought, the door is open to a renewed American freedom. If he loses, the uni-party continues on its merry way, turning the United States, like it or not, into a Chinese fiefdom.

It’s that serious, as my old friend Lionel Chetwynd and partner in PJTV’s “Poliwood,” told me at his house the next day. Chetwynd, whose encouragement Elder acknowledges in his stump speech was instrumental in convincing him to run, had been made the candidate’s campaign chairman, and I was interested in his view of how the campaign was progressing.

Lionel, after bemoaning the dominance of social media in the life of our country, the pervasive, often depressing, alienation that it has created among our citizens, especially among the young, turned to what it was about Elder’s campaign that inspired him on a human level.

“People are now finding each other through Larry’s candidacy and rediscovering the power the Founders put in their hands. We don’t have to be victims of the bureaucratic state. If we succeed, the impact will be global.”

“Larry is fighting our Dunkirk. If he can win, we can live to fight another day.”

I’ll leave it at that—except to remind readers who don’t know that Larry Elder is a contributor to Epoch TV.

Elder Versus Newsom: A Battle for the Soul of America (theepochtimes.com)

The deletion of an Instagram account belonging to a mother whose Marine son was killed in Afghanistan last week was a mistake, parent company Facebook said Tuesday.

Shana Chappell raised an alarm on Facebook on Monday after she said her account was removed.

Chappell said she believed the deletion was “because [I] gained so many followers over my [son’s] death due to Biden’s negligence, ignorance and him being a traitor!”

She was referring to President Joe Biden.

The post in question described “my heart break [sic] over my son,” according to Chappell.

Facebook acknowledged the account was deleted but said it has now been restored.

“We express our deepest condolences to Ms. Chappell and her family. Her tribute to her heroic son does not violate any of our policies,” a Facebook spokesperson told news outlets.

“While the post was not removed, her account was incorrectly deleted and we have since restored it,” the spokesperson added.

Chappell did not respond to a request for comment and had not posted about the development as of Tuesday afternoon.

Chappell is the mother of Kareem Nikoui, who was one of 13 U.S. service members who were killed in the suicide bombing attack on the Kabul airport on Aug. 26.

Steve Nikoui, the father of Kareem Nikoui, 20, also blamed Biden for the death.

“They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” Steve Nikoui told The Daily Beast. “I blame my own military leaders … Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”

Read the remarks during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that there were “no words that I can say, that I think anyone can say, to assuage the grief that a parent is feeling at the loss of their child—nothing.”

“And if I were in his shoes, probably I would feel exactly the same way,” he added.

Facebook: Deletion of Marine Mother’s Account a Mistake (theepochtimes.com)

In a short pro forma session on Tuesday, House Democrats blocked a Republican-sponsored bill that would put new obligations on the White House and military leaders as the Afghanistan crisis continues to unfold.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), requires the White House and military to send daily reports to Congress on the number of Americans trapped in Afghanistan. It also commits U.S. troops to Afghanistan until every American who wants to leave has been able to escape the country. It would also urge the president not to recognize the Taliban terrorist organization as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Last Thursday, 13 U.S. troops died in an attack claimed by the terrorist organization ISIS-K, the highest American death toll in over a decade.

On Tuesday, the House met in the first session since these deaths in Afghanistan; legislative business is usually not conducted at pro forma sessions. Still, in the wake of the deaths in Kabul, some members of the House GOP caucus made a desperate bid to use the session to consider Gallagher’s bill.

Democrats silently shot down the motion by refusing to recognize Republicans to speak about the legislation. Over loud objections, House Democrats quickly adjourned the meeting.

This was the bill’s second failure in the House.

On Aug. 24, the House met in an emergency session to vote on two pieces of expansive Democratic legislation: Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) $3.5 trillion budget resolution and Rep. Terri Sewell’s (D-Ala.) “John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”

Early in that session, Gallagher put forward a motion to suspend considerations on these pieces of legislation and to instead consider his bill. Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) quickly shot the proposal down, explaining that acceding to this request would “hand the floor over to the Republican conference,” an unacceptable move given the “extremely important” legislation on the House docket for the day.

Democrats later pushed forward party-line votes on both pieces of legislation, a move that drew the ire of Republicans. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made a fiery speech excoriating Democrats for shooting down Gallagher’s bill at the first session of Congress since the fall of Kabul to Taliban terrorists.

In a brief press conference after the pro forma session Tuesday, Gallagher and other Republicans discussed this second failure of the bill.

Gallagher first referenced the House’s emergency meeting on Aug. 24, saying “Just last week we had an opportunity to come together as Democrats and Republicans, and pass a bill that would have prevented the administration from withdrawing troops on the arbitrary August 31 surrender date until we had gotten all of our Americans out.”

He continued: “Behind closed doors, this is exactly what many Democrats said they wanted. They pushed back on the administration, they begged and pleaded the president to abandon the Taliban’s surrender day.”

In fact, many Democrats—especially those in vulnerable seats—have distanced themselves from the president in recent days. Several Democrats across various congressional committees promised to investigate the administration’s failures in Afghanistan and pushed to extend the withdrawal deadline. But despite this positioning, Democrats rejected Gallagher’s bill to push the withdrawal date forward indefinitely until all Americans were out safely.

With this rejection, the future of Gallagher’s bill is uncertain, leading Republicans to strategize a path forward for the bill.

McCarthy said at the press conference that in light of Democratic opposition to the bill, the House GOP would consider using a discharge petition. A discharge petition is a U.S. parliamentary procedure that can expedite the consideration of a bill by immediately moving it out of committee and onto the floor for a vote.

There are some hurdles that GOP leadership would have to overcome before moving the bill on, however. For one, a discharge petition must get 218 signatures to advance; because the GOP only controls 212 seats, advancing the petition would require that at least 6 Democrats sign on with Republicans.

But even if the bill got through the House with this technique, it would still face stiff opposition from Democrats in the Senate, who may kill the bill with a filibuster.

House Democrats Block GOP Afghanistan Withdrawal Transparency Bill (theepochtimes.com)

Since the introduction of the so-called “For the People” election bill (S.2093) in the Senate, Republicans have criticized the bill for facilitating voting by illegal immigrants; Democrats have responded by saying they want to make it easier for “eligible voters” to register and attend the polls.

Despite these assurances, some still have concerns that several pieces of legislation introduced by Democrats would help ineligible voters bypass current security measures, get registered, and vote.

Before the Senate went on their month-long August recess, Democrats attempted to move S.2093 out of committee.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blocked this effort.

Speaking about the legislation on the Senate floor, Cruz said, “It would strike down virtually every reasonable voter integrity law in the country, including voter ID laws … [and] prohibitions on ballot harvesting … [both of which are] supported by the overwhelming majority of this country.” He then criticized the provisions of the bill that “would mandate felons be allowed to vote, and would automatically register millions of illegal aliens to vote.”

In fact, the bill does have provisions that would explicitly bar states from withholding the vote to convicted felons. But voting for illegal aliens is not explicitly outlined in the text of the bill; rather, opponents argue that sections of the bill would make it easy for illegal immigrants to vote without explicitly giving them the right to do so.

A key concern for these critics is a provision buried deep within the bill that would establish an automatic voter registration system. By authorizing various government agencies to share information, the bill would create a system that registers voters automatically using that shared info. Below this section, S.2093 adds that there are to be no consequences for illegals who are automatically registered. Beyond this, the bill would allow people to register to vote on election day without a state-issued identification card—it would only require people to show a student ID, which many schools offer to illegal aliens, or to sign a form swearing that they are legally allowed to vote.

‘For The People’ Election Bill Shields Illegal Aliens

Preston Huennekens, the Government Relations Manager at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), explained some concerns that the organization has towards S.2093.

FAIR is a nonpartisan organization that describes its mission as “seeking out solutions that help reduce the negative impact of uncontrolled immigration on the nation’s security, economy, workforce, education, healthcare, and environment.”

Huennekens called the bill “a deeply flawed piece of legislation.”

He said: “On immigration alone, it prohibits the prosecution of any illegal alien under Federal or State law if that alien illegally registered to vote or voted in elections. [It] leaves no room for doubt—this bill shields and excuses fraudulent voting by illegal aliens.”

Asked whether Cruz was correct that the bill would facilitate voting illegally, Huennekens said: “Senator Cruz’s warning that this bill would allow illegal aliens to vote is not far off of the mark. While the legislation itself does not specifically grant illegal aliens the right to vote, it prevents any enforcement taken against those who do. In this way, Section 1014 of the bill [by shielding illegal voters from penalties] is a de facto acceptance and endorsement of illegal voting.”

Higher Education Bill Bars Higher Tuition for Dreamers

In regards to Rep. Ruben Gallego’s (D-Ariz.) “Higher Education Dream Act,” Huennekens said the purpose is “to prohibit discrimination in higher education against certain noncitizen students on the basis of immigration status.” The group of “noncitizen students” protected under the legislation is limited to so-called Dreamers, a nickname for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a program for people who entered the United States illegally as children. Dreamers have received temporary immunity from deportation under an Obama-era executive action.

Estimates of how many of these Dreamers have received this protection vary widely, from 600,000 on the low end to upwards of 800,000 on the high end. In any case, Gallego’s bill would be hugely consequential.

The short bill outlines several notably expansive protections for Dreamers.

The bill reads: “An institution of higher education that receives federal funds or financial assistance under any federal program shall not discriminate against or penalize in the admissions process a Dreamer student who is otherwise qualified for admission to the institution, on the basis of that individual’s immigration status, nor shall such an institution differentiate in the admissions process on the basis of residency between a United States citizen applicant and a Dreamer student applying from the same state.”

This would make it illegal for higher education institutions to even consider the legal status of these applicants; schools who violate this clause would be at risk of receiving federal penalties similar to existing penalties for discrimination.

The legislation also overturns a standing U.S. law from 1998 that makes it illegal for non-tax-paying illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition rates, rates that are only possible because of subsidies from state-level taxes. Should the bill pass, schools would be barred from charging a higher rate of tuition to these applicants than they would charge their state or out-of-state citizen peers.

Finally, the bill would make it illegal for state, federal, or school officials to use information obtained from Dreamers’ admission application to “arrest, detain, or initiate removal proceedings against any person identified in that information.”

“FAIR opposes [Gallego’s bill],” Huennekens said. “The federal government should not force colleges and universities—whether private or public—to admit illegal aliens against the will of their admissions boards.”

He warned that the federal takeover of college admissions would compel universities—in some cases—to admit illegal aliens in place of American citizens.

This concern is well-founded. According to a New American Economy report, estimates drawn from a 2018 survey showed more than 450,000 illegal immigrant students were enrolled in postsecondary education, about two percent of all postsecondary students (pdf).

Admission of illegal aliens has been a policy long in place at many institutions. In an article discussing the situation, the College Board said: “Undocumented students may incorrectly assume that they cannot legally attend college in the United States. However, there is no federal or state law that prohibits the admission of undocumented immigrants to U.S. colleges, public or private.”

But it also notes that many institutions do require such a proof of residence. As an example, the organization points to requirements at four-year universities and colleges in Virginia. Other schools that do admit illegal aliens often require these students to pay out-of-state tuition rates.

Under this legislation, both policies would be a federal offense.

Because of these provisions, Huennekens said the bill “is a disturbing normalization of illegal immigration.”

However, both bills are far from becoming law.

The “For the People Act” has only recently managed to move out of committee in the Senate. Even with this victory for Democrats, the bill is unlikely to pass. With Democrats’ razor-thin majority, even a single vote against such partisan legislation would kill the bill. But it is already clear that Democrats are not unified behind the bill. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has publicly spoken out against the bill, saying that it would divide the country rather than unify it. But even if Manchin changed his mind, the bill would almost certainly be killed by a filibuster.

Gallego’s bill has an even bigger challenge. It has yet to be moved out of committee, and would likely face stiff opposition from both Republicans and moderate Democrats in the House. But even if Democrats united and made the bill a top priority, it would likely face the same failure by filibuster in the Senate.

Democrat Bills ‘Normalize Illegal Immigration’: FAIR (theepochtimes.com)

A full-page advertisement that called for the world to hold the Chinese communist regime to account for the COVID-19 pandemic was pulled at the last moment by The New York Times in March 2020. The paper said the ad didn’t meet its standards, but the ad was pulled after it had already passed the paper’s vetting process. The businessman who paid for the ad suspects the paper’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) played a role. He only revealed the details of the incident to The Epoch Times earlier this year.

The ad was scheduled to run on March 22, 2020. It was already approved, paid for, and even printed and distributed in some locations when the paper pulled the plug in the middle of the night, preventing the ad from being published in some of the paper’s main markets, including New York and Florida.

The decision was so abrupt that the sales representative responsible for the ad wasn’t informed, and the client only found out the next morning when he couldn’t find the ad in the paper.

The client, Brett Kingstone, is a real estate agent in Florida. He backed up his story with email threads documenting his correspondence with the newspaper as well as images of the contract he signed, details about the payment and subsequent refund of the $55,000 ad fee, and photos of the ad as it ran in some locales.

New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said the ad ran in “an early edition of Sunday’s paper and was removed from all later editions, which account for the vast majority of copies.”

“The ad in question did not meet our standards and should not have appeared in The New York Times,” she told The Epoch Times via email.

She didn’t respond to a question about whether the paper faced any CCP pressure regarding the ad.

“It was removed after being flagged internally by [New York] Times staff,” she said.

Kingstone, a prolific donor to charitable and conservative causes, had contacted The New York Times via email on March 18, 2020, with an advertorial placement request.

He said he placed an advertorial in the paper’s Sunday edition back in 2018 and the staff “did an excellent job in delivering what was promised both in performance and placement.”

“I am interested in doing the same again,” he said, submitting a draft of the ad.

The text urged the U.S. government to organize and initiate investigations and lawsuits regarding the origins and repercussions of the CCP virus pandemic.

“This virus was the direct result of the incompetence and irresponsibility of the Chinese Government. They showed as much disregard for their own population as they have for ours,” the ad stated.

It called for “massive liability lawsuits” against the CCP as well as investigations into two Chinese labs close to the epicenter of the pandemic, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Scrutiny of the Wuhan Institute of Virology was treated as a taboo subject by social media and the corporate press at the time. Only earlier this year have establishment actors acknowledged that the inquiries were legitimate and that the virus could have escaped from the lab.

On March 19, 2020, the ad placement representative informed Kingstone that it had been accepted.

“My Ad Acceptability team has approved the message as long as we include the footnotes, your email address, a border around the ad, and advertisement slugs,” the representative said.

The two then exchanged several emails regarding technical edits to the ad as well as proof of payment of the ad fee required before publication.

Everything seemed to go smoothly.

Then, on the morning of March 22, 2020, Kingstone was surprised to learn the ad was nowhere to be found in the Florida edition of the paper.

In his inbox, he found an email from the sales representative:

“I wanted to let you know that I was informed late last night that our production team had pulled the ad from the production run, without my knowledge. I’m investigating this now and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can with any updates,” it read.

“I just wanted to assure you that I’m working on this and I will hopefully be able to share additional context on Monday after I speak to the necessary people. I will be in touch on Monday!”

The representative has since left the paper. The Epoch Times is omitting her name for the sake of her privacy.

Kingstone didn’t hide his disappointment.

“I would like to know the reason why they did this,” he said in an email response to the representative, requesting a refund.

He asked whether the paper’s executives concluded that his particular message needed to be silenced.

“I was very pleased with how the NYT treated me on my first advocacy advertisement. They were more than fair. Now my fears about bias are being realized,” he wrote.

The cancellation was all the more a slap in the face given that The New York Times used to regularly publish propaganda advertorials paid for by a company directly controlled by the CCP.

After receiving his refund, Kingstone didn’t leave it at that.

As it happened, his website, which was listed on the ad, came under a cyberattack around the same time the copies of the paper that did include the ad landed on people’s doormats, he said.

This was too much of a coincidence for Kingstone, who has had his share of run-ins with the CCP. It was his company that years earlier won a precedent-setting lawsuit against Chinese counterfeiters. In 2005, he published a book detailing his story, called “The Real War Against America.”

Kingstone started to inquire with his contacts and eventually reached the conclusion that the CCP must have been involved in the ad’s cancellation.

One New York Times executive told him a CCP official called the paper’s leadership, demanding the ad be pulled, he said. The Epoch Times wasn’t able to independently confirm that the phone call took place. Attempts to reach the executive for comment were unsuccessful. The paper’s spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied that such a phone call took place.

In any case, the situation carries “an earmark of how China would operate,” according to Pat Laflin, a former FBI agent who upon retirement led a series of lectures for the bureau to American businesses and research entities on economic espionage by adversarial nations, including China.

It’s “impossible” that the CCP let the ad slide, he told The Epoch Times.

“If there’s anything negative about China, China’s going to scream,” he said in a phone call.

It would just be the question of what form the pressure took, he said.

“Exactly what they said and how subtle it was or how not-so-subtle, that’s all speculation. I don’t know. But did the call come in? Yes.”

The New York Times has over the years repeatedly faced criticism over its relations with the CCP. The controversy reaches back to at least 2001, when the paper’s publisher at the time, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., met with then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin, whose power faction within the communist regime exerts influence even to this day, long after his retirement.

The paper actively discouraged reporting on one of the most gruesome atrocities committed by the CCP—the harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience, mainly practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice—as indicated by former New York Times Beijing correspondent Didi Kirsten Tatlow in her testimony to the independent China Tribunal in the United Kingdom.

Last year, the paper finally cut ties with the CCP-controlled China Daily and quietly deleted hundreds of paid propaganda pieces from its website, The Washington Free Beacon reported. China Daily disclosed to federal authorities one $50,000 payment to The New York Times in 2018. It’s not clear how much total revenue The New York Times drew from CCP advertorials.

NY Times Pulled Ad Calling CCP to Account for Pandemic (theepochtimes.com)

Afghan man who helped the US on the ground: ‘I have no idea how to leave’

Horrifying audio of distant gunshots appears to confirm reports of “house-to-house executions” as the Taliban asserts control of Kabul and Afghanistan after the U.S. military’s departure on Monday evening. 

An Afghan man who worked with Americans on the ground provided Fox News with the chilling audio featuring distant gunshots.

“I think there’s a conflict between the Taliban, I have no idea where I’m located. From everywhere I hear the sounds of shooting, gunfire. I have no idea how to leave,” the Afghan man said in the audio clip, recorded around the time the final U.S. plane left Kabul.

Distant gunshots rang in the background in the audio clip.

TALIBAN BRAGS: US TROOPS LEFT KABUL, AFGHANISTAN ‘GAINED FULL INDEPENDENCE

Taliban militants were carrying out “house-to-house executions in Kabul” after the U.S. departure, a senior U.S. source told Fox News Investigative journalist Lara Logan.

President Biden did not deny a Politico report, confirmed by Fox News, that U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of American citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies in an effort to grant them entry to the airport which resulted in outrage from military officials behind the scenes. The president said “there may have been” such a list. “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” one defense official told Politico.

Hours after the departure of U.S. troops, the official Taliban Twitter account celebrated the withdrawal. 

“The last American soldier left Kabul airport at 9pm Afghan time tonight and our country gained full independence. Thank God and blessings,” the Taliban account tweeted. 

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles told Fox News that the Taliban should not get too comfortable. 

“Be careful what you ask for,” Boles said. “Now they have to show they can govern a nation and people that are very different than when they left power. Will the Taliban go forward to the future or pull Afghanistan back to the past? The answer will be in their behavior… behavior is believable.”

“From everywhere I hear the sounds of shooting, gunfire. I have no idea how to leave.”— Afghan source who worked with Americans on the ground.

Last Wednesday, a former translator for a high-ranking U.S. Army Ranger told Fox News the Taliban had started executing allies of the U.S. in public, in provinces away from the media attention of Kabul.

“They are not doing really bad stuff in Kabul right now because there’s a lot of media focus on Kabul, but they already started public execution in other provinces where a lot of media is not available or covering it,” the interpreter said.

What’s more, in holding to his Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline, President Biden appears to have broken his promise to stay in Afghanistan until every American has been evacuated.

“We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, admitted Monday evening.

On Aug. 18, Biden had told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that the U.S. military’s objective in Afghanistan was to get “everyone” out, including Americans, Afghan allies and their families.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“That’s what we’re doing now, that’s the path we’re on. And I think we’ll get there,” he said. “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”

Yet a senior State Department official told Fox News that a “small number” of Americans remained in Afghanistan, putting the number at “below 250.”

Taliban commit ‘house-to-house executions’ in Kabul after US exit as chilling audio demonstrates Afghans’ fear | Fox News

• Gabriel Gipe, AP Government Teacher, Inderkum High School: “I have 180 days to turn them [students] into revolutionaries…Scare the f*ck out of them.”
• Gipe: “I’m probably as far left as you can go.”
• Gipe: “I post a calendar every week…I’ve had students show up for protests, community events, tabling, food distribution, all sorts of things…When they go, they take pictures, write up a reflection — that’s their extra credit.”
• Gipe: “So, they [students] take an ideology quiz and I put [the results] on the [classroom] wall. Every year, they get further and further left…I’m like, ‘These ideologies are considered extreme, right? Extreme times breed extreme ideologies.’ Right? There is a reason why Generation Z, these kids, are becoming further and further left.”
• Gipe: “I have an Antifa flag on my [classroom] wall and a student complained about that — he said it made him feel uncomfortable. Well, this [Antifa flag] is meant to make fascists feel uncomfortable, so if you feel uncomfortable, I don’t really know what to tell you. Maybe you shouldn’t be aligning with the values that this [Antifa flag] is antithetical to.”
• Gipe: “Like, why aren’t people just taking up arms? Like why can’t we, you know — take up arms against the state? We have historical examples of that happening, and them getting crushed and being martyrs for a cause and it’s like — okay well, it’s slow going because it takes a massive amount of organization.”
• Gipe: “I think that for [left-wing] movements in the United States, we need to be able to attack both [cultural and economic] fronts. Right? We need to create parallel structures of power because we cannot rely on the state…Consistently focusing on education and a change of cultural propaganda. We have to hit both fronts. We have to convince people that this is what we actually need.”
• Gipe: “There are three other teachers in my department that I did my credential program with — and they’re rad. They’re great people. They’re definitely on the same page.”
• Gipe: “Sacramento, as a city itself, is incredibly diverse. But we’re surrounded by a bunch of right-wing rednecks.”

[SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Aug. 31, 2021] Project Veritas released shocking new video today of California AP Government teacher, Gabriel Gipe, boasting about politically indoctrinating his students at Inderkum High School. 

Gipe said that his intention is to radicalize students into supporting Marxist ideas by using the public school system as an avenue to incentivize them to participate in fringe extracurricular events.

“I have 180 days to turn them [students] into revolutionaries…Scare the f*ck out of them,” Gipe said.

“I post a calendar every week…I’ve had students show up for protests, community events, tabling, food distribution, all sorts of things…When they go, they take pictures, write up a reflection — that’s their extra credit,” he said.

Gipe said he keeps track of his students’ political inclinations. He is also perplexed when a student expresses discomfort with the decorations in his public-school classroom.

“So, they take an ideology quiz and I put [the results] on the [classroom] wall. Every year, they get further and further left…I’m like, ‘These ideologies are considered extreme, right? Extreme times breed extreme ideologies.’ Right? There is a reason why Generation Z, these kids, are becoming further and further left,” he said.

“I have an Antifa flag on my [classroom] wall and a student complained about that — he said it made him feel uncomfortable. Well, this [Antifa flag] is meant to make fascists feel uncomfortable, so if you feel uncomfortable, I don’t really know what to tell you. Maybe you shouldn’t be aligning with the values that this [Antifa flag] is antithetical to.”

The public-school teacher went on to suggest that a viable solution for society’s problems is a violent overthrow of the U.S. Government.

“Like, why aren’t people just taking up arms? Like why can’t we, you know — take up arms against the state? We have historical examples of that happening, and them getting crushed and being martyrs for a cause and it’s like — okay well, it’s slow going because it takes a massive amount of organization,” Gipe said.

When asked about his views on the Chinese Communist Party, Gipe explained how lessons from China’s disastrous Cultural Revolution could be applied in the United States.

“You need a two-pronged system, which is exactly what Huey Newton and Fred Hampton [Black Panther Party] understood. You need propaganda of the deed — your economics — and cultural propaganda as well. You need to retrain the way people think. So, the Cultural Revolution in the 60s was fixing the problem that came about after the economic one,” he said.

“What can we do now to root out this culture that keeps perpetuating hyper-individualism, hyper-competitiveness, capitalist exploitation and consolidation of wealth…I do think that it’s important to understand that as an extension of an economic revolution, they [Chinese Communist Party] were changing the base, and then they went to change the superstructure. You cannot change one without the other. You can’t have cultural shifts without the economic shift, and vice versa,” he said.

“I think that for [left-wing] movements in the United States, we need to be able to attack both [cultural and economic] fronts. Right? We need to create parallel structures of power because we cannot rely on the state…Consistently focusing on education and a change of cultural propaganda. We have to hit both fronts. We have to convince people that this is what we actually need.”

Gipe admitted that he is not the only one in Inderkum High School’s faculty to hold these fringe beliefs.

“There are three other teachers in my department that I did my credential program with — and they’re rad. They’re great people. They’re definitely on the same page.”

Project Veritas encourages students and parents to contact VeritasTips@protonmail.com if they have evidence of political indoctrination and propaganda taking place in a classroom setting. 

BREAKING: Pro-Antifa High School Teacher in California Admits Communist Indoctrination of Students … ‘I Have 180 Days to Turn Them into Revolutionaries’ … Other Teachers ‘on the Same Page’ … ‘There is a Reason Why These Kids are Becoming Further Left’ | Project Veritas

The intelligence community’s (IC) recently declassified non-assessment of the origins of the Chinese coronavirus should be seen as part of a continued charade by the Biden administration that—in effect—protects Communist China.

It enables Team Biden to present the appearance of concern over China’s malign behavior, while absolving itself of any responsibility to forthrightly confront it.

More than a year-and-a-half after the coronavirus began spreading, the IC declared that it “remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19. All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.”

This conclusion seemed almost preordained. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a highly reminiscent statement on May 27, just after President Joe Biden called for the 90-day review into the origins of the coronavirus, asserting that: “The U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios: either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident.”

As then, in the final assessment, different agencies gave different weights to these hypotheses.

The IC claimed it could not provide a more definitive conclusion without better clinical samples and the like, and that “China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment.”

Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, the IC was only unequivocal on the most provocative thesis regarding the origin of the coronavirus: “We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon.” Chinese officials, per the IC, had no “foreknowledge of the virus” before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged.

The report, in short, generated precisely the answer one would have expected from increasingly hyper-politicized bureaucracies keen to hedge on vital questions—and likely even more so given the geopolitical implications at play—when seeking out sensitive information from a closed country in which they lack visibility, where they have frequently found themselves blindsided, and on which they have allegedly gone soft in the recent past.

Occam’s Razor suggests President Biden got exactly the review one would have expected, and therefore that he would have wanted.

We may never fully know why the lab leak thesis became politically correct months after officials across the federal government, in the medical field, and media had gone to such great lengths to pooh-pooh it. But we know that this created a political issue for the Biden administration after it had punted the origin question originally to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-dominated World Health Organization (WHO) for a futile Potemkin inquiry, and reports surfaced that it had quashed a Secretary of State Mike Pompeo-directed investigation into the matter.

The IC review was a necessary sideshow.

Why?

Because in the final analysis, how the coronavirus came about is of secondary importance to what China did once it was literally or figuratively out of the bottle.

Yes, the lab leak thesis is more than plausible based on a mass of circumstantial evidence, including that catalogued by the Secretary Pompeo-led State Department, the writings of prominent scientists and science journalists, and a House Republican-led report on the origins of the coronavirus. The president’s statement subsequent to the release of the IC review that “We will do everything we can to trace the roots of this outbreak…so that we can take every necessary precaution to prevent it from happening again” though banal and toothless, is fine insofar as prudence demands learning from catastrophes.

But set aside how the coronavirus came about.

We know it came from China.

We know the CCP silenced whistleblowers who might have had valuable knowledge and insight into the coronavirus that could have saved lives (and certainly, including those associated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where we know China engaged in dangerous gain-of-function research—one of the only places in the world where such work is conducted—that could very well have resulted in COVID-19).

We know it lied about human-to-human transmission.

We know it shut down internal travel but permitted Chinese citizens to fly all over the world and encouraged other nations not to halt such travel.

We know it hoarded personal protective equipment and then sold shoddy versions of it to peoples worldwide.

We know it pressed the WHO to push its favored narratives—including casting anyone who dared finger China for the coronavirus’s spread as racist and bigoted.

We know its mouthpiece threatened to “plunge” America “into the mighty sea of coronavirus” by withholding vital drugs as the crisis metastasized.

We know it sought to stymie investigations into the coronavirus’s origins at every turn.

We know it aimed to take advantage of the pandemic in service of its hegemonic ambitions in myriad ways, from the very start of the pandemic.

One could rattle off infinitely more such points.

But the bottom line is this: The CCP lied, deceived, and in effect weaponized the coronavirus that began on its soil. It did everything possible to conceal what was transpiring subsequent to the outbreak, stop other nations from taking necessary precautions—but advocating they shut down human life for months on end—and encourage its spread globally, which it has tried to exploit and leverage at every point to increase its power and influence.

The Biden administration has never made this point clear—that a hostile China weaponized the virus, and used it to pursue its ambitions. Consequently, it has never vowed to make China pay for it. And this in turn substantiates the point that the Biden administration’s punting of the question of the origin of the coronavirus to the intelligence community was part of a charade.

The review was the best the Biden administration could do if it wanted to create the impression of holding China to account out of political necessity, without doing anything about it.

And remember who the Biden administration’s core constituency is: The elite. Elites in government who have egg on their face over the gain-of-function research they funded by proxy at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and who again refused to investigate the lab leak thesis when smoking guns may still have been hot; elites in the medical field who appear to have been influenced by China into ignoring or dismissing the lab leak thesis—that Big Tech even banned talk of; elites in the business community, who are wedded to trading with China forever no matter the CCP’s evils; and elites in the media who themselves are complicit in refusing to investigate the coronavirus’s origins, and often running CCP-favorable coronavirus propaganda.

This is to say nothing of President Biden’s well-documented kowtowing to Communist China for nearly 50 years, made all the more disturbing and dangerous given the business activities of son Hunter and other family members.

The losers of this charade are the American people, who are seeing China once again appeased by their leaders, which will only invite further aggression.

The Chinese Coronavirus Origin Charade (theepochtimes.com)

Right-wing media outlets and commentators are claiming U.S. President Joe Biden fell asleep during a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, but what really happened?

WASHINGTON, DC – Joe Biden has had a rough week that started with a botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan which led to a humanitarian crisis with imminent danger to American civilians and military personnel. On Thursday, that crisis turned into a disaster after thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a blast at the Kabul airport. Other American Marines, soldiers, and sailors were critically maimed and wounded in the blast.

But, was President Joe Biden so exhausted that he fell asleep during his postponed meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett?

A narrative by many Republican-aligned blogs and media sources claim Biden dozed off as Prime Minister Bennett was thanking America for its support.Breaking News:  Cooperating with the Taliban is now the only way to save Americans?

For approximately 60 seconds, Biden bowed his head down as Bennett continued speaking. With his hands folded and his fingers fiddling, it appears that Biden may have heard at least some of what Bennett spoke about because he snapped out of his posture when the Israeli leader finished speaking and attributed the success of the Israeli-American relationship on former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “Qualitative Military Edge” policy for Israel.

As far as those who claim Biden was sleeping, well, it’s inconclusive at this point. What you can say is that Biden’s posture during the meeting was not one of full and utmost respect toward a world leader. Biden should have remained attentive, focused, and establishing eye contact with the foreign leader as he spoke.

While we can’t confirm or deny that the President was sleeping, the idea could be plausible, however somewhat unlikely that he dozed off enough to actually enter an official cycle of sleep, but perhaps he lingered in a state of consciousness prior to entering a sleep cycle. The situation would be the same as students in class who slightly doze off, but not enough to miss the teacher’s instruction. Then before entering a sleep state, the body jolts awake.

When Biden “awoke” his legs and knees did exhibit similar movement.

Fact Check: Did Joe Biden fall asleep during meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett? (shorenewsnetwork.com)

During an event in which Joe Biden presided over the bodies of fallen US Marines during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, the President appeared to check his watch, drawing national outrage as many viewed the move as inconsiderate and selfish given the circumstance and setting.

In the middle of a dignified transfer ceremony for the fallen US Marines that were recently killed in Afghanistan, Joe Biden appeared to check the time on his wrist watch, drawing outrage from many who viewed the move as incentive, inconsiderate, and selfish.

BIDEN APPEARS TO CHECK HIS WATCH DURING THE DIGNIFIED TRANSFER CEREMONY AT DOVER AIR FORCE BASE. PIC.TWITTER.COM/OMSBEFNMFS

— BENNY (@BENNYJOHNSON) AUGUST 29, 2021

THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL, WHAT A SELFISH BASTARD. PIC.TWITTER.COM/0EQ0X9EWRW

— ALEX JONES WAS RIGHT (@ALEXJONESWS) AUGUST 29, 2021

“Biden checking his watch at the ceremony of our fallen heroes is the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen. Are they an inconvenience to you POTUS? I want an explanation,” tweeted one Twitter user. “Joe Biden checking his watch after removing his hand over his heart so disgusting…our government hates us,” tweeted another. “Utter disrespect. He looks at his watch during the ceremony of 13 fallen American heroes killed in Afghanistan. Their ages were less than half of Biden’s time in politics! Biden voters will call this “edited video” because they are brainless. #BidenMustGo,” tweeted third Twitter user.

This would not be the first time Americans slammed Biden over his apparent lack of sympathy with regards to his Afghanistan Disaster. Just one day before the 13 Marines were killed, Biden smirked when reporters asked him about the situation in Afghanistan. The smirk outraged the heartbroken mother of Rylee McCollum, a fallen US Marine who tragically died as a result of the bombing in Afghanistan, who ultimately condemned Biden and Democrat voters over the death of her son on a radio show hosted by Andrew Wilkow, as National File previously reported.

“MY SON IS GONE, AND I JUST WANT ALL YOU DEMOCRATS WHO CHEATED IN THE ELECTION, OR WHO VOTED FOR [BIDEN] LEGITIMATELY, YOU JUST KILLED MY SON…WITH A DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE’S IN THE WHITE HOUSE, HE STILL THINKS HE’S A SENATOR,” SAID MCCOLLUM, WHO LATER NOTED THAT “I WANTED MY SON TO REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY, TO FIGHT FOR MY COUNTRY, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT THAT A FECKLESS PIECE OF CRAP WOULD SEND HIM TO HIS DEATH AND SMIRK ON TELEVISION WHILE HE’S TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE DYING, WITH HIS NASTY SMIRK. THE DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE. IT NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED UNDER TRUMP.”

(VIDEO: Joe Biden Slumps Over, Appears To Fall Asleep During Meeting With Israeli PM)

In related news, the US military has relieved Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller from duty after he released a heartfelt video critiquing the tragic Afghanistan withdrawal following the Kabul bombings that killed up to 13 American service members. “My chain of command is doing exactly what I would do…if I were in their shoes. I appreciate the opportunities AITB command provided. To all the news agencies asking for interviews…I will not be making any statements other than what’s on my social platforms until I exit the Marine Corps,” explained Scheller. However, Scheller appears to be optimistic about his future aspirations, despite being relieved of duty.

NO RUSH: Biden Checks His Watch While Receiving Bodies Of Slain Marines At Dover Air Force Base – Conservative War – Breaking Political News

The suicide attack that killed 170 people including 13 U.S. troops provides the crowning disgrace for President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the military leadership going all the way up to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This disaster in Afghanistan is worse than Benghazi, worse than Jimmy Carter’s hostage crisis, because those were inept responses to an external situation. By contrast, this is a disaster that Biden and his inept team themselves created.

I remember well how Carter’s hostage crisis ended. It ended on the very day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981. Reagan had pledged that he would take very strong action against Iran, without specifying what that action might be. Evidently the terrorists, who had the backing of the Khomeini regime, decided it was not a good idea to test Reagan’s resolve. They let the hostages go.

The current catastrophe in Afghanistan seems to have proceeded in reverse. While Donald Trump was in office, the Taliban continued its war, but neither they nor other Islamic radical groups, from al Qaeda to ISIS, had the capacity to inflict massive damage on U.S. forces. The moment Biden got into office, however, the Taliban and the other terrorists all realized it was time to get going. They exploited their opportunity to seize Kabul. They were emboldened to launch a suicide attack that was the most successful strike against America since 9/11.

The blame, of course, starts with Biden. He’s primarily responsible for this self-inflicted wound. Yet Biden has done his best to shift the blame to his predecessor, Trump. Biden’s position seems to be that he was merely carrying out a withdrawal that Trump agreed to. Yet Biden has reversed Trump’s policies in innumerable areas, so he was hardly obliged to follow in Trump’s tracks here. Moreover, there’s a huge difference between a decision to withdraw and the manner of the withdrawal. The responsibility for the latter lies wholly with Biden.

In a recent interview, retired Gen. David Petraeus, the four-star general who was former head of U.S. forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan, disputed Biden’s claim that Trump is responsible for the current mess. Petraeus pointed out that there were merely 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and they were not doing front-line fighting. Rather, their responsibility was to provide intelligence and logistical support for the Afghan army, and moreover, to help carry out air strikes to provide the Afghan army with cover during clashes with the Taliban.

This, Petraeus says, the Afghan army counted on. They were never trained to fight exclusively on their own. They were trained to fight with U.S. coordination and support, and when this coordination was precipitously halted, and the U.S. just got up and ran, well, the Afghan army decided to get up and run also. This, Petraeus concludes, is why Afghanistan fell so quickly into Taliban hands.

Biden’s blunders have continued beyond the fall of Kabul. That loss was disastrous enough, because it left a huge cachet of guns and matériel for the Taliban to use itself or put on the international market for other terrorist groups and also for China and Russia. Moreover, thousands of Americans were left stranded, not to mention tens of thousands of Afghan allies who were assured the United States would stick with them but now found themselves vulnerable to imprisonment, torture, and death.

But even after leaving Americans behind—creating a vast potential hostage situation of his own—Biden compounded the problem by giving the Taliban a list of names of U.S. citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies. The ostensible purpose was for the Taliban to grant these people access to the outer perimeter of the city’s airport, so that they could get out. It’s not clear whether Biden himself made this decision, but his administration clearly approved it.

The danger here should be obvious. The Taliban have been fighting against the United States and its Afghan allies for 20 years. Wouldn’t it make sense that they would grab the list, thank Allah for this incredible gift, and then put all these people on a kill list? Is there any doubt that Islamic radicals hardened by privation and guerilla war would be willing to execute people whom they view as enemies of Allah and the very people they have been trying to kill for two decades?

Yet the Biden administration seems willing to trust the Taliban to protect and help evacuate the people on this list. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the Taliban would want to do this to secure its reputation in the international community, as if the Taliban cares what people at the United Nations or the European Union think about its actions. Equally absurd, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said that the United States and the Taliban “share a common purpose,” which raises the question of why the two groups were trying to kill each other since 2001.

The U.S. media, for its part, has provided relatively little honest critical scrutiny of Biden’s actions, evidently owing to its ideological sympathies with the current administration. There have been several articles instructing Americans not to confuse the Taliban with the ISIS-K group that claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. The underlying premise is that the Taliban and ISIS-K have several disagreements, there have been reported clashes between the two, and therefore it’s not unreasonable to expect the Taliban to assist the United States after an attack mounted by the terrorists of ISIS-K.

These articles have all the persuasiveness of someone who argues that there are two types of snakes in the garden, rattlesnakes and copperhead snakes, and humans should not hastily confuse the two. This may very well be true, and it might also be that rattlesnakes and copperheads don’t get along, since they compete for the same types of food. But it does not follow that humans can count on the rattlesnakes to be our allies when faced with a threat from a copperhead. The wiser course of action is for humans to recognize they are in a snake pit and take action to destroy as many snakes as we can.

Some Republicans are already calling for resignations, but not enough of them, and not loudly enough. It’s not enough to stop at Biden. The Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence agencies all share the blame for this unmitigated disaster. They all put Americans last, they all betrayed their countrymen and women, and they all should face the consequences.

A Self-Inflicted Catastrophe (theepochtimes.com)

How can you think straight and make rational decisions when each and everyday you hear conflicting and contradictory information from “authoritative” sources? You can’t. No one can. That’s the whole point. That’s why the powers that be are doing this. Welcome to the secular hell of a post-truth world.

We don’t need to wear masks. No wait, now we do. Hold up now we need to wear two masks. We can stop wearing masks now. Surprise, we need to wear masks again. Actually it turns out masks aren’t as effective as we thought.

We just need 15 days to slow the spread. Now we need a month. Maybe a year. Never mind, we didn’t need to lockdown at all and it caused more harm than good.

Don’t take any vaccine that Donald Trump rushed to market. You didn’t get the vaccine, are you nuts? The vaccine is highly effective. Oops it looks like highly vaccinated Israel is having a major outbreak. Get the vaccine or lose your job.

Are you keeping up? This is the reality of living in a post-truth world.

They want us shell shocked with rapidly changing information overload which leads to option paralysis and fear. When people are in a state of fear coupled with option paralysis they are very susceptible to manipulation and easy to control.

While we are all dazed and confused they are destroying families, small businesses, and entire nations. They are rigging elections, they are botching troop withdrawals to flood western countries with refugees, the American border is being invaded by hundreds of thousands of people, they are buying up single family homes and pricing you out of the market, they are printing endless money and inflating your currency.

They are transferring trillions of dollars in wealth to themselves and shutting up each and every last voice of dissent to it all while doing it.

All while the while you worry about a virus that statistically you have a 99% chance of surviving with the immune system God gave you.

It’s exhausting and impossible to keep up with by design. It’s meant to drain you mentally, physically, and spiritually so that you submit to their control. Don’t.

In the post-truth world anything goes. Chaos reigns. Those who create the chaos manifest their means of control. Do not comply. Do not give them one inch. Stand your ground. Hold the line.

Christians reject the post-truth world. We have absolute Truth in Jesus Christ and His Gospel as a firm foundation on which to stand. God is our authority. Not the CDC. Not the Biden administration. Not the WHO. Nor the talking heads on CNN and Fox News.

In the darkness of chaos Jesus is the Light that leads us to salvation. Jesus saves. That is the fundamental Truth of the Gospel. Now more then ever we need saving. We need Truth. We need Order.

The battle rages on, but the war has already been won and we must never forget that. We must cling to the cross and stand firm in our convictions. We must love one another, obey God, and humble ourselves enough to fully depend on Him in this time of great trial.

I know we can do it, because we serve the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe. May you find comfort in His Truth and keep the faith.

God bless you and God bless America,

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus is King

How To Survive In a Post-Truth World Of Chaos – Gab News

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has been dinged several times by fact-checkers over claims he has made during the coronavirus crisis, including a total of 11 “Pinocchios” from the Washington Post.

Over the course of three weeks between March 13 and April 3, Biden was fact-checked five separate times for making false or misleading claims concerning the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic.

A Washington Post fact check on March 13 awarded Biden four Pinocchios, the fact-checker’s most severe rating, for two manipulated videos the Biden campaign circulated.

The first video claimed to show Trump at a Feb. 28 rally saying Democrats were turning the coronavirus into “their new hoax” after they failed to bring Trump down through impeachment. Biden’s video was edited to make it appear that Trump was calling the coronavirus a hoax. Trump, however, was referring to the Democrats’ attempts to blame him for the virus, not the virus itself.

The second Biden campaign video showed Trump saying the phrase “the American Dream is dead,” which the Post found was taken out of context and missing the second part of Trump’s statement where he promised to “bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”

Another Post fact check on March 24 gave the campaign four Pinocchios after adviser Ron Klain accused Trump of silencing Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The president and the White House sent a clear message to scientists in the government—there would be a price for speaking out and speaking up,” he said in a campaign video released on March 21.

Messonnier continued to hold routine phone briefings with reporters in the weeks after she raised the alarm about the virus at a press conference with Trump.

Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote that Klain’s framing was “simply wrong.” Messonnier’s alarming rhetoric did irritate Trump, but the idea that she was silenced was a “false narrative,” Kessler added.

At a CNN town hall on March 27, Biden repeated an earlier claim that Trump had eliminated the White House pandemic office. He also claimed Trump made “no effort” to put any pressure on Chinese president Xi Jinping and reduced the CDC’s staff in China prior to the outbreak. Biden added he called for China to admit medical experts from the United States when the outbreak in China was still in its early stages.

The Post‘s fact check gave Biden three Pinocchios due to his imprecise language. The Trump administration sought access for CDC experts, and the administration told the Post that Trump offered to send experts to China to help with the outbreak. Biden also did not specifically call for experts to be sent until late February.

Those weren’t the only times Biden has been fact-checked for rhetoric during the crisis.

On March 15, during the Democratic presidential debate, Biden falsely claimed that Trump refused coronavirus testing kits from the World Health Organization. The kits were never offered in the first place. PolitiFact rated his statement “Mostly False.” CNN, after initially deeming his statement factual, retracted its rating after a report by the Washington Free Beacon.

On March 19, Biden first tweeted that Trump “eliminated” the pandemic response team. The Washington Post fact check found this claim “overstated” due to the fact that the global health directorate was folded into another office under the guidance of former national security adviser John Bolton. Citing “dueling narratives,” however, it didn’t give a rating to Biden’s claim.

Biden Has Earned 11 Pinocchios From Fact-Checkers During Coronavirus Crisis (freebeacon.com)

Thursday’s suicide bombings in Kabul, which claimed the lives of at least 13 American servicemen, marked the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2011. President Joe Biden’s low energy press conference in response to the attacks was widely panned for failing to inspire confidence as the situation spirals out of control.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden touted himself as the only candidate with the experience necessary to successfully handle an international crisis. “To be commander in chief, there’s no time for on-the-job training,” he said during a primary debate in November 2019. “I’ve spent more time in the Situation Room, more time abroad, more time than anybody up here. I know every major world leader. They know me, and they know when I speak, if I’m the president of the United States, who we’re for, who we’re against, and what we’ll do, and we’ll keep our word.”

Former president Barack Obama tried to warn us. He urged Biden not to run for president in 2016, reportedly out of concern that his former running mate “would embarrass himself on the campaign trail and that the people around him would not be able to prevent a belly-flop.” Obama did not mince words during the primary campaign, telling one fellow Democrat: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.” We should have listened.

When Biden introduced his top foreign policy advisers in February 2021, he touted their “unmatched experience and accomplishments,” as well as their commitment to diversity and inclusion. Biden went on to imply, without evidence, that he had compiled a team “that will keep our country and our people safe and secure.”

“It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it, once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies, ready to stand up for our values,” Biden said.

The events of the past several weeks suggest otherwise.

FLASHBACK: Biden Said His Foreign Policy Team of Geniuses Would ‘Stand Up for Our Values’ and ‘Keep Our People Safe’ (freebeacon.com)

California voters have long been excoriated by commentators for the 1994 passage of Proposition 187, which severely limited state services for illegal immigrants. Among other things, it required teachers and nurses to report suspected illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, effectively becoming INS agents. Those were among the reasons the initiative was thrown out of federal court.

Now Prop. 187-style enforcement requirements could be imposed due to COVID-19. A measure by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), Akilah Weber (D-San Diego), and Evan Low (D-Campbell) would mandate proof of vaccination “before entering restaurants, bars, movie theaters, gyms, hotels, stadiums and other indoor establishments.” That’s according to a draft summary of the law obtained by the Sacramento Bee. There’s no bill number or text yet available to read.

If passed, the state Department of Health would be required to develop an enforcement plan by Nov. 1.

It would mean waitresses, bartenders, movie ushers, gym workers and stadium ticket-takers would be turned into police officers for the Department of Health. Would they be fined severely for doing their jobs poorly, or not at all? Would they receive special training? Who would pay for that?

In a state with an ongoing labor shortage, it’s easy to see these employees quitting to do something else. And if they’re fired, would they be given unemployment? If not, would there be thousands of lawsuits against the already overburdened and only partly reformed Employment Development Department?

According to the Bee, “The new law would exempt children who aren’t eligible for vaccines and people who aren’t eligible due to a medical condition or disability, subject to verification.” Would that include the controversial “conscience” exemption some religious groups have advanced? What about the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion, also guaranteed in the California Constitution?

The proposal comes with the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19. But will the increase in infections recede by November, when the law would go into effect, the way previous surges have receded after a couple of months? Nobody knows.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-Greenbrae) on Wednesday proposed a resolution suspending all member of the Legislature who have not been vaccinated. The suspensions would be imposed just ahead of the Legislature’s Sept. 10 adjournment date.

At the end of session, the Assembly and state Senate camp out in their separate chambers for many hours a day to hammer out legislation. “No other job has people locked up in a room for two weeks,” Levine said. “There’s only one bathroom off the chamber. There’s only one place to get coffee off the chamber. Even if we don’t get sick, we can be carriers.”

The Los Angeles Times reported its survey of the 40 senators and 80 assemblymen and found 12 of them refused to disclose their vaccination status, 11 being Republicans. That’s 39 percent of the GOP’s already minuscule representation of 28 legislators. So their ranks would be reduced to 17.

Moreover, even if the unvaccinated got the jab today, according to the CDC, “It typically takes 2 weeks after vaccination for the body to build protection (immunity) against the virus that causes COVID-19. That means it is possible a person could still get COVID-19 before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to build protection.”

That means the Levine resolution would expel the 11 members for the rest of the 2021 session, with no recourse for those affected. It’s hard to think of anything more anti-democratic.

Here’s a better idea: The Legislature should adjourn until next January. It already passed the key budget bills. Few of the hundreds of bills left on the calendar should be passed anyway. Anything worthwhile can wait until January.

California Legislature Planning to Use Pandemic to Shred Democracy (theepochtimes.com)

Ineffective forest management policies are much more to blame than climate change for the massive destruction from wildfires in recent years in California, says Sierra County Supervisor Raul Roen.

Fighting wildfires, he said, has morphed into a “self-sustaining” industrial complex, he told The Epoch Times.

“It is out of control. The intent is no longer to put fires out, it’s to manage budgets. It’s just embarrassing, and that’s what I do for a living. I would be the first to say it, and I’m on the record saying it,” Roen said.

In addition, interference from environmental lobbyists has turned forest management, forestry, firefighting, and wildfire prevention into a “train wreck,” he said.

“It’s just really frustrating. I’ve been in fire work for 25 years and what we’re doing today is not working. We’ve got to do something different because this is just getting ridiculous,” Roen said.

Meanwhile, California lawmakers have delayed a wildfire oversight hearing indefinitely amidst the lead-up to the recall election on Sept. 14, when California voters will decide whether to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Scathing Letter

Butte County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Connelly on Aug. 12 drafted a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Randy Moore over how the Dixie Fire and last year’s North Complex Fire were handled. However, the letter was revised to “make it less tense,” and to reflect the views of the entire board before it was sent.

The original draft accused the Forest Service of dereliction of duty and demanded an investigation into the way the Dixie Fire and last year’s North Complex Fire were handled.

“Because of the gross negligence of the USFS fire management philosophy, we no longer have trust and confidence in the decision-making process being used by the USFS,” it read.

The final letter was sent 12 days later. It stated: “The fire suppression philosophy of the USFS needs to be questioned. The ‘fire use policy’ which has been used consistently by the USFS [which allows a fire to burn provided it does not pose an immediate risk of damage to homes or lives] is clearly not effective in these times. This practice in recent years has not worked. With the extreme dry conditions and weather patterns, fires are able to burn over 15 miles in one day.”

The letter also acknowledges that the Forest Service has recently stated it “will discontinue this policy for this fire season.”

Both versions of the letter request reimbursement for costs related to the county’s response to the fires and recovery efforts.

The Dixie Fire, one of the largest fires in California history, began above the Cresta Dam in the Feather River Canyon on July 14 and is still raging. It has burned at least 765,635 acres and was 48 percent contained as of Aug. 29, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). It has destroyed more than 1,200 structures and affected five counties, including Butte, Plumas, Tehama, Lassen, and Shasta.

Meanwhile, the Monument Fire and McFarland Fire have each burned more than 100,000 acres. The Caldor Fire in El Dorado County has destroyed the town of Grizzly Flats, Roen said. That fire has burned 126,566 acres and more than 450 homes.

On Aug. 25, two new fires were reported in San Bernardino County’s Lytle Creek San Bernardino and Calaveras County.

‘A Crystal Ball’

As a chairman of the Sierra County Board of Supervisors in 2014, Roen declared a local state of emergency embraced by all five supervisors. Today that resolution “reads like a crystal ball to where we are today,” he said. “It’s just amazing.”

“I asked for every other forested county in the state to support our concept,” he said. “We got several counties to participate, but I wanted the whole state to stand up and scream.”

The local state of emergency was updated and renewed in 2016, but ultimately the effort failed to gain traction with state and federal authorities.

The resolution warned the U.S. Forest Service and state agencies that the “uncontrolled build-up of natural fire fuels” posed a “severe and ongoing threat of catastrophic wildfire.”

The document is evidence of the constant battle to mitigate fire risks at the wildland-urban interface instead of “burning out” these communities,” said Roen, who has served as a fire commissioner and now currently sits on the Sierra-Nevada Conservancy board.

‘Thinning the Forests’

Roen said the main reason California continues to fight so many devastating forest fires is because Cal Fire and the U.S Forest Service keep making the same mistakes “over and over again” and expecting a different outcome.

The first mistake, he said, was allowing environmental groups, such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, to stand in the way of fuel reduction techniques such as the “thinning” of forests, which involves logging some trees and removing dead ones to create healthier forests and reduce fire risk.

Both environmental groups have large legal teams and have sued government agencies and companies involved in primary industries such as logging and mining.

In a statement in response to the allegations, Cal Fire said, “Cal Fire supports active reduction of wildland fuels. Cal Fire supports the development of commercial enterprises that utilize vegetation removed for fuels reduction.”

Until the Camp Fire in 2018, the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club interfered with efforts by contracted Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) maintenance crews to remove trees near power lines, Roen said.

Contractors were told by environmentalist groups which trees they could remove and which ones they couldn’t, he said.

“They were told you can’t take those trees, you can’t take these trees,” Roen said.

The Camp Fire was caused by a faulty PG&E transmission line. It was the most deadly and destructive wildfire in California’s history, killing at least 85 people and razing the town of Paradise.

In years preceding the Camp Fire, Roen said PG&E maintenance crews had to “take a tree here and a tree there to not hurt anybody’s feelings,” instead of removing all trees that could potentially fall and hit a power line. “And, that is part of why we are where we are today,” he said.

Though the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, states the cause of the Dixie Fire is “under investigation,” Roen said he’s heard reports from reliable sources that a tree fell on a power line causing a short.

According to a PG&E report (pdf) submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission on July 18, a PG&E worker on July 13 first discovered the fire at the base of a tree leaning on power lines.

ABC 10 reported PG&E released photos taken from a drone during a 2019 site inspection to a probation judge on Aug. 16. The photos show a fir tree leaning towards the power lines at the origin of the fire, but more recent photos show the tree, believed to have fallen the morning on July 13, “being held up by power lines,” the report stated.

PG&E told the court the tree wasn’t considered a hazard in early 2021, when the site was last inspected, ABC reported.

Biomass Facilities

The Center for Biological Diversity also opposes biomass facilities (pdf), or wood-burning power plants that consume dead wood and debris and emit steam—not smoke, Roen said.

In a release, the organization stated that “biomass energy is often promoted as a tool to incentivize large-scale tree-cutting (‘thinning’) under the claim that this will protect communities and forests during wildfires.” The non-profit group also stated that thinning is an “ineffective” means of protecting homes and communities.

“Although biomass energy is promoted as a means for disposing of debris piles from forest thinning projects, it is mostly lumber mill residues from commercial logging that end up being subsidized. Meanwhile, biomass extraction does significant ecological damage to forests,” according to the organization.

The organization claims that “dead trees do not increase wildfire and should not be sent to bioenergy facilities.” It also states that “dead trees—standing or fallen—provide numerous ecological benefits such as wildlife habitat, soil stabilization, water quality, and carbon storage. These ecological benefits are lost when dead trees are removed and incinerated in biomass power plants.”

However, Roen said it’s only common sense that dead trees and dry debris create a tinderbox and needlessly stoke forest fires with extra fuel that could be removed.

“It’s not rocket science,” he said.

Roen said if a whole forest burns, all the benefits of leaving the debris, as well as everything else—including the wildlife—are lost anyway.

“The forest is just a big lawn,” he said. “If you don’t take care of it, what happens? It’s a renewable resource. If we don’t utilize it, Mother Nature will take care of it. She’ll clean it up and that’s what she’s doing.”

Roen estimates that more than half of the Plumas National Forest has been lost to wildfires in the last few years.

Climate Change

Roen disagrees with the narrative that climate change is the sole cause the wildfires in California over the last several years.

“It’s not,” he said. “This issue we’ve created ourselves.”

While “there is no doubt” climate change is a factor, that’s even more reason to spend funds wisely and develop better forest management and more practical wildfire prevention policies, he said.

Roen said he wouldn’t go as far as suggesting environmental groups have a vested interest in forest fires but pointed out they do benefit from any crisis that helps promote the climate change narrative.

Heavy smoke-filled skies spanning from the Desert Southwest to the Pacific Northwest and beyond over the last two summers should send a signal to federal agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, and state governments in California, Oregon, and Washington that their policies aren’t working, he said.

The U.S. Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

County Supervisors Blame Bad Policies—Not Climate Change—for California Wildfires (theepochtimes.com)

It’s easy for conservatives to believe that progressives leading the Woke Revolution have put targets on their backs. It certainly seems that way sometimes, especially when progressives react to conservatives as if they were abominable characters who must be shunned and ousted from society, cancelled forever. That overreaction was fully displayed at the horrors registered by leftists at the very sight of Trump rallies and in the hysteria of the four-year RESIST that followed the election.

But the irrationality only shows that progressives have a deeper antagonism, a conflict that precedes or transcends politics. In truth, the real enemy that progressives face is not another group of human beings who value different things. It’s nature itself.

The reason is simple: Nature is unfair. Think of nature in terms of progressive ideals. Nature doesn’t create equality; it creates inequality. It doesn’t produce just outcomes, endowing and rewarding everyone in proper measure. It sends tornadoes and floods to the good and bad alike. Worse, it throws tender souls into the world with unequal talents and resources. Some are beautiful, some homely; some are smart, some dull; some are strong, some weak.

That’s not right, the progressive says, that’s not fair. Why should anyone pass through his mortal career at a disadvantage? Why should he be given inferior traits and not be able to overcome them? Nobody should suffer because of the accidents of birth. He didn’t choose them, yet he’s a victim of them. Thomas Jefferson spoke of a “natural aristocracy,” which he accepted as a fact of life. Political aristocracies could be eliminated through concerted democratic action, but the truth that this man is tall and swift, that man short and slow, is not a political concoction.

The progressive cannot accept this. He wants to end all political, social, and economic inequalities, of course, but those are not enough. Natural inequalities must go, too, or at least be neutralized. Every inequality is insult to their moral sense—except, perhaps, the moral inequality that raises them well above libertarians and conservatives in their dedication to altering the natural wrongs. Progressives have a pat solution to this political disagreement: Individuals on the right must come over to the left. No compromise, no negotiation, just the bad guys surrendering to the good guys.

Nature, though, isn’t so pliable. We have a natural injustice done to females, for instance. Nature has burdened them with childbearing, which changes their bodies for many months and sometimes endangers them, while men can have their momentary pleasure and go their merry way. It’s not enough, then, for progressives to eliminate patriarchal practices and notions from society. Patriarchy is a social creation, powerful men subjugating women (so the feminist argument goes). To stop it, women must go to college, delay childbearing, build a career, vote pro-choice, break the glass ceiling, fill the ranks of the elite … all of which, of course, will never fully fix the problem. Women earn many more bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees than men, and have for many years, but nature still has its way.

This is the frustration that leads to progressivist hysteria over “fat-shaming” and “body-shaming,” the evidence-free assertions of “systemic racism,” and the maniacal unwillingness of progressives even to consider the notion of there being a genetic component to average differences in intelligence among racial/ethnic groups (though cognitive psychologists and psychometricians generally admit some degree of “heritability” in IQ, they disagree over how strong it is). It’s why they hate beauty pageants and want every child to earn a trophy. When we find that progressives don’t like free speech and open debate, when they respond to a conservative who asserts that single-parentage is terribly hard on children as if the conservative has uttered a belief worthy of a 17th-century Puritan who likes to burn witches, we should pin that excess on a deep and troubling conviction of natural blockage.

No wonder, then, that no matter how many major battles progressives win in the legislatures, through school boards, and in popular culture, they conclude with the truism, “There’s so much more to do, still a long way to go.” That will always be the case, because nature will never stop getting in the way. This is a never-ending reform, one that leaves progressives ever unsatisfied. They are unhappy people, uncomfortable with comedy and irritated by tragedy (suffering should never happen!), without wit and leery of irony, earnest to a fault. The most fervent anti-nature crusade at the present time is the trans-movement, where we have an enterprise out to undo the structures of a person’s own body. It’s a denial that can’t endure no matter how aggressively Federal regulations back it up. Deep in their hearts, they know they can’t win, that in the battle of Progress versus Nature, the wrong end is already ordained.

The Woke Revolution is merely the current expression of the anti-nature impulse, the most audacious one in our history, I would say. It demands equal representation of all identity groups in elite spaces, from expensive boarding schools to boardrooms to symphony orchestras. The more competitive the habitats, the more the Wokesters insist on proportionality—which runs squarely against the way nature works. You can sense in their urgency the exasperation of delay. Why, they ask, a half-century after Women’s Liberation, are women still under-represented at the top levels of business? (Female work preferences have much to do with it, but progressives don’t want to admit that.) Why is it that, more than 50 years after the Civil Rights Act, more African Americans don’t get doctorates? (Single-parentage, which is extremely high among African American households, is a strong factor in low academic performance in early grades.)

The proportions may improve a bit in the coming years, but not by much, certainly not sufficiently to please the progressive personality. His desires are utopian; he will not get realistic. That would be to give up on one of progressivism’s key attractions, the prospect of heaven on earth, perfect happiness all around. To be sure, there are many canny fellows in the ranks of the left, people who use the movement solely for their own advancement. But those inauthentic idealists couldn’t work their game if they didn’t have the backing of genuine idealists, who are impatient and easily activated. Conservatives are less impatient, less discomfited by the world as it is, but this gives them no advantage in the current war. The restlessness of the left fatigues those on the right. From what I’ve seen, conservatives can’t stop them. Only a superhuman force, nature itself, can bring the progressive movement to defeat.

Nature’s Unfair, Progressives Hate It (theepochtimes.com)

Many of the reports coming out of Afghanistan this past week mention something that is simultaneously deplored and swept under the rug.

I mean the fact that when the United States raised the white flag to the Taliban it left behind an enormous amount of American-made military hardware.

Just a couple of weeks ago, all of that war-making matériel had been the property of two entities.

Some belonged to U.S. forces themselves.

A lot of it belonged to the U.S.-supplied Afghan government that was—the mighty 300,000 man-strong force that, on July 8, President Joe Biden said would prevail over the Taliban if push came to shove.

Push did come to shove, as we all know, and now those vast stores of military hardware are under sole control of the Taliban.

There have been several differing inventories of these stockpiles. One just published in the London Times provides perhaps the most authoritative accounting published to date.

Scattered in seven Afghan army garrisons across the country, from Kabul and Kandahar to Herat, Mazar-Sharif, Kunduz, these arms depots include an impressive amount of U.S. military hardware: 22,174 armored Humvees, for example, 42 pickup trucks and SUVS, 64,363 machine guns, 162,043 radios. 16,035 night vision goggles, 358,530 assault rifles (the real ones, not the “assault rifles” that Joe Biden warns about at home), 126,295 pistols, and 176 artillery pieces.

And that’s just for starters. The U.S. also generously left behind more than 100 helicopters, including 33 Blackhawks, 4 C-130 transport planes, and some 60 other fixed-wing aircraft.

There was also oodles of ammunition to go along with all the loot.

The question that has not really been pressed about this rather awe-inspiring armory is, why?

Why did we leave it behind to be used by the Taliban?

I don’t believe that question has been addressed with anything like the determination it deserves.

Some people have suggested that it was just a matter of simple incompetence on the part of the Biden administration, particularly the State Department, which is overseeing the evacuation, and the president himself, who apparently chose to ignore advice from some of his advisors about the time table for the evacuation.

But I suspect there is something more insidious than simple incompetence.

What we’re dealing with here is politicized, and therefore, malevolent incompetence.

This is beginning to be recognized in some surprising venues.

The New York Times, for example, just published an op-ed by Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine who is part of a group of “veterans, journalists, and activists” who have been privately helping to organize evacuation efforts in Afghanistan for months.

“Never,” Ackerman wrote, “have I witnessed a greater, swifter collapse of competence than what I have seen with the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.”

Nor is he shy about identifying the source of the pandemonium: “Events at the airport—desperation, death—indicate the extreme chaos that ensues when the commander in chief doesn’t actually understand the value of service.”

Like many observers, Ackerman focuses mainly on the chaos in Kabul.

But I continue to wonder about all that fire power and supporting matériel that we have left behind.

Why did we do so? Why did we not destroy it?

As far as I know, no one has answered those questions.

Of course, military hardware is not all that we have left behind.

The evacuation “mission” is apparently also leaving behind hundreds of Americans.

According to Rep. Dan Crenshaw, among others, “Biden is not letting U.S. citizens through the airport gates. It has been impossible to get anyone through for the last 24 hours.”

Crenshaw concludes: “This administration has been lying about their intent to save Americans. Unforgivable.”

Biden has been quick to try to shift the blame for this whole debacle onto Donald Trump. “He made a deal with the Taliban!” is his constant refrain.

But Biden neglects to point out that Trump had a plan to leave by the beginning of May, before the “summer fighting season,” and well before the Taliban had overrun the country.

Biden came up with his own timetable for the optics: he wanted to be able to claim the credit for ending “America’s longest war” and to do so in a way that would deny Trump any credit for it.

It has backfired spectacularly, and the blowback, I predict, is far from over.

For those who wonder about the kinder, gentler Taliban that Biden is partnering with, we’re already getting some vivid indications.

Sure, they post pictures of themselves eating ice-cream to taunt Biden.

I have even seen reports that they have bought or are planning to buy a painting by Hunter Biden to install in the Presidential palace.

Maybe that’s satire, who knows?

The Biden administration and its media poodles keep suggesting that the Taliban may be turning over a new leaf. I think you would have to be mad to think so.

One representative incident: The London Times is reporting that “Taliban fighters have shot dead an Afghan folk singer after it outlawed music and women’s voices on television and radio in the bellwether province of Kandahar, laying the ground for a nationwide ban in an echo of the brutal Islamist regime of 20 years ago.”

Uh oh.

What have we left behind in Afghanistan?

The brilliant editorial cartoonist Michael P. Ramirez provided the crispest summary in his cartoon for today.

A big transport helicopter is flying over our (former) embassy in Kabul. One speech balloon asks: “What did we leave behind.”

The other answers: “Our credibility.”

What We Left Behind in Afghanistan (theepochtimes.com)

In a stunning announcement, former Democratic Senate Leader Gloria Romero endorsed Republican Larry Elder for Governor in the recall election of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Romero is a longtime charter school and parental choice advocate, which aligns with Elders’s position on school choice.

“Our public schools need big change. I’m Gloria Romero; I was the majority leader of Democrats in the state senate. I believe in charter schools and school choice. So does Larry Elder – but not Gavin Newsom. He shut our public schools while he sent his kids to private schools” said Romero in a new campaign video ad for Elder.

“Yes, I’m a Democrat. But the recall of Newsom is not about political party. It’s about Newsom. Larry Elder for governor” said Romero in the video. Romero is also a contributor to the California Globe and former California Senate Majority Leader, former Senator and Assemblywoman.

She was also the Senate Education Committee, and “authored and guided to passage a fiercely contested ‘parent trigger’ law which allows a majority of parents in a failing school to vote on a method to restructure the school” reports the California Globe.

In his campaign video Elder says, “school choice means the money follows the child rather than the other way around. A quality education is the first step into the middle class.”

Former CA Democrat Publicly Endorses Republican Larry Elder for Gavin Newsom Recall Election | Gregg Jarrett (thegreggjarrett.com)

This is a strange thing to have to tell someone, but here’s some advice that could have saved Kristin Pitzen’s some problems: Social media reaches beyond California.

Given that’s the whole point of social media, it seems like an odd bit of knowledge to relay. Even when you have your account on Twitter or Facebook set to private, if you post something particularly cretinous, if it rubs one of your friends wrong and you’re in a position of authority, there’s a good chance that it’s going to go wide, with decided swiftness.

In this case, Pitzen apparently didn’t even try to hide it. When the teacher in Southern California’s Newport-Mesa Unified School District posted about what she thinks of the American flag in her classroom on TikTok (there isn’t one), it was entirely public.

While she didn’t identify herself on her account, it didn’t take long for her identity to be sussed out. Her opinion might play well in Southern California. It probably doesn’t do so well when exported outside of the Golden State, however.

Here’s a brief summary about what she said regarding Ol’ Glory: She doesn’t have it in her classroom because she “lost” it, but if her students want to say the Pledge of Allegiance they can say it to the LGBT rainbow flag.Trending:US Special Forces Vets Go Rogue in Middle of Night, Rescue Afghan Allies That Biden Won’t

According to the U.K. Daily Mail, the school district is now investigating Pitzen after the high school English teacher’s clip about the Pledge of Allegiance got attention this week.

“OK, so during third period, we have announcements and they do the Pledge of Allegiance,” Pitzen said at the beginning of the video.

“I always tell my class, stand if you feel like it, don’t stand if you feel like it, say the words if you want, you don’t have to say the words.”

“So my class decided to stand but not say the words — totally fine,” she said. “Except for the fact that my room does not have a flag.”Do you think this teacher should be fired?Yes No
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“It used to be there,” she said, pointing and laughing. She said that while the school was closed for the pandemic, she took it down — adding, in a stage whisper, that she did it “because it made me uncomfortable.”

“And I packed it away, and I don’t know where, and I haven’t found it yet,” she added, laughing in a way that indicated she wasn’t exactly looking for it — if, indeed, she had “lost” it in the first place.

When one of her students said it was “kinda weird that we stand and then we say it (the Pledge of Allegiance) to nothing. And I’m like, ‘Oh, well, I’ve got to find it, I’m working on it, I got you.’”

At this point, a laughing Pitzen makes it clear she had not intention of looking for the flag.

“In the meantime, I tell this kid, ‘We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.’ And he like, looks around and goes, ‘Oh, that one?’”Related:Listen: Hot Mic Catches Democrats Making Fun of Pledge of Allegiance

She then points to the LGBT pride flag.

Teacher mocks the American Flag and suggests to students they can say the Pledge of Allegiance to the pride flag: pic.twitter.com/1QTS5xjPln

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) August 27, 2021

In a separate video, she showed off all of the flags she had collected and put around her classroom for Pride Month back in June, putting her hand over her heart and saying, “I pledge allegiance to the queers.”

She shows off all the pride flags in her classroom and says “I pledge allegiance to the queers” pic.twitter.com/eQXe1OfPoW

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) August 27, 2021

Even in the People’s Republic of California, this is a bit iffy — particularly given she teaches in Orange County, not known for being the bluest part of the state. But the social part of social media means people who don’t live in Pitzen’s bubble got to see it. Shocker of shockers, they thought the disrespect for the flag — as well as coercing a student to pledge allegiance to the LGBT flag — was appalling.

What’s so disturbing is that these people post this thinking no one will care — like she’s not doing something wrong.

Well, now the district is investigating her.

Parents: remember to have conversations with your kids about their teachers, what they teach and how they teach it. https://t.co/3wN1kppBGe

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 29, 2021

She should move to Afghanistan and strictly adhere to Sharia law. https://t.co/jvWz0yB71F

— Matthew Kolken (@mkolken) August 28, 2021

I’ve been reading about our fallen heroes all day, and then to see this…it made me weep. https://t.co/TaARsaWGHm

— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) August 28, 2021

Even in inside California, conservatives — notably Richard Grenell, former President Donald Trump’s acting director of national intelligence — were outraged at the video.

What kind of parent would allow their child to be taught by this wacko?

Why are parents turning their kids over to someone they don’t know?

I’d like to talk to people who think this is good?!? https://t.co/VnNxeBWLjA

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 28, 2021

“What kind of parent would allow their child to be taught by this wacko? Why are parents turning their kids over to someone they don’t know? I’d like to talk to people who think this is good?!?” Grenell tweeted.

Apparently, the school district is talking to people, too.

“We are aware of this incident and are investigating,” Annette Franco, public relations officer for the district, told Fox News.

“While we do not discuss employee related matters, we can tell you that showing respect and honor for our nation’s flag is a value that we instill in our students and an expectation of our employees. We take matters like this seriously and will be taking action to address it.”

That doesn’t exactly sound like they were pledging allegiance to the queers.

From the early stage of the fallout, it seems like even Pitzen might be getting the idea that the video wasn’t such a great idea.

“The original TikTok has since been taken down – along with all of Pitzen’s social media accounts – but has been viewed on Twitter more than 1.2 million times,” the Daily Mail reported.

I know this might come as a surprise to some in California, but yes, many millions of Americans still do respect the American flag. Possibly not knowing anyone who feels like that, Pitzen decided to tell the world her feelings, and how she manipulates her students.

To her, itt was all a great big laugh — particularly the part where she had a student pledge allegiance to the LGBT flag. LOL, amirite?

Perhaps — if you’re a liberal social media influencer and not a teacher. Pitzen isn’t getting paid to have yuks with the American flag or coerce the students in her charge to pledge allegiance to her pet cause. Hopefully, once the investigation is complete, she won’t be getting paid with public money at all.

Teacher Brags She Has No American Flag in Class, Here’s What She Tells Students to Pledge Allegiance To (westernjournal.com)

What’s Happening:

There are many mistakes made by the Biden administration in the unfolding Afghanistan crisis.

Far too many to count in just one article.

But it seems, over the last few days, the administration has gone out of its way to make matters worse.

We learned that Biden caved to the Taliban’s demands to leave by August 31^st.

Now, we discovered that Biden gave the murderous regime a list of American names.

Um… is Joe that much of an idiot? The administration claim this was to aid getting Americans out.

But Rep. Dan Crenshaw has a different take on this.

From Twitter:

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison. https://t.co/WTkeRytHmN

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 26, 2021

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison.

Republican lawmaker Dan Crenshaw hammered the Biden administration over their handling of American names to the Taliban. He said this was “borderline treason” and those responsible “need to go to prison.”

The administration claims they did this to help Americans get to the airport.

But reports from the ground revealed that the Taliban was in no way trying to help Americans.

Some stories say that they have been detaining Americans along the road. They have been stealing passports and phones.

One story claims Americans have been beaten.

So, why would Biden give a list of names of Americans stuck overseas to our enemy?

Remember, we are trying to evacuate Americans because they are in danger if they stay. The Taliban are not our friends.

They want us gone—because God knows what they’d do if Americans stick around.

It didn’t occur to Biden that handing over American names to these terrorists would be a bad idea?

Is Biden working for the Taliban? He gave them billions of dollars worth of weapons and gear.

And he is making it easier for the Taliban to hunt down those Americans Biden is leaving behind.

If it does constitute treason, Biden could be in very big trouble.

Key Takeaways:

• Dan Crenshaw blasted Biden over handing American names to the Taliban.
• The Republican said this is “borderline treason.”
• He called for those who did it to be sent to prison.

Dan Crenshaw Drops Accusation On Biden’s Team – He Claims Handing Out American Names “Qualifies As Borderline Treason” (thepatriotjournal.com)

Newly sworn-in New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is wasting no time taking sides in the school mask wars. Even before taking the top job, she told NBC’s “Today” that she intends to mandate masks for all public school students in the state.

She’s got President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on her side, but the science is against her. There are no studies that demonstrate forcing young kids to wear masks reduces the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Mandating masks also ignores the fundamental fact that not all masks are created equal. That should be the basis for a truce in the mask wars breaking out all over the nation. Mandates that settle for cloth masks with cartoon characters on them are a joke.

Most of the masks kids are wearing are laughably ineffective. A cloth mask blocks only 3% of viral particles from reaching the wearer, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. For such a minuscule difference, who would force kids to struggle with masks all day?

Instead of mandating masks, school districts should hand out effective masks, such as N95 or KN95 masks, at the beginning of the school day to kids whose parents request them. These masks block 95% of incoming viral particles. The masks were in short supply at the beginning of the pandemic, but no longer.

Flat surgical masks made from nonwoven polypropylene would be an improvement over what most kids wear. They block out 56% of virus particles, according to the same British study. But note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns a surgical mask “does NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection” in a health care setting.

Helping families who favor masking is smarter than producing classrooms full of kids with soiled, ineffective masks and many outraged parents.

The delta variant accounts for 98% of U.S. cases now and appears to be more dangerous to children. But would masks at school make a difference?

Not according to a CDC study of 169 Georgia elementary schools last winter. CDC researchers found that schools requiring staff and teachers to mask up had 37% fewer cases of COVID, and schools that improved air quality and ventilation had 39% fewer cases. Those approaches work. But mandating that students wear masks had no statistically significant impact on the spread of COVID. Mandating masks and letting masks be optional produced the same results. Not surprising considering the kinds of masks most kids wear.

Yet a week after releasing the Georgia study, the agency reversed course and recommended universal masking in school without offering new findings to justify that 180-degree flip. Perhaps the agency looked at the rising cases among children and panicked.

No surprise. Over the course of the pandemic, the CDC has earned a reputation as the “Centers for Disease Confusion.” The agency should have been guided by its own research.

Instead, it kowtowed to political correctness. Only a minority of Republicans support mandating masks, while 92% of Democrats agree, according to an Aug. 17 Axios/Ipsos poll.

Ten states — mostly blue states like Connecticut, New Jersey and California — mandate masks. Other states leave it up to local school boards. And eight red states, including Florida, ban local school boards from mandating masks, insisting parents get to decide.

Last week, Biden escalated the mask wars by threatening federal Department of Education lawsuits against the seven states. The New York Times followed with a full-throated endorsement of Biden’s maneuver, calling mandatory masking a “common-sense public health” policy.

Sorry. The science doesn’t support it.

Hochul argues that the New York Health Department has the authority to require masking in the state. According to the letter of the law, she’s right. But the Health Department has lost credibility after forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients and covering up the deadly results. The Health Department can’t be trusted.

Instead, Hochul should put parents in charge and provide effective masks for families who want them.

That’s good advice for governors in every state. Mandating masks that don’t work is a farce.

The Mask Mandate Farce :: Right & Free (rightandfree.com)

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a U.S. Marine infantry officer and battalion commander, was fired late last week after a video that he posted on social media went viral. In the video, he demanded that members of the Biden administration be held accountable for the disaster in Afghanistan, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 13 U.S. service members.

“[I’m] not making this video because it’s potentially an emotional time, I’m making it because I have a growing discontent and contempt for my perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy-level,” Scheller said. “And I want to specifically ask some questions to some of my senior leaders.”

“If I’m willing to risk my current battalion commander seat, my retirement, my family stability, to say some of the things that I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, accountability from my senior leaders,” he continued. “The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield, let someone down, that servicemember has always rose to the occasion, done extraordinary things. People are upset because their senior leaders let them down. And none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability, are saying we messed this up.”

“If an O-5 battalion commander has the simplest live-fire incident, EO complaint. Boom. Fired,” he continued. “But we have a secretary of defense that testified to Congress in May that the Afghan National Security Force could withstand the Taliban advance. We have Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs — who the commandant is a member of that — who’s supposed to advise on military policy. We have a Marine combatant commander. All of these people are supposed to advise. And I’m not saying we’ve got to be in the Afghanistan forever. But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise your hand and say, we completely messed this up?”

“And what I’ll say is, from my position, potentially all those people did die in vain if we don’t have senior leaders that own up and raise their hand and say, we did not do this well in the end,” he concluded. “Without that, we just keep repeating the same mistakes. This amalgamation of the economic / corporate / political/ higher military ranks are not holding up their end of the bargain. I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, I demand accountability.”

U.S. Marine Commander Fired After Demanding ‘Accountability’ From Biden Admin Over Afghanistan Disaster | The Daily Wire

Chesa Boudin, AOC, and other progressive Democrats have cozied up to ‘Sing Tao’

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) earlier this month spoke at the annual gala for a pro-Beijing newspaper that has registered as a foreign agent of China due to its influence activities in the United States.

Newsom lauded Sing Tao for its “journalistic integrity” and for providing “balanced news stories” to its readers. He also said the newspaper, which publishes daily in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, has helped Chinese Americans acclimate to California.

Sing Tao is considered a pro-Beijing news outlet. Its owners are members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory group controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. One of the owners, Charles Ho, last year defended a national security law that has been used to arrest pro-democracy journalists in Hong Kong. The Department of Justice required Sing Tao to register this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law aimed at tracking foreign influence in the United States. Chinese state-controlled news outlets like CGTN, China Daily, and Xinhua have also registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents.

Newsom’s praise for the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece comes as he is campaigning to remain in office. Newsom’s opponents cited California’s high tax rates, homelessness problem, and lax enforcement of immigration laws as reasons to recall the Democrat.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) has also praised Sing Tao. The “Squad” leader thanked the newspaper in June 2020 for covering a roundtable discussion she held for foreign-language media outlets. Her campaign paid $728 to Sing Tao in April 2021 for ads touting the coronavirus vaccine and $2,755 for ads in June 2020, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Rep. Grace Meng (N.Y.), another progressive Democrat, has paid $12,364 to Sing Tao through her campaign since 2012, the most of any lawmaker.

Former Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.) paid for $6,600 worth of ads in 2016. Royce, who was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee until his retirement in 2019, is currently a registered lobbyist for Chinese tech giant Tencent.

The Democratic National Committee said in May that it would place ads with Sing Tao and other newspapers to raise awareness about hate crimes against the Asian-American community. The Republican National Committee paid $2,855 to the newspaper in November 2020.

Sing Tao has had most of its success cozying up to policymakers in California.

Chesa Boudin, the progressive San Francisco district attorney, spoke at the Sing Tao gala. Boudin, who once worked as a translator for the government of Hugo Chavez, the late Venezuelan communist dictator, touted an endorsement from Sing Tao during his campaign in 2019.

Like Newsom, Boudin faces a recall in San Francisco. His critics say his criminal justice reform efforts have caused a dramatic spike in crime. Chinese-American activists have criticized Boudin amid a spike in attacks against elderly people of Asian descent in San Francisco. Many of the activists blame Boudin’s soft-on-crime policies and support his recall, according to the New York Times.

San Francisco mayor London Breed (D.) and state senator Scott Wiener (D.) also spoke at the Sing Tao gala.

Newsom, Ocasio-Cortez, and the Democratic National Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Newsom Praised Chinese Foreign Agent for ‘Journalistic Integrity’ (freebeacon.com)

EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak – the disgraced proponent of the COVID-19 “natural origins” theory and longtime collaborator of the Chinese Communist Party – deleted a tweet revealing his attendance at an event sponsored by Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases featuring Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers.

Posted on December 10th, 2019, just weeks before the Chinese government reported its first case of COVID-19, the tweet revealed Daszak’s attendance at the Nipah Virus International Conference in Singapore.

“The two-day session was co-hosted by Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Also listed as organizers are the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,” reports the site Some Bitch Told Me. CEPI was founded with a sizable investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the now-deleted tweet, Daszak details how Shi Zhengli, the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s “bat lady,” calls for “open and transparent international scientific collaboration on pandemic risk pathogens” at her lab’s Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facility. He follows up with a slide explaining how “you can train in the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan.”

Daszak’s deletion of the tweet follows The National Pulse unearthing the scientist’s extensive conflicts of interest with the Chinese Communist Party and its Wuhan Institute of Virology. These ties ultimately led to his recusal from the Lancet COVID-19 commission, where he used his position to discredit the “lab leak” theory and spread disinformation about the origins of the virus.

The unearthed post also follows Fauci, whose NIAID sponsored the event, denying affiliation with the Wuhan lab.

EcoHealth’s Peter Daszak Deletes Tweet Revealing Wuhan Lab Researchers At Fauci-Funded Conference. – The National Pulse

Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is demanding answers from the U.S. State Department after a National Pulse exposé revealing the Biden regime cancelled Trump-era plans to found a new bureau specializing in rescuing Americans from crisis zones such as Afghanistan.

On August 18th, we reported:

The “Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau” – which was designed to handle medical, diplomatic, and logistical support concerning Americans overseas was paused by Antony Blinken’s State Department earlier this year. Notification was officially signed just months before the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. 

In a letter dated August 27th, Rep. Gosar wrote to Secretary Blinken:

As Americans and the world-at-large watch in dismay at the frantic scenes coming from Kabul, we are all concerned for the safety of our fellow countrymen. I am equally concerned with the lack of preparation for this contingency. Questions regarding this lack of preparation will be brought to the Department of Defense, however I write today concerned by reports that the State Department terminated a crisis response group in the months leading up to the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Specifically, I am referring to the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR) established in October 2020 under the Trump Administration which was designed to handle medical, diplomatic, and logistical support concerning Americans overseas. Reports from The National Pulse indicate that the State Department under your watch terminated this critically important bureau just months before the Afghanistan withdrawal and the need to evacuate thousands of Americans.

Gosar added:

Cancelling the CCR  as the Biden Administration was preparing for the Afghanistan withdrawal is baffling and raises serious questions about how prepared the Administration was to complete this final step in Afghanistan. Reports also indicate that the decision to pause the program go back as far as February, which means this decision would have also jeopardized the withdrawal plan committed to under the Trump Administration.MUST READ:  Bannon’s War Room 1188: Thurs. 19 August 2021

If reports that the CCR has been paused since February and terminated in June are correct, it shows that State was never prepared for this withdrawal, justifying the heartbreaking and concerning reports and videos we are now seeing from Afghanistan.

I am therefore asking for confirmation on whether or not CCR was terminated and if so, on what grounds? A full scope answer of what authorities and justification were given to terminate the CCR, what the State Department felt it had in place to fill the CCR gap, and a determination of any issues for the State Department responding to this contingency would greatly aid in oversight of this withdrawal.

Finally, please also indicate if elimination of the CCR was in response to any Biden Administration wide orders to reevaluate Trump era policies or the product of any lingering resentment towards the former Administration held by career or political employees. Please adhere to all rules and regulation when fulfilling this request.

The letter comes as discredited “fact check” websites such as Politifact panicked over The National Pulse’s reporting, and sought to confuse the matter with a long article quoting unrelated think-tank “experts” who claimed without evidence that the scrapping of the CCR plan did not affect the Afghanistan withdrawal. Notably, Politifact did not attempt to rate the story true or false, as it usually does.

The far-left Media Matters website was also rattled by the revelation, first misattributing the story to Fox News, then baselessly attempting to confuse the OpMed bureau inside the State Department with the new CCR, without speaking to people actively involved in the Trump-era program, as The National Pulse sourced.MUST READ:  WATCH: Kassam Breaks Biden Botched Afghanistan Exfiltration Scoop.

You can read Rep. Gosar’s full letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, here.

Rep. Gosar Demands Answers from State Dept Following National Pulse Afghan Exfiltration Exposé. – The National Pulse

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) survey shows that at least 10 federal agencies have plans to expand their use of facial recognition technology over the next two years—a prospect that alarms privacy advocates who worry about a lack of oversight.

The GAO released the results of a survey of 24 federal agencies, finding that 18 of them use facial recognition technology. Fourteen of those agencies use the tech for routine activity, such as unlocking agency-issued smartphones, while six reported using facial recognition software for criminal investigations and five others use the technology for surveillance, the Aug. 24 report found.

“For example, [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] reported that it used an FRT system (AnyVision) to monitor its facilities by searching live camera feeds in real-time for individuals on watchlists or suspected of criminal activity, which reduces the need for security guards to memorize these individuals’ faces,” the GAO said. “This system automatically alerts personnel when an individual on a watchlist is present.”

According to the GAO, at least 10 government agencies plan to expand their use of facial recognition technology through 2023. To do so, many agencies are turning to the private sector.

For example, “[the] U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations reported it began an operational pilot using Clearview AI in June 2020, which supports the agency’s counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigations,” the GAO said.

“The agency reported it already collects facial images with mobile devices to search national databases and plans to enhance searches by accessing Clearview AI’s large repository of facial images from open sources to search for matches.”

The GAO’s Aug. 24 report follows June research that focused specifically on law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology. The GAO’s June report revealed the vast troves of data held by federal law enforcement, including 836 million images held by the Department of Homeland Security alone.

The June report also revealed the lack of oversight regarding facial recognition technology. According to the report, 13 of the 20 federal law enforcement agencies that use the technology didn’t know what systems they use.

“For example, when we requested information from one of the agencies about its use of non-federal systems, agency officials told us they had to poll field division personnel because the information was not maintained by the agency,” the report said.

“These agency officials also told us that the field division personnel had to work from their memory about their past use of non-federal systems and that they could not ensure we were provided comprehensive information about the agency’s use of non-federal systems.”

The lack of oversight of the government’s use of surveillance technology is an issue that has drawn the attention of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Democrats have largely focused on the racial disparities in the accuracy of facial recognition, while some Republicans have expressed concerns about domestic surveillance.

Michigan resident Robert Williams, a Black man who was wrongly arrested in January after Detroit police incorrectly identified him as a felon based on shoddy facial recognition technology, testified about such problems at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing.

“Why is law enforcement even allowed to use such technology when it obviously doesn’t work?” Williams said to lawmakers July 13. “I get angry when I hear companies, politicians, and police talk about how this technology isn’t dangerous or flawed or say that they only use it as an investigative tool.

“If any of that was true, I wouldn’t have been arrested.”

Williams said he supports the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act, which would halt the use of facial recognition technology by federal agencies until that use was authorized by Congress. However, little action has been taken on the measure—though Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) reintroduced the legislation in June.

With inaction on the federal level, states and localities have taken to curbing the use of facial recognition technology.

The state of Washington enacted a law in March 2020 that requires government agencies to obtain a warrant to run facial recognition scans. Local jurisdictions such as Oakland, San Francisco, and King County, Washington, have also banned government use of the technology.

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) support such efforts, arguing that the expansion of facial recognition technology must be halted until lawmakers can enact safeguards.

Others have cautioned against banning useful technology in the zeal to protect privacy.

“Critics miss the fact that the benefits of law enforcement use of facial recognition are well-proven—they are used today to help solve crimes, identify victims, and find witnesses—and most of the concerns about the technology remain hypothetical,” the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a largely pro-tech industry think tank, stated.

“In fact, critics of the technology almost always make a ‘slippery slope’ argument about the potential threat of expanding police surveillance, rather than pointing to specific instances of harm. Banning the technology now would do more harm than good.”

Federal Use of Facial Recognition Technology Expanding: GAO Report (theepochtimes.com)

Hurricane Ida shut down more than 95 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil production, said regulators, suggesting the Category 4 storm will have a significant impact on energy supply and gas prices.

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed the stop in oil production, with firms suspending 1.74 million barrels per day in oil production in the Gulf.

Colonial Pipeline confirmed Sunday it is temporarily shutting down two pipelines between Houston, Texas, and Greensboro, North Carolina, as a precaution due to the storm. They were shuttered “as a precautionary and routine safety measure,” the firm said a statement.

Ida made landfall on Sunday near Port Fourchon, near the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which is the largest privately-owned crude terminal in the United States.

Around 94 percent of Gulf of Mexico natural gas production was suspended due to the storm, according to the federal regulator.

“Based on data from offshore operator reports submitted as of 11:30 CDT today, personnel have been evacuated from a total of 288 production platforms, 51.43 percent of the 560 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico,” said the agency in a statement on Sunday. “Production platforms are the structures located offshore from which oil and gas are produced. Unlike drilling rigs, which typically move from location to location, production facilities remain in the same location throughout a project’s duration.”

Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, told news outlets on Saturday that if the New Orleans refineries take a direct hit from the storm, gas prices will likely rise about 10 cents per gallon in some markets.

Oil prices also rose sharply last week ahead of Hurricane Ida’s arrival.

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds in southeastern Lousiana, doing considerable damage to infrastructure and causing significant flooding in the region. Hundreds of thousands of people are currently without power in Louisiana, according to Poweroutage.us.

In an update from the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters, President Joe Biden said that locals need to take heed of state and local officials’ directions.

“The storm is a life-threatening storm. … And its devastation is likely to be immense. We shouldn’t kid ourselves,” he said. “And so the most important thing I can say right now is that everyone, everyone should listen to the instructions from local and state officials, just how dangerous this is. And take it seriously. It’s not just the coasts. It’s not just New Orleans. It’s north as well. The rainfall is expected to be exceedingly high.”

Biden said he would put “the country’s full might” behind rescue and recovery efforts.

Gas Prices to Rise as Hurricane Ida Shuts Down 95 Percent of Gulf’s Oil Production (theepochtimes.com)

The FBI allegedly paid a publisher of white supremacist literature more than $144,000 over 16-plus years to serve as a confidential informant, according to recent filings in an ongoing domestic extremism case.

These allegations were made earlier this month by Kaleb Cole, an accused member of the white supremacist group Atomwaffen. Cole was arrested in February 2020 for allegedly participating in an Atomwaffen intimidation campaign against Jewish people and journalists of color.

On Aug. 13, Cole filed a motion to suppress evidence seized during the FBI’s search of his Texas home. According to Cole, the FBI failed to disclose the sordid background of one of its confidential informants in the bureau’s application for a search warrant.

“The CI [confidential informant] is a convicted felon and currently owns and operates a publishing company that distributes white supremacist writings,” Cole said in his Aug. 13 filing.

“The CI began his long career as a professional informant in exchange for consideration regarding his sentence on a federal conviction for possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and an unregistered silencer.

“He has continued this work for pay.”

According to Cole, the FBI has paid this white supremacist more than $144,000, including more than $82,000 for his work in this case.

Cole’s attorneys argued that the FBI’s omissions violate requirements for law enforcement to disclose whether their informants have financial or other ulterior motives for providing information.

“The failure to include the information about the CI’s incentives is made more egregious by the fact that the warrant application incriminated Mr. Cole based almost solely on the alleged observations of the CI,” Cole’s motion said.

The Department of Justice admitted in filings last week that the FBI failed to disclose information about the confidential informant’s criminal history—though prosecutors said the search warrant used against Cole was still legally obtained.

“Although the defense is correct that certain potential impeachment information about the informant was not included in the affidavit, that omission is hardly fatal,” the DOJ said. “The omitted information was limited to the fact that the informant was well compensated by the FBI over a 16-year period, and was convicted of a firearms crime over 15 years ago.”

According to prosecutors, the FBI didn’t include this information because agents believed in good faith that probable cause wasn’t dependent on the informant’s credibility.

Moreover, the FBI didn’t believe that including the informant’s criminal history would have changed the judge’s decision to issue a warrant to search Cole’s home, prosecutors said. In fact, the DOJ argued that the FBI’s use of the informant for more than 16 years suggests that the FBI consistently found the informant reliable.

“And it is far-fetched to suggest that a single 15-year-old firearms conviction would have caused the magistrate judge to refuse to sign off on the warrant,” the DOJ said. “And finally, as the affidavit outlined in great detail, the agents were able to corroborate the information the informant had relayed about the plot.”

The DOJ’s response didn’t address Cole’s allegation that the FBI informant is a white supremacist publisher.

When contacted by The Epoch Times, a DOJ spokesperson said, “Our filings in this case speak for themselves, and we have no additional comment to add at this time.” Cole’s attorney declined to comment, while the FBI’s Houston office directed inquiries to the national press office, which has not responded.

Cole’s case is set for jury trial on Sept. 27.

The allegations about the Atomwaffen informant follow revelations about the heavy role FBI informants played in the failed plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A Buzzfeed News investigation last month found that the FBI used at least 12 informants involved with the kidnapping—suggesting that the scheme might not have started in the first place without the FBI.

“Working in secret, they [the informants] did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception,” Buzzfeed reported. “The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”

Questions have also been raised about the role FBI informants may have played in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.

“What would be shocking and strange is not if the FBI had embedded informants and other infiltrators in the groups planning the January 6 Capitol riot,” said journalist Glenn Greenwald, who’s been extensively documenting various questionable activities of the national security apparatus, in a recent op-ed. “What would be shocking and strange—bizarre and inexplicable—is if the FBI did not have those groups under tight control.”

FBI Allegedly Funded White Supremacist Publisher: Court Documents (theepochtimes.com)

Twitter has permanently suspended former New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson, an outspoken critic of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus mandates and lockdowns—as well as Big Tech censorship.

“The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules,” a Twitter spokesperson told news outlets on Aug. 28, referring to the disease caused by the CCP virus.

Berenson, on his Substack page, also confirmed the suspension, writing: “Goodbye, Twitter.”

“This was the tweet that did it,” he wrote, referring to a now-deleted tweet that downplayed the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. “Entirely accurate. I can’t wait to hear what a jury will make of this. Meantime, guess you’ll be getting more Substacks.”

Berenson later noted that the ban didn’t come as a surprise to him.

“I expected this day was coming,” he wrote. “And Twitter can’t touch my Substack (in fact, it reportedly tried to buy Substack last year, but Substack fortunately said no).”

Berenson also hinted at possibly filing a lawsuit against Twitter over the suspension.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health agencies have said that COVID-19 vaccines “are safe and effective” after clinical trials and say that side effects are rare. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walenksy and others have cited studies saying that vaccines don’t necessarily prevent transmission of COVID-19, but have stated that the shots limit the severity of the illness.

Berenson worked for The New York Times from 1999 until 2010 before becoming a full-time author.

In July, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisors, criticized Berenson for his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“It’s horrifying … I just don’t get that. I mean, and I don’t think that anybody who is thinking clearly can get that,” he said of the crowd’s response to Berenson’s speech.

Right before his suspension, Berenson had often made note of the results of a preprint Israeli study that found that previous COVID-19 infection provides better protection against the Delta variant than any COVID-19 shot.

“SARS-CoV-2-naive vaccinees had a 13.06-fold increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to those previously infected, when the first event (infection or vaccination) occurred during January and February of 2021,” the study reads.

SARS-CoV-2 is another name for the CCP virus.

Those who were vaccinated, the study found, were also at a higher risk of being hospitalized when compared to individuals who were previously infected.

Berenson also assailed what he described as Big Tech censorship, writing for the Wall Street Journal in December that the pandemic has ushered in a “new age of censorship and suppression.”

“Information has never been more plentiful or easier to distribute. Yet we are sliding into a new age of censorship and suppression, encouraged by technology giants and traditional media companies. As someone who’s been falsely characterized as a coronavirus ‘denier,’ I have seen this crisis firsthand,” he wrote, with Amazon having twice allegedly blocked the publication of his book.

Twitter Permanently Suspends Alex Berenson Over Viral COVID-19 Tweets (theepochtimes.com)

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. – On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding transparency and that they cease sending “illegal aliens” to Florida.

“President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and their administration have refused to fulfill their responsibility to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress and the resulting influx of unvetted illegal aliens endangers our national security and undermines the socioeconomic wellbeing of hardworking American citizens,” DeSantis said in a written statement. “Unfortunately, even though the federal government is responsible for immigration enforcement, it is the states who bear the brunt of this administration’s reckless immigration policies.”

In the letter (pdf) to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the Republican governor wrote that he wanted an end to the mass resettlements of “illegal aliens” into the United States. DeSantis also urged the Department of Homeland Security to provide more transparency when it comes to the resettling of illegals in Florida and to give advance notice to “state leadership” before illegals are resettled into the state.  He called the Biden administration’s border policies “disastrous” and gave a deadline of September 30, 2021, to give the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) a long list of information and data before sending more illegals into the state.

DeSantis’ letter requested that the Biden administration disclose the following information to FDLE:

• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida;
• the names and destination of the illegal aliens;
• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who were tested for COVID-19 and the results of such tests;
• the identities of illegal aliens who have criminal records and who have previously entered the U.S. illegally; and
• the number and identity of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who have failed to appear for their removal proceedings.

The letter went on to accuse the Biden administration of operating its own human smuggling operation.

“My office has received information indicating that ICE, sometimes with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has chartered flights transporting illegal alien adults and children to Florida,” the governor wrote. “Given the overall lack of transparency, I am concerned that the federal government is running its own massive human smuggling operation, surreptitiously resettling illegal aliens in the various states without consultation or even advance notice to state leadership.”

The governor wrote that this practice is “intolerable and unacceptable.”

DeSantis wrote that he knows “firsthand” about the border crisis as he visited the border and deployed law enforcement officers to aid Texas law enforcement and border patrol agents with the surge of migrants attempting to cross the border.

“I have been to the border, and I observed firsthand the chaos that this administration’s policies have created,” DeSantis said. To fill the void left by the federal government, Florida deployed its own law enforcement officers to the border.”

After speaking with law enforcement officers who were deployed to the border to aid Texas law enforcement, DeSantis said they have told him that many of the migrants that were apprehended at the border said they plan to come to Florida.

“Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of our citizens, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that this administration is aiding and abetting, and frankly encouraging, on the southwest border,” DeSantis said.

Law enforcement officials, according to the governor’s office said that most of the migrants indicated their final stops were going to be larger Florida cities such as Kissimmee, Orlando, Miami, Hialeah, and Jacksonville.

In April 2021, DeSantis had written to Mayorkas’s office requesting that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remove all illegal alien felons who had completed their prison sentences in Florida.  The governor said in his current letter that he has seen “no action” to enforce the federal immigration laws.

DeSantis wrote that it was his opinion that DHS was resettling large numbers of illegal aliens who have “no lawful status under federal immigration law from the southwest border to Florida.”

He wrote: “The Constitution charges the President with the duty to faithfully execute the laws, and with respect to immigration enforcement, the federal government, with the Supreme Court’s blessing, has assumed near exclusive responsibility. Unfortunately, President Biden and this administration refuse to fulfill their responsibility to enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress.”

DeSantis said in his letter that the “Remain in Mexico” program that was administered under the Trump Administration was ultimately replaced with “catch and release” by the Biden administration, which he attributes to the massive influx of migrants.

“The administration’s reversal or weakening of the prior administration’s enforcement policies had amounted to an open invitation for mass illegal migration the United States, and the results have been predictably catastrophic,” DeSantis wrote. “Since this administration took office, the number of illegal aliens encountered at the southwest border has skyrocketed, increasing each month at an unrelenting pace.”

When Biden took office in January the number of border encounters was 78,417. In one month that number increased to 101,098; 173,283 in March; 178,797 in April; 180,569 in May; 188,934 in June and 212,672 in July according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  This puts a total number of encounters for the fiscal year to be approximately 1.3 million.  In the last year of the Trump administration the total number of encounters was 458,088.

The governor ended his letter with doubts that the federal government would comply with his request and reminded the secretary that it was the states who were “saddled” with the costs of having illegals in their states.  Also, he said that massive illegal immigration increases the spread of COVID-19 and will consume taxpayer money and overload government services including the education system.

“Although I seek an immediate end to the resettlement of illegal aliens in Florida, at the very least, DHS should provide the requested information in the interest of greater transparency,” DeSantis wrote. “The State of Florida is entitled to this information to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its people.”

Efforts to obtain a response from the White House were made with no response.

Gov. DeSantis Demands Biden Administration Cease Resettlement of Illegals in Florida (theepochtimes.com)

Google reported to the Australian federal government that it has removed around 800,000 YouTube videos concerning COVID-19, and 275 million COVID-19 apps from across its platform as part of its $1 billion (US $726 million) global campaign to “counter COVID-19 misinformation.”

It has also launched a US $3 million fund to wipe out alleged vaccine misinformation.

Google regards official government information from national health departments or the World Health Organization as reliable sources. Meanwhile, the WHO has noted that information changes over time as the world “learns more about the virus.”

Lucinda Longcroft, Google’s director of government affairs and public policy for Australia and New Zealand, told a Senate committee on foreign interference through social media in July that Google has extensive automated systems and a global network of staff to remove “false or misleading” COVID-19 content “as rapidly as possible.”

This is combined with algorithmic tools to help promote government-approved COVID-19 information and bury “borderline” content, which was defined in a January blog post by Youtube as content that “comes close to—but doesn’t quite cross the line of—violating our Community Guidelines.”

“This has been a broad campaign and activity across our organisation,” Longcroft said. “We have deployed significant resources and developed innovative tools, both human-based and machine-based, to curb harmful information and promote authoritative information.”

During the Senate meeting, Longcroft also confirmed that Google had “engaged very closely” with the Australian government, giving it AU $3.6 million worth of free advertising, resulting in 20.6 million impressions of government-approved COVID-19 information for Australian users.

Big Tech Censorship Concerns

Big tech’s efforts to remove public discourse around COVID-19 from online platforms has raised the ire of some researchers working on understanding the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, who have voiced concerns that big tech is stifling scientific debate around the pandemic, calling it censorship.

For example, in June, YouTube removed a video in which Stanford professor of medicine John Ioannidis discussed data related to COVID-19 and the negative impacts of the ongoing lockdown. Despite numerous challenges to the censorship, YouTube did not reveal which part of Ioannidis’s interview it construed as misinformation.

In May, Facebook deleted a post linking to a peer-reviewed Lancet article, which reported that SARS-CoV-2 spreads by airborne transmission. The article had criticised a claim made by a review funded by World Health Organization (WHO) that there were no firm conclusions to be drawn about airborne transmission.

Authors of the Lancet article included world-renowned experts on aerosols, including American scientist Kimberly Prather and the highly cited aerosol researcher Jose-Luis Jimenez from the University of Colorado. 

“We absolutely recognise that measuring misinformation is a real challenge,” Facebook’s head of policy in Australia Josh Machin told the Senate last month.

“First, because people’s views on whether a post on Facebook is misinformation or not can vary, and also because, particularly since the pandemic began last year, we’ve had to really rapidly scale up our policies and continue to consult with experts, and they have been shifting.”

Machin disclosed that Facebook had removed 18 million posts containing “harmful misinformation” about COVID-19 and vaccines, attached “false” labels to 167 million posts on these topics, and collaborated with 80 fact-checkers around the world.

But while social media companies usually turn to the WHO, local health officials, and governments for authoritative information, “this does not imply that they are unerring,” wrote Swedish bioethics researcher Emilia Niemiec in a scientific report last year.

Niemiec argued that because knowledge about COVID-19 is “currently limited and unsettled,” the medical community is still debating “various topics,” such as the lockdown policies and vaccines.

She also noted that while the censorship on social media might seem like an “effective and immediate” solution to the problem of misinformation, it can also limit the sharing of constructive critique of the current evidence and opinions.

These types of information, the medical researcher pointed out, is “necessary” to identify and correct potential errors, as well as further the understanding of complex issues surrounding the pandemic.

“A major question regarding the policies of the communication platforms is who exactly defines … which information is deemed to be false or harmful? And can we rely on these judgements?” Niemiec asked.

She added that if the “exclusive authority” to define what is scientifically proven or medically substantiated is left to social media providers or certain institutions, there is potential for errors and miscalculation, or even the potential abuse of this power to “foster political, commercial, or other interests.”

“The censorship is not based solely on science,” the researcher added. “An analysis of content banned on social networks suggests that the moderation is often politically biased.

“If we add to this the fact that Google is the most popular search engine, it becomes clear that a few tech companies have huge power over what information Internet users can see and how their views are shaped.”

Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts asked in the Senate on Aug. 11 whether there was a potential “conflict of interest” giving Google the final say in how COVID-19 vaccine information is screened and approved.

Roberts noted that Google and YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, owns 12 percent of Vaccitech Ltd. through a venture capital fund GV (formerly Google Ventures). Vaccitech is a UK-based biotechnology company that co-invented the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Epoch Times has contacted Alphabet, Vaccitech, and Google for comments but did not receive a response.

Google Tells Australian Government of $1 Billion Global Campaign to Censor ‘COVID-19 Misinformation’ (theepochtimes.com)

The accounts of the video state that Joe met Jill two years after a fatal car crash that killed Biden’s previous wife and their baby daughter

A campaign advertisement for the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden describing how he met his wife Jill has been disputed by her ex-husband, according to The Washington Times.

The accounts of the video state that Joe met Jill two years after a fatal car crash that killed Biden’s previous wife and their baby daughter.”

My name is Jill Biden, and I want to tell you about my husband Joe. I first met Joe two years after a car accident that injured his sons and killed his wife and his baby daughter,” Jill said in the advertisement.

Biden said that the two were introduced after he saw her picture on a poster, and requested her number from his brother, who apparently knew her.”

My brother said, there’s this woman – you’ll really like her, Joe,” Biden said in a 2020 Democratic National Convention video, according to the Times. “So I gave her a call, and she had [another] date that night.”

Biden claims that he persuaded her to cancel that date, and Jill corroborated the story saying: “You said, do you think you can break your date? Well, I called and told the guy that I had a friend in from out of town, and went out with Joe.”

However, her ex-husband, Bill Stevenson, denies the account, claiming that Jill and Joe met before the crash during Biden’s campaign for Senate and had an affair which led to the end of their marriage.

The Biden campaign denied the accounts that Stevenson gave to multiple media outlets, accusing him of attempting to publicize his upcoming autobiography, according to the Washington Times.”

These claims are fictitious, seemingly to sell and promote a book,” a Biden campaign spokesperson told Inside Edition in September, according to the paper. “The relationship of Joe and Jill Biden is well documented. Jill Biden separated from her first husband irreconcilably in the fall of 1974 and moved out of their marital home. Joe and Jill Biden had their first date in March of 1975, and they married in June of 1977.

Stevenson made the claims in an August 17 interview with local Delaware media outlet WDEL.”I said, ‘Look, the Bidens made up this dramatic story that they met, he saw a picture of her,’ and I told him, I said, ‘That was so untrue,’”Stevenson said in the interview, according to the Times. “There’s probably 500 people in Delaware that saw Joe Biden and Jill at three major fundraising events at the Stone Balloon [Ale House] in 1972, after the Stone Balloon opened in February.”

One thing I do not want to do, and I know this might sound funny to people, is that I don’t want to hurt her chances of becoming first lady of the United States – that’s not my goal,” Stevenson told the station, according to the paper. “I would say to Jill, ‘listen, you know how I feel about this. You had an affair. You worked on the campaign,’” Stevenson said. “Why you invented this crazy story on Oprah Winfrey [that] he saw your picture in the train station – there’s too many people that knew we worked on his campaign in 1972.”

Ex-husband of Joe Biden’s wife claim two had affair that split marriage – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

Just eleven days have passed since we first reflected on the “unmitigated disasters” of Joe Biden’s short-yet-violent presidency. Today, our worst fears are confirmed. The President of the United States is unable or unwilling to carry out his most basic duties.

Both are likely true.

In Joe Biden’s infrequent moments of lucidity, he callously compares his own personal stories with some of the most fresh and harrowing wounds the nation is feeling. Listen to his press conference from today, if you can bear it, or even find it.

Within minutes he was talking about his son Beau, again, just as he did throughout the election period.

Beau Biden was a Judge Advocate General (JAG) – an Army lawyer – who trained lawyers for the Organization for Security and Co-operation (an NGO) in Europe. Beau spent a year in Iraq in a non-combat role, being visited by his Vice President father three times while deployed. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and received the finest treatment possible until his demise five years later.

Despite these very real differences between Beau Biden’s death and the sudden, violent deaths of 13 U.S. Marines in Kabul on Thursday morning, Joe Biden once again sought to hide behind the body of his deceased son.Four minutes into yesterday’s presser, Biden explained:

“Being the father of an Army Major who served for a year in Iraq and before that was in Kosovo as a U.S. attorney for the better part of six months in the middle of a war. When he came home after a year in Iraq, was diagnosed like many many coming home with an aggressive, lethal cancer of the brain. And we lost. We have some sense like many of you do what the families of these brave heroes are feeling today. You get this feeling like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest. There’s no way out.”MUST READ:  CORTES: Welcome to Joe Biden’s American Carnage.

Beau Biden sadly died of cancer. Dozens of human beings died yesterday because of Joe Biden’s ineptitude, his team’s arrogance, and the U.S. military’s pathetic, woke leaders.

As if the phony comparison wasn’t rage-inducing enough, Biden spent the rest of the presser attempting to blame his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Trump was in fact the President who tried to set up the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau within the State Department. That entity was specifically tasked with dealing with situations like Afghanistan and its capital city. The entity was scrapped by Biden’s team between February and June this year.

In repeatedly insisting that the “buck stops with him”, Joe Biden summons more historical precedent than he may know.

President Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk that read, “The Buck Stops Here”. Plagued by corruption and poor polling numbers, the internationalist president did not run for a second full term.

Perhaps even more fitting is that President Jimmy Carter resurrected the plaque, placing it in front of him in a nationally televised address in April 1977, just a few years before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which caught him flat-footed. That led to the United States funding the mujahideen in Afghanistan, which became the Taliban, which in turn kicked Joe Biden’s ass.

In fact, the last year of the first term Trump administration saw the U.S. achieve zero deaths in Afghanistan.

So what? So nothing, frankly. Or maybe just one thing.

Mainstream Republicans today began to call for Biden’s resignation. Confirming for themselves what some of us have been warning about all along, they now recognize this is not just a mindless present, but a heartless one too.

Joe Biden’s apathy is palpable, as evidenced by his administration’s dismissive and curt press release on the back of a major loss of life for both the U.S. and her supposed friends abroad.

The only strategically correct decision to make in this war is for the Commander-in-Chief to resign. Yes, it hastens the onset of Queen Kamala, but her deep and unshifting unpopularity with the American public will only serve as a boon to conservatives. Bring it on.

But first, Joe Biden must resign.

Joe Biden Must Resign. (thenationalpulse.com)

Deborah Seligsohn – an American academic frequently cited by Western media outlets to debunk the COVID-19 “lab leak” theory – has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party, including delivering lectures at the regime’s Central Party School and accepting fellowships from state-run universities. 

When cited, mainstream media outlets routinely fail to disclose Seligsohn’s deep ties to Beijing, which call into question her ostensible status as a neutral arbiter of COVID-19’s origins. Currently an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Villanova University, Seligsohn was formerly in charge of science and health issues at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing during the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s.

Since her job in the U.S. State Department, Seligsohn has lectured and participated in fellowships at institutions led by the Chinese Communist Party. She addressed the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party – the “exclusive training ground for the elite apparatchiks groomed to govern China” – in December of 2011. She also spoke at the regime-sponsored Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

Seligsohn also served as a research fellow at the state-run Nanjing University before leveraging her credentials to contribute to a host of mainstream media outlets including NPR, Foreign Policy, Associated Press, and more.

In a Foreign Policy op-ed titled “Demands for a Lab Leak Investigation Are a Dangerous Distraction,” Seligsohn posits there “is no actual evidence for the lab leak allegation” despite the theory counting support from scientists and government officials including former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chief Dr. Robert Redfield and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. Seligsohn’s op-ed was then utilized by Chinese state-run media outlet China Global Television Network (CGTN), amplifying her words in its article “Expert: Demands For Lab Leak Investigation Are Dangerous Distraction.

“Although virologists have said over and again that there is no actual evidence for the lab leak allegation of the coronavirus, some people in the U.S. just won’t let it go. The demands for a lab leak investigation are a dangerous distraction, warned Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, in an article published recently on the website Foreign Policy,” CGTN wrote in a summary of Seligsohn’s article.

Seligsohn has peddled similar sentiments in outlets including the Associated Press and NPR, both of which failed to include her Chinese Communist Party ties.

In addition to dismissing the lab leak theory, she has also defended scientific collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party, arguing that “joint US-China research on bat coronaviruses is going to be more important after this pandemic, not less” in the Financial Times.

Seligsohn has participated in exclusive interviews with Chinese state-run media outlets decrying officials who trace COVID-19 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and defending National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded collaboration with Chinese Communist Party-run labs.

U.S. Republicans claim the virus causing COVID-19 escaped from a Wuhan lab. Assistant Professor Deborah Seligsohn of @VillanovaU says such conspiracy theories are very damaging. #covid #coronavirus @DebSeligsohn pic.twitter.com/Id9rffa4e1

— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) August 24, 2021

She joins the ranks of more and more former U.S. government employees and so-called “experts” who have quietly been aiding the Chinese Communist Party for years.

EXC: Media’s ‘Lab Leak’ Denial Darling Is Actually Ex-Chinese Communist Advisor. (thenationalpulse.com)

A sitting Marine battalion commander was fired Friday after he slammed the “ineptitude” of U.S. military leadership over the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he was willing to risk losing his 17-year career and future retirement pension in order to “demand accountability” from top military brass.

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller said in a Facebook post that he was relieved for cause after he posted a video Thursday saying military leadership let service members down during the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal. His video post came after a terrorist attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members, including someone with whom Scheller had a close relationship.

“I have been relieved for caused based on a lack of trust and confidence,” Scheller wrote.

In his Thursday video post, Scheller said that military leadership should take responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan.

“The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down. That service member always rose to the occasion and done extraordinary things,” Scheller said. “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up.'”

The scathing public rebuke is a sign of the growing anger among U.S. service members over the pullout and evacuation effort, which has led to a Taliban takeover of the country, left departing Americans vulnerable to deadly terrorist attacks, and stranded thousands of at-risk Afghan military allies.

“I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders: I demand accountability,” said Scheller.

On Aug. 18, Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps., issued a public letter in an attempt to reassure Marines who were venting their frustration on social media, telling them that their service was “meaningful, powerful, and important.”

Scheller said the letter missed the point and failed to address the actual concerns of his fellow Marines.

He argued that the withdrawal was a major policy failure from the highest levels of military leadership, calling out Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the joint chiefs of staff.

“I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever. But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up’?” asked Scheller.

Scheller acknowledged that his critique would almost certainly cost him his job three years before he would qualify for a retirement pension.

“I thought through, if I post this video, what might happen to me—especially if the video picks up traction, if I have the courage to post it,” Scheller said. “But I think what you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk. If I’m willing to risk my current battalion seat, my retirement, my family’s stability to say some of the things I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, and accountability from my senior leaders.”

Update 4:12 p.m.: This post has been updated to reflect that the Marine Corps relieved Scheller of his duty.

Marine Battalion Commander Fired After Blasting ‘Inept’ Military Leadership Over Afghanistan Withdrawal (freebeacon.com)

Baitulmaal gives financial support to families of Palestinian terrorists

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) on Wednesday shared a tweet that advertised a fundraiser for an organization with ties to Hamas and the Taliban.

Tlaib, who has a long history of anti-Semitic rhetoric, retweeted a post from critical race theorist Khaled Beydoun that urged donations to Baitulmaal, a Texas-based nonprofit. Experts say Baitulmaal helps fundraise for Hamas and distributes aid to the “families of martyrs of the Palestinian people.” And the group’s leader, Mazen Mokhtar, has been accused of working with the Taliban and other terrorist groups.

The retweet isn’t the first time Tlaib expressed support for terrorists. Days after she became a congresswoman, the controversial Democrat hosted Abbas Hamideh, a pro-Hezbollah activist who has repeatedly compared Israelis to Nazis. She shared a post last year that included an anti-Semitic phrase frequently used by Palestinian terrorist groups that seek to destroy Israel. She subsequently unshared the post.

Baitulmaal works closely with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, according to a 2020 analysis by the Middle East Forum. The group, which received $10,000 in emergency coronavirus funding last year, frequently partners with Unlimited Friends Association for Social Development, a Palestinian group that describes itself as a “a social, developmental, educational NGO.”

The Unlimited Friends Association works with Baitulmaal to hand out cash to the families of Palestinian terrorists, according to the Middle East Forum. These donations complement the Palestinian Authority’s formal “Pay to Slay” program, which has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinian government this year paid $42,000 to the family of a Palestinian terrorist who stabbed two Israelis to death and wounded two more, including a two-year-old child.

The association, which lists Baitulmaal on its website’s partners and donors page, is openly hostile towards Israel. The group’s Facebook page contains references to “the filth of the most dirty Jews” and “Nazi Zionist jails.” The association also partners with Islamic Relief, a group with which the State Department cut ties this year because of “anti-Semitism exhibited repeatedly” by its leaders.

In 2004, federal agents in Connecticut investigated Mokhtar for running a website that “solicited funds for the Taliban and Chechen mujahideen.” Mokhtar was not convicted. Three years later, he was arrested on a multi-count indictment for filing false tax returns. The lead prosecutor was former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R.).

Baitulmaal also partners with West Bank-based Hamas organizations. The organization hosted a 2008 fundraiser for the Yazour Medical Clinic in Nablus, an offshoot of Hamas. One Palestinian newspaper reports that Baitulmaal and the Hamas offshoot have been working together “for years.”

Anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour last year hosted a fundraiser for Baitulmaal that raised tens of thousands of dollars.

Tlaib and Baitulmaal did not respond to requests for comment.

Rashida Tlaib Promoted a Fundraiser for Group Tied to Hamas, Taliban (freebeacon.com)

The radical left is doing everything they can to destroy Black America:

• Scream “Black Lives Matter” while you burn down Black-owned businesses.
• Defund the police and make Black neighborhoods less safe.
• Use Critical Race Theory to convince Black kids that they will never succeed without a government handout.
• Increase the handouts, but nobody asks why?

Liberals want to keep Black America dependent on the government – it is the only way they will keep supporting liberal policies.

Help us fight back and save Black America from another century of lies!

CRT is the lynchpin in their plans to keep Black America down for generations. Their fight for CRT hurts the Black boys, and their push for gender equality hurts Black girls. Our fight against this poisonous doctrine cannot be more critical for the future of Black children in America.

“Woke” liberalism is destroying my community, and I have a plan to turn it around.

You can hear more about it here – when I was on Fox & Friends the other morning.

My name is Marc Little, and I am Executive Director of CURE America Action. I am a pastor, a patriot, an attorney, and a Black man. I am also Executive Director of CURE America Action, and I’m counting on you to help me counter the radical left’s attacks on Black America by making your generous contribution of $25, $50, $100, or even $1,000, right away!

The radical left targets Black people like me who push back on their lies. When proud black conservatives fight back, the radical left tries to put us in our place.

Congressman Byron Donalds, a Black Republican and proud conservative, was blocked from joining the Congressional Black Caucus for his conservative views. Senator Tim Scott was called “Oreo” by a Democrat politician and “Uncle Tim” by legions of liberals on social media just a few weeks ago.

They are terrified that someone might tell Black America that they don’t need anyone’s permission to succeed – they have the same opportunity as anyone else. That the mission statement of CURE America Action, and it is precisely what your donation will be funding. We are the antithesis of critical race theory, and we need your help.

Don’t let the radical left enslave Black Americans on their liberal plantation. Help us take our message of prosperity and opportunity to Americans of every race and creed. Chip in $1,000, $100, $50, or $25 and give us the ammunition to teach America the truth!

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
– Proverbs 12:22

If the left succeeds with their push to teach Critical Race Theory to our children, they will be lost to big government liberalism – liberalism that categorizes people by race – forever. The future of our nation depends on our ability to stop this propaganda from demonizing our children with lies and hate.

You and I must work quickly. Please let me hear from you today.

God Bless America,

Marc Little
Executive Director
CURE America Action

The identities of the 13 US service members who were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside the Kabul airport while helping to oversee the evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies have begun to emerge. 

The names of one Navy corpsman and four Marines killed in Thursday’s blast have been released, while the identities of an additional six Marines and two Army soldiers have yet to be disclosed while the military works to inform their families. 

“We continue to mourn the loss of these Marines and pray for their families. Our focus now is taking care of the families of those who were killed and caring for our injured,” Maj. Jim Stenger, a Marine Corps spokesperson, told The Post in an email. 

Per protocol, the military does not release information on deceased service members until 24 hours after their family members have been notified, but relatives have already independently confirmed several of the deaths ahead of that timeline. 

Here’s what we know about the US service members who were killed. 

Maxton Soviak

Soviak, a 22-year-old Navy hospital corpsman, hailed from Berlin Heights, Ohio, and graduated from Edison High School in Milan in 2017, the Sandusky Register reported. 

A woman who identified herself as Soviak’s older sister, and who goes by Marilyn Soviak on Instagram, penned a heartbreaking post Friday that confirmed her brother’s death. 

“I’ve never been one for politics and i’m not going to start now. What I will say is that my beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives,” the sister wrote. 

“he was a f–king medic. there to help people. and now he is gone and my family will never be the same. there is a large Maxton sized hole that will never be filled,” she wrote alongside a slideshow of images showing the two as children.

“he was just a kid. we are sending kids over there to die. kids with families that now have holes just like ours.” 

While in high school, Soviak was on the honor roll and football team, the outlet reported.

“Max was a good student who was active in sports and other activities throughout his school career. He was well respected and liked by everyone who knew him,” the school said in a statement, adding that news of his death has brought “great sorrow.”

Soviak also previously worked as a lifeguard and a maintenance technician, the outlet reported. 

Kareem Nikoui was a young Marine from California whose father didn’t realize he’d been killed until he saw a clutch of Marines show up at his door, the Daily Beast reported. 

“I haven’t gone to bed all night,” the heartbroken dad told the outlet.

“I’m still in shock. I haven’t been able to grasp everything that’s going on.”

He said his son “loved what he was doing” and “always wanted to be a Marine.”

“He really loved that [Marine Corps] family. He was devoted — he was going to make a career out of this, and he wanted to go. No hesitation for him to be called to duty,” the dad said.

Ahead of his deployment to Afghanistan, Kareem Nikoui was stationed nearby at Camp Pendleton and often visited home on the weekends, bringing along “10 or 15 other Marines” with him, the dad told the Daily Beast. 

“My wife and I felt very honored that [since] these other boys weren’t around their homes, that we were able to provide some sort of family life for them,” he said.

The father criticized President Biden’s sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan and said he didn’t expect his son to be in this situation. 

“They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” Steve Nikoui said. 

“I blame my own military leaders … Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”

David Lee Espinoza

Espinoza was a 20-year-old Marine from Laredo, Texas, according to the Laredo Police Department. 

“Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the family of United States Fallen Marine, David L. Espinoza, as well as to his friends and fellow Marines,” the agency wrote in a Facebook post alongside a photo of Espinoza.

“Semper Fi. Thank you for your service.”

Espinoza graduated from Lyndon B. Johnson High School in Laredo and lived in Rio Bravo his entire life, KGNS reported.

“Mr. Espinoza, a Laredo Marine killed in Afghanistan, embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) wrote on Twitter.

“I mourn him and all the fallen heroes in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the Espinoza family in this extremely difficult time. The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.”

Espinoza leaves behind a brother, mother and stepfather, News 4 San Antonio reported.

Rylee McCollum 

McCollum, a Marine from Bondurant, Wyoming, was on his first deployment and was three weeks away from being a dad when he was killed in Thursday’s blast, his sister told the Casper Star Tribune.

“He wanted to be a Marine his whole life and carried around his rifle in his diapers and cowboy boots,” McCollum’s sister Roice McCollum told the outlet. 

“He was determined to be in infantry … Rylee wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach when he finished serving his country. He’s a tough, kind, loving kid who made an impact on everyone he met. His joke and wit brought so much joy.” 

Rylee McCollum had just graduated from high school in 2019 and was manning an airport checkpoint when the bomb exploded, the outlet said. 

“Saying that I am grateful for Rylee’s service to our country does not begin to encapsulate the grief and sadness I feel today as a mother and as an American,” Wyoming Schools Superintendent Jillian Balow told the outlet. 

“My heart and prayers are with Rylee’s family, friends, and the entire Jackson community.”

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon tweeted about the death early Friday. 

“I’m devastated to learn Wyoming lost one of our own in yesterday’s terrorist attack in Kabul,” Gordon wrote.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Rylee McCollum of Bondurant. Jennie and I, along with all of Wyoming and the entire country thank Rylee for his service.”

Jared Schmitz 

Schmitz was a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from St. Charles County, Missouri, according to KMOX.

“His life meant so much more. I’m so incredibly devastated that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming,” Schmitz’s father, Mark Schmitz, told the outlet. 

The heartbroken dad said his son, who always dreamed of being a soldier, was on his first deployment and was sent to Afghanistan from Jordan. He was notified of his son’s death at about 2:40 a.m.

State Rep. Nick Schroer penned a Facebook post about the death.

“Today please pray for Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz who paid the ultimate sacrifice yesterday serving our nation,” Schroer wrote on Facebook. 

“This young marine was from St. Charles County and is a true American hero. Keep his family in your prayers today. Thank you for your service young man! God Bless you and your family, Marine.” 

These are the US service members killed in Kabul airport attack (nypost.com)

‘The IOC hasn’t learned anything. They trust the CCP too much.’

When an Australian Olympian ran into Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 2002 waving a 1964 Tokyo Olympic banner with the words “truthfulness, compassion, tolerance” written on it as a stand against human rights abuses in China, she already knew that the communist country had been awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Five years later, in 2007, she traveled the world in the lead-up to the Games as an ambassador for the Global Human Rights Torch Relay (GHRTR)—with the slogan, “Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist in China.” She never expected that eight years later, in 2015, China would be awarded that privilege yet again; this time, to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Former Olympic swimmer Jan Becker, from Melbourne, Australia, now aged 76, swam the 100-meter freestyle relay in Tokyo at the ’64 Olympics and won the silver medal.

Her protest in Tiananmen Square—where she was arrested, interrogated, and deported along with several other Australians—was a major event at the beginning of her decades-long journey in speaking out about the persecution of faith by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She returned home to see the media headlines: “Olympian Arrested in China.”

Just move the Olympics. With human rights, what they’ve done is just absolutely atrocious. The CCP is so anti-Divine … The International Olympic Committee hasn’t learned anything.— FORMER OLYMPIC SWIMMER JAN BECKER

“When I saw what they were doing, when they were killing people and taking their organs, I just had to stand up,” Becker told The Epoch Times. “That’s why I went to Tiananmen Square, because I wanted to get the news out to the world and to let the Chinese people know that the Western world was aware of what they were going through and that we were supporting them.

“I wanted the CCP to know there was an Olympian there, that that was connected⁠—the Olympics.”

Believing in “a connection” between the Olympics and “faith in the Divine,” yet seeing no ceasing of the CCP’s ongoing persecution of faith, including of Christians, Tibetans, Buddhists, Falun Gong, and more recently of Uyghurs, Becker is urging for a complete move of the 2022 Games away from China.

“I would prefer to see a complete move of the Games, not boycott China, just move the Olympics,” Becker said. “With human rights, what they’ve done is just absolutely atrocious, what they’ve done to Falun Gong practitioners, selling their organs around the world. They don’t believe in any faith. The CCP is so anti-Divine, against people who practice looking up to their God or their divinity.

“So many athletes actually look to the heavens. They do believe in God, they do believe in the Divine, and it must have a connection.” But as for the CCP, “they certainly wouldn’t dedicate anything to faith or religion,” Becker said.

A 22-Year Human Rights Advocacy Journey

Besides being an Olympian, Becker has taught and coached swimming for 20 years, worked as a consultant for 8 years, and was a human resource manager for 22 years before finally retiring in 2014.

But rather than slowing down, Becker, a mother-of-three and grandmother-of-eight, shifted much of her freed-up time into what she’d been doing in her spare time outside of her full-time job since 1999—raising awareness of the grave human rights violations in China, predominantly, of the persecution, torture, and organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

“I’ve always given 100 percent of myself to any job, my family, and do everything to the best of my ability. And that’s what I’m doing now,” she said.

Talking about what led her to defend human rights in China, Becker said it’s the CCP’s ongoing persecution of her faith: Falun Gong.

Searching for a cure for an illness at 54, Becker was introduced to the spiritual practice in February 1999. A self-cultivation practice of mind and body incorporating meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of “truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance,” Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) was practiced by 70 million to 100 million people in China before the CCP launched a persecution campaign in July 1999 in an attempt to eradicate the practice.

“I had been suffering probably for five or six years with a terminal illness, and I tried a whole lot of different things and nothing seemed to work,” she said. “And then someone told me about Falun Gong. I could see after reading the book that this would be really good for me to do. It was a spiritual journey.”

Besides the health benefits, Becker said that after 22 years of having taken up the practice, it has made her a better person. “I learned I had to be compassionate. That was the main thing I had to learn. And I have become a better person for it. It’s quite amazing,” she said.

After only five months of Becker having taken up the practice, however, the CCP’s persecution in China was launched.

By 2002, the reports of arrests, torture, and deaths of her fellow Chinese practitioners prompted her and some other Australian practitioners to go to China to stage a peaceful protest in Tiananmen Square to request the communist regime to end the persecution.

“I went to Tiananmen Square with a group of other Australians,” she said. “I took a 1964 Olympic banner, and I had a Falun Gong emblem painted on it—on ⁠the Japanese red circle⁠—and the words ‘truthfulness, compassion, tolerance,’ and I ran into Tiananmen Square.”

Becker said she was determined to make an impact and wasn’t scared of going, despite knowing that thousands of Chinese practitioners who had already protested in the Square before her were arrested, often tortured, and some even lost their lives.

“I never had any fear about going. I knew I was going, I was doing it, and I was coming home,” said Becker, whose story of going to Tiananmen was documented in the 2020 film “Protest at Heaven’s Gate.”

“Being an Olympian gave me a platform to be able to go out. That’s why I went to Tiananmen Square, because I wanted to get the news out to the world. The main thing was to let the CCP know that there was an Olympian in that. And also, make people around the world take a bit more notice of what was happening.”

Becker was arrested on that day, March 7, 2002, along with eight other Australians, not more than 30 seconds after running into the Square with her Olympic banner. She was questioned for 5 1/2 hours before being detained overnight and deported the next day, blacklisted from ever returning.

“They wanted to know where my Falun Gong books were, where my tapes were.” Becker said. “I said ‘they’re in my head and in my heart, I don’t need to bring them here.’ And they came in waving a glove, wanting to do a body search. They asked me to get undressed. I got down to my bra and knickers, and I said, you want me to get them off too?

“I remember telling the policeman that was interviewing me that they need to get out to see the world more, that ‘it’s not like this’ outside China. The world is not like what China was like. Everywhere I went in China, I was watched. They followed us down the street with phones. That’s why the Chinese people are so scared, they’re scared to do anything.”

The harassment didn’t stop there, either, Becker said. It extended beyond China’s walls to include threats to get her to stop speaking out to media only days after she’d returned home to Australia and had already told her story to various news outlets. About two or three days after being back home, she had left her house for the day, and when she returned, she found that the front door had been knocked down, “totally kicked off its hinges.”

“They’d placed a pitchfork on my bed, as if to scare me,” she said, referring to who she describes as “CCP agents” living outside China. Becker reported the incident to the police.

By the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaching, to raise awareness and call for a boycott of the Games, a coalition of China human rights advocates launched their human rights torch relay and asked Becker to serve as the GHRTR Australian ambassador. The relay kicked off in Athens, Greece, on Aug. 9, 2007, and made its way through over 100 cities in more than 30 countries throughout Europe, America, Asia, and Australia.

While the CCP was touring its Olympic torch around the world, Becker was carrying its counterpart, the “human rights torch,” in its own separate international tour, including relaying it through 67 towns and suburbs in her home state, Victoria, in Australia.

“I had to stand up,” she said. “Lots of people were involved. In many towns, there were mayors, MPs, media, faith leaders, school groups, and human rights advocates; there were lots of reports and lots of things that happened with that torch relay.”

‘2022 Olympics Should Be Moved’

In referring to the March 2020 final judgment of the China Tribunal, a London-based people’s tribunal, Becker said that after thorough investigations, chair of the tribunal Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and a seven-member panel summarized that “any government, organization, or individual who interacts with China should recognize they are ‘interacting with a criminal state.’”

The tribunal stated in its judgment that “Commission of Crimes Against Humanity against the Falun Gong and Uyghurs has been proved beyond reasonable doubt,” and that the investigations led to the tribunal’s “unavoidable final conclusion that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale.”

“Therefore, I’m calling that the 2022 Olympics should be moved,” Becker said. “And I believe that the sanctity of life and respect for human beings takes precedence over any sporting event—even the Olympics.”

Although lawmakers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and recently Australia, have called for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Becker says she doesn’t believe it will solve the issue, because the CCP no longer cares about pleasing diplomats, so “that’s not going to make them lose anything,” nor stop their human rights abuses.

“I don’t think China will care at all if the diplomats don’t go,” she said. “You’ve just got to look at how they’re treating Australia at the moment, look how many things they’ve taken off Australia; they don’t really care about the politicians or the diplomats that much anymore. I think they’ve got to move the 2022 Games, they’ve got to push to move them.”

Becker, who currently has commemorative items on display at the “Memories of Tokyo 1964” exhibition at the Consulate-General of Japan in Melbourne, said that, even if the Games have to be delayed, which “can be done as we saw for Tokyo 2020,” a complete move away from China is achievable.

“There’s plenty of countries that could do it,” she said. “Plenty of European countries that have got the infrastructure set up. If they need to get things together, we could put it off a year, but I’m sure there will be European countries that would take it on.”

Becker said that expecting any kind of boycott by athletes is not a realistic solution either. Shifting the burden to athletes who’ve “put in 110 percent” would not be a fair or reasonable expectation; she said the burden lies with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“This may be their only opportunity, one opportunity to go to an Olympics,” Becker said of the athletes. “It’s very hard to ask them to walk away from that. Administrators and the IOC should have made the right choices, it shouldn’t involve the athletes having to make this decision at all.”

The IOC ‘Stands Alone’

In 2001, when the IOC awarded the 2008 Games to China, as a former Olympian still in good relations with the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Becker raised with them directly the seriousness of the communist regime’s “horrible” human rights record.

Later in 2007, while touring the world as Australian ambassador for the GHRTR, she implored them to ask the IOC to move the Olympics to Athens.

Becker said that, at the time, they had taken up a collection of petitions to move the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And John Coates, the now-vice president of the IOC, who was then a member of the IOC and the AOC, had forwarded those to the then-president of the IOC. “He guaranteed me that they got those petitions. So he reported how I felt. He’s supportive,” she said.

Even when China was still being considered as a contender for hosting the 2008 Olympics, Becker managed to raise her concerns with then-vice president of the IOC Kevan Gosper in-person at an Olympic function they both attended in November 2000. His response was that he believed the CCP would surely change.

“He told me the CCP would improve. I assured him at the time, they wouldn’t,” Becker said. “It’s interesting that they don’t learn, the IOC hasn’t really learned what the CCP’s about. In 2001, they were awarded those Games; It’s 20 years down the track, and they’re still doing the same thing today.”

Referring to the recent Hong Kong issue, suppression of Uyghurs, and the CCP’s recent intrusion activities in Taiwan, Becker called these all “new human rights abuses.” “These are new things after they were awarded the Olympics. The IOC hasn’t learned anything. They trust the CCP too much,” she said. “The CCP have just done exactly what they want to do afterward.”

Becker applauds the members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) who have coordinated legislative actions on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, saying they’re “politicians who have a good heart and understand the human rights issues.” She said, however, that presidents and prime ministers are not likely to get involved.

“The IOC is a very strong organization. It stands alone, away from politics,” she said. “That’s why those politicians don’t want to get involved. They know that it stands alone. So it’s up to the people to try to talk to the International Olympic Committee, the Australian Olympic Committee, people involved at that level are the people we have to get to.

‘It’s Up to the People’

Becker said citizens around the world who are concerned about Beijing hosting the Olympics can find and sign an existing petition to the IOC, or start a new one. “I think they can all sign a petition,” she said. “Stand up where they can, show China⁠. We’ve seen that China can’t be trusted, even with the COVID situation. I think people are really waking up to how it is.”

In getting the Games moved, Becker said the world shouldn’t rely solely on “people at a high level of government.” “I think individual people can make it happen more, and as the groundswell happens, they then might come onboard,” she said.

Speaking about corporate sponsors dumping money into the Beijing Games—dubbed the “Genocide Olympics” by critics—Becker said corporations “will do anything for money.” “Corporations need to be talked to because they’ve supported the Olympics forever and ever, it’s going to be a difficult one to move them on that, but we have to try,” she said.

Various human rights abuses were reported to have happened during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Elderly people being thrown out of their homes and made homeless to make way for the Olympic village, and dissidents being rounded up en masse by the CCP and imprisoned out of fear they might expose the CCP’s crimes to overseas visitors.

“We spoke about all these things in 2008,” she said. “I don’t know that many people listened as much as they should have, otherwise we wouldn’t be in this situation. I guess we have to go through it all over again.”

In predicting that “they’ll do it again,” Becker said those previous abuses by the CCP need to be brought back to the world’s attention because, “once again, they’ll make sure that anyone who doesn’t suit the commitment of the Party, the CCP, will be pushed out of town so no one can see them.”

Future of China, CCP, and Communism

When asked her thoughts about a communist country hosting the Olympics, and what she holds out for the future of China, Becker said: “I don’t believe in communism or socialism. I think it’s really bad for the world, you can see what’s happening⁠—people don’t have any thoughts, they can’t think for themselves, it’s just a terrible way of living.”

Becker said she’d like “to see the CCP collapse” and for freedom to be returned to the Chinese people. “It will be a better world for the Chinese people eventually. And I hope it’s sooner than later,” she said.

Seeing communism as a threat to the world, Becker said from her own experience that “we would not want to be ruled by the CCP.” But despite what may appear to be grim prospects with how far the CCP have already infiltrated the West, she maintains hope that the citizens of Western countries will fight to gain their dwindling sovereignty back.

“Even just in Australia⁠—and it’s happening in America and other countries as well⁠—the people are waking up; they’re realizing what the CCP is really all about, and how much they want to control everything,” she said. “People can now see through it.”

As for whether China will remain the host nation of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Becker believes that it “wouldn’t be good for the Olympic movement.”

“They’re putting themselves in a really difficult situation if they let China host the 2022 Olympics. They should have learned from the last one, and from the empty stalls in Tokyo. They may never go on. It may not keep going if we can’t take that away from the CCP,” she said.

“It’s wrong, it’s just wrong for them to have it.”

For Sanctity of Life, ‘Move the 2022 Games,’ Olympian Once Arrested in Beijing Says (theepochtimes.com)

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the so-called core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, vaulted in the 12 months through July to levels not seen in 30 years.

The Commerce Department said in a release Friday that core PCE rose 3.6 percent over the year in July, matching last month’s level, which was an increase from 3.5 percent in May and 3.1 percent in April.

The last time the core PCE inflation gauge saw a similar year-over-year vault was in July 1991, while the highest level the measure has hit is 10.2 percent in February 1975, when the economy was gripped in a troubling upwards wage-price spiral fueled by rising inflation expectations on the part of consumers.

The Fed looks to core PCE as a key inflation measure that informs its monetary policy, which has an inflation target of a longer-run average of 2 percent.

On a monthly basis, the core PCE gauge rose 0.3 percent between June and July, after rising 0.5 percent the prior month, suggesting inflationary pressures may have peaked.

It comes as Fed officials are meeting virtually for an annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, with investors watching closely for signs of when and how the central bank may begin to roll back its extraordinary support measures for the economy. In response to the pandemic hit to the economy, the Fed last year dropped interest rates to near zero and set out on a massive asset purchasing program, buying around $80 billion in Treasury securities and $40 billion in mortgage securities per month.

In a speech Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed inflationary pressures, acknowledging a “sharp run-up in inflation” driven by the rapid reopening of the economy while reiterating his oft-repeated view that price pressures would moderate once supply-side shortages and bottlenecks further abate.

Powell acknowledged the relatively high level of Friday’s core PCE print, noting it’s “well above our 2 percent longer-run objective” and that both businesses and consumers “widely report upward pressure on prices and wages.”

“Inflation at these levels is, of course, a cause for concern. But that concern is tempered by a number of factors that suggest that these elevated readings are likely to prove temporary,” he said, arguing that the current spike in inflation is largely driven by a relatively narrow group of goods and services that have been directly impacted by the pandemic and the reopening of the economy.

“We are also directly monitoring the prices of particular goods and services most affected by the pandemic and the reopening, and are beginning to see a moderation in some cases as shortages ease. Used car prices, for example, appear to have stabilized; indeed, some price indicators are beginning to fall,” Powell said.

Powell added that officials have not, so far, noted broad-based inflationary pressures but acknowledged that evidence of such pressures spreading more broadly through the economy would be concerning and would prompt a swift policy response.

The Fed chief also addressed wage pressures. In the 1970s, upward pressure on wages combined with growing consumer expectations of further price increases to push prices higher, prompting the Fed to raise interest rates. Powell said there is little evidence of this phenomenon today.

“If wage increases were to move materially and persistently above the levels of productivity gains and inflation, businesses would likely pass those increases on to customers, a process that could become the sort of ‘wage-price spiral’ seen at times in the past,” Powell said.

“Today we see little evidence of wage increases that might threaten excessive inflation. Broad-based measures of wages that adjust for compositional changes in the labor force, such as the employment cost index and the Atlanta Wage Growth Tracker, show wages moving up at a pace that appears consistent with our longer-term inflation objective,” he said.

Powell also noted disinflationary forces like technology and globalization, arguing that there is little evidence these have suddenly reversed or abated, arguing that “it seems more likely that they will continue to weigh on inflation as the pandemic passes into history.”

He said the baseline economic outlook is for the economy to continue progressing towards maximum employment, with inflation returning closer to the Fed’s goal of averaging 2 percent over time.

Key Inflation Gauge Posts Fastest Annual Price Gain in 30 Years (theepochtimes.com)

When I was young and inexperienced, with no money and no career, I nonetheless made a firm assumption about people who’d made it, who’d risen to the top of their fields. They were daring individuals, I thought, outspoken and candid, willing to go against the crowd. These were people with a skeptical eye on the conventional wisdom, ever ready to challenge and dispute whenever they sensed a stale assertion of it.

When I worked for Dana Gioia at the National Endowment for the Arts, he told me once that when he was in advertising his team would meet at the end of the year to review themselves, and they spent five times as many minutes discussing what they did wrong as they spent on what they did right. That was the kind of toughness I imagined happened in every elite circle.

Look at the leaders of institutions, today, however, and you witness a pageant of conformity and timidity, guardedness ever present, the most powerful people in politics, education, entertainment, media, and business speaking in well-rehearsed terms, mouthing standard pieties with an air of solemnity that is one millimeter thick. Political correctness has turned them into cliche machines.

Did you notice the apology written recently by Mike Richards, the man who was to replace the late Alex Trebek as host of “Jeopardy!”? Richards is a big deal in the game show world, the executive producer of “Jeopardy!” and of “Wheel of Fortune,” winner of three Emmy Awards, too. But after he was selected as “Jeopardy!”‘s new host, some comments that he’d made on his 2013–14 podcast surfaced and set him up for what is now a familiar ritual: the high-profile cancellation. The ritual meant the loss of his post, and also a confession/contrition/plea on the accused’s part that is painful to read—not because of the sentiments themselves, however, but because of their dispiritingly banal expression.

Richards might have said, “Yeah, I made some dumb remarks just trying to get a laugh—I don’t regard them as cause for termination eight years later, though—let’s ease up, okay.”

No, instead we got the nauseatingly customary script:

“It is humbling to confront a terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago,” he said.

It sounded like every other public apology we’ve heard in recent years, with studied humility and sober drama of self-confrontation. The words follow with all the formulaic layout of an algebraic equation. We have the expected family invocation as well, and role model talk: “My responsibilities today as a father, husband, and public personality who speaks to many people through my role on television means I have substantial and serious obligations as a role model, and I intend to live up to them.”

I don’t blame Richards for this, though. It’s the environment he’s in, a tiresome and phony place that the rest of America recognizes instantly for its mendacity. These declarations sound so sincere, but we know how calculating they are. To the material loss suffered by the penitent one, we have the pain of self-emasculation added in the most predictable language. Can’t any of these people think for themselves? Richards’ public career is over, at least for the near future and maybe the far. What does he have to lose? Why go official and betray his own heart (which is precisely what a man who adopts the idiom of his executioners is doing), even when you know it won’t save you?

Again, these are not people beaten down by life, their egos crushed by poverty and disappointment.  They have all the trappings of self-determination—money, education, worldliness, competitiveness, achievement—and yet the working-class guy and gal show a heckuva lot more independent spirit than Mr. Success ever does.

I think that this conformist atmosphere among the elite has played a significant role in the rise of populist anger in America. The contempt that the elite feel for the non-elite in our country is on display every day in the opinion pages and the liberal cable news shows. Just the recently, while driving through the South and listening to NPR, I heard the host introduce interviewee Robin D’Angelo with the question, “Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism?” The willingness to cast an entire racial group as deficient in some way used to be called “stereotyping,” and enlightened folk universally rejected it. Here, however, it was offered as an enlightening observation. The condescension was thick and gleeful. The host wasn’t aware of how smug she sounded, but ordinary Americans have seen and heard such sentiments over and over, and they discern the contempt more acutely than elites realize.

How irritating it is, then, for these judgmental elites to appear so weak and obedient and cookie-cut at times that call for bold presentation. They’re avid about their superiority, but feeble in their individuality. They profess to be the best and the brightest, but they sink into stupid politically correct truisms when the pressure’s on. Liberalism claims to honor the individual voice, the lone dissenter, but never does a prominent 21st-century liberal wish to fall out of step with his fellows. The guns of cancellation are always primed, and he knows it.

A country whose leadership class is fearful and wary is in trouble. Insecurity makes for bad decisions, and for bad symbolism, too. A leader who stands up and apologizes for the “systemic” sins of the institution he leads doesn’t come off as properly sensitive and constructively progressive. He’s just weak. The celebrity who gets down on his knees and apologizes for some “phobic” remark made years earlier on the internet isn’t rightly repentant and newly enlightened. He’s just humiliating himself. Ordinary Americans draw a pat conclusion: These figureheads make a lot of money and they’re awfully full of themselves and down on us, but when you get down to it, they’re not so great, not at all.

This is the end of a great American tradition of rebelliousness. Ben Franklin ran away from Boston and struck out on his own as a mere teenager. Emerson praised self-reliance as the essence of genius. Thoreau headed to the woods because he couldn’t stand the copycat mentality of fellow citizens. Huck at the end aims to light out for the territory, knowing he’ll never fit in with civilized society. Those figures are the opposite of today’s Americans aspiring to the realms of the elite. Ambitious ones sense at an early age that climbing the ladder means fitting in and filtering impulses. The pipeline has sensors attuned to pick up the maverick spirit and mark it as suspect. Our leaders are tame souls whose wills are triggered mainly by the appearance of a rogue in their midst.

Therein lies the aversion to Donald Trump. It wasn’t Trump’s politics or policies that disturbed the elite. It was, instead, his headstrong personality and outspoken words. The content of his thought and speech they might have opposed in the normal political ways, but the character of the man couldn’t be handled that way. His performances could be received by them only as an admonishment. He spoke his mind, they didn’t, and that made them feel bad about themselves—as it should. Let us hope that more untamed figures surface and do the same thing.

Our Tame Leaders (theepochtimes.com)

Terminations, job walk-offs could be ‘devastating’ to communities

A nationwide shortage of nurses and health care workers may soon worsen as thousands of medical staff face losing their jobs by refusing to obey new COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

“It will be really terrible. We’re already understaffed,” said one veteran registered nurse who works at a health care facility north of Seattle.

She said she will lose her job after her employer’s Aug. 31 mandated vaccine goes into effect unless she complies with the requirement.

She estimates that as many as 400—20 percent—of the health center’s 2,500 employees refuse to take the vaccine. That number will likely shrink due to the financial hardship of job loss, she said, though “even losing 5 percent would be devastating to the community,” she told The Epoch Times.

The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said her only solution is if her employer grants her a religious exemption, which appears unlikely at this point.

“It looks like they’re going to reject my religious exemption. They need more information, but they’re not telling me what information they’re going to need. It puts me in a really tough situation,” she said. “I have two [elderly] parents who live with me. It would be extraordinarily disruptive to move them. It’s extremely scary trying to start again somewhere else.”

Stephanie Thorpe, a registered nurse in the UCHealth Colorado system, is also stuck between an employee rock and a medical hard place over her company’s pending vaccine mandate.

Thorpe said she, too, could lose her job if her application for a religious exemption is denied.

UCHealth reports more than 92 percent of 26,000 employees systemwide are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

That leaves a reluctant 8 percent who refuse the shots.

These medical professionals—Thorpe included—will have until Sept. 1 to comply with UCHealth’s Oct. 1 vaccine mandate, or else they will face disciplinary action up to and including termination.

“We do allow if there is a religious exemption or a medical exemption as well,” said UCHealth spokeswoman Kelly Tracer. “UCHealth has been facing the same staffing challenges that hospitals around the country are, definitely. It’s a national shortage.”

Thorpe estimates “a couple hundred” staunch opponents to the vaccine mandate “are willing to walk away” because of the vaccines.

“Right now, [UCHealth] is working short-staffed at many facilities,” she told The Epoch Times.

Thorpe said that even if a small percentage of UCHealth employees are fired or walk off the job, their departure could be significant.

“I’m concerned that the people who are vaccinated and are going to stay are going to take the majority of the workload,” Thorpe said. “We can’t even get people now to fill positions. It could get very scary.”

UCHealth, however, states that over the past six months, more than 4,400 new employees, including 1,100 new nurses, have been hired.

“Our new employee orientations often have hundreds of people in each class, and today, we have about 7 percent more employees than at this time last year,” UCHealth said in a statement. “These new employees are making a difference, but especially when our hospitals are as full as they are right now, recruiting employees and retaining our current employees are top priorities for us.”

However, it’s not only UCHealth employees that refuse the vaccine that may soon join the ranks of the unemployed.

A partial list of other U.S. hospital systems that have mandated or plan to mandate vaccinations for their employees includes Allegheny Health Network (19,000 employees) in Pennsylvania, Banner Health Network (52,000) in Arizona, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (13,000) in New Hampshire, Kaiser Permanente (216,000) in California, Ascension Health (160,000) in Missouri, Advocate Aurora Health (75,000) in Illinois, Bay State Health (12,000) in Massachusetts, and New York-Presbyterian (20,000) in New York.

Ballad Health Care CEO Alan Levine told reporters that mandating shots on the 22-hospital system’s remaining 38 percent of unvaccinated workers would likely worsen an ongoing nursing shortage.

While at least one media outlet referred to those medical professionals who refuse to take the vaccines as “unlikely” to be hesitant because of their knowledge and medical training, several nurses interviewed by The Epoch Times said it’s their scientific training that gives them pause.

The nurse in Washington said there’s “a lot of distrust of the vaccine and the media narrative ‘safe and effective.’”

“There are a lot of credible doctors out there,” she said, “and they’re being shunned” by the medical community because they oppose the mRNA shots.

Another registered nurse, in Virginia, said she chose to give notice to her employer rather than be compelled to take the vaccine.

“This is a new type of vaccine—an mRNA vaccine that has never been used on humans before,” she told The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity. “It’s different from any of the other vaccines.”

“I am not against vaccines,” she said. “I encourage people to get vaccines that have been studied for years. I don’t think I’m being hypocritical by saying I’m pro-vaccine, but not pro this vaccine.”

Like Thorpe, the nurse said COVID-19 vaccine mandates will make the shortage of health care workers much worse.

“Who is going to take care of people with the [COVID-19] influx? You can only work short-staffed to a degree without compromising patient safety,” she said.

To illustrate her point, the nurse said she was recently offered a position at a health care facility without an interview ever taking place. The offer was rescinded when she refused to comply with the company’s vaccine mandate.

“I’ve been in health care over 10 years. I’ve never been given a job offer prior to an interview,” she said.

Currently, there are nearly 4 million registered nurses in the United States. However, the need to hire thousands more qualified staff was present even before the pandemic.

“Without decisive action, nurses will practice under increased stress. As the health care system is strained by an aging population and broadened access to public health care, it will be nurses that feel the weight of patient responsibility on their shoulders,” according to the American Nurses Association (ANA).

The ANA adds that by 2022, there will be “far more registered nurse jobs” than any other profession.

With more than 500,000 seasoned registered nurses (RNs) anticipated to retire by 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the need for 1.1 million new RNs to replace those that have retired and to avoid a nursing shortage.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States will also see an estimated shortage of 37,800 to 124,000 physicians by 2034, including shortfalls in both primary and specialty care.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many of the deepest disparities in health and access to health care services and exposed vulnerabilities in the health care system,” said AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton in a statement.

To bridge the gap, hospitals and health care systems now offer various incentives to lure qualified nursing staff.

At Duke University Hospital in North Carolina, for example, a recent job posting sought an experienced RN Clinical Team Lead with a $15,000 sign-on bonus.

Nationwide, a skilled RN can earn anywhere from $70,000 to $130,000, and even more in states such as California.

In Arizona, there are currently 75,600 total nurses to serve an aging population that continues to grow.

Ann-Marie Alameddin, president and CEO of the Arizona Hospital and Health Care Association, said the shortage is mainly due to nurse retirement and normal attrition, as well as COVID-19 burnout.

Only “a handful” of hospitals in Arizona currently require a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment, Alameddin told The Epoch Times.

“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” she said, and likened those employees who get vaccinated to honoring a “social contract” to keep people safe.

Jennifer Bridges, a former nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital, said: “The thing that’s really scary is now [hospitals] are mandating [the vaccine], like everywhere.”

“I mean, nurses and other staff are contacting me from so many different states and all over the place right now. And a lot of them are not going to take [the vaccine]” or they’re getting fired or seeking an exemption. “A lot of times they deny exemptions, so it’s just going create more of a shortage all the way around the board,” Bridges said.

In June, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit brought by 117 employees at Houston Methodist who were suing the hospital system over its COVID-19 vaccine requirement.

The social cost of the vaccine mandates being felt, however, has nothing to do with public health or safety, the nurse in Washington said.

“It’s really shocking and devastating to me. I’m going to lose a whole number of [vaccinated] people I consider friends. I feel like I’m going through this feeling of grief. I’m really scared what this means for society,” she said.

Nurses Warn of Staff Shortages Due to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates (theepochtimes.com)

Thirteen U.S. troops were killed on Thursday in the bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan.

More than a dozen others were wounded, CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie told reporters in a briefing conducted hours after the attack.

Twelve deaths were initially announced; among them were 11 Marines and one Navy medic. Another Marine was reported to have died hours later.

Kabul health officials were quoted as saying that at least 60 Afghan civilians were killed in the attack, reported Reuters.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, bragging that a suicide bomber “managed to penetrate all the security fortifications” put into place by U.S. forces and the Taliban.

President Joe Biden said the United States would retaliate against the terror group.

“We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said in Washington, speaking to those responsible for the bombings.

U.S. officials also said evacuation efforts would continue until Aug. 31, when U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“We will not be dissuaded from the task at hand,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a written statement. “To do anything less—especially now—would dishonor the purpose and sacrifice these men and women have rendered our country and the people of Afghanistan.”

The bombings took place at or near the Abbey Gate, which sits on the eastern side of the airport, on Thursday evening local time.

One went off at the gate before at least one other exploded near the Baron Hotel, situated a short distance from the gate.

Photographs showed injured and bloodied people, with dozens of Afghans among those wounded or killed.

13 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan Bombings (theepochtimes.com)

Los Angeles Police Department officers patrol on bicycles past a homeless man on a downtown sidewalk in Los Angeles, California on June 7, 2017. 

As drug overdose deaths rise in California, state leaders are considering paying addicts to stay sober, but a former drug addict questions the efficiency of the incentive known as SB 110.

Yolanda Terrazas, a former addict and current secretary for The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Anaheim told The Epoch Times the proposed legislation provides only a temporary solution as addicts will use the money to purchase drugs.

“Giving money to an individual that has an addiction problem, doesn’t give them coping skills, doesn’t give them ways to manage their feelings and emotions,” Terrazas said.

“All they’re doing is giving them money to temporarily stop and they’ll just turn around and spend that money and find another way to receive funds. Somebody else will pay for their addiction, while they temporarily stop using, they won’t gain anything. If they don’t have skills, knowledge, or tools to use.”

Terrazas stated addicts need more proactive solutions, such as organizations that provide programs that allow addicts to find sobriety to last a lifetime. Rather than giving funds to addicts, the money should be used to assist in finding employment for individuals who complete addiction programs, she said.

Before finding employment at The Salvation Army eight months ago, Terrazas joined the organization’s six-month rehab program to get sober. The program taught her communication and employment skills while providing a structured schedule she accredits to helping her get sober.

Every day, the beneficiaries of the program are tested. Terrazas is approaching her two-year sober anniversary next month.

While discussion contingency management payments to encourage addicts to remain sober continues, similar legislation is supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

According to co-author of the substance use contingency bill Assemblymember Laurie Davies, studies have shown contingency management programs have been effective for veterans that are meth addicts.

“California’s opioid epidemic shows no signs of slowing down, even during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Assemblymember Laurie Davies told The Epoch Times in an email. “For years, our state has struggled to get a handle on this crisis and for years we have seen preventable suffering and loss.”

Davies said SB 110 is a “common-sense measure to try an all-of-the-above approach to really incentive people to get away from substance abuse.”

The legislation proposes that through MediCal, low-income residents can receive substance use disorder services and care.

Through the proposed contingency management services outlined in SB 110, beneficiaries will be limited to the number of incentives received.

Former Drug Addict Questions California’s Bid to Pay Addicts to Sober Up (theepochtimes.com)

The Orange County Board of Education (OCBE) called out critical race theory (CRT) during its second ethnic studies forum, debating with differing perspectives on Aug. 24.

Moderated by Harriette Reed, five expert panelists gave opening and closing remarks, and answered questions from the board during the meeting.

“The motivation for ethnic studies is grounded in the idea that historically underserved communities don’t see themselves in the curriculum, which is a really important goal to address,” panelist Elina Kaplan, co-founder and president of the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES), said during the meeting.

Kaplan’s concern, along with most of the panelists, was the infiltration of CRT in ethnic studies. CRT is an ideology that divides society into oppressors and the oppressed based on racial characteristics. Kaplan said when she first looked at the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) a couple of years ago, it looked “familiar” and reminded her of the indoctrination she received growing up in the Soviet Union.

“What in the world is neo-Marxist dogma doing in a K-12 ethnic studies curriculum—a curriculum that’s supposed to be focusing on building bridges of understanding between ethnic groups, building mutual respect,” she said.

Kaplan said there are two forms of the ESMC that are being pushed in schools. One is liberation ethnic studies, which critiques “white supremacy, racism, patriarchy,” etc. The other is constructive ethnic studies, which focuses on the roles and experiences of different ethnic groups in American history.

“In one case, the emphasis is more on the oppressed versus oppressor, on the colonialism, and so on. The other one, the emphasis is much more on building bridges and discussing racism, but in a way that addresses all the causes of racism, not just focus on the colonialism aspect,” she said.

While ethnic studies can be valuable, she said, in the wrong hands—and taught through the lens of CRT— it can be “counterproductive.”

“We can agree that we want our kids to get an education that teaches them how to respect each other, how to honor their differences, how to confront racism honestly and with mutual respect,” Kaplan said.

“If the majority of California and America knew what critical race theory-based ethnic studies was, they would not want it and we would not be here having this conversation.”

Author and Mathematician James Lindsay said CRT stretches back to Herbert Marcuse, a critical theorist that was widely popularized in the 1960s.

“The point of [Marcuse’s] liberation critical theory is to induce psycho pathologies in activists so that they find the life that we live in our society intolerable and require liberation in order to survive, to function in day-to-day society,” Lindsay said during the discussion.

Lindsay said a “meaningful” debate about ethnic studies cannot take place since the subject has been “co-opted by critical theorists.”

“[Ethnic studies] has become a Trojan horse for a separate ideology, where the merits of ethnic studies may well be high enough to merit that being a program we want. Whereas the demerits—the horror of critical race theory—now makes it impossible to have that debate,” he said.

Lindsay pointed out that ethnic studies focuses on diversity of race (rather than diversity of perspectives) because it believes in a doctrine called structural determinism, defined as systemically racist systems of power determine the outcomes of different races.

Inclusion, Lindsay said, also has a “double meaning” within ethnic studies.

“Inclusion actually is biased based on these beliefs about power dynamics … Inclusion actually means that only certain people must be given inclusion and belonging. It becomes instead in practice for these people that are implementing it to give justification for purges, justification for censorship.”

Pastor D.A. Horton said ethnic studies allows students to “feel affirmed, noticed, valued, and heard from” regarding their cultural backgrounds.

“If we teach ethnic studies with transferrable skills, it teaches us how to reduce those inter-ethnic and cross-ethnic conflicts through shared experiences, communication, and interpersonal relationship building,” Horton said.

He continued: “If you can define your terms about what the curriculum says, and the parents communicate and not allow somebody to hijack terminology, then you can help set the record straight and keep it straight and then you pass the baton to your children.”

According to the University of California, the phrase “there is only one race, the human race” is considered a microaggression.

Cultural anthropologist Joe Nalven said viewing the idea of “there is only one race, the human race” as a microaggression is a “mistake” if accepted to reframe anthropology and biology, as these fields of study consider the idea to be “fundamentally true.”

“You are taking a psychological issue and you are projecting it onto a sociological, biological science to disrupt the way in which science is taught,” he said.

Psychiatrist Mark McDonald said that racism is no longer an obstacle to success in this country.

However, since the media and government are pushing the idea that American society is suffering from a “crisis” of racism and it necessitates CRT, “then you can justify really any sort of irrational policy,” he said.

“What will happen if you spent 12 years in critical race theory, indoctrination; where’s that going to lead? I don’t know. But it scares me.”

Orange County Board of Education Calls Out Critical Race Theory in Ethnic Studies (theepochtimes.com)

The Supreme Court of the State of Idaho unanimously ruled this week that the state’s new statute governing citizen-initiated ballot initiatives is unconstitutional because it infringes on the public’s right to enact laws without the participation of the state Legislature.

The decision came Aug. 23 in the case known as Reclaim Idaho v. Denney, dockets 48784 and 48760. Lawerence Denney is Idaho’s Republican secretary of state.

Reclaim Idaho is a left-wing political action committee that led a successful Medicaid expansion initiative in 2018 and supports boosting funding in kindergarten through 12th-grade education by increasing Idaho’s corporate tax rate and taxes on individuals earning $250,000 or more annually.

The group’s website explains that “Reclaim Idaho’s primary organizing tactic is the ballot initiative. … We also engage in grassroots advocacy efforts, such as fights against cuts to Medicaid and restrictions on initiative rights. Our grassroots advocacy campaigns organize local leaders and volunteers to contact their legislators, advocate at the capitol, and host local town-hall meetings.

“But the initiative is our primary tactic because it has the greatest potential for growing a statewide movement.”

Idaho’s highest court found that the statute at hand runs afoul of Idaho voters’ fundamental right to carry out a citizen-led initiative. Denney and the state Legislature both “failed to present a compelling state interest for limiting that right,” according to the new court opinion.

“Ultimately, the effect of SB 1110 [i.e. the new statute] is to prevent a perceived, yet unsubstantiated fear of the ‘tyranny of the majority,’ by replacing it with an actual ‘tyranny of the minority,’” the court stated in striking down the statute. The court also noted that the statute conflicts with “the democratic ideals that form the bedrock of the constitutional republic created by the Idaho Constitution.”

According to The Idaho Statesman, the state Legislature “will have to pay Reclaim Idaho and [another litigant] their attorney fees for the lawsuit, on top of the fees paid its own attorney to defend the law.”

The U.S. Supreme Court briefly involved itself in the issue a year ago, when it temporarily blocked a federal district judge’s order that relaxed election rules to give Reclaim Idaho additional time to gather signatures for a ballot initiative during the pandemic.

In the Idaho court’s opinion, Justice Gregory W. Moeller noted that Article III, Section 1 of the Idaho Constitution, states in part: “The people reserve to themselves the power to approve or reject at the polls any act or measure passed by the legislature. … The people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws, and enact the same at the polls independent of the legislature.”

Idaho Code section 34-1805(2), as amended by a law known as SB 1110, “requires that, for an initiative or referendum to appear on the ballot, organizers must obtain a threshold number of signatures from ‘each of the thirty-five (35) legislative districts’ in the state.”

Both Denney and the Legislature argued that the changes enacted by SB 1110 were “a lawful exercise of the legislature’s constitutionally delegated power to prescribe the conditions and manner under which initiatives and referenda may be carried out by the people.” Denney also argued, among other things, that “this case presents a nonjusticiable political question that the Idaho Supreme Court should not address.”

Moeller also noted that Reclaim Idaho, alongside another group called the Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution Inc., sought a declaration that the new signature threshold mandated by SB 1110, requiring signatures from every legislative district, was unconstitutional. The two groups also contested the constitutionality of another statute, Idaho Code section 34-1813(2)(a), which was amended in 2020 “and states that an initiative may not become effective earlier than July 1 of the year following the vote in which it was passed.”

Reclaim Idaho welcomed the ruling.

“Thousands of Idahoans will be breathing a sigh of relief,” said group co-founder Luke Mayville, KTVB reported. “Those of us directly involved in the case are ecstatic. It’s an historic day. A fundamental right of the people of Idaho has been restored.”

Idaho Supreme Court Invalidates Ballot Initiative Law (theepochtimes.com)

U.S. investors cut their use of leverage in July, marking the first month since the onset of the pandemic that saw a reduction in the use of margin debt to buy securities such as stocks, potentially a warning sign for markets buoyed by heavy use of borrowed money.

Data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on the use of margin debt, which is money borrowed by investors from brokers to buy securities, show $844 billion borrowed against portfolios in July. That’s the first month the metric has dipped since embarking on a steady month-over-month climb in March 2020, when it stood at $479 billion. Margin loans had hit a record high of $882 billion in June 2021, according to FINRA figures.

A separate data point from Interactive Brokers, which serves about 1.5 million clients, showed that margin debt among its customers fell 2 percent from June to July, according to the Financial Times.

Some see the reduction in borrowing as an ominous sign for markets, coming as some analysts believe the stunning bull run in U.S. equities is due for a correction.

Stephen Suttmeier, technical research strategist at Bank of America, wrote in a recent note cited by Fortune that “rising leverage tends to confirm U.S. equity rallies” and that it’s not new record highs for margin loans that are cause for worry, but “we get concerned when margin debt stops rising to suggest that investors have begun to reduce leverage.”

Nick Reece, portfolio manager at Merk Investments, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the buildup in margin debt since the end of 2019 has matched the rise in the market, and “that’s nothing to be concerned about.”

In his view, “what would be concerning is to see a major buildup in margin debt relative to the market,” which ties into the idea that if asset prices continue to rise, then a commensurate rise in borrowing is nothing to worry about, particularly when—as now—borrowing costs are low.

At the same time, Reece believes the feverish bull run for the benchmark S&P 500, which has continued to push to new all-time highs, is ripe for a pullback.

“I continue to think the market is due for a short-term correction or sideways consolidation,” he said. “The market is trading at the top end of the bull market trend channel. And there hasn’t been a 10 percent correction since the March 2020 lows—it’s always worth being mentally prepared for one.”

“Of course, a 10 percent correction might only start 10 percent higher from here, so trying to time it is a fool’s errand in my view,” he said, noting that a positive medium-term market outlook for equities continues to be supported by a number of data points, including the business cycle expansion and the so-called TINA effect, an acronym for “there is no alternative,” which is the notion that frothy markets will keep rising despite showing signs of weaker fundamentals because there are no other options for yield-seeking investors.

Suttmeier argued in his note that the dial-back in leverage sends an ominous signal.

“Although peaks in margin debt don’t always coincide with highs for the [S&P 500], they tend to be bearish for equities,” he said.

Investors Borrow Less to Buy Stocks for First Time Since Pandemic Began, an Ominous Sign (theepochtimes.com)

America is underwriting its own demise.

Woke Capital apparently wants to hasten it.

Coming on the heels of a letter from titans of American industry to the Biden administration calling for it to jettison punitive China tariffs post-haste, and resume trade negotiations with Beijing, BlackRock’s research arm recently urged investors to increase their exposure to the PRC by two-to-three times.

The world’s leading asset manager of some $10 trillion in assets did so 18 months after China helped foist a pandemic on America and the world that has caused incalculable damage in blood, treasure, and sacrificed liberty and justice.

It did so after China crushed Hong Kong, clashed with India, antagonized Australia, and as it threatens a takeover of Taiwan.

It did so in spite of the fact that Xi Jinping is currently waging a jihad—euphemistically referred to as a “regulatory crackdown”—against China’s largest businesses, U.S.-listed ones of which saw $400 billion of market value lopped off this summer.

It did so surely knowing those funds ultimately redound to the benefit of the sworn adversary of the United States that seeks to supplant it and reign as the dominant world power.

It did so notwithstanding all the U.S. government has done for it, BlackRock having been dubbed the “fourth branch of government” for its political and pecuniary ties to the feds generally, and the quasi-public Federal Reserve in particular.

And it did so irrespective of its claimed fealty to progressive investing principles.

Former Trump administration Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger, one of the principal architects of the administration’s China strategy, broadly captured the symptoms of Woke Capital’s China addiction, and exposed the hypocrisy of the likes of BlackRock, in a recent piece in Foreign Affairs.

Pottinger noted:

“The retirement savings of millions of Americans currently finance Beijing’s military modernization and support Chinese companies that are complicit in genocide and other crimes against humanity. Even as Beijing was systematically expelling foreign journalists from China and making the country’s investment climate increasingly opaque, stock index providers such as FTSE Russell and MSCI continued to add Chinese companies to their indexes, sometimes under pressure from Beijing. Because many American funds benchmark their investments to those same indexes, billions of U.S. dollars automatically flow to Chinese companies, including those that Washington has sanctioned or subjected to export controls.”

This issue is so systemic that until the Trump administration forbade it, the retirement funds of federal employees were being funneled into malevolent Chinese companies as well.

Meanwhile, many financial firms pledging allegiance to “ESG”—prioritizing investments in companies that adhere to progressive environmental, social, and governance standards—demonstrate those concerns do not stretch beyond America’s shores.

As Pottinger adds:

“Some money managers…eschew investing in Western companies that don’t meet…’ESG criteria’…but happily invest in Chinese companies that feature atrocious records in all three categories. There are U.S. university endowments, for instance, that could deliberately decide to invest in only ESG-compliant companies in the United States but simultaneously invest in a raft of Chinese firms that flout all accepted standards of corporate governance and environmental stewardship. Chinese firms contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions, ocean plastic pollution, and illegal fishing than do the companies of any other country on earth. As for social responsibility, a wide variety of Chinese companies—from leading technology firms to manufacturers that export globally—work with Beijing’s security apparatus to track, incarcerate, and extract forced labor from ethnic Uyghur and Kazakh Muslims. With respect to corporate governance, CCP cells, operating mostly in secret, wield significant and often decisive control over Chinese companies—making a mockery of Western standards of corporate transparency and independence.”

When it comes to the likes of BlackRock, and its peers, it’s “ESG for thee, but not for Xi.”

American—increasingly in-name-only—financial firms, which lubricate the global economy, epitomize the Woke elite, who reject the very system from which they have so richly benefited.

That the rest of that elite—our political class, media, academic institutions, and so on—are literally and figuratively invested in, beholden to, or at minimum afraid of running afoul of China, is at root a symptom of an existential crisis that threatens to undo America far before we ever get around to doing all that is necessary to counter Beijing.

The existential crisis concerns our understanding of who we are as a nation, our confidence in its purpose, and our resolve to do whatever is necessary to defend and protect it, and cultivate its greatness.

A pervasive America Last mentality of Wokeism, decadence, and decline prevails over the commanding heights of society. It is born of a sort of moral narcissism, as Roger Simon has termed it, under which our elites confess their sins of power and privilege, while supporting paternalistic policies falling hardest on those for whom they claim to care most. The elites virtue-signal without bearing any cost—on the contrary, they end up further ensconced in their preeminent societal position.

Unserious as this cynical charade is, it may prove fatal.

A nation that prioritizes politics over merit; rewards mediocrity over excellence; protects the connected and targets the contrarian; permits tyranny under the guise of health and safety; privileges foreigners over citizens; and inculcates an ethos of national self-loathing aimed at undoing the system on which it is based, no matter the resources and capabilities of those laboring under it, will be poised to crumble well before it gets around to confronting its global foes.

Domestic peace and prosperity will erode; morale will recede; the will to survive, let alone thrive, will be extinguished.

The zeitgeist of Wokeism, decadence, and decline will defeat us before China has a chance to say “kowtow.” That our putative leaders already kowtow in word and deed—indeed are actively aiding, abetting, and enabling our worst enemy—demonstrates the extent of the rot that has already set in.

Woke Capital Hastens America’s Demise by Backing China (theepochtimes.com)

In light of the Biden Administration encouraging employers to mandate vaccines in order to retain employment while ironically not requiring vaccination mandates for their own staff, Gab has created a No Vax Mandate Job Board group.

You can view and join the group here.

This job board is for sharing job openings that do not require employees to inject themselves with an experimental substance or violate their bodily autonomy and religious beliefs in order to retain employment. This is also a board for job seekers to share their resume, skills, and story.

Related resource: DOWNLOAD COVID VACCINE RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION DOCUMENTS HERE

At Gab we do not require our employees to be vaccinated. In fact we don’t pry into any of the personal health choices of our team because frankly it’s none of our business. We know there are many businesses who share these values with us and many people looking to work for those businesses.

This job board aligns with Gab’s vision of building infrastructure for a parallel economy and we hope to expand further on this job board initiative in the coming months.

As Facebook and other Big Tech giants work to silence and “fact check” any and all vaccine dissent Gab remains committed to mission of being the home of free speech, individual sovereignty, and the free flow of information online.

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus is King

The No Vax Mandate Job Board – Gab News

Multiple casualties among Americans and Afghans were reported

The U.S. ambassador in Kabul has told staff there that four U.S. Marines were killed in an explosion at the city’s airport and three wounded, a U.S. official with knowledge of the briefing said. Two explosions ripped through crowds of Afghans trying to enter the airport on Thursday.

At least three U.S. troops were injured, a U.S. official said. Witnesses reported multiple fatalities among the Afghans, many of whom were trying to enter the airport because they had assisted U.S.-led coalition efforts and feared persecution by the Taliban.

Western governments have repeatedly warned of an imminent attack by Islamic State and urged their citizens not to approach the airport. After the blasts, the U.S. Embassy told all Americans to leave the entrances to the airport immediately.

The explosion at the Abbey Gate of the airport was the result of a complex attack, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. He said another blast occurred near the Baron hotel adjacent to the airport. A British security official said both attacks were carried out by suicide bombers.

An Afghan man who was attempting for the fifth time to get into the airport and get on one of the evacuation planes was standing in the crowd outside Abbey Gate when the detonation took place. “A lot of people got hurt,” he said by phone. “I helped a little girl. I think she died.”

Kabul Airport Explosion Kills Four U.S. Marines Amid Evacuations – WSJ

It’s often said that ideas have consequences.

Ordinary men and women intuitively understand that good ideas yield good results, while bad ideas produce poor decisions and tragic consequences.

Over the last century, avant-garde ideas about the nature of “progress” have produced a compulsive desire for intellectual certainty and immediate self-gratification. Today, historical experience and examples set by preceding generations are generally regarded as irrelevant to the conditions of modern humanity.

Modern opinion makers and politicians constantly put forward premises and techniques that promise to propel society to higher levels of reasoning. More and more, public figures are piloted by “dialectical analysis” and “critical theory,” which highlights past errors, assigns blame, and proposes to set us on a course toward a more perfect existence. “Build back better” is the seductive mantra of our 21st century illuminati.

Good and Bad Ideas

Good ideas are generally based on human experience and truth. Bad ideas frequently reject truth and rely almost entirely on people’s wish to believe. A natural inclination to believe in the conventional wisdom leads many to accept what is false as true and what is imagined as real.

Much of the West’s current philosophical disposition goes back some 400 years to the European Enlightenment. Enlightenment thought revolved around the idea that God and tradition could be replaced by human reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy.

Eighteenth century liberal philosophers advocated for ideals such as reason, science, progress, liberty, tolerance, fraternity, freedom of speech, constitutional government, democracy, and the separation of church and state. In and of themselves these ideas were good and, to the extent they endured, served us well.

Enlightenment and Religion

America and other Western democracies were founded at the apex of the Enlightenment. But, early democratic experiments were carried out in societies that also had deep religious convictions.

Individual liberty was tempered by long-standing forms of spiritual worship and moral authority. At the birth of modern democracies, traditional virtues and obligations such as self-discipline, chastity, compassion, personal responsibility, family loyalty, friendship, hard work, courage, perseverance, honesty, patriotism, and faith provided a sound moral basis for free and well-ordered societies.

Over the last 200 years, intellectuals out of city centers such as Paris, Frankfurt, and New York set out to reason away most of the moral and religious ties that bound traditional communities together and tempered the excesses of liberal-progressive thought. For my own post-World War II generation, this led to profound cultural change.

To my grandparents, who hailed from a small fishing outport on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula, ignoring the traditions and faith that held people together would have seemed as pointless as trying to push back an incoming tide.

Today, if pockets of popular wisdom still exist, it’s outside the dominant relativistic worldview of our progressive establishment. Precious few contemporary people of influence and power argue in favor of traditional virtues.

The Wisdom of Tradition

One notable exception is the young Iranian-America New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting through a couple of events sponsored by the Canadian Civitas Society.

Ahmari might best be described as a young man with an old soul. In his formative years he transitioned, with his parents, from Shiite Islam in Iran to the seductive liberal culture of America and New York City. His final transition to Christianity, marriage, and fatherhood left him convinced that our present version of Enlightenment culture is no longer one of freedom rightly understood.

In a recent book titled “The Unbroken Thread, Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos,” Ahmari urges us to rediscover the inherited traditions and ideals that once gave our lives meaning and purpose. He has come to believe that “the very modes of life and thinking that strike most people in the West as antiquated or ‘limiting’ can liberate us, while the Western dream of autonomy and choice without limits is, in fact, a prison; that the quest to define ourselves on our own is a kind of El Dorado, driving to madness the many who seek after it …”

In order to bring out the best in us, says Ahmari, “other parts of us must be tied down, enclosed, limited, bound.” For centuries, religious truths and timeless common sense taught us that genuine happiness lay in pursuing virtue and accepting limits.

Disenchantment, Alienation, and Uncertainty

In the late 1970s, an era eerily similar to the one in which we presently find ourselves, American scholar George Gilder argued that the success of democratic-capitalist societies depended on the interconnected virtues of “work, faith, and family.” Gilder and other liberal-conservative thinkers reconnected the link between faith and reason. What followed was a new morning for America and the West, and global developments that freed millions from Soviet tyranny and perpetual serfdom.

Today, among those who are best schooled, best fed, and most powerful, “critical theory” invites the rejection of traditional virtues and the choice of a lifestyle that is fashionable, easy, and “sustainable.” All we’re left with are the capricious desires that a technologically advanced society is equipped to fulfil.

Liberty has become license. Equality is equity. Self-discipline and chastity are prudish. Compassion is reduced to virtue signalling. Hard work is for others. Honesty is seldom the best policy. Patriotism is xenophobia, and faith in God is for rubes who cling to their bibles and their guns.

We suffer from a morbid form of narcissism that leads us to believe we can sit in God-like judgement of others while nothing stands in judgement of ourselves. We accept lectures from social misfits, tolerate corruption of the democratic process, reject leaders who project common sense, and elect fools to govern our civic and national affairs.

The result is a deeply divided society and individual lives that are marked by disenchantment, alienation, and uncertainty. We’ve pursued and achieved the modern dream of defining ourselves—but at an enormous cost.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Western Disenchantment and the Cost of Separating Faith From Reason (theepochtimes.com)

Children hold up signs during a rally against critical race theory being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021

Race shaming and allusions to surgical castration in children’s literature—as well as accusations of xenophobia against political figures—are among the themes found in Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s “Indoctrination in North Carolina Public Education” report.

Robinson previously told The Epoch Times that he created the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students task force (F.A.C.T.S.) to gather evidence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the K-12 North Carolina school system.

CRT is a Marxist philosophy that suggests society is a class struggle between oppressors and the oppressed, labelling white people as the oppressors and all other races as the oppressed.

The task force, according to the report, consists of volunteer education professionals with experience in various roles in education, such as teachers, administrators, university professors, education policy experts, and elected members of the state Senate and House.

Through an online portal, parents, teachers, and students could anonymously submit evidence from curriculums by email.

The report was released on Aug. 24 and was gathered from over 500 submissions.

What has surfaced are themes of CRT, bias, sexualization, and race shaming of children, Robinson said in a press release posted on Facebook (pdf).

In one parent’s submission, a child, in learning the word “xenophobia,” was instructed to use former President Donald Trump as an example.

“The teacher had definitions on one side and sentences on the other and the sentence that described xenophobia was ‘President Trump has xenophobia,’” the parent said. “Another example was a definition of Republican was that Republicans don’t care for people’s issues and Democrats are people who care for people.”

The example provided in the image was a prompt for the student to define “xenophobia.”

The prompt said: “It can be said that Donald Trump has xenophobia, because of his fear of people from other countries than the United States.”

Allusions to Surgical Castration

Another submission involved a book titled “George,” by Alex Gino, which is a children’s novel about a transgendered, fourth-grade girl.

According to the report, the book is used in North Carolina classrooms to illustrate the story of a biological boy in the fourth grade who wants to be a girl.

“The book talks about cutting off male genitalia and hormone therapy,” the report stated. “The submitter who shared this information said the book was included in their child’s elementary school. This book is recommended for third to seventh-grade students.”

An excerpt from the book as follows was provided in the report: “’So, like, do you want to’—he made a gesture with two fingers like a pair of scissors—‘go all the way?’ George squeezed her legs together. ‘Maybe someday,’ she said.’”

Faculty Microaggression

A submission from a teacher alleged “microaggression” training class requirements for faculty and staff.

The teacher, who remained anonymous, said she’s been teaching high school for 14 years.

“Faculty and staff are required to attend professional development related to ‘equity’ and ‘microaggression’ as it relates to race, gender, and other areas,” the teacher said. “They define microaggression as ‘The everyday slights, indignities, put-downs and insults that people of color, women, LGBT populations of those who are marginalized experiences in their day-to-day interactions with people.’”

White staff members are told that they are unaware of their racism, the teacher reported, in these personal development sessions.

“We are given examples of microaggression such as a statement: ‘I believe everyone can succeed in today’s society if they work hard and the most qualified people should get the job,’” the teacher said, adding that this statement, according to the tenet of microaggression, translates as: “White people believe people of color are lazy and don’t work hard.”

‘We Didn’t Hide in the Dark’

 The Senate Education Committee passed House Bill 324 on Tuesday after a heated exchange between state Sen. Jay Chaudhuri and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson regarding the task force’s mission.

According to the bill, its purpose is to ensure “the equality and rights of all persons” by requiring that “students, teachers, administrators, and other school employees recognize the quality and rights” of people by prohibiting the promotion of “certain concepts that are contrary to that intent.”

Chaudhuri, a Democrat, said that, during the first week of school, students should be honored instead of debating what he called a “Fox News-driven issue that’s more about fearmongering that’s turned into a fishing expedition of our public-school teachers.”

The task force, Chaudhuri added, operated without abiding by open-meeting laws.

“We didn’t hide in the dark,” Robinson, a Republican, said.  “We didn’t ask to do it.”

Parents, teachers, and students within the North Carolina school system demanded it, Robinson said.

“And to sit here and call it a ‘Fox News-driven issue’ when I have stood with teachers who have cried because they feel like their jobs, livelihoods, and professions have been threatened, for you to call it that is an insult—an absolute insult,” Robinson said.  “And you know where my office is, and you know that this task force is going on. When did you contact me? Please don’t turn this into some partisan issue.”

North Carolina Task Force Reports Themes of Critical Race Theory in K-12 Schools (theepochtimes.com)

Agents also raided homes of Democratic city council members

FBI agents on Wednesday raided Detroit’s city hall and the homes of city council members Janeé Ayers (D.) and Scott Benson (D.) as part of a corruption investigation.

The FBI agents executed warrants to search the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, which serves as Detroit’s city hall, and Ayers’s and Benson’s houses. While the investigation’s exact focus has not yet been released to the public, investigators have already brought corruption charges against Councilman André Spivey (D.).

“The citizens of Detroit have a right to a city government that’s free of corruption,” special agent Timothy Waters told reporters on the day of the raids.

Ayers is running for a second term and Benson for a third term in November. Ayers’s name came up in a federal bribery investigation three years ago, though she faced no charges.

While Detroit has a long history of political corruption, the probe is the largest federal investigation into the city’s politicians in eight years, according to the Detroit News. In 2013, then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D.) was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison on racketeering charges. His sentence was commuted this year by former president Donald Trump.

FBI Raids Detroit City Hall in Corruption Probe (freebeacon.com)

Matt Cartwright, Susan Wild called for federal aid to assist landlords while raking in rental income

Two Pennsylvania Democrats who collected tens of thousands of dollars in rental income in 2020 pushed for taxpayer-funded relief for landlords without acknowledging that they could profit from the policy.

Reps. Matt Cartwright and Susan Wild collected up to $130,000 in combined rental income in 2020, their latest financial disclosures show. In December, Cartwright deemed a Democratic-led effort to extend the CDC’s eviction moratorium insufficient, writing, “We also need to pass an aid package to assist landlords.” Wild, meanwhile, called federal assistance for landlords “a key part of our state recovery” in March. Neither Democrat acknowledged their status as landlords in their public remarks.

Neither Democrat returned a request for comment.

Cartwright and Wild are far from the only House Democrats who raked in thousands of dollars during the pandemic as they advocated federal landlord relief. “Squad” members Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) reported up to $65,000 in combined 2020 rental income. At the same time, both Democrats backed legislation that would cancel rent and create a “landlord relief fund,” which would require the federal government to reimburse landlords for lost income.

According to their financial disclosures, both Cartwright and Wild reported earning the same range of rental income in 2020 as they did in 2019. Many small landlords, however, struggled to collect rent amid the eviction moratorium, which the Pennsylvania Democrats supported throughout 2020. Cartwright and Wild also reported millions of dollars in assets and enjoy a $174,000 congressional salary—roughly a third of individual landlords earn less than $90,000 a year, according to the left-leaning Brookings Institution.

Neither Democrat returned a request for comment.

Cartwright’s rental income stems from three sources, the Democrat’s financial disclosures show: a Scranton, Pa., office building; a Hague, N.Y., “property trust”; and a Massachusetts holding company based in Nantucket. Cartwright earned up to $115,000 from the properties in 2020.

According to Wild’s financial disclosure, the Democrat owns a Washington, D.C., rental property worth between $250,000 and $500,000. Local real estate records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show that Wild inherited the property from her late mother, Susan Ellis, in 2015. She earned up to $15,000 in rental income from the property in 2019 and 2020. Wild used the property’s address to register a D.C.-based limited liability corporation in 2015, according to the city’s business records. The Democrat then listed the LLC on her financial disclosure to report the rental income, rather than reveal the property’s address.

Both Cartwright and Wild face contentious reelection battles in 2022, having narrowly defeated their Republican challengers by just 3 points each in November. Cartwright is one of seven House Democrats who represent a district that voted for Donald Trump in 2020. He outperformed President Joe Biden by 8 points in the district, which includes Biden’s hometown of Scranton.

Two Pennsylvania Dems Pushed for Taxpayer-Funded Landlord Relief. Both Are Landlords. (freebeacon.com)

White House tapped Georges Bergès to vet art sales for ethical conflicts

The art dealer who the White House has tapped to vet Hunter Biden’s art sales for ethical conflicts was sentenced to three months in jail in 1998 for threatening to stab a man to death and was later accused of defrauding an investor in a messy 2016 lawsuit, raising alarms with ethics watchdogs.

Georges Bergès, the gallery owner who is scheduled to host exhibitions of Hunter Biden’s paintings this fall, will be responsible for approving sales of the art works—which are priced between $75,000 and $500,000 and will be open to foreign buyers—according to the White House.

Court records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon shed additional light on Bergès’s legal history, which was first reported by the New York Post in January. Bergès was accused in May 1998 of assaulting a man with a knife and making death threats, according to charging documents filed in Santa Cruz County. According to prosecutors, Bergès threatened the victim “with the specific intent that the statement be taken as a threat” and “was so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific as to convey to the victim a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution.”

Bergès pleaded no contest to making terrorist threats, a misdemeanor charge. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, required to submit to warrantless police searches, and barred from contacting the victim or possessing deadly weapons for 36 months, according to court records.

Ethics watchdogs, already critical of the Biden administration’s decision to outsource the vetting process to Biden’s art dealer, called for public transparency to ensure prospective buyers don’t use the process to try to purchase influence with the White House. Critics say the sales could attract lobbyists or foreign nationals who would be willing to buy the paintings for way over their value in order to curry favor with the White House. Bergès’s legal history serves as a reminder that Hunter Biden’s dealings have not always been on the up and up. Biden was tapped for a high-paying board position at the Ukrainian oil company Burisma and at a Chinese hedge fund while his father was vice president, arrangements that drew criticism during the elder Biden’s presidential campaign. He is also under federal investigation for his tax activities.

“Everything about Hunter’s art deal screams shady, and the new information about the organizer only solidifies what we have been saying: Hunter’s shenanigans threaten to derail the entire Biden agenda,” said Tom Anderson, director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Government Integrity Project.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in July that “all interactions regarding the selling of art and the setting of prices will be handled by a professional gallerist, adhering to the highest industry standards, and any offer out of the normal course would be rejected out of hand.” She added that Bergès would “not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration.”

Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, said the administration’s “complete lack of transparency regarding the sale of Hunter Biden’s art is deeply troubling.”

“There is no way for the public to know who the buyers are and whether or not those buyers are using their purchases to influence decisions made by the president,” Arnold said. “This arrangement is opaque and ripe for abuse.”

Bergès was also caught up in a 2016 lawsuit in which artist Ingrid Arneberg, the daughter of a Norwegian shipping tycoon, accused Bergès of defrauding her out of a $500,000 investment in his gallery.

Arneberg claimed that Bergès made numerous financial misrepresentations in the investment proposal and that his gallery was in dire economic straits at the time, according to federal court filings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She said the art dealer misled her about how much additional funding he raised and falsely claimed that he sold two dozen paintings by a well-known contemporary artist for $50,000 each, when the actual numbers were significantly lower.

In court records, Arneberg also cited alleged text messages between Bergès and a friend in which the gallery owner supposedly mused that he might have to have sex with Arneberg to convince her to invest.

“Malcolm [Bricklin] thinks I may have to sleep with her [Arneberg] because she is just divorced,” Bergès allegedly said in one text message. In other texts, he reportedly described Bricklin, one of his business associates, as “the Godfather shark” who “smells money” and “is about a quick buck and I have to reign him in all the time.”

Bergès countersued Arneberg for defamation and breach of fiduciary duty. Both cases were dismissed after an undisclosed settlement in 2018, according to records.

Bergès and Arneberg did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Hunter Biden Art Dealer Served Jail Time and Allegedly Defrauded Investor (freebeacon.com)

The Biden White House granted the Chinese Communist Party-linked firm Huawei – which was crippled by Trump-era sanctions – licenses to purchase American auto chips, according to reports. 

The decision follows the Beijing-backed tech firm hiring several lobbyists, including the brother of Joe Biden’s White House Counselor Steve Ricchetti and CNN guests who have pushed the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

“U.S. officials have approved license applications worth hundreds of millions of dollars for China’s blacklisted telecom company Huawei to buy chips for its growing auto component business, two people familiar with the matter said,” Reuters reported.

The reported approval follows a Trump-era crackdown on the telecommunications firm, which has extensive links to both the Chinese Communist Party. Labeled a “national security threat” by the Trump administration and a decades-long Chinese military collaborator by the U.S. Department of Defense, Huawei routinely provides the regime backdoor access to its products, networks, and devices.

Former President Donald Trump’s State Department also emphasized that the Chinese Communist Party uses Huawei as an “instrument not only for making money but also for pursuing the Party-State’s agenda and fulfilling its strategic objectives […] deeply enmeshed in Beijing’s system of oppression at home and its increasingly assertive strategic ambitions globally.”

The Biden White House, however, has taken a considerably softer approach to the company, as Reuters notes:

Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, has been hobbled by trade restrictions imposed by the Trump administration on the sale of chips and other components used in its network gear and smartphones businesses. The Biden administration has been reinforcing the hard line on exports to Huawei, denying licenses to sell chips to Huawei for use in or with 5g devices. But in recent weeks and months, people familiar with the application process told Reuters the U.S. has granted licenses authorizing suppliers to sell chips to Huawei for such vehicle components as video screens and sensors. 

Biden White House Approves Licensing Deal For Chinese Communist Party-Linked Huawei, Reversing Trump-Era Hardline. – The National Pulse