Backed by China and Pakistan, the Taliban are poised to take Kabul and end the 20 year exmpiremnt in nation-building with a staggering defeat. The Taliban were estimated by the US “intelligence community” to be incapable of matching the larger and better equipped Afghan national army, which either switched sides or evaporated. Billions in US weapons seized make the Talbin a creditable force in the region.
The Afghan people seem to be of three types: cowards who flee the first signs of battle, people who don’t want freedom and are willing to accept tyranny, people who may want freedom but only as a handout at others’ expense. Exceptions to this can be found, a brave Afghani willing to stand for freedom is rare and would not be able to realistically hold their ground on the midst of such a moribund and corrupt population.
The Epoch Times covered the stunning evacuation of US embassy in Kabul in scenes reminiscent of the fall of Saigon.
Meanwhile, the President and Vice President have left Kabul after the President spoke of a peaceful transition of power but the Vice President vowed to fight the Taliban to the death and never, ever sit under the same roof as them.
The main change in protocol for this Biden withdrawal over the Trump withdrawal was that Biden cut off all talks with the Taliban and seems to have bought the false narrative that Afghan army, strong on paper, with limited US air support, could hold the line. What happened was that the army turned, fled, or was bought off and in many cases, after surrendering and believing they would be spared, they write slaughtered. Trump thought he could engage the Taliban, mostly to keep them from supporting terror groups like Al Qaeda, in the future in a power-sharing arrangement.
Both approaches would likely have ended in the same space.
Efforts to rescue the 20,000 or more Afghanis who would face execution for collaboration with the Americans are under way. There are no plans for the women and children whose menfolk so thoroughly let them down. There are also no plans to punish China and Pakistan, without whose help this would not have been possible.
US forces are being airlifted back into Afghanistan in a desperate bid to save US citizens and Afghani collaborators from the Taliban advance.
As the Taliban marches into the remaining “free” areas of Afghanistan, a feat nobody who was watching matters is surprised about, the temptation to “save” Afghanistan from itself may be great. The amount of money made by the defense industry is staggering, but the gain of this policy is negligible. In the end, despite massive aid and training, the people of Afghanistan don’t want freedom, they want a throwback to the most archaic and barbaric religious ideology known to modern humanity.
The US is now sending in troops to rescue US citizens and Afghani collaborators with the US in scenes that will potentially be more dramatic than the fall of Saigon. The Taliban, backed by China and Pakistan and freshly armed with captured US war booty, are about to turn the country back into a terrorist safe haven and 7th century hellscape in which Christians are martyred and women become chattel.
The blame lies with every US President since Bush II, the neocon “genius” who promised that everyone wants “democracy” if only US forces fought for their freedom, even though the actual people being “liberated” never have. But the consequences are to the American people, both in terms of lost lives, changed lives through injury and psychological damage, and trillions of dollars, most of which lined corporate pockets.
The drumbeat of war will begin as soon as, once again, Afghanistan hosts the next terrorist act against the US. Outraged people will want revenge and will forget that this story keeps repeating with no successful end in sight. The propensity of the ruling class to foment conflicts which they profit from has never been greater.
But from the perspective of the average Afghani, most of whom lack the courage and conviction needed to resist the ideology of the Taliban, life will become a horror freak show. The ruthlessness and arbitrary brutality of the Taliban falls on people even if they desperately try to comply with the overwhelming edicts of this throwback religious sect. Nobody, not even a faithful Taliban member, is safe from the possibility of being brutalized and murdered for reasons they cannot even fathom.
Every Afghani who aided the Americans, and there are hundreds of thousands, is going to face dire consequences, and so is their family. The precipitous withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan, brokered by Trump and then carried out months later than planned by Biden, means that almost none of these people will be safe. Simply importing all of them to the US is not a practical solution. Moreover, they didn’t collaborate with the US to have to leave their homeland, many just wanted to make money or, in some cases, they wanted to move their country into the 21st century.
Sending in US troops to Kabul to effect an emergency evacuation while the President practically begs and then cajoles the Taliban, who have no fear of the US, may morph into saving the army of collaborators who have, mostly, turned tail and fled from the enemy. Plaintiff cries to save the Afghani collaborators have already begun and this pressure is coming from the right and left.
But the pressure to just put this behind us, cut our losses, including human losses, and move on is greater. Any “engagement” is likely to be covert and concealed, possibly carried out by mercenaries (contractors), and possibly by buying off more Afghanis to trade money for propping up a corrupt puppet regime. There is no popular support or willingness to sacrifice or fight to save Afghanistan from the China and Pakistan backed Taliban.
Afghanistan and Iraq have been a gross debacle, they have caused massive losses to the US and they have only made things worse in those lands. This is a bipartisan debacle no US President since Bush II has had the moral courage and tenacity to stop. Biden is the last unfortunate President who must oversee the final collapse which was inevitable way back in 2001 when the plan became “nation building” for a population that wouldn’t fight for its own freedom.
US re-engagement in Afghanistan would only serve the defense industry and, while it is unlikely, one can never underestimate the corruption and foolishness of America’s real political shot-callers.
Bill Collier- According to reports, the Covid-19 vaccines are losing 6% efficacy every 2 months, albeit only against mild infections, while the efficacy of the vaccines against death is reportedly at near 100% and very effective against serious illness. But if the vaccines are so quickly, at 6% per month, losing efficacy against mild illness, will it remain effective against serious illness or death a year from injection?
Hesitancy and doubt about the vaccines versus faith in the vaccines and fear the unvaccinated are only making this worse for everyone else is dividing society. The heart of the issue here is not that disinformation is out there and some of it is ridiculous, the core problem is a strong distrust of leading institutions. The faith of the public in lending institutions, from the White House and the CDC to the Press, is waning and all these institutions have earned that distrust.
The more brute force and authoritarian the response to the unvaccinated gets, the more people suspect and fear the vaccine is somehow either dangerous or ineffective. It doesn’t take a leap of logic to see that if the vaccines are losing efficacy against a minor level of infection that eventually they will lose efficacy against serious levels.
Arguments against vaccines range from weird theories of microchips to allegations the vaccine is “leaky” and actually leading to new varients and that these varients may not be protected against by the vaccines over the next year. Arguments for mass vaccination focus on how the unvaccinated may spread the virus and keep it alive, the basic idea being that if everyone is vaccinated at once then the virus will quickly dissipate. But this isn’t the case with influenza, the flu, which requires an annual shot.
It all comes back to trust. People who refuse the vaccine do not trust the officials and institutions pushing the vaccine. The retort that one has to believe everyone involved is deliberately lying in some conspiracy doesn’t mollify anyone’s fears. Accusing people of conspiracy theory thinking and denigrating them doesn’t tend to convince them.
Do I think, as the Publisher of The Freedomist, that the vaccines are somehow going to make everyone sick eventually and/or become useless? No. My own hesitancy is related to a practical need to ensure that I am able to take care of my wife, who has an illness that requires constant personal care.
Me being incapacitated is not good for her and people getting the vaccine have become very sick for up to a few weeks. For the risk to the unvaccinated this is actually seen as worth it, and I totally get that, but the consequences to my wife if I become incapacitated can be just as bad. Moreover, if she gets quite sick, with her underlying illness, it could cause her to take a turn for the worse.
But many have deeper fears and concerns, they do not have faith the vaccines will remain effective and, worse, they fear it will actually cause health issues in the long term. The draconian lockdown on information, deplatforming people who dare question the vaccine, has backfired in its intended effect: the feeling is “they” are hiding something.
Those who start or spread misinformation are insidious, but those who may be concealing information about problems with the virus are also insidious. Sorting out who is either spreading misinformation or concealing information is virtually impossible as one cannot trust sources and authorities these days.
My own instinct is, frankly, not to trust the skeptics and their claims, like that the vaccines alter your DA or that the entire system is geared toward some depopulation scheme. I strongly doubt that all the people involved in the vaccines are part of some conspiracy to make the population sick or make them infertile in order to reduce the human population. That’s insane and bizarre.
On the other hand, the government and the CDC have proven to be liars and to cover up the worse, grossest crimes. The list of “conspiracies” actually conducted and eventually exposed is too long to mention. We all know about how the “intelligence community” has lied over and over for political reasons and how all these endless wars have only made the defense industry rich at the expense of American and innocent foreign lives.
The idea anyone is knowingly pushing a vaccine that makes people infertile or eventually makes them sick doesn’t pass the test of logic. But the idea a rushed vaccine with waning efficacy is being pushed by desperate politicians who need a big win to prevail in elections is quite plausible. The use by both sides of this issue for political gain is also problematic: the anti-mask and pro-mask crowds are basically split between Republicans and Democrats, both sides insisting the other side is using bunk science.
The waning efficacy of the vaccines for minor illnesses and its inability to prevent the vaccinated from carrying the virus is a fact acknowledged by the vaccine companies themselves. The logical next step feared by many is that this waning efficacy is that people who are vaccinated will begin to get very ill or die. I personally know a number of people who were vaccinated who became quite ill, although this is anecdotal and, in the main, the statistics show the vaccinated are most unlikely to get seriously ill or to die.
My own concerns are twofold:
I certainly fear the consequences of getting this virus. I have been exposed to it three times and thankfully did not get sick.
On the other hand, I sincerely fear the vaccine may make me sick enough to struggle to properly care for my wife, I fear that she will take a turn for the worse if she has a bad reaction to the vaccine, and I fear the vaccine will lose its efficacy and give a false sense of security.
I don’t have a strong reason to trust the authoritarians who are demanding everyone get vaccinated and I certainly don’t buy into the wild claims against the vaccine, which have a political motivation. If I had no concern about the consequences if I have a bad reaction to the vaccine, in light of my caregiving duty, I would be vaccinated. If my wife had no underlying illness that could be seriously impacted by a bad reaction to the vaccine, I would urge her to get it. As it stands, she has substantial concerns.
The waning efficacy of the vaccines will continue to make it difficult to get people to get the vaccine and the authoritarian and insulting response to these people will only make it worse.
PGC – It looks like the Taliban are set to take full control of Afghanistan and once again become a world player on a world stage with a whole nation-state behind them that will have nation-states like China and Russia coming in to try and get a little piece of the action. China, for sure, has, for now, the inside track, but that could turn after a couple of years of Chinese presence in the land where Empires die.
Donald J Trump was heading us down this path as well, but one does not know how much different, if at all, his withdrawal would have been. Our withdrawal appears to be sudden and unmerciful. We are knowingly leaving behind hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people with more than enough positive interactions with our soldiers to put their families under threat for death, slavery, or worst, sex slavery.
We knew full well what the Taliban was and its highly coercive assumptions regarding the nature of human governance. For the Taliban, their religious leaders are like little gods, or at least manifestations of the wisdom of Allah, that speak with infallibility, leaders willing to consign to death anyone who dares not believe in the particular Allah this group holds at its heart.
Life is not much among those not of the orthodox faith of the Taliban, and we Americans knew it, but we left, hardly with any plan to evacuate hardly anyone that put their lives, their families lives at risk to cooperate wtih the Americans, to even enter some of their programs, to dare dream one day something like America will happen in Afghanistan, and there will be no more bombs, no more Taliban, only open squares to argue about non-essential politics.
Even here in America, though, those days are fast ending, but still, compared to the people of Afghanistan, we are still a golden light of free thought and action, ideally, yes, but also physiologically still significantly true as well. America is hope and wonder compared to the conditions that Afghanis found themselves under while America was there. Now that America has left, well, for many, this is the end. Life itself will be over, and it will end violently for many of them. Many will be beaten, taunted, paraded around in cages. Some will be beheaded. Some will be burned alive. Some will be raped until they die.
The methods of death set aside for these American sympathizers, well, it’s pretty ghastly, and we knew it, and we left without any real effort to rescue those who once rescued us. This withdrawal has done more damage to America’s credibility, gravitas on the world stage than all of the little ways we have been letting down our allies through the second part of the 20th and early part of the 21st Centuries have combined. It might even be the culmination of this period in American geopolitical history, and it might mark the end of it, an age when America commanded the moral high ground, but now, after Afghanistan, can no longer be trusted as an ally in a risky situation.
Taliban fighters could isolate Afghanistan’s capital in 30 days and possibly take it over in 90, a US defence official told Reuters on Wednesday (Aug 11) citing US intelligence, as the resurgent militants took control of an eighth provincial Afghan capital.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the new assessment of how long Kabul could stand was a result of the rapid gains the Taliban had been making around the country as US-led foreign forces leave.
“But this is not a foregone conclusion,” the official added, saying that the Afghan security forces could reverse the momentum by putting up more resistance.
The extremists now control 65 per centof Afghanistan and have taken or thre
The US Navy recently sent one of its stellar aircraft carriers into the lion’s den, the strike of the so-called ‘ship-killer’ missiles. The USS Gerald R Flord withstood a series of attacks by ship killer missiles to demonstrate the resilance of US Aircraft Carriers against such threats that enemies such as China and Russia claim they have against us.
The aircraft carrier is still, even in current year, the apex predator of miliitary power and there is still no one close who can field the quality and amount of aircraft carriers that the United States can still sustain. By putting their aircraft carrier through such tests, the US Military just displayed a powerful visual rebuttal to the seriousness of the threat the Chinese and Russians thought they possessed.
After surviving beyond the percussive power of the so-called ship-killer missiles, the US Carrier proved itself still the apex predator of the seas. So long as America holds that title, the power of all nation-states in the physical is considerably limited compared to the United States, whose power resides now almost entirely in her far superior Navy, which starts with her Aircraft Carrier Task Forces, which project real physical power like nothing else human-made on the face of the planet.
If and when the Aircraft Carriers become moot, the reality of power of this planet will be signficiantly re-aligned in ways that might be difficult to prognosticate, but, most likely, it leads to a more disbursed power structure than we currently have today, but also increased local production and manufacturing due to rising cost of internataional shipping with rise in piracy worldwide. The death of the carrier might, in the end, potentially lead to less disparity in power signficiantly compared to where we are today where so many of our large-scale systems continue to merge with others until we are down to a handful of major corporations and governments dictating the reality to the overwhelming majority, and not in their interest, in the interst of those who find themselves advantaged in power in the first place.
The US Navy’s successful completion of explosion impact trials for aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford has sent a message to China and Russia that it is not worried about
The US’ newest and most advanced nuclear carrier’s third and final full ship shock trial was completed on Sunday off the coast of Florida, following the previous such trials on June 18 and July 16, the American navy said in a press release on Monday.
The carrier suffered no major casualties and less damage than expected, officials said.
In the trials, held in the Atlantic Ocean, 40,000lbs (18 tonnes) of explosives – equivalent to a 3.9-magnitude earthquake – were detonated under water, each time taking place closer to the carrier. Data on the impact on the vessel was collected.
PGC – Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned yesterday as he saw the writing on the wall in Albany. The Dems and Reps were gathering, almost in bipartisan glea, to prepare to take the once love governor of America down.
They were going to impeach him, but not because of the thousands of deaths that appeared to be maybe perhaps grossly not necessary, the deaths that resulted when some governors, of which Cuomo was the biggest offender, put thousands of Covid patients into nursing homes, leaving to thousands of elderly deaths as the virus raced through these nursing homes in the first few months of the pandemic.
What happened in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michinga will not be investigated by the Federal Justice Department, nor does any state have any such investigations currently being conducted regarding how the governors in these state all chose to put the early infected in with the elderly in confined spaces that were made inaccessible to the loved ones of the elderly, but not the unrelated infected.
Instead,Governor Cuomo was felled because he committed a sin that in the DNC is far worse than possibly ordering thousands of elderly to their deaths, he had sexually inappropriate behavior with woman. Now, granted, his ‘sins,’ if even parlty true, paint him as an untrustworthy lech of a man who does deserve the fate he’s getting, but long before this recent evidence emerged that showed the brutal seriality of his sexual offenses, the evidence against his mishandling of the nursing homes in the early months of the pandemic were enough to have him impeached long before now.
But for the DNC, the sin of lletting the inconvenient die, be they on their way out or on their way in, is far less of a sin to concern ourselves with than sexual misconducts. I say all this with one caveat, that so far there is no evidence to suggest Cuomo ever raped anyone, and if and when such an allegation emerged, then the comparisons at least much closer than they are given the facts as they have been shared so far.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned over sexual harassment claims.
The 63-year-old has denied all wrongdoing but said the move was the right thing to do to let the government get back to work.
A month-long independent investigation concluded Governor Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women after 11 – including current and former aides – came forward with accusations.
Calls for his resignation and impeachment grew from both sides of politics following the findings of the investigation.
PGC – After the courts allowed the Sandy Hook lawsuit to go forward that seeks to hold manufacturers of guns accountable for the violence individuals choose to commit using these same gauns, the lawsuits against gun manufacturers have only increased. Recently, the Mexican government joined in the lawsuit party and now our own law officers are using the same tactic to target gun manufacturers for bankrupty through litigation.
If you can’t kill the 2A legally, kill it economically by making the legal cost of operation beyond feasible, with exemptions written for the manufacturing of guns for police and military, no doubt.
To see Los Angeles County deputies sue a company that doesn’t even make guns but rather makes ghost gun kits that let others make their own guns is to telegraph to the world just how afraid law enforcement is of the 2nd amendment. These two deputies are suing a ghost gun machine maker because one of their machines made a ghost gun that was used in an ambush in which both these cops were shot at. This is lawfare, the use of law to commit political acts of violence against the American people.
Two Los Angeles County deputies who were ambushed in their patrol car last September have filed a lawsuit against a company that makes “ghost gun” kits. The lawsuit accuses Nevada-based Polymer80 Inc. of negligently and unlawfully selling an “untraceable home-assembled gun kit” that was used in the attack.
Claudia Apolinar and Emmanuel “Manny” Perez-Perez were sitting in their marked patrol car when Deonte Murray walked up to the car and opened fire on the two officers.
Murray was arrested three days later and tossed a PF940c handgun from his vehicle during a police chase. Murray was not allowed to own a firearm due to numerous felony convictions. The gun did not have a serial number, but ballistics confirmed it was used in the attack on Apolinar and Perez-Perez.
The homemade gun kits are not considered firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and sellers are not required to conduct a background on buyers.
The lawsuit alleges that Polymer80 sold “ghost gun kits without serial numbers and without taking reasonable steps to ensure that purchasers are legally allowed to purchase or possess firearms, despite knowing that their deadly products are especially attractive to criminals and would likely and foreseeably end up in the hands of dangerous persons prohibited from legally owning firearms under federal and state law.”
Scientists have discovered the fountain of youth, of sorts, and its gut bacteria. Older mice were given gut microbia transplants from younger mice and ended up seeing reserve aging affects that imrpoved every physical quality of of life for them, More research is for sure needed, but, perhapsn a day will come when grandpa will be given gut microbe bacteria from his grandkids to assure he stays looking 40 when he’s already 95.
Scientists have known for the past two decades that the metropolis home to trillions of bacteria in your belly — the gut microbiome — is also central to mental health, the immune system, and more.
One of the latest studies in gut health scrutinizes how our microbiome affects aging in mice, using a surprising transplant.
The research, published Monday in the journal Nature Aging, reveals that older mice who have received gut microbiota transplants from young mice show improved brain function and behavior. This mouse model offers powerful insight into how diet and what populates our stomachs affect what our brains look like in old age.
WHAT’S NEW — Researchers have found that when they transplant microbiota of young mice into the intestines of older mice, the older mice display improved cognitive function. This is the first study that shows the correlation between transplantation of a gut microbiome from a younger mouse into an older one with improved brain abilities in the older mice.
KABUL: The Taliban were in control of six Afghan provincial capitals on Tuesday after a blitz across the north forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes for the relative safety of Kabul and other centres.
The insurgents now have their eyes on Mazar-i-Sharif, the north’s biggest city, whose fall would signal the total collapse of government control in a region that has traditionally been anti-Taliban.
Government forces are also battling the hardline Islamists in Kandahar and…
PGC – As the United States leave Afghanitan and a trail of broken alliances behind her, the Chinese under Chairman Xi have chosen to side with the Taliban in the war for the hearts and minds of the people. The same nation-state that is regularly feted in American corporate markets, the same nation-state that has more infliuence over America’s media than the American people do, is busy cozying up with the Taliban in a bid to cull from the Afghan mountains what gold they imagine they can if the Taliban welcomed their presence.
Perhaps the coal is the geo-political circumstance of Afghanistan itself, a bridge between what is commonly referred to as the Near East and the Far East. But Afghanistan is a bridge ridged with mountains and difficult terrain, a land not easily tamed if the people of the land don’t will it. America is not the first Empire to die in those mountains, and she won’t be the last.
So China is figuring on trying a different strategy, make nice with the might that is, a strategy America herself has deployed in the past as well. It’s a dangerous gambit but fitting with China’s overal strategy of consolidating world power, gain power through influence where the soul eats and sleep, commerce. If China can help the Taliban exploit the lands for capital for the cause, while getting the kind of cut China will hope to get, this can be a very productive relationship, not just economically, but geopolitically as well. Still, it’s a dangerous game the Chinese play and it remains to be seen if they have the discipline to be a velvet glove master of a land of iron wills.
As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan and leaves a security vacuum there, is China moving in by cozying up to the Taliban? On July 28, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a high-profile official meeting with a delegation of nine Afghan Taliban representatives, including the group’s co-founder and deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. This was not the first visit by Taliban members to China, but the meeting was unprecedented in its publicity, the…
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