RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amac.us/is-pelosi-losing-her-gucci-gloved-grip-on-the-gavel/

As harrowing images and videos continue to emerge from the United States’ disastrous exit of Afghanistan, the Biden administration is rightly facing major scrutiny and public outcry for what increasingly appears to be a complete lack of preparation or any sort of coordinated plan to leave the country. Following days of chaos and broken promises, President Biden and State Department officials have suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of a barrage of criticism from both sides of the political aisle. But even as the Biden team attempts to weather the media storm, the domestic political fallout from this tragedy may have only just begun. For one Democrat in particular, her full-throated defense of Biden’s Afghanistan policy and hapless response to the crisis are the latest in a series of blunders that may break her already tenuous grip on power: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

While Biden has received his share of criticism for his response (or lack thereof) to the Afghanistan debacle, arguably no other single individual has displayed a more complete and total lack of political awareness than Pelosi. Even as Afghan government officials fled the country and the Taliban tightened its control, she applauded President Biden for his “clarity of purpose.” Americans were left to wonder what that purpose was. The Speaker did not elaborate.

As accounts of torture, rape, and murder at the hands of Taliban forces surfaced on social media and from reporters inside Afghanistan, Pelosi offered another similarly meaningless platitude, saying that she was “deeply concerned about reports regarding the Taliban’s brutal treatment of all Afghans, especially women and girls.” She then said that “the U.S., the international community and the Afghan government must do everything we can to protect women and girls from inhumane treatment by the Taliban.” A good place to start would have been coordinating an orderly withdrawal so that the Afghan people she claimed to have concern for wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place.

The statement was blasted as tone deaf at best and outright delusional at worst. The Afghan government has all but crumbled and President Biden has made it clear that he will not challenge the Taliban. Though Pelosi has survived other messaging blunders, the Afghanistan debacle for the Democrat Party comes at a time when Pelosi is facing leadership challenges from the left, right, and center. The crisis may prove particularly damaging in light of her other recent failures.

Pelosi’s control over the House was once described as an “iron fist in a Gucci glove,” but questions about her continued capability as a leader first started to seriously arise following the 2020 election cycle. Despite unprecedented campaign spending, promotion, and an all-out effort by the media, Democrats lost 15 seats in the House of Representatives, shocking pundits and progressives across the country.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/08/21/biden_again_defends_admins_afghan_planning_as_perils_intensify.html

President Biden walked into the East Room of the White House with backup. Four high-ranking administration officials, masked and standing six feet apart, flanked him as he tried to restore calm, assuring the nation that any American still in Afghanistan could eventually get out as that country descends further into chaos.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. They were all there. None said a word, instead staring straight ahead, motionless or swaying slightly from side to side.

“Let me be clear: Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home,” Biden said as he read from a teleprompter. “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or that it will be without the risk of loss.”

While the president did his best to project calm and control,  the assertions and promises he made were immediately questioned by witnesses on the ground, lawmakers in Congress, and even members of his own administration.

All eyes remain on the airport in Kabul, the last remaining exit since the Afghan government folded and its military evaporated. Sullivan told RealClearPolitics earlier this week that the U.S. government is committed to providing safe passage out of the country for American citizens—so long as they can make it to the airfield: “We have asked them all to come to the airport to get on flights and take them home.”

U.S. personnel who have left or are trying to leave report that the commute to the Karzai airport isn’t easy. Instead, they face a harrowing journey as they navigate a daunting gauntlet of checkpoints set up by the Taliban. Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee told RCP on Wednesday that his office remains in contact with Americans near the airfield “who are trying to figure out when they run for it.”

Biden tried to paint a much calmer picture of that exodus Friday, telling reporters that “we have no indication that they haven’t been able to get in Kabul through the airport,” citing an agreement with the Taliban. The president insisted that Americans were receiving safe passage through the checkpoints.

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/lieutenant-governor-kathy-hochul-calls-on-the-biden-administration-to-resettle-afghans-in-new-york/

New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul is now in the spotlight after Governor Andrew Cuomo stepped down when sexual harassment allegations became too much for him to handle.

Now, Hochul is showing off her neoliberal colors after she called on President Joe Biden to resettle Afghans in New York.

Hochul released a statement in which she pressed the Biden administration to help Afghans after the withdrawal of American military forces in Afghanistan.

Her statement read as follows:

When I served in Congress, I met with many Afghans when I traveled to their country. They were there for us, now it’s time for us to help them. [New York] is committed to doing our part to welcome refugees fleeing Afghanistan. The arms of the Statue of Liberty are open wide to you.

John Binder of Breitbart News noted that “The statement comes as a local report from PIX11 News suggested that thousands of Afghans could be resettled in Queens, New York City.”

In a letter directed to the Biden administration, Hochul was joined by Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, an Independent, and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, a Republican, where they outlined their intentions to work with refugee contractors to bring Afghans to upstate New York:

In the coming months, we will work together with our refugee resettlement partners at Interfaith WorksCNY and Catholic Charities of Onondaga County and the federal government to prepare our community. Central New York stands ready as a partner to bring as many of our Afghan allies out of harm as possible and into a welcoming, nurturing community in America.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2021/08/20/cutting-to-the-chase-why-trump-was-driven-from-office-n1471233

“In plain language, resident complexities and interpretative assessments aside, Trump was a true president: forthright, unbeholden, and effective. From the point of view of America’s “ruling class”—entrenched political parasites, so-called “opinion leaders,” media collaborators, and wealthy oligarchs—such attributes are high crimes and misdemeanors for which the chosen culprit must be made to pay. There can be no absolution. He upset the apple cart. He fractured and exposed the inner circle. He offended the elites. And now he may even be planning his return. As if in a parody of the Book of Amos (2:4), whether for three transgressions or for four, Trump remains anathema for rejecting the law of the lords that be. ”

There has been no end of commentary dealing with Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency and the scandal of his electoral loss. There’s no doubt that from the day of the “grand escalator ride” (and even before) to the day of his departure from the White House, a social, media, and political upheaval was in progress, and would not cease even when he once again became a private citizen. Reasons pro and con for the debacle have proliferated since Hurricane Trump made landfall in America, but the issues are basically very simple and can be stated economically.

There were essentially three called strikes against him, all that was needed to count him out.

He was not “presidential.” He was considered crude in speech, rough-hewn in manner, and given over to bluster and hyperbole unbefitting the highest office in the land. For these transgressions, he could not be forgiven.
He was an outsider, the first president in American history with no military or political experience. He was not a politician, a general, a lawyer, or a holder of public office. He was never a member of the Beltway club, whether Republicrats or Democrats. He was not followed by a train of professional lobbyists, owed no political debts, did not accept a salary, and did not enrich himself when in power. For these transgressions, he could not be forgiven.
He was competent and proudly patriotic. He put America first, cutting taxes, renegotiating bad trade deals to the nation’s advantage, reducing a red-tape regulatory nightmare, making the country energy-independent and a net exporter of energy, rebuilding the military, defending the southern border, re-establishing global prominence, and connecting with the commons. For such transgressions, he could not be forgiven.

https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/2021/08/20/joe-biden-leading-the-world-off-a-cliff-n1471414

President Biden just delivered a speech on Afghanistan so rife with misdirection and mendacity that it’s hard to know where to start. But from the welter of Orwellian Newspeak, let’s pluck a line in which we find Biden praising himself for his handling of Afghanistan. Biden told us : “This is about America leading the world, and all our allies have agreed with that.”

If so, this is about America, under his stewardship, leading the world off a cliff.

Whatever the arguments for leaving Afghanistan or maintaining a minimal force, Biden and his advisors and planners (assuming there were any?) have delivered the worst of all worlds. Whatever the difficulties inherent in any retreat, this is a rout. The great American superpower has been chased out of its embassy, out of Kabul, out of Afghanistan, by the Taliban — who now surround the airport where Americans are fleeing for their lives, and Afghans who worked with them are begging for passage — if they can get to the airport at all.

This is a humiliating defeat, echoing way beyond Afghanistan. It is guaranteed to embolden America’s enemies and signal our allies that it is folly to trust America. China is gloating online, with propaganda organs putting out headlines such as this, from the Global Times: “U.S. will abandon Taiwan in a crisis.” Nor should we write that off as mere propaganda; there is a deeply alarming likelihood that this is exactly what Beijing, with its ringside seat (including an open embassy flying the Chinese flag in Kabul) is now calculating. Russia’s Vladimir Putin must be relishing the moment, fresh from telling Biden at a June summit that neither Russia nor China was interested in a U.S. military presence in Central Asia, once Biden completed his plans to pull out of Afghanistan. These predatory powers want America gone from their neighborhoods, and for their purposes, the more ignominious the departure, the better.

Nor is it going to reassure America’s friends and allies that Biden and his handlers are so busy trying to spin the story that they seem to have fetched up in some alternate universe. Biden began his remarks by stressing that the U.S. evacuation effort in Kabul is “one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history.” He underscored that of all the countries in the world, only America is “capable of projecting this much power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision… .” Yes indeed, America is a mighty nation, and we can be proud of the astounding abilities and courage of our armed forces.

But as Biden, or his speechwriters, formulated this praise of the military, it serves chiefly to deflect attention from the atrocious planning and strategic idiocy emanating from the office of the commander-in-chief (including the decision to pull out weeks ago from Afghanistan’s commodious Bagram military base, near Kabul, leaving the commercial airport as the only escape route). This is not the Berlin airlift — in which America led a defiant support of freedom. In Kabul, the American troops ordered back in by Biden to carry out the evacuation have been handed a mission that boils down to America’s self-demeaning rush for the exit. If Biden is going to tout U.S. military power, he owes us all an honest explanation of why, under his command, this nightmare scene — with its iconic image of Afghans falling to their deaths from an American Air Force jet on takeoff — turned out to be the best America could manage.

There’s plenty more, including Biden’s bizarre claim that al-Qaeda is gone from Afghanistan: “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone?” According to a report just this June by a United Nations panel of experts on these matters: “Large numbers of Al-Qaida fighters and other foreign extremist elements aligned with the Taliban are located in various parts of Afghanistan.” (These are topics on which even the UN tends to produce more reliable information than the Biden White House, which is doubly intriguing because, though we can’t tell for sure, it is quite likely U.S. intelligence has helped inform the UN report.)

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/08/can_the_biden_presidency_last_much_longer.html

Democrats now understand that Biden has poisoned the Democrat brand, as proven by a shocking special election flip of a seat in a wealthy suburban district that Biden won by 25 points.

Though removal from office once was unthinkable, Joe Biden has lost the support of most of the key actors whose support helped him win the presidency, and whose cooperation is essential to maintaining the illusion that he is capable of fulfilling the duties of president of the United States.

Because impeachment or the 25th Amendment removal from office would hinge on their support — Democrat officeholders now understand that they are at risk of losing their next election thanks to his sullying of the brand of the party that foisted an already senile placeholder on the public.  In a special election Tuesday, voters in Connecticut’s 26th Senate District, who supported Biden by a 25-point margin, flipped a seat to the Republican candidate (hat tip: Christina Laila).

This is one of the wealthiest suburban constituencies in the country, encompassing Greenwich, Stamford, and New Canaan — people who read the New York Times and who care about foreign policy.

The earlier switch of affluent suburbanites away from Republicans over the past decade or more has been essential to Democrat victories in many blue states.  They believed media propaganda that Trump was an ignorant buffoon whose incompetence made America a laughingstock in the European countries they like to vacation in.  When they see headlines like this, even more such voters will be alarmed:

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/biden-press-conference-feast-disinformation/

Biden emerged from his cave, saw his shadow, and told us there will be three more years of winter.

That winter, descending upon America’s position in the world, was on public display at Biden’s Friday press conference about Afghanistan. It was a feast of disinformation.

No al-Qaeda in Afghanistan? Come on, man.

Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are enemies? Gimme a break.

Almost no one thought the Afghan army would fall apart this quickly? You might want to check your notes.

Our Nato allies agreed his decision to withdraw was wise? Ain’t so. Our most important allies are taking the very rare step of publicly blaming an American president.

We’ll know if terrorist groups form in Afghanistan because we have “over the horizon” capabilities? Over the rainbow is more accurate. We need resources on the ground to understand what’s happening.

And on and on and on with drivel and falsehoods.

How bad is this mess? So bad and so obvious that even the mainstream media, lap dogs for the last two years, began asking Biden tough questions. It’s unclear if they will follow up and inform the public about the deceptions, as well as the incompetence and bad judgment.

Yesterday, Juan Williams said the American people will soon forget this failure in Afghanistan. Not very likely. A friend of mine, reflecting on those pictures from the Kabul airport, rendered a much more profound judgment, “People cannot unsee those images.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/08/19/afghanistan-the-ugly-aftermath-and-the-death-of-u-s-influence/

It’s one thing to lose a war intentionally, quite another to botch it so badly that it damages our relations around the world. But thanks to the epic ineptitude of the Biden administration, our military leaders and dysfunctional intelligence agencies, that’s exactly what has happened.

The news couldn’t be more depressing. Our president’s response was, no joke, a strongly worded letter to the Taliban from our United Nations ambassador. At the same time, our own State Department informed U.S. citizens now stuck in the capital of Kabul that they should make their way to Karzai Airport if they can, but that the U.S. can’t guarantee their safety.

Even as the horrible images of the Taliban’s takeover come tumbling in over social media and news sites, the harm to the U.S. and its global reputation has been significant.

The Taliban has already started killing people, including a woman for not wearing a burka, while making up more comprehensive death lists of those who will be summarily murdered once it takes total control.

Here’s how the London Times describes the mayhem:

Despite pledges to be magnanimous, the Taliban have been accused of beheading prisoners, gouging out eyes and executing hundreds. Fleeing civilians have brought tales of girls forced into marriage or kidnapped as sex slaves. Video on social media shows Islamists pumping machine gun rounds into the bodies of captured Afghan policemen.

This is what the Biden administration’s ineptitude hath wrought. Now add to that the hundreds of Americans and other Westerners now stranded and cut off from leaving after Kabul’s main airport came under Taliban control “unexpectedly.”

https://quillette.com/2021/08/18/america-the-indispensable/

Post-millennium America does not look good at a glance. The country has struggled with the pandemic and with deepening divisions over race, class, inequality, and culture. It is in the humiliating process of losing another war, this time in Afghanistan. Since 2016, the world’s largest economy has been presided over first by the buffoonish and occasionally deranged Donald Trump, and then by an aging Joe Biden who bears scant resemblance to Franklin Roosevelt.

Yet, despite its manifest failings—the assault on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters was not a good image builder—the US remains the indispensable country, the last major counterforce to the rising authoritarian challenge of China, and its growing list of allies, including perhaps the new Islamist regime in Kabul. It remains, without question, the only nation with the natural resources, population, military, and technical skill to rally the West and salvage its threatened legacy.

The US routinely rises to the challenge late, a pattern evident in both World Wars, the initial period of the Cold War, the response to China’s late 20th century industrial juggernaut, and the terrorist threat. But in the end, it remains a huge and blessed land with enormous sokojikara, or “reserve power,” as Japanese political scientist Fuji Kamiya described it decades ago, that allows it to overcome competitors.

The case for America

Pessimism about America’s direction has resurged, following a brief improvement when Biden became president. According to an ABC/Ipsos poll, Americans’ optimism about the country’s direction has dropped 20 points since May. Concern is growing that the country is in a  precipitous decline, something that won’t improve with the bleak images from the Afghani debacle. Most Europeans believe that China will soon replace America as the world’s economic powerhouse. The Chinese, unsurprisingly, seem to feel the same. In a since-deleted tweet, Ministry official Zhao Lijian described Western efforts to slow China’s dominion as being “as stupid as Don Quixote versus the windmills … China’s win is unstoppable.”

So will our children—now living in unhappy and increasingly divided societies—grow up kowtowing to the Mandarins? Without America, that’s the future for the West and everyone else. Europe, politically divided, demographically stagnant, and anti-American, lacks the capacity and willingness to resist. Germany appears unwilling to stand up to either its largest trading partner, China, or to its now-favored supplier of energy, Russia. Weaker European states, such as Italy, the Czech Republic, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, and even rightwing favorite Hungary have signed up to be cogs in China’s “Belt and Road initiative.” Asia’s democracies can’t hack it without America. Japan is a rich but aging country that lacks much forward momentum, something that can also be said of South Korea. India is still too poor and chaotic to match China’s regimented power.