COVID Is Becoming the Afghanistan of Pandemics Ben Weingarten

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/covid-is-becoming-the-afghanistan-of-pandemics-opinion/ar-AAOJOhX

We are suffering tremendous losses in blood, treasure, mettle and might, with no end to the intervention resulting in these losses in sight.

Our response to COVID over the last 18 months has shown that we have failed to heed the lessons of Kabul over the last 20 years.

If Afghanistan should have taught us anything, it is this: When confronting an enemy, we need a clear set of goals, a reasonable plan to achieve those goals as efficiently as possible and an ironclad exit strategy. How one addresses these matters hinges on knowing both ourselves and our enemy.

Yet with COVID, as with the Afghanistan boondoggle, the stated goals have been ever-shifting and often nebulous. “Two weeks to flatten the curve” evolved into “defeating the virus”—whatever that means—and of course “building back better,” which is to say, exploiting the pandemic to forcibly impose a full-spectrum progressive agenda. Routing al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime that harbored it evolved into making Zurich out of Kandahar. And if “zero-COVID” is the implicit goal, it is equally as farcical. The totalitarian means that would be employed in a bid to achieve that would only compound the disaster. In both cases, mission creep was baked in from the beginning by dint of the mission itself.

The measures by which to achieve these vague goals have proven similarly haphazard. With COVID, our authorities conjured social distancing rules almost out of thin air; urged us to wear no masks and then up to three at a time, despite their questionable efficacy; and imposed on-again, off-again lockdowns—all selectively enforced based on political ideology. The politicians that have inflicted the most pain on their constituents—from the elderly consigned to their deaths in nursing homes, to the children kept out of school—have hidden behind public-health bureaucrats, as insulated as the national security and foreign policy establishment officials behind Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, that establishment oversaw the development of a sharia-subordinate political regime, bribed thugs and warlords, poured billions into bridges-to-nowhere, imposed on our soldiers suicidal rules of engagement and demanded they turn a blind eye to bacha bazi and all manner of other awfulness—all in service of liberal, moralistic nation-building.

The facts and figures necessary for Americans to assess whether policies have “worked” and to what extent they were justifiable, in the case of COVID, have been hard to come by. It requires considerable effort to find information on items as basic as how and how accurately COVID deaths have been coded, statistics on deaths with COVID versus deaths by COVID, the severity of COVID hospitalizations, breakthrough infections, vaccine adverse events and state-versus-state comparisons on relevant virus-fighting metrics. Neither the federal government, nor the states collectively, have run a grand postmortem on the efficacy of mask mandates and lockdowns. In Afghanistan, at least there was SIGAR to catalogue failure and corruption. But all the same, year in and year out, our leaders continued reporting success, and the war persisted.

Critics would say that, at minimum, the development of vaccines counts as a standout achievement. Insofar as they have saved the lives of those who would have otherwise died and turned acute cases into mild ones—and that these benefits outweighed the costs of any adverse events, and the foregoing of the benefits of natural immunity—they are correct.

UN conference highlights Houthi persecution of minority populations in Yemen David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/un-conference-highlights-houthi-persecution-of-minority-populations-in-yemen/

Sponsored by the European Organizations Union for Peace in Yemen and the Yemeni Coalition of Independent Women, it took place on the anniversary of the Houthi takeover of the country and looked specifically at the mistreatment of Jews, Baha’is and women.

 A conference spotlighting the oppression of Yemen’s minorities by the Iranian-sponsored Houthi rebels occurred Monday on the sidelines of the 48th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, which takes place from Sept. 13 to Oct. 8.

The conference, sponsored by the European Organizations Union for Peace in Yemen and the Yemeni Coalition of Independent Women, took place on the anniversary of the Houthi takeover of the country (Sept. 21, 2014) and looked specifically at Houthi mistreatment of Jews, Baha’is and women.

The United Nations considers war-torn Yemen the “world’s largest humanitarian crisis” with 20.7 million people, or 66 percent of the population, requiring humanitarian assistance, according to a U.N. report released in February. Amid the war, supply shortages and natural disasters that have affected all Yemenis, minorities and women have endured double torment due to persecution by the Houthis, an armed Shi’ite movement that controls most of Yemen.

Speaking at the conference, former U.S. Deputy Envoy to Combat Antisemitism under the Trump administration, Ellie Cohanim, noted the deeply anti-Semitic, Nazi-like nature of the Houthis.

“We have to be very careful when making any comparisons with the Nazis,” she explained. “But incredibly enough, there is much video evidence which has surfaced online over the years with the Houthis mimicking the Nazis, and expressing anti-Semitic and anti-American rhetoric during their ceremonies, military recruitments and other large gatherings, including videos in which the Houthi militia performed the Nazi salute.’ ”

Israeli pipeline company embroiled in conflict over UAE oil deal David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/israeli-pipeline-company-embroiled-in-conflict-over-uae-oil-deal/

An agreement penned a year ago has encountered growing opposition from environmentalist groups and Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. It was hailed as the first major partnership to come out of the Abraham Accords—a deal in which Israel would serve as an artery for Emirati crude to Western markets. The lucrative deal, reportedly worth hundreds of millions, was inked on Oct. 19, 2020, by Israel’s state-owned Europe Asia Pipeline Co. (EAPC) and MED-RED Land Bridge Ltd., a private Dubai-based company.

An Israeli “land bridge” transporting oil from Eilat on the Red Sea to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean already exists; it has been operating for more than 50 years. In fact, there are two pipelines between the cities: one for crude oil and one for distillates (gasoline, jet fuel, etc.). While the pipeline isn’t new, pumping Arab oil through it is, at least in such a publicly celebrated manner.

“Since the establishment of the state, Israel has been dealing with the Arab boycott and its consequences,” EAPC said in a statement. “These agreements are, in fact, the practical expression of improving relations between the State of Israel and the Gulf states.”

Then-United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was present at the signing, called it a “significant breakthrough that was made possible thanks to the Abraham Accords,” the normalization treaty signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain a month earlier.

But the agreement has encountered growing opposition from environmentalist groups and Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. The Eilat oil terminal is roughly 200 yards from coral beaches. While those favoring the deal focus on its geo-strategic importance, opponents say it poses an unacceptable risk to the coral reefs.

One of the earliest critics was environmentalist group Zalul, which issued a statement immediately after the October 2020 signing, calling the intention to bring more oil tankers to Eilat “a mortal danger.” Zalul then organized a coalition of 20 green groups to fight what they termed “the transformation of Eilat and Ashkelon into oil cities.”

When ‘Science’ Becomes a Truncheon by David Daintree

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/society/2021/09/when-science-becomes-a-truncheon/

I should like to make a personal confession that will probably disappoint some readers, and perhaps please others. I have now had both doses of AstraZenica. I’m not an ‘anti-vaxxer’, nor a conspiracy theorist. But I also have good, intelligent, well-informed and rational friends who strongly oppose the vaccine and I do not like to see them punished by the infliction of civil disabilities or verbal abuse.

Some Christians and other religious people have grave reservations about vaccines as this letter to the PM from the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox archbishops of Sydney clearly shows. Such qualms about abortion and the use foetal tissue in the vaccines’ development are perhaps not shared by most people, but they ought to be treated with respect in a civil society.

Whether to make use of research derived during WWII from experimentation on prisoners under conditions of terrible cruelty was once a grave moral question. To wish to avoid the use of vaccines that have been developed, even remotely, from aborted human ‘materials’ is a legitimate and understandable moral stance. Yet as one of our readers points out, it is virtually impossible to isolate oneself in this complex world from evil: if you pay taxes you support Medicare, and Medicare funds abortions.

I agree that COVID-19 has caused great suffering and many deaths.  That is beyond dispute. But for more than a year and a half we have been bombarded by many health ‘orders’ that claim a scientific basis yet are clearly motivated less by science than by ease of law-enforcement. In particular, some absurd strictures about the use of masks in public and private places have been given the force of law. I am not a scientist, but I know enough to affirm that science is never ‘settled’ and that those who claim it is are usually not scientists.  It is extremely hard for a non-scientist to extract reliable scientific information from the internet, but we must do our best to separate good science from false claims that pretend to a scientific basis but merely make it easier for governments to police the behaviour of their citizens.

Tulsi Gabbard: The Deep State, Elite & Media Destroy Outsiders, Anyone Deemed A Threat To Their Power By Ian Schwartz

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/09/23/tulsi_gabbard_the_deep_state_elite_media_destroy_outsiders_anyone_deemed_a_threat_to_their_power.html

Former presidential candidate and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) joined ‘Special Report’ host Bret Baier on Thursday to discuss the White House’s approach to domestic and foreign policies.

“Outsiders: people like me, people like Donald Trump, it doesn’t matter, Democrat or Republican, if they identify … someone who is not going to toe the line [or] is not someone who is not going to follow kind of the establishment way of things that are accepted, they pose a threat.”

“That confirms what I have known to be true, which is that you have the power elite, people like Hillary Clinton, those around her working with the media, the deep state in order to bring down the destruction and downfall of anyone that they deem to be a threat to their power,” Gabbard said.

“They will do all they can to silence or censor or cancel what they view to be a threat. So this is bigger than about me or Trump or anyone else,” she added.

Gabbard said this habit in the “Deep State” is “a threat to our country and democracy.”

“The arrogance that these people have in thinking they have the right to manipulate the American people what they view, what they hear, what they see all to preserve their own selfish interests, not caring at all about the impact on the country, the impact of the American people or who gets hurt along the way,” Gabbard said.

Gabbard on the border: “Utter disaster… directly attributed to the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policy. This is not only a humanitarian crisis. It is a national security crisis and it’s something I have said all along, which is that if we do not secure our borders, then we can’t have a secure nation. There are so many issues that have happened under this administration that have led to this point and their continued failure of leadership is exacerbating the crisis that we are seeing play out before our very eyes.”

AOC Slammed For ‘Crying’ After Iron Dome Funded: ‘Shedding Tears That Less Israelis Are Going To Die’ By  Ryan Saavedra

https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-slammed-for-crying-after-iron-dome-funded-shedding-tears-that-less-israelis-are-going-to-die?itm_source=parsely-api&utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) faced intense backlash online Thursday afternoon after the distraught far-left congresswoman appeared to cry after the House passed a bill to fund Israel’s Iron Dome, which Ocasio-Cortez did not support.

Israel’s Iron Dome saw extensive use earlier this year after Palestinian terrorists fired 4,500+ rockets at innocent Israeli citizens. The Iron Dome intercepted approximately 90% of the rockets fired out of Gaza, saving countless lives.

The 800lb Gorilla in The Durham Investigation Background

http://CTH.com

The recent indictment of Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann has triggered a significant amount of well intended articles, essentially reconstituting the hope that someone -or some group- might finally be held accountable for the multi-year, multi-issue, multi-institution fraud, better known as ‘spygate’.

Factually, the Trump-Russia collusion narrative was always a complete ruse perpetrated upon the American people, with the intended objective to stop Trump, then hamstring Trump; then cover-up what they were doing to accomplish those goals; and then finally destroy the Trump presidency.   Y’all know the story, I ain’t repeating it.

As an outcome of the Sussmann indictment, many are wondering if this is the first domino in a series of explosive political dominoes that might fall and finally collapse the entire house of cards that surrounded the Clinton campaign and their conspiring with intelligence operatives, politicians, media, DOJ and FBI officials.

Yes, there are interesting dynamics within the Sussmann indictment story-lines; and yes, the authors digging through the indictment granules are all well versed in the details and very good at putting forth optimistic possibilities.

Paul Sperry Article Here – TechnoFog Article Here

…and there are likely dozens more, like THIS and THIS and THIS.

Read them all, follow them all and consider them all.   However, as to the bigger question: will the Durham probe finally outline all the evidence to prove all the years of deception and fraud perpetrated by the massive aligned system of corrupt government?

My short and painful answer is, NO.

White House whoppers Hugo Gordon

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/white-house-whoppers

Joe Biden winning the presidency may turn out very badly for the Democratic Party because success obscures problems that need fixing. If we’re winning, it’s working, the thinking goes, so there can’t be much wrong with what we’re doing.

This is delusional. Making Donald Trump a one-term president seems to have ended any real effort by Democrats to stop treating ordinary people as ignorant plebs. This is unwise if you want their votes and will probably come back and bite the party as election cycles roll on.

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 comment that those who wouldn’t vote for her were “deplorables” expressed the Dems’ contempt for the interests, concerns, pursuits, and intelligence of people not part of the opinion-forming elite.

The same contempt is glaringly clear in the administration’s daily denial of obvious truths, many of which are on video played on TV while Dems are spinning at full throttle. They seem to think lumpen proles can be persuaded by flat denials to disbelieve what they see with their lying eyes.

Recent falsehoods are jaw-dropping. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified to Congress on Sept. 22 that the southern border is “no less secure” now than under the previous administration. Simultaneously, TV viewers watched thousands of illegal aliens stream across the Rio Grande, gather in a squalid camp, then take buses into the American heartland. Even in Trump’s last month as president, after Biden invited migrants north saying, “You should come,” illegal crossings rose only to 74,000. They are now running at three times that rate — more than 200,000 a month.

Likewise, as Americans watched our humiliating exit from Afghanistan, Jen Psaki insisted that the shambolic rout could not be described as “anything but a success.” And the administration was anyway juicing the numbers by taking people from Kabul‘s streets who had nothing to do with America’s war effort. Its policy amounted to “never mind who we fly out, just get as many as possible.” Active allies, U.S. citizens, and green card holders were left behind.

Want more examples? Very well then.

Post-Merkel Germany’s Race for the Center Regardless of who wins, Sunday’s election will deliver a coalition that governs by consensus. By Josef Joffe

https://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-germany-federal-parliamentary-election-race-coalition-scholz-11632426273?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Who will replace Germany’s eternal chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Sunday’s election? None of the six parties in the Bundestag will capture a majority, and so it will be on to Act II: coalition-building, which may take weeks, even months. But it hardly matters whom the Parliament finally anoints. The voters will have affirmed tepid centrism.

That isn’t the Germany of the 20th century. “Centrists” the Kaiser and Führer were not; they wanted to fuse Europe into a German fiefdom. Such types are ancient history.

Germany’s new players are essentially unknown in the U.S. Leading in the polls is the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz. Behind him trots Armin Laschet, the equally uninspiring candidate of Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats. He is trailed by the youngish Annalena Baerbock of the semi-left Greens and Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats. Mr. Lindner, an old-style liberal, speaks for them all: “We secure the country’s center.”

Each candidate could win a place at the cabinet table. Whatever the winner’s political coloration, the government will be gray. That is a blessing—or curse—of multiparty government. Two-party systems like America’s and Britain’s tend to polarize. Coalitions of the many gravitate toward the middle; otherwise the parties couldn’t govern together.

Turkey: NATO’s Pro-Russian, Taliban-Friendly Ally by Burak Bekdil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17763/turkey-nato-russia-taliban

Around the Taliban, and in a bizarre combination of convergence of interests and ideological kinship, a new anti-Western circle is evolving, including a willing NATO member state…. anti-Western sentiments are bringing together these regional powers, who are now courting Afghanistan’s radical rulers.

The hard lesson learned from relying on an “ally” for critical production, then needing to reshore that capability as politics change, ultimately will cost U.S. taxpayers between $500 million and $600 million in nonrecurring engineering costs, according to Ellen Lord, the previous Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s Afghan drama will spur a number of anti-Western alliances based on different anti-Western calculations. Proof? Just look at the names of the countries on Taliban’s invitation list for its birthday party.

The Taliban, since its founding in 1994, has been using the most notorious shariah-based law enforcement, including beheadings, stoning women to death, forcing burqas on women, killing girls who are students, gang-raping, locking women in their homes and various other medieval practices. Now, for the first time in NATO’s history, a member nation’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said that the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam does not contradict Turkey’s.

A love affair with Islam, in fact, seems to be blossoming. At the end of August, the Taliban asked Turkey for technical support to run Kabul’s airport. Pro-Hamas, Islamist allies Turkey and Qatar have since been discussing with the Taliban conditions for reopening the Hamid Karzai Airport; only the security issue of technicians, private companies and security staff who will be running the airport remains a concern. On September 2, Turkey said it was evaluating proposals from the Taliban and others for the safe operation of Kabul’s airport after the radical group’s return to power in Afghanistan.

“We have held our first talks with the Taliban, which lasted three and a half hours,” Erdoğan told reporters August 27. “If necessary, we will have the opportunity to hold such talks again.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also mentioned on September 6 that Turkey was in “direct talks” with the Taliban concerning the future of Afghanistan. “After all,” the minister said, “It would be wrong for Turkey to completely pull out of Afghanistan.”