In the end, it took less than 25 days. In a 6-3 ruling, the CDC’s order was blocked. Even Chief Justice John Roberts joined the majority this time, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh keeping his word that he could flip sides if this issue came up again.
Steven Mazie
@stevenmazie
BREAKING: Supreme Court blocks Biden’s moratorium on tenant evictions by 6-3 vote.
Conservative majority says it "strains credulity to believe" that the statute under which the moratorium was imposed "grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts".
9:23 PM · Aug 26, 2021 from San Diego, CA //
Meanwhile, the liberals on the court did what they always do, which is dissent based on things that have nothing to do with the law.
Arguing that taking illegal action is fine because it might be less forceful than other (probably illegal) actions is nonsensical on its face. The question was always whether the eviction moratorium itself passed muster. It clearly does not. Yet, the liberals continue to act as if the Supreme Court is a place for social experimentation and not interpreting the law.
Today was one of the darkest days the United States has suffered in the last two decades. It opened with suicide bombings disrupting the already bungled evacuation attempt in Afghanistan. The latest count is that at least 13 American soldiers have perished, with at least 90 Afghans, including many women and children.
For nearly eight hours, the President of the United States remained silent. Shockingly, even as the death toll rose, we heard nothing. No written statement offering condolences for their deaths ever came. The White House couldn’t even muster a quick show of empathy via Joe Biden’s Twitter account. Once again, it became patently obvious that we simply don’t have a president. //
So, what now? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. But for Republicans, they are answers nonetheless. Without control of the House, the GOP cannot start hearings and investigations to figure out what went into the series of incompetent, inexcusable decisions that led us to this moment of national disgrace.
But what they can do is call for impeachment. They can call for Biden’s resignation. They can start finally talking about his clear mental and physical decline. Will any of that lead to his removal? I have no idea, but what I do know is that this is no time to sit on the sidelines and hide behind norms and decorum. Rather, this is the time to take a strong position and take no prisoners in the process.
The GOP does not need a majority to file articles of impeachment. They certainly don’t need a majority to get in front of a camera and point out that Biden is suffering from some combination of senility and dementia.
“Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” said one defense official. //
U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that's prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials.
The move, detailed to POLITICO by three U.S. and congressional officials, was designed to expedite the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan as chaos erupted in Afghanistan’s capital city last week after the Taliban seized control of the country. It also came as the Biden administration has been relying on the Taliban for security outside the airport.
While the administration tries to take credit for top-line evacuation numbers, many outsiders — veterans, diplomats, NGOs and others — have been frantically coordinating to help American citizens and Afghan allies escape because the normal channels are chaotic. One such group of veterans has taken to calling themselves “digital Dunkirk” or “Task Force Dunkirk,” referring to the mass evacuation of allied troops from France in 1940.
“We are having to come up with alternatives to get people in,” said Mick Mulroy, a former defense official and CIA officer and Dunkirk member. “The sheer masses of people are making it very difficult.”
Members of these informal groups and the soldiers in the airport they are working with are increasingly frustrated by the bureaucracy and lack of support from the State Department. One person involved in the efforts shared screenshots of a chat with a soldier who expressed anger with State officials interfering at the last minute.
“They’re f---ing changing up everything because they decided to show up for the first time,” the soldier texted, after State officials changed the location for processing American citizens at the last minute.
EXC: Joe Biden’s State Dept Halted A Trump-Era ‘Crisis Response’ Plan Aimed At Avoiding Benghazi-Style Evacuations Just MONTHS Before Taliban Takeover.
Joe Biden’s State Department moved to cancel a critical State Department program aimed at providing swift and safe evacuations of Americans out of crisis zones just months prior to the fall of Kabul, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal. //
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.
The National Pulse.
NEWS
Biden White House Approves Licensing Deal For Chinese Communist Party-Linked Huawei, Reversing Trump-Era Hardline.
AUGUST 24, 2021NATALIE WINTERS
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 Biden’s White House Counselor Steve Ricchetti and CNN guests who have pushed the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
No matter what they say, this is a national disgrace. Americans and friendly Afghans will be left behind. The Taliban controlled access to the airport as well as setting the deadline for finishing the mission. Our troops were not allowed to leave the airport to try to find US citizens and loyal Afghans. This was not the Berlin Airlift. We’ll be damned lucky if it doesn’t turn out to be Dien Bien Phu. //
conservativecurmudgeon
11 minutes ago
Okay, we will take them at their word.
This is the greatest “airlift” since the early days of the Cold War. Of course, the Berlin Airlift was FAR more concerned with getting goods in than getting people out. But, no matter...
The reason we’ve had all three —the Cold War, the Berlin Air Lift, and now Biden’s Catastrophe in Kabul is because of the utter incompetence of the leftist worldview...
We EVEN HAD the Cold War because of the likes of Klaus Fuchs, Harry Hopkins and Alger Hiss, who were left in positions of real power —and who were handing atomic secrets to the Russians— during the reign of FDR; and, Roosevelt likely knew this, and did nothing. Roosevelt (a true classical global leftist) had a real man-crush on Stalin and all things totalitarian, and he saw nothing wrong with all the REAL Reds in his midst. If we’d had even a tithe of moderating influence of, say, an Arthur Vandenburg at Yalta, the Iron Curtain would not have likely descended to the degree it did... but, it was polluted with the likes of Edward Stettinius and Bedell Smith, and others that viewed the Russians then as the High Command views China now— strategic partners that might be a bit overbearing, but hey: those Commies get things done, right?
Not to mention: there would have been no NEED for a Berlin Airlift —had Truman been more confident in his atomic Arsenal. We had our vast numerical superiority at the time— the Russians would very likely have backed down anyway. But, again, most of the post-war high command (with the obvious exception of Curtis LeMay) was still enthralled with Papa Joe...
Which leads us to today: Joe Biden is (or, what’s left of Joe Biden) is just fine with 7th Century Primitives using the advanced technology his own countrymen paid for and developed, and that is currently being used by these Islamic barbarians to flay and martyr Americans; he rather likes strongmen and authoritarianism, and has always thought more highly of coercive groups than sovereign individuals. He’s fine if America takes a shot in the neck as long as global coercive collectivism is advanced.
It’s a straight line from FDR to Biden— and both created existential crisis that our valiant air forces had to fix.
we now know why Biden and his cohorts have been so careful to not criticize the Taliban and to not label them an enemy — the administration is taking orders from them.
Of course, aside from the realities on the ground in Afghanistan, this humiliation goes much further in damaging the credibility and capability of the United States. What do you think China is going to take from all this as they set their sights on Taiwan? Or the Russians who were just “punished” by the laughable sanction of banning ammo sales to Americans (a move meant to hurt American gun owners, not Putin)? You can bet Iran is getting ready to take us to the cleaners as well. //
Skeptical Techie swhitebull
a day ago
Dien Bien Phu pales by comparison to the cataclysm Biden has precipitated. We are only in the beginning phases. The enslavement and body counts are as yet incalculable. The far-reaching consequences go far beyond Kabul and Afghanistan. We know already, they stretch to the South China Sea, Japan and Taiwan. The extent of the damage and carnage on a geographic scale are yet to unfold enough to allow a meaningful forecast as to the ultimate costs
Eric Schmitt
@Eric_Schmitt
🚨Breaking: By a 6-3 vote the Supreme Court agrees with Missouri and Texas — Joe Biden’s reversal of President Trump’s Migrant Protection Proticalls or the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy was illegal — the policy is back in effect. #BidenBorderCrisis #SCOTUS #Winning
7:37 PM · Aug 24, 2021
Bear in mind, this isn’t a full decision on the merits — this is merely a ruling that Judge Kacsmaryk’s Order will not be stayed pending the appeal on the merits. The net effect is that the Remain in Mexico policy is back in effect, unless and until the Biden Administration wins an appeal on the merits. (Note, that in today’s Order, Justice Alito found that the Administration failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits, though nothing is set in stone until the appeals process is complete.) And that, indeed, is a big win.
A significant number of Joe Biden’s top foreign policy advisors – including his Director of National Intelligence and National Security Advisor – participated in an event advocating against the “containment” of the Chinese Communist Party, with funding coming from various Chinese Communist regime-backed sources, The National Pulse can reveal.
The news comes as analysts review Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, and raise questions as to the intent of the White House in diminishing America’s role in the world. //
Organized by the University of California San Diego’s (UCSD) 21st Century China Center since 2019, the annual “China Forum” has counted some of the highest-ranking officials of the Biden White House in attendance.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, “Asia Czar” Kurt Campbell, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner along with Rush Doshi and Julian Gewirtz, who lead the National Security Council’s China desk, and Melanie Hart and Mira Rapp-Hooper, who play a comparable role at the State Department, were in attendance.
One of the fifteen “key takeaways” from the 2019 dialogue – whose “sponsors” included Kurt Campbell himself, as well as Qualcomm, the Asia Group Foundation, East West Bank, and one further “anonymous” source – advocated that “competitive coexistence, rather than confrontation and containment, is the best path forward” in the context of U.S.-China relations. //
While the 21st Century China Center’s website page documenting its donors and institutional partners has been deleted, archives reveal the center was – and perhaps still is – partnered with several Chinese Communist-Party linked companies such as state-owned technology firm ZTE.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170908224439/http://china.ucsd.edu/support/institutional-partners.html
This is a dishonest and despicable spin that no one, not even the author, believes. It is partisan hackery, it is stupid. But that, in a nutshell, describes our “foreign policy experts.”
A former aide to former Vice President Mike Pence blamed racist views of a top Trump administration official for the inability of many translators and other allies to get out of Afghanistan before the U.S. withdrew troops. //
Miller said in a statement Saturday that "the sole reason that anyone is stranded in Afghanistan is because Joe Biden stranded them there in the single most imbecilic act of strategic incompetence in human history."
"All the desperate lying liars in the world can’t change that one inescapable fact," he said.
Miller's wife, Katie, who was Pence's communications director, tweeted out a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service showing the number of special immigrant visas for Iraqis and Afghans was higher during the Trump administration than during the last four years of the Obama administration.
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R43725.pdf //
Olivia of Troye
@OliviaTroye
·
Aug 20, 2021
🧵There were cabinet mtgs about this during the Trump Admin where Stephen Miller would peddle his racist hysteria about Iraq & Afghanistan. He & his enablers across gov’t would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system at DHS & State.(1/7)
Olivia of Troye
@OliviaTroye
I tracked this issue personally in my role during my WH tenure. Pence was fully aware of the problem. We got nowhere on it because Trump/S. Miller had watchdogs in place at DOJ, DHS, State & security agencies that made an already cumbersome SIV process even more challenging.(2/7)
Pence, in a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, said the Biden administration’s “disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is a foreign policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-pence-biden-broke-our-deal-with-the-taliban-11629238764
Pence said Biden had no plan to "facilitate the regional resettlement of the thousands of Afghan refugees who will now be seeking asylum in the U.S. with little or no vetting."
State Department spokesman Ned Price this week said the Biden administration inherited a special immigrant visa system that had chronic shortages in staffing, lacked a coordinating official and had a bureaucratic 14-step process that was enshrined in statute.
At Biden’s direction, Price said, the administration added resources and made enough changes to shave more than a year off the average processing time.
The number of visas issued went from 100 in March to 813 visas per week recently, according to Price.
We are ruled by buffoons who embellish their incompetence with a disdain for Americans and Constitutional freedoms. They are protected by a deeply corrupt and highly partisan civil service that will deceive the American people to protect a Democrat and engage in the ruthless character assassination of any Republican. Top cover for both is flown by the fearless firefighters in our media who will never do anything beyond acting as stenographers for any Democrat administration. We are at the point where virtually any foreign government should be considered more reliable than our own. //
Genna
an hour ago
Every member of the Biden administration who spoke to us this week about the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan withdrawal lied to us, contradicted one another and dodged uncomfortable questions. While telling us the evacuation is going well, people on the ground in Kabul and videos shot in real time tell a very different story. Why should we believe the infrastructure bill is an important piece of legislation that will benefit the American people, the COVID vaccines are safe and effective and the southern border is secure
Sebastian Smith
@SebastianAFP
The 1 pm remarks by President Biden on Afghanistan are not happening at 1... No new time announced by White House.
1:05 PM · Aug 20, 2021
Curtis Houck
@CurtisHouck
Biden dismisses the State Department dissent cable, brushing it off as no big deal: "I have all kinds of cables. All kinds of advice."
Then there was this excellent question which asked Biden why we should trust his assessment of Afghanistan now after he was so wrong about the Taliban’s advance.
Curtis Houck
@CurtisHouck
This question from Bloomberg's Justin Sink is better than Zeke's about how can Biden say a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan going forward won't pose a serious terrorism threat.
Peter J. Hasson
@peterjhasson
Fox's @JenGriffinFNC responding to Biden's Afghanistan speech: "I couldn't fact check it fast enough because there are so many misrepresentations of what is happening on the ground."
2:21 PM · Aug 20, 2021
Skeptical Techie
3 hours ago edited
Is there anybody who can not understand that handing over multiple easily destroyed caches of some of our best and most technically advanced weapons to the CCP and Putin (our most dangerous enemies) should suffice as at least "Crimes and misdemeanors"?
There are two suspects Harris/Biden in the same class (and both in the direct chain of command), subject to the same laws and procedures. Impeach and prosecute them together. As for Harris's culpability, it should be argued that due to, at least, intermittent incapacity and/or absence of the President, she was in command or should have taken command and thus, just as culpable.
Indict and prosecute each civilian in the direct line of command from SecDef through to SecArmy, SecNav & SecAir.
Following UCMJ, do the equivalent to CJCS but add in dereliction of duty for not being even reasonably informed. Use his own recent statements as exhibit A through...
At the same time, make motions in the house to remove the Speaker and Senate to remove the Minority Leader. Consider motions to remove the Ranking Member of both Armed Forces Committees.
Maybe also set precedent in both chambers calling for a nonbinding vote of no confidence in all the above noted leadership, by title and name. //
Skeptical Techie DeeInFL
2 hours ago edited
The last 20 years are irrelevant!
The only relevant facts are how the President acted with the situation at hand. The same could be said for the Vice President whenever, over the last few days, the President was absent and/or incapacitated as she was in command or should have taken command.
The current situation is 98% the results of the actions taken in the last days back to a week or two at the most. At any point up to when those impetuous and derelict commands and actions were taken, this current situation could have been averted and then mitigated as much as reasonable.
All the latter impetuosity and dereliction were in the direct control of the President, Vice President, SecDef, SecNav/SecArmy/SecAir and CJCS and only to a moderate degree less further down the chain of command. Everyone below the President had opportunities to resist those precipitous actions, at the very least by protesting and resigning. By virtue of all the USA hardware, technology and sensitive information left behind for the Taliban to later be turned over to the CCP and Putin was, at the least, dereliction of duty. Then there are the enormous human costs, which are nowhere near their zenith.
MPs and peers unite to condemn ‘dishonour’ of US president’s withdrawal and his criticism of Afghan troops left behind to face Taliban /
Joe Biden's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal was condemned as "catastrophic" and "shameful" on Wednesday as the Houses of Parliament delivered an unprecedented rebuke to a US president.
MPs and peers from across the political spectrum, including Boris Johnson, put some blame for the Taliban's takeover and the chaos that followed on Britain's closest ally.
Mr Biden was accused of "throwing us and everybody else to the fire" by pulling out US troops, and was called "dishonourable" for criticising Afghan forces for not having the will to fight.
Former defence chiefs who led British troops in the Middle East were among those to speak out, while there were warnings that the West's withdrawal would embolden Russia and China.
The interventions mark a deterioration in UK-US relations almost exactly 20 years after Britain joined America in invading Afghanistan to root out terrorism after the September 11 attacks.
But it was not just Mr Biden who faced criticism, with Mr Johnson and his ministers told they had overseen the worst disaster in British foreign policy for 65 years.
The Prime Minister was accused of not doing enough to rally allies to support Afghanistan as the US departure became apparent, including by his predecessor, Theresa May.
A former soldier-turned-Conservative MP just lit up the House of Commons in an emotional speech about the failure in Afghanistan and the ‘shameful’ actions of Joe Biden.
As a veteran who served there, Tom Tugendhat said he was feeling a mixture of “anger, grief, and rage” over what has happened, given the sacrifices that people have made, including watching “good men go into the earth, taking with them a part of me and a part of all of us.” He noted how many who had served were “struggling” over the emotional reaction to this. //
“The Cold War was won with patience. Cypress is at peace with patience. South Korea with almost ten times the number of troops that America had in Afghanistan, is prosperous through patience. So let’s stop talking about forever wars. Let’s recognize that forever peace is bought not cheaply, but hard, through determination and the will to endure. And that the tragedy of Afghanistan is that we’re swapping that patient achievement for a second fire and a second war.”
Unfortunately, Biden has all but guaranteed we will be dealing with a terrorist state, supporting terrorism around the world — the very thing we went there to stop and confront. He’s made it so much worse now with the incompetence of the pullout. That’s a terrible thing to understand after 20 years of war and as we approach the twentieth anniversary of 9/11.
Tugendhat related a story from his fighting days:
“It is the image of a man whose name I never knew, carrying a child who had died hours earlier, carrying this child into our firebase and begging for help. There was nothing we could do. It was over.
Mr. Speaker, this is what defeat looks like — it’s when you no longer have the choice of how to help. This doesn’t need to be defeat. But at the moment, it damn well feels like it.” //
2buildit2
a day ago
That was worth watching.
There is some ironic overload that the shrill hysteria about DJT being erratic and Biden being the sane adult has resulted in Joe Biden making these United States seem an unreliable ally. Bidens glaring error and inability to respond to reality and the slavish ideologues in his cabinet have tarnished our good name.
I wrote here before the election that Joe Biden as president , the Neville Chamberlain of our time, would almost guarantee war with China. I was naive. He'll just surrender.
Alex Wickham
@alexwickham
Two remarkable lines in today’s papers from @Steven_Swinford @benrileysmith
— UK military left in the dark by the US about timings and pace of their withdrawal… UK official confirms this is the case
— Biden ignored Boris Johnson’s attempts to speak on the phone for 36+ hours //
Was Biden incapacitated? It’s not like this was a request from the president of Thailand. We are talking about our oldest and closest ally in the British. And Biden took almost two days to even return their phone call as Afghanistan descended into absolute chaos?
Further, the UK military was reportedly left completely in the dark about what the US was doing as far as pulling out. Timelines were not given, no preparations were made with NATO forces (which had more personnel on the ground than we did), and when the time came, pandemonium predictably broke out. Why was there no communication?
None of this makes any sense. As I asked yesterday, if Biden were trying to cause chaos in Afghanistan, what would he be doing differently? Is this incompetence or malice at this point? It’s hard to imagine a motive for the latter given this is going to hurt him politically, but we are at the junction where things are so haywire that all angles should be explored.
The United States is in a precarious position, disdained by our allies and unable to strike fear into our adversaries. Despite being assured that was going to be the result of Trump’s presidency by the same mediocre experts who never get anything right, the country came out of his four years stronger and more respected around the globe. It’s only taken seven months for Biden to tear all that down.
ABC News
@ABC
“When push came to shove, they decided not to step up and fight for their country.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan places blame for the speed of the Taliban takeover on the Afghan national security forces. https://abcn.ws/3jW8jvH
Marco Rubio
@marcorubio
What a bunch of crap
This administration was specifically told Afghan forces would surrender faster than our ability to exit.
They decided to ignore these warnings & smugly tell everyone how smart & brilliant they are. //
One intelligence official told ABC News that “no one listened” when they told the administration “it would take no time at all for the Taliban to take everything.”
Biden didn’t only prove himself to be a fool on the matter just a few weeks later but reiterated during his speech that he had “no regrets” on his withdrawal plan. This is perhaps the most egregious thing said by Biden during the whole presser. //
Biden’s speech was everything you could have expected from Biden: The speech was filled with various finger-pointing at Trump, at the military, at the Afghan people, despite it ending ironically with a Truman-Esque “the buck stops here.” But yet, the symbolism that truly showed through at that presser was when Biden had to then turn his back on the cameras and walk away. Worse than that, he then walked outside to Marine One to head back on vacation.
He didn’t take any questions. He didn’t act like a person who is in charge. He acted like he was checking a box. “Well, I addressed the country. Can I go back on vacation now?” In fact, Biden created more questions than answered them. Remember, just a few weeks ago, Biden said Afghanistan was not going to become a new Vietnam, and any withdrawal would not lead to Taliban control on the country. //
We already know what they plan to do to the country that we have spent 20 years, 2 trillion dollars, and thousands of American lives to create and Joe Biden was willing to throw all that out. Worse yet, even with the benefit of hindsight, he has no regret.
Yet, despite these huge errors in judgment, Mr. “The Buck Stops Here” didn’t stick around after his presser to accept questions. //
He turned his back on the military. He turned his back on the Embassy officials still on the ground. He turned his back on our allies who are still in the country. He turned his back on the Afghan people. He turned his back on the Gold Star Families, wounded veterans, and others who were lucky enough to return home. He turned his back on the local interpreters who saved countless American lives. It isn’t like the President doesn’t see the same images we see or isn’t terrified by the same video we are seeing. In fact, he probably has access to even more footage and data. Not so much as a plan, a promise, or a guarantee. Despite all these horrible results of his failure to plan, he has no regrets. //
DarthCY
7 hours ago
Why do people assume Biden has a conscience? He knew this would happen and just didn't care. Quit trying to measure him by standards of decent human beings. Nothing in his history shows he has morals or decency.