The Commentariat -- August 16, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden will address the nation on Monday about the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan, after the planned withdrawal of American forces turned deadly at Kabul's airport as thousands tried to flee the country after the Taliban's takeover. The White House says Biden will travel back to Washington from the Camp David presidential retreat to speak at 3:45 p.m. from the East Room. It will be his first public remarks on the Afghanistan situation in nearly a week. Biden and other top U.S. officials had been stunned by the pace of the Taliban's swift routing of the Afghan military."
Ahmad Seir, et al., of the AP: "Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul's international airport Monday, some so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed at least seven people, U.S. officials said. The crowds of people rushing the airport came as the Taliban enforced their rule over the wider capital after a lightning advance across the country that took just over a week to dethrone the country's Western-backed government. While there were no major reports of abuses, many stayed home and remained fearful as the insurgents' advance saw prisons emptied and armories looted."
Josh Marshall of TPM: "Americans, or at least the commentating classes, are watching aghast as events unfold in Afghanistan. Some are second-guessing the wisdom of withdrawal -- after all, how hard is it to maintain a few thousand soldiers there permanently? Others are taking the more comfortable position of saying yes, we had to leave but this just wasn't the right way. I must be the only person in America who is having exactly the opposite reaction. The more I see the more I'm convinced this was the right decision -- both what I see on the ground in Afghanistan and perhaps even more the reaction here in the United States. It is crystal clear that the Afghan national army and really the Afghan state was an illusion. It could not survive first contact with a post-US military reality. As is so often the case in life -- with bad investments, bad relationships -- what we were doing there was staying to delay our reckoning with the consequences of the reality of the situation.... If anything, given the outcome, quicker is better -- since a protracted fall is necessarily a bloodier fall.... Someone had to make the decision that Bush, Obama and Trump did not and apparently could not. Biden did."
Katherine Huggins of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump called on President Joe Biden to 'resign in disgrace' on Sunday over the messy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.... Around the same time that Trump's statement was published, journalists noted that the RNC appeared to have removed a page from their website in which they highlighted their support for withdrawing from Afghanistan." Uh, routine maintenance, the RNC said in a huff.
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times' live updates of developments in Afghanistan Monday are here: "In Kabul, the international airport was under the protection of foreign forces, including thousands of U.S. soldiers sent to the country to assist in a hasty evacuation. It was a scene of desperation, sadness and panic. As thousands swarmed the departures lounge -- many waiting in vain for flights that failed to arrive -- reports of gunfire in and around the airport began to circulate. The U.S. Embassy, whose core employees had moved to a military-controlled section of the airport, urged U.S. civilians still in Kabul to stay away." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: "Several people were reportedly killed Monday at Kabul airport, where thousands of panicked Afghans and foreign nationals have gathered in hope of leaving Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. At least five people were killed amid the chaos of people fearful for their lives trying to force their way onto planes, Reuters reported, citing multiple witnesses. It wasn't clear how the people were killed. U.S. forces previously fired in the air to warn unauthorized people from trying to board military flights...."
Ellen Knickmeyer & Colleen Barry of the AP: "The beating blades of U.S. military helicopters whisking American diplomats to Kabul's airport on Sunday punctuated a frantic rush by thousands of other foreigners and Afghans to flee to safety as well, as a stunningly swift Taliban takeover entered the heart of Afghanistan's capital.... Shortly before dawn Monday Kabul time..., the [Biden] administration announced it was taking over air-traffic control at Kabul's international airport, to manage the airlifts. Sporadic gunfire there Sunday frightened Afghan families fearful of Taliban rule and desperate for flights out.... NATO allies that had pulled out their forces ahead of the Biden administration's intended Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline were sending troops back in as well this weekend to protect evacuations of their own.... A joint statement from the U.S. State and Defense departments pledged late Sunday to fly thousands of Americans, local embassy staff and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals' out of the country."
Susannah George, et al., of the Washington Post: "Taliban fighters took control of Kabul on Sunday as the Afghan government collapsed, President Ashraf Ghani fled, and the long-dominant American presence appeared to be coming to an abrupt and chaotic end after nearly 20 years. The takeover of the sprawling capital city had been years in the making, but was ultimately accomplished in a single day. Insurgent fighters, fresh off their conquests in each of Afghanistan's provincial hubs, faced little to no resistance as they entered the city through its major traffic arteries on Sunday morning. By evening, the Taliban were giving television interviews in the presidential palace, just hours after Ghani had departed Afghanistan. And the Pentagon was speeding an additional 1,000 troops to Kabul's airport to assist with the withdrawal of U.S. personnel after the American flag was lowered from the embassy." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.)
Conor Finnegan, et al., of ABC News: "Another 1,000 soldiers from the [U.S.] Army's 82nd Airborne have been ordered to head directly to Afghanistan's capital instead of Kuwait to assist in the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Afghans who assisted the U.S. mission, a U.S. official told ABC News. That brings the total number of U.S. troops being sent back to Afghanistan to 6,000."
Missy Ryan & Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "Afghan activists, journalists and advocates for women's rights scrambled to identify escape routes Sunday as international civil society organizations intensified a chaotic effort to evacuate local allies under threat following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.... Human rights organizations in recent days have sent the [U.S.] State Department flurries of emails with spreadsheets laying out the identities and personal details of thousands of Afghans who do not qualify for the priority visa consideration already announced by the Biden administration but whose lives are believed to be in jeopardy. The sense of peril was compounded by warnings some in the Taliban delivered to female activists to stay quiet."
The New York Times' liveblog of developments in Afghanistan Sunday, also linked yesterday, is here: "The Taliban effectively sealed their control of Afghanistan on Sunday, pouring into the capital, Kabul, and meeting little resistance as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the government collapsed, and chaos and fear gripped the city, with tens of thousands of people trying to escape. The insurgents' return to power, two decades after they were ousted, came despite years and hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the United States to build up the Afghan government and its defense forces. In a lightning offensive, the Taliban swallowed dozens of cities in a matter of days, leaving Kabul as the last major redoubt of government control.
Ahmad Seir, et al., of the AP: "Afghanistan's embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. The Taliban, who for hours had been on the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kylie Atwood & Devan Cole of CNN: "The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN on Sunday. The withdrawal of embassy personnel marks a rapid acceleration of the process that had only been announced on Thursday, and is a situation that many State Department security officials expected would have to happen given the speed with which the Taliban has gained territory in Afghanistan in recent days." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kevin Liptak & Jason Hoffman of CNN: "The rapid fall of Afghanistan's national forces and government has come as a shock to [President] Biden and senior members of his administration, who only last month believed it could take months before the civilian government in Kabul fell -- allowing a period of time after American troops left before the full consequences of the withdrawal were laid bare. Now, months after his initial declaration that all 2,500 US troops would be out of Afghanistan by the end of the summer, a total of 6,000 troops are expected to help facilitate the evacuation. And officials are frankly admitting they miscalculated.... Biden is expected to address the nation in the next few days about the crisis in Afghanistan.... During a briefing for lawmakers on Sunday, top administration officials faced harsh questioning over the withdrawal plans, including the evacuation of Afghan interpreters and others who assisted the US war effort."
Your Tax Dollars at Work -- for the Taliban. AFP: "The United States spent billions supplying the Afghan military with the tools to defeat the Taliban, but the rapid capitulation of the armed forces means that weaponry is now fuelling the insurgents' astonishing battlefield successes. 'We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools -- let me emphasise: all the tools,' US President Joe Biden said when defending his decision to withdraw American forces and leave the fight to the locals. But Afghan defence forces have shown little appetite for that fight and, in their tens of thousands, have been laying down their arms -- only for the Taliban to immediately pick them up.... Footage of Afghan soldiers surrendering in the northern city of Kunduz shows army vehicles loaded with heavy weapons and mounted with artillery guns safely in the hands of the insurgent rank and file.... Experts say such hauls -- on top of unacknowledged support from regional allies such as Pakistan -- has given the Taliban a massive boost." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Art of the Deal. Susannah George of the Washington Post: "The spectacular collapse of Afghanistan's military that allowed Taliban fighters to walk into the Afghan capital Sunday despite 20 years of training and billions of dollars in American aid began with a series of deals brokered in rural villages between the militant group and some of the Afghan government's lowest-ranking officials. The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and a U.S. official. Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces.... The Taliban capitalized on the uncertainty caused by the February 2020 agreement reached in Doha, Qatar, between the militant group and the United States calling for a full American withdrawal from Afghanistan.... The Doha agreement, designed to bring an end to the war in Afghanistan, instead left many Afghan forces demoralized.... Then, after President Biden announced in April that U.S. forces would withdraw from Afghanistan this summer without conditions, the capitulations began to snowball."
Anne Gearan & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "... President Biden over the weekend first offered compassion for those left behind.... Bu then Biden pivoted to the cold calculation behind his decision to pull the plug on a mission that has cost more than 2,000 American lives. 'One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country,' Biden said.... It was a harsh and bracing assessment from a president better known for misty-eyed empathy. It reflects an increasingly defiant and defensive tone from Biden and his aides amid criticism that Biden is condemning a U.S. partner to brutal rule by Islamist fundamentalists and opening the door to new terrorist threats.... Biden monitored the debacle on Sunday from Camp David in Maryland, where he held a video conference with national security advisers. White House officials briefed a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Sunday. Biden has not spoken about Afghanistan in public since Tuesday."
If Wishes Were Horses, Afghan Soldiers Would Ride. David Sanger of the New York Times: Rarely in modern presidential history have words come back to bite an American commander in chief as swiftly as these from President Biden a little more than five weeks ago: 'There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States in Afghanistan.' Then, digging the hole deeper, he added, 'The likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.'... Mr. Biden will go down in history, fairly or unfairly, as the president who presided over a long-brewing, humiliating final act in the American experiment in Afghanistan." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sanger writes that Biden "has often noted that he came to office with more foreign policy experience than any president in recent memory, arguably since Dwight D. Eisenhower." But if you look at what happened on the world stage during Eisenhower's tenure, you won't be too impressed with how much good Ike's foreign-policy experience did to quell disasters. From Cuba to Iran to Vietnam (to name a few crises), a fair observer could say that Eisenhower's policies made things worse, not better. There are malevolent forces everywhere and all the time. It's only occasionally that the U.S. manages to help overcome them.
~~~ Here are two opinion pieces, both firewalled, that put the burden on Joe Biden for the abandonment of our allies in Afghanistan & our failed promise to the Afghan people: ~~~
~~~ George Packer in the Atlantic: "... our abandonment of the Afghans who helped us, counted on us, staked their lives on us, is a final, gratuitous shame that we could have avoided. The Biden administration failed to heed the warnings on Afghanistan, failed to act with urgency -- and its failure has left tens of thousands of Afghans to a terrible fate. This betrayal will live in infamy. The burden of shame falls on President Joe Biden.... [The collapse of the Afghan government] was foreseeable -- all of it was foreseen.... The administration's answers were never adequate.... The chaos produced by the Biden administration's delays has given an outsize role to sheer randomness, as twists of fate save one Afghan and doom another." Packer cites a couple of these random cases. Here (part of) a graf I think we can all agree on:
While some officials in the State Department, the Pentagon, and the White House itself pushed quietly for more urgent measures that might have averted catastrophe, Biden resisted -- ... as if he were done with Afghanistan the minute he announced the withdrawal of all remaining U.S. forces. This hardness is perplexing in a president who spent years in the Senate working on behalf of genocide victims and war refugees; who once promised an Afghan schoolgirl that he would make sure the U.S. didn't abandon her; who cares intensely about the welfare of American troops. ~~~
~~~ Isaac Chotiner of the New Yorker discusses the collapse with his former colleague Steve Coll. Coll says, "I can understand the frustration that American decision-makers have had with their partners in the Kabul government for the past twenty years. It has been a very rocky road, and it isn't all the fault of U.S. Presidents and Vice-Presidents and national-security advisers. But to suggest that the Afghan people haven't done their bit is a kind of blame-shifting that I think is not only unjustifiable but outrageous. The Afghans now have suffered generation after generation of not just continuous warfare but humanitarian crises, one after the other, and Americans have to remember that this wasn't a civil war that the Afghans started among themselves that the rest of the world got sucked into. This situation was triggered by an outside invasion, initially by the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, and since then the country has been a battleground for regional and global powers seeking their own security by trying to militarily intervene in Afghanistan, whether it be the United States after 2001, the C.I.A. in the nineteen-eighties, Pakistan through its support first for the mujahideen and later the Taliban, or Iran and its clients. To blame Afghans for not getting their act together in light of that history is just wrong." And Coll concludes, "I don't expect the Biden Administration to change its policy, and even if it did I don't expect that it could reverse the Taliban&'s momentum without bombing Afghanistan to smithereens. But it can certainly take responsibility for the lion's share of the response to this unfolding humanitarian crisis...."
James Meek of ABC News: "... numerous U.S. officials tell ABC News that ... key intelligence assessments had consistently informed policymakers that the Taliban could overwhelm the country and take the capital within weeks.... '[U.S.] leaders were told by the military it would take no time at all for the Taliban to take everything,' an anonymous U.S. intelligence official told ABC News. 'No one listened.'" MB: If victory has many fathers, failure is an orphan. ~~~
~~~ Marie: At the end of Meek's article, he cites an unnamed Pakistani official: "The Taliban should take their success with a grain of salt. To take a city is one thing, but to hold it is a different ballgame. Our fear is not their victories. But setting up a system of governance is very difficult. They will make mistakes, too. The arrogance of victory will lead to that." If the Taliban fail, they may fall to a velvet revolution, one led by Afghan women who have experienced nearly two decades of relative freedom & education. Afghanistan could indeed become far more "westernized" than it was in 2001 when the U.S. & Britain invaded the country.
Let's Ask Mikey! David of Crooks & Liars: "Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo falsely asserted on Sunday that President Joe Biden had put the U.S. embassy in Kabul at risk by focusing on critical race theory instead of foreign policy." David does point out (very unfairly!) that "the discussion over critical race theory has been largely fueled by right-wing media." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary below. Akhilleus, probably inadvertently, typed "critical face theory," but that works just as well for Mikey & me.
Jason DeParle of the New York Times: "The Biden administration has revised the nutrition standards of the food stamp program and prompted the largest permanent increase to benefits in the program's history, a move that will give poor people more power to fill their grocery carts but add billions of dollars to the cost of a program that feeds one in eight Americans. Under rules to be announced on Monday and put in place in October, average benefits will rise more than 25 percent from prepandemic levels. All 42 million people in the program will receive additional aid. The move does not require congressional approval, and unlike the large pandemic-era expansions, which are starting to expire, the changes are intended to last. For at least a decade, critics of the benefits have said they were too low to provide an adequate diet. More than three-quarters of households exhaust their benefits in the first half of the monthly cycle, and researchers have linked subsequent food shortages to problems as diverse as increased hospital admissions, more school suspensions and lower SAT scores." Politico's story is here.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.
Texas. Caroline Anders & Max Hauptman of the Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on mask mandates will be allowed to stand, at least temporarily, the Texas Supreme Court announced Sunday. The stay marks the latest development in the battle between local governments and the state over pandemic-related restrictions, and it comes as the state's covid-19 hospitalizations have increased 400 percent over the past month. The all-Republican court temporarily blocked mask mandates in two counties until their cases can be heard, affirming Abbott's executive order that prohibited government entities from issuing mask mandates." The Texas Tribune's story is here.
Vatican. Claire Giangravé of Religion News Service: "A message from the Twitter account of Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a conservative prelate and outspoken skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, confirmed Saturday (Aug. 14) via Twitter that he had been placed on a ventilator after testing positive for the virus.... Burke served as bishop of the diocese of La Crosse from 1995 to 2004 and later became the archbishop of St. Louis.... It is unclear whether Burke has received the vaccine, but speaking at the May 2020 Rome Life Forum, Burke said that 'vaccination itself cannot be imposed, in a totalitarian manner, on citizens.' He also quoted groups that suggested that COVID-19 vaccines inject 'a kind of microchip' that allow citizens to 'be controlled by the state regarding health and about other matters which we can only imagine.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: So, see, when they inject that mysterious (and entirely liquid) substance into your sacred body, floating unseen within that devil's fluid is a teeny weeny, itsy bitsy kind of microchip that travels straight to your brain & programs you to become a liberal/libertarian or something. If I didn't have the Holy Eminences to explain science to me, I'd be lost.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Vote No! Los Angeles Times Editors, reprinted in Yahoo! News: "Removing [Gov. Gavin] Newsom and replacing him with an untested and unprepared alternative who wouldn't represent the values of most Californians would be a disaster. It would doom the state to months of political and bureaucratic dysfunction and economic uncertainty. And for what purpose?... [Newsom's shortcomings] do not justify using the extraordinary power of recall to remove a legitimately elected governor in favor of someone who may only have a sliver of support from voters.... The 46 candidates vying to replace Newsom -- most of them men, most of them Republican, and most of them utterly unqualified -- offer an endless litany of grievances that are little more than objections to his liberal policies -- policies, we may add, that were clear to everyone when 62% of voters chose Newsom in the 2018 election." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Canada. Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, betting that his standing has been improved by his government's response to the coronavirus pandemic while his main opponent has failed to gain traction with voters, on Sunday called a snap federal election for Sept. 20 in a bid to regain a majority in the House of Commons.Trudeau, first elected prime minister in 2015, has led the country for the past 21 months with a minority government. Winning a majority would mean he would no longer need to rely on opposition parties to advance his agenda and stay in power." (Also linked yesterday.)
Haiti. One Million People, One Surgeon, No Supplies. Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times: "A day after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake killed at least 1,300 people and injured thousands in western Haiti, the main airport of the city of Les Cayes was overwhelmed Sunday with people trying to evacuate their loved ones to Port-au-Prince, the capital, about 80 miles to the east. There wasn't much choice. With just a few dozen doctors available in a region that is home to one million people, the quake aftermath was turning increasingly dire. 'I'm the only surgeon over there,' said Dr. Edward Destine, an orthopedic surgeon, waving toward a temporary operating room of corrugated tin set up near the airport in Les Cayes. 'I would like to operate on 10 people today, but I just don't have the supplies,' he said...."
~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments in Haiti Sunday are here: "Haitians trying to evacuate the injured packed the main airport of the earthquake-devastated town of Les Cayes on Sunday, as patients overwhelmed local hospitals and officials raised the death toll to more than 700. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook Haiti on Saturday morning, a devastating blow to a country that is still reeling from a presidential assassination last month and that never recovered from a disastrous quake more than 11 years ago." (Also linked yesterday.)
11 Comments
Reader Comments (11)
Think that Demisery's (a tip of the hat to Jeanne?) has a sense of humor?
How about his declaration of USPS's Ethics Awareness Week?
https://www.salon.com/2021/08/14/calls-for-removal-of-bandit-usps-postmaster-general-louis-dejoy-gain-steam_partner/
My take? He does. He may be an a--hole, but he is smart.
Plus ca change…
Finally! Someone has revealed who is truly responsible for the fall of Kabul and the wave of Taliban victories:
Black people.
That’s right. Black people. Former Trump Secretary of something, the officious and oaf-icious Mike Pompeo went on Faux to spill the beans. Joe Biden was just too concerned about critical face theory to pay attention to Afghanistan. “That never happened during our four years” he sniffed.
No shit. Because none of the Trumpy traitors could think about more than one thing at a time, and if your sole concern is “What’s in it for me?”, well, nothing else matters.
Oh, except racism. And grifting, and lying, and treason…
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/08/pompeo-afghanistan-fox-crt
Tapping out comments at 5 am without your reading glasses creates some interesting outcomes, critical “face” theory being one of them. Never mind. Pompeo knows as much about critical race theory as he does critical face theory. All that matters is that black people get the blame. Like always. Wouldn’t it be clearer if these confederate racists simply kept their white pointy hats on when going on the TV to rant?
Raymond Burke is on a ventilator. I assume he is wearing some sort of hospital gown. But, for Raymond, raiment is EVERYTHING, so I suspect that gown (and matching slippers) is pretty fancy.
Ray became a fashion plate well before he was a cardinal, but the red hat really becomes him. Here is an article about what it takes to play dress-up if you are Raymond (and for many of the carmine ecclesia):
http://www.awrsipe.com/Burke/TheCostofLookingGood2007.pdf
Since he is also an American RWNJ, his covid treatment probably includes a special lamp to shine perpetual light upon him. But only after he departs this life.
Can't put my hands on it now, but I think it was Peter Hopkirk's "The Great Game" that colors my view of our Afghanistan adventure.
Despite all the British derring-do Hopkirk reports, that empire's 19th century attempt to subdue Afghanistan came a bloody cropper. Then there was the more recent Soviet experience.
Is there something about certain foreign policy wonks that immunizes them to the lessons of history and repeatedly brings us face to face with the limitations of projected power? Another lesson unlearned.
That's one thing. The other was suggested by a WAPO article from yesterday that ascribed some of the Taliban's initial appeal to its stand against the corruption apparently so rife in local Afghan governments.
Because it stands in the way of people achieving the fruits of their individual initiative, when corruption is too common it opens the door to fundamentalist reform, and I cannot help but believe that while our intentions in remaining in Afghanistan might have been largely noble, by allying ourselves with a corrupt regime and even abetting the extant corruption with all that money we injected into the system, we never succeeded in convincing the majority of the Afghan people that we were there to "save" them.
Instead, I suspect that outside of the capital to most we were always the enemy or at minimum, an intrusive bother they wished would just go away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEp7QrOBxyQ. The Afghanistan situation got me thinking about this music video. With all due respect to the US military, how much creativity does it take to think about some twenty-something recruits in the Afghan army marveling over the cool weapons that the US has provided and what the Talibs could do with 'em? Our military goes somewhere, sets up a KFC and Burger king in an isolated compound and wonders why they don't know anything about the local culture. This is Ivy League level arrogance. And the world suffers.
Before there was Drumpf level misdirection, there was the Catholic church level misdirection. Instead of answering questions about raping children and killing and dumping children in Catholic schools in Canada, the church drivels on about Biden and sacrement. This old, dessicated "fellow" in La Crosse with Covid is the microcosm reflecting the macrocosm. He reflects the arrogance of youth without the filter of self reflection.
One more Alaska tale.
Met a woman (masked as required by National Park rules) from Minnesota on the Denali Park bus who told me she was a teacher.
We shared a few school stories, and when I asked her how she thought the next school year would go she revealed what I had begun to suspect from some of her earlier comments. She taught in a elementary Catholic school, which would not demand the children be masked.
When my wife asked her why not she said it was so hard to get the little ones to wear masks and even hinted that mask wearing interfered with their speech development. She did say mask wearing was a divisive issue and her school didn't want to go there. I followed up with a question about the local public school. She wasn't sure what it would decide about masks.
I did not mention that our experience with our seven and five year old grandsons who had been wearing masks for the last year belied those concerns. They just thought masks were what was done.
And when my question about teachers and other adults in her school being vaccinated elicited only a vague response, it told me it was time to drop the subject, so I did.
Wondered but did not ask why if masks are a divisive issue, why not not requiring them is less divisive than the contrary.
And did not ask her about microchips.
Pleasant lady, but somehow a bit creepy.
They're every where.
Hahaha…
Fatty demands that Biden resign in disgrace.
Isn’t this like Charles Ponzi complaining that someone should be arrested for running fraudulent investment schemes?
Trump talking about disgrace is a hoot.
And interesting article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/opinion/debate-critical-race-theory.html. The author mentions “binary consensus building”. We sure do, as a species, want to assemble the world into ones and zeros.
Akhilleus,
Yeah. The Past-Pretender talks "disgrace." And DeMisery "ethics."
As we've said many times, there's no room for irony in the Repugnant Party. It's too full of sh--.
I just watched Biden's speech (Monday afternoon) and am extremely disappointed that he did not mention the Afghan interpreters and others who helped us over the years. I can't believe he didn't know this was coming. Where was the advance planning to get those people out months/years ago? I've lost much respect for Biden over this.