An Afghanistan update

Guards at the gate at the Bagram air base

Can they defend it from the Taliban?

Do their guns even have more than a 

couple rounds of ammunition?

News reports of the US withdrawal and its impact continue to be nearly all negative. By now, it is clear that the US presence will be washed away as the Taliban comes in and replaces the inept kleptocratic government in place now. The open question is whether there will be a major civil war or the Taliban will just take over with most of the bloodshed limited to Afghan military resistance and US collaborators. 

The one positive development is an increase in US government concern for getting collaborators out of the country before the US withdrawal is complete. How that will play out is unclear. There isn't much time left for that to happen, maybe about two weeks is about all that's left before the US is completely gone.

The New York Times reports on the final US withdrawal from the Bagram air base.

American troops and their Western allies have departed the U.S. military base that coordinated the sprawling war in Afghanistan, officials said on Friday, effectively ending major U.S. military operations in the country after nearly two decades.

The American exit was completed quickly enough that some looters managed to get into the base before being arrested, Afghan officials said.

The fear that Kabul could fall to the Taliban relatively soon haunted the administration’s debate over the decision to pull out of the country. But Mr. Biden suggested that even though the United States still retained the ability to conduct airstrikes if things went bad, no reversal of the withdrawal was on the table.

“We have worked out an over-the-horizon capacity,” he said, talking about air assets based in other places, “but the Afghans are going to have to do it themselves with the air force they have.”  

Some U.S. intelligence estimates predict that the Afghan government could fall to its rivals, the Taliban, in from six months to two years after the Americans complete their withdrawal. The Taliban are inching closer to Kabul after having taken about a quarter of the country’s districts in the past two months.

As discussed before, the US military assessment is that  the Afghan air force will completely cease to be operational within a few weeks of the US departure. It is 100% reliant on US military and civilian personnel to keep its aircraft operational. 

It's not clear what Biden is talking about. Maybe it's just lies. If it is, Biden hurts himself and the opposition to the growing power of already powerful Republican corruption and fascism. That is a needlessly self-inflicted wound from the Democratic circular firing squad that's now in place and idiotically blazing away at itself.

Another NYT article, As Afghan Forces Crumble, an Air of Unreality Grips the Capital, continues in about the same vein.

With his military crumbling, President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan fired a crucial part of his command structure and brought in a new one. He created a nebulous “supreme state council,” announced months ago, that has hardly met. And as districts fall to the Taliban across the country, he has installed a giant picture of himself outside the airport’s domestic terminal.

As the last troops and equipment trickle out of Afghanistan, an atmosphere of unreality has settled over the government and Kabul, the capital. 

Americans have not been a visible presence in the city for years, so the U.S. departure has not affected surface normality: Markets bustle and streets are jammed with homeward-bound civil servants by midafternoon. At night, the corner bakeries continue to be illuminated by a single bulb as vendors sell late into the evening.

But beneath the surface there is unease as the Taliban creep steadily toward Kabul.

“There’s no hope for the future,” said Zubair Ahmad, 23, who runs a grocery store on one of the Khair Khana neighborhood’s main boulevards. “Afghans are leaving the country. I don’t know whether I am going to be safe 10 minutes from now.”

The security blanket that the United States provided for two decades haunts the Afghan government’s actions, inactions and policies, fostering an atrophying of any proactive planning, in the view of some analysts. If there is a plan to counter the Taliban advance, it is not evident as the government’s hold on the countryside shrinks.  

“The environment is extremely tense,” said Omar Zakhilwal, a former finance minister, noting what he called an atmosphere of “semi-panic” in the government.

“It’s beyond a crisis,” he said, adding: “The mismanagement has led us to where we are today.”

Of course there is no plan to counter the Taliban. The Afghan government is an incompetent kleptocracy. Its only competence was looting the country. This mess feels awfully familiar. Feels just like Vietnam. That sad reality comes despite politician, e.g., George Bush, promises early on that Afghanistan would be short and nothing like Vietnam. That was just more empty rhetoric and/or lies from ignorant, arrogant, incompetent self-deluded politicians. 

One can only feel sorry for Afghan people who don't want the Taliban back and fear for those who tried to help us. 

One of the ex-president's fund raising tactics

This short note of interest just came to my attention again. It is worth a short post, just to keep bad memories fresh. The human mind tends to suppress bad memories. Sometimes that's a bad thing, like in this instance.

Various sources reported on this little nugget related to the 2020 election. Business Insider reported on the fund raising in an article entitled Trump is pocketing Georgia Senate runoff donations for his PAC, while the GOP candidates themselves don't get a dollar, a new report says:

While fundraising for the Georgia Senate runoffs, President Donald Trump is diverting 75% of most donations to his Save America political action committee, effectively allowing him to hold on to that money for future endeavors, Politico reported Monday.

"The reality is Donald Trump does not care about the future of the Republican Party, so if he can raise money off of the Georgia runoffs but keep the money for his own purposes, he will do so," a longtime GOP strategist told Politico.

ABC News reported similarly.

This is just a reminder of how blatantly corrupt the ex-president was and still is, e.g., this April 2021 article entitled How Trump steered supporters into unwitting donations.

Ah, good. Memory refreshed. 

A billionaire pissing match

Two billionaires, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) are locked in a ferocious pissing match. Bezos whipped it out first a few weeks ago by declaring he is going into space on the first commercial space flight on his rocket, which I affectionately call the "Big Weiner."

Branson then whipped his out and announced that he was going into space on his first commercial space flight on his rocket, which I affectionately call "The Turd." Branson is scheduled to beat Bezos into space. Branson's announcement sent shares of Virgin Galactic soaring beyond low Earth orbit and in into deep space.

Today, various sources are reporting that in pissing retaliation, Bezos announced that he is going to take a Wally Funk with him on his first Big Weiner. Bezos had planned to auction the last seat of his first space flight to the highest bidder. But after Branson's uppity move, Bezos had to do something.

Who or what is Wally Funk?

Good question. Wally Funk is an American woman, 82 years old. She is an aviator.

Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk in 1995

Short detour: Ms. Funk came to my attention some years ago, when she was admirably memorialized on a world smash hit CD, The Flight of Wally Funk, by the famous Australian rock band Spiderbait. The CD contains record shattering Spiderbait tunes such as Most Boys Suck, which is a gentle and touching commentary on the . . . . things in the typical early adult human male mind. This is heavy evolutionary biology stuff.

Most Boys Suck - lyrics

Love that patronizing air

Telling you what it thinks fair

It's as if we really care

We know that most boys suck

We're supposed to underplay

Worship everything you say

Doesn't seem to work that way

We know that most boys suck

You would like us all to know

Your dick fascinates you so

Ugly little sucker though

We know that most boys suck

Spiderbait is an outstanding Australian rock band. My fave Spiderbait Nobel Prize winning masterpiece is Parking Lot, which is the sad story of a woman who laments hard times about getting her tight pants on and waiting for her boyfriend to get out of custody for stealing groceries. It's really heavy social commentary stuff. There are echoes of another Spiderbait Nobel Prize winning masterpiece, Arse Higgin' Pants, in Parking lot. Tight pants seem to be a thing with the Spiderbait crowd.

Parking Lot - lyrics

All day all I think about is you

Can't wait to do all the things we do

Slip in to my jeans and Ill be gone

Takes me half a day to get them on

Chrous

Here's where i'd wanna be

Hanging out in the parking Lot

Don't you know I was born to rock

Heavy metal boys make me hot

Nah-nah-na-na-nah

Hanging out in the parking lot

See the charger go round the block

Wish the seventies never stopped

Nah-nah-na-na-nah

Nah-nah-na-na-nah

All week all i think about is you

One day my name there on your tattoo

Ripping stuff off from the grocery

Getting chased by the security

[chorus]

Uh-huh

Today all i think about is you

Wonder what it is all day you do

Waiting till the day when you'll be free

So sad now that you're in custody

[chorus]

 

Back to Ms. Funk: According to Wikipedia, she was born February 1, 1939. She is an American aviator and Goodwill Ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and the first female Federal Aviation Agency inspector, as well as one of the Mercury 13. NASA never picked Wally to go into space because she was a woman. So, she got credit for her work from Spiderbait in Australia and now she gets some more credit from Bezos in America due to his pissing match with Sir Richard. 

One can only wonder how this would have played out if Branson hadn't whipped his fantasy out and locked horns with Bezos. Wally would most likely had her seat into space and her place in history diminished by the highest bidder that Bezos decided to forego. It was only in view of Branson's ego with its stream of urine thought that pushed the thought of Wally into Bezo's fevered mind. 

See, sometimes something good can come from billionaires in pissing matches.

Go Wally! Good for you girl!

Trump says he’s made a decision on whether to run in 2024

 Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had made up his mind about whether he would seek to regain the White House in 2024, but declined to actually say whether he would launch yet another presidential campaign.

“You’re not going to answer, but I have to ask,” Fox News host Sean Hannity told Trump at a town hall event in Edinburg, Texas.

“Where are you in the process, or — let me ask you this, without giving the answer … have you made up your mind?”

“Yes,” Trump responded, generating applause from the friendly audience.

On Wednesday, Trump railed against McConnell again, saying the Kentuckian “can no longer do the job.” He also lashed out against “RINOs” (“Republicans in name only”) and “weak Republicans” in Washington.

More: https://nypost.com/2021/06/30/trump-has-made-a-decision-on-whether-to-run-in-2024/

Isn't this JOYOUS news?

New survey of experts ranks US presidents

A new C-Span poll of presidential historians has ranked US presidents. As usual for expert rankings so far, the ex-president is ranked in the bottom four. He is tied with Franklin Pierce for third worst. The results are shown in comparison to rankings from 2017, 2009 and 2000.

This survey was informal, with respondents selected by C-SPAN, not by scientific polling. This year, more historians were invited to complete the survey compared to the past. C-SPAN said this was to better reflect diversity in race, gender, age and philosophy. That makes it harder to directly compare it to previous surveys. All of the respondents are distinguished presidential historians covering a broad range of perspectives.

The experts rated presidents from 1 to 10 on ten different leadership categories. The averages of all of ratings were then ranked. The ten categories are public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with Congress, vision/setting an agenda, pursuit of equal justice for all and performance within the context of the times. The ex-president's best average rating was for public persuasion, where he came in 32nd. On moral authority and administrative skills, however, he came in dead last, i.e., he was first in being last on morals and competence. That assessment seems quite reasonable.  

Obviously, this ranking by experts is way out of synch with how most rank and file republicans view the ex-president. Some of them believe he was sent by God and was a great president. Some Republicans believe he is far and away the best US president ever.

One can reasonably expect silence from radical fascist Republican media sources and leaders. Most of the rank and file will probably remain ignorant of how history is starting to assess the fascist president's God-awful time in office, his incompetence and his lack of morality.

Ignorance really is bliss when reality isn't.

The Republican Party continues to oppose democracy and the rule of law

“A society devoid of compromise is totalitarian. If I had to define a free and open society in one word, the word would be ‘compromise.’” -- Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals, 1971

The fascist Republican Party continues to show clearly how anti-democratic and opposed to the rule of law that organization and its elite leadership still is in the wake of the fascist 1/6 coup attempt. The latest show of its contempt for and opposition to democracy is in almost total Republican opposition to investigating the coup attempt. All Senate Republicans oppose a commission to investigate. And yesterday, all but two Republicans in the House voted against a House measure to establish a select committee to investigate the 1/6 attack on the federal government. The New York Times writes:

The House voted mostly along party lines on Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, pushing ahead over near-unanimous Republican opposition with a broad inquiry controlled by Democrats into the deadliest attack on Congress in centuries.

The panel, established at the behest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of a bipartisan independent commission to scrutinize the assault, will investigate what its organizing resolution calls “the facts, circumstances and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack.”

The 13-member panel, which has subpoena power, will have eight members named by the majority party and five with input from Republicans, and is meant to examine President Donald J. Trump’s role in inspiring the riot. While the measure creating it does not mention him, it charges the committee with looking at the law enforcement and government response to the storming of the Capitol and “the influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process.”

By opposing an investigation, the Republican Party defends fascism and the opposes the rule of law and democracy.

A galling aspect of this is the obviousness of Republican contempt for democracy and the rule of law. The GOP is blatant about it. The only thing that matters now is power and wealth. Other than corrupting and destroying government, here is no Republican Party governing vision or concern with the public interest. Attaining and exercising raw power for party and donor advantage is the only morality and vision. In this regard, the Republican Party is uncompromisingly fascist and very much like any other purely self-centered special interest seeking wealth and power without much or any regard for the public interest, public opinion or democracy. The GOP doesn't do real compromise, it only does window dressing when needed.

A deeply troubling aspect of this is how some Republicans rationalize the 1/6 coup attempt into something it was not. One bemused congressional Republican characterized the attack on the capitol as just a bunch of innocent tourists being polite and taking selfies as they toured the capital building. Either that Republican was unaware of what happened on 1/6 or more likely, he is a cynical liar feeding a ridiculous excuse for consumption by rank and file populist Republicans to use to justify their continuing support of fascism and the ex-president, who is the epitome of modern American fascism.

Most rank and file conservatives seem to be comfortable with the coup attempt by rationalizing it into either insignificance or literal non-existence, e.g., ‘it could not have been a coup attempt because those people on 1/6 were disorganized fools who failed to overthrow the government and/or just harmless demonstrators expressing their unhappiness (about whatever they were unhappy about)’. The definition of a coup attempt does not take into account how inept it was. A coup attempt is a coup attempt. Period.

Even more troubling is that some independents and democrats also downplay or even deny the seriousness of the 1/6 attack and the now blatant and undeniable fascism of the Republican Party. This reflects the human condition from evolution. The human mind did not evolved such that different people observing the same thing see the same thing. This is particularly true of modern politics and American Christianity, both of which are awash in dark free speech that distorts reality and manipulated minds into false beliefs and irrational behaviors. This is what can take democracy down and give rise to the historical normal human condition, namely tyranny, plutocracy and kleptocracy. Put another way, the modern Republican Party has become the face of the historical normal human condition striving to free itself from the unspeakable horrors of democracy and civil liberties.