I've said this before and will say it again: They should all be required to wear prominent patches on their suits of their "sponsors." Think of NASCAR. So you should see patches for Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc., all displayed openly and proudly, just like NASCAR drivers.
My biggest worry: Even with "merchants of death" patches on tailored suits, the American people won't care. Or not enough of them to make a difference.
As much as I agree that getting out of Afghanistan was a good thing—and should have happened years ago—Joe Biden and the entire US government and military establishment showed how embarrassingly inept, ignorant, ineffectual and just plain awful they were with the failures, lies, spins and finger-pointing when that shit blew up in their face.
The idea that technocrats in DC have any idea what they're doing was absolutely dismantled by this fiasco, which is the thinking that lead to Trump, who'd likely be worse on this front, and we may be delivered again.
I watch Krystal and Saagar, but their "oh, Biden was really great here; what a great speech he had about it," when Biden was in full CYA/finger-pointing mode was nuts, and in lockstep with Ryan Grim, and the rest of the so-called "progressive" wing of the media class. This was embarrassing for all involved, even if you think—as I do—that getting out of Afghanistan was necessary.
Now, this administration is pivoting back to the new "domestic war on terror," censorship and attacks on privacy to go after America's real enemies: people that don't vote for them. Biden should not have been given a pass here; it was part and parcel of his continuing failure.
On a whim, I checked out what Chuck Schumer’s kids do. Amazingly enough both of them are married to people whose work will benefit MASSIVELY from the infrastructure bill. His son-in-law works at Sidewalk Labs part of Google, which is “the urban innovation company — setting ambitious goals with developers and cities to build more sustainable, innovative, and equitable places” Sounds like a nice FAT contract or ten will be heading their way.
After all it has the word “equitable” in its mission statement.
And his other daughters’ spouse? Her wife works for “City Possible” at MasterCard,
City Possible™ helps cities achieve inclusive and sustainable growthJoin our global network of city leaders, academics and technology partners as we create blueprints for more inclusive and sustainable cities.
They have the MAGIC words in their mission statement, too!! What a COINCIDENCE!!
Gosh d’ya think being part of the “majority” leader’s (50-50 tie with VP tiebreaker) family MIGHT be a meal ticket??? But don’t worry, we WILL NEVER KNOW how much money or what benefits these people receive. Because corruption in our banana republic is never reported.
Amazingly, I don’t know anyone who has two kids whose principal income comes from companies that are both focused on “equity, inclusivity and sustainability” in our cities - buzzwords that happen to be the very CORE of the 5 trillion dollar boondoggles being foisted on us by Schumer and Pelosi.
I had no idea that urban equity and sustainability was so popular with politicians’ kids. Maybe that will be Hunter’s next gig??
1. The all Vietnam draft dodger administration that started this war, chose one we could not lose; i.e. getting bin Laden and crippling AQ and then leaving, into one we could not win; i.e. regime change and nation building, having as a partner every corrupt person of power in Afghanistan as our figureheads. The former brought our high tech, highly mobile, high firepower military into a position of strength, while the latter made all that irrelevant. As a Taliban official told a US official: "you had all the clocks , we had all the time."
2. The duopoly bait and switched us beautifully. At the end of his administration, a highly unpopular Bush made a deal with Iraq calling for our withdrawal from that country at the end of 2011, that war being hugely unpopular by 2008, as simultaneously, candidate Obama, a supposed avatar of change and supposedly anti Iraq war, blamed Bush for taking his eye off Afghanistan, which had become a backwater, the "good war" as he termed it, and pledged to refocus on Afghanistan, which he did. In this manner, Obama, a tool of the established order, was able to keep the Afghan gravy train going just as the Iraq one would wind down less than three years into his administration. The Democratic party has a pure genius for triangulating in such a way it pleases its increasingly right wing donor base even as it virtue signals and makes pretty speeches that tend to please liberal ears, but are really nothing more than keeping the same old the same old.
If the US men's 4X100 meter relay team passed the baton that efficiently, we'd win the gold medal every Olympics.
3. We lost, decisively, to a people we deem as racially and culturally inferior to us, and in an area we have increasingly seen as the the epitome of US identity, our military, which we continue to place in conflicts where its strengths are meaningless, thus also attacking another area we take such pride in: our high tech, digital vanquishing of the analog world, a place our opponents inhabit with sureness.
All the wailing and snowflaking going on among our elite in the media, Congress and the military regarding the withdrawal is really just a reflection of first their increasingly unreal existence, all walled in and impervious to any outside thoughts, and more importantly, their wish to divert the populace's attention that for 20 years, they have been remarkably incompetent, other than their lying, which is world class.
There can be no further excuse for voting for nearly any of the incumbents, unless, of course, your concern for our servicemen and women is as hollow as that of most of our elected representatives.
Biden may have botched the planning of the withdrawal. Or he may not have. I think it's possible, if not probable, that the military slow-walked preparations in a bid to persuade Biden to back down or, failing that, create a chaotic situation in which their reliable flock improperly identified hacks on TV plead for a return of troops to tamp things down.
#PerceptionIsACommodity - We are aggressively manipulated to "think" and "feel" about everything with repeated deceitful narratives and images which specifically TARGET emotional response. US Corporate-State Media (MSNBC, FOX, CNN, ABC, PBS, NPR, WaPo, NYT, etc) manufactures "support" or "rage" for whatever the oligarchy chooses. OUR thoughts and feelings on any given topic are often, largely NOT our own
Ya know, now that a real journalist, Craig Murray is in jail for political crimes, but really for being a real journalist reporting on another real journalist - Julian Assange - and being the only one to really do it - could you and Glenn maybe start to report on the Assange case a little bit, or is it just all about the easy money now?
Question: If Trump's call to the Ukranian president was an impeachable offense, doesn't that mean that Biden's July 23 call to the Afghan president is also impeachable? In the latter call Biden asked the president to misrepresent the status of the Taliban's offensive to take over the country, and indicated if the president would help Biden out with the PR, the US would likely be able to help with close air support at least until the end of August, and possibly after. Neither the public statement sought by Biden, nor the close air support, happened. If you don't find the situations to be similar, why not?
I have a close family member who flies the V22 Osprey. They suggested I read the book, “The Dream Machine” which documents the Osprey’s history. This morning I picked it up from a local book store and just finished the prologue; near the end I read this:
“ …. the first squadron of V-22 Ospreys ever to fly actual military operations into Iraq, where a US led invasion four years earlier had ignited ethnic and religious blood feuds and an insurgency that had taken thousands of lives. By then (2007), the bitter debate over how the war had begun was largely over. It was hard to remember why the war’s sponsors had thought it would be so easy, and so cheap in dollars and lives, to change the world.” The book was published in 2010.
I think the same applies to Afghanistan; I find that statement to be quite telling. Also, I fail to know why it doesn’t qualify as a war crime!
Matt, why does "Joe Biden deserve credit for sticking to his timeline"? I know Americans like complex events to be made neat and tidy, as with a completely arbitrary (and unconditional) timeline. But this timeline is the primary catalyst for the chaos and terror that has and will continue to unfold for years to come, both within Afghanistan and, I fear, abroad. Rather than credit, he deserves blame, and his wooden, "facts be damned" diplomacy will further decorate the ever-expanding U.S. history hall of shameful presidential decisions.
Matt, saying this “… Joe Biden deserves credit for sticking to his timeline.“ is like saying the Captain of the Titanic deserves credit to sticking to his course.”
I was against going in, I’m glad were are out, but to exit in the style of “The Three Stooges” might have warranted a bit of timeline adjustment.
We don't need a third party. We need real leadership, in any party.
"However much he may have botched the planning, Joe Biden deserves credit for sticking to his timeline. It is good news that the United States can eventually recognize that a war has stopped serving any purpose, and actually decide to leave a country ten years after the last theoretical reason for staying has expired."
To believe Biden did this "for the good of the country" is ignorant and/or delusional. This was never a war. This was a money laundering operation that is no longer needed. Assange nailed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IGU_7alJ80 .
They are simply repositioning the pieces. All that gear left behind? Don't worry. They'll make more. They have the technology. They can rebuild it. It's called a never-audited war machine and a printing press that runs 24/7 with zero accountability.
There were reasons for staying. We had containment, owned Bagram, could have leveraged a deal with Turkey (and maybe kept those additional A-400s out of their hands), we had soft power options enabled by our force in country and our control of the air space. Does anyone doubt we'll be going back into Afghanistan? There's a trillion dollars + of primetime minerals there. Think we're giving it to the Chinese? Maybe we are. China Biden is awfully compromised and his regime does hate Americans.
why are we lauding praise on Ball and Enjeti for stating the obvious? We all know its a rigged game. Ball and Enjeti took big money until it no longer served their interest and they realized they could make a boatload going on independent. They didn't do any time in the trenches. They're leeches who know how to stay in their lane while looking radical.
Thank you -- both DNC and GOP wings of the US War party has been fully captured by the US war industry. The ONLY solution is a third (and fifth, sixth) party.
In our beloved country we are ruled by - kleptocracy. Worth remembering:
For example: Pelosi in Dec 22, 2020 was against more stimulus.
- Her husband buys deep ITM TSLA and AAPL calls that day.
- A day later, December 23rd, she is suddenly for stimulus again, with those same companies rallying 5%,
-- giving Pelosi an INSTANT +30 return.
The censored "wisdom" — depicted as unquestionable fact throughout corporate media — is that we should be angry only at the tax system, but NOT at the oligarchs getting rich off it.
In fact, the only person so far presumed to be worthy of any law enforcement scrutiny is not any of the billionaires avoiding taxes, but the whistleblowing source of the IRS leak
Why Are Billionaires Presumed Innocent?
After an IRS leak, corporate media says there’s nothing to see here because billionaire tax avoidance must be legal — even though it occurred during a crime spree.
Why Are Billionaires Presumed Innocent? (dailyposter.com) -- June 22, 2021 David Sirota
-- Trump and GOP are truly HORRIBLE.
-- DNC oligarchs (Biden, Pelosi, Schumer) are even WORSE (censorship, they concocted Russia-gate hoax, torture of Julian Assange, Daniel Hale’s persecution for Obama’s drone crimes, $16B Haiti-corruption under Hillary/Obama – Biden-family corruption likely pales in comparison)
The ONLY solution – vote THIRD party – now and forever. ALWAYS vote – but VOTE for a Third (or fourth, fifth..) party – at ALL levels, especially at LOCAL levels (vote OUT each and every incumbent).
“If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil, and you will always have less.” [Ralph Nader]
I've said this before and will say it again: They should all be required to wear prominent patches on their suits of their "sponsors." Think of NASCAR. So you should see patches for Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc., all displayed openly and proudly, just like NASCAR drivers.
My biggest worry: Even with "merchants of death" patches on tailored suits, the American people won't care. Or not enough of them to make a difference.
As much as I agree that getting out of Afghanistan was a good thing—and should have happened years ago—Joe Biden and the entire US government and military establishment showed how embarrassingly inept, ignorant, ineffectual and just plain awful they were with the failures, lies, spins and finger-pointing when that shit blew up in their face.
The idea that technocrats in DC have any idea what they're doing was absolutely dismantled by this fiasco, which is the thinking that lead to Trump, who'd likely be worse on this front, and we may be delivered again.
I watch Krystal and Saagar, but their "oh, Biden was really great here; what a great speech he had about it," when Biden was in full CYA/finger-pointing mode was nuts, and in lockstep with Ryan Grim, and the rest of the so-called "progressive" wing of the media class. This was embarrassing for all involved, even if you think—as I do—that getting out of Afghanistan was necessary.
Now, this administration is pivoting back to the new "domestic war on terror," censorship and attacks on privacy to go after America's real enemies: people that don't vote for them. Biden should not have been given a pass here; it was part and parcel of his continuing failure.
On a whim, I checked out what Chuck Schumer’s kids do. Amazingly enough both of them are married to people whose work will benefit MASSIVELY from the infrastructure bill. His son-in-law works at Sidewalk Labs part of Google, which is “the urban innovation company — setting ambitious goals with developers and cities to build more sustainable, innovative, and equitable places” Sounds like a nice FAT contract or ten will be heading their way.
After all it has the word “equitable” in its mission statement.
And his other daughters’ spouse? Her wife works for “City Possible” at MasterCard,
City Possible™ helps cities achieve inclusive and sustainable growthJoin our global network of city leaders, academics and technology partners as we create blueprints for more inclusive and sustainable cities.
They have the MAGIC words in their mission statement, too!! What a COINCIDENCE!!
Gosh d’ya think being part of the “majority” leader’s (50-50 tie with VP tiebreaker) family MIGHT be a meal ticket??? But don’t worry, we WILL NEVER KNOW how much money or what benefits these people receive. Because corruption in our banana republic is never reported.
Amazingly, I don’t know anyone who has two kids whose principal income comes from companies that are both focused on “equity, inclusivity and sustainability” in our cities - buzzwords that happen to be the very CORE of the 5 trillion dollar boondoggles being foisted on us by Schumer and Pelosi.
I had no idea that urban equity and sustainability was so popular with politicians’ kids. Maybe that will be Hunter’s next gig??
NPR pitches restricting freedom of speech while the mainstream media tees up paid propagandists as objective experts. We are screwed.
Three points not really addressed at all
1. The all Vietnam draft dodger administration that started this war, chose one we could not lose; i.e. getting bin Laden and crippling AQ and then leaving, into one we could not win; i.e. regime change and nation building, having as a partner every corrupt person of power in Afghanistan as our figureheads. The former brought our high tech, highly mobile, high firepower military into a position of strength, while the latter made all that irrelevant. As a Taliban official told a US official: "you had all the clocks , we had all the time."
2. The duopoly bait and switched us beautifully. At the end of his administration, a highly unpopular Bush made a deal with Iraq calling for our withdrawal from that country at the end of 2011, that war being hugely unpopular by 2008, as simultaneously, candidate Obama, a supposed avatar of change and supposedly anti Iraq war, blamed Bush for taking his eye off Afghanistan, which had become a backwater, the "good war" as he termed it, and pledged to refocus on Afghanistan, which he did. In this manner, Obama, a tool of the established order, was able to keep the Afghan gravy train going just as the Iraq one would wind down less than three years into his administration. The Democratic party has a pure genius for triangulating in such a way it pleases its increasingly right wing donor base even as it virtue signals and makes pretty speeches that tend to please liberal ears, but are really nothing more than keeping the same old the same old.
If the US men's 4X100 meter relay team passed the baton that efficiently, we'd win the gold medal every Olympics.
3. We lost, decisively, to a people we deem as racially and culturally inferior to us, and in an area we have increasingly seen as the the epitome of US identity, our military, which we continue to place in conflicts where its strengths are meaningless, thus also attacking another area we take such pride in: our high tech, digital vanquishing of the analog world, a place our opponents inhabit with sureness.
All the wailing and snowflaking going on among our elite in the media, Congress and the military regarding the withdrawal is really just a reflection of first their increasingly unreal existence, all walled in and impervious to any outside thoughts, and more importantly, their wish to divert the populace's attention that for 20 years, they have been remarkably incompetent, other than their lying, which is world class.
There can be no further excuse for voting for nearly any of the incumbents, unless, of course, your concern for our servicemen and women is as hollow as that of most of our elected representatives.
Biden may have botched the planning of the withdrawal. Or he may not have. I think it's possible, if not probable, that the military slow-walked preparations in a bid to persuade Biden to back down or, failing that, create a chaotic situation in which their reliable flock improperly identified hacks on TV plead for a return of troops to tamp things down.
#PerceptionIsACommodity - We are aggressively manipulated to "think" and "feel" about everything with repeated deceitful narratives and images which specifically TARGET emotional response. US Corporate-State Media (MSNBC, FOX, CNN, ABC, PBS, NPR, WaPo, NYT, etc) manufactures "support" or "rage" for whatever the oligarchy chooses. OUR thoughts and feelings on any given topic are often, largely NOT our own
Ya know, now that a real journalist, Craig Murray is in jail for political crimes, but really for being a real journalist reporting on another real journalist - Julian Assange - and being the only one to really do it - could you and Glenn maybe start to report on the Assange case a little bit, or is it just all about the easy money now?
Krystal asks 5 minute questions. She, like most of these reporters, is an interviewer who wants to show how smart she is….unlistenable.
Thank you, again. Maybe we should apply the government industrial complex connection disclosure idea to the domestic policy side of government too.
Question: If Trump's call to the Ukranian president was an impeachable offense, doesn't that mean that Biden's July 23 call to the Afghan president is also impeachable? In the latter call Biden asked the president to misrepresent the status of the Taliban's offensive to take over the country, and indicated if the president would help Biden out with the PR, the US would likely be able to help with close air support at least until the end of August, and possibly after. Neither the public statement sought by Biden, nor the close air support, happened. If you don't find the situations to be similar, why not?
I have a close family member who flies the V22 Osprey. They suggested I read the book, “The Dream Machine” which documents the Osprey’s history. This morning I picked it up from a local book store and just finished the prologue; near the end I read this:
“ …. the first squadron of V-22 Ospreys ever to fly actual military operations into Iraq, where a US led invasion four years earlier had ignited ethnic and religious blood feuds and an insurgency that had taken thousands of lives. By then (2007), the bitter debate over how the war had begun was largely over. It was hard to remember why the war’s sponsors had thought it would be so easy, and so cheap in dollars and lives, to change the world.” The book was published in 2010.
I think the same applies to Afghanistan; I find that statement to be quite telling. Also, I fail to know why it doesn’t qualify as a war crime!
Matt, why does "Joe Biden deserve credit for sticking to his timeline"? I know Americans like complex events to be made neat and tidy, as with a completely arbitrary (and unconditional) timeline. But this timeline is the primary catalyst for the chaos and terror that has and will continue to unfold for years to come, both within Afghanistan and, I fear, abroad. Rather than credit, he deserves blame, and his wooden, "facts be damned" diplomacy will further decorate the ever-expanding U.S. history hall of shameful presidential decisions.
Matt, saying this “… Joe Biden deserves credit for sticking to his timeline.“ is like saying the Captain of the Titanic deserves credit to sticking to his course.”
I was against going in, I’m glad were are out, but to exit in the style of “The Three Stooges” might have warranted a bit of timeline adjustment.
We don't need a third party. We need real leadership, in any party.
"However much he may have botched the planning, Joe Biden deserves credit for sticking to his timeline. It is good news that the United States can eventually recognize that a war has stopped serving any purpose, and actually decide to leave a country ten years after the last theoretical reason for staying has expired."
To believe Biden did this "for the good of the country" is ignorant and/or delusional. This was never a war. This was a money laundering operation that is no longer needed. Assange nailed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IGU_7alJ80 .
They are simply repositioning the pieces. All that gear left behind? Don't worry. They'll make more. They have the technology. They can rebuild it. It's called a never-audited war machine and a printing press that runs 24/7 with zero accountability.
There were reasons for staying. We had containment, owned Bagram, could have leveraged a deal with Turkey (and maybe kept those additional A-400s out of their hands), we had soft power options enabled by our force in country and our control of the air space. Does anyone doubt we'll be going back into Afghanistan? There's a trillion dollars + of primetime minerals there. Think we're giving it to the Chinese? Maybe we are. China Biden is awfully compromised and his regime does hate Americans.
why are we lauding praise on Ball and Enjeti for stating the obvious? We all know its a rigged game. Ball and Enjeti took big money until it no longer served their interest and they realized they could make a boatload going on independent. They didn't do any time in the trenches. They're leeches who know how to stay in their lane while looking radical.
Thank you -- both DNC and GOP wings of the US War party has been fully captured by the US war industry. The ONLY solution is a third (and fifth, sixth) party.
In our beloved country we are ruled by - kleptocracy. Worth remembering:
• Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Congress:
https://unusualwhales.com/i_am_the_senate/congress
• Unusual Stock Trading by Whales in US Senate:
https://unusualwhales.com/i_am_the_senate
For example: Pelosi in Dec 22, 2020 was against more stimulus.
- Her husband buys deep ITM TSLA and AAPL calls that day.
- A day later, December 23rd, she is suddenly for stimulus again, with those same companies rallying 5%,
-- giving Pelosi an INSTANT +30 return.
The censored "wisdom" — depicted as unquestionable fact throughout corporate media — is that we should be angry only at the tax system, but NOT at the oligarchs getting rich off it.
In fact, the only person so far presumed to be worthy of any law enforcement scrutiny is not any of the billionaires avoiding taxes, but the whistleblowing source of the IRS leak
Why Are Billionaires Presumed Innocent?
After an IRS leak, corporate media says there’s nothing to see here because billionaire tax avoidance must be legal — even though it occurred during a crime spree.
https://www.dailyposter.com/why-are-billionaires-presumed-innocent/
Why Are Billionaires Presumed Innocent? (dailyposter.com) -- June 22, 2021 David Sirota
-- Trump and GOP are truly HORRIBLE.
-- DNC oligarchs (Biden, Pelosi, Schumer) are even WORSE (censorship, they concocted Russia-gate hoax, torture of Julian Assange, Daniel Hale’s persecution for Obama’s drone crimes, $16B Haiti-corruption under Hillary/Obama – Biden-family corruption likely pales in comparison)
The ONLY solution – vote THIRD party – now and forever. ALWAYS vote – but VOTE for a Third (or fourth, fifth..) party – at ALL levels, especially at LOCAL levels (vote OUT each and every incumbent).
“If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil, and you will always have less.” [Ralph Nader]