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Biden’s actions in Afghanistan have been shameful and destructive… — 54 Comments

1. Full video of Biden’s press conference.

   https://youtu.be/cKoMHJ0IzK0

2. Someone suggested that Biden, as Commander-in-Chief, should be court-martialed rather than impeached. Unfortunately, I think the results would be the same in either case.

3. “Hasn’t he done enough damage to this country and to the world?”

   No. Not yet. The people who voted for this piece of work need to really feel it. Or at least to watch their, and their families lives disintegrate around them, if they are incapable of feeling it through the smug padding of decades of sneering liberal self-regard.

   So no. Not until your liberal luncheon companions are so grief stricken by the damage they have felt personally, that they are weeping and tearing their hair out.

   And maybe not then.

4. “On the other hand, Marjorie Taylor Greene has introduced articles of impeachment against Biden.”

   That makes sense. She is considered persona non grata by the GOPe and Conservative Inc. She will likely face a strenuous, well funded primary challenger next year. Thus, she has nothing to lose. Good for her!

   “It will be interesting to see whether they ever come up for a full vote”

   It never will as long as Democrats control the House

   “and if so (and I doubt they will) whether any Democrats will vote yes (the same people who impeached Trump for nothing).”

   Nope. Not a one will vote yes. Not under any circumstances. Any that did might as well cross the aisle ahead of time as Pelosi would surely expel them from the caucus.

   “One thing I do know is that, if Biden is impeached or otherwise removed, it will be the result of the Democrats’ deciding they must do it in order to protect themselves and preserve the rest of their terrible agenda.”

   Agreed. And it will happen via the 25th Amendment not impeachment. If Republicans take the House next year (which seems likely) and if they have the cajones to impeach Biden (highly unlikely), Democrats will weigh their options then…fight to defend the senile old scuzbucket or quickly and quietly invoke the 25th Amendment and send him out to pasture.

5. “Hasn’t he done enough damage to this country and to the world?”
   Yeah, that grabbed me too, DNW.
   His whole modus operandi appears to be “anything Trump did … do the opposite!”
   Not a plan that is likely to work in any known universe. And, this is frightening, only a simpleton would ever even think of that policy.

6. My feeling is the disaster will have to continue and worsen before Democrats start talking openly about impeachment or removal via the 25th ammendment. Many more Americans will have to die at the hands of the Taliban before the elected Democrats will act.

7. t:

   As a civilian, even though he is commander-in-chief, he cannot be court-martialed.

8. @DNW: I fear that you greatly underestimate the effects of cognitive dissonance.

9. Democrats lose their tie breaking vote in the Senate if Biden resigns. McConnell will have no problem leaving the vice presidency vacant until the midterms.

   Barring a truly extreme situation, I can’t imagine Biden resigning or otherwise leaving office until or unless Democrats’ agenda is passed.

10. I think that what is going through their minds is that this is just like the fall of Saigon and will quickly fade from the news when the Dems will be able to resume their order of business. There is a significant difference this time because US citizens are trapped with no way out.

    From what I’ve read, many of them are trust fund boys and girls who went to Afghanistan to pad their resumes by working for NGOs. Mommy and Daddy are very important people who are burning up the phone lines trying to get Nick and Daisy out, with no success so far. They are probably prime Taliban ransom candidates.

11. The Left is laughing at the impotence of Republicans, conservatives, and deplorables. If Biden were a good president, it’d be no fun. The fun is forcing us all to accept Biden’s incompetence, malice, and senility. We complain, they tell us we’re crazy. It’s all a big joke to them.

    It’s analogous to the way Stalin, while at dinner, used to terrorize his opponents with long, boring monologues full of lies that everyone had to meekly accept. We, the deplorables, must now accept the torment of Biden.

12. Paul in Boston:

    Apropos of the stranded trust fund babies, have you read the latest Psaki version of events? (You may want to check your blood pressure afterward.)

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/paula-bolyard/2021/08/23/in-her-best-ministry-of-truth-voice-jen-psaki-shamelessly-lies-about-americans-stranded-in-afghanistan-n1472090

    In addition to American trustifarians, I did read elsewhere that there are German, French, and other European trust fund offspring trying to get out of Afghanistan, and their parents are also burning up the WH phone lines.

13. Paul in Boston,
    I commented in the the previous Afst. post that most voters don’t understand that Americans are stranded in the country. Yet. (Joe says we’re flying thousands out per day. Too bad most aren’t Americans.) The GOP needs to get to work on that.

    But boy,
    “many of them are trust fund boys and girls who went to Afghanistan to pad their resumes by working for NGOs.

    That sort of sounds like part of the Democrat base, doesn’t it? Cue huxley. What the hell were they (the planners) thinking?

14. I think the thousands of Americans remaining in Afghanistan will be used by the Taliban like an ATM. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out who these people are and how much Americans are willing to pay to get them back. These hostages will easily be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban if not more. What incentive do they have do let them go for free?

15. The laughter is the “tell.”
    They know they’re illegitimately in office, incompetent for any office, failing & flailing, being found out daily…They know.
    They know we know.
    They know we’re not going to do what needs doing to remedy that situation…i.e. “wipe that smile off their faces.”

    To them…it’s kinda funny.

16. John Guilfoyle–

    That contented smirk seen on the faces of Biden and Harris is often called the “sh-it-eating grin” in places where one can speak freely. Dictionary definition of the SEG: “A broad grin expressing uncontrollable delight or (self-)satisfaction, esp. characterized by awareness of having got away with something normally considered outrageous or improper.”

17. Re Biden and Kamela, to quote Dylan:

    “If my thought dreams could be seen
    They’d probably put my head
    In a guillotine…”

    A new entry on my Bucket List is to live long enough to make a trip to Arlington to piss on his grave. (If indeed Arlington is where that grave will be found.)

18. neo on August 23, 2021 at 8:04 pm said: As a civilian, even though he is commander-in-chief, he cannot be court-martialed.

    If there’s a mutiny can he be keel-hauled?

19. There is reason to think that the Taliban knows American culture better than we know theirs. They are better at producing clever memes than the Democrats or Elites, Exhibit A being the picture of Taliban warriors trolling Biden by eating ice cream cones. Exhibit B, raising the Taliban flag while dressed as American G.I.’s as in Iwo Jima. Who in our State Department or CIA could have imagined that?

    There are many predicting that the captured Americans will be killed. Yeah, the Taliban are bloodthirsty savages – but, the Taliban has already won. If they start executing people, they know our military is capable of wiping them out. Even if Biden/Harris wouldn’t give that order, American would certainly elect a President who would. But I repeat, they’ve already won.

    So what if the Taliban let all the Americans go, albeit, with their tails between their legs? Consider the optics: long lines of defeated people, a humiliated nation. Once all the Americans were safe, the Taliban could start executing Afghanis who worked with us, and we wouldn’t go back in to save them. No nation would ever trust us again.

    It is foolish to think that the Taliban will do what we expect them to do.

20. @CapnRusty:

    No nation will ever trust the USA again. That’s already a done deal. At least until a new form of government takes control.

    But there’s more to life than mere Trust when the Game is being played for keeps and all pieces are in play.

    The problem out in the Satrapies is that the various local ruling elites are split between people who are compromised by the GloboHomo Five Eyes and people who are compromised by the Chinese, and those slipperiest of slime bag people who are compromised by both.

    Notice (sorry Bubbe!) that the Russians don’t figure in this much, if at all? Only real exception being Gazprom bribes to various Europols and bureaucrats for shutting down their non-gas powered generation plants in the name of ‘Green’.

    So.. there will for some time be see-sawing of alliances around the Pacific Rim as the various intelligence agencies furiously attack the other side’s political assets with back door uploads of child porn to their phones and computers. Won’t be pretty.

    But it will be popcorn-worthy.

21. I don’t think Biden and the Dems realize the enormity of what they have done. They think the news cycle will bail them out as it did in Benghazi.

    If the Taliban manage to capture a number of Americans and hold them hostage after the recovery effort ends, the stakes will be huge. Ransom might be the least of the things they demand.

    Public executions of Afghanis who worked for the U.S. would be a horror show and an object lesson for anyone who works with or for us. Our prestige has already been badly damaged. That would make it infinitely worse.

    Then, of course, they can treat international news outlets to pictures of all the expensive weapons they “inherited” from the U.S. More humiliation.

    The mind boggles at all the blowback that will occur from this for years to come. This is not an evet that spin and the news cycle can easily erase. It’s hard to think of another strategic and tactical debacle in our history. The closest to it is the probably the Iran embassy hostage crisis, followed by the withdrawal of support by the U.S. Congress for the South Vietnamese.

22. Indeed, Jen Psaki is a piece of work. Never ceases to amaze, that is, disgust….

    Related:
    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17676/who-is-directing-american-policy

    Key graf:
    ‘ “We Afghan/Iraq vets did not lose this…. our government did. Gents and Gals, hold your head high…. we won every fight. We beat them at every angle. We did our jobs, we did it honorably…. in the end yes… our government lost it for us… but while most of America was at the mall, we were all in the mix shedding our time, effort and blood…” ‘

    Looks like it may be time for Susan Rice to send another “by-the-book” memo to herself….

23. “highest” and “priority,” when spoken by Dems, do not have the meanings we are used to.

24. If you think we’re being humiliated now, wait until September 11, the 20th “anniversary” of the destruction of the Twin Towers less than three weeks away now. Rest assured the Taliban have something big planned to really rub our noses in it. Jihadists like to do that kind of thing – Benghazi was on 9/11. Greatly enabled by Biden’s idiotic desire to make a “symbolic” point by withdrawing by 9/11. The only point is at the top of his pinhead.

25. Ira M. Siegel said:
    “highest” and “priority,” when spoken by Dems, do not have the meanings we are used to.

    Their meaning is “political-power-retention-and-increase,” those are always the “highest priority.”

26. Taliban ain’t stupid, they have won, they won’t bring destruction upon themselves by provoking America any further, if we get attacked it will likely be CIA or the deep state who wants to start the war on terrorism all over again. Seriously conservatives, don’t freaking get suckered into supporting some stupid war that does nothing but enrich the profiteers, causing the death of thousands of innocent ppl and bankrupting America again please. against abortions while supporting wars that kill thousands of innocent ppl, you think god would approve that?

27. @Dave:

    That dog won’t hunt in this nest of Neocons 🙂

28. Neo
    There is talk with Taliban in Doha from 2018 during president Trump, that talks continued with the The Biden-Harris Administration in Whitehouse.
    Did you or any one knew what the talk about?
    Is there any leak those long talk with Taliban what agreed and what are the difference between both side?

    This should be been discussed and be the attention on when we discussing the president call for withdraw US forces from Afghanistan.

29. Barry Meislin…thanks for that link & that key paragraph.
    Like many of you I know some of those folks…wept at graveside too.
    How many of them are now watching & wondering when they get to saddle up again but this time against domestic enemies?

30. “From what I’ve read, many of them are trust fund boys and girls who went to Afghanistan to pad their resumes by working for NGOs”

    There are also significant numbers of Christians who are in a lot of danger.
    And presumably there are numbers of patriots trying to help US policy.
    They’re likely in more danger than the boys and girls there on a lark.

31. I just went and re-read the 25th Amendment (https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv), and I don’t think the President can actually be removed.

    At best, as per Section 4, the Vice President can assume the powers and duties as Acting President over the wishes of the sitting President, but nowhere does it say that Congress can actually remove the sitting President from office.

    So unless Biden actually dies, resigns, or is impeached and convicted, there is no vacancy in the Presidency as per Section 1 and Kamala never ascends to the office as such. And therefore Section 2 never comes into effect requiring a new Vice President to be appointed.

    Whether this means that Acting President Kamala, having “assumed the powers and duties” of the President thereby relinquishes the powers and duties of the Vice President (i.e. the tie-breaking vote) is unclear to me.

32. Would seem to me that for the Democrats, impervious to every disaster as they are—sorry, that should be “creating disasters, crafting crises and fomenting despair and desperation as a matter of policy” (so OF COURSE they’re impervious)—keeping “Biden” in place is entirely in their “best interests”…such as those “best interests” are:
    – staying in power at all costs;
    – consolidating that power so that they are impregnable; and
    – using that power to destroy the country.

33. 1. One might “wish” that they get their lies sorted out (not that it really matters, mind you; not that they’re embarrassed by any of this)…
    2. One of the more SHOCKING and unbelievable things about this whole royal (and murderous) balls-up is that Adam Schiff (yeah, him) MAY, in fact, be telling the truth here…

    https://twitter.com/omriceren/status/1429988465236750336

34. Seeing many coming to same conclusion I have, everything is going in Afghanistan as planned.
    Actually looking forward to the circus of getting rid of Joe as I have since day 1. Doubt 1 decision by Harris will be different.

35. And it looks like another white supremacist hiding behind black skin is deigning to give an interview…. Here’s Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/312309

36. From what I’ve read, many of them are trust fund boys and girls who went to Afghanistan to pad their resumes by working for NGOs. Mommy and Daddy are very important people who are burning up the phone lines trying to get Nick and Daisy out, with no success so far. They are probably prime Taliban ransom candidates.

    1. Read where?
    2. You mean non wealthy people wouldn’t be remonstrating with officialdom on behalf of their children?
    3. You mean youths from wealthy families never do anything altruistic or adventurous?
    4. You mean their being rich kids justifies letting them die?

37. Bryan Lovely,

    That’s a fascinating point you’ve picked up through reading the 25th Amendment. Very interesting. Seems like it’s designed to have the V.P. perform “Presidential duties” to assist an incapacitated President without relinquishing the title of V.P. Goes against the checks and balances that were so important to the drafters of the Constitution, but not a surprise.

38. Is someone impersonating Art Deco? I find it hard to believe the real Art does not know…

    1. Google
    2. The difference in attention paid by politicians to the rich and the non-rich.
    3. The pernicious effect of the trust fund class on policy and our political discourse. Hint: people say and do all sorts of stupid things when they are personally insulated from the results.
    4. If trust fund kids had been dying in Iraq or Afghanistan the last 20 years, VASTLY different policy decisions would have been made.

    Mike

39. The current situation should be a reminder that monarchy/aristocracy used to be a reasonably functional governing system. As long as there were practical means of dismissing a defective duke or corrupt king, the system basically worked.

    But as the social mores against regicide and the expense of civil war increased, the system became unresponsive to the problems facing society. That’s where we are now.

    Mike

40. 1. Google

    Is not a source, it’s a search engine.

    2. The difference in attention paid by politicians to the rich and the non-rich.

    You’re confusing ‘rich’ with ‘well-connected’. Martha Stewart went to prison on humbug charges and Conrad Black saw his business destroyed. That’s how rich people get treated.

    3. The pernicious effect of the trust fund class on policy and our political discourse. Hint: people say and do all sorts of stupid things when they are personally insulated from the results.

    The school administrators and teachers harassing little kids over their fanciful ‘white privilege’ aren’t the elderly women who have interest and dividend income. The faculty and administrators who have turned higher education into a scandal have good retirement programs, but are typically paid $90,000 a year and have salable assets which begin and end with their home equity. The shnooks on the Minneapolis city council aren’t notable for their wealth either; they’re notable for they’re childlessness and odd employment histories.

    4. If trust fund kids had been dying in Iraq or Afghanistan the last 20 years, VASTLY different policy decisions would have been made.

    About 4,600 American soldiers have died in Iraq since 2002, about 95% of them prior to 2010. If wealthy families were proportionately represented in that set, you could say about 115 patricians have died in Iraq. Young people who actually have interest-and-dividend income would be a fraction of that. And, of course, they’re young people who volunteered for military service.

    Whatever Paul in Boston thinks, we see your answer to question #4 is ‘yes’.

41. This is not going to end well for a lot of good people, but hopefully it will also end poorly for a lot of bad people, and I hope the media is at the front of that latter list. The damage the media has done to this country is incalculable, and is the main reason we have been unable to use American power to achieve the noble goals most Americans support.

    If I were to describe what I would like to see happen to the media, I would be guilty of acting in poor taste, because I have a vivid imagination.

42. So Biden says, today (8/24) that 31 August is the end. This means anyone wanting evacuation will have to get to the airport by this weekend, through Taliban lines, if they hope to make it out.

43. Rufus T. Firefly —

    What I was mainly getting at is everyone keeps talking about “removing” Biden via the 25th so somebody else can be President, and I don’t think that’s how it works. He can be suppressed indefinitely, given sufficient votes in the Cabinet and in Congress, but not actually removed short of impeachment.

44. Biden is such an empty vessel that he plagiarized his loser VP’s laugh.

45. They can’t “remove” him or they lose their slim advantage in the Senate.
    They’re stuck with this decrepit old zombie default fake prez f*ck up.
    HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA

46. They can’t “remove” him or they lose their slim advantage in the Senate.
    They’re stuck with this decrepit old zombie default fake prez f*ck up.

    People with an informed opinion haven’t addressed the issue except in law journals, if there. If one looks at the plain meaning of the text, it appears that she exercises the powers and duties of the presidency but retains the VP office, so she could cast tie breaker votes. (I think there would be some resistance to that, of course).

47. He’s just getting started with the shameful, destructive and vile: in exchange for those “non-stranded” American hostages soon to be left in Afghanistan CinC Biden will hand over every jihadi captive now held in Gitmo. Watch. It’s coming.

48. Anyone else find it weird that biden’s implants or toupee only covers the front while leaving the balding crown completely exposed?

49. sdferr:

    No, he already gave up that bargaining chip long ago. Closing Guantanamo was one of his campaign promises, and in July he freed the first prisoner of 40 who remained.

50. Dave:

    No. He had his hair transplants many years ago when the technique was in its infancy. At the time, with the limitations of the amount of hair available for transplanting and the techniques they had, a lot of people decided to go for coverage in the area that was most visible frontally: that is, the front part rather than the middle.

51. Ah. Let me avow my ignorance of that campaign promise and thank you neo for informing me of it.

    So you take it that the Taliban fellas will trust Joe to follow through without need for any prompting on their part? That this promise, unlike many other campaign promises, is of a high order intention to fulfillment? Perhaps so.

    Yet I wonder how other US politicos will take Biden admin. attempts at carrying through, i.e. whether they will seek to stand athwart the freeing of KSM et alia? I dunno, sounds a bit sketchy just now . . . I should do some research and thinking on it before trying to game it out any further.

52. sdferr:

    He has ALREADY been following through. And Obama before him followed through. It has long been a policy of the Democratic Party, not just Biden, I believe.

    Here is an article with some of the background. One interesting detail is that the focus was to close it by the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Sound familiar?

    And this is about the first transfer, over a month ago.

53. It’s a kind of rub that Obama had made the same promise and failed (8 years, too), one that ought to give the Taliban pause.

    ‘Course, it’s also clear why I hadn’t caught it in the news this time around: less said, the better for gitin’er done. Most people won’t keen to it I’d guess.

    Still, all things equal, maybe hostage demands just make a way the Talibs can help Biden out, and help themselves to boot. Or are there higher priorities we can think of they’d prefer to seek?

54. Per DNW:

    ““Hasn’t he done enough damage to this country and to the world?”

    No. Not yet. The people who voted for this piece of work need to really feel it. Or at least to watch their, and their families lives disintegrate around them, if they are incapable of feeling it through the smug padding of decades of sneering liberal self-regard.

    So no. Not until your liberal luncheon companions are so grief stricken by the damage they have felt personally, that they are weeping and tearing their hair out.

    And maybe not then.”

    It’s Biden and Harris’ way of telling those liberal lunchers “thanks, schmucks.”

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