The images coming out of Afghanistan have been disturbing. But let's be clear: The Trump Administration led us straight into this mess. And President Biden is doing everything he can to get us out of it.

In Afghanistan, President Biden got dealt yet another losing hand from the Trump Administration. Their Doha Agreement with the Taliban violated the most basic principles of self-government for the Afghan people. There was no way to enforce it or make sure the Taliban kept its word. There was no denunciation of al-Qaeda terrorists. Worst of all, the deal didn't mandate the Taliban stop attacks against Afghan security forces.

All of this set the stage for the chaotic scenes we're seeing on TV today.

Trump's deal with the Taliban was flawed from the start, which is why Trump's own officials are now scrambling to distance themselves from it. "To have our Generals say that they are depending on diplomacy with the Taliban is an unbelievable scenario. Negotiating with the Taliban is like dealing with the devil," tweeted Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who certainly voiced no such objections while working for Trump. She was not alone. "Our secretary of state signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban," Trump's former national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, told journalist Bari Weiss. "This collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. The Taliban didn't defeat us. We defeated ourselves."

To have our Generals say that they are depending on diplomacy with the Taliban is an unbelievable scenario. Negotiating with the Taliban is like dealing with the devil.

Even Mike Pompeo, Trump's Secretary of State and the man who negotiated the deal with the Taliban in the first place, is now denouncing it. He had the audacity to tell Fox News that the "debacle" in Afghanistan "will certainly harm America's credibility with its friends and allies." He certainly didn't seem to think so while he was laying the groundwork for the debacle in the first place.

"We're letting the Taliban run free and wild all around Afghanistan," complained Pompeo, the man who cut the deal to release the Taliban's leader from prison in the first place. Trump ordered the release of 5,000 of the top captured Taliban fighters last year—a decision his own designated "peace envoy" Zalmay Khaliizad said publicly had disturbed him. Those same fighters are now threatening the streets of Kabul.

Republican outrage was also completely absent in the first 45 days of Donald Trump's agreement, when there were over 4,500 Taliban attacks resulting in over 900 Afghan casualties. Where was the Republican outrage about the Afghan army then, when their President handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban? Nonexistent.

They saved their denunciations for Biden's efforts to clean up Trump's mess—efforts which have as yet cost many fewer lives.

But this hypocrisy is not limited to former Trump officials. Take House Republican firebrand Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), for example, who only tweeted once in 2014 about losing an American general in combat in Afghanistan, until discovering it as a partisan issue this summer. Now that he can blame Biden for Trump's mess, he hasn't stopped tweeting about it.

Jordan is one of many Republicans hypocritically denouncing a Biden withdrawal that they championed under Trump. The Republican Party used to brag about Trump's "historic" peace deal in Afghanistan. Now, they went so far as to delete that press release to pave the way for a new, partisan attack on President Biden over the end results of that very agreement.

We shouldn’t be surprised about Joe Biden’s Afghanistan failures.

Have you seen the southern border?

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) August 17, 2021
Twitter is awash in angry Republicans outraged about our allies in Afghanistan who we should have evacuated before we left. And yet, it is Trump—and his advisor Stephen Miller—who are the reason so many Afghan interpreters are stuck in Afghanistan due to stalled special immigrant visa application infrastructure. Former Vice President Mike Pence advisor Olivia Troye wrote on Twitter that folks like Trump and Miller made it "even more challenging" to get allies out, overriding the concerns of others in the administration. "There were cabinet mtgs about this during the Trump Admin where Stephen Miller would peddle his racist hysteria about Iraq & Afghanistan," Troye wrote. "He & his enablers across gov't would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system at DHS & State."

🧵There were cabinet mtgs about this during the Trump Admin where Stephen Miller would peddle his racist hysteria about Iraq & Afghanistan. He & his enablers across gov’t would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system at DHS & State.(1/7) pic.twitter.com/vtNWaasCK7

— Olivia of Troye (@OliviaTroye) August 20, 2021
In fact, at the end of last year, the Trump administration had nearly 11,000 visas authorized for Afghans who helped America during the last 20 years—but only gave out 1,300 while most of the withdrawal took place.

So whose fault is it that so many of those who helped us are stuck in Afghanistan? The burden of that responsibility falls squarely on Trump's shoulders. And it is Biden who is working diligently to get them out.

And it was Trump who bragged just this April that the process of moving the U.S. military out of Afghanistan had progressed to a point that even if President Biden wanted to, he "couldn't stop the process." Trump was right: There was nothing Biden could do to stop what was coming in Afghanistan short of another massive U.S. military deployment. According to the text of the February 29, 2020 agreement Trump signed with the Taliban, within 135 days, America would withdraw from five major bases and agreed to complete the rest of its major withdrawals within nine months. In other words, the Army agreed to pull out of Afghanistan long before Biden's inauguration, which it mostly accomplished.

So to those blaming President Biden for how the Afghanistan war is ending, let's be real: Trump led us into this mess. And he could not get us out of it.

Joe Biden is doing something Trump and two other presidents over two decades never could or would do: President Biden is ending the war in Afghanistan.

For that, he deserves our respect.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/stop-blaming-biden-for-afghanistan-he-s-cleaning-up-trump-s-mess-opinion/ar-AANDxv2?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

So maybe this mess isn't ALL Biden's fault.


Kelsey Vlamis
Sat, August 21, 2021, 2:35 AM

A former national security official blamed the Trump administration and Stephen Miller's "racist hysteria" for impeding the visa application process for Afghans who worked with the US.

Olivia Troye worked as the homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. In a Twitter thread Friday, she blasted the Trump administration for its handling of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs that provide a path to US residency for locals who worked with the US government in Afghanistan.

"There were cabinet mtgs about this during the Trump Admin where Stephen Miller would peddle his racist hysteria about Iraq & Afghanistan. He & his enablers across gov't would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system at DHS & State," Troye wrote.

Read more: Where is Trump's White House staff now? We created a searchable database of more than 329 top staffers to show where they all landed

Since the Taliban swiftly seized control of Afghanistan Sunday, the US has been struggling to evacuate Americans as well as tens of thousands of Afghan allies who have worked with the US over the past two decades.

The Biden administration has come under sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle for its handling of the US troop withdrawal and subsequent evacuations. But criticism has also been aimed at the Trump administration, including Miller in particular.


Troye said she worked on the SIV issue but got "nowhere" because allies of President Donald Trump and Miller at the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and other security agencies "made an already cumbersome SIV process even more challenging."

She said many people within the administration believed the matter was urgent but that many were afraid to oppose the president's allies, adding that there were "many closed door meetings" strategizing how to address the issue.

"Trump had FOUR years-while putting this plan in place-to evacuate these Afghan allies who were the lifelines for many of us who spent time in Afghanistan," she said. "The process slowed to a trickle for reviews/other "priorities"-then came to a halt."

An Afghanistan War veteran told this week that Miller "should be held accountable for war crimes" for opposing the resettlement of endangered Afghans, and that he was "complicit" in their deaths.

Come on, this was as predictable as red states being hit worse than blue states at the peaks of the pandemic...it won't take long for even the slowest among us to figure out that it's not vaccinated people that are going to be dropping off like flies like the right wing rhetoric and silliness seems to believe...

...if the alternative conspiracy theory is right, that those who are vaccinated are infecting or poisoning off those who aren't, which is why the unvaccinated are dropping off at a disproportionate rate...it's time to be on the side of the living that's doing the infecting and killing...DUH.

People on the right that have fallen prey to ridiculous conspiracy theories and lies are going to be pissed off when it becomes easily apparent that they are on the wrong side of this, that over 90% of those hospitalized and dying are unvaccinated. They are going to become increasingly angry and violent towards those who still wear masks because there are so many ignorant people in this country that make it a sensible precaution. Many who still wear masks are among the group of people who can't be vaccinated because of immune deficiencies or allergic reactions. People who are stuck like that do not deserve to be hassled by angry and stupid people.

Those who are dying that have refused to get vaccinated will be getting no sympathy. Colorado is a state where Covid among unvaccinated people is raging, two sheriffs died in a two week period, the second one was 33 years old...and ironically was a rabid anti-vaxxer...sympathies will be hard to come by for that kind of ignorance.

This is the early tip of what is going to be a raging story by the end of summer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/covid-rates-unvaccinated-people/?itid=hp_pandemic%20test

We are within weeks of everyone who wants a vaccine getting one, the supply will be exceeding the demand, and there will be scrutiny and pressure on this country to shift excess vaccines over to other countries to speed up their immunity.

I foresee a period after the fall going into winter where many people who refused to get vaccines will see that tens of thousands, likely even hundreds will have died that were not vaccinated...those numbers will be apparent to even the most ignorant. Then again there will be the holidays coming up, and people who have been vaccinated will be shunning those who haven't, they will not be welcome at parties and get togethers, even among families. We have a few people in the family that refuse to get vaccinated even though it was offered early due to their jobs, they are referred to as the morons of the family. My aunt was already talking about a 4th of July get together, she was asking her own kids who haven't been vaccinated if they were going to, and telling them to get on it if they wanted to come. Which brings us to whether those too stupid to get a vaccine won't lie about it because they want to come...My aunt agreed that they definitely would, and she was going to tell them to come visit first and show here a vaccine card.

Next up we can expect counterfeit vaccine cards because butt hurt vaxxers will cheat to get what they want rather than simply getting vaccinated. You can't cheat this, those cheating are going to get Covid and many will be hospitalized and die.

So imagine the supply of vaccines tightening up as vaxxers decide they want to be vaccinated because supplies are being shifted to other countries. Imagine red states that have not been active participants in covering people who didn't want vaccines, who wasted millions of vaccines that were paid for. The funding and dynamics will be different when they start demanding millions of vaccines when the realization hits them...these trump supporting states have the weakest healthcare systems, and increases in covid hits them hardest, and those getting hit will be vaxxers. The point where rural people that were not vaccinated are told sorry, we are all full will be way earlier simply because there will be an attitude about people who refused to get a vaccine taxing the healthcare system.

I think it's a choice, and choices and freedom have consequences, and those who refuse a vaccine can pay for hospitalization or do without it.

==================
Here are the crimes Biden and some democrats have done since Jan 20th.
1. He reversed all president Trump's executive policies.
2. He is following the Socialist Manifesto of Bernie Sanders. Biden is the worst president next was Obama.
3. Biden's illegal alien's policies are devastating, the worst crisis of any human history, we could truly imagine. These are Bernie Sanders's and AOC's political destruction of America.
4. Joe is dumb and he follows Sanders, and Barack Obama's transformation of America to a Socialist Marxist ideology.
5. Joe expends so much of our money that we don't have.
6. He created projects that were so deceptive. The $1.927
trillion was dishonestly reported. It wa actually $1.944.40 trillion.
7. Majority of the fund was used for bailing out all the bankrupted democrat states due to the corrupt governors and mayors, and lucrative union employees retirement funds. And to to fix the damages by BLM'S and ANTIFAS during their daily and nightly riots. CA alone had o/s of $1.5 trillion debt.
8. Biden gave more money to the illegals more than the taxpayers who funded that so called Covid19 project.
9. Biden admitted for March 2021 alone, 172,000 adult illegals, and 19,000 kids.
10.Biden expends $395 dollars/night to providing hotel rooms for these illegals.
11. Biden released many of the illegals to the public without masks. spreading the virus and other communicable diseases to all of us.
12.While he locks down all the citizens of this country and the kids for almost a year now. Requiring us to wear masks, but his hundreds of thousands of illegals are free
wondering around spreading the diseases.
13.Biden reduced the budget for the military.
14. Biden opened the walls that president Trump had installed.
15.Biden is a chronic liar. He claims as a Catholic but violates all the commandments of God, he and Kamala, support the abortions and the LGBT's immoral activities.
16. Biden chose all his cabinets whose interests are more of protecting China than our own. E.g. the UN Secretary, the US Defense Sec., the ICE director, and the HSD Sec. All of them don't care about protecting and securing the American people.
17. Biden has unlimited dishonest funding provided by Congress Pelosi, and US Treasury, all borrowed from China.
18. Biden makes America subservient to China.
19. Biden and Kamala do not want to see the crisis at the US borders, and Kamala denied visiting there. She does not want to see the problems. She must resign if she does not want to do her job assigned to her.
20. Biden has been violating the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the people.
21. Biden's election was a fraud. He did not win the election but was stolen from president Trump. He is not a legitimate president now destroying this country.
22. Biden wants to pack up the SC with liberal judges so that the radical DIMS will forever control the power. SC will become a political system. The three powers of government will be reduced to 2.
23. Biden and his successor will rule with a Marxist ideology set up by Obama, Bernie Sanders, and the dumb AOC with the huge mouth.
24. Biden allows defunding the police.
25. Muslim Talib wants to completely remove the Police Department.
26. Biden and the LIBS want to disarm the citizen while they arm BLM's and ANTIFAS.

Former Alabama judge Roy Moore, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, once said publicly that he did not take a “regular salary” from the small charity he founded to promote Christian values because he did not want to be a financial burden.

But privately, Moore had arranged to receive a salary of $180,000 a year for part-time work at the Foundation for Moral Law, internal charity documents show. He collected more than $1 million as president from 2007 to 2012, compensation that far surpassed what the group disclosed in its public tax filings most of those years.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/undisclosed-deal-guaranteed-roy-moore-dollar180000-a-year-for-part-time-work-at-charity/ar-AAtiUJ9?li=BBnbcA1

Another way we are alike. Of course, my team, the Chiefs, is the only undefeated team in the league up to now and I will watch them every game they play since they are playing so well. They do have two players who have done "nasty" things that don't support our nation but they can be stopped since they are young ones. I have watched only Chiefs games up to now. I was close to watching the Cowboys and Packers when I remembered that Jerry Jones knelt with arms linked with players before the Anthem was played. That told me too much about him.

Nationality Act June 27, 1952

I’ve seen this graphic a handful of times recently on Facebook, always posted as a legal justification for Donald Trump-like bigotry towards Muslims.

In every instance, this meme was posted by someone claiming to be an Evangelical Christian.

As Polly and I were watching last night’s episode of The Trevor Noah Show, I mentioned that Donald Trump has exposed an ugly truth about the religious right; that bigotry and racism is flourishing among those who say they are followers Jesus, a man who had far more in common with Middle Eastern Muslims, Palestinians, and Jews than the white Americans who worship him today.

Last I knew, Evangelicals still consider lying a sin. Why then, do Christians continue to post falsities like those mentioned in this graphic?

It took me all of 30 seconds to determine that this graphic is false. While this meme might express the wet-dream sentiment of white, redneck Evangelical bigots, there’s no truth to it.

Here’s what the venerable Snopes.com has to say on the matter:

The meme sharply escalated in popularity following an unprecedented statement from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who on 7 December 2015 suggested that the United States should bar all Muslims from entering the country until such time as lawmakers could “figure out what [was] going on” in the wake of a mass shooting in San Bernardino that had occurred five days earlier.
….
Simply put, the rumor maintained that Muslims as a group were ineligible for admission to the United States based upon a law that prohibited entry to any alien who “belongs to an organization seeking to overthrow the government of the United States by ‘force, violence, or other unconstitutional means.'” The meme didn’t directly reference the Islamic State (ISIS) as the organization in question, instead suggesting that Islam itself (particularly because of Sharia law and adherence to it by devout Muslims) was a prohibited group.

The law referenced was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran–Walter Act.

Its text is available in full at the U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services (USCIS) web site, where a preface indicates that the law has “been amended many times over the years, but is still the basic body of immigration law.”

The meme cited “Chapter 2 Section 212” of the Act, which is subtitled “INA: ACT 212 – GENERAL CLASSES OF ALIENS INELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE VISAS AND INELIGIBLE FOR ADMISSION; WAIVERS OF [INADMISSIBILITY].” Subsection (A) of that section pertains to “Classes of Aliens Ineligible for Visas or Admission,” subdivision (3) of which is titled “Security and related grounds.” Paragraph (a), subsection (iii) excludes as ineligible for admission the following persons:

In general any alien who a consular officer or the Attorney General knows, or has reasonable ground to believe, seeks to enter the United States to engage solely, principally, or incidentally in any activity a purpose of which is the opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States by force, violence, or other unlawful means.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was not without critics, among them President Harry S. Truman, who vetoed the bill on 25 June 1952. In a letter titled “Veto of Bill to Revise the Laws Relating to Immigration, Naturalization, and Nationality” and addressed to the House of Representatives, President Truman described the bill’s provisions as both antithetical to American values and discriminatory:

The greatest vice of the present quota system, however, is that it discriminates, deliberately and intentionally, against many of the peoples of the world … The desired effect [of selective admission of immigrants] was obtained … People from such countries as Greece, or Spain, or Latvia were virtually deprived of any opportunity to come here at all, simply because Greeks or Spaniards or Latvians had not come here before 1920 in any substantial numbers.

The idea behind this discriminatory policy was, to put it baldly, that Americans with English or Irish names were better people and better citizens than Americans with Italian or Greek or Polish names. It was thought that people of West European origin made better citizens than Rumanians or Yugoslavs or Ukrainians or Hungarians or Baits or Austrians.

Such a concept is utterly unworthy of our traditions and our ideals. It violates the great political doctrine of the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” It denies the humanitarian creed inscribed beneath the Statue of Liberty proclaiming to all nations, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

It repudiates our basic religious concepts, our belief in the brotherhood of man, and in the words of St. Paul that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free …. for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
….
The “ISLAM WAS BANNED FROM THE USA IN 1952” meme proved popular following a period of increasing rhetoric similar to that which Truman decried as discriminatory and outdated in 1952. The meme’s basic claim hinged on the tautological assertion that adherence to Islam alone constitutes participation in an “organization seeking to overthrow the government of the United States by ‘force, violence, or other unconstitutional means.'” Most major religions involve basic, agreed-upon sets of tenets by which their faithful live, and no widely-accepted understanding of Islam encompasses a prohibition on following the laws of any country or advocates the overthrow of government.
….
The meme “ISLAM WAS BANNED FROM THE USA IN 1952” claimed that adherence to Islam and/or Sharia law constituted definitive membership within an “organization seeking to overthrow the government of the United States by ‘force, violence, or other unconstitutional means.'” Multiple non-factual statements or implications were presented in the meme, including the notions that all Muslims strictly adhere to Sharia law, that Sharia law is a cohesive faith-based form of governance, that adherence to Sharia law is mutually exclusive with adherence to the laws of the United States, that Islam in some way demands the eventual overthrow of the United States government, or that any “organization” to which Muslims purportedly belong by merit of their faith somehow places them under the provisions of section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Not one of those assertions or implications is supported by extant law, precedent, or any accepted interpretation of Islam, United States immigration policy, or the act in question.