afghanistan

Scripted and Shallow

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Seven is usually the lucky number.  But for President Joe Biden, the dice roll in month seven of his presidency has come up snake eyes.

Major storm clouds gathered rapidly both internationally and domestically.  One storm was named the Taliban, the other Ida.  Both have had devastating effects.

What could the man in the highest office in all of the land done to minimize the damage in both of them?  The answer is plenty more in the former and nothing in the latter.  But, you see in the political blame game, the answer is way more complicated than it should be.

One of BBR’s staffers is a staunch conservative on several issues.  He is frequently asked why many decisions at the federal government level disappoint/anger him so.  That answer is grounded in reality and transparency.  Or, should we say a lack thereof?

Category 4 hurricane Ida roared ashore in Louisiana yesterday.

It was a strong one.  But, make no mistake about it, it wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last.  Hurricanes have hit the Louisiana coast since long, long before man settled there.  The world-famous Pat O’Brien’s Bar mixes a drink called a “Hurricane” for a reason.

But after a day of thoughts, prayers, and kumbaya, the left will use the moment to remind us that climate change is the greatest existential threat we face. We’re all going to die if we don’t throw 50 trillion bucks trying to fix what we can’t fix.

In Afghanistan unrest has plagued the country for a long, long time ever since man settled there.  And, it was there that we attempted to fix what we broke.  A troop withdrawal without a citizen withdrawal left Emperor Biden without any clothes on when the Afghanistan, ahem, Army folded like a cheap suit.  Who could have predicted that?  At least we had a contingency plan for, ahem, all outcomes.

What to do, what to do?  Send troops back in to save the day and blame it all on that loser Donald Trump.  He’s the one that signed the treaty with the Taliban to be out by May 1, Biden said.  My hands were tied on this, Biden said.

The not-so-funny thing is, they weren’t tied.  Biden undid Trump’s shoelaces on the Keystone XL pipeline, the border wall construction, the Paris Peace Accord, the desire to withdraw from the WHO, and on and on.  Do you know that you are currently paying hundreds of millions for construction companies to not construct the border wall?  We digress.

We’re America.  If we want to rewrite a deal, we do so.  Everything’s negotiable.

But, now tragically, 13 marines are dead.  They went, left, came back, and wanted to leave again, but not in body bags.

Like clockwork, Biden will head to New Orleans later this week to survey the damage from Ida, tell civic leaders that the federal government is here to help, kiss a baby or two, talk about getting real funding for climate change initiatives, and get back on Air Force One.  All presidents engage in this symbolic, worthless task.  We care.

Hopefully, he’ll fake it better than he did Sunday. He is facing stark criticism, while in Dover, MD after a video emerged of him looking at his watch multiple times during a dignified transfer ceremony of Marines slain in Afghanistan by twin suicide bombers.  Maybe “call a lid” time was fast approaching?

Further, The Washington Post reported that Jiennah McCollum, the pregnant wife of one of the slain Marines met with Biden, but was disappointed by Biden’s words to her, finding them “scripted and shallow.”  ‘He kept talking about his son Beau.”  We care.

If we could just get rid of climate change and Trump all would be well.

“Scripted and shallow,” Mrs. McCollum said.

Her child will grow up without a father, but with a very perceptive mother.

 

 

 

 

 

WSJBDN?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

What do a botched departure plan, a George Stephanopolous interview, two disastrous press conferences, and a thrice interrupted vacation all have in common?

That’s an easy one.  They’re all bad acts on the biggest international stage at a time that the brightest lights were shining and the world was watching.  And, they all occurred after the fact.

What fact is that, you ask?  That’s another easy one.  President Joe Biden decided to withdraw the last of the troops before providing all Americans (first), helpful Afghans (second), and journalists (third) a safe passage out of what’s left to Afghanistan is that fact.

With Kabul’s airport looking like Chicago’s O’Hare the day before Christmas in a whiteout blizzard, only the checkpoints to get there look tougher than the United Airlines reschedule flights line.

So, WSJBDN? What should Joe Biden do now?  Well, while you mull that over, realize that Kamala can’t be part of your answer.  She jetted off to Singapore a day ago for unknown reasons and likely unimportant ones as well.  When asked a question upon arrival that she should be plenty prepped for, her nervous laughter is a bad “tell” and makes for a poor poker player.  But, we digress.

What Joe Biden should do now, in between naps, is send roughly another 20k troops back into the occupied for 20 years and counting cesspool that Afghanistan is.  He’s sent 6k back in a mere two weeks after he pulled the last 2.5k out.

If you’re going to do a job, well, git er dun dammit.

You’re already pot committed.  Go all in to get all out.  Get it?  He didn’t get it then, but he desperately needs to now.

Saying that you’re negotiating with the same people you fought against doesn’t cut it.  Saying that you don’t trust them doesn’t cut it.  And, most of all, saying that you aren’t sure that you can provide safe passage out of Kabul for our trapped loved ones doesn’t cut it whatsoever.

Sometimes we’re called Ugly Americans.  At least we used to be.  If nothing else we expect strong confidence and dealing from a position of strength.  We have a weak hand right now.  We look even weaker.  Oh to be called ugly again. Those were the days Archie might say.

Then, when the last travel passport is stamped we can line up the flights for every soldier to head back too, but not before.

Only then can we get back to worrying about green new deals, pronouns of choice, infrastructure that isn’t infrastructure, temporary inflation, the resurrection of the insurrection, and most of all the vaccine passports.

Hopefully, Kamala will be back by then.  Because we could use a good booster shot and a laugh.

And soon.

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Life

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Like Joe Biden, the BBR staff took the last several days off for vacation.  Biden went to Camp David, while BBR went through the deep and mid-south on a trip to nowhere.  Nuggets await you.

  1. Speaking of a trip to nowhere, American citizens yesterday were told in writing as a response to their formal request to be airlifted out of Afghanistan, and reinforced by a noncommital verbal answer from Press Secretary Jen Psaki, that their exit from the tumult could not be guaranteed by 8/31 nor guaranteed that it could be done safely.  The words shameful and pitiful come to mind.
  2. Has anyone seen the most unpopular VP in decades recently?  Anyone?  Maybe the official Border Fixer Czar is toiling down on the Rio Grande?  Buehler?
  3. The USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy are being prepared for deployment “as needed to assist potentially overwhelmed communities with acute patient care,” Jonathan Rath Hoffman, assistant to the defense secretary for public affairs, said during a news conference today at the Pentagon.  Actually, that was on 3/18/2020.  Do we need them again?  Actually, we didn’t need them then.  So far no governors, including the ones from California and New York that asked 17 months ago, have inquired.
  4. Of course, those two might be too busy seeking their own comfort and asking for mercy for other reasons.  The NY governor resigned a week ago after claiming that his Italian heritage was partially to blame for his inability to keep his hands and thoughts to himself.   The Cali gov is taking on water in a recall election and may need his own lifeline.
  5. What is going to be needed to assist potentially overwhelmed communities with acute patient care is progress on vaccine compliance.  And, we aren’t speaking on the need for all to get jabbed a time or three.  We’re speaking of the state, local, or medical community’s insistence on health care workers getting poked, poked, and poked.  The backlash is real, growing, and about to explode.  Doctors and nurses, like Intel chips and potato chips, will soon be in even shorter supply in certain areas of the country as they walk out, quit, or move.
  6. If a nurse wants to move to Phoenix one hospital chain announced opportunities that pay $5,500 per 48-hour workweek starting immediately.  You read that right. If you like your nurse you can keep your nurse. Not.  It’s estimated that between 70-75% of the medical professionals in NY are or plan to get vaccinated.  It’s a dry heat.
  7. One baseball adage is that the baseball always finds the weak link on the team.  Gas prices, border crisis, crime waves, Afghanistan missteps, etc.  Hey, how’s the covid thing coming along?  Oh, it’s not Biden’s fault?  Of course, it isn’t.  Back then it wasn’t Trump’s either, but the media put it on him and he put some of it on himself.  Now, it’s the Republicans who won’t mask up, or needle up. Or, the media just calls it Texas and Florida.  It’s never too early to start discrediting DeSantis, is it?
  8. How will the narrative metastasize when the northern states go back to school (and the weather sends everyone indoors more often) and they light up as well?  Queue the “we need all Americans to get a booster” battle cry.  If one was good, and two was better, a third will make it best.  You can expect the CDC to announce any day now that anyone who got shot #2 more than eight months ago should get a booster.
  9. What percent compliance is reasonable to expect for a third shot?  The guess here is that no more than half of the vaccinated will go the booster route.  So while the noise loudens for complete vaccination, will the noise crescendo against it simultaneously?
  10. How will those states, counties, and cities that will require a vaccine passport enforce it?  If you have a two-shot vaccine passport it’s good till eight months after your last shot?  It will be like walking into a 7/11 store.  “You must be born after 8/18/2000 to be able to purchase cigarettes.”  Maybe CVS can start stamping the passport like when you leave for France.  All aboard.

Buckle up.  The fun is just starting.