Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

No one could have predicted…

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

The lights are all blinking red.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Bombing in Kabul

Reader Interactions

216Comments

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    FWIW

    The Ministry of Defence said in a tweet: “There have been no reported UK military or UK Government casualties following the incidents in Kabul.

  4. 4.

    guachi

    Fox news will be so happy. We’ll see dozens of warmongers on TV use this as a reason to stay.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Rather than actual Democratic candidates on the CA recall ballot, we get comedians.

    In his first appearance on the 2021 California recall election debate stage, Democratic candidate and YouTube content creator Kevin Paffrath advocated for building a water pipeline from the Mississippi River, pledged to clear the streets of homeless people in 60 days and called on his Republican debate opponents to step down and endorse him.

    Paffrath is one of 46 candidates whose name appears on the ballot, which asks voters two questions: Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be recalled from office and, if so, whom should replace him. Voters have until Sept. 14 to mail in their ballots.

    Newsom has largely succeeded in keeping big name Democrats out of the recall election. Though there are nine Democrats on the ballot, Paffrath — who has more than a million YouTube followers — is the only Democrat with any widespread recognition.
    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article253748863.html#storylink=cpy

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    The US warned Americans to stay away from the airport yesterday. They apparently got early wind of this plot.

    Very sad. It is a war zone.

    I cannot bear to watch any broadcast/cable news. Anyone obviously orgasming over this one?

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    Please let me know if Biden, Psaki, or a particularly good spokesman is speaking.  Otherwise, radio silence in my house today.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    And which grandstanding pricks were these?

    August 26, 2021 at 11:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

    A private jet thought to be carrying another U.S. congressional delegation has been denied permission to land at Kabul airport, CNN reports.

  19. 19.

    Anoniminous

    Afghanistan have been a low-to-high intensity war zone since the Saur Revolution.

    The US faces the same choices today as the day we invaded:

    1. kill them all
    2. annex the country
    3. dick around for a while and then leave

    After twenty years and $2,000,000,000,000 with zero affect we’ve done the “dick around,” time to leave.

  23. 23.

    trollhattan

    Least surprising news is nevertheless, surprising. 3,400%?!?

    August 26, 2021 at 11:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

    Daily Beast: “In western South Dakota’s Meade County, more than one in three COVID-19 tests are currently returning positive, and over the last three weeks, seven-day average case counts have increased by 3,400 percent. This exponential growth in cases is likely attributable to the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew an estimated half a million visitors to Meade County and its environs from Aug. 6 through 15, potentially acting as a superspreader event.”

    “The state more broadly has witnessed a 686.8 percent increase in daily case counts over the past three weeks, currently more than 10 times the nationwide rate.”

  32. 32.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Private jet? Then it’ll be a on civil registry somewhere. Would be interesting to see who funded this.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Ascap_scab:

    To be honest, at least that’s an genuine point of view.  I prefer that to the “why can’t Biden make losing a war more pleasant” critique.

  37. 37.

    Mike in NC

    Would it be too much to ask if that plane at Kabul carried Gaetz, Greene, and Gosar? Then we could offer them to ISIS-K to do whatever they wanted. Win-win!

  38. 38.

    DTTM

    This news further emphasizes why the US should leave. I would hope that this would be clear to most people, despite cable news  bloodlust.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    In good news:  the WaPost:
    More than 8,600 Afghans have arrived at Dulles Airport so far, Northam official says

    More than 8,600 Afghan refugees and Afghan U.S. citizens have landed at Dulles International Airport from Kabul since that city fell to the Taliban this month, a spokesman for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said Wednesday.

    Dulles has been the country’s main port of entry for what Biden administration officials call one of the largest airlifts in history, totaling 82,300 evacuees from Afghanistan to countries worldwide since Aug. 14.

    After arriving from Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Germany, Spain and Bulgaria — where they were temporarily housed at refugee sites after leaving Kabul — the Afghan men, women and children landing at Dulles were tested for the coronavirus [so far, 11 of 900 have tested positive; they’re setting up mass vaccine clinics] …

    Afghan refugees — many of them entire families — have been bused to the nearby Dulles Expo Center, where they have been given medical assistance and other aid before being taken to military installations in the Washington region, Texas and Wisconsin.
    [US citizens and residents are released to return home; they also were allowed to avoid COVID testing upon proof of a recent negative test.]

    On Wednesday, the Department of Defense agreed to use the U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico and the Fort Pickett U.S. Army installation in Blackstone, Va., to temporarily house about 15,000 former Afghan interpreters, translators and their families who are being processed for special immigrant visas, Neely said.
    “A great deal of humanitarian work is happening in Virginia right now — and it’s something that all Americans can be proud of,” Neely said in an email. “The operation is really complex, with lots of moving parts, and shared responsibility across many government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.”

  40. 40.

    Cacti

    Rational person:  All we are in Afghanistan is a target for people who hate us, we should leave.

    Warmonger Press:  All we are in Afghanistan is a target for people who hate us, we should stay until they love us, and we’ll make them love us.

  42. 42.

    Anoniminous

    @trollhattan:

    Here in New Mexico there is now a wait list for ICU beds and we’re within a week of having to ration, i.e., triage, patients and medical care.

    All because our ignorant hick bigots won’t vaccinate and won’t mask.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah:   We have to stop this, and we can, although it will be hard.  There are more of us, and more decent people.  Remember that, and keep educating ourselves and others

    I think we will need to lean on all of us, including media, to call events and actions by their actual names.  No euphemisms for Republicans, so as to sound “neutral.”  Information and accuracy is far more important.

  44. 44.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @trollhattan: The Republicans are just as bad. If the GoPers succeed because of some voter enthusiasm thing they won’t be happy with their boi.

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    @Anoniminous:   I really think the hospitals and care centers should hold some beds in reserve for non-Covid cases.  No reason the anti-vaxxers should be dooming some cancer or stroke or accident victim to a worse outcome because their selfish ass is parked in the bed.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @DTTM:

    Most people didn’t pay any attention to Afghanistan, including most media- I’m not endorsing that or saying that should have happened, it’s just true- and it’s being presented as if it was safe prior to Biden’s actions, but of course it wasn’t.

    May 8: A car bomb and two other improvised explosive devices explode outside a secondary school in the Dashte Barchi neighborhood in western Kabul, killing some 90 people, most of whom were students.

    “Terrorist attacks in Kabul” is a really long list.

    But they’re storyline they’re going with is “things were going great prior to Biden’s actions” so people will understandably see it as cause and effect.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @trollhattan:

    Rather than actual Democratic candidates on the CA recall ballot, we get comedians idiots. 

    Fixed.  Among other things, the assclown needs to learn that California isn’t near the Mississippi.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @Anoniminous:

    A client told me yesterday his father was transported 90 miles away for a heart problem that was an emergency and required ICU care, because there were no ICU beds availlable closer due to covid.

    We have not been told that in Ohio, that they are scrambling to redirect people. I was surprised.

  51. 51.

    piratedan

    @Elizabelle: not that easy….. there are medical, ethical standards that apply in these cases, even more so now than before (it used to be well-connected hospitals would close their doors to those who they felt couldn’t pay) as the law states that if a person is within 250 yards of the hospital, the hospital has a duty/obligation to perform treatment.  In a disaster situation, they’re supposed to stabilize and ship elsewhere if there’s no room, but in these times, the closest “room” may be 250 miles away… and then you have to wrangle up transport to get them there and communicate to the facility receiving that they do indeed have room and logistics to treat.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    Yeah. And that’s just Kabul, which we were told was the area that was most under Afghan government control and was functioning. That is a LOT of terrorist attacks in 2020.

  55. 55.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Elizabelle:

    Afghan refugees — many of them entire families — have been … taken to military installations in the Washington region, Texas and Wisconsin.

    Texas? TEXAS? My god, haven’t these people been through enough already? What fucking moron decided to send them to Texas?

  56. 56.

    J R in WV

    @Elizabelle:

    ETA: I completely agree Elizabelle!

    I think un-vaccinated people should be triaged out into a parking lot, with tents to follow. No one with a serious illness or trauma from an accident should lack care because of some ass committing slow suicide seeking the rapture from Covid.s

    Cancer, heart attacks, car wrecks, etc, etc — space must be reserved for or made immediately available for those patients. People who won’t protect themselves can’t be allowed to kill other people with their irresponsibility.

  57. 57.

    Ken

    @piratedan: There used to be basically an entire parallel set of hospitals for one disease, tuberculosis. If COVID becomes endemic, I wonder if the idea will be revived? Patients with COVID don’t go to the regular hospital, but are sent to the regional COVID facility. Doctors and nurses might be rotated through there, to prevent burn-out.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: good news indeed!

    There’s a large Afghan community here in central VA; I look forward to helping some of these ‘recent arrivals’ start their new lives here in the very near future.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    @mrmoshpotato:

    “Since water is free and pipelines are cheap, we can totally DO this.”

    Mind, an order of magnitude better than Larry pro-slavery Elder but Christ on a cracker the dumb ideas pouring forth.

  61. 61.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Ken: That’s actually a great idea. Of course, the chapel in the Covid hospital will have to be larger than those normally found in hospitals. You know, to hold all the tots and pears.

  62. 62.

    catclub

    @Anoniminous: All because our ignorant hick bigots won’t vaccinate and won’t mask.

    at least that is a separate group in NM. That is ‘us’ in mississippi.​
     

    Yes, I know about Alan.

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro:   In RVA, two local funeral homes (!) are collecting goods donated to the arriving Afghans.  Very excited Fort Lee is so near.

    Welcome, Afghans

    And:  we really, really need to step up and help the Haitians as well.  Cannot keep up with all the recent disasters.

  67. 67.

    piratedan

    @Ken: the hospital model keeps morphing to meet demands… all I wanted to say is that in THIS environment, the idea of having beds sit “empty” for the concept of we have to allow a certain amount for all of these other contingencies will be abused to a fare the well, especially so while healthcare is essentially still run as a for profit endeavor.  Decisions will be made once more on who can afford to pay rather than who needs care now.

    until the system changes or we determine that health care is a right for everyone, I WOULD NOT recommend going there because we’ve already been there with people being people (and money having the effect that money has), the poor and the voiceless get fucked… again.

  68. 68.

    CaseyL

    @Ken:

    That is an excellent idea.  Probably too expensive: hospitals are profit-driven, some more than others, and a COVID-only hospital isn’t likely to be profitable. (Plus, building a hospital entails an awful lot of expensive infrastructure, also more now than back in the TB sanitarium days.)

  70. 70.

    catclub

    @Kay: ​
     

    But they’re storyline they’re going with is “things were going great prior to Biden’s actions” so people will understandably see it as cause and effect.

    Just heard interview of Clarissa Ward. She mentioned that ISIS-K had 25 attacks in kabul over the last year. safe as houses, yeah, right

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    @Ken:   I like that idea.  Regional Covid hospitals.  Stops them from cannibalizing healthcare for everyone else.

    Because:  with climate change and populations on the move, I suspect Covid may the first of many pandemics to come.

  74. 74.

    CaseyL

    @mrmoshpotato:

    @trollhattan:

    I’ve also seen some GQP-run states muse about stealing diverting water from the Colorado and Columbia rivers.

    Besides the insanity of building a pipeline that goes halfway across the country, they’re glossing right over all the water-rights treaties already governing where those waters go.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    Taliban: “It was them Americans’ fault.” They’re learning the media thing.

    A spokesman for the Taliban has condemned the twin blasts in an area they say was under the control of the US military.
    “The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns the bombing targeting civilians at Kabul airport,” Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet.
    The spokesman added the explosions “took place in an area where US forces are responsible for security”.
    Suhail Shaheen, another Taliban spokesman, said the group were “paying close attention to the security and protection of its people” in another tweeted statement.

  77. 77.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ascap_scab:

    President Adam Kinzinger is on MSNBC advocating Total Non-Stop War. 

    But but but, I thought he was a reasonable Republi…??? Sorry, can finishing typing, laughing too much.

  78. 78.

    Roger Moore

    @Ken:

    There used to be basically an entire parallel set of hospitals for one disease, tuberculosis.

    TB was a bit different because it’s a chronic disease, so people who suffered from it could wind up needing to stay in isolation indefinitely.  People with TB would also be told to do things like move across the country to a place that was considered to have a healthier environment.  For example, my great grandfather moved from Nebraska to Santa Fe after contracting TB because the dry air was considered to be helpful.  In his case it seems to have worked, because he lived more than 50 years after his diagnosis.

  79. 79.

    Betty Cracker

    From the WSJ:

    The U.S. ambassador in Kabul has told staff there that four U.S. Marines were killed in an explosion at the city’s airport and three wounded, a U.S. official with knowledge of the briefing said. Two explosions ripped through crowds of Afghans trying to enter the airport on Thursday.

    At least three U.S. troops were injured, a U.S. official said. Witnesses reported multiple fatalities among the Afghans, many of whom were trying to enter the airport because they had assisted U.S.-led coalition efforts and feared persecution by the Taliban.

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    @CaseyL:

    There were plans drawn up in the ’50s to bring PNW water, including from Canada, down to California (detailed in “Cadillac Desert”) and those have been left for dead a long, long time. Mississippi River water would  be orders of magnitude more difficult but as we have learned, a Sharpie and a map are all you need to think bigly.

    Worth adding it’s REALLY energy-intensive to shove water over a mountain range. When you’re done, nobody wants to pay for that water, or at least no farmer.

  82. 82.

    Gravenstone

    @trollhattan: Please MSM identify the morons on board. Then let them ponder the fate that lies ahead of them on their trip back stateside. If there are any Dems among the group, their careers just got flushed.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @trollhattan:

    deaths will be hung around Biden’s neck.

    Only by bad people.  Maybe it’s time for us to get out of our defensive crouch on Afghanistan.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    In Virginia, they’re giving the Afghans the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine, per the Richmond Times Dispatch. It’s a federal effort; the state Department of Health is not (yet) involved.

    Virginia’s Fort Pickett can hold up to 5,000 Aghans; Quantico up to 10,000.

    I said Fort Lee somewhere upthread, in error

    ETA:  Wait, we are indeed using Fort Lee (near Petersburg) for ongoing processing of those already arrived.  From the RTD story:

    … efforts to get Afghan allies out of the country and resettle them in the United States already had begun late last month. Dulles has been the sole airport of entry to the United States for holders of special immigration visas and their families since the first planeload arrived on July 30 with 206 adults and 15 infants for processing at Fort Lee.

    Congress and the president provided more than $1 billion for the special visa program to help translators, drivers and other Afghans who assisted the military get out of the country to avoid Taliban reprisals.

  87. 87.

    Anoniminous

    @Kay: ​
     

    Ohio reported ~4,600 new Covid cases yesterday, 277 admitted to hospital, and 56,488 total active cases. The state has ~2,400 ICU beds, and ~34,000 total hospital beds.

    Figure you’ll be were we are real soon.

  88. 88.

    david

    Funny how we care about bombings in Afghanistan when it’s not our military doing the bombing.

  89. 89.

    trollhattan

    @Gravenstone: Any House Dems will face the wrath of their Italian nana. At least we know that much.

    Can’t stand the idea that congresscritters look at this giant and dangerous effort as an opportunity for some camera time.

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @trollhattan:

    I’m falling into the leave-it-blank camp. Have not mailed mine in yet, but want to get it out of the house well ahead of time. 

    That’s what Karoli of Crooks and Liars has been advocating for.  No on the recall, leave 2 blank.

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: The Wason Center just dropped it’s latest poll of “likely” Virginia voters. It showed McAuliffe up over Youngkin 50-41%. Ms. Ayala was up by 10 points in the Lt. Governor race, and Attorney General Herring was up by 12.

    Speaking of “up,” the South Fork of the Shenandoah is finally up after the recent rains. Sounds like good kayaking conditions the next few weeks.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    @JoyceH: there’s an Afghan restaurant in Cville right near UVA that seems to be popular.  I’ve never stopped by there, though.  The food includes different types of kabobs, rice, naan, etc.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    BENGHAZI!

    At the beginning of Benghazi I thought “well, they have something, some malicious motive or extreme negligence and eventually they’ll show us what they have”.

    But they never did. They never had anything at all. Essentially they were bluffing and hoping Clinton would “confess”, right? There’s no other explanation for the insanely dramatic promise of bad things to come and then…nothing.

  95. 95.

    Ruviana

    @JoyceH: A friend of mine originally from Pakistan thinks Afghan food is the best South Asian food.  Don’t @ me, she also loves Indian food.

  96. 96.

    VOR

    @trollhattan: At least a spill from a fresh water pipeline won’t pollute the ground water in the area. But I’d love to see the legal battles over the right of way.

    Oh, we have a treaty with Canada which does not allow pipelines to suck away water from the Great Lakes.

  97. 97.

    Roger Moore

    @JoyceH:

    What is Afghan food like?

    IIRC, it is fairly similar to Iranian food but also with a strong Indian influence.  They have their local versions of pilaf (palaw) and khorma (quorma), and kebab.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    hoping Clinton would “confess”, right?

    The GOP and the media do this to every Dem.  Try to get them to take “responsibility” as the adults in the room and then, if they do, tell the public that how the Dem admits they failed.

    That’s why Trump famously never took responsibility for anything.  He didn’t want that happening to him.

  99. 99.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: yes, I saw that poll noted in the Post…I wonder if ol’ Glenn will try to keep up his stealth candidacy or if, like Ed Gillespie, he’ll get more and more rabid as Election Day draws nearer and polls don’t move his way.  Here’s hoping!

    (and thanks for the kayaking tip – I’ll be out there one way or another!  River kayaking is always more fun than flatwater and whew we sure needed the rain)

  100. 100.

    Anoniminous

    @Ken: ​
     

    Good idea but there’s simply nobody to run and staff the places. There was a shortage of medical workers before Covid and it’s gotten worse.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    It’s a really good article in the Richmond Times Dispatch, by Michael Martz.  Proud of Virginia.
    Virginia steps up aid for Afghan arrivals, seeks mass vaccination site

    … Defense officials have not provided specific information on how many Afghans have been processed at Fort Lee or how many are there currently, but an Army spokesperson said the military has capacity for up to 15,000 people at four bases and is “working to increase that capacity to 22,000 by the end of this week.”

    The other bases are Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, Fort Bliss in Texas and joint base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. The U.S. Northern Command, a joint force established in 2002, is expanding the initiative to include Fort Pickett, near Blackstone, and Quantico, in Prince William County, in coordination with other federal agencies. The program already is using the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, in Fairfax, to temporarily house people arriving at Dulles.

  102. 102.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: Friend of mine is in IT at a large Cincy medical behemoth and she said nurses are just quitting or becoming travelling nurses because of pay so they’re having shortage. Also going to double occupancy on floors because of surge. No word about redirecting yet.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @Anoniminous:

    Our school disrict is masking. I wish they would do the portable HEPA filters too. I read they can get to 90% reduction of transmission with masks + HEPA in a setting like a school. I’d take 90%.

    They have to stay in school. There is real harm with them missing school and the poorer they are the worse the harm. But although Righties were more than happy to scream about teachers unions with the school closures last year none of them are willing to do jack shit to keep schools open more safely this year.

    Useless people. All they know how to do is talk.

  106. 106.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    But they never did. They never had anything at all. Essentially they were bluffing and hoping Clinton would “confess”, right? There’s no other explanation for the insanely dramatic promise of bad things to come and then…nothing.

    I don’t think they were bluffing and hoping Clinton would confess.  They were going for the big lie, knowing that the smear she had done something wrong would stick in people’s minds even if they never found any substantiation.  They were also looking for an excuse to put everything she ever did under a microscope in hopes of finding something.  Both of these hopes were justified.  Plenty of people still believe she did something wrong despite the series of reports saying they couldn’t find any wrongdoing, and the whole email server nonsense was only turned up as a result of the Benghazi investigation.

  109. 109.

    Kelly

    @trollhattan: What they’ve given up on a Columbia river pipeline? Many years ago a friend suggested we send California all Columbia River water they want. Intake would be built at Astoria.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Kathleen:

    I think it would hit rural areas first. We only have 7 ICU beds in-county and this is a 65% Trump county, so low vaccination rates, although the client said his father was sent past Lucas county (Toledo) and east of there, so maybe Toledo is in crisis or headed there too.

  112. 112.

    catclub

    @mrmoshpotato: ​
    &nbsp

    ;But but but, I thought he was a reasonable Republi…??? Sorry, can finishing typing, laughing too much.

    A republican that publicly agrees with democrats on one thing will also very publicly disagree on others. St John McCain comes to mind.

  113. 113.

    trollhattan

    @VOR:

    My inner wag would say a spill of water from the lower Mississippi could well be a toxic event. :-)

    The Ca-bound water in question would have been sourced a couple thousand miles west of the Great Lakes, but I expect the Canada response would have been, “You’d like to take what now, eh?” and that would be that.

    The original California State Water Project plan included a nuclear power plant to power the pumps pushing water over the Tehachapis. We partnered in a coal plant in Nevada, instead.

  114. 114.

    trollhattan

    @MattF: Has Hugh Hewitt ever not been in hysterics?

    Funny, how precious military lives become to Republicans when there’s a Democrat in the White House. They can’t even raise an eyebrow when a Republican is there.

  115. 115.

    OGLiberal

    @catclub: But we’re supposed to be raging mad that the Taliban have taken control.  You know, the folks the ISIS-K people hate.  Do we have to hate both?  How about the corrupt government officials we stood up for years who have skedaddled out of the country, likely with suitcases of cash.  Should be raging mad at them as well?  Maybe send a few thousand troops to chase them down in Qatar, UAE or wherever the heck they may be lounging about today?

    Since the chatter started a few days ago it was generally believed that ISIS-K was going to do something bad – or try to – at the airport.  So as terrible as this was it was not a shocker nor was it a rare occurrence.

    As I noted earlier – probably on a different thread – I guess the logic now is that we’re going to have to stay in Afghanistan to help the Taliban defeat ISIS-K.  Kind of like we helped the Taliban defeat the Soviets.  And they we can start back over again…and again…and again.

    For some sick reason that’s what folks like Clarissa Ward, Richard Engel and Andrea Mitchell.  It’s just stupid and these are the folks the news places put out there as experts on all of this.

  116. 116.

    Origuy

    There is a big Afghan community in Fremont, CA. Quite a few restaurants and shops there, as well as a few in other parts of the Bay Area. The Kabul Restaurant in Sunnyvale is one of my favorites. The link is to the menu, and there are a lot of pictures. I like the Aushak.

    Spring onion-filled dumplings topped with yogurt and meat sauce, sprinkled with mint.

  119. 119.

    Baud

    @OGLiberal:

    The people who want to stay in Afghanistan didn’t win the election.  Let them emo.  We’re going to be out before this time next week.

  121. 121.

    trollhattan

    @Kelly: Yeah, that got spiked decades ago. SWP was supposed to include the Klamath, Eel, Mad and Smith rivers, too. Can you imagine? TBF they were also projecting California having 50 million people by something like 1980.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    Here comes the “expert analysis”:

    Josh Rogin
    @joshrogin
    · 3h
    .@LTGHRMcMaster to @jimsciutto: “I would not be surprised if ISIS-K… was used as a cutout by the Taliban, so they can humiliate us on the way out and continue to play us.”

    Complete speculation but why not? Anyone just say anything. Just make up a story.

  124. 124.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @trollhattan:

    Rather than actual Democratic candidates on the CA recall ballot, we get comedians.

    I’d rather have a Democratic fool than a Republican. Paffrath is by far the lesser evil compared to Larry Elder, and if he did get elected, he’d have plenty of state Democrats to school him, in both the good and bad senses of the word, about what a governor actually needs to do.

    Hopefully, he’d be smart enough to realize he’d be a figurehead seat holder for a year, and then able to retire with all the prestige and glory of being a former governor. But maybe not…

  125. 125.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    “I would not be surprised if ISIS-K… was used as a cutout by the Taliban Republicans, so they can humiliate us on the way out and continue to play us.”

     

    I can play too.

  126. 126.

    OGLiberal

    @Baud: Agreed.  And those “failing” Biden poll numbers the media keeps hyperventilating about will creep their way back up as this quickly fades into the background.  Basically, Americans don’t like to see bad stuff on the news.  They don’t have to know anything about it or if it’s really bad – they just don’t want to have to think about bad stuff that they’re not even sure they should care about.  So they blame it on the guy in charge because, who else?  Once it’s off the front pages they’ll go back to not caring.  They media will still harp on it but once the “Americans killed!…Americans trapped!” stories stop – and they will soon – most American voters will tune out Afghanistan news – like they have for quite some time.

  128. 128.

    Ken

    @trollhattan: Funny, how precious military lives become to Republicans when there’s a Democrat in the White House. They can’t even raise an eyebrow when a Republican is there.

    You remind me of TFG’s statement on those troops who were injured by that bomb blast. Something about “just a few headaches”.  And it’s well-known that he stopped going to Dover for the casket flights after his first disastrous visit.

  129. 129.

    OGLiberal

    @Kay: Josh Rogin has been an incredible douche about all of this not not shocked about that stupid, stupid statement.  What I really want to know is what Seth Rogen has to say about this.

  130. 130.

    JoyceH

    @Origuy: Nom! Now I want to try Afghan food. The refugee experience in the DC area seems to be – phase one: drive taxis. Phase two: open a restaurant. (Employ the whole family.) You know when it’s authentic because the taxi drivers eat there.

  131. 131.

    catclub

    @Kay: My understanding is that ISIS-K is actually Taliban -extra fundamentalist.  They think the regular Taliban does not cut off enough hands.

     

    They also have been responsible for about 25 terrorist attacks/bombings in Kabul over the past year.

  132. 132.

    Baud

    @OGLiberal: I agree.  I don’t think it’s symmetric though.  Conservatives generally give their guy a pass when there’s bad news, while Dems and true independents are more likely to just get upset and wish the president would wave a wand and make it go away.

     

    @Kay: I hope so.  My greater fear is that once we’re out, our voters will forget how Biden stood up to the warmongers — defiantly!   Maybe if they’re still beating the war drums, voters will remember.

  133. 133.

    OGLiberal

    @raven: Um, no.  I liked his book on Vietnam but the man turned into a puddle of piss in the face of Donald Trump’s belligerence and idiocy so perhaps he really isn’t that bright.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    Andrew Solender
    @AndrewSolender
    · 8m
    “I’d put more military in there, I’d get every single American out, and I’d start killing bad guys,” GOP Rep. Mark Green says of Afghanistan in a Fox interview.

    There it is. They want to start over.

  137. 137.

    OGLiberal

    @Baud: True.  The good news is that the percentage of conservatives the Dems need to win over in order to win elections is 0% – if we turn out like we should.  We’re far enough out from the mid-terms where I’m not concerned about a Dem or Dem-leaning voter thinking, “when I turned on the news those people whose names I recognize told me Biden was a disaster so I’m just going to stay home…why bother?”

  138. 138.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @trollhattan: The Helmand in Baltimore has been serving exquisite Afghan food since the 1990s.  I’ve been told that a relative of Hamid Karzi is the owner.  When my spouse was working in Baltimore, we ate there regularly, especially since there was a delicious pistachio-based desert similar to Baklava named the same as my mother’s nickname — Berfy.  

  139. 139.

    Subsole

    @Kay:

    Eh, they ain’t really that good at that, either.

    I mean, foaming at the eyeballs while regurgitating conspiracy theories and decontextualized Bible quotes is a lot of things. Talking, it ain’t.

  141. 141.

    gvg

    @piratedan: ​
     It is actually a good idea medically because Covid is so contageous. My sisters hospital has had patients come in for one thing and then GET Covid there. They thought they were doing everything right until Delta out did them. They had negative pressure rooms and isolated air systems….but it wasn’t enough to contain Delta. I think it may turn out to be necessary. Also it may be best to have many small hospitals not a few big ones because you can isolate better.
    I don’t actually know enough but scientists will have to say what the best model is.
    Yes poor people get screwed. We always need to look out for that, it is just in this case of virus, something may have to be invented.

  143. 143.

    Elizabelle

    @JoyceH:   We have an acclaimed Afghan restaurant in Richmond, VA.  Mantu (named after special dumplings.). Chef was trained at the finest hotels in Kabul, etc.; he relocated to the US a few years ago.  So I had my sister take me there for my recent birthday.  And:

    restaurant was packed.  BUT:  the chef was waiting tables.  Alas.  The food was not spectacular because someone else was in the kitchen. Am guessing the chef was handling the front of the house because his English was better.

    But:  perhaps his labor shortage problems will end, and very soon, with these new arrivals.

    Food is kebabs, rice dishes, some wonderful dumplings, various veggies with “warm” spices.  Not so far off Lebanese food, or Indian, or very likely Pakistani.

    Will give him another visit in a few weeks. With or without more labor.  Could have just been an off night.

  144. 144.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @raven: That’s great news, thanks for letting us know. That said, having lived at various times in states that border Texas…

    TEXAS? 

  145. 145.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Hard to suss out on the Net, but it appears there are 3 Afghan restaurants, all named the Helmand, owned and operated by siblings of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, in downtown Baltimore, Cambridge MA, and Chicago. The one in Baltimore, on Charles St. just north of the Washington Monument, was almost from its opening in 2003 a popular place to take out-of-towners – the food (similar to Iranian with strong South Asian influence) was very good and reasonably priced and a fairly unique experience for visitors.

    FWIW, connections with the local Karzais scored local NPR host Marc Steiner a number of telephone interviews with Hamid waaay back when the Taliban were still in charge and he (Hamid) was secretly in-country attempting to organize resistance to the Taliban.

  146. 146.

    Cacti

    Miss Lindsey says we should retake Bagram Air Base.

    But not how that would actually help get any civilians out.

  147. 147.

    Elizabelle

    @Cheryl from Maryland:   Yes!  Have always wanted to go there.  The Helmand.

    We are going to see a surge in wonderful Afghan restaurants. Lucky us.  A kebab on every corner.  Not quite.  But bring on all the delicious “ethnic” food.

  149. 149.

    OGLiberal

    @catclub: The Taliban definitely has some very backwards ways of thinking but we can probably work with them because they want international recognition, diplomatic ties, and foreign trade and $$$.  The caliphate type folks folks don’t seem to care about any of that stuff so not a lot of opportunities for negotiations/cooperation.

  150. 150.

    Subsole

    @OGLiberal:

    Yep.

    I still can’t figure their endgame.

    Like, dude. Every poll I’ve seen says the majority of voters want us the eff out. Even when the poll was ridiculously slanted, saying “do you favor pullout if it allows al Qaeda to  reestablish itself?” The majority said “yep”.

    And these beclownshoed little Egberts think…what? You howl loud enough we’re gonna turn around and park 12 divisions in Kabul then nuke everything else?

     

    This is all such bullshit. <sigh.>

  154. 154.

    Subsole

    @OGLiberal:

    Problem is, I doubt it’ll be off the front pages.

    I expect CNN and the alphabet nerworks will be screeching for another year, easy. Whatever faith I ever had in them as honest brokers is gone.

  156. 156.

    Elizabelle

    Meanwhile, welcome, Hurricane Ida.  WaPost:

    A significant hurricane is predicted to develop in the Gulf of Mexico and impact portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast this weekend into early next week, bringing the risk of substantial coastal and inland flooding and destructive winds.

    Although there is uncertainty as to exactly where the hurricane would track, the National Hurricane Center is stressing that residents along the northern Gulf Coast closely monitor forecasts from the Florida Panhandle to the upper Texas coast.

    At the moment, many computer models suggest the storm could come ashore late Sunday or early Monday in Louisiana, which was ravaged by Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta last year.

  157. 157.

    Baud

    @Subsole: I think they’ll try but they’ll see people aren’t interested in those stories and move on.

    A large part of the reason Benghazi worked was because people were interested in Hillary Clinton as a person, either to love or or hate her.  The details weren’t important.  Very few people are similarly interested in Joe Biden.

  158. 158.

    OGLiberal

    @Baud: Yeah, the GOP angle on the Afghanistan stuff isn’t going to be “scary Taliban” or “need to contain ISIS-K” or “who lost Kabul?”.  There might be a little bit of “we look weak” but it’s mostly going to be “SCARY BROWN REFUGEES INVADING YOUR TOWN AND TAKING YOUR MONEY!”  That started almost immediately, of course.

  159. 159.

    Josie

    @Chief Oshkosh: ​
     Fort Bliss is partially in New Mexico and headquartered in El Paso. That’s Beto O’Rourke’s home town. They will be well treated there. Texans are not all the same.

  161. 161.

    Stacib

    @Anoniminous: Staff it with a bunch of idiots from Facebook since that’s where they are getting their medical information anyway. What could possibly go wrong?

  162. 162.

    OGLiberal

    @Subsole: Maybe.  At some point the reporting is going to have to switch from “hordes of people at the airport!….babies being passed over wall!” to Afghanistan transitioning back to Taliban rule, which they really, really don’t care about and it’s kind of boring.  Or crazy Muslims fighting crazier Muslims, which is more exciting but also something they don’t really care about.  That said, as long as there is some translator they worked with years ago still in Afghanistan who calls them and says, “the Taliban just arrested by cousin!”, they will feel the need to pull the old, “oh, the humanity!”  It’s all personal for them, which I get, but Biden can’t make decisions based on the fact that some waiter in Kabul who served Clarissa Ward lunch a few times and had pleasant conversations with her wants to leave but can’t get out.

  163. 163.

    guachi

    I didn’t see any commenters mention it, but several American military dead in Kabul from the blast.

  165. 165.

    Ken

    @Kay: They want to start over.

    The Republicans have used up their supply of mulligans over the past two decades.

    (I forget — which columnist, or perhaps it was a blogger, called Bush II’s re-election after 9/11 a “mulligan”?)

  166. 166.

    JoyceH

    @Elizabelle: ​
     

    So. All those Gulf coast states with hospitals jammed with COVID patients are going to lose power? Is that about the size of it?

  169. 169.

    trollhattan

    @Baud: Unless it’s one of those scamp hurricanes that hugs the shore for hundreds of miles. Lemme show you with my Sharpie how it will go down.

  171. 171.

    OGLiberal

    @mrmoshpotato: “(Kinzinger) said that while ‘there’s no good answer to this,’ if President Biden does not respond to the explosions, it could embolden terrorist groups.”

    I don’t know what you should do or even if what you do will make things worse but JUST DO SOMETHING!

    Yeah, that’s worked out well in the past.

    And bringing back the greatest hits:

    “The fact is there are people that no matter how much we want to go home, they want to kill us. We either fight them there or we’ll fight them here,” Kinzinger added.

    My lord….

  172. 172.

    Citizen Alan

    @CaseyL:

    Historically, the sort of people who would support the GQP are also the sort of people who really don’t think very much of treaty obligations.

  174. 174.

    CaseyL

    @Citizen Alan: Very true – but these treaties aren’t with foreigners, or indigenous people, or even exclusively with Deep Blue Democrats.  The interest groups who support water rights treaties are pretty powerful.

    Plus, it’s not easy to build a secret pipeline across thousands of miles.

  176. 176.

    Baud

    @CaseyL:

    Plus, it’s not easy to build a secret pipeline across thousands of miles.

    If it were easy, how would you know about it?

  177. 177.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    A large part of the reason Benghazi worked was because people were interested in Hillary Clinton as a person, either to love or or hate her.

    A large part of the reason Benghazi worked was because people in the media hated Hillary Clinton and were more than happy to repeat any and all attempts to derail her career.  The Benghazi stuff never would have gotten anywhere if the media hadn’t been as invested in it as the Republicans.

  178. 178.

    Cacti

    @Roger Moore: A large part of the reason Benghazi worked was because people in the media hated Hillary Clinton and were more than happy to repeat any and all attempts to derail her career.  The Benghazi stuff never would have gotten anywhere if the media hadn’t been as invested in it as the Republicans.

    It really can’t be overstated how much the media’s 25 year hate boner for Hillary Clinton shaded all of the coverage in the 2016 election.

  180. 180.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore:

    @Cacti:

    That’s true too.  But people aren’t always interested in what the media is interested in.  Hillary lived in people’s heads in a way that Biden does not.

  181. 181.

    Elizabelle

    Frank Fucking Bruni in the FTF NY Times has outdone himself.  Not even going to link.  I have a headache from skimming it.

    I regret paying for the FTF NY Times.

    If Bruni is going to write something like this, name names, you fucker.  Otherwise it just excoriates all Democrats.  My God.

    Headline:
    Stop Politicizing the Misery in Afghanistan
    And it is aimed at Democrats.  It begins:

    Democrats are panicked that the debacle in Afghanistan will shake American voters’ confidence in not only President Biden but also the rest of the party, potentially costing it control of the Senate and the House in 2022. They’ve said as much — to me, to other journalists, to anyone who will listen.
    I wish they’d stop, because their political fate is nothing next to the fate of Afghans on the wrong side of the Taliban. And every time they communicate as much concern with the party’s near future as with Afghanistan’s, they inch toward the very destiny they dread.

    And then Bruni lectures about what is going on in the country.  He ridicules the Republicans too, but advises Democrats:

    But if Democrats want to be sure to beat Republicans, their best bet is to be not like them: to focus on the substance of problems rather than their political implications, to talk about solutions without calculating their political benefit. In these jaded times, a little genuine earnestness could go a long way.

    Name names, Bruni, or shut your goddamned mouth.  Are these elected Democrats?  Are you humping  Ed Rendell’s leg, or David Sirota??

    Who is saying shit like this to Bruni, and how many “Democrats” are doing this?

    Can he not see earnestness out of President Biden?  No, I guess he cannot.

  183. 183.

    Elizabelle

    @guachi:   I know.  That’s tragic.  Marines, and I have not heard anything further.

    Tragic to lose them, but they saved lives.

  184. 184.

    VeniceRiley

    @Elizabelle: Dems named Seth, no doubt. I have tuned out of most cable news and newspapers histrionics on the Afghan issue. Only reading Covid info now.

  186. 186.

    Elizabelle

    @VeniceRiley:   Yeah.  I am stepping away for a while, too.

    I like a lot of the Times’ non-domestic political coverage, and you can see their resources and strengths in that writing.

    But Bruni.  Holy Fuck.  I just can’t.

  187. 187.

    Cacti

    @Elizabelle: Infuriating, because they were sent there to evac Americans who were told to leave four months ago.

    They saved the lives of stupid and selfish people.  It’s their job to be save people like that too, but if people had listened, all four might still be alive.

  188. 188.

    West of the Rockies

    @Jeffro:

    Coastal kayaking is excellent, too. We visited Russian Gulch last weekend.  (It was pretty rough though with six-foot swells.)

  189. 189.

    MomSense

    Ever since I started taking the bus to and from work, I’ve been able to speak French just about every day with passengers, most of whom are from Africa. It has been an unexpected joy. Now I’m wondering if duolingo offers Pashto and Dari.  I think Dari is similar to Farsi.

  192. 192.

    Subsole

    @Roger Moore:

    Which is why this shit we’re watching here concerns and frustrates me.

     

    It really is insane just how bad the 4th estate managed to fcuk this country. And over the most trifling bullshit in history.

  193. 193.

    Martin

    Gotta love the media response here.

    How DARE US troops be killed. This shows why we need to recommit forces (so more troops can be killed).

    It’s funny. Agency is more important than the actual lives here, but when it comes to something like climate change, pursuing agency is hippie shit.

  194. 194.

    OGLiberal

    @Elizabelle: “to focus on the substance of problems rather than their political implications”

    When Dems do that doesn’t it put the media into snooze mode, causing them to say, “Why aren’t the Democrats doing anything?  The GOP is winning the messaging war!”

  196. 196.

    Cacti

    @Martin: More sunk cost fallacy.

    Sending more US troops to die is the only appropriate response to the death of US troops.  smh

  197. 197.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: Honestly, I think the strategy is going to work. The best outcome for Newsom was for this to look like a runoff between him and Elder, and that’s what we’re getting.

    It’s high risk, but then he didn’t ask for the recall.

    And holy shit do we need to reform the recall process. Having the next governor chosen by 5% of the population is terrifying.

  198. 198.

    Martin

    @Cacti: I don’t even think it’s that. I think it’s a worldview that the only valid decision is one that collective media space (overwhelmingly US centric and white) approves of.

  199. 199.

    piratedan

    @gvg: not saying the idea isn’t worthy of consideration and with planning and transparency it could very well be a model to move to.

    In THIS environment right now, with people as frantic as they are to be using horse de-wormer because of the mistrust that has been baked into the system (unfairly so), you start telling loved ones who have people that are dying in the ER with advanced COVID and state that there are empty beds not being used because they’re being held back for other patients that may need them… good luck watching that get spun pragmatically.  It would be a public health nightmare and if you think parents assaulting school boards and health professionals about mask requirements was scary, this would be (in my humble opinion) on a whole ‘nother order.

    because rest assured, some asshole out there somewhere would think that this practice would be a “scoop” and regardless of the harm that it would cost, it would take on a life of its own.

    Do I agree with you that this would be a pragmatic approach, a sort of pre-triage, to give those with the best chance of survival that opportunity.  Yes, wholeheartedly.  Not sure I would see any hospital system doing this on their own without some sort of political backup giving them cover.

  203. 203.

    Roger Moore

    @Cacti: ​
     

    It really can’t be overstated how much the media’s 25 year hate boner for Hillary Clinton shaded all of the coverage in the 2016 election.

    Though in fairness it’s really hard to separate out how much of that was hatred for Hillary Clinton personally and how much was generalized misogyny. One of the things I personally find infuriating is how many of the lead figures in attacking Hillary were taken down by “Me Too”. How different would the coverage have been if our media organizations weren’t cesspits of institutionalized misogyny?

  204. 204.

    Tazj

    @Elizabelle: I mean sure, the best way to try to ensure people vote for you is to get things done for them period. Complaining about things never works. However, who are these people who are politicizing the coverage from Afghanistan? The only people who’ve I’ve seen push back about the coverage are a few liberals on social media, not many if any elected officials, and most of the criticism places blame in a wider context of our failures in Afghanistan  over 20 years and includes both parties.

    I’ll admit to not wanting Biden and Democrats to lose because of what’s going on in Afghanistan.Maybe I don’t want a party that failed the country on COVID and mounted an insurrection  to take over. I guess that makes me a monster according to Bruni.

  205. 205.

    Elizabelle

    Fresh threads up:  Badger straight ahead, and a Pentagon news conference after that.

  208. 208.

    Timurid

    @MomSense: Dari and Farsi are effectively dialects of the same language, like the versions of Portuguese spoken in Portugal and Brazil.

  210. 210.

    Citizen Alan

    @Elizabelle: I see nothing in the FTNYT worth praising or even saving.  I genuinely believe that if The New York Times were not in existence on 9/11 and all the days thereafter, America would be a better place today.

  211. 211.

    Elizabelle

    @Citizen Alan:   Weirdly, they did a great job memorializing all those killed on September 11th.

    But I do not “like” the Times, and never have.  Even as a subscriber.  They’re too problematic.

  212. 212.

    J R in WV

    @Kay:

    Andrew Solender
    @AndrewSolender
    · 8m
    “I’d put more military in there, I’d get every single American out, and I’d start killing bad guys,” GOP Rep. Mark Green says of Afghanistan in a Fox interview.

    There it is. They want to start over.

    He contradicts himself in only 12 words. As if the troops aren’t Americans too !!! What an asshole!

    Get ALL the Americans out; Send in the Troops~!!~ Say what? The Troops ARE Americans. Totally stupid past any repair. How are we gonna ID the bad guys? We don’t even speak their language, which is why the big deal over Afghan translators…

    Jeeze, pathetic… so pathetic.

  214. 214.

    J R in WV

    @Elizabelle:

    Weirdly, they [ The FNYT ]did a great job memorializing all those killed on September 11th.

    They really did, a real obit for everyone. And if you visit the city and want to partake of the culture, they are on top of that.

    But if you want a successful democracy in the nation, they can fuck that up in every possible way.

  215. 215.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @Kay: Kay, I saw a post on Twitter a couple of weeks ago from a doctor here in Middle Tennessee detailing the lack of available ICU beds in the area—I think this is it.
    Currently, statewide we were down to 6% of all ICU beds available yesterday afternoon.
    I don’t know if the state health department website in Ohio will give similar information or not, but you might check and see.

  216. 216.

    LiminalOwl

    @OGLiberal: Sorry, you missed a square on the Bingo card. The Qultists I sampled are yelling about scary brown people  who are all likely carriers of Covid.

    (Yes, it’s stopped being a hoax. At least for these purposes.)

Comments are closed.