•Vice President Kamala Harris has cancelled a Friday campaign rally for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall election, due to Thursday’s suicide bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan. In the latest polls, conservative radio host Larry Elder leads a slate of 46 candidates challenging the Democratic governor in the recall.
Biden Takes Responsibility, Vows Revenge for Suicide Bombings – Because at least 95 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops are dead after two suicide bombings Thursday at the Abbey Gate of Kabul, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai International Airport (the Associated Press), President Biden made an address to the nation Thursday, which he ended with a moment of silence.
While delivering his prepared remarks Biden vowed revenge against those responsible.
“We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place of our choosing. These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans, we will get our Afghan allies out and our mission will go on,” he said.
Biden said U.S. troops will complete the mission to evacuate Americans and allies by the deadline of next Tuesday, August 31, but that he would fulfill any request for additional resources made by military leaders. Biden’s promise of vengeance for yesterday’s tragedy indicates some sort of strategic U.S. presence in Afghanistan, though the president did not elaborate.
Note: Biden’s way forward is to complete the withdrawal as safely as possible by next Tuesday’s deadline, and maintain some sort of U.S. intelligence presence in the Graveyard of Empires potentially indefinitely – even with the withdrawal, President George W. Bush’s War on Terrorism appears to carry on in some form nearly 20 years after it began.
“We will never forgive,” Biden said to the terrorists yesterday. “We will never forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
What’s going on?: After the Taliban’s quick takeover of most of Afghanistan, ISIS-K surfaced as an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Islamic State, or ISIS. Analysts note that Texas-sized Afghanistan is made of individual warlords controlling each of these regions, but in the post-U.S. war era, it’s going to potentially get messier than ever. Experts and analysts appearing on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, et. al. do not agree on ISIS-K’s relationship with the Taliban now leading the country. The generally accepted analysis is that ISIS-K and the Taliban are enemies – some analysts now say they are now working together and blame equal responsibility for yesterday’s attacks.
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Afghan President Alleged to Have Absconded with U.S. Funds – The House of Representatives Oversight Committee’s ranking Republican, James Comer of Kentucky, and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-WI, have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to give the committee a briefing on U.S. taxpayer dollars allegedly spirited out of Afghanistan by president-in-exile Ashraf Ghani, Fox News reports.
Comer and Grothman are looking into allegations that Ghani ran off with as much as $169 million in U.S. aid to Afghanistan. Ghani fled the country for the United Arab Emirates (and if he took anything with him it’s in a Swiss bank account) just as Taliban forces were taking control of its capital, Kabul, saying he left in order to avoid certain bloodshed.
Note: Yes – Ghani’s own bloodshed. This potential investigation only supports critics of the U.S.’s 20 years in Afghanistan who argue that we have supported nearly 20 years of corrupt local politicians. The Afghan people may have been willing to fight back against the Taliban, but government and military leadership were only interested in taking the money and running.
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SCOTUS Ends Biden’s Eviction Moratorium – The Supreme Court, ruling via its “shadow docket” Thursday night, blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the national eviction moratorium via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention SCOTUSblog reports. It was a 6-3 ruling. The majority’s eight-page ruling said, in part, according to The Washington Post, “our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends. . . It is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here.”
Earlier this week, SCOTUS refused to block a lower court order that required the Biden administration to reinstate ex-President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy for blocking illegal crossings along the Southern border.
Note: Biden’s executive order giving the CDC authority to extend the moratorium came only after the initial eviction moratorium imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic expired at the end of July. This one was set to expire October 3, but when Biden initially gave in to progressive Congressional Democrats’ demand for an extension, he warned that it probably would not survive court challenges on behalf of landlords who opposed the extension.
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Capitol Police Officer Shot Ashli Babbitt as “Last Resort” – The Capitol police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 pro-Trump insurrection told NBC News he shot her “only as a last resort.” In his first interview since the Capitol Hill riots, Lt. Michael Byrd said, “I saved countless lives.” He said 60-80 members of the House of Representatives were just inside the Capitol lobby where he and fellow officers tried to hold back the crowd.
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Seven Capitol Officers Sue Trump, Associates – Seven Capitol Police officers have filed suit against ex-President Trump, some of his associates and white supremacist groups in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The lawsuit alleges violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, The New York Times reports, and includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfere with Congress’ official duties.
Pro-Trump rioters in the insurrection were attempting to prevent Congress from officially counting Electoral Count votes for Joseph Biden’s win over Donald J. Trump.
Defendants in the suit by the seven officers, five of whom are Black, include Trump confidant Roger Stone, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
Note: This is the latest of three suits that have been filed charging Trump and his coterie of cronies associated with January 6. In addition to which, there are several other suits that will be working their way through the judicial system targeting Trump for curious financial activities. Odds are that if Trump decides to run again — assuming that his clothing doesn’t match the color of his hair by then — it will be so as to avoid prosecution. Quite a proud moment for America when a former president is even sued by police officers.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash