This will work well enough with political partisans but the hard rivals of America will see it for an exercise in trying to cast incompetence as resoluteness. They will note:
After days in seclusion at Camp David, a politician gives a speech. Now it’s time to move on to a future which will be just like the now forgotten recent past. Back to climate change, intersectionality. Now where was I?
Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration urged the producer group to boost output to tackle rising gasoline prices it sees as a threat to the global economic recovery.
Revealing a double down, CYA and petty mind.
American intelligence sources say they correctly predicted the fall of Kabul. …
“This is a crisis of untold proportions,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told NBC News Sunday as Taliban militants swept into Kabul. “This is an intelligence failure. We underestimated the Taliban and overestimated the resolve of the Afghan Army.”
But numerous U.S. officials tell ABC News that the opposite was true, insisting that key intelligence assessments had consistently informed policymakers that the Taliban could overwhelm the country and take the capital within weeks.
An investigation by The Sunday Times has revealed efforts by Beijing to control the agency’s decision making, sabotage investigations and even install officials. …
It has also been suggested officials agreed a ‘backroom deal’ with the Chinese to water down the inquiry into the origins of Covid-19.
Beyond attempting to rescue Western sympathizers and intelligence assets from the Taliban there is little that can be done for Afghanistan. In time the Taliban will wear out its welcome and the merry go-round will turn again.
Continue reading “Watch out for the combination”Biden is angry, humiliated and desperate. Yet he has not yet reached the dregs. The finger pointing, accusations of betrayal, the scramble to pass the buck are only just beginning.
It is the loss of confidence in assessments, assurances and estimates that will be noticed next.
In disasters of this magnitude heads have got to roll. Yet the one man most responsible will be the one to do the head rolling, ensuring that the next time — and there will be a next time — it will be worse.
Among those to be evacuated will be Afghan interpreters and contractors who served alongside Australian Defence Force troops.
It started out as a fringe conspiracy theory touted by Donald Trump. Now the suggestion that the deadly coronavirus was leaked from a laboratory in China is gaining both scientific and political traction.
The demand seeks to stave off an evacuation of the embassy by dangling aid to future Afghan governments — even one that includes the Taliban.
Joe Biden is facing simultaneous challenges.
“It’s interesting that the lab relocated on the 2nd of December 2019: That’s the period where it all started,” Dr. Ben Embarek said in the TV interview. “We know that when you move a lab, it disturbs everything…That entire procedure is always a disruptive element in the daily work routine of a lab.”
Elon working on his starship while the rest of earth writhes in fear over the pandemic, global warming and the Taliban gives off the “When Worlds Collide” vibe. The lone scientist amid a sea of despair.
Dr Tom Frieden
As part of surveillance efforts in Xinjiang, authorities have collected biometric data, including facial scans and fingerprints—used to verify identities at the region’s ubiquitous checkpoints—and DNA data. Moreau says DNA profiling does not directly enable mass internments or forced labor. Rather the impact is psychological, reinforcing citizens’ feelings of constant surveillance. Byler adds that DNA profiling “could be used to enforce a ‘zero illegal births’ policy by tracking maternity and paternity,” and to find matches for organ harvesting from prisoners, “of which there is some limited evidence.”
