A defiant President Joe Biden defended his tumultuous exit from Afghanistan on Tuesday, refusing to admit mistakes or accept blame for lives lost or Americans left behind.
"Some say that the evacuation from Afghanistan could have been started sooner and completed in a more orderly fashion," Biden said.
Biden began by describing the military evacuation as a success, defying critics of his rushed exit from the country after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15.
His address took place more than 24 hours after the last flight left the Kabul airport, leaving the State Department and the Pentagon to explain why Americans were left behind, even after Biden promised to stay until every American was evacuated.
Biden said the decision to leave on August 31 was a decision supported by his military and civilian advisors.
Biden also tried to excuse his failure by suggesting that many Americans who remained in Afghanistan were staying willingly.
Biden again blamed his predecessor for empowering the Taliban in Afghanistan, arguing he had no intention of staying longer than August 31.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Angry Joe Biden Refuses to Admit Mistakes or Accept Accountability in Disastrous Afghanistan Exit
Obama/Biden Reinstituting Program of Bringing Non-Vetted Illegals Into the US and Using 'Non-Profits' to Move Them Around the US
In early 2017, as President Trump was stepping into the White House, Obama's policies of bringing unvetted Middle Easternerners into the US was in full force.
Today these insane policies are again in full force.
In March of 2017, we reported on Obama's policies of bringing unvetted individuals from Middle Eastern countries into the US. These individuals are received overnight and sent to states across the Union where they were given food, clothing, housing, and passports.
DISEASED REFUGEES Obtain SSN's and Passports Upon Arrival in US. It is now being reported that Obama/Biden are doing it again.
The Biden administration told refugee organizations to prepare for the arrival of up to 50,000 Afghans without visas, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Nine State Department-contracted nonprofits that resettle refugees in the U.S. are trying to recruit more staff and volunteers to help process arriving Afghans, according to the WSJ. Some of the organizations said they haven't been told how many refugees to expect or when they might arrive.
"We're going to make it work, no matter how difficult, but I'd be lying to you if I said we aren't concerned," HIAS nonprofit President Mark Hetfield told the WSJ. It will be interesting to see which liberal 'non-profits' are being contracted by the government to push this insane policy of bringing in non-vetted foreigners into the US..
It was never about the “science” … WHO says data on COVID booster shots not conclusive, but Biden will push them anyway
The World Health Organization has rejected the necessity of COVID-19 booster shots, saying that data is not conclusive.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said at a media briefing: "We recently had an expert group meeting with scientists from around the world this included researchers, it included regulatory experts from different regulatory agencies, there was consensus that the data around the need for boosters is not conclusive." She also said that they don't have enough data to know about the safety of the boosters and that it needs to be studied before the government launches a full-scale booster program for the population.
Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also doubled down on the discouragement of booster programs, saying that there is a debate about whether or not they are effective at all.
More questions surround the possibility of needing booster shots In June, leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told Congress that he believed recipients of the vaccine will require booster shots, although he added that he wasn't sure when they will be needed.
Monica Gandhi, a professor at the University of California San Francisco detailed several reasons for why people don't have to worry about getting a booster.
She wrote: "The best way to keep people safe now is to put the discussion of boosters aside and work hard on global vaccine distribution." Anna Durbin of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said that public health officials should keep an eye on the number and severity of breakthrough cases to know whether or not another dose is necessary.
The CDC and FDA said earlier this year that boosters will not be recommended As COVID-19 vaccines appear to be failing against the virus, it is not clear what additional benefits a booster shot will provide.
https://www.rational.news/2021-08-31-data-on-covid-booster-shots-not-conclusive.html
Is Biden's Plan a Five-Year Path to Citizenship for Every Illegal Migrant?
In an August 18 post, I explained that the Biden administration is proposing to implement a poorly thought-out plan from the Migration Policy Institute to give asylum officers in USCIS power to adjudicate illegal migrants' asylum claims - authority they don't have now.
Under its plan, illegal migrants who have been denied asylum by AOs can still have their decisions reviewed by IJs, then the BIA, then on petitions for review by the circuit courts, and then on petitions for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court.
Under section 209(b) of the INA, aliens can apply for green cards one year after they are granted asylum, and by regulation grants are backdated one year from the date they are approved.
So five years after the date on their green cards, they can apply for U.S. citizenship under section 316 of the INA. That means that all those migrants quickly granted asylum by AOs under the Biden administration's plan will be on a five-year path to citizenship, and the ability to immigrate their extended family members to the United States.
The Biden plan could - and likely will - get much, much worse, because the Biden administration has signaled that it also wants to significantly expand asylum eligibility.
That would change quickly if, as it appears the Biden administration is planning, currently limited asylum eligibility were massively expanded and hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants were granted asylum rapidly each month, placed on a five-year path to citizenship, and put in direct competition for jobs with the currently unemployed.
Stein's Law states that: "If something cannot go on forever it will stop." The unsustainable level of illegal immigration that boundless asylum eligibility would create would thus end asylum in this country.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Bidens-Plan-FiveYear-Path-Citizenship-Every-Illegal-Migrant
Gunshots heard in Kabul amid report of 'house-to-house executions'
The Taliban are carrying out "House-to-house executions," according to reports, as newly released audio provides a glimpse into the extremist militants' rule over Afghanistan since the US withdrawal.
Gunshots could be heard in the audio, which was allegedly recorded about the same time the last US plane left Afghanistan.
Footage shows some armed Taliban fighters praying on the tarmac as others cheered.
"All the American troops have left Afghanistan, we are very happy - you can listen to the celebratory fire," Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told Agence France-Presse after they stormed the airport.
Toward the end of the withdrawal, Fox News reported that Taliban militants were carrying out "House-to-house executions" in the city, per a senior US official.
Last week, the United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, warned of "Summary executions" and strict restrictions on women in areas under Taliban control in Afghanistan.
On Friday, an Afghan folk singer was executed by the Taliban days after the Islamic fundamentalist group declared "Music is forbidden in Islam," according to his family.
https://nypost.com/2021/08/31/gunshots-heard-in-kabul-amid-report-of-house-to-house-executions/
Two Senior FDA Officials Stepping Down Over Reported Disagreements With White House Over Booster Shots
Two of the FDA's senior vaccine officials are leaving their positions as the agency mulls new rules and regulations over booster shots and Covid-19 vaccinations for children, according to Bloomberg and Endpoints News.
Departing the agency are Office of Vaccines Research and Review Director Marion Gruber, Ph.D. and Deputy Director Phillip Krause, M.D. Gruber plans to retire on Oct. 31, while Philips - deputy director for the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, will be leaving in November.
US FDA is losing two giants who helped bring us many safe and effective vaccines over decades of public service.
As Endpoints News notes, "A former senior FDA leader told Endpoints that they're departing because they're frustrated that CDC and their ACIP committee are involved in decisions that they think should be up to the FDA. The former FDAer also said he's heard they're upset with CBER director Peter Marks for not insisting that those decisions should be kept inside FDA. What finally did it for them was the White House getting ahead of FDA on booster shots."
Joe Biden wrecked the FDA. That was quick.
FDA's former acting chief scientist Luciana Borio added on Twitter, "FDA is losing two giants who helped bring us many safe and effective vaccines over decades of public service."
"These two are the leaders for Biologic review in the US. They have a great team, but these two are the true leaders of CBER. A huge global loss if they both leave," Former BARDA director Rick Bright wrote, weighing in on the news.
World Affairs Biden’s Presidency Is Already A Total Disaster, And It’s All His Own Fault
In each case, the disaster has been entirely of the Biden administration's own making.
The events now unfolding in Afghanistan, where the Taliban control about $83 billion worth of U.S. military equipment, are by far the most dramatic and disturbing display of incompetency and horrible policy from the Biden administration, which recent polling reflects.
As soon as Biden came into office, he signed executive orders that guaranteed we would have a migrant crisis on our southwest border.
Biden's Centers for Disease Control has become lawless, attempting to impose an unconstitutional eviction moratorium on landlords, which the Supreme Court struck down last week, and announcing that it will be pushing for gun control in the name of public health, because that's really what we need the CDC to focus on right now.
Federal unemployment benefits, which the Biden administration has extended to millions of Americans for months now, have exacerbated a worker shortage that's hobbling the recovery.
The Biden administration's disastrous withdrawal will be the subject of many op-eds and think pieces and, eventually, history books.
In the coming days we'll almost certainly see outlandish and highly suspect polls showing that, aside from Afghanistan, Biden is doing pretty well, actually, considering all the crises his young administration has had to face.
Biden administration now considers giving Taliban AID if they 'uphold their international obligations'
The Biden administration is considering sending economic aid to the Taliban, even as the militants hold mock funerals for American troops and NATO allies to celebrate the end of the 20-year US military intervention in Afghanistan.
In Kandahar - a traditional Taliban stronghold - thousands also turned out waving white Taliban flags to celebrate what the group is referring to as its 'independence day', hours after the final American troops boarded an evacuation flight out of the country.
Taliban 'offered to let US secure all of Kabul but Biden refused'The Biden administration refused an offer by the Taliban's co-founder to take control of the security across all of Kabul before the chaotic evacuation because the president was determined to keep his promise to pull US troops out, according to a report.
The true value of US equipment captured by the Taliban is unknown, though it likely is less than the $83 billion figure cited by Republicans, which represents the total cost of training and equipping the Afghan National Army since 2001.Afghanistan has long been one of the top recipients of foreign aid in the world, and the Taliban will likely rely on the continued flow of aid to maintain basic services.
The Taliban were certainly keen to present their take-over of the country as a military victory today, parading special forces soldiers dressed head to toe in western gear at Kabul airport while senior leaders posed in front of captured aircraft.
Mujahid insisted today that Taliban security forces will be 'pleasant and nice' to those left behind, despite reports already emerging of summary executions and persecution against women reminiscent of the Taliban of old.
While the international community appears to have accepted the reality of Taliban rule, the US and UK remain willing to take on Islamic State's Afghan cell, ISIS-K.British forces are prepared to launch air strikes to target so-called Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan, the head of the RAF indicated as the US-led military presence in the country came to an end.
Covid Vaccines Less Effective at Preventing Hospitalization, CDC Says
The CDC on Monday came out and said Covid vaccines are less effective at preventing hospitalizations, particularly for people over 75.
The drop in vaccine effectiveness is being blamed on the Delta variant.
The COVID-19 vaccines' ability to keep people out of the hospital appears to be dropping slightly, particularly for those 75 and older, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday during an advisory panel.
The CDC has previously estimated that 97% of people in the hospital being treated for COVID-19 are unvaccinated, but that data was collected before the spread of delta, a hyper-transmissible variant that many doctors have warned appears to be making people sicker.
The latest CDC analysis estimates that the ability of the COVID vaccines to keep a person out of the hospital is now between 75% to 95%. For people older than 75 in particular, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization experienced the steepest decline, from more than 90% to 80% between June and July.
The CDC made this announcement 11 days after its director said that people who received the Covid vaccine early on are at an increased risk for severe disease.
"We are seeing concerning evidence of waning vaccine effectiveness over time and against the Delta variant," Walensky said a couple weeks ago.