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Biden sinking in numerous polls amid Afghanistan crisis

Hank Berrien
The Daily Wire
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Biden
© T.J.Kirkpatrick/NYT/Getty Images
US President Joe Biden
President Biden's approval among Americans has plunged, as demonstrated by numerous separate polls.

Politico reported on Wednesday, "SIREN: President JOE BIDEN's average approval rating is below 50% for the first time this year. 538: 49.8% ... RCP: 49.4%."

The 538 poll found Biden with a 44% disapproval rating. The highest average approval rating the RDCP poll has ascertained for Biden during his presidency was at 55.8%; he has dropped over five points.

A new Reuters poll conducted on Monday found that Biden's approval rating had dropped by seven percentage points to rest at 46%, leaving him at his lowest level of his presidency.

"A separate Ipsos snap poll, also conducted on Monday, found that fewer than half of Americans liked the way Biden has steered the U.S. military and diplomatic effort in Afghanistan this year. The president, who just last month praised Afghan forces for being 'as well-equipped as any in the world,' was rated worse than the other three presidents who presided over the United States' longest war." Reuters reported that in the Ipsos poll, 44% of respondents said Biden has done a "good job" in Afghanistan. "In comparison, 51% praised the way former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama handled the war."

Comment: The race to the bottom is gaining speed. Show of hands Biden wins!

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Attention

Intel agencies warned of Afghan collapse as Biden publicly downplayed possibility

Caroline Downey
National Review
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 02:06 UTC
People Airport
© Stringer/Reuters
People wait outside Hamid Karzai International Airport
Kabul, Afghanistan August 17, 2021
U.S. intelligence agencies warned of the collapse of the Afghan military and government at the hands of a resurgent Taliban over the summer, as President Biden publicly downplayed the possibility of a government rout.

While Biden assured Americans on July 8 that the Afghan regime's disintegration was far from inevitable, quieting fears of a "Saigon-like" foreign policy fiasco, previous intelligence reports indicated that Afghan security forces as well as the seat of government in Kabul were weakening and could falter, current and former American government officials told the New York Times.

A specific July report affirmed the increasingly vulnerable position of the capital to attack as the Taliban advanced across the country, capturing a chain of major provincial cities and towns, a person familiar with the intelligence informed the Times.

Immediately before the events of last week, the U.S. intelligence community was largely in agreement that the Afghan government could endure for at 90 days at most, providing at least some breathing room for an organized, efficient withdrawal of American boots on the ground. This prediction was already a downgrade from a spring assessment, however, which gave the Afghan regime two years to hold together.

Comment: The US is exposed and scrambling as the Taliban can no longer be discounted.

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Attention

Nobody wins and we all lose in the COVID-19 showdown

John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:16 UTC
We've reached the point where state actors can penetrate rectums and vaginas, where judges can order forced catheterizations, and where police and medical personnel can perform scans, enemas and colonoscopies without the suspect's consent. And these procedures aren't to nab kingpins or cartels, but people who at worst are hiding an amount of drugs that can fit into a body cavity. In most of these cases, they were suspected only of possession or ingestion. Many of them were innocent... But these tactics aren't about getting drugs off the street... These tactics are instead about degrading and humiliating a class of people that politicians and law enforcement have deemed the enemy. — Radley Balko, The Washington Post
Vaccines
© A Government of Wolves
Freedom is never free.

There is always a price — always a sacrifice — that must be made in order to safeguard one's freedoms.

Where that transaction becomes more complicated is when one has to balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the community.

Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau envisioned the social contract between the individual and a nation's rulers as a means of finding that balance. Invariably, however, those in power grow greedy, and what was intended to be a symbiotic relationship with both sides benefitting inevitably turns into a parasitic one, with a clear winner and a clear loser.

We have seen this vicious cycle play out over and over again throughout the nation's history.

Just look at this COVID-19 pandemic: the whole sorry mess has been so overtly politicized, propagandized, and used to expand the government's powers (and Corporate America's bank balance) that it's difficult at times to distinguish between what may be legitimate health concerns and government power grabs.

After all, the government has a history of shamelessly exploiting national emergencies for its own nefarious purposes. Terrorist attacks, mass shootings, civil unrest, economic instability, pandemics, natural disasters: the government has been taking advantage of such crises for years now in order to gain greater power over an unsuspecting and largely gullible populace.

This COVID-19 pandemic is no different.

Yet be warned: we will all lose if this pandemic becomes a showdown between COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the right to bodily integrity.
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Eye 1

'Deny and accuse somebody else': FBI instructed informant in Michigan governor 'kidnap' plot to slander another man, report says


RT
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 17:48 UTC
FBI logo/illustration
© FBI/Audrey Tate/The Republic/KJN
A text from an FBI agent instructed an informant in the alleged militia plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to delete messages and shift blame onto another man, casting further doubt on the already doubtful case.

Five people are currently awaiting trial on federal charges that the "Wolverine Watchmen" militia they supposedly belonged to wanted to kidnap the Democrat governor. The FBI announced the plot and arrested them in October 2020, shortly before the US election.

In a court filing last week the attorney for one of them sought text messages from FBI special agents Henrik Impola and Jayson Chambers, citing an exchange with one of the informants, identified only as "Dan." A screenshot of it appeared online on Tuesday.


"Be sure to delete these," the agent - allegedly Impola - tells 'Dan,' and later instructs him to deflect accusations of being an FBI informant. "Best thing to do is deny and accuse somebody else," the agent texted, naming a man who wasn't charged in the plot.
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Network

As America's attempt to Westernise Afghanistan by force fails, Kabul may now find its place in Russian & Chinese-dominated Eurasia

Glenn Diesen
RT
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 19:05 UTC
US Army soldiers
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images
FILE PHOTO: US Army soldiers from the 10th Mountain and the 101st Airborne units disembark from a Chinook helicopter March 11, 2002.
Even the Taliban must be surprised at the immense speed of its victory in Afghanistan. The collapse of the US-backed government affects more than just daily life in Kabul, however, causing political echoes across the continent.

One of the last bastions of Euro-Atlantic influence in the Eurasian heartland has collapsed. As the US and its allies absorb the consequences of their defeat in Afghanistan, the major powers on the continent, such as Russia, China and Iran, will attempt to reorient the country towards a solution consistent with the Greater Eurasian Partnership.

A long way from Washington

Comment: Far from Afghanistan 'scrambling for solutions' over the US' withdrawal, Russia's Embassy, and apparently an overwhelming number of Afghans, who welcomed the Taliban over the increasingly corrupt Kabul government, see the country, as it is now, as being 'safer than before': And for more of the real story on the Afghan withdrawal, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?



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Bizarro Earth

Mayor of key Ukrainian city found shot dead as Kiev cracks down on country's popular 'pro-Russian' opposition party


RT
Mon, 16 Aug 2021 09:19 UTC
Konstantin Pavlov
© Facebook
Konstantin Pavlov
Police in the Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog have opened an investigation after its mayor, Konstantin Pavlov, was found dead at home from a gunshot wound to the chest, amid a crackdown on the country's largest opposition party.

Pavlov's body was discovered on the veranda of his house in the industrial city, which is around 400km (250 miles) south of Kiev, with a weapon reportedly lying close by. The 48-year-old politician was a member of the Opposition Platform - For Life party, which is the main opposition group in the country's parliament. The faction is known for its criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky's government, and for calling for closer ties with Russia.

The authorities say it isn't yet clear whether Pavlov's death was suicide or if foul play could have been involved. However, Vadim Rabinovich, a prominent businessman and fellow party member said the mayor had been "killed" and that suggestions he took his own life were "a deliberate lie." A source told local news outlet Strana that, after being hit by the bullet, Pavlov managed to stagger around 10 meters before he fell to the ground.

Comment: This kind of criminality has become relatively commonplace in Ukraine but even Russia, renowned for its patience with corrupt regimes, like the US, has had to step up its game in order to stop the situation deteriorating further:

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Megaphone

US' irrational Xinjiang crackdown a danger to global industry and US business


Global Times
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 08:48 UTC
US bridge break
© Tang Tengfei/GT
Among the US' anti-China tool kit, the "Xinjiang card" has been thrust under the spotlight. Based on a baseless "forced labor" accusation, Washington has launched its vicious scheme targeting Xinjiang industries and is reportedly stepping up pressure on American firms to pause imports from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

In addition to a series of bans or restrictions on Xinjiang cotton, tomatoes and polycrystalline silicon, the US Congress is expected to launch a tougher crackdown against the region by approving "legislation later this year that would prohibit imports of all products from Xinjiang unless the importer can prove their items are free of forced labor," the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

If this legislation gets passed, it will create widespread chaos throughout the global supply chain and even drag down the recovery of global economy during post-COVID era.

Comment: Indeed, the claims of China's labor camps and a discrimination campaign against the Uighur community doesn't stand up to scrutiny; The Independent newspaper admitted admitted as much recently:
For decades, China had one of the most extensive systems of minority preferential treatment in the world, including hiring quotas and extra points on college entrance exams. The government also allowed ethnic minorities two or three children, even as it restricted its Han majority to just one child.
See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Dubai's Princess Latifa, who failed to escape her 'evil' father, is set to hit the US courts

Chris Sweeney
RT
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 09:33 UTC
latifa
© YouTube / #FreeLatifa Official
At the heart of the planned legal action is the daring - and probably illegal - high seas mission by Sheikh Mohammed to snatch his daughter back from a yacht in the Indian Ocean in 2018, one of Latifa's confidantes tells RT.

Nothing is ever quite what it seems to be when it comes to Dubai, a very sunny place full of very shady characters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This shiny modern metropolis, built at fabulous expense, is a magnet for the world's intelligence agents, dodgy businessmen and rich people who enjoy eating the $14 oysters flown in from France at Atmosphere, the highest restaurant in the world, a quarter of a mile up the stupendous 828-meter-high Burj Khalifa tower.

In this Arabian Gotham-on-sand, ruled over with an iron fist by the staggeringly wealthy Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, there are enough dramas, and plots within plots, to keep the most demanding Hollywood producer busy for years.

Comment: See also:

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Penis Pump

'Afghan turmoil shames the West', says German president


Yahoo
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 07:54 UTC
Kabul

FILE PHOTO: People try to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul
Images of throngs trying to flee Kabul are shameful for Western nations, Germany's president said on Tuesday, as desperate people clamoured at the airport after the Taliban takeover.


Comment: As many commentators have already stated, it wasn't exactly a 'takeover'. The widely mistrusted Kabul government fell apart as soon as the US scarpered, and the Taliban, who enjoy support from many in Afghanistan, were ready to step in amidst the power vacuum.


"We are experiencing a human tragedy for which we share responsibility," said President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after the Western-backed government in Kabul collapsed and its foreign-trained security forces melted away.


Comment: It's a little late to be talking about 'human tragedy' because the US' illegal invasion of the country happened nearly two decades ago and the result of the illegal occupation and war on Afghanistan was over 100,000 civilian deaths. But the West is certainly responsible for the war crimes it committed whilst there.


Germany, which had the second largest military contingent in Afghanistan after the United States, wants to airlift thousands of German-Afghan dual nationals as well as rights activists, lawyers and people who worked with foreign forces.

Comment: The West should be ashamed of a great majority of its dealings in the Middle East, but, in this instance, Afghanistan seems to be faring much better now that it's gone: 'Safer than before': Russian Embassy in Kabul sees no reason to evacuate as Taliban takes over security - ambassador

For the real story on what's happening in Afghanistan, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?



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Bad Guys

The only truth about US disastrous Afghanistan war is that it was all based on lies

Scott Ritter
RT
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 19:48 UTC
Taliban fighter
© REUTERS TV/via REUTERS
A Taliban fighter runs towards crowd outside Kabul airport, Kabul, Afghanistan August 16, 2021, in this still image taken from a video
The stunning victory of the Taliban over the US-backed Afghan government raises more questions than it answers as to how this happened. In the search for answers, however, don't ask the generals who fought the war - they all lied.

Let me begin with full disclosure - I have never set foot in Afghanistan. I have zero skin equity in this current debacle. I have lost very close friends to the conflict that tore that country apart these past 20 years, and I do mourn their loss. What I lack in on-the-ground warfighting resume entries, however, is somewhat compensated by a more intellectually based approach toward the conflict in Afghanistan.

As a historian, I have studied the tribes of Afghanistan, especially their penchant for conflict against ruling authority which deviates from what they expect from their leaders. My specialty was (and is) the Basmachi resistance to Soviet authority in the 1920s and 1930s. More specifically, my studies focused on those elements of Basmachi which settled in Kabul and northern Afghanistan, and who helped overthrow an Afghan King and later were defeated by a Pashtun tribal army.
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