Biden's battalion of babbling buffoons
The Friday Letter / No. 454 / Orlando, Florida
“The jury is still out, but the likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” – Joe Biden, July 8
We start with a quiz. After the Biden Administration's politician-generals ordered our troops to abandon thousands of American civilians and run from Afghanistan in the dead of night, what became of the Black Hawk helicopters, trucks, guns, ammunition, airplanes, runways, computers, and buildings they left behind?
A. The Taliban donated them to the Wounded Warriors Project for auction as a fundraiser.
B. The Afghan government will use them to fight the Taliban.
C. The Taliban will destroy them as part of its “Food Not Bombs” humanitarian project.
D. The Taliban will use them in its war on civilization.
Before attempting to answer this graduate-level question, let's hear from the Biden handlers' national security advisor, a 44-year-old named Jake Sullivan who has never held a job outside of politics or law:
“We don't have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and obviously we don't have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport.”
This is certainly helpful to know. That said, we don't get the sense that Jake Sullivan or anyone else in the Biden regime has a sense of much of anything going on. As of Wednesday, the government was still telling the thousands of Americans trapped behind enemy lines to shelter in place and fill out a form on a website.
Here is how the Associated Press, normally protective of the permanent state, described the situation Tuesday: “A U.S. defense official on Monday confirmed the Taliban’s sudden accumulation of U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment is enormous. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The reversal is an embarrassing consequence of misjudging the viability of Afghan government forces – by the U.S. military as well as intelligence agencies – which in some cases chose to surrender their vehicles and weapons rather than fight.”
With both Biden and his team – including the top military leadership – incapable of dealing with the situation, relatives of the trapped Americans are turning to U.S. Senators like combat veteran Tom Cotton and others for help. Both Biden and his press flack, Jen Psaki, hid on vacation while the crisis unfolded.
And finally, anyone unsure of the answer to our quiz is invited to consult us privately. We promise not to reveal your identity.
Praise for Biden’s retreat from Afghanistan
After U.S. forces abandoned their stations in Afghanistan in the middle of the night without informing our Afghan allies, Biden did receive words of support. A smattering:
“We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission. And that mission was to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11. And we have succeeded in that mission.” – Anthony Blinken, the Secretary of State
“I am curious to hear your reaction of this consequential speech by the American president. Didn't run from it, he owned it. He owned his decision. He owned the fact that, as he put it, the buck stops with him.” – Brian Williams of MSNBC, interviewing former CIA analyst Matt Zeller.
“I hope he gets to own their deaths, too.” – Matt Zeller, responding
“. . . it's refreshing to have a thought-out plan with a set timetable instead of the President waking up one morning getting out of bed, saying what just pops into his head and then having the generals having walked it back. . . . I think the president's plan is a very good one.” – Charles Schumer, the Senate majority leader
“President Biden has made the right decision in completing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Today, we should pause to pay tribute to the extraordinary sacrifices of the Americans who have served in our longest war, as well as their families.” – Barack Obama
“Ninety-five percent of the American people will agree with everything he just said.” – MSNBC propagandist Nicole Wallace, referring to Biden blaming the Afghan people for the U.S. retreat
“Biden was very courageous.” – former California Gov. Jerry Brown, after U.S. forces abandoned Afghanistan, stranding thousands of American citizens and leaving our Afghan collaborators defenseless
The latest in criminology research
Some now-departed criminals with the highest name recognition are Travon Martin, Michael Brown, and George Floyd. Do you recognize the name of Jomo Glasgow? Doubtful. The late Mr. Glasgow, 35, has the distinction of being the first person murdered in New York City after Mayor Bill deBlasio disbanded NYPD's 600-member anti-crime unit in June 2020. de Blasio's anti-police policy took only two days to start producing results.
This is a concern to New Yorkers, because shootings rose by 205 percent in the two weeks after deBlasio axed the unit, the New York post reported at the time. But like all great leaders, the mayor knows how to pivot in the face of new information. He's come up with a sure-fire crime prevention scheme that has eluded criminologists since the beginning of crime: Pay criminals to commit felonies.
An organization called Advance Peace, Seth Barron writes in Monday's New York Post, will be the conduit for paying young male criminals a monthly $1,000 stipend called “transformational opportunities.” The only qualifying requirement is to have established themselves as criminals who have committed “lethal firearm offenses.”
To maintain good standing, the young thugs must only accept mentoring by older ex-cons, Barron explains.
The program enjoys widespread support – from the lefty loons who actually run things. The Advance Peace scheme, says Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, “isn't only a moral obligation, it's a government imperative.”
The program seems to be working as planned in other places. In Stockton, Calif., murders rose by 60 percent, from 28 to 45, in 2020 in the year after the program launched. This shouldn't be surprising. Even stupid criminals, which most of them are, know a good deal when they see one: Commit a serious firearms felony, post no bail or serve time thanks to Soros-funded prosecutors, and get paid monthly. This sounds like a swell career choice.
What will they think of next, paying people to not work during the CCP coronavirus lock down?
Some elements of our society, the ones who make the most noise and get the most favorable press, like to make martyrs of criminals whose careers have been cut short on account of being shot dead by the police while trying to relieve some innocent person of his liberty. George Floyd – violent felon, passer of counterfeit currency, resister of arrest, illegal drug user – is a household name. Not one person in 10 million knows the name of Jomo Glasgow, who was minding his own business outside a party in Brooklyn when gunned down.
A final note on this. We looked without success for reports of Antifa and Black Lives Matter killing people and burning cities to the ground following Mr. Glasgow's murder. Sometimes we get distracted and miss things. We'll let you know if anything turns up.
Short takes on the news
A Trump-appointed judge in Texas ordered the Biden Administration to reinstate Trump's policy of keeping asylum seekers in Mexico while they await a hearing, Just the News reports. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said Homeland Security “failed to consider . . . the benefits of the remain in Mexico policy” in rescinding the policy. Just the News editor John Solomon reports that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “ignored his own agency's data showing 9 of 10 asylum claims from high-volume countries in the Northern Triangle were frivolous and that ending the policy might create a surge of migrants at the border.”
Parting shot
Don't blame the rifle team E-4s and Marine Corps gunnery sergeants for the cowardly flight from Afghanistan. Don’t blame the pilots and company commanders. Don't blame them for leaving thousands of American civilians stranded behind enemy lines. They served their country with honor. Blame is easy to spot: people pulling Biden's puppet strings, and people wearing four stars on their uniforms.
And what makes Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin so dangerous is his profound stupidity. How someone of this caliber ever acquired four stars in the U.S. Army is a testament to the politics of military leadership. “We don’t have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people,” Austin told a reporter, quoted at the Daily Caller. Of course not. People who run from danger when their job is to protect the innocent can't be expected to do much of anything.