No Leadership

 

No Leadership

 This poor excuse for a president comes out one day, reads some tough words from the teleprompter, blames President Trump for everything, elicits sympathy for his son Beau, and then mewls into his briefing book.

 The next day, he angrily takes personal credit for ending the war in Afghanistan, blames everyone else but himself for any issues, mentions Beau again for sympathy, admits that 10% of the Americans in Afghanistan, and countless Afghan allies are left behind, and rants on about how great a job he has done on Afghanistan.

 In the meantime, there are reports of Taliban thugs torturing and beheading our Afghan allies, seeking out and persecuting Americans, and enslaving young girls into Taliban warrior “weddings”.

 Is this guy living on Mars?  Or is it just an application of Josef Goebbels’ law of propaganda, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”.  Or, just feed it to the sheep who voted for me, and they will go baa—aa.

 It has become increasingly obvious to many of us, our allies and our enemies, that this country has no effective leadership.  There might have been a saving grace if we had a strong vice president waiting to take over, but who do we have?  Giggling Gertie.

 We are in a sad and vulnerable place as a country.  The best we can hope for is to vote out the “woke” socialists in 2022, and establish strong republican majorities in both houses of congress.  Strong enough to impeach and convict both incompetent leaders would be nice, but that’s wishful thinking.  Curtailing these idiots, if they don’t do too much harm first, would be a start.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 31, 2021

---

 [RG1]

Worst Foreign Policy Disaster

 

Worst Foreign Policy Disaster

"It didn’t have to be this way. Biden could have maintained a U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan that kept the Taliban from taking over the country (they hadn’t even captured Kandahar as of about three weeks ago), or, failing that, he could have fashioned a minimally competent withdrawal that didn’t put us at the mercy of the Taliban. He did neither. He took an unsatisfactory stalemate and made it a complete rout. He botched our exit, materially harmed our national security, precipitated a humanitarian catastrophe, and betrayed our countrymen and allies.

He has not only made us less safe, he has dishonored us, and that can never be forgotten or forgiven."

 Biden is presumably going to speak later today about Afghanistan.  Expect him to take credit, and try to extract success for himself and his handlers, for the extraordinary job done by our military in evacuating 120,000 people out of Kabul since August 14.

 Unfortunately, our military’s performance is the only positive item in a long litany of stupidity and incompetence, in what has to be the worst foreign policy disaster in the history of the United States.

 These idiots in Washington, led by an intransigent, stubborn and arrogant Biden, pulled out all of our troops and air support first. and left thousands of Americans and Afghan allies, and $80 billion of military equipment, (and Bagram airport), behind.  Then they had to beg the terrorist Taliban that over-ran the country for permission to bring more troops in to evacuate our people.

 How anyone in their right mind could try to extract success from such an abysmal failure, is beyond belief.  If the sheep that voted for Biden just sit there and go ba---aaa, and accept his ”Grandpa Joe” Irish bullshit this time, it truly speaks to how indoctrinated to the socialist cause, half our electorate is.

 These articles say it all…

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/sorry-this-was-not-a-success/

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/bidens-disgrace-2/

 Ray Gruszecki

August 31, 2021

Invasions of Afghanistan

 

Invasions of Afghanistan

 Afghanistan is known as the “graveyard of empires”. 

 Being historically “on the way” from the West to India, Afghanistan has been invaded and occupied by myriad empires.  Some were not trivial, and established a long-lasting presence.  Others were fleeting, and relatively quickly displaced, like most recently, the USSR and the US/NATO.

 The Persians (Medes)

While relatively little detail is known, parts of the region of modern-day Afghanistan came under rule of the Median kingdom (part of ancient Persia), for a short time.

 Alexander and the Greeks (Macedonians)

Alexander the Great invaded what is today Afghanistan in 330 BC as part of war against Persia. Comprising the easternmost satrapies of Persia, Afghanistan provided some challenging battles in his conquest of the remaining lands of Persia. Renamed Bactria, and settled with his Ionian veterans, Alexander began his invasion of India from what is now Jalalabad, attacking the Indus River basin through the Khyber Pass. Several cities in Afghanistan are named for Alexander, including Alexandria Arachosia, now called Kandahar (a contraction of Iskandahar).

 The Islamic Caliphate

In the seventh to ninth centuries, following the disintegration of the Sassanid Persian Empire and Roman Empire, leaders in the world theatre for the last four centuries and archrivals, the area was again invaded from the west, this time by Umar, second Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, in the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, eventually resulting in the conversion of most of its inhabitants to Islam.

 Genghis Khan and the Mongols

In the Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia (1219–1221), Genghis Khan invaded the region from the northeast in one of his many conquests to create the huge Mongol Empire. His armies slaughtered thousands in the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad etc. Thereafter most parts of Afghanistan other than the extreme south-eastern remained under Mongol rule as part of the Ilkhanate and Chagatai Khanate.

 Tamerlane (Timur) and Mughal Empire

From 1383 to 1385, the Afghanistan area was conquered from the north by Timur, leader of neighboring Transoxiana (roughly modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and adjacent areas), and became a part of the Timurid Empire. Timur was from a Turko-Mongol tribe and although a Muslim, saw himself more as an heir of Genghis Khan. Timur's armies caused great devastation and are estimated to have caused the deaths of 17 million people.

 The Sikh Empire

In the beginning of 1837, the Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Sikhs under Maharajah Ranjit Singh and the Afghans under Emir Dost Muhammad Khan. Since the consolidation of the Sikh Empire in Punjab, Maharajah Ranjit Singh had tried a wave of invasions on Afghanistan. The Afghans had been losing their long held territories to Sikhs over the preceding years due to internal conflicts, and had seen their once mighty empire disintegrating.

 British invasions: 1838–1842, 1878–1880 and 1919

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Afghanistan was invaded three times from British India. The First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838–1842 was conducted with the intention of limiting Russian influence in the country and quelling raiding from across the border. Within four years the British were expelled. The main British Indian force occupying Kabul along with their camp followers, was almost completely annihilated during its 1842 retreat from Kabul.  After the Indian Mutiny, the British launched a second invasion, the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878–1880, for much the same reasons but did not attempt to maintain a permanent presence. A third conflict broke out in 1919. It lasted for three months, from May to August, and ended in a compromise that saw Afghanistan reassert its independence and control over its relations with other countries while agreeing to a border with British India known as the Durand Line. This line is still the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan today.

 Soviet invasions: 1929, 1930 and 1979

The Soviet Union successfully invaded Afghanistan in 1929 against the Saqqawists and again in 1930 to fight the Basmachi movement.  The Soviet Union, along with other countries, was a direct supporter of the new Afghan government after the Saur Revolution in April 1978. However, Soviet-style reforms introduced by the government such as changes in marriage customs and land reform were not received well by a population deeply immersed in tradition and Islam.  After continuing internal strife and assassinations of several Soviet puppet leaders, on 24 January 1989 Gorbachev's Politburo took the decision to withdraw most of the Soviet forces.

 Invasion by the United States and NATO, October 2001

On October 7, 2001 the United States, supported by some NATO countries including the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as other allies, began an invasion of Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom. The invasion was launched to capture Osama bin Laden, who was the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and was being sheltered by the Taliban.

 After some success against the Taliban, they began to regroup and to engage both NATO and Afghan National Army forces, starting a protracted war that lasted till 2021, with the withdrawal of Western forces and a Taliban victory.

  “Status quo ante”, except for the 2500 American lives lost, $2,4 trillion spent on the war, and $80 billion plus worth of military equipment gifted to the Taliban by the monumentally incompetent Joe Biden and minions.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 31, 2021

Military Out

 

Military Out

 After Joe Biden’s and his handler’s disastrous, wrong sequence withdrawal from the country, our military is once again out of Afghanistan after being redeployed at Kabul airport to get as many Americans and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan, as possible.  They lost 13 soldiers and marines and hundreds of civilians to an ISIS-K suicide bomber, but, according to Centcom Commanding General Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., they evacuated some 122,000 people, including 5,400 Americans since August 14.  There are hundreds of Americans, and thousands of SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) Afghans, who are stranded in Afghanistan, in spite of Jen Psaki’s dislike of the word “stranded”.

 Our military performed professionally and flawlessly, as is normal for the 82^nd Airborne and affiliates.  They got a particularly tough and dangerous job done within the arbitrary time limits acceded to by the politicians in Washington. 

 General McKenzie advised that the military mission to evacuate our people is over, but “diplomatic efforts” by the State Department will continue.  What are the chances that our “rock ‘n roll” Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, will be successful?  Let’s remember, that this is the same State Department that brought us the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, where 52 Americans were held hostage for more than a year, and which has almost as bad a record of fouling things up for expatriate Americans as Joe Biden has as president.

 The fate of the Americans left in Afghanistan is dire.  Another hostage crisis looms.  Even worse is the lot of the Afghan friends that helped us in the war against the Taliban.

 And let’s not forget, that we are back to Afghanistan under the 7^th century, Sharia law, Taliban, as a safe haven for every America-hating Islamic terrorist in the world, just like it was 20 years ago. when Bin Laden and Al Qaeda knocked down the twin towers.  Except now, the Taliban have some $80 billion worth of modern armaments and equipment that kindly “Grandpa Joe” left them.

 Nice going, Joe Biden.  You are beyond mediocrity.  You are incompetent, stupid opinionated (the wrong way), and arrogant.  You are ruining our country, just like you pretty much ruined everything you touched during your whole career.  If it were only senility, it might elicit some sympathy.  But, it’s an overarching ego and stubbornness and resistance to “your way”, that causes disasters like this botched Afghanistan pull-out, and the piles of “executive orders” that are destroying the country.  

 Ray Gruszecki

August 30, 2021

Swinging Way Left with Biden

 

Swinging Way Left with Biden

 Well, you Biden voters, you voted out President Trump’s patriotism, no-nonsense personality and pithy tweets.  What you got in return is a patently incompetent Joe Biden, who can’t hide in the senate anymore, as he did for 36 years, or behind Obama, as he did for 8 years, or eating ice cream behind a biased, fawning media as he did for the first seven months of his “presidency”.

 Biden’s stupidity, incompetence, stubbornness and arrogance concerning the Afghan withdrawal is in the open for all to see.  The left-wing media would dearly love to paper it over, as they have Biden’s southern border crisis, Biden’s crime crisis, Biden’s inflation crisis, and myriad other crises that Biden has f----ed up, in the once uttered words of the saintly Obama.  The Afghanistan crisis, with hundreds of Americans, thousands of Afghan allies, and upwards of $80 billion of modern arms left to the Taliban, cannot so easily be dismissed.

 Closer to home, has anyone shopped for groceries or bought gas recently?  Anecdotally, 100 Biden dollars worth of groceries now, seven months ago, cost about 75 Trump dollars.  Gasoline? 30 Biden dollars was worth about 20 Trump dollars last year.  Similar across our economy.  And these mavens of the economy want to spend another $3.5 trillion that they don’t have?

 In case no one has noticed it, our country is crumbling around these democrat-socialist’s ears.  Our society and culture are being rotted away by Marxist infusions such as Critical Race Theory, the 1619 project, Black Lives Matter, intersectionality, “wokeness”, cancel culture, and other “social justice” sounding tenets steeped in Marxism, which are, in fact, “hate America”, and dissolve its founding principles, then rebuild it as defined by Marx, Engels, Dewey, Marcuse and others.  

 Our schools and universities have become indoctrination centers for Marxist curricula even more extant than this trend in the past. Lenin and Trotsky could not have orchestrated it better.

 Our national identity and integrity are impossible with virtually no southern border, and “come-one, come-all” immigration policy, with no vetting, and regardless of anti-American ideology.

 Crime is rampant in our citis because many democrat-run cities have defunded their police departments.  Nancy Pelosi guides our congress to chase after January 6 “insurrectionists”, while ignoring continuous BLM and Antifa predations during the long summer of 2020.

 An atheistic secularity is replacing religious beliefs concomitant with the Marxist style socialism being taught in our schools.  We are fast becoming a country of non-believers, rather than “one nation under God”.

 We can hope that these effects are the result of a swing of the pendulum to the left, and that it will swing back, as it has many times before.  To that end, we really need to ensure that the current Marxist movement does not irreversibly turn our country into a one-party, totalitarian dictatorship, by weakening or destroying our constitution, bill of rights and other hallowed traditions.  For example, eliminating the current senate filibuster rule where 60 votes are required for major legislation, would allow the 50/50 senate democrats to run rampant with majority only, 51-50 votes, to pass all manner of debilitating rules and laws.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 30, 2021

Cryin’ Joe

 

Cryin’ Joe

 Here is our weak, mewling “president’, broken up over the 13 American marines and soldiers, and countless others, killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul yesterday.  Our sorrow is with you, Joe, and your sorrow would be more poignant and authentic if these deaths were not caused by your stupidity, incompetence, stubbornness and arrogance.

 What we have needed in Afghanistan, is not a leader who reads strong words from a teleprompter, tries to blame President Trump for it all, and then cries into his briefing book.  We need someone who has the knowledge and spine to do things right.

 No one denies that we should be phasing out of Afghanistan, that “graveyard of empires”, after 20 years, but certainly not by pulling out all troops first, leaving 100,000 people and billions of dollars- worth of equipment behind, and then begging the Taliban terrorists to go back in to save our people.

 To any but the most obtuse, it should have been all of our people and equipment out first, then our military, leaving some military in country, as in countless other locations around the world.  Also, we should have encouraged and supported contractor support for the Afghan Air Force, instead of denying this support.

 So, here we sit, five days away from an inflexible Taliban end-date, after which hundreds of Americans, and thousands of our Afghani allies will be stranded in a violent, repressive seventh century nightmare.  I’m sure we can expect to see our weak-kneed president shedding more tears for the Afghanistan that he and his handlers gave away to the Taliban, and making more appeals for sympathy for the tragedy of his son Beau’s death.

 

Ray Gruszecki

August 27, 2021

Afghanistan Terrorist Attack

 

Afghanistan Terrorist Attack

 Upwards of 100 people, including 13 American marines and soldiers were killed by a complex terrorist suicide attack this morning at the HKIA in Kabul, Afghanistan.

 As with many issues with respect to Afghanistan, this tragedy was met with many hours of silence from Joe Biden, followed by a press conference read from teleprompters by a pathetic, bumbling, senile old man, struggling to maintain continuity from the material prepared for him.

 In the Q & A following, also prepared for him, old Joe again elicited sympathy for his son Beau, and stubbornly and antagonistically defended his administration’s botched pullout of U.S. forces in completely the wrong order.  He also defended acceding to the terrorist Taliban as partners in Afghanistan.

This is what we get, as president, when people vote against the incumbent’s abrasive personality and too true tweets, rather than his patriotism and love of our country, and his actual accomplishments, and not his sometimes blunt, rhetoric.  We get a pathetic, inept old man who never showed a modicum of competence in his nearly 50 years in government, and who has historically and consistently been on the wrong side of major issues.

 Joe Biden has continuously hidden his glaring incompetence.  First, in the senate; then behind Obama; later, in his basement. Even as “president”, behind the biased, fawning media, and behind his stubbornness and arrogance and “grandpa Joe” b.s.  Well, he can’t hide from 13 dead soldiers and marines, and countless other dead and wounded because of his stupid, precipitous pull-out from Afghanistan, and his ill-conceived reliance on the terrorist Taliban for security.

  Not much we can do about such rank incompetence, even if American blood is spilled.  Invoke the 25^th and remove Joe for inability to perform the duties of the President?  Yeah, but do we really want “giggling Gertie” as President?  She seems even more incompetent than old Joe.

 We are in a quandary.  All we can hope to do is prevent the miniscule democrat-socialist majority from ruining our senate filibuster and other traditions for another year or so, then voting these socialist idiots out and using the new congressional majority to curtail Biden’s attempted power grab.

 Just for grins, this clip is how a real president responds to something like the above terrorist attack.           https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/083/227/204/original/dde86f1895e76e4d.mp4

 Ray Gruszecki

August 26, 2021

Who are the Taliban’s top leaders?

 

Who are the Taliban’s top leaders?

Questions remain over whether the group has cast off an extremist ideology that carried them through two decades of war.

By Adam Nossiter, Carlotta Gall and Julian E. Barnes

Published Aug. 18, 2021  Updated Aug. 21, 2021

The Taliban’s top leaders have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. They are now emerging from obscurity after a 20-year battle, but little is known about them or how they plan to govern.

As they take charge of Afghanistan’s government and a nation of 38 million people, the Taliban’s leaders have tried to signal that they are more worldly and tolerant than their predecessors in the 1990s, willing to work with women and urging people to get back to their jobs without fear of reprisals.

But the question remains: Have they really cast off an extremist ideology that carried them through two decades of war, or is this all a ruse designed to win global approval? What is known about the movement’s leaders yields some clues.

Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, supreme leader

 

Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, in an undated picture released by the Taliban in May 2016.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

An Islamic legal scholar, he is described as a spiritual guide for the movement and has long been a proponent of suicide bombing. His son trained to be a suicide bomber, and at 23 blew himself up in an attack in Helmand Province. That raised Mr. Akhundzada’s profile in the movement, said Carter Malkasian, the author of “The American War in Afghanistan.”

When the previous Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2016, Mr. Akhundzada emerged as a compromise candidate. “They needed somebody more consensual, somebody more able to keep the different factions together,” said a leading scholar of the Taliban, Antonio Giustozzi.

Known as a pragmatist, Mr. Akhundzada overruled the group’s political leaders and allowed the military wing to step up attacks on Afghan cities, Mr. Giustozzi said.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy leader

 

Sirajuddin Haqqani.Credit...FBI

The son of a celebrated mujahedeen figure who oversees a sprawling web of fighters and religious schools from a base in Pakistan, Mr. Haqqani, 48, has led much of the Taliban’s recent military efforts.

 

His Haqqani network, known for its close ties to the Pakistani intelligence service, was the most dogged opponent of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. It was responsible for hostage-taking of Americans, complex suicide attacks and targeted assassinations.

Mr. Haqqani and his network also have some of the strongest and longest-running ties to Al Qaeda, including helping Osama bin Laden escape from his headquarters in Tora Bora after the U.S. invasion in 2001.

In a guest essay in The New York Times last year, Mr. Haqqani tried to show a more moderate face, saying that the Taliban would work with other groups to create “a new, inclusive political system in which the voice of every Afghan is reflected and where no Afghan feels excluded.”

His younger brother, Anas Haqqani, has been part of peace negotiations in Doha and was in Kabul on Wednesday for meetings with former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the Afghan delegation to peace talks. He was accompanied by the speaker of Afghanistan’s upper house of Parliament.

Understand the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan

---

Card 1 of 5

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban arose in 1994 amid the turmoil that came after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including floggings, amputations and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here’s more on their origin story and their record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to govern, including whether they will be as tolerant as they claim to be.

How did the Taliban gain control? See how the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in a few months, and read about how their strategy enabled them to do so.

What happens to the women of Afghanistan? The last time the Taliban were in power, they barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school. Afghan women have made many gains since the Taliban were toppled, but now they fear that ground may be lost. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are signs that, at least in some areas, they have begun to reimpose the old order.

What does their victory mean for terrorist groups? The United States invaded Afghanistan 20 years ago in response to terrorism, and many worry that Al Qaeda and other radical groups will again find safe haven there.

Abdul Gani Baradar, political deputy

 

Abdul Ghani Baradar at the peace talks in Qatar in July.Credit...Karim Jaafar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

One of the movement’s early joiners, Mr. Baradar served as principal deputy to the Taliban’s founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar.

Mr. Baradar led the movement’s military operations until his arrest by Pakistan, under U.S. pressure, in 2010. Under his leadership, the units were notable for their skillful use of guerrilla tactics against British and U.S. forces.

After three years in a Pakistani prison and several more under house arrest, he was released in 2019, under more U.S. pressure, to help negotiate the peace deal reached with the Trump administration in 2020.

In the course of the negotiations, he developed a “warm” relationship with Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy to the talks, according to Mr. Malkasian.

Mullah Muhammad Yaqoub, military leader

The son of Mullah Omar, Mr. Yaqoub has gained importance for his work with the Taliban’s military forces, though he is not expected to challenge Mr. Haqqani for the No. 2 spot in the hierarchy.

He is considered less dogmatic than his father, and overcame a challenge from a rival for leadership of the Taliban’s military wing.

Hidin’ Biden

 

Hidin’ Biden

 Even among his own democrat colleagues, Joe Biden has been known as a low intellect, mostly wrong action, political hack.  Biden successfully pretty much hid in the Senate for 36 years, and as Obama’s vice president, for 8 years.  When not hiding, he became known for his bad decisions and gaffes.

 He continued to hide in his Delaware basement during the 2020 presidential campaign, while half the country, alive and dead, and cyber, voted against President Trump’s personality and tweets, and not his accomplishments.  Biden continued to hide behind a fawning, biased media for seven months, while the country crumbles around him.

 Finally, the magnitude of his incompetence, and that of his almost as incompetent advisors, could no longer be hidden or ignored.  These unmitigated idiots precipitously withdrew all of our military out of Afghanistan, while leaving 10-12,000 Americans, upwards of 80-100,000 Afghani allies, and somewhere around $80 billion of military equipment behind.

 Then they had to put 5000+ troops back into Kabul, and a virtually indefensible, one-runway airport, to evacuate our people, asking the Taliban’s acquiescence and permission to do this.

 Unbelievably, in this digital age, with encrypted cloud database capability and all the technological trappings, our State Department and military do not know how many people or how much equipment they left behind.

 I personally have seen our State Department do incredibly stupid things, to the point that if you need help overseas, avoid the U.S. embassy and consulates.  See the Canadians, or Aussies or Brits.  I have many examples.

 So, what we have here is our vaunted State Department, as above, negotiating with the barbaric 6^th century Taliban, about the evacuation of nearly 100,000 people, and with a Biden defined, and Taliban upheld, cut-off date of August 31.  What could go wrong?  Anybody see a problem here?  Biden and his handlers opine that all is fine.

 In this worst foreign policy disaster, ever, for the U.S., we could end up with thousands of American citizens and Afghan allies killed or held as hostage.  This makes the Iranian hostage crisis and the Bay of Pigs look like afternoon tea parties.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 24, 2021

Who are These People?

 

Who are These People?

 Biden’s advisors.  Some of these people are senile Biden’s puppeteers and handlers.  Rumor has it that he is guided, (a lot), by Ron Klain, Jake Sullivan and Susan Rice, among others.

 In the administration of Joe Biden, the current Chief of Staff is Ron Klain, who succeeded Mark Meadows on January 20, 2021. The Chief of Staff is the most senior political appointee in the White House, and holds Yankee White security clearance. This is the highest level of clearance in the United States government, allowing the Chief of Staff access to highly classified national security issues. The position is widely recognized as one of great power and influence, owing to daily contact with the President of the United States and control of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

 mat, policy advisor, and public official serving as Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council since 2021.

 Samantha Jane Power is an American academic, diplomat and government official who is currently serving as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. She previously served as the 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017.

 Lloyd James Austin III (born August 8, 1953) is an American retired United States Army four-star general serving as the 28th United States secretary of defense since January 22, 2021. He is the first African American to serve as the United States secretary of defense. Austin previously served as the 12th commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2013 to 2016.

 Mark Alexander Milley is a United States Army general and the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army.

 Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan (born November 28, 1976) is an American political advisor who serves as the United States National Security Advisor to President Joe Biden. He was previously a senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign and her deputy chief of staff at the Department of State when she was Secretary of State. Sullivan was also a senior advisor to the U.S. government for the Iran nuclear negotiations and a visiting professor at Yale Law School.

 Jennifer Rene Psaki born December 1, 1978) is an American political advisor serving as the 34th and current White House press secretary. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the Obama administration as the White House deputy press secretary (2009); the White House deputy communications director (2009–2011); the spokesperson for the United States Department of State (2013–2015); and the White House communications director (2015–2017)  Psaki was a political contributor for CNN from 2017 to 2020.

 John Francis Kirby s a retired rear admiral in the United States Navy serving as the Press Secretary for the United States Department of Defense and Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs since 2021. He previously worked as a military and diplomatic analyst for CNN from 2017 to 2021.

 Edward Price is an American political advisor and former intelligence officer serving as spokesman for the United States Department of State since 2021. He worked at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006 until 2017.

 Lists of cabinet members and other important people in the Biden administration.  Some are already listed above.

 https://www.akingump.com/a/web/wkdSnZXdawTidmrGBQs16M/biden-administration-cabinet-and-staff.pdf

 https://www.nytimes.com/article/joe-biden-cabinet.html

Ray Gruszecki

August 22, 2021

Heartsick

 

Heartsick

 From my recent posts, you can tell that I am heartsick that the country that I love, could be so humiliated by such incompetent and stupid leaders, on leaving Afghanistan. This goes way beyond politics, to the very core principles of our nation, its diplomatic corps, and its military.

 How could anyone who considered themselves to be any sort of leader foul things up as badly as this?  Who in their right mind, removes the troops from an embattled country first, leaving their citizens, allies and billions of dollars of equipment behind for a vicious, barbaric enemy to exploit, and then has to send the military back in, to plead with that enemy to allow them to get their people out.

 This is not the first humiliation that our country has suffered because of incompetent leadership.  The Iran hostage crisis and the abortive attempt to free our hostages in Iran, and the Bay of Pigs fiasco come to mind.  But never have we lefts upwards of 10-12,000 Americans and 80,000 allies behind enemy lines, at the mercy of barbarians, and then had to plead with those barbarians to provide egress without maiming, torturing and killing our citizens and allies.

 There is a moral and ethical decay or cancer that has afflicted our country.  Not just Joe Biden, who is hardly a legitimate president, although it is forbidden in our “woke” society to express such a thought. However, Biden is the symbol of what’s wrong with the country.  The point about Biden is that he is incompetent, has always been incompetent, and has been enough of an arrogant blowhard to bloviate his way past most situations.

 Well he can’t bloviate his way out of this one, although he certainly has tried.  “Don’t see anything wrong here”, says old Joe, while images of atrocities stream from Afghanistan, and universal condemnation rains down from our world allies, and our enemies laugh and scheme with glee.

 How did we get here, one might ask?  Well, this is what you get when you vote against someone and his too truthful tweets, and not for a guy hiding in the Vice Presidency, or hiding in his basement.  Did anyone think that it was going to be different, and that Biden would “grow a pair”, and all of a sudden reverse 50 years of ingrained mediocrity?  Instead he slipped into senility, and into the influence of inexperienced and more incompetent political operators.

 But its not just old Joe and the really stupid people running him.  Its our whole political system, that has devolved into a politically correct, “woke” Marxist enterprise, incorporating admitted Marxist groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa into its core.

 It’s rush away from patriotic and religious principles and a love of our country and its values and traditions, and replacing them with a twisted, racist based, hatred of our country taught by activist Marxist teachers and professors.

 Unfortunately, the sheep that watch the biased mainstream propaganda on ABC, CBS, NBC, et al, will never absorb the full story of how badly Biden screwed up this Afghanistan situation, and will soon forget it, and turn to the next inane reality show.

 Hopefully enough of us will remember this black eye to our country, to vote out the weak, “woke”, cancel culture idiots in Washington who are responsible for it.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 22, 2021

The Taliban and Al Qaeda

 

The Taliban and Al Qaeda

 Andy McCarthy normally tells it like it is.  We may not like all of it even if it’s true. 

 This article explains the Taliban and Al Qaeda and how we’ve interacted with them.

 Excerpts:

“Every citizen. So immovable are we in our enlightened beliefs and their presumed attractiveness to everyone that a quarter-century later, we don’t even know our enemies well enough to grasp that, very basically, sharia-supremacists don’t do “citizen” as we construe that concept. It is foreign to their understanding of how society works.”

 “We persist anyway: We talk to fundamentalist Muslim societies about the nation-state, representative government, self-determination, the right to vote, legislators who advocate for their constituents’ interests. Understand: When we do this, we are speaking about our aspirations for them. It is not enough to say we’re not addressing their aspirations for themselves. We’re speaking in Western terms they find alien — even hostile.”

 “But the Taliban do not accept the republican form of government. They don’t just oppose it. Their raison d’etre is to fight it and establish their fundamentalist construction of sharia. Completely heedless of this, our government’s policy, irrationally but immovably, has been that the Taliban must be negotiated with, and that they will ultimately see the good sense in joining a representative republic in which their concerns — just like the concerns of Afghans who want Western liberalism — will be heard.”

 https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/america-has-been-in-denial-about-the-taliban-from-the-start/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=more-in&utm_term=third

 Ray Gruszecki

August 22, 2021

How Can We Change So Quickly?

 

How Can We Change So Quickly?

 How can my beloved country, in a few short months, go from a patriotic, respected, (if not entirely liked), member of the world community, to a disdained and disrespected shell of its former self?  Ask Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the myriad other leftists that are trying to convert this country into one-party, Marxist, totalitarian autocracy.  And who this past week, have perpetrated a monstrous, massive foreign disaster.

 Upwards of 10-12,000 Americans, and 80,000 Afghan allies have been stranded by the monumental stupidity of Biden and his handlers.  And what’s the upshot from Biden?  Nothing to see here, as the visual and audio record from Kabul belies his words.  Only reluctantly and apologetically, is our biased media forced to acknowledge what is happening in Afghanistan.  They can’t withhold the story or paper over it.  Too many smartphone cameras.

 How long did it take the democratically elected government of Germany to be overtaken by the Nazis in the 1930’s? Or Russia to be overtaken by the communists?  Well, a similar thing has happened here.

 From President Trump, who, for all his foibles, and in spite of continuing false charges of Russian collusion, unwarranted impeachments, and all manner of impediments, was a patriotic, America loving, flag hugging, pragmatic businessman who solved problems, and not just talked about them, we now have an empty shell and political hack of a president, run by Marxists, who are destroying the country and our standing in the world.

 Does anyone seriously believe that the barbaric, sixth century Taliban will allow the “infidels” to safely evacuate Afghanistan?  There are already reports of beatings of westerners and their allies, and one report of a man’s arms being cut off, and his wife and children killed, with the 10 year old child enslaved by these barbarians. 

 But the American couch potato sheep who follow the biased propaganda that constitutes our news, don’t want to hear of such things.  They want to believe kindly old “Grandpa Joe” when he says “all ok here, nothing to see”, particularly when he gets down and low, and whispers it.

 I sincerely hope and pray that our people get out. But the voice of experience and the cynic in me warns that beatings and torture and killings are likely, ending with a massive hostage situation which will dwarf the Iranian hostage crisis.  If Trump were running the show, first of all we wouldn’t be here, but if we were, I’m sure that he could get us out of this successfully, and with dignity.  I don’t hold much hope for that with these incompetent clowns that now form our government.

 There are calls for Biden to resign, or to invoke the 25^th amendment because of his senility.  Who would replace him, “giggling Gertie”, who has shown herself to be almost as incompetent as poor old Joe?

 Upon pain of lightening striking me, I have to say that this is what we get for believing that Joe Biden came out of his basement as a winner in the 2020 presidential race.  There are too many, not only anecdotal, but also other unconstitutional and cyber-related events affecting the election of Biden to just let it pass.  But let it pass we have, and we excoriate Mike Lindell and others as some sorts of kooks for spending their own money to prove differently.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 21, 2021

Continuing Disaster in Afghanistan

 

Continuing Disaster in Afghanistan

 Your Executive and State Department in action.

 https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-vow-be-accountable-probe-reports-reprisals-afghanistan-2021-08-21/

 https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-middle-east-evacuations-kabul-11e1590d8f9976fae13e7ee83a6b193a

 I wonder if they affixed U.S. flag notices on property of Americans to ward off looting, like they did in Beirut after the Six Day War.  Or tried to confiscate U.S. passports, as in Beirut?

 I’ll reiterate my thoughts as an experienced expatriate who lived extensively overseas in my younger life.  If you need help as an American national overseas, avoid the U.S. Embassy or consulates, if possible.  They will inevitably make the situation worse.  Try other English speakers, like the Canadians or Australians or British or Irish first.

 Don’t believe me?  Who was responsible for 52 American hostages being held by the Iranian mullahs for over a year? – The American embassy in Tehran.  Also, a little-known fact by the sheep that follow our biased news, - who managed to get six Americans out of Iran during that crisis? – The Canadians, not our diplomatic corps.  If we recall, our military tried to free the 52 hostages, was micro-managed by a well-meaning, but inexperienced Jimmy Carter, and failed spectacularly.

 What an unmitigated disaster for our country!  Not only the monumental, egotistical stupidity of withdrawing our military first and leaving our citizens and allies and billions of dollars of up-to-date military equipment behind, but practically begging the Taliban savages to go back in and evacuate our people, and then confining our troops to the airport (wrong one), while the Taliban play their barbarous games with our people trying to get into the airport.

 I have very little hope of getting 10-12,000 Americans, and upwards of 80,000 Afghani allies out of Afghanistan through the barbaric 6^th century savage Taliban lines, if people like vacuous Joe, rock ‘n roll Blinken and “woke” Milley are calling the shots.  We may stand some chance of getting some of them out if we let the 82^nd Airborne “screaming eagles” do their jobs unhampered by the clowns in Washington.

 Ray Gruszecki

August 21, 2021

Biden’s Continuing Lies. Duplicity, Ineptitude

 

Biden’s Continuing Lies. Duplicity, Ineptitude

 This incompetent fool just stands in front of the world, and reads bald face lies, lies, lies, from the teleprompter. Does Biden even know they’re lies?  He adamantly defends them, so he must think that they are true.

 https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-denies-allies-angry-over-afghanistan-chaos-despite-evidence-to-contrary/

 Apparently, these obviously manufactured lies about Afghanistan are Susan Rice’s or Ron Klain’s wishful thinking for how things should be in Afghanistan, and not how they really are, as evidenced by the visual and audio record out of the country.

 One just has to wonder how the top echelon of this country, including the president, can be so wrong, so inept and so duplicitous, about our precipitous and ill-conceived exit from Afghanistan, leaving somewhere around 10-12,000 Americans behind, (they don’t know how many), leaving upwards of 80,000 Afghan allies behind, (again, they don’t know how many), and leaving billions of dollars worth of armaments to the Taliban, (they don’t know what, or its value).

 And does the American public believe these lies?  Why sure they do. Of course the left-wing’s ovine followers, believe.  Just look at the front pages of the nation’s major newspapers.  Virtually nary a peep about the disaster in Afghanistan that Biden and his minions caused, or of the tens of thousands of people scrambling to get out through one small airfield in Kabul.

 Some excerpts from an analysis of Biden’s reading from the teleprompter this afternoon.

 “During a press conference Friday, President Joe Biden made a number of erroneous claims regarding the botched American-conducted withdrawal from Afghanistan that left thousands of citizens of Western nations as well as Afghan allies scrambling to evacuate and flee the Taliban’s takeover.

 Chiefly, Biden asserted that America’s reputation on the world stage has not been damaged amid the foreign-policy snafu, despite outraged reactions from major political figures suggesting the contrary. He also falsely claimed that al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization that orchestrated the attacks on September 11, 2001, has totally disappeared from Afghanistan. And despite accounts proving otherwise, Biden rejected the notion that American nationals have been struggling to make it to the tarmac at the Kabul airport.”

 “The president’s statement comes after a number of members of the British Parliament condemned the United States’ haphazard departure from the country as “catastrophic” and “shameful,” with members uniting to “dishonor” the foreign-policy fiasco, the Telegraph reported.”

 “Norbert Roettgen, the chairman of the German parliament’s foreign-affairs committee, similarly denounced the U.S. exit, and suggested that transatlantic cooperation could deteriorate as a result of it.

 “Things haven’t just gone wrong — it’s a catastrophe,” Roettgen told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s a moral failure of the West — and the geopolitical consequences are still difficult to discern. It’s a breaking point.”

 During the press briefing, the U.S. commander in chief made the misinformed declaration that al-Qaeda is “gone” from Afghanistan. Pundits and foreign-policy scholars quickly debunked the claim, pointing to the operations of the Haqqani Network, which is closely allied and intertwined with al-Qaeda, in Kabul currently.”

 Ray Gruszecki

August 20, 2021