swordfish

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/562037-china-will-be-the-next-empire-to-enter-the-afghan-graveyard As Afghanistan descends into tribal warfare following America’s hasty departure, China plans to “swoop in” and “fill the vacuum.” “Beijing just can’t wait for the U.S. to get out of the way,” Syed Fazl-e-Haider of the Daily Beast reports. Beijing, which runs a multiracial empire, does not appear especially concerned that land-locked, mountainous Afghanistan is often called the “graveyard of empires.” “Compared with other powers, China has the ability to get involved in Afghan affairs without becoming entangled in it,” writes Zhang Jiadong of Fudan University in the Communist Party’s Global Times. The title of Zhang’s July 6 piece says it all: “China will not fall into ‘Afghan trap’ as other powers have bitterly learned.” Yes, China has some advantages in Afghanistan that other “empires” did not possess, but the Chinese appear overconfident, nonetheless. China has long sought control of Afghanistan. For one thing, Beijing has coveted natural resources, especially copper — China has a 30-year lease on the deposits at Mes Aynak. Beijing also eyes the country’s gold, uranium and lithium. The Chinese still want the minerals, but now their ambitions include tying that country firmly into the Belt and Road Initiative, their global transportation-infrastructure program. Beijing planners, for instance, hope to complete a Kabul-Peshawar highway, linking the Afghan capital to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a $62 billion series of projects that is part of the Belt and Road network. More importantly, Beijing wants to deny oppressed Turkic minorities a sanctuary. Chinese officials have been surreptitiously working with the terrorist Haqqani network, inside Afghanistan, to go after activists and militants working to free Uyghurs brutally treated in what Beijing calls its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The region shares a 47-mile border with Afghanistan. Perhaps China’s main advantages in Afghanistan are its firm lock on neighboring Pakistan and Beijing’s long-standing ties to the Taliban, which go as far back to the time the group was in power, from 1996 to 2001. China has supplied the Taliban with weapons and even helped it after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to news reports. The group now controls vast swaths of the Afghan countryside and appears set to eventually take control of Kabul. The Taliban, unfortunately for Beijing, has opponents operating in the country, and the Chinese could find themselves under attack from Taliban enemies. “The Taliban isn’t the only challenge to overcome,” Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center told the Daily Beast. “There are many sources of violence, both anti- and pro-state, in Afghanistan.” Those sources can be manipulated by India, which is in a position to bedevil Beijing. It was Indian intelligence operatives, after all, who exposed China’s ties to the Haqqani network recently. India, should it so choose, could cause trouble for China in Afghanistan, and New Delhi has every reason to do so. Chinese troops intruded into Indian-controlled territory in Ladakh in May of last year, and China’s military is now engaged in a massive troop buildup in the Himalayas. Moreover, there is a Chinese encroachment in India’s Sikkim, also in that mountainous range. As important, Beijing has fully backed Islamabad’s troublemaking in Indian-controlled Kashmir and reportedly has provided support for Pakistani terrorism in India itself. Indian policymakers blame China for the cyberattack crippling the Mumbai electric system in October, as well as 20 recent deaths at the hands of Maoist insurgents. Moreover, siding with the Taliban could cause trouble for China with the United States, which already sees the People’s Republic as a dangerous actor. Beijing, with venomous propaganda, is going out of its way to aggravate tensions. Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, just blamed Washington “as the origin of problems in Afghanistan.” The blame game is not wise. Washington is in a position to reduce or even cut off international funding to Kabul. Such aid, the World Bank estimated in 2018, accounted for 40 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product. Beijing’s assistance to terrorist-supporting organizations like the Taliban will only erode its already low standing in countries important for China. Up to now, the international community has, by and large, not imposed costs on China for its destructive activities, but Beijing would be handing others leverage if it found itself mired in Afghanistan. Chinese leaders are perhaps the most ambitious group anywhere, so it will be difficult for them to leave Afghanistan alone, especially as that country is one of China’s 14 land neighbors. China is an empire, and its imperial conquests are in its western areas, the ones bordering Afghanistan. The temptation for Chinese imperialists looks irresistible. So despite what Fudan’s Zhang writes, arrogant Chinese leaders are bound to make mistakes and seek deep involvement in Afghanistan. So far, no “empire” has been able to tame that “country” — if it can be called that — or bring it into the international community. China will almost certainly fail in the Afghan graveyard.

FTA: Elden has long stated that he had a complicated relationship with the album cover. However, as noted by Variety, he’s recreated it several times, posing in the water for 10th, 17th, 20th, and 25th anniversaries. He's 30 now, probably tired of living in his parent's basement and must not want to have to get a REAL JOB.......

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/20/uks-parliament-holds-joe-biden-in-contempt-as-france-and-britain-forced-to-rescue-citizens-trapped-in-kabul/ UK’s Parliament Holds Joe Biden in Contempt as France and Britain Forced to Rescue Citizens Trapped in Kabul By Debra Heine August 20, 2021 The Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the desperate situation in Kabul has angered U.S. allies, leaving them scrambling to evacuate their citizens and the Afghans who supported them during the 20 year war. The United Kingdom’s Parliament on Wednesday held Joe Biden in contempt for Afghan debacle, with one veteran MP saying the U.S. abandoned its Afghan allies and disregarded their sacrifices. Tom Tugendhat, a British Army veteran of the Afghanistan war and the Conservative chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, blasted Biden for his criticism of the Afghan National Army and said it was “shameful” to blame Afghanistan’s fighting force for the Taliban’s takeover. After Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Biden said, “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war, and dying in a war, that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.” “To see their commander in chief call into question the courage of men I fought with—to claim that they ran—is shameful,” he said. “Those who have never fought for the colors they fly should be careful about criticizing those who have,” Tugendhat added. While American troops remain at the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKAIA ), Great Britain and France, are conducting military operations to evacuate their citizens trapped in Kabul behind the web of Taliban checkpoints lining the route to the airport. Great Britain earlier this week deployed an additional 300 troops to Kabul specifically to extract trapped British nationals. “France and the U.K. are having their troops leave the lines of the Kabul airport to help evacuate their citizens,” tweeted House Minority Kevin McCarthy. “Why has President Biden not directed the same to save stranded Americans?” One British soldier broke down in tears during an interview with CNN reporter Clarissa Ward, telling her that he will suffer from PTSD from the horrific events of the past week. The Taliban have been beating people in the streets and blocking access to the Kabul airport, contrary to their promises to the U.S. government. During remarks from the White House on Friday, Biden boasted that there are now over 6,000 American troops on the ground providing “runway security” at the airport. “This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history, and the only country in the world capable of projecting this much power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision is the United States of America,” he said proudly. Update: According to foreign policy/national security reporter Tom Rogan, a U.S. general has tried to pressure a British counterpart to stop conducting rescue operations outside of the airport perimeter because it’s making the Biden Regime look bad. Can you imagine the explosion of press if President Trump were to be "In Contempt" from the UK? BTW - Read the last paragraph - The British military is embarrassing our troops?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/18/business/afghanistan-lithium-rare-earths-mining/index.html The swift fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with thousands trying to flee the country. It's also brought renewed focus on Afghanistan's vast untapped mineral wealth, resources that could transform its economic prospects if ever developed. Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the world. But in 2010, US military officials and geologists revealed that the country, which lies at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, was sitting on mineral deposits worth nearly $1 trillion. Supplies of minerals such as iron, copper and gold are scattered across provinces. There are also rare earth minerals and, perhaps most importantly, what could be one of the world's biggest deposits of lithium — an essential but scarce component in rechargeable batteries and other technologies vital to tackling the climate crisis. "Afghanistan is certainly one of the regions richest in traditional precious metals, but also the metals [needed] for the emerging economy of the 21st century," said Rod Schoonover, a scientist and security expert who founded the Ecological Futures Group. Security challenges, a lack of infrastructure and severe droughts have prevented the extraction of most valuable minerals in the past. That's unlikely to change soon under Taliban control. Still, there's interest from countries including China, Pakistan and India, which may try to engage despite the chaos. "It's a big question mark," Schoonover said. Huge potential Even before President Joe Biden announced that he would withdraw US troops from Afghanistan earlier this year, setting the stage for the return of Taliban control, the country's economic prospects were dim. As of 2020, an estimated 90% of Afghans were living below the government-determined poverty level of $2 per day, according to a report from the US Congressional Research Service published in June. In its latest country profile, the World Bank said that the economy remains "shaped by fragility and aid dependence." "Private sector development and diversification is constrained by insecurity, political instability, weak institutions, inadequate infrastructure, widespread corruption, and a difficult business environment," it said in March. Many countries with weak governments suffer from what's known as the "resource curse," in which efforts to exploit natural resources fail to provide benefits to local people and the domestic economy. Even so, revelations about Afghanistan's mineral wealth, which built on earlier surveys conducted by the Soviet Union, have offered huge promise. Demand for metals like lithium and cobalt, as well as rare earth elements such as neodymium, is soaring as countries try to switch to electric cars and other clean technologies to slash carbon emissions. The International Energy Agency said in May that global supplies of lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements needed to increase sharply or the world would fail in its attempt to tackle the climate crisis. Three countries — China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Australia — currently account for 75% of the global output of lithium, cobalt and rare earths. The average electric car requires six times more minerals than a conventional car, according to the IEA. Lithium, nickel and cobalt are crucial to batteries. Electricity networks also require huge amounts of copper and aluminum, while rare earth elements are used in the magnets needed to make wind turbines work. The US government has reportedly estimated that lithium deposits in Afghanistan could rival those in Bolivia, home to the world's largest known reserves. "If Afghanistan has a few years of calm, allowing the development of its mineral resources, it could become one of the richest countries in the area within a decade," Said Mirzad of the US Geological Survey told Science magazine in 2010. He led the Afghanistan Geological Survey until 1979. Even more obstacles That calm never arrived, and most of Afghanistan's mineral wealth has remained in the ground, said Mosin Khan, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former Middle East and central Asia director at the International Monetary Fund. While there has been some extraction of gold, copper and iron, exploiting lithium and rare earth minerals requires much greater investment and technical know-how, as well as time. The IEA estimates that it takes 16 years on average from the discovery of a deposit for a mine to start production. Right now, minerals generate just $1 billion in Afghanistan per year, according to Khan. He estimates that 30% to 40% has been siphoned off by corruption, as well as by warlords and the Taliban, which has presided over small mining projects. Still, there's a chance the Taliban uses its new power to develop the mining sector, Schoonover said. "You can imagine one trajectory is maybe there's some consolidation, and some of this mining will no longer need to be unregulated," he said. But, Schoonover continued, the "odds are against it," given that the Taliban will need to devote its immediate attention to a wide range of security and humanitarian issues. "The Taliban has taken power but the transition from insurgent group to national government will be far from straightforward," said Joseph Parkes, Asia security analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. "Functional governance of the nascent mineral sector is likely many years away." Khan notes that foreign investment was hard to come by before the Taliban ousted Afghanistan's civilian Western-backed government. Attracting private capital will be even more difficult now, particularly as many global businesses and investors are being held to ever higher environmental, social and governance standards. "Who's going to invest in Afghanistan when they weren't willing to invest before?" Khan said. "Private investors are not going to take the risk." US restrictions could also present a challenge. The Taliban has not been officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States. However, the group was placed on a US Treasury Department list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists and a Specially Designated Nationals list. An opportunity for China? State-backed projects motivated in part by geopolitics could be a different story. China, the world leader in mining rare earths, said Monday that it has "maintained contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban." Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in China on July 28, 2021. "China, the next-door neighbor, is embarking on a very significant green energy development program," Schoonover said. "Lithium and the rare earths are so far irreplaceable because of their density and physical properties. Those minerals factor into their long-term plans." Should China step in, Schoonover said there would be concerns about the sustainability of mining projects given China's track record. "When mining isn't done carefully it can be ecologically devastating, which harms certain segments of the population without a lot of voice," he said. Beijing could be skeptical of partnering on ventures with the Taliban given ongoing instability, however, and may focus on other regions. Khan pointed out that China has been burned before, having previously tried to invest in a copper project that later stalled. "I believe they will prioritize other emerging/frontier geographies well before Taliban-led Afghanistan," said RK Equity partner Howard Klein, who advises investors on lithium. Is the Afghanistan debacle starting to make sense yet? The Chinese needed the US out of there post haste.......before Uncle Joe can't control things anymore......

Another scenario to illustrate the level of lunacy over this virus...... Copied and pasted… and SO freaking good! ABBOTT AND COSTELLO’S ‘WHO’S BEEN VACCED?’ Bud: ‘You can’t come in here!’ Lou: ‘Why not?’ Bud: ‘Well because you’re unvaccinated.’ Lou: ‘But I’m not sick.’ Bud: ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Lou: ‘Well, why does that guy get to go in?’ Bud: ‘Because he’s vaccinated.’ Lou: ‘But he’s sick!’ Bud: ‘It’s alright. Everyone in here is vaccinated.’ Lou: ‘Wait a minute. Are you saying everyone in there is vaccinated?’ Bud: ‘Yes.’ Lou: ‘So then why can’t I go in there if everyone is vaccinated?’ Bud: ‘Because you’ll make them sick.’ Lou: ‘How will I make them sick if I’m NOT sick and they’re vaccinated.’ Bud: ‘Because you’re unvaccinated.’ Lou: ‘But they’re vaccinated.’ Bud: ‘But they can still get sick.’ Lou: ‘So what the heck does the vaccine do?’ Bud: ‘It vaccinates.’ Lou: ‘So vaccinated people can’t spread covid?’ Bud: ‘Oh no. They can spread covid just as easily as an unvaccinated person.’ Lou: ‘I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. Look. I’m not sick. Bud: ‘Ok.’ Lou: ‘And the guy you let in IS sick.’ Bud: ‘That’s right.’ Lou: ‘And everybody in there can still get sick even though they’re vaccinated.’ Bud: ‘Certainly.’ Lou: ‘So why can’t I go in again?’ Bud: ‘Because you’re unvaccinated.’ Lou: ‘I’m not asking who’s vaccinated or not!’ Bud: ‘I’m just telling you how it is.’ Lou: ‘Nevermind. I’ll just put on my mask.’ Bud: ‘That’s fine.’ Lou: ‘Now I can go in?’ Bud: ‘Absolutely not?’ Lou: ‘But I have a mask!’ Bud: ‘Doesn’t matter.’ Lou: ‘I was able to come in here yesterday with a mask.’ Bud: ‘I know.’ Lou: So why can’t I come in here today with a mask? ….If you say ‘because I’m unvaccinated’ again, I’ll break your arm.’ Bud: ‘Take it easy buddy.’ Lou: ‘So the mask is no good anymore.’ Bud: ‘No, it’s still good.’ Lou: ‘But I can’t come in?’ Bud: ‘Correct.’ Lou: ‘Why not?’ Bud: ‘Because you’re unvaccinated.’ Lou: ‘But the mask prevents the germs from getting out.’ Bud: ‘Yes, but people can still catch your germs.’ Lou: ‘But they’re all vaccinated.’ Bud: ‘Yes, but they can still get sick.’ Lou: ‘But I’m not sick!!’ Bud: ‘You can still get them sick.’ Lou: ‘So then masks don’t work!’ Bud: ‘Masks work quite well.’ Lou: ‘So how in the heck can I get vaccinated people sick if I’m not sick and masks work?’

Bet everyone misses those mean tweets now? BTW - The Taliban is still allowed on Twitter, but the former President is still banned.....

From a friend - An exchange between me and a host..... Hello. Hi, table for two, please. Sure, and your name. Jessie. Great. And do you and your guest have your vaccination cards? We do. Can you tell us who our server will be? Um, looks like Brad will be your server tonight. Great. Can you show us Brad's vaccination card? Um... And also, can you provide me with proof that Brad is not a carrier of HIV, Hepatitis A or B, or any other communicable diseases? Um... Also, we would prefer not to be served by someone who is on or uses recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, meth, fentanyl, etc, so if you could provide us with Brad's most recent tox screen, that would be great. Um... Let me get the manager for you. That would be great, thanks.

https://pagesix.com/2021/08/17/britney-spears-poses-topless-again-to-shoot-down-boob-job-rumors/?_ga=2.119144586.268711487.1629115712-551416291.1617136486 She did it again Britney Spears explains why she's posing topless on Instagram Does anyone really see a problem ? I mean - Free Speech, right? (Headline on the NYP caught my eye for some reason)

BREAKING NEWS this morning - The Biden Administration MAY be ready to recommend a booster shot after FDA final approval. (almost 5 minutes worth) Coronavirus Delta cases WAY up in the US as students head back to school and will probably be the most likely to spread the virus. (solid 10 minutes of commentary) 3rd story in - Afghanistan issue. (2 minutes - then on to Al Roker and weather)

The US war on Afghanistan was not lost yesterday in Kabul. It was lost the moment it shifted from a limited mission to apprehend those who planned the attack on 9/11 to an exercise in regime change and nation-building. Agreed. The generals and other high-ranking military officers lied to their commander-in-chief and to the American people for years about progress in Afghanistan. The same is true for the US intelligence agencies. Unless there is a major purge of those who lied and misled, we can count on these disasters to continue until the last US dollar goes up in smoke. Agree more..... Again - we all wanted this to end, but not like this.

Meanwhile - The Government......

https://nypost.com/2021/08/16/afghans-cling-to-us-air-force-plane-as-it-takes-off-in-kabul/ Sure Joe, we can trust the Taliban to let us get out, go ahead and surrender Bagrahm AB, we still have Kabul...... SURPRISE!! The child rapists lied....... I'm reminded of the 911 jumpers from the towers when I see the terrified Afghans clinging to the aircraft as long as they could hold on then dropping to a certain death. We all wanted this Afghan war to be over, but not like this.....Vietnam 2.0.

Especially considering the vaccines themselves have only been granted emergency use status from the FDA, not full approval. One of my friends is prescribed a medication that costs over $600 per month. There is a generic out there that is approved for use and used widely in every other country but the US. It is expected to be approved by the FDA at the earliest in 2025. He cannot get that drug yet as it is still pending FDA approval, yet we are to willingly believe and trust the US Government these vaccines are OK? With full approval expected in September? Forgive me, but all of this stems from what in 2019 we were considering a really bad strain of the flu.

AND - BTW...... https://unherd.com/thepost/the-most-vaccine-hesitant-education-group-of-all-phds/ There has been much debate over how to get the unvaccinated to get their jabs — shame them, bribe them persuade them, or treat them as victims of mis- and disinformation campaigns — but who, exactly, are these people? Most of the coverage would have you believe that the surge in cases is primarily down to less educated, ‘brainwashed’ Trump supporters who don’t want to take the vaccine. This may be partially true: the areas in which the delta variant is surging coincide with the sections of red America in which vaccination rates are lowest. But according to a new paper by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, this does not paint the full picture. The researchers analysed more than 5 million survey responses by a range of different demographic details, and classed those people who would “probably” or “definitely” not choose to get vaccinated as “vaccine hesitant.” In some respects the findings are as predicted — for example the paper finds that there is a strong correlation between counties with higher Trump support in the 2020 presidential election and higher hesitancy in the period January 2021 — May 2021. But more surprising is the breakdown in vaccine hesitancy by level of education. It finds that the association between hesitancy and education level follows a U-shaped curve with the highest hesitancy among those least and most educated. People with a master’s degree had the least hesitancy, and the highest hesitancy was among those holding a Ph.D. What’s more, the paper found that in the first five months of 2021, the largest decrease in hesitancy was among the least educated — those with a high school education or less. Meanwhile, hesitancy held constant in the most educated group; by May, those with Ph.Ds were the most hesitant group. So not only are the most educated people most skeptical of taking the Covid vaccine, they are also the least likely the change their minds about it… A survey of "Over 5 million" I would suggest paints a pretty accurate picture.......btw - SF may not be a very smart man, but doesn't a PHD indicate a pretty smart individual?

From a friend: If you offered me a pair scissors but the scissors couldn't cut paper, I would decline the scissors, but not because I am anti-scissors. But because I'm not really interested in things that don't work or do what they are supposed to do safely. SF hasn't had flu shot in decades for the simple fact that a couple decades ago when I actually gave in and got the shot a couple of years in a row, I had a reaction that I didn't like, so I quit getting the yearly shot. I've been fine since. This is kinda where I place my feelings about the Covid vaccine. A vaccine for something that the CDC is getting ready to inform us we will have to live with from now on and get a new vaccine every year. The insistence and threatened enforcement from local governments for a virus that has such a high survival rate (conveniently ignored in nearly every story that glorifies the amount of "new cases" every day) is not warranted (IMHO). If you had your vaccine - great. Don't worry about me then. #Flubugonsteroids

(IMHO) He saw the writing on the wall (in all capital letters) It's a distraction from "Granny-Gate" and the Dem's efforts to keep him out of the picture for when KH runs in 2024 (since she will already be President by then) If he doesn't go now for being a creep, he'll go later for killing Granny......

https://www.analyzingamerica.org/2021/08/639345/?fbclid=IwAR2qpgtlFvYsmAL9XrhLXX-eEo9t5Pjpw7N78JvsPS0eZ6VYZOoteW0Jlwk Female Inmate Now Pregnant After Women’s Prison Is Forced to Accept Transgender Men By David Rufful - August 9, 2021 At least one female inmate has become pregnant following California’s law that allows men to identify as women and get sent to a women’s prison, according to Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) via Daily Wire. In California, where predominately left-leaning politicians enforce the rules, women’s prisons are forced to accept biological male prisoners claiming to be women without any questions asked — including if they were in prison for violence against women. The Los Angeles Times reported that around 300 male prisoners filed requests to transfer with the state, and only 20 have been processed so far.California has even begun handing out condoms and Plan B to female inmates who were forced to accept sharing a prison with biological men claiming to be transgender. At the time, the WoLF released a statement about what was being handed out in prisons: The statment reads: “Women incarcerated in California’s largest women’s prison are describing the conditions as “a nightmare’s worst nightmare” after the introduction of new pregnancy resources in the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) medical clinics. The new resources are a tacit admission by officials that women should expect to be raped when housed in prison with men, where all sex is considered non-consensual by default within the system.” The statement continues, “New posters recently appeared in medical rooms outlining the options available to “pregnant people” in prison, including prenatal care, abortion, and adoption. The poster also declares that women have the right to “contraceptive counseling and your choice of birth control methods by a licensed health care provider within 60-180 days prior to scheduled release date.” However, the only methods available to incarcerated women to prevent pregnancy are condoms, which appeared shortly after the men, and Plan B emergency contraceptives.” More from Daily Wire: The new resources are a tacit admission by officials that women should expect to be raped when housed in prison with men, where all sex is considered non-consensual by default within the system.” OK - so while SF normally has little sympathy for the incarcerated guilty, this one has me SMH.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/06/biden-mistakenly-says-350m-americans-are-vaccinated/ WASHINGTON — President Biden on Friday said that 350 million Americans — more than the entire population of the US — have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in a slip that was quickly seized upon as he departed for his 17th trip to Delaware since taking office. Biden, wearing a tan suit, spoke about the need to continue vaccinating Americans after a surprisingly strong report showed the US economy created 943,000 jobs in July, exceeding expectations and dropping the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent. “You know, we have roughly 350 million people vaccinated in the United States and billions around the world. And virtually no one has died because of that vaccinations [sic],” he said in the White House East Room. “Today, about 400 people will die because of the Delta variant in this country — a tragedy because virtually all of these deaths are preventable if people had gotten vaccinated. But 10 months ago today almost 4,000 people died on that very day from COVID-19 — 4,000 versus 400. That shows how much our vaccination progress has done to protect us from the worst of the new Delta COVID-19 wave.” Biden almost certainly meant to say that about 350 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered, as is indicated by CDC data. But those doses were administered to about 193 million people. More than 70 percent of US adults have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot. Oh Joe...... The reality of the day is that over 70% of the US adult population has been vaccinated. OVER 70% !! Which was kinda the high-water mark that was being shot at to bring "normalcy" back.....remember.......Well we got there, but nope "we can't get no satisfaction" - keep the masks on now 18 months into "2 weeks to flatten the curve" because that less than 30% of the population out there is causing us all this grief.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/05/remember-biden-said-migrant-surge-would-drop-by-july-didnt-happen/ At a news conference in March, President Joe Biden pooh-poohed surging illegal migration at the southern border as an ordinary, seasonal problem. “It happens every single, solitary year,” he said, and to some extent he was right: Usually, illegal border-crossing rises through the spring and drops off in June and July, as temperatures rise and the trek gets more dangerous. But that isn’t what’s happening this year. Apprehensions at the border have risen every month since April, with a huge spike after Biden took office in January and an even bigger one in February. In May, federal authorities made more than 180,000 arrests at the border, and in June, when we would have typically seen the numbers begin to drop off, arrests topped 188,000. The July total is likely to exceed 210,000, according to a Biden administration federal court filing this week. Federal agents haven’t encountered that many people on the border in a single month in 21 years. So far this fiscal year, more than 1 million people have been arrested at the border, and we’re on pace to break the all-time record, set in 2000. So this isn’t the typical seasonal influx. Will the media so much as remind Biden of his March hand-waving? More important, what’s actually happening? Why are record numbers of people risking a dangerous border crossing in the sweltering heat? The answer is simple: They know Team Biden will let them stay. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki can lie all she wants about how the administration is still enforcing Title 42, the public-health order former President Donald Trump authorized at the outset of the pandemic that allows most migrants to be quickly expelled to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But the truth is, the Biden administration has been quietly gutting Title 42, allowing greater numbers of families and single adults into the country and then releasing them, in some cases without court dates, but simply a notice to contact an immigration court and schedule a hearing at their convenience. Word travels fast from the border, and the more migrants who are released, the more it convinces those in source countries that if you can just get across the Rio Grande, you’ll be released. At this point, it isn’t just impoverished people from Mexico and Central America who are coming, but families and adults from all over the world. Migrants from South America, Asia and Africa are showing up in record numbers up and down the frontier. In the small, South Texas town of Del Rio, middle-class Venezuelans are showing up with passports and cash to pay their own way north. Brazilians are disproportionately crossing in Yuma, Ariz. Border officials have never seen these patterns before, and it suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic hardship it has caused worldwide, are driving an historic wave of illegal immigration. On the border itself, that means large numbers of migrants who have COVID are crossing into the US — and being released. In McAllen, Texas, the epicenter of the crisis, a record 7,000 COVID-positive migrants have been released downtown since February, including more than 1,500 last week. The city’s nonprofit shelter for migrants is overwhelmed, with nearly 2,000 migrants arriving there every day so far in August at a facility that can only house 1,200 people. McAllen’s mayor declared a state of disaster this week and erected tent facilities to house COVID-positive migrants. According to the city, some 87,000 migrants have passed through McAllen so far this year. That’s more than half the entire population of the city. In smaller border towns, COVID-positive migrants are being released without the knowledge of local authorities and sheltered in hotels. Migrants who test positive are supposed to quarantine for two weeks, but there is no mechanism or authority to ensure that they do so once released from federal custody. All of this amounts to a national emergency. Given the draconian measures Biden and other Democrats are contemplating for fighting the Delta variant, you would think the administration would also secure the border. You would think wrong. SF thinks the President's "Meh" moment in March has already been forgotten by the media.......and the level of DOCUMENTED Covid positive migrants being released is amazing considering the "increase in cases" that is being thrown at us every day while the DECREASE IN DEATHS are being ignored......

https://nypost.com/2021/08/04/we-must-hear-from-this-man-devine/ On the 17th floor of a non-descript Manhattan office building, opposite Hudson Yards, part of the deadliest coverup in human history was hatched last year, alleges a devastating congressional report into the origins of Covid-19 There, on the corner of 34th street and 10th Avenue, is the headquarters of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit devoted to “Wildlife Conservation”, whose big-noting, British-born founder, Peter Daszak, somehow wound up at the center of a pandemic that has killed millions of people around the world. The House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican minority report, released this week, found “strong evidence that suggests Daszak is the public face of a CCP [Chinese Communist Party] disinformation campaign designed to suppress public discussion about a potential lab leak. “Daszak attempted to hide his close association with [China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology] while he referred to anyone in the scientific community who said a lab leak should be investigated as promoting a ‘conspiracy theory’.” What an irony, considering this is the very same Daszak whose word was treated as gospel by Facebook when it censored any mention that the virus leaked from the Chinese lab he part funded that was conducting Frankenstein “gain of function” research on bat viruses. Talk about a conflict of interest. Daszak, 55, has studiously avoided answering questions asked by Congress about what happened in Wuhan. While EcoHealth didn’t do research, the government agencies which funded it — the NIH, the Department of Defense, USAID — relied on Daszak to procure disease samples in foreign countries, said a former colleague of Daszak. “The process of collecting disease samples requires having all the necessary contacts in the foreign country, the politics aligned in that country, and the money,” according to the ex-colleague. In other words, the money was for access to Chinese viruses, Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID director, and leaders of the NIH, always had final approval authority on grants and contracts. Daszak was working hand in glove with Fauci, our top expert directing the nation’s response to the pandemic. Together, they wilfully misled us about the origin of the virus. They were willing to run the Chinese line and defend the Wuhan Institute this past year, even after the State Department confirmed that military research was being conducted there. Daszak’s orchestration of the shameful Lancet letter in February 2020, “debunking” the lab leak hypothesis as a “conspiracy theory” is highlighted in the congressional report. It quotes from emails which “show Daszak’s effort to organize a large group of scientists to sign onto a statement that he personally drafted,” taking care that EcoHealth alliance was not linked to the letter. “We’ll… put it out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration,” he wrote in one of the emails The Lancet declared at the time that the authors had “no competing interest,” despite the fact Daszak organized the letter on behalf of the Chinese researchers “who he funded and with whom he collaborated”, said the congressional report. It is a scandal which the once prestigious medical journal has never properly acknowledged. It just quietly, four months later, added an update suggesting Daszak might have ”competing interests” Daszak and his Chinese collaborators engaged in “bullying other scientists who questioned whether the virus could have leaked from a lab; misleading the world about how a virus can be modified without leaving a trace; and, in many, instances directly lying about the nature of the research they were conducting, as well as the low-level safety protocols they were using for that research,” said the congressional report. He appeared to spend much of last year isolating in the affluent arcadia of Rockland County in his million-dollar two-storey gabled white clapboard, nestled between a country club and the forests of the Ramapo Mountains. But someone disturbed his peace last August, when the FBI reportedly paid him a call after he reported receiving an envelope in the mail containing white powder. The following day Daszak got physical with a News 12 cameraman filming outside his house. The footage which aired that night showed a strenuous tussle for the camera and an angry Daszak can be heard saying “Go away”. Ever since, Daszak has successfully evaded scrutiny. At last, the finger of blame is pointing directly at him, from Congress. But this was a GOP-only report. Democrats refused to use their majority powers to issue subpoenas and compel Daszak to give evidence. There’s no excuse for that. The origin of the pandemic should be a bipartisan issue. If we don’t know what happened in Wuhan in 2019, how can we avoid a repeat performance? Naw - it's just a conspiracy theory.....