swordfish

Pretty sick and tired of the "Trust the science" crowd. Either the vaccine works or it doesn't. If you have had the vaccine - then why TF are you worried about someone else who is not vaccinated? I group the Covid inspired "Trust the science" ilk along with the "Climate Change" scientists who for some reason think mankind is actually capable of changing the weather.

Biden with his "fans"

SF kinda thinks this "mandate" that isn't law will not stand up in court - not if, but when it gets there. Also, HTF are they going to be able to enforce this? Most likely a few OSHA guys are going to show up somewhere, issue a few penalties and publicize the heck out of it showing some company somewhere getting the book tossed at them to scare the rest of us into submission. I guess companies are just gonna have to make sure their staffing stays below 100......Who's gonna have to go? Thank President Biden.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/09/media-ignore-racial-attack-on-larry-elder-because-hes-republican/ Media ignore racial attack on Larry Elder because he’s a black Republican By Kyle Smith September 9, 2021 6:39pm Updated Do a search for “Larry Elder” and gorilla on the CNN website and nothing comes up. Washington Post? Zilch. Nothing comes up on The New York Times site either, although if you make it to the 15th paragraph of a story titled “The Vice President pushed back against the effort to recall Newsom in the Bay Area,” you will find a bland passing reference to Wednesday’s disgusting incident. According to our nation’s media leaders, it’s not a story that a white person wearing a gorilla mask attacked Larry Elder, a black man seeking to become the first non-white governor of California, by hurling an egg that touched his head. If Elder were a Democrat, the attack would have been instantly and with good reason dubbed racist. It would not only be front-page news, it would be just about the only news you were hearing about today on CNN and MSNBC. Charles Blow, Perry Bacon and Jamelle Bouie would each be writing the first in a series of angry columns about it. So would Gail Collins, Jonathan Capehart, Jennifer Rubin, Michelle Goldberg, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Dana Milbank and Ezra Klein. We would be treated to multiple news analyses about the history of the usage of gorilla tropes against blacks. Joy-Ann Reid, Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon would be doing hour-long broadcasts on the attack, convening panels discussing just how the attack pulls the scab off racism in America, and proves we have so much work left to do in dealing with the problem. Vox would commission a series about California’s grim history of racism dating back to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and Asian-American and Latino writers would hasten to explain that California’s historic hostility to all sorts of persons of color is as traditional as its Tournament of Roses parade. Three-thousand-word essays about the brutal, unknown history of lynchings in the Golden State would be published in The Atlantic and/or The New Yorker. Al Sharpton, exhibiting a combination of exhaustion and despondency, would be a guest on half a dozen cable TV shows. The woman who threw the egg at Elder would find her picture, her name, and everything she’d ever said on social media scrutinized at great length and on the home pages of the leading news sites. Her appearance would be mocked by late-night comedians. Dozens of reporters would be sent out to learn this woman’s story, to check out where she lived, where she worked, and where she went to school. Remember what happened when a white woman in Central Park told a black man she would mention his race in the course of reporting his threat to her dog on a 911 call? That was a huge nationwide news story, despite having happened the same day as the murder of George Floyd, and even though the people involved were just ordinary New Yorkers — neither of them an ­important candidate a step away from one of the highest offices in the country. If Elder were a Democrat, we’d be told there is a vast and wide-ranging racist plot to stop California from electing its first black governor. The stakes are a bit higher than “white dog lady calls cops on black bird-watcher.” Isn’t our democracy itself imperiled when a white person in a gorilla mask tries to leverage racism against a popular black candidate? To its credit, the Los Angeles Times did mention the attack on Elder, although its headline eluded the nastiness of what occurred in what smacked of victim-blaming: “Larry Elder cuts short Venice homeless encampment tour after hostile confrontation.” If Elder had been a Democrat, I suspect the headline would have been “Racist attacker in gorilla mask lobs egg at Larry Elder.” After burying the lede — the California paper mentioned the attack in the second graf, the race and costume of the person attacking him in the fourth — the report did say “ape characterizations have been used as a racist trope for centuries.” But that was it, the sole reference to racism in the story. The LA Times didn’t bother to investigate Elder’s attacker, nor even provide her name. Please do not insult me by pretending that you do not understand the context and history of black folks being subjected to gorilla references. Please do not tell me that a person wearing a gorilla mask who targeted a Democrat would not be tagged as guilty of the most vicious variety of racism. Please do not tell me that progressives can’t be racist. Pause for a second, just a second, and consider what might have happened in this country if a white person wearing a gorilla mask had nearly hit Barack Obama with an egg during his 2008 campaign. (And then punched a member of his security detail who intervened, as the California woman did.) Do you think perhaps that CNN might have been able to squeeze in a mention or two? Is there any possibility at all that some New York Times columnists might have weighed in on the matter? Do you think The Washington Post might have noticed? SF can't think of a better example of political media bias than this. A black man has an egg thrown at him by a white lady (wearing a gorilla mask) who then literally attacks a black member of his security detail. But there is no mention of this incident ANYWHERE.

Yes, we needed to get out of there, no argument from SF. But SF also predicted that "trusting" the Taliban was not going to work out. We gave up Bagram AB, then decided to play nice in Kabul and not offend the Taliban (Yeah - you guys can give us security protection as we leave, we're good). Now another predictable event is happening, and being denied by the administration. There's no hostages, they just won't let the planes leave......Translation - they have us by the short hairs until they get what they want.....so negotiations will commence........(IMHO) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/blinken-denies-taliban-blocks-americans/2021/09/07/9dac6858-0fcf-11ec-bc8a-8d9a5b534194_story.html Blinken says Afghans’ travel papers are impeding evacuation, denies Taliban is holding Americans ‘hostage’ DOHA, Qatar — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the United States is working with the Taliban to extract U.S. citizens and at-risk allies left behind in Afghanistan after the militant group's takeover last month, and that a dispute over some Afghans' travel documentation is to blame for the delay. A small number of U.S. citizens and hundreds of Afghans have been in limbo for days awaiting Taliban clearance for their charter flights to depart the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. But conflicting claims about why the aircraft haven't taken off led to intensified criticism of the Taliban and the Biden administration, which promised to help those seeking to flee the militants' rule. They also underscored how complex the mission has become with no U.S. personnel on the ground to verify the accuracy of passenger manifests and personal paperwork. "It's my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said those without valid documents, at this point, can't leave," Blinken said at a news conference in Qatar alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Qatari counterparts. He estimated that there are roughly 100 U.S. citizens seeking to flee Afghanistan and said the main impediment was the Taliban's refusal to let Afghans who lacked the necessary documents leave. "Because all of these people are grouped together," Blinken said, "that's meant that flights have not been allowed to go." Taliban stop planes of evacuees from leaving but unclear why The charter flights have been organized by advocacy groups, members of Congress and veterans of the 20-year war. Some were quick to dispute Blinken's comments, saying the passengers on their flights have all the documentation that was required for evacuation flights before the U.S. withdrawal. They acknowledged, however, that some passengers didn't have passports, a requirement they say is overly burdensome. "The information we provided the State Department is above and beyond what is usually required for travel in Afghanistan," said Maria McElwain, communications director for Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who has been working with a group of veterans, journalists and advocates to secure safe passage for two planes in Mazar-e Sharif. "Although some of our passengers are small children who, admittedly, do not yet have a full suite of documentation that an adult might have, in those cases we provide shot records and offered to help verify their identity any other way that we could." Elizabeth Rubin, an American journalist working to secure safe passage of people in Mazar-e Sharif said "names and documents" had been sent to the State Department a week ago and that Albania had given visas to "every single person on these two planes." Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), citing classified briefings, had suggested over the weekend a more nefarious reason for the delay, telling Fox News, "This is really . . . turning into a hostage situation where they're not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America." Blinken rejected that accusation. "We are not aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or any hostage-like situation," he said, characterizing as "real concerns" the logistical challenges associated with verifying passengers' documents. "But we are working through each and every one in close coordination with the various initiatives and charter flights that are seeking to evacuate people," he said. "But I just want to emphasize that there are a lot of issues to work through." Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said problems with the clearances for charter flights were due to the temporary closure of the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs, but he said the issue would be resolved by Wednesday. The declaration came as the group on Tuesday announced it had formed an acting government for the country, naming as its senior leaders members with close ties to the movement's founder, Mohammad Omar. "As these two ministries were not active before, foreign trips were not allowed. Tomorrow, when the new cabinet begins its work, all problems with foreign travel will be resolved, and foreign flights will begin as normal," Mujahid said. During a joint news conference, Blinken's Qatari counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said Doha hopes Afghanistan's international airport in Kabul, seen as critical to the resumption of evacuation flights, will be fully reopened in coming days pending an agreement with the Taliban. The gas-rich Persian Gulf state is working with Turkey to restore commercial flights there, he said. The plight of Afghans and U.S. citizens seeking to flee is far from the only issue challenging U.S. and other Western officials. Martin Griffiths, the United Nations undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, said at the end of two days of talks with senior Taliban leaders that they had appealed for "guidance" on meeting severe needs among the Afghan population. In return, Griffiths said at a briefing for U.N. reporters, he stressed that no aid would go through the Taliban government. All assistance, he said, would be distributed through the U.N. and some 156 international and Afghan nongovernmental partner organizations operating inside Afghanistan. "You really need to understand us, and we need to understand you," Griffiths said he told Abdul Ghani Baradar, designated Tuesday as Afghanistan's deputy prime minister. Among the guarantees sought for humanitarian agencies, he said, were independence, security, the freedom to hire — men and women — without interference, and access to every area of the country. The Taliban agreed, he said. Noting that Taliban commitments made to foreigners in Kabul were met only spottily in various places, Griffiths said he asked Baradar for all agreements in writing. "One of the worries we have" is that while the Taliban now says it has put a governing administration in place, it is "not an administration consistent across the country." One of the first issues the Taliban raised, he said, was the importance of reopening Kabul's airport, not only to allow aid workers free access, but also to ship in humanitarian aid. "They also . . . clearly talked to us about the need for Afghans to return to serve their country," Griffiths said of the Taliban. The best way to persuade Afghans to come back, he said he told Baradar, is to demonstrate they are also free to leave. Griffiths emphasized that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was dire long before the Taliban took over last month. Nearly half the population — 18 million people — is in need of aid, he said, including food, water and basic health care. At least 1 million children were suffering acute malnutrition, he said. One test of whether the international community is willing to help will come Monday, when U.N. Secretary General António Guterres holds an emergency donor conference to raise more than $600 million for Afghanistan over the next four months. Asked whether Blinken, with whom he met in Doha on Tuesday, had committed to a hefty U.S. contribution, Griffiths said, "I think I must have not had the nerve to ask about the generosity of the United States." Separately, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said late Monday that officials have identified at least 300 children and teens evacuated from Afghanistan without their parents to countries such as Qatar and Germany. Henrietta Fore, ­UNICEF's executive director, said officials "expect this number to rise" as more unaccompanied children are found among the evacuees. UNICEF spokesman Christopher Tidey said 12 of the 300 children have been reunited with their parents; more details were unavailable. Some minors were separated from their parents "amidst chaotic conditions" at the Kabul airport, Fore said. Others were traveling alone. She said the U.N. agency has teams on the ground at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Ramstein Air Base in Germany scrambling to identify such children and reunite them with their families, and she urged other countries hosting evacuees to do the same. "I can only imagine how frightened these children must have been to suddenly find themselves without their families as the crisis at the airport unfolded or as they were whisked away on an evacuation flight," Fore said in a statement. "UNICEF is deeply concerned about the welfare of unaccompanied and separated children wherever they may be. They are among the most vulnerable children in the world." The Biden administration has said that at least 34 unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan had arrived in the United States as of Aug. 26, but Fore said far more were taken out of Afghanistan and warned that they are at risk of abuse and neglect. Blinken flew to Qatar on Sunday to express gratitude for the work that U.S. and Qatari officials have done in the evacuation effort. He and Austin visited a group of U.S. officials responsible for processing tens of thousands of American citizens, Afghans and third-country nationals who were transferred out of Doha. The United States facilitated the evacuation of more than 124,000 people from Afghanistan, the largest airlift in U.S. history. "This team has accomplished things that are both historic and heroic," Austin told a group at al-Udeid Air Base, including officials from the State Department, Pentagon and Customs and Border Protection. "What you have done has really touched the lives of thousands and thousands of people. You came together as a team." Blinken also visited members of an Afghan girls' robotics team that became a symbol of progress following the Taliban's harsh treatment of women when it ruled from 1996 to 2001. The girls, who fled during the Taliban's takeover of the country last month, expressed concern about the future of their country and appealed to Blinken for answers. "This is a really difficult moment," he said before committing to doing what he could to help them. "There is so much change happening. I can't tell you where everything is going to land." Back in Washington, U.S. officials continue to grapple with security questions related to Afghans seeking to resettle in the United States. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, a senior Biden administration official refused to directly answer questions regarding how many red flags had been found during security checks and what happens to Afghans who might not clear the screening process to enter the United States. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, declined to offer any numbers, arguing the situation was too "fluid" and the process of vetting refugees was too "individualized" to say exactly what "derogatory information" might lead to an Afghan ultimately being denied entry into the United States. The official hinted, however, that thus far, no Afghans who were brought out during the airlift have been explicitly blacklisted. "For those whose initial vetting and screening led to a sense that more vetting and screening is appropriate . . . that work either has continued or is continuing," the official said.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/07/wuhan-lab-documents-show-fauci-untruthful-about-research-critics/ Wuhan lab documents show Fauci ‘untruthful’ about gain-of-function research: critics By Emily Crane September 7, 2021 12:23pm Updated Dr. Anthony Fauci has been accused by critics of lying after newly released documents appear to contradict his claims that the National Institute of Health did not fund gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan lab. Senator Rand Paul led the criticism against Fauci on Tuesday after the documents, obtained by The Intercept, detailed grants given to EcoHealth Alliance — the nonprofit that funneled federal funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research. Included in the trove of documents is a previously unpublished grant proposal that EcoHealth Alliance, which is run by Peter Daszak, filed with Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Fauci has repeatedly insisted that NIH funding of the Wuhan lab does not constitute as “gain-of-function” research, which modifies the biological agent, and in the case of a virus, could increase its transmissibility or virulence. “Surprise surprise – Fauci lied again. And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan,” Sen. Paul tweeted after the documents were made public. The grant proposal included in the documents was for a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence,” which involved screening thousands of bat samples, as well as people who worked with live animals, for novel coronaviruses, the outlet said. The $3.1 million grant was awarded for a five-year period between 2014 and 2019. After the funding was renewed in 2019, it was suspended by the Trump administration in April 2020. The grant directed $599,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research. The proposal acknowledged the risks of such research, saying: “Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs, while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential for fecal dust to be inhaled.” The documents also include a second grant titled “Understanding Risk of Zoonotic Virus Emergence in Emerging Infectious Disease Hotspots of Southeast Asia,” which was awarded in August last year. Under the terms and conditions of that grant approval, there is a section noting that prior to “further altering the mutant viruses,” the NIAID needs to be given a “detailed description of the proposed alterations and supporting evidence for the anticipated phenotypics characteristics of each virus.” Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, said the documents – obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request — made it clear that Fauci had been “untruthful” about gain-of-function research. “The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful,” he tweeted. “The materials show that the 2014 and 2019 NIH grants to EcoHealth with subcontracts to WIV funded gain-of-function research as defined in federal policies in effect in 2014-2017 and potential pandemic pathogen enhancement as defined in federal policies in effect in 2017-present.” “This had been evident previously from published research papers that credited the 2014 grant and from the publicly available summary of the 2019 grant. But this now can be stated definitively from progress reports of the 2014 grant and the full proposal of the 2017 grant.” Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right To Know, told the Intercept that the documents provided a “road map to the high-risk research that could have led to the current pandemic.” NIH funding of work at the Wuhan lab has come under increasing scrutiny amid the pandemic, with Republican senators like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tom Cotton of Arkansas accusing Fauci of lying about whether the money was used for gain-of-function research. Fauci has repeatedly testified in front of lawmakers that the NIH has not funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. He has clashed with Sen. Paul on a number of occasions, including in May when the infectious disease expert was grilled about the origins of COVID-19 and funding of the Wuhan lab on Capitol Hill. “Sen. Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely, entirely and completely incorrect… the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute,” Fauci said. They butted heads again during a Senate hearing in July when the Kentucky senator quizzed Fauci about his earlier testimony. “Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11 where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research and move on?” Paul (R-Ky.) asked during testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Fauci clashed with Paul during a Senate hearing in July after the Kentucky senator quizzed the infectious disease expert about earlier testimony he had given in which he denied NIH-funded gain-of-function research. Paul, citing two academic papers by the Wuhan institute, accused Fauci of “obfuscating the truth” by not admitting that the lab was involved in gain-of-function research. “Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you’re referring to was judged by qualified staff, up and down the chain, as not being gain-of-function,” Fauci said. Why can't we just be done with Fauci?

https://nypost.com/2021/09/07/rutgers-bars-unvaccinated-student-from-attending-virtual-classes/ Rutgers bars unvaccinated student from attending virtual classes By Lee Brown September 7, 2021 8:37am A New Jersey student has said he is barred from taking classes at Rutgers University because he has not been vaccinated — even though he is only studying virtually from home. Logan Hollar, 22, told NJ.com that he largely ignored the school’s COVID mandate “because all my classes were remote” from his Sandyston home, some 70 miles from Rutgers’ campus in New Brunswick. But he was locked out of his Rutgers email and related accounts when he went to pay his tuition at the end of last month — and was told that he needed to be vaccinated even though he has no plans to attend in person. Hollar has now been forced to miss classes that started Sept. 1 — and has been warned it could be weeks before a decision is reached on his application for an exemption to the vaccine mandate, he said. “I’ll probably have to transfer to a different university,” Hollar told NJ.com, saying he knows of at least one other student in the same position. “I find it concerning for the vaccine to be pushed by the university rather than my doctor,” he told the outlet. “If someone wants to be vaccinated, that’s fine with me, but I don’t think they should be pushed,” he insisted, saying that he doesn’t find COVID to be scary” because he is healthy and “not in an at-risk age group.” “I don’t care if I have access to campus. I don’t need to be there. They could ban me. I just want to be left alone,” he said. Hollar’s step-father, Keith Williams — who has been vaccinated — told the outlet he is “dumbfounded” at Rutgers’ stance. “I believe in science, I believe in vaccines, but I am highly confident that COVID-19 and variants do not travel through computer monitors by taking online classes,” Williams told NJ.com. “He chose to remove himself from an on-campus experience so he would not need to be vaccinated,” Williams said. “Now to be removed and shut down from his Rutgers email and online classes during the start of his senior year seems a bit crazy.” Rutgers’ spokeswoman Dory Devlin insisted that the university has “provided comprehensive information and direction to students to meet vaccine requirements through several communications channels.” She noted that Rutgers’ policy differentiates between a “fully online degree-granting program” and “classes that are fully remote” but part of a course where other students are on campus, as in Hollar’s case. Devlin told the site that staff “continue to work” helping students apply for waiver requests for medical or religious reasons — while conceding they “should expect a two-to four-week turnaround, during which time they will not have access to university systems.” Best line - “I believe in science, I believe in vaccines, but I am highly confident that COVID-19 and variants do not travel through computer monitors by taking online classes,” Williams told NJ.com. I mean, this is how ludacris this whole COVID thing has become.

Heck, I don't have the $179,000 today......Guess I better learn some Chinese language......

I was told back in the mid-80's this was going to happen. In the early 90's I began taking it seriously that I wouldn't be able to rely on Social Security like my parents did once I retire. Now in my mid 50's I feel fortunate that I trusted that advice as retirement becomes a closer reality for me. Privatization is the best option. (IMHO)

Yeah - Don't worry, the biggest lobby group in the US is the AMA (Pharma & Health) by a long shot......

https://nypost.com/2021/08/31/liberals-take-on-larry-elder-for-california-comments/ The possibility that Larry Elder may win California’s recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom is generating acute anxiety in the mainstream media and among the activist left. Elder’s foes are responding with their favored means of destruction: by playing the race card. Never mind that the nationally syndicated talk show host is black. A series of opinion columns and editorials have accused him of being a white supremacist, or at the very least a shill for other white supremacists. Elect Elder and California will reinstate Jim Crow, state Sen. Sydney Kamlager, a Democrat from Los Angeles, has warned. The media have focused particularly on Elder’s views about crime and policing. The self-described “Sage from South-Central” maintains that criminals, not the police, are the biggest threat in the black community. According to Elder, the false narrative about lethal police racism has only led to more black homicide deaths. “When you reduce the possibility of a bad guy getting caught, getting convicted and getting incarcerated, guess what? Crime goes up,” he said recently at a campaign event in Orange County. Elder also rejects the charge that white civilians are gunning down blacks, as LeBron James maintained in a tweet during the George Floyd riots: “We are literally hunted everyday, every time we step outside the comfort of our homes.” Elder has a different take. If a “young black man is eight times more likely to be killed by another young black man than [by] a young white man,” Elder told the Orange County Republicans, then “systemic racism is not the problem.” Such statements are anathema to the establishment left, deeply invested as it is in the idea that blacks have little agency in the face of ubiquitous white racism. Few subjects are more taboo in elite discourse than the elevated rate of crime among blacks, as it suggests cultural pathologies that — at the very least — complicate the victim narrative. To the left, black crime is little more than a racist fiction. Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero claims that the crime statistics Elder has cited “over the decades to support his views and policy proposals are misleading, if not outright false, casting Black people as unusually crime-prone.” Black people are not “more inclined toward violent crimes,” nor do blacks “disproportionately victimize whites,” Guerrero wrote, citing Columbia law professor Jeffrey Fagan and other criminal experts. (Fagan was the plaintiff’s expert in a trilogy of lawsuits against the New York Police Department in the 2010s.) Fellow Times columnist Erika Smith sneered that Elder “keeps trotting out statistics that purport to show that Black people are particularly prone to murdering one another.” Unfortunately for Elder’s critics, the statistics showing vastly disproportionate rates of black crime and victimization come from some of the left’s favorite sources. CDC data show that in 2015, for example, the homicide victimization rate for blacks age 10 to 34 (37.5 per 100,000) was 13 times the rate for whites (2.9 per 100,000). That disparity is undoubtedly much greater now, given the record-breaking increase in homicides since the George Floyd riots — an increase disproportionately affecting blacks. Those black victims of homicide are not being killed by cops or whites. They are being killed by other blacks. In Los Angeles, blacks this year have committed 46 percent of homicides whose offender is known, even though they are just 9 percent of the Los Angeles population. Whites make up 28 percent of the Los Angeles population but have committed 4 percent of homicides, mostly involving domestic violence. These data, reported by the Los Angeles Times, mean that a black Angeleno is 35 times more likely to commit a homicide than a white Angeleno. Homicide data are the gold standard for crime statistics. Alas for Jeffrey Fagan and the Los Angeles Times’ other experts, the statistical conclusion that blacks are “more inclined toward violent crimes” is indisputable. What about the claim that blacks don’t “disproportionately victimize whites”? In 2019, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of criminal victimization, blacks committed 127,350 non-lethal violent crimes against whites, while whites committed 17,690 non-lethal violent crimes against blacks. In other words, blacks commit 88 percent of all interracial violence between blacks and whites. Crime apologists argue that such disproportions are inevitable because there are so many whites in the US. But in cities where racial ratios are more commensurate, the amount of white-on-black violence remains negligible. Occasionally videos and reports of interracial violence — flash mobs, knockout games, and brutal beatings and robberies — become public. If the races were reversed, there would be a national uproar lasting months; but such incidents get scant, if any, mainstream media coverage. They are the reason why the press has all but eliminated reporting on the race of crime suspects. Such voluntary action is not enough to ensure public cluelessness about the reality of crime, however. Gov. Newsom recently signed a law prohibiting California’s police departments from posting mugshots of arrested criminals if their latest crime was “non-violent.” The San Francisco Police Department has stopped posting mugshots of all criminals. Police Chief Bill Scott explained that doing so “creates an illusory correlation for viewers that vastly overstates the propensity of Black and brown men to engage in criminal behavior.” Actually, mugshots document a real correlation. If the San Francisco Police Department could undercut that correlation by posting mugshots of white muggers, does anyone doubt that it would rush to do so? Elder’s dismissal of Black Lives Matter claims about systemic police violence is also grounded in fact. Police officers are at greater risk of civilian violence than blacks are at risk of police violence. And a disproportionate source of that danger to cops comes from black criminals. Fifty police officers have been murdered this year as of Aug. 25. In 2019, there were 697,195 sworn officers in the US. That employment count would be lower now, in light of the rush of officer retirements over the last year and a half and the inability of police departments to recruit replacements. Conservatively, using the 2019 number, however, those 50 officers represent a rate of approximately seven officers killed per 100,000 on the job. Four unarmed blacks have been fatally shot by police officers so far in 2021, according to the Washington Post. (“Unarmed” does not mean compliant; the Post’s category includes crime suspects who violently resist arrest, pummel officers after knocking them to the ground, and continue fighting after being tased.) Those four black victims represent .0000085 percent of the nearly 47 million self-identified blacks, or less than one one-hundredth of one person killed by the police per 100,000. A police officer is 875 times as likely to be killed on the job as an unarmed black is to be killed by a police officer. Historically, blacks have made up over 40 percent of cop-killers nationwide — 43 percent between 2005 and 2013 — though they are, at most, 13 percent of the nation’s population. In New York City, blacks were responsible for 74 percent of the murders of on-duty New York Police Department officers between 1986 and 2020. In 2019, blacks nationally were over 37 percent of all cop-killers whose race was known. Conservatively estimating that 40 percent of the cop-killers this year have been black, 20 officers would have been killed by a black suspect in 2021, for a rate of nearly three cops per 100,000 officers killed by a black. A police officer is 375 times as likely to be killed by a black suspect as an unarmed black is to be killed by a police officer. Elder is breaking the taboos about black crime in an effort to save black lives. Police activity must be understood in the context of crime, not simple population ratios, since policing today is data-driven. Cops go where people are most being victimized, and that is in black neighborhoods. The police cannot protect black victims without having a disparate impact on black criminals. But the lies directed against cops from the highest reaches of government have led the police to back off. The Los Angeles Police Department experienced a 43 percent reduction in arrests in 2020 and a 27 percent reduction in street stops. This year, through Aug. 21, arrests are down another 28 percent, compared with the same period in 2019. Crime responded predictably. Homicides in Los Angeles through Aug. 21 are up 44 percent compared with the pre-George Floyd year of 2019; shots fired are up over 48 percent, and shootings up 44 percent. In Los Angeles County, homicides were up 111 percent this year through late May. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Latino and black victims account for nearly all the recent surge in homicides in Los Angeles. Assaults on officers also rose in 2020. Since the George Floyd riots, officers in California have been shot at, assaulted with lethal projectiles, firebombed, and run over. In September 2020, longtime felon Deonte Murray walked up to the parked squad car of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and shot them both in the head as they sat inside. Bystanders cheered; anti-cop protesters continued the celebration later at the hospital, as the deputies struggled on life support. Yet despite this open season on cops, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón declared in December 2020 that officers’ authority may be resisted with impunity and will not be prosecuted — a declaration that strikes at the heart of civilization itself, as Elder understands. Trying to ensure that blacks get the policing they need in order to stay alive would not seem to be the gesture of a white supremacist, black or white. If Elder were running as a Democrat, the press would be celebrating the possibility of California’s first black governor. Instead, we hear nothing about “shattering glass ceilings” or “diversifying” the ruling elite. The New York Times ran an entire front-page article on Elder’s candidacy without once mentioning that he was black. (The article did claim in passing that Elder was an affirmative-action admit to Brown University, an unthinkable charge regarding a black liberal.) A column by Paul Krugman two days later was equally colorblind regarding the Elder candidacy. Has the Times renounced identity politics? Only selectively. Adjacent to the Aug. 25 front-page article was a story on New York’s new governor, headlined “Hochul Breaks a Barrier and Pledges a New Era.” The story opened with the observation that “Kathleen C. Hochul became the first woman to ascend to New York’s highest office on Tuesday.” Yet Hochul’s entry into the governor’s mansion in Albany does not even signify anything about gubernatorial voting patterns; she was not elected but slotted in after Andrew Cuomo’s resignation. Black governors have been much rarer than female ones. Elder would lead the nation’s largest state and be just the third black governor ever elected in the United States, following Douglas Wilder in Virginia and Deval Patrick in Massachusetts. Elder is indifferent to the silence regarding the “historic” nature of his candidacy. But the media’s effort to portray his run merely as a resurgence of alleged Trumpian racism depends on a shameful duplicity regarding crime and policing. As long as that duplicity remains in force, in the California governor’s office and elsewhere, the country will continue sliding toward anarchy. Always humorous to see the left trying to play the race card against a black man. He is just speaking the TRUTH. Black on black homicides are way worse than white on black.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/01/biden-pressured-ghani-to-create-perception-taliban-wasnt-winning/ President Biden pressured Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani to create the “perception” that the Taliban weren’t winning, “whether it’s true or not,” in a phone call just three weeks before the insurgents seized control of the country, a bombshell leaked transcript shows. Biden and Ghani spoke for roughly 14 minutes on July 23 in what would be their final call before the Taliban overran the government and Afghanistan descended into bloody chaos amid the botched US withdrawal, according to a transcript and audio obtained by Reuters. Much of the call was focused on what Biden referred to as the Afghan government’s “perception” issue. “I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.” At the time, the Taliban had already seized about half of the country’s district centers and was only weeks away from taking Kabul on Aug. 15. Biden told Ghani that Afghanistan’s prominent political figures — including former Afghan President Hamid Karzai — should give a joint press conference that backed a new military strategy on how to defeat the Taliban, saying: “That will change perception, and that will change an awful lot, I think.” “I’m not a military guy, so I’m not telling you what that plan should precisely look like, you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change in terms of how , um … our allies and folks here in the States and other places think you’re doing,” Biden said. Biden also heaped praise on Afghan security forces — which were trained and funded by the US before dissolving in a matter of weeks amid the US withdrawal — and offered aid if Ghani could publicly put out a plan that showed he could control the spiraling situation. Our President (and his advisors) saw the real problems in Afghanistan, but asked Ghani to "change the perception" to "make it look better". A call to a leader of another country asking him to investigate someone doesn't seem so bad now, huh?

How sad is this?

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?’