All_Pro_Bills

That the circumstances faced by Americans trapped inside Afghanistan would be expressed in a manner implying the decision to stay or go is some voluntary conscious decisions speaks volumes of the mental contortions the administration is going through to weasel their way out of taking any accountability for this disaster. So its as simple as walking up to those armed Taliban checkpoints and telling them "I'm an American citizen and I wish to leave". Okay then they'll say. Be our guest and pass right through and have a nice day. Scenes from the action on the ground look more like a Hotel California or the Roach Motel scenario.

I'll wager all the obsessive personalities and political stalkers on the board know what kind of cookies Trump likes. And that he shoplifted them from the store while shouting racial slurs at the cashier!!

With the COVID outbreak every expectation of privacy has been challenged in the name of the "greater good". This theme dominates all decisions with the goal of focusing on social needs and the relegating of individual rights and freedoms to the back seat. Some even taking it to the extreme that individual needs and rights are irrelevant. Somehow we've come to believe that medical and personal privacy rights need to be waived when it comes to COVID but nothing else, yet. So the only way to be "safe" is to demand everyone gets vaccinated and provide their vaccination and health status for all to see and view on demand. But its clear the next goalpost to be moved will be the definition of fully vaccinated. Now two shots, soon to be two shots plus a booster. And then another booster. Add in the element of time regarding with everyone was inoculated and it seems like an unmanageable mess to track. Today you're fully vaccinated and tomorrow you'll get an e-mail from the HR department saying you've got 2 weeks to get your booster shot or be subject to termination. From where I sit it doesn't appear the virus cares much about anything anyone is doing here. Its going about its way of doing what it wants, spreading and mutating at will.

Don't worry about high motor fuel prices. The Democrats have a plan. They are going to replace the entire gasoline powered vehicle fleet with EV's. All they need to do is figure out where all that electrical generation capacity is going to come from without using any hydrocarbon based products to build out the infrastructure and maintain it and everything will be okay. Forget about all the input materials for those vehicles. They can mine space asteroids to get all that material. I hear that's working great so far! But hey, they have lots of plans. They'll all wonderful because every one of those plans have absolutely no risks or consequences. All of us mere mortals can't see how this is possible. Clearly something is wrong with us. As they appear to have developed all their ideas through a new and advanced way of thinking that only their superior minds can conceptualize.

Perhaps they can provide insights on a couple other questions from clinical and medical professional perspective. 1. If vaccinated people are "safe" is there anything medically valid about being afraid of un-vaccinated people infecting them? 2. Given what I understand is fact, that vaccinated people can carry a viral load capable of spreading the infection, what is the difference in risk between contacting an infected vaccinated person or an un-vaccinated infected person?

When you devote yourself to a career as a professional liar its not possible to accept and recognize the truth when your livelihood depends on ignoring it.

I think the appropriate narrative is the execution of the administration's withdrawal plan doesn't have any concern for the potential level of casualties. If it did then logically you'd withdraw your non-combatant civilian population first and then withdraw your military forces protecting them afterward. Not abandon defenseless civilians, suddenly wake up from a policy coma and realize they're in danger, and then be forced to re-insert the military to face even greater risks once the hostiles took over the territory than if you did it the right way. Biden's strategy is closer to saving the minimum number of people than it is to saving everyone.

Hey, I wouldn't dismiss that scenario. How about the administration enlisting the support of a couple hundred thousand members of the greatest threat to democracy? All those "white supremacist" guys they claim are running around out there. Send this "red neck army" over to Afghanistan and offer 100 bucks a head for every Taliban or ISIS thug and dirt bag they take out. And if they end up getting shot or killed then its just one less "domestic terrorist" to worry about! Kill two birds with one stone, no pun intended. Hey maybe even generate some revenue for selling them "Taliban and ISIS hunting licenses". It would be more sport than shooting unarmed Deer and Rabbits. This might be a win/win for everybody! Because what's needed more than anything to address this problem is some creative out of the box thinking.

Don't worry. The LA county prosecutor will release the suspect, drop all charges, seal the case files, and instruct the police to drop off the recall ballots at the nearest polling place. In support of democracy..

You might be right but it also may be a little too early to conclude that with any level of certainty. Let's say thousands of American citizens and Afghani partners were killed or injured in the coming days I expect nobody is going to forget Afghanistan. So right now the objective of the administration is pure damage control. Or or the weapons they left behind find their way to Iran and some of our gear gets "reverse engineered" by the Iranians. Like figuring out how drone technology ticks and establishing protocols to neutralize them. Or if ISIS launches terrorist attacks within the US and intelligence concludes they've used free ability to operate inside Afghanistan to plan and prepare these attacks. I don't think anyone is going to forget that either. Or if we find dozens of active terrorist cells have infiltrated the border as a result of a failure of the administration to operate within the parameters of existing immigration and US customs polices nobody is going to forget that either. Through careless and blatant arrogance and hubris along with a disregard for common sense the administration has really left their asses exposed to all kinds of trouble. Will they be able to dodge it all? We'll find out. We also need to ask what else are they going to F. Up leading up to next November? Also, out of scope for this tread is my expectation of a significant stock market crash followed by a severe downturn in the general economy. My perspective is that its unavoidable. Add in COVID impacts to the economy and it might be a very, very bad time ahead.

I remember Gene Therapy being touted before and during the tech stock blowout. And nobody on Earth expected the FDA to deny the application so it was just a matter of waiting for them to go through the motions of the approval process. And the risk of long-term complications isn't something that just fell out of the sky yesterday. The goalpost in the process of being moved will be the definition of "fully vaccinated". Today that means 2 shots. Tomorrow, all signs point to 2 shots plus a booster. Then maybe another booster in 2022. The problem is the vaccine loses its effectiveness rapidly and I can't imagine there's any past study on the risks of being inoculated with the same exact formula over and over again 4, 5, 6 times. Are the boosters being "tuned" for the Delta variant? I don't know. Whether this rapid loss of efficacy is because of the nature of the vaccine or the reaction of the immune system itself isn't clear. But common sense might suggest this is going to be an ongoing problem.

You'd think so. But I still have faith the Republicans will manage to screw it up anyway. Even if the worst possible scenario plays out in the next couple week. Other than becoming fiscally responsible when they lose the majority and opposing lots of social issues pushed by the left what is their platform? What vision are they going to lay out? I've heard rumblings about running on the "law and order issue" and now using this Afghanistan disaster but then what?

So 87% of seniors favor paying less for their prescriptions? Who'd have guessed?

Nor has any vaccine been based on an mRNA Gene Therapy platform before. Something that most scientists and clinicians would categorize as "experimental". And that implies potential unknown risks.

What seems to get lost is the efficacy rate. The clinical trials that provided EUA for the Pfizer vaccine generated an efficacy rate of 95.1%. Last night the ABC news story on the vaccine receiving FDA approval, which was a foregone conclusion, put the number at 91%. That means for every 100 people vaccinated 4.9 or 9 people respectively will be not be protected. That is most likely the population making up the breakthrough cases. And now we know the vaccine loses efficacy over time. And have some hard data on the deterioration rate and time line. That's why the booster shots are needed. While we have data on short-term side effects of getting the shot, some of which have been serious and leading to death, what we still don't know are any long-term side effects of the vaccine. People in high risk health situations for adverse side effects from the vaccine should not be "mandated" to get vaccinated. That is just medically irresponsible and borders on criminal. Unknown long-term side effects is one of the main concerns with the vaccine hesitant and a likely concern in the back of the minds of many, like myself, getting vaccinated too. Will it lead to massive health complications of one kind or another sometime in the future? Or will all be well? Or something in between? We don't know. That's the part that worries me. Nobody has data on the future. Anyone who claims there are no serious and life-threatening long term side effects is stating something as fact that they cannot possible know is true or false. At best its a educated guess based on the information and science available now. At worst its simply a political statement to minimize public concerns and resistance. Anyone saying the risk of the virus causing serious illness is worth the risk of any potential health consequences a year or two from today cannot possibly know that either. There's no information available to make those claims. As it goes, nothing is more frightening than ignorance in action.

And Joe says we might need to extend the deal deadline and the Taliban say "no". So this is likely to get very ugly. Typically when you plan a retreat you want to deploy combat and security forces to guard your withdrawing forces from attack. But not these clowns. They abandon a secure air base, pull out all their military forces, and leave unarmed and vulnerable civilian populations behind. And when realizing how badly they've screwed up resort to a risky strategy of having to re-insert the military back into the conflict. And now the administration finds itself in a position of begging a savage and bloodthirsty medieval enemy for mercy in allowing their people out of the conflict zone. The most embarrassing moment in American history. But no worries some say. Because it wasn't Joe's plan. If anyone wants to use that excuse for total failure I hope it makes them feel better.

A good question. What is the definition of fully vaccinated? Does it mean a two shot dose? Or that with a booster? Or another booster after that? Is there going to be an expiration date on the "fully vaccinated" status of a person based on the medical effectiveness of the vaccine "wearing off"? Questions right now with no answers from anybody running anything.

For the reason they fled, in a procedural move to block legislation from passing, it appears the Governor is intent on arresting them when they return.

This is meant to be satire on the fiasco in Kabul?

Masks or no masks I think one element missing in schools is a program of vigorous testing. There are 'instant" type COVID tests available that could be used on students. Tests that can generate positive/negative results in 15-30 minutes. That could be administered at home before going to school. They're moderately expensive but no more expensive when you weigh the cost of hospitalizations and spreading the infection. I'm not sure why officials and health experts have not pushed this action although one issue is availability and supply of these tests. But that can be resolved by throwing some resources behind producing more. To me it seems like they've dropped the ball on an effective tool.

It is incomprehensible how anyone could believe this administration is doing a good job. Maybe that's just a reflection of the low intelligence and poorly functioning mental processes developed in citizens by school systems that have been destroyed by fringe-left programs? The only thing worse than Ole Joe might be bumping up VP Harris to the top job. If you think its bad now just wait for that to happen. That's when all Hell will break loose.

This is all about the complete incompetence of the current administration. Nobody that's struck in Afghanistan or that has family or friends trapped there gives a flying "F" what Trump did or didn't do or what did and did not happen between 2016 to 2020. Your continuous references to the object of your affection to present false comparisons between administrations don't change anything about the current situation on the ground which is chaos. This disaster is Biden's cross to die on, nobody else's.

You're right. Its a risk vs. risk game. But if you're the Pakistani's do you want to take the chance of saying "No"? And what's the political cost of reeling in the Taliban? Or losing all that aid and seeing your economy decimated over time? My goal is to suggest "an offer you can't refuse" that has costs so extreme it might be impossible to turn down. If they want to negotiate a little so everybody saves face or doesn't get too exposed, then sure we could do that. Maybe some of this is going on behinds the scenes here now. I hope so. But nothings obvious in what information is publicly available right now. But when push comes to shove if you're the 800 lb. Gorilla in the jungle you can't sit around and let the little critters push you around.

I'd like to propose a solution to this problem to the President. I think it will be a quite effective and relatively painless solution. It doesn't require firing a shot, bombing anybody, or causing any harm to any friend or foe on the ground in Afghanistan. All I ask is to put me in charge for 1 hour. That's all I think it will take. And my suggestion just uses a simple tool called root cause analysis. So the Taliban are running around now, harassing and beating people, killing some, keeping others from getting out. All because they insist on following Sharia Law. But my root cause analysis says the problem is Pakistan. They're the people aiding and assisting the Taliban for the 20 year period. Hiding them, giving them aid and assistance. Using their intelligence agency, ISI, against US forces on the ground. And the gall of it all is the US bankrolls the Pakistani military along with lots of civilian and military aid. All this is well known inside our government, the military, and the intelligence agencies. So I'd just get the Pakistani PM on the phone and tell him this crap stops in 30 minute or else. Or else we freeze all military aid Or else we freeze all civilian aid Or else we freeze all your financial accounts including yours personally Or else we block all access to financial trade and reserve settlement transactions Or else we crash your currency on the markets on Monday Or else we confiscate all your commercial and government assets at the Federal Reserve and the commercial banking system. Or else we blockade your ports with our Navy and no ships of any kind get in or out. We want guarantees of safety for all Americans and other foreign nationals and pledges of no harm or retribution to anyone that might have cooperated with us for the 20 year period. And we want all our planes, vehicles, and other equipment left behind. And if we find out any of our terms have been violated your ass his history. Will this work? I think so. All that's missing is the will inside the administration to do this. Problem solved.

I sympathize with our friend Bill. And my post attempting satire was meant to poke fun at the sad state of US customs and immigration policy rather than a derogatory comment on any person or group. The restrictions and rules make little logical sense to me and the "experts" making these decisions appear clueless to reality and unwilling to explain any of the reasoning and inputs they've used to devise their little schemes. One can only assume revealing the truth of their intentions would result in a lot of public pushback? Like keeping Canadian football fans out of the US and prohibiting them from tailgating and Bills home games. But seeming to contradict themselves by eliminating all checks and restrictions elsewhere. My conclusion is they all should be fired for incompetence and negligence but since they are unaccountable government hacks that won't be happening. Oh, and those pizza's sound good.