Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
August 23, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
U.S. Warns of Islamic State Threat to Americans in Afghanistan . . . The U.S. warned that Islamic State poses a threat to Americans in Afghanistan as the Biden administration seeks to evacuate thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.
“The threat is real. It is acute. It is persistent. And it is something we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal,” Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, told CNN on Sunday when asked whether crowds at the Kabul international airport are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. President Biden, speaking from the White House, said: “We know that terrorists may seek to exploit the situation and target innocent Afghans or American troops. We’re maintaining constant
vigilance to monitor and disrupt threats from any source.” Wall Street Journal
What a mess.
Former UK commander in Afghanistan says Biden shouldn't be impeached: 'He should be court-martialed' . . . Col Richard Kemp said on 'Life, Liberty & Levin' that President Biden, as commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces, should be court-martialed for "betraying the United States of America and the United States' armed forces." Fox News
Damn right.
Ex-CIA director compares Trump supporters to the Taliban . . . Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden was widely panned for a retweet that signaled he equated President Trump’s supporters in the United States with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, Hayden retweeted a split image. The top showed black-clad Islamic militants waving guns and flags from a line of cars with a caption reading: "Their Taliban." Beneath that was a line of pickup trucks hoisting American flags and "Trump 2020" flags with the caption: "Our Taliban." Hayden is a retired U.S. Air Force four-star general who at various points was the Director of the National Security Agency, the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, in addition to being the
Director of the CIA. Fox News
Gen. Hayden's tweet says it all about how the Establishment apparatchiks in our intelligence services view their fellow Americans. Is anyone surprised that the intelligence community spread the Russian disinformation during the 2016 election, pushing the false narrative of the Trump-Russia collusion? No, Trump did not collude with Putin. But the upper echelons in the IC did Putin's bidding, by tearing our country apart along partisan lines, pushing their false accusations of
President Trump, my for boss DIA Director General Flynn, and Carter Page, into the main stream media. These buccaneers deployed Soviet-style Playbook on Americans.
Can you imagine what such corrupt and hateful individuals, who are in charge of the most powerful government surveillance tools in the history of intelligence, can do to an ordinary citizen if you get on their bad side? Nuf said.
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduces impeachment resolutions against Biden . . . Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., she has “introduced three impeachment resolutions against Joe Biden for his dereliction of duty in Afghanistan, his violations of immigration law causing a national security crisis on our Southern border, and his usurping of the Constitutional balance of power by ignoring the ruling of the Supreme Court,” her office
announced Friday. Greene said in a statement: “In seven short months, Joe Biden has caused America to lose the respect of the entire world. The evidence is clear and his actions are so egregious that he must be impeached.” White House Dossier
Biden’s job approval dives amid Afghanistan bungling, COVID-19 resurgence . . . President Biden’s job-approval rating is dropping due to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and a resurgence of COVID-19 at home. The president’s approval rating fell eight percentage points from July in a CBS News/YouGov survey, to 50%. His rating fell to 49% in an NBC News poll, down from 53% in April and the first time Mr. Biden has dropped below 50%
in that survey. The new polls track with an earlier Reuters survey, which found the president’s job-approval rating fell seven percentage points in the last week as the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan. Washington Times
Trump's Greatest Lines at Alabama Tour Stop: 'Everything Woke Goes to S**t,' 'Vietnam Looks Like Master Class . . . Former President Donald Trump continued with his "Save America" tour on Saturday when appearing in Cullman, Alabama. Predictably, he hit his successor over his failures with Afghanistan. Trump certainly had more strong words for Biden as he shared his own thoughts. "This is the greatest humiliation I've ever seen," he said,
also offering predictions for the legacy of such a disaster. "Biden's botched exit in Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation's leader. Townhall
DJT always says it how it is. No pretense. No sugar-coating. His intellectual honesty and plain-spoken manner drives polite society crazy, while earning him adoration from his supporters.
Arizona Election Audit Exposes GOP Rifts as 2022 Midterms Loom . . . Nine months after the 2020 election and as preparations for next year’s midterm elections get under way, Arizona Republicans are split over whether a review of November’s election result in the state’s most populous county will turn off, or reassure, voters. President Biden won Arizona over former President Donald Trump with a margin of just over 10,000 votes out of more
than 3.3 million cast statewide. A recount of a sample of ballots in Maricopa County found no issues. Two firms accredited by the federal U.S. Election Assistance Commission, considered the gold standard for the industry, tested Maricopa’s voting machines and said they passed. As Mr. Trump continued to contest the results of the election and called on his supporters to do the same, Republicans in Arizona’s state Senate commissioned another review led by a Florida-based company called Cyber
Ninjas Inc. Cyber Ninjas says it may complete the review this month. Wall Street Journal
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U.S. military evacuated more than 10,000 people from Kabul on Sunday . . . The U.S. military flew approximately 10,400 people out of Kabul over 24 hours on Sunday, and 61 coalition planes helped evacuate approximately 5,900, a White House official said on Monday. Since Aug. 14, the U.S. has gotten 37,000 people out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, or helped with their evacuation, the official said. Reuters
Biden: Troop extension in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 under discussion . . . President Biden on Sunday left open the possibility of extending U.S. troop deployments in Afghanistan beyond an Aug. 31 deadline if necessary to facilitate the evacuation of American personnel and Afghan allies. Biden previously said troops would remain in Afghanistan until all Americans were out of the country, though his comments Sunday were the clearest
indication yet an extension is under discussion within the administration. Biden said he remained optimistic that all necessary evacuations could be completed before Aug. 31. But he acknowledged the difficulty of getting tens of thousands of people out of the country as it comes under Taliban rule once again. The Hill
Pentagon Activates Civil Reserve Air Fleet For Third Time In History To Aid In Afghanistan Evacuation . . . The Pentagon activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) early Sunday to aid in the Afghanistan evacuation efforts. The announcement means the Pentagon is ordering six commercial airlines – American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Airlines, Omni Air, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines – to help with moving people out of Afghanistan.
The commercial airlines will be flying into other areas and not the Kabul airport, according to the Pentagon. This is just the third time in history CRAF has been activated. Daily Caller
Rep. Michael McCaul says US has no intel in nation, gives victory to Taliban . . . Afghanistan: 'With the exception of the airport-we are completely dark,' says Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News. The U.S. has no intelligence in Kabul outside the airport, marking a victory for the Taliban, Russia, China and Iran."We have no intelligence on the ground now," he continued. "We are completely
dark." The U.S. shut down Bagram Airfield, formerly the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, and evacuated the U.S. Embassy. Fox News
US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad . . . I understand that the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division has told the commander of the British special forces at the Kabul airport to cease operations beyond the airport perimeter. Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue has told his British Army counterpart, a high-ranking field-grade officer of the British army's 22nd Special Air
Service Regiment, that British operations were embarrassing the United States military in the absence of similar U.S. military operations, according to multiple military sources. I understand that the British officer firmly rejected the request. Washington Times
Biden's green energy plan, botched Afghan withdrawal boost China's rare metals monopoly . . . At first blush, it may not seem that the Democrats' $4.5 trillion infrastructure and spending plans and President Joe Biden's bungled exit from Afghanistan have a nexus. But they do in China's rare metals monopoly. Beijing already dominates the rare metals market needed for electronics, electric car batteries and computers, a reality made more
painfully obvious with the current computer chip shortage that is slowing production of new U.S. cars. And now with the haphazard U.S. withdrawal from Kabul, one of the world's largest untapped deposits of lithium — estimated by some at $1 trillion in Afghanistan — is poised to fall into China's hands just as Biden has ordered that half all U.S. cars be electric by 2030 and congressional Democrats prepare to vote to invest tens of billions of dollars more to push that goal further. The
irony of the connections is not lost on world leaders. Just the News
State Department hit by cyber attack . . . The State Department is the latest to fall victim to a cyber-attack and notifications of a possible serious breach were made by the Department of Defense Cyber Command, a source told Fox News Saturday. It remains unclear if any department operations were affected by the breach, but a source familiar with mass evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghans from Kabul said Operation Allies
Refuge has "not been affected". The extent of the breach and the perpetrators behind the attack remains unclear at this time. Fox News
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Tony Blair: Afghanistan withdrawal 'driven not by grand strategy but by politics' . . .
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair bemoaned "abandonment of Afghanistan and its people" and said the decision by the U.S. and its allies to withdraw troops was "driven not by grand strategy but by politics." "We didn't need to do it. We chose to do it. We did it in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending 'the forever wars', as if our engagement in 2021 was remotely comparable to our commitment 20 or even ten years ago, and in circumstances in which troop numbers had
declined to a minimum and no allied soldier had lost their life in combat for 18 months," wrote Blair, who was in power when the U.K. joined the U.S. in fighting the Taliban the Afghanistan. The Hill
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Video shows hordes of maskless people at Pelosi fundraiser . . . Mask-pushing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was apparently caught addressing an outdoor crowd of mask-less Democratic big wigs in COVID-19-riddled Napa Valley over the weekend, according to video and tweets. A clip of the close-quartered fundraiser was posted on Facebook by Democratic Party donor and winemaker Kathryn Walt Hall — and promptly blasted out on Twitter. The
footage appeared to show dozens of unmasked people seated elbow to elbow at long luncheon tables as Pelosi gave a speech and masked waiters ambled between the listeners. “All the servants fully masked,” tweeted journalist Glenn Greenwald. “The almost-entirely old, white, rich crowd of DCCC donors free to go maskless as they’re served.” According to the CDC, Napa County in California is a coronavirus hot spot, garnering the designation of “high” for its current level of transmission.
“High” is the most worrisome designation. New York Post
Soviet Playbook: the Nomenklatura creates laws and rules for the rest of us, lesser mortals, while blatantly ignoring them themselves.
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Why you can't find everything you want at grocery stores . . . Grocery-store chains are still battling supply challenges that some executives said are as bad as what they saw in spring 2020, when hoarding left holes in stocks of some staples. Industry executives say new problems are arising weekly, driven by shortages of labor and raw materials. Groceries including frozen waffles and beverages remain scarce as some food
companies anticipate disruptions lasting into 2022. A wider range of products is running short and logistical challenges are compounding for many retailers. Donny Rouse, chief executive of Louisiana-based Rouses Markets, said he is struggling to fill shelves as his company runs low on everything from pet food to canned goods. The chain of more than 60 supermarkets is sometimes receiving as little as 40% of what it orders. Fox News
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Afghan woman delivers baby aboard evacuation aircraft . . . An Afghan mother gave birth to a child while on board a U.S. military aircraft carrying out evacuations. The U.S. Air Mobility Command announced Saturday evening that the unidentified woman delivered a baby girl in the cargo bay shortly after the C-17 transport aircraft touched down at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
During the flight, the aircraft commander descended in altitude after the woman began having complications with the delivery due to the lower air pressure in the aircraft. Both mother and child were transported to a nearby hospital following the birth and are in good condition. Washington Examiner
Small Percentage Of Afghan Refugees Flagged Through Security Screenings For Possible Ties To Terrorism . . . A small percentage of Afghan refugees are being flagged through biometric and background checks for possible ties to terrorism, one Pentagon official and a second person familiar with the process of security screenings told the Daily Caller. The Pentagon official said the number of Afghan refugees flagged for questionable
connections, such as connections to attacks against U.S. or coalition forces, is “0.5% or more.” President Joe Biden estimated during an interview published Aug. 19 that between 50,000 to 65,000 Afghans must be evacuated, meaning roughly 250-325 of these could be flagged, if the trend continues. Daily
Caller
Putin, on the other hand, refused to accept refugees, with or without visas, from Afghanistan, into Russia and demands that they are not accepted into Central Asia. He said, there's no way to vet them for terrorism ties.
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Every American Life Saved After Chick-Fil-A Takes Over Kabul Airport Evacuation . . . After the government spectacularly botched the evacuation of Afghanistan, Chick-fil-A scrambled to the rescue and was quickly put in charge of the operation. Within a few hours, every single American at the Kabul airport was comfortably seated on a commercial airliner and munching away at a delicious Chick-fil-A sandwich and sipping on a
sweet tea. Chick-fil-A employees took over operating the air traffic control tower, managing the crowd of people, flying the jets, and, of course, serving delicious Chick-fil-A food to everyone gathered at the airport.
"Oh, it's my pleasure," said one Chick-fil-A employee as he happily welcomed several hundred Americans on board an official Chick-fil-A airliner. "Welcome aboard! Will you be having the spicy chicken or the original today? The friendly employees tended to every need of the previously stranded Americans throughout the flights, offering complimentary food, beverages, back rubs, and trauma counseling to the people callously abandoned by the Biden administration. Babylon Bee
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Rebekah Koffler
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