You Are Living in the Golden Age of Stupidity . . . ‘Stupidity,” Jean Cocteau remarked, “is always amazing, no matter how used to it you become.”
We live in a golden age of stupidity. It is everywhere. President Biden’s conduct of the withdrawal from Afghanistan will be remembered as a defining stupidity of our time—one of many. The political parties, during Trump years became locked in a four-year drama of hysteria and mutually demeaning abuse. Every buffoonery of the president and his people was answered by an idiocy from the other side, which in its own style was just as sinister and just as clownish. American government and politics became cartoons. The death of manners and privacy, I argue, are profoundly political facts that, combined with other facts, lead, eventually, to an entire civilization of stupidity. It’s a short ride from stupidity to madness. Soon people aren’t quite people anymore; they are cartoons and categories. And “identities.” The media grow feral. Genitals became weirdly public issues; the sexes subdivide into 100 genders. Ideologues engage in what amounts to an Oedipal rebellion against reality itself. Wall Street Journal

 

Mother Of Slain Marine: ‘All You Democrats … Who Voted For [Biden], You Just Killed My Son’ . . . The mother of slain U.S. Marine Rylee McCollum spoke out in a radio interview Saturday. “Every Democrat who is listening, you did this to my son,” the marine’s mother, Kathy McCollum, said. Daily Caller

 

Newsom Praised Chinese Foreign Agent for ‘Journalistic Integrity’ . . . Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) earlier this month spoke at the annual gala for a pro-Beijing newspaper that has registered as a foreign agent of China due to its influence activities in the United States. Newsom lauded Sing Tao for its "journalistic integrity" and for providing "balanced news stories" to its readers. He also said the newspaper, which publishes daily in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, has helped Chinese Americans acclimate to California. Sing Tao is considered a pro-Beijing news outlet. Its owners are members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory group controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The Department of Justice required Sing Tao to register this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law aimed at tracking foreign influence in the United States. Chinese state-controlled news outlets like CGTN, China Daily, and Xinhua have also registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents. Washington Free Beacon

 

Granholm Chartered Military Jet to Ukraine as US Struggled To Evacuate Americans From Afghanistan . . . Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm earlier this week chartered a military jet to attend a diplomatic summit in Ukraine as the Pentagon struggled to evacuate Americans and allies from Afghanistan with limited time and operational resources. Granholm's military flight took place amid the United States' frantic effort to airlift tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan ahead of the Taliban's Aug. 31 deadline and as the Department of Defense was forced to call in civilian airlines to bolster its strained evacuation fleet.
The secretary's use of a military jet—and particularly the flight's timing—may raise questions for the Biden White House, which is responsible for approving such flights. Washington Free Beacon

 

Afghan Militants Fire Rockets at Kabul Airport as U.S. Nears Withdrawal . . . Afghan militants fired rockets at Kabul’s airport as the U.S. rushed to complete its evacuation mission in Afghanistan before Tuesday’s deadline to leave the country, with U.S. counter-rocket defenses deployed to intercept them. While no group claimed immediate responsibility for Monday’s rocket attack, the U.S. has repeatedly warned of imminent threats by Islamic State. The Taliban are coordinating with the U.S. military during the handover. The assault marks the latest upsurge in violence in the final days of the U.S.’s 20-year military presence in Afghanistan. It followed a U.S. drone strike Sunday that targeted suspected Islamic State suicide bombers who the Pentagon said sought to attack the airport, and a suicide bombing last week that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 200 Afghan civilians. Wall Street Journal

 

 

Pentagon prepared for ‘mass casualty’ attack at Kabul Airport hours before explosion . . . Just 24 hours before a suicide bomber detonated an explosive outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, senior military leaders gathered for the Pentagon’s daily morning update on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Speaking from a secure video conference room on the third floor of the Pentagon at 8 a.m. Wednesday — or 4:30 p.m. in Kabul — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instructed more than a dozen of the department’s top leaders around the world to make preparations for an imminent “mass casualty event,” according to classified detailed notes of the gathering shared with POLITICO. During the meeting, Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of “significant” intelligence indicating that the Islamic State’s Afghanistan affiliate, ISIS-K, was planning a “complex attack,” the notes quoted him as saying. Commanders calling in from Kabul relayed that the Abbey Gate, where American citizens had been told to gather in order to gain entrance to the airport, was “highest risk,” and detailed their plans to protect the airport. “I don’t believe people get the incredible amount of risk on the ground,” Austin said, according to the classified notes. On a separate call at 4 that afternoon, or 12:30 a.m. on Thursday in Kabul, the commanders detailed a plan to close Abbey Gate by Thursday afternoon Kabul time. But the Americans decided to keep the gate open longer than they wanted in order to allow their British allies, who had accelerated their withdrawal timeline, to continue evacuating their personnel, based at the nearby Baron Hotel. Politico

 

Uzbekistan Warns U.S. That Afghan Pilots and Their Families Can’t Stay . . . Facing Taliban pressure, Uzbekistan has warned the U.S. that a group of highly trained Afghan pilots who fled there two weeks ago aboard Afghan Air Force helicopters and airplanes face expulsion from the country, officials say. Uzbekistan is urging Washington to act quickly to take the pilots to a third country to avoid inflaming relations with the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, these officials say. Uzbekistan has maintained relations with the group for years while carefully hedging between powers vying for influence in Afghanistan. The U.S. effort to train and build an Afghan air force was among the most celebrated programs in support of the country’s military. The U.S. spent billions of dollars on the air force, including on training, maintenance and the supply of dozens of helicopters and planes. In the aftermath of the government's collapse, some Afghan pilots flew themselves to safety with hundreds of family members and colleagues aboard 46 Afghan Air Force helicopters and planes. These pilots are among the Taliban’s most hated enemies because of their role in airstrikes that inflicted high numbers of casualties during the decadeslong conflict. The Taliban also have called on Uzbekistan to return the aircraft to Afghanistan.  Wall Street Journal

 

Biden’s meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy revives troubles of corruption, Crimea, Russia . . . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House on Monday will complete a circle of politics and intrigue spanning three U.S. administrations. President Biden has put Ukrainian corruption near the top of the agenda when he sits down in the Oval Office with Mr. Zelenskyy. It’s the same issue that has imbued both Washington’s and Mr. Biden’s relationship with the Eastern European country for nearly a decade. Documents found on Hunter Biden’s laptop late last year raised more questions about how deeply the Biden family was entrenched in Ukraine’s murky business world. Mr. Biden said in 2019 that he never spoke with his son about overseas business dealings. But documents on Hunter’s laptop show that he introduced his father to a visiting Burisma executive in 2015. Washington Times

 

This College's New COVID Restrictions Are Too Insane To Be Real . . . The private liberal arts college, located in Amherst, Massachusetts, announced the tightened public health rules Tuesday in response to concerns about the spread of the Delta variant. The following restrictions will apply from move-in until September 13 (via The Amherst Student):
indoor double-mask mandates, two Covid tests upon arrival, a bi-weekly testing requirement, limits on indoor gathering sizes, off-campus travel restrictions and an elimination of in-person dining services. Upon arrival, students will receive both a PCR test and a rapid antigen test. The college has decided that, anyone who has tested positive for Covid will be put into isolation for 10 days in either designated dorm rooms or at home for students and staff respectively. The college is not offering standard remote learning options this year, but class deans will assist quarantined students so that they will not fall behind on school work. Townhall

 

Who Funds ISIS-K, The Terrorist Group That Took Responsibility For The Kabul Attack? . . . The ISIS affiliate group in Afghanistan has largely amassed funding with the help of global terrorist financing networks and its main sponsor, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, according to Treasury Department memos reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, took responsibility for an explosion outside Kabul airport Thursday that left 13 U.S. service members dead and 18 more wounded. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 2016 and was the first ISIS-affiliate designated by the United Nations. The group began in 2015 with ISIS’ expansion in the Khorasan region of Afghanistan. ISIS-K is funded mainly through “local donations, taxation, extortion, and some financial support from ISIS-core,” according to a declassified January Treasury Department Inspector General’s memorandum. Daily Caller

 

United Jets With Engines in Denver Incident May Not Fly Until Next Year . . . Dozens of United Airlines jets like the one that lost an engine cover over Colorado in February aren’t expected to fly until early next year, as federal regulators weigh additional safeguards, people briefed on the matter said. United had hoped to resume flying the wide-body jets this summer. Returning the planes to service has taken longer than expected as federal regulators consider potential new requirements for certain Boeing 777 jets powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, before they again carry passengers, these people said. United has 52 such jets in its fleet. U.S. air-safety regulators are considering an additional type of engine-blade inspection and a proposed Boeing modification aimed at preventing engine covers from ripping off should an engine fan blade break during flight, these people said. Wall Street Journal

 

Twitter permanently suspends Alex Berenson over coronavirus tweets . . . Twitter has permanently suspended former New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson, a critic of coronavirus lockdowns and mandates, from its platform. "The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules," a Twitter spokesperson told Fox News. On his Substack page, Berenson subsequently posted a brief message, just over 152 characters, titled, "Goodbye Twitter." "This was the tweet that did it," he wrote, above a screenshot of his account before it was taken down. "Entirely accurate. I can’t wait to hear what a jury will make of this." Fox News

 

Hollywood mobilizes to protect Gavin Newsom amid recall: reports . . . Major Hollywood figures have teamed up to bankroll the effort to prevent the recall aiming to oust California Gov. Gavin Newsom next month.  Executives, directors, producers and actors have opened their pocketbooks to protect Newsom, who faces a recall on Sept. 14. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has contributed a whopping $3 million to the political action committee defending Newsom, according to the California Secretary of State's Office. The Entertainment Software Association contributed $50,000, while Paramount Pictures gave $40,000 and the Motion Picture Association spent $10,000 on the effort. The singer/songwriter John Roger Stephens, known as John Legend, urged Californians to vote against the recall. Fox Business

 

White House Sends Beto To Help Taliban Confiscate Afghans' Weapons . . . After the Taliban announced that Afghans would have to turn in their guns, the White House has sent Beto O'Rourke to Kabul to help out.
Biden quickly praised the proposal and offered to send the gun confiscation expert and failed congressional candidate to go help take everybody's guns. "[Flowerbed] yes we're coming for your guns," O'Rourke said as he happily went door to door to take firearms from soon-to-be helpless Afghan civilians.

 

"This will greatly reduce gun violence, as Afghans won't be able to fight back at all and will simply have to submit to the Taliban's rule." "Unlike America, the Taliban is very progressive when it comes to gun legislation. This is just a common-sense measure," O'Rourke said as he wrestled an AK-47 out of the hands of an Afghan woman before the Taliban whisked her away. Unfortunately, O'Rourke was caught in his furry costume and is now imprisoned on death row. Biden says we will have to either drop off some pallets of cash to get him back or start a second Afghan war. Babylon Bee