Obviously from our distance we can only speculate, but rationally it's hard to see how he can continue to occupy the White House--in fact, there are reports that he doesn't even want to sleep there anymore. That sounds like a dementia case who can't think past his next meal and a comfy place to sleep. Can you imagine how weird things are in the regime right now? He was given a couple of tries at blustering through, but blew them--including a shambolic performance whiffing at Stephanopoulos soft balls.
On top of that we're getting truly disturbing reports from the UK that Zhou refused or--more likely--wasn't allowed to take calls from Boris Johnson for something like 36 hours. I assume that whenever Zhou disappears for a few days he's under intensive medical care. He probably wasn't in a condition to take those calls.
Think about that. A vote in the UK parliament to condemn a White House occupant? That's how low we've fallen:
Two remarkable lines in today’s papers from @Steven_Swinford @benrileysmith
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) August 19, 2021
— UK military left in the dark by the US about timings and pace of their withdrawal… UK official confirms this is the case
— Biden ignored Boris Johnson’s attempts to speak on the phone for 36+ hours pic.twitter.com/HSBqBhfeGh
The part about the US military leaving the UK military in the dark is just as disturbing. We heard yesterday from the buffoonish pair of Austin and Milley that the US isn't in a position to extend outside the airport in Kabul, to reach out for stranded Americans (I forget the military jargon, but that was the gist). Today we learn that British paratroopers are doing exactly that:
British Paratroopers Bravely Entering Kabul to Save UK Citizenshttps://t.co/5K1OG5vP6F
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 19, 2021
Key paragraphs from the article:
While the British government is telling its citizens that “help is on the way,” Biden is telling American citizens that they are on their own.
The UK is sending paratroopers to Kabul to rescue the 4,000 stranded Brits and Afghan allies in Kabul. The paratroopers were told to “prepare for face-to-face combat.”
Obviously the firings should have already begun in DC--starting with Austin and Milley but moving on to Blinken, Sullivan, and more. But that can't be done--not yet, anyway. They need these guys in place in case it comes down to the 25th Amendment scenario--there's not enough time to get replacements.
So what's going on? There has to be some end to this. The 25th scenario should be a no brainer (pun intended!) at this point, but it could get very messy. Super majorities are required in both House and Senate. Would the GOP make demands and gum up the works? We don't now because we've haven't been there before, but the Dems are in crash and burn mode and the GOP would be fools (I know, I know) not to take advantage--for the good of the nation.
The alternative I'm sure the Dems would greatly prefer would be to talk Dr. Jill into allowing Sleepy Zhou to retire in place--he's in Delaware right now, isn't he? Just don't come back.
The fly in the ointment is Kama Sutra--and the colossal mess that would ensue.
Even if the establishment can reconcile themselves to Kama, the first thing that would have to happen would be to sack most of the NatSec establishment. It would be the right thing, but beyond that Kama would demand to have her own people anyway.
You're talking there of pretty much starting up a new regime, with a notoriously dysfunctional person at the head of it. And there's no guarantee that any of her picks would get confirmed. And it could get even uglier if the election audits start being released.
This is the constitutional crisis that the Establishment brought upon the nation when they practiced to deceive We The People with their electoral coup.
I just don't see how Biden survives this, but politicians sometimes have a way of hanging on. The longer he hangs on, the more damage he will do to our country. Pelosi coming out and defending Biden lately, along with a couple other congress critters, suggests that Biden is not yet ready to go.
ReplyDelete...or that Pelosi expects her rewards and will soon be sending collectors
Delete86/46 because he ain’t
ReplyDeleteSince it's very doubtful that Biden is exercising any real control, the political capital he pays by remaining in the White House might slow down out the of control legislation working its way its way through the House and Senate.
ReplyDeletemso
Biden’s not in charge. See Ron Klein and Mrs Zhou are.
DeleteTime to empty the DC jails of Political Prisoners
ReplyDeleteWe have no idea what Biden wants to do or not do at this point. Or any point. He cannot be trusted to say anything more than what he reads from his teleprompter, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his handlers have no idea what to do or say about now. With the disaster in Afghanistan, that promises to get worse if many are taken hostage by the Taliban, and with the very real threat of terrorists flooding in along with the Central Americans, Ghanians and heaven knows who else through our open southern border, and the still-unknown trajectory of what the Epoch Times fearlessly calls the CCP Flu, he and Obama and the rest have gotten themselves and us into one hell of a mess. Then they push out fools like Austin and Thoroughly Modern Milley and that useless wimp John Kirby (in his past life he was given a “lateral transfer” from a position on a ship to a forever life as a communications person and taken out of the line of command that would lead to an eventual command of a ship), who looks as though he’s going to have a nervous breakdown on camera, who are supposed to make us believe that everything is under control. Haig had more creditility when Reagan was shot and no one seemed to know where Bush Sr. was (on a plane on his way back from Texas). No one knew where Tip O’Neill did unless they saw him as I did, very early that morning in an executive club in Miami Airport, drunker than a skunk and being supported through the place by two aides. And we thought that was chaos… Where will this go? Who really knows...
ReplyDeleteHave we heard any pearls of wisdom from Dems like Pelosi or Schumer or even loudmouth Schiff and the rest ??? The mindless Squad? Pretty Boy Kinzinger? Nope.
ReplyDeleteA rather moth-eaten David Petraeus showed up saying it shouldn’t have happened. Great military minds like Gen. Mattis, Gen. John Kelly, and the others, those who ranted and raved about President Trump when they were ostensibly working for him, are strangely silent. Useless sods...
Bebe. See Barry McCaffrey.
Delete@AC, must I? He’s a dunce.
DeleteWatch what they are doing, not what they say.
ReplyDeleteKamala going to Vietnam right now is a major signal.
The 36 hour delay in talking to Boris is another.
As is Biden blathering on about Covid while Afghanistan burns.
My guess is Biden is deteriorating even faster with all the stress. The job of President is super stressful, with the exception of Trump, you can see the toll in the before entering office and after. Bush 2 and Obama showed this.
Biden cannot retire. If he does, then Kamala will be POTUS, and not VP any more. Then the US Senate will not have VP tie-breaking vote any more, meaning Democrats cannot pass anything (as long as Republicans stick together). New VP confirmation requires majority Senate vote, meaning 51+ votes. Republicans can deny this vote. The earliest Zhou can retire is after 2022 elections, assuming Republicans gain seats. If this happens, Democrats don't need VP to break ties, so Kamala can take over.
ReplyDeletePresident Joe Biden’s administration is telling Americans who are stranded in Afghanistan to pay for their own passage back to the U.S.
ReplyDelete“Repatriation flights are not free, and passengers will be required to sign a promissory loan agreement and may not be eligible to renew their U.S. passports until the loan is repaid,” the Overseas Security Advisory Council noted in its security alert for Afghanistan. “The cost may be $2,000 USD or more per person.”
https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/19/biden-admin-tells-americans-stranded-in-afghanistan-to-pay-for-their-own-flights-home/
Meanwhile they will fly illegals from the border to any destination in the U.S. Or to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador… Promissory notes? Surely, you jest.
But all those Afghans on the planes DO fly for free.
Delete20K Afghans getting their first airplane rides ever.
DeleteCan’t wait to hear the stories from those left behind.
DeleteMy late cousin, who was working as a consultant for Fluor and leading a team of engineers, was in a hotel in Tehran the day it fell. They woke while it was still dark to find their hotel hallway full of armed men, sleeping, waiting for daylight. They managed to get out with the help of one young armed man who woke, but who didn’t blow the whistle on them. My cousin had told him “I have to get home to my wife. She is crying.” Managed to get to the airport and get on the last commercial flight out.
DeleteRe the Afghans, Mark, absolutely. And they have been given priority by Biden over any stranded Americans.
Breaking news! State Dept., clearly being shelled, has decided not to charge that $2,000 “repatriation fee” to fly Americans home.
DeleteNight, all...
Forgot to mention that my cousin and his colleagues took that young Iranian with them. He wanted to get out of that hotel scene as much as they did. No idea what became of him…I’m sure he said he’d been kidnapped by the Americans.
DeleteI guess they determined all the American's in Afghanistan are Trump supporters.
DeleteThe state of play for Zhou is calling a lid to hide in Delaware for the rest of his life. This is embarrassing on the global stage.
ReplyDeleteNow would be a good time to have some audit results out of Arizona.
ReplyDeleteJust read where today's Pentagon news conference was a question on whether the US is buying airline fuel from the Taliban.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2021/08/19/pentagon-officials-did-not-want-to-answer-question-about-us-buying-fuel-from-the-taliban-in-kabul/
Now, it seems, the relative inflexibility of our political succession is a liability. If ours was a parliamentary system, we could just have a snap election and reshuffle leadership. No?
ReplyDelete11 days. The Taliban took over the whole country in 11 days. It was arranged.
ReplyDeleteZhou Compromised ran the exit like a heavyweight throwing a title fight. It was arranged.
Our 2020 election was the same. Arranged.
Will the Taiwan surrender be the same? Arranged.
Will Chinese dominion be the same? Arranged.
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” – Sun Tzu
ReplyDeletehttps://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/biden-china-policy-coordinator-wrote-cusef-sponsored-report/
DeleteBiden central Asia policy coordinator:
Can't we all just get along? Belt and Road, yeah!!
"This is the constitutional crisis that the Establishment brought upon the nation when they practiced to deceive We The People with their electoral coup."
ReplyDeleteAND the Constitutional crisis that SCOTUS (cum Roberts) stupidly brought upon us by refusing to do their Constitutional duty both before and after November 3rd, citing in the ultimate irony the need to avoid a Constitutional crisis. Erp
I very much include the SCOTUS in the "Establishment." It's very difficult to determine the exact dynamics going on behind SCOTUS's abdication re the election. Was it simple cowardice? Was it an attempt at calculated prudence--the notion that, as the weakest branch, the judiciary should encourage the other branches, including the states, to take the lead in constitutional duty.
DeleteNever forget that the election fraud was enabled by inaction on the part of the constitutional actors who are supposed to take the lead in federal elections--state legislatures, which were largely GOP controlled in swing states.
I would add that the Covid crisis has been worsened by the failure of the courts to defend rights of citizens--undue deference to supposed "experts" who are pawns of big money interests.
True enough, Mark, some states could have done more pre election to oppose or block or undo those election changes but there were instances in some states where they did try to block or undo (PA as i recall) and were blocked by state courts in which event their only recourse was the SCOTUS. But SCOTUS slapped them down so it's a bit disingenuous for SCOTUS to lay it on states when the ones who tried could not get Constitutional redress except with SCOTUS.
DeleteState courts have no jurisdiction over those matters--the US constitution gives it exclusively to state legislatures. I can't think of any state legislature that took any effective pre-election steps, with only a possible exception in PA. That case should have been taken, IMO. The counter argument is that the Constitution never envisioned the SCOTUS as a one stop shop for rectifying political disputes. Call it a flaw in the Constitution, but the view that the SCOTUS is the ultimate institution to resolve all disputes is not a terribly healthy one for the nation. Still, some more forthright statement would have been helpful.
DeleteYeah, no state legislature took any effective pre-election steps, save for PA, but had SCotUS stood up, other legislatures may've been moved to take at least some steps.
DeleteAll this seeming paralysis supports my notion of a regime that is more like a criminal syndicate made up of factions that may agree overall to plunder and loot and extort for their mutual benefit but often disagree on specifics and tactics and jealously guard against anyone or anything that might threaten their own, faction's powers/privileges. This might just be the feet of clay in the otherwise invincible Swamp Monster. Trk
ReplyDelete