Some students and school staff in two of Texas’ biggest counties are required to wear masks to school on Monday despite the newest roadblock by the state’s Supreme Court.
How A $2 Trillion Forever War Ends
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Afghanistan Falls To The Taliban In Days
Sunday saw the Afghan government collapse as the Taliban took over Kabul with a stunning speed that caught the U.S. government, which had been working to evacuate its embassy personnel and American citizens over the past few days, completely off guard.
- All embassy personnel in Kabul have been evacuated to the Hamid Karzai International Airport, according to State department spokesperson Ned Price.
- Afghan citizens are desperately trying to flee the country amid the chaos. Those eligible for the U.S. Special Immigrant Visas are slated to be evacuated over the next two days, according to the Daily Beast.
- Biden stands firm in his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan: “One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,” he said on Saturday.
- Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asserted on “Meet the Press” yesterday that “The inability of Afghan security forces to defend their country has played a very powerful role in what we’ve seen over the last few weeks.”
- How did this happen? This Washington Post story explains how Afghan forces were demoralized by the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February 2020 for U.S. withdrawal. Local forces, underpaid and feeling that they were being left hung out to dry by their government and the U.S., were successfully pressured and paid off by the Taliban to stand down.
- The total cost of the war came in around $2 trillion, with 2,400 American soldiers’ and more than 38,000 Afghan civilians’ lives lost, the Times estimated.
The images of hundreds of people desperately trying to escape the country are heart wrenching.
Footage shows chaos at Kabul International Airport as hundreds try to flee the besieged Afghan capital as Taliban forces move in https://t.co/WL7TY2ShCS pic.twitter.com/SmxLlC01Pp
— CNN (@CNN) August 16, 2021
What a sad scene! Hundreds of people rushed to the Kabul airport despite no commercial flights and no tickets to escape what's the country pic.twitter.com/3QiClL2xPb
— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) August 16, 2021
Chaotic scenes continue this morning (August 16) at Kabul International Airport. Hundreds of people are trying to flee Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/hhYMNUVqho
— Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) August 16, 2021
And it’s impossible to ignore the parallels between this disaster and the fall of Saigon.
Having literally been in Saigon for the fall of Saigon, it certainly looks like Saigon to me.
— Viet Thanh Nguyen (@viet_t_nguyen) August 15, 2021
Local TX Officials Forge On With School Mask Mandates Despite Supreme Court Block
Officials in Dallas and San Antonio are defying Texas’ all-GOP Supreme Court, which sided with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and temporarily blocked mask mandates in Dallas and Bexar counties on Sunday. They say they will continue to require students and school staff to wear masks when school begins today.
- San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia in Bexar County said on Sunday that the mask mandate “remains in effect.” “The City of San Antonio and Bexar County’s response to the Texas Supreme Court continues to emphasize that the Governor cannot use his emergency powers to suspend laws that provide local entities the needed flexibility to act in an emergency,” Segovia said in a statement.
- Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa also vowed to ignore the court’s decision. “We are going to have the mask mandate tomorrow. We’re going to be benevolent; we’re going to be nice, but we’re going to be firm and we’re going to enforce it,” he said on Sunday.
- Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who was the one to issue the mandate in his county, applauded Hinoja via Twitter last night, adding that “this should never be a political fight.”
Pelosi Volleys With Moderates On Infrastructure
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sent a letter to all House Democrats yesterday making it clear that she isn’t bending to moderates’ demands that the chamber vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill before taking up the $3.5 trillion budget resolution.
- The Democratic leader says her goal is to pass the budget resolution sometime next week “so that we may pass Democrats’ Build Back Better agenda via reconciliation as soon as possible.”
- Pelosi’s plan is to ensure that both bills move forward simultaneously, telling her colleagues that she has “requested that the Rules Committee explore the possibility of a rule that advances both the budget resolution and the bipartisan infrastructure package. This will put us on a path to advance the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill.”
- The nine moderate Democrats who had threatened to torpedo the process unless the bipartisan bill goes first dug their heels in, saying that “While we appreciate the forward procedural movement on the bipartisan infrastructure agreement, our view remains consistent: We should vote first on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework without delay and then move to immediate consideration of the budget resolution.”
Texas Capitol Flood
The state’s Capitol building in Austin was flooded during a storm on Sunday:
WATCH:
Water is pouring into the halls at the Texas State Capitol, as heavy rain prompts flash flood warnings across Central Texas.
Video courtesy: Sloan Byerly pic.twitter.com/ASMXAIxU1p— CBS Austin (@cbsaustin) August 15, 2021
Disaster In Haiti
A devastating earthquake in Haiti with a magnitude of 7.2 this weekend has killed more than 1,200 people.
Serving Up The Cat Content
All in all, it was a grim weekend, so let’s find a little joy in some delightfully ridiculous kitty behavior.
Flawless execution..
Via: Pedrica1#cats #cat #catlover #catlovers #meow #catsoftiktok pic.twitter.com/Y2ez6bsRax
— Cats Footprint (@catsfootprint) August 15, 2021
Become Ungovernable pic.twitter.com/B0lv8vTenV
— Themperor Kennedy??️? (@kennedytcooper) August 9, 2021
"Shadow" suspects strangers are in the house ..
? Tiktok Animalsdoingthings pic.twitter.com/WgvWigHdGI
— The Six 'Stinky' Cats Gang (@SixStinkyCats) August 8, 2021
— Out of Context Cats (@catsoutofcontxt) August 11, 2021
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NIH Director Condemns ‘Politics And Polarization’ Of School Mask Mandate Bans
NIH director Dr. Francis Collins on Sunday took aim at mask mandate bans in schools as the Delta variant prompts upticks in COVID-19 cases throughout the country. Continue reading “NIH Director Condemns ‘Politics And Polarization’ Of School Mask Mandate Bans”
After Sunday It’s Even More Clear Biden Was Right
Americans, or at least the commentating classes, are watching aghast as events unfold in Afghanistan. Some are second-guessing the wisdom of withdrawal – after all, how hard is it to maintain a few thousand soldiers there permanently? Others are taking the more comfortable position of saying yes, we had to leave but this just wasn’t the right way. I must be the only person in America who is having exactly the opposite reaction. The more I see the more I’m convinced this was the right decision – both what I see on the ground in Afghanistan and perhaps even more the reaction here in the United States.
Continue reading “After Sunday It’s Even More Clear Biden Was Right”
FL School Board Chair Defends Mask Mandates Amid Governor’s ‘Horrible’ Threats
Dr. Rosalind Osgood, Broward County School Board chair, on Sunday outlined the district’s decision to impose a mask mandate despite Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) ban on school mask mandates. Continue reading “FL School Board Chair Defends Mask Mandates Amid Governor’s ‘Horrible’ Threats”
I Think This is Right
I think this is right. From TPM Reader JB …
Just a note here about the ongoing US bugout from Afghanistan, that I suspect we’ll hear more about in the months to come.
President Biden has a long memory; the events of 2009-10, when then-President Obama was jammed by the military leadership into what proved to be an aimless, futile surge of US forces into Afghanistan, have to be a major factor in his thinking. A more deliberate, better planned withdrawal would have been preferable to what we are seeing now in many respects — notably, to get more of America’s Afghan friends out of the country.
Continue reading “I Think This is Right”
Not An Intelligence Failure
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) has a statement out that is at least semi-critical of the Biden administration’s handling of Afghanistan. I’ll print the whole thing below. But it’s this statement that caught my eye: “We also need to determine what intelligence failures led to underestimating the ease and speed of the Taliban’s advancement and work to ensure that we prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.”
Texas AG Takes School Mask Mandate Fight To Court After Governor’s Failed Efforts
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Friday night said that the state Supreme Court will decide on mask mandates that schools have implemented, following Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) unsuccessful efforts to overturn the public health measures. Continue reading “Texas AG Takes School Mask Mandate Fight To Court After Governor’s Failed Efforts”
Biden Lends Support To School Leaders Who Bucked Statewide Mask Mandate Bans
President Biden doubled down on his gratitude for local leaders who defied bans on school mask mandates issued by Republican governors during calls to school superintendents on Friday night. Continue reading “Biden Lends Support To School Leaders Who Bucked Statewide Mask Mandate Bans”
Vindication and the Fall of Kabul
Yesterday I wrote this: “In the coming days or weeks we’re likely to see a situation in which the government only controls Kabul. If you’re in the Afghan army how hard are you going to fight in that final battle? Why fight? The question answers itself.”
As we can see this morning, not days or weeks but hours. Overnight in the United States the army and government of Afghanistan melted away and remaining authorities are in the process of turning over power to a transitional Taliban government. It’s over.
People are lining up to say that this is all on Joe Biden, that he “lost” Afghanistan, that he mismanaged or failed to manage the US withdrawal, that this is “on him.” In the calculus of US military-political culture that’s likely right. But I see it quite differently. This seems to me like the ultimate vindication of his decision.