Stephan: I think it is time that we ask why do we keep getting into wars that we lose, and that end so very badly? I am a vet from one of the earlier stupidities, VietNam and have been watching this recurring theme over and over. Now we are doing it again. Something is very wrong with our approach to international relations. And you and I paid for all this.
Taliban patrol in Herat city after they took control in Herat, Afghanistan, on August 18, 2021. Credit: Mir Ahmad Firooz Mashoof/Anadolu Agenc/Getty
The Taliban are now in effective control of billions of dollars in U.S. weaponry—from thousands of grenades and machine guns to Black Hawk helicopters—American forces poured into Afghanistan over the past two decades.
The equipment amassment follows months of surrenders by U.S.-backed Afghan security forces that “failed to defend district centers,” the Associated Pressreported.
“Bigger gains followed,” AP added, “including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, Kabul, over the weekend.”
Over the past 20 years the U.S. spent over $83 billion in weaponry and equipment for Afghan security forces, whose “collapse was years in the making,” as a Washington Post headline put it.
“It really should raise a lot of concerns about what is the wider enterprise that is going on every single day, whether that’s in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia.”
As the Taliban gained further control over territory this summer, the group showed off the weapons they gained from government-backed […]
Stephan: This is one of the nicest stories of good news I have seen in a very long time, although the reason for it is very sad. Read and Enjoy.
SHOSHONE, Calif. — It was just before sunrise in July when the botanists Naomi Fraga and Maria Jesus threw on backpacks and crunched their way across a brittle alkaline flat in the hottest corner of the Mojave Desert. Their mission: to rescue a tiny plant teetering on the brink of extinction.
Biologists Naomi Fraga, left, Maria Jesus and Patrick Donnelly walk the alkaline flat of the Amargosa River Basin in the Mojave Desert looking for the endangered Amargosa niterwort plant. Credit: Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times
A decade ago, the Amargosa River Basin east of Death Valley National Park was a vast muddy wetlands studded with millions of Amargosa niterwort, a fleshy herb that grows only here and that scientists call Nitrophila mohavensis.
Today, the species has dwindled to fewer than 150,000, and most of the plants that still sprout from this salt-white playa have stopped producing viable seeds — stressed victims of decreasing rainfall, rising temperatures and the loss of groundwater due to pumping.
The botanists aimed to collect seeds until the temperature hit triple digits. Later, their bounty would be sealed inside […]
Stephan: Here is today's recipient of the Republican Scum Award. I frankly don't know how the people of Alabama could vote for this cretin. Not once but several times. Mo Brooks is a truly loathsome example of an American politician.
Republican Mo Brooks
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) was blasted on Thursday after he put out a statement on Floyd Ray Roseberry, who allegedly threatened to detonate a bomb on Capitol Hill.
“Sadly, threats of violence targeting America’s political institutions are far too common,” Brooks said. “Although this terrorist’s motivation is not yet publicly known, and generally speaking, I understand citizenry anger director at dictatorial Socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society.”
Brooks, who spoke at the January 6th “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol, is running for U.S. Senate in Alabama.
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) was among those slamming Brooks.
Stephan: Hopefully, this will create a uniform national mask policy in schools so that as few kids as possible contract Covid. Why is this so important? As of August 12, over 4.41 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Over 121,000 cases were added the past week, a continuing substantial increase. After declining in early summer, child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July.
President Biden
Updating the nation on the White House response to COVID on Wednesday, President Biden said he has directed Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to exercise full oversight authority and explore legal action against governors who attempt to prohibit school mask mandates by executive orders.
“Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures into political disputes for their own political gain,” Biden said, referencing Tennessee and other Republican states, which he alleged have used “intimidation and threats” against school boards.
The president said he called a number of superintendents in Florida in solidarity, praising their mask rules for K-12 students in defiance of Governor Ron DeSantis’s ban. Biden said those schools’ were “follow[ing] the science” and putting “students first.”
“I will stand with those who are trying to do the right thing,” he said.
Biden echoed the earlier comments of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, affirming that funds from the American Rescue Plan can be used to reimburse the salaries of educators in school districts requiring masks in violation of governors’ orders.
Stephan: Here is a report from a physician concerning what he has heard and dealt with about Covid and vaccination, and how appalling he finds it, and I agree. I have gotten to a point with the anti-vaxxers where I consider them a threat to national wellbeing, and I am really tired of their stupidity. Over 100,000 people were diagnosed with Covid today, The vast majority were unvaccinated and most adults were Republicans. The Republican Party is a shrinking minority, and Covid is making them shrink faster than anyone anticipated.
COVID-19 cases are climbing and sanity is declining. Here are seven cognitive distortions I routinely see when it comes to talking about SARS-CoV-2.
1. Misusing Both-Sidesing
Both-sidesing occurs when the media present two sides as equally valid, when one in fact is wrong. It gives false equivalence to a flawed idea. For instance, a debate on whether the earth is round or flat would be both-sidesing.
However, if you introduce pandemic restrictions that have never or rarely been implemented before — travel bans, school and business closures, mask mandates, and military enforced lockdowns (as in Australia) — it is inevitable some smart people will feel the harms outweigh the benefits, and equally inevitable that other smart people will feel we aren’t doing enough. In these cases, having a forum to debate the ideas is not both-sidesing, but rather the legitimate purpose of media and universities.
Recently, dueling editorials — one by MedPage Today Editor-in-Chief Marty Makary, MD, and Cody Meissner, MD, which argued against masking children in schools, and one by Kanecia Zimmerman, MD, and Danny Benjamin, MD, which argued […]
