Antony Blinken offers bizarre answer when asked if Biden does ‘not know what’s going on’ in Afghanistan

Secretary of State Antony Blinken provided a bizarre answer Sunday when confronted by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace about President Joe Biden’s level of knowledge about the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.

Wallace began the interview by questioning Blinken over several statements that Biden has made about the Afghanistan crisis that were later contradicted by his own officials or proved wrong.

Among the topics that Biden got “flat wrong,” Wallace asked Blinken about Biden’s assertion of Americans being able to safely travel to the Kabul airport for evacuation, Biden’s claim that Al Qaeda is not inside Afghanistan, and Biden’s claim that U.S. allies are not questioning American “credibility.” The truth is that Americans cannot travel safel to the Kabul airport, Al Qaeda is operating in Afghanistan, and many U.S. allies are questioning the Biden administration in the wake of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.

“Mr. Secretary, does the president not know what’s going on?” Wallace asked Blinken.

However, instead of addressing Biden’s cognizance, Blinken talked about the “emotional” nature of the crisis.

“This is an incredibly emotional time for many of us, and including allies and partners who have been shoulder-to-shoulder with us in Afghanistan for 20 years at high cost to themselves as well as to us,” Blinken said.

Keep reading

One-Third Of New Drugs Had Safety Problems After FDA Approval

Seventy-one of the 222 drugs approved in the first decade of the millennium were withdrawn, required a “black box” warning on side effects or warranted a safety announcement about new risks, Dr. Joseph Ross, an associate professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, and colleagues reported in JAMA on Tuesday. The study included safety actions through Feb. 28.

“While the administration pushes for less regulation and faster approvals, those decisions have consequences,” Ross says. The Yale researchers’ previous studies concluded that the FDA approves drugs faster than its counterpart agency in Europe does and that the majority of pivotal trials in drug approvals involved fewer than 1,000 patients and lasted six months or less.

It took a median of 4.2 years after the drugs were approved for these safety concerns to come to light, the study found, and issues were more common among psychiatric drugs, biologic drugs, drugs that were granted “accelerated approval” and drugs that were approved near the regulatory deadline for approval.

Keep reading

Bush-Era War Criminals Are Louder Than Ever Because They’ve Lost The Argument

After the US troop withdrawal established conclusively that the Afghan “government” they’d spent twenty years pretending to nation build with was essentially a work of fiction, thus proving to the world that they’ve been lying to us this entire time about the facts on the ground in Afghanistan, you might expect those who helped pave the way for that disastrous occupation to be very quiet at this point in history.

But, far from being silent and slithering under a rock to wait for the sweet embrace of death, these creatures have instead been loudly and shamelessly outspoken.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has posted a lengthy essay by the former Prime Minister who led the United Kingdom into two of the most unconscionable military interventions in living memory. Blair criticizes the withdrawal as having been done out of “obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending ‘the forever wars’,” bloviating about “Radical Islam,” and asking, “has the West lost its strategic will?”

Keep reading

Mississippi Says to Isolate After Testing Positive for COVID-19 Or Face Up To 5 Years In Prison And A Fine

The Mississippi State Department of Health updated their numbers on Friday, revealing that 5,048 new cases of COVID-19 infection have been reported in the state, the highest number in a single day since the pandemic began.

The department also confirmed 54 new deaths related to COVID-19. While 22 of these deaths occurred between April 29 and August 14, an alarming 32 deaths occurred between August 8 and August 19.

This surge in numbers prompted action from the Mississippi State Health Officer, who issued an order on Friday requiring those with COVID-19 to isolate at home or face a fine, imprisonment, or both.

As noted in his order, failing or refusing to obey a lawful order from the health officer is a misdemeanor punishable by fine up to $500, imprisonment for up to 6 months, or both. When a life-threatening disease, such as COVID-19, is involved, the fine can go up to $5,000 and the period of incarceration can be up to 5 years.

The order specifies that individuals are required to remain in their homes for 10 days from the onset of illness, or in the case of asymptomatic individuals, for 10 days from the date of a positive test. While at home, the order details that visitors should not be allowed, and individuals should stay away from other household members and use a separate bathroom, if possible.

Keep reading

Siege at Ruby Ridge: The Forgotten History of the ATF Shootout That Started a Militia Movement

The Siege at Ruby Ridge is often considered a pivotal date in American history. The shootout between Randy Weaver and his family and federal agents on August 21, 1992, is one that kicked off the Constitutional Militia Movement and left America with a deep distrust of its leadership – in particular then-President George H.W. Bush and eventual President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno.

The short version is this: Randy Weaver and his wife Vicki moved with their four kids to the Idaho Panhandle, near the Canadian border, to escape what they thought was an increasingly corrupt world. The Weavers held racial separatist beliefs, but were not involved in any violent activity or rhetoric. They were peaceful Christians who simply wanted to be left alone.

Specifically for his beliefs, Randy Weaver was targeted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in an entrapping “sting” operation designed to gain his cooperation as a snitch. When he refused to become a federal informant, he was charged with illegally selling firearms. Due to a miscommunication about his court date, the Marshal Service was brought in, who laid siege to his house and shot and killed his wife and 14-year-old son.

Keep reading