The Commentariat -- August 16, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden will address the nation on Monday about the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan, after the planned withdrawal of American forces turned deadly at Kabul's airport as thousands tried to flee the country after the Taliban's takeover. The White House says Biden will travel back to Washington from the Camp David presidential retreat to speak at 3:45 p.m. from the East Room. It will be his first public remarks on the Afghanistan situation in nearly a week. Biden and other top U.S. officials had been stunned by the pace of the Taliban's swift routing of the Afghan military."

Ahmad Seir, et al., of the AP: "Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul's international airport Monday, some so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed at least seven people, U.S. officials said. The crowds of people rushing the airport came as the Taliban enforced their rule over the wider capital after a lightning advance across the country that took just over a week to dethrone the country's Western-backed government. While there were no major reports of abuses, many stayed home and remained fearful as the insurgents' advance saw prisons emptied and armories looted."

Josh Marshall of TPM: "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. It is crystal clear that the Afghan national army and really the Afghan state was an illusion. It could not survive first contact with a post-US military reality. As is so often the case in life -- with bad investments, bad relationships -- what we were doing there was staying to delay our reckoning with the consequences of the reality of the situation.... If anything, given the outcome, quicker is better -- since a protracted fall is necessarily a bloodier fall.... Someone had to make the decision that Bush, Obama and Trump did not and apparently could not. Biden did."

Katherine Huggins of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump called on President Joe Biden to 'resign in disgrace' on Sunday over the messy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.... Around the same time that Trump's statement was published, journalists noted that the RNC appeared to have removed a page from their website in which they highlighted their support for withdrawing from Afghanistan." Uh, routine maintenance, the RNC said in a huff.

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments in Afghanistan Monday are here: "In Kabul, the international airport was under the protection of foreign forces, including thousands of U.S. soldiers sent to the country to assist in a hasty evacuation. It was a scene of desperation, sadness and panic. As thousands swarmed the departures lounge -- many waiting in vain for flights that failed to arrive -- reports of gunfire in and around the airport began to circulate. The U.S. Embassy, whose core employees had moved to a military-controlled section of the airport, urged U.S. civilians still in Kabul to stay away." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: "Several people were reportedly killed Monday at Kabul airport, where thousands of panicked Afghans and foreign nationals have gathered in hope of leaving Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. At least five people were killed amid the chaos of people fearful for their lives trying to force their way onto planes, Reuters reported, citing multiple witnesses. It wasn't clear how the people were killed. U.S. forces previously fired in the air to warn unauthorized people from trying to board military flights...."

Ellen Knickmeyer & Colleen Barry of the AP: "The beating blades of U.S. military helicopters whisking American diplomats to Kabul's airport on Sunday punctuated a frantic rush by thousands of other foreigners and Afghans to flee to safety as well, as a stunningly swift Taliban takeover entered the heart of Afghanistan's capital.... Shortly before dawn Monday Kabul time..., the [Biden] administration announced it was taking over air-traffic control at Kabul's international airport, to manage the airlifts. Sporadic gunfire there Sunday frightened Afghan families fearful of Taliban rule and desperate for flights out.... NATO allies that had pulled out their forces ahead of the Biden administration's intended Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline were sending troops back in as well this weekend to protect evacuations of their own.... A joint statement from the U.S. State and Defense departments pledged late Sunday to fly thousands of Americans, local embassy staff and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals' out of the country."

Susannah George, et al., of the Washington Post: "Taliban fighters took control of Kabul on Sunday as the Afghan government collapsed, President Ashraf Ghani fled, and the long-dominant American presence appeared to be coming to an abrupt and chaotic end after nearly 20 years. The takeover of the sprawling capital city had been years in the making, but was ultimately accomplished in a single day. Insurgent fighters, fresh off their conquests in each of Afghanistan's provincial hubs, faced little to no resistance as they entered the city through its major traffic arteries on Sunday morning. By evening, the Taliban were giving television interviews in the presidential palace, just hours after Ghani had departed Afghanistan. And the Pentagon was speeding an additional 1,000 troops to Kabul's airport to assist with the withdrawal of U.S. personnel after the American flag was lowered from the embassy." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.)

Conor Finnegan, et al., of ABC News: "Another 1,000 soldiers from the [U.S.] Army's 82nd Airborne have been ordered to head directly to Afghanistan's capital instead of Kuwait to assist in the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Afghans who assisted the U.S. mission, a U.S. official told ABC News. That brings the total number of U.S. troops being sent back to Afghanistan to 6,000."

Missy Ryan & Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "Afghan activists, journalists and advocates for women's rights scrambled to identify escape routes Sunday as international civil society organizations intensified a chaotic effort to evacuate local allies under threat following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.... Human rights organizations in recent days have sent the [U.S.] State Department flurries of emails with spreadsheets laying out the identities and personal details of thousands of Afghans who do not qualify for the priority visa consideration already announced by the Biden administration but whose lives are believed to be in jeopardy. The sense of peril was compounded by warnings some in the Taliban delivered to female activists to stay quiet."

The New York Times' liveblog of developments in Afghanistan Sunday, also linked yesterday, is here: "The Taliban effectively sealed their control of Afghanistan on Sunday, pouring into the capital, Kabul, and meeting little resistance as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the government collapsed, and chaos and fear gripped the city, with tens of thousands of people trying to escape. The insurgents' return to power, two decades after they were ousted, came despite years and hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the United States to build up the Afghan government and its defense forces. In a lightning offensive, the Taliban swallowed dozens of cities in a matter of days, leaving Kabul as the last major redoubt of government control.

Ahmad Seir, et al., of the AP: "Afghanistan's embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. The Taliban, who for hours had been on the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kylie Atwood & Devan Cole of CNN: "The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN on Sunday. The withdrawal of embassy personnel marks a rapid acceleration of the process that had only been announced on Thursday, and is a situation that many State Department security officials expected would have to happen given the speed with which the Taliban has gained territory in Afghanistan in recent days." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kevin Liptak & Jason Hoffman of CNN: "The rapid fall of Afghanistan's national forces and government has come as a shock to [President] Biden and senior members of his administration, who only last month believed it could take months before the civilian government in Kabul fell -- allowing a period of time after American troops left before the full consequences of the withdrawal were laid bare. Now, months after his initial declaration that all 2,500 US troops would be out of Afghanistan by the end of the summer, a total of 6,000 troops are expected to help facilitate the evacuation. And officials are frankly admitting they miscalculated.... Biden is expected to address the nation in the next few days about the crisis in Afghanistan.... During a briefing for lawmakers on Sunday, top administration officials faced harsh questioning over the withdrawal plans, including the evacuation of Afghan interpreters and others who assisted the US war effort."

Your Tax Dollars at Work -- for the Taliban. AFP: "The United States spent billions supplying the Afghan military with the tools to defeat the Taliban, but the rapid capitulation of the armed forces means that weaponry is now fuelling the insurgents' astonishing battlefield successes. 'We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools -- let me emphasise: all the tools,' US President Joe Biden said when defending his decision to withdraw American forces and leave the fight to the locals. But Afghan defence forces have shown little appetite for that fight and, in their tens of thousands, have been laying down their arms -- only for the Taliban to immediately pick them up.... Footage of Afghan soldiers surrendering in the northern city of Kunduz shows army vehicles loaded with heavy weapons and mounted with artillery guns safely in the hands of the insurgent rank and file.... Experts say such hauls -- on top of unacknowledged support from regional allies such as Pakistan -- has given the Taliban a massive boost." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Art of the Deal. Susannah George of the Washington Post: "The spectacular collapse of Afghanistan's military that allowed Taliban fighters to walk into the Afghan capital Sunday despite 20 years of training and billions of dollars in American aid began with a series of deals brokered in rural villages between the militant group and some of the Afghan government's lowest-ranking officials. The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and a U.S. official. Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces.... The Taliban capitalized on the uncertainty caused by the February 2020 agreement reached in Doha, Qatar, between the militant group and the United States calling for a full American withdrawal from Afghanistan.... The Doha agreement, designed to bring an end to the war in Afghanistan, instead left many Afghan forces demoralized.... Then, after President Biden announced in April that U.S. forces would withdraw from Afghanistan this summer without conditions, the capitulations began to snowball."

Anne Gearan & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "... President Biden over the weekend first offered compassion for those left behind.... Bu then Biden pivoted to the cold calculation behind his decision to pull the plug on a mission that has cost more than 2,000 American lives. '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,' Biden said.... It was a harsh and bracing assessment from a president better known for misty-eyed empathy. It reflects an increasingly defiant and defensive tone from Biden and his aides amid criticism that Biden is condemning a U.S. partner to brutal rule by Islamist fundamentalists and opening the door to new terrorist threats.... Biden monitored the debacle on Sunday from Camp David in Maryland, where he held a video conference with national security advisers. White House officials briefed a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Sunday. Biden has not spoken about Afghanistan in public since Tuesday."

If Wishes Were Horses, Afghan Soldiers Would Ride. David Sanger of the New York Times: Rarely in modern presidential history have words come back to bite an American commander in chief as swiftly as these from President Biden a little more than five weeks ago: 'There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States in Afghanistan.' Then, digging the hole deeper, he added, 'The likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.'... Mr. Biden will go down in history, fairly or unfairly, as the president who presided over a long-brewing, humiliating final act in the American experiment in Afghanistan." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sanger writes that Biden "has often noted that he came to office with more foreign policy experience than any president in recent memory, arguably since Dwight D. Eisenhower." But if you look at what happened on the world stage during Eisenhower's tenure, you won't be too impressed with how much good Ike's foreign-policy experience did to quell disasters. From Cuba to Iran to Vietnam (to name a few crises), a fair observer could say that Eisenhower's policies made things worse, not better. There are malevolent forces everywhere and all the time. It's only occasionally that the U.S. manages to help overcome them.

~~~ Here are two opinion pieces, both firewalled, that put the burden on Joe Biden for the abandonment of our allies in Afghanistan & our failed promise to the Afghan people: ~~~

     ~~~ George Packer in the Atlantic: "... our abandonment of the Afghans who helped us, counted on us, staked their lives on us, is a final, gratuitous shame that we could have avoided. The Biden administration failed to heed the warnings on Afghanistan, failed to act with urgency -- and its failure has left tens of thousands of Afghans to a terrible fate. This betrayal will live in infamy. The burden of shame falls on President Joe Biden.... [The collapse of the Afghan government] was foreseeable -- all of it was foreseen.... The administration's answers were never adequate.... The chaos produced by the Biden administration's delays has given an outsize role to sheer randomness, as twists of fate save one Afghan and doom another." Packer cites a couple of these random cases. Here (part of) a graf I think we can all agree on:

While some officials in the State Department, the Pentagon, and the White House itself pushed quietly for more urgent measures that might have averted catastrophe, Biden resisted -- ... as if he were done with Afghanistan the minute he announced the withdrawal of all remaining U.S. forces. This hardness is perplexing in a president who spent years in the Senate working on behalf of genocide victims and war refugees; who once promised an Afghan schoolgirl that he would make sure the U.S. didn't abandon her; who cares intensely about the welfare of American troops. ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Chotiner of the New Yorker discusses the collapse with his former colleague Steve Coll. Coll says, "I can understand the frustration that American decision-makers have had with their partners in the Kabul government for the past twenty years. It has been a very rocky road, and it isn't all the fault of U.S. Presidents and Vice-Presidents and national-security advisers. But to suggest that the Afghan people haven't done their bit is a kind of blame-shifting that I think is not only unjustifiable but outrageous. The Afghans now have suffered generation after generation of not just continuous warfare but humanitarian crises, one after the other, and Americans have to remember that this wasn't a civil war that the Afghans started among themselves that the rest of the world got sucked into. This situation was triggered by an outside invasion, initially by the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, and since then the country has been a battleground for regional and global powers seeking their own security by trying to militarily intervene in Afghanistan, whether it be the United States after 2001, the C.I.A. in the nineteen-eighties, Pakistan through its support first for the mujahideen and later the Taliban, or Iran and its clients. To blame Afghans for not getting their act together in light of that history is just wrong." And Coll concludes, "I don't expect the Biden Administration to change its policy, and even if it did I don't expect that it could reverse the Taliban&'s momentum without bombing Afghanistan to smithereens. But it can certainly take responsibility for the lion's share of the response to this unfolding humanitarian crisis...."

James Meek of ABC News: "... numerous U.S. officials tell ABC News that ... key intelligence assessments had consistently informed policymakers that the Taliban could overwhelm the country and take the capital within weeks.... '[U.S.] leaders were told by the military it would take no time at all for the Taliban to take everything,' an anonymous U.S. intelligence official told ABC News. 'No one listened.'" MB: If victory has many fathers, failure is an orphan. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: At the end of Meek's article, he cites an unnamed Pakistani official: "The Taliban should take their success with a grain of salt. To take a city is one thing, but to hold it is a different ballgame. Our fear is not their victories. But setting up a system of governance is very difficult. They will make mistakes, too. The arrogance of victory will lead to that." If the Taliban fail, they may fall to a velvet revolution, one led by Afghan women who have experienced nearly two decades of relative freedom & education. Afghanistan could indeed become far more "westernized" than it was in 2001 when the U.S. & Britain invaded the country.

Let's Ask Mikey! David of Crooks & Liars: "Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo falsely asserted on Sunday that President Joe Biden had put the U.S. embassy in Kabul at risk by focusing on critical race theory instead of foreign policy." David does point out (very unfairly!) that "the discussion over critical race theory has been largely fueled by right-wing media." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary below. Akhilleus, probably inadvertently, typed "critical face theory," but that works just as well for Mikey & me.

Jason DeParle of the New York Times: "The Biden administration has revised the nutrition standards of the food stamp program and prompted the largest permanent increase to benefits in the program's history, a move that will give poor people more power to fill their grocery carts but add billions of dollars to the cost of a program that feeds one in eight Americans. Under rules to be announced on Monday and put in place in October, average benefits will rise more than 25 percent from prepandemic levels. All 42 million people in the program will receive additional aid. The move does not require congressional approval, and unlike the large pandemic-era expansions, which are starting to expire, the changes are intended to last. For at least a decade, critics of the benefits have said they were too low to provide an adequate diet. More than three-quarters of households exhaust their benefits in the first half of the monthly cycle, and researchers have linked subsequent food shortages to problems as diverse as increased hospital admissions, more school suspensions and lower SAT scores." Politico's story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.

Texas. Caroline Anders & Max Hauptman of the Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on mask mandates will be allowed to stand, at least temporarily, the Texas Supreme Court announced Sunday. The stay marks the latest development in the battle between local governments and the state over pandemic-related restrictions, and it comes as the state's covid-19 hospitalizations have increased 400 percent over the past month. The all-Republican court temporarily blocked mask mandates in two counties until their cases can be heard, affirming Abbott's executive order that prohibited government entities from issuing mask mandates." The Texas Tribune's story is here.

Vatican. Claire Giangravé of Religion News Service: "A message from the Twitter account of Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a conservative prelate and outspoken skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, confirmed Saturday (Aug. 14) via Twitter that he had been placed on a ventilator after testing positive for the virus.... Burke served as bishop of the diocese of La Crosse from 1995 to 2004 and later became the archbishop of St. Louis.... It is unclear whether Burke has received the vaccine, but speaking at the May 2020 Rome Life Forum, Burke said that 'vaccination itself cannot be imposed, in a totalitarian manner, on citizens.' He also quoted groups that suggested that COVID-19 vaccines inject 'a kind of microchip' that allow citizens to 'be controlled by the state regarding health and about other matters which we can only imagine.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So, see, when they inject that mysterious (and entirely liquid) substance into your sacred body, floating unseen within that devil's fluid is a teeny weeny, itsy bitsy kind of microchip that travels straight to your brain & programs you to become a liberal/libertarian or something. If I didn't have the Holy Eminences to explain science to me, I'd be lost.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Vote No! Los Angeles Times Editors, reprinted in Yahoo! News: "Removing [Gov. Gavin] Newsom and replacing him with an untested and unprepared alternative who wouldn't represent the values of most Californians would be a disaster. It would doom the state to months of political and bureaucratic dysfunction and economic uncertainty. And for what purpose?... [Newsom's shortcomings] do not justify using the extraordinary power of recall to remove a legitimately elected governor in favor of someone who may only have a sliver of support from voters.... The 46 candidates vying to replace Newsom -- most of them men, most of them Republican, and most of them utterly unqualified -- offer an endless litany of grievances that are little more than objections to his liberal policies -- policies, we may add, that were clear to everyone when 62% of voters chose Newsom in the 2018 election." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Canada. Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, betting that his standing has been improved by his government's response to the coronavirus pandemic while his main opponent has failed to gain traction with voters, on Sunday called a snap federal election for Sept. 20 in a bid to regain a majority in the House of Commons.Trudeau, first elected prime minister in 2015, has led the country for the past 21 months with a minority government. Winning a majority would mean he would no longer need to rely on opposition parties to advance his agenda and stay in power." (Also linked yesterday.)

Haiti. One Million People, One Surgeon, No Supplies. Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times: "A day after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake killed at least 1,300 people and injured thousands in western Haiti, the main airport of the city of Les Cayes was overwhelmed Sunday with people trying to evacuate their loved ones to Port-au-Prince, the capital, about 80 miles to the east. There wasn't much choice. With just a few dozen doctors available in a region that is home to one million people, the quake aftermath was turning increasingly dire. 'I'm the only surgeon over there,' said Dr. Edward Destine, an orthopedic surgeon, waving toward a temporary operating room of corrugated tin set up near the airport in Les Cayes. 'I would like to operate on 10 people today, but I just don't have the supplies,' he said...."

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments in Haiti Sunday are here: "Haitians trying to evacuate the injured packed the main airport of the earthquake-devastated town of Les Cayes on Sunday, as patients overwhelmed local hospitals and officials raised the death toll to more than 700. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook Haiti on Saturday morning, a devastating blow to a country that is still reeling from a presidential assassination last month and that never recovered from a disastrous quake more than 11 years ago." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- August 15, 2021

Late Morning Update:

12 noon ET: CNN has reported on-air that the American flag over the U.S. embassy in Kabul has come down. MSNBC reports that the Taliban have entered Kabul "to prevent looting" as the police have abandoned the city.

Ahmad Seir, et al., of the AP: "Afghanistan's embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. The Taliban, who for hours had been on the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out."

Kylie Atwood & Devan Cole of CNN: "The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN on Sunday. The withdrawal of embassy personnel marks a rapid acceleration of the process that had only been announced on Thursday, and is a situation that many State Department security officials expected would have to happen given the speed with which the Taliban has gained territory in Afghanistan in recent days."

Your Tax Dollars at Work -- for the Taliban. AFP: "The United States spent billions supplying the Afghan military with the tools to defeat the Taliban, but the rapid capitulation of the armed forces means that weaponry is now fuelling the insurgents' astonishing battlefield successes. 'We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools -- let me emphasise: all the tools,' US President Joe Biden said when defending his decision to withdraw American forces and leave the fight to the locals. But Afghan defence forces have shown little appetite for that fight and, in their tens of thousands, have been laying down their arms -- only for the Taliban to immediately pick them up.... Footage of Afghan soldiers surrendering in the northern city of Kunduz shows army vehicles loaded with heavy weapons and mounted with artillery guns safely in the hands of the insurgent rank and file.... Experts say such hauls -- on top of unacknowledged support from regional allies such as Pakistan -- has given the Taliban a massive boost."

California. Vote No! Los Angeles Times Editors, reprinted in Yahoo! News: "Removing [Gov. Gavin] Newsom and replacing him with an untested and unprepared alternative who wouldn't represent the values of most Californians would be a disaster. It would doom the state to months of political and bureaucratic dysfunction and economic uncertainty. And for what purpose?... [Newsom's shortcomings] do not justify using the extraordinary power of recall to remove a legitimately elected governor in favor of someone who may only have a sliver of support from voters.... The 46 candidates vying to replace Newsom -- most of them men, most of them Republican, and most of them utterly unqualified -- offer an endless litany of grievances that are little more than objections to his liberal policies -- policies, we may add, that were clear to everyone when 62% of voters chose Newsom in the 2018 election."

The New York Times' live updates of developments in Haiti Sunday are here: "Haitians trying to evacuate the injured packed the main airport of the earthquake-devastated town of Les Cayes on Sunday, as patients overwhelmed local hospitals and officials raised the death toll to more than 700. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook Haiti on Saturday morning, a devastating blow to a country that is still reeling from a presidential assassination last month and that never recovered from a disastrous quake more than 11 years ago."

Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, betting that his standing has been improved by his government's response to the coronavirus pandemic while his main opponent has failed to gain traction with voters, on Sunday called a snap federal election for Sept. 20 in a bid to regain a majority in the House of Commons. Trudeau, first elected prime minister in 2015, has led the country for the past 21 months with a minority government. Winning a majority would mean he would no longer need to rely on opposition parties to advance his agenda and stay in power."

~~~~~~~~~~

Susannah George & Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "Taliban forces entered Kabul through the city's four main gates Sunday morning, according to two Afghan security officials and civilian eyewitness accounts, in a move that could trigger the collapse of the national government and signal a return to power for the Islamist group two decades after the United States invaded Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the group's fighters had been instructed not to push further into the city with force. The militants had made recent gains after negotiating with local leaders. 'We want to enter Kabul with peace, and talks are underway' with the government, he said. There is an agreement that there will be a transitional administration for orderly transfer of power,' said acting Interior Minister Abdul Satar Mirzakwal on Sunday. He added that security forces were being deployed across Kabul to ensure order. The Taliban's lightning quick advance to the Afghan capital came as helicopters landed at the U.S. Embassy early Sunday and armored diplomatic vehicles were seen leaving the area around the compound, the Associated Press reported. Diplomats scrambled to destroy sensitive documents, sending smoke from the embassy's roof, the AP said, citing anonymous U.S. military officials."

Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The lightning collapse [of the Afghan government] is rooted in misplaced assumptions -- including a failure to account for how the U.S. departure would catalyze a crisis of confidence in Afghan leaders and security forces, enabling the Taliban blitz -- from the moment [President] Biden announced the withdrawal this spring. It is equally the product of two decades of miscalculations about transforming Afghanistan and overly optimistic assessments of progress that have plagued the war from its start.... The disintegration of the hoped-for [orderly] withdrawal scenario has left the administration racing to protect U.S. diplomats and struggling to respond to criticism from Republicans and advocates alike. It has also deepened questions about how Biden will reconcile his realpolitik, including the abandonment of women and human rights defenders, with promises to restore core values to U.S. foreign policy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Assuming this analysis is correct, there was no path for a graceful U.S. exit from Afghanistan, assuming it's not possible to remove tens of thousands of Americans, allies, and Afghan aides from the country in the dead of a single night. So Republicans can play the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" game to their heart's content, the exit Trump precipitated was destined to end in a U.S. embarrassment.

The New York Times' live updates of developments in Afghanistan Sunday are here: "The Taliban's relentless, rapid advance across Afghanistan brought them on Sunday to the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, the last major city controlled by the government.... The U.S. military, meanwhile, has arrived in force to evacuate American diplomatic and civilian staff."

** The End of the Longest War. David Sanger & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "In the end, an Afghan force that did not believe in itself and a U.S. effort that Mr. Biden, and most Americans, no longer believed would alter the course of events combined to bring an ignoble close to America's longest war. The United States kept forces in Afghanistan far longer than the British did in the 19th century, and twice as long as the Soviets -- with roughly the same results." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** President Biden's statement on Afghanistan. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "With the Afghan capital among the few areas left to conquer, President Biden warned that any moves to threaten American personnel or interests there would be met with a 'swift and strong' U.S. military response from thousands of American troops flooding into the city. Biden, in his first public statement since the administration on Thursday announced the deployment of 3,000 troops to aid in the evacuation of American diplomats and civilians and Afghans who have aided the U.S. government, said the force being dispatched to Kabul would grow to 5,000."

Rachel Pannett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Taliban's blitz across Afghanistan pushed closer to Kabul on Saturday, as U.S. diplomats appealed to the militants to stop the advance or risk conflict with thousands of U.S. troops flooding into the capital to evacuate U.S. diplomats and other personnel. But in Qatar's capital, Doha, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Taliban political leaders who had a message of their own: calling for an end to escalating U.S. airstrikes trying to hold the fast-moving push by Taliban forces to gain territory, occupy provincial capitals and hold key roadways. With Kabul in the Taliban crosshairs, the fate of the country's Western-allied government also hung in the balance. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in his first public appearance since the Taliban's stunning sweep of provincial capitals over the past week, said he was turning to the international community for help even as events appeared to be overtaking him and his administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Eyal Press in a New York Times op-ed: "Contemporary America runs on dirty work," work done -- usually by low-paid workers -- in penal & mental institutions, immigrations centers, slaughterhouses, overseas sweatshops, & drone-war facilities.... This work sustains our lifestyles and undergirds the prevailing social order, but privileged people are generally spared from having to think about it.... Though more difficult to quantify, the moral and emotional wounds that many dirty workers experience can be as debilitating as material disadvantage.... Pinning the blame for dirty work solely on the people who carry it out can be a useful way to obscure the power dynamics and the layers of complicity that perpetuate their conduct." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Aya Elamroussi of CNN: "The US remains among nations with the highest rate of new Covid-19 cases, driven mostly by a surge in the South, where many states are lagging in getting people vaccinated against the coronavirus."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "With a stockpile of at least 100 million doses at the ready, Biden administration officials are developing a plan to start offering coronavirus booster shots to some Americans as early as this fall even as researchers continue to hotly debate whether extra shots are needed, according to people familiar with the effort. The first boosters are likely to go to nursing home residents and health care workers, followed by other older people who were near the front of the line when vaccinations began late last year. Officials envision giving people the same vaccine they originally received. They have discussed starting the effort in October but have not settled on a timetable."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

California. Lexi Lonas of the Hill: "One person has been hospitalized with a stab wound after fights broke out at an anti-vaccination and anti-mask rally between demonstrators and counter-protestors in Los Angeles on Saturday.... A video of an altercation posted by television producer Alex Kimmel showed a man in camouflage punching a man in yellow shirt before he took a swing at another man with an American flag face covering. Other men can be seen pushing each other and throwing errant punches. One person can be heard in the background yelling 'unmask them all.'"

Mississippi. Nick Judin of the Mississippi Free Press: "Hours after the worst report of new COVID-19 cases in the pandemic thus far, Gov. Tate Reeves gave Mississippi a full-throated endorsement of vaccinations -- but offered inconsistent and hostile messaging on the subject of masks. 'I want to be clear,' the governor said at a press event Friday afternoon, 'I have been vaccinated. My mom's been vaccinated. My dad's been vaccinated. My grandma has been vaccinated. I believe the vaccines are safe, effective and the best tool to beat the virus.'... The governor questioned the value of masks for the vaccinated entirely Friday.... 'If you really want to virtue signal, why are you in this room? Why don't you go to your house and lock yourself up?' Reeves asked Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison, after Harrison questioned him on his position on masking.... The governor has no training in medicine or health care; he has a bachelor's degree in economics from Millsaps College." ~~~

~~~ Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "An eighth-grade girl died [Saturday] morning in Raleigh, Miss., mere hours after testing positive for COVID-19. Multiple sources told the Mississippi Free Press that the student attended classes at the school most of the week, including Wednesday, before testing positive for COVID-19 at week's end.... The Raleigh student's passing came the morning after a press conference on Friday in which Gov. Tate Reeves reiterated that, unlike last year, he will not mandate masks in schools this fall.... 'If you look at those individuals under the age of 12, what you find is that it is very rare that kids under the age of 12 have anything other than the sniffles [as the result of the coronavirus],' the governor said."

North Carolina. Robert Romero, et al., of WNCT-Greenville: "NC Rep. Keith Kidwell, who serves District 79 and Beaufort County, announced on Friday that he is in the hospital after his wife was diagnosed with COVID-19. It has since been learned both have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.... Kidwell has been vocal about not wearing a mask. He is the chief sponsor of House Bill 572, which would not allow Gov. Roy Cooper to issue an executive order to require vaccination. The bill passed the NC House in May but has not moved further in the NC Senate." MB: Kidwell looks just like a GOP poohbah, with all of the quirks & biases that go with the stereotype.

Washington, D.C. Anne Tate of the Washingtonian: "Unvaccinated DC residents can now get the Covid-19 vaccine brought to them at home. Previously, only homebound residents qualified for the program, but it's now open to anyone. Both the vaccine and the delivery service are free." The article tells you what-all is involved & how you can make an appointment.

News Lede

New York Times: "Tropical Storm Grace formed in the eastern Caribbean on Saturday morning, generating tropical storm warnings for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and other parts of the Caribbean, and is now expected to bring heavy rain and potential mudslides to Haiti, which was hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake on Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said."

The Commentariat -- August 14, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.

** The End of the Longest War. David Sanger & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "In the end, an Afghan force that did not believe in itself and a U.S. effort that Mr. Biden, and most Americans, no longer believed would alter the course of events combined to bring an ignoble close to America's longest war. The United States kept forces in Afghanistan far longer than the British did in the 19th century, and twice as long as the Soviets -- with roughly the same results."

** President Biden's statement on Afghanistan.

Rachel Pannett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Taliban's blitz across Afghanistan pushed closer to Kabul on Saturday, as U.S. diplomats appealed to the militants to stop the advance or risk conflict with thousands of U.S. troops flooding into the capital to evacuate U.S. diplomats and other personnel. But in Qatar's capital, Doha, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Taliban political leaders who had a message of their own: calling for an end to escalating U.S. airstrikes trying to hold the fast-moving push by Taliban forces to gain territory, occupy provincial capitals and hold key roadways. With Kabul in the Taliban crosshairs, the fate of the country's Western-allied government also hung in the balance. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in his first public appearance since the Taliban's stunning sweep of provincial capitals over the past week, said he was turning to the international community for help even as events appeared to be overtaking him and his administration."

** Eyal Press in a New York Times op-ed: "Contemporary America runs on dirty work," work done -- usually by low-paid workers -- in penal & mental institutions, immigrations centers, slaughterhouses, overseas sweatshops, & drone-war facilities.... This work sustains our lifestyles and undergirds the prevailing social order, but privileged people are generally spared from having to think about it.... Though more difficult to quantify, the moral and emotional wounds that many dirty workers experience can be as debilitating as material disadvantage.... Pinning the blame for dirty work solely on the people who carry it out can be a useful way to obscure the power dynamics and the layers of complicity that perpetuate their conduct."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Afghanistan are here: "The last major city in northern Afghanistan fell to the Taliban on Saturday night, marking the complete loss of the country's north to the Taliban as the insurgents appear on the verge of a full military takeover." ~~~

~~~ Tameem Akhgar, et al., of the AP: "The Taliban completed their sweep of the country's south on Friday as they took four more provincial capitals in a lightning offensive that is gradually encircling Kabul, just weeks before the U.S. is set to officially end its two-decade war. In just the last 24 hours, the country's second- and third-largest cities -- Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south -- have fallen to the insurgents as has the capital of the southern Helmand province, where American, British and NATO forces fought some of the bloodiest battles of the conflict. The blitz through the Taliban's southern heartland means the insurgents now hold half of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals and control more than two-thirds of the country -- weeks before the U.S. plans to withdraw its last troops. The Western-backed government in the capital, Kabul, still holds a smattering of provinces in the center and east, as well as the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is live-updating Friday's developments in Afghanistan here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ American Disgrace. Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: "The rapid collapse of security in Afghanistan has turned a slow-building U.S. effort to rescue men and women who have assisted the United States into a full-blown humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands of people still seeking refuge and potentially little time to relocate them. The scramble to rescue America's Afghan allies comes after U.S. lawmakers in both parties have pressed the Biden administration for months to move faster on the issue.... The U.S. government has transported about 1,200 Afghans to the United States in recent days, State Department spokesman Ned Price said. But the Biden administration has committed to temporarily relocating another 4,000 applicants and their families to other countries while their immigration paperwork is finalized and assessed, and there are many thousand more who are earlier in the process and face a stark outlook."

~~~ Thomas Gibbons-Neff, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States' 20-year endeavor to rebuild Afghanistan's military into a robust and independent fighting force has failed, and that failure is now playing out in real time as the country slips into Taliban control.... The swift [Taliban] offensive has resulted in mass surrenders, captured helicopters and millions of dollars of American-supplied equipment paraded by the Taliban on grainy cellphone videos. In some cities, heavy fighting had been underway for weeks on their outskirts, but the Taliban ultimately overtook their defensive lines and then walked in with little or no resistance. This implosion comes despite the United States having poured more than $83 billion in weapons, equipment and training into the country's security forces over two decades. Building the Afghan security apparatus was one of the key parts of the Obama administration's strategy as it sought to find a way to hand over security and leave nearly a decade ago.... How the Afghan military came to disintegrate first became apparent ... months ago in an accumulation of losses that started even before President Biden's announcement that the United States would withdraw by Sept. 11." ~~~

~~~ Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post, from "The Afghanistan Papers" (December 2019): "'The Afghan forces are better than we thought they were,' Marine Gen. John Allen told Congress in 2012. 'The Afghan national security forces are winning,' Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson told reporters in 2014. But in a trove of confidential government interviews obtained by The Washington Post, U.S., NATO and Afghan officials described their efforts to create an Afghan proxy force as a long-running calamity. With most speaking on the assumption that their remarks would remain private, they depicted the Afghan security forces as incompetent, unmotivated, poorly trained, corrupt and riddled with deserters and infiltrators. In one interview, Thomas Johnson, a Navy official who served as a counterinsurgency adviser in Kandahar province, said Afghans viewed the police as predatory bandits, calling them 'the most hated institution' in Afghanistan. An unnamed Norwegian official told interviewers that he estimated 30 percent of Afghan police recruits deserted with their government-issued weapons so they could 'set up their own private checkpoints' and extort payments from travelers." ~~~

     ~~~ Say, here's the self-same Marine General John Allen -- now of the Brookings Institution -- in a Defense One opinion piece, explaining why President Biden must reverse his decision to leave Afghanistan. Okay then.

Jacob Bogage & Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post: "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy purchased up to $305,000 in bonds from an investment firm whose managing partner also chairs the U.S. Postal Service's governing board, the independent body responsible for evaluating DeJoy's performance. Between October and April, DeJoy purchased 11 bonds from Brookfield Asset Management each worth between $1,000 and $15,000, or $15,000 and $50,000, according to DeJoy's financial disclosure paperwork. Ron Bloom, a Brookfield senior executive who manages the firm's private equity division, has served on the postal board since 2019 and was elected its chairman in February." MB: Surprise! Both DeJoy & Bloom are Trump appointees. Update: Rachel Maddow pointed out Friday night that Bloom has repeatedly expressed great admiration for DeJoy & averred that Louie was definitely the best guy for the postmaster general job. And it cost DeJoy only $300K or so for those expressions of affirmation. Nice.

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Nine moderate House Democrats told Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday that they will not vote for a budget resolution meant to pave the way for the passage of a $3.5 trillion social policy package later this year until a Senate-approved infrastructure bill passes the House and is signed into law. The pledge, in a letter released early Friday, is a major rift that threatens the carefully choreographed, two-track effort by congressional Democrats and the Biden administration to enact both a trillion-dollar, bipartisan infrastructure deal and an even more ambitious -- but partisan -- social policy measure. The nine House members are more than enough to block consideration of the budget blueprint in a House where Democrats hold a three-seat majority." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kara Voght of Mother Jones: "The letter, notably, makes no promises that the signers will vote for the $3.5 trillion budget package, even if their demands to take up the infrastructure bill are met." ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "If [these nine Democrats] wanted things that were popular or defensible on the merits they could potentially get concessions during normal negotiations; they're engaging in hostage-taking because their basic position is that Biden's budget is both too big and doesn't do enough for rich people, which is unlikely to actually persuade anybody else."

** David Daly & Gaby Goldstein in a Guardian op-ed: "The United States is becoming a land filled with 'democracy deserts', where gerrymandering and voting restrictions are making voters powerless to make change. And this round of redistricting could make things even worse. Since 2012, the Electoral Integrity Project at Harvard University has studied the quality of elections worldwide.... In its most recent study of the 2020 elections, the integrity of Wisconsin's electoral boundaries earned a 23 -- worst in the nation, on par with Jordan, Bahrain and the Congo.... Alabama (31), North Carolina (32), Michigan (37), Ohio (33), Texas (35), Florida (37) and Georgia (39) scored only marginally higher. Nations that join them in the 30s include Hungary, Turkey and Syria.... [When] Republican lawmakers redistricted [states] like Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida ... after the 2010 census, with the benefit of precise, granular voting data and the most sophisticated mapping software ever, they gerrymandered themselves into advantages that have held firm for the last decade -- even when Democratic candidates win hundreds of thousands more statewide votes. In Wisconsin, for example, voters handed Democrats every statewide race in 2018 and 203,000 more votes for the state assembly -- but the tilted Republican map handed Republicans 63 of the 99 seats nevertheless."

Lisa Friedman & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "After a decade of disputing the existence of climate change, many leading Republicans are shifting their posture amid deadly heat waves, devastating drought and ferocious wildfires that have bludgeoned their districts and unnerved their constituents back home. Members of Congress who long insisted that the climate is changing due to natural cycles have notably adjusted that view, with many now acknowledging the solid science that emissions from burning oil, gas and coal have raised Earth's temperature. But their growing acceptance of the reality of climate change has not translated into support for the one strategy that scientists said in a major United Nations report this week is imperative to avert an even more harrowing future: stop burning fossil fuels. Instead, Republicans want to spend billions to prepare communities to cope with extreme weather, but are trying to block efforts by Democrats to cut the emissions that are fueling the disasters in the first place." MB: If you have a NYT subscription, click on the link, then search the page for "Inhofe." What an ass.

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post features Jeff Clark, the DOJ lawyer she says "became, for a brief time, the most dangerous Trump administration official you never heard of." MB: It's sort of a story where Walter Mitty decides to actually play out one of his daydreams. Pocketa pocketa.

Peter Hermann & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: The lawyer for a D.C. police officer who fatally shot himself nine days after he was injured confronting rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 says a group of cybersleuths has identified one of his attackers. A blow to Officer Jeffrey Smith's head captured on video shows the 12-year veteran being knocked to the ground, apparently unconscious, according to a lawsuit Smith's family filed Friday against the alleged attacker. The lawsuit includes a report from a doctor who evaluated the case for Smith's estate saying a traumatic brain injury led the officer to take his own life.... The Washington Post is not identifying the man named in the lawsuit because The Post could not independently verify his identity and he has not been charged with a crime. Reached Friday, the man declined to comment.... Social media accounts that appear to be connected to him share conspiracy theories about the election and covid-19 vaccinations."

Not-News Flash! Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump was not reinstated as president on August 13th -- despite the far-right conspiracy theory that he would do so. Although President Joe Biden decisively won the 2020 election and the Constitution does not provide a mechanism to re-instate a former president, Trump reportedly bought into the conspiracy theory. Frank Figliuzzi, the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, warns that the conspiracy theory may result in violence. Figliuzzi noted a DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis bulletin obtained by ABC News that warned, 'Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Frank Figliuzzi, in an MSNBC opinion piece: "This nonsense about a Trump return to the Oval Office would be at least mildly amusing if it weren't so dangerous. And the Department of Homeland Security agrees.... DHS issued a bulletin Aug. 6 to its state and local partners warning that the agency's intelligence analysts have observed 'an increasing but modest level of activity online" by people who are calling for violence in response to baseless claims of 2020 election fraud and related to the conspiracy theory that ... Donald Trump will be reinstated.'... QAnon quackery is central to the reinstatement delusion.... Trump continues to fuel the reinstatement conspiracy, and he's fattening his campaign coffers in the process.... U.S. Capitol Police are closely monitoring plans for a 'Justice for January 6' rally on the Capitol grounds set for Sept. 18.... Chris Sampson ... [of] the Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Racial Ideologies..., told me: 'The same people who pushed the Jan. 6 attack are the same people pushing current conspiracy theories that say, "They stole the election from you," "Ashli Babbitt was murdered," calls for violence against vaccine locations and calls insurrectionists "political prisoners.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Heather Murphy of the New York Times: "Snopes, which has long presented itself as the internet's premier fact-checking resource, has retracted 60 articles after a BuzzFeed News investigation found that the site's co-founder plagiarized from news outlets as part of a strategy intended to scoop up web traffic. 'As you can imagine, our staff are gutted and appalled by this,' Vinny Green, the Snopes chief operating officer, said on Friday. He said the Snopes editorial team was conducting a review to understand just how many articles written by David Mikkelson, the site's co-founder and chief executive, featured content plagiarized from other news sites. As of Friday afternoon, the team had found 60, he said. By Friday morning, dozens of articles had been removed from the site, with pages that formerly featured those articles now showing the word 'retracted' and an explanation that 'some or all of its content was taken from other sources without proper attribution.' Ads have been removed from these articles, according to Mr. Green." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's BuzzFeed News' original investigative report, by Dean Jones.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Andrew Atterbury of Politico: "The Biden Administration further inserted itself into Florida's mask fight on Friday by offering to pay the salaries of Florida school board members who lose state funds by defying Gov. Ron DeSantis' ban on local K-12 mask mandates. In a letter to DeSantis and his Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote that school districts stripped of state funding for passing local coronavirus safety measures can use federal relief dollars to replenish the cash. Cardona said he was 'deeply concerned' by DeSantis' efforts preventing schools from requiring students to wear masks amid a surge in Covid infections, and that his agency could reach the schools directly if need be."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "'I don't think it's anybody's damn business whether I'm vaccinated or not,' Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, told CNN last month.... In the context of a deadly and often debilitating contagion, in which the unchecked spread of infection has consequences for the entire society, vaccination is not a personal decision.... So-called freedom is ill suited to human flourishing. It is practically maladaptive in the face of a pandemic.... From the jump, the federal government devolved its response to the pandemic, foisting responsibility onto states and localities, which, in turn, left individual Americans and their communities to navigate conflicting rules and information.... When you structure a society so that every person must be an island, you cannot then blame people when inevitably they act as if they are. If we want a country that takes solidarity seriously, we will actually have to build one.... Vaccination ... should have been mandated from the start." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In the U.S., the Covid-19 pandemic is a symptom of conservatism. At least since the Goldwater era, mainstream conservatives & confederates have stressed individual "freedom" over civic responsibility -- without understanding that absent collective responsibility, there is no freedom. The right's emphasis on individual freedom -- whether a philosophical preference or a craven political ploy or the white man's wail -- is antithetical to Western democratic values. Covid-19 is a sickness that kills, but the cause of death in the U.S. is less a virus than a selfish political belief system that survives only because its practitioners have taught its followers to accept fantastic lies.

California. Parent Beats up Teacher Because Masks. Lateshia Beachum of the Washington Post: "An unidentified father of a student at Sutter Creek Elementary School in Amador County, Calif., ... saw his daughter and the principal wearing masks, Amador County Unified School District Superintendent Torie Gibson told KTXL. He allegedly argued with the principal, left and returned to speak with her again, Gibson said. An unnamed male teacher intervened, but that led to a physical altercation between the two men that resulted in the teacher needing medical attention at a hospital, KCRA 3 reported." MB: Beachum calls the fight the result of the "sensitive spot" teachers are in. Really? No, school personnel are victims of the right-wing lie machine, whether they're subjected to actual violence, as in this case, verbal abuse or empty threats. Reporters should say so.

Texas. Carma Hassan & Christina Maxouris of CNN: "Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging and in Dallas County, Texas, there are 'zero ICU beds left for children,' county judge Clay Jenkins said in a news conference Friday morning. 'That means if your child's in a car wreck, if your child has a congenital heart defect or something and needs an ICU bed, or more likely if they have Covid and need an ICU bed, we don't have one. Your child will wait for another child to die,' Jenkins said."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Luis Ferré-Sadurní of the New York Times: "The leader of the New York State Assembly said Friday that lawmakers will suspend their ongoing impeachment investigation of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, following his resignation earlier this week over sexual harassment allegations. Carl E. Heastie, the speaker of the Assembly, said the inquiry was moot since its main objective was to determine whether Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, should remain in office. Mr. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, also said he believed lawmakers did not have the constitutional authority to impeach a governor who was no longer in power."

News Ledes

AP: There are "more than 100 large wildfires burning in a dozen Western states seared by drought and hot, bone-dry weather that has turned forests, brushlands, meadows and pastures into tinder. The U.S. Forest Service said Friday it's operating in crisis mode, fully deploying firefighters and maxing out its support system. The roughly 21,000 federal firefighters working on the ground is more than double the number of firefighters sent to contain forest fires at this time a year ago, and the agency is facing 'critical resources limitations,' said Anthony Scardina, a deputy forester for the agency's Pacific Southwest region."

AP: "A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Saturday, with the epicenter about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Haiti's new prime minister, Ariel Henry, said on Twitter that the 'violent quake' had caused loss of life and damage in various parts of the country. He said he would mobilize all available government resources to help victims and appealed to Haitians to unify as they 'confront this dramatic situation in which we're living right now." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments in Haiti here: "The quake overwhelmed hospitals, flattened buildings and trapped people under rubble in at least two cities in the western part of the country's southern peninsula. At least 304 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured, according to Jerry Chandler, the director general of the Civil Protection Agency. An untold number were missing."

Weather Channel: "Fred is now an open tropical wave, but is expected to organize and strengthen some in the days ahead in the Gulf of Mexico, where there is the potential for rain and wind impacts this weekend. Fred is tracking west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph away from Cuba, now in the Gulf of Mexico. Fred remains highly disorganized because of unfavorable upper-level winds and land interaction. Tropical storm warnings have been canceled in the Florida Keys. Heavy rain will continue in parts of Cuba and Florida into the weekend, which have already seen up to 10 inches of rain so far."