Townhall - Kamala Harris Has Avoided a Press Conference for 35 Days: Harris has spoken at several rallies, typically scripted with a teleprompter. CNN’s Jim Acosta pushed back on this, pointing out that “a campaign rally is not a press conference.” The last time Harris took questions from reporters at a press conference was eight months ago, on December 2, 2023 (Townhall).


Associated Press - Taliban Passes “Vice and Virtue” Laws Ending Female Freedoms in Afghanistan: The Taliban’s new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public provide a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future, a top U.N. official warned Sunday. Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the U.N. mission in the country, said the laws extend the “ already intolerable restrictions ” on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers last Wednesday issued the country’s first set of laws to prevent vice and promote virtue. They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home. The laws empower the Vice and Virtue Ministry to be at the front line of regulating personal conduct and administering punishments like warnings or arrest if its enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws. These are the people President Biden let take over Afghanistan. Where is the outrage? No protests on college campuses. No statement from the White House. Guess who’s funding this? We are. (Associated Press).


Townhall - Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips is Open to Serving in a Republican Administration, “We failed a lot of people”: The Democrat admitted that the United States is facing an unprecedented border crisis and a struggling economy, acknowledging that “We failed a lot of people.” As it relates to policy, yeah, we have a border crisis. I’ve seen it twice with my own eyes. We also have to be a welcoming country, as Ronald Reagan would say,” Phillips added. “We have to be a country that has an economy that works for people. Sixty percent of people are living paycheck to paycheck” (Townhall).


Atlantic - Atlantic Reporter Exposes Democrat Lies Meant to Increase Kamala Harris’ Favorability: Democrats might count on Americans to be forgiving, but they are not stupid, and they would do well to not let the pageantry of televised politics obfuscate the fact that they are being lied to…We were captive to decisions sold in the name of science but created more crudely by teachers’ unions and political appointees. Children were among the worst off as America—blue America, really, like the host city to the Democratic National Convention—kept its schools closed longer than any peer country. Does the Biden administration expect voters to not remember this? In our supposed exuberance over Kamala Harris, are we somehow supposed to invent a memory of her heroic effort to pry open schools? It’s worth keeping in mind as we look at the 2020–21 school-reopening timeline we are being asked to magically revise in 2024, with an eye toward what, if anything, Harris had to do with it. Harris also didn’t do anything to change the administration’s policies. Instead of facing down the teachers’ unions and urging local jurisdictions to reopen their schools immediately, the Biden administration decided to try buying their cooperation. So what did Biden mean when he said Harris “helped states and cities get their schools back open”? Keeping schools closed for so long was a mistake, and the Democrats shouldn’t pretend Harris is responsible for opening them. Nor should voters allow Democrats to pretend that she did (Atlantic).


Free Beacon - Another Tim Walz Lie Exposed: When Tim Walz launched his 2006 campaign for Congress in rural Minnesota, he boasted in his public biography that in 1993, he “was named the Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce for his service in the education, military, and small business communities.” That was not true. It was a small lie about a minor honor, but for Walz it was part of a pattern of deceit and embellishment that helped pave the way from high school teacher to Congress to the Minnesota governor’s mansion and now, should the Democrats win in November, to the vice presidency (Free Beacon).


Daily Caller - Massive NAVY shortages amidst Democrat Failures: The U.S. Navy is reportedly considering drastic measures to tackle manpower shortage, sources told USNI News. The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is reportedly facing operational challenges due to a shortage of qualified civilian mariners. This prompted a strategic plan to sideline 17 Navy support ships, USNI News reported, citing three people familiar with deliberations. This proposal, termed as a “force generation reset,” reportedly aims to alleviate the staffing strain by putting two Lewis and Clark-class replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, twelve Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two expeditionary sea bases into extended maintenance while reassigning their crews to other vessels (Daily Caller).

I think I need some help here Todd.

Since Cam a la will not face the public, we have to rely on what she has said.

I found the transcript of her press conference, November 12, 2021.


To witt :

[/quote]
Simone: (19:19)
Yes [crosstalk 00:19:20]. My microphone was not on. Let’s do our first question from Philippe Ricard from Le Monde and I will just hold it for you.

Philippe Ricard: (19:30)
Okay. Thank you very much. Philippe Ricard from Le Monde. I have a question about the recent breach of trust between France and the United States linked to the, to the [inaudible 00:19:39] alliance in the Pacific. Do you believe you have done the job to try to repair the relation between Paris and Washington during your trip? Which guarantees did you give to Mr. Macron to avoid such a crisis could happen again in the next [inaudible 00:19:57] and maybe as vice president of the United States and as the first woman in that job, do you think the way you dealt with this issue during the last days could be a kind of model for European and American [inaudible 00:20:14] leaders? Thank you.

VP Kamala Harris: (20:15)
Thank you. I will tell you that was not the purpose of this trip and we didn’t discuss it. What we did discuss is the issues that are challenging us and the issues that are the basis for this relationship and the strength and the endurance of this relationship. And so, I’ve gone through the list of those issues and there were more. We talked about, for example, our mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere and issues that range from, “What are the current challenges?” to what have been relationships that one could argue should be strengthened and some might even say, have been neglected. We talked extensively about our mutual interest and, in many ways, a longstanding focus of France on the continent of Africa and how obviously what happens in Africa can impact our nations, both from a security perspective and an economic perspective, but also a moral perspective. We talked about what we have is also a perspective on alliances and the strength of alliances and the importance of paying attention to those relationships and understanding the strength of them, but also the fragility of them. Meaning, we can’t take relationships for granted. We must be present. That’s one of the reasons that I’ve been traveling like I have and the president has been traveling in spite of the restrictions we’ve had with COVID because we do understand the significance of being present.

quote Moderator: (22:20) Thank you. Our next question will come from Jennifer Jacobs at Bloomberg. Jennifer Jacobs: (22:27) Thanks a lot. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. You hold onto it. Ma’am, the US is experiencing record inflation, the worst in 30 years, way beyond expectations, OPEC didn’t increase oil production. Can you tell us a little bit about how you would prevent the new spending in your Build Back Better agenda from exacerbating the problem? And also, what else are you going to do to fix this problem with inflation? VP Kamala Harris: (22:55) Right. Thank you. Well, let’s start with this, prices have gone up, and families and individuals are dealing with the realities that bread costs more, that gas costs more. And we have to understand what that means. That’s about the cost of living going up, that’s about having to stress and stretch limited resources, that’s about a source of stress for families that is not only economic, but is on a daily level something that is a heavy weight to carry. So it is something that we take very seriously, very seriously. And we know from the history of this issue in the United States, that when you see these prices go up, it has a direct impact on the quality of life for all people in our country. So it’s a big issue and we take it seriously, and it is a priority therefore. VP Kamala Harris: (23:56) So we have addressed it in a number of ways, one of the issues that we know is related to this is the supply chain issue that we just discussed. And so, on a domestic level, in terms of domestic policy, one of the approaches we have taken is to work with labor unions and to work with municipalities in opening backup, and extending the hours of our ports. There are actually three I have in mind, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Savannah. I mean, in fact, part of the Infrastructure Bill benefit is most recently what we will do to assist Savannah in broadening their ability to be an active port. And we have seen a reduction in the container ships off of the Long Beach and LA ports because of what we have done, which is to extend the hours to now 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Click to show

I can not find the one for December 2, 2023.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: These are the people President Biden let take over Afghanistan. Where is the outrage?).

Trump was the one who ordered the withdrawal.

He knew there would be big problems, that is why he kicked the can down the road until he was out of office.

quote Originally posted by BingB: Trump was the one who ordered the withdrawal. He knew there would be big problems, that is why he kicked the can down the road until he was out of office.

You will need to provide three credible unbiased sources to back up your claims.
I read somewhere that you ALWAYS do that...

And, President Trump was confident that he would still be CIC when the withdrawal was scheduled, so there was no need to be a can kicker.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Atlantic - Atlantic Reporter Exposes Democrat Lies Meant to Increase Kamala Harris’ Favorability: Democrats might count on Americans to be forgiving, but they are not stupid, and they would do well to not let the pageantry of televised politics obfuscate the fact that they are being lied to…We were captive to decisions sold in the name of science but created more crudely by teachers’ unions and political appointees. Children were among the worst off as America—blue America, really, like the host city to the Democratic National Convention—kept its schools closed longer than any peer country. Does the Biden administration expect voters to not remember this? In our supposed exuberance over Kamala Harris, are we somehow supposed to invent a memory of her heroic effort to pry open schools? It’s worth keeping in mind as we look at the 2020–21 school-reopening timeline we are being asked to magically revise in 2024, with an eye toward what, if anything, Harris had to do with it. Harris also didn’t do anything to change the administration’s policies. Instead of facing down the teachers’ unions and urging local jurisdictions to reopen their schools immediately, the Biden administration decided to try buying their cooperation. So what did Biden mean when he said Harris “helped states and cities get their schools back open”? Keeping schools closed for so long was a mistake, and the Democrats shouldn’t pretend Harris is responsible for opening them. Nor should voters allow Democrats to pretend that she did (Atlantic)..

Can't blame Harris for the Biden administration policy. She was not in control.

I assume the comment about helping states and cities get their schools back open referred to the American Rescue Plan that provided millions of dollars to schools to address the added costs of re-opening classes. Republicans opposed the passage and Harris cast the tie breaking vote to allow the bill to pass in the Senate.

quote Originally posted by BingB: I will if you will say that you don't believe that Trump ordered the withdrawal while he was in office. I will posts sources to back up anything you claim is not true.

Why would I say that the plan wasn't in the works during Trump's Administration?

Your screws may need tightening.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Free Beacon - Another Tim Walz Lie Exposed: When Tim Walz launched his 2006 campaign for Congress in rural Minnesota, he boasted in his public biography that in 1993, he “was named the Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce for his service in the education, military, and small business communities.” That was not true. It was a small lie about a minor honor, but for Walz it was part of a pattern of deceit and embellishment that helped pave the way from high school teacher to Congress to the Minnesota governor’s mansion and now, should the Democrats win in November, to the vice presidency (Free Beacon). .

A "mistake" but not a "lie". Walz did receive the award. It was just credited to a different organization. He was given the award by the Nebraska Junior Chamber of Commerce, also known as the Nebraska Jaycees.

I don't think people care much which organization gave him the award. It was still a notable achievement.

This is nothing like Trumps huge lie that Michigan gave him a "Man of the Year Award". That is a total fabrication, but of course that does not bother you at all.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Associated Press - Taliban Passes “Vice and Virtue” Laws Ending Female Freedoms in Afghanistan: ...These are the people President Biden let take over Afghanistan. Where is the outrage? No protests on college campuses. No statement from the White House. Guess who’s funding this? We are.

I remember when we let the Taliban take over Afghanistan by removing all NATO forces with a plan that the military commanders there thought would lead to the Taliban taking over. "One of the worst negotiating mistakes by the U.S," I think was their take on it. Biden isn't innocent of "peace at any cost," and the handling of the withdrawal was done almost as poorly as the negotiating of it. However, he was expressly not the architect of the withdrawal or its insane timeline, and the bungling of it is due to ineptitude on both sides. Both Presidents have been too dense to do what any reasonable person would do where war is concerned; they'd listen to Mattis.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Free Beacon - Another Tim Walz Lie Exposed: When Tim Walz launched his 2006 campaign for Congress in rural Minnesota, he boasted in his public biography that in 1993, he “was named the Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce for his service in the education, military, and small business communities.” That was not true. It was a small lie about a minor honor, but for Walz it was part of a pattern of deceit and embellishment that helped pave the way from high school teacher to Congress to the Minnesota governor’s mansion and now, should the Democrats win in November, to the vice presidency (Free Beacon).

Important points missing from this take:
The Nebraska Chamber of Commerce does not have an 'Outstanding Young Nebraskan' award. The Nebraska Jr. Chamber of Commerce, however, does.
The Nebraska Jr. Chamber of Commerce did award Tim Walz 'Outstanding Young Nebraskan,' and his campaign made that correction nearly 20 years ago.

With that information...this just feels desperate. I know almost nothing about Tim Walz, but if that's the best we're coming up with I'm now convinced the dude is superhumanly honest.

[This message has been edited by NewDustin (edited 08-26-2024).]

quote Originally posted by cliffw: I think I need some help here Todd. I can not find the one for December 2, 2023.

I can't either. This administration will have gone down as one of the absolute worst in modern history... it'll make Carter's administration look pale in comparison. More than anything, I think we're seeing the exposure of the radical left, and everyone who's attempted to maintain power at any cost, whether it's fake conspiracies that they leverage the full force of the government (Russia Collusion), or literally using the agencies to illegally spy on political adversaries (which is nothing I've never seen before in my lifetime), to literally doing anything they possibly can, to maintain their propaganda... whether it's dumping our emergency fuel in order to give the appearance of lowered fuel costs, to trying to manipulate social media and censuring speech... this is what Socialist governments do, literally before they're about to collapse.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Biden had been president for a full 8 months... to have a Vietnam-style withdrawal, and blame it on the past president from 8 months ago is not only completely [poorly conceived], it shows the level to which Religionist Democrats will go to try to convince themselves that their failures belong to someone else. Let's say for a minute that Trump 100% planned all of this, and they followed Trump's plan to a T. It would mean that Biden/Harris is even MORE to blame, and completely [at fault for] having followed such a **** plan... and didn't bother to amend it or change it, even though they had the power to do so.

Trump ignored his battlefield commanders, allies, and myriad sources that all warned this sort of mess is exactly what would come of his treaty with The Taliban. What Trump entered into is a binding peace treaty, which the Biden administration could absolutely not just choose to ignore or change. That's not how treaties work, even those enacted solely by executive agreement. They would have to renegotiate terms with the Taliban, who had already responded to the treaty by immediately ramping up attacks and crackdowns (under the Trump administration's time in office), exactly how virtually everyone had warned they would.

Biden's fault is (in my opinion) the lesser of the two, though still very real. Suggesting he could have abandoned the treaty then renegotiated for a better deal than Trump got would be asinine; The Taliban would never respond to that. The Biden administration's only other option was exiting the treaty and going back to war with the Taliban, and their failure is in their unwillingness to do so.

quote Remember, Trump said... "If you do anything after we leave to negate our agreement, I will kill you and your entire family."

I do not remember Trump saying that. I do remember the guy who credibly said things like that quit because of how much he disagreed with Trump's withdrawal strategies. Do you have a source?

The implementation of a plan plays a huge part in its success.
Was the plan followed or was it modified?
If the plan was modified, when was the plan modified?
If the plan was modified, who modified the plan?
Who implemented the plan?
Was the plan implemented correctly?

Tighten your screws, they are loosening.

[This message has been edited by olejoedad (edited 08-26-2024).]

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: The implementation of a plan plays a huge part in its success. Was the plan followed or was it modified? If the plan was modified, when modified the plan? If the plan was modified, who modified the plan? Who implemented the plan? Was the plan implemented correctly? Tighten your screws, they are loosening.

If you come up with a plan and everyone around you gives you the side eye and says "hey, you aren't really gonna do that, right? That would result in X, Y, AND Z!"
Then you say "Hell yeah I am! I base what I do on emotion and gut checks!"
Then the super knowledgable people responsible for carrying this out say "Hey, this is such a bad idea we'll quit if you try to make us do it"
Then you say "Go ahead. You're overrated anyway"
Then, when someone does follow your plan (because they are legally bound to follow it) X, Y, and Z all happen, pretty much exactly like nearly everyone told you there were going to.
Then you say "Well this is your fault for not following my plan the way I would have followed my plan!" while ignoring all of the above...

I dunno how you could expect to be taken seriously in that. You'd have to get folks to ignore that nearly everyone called out that this would happen at the time, and that's real hard to do what with the internet and all.

quote Originally posted by NewDustin: Trump ignored his battlefield commanders, allies, and myriad sources that all warned this sort of mess is exactly what would come of his treaty with The Taliban. What Trump entered into is a binding peace treaty, which the Biden administration could absolutely not just choose to ignore or change. That's not how treaties work, even those enacted solely by executive agreement. They would have to renegotiate terms with the Taliban, who had already responded to the treaty by immediately ramping up attacks and crackdowns (under the Trump administration's time in office), exactly how virtually everyone had warned they would. Biden's fault is (in my opinion) the lesser of the two, though still very real. Suggesting he could have abandoned the treaty then renegotiated for a better deal than Trump got would be asinine; The Taliban would never respond to that. The Biden administration's only other option was exiting the treaty and going back to war with the Taliban, and their failure is in their unwillingness to do so.

Sigh, the Taliban literally violated the treaty when they started overrunning towns and cities once Biden was in office. At that point, the whole thing had already been violated, so the agreement that Trump made no longer was valid anyway. Don't get me started. 2/3rds of the Taliban were standing outside the town's border of Kandahar... we could have sent a missile and decimated most of the Taliban right there... but we chose not to.

quote Originally posted by NewDustin: I do not remember Trump saying that. I do remember the guy who credibly said things like that quit because of how much he disagreed with Trump's withdrawal strategies. Do you have a source?

I'm so tired of re-fighting this. Why do I have to be your Google?

https://www.washingtonexami...t-to-obliterate-him/

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 08-26-2024).]

quote Originally posted by NewDustin: I remember when we let the Taliban take over Afghanistan by removing all NATO forces with a plan that the military commanders there thought would lead to the Taliban taking over. "One of the worst negotiating mistakes by the U.S," I think was their take on it. Biden isn't innocent of "peace at any cost," and the handling of the withdrawal was done almost as poorly as the negotiating of it. However, he was expressly not the architect of the withdrawal or its insane timeline, and the bungling of it is due to ineptitude on both sides. Both Presidents have been too dense to do what any reasonable person would do where war is concerned; they'd listen to Mattis.

Hmm. Trump's time line was when situations are right on the ground. There was no insane timeline. Trump was not the architect of the withdrawal plan. It was Trump that said we will withdraw ... if. Trump did do what Mattis suggested.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Sigh, the Taliban literally violated the treaty when they started overrunning towns and cities once Biden was in office. At that point, the whole thing had already been violated, so the agreement that Trump made no longer was valid anyway.

"Once Biden was in office" suggests that they waited until Trump left office. They didn't wait two full weeks. The Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan was signed February 29, 2020. The first reports that Taliban attacks were inconsistent with the treaty came on March 10, 2020, less than 2 weeks later. The same day the Afghan government broke another provision of the treaty by refusing to release Taliban captives they held, and the deadline for Taliban/Afghani government talks was missed. The attacks never stopped and they delivered none of the substantive changes they promised, even under the Trump administration. Even before his presidency ended there was considerable study of what the Taliban not meeting their obligations meant.

This feels obvious to say, but we shouldn't have laymen making gut check decisions in a vacuum about complicated foreign policy matters for this very reason; the policy created is a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Don't get me started. 2/3rds of the Taliban were standing outside the town's border of Kandahar... we could have sent a missile and decimated most of the Taliban right there... but we chose not to.

Neither of us have 1/100th the information we'd need to even begin to form a reasonable opinion on that. We don't know what was known at the time, what the opportunity cost was, nor what the rationale for not attacking was.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: I'm so tired of re-fighting this. Why do I have to be your Google? https://www.washingtonexami...t-to-obliterate-him/

Have we discussed this before? I'm not sure I remember when, if so. Same with the Google thing...you have never had to be my Google. To be fair, it would be more complete for me to say "I searched pretty thoroughly for this thing you are claiming and have been unable to find any evidence of it. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you have a source. Can you provide it?" By the time I ask you I've looked in more places than just Google

This time I wasn't finding it because I'd searched for the phrase you put in quotes, and the actual quote was nothing like that.

quote Originally posted by cliffw: Hmm. Trump's time line was when situations are right on the ground. There was no insane timeline. Trump was not the architect of the withdrawal plan. It was Trump that said we will withdraw ... if. Trump did do what Mattis suggested.

Trump couldn't meet the timelines he set under his own administration. A huge proportion of his top military commanders advised against it. There was a rare level of near-unanimous opinion among foreign policy thing tanks that this would never work out.

I've already linked to Mattis discussing how against this he was, is, and will always be. This is so much not what he suggested that it is expressly what he resigned over.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: This administration will have gone down as one of the absolute worst in modern history.

No it won't. It took over an America that was a complete dumpster fire. An economy crushed by covid. America's streets burning with race riots. A mob attempting too overturn a valid election.

But the Biden administration handled the disaster and came out well. The United Sates economy performed better than a majority of the world's largest economies.
Only people who live in the right wing bubble are ignorant of the WORLD WIDE INFLATION that had nothing to do with Biden policies.

The oil industry, which shut down production under Trump, is not producing more than it ever did under Trump.

Biden has not gotten our troops involved in any foreign conflicts.

Immigration is out of control. That was Biden's greatest failure. It has to be fixed, but ti is not the existential threat to our country that many make it out to be.

I will never claim Biden was a great President, but he did not invade Iraq over fake WMD. He did not oversee the collapse of the housing market and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

He did not lie to the American people about the threat of Covid just to save the economy.

He did not violate an arms embargo and illegally sale weapons to Islamic extremists. And he didn't use the proceeds to illegally fund south American rebels trying to over throw a democratically elected government and install a dictatorship.

How far back do I need to go? What do you consider "modern history"?

quote Originally posted by NewDustin: Neither of us have 1/100th the information we'd need to even begin to form a reasonable opinion on that. We don't know what was known at the time, what the opportunity cost was, nor what the rationale for not attacking was.

How are you so sure I didn't have the information? I'll stop there.

Ultimately, Biden didn't even really know what was going on. The guy is basically a vegetable, and we all acknowledge that. Just like Obama, most things under his administration were decided / determined based on a political "group panel" to decide what would have the least-bad political outcome... and they always make the decision that ends up being the absolute worst one. It's the polar opposite of Trump, which is basically he does whatever he wants, when he wants it. Obama, and especially Biden, never make the decisions outright and have to poll test everything first.

Anyway, 2/3rds of the Taliban were sitting outside Kandahar, giving an ultimatum to the Mayor of Kandahar to resign, and they would let him live. He left, gave up the city with almost no fight at all. We could have sent an MQ9 and killed all of them in quick succession. Two Hellfire missiles is all it would have taken, and the Taliban would have been practically decimated. This was the first time in almost 15 years that the Taliban had organized the majority of their forces into a large singular force like this.

Biden said the buck stops with him, but never formally took any blame. Instead, he blamed the Afghan people for not caring enough (even though over 300k of their own ANSF soldiers died), then he blamed the Afghan president for fleeing, and then he blamed Trump... and even got his National Security Council to write a paper and blame it all on Trump when he thought it was likely going to affect the mid-term elections. Again, people think these agencies and organizations are A-political. The entire NSC is hand-picked by Biden (or not really... but by his administration's staff... again with the whole dementia thing... they were almost all the same people that were on it under Obama's last term).

Anyway, it's completely absurd... just unbelievably absurd that after being 8 months of president, that anyone would blame the former president for something Biden did.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Anyway, it's completely absurd... just unbelievably absurd that after being 8 months of president, that anyone would blame the former president for something Biden did.

I only really disagree with this point. Treaties can absolutely have long-lasting impacts well beyond the term of the President that signs them; hell, they're just about pointless if they don't. Abandoning them also has consequences. Again, they should be carefully considered and ratified by congress (even if that is optional and going out of style) because that's the reality of treaty-making.

quote Originally posted by NewDustin: I only really disagree with this point. Treaties can absolutely have long-lasting impacts well beyond the term of the President that signs them; hell, they're just about pointless if they don't. Abandoning them also has consequences. Again, they should be carefully considered and ratified by congress (even if that is optional and going out of style) because that's the reality of treaty-making.

Search term, ""verbal" treaties the us broke".

quote Originally posted by NewDustin: Trump couldn't meet the timelines he set under his own administration. A huge proportion of his top military commanders advised against it. There was a rare level of near-unanimous opinion among foreign policy thing tanks that this would never work out.

What time lines ?

Biden did the very thing that foreign policy think tanks suggested was not a good idea ?

[This message has been edited by cliffw (edited 08-27-2024).]

quote Originally posted by cliffw: Search term, ""verbal" treaties the us broke".

The US has broken a large number of treaties. My argument is precisely that this one should have been broken because there was no way for it to succeed as written. Breaking treaties, however, has huge implications and isn't something we can just do willy nilly; our treaties become less valuable every time we do so.

quote Originally posted by cliffw: What time lines?

I give a few examples above, as well as a link that outlines a good portion of them that were missed during the Trump administration. There were timelines for some hostilities to cease that were missed, timeliness for prisoner exchanges that were missed, and timelines for discussions that were missed.

quote Originally posted by cliffw: Biden did the very thing that foreign policy think tanks suggested was not a good idea ?

He executed on a treaty that had been given that feedback, yes. There's an article Gen. Mattis wrote for Foreign Affairs I linked to above where he calls on Biden to alter course, which Biden also ignored.

Don't get me wrong; Biden ignored the folks telling him to end this nonsense too, and it was a huge mistake.

quote Originally posted by NewDustin: I only really disagree with this point. Treaties can absolutely have long-lasting impacts well beyond the term of the President that signs them; hell, they're just about pointless if they don't. Abandoning them also has consequences. Again, they should be carefully considered and ratified by congress (even if that is optional and going out of style) because that's the reality of treaty-making.

Yes, I agree on honest grounds... but the treaty had been violated by the Taliban day 1 of Biden's inauguration... even going into the last couple of months of Trump (which would have been a worse disaster to do anything during the transfer of power). But in the months leading up to the withdrawal, Biden should have gone scorched Earth on the Taliban. We had an arsenal of MQ9 drones, and they even swapped out the F16s with the A-10 Tank Killers on Bagram again. We could have gone ape-**** on the Taliban.

Serious question, do you think Trump would have allowed... if not for ego alone, to let the Taliban run over him like they did Biden during the withdrawal? There is no way in hell that Trump would have allowed someone to do that. Call it narcissism, but Trump would have totally destroyed them. Trump even violated airspace by killing two Iranian commanders on foreign soil with which he had no business doing it (although I agree with those actions). He never would have allowed this exit like this. You know it, and everyone else knows this. This exit was done by "committee," for which Biden was only tenuously involved / even aware of what was going on... which is why it was such an epic failure. Biden certainly still takes the majority of the blame for it, but so does everyone who voted for him.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Yes, I agree on honest grounds... but the treaty had been violated by the Taliban day 1 of Biden's inauguration... even going into the last couple of months of Trump (which would have been a worse disaster to do anything during the transfer of power). But in the months leading up to the withdrawal, Biden should have gone scorched Earth on the Taliban. We had an arsenal of MQ9 drones, and they even swapped out the F16s with the A-10 Tank Killers on Bagram again. We could have gone ape-**** on the Taliban.

0 arguments from me on this. Document the absolute **** out of the treaty violations, make a point about their inability to follow even the most basic tenants of it, then use that failure as the rational for militarily suppression. I mean, you'd still need to work on a long-term solution, but you wouldn't be leaving things worse off (like we did).

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Serious question, do you think Trump would have allowed... if not for ego alone, to let the Taliban run over him like they did Biden during the withdrawal? There is no way in hell that Trump would have allowed someone to do that. Call it narcissism, but Trump would have totally destroyed them. Trump even violated airspace by killing two Iranian commanders on foreign soil with which he had no business doing it (although I agree with those actions). He never would have allowed this exit like this. You know it, and everyone else knows this. This exit was done by "committee," for which Biden was only tenuously involved / even aware of what was going on... which is why it was such an epic failure. Biden certainly still takes the majority of the blame for it, but so does everyone who voted for him.

That's an excellent point and I don't have an argument against it. I won't say I'm certain whatever his response would have been would work out better, but I do not think it would have been as passive as Biden's. Still, when you take a step back, even the best possible outcome is mitigated failure. Blame Trump, blame Biden, we should be looking at the shortcomings here for lessons for future policy.

Regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Biden administrations action....

https://justthenews.com/gov...arrative-afghanistan

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: This administration will have gone down as one of the absolute worst in modern history.

quote Originally posted by BingB: No it won't. It took over an America that was a complete dumpster fire. An economy crushed by covid. America's streets burning with race riots. A mob attempting too overturn a valid election. But the Biden administration handled the disaster and came out well. The United Sates economy performed better than a majority of the world's largest economies.

America's economy always does perform better than a majority of the world's largest economies.

America's streets were burning with race riots, only in Democrat Cities and States.

Lie all you wish. There was never a mob attempting too overturn a valid election.

quote Originally posted by BingB: Only people who live in the right wing bubble are ignorant of the WORLD WIDE INFLATION that had nothing to do with Biden policies.

Biden had everything to do with inflation in the USA. Which led to WORLD WIDE INFLATION.

quote Originally posted by BingB: The oil industry, which shut down production under Trump, is not producing more than it ever did under Trump.

Where you born with your brain in you azz ?

quote Originally posted by BingB: Biden has not gotten our troops involved in any foreign conflicts.

He has spent 100's of millions of US dollars in the war in Ukraine he helped facilitate.

quote Originally posted by BingB: Immigration is out of control. That was Biden's greatest failure. It has to be fixed, but ti is not the existential threat to our country that many make it out to be.

What kind of threat is it ?

quote Originally posted by BingB: I will never claim Biden was a great President, but he did not invade Iraq over fake WMD. He did not oversee the collapse of the housing market and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Do you just make this zhit up ? Senator Biden voted to authorize the use of military force against Iraq.

quote Originally posted by BingB:[QUOTE] He did not lie to the American people about the threat of Covid just to save the economy.

Name one.

Since you bring up lies, Kamala Harris has been holding rallies across the US as she campaigns against Donald Trump.
She has made a series of claims lying about their records on the economy, healthcare, abortion and immigration.

quote [b]Camala's Lies Trump is planning to cut Social Security and Medicare. Inflation is down under 3%. We have created 16 million new jobs. Trump froze in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground. We had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades but Donald Trump tanked the deal. In more than 20 states, there is a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions, even for rape and incest... be sure if he were to win, he would sign a national abortion ban.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Serious question, do you think Trump would have allowed... if not for ego alone, to let the Taliban run over him like they did Biden during the withdrawal? There is no way in hell that Trump would have allowed someone to do that. Call it narcissism, but Trump would have totally destroyed them. Trump even violated airspace by killing two Iranian commanders on foreign soil with which he had no business doing it (although I agree with those actions). He never would have allowed this exit like this. You know it, and everyone else knows this. This exit was done by "committee," for which Biden was only tenuously involved / even aware of what was going on... which is why it was such an epic failure. Biden certainly still takes the majority of the blame for it, but so does everyone who voted for him.

Trump had four years to "go scorched earth" on the Taliban and he didn't.

He negotiated a treaty that was broken by the other side WHILE HE WAS PRESIDENT yet he did nothing.

Your claims that "everyone knows" what Trump would have done are complete BS. just another example of you making up something in your head and claiming it is true.

quote Originally posted by cliffw: Lie all you wish. There was never a mob attempting too overturn a valid election.

quote Originally posted by BingB: Over 400 people convicted.

Not one for attempting too overturn a valid election. In fact, SCOTUS ruled that the "obstruction of justice" is not a Constitutionally accepted charge.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: I'm getting like Jim / Fred / Bing now... multiple posts. Sorry... but anyway, the weird pink chart has to do with people in general... not people who would have typically considered joining the military in the first place. So, it's exceptionally misleading (which of course, he knows), and it's intentional for that article he stole it from because they're trying to cover for the failure recently.

Is this serious?

I Oreder to find out why people would NOT CONSIDER joining the military we are only supposed to ask people who DID CONSIDER joining the military?

How are we supposed to define and find people who "would consider joining the military but did not consider joining the military. And what makes you think that 100% of these people were excluded?

There is absolutely NOTHING misleading about the poll results. The military has been having these same problems before Biden was President. None of his policies have effected recruiting. What his policies did do was open up the opportunity for qualified individuals that used to be barred from joining because of their sexual preferences.