Top Items:
Politico:
‘This is Actually Happening’ — President Joe Biden and his inner circle were in an ebullient mood. — It was Wednesday morning, Aug. 11, and they were basking in the glow of back-to-back legislative wins. The day before, the Senate had passed a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
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Vivian Salama / Wall Street Journal:
Confidential State Department Cable in July Warned of Afghanistan's Collapse — About two dozen State Department officials in Kabul sent an internal memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken — WASHINGTON — About two dozen State Department officials serving at the embassy in Kabul sent …
Discussion:
Politico, The Stream, Townhall, BizPac Review, Breitbart, The Lid, Washington Examiner, Summit News, The Hill, Power Line, Patterico's Pontifications, New York Post, The Last Refuge, Forbes, Becker News, Sputnik News, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, ABC News, TheBlaze, HotAir, RedState and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
The Best and Brightest never recovered from Vietnam. Will Biden's team fare better? — The Afghanistan disaster has rocked the Biden administration's foreign policy team, which may need months to regain its sense of balance and momentum. — Senior officials don't have time or emotional bandwidth …
New York Times:
Live Updates: Biden to Address Afghan Crisis as Desperation Builds at Kabul Airport — President Biden will speak on Friday amid intense criticism of the evacuation effort. A 17-year-old boy was identified as one of the Afghans who fell from a U.S. military plane as it lifted off.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Post and CBS News
German Election / DW.COM:
Relative of DW journalist killed by the Taliban — Journalists and their families are in grave danger in Afghanistan. The Taliban have no compunction about carrying out targeted killings as the case of a DW journalist shows. — Taliban fighters hunting a DW journalist have shot dead …
Discussion:
CNN, Insider, UPI, Forbes, Politico, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Sputnik News, Financial Times, Breitbart, Bloomberg, The Hill, Committee to Protect …, VICE and Radio Free Europe/Radio …, more at Mediagazer »
Patrick Reilly / New York Post:
Oklahoma mom of 11 rescues members of Afghan all-girls robotics team — An Oklahoma mother of 11 flew to Afghanistan earlier this month to rescue 10 members of the country's all-girls robotics team, and hoping to save more as the Taliban takes power in Kabul.
Discussion:
NBC News, The Hill and The Intellectualist
Michael Crowley / New York Times:
Trump's Deal With the Taliban Draws Fire From His Former Allies — The former president and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, are attacking President Biden over Afghanistan even as their own policy faces harsh criticism. — WASHINGTON — Days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Metro.co.uk, Washington Examiner, coldfury.com, New York Post, National Review, Politico and CNN
Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times:
Encounter with the Taliban: Punched, detained — then offered an energy drink — FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT AND PHOTOGRAPHER — When I headed out to work, it had been five days since the Taliban took over Kabul. And it was Independence Day, a national holiday, when Afghans celebrate their country's independence from Britain in 1919.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast
New York Times:
How News Organizations Got Afghan Colleagues Out of Kabul — The evacuation of those who worked for outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post came after a global rescue effort stretching from the Pentagon to Qatar. — For hours, they waited on the tarmac in the relentless heat …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and The Intercept, more at Mediagazer »
BBC:
Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to door manhunt, report says — The Taliban have stepped up their search for people who worked for Nato forces or the previous Afghan government, a UN document has warned. — It said the militants have been going door-to-door to find targets and threatening their family members.
Discussion:
HotAir, Breitbart, New York Post, Reuters, New York Times, Agence France-Presse and Politico
Peter Nicholas / The Atlantic:
What Joe Biden Is Betting On
Discussion:
Sputnik News, Mediaite and Washington Post
Ed Morrissey / HotAir:
CNN's Ward: Getting inside the Kabul airport “one of the more harrowing things I have experienced”
Discussion:
Euractiv and New York Post
emptywheel:
Journalists Getting Suckered by Ass-Covering Sources on Afghanistan
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, Breitbart, Digby's Hullabaloo and New York Post
Wall Street Journal:
The Right and Our Afghan Allies
Discussion:
Raw Story, Washington Post, HotAir and Daily Kos
W. James Antle III / Washington Examiner:
Afghanistan isn't helping Biden build back better
Discussion:
Politico, Wall Street Journal, CNN and Slate
Matthew Rosenberg / New York Times:
Hunted by the Taliban, US-Allied Afghan Forces Are in Hiding
Discussion:
The American Conservative, HotAir, Breitbart, Washington Examiner, The US Sun, The Daily Caller and The Hill
Amnesty International USA:
Taliban responsible for brutal massacre of Hazara men - new investigation
Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:
CIA Won't Back an Afghan Resistance Anytime Soon, If Ever
Discussion:
Sputnik News, TFIPOST and The National Interest
Sean Davis / The American Mind:
Moral Blackmail — Tell them: we do not negotiate with ostracists.
Discussion:
Reuters, CNN, New York Post and Reuters
James Jay Carafano / New York Post:
Call Afghanistan what it is: The worst hostage crisis in American history
Discussion:
Louder With Crowder, Breitbart and Daily Mail
Washington Post:
Chaos persists at Kabul airport, imperiling Afghanistan evacuation effort
Discussion:
CNN, Just Security, Task & Purpose and Snopes.com
Kash Patel / New York Post:
I ran Team Trump's Afghan withdrawal — Biden's attempt to blame us is just sad
Discussion:
HuffPost, CNN, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Daily Beast, The National Interest, The Daily Signal and Just The News
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Quiet Rage of the Responsible — Let's talk for a minute about Lollapalooza. After canceling in-person events last year, a few weeks ago Chicago once again hosted the long-running music festival, drawing more than 385,000 people. Many feared that the huge, raucous crowds could produce a coronavirus superspreader event.
Discussion:
Off the Kuff
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CNN:
I live in Texas and I am really angry — Gov. Abbott tests positive for Covid-19 after months of blocking mask mandates — Stephen I. Vladeck is the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Court at the University of Texas School of Law, a CNN contributor and an expert on the role of the federal courts in the war on terrorism.
Discussion:
The Texas Tribune, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and WGN-TV
Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Govs. DeSantis and Abbott, in denial and risking lives, have betrayed the public trust
Nick Visser / HuffPost:
Texas Stops Enforcing Ban On Mask Mandates In Schools Amid Lawsuits
Discussion:
Bloomberg, CBS News, HotAir, Daily Kos, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, Insider, New York Times and Political Wire
Reuters:
EXCLUSIVE FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated-sources — The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.
Discussion:
Townhall and Summit News
Anne Applebaum / The Atlantic:
Liberal Democracy Is Worth a Fight — Of all the empty, pointless statements that are periodically repeated by Western politicians, none is more empty and pointless than this one: “There can be no military solution to this conflict.” That was what Ban Ki-moon, then the UN secretary-general …
Carla Marinucci / Politico:
Elder's ex-fiancee said he brandished a gun at her — PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Alexandra Datig, the former fiancee and longtime radio producer for California GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder, says she broke off an 18-month engagement with the conservative talk show host in 2015 …
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Dave Lieber / Dallas Morning News:
If North Texas runs out of ICU hospital beds, doctors can consider a patient's vaccination status — This would be a big change in health care, but doctors have yet to announce it. So The Watchdog does it for them. — North Texas doctors have quietly developed a plan that seeks to prepare …
Discussion:
Forbes, New York Times, HotAir, Patterico's Pontifications, Ace of Spades HQ and Raw Story
Bob Christie / Associated Press:
Appeals court orders Arizona Senate audit records released — PHOENIX (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by the Arizona Senate to keep secret records of its ongoing review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County that are in the possession of the contractors conducting the recount.
Discussion:
HuffPost, Arizona Republic, Raw Story, Politico, Arizona Mirror, American Oversight and The Hill
Daily Mail:
Fox News' Greg Gutfeld is crowned new king of late night television after he scores 220K MORE viewers than Colbert's Late Show on CBS — Comedian Greg Gutfeld's show pulled in the most viewers during Tuesday's late night time slot with about 2.12 million — Gutfeld! debuted in April …
Discussion:
OutKick, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, The Wrap and RedState
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