Trump and Pompeo do what Democrats like Kerry, Obama, and...well, about any Democrat would fear to do with the Taliban

Several days before Trump canceled the Taliban meeting:  

 Why Is Trump Surrendering To The Taliban?  . . . "The administration has enlisted the diplomatic prowess of an admittedly impressive personage in Afghan-American former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (and, before that, to Afghanistan and to Iraq) Zalmay Khalizad, who held numerous foreign policy posts under Reagan and both Bushes.

"But has there ever been a more impressive diplomat than Henry Kissinger? Yet the deal he negotiated with North Vietnam in 1973, for which he shared the Nobel Peace Prize, was followed two years later by the Communist North’s conquest of South Vietnam. As the disaster materialized, South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu justifiably declared: “The United States did not keep its word … The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom.”

"The Vietnam Syndrome must stop. There is simply no way to negotiate successfully with an anti-democratic aggressor without military force hanging close over that aggressor’s head. And yet Trump has already announced that U.S. troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has been making territorial gains for years, will soon be reduced by more than a third, from 14,000 to 8,600. A deal would reportedly mean the withdrawal of most U.S. forces by November 2020." . . .

A deal at any price is good for Obama-Kerry but not for Trump.


Trump Cancels Secret Meeting at Camp David With Taliban After Attack

. . . "The attack on Thursday, so close to the U.S. embassy, was a clear message from the Taliban: after nearly two decades of fighting, the Americans are impotent and can't defeat us.

"Pompeo said that the talks will resume -- eventually." . . .

For the US to withdraw while the Taliban attacks tells their world that we are being driven out by them.

Trump drops Saturday bombshell: calling-off planned secret Camp David negotiations with Taliban and Afghan president  . . . "In my opinion, it was always fruitless to negotiate with the Taliban. They would violate any agreement whenever they saw advantage in doing so. Their goal is to drive out the Americans the same way they drove out the Soviets, and before them, the British and the Persians. Their time horizon is unlimited, while ours is tied to the four-year presidential election cycle. Any agreement with the Taliban would be worthless.

"My guess is that President Trump knows this. And as his critics now point out, he criticized President Obama in 2012 for negotiating with the Taliban … after “slashing the military." . . .

Liberal Author: ‘Normal’ People Must Stop Wearing Any Kind of Red Hat Because Red Hats Are Scary

Katherine Timpf

Rebecca Makkai, a former finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, apparently believes red hats make ‘disenfranchised people feel unsafe.’

"A prominent liberal author has compared the red “Make America Great Again” hats to Nazi swastikas, and told “normal people” — that is, people who don’t support Trump — to stop wearing any kind of red hat, lest they start “making people scared.”

"Rebecca Makkai, who has been a finalist for both a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, made the controversial comments on Twitter, according to Fox News.

"To be clear, Makkai really was talking about all red hats. In fact, she even specifically asked fans of sports teams that wear red hats — such as the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals — to not wear those hats out in public to avoid making other people afraid.

“Not worth making disenfranchised people feel unsafe,” she wrote.

Makkai also had a problem with MAGA parody hats:

“Also, for the love of God: The clever folks wearing “Make America Read Again” or whatever caps — NO,” she said. “You’re making everyone scared. Don’t do it.”

"Honestly, there are so many things wrong with this that I hardly even know where to start." . . .

Tony Branco

'Modern day Pharisee': Pete Buttigieg gets some comeuppance

". . . And pity for him, he's now getting chased in the press by a small-town preacher in Michigan who knows all too much about his game, while the pope position's already filled."

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Monica Showalter  "Pious Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has a brother-in-law who seems to have had it up to here with his wearing his religion on his sleeve and scolding others. 

"According to an exclusive interview in the Washington Examiner, which found the man out in the wilds of a small town in probably rural Michigan:

"What we see is a modern-day Pharisee," said [Pastro Rhyan] Glezman, referencing the 1st-century Jewish sect that was notorious for demanding its followers adhere to an exhaustive list of trivial laws to earn God's favor. "Buttigieg is a person who's making up their own rules and regulations and, basically, if we don't celebrate and endorse their interpretation of Scripture, our religion is fallible. And that's just not true."

"He expressed considerable frustration with Buttigieg's holier-than-thou stance on abortion, claiming that Christians should only consider a baby human after it draws its first breath, justified by what he claimed to be Bible references. Mighty convenient, of course, as a means of contradicting most Christian teachings since abortion became legal." . . .

Progressive 'Christian' Pete Buttigieg Doesn't Seem to Understand His Own 'Faith'

"During an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, after Joe Scarborough talked about how President Obama claims to have accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior, the host turned it into a question and asked Buttigieg if he identified with that. Buttigieg responded with an answer that has "dodge" written all over it, saying:

Yes, but maybe that means different things to different people. Because a lot of people feel like they had a Road to Damascus personal encounter with God. For me, just personally, I actually came to the faith more through an appreciation of mystery and a personal humility about the limits to which this part of me [his brain] could get, than believing I had found the answer. I struggle with a lot of doubt and a lot of ambiguity, but that is there in scripture just as that is there in life.

"Anyone who has read the Bible, especially the four Gospels, knows that nothing in Buttigieg's answer is, in fact, an answer to the question. Yes, there is some ambiguity in the Bible, but not about salvation." . . .

The Democrats take a pause from persecuting Christians to try to co-opt them.  . . . "Buttigieg worries about factory pollution and feeding the poor, but he apparently is unable to do the elementary mental work of connecting the two: Rather than starving to death or dying of exposure, the poor in the developed world enjoy a relatively comfortable and secure standard of material life because of those factories and the pollution they produce. " . . .

Beto Undermines Democracy: Falsely Claims Stacey Abrams Was Robbed in GA Governor’s Race

Legal Insurrection

While Beto is not the only Democratic candidate who has kissed the Abrams ring, he has perhaps embraced the stolen election myth more than the rest.

"When failed Senate candidate Robert “Beto” O’Rourke first jumped into the Democratic presidential race back in mid-March, the sky was the limit.

"His fundraising haul in the first 24 hours was massive, major Obama fundraisers and former aides were lining up behind him, and he was receiving glowing press coverage.

"But a funny thing happened not long after he announced. Interest from the press and liberal political analysts shifted to shiny new candidate and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, and the four female candidates. Speculation about whether or not Joe Biden would enter the presidential race was at a fever pitch.

"As all of this was happening, enthusiasm from Democratic voters for O’Rourke was also waning. After polling at 12% just a few days after he declared his candidacy, his numbers dropped to the single digits, and they haven’t recovered.

"Beto’s response to losing the spotlight to minority candidates like Buttigieg and the ladies is to do what comes naturally to Democratic hopefuls in the primary season: Shamelessly pander to Democratic minority voters.

"There are three main ways he’s tried to do this. One is to accuse President Trump of being a borderline Nazi who is “responsible” for the deaths of illegal immigrants at the border and the horrific mass shooting that took place in O’Rourke’s hometown of El Paso, TX.

"The second is to embrace an anti-America platform by way of asserting that our country was “founded on white supremacy.”

"The third way is one he invokes often: the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election was stolen from Democrat Stacey Abrams." . . .

O’Rourke: El Paso Shooting Came ‘At the Invitation of Our President’

BREAKING: What Is The Point of CNN?

Free Beacon

"CNN is a mid-tier cable news network that provides non-stop breaking news to bored airport travelers and internet journalists. The network has breathlessly covered President Donald Trump's every fart and utterance since 2015 and has contributed to the "national dialogue" through countless interviews with serious public intellectuals. Michael Avenatti, for example.

"One of CNN's most recent hires, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, was found to have lied to federal investigators under oath prior to his firing in March 2018. In addition to his role as CNN contributor, McCabe has a new side hustle: Keynote speaker at Democratic Party fundraisers.

"And speaking of the network's keen eye for talent, CNN invited celebrity white nationalist Richard Spencer on in June to discuss Donald Trump's "racist tweets." Brian Stelter, who hosts a show called Reliable Sources, recently nodded along as his guest, former Duke University chair of psychiatry Allen Francis, argued that Trump "may be responsible for many more million deaths" than genocidal dictators Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong.

"It wasn't the first time Trump has been compared to Hitler on the network. CNN host Don Lemon did it in July, which could explain why the New York Times has reportedly banned reporters from appearing on Lemon's show. In addition to interviewing Michael Avenatti dozens of times on his show, Lemon hosted the disgraced lawyer at a party in the Hamptons." . . .

The troubled face of the host MUST be in view constantly

How mainstream reporters disgraced themselves during Hurricane Dorian

. . . I was wrong that Dorian did little damage to the U.S.  The media somehow managed to lower its already debased reputation during the storm, much like Wilde's titular character.  Too bad there's no insurance company or federal agency to clean up the press's self-destructive behavior.  . . . TL

Taylor Lewis  . . . "Every time someone posts a video of a natural disaster wreaking havoc around him, reporters hound his replies, requesting permission to use the footage.

The common exchange goes something like this:

" 'Wow, take a look at this tornado tearing the roofs off of trailer homes in Kansas City. This happened 30 seconds ago in front of me."

"Reply: "Hi, I'm from the Washington Post.  May I use this footage in my report?  Thank you!"

"Second reply: "Oh, and please stay safe!  Did you see my original comment?  I'd like to file the report ASAP.  You own the video, right?"

"So it goes, with numerous reporters from a sundry of publications all asking for the same video to take advantage of the algorithm-driven news cycle.  We're to expect real human feeling out of these sensationalism-chasers?

"One more instance of media malpractice to emphasize my point.  Vox reporter Aaron Rupar thought he had sniffed out not so subtle racism displayed by President Trump regarding the then approaching storm.  As Dorian approached, Trump pointed out that Puerto Rico received $92 billion in aid after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island two years ago.  He then issued a warning to Floridians, urging them to heed "State and Federal instructions."  All-around innocuous, no?

"Not so, apparently.  "[W]hen the hurricane is headed toward brown people vs. when it's headed toward white people," Rupar snarked, thinking he had made a clever and incisive point about the two tweets.  The implication is that Trump warned white people of the hurricane and dickered about the cost of cleaning up the last one in a territory inhabited by non-whites.  In Rupar's reductive formulation, Florida might as well look like Denmark demographically, while Puerto Rico is the Inca Empire." . . .

Thomas Lifson: Media bias called out -- and not by a conservative  "We welcome to the club of media skeptics a former MSNBC host and Dem congressional nominee.  Conservatives can take a small degree of satisfaction that not all Democrats are oblivious to the toxic level of media bias. An article in The Hill by a progressive commentator named Krystal Ball, who ran for Congress unsuccessfully as the Democrat-endorsed candidate in 2010, and who has been a media figure for many years, including as an MSNBC host, calls out some striking examples of misreporting… the sort of thing that President Trump would call “fake news,” though Ball scrupulously avoids using that term." . . .

Ball correctly diagnoses the reason that the media obey the Democrats’ power elite. It is not a conspiracy, per se, but rather a system of incentives that operate on prominent journalists: