wv wrote:

Zooey wrote:

I know I’m a bad person, but I have no sympathy for anyone who gets this now if they are not vaccinated.

And for anyone who gets it and has led cheerleading against masks and/or vax…seriously…fuck them.

I’m sorry. I know I should be bigger than that, but I’m not.

========

Same.

w
v

I might be recovering.

I saw two different stories this morning about dead anti-vaxxers, and my emotional response was leaning towards pity, rather than righteous indignation. Maybe there is hope for me after all.

The BBC is now reporting that many of the Afghans killed in Kabul on August 26 were not killed by the suicide bombing, but actually shot dead by American soldiers in the chaos right after the explosion.

— Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) August 28, 2021

3 weeks into the school year, and 2% of our student body is out with Covid. And it’s August.

November promises to be exciting.

This article begs some questions, but I can’t really be bothered to research answers. In the end, the story is always the same: capitalism does its thing.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/25/us-endgame-afghanistan-was-mineral-extraction-not-democracy

The US Endgame in Afghanistan Was Mineral Extraction, Not Democracy
The American departure from Afghanistan was inevitable. We shouldn’t ask what went wrong? We need to ask: what could possibly have gone right?

NADIA AHMAD

August 25, 2021
Since the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan, there has been no shortage of solidarity statements to mourn the demise of democracy and support the rule of law in Afghanistan. I appreciate the sentiment, but I am also concerned about the loss of lives and the violations of international law that occurred during the decades of U.S. military occupation in Afghanistan and the failure of the international community to protect the sovereignty of countries.

As a gentle history lesson, the U.S. military invasion of Afghanistan was based on a series of lies perpetuated by President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and their numerous neocon chums. The U.S. was not in Afghanistan to establish democracy and respect for the rule of law and human rights. It was there to weed out the terrorists it had created decades earlier to fight the Soviet Union; the U.S. wanted to clear the field in order to secure one trillion dollars of mineral concessions for iron, copper, gold and lithium for which China and India had obtained the rights for during the U.S. occupation. In short, a decade ago, Afghanistan invited foreign investment and public bids from China, India and other countries, purposely excluding U.S. companies.

A minimal level of intellectual honesty about the historical facts and transnational business interests would help matters.

The U.S. military and its contractors served as security presence to protect assets and mineral rights already claimed to other foreign countries. In the past decade, American military forces were little more than security guards for foreign mining companies, including the Metallurgical Corporation of China, Jiangxi Copper Corporation, and the China National Petroleum Corporation.

I am disheartened that my government threatens to use sanctions as a weapon of mass starvation. If the American legal institutions are truly concerned about the lives and livelihood of millions in Afghanistan, they would urge the United States to open its borders and accept Afghan people instead of dumping them in other countries or letting them fall from the sky. My government would not scramble to freeze foreign aid to a country facing famine.

The previous Afghan government teetered on with some foreign aid. The backlash we now see is a narco-state that is fueled by a black market of opium, guns, and military equipment. Earlier this summer, Taliban fighters beat a woman to death with AK-47s because she wasn’t able to cook for them. While the Taliban is beating women with guns for not feeding them, the U.S. Department of State is freezing $9.5 billion of Afghan money in U.S controlled banks—seeking to starve millions of civilians in its self-professed effort to protect the rights of minorities and women. Yet the Taliban cannot even bend under that pressure, because it relies on physical U.S. dollars and its own trust-based system, known as hawala. The Taliban can function through its black market money systems, but the people of Afghanistan will suffer without foreign aid. If we were so concerned about the Afghan people, we would not have occupied them and sought to impose “our” version of democracy on “them” during the Cold War.

Instead we should reflect on how we arrived at this moment.

This month marks a sharp contrast to 20 years ago when planes were hijacked and commandeered into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Last week, we saw Afghanis clinging to U.S. military planes for a chance at a new life on these shores. Watching people fall to their deaths from U.S. military plane evacuations was similar to seeing people jumping to their deaths in the WTC as it was crumbling. The U.S. departure from Afghanistan was inevitable. We shouldn’t ask what went wrong? We need to ask: what could possibly have gone right? We followed faulty and deceptive advice on the invasion and sheepishly walked away.

All told, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, between 480,000 and 507,000 people have been killed in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan waged by the U.S. military. This tally of the counts and estimates of direct deaths caused by war violence does not include the more than 500,000 deaths from the war in Syria—raging since 2011—which the U.S. joined in August 2014. According to a 2020 study also conducted under the auspices of the Watson Institute, the several wars initiated or participated in by the United States in its war against terror have caused the displacement, conservatively calculated of 37 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines. Of these, an estimated 25 million people have returned home following displacement.

Today’s statements denouncing the collapse of democracy and the rule of law are essentially the same statements that could have been written 20 years ago when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. I am sick and tired of the colonial gaze of First World nations on Third World minerals, of my government’s imperialist ambitions that rob human life and of the television news anchors who invite backers of the U.S. invasion to blast Biden for withdrawing our troops.

I want to see humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. I want us to welcome Afghan refugees instead of letting them fall from the sky.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

NADIA AHMAD

Nadia Ahmad is a law professor at Barry University School of Law and the author of the article, Climate Cages: Connecting Migration, the Carceral State, Extinction Rebellion, and the Coronavirus through Cicero and 21 Savage.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/sony-michel-trade-rams-gm-reveals-plan-for-former-first-round-pick-and-what-inspired-l-a-to-acquire-him/

Sony Michel trade: Rams GM reveals plan for former first-round pick, and what inspired L.A to acquire him
The Rams have a strategy for Michel after acquiring him from the Patriots

By Jeff Kerr
USA TODAY Sports
Sony Michel is a much-needed addition to the Los Angeles Rams backfield, especially once the team lost Cam Akers for the year with a torn ACL. Rams general manager Les Snead clearly explored all options in the aftermath of Akers’ injury, trading 2022 fifth and sixth-round picks for the former fist-round running back. The picks L.A. traded potentially become a fourth rounder, if the Rams get a compensatory fourth-round pick next offseason.

The Rams gave the New England Patriots a potential high Day 3 pick for a reason. Michel will play, but he’s not expected to be the featured back in Los Angeles.

“That’s going to be a complementary backfield,” Rams general manager Les Snead said to reporters Wednesday. “What he does bring is this element of make a cut, get north and south and get north and south with some force. The physics that he brings to the table – let’s call it a flavor of genre that we felt like complemented our group.”

The Rams still have Darrell Henderson in their backfield, but not much else behind him. Jake Funk, Xavier Jones, and Raymond Calais were given a look during the preseason, even though it was clear the Rams needed an upgrade to spell Henderson.

Michel and Henderson compliment each other, similar to how Henderson did the same with Akers last season. Akers eventually took over the lead role, but Rams head coach Sean McVay prefers to have two backs in his offense — hence the reason Michel will be vital for Los Angeles going forward.

“We identified Sony for many reasons,” Snead said. “Number one, being his experience – and experience, meaning like a player who has carried the ball in big games and in those big games, where there have been big moments, big drives, big series – is the experience of where he played, how he was coached. So, he was one of those players. If we were going to go the route of experience, he was someone who would definitely eying him from the start.”

The Rams are still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together with their running backs, especially how Henderson and Michel will complement each other. Jones and Funk still will have roles in the backfield, but not as prominent as they were heading into Wednesday.

“I think we’ve definitely seen enough to go, ‘Okay, in this take with Jake and Xavier that this is how they can contribute. Let’s call it on Sunday night for the Rams. And this is how they might be able to contribute four or five weeks later,'” Snead said “So, we’ve definitely identified that. And again, now it comes in phases and stages.

“This may be a Sunday night against the Bears role. This might be more of a future role. And then all of a sudden, some unforeseen adversity occurs, or attrition and the role just changed and it’s a more important role.”

zn wrote:

Obo Okoronkwo has a stinger per McVay

I think this guy is nearing the end.

Once upon a time, conservatives were comfortable with masking…

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/south-carolina-county-republican-party-leader-dies-covid-19-n1277355

Aug. 20, 2021, 6:13 PM PDT
By The Associated Press
GREENVILLE, S.C. — A tea party Republican who recently helped turn over the party leadership in South Carolina’s largest county has died from complications of Covid-19.

Pressley Stutts died Thursday, according to other party leaders and his family. The U.S. Navy veteran was 64.

Over the summer, Stutts led a group loyal to former President Donald Trump to force the resignation of several Greenville County Republican Party leaders after a failed bid to defeat state party chairman Drew McKissick.

Stutts said he was following Trump’s wishes to kick anyone who didn’t fully support the former president out of the Republican party.

Stutts had been hospitalized with Covid-19 since late July, frequently updating his health on Facebook.

Etc.

Billy_T wrote:

If we’re on our way out, I want to go with non-fascist tunes playing in the wind.

Yeah, I think it’s the only answer. Bash on, regardless.