10.31.21: Today's "Meet The Press" Missed The Mark

First and foremost, we have a bone spur to address with "Meet The Press" today. The program was too much, and perhaps becoming, inside the beltway talk. President Joe Biden is in Rome for the G20 Summit and it wasn't even brought up at all let alone as a topic of discussion. The fact that the G20 came to an agreement of a 15 percent minimum corporate tax means that companies won't be able to hide their money in tax shelter countries, which will give a big boost to American tax revenue, helping to pay for the reconcilliation package. Or simply that our president is on the world stage and it didn't seem to matter.

Instead, in discussing the reconcilliation package with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D), Mr. Todd kept coming back to the question of what is not in the bill, instead of maybe asking about the 'pay-for's' on what's in the package. Dare we say that there was a bit of harping on it on the part of Mr. Todd. We get it, but make the point ask the tough question and then move on. 

That tough question, which really didn't come through should have been on prescription drugs. Talk about an industry that has the United States and the world frankly, with Covid, by the collective cajones. 

The free Covid-19 vaccine most of us are getting isn't free; the government paid the pharmaceutical companies for the doses, of course. And 20 years after the prescription drug 'donut hole' the American people still can not negotiate on the price of drugs and continue to pay the premium. 

The impatience of the American people never ceases to amaze, everything to be done yesterday in a country of over 330 million people, and that's why you see the president's poll numbers dragging right now, but as Secretary Granholm made the point, they can rebound when the Democrats pass these two massive bills. Next summer when Americans start seeing construction on roads and bridges and then send their 5 year olds to universal Pre-K, things may turn around. 

The other thing that the secretary mentioned, plugging her boss, is that the president is working for the middle class, and let's face it there is a big corporate machine that works against the little guy. See above for our prescription drug example, and the Sacklers are still billionaires. It takes time and it takes wading through an avalache of opposition rhetoric backed by a lot of cash.

Case in point, the panel's discussion of mayoral races and police funding. Interestingly, maybe because it isn't a tough contest, no one on the panel cited the New York City mayoral race where candidate Eric Adams (D) who was a former police officer is sloganing that a safe city is a prosperous city and that better policing, not less, is answer. That's the model that Democratic mayoral candidates should think about. 

And when it comes to the Virginia gubenatorial race, from afar it has seemed like Mr. McAuliffe's to win or lose all along. He was already sucessful in the position and should have been able to capitalize greatly on that progress. However, the mire that Republicans sift around in politically these days, culture wars all day, everyday, then requiring a response brings everyone down sapping the energy from voters' enthusiam.

But make no mistake, it would be a catastrophic lose for the Democrats and a signal that Americans short attention spans are fully functioning. 

Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC News; Anna Palmer, Punchbowl News; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist; Brad Todd, Republican Strategist

10.24.21: Should Mitch McConnell Be Physically Punished?

Back from a two-week hiatus, we have to say that not much has changed given today's "Meet The Press" with an independent, Senator Angus King (M), trying to thread a legislative needle, Democrats being hammered during their very public and messy legislative sausage making, and Republicans saying 'no' to anything and everything.

One thing is for sure, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) who is not running for reelection doesn't give a shit about anything with the exception of the small bit of power he can still wield in the Senate, which is not the 'world's most deliberative body' because you can not call it that when their is zero deliberation, and that was Senator King's point when discussing the filibuster. Mr. Blunt for his part had not one constructive answer to any of Ms. Mitchell's questions.

In the Senate as it is, having the majority means nothing except when it comes to appointing judges, which is now the chamber's basic function as legislating takes a back seat. Senator King said that there should be filibuster reform but to achieve it, you have to 'thread the needle' of retaining minority rights while also not effectively giving them a veto on everything the majority wants. 

The filibuster as it stands now exacerbates the disproportionate representation in the Senate. Because every state has two senators the country a disproportionate amount of senators represent fewer people. E.g. Two senators for California's 40 million people and two senators for South Dakota's 860,000 people. Given that, there needs to be reform because as it stands whether the Republicans are the majority in the senate or the minority, they have control. 

Because Democrats always like to bite off more than they can chew, we'd suggest a first step. One this one rules change to the filibuster and that would be to make it standing, meaning that if a Senator wants to filibuster a bill he or she must stand up and hold the floor with pertinent rhetoric on why they oppose it.

Democrats should make that one change and then stick it to Republicans by bringing a slew of bills to the floor so that they have to physically make octogenarians like Mitchell McConnell and Chuck Grassley stand at the podium for 8 to 12 hours and then have a vote. 

Why make legislating physically punishing?  Let's throw that back the other way and ask haven't the American people been physically punished enough with unaffordable housing and healthcare, crappy employment and covid? Is it a little cynical to physically punish Mitch McConnell? Yes, but it's justified.

Stand up and make a case or shut the hell up, right? Since when is the United States an apartheid state where it's minority rule?

Specifically, voting rights for all Americans are being curtailed by conservative state legislatures and what used to be a bipartisan no-brainer of reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act is no more since The Supreme Court's 2013 decision to eliminate the pre-clearance provision in which states wanting to change election laws had to have approval from the Justice Dept. States like Texas and Arizona are running wild in changing their laws to suppress and potentially nullify votes. No Republicans voted to reauthorize the Act. 

Again, Roy Blunt not helpful with his disingenuous answer that a voting rights bill would be a national take over of voting, empty rhetoric. Look at it this way, states set their own minimum wage, but there is a baseline national minimum wage, which is $7.25 by the way. What the voting rights bill establishes is some basic minimums like making presidential election day a national holiday. 

But here's the rub, the bill also institutes a reauthorization of the pre-clearance provision. The Republican minority is saying 'no' to that, and what the minority in the Senate wants, it gets.

 

Panel: Ayesha Rascoe, NPR, Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Eugene Daniels, Politco; Brendan Buck, Republican Strategist

 

10.3.21: Doesn't Matter How the Watch Works, It Just Has To Keep The Time

There's a point in the film Sicario where Emily Blunt's character asks the sicario, Benecio del Toro, if there is anything she should know about the drug trade, and he responds: You're asking me how a watch works, for now let's just keep our eye on the time.

Deciphering the negotiations going on between the Democrats in Congress is just like asking someone how a watch works and for the owners of that watch, the American public, we're not concerned about the repair process just whether it works once you're done.

In other words, one shouldn't fret about the intermediate steps that without overbearing media coverage would be part of the larger work of what is called legislating...

Make no mistake, however, that time is a factor, as the panel outlined in a number of ways. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson outlined it most concisely explaining that the Democrats may not have control of congress after the midterms, for which campaigning will start next year and perhaps a four-year presidential term so the window is now for the Democrats. USA Today's Susan Page called it the 'last train leaving the station,' as to say that it's unknown when the Democrats will have another opportunity like this to pass transformational legislation. 

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called the Democrats' budget bill the most significant piece of legislation in our life times, while Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman explained that the legislation is the culmination of everything Nancy Pelosi has been fighting for for thirty years. All this means that it will take time to get Democrats unified on their priorities and what the cost will be. At the moment, the media is asking every legislator what their number is on this budget bill, but it isn't asked as to gain insight, just to get something on the record because we'll only know what the number is when they arrive at it.

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan said that she didn't understand why the Democrats wouldn't give the president a legislative win by bringing the infrastructure bill to a vote and getting it passed then go to the budget. It's sound logic of moderation, but as outlined above most Democrats are looking at both as the only opportunity to forward their agenda. And the president himself is on record as saying that the two bills are linked. 

What is inexcusable and hopefully not the case is that the progressives in the Democratic party are willing to scuttle both bills if they don't get what they want in the budget bill. That's like taking the watch in for repair, paying in advance, and getting it back still broken. 

Panel: Susan Page, USA Today; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Jake Sherman, Punchbowl News; Jeh Johnson, fmr. Homeland Security Secretary.

9.26.21: A Sick Patient and The Poison Drip

The Democratic party is like a sick patient that doesn't realize that the remedies for what ails it are right there in front of its face, while it inexplicably continues to accept the poison drip from the Republicans.

The demand from the progressive side of the Democratic caucus that the reconcilliation bill, which The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter rightly explained doesn't have a name nor identity, must pass first before the infrastructure bill is only causing delays filled with uncertainty of whom stands where jeopardizing the passage of both.

Even without progressive and moderate Democrats at an impasse, the Biden Administration's agenda was always going to be at risk, but as the Democrats are wont to do, they make it harder on themselves. And then there is Dr. Strangebrew, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) administering the debt ceiling poison pill to threaten the faith and credit of the United States to pay its bills. Chuck Todd asked Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) if the failure of crafting bipartisan police reform legislation and Senator Tim Scott's (R-SC) rhetoric about Democrats being unwilling to changing their stance of 'defunding the police,' which Senator Booker refuted, explaining that there is no call for that in the bill, came from someone higher up in the party, like McConnell. Senator Booker to his credit didn't engage in any partisan accusations and declined to speculate, but please...

Senator Republicans move, follow and speak at the discretion of the Senate Minority Leader. And the longer the Democratic party sits illin', with inaction, the mad doctor McConnell will find an excuse and a way to kill infrastructure as well.

Ms. Walter also mentioned that Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is a firm no vote on the $3.5 trillion reconcilliation bill, but has yet to come forward with a number that is acceptable to him. With all due respect to Mr. Manchin, as a senator you created a problem and didn't come to the table with a solution, which doesn't get anyone anywhere. You're either part of the solution, part of the problem, or part of the landscape. Credit to Ms. Walter once more for quoting Mike Tyson to sum it up: Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face, and the Biden Administration keeps taking the jabs right in the eye.

The strychnine for democracy that is the former president keeps doing his part to coerce Republican state legislatures to do sham recounts to continue his poisoning of our democratic system by eroding faith in the process. (Why do we get that sinking feeling that when this all comes to a head, it's going to be truly 'fugly.' And though we appreciate Meghan McCaine reiterating that she thinks the former president is a Godzilla under the water, she is too dismissive and appeasingly nonchalant about the threat he poses. We guess she didn't catch the interview right before she came on with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, who as Chuck Todd put it, reported on a failed coup attempt.

Sometimes the mess becomes much worse before you can get it all cleaned up, which is where the Biden Administration is right now, and the Democrats in Congress need to get their act together and lend a hand, heal themselves and heal a nation. Question is: Who's got the antidote? 

Come to think of it... Even if they had the antidote, half the people wouldn't accept it anyway. 

Panel: Meghan McCaine, The Daily Mail; Eddie Glaude, Jr., Princeton University; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Leigh Ann Caldwell, NBC News

9.19.21: The Summer of Delta Ahead of Our Winter of Discontent

Is it just us or is it that when you actually listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci explain things, it's really not that complicated. The Biden Administration has put a plan in place to roll out booster shots according to FDA guidelines, which informs the CDC. Right now, the FDA is reccommending booster shots for people over 65 years old and individuals who work in high risk occupations, like ICU personnel or with unlying health conditions. 

In the meantime, Dr. Fauci explained that the the first priority is to get as many of the 70 million Americans who are unvaccinated vaccinated. Being optimistic, Dr. Fauci explained that if we can get a great number of those people vaccinated, we may not have a bad winter.

But knowing what we know and having seen what we've all seen, many of those people will not move from the status in which they are now. If we maintain the status quo on the vaccination rate across the country, this is going to continue as the shadow of foreboding in the winter of our discontent.

We sincerely hope that it doesn't come to pass and the winter is indeed mild in terms of Covid-19, however suffice to say that confidence hasn't been inspired. 

Not only that, but as Anna Palmer explained, when Congress comes into session, there will be investigations on Afghanistan which isn't going away. Then there is the infrasture bill yet to pass and the albatross of the $3.5 trillion reconcilliation budget bill. Of the latter, it's vital to note the stupid and stupid: First, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) playing games with the debt ceiling is an abdication of responsibility and a feckless, dirt level move, of which he is widely known for. But most Americans aren't ever paying attention to the debt ceiling and it only ever becomes an issue when there is a Democrat in the White House. 

And Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has got the debt ceiling debate wrong, but admittedly, he leaves the debate in a state of twisted metal and glass. The debt ceiling accommodates money already spent, not what is coming down the line. Not to mention that Republicans during the previous administration suspended the debt ceiling vote so that a tax cut could be done on reconcilliation. Yeah, pretty harsh on the Republican Senator we happen to like. 

The other stupid is the Democrats including immigration into the budget bill, and this should be obvious, right? First, it just made the mountain that much steeper to climb to get it passed. But what really bothers is that it's tucked into a budget bill instead of being stand-alone legislation. Totally sends the wrong message. If Democrats want to appear bold and moving forward, they must put these bigger issues on their own pedestals. 

Between the persistence of the delta and congressional inaction and rhetorical fighting, one would be tempted to wish for a normal harsh flu season.

Panel: Anna Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Anna Palmer, Punchbowl News; Rich Lowry, The National Review; Jeff Mason, Associated Press

9.12.21: The Spirit of The Nation

There are other methods, other than vaccines, to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic despite the Biden Administration mandating vaccination for millions in public and private sectors. As discussed by Chuck Todd and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, instead of mandates, those other methods include masking and social distancing and testing to mitigate the spread. 

All of this was an academic conversation given that many Republican governors have banned mask mandates and have either remained silent about misinformation or spread it themselves, i.e. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Now Republican Governors are threatening to sue the Biden Administration for the mandates, to which the president has responded for them to 'bring it on.'

How that will go is that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Governors, in line with the court's federalist nature. States will be able to decide for themselves if they want to mandate vaccines. But here's the rub: the virus doesn't recognize state borders and will continue to spread. That's simply a fact. And while the governors thrwart efforts to combat the virus, our hospital systems will be overwhelmed. In Florida and Alabama, hospitals and funeral homes have ordered mobile morgues to store the dead.

Fighting the pandemic is no more a matter of not being equipped, but one of the unwillingness of Americans to rise above their own selfish interests for the public good. And we're not saying that means one must be vaccinated, but if one decides not to be vaccinated, do practice some mitigation for the safety of you and your family.

As Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) explained, we allocated $5.4 trillion dollars in covid relief and all those monies haven't been distributed yet. So his argument for the $3.5 trillion budget is too much money to be spent at this time given the covid-relief allocation. Perhaps it's unworkable legislatively, but it the Democrats should work through a budget that covers the $3.5 trillion, but with a provision for a lesser amount to be implemented at first, then if the spending bill is doing what it's supposed to, implement the rest of the money in the second five years of the 10-year budget proposal. Whether that's a workable solution or not, something has to give. Yes, it is politics 101 to negotiate support for one bill to leverage another, but it will be unforgivable on the part of Democrats if they do not get the 'hard' infrasture bill passed. Nuances aside, that's how it will be perceived.

Senator Manchin also explained that there are a number of factors such as inflation, employment numbers and of course Covid that could effect spending and how the country can recover. But of all the possible factors you can think of, it all comes back to eliminating the pandemic.

With regard to commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I think about this past Thursday when 3,160 people died of Covid-19, more in one day than died on September 11, 2001. The spirit of coming together as a nation is being lost, as Mrs. Goodwin explained. How far we've come...

Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News, Kimberly Atkins Stohr, The Boston Globe; Doris Kearns Goodwin, Presidential Historian; George Will, The Washington Post. 

9.5.21: A Working Joe in a Polarized America

Whether you approve or disapprove of how President Joe Biden is doing his job in this divided America, you have to concede that he's been a hard working, busy guy. Again, for good or ill according to your own assessment, but with that in mind, Mr. Biden's current approval rating hovers around 45 percent. 

To paraphrase PBS's Yamiche Alcindor, new administrations want to set their own agenda but real life situations and crises happen to set the agenda for them, which is certainly still the case on battling the pandemic. We agree with Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) that the messaging from the White House, the FDA and the CDC has been poorly coordinated and confusing. (Best thing to do btw is to just check the CDC website.) However, responsibility for the record cases and a death count of one thousand five hundred Americans per day falls on all political leaders, obviously, because the Biden Administration has made the vaccine widely available and free while still encouraging people to get vaccinated. 

Outside of that, it's up to, frankly, Republican governors to act more like Governor Hogan and less like Ron DeSantis (R-FL). We're not going to go completely down this wormhole but Covid-19 infections and deaths will continue in this country unless we get past what Ms. Alcindor called our original sin of the pandemic, which was policizing masks and vaccines. 

Speaking of both, here's what we don't get... You see clips on the news you see someone without a mask threatening a school board member about mask mandates. This seems completely counterintuitive. If you're going to threaten someone in front of a camera don't you want to wear a mask so that they cannot identify and arrest you later, which is what inevitably happens. Take it as a bit of advice, but to protect yourself and others along the way of threatening people is a nice added bonus. Bottom line is that masks aren't a big deal, get over it.

And then there are the vaccines, which according to a number of people who have taken horse dewormer to fight Covid-19 and ended up in a poison control unit. We are not good at math, admittedly, but millions of people have taken the vaccine and have stayed out of the hospital and a few thousand have taken horse dewormer and have either gotten sick and or ended up in the hospital. Hmmmm... we'll take a moment to figure it out.

But in the meantime, there's reacting to real life and then there's acting in the face of extremism, which is exactly what Texas' new abortion bill represents. First, ninety percent of abortions occur after six weeks of pregnancy because most women don't discover they are pregnant until after that time. This six week stipulation has effectively shut down women's health clinics that provide that care. This puts upon women an undue burden of access which as it stands is federally against the law. Having said all that, this column thinks of it in more base/ libertarian terms. A person, any person, has the right to control his or her own body and that should not be legislated. Men shouldn't legislate over womens' bodies and minds because they have no idea what they're talking about. If women passed a law that said men had to be castrated if found guilty of any rape or sexual assault, how do you think that would go over? None too well, we assure you.

But even if you're pro-life or pro-choice and feel that what we wrote above is a load of it, here's something else to consider. The Texas legislature took the coward's way out on enforcement, giving the task of caring out the law to citizens, which is like the Texas government saying we're too chicken to enforce the laws that we pass.  Instead they've opted for vigilante justice. An 'assinine' law is what Republican strategist Brendan Buck called. 

If this law is left to stand, one can only dread the consequences not to mention that surely in a year's time you'll tune into Texas Public Access Television and watch "Abortion Hunters in Texas" searching the Lone Star state for bounties, and a cottage industry is born. There you go polarized America, who said we can't contribute?

Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, PBS; Betsy Woodruff Swann, Politico; Matt Bai, The Washington Post; Brendan Buck, Republican Strategist

8.22.21: Mr. Biden's Obstinate Strategy Owns the Chaos In Afghanistan Right Now

So many head-scratchers, they seem more like head-slappers. As more stories come out of Kabul over the week, one thing is for certain and that is that the 'chaos fear and desperation,' as Mr. Todd described it, is only going to get worse.

Everything that Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) said made sense; the panel was brutally accurate; and even National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's explanations were direct and sober. So why are we left scratching our heads?

The flat truth of the matter is that President Biden has been completely off the mark, in his remarks and his inability to see the bigger picture and plan appropriately. This is why he is justifiably being criticized from all sides, including from our NATO allies. President Biden wanted to own and said that the buck stops with him, but you can not then pass the proverbial buck.

Mr. Sullivan explained that 'no plan survives first contact with reality,' which makes complete sense and therefore adjustments need to be made. However, this forgets the initial premise of having a comprehensive plan in the first place, which it seems did not consider all the circumstances of what would happen on the ground. He also explained that the United States planned to have a diplomatic presence in Kabul after the withdraw, which was a farcical notion since the Taliban have no interest in diplomacy. To that point, Mr. Sullivan said that they have agreements with the Taliban to allow Americans safe passage out of the country and if they didn't honor those agreements, the U.S. would respond militarily - that's the diplomacy the Taliban understand. The last thing the Taliban want is an open space conflict with the U.S. military who they truly are afraid of, the same military that airlifted 7,900 people out of country just yesterday, 30,000 total.

Dispatch founder, Stephen Hayes was pointedly correct in contesting what Mr. Biden said in his speech - that our allies were inline with us, that Afghans didn't want to fight, that Americans can get out safely, and that Al Qaeda isn't already in country. 

Our closest allies are furious with us as while this is mostly a stain on the reputation of the United States, it's also a blow to trust in NATO. Seventy-five thousand Afghans died fighting the Taliban and their moral back was broken with the final blow of closing Bagram Airbase, which Military Times editor Leo Shane III explained. And while the Taliban is indeed harassing Americans and Afghans alike throughout Kabul, terrorist groups are definitely making their way in. 

But on that last point, they have been planning the move for a while, from May 2020 in fact. Representative Cheney explained the entire progression and that we're in fact in this situation at present because of the agreement the Trump Administration, the deal then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo specifically made with the Taliban back in May of 2020, in which the Taliban conceded nothing for the United States pulling out in a year, and completely undercutting the Afghan government that lead to its quick collapse. Ms. Cheney also explained her concern for Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for terrorists once again, but unsurprisingly there were shades of her father in her statements that are meant to say that we should keep a force in country indefinitely, which simply isn't sustainable given what she earlier explained as the inevitability of the Taliban taking complete control. - at Kabul's airport.

But despite that inevitability, Mr. Sullivan didn't really have a good answer for Chuck Todd when he asked him, why didn't the administration get the civilians out before the military so that maybe some of these tragic consequences could be mitigated? 

What Mr. Sullivan couldn't answer was left to Andrea Mitchell of NBC News and Helene Cooper of The New York Times. Ms. Cooper, the paper's Pentagon correspondent, explained that the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs recommended keeping troops in country to get everyone out, but Mr. Biden didn't heed that advice, and now there is a lot of blame shifting going on. More pointedly, Ms. Mitchell said that the stance of Joe Biden in 2009, to just get out is the president's prevailing thinking and that the optic of troops leaving Afghanistan has blinded him to the immediate consequences.

This is certainly a blight on Mr. Biden's record as president and his poll numbers presently reflect that, along with his handling of the pandemic. However, let's be honest, on the latter the president's performance is being sabotaged by state governors who are putting political and ideology gain over public health.

One last noted for the week on Afghanistan, its immediate future isn't certain. There is already resistance in the Northern provinces lead Ahmad Massoud whose father was the leader of the Northern Alliance back in 2001 and assassinated two days before September 11th. Also, seventy percent of Afghans are under 25 years old, and in Kabul too young to ever know life under the Taliban. Twenty years of being able to live how you want to live accompanied by hope for the future are notions not easily crushed as history has shown us.

 

Panel: Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Andrea Mitchell, NBC News; Stephen Hayes, The Dispatch; Leo Shane III, Military Times

 

8.15.21: In All War, There is the Right and the Very Wrong

There was a lot to digest from today's "Meet The Press" on the pending collapse of Afghanistan's central government and take over by the Taliban as the U.S. completely withdraws from the country, leaving only core diplomatic personnel on the ground.

As with all war and conflict, there is the right and the very wrong.

We'll start with the former first, which is whether the U.S. should keep a residual force on the ground in Afghanistan. Given that the previous administration set a deadline for complete withdrawal for May 1st, the Biden Administration had its hands tied... loosely. They gave themselves an extension hence the newsreel images we're seeing, but going far past any deadline starts the clock ticking on when American soldiers become targets. And if not that, it's inevitable that American soldiers will be forced to engage with the Taliban. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained that our capabilities to closely monitor the situation on the ground to mitigate the a resurgence of Al Qaeda or other terrorist activity is very strong, to which anyone would respond, "It better be."

But it's time to go and it's the right thing to do, and it's very true what Secretary Blinken said that our adversaries would like nothing better than to see us bogged down in Afghanistan for another 5 to 10 years. It is not in the United States national interest to do that. And yes, how do you ask another soldier to make the ultimate sacrifice for a mission that has clearly changed but isn't clear.

However, the bad is egregous given that all this was forseeable, back in January as a matter of fact. Coming into office the Biden Administration knew that it was faced with this deadline. Even this column, sitting in the cheap seats, could see that it was inevitable that the Taliban would once again control the country, but the Biden Administration was slow to act and didn't have a plan in place to get the tens of thousands of Afghans out of the country (if they want to leave) and others who worked for the U.S. The forseeable tragedy of the oppression of women will once again take hold in Kabul, a humanitarian crisis waiting to happen.

One thing that particularly draws our ire is the fact that the U.S. military has been in Afghanistan for 20 years, trained a local force of 300,000, spent a trillion dollars, and gave them an airforce. The U.S. gave them all the tools, but once again as NBC's Richard Engel reported, the Afghan military is just 'melting' away without even confronting the Taliban. If the Afghan military refuses to defend the country themselves, how can you expect the U.S. to continue to do it after all that? 

Rightly, as Mr. Engel also reported, Afghans are angry at everyone - the U.S. for the quick bail on the country, the corrupt Afghan government and of course the Taliban because everyone knows what life is going to be like when they take complete control again. 

During the panel discussion, Mr. Todd posed the question of why the U.S. couldn't have something in Afghanistan like we do in South Korea or Germany or Japan  - a permanent base in place. The panel agreed, but it's not that simple. The last of these bases was established in South Korea in the 50's, and much has changed since then. Too much to make it geopolitcally tennable to have such a presnce. But South Korea was and is an ally. Germany we we have a base, we're surrounded by allies. In Japan after the war, the country didn't have a military as part of the conditions. The U.S. helped to rebuild Japan and has become one of our greatest allies, which we were positioned to defend against an aggressive China. With all that said, you have to ask, is Afghanistan our ally, really? Our geographically closest ally is Pakistan, which we wouldn't say is an ally per se, but a country that we have to deal with. Plus they have their own problems considering their tasty combination of extremists and nukes.

The previous administration set the parameters, but make no mistake, the Biden Administration owns this policy now and the tragic repurcussions inevitably to follow. But this demoralizing devistation isn't the only crisis in country as Afghanistan is in the midst of a historic drought already causing food shortages and let's not forget the covid pandemic.

Speaking of which, we'll just say this as to what is happening in the United States at present. With the numbers we're seeing today, we're basically back where we started, probably worse considering the Delta variant spreads twice as quickly and the fact that Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota explained that we have to start using better masks. How is that going to happen when Republican governors - yes, Ron DeSantis in FL and Gregg Abbott in TX - are actively thrwarting mitigation efforts. Cynical sadists letting their own constituents die for political power. A**holes.

Panel: Anne Gearan, The Washington Post; Kristen Solis Anderson, Republican Strategist; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Cornell Belcher, Democratic Strategist