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SEPTEMBER 8,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

IS NOTHING SACRED? – FROM DAILY MAIL:   A charity named after Winston Churchill has provoked fury by rebranding itself amid concerns over his views on race.  The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has removed pictures of the wartime leader from its website and is changing its name to the Churchill Fellowship. Volunteers at the trust said it was 'rewriting history'.  One told The Sun: 'He was voted, by the people, as the Greatest Briton in a BBC poll in 2002 but is now erased from his own charity by the woke brigade.   'You can't imagine what he would have to say about it all but I'm sure he wouldn't think it was Britain's finest hour.'  Another volunteer said: 'It beggars belief that the man who saved this nation in our darkest hour finds himself cancelled in this way.'  The trust was set up after the death of Sir Winston in 1965 to help send British citizens abroad on travel scholarships known as Churchill Fellowships. Trustees include Sir Winston's grandson Jeremy Soames.  A statement on the trust's website last night said: 'Today there is controversy about aspects of Sir Winston's life. Many of his views on race are widely seen as unacceptable today, a view that we share. Shame, shame.  Of course some of Churchill's views wouldn't be acceptable today.  That's always the case with historical figures.  What is acceptable, and worthy of intense praise, was Churchill's standing alone in defense of democracy as Britain's prime minister, leading his beleaguered nation through the murderous Blitz of 1940.  His heroic stand, together with some of the most inspired speeches of modern history, prevented the collapse of freedom's cause in Europe, and gave America time to prepare.  Now we must preserve Churchill's name, under assault from the moronic precincts of the far left.

September 8, 2021        Permalink

SHE IS ONE OF THE GREAT ANTI-TERROR ACTIVISTS, AND SHE IS WORTH HEARING – OVERNIGHT:  I've heard her speak, and had conversations with her years ago, when terror was fresh in our minds.  It will be again.  From Fox: 

The sister of an American Airlines pilot killed after his plane was hijacked by terrorists and slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, told Fox News that she is "filled with rage" at the thought of President Biden's overtures to the Taliban throughout his withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Debra Burlingame's brother, Charles "Chic" Burlingame, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, bound from Dulles, Va., to Los Angeles on that Tuesday morning when a gang of terrorists led by Hani Hanjour hijacked it and killed everyone aboard, plus several inside the Pentagon at the time.

On "The Story", host Martha MacCallum played clips of then-President George W. Bush in the days following the attack promising to respond to the mass murder of Americans:

"Either you’re with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime," the Texas Republican proclaimed later in September 2001.

"There’s no negotiations, there’s no calendar. We’ll act on our time," he also said that fall.

Burlingame told MacCallum that Bush's response to the Taliban – who then, and again now, controlled Afghanistan, where the terrorists trained – was the complete opposite of how Biden has comported himself on the world stage:

"Just listening to that fills me with rage," she said. "Because I can’t imagine what the soundbites 20 years from now will be from President Biden: Those [from Bush] speak to everything he’s not doing," she said.

"I believe we’re in grave danger now. This administration is now embracing a terrorist regime: The very people he's referring to sheltered Osama bin Laden, the ones that provided him a safe haven while they practiced storming the cockpits and killing the pilots."

Burlingame said pilots like Hanjour trained and practiced hijackings in Al-Farooq, Afghanistan – using animals instead of humans and ‘short-knives’ instead of box cutters."

"That regime is now in place [in Kabul]. Some of the very people involved … are the people that President Biden is calling a friendlier, kinder, Taliban," she said.

"No. They’re mullahs installed now. They have members of the Haqqani Network in their ministry: Haqqani is more vicious than Al Qaeda: They are known for brutal hostage-taking."

Burlingame predicted America is again "in trouble" and that there will be "some very dark days ahead" because of Biden's actions.

COMMENT:  No one has said it better. 

September 8,  2021     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 7,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

IS THIS SERIOUS? – FROM FOX:   Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday dispelled rumors that he may be running for president in 2024, referring to the buzz around the subject as "purely manufactured."  "All the speculation about me is purely manufactured," DeSantis said during a news conference to discuss a new COVID-19 treatment unit in St. Cloud, Florida. "I just do my job and we work hard… I hear all this stuff and honestly it’s nonsense."  DeSantis' remarks on the subject come just days before he headlines a Nebraska event with other potential 2024 candidates to celebrate agriculture on Sept. 12 in Nebraska City. During the gathering, DeSantis will speak alongside former Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. The event will also correspond with Gov. Pete Ricketts’ annual steak fry, which is being held at Arbor Lodge Historical Park.  It's smart of DeSantis to cool the presidential talk.  He's got to get through a gubernatorial re-election election next year, and there's no guarantee, based on current polls, that he will win.  Let's take it one step at a time.

LATEST WARNING – FROM TIMES OF ISRAEL:  Iran has dramatically increased its production of highly enriched uranium in recent months, while refusing to resume full cooperation with inspectors, the UN nuclear watchdog said Tuesday.  Tehran has quadrupled its stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium since May, in open contravention of the 2015 accord with world powers that was meant to contain its nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported.  The IAEA also told member states in its confidential quarterly report that its verification and monitoring activities have been “seriously undermined” since February by Iran’s refusal to let inspectors access IAEA monitoring equipment.  The agency said it estimates Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity at 10 kilograms, an increase of 7.6 kilograms since May. The country’s stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 20% fissile purity is now estimated at 84.3 kilograms, up from 62.8 kilograms three months earlier.  Iran’s total stock of uranium is estimated at 2441.3 kilograms as of Aug. 30, down from 3241 kilograms on May 22, the agency said.    Nothing to see, of course.  Nothing to see.

September 7, 2021       Permalink

CHICKENS COMING HOME; WHAT A MESS – OVERNIGHT:  Why am I not shocked that blunders committed by Barack Obama are now coming back to haunt us.  From Fox: 

Four out of five Guantanamo detainees whom former President Barack Obama released in exchange for former U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 now hold senior positions in the interim government created by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

According to the Afghan television network TOLOnews, the Taliban-formed government gave leadership positions to Mohammad Nabi Omari, Khairullah Khairkhwa, Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, and Mohammad Fazl; all of whom were released in a 2014 deal between the Obama administration and the Taliban to free Bergdahl, whom the Taliban had held as a prisoner since 2009.

Late last month, following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban announced that Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (GTMO) detainee who has close ties to al Qaeda, would govern Khost Province in Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, the Taliban announced that Khairkhwa would serve as acting minister for information and culture, Noori would serve as acting minister of borders and tribal affairs, Wasiq would serve as acting director of intelligence, and Fazl would serve as deputy defense minister.

Wasiq will reprise his role as the Taliban's intelligence director, previously serving in the role prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America. U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Wasiq had close tied to al Qaeda while he was serving in that position at the time.

Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noted that Fazl will also return to his role as deputy defense minister. "U.S. officials found that Fazl worked with senior al Qaeda personnel, including Abdel Hadi al Iraqi, one of Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenants," Joscelyn wrote in a tweet. "Al Iraqi is still held at Guantanamo."

In 2011, a Washington, D.C., district court judge found that Khairkhwa "was, without question, a senior member of the Taliban both before and after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001."

COMMENT:  It shouldn't surprise anyone that the name of Barack Obama comes up.  The deal for Bergdahl, who had deserted his post, was always an absurdity, a surrender, by a president who didn't care much for his own country.

Our loss in Afghanistan is crushing.  We have every right to fear that we will feel its effects one peaceful morning in America.

September 7, 2021       Permalink