Archive for 2021
August 21, 2021
TALIBAN TROLLING CONTINUES: Taliban jihadis in US gear stage mockery of iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo.
A Taliban fighting unit called the Badri 313 Battalion was spotted patrolling Afghanistan with U.S.-made gear, and posting one photo appearing to mock the iconic World War II photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
Propaganda videos posted this week on channels affiliated with the Taliban show soldiers in the little-known Badri 313 Battalion carrying U.S. and U.S. ally-made weapons and gear that appear to be stolen from allied militaries while patrolling parts of Kabul.
In one propaganda photo, members of the Badri 313 Battalion are seen hoisting a Taliban flag in a similar fashion to the six U.S. Marines who raised the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945
This follows the earlier photo of the Taliban eating ice cream cones to mock Sundown Joe’s favorite photo-op pose:
As Brendan O’Neill of Spiked wrote on Monday, the Taliban are keen consumers of Western media:
This was always the West’s problem in Afghanistan: it lacked faith in the very values it claimed to be delivering to that benighted country. We will liberate women from life under the burqa, Western officials said. But isn’t it ‘Islamophobic’ to criticise the burqa, or any other Islamic practice for that matter? Our elites have insisted for years that it is. We will replace your intolerant Islamist system with a civil society fashioned by clever professors, the West promised. But isn’t it judgemental and possibly a tad racist – certainly an offence against the ideology of multiculturalism – to imply that Western democracy is superior to Islamist theocracy? As one British think-tank says, in its definition of the term ‘Islamophobia’, it is wrong to suggest that Islam is in any way ‘inferior to the West’. The West’s post-9/11 bluster was continually undermined by the West’s broader descent into moral relativism. How can you assert the civilisational authority of Western values when your entire educational and university system is devoted to questioning and demeaning Western civilisation? You cannot partake in a clash of civilisations if you loathe your own civilisation.
Anyone who thinks the Taliban did not pick up on all of this, on the Potemkin nature not only of the Afghan government but also of Western civilisation itself, is kidding themselves. The Taliban will have watched as the mighty American military became bogged down in discussions of critical race theory and the problem of ‘white rage’. They will have clocked the British army’s recruitment drive that was aimed at ‘snowflakes’ and ‘me me me millennials’ – for real – on the basis that such people have the ‘compassion’ necessary for the touchy-feely wars of the 21st century. They will know that the contemporary West is shame-faced about its history and its civilisational values and lacks ideas for how to turn its fragile youths into a fighting force, and they will understand their own life-and-death devotion to Sharia as being the opposite to all of this. They know this was a cultural clash as well as a military fight, and that they were by far the stronger side on this front.
Expect Taliban trolling to continue, thanks to our clueless elites:
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Note that Twitter is keeping Trump shut down, but allows Taliban psyops free rein.
THIS HEADLINE AGED WELL:
Shot: Julia Louis-Dreyfus Tweets Congratulations To A Real-Life ‘Veep.’
—Deadline Hollywood, November 7th, 2020.
Chaser: Kamala Harris Releases Perhaps the Most Tone-Deaf Picture of Her Tenure:
Do these people even have advisers? That’s a serious question. Where are the staffers in Harris’ orbit to say that this looks completely tone-deaf? Thousands of Americans are stuck behind enemy lines with no way to get out and the VP is posting glamor shots on Twitter of her ignoring the situation? Keep in mind, she has not even commented on the ongoing disaster in Afghanistan yet.
—Red State, yesterday.
Related: Ruthless podcast plays ‘Veep or Veep’ using quotes from Kamala Harris, fictional VP Selina Meyer.
BAGHDAD BOB CALLED AND SAID YOU MIGHT WANT TO DIAL THE SPIN BACK A NOTCH: White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield claims Biden ‘never shies’ from press questions.
THIS IS WHY CALIFORNIANS CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: Prop. 22, the gig worker exemption for Uber and Lyft, is ruled unconstitutional by Alameda County Superior Court judge. “‘We believe the judge made a serious error by ignoring a century’s worth of case law requiring the courts to guard the voters’ right of initiative. This outrageous decision is an affront to the overwhelming majority of California voters who passed Prop. 22,’ said Geoff Vetter, spokesman for the Protect App-Based Drivers & Services Coalition, which backed the measure and plans to file an appeal.”
(Via Newsalert.)
THE MORAL EQUIVALENT OF THE WAR ROOM:
Every morning this week at 8:45, a newly established “war room” has convened at the White House, with about 20 staffers logging onto a Zoom call to coordinate messaging and deployment of critical resources.
The operation has nothing to do with the crisis in Afghanistan — it’s about keeping President Biden’s big infrastructure push on track. Even amid the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the frantic, last-minute military operation to rescue thousands of Americans and vulnerable Afghans, the White House has maintained its overarching focus on the domestic matters it has prioritized for the last eight months.
“The No. 1 priority for our cabinet overall, from our perspective here, is to build support throughout the [August] recess process for the legislative agenda,” said Neera Tanden*, a senior advisor to the president who oversees the war room. Tasked with building support for a $1.2-trillion bipartisan infrastructure measure and the Democrats’ $3.5-trillion budget proposal, Tanden is dispatching cabinet members to key states, monitoring lawmakers’ town halls and arranging hundreds of local TV interviews with administration officials.
Not surprisingly, the party whose organizing method is “the moral equivalent of war” views American politics as the continuation of warfare by other means, to flip von Clausewitz’s axiom on its head. And as the last week has illustrated, they’re far more focused on fighting against the American people, rather than Middle Eastern terrorists.
* Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time — a long time: Neera Tanden lands in the White House, after all. “The White House confirmed on Friday that Biden had appointed Tanden to be a senior adviser. She will start on Monday. The move came two months after the veteran Democratic policy adviser, known for her combative Twitter feed and in-your-face politics, withdrew her bid to become Biden’s budget director — Biden’s first, and, to this point, only failed nominee and one of his few political setbacks thus far.”
REPUBLICANS POUNCE! Twitter users pounce on CBS News over article titled, ‘How climate change helped strengthen the Taliban.’
Fortunately, there’s a simple explanation: Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon tweets in response, “Did I forget to mention we bought CBS?”
Given their reporting over the last 57 years, that would be a big step up in accuracy for CBS.
“DON’T UNDERESTIMATE JOE’S ABILITY TO F*** THINGS UP:” Joe Biden Is Who We Said He Was.
BOOK I AM READING NOW: How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad. It’s actually really good, it gives a list of reasons to move to each country, how to get health insurance, and which countries have ex-pats etc. I used to think I couldn’t live in another country but as things get worse here, other places are looking better.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Every American Life Saved After Chick-Fil-A Takes Over Kabul Airport Evacuation.
THE ALABAMA LEGISLATURE NEEDS TO FIX THIS: Conservative Christian nominee ‘canceled’ by Auburn student government. I’ll bet that the vast, vast majority of Alabama voters agree with the views in his “offensive” tweets.
TECHNICOLOR TOM WOLFE TAKES THE RED PILL: Socialist ‘Current Affairs’ Founder Takes the Red Pill After His Socialist Staff Makes Socialist Demands.
This is a VIP piece. As always, use the promo code CHARLIE for a discount.
‘FIRED FOR DOING SOCIALISM?’ Socialist Magazine Torn Apart By Viral Drama, Ownership Dispute. “Yes, we were fired by the editor-in-chief of a socialist magazine for trying to start a worker co-op,” ex-employees wrote in a statement.
Socialist Outer Party members are gleaning valuable knowledge about life in the Inner Party.
Flashback: “In a famous Soviet joke, then-leader Leonid Brezhnev shows his mother his luxury apartment, his limousine, his fancy country house and his helicopter only to have her object: ‘But what if the communists come back?’”
RULES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: College presidents meet, maskless, after issuing mask mandates.
HE’S SO INNOCENT THEY STILL WON’T PUBLICIZE HIS NAME: Capitol Police officer exonerated by Capitol Police in the killing of Ashli Babbitt.
Flashback: Why Won’t the Government Release Officer Fanone’s Bodycam Video?
Related: Lawyer: Capitol Cop Who Shot Ashli Babbitt ‘Ambushed’ Her on Jan. 6 Without Warning.
Ruling-class priorities appear to determine how we address police shootings of unarmed protesters. And the press is happy to go along, because of course.