HONESTY IS SUCH A LONELY WORD: Psaki admits Biden’s ‘infrastructure’ bill is not about infrastructure.

NO NEED TO BE SLOW, JOE: There Must Be 50 Five Ways to Leave Your Office.

This one is just for our VIP supporters, so don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you were thinking of joining us.

WATCH: Joe Biden Delivers Remarks on Afghanistan.

Update: Biden was scheduled to speak more than 30 minutes ago but remains AWOL.

(Bumped, but at this point, what difference does it make?)

Another update:

Everything is going swimmingly.

Update: Finally, he’s speaking.

(Bumped again.)

JUSTICE: Justice Department Moves to Dismiss Bowe Bergdahl’s Case to Overturn His Conviction. “Bergdahl has been back in the headlines since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. One of the leaders allegedly responsible for orchestrating the takeover, Khairullah Khairkhwa, was one of five prisoners freed from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and exchanged for Bergdahl’s release in 2014, various media outlets have reported.”

HMM: FTC says Facebook has been a monopoly ‘since at least 2011’ in amended antitrust complaint.

AND THIS TIME THEY MEAN IT! UK’s Boris Johnson Joins State Dept. in Saying Taliban Could Gain Recognition if It Respects ‘Inclusivity.’

JOE KNEW: July State Dept. Cable Warned Kabul Will Fall Quickly.

DAVID SOLWAY: Cutting to the Chase: Why Trump Was Driven from Office. “He was hated for not sinking to the indescribable ineptitude of Joe Biden and for not being on the take. He was hated for his efforts to clean up the political swamp. He was hated for his endorsement of the free market and for championing a prosperous citizenry. He was hated for his opposition to crony socialism and bureaucratic bloat. He was hated for all the wrong reasons.”

DOG BITES MAN: Rep. Rashida Tlaib collected up to $50,000 as a landlord, despite co-sponsoring ‘cancel rent’ bill.

BRAVE SIR BIDEN BRAVELY TURNED AND FLED: Joe Biden Calls Off Public Appearances and Remarks Indefinitely.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Something Is Wrong With The President. “You’re not supposed to talk about it. If you do, and you’re a Democrat, you’re scolded for aiding and abetting the enemy. If you do, and you’re a Republican or (God forbid) a MAGA voter, you’re a horrible hate-mongerer, trying to overturn the results of a free and fair election (and you probably watch Fox News to boot). The problem is that it’s there for all to see. Pretending not to see it is untenable.”

CHARMING: Biden Administration Continues To Tell Fleeing Americans To Pay Their Way Out Of Afghanistan, Hours After Telling The Press Otherwise.

State Department spokesman Ned Price told the Daily Caller News Foundation and other news outlets late Thursday afternoon that the Biden administration has “no intention of seeking any reimbursement from those fleeing Afghanistan.”

However, the online form American citizens are directed to fill out to secure their evacuation from Afghanistan continued to state well into Thursday evening that they travelers will have to pay their own way out of the country.

“Repatriation flights are not free,” Question 14 of the form stated when accessed by the DCNF around 10 p.m. Thursday, over two-and-a-half hours after Price issued his statement.

“All passengers will need to reimburse the U.S. Government for the flight. A promissory note for the full cost of the flight, which may exceed $2000 per person, must be signed by each adult passenger before boarding,” the form stated.

Ouch.

MAYBE THIS IS WHAT BIDEN MEANT BY “AMERICA’S BACK”: Special Relationship? Biden Ghosted Johnson Over Bungled Bugout.

IT’S SO NICE HAVING THE GROWNUPS BACK IN CHARGE: The Biden Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Many Americans Are Stuck in Kabul and Has No Plan to Rescue Any.

PUTIN TELLS BIDEN WHERE HE CAN GO: Putin Rejected Role for U.S. Forces Near Afghanistan at Summit With Biden.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a June 16 summit meeting with President Biden, objected to any role for American forces in Central Asian countries, senior U.S. and Russian officials said, undercutting the U.S. military’s efforts to act against new terrorist dangers after its Afghanistan withdrawal.

The previously unreported exchange between the U.S. and Russian leaders has complicated the U.S. military’s options for basing drones and other counterterrorism forces in countries bordering landlocked Afghanistan. That challenge has deepened with the collapse over the weekend of the Afghan government and armed forces.

The exchange also indicates that Moscow is more determined to try to maintain Central Asia as a sphere of influence than to expand cooperation with a new American president over the turmoil in Afghanistan, former and current U.S. officials said.

Being held in contempt by Britain and bossed around by Russia does not say “America is back.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: ‘Team Optics Fail’ Is Sending Kamala Harris to Vietnam. “It’s been a rough week for the administration and their relationship with their beloveds in the MSM. I mean, they made Rachel Maddow cry. Given that, one might assume that they’d be a little more aware of how they want themselves to appear to the public.”

GOOD: Apple photo-scanning plan faces global backlash from 90 rights groups.

“The undersigned organizations committed to civil rights, human rights, and digital rights around the world are writing to urge Apple to abandon the plans it announced on 5 August 2021 to build surveillance capabilities into iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products,” the letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook said today. “Though these capabilities are intended to protect children and to reduce the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), we are concerned that they will be used to censor protected speech, threaten the privacy and security of people around the world, and have disastrous consequences for many children.”

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) announced the letter, with CDT Security & Surveillance Project Co-Director Sharon Bradford Franklin saying, “We can expect governments will take advantage of the surveillance capability Apple is building into iPhones, iPads, and computers. They will demand that Apple scan for and block images of human rights abuses, political protests, and other content that should be protected as free expression, which forms the backbone of a free and democratic society.”

Background here: Apple Will Soon Begin Scanning Your iPhone for Child Porn.

GET USED TO THESE: Taliban Humiliates Joe Biden Again With Symbolic Troop Removal Demand.

THE KINDER, GENTLER TALIBAN: Taliban Militants Have Burnt Down An Amusement Park A Day After They Were Enjoying Rides.

Previously: Biden Says Taliban ‘Going Through Sort Of An Existential Crisis’ About Whether They Want To Be A Legitimate Government.

No, they know exactly what they’re doing — unlike anyone in the Biden Administration.

LINCOLN BROWN: Dear Leftists, I Hope You Can’t Live With Yourselves. “By now you have seen the photos of people falling off of planes trying to escape the Taliban. You have seen the photos of women being shot for not wearing a burka. And no matter how strenuously the legacy media tries to spin it, your alternative to Donald Trump has shattered lives beyond measure. But an idiot in a buffalo hat or a buffoon packing off Nancy Pelosi’s lectern is in no way comparable to what is taking place, and what will take place in Afghanistan.”

WHERE’S KAMALA? Afghan Women And Girls Are Being Handed To The Taliban And The First Female VP Is MIA.

Harris is visiting Vietnam, where in 1975 Joe Biden voted to cut off all aid as the North swamped our allies in the South.

Update: Link was wrong before — sorry! All fixed.

LIVE AT 3:30PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, Preston, VodkaPundit.

Hot takes, cold drinks.

THIS IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Taliban intensify search for Afghans who aided US.

Meanwhile, Biden has even lost Jen Rubin.

Maybe because this next graphic’s logic is undeniable.

Harsh, but fair.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? Back to School Basics: Here Are the Best Recording Devices for Digital Davids to Record Unhinged Teachers and Their Raging Rants. “Here are some of the best hidden recording devices out there that are both affordable and easy to conceal. By the way, there is no expectation of privacy in a government school building unless it’s a bathroom. Check your local laws, but anyone trying to tell you that public buildings are somehow exempt from public recording is probably a lying shill with a government paycheck.”

“FREEDOM OF CHOICE” USED TO BE A LEFTY SLOGAN: No, Republican Governors Are Not ‘Banning Masks in Classrooms.’ “Leaving the decision to mask children up to their parents rather than school boards is not a ‘ban.’”

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Air Force Academy Cadets Forced to Watch BLM Video.