THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS TODAY AT 2 So get your philosophical thinking cap on.
THINGS ARE NOT GOING WELL IN AFGHANISTAN And the Taliban are beginning to flex hard on us and they are going to get away with it because our President is a pathetic excuse for a leader. The Taliban has announced there will be no extension beyond August 31st, and if we try to stay, there will be "consequences". Oh, and they don't want us taking any more Afghans with us either. I wonder why, maybe so they can kill them? We even sent our CIA Director to meet with Taliban leadership in Kabul, but apparently he didn't offer them enough. Thousands of Americans are still in Afghanistan, as shown in a State Department cable showing how few Americans have been on these flights. About 6,000 in case you were wondering.
Chances of us being able to get the 10 to 20 THOUSAND Americans out by the 31st are not good. It's not all bad news at the Kabul airport according to Richard Engel.
We've evacuated tens of thousands already, but not everyone can get to the airport, as this terrified woman explained on a voicemail message to her Congresswoman in West Virginia. This is hard to listen to.
The only upside to this whole disaster is how entertaining it is to watch Biden supporters try to spin this as anything but a disaster. Like Biden sycophant Paul Krugman, who tweeted out this yesterday and he wasn't joking.
I'd hate to see what passes for incompetence for this guy. We'll see what happens when we aren't done on August 31st.
OUR FRIEND CHRISTIAN TOTO HAS WRITTEN HIS FIRST BOOK! And it's coming out in January but you can pre-order it by clicking here. It's called Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul. He's on today to discuss.
SHOULD DAVE BUY A GUILLOTINE? Not an ACTUAL guillotine, mind you, just a mini one for his desk. He's getting pushback from the women in his life, but I think it's sorta awesome. Check it out here.
THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR CHILDREN: MAKE THEM QUEER EDITION I want to be clear about how I feel about gay rights. I support them fully and have long been an advocate for equal treatment under the law in all respects. HOWEVER, I have my limits on what I'm willing to accept, and teaching 1st and 2nd graders that gender is a social construct and there is no difference between the genders is pretty much where they start. I don't want someone who struggles with their sexuality to be hurt by others, but I don't want to muddy the waters for children who have NO SUCH issue or dysphoria. There is a difference between support and indoctrination and some school districts are barreling ahead with indoctrination. This column about a program for teachers on how to "queer" their classrooms has no place in schools. Not the column, the program. This is EXACTLY what people who were opposed to same sex marriage were afraid of and now it's here. I told them when I advocated for gay marriage that I would fight it with every fiber of my being and here we are.
COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS ARE UP IN COLORADO And 83% of these people are unvaccinated. I'm guessing the other 17% are somehow immunocompromised or have other significant health issues. Please consider getting vaccinated.
LET'S COMPARE SWEDEN TO NEW ZEALAND, SHALL WE? Because New Zealand is the midst of yet ANOTHER total lockdown, save the people who have taken to the streets to protest the draconian measures. New Zealand is pursuing the full elimination of covid on the island, which is not at all rooted in rational science. And now that highly contagious Delta has landed there, it's off the races. They are also woefully unvaccinated. We all know how Sweden's doing. Read more here.
GUESS WHICH STATES ARE LEADING THE NATION'S RECOVERY? And more importantly, what do they all have in common? If you guessed Republican leadership, you are right. Read more here.
DESANTIS LETS THE AP HAVE IT And this is the kind of stuff people on the Right LOVE because no one on their team did it for so long. We already know the press is a lap dog for the Democrats, as evidenced by their continual attendance at "press conferences" where they will not be called to ask a question. So when the AP sent a letter to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about his press secretary "attacking" a reporter and siccing an online mob on said reporter, he did not suffer fools and fought back. This is my favorite part of DeSantis response:
"I assumed your letter was to notify me that you were issuing a retraction of the partisan smear piece you published last week," DeSantis wrote. "Instead, you had the temerity to complain about the deserved blowback that your botched and discredited attempt to concoct a political narrative has received. The ploy will not work to divert attention from the fact that the Associated Press published a false narrative that will lead some to decline effective treatment for COVID infections."
The story in question has been panned by many others for being a political hit piece disguised as a news story. Read more here.
NOW ALEX JONES THINKS TRUMP IS A DUMBASS And I don't know why I am so entertained by this but I am. Read it here.
THE BABYLON BEE DOES THE NEWS
IT'S A WOKE WORLD AFTER ALL And now this song is stuck in my head all day.
I GOT THIS EMAIL TODAY AND IT MADE ME HELLA MAD Like I REALLY had to not tell this guy to eff off, though I wanted to badly. Read this claptrap:
Hello Mandy,
Beginning primarily with the Reagan administration, conservatives have increasingly adopted a position that government is by nature bad, "Government is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem," being Reagan's most iconic quote.
We now find ourselves in a situation where intelligent, rational people are making decisions to avoid getting vaccinated and are imperiling their own lives and the lives of those around them. I've directly encountered this with some of the people that I work with, one of whom is now in his 8th day in the hospital and is on oxygen with pneumonia. We pray it doesn't take a turn for the worse and that he recovers quickly.
I find myself asking why this otherwise intelligent and rational person made the unwise choice to not get the vaccine. I believe that this is because he ascribes to a modern conservative view that has birthed an overall contempt for government with the exception of the military and road crews. When one's trust has eroded nearly completely in the government and those like Dr. Fauci are regularly mocked and belittled, why would he trust that a government institution like the Centers for Disease Control would have his best interests at heart? Right-wing politicians and media have not helped this individual arrive at the best decision, in my opinion.
Science is an evolving, imperfect process in which new information and understandings lead to course correction - especially during the first pandemic we've had in a century. We didn't know that masking either worked or didn't work when all of this blew up. As you suggest, perhaps Sweden made the wiser choice, but it's impossible to have known that until it all played out. As in everything, the perfect decision can only ever be revealed with 20/20 hindsight.
When government institutions like the CDC and the health care professionals who run them are incessantly undercut by round-the-clock conservative media and their political counterparts, their followers are led to make very bad decisions for themselves and those who surround them.
It's time for the political right and media to step up, acknowledge responsibility, and do the right thing for those whom you lead - please do it sooner rather than later.
Best regards,
Chris
I have a response I will share with you on the air.
YOU'RE SITTING IN MY SEAT I am so happy I'm not alone in this. A whopping two-thirds of Americans say they feel uncomfortable sitting anywhere in their home other than "their" seat. So much so that we argue with family members twice a month about our unassigned assigned seats.
BIG CITY OFFICE SPACE IS SELLING ON THE CHEAP This is exactly what I was talking about yesterday. As Delta throws the return to the office in doubt, office buildings in big cities are being scooped up at bargain prices. Average sales price that hit $400 a square foot in 2019 is now going as low as $284 a square foot. That's a big deal.
STREAMING HAS MADE PIRACY MUCH EASIER And now new releases are popping up on piracy sites almost immediately after release. But unlike the days of bootlegged VCR tapes where some dude held a shaky camcorder to record the movie at a theater, now you get broadcast quality films because of streaming. Stealing is stealing. That's how I see it.
THE CLASSIEST PART OF THE ROLLING STONES HAS DIED Drummer Charlie Watts passed away surrounded by family after an undisclosed illness. He was 80 and begged off the latest tour last year because of ongoing health issues. He helped the Stones create their bluesy rock sound with his jazz inspired drumming. He will always be a legend.
THE AMERICAN IRON DOME IS ALMOST HERE And it's funny that it's called Iron Dome now instead of Star Wars as it was dubbed during the Reagan administration. It's essentially the same thing, where we shoot other people's rockets out of the sky before they can hit us or our people. Israel is helping out with this now, as they have damn near perfected it. Now we are one step closer to having our own Iron Dome.
A WORLD WAR 2 VET IS REUNITED WITH THREE ITALIAN CHILDREN HE SAVED And I love this story SO MUCH. The reunion was made possible by social media. Read it here.
AND NOW YOUR DAILY DOSE OF KIFFNESS Dave sent me this one. He's down the rabbit hole now too.
THE MEAN STREETS JUST GOT MEANER