US troops fire shots into the air and use teargas on desperate crowds as chaos at Kabul airport enters fifth day: Taliban block Westerners from reaching flights and Afghan mothers give their BABIES to soldiers

US troops used teargas and fired warning shots to control crowds of desperate Afghans at Kabul airport overnight as they crowded entrances while Westerners in the city were blocked from making their way towards evacuation flights by Taliban fighters who stopped them on their journey.

The chaos in Kabul continued into its fifth day on Thursday as thousands of natives surrounded the airport, desperate to be put on an evacuation flight to anywhere by one of the many NATO countries that are sending planes out, some of them half-empty.

Overnight, 12 US Air Force C-17 jets removed 2,000 people from the region – an average of just 160 people per flight, despite the planes being able to carry 600 people – six fewer aircraft than in the previous 24 hours. Since August 14, the US has only removed 7,000 people in total from the region.

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Socialist magazine founder fires staff for socialist organizing, confesses he felt ownership of what he’d made

Nathan J Robinson – “Socialist”

I love this story so much that I want to move in with it and live happily ever after. Seriously this is just one of those moments when a leading proponent of leftist politics reveals himself to be a complete flaming hypocrite. It’s not even contested at this point because, as of two hours ago, he has admitted as much.

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City of Toronto and TTC workers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept 13 or be sent for re-education

… All members of the Toronto Public Service will be required to provide proof of vaccination status by Sept. 13.

Staff who have not been vaccinated or who do not disclose their vaccination status by then will be required to attend mandatory education about the benefits of vaccination.

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‘First-Come, First-Serve’: US Military Can’t Ensure ‘Safe Passage’ to Kabul Airport as Taliban step up hunt for collaborators

‘First-Come, First-Serve’: US Embassy Says Military Can’t Ensure ‘Safe Passage’ to Kabul Airport

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Wednesday the federal government and military cannot ensure the safe passage to the Kabul airport after Taliban extremists took over the capital as video footage shows throngs of people trying to enter the facility.

“The United States government cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the U.S. Embassy wrote in a security alert issued on Wednesday, adding that “the security situation in Kabul continues to change quickly, including at the airport.”


‘Taliban intensifying hunt for people who collaborated with US and Nato troops’

A UN document says the Taliban are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for and collaborated with Nato and US forces.

The confidential paper was produced by the Norwegian Centre for Global Analyses, which provides the UN with intelligence information.

“The Taliban are arresting and/or threatening to kill or arrest family members of target individuals unless they surrender themselves to the Taliban,” the document, seen by the BBC said.

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Two Polls

Liberals drop three points, fall to near tie with Conservatives in public support, Signal analysis says

OTTAWA — The gulf in public support between the Liberals and Conservatives has narrowed considerably, putting Justin Trudeau’s gamble to regain a majority government in jeopardy, a new analysis of publicly available polling by Vox Pop Labs suggests.

The Liberals currently sit at 33.4 per cent support, while the Conservatives would garner 32.1 per cent of the vote if an election was held today, according to aggregate analysis by The Signal, Vox Pop Labs’ election forecast conducted for the Star.

The New Democrats command 20.1 per cent of voter support, with the Green party registering 5.8 per cent.

NDP and Conservatives better positioned to respond to Canadians’ top election concerns, poll suggests

… Maru had asked 1,511 respondents to “select the two issues or needs that they want to be addressed by the politicians and are currently shaping their ballot box choice.” The sample of online panelists was surveyed from Aug. 13 to 15.

The priorities the respondents chose could favour the NDP and the Conservatives, as opposed to the Liberals, according to the company.

So far it’s looking Lib minority gov.

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Ontario reports 531 new Covid cases … and … Poll says majority Pro-Vaxx – Covid Top Election issue … & Delta>Vaccines

Ontario reports 531 new Covid cases … and … Poll says majority Pro-Vaxx – Covid Top Election issue … & Delta>Vaccines

Ontario reports more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 once again

Ontario is reporting more than 500 new cases of COVID-19 once again as case counts continue to rise exponentially, albeit at a reduced rate compared to what the province had been seeing as recently as last week.

The Ministry of Health says that there were 531 new cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus confirmed on Wednesday, up from 485 one day prior.


Majority of Canadians support mandatory vaccines, say COVID-19 a top election issue

As mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for travellers and some industries becomes a point of contention amid the federal election campaign, a new poll suggests a strong majority of Canadians support the issue — regardless of their political affiliation.

Delta variant weakens protection from Pfizer, AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines: study

A British public health study has found that protection from either of the two most commonly used COVID-19 vaccines against the now prevalent Delta variant of the coronavirus weakens within three months.

It also found that those who get infected after receiving two shots of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca vaccine may be of greater risk to others than under previous variants of the coronavirus.

Well that settles it. I’m voting Covid.

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Taliban makes Democrats, Joe Biden, and social media into figures of fun

The terrorist dirtbags of the Taliban, having had the entire nation of Afghanistan handed to them by Joe Biden, are now having a grand old time mocking the media world the Democrats have created. They’re gibing at Democrat-endorsed social media censorship, making Joe Biden and his fawning press a figure of fun, and using their own access to social media to consolidate power. Grotesquely enough, they know where the U.S. vulnerabilities are, given the house the Democrats have built.

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Three things to know about the Taliban

The Taliban view themselves as the humble servant of God on Earth. Their name literally means “students,” in this case, “students” of medieval-era extremist teachings under the Sunni-Hanafi Islamic school. But where terrorist allies of the Taliban such as al Qaeda are centered in Salafi-jihadi narratives, the Taliban are more complicated. They also have roots in Pashtun tribal politics, a dynamic that has given the group enduring influence in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

h/t Canuklehead

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Biden’s most heartless betrayal – America cares more about pronouns than the fate of Afghan women

“I’ve been clear,” President Joe Biden told the American people on Monday, “that human rights must be the centre of our foreign policy, not the periphery. But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments. It’s with our diplomacy, our economic tools, and rallying the world to join us.”

As I listened to those words, I found myself admiring the political skill of Biden’s speechwriters — and despising their utter callousness. I wanted to shout at the TV: But what about the 19 million women now sentenced by American foreign policy to a life of darkness under the Taliban? Surely they deserve human rights, too?

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Trump blasts media, Biden admin over Hunter Biden ‘blackmail’ tape

Former President Donald Trump is blasting the Biden administration for not prosecuting Hunter Biden amid a recently revealed video clip showing the naked first son talking with a woman about how one of his computers was stolen by a drug dealer and could be used for blackmail.

“They use their prosecutors to get people … and yet the son doesn’t get prosecuted. You take a look at what he’s done. How about the tape? The tape is the scandal. … The tape that came out on Hunter is a national scandal and extremely illegal and nobody’s doing anything about it,” Trump said on Fox Business on Wednesday.

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The Afghanistan Lessons America Refused To Learn

A U.S. agency spent 13 years documenting our government’s failure to stabilize or rebuild the country.

As the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan continues to brutally unfold, there are not a few “we told you so” lecturers out there. But nobody has earned their stripes more than the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Created by Congress in 2008, SIGAR’s job is to serve as independent oversight over the more than $140 billion dollars appropriated for the country’s reconstruction efforts.

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Canadian soldier found guilty of drugging colleagues with cannabis cupcakes during live-fire exercise

Chelsea “Cannabis Cupcakes” Cogswell

A military judge has found a Canadian soldier guilty of drugging her comrades with cannabis cupcakes during a live-fire training exercise, calling her actions “shockingly unacceptable.”

Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell was found guilty Wednesday on nine charges, including eight charges of administering a noxious substance and one charge of behaving in a disgraceful manner, in the first trial of its kind for the Canadian military.

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Trudeau doubles down on mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for domestic travel

Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies for some sectors and public spaces are quickly emerging as one of the key proposals being put to Canadian voters during the first week of the federal election.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who is running for re-election as prime minister, doubled down on Wednesday over questions about his plan to require proof of vaccination for all those looking to travel domestically as soon as this fall, amid a fourth wave primarily driven by unvaccinated people.

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Pentagon: No plans for rescuing Americans in Afghanistan who can’t get to the airport

There are no plans yet to aid Americans unable to make it past the tight cordon the Taliban has placed around Hamid Karzai International Airport, the base of the expanding U.S. evacuation effort in Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s spokesman acknowledged Wednesday.

In the last 24 hours, 18 Air Force C-17 cargo jets lifted off from the airport with about 2,000 passengers, of which 325 were U.S. citizens. The remaining numbers were Afghan civilians and some NATO personnel, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.

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