Media blasts Biden on Afghanistan

NEWS AND OPINION:

President Biden has been in office for 208 days as of Monday and is currently on vacation at an inopportune time.

There’s the pandemic of course, and two hurricanes ready to arrive in the southeastern U.S. There’s chaotic immigration issues on the southern border, wildfires in the West, persistent inflation and continual political discord just about everywhere. Then there is the Afghanistan withdrawal, which has sparked some surprisingly negative coverage in the last 48 hours. Just a few examples:

“Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as President Biden on Afghanistan,” wrote Axios cofounder Mike Allen.

“It’s a stunning failure for the West, an embarrassment for Biden. And it’s a traumatic turn for U.S. veterans who sacrificed in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, the 20,000-plus wounded in action, and survivors of the more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel who were killed,” he said.

“Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan may have helped the Taliban,” noted The New York Times, while The Washington Post put it this way: “Biden administration scrambled as its orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan unraveled.” National Public Radio stated: “Biden said the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan would be safe. Then chaos ensued.”

And two more examples, of the many are out there: “This got bungled: Biden’s two tragic Afghanistan missteps,” declared Politico.
“Afghanistan’s quick unraveling jolts national security officials and threatens to stain Biden’s legacy,” offered CNN.

BIDEN’S BORDER ‘DISASTER’

President Biden’s “border crisis” has now turned into a “border disaster,” according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which now warns that a notable increase in “non-Mexican, non-Central American immigrant arrests” is taking place on the southern U.S. border.

“This illegal surge continues to globalize,” wrote Mark Krikorian, executive director of the organization, noting in a new report that the share of U.S. Border Patrol arrests of immigrations without documentation who are not from Mexico or Central America has doubled over the past six months, from about 15% in March to 29% in July. The new arrivals hail from Cuba, Eritrea, Haiti, Mauritania, Senegal and other nations.

“The Biden administration realizes the border crisis it has created is a political disaster, and it’s spinning furiously,” Mr. Krikorian said — and that “spinning” of course, is of the political and media variety.

FAKE VACCINATION CARDS HAVE ARRIVED

A round of applause, please, for U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers in Memphis, Tennessee, who seized several thousand fake COVID-19 vaccination cards with dubious overseas origins.

“Officers working at the port of Memphis flagged a suspicious shipment coming from Shenzhen, China, en route to the central business district of New Orleans. It was the 15th such shipment of the night,” the federal agency said in an official report released Friday.

The contents consisted of “low quality, counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards with blank spaces for names, a vaccine maker, a CDC logo and other details. There were also typos, unfinished words, misspellings and the importer was not a viable medical entity.

“Sometimes the manifests describe the shipments as ‘Paper Greeting Cards / Use For Greeting Card,’ sometimes they are described as ‘PAPER PAPER CARD’ — but they are always from China. Though they may come in packs of 20, 51, 100, there are never any attempts to conceal them in anything. They aren’t hidden in books, nor are they stuffed in the back of framed paintings. The recipients of this ubiquitous contraband are unfortunately all over the United States. This fiscal year to date, Memphis has made 121 seizures totaling 3,017 of these vaccination cards,” the statement said.

The FBI has already warned the public that buying, selling, or using a counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination card is a crime.

“If you do not wish to receive a vaccine, that is your decision. But don’t order a counterfeit card, waste my officer’s time, break the law, and misrepresent yourself,” advised Michael Neipert, area port director of Memphis.

“Just know that when you order a fake vaccination card, you are using my officers’ time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility in Otay Mesa, California, last week discovered 2.8 tons of methamphetamine and fentanyl powder hidden within a shipment of plastic household articles inside a tractor trailer.

It is the largest methamphetamine drug smuggling seizure along the southwestern border, to date. Officers removed approximately 5,528 pounds of methamphetamine, and 127 pounds of fentanyl powder worth an estimated $13 million.

AND NOW FOR THE NUMBERS

“President Joe Biden and Democrats keep telling Americans not to worry about inflation, that it’s only temporary. Yet the record price hikes keep getting worse,” advises a New York Post editorial.

“On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yet another jump, a full 1%, in the producer price index (which measures prices before they reach consumers) for the month of July. Wholesale prices are now up 7.8% over the past year, the fastest annual surge since such record keeping began in 2010,” the news organization said.

But the federal agency had some more news — reporting that consumer prices rose 0.5% in July, or 5.4% over the past year — maintaining June’s yearly pace, and the largest jump in 13 years.

POLL DU JOUR

• 36% of U.S. voters think that the nation’s public schools should reopen fully in-person, as usual; 61% of Republicans, 30% of independents and 11% of Democrats agree.

• 33% overall say schools should open in-person with social distancing and facial masks; 20% of Republicans, 31% of independents and 48% of Democrats agree.

• 21% overall say schools should combine in-person and remote learning; 13% of Republicans, 25% of independents and 29% of Democrats agree.

• 7% overall think school should be fully remote; 3% of Republicans, 7% of independents and 10% of Democrats agree.

• 3% overall don’t know what schools should do; 2% of Republicans, 7% of independents and 2% of Democrats agree.

SOURCE: A Fox News poll of 1,002 registered U.S. voters conducted Aug. 7-10.

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