Lying the whole time.

When you hear the pronouncements from officialdom that nobody could have foreseen the debacle in Afghanistan, remember that lying to the public about the situation became a reflex.

 Several of those interviewed described explicit and sustained efforts by the U.S. government to deliberately mislead the public. They said it was common at military headquarters in Kabul — and at the White House — to distort statistics to make it appear the United States was winning the war when that was not the case.

“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,” Bob Crowley, an Army colonel who served as a senior counterinsurgency adviser to U.S. military commanders in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers. “Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone.”

John Sopko, the head of the federal agency that conducted the interviews, acknowledged to The Post that the documents show “the American people have constantly been lied to.”

As always, follow the money. As in, the most recent disbursement for the former Afghan government was not delivered to the government, contrary to expectations.

In a sign of the monetary difficulties any future Afghan government will face, the head of Afghanistan's Central Bank said the country's supply of physical U.S. dollars is "close to zero." Afghanistan has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some $7 billion held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

"The next shipment never arrived," he wrote. "Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen." 

So it seems. A smart move, stopping the wastage of funds. But it shows someone saw what was going on and acted accordingly, suggesting that the "UNFORESEEABLE!" mantra being repeated all over the place was far from universally shared.

Never Explain, Never Apologize.

That's the State of Hawaii's response to the homeless man it wrongfully arrested and pumped full of drugs four years ago. That, along with cover their tracks and hide from sunshine laws.

Read it all:

Joshua Spriestersbach fell asleep on a sidewalk outside the Safe Haven homeless shelter in Chinatown on May 11, 2017 while waiting for a free meal.

When he woke, a Honolulu police officer arrested him for the crimes of another man — Thomas Castleberry — who was wanted for a probation violation related to a series of drug charges in 2006.

The mix-up led to Spriestersbach spending more than two years inside a state-run mental institution where he was heavily medicated and repeatedly told he was someone he was not despite his repeated protestations.

In January 2020, when the mistake was discovered, he was given 50 cents and released back onto the street outside the shelter where he was arrested in the first place.

The whole ordeal happened almost entirely out of public view — that is, until the Hawaii Innocence Project last week filed a petition in state court to clear Spriestersbach’s name and make sure he’s never arrested again for the crimes of Thomas R. Castleberry, a man who’s been incarcerated in Alaska since at least 2016.

Spriestersbach’s story of mistaken identity has since garnered national attention, from the Associated Press to the New York Times, yet officials in Hawaii have mostly kept quiet about a key question still on many people’s minds — how could this happen?

“We’re doing this to exonerate our client, but also to expose the system and its failures,” said Kenneth Lawson, a co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project. “Mr. Spriestersbach was telling everyone who he was, that he wasn’t Thomas Castleberry, yet nobody was listening. And nobody was listening because nobody cared about a mentally ill man who was houseless.”

Lawson and the Innocence Project have questioned whether officials, from HPD to the public defender to the Hawaii attorney general to the judiciary itself, have tried to hide what happened to Spriestersbach in an attempt to escape public embarrassment and legal accountability.

His case, the petition states, represents a “miscarriage of justice” of the greatest proportions, one that could have been solved in just a few minutes by comparing Spriestersbach’s photo and fingerprints to those of Castleberry.

Instead of trying to address what went wrong, the petition states that those who were culpable “attempted to sweep their mistakes under the rug.”

For instance, the petition highlights court records that show the judge in the case held a closed-door meeting with the lawyers involved, including from the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, shortly after Spriestersbach was released. Yet few details have come out about what was actually discussed.

The only note in the record says Judge Shirley Kawamura told those at the meeting to “inform their administrators of the situation.”

Kakistocracies everywhere. And it doesn't matter whose lives are ruined, so long as the made men are unhindered in going about their merry ways.

Platinum Members of Mitre Club get all the privileges.

Shot and chaser.

If only the Bopping Bishop had taken Eric Idle's advice from The Meaning of Life:

But don't take it out in public/

Or they will stick you in the dock/

And you won't come back

The Kakistocracy That Is Rome keeps slouching towards Bethlehem.


 


"[T[here is no plan to evacuate Americans who are outside Kabul..."

Citizens of a once-great nation, take note:

In media briefings, the State Department has declined to divulge its estimates of Americans in Afghanistan.

According to the aides, the administration officials — from the State and Defense departments, as well as the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff — also told the assembled Senate staffers that there is no plan to evacuate Americans who are outside Kabul, as they do not have a way of getting through the Taliban checkpoints outside the Afghan capital.

Officials did not specify how many Americans are outside Kabul, the aides said. The briefing, which was held Tuesday morning and attended by aides representing a wide swath of Senate offices, lasted half an hour.

Numberless hostages to a triumphant and gloating theocratic regime.

Since there's no copyright on historical events, there's nothing to stop Clio from gleefully ripping off the past. And so she has here.

" Sorry--it was just too tempting."

A Generational Failure Ends in Bloody Disgrace.

 Literal blood.

Which will flow for months.

God forgive us for the betrayal of those who trusted our nation.

The Official Phrase of 2021: "Supply Chain Issues."

The nine new windows for the family manor are delayed somewhat. Two weeks, they tell us. 

Here's hoping. The originals on a 73 year old house are really showing their age this year.

Trips to various stores appear to confirm similar issues.

Here's hoping those get worked out, too.

In related news, the Expedition got t-boned while heading up for a micro-vacation last weekend. Everybody's fine, which is the most important part.

The second most important part is that the vehicle is still driveable.

The third most important is that I didn't get the ticket for the collision. 

Now here's hoping the phrase of the year doesn't screw up the repair efforts. I have a bad feeling they just might total out the old girl and give us some (insufficient) cash to go car shopping again.

 

Waning protection over time makes the most sense.

 An interesting analysis of why Moderna is apparently outperforming Pfizer right now.

Moderna come out a little later, and--most intriguingly--had more time between the two shots. 

Which may explain the better immune reaction.  

The British one-shot-for-everyone-first strategy seems to be paying off big time.

If you're lucky, conspiracy theories will only kill your mind.

If you're not, this will happen.

Bastard. 

Men who murder children make me want to braid ropes.

And the people who feed the paranoia deserve the same fate.

The Zero Rs.

It is often said that federalism is a laboratory that allows States to try their own solutions to assorted domestic problems. 

If that's the case, the Beaver State is brewing up a bold concoction: 

Students no longer have to demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing and math to get a diploma.

Why?

Equity is a jealous god:

The governor’s deputy communications director said that dropping the requirements “will benefit Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”

The hard bigotry of no expectations has returned.

Megatron Gets His Due.

Calvin Johnson was inducted into Canton yesterday.

“Lions fans and city of Detroit, when we were 0-16 you never stopped showing up," Johnson said. "You were disappointed, but you never stopped showing up. Every week, you showed up. And this motivated me to do the same thing for you. You loved me and my family unconditionally over these 15 years. I want you to know Michigan is our home, Detroit is our city and Lions fans are our pride."

A warrior who played through injuries repeatedly, he earned this moment. 

He deserved a shot at a ring, but playing your career with the Lions rules that out. 

Anyway, good to see.

Been under the weather for a week plus.

Cold symptoms. 

Mild, but persistent.

No fever or nagging coughs, thankfully. Really, apart from frequent-ish nose-blowing, it's been a very light malady.

I received the Pfizer shots back in April, so I am among the Fully Vaccinated.

In any year not ending in -20 or -21 I would wave it away as a very mild summer cold. And it still probably is? And yet, one of my middle son's Little League teammates came down with a mild case of corona two weeks ago.

In any event, I seem to be coming out from under it today, so good.