The war in Afghanistan was always a scam

The war in Afghanistan was always a scam

Jason Linkins writes: “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.… It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” These words, penned by Major General Smedley Butler in 1935, nearly a century before the global war on terrorism began, decades before the notion of a “military-industrial complex” became a glint in Dwight Eisenhower’s imagination, could sum up…

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In Texas, hundreds of patients are waiting to be admitted into hospitals, but there are no beds

In Texas, hundreds of patients are waiting to be admitted into hospitals, but there are no beds

Click2Houston.com reports: Emergency room doctors in Southeast Texas say they are running out of hospital beds, and some patients are waiting hours, sometimes days to be admitted into a hospital. “Are there patients dying because of this that might not have died? Absolutely, yes,” said Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council CEO, Darrell Pile. “I am very concerned about the fatalities that are about to happen.” As of Friday afternoon, Pile says 482 patients were waiting for hospital beds in his…

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Why the coronavirus has changed as it has, and what it means going forward

Why the coronavirus has changed as it has, and what it means going forward

STAT reports: It’s impossible to say how the coronavirus will continue to evolve. Those changes, after all, are a result of random mutations. But there are some fundamental principles that explain why the virus has morphed as it has, principles that could guide our understanding of its ongoing evolution — and what that means for our future with the pathogen. The great fear is that nature could spit out some new variant that completely saps the power of vaccines and…

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Work is a false idol

Work is a false idol

Cassady Rosenblum writes: In China this April, a 31-year-old former factory worker named Luo Huazhong drew the curtains and crawled into bed. Then he posted a picture of himself there to the Chinese website Baidu along with a message: “Lying Flat Is Justice.” “Lying flat is my sophistic movement,” Mr. Luo wrote, tipping his hat to Diogenes the Cynic, a Greek philosopher who is said to have lived inside a barrel to criticize the excesses of Athenian aristocrats. On Chinese…

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The fall of the Roman Empire was a lucky break for humanity

The fall of the Roman Empire was a lucky break for humanity

Walter Scheidel writes: For an empire that collapsed more than 1,500 years ago, ancient Rome maintains a powerful presence. About 1 billion people speak languages derived from Latin; Roman law shapes modern norms; and Roman architecture has been widely imitated. Christianity, which the empire embraced in its sunset years, remains the world’s largest religion. Yet all these enduring influences pale against Rome’s most important legacy: its fall. Had its empire not unravelled, or had it been replaced by a similarly…

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How the Taliban silently infiltrated Kabul months ago

How the Taliban silently infiltrated Kabul months ago

Christoph Reuter reports: In early July, before the great storm broke over Afghanistan, Kabul was already surrounded by the Taliban. And nowhere were the Islamist fighters closer to the Afghan capital city than on the shores of the Qargha Reservoir, a popular getaway on the western edge of the city. People were saying that the Taliban had gathered in the villages behind the nearby hills. The last frontline, it was said, was on the shore of the reservoir at the…

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How the U.S.’s Afghanistan exit plan unravelled

How the U.S.’s Afghanistan exit plan unravelled

The New York Times reports: The nation’s top national security officials assembled at the Pentagon early on April 24 for a secret meeting to plan the final withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. It was two weeks after President Biden had announced the exit over the objection of his generals, but now they were carrying out his orders. In a secure room in the building’s “extreme basement,” two floors below ground level, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen….

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Biden is counting on the fact that most Americans don’t care much about what happens to Afghanistan

Biden is counting on the fact that most Americans don’t care much about what happens to Afghanistan

Reuters reports: President Joe Biden is brushing off criticism of his administration’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal because he and his aides believe the political fallout at home will be limited, according to White House allies and administration officials. Biden and his top aides argue they are managing an evacuation mission as well as could be expected given the faster-than-anticipated takeover of the country by the Taliban, and are seeking to draw attention back to the choice to get U.S. troops out…

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‘Unprecedented’ rain falls for first time in recorded history at Greenland’s ice sheet summit

‘Unprecedented’ rain falls for first time in recorded history at Greenland’s ice sheet summit

USA Today reports: It rained for several hours at the summit of Greenland’s ice sheet on Saturday, marking the first time in recorded history the area has experienced rain and at a time when temperatures there rose above freezing in an extremely rare occurrence. The rainfall occurred at the highest point on the country’s ice sheet, according to the National Snow and Ice Date Center. The weather was observed at Greenland’s Summit Station, which is 10,551 feet above sea level,…

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It’s not a competition, but renewables are beating nuclear anyway

It’s not a competition, but renewables are beating nuclear anyway

Nathaniel Bullard writes: Energy giant BP Plc has been publishing its annual review of global energy statistics for seven decades. (I’ve been reading it — and digesting its data — for about a fifth of that time.) The latest edition published in July is, understandably, quite focused on the largest year-on-year decline in primary energy consumption since 1945. But there’s another finding worth noting: 2020 was the first year in which renewable power generation (excluding hydro) surpassed nuclear power generation….

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Monoclonal antibodies are free and effective against Covid-19, but few people are getting them

Monoclonal antibodies are free and effective against Covid-19, but few people are getting them

The Washington Post reports: When Mike Burton came down with a breakthrough case of covid-19 earlier this month, the infection posed a double threat to his family. At 73, the retired surgeon faced elevated risk of serious illness. His wife, Linda, has a suppressed immune system, the result of drugs she takes after two liver transplants that put her in greater danger of life-threatening illness. The Burtons, both vaccinated, moved to separate parts of their Mount Sterling, Ky., home, masked…

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Minnesota GOP ‘in ruins’ after shocking scandal

Minnesota GOP ‘in ruins’ after shocking scandal

Politico reports: Less than a year ago, Minnesota looked every bit a swing state. Donald Trump was pouring millions of dollars into his campaign there, after nearly flipping the state in 2016, Republicans were making inroads in the ancestrally Democratic Iron Range. In the Twin Cities suburbs, nervous Democrats feared protests following the police murder of George Floyd could turn some voters to the GOP. That all fell apart with Joe Biden’s victory in November. And nine months later, the…

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America’s betrayal of its Afghan allies

America’s betrayal of its Afghan allies

Russell Berman writes: The Afghans were not ready to leave. That was how President Joe Biden, in his address to the nation on Monday, tried to explain why his administration had not acted sooner, and faster, to evacuate America’s allies from Afghanistan ahead of the Taliban’s rapid march to Kabul. Many of the local partners who aided the U.S. military during its 20-year war—interpreters, activists, civil servants, and others—were “still hopeful for their country,” Biden said. He made no mention…

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Biden administration moved slowly to help Afghan refugees as it prepared to exit

Biden administration moved slowly to help Afghan refugees as it prepared to exit

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration moved slowly for months to address the plight of vulnerable Afghans who had worked for the United States even as a deadline for U.S. military withdrawal loomed, refugee advocates said — a lull some blamed on White House concern that the influx would invite partisan political backlash amid a rush of migrants at the southern border. Afghans who served as interpreters, fixers and other staff for the U.S. military and diplomats over the…

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