An armed U.S. servicewoman excorts female Afghan evacuees to a transport. Screen cap from NBC News.
“The Taliban said Tuesday that they would not allow Afghans to leave the country,” CNN reports. Nor will they allow the removal of U.S. dollars, says the Washington Post:
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman, declared Tuesday the militants would take action against Afghans who try to carry dollars out of the country “by air or land.” He warned they would seize the cash.
The Soviets’ curtain was “iron.” And the Taliban’s will be?
“People are running out of cash, and everyone is waiting for banks to reopen,” one doctor said on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Residents have watched the prices of gasoline and food, like flour and rice, climb. The local currency has tumbled since the Taliban returned to power this month on the heels of the U.S. military withdrawal.
While the militants told banks to reopen on Wednesday for the first time since their takeover more than a week ago, several residents said bank doors remained closed for much of the day. People shared photos on social media of long lines outside some banks in the afternoon, though it was unclear whether the banks had opened in the afternoon or people were waiting at the ATMs.
“We are inside our home since the Taliban took over,” said another Kabul resident, expressing worry over the rising prices. “We need a daily routine to be revived soon; otherwise there will be more serious concerns.”
UPDATE: over the last 24 hours a total of ~19,000 people were evacuated from Kabul.
Since 8/14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 82,300 people.
President Joe Biden remains publicly committed to fully exiting the country by Aug. 31.
“The sooner we can finish, the better,” Biden said in a Tuesday press appearance. “Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops.”
But the president also said that meeting that deadline would require avoiding unforeseen disruptions and that it “depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport for those who we’re transporting out.” He said that he asked the Pentagon and the State Department to draft contingency plans should the U.S. government have to shift its timeline.
Volunteer translator Fouzi Afshari is helping Afghans arriving in Virginia. She describes the situation for those remaining as “extremely chaotic … It is getting darker and darker.”
News coverage Tuesday showed an armed U.S. servicewoman chatting with female Afghan evacuees as she escorted them to a transport in Kabul. Two worlds are separated only by barbed wire and walls around the airport: the medieval one these Afghan women are fleeing and the modern one the American soldier inhabits. On one side, women are men’s prisoners.
Well, it sucked to rub my sleepy eyes and see this circulating on social media today:
Stalwart to the end, Charlie Watts was the “rock” in rock ‘n’ roll. Solid, reliable, resolute. He sat Sphinx-like behind his kit for over 50 years, laying down a steady beat while remaining seemingly impassive to all the madness and mayhem that came with the job of being a Rolling Stone. He was cool as a cucumber, as impeccably tailored and enigmatic as Reynolds Woodcock. “Reynolds Who?” As I wrote in my 2018 review of Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Phantom Thread:
As I watched [Daniel] Day-Lewis’ elegantly measured characterization unfold, I kept flashing on the lyrics from an old Queen song. Reynolds Woodcock is well versed in etiquette, insatiable in appetite, fastidious and precise-and guaranteed to blow your mind.
This is one weird cat; which is to say, a typical Anderson study. Handsome, charismatic and exquisitely tailored, Woodcock easily charms any woman in his proximity, yet…something about him is cold and distant as the moon.
He may even be on the spectrum, with his intense focus and single-mindedness about his work (or perhaps that’s the definition of genius, in any profession?).
I’m not suggesting Charlie was on the spectrum (not that there would be anything wrong with that), but the intense focus was visible; the genius evident. The fascinating thing about his drumming was that you couldn’t always “hear” it, but his contribution was just as essential to the Stones’ gestalt as Keith’s open ‘G’ riffs or Mick’s “rooster on acid” stagecraft. He wasn’t all about Baker flash, Bonzo bash or Moonie thrash…he was, as Liz Phair distilled it so beautifully today-a “master of elegant simplicity”.
Smiling faces I can see But not for me I sit and watch As tears go by
Rest in rhythm, Mr. Watts.
(The following piece was originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on March 26, 2016)
“I think that, finally, the times are changing. No?”-Mick Jagger, addressing 450,000 fans at the 2016 Havana concert
It’s been quite a groundbreaking week for Cuba, kicking off with the first official U.S. presidential visit since 1928, and closing out with last night’s free Rolling Stones concert at the Ciudad Deportiva stadium in Havana. While it marked the first Cuba appearance for the Stones, the boys have seen many moons since their first-ever gig, 54 years ago (!) at London’s Marquee Club.
The fledgling band wore their influences on their sleeves that night (July 12, 1962) with a covers-only set that included songs by Chuck Berry, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and Robert Johnson. And despite the odd foray into chamber pop, psychedelia, country-rock and disco over time, they haven’t really strayed too awfully far from those roots. They simply remain…The Stones (it’s only rock ’n’ roll).
In honor of their contribution to helping thaw out the last vestiges of the Cold War, here are my top 5 picks of films featuring the Rolling Stones (in alphabetical order, as usual).
Charlie is My Darling – The Rolling Stones did a few dates in Ireland in 1965, and filmmaker Peter Whitehead tagged along, resulting in this somewhat short (60 minute) but historically vital cinema verite-style documentary. We see a ridiculously young Stones at a time when they were still feeling their way through their own version of Beatlemania (although it’s interesting to note that it’s primarily the lads in the audience who are seen crying hysterically and rushing the stage!).
In a hotel room scene, Jagger and Richards work out lyrics and chord changes for the song “Sittin’ on a Fence” (which wouldn’t appear until a couple years later on the Flowers album). The concert footage captures the band in all of its early career “rave up” glory (including a wild onstage riot). The film recalls P.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back (filmed the same year), which similarly followed Bob Dylan around while he was in London to perform several shows.
Gimme Shelter – I sincerely hope that the Stones’ historic 2016 free concert at the Havana sports stadium went much smoother than their infamous 1969 free concert at the Altamont Speedway in California, where a man near the front of the stage was stabbed to death in full view of horrified fellow concertgoers by members of the Hell’s Angels (who were providing “security” for the show).
It’s unfortunate that Albert and David Maysles’ 1970 film is chiefly “known” for its inclusion of (unwittingly captured) footage of the incident, because those scant seconds of its running time have forever tainted what is otherwise (rightfully) hailed as one of the finest “rockumentaries” ever made. One of the (less morbid) highlights of the film is footage of the Stones putting down the basic tracks for “Wild Horses” and “Brown Sugar” at Alabama’s legendary Muscle Shoals Studios.
Let’s Spend the Night Together– By the time I finally had an opportunity to catch the Stones live back in October of 1981 at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Brian Jones was 12 years in the grave and the band was already being called “dinosaurs”. Still, it was one those “bucket list” items that I felt obliged to fulfill (it turns out there was really no rush…who knew that Mick would still be prancing around in front of massive crowds like a rooster on acid 35 years later…and counting?).
At any rate, the late great Hal Ashby directed this 1983 concert film, documenting performances from that very same 1981 North American tour. Unadorned by cinematic glitz, but that’s a good thing, as Ashby wisely steps back to let the performances shine through (unlike the distracting flash-cutting and vertigo-inducing, perpetual motion camera work that made Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light downright unwatchable for me). The set list spans their career, from “Time Is on My Side” to the 1981 hit “Start Me Up”.
The Rolling Stones Rockand Roll Circus– Originally intended to air as a TV special, this 1968 film was shelved and “lost” for nearly 30 years, until its belated restoration and home video release in the mid-90s. Presaging “mini concert” programs like The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert that would flourish in the 70s, the idea was to assemble a sort of “dream bill” of artists performing in an intimate, small theater setting.
Since it was their idea, the Stones were the headliners (of course!), with an impressive lineup of opening acts including The Who, John & Yoko, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal and Marianne Faithfull. The “circus” theme (and the arrhythmic hippie dancing by the audience members) haven’t dated so well, but the performances are fabulous.
Jagger’s alleged reason for keeping the show on ice was that the Stones were displeased by their own performance; the whispered truth over the years is that Mick felt upstaged by the Who (they do a rousing rendition of “A Quick One”). Actually the Stones are good; highlighted by a punky version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, and a great “No Expectations” (featuring lovely embellishments from Brian Jones on slide guitar and Nicky Hopkins on piano).
Sympathy for the Devil – Relatively unseen prior to home video release, this 1968 film (aka One plus One) tends to loom at bit larger as a legend in the minds of those who have name-checked it over the years than as a true “classic”.
Director Jean-Luc Godard was given permission to film the Stones working on their Beggar’s Banquet sessions. He inter-cuts with footage featuring Black Panthers expounding on The Revolution, a man reciting passages from Mein Kampf, and awkwardly executed “guerilla theater” vignettes (it was the 60s, man).
While I think we “get” the analogy between the Stones building the layers of the eponymous song in the studio and the seeds of change being sown in the streets, the rhetoric becomes grating. Still, it’s a fascinating curio, and the intimate, beautifully shot footage of the Stones offers a rare “fly on the wall” peek at their creative process.
This guy could become California’s next Governor while winning with a tiny fraction of the total vote. That’s the insanity of our recall provision which allows a Governor to be kicked out of office with 51% while at the same time replacing him or her with someone who may have gotten only 10% in a crowded field of gadflies, celebrities and minor politicians. It is nuts.
CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski went back and looked at one of Larry Elder’s earlier projects:
Slightly obsessed with Larry Elder’s old daytime court show “Moral Court.”
This episode involved a nudist whose Jewish friend took him to Moral Court for posing nude at a concentration camp.
Larry Elder has been a conservative celebrity for a long time. And, like so many of them, he was once a monumental moral preener. Now he is a Trump supporter.
Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 58,700 people. Since the end of July, we have re-located approximately 63,900 people.
Like, we all knew JD Vance was gonna show up on Tucker tonight to double down on his anti-Afghan refugee stance, right?
"40% of Afghans believe that suicide bombing is a reasonable way to solve a problem. Who wants people like that in their community?!" pic.twitter.com/ATaSZsUm4i
Here are the American adults who say they’ve already been vaccinated — broken down by demographic group:
All adults: 69 percent
Men: 67 percent
Women: 71 percent
18-34: 63 percent
35-49: 58 percent
50-64: 71 percent
65+: 86 percent
Whites: 66 percent
Blacks: 76 percent
Latinos: 71 percent
Urban residents: 79 percent
Suburban residents: 67 percent
Rural residents: 52 percent
White evangelicals: 59 percent
Democrats: 88 percent
Independents: 60 percent
Republicans: 55 percent
Republicans who support Trump more than party: 46 percent
Republicans who support party more than Trump: 62 percent
Democratic Sanders-Warren voters: 88 percent
Democratic Biden voters: 87 percent
Biden voters in 2020 general election: 91 percent
Trump voters in 2020 general election: 50 percent
White non-college grads: 60 percent
White college grads: 80 percent
The group least likely to be vaccinated is the hard-core, RINO hating, Trump voter. Only 46% of them have been vaccinated. And across the board Republicans are the most resistant.
And, by the way, a higher percentage of Black and Latino voters have been vaccinated than whites. Maybe we could retire the vicious meme that monsters like Laura Ingraham and Texas Attorney General are spewing:
The New York Times’ Alissa J. Rubin recalls the early days of the Afghanistan invasion:
Taliban fighters brandished Kalashnikovs and shook their fists in the air after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, defying American warnings that if they did not hand over Osama Bin Laden, their country would be bombed to smithereens.
The bravado faded once American bombs began to fall. Within a few weeks, many of the Taliban had fled the Afghan capital, terrified by the low whine of approaching B-52 aircraft. Soon, they were a spent force, on the run across the arid mountain-scape of Afghanistan. As one of the journalists who covered them in the early days of the war, I saw their uncertainty and loss of control firsthand.
It was in the waning days of November 2001 that Taliban leaders began to reach out to Hamid Karzai, who would soon become the interim president of Afghanistan: They wanted to make a deal.
“The Taliban were completely defeated, they had no demands, except amnesty,” recalled Barnett Rubin, who worked with the United Nations’ political team in Afghanistan at the time.
Messengers shuttled back and forth between Mr. Karzai and the headquarters of the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, in Kandahar. Mr. Karzai envisioned a Taliban surrender that would keep the militants from playing any significant role in the country’s future.
But Washington, confident that the Taliban would be wiped out forever, was in no mood for a deal.
“The United States is not inclined to negotiate surrenders,” Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a news conference at the time, adding that the Americans had no interest in leaving Mullah Omar to live out his days anywhere in Afghanistan. The United States wanted him captured or dead.
That was the hubris that brought us to this day. And keep in mind, as they were spewing that drivel they were already planning for the invasion of Iraq. The whole country was febrile, over-stimulated, not the least of whom were in the press corps. It was craaazy. And here we are.
Remember when COVID-19 was a hoax? Evil-doers were using it as an excuse to crash the economy and kill off Donald Trump’s reelection chances. Or if Covid existed, his faithful insisted, it was no worse than the flu. Meanwhile, bodies stacked up in refrigerated trailers outside New York City hospitals and in mass graves on an island in Long Island Sound. Remember when you did not need to take precautions against the hoax virus because you were “covered in Jesus’ blood“?
How many who once insisted that the coronavirus pandemic was a hoax or no worse than the flu now insist that a real medicine for deworming horses is a cure for the hoax virus?
David Boulware, a researcher in infectious diseaseat the University of Minnesota began getting threats for attempting to study the drug, ivermectin, rumored to have promise in treating COVID-19. He wanted to run a double-blind, clinical trial.
In May, Boulware’s team put the word out about the study, aiming to recruit 1,100 volunteers. But then something strange happened: He began receiving hostile emails and messages on Twitter from people who fervently believed that ivermectin was a miracle cure for COVID-19 and that administering a placebo to some trial participants was therefore unethical. “Are you a reembodied NAZI Josef Mengele?” wrote one in an email. “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? Eliminate your plan to abuse people as needless controls. You have a duty of care.”
[…]
There is a growing divide between people who believe the key to ending the pandemic is in preventive measures—vaccines, masks, and distancing—and those who favor treatments. Clearly, these two public health approaches should not be mutually exclusive, but somehow in the current climate, they are. Angela Reiersen, a clinical researcher who is studying potential COVID treatments at Washington University in St. Louis, has seen this pattern play out on her own Twitter feed. “If I post something about vaccines as positive, then I will have a lot of people jumping on that and attacking me, and it’s these people who are all pro early treatment,” she told me. When she tweets good news about potential treatments, on the other hand, she has noticed that she provokes the ire of vaccine advocates. “They kind of seem to suppress any information about early treatment,” she said, “maybe because they feel like it’s going to make people think they don’t need to be vaccinated.”
Covid hoax, we hardly knew ye
The divide is not necessarily partisan, writes Kiera Butler. On the left is Team Prevention., and on the right is Team Treatment. If God the Omnipotent is taking sides, he’s not talking. Except to televangelist Jim Bakker.
Roy Edroso puts on his inner preacher in his newsletter this morning, warning faithful patriots neither to ingest the recently approved Deep State’s medicine nor to wear its Face Diapers because “all the real medicine you need is down at your local veterinarian’s office.” Be ye not sheeple:
There’s literally nothing you need in the way of cures, treatments, and tonics that you can’t get from animal medicine. Fighting a bacterial infection? Forget high-priced amoxicillin and take Enrotex Broad Spectrum Antibiotic Bird Supplement that comes in convenient powder form, which makes it easier to give to infants. Got arthritis? Phenylbutazone is good for your dog and good for you. Daughter knocked up? LutaLyse takes care of it in pigs and it’ll take care of it in her. (Tell her so and maybe she’ll get the hint and mind you next time!)
Let the sheeple feed at the trough of phony “science” while we prosper and grow strong from the simple remedies down at the feed store. Wolverines!
A 2-1 ruling Monday by a superior court in Wake County, North Carolina means felons not serving time in prison may register and vote in North Carolina, NC Policy Watch reports:
A press release from the plaintiffs touted the decision as the state’s “largest expansion of voting rights in the state since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”
By modifying a previous preliminary injunction that only granted the part of the request, judges in the Wake County Superior Court restored the voting rights of close to 56,000 disenfranchised individuals convicted of federal and state felonies, according to Dennis Gaddy, the executive director of the Community Success Initiative.
At a press conference, Gatty said the ruling could impact another 20,000 to 25,000 people who are released per year. It does not affect people who are currently incarcerated.
The ruling overturns a state law that prohibits voting by felons before they have completed all community supervision outside prison. Plaintiffs described the law dating from a post-Civil War amendment to the state constitution as “adopted for overtly racist reasons.”
African Americans represent 21.51% of North Carolina’s voting-age population, but 42.43% of those prohibited from voting while on probation, parole, or post-release supervision, states the plaintiff’s brief. Restoration of voting rights after that was automatic in North Carolina.
The ruling “delivers on a promise of justice by the North Carolina N.A.A.C.P. a half century ago, that all people living in communities across the state deserve to have their voices heard in elections,” said Stanton Jones of the law firm Arnold & Porter, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. “And now, 50 years later, the voices of those 56,000 people will finally be heard.”
But State Senator Warren Daniel, the Republican chairman of the Senate’s elections committee, said the judges were ignoring a clause in the State Constitution that bars convicted felons from voting unless their rights are restored according to state law. “These judges may think they’re doing the right thing by rewriting laws as they see fit (without bothering to even explain their ruling),” he said in a statement. “But each one of these power grabs chips away at the notion that the people, through their legislature, make laws.”
That is 56,000 new voters, with tens of thousands of new ones with restored rights each year.
It bears reminding that Gov. Roy Cooper (D) won election in 2016 by 10,277 votes. State Attorney General Josh Stein (D) retained his position in November 2020 by 13,622 votes. NC Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley (D) lost reelection in 2020 by 401 votes. (Beasley is now vying for the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Richard Burr.) Voter registration and voter turnout matter, don’t they?
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been staying with one of his sisters in Westchester County in the final days of his third term, recently has asked staff members at the Executive Mansion if anyone would like to keep his dog, Captain, who has remained at the state-owned residence after the governor moved out last week.
Two State Police sources told the Times Union on Saturday that the governor had recently asked mansion staff members if anyone would be interested in caring for the dog. Captain — a high-strung mix of shepherd, Siberian and malamute — has nipped a few people since Cuomo adopted him in 2018, the sources said, and a mansion staffer recently took the dog home for a few days but decided he was too much.
Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser and spokesman for the governor, lashed out at the allegation that the governor has been looking for someone to care for the canine. He said the arrangement was only “temporary” because the governor, who is scheduled to resign from office at 11:59 p.m. Monday, is planning to take a vacation.
I have no doubt that there are hundreds of people who would be happy to take this dog off of Cuomo’s hands. He’s obviously too busy to care for him.
