Could China’s House of Cards Finally Collapse?

September 23rd, 2021

I’ve been writing about China’s bubble economy for over a decade, from the housing bubble to the Ghost Cities and even ghost collateral. And now China’s entire house of cards appears to be trembling thanks to a company called Evergrande, which owes more than $300 billion.

China Evergrande Group, until recently the world’s largest property developer, owns dozens of stalled sites like Sunny Peninsula across China. Buckling under more than $300 billion in liabilities, the company is close to collapse, leaving 1.5 million buyers waiting for finished homes.

That’s $300 billion, with a B. It’s hard to imagine that an American company would ever be allowed to accumulate that much debt (though AT&T is evidently carrying a hefty $167.9 billion debt load).

That’s why Evergrande has reached its Lehman moment:

Instead of Evergrande making the announcement, it was the entity that will soon control the massively overlevered property developer that made it for them: the Chinese government.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese authorities told major lenders to China Evergrande Group not to expect interest payments due next week on bank loans, which takes the cash-strapped developer a step closer the nation’s largest modern-day restructurings, and guarantees that China’s “Lehman Moment” is now just a matter of days, if not hours.

According to Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development told banks in a meeting this week that Evergrande won’t be able to pay its debt obligations due on Sept. 20, and instead most of Evergrande’s working capital in now being used to resume construction on existing projects, the housing ministry told bankers, according to a Bloomberg source.

And since nonpayment of interest and principal will represent an event of default, the company is unlikely to make any subsequent interest, or principal, payments either since it will have already default even though Bloomberg claims that “Evergrande is still discussing the possibility of getting extensions and rolling over some loans.” It won’t, especially since the developer will also miss a principal payment on at least one loan next week, which means it’s game over.

Meanwhile, as reported previously, Chinese authorities are already laying the groundwork for a debt restructuring of the $300 billion company (which recently hired Houlhan Lokey to advise it during the upcoming historic bankruptcy), assembling accounting and legal experts to examine the finances of the group. With senior leaders in Beijing silent on whether they will allow Evergrande creditors to suffer major losses, bondholders have priced in slim odds of a rescue infuriating countless investors and creditors who have mobbed the company’s offices across the country and also gathered at its HQ, demanding the company “return their money.” It won’t happen.

Not only is Evergrande possibly facing complete liquidation, but word came down that the company might make payments on Chinese-owned debt, but stiff foreign debt holders.

But the word this morning is that the Chinese government is now telling them to avoid default on dollar-denominated bonds. After all, if investors worldwide decided that all Chinese debt was potentially toxic, that would leave connected Chinese communists in a world of hurt.

And we can’t have that.

The unusual thing about Evergrande is that they owe money to everyone:

It seems to me that what is interesting about Evergrande is not so much the magnitude of its debt problems but their variety. Evergrande owes money to Chinese banks. It owes money to foreign hedge funds, and foreign investors own its stock. It owes money to suppliers, and to Chinese retail investors in those wealth management products. And it owes apartments to buyers. And the retail investors who bought Evergrande wealth management products were often also Evergrande homeowners, because the products were sold at Evergrande buildings.

It even took out short-term loans from its own employees. Also, it’s evidently stopped paying some employees. I don’t know about you, but for me both those would be signs it was time to look for another job.

More:

When a big company runs out of money, the basic questions are (1) who gets paid and who doesn’t and (2) should the government pay its debts for it? Those questions are interconnected. There is an ordinary way to answer the first question, some waterfall of claim seniority. You look at the company’s capital structure and say “well these people have senior claims and will get paid back, and these people have junior claims and won’t, and these other people are somewhere in the middle and might get some recovery.” And there are complex and subtle questions about the best way to preserve value in the business: Perhaps you have the legal right to stiff customers (perhaps their deposits aren’t particularly senior claims), but if you do that you’ll never get any more customers, so you treat them better than you are legally required to. And the managers of the business and the creditors and the lawyers work together to figure out a plan that maximizes the recovery for everyone.

But if the ordinary process to answer the first question ends up with an answer like “sympathetic ordinary people lose their life savings,” or “politically connected people lose everything,” or “the banking system loses a lot of money and becomes undercapitalized,” or for that matter “housing prices collapse,” then that is a good reason for the government to step in. And if the government is stepping in, there is no particular reason to assume that the ordinary claims of seniority will apply. If the government steps in to rescue small investors or the banking system or housing prices, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will also rescue foreign hedge funds.

Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway did an Odd Lots episode with analyst Travis Lundy about this, in which he gives his best guess at a waterfall of repayment. “I think that if you start from the ranking of who ends up coming out well on this, if you had to ask, this is the Communist Party of China who’s the most important stakeholder in this,” he says, and then goes through a list of claimants ordered by, basically, how politically sympathetic they are. This seems like a more reasonable analysis than, like, looking at the corporate structure and legal document to see which claims are more senior.

After the subprime meltdown in 2008, steps were taken to reduce systemic risk in the American and European economies. China? Not so much.

Whatever the ultimately resolution of Evergrande, the Chinese real estate market still seems both way over-leveraged and horribly opaque.

That leads to things like 15 abandoned, never completed Chinese skyscrapers being demolished:

That wasn’t Evergrande, but a dizzying succession of other firms:

The original developer was Kunming Xishan Land and Housing Development and Operation (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Kunming Xifang). The project covers an area of ​​about 340 acres. It is planned to have residential, commercial and office buildings. It is divided into 4 plots for development and construction, namely A1, A2, A3, and A4. Among them, the A1 and A3 plots are commercial, and the A2 and A4 plots are residential, with a total construction area of ​​approximately 630,000 square meters. Among them, the delivery of four high-rise residential buildings on the A2 plot has been completed, with a construction area of ​​about 136,000 square meters.

In 2012, due to the break of Kunming Xifang’s capital chain, the project was taken over by Yunnan Tin Industry Real Estate Development and Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yunxi Real Estate). The project was renamed Yunxi·Gemdale. In July 2013, due to various reasons, Yunxi Construction of Sikkim Land was suspended. 2014 was originally the delivery time for the A2 plot of Yunxi Jindi, but due to the suspension of the project, the delivery did not begin until March 2015. In addition to the 4 high-rise buildings in the A2 plot that have been delivered, the remaining three plots A1\A3\A4 totaling 15 high-rise buildings have been suspended since the end of 2013.

In order to solve the problems left over from the unfinished project, the government restarted the project through the listing and transfer of the Yunnan Provincial Property Rights Exchange. On December 29, 2020, Yunnan Honghe Real Estate Co., Ltd. obtained the right to develop the project through equity transfer.

According to Sun Zheng, general manager of Xifang Group’s Liyang Star City Phase II Project, on January 6 this year, Yunnan Honghe Real Estate Co., Ltd. acquired 100% of Kunming Xifang’s equity and 23,068,600 yuan of debt at a transfer price of 979 million yuan. At present, West Real Estate is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honghe Land. In order to maintain the continuity of project development, Liyang Star City Phase II will continue to use West Real Estate as the main development entity.

Got all that? That’s just one development in one city you’ve never heard of. How many other ghost developments are there in China? Hundreds? Thousands?

Another real estate boondoggle: Why Shanghai Tower failed. “The Shanghai Tower is owned by Yeti Construction and Development, a consortium of state-owned development companies which includes Shanghai Chengtou Corp., Shanghai Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Co., and Shanghai Construction Group.”

And another: “The Story Behind China’s 600-Metre Abandoned Skyscraper.” Goldin Finance 117 was underwritten by Goldin Properties Holding.

Remember that declines in real estate holding values were huge drivers for Japan’s bubble bursting as well as the subprime meltdown that took out Lehman Brothers and Countrywide (among others).

Could China’s house of cards finally collapse in the same way? Very possibly. But remember this caveat:

Is Austin Homeless Funding A Conduit For Democratic Party Graft?

September 22nd, 2021

My working theory for why Mayor Steve Adler and the other leftwing radicals on the Austin City Council inflicted the homeless crisis on Austin is that the Homeless Industrial Complex is a particularly good vehicles for passing graft onto leftwing cronies.

So yesterday, when current councilwomen Mackenzie Kelly (an outsider whose tenure postdates the disastrous camping law repeal) was kind enough to post a report on Austin’s homeless spending, I dove right in.

Literally the first name I plucked out of Appendix B was Barbara Poppe and Associates of Columbia, Ohio.

And the first thing I checked about Poppe was what political candidates and organizations she donated money to. Well, what do you know?

Category Contributor Occupation Date Amount Recipient Recipient Jurisdiction
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 11-26-2020 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 10-30-2020 $500.00 Ryan, Tim (D) Federal
Money to SuperPAC/Outside Group POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe and Associates 10-22-2020 $250.00 Ohioans for Justice & Integrity Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 10-01-2020 $250.00 Espy, Mike (D) Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 10-01-2020 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-30-2020 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-30-2020 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 09-28-2020 $500.00 Biden, Joe (D) Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-04-2020 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 08-30-2020 $250.00 Biden, Joe (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-28-2020 $500.00 Biden, Joe (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 05-31-2020 $250.00 Swearengin, Paula Jean (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 05-29-2020 $250.00 Swearengin, Paula Jean (D) Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 04-24-2020 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 12-27-2019 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 12-22-2019 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 12-19-2019 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 06-29-2019 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 05-03-2019 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 04-21-2019 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 01-13-2019 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 10-30-2018 $500.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 10-29-2018 $1,500.00 ZACK SPACE FOR OHIO Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
Columbus, OH 43202 10-29-2018 $1,000.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
Columbus, OH 43202 10-20-2018 $500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-21-2018 $650.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-21-2018 $500.00 Pureval, Aftab (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-21-2018 $750.00 GILLUM, ANDREW D. (DEM)(GOV) Florida
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-21-2018 $250.00 BEJAMIN TODD (BEN) JEALOUS CAMPAIGN CMTE Maryland
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-21-2018 $400.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-21-2018 $1,500.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-14-2018 $500.00 DETTELBACH FOR OHIO Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-13-2018 $500.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-13-2018 $250.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-05-2018 $1,000.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-05-2018 $1,000.00 ZACK SPACE FOR OHIO Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-29-2018 $250.00 GILLUM, ANDREW D. (DEM)(GOV) Florida
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 08-26-2018 $250.00 Garrett, Janet (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
Columbus, OH 43202 08-24-2018 $2,500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 08-10-2018 $250.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 07-16-2018 $250.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-16-2018 $100.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 07-08-2018 $500.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 05-23-2018 $250.00 ZACK SPACE FOR OHIO Ohio
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 05-15-2018 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 05-15-2018 $250.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 PRINCIPAL 04-21-2018 $100.00 HELEN PROBST MILLS CAMPAIGN CMTE North Carolina
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
Columbus, OH 43202 04-07-2018 $1,500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 03-14-2018 $250.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 01-28-2018 $2,500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 11-23-2017 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 11-15-2017 $250.00 Jones, Doug (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 11-15-2017 $250.00 Jones, Doug (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 08-18-2017 $2,500.00 Brown, Sherrod (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-14-2017 $250.00 JUSTIN FAIRFAX CAMPAIGN CMTE Virginia
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-14-2017 $125.00 DONTE TANNER CAMPAIGN CMTE Virginia
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-09-2017 $250.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 06-29-2017 $100.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES LLC 06-20-2017 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES LLC 04-15-2017 $500.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 10-29-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 10-14-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-25-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 Harris, Kamala D (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 Rochester, Lisa Blunt (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 Demings, Val (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-02-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-23-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-28-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 12-03-2015 $250.00 DORRIAN, JULIA L Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD 02-24-2012 $500.00 Kilroy, Mary Jo (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 10-21-2008 $100.00 STEWART, DANIEL K Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD 05-12-2008 $500.00 Kilroy, Mary Jo (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Holland, MI 49423 04-08-2008 $25.00 CMTE TO ELECT MICHELLE MAKSIMOWICZ Colorado
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
COLUMBUS, OH 43202 COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD 06-29-2007 $250.00 Kilroy, Mary Jo (D) Federal
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 10-04-2006 $100.00 CELESTE, TED Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-23-2006 $100.00 CELESTE, TED Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, HERBERT & BARBARA
Nederland, CO 80466 RETIRED 05-01-2006 $25.00 FITZ-GERALD, JOAN Colorado
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Nederland, CO 80466 11-03-2005 $50.00 GRANHOLM, JENNIFER M & CHERRY JR, JOHN D Michigan
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 03-30-2004 $100.00 STEWART, DANIEL K Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 10-15-2002 $100.00 MILLER, RAY Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Nederland, CO 80466 10-02-2002 $30.00 PLANT, TOM Colorado
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 10-01-2002 $50.00 MILLER, RAY Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-27-2002 $150.00 HAGAN,, TIMOTHY & TAVARES, CHARLETA Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Nederland, CO 80466 07-23-2002 $30.00 FITZ-GERALD, JOAN Colorado
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Nederland, CO 80466 07-17-2002 $30.00 STEELE, TERESA L Colorado
Money to Parties POPPE, BARBARA
Nederland, CO 80466 09-06-2000 $100.00 DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN FUND OF COLORADO Colorado
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Nederland, CO 80466 06-16-2000 $25.00 FITZ-GERALD, JOAN Colorado
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 09-14-1998 $250.00 FISHER, LEE Ohio
Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
Columbus, OH 43202 07-31-1998 $50.00 TAVARES, CHARLETA B Ohio

A total of 91 donations, all to Democrats and left leaning organizations, including:

  • Hillary Clinton
  • Joe Biden
  • Kamala Harris
  • Stacey Abrams
  • Andrew Gillum
  • “Ohioans for Justice & Integrity”
  • “Colorofchange.org” (BLM-esque group)
  • Etc.
  • Hardly invalidates my thesis, does it?

    There are lots of other names on that list, and lots of other ways for money to to flow into the hands of Democrats and far-left organizations.

    More research is needed.

    Have Texas Troopers Secured The Border at Del Rio?

    September 21st, 2021

    It appears that Texas DPS Troopers have, for the time being, done what the Biden Administration seems actively hostile to doing: secure the border at the Del Rio crossing.

    State troopers deployed to the border by Gov. Greg Abbott are being credited for doing the federal government’s job and stopping thousands more migrants in Mexico from illegally crossing into the United States after well over 15,000 made it through here late last week.

    A swarm of Texas Department of Public Safety officers, known as troopers, descended on the riverbank Saturday afternoon as a show of force to deter people in Mexico from wading across the Rio Grande. Approximately 150 black SUVs were still lined up Sunday afternoon on the dirt road that runs parallel with the river.

    Their arrival on the scene Saturday had an immediate impact, stopping foot traffic from primarily Haitian migrants who had been going back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico.

    “With our DPS troopers, there have not been any crossings from that specific area,” Lt. Chris Olivarez, spokesman for the department’s South Texas Region, said in an interview on Sunday.

    The impact DPS’s arrival has had on Border Patrol agents has been significant. Despite it being the responsibility of Customs and Border Protection to patrol the nation’s borders, virtually all agents have been pulled from the field to transport migrants to and from holding facilities and then process and care for them once in custody.

    Those under the bridge are in an unusual go-between point as they are not in custody, but they are waiting under the bridge in hopes of being taken into custody and then released into the U.S. They may claim asylum to avoid being flown back to Haiti, though Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that most families will be released into the country and adults will be repatriated.

    I don’t believe this “catch and release into the U.S.” policy is actual law, but rather the Biden Administration’s perversion of the law in order to install as many illegal aliens in America as possible to amnesty them as future Democratic Party voters.

    Fortunately, the footage of the giant illegal alien camp in Del Rio was enough for the Biden Administration to resume deportation flights to Haiti.

    “Finally, the White House has directed appropriate U.S. agencies to work with the Haitian and other regional governments to provide assistance and support to returnees,” the press statement read.

    While DHS added that “our borders are not open,” the Biden administration has faced criticism for making policy moves this year that have seemingly incentivized illegal immigration. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued last week that the rush on the border can be partially attributed to a decision to cancel deportations of Haitians on September 8.

    After repatriated Haitians, many of whom have been in South America for years, began arriving Sunday in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, officials in the Haitian government were reportedly complaining about the deportations to their country, which is currently in poverty and disarray.

    Haiti is always in poverty and disarray. Until the Biden Administration, this was never considered a legal rational to illegally transport Haitians to the United States.

    One wonders if the same radical leftwing groups (Pueblo Sin Fronteras, La Familia Latina Unida, Centro Sin Fronteras, etc.) are responsible for the latest wave of illegal alien caravans like they were for the ones a few years ago. All three have money trails “lead back to George Soros’s well-funded Open Society Foundations.”

    In recent years, OSF has given millions of dollars to other organizations that directly assisted the caravans with fundraising, legal assistance, and media support. These organizations included the American Constitution Society, Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (Center for Legal Action in Human Rights), Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Amnesty International, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights First, and Church World Service.

    A bill adding $2 billion for border security passed during the last special legislative session, including $750 million for border wall construction.

    As mention yesterday, Abbott’s potential Democratic gubernatorial opponent Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke isn’t just opposed to spending more on border security, he wants to tear down existing walls:

    I’m glad the border appears to be secured at Del Rio for the time being. But for how long? And how many other border crossing points are receiving massive influxes of illegal aliens that we may not be hearing about?

    Beto III: The Betoing

    September 20th, 2021

    Spider-man 3. Aliens 3. Godfather Part III. Very rarely is the third installment in a series the best.

    What brings this to mind is word that Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, hot off losing a senate race and a Presidential primary, has decided to run for governor of Texas.

    2018 was a perfect storm of fawning media coverage, peak Trump Derangement Syndrome, a Republican incumbent weakened by his own unsuccessful Presidential run, off-year presidential race dynamics, and more money than any Senate candidate had ever amassed in any race, ever. And all that managed to do was get him within three points of Ted Cruz. Then he ran for President, and flamed out well before Iowa.

    Then he got out on the national campaign trail, where mainstream media outlets had already lined up behind candidates like Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren as their preferred favorites, and the nation found out what Texas conservatives had been saying all along: O’Rourke is a big bag of nothing. All the qualities that the media found “endearing” and “authentic” were now goofy and eminently mockable. The flaws were always there.

    Quick, name a single signature issue O’Rourke stood out from other candidates on. Until his disasterous “I’m gonna grab your guns” moment, there wasn’t any. Warren was the candidate that wanted to socialize healthcare; O’Rourke was the candidate that Instagrammed his dental visit. The more a national audience saw of him the less they liked him. The harder he pandered to the hard left the more phony he seemed and the softer his poll numbers, racking up some perfect “0.0” scores, where not a single person polled planned to vote for him.

    Faced with an obviously failing campaign, O’Rourke made the decision to pull the plug.

    There’s little reason to believe he’s gotten better.

    Incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott has been hurt by a variety of missteps over the last two years: The futile Flu Manchu lockdowns, the border crisis, the ice storm. On none of those issues does O’Rourke credibly represent positions closer to those of the average Texas voter than Abbott.

    Border security? While the Rio Grande Valley is in the midst of a Republican upswell over the issue, Beto wants to tear down the border wall:

    Ice storm? Beto wants to keep pouring money into the same green energy boondoggles that couldn’t keep the lights on.

    Flu Manchu lockdowns? Beto wanted to keep them going longer.

    And that’s to say nothing of the myriad issues O’Rourke moved hard left on during his presidential run, from guns to taxes. “”In his Presidential bid, Beto veered so far to the left, he is probably an unelectable candidate in Texas.”

    Moreover, off year elections typically benefit the party out of the White House, which benefited O’Rourke in 2018, but hinders him in 2022. From inflation to the border to Afghanistan to Sundown Joe’s whole sleepwalking presidency, all signs point to a very difficult electoral environment for Democrats in 2022.

    Does O’Rourke have any strengths as a candidate? Yes. First and foremost, he does the work. He’s been a pretty indefatigable campaigner in his senate and presidential runs, and there’s no reason to believe his gubernatorial run will be any different. He has an army of leftwing fans across the state, most of whom will probably return, meaning adequate campaign volunteers won’t be a problem. He also built an organization that ran far more smoothly than the one Wendy Davis built in 2014. And he has a large list of campaign donors to work, though it remains to be seen how many will want to keep throwing money at him for his third big race in four years after losing the first two in such spectacular fashion.

    Does O’Rourke have straight path to the nomination? Right now, yes. Should actor Matthew McConnaughey jump into the race, all bets are off.

    The dynamics of the Democratic Party are going to make the 2022 Texas Gubernatorial Race a crusade for abortion. That didn’t exactly help Wendy Davis win in 2014, where she failed to garner 40% of the vote. And remember that in 2018, when they were both on the ballot, O’Rourke got 4,045,632 votes, while Abbott got 4,656,196. That’s a big gap to bridge.

    Democrats haven’t won the Texas governor’s mansion in over a quarter century. I’m pretty sure O’Rourke is not the one who’s going to break that streak.

    Is Australia Not Going To Take It Anymore?

    September 19th, 2021

    This video from Melbourne suggests that Australians have had just about all of the lockdowns they can stand:

    It’s not enough to break through police lines. Mobs need to track the politicians that imposed these lockdowns to their homes, bust down their doors, drag them forcibly into the street, and then tar and feather them.

    For starters.

    Round Rock ISD Arresting Critics

    September 18th, 2021

    So what the hell is this?

    A small protest was held outside the Williamson County Jail Friday night after two people were arrested in connection to a Round Rock ISD board meeting earlier in the week.

    The protesters said the arrests were unjust.

    On Tuesday, Sept. 14, Round Rock ISD board members were set to discuss extending the district’s mask rules. But attendance inside the meeting was capped. Board members said they were trying to maintain social distancing. But members of the public say they were unfairly kept out of a public meeting.

    One of the people who was escorted out was Dustin Clark. In video from Tuesday night, an argument can be heard between him and board members before a police officer made him leave the chamber.

    “Mr. Clark, you have to leave. You have to leave. You have to leave, Mr. Clark. We cannot continue this,” the school board member said.

    “You’re right, you can’t continue to keep the public out of here,” Clark can be heard saying.

    “You have been warned, sir. You have a choice. You’ve been warned to be quiet or leave,” the board member responds.

    “You’re not letting the public into an open meeting. Shame on you! Communists! Communists! Let the public in!” the man said.

    Eventually, the board ended the meeting early and pushed the mask discussion to next week.

    Clark is one of the people who was arrested Friday night. The other person arrested was Jeremy Story.

    So the meeting was Tuesday but Clark and Story were arrested on Friday? For a misdemeanor? How often do sheriff’s deputies go to someone’s home to arrest people for a misdemeanor three days after the fact?

    Story’s statement:

    More background:

    Like school districts across Texas and the country, the Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) has grappled with the legal issues surrounding mask mandates for months. However, at RRISD, the local mask imbroglio has exposed divisions among the school board and dredged up allegations against the superintendent.

    After flirting with a parental opt-out system, RRISD adopted a mask mandate that allows exceptions for children with medical reasons. This mandate expires tomorrow, prompting the board to put the possibility of a lasting mandate on the agenda for the September 14 meeting.

    The proposed mandate would be a mask “matrix.” Under the proposed matrix, RRISD would adjust mask requirements based on Austin Public Health recommendations, which gauge the threat of COVID-19 in five possible stages. For example, a Stage 4 or 5 — the yellow and red options, respectively — would mean required masking at RRISD under the matrix. The Austin area has been in Stage 5, the highest stage, since early August.

    However, amid a ruckus in the hallway and disagreements between members, the school board decided to table this item until September 18.

    A number of attendees thronged outside the door of the meeting room, held at bay by RRISD police officers. The board was streaming a video feed of the meeting in an overflow room down the hall, but several attendees wanted to be in the meeting room with the trustees.

    The board voted 5-2 to keep the limited seating arrangement. The two nay votes came from Trustees Mary Bone and Danielle Weston, outspoken critics of the district’s past mask policies. Bone and Weston left the meeting afterward, with Bone expressing frustration over the seating rule.

    “They’re not upholding law. They’re upholding policy,” Bone said of the board’s decision to bar the attendees in the hall from entrance to the meeting.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently ended a suspension of the Open Meetings Act made necessary by COVID-19. Certain provisions of the law were paused during the pandemic to allow government bodies to keep crowds out of meeting rooms. This pause ended September 1.

    Snip.

    Backstage drama surrounding RRISD Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez thickens the plot.

    Similar to other votes, Weston and Bone were the only two trustees to vote against hiring Azaiez, who raised eyebrows after becoming the district’s lone finalist in a hiring process that the two trustees and some parents called opaque.

    Weston and Bone also issued a press release notifying the public that a woman claiming to be Azaiez’s mistress told the school board that he had assaulted her.

    Jeremy Story, a Round Rock father active in Republican circles who has confronted the school board at public meetings before about these allegations, said he brought the issue to the attention of the Round Rock Police Department yesterday and the Williamson County Sheriff today.

    Story was also one of the attendees at last night’s meeting. He was blocked and held by a police officer while trying to enter the meeting room and claims the board has targeted him for probing allegations against Azaiez.

    “I did not aggress against them. They wouldn’t answer any of my questions. Nothing. My offense was walking through the door to get into the open meeting, public meeting, of a school board,” Story said.

    The fact that Azaiez came from Donna ISD rang a bell with me, as that Rio Grande Valley district had a huge corruption scandal several years back, though Azaiez’s tenure as Superintendent there postdates the scandal.

    This is the same Round Rock ISD that just had a Texas Education Agency Monitor installed as part of a corrective action plan stemming from a complaint lodged against the board during the 2018-19 school year.

    TEA monitors report on the activities of the board of trustees or the superintendent. According to documents made public by the district Sept. 15, a complaint against the district from October 2019 found that previous board president Chad Chadwell did not recuse himself from discussion about a grievance against himself, alleging a conflict of interest and board overreach.

    This action, the letter states, violates Texas Education Code Chapter 11, Subchapter D-Powers and Duties of Board of Trustees of Independent School District. The letter states that the TEA requested documentation related to the complaint in August of 2020, which was then reviewed by TEA Special Investigations Unit Investigator Rebecca Clevlen.

    In other RRISD news, a Williamson County judge blocked their mask mandate because it violated Governor Abbott’s directive, only to have that block lifted by an appeals court the same day.

    Parents around the country are waking up and demanding answers on a host of issues, including mask mandates and the teaching of critical race theory, and school boards don’t seem to like it one bit. There are agendas at work that have nothing to do with teaching and everything to do with indoctrination.

    Developing…

    (Hat tip: Holly Hansen.)

    LinkSwarm for September 17, 2021

    September 17th, 2021

    Greetings, and welcome to another Friday LinkSwarm! Chaos at the border and buying American military tech to oppose China are two of the themes this week:

  • 8,000 illegal aliens await processing underneath the Del Rio bridge on the U.S./Mexican border.
  • Here’s a drone shot:

    Those illegal aliens are there because Democrats and the Biden Administration want them there, so they can turn those illegal aliens into Democratic Party voters via amnesty.

  • So damaging is that drone footage that the FAA has closed airspace over the bridge to prevent it:

    I guess Bret Weinstein spoke too early

  • Australia signed an agreement with the U.S. and the UK to build nuclear submarines.

    This effort is just one part of a new partnership between the three countries, dubbed AUKUS, which is short for Australia-United Kingdom-United States, that also includes cooperation in other areas, including long-range strike capabilities, cyber warfare, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. President Biden said AUKUS would help all three countries work more closely together to help ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region in the long-term.

    On the whole, this is probably a good move to counter China, and I hear that Canberra was the driving force behind the agreement. All that said, the United States was already in formal alliances with the UK and Australia through other treaties, so it’s not anything like a tectonic shift.

  • Another sign of the new alliance: The UK is going to station new vessels in the Indo-Pacific. [Senior Royal Navy admiral Tony Radakin] “said that the Taiwan Strait is clearly ‘part of the free and open Indo-Pacific.'”
  • Naturally France pitched a snit fit over the deal because Australia cancelled a contract with French shipbuilder Naval Group. “This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr Trump used to do,” Le Drian told franceinfo radio. “I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.” Cry some more, Jean-Claude. But it isn’t like France was ever going to come to Australia’s aid in a dust-up with China, so the deal makes sense as drawing Australia closer to the regions remaining nuclear naval powers. (Russia can barely keep its own navy running these days.)
  • Speaking of possible China opponents buying American technology, Japan is buying more F-35s.
  • Gavin Newsom survives recall election. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • John Durham finally files an indictment over the Russian collusion hoax investigation. “Special counsel John Durham reportedly seeks a grand jury indictment against Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer at a Democratic-allied law firm closely linked to British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier.” That firm, of course, would be Perkins Coie, who you may remember from regular appearances in the Clinton corruption updates.
  • Also:

  • More military resignations:

  • “Despite his bellicose rhetoric and bluster, Trump had probably been more reluctant to use military force than any president in memory.”
  • Texas Monthly is shocked, shocked to find Hispanic Texans voting Republican:

    The Democrats of Texas have long, as in 30 years or more, believed that the Hispanic vote would eventually hand them total control of Texas forever. They believe they need not adjust their policies on faith, family, life, the Second Amendment, taxes — anything — because the party brand itself was enough. If it wasn’t, then they would resort to bullying. They could go all the way left to Wendy Davis and Karl Marx if they wanted to — and they have — and the Hispanic vote would save them.

    But a funny thing happened along the way. People like state Rep. Aaron Peña switched parties on principle and others followed them. And more are following them. His daughter, Adrienne Peña-Garza, is quoted in this Texas Monthly story regarding how the Democrats operate when it comes to independent-minded folks like her father and herself.

    Peña-Garza, the Hidalgo County Republican chair, said Hispanic South Texans, who have long been conservative, “have become liberated” to vote on their long-held beliefs. “People have been bullied into voting Democrat. If you got involved [in conservative politics], people said, ‘I’m not going to give you this contract; I’m not going to give you this job.’ But I think the bullying has backfired. People are more empowered and courageous.”

    When I was reporting on border issues in Hidalgo County during my first stint with PJ Media, I’d hear about the bullying she mentions but it wasn’t provable. Rampant and endemic, but hidden with no paper trails. Tejanos and Tejanas started standing up to it a decade ago, some by running for office, others by working courageously together underground and actually going after some of the political criminality. People noticed. Groups like Hispanic Republicans of Texas and the Conservative Hispanic Society rose up to answer the call outside any party structure. One of the most popular and successful talk radio hosts in the Lone Star State is my friend Chris Salcedo, the “liberty-loving Latino.” The conservative juggernaut is heard expounding on the joys of freedom and how Democrats would take it away on the air every day in Houston and Dallas and nationally on NewsmaxTV.

    People are noticing how embarrassingly paternalistic and out-of-touch the Democrats are when it comes to South Texas. They really don’t know Texas at all and haven’t bothered to understand.

    Snip.

    That’s because they’re not immigrants. Treating them as immigrants cancels their ancestors and their heritage. Tejanos have been in Texas for generations, from the time when it was part of the Spanish Empire. Badly misunderstood and under-reported is the fact that Tejanos are and have been part of the culture of Texas long before we Anglos showed up. By the time my ancestors arrived in Texas in the 1850s and 1860s, Tejanos had been building Texas for more than a century. They’re not immigrants in any sense of the word. They’re Texans and American citizens. They resisted elitist dictator Santa Anna, fought at the Alamo and San Jacinto, they’ve served in every major war defending the United States, they’ve won Medals of Honor and have state veterans homes named after them — and their communities are the most directly affected by the chaos that out-of-state Democrats tend to unleash on the border. They serve in the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, and they work in the oil fields and own thriving businesses. Coyotes, cartels, drugs, and trafficking all affect Tejano communities first, while the rich Democrats who party at the Met are unaffected personally and weaponize the border as a racial cudgel. RGV citizens are not happy about that and they know whom to blame.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • How to skew poll samples, CNN edition.
  • The country is in the best of hands: “White House Cuts Live Stream of Biden Mid-Sentence as He Asks a Question.”
  • “At Bail Reform Bill Signing, Abbott and Patrick Lay Blame with ‘Socialist’ Harris County Judges.”

    Gov. Greg Abbott visited Houston on Monday to sign new legislation he said would directly address lenient bail practices and rising crime in Harris County.

    “Lives are being lost because the criminal justice system in Harris County is not working the way it should,” said Abbott.

    Known as the Damon Allen Act, Senate Bill (SB) 6 is named after a state trooper who was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop on Thanksgiving Day 2017. Despite having a history of assaulting a law enforcement officer, the shooter was out on a $15,000 felony bond at the time of the murder.

    Allen’s widow, Casey Allen, who has become an advocate for the reforms implemented by SB 6, joined Abbott at the Safer Houston Emergency Summit held by a coalition of ministry groups.

    Noting that her husband had been killed by a “violent, repeat offender,” Mrs. Allen added, “The murderer still went to jail, and my life and my kids’ lives were forever changed by actions that can’t be taken back.”

    The new law will create an online public safety report for judges and magistrates to access more complete information about a suspect’s criminal history before setting bail. In addition, SB 6 requires additional training for judges and magistrates, and prohibits the release of certain violent suspects or repeat suspects on personal recognizance (PR) bonds.

  • “Same FBI That Chased Russia Collusion Hoax for Years Covered Up Sexual Abuse of USA Gymnasts.” Why did James Comey’s FBI fail to investigate charges against Larry Nassar?
  • Masks are for cameras, and the little people:

  • Jackson, I’m goin to Jackson…to get murdered. (Hat tip: Reader Alan Stallings.)
  • A thread about Rick Rescorla, one of the biggest heroes of 9/11.
    

  • Evidently LA parents are not wild about a teacher that has a F*CK THE POLICE poster in his classroom.
  • Funny how no one talks about Sweden’s response to coronavirus.
    

  • Meanwhile, fully vaccinated Israel is seeing record cases. But the death rates appear to be low. (Hat tip: Michael Quinn Sullivan.)
  • “EPA Peer Review: The Best Rubberstamping Cronies Money Can Buy.”

    Now that the Biden EPA has rolled back the conflict-of-interest standards imposed by the Trump EPA on the agency’s outside scientific peer review panels, it has gone back to its old practice of stocking its peer review boards with agency research grant-recipient cronies who can be counted on to rubber-stamp whatever EPA wants to do. The Biden EPA most recently announced the particulate matter (PM) subpanel for the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). As per below, 17 of the 22 members are current and/or former EPA grantees. The amounts associated with them as principal investigators are shown. Note the largest grantee (Lianne Sheppard, recipient of $60,032,782 in EPA grants) is, naturally, the chairman. Sheppard is also the chairman of the main CASAC panel as well as a member of EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), a separate outside review panel. The Biden EPA needs a reliable multi-purpose rubber-stamper and that is Sheppard, an activist who sued the Trump EPA because it instituted conflict of interest rules under which she was ineligible to rubber-stamp agency wishes.

  • Here’s a UK funeral director who claims all the Flu Manchu deaths he’s seeing now are from vaccinations:

    Take this with a grain of salt and in the interest of gathering data points.

  • What. The. Hell. “Apple threatened to kick Facebook off its App Store after a 2019 BBC report detailed how human traffickers were using Facebook to sell victims.” What’s a little sexual slavery compared to all those likes?
  • Busted!

  • Coronavirus actors in Australia?

  • Part of the $3.5 trillion Democratic Party payoff porkulus is subsidies for newspapers, because of course. (Hat tip: The Other McCain.)
  • Norm Macdonald, RIP.
  • Another tribute to him from Bill Burr.
  • Bad bad boys, what ya gonna do, what ya gonna do when they reboot you? (Hat tip Dwight.)
  • Speaking of Dwight, here’s that list of Mannix episodes where he’s menaced by an old army buddy you’ve been waiting for!
  • The Vinland Map is a fake.
  • First edition of Frankenstein sells for $1,170,000. I guess I won’t be adding that to my collection anytime soon…
  • “Nation Cheers As Democrats Will Remain In California.”
  • “Woman Attending Ultra-Exclusive Gala For The Elite In Expensive Designer Dress Lectures Nation On Inequality.”
  • “Powerful: AOC Writes ‘Tax The Rich’ In The Sky With Her Private Jet.”
  • Live footage of the 101st GoodBoys drop:

  • Biden Administration Blocking Flu Manchu Monoclonal Antibody Supplies To Red States?

    September 16th, 2021

    So it appears:

    The Biden administration is imposing new limits on states’ ability to access to Covid-19 antibody treatments amid rising demand from GOP governors who have relied on the drug as a primary weapon against the virus.

    Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week.

    The approach is likely to cut into shipments to GOP-led states in the Southeast that have made the pricey antibody drug a central part of their pandemic strategy, while simultaneously spurning mask mandates and other restrictions. That threatens to heighten tensions between the Biden administration and governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who have emerged as vocal opponents of the federal Covid-19 response.

    “How dare they pay for treatments that work while ignoring the one true path of vaccine righteousness?”

    Which states are the feds rationing?

    Demand from a handful of southern states has exploded since then, state and federal officials said, raising concerns they were consuming a disproportionate amount of the national supply. Seven states — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama — accounted for 70 percent of all orders in early September.

    Huh, I wonder what those states might all have in common? Maybe…Republican governors? Well, we can’t have those upstarts showing up vaccine-pushing blue states, can we?

    “President Joe Biden has sharply criticized DeSantis and others for resisting efforts to encourage mask wearing and ramp up vaccinations, vowing in a speech last week that if ‘governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way.'”

    Evidently this is code for “Stop fighting the holy narrative or I’ll make sure your citizens die!”

    Monoclonal antibodies were one of the treatments Joe Rogan used to shake off Mao Tze Lung in three days.

    Rationing is a piss-poor way of managing finite resources rather than letting the private sector solve the problem.

    All this is a good reason not to put the federal government in charge of key medical treatment supplies…

    (Hat tip: Borepatch.)

    Which Of Our Institutions Are Captured and Corrupted?

    September 15th, 2021

    Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discuss which of our institutions have been captured. Short answer: All of them.

    See also: Jerry Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

    Afghanistan News Roundup for September 14, 2021

    September 14th, 2021

    The Democratic Media Complex would love it if Americans would just “move on” from the Biden Administration’s disasterous withdrawal debacle in Afghanistan, but there are too many sad lessons Democrats have yet to learn from the debacle. So here’s a roundup of relevant links.

  • Not matter how much the Biden Administration spins it, it was not a success:

    Talk about a catastrophic success.

    The Biden administration wants credit for the Afghanistan evacuation as measured by the sheer number of people it flew out amid a security and humanitarian crisis of its own making.

    This is the arsonist bragging about how many fires he has put out.

    Those with memories that stretch past a couple of weeks ago will recall the halcyon days when a mass evacuation at a civilian airport exposed to suicide bombers and other attackers wasn’t, according to Joe Biden, even conceivable.

    Biden contributed to the collapse of the Afghan military by denying it air cover, gave away Bagram Air Base for no good reason, pulled out U.S. troops before our diplomats and civilians, drastically underestimated the gathering Taliban offensive, and then, caught unawares by the fall of Kabul, scrambled to jury-rig a desperate rescue that shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place.

    That the U.S flew more than 115,000 people out of Kabul is a testament to the awesome capabilities of the United States military.

    It is not in any way a vindication of President Biden’s exit.

    The evacuation itself has been costly. Because we outsourced security outside the airport to the Taliban, our service members were forced to operate in dangerous conditions. A nearly inevitable attack last week killed 13 of them. That’s the loss of more Americans in one day than were killed in action most years in Afghanistan since 2015.

    Then, we failed by the most important metric. We left hundreds of Americans behind who wanted to leave, a squalid betrayal that was unfathomable before the Biden team began to try to prepare the public for it a week or so ago.

  • Just how many Americans are left in Afghanistan?

    President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and press secretary Jen Psaki now all suffer from a credibility gap born of obfuscation over the Afghan catastrophe. Though the State Department can count the minimum number of “Americans” — defined by me as all U.S. passport holders, whether citizens or Legal Permanent Residents with “green cards” known to its teams by text, email and phone calls — no one at State or the White House can seem to agree on what that number is.

    This past Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told CNN there were “around 100” Americans left in Afghanistan. On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said “hundreds” are still stranded. The Post’s Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief Susannah George told my radio audience Friday morning there is simply no way to know, as some passport holders are cut off and most of the country is out of contact with anyone.

    We have a right to know the scale of this crisis: the minimum number of U.S. passport holders known by our authorities to be in Afghanistan. And it is a crisis. It is America Held Hostage 2.0, and though a cohort of Americans escaped Thursday, many remain behind. Psaki, with astonishing indifference to the worries of families and friends across the country, said on Wednesday that there were a “handful” of Americans still in Afghanistan.

    A “handful.” It is shocking to hear that. Americans do not come in “handfuls.” They come in ones. Each one matters. One American abandoned is a crisis. We need to know the denominator against which the “ongoing efforts” can be measured. We celebrate every American who escapes, but we cannot forget and dare not accept the minimization of Americans left behind.

  • Indeed, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that there are thousands of lawful U.S. residents left in Afghanistan. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Longtime high-ranking soldiers are retiring left and right:

  • The MSM moved away from front page stories on Afghanistan as quickly as they possibly could. Never again will they run “America Held Hostage” headlines while a Democrat is in the White House…
  • Biden: We’re going to stay until we get every last American out. Reality: Nope.
  • Just how many weapons did we leave to the Taliban? We had a pretty good count until the Biden Administration removed them from government websites.
  • They were even trying to claim that none of the equipment left in Afghanistan was a threat to anyone.
  • Fortunately, U.S. troops were able to disable some of it before leaving.
  • The Biden Administration was already rewriting the history on the withdrawal while it was going on:

    The real issue about this historic flight of humanity, however, is why such a gargantuan cramped effort was necessary in the first place? For months Team Biden will be trying to fog over that issue like the inside of your windshield in a rainstorm.

    Here’s the narrative: Donald Trump did a deal with the Taliban last year when they were only wannabe rulers in which all U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, before the annual Afghan fighting season got underway in that godforsaken land.

    In exchange, the Taliban agreed to reduce violent attacks, mainly on Americans, forbid terrorists to set up shop there again, and to negotiate in good faith with the elected central government in Kabul.

    The withdrawal commitment was political cover for the United States, so the exit wasn’t an ignominious admission of defeat, like the Soviets in 1989 and every other attempted occupier for the last 33 centuries.

    No one except perhaps some kindergarteners in Arkansas expected the Taliban to live up to much of that agreement. And only those toddlers were disappointed.

    For some inexplicable reason, Biden delayed the withdrawal first to the anniversary of 9/11 that started this whole mess and then to Aug. 31, which is the prime-time combat season in a land that has no NFL to follow. Taliban forces were well on the move by then.

    Taking the flag down at Bagram weeks early with no contingency plan for adversity was the signal for insurgents to step on the gas. So, they did.

    Now, the U.S. military is an amazing collection of proud outfits whose men and women, volunteers all, thankfully train for many things you could never even imagine. Hard to believe that one scenario would be to have a commander in chief with diminished mental capacity and a notorious lifelong distrust of the military.

    And that man would order woke Pentagon leaders to forget those dumbass civilians in Afghanistan, just get the last 2,500 troops out of Afghanistan. And do it now.

    Then once they were out, the Taliban took over everything, and the reality of thousands of potential hostages emerged, Biden abruptly changed his mind to — No, wait, better send 6,000 troops back to re-secure the airfield. Oh, and assemble enough huge planes to fly more than 75,000 frightened people all over the Middle East.

    And then send in the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to meet with the Taliban’s leader to politely request an extension of that Aug. 31 exit deadline that the American leader himself had set.

    And all the time that U.S. commander in chief was on vacation refusing or incapable of telling countrymen what the hell was going on.

  • At least one veteran says that Afghanistan was a giant money funneling scam:

    I would sit in on staff meetings, because part of my position there was with a Joint Command that was building the Afghan military and police force — the division that I worked with was about training and policy for the Afghan police. And that also included arming and funding them. I don’t think I could overstate that this was a system just basically designed for funneling money and wasting or losing equipment.

    I would sit in staff meetings where we would talk about, OK, this month we sent 14 armored Humvees down to Helmand Province for the Border Patrol. And 12 of those 14 Humvees along the way went missing — or, quote unquote, broke down — and were disabled. And that was a regular thing. Like the majority of shit we were adding to the inventory of these Border Patrol units, just wasn’t even making it there.

    Let me give you some context on how fucked up the flow of information was. For example, a big part of my job there was tracking the number of police recruits that would complete their training cycle — you know, every month or however many times a month, I was there when there were over a dozen different police training camps throughout the country, and they would have different training cycles for different groups of police. And then I would contact those training facilities and be like, OK, how many police were expected to have graduated this month? How many actually completed training and how many recruits showed up?

    And what was funny about that whole system was these training camps were not operated by the US military. They are operated by contractors like MPRI or DynCorp. And those contractors were being hired through the US State Department, even though the DoD was paying for them. But it was the State Department that was hiring them. And then what made it even more ridiculous was the nature of these contracts made it so that the number — the training figure, the number of police that made it through training this month — that number was proprietary to the contractor. So they owned that number — they didn’t actually even have to give that to us. I’m a Captain in the Air Force working for the Command, calling and asking, “How many police did you guys train this month?” And they didn’t have to actually tell me that.

    When they would give me these figures, I would total them up, because I’m compiling reports that are presumably going back to be presented before Congress to justify expenditures. And I had a Marine Corps major that was part of the Command section that would come in and he’d say, “Hey, we were supposed to cycle through 300 police recruits this month. This says only 150 got through. It’s supposed to be 300.” I’m like, OK, well, it wasn’t 300, it was 150. “Well, can you massage this report so that it says 300?” Basically, can you lie on this report so that it says 300. So just the whole flow of information was not in any way remotely transparent, and it was set up so that really the only people that knew anything for certain were the contractors — the Command staff couldn’t leverage from them accurate information.

    I was sitting in on Command staff meetings, where they’re going through weekly reports on distribution of materials. And there were massive discrepancies that nobody was really following up on. The response when I asked about it — because it blew my mind — was just, you know, this is what happens. A lot of this stuff goes missing, a lot of it gets broken.

    “The purpose of us being here is to justify pouring mountains of cash into the pockets of contractors — the manufacturers of this equipment. The incentive structure was, “Lose shit, because then it’ll have to be replaced. We’ll have to send more out there.”

    Funny how the same State Department that ran the Iran deal was running Afghan military training and equipment. Why, if I were of a more suspicious mind, I might suspect that it was all a giant scheme to kickback still more money to the Democratic Party and radical leftwing activists…

  • Tell us what you really think: “President Biden Called ‘Feckless, Dementia-Ridden Piece Of Crap’ By Mom Of Slain Marine.”

    United States Marine Rylee McCollum, 20, was killed in Thursday’s terror attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. The fallen Marine’s mother, Kathy, said on a radio show that Americans who voted for Joe Biden “just killed my son.”

    “That feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap just sent my son to die,” the distraught mother said. “I woke up at four o’clock this morning, two Marines at my door telling me my son was dead. So, to… right before me and listen to that piece of crap talk about diplomatic crap with frickin Taliban terrorists who just freakin blew up my son and no, nothing, to not say anything about oh my god, I’m so sorry for families. So, my son is gone.”

    “I never thought in a million years [my son] would die for nothing, for nothing, because that feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap who decided he wanted a photo-op on September 11,” she said. “That’s what kills me. I wanted my son to represent our country, to fight for my country. But I never thought that a feckless piece of crap would send him to his death and smirk on television while he’s talking about people dying with his nasty smirk. The dementia-ridden piece of crap needs to be removed from office. It never would have happened under Trump.”

  • Speaking of which, who did impress Gold Star families?

    “It was just very cordial, very understanding. He was awesome. He was just talking about the finest of the finest. He said he heard and saw everything that we had said, and he offered his condolences several times, and how sorry he was.”

    Said Darin Hoover, father of one of the Marines who died recently in Afghanistan, quoted in “Trump reaches out to families of U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan.”

  • Did Gender studies lose Afghanistan?

    America in Afghanistan sought a shortcut, and by ‘shortcut’ Cockburn means ‘something that takes 10 times as long but doesn’t look as nasty for TV cameras’. America hoped that with enough half-baked social engineering in the half of Afghanistan it controlled, it would eventually be rewarded with victory, and Afghanistan would become the Holland of the Hindu Kush. On Ivy League campuses, students are taught to decry ‘colonialism’, but the Ivy League diplomats who sought to remake Afghanistan in Harvard’s image were among the most ambitious practitioners of it in world history.

    So, alongside the billions for bombs went hundreds of millions for gender studies in Afghanistan. According to US government reports, $787 million was spent on gender programs in Afghanistan, but that substantially understates the actual total, since gender goals were folded into practically every undertaking America made in the country.

    A recent report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) broke down the difficulties of the project. For starters, in both Dari and Pastho there are no words for ‘gender’. That makes sense, since the distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ was only invented by a sexually-abusive child psychiatrist in the 1960s, but evidently Americans were caught off-guard. Things didn’t improve from there. Under the US’s guidance, Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution set a 27 percent quota for women in the lower house — higher than the actual figure in America! A strategy that sometimes required having women represent provinces they had never actually been to. Remarkably, this experiment in ‘democracy’ created a government few were willing to fight for, let alone die for.

    The initiatives piled up one after another. Do-gooders established a ‘National Masculinity Alliance’, so a few hundred Afghan men could talk about their ‘gender roles’ and ‘examine male attitudes that are harmful to women’.

    Police facilities included childcare facilities for working mothers, as though Afghanistan’s medieval culture had the same needs as 1980s Minneapolis. The army set a goal of 10 percent female participation, which might make sense in a Marvel movie, but didn’t to devout Muslims. Even as America built an Afghan army that ended up collapsing in days, and a police force whose members frequently became highwaymen, it always made sure to execute its gender goals.

    But all this wasn’t just a stupid waste of money. It routinely actively undermined the ‘nation-building’ that America was supposed to be doing. According to an USAID observer, the gender ideology included in American aid routinely caused rebellions out in the provinces, directly causing the instability America was supposedly fighting. To get Afghanistan’s parliament to endorse the women’s rights measures it wanted, America resorted to bribing them. Soon, bribery became the norm for getting anything done in the parliament.

    Instead of rattling off anecdotes, perhaps a single video clip will do the job. Dadaism and conceptual art are of dubious value even in the West, but at some point some person who is not in prison for fraud decided that Afghan women would be uplifted by teaching them about Marcel Duchamp:

    Watch the video, and you can see the exact point (specifically, 31 seconds in) where the American mission in Afghanistan dies.

  • But at least we carried out that drone strike against ISIS terrorists! And by “ISIS terrorists” I mean “an Afghan aid worker delivering water and the children running to greet him.
  • “Psaki: ‘There Are No American Hostages, Just People Being Detained Against Their Will Until Their Captors’ Demands Are Met.'”
  • “Psaki: ‘A Record 331 Million Americans Have Not Been Abandoned In Afghanistan.'”
  • As before, this roundup could have been ten times as long…