Happy Thursday.
Not much satire today: More States Pass Abortion Laws In Hopes Of Triggering Travel Ban From Portland
"I'm like, 'whatever' on abortion," said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, "but the prospect of being completely cut off from Portland in every way is seriously tempting."
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We left a lot of people behind in Afghanistan.
Veteran-led rescue groups say the Biden administration’s estimate that no more than 200 U.S. citizens were left behind in Afghanistan is too low and also overlooks hundreds of other people they consider to be equally American: permanent legal residents with green cards.
Some groups say they continue to be contacted by American citizens in Afghanistan who did not register with the U.S. Embassy before it closed and by others not included in previous counts because they expressed misgivings about leaving loved ones behind.
As for green card holders, they have lived in the U.S. for years, paid taxes, become part of their communities and often have children who are U.S. citizens. Yet the administration says it does not have an estimate on the number of such permanent residents who are in Afghanistan and desperately trying to escape Taliban rule.
So private citizens and NGOs stepped up with chartered planes to get people out. But the U.S. State Department is/was not being helpful. Depending on the source, the State Dept. is/was either blocking some of those flights, or pathetically slow and inept at helping them leave Afghanistan.
Reports of several charter planes grounded in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif sparked outrage over the weekend when the organizers of private flights spoke out against the State Department for inaction. Dozens of Americans and Afghan citizens are trapped in the city as they await permission from the Taliban for their flights to take off for Doha, Qatar, while State Department officials say they have no way of vetting the people waiting for the planes.So the government stepped up. The Qatar government, I should say. Biden administration on sidelines as Americans trapped in Afghanistan get Taliban permission to leave:
More Americans appear to finally be leaving Afghanistan Thursday as Qatar works with the Taliban to allow them to exit the country following the U.S. military's withdrawal and the White House acknowledges the significant role the Middle Eastern country is playing in getting Americans out.
Qatari officials told the Associated Press that between 100 and 150 Americans will be leaving on a Qatar Airways flight out of the airport in Kabul.
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I miss Trump. He just needed to scale back his more absurd/outrageous comments a smidge and get a Twitter editor.Gutfeld asks Trump what he'd say to Gutfeld's wife to try to convince her to get vaccinated (he announces she's unvaccinated). Trump responds by saying he recommends she get vaccinated but if she doesn't want to, that's okay too. pic.twitter.com/rrn010vS4o
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 9, 2021
