How would you like to be one of the 15,000+ American citizens in Kabul, or surrounding region, and getting this notice from the United States State Department:

“A congressional aide tells CBS News we have no partners left in Afghanistan to safely get Americans in-country to Kabul.” (link)

…. But they planned for every contingency right?

The 44-year-old academic currently occupying the role of National Security Advisor to Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, informs reporters that Biden has not spoken to any world leaders since the total collapse of Afghanistan and the embarrassing mess created by Biden’s administration.

Yet again, the Potemkin village of an administration touting their international relationships is highlighted.  It’s all a farce folks; a ruse on display for the entire world to see.  Thus, the lonely picture of Joe Biden in his bunker at Camp David gets more context.

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The U.S. media cannot carry this much water….. It’s just too heavy a lift, even for them.

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The U.S. Census Department releases retail sales data today showing a strong contraction in consumer spending for July [MSM LINK].  The out-of-touch financial pundits were looking for a 0.3% decline; however, the drop was four times greater with a contraction of 1.1% in spending.

“The slide in retail sales comes after Friday’s preliminary consumer sentiment report from the University of Michigan showed one of the largest drops on record, leading some strategists and economists to warn of downside risk to the sales data.” (link)

This should not be unexpected for those who read here.  Massive price inflation on essential goods is eating up wages.  Food, fuel and energy price increases are changing consumer spending habits.  Non-essential purchases have stopped….. they haven’t slowed, they have stopped. ←Emphasize this because it is not showing up yet in the data lag.

The data reflects that auto sales were the primary contributor to the decline in spending (-4.3%).  This should make sense to people because auto purchases are the largest general consumer purchase outside of home purchasing.

When purchase decisions are made by families; and food and fuel prices are skyrocketing; replacing a vehicle is not essential.  Auto sales are a key indicator of consumer confidence and income.

Overall inflation is the primary driver.  Real wages are declining (wages – inflation), and disposable income is dropping quickly.  Americans need to start talking very deliberately about what is about to happen.  CTH predicted this and has been walking through the visible outcomes as each set of new data surfaces {SEARCH BOX}.  Nothing happening right now is unforeseen or not easily understandable.

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The number of Americans trapped in Afghanistan is actually unknown.  According to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby,  somewhere around 5,000 to 10,000 are known, but the number could be 20,000.  Those U.S. citizens are not at the airport in Kabul, and need to reach the airport in order to be evacuated.

Several media reports outline that the Taliban have checkpoints around the airport presumably looking for people who were aligned with the former government.  Unfortunately, given the nature of media bias and previous propaganda, it is challenging to determine the level of risk or threat to any American.  There have been no reports of Americans killed or taken hostage.  Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby outlines the current priority is to secure the airport, that’s what the additional troops are intended to do. WATCH:

…”Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up“… ~ Barack Obama

There is no such thing as “idiot proof.”  As soon as you think you’ve developed an “idiot proof” system, you will discover Joe Biden.

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Former Central Intelligence Agency analyst Matt Zeller appears on MSNBC as Brian Williams was singing the praises of Dear Leader Joe Biden for his magnificent words and exceptional work on Afghanistan. Unfortunately for MSNBC,  Mr. Zeller stunned the Baghdad Bob network by saying: “I was appalled” by President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan speech, it was a lie.” WATCH:

MSNBC has a case of the sads now.

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Apparently, the communications goal from the White House team was to create a strawman argument around the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, and totally avoid the main point of crisis right now being the method and manner of the withdrawal.

However, he went one step further which makes it worse.

Joe Biden blamed the Afghan people, currently being hunted in the streets of Kabul by the Taliban, for not availing themselves of earlier opportunities for evacuation at the time when Joe Biden and his Secretary of State were telling them the country was in no imminent threat of collapse.

…”I know that there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghans — civilians sooner. Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier — still hopeful for their country. “… [Full Transcript]

The entire speech delivered by Biden was a classic example of a non-sequitur argument.  Biden kept defending his decision to exit Afghanistan (which few disagree with) while avoiding the massive crisis created by his unplanned and haphazard manner/method of exit.  A point that was not missed by former President Trump:

Biden took no questions, ran away from the podium and immediately hopped back on the helicopter to escape back to his bunker in Camp David.

Joe Biden is an embarrassing joke, installed on our nation.

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The installed occupant of the White House is scheduled to deliver remarks to the nation explaining and justifying his complete failure to manage the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.  Most analysts agree, the dementia riddled occupant is expected to mumble his blame toward Donald Trump.

The White House has turned a deaf ear to those who asked the administration to turn around the teleprompters so we can read the remarks ourselves.  We will be forced to listen to Mr. Mumbles version of what the word assembly might be.  The effort is scheduled to begin at 3:45pm Eastern Time.  Livestream links below:

Fox News Livestream – White House Livestream Link – Time Mag Livestream Link

In early July, Joe Biden informed the American people of the coming drawdown of U.S. forces from Afghanistan after a 20-year occupation. The evacuation would be “secure and orderly,” he said, with little chance of a Taliban takeover. “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” he said.

Little more than a month later, the bumbling idiot with his feet in the oval office has been proven wrong on all counts.

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Facing domestic and international ridicule for his abject failure to plan, organize and successfully withdraw a U.S. military presence from Afghanistan without creating a massive international crisis and humanitarian nightmare, the installed occupant of the White House has announced he will address the nation today at 3:45pm ET.

The diplomatic and humanitarian crisis the Biden team have created is so bad, even CNN cannot cover for them. As a consequence, Joe Biden is being pulled from his bunker at Camp David and pushed to read the teleprompter from the White House. WATCH:

Four decades on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee….Eight years as Vice-President of the United States…. Eight months as acting President…. and the mess Biden has created is stunning.  Even the water-carrying media is having a hard time with it.

Biden’s key national security handler Jake Sullivan attempted to deflect earlier today, and even he made more of a hot mess over everything.

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The crisis unfolding at the international airport in Kabul has reached horrific levels.  Afghan nationals are swarming the airport in an effort to escape the onslaught, as Taliban fighters go door-to-door looking for people who have assisted the United States during the 20 year war.

At least seven people were killed at the airport, many fell to their deaths as they clung to the outside of U.S. C-17 transport planes.  Horrific videos have surfaced showing desperation amid the humanitarian crisis. The AFP is reporting:

KABUL – […] Residents raced to Kabul’s international airport, where the “civilian side” was closed until further notice, according to Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The U.S. military and other Western forces continued to organize evacuations.

Videos circulating on social media showed hundreds of people running across the tarmac as U.S. troops fired warning shots in the air. One showed a crowd pushing and shoving its way up a staircase, trying to board a plane, with some people hanging off the railings.

In another video, hundreds of people could be seen running alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moved down a runway. Some clung to the side of the jet just before takeoff. Another video showed several falling through the air as the airplane rapidly gained altitude over the city.

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During our previous discussion on historic, predictable and purposeful food inflation, on August 13th CTH noted “BigAg has likely already made deals for increases in government welfare payments (EBT and Foodstamps, WIC etc.). BigAg lobbies congress for higher reimbursement rates so they can raise the prices of food and export domestic product to other nations. Food assistance payments increase, and BigAg benefits. In essence, BigAg takes the fed food subsidies and fattens their profit margin. Then, they payback the politicians. It’s a circle of money.“….

If you know how the game is rigged, it’s actually easy to predict the background.  Today, exactly on cue, several media outlets are now reporting that Joe Biden is going to increase the amount of food stamp assistance by 25% per recipient, and expand the program.

New York Times – WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has revised the nutrition standards of the food stamp program and prompted the largest permanent increase to benefits in the program’s history, a move that will give poor people more power to fill their grocery carts but add billions of dollars to the cost of a program that feeds one in eight Americans.

Under rules to be announced on Monday and put in place in October, average benefits will rise more than 25 percent from prepandemic levels. All 42 million people in the program will receive additional aid. The move does not require congressional approval, and unlike the large pandemic-era expansions, which are starting to expire, the changes are intended to last. (read more)

This announcement is actually revealing in more ways than just the predictability of it.

♦ First, the 25% permanent increase is an admission by the Biden administration that food price inflation is here to stay.  The massive scale of the increase also highlights the actual reality of how much food prices are rising.   This massive and permanent increase directly undercuts the previous White House and Biden claims that inflation was “temporary”, “transitional” and likely to end soon.

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