Many people have wondered how the Biden administration could get the collapse of Afghanistan so horribly wrong and botched completely the withdrawal of U.S. forces. To that point there is a little known Question and Answer session by Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO, CD05) that deserves some attention.

Approximately 7 weeks ago, June 23rd, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee about their budget requests. Rep Doug Lamborn took this opportunity, he only had 4 minutes, to ask some very specific questions about Afghanistan and his concerns for early reports of the Taliban surging back into control.

Lamborn asked about the hazard of closing Bagrham AFB given the tenuous nature of reliance on one airport in Kabul. Lamborn also asked about the evacuation of U.S-Afghan allies and the risk to women and girls if the Taliban were successful. What Def Sec Austin and General Milley said in response totally explains why the White House was blind-sided by the Taliban in the past week. [WATCH Video at 01:06:56, Prompted]

Given the nature of what has happened in Afghanistan, those totally wrong estimations of the situation in the region should be enough to see both Secretary Austin and General Milley fired.  At the very least reliance on this inept and totally wrong outlook explains why the Biden administration had no idea what was about to happen.

Congressman Doug Lamborn’s questioning was directly on point and in hindsight, stunningly prescient.   Great job by Lamborn!

Hopefully Austin was wrong when he said that any defense of women and girls in Afghanistan will be contingent upon the U.S. embassy in Kabul.  The U.S. embassy in Kabul is no longer there, the Taliban have it.

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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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CNN is reporting that the White House is contemplating pulling Joe Biden from the bunker in Camp David to give a national address “over the next few days”, in an effort to try and reset his transparent foreign policy failures.   Meanwhile, President Trump is calling upon Biden to resign:

(VIA CNN) President Biden is expected to address the nation in the next few days about the crisis in Afghanistan, according to a senior administration official.

One option under discussion is to have Biden return to the White House, though the official cautioned that they had not completely ruled out making the remarks from Camp David.

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Throughout the night and today U.S. personnel were evacuated from the embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.  The U.S. flag has been removed.  The airport in Kabul is no longer safe and flights have been suspended.  Afghanistan President Ghani has fled the country.  The Taliban are on the streets of Kabul as fighting around the airport continues.

U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken is a stuttering and stammering mess as he appears on television attempting to obfuscate the complete FUBAR that is unfolding.  Joe Biden is being kept hidden in his bunker.  U.S. personnel who did not make it to the airport have been told to shelter in place and await rescue.  Some reports of negotiations with Taliban leadership for safe passage for Americans.  The embassy is being abandoned.

Why the rapid collapse? “In the wake of President Biden’s withdrawal decision, the U.S. pulled its air support, intelligence and contractors servicing Afghanistan’s planes and helicopters. That meant the Afghan military simply couldn’t operate anymore. The same happened with another failed American effort, the South Vietnamese army in the 1970s, said retired Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, who commanded the U.S.-led coalition’s mission to train Afghan forces in 2011-2013.” (WSJ link)

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People keep sending me emails about a Wall St Journal article [SEE HERE] highlighting John Durham and a grand jury receiving evidence.  According to the article: “Special Counsel John Durham, appointed during the Trump administration to examine the origins of the FBI’s 2016 Russia probe, is presenting evidence to a grand jury and preparing a lengthy report expected to be completed in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter.”

The article goes on to say Durham is looking into whether any informant or tipster to the FBI intentionally gave false information, ergo they have committed a crime:

…“Mr. Durham has been examining potential criminal charges against several lower-level Federal Bureau of Investigation employees, and people who aren’t in government, according to people familiar with the matter.” (link)

…”Prosecutors working for Mr. Durham have focused on people outside the FBI who provided information that helped fuel the 2016 investigation, the people familiar with the matter said.”

It gets a little frustrating reading these articles, yes I said plural – because the New York Times ran an almost identical article in April {See Here} –  because NOTHING is going to come of Durham except for the possibility of another obtuse report that will look almost identical to the report issued by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

How can we be so certain?… Because of Robert Mueller, that’s why.

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At 4:30am yesterday Politico released an article highlighting their spin on leaked internal documents [pdf here] from inside the bowels of the U.S. Department of Justice and the entrenched administrative state. The emails follow the events inside the DOJ in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

The Public Integrity Section of the DOJ, also known as PIN, specifically a multi-decade left-wing (lawfare aligned) bureaucrat named Corey Amundson, was telling the DOJ they FBI should not investigate claims of election fraud in Georgia. As chief of the Public Integrity Section, Admundson was saying the official position of the DOJ-PIN group was to say regardless of evidence of election fraud the DOJ and FBI should stay out of it.

Deputy AG David Bowditch -a man of dubious character and sketchy disposition himself – then forwards the email to his Chief Legal Counsel for advice. The excerpt below [full pdf here] shows the perspective of the DOJ (Bowditch’s legal counsel) toward the advice of the professional bureaucrats inside Main Justice who weaponize investigations only when Democrats lose. Considering how manipulated the election process is in the United States, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence to see in plain language the unwritten rules as expressed:

…”essentially to allow election fraud to take its course and hope to deter such misconduct in future elections through intervening prosecutions.”

There is nothing quite like reading how the United Stated Department of Justice sits around playing games of selective FBI enforcement based on internal tribal politics.

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Repost from June by Request – Several people have written to CTH for an economic review of our current status. Below this post are two primary precursor articles [Primary One and Primary Two] which outline the economic dynamic in play, and how we can look forward with accuracy to what is likely to happen. Despite the deflective talking points by the professional financial pundits, this massive spike in inflation is entirely predictable due to Biden economic policy and Biden monetary policy.

Keep in mind, the FED already said in April they would “support inflation”, that’s because – while they will not say it openly, they know there’s no way to stop it. The massive inflation is a direct result of the multinational agenda of the Biden administration; it’s a feature not a flaw, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with COVID. Also keep in mind the first group to admit what is to come are banks, specifically Bank of America, because the monetary policy is the cause.

There’s no way around this. Despite the pundit and financial class selling a counter-narrative, home prices will crash and unemployment will go up. I know this is directly against the current talking points, but the statistical reality is clear. CTH was the first place that said months ago that new home sales will plummet, that is starting to happen right now. There’s no way for it not to happen, the big picture tells us why.

You might remember, when President Trump initiated tariffs against China (steel, aluminum and more), Southeast Asia (product specific), Europe (steel, aluminum and direct products), Canada (steel, aluminum, lumber and dairy specifics), the financial pundits screamed at the top of their lungs that consumer prices were going to skyrocket. They didn’t. CTH knew they wouldn’t because essentially those trading partners responded in the exact same way the U.S. did decades ago when the import/export dynamic was reversed.

Trump’s massive, and in some instances targeted, import tariffs against China, SE Asia, Canada and the EU not only did not increase prices, the prices of the goods in the U.S. actually dropped. Trump’s policies led the largest deflation in consumer prices in decades. At the same time, Trump’s domestic economic policies drove employment and wages higher than any time in the past forty years. With Trump’s policies we were in an era where job growth was strong, wages were rising and consumer prices were falling.  The net result was more disposable income for the middle class, more demand for stuff, and ultimately that’s why the U.S. economy was so strong.

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It’s all a strategic Alinsky move once you connect the dots.

Earlier today New York City Mayor De Blasio announced mandated vaccinations for all 340,000 city employees.

Hours later Joe Biden announced mandatory vaccinations for all 115,000 front-line employees of The Veterans Affairs department.

Immediately thereafter, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced all state employees and healthcare providers will be forced to vaccinate.  None of these events are disconnected.

Keep in mind just a few days ago the Federal CDC announced all U.S. healthcare providers must switch to new rapid response tests for COVID-19.  The reasoning?  The current PCR test does not differentiate between COVID and the flu.  The new tests will distinguish between the flu virus and the COVID virus.

Can you see the strategic move now?

The new CDC approved rapid response test will cull the flu cases from false positives; that approach will automatically drop the number of new COVID cases identified.  The Biden regime will then say the drop in new COVID cases is because of the forced vaccinations in major populations (VA, NYC and CA).  As a result, everyone must get vaccinated because the added vaccinations are lowering the COVID cases, and the statistics will prove it.

Additionally, to enhance the talking point of most new infections caused by non-vaccinated persons, the hospital guidance is not to test the vaccinated:

Can you see it now?

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When President Trump was in office, the media ran a daily narrative about the number of people within the orbit of the White House who contracted COVID-19.  Today the installed spokesperson for the regime, Jennifer Psaki, was asked about the number of vaccinated White House staff who test positive for the virus.  Psaki refused to answer the question saying: “Why do you need that information?”

Can you imagine the backlash if President Trump’s spokesperson gave that answer?

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What do you call it when you combine cringe with awkward discomfort?   Whatever it is, this is full of it.

The White House coordinated with CNN to put Joe Biden on stage so that the administration could convey a message of importance to CNN viewers.   The event was so terribly horrible it’s doubtful the person in the White House is still employed.  EXAMPLE WATCH:

[TRANSCRIPT] …”And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where, you, er, um, are why can’t the, um, the experts say we know that this virus is in fact, er, er, um, uh, its this its going to be or, excuse me, we, we, we know why all the drugs approved are not temporary, temporarily approved, but permanently approved.”

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Also, journalist Jennifer Epstein (Bloomberg News) tweeted out a picture from the camera position, to give her followers an idea of the audience.  Suffice to say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

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