Perhaps seeing an opportunity to leverage Donald Trump’s experience with negotiating with the Taliban, South Carolina Republican Congressional candidate Russell Fry has called on President Joe Biden to appoint Trump to be a special envoy on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“For the sake of our countrymen in harm’s way, it’s time for Biden to live up to his word and turn to trusted hands who know how to get the job done,” Fry wrote in an op/ed on Inside Sources.  “I call on Joe Biden to set aside political differences and, in a spirit of true bipartisan cooperation, appoint Donald J. Trump as his special envoy to oversee the Afghanistan withdrawal.”

With the White House saying the Afghanistan withdrawal is on schedule to end by the August 31st deadline set by Biden, the likelihood of such an appointment is unlikely.  Also making it unlikely are the facts that Trump didn’t actually effectuate any action to meet the May 1st deadline he imposed on the withdrawal after signing a treaty with the Taliban in February of 2020, 15 months prior to his deadline, and that Trump’s withdrawal from Syria left tens of thousands of allies stranded. 

“NEW: US official confirms 2 suicide bombers were in explosive laden vehicle targeted by US drone strike today. The vehicle targeted by the US drone was parked when the drone struck. Airstrike occurred about 3 km from the Kabul Airport. The drone flew out of UAE.” —Jennifer Griffin of Fox News

In a video posted online Sunday, disgraced Marine Lt. Colonel Stuart Scheller issued a series of thinly-veiled threats, referring to a Get-Rich-Quick online “secret society” called the Bellwether Alliance and telling people “Follow me and we will bring this whole fucking system down.”

Scheller was relieved of duties and was slated for drumming out of the Corps after he posted a video online in which he, while wearing his uniform and rank insignia, questioned the commands of senior military officials.

In the first of two videos, Scheller opens with “You have no idea what I’m capable of doing,” before thanking “Congressman, Senators, every media station across the globe” and “all the rich philanthropists” for their support.  “To the Bellwether Alliance, I’m a card-carrying member.  We have all these laws on how to create wealth.  One thing they don’t tell you is that going after stability and money can make you a slave to the system and it can make you compromise what you truly believe in.”

An 88-year-old college professor at the University of Georgia announced during a lecture that he was retiring on the spot because a student would not properly wear a mask during his class, Business Insider reports.

Irwin Bernstein, a psychology professor, had told the class that masks were mandatory in his classes because he had an underlying health condition that made him susceptible to infection.  “No mask.  No class,” read a message he put up before the class, which had two students absent on the first day because they had tested positive for coronavirus.

When a student refused to wear a mask properly by covering her nose, claiming it made it difficult for her to breathe, Bernstein announced August 18th, “That’s it. I’m retired,” and he packed up his papers and left the classroom.

Beloved actor Ed Asner, known for his portrayal of crotchety curmudgeons on hit television series like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant, died Sunday morning at his home in California.  He was 91 years old.

“We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully,” his official Twitter account announced.  “Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head- Goodnight dad. We love you.”

Besides Lou Grant, Asner’s 64-year acting career included roles in the animated movie “Up!” and the television miniseries Roots and Rich Man, Poor Man.  Asner was recognized with multiple awards, including seven Emmy Awards and five Golden Globes.

An exclusive from Politico Playbook:  “MORE THAN ONE JAN. 6 TRUMP-JORDAN CALL — We know that DONALD TRUMP and Rep. JIM JORDAN spoke once on the day of the Capitol riot, but the Ohio Republican has said he doesn’t remember when their conversation took place. We have some new details that could help clear up that timeframe — including confirmation of at least one more phone conversation between Jordan and the then-president during the siege.  After a group of lawmakers were evacuated from the House chamber to a safe room on Jan. 6, Jordan was joined by Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) for a call during which they implored Trump to tell his supporters to stand down, per a source with knowledge of that call. The source declined to say how Trump responded to this request.

“Jordan, when asked about whether Gaetz participated, said he’d ‘have to think about it,’ citing many conversations he had during the frenetic attack. He also said phone calls to Trump happened more than once on that deadly day.  ‘Look, I definitely spoke to the president that day. I don’t recall — I know it was more than once, I just don’t recall the times,’ Jordan told our Olivia Beavers. He later said that ‘I’m sure’ one of the Trump-involved calls took place in the safe room ‘because we were in that room forever.’ (For safety reasons, we are not disclosing the specific room where members were evacuated to, but that is the room Jordan is referencing.) Jordan would not get into the specifics of what he discussed with the president, though he said that like everyone, he wanted the National Guard to get involved.

“A spokesperson for Gaetz, who has supported Trump’s decisions on Jan. 6, said: ‘Congressman Gaetz speaks with President Trump regularly and doesn’t disclose the substance of those discussions with the media.'”

NOAA Doppler radar imagery indicates that the eye of Ida made
landfall along the southeastern coast of Louisiana near Port
Fourchon around 1155 AM CDT (1655 UTC). Data from an Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft and Doppler radar data indicate that Ida’s maximum sustained winds at landfall were estimated to be 150 mph (240 km/h). The latest minimum central pressure estimated from reconnaissance aircraft data is 930 mb (27.46 in).

TheHill.com legal propagandist Jonathan Turley recently posted an article questioning the DC Capitol Police decision not to press charges against the police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt. In this article I will review Turley’s argument, and show how he misrepresents the relevant case-law, to try to promote a right-wing narrative.

“Public health officials are sticking with the recommendation that people get booster shots eight months after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but that could change based on reviewing the data, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.”

In the 2018 race for Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis beat Andrew Gillum by only 33,000 votes. According to the website Worldometer, Florida has now exceeded 43,000 deaths from Coronavirus, and given that the rate of new Covid19 deaths exceeded 1000 within the past week (the state reported 1728 deaths in the week ending August 28th), and that the demographics of current Covid19 deaths are 99% anti-vaxxers to 1% breakthrough infections of the vaccinated, it’s pretty much guaranteed that by the time November of 2022 rolls around, so many DeSantis supporters will have died, or will be so disgusted with him because they lost an anti-vax family member to Covid, that there’s simply no way he will be able to win a statewide race.

According to the 6am EST update from the NOAA, Hurricane Ida has spun up to a category four hurricane with top sustained winds of 140 mph. The storm is expected to make landfall later today. The storm is currently heading Northwest at 15 mph.

President Biden has already issued a disaster declaration for the area in the storm’s path, and electrical crews from as far away as Tampa Florida are already mobilizing to assist with restoring power after the storm passes.

Six of Robert F. Kennedy’s children issued a statement Saturday decrying a California parole board’s decision to recommend their father’s assassin for parole, saying they “adamantly oppose” his potential parole and release.

In a statement, published on Politico, the six say, “We are devastated that the man who murdered our father has been recommended for parole.  He took our father from our family and he took him from America. … We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.”

The six children who signed the statement:   former Democratic Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, Christopher G. Kennedy, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.  The children state that the basis for this parole “ignores the standards for parole of a confessed, first-degree murderer in the state of California.”

A white male passenger had an epic bro-meltdown reportedly when he was instructed to put on a facemask when boarding a fight at Gate D23 at Miami Airport Friday night.  He repeatedly mock-hit a security guard, punted a “Wet Floor” sign, and throw ropeline stanchions, nearly hitting a ticket agent.

According to Miami Airport, police responded and apprehended the disruptive individual, who has not yet been identified.

Hours after President Joe Biden said there was a high likelihood of a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport, where thousands of people have assembled in the hopes of getting a flight out of Afghanistan, the US Embassy in Kabul has issued the following warning:

Due to a specific, credible threat, all U.S. citizens in the vicinity of Kabul airport (HKIA), including the South (Airport Circle) gate, the new Ministry of the Interior, and the gate near the Panjshir Petrol station on the northwest side of the airport, should leave the airport area immediately.

U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid all airport gates at this time.

The Hellfire missile used to kill the ISIS planner in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the bombing attack at the Kabul airport, wasn’t the standard deployed by a drone, the Wall Street Journal reports.  Instead of being equipped with an explosive charge, the missile extends six large metal blades that shredded the car in which the target rode.

The Hellfire R9X, nicknamed The Flying Ginsu, is a kinetic weapon that has six blades made of dense metal, nearly doubling the weight of the typically-100 pound Hellfire.  It’s weight and speed are designed to crush or shred the intended target rather than use an explosive.  The goal of the weapons system is to precisely target the intended victim and minimize collateral damage.

In the case of Friday’s missile attack in Nangarhar, Rahamunullah, the R9x shredded the car carrying the ISIS leader, killing him and one other person while injuring a third.  A local man who witnessed the attack said four people were injured, including a woman. 

Tillamook County, Oregon is the latest jurisdiction to request refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues because its sole funeral home is exceeding capacity for storing corpses, the Associated Press reports.  Tillamook County has one funeral home which can hold only nine corpses, a number that has already been exceeded, according to Tillamook County Emergency Director Gordon McCraw.

The state of Texas has requested five temporary morgues because of COVID deaths.  Hospitals in Florida are also prepping containers to hold bodies as their case counts rise.  Two counties in Alabama, currently under a state of emergency as it awaits Hurricane Ida, are also seeking additional storage.  In California, Los Angeles County has requested units as well.

There’s no question that Russian intelligence agencies are partly behind the anti-vax and anti-mask sentiments of right-wingers. Russian information warfare operations are known to have a “living off the land” mentality, and typically act in an opportunistic manner that is far more aggressive and resourceful than US or NATO military operations.

Conservative propaganda is relatively predictable to those who have studied information warfare, so when a potentially major hurricane is approaching the US, it can be helpful to provide a primer of what to expect from Russian intelligence agencies as soon as the storm has passed.

Ex-gay British Republican provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos posted photos to his Telegram account of a vial of ivermectin and a syringe staged to look like he just got an injection, announcing that he tested positive for coronavirus.

As seen in Newsweek, Yiannopoulos posted “Most of you got the normal ‘it’s just flu’ rona last year and most of you didn’t even know you had it. But I don’t have any friends and I don’t leave the house so I only got the deadly superspreader version from vaccinated people and let me tell you THIS IS NOT FUN.”

Yiannopoulos perpetuates a myth among anti-vaccination advocates that the vaccines fail because vaccinated people can transmit the virus.  The vaccine, however, isn’t designed to completely prevent transmission, and evidence shows that the vaccine prevents severe progression of the disease.

This is an update to a story published earlier today. According to the August 28th, 4pm update from the National Weather Service, Hurricane Ida has strengthened considerably, and now has winds of up to 105 mph.

Hurricane Ida is currently projected to hit the Louisiana Coastline some time Sunday afternoon.

Caleb Wallace, a Texas anti-mask and anti-vax activist died of COVID-19 at the age of 30 after struggling on a ventilator for a few weeks, wife Jessica Wallace posted Saturday on the family’s GoFundMe page. He leaves behind three daughters and his wife is pregnant. MAGA.