As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
As expected, the Pfizer vaccine got full FDA approval today --
The Food and Drug Administration action marks the first licensing of a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has swept the United States in repeated and punishing waves since early 2020, exhausting nursing staffs, filling intensive care units and raising fears among the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
The media's "over the top" coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal reflects more on its credibility than the withdrawal does on President Biden's:
During an appearance on CNN, former White House adviser Matthew Dowd and columnist Amanda Marcotte criticized the media coverage of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as being "over the top."
"[The coverage was] way over the top and unconnected to a perspective on the issue from the beginning," Dowd told CNN's Brian Stelter on Sunday. "They've added more perspective in the final days but from the beginning, they didn't have a perspective on it."
"We should judge it by the data," he continued. "And sometimes the press has a tendency to judge things by anecdotes and not the data. And the data for the last week shows that Joe Biden has basically gotten 30,000 people out of Afghanistan without a single loss of American life."
Marcotte agreed.
"It's been over the top," she said. "I think that we were reminded of the factors that got us into some of the wars to begin with, which is there tends to be a bias in the press towards military intervention. And I think that we also see why it was so hard for presidents in the past to pull out of Afghanistan. They were afraid of exactly this kind of press overreaction."
"There's no way to surrender, leave, withdraw -- whatever you want to call it -- in a war without things getting ugly," she added. "And I feel there was something pollyannaish about expecting anything different and it disappoints me the press is behaving in this way."
We critiqued the early stage of the evacuations, which reflected poorly on U.S. planning and intelligence. But, as Dowd states, the data prove the job is finally getting done -- even as the ugliness and messiness lingers. It's a very difficult job under almost impossible conditions. Let's give our folks a chance to succeed. (Please also read Josh Marshall's excellent piece on this topic.)
In case you missed it, the Biden Administration is cancelling the student debt for borrowers with total and permanent disabilities:
The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday it will cancel $5.8 billion in student debt for more than 320,000 borrowers.
The debt forgiveness, which will go to borrowers with a total and permanent disability, will be automatically granted using data already available to the Social Security Administration. People should start seeing the relief in September.
The Education Department said it also plans to stop asking these borrowers to continue sharing earnings data after they receive the relief.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from borrowers with disabilities and advocates about the need for this change, and we are excited to follow through on it,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a statement.
“This change reduces red tape with the aim of making processes as simple as possible for borrowers who need support.”
The Education Department under the Biden administration has also canceled student debt for thousands of students who attended for-profit schools.
Still, President Joe Biden remains under pressure from Democrats, advocates and borrowers to go further and cancel $50,000 per borrower in student debt for all.
Look for more cancellations ahead.
Moving the "reinstatement" goalposts again, My Mein Pillow seditionist crackpot Mike Lindell addressed the Nuremberg Cullman, AL, rally for the malignant former guy on Saturday:
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has once again moved back his expected timetable for Donald Trump’s magical reinstatement to the presidency, this time divining that the historic and utterly fantastical event will occur sometime before 2021 ends. [snip]
Last month, Lindell predicted that Trump would somehow be reinstated as president sometime in August, which has not happened.
Former presidents are not “reinstated” to the presidency in the U.S. after they lose an election.
“By the morning of Aug. 13, it will be the talk of the world,” Lindell said in July, envisioning Trump’s grand return. People, he predicted, would be saying: “Hurry up! Let’s get this election pulled down, let’s right the right. Let’s get these communists out.”
But Lindell hedged his forecast late last month, even before his first prediction had a chance to flop, when he said Trump’s reinstatement might actually happen in September, once he finally presents the Supreme Court with all his supposed proof of a fraudulent election.
Now, Lindell has moved the goalposts again, though he maintains Trump will reassume the presidency sometime before the end of the year.
“When you steal an election, you don’t just steal an election and we’re going to sit here and go, ‘OK, let’s wait for 2020 — or let’s wait for 2024,’” Lindell told rallygoers in Alabama this weekend. “I’ll tell you what, it’s Trump 2021!”
He repeated: “That’s what it is, 2021! If we don’t solve 2020, there is no 2022 and 2024.”
We're not mental health or drug abuse experts, but you don't have to be to recognize a completely unhinged person when you see one. (Maybe he's working on an insanity defense for the $1.3 billion defamation suit? Nah!)
Not so lucky bride news (gagging alert!):
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida eloped to Southern California, marrying his girlfriend Ginger Luckey on Saturday in a small ceremony on Catalina Island.
The controversial 39-year-old Republican, who is under investigation as part of a sex trafficking probe, announced the wedding on his personal Twitter page. He exclaimed “I love my wife!” along with a photo of them together — he in a sport coat, she in a white dress. [snip]
Luckey, 26, is from Southern California and works for a company that focuses on extending the life of products made from plant-based materials.
Gaetz is under investigation as part of a probe that led to the arrest and plea deal of his close friend, Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole Count, Florida, tax collector.
We wonder if the penitentiary will allow for conjugal visits.
Finally, we recommend that you head over to Infidel 753's link round-up for the best collection of links to blog posts from around the Internet. Go browse and enjoy!
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