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Airlifting 130,000 people out of the Kabul airport in two weeks was an impressive accomplishment despite the chaos. Trump made no plans at all to get anyone out, and his administration did everything in their power to obstruct anyone from getting out. The Biden administration starting telling US citizens in March to get out, but many did not try until after the Taliban had seized most of all of the country and made movement impossible. Some idiots even traveled from the US to Afghanistan in June and July, then bleated and whined when they could not get out. Many others traveled to Afghanistan without registering with the State Department. Yet somehow it is Biden's fault that he did not know every US citizen in Afghanistan, exactly where they were, and send in the Marines to forcefully extract them? Regarding the border, the US government has no authority to go into Mexico and use force to block people from coming to the border. People have a legal right to present themselves at the border and ask for asylum. It's not Biden's fault that Central America experienced two major hurricane in less than a year, destroying their agriculture, infrastructure, and the homes of hundreds of thousands of people. It is not Biden's fault that Haiti is a corrupt hell hole that is also prone to earthquakes. It is not Biden's fault that Trump withdrew every program to help those countries improve conditions so people would not feel they have to leave so they won't starve. US law allows people to ask for asylum. The Trump policy of blocking people from any meaningful opportunity to ask for asylum was illegal. The Trump policy of breaking up families to scare people away from asking was deeply immoral. I sometimes think some Republicans would be comfortable forcing families back into a burning building if they aren't the "right kind" of people. I don't say that sneaking across the border should be tolerated. I don't suggest that the Biden administration's response has been great. However it doesn't help that Trump decimated the human infrastructure needed to process asylum applicants. It's easy to be critical but if anyone cares to be fair they should be able to say how they would have responded to a huge surge of asylum seekers with fewer resources. As far as infrastructure is concerned, I think what we are seeing now with the Democrats is how things are supposed to work. People are debating ideas, working to convince their colleagues about the validity of their policies. In the end no one will get everything they want but what will survive will represent the things everyone agrees is a priority. The debate should include Republicans but they are incapable of weighing competing ideas in an honest debate. Perhaps this inability has something to do with them throwing out their brains and filling their heads with Trump's lies. They criticize actual debate because they only know how to abdicate to Dear Leader in all things. At any rate they are absent from the discussion, happy to only obstruct and criticize. They cannot lead, they only whine.

What Bill also forgot to address was your choice of terms. The vaccine does reduce infection, but mostly it significantly reduces the ability to transmit once infected, reduces hospitalizations and greatly reduces the chance of death if infected. Add in that only in the very beginning of the vaccination effort did we think the chances of a vaccinated person transmitting the virus to be close to nil (recall the guidance was you could remove your mask only if you were vaccinated, whereas unvaccinated people were still asked to keep their germs to themselves). Besides that point, we were still encouraged to continue the other preventive measures in addition to getting vaccinated. All these methods together could have stopped this virus by now. Eradicated? Probably not, but the variants (Delta specifically) wouldn't have wreaked such havoc on our population had people implemented all options at their disposal to protect each other. The vaccine does help the person who gets it. But more importantly, it helps society as a whole by making it harder for the virus to flourish. It also helps those who can't be protected by the vaccine, such as those with compromised immune systems and young children.

It was Trump that signed a "peace treaty" with the Taliban that committed the US to leaving. Reversing that would necessarily have involved outright war with the Taliban, with a huge increase in US troops in Afghanistan and associated casualties. It was Trump who cut the Afghanistan government out of the peace negotiations. Trump did everything possible to undermine the Afghanistan government. The collapse of the government is on Trump. Yet somehow now it is all on Biden? Conservatives/republicans have done just about everything in their power to encourage their followers to reject vaccination against Covid. They do not care that people, mostly in their "base", will die or suffer long term disability. No cost is too much, as long as they can prolong the pandemic and blame Biden. What do Republicans have to offer for policy? Cult worship of a leader who has displayed over and over that he cares for nothing but himself. Censorship of education so students cannot even be taught that slavery was bad and has had lasting consequences. If you teach about the Holocaust you have to teach "both sides". What does that even mean? The worst attack on the peaceful transition of power in the country's history is rewritten as a tourist visit. They fabricate lies about the election to create doubt in their followers, and use that doubt to justify voter suppression laws. The worst part of it is that so many gullible voters are falling for it. All you have to do to win in Trumpistan, it seems, is to lie and obstruct.

You think you're being clever, but you aren't. You think you're being funny, but you aren't. What you are doing, as ever, is projecting. You wore a US Military uniform for twenty years and yet you seem not to care if our democracy or our nations institutions are torn down for the sake of a few silly, small picture observations and hackneyed points. Biden's election broke the chain. That's enough. Now, if you truly care about our country, our job is to make certain Trump is finally swept away into history's dust bin. The reality is that if we end up with Trump 2.0 it will be thanks to people like you.

I have now gone 2 years without a respiratory infection of any kind, the longest by far in my adult life (and probably my childhood too). I attribute this to fairly diligent use of masks and "social distancing" (a nasty phrase) that has kept even the common cold at bay. A mild inconvenience with a very positive outcome. I just don't understand the fools who oppose these measures, and the even bigger fools who oppose vaccination.

Reserves ARE more docile, low-aspect 7 cells of low porosity material, not ZP. Reserves are optimized for reliability, and that means lower performance and more stability. It also means a less powerful flare, so they usually need to be flared more and a bit earlier than most mains.

Cool! Now you can stop whining about it.

Fixed it for you :-)

Cute. Cause that's not what you set out to do.

That is a common expression that is completely incorrect. The Amazon region is an incredible place for its biodiversity. It is not "the lungs of the world". If anything can be given such a title it is the ocean. And there is only one ocean despite the fact that we give different parts of it names of their own. Save the plankton if you want to keep breathing. People who live in countries that have converted as much arable land as possible to agriculture are always the ones trying to hold Brazil back from doing the same using emotional and misguided arguments. Worry about your own back yard.

Not that I've seen it with my own two, but I hear that the "leadership" in Brazil are making (BAD) decisions regarding native lands and the cutting of huge amounts of rainforest. The Brazilian rainforest, AKA the lungs of our world. Once that is gone, ...

The collapse of the water system will happen one day. The delicate ecosystem that is California will reclaim itself. It's just about a matter of time. Weather trends from the past drove native peoples to change how and where they lived. Look at how "modern man" has changed the landscape/waterways to suits our needs. The fires grow more intense every year. IT will happen. When? Some scoff at "Global Warming" because they fail to see "The bigger picture". There are so many variables to consider in what actually drives the weather. It is in fact, global. WE are having a profound impact, PERIOD. For anyone to deny that is pure folly and a serious lack of knowledge on how things really work.