A lot has and will be said about President Biden's decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan and the method with which he did it. Needless to say Fox News and Donald Trump's Republican Party will embark on their predictable knee-jerk condemnation of Biden regardless of how events transpire.

Trump has already rolled out his narcissistic version of the situation that he neglected for four years, other than to negotiate a deal with the Taliban that was tantamount to full surrender. He lifted all the sanctions on them, released 5,000 of their prisoners, including their founder and leader, and promised to remove all U.S. and allied forces by last May.

As for the GOP and their Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News), they launched a coordinated, and wholly dishonest, campaign to disparage Biden and portray him as on vacation while he was actually working at Camp David, a military facility run by the U.S. Navy.

On Monday afternoon Biden addressed the American people to explain the reasoning behind his decisions regarding finally ending America's involvement in the Afghanistan war (video below). It was a speech that was equal parts elucidation, compassion, and accountability. Some of the highlights include...

"We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001, and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that." [...]"That was a decade ago. Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building." [...]
"I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces." [...]
"The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated." [...]
"If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision. American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves." [...]
"I made a commitment to the American people when I ran for president that I would bring America's military involvement in Afghanistan to an end. While it's been hard and messy and, yes, far from perfect, I've honored that commitment." [...]
"I know my decision will be criticized. But I would rather take all that criticism than pass this decision on to another president of the United States."

Following the speech MSNBC anchor, Nicolle Wallace, gave a profound summation of the different ways Biden's words would be received by the public and the press. She said that...

"95% of the American people will agree with everything he just said. 95% of the press covering this White House will disagree. And for an American president to finally be completely aligned with such an overwhelming majority of what the American people think about Afghanistan is probably a tremendous relief to the American people."

Wallace is exactly right. The media seems to have a built in favoritism for whatever generates the most conflict and melodrama. But the American people have long favored an end to the seemingly perpetual conflicts that began after September 11th, 2001. And that opinion is shared by both Democrats and Republicans. Even Trump and his cult disciples have been opposed to continuing the war in Afghanistan. He ran on it, just like Biden did.

Of course, that won't stop Trump and his GOP confederates from lambasting Biden for achieving the goal that they never could. They are jealous of his successes, whether it be foreign affairs, infrastructure, healthcare, or any of the other failures by Trump and company.

It's ironic that Wallace is one of the few television commentators to recognize both the desires of the public and biases of the press. She was the White House Communications Director for George W. Bush, the president that got us into this mess to begin with. Which makes her insights all the more relevant and welcome.

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Biden speaks after Afghanistan's government collapseswww.youtube.com

For the past six months Donald Trump has persisted with his reckless and inflammatory "Big Lie" rhetoric that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged" and "stolen" from him. That egomaniacal blather led directly to the January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C. And it continues to this day with Trump's most recent cult rally in Phoenix, Arizona, where he spent nearly all of his 90+ minutes ranting about the last election.

However, Trump's phony election fraud fetish only scratches the surface of his danger and dementia. On Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN, famed Watergate reporter, Carl Bernstein, delivered a convincing argument for changing the context with which we view Trump. His self-serving distortions of reality are not merely examples of his narcissistic thirst for adoration and power. They represent a much more serious breach of societal norms and international law. Bernstein began by noting that "What we're talking about is a kind of delusional madness." Then he elaborated saying that...

"I think when we're talking about Trump's crimes as an American war criminal in his own country, that he has perpetrated upon our people, including the tens of thousands who died because of his homicidal negligence in the pandemic, putting his own electoral interests above the health of our people as they were slaughtered in this pandemic.

"Looking at his actions in terms of fomenting a coup to hold on to office, in which the head of the American military, the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Gen. Mark Milley], has now compared Trump - not the press, not reporters comparing Trump to Hitler - but rather the head of the American military, comparing him and his movement to Brownshirts, to the Reichstag fire. This is a huge wake up call to this country."

Bernstein is articulating what many Americans have already been thinking for months (years?). And he is providing just the right evidence to support his opinion. Trump has brazenly placed his own interests above those of the nation. He has gone to extreme lengths to persuade his dimwitted cult disciples that his goals are the same as theirs. And he has grievously harmed millions by doing so. This same point was made by historian Steven Beschloss, who tweeted that...

"We are living in a country in which tens of millions are continuing participants in a death cult committed to a sociopathic conman and criminal who occupied the White House to enrich himself and feed his broken ego."

While Trump is certainly guilty of forming and encouraging that "death cult," the liability of the conservative, Trump-fluffing media cannot be ignored. First, and still foremost, is Fox News, where Trump's lies are not just tolerated, they are supported by a roster of anchors, contributors, and guests, who are almost uniformly devotees of the Cult of Trump. They believe the coronavirus was a hoax created to hurt Trump. They believe that President Biden is a communist. They believe that Trump won the election. In short, they are hopelessly bonkers. And they are spreading that sickness to their viewers.

It is crucial that the nation recognize just how detrimental Trump has been to America, and will continue to be if the American people don't hold him accountable. That means our legal institutions need to step up and charge him for the crimes he's committed. Unless they do it will just be setting the precedented for the next aspiring dictator to take over where Trump left off. Bernstein and Beschloss are saying exactly the right things. But if we do nothing in response, the American experiment will end in failure.

The Republican Party has devolved into nothing more than a culture war slogan dispenser, spending all of its time and energy contriving faux outrage and divisiveness. They have no discernible policies to promote and are relying on the cult appeal of Donald Trump to sustain them until the next election.

Consequently, The GOP's Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is focused tightly on critical issues like Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. And they're tired of hearing about all the dead Americans due to the COVID pandemic that Trump ignored and/or botched. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress voted unanimously against the American Rescue Plan, the most popular legislation in generations.

This callous disregard for the welfare of the nation is integral to the Republican agenda going forward. But since they have no affirmative plans, they are reaching back to distort recent history and claim victories that exist only in their fevered imaginations. For instance, Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, tweeted Saturday morning that "As President Trump was delivering results on the vaccine, Joe Biden was sowing doubt about its efficacy..."

Let's set aside that McDaniel is still referring to the former guy as "President," but the current president as "Joe." The more salient point is that there is nothing resembling the truth in that twantrum. What Biden actually said last July in the video that McDaniel posted is that...

"We've got to make sure vaccines are produced and distributed safely, efficiently, and fairly, with independent FDA transparency. And the full FDA public report made public. Because people are already saying 'If we get a vaccine I'm not sure I'm going to take it. This guy's lied to us about everything else.'"

Clearly President Biden was not sowing doubts about the vaccine. He was recognizing that the American people already had fully justifiable doubts about Trump's honesty. All Biden was calling for was full disclosure of the data that would lead to the vaccine's approval. The fact that so many people don't trust Trump is what Biden was concerned about. And his remarks were intended to resolve any hesitancy to getting vaccinated, not sow doubts about it.

McDaniel was also wrong about Trump "delivering results on the vaccine." He had done nothing productive other than inventing a PR campaign that he dubbed "Operation Warp Speed," which was just another sham that accomplished nothing. In reality, last July Trump was still downplaying the severity of the pandemic, while boasting about phony "achievements" ...

"Why does the a Lamestream Fake News Media REFUSE to say that China Virus deaths are down 39%, and that we now have the lowest Fatality (Mortality) Rate in the World. They just can't stand that we are doing so well for our Country!"

Trump was bragging about "doing so well" when the death toll for the coronavirus was at 150,000. That was horrible. But it's more than tripled since then. And in light of that, McDaniel thought it would be useful to post a tweet that lied about Trump's negligence and incompetence, while inadvertently affirming Biden's honesty and foresight. Thanks, Ronna.

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Following his decisive loss to Joe Biden last November, Donald Trump orchestrated a brazenly dishonest and dangerous campaign to stir the passions of his cult disciples. He sought to persuade them that the presidential election was stolen from him, that he won in a landslide, and that the rigged election was aided abetted by corrupt media and voting technology firms.

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Of course, none of those allegations were supported by evidence or reality. Trump's efforts to malign the press, Democrats, and even Republicans who declined to embrace his lies, grew more intense as he repeatedly lost cases in court after court challenging the election results. He turned a common electoral defeat into a humiliating spectacle. And in the process, his accomplices found themselves in legal peril of their own.

The voting technology company Smartmatic has now filed a lawsuit against the proponents of Trump's election fraud fictions. They include Fox News, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The introduction to the lawsuit reads like a captivating tale of political intrigue and depravity that rivals any great work of literature. So without further ado, here is that intro unabridged:

1. The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. The election was not stolen, rigged, or fixed. These are facts. They are demonstrable and irrefutable. 2. Defendants have always known these facts. They knew Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 U.S. election. They knew the election was not stolen. They knew the election was not rigged or fixed. They knew these truths just as they knew the Earth is round and two plus two equals four.
3. Defendants did not want Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to win the election. They wanted President Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence to win re-election. Defendants were disappointed. But they also saw an opportunity to capitalize on President Trump's popularity by inventing a story. Defendants decided to tell people that the election was stolen from President Trump and Vice President Pence.
4. Defendants had an obvious problem with their story. They needed a villain. They needed someone to blame. They needed someone whom they could get others to hate. A story of good versus evil, the type that would incite an angry mob, only works if the storyteller provides the audience with someone who personifies evil.
5. Without any true villain, Defendants invented one. Defendants decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story. Smartmatic is an election technology and software company. It was incorporated in Delaware and its U.S. operations are headquartered in Florida. In the 2020 U.S. election, Smartmatic provided election technology and software in Los Angeles County. Nowhere else. Smartmatic had a relatively small, non-controversial role in the 2020 U.S. election.
6. Those facts would not do for Defendants. So, the Defendants invented new ones. In their story, Smartmatic was a Venezuelan company under the control of corrupt dictators from socialist countries. In their story, Smartmatic's election technology and software were used in many of the states with close outcomes. And, in their story, Smartmatic was responsible for stealing the 2020 election by switching and altering votes to rig the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
7. Having invented their story, and created their villain, Defendants set about spreading the word. In November and December 2020, Fox News broadcasted thirteen (13) reports stating and implying that Smartmatic had stolen the 2020 U.S. election. They repeated the story in articles and social media postings. Night after night, publication after publication, Fox News reached out to its millions of viewers and readers around the world with a story: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did not win the 2020 election; Smartmatic stole the election for them.
8. Defendants' story evolved over time as they claimed evidence had come to their attention supporting the story. The story came to consist of eight themes:

• Smartmatic's election technology and software were widely used in the
  2020 U.S. election, including in six states with close outcomes;
• Smartmatic's election technology and software were used by Dominion
  Voting Systems Corporation ("Dominion") during the 2020 U.S. election;
• Smartmatic's election technology and software were used to steal the 2020
  U.S. election by rigging and fixing the vote;
• Smartmatic's election technology and software sent votes to foreign
  countries for tabulation and manipulation during the 2020 U.S. election;
• Smartmatic's election technology and software were compromised and
  hacked during the 2020 U.S. election;
• Smartmatic was previously banned from being used in U.S. elections;
• Smartmatic is a Venezuelan company that was founded and funded by
  corrupt dictators from socialist and communist countries; and,
• Smartmatic's election technology and software were designed to rig and fix
  elections.

9. Defendants' story was a lie. All of it. And they knew it. But, it was a story that sold. Millions of individuals who saw and read Defendants' reports believed them to be true. Smartmatic and its officers began to receive hate mail and death threats. Smartmatic's clients and potential clients began to panic. The company's reputation for providing transparent, auditable, and secure election technology and software was irreparably harmed. Overnight, Smartmatic went from an under-the-radar election technology and software company with a track record of success to the villain in Defendants' disinformation campaign.
10. Smartmatic's loss was Defendants' gain. Fox News used the story to preserve its grip on viewers and readers and curry favors with the outgoing administration – one of their anchors was even able to get a pardon for her ex-husband. Ms. Powell used the story to raise money and enrich herself. Mr. Giuliani used the story to guarantee himself a flow of funds from the sitting President and to sell products. Defendants knew the story could not change the outcome of the election. It could, and did, make them money.
11. The story, of course, did more than just make Defendants' money and jeopardize Smartmatic's survival. The story undermined people's belief in democracy. The story turned neighbor against neighbor. The story led a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol. Defendants started a fire for selfish and financial reasons and they cared not the damage their story caused to Smartmatic, its officers and employees, and the country.

That just about says it all. Fox News and the other defendants should be worried. The facts of the case are pretty airtight. And other defendants could be added as the litigation proceeds. Perhaps even Trump himself. Although he may also be busy untangling himself from his second impeachment trial where Democrats are asking that he testify under oath. And for Trump, that's perjury waiting to happen.

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