How many Kurds did Trump airlift out when he yanked the troops out of Syria in 2019?

Zero, to the best of my knowledge (and googling skills just now). President Biden has evacuated over 28,000 people out of Afghanistan so far. He could have pulled a Trump and just gotten the troops out of there. But he didn't. He's trying to make the best of a horrific situation. He's trying to do the right thing, like he always does.

Why the difference in the two presidents' troop withdrawals? Because Joe Biden has a heart and a soul and Trump has neither.

I just watched Joe Biden's address on the infrastructure bill: How wonderful to have a president

who can field reporters' questions intelligently, thoughtfully, and respectfully.

Love you, President Biden!

Hey! It just occurred to me: Republicans have been trying to kill public education for years.

Maybe this is a secondary reason for Republican governors banning mask mandates in schools (the primary reason being, of course, that they hope to curry favor with Trump's idiot voting base and thus get reelected).

I actually don't think they've thought it through that much (since they never think anything through), but creating public schools that are unhealthy for kids and teachers would fit into their anti-public-education scheme. Too bad if thousands of schoolchildren are killed in the process.

I predict Republican legislation is on the horizon for private school vouchers for parents who pull their kids from public schools due to Covid.

Health insurers to the rescue, as far as encouraging people to get vaxxed?

Maybe we will soon have an ally in encouraging people to get vaccinated.

From the New York Times:

Don't Want a Vaccine? Be Prepared to Pay More for Health Insurance

. . . Insurers could try to do more, like penalizing the unvaccinated. And there is precedent. Already, some policies won’t cover treatment that result from what insurance companies deem risky behavior, such as scuba diving and rock climbing.

The Affordable Care Act allows insurers to charge smokers up to 50 percent more than what nonsmokers pay for some types of health plans. Four-fifths of states follow that protocol, though most employer-based plans do not do so. In 49 states, people who are caught driving without auto insurance face fines, confiscation of their car, loss of their license and even jail. And reckless drivers pay more for insurance.

The logic behind the policies is that the offenders’ behavior can hurt others and costs society a lot of money. If people decide not to get vaccinated and contract bad cases of Covid, they are not only exposing others in their workplace or neighborhoods; the tens or hundreds of thousands spent on their care could mean higher premiums for others as well in their insurance plans next year. What’s more, outbreaks in low-vaccination regions could help breed more vaccine-resistant variants that affect everyone.

I wish, at the very least, that stores would be allowed to have special "Vaxxed Days," even one day

a week when everyone who wished to enter the store had to show proof of vaccination AND wear a mask, plus a photo ID to show that they didn't just borrow someone's vaccination card.

It would just be such a relief to be able to go shopping just one day a week among "my people" (the fully vaxxed mask wearers) and not have to be subjected to the "stink eye" from the anti-vaxxer-anti-maskers, not to mention their Covid germs.

Actually, on second thought, I would like it even better if they would reserve one day a week in which they would allow the anti-vaxxer-anti-masker idiots in the stores. Let the rest of us have the remaining six days!

Ari Melber just showed a clip of "McTurtle" stating, "Slow but steady wins the race"!!!

Where is Trevor Noah when you need him??? He would have had a heyday with THAT one!

(I guess Trevor is on hiatus until September. Hurry back, Trevor, we miss you!)

When Republican anti-vaxxing Covid deniers finally admit that Covid is real and deadly, they will

find a way to blame it on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and all Democrats in general.

I'm sure FoxNews et al. and the Republican politicians and campaign strategists are already busy trying to find a way to pin Covid on the Dems, in preparation for the day when their dim-witted voting base finally wakes up.

I imagine most of the anti-vaxxers are pro-Trump and anti-abortion. Has it occurred to any of them

that if they don't get vaccinated and then get Covid and transmit it to a pregnant woman who dies or miscarries, that they themselves have performed an abortion?

It's pretty well documented that these people care not one whit about the lives of adults and children who have already been born, but I wonder if this would give any of them pause.

It just kills me, their hypocrisy. They are fighting like mad to overturn Roe v. Wade and deny women the right to decide what they do with their bodies, while at the same time they are claiming that the government has no right to interfere with what they themselves decide to do with their bodies (e.g., not to get vaxxed and not to wear a mask).

Did Derek Chauvin's cryptic remark hint that he might be planning suicide?

It was just so weird when he said, ""There's going to be some other information in the future that would be of interest. And I hope things will give you some, some peace of mind. Thank you."

I don't know. I absolutely hope he does not commit suicide. I hope that he lives to serve out his full prison sentence. But I can imagine the overwhelming humiliation he must be feeling right now to be a cop going to prison. Well-deserved humiliation, of course, hopefully with a giant dose of shame thrown in.

We know we need Joe Manchin. But what does Joe Manchin need?

Is there anything the Democratic Party can offer to Joe Manchin to persuade him to vote for the voting rights bill? An ambassadorship? A cabinet position? A pony?!

Yes, I know we're not supposed to be the "Quid pro quo" party, but should we just stand here wringing our hands and let this one man single-handedly destroy democracy?