VIDEO UPDATE: Time to pull the plug on Sleepy Joe?

Most of our readers took "Report into the sanity of President Biden" (WWW 2/8/21) as satire, which is what was intended. However, in times like these, the line between fiction and truth is a dotted one. Here, only lightly edited, is a report by AP, via Breitbart News, of a suggestion made by Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), who may have got the idea from Walt!

Sen. Scott weighed in this morning on the United States' disastrously-executed withdrawal from Afghanistan, raising the question of whether the time had arrived to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Joe Biden. He tweeted, "After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?"  

The Florida Republican used the question to resurface recent criticism regarding the various crises facing the country and its president. "Inflation is raging. The debt ceiling expired & U.S. debt is headed to $45 TRILLION. Kabul is falling to the Taliban & encounters in the #BidenBorderCrisis just hit a 20 YEAR HIGH," he wrote. "Democrats control the House, Senate & @WhiteHouse. What in the world is Joe Biden doing?"

The world watched in horror Sunday as Taliban fighters took over Afghanistan’s presidential palace in Kabul, declaring itself the new leaders of the war-torn country. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Mohammad Naeem, Taliban spokesperson said the jihadist group was "ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection. Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years," he declared."Thanks to God, the war is over in the country."

As of Monday, approximately 6000 U.S. troops [up from 5000, as reported by Walt yesterday] will deploy to Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport and assist with evacuations. On Sunday, the U.S. evacuated all of its personnel from the embassy.

Here endeth the AP/Breitbart report. However, this just in! Politico.com reported at 1259 EDT that the United States has suspended all flights out of a key airport in Kabul and is working to "reestablish security" after crowds of people rushed the airfield in an attempt to flee Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover of its capital city. 

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told the meeja that American troops are "working alongside Turkish and other international troops to clear the area of people," but "do not know how long this will take. [Therefore], out of an abundance of caution, there are no flights coming or going — military or civilian — and this is because of large crowds that are still on the tarmac" on the southern side of the airfield, which saw a series of breaches overnight.

Once again, Walt sez... stay tuned!

VIDEO ADDED at 1645: The disaster that is the Biden administration has attracted attention as far away as the Land of Oz. Here's documentary maker Ami Horowitz interviewed on Sky News Australia.

 

YouTube hates Sky News Australia, but so far hasn't been able to ban them. And a good thing too!

Florida, the new Zimbabwe

Regular readers of WWW [as oppoed to "irregular" border-crossers. Ed.] will know that Walt has an abiding interest in Zimbabwe, the failing African state whose name has become a metaphor for incompetence and corruption -- two nouns which have been much in use since November 8th as journalists and pundits struggle to describe the gubernatorial and senate elections in the Not-so-great State of Florida.

The ZANU-PF party has ruled the Land of Bambazonke since independence, thanks to its expertise in the rigging ["running", shurely! Ed.] of elections. For instance, when their candidate is trailing in the vote count, they simply stop counting! That's what happened in 2013 when weeks after polling day it was announced that President Mugabe had received the most votes, but not enough to prevent a run-off. The opposition candidate then withdrew from the race, leaving Comrade Bob to win in a landslide. See "'Incidences' from the Zimbabwean election", WWW 2/8/13.

They didn't risk having to compete in a run-off this year. All the results of July's polls were announced within 48 hours, except for that of the contest for the presidensity. After a couple of days of "They're coming just now," the government-appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commision announced that Bob's successor, Comrade ED [No relation! Ed.] had won 50.8% of the vote, just enough to avoid a runoff. See "ED wins Zimbabwe presidential election - quelle surprise!" WWW 2/8/18.

Does this remind you of any election in any place you've been hearing about lately? How about Florida? In particular, how about Broward and Palm Beach Counties? I have no bias against those counties -- used to live there myself -- but can't help but notice that the stench of electoral corruption is worse than usual this year.

"Preliminary results" announced in the wee hours of Wednesday showed Republican Governor Rick Scott leading incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in the contest for a US Senate seat, and Republican Ron DeSantis ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in the race for the state house.

To nobody's surprise, the lamestream media refused to "project" a winner, saying it was too close to call, absentee ballots hadn't been counted, a recount was possible, and so on. Why? Because the election machinery was in the control of "non-partisan" officials such as Broward County's Supervisor of Elections, Brenda Snipes, who President Trump said "has had a horrible history..."

Here, from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is what POTUS was talking about.

• In 2004, approximately 58,000 mail-in ballots were not delivered to voters.
• In 2012, nearly 1,000 uncounted ballots were discovered a week after the election.
• Election results in the 2016 primary were posted on the election office's website before the polls closed.
• A court ruled Snipes had broken election law when she destroyed ballots from the 2016 election 12 months after it, instead of the 22 months required by federal law.

Republicans blamed problems in Broward County on the design of the ballot there. “The ballot was laid out in an incompetent fashion by the incompetent supervisor of elections,” said Mr Scott's attorney, Bill Scherer, apparently referring to Mrs Snipes.

The analysts at FiveThirtyEight questioned whether the position of the Senate race on the Broward County ballot (at the bottom left-hand corner of Page 1) meant some voters skipped over the race. In Broward, some 26,060 fewer people casts voted in the Senate race compared with the governor’s race, a difference of 3.7%.

Mr Nelson's attorney, however, said he believes the problem was with the machine counters -- nothing to do with Mrs Snipes. "I am pretty confident what you are going to see are markings that were not picked up by the machines or a calibration issue that was not registering that part of the ballot," he said.

Reports that Brenda Snipes received her training in public administration in Zimbabwe are untrue. She comes from that hotbed of democracy, Talladega County AL. It's just a coincidence that the start of a statewide recount, which began Sunday morning, has been delayed by a series of technical glitches with the counting machines... in Broward County.

Stay tuned for the revised and improved results, due at 1500 EST on Thursday. Or call Mrs Snipes' office for the official figures. If you can't wait, call anytime!

Further reading: "What can we expect from Florida recount — 2018 edition?" by Brendan Swisher, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/11/18.