Thread by @LookNoFurther4

-Trump earns praise from Taliban
-Trump restricts Iran’s ability to buy medicine
-Biden/Ukraine/Boris Johnson
-Texans opposes border wall
-Putin’s hypersonic cruise missile
-Neanderthal gene a risk factor for serious covid
-Greek migrant camps
-Penguins look.substack.com/p/eight-things…

Under a Feb deal w/the Taliban, US troop withdrawals from Afghan were to be conditioned on a reduction in violence and a severing of ties between the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Neither condition has been met, yet Trump says he will pullout all troops by Xmas.look.substack.com/p/eight-things…

Analysts have warned that a precipitous US withdrawal will further destabilize Afghanistan. The Taliban called Trump’s pullout announcement, which came in a tweet, “a very positive step.” Violence in Afghanistan has escalated dramatically in recent months. Taliban is to blame.

The US invasion of Afghan in 2001 was predicated on information that the Taliban, then in control of the country, had close links with al-Qaeda and allowed al-Qaeda to use Afghanistan as a sanctuary. In June 2020, a UN investigative body reported that...

... since the Feb US-Taliban withdrawal deal, al-Qaeda has strengthened its position in Afghan.The UN report says that, as the Taliban and Pompeo negotiated the February US agreement, the Taliban was giving al-Qaeda secret assurances that it did not intend to honor the deal.

Denying alQaeda an operational haven in Afghanistan was an American foreign policy objective for years. An unconditional US withdrawal that defeats this objective and contravenes our own Feb 2020 agreement fails to honor the sacrifices US troops made there.look.substack.com/p/eight-things…

Trump’s border wall fantasies were crowd-pleasers during his 2016 campaign rallies, but they never resonated in Texas border communities where the wall was slated for construction. Hillary Clinton carried most of these Texas border counties by wide margins.look.substack.com/p/eight-things…

Federal agents are now working in Laredo to prepare for wall construction but they are facing oppositn from an unlikely coalition of interest groups: former Trump supporters; wealthy landowners; Catholic charities; environmentalists; small business owners.look.substack.com/p/eight-things…

Trump pulled the US out of the 7-nation Iran Nuclear Deal in May 2018, replacing it with a unilateral “maximum pressure”policy. Rather than bringing about change, Trump’s policy has strengthened hardliners within Iran’s government. Now Trump has cut off Iran's access to medicine.

The new round of sanctions is intended to portray Trump as “tougher than Obama/Biden.” The sanctions are supported by Israel and have been urged by GOP senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton. Iran will view the new sanctions as an escalation of hostilities. Brace for mil retaliation.

Biden served as Obama’s chief Ukraine envoy for the last 3 years of the Obama admin. During 5 trips to Ukraine, in dozens of lengthy phone conversations, and at 3 int'l meetings, Biden pressured Ukraine’s prior president, Petro Poroshenko, to adopt sweeping internal reforms.

Biden’s goal was to eliminate Russian influence in Ukraine/foment a Ukraine desire to join the EU. Biden’s aggressive demands irritated 2 of Poroshenko’s deputies, who subsequently assisted Giuliani’s fruitless search for evidence that Biden/Beau engaged in wrongdoing there.

Vladimir Putin turned 68 on Wednesday and the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, used the occasion to display video of the successful test firing of a new Russian hypersonic missile. The missile reached Mach 8 and hit a target that was 280 miles away.

US, China & Russia are competing for mastery of hypersonic weapons. Analysts say there currently are no known defenses against them. Their danger is not due to their speed. They are maneuverable in flight & fly unpredictable flight paths, avoiding missile defense systems.

Scientists say the presence of a genetic variation attributed to Neanderthals plays an important role in determining the severity of a person’s #COVID symptoms. If a person has this variation he is three times more likely to require mechanical ventilation if stricken with covid.

The Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos burned on September 9. While some of its residents, mostly minors, were resettled in northern Europe, most were forced into a new camp hastily constructed on Greek military training grounds nearby.Then cold rains came.

Baltimore’s Maryland Zoo has 3 new African penguin chicks, with seven more expected in the next few months.The African penguins, which are native to Namibia and South Africa, are an extremely endangered species. look.substack.com/p/eight-things…

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"...To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else."

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