Mr. Thumbs Up Smiley Face has no shame:

Donald Trump Holds Responsibility for Afghanistan Withdraw, Ex-Adviser Says

McMaster, who was Trump's top national security adviser from February 2017 to April 2018, told CNN's Anderson Cooper during an interview on Monday night that his former boss was partly responsible for the debacle because he had decided to negotiate with the Taliban on terms of a withdrawal.

"Oh, yes," McMaster said after being asked by Cooper if Trump bears "part of the responsibility for what happened." McMaster then added, "The whole premise of talking to the Taliban before you leave Afghanistan...why the heck were we even doing that?"

"The Obama administration didn't negotiate with al-Qaeda and Iraq on the way out," he continued. "If we were gonna leave, why not just leave? What happened in these series of negotiations is we kind of threw the Afghans under the bus on the way out... then forced them to release 5,000 of some of the most heinous people on the earth."

In response to a request for clarification from Cooper, McMaster confirmed that he was referring to the Trump administration forcing the then-U.S.-backed Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters as part of the withdrawal negotiations.

Background info:

Patrick S. Tomlinson
@stealthygeek
Learned more about the story of this photo and now I'm mad.

This was taken today at Arlington National Cemetery. The grave belongs to Sgt Nicole Leeann Gee, USMC. She was among the 13 US service members killed in a suicide bombing during the Afghan withdrawal 3 yrs ago. 1/

Donald Trump is directly responsible for her death.

When negotiating the Afghanistan withdrawal, he deliberately cut out the Afghan government in Kabul we had been supporting for 20 years.

Instead, he negotiated exclusively with the Taliban. The enemy. 2/

Without any input from Kabul or our other partners in the theater, he released 5,000 Taliban, al Qaida, and affiliated fighters, criminals, and terrorists from prison because the Taliban told him to, swelling their combat force in the months before the withdrawal. 3/

When the Pentagon told Trump they would need a bare minimum security force of 4,000 troops to ensure a safe, orderly withdrawal from the country, Trump overrode his military advisors and slashed the number of remaining deployed troops to just 2,500. Sgt Gee among them. 4/

Trump did all of this in the waning months of his time in office, much of it after losing the election, to sabotage the situation and leave a --------- for Joe Biden to inherent. Three years ago today, that trap went off, costing 13 service members their lives. 5/

FTA:

Two members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR has learned.

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

"Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign," according to the statement. "Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."

On August 20, 2024, Attorney General Ken Paxton's Election Integrity Unit executed multiple search warrants in Frio, Atascosa, and Bexar Counties as part of an ongoing election integrity investigation.

In 2022, the Election Integrity Unit received a referral from the 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis regarding allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections. The subsequent two-year investigation provided sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants in furtherance of the ongoing investigation.

Did you see Paxton's name in that sentence?
#4 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Good grief. The intial referral was from the DA, but Paxton's office issued the warrants:

Latino advocacy group wants federal investigation of Texas AG over home searches tied to voter fraud probe

A prominent Latino advocacy group asked the US Justice Department on Monday to investigate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after his office launched a series of raids the group says was at the homes of Democratic activists and leaders on allegations tied to voter fraud.

So far no charges have been filed as a result of last week's raids. Paxton's office said search warrants were executed in Frio, Atascosa, and Bexar counties as part of what his office described as an election integrity probe dating back to 2022.

In a release last week, the attorney general's office said its election integrity unit was investigating a referral from Audrey Louis, the district attorney in the state's 81st judicial district, involving allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting.

Use this thread for discussion:

FTA:

It's also a stark reminder that if Harris doesn't prevail in November, we'll be subjected to a DOJ with radically worse priorities. There's simply no way Donald Trump, who got his start as an overtly racist landlord and whose son-in-law and top advisor Jared Kushner has a portfolio of thousands of apartments--some infested with maggots and mice, for which Kushner's company ultimately paid a $3.25 million penalty to the state of Maryland--would ever make such a pro-tenant move.

The lawsuit hasn't gotten a ton of coverage, but it's a big deal that speaks to the stakes of this election.

FTA:

"Attorney General Paxton is using his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino non-profit organizations like LULAC, Latino Leaders and LULAC members," Juan Proao, LULAC's CEO told CBS News, calling the state AG's effort "point-blank" voter intimidation. "It is evident through his pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting."

Proao said one of those targeted was Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old who lives in San Antonio. Martinez has been a LULAC member for over 35 years and works to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in South Texas.

She said that last Tuesday, there was a knock on her door in the morning, and she was greeted by nine officers in tactical gear and firearms who said they were executing a search warrant. Martinez was questioned for over three hours about her voter registration efforts in Texas.