This has been a rather historic week, so we are dispensing with our regular format to spend our entire column discussing the withdrawal of United States military forces from Afghanistan, and the emergency airlift operation now being undertaken to get every American and every interpreter and translator and other Afghan ally of ours out as well.

"Historic," of course, is a neutral term. It can be positive or negative -- it really just means "we will remember this time in the future for what just happened." To put this another way: Barack Obama winning the presidency was historic, but then the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January was also historic, for very different reasons.

So we won't be presenting our usual awards or offering up our usual spin. Instead we're going to take a sober look at where we are now, how we got here, what mistakes were made, and how President Joe Biden has been handling it all so far.

We will return to our regular Friday Talking Points column format next week, we promise.

The Bitter End

Whether President Joe Biden wants it to or not, this week will go down in history filed right next to the week of April 30, 1975 -- the date Saigon fell. The photos of helicopters taking off from the roof of the Saigon embassy will be contrasted with the photos of people falling off a transport plane as it leaves the Kabul airport -- because they were so desperate to leave, they suicidally clung to the side of the plane as it taxied. The two will forever be linked, under the subject heading: "This is what it looks like when America loses a war."

Nobody likes to lose, Americans more than most. But lose we did. We expended an enormous amount of (as they used to say) "blood and treasure," and here at the end of the entire experience we really don't have a whole lot to show for it. When we arrived, the Taliban was in complete control. Before we're even completely gone, the Taliban is back in complete control. They swear they've changed, but no one in their right mind truly believes that.

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I haven't written about the progress of the pandemic data for a while, so I thought it was time to take a close look at the fourth wave. Mostly because one thing the Delta mutation of the COVID-19 virus has brought back (at least for me) is "doomscrolling" -- checking in on a daily basis to see what the numbers are and what the data show. It's not exactly a pleasant picture, but there are glimmers of hope here and there, at least.

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Although some very serious things are going on right now, this is supposed to be the political Silly Season, that long August period when Congress has left Washington and not much happens in the world of politics. Before Donald Trump's time, this was marked by the punditocracy deciding to focus their ravenous attention on some incredibly silly tempest in a teapot and blow it all completely out of proportion -- just because they had nothing better to write about and pontificate upon. Of course, Donald Trump's entire time in office was a 4-year Silly Season gone amok, so we really haven't had a "normal" Silly Season (if that isn't oxymoronic to say) since Barack Obama's time.

This year, of course, the Senate stuck around for a few more weeks than normal, and they were actually productive, so that gave plenty of early-August fodder to the ink-stained wretches who write about politics for their living. Right as Congress finally did depart, the Delta mutation of the COVID-19 virus exploded, which also gave everyone something real and serious to write about. This week, the fiasco in Afghanistan has put the spotlight on President Joe Biden and the White House, so this Silly Season has been anything but silly.

Even so, I always like to take a few days during this time to write silly columns. Call it a working vacation, if you will. And this year, I'd like to do something I don't believe this column has ever done, in all the years I've been writing -- I'd like to endorse a product.

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In my mail today, I received my ballot for the upcoming gubernatorial recall election here in California. But while plenty of pundits have been sounding alarms and all but tearing their hair out over the prospects that Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom could be out of a job in a matter of weeks, I am much more sanguine. The reason I am so calm is that the one poll which caused everyone to freak out was really a comparison of apples and oranges. I think Newsom will sail through the recall unscathed, in fact, winning by at least a 10-point margin. The entire exercise will be yet another example of "fiscally responsible" Republicans wasting a whole bunch of money for no apparent reason -- to the tune of the over $200 million that this recall is costing California taxpayers.

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So ends America's longest war. The forever war in Afghanistan is entering its final moments, at least for us. It is an ugly and chaotic picture. Just last week the U.S. government was saying that Kabul might -- just might mind you -- be overrun by the Taliban in roughly 90 days. The reality was closer to 90 hours. That is either a monumental failure of intelligence or was an enormous lie told to the American people. I strongly suspect it was the first of those, since the speed of it all seems to have caught everyone -- up to and including the decision-makers in the Pentagon and White House -- by complete surprise.

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Astoundingly, the United States Senate just had a very productive week. We know the word "astoundingly" is a bit snarky, but we do try to be honest, after all. After months and months of delays and headfakes, this week the final two legs of President Joe Biden's three-legged economic agenda passed the Senate, just before they left on an abbreviated summer break.

Well, maybe "one-and-a-half legs passed" would be more accurate. The second bill to make it through is nowhere near complete, but due to arcane parliamentary rules it has to undergo a two-step shuffle. The first step is when Congress agrees on how much it's going to spend, and then the second (and much harder) step is when they flesh out all of the details not only of where the money will go, but also how it will be raised. What passed the Senate earlier this week was merely the first step -- the second will be hashed out when Congress gets back from its lengthy summer vacation.

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Ronald Reagan was the first president in the modern age who truly understood the importance of television cameras and snappy one-liners to advance his political agenda. This wasn't that big a surprise, seeing as how he had been a minor Hollywood movie actor and learned the impact of visual presence on the screen at an early age. He used this to great advantage both in his campaigns for president and, once he won, in the Oval Office itself. And one of his best lines was a take on a very old joke. Reagan was fond of summarizing his antipathy towards "big government" with the following quip: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help!'"

As mentioned, this wasn't an original thought, it was actually the punchline to a common joke: "What are the three biggest lies in Western civilization?" The first two answers (in case there's anyone out there who hasn't heard this before) are: "I'll respect you in the morning," and: "The check is in the mail." That last one shows how dated the joke truly is, as younger readers might have to have the concept of "check" (if not "mail") explained to them.

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In all the discussion over how to convince unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated, I have noticed one suggestion popping up repeatedly -- but always down in the comments, never proposed by any pundit or politician (that I am aware of, at least). It's a simple and elegant answer to the problem, although I have no idea whether it could actually be legally implemented or not. Or if it should, for that matter. The idea? If you choose not to get vaccinated, then your health insurance company should inform you that you will not be covered if you get it and are hospitalized. Your insurance would still work for all other ailments and treatments, but not for COVID-19.

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In the midst of all the excruciating (and completely unnecessary) delaying tactics Senate Republicans are now deploying over the bipartisan infrastructure deal, Senator Bernie Sanders today apparently decided enough was enough and released his draft of a $3.5 trillion "human infrastructure" bill. It is just as breathtaking as promised, although the nature of this first bill means it is still vague on a lot of the details. This is by design, since the bill will pass under budget reconciliation rules which necessitate a first "topline" bill that just has the totals for various different areas of the budget, while later on (Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set a soft deadline of September 15, although this may prove to be optimistic) the details will all be filled in by the various committees on a second (and final) budget reconciliation bill.

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President Joe Biden gave a speech this week on where the country stands with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a timely thing to do, since with the Delta mutation so ascendant, we've now entered a fourth wave which has already grown bigger than the first two waves (but, thankfully, not yet bigger than the third). Right now, 100,000 people are getting sick each day -- which is up from just 12,000-per-day a few short weeks ago. The good news is that fewer people are dying than when the third wave surpassed the 100,000-infections-per-day mark, because now over 70 percent of all American adults have gotten at least their first vaccine shot. But what's changing now is that vaccinated Americans have pretty much lost all tolerance for the unvaccinated among us. When the graph lines were all heading downwards and restrictions easing, it wasn't that big a deal. With them skyrocketing back up again, it is. And businesses and governments and the vaccinated population are at the end of their rope when it comes to making allowances for the anti-vaxxers.

Mandates are fast appearing, from New York City to California's health care workers to private corporations across the country. The message is plain: either get vaccinated or forfeit your ability to fully participate in society. Your intransigence is costing lives, and we are sick of it.

One line of Biden's speech did make the news, for castigating Republicans for being so counterproductive. Biden singled out two states (Florida and Texas) and pointed out that they "account for one-third of all new COVID-19 cases in the entire country." He then excoriated the governors of these states and others for passing laws which ban mandatory mask requirements statewide (removing the power of mayors and local officials to institute such requirements). Biden didn't mince words, which is why he made news: "I say to these governors: 'Please help.' But if you aren't going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives."

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