Everything is Bad

Afghanistan is bad. More on this later as things shake out.

Senior Afghan officials and hundreds of Afghan government forces in the country’s west and south surrendered to the Taliban early Friday after the militants overran three key cities, inching the country closer to collapse in the final days of the U.S. withdrawal.

The advances by the Islamist militant group, achieved with little apparent resistance from Afghan government forces despite years of U.S. training and support, dealt heavy blows to the administration of President Ashraf Ghani, whose authority has been unraveling with stunning speed.

Covid is bad. Deaths now running at 60% of last year (they’ve generally been between 40% and 60% of last year’s rates) which will of course be very bad if it continues into fall.

American schoolchildren are heading back to classrooms: All of the 100 largest districts in the country, including the biggest urban districts in every state, are fully reopening schools this fall, according to new data.

But their Covid safety precautions look different across the country. Fifty-three percent of districts are requiring that all students wear masks, according to data as of Thursday, a sharp increase in the last two weeks. The share of schools providing an all-virtual option for some students has doubled in that time, to eight in 10, as families express concern about the Delta variant. The districts not providing one, including New York City, are now the minority.

These dumbfucks are bad.

Nine moderate House Democrats told Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday that they will not vote for a budget resolution meant to pave the way for the passage of a $3.5 trillion social policy package later this year until a Senate-approved infrastructure bill passes the House and is signed into law.

Let this serve as a thread of open despair.