[guest post by JVW]

Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving asshole:

Disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was stripped of his Emmy Award on Tuesday due to sexual harassment allegations substantiated in the state attorney general’s probe that delivered the death knell to his gubernatorial reign.

“The International Academy announced today that in light of the New York Attorney General’s report, and Andrew Cuomo subsequent resignation as governor, it is rescinding his special 2020 international Emmy Award,” reads a statement from the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

“His name and any reference to his receiving the award will be eliminated from International Academy material going forward.”

Cuomo was bestowed the award in November 2020 for his COVID-19 pandemic press briefings.The scandal-scarred governor, who formally resigned Monday, was formerly recognized for his “effective use of television during the pandemic,” the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced.

You don’t have to be a Donald Trump fan to realize that Cuomo’s Emmy was meant to be a eff-you finger from the entertainment industry to the Trump Administration, so it’s high comedy indeed to watch them now behave in an utterly Pecksniffian manner. But given how fantastically awful Sonny Cuomo’s behavior was over the years, given how the Democrat establishment was happy to downplay his abusive behavior towards everyone in his orbit from staff to legislators to media, given the rampant corruption that occurred under his administration both in official policy and in Sonny’s own financial dealings, I welcome that one brief moment where the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences pretends to grow a conscience and endeavors to right a wrong.

And, naturally, the former governor left office in the most self-pitying and obnoxious way possible. Kyle Smith at NRO sums up the disgraced governor’s farewell pretty well:

[. . .] Even to dedicated Cuomotextuals, the [speech] was a masterpiece of effrontery, arrogance, and Escher-style self-negating twists. The obfuscation! The blame-shifting! The conspiracy-theorizing! The denial! The sheer, sordid cheek of the thing! It was a positively Frankenian farewell.

Mr. Smith hearkens back two-plus decades ago to Cuomo’s former boss, Bill Clinton, in comparing Handsy Andy’s dismissal of the allegations against him with Bubba’s shameful rationalizations for why the Monica Lewinsky scandal was overblown. Quoth Cuomo:

There will be another time to talk about the truth and ethics of the recent situation involving me, but let me say now that, when government politicizes allegations and the headlines condemn without facts, you undermine the justice system — and that doesn’t serve women and it doesn’t serve men or society.

Of course, as Kyle Smith points out, “the facts” have never been on Sonny’s side. Not only did eleven women raise allegations against him, not only did several of them report this abhorrent behavior to family and friends immediately after it occurred, not only did more than one damming picture appear to show Sonny engaging in the alleged behavior, but the New York Attorney General, a nominal ideological ally if also a political rival, investigated the matter and determined the allegations had merit. Yet to Asshole Andy, this is all some big cultural misunderstanding and no doubt will at some point morph into an outlandish claim that the state with the largest total number and fourth-highest percentage of Italian-American residents is somehow biased against a son of Italy.

The body politic won’t miss a depraved character like Andrew Cuomo, though this entire affair isn’t going to amount to much unless the Empire State takes a long and difficult look at their political culture and resolves to address the huge influence that sleazy political machines wield. Both major parties have seen their leadership wind up in prison for various levels of malfeasance, so verily there aren’t too many — if any at all — virgins in the Albany brothel. But anyone who professes to believe in the general beneficence of government — and I’m looking at you as a prime example, New York Times editorial board — has to pay more attention to the cast of characters it is willing to support in order to achieve their ideological objectives, and perhaps wonder if it is truly worth suffering the Andrew Cuomos of the political sewer merely to promote abortion, gun control, and same-sex marriage.

– JVW

[guest post by Dana]

CNN is reporting that, despite pressure from our European allies and even from Congressmembers from his side of the aisle, President Biden has agreed to the Pentagon’s recommendation saying that the US will hold to the August 31 deadline:

President Joe Biden has decided, in consultation with his national security team, to stick with the August 31 deadline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, according to a senior administration official.

Biden made the decision mindful of the security risks in remaining the country longer, the official said, and he has asked for contingency plans in case he determines at a later date the US needs to remain in the country for longer.

On Monday, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff expressed doubts about being able to successfully evacuate all Americans remaining in Afghanistan by the Aug. 31 deadline:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff [D-CA] said it was “very unlikely” that the U.S. completes its evacuation of Afghanistan by the Aug. 31 deadline.

“I think it’s possible but I think it’s very unlikely given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated. It’s hard for me to imagine that all of that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month.

I am encouraged to see the numbers of people evacuated increasing readily to the point where we evacuated 11,000 people in a single day. Nonetheless given the logistical difficulties of moving people to the airport and the limited number of workarounds it’s hard for me to see that could be fully complete by the end of the month. I’m certainly of the view that we maintain a military presence for as long as is necessary to get all U.S. persons out and to meet our moral and ethical obligations to our Afghan partners.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and who have previously served in the military reacted with skepticism to the hard deadline decision:

Rep. Jason Crow, coming out of the briefing, says he holds firm in his belief that “it is not possible for us to evacuate all American citizens and our Afghan partners and their families by the end of the month.”

“The deadline must be extended,” he says. https://t.co/Xt4CatjEZw

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) August 24, 2021

(Just two days ago, Crow, along with other Congressmembers called on the Administration to extend the perimeter in order to safely relocate the Afghans who aided the US in Afghanistan.)

And here is Republican Representative Peter Meijer sharing similiar concerns about the deadline:

This is what breaking promises looks like. Prove me wrong @POTUS – extend the 8/31 deadline and get our people out. We can’t change the past, but we still have time to make this last part right. @WHCOS https://t.co/uaRNhv6caF

— Rep. Peter Meijer (@RepMeijer) August 24, 2021

Although the Taliban warned the US about extending the deadline, Biden officials said on Monday that such rhetoric would not influence the President’s decision…

And according to ABC News:

As the deadline to evacuate looms, approximately 58,700 people have been evacuated from Kabul since Aug. 14, when the Taliban took control of the government, according to a White House official. Since the end of July, the U.S. has relocated approximately 63,900 people.

Officials have been vague when asked how many Americans still need to be evacuated, only saying that there are “thousands,” and blaming it on citizens not registering with the embassy when they arrive or deregistering when they leave.

The thing is, no one doubts the might and ability of the US military to go in and evacuate every last American stranded in Afghanistan. But clearly, there has to be the will to do so by those with real power. With that, I’ll leave you with this:

House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith, coming out of a briefing by top admin officials on Afghanistan, says the evacuatuon is a “much better, flowing effort at this point.”

Aug. 31 is still the goal, he says. “I’m very confident we will get as many as it is possible to get out.”

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) August 24, 2021

Smith says the briefers “assured” lawmakers there is a plan to go past Aug. 31.

“That’s not exactly breaking news. Of course there’s a contingency to go past Aug. 31. It would be malpractice if there wasn’t.”

“Absolutely” there’s a risk to soldiers going past Aug. 31, he adds.

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) August 24, 2021

*we will get as many as it is possible to get out. Oh.

–Dana