what's in a word?: Monday - The Republicans lie about the fall of Kabul and A Dinner at the Yankee Clipper Diner in Beacon, NY

Kabul fell to the Taliban and what was before we invaded is once again the state.

Here's the headline from the BBC News website, dated 2/29/2020:

Afghan conflict: Trump hails deal with Taliban to end 18-year war
Published 29 February 2020

President Trump says it is "time to bring our people back home" after the US signed a deal with the Taliban aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan.
Mr Trump said 5,000 US troops would leave Afghanistan by May and he would meet Taliban leaders in the near future, without specifying where.
The US and Nato allies have agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the historic deal.

So yes, the collapse of the Afghan government happened while Biden is president. The events were set in motion 20 years ago when the US first invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban regime and installed a secular one.

There never was peace, the Taliban always considered their religiously inspired movement the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. Perhaps we should have pulled out 20 years ago. Nation Building is a failed policy. A nation needs to be built from within. This is little different from the collapse of the Communist satellite states in Central Europe in 1990 after 45 years of control by the collapsing Soviet Union, except here the retribution may be bloodier in general - we'll see how that goes - and most likely repressive to all non-Moslems and Moslems whose practices don't agree with the Taliban.

If the government in Kabul established by and supported by NATO had legitimacy in the eyes of any substantial group of Afghanis, they would've fought to preserve it.

And yes, Biden is in the White House but it was lying, crooked Donald Trump who crowed about what a great deal he made for the Afghanis and for the USA. Now he will either say nothing or lash out at Biden for failing to do it differently.

How hypocritical can the Republicans be? How big is the Solar System? How big is the Milky Way? The lies they spout are as massive as the black hole in the center of our galaxy. The sad thing is, their followers will blindly believe them and echo them.

I will write more on this when I've thought about it longer.

On a lighter and more pleasant topic, this past Saturday we went to Beacon, NY to enjoy a family afternoon and go to a drive-in movie. For Father's Day, my kids bought a gift certificate to a retro Drive-in called Story Screen Beacon Drive-in - Story Screen also has a first-run house in the middle of town. It was a great gift and made for a wonderful day. Regrettably, only one of my adult kids could be there - the other is in LA. But that was the only regret for an otherwise wonderful day.

When we got to Beacon we ate at the Yankee Clipper Diner, which is a local landmark. It was terrific. Our waitstaff, I think her name was Tamara, was wonderful - friendly without being obsequious, attentive without being annoying. And she loved it that I wanted to photograph her.

Everyone there - staff and customers alike were friendly and the food was simply excellent diner fare. They have outside seating for people still nervous about dining inside a restaurant, and, as you can see, Tamara saw me and gave a wave!

The couple - and for the life of me I can't remember their names right now but I remember they are from Peekskill, NY - stopped to ask if I had photographed them, and I had. They asked for where I blog because they might want to use it for a "save the date" announcement. I asked if they were getting married and they told me they were deciding if this was their first real date. So I took the second shot.

They were so nice as was the stroll up and down Beacon's Main Street. I will revisit this as well, with more photos.