Pelosi Chose the Left this Weekend
#TC106
Welcome to Third Cultured – a foreign policy and LGBTQIA+ politics newsletter – published by yours truly, Kyle Borland. My goal is to highlight the unique role Queer people play in the politics of the United States and the world-at-large.
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This edition:
Opinion Essay
Quotes
Opinion Essay
No thoughts today. I feel sort of in limbo as we process the Afghanistan withdrawal and Pelosi tries to get both the $550 billion infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill through her chamber.
I might even call her office early this week, as a constitutent of San Francisco, to let her know I appreciate her holding firm against moderate Democrats. Lord knows I let her know when I’m unsatisfied, so might as well balance it out when she’s using her power to do what America needs from her.
Stay safe and get vaccinated, beautiful people. Thanks for reading.
Roll Tide,
Kyle (@kgborland)
PS – Here are some stories worth your time.
A Chinese airport project in Zanzibar floundered. Here’s what the new G-7 infrastructure plan can learn. (Washington Post)
A Memorial to Victims of the Pulse Shooting Is Coming to San Francisco (them.)
Americans prepare to welcome thousands of Afghan refugees, even as political rhetoric heats up (Washington Post)
California judge rules unconstitutional the measure classifying Uber and Lyft drivers as contractors (Washington Post)
CIA’s Former Counterterrorism Chief for the Region: Afghanistan, Not An Intelligence Failure — Something Much Worse (Just Security)
Countries urged to offer refuge to LGBTQ Afghans (Los Angeles Blade)
(Source: Statista) Comment: Absolutely shameful for America to be so low. Should be at least 200,000 but the US owes any Afghan that wants to come the refuge they deserve. We should be prepared to accept 2,000,000 and more. Unacceptable.
Covid End of US Empire? (Dissident Voice)
Does the Great Retreat from Afghanistan Mark the End of the American Era (1941–2021)? (New Yorker)
America’s Great Retreat is at least as humiliating as the Soviet Union’s withdrawal in 1989, an event that contributed to the end of its empire and Communist rule. The United States was in Afghanistan twice as long and spent far more. The Soviet Union is estimated to have spent about fifty billion dollars during the first seven of its ten years occupying the mountainous country. Yes, the United States fostered the birth of a rich civil society, the education of girls, and an independent media. It facilitated democratic elections more than once and witnessed the transfer of power. Thirty-seven per cent of Afghan girls are now able to read, according to Human Rights Watch. The tolo channel hosted eighteen seasons of “Afghan Star,” a singing competition much like “American Idol.” Zahra Elham, a twentysomething member of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority, became the first woman to win, in 2019. But untold numbers of the Afghans encouraged by the United States are desperately searching for ways out of the country as the Taliban move in. Women have pulled out their blue burqas again. And the enduring imagery of the Americans flying out on their helicopters will be no different than Soviet troops marching across the Friendship Bridge from Afghanistan to the then Soviet Union on February 15, 1989. Both of the big powers withdrew as losers, with their tails between their legs, leaving behind chaos.
For the United States, the costs do not end with its withdrawal from either Afghanistan or Iraq. It could cost another two trillion dollars just to pay for the health care and disability of veterans from those wars. And those costs may not peak until 2048. America’s longest war will be a lot longer than anyone anticipated two decades ago—or even as it ends. In all, forty-seven thousand civilians have died, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project. More than twenty-four hundred were U.S. military personnel, and almost four thousand were U.S. contractors
Drawing Lessons from Afghanistan (Eunomia)
First-ever water shortage declared on the Colorado River, triggering water cuts for some states in the West (Washington Post)
German minister criticizes Vatican stance on gay couples (Washington Post)
Ghana's president in tight spot over anti-LGBT law (France24)
Goodbye, Chocolate City (Washington Post)
Comment: White people now out number Black folks in DC. Is it any surprise the DC statehood movement is *now* so popular? As Malcolm X would say, “It’s a political trick.”
Hobby Lobby Loses Decade-Long Battle to Discriminate Against Trans Employees (them.)
Homophobic Ghanaian ‘Family Values’ Bill is Odious and Beggars Belief (HRW)
How the Afghanistan War really started (NonZero)
How the War On Terror Became America’s First “Feminist” War (LitHub)
Inside the Biden team's five-day scramble as Afghanistan collapsed (Politico)
Joe Biden Asked How Much Truth the American People Are Prepared to Hear (Esquire)
(Source: GZERO) Lafayette fought for freedom both in the US and in France, but his own countrymen are blasé about his legacy. (The New Yorker)
LGBT Afghans face ‘extermination’ at the hands of the Taliban – we must act to save them (iNews)
LGBTQ freedoms — all of our freedoms — depend on restoring voting rights (Washington Post)
Love and death: The legacy of Congressional Cemetery’s ‘Gay Corner’ (Washington Post)
Mike Duncan Takes On the Turmoil of History (The New Republic)
Montgomery mayor threatens to send businesses elsewhere as council rejects discrimination ban (Montgomery Advertiser)
Out in the Bay: 'The Prophets' unveils Black queer ancestors (Bay Area Reporter)
Pete Buttigieg to become a parent with husband Chasten: ‘We’re overjoyed’ (The Guardian)
Political Homophobia Ramps Up (Human Rights Watch)
Pope Accepts Resignation From Outed Bishop Who Masturbated on Video Call (Advocate)
Sarajevo Sees Third LGBT Pride March, Counterprotesters (Radio Free Europe)
Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Rights Africa (UNDP)
State Dept. Sued for Grenell’s emails on LGBTQ work (Washington Blade)
The Forever War Goes to Congo (Eunomia
The history of US intervention in Afghanistan, from the Cold War to 9/11 (Vox)
The Taliban’s return means death for LGBTQ Afghans. Biden, will you help? (LATimes)
The US and China Are Not Destined for War (Project Syndicate)
This Could Be the Next Afghan Insurgency (Forever Wars)
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni rejects horrifying bill defining anal sex as ‘unnatural offense’ (Pink News)
What I Learned While Eavesdropping on the Taliban (The Atlantic)
Where are the anti-war voices? (Popular Information)
White Replacement Theory v1.0 Is Returning (Forever Wars)
Years of neglect and underfunding. Lots of future needs. Ten projects show what’s at stake for the nation’s roads, bridges, ports and rails. (Washington Post)
Quotes
Self-Delusion. How many times did you read stories about the Afghan security forces’ steady progress? How often, over the past two decades, did you hear some U.S. official proclaim that the Taliban’s eye-catching attacks in urban settings were signs of their “desperation” and their “inability to control territory?” How many heart-warming accounts did you hear about all the good we were doing, especially for women and girls?
Who were we deluding? Ourselves?
What else are we deluding ourselves about?
