November 27, 2025

Sunrise — 6:40, 7:02, 7:27.

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The comments section is an open thread.

Happy Thanksgiving!

76 comments:

BUMBLE BEE said...

She has died. RIP young lady.

lonejustice said...

Beautiful pictures. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

DINKY DAU 45 said...

Stopped by to see how the North and South doing their things to blame each other or the party oor the people in charge,Dont ever change ,a constant especially up in here. None of ths is difficult just look up the facts (not alternative self opinions and what YOU think
On November 26, 2025, two National Guard members were shot near the White House. The suspect was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29‑year‑old Afghan national.
Entry into the U.S.: Lakanwal came to the U.S. in September 2021, after the Taliban takeover, through a Biden-era program that evacuated Afghan nationals who had worked with U.S. agencies.
Asylum Approval: He applied for asylum in December 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025 by the Trump administration.
🏛️ Who Approved His Status
Initial Entry: Allowed under Biden’s Afghan refugee resettlement program in 2021.
Final Asylum Decision: Approved by the Trump administration in 2025.
This dual timeline is why officials and media are debating responsibility: Biden’s program enabled his arrival, but Trump’s administration granted his asylum status.
Vetting Concerns: Reports note he was vetted before asylum approval, but critics argue the process was rushed or incomplete.
Trump has blamed Biden’s refugee program for letting him in, while others point out asylum was finalized under Trump’s watch.
Refugee groups worry about backlash against Afghan immigrants, stressing that one individual’s actions shouldn’t define an entire community.
Shooter was allowed into the U.S. under Biden’s Afghan evacuation program, but his asylum was officially approved by Trump’s administration in April 2025. The incident has sparked political disputes over vetting and refugee policies.
YOU pick who your side wants to BLAME but the evidence is in FACTS not nonsense opining from people who dont have a clue..Beaucoup Dinky Dau :(

narciso said...

How exactly would you vet him his supervisors probably wiuld say he was a fine conscript of course the afgan army evaporated in a fortnight

narciso said...

As one recall the biden administration tried to deport a loyal afghan translator left scores of them in kabul

DINKY DAU 45 said...

And as a president why make brain dead stupid statements that are definitely false and what are guards from West Virginia doing here?
Trump declares DC a 'CRIME FREE ZONE' amid his federal crackdown
President's post came after he deployed 800 National Guard troops.
President Donald Trump has declared Washington, D.C., to be crime-free.
Posting on Truth Social on Sunday, the president wrote: "DC IS NOW A CRIME FREE ZONE, IN JUST 12 DAYS!!! President DJT" Start the FIRE and the make believe your putting it out. This fella is the cause of the problems. Obviously 800 guards are just theater as a lone wolf can always prevail. Wht s next everybody locked in their houses like China does?

narciso said...

Did the turkeys make people moar stupid than usual

Humperdink said...

We (We = Conservatives) should have learned our lesson when Obama invited thousands of Somalis into our country who have refused to assimilate. They have their own satellite country in Minnesota.

Then the Feeble One executed a repeat performance with the Afghans. The Left has perfected the art of padding their voter rolls with fer’ners

narciso said...

We didnt let him in. In fact trump barred persons from seven countries for that reason but you leave the front gate open

narciso said...

The last pic has a nicer contrast

pacwest said...

Agree with Dinky. Heavy vetting for any Afghanistan in the country. Send them packing on anything less than 100% surety. Wish we had this in place before now, but agree with Trump that every Afgan needs looked at again after this incident. We need to correct the Biden mistakes when they were vetted initially. Good thinking Dinky.

pacwest said...

To carry Dinkys thinking forward and as noted by others we should deal with Obamas Somalis in the same harsh manner Dinky has proposed. I like the way you think Dinky!

narciso said...

How exactly would you vet him now

narciso said...

Worst Possible Timing: 'Fully Vetted' Afghans Protest in Doha Demanding U.S. Entry – We’re Full – Twitchy https://share.google/22Tl5ioNcuRS2QUzv

Beasts of England said...

One and three - very nice!

pacwest said...

One thing I disagree with Dinky on though is his insistence that Trump achieve 100% crime reduction in DC. I estimate that would take between 500k to 1m military. Unlike Dinky I wouldn't recommend that.

Big Mike said...

@BUMBLE BEE, did you mean Sarah Beckstrom? Damn that pesky 8th Amendment that prevents us from executing the bastard offspring of a bitch dog mated to a boar hog by smothering him in a bucket of pig shit.

narciso said...

https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/1993886979738460646

Big Mike said...

Thanksgiving is over and I'm taking a break from washing pots and pans. Need to put 3 1/2 year old grandson to bed but first I must read him a book.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Comment on an earlier post I had no chance to comment on :

"...it simply means doing everything you can, right now, to embrace the positives and look past the negatives.

YouTube : Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive (Live At The Crescendo) - Ela Fitzgerald

I have this on my Airport Ride Playlist.

Lazarus said...

Obama? Somalis were moving to Minnesota years before he took office. Many came under Obama. Many came under GW Bush. Many came in the 1990s. Church groups had more to do with establishing Somalis in Minnesota than Obama.

Achilles said...

narciso said...

How exactly would you vet him his supervisors probably wiuld say he was a fine conscript of course the afgan army evaporated in a fortnight

The problem is the CIA is just as much a foreign entity as the Afghan National Army.

narciso said...

Well you dealt with oga in country im assuming although probably not in kandahar (you probably cant say)

Hows the song 'jokers to the left, clowns to the right'

Eva Marie said...

The Thanksgiving Visitor read by Truman Capote on Youtube
https://youtu.be/CbbJ4iClrWI?si=iGJYu0Ienhy0HrOZ

gadfly said...

Sarah Beckstrom was twenty years old. She died serving her country—not in a war zone, not defending American lives, but because the President of the United States needed troops in Washington for a piece of political theater.

Not for national defense.

Not for constitutional purpose.

For spectacle.

She swore an oath to defend the Constitution.

Donald Trump violated it to put her there.

She should never have been deployed at all. A federal judge ruled last week that Trump’s activation of the National Guard in Washington, DC is illegal—a direct violation of federal statute. The mission had no constitutional basis, no lawful purpose, no justification except one man’s need for the optics of soldiers in the capital.

And Sarah Beckstrom died for those optics.

hawkeyedjb said...

“…one individual’s actions shouldn’t define an entire community.“

Why not? Why should we import anyone from a vicious, violent Muslim country? Maybe it will be fine, maybe they will murder Americans.

Wa St Blogger said...

And Sarah Beckstrom died for those optics.

Bullshit. The proximate cause of her death was Jihadi that should never have been in this country. Had she dies because she go caught up in a gangland shooting, then maybe you could point the finger at Trump, but the Killer was not a local, he drove all the way across the country to kill someone, The NG in DC probably was not the motivating factor, just the target he chose.

DanZenner said...

I just made my annual donation at the link on the right side.
I am very Thankful for this blog. As Begley commented yesterday, I learn something new here everyday.
Happy Thanksgiving to Ann, Meade and the Commentators!

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Reddit Video: "There's food vending machine for cats in Turkey, the seagulls meow pretending to be cats."

Achilles said...

narciso said...

Well you dealt with oga in country im assuming although probably not in kandahar (you probably cant say)

Hows the song 'jokers to the left, clowns to the right'


We had their "special forces" embedded with us sometimes.

I would expect about half of them to start killing people here in some way at some point if we let them in.

pacwest said...

@Lazarus
I stand corrected. The Bush II years had the largest influx by far of Somalis which tapered off at the end of his administration. The Obama years saw a regrowth of the influx (far less than Bush), and Trump 45 saw near zero.

Jaq said...

Narciso's link is well worth a look: https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/1993886979738460646

I think Cynical Publius is right. It's a play for a color revolution right here in the US. "It' can't happen here? Hold my beer."

Howard said...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Jaq said...

"-Coordinate media messaging. If the government attacks, media will accuse the government of attacking "peaceful protestors.” If the government makes concessions, it will appear impotent because protestors will not compromise..."

Well, the way the CIA does it is when the government doesn't crack down hard enought, the organizers of the color revolution will fire on the crowd, and blame it on the government, and since by this time they have total media dominance, it sticks.

gadfly said...

Wa St Blogger said...
And Sarah Beckstrom died for those optics.

Bullshit. The proximate cause of her death was the Jihadi that should never have been in this country.


Wazoo: The Afghan man alleged to have shot two National Guard soldiers near the White House had his asylum application approved by the Trump administration earlier this year. Lakanwal had applied for asylum in 2024, and it was granted by the Trump administration in April 2025.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

The Telegraph : "Trans ideology ‘more repressive than McCarthyism’"

The barrister made the comparison during a discussion about why the Supreme Court’s ruling on the biological definition of a woman has taken so long to be implemented by public bodies.

Ms Cunningham blamed the “grip” transgender ideology has on civil society and said it was analogous to that of McCarthyism.

Speaking on the BBC’s Scotcast podcast, she said: “I’ve been saying for some years we are looking at the most extraordinary social phenomenon of my lifetime.

“The only thing that I can compare it to, which is obviously not in my lifetime, is McCarthyism. My parents were both in Washington around the time of McCarthyism and so I grew up as a teenager with stories of that.”

She went on: “I remember thinking it couldn’t happen here because British people are more sane than Americans. And it couldn’t happen now because we’ve grown beyond that sort of stupidity and superstition.

“And here we are, where something even madder than McCarthyism has taken hold, even madder, and in many ways more vicious, I think, although I don’t probably have the history to make the comparison properly.”

Ms Cunningham represented Ms Peggie in her high-profile legal action against NHS Fife, which suspended the nurse after she challenged a transgender doctor for using the female bathroom.

Ms Peggie was placed on special leave after Dr Beth Upton, a biological male who identifies as a woman, made an allegation of bullying and harassment, and cited concerns about “patient care”.

The nurse lodged a claim against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, citing the Equality Act 2010, including sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation. A decision on the case is expected in the coming weeks.

Ms Cunningham said transgender ideology has taken an “extraordinary grip” on society “to the extent that almost the whole of our institutions and polite society is pretending to believe something that everyone knows is false”.

“And if you dissent you’re a bad person and you deserve to be cast into outer darkness, even when the Supreme Court, our apex court says, ‘No, actually, men are men and men can’t be women, even if they’ve got a special certificate from the government saying they’re women, they’re still not women for practical purposes,’” she added.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

"If you are in the business of finding truth and your price isn't your life, your version of the truth is for sale." -- Chase Hughes

Achilles said...

gadfly said...

And Sarah Beckstrom died for those optics.

Sarah died because democrats brought an unvetted alien to the country and told him that National Guard Soldiers and ICE agents were following illegal orders from Trump the fascist.

Jupiter said...

"Sarah died because democrats brought an unvetted alien to the country and told him that National Guard Soldiers and ICE agents were following illegal orders from Trump the fascist."
Consider whether this Afghan would have been brought here if the US had never sent troops to Afghanistan. Why exactly did we send troops to Afghanistan? Oh, yeah. I remember. Larry Silverstein had a couple bad investments he needed to get rid of. And Israel needed some wars.

Dr Weevil said...

Anyone who can write that the National Guard mission to D.C. had "no justification except one man’s need for the optics of soldiers in the capital" is a moron. I have already pointed out on other relevant threads that their presence has saved the lives of 25-50 D.C. residents. From when they arrived on August 11th to the time of these shootings, D.C. had 24 murders, as compared to 61 in the same time-period last year. That is a 60% drop (60.66%), and roughly 37 living people would be dead if the Guard had not been deployed. I say "25-50" because there's a lot of random variation in murder rates, so it's 37 +/- some number. If we say +/- 12 (one third of 37), that comes to 25-49, which I rounded off to 25-50. To put it another way, if we figure the 60% drop could just as easily have been a 40% or 80% drop, that also gives us a figure of roughly 25-50. All those (unidentifiable) people living to enjoy Thanksgiving instead of being murdered is a damned good and big justification.

Dr Weevil said...

"Why exactly did we send troops to Afghanistan? Oh, yeah. I remember." Too bad Jupiter "remembers" things that didn't happen. We invaded Afghanistan because the man who blew up the World Trade Center, Osama bin Laden, was hiding out there, under the protection of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar. It had nothing to do with Israel or anyone's bad investments, and only an antisemitic moron could think it did.

Jim at said...

because the man who blew up the World Trade Center

Oh, now you've gone and done it.

Original Mike said...

"Too bad Jupiter "remembers" things that didn't happen."

Why do people do that? Do they think it makes them look "clever"?

Achilles said...

Bin Laden was driven out of Afghanistan very early on. And when he was there it was known where he was. Occupying the entire country served no purpose. And bombing and invading a nuclear power where Bon Laden actually was was a non starter.

So Afghanistan it was. The neocons got their forever war.

Most of what we did in Afghanistan was really fucking stupid. Anyone who defends anything about what happened with Afghanistan is just being silly.

Prof. M. Drout said...

(1) It seems obvious that the government is incapable of doing a sufficiently good job of vetting.
(2) It also seems obvious that once people are physically in the United States, it is almost impossible to remove them, even when they commit violent crimes. There are enough activists, journalists, NGOs, and district judges who mindlessly support the violation of existing immigration laws that the process cannot effectively remove dangerous, destructive, or non-contributing aliens before some of them commit crimes.
What else can be do but completely shut down all new immigration until problems 1 and 2 are solved?
Fortunately, since we have apparently adopted--without debate--a new set of rules that allows people with executive power simply to decide not to enforce certain laws just because they don't like them, the President can simply tell the executive branch agencies not to process any more visa, asylum, refugee, etc., applications until some benchmarks are met (5 million expulsions might be a good place to start). Perhaps stopping all H1b and student visas would concentrate the minds of the people who are interfering with the enforcement of laws that have been on the books for several decades. After all, if it saves just one life . . .

rhhardin said...

It might be another Charlie Kirk moment. You can't beat a pretty white woman victim for viral response and the right has so many people now that it's reaching into the low-IQ population, susceptible to viral memes.

Anecdote becomes general lesson movement. Origin of the saying that hard cases make bad law. Maybe a law with her name on it. Just a prediction.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

The future is now: Musk is planning to build an AI Data Center in Space. The engineering makes all the sense in the world... and beyond. Makes me think all that talk of Colonizing Mars was just a way to justify all the... rocketeering.

Dave Begley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Begley said...

I just had a horrible thought. It is entirely possible that a DC jury would find that Afghan not guilty in the first degree murder of Sara Beckstrom of WV.

How could that happen? TDS.

Wa St Blogger said...

Wazoo: The Afghan man alleged to have shot two National Guard soldiers near the White House had his asylum application approved by the Trump administration earlier this year. Lakanwal had applied for asylum in 2024, and it was granted by the Trump administration in April 2025.

Irrelevant to the issue. He may have been granted it, but that is different than whether he should have gotten it.

You lefties are insane. F*ck the finger pointing. A man who came over from another country without proper vetting, with malice aforethought travelled all the way across the country and murdered people in cold blood who had never done anything to him. and all you can but is pull; your head out of your *ss for 2 minutes to proclaim "but, but, but he was granted under the TRUMP administration."

As pointed out before Trump did not let him in and he was not the guy stamping the approval. It was a bureaucrat that he did not have direct supervision over, so the approval had zero relationship to who the president was unless you can find Trump authorizing the expediting of approvals for Afghan men.

You guys WANT our people killed. That is all I can think of because as soon as we point it out you get all defensive and dry to deflect instead of admitting, that the actions of the left result in innocent lives lost.

You guys make me sick.

Derve said...

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/thanksgiving-turkey-jd-vance-b2873792.html

JD swears at the troops and confesses he and the family only eat turkey on Thanksgiving to be American. What a sad man, and a poor politician. He's not likeable. He's a hillbilly doofus who will say or do anything to ... advance himself. (If you don't like the taste of turkey, that's fine. Don't pretend like you have to cook a big bird just to be America. Eat chicken, or pizza or roast beef... or vegetables. Whatever. But some people do indeed like the taste, and it makes you look small to pretend "this is what we have to do..." to go along to get along. I wish he'd just confessed that he and his family were enjoying Indian cuisine, and they can be just as American because the holiday isn't just about the meal. He's a fake Catholic too, for the same reasons... Be yourself, JD. You'll be happier.

Derve said...

Whatever happened to the duck book I gave you, althouse, back in the day?

Derve said...

Maybe if we hadn't started so many stupid wars, we wouldn't be paying for so many refugees here now? Of course they are pissed off and want to kill us. Look at what our military did to their homelands. Hoorah? Probably the kin of some Venezuaelans are plotting to kill us today. When you kill innocents, people usually want justice. Let's stop starting wars and taking foreigners from those wars in?

Derve said...

And Sarah Beckstrom died for those optics.
-----------------
SHe was a 20-year-old medical worker from Summersville, West Virginia hoping to advance herself via the National Guard. She didn't sign up for Infantry. She wanted to work as a community health workers. Used to be, National Guard was a place to do domestic duty like that. Rare to go abroad to fight wars. She had no place patrolling the streets to keep people safe, much less herself...

If things are that bad in this country and the cops need back up, send in the real military. Shame on Trump's boys. Where are JD and Pete today? Not by her bedside. Home safely enjoying Thanksgiving. This woman shouldn't be dead. She didn't sign up for any of that... Poor kids. Stupid kids. Nobody smart or wealthy lets their kids join the military. Brains>weapons. Education, education, education... even when the people doing the educating don't give a damn about their students, and are just doing it to put food on the table for their own, and to pay for their doggie trinkets...

What a sham higher ed has become since we chased the Old White Men out of the academy in favor of "single moms".

Derve said...

Consider whether this Afghan would have been brought here if the US had never sent troops to Afghanistan. Why exactly did we send troops to Afghanistan? Oh, yeah. I remember. Larry Silverstein had a couple bad investments he needed to get rid of. And Israel needed some wars.
---------
The Jews are over all that.
They're happy happy happy going into this holiday season. Celebrating and spending... It's all good. They've moved on. "Good news!" about the Gaza redevelopment plans, ann bleats. I wonder what her son the day-after "Obama? Obama! OBAMA!" boy-child thinks today, if he even thinks at all... (never trust an AMerican man who never learned how to drive.)

Derve said...

Most of what we did in Afghanistan was really fucking stupid. Anyone who defends anything about what happened with Afghanistan is just being silly.
------------
Ann and meade would call them "brave patriots." Her parents got uniforms, pensions and medals pinned on them for making coffee and fucking, dontchaknow.

Jaq said...

Three months after his inauguration Trump was supposed to have complete control of every agency, got it.

You guys live in fantasyland.

Jaq said...

Why did we pause the bombing at Tora Bora long enough for bin Laden to escape to Pakistan? Because if we had killed him right then, the people of the United States would have figured that the war was over, and it was a rousing success, now everybody come home.

Why did the Pakistani defense minister, a couple of months ago, say that helping the US with its "dirty work" on terrorism was a stain on Pakistan's national honor? This is the country that gave bin Laden shelter.

Why did bin Laden order his men not to kill Joe Biden, even if they got a chance?

Why did Joe Biden try to talk Obama out of killing bin Laden in the Situation Room the day we killed him.

Jaq said...

These are just questions, BTW. The 9-11 attacks were a gold mine of pretexts for wars the US later fought, which we had on the books already,

So I [General Wesley Clark] came back to see him [ a source in DoD] a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”

https://genius.com/General-wesley-clark-seven-countries-in-five-years-annotated

Is it anti-semitic to wonder about this stuff?

tim maguire said...

gadfly said...And Sarah Beckstrom died for those optics.

This is such an astonishing tactic by Trump-haters. Blame everyone but the person who did it. It’s Trump’s fault because she shouldn’t have been in DC?

1) If DC is so dangerous a place, then that’s exactly where she should have been.
2) DC is a public place. There is no “shouldn’t be there” for anybody.
3) She had to be somewhere. Is she fair game everywhere that isn’t a war zone because the National Guard “shouldn’t be there?”

Gadfly, could you try, just for one day, to not be a vicious dishonest, opportunistic asshole?

Jaq said...

Syria and Libya, in particular, led to huge refugee crises in Europe, and some of them were no doubt pretty angry about what had been done to their homelands.

Jaq said...

More like "barn fly," you know, those flies that breed in horse shit, bite your ankles, and then just disappear.

Leland said...

It seems apparent that we have a problem when even uniformed members of our national guard are not safe to visit our nation's capital. What is curious is why Democrats don't think that is a problem at all and that nothing should be done about it.

Breezy said...

“What is curious is why Democrats don't think that is a problem at all and that nothing should be done about it.“

Criminals prefer there be no law enforcement.

Kakistocracy said...

The NFL’s Detroit halftime show starred Jack White and Eminem, not Kid Rock and Ted Nugent. It is time for another boycott. 🤣

Beasts of England said...

’She swore an oath to defend the Constitution.

Donald Trump violated it to put her there.’


Go fuck yourself, you miserable little pussy.

buwaya said...

Bombing Tora Bora, like anywhere in Afghanistan, was an episodic thing. The US had no air bases there (at the time) and all missions had to come from aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean with aircraft flying at the edge of their range, and a tiny number of bombers staging from Diego Garcia.
When the planes were done (before the next batch showed up) there was no way to prevent people from sneaking off.

Jaq said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jaq said...

On December 12, Al-Qaeda forces, facing defeat, negotiated a truce with a local Afghan militia commander to give them time to surrender their weapons. In retrospect, however, some critics believe that the truce was a device to allow important Al-Qaeda figures, including Osama bin Laden, to escape. - Wikipedia

This is how I remember it.

Humperdink said...

I was incorrect in stating Obama permitted the largest Somalis immigrants in to the U.S., if only because figures are not available. Somalis have been straggling into the US since the 1990’s.

Rusty said...

Jesus, Gadfly. Can you be more racist? Our constitution is there to protect the rights of all citizens. Even poor black people in Washington DC.

Rusty said...

Ann or Meade. Get those ducks moving south.

narciso said...

Of course the problem was with the deobandi of pakistan
And other salafi bin laden gave the orders it was up to ksm ro train and recruit mostly from bases in pakistan

The levick group was the catspaw of gulf states, that deborah burlingame sister if chic (pilot of flight 77)

Leland said...

Democrats want American cities dangerous so that we are forced to stay at home, just like during Covid.

narciso said...

Which put up the black hats on those who went after those trained in camps like the 20th hijacker Who jane mayer made into a victim (hes laughing from whichever camp in yemen he found his way too)

narciso said...

Wesley the weasel who was part of the trainjng op on waco always a reliable source

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