“The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan,” Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman Central Command said in a statement. “Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.”

  The Muslim extremist Taliban, who now control Afghanistan, appear to be unhappy about this development. A Taliban spokesman said,  “We have heard the reports about the Nangarhar incident, but we are trying to find the type of the incident and the casualties. After an investigation, we will react to that.”

Under Threat: The US military now says it was one major bomb, not two, that killed at least 170 civilians and thirteen members of the US military Thursday. Investigators say they believe a single man armed with a 25 pound suicide vest approached US troops searching Afghan refugees and detonated with devastating effect.

  US authorities say there is still a threat of more attacks but despite that, many Afghans are still trying to get out of the country through the danger zone of the airport perimeter.

  White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said yesterday, “The threat is ongoing and it is active. Our troops are still in danger.” An unidentified administration official told the press, “The next few days of this mission will be the most dangerous period to date.” 

  The NY Times  reports that as of yesterday, “Taliban guards told a reporter that no one was allowed to go near the airport and that all entrance gates were closed.” Despite that, the airlift continued yesterday and today with refugees who were already inside the airport at the time of the bombing.

  The identities of the American dead are beginning to come out. The Pentagon now says one of the 13 was a member of the Army. Eleven were Marines, and one was a Navy Corpsman. The Pentagon does not announce the names of fatalities until at least 24 hours after families have been notified. 

  Congressional Republicans have not even waited for the bodies of Americans to come home before attacking President Biden for his handling of the Afghanistan exit. Some have already called for impeachment. “Should Biden step down or be removed for his handling of Afghanistan? Yes,” tweeted former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley

  “Look I’m extremely frustrated with this President,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said to the press yesterday. “There will be a day of reckoning.”

  McCarthy attacked Biden for negotiating with the Taliban, even though President Trump not only negotiated with them, he agreed to pull American troops out Afghanistan by May 1^st. Defending his attack, McCarthy said, “Trump also had conditions. And he upheld the conditions.”

Covid Nation: A Florida judge has ruled in defiance of Gov. Ron DeSantis that school districts in the state can require students to wear masks. At least 10 school districts, some of them in the largest cities, have invoked mandates contrary to the governor’s order.

   DeSantis has said that parents are the ones who should decide whether their child wears a mask, even though masks are for stopping the spread of Covid-19, not just protecting the wearer from getting it.

  Florida is reporting about 25,000 new cases of Covid-19 every day with a daily average of 345 deaths.

  Judge John Cooper ruled that mask mandates are “reasonable and consistent with the best scientific and medical opinion in this country.” He also found that DeSantis violated the law when he banned school districts from requiring masks for the safety of their students.

The Spin Rack: Tropical Storm Ida has pumped up to hurricane strength and is expected to hit the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts tomorrow. It’s shaping up to be a major event. —  A Connecticut woman was sentenced to seven days in jail for leaving the boardwalk on the thermal grounds at Yellowstone National Park, an act that’s dangerous and a thumb in the eye to the sanctity of park grounds. — A team of scientists in Egypt’s Sahara Desert say they have dug up a 43 million-year-old fossil of  an amphibious four-legged whale with a long jaw that ate other creatures like a raptor. That’s a long time ago, so it’s safe to go back in the water.

Throwing Rank: A Marine Corps battalion commander’s career was killed in the action of posting to Facebook.

  Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller posted a nearly five-minute video to Facebook in which he appeared in uniform ripping military leadership for the messy exit from Afghanistan. “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down, and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up,’” he said.

  Scheller said, “I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up?’”

  Speaking of messing up …..

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