(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: 11 things you need to know this Thursday – August 19, 2021

Quinnipiac University Announces WiFi Restrictions For Unvaccinated Students  –Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University announced that it will impose fines and WiFi restrictions on students who cannot, or will not, provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination by the beginning of the fall semester.The university imposed mandatory vaccination for students and staff returning to on-campus learning. In an email sent to students, school leadership stated that approximately 600 students have yet to fulfill the vaccination mandates, or at least they have yet to upload a copy of their COVID-19 vaccination record. – READ MORE

FBI Allegedly Told Informant In Whitmer Kidnapping Plot To Lie, Delete Messages – Michael Hills, an attorney for Brandon Caserta, one of six charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has claimed that the FBI told an informant to lie and entrap group members.Hills claims that an agent from the FBI directed a man named “Dan” to lie to people in the group he had infiltrated and possibly even implicate an innocent third party as part of his duties. – READ MORE

No official US evacuation plan for Americans outside Kabul, report says – The U.S. has no plans to evacuate Americans in Afghanistan who are located outside Kabul, according to a report Tuesday.Officials from various departments — including State and Defense — informed Senate staffers at a Tuesday morning briefing that they do not know of a way to get those Americans through Taliban checkpoints located outside Kabul, the location of the main airport, The Washington Post reported, citing two Senate aides. – READ MORE

‘That Was Their Choice’: Biden NatSec Advisor Victim-Blames Americans Trapped In Afghanistan Following Taliban Blitz – President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan tried to deflect blame for the Biden administration’s lack of a formal evacuation plan for between 10,000 and 15,000 American citizens trapped in Afghanistan following a swift and dramatic Taliban blitz into the country’s capital city of Kabul, by suggesting that those who did not plan for their own evacuations made the “choice” to stay.The United States State Department issued a shocking security alert to Americans still waiting to leave Kabul on Wednesday, telling them that the U.S. government “cannot ensure safe passage to Hamid Karzai International Airport” and appearing to suggest that evacuation flights will be limited, and available on a “first come, first serve” basis. – READ MORE

Pentagon: 2,000 Passengers Flown Out of Kabul, Just 325 Americans – The Pentagon said Wednesday morning that between Tuesday 3 a.m. and Wednesday 3 a.m., the military evacuated about 2,000 from the Kabul airport, including 325 Americans.That small number of Americans is compared to the estimated 11,000 Americans trapped in Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the Biden administration’s disastrously-executed withdrawal. – READ MORE

We Will Keep Spending Trillions on the Afghanistan War Long After the Last Soldier Leaves –We may finally be nearing the end of America’s long military misadventure in Afghanistan—but we are a long way from being done paying for it.The post-9/11 wars begun by President George W. Bush and carried on by three subsequent administrations were largely financed by adding the cost to America’s national debt. That means that the official cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—about $2.26 trillion, though the Pentagon’s accounting is famously fuzzy—doesn’t tell the whole story. – READ MORE

Federal Vaccine Program Hasn’t Helped Those Whose Lives Were Altered by Covid Shot –Angela Marie Wulbrecht jumped at the first chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine, driving three hours from her Santa Rosa, California, home to a mass-vaccination site on Jan. 19. Twelve minutes after her Moderna shot, she stumbled into the paramedic tent with soaring blood pressure and a racing heartbeat. And so began a calvary of severe fatigue, brain fog, imbalance and other symptoms that are still with her eight months later.Wulbrecht, 46, had been a nurse for 23 years before the shot. She was healthy, ate a vegan diet, and was an accomplished salsa dancer. Since January she’s had to leave her job and missed out on many activities with her husband and 12-year-old daughter, Gabriella. She has spent about $35,000 on out-of-pocket medical bills, despite having insurance. – READ MORE