☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Friday, April 15, 2022 ☙ PANDEMIC FALLOUT 🦠

A Good Friday good news roundup.

Happy Good Friday, Passover, and traditional Tax Day (moved to Monday this year)! It’s Friday, and to celebrate the Good News of Easter, I have a neat little ‘good news’ roundup for you: DeSantis signs controversial pro-life law, confirming a red-state post-pandemic trend; a song reflecting self-inflicted progressive pandemic injuries; a new hope for Democrats; Rogan interviews Bill Maher and it’s not good news for progressives; and a little J6 news.

🗞 *THE C&C ARMY POST* 🗞

📻 At 7am this morning, I was interviewed live on 100.7 FM in Pensacola, on the Preston Scott show. We were talking about the “Save a Generation Tour,” sponsored by (among others) General Flynn and Patrick Byrne. I’ll be speaking live at the first four event stops in Destin (Santa Rosa Beach), Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and Orlando, starting next Thursday.

Here’s the link in case you’re interested: https://takeactionforfreedom.com/fltickets/.

As you can see, the lineup includes heavyweights like Drs. Malone, Cole, McCullough, Kory, Madej, Ardis, and others, plus medical-freedom activists Nurse Erin, Kevin Jenkins, and Robyn Openshaw, and for the younger crowd, Jonathan Otto, DC Draino, Jimmy Levy and Hi-Rez. I’ve been told that VIP dinner slots are still available in some cities, particularly Tallahassee, in case that’s something you’re interested in.

🔥 One of our motivated California C&C’ers is organizing public comment feedback on the garbage scow of seven awful pro-jab and anti-freedom bills the Golden State’s legislature is currently considering. You can read about them and how to quickly and easily add your voice here: https://tinyurl.com/yu6pr3mt.

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🕊️ Good Friday is a literal metaphor for unexpectedly realizing an absolute win just after all hope appears to be lost. It might be good for us all to meditate on that hopeful idea today. Never give up! Salvation could be right around the corner.

🦸‍♂️ Yesterday, Governor DeSantis signed what dumbfounded critics are calling one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the US. Republican State Representative Erin Grall sponsored the Florida bill, which now becomes law on June 1st. Grall has also been very active in parent’s rights this year.

Florida is currently third in the country for the largest number of abortion procedures performed, after California (#1) and New York ( #2).

In a statement released after the bill’s approval, Florida Democrats called it “one of the most extreme and anti-freedom bills to ever pass” the state’s legislature and “a direct assault on the people of Florida and our constitutional rights.” Their opposition is more nuanced than just the time restriction of fifteen weeks, which is supported by a clear majority of those polled. The Democrats are upset because the Republican legislature had rejected amendments to allow a myriad of exemptions for rape, incest, mental harm, and a laundry-list of other loopholes.

The Supreme Court is widely expected to uphold a Mississippi abortion restriction, which essentially would overturn Roe v. Wade. Blue states are getting ready.

New York’s delusional replacement Governor, Kathy Hochul, who just lost her Lieutenant Governor to pending corruption charges, was critical of Governor DeSantis for signing the bill, and invited people to come to New York to get their abortions.

Kathy Hochul @KathyHochul

Smiling from ear to ear as he rips away the reproductive rights of Floridians. It's cruel and despicable. To anyone seeking abortion care, know that you are welcome in New York.

The Recount @therecount

Flanked by small children holding “Choose Life” posters, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signs into law a near-total ban on abortion after 15 weeks, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking. https://t.co/ClV8kcMmCB

Last week, Maryland overrode its governor’s veto to expand abortion rights, allowing any medical professional — not just doctors — to terminate unborn infants in that state.

All of this is hotly political and very interesting. But let’s consider the TIMING for a second. The Sunshine State is the latest among red states to pass a 15-week abortion ban THIS SESSION. West Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky and others have all enacted similar legislation. Texas recently passed a controversial six-week abortion ban. Oklahoma outright banned abortion, making it a felony.

It’s not just legislatures and governors. It seems to be an unstoppable tidal phenomenon. Just on Tuesday, the Miami Herald reported a story headlined, “After 7-year legal fight, Florida judge affirms required 24-hour wait for abortions.” Judge Angela Dempsey issued a ruling Friday that upheld the constitutionality of a 2015 law requiring women to wait 24 hours after initial visits before having abortions.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights research organization, state lawmakers enacted more abortion restrictions in 2021 than in any other year since Roe v. Wade. (If Roe is overturned, get ready for Democrats to try to transform the midterm elections into a referendum on abortion rights.)

So. Regardless of where you stand on the abortion/life issue, one thing seems clear to me. Progressive pandemic restrictions were the legal equivalent of jet fuel for all this pro-life legislation. Vaccine mandates, in particular, completely undermined the rationale for Roe v. Wade, in which the Supreme Court had found a right to bodily autonomy in the Constitution. But how can a woman’s absolute right to autonomously control what happens to her body be so absolute she can terminate her unborn child, but at the same time not absolute enough that she could be fired from her job for refusing to inject any kooky chemical the government wants into that same autonomously-protected body? Her body? Her choice?

The collectivist rationale for vaccine mandates — jabs help others, so shut up — was the rhetorical straw that broke Roe v. Wade’s back.

I made this point last summer when I reported about Texas’ new six-week restriction. I also said progressives would eventually be sorry they got so jab-happy. This is exhibit A.

🔥 According to The Hill, Democrats have a new hope! A hope for saving what is shaping up to be catastrophic midterm political losses, and you’ll never guess what it is. It’s President Trump. Again.

The Hill ran an article yesterday headlined, “The Memo: Democrats Hope Trump Will Save Them From Midterm Disaster.” Here are the three reasons they think Trump could help shift the elections in their favor:

1- He’ll back losing candidates like Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker.

2- The threat of a presidential run in 2024 will make dems mad and fired up.

3- The J6 Committee will release a stinker report accusing President Trump of sedition or insurrection or crimes or something.

As evidence, the article notes that yesterday, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) — the head of House Democrats’ campaign arm — shot out a terrifying fundraising email that began: “Trump hinted he’ll run for President if Republicans retake the House.” The frightening prospect of more mean tweets helps squeeze cash out of democrat voters, apparently.

As more evidence, the Hill reported that in an interview with The Washington Post yesterday, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is on the J6 Committee, leaked that the forthcoming report will be “profuse in setting forth crimes that have not yet been alleged.” Profuse! With un-alleged crimes! In other words, the democrat-only Committee plans to throw the book at Trump. It’ll be a million times bigger than Watergate! Or so they hope.

But The Hill seemed skeptical about the J6 report, noting that issues like inflation are more likely to stand out to folks instead of whose fault the Capitol riot was. The Hill also noted that polls suggest most people have already made up their minds about the “insurrection,” so the Committee’s awesome report might not move the needle at all.

Finally, The Hill noted that Terry McAuliffe already spent millions last November linking Governor Younkin to Trump, but Younkin was elected in a red landslide anyway.

The article ends saying, “for now, it looks like Trump is the most inviting target.” Meaning, the Democrats don’t have any better ideas. Are you surprised that’s the best idea from the party that is still hoping cloth masks will somehow stop a nano-scale aerosolized virus from spreading?

🔥 Blaze Media reported a story this week headlined, “Bill Maher Tells Joe Rogan Why the Democratic Party Is ‘Going to Get Their A** Kicked in November,’ Says People Are Hungry for ‘Common Sense’.”

Rogan interviewed Maher on his show on Tuesday. Maher, who has been critical of corporate media’s coverup of the lab-leak theory, said:

“I’m always saying to the Democrats, just don’t be the party of no common sense and you will be surprised at what amazing success you will have, as opposed to what’s going to happen, which is they’re going to get their ass kicked in November… there is a hunger for, I think, in America, more than anything, is common sense. Away from the extremes.”

Maher denied that he’s becoming more conservative. Like many democrats, including many C&C friends who used to identify with that party, Maher said he feels like the democrat party has become much more progressive. “The left has gotten goofier. So, I seem more conservative, maybe,” he argued. “But like, it’s not me who changed. I feel I’m the same guy.”

WHAT changed Maher? Principally pandemic policies:

“Five years ago we hadn’t spent $6 trillion to stay home. I mean, I understand we had to do something with the pandemic. … It wasn’t cool that [Twitter] didn’t allow the lab-leak theory to be talked about. For months, you couldn’t even mention it … [And] five years ago, no one was talking about abolishing the police. There was no talk about pregnant men. I mean, looting was still illegal. So, like, have I changed? No, because if someone had said 20 years ago ‘I’m not sure looting is a bad thing,’ I would’ve opposed it then. So, I haven’t changed.”

Maher’s point, I think, is that a denial-of-common-sense virus appears to have infected the democrat party. See what you think about this comment by Maher:

“[Even Robert] Redfield, the former head of the CDC, firmly believes that it was in a lab, but again, that becomes the conservative view. For what f***ing reason, why — I can’t even follow the logic of why we pick, ‘OK, if you think it came from the wet markets, you’re a Democrat. And if you think it came out of the lab, you’re a Republican.’ It’s like what the f*** does it have to do with a Republican or Democrat?”

Would you have thought it was likely or even possible Bill Maher would start identifying as a proto-conservative two years ago? I wouldn’t have. This looks a lot like more pandemic fallout, and the longer they hold onto their goofy, nonsensical ideas, the more profound the fallout will be.

🚀 *THE MINORITY REPORT* 🚀

🔥 Surprising no one except corporate media reporters, the Epoch Times ran a story yesterday headlined, “20 Federal ‘Assets’ Embedded at Capitol on Jan. 6, Court Filing Says.”

The filing, a motion to dismiss in the Oath Keepers prosecution, was light on specific details about the embedded FBI and BATF agents but recited that attorneys reviewed mountains of discovery. Alert readers had noted that a tiny footnote on page 6 of the Motion said “at least 20 FBI and ATF agents were embedded around the Capitol on J6.” We assume that the conclusion was formed after reviewing all that discovery.

The footnote doesn’t prove anything, but it is extremely unlikely the defense lawyers would falsify a statement like that in a federal filing. And famously, the FBI was unwilling to say how many agents were embedded around the Capitol when asked by Senator Ted Cruz at a committee hearing.

Bottom line: the J6 cases are going teach folks a lot about how politicized the Justice Department has become. I’m predicting that progressives will eventually regret pursuing all this J6 stuff, too. More pandemic fallout.

🔥 For some reason, the roundup today reminds me of the best song about self-inflicted retributory justice I ever heard, which my great uncle used to sing to us when we were littles, making us collapse in giggles every time by substituting the grownup words for “heck” and “dang” whenever our parents weren’t around. Here’s a snip:

CHORUS:
Hey Mr. Donderbeck
How could you be so mean?
I told you you’d be sorry for inventin’ that machine.
Now all the neighbors’ cats and dogs
Will nevermore be seen
They’ve all be ground to sausages in Donderbeck’s machine.

One night the thing got busted
The dang thing wouldn’t go
So Donderbeck, he crawled inside
To see what made it so.

His wife, she had a nightmare
And walkin’ in her sleep,
She gave the crank
A heck of a yank
And Donderbeck was meat.

(Repeat Chorus)

It seems to me that progressives are looking a lot like Donderbeck, and their political machine isn’t working too well. Maybe they need to get in and take a look at the insides.

🕊️ Finally, here’s my favorite Good Friday video in case you’ve missed it somehow. I think it could use a few more likes, if you have two seconds:

Have a fabulous Good Friday and a very Blessed Easter! I’m off the next two days for the Easter holiday, but I’ll be back on Monday so we can start the week off together.

You can help get the truth out and spread optimism and hope: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-learn-how-to-get-involved-

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