☕️ BLENDER BANDITS ☙ Wednesday, April 15, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Iran's greatest weapon turned into a self-destruct button; the Times redefines 'chaos' mid-sentence; Biden's crown-jewel J6 convictions ground to dust; public health finally hears the raccoon; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Wednesday! Your mid-week roundup includes: how Trump achieved what no president has attempted in modern history — turning Iran’s own chokepoint into a noose around its economy, with $150 billion in lost revenue on the table if Tehran doesn’t deal; how the New York Times revealed its editorial soul by treating identical chaos as catastrophe for one party and opportunity for another; how the final thread of the January 6th prosecutions was pulled yesterday, giving twelve men something better than pardons — their good names; and how a landmark Politico poll confirmed what vaccine-injured Americans have known for years, while the experts who broke the public’s trust still cannot figure out why nobody believes them anymore.

🚀⛑️ C&C ARMY BRIEFING — IRAN WAR UPDATE ⛑️ 🚀

Yesterday, the New York Times reported, “US Blockade Stops Iran-Linked Ships From Crossing Strait of Hormuz.” They buried the lede. Eight Iran-bound ships were blocked, but twenty ships headed for other ports safely transited the Strait. It’s Trump’s greatest rope-a-dope yet.

CLIP: Fox’s Jesse Watters walks viewers through the “Trumpian Grand Bargain” (6:39).

Here’s how it went down. In six weeks of kinetic fighting, the US and Israel ‘reduced’ Iran’s offensive grip on the Strait. (‘Reduced’ is a military term that means crushed into a fine powder.) Then, once we’d achieved operational control over the Strait, we reopened it to all traffic except Iran’s. We turned Iran’s ’nuclear option’ back against itself. Iran has been threatening to shut the Strait every few years since the 1980s.

President Trump shrugged. Fine, let’s see how you like it. He’s using the narrow Strait against Iran. The Navy can park, safely out of reach, on the far side of the Strait and stop ships heading to or from Kharg Island, where 90% of Iranian oil exports originate. Two can play at blockade.

If Iran can’t ship the oil, it piles up while its local oil storage tanks fill to the brims. In as few as 13 days, they’ll have to stop pumping, because there’s nowhere left to store the oil. That’s a bigger problem than it looks. When you stop pumping, wells don’t just sit idling. They start dying. Two days ago, Iran International explained, “Forced shutdowns could permanently eliminate 300,000 to 500,000 barrels per day of production capacity – equivalent to $9–15 billion in annual revenue lost forever.”

$150 billion gone over the next ten years if Iran doesn’t make a deal in the next two weeks. And the pain starts now. “A blockade would effectively zero out Iran’s export revenues within days and trigger cascading effects across its financial system,” Iran International explained.

The blockade means nothing goes out, but nothing comes in, either. No industrial inputs, machinery, or even food. The pressure will critically exacerbate existing inflation problems, create massive unemployment, and causes a million downstream headaches for the IRGC. “Inflation could reach as high as 180% if shortages of industrial inputs persist,” the article said, adding that “unemployment could rise by around two million people.”

It’s a brilliant strategy. Trump took Iran’s perceived greatest strength —closure of the Strait— and turned it back against them. He mirrored and inverted Iran’s own playbook. Nobody saw this coming. No other president would have dared to try. A classic Trumpian third way.

And it’s all part of a larger geopolitical strategy to shut down Russian and Chinese shadow fleets, which those countries have successfully used for years to skirt economic sanctions. And the Trump Administration has shown it will run its own plan without broadcasting it in advance.

We haven’t even seen the full picture yet. It keeps getting bigger and more audacious. I can’t wait.

🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍

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Believe me, I realize that tales of New York Times hypocrisy are rapidly becoming a cliché, but come on. How could I pass this one by? Yesterday, among a four-story cluster on its home page about Eric Swalwell’s political shrinkage, the Times included this —celebratory? joyful? euphoric? — headline: “Swalwell’s Exit Injects ‘Chaos’ Into California Governor’s Race.” Don’t draw any conclusions: after using ‘chaos’ as a battering ram against Trump for 14 months now, they’ve suddenly redefined that word. Chaos is good now.

Whenever Trump’s capslocked tweets madden mullahs and enrage Euroweenies, the Times calls it chaos and treats it like a grave threat to the Republic. Whenever a conservative influencer wears Reagan-themed socks, the Times runs a sober, front-page analysis piece titled: “Unraveling: How Far-Right Hosiery Threatens the Fabric of Our Democracy.” But for the Grey Lady, nothing compares to the evergreen gift of Trumpian chaos. For one recent example, Times headline, April 8th:

But in the very same news cycle, when Democrats experience chaos? Oh, that’s different. That’s not a careening crisis. That, my friends, is an opportunity. That is a vibrant, joyous explosion of democratic energy. Behold Exhibit A: the newly energized 2026 California governor’s race.

Until recently, the frontrunner in this race was Representative Eric Swalwell. Swalwell was the guy who spent years insisting that Donald Trump was a Russian spy, while he himself was romantically entangled with an actual Chinese spy. You can’t even script this kind of thing.

Despite Swalwell’s chronic foreign-influence hiccups, California Democrats, who apparently have a very high tolerance for political slapstick, made Swalwell their leading candidate for governor. But this weekend, as you know, Swalwell abruptly suspended his campaign and resigned from Congress. Why? Because multiple women emerged from the jungle primary with horrifying allegations of violent sexual assaults, not to mention awkward social media snaps of Eric’s personal business.

In the news business, that’s called a “titanic, campaign-destroying scandal.” It is a runaway disaster. It leaves the California Democratic Party —which already has roughly 50 candidates competing for governor— in a state of unmitigated disarray. The field is a complete mess. Nobody knows who will win or even who to back. They are all frantically scrambling for Swalwell’s leftover donors like seagulls fighting over a toddler’s dropped French fry. Ka-caw!

The headline arguably described that chaotic spectacle. But when you actually read the article, you find it reassures readers that this is the good kind of chaos. According to the Times, the remaining Democratic candidates “see sudden voter interest in the sleepy contest as a campaign opportunity.”

How lovely! The leading candidate implodes in disgrace amid horrific assault allegations, and the Times frames it as an exciting opportunity to wake up a “sleepy contest.” It’s like watching a cruise ship hit an iceberg and reporting that the passengers now have an exciting opportunity to try out the lifeboats. A fun excursion!

And what an exciting field of candidates they have to choose from! You have Katie Porter, who is best known for screaming incoherently at interns, which is a skill that will definitely translate to managing a state with a $320 billion budget. You have Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge-fund oligarch running as a champion of the working class —of course— because nothing says “I understand the struggles of the common man” like owning a football team and having a personal P.R. firm. You have Xavier Becerra, whose entire campaign pitch is essentially: “I did the mandates.”

And they are all now madly scrambling around Sacramento, desperately trying to convince donors that they are each the only one who can save California from the terrifying prospect of a Republican governor. (The leading Republican —and now leading candidate overall— is Steve Hilton, a British political strategist who is endorsed by Trump, which means the Times will soon be warning everyone that his accent threatens democracy.)

Meanwhile, the state of California continues to face real problems. Gas is wildly expensive. It lavishes more on each homeless person than its citizens’ annual salaries. The state is hemorrhaging residents to places like Texas and Florida, where the government does not actively try to regulate the shape of your toothbrush.

Amusingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Times wants to talk about how Eric Swalwell’s catastrophic downfall is actually an exciting, chaotic opportunity for these awful candidates to finally get some well-deserved attention. But it turns out it’s much worse— the editorial board of the New York Times is now getting its political philosophy entirely from fictional villains.

In the underappreciated movie The Fifth Element, the bad guy, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (played by Gary Oldman wearing a plastic dome on his head), knocks a glass off a table to show how chaos and destruction are actually wonderful, because they create a “lovely ballet” of activity as swarms of tiny robots scramble to clean up the mess. The Times looks at Eric Swalwell’s career exploding into a million jagged pieces and sees exactly that: a lovely, vibrant ballet of chaotic Democratic opportunity.

The Editors have also clearly been studying Littlefinger from the hit HBO show Game of Thrones, who ominously explained that “chaos isn’t a pit— it’s a ladder.” Right now, there are 50 Democrat candidates looking at the smoking crater of the Swalwell campaign, and every single one of them is trying to calculate how to use the wreckage as a stepping-stool to the governor’s mansion— with the Times maniacally urging them on.

You can see how, even though I’ve run Swalwell stories for three days in a row, I couldn’t pass this one up. It’s not just the hypocrisy of using ‘chaos’ as a sword against Trump but also as a rallying cry for Democrats. The Times is now imitating actual villains. But they’ve forgotten how those villains’ stories ended.

Zorg gets blown up by his own bomb after the heroes leave him holding an empty case. Littlefinger dies begging on his knees after trying to set up the Stark sisters, who outmanipulated him.

Who knows? Maybe all this exciting chaos they created will end up being a gift to Democrats, an orchestra of creative energy, as the Times suggested. Or maybe somebody’s about to get blown up. Either way, watching it play out will be value for money.

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Today’s feel-good story comes courtesy of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has only been in the role for less than two weeks. Yesterday, CNN reported, “Justice Department moves to dismiss Proud Boys and Oath Keepers’ seditious conspiracy convictions.” It was the final thread plucked from the great January 6th unwinding.

Yesterday, Trump’s DOJ (via US Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office in DC) filed unopposed motions in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate all seditious conspiracy convictions for 12 remaining Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members and dismiss their indictments with prejudice— meaning they can never be recharged.

Enrique Tarrio —the Proud Boys’ national chairman, who wasn’t even in Washington on January 6th but got 22 years, the longest J6 sentence— celebrated on X: “Jeanine Pirro has moved to dismiss all charges. This is my happiest day since the pardon that released us from the jaws of injustice!”

On President Trump’s first day in office, he pardoned 1,000+ January 6th defendants, but not these 12. They only got commutations— their sentences were slashed, but the convictions stayed on the books. But now, vacating their convictions is even better than pardons, which forgive the crime but leave the criminal records in place.

Now, it will be as though the convictions never happened. They get their good names back.

The Twelve traveled a rough road. Each served years in prison following their convictions. Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years and served 3. Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 and served 3.5. Joe Biggs did 4 years —including 2 full years in pretrial solitary. The others endured similar experiences.

For the several military veterans among the 12, vacatur means full restoration of military benefits, reinstatement of rank, full back pay, restoration of gun rights and security clearances, and no felony record to interfere with job prospects or voting rights.

Now it is clear why Trump didn’t immediately pardon the 12: their appeals were still pending. The President could give them something better than a pardon. At the time, they got immediate commutations —the emergency rescue they needed; he snatched them out of jail— but yesterday’s vacatur was the permanent fix.

These twelve convictions were the crown jewels of Biden’s J6 prosecution. Seditious conspiracy hadn’t been successfully prosecuted in decades (or longer). Biden’s DOJ held three separate trials and won all three. Corporate media cackled that it was “the most important domestic terrorism prosecution since Oklahoma City.” Now there are no political prosecutions left for Democrats to brag about. It’s all come untrue.

CNN’s article yesterday quoted Biden’s former DOJ comms director, who called it, “a slap in the face to the American people and American democracy.” It might not be a slap in democracy’s face, but it’s a slap in the face of something, all right. Meanwhile, BlueSkyers felt depressed and hopeless. (And outrage, of course.)

Terrific news.

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Can you feel the Reckoning approaching? Politico does. Wait till you see this development. Yesterday, Politico published the results of its own vaccine poll under the headline, “More Americans doubt vaccine safety than trust it, POLITICO Poll finds.” It was a stinker.

The most surprising data point was — even after controlling for age, income, gender and education— how few Democrats agreed that “vaccine science is clear and it is damaging to question it.” Politico could only scrape up a bare majority —52%— meaning that nearly half of surveyed Democrats (!) disagreed with that statement. Republicans went much further —60% of us agreed with the statement that fewer vaccines should be given.

Maybe most importantly, nearly half (47%) said the government should favor individual freedom to make health choices, even if it poses risks to collective health. (Only around a third still favor imposing collective health requirements on everybody else.)

Politico could have buried the survey results, but it didn’t. Equally remarkably, it fairly quoted Mary Holland, from Children’s Health Defense, and Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s current NIH Director. Responding to Politico’s outreach over the poll, Mary said, “What stands out is that vaccine safety and vaccine choice are no longer fringe issues.”

This might be the first time Politico has asked (and then printed) a quote from Mary Holland.

Politico pulled a quote from Bhattacharya’s testimony at a congressional hearing last year. Then, Jay said, “Science should be an engine for knowledge and freedom, not something where it stands on top of society and says, ‘You must do this, this and this, or else.’” In other words, Politico went looking for a quote like that. Just consider what that means.

💉 In the same hearing, Bhattacharya observed that “the mandates that many scientists pushed have led to the lack of confidence that so many of the public has in science.” If you want to understand why such a large portion of the American public no longer trusts the public health establishment, you have only to look at how the public health establishment treats the American public.

Imagine you take your car to a mechanic. The mechanic tells you that you absolutely must replace the transmission, or else the car will explode and kill your entire family. He is very insistent. He says the science is settled. He says anyone who questions the transmission replacement is a dangerous lunatic who probably hates grandmothers.

So you let him replace the transmission. And immediately, your car starts making a noise that sounds exactly like a raccoon trapped in a blender.

You take the car back. “My car is making a terrible noise,” you say.

The mechanic looks at you with deep, profound pity. “No it isn’t,” he says. “That sound proves the transmission is working. The science is settled.”

“But I can still hear the raccoon,” you insist.

“You are experiencing a rare, mild adjustment reaction,” the mechanic says. “Furthermore, by even mentioning the raccoon, you are spreading dangerous transmission misinformation. Please leave before I have you banned from the internet.”

This, in a furry nutshell, is the story of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the International “public health establishment.”

💉 According to Politico’s poll, nearly half of U.S. adults (46%) now believe that the science on vaccines is “up for debate,” and that vaccine mandates are harmful. Only 39 percent still think the science is clear and shouldn’t be questioned. (I bet that number was much higher just a few years back.)

Naturally, public health experts were shocked by this. They simply cannot understand how the public could possibly doubt them. They blame misinformation. They blame social media. They blame Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his so-called “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which the poll showed is gaining ground across party lines.

But the experts never seem to blame themselves. “We’re all kind of in the post-truth era, and it’s an epistemological crisis,” James Colgrove, a vaccine-pushing professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, complained. “Everybody’s living in their own reality, and you interpret the facts in a way that reinforces your belief system.” In other words: it’s your fault.

But wait! Let’s review the tape! During the pandemic, the experts confidently assured us that the virus wasn’t airborne. Then they said it was. They told us masks were useless. In March 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci famously went on 60 Minutes and declared, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.” Then they told us useless masks were mandatory.

When later pressed on this reversal, Fauci admitted that the initial advice wasn’t based on “the science” of mask efficacy, but on the desire to prevent the public from hoarding protective equipment needed by healthcare workers. Translation: We easily lied to you for our own good.

Then came the vaccines. The public health establishment, up to and including the vegetable-like President of the United States, promised absolute immunity. In July 2021, President Biden stated unequivocally: “You’re not going to get covid if you have these vaccinations.” In March 2021, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky went on national television and said, “Our data from the CDC today suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get sick.”

When it turned out that vaccinated people were, in fact, catching and transmitting the virus —often quite enthusiastically— the experts did not say, “Whoops, our bad, we got a little ahead of the data there.” Instead, they acted as if they had never said the first thing at all, casually shifting the goalposts from “prevents infection” to “reduces severe disease,” and suggesting that anyone who remembered their previous absolute guarantees was suffering from a presidential-level cognitive malfunction.

💉 But the real damage —what truly broke the bond of trust between the public and the medical establishment— was the gaslighting of the vaccine-injured.

Every single medical intervention has risks. Even aspirin kills a certain number of people every year. But when people started showing up at their doctors’ offices with severe, documented neurological or cardiovascular issues —like myocarditis, which even Stanford Medicine allowed occurs in young men at a rate of at least 1 in 32,000 after a second dose— injured patients were warmly welcomed the way a brick welcomes police to a protest.

Doctors, terrified of running afoul of the official CDC narrative or losing their licenses, scolded injured patients that their symptoms were caused by “anxiety” or “stress.” You’re just imagining things. Patients who shared their stories online were flagged for misinformation, shadow-banned, or entirely deleted. Erased.

When these injured patients sought help through the government’s official Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, they stumbled into a bureaucratic black hole. According to data from early 2025, out of more than 13,600 covid vaccine injury claims filed, the government has compensated exactly 26 people. That is less than two-tenths of one percent.

The government effectively told thousands of suffering people: What you are experiencing did not happen! And if you say it did, you are the enemy. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but: You cannot do that to people and expect them to ever trust you again.

When you mandate a medical procedure, tell people it is 100 percent perfectly safe, explicitly promise they “will not get covid,” and then aggressively silence anyone who experiences a severe adverse reaction, you are not protecting public health. You are running a P.R. campaign.

And the American people, whatever our flaws, are remarkably good at detecting the pungent aroma of a P.R. campaign. We’ve probably developed that skill through repeated practice.

Politico’s poll showed exactly what happens when the “experts” prioritize narrative control over honest, transparent communication. They didn’t just lose the argument over covid. They managed to create a massive, bipartisan wave of skepticism about all vaccines, to the point where regular people from all walks of life are now questioning childhood immunizations that have been accepted as “standard” for decades.

It is a spectacular, self-inflicted disaster. The experts built a ladder of absolute certainty, climbed to the very top of it, and then spent three years sawing off the rungs below them. Now they are stuck up there, yelling at the rest of us for refusing to climb up and join them.

And they still can’t hear the raccoon in the blender. I mean, just listen. You guys can hear it, too, right?

Have a wonderful Wednesday! Return here tomorrow morning for another amusing and informative installment of essential news and commentary.

Don’t race off! We cannot do it alone. Consider joining up with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds. I could sure use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠

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