☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Friday, September 23, 2022 ☙ FLUNKING 🦠

The corporate media flunks journalism; the Air Force flunks military strategy; the deep state tries to cover for Ray Epps and flunks; Stacy Abrams flunks science; and more.

And it’s Friday! Good morning, C&C, I hope everyone had a terrific week and are enjoying the (slightly) cooler weather. Today’s roundup: fake news about Facebook and Trump; fake news about Trump and QAnon; yet another lawsuit filed by the government against Trump; an unlikely hero strikes back; the New York Times flunks journalism; deep-staters try to cover for Ray Epps; Stacy Abrams flunks science; the Air Force tackles micro aggressions; 2018 Obama letter shows double standards; and Russia declares war on NATO, kind of.

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🔥 The PostMillennial ran a bizarre non-news story yesterday headlined, “BREAKING: Facebook Could Lift Trump’s Suspension by 2023.”

According to widespread corporate media reports, Facebook is “considering” reinstating President Trump’s account next year, in 2023, according to Meta’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg. At an event in Washington, DC, he told reporters, “When you make a decision that affects the public realm, you need to act with great caution.”

Huh?

First of all, does it seem to you like it’s an odd time for Facebook to be gassing on about MAYBE reinstating Trump AT SOME POINT? It’s not like they’re talking about putting Trump back online anytime soon, not before the midterms, not even this year. So why even bring it up?

And second, there’s not really any NEWS here. Clegg only said he’s thinking about possibly doing something. In his comments, Clegg even admitted that he hasn’t yet run it by anyone on Meta’s board.

People THINK about a lot of stuff. Who cares?

Great job, corporate media, you flunked journalism 101. The headline for this dumb clickbait story should be: “Man Briefly Thinks About Something.”

Yawn.

🔥 I’m not sure if this next story is news, fake news, or narrative news, but SOMETHING is afoot. CNN ran a breathless story yesterday headlined, “QAnon Fans Celebrate Trump’s Latest Embrace of the Conspiracy.” It’s kind of another non-news story, also echoed in other corporate media outlets, meaning it must be a politically-motivated psy operation designed to tell us what to think.

Is it just me, or is the news lately all Trump, all the time?

Spoiler alert, I don’t want you to get your hopes up: CNN never actually gets around to explaining what the “conspiracy” mentioned in its headline is. It’s a mystery, apparently. Whatever it is must not help the narrative. So anyway, CNN immediately flunked journalism 101, by writing a stupid headline about a thing that’s not even in the article.

Getting past the rubbish headline, the actual “news” was Trump did something that triggered the deep state somehow. Well, two things. First, at a rally, he played a song “associated” with the so-called “QAnon movement,” whatever that is. CNN doesn’t say. We’re just supposed to know that whatever it is, it’s bad.

Trump also forwarded a cartoon on Truth Social that CNN doesn’t like. The cartoon showed Trump wearing a “Q” pin on his lapel, along with two slogans CNN said were associated with the QAnon movement: “The storm is coming” and “WWG1WGA,” which CNN explained stands for “Where We Go One, We Go All.”

Then, after making such a big deal about it, CNN doesn’t even print the cartoon in the article. And CNN’s entire description of the QAnon movement — which is the heart of the piece, mind you — was confined to one subjunctive clause: “followers … who believe in the existence of an evil cabal and view Trump as their hero.”

Um, that’s not super informative. What cabal? Why evil? That’s a pretty generic description. It could describe a lot of people. Shoot, *I* believe in an evil cabal, of entrenched bureaucrats who maliciously suppressed true information about covid during the pandemic, information like the Wuhan lab leak theory.

Since I believe in an “evil cabal,” does that make me QAnon?

The real purpose of this story, and the others like it, is pure boogeymanism. Corporate media is just identifying the latest public enemy, today’s target for the government’s Orwellian “two minutes of hate,” with QAnon people, or maybe Trump, or both, as its Emmanuel Goldstein.

What’s wrong with QAnon anyway? CNN doesn’t say. Is it even an organization? Or just an idea? To me, it just seems like something people think; something now a thought crime. And why is their song a problem? CNN doesn’t say. I listened to the song, WWG1WGA, on Spotify and it seems perfectly harmless, kind of catchy actually. I’d let my kids listen to it.

I’ve reported about the media’s fascination with QAnon before, but I still really don’t know much about the movement, or belief, or theory, or whatever it is. From my research, QAnon is just an account on 8CHAN (a kind of Twitter alternative), but the media seems to think QAnon is something else, something bigger.

I recall first hearing about it back in 2020 while I was completely overwhelmed fighting the mask and jab wars day and night. I remember thinking at the time Q seemed kind of fringe and conspiracy-theory-ish, a rabbit-hole, but of course most conspiracy theories are looking a lot less outlandish now.

Just give it a few months!

Anyway, the actual news was that corporate media seems completely terrified by the QAnon movement, for some reason, to the point they can’t even talk about its beliefs out loud, like a Harry Potter cosplay fan afraid to say “Voldemort.” Honesty, the way corporate media gets triggered anytime someone says “Q” is starting to make me think these QAnon folks must be on to something.

Giving the movement even more credibility is the fact that, apparently, the FBI doesn’t like QAnon much either. CNN reported that the FBI warned (somebody) last year of the “potential” for QAnon to “stoke violence.” That’s a lot of weasel words; “potential” means maybe, and “stoke violence” is not even close to the same as “commit violence.”

If we’re going after everything that “stokes” violence, I’d suggest they take a hard look at that lunatic Kathy Griffin.

CNN also quoted former FBI agent Greg Ehrie, who abruptly labeled QAnon a cult: “What we have is a former President… legitimizing what is in essence a cult.” Well, more accurately, former agent Ehrie said QAnon is “in essence a cult.” What’s the “essence” of a cult, and how is it different from a proper cult? Ehrie’s a coward. If you want to call somebody a cult, just do it plainly, you lizard-lipped chicken.

One of these days I’m going to have to stop and figure out what all this QAnon excitement is really about.

🔥 In case there was any danger of Trump fading out of the headlines, they’ve sued him, again. Yesterday, ABC ran a story headlined, “New York AG Letitia James Files $250M Lawsuit Against Trump for Defrauding Lenders, Others.”

This latest lawsuit is a civil case, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in state court, against Trump and his family members, for “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentations.” It’s a 222-page blockbuster.

Here’s another one of my counter-intuitive rules about lawsuits. The longer the complaint, the less likely it is to have any merit, and the more likely it was to have been drafted by immature attorneys.

If it takes 222 pages to explain why what the person did was wrong, that’s not a good sign. The technical term for this is “over pleading,” and it is actually a rookie strategic mistake, because the more stuff you jam in the allegations, the more material you give the defendant to work with in a motion to dismiss.

I skimmed it. It was a waste of time. Letitia has been running a criminal investigation against Trump for years now and, instead of filing criminal charges, she filed this civil case instead, suggesting that she couldn’t come up with any criminal charges that would stick. I predict this one isn’t going anywhere either. It’s just a distraction.

Here’s Letitia, explaining the complaint in her own words:

ABC News Live @ABCNewsLive

BREAKING: NY AG Letitia James files $250M civil lawsuit against former Pres. Trump and his family. "The complaint demonstrates that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system." abcn.ws/3DEPSqP

I suppose she had to file something, to justify all those investigations. I guess the current strategy is, “death by a thousand lawsuits.”

🔥 In related news, last week disgraced former New York “Luv Guv” Andrew Cuomo filed a 48-page state ethics complaint against the same Attorney General Letitia James, claiming that she deliberately mishandle the sexual harassment investigation against him and used the outcome for political purposes. Can you believe that?

So. What goes around, comes around!

It’s a crazy old world, isn’t it? If you’d asked me whether there was any chance I’d ever be rooting for Andrew Cuomo, I’d have laughed myself into an umbilical hernia. Go Andrew!

🔥 Last week, the New York Times ran a syrupy puff piece about the poor downtrodden immigrants forced to go on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard. Basically the whole story revolves around the Times’ interview with this wholesome-looking illegal, Ardenis Nazareth:

I think it’s the face tattoo that really completes the look, don’t you?

Anyway, the Times glowingly reported Mr. Nazareth’s many complaints about his ill treatment at the rough hands of dictator-in-waiting Governor DeSantis, like his free private air transportation to the popular vacation destination. “I thought I was coming to Boston,” Nazareth complained. “I ended up on this little island.”

Martha’s Vineyard is probably even worse than Venezuela.

Anyway, unlike the Times’ professional reporters, editors, and fact checkers, some alert twitterers quickly discovered that Mr. Nazareth is a KNOWN DRUG DEALER from Venezuela:

Haha! The garbage New York Times ALSO flunked journalism 101. Sorry, narrative!

(Hat tip to Revolver.news, which reported the story.)

🔥 Probably due to Republicans’ increased pressure on the Justice Department for more information about fake protestor Ray Epps this week, the government psyops teams shifted into hyperdrive, spreading incredible fake rumors about Epps all over the internet, in an attempt to flood the information zone so nobody knows what’s true and what’s false.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of sketchy twitter accounts claiming “breaking news” that “public information requests” showed Nancy Pelosi had six phone calls with Ray Epps right before January 6th, and that Epps’ wife used to work for Dominion voting systems.

But it’s all fake news, government misinformation trying to deflect from the real news about Epps.

Darren J. Beattie 🌐 @DarrenJBeattie

I repeat... watch out for bullshit on Epps Epps did not call Pelosi, Epps' wife did not work for Dominion Voting Do not take the bait on these junk stories from questionable accounts Regime is going to do everything it can to shut down the legitimate questions on Epps

Darren J. Beattie 🌐 @DarrenJBeattie

Watch out for bullshit stories on Ray Epps... recently a story claiming FOIA records show Epps calling Pelosi's office Another story suggesting Epps' wife worked for Dominion Voting Systems Both stories are bullshit, and possibly part of a disinfo campaign

Out of curiousity, I audited one of the fake news tweets, and looked through its follower accounts. All bots. Here’s what a bot account looks like, if you want to see for yourself. https://twitter.com/TimNorfolk3. You’ll notice the inhuman number of meme posts and retweets, all posted on the same day (yesterday), an obvious AI-generated effort to make the account look real.

I wish I could say I think it’s Russians spreading all this misinformation. But unfortunately, I think the real information terrorists are closer to home. Please. Just. Stop.

🔥 In the bottom story of the month, capably illustrating the vast intellectual firepower of the left, yesterday Stacy Abrams denied that six-week-old infants have any heartbeat. Science!

Speaking at a conference event, Abrams said, “There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”

Daily Wire @realDailyWire

Stacey Abrams: "There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman's body."

Science!

Actually, Abrams flunked science. Alert twitterers — not journalists or fact-checkers — promptly debunked her insane rant:

G_Kraig @g_kraig

@GlennKesslerWP Science does not agree with you. "Gestational Age Week 6 (Fetal age: 4 weeks) Between 5 ½ to 6 ½ weeks, a fetal pole or even a fetal heartbeat may be detected by vaginal ultrasound. "

americanpregnancy.orgEarly Fetal DevelopmentIt’s common to have concerns about early fetal development and what’s to be expected. Here’s how to optimize your health during pregnancy.

The real question is, would an ultrasound show Stacy Abrams has a heartbeat?

🔥 Our military is in the best of hands. The PostMillennial ran a story yesterday headlined, “Air Force Tells Cadets to Use ‘Gender Neutral Language,’ No More ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad,’ in Diversity Training.”

A leaked powerpoint from new cadet training showed the Air Force instructing cadets not to say “you guys,” but rather to use gender-neutral words, like “y’all/team/squaddies/everyone/folks.” It also tells them to say “partner” instead of boyfriend or girlfriend.

Another slide helpfully advised the cadets, “Some families are headed by single parents, grandparents, foster parents, two moms, two dads, etc.: consider ‘parent or caregiver’ instead of ‘mom and dad.”

Watch out, microaggressors! It’s war against hurt feelings!

I think the Air Force generals are spending too much time in too-tight high heels, and it’s choking off the blood supply to their brains. They are confused about who the enemy is; apparently the military is now fighting a teeny-tiny micro aggression war.

Somebody needs to tell the generals the difference between micro and macro aggression. They’re flunking the military academy.

🔥 The Biden Raid case looks even more ridiculous after an alert reader linked a Conservative Treehouse article that has uncovered a September 11, 2018 Obama letter to the National Archivist, which is the same deep-state department complaining about Trump having classified records. Obama’s letter advised the Archivist about the status of millions of records that Obama took with him:

Take a look at paragraph seven:

Classified and unclassified records. “Classified.” As of the date of the letter, Obama had obviously been hanging on to a bunch of classified documents, in a place called Hoffman Estates. Hoffman Estates is a fancy name for a renovated Chicago warehouse. It’s not a secure storage facility or anything.

Now, it’s true that Obama’s letter was talking about MAYBE moving the documents back into a NARA-run facility, subject to “negotiation of terms,” but it is also true that these are records that, by the letter’s plain language, will also be “digitized” into the Obama library. Including the classified documents, which don’t seem to be much of a big deal to anybody, for some reason.

No demands for immediate return of documents. No FBI raid. No criminal investigation. If it weren’t for double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.

🔥 Finally, there’s been a lot of discussion in the comments about Russia’s mobilization of 300,000 reservists this week in the Ukraine conflict. It appears to be true that a bunch of Russians tried to flee the country in the wake of the news, and Russia may or may not have ordered them not to leave, suggesting the draft isn’t super popular, at least with some Russians.

But the reason Putin is calling RESERVISTS is because, due to the legal status of the “special military operation” — and not a declared “war” — Russia has not relied on its REAL military yet. According to mil-blog reports, Russia can mobilize an army of up to 25 million troops if it wants. If it declares war.

That declaration might be coming sooner rather than later. Two days ago, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Ukraine’s military has been so degraded that Russia is now basically only fighting NATO — not Ukraine. He said that all the NATO-controlled space satellites, hundreds of them, have now been dedicated to the Ukraine conflict, and are assisting with targeting Russian military and civilian targets.

Specifically, the defense minister said, “Today we are at war not so much with Ukraine as with the collective West,” since Ukraine itself “has long since run out of weapons.”

According to Shoigu, the escalation should be seen as Russia equipping its troops in Ukraine to fight on NATO’s level. In other words, Russia is preparing its army to fight with NATO. More intense fighting is not good news for ordinary Ukrainians, who are likely to be ground to hamburger between the NATO and Russian forces.

Maybe the former Vice-President will negotiate a peace deal between the two countries. If he remembers them.

Have a fantastic Friday! I’ll see you tomorrow morning, in the weekend edition.

C&C is moving the needle and changing minds. If you can, I could use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-learn-how-to-get-involved-

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