☕️ COMMENTING ☙ Wednesday, August 16, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Some Republicans missing the point of the 4th indictment; Fulton clerk's lazy lie; masks back in the news; NHS gaslighting campaign; variant hysteria; paddleboarder SADS; Youtube crackdown; more.

Good morning, C&C family, it’s Wednesday! Your roundup today includes: some Some Republicans badly missing the point of the fourth Trump indictment; Fulton clerk peddles lazy lie about premature indictment; DeSantis weighs in; masks coming back into style as media peddles new variant hysteria; NHS’s cardiac gaslighting campaign; another SADS paddleboarder; Youtube cracks down on non-approved medical advice; the person behind the Biden twitter curtain has been revealed; and Biden criticized for ‘no comment’ comment.

🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞

🔥 The dominating media story yesterday continued to be President Trump, for plenty of good reasons. I’ll tee up today’s analysis with an article from The Federalist, a mainstream, pro-Constitution conservative organization, which has a solid reputation allowing it to serve as the source of judicial recommendations for Presidents (like Trump) and Governors (like DeSantis) without much political controversy.

In other words, the Federalist isn’t any bomb-throwing radical conservative outfit or anything. In fact you could argue the Federalist is one of the most consequential and influential conservative organizations around, comparable to the Heritage Foundation in its reputation.

But yesterday, the Federalist ran an article by Charlie Kirk on its website, with a headline that posed a question. I’ll just show you the question first, before I show you the headline’s answer. Here’s the question: “How Should Republicans Respond To Fulton County?”

Don’t laugh; I know you’re wondering, “what? The Republicans are going to respond?” A fair point, but let’s move on.

One possible way Republicans should respond was suggested by Colorado Representative Ken Buck, who told an MSNBC host that the GOP should ignore Fulton County, because it is only a distraction:

Specifically, here’s what Representative Buck said:

"I think ultimately what we as Republicans need to do if we're going to win the White House in November of 2024 is to talk about the issues that Americans care about and try to get away from the Trump indictments and the scandalous nature of the accusations surrounding this president.”

That right there is a profound failure to read the room. Who does Representative Buck think he’s speaking to? Democrats? I question whether Buck actually has any political skills and how he got elected. But either way, let’s label Buck’s baffling suggestion as the position of the the ever-shrinking “GOP establishment” (which I think is a misnomer but that’s for a different post).

Having framed the establishment’s position, here’s the complete headline from the Federalist’s article, including the answer: “How Should Republicans Respond To Fulton County? Indict the Left.”  The sub-headline added, “When politicians are tempted to prosecute their enemies for political reasons, they must fear the same thing happening to them.”

Indicting the left is a far cry from ignoring President Trump’s “legal troubles.” But … is it only Charlie Kirk and a permissive editor at the Federalist who feel that way?

Outside the WASPy corridors of establishment power, conservatives seem to realize that President Trump’s legal troubles are actually everyone’s legal troubles. Charlie Kirk was not the only one yesterday advocating for an aggressive, “strike back now” policy. Here’s Uncover DC’s Tracy Beanz:

And with the same idea, here is Darren Beattie of Revolver News:

Dinesh D’Souza, of 2000 Mules fame, called the Fulton County indictment the greatest Constitutional Crisis since the Civil War:

There’s more. I’m not sure I agree with tit-for-tat prosecutions, mainly because the whole setup feels so much like a planned Hegelian dialectic, where the left’s real objective is to make the right respond a certain way.

But I’m not saying I disagree, either.

As we say in the South, the establishment’s notion of “ignoring” Trump’s “legal problems” is crazier than a sprayed roach. Even if you aren’t a full-throated MAGA patriot, you can see that Trump was only one of nineteen conservatives targeted in the indictment. How about the other eighteen people? Should we ignore them too? And how about all the Michigan alternate electors who now face criminal prosecution for signing a piece of political paper?

Former lefty Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz told OAN yesterday that “every election lawyer should be trembling after the fourth Trump Indictment”:

https://twitter.com/baldwin_daniel_/status/1691513866264498176

Dershowitz called the indictment, “very very dangerous” because of the signal it sends to election lawyers: if you’re wrong, the other political party is coming after you.

It isn’t a new problem. Here’s a fun fact for you. Since I was dragged into the freedom litigation space, I’ve been hired for five election cases. Of the four that we won, even though I was just the lawyer, I was personally sued in two of those cases. That’s half. One has been dismissed, and the other case is still rolling along on appeal at the 11th Circuit (one of my co-defendants is Governor DeSantis).

Those are civil cases, and my insurance company has been terrific about helping fund my defense. But alleged criminal liability is uninsurable, and therefore unaffordable.

Trump’s former Assistant Secretary of HHS, Michael Caputo, tweeted yesterday that he’d spent over $300,000 dollars on lawyers after he was named as a witness in the Russiagate prosecution:

I don’t doubt it was that expensive. Last year, I represented a high-profile target of the House January 6th investigation, who (so far) has not been criminally referred, but it could still happen. My client paid me to help keep them out of the crosshairs. To do that, my client spent a ton of money on lawyers, just for handling their being a witness in that ridiculous political persecution.

Persecution and prosecution are spelled nearly the same.

I didn’t realize this when I wrote yesterday’s post, but among the long list of indicted co-conspirators, most of them Trump’s attorneys, is an attorney that I know well and admire. Back in 2021, Atlanta attorney Ray Smith helped me with a mask case, and since then with some commercial litigation work, and he always struck me as ethical and conservative — not conservative in the political sense, but in his professional demeanor — and I would have guessed he’d be least likely to be hauled into a Trump indictment of anyone I can think of.

Apparently Ray was hired to help litigate the 2020 election challenges in Georgia. Now he’s facing criminal prosecution — essentially just for being a lawyer. Where is the Georgia Bar Association when lawyers need it? So it’s not just Trump’s “legal issues.” Republicans should be concerned about all the future Republicans who will need to hire attorneys to handle election challenges when they occur.

Good luck finding an attorney now.

Fox’s Laura Ingraham interviewed attorney Sol Wisenberg on this very topic:

https://x.com/ingrahamangle/status/1691786390223425788

🔥 Ironically, Trump and the other defendants have been ordered to turn themselves in to the Fulton County Jail for processing and mugshots. It’s ironic because late last year, the very same Fulton County Jail itself fell under investigation — for murder.

60 inmates! I will bet you my next paycheck that nobody of substance is ever prosecuted for any of those deaths. In other words, the Fulton County Jail, where Trump and his lawyers have been ordered to submit to processing, is literally getting away with organized murder.

You really can’t make this stuff up.

🔥 The Fulton County Clerk took the blame for Monday morning’s Trump premature indictment, that was ‘accidentally’ filed into public record and reported on hours before the grand jury had finished deliberating. The Clerk called it a “fictitious indictment.”

Fulton Clerk of Court Ché Alexander, in red

Here’s yesterday’s headline from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The Fulton clerk said the prematurely filed indictment was a “sample working document” they used to “test the office’s computer system.” According to Fulton clerk Ché Alexander, her office was just “testing the system … to avoid any glitches when the actual indictment was filed, recognizing it could be a lengthy document to enter in the system.”

I hereby award the Fulton Clerk five Pinnochio’s. It’s not only a lie, it is a moronic lie. The indictment was only 95 pages long. That’s nothing. A typical commercial complaint can run hundreds of pages, and a normal commercial summary judgment motion can easily exceed a thousand pages (with exhibits). Lawyers file massive deposition transcripts all the time.

Give me a break. How did the Clerk get hold of a copy of the indictment on Monday morning to “test” the system in the first place? And why was the Clerk helping the district attorney this way? Clerks don’t run tests before any other lawyers file things.

And, shame on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for accepting this ridiculous nonsense at face value.

At least Trump and the other defendants aren’t facing very intelligent people. These people may be cunning, but they’re not smart.

🔥 Governor DeSantis responded yesterday to Trump’s fourth indictment, calling it “criminalization of politics,” and calling for “major accountability:”

https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/status/1691525952998715392

In the clip, DeSantis said:

"So, I haven't had a chance to read it all. But I will tell you, Atlanta has huge problems with crime right now. And there has been an approach to crime which has been less than exacting. I think there have been criminals that have been let out that shouldn't have been let out. And so they're now doing an inordinate amount of resources to try to shoehorn this contest over the 2020 election into a RICO statute, which was really designed to be able to go after organized crime, not necessarily to go after political activity.

And so, I think it's an example of this criminalization of politics. I don't think that this is something that's good for the country. But I think a lot of Republican voters are looking at some of the things that have happened, whether it's the Department of Justice, whether it is some of the things that have happened locally, and I think the question is, okay, 'what are we going to do about it?'

And I've already said, as president, we are going to end the weaponization of federal agencies like the DOJ and FBI. We'll have a new director. We will have new leadership in the DOJ. We're going to make sure that there's a single standard of justice in this country. Now, in terms of some of these local DAs: in Florida, we've actually suspended two — one in Tampa and one in Orlando — over the last year for failure to follow their duties and responsibilities.

And as President, we will lean in against some of these local prosecutors if they are not following the law or if they are abandoning their duty to enforce the law evenly. So I think that — I don't know how it's going to affect anything politically. For me, at the end of the day, it's about 'let's get this country in a good direction.' We need to have confidence in our justice system again, but before we get there, we need major, major accountability."

It was a good start, especially to the extent DeSantis described a plan, or part of a plan, to deal with the problem. But it still doesn’t feel like the Governor is fully engaged, not anywhere near strong enough on this issue. If it’s not already the top issue, the weaponization of the federal government will be the issue of the 2024 election, even if corporate media completely ignores it.

Think about this: every single development in Trump’s four criminal cases will be top news. That’s all we’re going to hear about for the next six months.

Critics of the Governor are already describing his response as lukewarm. That seems harsh, but it seems to me he would benefit from a stronger response to the crisis.

😷 Here we go again! From the UK Mirror yesterday:

Haha, what was a regular feature of the pandemic media fear campaign, the Mirror slipped the word “worry” in there, if only in the sub-headline. Not just the emergence of a new strain, but the worrying emergence of a new strain. But … worrying to whom?

The gist was that, totally predictably, they’ve identified another “new” Omicron variant, B.6, and the white-coated pretenders are hysterically speculating that, who knows, this one could finally be the one. Here’s an example of the Mirror’s cutting-edge reporting:

Warning that people should start wearing facemasks to stop the spread, Dr Trisha Greenhalgh, a primary healthcare expert at the University of Oxford, wrote on Twitter: "My various science WhatsApp groups are buzzing. Genetic lineage clips and diagrams flying back and forth. I understand little of the detail but it looks like it's once again time to MASK UP."

WhatApp groups! Not those! Dr. Greenhalgh admitted to understanding “little of the detail,” but WHO CARES! It’s Science! One thing she definitely understands, and is not baffled at all, is that everybody should strap on the face rags to “stop the spread.” Uh huh.

Not me, kimosabe. I plan to remain face nude.

💉 Reading yesterday’s headlines, it’s hard to escape the impression that the British are under psychological attack from their own government again. The British National Health Service, sort of like the U.S. CDC and FDA, is launching a new population-level gaslighting campaign, I mean a helpful new health campaign to, randomly, teach people about heart attacks.

Apparently, for some reason, heart attacks are “up by more than 7,000 compared to the previous year.” Weird:

According to the NHS, people were hiding their heart attacks last year. Because covid.

On the other hand, overlooking all the gaslighting, I suppose preparing Brits for signs of heart attacks is actually a good idea, since, well, you know.

💉 Speaking of heart attacks, there’s been so much going on, I have been remiss in reporting celebrity SADS cases, and they are piling up. I don’t have time to do it today, but I’ll include one. This one breaks my celebrities-only rule, it’s a non-celebrity SADS case, but the departure is justified because … well, you’ll understand.

Local CBS8 Minnesota ran a story yesterday headlined, “14-year-old from Encinitas dies while paddleboarding in Minnesota.” It’s too bad they didn’t know about the NHS’s new heart attack educational campaign, because the sub-headline explained, “The coroner said that they found a hereditary, undiagnosed heart condition and he likely had a cardiac arrest-like event, Stanley's father said.”

Encinitas resident Stanley Wilson, 14, was fishing off his paddleboard on August 9th when he suddenly and unexpectedly pitched over into the water. His heart had attacked him. “We got to him after 3-4 minutes under the water and pulled him up to give him desperate CPR, but he did not look good," Stanley's father shared in a touching Facebook post.

First responders quickly arrived, and heroically administered emergency treatment, but Stanley never woke up. No warning. And professional CPR didn’t help. Weird.

It occurred to me that Stanley’s wasn’t the first paddleboarding death lately. Seems like it should be rare, but I guess it happens all the time. These days.

Maybe they should put a warning label on paddleboards: “Do not use if you are intoxicated, one-legged, or have taken any experimental injections.”

🔥 And here we go again, again. CNBC ran a story yesterday headlined, “YouTube will remove cancer treatment misinformation.” The sub-headline explained, “The company will remove content that contradicts well-established guidance from health officials about topics such as Covid-19, reproductive health, cancer and harmful substances, among others.”

Reproductive health? What do you want to bet that’s a woke euphemism for abortion and trans surgeries?

The Verge’s story on the new policy added that the policy will also remove any medical advice that “is unproven” in YouTube’s opinion:

In its blog post, YouTube says it would take action both against treatments that are actively harmful as well as those that are unproven and are being suggested in place of established alternatives. A video could not, for example, encourage users to take vitamin C supplements as an alternative to radiation therapy.

At a time when excess deaths are skyrocketing from a wide variety of baffling causes like turbo cancer, it seems like an appropriate time to lock down people’s ability to trade treatment tips. Great idea.

The part of the policy I found most comical was this nugget: “Videos are not allowed to discourage viewers from seeking professional medical treatment.” Haha! So, not only can’t folks post videos about non-pharma remedies, they aren’t even allowed to criticize the medical-industrial complex.

It seems like there are some options to YouTube out there. It might be time to start looking into them.

🔥 Whoopsies! Extra-diverse White House spokeslady Karine Jean-Pierre accidentally tweeted from the wrong account yesterday, twice:

It reminds me of that scene in the Wizard of Oz where brave little Toto yanks back the curtain. Now we know who’s been writing Joe’s tweets for him. A demented gay wizard. Or witch, whatever.

And based on that second tweet, it seems that “Rich Men North of Richmond” song is getting to them, and they’re trying to turn the optics around. But … I’m not positive it’s a good idea right now for Joe Biden to be calling attention to how rich he’s gotten in a lifelong career in public service.

Just saying.

🔥 The Hill ran an absurd damage-control article yesterday headlined, “Biden takes hit for Maui wildfire response.”

The article, framed as a “Republicans pounce” story (it even used the word ‘pounce’), reported that on Sunday, reporters asked Biden how the federal government planned to help the displaced residents of Maui. “No comment,” said Joe.

Then Joe enjoyed a four-day paid holiday at his beach place. In fact, he didn’t meaningfully discuss the Maui wildfires until late in the week. After telling readers those few awkward facts, the Hill then spent the rest of the article reporting antique news about other Presidents (Trump, Obama, Bush) and their alleged failures during natural disasters. So, you know, everybody does it.

Joe’s “no comment” comment was awful, of course, but nobody’s talking about the obvious explanation, which is that Joe simply hadn’t heard about the fires yet, and nobody had told him what to say. So he had no choice but to “no comment” them. His holiday during the disaster was probably just the time when Joe gets his new batteries put in. Only after a fresh charge could Joe’s brain absorb his handlers’ instructions on what to say about the disaster.

But since we can’t talk about any of that, we’ll just all have to pretend that Joe’s deplorably unsympathetic comment was just another kooky Biden gaffe. Silly Joe!

Have a wonderful Wednesday! I’ll see you back here tomorrow for more.

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