☕️ KKKAT LADIES ☙ Monday, September 9, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Trump train trial takes off; unexpected CNN roundup of bad Ukraine news paints grim picture; tiny Ohio town takes the lead in immigrant wars; stream of unexpected Elon support from the left; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Monday! Your roundup includes: creative Democrats take Trump Train drivers to trial under ancient anti-KKK law; CNN unexpectedly rounds up a shipment of poor Ukraine Proxy War news; tiny Ohio town moves to the forefront of the illegal immigration debate, and cat ladies suffer; and Elon Musk gets more unlikely support from the far-left on free speech.

🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞

🔥🔥 The Trial of the Century begins this morning. The Associated Press ran the story yesterday, headlined “Trial begins over Texas 'Trump Train' highway confrontation.”

Four years ago in October, 2020, a convoy of excited Trump supporters escorted a Biden-Harris campaign bus through Texas. Neither Biden nor Harris was aboard, but Wendy Davis was riding along. Wendy was a longshot candidate running against Chip Roy (R-Tx.) for Congress. (She lost. Badly.)

Local police refused to arrest the Trump drivers, even though the bus passengers, especially Wendy, sobbed that they felt constantly terrified, definitely intimidated, and were nearly driven off the road several times, creating what they said was a justified fear of imminent death. The groups cross-claimed about each other’s bad language, poor driving, obscene gestures, and traded blame for a minor fender-bender between one of the Trump-supporting trucks and a Davis staffer’s nearby SUV.

A month later, the FBI investigated the “Trump Trainers” and did its best to see if any federal crimes applied, but nobody was charged.

After the election, Ms. Davis, a Biden staffer, and the bus driver sued the Trump Trainers in federal court, alleging civil assault and deprivation of rights under a post-Civil War law aimed at the KKK and Southern Democrats. The antique law, not used since the 1800’s, was meant to stop Democrats and Klansmen from intimidating black folks and the white people supporting them.

In this case, nobody’s alleged any racial motives, and the judge previously ruled race didn’t matter, saying the law was meant to stop all political intimidation, not just KKK-style hijinx. That may be where the case gets interesting, since the judge has interpreted the stale legislation essentially as a hate-speech law.

Of course, the defendants argue their vehicular escort was an exercise of their First Amendment free speech. We’ll see what the Texas jury thinks.

🔥 It is a challenge calibrating the right level of war news, since some readers hang on every exploded tank, while others press their throbbing temples and mutter “just tell us when it’s over.” So to maintain balance, I try to select an occasional story that sums up the bigger picture. Yesterday, CNN ran an unexpectedly honest story headlined, “Outgunned and outnumbered, Ukraine’s military is struggling with low morale and desertion.” Guns, numbers, morale, desertion. What is going right for the Proxy War?

It was a long article packed with gritty details and human interest anecdotes, lacking any ration of good news for the Proxy War. Three remarkable paragraphs near the top of the extended article painted a shocking picture of life on Ukraine’s floundering front lines. First, what two months ago was only a Russian 5-to-1 troop advantage has apparently doubled:

The most astonishing metric of how bad things are getting for Ukraine was the fact that, after new conscripts get one glimpse of the front lines, assuming they live through it, they promptly head for the hills:

Who can blame them? Desertion is now so common and so understandable that Ukraine decriminalized first-time desertion offenses, and officers don’t even report many desertions anyway:

Despite that, CNN cited twenty thousand ongoing prosecutions for desertion, a figure CNN rightly called “staggering,” since it could represent up to 10% of Ukraine’s current combat forces. The article went on to describe a depressing inventory of Ukrainian woes: crumbling defenses, fatal communications breakdowns, bottom-barrel morale, untrained soldiers, and zero reinforcements available for when the shooting gets hairy.

Applying our fake news filter, we also find signs this story was handed to CNN for propaganda purposes. First, all the sources were all anonymous. Second, the article failed to explain how CNN found the “six commanders and officers” it allegedly interviewed. Obviously, someone connected CNN’s reporters with these particular Ukrainian officers. It’s fair to assume CNN concealed its connection because it would have given away the real source — like, say, some U.S. intelligence agency.

So, the more interesting question is: why did they plant this story about how awful the frontline situation in Ukraine has become? Is it an evolving narrative, to draw the sting from a likely Russian victory? Are they paving the way for an awkward peace settlement? Or was it just meant to manipulate a former comedian-turned-martial law administrator?

🔥🔥 Is Springfield, Ohio, becoming a municipal canary in the immigration coal mine? The formerly sleepy little town is rapidly becoming the definitional example of Biden’s immigration policy. Last week, the Daily Mail ran a story headlined, “Explosion of newcomers boosts shrinking city’s economy - but not everyone's happy.”

In one sense —the official narrative’s sense— Springfield is a Biden immigration success story. Since the 1960’s, Springfield’s population slowly drained from 80,000 down to 60,000. But starting in 2021, something almost magical happened, an unexpected revitalization, an emergency shipment of badly needed workers, a resurgence in the city’s population: 20,000 new residents arrived.

Residents, but not citizens. And they’re not the best imaginable new residents. They arrived from Haiti.

Problems immediately began. There was simply not enough housing in the tiny town to handle so many migrants, even with all the federal grants to local NGO’s. Plus, Haitian customs are quite different from and are largely unappealing to American social mores. Then last year, a relocated Haitian living in Springfield under Biden’s parole program sped into oncoming traffic and caused a school bus wreck.

An 11-year-old boy died in the crash.

After that, a dam of pent-up criticism burst. Ever since, Springfield’s social media and its City Commission meetings have exploded with complaints from local citizens objecting to the Haitian invasion.

One tearful woman told commissioners she couldn’t handle all the migrants squatting in her front yard and threatening her, so she was moving out.  Other residents have posted pictures of Haitains allegedly harvesting local ducks and geese from public ponds. Another woman claimed she saw her cat being butchered by hungry illegals.

Video clips from outraged citizens venting at Springfield’s City Commission meetings are flooding social media. Out of many good ones, I selected a local social media influencer who complained about having to come down to the City Commission to tell them to do their jobs. I know just how he felt:

CLIP: “All y’all need to get out here and do somethin’. We gotta do something, bro. That’s they country. I don’t know what they got going on over there, but they can’t do that over here.” (2:58).

The Daily Mail article attempted to describe the Haitians as hardworking freedom-yearners doing the difficult things Springfielders refuse to do — at those wages. But the article also gave away the seedier side, such as when it explained Springfield’s community health clinic was overwhelmed, in a very Cloward-Piven style, since after 2021 free clinic patients skyrocketed from only 115 to over 1,500.

It’s basically a Haitian healthcare clinic now. The article said the clinic employs four full-time Creole translators, and needs more.

Missing from the current public discussion is that Springfield’s local investment class, which probably includes every single city commissioner, are probably all receiving generous payments from the federal government for leasing previously worthless real estate to Biden’s paroled Haitian illegals. Not just that; for instance, somebody owns the ‘free’ clinic that is surely getting federal money to provide Haitian healthcare. And so on.

Millions of federal dollars are raining down on Springfield’s decision-makers faster than they can catch it all in their money buckets. But they’ll lose everything if they dare even criticize the Haitian invasion. That’s why they are just sitting around in their commission chairs. They aren’t going to say a word, and compliant corporate media will run cover for them.

Not only that, but federal housing subsidies for the Haitians exceed local rent prices, driving up rents, making the housing market more expensive for everybody, and pushing locals out in favor of higher-paying (using our money) illegals.

If they want to take back their previously peaceful city, the locals will have to vote out the current officeholders.

Some good news is that Senator J.D. Vance (R-Oh.), Trump’s VP nominee, has recently been sticking up for Springfield’s newly-endangered housecats, leaving the liberal cat ladies of Ohio feeling quite conflicted. So Springfield’s suffering may not be in vain.

🔥🔥 Something weird has gone wrong with the narrative. Yesterday, I reported an unexpected, even if half-hearted, defense of Twitter/X and free speech appearing in the weekend’s Economist. Now it has happened again. Yesterday, the Washington Post’s full editorial board ran its op-ed under the unlikely headline, “In this free speech fight, Musk’s X has marked the right position.”

My best guess is the polls show strong support for Elon in his battle with Brazil’s unhinged Supreme Court and its villainous, Darth Vader-like mouthpiece, Alexandre de Moraes. So instead of attacking Musk this time, they’re siding with him. Consider this astonishing paragraph from WaPo’s editorial board:

In contrast with the Economist’s weak defense, the WaPo didn’t mince its words. It even agreed, and I am not making this up, Elon has the right to speak his own mind:

WaPo may someday regret admitting Elon has the right to speak his own mind. But how could this happen? Maybe it’s because Brazilians seem to be ignoring Justice Moraes’s recent Twitter ban. Despite the threat of apocalyptic $10K/day fines, X remains the top downloaded app on the Brazilian app store. If most Brazilians defy their Supreme Court, as Musk has done, the lawfare system will fail as a practical matter, and the court will lose its authority.

After all, de Moraes can’t lock them all up for tweeting.

Maybe de Moraes went too far? True, banning all Twitter posts in Brazil with a single judicial order is much more economical than censoring them one by one. But was it a stretch too far, even for the Washington Post? Have the narrative spinners declared defeat, retreating to fight again another day? Is Constitutional common sense winning the day? (Haha, not likely, I know.)

What do you think caused all this unexpected Elon support?

Have a marvelous Monday! Roll back here tomorrow morning for Tuesday’s terrific roundup 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 🦠

How to Donate to Coffee & Covid

Twitter: jchilders98.
Truth Social: jchilders98.
MeWe: mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.
Telegram: t.me/coffeecovidnews
C&C Swag! www.shopcoffeeandcovid.com