☕️ MISCALCULATIONS ☙ Saturday, June 14, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Hazey Middle East fog-of-war intrigue; RFK defends Malone amid media assault; USAID official admits 12 years of graft; NC councilmember indicted; Koreans cook up 100% lethal bird flu; protest weekend.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Saturday! And Happy Flag Day! Now, let’s roll with the Weekend Edition roundup: hazey Middle East fog-of-war news and idle speculation about the more curious aspects of the conflict; RFK defends Robert Malone, who is getting the full corporate media cancel culture treatment; USAID official pleads guilty to 12 years of fraud, bribery, and graft while directing ‘disadvantaged’ contracts at the ‘elite’ charitable agency; North Carolina City Councilmember indicted for SBA fraud but remains defiant; wacky South Koreans gin up a deadly bird flu virus with 100% mortality using gain of function techniques; and Weekend of Protest news to get you all set for the revelries.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

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We begin with news from the war. To the extent that we actually have any real news, between the war’s dense fog, the off-the-charts propaganda, the hot takes, and the fact that it is still unfolding in real-time. Honestly, it is not possible to know what the news is. Still, the New York Times ran a series of breathless stories, one headlined, “A Miscalculation by Iran Led to Israeli Strikes’ Extensive Toll, Officials Say.”

What can, perhaps, be known is this: beginning early yesterday, after Iran’s Supreme Leader (his real title) replaced his deceased ‘hardliner’ top military command, Iran and Israel began furiously trading missile strikes in what looks from afar much like a wild barfight with deadly explosives.

For the first time in my adult life, pictures of widespread property damage began trickling out of Israel from odd corners of social media. Officially, Israel reports only three dead. I pray that is true. But the unofficial pictures of collapsed apartment buildings across the small country make the low casualty count difficult to comprehend.

The lack of transparency is a feature, not a bug. Israeli law allows the government total control of war news— every Israeli media outlet must sign an agreement with the military censor as a condition of operating.

When two veteran propaganda machines like Israel’s and Iran’s are engaged in open warfare, there is no such thing as journalism— we’re left to decode battlefield theater. Iran also censors, less formally and more brutally, through arrests, surveillance, and media shutdowns. Its propaganda machine is more centralized, but less internationally credible. Israel’s media, by contrast, benefits from the appearance of a free press while still subject to near-total narrative control, especially during war.

So we are left to skeptically read between the lines of what has been said and, more importantly, has been unsaid.

For example, the article soberly reported, “In a top security meeting, Supreme Leader Khamenei said he wanted revenge but did not want to act hastily, according to two officials familiar with the discussions.” Okay. But first, why on Earth would multiple top Iranian officials —risking hasty hanging— leak details from their secret war meetings?

That also beggars belief. The Times’ gift-wrapped ‘disclosure’ was surely planted with eager media— which is acting credulous for some reason.

That Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei is signaling restraint —instead of weakness— obviously aids that country’s domestic and foreign public relations image. That the corporate media is unquestioningly reporting cautious restraint suggests hope for backchannel diplomacy. In other words, if Western reporters pile on by mocking the regime’s flaccid response, it could force the Iranians to escalate to save face.

Despite the explosions and broken buildings, some good news manifested in the white spaces between the sentences. Khamenei’s carefully framed restraint might actually be real. After informing readers that Iran’s military response was badly damaged by Israel’s pre-emptive strikes, the Times reported, “In the end, Iran could only muster about 100 missiles in its first waves of attacks.”

This morning’s headlines reported that Iran’s second salvo was only 200 missiles.

Only 300 missiles in two waves of attacks? Those low, precisely counted round numbers sound like restraint. Who counted the missiles? How does the media know exactly how many there were right after the launches? Plus, Iran was almost certainly capable of much more than that. Its retaliatory capabilities should have been hardened beyond the point of being disabled by some smuggled-in drones and a few lightning air strikes, which is starting to sound more like a predicate than like a brutal and historic sneak attack.

But sending 300 missiles isn’t nothing; it was also just enough to make the top headlines. It killed a few civilians. It shows some fight. And that might be enough to humor the hardliners in Iran’s domestic base, restrain its rivals, and let the regime claim it responded forcefully while still reserving any real punch.

🚀 Oddly, right after the two previous flare-ups, there were immediate global calls for “both sides” to de-escalate. The UN wrung its hands. European leaders rushed to Twitter with “restraint” statements. Even the U.S. tried to calm the waters, fearing regional war. Not so much this time. It’s more like sleepy crickets this time.

It’s hard to fathom what it all means.

The widely reported scale of the secret Israeli operation, the transparency over the precision of its targeting, the media’s restraint, the muted global reaction, and Iran’s barely-there air defenses and muted retaliation all point to something deeper that might be at play. Something perhaps preplanned and well-coordinated.

This will sound crazy, like yet another perennial invocation of 3-D chess to wave away chaotic events. But President Trump has been battered by both sides of his own base. One side advocates for immediate strikes on Iran. The other demands we stay the hell out of it. This is going to seem nuts, but could this be … a classic Trumpian third way? Could the three sides have agreed to put on a very public show of conflict to make a lasting peace politically possible?

This restrained ‘war’ has been and will be expensive. But could these surgical strikes, as awful as they are, still be much less expensive than real war? Might the Iranians prefer a bellicose, fiery path to peace, without risking the collapse of their own regime for seeming to “give in” to pressure from the Great Satan? I’m just asking.

At bottom, despite volumes of so-called “war reporting,” we don’t know and can’t know what is really going on. All we know for sure is that we know nothing for certain. But the tone of the reporting and the public-facing commentary is promising. I’m not suggesting the war will end quickly (though I hope it does), but at this early point, it looks more like a Burning Man-controlled bonfire than a homeless camp-turned-wildfire.

Of course, that assessment could change by the time Jimmy John’s delivers lunch. Tune in again tomorrow, and I’ll do my best to connect a few more dots in this bizarre story.

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Yesterday, HHS Secretary Kennedy posted a rare defense of one of his picks for the newly reconstituted ACIP vaccine advisory board, Dr. Robert Malone. Regular readers will recall I previously mentioned he was a controversial choice, not least because he is one of the planet’s top experts on mRNA technology. Here’s how Kennedy’s pushback started, after finding out the New York Times was “investigating” Malone for “ethical conflicts:”

I’ll tell you where the Times has been for the last 20 years of ACIP ethical conflict. They’ve been in the back room, counting their pharma advertising money, that’s where.

Nobody cares what the Times thinks. It needs to sit down and shut up. Science!

If you’ve ever felt conflicted over Malone’s appointment to the vaccine committee, perhaps consider who his enemies are. A dark thread in the conservative influencer community has been savaging Malone for his early vaccine advocacy, which immediately changed after he personally was injured by the jabs. He told me the story himself at a speaker dinner in 2021.

Hilariously, Malone has been promptly posting about what’s happening since he was appointed to ACIP. The first thing he got after the news broke was an ‘offer’ to ‘consult’ for pharma for $450 an hour:

In other words, first they tried to create a conflict of interest. When that didn’t work, well, it was time for “Plan B.” Roll out the New York Times ‘investigators,’ who couldn’t find their bruised bottom if it were strapped into a dog collar and leashed.

It’s not just the Times. They’ve all let slip the dogs of cancel culture war. Yesterday, Malone reported the Atlantic is also writing a character assassination story, this one about his misinformation superspreading ways:

It’s the death rattle of a dying pharma empire. But of course, they are at their most dangerous when cornered. MAHA needs to decide whether to protect its assets or quibble about the details.

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More arrests! Prepare to (not) be shocked. The Dallas Express ran a story this week headlined, “USAID Official and Three Corporate Executives Plead Guilty to Decade-Long Bribery Scheme.” It was just as snakey and vomitous as you probably already suspect.

In a story mysteriously missing from corporate media’s investigatory apparatus, the Department of Justice announced the plea deal on its website on Thursday. Roderick Watson, 57, of Woodstock, Maryland, who worked as a USAID contracting officer, pleaded guilty to bribery after steering over $550 million in generous USAID contracts to friends who bought him stuff.

Three other co-conspirators, folks who lived large on your tax money for over a decade, also pleaded guilty: Walter Barnes, 46, of Potomac, Maryland, Darryl Britt, 64, of Myakka City, Florida, and Paul Young, 62, of Columbia, Maryland, along with their federally contracting companies, Apprio and Vistant.

For just one example of many, USAID employee Watson helped Walter Barnes get a $14 million Small Business Administration loan, from which Barnes immediately paid himself a $10 million ‘dividend.’ Of course, the scheme was a loan for a “disadvantaged business”— i.e., minority-owned. You can connect the dots.

Since 2013, for his efforts, diligent and hardworking USAID employee Watson enjoyed cash, laptops, suites and tickets to NBA games, a country club wedding, downpayments on two mortgages, new cell phones, fake “services” payments, and jobs for his relatives. The bribes were hidden in bank transfers falsely listing Watson on payrolls. They used confusing arrays of shell companies and complicated stacks of fake invoices.

Altogether, over twelve years, Watson received bribes valued at approximately $1 million as part of the scheme. One million that they know of, I should say.

This kind of waste, fraud, and abuse only arises within a lawless culture of corruption. When a government official feels free to accept cash, electronics, wedding gifts, mortgage payments, and jobs for relatives, and then turns around and influences over $550 million in federal contracts, it shows a total lack of fear—no fear of getting caught, no fear of punishment. That’s not just a rogue bad actor. That’s an entire rogue culture.

But according to Democrats, Trump pulling USAID’s plug was the worst thing ever. For its part, the Trump administration is currently pushing a bill through Congress to rescind $9.4 billion in federal spending, including most USAID programs.

Mr. Watson will be sentenced on October 6th and faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. Sadly, the bribesters only face a maximum of five years in prison. The civil penalties assessed to the two corporations amount to a slap on the wrist, but DOJ is hamstrung by rules requiring penalties to be affordable without threatening the “ongoing viability of an enterprise.”

This kind of DOJ prosecution of any federal official is extremely rare. The inter-agency politics are particularly toxic. Federal contracting is already viewed as a bloated, clubby ecosystem. The federal workforce —especially in elite protected agencies like USAID— is supposed to be above politics, staffed by selfless technocrats.

Prosecuting one of them for selling $550M worth of contracts in exchange for egregious bribes wrecks the narrative.

Twelve years of unrestrained graft evidences uncontrolled illegality and opens the door to uncomfortable downstream questions like: How many others are there? It shows not just garden-variety fraud, but exposes systemic vulnerability, bordering on collapse of oversight. Twelve years of uninterrupted bribery at USAID isn’t just a story about one bad apple— it’s evidence that the entire barrel was left unattended.

Firing Watson along with the rest of USAID was an important first step— it stripped him of his civil service protections, leaving him vulnerable to straightforward prosecution. Accountability marches forward, one procurement officer at a time.

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Speaking of DOJ prosecutions and SBA abuse, two weeks ago a story broke in Charlotte’s WBTV: “Charlotte City Council member indicted on federal charges.”

About three weeks ago, Charlotte City Council member Tiawana Brown and her two daughters were indicted on federal charges, according to a US Attorney press release.

Brown insists it is all just a “political witch hunt.” I guess that would make her the witch.

Tiawana and the rest of her crime family were indicted by DOJ for using fake companies during the pandemic to hoover up forgivable SBA disaster loans and fake “paycheck protection” grants. Altogether, she is accused of getting $125,000 in falsely procured taxpayer money and lavishly spending it, including throwing herself a $15,000 birthday party.

Now she’s helping govern Charlotte, North Carolina. This week saw a wild followup story emerge— a press release came out of Tiawana’s office declining to run for re-election, followed promptly by Tiawana’s retraction. The indicted councilwoman admitted she’d drafted the press release herself, but claimed it was just a “test” for her staff to find out who would leak it. Okay.

Local media seemed skeptical. The story noted that Brown was previously convicted on felony fraud charges back in 1994 and already served four years in federal prison. In other words, she is a frequent flier. And, WBTV reported, “The re-election announcement -- which Brown has since said was an attempt to try and identify a leaker -- does not include any note or message that the document was meant to be kept secret.”

Anyway, more arrests.

Charlotte people: you guys really need to get a grip on yourselves. Don’t make me start explaining things for Charlotte residents (though Portland readers would rejoice).

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It’s for your own good. ZeroHedge ran a “new study” story this week headlined, “South Korea Lab Makes Bird Flu 100% Lethal In Mammals: 'Virology Journal.’”

The new peer-reviewed, government-funded, ethics board-approved study was conducted by wacky researchers at South Korea’s Konkuk University. They took wild bird flu from a Korean duck, and using serial passage techniques, evolved a more transmissible version that caused 100% fatality in one group of mice— i.e. mammals, like humans.

In other words, gain-of-function experiments. If Israel has a spare missile lying around, I could think of a good target. Just to be safe.

The Korean study blandly reported, “All challenged (deliberately infected) mice died by 8 days. Transmission through direct contact occurred in 100% of cases, and all contact mice died within 12 days.” The new South Korean lab variant prefers to attack the brain: “Two out of three direct-contact mice displayed significant neurological symptoms, including seizure, ataxia, and bradykinesia (like Parkinson’s).”

This is the news for which Big Pharma has been impatiently waiting, to accelerate the bird flu panic and unleash covid-level government largesse.

Remember— they’re not doing anything wrong; it is actually about “pandemic preparedness.” First, create the pandemic. Then lock everyone down while you prepare for it. Sell cures. Cash checks. Repeat.

These white-coated, lab-leaking lunatics will get us all killed sooner or later. They literally can’t go five minutes without trying to make the flu even deadlier. It’s like some kind of morbid obsession. But they are doing it for you.

Who will save us from our saviors?

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Welcome to the Weekend of Protest! But it all begins in DC, with a massive show of force, as the Guardian reported in its story headlined, “Tanks to roll through Washington as Trump hosts US military parade.”

The US Army is putting on a giant, non-protest parade to celebrate its 250th birthday, which will even include a cake. It is also President Trump’s 79th birthday. Not that sneering corporate media believes him, but the President denied any connection between the parade and his birthday, noting that it also coincides with Flag Day.

Democrats called the parade a waste of money — “a costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade in Washington.” So, 250th birthday parade— too expensive. But USAID, no problem.

Behold how the media enthusiastically —even patriotically— covered the 1991 military parade in DC:

CLIP: CBS describes 1991’s patriotic military parade in DC (6:01).

The juxtaposition of the Army’s parade and the so-called “No Kings” immigration protests did not escape media’s hawklike notice. NPR ran a story yesterday headlined, “'No Kings' protests against Trump planned nationwide to coincide with military parade.”

They are going all-out. An unnamed ‘event organizer’ told NPR that over two thousand protests are planned for this weekend. We can’t wait. Ironically, no protests are scheduled in DC, where the army is. NPR claimed (without evidence) that the “No Kings” protests were a direct response to the Army parade. But in a different part of the story, to make a different point, NPR also claimed the military parade had been recently organized on short notice.

So … which is it, NPR?

Hilariously, on Thursday, reporters asked President Trump about the protests, and he quipped, "I don't feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved."

The more folks have dug into it, the less grassroots and more astroturfed the No Kings protests appear. They are well funded by progressive NGOs, probably using our state and federal tax dollars. Remember that they are spending our money as you watch social media fill up with protest pictures this weekend.

It’s frustrating, but also kind of funny, like Darwin Awards jokes.

Have a terrific Saturday! I hope you all have a blessed and peaceful weekend, and I will catch you back here again, as we kick off the new week on Monday morning.

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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