☕️ PARDON ME ☙ Monday, December 2, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Good morning, C&C, it’s Monday! And it was very busy in the news for a Monday morning. It used to be the news slowed down some over the weekend. But not anymore, apparently. Your roundup today includes: Joe Biden flips the script and pardons his son Hunter, handing incoming President Trump a beautiful present; new front in the Proxy War attempts to bleed Republicans some more; controversial Trump nominee rankles many including your author; and an astonishing sales figure adds up to the year’s most encouraging story.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

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Joe Biden just gave President Trump the biggest gift any outgoing president has ever given his replacement. CNN ran one of several articles covering the story under the headline, “Analysis: Biden’s pardon of his son pours fuel on Trump’s claims of politicized justice.” Joe just gave President Trump the political equivalent of a diamond tennis bracelet for Christmas.

No, no, never…

CLIP: Jean-Pierre: “no, no, no, it is a no. Will be pardon his son? No.”

Joe has emphatically promised that he would never pardon Hunter. “No man is above the law,” the old relic used to tell reporters every time Hunter’s name came up. More egregiously, Democrats and liberal legal commenters wrote poems blessing Biden for his saintly adherence to the “rule of law,” letting his own son experience the just consequences of his actions and keeping politics completely out of it.

Surprising only the Democrat base — plus, I suppose, captive corporate media who are pretending to be surprised — last night President Vegetable Étouffée shattered a long series of public promises by issuing a formal presidential pardon excusing his son, baby Cabbage, for all crimes, known or unknown, committed during his gloriously profitable crime spree starting on January 1, 2014. No coincidentally, 2014 was the year Hunter started “working” as Ukrainian energy company Burisma’s first outside board member, and when his company Metabiota began tinkering with viruses in that godforsaken country.

“Changes Course”

You might call it the unintended Trump Effect. One day after President-Elect Trump announced the terrifying nomination of Kash Patel to lead the F.B.I., Joe Biden shocked his Democrat allies — CNN called it a “stunning development” — who thought all the hard feelings were behind them, along with Joe’s ability to exact any more political revenge.

A single-page statement emerged from the bowels of the White House, covered in a white, powdery residue that a nearby Secret Service agent said was untraceable, so don’t bother. The statement explained the rationale for Hunter’s pardon, blaming Joe’s broken promise not to pardon Hunter on, of course, President Trump.

CNN — along with the “stunned” Democrats — instantly recognized that Joe just torpedoed their best weapon in the narrative war against President Trump. CNN admitted in the article that the carefully focus-grouped slogan “no one is above the law” is now dead, kaput, fully expired. CNN said Hunter’s pardon “raises questions about the bedrock notion that underpins the system of justice in the United States that everyone — even presidents and their families — are equal before the law.”

The Republicans promptly began invading narrative territory long held by Democrats. From the story:

In other words, Republicans are already loading Hunter’s pardon as political ammunition into their rhetorical guns. “Already, Republicans are arguing the Hunter Biden pardon shows that the current president, and not the next one, is most to blame for politicizing the system of justice by meting out favorable treatment to his son,” CNN dolefully allowed, admitting that “Their claim may not be accurate, but it can still be politically effective.”

Indeed.

Biden’s official statement — I promise I am not making this up — was an ode to the weaponization of the justice system. You couldn’t ask for better evidence to support tearing the FBI and DOJ down to their mildew-ridden roots than this, a formal statement from a sitting president complaining about the politicized justice system. Here is the part of Biden’s statement whining about weaponization:

I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.

The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them. No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son - and that is wrong.

Enough is enough. Here's the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.

There you have it: the leader of the federal government itself, and the party’s top Democrat, agrees with Republicans that the nation’s justice system has been politically weaponized. We may disagree whether the weaponization was partisan and if so, in which direction the partisanship twists. But now, Republicans and Democrats unanimously agree: the justice system is broken. The New York Times noticed the political danger:

In other words, Biden may have snatched Hunter off the board, but he switched the pieces. Biden’s statement put the DOJ and the FBI onto the chessboard, in Hunter’s place, already in check. In chess terms, it was like saving a pawn by giving up the queen and both rooks.

As for Hunter, well, if special prosecutor Jack Smith can soak up more millions of your tax money producing a stinker of a Trump report even though President Trump’s cases were dismissed, then incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi can spend a few bucks producing an odious Hunter Biden report, too, even though Hunter was pardoned.

Finally, President Trump’s immediate response was to turn the Hunter pardon around on Democrats, as a justification for pardoning the J6 political prisoners:

The unsubtle point was not lost on other influencers, who were quick to notice the same political opportunity created by one Joe Biden. For example, James Woods:

In other words, Hunter’s pardon opens the way for pardoning the J6 prisoners (and possibly others). It was a brilliant political move. Brilliant, that is, if Joe Biden were trying to help President Trump.

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A tiresome new front opened this weekend in the Proxy War. This morning, the New York Times ran one of its many stories about the bizarre development headlined, “Syria’s Rebels Struck When Assad’s Allies Were Weakened and Distracted.”

Good luck trying to find a comprehensible narrative. The official story is that a rebel militia formed of anti-government, fundamentalist Muslim, freedom-loving “jihadi fighters” invaded northern Syria this weekend in a daring surprise raid and managed to capture Syria’s second-biggest city, Aleppo, which sounds like a type of cigarette lighter.

Dig in any deeper, and it gets even murkier, with multiple jihadi factions and Kurdish separatist groups and meddling by Turkey and political grudges and so on, and on, and on. The whole bespoke story is tailor-made to strupify anyone trying to figure it out, so we throw up our hands in frustration asking, what are you gonna do, it’s just the crazy Middle East?

But is that what’s really going on? Is the conflict really so incomprehensible?

The Times described it as a new conflict that is part of an 11-year-old civil war. Doing the work the corporate media should do, but doesn’t, harkening back to the ‘dispute’s’ origins, we find it’s just another deep-state tentacle. I dare you to top this astonishing headline from the March 27, 2016, LA Times:

Translation: we have so many deep-state ‘dirty tricks’ operations going that we’re losing track and they’re starting to fight each other on accident. Alternative translation: there isn’t enough conflict in the Middle East right now, so we’ll just fight with ourselves until war conditions improve.

As further evidence of deep state involvement, the Times’ article (and the other big corporate media articles) quoted on the ground rebels in Aleppo. How in Hades did the New York Times get access to random Syrian jihadis in under 24 hours from the start of the ‘surprise’ raid? You know how, and it’s not journalistic acumen.

Anyway, the point is, the Syrian rebels who invaded Aleppo this weekend are almost certainly funded by one or more acronymized American deep state institutions. Since Syria is allied with Russia and Iran, who’ve both pledged to help defend Syria against enemies including fake jihadis, Russia is now on the hook.

Thus, the new conflict in northern Syria has already forced both Russia and Iran to send valuable troops and weapons to Syria, taking those troops and weapons away from other places in the world they might be useful. Like, say, in Ukraine.

Think of it as a kind of sneaky, plausibly deniable response to Russia’s new wonder weapon. Russia wasn’t attacked on its territory, which is the ‘red line.’ It can’t blame Ukraine, or even America, who both diffidently deny having anything at all to do with it. Anyway, Russia’s new Orechnik hypersonic missiles aren’t much use in Syria, not against a ragtag militia lacking tanks, a military base, or even its own town somewhere. So … what would Ivan’s new missile target? Syria’s own cities? A handful of jihadis in a dented Nissan pickup?

What is this strange, overly complicated new war in Syria? It’s another sinister front in the Ukraine proxy war, a sly way to bleed the Russians, that’s what. Nothing new, in other words, just more.

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I was sorely tested yesterday when news broke of President Trump’s nomination to head the Drug Enforcement Agency: Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister. During the pandemic, Sheriff Chronister arrested Tampa Pastor Dr. Ronald Howard-Browne, who defied Florida’s short lockdown order and held several religious services anyway.

Sheriff Chronister also enforced a local covid curfew, and ordered punitive policies aimed at coercing unvaccinated deputies under his command to get the shots.

CLIP: Sheriff Chronister explains his vaccination policy (0:32).

On the other hand, he may not have enforced all laws as enthusiastically as the covid laws. In at least one local news story, reporters indirectly quoted Sheriff Chronister as promising to focus on “public safety” rather than federal immigration laws. He didn’t come right out and say he wouldn’t help deport illegals, apparently, which was smart because that kind of thing, promising not to enforce the law, can get you removed from office in Florida.

Though vowing to focus on public safety, Chronister did release 165 ‘low level, non-violent’ prisoners during covid.

As to his politics, Chronister apparently donated $15K to Obama’s campaign, but more recently endorsed Governor DeSantis during the Republican primary, so he’s likely now a Republican. Still, Chronister is not well-liked by local conservatives who call him a woke Democrat plant. This Twitter thread helpfully rounds up a long list of anti-Chronister information.

I get it; Sheriff Chronister only enforced the laws at the time. We celebrated as heroes those Sheriffs who (rightly, in my view) refused to enforce what they concluded were unconstitutional laws. There may be more to the story; this Twitter poster claims Sheriff Chronister went back to the church and publicly apologized.

Apology or no, Sheriff Chronister was no covid hero. But more than that, Chronister’s covid policies alone raise serious questions whether he is ideologically aligned with the incoming Trump Administration.

As the more controversial Trump nominees have occasionally cropped up, I’ve repeatedly encouraged GTMTTW (give the man time to work). Now, I’ve been forced to take my own advice, which is pretty bitter. If I were in the Senate, I would vote not to confirm Sheriff Chronister.

I’ve said my piece, and I won’t make a song about it — I will assume Trump has a good reason for selecting this person for DEA, or maybe Chronister really has changed. But we don’t have to like it. During his confirmation hearings, Sheriff Chronister should be required to answer for his own words and decisions.

And he should have to wear a mask the whole time.

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Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal ran one of the most encouraging stories I’ve seen all year, headlined “Sales of Bibles Are Booming, Fueled by First-Time Buyers and New Versions.” Not just a little; the sub-headline added, “Publishers attribute a 22% jump in Bible sales this year to rising anxiety, a search for hope, or highly focused marketing and designs.” Hint: it’s probably not rising anxiety or creative Bible marketing techniques.

The sales figures contradict what elite media believes is the nation’s zeitgeist. “The demand for Bibles is rising,” the Journal marveled, “despite evidence that the country is growing increasingly secularized.”

Behold the post-pandemic’s steady annual growth in Bible sales (for 2023 and 2023, compare the light blue columns):

Though the words “covid” and “pandemic” were conspicuous by their absence in the Journal’s article, the chart shows Bible sales growing steadily ever since Year Zero. They couldn’t possibly have missed the connection; why the Journal ignored it remains a mystery.

Intriguingly, the Journal quoted several small influencers and podcasters. Pictured above is Cely Vazquez, 28, a video podcaster (1.1 million followers) and reality TV show veteran. Cely recently TikTocked her very first Bible purchase from Barnes & Noble. Good for her.

The story also quoted another influencer, Amber Cimiotti, 38, a mother of two in Henderson, Nevada. Amber partly attributed the increase in Bible sales to podcasters and Tiktokers like herself “sharing easily digestible stories about Christianity.”

Seems like it could be a podcast thing.

So … here’s my question. The same period of time — postpandemic — was the same time during which folks started abandoning corporate media in all its forms, both news and entertainment, in growing favor of user-produced, independent, direct-to-consumer content. The recent election, for example, is widely considered to be the first podcast-election. Fox News, four days ago:

Could people’s preference for independent media be moving other needles as well? People are being exposed to more ideas that cannot be found on institutional media. It’s probably fair to say that regular secular folks get zero positive exposure to Christianity on corporate media. But it’s completely different on independent media, where the distribution of Christians is closer to real life.

Do the fantastic rising first-time Bible sales figures reflect a growing spiritual awakening? If so, has that awakening been fueled, at least in part, by the massive loss of trust in corporate media caused by its fraudulent pandemic coverage? Is this wonderful development more unanticipated covid fruit? Is it growing along with free speech, unleashed by Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter?

What do you think?

Have a magnificent Monday! Return tomorrow morning for more delicious and informative Coffee & Covid.

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