☕️ RANK CHOICES ☙ Wednesday, June 25, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Media swoons over NYC socialist, but Dems should panic; Trump dominates NATO; Kennedy nukes vax debate; wearables stir privacy fears; FL builds migrant swamp camp; DOJ probes hospital horrors; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Wednesday! Halfway through the final full week of June. Today’s excellent roundup includes: corporate media swoon over the latest socialist to win New York’s mayoral primary, but it was really more terrible news for the donkeys; Trump crushes Europe at the NATO conference, and Zelensky shows up in humble garb; Kennedy crushes the vaccine debate with mammoth tweet; wearables gin up controversy over privacy and nudging; Florida builds toothy migrant holding cell in the biggest swamp in the world; and DOJ begins investigating kids hospitals’ sick medical experiments.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

🔥🔥🔥

The latest disaster for Democrats is a Titanic-sized catastrophe, a failure at every stage and level, and so, like the doomed ship’s deck band, the New York Times played a merry tune to boost everyone’s spirits. The shockingly naive story was headlined, “‘We Have Won,’ Mamdani Says, as Cuomo Concedes N.Y.C. Mayoral Primary.”

Zohran Kwame Mamdani’s election in yesterday’s ranked-choice primary was an unmitigated calamity. Zohran’s (if that is his real name) victory virtually ensures that current Mayor Eric Adams will win his re-election campaign as an independent.

By all accounts, Mamdani, 33, is a male version of AOC. He’s young, telegenic, and reasonably well-spoken, apart from constantly babbling about making everything free — free! — wheeeee! — free bus service! free subways! free apartments! and especially, government-run groceries presumably handing out free lattes like flyers at an Antifa rally.

But unless I’m missing something, Zohran —who’s now the Democrats’ official nominee for Mayor of their most important city— is utterly unelectable. Let us count the ways.

First of all, he’s a legit, Bernie Sanders-style socialist, a member in good standing of the Democratic Socialists of America. That might have caché with baristas and bike couriers, and even for Democrat partisans (who’d vote for Stalin, let’s be honest), but probably won’t enthuse moderates and independents. His “political platform”, if you can call it that, is a fiscal scratch-off card. Since his “make everything free!” plan is meant to be funded by billionaires and businesses (who he’ll somehow stop from moving to Miami in rank disgust), it’s safe to assume the donor class won’t get on board.

Oh, and he’s also a loud and proud BLM-style police de-funder. It plays well on activist panels and college town halls, but for ordinary New Yorkers who’ve been mugged, shoved onto train tracks, or just want to walk their kids to school without stepping over a fentanyl zombie, it’s political poison.

And he has a Jewish problem. He’s too Muslim, too passionately young, and too rabidly anti-Israel in a city that is home to the largest Jewish population outside Jerusalem. Mamdani doesn’t just criticize Israel’s Gaza problem, influence, or government; he openly flirts with the basic question of whether Israel has any right to exist at all. Let’s just say there are a lot of shocking video clips from campus rallies that will soon be making the rounds.

Finally, he must now run against Eric Adams, who wisely shredded his DNC card and went independent after Trump called off Biden’s DOJ witch hunt against him earlier this year. Adams, a black former NYPD captain, won last time on a law-and-order platform— making him the perfect foil to Zohran’s sloppy #DefundTheNYPD rhetoric.

The Democrats built a trap for themselves and then sprinted into it wearing clown shoes.

🔥 In occult political necromancy, Democrat insiders tried to resurrect Andrew Cuomo —who quit the governor’s office in disgrace under a stinky cloud of sexual harassment allegations and a looming covid nursing home scandal. Party leaders nursed a wild fantasy that Coumo could somehow emerge as the adult in the room. Michael Bloomberg lavished $25 million on Cuomo’s primary campaign. Instead, the ex-governor burned through goodwill faster than a Hamptons bonfire, reminded voters why they were so tired of him in the first place, and managed to lose before the ranked-choice rounds even began.

Next, consider the Democrats’ overly complicated ranked-choice chaos. What was sold as a ‘progressive upgrade to democracy’ —giving voters “more voice” by letting them vote for more than one candidate— only diluted moderates, fractured the coalition, and handed the nomination to a Twitter-fueled ideologue with no realistic shot at winning in November.

Ranked-choice voting is like trying to fix a flat tire by adding more tires. Theoretically, it prevents extreme outcomes. Practically, it often produces exactly that, especially when primary turnout is driven by hyper-motivated activist blocs. Instead of consensus, they got calamity— especially when their leading candidates were (a) a defund-the-police DSA radical and (b) a disgraced ex-governor who might now be planning a revenge run as an independent.

In other words, thanks to the magic of ranked-choice voting, the Democrat Party now finds itself in the perplexing position of having to run multiple Democrat candidates as independents, just to stay competitive in a city where they normally dominate. In the deep-blue metropolis where the Democratic nominee should cruise, we now see three different Democrats on three different tickets.

Purity spirals.

The liberal media is spinning this catastrophe like it’s Woodstock 2.0. The New York Intelligencer crowed, “Zohran Mamdani Just Remade American Politics.” Sure he did. The other, more realistic take is: Zohran just exposed the disastrous disorganization inside Democrat machine politics.

Instead of fielding a unifying, viable candidate, the party bet on the ghost of Cuomo and hoped ranked-choice roulette would somehow produce a consensus. Instead, it handed the nomination to a socialist TikTok darling whose platform reads like it was drafted during a medical-marijuana-infused drum circle.

Now, with Cuomo plotting a third-party run and Eric Adams pulling GOP and moderate Dem votes as an independent, the party’s about to split like a cheap subway umbrella in a Derecho.

🚀🚀🚀

It can only be seen as a total Trumpian victory over Europe. ABC affiliate WRIC ran the story yesterday below the headline, “Ukrainian President Zelenskyy sidelined as NATO leaders meet to agree to defense spending boost.”

The biggest news, downplayed in nearly every corporate media report, was that NATO’s European partners finally gave in to Trump’s relentless demands that they triple their financial kick-ins to the alliance, rising to 5% of each country’s GDP (except for Spain, a lone exception).

That drastic increase in fiscal pledges cuts deeply into the money the Europeans have in their regime-change spare-cash drawers, such as additional support for Ukraine.

President Trump briefly met with the Green Sweatshirt Guy. Hilariously, the President pretended not to know what the meeting was about. “He’s a nice guy. I mean, I’m going to meet him today. I don’t know, I assume we’re going to be discussing Ukraine,” Trump shrugged. But in perhaps the best visual image that perfectly captured the moment, for the first time since the comedian became Ukraine’s president, Kiev’s annoying, diminutive leader put on a suit. Or at least, something more like a suit. It had a poorly tailored jacket, anyway.

It was not immediately clear at first why Zelensky was even there, since Ukraine isn’t a NATO member. But then the begging started. It didn’t go well. A Washington Post story yesterday was headlined, “NATO summit sidesteps question of Trump ending military aid to Ukraine.” The sub-headline added, “Weapons deliveries approved by the Biden administration are running out and European officials concede that the Trump administration does not want to offer new aid.”

In just a handful of months, Trump has gotten every single thing he wanted. Our NATO partners will have to stop freeloading off the US, lowering America’s burden— the President’s long-standing goal from back in Trump 1.0. Former progressive darling Ukraine has been “sidestepped,” and the billions of useless, corruptocratic funds canceled. And best of all, Zelensky got dressed for dinner.

TAW. Trump always wins.

💉💉💉

Never lose hope! HHS Secretary Kennedy unleashed a 1500-word MOAB of a tweet yesterday about vaccines, stenographic corporate media, and white coated lies. It was far too long to republish the whole thing (read it for yourself). His theme featured a common vaccine ingredient, thimerosal, and his targets included luminaries such as The Guardian, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and “the vaccine industry” writ large.

Thimerosal is a mercury-based chemical that has been used since the 1930s as a preservative in vaccines, especially in multi-dose vials like flu shots. It contains ethylmercury, a form of mercury meant to stop bacteria and fungus from growing in opened vaccine vials.

Since 1998, thimerosal has been banned in all over-the-counter products. But the CDC still has no guidelines for safe ethylmercury exposure—none. The NIH, NIEHS, NRC, and EPA have all flagged ethylmercury as hazardous in some form or another. Industrial material safety sheets list thimerosal as mutagenic, and California’s EPA classifies it as a reproductive toxicant. While thimerosal was removed from most childhood vaccines in the early 2000s, it’s still found in many flu vaccines—including those recommended for pregnant women and infants as young as six months old.

As Kennedy’s X essay correctly stated, there is a large body of literature —published in reputable journals— raising red flags about thimerosal and ethylmercury. Numerous studies (both animal and cellular) show thimerosal impairs neuronal development, alters brain chemistry, and crosses the blood-brain barrier. Other studies link prenatal or early life exposure to mercury—including ethylmercury—to cognitive and motor impairments.

Worse, accepted research confirmed that ethylmercury from thimerosal is not rapidly cleared from the body as once claimed —sound familiar?— but instead can accumulate in the brain, in some cases for decades. And NIH and FDA-commissioned studies found ethylmercury is at least as toxic —and possibly even more toxic— as methylmercury (the type found in fish), which is heavily regulated.

Kennedy was also correct that there are zero long-term, placebo-controlled human studies that prove thimerosal is safe. That’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s a plain fact. The FDA itself admitted in 2001 (as Kennedy cited) that no safety testing of thimerosal has ever been done in humans. That hasn’t changed in a meaningful way.

All of that evidence does not stop newspapers and pediatric associations from claiming the “science is settled.” What do they think “settled” even means? Gravity is settled. The boiling point of water at sea level is settled. Here, as always when it comes to vaccines, they just vaguely appeal to authority, which is as classic a logical fallacy as has ever kicked grass.

For anyone who was worried that Kennedy somehow “flipped” and abandoned his decades-long career of using logic, law, and science to attack big pharma’s biggest cash cow, this massive flamethrower of a Twitter monograph should reassure you. And he typed it out after spending the long day in a contentious Congressional hearing, where Democrats henpecked the HHS Secretary more noisily than a pack of starved chickens going after a gecko.

🔥 That said, proving I’m not a stenographer for Kennedy (or anyone), I did disagree with one thing the Secretary tweeted yesterday. He told Congress that his goal —a “key part of the MAHA agenda”— was that “every American is wearing a wearable within four years.” Um, no thanks.

CLIP: Secretary Kennedy explains wearables policy (1:27).

Look, I get it. Wearables, such as Apple Watches, collect health data in real-time. So far, they can grab heart rate, O2 saturation, sleep cycles, and blood pressure— all key health indicators. Cops are using them to establish times of death and solve crimes. It would be great to be able to zap the data straight to your doctor, who’d have an AI-based program to figure out early whether there’s a problem and what might be going on.

I could even see a role for HHS. The FDA has long impeded this kind of breakthrough technology. The agency seems befuddled over whether Apple Watches are “Class II medical devices” subject to cripplingly high standards and regulations. Let the innovators roll, and let consumers decide rather than compromised bureaucrats.

E-Watch fans —like my own beloved wife— affectionately accept its constant little ‘nudges’ to stand up, drink more water, and move around. You’re almost at your goal! Of course, if I said any of that stuff to her, I’d be sleeping outside with the cat. But I’m not bitter.

I’m okay with a goal of “every American who wants one” using wearables. Fine. Great, in fact. Go forth and save lives, and so on. But absent something protecting our collected health data from a subpoena, or government watchers sending us healthy nudges of their own, it’s just one more damned thing to charge up every day. And I am already over my limit.

So, see? I don’t agree with everything.

👮‍♂️👮‍♂️👮‍♂️

Welcome to the Swamp! Yesterday, Fox ran a story headlined, “Trump administration approves 'Alligator Alcatraz' where ICE detainees face nature's own security system.” The sub-headline added, “Florida's attorney general touted alligators and pythons as natural security measures for the new 5,000-bed facility.”

CLIP: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier describes “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention center and other fun topics (16:50).

A 30-square-mile property in the Everglades, home to a virtually abandoned international airport, is rapidly being converted into a 5,000-bed facility for illegal immigrants. The state hopes to have the facility operational by the first week of July. It’s going so fast because they don’t have to build a fence. Escapees face some of Florida’s most daunting and toothy wildlife.

That massive runway could sure be helpful for mass deportations. Just saying.

👮‍♂️ More law-enforcement news! Yesterday, Fox (and only Fox) ran a story headlined, “FBI launches probes into 3 children's hospitals for alleged genital mutilation of minors.” The sub-headline explained, “The investigations are part of the Trump administration's push to enforce federal genital mutilation statutes.” You know, the old addadictome procedure.

According to the story, the FBI has opened criminal —criminal, not civil— investigations of three children's hospitals: Boston Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The article noted that these are the top three providers of pediatric sex change procedures in the US. The DOJ is wielding a long-standing federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 116, which criminalizes female genital mutilation.

The statute carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count. DOJ chief Bondi said, “I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to investigate all suspected cases of FGM — under the banner of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ or otherwise — and to prosecute all FGM offenses to the fullest extent possible.” The UK Daily Mail, 2023:

From the story: “Eleven of the 16 patients with an infection had one that was so serious that the penis implant had to be removed. After an average follow-up of 2.6 years, 40 percent of patients no longer had their original implant. More than half of trans women who have 'bottom' surgery were in so much pain years later that they required medical attention.”

In even better news, Fox said the DOJ is drafting new legislation that would create private causes of action for children and their parents, whenever children’s “healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals through chemical and surgical mutilation,” so families and victims can hold hospitals and providers retroactively liable for damages.

There’s progress! Earlier this month, Children's Hospital Los Angeles —one of the three now under investigation— announced it would permanently close its so-called Center for Transyouth Health and Development, effective next month. The hospital cited "significant operational, legal and financial risks stemming from the shifting policy landscape at both the state and federal levels," according to a CBS News report.

You don’t say. I would be happy if the providers were required to undertake all the same sick procedures they’ve inflicted on kids. The Supreme Court would probably call it “cruel and unusual punishment,” but what does that tell you? Still, hope springs eternal.

The Reckoning is on its way.

Have a wonderful Wednesday! Then sail back here, with or without a green suit, for more C&C style essential news and commentary, dished up warm along with your daily caffeine injection.

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