☕️ TIDES TURNING ☙ Saturday, July 6, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Biden's big interview moves no needles; Trump and Farage band back together; Ozzie covid special meltdown; Trump lawyers deploy new laws; more good news on agency overreach; and more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Saturday! And that means it’s the Weekend Edition. There’s a new moon rising and the tides are turning everywhere you look. In today’s roundup: Biden-Stephanopoulos interview fails to stop the tides of bad news for the former Vice-President; Trump and Nigel Farage exchange pleasantries evoking the 2020 electoral landscape; Australian covid special goes off the rails after angry audience members object to arrogant expert nonsense; Trump’s lawyers begin making the most of new Supreme Court decisions; and yet another executive agency rule is struck down by a federal court finding it exceeded its authority.

🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞

🔥🔥 President Kennedy once said, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” But the tide isn’t lifting Joe Biden’s boat; if anything, Joe seems to be washing out to political sea. Last night, Washington insider, Clinton hatchetman, and Democrat strategist George Stephanopoulos calmly but pointedly interviewed Joe Biden, hoping to shore up the old narrative’s sea wall. It didn’t work. NBC ran its post-interview story under the headline, “Biden refuses to take a cognitive or neurological test in his first post-debate TV interview.” In its story, NBC reported an unidentified but very depressed House Democrat saying, “We’re doomed.”

CLIP: George S. interviews Joe Biden to find out if his brain works. (22:00).

Joe needed to have a great interview to keep the S.S. Biden afloat. Instead, he performed just well enough to provide an excuse to keep on. But if the headlines are any indication, he didn’t perform well enough to plug the political leaks. Be warned that if you start watching the 22-minute interview, it’s hard to stop. It’s like watching one of those clips of a marina of boats crashing into each other in a tsunami, in slow motion, with circus music playing in the background. Ouch!

If you prefer to skip the video, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version (slightly edited for clarity and brevity):

GEORGE: When during the debate did you realize things were off the rails?

BIDEN: Trump lied 28 times!

GEORGE: But it seemed like you were having trouble from the first question in, even before he spoke?

BIDEN: I just had a bad night.

GEORGE: You told people, “just watch me.” The debate seemed to confirm their fears?

BIDEN: Afterwards I did 10 major events in a row. No slipping. And so. I just had a bad night. I don’t know why.

GEORGE: This seems to fit into a pattern of decline. (Cites NY Times.) Are you the same man today as when you took office?

BIDEN: In terms of successes, yes. I created NATO. Today I just announced 200,000 new jobs. I took on big pharma and beat them. All these were my ideas.

GEORGE: But what has all that work cost you, mentally, physically, emotionally?

BIDEN: I just had a bad night. I’m optimistic. We’re not a country of losers. I’m gonna (gives short campaign speech).

GEORGE: I, I, I understand all that. I’m asking about your personal situation. Are you more frail?

BIDEN: No. Look at my schedule. I have medical doctors travel with me everywhere I go. So, you know.

GEORGE: Have you had a full neurological evaluation? Would you?

BIDEN: I get a full neurological every day.

GEORGE: Have you had specific cognitive tests, and had a specialist evaluate you?

BIDEN: No one said I had to.

GEORGE: Would you be willing to undergo a test and release the results to the American people?

BIDEN: I have a full neurological exam every single day. I’m campaigning and running the world. Every single day. For example, today, I’m on the phone with Prime Minister … anyway, I shouldn’t get into detail … Netanyahu! And I’m takin’ on Putin. Every single day.

GEORGE: You have been doing that, but Americans are growing concerned. So the answer on the test is ‘no?’

BIDEN: No, I’ve already done that.

GEORGE: Are you sure you’re being honest with yourself? Did you watch the debate?

BIDEN: I don’t think so, no.

GEORGE: How will you feel next January if you ultimately lose the race?

BIDEN: As long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.

If Team Biden’s goal was to prove his brain cells are not ebbing out to sea, it didn’t work. The media has suddenly rediscovered journalism while scraping barnacles off the bottom of the public opinion barrel. And the media, recently emerged from its four-year coma, remains unconvinced. In this morning’s first example, the AP said it couldn’t tell whether Biden limboed under the low bar of establishing he’s not beached on a mental sand bar:

The Economist (which just ran a cover story featuring a walker with the Presidential logo on it), reported, “Joe Biden expressed confidence, bordering on arrogance,” and opined that the Resident’s ship of state is high and dry, stuck on the spiny reef of dementia:

The Economist found Joe’s pugilistic arrogance and his repeated denials of current polling realities offputting. “More coherent bluster,” the Economist primly concluded, “is still bluster.” Headlines in Democrat staples like the far-left Daily Kos and Axios were even more blunt:

The AP’s article made perhaps the most significant point. I might be over-simplifying, but the AP agrees with C&C that the Debate Disaster transformed the Democrat world into clear “before” and “after” periods. In other words, it agreed that everything Biden does now will be microscoped through the new-and-improved focal narrative of Sudden Biden Decline:

Digging through enervated liberal commenters, I found they seem to lean toward replacing Joe with a Kamala-Gavin ticket, which I think would be hilarious to watch and I give it my complete endorsement. Please.

Finally, long-time Democratic strategist and deep-state bellwether David Axelrod described Biden’s interview as “sad,” and said that if Biden’s cognitive test was in fact his daily job performance, then Americans think he failed:

CLIP: David Axelrod says Biden’s interview was sad (1:45).

In other words, the interview was the worst possible outcome for Democrats. It wasn’t bad enough to seal the deal for Biden’s removal, and it wasn’t good enough to fix Biden’s Debate Debacle. As Chaucer famously said, “Time and Tide wait for no Biden.” Or words to that effect.

Media is calling Stephanopoulos’s interview style “hard hitting but respectful.” But George missed the boat by failing to ask Joe a single thing about Hunter’s advice or the First Son’s invasion of the White House. That would have been fun.

🔥🔥 Following up on yesterday’s comments about the British Election, in which the rise of Nigel Farage’s fledgling ‘far-right’ Reform might have been the biggest news, President Trump promptly issued his congratulations:

I’ll admit to a great deal of fondness for Mr. Farage. Although he represented a tiny minority in the European Union while he was an MEP, Farage was the most entertaining part of the whole show. His goodbye speech after Brexit still is one of my all-time favorite YouTube clips.

I note without comment that Donald Trump and Nigel Farage were both ascendant in 2020, when President Trump was first elected. I’m just saying.

💉 Speaking of tides, the anti-vaccine tide keeps rolling in, unstoppably, remorselessly. The trouble with tides, you see, is how relentless they are. You can build your sea-walls and your dikes and your channels and install your pumps and drains, but sooner or later the water always finds a way through. Signaling the incoming tides of justice, the UK Daily Mail ran an encouraging story Thursday headlined, “Seven called out for editing out crucial moment from Covid special.”

Australia’s Channel 7 organized a ‘covid town hall’ with some scientists and covid experts to tape a special program on how great the pandemic went called “After Covid.” Everything was fine until somebody asked a tough question, a scientist got snippy, and it all went off the rails. The audience started hissing catcalls and shouting expletives at the panel’s ‘top covid scientists.’ It was an outburst the editors, in a very cowardly fashion, edited out of the final broadcast, creating an even bigger story about the story.

But someone leaked the full audio.

Fiesty audience member Goknur Shanal stood up and described herself as “one of the few people in the legal sector who took on the TGA and the rest of the government establishment for government corruption and medical corruption.” She pointedly asked the COVID panelists, “Why isn’t there research done, three years in now, comparing the immune systems of those who got the first dose, the second dose, and the third dose, and the aftermath, and the latency periods, in comparison to how the non-vaccinated are faring right now?”

The covid expert made the mistake of condescendingly answering, “People who have had Covid, people who haven't been vaccinated get more severe disease and they're more likely to get long Covid.”

It was electric. The leaked audio showed the audience instantly burst into objections, with one man shouting: “Bulls***!” Another yelled, “That's f***ing lies, mate!” Another chirped, “You should hand your license back!” Other audience members yelled, “that's the biggest lie,” and “snake oil salesman!”

CLIP: Fracas at Channel 7 when audience confronts experts (3:51).

When an infectious disease expert on the panel later made the tired argument that billions of shots were given and people are fine, an independent journalist in the audience yelled, “That’s not true!” She then yelled, “You are not collecting the adverse data in a controlled manner. That's not a test, that's just giving the shots to everybody!”

“Well, I disagree with that,” the so-called professor lamely responded.

I’m starting to think these diehard covid experts are in trouble. They aren’t getting any new narratives from the psyoperators now. So they have to keep recycling the last batch they got before the end, using bailing wire and duct tape to hold it all together. But people aren’t going to give them a moment’s peace or pay any attention to their stupid, recycled arguments.

Tides are caused by gravity. You can’t beat gravity. You can try, but the results are not likely to be very pretty.

🔥 ABC ran an encouraging story yesterday headlined,  “Trump asks judge to delay his classified docs case following Supreme Court immunity ruling.” While Biden flops around on the dock trying to get back into safe political waters, President Trump is busy maximizing his gains following the Supreme Court's recent landmark decision on presidential immunity. Yesterday, Trump's lawyers asked the judge overseeing his “Mar-a-Lago raid” case to stay proceedings while considering two motions to dismiss the case in light of this week's ruling.

First, Trump's lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to pause the proceedings until she determines the threshold question of whether Trump's allegedly illegal conduct was "official or unofficial."

Second, Trump's attorneys renewed a motion arguing that special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed. In this motion they also asked. Judge Cannon to stay the case, until both motions are resolved. Supreme Court Justice Thomas basically told Judge Cannon to do the same thing. “If this unprecedented prosecution is to proceed, it must be conducted by someone duly authorized to do so by the American people,” Thomas wrote in his special concurrence. And then: “The lower courts should thus answer these essential questions concerning the Special Counsel's appointment before proceeding.”

Before proceeding. I can’t imagine a better development for one of my cases than a Supreme Court judge opining that my judge should consider my issue first before doing anything else. So I’ll predict Judge Cannon will probably respond favorably to the two new motions.

Fani Willis is high and dry. The “check stub” case is likely to be overturned on appeal while sentencing is stayed. The new Supreme Court decision has hemmed in his two federal cases. Headline from Wednesday’s Daily Signal:

It sure feels like the tide is turning in the Trump cases. So.

🔥 CNN ran another encouraging tidal story Wednesday, headlined “Judge delays ban on noncompete agreements for small number of employers.” Following what can only be described as a terrific recent trend, another federal court has enjoined a Biden executive agency rule for lack of authority. Yesterday a Texas federal court issued a limited injunction against the FTC’s controversial new rule banning employee non-compete agreements. The court held the FTC lacked the rulemaking authority to issue the nationwide ban.

Judge Ada Brown, a Trump appointee, carefully limited her ruling to just the plaintiffs who brought the suit, a medium-sized software firm. But in doing so, she necessarily found those plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits, a threshold ruling that usually sounds the death knell for challenged government actions.

Non-compete agreements are a common part of my commercial litigation practice. There are good arguments about whether they should be legal on both sides. But Judge Brown’s decision has nothing to do with whether non-competes are good, bad, legal, or illegal. The only question was whether the FTC has authority by itself to toss them out, or whether the people’s elected representatives in Congress must do that.

If the recent trifecta of rulings from the Supreme Court on down suggests anything, it is that yet another tide is turning, a tsunami of pent-up backlash against lawless Executive Agency overreach. The overreach may not have started during the pandemic. But the pandemic ripped off the rubber mask of executive branch overreach, revealing the hideous monster lurking underneath. But now, as the Scooby Doo crowd would say, “it was just old man Biden the whole time!”

I hope you enjoyed today’s tidal report. We aren’t done yet, not by a long shot, and there will still be setbacks and lost battles to come. But we sure do have much to be grateful for this week, as this unpredictable, historic year continues delivering its astonishing developments.

Have a wonderful weekend! Roll back here on Monday morning for more delicious and educational Coffee & Covid.

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