☕️ VALUABLES ☙ Thursday, August 20, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Scientist tells Fauci cloth masks don't work; dodges FOIA; while a senator got deplatformed for saying it out loud; Treasury's welfare cutoff roils Dems; a hero emerges from the sea; much more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Your roundup includes: the Fauci text message Catherine Herridge pried loose this week, in which the nation’s most-quoted epidemiologist opened with I’m sending this via text messaging to avoid any FOIA issues and then quietly informed the entire Biden Covid team that the cloth masks they were mandating don’t work — a private confession delivered sixteen months after the CDC taught America to fight a respiratory virus with a coffee filter and a cut-up T-shirt, and while the rest of us were getting our accounts locked for noticing; the Treasury Department’s new proposed rules reclassifying four refundable tax credits as federal public benefits, which under Bill Clinton’s own 1996 welfare reform law means non-citizens can’t collect them — a million people, three billion dollars, and an overdue admission that a “refund” to somebody who never paid a dime is not a refund; and Ryder Williams, the 16-year-old Santa Cruz lifeguard who threw down his radio, sprinted into the surf, hauled out an unconscious ten-year-old, collected a High Civilian Honor in the Oval Office, and then described the whole business as “part of our daily task” — a phrase that inspired me to review my own daily task diary, where yesterday’s entry reads: argued with family. Lost.

🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍

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Independent journalist Catherine Herridge broke a shocking Fauci text story yesterday, and the number of media outlets falling over themselves to cover it was: zero. But Herridge kept scrolling, investigating, and there it was, the whole American clerisy in 160 characters, a public-health Brahmin named Michael Osterholm tapping out a line or two to Fauci, Zients, Murthy, Walensky —I’m sending this via text messaging to avoid any FOIA issues— because the archive is for peasants and the important people use SMS. They were not arguing science. They were arguing wardrobe. The useless, hated face diaper. The folk costume for medical fetishists.

To be clear: at first, they told us masks didn’t stop the virus. Later, they would insist that was only a white lie, a tiny fib told for our own good, because they needed to save the “good” masks for frontline workers. They only reversed that advice after, like a dictator mulling over the latest arrest numbers and wondering how to triple them —EUREKA!— they brainstormed a solution: make your own mask! Just cut up an old T-shirt!

It was so simple.

Even typing that seems painfully dumb now, like I’m exaggerating for emphasis or doing a bit or something. No. I did not make that up. That happened. And we must never, ever let them forget it. Headline, from the New York Times, April 2020:

Critics: do not test me. Don’t say “you can find some dumb idea somewhere in the news anytime.” That is not what happened. The first sentence from a similar Gizmodo story said, and I quote: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now issued a guide for do-it-yourself masks from a coffee filter or T-shirt.”

Get it? Deadly virus versus: Coffee filters. Bandanas. T-shirt scraps. The dumbest idea in American history came from the CDC. Here is the relevant part of the CDC’s own guidance:

Even at the time, most of us instantly recognized how insultingly stupid that “public health advice” was. Cut-up T-shirts stop viruses? Really? Since when? A below-average third grader, even off his Ritalin, could see the idea was cockamamie. We gave CDC hundreds of billions of dollars, and they gave us a Kiddieland craft guide:

(* Results may vary.) They even failed at their stupid two-step craft guide. I’m pretty sure those are blunt-nosed kids’ safety scissors. Which won’t cut a T-shirt. Imagine how the CDC scientists must have laughed themselves silly while creating this T-shirt guide. They thought we were morons.

I swear on Michelle’s Tahoe that I am not making any of this up. How could I?

😷 Our nation’s medical establishment, the best in the world, 99% of every credentialed man and woman, embraced this coast-to-coast humiliation ritual: every health professional in the country enthusiastically sold the ridiculous T-shirt idea as a lifesaving necessity, and then nodded along with the mandates.

Co-opting the medical community like this was only possible because it suffered from a critical weakness: a yin-yang combination of two opposing values the pandemic exposed as part of our medical community’s DNA. Our medicos were bred with a greedy authoritarian instinct combined with abject cowardice. That’s an intensely bad combination.

Worse, it was a terrific disappointment. Hollywood had groomed us to believe frontline doctors and nurses were heroic, stubborn, hardworking, common-sensical, and independent, like the crack squads of emergency room teams populating shows like E.R., Grey’s Anatomy, House, and, of course, Scrubs. Back when doctors were funny.

Nobody’s laughing with doctors now.

Consider that Hollywood has greenlit a half-dozen new medical shows since the pandemic, and not one of them is about heroes or anything remotely amusing.

But we did get lots of masked, line-dancing TikTok shorts. In a way, the video clips were a perfect metaphor for coordinated healthcare compliance. They got into line. They did the dance. They wore the masks. They all followed the script. It was an embodied illustration of what they wanted us to do: follow the script. Use their silly step-by-step CDC craft guides to show our performative compliance.

But I digress.

🔥 At last we reach Herridge’s text message, which, like this post, was impolitely long for the format. The text’s author was Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist, a University of Minnesota Professor, the director of CIDRAP, and one of Time’s 2026 100 Top Health People. In August, 2021, he addressed Biden’s Covid response team: Fauci, Jeff Zients, Rochelle Walensky, Vivek Murthy.

“I’m sending this via text messaging to avoid any FOIA issues,” Osterholm began, immediately manufacturing the prosecution’s Exhibit A. Why did he take the chance? Partly because everyone was doing it. But mostly because he was delicately, gingerly, in the most respectful way possible, criticizing the CDC’s mask policy.

He didn’t dare do that on government email.

Osterholm —the only real scientist in the group— basically told them cloth face masks don’t work. “None of the studies that CDC uses to support significant protection of face cloth coverings stand up to scientific scrutiny,” he said, after first assuring them in three different ways how much he loves masks in general (“real” ones, N95s).

Ouch. Osterholm pressed the group to quit yapping about cut-up T-shirts and pivot to N95s instead. The same note of concern lands at the end of every one of these documents, like clockwork: The professor fretted about how the emphasis on cloth masks would look in hindsight.

In other words, he was clumsily hinting who’ll get blamed for this?

But alas. By August, 2021, it was already too late. They’d pushed T-shirts, cloth masks, and gaiters for so long the CDC could not afford to start telling people they didn’t work, since it would just show more incoherence, more flip-flopping in the guidance.

What ultimately emerged from public health’s skunkworks instead was a lame campaign to push N-95s, only arguing they were better. ‘Better’ in some unquantifiable, indescribable, intangible way. But the cloth T-shirt horse was long out of the CDC’s barn. Memes were made. YouTube had already taught America’s housewives how to do it.

And by that point, only hardcore Branch Covidians and Mask Karens were listening to the official mask guidance anyway. The rest of us were just tiredly reading whatever sign was on the door of whatever establishment we were trying to navigate through next. And every one of those was different.

😷 Maybe Osterholm’s criminal, FOIA-avoiding text isn’t bigger news because most people long ago concluded the mask debacle was always a fraud, and this just confirms what we already know. But here’s the thing. While they were officiously throwing us in social media jail and locking down our posts for questioning CDC mask guidance, they were secretly talking about the same exact things on their off-the-books text platforms.

Three weeks before Osterholm sent his text, White House Spokeslady Jen Psaki yipped, “We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” On August 11, 2021 —three days after Osterholm’s text— YouTube deplatformed a sitting U.S. Senator for saying cloth masks don’t work. Headline from NBC, :

Even with all this going on, the scientists never mentioned their private doubts. Apparently we, the general public, were too dumb to understand “the nuance.” We got kindergarten crafts. For his part, Osterholm never screwed up the courage to take his concerns public. Good little doggie. Here’s a grant!

Instead, Osterholm publicly said, “I support the wearing of cloth face coverings (masks) by the general public… I wear one myself on the limited occasions I’m out in public. In areas where face coverings are mandated, I expect the public to follow the mandate and wear them.”

My very first pandemic lawsuit, the first lawsuit I ever filed against a government entity, was over Alachua County’s mask mandate. I deposed the County Health Supervisor and the Director of UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute. I’ve deposed criminals who were more cooperative. That was when I smelled the stench of the rat.

Republicans gave up on the CDC during the pandemic. Now Democrats are doing the same thing because Robert F. Kennedy runs HHS. They are running out of allies, and it is 100% their own fault. This trickle of once-secret messaging is slowly driving a stake through public health’s black heart, millimeter by millimeter.

The only way they can stop what’s coming is by coming clean. They’ll never do it. They are planning to go down with the ship. And I will be pouring water on them.

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You’ll love this one. Yesterday, CNBC reported, “Treasury, IRS move to restrict refundable tax credits to certain immigrants.” The subheadline added, “Experts say the move could impact hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new proposed rules package, published today, that could cut illegal aliens, asylum seekers, and other non-citizens off from one of the biggest and most expensive stealth welfare systems going: four different “tax credits.” Four scams, all run out of the back of a tax return.

“Tax credits” lead to refunds, which in this case are a euphemism for gifts. It’s a reverse tax, meaning the government pays you instead of vice versa, which is what most tax payers experience. All some favored voting bloc need do is file a tax return and PRESTO, money hits their government debit card.

These people don’t pay taxes. So it is not a refund. These kinds of “tax credits” are only related to taxes because the application form is the tax return, and the payment mechanism is falsely called a “refund,” as if it were something owed to them, rather than what it really is: a gift of charity from the real taxpayers, who are struggling to afford health insurance.

The proposed rules define the refundable portion of four tax credits —the adoption tax credit, the child tax credit, the American Opportunity tax credit, and the worst one of all, the earned income tax credit (the word ‘earned’ being more progressive wordplay) as “federal public benefits.” Under Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform law, most non-citizens are ineligible for federal public benefits.

Federal public benefits are a category unavailable to non-citizens. So, boom. Cue outrage, hysteria, and a CNN special report about starving Somalians in Minnesota. CNBC complained, “it is the latest move by the Trump administration to use the nation’s financial safety net as a way to implement stricter immigration policy.”

Not ‘a way to use the tax system to implement stricter immigration.’ The financial safety net. Welfare. Welfare for illegals and people claiming asylum, like the TPS Haitians we’re always hearing about.

Daniel Costa, Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, whined, “It’s a terrible and unfair idea to deny tax credits to people who have paid taxes and are eligible for them because of their immigration status.” Why? “We are alarmed that the Department of Treasury is planning to usurp Congressional authority,” a group of nine alarmed Democrats wrote to Secretary Bessent, “and issue regulations that contradict clearly defined statutes in the Internal Revenue Code.”

The Democrats’ letter did not mention that Bessent is just enforcing Bill Clinton’s signature law.

The proposed rules “protect the integrity of the tax system, and put Americans first,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained. “Under President Trump, the days of illegal aliens collecting taxpayer-funded benefits are over. The federal law is clear, and Treasury is enforcing it.”

It could be a lot. It’s not just illegals; it would include any non-citizen, even ones with valid social security numbers who are here under some program or other. In 2023, CNBC reported, there were 2.6 million asylum applicants. There were 650,000 more foreign nationals enjoying Temporary Protected Status. 600,000 more were enrolled in DACA, which covers children brought illegally to the U.S.

The Administration estimates a million people will stop getting “refunds.” Center Square conservatively estimated potential tax savings of up to $3 billion.

Treasury’s newly proposed rules don’t completely cut aliens off. They can still apply the tax credits to their tax liability, if they have one. They just can’t get “refunds” (which, again, are only ‘refunds’ by using progressive wordplay).

This Saturday is the 30-year anniversary of PRWORA— the Clinton welfare-reform law that Scott Bessent is now enforcing, and over which the Democrats are wailing. Happy birthday!

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Earlier this week, ABC reported, “Heroic 16-year-old lifeguard who saved child recognized at White House.” We need more heroic 16-year-olds who are saving children and not scrolling.

We live in an era where public attention is generally reserved for people who do things that are either highly annoying or deeply stupid. If kids want to go viral today, their best bet is to film themselves complaining about the way the barista labeled their mochachino or trying to eat a Tide Pod. This is why it was genuinely refreshing this week to see the President of the United States aim a giant, national spotlight at a 16-year-old kid for doing something completely radical: being competent, brave, and useful.

On Monday, a California teenager named Ryder Williams found himself sitting in the Oval Office. President Donald Trump summoned him there, along with a 10-year-old boy named Nathaniel Rai, to award Ryder a “High Civilian Honor (unspecified).” The President, a man who knows a thing or two about compelling television, had apparently seen the viral video of Ryder in action and reacted the way any sensible person would. “I knew when I first saw it. I said, ‘Roll that back. I want to see that again. Is that really happening?’” Trump wonderingly asked.

It was really happening. And we should roll it back. Because making a massive, unapologetic fuss over an alert young man who risks his own neck for someone else is exactly how a healthy society encourages more young men to do the same. We get the behavior we celebrate.

And the behavior, in this case, was straight out of an action movie, or at least a streaming series. Last month, Ryder was manning his lifeguard tower at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz, California. The conditions were brutal. There was a high surf advisory. Official reports noted swells consistently reaching “4- to 6-inch sets” and waves occasionally rising to “10 inches.” (I am assuming this was an ABC typo, unless California has recently been terrorized by a tsunami of ankle-biting ripples. Assuming they meant feet, the water was treacherous. Update: CBS says ‘4-6 feet;’ KQED went with ‘8-10 feet.’ ABC is sticking with inches.)

The shoreline on Seabright Beach is deceptively steep, and the surf breaks hard and heavy.

Ryder was doing his job and scanning the water when he saw 10-year-old Nathaniel lose his footing about 20 yards out. At this point, Ryder did not pause to consult his feelings. He did not pull out his smartphone to document his trauma for TikTok. He sprang into action.

“I radioed it in, threw my radio and sunglasses at the base of my tower as I ran toward the kid,” Ryder recalled.

He sprinted into the churning Pacific. He reached Nathaniel, who had already passed out in the punishing surf, and hauled him back to dry land. The boy’s father, Sumit Rai, later noted that if Ryder had hesitated for even two or three seconds, his son would not have survived. A few seconds was the entire margin between a normal Saturday and an unthinkable tragedy.

But perhaps the most striking part of this story is Ryder’s attitude about the whole thing. When asked about his heroic, life-saving sprint into the ocean, the teenager simply shrugged.

“That’s just a part of our daily task to do,” the 16-year-old lifeguard explained. “We keep the public safe, that’s the reason we’re on the beach.”

Part of our daily task.

Let us compare this to the daily tasks of the average adult. Yesterday, my most high-stakes daily task was attempting to convince my wife and teenage sons that the cat is morbidly obese because we are exceeding the daily amount recommended on the package by roughly 100 times. This painful interview required twelve minutes of intense debate and a minor scuffle over custody of the vittles bag. I did not receive a High Civilian Honor or get invited to the Oval Office. I just got labeled “mean.” (Then I needed to go sit down.)

Ryder Williams is a walking, swimming reminder that despite the complaints we often hear about the youth of today —that they are permanently attached to their screens, incapable of making eye contact, and deeply confused about basic biology— there are still young Americans out there who are tough, capable, and ready to step up when it matters. He didn’t need a safe space; he needed to save a life. And at the moment of truth, he did.

So while corporate media snidely hinted at it being just a photo-op, and quoted statistics about how many other lifeguard rescues happened in California that week, they only proved they entirely missed the point. It was completely fitting that the White House rolled out the red carpet for this young man. It is in these small moments of clarity where President Trump best proves he gets it.

By honoring Ryder Williams, the President of the United States sent a clear message to every other American teenager: This is what we value. Not victimhood, not complaining, not correct pronoun usage, but stepping into the breach. Courage. Duty. Manhood.

The first step in keeping a civilization’s values is recognizing them when they show up.

Congratulations to Ryder, our newest young American hero. And congratulations to the Rai family, who get to hold their son tight because a 16-year-old was paying attention. As for the rest of us, we should probably stay out of 6” of water. And for the love of felines, please read the feeding instructions. They are printed right on the side.

Have a terrific Thursday! Paddle back here tomorrow morning, for an all-new installment of C&C-style essential news and caffeinated commentary.

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