Opinion
By Jeff Childers
03-21-23
Good morning, C&C, it’s Tuesday! Your “good news” roundup today includes: Biden sort of signs the unanimous bill declassifying covid origins; a newly-conservative California school district invents the best thing since sliced pangolin; Florida heartbeat bill passes first committee hurdles; Texas bill sanctioning abortion pills advances in the Lone Star state; New York gets ready for Trump arrest; Idaho firing-squad bill passed and awaits Governor Little’s signature; border agents catch Chinese nationals sneaking across from Mexico; Missouri v. Biden survives the governments motion to dismiss and moves toward a preliminary injunction hearing; and another great video clip that will encourage and amuse.
🗞 *THE C&C ARMY POST* 🗞
🪖 In just a few more days I’ll appear at the Covid Litigation Conference in Atlanta, where I will deliver the Keynote first thing Saturday morning and will then lead a panel on defending doctors from licensing challenges in the afternoon. The all-star lineup is going to be terrific.
As part of Steve Kirsch’s and the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation’s initiative to expand the ever-increasing army of litigators, the conference aims to help jumpstart interested attorneys on how to tackle covid liability and medical freedom cases. Even better, it qualifies for Continuing Legal Education credits in most states in the Southeast.
If you know an attorney, please forward this, to help them get in the game.
I think they’re worried about us! In what appears to be a direct response to the long-planned Covid Litigation Conference, the Georgia State University (GSU) Law School, in conjunction with state agencies, suddenly announced a rival conference to take place two days prior, paid for by Georgia taxpayers and titled “The Public Health Administrative State Under Fire.”
They’d better believe it’s under fire. Just wait. We’re only getting started.
🪖 I’m quoted in this recent excellent (but horrifying) Epoch Times story headlined, “California Hospital Refuses Transplant Surgery for Unvaccinated Woman With End-Stage Kidney Disease.” They included one of my favorite lines, see if you can tell which one it is.
🗞*WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞
🔥 The raccoon dogs were barking late yesterday as, right before the deadline, former VP Joe Biden signed into law the unanimously-passed bill requiring U.S. intelligence agencies to declassify information related to the possibility of a Wuhan lab leak or, possibly, covid’s “natural origins.”
But before you start preparing to season your pangolin filets, you should know Biden also ordered the intelligence agencies to redact the documents, to protect “National Security,” which includes anything that might embarrass the government.
Don’t worry, Biden promised the agencies would release as much information “as possible:”
9:24 PM ∙ Mar 20, 20235,832Likes1,585Retweets
So, at long last, we will finally find out what really happened!
In hindsight, we should’ve seen this maneuver coming. It won’t resolve anything, but it WILL buy the Biden Administration more time. Still it’s progress: the battle lines are shifting in the right direction. Once the redacted documents are released, House Republicans can start requiring un-redacted copies be provided under seal for House committee inspection.
Eventually we may find the bats in Biden’s bathrobe.
🔥 Fox ran a surprising and uplifting story yesterday headlined, “California School District Hires Anti-Critical Race Theory Consultant.” I’ll admit I never saw THIS terrific development coming, and the fact it came from the progressive utopia of California reinforces my “crucible” theory of politics.¹
In the perpetually sun-kissed land of Progressivania, where liberal parents have long sipped their almond milk lattes and munched on avacado toast in peace and contentment, a stunning upheaval has occurred: the unlikely ascension of buttoned-up conservatives to the local school board. And they weren’t your garden-variety conservatives, oh no – these are the types who still call it “global warming” and long for flip-phones.
The gist is that a small California school district’s newly-elected conservative-majority board just voted to spend $15,000 to hire an ANTI-critical race theory “consultant.” I never even heard of that before, what a terrific idea. The consultant — a lawyer — is also a former school board member, a fierce CRT critic, and has written an unpublished book titled “The Critical Race Theory Scam.” Fox made it clear that he is a SELF-DESIGNATED expert.
He sounds great!
The board hired the attorney consultant to help the school district implement a previous vote to remove CRT from their school district, and to work with a new committee (called a “workshop group”) to implement the de-CRT-ing process.
The district’s woke parents were distraught, and as the vote passed, the once-tranquil hot-yoga studios of Progressivania echoed with a cacophony of horrified gasps as organic granola bars fell to the floor from shocked, nerveless fingers. The two remaining woke school board members also yapped critically: “[The consultant is] not an expert, he’s not an expert on CRT. Because he’s an attorney, and he’s studied it does not give him the degree in history or ethnic studies or anything that is related to critical race theory,” board member Steven Schwartz whined.
Schwartz’s oppressive, racist opinion is that the $15K consultant isn’t a “real” expert, not like all the “real” woke consultants that the previous boards hired to implement CRT in the first place, who all have tidy mailaway degrees in critical studies from schools in the Caribbean islands someplace.
It’s elitist credentialism! You can’t blame the new guy for not having an anti-CRT degree. NOBODY’s teaching anti-CRT.
At least, not yet.
That’s what’s so awesome about this story. The three new conservative school board members from Temecula Valley Unified School District in California — of all places! — have manufactured a new type of Springfield Rifle in the civil war against wokeness: the ANTI-WOKE consultant.
It’s a conservative response to the woke consulting industry.
Note: Effective immediately, I am now available to serve as an anti-woke consultant in any school district that needs me. Spread the word.
🔥 Florida Politics ran an encouraging story yesterday headlined, “‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban Approved by First Senate Committee.” The sub-headline offered the counterpoint: “Democrats decried ‘legislative overreach’, claimed the bill would kill women and girls.”
“Claimed.” That’s journalistic skepticism. We’re making progress!
The news was that SB 300 — filed by terrific Fort Pierce Republican State Senator Erin Grall, who is also responsible for passing significant parent rights legislation — passed the first of two committees yesterday. The bill reduces Florida’s existing ban on termination from 15 weeks down to six weeks. It includes a number of exceptions, such as extending the deadline to the 15th week if a pregnancy results from rape or incest.
If the pregnant woman is judged by two doctors (or just one doctor if only one is available) to be in danger of dying or suffering “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function … other than a psychological condition,” or if the fetus has a “fatal abnormality,” termination would be permitted through the second trimester.
Florida Democrats tried their best, invoking fascism and every other kind of -ism, but failed to burden the bill with any amendments.
SB 300’s companion bill is also moving forward in the House. HB 7 has cleared one committee already, and like this bill, has one more stop ahead. Progress.
🔥 Fox ran a related story yesterday headlined, “Smuggling the Abortion Pill Into Texas Could Land You in Legal Peril, if This Bill Becomes Law.” The sub-headline explained, “Lawmaker seeks to end abortion pill trafficking into Texas.”
A new Texas bill, captioned the ‘Wrongful Death Protection Act,’ would hold drug manufacturers and distributors accountable for any terminated pregnancies or deaths caused by abortion pills taken in the Lone Star state.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, Texas’ trigger laws immediately made it illegal in the state to have an abortion except in limited cases where the mother’s life may be at risk. Texas now has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
Under the newly-proposed law, anyone who helps cause an unlawful death from an abortion could face up to $5 million in civil penalties. The bill considers an aborted unborn baby as an unlawful death.
🔥 The New York Times ran a breathless story yesterday headlined, “N.Y. Authorities Prepare for Unprecedented Arrest of an Ex-President.”
The Times — and many other news sources — are now reporting that the NYPD is preparing for a potential Trump arrest by implementing wide-scale security procedures including mobilizing up to 700 riot cops, and it is rumored that New York officials have conferred with Trump’s Secret Service detail.
HAPPENING NOW: The NYPD has mobilized 700 riot cops & is putting up steel barricades for upcoming Trump arrest. Since when did NYC care about stopping crime? trendingpoliticsnews.comNYPD Mobilizes 700 Riot Cops, Puts Up Steel Barricades Ahead of Potential Trump ArrestThe New York Police Department is preparing for civil disorder should the Manhattan District Attorney’s office order the arrest of form…4:07 PM ∙ Mar 20, 202314,300Likes3,599Retweets
The Times explained that Trump would likely not be jailed, and his security detail would also have to be involved:
After an arraignment, Mr. Trump would likely be released on his own recognizance because an indictment likely would contain only nonviolent felony charges; under New York law, prosecutors cannot request bail in most such cases.
Mr. Trump will almost certainly be accompanied at every step of the process — from the moment he is taken into custody until his appearance before a judge — by armed agents of the United States Secret Service, who are required by law to protect him at all times.
I’m not as sanguine as the New York Times that Manhattan DA Bragg will not request Trump be jailed without bail. But the whole thing raises some interesting questions. Does the Secret Service have a duty to protect the President from unjust prosecution? Or, does the “rule of law” supersede their protective duties?
The Times noted that, should Trump resist the impending arrest, it would require Governor DeSantis to sign off on Trump’s extradition to New York, and the Governor will be splashed right into the political bouillabaisse:
[I]f New York prosecutors sought Mr. Trump’s extradition, Mr. DeSantis would face an unenviable dilemma. He would be compelled to choose between authorizing an arrest warrant for Mr. Trump and inflaming his base, or attempting in some way to aide his Republican rival, and possibly face legal action as a result.
In other words, if DeSantis refuses to extradite Trump, the democrats will pillory the Governor as a lawless dictator, and DeSantis would eventually be ordered by a federal court to approve Trump’s extradition anyway. Lose-lose. If DeSantis does NOT resist extradition, then Trump supporters will accuse him of faithlessness, betrayal, and being a RINO deep-state tool.
Trump might avoid that distraction by voluntarily turning himself in, keeping the focus on the politically-motivated prosecution and the democrats’ double-standards. It’s hard to handicap what Trump’s best move would be.
Arresting Trump would be inconceivably reckless and stupid, which virtually guarantees they’ll go through with it. Democrats are currently sprinting as fast as they can to join the dictatorial ranks of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, who have both routinely used arrests as tools against their political opponents.
I’ll have a lot more to say about it if they ARE dumb enough to move forward with Trump’s arrest.
🔥 Meanwhile, back in Idaho (from whence I just returned), lawmakers have successfully shot through a bill allowing for firing-squad executions. The Idaho Statesman fired off a story yesterday headlined, “Idaho Bill to Execute Inmates by Firing Squad Clears Legislature, Heads to Governor.”
If Idaho Governor Brad Little inks the bill, Idaho will be the fifth state to revive the firing squad option as a backup to existing ways of executing death-penalty prisons. In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to get hold of the drugs normally used in such cases, and a scheduled December execution in Idaho currently remains pending because the state cannot obtain even a single does of the lethal injection.
The American Civil Liberties Union — which was completely AWOL during the pandemic and failed to appear in New York’s quarantine-law case — revived itself and immediately rebuked yesterday’s vote, calling the bill’s passage “appalling.”
That’s not right. The useless ACLU is appalling, not the bill.
🔥 Shockingly, border agents are now catching all kinds of foreign nationals trying to cross the country’s wide-open southern border, such as this group of amused-looking, military-age Chinese agents:
2:26 PM ∙ Mar 20, 20236,542Likes4,230Retweets
Thanks Joe Biden!
🔥 Yesterday, the federal court in Missouri v. Biden — the most important civil rights case of our lifetimes — issued a ruling denying the government’s gigantic motion to dismiss the case. The court order is a detailed 77-page blockbuster, so it will take me a day or two to work my way through it and get you some good quotes.
The bottom line is the case is moving forward. A preliminary injunction hearing is now set for May 12th. To give you an idea of how important that hearing will be, I’m seriously considering how I can get up there to attend.
I’ll keep you posted.
🔥 Here’s another clip for your encouragement and entertainment, that you may not have seen yet. In late January, based Christopher Rufo shut down a woke board member and New College’s president who were trying to cancel a conservative speaker due to “threats” from leftist agitators. It’s pure gold.
Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @realchrisrufo
12:11 AM ∙ Jan 28, 202310,127Likes1,933Retweets
Yesterday, Chris tweeted an update that the woman at the beginning of the video, Provost Suzanne Sherman, officially “stepped down” from her role at New College of Florida. More progress!
Have a terrific Tuesday C&C Army! I’ll see you tomorrow morning for your free refills.
Join C&C in moving the needle and changing minds. I could use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-learn-how-to-get-involved-
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The “crucible” theory is that the most significant post-covid, pro-freedom political developments tend to come from the bluest areas of the country where people are experiencing the most oppressive political climates.
© 2022, Jeff Childers, all rights reserved
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
