Opinion
By Jeff Childers
11-12-22
Happy Saturday, and welcome to the weekend edition! As promised, the roundup includes: the Trump-Desantis story; thoughts about this election and the next one; ghost stories of the neo-apocalypse; election news; high-schooler beats trans madness with help from lawyers; and the FBI makes some personnel changes anticipating a Republican House.
🗞*COFFEE AND COMMENTARY* 🗞
🔥 Wherefore art thou, Romeo? I’m considering starting a new regular feature: the ghost-story. These would be the news items that, for various reasons, the corporate media SHOULD be covering, but aren’t. They’ve become angry invisible spirits, vexing us with their absence.
1. MonkeyPox.
We knew thee well, MoneyPox. Ten minutes ago it was a national emergency. Now I dare you to find even one corporate media story on the “good news” that monkeypox turned out to be a big fat Brokeback Mountain nothing-burger.
2. Paul Pelosi / David DePape.
Two weeks ago it was a a hot-take phenomenon! First there was a new wave of rightwing, hammer-wielding insurrectionists wearing only tight white underpants. Then it briefly morphed into “republicans pounce.” Now that we’ve had time for reporters to actually dig into facts of the story, abcracadabra, it’s disapparated! Vamoosed! High-tailed it! Lit out for the border!
Oh. And there’s STILL no security video.
Out, damned spot of inconvenient news!
3. Excess Deaths.
In case you needed to find cause to fire the entire corporate media without notice or benefits, perhaps they’re ignoring the excess deaths story will fit the bill. Um, NORMALLY the corporate media LOVES a good “mysterious deaths” story. But despite the undeniable existence of massive waves of excess non-covid deaths, starting in 2021 and increasing in 2022, in every highly-jabbed nation in the world, corporate media remains as silent as the tomb.
Sound On 🎶 https://t.co/pjX60I6dmq https://t.co/niOrV5Ix9Q1:13 PM ∙ Nov 2, 20221,677Likes825Retweets
Cristian Terhes MEP @CristianTerhes
There is reported excess mortality in 2022 all over Western hemisphere, which the so-called experts cannot explain. In 2020-2021 almost any death was attributed to COVID. In 2022 why is the MSM not asking if there a connection between the COVID vaccines and these excess deaths?8:46 AM ∙ Nov 4, 202210,550Likes4,599Retweets
𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙇𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙍𝙉𝙀 @riseupandresist
11:04 AM ∙ Nov 11, 2022330Likes221Retweets
Maybe the reason corporate media is so quiet is that it, itself, is just another excess death victim. Maybe it’s already died, and now we’re just watching the media corpse’s noisy decomposition.
🔥 On Thursday, Trump shocked and infuriated lots of Republican voters after he posted a spicy series of Truths (like tweets) on his social media network. They were mostly mildly critical of Governor DeSantis, but were infused with the traditional disrespectful Trump tone — and in a couple places, were arguably downright insulting.
It didn’t come out of nowhere. The day before, on Wednesday, the entire corporate media apparatus turned on Trump like a flock of seagulls chasing a tossed bread crust. Nearly every major corporate media outlet featured an anti-Trump cover story. It was obviously coordinated.
At the very least, the broad media coordination proved that GOP elites are working together to prevent Trump’s nomination. I’m not the only one who noticed:
The next day, Trump posted a series of inflammatory comments about how he’d helped Governor DeSantis win his election, and said this:
More troubling, Trump also unfortunately suggested that, as President, he’d gotten involved in Broward County’s 2018 election to help DeSantis win — by preventing cheating — but the lamentable comment fueled fresh new BlueAnon theories of ‘election interference’ and ‘insurrection:’
Trump is now claiming he ordered the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to stop the ballot counting in the 2018 Florida Governor race, so DeSantis would narrowly win. Trump, who knows he’s going to prison anyway, is confessing to felonies just to scandalize DeSantis. This is going to be fun.12:09 AM ∙ Nov 11, 202258,589Likes12,140Retweets
Donald Trump just said he sent the “FBI & US Attorneys” into Florida to “stop ballot theft” in order to help Gov Ron DeSantis win in 2018. This, if true, is illegal. A President weaponizing a federal agency to manipulate an election result is both criminal and outright Fascist.6:28 PM ∙ Nov 11, 202210,694Likes3,692Retweets
Corporate media excitedly ran with the story: red-on-red conflict! The popular corporate media take was it proved Trump is too deranged and reckless to be president:
“I have never seen him more irresponsible and chaotic then he is today. He seems to be in self-destruct mode. It is irresponsible to attack DeSantis and Youngkin, and it’s irresponsible to announce in any time in the near future” especially before GA runoff, per a Trump adviser.7:57 PM ∙ Nov 11, 202211,133Likes1,414Retweets
But some commenters see the entire story as a made-up distraction at best, or at worst, a new deep-state / corporate media effort to pit conservatives against each other:
I am not going to engage in the “Trump vs DeSantis” fight conservatives are having. I am a big supporter of both men. And I urge you to not engage in this. This is what Democrats want. And unlike the Democrats, we are blessed to have TWO great fighters on the side of freedom.3:15 PM ∙ Nov 11, 202279,199Likes15,837Retweets
The whole Trump-DeSantis fight, besides being one-sided (so it’s not a real fight), is a DISTRACTION. We’ll figure out 2024 in due course. Right now we’re focused on Arizona, Nevada and the runoff in Georgia. Good results in those places change the midterm picture dramatically!4:03 PM ∙ Nov 11, 202212,271Likes2,757Retweets
I’m not sure it’s that clear. It’s either an attempt to turn conservatives against DeSantis by associating themselves with him or it’s just them taking the opportunity to own drumpf without thinking much about the politics. They’re not that smart so I don’t know. https://t.co/XBh1GjbzBL4:42 PM ∙ Nov 11, 20221,482Likes169Retweets
But other commenters see Trump’s comments as a wily, 4-D chess move, or even a brilliant rope-a-dope:
If you’re trying to make sense of DeSantis vs Trump consider the poss we’re being played & DeSantis’ role is to draw out traitors on the right? As long as his ego stays in check, the plan works. Never assume we know everything. Trump’s job was always to expose the enemy within.2:38 PM ∙ Nov 11, 202218,820Likes4,314Retweets
Trump himself fed that narrative yesterday, by “re-Truthing” (forwarding with approval) a comment suggesting that he and DeSantis were really working together:
Meanwhile, DeSantis has smartly stayed out of it, intelligently refraining from commenting on the “latest thing that President Trump said.”
There is a much simpler possible explanation about the brouhaha than all these various theories. Despite all the chatter, Trump isn’t actually running for President right now. He is running for the REPUBLICAN NOMINATION.
Remember the last nomination season, back in 2015? The GOP ran SEVENTEEN nominees. Trump was thought least likely to win. Even the democrats secretly supported Trump, mistakenly thinking he’d be easiest to beat. Do you remember what that primary season was like? Trump made up derogatory nicknames for all his opponents.
Remember “Little Marco?” Remember when he told CNN Megyn Kelly probably had blood coming out of her “whatever”? In comparison, “DeSanctimonious” is pretty mild.
So, the simplest explanation for why Trump would go after DeSantis, even relatively mildly, is because the primary race has begun. This is what Trump does. And before anyone gets too high and mighty about it, Trump is only doing publicly what they ALL do behind the scenes.
What is “opposition research,” if not viciously attacking another candidate while pretending to be above the fray?
It looks to me like on Wednesday, the GOP viciously attacked Trump to boost DeSantis’ primary chances, and on Thursday Trump pushed back a little. I don’t know about all the other more complicated theories. Neither does anyone else.
Remember Occam’s razor. The simplest explanation is usually the best.
🕛 Both the liberals and the GOP elite would like to broom the MAGA movement into the dustbin of history, just like they did with the Tea Party. I have four humble suggestions to avoid giving the liberals and the GOP elites what they want, or — Heaven help us — accidentally encouraging the formation of a third party.
My thoughts:
1) Don’t overreact to primary season politics.
2) Don’t put Trump, DeSantis, or anyone else on a pedestal or excuse them from the normal rules. Avoid the “Superman” fallacy. We are STILL going to have to save ourselves. LOCAL elections remain the best place to focus your time and energy.
3) Make sure YOU don’t contribute to an un-civil environment that helps fracture conservative unity or drive MAGA people toward a third party effort. Trump needs to stay in the Republican Party and run for the nomination, with all that entails. EXPECT the nominees to attack each other.
4) Don’t attack other conservatives; feel free to go after people for fostering conflict, but not about holding different opinions or even promoting something false. Contradict false facts with links to the truth and not with angry rhetoric.
5) Finally, allow for the possibility that there could be strategies unfolding behind the scenes that we don’t fully understand. So always view the latest narrative skeptically, keep your powder dry, and stay positive.
I realize not everyone agrees with my prescription. That’s okay. But what *I* will be doing is trying to stop a wedge from being driven between conservatives, and trying to shut down any discussion of third parties.
A civil and fair nomination race is critically important.
🔥 The difficult fact is Republicans underperformed in last week’s elections, despite the fact that voters said the economy was their number one issue, and despite that many democrat candidates were, shall we say, deeply flawed.
For one standout example, newly-elected democrat Senator John Fetterman can’t even finish a sentence, can’t wear normal clothes, and won’t release any of his medical records. A medium-sized squid should have been able to beat him.
6:52 PM ∙ Oct 16, 20221,260Likes530Retweets
It’s obviously not about total votes. Republicans got six million more votes nationally than democrats. Republicans were more organized than we’ve ever been. We were more motivated than we’ve ever been. Everybody, even democrats, expected a much larger red wave.
It might have something to do with funding and organization. As much improvement as we’ve shown, the Republicans still aren’t well enough organized to win big, even with all their structural advantages this year.
Remember, we may not have all these same advantages in 2024. Two years is a long time in politics.
Regarding funding, Democrats have massively outraised conservatives. According to a report from Conservative HQ, liberal nonprofits raised about seven times more money in the last decade than have conservative nonprofits ($21+ billion vs. $3-4 billion). Granted, they also have deep state friends constantly directing federal grant money their way, but it’s not the whole story.
Liberal non-profits also have seven times more DONORS than conservative nonprofits (20+ million donors vs. 3-4 million for conservatives), and liberals have more than TEN TIMES as many single-issue nonprofits compared to conservatives (over 20,000 for dems versus only about 2,000 for conservatives). Taking one issue as an example, pro-abortion nonprofits have 1000% more donors than do pro-life groups, and have raised 1,000% more money than have the pro-lifers.
Those issue dollars translate into support for aligned candidates in specific races all across the country.
Democrats had so much money this year that they even invested to promote REPUBLICAN candidates who they thought they could more easily beat. Notice in the following clip that Ms. Hobbes is talking about a NATIONAL strategy, not just one for Arizona:
#1 – Holy Crap #2 – Who is doing better journalism these days than Projeft Veritas? #3 – Holy Crap
9:10 PM ∙ Oct 24, 20225,941Likes2,166Retweets
Here are two examples of how better organization translates into votes.
Democrats have massive ballot-harvesting operations in states where it’s legal (and maybe otherwise), and drive voter turnout from the first day mail-in balloting starts all the way through Election Day, whereas Republicans have no organized harvesting strategy, and focus only on vote-driving for one day: Election Day.
Here’s another one. Have you heard of “Souls to the Polls,” the democrat-party-organized program for black churches to bus members from church to the voting booth the Sunday before Election Day? Where’s the Republican response? It’s not like they don’t know about the problem. Here’s an article discussing it from back in MARCH: “Churchy Republicans Attack ‘Souls to the Polls’.”
While it’s tempting to try to find one explanation, it’s not just a “cheating” problem. That’s a convenient excuse and a distraction. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist and isn’t a real problem. I’m sure there was plenty of it going around, especially in certain areas. I’m just saying that cheating is not the whole picture.
Every one of us knows or know of a bunch of folks who voted for democrats — including Fetterman! — even though mayonnaise costs three times more than it did two years ago, and Joe Biden is practically waving nuclear warheads at Russia and daring them to start something.
At first glance, Florida seems like pretty good evidence that widespread cheating was to blame for Tuesday’s poor national results. Florida spent two years tightening up elections laws, eliminating no-cause mail-in-voting, criminalizing harvesting, creating an elections-crimes unit, and cracking down on ballot drop-off boxes.
And then, Florida DID see a red wave. Imagine that. So, you say, we need to fix the elections laws, like in Florida. But that’s easier said than done.
The standout state of Florida, where the red wave did appear, enjoyed certain structural advantages not enjoyed by other states. Mainly, Republicans held the governorship, the House, and the Senate, and so were ABLE to plug many of the problematic voting holes highlighted by 2020s experience. But it’s not just that, Florida also benefited from a massive conservative in-migration and an incredibly popular, successful, and well-supported state government.
But that’s not the whole answer either. Holding the governorship and state congress is not sufficient because Texas also had the legislature and the executive, the Lone Star State also benefited from conservative migration, but for some reason it did not enjoy the same solid results as Florida. It should have.
Even if by 2024 Joe Biden can only communicate in Morse Code by winking one eye or squeezing Kamala’s finger, it’s still going to be a brutal fight, and a close, close race, regardless of whether the Republican nominee is Trump or DeSantis or Lake or any another candidate. If they voted for Fetterman, they’ll vote for Biden no matter how incoherent he is.
Conservatives MUST get better organized. Biden only won because of about six large counties. They’re playing Moneyball, right down to precinct level. Republicans need to expect cheating in counties under total blue control, and have strategies for countering it.
There are ways. For example, Arizona conservatives used a clever strategy this week of dropping off their mail-in ballots on Election Day, to confound cheating attempts. Because mail-in ballots are counted last, the strategy made it harder for cheaters to know how many extra ballots they need.
That means our think tanks need to start earning their keep, or we’ll need new ones.
🔥 More outlets are projecting Republican Sheriff Joe Lombardo will flip Nevada’s governorship.
🔥 After a sudden overnight uptick in democrat votes, Mark Kelly is now projected to beat Blake McMasters for Arizona Senate.
🔥 The New American ran a story yesterday headlined, “Vermont High School Backs Down Over ‘Transgender’ Incident After ADF Files a First Amendment Lawsuit.”
Earlier this year, a Vermont high-school disciplined girls’ soccer player Blake Allen, who’d complained about a boy who watched her undress in the locker room. School officials accused the girl of “misgendering” the boy, by calling him a boy, and ordered her to attend a “restorative circle,” whatever that is.
Officials also required her father, Travis, who was the girls’ soccer coach, to publicly apologize after he commented about his daughter’s suspension on social media.
The Allens contacted the Alliance Defending Freedom, who filed a 124-page lawsuit against the school. Shortly thereafter, the school’s superintended rescinded the disciplinary actions.
I’d like to say that reason prevailed, but we all know the school only backed down because of the threat of legal action.
🔥 The deep state is doing some housekeeping in advance of likely Republican control of the House. The Daily Wire ran a story yesterday headlined, “Top FBI Official Who Led Whitmer Kidnapping Plot, J6 Investigations To Retire.”
According to the story, FBI Director Chris Wray announced yesterday that Steven D’Antuono, who currently runs the D.C. field office, will retire from the FBI and will be replaced before the end of the year. In other words, before he can be required as a government employee to testify before Congress.
Agent D’Antuono infamously ran the Detroit field office while the FBI coordinated the kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He was then promoted to supervise the D.C. office, to oversee the January 6th investigations and prosecutions.
There is probably a LOT of stuff that Congressional Republicans would like to ask Mr. D’Antuono about. So he’s about to become scarce. I wonder if he’ll move to Italy with the Pelosi’s and Dr. Fauci?
Anyway, I say good riddance. It’s one way to drain the swamp.
Have a super-fantastic Saturday, and I’ll see you all back here on Monday morning to kick off another energizing week of Coffee & Covid.
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The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
