Opinion
By Jeff Childers

11-14-23
Good morning, C&C, itβs Tuesday! Your long wait is over, and todayβs roundup includes: Republicans bobble effort to impeach disgraced DHS Secretary Mayorkas; Senator Joe Manchin and another democrat congressman bow out; the Eric Adams investigation starts to get real; San Francisco gets a long-overdue makeover, but for the communists, not the residents; SADS a-list Hollywood producer; SADS comedian; SADS soccer player and on-field collapse; BMJ asks whether VAERS is broken; and more blue-on-blue prosecution as former Soros DA finds herself under the prosecutorial harrow.
π THE C&C ARMY POST π
πͺ Itβs a relief to be back home with my C&C family. I hope you didnβt miss me too much! The guys trip was a testosterone-fueled, action-packed success. One standout was the visit to the terrific World War II Museum in New Orleans on Veteransβ Day. It was a memorable, emotionally-moving experience, and refreshingly un-woke. Five stars. Visit it if you ever get the chance.
πͺ C&C ARMY: Some new orders for you in the first item in todayβs roundup. Letβs make a difference today! Youβre going to feel great after.
ππ¬ WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY π¬π
π₯ Yesterday, eight Republicans, may a pox be upon them, crossed the aisle to vote with democrats NOT to impeach DHS Secretary Alex Mayorkas for the controlled demolition of the United Statesβ southern border. Rather, democrats and those eight Republicans referred the issue to a committee where it can be safely and quietly buried in the middle of the night under that mountain where we put all the leftover scraps of Uranium-235. Twelve other lizard-lipped Republicans failed to show up to vote. I hope palmetto bugs skitter up their pajamas legs in the middle of the night. I say that from personal experience.
Here are the eight Republicans, may they step on tiny legos whenever they get up at night to use the bathroom, who think lying liar Secretary Mayorkas is doing a bang-up job down at the border:
- Rep. Ken Buck (R-Co.) 202-225-4676, @RepKenBuck.
- Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca.) 202-225-5672, @RepDarrellIssa.
- Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Ca.) (202) 225-2511, @tommcclintock.
- Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) (202) 225-2576, @PatrickMcHenry.
- Rep. John Duarte (R-Ca.) (202) 225-1947, @RepDuarteCA13.
- Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) (202) 225-2071. @virginiafoxx.
- Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Or.) (202) 225-6730, @RepBentz.
- Rep. Mike Turner (R-Oh.) (202) 225-6465, @RepMikeTurner.
Extra credit for Floridians: Maria Salazar (R-Fl.) was a no-show to vote. (202) 225-3931.
Back in 2021, we started a β5-a-day Armyβ, where every day, C&Cers each called five legislators to deliver a quick script. Five calls, under five minutes. And it worked! We shut down entire offices and finally got the state Congress back to a special session in November 2021, to pass protections for employees against vaccine mandates.
Letβs do a one-day operation! It will make you feel better. Todayβs C&C Army Orders: using any method you like, randomly pick three of the eight names above, add any from your home state, and either call or tweet the following script (feel free to improvise, but be polite):
Good morning(afternoon), Representative. Please explain why you voted to table the Mayorkas impeachment vote. From now on, please do whatever it takes to seal the border and deport every person illegally in the country.Β Thank you.
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) originally filed the motion to impeach our diverse Homeland Secretary. Marjorieβs from Georgia. Maybe the representatives from Texas could take some notes from Ms. Greene? Ahem, Dan Crenshaw (R-Tx.)? Just saying.
π₯ On Friday, the New York Times ran a story headlined, βWith Manchin Out, Democratsβ Path to Holding the Senate Is Narrow.β

Last week, facing stiff competition from former Republican Governor Jim Justice, Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) suddenly and unexpectedly announced he will not run for re-election next year. Therefore, according to several political analysts quoted for the story, the democrats have slim chances of holding the Senate next year.
Since Manchinβs West Virginia Senate seat looks likely to go Republican, to retain the Senate Democrats must win every single race they are defending β seven of which are considered competitive β and also poorly-polling human fossil Joe Biden must be re-elected. Or βelected.β You know.
On Sunday, nine-term Congressman Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) suddenly and unexpectedly announced he will resign in February β before the elections, triggering a special election in April. Higgins cited βpolitical polarizationβ in Congress as the reason he was leaving, which was an excuse so lame that half the stories about his resignation didnβt bother reporting it.
The electoral landscape continues shifting more unpredictably than Joe Biden at an official state event trying to decide in which direction to walk next.
π₯ BETTER CALL SAUL. The New York Post ran a story Friday headlined, βEric Adams had cellphones, iPad seized by FBI as part of corruption investigation.β
Mayor Adamsβs political career is taking on water and looking a lot like the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

In something that must have felt a lot like a tense action-movie moment, FBI agents unexpectedly surrounded Mayor Adams on the street and ordered his security team to stand down. The mind boggles with all the violent possibilities thinking about how everyone must have calculated what to do next. But fortunately the Mayorβs security force yielded, and then FBI agents climbed into Adamsβ black-windowed SUV for a closed-door private chat with the Mayor.
All we know about the message the federal agents delivered is that they snatched all the Mayorβs electronics including at least two cellphones and an iPad.
Unless Adams was smart enough to scrub his data β which almost never happens β Biden Administration operatives have now reviewed every single message Adams sent to or received from anyone over the last several years.
And if in all those messages thereβs anything else they could charge the Mayor with, they have it now. And they have intel on everyone who was talking to the Mayor.
Publicly, the murky allegations against Adams β which none of the Establishment Media reports seem able to clearly explain β relate to an alleged βbribeβ in the form of airfare to Turkey in exchange for βfavorable political treatmentβ like βpressuring city officials to open Manhattan’s Turkish consulate in 2021 despite concerns over fire safety.β
βPressuring.β As far as we know, the consulate has never burst into flames or anything.
Other reports say Adams stands accused of the horrifying federal crime of βorganizing a fundraiser for a nonprofit that had not yet registered with the state.β And failing to abate a smokey chimney.
Folks are speculating that the FBIβs process-crime-fueled escalation against Adams is politically-motived and not a legitimate federal criminal probe. The thinking is that Adams has been scoring points on Biden over the countryβs wide-open southern border. Thatβs possible. Or maybe Adamsβs border rhetoric is part of a Newsom-like play relating to a potential presidential run against Biden.
No matter how many times itβs happened in history, leftists never learn that weaponized law enforcement always turns inward. And usually sooner rather than later.
π₯ The New York Times ran a story Friday headlined, βBefore World Leaders Arrive, San Francisco Races to Clean Up.β By βclean up,β the Times means they performatively purged the homeless and the drug dealers, along with their tents, discarded needles, junk-filled shopping carts, and trash mounds. San Fransisco also re-landscaped its parks, installed new artwork, pressure washed its streets, sidewalks, and monuments, and removed a small landfillβs worth of garbage.
In a few short β but very busy β days early last week, San Fransiscoβs downtown was beautified, reminding residents of the old days before one-party democrat rule. The makeover was intended to impress the Chinese communists who came to visit for the βAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperationβ (APEC) summit last week, where President Xi met with President Robert L. Peters, who was summoned from Washington for the occasion.

The liberals who run San Francisco even built a border wall around their conference, to keep smelly Americans away from the communist leaders:

Reporters asked Gavin Newsom the question everyone else was wondering: did San Fransisco really just crack down on drug dealers and homeless maniacs for communist President Xi β something they hadnβt done for San Fransisco residents? In a baffling admission, oleaginous Governor Newsom frankly admitted it: βI know folks say, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all these fancy leaders are coming into town.’ Itβs true β because itβs true.β

CLIP: Newsom admits cleanup was just for President Xi (0:17).
The Cityβs deplorable condition is not just a lifestyle issue. The Cityβs official dereliction of what is obviously a pretty simple security duty is literal property theft. By deliberately allowing rampant drugs, petty theft, and homeless mental patients to occupy downtown, the City has also accomplished the purposeful demolition of its commercial real estate market.
Hundreds of millions of private dollars have been vaporized, so that well-connected, donor-class oligarchs can snap up downtown San Fransisco real estate at pennies on the dollar.
Theyβre not even trying to hide it anymore. After last weekβs spectacle, residents and property owners can see it for themselves: the City couldβve fixed the rampant crime problem anytime. They just havenβt wanted to solve the downtown crime problem.
California officials respect and fear a Winnie-the-Pooh-shaped communist dictator more than they respect and fear their own constituents. Thatβs what you get with a one-party state. Theyβve turned San Francisco into a hollowed-out Potemkin Village that gets spruced up every once in a while, just before foreign dignitaries come for a demonstration visit.
Haha, a quick makeover wonβt solve all the problems. Consider yesterdayβs Bloomberg headline:

Demonstrating to the Czech journalists how the first world operates nowadays, armed bandits robbed $18,000 of camera equipment from them in broad (dusk) light in San Franciscoβs North Beach area, about two miles from downtown. In a remarkable admission of liability, Mayor London Breed (weβre not sure which kind) assured the distraught camera crew that the City would cover the loss.
Now the Czech reporters have a real story to tell about their visit to America.
Yesterday, a Wall Street Journal op-ed asked the obvious question:

Indeed.
π Called one of Hollywoodβs βbrightest rising stars,β A-list producer Kevin Turen, 44, known for his work on HBO’s “Euphoria” β which has garnered 25 Emmy nominations β and “The Idol,” along with many others, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday. Poof! Heβs gone, unceremoniously cut from the script.

Kevinβs cause of death remains undisclosed, and always will be. His Hollywood peers were shocked and appalled at the young producerβs untimely and mysterious passing:

Kevin, who faced Hollywood jab mandates and was a role model to 150 employees of his production company who were also subject to mandates, leaves his wife Evalina and their two young children.
π Netherlands stand-up comedian Marc van Gestel, 55, died last week after a 16-month battle with a rare and aggressive colon cancer.

Marc wrote about his battle with his cancer on his website. Things were going well until last month, when the comedian informed fans his disease had rapidly turned for the worse:
βMy last CT-scan found that my maintenance scheme actually did nothing to stabilize the tumors. Worse, tumors had been added and they had immediately grown considerably (with an enthusiasm that I myself couldn’t afford anything. Well, it’s a form of proliferation for a reason). My life expectancy suddenly became a very concrete number: 3 to 6 months. That’s superhefty.β
Marcβs life expectancy was much shorter than doctors thought; actually it was less than one month. He kept performing comedy shows, right up to the end. We admire his sense of humor given the tough material Marc had to work with.
π Ghanaβs striker Raphael Dwamena, 28, died last week after collapsing during a game. He was this season’s top scorer, with nine goals in the Albanian Super League.

Video shared widely on social media shows Raphael standing by himself and then just falling over on the field β only 24 minutes into the match. Just β¦ plop. Nothing hit him in the chest. Nothing even got close to his chest. He was just standing around.

They stopped the game (at 1-1) and, in spite of rapidly-provided emergency care, and an implanted defibrillator, the high-performing young athlete died anyways. Raphael was reportedly treated for heart problems since 2021.
Raphael faced travel and sports league mandates.
π QUESTION ASKED. The prestigious British Medical Journal ran a story Friday headlined, βIs the USβs Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System broken?β The article reported on the BMJβs own investigation of VAERS. And their conclusion wasnβt good. In typical British circumlocution, the sub-headline politely explained, βA BMJ investigation has raised concerns that the VAERS system isnβt operating as intended and that signals are being missed.β
The CDCβs Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a 1990βs-era database with a clunky front-end allowing users to upload reports of vaccine injuries under penalty of perjury. The reports do not go directly into the database. They must first be reviewed and approved by CDC staff. While millions and millions of dollars have been spent over the last few decades to replace VAERS with something more modern, more easy to use, and integrated with other health systems, those modernization efforts have always failed for one complicated-sounding reason or another.
Itβs not like anybodyβs life depends on it or anything.
The article was remarkable in what it implied. The BMJ didnβt come out directly and accuse the CDC of lying, not exactly, but it came very, very close:
The BMJ has learnt that in the face of an unprecedented 1.7 million reports since the rollout of covid vaccines, VAERSβs staffing was likely not commensurate with the demands of reviewing the serious reports submitted, including reports of death. While other countries have acknowledged deaths that were βlikelyβ or βprobablyβ related to mRNA vaccination, the CDCβwhich says that it has reviewed nearly 20β,000 preliminary reports of death using VAERS (far more than other countries)βhas not acknowledged a single death linked to mRNA vaccines.
Indeed. Here is the summary of the BMJβs findings, which condemned the CDCβs antiquated system:
VAERS is supposed to be user friendly, responsive, and transparent. However, investigations by The BMJ have uncovered that itβs not meeting its own standards. Not only have staffing levels failed to keep pace with the unprecedented number of reports since the rollout of covid vaccines but there are signs that the system is overwhelmed, reports arenβt being followed up, and signals are being missed.
The BMJ has spoken to more than a dozen people, including physicians and a state medical examiner, who have filed VAERS reports of a serious nature on behalf of themselves or patients and were never contacted by clinical reviewers or were contacted months later.
Our investigation has also found that, in stark contrast to the US governmentβs handling of adverse reaction reports on drugs and devices, the publicly accessible VAERS database on vaccines includes only initial reports, while case updates and corrections are kept on a separate, back end system. Officials told The BMJ that this was to protect patient confidentialityβbut this means that patients, doctors, and other public users of the database have access only to an incomplete and uncorrected version.
For example if a patient who had an adverse reaction winds up dying, their death isnβt shown on the public website. For βprivacy.β So, not only is VAERS terrifically under-reported, but the data it does show is unreliable and out of date. Terrific.
Itβs almost like theyβre trying not to find the signals.
π₯ NARRATIVE FAIL. Fox News ran a story Friday headlined, βFormer Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby found guilty on 2 counts of perjury.β Until she lost re-election in 2022, Marilyn Mosby was Baltimoreβs woke, Soros-funded State Attorney. (Baltimore is currently undergoing controlled social demolition, earning a travel recommendation just after Gaza City, but still beating Toronto, Canada).

State Attorney Mosby first leapt into the publicβs gimlet eye in 2015, after she hastily charged six police officers with murdering homeless drug addict Freddie Gray, who suddenly and unexpectedly died in police custody. It turned out later that Freddie had overdone it a little with his recreational drug habit, which was what killed him after all. Despite her leaping to conclusions, leftists still loved Mosby for bringing βjusticeβ for Freddie β the idea being that even if the officers (most of them black) didnβt kill Freddy, they probably would have if theyβd had the chance. Or something.
In 2015, all the liberals loved Ms. Mosby. Becoming possibly the first State Attorney to grace the magazineβs front page, Vogue even gave the luckless prosecutor cover billing in June of that year. But sheβd jumped the gun and none of the officers were ultimately convicted. But in the meantime, Baltimore endured a series of violent protests and suffered widespread property damage.
While rushing to charge six innocent police officers probably seemed like a good idea at the time, it appears that when Ms. Mosby lost the Freddie Gray cases, she gained the cold, undying hatred of Baltimoreβs criminal justice machine. And once she lost her State Attorney protections, the former huntress became a fat free-range turkey on the day before Thanksgiving.
Indictments ensued. On Thursday, a federal jury found Ms. Mosby guilty of two counts of perjury. She faces a maximum prison sentence of five years for each charge (ten years total).
Following the trend, Mosbyβs perjury charges were process crimes, where itβs not clear there was any victim. The former prosecutor was convicted for falsely claiming βfinancial hardshipβ on a 2021 form she completed to get an early $90,000 distribution from her own City of Baltimore retirement accounts. She used the money as a down payment for buying two Florida vacation homes. The problem was, the form required Mosby to certify her financial βhardshipβ under penalty of perjury.
During 2020 β Mosbyβs year of βhardshipβ β the poor dear somehow struggled by on her $250,000 base salary. So the jury found it not too terribly hard.
Piling on, Mosbyβs criminal troubles didnβt stop with her perjury conviction. Her two Florida vacation homes have fueled another, completely separate federal criminal prosecution. In that case, with a trial still pending, Ms. Mosby faces two more counts of making βfalse mortgage applications.β
The superficial moral of Mosbyβs story is, donβt lock up cops unless you have the goods. But thereβs a bigger, deeper story: We now have so many crimes on the books now that, as Soviet secret police master Lavrentiy Beria infamously said, show me the man, and I will show you the crime. In other words, fill out a form wrong and face decades in prison.
Have a terrific Tuesday! Itβs great to be back, and C&C will return tomorrow morning with a fresh, hot and delicious cup of news and snark.
We canβt do it without you. Consider joining with C&C to help move the nationβs needle and change minds. I could use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: β Learn How to Get Involved π¦
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Β© 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.