Opinion
By Jeff Childers
10-09-23
Good morning, C&C, it’s Monday again! Let’s kick off a great new week with a strong roundup for you: Israel war mini-roundup and current status; WSJ predicted this; Egypt predicted this; gun control renaissance; thoughts about 9/11, Israel, and the US’s burgeoning border problem; my call for community militias; Politico switches narratives and backs Gaetz; now sanctuary state Massachusetts is reaching the bursting point of illegal migrants; NBC wins contest for ironic health headlines; and the latest hilarious mock-worthy covid headline from the Seattle Times.
🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞
🔥 Political virtue-signaling over the weekend’s attacks in Israel predictably began blooming like wildflowers here in the United States, with smug trans and silly LGBTQ++ folks showing the strongest support for Hamas militants, who would toss them off the roof in a hot Palestine second if they were left unattended for more than a couple minutes in Gaza:
Moving on. Official casualty figures mounted to over 700 dead for Israel, including around 50 soldiers, over 2,000 wounded, and unofficial estimates of over 130 kidnapped as hostages (or worse). That’s just so far; the numbers are still climbing. Meanwhile, yesterday when asked, U.S. propaganda minister Tony Blinken did not deny reports that the casualty figures included some Americans who were killed or captured in the weekend’s fighting.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal lit the fuse of a broader regional conflict yesterday when it ran a controversial story bluntly headlined, “Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks. Specifically, the sub-headline boldly claimed that, “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gave the final go-ahead last Monday in Beirut.”
The Journal, citing unnamed “senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah,” noted that on the other hand, U.S. officials are saying there is “no evidence” of Iranian involvement. If there were evidence, it would be highly inconvenient to the Peters Administration, since Biden just bribed Iran with a $6 billion-dollar package in trade for five kidnapped Iranian-American political hostages. But despite those denials, according to the Journal’s militant sources, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard officers have been working with Hamas since at least August to devise the highly-coordinated, multi-modal air, land and sea attack—a wide front producing the most spectacular breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the deadliest single day for Israelis since the horrors of World War II.
Iran, of course, denies any involvement except expressing satisfaction with Hamas’s success.
It only took me a few seconds of digging to find a prophetic Wall Street Journal story from April headlined, “Iran Is Recruiting Militant Allies to Launch Attacks Against Israel.” Um. The sub-headline added, “Quds Force commander has met leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in recent weeks to coordinate strikes.”
Here’s a lightly-edited recap of April’s prescient report from the Journal’s sources, which apparently was completely ignored by Israel’s main intelligence agency, Mossad:
General Esmail Qaani, who leads the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, has held a series of clandestine meetings with militant leaders across the region. The Quds Force chief was in Lebanon last week, where he met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his deputy Saleh al-Arouri (and others) at the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
Around the same time, militants in southern Lebanon fired a barrage of rockets at Israel, the largest such attack since the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israel has cause for concern. Gen. Qaani’s effort to unite Tehran’s allies is a sharp escalation in the undeclared war between Iran and Israel after Israel carried out hundreds of attacks targeting Iran and its proxies across the Middle East.
Among Tehran’s chief objectives is to prevent its neighbors from establishing diplomatic ties with Israel.
You’d think there was enough material in just those few paragraphs for Israel to have known what was coming.
Two headlines published this morning in the Times of Israel provided a succinct recap of where the conflict stands as of this morning: first, “IDF says it has regained control of all Gaza border towns but terrorists may remain,” and second, “Air Force pounds Gaza overnight in bid to ‘devastate’ Hamas; rocket fire continues.”
In other words, Israel has not yet started its ground assault, which is surely coming.
🔥 Meanwhile, not waiting around for predictable citizen outrage, Israel has shredded its draconian gun-control regulations that required highly-invasive and annoyingly-repetitive “gun safety” testing, and limited citizens to having 50 bullets. They are trying to get guns into Israeli hands as fast as possible, to stop them from being “shelter in place” sitting ducks.
Too bad they didn’t do it a week ago.
🔥 The developing media narrative is that the weekend attacks are Israel’s 9/11. I think what the media means by this is that the attacks shattered Israeli preconceptions about their internal security and kicked off an endless conflict. But there is a secondary meaning too, and that is the loss of Israel’s naive belief in the good intentions of their government.
Remember back when we found out that the 9/11 hijackers had all trained at flight schools around the U.S. but didn’t care about learning how to land the airplanes? And how the FBI ignored all those clear warning signs and even concerned citizen reports? And then remember how we held a useless 9/11 Commission, which created the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security, which is now busily censoring health information on American’s social media accounts?
Good times.
Welp. That definition of ‘9/11’ now applies to Israel, too. Their own 9/11 commission is coming. A Times of Israel headline this morning reported, “Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored repeated warnings of ‘something big’.” Huh. How about that. Very much like what happened leading up to 9/11. And we’re just starting to find things out.
When you think about it, the two attacks are indeed oddly similar in many ways. Right-from-the-same playbook similar. Same bad guys. Same use of low-tech techniques. Both surprise attacks. Both massive, inexplicable intelligence failures. There are profound similarities between the two events’ inflammatory, horrifying media imagery and righteous anger from the top.
🔥 Over here in the U.S., the barbaric destruction unleashed at Israel’s failed border is raising some awkward questions about our own American border. The unrest is currently welling out of the GOP’s right wing, but I’m betting the notion will quickly spread toward the political middle, since there is really no effective rebuttal.
Here’s Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) comments from Saturday:
Former Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake asked an obvious question yesterday: where are all the women?
There’s a lot I could say about this disastrous border issue, and I probably will say a lot more in coming days. But one thing the Israel attacks have proven beyond argument is that citizen fears about uncontrolled illegal immigration in the U.S. are not hypothetical, exaggerated, or fantastical, these undocumented people are legitimately a clear and present danger.
Republican governors should immediately consider two things. First, if it’s not already done, declare a state of emergency and do everything possible to thwart the federal relocation of illegal migrants into red states. Second, immediately start organizing civilian militias and training citizens how to fight back against a sudden sneak attack like Israel just endured.
There’s no time to waste.
It’s a unique political moment, and Governor DeSantis could seize it. Organize community militias in every Florida city and county and start training them. I intend to draft an open letter to the Governor today. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed.
Now how about some other news.
🔥 Politico ran a surprising story yesterday that expressly contradicted the Establishment Media narrative, with a headline saying, “Majority of Americans — and even the majority of conservatives — support McCarthy’s ouster.”
It was a polling story. The news was packaged in the form of a CBS poll reporting that 75% of Republicans surveyed agree Kevin McCarthy was “ineffective,” and 60% supported his removal from the Speaker’s position.
Nobody liked McCarthy. The article reported even 70% of people calling themselves ‘liberal’ backed Kevin’s ouster.
The story contradicts the original media narrative, which was that Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.), who moved for McCarthy’s removal, was just a lone political opportunist, a clueless “chaos agent” out of touch with the party’s base. But the CBS poll suggests instead that the majority of Republican representatives in the House are the ones who are clueless and out of touch with the base, not Gaetz. So get it together, people.
🔥 Massachusetts is reaching the breaking point with its feel-good sanctuary laws. The Boston Herald ran a story last week headlined, “Maura Healey ‘distressed’ by migrants displacing veterans for Army-Navy game, but won’t provide specifics on migrant housing plan.”
Governor Healey is not the only one who’s distressed.
Massachusetts is running out of hotel rooms for regular citizens. Last week, veterans with long outstanding hotel reservations were shocked to discover their reservations canceled right before the Army-Navy game, since hotels had dumped them to grab the much more lucrative government largesse that is funding sleeping quarters, room service, and housekeeping for all the military-aged foreign men lacking any documentation.
It’s getting so bad that, in a clip making the rounds this week, Massachusetts officials called for volunteers to move illegal migrants into their homes: “If you have an extra room or suite in your home, please consider hosting a family. Become a sponsor family. If you’re a landlord or property owner, we can work with you to transition families into permanent housing.”
CLIP: Massachusetts officials call for volunteers to host illegal alien families (0:53).
If some of the aliens are terrorists, and Massachusetts homeowners are “sponsoring” them, does that make them “sponsors of terrorism?” Just asking.
I will bet you my next paycheck that the woke, virtue-signaling “we welcome everyone” signs in Boston’s front yards will be vanishing faster than RoundUp-sprayed weeds. Rubber, meet the road.
💉 Yesterday NBC ran what has to be the most ironic headline in medical reporting history. Here it is, in all its glory:
Now remember, it’s only been three years. And it’s not just the amount of time. It has been three years of being super careful: locking down, masking up, distancing, maniacal handwashing, and of course, jabbing. But despite all those precautions and experimental medications, some people — we’ll get to who in a moment — some people have still gotten covid at least five times.
At least.
Just imagine what you’d say about my immune system if I told you I’d had the flu at least five times over the last three years. And don’t even get me started about how “getting covid over and over takes a mental toll.” Chickens and eggs! Which came first, the covid or the mental problems?
So, exactly who is getting covid so frequently? Carefully observe the following paragraph from NBC’s article and see if you can spot any common denominators. Take your time:
“I’ve seen a few patients with five infections,” said Dr. Grace McComsey, vice dean for clinical and translational research at Case Western University. “Sadly, they were immunized and they still got Covid five times.”
Sadly! So, did you find it? What do all these repeat covid customers have in common? Hmmm? What baffling, mysterious agent could be at work in all these cases?
The tragicomedy continued as the article began to describe individual cases, packed with nuggets of amusement. One was Brenda Keele, 38, who in addition to covid infections is also having some other health problems:
Keele has chronic heart failure and adrenal insufficiency, so she takes medications that compromise her immune system. Her heart condition has declined over the last year and a half, she said, but doctors aren’t sure if Covid is responsible.
Keele was vaccinated but did not get booster shots.
Declined! Mysteriously! I know what you’re thinking, and I am thinking the exact same thing.
Repeat infectee Makenzie Boyle, 28, is also having more health problems than just her recurring covid infections, they are now “manifold”:
Makenzie Boyle, a 28-year-old human resources administrator in San Francisco, went to the emergency room when she was infected with Covid for the first time in December 2020 and was diagnosed with pneumonia. A year later, Boyle was diagnosed with diabetes, which her doctor said was an effect of Covid. After her fifth infection in June, she developed chronic kidney disease and chest pain that hasn’t gone away, she said.
Boyle’s manifold symptoms have led her to continue masking in crowded places and ask family members to take Covid tests before they see her.
Her boyfriend is moving out of their shared home because he doesn’t want to risk exposing her to another infection.
Diabetes, you say? Weird, I remember reading something about that… oh yeah!
Or, how about her new chronic kidney disease? (Note: nephropathy is kidney disease.)
Oh well. I tried. I’ve been doing this for two years now and the jabbers never read my stuff anyways. Good luck, covid magnets. We are praying for you and watching to see how your grand experiment turns out.
💉 Finally, I present to you without (much) comment this weekend’s hilarious Seattle Times headline:
Suckers! And — hahahahahaha — they even used the weasel word “probably!” It’s probably working! Hahaha! Oh my gosh it’s so funny it hurts! Hahahahahaha! Somebody make it stop!
Whew. Thanks for that moment of levity, Seattle Times. Booster up!
Seriously, how many people have become so deluded they are now convinced a shot that makes them feel worse is actually good for them? Up means down, right means wrong, bad means good. It never changes with these people.
Me, I’ll pass. Hard pass.
Have a marvelous Monday! I’ll be back tomorrow morning with another oversized mug of extra-caffeinated roundup, which won’t make you feel worse. You’ll see, you’ll feel terrific.
We can’t do it without you. Consider joining with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds. I could use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠
Twitter: jchilders98.
Truth Social: jchilders98.
MeWe: mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.
Telegram: t.me/coffeecovidnews
C&C Swag! www.shopcoffeeandcovid.com
© 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.
