Opinion
By Jeff Childers
09-26-24
Good morning, C&C family, it’s Thursday! Good news on the home front and a stormy roundup: Hurricane Helene picks up speed and predictions are off the charts; New York Mayor Eric Adams federally indicted for something secret; Varma exposé expands to encompass health reporters; Zelensky victory plan to start World War III might fizzle; and in dribs and drabs, President Trump is proposing the most radical tax overhaul in our lifetimes.
🗞 C&C ARMY POST 🗞
🪖🪖 The Childers family is grateful to the C&C Army; your prayers produced a miracle. The short version is yesterday we navigated a double whammy of personal emergencies. I am a fast learner, and I am learning that senior in-home care includes many exciting adventures at no additional cost. It’s like a week of free cruise excursions to Haiti from a low-budget travel bureau promotion.
First, on Tuesday night, one of Dad’s doctors reported finding a deadly bacteria in one of his samples, requiring an urgent consult with an out-of-town infectious disease specialist. As we prepared for that rushed appointment, at 7:15am yesterday morning, a different office called and said Dad’s blood (hemoglobin) fell over two days by almost three points from 8.7 to 6 (it should 13). They wanted us to take him straight to the ER.
It was a lot to process. That’s when I started wrapping up yesterday’s post and the prayers began pouring in.
Yesterday was a long day. After a family huddle, we decided to keep the out-of-town consult with the infectious diseases doctor. She was amazing, brimming with country common sense, and determined that Dad was doing fine. We left that appointment with a just-in-case antibiotics script.
Then began the long day of waiting in the ER. Despite our impatience and general crankiness, they first insisted on figuring out where his blood had gone, which we grudgingly agreed made sense before squirting more red stuff into the beloved relic.
Who knew where it might squirt out? Thus, the ER team wanted to do their own tests, which we grumbled about as redundant and probably just another institutional moneymaker.
Thank goodness for moneymakers. A little after 6pm —about 12 hours in— the ER team found Dad’s blood was normal. The previous 6-point hemoglobin score was wrong, an error. He remained in the high 8’s after all.
So the ER said go home and eat some dinner. Nevermind! Dad ate a full serving of chili rotini, a bowl of Publix mint chocolate chip ice cream, and then, after his frozen dessert, he had a taco-night taco, all the way, no tomatoes (kidney protocol).
Life’s funny. You go from bragging about how well your toddler is eating (he ate pizza! all by himself!) to, a few years later, bragging about how well your favorite fossil is feeding himself.
Anyway, all yesterday’s prayers produced two miracles. Two lab results that freaked out the original doctors melted into mist by the end of the day. True, I got no work done, but Dad enjoyed a very educational and stimulating day.
Thanks again for all the effective prayers. 🙏
🪖🪖 Errata. Regarding yesterday’s post, I was joking when I said it was weird that salmon are infecting chickens with salmonella. Get it? SALMONella? No? Oh well.
Listen, I’m only a lawyer and not an infectious disease specialist, but I know the disease doesn’t actually come from fish. It comes from Nutella. Anyway, apologies to folks who didn’t get the joke. I appreciated all the corrections, both the gentle and the firm.
This is what happens when the writing is rushed. Believe it or not, the humor takes the most work to get right. Thanks for all your patience yesterday!
🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞
🌪️🌪️ The Tallahassee Democrat ran a heated hurricane update story yesterday headlined, “Hurricane Helene: A cataclysmic blow that will likely be among Florida’s worst.” Yesterday’s tropical storm is now a Category 1 hurricane and is heading straight toward Florida’s capital, Tallahassee. As Helene hauls across record-hot Gulf waters, she is predicted to make landfall as a history-making Category 4.
Yesterday the turbo hurricane tracked westward, moving it further away from us here in North Central Florida, a self-centered benefit, but bad news for the panhandle. One way Helene may make history will be by striking the “Big Bend” section of Florida’s panhandle, specifically Apalachee Bay, which hasn’t seen a major hurricane in around a hundred years.
Another outlier is Helene’s tropical storm force winds, which currently stretches about 345 miles from her center, something local Fox-13’s weatherman Dave Osterberg called “unheard of.” By comparison, 2023’s Hurricane Idalia’s tropical storm strength winds ranged only 135 miles from its center.
If Helene does land as a Category 4, the zone of impact could see sustained winds up to 135 mph and an “unsurvivable” storm surge 20 feet high at the peak. Even allowing for the normal hurricane hysteria, the language officials are using is uncommonly serious. The anticipated damage has prompted large-scale evacuations, and officials warn that parts of Florida may become “uninhabitable” for a long time.
Storm predictions usually start to firm up and become more reliable within 24 hours of projected landfall. Hurricane Helene reminds me of 1992’s Hurricane Michael, which struck Florida’s armpit and literally erased quaint tourist town Mexico Beach, which still has not been completely rebuilt.
Here in Gainesville, it’s definitely the hurricane time. Outside, it is eerily calm and quiet, no wind, not even a breeze. There’s not even much morning traffic noise, since all the local schools have closed for two hurricane days. The sky is completely grey, smothered by a uniform, endless formation, a single featureless, uninterrupted cloud stretching from horizon to horizon. And the sprinklers are running, dammit.
Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall wherever she ultimately chooses tonight. I’ll update you tomorrow.
🔥🔥 Chalk up another 2024 record. The New York Times ran the story yesterday headlined, “Eric Adams Is Indicted After Federal Corruption Investigation.” Believe it or not, Adams just made history as the first sitting New York City mayor to be indicted while still in office, which admittedly is slicing it pretty thin.
Ironically, as the Times gleefully pointed out, former cop Adams, 64, was elected NYC’s Mayor running on an anti-corruption platform. One of his campaign taglines was a promise to “return swagger” to the Mayor’s office; a dig, presumably at his predecessor Bill DeBlasio, whose gait might be more accurately described as a waddle.
Somehow, Adams has swaggered himself right into a federal indictment.
The indictment is sealed, probably because most of Adam’s administration is also under investigation. Federal prosecutors promised more details will be forthcoming today. For his part, Adams claimed that he’s being set up because he fought corruption so hard:
Sooner or later, Adams must surrender for processing. As the S.S. Mayor continues taking on water, Adams’ allies are jumping ship and calling for his resignation. Yesterday, for instance, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she could “not see how Mayor Adams can continue” in his job.
Based on who else the FBI has been raiding, Adam’s indictment seems to have something to do with all those official trips he took to Turkey, which is exactly how you’d expect a New York City mayor to spend his time and taxpayer dollars during a pandemic. We’ll know more soon.
Eric Adams went to Turkey, and now he is a turkey, and is being buttered up for Thanksgiving dinner.
In closing, I’m sure Eric’s indictment has nothing to do with this:
🔥🔥 Steven Crowder’s exposé on verminous Dr. Jay Varma is still expanding. In the latest drop of clips from Varma’s rambling admissions, the disgraced doctor both describes helping his pharma company fluff an ineffective monkeypox vaccine using the media. Then he rambled about all his cozy relationships with health reporters.
CLIP: Breanna Morello discusses latest Varma hidden camera drops (16:54).
The new clips suggested systemic corruption between big pharma and big media. I know you’re shocked.
At around the 8:00 mark in the clip above, you can also watch Mayor Adams double down on his pandemic decisions and dismiss questions about perverted Dr. Varma’s time in office. “His (Varma’s) behavior does not change the fact we saved lives because of the rules that were put in place,” the indicted Mayor lamely insisted.
If you’re following this story with interest, watch the whole clip.
🚀🚀 Consider these three headlines together. The first headline is from CNN, this morning: “Zelensky to make urgent in-person plea to Biden and Harris as Ukraine braces for possibility of a Trump presidency.”
The second headline is also from CNN, yesterday: “Putin issues nuclear warning to the West over strikes on Russia from Ukraine.”
Third, from the Wall Street Journal, yesterday: “U.S. ‘Unimpressed’ With Ukraine’s Victory Plan Ahead of Biden-Zelensky Meeting.”
Volodymyr Zelensky is Ukraine’s former president and now its unelected Martial Law Coordinator, a position invented in real time out of necessity after Zelensky’s term ended without holding new elections. Corporate media still calls him the “president,” since he wields the powers of a president, but that title is not even close to accurate.
With U.S. elections looming, and uncomfortable questions about Zelensky’s authority cropping up like spring Ukrainian sunflowers, Curruptocrat Zelensky quickly developed a secret “Victory Plan” that he plans to present to President Cabbage today in Washington.
But Ukraine is a leaky ship of state, and anonymous bureaucrats are telling eager reporters what to expect. In addition to lots more money and more weapons, Zelensky’s amazing Victory Plan is expected to rest on two main prongs.
First, he wants the United States’ help in targeting Russian cities with U.S.-supplied and U.S.-directed missiles. This, Zelensky apparently believes, will tree the Russian Bear. Zelensky thinks the Russian people are weak-minded and cowardly and, if they are subjected to devastating missile attacks, they’ll overthrow the evil dictator Putin and peace will descend on Europe like a dove.
In other words, Zelensky expects the Russians to defeat Russia.
Of course, Russia could also respond by bombing Kiev into a smoking ash heap, which it has patiently resisted doing for almost three years now. Despite Ukraine relentlessly trying to bomb Russia’s Crimean bridge, Russia has also held back from taking out Ukraine’s six bridges across the massive Dnieper river, which bisects the country. That operation would probably only take an hour.
So the plan also includes a second, defensive prong. Zelensky reportedly also wants immediate NATO membership, to protect Ukraine from Russian retribution for strikes on its civilian centers. Russia, Zelensky thinks, won’t risk a war with NATO, which would be required to directly intervene for Ukraine if it were a member.
In other words, Zelensky sees Israel’s deal and wants the same thing for Ukraine.
But Ukraine is not Israel. Nor is Russia comparable to Hezbollah and Hamas. And yesterday, the escalatory ladder extended more when President Putin announced changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine that would allow a thermonuclear response to any massive missile or drone attack against Russian cities. He also said if a nuclear state helps Ukraine, it would be considered a “joint attack” against Russia. CNN:
This, presumably, is at least one reason why the Wall Street Journal said U.S. officials “aren’t impressed” with Zelenksy’s idiotic victory plan. Specifically, Zelensky’s scheme only amounts to escalation without any actual plan for, well, victory:
It feels like a tough time to be escalating conflict with Russia. Between pager bombs and thousands of strikes on Lebanon, we’ve watched the Middle East theater heating up. Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a story headlined, “Pentagon to Send More U.S. Troops to Middle East as Tensions Rise.”
So.
We’ll find out later today what Joe Biden thinks of Zelensky’s latest Victory Scam. I’ll update you tomorrow.
🔥 Although he’s getting no recognition for it, in a collection of campaign speeches, President Trump has proposed the most radical revision to the U.S. tax code in a generation.
CLIP: President Trump proposes “Made in America” corporate tax rate (1:26).
During his first term, President Trump cut the corporate tax rate nearly in half, from 39% to 21%. Now he’s proposing, for products completely made in America, a tax rate of only 15%, comparable to the favored long-term capital gains rate.
Remember: corporations do not actually pay income taxes. They only collect the tax from their customers. All the money comes from customers and taxes, like all other costs, are built into product prices. So it would be a tax break for taxpayers, and would make domestically produced products more price competitive.
That’s not even close to all. Trump has also proposed the following cuts:
— No tax on tips.
— No tax on Social Security payments.
— No tax on overtime.
— A giant increase in child tax credits.
Collectively, President Trump is proposing a vast overhaul of the U.S. income tax system. His three radical “non-tax” categories —tips, overtime, and Social Security— would be a precedent for excluding more broad areas of income from taxation. Assuming Trump’s tax exclusions passed, the same approach would surely expand to encompass even more areas.
Trump’s economic plan would reduce inflation, incentivize work, encourage fertility, and increase domestic manufacturing. It’s win-win-win-win. Critics focused on the cost, ignoring the indisputable reality that tax revenues increase along with a growing economy regardless of rates.
On the other hand, Cackle and the Coach have literally promised to radically increase taxes, for fairness. Vice President Harris moronically told a CBS reporter this week that she would tackle inflation by taxing supermarkets.
Will Americans vote in their own best interest? Partisans perhaps will not. A liberal relative assured me last night that both Trump assassination attempts were hoaxes. Where do you go from that kind of MSNBC programming?
Trump’s trickled-out tax plan is possibly the most encouraging campaign development. Our extreme circumstances require big solutions, and that is exactly what the former President is proposing. Stay tuned.
Have a terrific Thursday! We’ll gather round again tomorrow in Helene’s aftermath to pick up the threads of all the breaking essential news along with a serving of scathing commentary.
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The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
