☕️ WHAT COUNTEROFFENSIVE? ☙ Saturday, June 10, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Opinion

By Jeff Childers

06-10-23

Good morning, C&C, it’s Saturday! Due to some safe but ineffective travel yesterday, the Childers family enjoyed a late arrival and I overslept. Thus, you are enjoying the belated Weekend Edition. In the roundup: Tucker Carlson’s second episode drops, and he is starting to punch harder; thoughts about moral decay; Tucker’s new freedom off of Fox; Fox lawsuit; more thoughts on the DOJ persecution of President Trump and Soviet show trials; Ukraine’s spring CounterOffensive™ sputters; trans man pines for female relationships; sudden and unexpected celebrity SADS; and a hilarious parody of workplace wokeness.

🗞💬 *WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 💬🗞

🪖 Tucker Carlson published the second episode of his new Twitter show last night, this one titled “Cling to your taboos!” And it was a doozy.

FIFTY MILLION VIEWS! In less than 24 hours. That’s the power of Twitter. Tucker may have lost the imprimatur and positive brand association from being on Fox. But he’s gained a much bigger audience. And I wonder if there are some folks who would have never watched Tucker, BECAUSE he was on Fox, who might now give him a try. In other words, whatever Tucker lost from disaffiliation, he seems to be gaining in other ways.

Here’s how Tucker began last night’s show (lightly edited for brevity):

“Let’s say you wanted to control a country… Let’s say you wanted to control how people think … like a god would. In that case, you need to take charge of society’s taboos.”

“Before recently, it was taboo in this country to attack someone on the basis of their race … that made sense … but apparently we no longer believe it. Punishing people is now mandatory … as long as their skin color is white.”

“Adultery was considered disqualifying for office … [for example,] Clinton was very nearly derailed over his relationship with Jennifer Flowers. He went to elaborate lengths [to cover for it] … because he had no choice… [But] by 2008, it was obvious to anybody who was paying attention that Barack Obama had a strange and highly-creepy personal life, yet nobody asked him about it… It’s Barack Obama’s business, not yours.”

“One by one, with increasing speed, our old taboos have been struck down. Those that remain have lost their moral force. Stealing, flaunting your wealth, striking women, smoking marijuana on the street, shameless public hypocrisy, taking other people’s money for not working. All of these things used to be considered unacceptable in America; not anymore.”

“So it probably shouldn’t surprise us that the greatest taboo of all is teetering on the edge of acceptability: child molestation. A generation ago, TALKING to someone else’s children about sex was widely considered grounds for a thrashing. Touching them sexually was effectively a death penalty offense. When [child rapist] Jeffrey Dahlmer was bludgeoned to death in the bathroom of a Wisconsin prison in 1994, the Milwaukee district attorney had to caution the public not to turn Dahlmer’s killer into a folk hero.”

He’s right. For whatever reason, our society has inverted a lot of conduct that used to be considered “bad,” but is now treated as “neutral” — none of your business — or even celebrated and often encouraged as something to be “proud” of. Tucker’s point reminded me of Isaiah 5:20, first scribbled thousands of years ago:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

Indeed. Woe to the society that ashcans its taboos, elevating exciting, transgressive darkness over boring, judgmental light. Woe especially to the society that jettisons its fundamental mores to protect its vulnerable women, children, and elderly.

A society like that is a society that is ripe for the picking by its most aggressive enemy. A incoherent society that gives up on its vulnerable gives up altogether, becoming vulnerable to more coherent societies.

Anyway, Tucker was specifically referring to yesterday’s Facebook/Instagram CSAM story. He correctly suggested that ten years ago, an exposé showing a company facilitating child sexual abuse would have instantly put that company out of business, with the disgraced, unemployable officers and directors under criminal investigation, and the ruined company’s assets being sold off for scrap under a bankruptcy court’s supervision.

But in 2023, the Biden DOJ doesn’t care, nor do Instagram users, apparently. Ho hum. Not their business.

Watch the whole episode (12:00).

🔥 And, my goodness. What, exactly, was Tucker talking about when he mentioned Obama’s “strange and highly-creepy personal life?” Whatever it was, that was pretty bold. I highly doubt Tucker could’ve even hinted at that, whatever it is, if he were still working at Fox.

This week, Fox News sued Tucker over his new show, alleging it somehow violates his non-compete. I have not yet analyzed the lawsuit in detail, but superficially it seems to be going nowhere. For one thing, Tucker isn’t charging any money to watch his new show, or even running any ads, not yet. So his show isn’t even a commercial enterprise — it’s just him talking — how can it “compete” for business with anything?

Tucker’s not working for any Fox competitor. And even if Tucker were using Twitter’s new subscription feature, that video-blog style market can hardly be compared to a primetime TV news show supported by corporate advertising revenue and cable franchise fees.

As I’ve said many times before, at this point WE are no longer corporate media’s customers. The real customers of captured media are: first, government health, law enforcement, intelligence, and military agencies. Second, Big Pharma. And coming in at a distant third, a long raft of smaller corporations that don’t really contribute much revenue, but are helpful to obscure and conceal the existence of the first two customer groups.

With the possible exception of its anemic streaming product, Fox doesn’t sell anything direct to consumers. We’re not Corporate Media’s customers. We are the product that Corporate Media sells to its real customers.

Furthermore, Twitter and cable are totally different markets; they’re not even close. It’s hard to logically compare them without laughing. Fox can’t restrict a former employee from working in a different market. It would be like Indiana Wagon Wheel Corporation claiming its former employee can’t go to work for the Wright Brothers, because wagons and airplanes are both forms of transportation.

So instead, the lawsuit sounds a lot like Fox has sour grapes and is just trying to punish Tucker by making sure he can’t work in ANY market, which is not a legitimate, protectable business interest.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, for his part, is playing things perfectly:

Nobody can criticize Elon for “allowing” Tucker to express himself on Twitter. Musk is busy encouraging differing opinions to come on, too. And I’m sure he means it. But, by linking Carlson’s show in the process of encouraging liberal influencers like Don Lemon and Rachel Maddow, Elon also promoted Tucker’s show to his own massive follower audience. So.

Finally, enjoy the Babylon Bee’s take on Tucker’s new show:

🔥 The DOJ’s new indictment against President Trump, issued in South Florida, contains a whopping 37 counts, all sprouting like evil weeds from the same one transaction, and threatening a maximum combined jail sentence of almost 150 years — more than a complete human lifespan. And all for a process crime lacking any evidence that any harm happened anywhere.

In fact, it seems undisputed that no one was harmed, and Trump arguably believed he wasn’t breaking any laws. In other words, nobody is saying Trump had any intent to harm anyone.

But that doesn’t matter to the DOJ. It has a no-intent, strict liability process crime to play with.

The details of the Trump indictment are about what you’d expect from a politically-motivated prosecution, and I won’t bother repeating its inane, slanderous allegations here. If you guys really want a detailed analysis, let me know in the comments. The bottom line is, the indictment does not even TRY to allege that, because Trump had the classified records, the United States was harmed. Or anyone else for that matter.

Governor DeSantis defended Trump yesterday, pointing out the selective prosecution, asking:

“Is there a different standard for a democrat Secretary of State versus a former Republican president?… There needs to be ONE standard of justice in this country. Let’s enforce it on everybody and make sure we all know the rules. You can’t have one faction of society weaponizing the power of the state against factions that it doesn’t like… It’s not just affecting people at the top. It’s affecting people all throughout our country.”

DeSantis’ point, and it’s a good one, is that if we see the state isn’t prosecuting certain conduct against OTHER people, then we should be able to rely on the fact the state won’t prosecute US for doing the exact same thing.

It’s the same argument black folks used about getting pulled over and given speeding tickets when white folks can zip around and never get tickets. (I’m not saying that’s true, but that’s the morally-resonant argument. Fair is fair.)

The new Trump indictment, combined with the egregious excesses of dopey Alvin Bragg’s business-records criminal case against Trump in New York, along with Governor DeSantis’ comments, all reminded me of this well-known chestnut:

“Show me the man and I will show you the crime.”

— Lavrentiy Beria, chief of the Soviet NKVD secret police under Joseph Stalin

So.

🚀 Based on the lack of captured corporate media running any celebratory stories about daring Ukrainian raids fending off missile attacks and recapturing unpronounceable areas of the battle-torn country, after its first week, the much ballyhooed Spring CounterOffensive™ does not seem to be going too very well for Ukraine.

But yesterday — five days late — the BBC finally ran a story headlined, “Ukraine’s Counter-Offensive Against Russia Under Way.” The BBC, citing the UK Ministry of Defense, claimed that that “in most areas Ukraine holds the initiative.” It reported that, as of late Wednesday, Ukrainian officials even denied the Counter-offensive had even begun.

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, scoffed at the idea that THE Counter-offensive was underway. Sure, they’re fighting all long the front, but that doesn’t mean anything. “All of this is not true,” Danilov told Reuters. “When we start the counter-offensive, everyone will know about it. They will see it.”

Okay, I guess we’ll wait then.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal ignored Ukrainian officials, and ran an artistically-decorated, mildly optimistic-sounding headline about the CounterOffensive, but immediately undermined the story’s credibility by attributing it to the British right in the headline (“says UK”):

In other words, the Journal doesn’t know one way or the other; that’s just what the Brits are saying. Don’t blame the Journal if it turns out to be fake news.

Everyone has an opinion, and all of them stink. What do the actual parties to the conflict say? At long last, we free citizens of a democratic republic may now hear and judge for ourselves the Russian point of view, right from the top, without sneaking around the dark web. At least we can on Twitter. So, progress!

Anyway, here’s what Russian President Putin said about the Counter-offensive yesterday:

In case you didn’t have time to watch the clip, Putin said that over the last five days, the Ukrainians have suffered “significant causalities.” Putin pointed out that normally, losses incurred against an entrenched defender are estimated at three to one. But Putin reported that in this case, Ukraine’s loss ratio is much higher.

For the opposing viewpoint, after being asked by a reporter about Putin’s comments, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy didn’t deny any of those things, but — standing next to smugly-grinning Justin Trudeau, for enhanced credibility, presumably — and socially distanced far enough away that the two mens’ height differential wasn’t AS obvious — and at least wearing a Polo shirt with SOME buttons this time – Zelensky said the Ukrainians are as happy as mice in a cheese warehouse with how things are going in the Proxy War, but he just can’t go into detail about what’s happened or what’s next. You understand. Military secrets and all that. We’ll just have to trust him that, whatever it is, it will be GREAT, and there’s nothing the Russians can do about it, not this time:

(Without English subtitles, there was no reason to link the clip.)

I report, you decide. What do you think? Is the CounterOffensive going well for Ukraine or not?

🎈 Yesterday, Libs of TikTok brought us another tragicomic trans video. Without taking away from the very real suffering this person is obviously feeling over their poor life choices, the clip illustrates that we’ve finally achieved one of mankind’s oldest and most longed-for dreams: to walk in each other’s shoes for a while and see what it feels like!

This woman, surgically and hormonally altered into a passable facsimile of a man, is now learning the hard way something nobody ever warned her about and apparently she never suspected: that men don’t trust and bond with each other as quickly and easily as women do.

And so she’s LONELY. She explained that living as a man:

“Friendships are so much harder to build, and people are colder … Instead of wanting to talk to you and hug you, people cross the street so they don’t have to be near you… I now understand why the suicide rate is so much higher for men.”

That’s all true, Sally. Welcome to the club. On the plus side, once established, male friendships are extremely sturdy, and usually last a lifetime without any maintenance at all.

This video clip is profound on so many levels. On the surface, it is the predictable expression of creeping regret over a single impulsive, foolish, life-altering choice. Below that we find more evidence that gender is not, in fact, malleable; a female brain muses and a woman’s heart beats inside that superficially boyish body. Under that, we find the grand experiment: brave feminists, who for so long having been convinced to envy men, can now try it out for themselves and report back to the rest of us.

Another unfortunate discovery is that, for some reason, trans men don’t seem to be having the success in men’s sports that trans women are having in women’s sports. It probably has something to do with why girls have softball and boys have baseball, but we’re not allowed to talk about that.

PS — and Sally, men don’t talk that way. No crying.

💉 TMZ ran a story yesterday headlined, “’Breaking Bad’ Mike Batayeh Dead At 52.” I’ll give you one chance to guess how, when, and where the healthy actor died. And for bonus points: was there was any warning?

Go!

I think most of you guessed it with only one try! On June 1st, the otherwise healthy actor and family man, 52, died at his Michigan HOME (the ‘where’) from a sudden and unexpected HEART ATTACK (the how) while he was exerting himself and putting all that unnecessary strain on his cardiac muscle by SLEEPING (the when).

For extra credit seekers: Batayeh’s sister Diane told TMZ that the actor had “no history of heart problems and his death was very sudden.” Boom.

Now don’t start, this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME. (These days.)

It took me about thirty seconds of searching around, but I quickly found the evidence I was looking for. And there it was, the dates when the actor had received his safe and effective covid vaccines:

Ominously, Batayeh got jabbed over two years ago, and in the meantime showed no cardiac symptoms. If that’s all he had, that’s not a good sign for everyone else who got jabbed. What we don’t know though is whether Batayeh was boosted, or how recently. I think this timing issue is a complete justification for why we need to know peoples’ exact vaccination status after they die, so we can figure out: what is the risk window?

🔥 Finally, to start your weekend off with a smile, enjoy this hilarious parody published yesterday on the often-amusing Dr. Jebra Faushay’s satirical account:

The short clip is setup like an employee reality show bit, like the Office. The interviewed employee begins this way:

“My pronouns are I / me / he / him / she / her / we / they / us. Sometimes I even use Shakespearean pronouns, which are: thee / thou / thy / thyself, and ye. I’m transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and gender fluid, just to name a few.”

I’m thinking of putting the Shakespearean pronouns in my bio.

Have a wonderful weekend! I’ll see you guys back here on Monday morning to kick the new week off the right way, with another full mug o’ delectable C&C.

Please consider joining 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: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-learn-how-to-get-involved-

© 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.