Opinion
By Jeff Childers
1-16-22
Good morning, C&C, it’s Wednesday — already! Lots of good news in your roundup today, which includes: Texas’s biggest, boldest, most underreported move; Texas starts criminal elections investigations; Republicans take the House of Representatives; Real Housewife thinks jabs made her sick; more celebrity SADS; corporate media’s evolving hot takes on what looks like Ukraine’s attack on Poland; Trump’s announcement; and a couple FTX updates.
🗞*WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞
🔥 Ostrich-like corporate media completely ignored what was probably the most important story of the day yesterday. I could only find articles about it in rightwing media and Fox. Corporate media haven’t yet received their orders on what the narrative is supposed to be, so they aren’t allowed to talk about it.
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Sometime back in 2020, corporate media outsourced all critical thinking to save money.
The news was, Texas Governor Abbott finally gave in to the mounting pressure and issued a detailed executive order declaring the border situation an “invasion,” which is a special category of emergency under the Texas Constitution, and which allows the Governor to deploy the National Guard and the Texas Rangers in force. He also declared the cartels are foreign terrorist organizations in Texas, and he ordered more border wall building.
4:21 PM ∙ Nov 15, 202283,324Likes15,471Retweets
There’s an interesting provision in Abbott’s order directing coordination with other affected states. I wonder if Abbott means Florida, with whom Texas has been working lately.
Abbott also raised the stakes with the Biden Administration. By declaring a “state of invasion,” he invoked Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides the U.S. “shall guarantee every state in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion.”
Now Texas can sue the federal government for, at least, reimbursement for the cost of border enforcement. Sure, the Biden Administration COULD defend a lawsuit by arguing that there isn’t “really” an invasion, it’s not THAT bad, and so forth. But the lawsuits will start in the Fifth Circuit, which is a jurisdiction favorable to Texas that has shown a lively independent streak over the last two years.
Assuming Texas is successful, migrants will be pushed away from Texas toward blue states like New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Maybe those liberal states will enjoy the new visitors as much as the liberals on Martha’s Vineyard did.
🔥 Also underreported was Governor Abbott’s order to commence a criminal investigation into last week’s elections in Harris County, which was plagued by malfunctioning voting machines, randomly-closing polling locations, and many other reported problems.
Governor Abbott told reporters, “I’m calling on the Secretary of State, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Texas Rangers to initiate investigations into allegations of improprieties in the way that the 2022 elections were conducted in Harris County.”
He continued, “The allegations of election improprieties in our state’s largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct. Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened. Integrity in the election process is essential. To achieve that standard, a thorough investigation is warranted.”
📈 More great news. California Republican congressional candidate Kevin Kiley (CA-3) was declared the winner of his race yesterday, which secured GOP control of the House of Representatives.
The race has just been called in our favor. This secures a Republican Majority in the House of Representatives.11:43 PM ∙ Nov 15, 202231,438Likes4,202Retweets
I’m think it’s encouraging that the winning member came from California. It proves voting still matters, everywhere.
And, in even more good news, it looks like Republicans aren’t wasting time. Breitbart reporter Ashley Oliver tweeted yesterday that Covid Accountability meetings are already underway.
Currently quite a crew meeting in Jim Jordan’s office: Rand Paul, Grassley, Ron Johnson, Roger Marshall, and Comer. Am told they’re mainly discussing Fauci and potential COVID investigations.4:01 PM ∙ Nov 15, 20229,907Likes1,776Retweets
Neither should we forget about major changes headed for the January 6th Committee. I’d bet a steak dinner that democrat heavyweight Bennie Thompson has chaired his last meeting, and Liz Cheney has slandered her last conservative from the bench.
Also remember that for some reason the democrats couldn’t get the Committee’s final report out before the elections, so now the final report will be drafted by Republicans and, I assume, will feature a much different tone than what democrats had originally planned.
Finally, I will optimistically presume that the new Republican members of the House January 6th Committee will release all the video to the public. ALL of it.
Darren Beattie (Revolver News), please stand by.
💉 The New York Post’s Page Six ran a feisty story laced with spicy adult language quoting frustrated Bethenny Frankel, former Real Wives actress and the creator of SkinnyGirl adult beverages. Mrs. Frankel is sick and tired of folks who are, apparently, telling her “ixnay on the vaxnay talk,” since she has been chatting pretty freely about her suspicions of where her new post-jab autoimmune disease came from.
Frankel told Page Six that people should put on their “big girl underpants and have a conversation without someone muzzling us.” The problem, she says, is “our society has entered a fear based, judgmental, bullying” era.
Page Six reported that Frankell “is often met with mixed reviews, but in this case, many of her fans agreed with her.”
Progress.
💉 Argentina’s literal poster boy for its general vaccination campaign, Santino Blanco, 4, died suddenly and unexpectedly of bilateral pneumonia last week.
He was not part of a specific covid vaccine program, but helped advertise for childhood vaccines in general. Independent reports say he WAS jabbed for covid, but reports vary as to which vaccine he took.
💉 Late last week, UFC fighting champion Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, 38, was suddenly, unexpectedly, and permanently KO’d from organ failure, which was brought on by a rare immune system disorder and blood cancer (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) that started in September 2021.
💉 Irish golf pro Gary Wardlow, 42, tee’d off into the great hereafter last week, when he died suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving behind a wife, Susanne, and three boys: Jaxon, Luke, and Carter. Gary’s cause of death has not been released.
🚀 It sure looks like corporate media is rooting for full-on war with Russia. Yesterday, two Russian-identified missiles landed 50 miles inside Poland’s borders, apparently causing a couple fatalities, and corporate media immediately began cacophonously calling for the U.S. to declare war on Russia for attacking a NATO ally.
For example, CNN ran a story mid-day yesterday headlined, “Poland Considers Invoking NATO Article 4 after Russian-made Missile Hit Village, Killing Two People.” NATO Article 4 would require the U.S. to declare war on Russia in order to defend Poland.
But as the long day wore on, the story started sagging and then basically collapsed. Corporate media hurriedly began backpedaling, backing off their early hot takes, and trying to strategically save face using deceptive journalistic techniques, such as embarrassing ‘transition’ headlines trying to soften the 180-degree shift in the narrative direction WITHIN THE SAME NEWS DAY.
Take this fine example from CNN this morning, which retained the words “Russian-made missile” for consistency with earlier headlines, but this time captured the phrase in skeptical scare quotes:
As it turns out, it’s looking more like it was probably two missiles fired by UKRAINE, not Russia. The same CNN story quoted Joe Biden as saying the missiles probably DIDN’T come from Russia after all. Oops. According to CNN, Joe Biden said preliminary information suggested it was “unlikely” the missiles were fired from Russia, but reassured reporters that the investigation was ongoing, to soften the blow.
Apparently, the whole time, NATO had been tracking the missiles from wherever they were fired. But, citing the ongoing investigation, officials would not say where the launch site was; not yet. For some reason.
One supposes that, if the missiles’ origin was, in fact, Russia, it would ALREADY be headline news.
Polish officials, who aren’t in tune with the subtle nuances of the U.S. media’s Ukraine narrative, jumped the gun yesterday by declared they were 100% sure the missiles were Russian-made, and widely published images of the leftover parts. Whoops. That premature announcement created a wee conundrum for the narrative.
If the Russian missiles didn’t come from Russia, but instead the Russian missiles were launched from Ukraine, that would be weird. It would almost look like Ukraine fired some captured Russian missiles into Poland to create a false flag situation or something. On purpose.
In other words, Ukraine may have deliberately targeted and killed Polish civilians for its own strategic benefit.
If that’s what the facts ultimately show, then we should declare war on UKRAINE, when Poland invokes Article 4. Ukraine isn’t a NATO ally. And I don’t think Ukraine should get a pass for murdering Poles just because it was part of a psyop to make it look like Russia did it, do you?
Of course, if it WAS Ukraine, this story will soon vanish into the memory hole, along with Monkeypox festivals and David DePape’s underwear. Oh wait! It’s already starting.
Aha. Back when they were Russian missiles, it was a treacherous act of war justifying starting World War III. But now, since it looks like they really came from Ukraine, they weren’t “missiles,” not in the technical sense, not REALLY, they were just fragmentary “remains” of Russian rockets that Ukraine shot down before they could REALLY hurt the Poles. The Poles should be THANKING Ukraine, not complaining about the casualties.
Are you tired of being gaslit yet? I am. And I love Polish people. So, you know what? I say the heck with it. Let’s declare war on Ukraine for attacking a NATO ally. Time for Operation Shock and Awe, baby.
🔥 Late last evening, I watched President Trump’s much-hyped Mar-a-Lago announcement. As expected, he announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. His speech was quieter than I expected. It seemed more presidential and less like a rally. He was measured, thoughtful, and, to me, persuasive. He avoided controversial subjects in favor of pointing out the obvious failures of the Biden Administration, as a stark contrast to what Trump accomplished in the previous four years for the economy, world peace, and optimism.
Trump didn’t mention DeSantis or the jabs, nor did he emphasize Operation Warp Speed.
There are tons of hot-takes on the announcement. But at bottom, I think most pundits generally recognize that it was a solid, presidential speech. Who knows if it will move the needle, but the campaign is just starting.
While I was watching, I had two main thoughts. First, the speech reminded me of Trump at his best: making the sale. Second, I thought that no matter what, it will be very helpful to have Trump campaigning every day for the next two years against Joe Biden. The constant criticism might even make the democrats pull back a little. Maybe.
The New York Times seemed to recognize that potential, as well. It ran a story this morning headlined, “Trump Is Running in 2024. The White House Has a Plan.” The sub-headline explained, “The president’s advisers have been working on a strategy for how the White House will respond to what they expect will be a constant stream of attacks from former President Donald J. Trump.”
One can only hope. The Times also mentioned the democrats have a massive opposition research effort underway:
The party has assembled about 40 researchers to catalog every speech, radio address, TV appearance and newspaper article featuring Mr. Trump and other Republican candidates, in an effort to assemble the most comprehensive case against the former president and Republicans in the upcoming campaigns.
On Tuesday, the D.N.C. announced that it would begin hiring staff in New Hampshire, Florida and other early primary states to hold Republican presidential candidates like Mr. Trump accountable for what they say as they begin campaigning for the White House in 2024.
It is the earliest the D.N.C. has started making local hires ahead of a presidential campaign, officials said.
I hope the GOP has a similar presidential-campaign effort already kicking off, instead of being distracted by primary infighting. And it would be very nice to hear something about those efforts.
🔥 The FTX story continues to develop. The most interesting tidbit I saw yesterday was where some people are emerging to say they DID see the red flags, but they couldn’t get corporate media interested in the story. For some reason. It’s kind of like how investigative reporters couldn’t get corporate media interested in the Jeffrey Epstein story, either.
Also, it looks like other folks besides us are starting to connect the same dots between Jeffrey Epstein and Sam Bankman-Fried:
Finally, for a chuckle, here’s my favorite FTX cartoon, so far:
Have a wonderful Wednesday! I’ll see you back here tomorrow for more.
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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.
