Better in their words…

Source: Coffee & Covid ☙ Thursday, July 14, 2022 ☙ INTELLIGENCE

*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY*

💉 The Wall Street Journal ran two related stories yesterday. The first headline: “Lufthansa Cancels 2,000 More Flights, Citing Staff Shortages.” The second article’s headline was, “12 Hours of Misery at Heathrow: Huge Crowds, Lost Bags, Endless Cancellations.”

More software bugs! It must be contagious, just like covid. That’s how software bugs work right? It started with American Airlines’ mass flight cancellations last week because of a bug that caused “scheduling errors,” and now it has spread all the way to Europe.

But it is DEFINITELY NOT pilot shortages. No way. Because science. That would be impossible. And, how dare you?

🔥 Yesterday, House Democrats unanimously rejected a proposed amendment by Representative Chip Roy (R-Tx) that would have increased the minimum sentence for convicted child traffickers from 10 to 15 years.

I mean, higher sentences for people who force kids into lives of prostitution and drugs? Why, that’s just over-policing. We can’t have that.

Now, people who walk into the Capitol building without permission or criticize woke school board members? That’s an entirely different story.

🔥 Five months ago, creepy Joe Biden appointed creepy-looking Russell Rappel-Schmid as the Chief Data Officer for the U.S. Postal Service’s Regulatory Commission.

It’s not a small job. The PRC oversees the entire US Postal Service. It also — and especially — oversees mail-in balloting operations. But just recently, due to a citizen-led program to out pedophile predators, Mr. Rappel-Schmid was arrested by local police for soliciting what he thought was a 14-year-old boy and attempting to set up a meeting.

The citizens orchestrated a “meetup” in a hotel room and confronted Russell, who, shocked and presumably ashamed, admitted on camera that “I’m a pedophile.” Case closed.

Russell Rappel-Schmid’s arraignment in federal court is set for Monday.

Russell has been fired, of course. But, being totally compromised, wouldn’t he have made a great Chief of the PRC for some people who want some influence over how the mail-in ballots are handled during elections? Seems like a teeny-tiny security flaw to me, but what do I know? I’m just a lawyer.

🔥 Speaking of pedophiles. Yesterday in Jerusalem, Biden met with Israel’s interim prime minister Yair Lapid. It’s a very interesting trip. You might be forgiven for concluding that Biden is out there trying to shore up damaged relationships with U.S. allies against Russia.

The official explanation is that Biden is taking time out of his hectic schedule of fighting inflation, fighting Russians, fighting disinformation, fighting for women’s rights, fighting to bring down gas prices, fighting for dems in the mid-term elections, and fighting for the children — always fighting for the children — to jet over to the Middle East to try to broker a better peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia than President Trump already got.

You believe Biden’s just over there negotiating peace deals, right?

It’s a no-brainer. I mean, just look at the all the talent you have right there. One of the men has the lowest presidential approval rating in US history and the other is the interim prime minister of a temporary government. It’s the perfect setup for major peace deals, am I right?

According to international media, Biden and Lapid signed an agreement yesterday to “deny Iran nuclear weapons.” In public comments, Joe said that the U.S. was “open” to using force as a “last resort” to prevent the Iranians from getting the bomb, but Biden stressed that what the U.S. really wants is for Iran to return to the Obama-era “deal” where Iran got cash in exchange for some pinkie promises not to cheat.

A France24 article said some Israelis are unexcited over Biden’s involvement, for some reason:

Some Israeli as well as Gulf Arab officials believe the [proposed] deal’s sanctions relief would provide Iran with far more money to support proxy forces in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. They are also skeptical about whether the Biden administration will do much to counter Iran’s regional activities.

Weird. I wonder why they doubt Joe would be much help in countering Iran?

Joe’s next stop: a brand-new “annual” conference called I2U2, where Biden will meet with India’s prime minister and announce two billion dollars of bribes, I mean aid, to India for “food security,” scraped together from compliant Israel, UAE and American “private companies.”

You believe that right? Biden is out there helping other countries with their food security because it’s the right thing to do?

At a recent White House press briefing about Biden’s trip, reporters asked National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan why India seems so prominent in Biden’s agenda lately. Sullivan answered serving up a large bowl of word salad, and never once mentioned India’s recent flirtation with Russia and China, or its membership in BRICS. Remember: Trump had won India over as a solid U.S. ally, but as soon as he entered office, Biden began ritualistically dismembering all of Trump’s India deals with a hot skinning knife.

I guess now Biden wishes he hadn’t done that. Here’s Ted Cruz saying the same thing I’ve been saying:

Jake Sullivan also said Wednesday, before the trip, that the president would avoid shaking hands during the trip because covid. He followed that policy when he arrived in Israel, greeting interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other officials with fist bumps.

Then — whoopsies! He Bidened it. Not long after meeting with Lapid, Joe apparently forgot about covid and shook hands with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appears positioned to win November elections and become the next prime minister of Israel. He wasn’t wearing a mask either.

You can make those kinds of mistakes when you’re a private citizen. But if you the head of a state, you can lose allies with these kinds of gaffes.

Biden’s next stop is Saudi Arabia, where he is scheduled to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to unofficially talk oil production. Officially the White House says it’s not about oil production at all. Diverse White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday, “I’m saying [oil production is] not, it’s not, it’s not the focus… [and] not… on the agenda.”

You believe that right? Even Jake Sullivan doesn’t believe that:

Anyway, industry insiders think it won’t amount to much. ZeroHedge ran a story yesterday headlined, “Why Biden Could Come Back From Saudi Arabia Empty Handed.” It points out that Middle East oil producers have very little capacity to spare. And I’m sure you’ll recall that Macron recently — and publicly — told Biden the Saudi’s don’t have any excess production to offer. So that’s one problem.

Another problem is that during the campaign, Biden delighted leftwing activists by promising to turn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman into a “pariah” for ordering a hit on anti-semitic journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump had repaired the relationship with Saudi Arabia to the point that he got them to enter a history peace deal, the Abraham Accords. Then Biden threw it all away.

I wonder if a guy who orders hit jobs on journalists is a forgiving and understanding kind of person. I guess Joe’s about to find out.

🔥 Mintpress News, which is really doing some fantastic investigative journalism lately, ran a story yesterday headlined, “Meet the Ex-CIA Agents Deciding Facebook’s Content Policy.” The gist is — and this is going to shock you — Facebook has hired a whole raft of experienced CIA agents, while Twitter seems to favor the FBI for its personnel pool.

Take Aaron Berman, for example. For years he used to help craft the CIA’s daily security briefing for the President. In 2019 Berman left the Agency as a senior analytic manager and joined Meta as its senior product policy manager for… misinformation. Of course.

As Mintpress properly notes, there are rational reasons why the social media giants would want some folks with law enforcement background, to protect the platforms from abuse by various kinds of bad actors. But the sheer number of “former” agents in the media companies, at all the key positions of influence, staggers the imagination. Mintpress says it’s getting hard to tell where the government stops and the social media companies begin.

Of course, there’s another, more sinister possibility. How long would it take for the U.S. agencies to figure out that the social media companies were trying to acquire some of their talent, and devise a strategy to occupy the influential private firms? Like, how does someone like Aaron Berman go from writing critical top-secret daily security briefs for the President of the United States to a happy fun product manager at Facebook?

It feels like we don’t know the whole story. That’s all I’m saying.

I took a look at Aaron’s tweet history. His posts are bland, happy fun comments about his personal life. He offers lots of professional tips like how to write more effectively on Twitter. He sits just left of center in his political tone. On the one hand, he seems mildly concerned about climate change, but on the other hand, he observes that, no matter many gender-neutral toys he and his wife offer her, his daughter still just wants to play with Barbie. None of his posts reference elections, politicians, or direct political issues.

He’s everyman and no man.

If you’re curious, watch Aaron’s happy fun product manager video here, where he doesn’t mention his CIA history at all, for some reason.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

🔥 The New York Times has finally found itself a Trump supporter that they can sympathize with. Yesterday the paper ran a story headlined, “‘It’s Just Been Hell’: Life as the Victim of a Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory.” They interviewed the “victim,” despised January 6th instigator Ray Epps, who is the mysterious figure in dozens of videos shouting at people to attack the Capitol hours before the January 6th riot — but who has never been arrested or even formally investigated.

Epps is outraged. The Times allowed him to describe himself as a father, a former Marine, and a staunch but disillusioned conservative whose leaders had betrayed him. “I am at the center of this thing, and it’s the biggest farce that’s ever been,” he said. “It’s just not right. The American people are being led down a path. I think it should be criminal,” Epps whined.

Haha, the Times says Epps has been “searching for a lawyer to help them file a defamation lawsuit.” Mark my words: that will never happen. Since truth is a defense to defamation, anyone Epps sues would have discovery rights, and Epps would have to testify under oath — not to a reporter — that he wasn’t working for one of the intelligence agencies on January 6th, which is something he’s so far managed to avoid.

In the article, Epps admitted that he had acted stupidly at times. “Tomorrow, we need to go IN to the Capitol! IN to the Capitol!,” Epps persistently urged peaceful J6 demonstrators on the evening of January 5th. Remarkably, Epps said he regretted texting his nephew and bragging about how he’d helped to orchestrate the movements of people leaving Mr. Trump’s speech near the White House by pointing them toward the Capitol. To my knowledge, that text message has never been public before now. Is it coming?

But, the Times explained, because he came clean, the FBI was totally satisfied that Epps’ efforts to gin up a mob to breach the Capitol were completely and totally harmless. He was just misunderstood. The Times unquestioning reported that Epps said all he really wanted was to calm people down, and I am not making that up.

Epps says he thinks the cartels are now trying to kill him. So Epps has sold his ranch and he and his wife are living out of his RV for the time being, on the move. It’s not because he’s trying to avoid process servers and conservative media reporters. No, no, never.

The Times’ article is completely credulous, expressing no doubt whatsoever about Epps’ fairy stories and tall tales. It’s the very first January 6th conservative — albeit a “disillusioned” conservative, whatever that is — that the New York Times has ever found. Never mind that Epps admitted he orchestrated getting people from Trump’s speech to the Capitol. Never mind that he loudly and publicly urged people to attack the Capitol. Who cares?

Tellingly the article does not quote Epps — not anywhere — actually denying that he was working for someone. He never denies that he was a provocateur, or that he was working with law enforcement. He never explains why he was even there in the first place, since it has been confirmed that Epps did not attend Trump’s speech. So why go?

Even more bizarre, the article fails to mention that the New York Times ITSELF has “victimized” Epps, in its January 6th “documentary,” where it included video of Epps encouraging people to breach the Capitol:

Darren J. Beattie is the courageous editor of Revolver News, which has covered the Epps story for over a year now. Beattie thinks the Times’ buttkissing love letter is just battlespace preparation for leaks they know are coming that are going to damage the January 6th Commission. Like maybe that text message, or maybe more.

Either way, thanks New York Times! Thanks for finally saying something nice about a “conservative” who attended the J6 protests. Fair and balanced.

Have a terrific Thursday, and I’ll see you guys back here tomorrow for your refills. And we serve no weak half-caff here at Coffee & Covid, so get ready.

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