There’s always a tweet
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For some reason I don’t see Democrats chanting “Lock him up” at Biden rallies this fall.
Because the same group that chanted this regularly is now ready to go to civil war because “not the FBI” convinced a group of 12 citizens Trump did something wrong, and now jailing your political opponents sees like a really bad thing.
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Just so much “darndest stuff” that MTG said at Dr. Fauci’s hearing that I will not attempt to extract it but rather provide a link. Many other Republicans “distinguished” themselves as well.
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Can you gift that somehow, or does anyone have the magic key?
I’ll read about it elsewhere until then.
That’s funny, the first time I clicked I could read through.
The Rolling Stone learned from the 60’s: the first dose is always free.
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From The New Republic:
The hearing opened with committee Chair James Comer refusing to let Fauci actually answer any of his questions. The Kentucky Republican said it was because he had so many questions to get through.
“Please do not interrupt my asking you questions with your answering of my questions!!”
Jackass.
More jackassery, the sad part of it is that none will be noted for this coming election as jackassery:
In another embarrassing instance, New York Representative Nicole Malliotakis tried—and failed—to implicate the infectious diseases expert in a popular conspiracy theory, including that he had received royalties from pharmaceutical companies for coronavirus-related medications and vaccines.
“How much have you earned in royalties from pharmaceutical companies since the pandemic began in 2021?” asked Malliotakis.
“Zero,” replied Fauci.
The New York Republican then proceeded to read a headline in front of her, citing that an “NIH scientist had made $710 million from drugmakers.” “You’re saying that you did not receive any of the $710 million?” she pressed.
Fauci knew exactly how much he had made: just $122 for a somewhat unrelated monoclonal antibody that he had patented decades prior. But Malliotakis wasn’t satisfied with that. Instead, she attempted to corner Fauci on any royalties—not necessarily related to Covid—that he had received over the course of the pandemic, and whether any of the $710 million had gone to him.
“I think none,” Fauci said before fending off bubbling interruptions from the Trump ally. “No—I’m on the record, and I want to make sure that this is clear: that I developed a monoclonal antibody about 25 years ago that’s used as a diagnostic that has nothing to do with Covid, and I receive about $120 a year from that patent.”
Oh, the jackassery is not over yet.
Later, Arizona Representative Debbie Lesko attempted to frame Fauci for allegedly participating in a series of emails that discussed suppressing the “lab leak theory” for Covid without realizing that the emails don’t actually exist.
“You said about four or five things, Congressman, that were just not true,” Fauci responded after Lesko laid out her theory.
“Well, we have emails to prove it,” Lesko said.
“But you don’t,” he said, before Maryland Representative Kweisi Mfume interjected to correct Lesko that “no, we don’t have it.”
“I get tired of hearing ‘We got it,’ and then when we ask for it, it’s not there. We do not have it,” Mfume said. “That’s just incorrect.”
MTG made up some shit as well. I’ll have to look for that.
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Next-level jackassery, courtesy of The Daily Beast:
MAGA congresswoman and professional attention-seeker Marjorie Taylor Greene turned Dr. Anthony Fauci’s House testimony into a freak show on Monday when she pointedly refused to call the former White House chief medical adviser “doctor” and demanded he be prosecuted for “crimes against humanity.”
Greene, who has long railed against COVID vaccines and described the pandemic as a “manufactured plague,” began her questioning of Fauci by accusing him of “signing off” on medical experiments using dogs, erroneously saying he did so as the director of the National Institute of Health. (Fauci was previously the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.)
As a dog lover, I want to tell you this is disgusting and evil,” Greene exclaimed while holding up disturbing images of canines involved in experiments. “So the type of science that you are representing, Mr. Fauci, is abhorrent! And it needs to stop.” The Georgia lawmaker, who was repeatedly fined during the pandemic for not wearing a mask on the House floor, continued to dismiss the infectious disease specialist’s credentials.
Greene once again held up the image of beagles while, snarking, “but this is science,” leading Fauci to exclaim: “What do dogs have to do with anything we’re talking about today?”
After moving on to reports showing that the NIH received $710 million in royalties from pharmaceutical companies since the start of the pandemic, Greene wondered if that was “appropriate” for the scientific community. “Do the American people deserve to be abused like that, Mr. Fauci? Because you’re not, doctor. You’re Mr. Fauci in my few minutes,” she added. “No, I don’t need your answer.”
“In terms of the rules of decorum, are we allowed to deny a doctor is a doctor just because we don’t want him to be a doctor?” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wondered.
“Yes, because in my time, that man does not deserve to have a license!” Green fired back. “As a matter of fact, it should be revoked and he belongs in prison!”
After Wenstrup ordered Greene to address Fauci as a doctor, other Democrats wondered aloud if “this is what we’ve devolved into” only for the pro-Trump congresswoman to bring up a Democratic colleague’s previous invocation of the infamous Tuskegee experiments.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who lost both parents to COVID and praised Fauci for his policies, said it was “completely unacceptable” to deny a “respected” member of the medical community his proper title, only for Greene to sneer that Fauci was “not respected.”
After Wenstrup reminded Greene to call Fauci “doctor,” the congresswoman shouted, “I’m reclaiming my time” before the chairman read through the House’s rules on decorum asking members to refrain from making personal attacks. Garcia and others responded that her words should also be taken down, predictably leading Greene to react in kind.
Eventually, a visibly annoyed Wenstrup reiterated his reprimand of Greene while asking other members to show respect towards their colleagues. Nevertheless, Greene continued to berate Fauci for his “repulsive evil science” before yet again calling for him to be imprisoned.
“You know what this committee should be doing? We should be recommending you to be prosecuted. We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity,” she raged. “You belong in prison, Dr. Fauci!”
Moments after the unhinged exchange, Garcia personally apologized to the former White House adviser.
“Dr. Fauci, I am so sorry you just had to sit through that. That was completely irresponsible,” Garcia said. “This might be the most insane hearing I’ve actually attended! I’ve only been in Congress for a year and a half, but I am so sorry that you are subjected to this level of attacks and insanity.”
Response from the insanity, via twixter:
Rep. Jamie Raskin: “[The GOP is] treating you, Dr. Fauci, like a convicted felon. Actually, you probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon. They treat them with love and admiration. Some blindly worship them.”
Hey-yo!
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Thanks DTNF. There was so much jackassery I didn’t know where to start reporting on it and, even if I did, I didn’t have the energy to cut and paste it after reading it.
I also saw some of the videos from the session and the venom in the delivery of the words by the Republicans was as sickening as the lies themselves. I guess they are playing to their base and base is the right word for them!
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Here’s a bit of amusing WTF from conservative radio. I had some time to kill yesterday while sitting in a truck so I was flipping radio stations so no link or quote just an anecdote. Two conservative radio dudes railing about how leftists control the media and the courts. One of them going off on a rant says, about 50 years ago Nixon won the presidency with 49 states. Just a couple of years later they run him out of office. “He never was linked to Watergate. To this day Nixon wasn’t linked to Watergate.” Yet the leftist media and courts drove him out. He then went on about leftists controlling all of it now so I flipped the channel.
The quoted part above was pretty much word for word as it’s kinda hard to forget.
Raise your hand if you are tired of the “weaponization” already. The frequency of buzzwords that some consultant says resonate run out of steam well before the speakers stop using it.
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It was disappointing to see how disrespectful and unprofessional they were. What happened to decorum?
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What Cooke said:
Were lucky people like Fauci are willing to put up with the baffoonery
I saw the bit where she wanted to not call him Doctor. Just pathetic
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Totally agree.
I am all for vigorous debate by our politicians on the issues of the day. But I am old school and prefer that debate be done in a respectful manner. Maybe my memory is failing me a bit but I seem to recall Republicans and Democrats engaging vigorously 50 years ago but without today’s sarcasm and venom.
Not just a US phenomenon. This disrespectful attitude is being increasingly adopted by Canadian Conservatives.
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You can thank AM talk radio largely Rush Limbaugh, Faux News with shows like Bill O’Riely and former speaker Newt Gingrich who had an affair on his dying wife while prosecuting the President for the same. There are plenty others who followed in their footsteps and expanded on that but those are 3 of the Trail Blazers.
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Those AM talk show hosts were only successful because there was an audience for their rhetoric. Politicians figured that out as well.
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Yes, not unlike the “someone else would have eventually discovered America, so no need to stomp on Columbus” argument, it is what the people wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear. And they exploited it. Entertainment disguised as facts.
Bill O’Reilly may be a closet liberal but he knew where the money was.
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