RFK Jr. excoriates Dana Bash: "You're talking nonsense. You're making assertions. You can't support it. And then when I call you on them, they're you're telling me I'm arguing...."

"Do you see your job as ending vaccine hesitancy or do you see your job as telling the truth to the American people?... All you know how to do is repeat things that people told you and say trust the experts. That's what you do.... Now we know that Anthony Fauci, who was the expert, was lying about everything about masks, about social distancing, about natural immunity, about the transmission from the vaccine, about the source of COVID. He was lying. And you were punishing people for not trusting the experts. And now you're rolling out the experts again to talk about something that you have no personal knowledge of...."

"There was a cult of Fauci. People were getting Fauci tattoos and dancing with images of Fauci."

"He really was on the cover of every magazine, which, if you think about it, was weird! If millions of Americans suddenly made me their cult leader, and I had previously just been an unknown short man in the back of an HIV press conference, I would go insane with power too. So would you. And when you see lockdowns in the context of a power-drunk elf getting turned on by the idea of canceling Easter—he’s typing so fast he can barely keep up—you can understand better what we all lived through. For him, the pleasure was canceling things, especially things he felt gave power to the right (sports, family gatherings, religious events). We can never forget the freaks who gain power in a centrally controlled system...."

Writes Nellie Bowles in "I Am the Most Famous and Talked-About Person in the Country" (The Free Press).

So do "freaks... gain power in a centrally controlled system"? Or does the power that's there to be gained  in a centrally controlled system make freaks out of people? Bowles must mean the latter, because she'd saying she would "go insane" under the same circumstances and "So would you."

About that "dancing with images":

Flash back to the paid vaccine pushers!!! Never forget!!! pic.twitter.com/FxouJOmKNL

— Freedom Forever (@Freedom49503795) November 6, 2023

About what I boldfaced above: I'm up for taunting Fauci over the things Fauci deserves to be taunted for, but having repeated fun over his height seems... well, it seems like Obama's thing about balding:

"Science is truth."

Please share this with everyone. Let’s never listen to these liars ever again. I guess CNN doesn’t need Sanjay to be a useful idiot anymore pic.twitter.com/XawCqUEWUB

— Adam Carolla (@adamcarolla) July 30, 2026

The invocation of science ought to be a call to calm rationality, but there we see it used like a tagline for a horror movie: Be afraid, be very afraid.

ADDED: Did you know that the line "Be afraid, be very afraid" originally came from Mel Brooks?

"[Senator Bernie Moreno] requested those in the audience to stand up if they had paid a professional, legal, or personal price for dissenting from Covid orthodoxies ..."

"... during the pandemic. The senator then asked Fauci to turn around and look at them. Fauci refused. Then Moreno told the story of a family in Ohio who attended a high school football game in the middle of the lockdowns. 'They went to the stadium. They sat alone, far from anyone else. They didn’t feel they needed to wear masks because it was stupid and they were outside. Dr. Fauci, do you know what happened to . . . that family?' Fauci responded with the line he must have repeated more than a hundred times in the hearing. 'On the advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,' he said. 'They were dragged out of that stadium and arrested,' [Moreno] said. 'Those policies were put in place because you had moronic politicians that listened to the words of a megalomaniac who was more interested in having met a Kardashian than the suffering of the American people.' Fauci just sat there, stone faced, without emotion...."

Writes Eli Lake, in "Pleading the Fifth Won’t Spare Fauci from the Truth/He claims his Senate hearing was a witch hunt designed to entrap him. But his record convicts him on its own" (Free Press).

"I can explain and validate everything that I've done."

Well this didn't age wellpic.twitter.com/prvxPsrHpF

— Julian Assange (@ImJulianAssange) July 29, 2026

The video is from November 22, 2022.

He only said "I can explain and validate everything that I've done." He didn't say he would. There's an explanation, of course, even if the explanation is I chose to lie because it was the best way to get the compliance we wanted. 

Fauci invokes the 5th Amendment privilege at the Senate hearing today.

I'm listening to the hearing live:

Here's the Washington Post article: "Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment in hearing before Rand Paul and Senate GOP/At a hearing on covid-19, the former infectious-disease official said he would avoid answering contentious questions" (gift link):

He declined to answer questions from [Senator Rand] Paul, who began the hearing by asking Fauci about the pandemic response and whether there was a folder in front of him on the table.

In a separate statement shared with The Post, Fauci’s lawyer alleged that Paul was fixated on Fauci after their clashes at the height of the pandemic — referring to a 2021 incident when the two men traded accusations of lying — and that the senator’s sole purpose for the hearing was to punish Fauci and see him in prison....

What about the pardon?

"[His diary] paints a portrait of Dr. Fauci as obsessed with himself, reveling in his own importance and the celebrities he knows..."

"... from the actress Julia Roberts to the singers Joan Baez and Barbra Streisand.... The entries were also full of references to Hollywood stars, some of whom seemed star-struck over him.... Barbra Streisand called asking for vaccine advice. When Dr. Fauci told her he listened to her music on Alexa, the virtual assistant, she confessed she didn’t know what Alexa was. 'I accidentally butt called her later in the evening,' Dr. Fauci wrote, and when he played her music over Alexa, she 'absolutely loved it!' Joan Baez painted a portrait of him. Julia Roberts introduced him at an awards ceremony. 'She is so charming, natural, fun and amazingly beautiful,' Dr. Fauci wrote of Ms. Roberts. 'When my image came up on the screen,” he added, “she gasped and said that every time she sees me her throat gets dry and she gets nervous.'"

From "Fauci, in Private Diary, Reflected on Covid’s Origins and His Own Fame/Private entries, released by a Republican senator, have reignited a furious debate over whether Covid-19 leaked from a lab" (NYT gift link).

The "Republican senator" is Rand Paul, who's engaging in some taunting:

What Anthony Fauci looked like every night when he wrote about how great he is in his diary. pic.twitter.com/KbPvbtyi7g

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 27, 2026

And here's that Joan Baez artwork. Baez enfolds Fauci in her political schemata:

"Biden pardons Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and the Jan. 6 committee in an extraordinary use of presidential power against potential Trump 'revenge.'"

AP reports.

“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to everyday Americans who have been convicted of crimes. But Biden has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated yet.... 

Among the pardoned is Liz Cheney.

ADDED: Here's Biden's statement.

"Those who could face exposure include such members of Congress’ Jan. 6 Committee as Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming."

"Trump has previously said Cheney 'should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!' Also mentioned by Biden’s aides for a pardon is Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who became a lightning rod for criticism from the right during the Covid-19 pandemic.... The president himself, who was intensely focused on his son’s pardon, has not been brought into the broader pardon discussions yet, according to people familiar with the deliberations. The conversations were spurred by Trump’s repeated threats and quiet lobbying by congressional Democrats, though not by those seeking pardons themselves. 'The beneficiaries know nothing,' one well-connected Democrat told me about those who could receive pardons...."

From "Biden White House Is Discussing Preemptive Pardons for Those in Trump’s Crosshairs/The nomination of Kash Patel, who has vowed to pursue Trump’s critics, as FBI director has heightened concerns within the president’s inner circle" (Politico).

"In a chapter entitled 'He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not,' Dr. Fauci described how Mr. Trump repeatedly told him he 'loved' him while at the same time..."

"... excoriating him with tirades flecked with four-letter words. 'The president was irate, saying that I could not keep doing this to him,' Dr. Fauci wrote. 'He said he loved me, but the country was in trouble, and I was making it worse. He added that the stock market went up only 600 points in response to the positive Phase 1 vaccine news, and it should have gone up 1,000 points, and so I cost the country "one trillion dollars."' (The president added an expletive.)..."

From "Fauci Speaks His Mind on Trump’s Rages and Their ‘Complicated’ Relationship/In a new book, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci recounts a career advising seven presidents. The chapter about Donald J. Trump is titled 'He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not'" (NYT).

"During the coronavirus hearing this week, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene attacked [Anthony] Fauci as she held up a photo of two sedated puppies, their heads placed in mesh cages..."

"... as they lie on a table while being swarmed by sand flies.... [I]t’s silly to personally blame Fauci for the design of research studies... endorsed many levels below the director..... Female sand flies carry a parasite that produces zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL), an often-neglected tropical disease in humans. Domestic dogs are the main reservoir host and sand flies are the main vector.... [T]here is something about using dogs... that make many people squeamish.... [N]early 16,000 dogs in 2019 were subjected to pain in the United States during research experiments — and nearly 400 received no pain medication. The White Coat Waste Project hit a nerve when it publicized the Tunisia sand fly study in 2021, emphasizing the dramatic photo that Greene waved at Fauci. The Post reported that Fauci’s office got 3,600 phone calls in 36 hours.... The emails show that NIH was not fully transparent as it tried to handle a public-relations nightmare...."

Writes Glenn Kessler, the WaPo "fact checker," in "Unpacking the story of Fauci and painful experiments involving dogs/Documents obtained by an animal rights group show that NIH was not fully transparent when the controversy erupted in 2021."

"Do the American people deserve to be abused like that, Mr. Fauci, because you’re not ‘Dr.,’ you’re ‘Mr. Fauci’ in my few minutes...."

"... in my time, that man does not deserve to have a license. As a matter of fact, it should be revoked, and he belongs in jail."

Said Marjorie Taylor Greene, quoted in "GOP chair reprimands Greene for refusing to call Fauci 'doctor'" (The Hill).

Contemplate the power that flows from the embrace of negative attention. It has worked for Trump, and Marjorie Taylor Greene has apparently decided to excel in this mode.

The givers of negative attention might want to rethink what they are doing. I will, once again, quote my mother on this subject: You'll only encourage them.

Also, I'm reminded of Barbara Boxer in her "I worked so hard" mode:

"Republicans... pressed Fauci on [his statement] that the federal government’s recommendation for six-foot social distancing 'sort of just appeared'... 'wasn’t based on data.'"

"Fauci said Monday he meant there was no clinical trial to settle on the distance of six feet, and that officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who crafted the recommendation were basing the distance on early expectations of how the virus spread. The answer did not satisfy Republicans.... 'This six-foot rule crippled businesses, it allowed students to stay at home and not learn,' Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) said. Other countries and the World Health Organization recommended a distance of about three feet of social distance, and experts said a similar measure in the United States would have allowed schools to reopen more quickly...."

From "Fauci dismisses ‘preposterous’ allegations that he led covid coverup/The infectious-disease expert said Republicans have distorted emails between scientists as they discussed whether a lab leak of the coronavirus was possible" (WaPo).

RFK Jr.: "Now it becomes clear: 'trust the science' really means 'obey authority.'"

More made-up science. If you doubted it back then, you were ridiculed as anti-science, censored, silenced. Now it becomes clear: “trust the science” really means “obey authority.” https://t.co/pMETn98T4R

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) January 11, 2024

What exactly did Fauci say? The NY Post has this: "COVID ‘6-feet’ social distancing ‘sort of just appeared,’ likely lacked scientific basis, Fauci admits."

"The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to two scientists whose research laid the groundwork for messenger RNA vaccines that transformed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic."

From "Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to scientists who laid foundation for messenger RNA vaccines" (WaPo).

Early in her career, Katalin Kariko, 68, a Hungarian-born scientist, saw mRNA’s medical potential and pursued it with ferocious and single-minded tenacity that exiled her to the outskirts of science. After a chance meeting over the photocopier at the University of Pennsylvania 25 years ago, she worked closely with Drew Weissman, 64, an immunologist who saw the potential for the technology to create a new kind of vaccine.... Together, Kariko and Weissman’s complementary knowledge helped to unravel a way to chemically tweak messenger RNA, turning basic biology into a useful medical technology ready to change the world when the pandemic struck.

"The Branch Covidians."

Screen shot of the top of Musk's feed, taken just now.

"The Branch Covidians" is quite an epithet. Do you think it's like Trump's namecalling? Or is something very different going on here? The analogy to the Branch Davidians is hinky. They were a sect that cut themselves off from reality, but they were not exercising governmental power and they were the victims of a shocking overreach of governmental power. But the Branch Davidians were said to have abused children, and I suspect that Musk intends to say that Fauci, et al., were abusing children.

Elon Musk defends his tweet that just said "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci."

My reaction, yesterday, was just "Yikes" — the post title — and, in the comments: "I'm more shocked that he made a casual 'pronouns' joke than that he expressed a desire to see F prosecuted (and without naming the crime or citing any evidence)."

Today, I'm seeing:

I strongly disagree. Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone.

As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome imo.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022

Now, it's getting complicated. Musk started the conversation — on 2 topics — with something so short it was flippant and seemed mean.

Yikes.

My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022

"I’m just sick of seeing him! I know he says he’s gonna retire—someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac."

Said Ron DeSantis, quoted in "DeSantis Rages About ‘Little Elf’ Fauci: ‘Grab Him and Chuck Him Across the Potomac’/A man was recently sentenced to three years in prison for threatening to hunt down Fauci and break every bone in his 'disgusting elf skull'" (Daily Beast).

DeSantis, who recently debuted a performative tough-guy “Top Gov” campaign ad with himself as “Maverick,” has long taken aim at Fauci to burnish his MAGA credentials.

Last year, for instance, he began hawking “Don’t Fauci My Florida” merch as coronavirus cases spiked in his state. Fauci, meanwhile, has been the target of countless death threats. A man who said he wanted to break every bone in Fauci’s “disgusting elf skull” was recently sentenced to three years in prison.

I'll just do a poll:

 

Should DeSantis be calling Fauci a "little elf" and envisioning a violent action against him?

Yes, it's colorful speech, Fauci is small, and the "violence" is metaphorical.

Yes, it's a sly cultural reference to the late-lamented sport of "dwarf tossing."

No, DeSantis needs to go for a better quality of vivid speech and he's smart enough to do it.

No, he's embarrassing himself with ill-conceived, pseudo macho bullshit.

Yes, it's fun to make fun of short people and clever to do it without punching down.

No, it's never good to make fun of a condition a person can't change.

 

pollcode.com free polls

Background on the second option, from the Wikipedia article "Dwarf Tossing":

In October 2011, Ritch Workman, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, introduced legislation that would overturn the ban on dwarf-tossing, claiming such a ban to be an "unnecessary burden on the freedom and liberties of people" and "an example of Big Brother government." Although not a personal advocate of the activity, Workman stated "if a little person wants to make a fool out of themselves for money, they should have the same right to do so as any average sized person."

ADDED: Poll results:

"Has political satire lost its power? Or has reality become so absurd that it’s now beyond parody?"

That's from the intro to "Why Are People So Mad About Don’t Look Up? Climate change is a tough subject for any film, let alone a satire."

It's a podcast — audio and transcript at the link — with various Atlantic staff people (Kevin Townsend, Sophie Gilbert, David Sims, and Spencer Kornhaber). I have seen the movie, by the way.

I think the quote I put in the post title is trite and foolish. The difference between the present and the past is the present is where you're living now. It's self-involved to believe that in the past, you could do parody and satire, but now — now! — things are already so absurd that there's nothing to add, no way to exaggerate, and we're suffering in some extreme new way that makes comedy impossible.

But let's see what these people have to say: