Dr. Fauci got called to a Senate committee that Rand Paul put together to question him on COVID-19 after publishing his personal diary. The Republicans tried to do anything to make Dr. Fauci look bad and publicly insulted him over and over to his face. It was all an attempt to get him to say something they could construe as perjury. So, because he’s not some idiot, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights over and over. Now, the Republicans want to hold him in contempt for…using his constitutionally protected rights. The same constitution, by the way, they swear to support and defend.
Rand Paul yelling “Who the fuck do you think you are?!!” In a congressional hearing should embarrass all Americans, but we’re well past that point, I guess.
Republicans are dogpiling him right now because after appearing before congress like 20 times already to talk about covid, during the latest appearance he stopped giving AF and exercised his right to remain silent while basically calling Rand Paul an asshole lol.
So in typical conservative fashion, despite hundreds of hours of context leading up to this moment, all the headlines are like “SEE HE MUST BE A LIAR OTHERWISE HE WOULD TESTIFY”
They basically blame him directly for covid. And by covid they mean the social and economic harm of masking and social distancing, because the actual virus itself obviously isn’t real. And if it is real it was made in a lab. But despite being made in a lab it does absolutely nothing to you, total nothing virus, basically just a bad cold. Actually it’s the vaccines that caused all the deaths. The same vaccines that are Joe Biden’s fault despite them literally being produced and released under the direction of Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed”, all during his first term as president. Which isn’t true Trump would never do that. And if he did it’s because Fauci lied to him
It doesn’t, that’s the problem. A problem a lot of us Americans are dealing with - when you can’t make any sense of what or why these politicians and their supporters have these ideas and do the things … It’s very hard to not be worried. Like I have anxiety bad enough it’s a disorder but I feel like every thinking man woman and child in the USA right now is walking around just holding onto that low-key anxious energy because nothing makes any sense.
Like even if you try to find a reason there isn’t one and if there is a reason it’s nonsensical, probably racist, and one hundred percent not grounded in our shared reality.
But it does make sense (just not good). You and I might not agree with the motives, but they do exist. There are entities both external and internal to the US that want to tear society down. Causing disfunction, fomenting hate, allowing infrastructure to decay, creating chaos, sowing discord and more are all a part of that effort. There might be differing reasons these entities have, but it boils down to greed and authoritarian control. It is happening elsewhere, as well. We see right-wing ideology/politics springing up in Latin America, Europe and Asia.
The Foundation of Geopolitics is one of the texts that lined out the (Russian) path for the future and how to disrupt the West that was aligned against them and it appears to be working. The other large influencer is Israel. I am certain the Mossad is out there thwarting the democratic process to help shape their goals. The billionaire club are the other parties that are helping to bring all this together. I thought I read somewhere that they are pressing the gas-pedal for human extinction b/c they believe they are better and above that. Therefore they will survive and will start the new (improved) human cycle or something after we are removed. Again, their reasons might vary, but the results are the same. Shackles for you and me and the world is theirs to conquer. So far.
I am sure I have a less than perfect perspective and two paragraphes doesn’t cover much here really, but this is roughly how I see current affairs from my limited proto-human lense.
Dark MAGA - Here’s a video too. Curtis Yarvin is loved by Peter Thiel. JD Vance is Thiel’s protege. Thiel is the one that wanted to make a corporate government nation state out of Greenland, entirely deregulated. They call it “Praxis.” Trump also started talking about “freedom cities” which is the same concept. Literally making their own nation states to live in while the poors are left out to die or whatever in the coming climate apocalpyse.
I hear ya. I just mean looking at it from a purely selfish and utilitarian lens there really is no actual reason for a lot of the bad shit happening. Like it’s not helping anyone, it’s actively harming people and a lot of the people getting harmed voted for it.
I guess maybe because it makes people money in terms of the military industrial complex and prison complex (slavery) so that could be part of it. I’m tired of it all though - this timeline is so stupid.
Benn calls it “leveragism” but basically it’s about control. Rather than making more money, it’s more valuable to devalue/strip the power of communities to fight against you so that you can more easily institute your policies. When you think of it like that, stuff that just seems wildly cruel starts to make sense.
But really, Benn is just analyzing material conditions and coming to a logical conclusion. I don’t think he’s read Marx, but it’s basically Marx lol.
I mean … it is wildly cruel it doesn’t just seem that way. I suppose yeah if you view it through some sociopathic cretin billionaires perspective it makes “sense” but it’s still super fucked.
Honestly anyone that is cool with that shit needs a swift visit to the guillotine.
Oh yeah, for sure, just for clarification when I say seems to just be cruel, I mean only cruel. There’s motive behind it. But it’s unequivocally cruel and only performed by those who capitalism rewards the most: the unempathetic, the narcissistic, those who are willing to exploit others and the planet the most. They care only about power and nothing about the people or the environment they destroy. Those are just numbers to them.
Conservatives have been wrong about everything for a few centuries now. Covid was one of those most clear and unambiguous examples of their world view and ideology being wrong. It broke them, because there was no longer a single grain of doubt to hide behind, as millions died around them. So now they just manufacture a separate reality whole cloth, because it’s easier than trying to spin objective reality in their favor.
As above. This was a global crisis. The issues were not caused by the Republican party, nor by the Democrats, nor by anyone even in America! I know… Imagine a thing happening that isn’t directly to do with America!
A nasty virus spread throughout the world. Governments and scientists didn’t know what to do. They rushed to make policies to deal with it, within the crappy, corrupt political systems that all countries have. Most came up with a mostly crappy response, mostly dictated by corporate lobbies and electioneering, like every other policy they’ve ever come up with. Lots of people died. Lots more than would have if everything had been done perfectly, but we don’t live in such a world and we would no more have if the Democrats were in charge.
Nobody is angry at the republicans for causing the pandemic.
Democrats are angry that republicans (specifically under Trump) fucked up the pandemic response and at least indirectly- but also frequently directly- killed hundreds of thousands of the millions of dead Americans.
Imagine not being angry at that.
For example, Trump resisted lockdowns because rich people didn’t want to lose money. This lead to greater spread, which lead to a larger surge which lead to overwhelmed ICUs and deciding who got ventilators and who didn’t.
While Trump was looting medical resources exactly like ventilators and sending them to his bestie, Putin.
As above. This was a global crisis. The issues were not caused by the Republican party, nor by the Democrats, nor by anyone even in America! I know… Imagine a thing happening that isn’t directly to do with America!
Welll there were some people trying to prevent lockdowns from being enacted, some people suggesting Ivermectin and bleach as cures or prevention for COVID, etc…
Different countries had very different outcomes and while the US wasn’t the worst, it could’ve been a lot better if a certain party hadn’t hampered any effort at improving the situation.
Sure. But there are also some scientists who think the lockdown didn’t work, or only work really fast and hard. Or only work in dense populations but are useless in sparse ones. The Democrats don’t have a monopoly on truth, they’re not omniscient. They just had a different idea of how they wanted to respond based (like every other politician) on what they thought would sell well to their electorate.
Who knows what they word have actually done in power. I hate to break it to you, but politicians lie - it’s kind of their job.
A bit unfortunate you’re getting down voted for a more nuanced take. The jury is still out on large scale lockdowns. China managed to control the spread by aggressive contact tracing and testing, resorting to lockdowns as last resort. And it worked fairly well for some time.
According to our estimates, the policy intervention saved 866,350–1,711,150 lives (4,886,214–9,650,886 quality-adjusted life-years), while mortality attributable to the economic downturn was 57,922–245,055 lives (2,093,811–8,858,444 life-years). We conclude that the number of lives saved by the spring-summer lockdowns and other COVID-19-mitigation was greater than the number of lives potentially lost due to the economic downturn. However, the net impact on quality-adjusted life expectancy is ambiguous
The comparative analysis of different countries showed that the assumption of lockdowns’ effectiveness cannot be supported by evidence—neither regarding the present COVID-19 pandemic, nor regarding the 1918–1920 Spanish Flu and other less-severe pandemics in the past. The price tag of lockdowns in terms of public health is high: by using the known connection between health and wealth, we estimate that lockdowns may claim 20 times more life years than they save. It is suggested therefore that a thorough cost-benefit analysis should be performed before imposing any lockdown for either COVID-19 or any future pandemic.
a cost-benefit analysis of the response to COVID-19 finds that lockdowns are far more harmful to public health (at least 5–10 times so in terms of wellbeing years) than COVID-19 can be.
Biomedical evidence from the early months of the pandemic suggests that lockdowns were associated with a reduced viral reproductive rate, but that less restrictive measures also had a similar effect. Lockdowns are associated with reduced mortality in epidemiological modelling studies but not in studies based on empirical data from the Covid-19 pandemic. Psychological research supports the proposition that lengthy lockdowns may exacerbate stressors such as social isolation and unemployment that have been shown to be strong predictors of falling ill if exposed to a respiratory virus. Studies at the economic level of analysis points to the possibility that deaths associated with economic harms or underfunding of other health issues may outweigh the deaths that lockdowns save, and that the extremely high financial cost of lockdowns may have negative implications for overall population health in terms of diminished resources for treating other conditions.
c/ootl - got the context for this? Who’s criticizing him and why?
Dr. Fauci got called to a Senate committee that Rand Paul put together to question him on COVID-19 after publishing his personal diary. The Republicans tried to do anything to make Dr. Fauci look bad and publicly insulted him over and over to his face. It was all an attempt to get him to say something they could construe as perjury. So, because he’s not some idiot, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights over and over. Now, the Republicans want to hold him in contempt for…using his constitutionally protected rights. The same constitution, by the way, they swear to support and defend.
Rand Paul yelling “Who the fuck do you think you are?!!” In a congressional hearing should embarrass all Americans, but we’re well past that point, I guess.
I’ve been embarrassed since he turned our politics into reality tv.
Republicans are dogpiling him right now because after appearing before congress like 20 times already to talk about covid, during the latest appearance he stopped giving AF and exercised his right to remain silent while basically calling Rand Paul an asshole lol.
So in typical conservative fashion, despite hundreds of hours of context leading up to this moment, all the headlines are like “SEE HE MUST BE A LIAR OTHERWISE HE WOULD TESTIFY”
They basically blame him directly for covid. And by covid they mean the social and economic harm of masking and social distancing, because the actual virus itself obviously isn’t real. And if it is real it was made in a lab. But despite being made in a lab it does absolutely nothing to you, total nothing virus, basically just a bad cold. Actually it’s the vaccines that caused all the deaths. The same vaccines that are Joe Biden’s fault despite them literally being produced and released under the direction of Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed”, all during his first term as president. Which isn’t true Trump would never do that. And if he did it’s because Fauci lied to him
Make it make sense
It doesn’t, that’s the problem. A problem a lot of us Americans are dealing with - when you can’t make any sense of what or why these politicians and their supporters have these ideas and do the things … It’s very hard to not be worried. Like I have anxiety bad enough it’s a disorder but I feel like every thinking man woman and child in the USA right now is walking around just holding onto that low-key anxious energy because nothing makes any sense.
Like even if you try to find a reason there isn’t one and if there is a reason it’s nonsensical, probably racist, and one hundred percent not grounded in our shared reality.
But it does make sense (just not good). You and I might not agree with the motives, but they do exist. There are entities both external and internal to the US that want to tear society down. Causing disfunction, fomenting hate, allowing infrastructure to decay, creating chaos, sowing discord and more are all a part of that effort. There might be differing reasons these entities have, but it boils down to greed and authoritarian control. It is happening elsewhere, as well. We see right-wing ideology/politics springing up in Latin America, Europe and Asia.
The Foundation of Geopolitics is one of the texts that lined out the (Russian) path for the future and how to disrupt the West that was aligned against them and it appears to be working. The other large influencer is Israel. I am certain the Mossad is out there thwarting the democratic process to help shape their goals. The billionaire club are the other parties that are helping to bring all this together. I thought I read somewhere that they are pressing the gas-pedal for human extinction b/c they believe they are better and above that. Therefore they will survive and will start the new (improved) human cycle or something after we are removed. Again, their reasons might vary, but the results are the same. Shackles for you and me and the world is theirs to conquer. So far.
I am sure I have a less than perfect perspective and two paragraphes doesn’t cover much here really, but this is roughly how I see current affairs from my limited proto-human lense.
Accelerationism
Dark MAGA - Here’s a video too. Curtis Yarvin is loved by Peter Thiel. JD Vance is Thiel’s protege. Thiel is the one that wanted to make a corporate government nation state out of Greenland, entirely deregulated. They call it “Praxis.” Trump also started talking about “freedom cities” which is the same concept. Literally making their own nation states to live in while the poors are left out to die or whatever in the coming climate apocalpyse.
Shit is fucked up yo.
I hear ya. I just mean looking at it from a purely selfish and utilitarian lens there really is no actual reason for a lot of the bad shit happening. Like it’s not helping anyone, it’s actively harming people and a lot of the people getting harmed voted for it.
I guess maybe because it makes people money in terms of the military industrial complex and prison complex (slavery) so that could be part of it. I’m tired of it all though - this timeline is so stupid.
I think you might like this video
Benn calls it “leveragism” but basically it’s about control. Rather than making more money, it’s more valuable to devalue/strip the power of communities to fight against you so that you can more easily institute your policies. When you think of it like that, stuff that just seems wildly cruel starts to make sense.
But really, Benn is just analyzing material conditions and coming to a logical conclusion. I don’t think he’s read Marx, but it’s basically Marx lol.
I mean … it is wildly cruel it doesn’t just seem that way. I suppose yeah if you view it through some sociopathic cretin billionaires perspective it makes “sense” but it’s still super fucked.
Honestly anyone that is cool with that shit needs a swift visit to the guillotine.
Oh yeah, for sure, just for clarification when I say seems to just be cruel, I mean only cruel. There’s motive behind it. But it’s unequivocally cruel and only performed by those who capitalism rewards the most: the unempathetic, the narcissistic, those who are willing to exploit others and the planet the most. They care only about power and nothing about the people or the environment they destroy. Those are just numbers to them.
Conservatives have been wrong about everything for a few centuries now. Covid was one of those most clear and unambiguous examples of their world view and ideology being wrong. It broke them, because there was no longer a single grain of doubt to hide behind, as millions died around them. So now they just manufacture a separate reality whole cloth, because it’s easier than trying to spin objective reality in their favor.
the gop house is again using the distraction of targeting fauci again, try to get him to say covid was a hoax.
Iirc the House is subpoenaing him again to try and blame him for all their failings
As above. This was a global crisis. The issues were not caused by the Republican party, nor by the Democrats, nor by anyone even in America! I know… Imagine a thing happening that isn’t directly to do with America!
A nasty virus spread throughout the world. Governments and scientists didn’t know what to do. They rushed to make policies to deal with it, within the crappy, corrupt political systems that all countries have. Most came up with a mostly crappy response, mostly dictated by corporate lobbies and electioneering, like every other policy they’ve ever come up with. Lots of people died. Lots more than would have if everything had been done perfectly, but we don’t live in such a world and we would no more have if the Democrats were in charge.
Nobody is angry at the republicans for causing the pandemic.
Democrats are angry that republicans (specifically under Trump) fucked up the pandemic response and at least indirectly- but also frequently directly- killed hundreds of thousands of the millions of dead Americans.
Imagine not being angry at that.
For example, Trump resisted lockdowns because rich people didn’t want to lose money. This lead to greater spread, which lead to a larger surge which lead to overwhelmed ICUs and deciding who got ventilators and who didn’t.
While Trump was looting medical resources exactly like ventilators and sending them to his bestie, Putin.
Fuck you for spreading trump apologia.
Welll there were some people trying to prevent lockdowns from being enacted, some people suggesting Ivermectin and bleach as cures or prevention for COVID, etc…
Different countries had very different outcomes and while the US wasn’t the worst, it could’ve been a lot better if a certain party hadn’t hampered any effort at improving the situation.
Sure. But there are also some scientists who think the lockdown didn’t work, or only work really fast and hard. Or only work in dense populations but are useless in sparse ones. The Democrats don’t have a monopoly on truth, they’re not omniscient. They just had a different idea of how they wanted to respond based (like every other politician) on what they thought would sell well to their electorate.
Who knows what they word have actually done in power. I hate to break it to you, but politicians lie - it’s kind of their job.
A bit unfortunate you’re getting down voted for a more nuanced take. The jury is still out on large scale lockdowns. China managed to control the spread by aggressive contact tracing and testing, resorting to lockdowns as last resort. And it worked fairly well for some time.
deleted by creator
The downvotes are par for the course, if I was interested in a popularity contest I wouldn’t have commented on a thread about Fauci!
You’re right on lockdowns. The jury is out, but most seem to think them a mistake, or mistakenly applied.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0261759
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9295
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.625778/full
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3782395
Partisan theater with no real purpose.