FIREWORKS! Rand Paul Battles Fauci Over His Internal Emails Criticizing Other ScientistsSenator Rand Paul (R-KY) went after Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, in which Paul accused Fauci of “using his salary to attack scientists” who disagree with him.
“Dr. Fauci, the idea that a government official like yourself would claim unilaterally to represent science and that any criticism of you would be considered a criticism of science itself is quite dangerous,” Paul said, setting the tone for his questioning of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Paul declared that Fauci “rules by mandate” and later in his opening cited an email in which Paul claims Fauci agreed with a colleague to work to “create a quick and devastating published takedown of three prominent epidemiologists from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford.”
Fauci, denying that the email says what Paul claims it does, shot back right away, saying that Paul is “incorrect as usual.”
“You are incorrect in almost everything you say,” Fauci continued before Paul interrupted him.
“Do you think words like a conspiracy theory should be in a scientific paper?” Paul shot back in a lengthy response.
“Senator, I never used that word when I was referring to it. You are distorting virtually everything,” Fauci hit back.
“You keep distorting the truth. It is stunning,” Fauci added.
Fauci moved on from the email and took to defending his motives as driven solely by protecting the public from Covid-19, arguing that “everything I have said has been in support of the CDC guidelines. Wear a mask, get boosted…” Paul spoke over Fauci as he continued, interjecting, “ And you’ve made it coercive and done by mandate. You’ve advocated your infallible opinion by dictated by law.”
The two continued to battle back and forth with Fauci eventually accusing Paul of a continued campaign of personal attacks against him as a tool for fundraising. Fauci pointed out that the “Fire Dr. Fauci” box on Paul’s website that solicits campaign donations.
“You are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain!” Fauci charged, holding up a photo of Paul’s website. Paul hit back saying, “You have politically attacked your colleagues in a politically reprehensible way.”
Category: BlueSky / Social Media
‘Learn to Lose’: Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade Goes In on Trump for Keeping Up His Big Lie Rhetoric
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade said that former President Donald Trump needed to “learn to lose” regarding the results of the 2020 election in an appearance on Media Buzz with host Howie Kurtz.
To introduce his colleague, Kurtz noted that “at the heart of the outraged media coverage of January 6 is Donald Trump’s insistence — we sometimes get several statements a day from him — that he he did not lose the election. You have some thoughts about that.”
“Yeah, I do,” Kilmeade replied. “I think that in life, you have to learn to lose. Hillary Clinton has to learn that. You know, Al Gore pretty much did learn that. Stacey Abrams didn’t learn that.”
“And if you did, in fact, get screwed out of this election, put together an A-team list of lawyers — not the ones we witnessed — and show us the districts and show us how,” Kilmeade continued, obliquely referring to the dozens and dozens of lawsuits that Trump lost in state and federal courts across the country. “I have not seen any of that.”
“And people were very receptive,” the Fox & Friends co-host said, noting the skepticism on the right that Joe Biden could win, and citing the history of how Andrew Jackson had “lost a controversial election despite winning the popular vote,” and then cut a deal to become secretary of state, and then “goes and wins the next two elections and becomes more powerful.”
“In life, we have to learn to lose, Democrats and Republicans,” said Kilmeade.
“Is it anti-Trump by the media to report the fact that there is no significant evidence of widespread fraud?” asked Kurtz.
“It isn’t,” Kilmeade replied, also agreeing with Kurtz that Trump’s “re-litigating 2020 is not helping the country.”
As Kurtz mentioned, this was not the first time Kilmeade has made such comments on air. On Friday’s episode of Fox & Friends, he implored his viewers to accept the election results, and specifically called out Trump’s baseless election fraud claims. “That doesn’t help the country,” he said.
Let’s talk about Yellowstone and wolves….
Carlson: The US Has Too Many People For Democracy
Media Matters has the transcript:
Our population is too big. Why should your opinion matter? You’re one of many. Previous generations of Americans didn’t live in a country like this and they would be stunned by the attitudes that are so common now — attitudes we take for granted.
“Arresting people for walking through the US Capitol building? How is that a crime?” nineteenth century Americans would wonder.
For most of our history, Americans believed they owned the Capitol. They thought it was theirs because they assumed this was their country, political leaders told them that it was.
After the 1904 presidential election, Teddy Roosevelt greeted voters in person on the lawn of the White House. It was his home, he lived there, but it belonged to them.
Attitudes like that are long gone. They’re the victim of population growth. The Athenians invented democratic government, but at its peak, Athens only had about 8,000 voters. So, past a certain scale, democracy can’t function very well. The concept of the citizen becomes too abstract.
Republican LOSES IT, Attempts To Pants Referee
January 6 Commemorative – THE LAWLESS AND THE CAPITOL – Marcus Bales & Don Caron
Matt Gaetz stokes ‘blood libel’ FBI conspiracy, wants Marjorie Taylor Greene leading Jan. 6 committee
A year after blaming antifa, Gaetz now endorses theories that Jan. 6 was an FBI-influenced inside job.Rep. Matt Gaetz said that when Republicans take control of the House, they should not disband the Jan. 6 committee. Instead, they should put controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in charge and turn the sights on blaming Democrats and the FBI.
The Panhandle Republican, who on Jan. 6 infamously blamed the Capitol riot on Antifa protesters, now wants Congress to investigate if FBI informants stoked violence that disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Donald Trump. He appeared with Greene on Steve Bannon’s podcast to discuss Jan. 6.
The most consequential moment may have come when he asserted Greene should chair the Jan. 6 Committee next year.
“I wouldn’t disband it. I would take it over,” Gaetz said. “I would throw off the tyrants that are on that committee now. I would make Marjorie Taylor Greene the chair. I would make Darren Beattie the staff director, and then we would get the truth in front of the American people.”
Beattie, a former Trump speechwriter, has leveled accusations that FBI informants were at the Jan. 6 protest instigating members of extremist groups.
Greene also appeared on an episode of Gaetz’s podcast Firebrandand endorsed using the committee to turn the investigation away from Trump and toward law enforcement and Democrats.
“I’m ready to rip the whole thing wide open and expose everything,” Greene said.
Gaetz has fed the theory the FBI played a role in pro-Trump demonstrators breaching the Capitol. He said on his own podcast he wants to subpoena an individual named Ray Epps, accused of being an FBI informant in the crowd, and pursue other theories making their way around the far right.
“Why is there no accountability for the very people who are on video dispassionately and professionally setting up a booby trap for people, a lot of whom didn’t even know they were breaking the law because barriers had been removed,” Gaetz said on Bannon’s podcast.
At one point, he employed the term blood libel, a longtime anti-Semitic attack accusing Jews of using the blood of non-Jewish children for rituals.
“The people all in this country know what is driving this, and that is the folks inside the beltway of Washington, D.C. — severely impacted with the pandemic of Potomac fever — believe that the way that American democracy ought to work is that they ought to get to make all the decisions,” Gaetz said.
“And instead of the voters picking the leaders, that the leaders and the elites and the bureaucratic class ought to be able to dictate the outcomes of elections. We don’t believe that, and we’re not going to allow them to lie about us, and we’re not going to allow this blood libel to exist as a consequence of the Jan. 6 narrative that they are putting forward.”
**Editorial Note** This is typical republican projection. The Republicans are the ones doing the most outrageous gerrymandering and voter suppression hoping to keep people who might vote against them from voting. These are facts I wish the cult followers of misleading right wing media would understand. Gaetz and Marge Greene are lying. Scottie ****
Of note, Gaetz was among those House members, including 12 Florida U.S. Representatives, who objected to certifying the votes in several states Biden won.
But Gaetz and Greene both stood by that on the podcast.
“We’re ashamed of nothing,” Gaetz said. “We are proud of the work we did on Jan. 6 to make legitimate arguments about election integrity.”
He said a press conference will be held Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riot, to discuss the “truth” of what happened that day.
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: The destruction of public education plus the depressed low wages and rising prices for more profit equal a desperate population struggling to survive that will work for any minuscule amount under any unsafe conditions. The wealthy dream come true.
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Scottie’s world today
I had a lot of fun putting this one together today. Lots of topics and discussions with right wing cult members on right wing media cartoon sites. Even with the 5 day and growing plumbing problem disaster. Enjoy. Scottie
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Labor value is stolen from workers and given to shareholders. Their record profits is your misery.
Corporations are private tyrannies. They expect your total subordination.
Workers must unite and demand better conditions and wages.
https://twitter.com/ryanhoulihan/status/1477895622028107781?s=20
It’s a special interest group that broadcasts predetermined narratives and coordinates with the Republican Party.
Trump destroys everything he touches. All who touch Trump die. The circular firing squad will continue. All to protect the ego of the most mediocre silver-spooned asshole in history.
What makes you think they were NOT Trump supporters?
Ron Johnson is typical bad faith shithead. Even if you showed him exactly what he asked for, it would not change his mind. It’s the GOP MO.
People need to know just how close this came and how many / who were involved in the prior planning to over throw valid election results because they did not like the will of the people! Scottie
Strategic racism. Structural racism. Writ large
The media depends on narratives. They know negative news is clickbait. When something does not fit their narrative, something positive, they will refuse to report on the positive.
https://twitter.com/duffyink/status/1478467255742734344?s=20
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
It depends on the environment and the emphasis put on the remote learning. Kids today spends hours online and can recite the minutia of every game they play, every tick tok they see, every music video, movie, and so on. They do learn online. It is just they are learning what they want. School work has to be given that priority and made to keep their interests, just like in schools. If kids are in an environment where they are not comfortable or have connection issues or they are just allowed not to view the lessons then they wont learn. Scottie
Is it any wonder that the number of cases, the number of hospitalizations and the number of Covid-related deaths are all proportionately higher in red states? Which also happen to have lower rates of vaccination… The smart people are taking precautions and abiding by health and safety regulations in order to do their part to help prevent the spread of the pandemic! Scottie
The filibuster rule has been modified many times over the years. In fact, the Senate started out with no filibuster rule at all. Moscow Mitch stole the goal post to pack the courts with unqualified judges and Supreme Court Justices. McConnell had no problem changing the rules so he could stack the judiciary. They had no problem changing the rules to raise the debt ceiling. Now, our democracy hangs on the vanity of one (expletive) Democratic senator. Meanwhile, where’s the line between being a “conservative” cartoonist and a supporter of those who would destroy our democracy and Putinize America? There’s a term for a professional whose services are enjoyed by criminals and traitors. Scottie
Most experts are expecting this wave of Covid cases to crest and recede in weeks (as opposed to months like other variants) and that cases will start dropping again within this coming February or so. Also, most of these cases thus far are either mild or asymptomatic (particularly if the patients are fully vaxxed) and the ones who are seriously ill from Covid aren’t vaxxed. Yes, that’s cold comfort to those who are pulling back because of the rise in cases. But this too shall pass. Hopefully, by mid-2022 or so, we can largely move on and then turn our attention to the midterms. I am hopeful that the Democrats can bounce back (if there’s a major turnaround in the case situation) and they can widen their majorities in both houses. History, though, is on the side of the party currently not in the White House gaining seats in both houses in midterms (the last time was 2002). But, even if that happens, the GOP could end up playing the foil to Biden the way earlier GOP majorities played the foil to Clinton and Obama. Both Clinton and Obama saw their parties lose control of the House and Senate in 1994 and 2010. But that didn’t stop either President from winning reelection in 1996 and 2012. Scottie
Please note that in the preamble to the constitution the reasons given to create the new country / constitution. One of those is to promote the public welfare. To take care of the people. That includes the health of the people. The government has the responsibility to create polices and rules that help people live together in a communal society. That is why we have things like traffic rules / laws for example. For society to work there has to be rules, not everyone can do what ever they like regardless of how it effects others. Scottie
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of …
Conservatives want things to JUST STAY THE SAME… and for EVERYONE TO FOLLOW THE (my) RULES… and for (my) AUTHORITY TO BE HONORED. Qublican response to every problem all the time: TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH AND MORE CULTURE WAR! People should be given the opportunity to be what they are. It must be really unpleasant to have to live your life pretending to be something else. Scottie
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And now some for fun
Barry Manilow is gay and married to a man. Back in the 60’s to cover up being gay he married a woman. The marriage last only two years. Scottie
McConnell accidentally humiliates himself with major public misstep
What does a birthday cake have to do with race?
There is no CC for this one. But the voice over is clear and strong. I like the message of this short video, and I also love to bake and I must get me one of those cake stands. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 