What hath the Fauch wrought?

 Anthony Fauci proves why Republicans must win the midterms - American Thinker   "Anthony Fauci directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for almost 40 years. Today, he stands as the embodiment of a bureaucracy that answers to no one."

. . . "Accountability ends if Democrats seize one or both houses of Congress this autumn. They will block Republican inquiries, shield blue officials who misled America, and champion elite immunity. GOP voters should see that showing up at the polls is vital. It is the only way to prevent a return to the Democratic system of deception and impunity that has already cost the nation so much." . . .

Fauci's 5th   . . . "Fauci repeated the phrase, “on the advice of my counselor…” no less than 111 times, each repetition digging himself deeper into ignominy. The peak was unquestionably reached with Sen. Josh Hawley, who treated Fauci with all the mockery and contempt he had coming with a series of questions that nobody but a fool could ever take as incriminating. “What color is your tie?” “What color is the carpet in front of you?” Each time, Fauci answered like a robot. Hawley concluded by telling him to his face that he deserved prison." . . .

The contemptible MSNOW used Hawley's questions to denigrate the Republicans as expected.

Fifth Amendment Fauci’s Narcissism Destroyed Faith in Scientific Methodology . . . "Consider the six-foot social distancing rule. When pressed on the empirical basis for closing schools, shuttering businesses, and putting one-way arrows on grocery store floors, Fauci admitted during sworn testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on January 24 that the rule “just sort of appeared,” with no rigorous clinical trials or controlled studies behind it. It was, in his own words, an empirical decision, not grounded in solid data. Millions of children lost years of developmental and educational progress. Small businesses went under. Families were torn apart — over a metric that had essentially been made up." . . .

Don’t Forget How Florida Defeated ‘Faucism’ and Vindicated Federalism

"I would know: I moved to Florida in 2021 in no small part due to the way Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) handled COVID-19."

. . . "One-size-fits-all bureaucratic governance from the nation’s capital is incompatible with American constitutionalism and the American way of life. As James Madison put it in The Federalist No. 45: “The powers … which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” Justice Louis D. Brandeis put it memorably in a 1932 Supreme Court dissent: “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.'”  "That’s exactly what Florida under DeSantis did."

California's gas taxes keep climbing. Highway performance doesn't.

"Each gas tax increase asks Californians to pay more for a highway system that continues to underperform."

Reason Foundation.   

California’s Interstate pavement is also rough, ranking among the worst: 48th out of 50 urban pavement conditions and 47th in rural pavement conditions. 

"Californians already pay the nation’s highest fuel tax. On July 1, the state fuel tax rose again, by another 2.2 cents to 63.4 cents per gallon under a state law’s annual inflation adjustment.

"Inflation raises the costs of asphalt, steel, and labor, so a modest yearly adjustment to maintain and build roads and bridges is reasonable, in theory. Unfortunately, drivers aren’t getting their money’s worth in California. Despite annual increases in the state fuel tax, California’s highways are getting worse, not better.

"In California, roughly $1.15 of every gallon of fuel purchased goes to federal and state taxes, generating more than $14 billion for transportation in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. This is far more revenue than second-place Texas collects, even though it has a larger state highway network, and should be enough to maintain roads and bridges properly.

"Instead, California has the nation’s second-worst-performing, least cost-effective highway system, according to Reason Foundation’s 29th Annual Highway Report, which compares spending, pavement quality, road safety and other measures across all 50 states. California ranks 49th in overall highway performance and cost-effectiveness, only ahead of Alaska, which faces numerous weather and geographic challenges." . . . More...

The Media Takes the Fifth and Denounces Those Questioning Fauci as an “Assault on Science”

 JONATHAN TURLEY  

They are now claiming victimization in being asked to account for evidence that they were wrong. As Dr. Scott Atlas has laid out, many of those who abused dissenting scientists faced no repercussions after those scientists were largely vindicated in later research.

"As I wrote yesterday, Dr. Anthony Fauci was not the only one taking the Fifth yesterday on his record during the pandemic. The media effectively invoked the same privilege to avoid self-incrimination for their years of deifying the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Across the cable networks, hosts and guests were going into vapors as Republican senators pummelled Fauci over his COVID policies and the glaring contradictions found in his diary entries. Some, like Dr. Scott Ratzan, echoed Fauci’s own prior claim that any questioning of his judgment was an attack on science.

"Once again, Fauci had every right to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. That does not mean that it was the right thing to do. Fauci already had a pardon that notably extended back to 2014 when his agency approved gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab in China. Any prosecution would be difficult in light of the pardon. It would not be impossible since he could be charged with perjury for any false statements. Yet, that was the same threat that existed during countless prior hearings for Fauci.

"So what was the difference now? The answer is found in diary entries and other evidence that contradicts Fauci’s public statements on subjects ranging from the lab theory to school closures. It is not that Fauci would have been tripped into false answers but that he did not have any obvious answers to some of these criticisms.

"Instead, Fauci invoked the privilege 111 times. That fell short of Vito Genovese’s record, who invoked the privilege 150 times." . . .

. . . "It was a maddening statement, repeated by many, that treated Fauci as inviolate, if not infallible. Fauci was wrong about issues that produced tragic costs for this country. When confronted about policies such as school closures, he insisted he had never recommended them while privately admitting he had." . . .

 More...

Give land back to ‘original owners,’ or shut up

 Silvio Canto, Jr.   

 "Another opening ceremony and another land acknowledgment about how we are doing business on land stolen from this nation or that nation. It’s the way it is whenever the liberals want to celebrate a new presidential library or a new bridge like this one between Michigan and Ontario."

. . . "What we have done with the land? Well, we built a prosperous nation on the land with more respect for the rule of law than whatever was here before. Did the nation that “owned” this land allow its own people to speak about how the land was stolen by them from another nation? It probably was because there is no original owner of the land. Again, the nation that we remember today very likely stole it from another nation. Sorry, but that’s history!

"The real problem is that these acknowledgments are starting to get old and just obnoxious. So stop talking about it and do something tangible. Give the keys and title of “the stolen land” to the original owners. Let them charge tolls on the bridge or do whatever they want to do. Give the nation a seat in the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement so they can profit from whatever crosses that bridge from that “stolen land.”

"Come on, do it or stop talking about it!" . . .

Crow Tribe History, Culture, and Facts - History Keen   The Sioux were in the area of the Little Bighorn because they had taken that land away from the Crow tribes.

Fight between Crows and Sioux, Indian Peoples Digital Image Database Object Description - Montana State University Library