Latest Blog Posts

• Reading the Fauci Diary

  After Fauci declined to give any testimony in the Senate last week, I have decided to start reading his diary, which was released by Senator Rand Paul on the weekend before the hearing.

  Interestingly, this is very much a personal diary. Even though Fauci’s private life and work are deeply intertwined — as anyone’s in such a position would be — this diary clearly has a personal bend. It covers private meetings and occasions and is much more concerned with how Fauci sees himself being covered in the media and how he is seen in the public perception, rather than with the work he must be doing at any given time. He meticolously lists media interviews, but talks very little about meeting with employees or whatever else must be going on at NIAID at the time.

  If you are wondering how such a personal journal could have been released publicly, it seems that this is the case because it was written (apparently largely within Fauci’s work hours) on NIAID computers and stored on NIAID servers.

  I plan to write about interesting things I find in the diary, as I discover them, here on the blog. All of this will be collected unter the #fauci tag.

  ---

• Fauci Takes the Fifth

  Wow. Holy shit. Fauci just took the Fifth in the COVID-19 pandemic hearing in the Senate. He is refusing to answer any questions. He keeps quoting that his lawyers advised him to not answer any questions. His hands are shaking.

  This is a scandal.

  Screenshot: C-SPAN

  ---

• The Cockroaches Get Modi to Back Down

  Well, it looks like those cockroaches really got some stuff done. What a success story! Amazing what the internet can do.

  Indian youth protesters have called off weeks of demonstrations and celebrated in the streets after the education minister quit and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government bowed to demands including calls to fix a cheating-prone exam system.

  The worst political crisis of Modi’s third term in office had peaked this week when thousands of protesters marched on parliament, with police using tear gas to control them. Young voters form a critical base of his Bharatiya Janata Party. But youths calling themselves “cockroaches” had taken to the streets since late June, after national exam papers were leaked, forcing a resit that affected 2 million students and galvanising anger about the lack of prospects for young Indians. The resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the students’ primary demand, came as a surprise because Modi has a reputation for refusing to act under pressure.

  Modi’s party faces key state elections next year. Similar youth-led protest movements brought down governments in neighbouring Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh in recent years.

  → India’s “cockroach” protesters claim surprise victory as government accepts their demands, The Sidney Morning Herald

  It seems these “Discord revolutions” are a new factor on the political scene that has to be reckoned with going forward.

  ---

• My Last Email from Dvorak

  While looking though my email archive this morning, I found this email by John C. Dvorak, where he replied to me sending some information to the No Agenda show. This was less than a month before his death. That signature made me laugh every time I saw it. What a character! 😄😭

  SENT from my bakelite rotary phone
  one letter at a time

  

  ---

→ See all blog posts or subscribe to the blog's RSS feed