Here we go...

A few thoughts on a dark day

The first headline on my phone this morning: Biden pardons Fauci to preempt possible charges when Trump takes office.

Casual observers might think, huh, well, he’s protecting key officials. Anti-vaxxers are certain to yell and scream about a cover-up. But here’s what I can’t shake right now: Fauci did nothing wrong.

He was targeted by Mikki Willis in the pseudomentary, Plandemic, due to an old gripe dating back to the nineties. Since then, anti-vaxxers have charged him with every crime imaginable. He became a Soros-level boogeyman to project every pandemic-era grievance upon.

The incoming HHS Secretary, RFK Jr, wrote a bestselling book about the “real” Fauci that was riddled with misinformation. That didn’t stop over 1 million people from purchasing it. (I know he’s not confirmed as HHS Secretary, but considering a number of democrats are lining up behind him, I highly doubt he’s going to be blocked.)

In this light, Biden’s pardon makes sense. Fauci is the exact type of science-minded bureaucrat that anti-vaxxers and wellness folk loathe. He worked for over 50 years in the highest reaches of science. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the eighties, he bore the brunt of AIDS activism, though he was later vindicated for his work—except by people like Willis, who blames his own brother’s death on Fauci (without ever providing any sort of evidence).

Few people have been as villainized by the right. Protecting an 84-year-old public servant makes sense.

The real issue is that it had to be done at all.

Yet I can’t get past the possibility that we’re going to see a lot more of it in the coming years.

Trump plans on signing “close to 100” executive orders today. This will be followed by immigration raids in blue cities over the next week. And, of course, this follows the release of two shit meme coins that, in one weekend, put over a reported billion-plus dollars into his family’s coffers.

The zone is already flooded with shit and we’re just on day one. Then again, it’s been flooded for years. And it’s going to get worse, especially given the caving to Trump this time around by this strange cohort of billionaires, wellness folk, crypto fans, celebrities, and others.

Yesterday I cut a short video on one of the most influential thinkers behind the billionaires and his thoughts on women’s rights. Strap in, as this is where we’re headed—which means we have to resist more than ever before.