SATURDAY: Why did Dr. Fauci take the Fifth?

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2026

Why was Blanche confirmed? Was that an example of tribal group rage in that Senate hearing room last week?

Was that an example of the deadly rage no modern society can really expect to withstand? (Was that a gang of Achaeans coming over the walls?)

Presumably, stated opinions will differ. 

No senators embarrassed themselves more than Hawley and Moreno did. But two questions remain to be answered concerning Dr. Fauci.   

Question: Why did Dr. Fauci take the Fifth so many times?  

Answer: Fellow citizens, please! 

Dr. Fauci took the Fifth 111 times because he was asked 111 questions by the rampaging senators, quite a few of whom almost seemed to be showboating.  (As usual, Senator Lankford, R-OK, was the glaring Republican exception.) 

Presumably, every journalist knows the legal dangers involved in so-called selective pleading. So did the grown child known as Hawley, as he pimped himself to the voters back home.  

Regarding the conduct of the rampaging Republican senators:   

As usual, Senator Lankford, R-OK, was the glaring exception. The invaluable Rev provides a transcript of the hearing right here.

Question: Why did Dr. Fauci take the Fifth at all?  

Answer: We can't necessarily answer that question. But the culture built around "Lock her up" (2016) has aggressively spread in the last two years, even reaching the point reported today by Fox Digital. 

Yes, this has actually happened:  

Trump urges Jeanine Pirro to revisit dropped Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case 

President Donald Trump on Friday urged U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to take a second look at the recently dropped charges over vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

"Now that people are able to see it up close, they are reporting pure VANDALISM at The Reflecting Pool," Trump wrote on Truth Social, sharing photos from a freelance photographer that allegedly showed vandalism.

The president claimed that "People were on their knees with their hands in the water at the exact location of the ‘slashes.’ Additionally, there were witnesses to the VANDALISM, and the flexible areas of the material were cut with a knife.   

"U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro should re-visit her hastily made decision, especially since it turned out that the ‘gentleman’ involved is a big player in ActBlue, a disgraceful fundraising SCAM, and is represented by a TRUMP DERANGED SLEAZEBAG, Political Hack Lawyer, Norm Eisen, and CREW, a group that uses ‘charity’ for political purposes which is, to the best of my knowledge, ILLEGAL!"  

And so on from there. To see the furious president's new post, click this.

That's right! Given the madness of the time—the (tragic) condition the New York Times is never going to report or discuss—the president is back on Truth Social, urging the former Judge Jeannine to get David Hearn locked up.  

Given the (unfortunate) madness of the time, this was the environment in which Dr. Fauci and his legal counsel decided that he would refuse to answer any questions. 

He showed up and took a three-hour beating. But he was being asked to speak about 111 different topics at a time when an apparent form of (always unfortunate) mental disorder seems to be in control of the land.   

The New York Times won't report discuss that apparent condition. Neither will MS NOW.   

We move on to a question about a separate topic: 

Question: Why was Todd Blanche confirmed? 

Answer: We've seen an obvious part of the presumptive answer dodged by an array of cable news commentators right here in our own Blue America.  

One after another after another, we've seen them go on CNN and MS NOW and agree to play dumb.

There's an obvious presumptive answer they all agreed to swallow. To see Lawence O'Donnell report that obvious presumptive answer, we'll suggest that you click right here.

The answer he gives is blindingly obvious, unless you watch other shows.

A self-evaluation: Sadly, no verses today from Homer!

As with the Harrison Ford character in Witness (1985), it was time to return from a brief sojourn in a simpler and purer land.  

We saw Witness that summer on Block Island. Sadly (in retrospect), we were weekending there.