For some months, I have been arguing that the declaration of a “public health emergency” based on the Wuhan virus epidemic has had much more to do with an effort to curtail civil liberties…and to develop a body of favorable Supreme Court decisions that essentially eviscerate the Bill of Rights…than they have to do with any desire to keep Americans safe.

As we’ve seen in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan (to name the top-shelf examples), there are state governments who are perfectly happy killing as many of us as necessary to get their way. (As an aside, perhaps no more malicious example of deliberately killing people to, I think, keep the death rate high exists than former Pennsylvania Secretary of Health and current Assistant Secretary of Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, “Rachel” Levine, who removed “her” mother from a long term care facility before ordering such facilities to accept patients infected with the China virus. See Joe Biden Just Named the Pennsylvania Transgender Secretary of Health to be Assistant Secretary for Health and That Is Really Not Good and Biden’s Health Department Pick Took Mother Out of Nursing Home After Ordering COVID Positive Patients In.)

Under the guise (I say “guise” because there is zero evidence that any of the fascistic measures imposed upon us have had any positive effect in mitigating the of preventing the spread of the virus, an unprecedented assault has been carried on the US Constitution that makes Adams’ Alien and Sedition Act, Lincoln’s suspension of Habeas Corpus, Wilson’s “Palmer Raids,” Roosevelt’s trail of abuses during World War II, and anything Joe McCarthy had to offer look like the actions of imaginative amateurs. The number of people at family gatherings has been curtailed by executive fiat. Funerals have been broken up by the police. Churches have been shuttered. We’ve been forced to wear facemasks as signs of our obedience to the Public Health Gods.

For the most part, the messaging by the bureaucracy has been consistent. Fifteen days to flatten the curve. Thirty days to stop the spread (we’re now about 400 days into the ordeal, but you know what I mean). Wear a mask. Maintain social-distancing. That messaging is becoming more bizarre and erratic as the distribution of the Wuhan vaccine becomes more widespread. Every once in a while, an event takes place that demonstrates that the people who are supposed are either sociopaths or totally adrift in the sea of chaos they have created.

One of those events took place yesterday when Ohio Representative Jim Jordan confronted America’s malignant elf, Dr. Anthony Fauci, on the plan to extricate ourselves from this Orwellian nightmare where attending Easter services is a health hazard but burning down a business district is perfectly okay. This is the whole exchange. A full transcript is at the end of the post.

By way of background, this is essentially Round 2. Jordan confronted Fauci over his nonsensical rules on July 31 (transcript). That video is below.

My colleague, Scott Hounsell, gave a brilliant rundown of the whole thing here, WATCH: Jim Jordan Proves Fauci a Fraud in One Question.

I want to tease out one small part of it. The setup is that Jordan asks Fauci for the metrics he will use to reopen the country. This is a reasonable question, given the damage the Insane Clown Posse at NIH/NIAID/CDC has inflicted on our economy and society. The question is at the 0:58 mark on the first video.

Jordan: What…what measure? What I mean are we just going to continue this forever? When does, when do we get to the point? What measure, what standard, what objective outcome do we have to reach before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back?

Fauci: You know you’re indicating liberty and freedom, I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to the hospital.

Jordan: You don’t think Americans’ liberties have been threatened last year, Dr. Fauci? They’ve been assaulted, their liberties have.

Fauci: I don’t look at this as a liberty thing, Congressman Jordan…

Jordan: Well, that’s obvious.

Fauci: …as a public health thing, but I disagree with you on that completely…

Jordan You think the constitution is suspended during a virus, during a pandemic? It’s certainly not.

It is hard to conceive of a more tone-deaf and hubristic answer. Of course, Fauci doesn’t look at this as a “liberty thing,” because he and his social class haven’t suffered because of his f***ed up decisions.

Over and over, Jordan tries to get Fauci to point to a number that will indicate that this ostensible reason for this nonsense has passed. He won’t. He won’t because he can’t. And he can’t because the objective is not public health; it is arrogating power to the public health establishment and making the rubes out in the hinterlands jump through whatever hoops NIH and CDC decide to put them through. It gets better. This picks up at 3:55 on the first video.

Jordan: And I’m asking a question: what measures have to be attained before Americans get their First Amendment liberties back?

Fauci: I just told you that.

Jordan: You haven’t given anything specific. You said we hope when this certain…tell me specifically…

Fauci: Right now, right now we have about 60 000 infections a day which is a very large risk for a surge. We’re not talking about liberties; we’re talking about a pandemic that has killed five hundred and sixty thousand Americans. That’s what we’re talking about.

Here, Fauci tries to turn into a fierce Shih-Tzu. He can’t answer the real question, so he goes for the “higher purpose” argument. He seems to want to say, “I don’t care about your rights and your families; I’m busy doing God’s work.” We actually aren’t talking about whatever number of Americans had died from the virus. We can do nothing for them, and, more to the point, nothing Fauci and Friends did helped them. They are dead, and our focus has to be on the living. Having demonstrated empirically that nothing that the CDC recommended has had any measurable positive impact (h/t to alert commenter gdit for the addition of the word “positive”), the real question Fauci needs to be wrestling with is how to detach himself from this tar baby with a shred of credibility.

Eventually, the leadership in the House and Senate is going to change. Some day, Fauci is going to screw up something else, and the people he’s told to FOAD are going to remember how he acted, his lack of candor, and, yes, I’ll say it, his gross incompetence. It won’t be fun for him. But it will be for us.

Transcript

Jordan: When is the time? Well, in your written statement, you say, “now is not the time to pull back on masking physical distancing and avoiding congregate settings.” When is the time, when do Americans get their freedom back? Can you put your microphone, please?

Fauci: Sorry. When we get the level of infection in this country low enough that it is not a really high.

Jordan: What is low enough? Give me a number. What I mean is we had 15 days to slow the spread turned into one year of lost liberty. What metrics, what measures, what has to happen before Americans get more freedom

Fauci: My message, uh, Congresswoman Jordan, is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can to get the level of infection in this country low, that it is no longer a threat. That is when. And I believe when that happens you will see…

Jordan: What determines when?

Fauci: I’m sorry…

Jordan: What…what measure? What I mean, are we just going to continue this forever? When does, when do we get to the point? What measure, what standard, what objective outcome do we have to reach before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back?

Fauci: You know you’re indicating liberty and freedom, I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to the hospital.

Jordan: You don’t think Americans’ liberties have been threatened last year Dr. Fauci? They’ve been assaulted, their liberties have.

Fauci: I don’t look at this as a liberty thing, Congressman Jordan…

Jordan: Well, that’s obvious.

Fauci: …as a public health thing but I disagree with you on that completely…

Jordan You think the constitution is suspended during a virus, during a pandemic? It’s certainly not.

Fauci: This will end, for sure, when we get the level of infection very low. It is now at such a high level there’s a threat again of major …

Jordan: Dr. Fauci, Dr. Fauci, over the last year Americans’ First Amendment rights have been completely attacked. Your right to go to church, your right to assemble, your right to petition your government, freedom of the press, freedom of speech have all been assaulted. For a year now, Americans haven’t been able to go to church. Even today when they go to church, they’re limited to the size of worshipers who can meet. Your right to assemble? Oh my goodness, we had a curfew last fall in Ohio you had to be in your home at 10. In Pennsylvania, you had to be in your home, uh, when you’re in your home you had to wear a mask. In Vermont, when you were in your home you didn’t have to wear a mask, Dr. Fauci, because you weren’t allowed to have people over to your house.

Fauci. Yeah, Congressman Jordan

Jordan: Your ability to petition your government? For a year, for a year, American citizens haven’t been able to come to their capital to petition their government, to talk to their representatives. And freedom of the press? These very pictures that Representative Scalise just showed you and talked about guess what? The press isn’t allowed in those facilities. The Biden administration will not let the press in there. And certainly freedom of speech? I mean, the governor of our third largest state meets with physicians and that video is censored because they dare to disagree with Dr. Fauci? So, I just want to know when do Americans get their First Amendment liberties back?

Fauci: Right. You know I don’t think anything was censored because they felt they couldn’t disagree with me. I think you’re pers…you’re making this a personal thing and it isn’t.

Jordan: It’s not a personal thing…

Fauci: No you are. That is exactly what you’re doing.

Jordan: No, your recommendations carry a lot of weight, Dr. Fauci. We just had the chair of the financial services committee said she loves you and you’re the greatest thing in the world.

Fauci: My recommendations are consistent…

Chairwoman: Will the gentleman yield?

Jordan: No, it’s my…

Fauci: Can I answer the question please? My recommendations are not a personal recommendation. It’s based on the CDC guidance which is, which is…

Jordan: And I’m asking a question: what measures have to be attained before Americans get their First Amendment liberties back?

Fauci: I just told you that.

Jordan: You haven’t given anything specific. You said we hope when this certain…tell me specifically…

Fauci: Right now, right now we have about 60 000 infections a day which is a very large risk for a surge. We’re not talking about liberties; we’re talking about a pandemic that has killed five hundred and sixty thousand Americans. That’s what we’re talking about.

Jordan: I get that, what I’m talking about…and I don’t disagree with that and I understand how serious that is but I also understand it’s pretty serious when businesses have been shut down, people can’t go to church, people can’t assemble in their own homes with their friends, with their families. People can’t go to a loved one’s funeral. People can’t get to their government to petition their representative to redress their grievances.

I also understand the First Amendment’s pretty darn important and it’s been a year and I want to know when Americans will get those First Amendment liberties back.

Fauci: Well, you just said people cannot assemble in their own homes. They can. That’s a CDC recommendation for vaccines…

Jordan: Not last fall they couldn’t

Fauci: I didn’t…

Jordan: Not last fall they couldn’t.

Fauci: I didn’t hear what he said.

Chairman Clyburn: The gentleman’s time has expired. Um, I’ll give you one of when we can get our liberties back. It’s when ninety percent of the members of the United States Congress get vaccinated.

Jordan: Well, I want to know if that’s what Dr. Fauci…is it ninety percent? Is it ninety percent? That’s what I’d like to know. Give me some give us some objective standards versus when certain things get reached we might be able to get back to having our liberty…when? What are the numbers?

Fauci: You’re going to see a gradual…um…from the…right now we’re at an unacceptably high level where…on a daily basis it’s unacceptably high regardless of who you are. What you’re going to see as more and more people get vaccinated and we get over three million people a day, you’re going to see the level of infection come down and down and gradually there will be more flexibility for doing the things that you’re talking about.

Jordan: Where does it get to? When it comes down, what number do we get our liberties back? Tell me the number.

Clyburn: When ninety percent of the members of congress get vaccinated.

Jordan: You’re not a doctor, Mr. Clyburn, he is. What is the number?

Maloney: I thank you for recognizing me, Mr. Clyburn, thank you.

Clyburn: The chair now recognizes…uh…for five minutes.

Jordan: I’d like my question answered.

Unidentified: He’s claiming my time.

Unidentified Harpy: Regular order. Regular order.

Jordan: Just a moment. Mr. Chairman, I don’t want you to answer my question, the American people want Dr. Fauci to answer the question. What does it have to be?

Unidentified Harpy: Your time has expired, sir. You need to respect the chair and shut your mouth.

Clyburn: Don’t worry about this, we we’re going to handle this and I think Mr. Jordan knows me very well and he knows full well that we’re going to handle this. Your time has expired and the chair and now recognizes Mrs. Maloney.

Jordan: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.