Raskin: He's clearly running scared in his district. We've got a very strong candidate and he's sinking like a stone politically. And so he decided to try to rev up some interest on Fox News and everybody could see through it. All he was interested in was that political theater.

Took me almost a full week, but I’ve finally finished the Fauci Diaries. It is a look inside the state/corporatist system possibly without precedent. It doesn’t provide the entire picture of events but it is remarkably candid. The first spin on this book is partially correct: it’s an exercise in vanity. True. But there is much more here. It’s the story of the descent of a soul at every stage of decline: social climbing, egomania, megalomania, duplicity, self deception, intensifying levels of malice, exhaustion using courtiers as salve, and ending in total defeat realized only inchoately. Reading it is a remarkable experience. It’s obviously not well written but that is a strength, a bit like how the “Blair Witch Project” is scarier due to its low budget. It’s raw and painful, alarming and shocking, and ultimately speaks to much more than the life of the author. It’s really a window into systemic corruption of nearly all the commanding heights of society itself, and offers a devastating indictment of the ruling class in government, media, science, and industry. Does Fauci catch on that the media is using him as much as he is using them, that is, that he inhabited a world of fakery? Maybe but he decides early on that it is only choice. He has to keep it up else his whole world crumbles. This Icarus just kept flapping his wings without realizing that they were melting. Another feature that stands out: It was always political theater and never about science. Multiple times, Fauci overrides evidence in favor of messaging toward his preferred political and industrial end. Then you have this strange and persistent obsession of Fauci of maintaining social position with daily infusions of assurance that he is great, loved, admired, admitted to all the right parties, attended all the best events, with a contacts list that included the world’s rich, famous, and powerful. This is all he had to assure himself of his grand life. Even in the end, he does not seem to realize the role he played in upending the very system to which he so desperately wanted to belong. Yes, nearly every page makes me angry but finishing it leaves me with something I had not expected; something like the sadness you feel in a Gothic novel when a promising life takes a terrible turn toward perdition and somehow cannot find the escape from that path. The Picture of Dorian Grey also comes to mind. Fauci guarded his reputation as a scientist just as Dorian guarded his seeming youth. To do so required a costly exchange. In both stories, the status of the soul (represented by the painting for Dorian) belies appearances. Nowhere could he have anticipated during the writing of the book that six years after his apotheosis that he would be trapped in a chair in a Senate chamber, ashen and defeated, surrounded by silent lawyers, his accusers on all sides, pleading the 5th amendment 111 times. The wings completely melted. De profundis clamavi. I invite you and everyone to spend time with this book for the ages.

Trump Administration’s “Medical Freedom” (Anti-Vaccine) Crusade and the Military Flu Debacle In June 2026, a preventable flu outbreak struck Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Within weeks, nearly 300 recruits were infected, four hospitalized, and one dead. Young soldiers who should have been forging combat readiness through grueling training were instead sidelined by fever, cough, and exhaustion. This was not an act of nature—it was a man-made disaster, the direct result of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s abrupt decision in late April to scrap the military’s long-standing mandatory flu vaccination policy. Hegseth proudly declared that mandatory vaccines were an “absurd overreach” violating service members’ “medical autonomy” and religious freedom. He framed the move as “restoring freedom to our warriors” and a victory against “Biden-era tyranny.” Recruit vaccination rates promptly plummeted from nearly 100% to around 40%. In the crowded barracks, shared training spaces, and sleep-deprived environment—ideal breeding grounds for respiratory viruses—the protective barrier vanished, and the virus spread like wildfire. Although the Pentagon later rushed to reinstate mandatory shots for new recruits, the damage to training and readiness was already done. This incident is not isolated but symptomatic of the broader anti-vaccine tilt in the Trump administration. From Hegseth’s order to RFK Jr.’s push to overhaul childhood vaccine schedules, the pattern reveals a dangerous prioritization of individual choice over collective responsibility. The military is not civilian society: soldiers swear an oath to obey orders and defend the nation, not to exercise unfettered personal freedom. History has repeatedly shown that infectious diseases can cripple armies—from the Revolutionary War to World War II—making mandatory vaccination a proven tool for preserving combat effectiveness. Ignoring this reality turns “freedom” into an expensive illusion. The irony is thick. Hegseth tied his decision to criticism of COVID mandates while ignoring flu’s unique risks in military settings. Public health experts and even some Republican lawmakers had warned that the policy would undermine readiness. The facts bore them out: vaccination rates dropped, cases surged, taxpayer-funded medical costs rose, and training schedules were disrupted. This was not “liberating warriors”—it was experimenting with national security. The Lesson from Lackland is clear: public health policy cannot be reduced to political theater. In high-risk environments, collective protection matters far more than abstract freedom. The Trump administration’s “victory” came at the price of soldiers’ sickbeds and interrupted training, exposing the cost of placing ideology above science and reality. One can only hope this painful episode forces decision-makers to realize that the health of those who defend the nation is never a bargaining chip.