Unsurprisingly @jaketapper makes many appearances in the latest set of Fauci diary entries ... note Fauci humblebrags about hanging out w/ "A List" people: Dec. 10, 2016: "Went to of Nora O’Donnell (CBS) and Geoff Tracy (Chef Geoff’s) at [redacted]. Virtually the entire Washington, DC press corps were there plus the usual A list people. Had great conversations with Jake Tapper (CNN) about the potential impact of a Trump administration on Science and NIH." Dec. 2, 2017: "Went to the (now) annual Holiday and Geoff Tracy on [redacted]. Heavy with media people and A-list folks. Had good conversations with Norah about the Charlie Rose issue and with Jake Tapper about the Trump fiasco. Judy Woodruff, Al Hunt, Mary Hager (producer for “Face the Nation”, etc. Really an enjoyable night." Plus the usual array of fluff interviews ...

I’ll tell you how the FBI survives this: Congress comes up with a bill that increases the FBI’s budget, Trump threatens to primary every Republican who votes against it, and they all fall in line. That is how the FBI survives. It’s all theater… refuse to be a thespian!

5/ Ransomware attack wiped his confidential files. Ransomware encrypted the folder he created for "the confidential files that I made right after the anthrax attacks since I did not want them accessible to anyone"

AP: Treasure hunters accuse FBI of making off with tons of Civil War gold "The FBI either lied to a federal judge about having video of its secretive 2018 dig for Civil War-era gold, or illegally destroyed the video to prevent a father-son team of treasure hunters from gaining access to it, an attorney for the duo asserted in new legal filings that allege a government cover-up."

Chicago: A candidate for school board president is accused of groping a 17-year-old &, natch, @ChicagosMayor Johnson & the Chicago Teachers Union are standing by him. A woman says Hilario Dominguez -- then 24 & her supervisor in a CPS program -- groomed her & groped her. "The Chicago teachers union has doubled down on their support," @nbcchicago reports. "The mayor has been supportive."

Classic NYC bureaucracy! In February, Patricia Waugh, a town administrator in upstate Vermont, received a Queens parking ticket in the mail for a town vehicle. The plate is registered to a John Deere excavator, "a piece of equipment that ways at least five tons." Waugh's dispute went through three channels. Online, she hit errors citing "unexpected technical difficulties," & she had to complete the process 4x before getting a confirmation. By phone: "that woman yelled at me" By mail, she says: "I’m just going mail everything" Her take on what happened: "They just wrote down the wrong license plate number." Five months in, she received a denial & an order to pay with late fees. "The city didn’t answer any of our questions about what might have gone wrong," she says. The city sent the ticket to collections even though, as @ABC7 reports, "she sent the check for the ticket more than a month ago." The city's only answer was that an independent administrative law judge reviews every dispute.

Classic NYC bureaucracy! In February, Patricia Waugh, a town administrator in upstate Vermont, received a Queens parking ticket in the mail for a town vehicle. The plate is registered to a John Deere excavator, "a piece of equipment that ways at least five tons." Waugh's dispute went through three channels. Online, she hit errors citing "unexpected technical difficulties," & she had to complete the process 4x before getting a confirmation. By phone: "that woman yelled at me" By mail, she says: "I’m just going mail everything" Her take on what happened: "They just wrote down the wrong license plate number." Five months in, she received a denial & an order to pay with late fees. "The city didn’t answer any of our questions about what might have gone wrong," she says. The city sent the ticket to collections even though, as @ABC7 reports, "she sent the check for the ticket more than a month ago." The city's only answer was that an independent administrative law judge reviews every dispute.

Update! I’m back in. Someone from the creators program just reached out to explain why I’d been rejected & why I’m being readmitted. It seems they want more commentary. Not just clips with transcripts reporting what happened. I said they probably don’t tell print journalists they can’t just report what newsmakers are saying, but must also add their own editorializing. She said “What we want is a healthy mix of reporting and original commentary.” I’ve agreed to recalibrate my approach with my news clip-based posts. So apologies in advance for the extra reading in the days ahead. I hope @JasonJournoDC & @TheChiefNerd are likewise re-admitted.

Reading the @RandPaul's @BillGates doc dump & am noting Gates' affinity for state-run mass surveillance -- even using people's "spending records" to triangulate with whom they've been socializing. In a manuscript he sent NIAID, he writes approvingly of China's "contact tracing" technologies: "Some countries, including China and South Korea, required patients to turn over information about where they have been in the last 14 days by looking at GPS information on their phone or their spending records. It is unlikely that Western countries will require this. There are applications you can download that will help you remember where you have been; if you ever test positive, then you can voluntarily review the history or choose to share it with whoever interviews you about your contacts." He writes of Germany: "Most countries will use the approach that Germany is using, which requires interviewing everyone who tests positive and using a database to make sure there is follow-up with all the contacts. The pattern of infections is studied to see where the risk is highest and policy might need to change. "In Germany, if someone is tested and confirmed positive, the doctor is legally required to inform the local government health office. The doctor must provide all personal data—name, address, phone number—so that the health office can contact the person and ensure they isolate themselves."

Which media personalities fare the worse in Fauci's diary? Some standouts. We can start w/ professional CNN journalist @DanaBashCNN emailing Fauci quotes about how "Jim Jordan trips over his own asshole trying to debate Anthony Fauci."

How many people has Elon Musk personally murdered via his work helping defund USAID? I've run the numbers. USAID, as people outside of CNN's viewership already know, operates largely as a CIA cutout, placing assets on the ground in countries where the U.S. govt is intervening politically. USAID was instrumental is helping seed the following revolutions/coup d'états/civil wars: Serbia — Bulldozer Revolution (Oct. 2000) Venezuela — coup attempt + sustained OTI funding (April 2002) Georgia — Rose Revolution (Nov. 2003) Ukraine — Orange Revolution (2004) Haiti — Ouster of Aristide (Feb. 2004) Lebanon — Cedar Revolution (2005) Belarus — opposition funding, "Jeans Revolution" and after — attempted, failed (2006) Honduras — Coup against Zelaya (Jun. 2009) Cuba — ZunZuneo / "Cuban Twitter" — attempted, failed (2010–12) Tunisia — "Arab Spring" (2011) Egypt — "Arab Spring" (2011–12) Ukraine — Euromaidan / Revolution of Dignity (2014) Bolivia — anti-Morales funding; 2013 expulsion; 2019 ouster Kyrgyzstan — Tulip Revolution (March 2005) Without U.S. intervention, it's hard to see how any of these would have gotten off the ground. Some back-of-the-envelope math on these conflicts' bodycount: Venezuela (2002): 19 Haiti (2004): ~300 Maidan event (2014): ~100+ killed. Bolivia (2019): 36 Donbas war (2014–2022): 14,200–14,400 military & civilian deaths. Ukraine full-scale war (2022–present), deaths, both sides, mil + civ: roughly 350,000–500,000 killed. So far we're up to somewhere north of 365,000 deaths, more likely north of 500K. What else do we have? USAID also helped fund poppy (heroin) farmers in Afghanistan. Unfortunately I haven't seen estimates of how many have died as a result of this taxpayer funded drug dealing, but I'm assuming they're not small numbers. USAID also worked with groups sexually abusing/trafficking children in Kenya (2021), and the Central African Republic (2013). Much earlier, during Vietnam, USAID helped the CIA arm & feed Hmong guerrillas fighting communist forces (not the worst thing). USAID also helped the Hmong militia & other warlords smuggle opium (a far less forgivable thing). While the final tally is hard to properly calculate, if past is predicate, in helping shutdown USAID, @elonmusk could be saving hundreds of thousands of lives, thousands of African children, & millions of people around the world susceptible to opiate addiction. Get this man a Peace Prize, @NobelPrize