Idiot in Alabama - Katie Britt
And the Republican pledge to investigate and defund Dr. Fauci
WEEKLY ROUNDUP:
It’s Friday and my God, the stupidity never ends with the Alabama Republican primary set for May. The latest off-the-rails drama involves Republican U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt, who signed a pledge on Thursday to investigate and defund Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who has been the Director of the NIAID since the Reagan years, for something called “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, if she gets elected.
This is a conspiracy theory that has been making the rounds in the rightwing online blogosphere almost since the pandemic began. The only problem? Gain of function research isn’t actually a thing, and Dr. Fauci had no involvement in it, for obvious reasons.
The other problem? It is illegal for the Senate to “defund” someone and not pay them to do a job. But more importantly, the Senate does not vote for the Director of the NIAID at the National Institute of Health (NIH), much less fund their individual employment. This idiot is pledging to investigate and defund someone she would have no legal authority to affect, unless she wants to vote to defund the entire National Institute of Health, which is just as ridiculous. As a freshman Senator in the minority, she has no chance of doing either. And she isn’t alone. A new crop of Republican candidates across the country are signing this meaningless garbage.
It all started with a call-to-arms from rightwing commentator and fellow grifter Michael J. Knowles at The Daily Wire when he sent a tweet out saying he would not vote for any federal candidate who doesn’t sign his pledge to investigate and defund Dr. Fauci if they get elected, and urged others to do the same, calling it The Michael Knowles Federal Public Health Protection Pledge. All the nubes looking to become the next Marjorie Taylor Green or Matt Gaetz are proudly jumping on the bandwagon and signing it.
Katie Britt is leading the pack in Alabama to replace retiring Republican Senator Richard Shelby, with the most money in her war chest. Her two major opponents are Trump stooge Mo Brooks, who is in legal jeopardy right now over the January 6, 2021 attempted coup at the United States Capitol, and Michael Durant, the Black Hawk Down candidate with a closet filled with shameful family skeletons involving incest and sexual abuse.
So, of course, attacking Dr. Fauci is what these people care about.
It’s all a grift, of course, a gimmick for clicks and attention that these candidates hope will up their street cred with the militant arm of the Republican base on a national level, just in time for the midterms. They know they cannot actually accomplish this, morally or legally, but they are happy to cynically exploit the gullibility of their constituents anyway.
As for Katie Britt, I predict it will backfire spectacularly, either in her primary against other Republican candidates or in the general election when she goes up against the Democrat. Crazy doesn’t usually play out well in Alabama in a general election. Just ask Roy Moore.
Bread Count:
For cynically exploiting the gullibility of Alabama voters, who have been brainwashed by rightwing propaganda since the pandemic began, in order to gain cheap clicks and attention, I am starting Katie Britt out with seven slices of bread. For signing a pledge to attack Dr. Anthony Fauci based on the batshit crazy lies of a rightwing conspiracy theory nobody in their right mind would believe and propagating misinformation about the Covid pandemic that erodes public trust in America’s health institutions and endangers people’s lives, I am subtracting six slices, for a total bread count of one slice, the equivalent of a pity slice, because she’s new to this.
🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞 - 🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞 = 🍞
My Dear Katie Britt,
Here’s your song:
“American Idiot” by Green Day
So vapid.
She won. In her post election interview with Fox, she began with "I listen, I don't lecture" and a moment later, on education "I don't have to listen, I know." Yes, she is a silly person.