"Thank You for Your Service," Dr Fauci — Appropriating Greetings to U.S. Warriors Is in the Direct Lineage of Leftist Cosplays of Valorous Combat Heroics

Let's start with a question that many of you will (correctly) find is naïve, but will be stated for the record: if Joe Biden pardoned Fauci, how much did the (p)resident — or his enablers — know? How much did he know about the whole Covid (non?-)pandemic? And if the whole democrat party apparatus was complicit in knowing about Fauci's lies, does that not make it a conspiracy?  Is, then, a "conspiracy theory" not the appropriate response to this scandal — one of a magnitude never seen before?

Having said that: One thing that has been fairly unsettling in the latest Fauci revelations is going back to the the many MSM interviews regarding the COVID "menace" half a decade ago and hearing the "independent" journalists calling Anthony Fauci things like a "superhero."

In one clip, we hear a vast number of fawning reporters say to the doctor, over and over again, "Thank you for your service" (in one case, "Thank you for your 37 years of service"!). It certainly sounds like there has been some decision beforehand for all to use the exact same words…

What is worse is that The Left thus appropriates the common greeting to servicemen who have joined the military and shown willingness to enter combat and put their lives at risk and, if need be, sacrifice said lives. For leftists, "public service" is just as valorous as — nay, far more so than — joining the "services" (army, navy, air force, marines, et al) to defend one's country with one's life.

This is in the direct lineage of drama queens likening everything they say and do — usually, without the slightest physical risk to any of them — to war, and to the heroics of combat (as in the war against poverty, the war against racism, etc, etc, etc…) 

Related: Inadvertently Spilling the Truth: What Is the Democratic Party If Not the Party of Sophomoric Teens, Intrepid Cosplayers, and Would-Be Heroes?

And who is the enemy — in each case? It is you and I, dear reader. It is the common American citizen, or, more broadly, the common citizen of the West… (Who, again, are peaceful and tolerant creatures who offhand are not to be feared by the valorous leftist fire-eater…)

Media: "Thank you for your service, Dr. Fauci."

Public: "Thank you for your service, @RandPaul." https://t.co/RiQFWfFXaQ

— AAE (@AAC0519) July 27, 2026

From the Archives: • COVID-19 — Here Is the Key Question Regarding the Coronavirus
• Here Are the 7 Basic Points about Covid-19 that You Need to Know
• Is There 100% Irrefutable Proof that the Covid19 Pandemic Is Overstated?
• Anti-Americanism in the Age of the Coronavirus, the NBA, and 1619

Fauci's Diary Revealed pic.twitter.com/sdOSUZGAQi

— Gutfeld! (@Gutfeldfox) July 29, 2026

"You just got a whole bunch of things wrong about me; pretty much everything about me in the last 20 minutes, wrong" — The Economist's Full Interview with Elon Musk

You have already seen the best parts of the Zanny Minton Beddoes interview with Elon Musk, but if you want to see the whole thing (which lasts almost one hour and 25 minutes), you can head over to The Economist's podcast or to its Insider's video, where the interview is broken down into nine chapters. 

Obviously, the London weekly's editor keeps her most damaging accusations until the end (the last three chapters). And the SpaceX entrepreneur — who mentions the Soros D.A.s at one point (1:14:33) as well as the "interesting number" that "there are more people that die in Europe from heat deaths than people that die from gun deaths in America" (1:15:20) — goes much farther than he does in the clips we have seen. 

[1:04:26] You absolutely do live in a cloistered existence [1:05:45] Why aren't you doing more to fight censorship in Europe? Why aren't you? … They're putting people in prison in the UK for social media posts. Do you think that's appropriate? [1:07:09] The media keeps ignoring reality.

[1:11:40] The shoe is on the other foot! They hate you! They hate you — far more than they hate me! … I think you're the problem! The media [collectively]. … And speaking of loathing, you're loathed far more than I am! And you don't seem to realize that! … I mean, you're hated. Do you even know that? You probably don't. 

1 AI will be smarter than humans in five years (00:00) 
2 How AI companies could regulate themselves (12:13) 
3 Elon Musk on Sam Altman and the AI bosses (25:45) 
4 Musk: money won't matter in the future (27:30) 
5 Should one man have so much power? (41:02) 
6 Starlink and the war in Ukraine (49:31) 
7 Musk: "I got too involved in politics" (54:47) 
8 Europe, the far right[,] and civil war in Britain (01:00:59) 
9 Elon Musk: "I am not a racist" (01:07:15) 

[1:20:20] You just got a whole bunch of things wrong about me. Pretty much everything about me in the last 20 minutes, wrong [laughter]

"There Is No Alternative to the Destruction of Iran's Apocalyptic Regime" Says Karsenty, Predicting the War Will Be Over Before the Mid-Terms

Predicting that the Iran conflict — which, after five months, the drama queens are already calling a forever war — will be over the by the time of the mid-terms, Philippe Karsenty says that contrary to what another guest was claiming, it's not "preoccupying" that Donald Trump is continuing the conflict, it's "reassuring" that the Trump administration is remaining determined in taking down what can only be called a barbaric régime, an apocalyptic régime: "There is no alternative to the destruction of this regime."

As conflict has broken out again between America and Iran, the spokesman of the Comité Trump France has been a regular guest on BFMTV, appearing three days in a row. Comparing the Iranians to the terrorists of Corsica while dismissing Bernie Sanders — to howls of protests by the other guests — Philippe Karsenty could be seen on July 20 with Alice Darfeuille (video at link, 30:20-35:32, 37:27, 41:53), on July 19 with François Gapihan (59:05-1:04:07, 1:07:45, 1:18:11-1:19:31, 1:36:05-1:37:37, 1:40:20-1:42:07), and on July 18 with Paola Puerari (11:33-13:17, 30:54-32:20, 34:55-36:52, 37:45-38:18, 38:22, 40:40-41:23, 42:42-43:04, 45:26-46:12, 53:00-54:16, 1:05:33-1:06:16, 1:06:55, 1:09:09-1:10:07, 1:12:05-1:13:33, 1:17:10-1:17:43, 1:21:44-1:24:00, 1:25:00, 1:25:35-1:26:46, 1:33:06-1:34:00, 1:36:22-1:36:48, 1:38:18-1:38:44, 1:50:13-1:52:07) — in the middle of which (1:10:07) they suddenly learn the news of the deaths of two American servicemen.

Every day he has appeared, Philippe Karsenty invariably tells his fellow guests that he wishes to ask all of them a question, one which inevitably makes them go berserk: "What is the alternative to the disappearance of this regime?"

Le Club BFM - Samedi 18 juillet 2026

Chaque vendredi et chaque samedi, Paola Puerari vous accompagne de 17h à 20h le vendredi et de 18h à 20h le samedi dans Le Club BFM.

 

Vengeance de Trump, frappes en cours en Iran - 20/07

Chaque soir, Alice Darfeuille vous accompagne de 22h à 00h dans BFM Grand Soir.

 

 

Édition spéciale du 19 juillet 2026

Revoir en intégralité l'émission "BFM Direct" du 19 juillet 2026 présentée par François Gapihan sur BFMTV. 

I Hate Being the One to Ask This, But… Where Are the Pictures of Gaza's Dead Palestinians?

I'm probably going to get in trouble for this — another Google ban? — but… I'm sorry, the question needs to be asked, and somebody needs to ask it: Where are the photographs of Gaza's dead Palestinians?

Remember the Gaza kid who was allegedly malnourished and starving "because of" Israel's inhumane policies? Didn't Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq's photo and story immediately show up in the New York Times and everywhere else?

Above is the first photo of American dead to appear in America during World War II — a conflict in which the USA participated without much controversy, i.e., without protestors, hysterical radicals or other types, clamoring one way or another.

If, in Zohran Mamdani's words, it is true that 

Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people. He is responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people, for the maiming of tens of thousands of children 

— then you don't have to be a hysterical propagandist in Palestine or even a dishonest one, to think as follows: "Why not set up, say, 20 of the myriad of corpses, or 50, or 100, either in a morgue or among the ruins of the city, and invite in the international press corps? Let the world see the war crimes of the Israelis!"

In fact, if in the New York mayor's words, "the UN confirmed that Palestinian children continue to be deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli armed forces", why not up the ante and have the 20/50/100 corpses be exclusively of… Palestinian kids?! (Certainly, in all cases — dead adults and/or dead children — the photos should be blurred — especially if the cadavers display horrific wounds — but the question remains.)

When Zohran Mamdani mentions "the devastation he [Netanyahu] has wrought", what we see are ruined buildings — indeed, smoldering cityscapes — which remind people, whatever their leanings, of World War II — here we go back to the 1940s again — when carpet bombings led to thousands of dead civilians.

But as far as Gaza is concerned, do we ever seem to see a single corpse? 

The prime minister's office in Jerusalem states that

Under Prime Minister Netanyahu's leadership, Israel has taken unprecedented wartime measures to minimize harm to civilians while confronting Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that uses Palestinians as human shields and deliberately targets innocent Israeli civilians  

Could it be that the IDF's boast to keep the casualties down as best as possible is not propaganda but explains the dearth of bodies? 

Radio Courtoisie's 250th Anniversary Part 2: An American Retrospective — From George Washington to Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump

Today, I was a guest on Evelyne Joslain's Radio Courtoisie for the Second Part of America's 250th birthday celebration: An American Retrospective: from George Washington to Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump (audio at link).

The first part, on June 24, was a history stroll through the first half century of the American Republic, from about 1756 to 1815, from the French and Indian War and the Boston Tea Party through the revolutionary years and the writing of the Constitution until Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana territory and the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

Today's second podcast — Une Rétrospective américaine : de George Washington à Teddy Roosevelt et à Trump, avec Erik Svane — treats the next couple of centuries of American history, focusing on the first hundred years, with the War of 1812 and the Texas Revolution through the conquest of the Wild West and the Civil War to the closing of the frontier and the Spanish-American War.

I am grateful that we have received lots of congratulations from people after the first podcast who added that they have learned a lot. 

 

Libre journal du nouveau monde du 22 juillet 2026 : « Une Rétrospective américaine : de George Washington à Teddy Roosevelt et à Trump, avec Erik Svane »

• Patron d'émission : Joslain Evelyne

Le 22 juillet 2026

Evelyne Joslain, assistée d’Eric, reçoit :

• Erik Svane, porte-parole des Republicans Overseas France

Une Rétrospective américaine : de George Washington à Teddy Roosevelt et à Trump.

What is the difference between a "Yank" and a "Frog"? At 50, an American buys a $300,000 house in Florida; At 50, a Frenchman takes to the streets to protest an extra €50 per month

In just a handful of sentences, plus one cartoon, Sebastien Laye takes down the French public deficit:

France’s 2025 public deficit: €152.5bn.

The government’s extra €3bn in annual savings equals just 2% of that gap. At that pace, reaching zero would take 51 years.

France needs structural reform—not budgetary symbolism.

On the other hand, Sebastien is more loquacious when discussing America's 27th state, in which the founder of Eudokia Wealth is spending more and more of his time:

Wow, Florida has truly impressed me with its extraordinary economic momentum. I am struck by how the Sunshine State has surpassed Australia and Mexico to rank as one of the world’s top economies if it were a sovereign nation (14th rank). With a $1.8 trillion economy in 2025 and on track to reach $2 trillion this year, Florida stands nearly the size of Brazil at $2.1T, Spain at $2.1T, and Canada at $2.4T — effectively doubling its GDP in just eight years. This achievement underscores the power of principled leadership and a dynamic business environment. 

You don't know me? I am Sebastien Laye, an American citizen born in France. After spending a decade in Europe, I have returned to the United States. I am an entrepreneur specializing in artificial intelligence and data centers, as well as an economist and author. My international experience provides me with a distinctive transatlantic perspective, combining European insight with a deep understanding of the U.S. market. 

This leads the entrepreneur to point out that

The biggest economic story of the last two decades isn’t China.

It’s the widening gap between the U.S. and Europe.

Americans can afford homes, investments, and global travel increasingly out of reach for Europe’s middle class.

You don’t notice decline when it happens slowly.

In that perspective, what is the difference between an American and a Frenchman? 

At 50 years old, an American buys a $300,000 house in Florida.
At 50 years old, a Frenchman takes to the streets to protest an extra €50 per month.
Same generation. Two very different outcomes.
I am an American citizen but was born French and just spent 10 years in Europe.
I see this difference everywhere.
It does not come from salary levels.
It comes from a fundamental mindset.
Americans invest. The Europeans save and fear the future.
In the U.S., your retirement savings are automatically invested in stock funds by default.
You do not have to do anything. Your employer often matches contributions.
In France, your money sits in a Livret A savings account earning 3%.
Your bank takes its commission along the way and tells you that the stock market is “too risky for you.”
Over 25 years, with the same monthly effort:
→ $500 per month invested at 7% ≈ +$400,000
→ $500 per month in “safe” savings at 2% ≈ +$190,000
Same effort. Double the capital.
At retirement, this changes everything.
I am not saying everything is better here. It is just different.

 

The 4 questions that the "Real communism has never been tried" folks never seem to ask

 

The main problem with the claim that "Real communism (or real socialism) has never been tried" isn't how much truth there might be in that sentence or not.  

It's as follows: 

• Given the alleged claim that communism has never been done right, and that during myriad attempts in over a century, with one — horrific — failure after another, what makes you think that this time will lead to success? How many chances are there, really, of that (finally) happening? How willing are you to risk a(nother) failure — with all that that entails?

Remember the millions of deaths under Lenin and Stalin? Remember the millions of deaths under Mao? Remember the millions of deaths under Pol Pot? Do go to Instapundit to check out Solzhenitsyn's assessment and verdict.

• Given the extent of the nightmares under socialism (the real kind or any other type), how much better is socialism, really, than the free market in the first place? (As a kid during the Cold War, I remember capitalism being skewered for being responsible for… the horrendous unemployment rate! By the way, if the would-be communist countries are not to be defined by real communism, why must the West be defined by "real" capitalism?)

• Speaking of which: given that we are country bumpkins who are not supposed to understand the underlying beauty of the dream, why would this type of claim not be applicable to fascism? And, for that matter, Nazism?! Why couldn't a group of neo-fascists likewise come and claim — either while lauding or while disparaging such people as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini ("der Führer and il Duce managed to screw up society's beautiful dream!") — that "Real fascism (or real Nazism) has never been tried"; while we are supposed to remain silent and give the rosy description of their ideology the benefit of the doubt? [Update: No, in no way am I advocating fascism or neo-fascists to start advancing this type of "arguments"; I am as much against fascists as against communists; all that I am doing is pointing out the double standards of people who are not against one type of authoritarian dictatorship while they are against the other.]

• Finally: How many citizens, exactly, are supposed to suffer and die during the next attempt to impose socialism (successfully or otherwise)? Given that the previous shots at introducing socialism have led to so many tragedies, how willing are you to have your family, your loved ones, and your neighbors join in the numbers of innocents arrested/deported/executed/worked to death in the next attempt? Are you yourself willing to volunteer to be among the victims?

"Frequent apologias for feminism": Calling Nolan's film "an epic mistake", The Economist dismisses the movie as "a very silly adaptation" of “The Odyssey”

You have read Ed Driscoll's collection of movie reviews of “The Odyssey”— good as well as bad — on Instapundit (if you haven't, do check 'em out). Now The Economist joins the fray.

Calling Christopher Nolan's film "an epic mistake", the London weekly turns to the favorite adjective of the Monty Python troupe to dismiss the movie about "Odysseus, the sacker of cities" as A very silly adaptation of “The Odyssey”. (Thanks for the Instalinks to Ed and to Sarah who comments: WHEN EVEN THE ECONOMIST THINKS YOU’RE TOO WOKE.)

Warning: the film review, which happens to be this week's story most read by subscribers of The Economist, contains a spoiler (!) at the end of the very first paragraph quoted below: 

The film itself is unlikely to allay any anxieties about anachronisms. In everything from its scenery to its psychology it says far more about the modern West than about ancient Greece. Startling liberties are taken with the plot to turn Odysseus, the archetypally flawed ancient hero, into a simple modern goody by flattening his flaws. Any bad behaviour is explained away either by drug use or hinted to be due to proto-PTSD (the overdiagnosis epidemic having apparently reached the ancient shores of Ithaca). The ending, which has him pierced by arrows and turned into a St Sebastian-style pincushion, is sillier still.

 … Sir Christopher’s retelling … is manifestly a product of the present day. Female characters offer frequent apologias for feminism (not a noted strong suit of the ancients). The casus belli of the Trojan war is given as a desire to improve trade routes, as if Agamemnon were merely a blameless advocate for free trade rather than one of antiquity’s greatest thugs. 

… The simplistic, visual modern world has taken Homer and turned him into social-media spats and an absurd Cyclops—and thus into a tragedy that is all its own. ■ 

Meanwhile, three critics at The New Yorker are enchanted by the film, with Naomi Fry, Vinson Cunningham, and Alexandra Schwartz giving it 4, 4.5, and 4.5 stars out of 5, respectively.

When asked, by Newsletter editor Caroline Mimbs Nyce, "how might this version reflect our current cultural moment?", Alexandra Schwartz confirms the Economist's review, answering that 

The thing that feels the most contemporary to me is the film’s treatment of women, who are universally depicted as prisoners of a patriarchal world. Helen’s famous face has been disfigured, presumably by her angry husband, Menelaus; the sorceress Circe uses her witchcraft in self-defense, seemingly as a result of traumatic encounters with men. Nolan has been criticized for his thin treatment of women in the past, and I sense he’s making up for it here—but I fear this approach is differently reductive.