Originally published via Armageddon Prose:
Political rhetoric is replete with references to the “conservative agenda,” the “liberal agenda,” etc.
The reality: whereas activists and voters have legitimate ideologies, nationally elected politicians, by and large, are unburdened by sincere belief.
With few exceptions, they have no conviction; they have no ideology; they have no “agenda” beyond personal career advancement; as empirical fact, they are wildly disproportionately sociopathic.
Aside from Lizzo twerking onstage with James Madison’s flute as a kind of passive-aggressive power move, in total desecration of the Founders’ legacy, I can think of nothing more personally radicalizing than Congressional hearings regarding the pharmaceutical industry.
While these people might appear innocently ignorant of anything related to health, the darker truth is that their displays of ignorance are deliberate, performed in the service of their paymasters.
Related: Elizabeth Warren DESTROYED by X Community Notes Over Pharma Corruption
Senator Bill Cassidy is the bottom of the barrel.
At the Senate hearing on MAHA a couple of weeks ago, which promptly devolved into a pro-vaxx inquisition by members of both parties (bipartisanship!), Cassidy — a nominal Republican who refused to endorse Trump as late as September 2024 and voted to convict him of the January 6th “insurrection” — employed the transparent attack strategy of trying to box Kennedy into a corner.
Here he is leading his performance off with the trick question: “President Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed… Do you agree with me?”
What he was hoping to accomplish with this rhetorical sleight of hand was to contort Kennedy into a double-bind:
· Option A: “Yes.” RFK Jr. knows damn well, and has said so publicly, that Operation Warp Speed was a public health catastrophe. Conceding that Trump, who authorized the project at the behest of snakes whispering in his ears, deserves one of the world’s highest honors for it would seem to make him a hypocrite
· Option B: “No.” Denying that his boss — the guy whom these people are leaning on to get rid of RFK Jr. — deserves the Nobel prize would, they hope, put the two at odds and eventually lead to his dismissal. (Pressuring the president to sack Kennedy was, of course, the entire point of the hearing.)
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Fortunately, Kennedy, hip to the game, managed to escape the obvious jujitsu move relatively unscathed — but not for lack of trying on Cassidy’s part.
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Cassidy read his trick question off of a script before him, which would suggest that he likely did not write it or come up with the tactic himself.
According to reporting from Axios, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has been employing the same talking point in an apparently coordinated campaign to dissuade Trump from future posts like the one he recently filed on his social media platform Truth Social, in which he finally publicly entertained the possibility (fact) that Pfizer lied about the efficacy and safety of its mRNA injections.
Related: WATCH: Pfizer CEO Flops Attempting to Defend Vax Liability Shield
Such sleazy tactics are as unsurprising coming from Bourla as they are from Cassidy, one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most loyal pets on the Senate health committee.
Per Open Secrets — the corruption watchdog doing the Lord’s work — millions of dollars of industry cash (bribes) have flowed to Cassidy over the last five years (not including dark money), which increased substantially after Cassidy got himself appointed head of the health committee.
Via Stat News (emphasis added):
“Sen. Bill Cassidy’s new perch as the top Republican on the Senate health committee has attracted some attention — and some campaign cash — from the executives of pharmaceutical companies, federal disclosures show.
The slew of campaign donations from drug industry executives came about a week after Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, officially became the ranking member of the Senate health committee.
The contributions all came on either Feb. 10 or 11, and included $5,800 from Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, $5,000 from Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, $2,900 from Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Giovanni Caforio, and $2,500 from Biogen CEO Christopher Viehbacher, all of whom sit on PhRMA’s board.
Pharmaceutical companies’ political action committees supported Cassidy during the rest of last quarter, as well. GSK’s committee gave $2,500, Boehringer Ingelheim’s gave $1,000, Novartis’ gave $1,000, Takeda’s gave $2,500, Alnylam’s gave $2,500, Bristol Myers Squibb’s gave $1,000, Astellas’ gave $5,000, Eisai’s gave $2,900, and Gilead’s gave $1,000. Individuals contributed, too — Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day gave $5,800, PhRMA COO Lori Reilly gave $1,500, and PhRMA Senior Vice President for Federal Advocacy Anne Esposito gave $1,000.
There’s plenty of policymaking coming up that is of interest to the pharma industry on Cassidy’s committee.”
Cassidy, up for re-election next year, is in for a heated upcoming primary challenge in which Trump has signaled he might endorse one of his rivals.
From now until election day 2026, it is now my personal jihad to make sure this corrupt bastard gets sent packing.
He’ll surely land on the board of J&J or a cushy sinecure at a Chamber of Commerce-type lobbying firm, an injustice in its own right. But at least he’ll be stripped of the cloak of legitimacy as an alleged envoy of the people, exposed as the naked prostitute he is.
“You’re a hooker, start to realize its true
They sniff their coke, you huff your glue
Pimps and prostitutes, businessmen in monkey suits
On their knees licking corporate boots
Suckin’ up, jumping through hoops
Pimps and Wall Street hoes
Work the street in business clothes
Blowjobs, rimming, sucking cock
They’re getting laid while you’re getting laid off”
-NOFX, ‘Pimps and Hookers’
Benjamin Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile (now available in paperback), is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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