Weekly Roundup: Fauci McCarthyism, Elon's Revenge Porn Lawsuit, Trump Africa AI Scandal (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

On the Weekly Roundup, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller breakdown three stories:

1. The GOP pursuit of Anthony Fauci over COVID era decisions and funding.

2. A new poll that shows 66% of MAGA supporters would continue to push for a candidate accused of sexual assault + Elon Musk's lawsuit against a law that bans nudifying AI.

3. The State Department's humiliating mistake in using an error-filled AI-generated map of Africa.

The thesis: You can't have democracy without shared facts, shared reality, and universal accountability.

(00:00) – Introduction and technological mishaps
(01:03) – The significance of shared facts and democracy
(04:12) – Democracy, truth, and trust: Maria Ressa’s insights
(08:39) – McCarthyism and the obsession with prosecuting Fauci
(12:14) – GOP's distraction tactics: From Fauci to election interference
(14:47) – The decline of literacy and its societal consequences
(19:23) – The post-literate society and the rise of influencers over facts
(22:46) – The crisis of accountability and the patriarchal narrative
(27:00) – Support for scandal-ridden politicians among GOP voters
(35:52) – The monstrous support for domestic abusers in politics
(44:42) – The suppression of free inquiry and Western civilization myths
(50:04) – AI, geography errors, and neglect of global health issues
(52:47) – Musk, deepfakes, and the devaluation of human life
(56:38) – Hope amid chaos: Reflections on political resilience and potential for change

Interview: 

https://youtu.be/-UxLRVkGjh8?si=mPOZJMOJvM-a69Gy

Right v. Wrong

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYrMwxrZ2TU

President Trump seeks control of science funding : NPR

"Although research has bipartisan support in the US Congress, and trust in science is above 75% across the country, the Trump administration seems as determined as ever to mortally wound the nation's scientific enterprise," Holden Thorp, editor of Science magazine, wrote in an editorial about the proposal… 

"We're asking ourselves whether we wanna repeat that Stalinist situation where people who know nothing about science are the ones who are making the decisions about what's going to go forward," said Snyder. 

Others compared the moment to a period in the United States in the 1950s when government officials scrutinized people's ideology and politics rather than their credentials. 

"Proposed rule would replace scientific merit with McCarthy era politics," read the headline from a statement by the Infectious Diseases Society of America…

 https://www.npr.org/2026/06/03/nx-s1-5844678/trump-science-funding-omb-budget-office-rule-change

 

Trump administration prepares sweeping ‘Antifa’ crackdown on leftist networks - The Washington Post

"It's a pretty damn dangerous document," former FBI agent Michael Feinberg, who is now a senior editor at Lawfare, said of Bondi's memorandum. "It's dangerous in the sense that it is directed at a specific ideology, namely the left, without offering much evidence as to why that is necessary. And it's also dangerous in the sense that it's ignoring the lion's share of nihilistic violent extremists." Such acts, which the FBI categorizes as being motivated not by political ideology but by a hatred for society at large, constituted a "large chunk" of current domestic terrorism investigations, FBI Director Kash Patel tolda Senate committee in September. … 

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not convinced. "It is a throwback to McCarthyism and the worst abuses of Hoover's FBI to use federal law enforcement against Americans purely because of their political beliefs or because they disagree with the current president's politics," he said in a statement to The Post…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/18/justice-department-fbi-first-amendment-antifa/

UC Berkeley shares 160 names with Trump administration in ‘McCarthy era’ move

In a letter to Robinson, Butler said that forwarding community members' names to the government was a "well-known practice from the McCarthy Era": 

"We should not be naive. Will those of us named now be branded on a government list? Will our travel be restricted? Will our email communications be surveilled? 

 "It is a time to resist injustice that now threatens to be normalized by those who capitulate, sometimes in advance, to bullying tactics of extortion at the expense of basic standards that govern shared governance, institutional autonomy, due process, and fair review," they continued. "To allow universities to be bossed by political operatives in this way undermines the basic ideals of the university as well as [its] important links to the future of critical thought, dissent, and democracy."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/uc-berkeley-trump-administration-antisemitism

 

Marco Rubio's authoritarian crusade that would make McCarthy himself blush

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZorWziJN2zQ

 

'Demagogue' Draws Direct Line From McCarthy To Trump (Terry Gross, Fresh Air)

Author Larry Tye chronicles Sen. Joseph McCarthy's infamous smear campaign in a new book, 'Demagogue.' He says both McCarthy and President Trump are "bullies" who exploit fears and "point fingers when they're attacked."
Interview:
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/07/888176576/demagogue-draws-direct-line-from-mccarthy-to-trump

Well he's not wrong... - facepalm

https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/5yu850/well_hes_not_wrong/

What is McCarthyism? And how did it happen? - Ellen Schrecker

In the 1950s, as part of a campaign to expose suspected Communists, thousands of individuals were aggressively investigated and questioned before government panels. Named after its most notorious practitioner, the phenomenon known as McCarthyism destroyed lives and careers. But how did this episode of political repression take off? Ellen Schrecker traces the history of McCarthyism.
Interview:
https://youtu.be/N35IugBYH04

President Trump Accuses Obama Of 'Wire Tapping,' Provides No Evidence (NPR)

In a series of tweets early Saturday morning, Trump alleged that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower before Election Day, calling him a "bad (or sick) guy." Trump offered no justification for his accusation. ...
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/04/518478158/president-trump-accuses-obama-of-wire-tapping-provides-no-evidence