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This is the latest edition of our column that excavates the origins of public figures factually dubious comments. We explain what their claims are referring to, the evidence (or lack thereof) behind them and where they sprang from in the first place.

A few weeks ago, Breitbart News the right-wing, hyperpartisan news site formerly run by Steve Bannon published a truly galaxy brain column. Editor-at-large John Nolte argued that Democrats have been promoting the COVID-19 vaccine not to save lives but instead to trick Republican voters into not getting the jab. Noltes theory concluded that this, in turn, would lead to unvaccinated Republicans getting sick and dying from COVID-19, ultimately helping Democrats electorally.

Nolte claimed that liberals, in a sinister application of reverse psychology, knew that aggressively pushing the vaccine would lead those on the right to resist, putting them at greater risk for severe infection or death. In a country where elections are decided on razor-thin margins, does it not benefit one side if their opponents simply drop dead? Nolte wrote. He then said that the real way to stick it to liberals would be to embrace the Trump Vaccine for the life-saving modern miracle that it is.

Sometimes flawed logic can still lead you to the correct conclusion.

Noltes take has emerged from the toxic politicization of the pandemic in the U.S. Since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began in the U.S, there has been a partisan gap in vaccination rates. When comparing the rate of fully vaccinated people living in counties that voted for Trump in 2020 with those in counties that voted for Biden, blue counties had a higher vaccination rate by 12.9 percentage points, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Similarly, a Morning Consult poll has shown that Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say they are unsure of whether they will get the vaccine. Republicans are also more likely to say they do not plan on getting vaccinated, according to that same poll. And its true that more right-leaning areas of the country are seeing more deaths from COVID-19, too: a recent New York Times analysis showed states with some of the highest 2020 vote share for Trump also have the highest death rates.

These differences in vaccination rates and COVID-19 death rates can be attributed to a few factors, including misinformation online and the erosion of trust in institutions such as the medical system and the media over the past few years. It can also be partly attributed to the rhetoric from Republican leaders and figures on the right, especially when you consider that similar partisan gaps have not been seen in other countries.

There is no evidence that those who have encouraged Americans to get vaccinated secretly hoped they would do the opposite.

While the Brietbart columns argument may seem unhinged, Nolte is in fact tapping into a number of right-wing tropes. Conspiratorial thinking has become a habit on the right think the Big Lie or QAnon so proposing a conspiracy to explain Republicans low vaccination rates may not be anathema for many of Noltes readers. Similarly, allegations of Democrats or leftists running false flag operations where the responsible party for an event makes it look like another party is in fact behind the act are common among the far-right. Many have claimed, for example, that the rioters who broke into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 were actually members of antifa disguised to look like Trump supporters in order to make the right look bad.

The notion that politicians may be using reverse psychology when referencing the vaccine is also familiar to many on the right, albeit inverted from Noltes presentation of it. Those who oppose the vaccine particularly those who incorrectly believe it to be harmful have been surprised to hear former President Donald Trump promote it, and reverse psychology has been a useful explanation for his seeming deviation from their worldview. These theories claim that Trumps encouragement of vaccinations would make the vaccine less appealing to anti-Trump voters, while arguing that those who support Trump are wise enough to do their own research and avoid it despite his recommendation.

As far as him promoting it, my thought is [he is using] reverse psychology for the sheep with [Trump Derangement Syndrome] [who] will automatically just do the opposite of what he says, one Telegram user wrote in a QAnon chat group. What if Trump is promoting the vaccine to get the Never Trumpers to rethink their decision, wrote another in the same chat. Anything he promotes they will do the reverse. He must know that those of us that are aware of the real and apparent dangers will NOT get it, even with his endorsement.

Nolte also specifically tapped into another American tension: As the partisan gap persists, some on the left have shifted from encouraging those on the right to get vaccinated, to getting frustrated and angry that they still havent. This has manifested in sometimes flippant, sometimes cruel reactions to the high rates of infection and death among unvaccinated Americans. Nolte highlighted Howard Stern, who recently suggested on his radio show that unvaccinated individuals who become sick should be denied medical care. Stern also said it was funny that some conservative radio hosts who spoke out against the vaccine later died of COVID-19. Theres also the r/HermanCainAward subreddit, named after the Republican politician who died of COVID-19 in 2020, a group with 343,000 members that exists exclusively to mock people who expressed anti-vaccine views and later died of COVID-19.

Of course, if Noltes column convinces some vaccine-resisters to get the shot, one might argue that the end justifies the means. But so far the response to the column on the right hasnt been positive. On Breitbarts Facebook post sharing the column, many commenters rejected the argument, noting that their personal motivations for not getting vaccinated had nothing to do with what Democrats said, and pointing out that some unvaccinated Americans are on the left. This is a stupid take. You have clearly bought into the democrat talking point that its only republicans not getting vaccinated when the reality is that people across the board are not getting vaccinated, one Facebook user commented. Similar sentiments were shared on Telegram and the pro-Trump message board patriots.win. Me not getting the Vax has absolutely nothing to do with what the left is saying! one user wrote in a QAnon Telegram group. Another user in the same group noted: But didnt Trump get his vax? It isnt about Trump, its about our personal health.

Using conspiratorial thinking to bring conspiracy theorists back to reality may not be the most effective tactic after all. As one Telegram user put it: Sounds like theyre trying to use reverse psychology by saying they are already using reverse psychology.

Read the original here:
Where Breitbarts False Claim That Democrats Want Republicans To Stay Unvaccinated Came From - FiveThirtyEight

In the 16th hour of a Senate debate earlier this month, Cory Booker rose to speak around 1 a.m. I am so excited! he roared, bunching his shoulders and smacking a fist into his hand, like a pitcher trotting to the mound. Booker, who represents New Jersey, leaned back and put a hand into his pocket. He smiled and raised one eyebrow mischievously. This is a gift, he declared. If it wasnt complete abdication of Senate procedures and esteem, I would walk over there and hug my colleague from Alabama.

Booker was referring to an amendment to the 2022 budget which was the subject of the Senates marathon session and to Tommy Tuberville, Alabamas newly elected senator, who proposed it moments earlier. My amendment is pretty simple, Tuberville said. If your City Council wants to defund their police, dont expect the federal government to make up the difference. Local leaders across the country, he went on, have decided the woke thing to do is cancel their citys police force, but Alabamians would not pick up the tab for the woke defund-the-police movement.

Woke, cancel, defund Tuberville was practically auditioning for a spot on Tucker Carlsons show the next day. But in his turn at the lectern, Booker out-Foxed him. Tubervilles amendment was a gift, he said, because it would put to bed the scurrilous accusation that somebody in this great esteemed body would want to he paused for faux-shocked effect defund the police. Booker urged every senator to not walk, but sashay down to vote for Tubervilles amendment. He ended by calling on the Senate to add language expressing its unanimous support for God, country and knuckle rap of the lectern apple pie.

Booker was, in other words, laying it on thick. The tone was a departure from his typical register, which calls to mind a preacher-turned-therapist. If Tuberville hoped to pin Democratic senators as all-cops-are-bastards radicals or as beholden to Twitter activists of that ilk Booker saw an opportunity to set the record straight. His clip drew chuckles from commentators on CNN and MSNBC, effectively foiling Tubervilles plans. And substantively, Booker got his wish. Tubervilles amendment passed by a vote of 99 to 0, thus completing a canny political turn for Democrats on the tricky matter of policing.

A summer ago, in the wake of George Floyds murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and the racial-justice protests that followed, the party seemed genuinely split over whether to back growing calls on the left to defund the police. House members from swing districts, like Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, said that the defund movement played into the hands of Republicans by alienating moderate voters. House members from safe districts, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York City, advocated cutting police budgets and redirecting the money toward other public-safety measures.

A core aspiration of the defund movement is to reduce violent encounters between officers and the public by deploying mental-health professionals to respond to some 911 calls. Some cities have started adding such services. Denver, for example, set up an alternative 911 response, with social workers answering some calls; similar pilot projects are in the works in Oakland and Portland, Ore. But however promising, these local experiments arent what many of the loudest advocates for defunding the police had in mind and its not what their slogan, fairly or not, has come to stand for. Defunding the police has become associated with calls to take officers off the streets or even disband departments entirely which can be hard to imagine in real-world terms. What would a city look like if unarmed public-safety officers replaced all the cops with guns? How do you take firearms away from the law enforcers in a country that has tens of millions more guns than citizens?

Most Americans, across all demographics, share these concerns. In March 2021, a USA Today/Ipsos poll showed that just 18 percent support defund. For Black Americans, the figure was a bit higher: 28 percent. But 43 percent of all respondents backed redirecting some police funds to social services. In New Haven, the majority-Black-and-Latino city where I live, the mayors office is working on a new Department of Community Resilience to address violence prevention and crisis response, as well as homelessness, mental health, drug use and prison re-entry. But with homicides and shootings on the rise, the city is also putting more money into the police. Defunding is a nonstarter.

Democrats can come across as craven when they disavow the passionate stance of the left wing of their party. Bill Clinton brought this criticism on himself when he singled out the activist Sister Souljah for her burst of anger toward white people in the midst of the Los Angeles riots in 1992. The Sister Souljah moment has since become shorthand for any strategic break between Democratic politicians and the activist base. Bookers bit of theater in the Senate not only punched left but also aligned Democrats in the chamber with President Biden, who has been in favor of more money for cops for decades.

If Booker successfully distanced his party from the defund movement, the question is what Democrats in Congress will have to show for it. The point of getting the politics right on an issue, after all, is to create a space to make policy. Booker, who has been one of the Senates most engaged members on criminal-justice reform, has worked for months on the Senates version of a police-reform bill named for George Floyd. Ive been bending and contorting myself in every way to try to make a bill that can attract people on both sides of the aisle, Booker told ABC News last month.

But it has been a thankless task. Booker negotiated with two major police unions seeking a broad agreement that would pass muster with Republicans, but when he thought he had the basis for a deal, other law-enforcement unions objected. This led Senator Lindsey Graham to publicly denounce the proposal. Bookers talks with Senator Tim Scott, the negotiator for the Republicans, continue, but its not clear where theyre going.

If Congress does nothing, despite all the promises and the heartbreak of police killings, it will shoulder responsibility for a half-measure the country has seen many times before: more money for the police but no new checks on their power. Democrats who have found their way to safe ground on the politics of defunding now have to keep making the case for what they want to do about policing. Solutions, though, dont often produce punchy TV clips.

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Cory Booker Outfoxed Republicans on Defund the Police. Now What? - The New York Times

Republican Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas on Capitol Hill. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Rep. Kevin Brady said Democrats shouldn't rely on House GOP support to lift the debt ceiling.

"Unless they have a conversation with Republicans...there won't be Republican support in the House."

House GOP may follow the Senate GOP's lead under McConnell in opposing a debt ceiling increase.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

A top House Republican indicated that GOP lawmakers are unlikely to support lifting the debt ceiling and instead put the onus on Democrats to do so, raising the risk of a perilous showdown that could engulf both chambers of Congress this fall.

Rep. Kevin Brady, ranking Republican on House Ways and Means, said in a Monday interview that Republicans were growing frustrated with Democrats circumventing them on a $1.9 trillion stimulus law using a legislative tactic known as reconciliation. They're also poised to muscle through a multitrillion social spending plan on their own.

"Considering they haven't had a single conversation about spending, stimulus or the debt with us to date, I think they, by their behavior, have taken responsibility on passing this by themselves," Brady told Insider in a Monday night interview.

The Texas Republican went on: "Unless they have a conversation with Republicans, certainly there won't be Republican support in the House. Take it or leave it, no conversations, no working together - it's their responsibility, unfortunately."

Brady's comments serve as a barometer of the GOP position in the lower chamber on the debt ceiling, given his influence as an architect of the 2017 Republican tax law. House Republicans may end up taking the lead of the Senate GOP under Mitch McConnell, as most Republicans in the upper chamber are banding together to oppose a debt ceiling increase.

Some Senate Republicans are demanding spending cuts in exchange for their support, even as GOP supported raising the debt ceiling multiple times under the Trump administration.

Story continues

The previous debt limit suspension expired on July 30, prompting the Treasury Department to take "extraordinary measures" to help pay off the government's bills. Increasing the debt ceiling does not add to federal spending - it only authorizes the US government to pay its current debt load.

The Congressional Budget Office forecasts Treasury can keep the government afloat until October or November, though Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the pandemic is making it more difficult to accurately project when Treasury will exhaust its emergency powers.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's office didn't respond to a request for comment. In July, McCarthy signed onto a letter from Republicans on the House budget panel calling for "spending restraints."

Reconciliation allows certain bills to be fast-tracked and passed with a simple majority vote. Republicans used the same procedure to enact a major corporate tax cut under President Donald Trump. The GOP also embarked on a failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act that same year without Democratic support.

Other senior Republicans wouldn't go as far as Brady. Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, only said Democratic congressional leaders hadn't responded to the letter they sent.

"We've heard crickets," Smith told Insider on Tuesday. "The Democrats have failed in leadership, they're not even negotiating or communicating, so apparently they don't care about the debt ceiling."

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Top House Republican signals GOP lawmakers won't support lifting the debt ceiling and instead force Democrats to renew US's ability to pay the bills -...

EXCLUSIVE: Afghanistan's exiled President Ashraf Ghani must be brought to justice and face criminal charges of embezzlement if he indeed fled the besieged country with duffle bags full of cash intended for the Afghan people, according to House Oversight Committee Republicans.

Ghani hastily abandoned Afghanistan earlier this month as the Taliban marched to power. He turned up in the United Arab Emirates, which accepted the president on humanitarian grounds.

House Republicans are raising alarms over news reports that Ghani left Afghanistan with "duffle bags full of cash totaling $169 million."

BIDEN WONT EXTEND AFGHANISTAN DEADLINE AS TALIBAN REITERATES DEMAND FOR US FORCES TO LEAVE

In a letter obtained first by Fox News to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the lawmakers cite reports that "Ghani in fact had so much looted money with him when he fled Afghanistan that not all of it would fit in his helicopter and that he was forced to leave money lying on the tarmac."

Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., sent letters Tuesday to both Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking for a briefing no later than Aug. 31 on whether Ghani is in possession of U.S. taxpayer dollars and whether the U.S. government is seeking criminal charges against him.

CIA DIRECTOR BURNS MET WITH TALIBAN LEADER IN KABUL: US OFFICIAL

"If true, this was not the dignified exit of a benevolent head of state, but that of a coward and grifter," the lawmakers wrote to Blinken in a letter first obtained by Fox News. "The United States must do everything in its power to seize any illicitly gained funds that were corruptly embezzled by President Ghani. If he diverted funds from their intended purposes, the U.S. should bring him to justice."

The lawmakers say corrupt foreign government officials cannot be permitted to personally enrich themselves with American money destined to safeguard the Afghan people.

"This is particularly the case where President Ghanis reckless and cowardly actions likely contributed to the speed with which the Taliban took over the country and toppled the Afghan government," they wrote.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

For his part, Ghani has denied running away with millions of dollars in cash. In a video clip from the United Arab Emirates, Ghani claimed he left with the clothes on his back to prevent bloodshed.

"I was forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing," Ghani said.

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House Republicans want answers on whether exiled Afghan president embezzled $169M in cash - Fox News

The other day, the media delighted in reporting that Idaho National Laboratory was joining an effort to let so-called transgender individuals change their names on past scientific papers and research. History is being rewritten before our eyes. Can we get any more Orwellian? How long will it be before newspapers start changing whats in their archives? Were getting close.

If youre wondering how weve gotten to this point, heres my explanation: Too little pushback from folks who should know better, namely within certain segments of the Republican Party. The old school GOP, whose chief avatar in Idaho might be Jim Jones, did little over many decades to distinguish itself from liberal Democrats.

Jones was Idahos Republican attorney general and later served on the state Supreme Court. When you read Jones commentaries in the newspaper, hes often slobbering with praise for anyone who peddles leftist ideology. Its clear he never was a conservative. Nor were his contemporaries, upon whom he lavishes praise.

For example, Jones delights in the record of former GOP Gov. Robert Smylie, whose greatest accomplishments include a massive expansion of state government and the imposition of a state sales tax, as well as other Republicans who advocated for government control over every aspect of society. If theres a problem, Jones and his ilk believe government should be directed to solve it. He thinks its OK for men to play in womens sports, even working to derail Idahos bill that protects girls from having to compete against biological males. How does Jones view of government and society differ from that of a liberal Democrat?

The answer is it doesnt, which explains why Jones admits he considers himself an independent, but deceitfully votes in the GOP primary to select the most liberal candidate to the Republican Partys nominee for whatever position is being considered. His goal isnt to limit government. His goal is to expand government, which is why in his most recent writings hes pushing for the government to demand that everyone get a vaccine.

The result of this liberal detente between Republicans and Democrats has created an environment that lets stupidity run freely, where wokeism replaces facts and logic, where government has unlimited power and your right to choose the correct path for yourself and your family is replaced by a centralized authority making decisions for you. And usually, those decisions are framed by what makes people feel good for the moment, even if the costs down the road are incalculable.

Hence newspapers gleefully report how INL and others are simply rewriting history without consideration for any detrimental secondary impacts. Together, Republicans and Democrats have created a political and societal environment where anything goes.

Fortunately, the Republican Party is finding its way back to being protectors of our God-given rights, fighting for freedom and liberty, and getting back to our roots as defenders of limited, accountable government.

For example, at this summers state GOP meeting, you will see several resolutions promoting conservative values, including those opposing vaccine mandates and also calling for the censure of a former state GOP official-turned newspaper columnist named Jim Jones.

Jones is one of many former and current Idaho politicians who got away with being a liberal Democrat disguised as a Republican for a long time. Theyve done a lot of damage to our state and our country. But its not too late to embrace the conservative principles that made America the greatest nation the world has ever known. It starts by abandoning Republicans in name only like Jim Jones.

Doyle Beck is the Legislative District 30 chairman of the Idaho Republican Party.

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Opinion: Republicans who reject Jim Jones will save America - Post Register