Monthly Archives: September 2021

Heritage Capital CIO Paul Schatz joined AmeriVet Securities Head of Rates Greg Faranello and Principal of The Fitz-Gerald Group Keith Fitz-Gerald arguing that no economy was created to have a 'ginormous safety net.'

While blue states languish in an economic slump, those led by Republicans are steadily rebounding. The data is clear: States with GOP leadership are showing stronger job recovery and lower unemployment.

According to July numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Republican governorshead16 of the top 20 states with thelowest unemployment rates. Likewise, 18 of these states have Republican-controlled legislatures.

On the other hand, states dominated by Democrats have shown little improvement. The 10 states with the highest unemployment rates are all led by Democrats.

The difference lies in policies. Most blue states continue to offer an extra $300 per week in supplemental benefits in addition to regular state unemployment benefits.This pandemic bonuswhich isnt set to expire untilSept. 6, 2021isdiscouraging people from looking for work.

REPUBLICANS RIP BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FOR MASSIVE FOOD STAMPS INCREASE: 'ABUSING ITS AUTHORITY'

Americans are receiving about $630in weekly unemployment benefits. Thats more than $32,000 annuallyroughly double the nation's minimum wage. Its no wonder that as many as 1.8 million Americans have turned down jobs. Unemployment benefits are far more lucrative. Joe Biden and Democrats are incentivizing people not to work.

Oursmall businesses are bearing the brunt of these policies. Unfilled job openings are at arecord highand employers are struggling to fill open positions. Despite 63% of small businesses in aJuly surveysaying they were currently or trying to hire, 89% of this group said there are few or no "qualified job applicants."

On top of this, President Joe Bidens disastrous, inflationary economic policies are squandering the economic recovery he inherited. Our workers, families, and small businesses are now paying more for "just about everything."

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Rapidly rising prices for everyday goods have completelyswampedany wage growth, with paychecks actually shrinking last month after inflation is factored in.

Nonetheless, Biden and Democrats in Congress are still trying to slam the American people with more recklesstaxes and spending.

Meanwhile, at least25 Republican-led statesfrom Alaska to New Hampshire have announced they will no longer pay citizens to stay home.

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Arizona has gone one step further: Gov. Doug Duceyunveileda $2,000 back-to-work bonus for eligible individuals "with a goal of getting as many Arizonans as possible to rejoin the workforce by Labor Day." The state will also provide community college scholarships for adult education programs, childcare for returning workers, and housing assistance to combat homelessness.

Innovative solutions like these will help our country bounce back to its pre-pandemic status.

Disincentivizing work is un-American and will have lasting, long-term consequences. The stability of our economy and the vitality of our nation is at stake.

Thankfully, red states are leading the way to a robust recovery.

Ronna McDaniel is Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. Follow her on Twitter @GOPChairwoman.

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RNC Chairwoman McDaniel: Here's why Republican states lead the US economic recovery - Fox Business

Security experts say that election hardware and software should be subjected to transparency and rigorous testing, but only by credentialed professionals. Yet nearly all of the partisan reviews have flouted such protocols and focused on the 2020 results rather than hunting for security flaws.

In Arizona, the firm chosen by the Republican-led Legislature, Cyber Ninjas, had no previous experience auditing elections, and its chief executive has promoted conspiracy theories claiming that rigged voting machines cost Mr. Trump the state. The company also used Republican partisans to help conduct its review in Maricopa County, including one former lawmaker who was at the Jan. 6 protest in Washington that preceded the Capitol riot.

In Wisconsin, the Republican Assembly speaker, Robin Vos, is pushing for a review of the 2020 results to be led by a former State Supreme Court justice who claimed in November that the election had been stolen. And in Pennsylvania, the Republican leader of the State Senate has announced hearings that he likened to a forensic investigation of the election, saying it could include issuing subpoenas to seize voting machines and ballots.

Christopher Krebs, the former head of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said such reviews could easily compromise voting machines. The main concern is having someone unqualified come in and introduce risk, introduce something or some malware into a system, he said. You have someone that accesses these things, has no idea what to do, and once youve reached that point, its incredibly difficult to kind of roll back the certification of the machine.

Decertifying machines effectively means replacing them, often in a hurry and at great cost. Philadelphias elections board rejected an earlier G.O.P. request for access to the citys election machines, saying it would cost more than $35 million to buy new ones.

In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, told Maricopa County in May that her office would decertify 385 machines and nine vote tabulators that had been handed over for the G.O.P.-led election review.

The issue with the equipment is that the chain of custody was lost, Ms. Hobbs said in an interview. The chain of custody ensures that only authorized people have access to it, so that that vulnerability cant be exploited.

More:

How G.O.P. Election Reviews Created a New Security Threat - The New York Times

By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed Army veteran Joe Kent's bid to unseat Republican U.S. Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who was among the few in her party who voted to impeach Trump in January.

Trump has promised to help Republicans win control of Congress in the November 2022 elections and is also working to replace his Republican critics in Congress with loyalists.

Herrera Beutler was among 10 Republican lawmakers who joined House Democrats in a January vote to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection in a fiery speech ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by his supporters.

Trump in February endorsed a former aide who is challenging Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, who also voted to impeach.

The former president has also backed a Republican challenging Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was among the seven Republicans in that chamber who voted with Democrats in a failed attempt to convict Trump.

Trump said in a statement that Herrera Beutler's impeachment vote was "against the Republican Party" and that Kent, if elected, would "be a warrior for the America First agenda."

Herrera Beutler's campaign manager, Parker Truax, brushed off Trump's comments, noting that the lawmaker outperformed Trump in her district in the 2016 and 2020 elections. In January, Herrera Beutler said "the president of the United States incited a riot" and that the evidence against him was "indisputable."

She has represented Washington's 3rd Congressional District since 2011 and won re-election in 2020 with 56% of the vote.

Herrera Beutler has also easily led the Republican field at campaign fundraising, ending June with over $1 million in the bank.

Kent, whose campaign website touts his allegiance to Trump, had just over $500,000, second to Herrera Beutler among the five Republican candidates who filed campaign finance disclosures for the period.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney)

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Trump backs opponent of Republican House member who voted to impeach him - Yahoo News

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., on Sunday warned that there could be "bloodshed" in future elections while echoing former President Donald Trump's false claims about "rigged" votes.

The far-right freshman congressman repeated the widely debunked narrative about election fraud during a speech to the Macon County Republican Party despite federal intelligence warningsthat such rhetoric could spark domestic terror attacks like the January 6 Capitol riot.

"Anybody who tells you that Joe Biden was dutifully elected is lying to you," Cawthorn declared in a video the party posted on its Facebook page before deleting it on Tuesday following blowback.

"The things that we are wanting to fight for, it doesn't matter if our votes don't count," Cawthorn said. "Because, you know, if our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it's going to lead to one place and it's bloodshed."

The comments drew immediate condemnation, even from Cawthorn's fellow Republicans.

"This is insane. Based on a total lie," tweeted Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republicanwho voted to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot. "This must stop."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Democrats roundly said that Cawthorn's rhetoric must be condemned.

"Law and order is the foundation of democracy. When elected officials ignore facts and advocate for committing crimes, that foundation cracks," tweeted Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. "Rep. Cawthorn's rhetoric is a threat to all of us, and it's time for real patriots to condemn it and marginalize those who propagate it."

Despite millions spentto investigate election fraud claims pushed by Trump, there has been no evidence of any widespread fraud that could have influenced the election outcome. Attorneys who pushed the claims in court have been sanctionedand face disbarment.

Cawthorn even suggested that he would be willing to take up arms against the government to defend "election security."

"As much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs, there's nothing that I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American," he said. "And the way that we can have recourse against that is if we all passionately demand that we have election security in all 50 states."

Cawthorn's speech comes just months after a joint intelligence assessment warnedthat "narratives of fraud in the recent general election" and "the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol" would "almost certainly" spark domestic terror attacks.

Luke Ball, a spokesman for Cawthorn, told CNNthat the congressman was "CLEARLY advocating for violence not to occur over election integrity questions."

"He fears others would erroneously choose that route and strongly states that election integrity issues should be resolved peacefully and never through violence," Ball said.

The remarks are a turnaround from Cawthorn's comments in January amid backlash to his vote to object to the certification of President Joe Biden's win after the Capitol riot.

"I think I would say that the election was not fraudulent," he said at the time. "You know, the Constitution allowed for us to be able to push back as much as we could and I did that to the amount of the constitutional limits that I had at my disposal. So now I would say that Joseph R. Biden is our president."

Ball insisted to CNN that Cawthorn's "views on the 2020 election have remained consistent."

"He raised objections to electors from several states in January because he had severe concerns about how the elections were conducted and how laws were changed last-minute to favor Democrats," he said.

Cawthorn, who spoke at Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally on January 6, also called detained rioters "political hostages" and "political prisoners."

"The big problem is, we don't actually know where all the political prisoners are," he said. "So if we were to actually be able to go and try and bust them out and let me tell you, the reason why they're taking these political prisoners is because they're trying to make an example. 'Cause they don't want to see the mass protests going on in Washington."

An audience member asked Cawthorn "when are you going to call us to Washington again?"

"We are actively working on that one," Cawthorn replied. "We have a few plans in motion I can't make public right now, but this is something that we're working on."

Ball told HuffPostthat Cawthorn is "not actively working on any 'protest' or 'plan' to bring people to Washington" and insisted that the comment was related to the earlier statement about "political prisoners." Ball said Cawthorn was calling for "due process" and "was not advocating for any form of illegal action."

Trump supporters are planning a rally in support of the arrested rioters, who they call "political prisoners," in Washington D.C. next month. The D.C. Metropolitan Police is planning a "full activation"ahead of the protest.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., came under fire on Tuesday for failing to push back on his party members' election lies, which have also been echoed by far-right lawmakers like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

"There is no bottom for Kevin McCarthy and his big tent caucus where insurrectionists, anti-Semites, and alleged sex traffickers can all find a home," the Democratic National Committee said in a statement. "In any other world, Madison Cawthorn's abhorrent remarks would be unanimously condemned and a party leader with an actual spine would hold Cawthorn accountable for suggesting bloodshed. Madison Cawthorn keeps proving he's an embarrassment to North Carolinians and it raises the question of how long Kevin McCarthy will continue to let his caucus be run by extremists."

Former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., tweeted, "every Republican Member of Congress should be asked if they agree with [Cawthorn's] call for another January 6th."

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Fellow Republican rips freshman GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn over "insane" threat of bloodshed - Salon

Potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates are "racing to the bottom" as they look to win over the MAGA base in the event that former president Donald Trump opts not to run, according to a new report from Vanity Fair.

However, some Republicans fear that if Trump doesn't run, he may try to sabotage the race, because he "looks at every decision through the prism of self-interest."

"What benefits himfinancially, emotionally, politicallymay actually damage Republican electoral chances," Vanity Fair reported, adding that the former president is fueled as much by a desire for revenge as a desire to win.

"The nightmare scenario for Republicans is that Trump doesn't run and sabotages the Republican nominee to punish Mitch McConnell and other party leaders for not endorsing his big lie," according to the report. "It's happened before. Trump told people he wanted Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to lose the 2021 Georgia special election so that Democrats would control the Senate."

"Trump thought he'd be much more influential if McConnell was in the minority," a Trump confidant told the magazine.

Trump denied the report and blamed McConnell for the GOP's Senate defeats in Georiga, but longtime confidants reportedly said he wouldn't be able to tolerate a Republican president other than himself.

"He's got zero interest in having any heir. It's always been about him," one of them said.

If Trump decides to run, it's a "metaphysical impossibility that anybody, even a senator named Jesus H. Christ, could beat" him, according to Michael Caputo, a veteran of Trump's 2016 campaign.

If Trump doesn't run, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is widely viewed as the current frontrunner. But DeSantis faces some challenges, including his "abrasive personality" and his "fraught relationship with Trump," the magazine reported.

"Trump f*cking hates DeSantis. He just resents his popularity," a Trump confidant reportedly said.

The situation is unprecedented because the would-be potential candidates have to pretend they aren't running. At the same time, the "knives are out" between them, and if Trump doesn't run, the 2024 primary could be "2016 on steroids," featuring as many as 25-30 candidates possibly including the likes of Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, and Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But Caputo said he believes a Trump run is "more likely than not" which appears to be the majority opinion.

"What does Trump have to lose by running?" one prominent GOP strategist said. "His business sucks. He's doing tours with Bill O'Reilly."

Read the full story here.

'He's got zero interest in having any heir': Republicans fear Trump will sabotage 2024 GOP primaryyoutu.be

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'He's got zero interest in having any heir': Republicans fear Trump will sabotage 2024 GOP primary - Raw Story

A group of violent insurrectionists storms the Capitol building, attempting to destroy our votes and kill our elected representatives, and Sen. Jake Corman, along with the rest of the GOP, rewards them with a sham audit of the 2020 election.

Supporters of this bogus investigation say, lets have this audit to remove any doubt over the election results, which is a baldfaced lie. The only result they want is one where President Trump wins, and they will keep calling for phony audits until they get that result. These supporters have disregarded every court case, recount and legitimate audit of the 2020 election, so why would this audit be the one that finally convinces them to accept the results?

Moreover, even if this farce has no effect on the 2020 election, it will affect future elections. I believe the results of the audit will be used as justification for voter suppression laws where the GOP will give themselves the power to discard votes from entire counties and install their own candidates.

The GOP attempted to discard thousands of votes during the 2020 election; they most certainly will try again.

The GOP cannot restore election integrity when they themselves have no integrity.

Jeff Gibbons

Wilkinsburg

Go here to see the original:

Letter to the editor: Integrity of Republican Party - TribLIVE

Republican efforts to question Donald Trumps defeat in 2020 have led to voting system breaches experts say pose a risk to future elections.

Copies of Dominion Voting Systems software used for designing ballots, configuring voting machines and tallying results were distributed at an event this month in South Dakota organized by the MyPillow chief executive, Mike Lindell, a Trump ally who has made unsubstantiated claims about last years election.

Matt Masterson, a former top election security official in the Trump administration, said: We told election officials, essentially, that you should assume this information is already out there. Now we know it is, and we dont know what [hackers] are going to do with it.

The software copies came from voting equipment in Mesa county, Colorado, and Antrim county, Michigan, where Trump allies challenged results last fall. Dominion software is used in some 30 states, including California, Georgia and Michigan.

Harri Hursti, an election security pioneer, was at the South Dakota event and said he and other researchers were given three separate copies of election management systems that run on the Dominion software. Data indicated they were from Antrim and Mesa counties. While its not clear how the copies came to be released, they were also posted online and made available for public download.

The release gives hackers a practice environment to probe for vulnerabilities and a road map to avoid defenses, Hursti said. All hackers would need is physical access to the systems because they are not supposed to be connected to the internet.

The door is now wide open, Hursti said. The only question is, how do you sneak in the door?

US election technology is dominated by three vendors, meaning election officials cannot easily swap out existing technology. A Dominion representative declined comment, citing an investigation.

Hackers could sabotage the system, alter ballot design or even try to change results, said Kevin Skoglund, an election technology expert.

This disclosure increases both the likelihood that something happens and the impact of what would happen if it does, he said.

The effort by Republicans to examine voting equipment began soon after the November election as Trump blamed his loss on widespread fraud. Judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans, election officials of both parties and Trumps own attorney general dismissed the claims. A coalition of federal and state officials called the 2020 election the most secure in US history, and post-election audits across the country found no significant anomalies.

In Antrim county, a judge allowed a forensic exam of voting equipment after a brief mix-up of results led to a suit alleging fraud. It was dismissed in May. Hursti said the date on the software release matches the date of the forensic exam.

Calls seeking information from Antrim countys clerk and the local prosecutor were not immediately returned; a call to the judges office was referred to the county clerk. The Michigan secretary of states office declined comment.

In Colorado, authorities are investigating whether Mesa county elections staff provided unauthorized access to systems. The county elections clerk, Tina Peters, appeared with Lindell in South Dakota and told the crowd she was being targeted by Democrats.

Colorados secretary of state, Jena Griswold, said she alerted federal officials of the breach and was told it was not viewed as a significant heightening of the election risk landscape at this point. This week, Mesa county commissioners voted to replace voting equipment Griswold ordered no longer be used.

Geoff Hale, who leads election security at the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa), said his agency has always operated on the assumption system vulnerabilities are known by malicious actors. Officials are focused instead on ways to reduce risk, such as using ballots with a paper record that can be verified by the voter and rigorous post-election audits, Hale said.

Having Dominions software exposed publicly did not change the agencys guidance, Hale said.

Jack Cable, a security researcher, said he assumed US adversaries already had access to the software. He said he was more concerned the release would fan distrust among the growing number of people not inclined to believe in the security of US elections.

It is a concern that people, in the pursuit of trying to show the system is insecure, are actually making it more insecure, said Cable, who recently joined a cybersecurity firm run by the former Cisa director Christopher Krebs and former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos.

Concerns over access to voting machines and software first surfaced in Arizona, where the Republican-controlled state senate hired Cyber Ninjas, a firm with no elections experience, to audit Maricopa county results. The firms chief executive tweeted support of conspiracy theories surrounding last years election.

After the countys Dominion voting systems were turned over, Arizonas top election official determined they could not be used again and ordered new ones.

Dominion has filed suits contesting unfounded claims about its systems. In May, it called giving Cyber Ninjas access to its code reckless and said it would cause irreparable damage to election security.

Ryan Macias, an election technology and security expert who was in Arizona earlier this year to observe that review, was alarmed by a lack of cybersecurity protocols. There was no information about who was given access, whether those people had passed background checks or were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements. Cyber Ninjas did not respond to an email.

Macias was not surprised to hear copies of Antrim countys system had surfaced online, given the questionable motives of the various groups conducting the reviews and the central role that voting systems have played in conspiracy theories.

This is what I anticipated would happen, and I anticipate it will happen yet again coming out of Arizona, Macias said. These actors have no liability and no rules of engagement.

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Republican election audits have led to voting system breaches, experts say - The Guardian

Good Wednesday morning Utah! Thanks for reading The Rundown.

Slide into my DMs. I love to hear from readers, and I read every email. Send me your news tips, feedback about this newsletter, or anything else on your mind. Send me an email or find me on Twitter @SchottHappens.

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Its no secret that many hardcore Utah Republicans are no fan of Sen. Mitt Romney. Witness the less than cordial reception he got at this years GOP convention when he was mercilessly booed from the stage.

A new poll suggests Romney may no longer fit neatly in the Trumpified version of todays Republican Party.

OH Predictive Insights finds only 42% of Utah Republicans believe theres room for Romney in todays GOP. 44% say Romney does not belong.

Graphic via OH Predictive Insights

Trump, on the other hand, would find a much more welcoming atmosphere. 58% say theres room for the twice-impeached former President.

Romney is not popular among Republicans in Utah, with almost two-thirds (63%) saying they would rather see someone else in the Senate instead of Romney.

In the 2012 Presidential election, Mit Romney earned the largest share of the vote in Utah of any Republican presidential candidate since Reagan in 1984. The data shows that Utahns opinions have flipped since 2012 with two-thirds of GOP voters preferring a Republican senator other than Mitt Romney, he is more vulnerable than ever in a primary election, Mike Noble, OHPI Chief of Research said in a press release.

The good thing for Romney is he has more than 3 years before hes up for re-election. Another factor working in his favor is there are very few Utah Republicans with the political juice to mount a credible challenge to Romney. The Tribunes Robert Gehrke makes a compelling case that former congressman (and friend of the newsletter) Jason Chaffetz is preparing to challenge Romney in 2024. Thats certainly a possibility, but its difficult to see him giving up his prime gig on Fox News.

You can see the question and crosstabs here.

Breaking overnight: A Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks goes into effect after the Supreme Court declines to step in and stop it. [WaPo]

Gov. Spencer Cox will meet with Utah lawmakers today to discuss how to address the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the state. But, its likely nothing will come from the meeting as legislative leaders dont think theres much they can do to help the situation in the short term. [Tribune]

President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, calling the airlift to evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghans an extraordinary success. [AP]

The Taliban stopped a bus loaded with explosives headed toward the Kabul Airport shortly before the U.S. finished its withdrawal from Afghanistan. [NBC News]

An Afghan interpreter who helped rescue then-Senator Joe Biden in 2008 was left behind after refusing to leave his family. [WSJ]

A Republican congressman from Oklahoma threatened staffers at the U.S. embassy in Tajikistan as he attempted to cross into Afghanistan with a large amount of cash. Rep. Markwayne Mullin was going to rescue five American citizens and planned to hire a helicopter to get them out. [WaPo]

House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy threatened to punish companies that turn over phone records to the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. [Politico]

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, one of former President Donald Trumps most vocal supporters in Congress, was caught on hidden camera blaming Trump for his election defeat. Theres nothing obviously skewed about the election results, Johnson said in the recording. [WaPo]

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan says its really clear former President Trump lost the 2020 election. It was not rigged. It was not stolen, Ryan said during a local television interview. [The Hill]

The CEO of Intermountain Healthcare pleaded with Utahns to wear a mask to stem the surge of coronavirus infections in the state. [Tribune]

The CDC is asking unvaccinated Americans not to travel over the Labor Day holiday because of the risk of further spreading COVID-19. [CNN]

Social Security will have to start cutting benefits in 2034, a full year earlier than expected, because of a projected shortfall due to the pandemic. [CNN]

Democrats are sounding the alarm about anemic Latino turnout in the California recall election. [Politico]

Google again pushed back their plans for employees to return to the office until mid-January. [AP]

Last week I asked readers if they thought the ferocious debate around COVID-19, vaccines and masks was bound to tear the country apart, or if it was more of a tempest in a teapot.

Many readers responded to my query with some very insightful thoughts about our hyperpolarized political culture. Here are some of those responses:

I think that Covid-19 and all the accompanying disruptions to peoples lives may have affected peoples mental health more deeply than we realize. I think that most people found a way to trudge through and will recover in time but for some people, the perfect storm of last years presidential election and Covid-19 pushed them over the edge. There will always be wackos but I think that the rancor will start to subside rather than get worse barring another catastrophe. Alex White

Mask mandates arent the problem. Vaccine hesitancy isnt the problem. The problem is poor quality education that has led to a large portion of the population being unable to use reason and scientific thought to analyze a problem and come to a solution. Distrust of the pillars of society has caused these people to seek out alternative news, alt-facts, quacks, charlatans, and psychics. They dont trust mainstream media, mainstream politicians, or the best and brightest doctors and scientists. This is not a new problem but it is a steadily worsening problem. As more and more school boards are taken over by these people the quality of education diminishes. Books are altered to present half-truths and tall tales as fact. Those educated in these systems of less knowledge go on to multiply and their progeny have issues with even more facts. This is not so much a political problem though it seems the majority of these people have flocked to the new Republican Party. The Democrats are not exempt from this as many on the far left have never studied and have little knowledge of the problems of communism and other extreme socialist governments and societies. David Crispin

I am a 72-year-old retired physician who has cancer in remission. I spent March 2020-July 2021 essentially homebound, only leaving home for doctor appointments. I do not understand those who do not want to be vaccinated. When I was a child, Polio was the disease we all feared When the Polio vaccine became available, our parents lined us up as soon as it was available so we would be safe. The vaccines are safe. Also, face masks are safe. If we do not use face masks in school, children are going to become infected. Some with underlying conditions may die. In previous crises our country has pulled together for the greater good, I just dont understand why our citizens are so resistant to doing the same with this crisis. Kathie Coopersmith, MD

I am appalled by the current political climate surrounding COVID, and I am fearful that the longer it continues the more lives it will cost. This Is a health crisis! Death does not distinguish whether its victims are Republican, Democrat, Independent, or other. At the end of it all people are dying from this Thing. How many people reading these columns remember the days when, in order to even attend public schools, you had to produce your immunization records? The purpose then, as it should be now, was to make sure that all children were SAFE! Where are the politics in that? I understand people who are claiming parents rights but What about the children? I just wish that everyone would recognize this pandemic for what it is: a killer! It is the enemy Not my neighbor down the street. Maybe if we applied something other than political views, like a sense of unity to defeat this enemy we could make a difference? Perhaps this may sound pollyannish but what have we got to lose? B. Murphy

Utah

$10,000 reward offered for information in Moab double homicide. [Tribune]

Advocates want a needle exchange program in St. George to help the citys homeless, but not everyones on board. [Tribune]

Afghan and Iraqi refugees can ask to be resettled in Salt Lake City. [Tribune]

Eccles Theater requiring vaccination or negative result to enter live shows. [ABC4]

COVID-19

The rolling 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases in Utah is the highest in 7 months. [Tribune]

Davis County reopens mass vaccination center with COVID-19 surging. [FOX13]

Weber County officials prepare to offer booster COVID-19 shots. [Standard Examiner]

Is COVID vaccine safe while pregnant? A pregnant infectious disease doctor answers. [KSL]

Bear River Health Department outlines plan to keep kids in school despite COVID concerns. [ABC4]

Environment

Why indoor air can be just as bad as the pollution outside and what you can do about it. [Tribune]

BLM resumes oil and gas leasing in Utah. [Tribune]

Floods

Month after devastating flooding hit Enoch, community still working to rebuild. [FOX13]

Herriman homeowner asks city to pay for flood damage despite law saying it doesnt have to. [KUTV]

Water

Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company shutting off secondary water early due to drought. [KSL]

Orem building moratorium amended after City Council inundated with emails and calls. [Daily Herald]

Richins Ranch conservation easement approved, preserving 851 acres near Chalk Creek. [Park Record]

On the Opinion Pages

How Cox let dirty industry take over Utahs air quality planning, Tribune Editorial Board writes. [Tribune]

Will oil and gas foxes be watching Utahs air quality henhouse? Robert Gehrke asks. [Tribune]

Gerald Elias: Public health measures through the years were called demagoguery. [Tribune]

Paul Krugman: The snake oil theory of the modern right. [Tribune]

The Tribunes Connor Sanders contributed to this report

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A new poll shows Utah Republicans may be ready to move on from Mitt Romney - Salt Lake Tribune

From the Committee On Oversight and Reform

WASHINGTONToday, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer and House Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations Ranking Member Don Bacon (R-Neb.) wrote Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack about the 27% increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

SNAP benefits are intended to help low-income Americans provide food for their families. SNAP benefits are increased annually to match inflation. This year, however, the Biden Administration increased SNAP benefits far beyond inflation levels, costing American taxpayers an additional $20 billion annually.

The Biden Administration is abusing its authority and expanding SNAPwithout congressional authorization, wrote Congressmen Comer and Bacon.

The law requires the Thrifty Food Plan to be updated every five years. The Biden Administration, however, broke with longstanding precedent that the USDA only increase the cost of the plan in accordance with inflation. Even last month, the Congressional Budget Office acknowledged this precedent when it estimated only inflationary adjustments to the Plan through 2031 . . . The Biden Administrations actions to dramatically expand SNAPwithout guardrails and without congressional inputappears to be another example of its efforts to keep Americans dependent on government handouts.

The full letter is available here.

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Republican Congress members say USDA abused its authority with SNAP increase Produce Blue Book - Produce Blue Book

It has been obvious for some days that the right-wing is preparing a major pivot from hand wringing about Joe Biden's alleged betrayal of Afghan refugees to hand wringing about all the Afghan refugees he brought into the country to kill us all in our beds.I wrote about the early shifts in perspective last week and it's starting to come into full focus now that the military evacuation is over. Right-wing fear-mongering about immigrants and refugees is as predictable as Republican voter suppression.

Fox News celebrity Tucker Carlson has made theevacuation of refugeespart of his Grand Unified Theory,The Great Replacement, whereby Joe Biden and the Democrats conspired to bring these foreigners to America in order to supplant good, pure white people anddominate the American culture and politics. Carlson is influential in right-wing circles but while his argument feeds into their sense of grievance, it may be a bit esoteric for many of the folks in his audience. Former president Trump's top immigration adviser Stephen Miller makes it more explicit andfolds insome of the old "welfare queen" arguments, complaining that the refugees will get benefits and it would be cheaper to settle them in Pakistan, which he thinks proves this is all about an "ideological objective to change America."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., edged toward what is going to be the ultimate argument when he said this on Monday:

Knowing that they said they took more than a 120,000 lifts with only 5600 being American, I I think we should look through and screen before people come to America. We've got to make sure what's in there.

When asked if he thought it was OK for these Afghan refugees to settle in the U.S., McCarthy replied "after we get the screening it's a whole different question" which isn't exactly responsive. But then he's made his position clear before.According to the New YorkTimes,he told a bipartisan group of House members last week, "we'll have terrorists coming across the border."

He knows his base. After all, back in 2016, Donald Trump had promised to repatriate all the Syrian refugees who had been fully vetted and already settled in the U.S. simply because you just can't trust 'em. He wanted to send Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaiband Ayanna Pressley "back to where they came from" even though they are all American citizens, the latter two having been born here. (Not that that matters, he wanted to end birthright citizenship as well.)

As I noted last week, Trump himself has wavered between needling President Biden by pretending to care about the Afghans left behind and accusing the administration of allowing terrorists into the country. But on Monday,he toldFox News' Stuart Varney, "We should have hit that country years ago, hit them really hard, and then let it rot" so it's hard to believe any protests of concern for the Afghan people. It's just not in him. I think we can expect him to jump on the "terrorist" bandwagon 100% from now on.

All signs point to the GOP believing that it can turn the "Biden screwed up Afghanistan" into "Biden brought the threat of terrorism back to the U.S." And the whole thing fits neatly into their overarching worldview that they, and the U.S.,have been humiliatedat the hands of "the other" whether it's a foreigner or devious Democrats stealing the election right in front of everyone. This is the same worldview that brought us the deranged mass shooters with their Great Replacement-stylemanifestosandscreeds about Jews and caravansand the violent events of January 6th.

All the screeching about phantom Afghan terrorists will end up inflaming the real would-be terrorists who live among us and they are plenty inflamed already.

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All over the country, we are seeing anti-vaccine and anti-mask protesters explode into full-blown hysteria over the idea that kids might be required to get vaccinated and wear masks when they come to school. Dress codes and vaccines are already commonly required in public and private schools and have been for many decades. Now they are an infringement on the fundamental freedom of their parents to be irresponsible fools with their own families and the families of others. And they are getting more and more violent in their rhetoric:

PA GOP Gov candidate Steve Lynch today: “Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go in to these school boards to remove them. I’m going in with 20 strong men and I’m gonna give them an option - they can leave or they can be removed.” pic.twitter.com/A0M6SsOldI

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 30, 2021

It isn't entirely unprecedented for GOP candidates to promote violence in recent years and be richly rewarded for it. One of them became president of the United States. You may also recall that a congressional candidate by the name of Greg Gianforte was even arrested forassaulting a reportera couple of years back. He is now the Governor of Montana. But the myriad threats against local officials such as public health officers and school board members in the last year is an escalation of political violence on a new and much more intimate level than we've seen. Across the nation,aggrieved right-wingersareintimidating officialswith the words "we know where you live, we will find you" andtargeting at their homes.

And while most Republican officeholders are more or less standing back and allowing this to happen out of cynical self-interest, some are saying the quiet parts out loud themselves.

Congressman Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C.,told a group of constituentsthe other day that "if our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen" there is going to be bloodshed and he really doesn't look forward to taking up arms against other Americans.

History Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat defined what is happening in stark terms on "All in with Chris Hayes" on Monday: "Authoritarianism is when thugs and criminals become the lawmakers." Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, made a startling observation about this turn of eventsin The Atlantic:

Decades of living in, studying, and writing about the Middle East have taught me that whenever a political faction becomes obsessed with violent rhetoric and fantasies, brutal acts aren't far behind. And while there's always been a strain of militancy on the American right and left fringes, there is something unmistakably new, and profoundly alarming, about the casual, florid, and sadistic rhetoric that is metastasizing from the Republican fringe into the party's mainstream.

The truth is that the violent rhetoric and fantasies have been there for quite a while, it's just that they were channeled into wars on foreign soil like the tragic 20-year quagmire that ended this week. And soon they will no doubt be directed at the new immigrants from Afghanistan as "floridly as ever. The American right-wing has always found somebody to hate. But if Trumpism is defined by one unique characteristic it's that it feels free to direct its violent rhetoric against fellow Americans in ways we have not seen since the Civil War.

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Republicans are right to worry about Afghanistan and terrorism but they're wrong about who incites - Salon