Sunday, December 25, 2022

How Demographic Shifts Fueled by Covid Delivered Midterm Wins for Democrats

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/08/republicans-2022-election-results-coronavirus-00072565

According to his own pollsters, the former president’s misguided and unreliable management of the public health crisis cost him the 2020 election.

Now there is evidence that the demographic change spurred by Republicans’ and Democrats’ divergent responses to the pandemic likely cost Republicans a number of key seats in the 2022 midterms. And the fallout, fueled by cross-country migration and even the Covid death toll, could linger into 2024 and beyond.

False claim COVID-19 vaccines caused 1.1 million deaths

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/12/23/fact-check-false-claim-covid-19-vaccines-caused-1-1-million-deaths/10929679002/

One such claim comes from a Nov. 24 article from The Expose, a website that has published multiple pieces of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

“Secret CDC Report reveals at least 1.1 Million Americans have 'Died Suddenly' since the COVID Vaccine roll-out & another Government Report proves the COVID Vaccines are to blame,” reads the article's headline.

The piece was shared more than 700 times on Facebook in a month, according to the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.

But the article is incorrect. The data source it cites does not list any cause for reported excess deaths in the U.S. Experts say COVID-19 infections make up most of those deaths.

Study led by FDA researchers didn’t find that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine caused blood clots, contrary to viral claims on social media

 https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/study-fda-researchers-didnt-find-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-caused-blood-clots-contrary-viral-claims-epoch-times/

These findings suggest that the initially detected associations, obtained by comparisons with historical pre-COVID data, were the result of confounding factors—such as differences in healthcare-seeking behavior and monthly variations in the baseline rates of such adverse events—rather than true associations with the Pfizer vaccine. Confounding factors are variables that affect the outcome of an experiment, but aren’t the variables being studied in the experiment.
Yazan Abou-Ismail, a hematologist at the University of Utah Health who specializes in blood clotting disorders, also pointed out in a Twitter thread that the claim is inaccurate and the study “cannot be used to claim causality”.

George Santos may be Congress’ Talented Mr. Ripley. Some of his voters just don’t care.

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/23/george-santos-congress-resume-fake-00075324

 Republican Rep.-elect George Santos stands accused of fabricating major portions of his biography, from his Jewish ancestry to what companies he worked for.

But disgust for Democrats is so strong among some voters in the district whose seat he flipped, they’d rather have a fabulist representing them in Congress.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Trump Put on Blast for ‘Lying’ About Tax Audits That Supposedly Prevented Records Release

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-put-on-blast-for-lying-about-tax-audits-that-supposedly-prevented-records-release

Critics, congressmen, and members of the House Ways and Means Committee that released a six-year snapshot of Trump’s taxes slammed the former president on Wednesday for “lying” about a faux IRS audit throughout his presidency. The lie began in 2016 during his presidential campaign, when the Republican candidate claimed he couldn’t share his financial details due to an ongoing IRS audit, and grew to claims of multiple audits throughout his presidency as a basis for continued concealment of the documents. In actuality, the agency failed to audit Trump for the first two years of his presidency—despite the fact that annual audits of the president are required by law. Trump’s failure to provide his tax returns broke tradition with every president since Nixon and many vice presidents, who voluntarily offered records of their annual tax returns to the public for transparency. “Tonight we learned the IRS failed to follow the law and did not audit donald trump for years,” said one of the committee members, Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ), on Twitter. “Oh yeah and trump was lying when he said he was under audit.”


Far Right Turns on ‘Faker’ & ‘Liar’ Marjorie Taylor Greene

 https://news.yahoo.com/far-turns-faker-liar-marjorie-022507205.html

The far right is out to destroy one of their own.

Over the past week, far-right pundits have begun lining up to take shots at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as the congresswoman reportedly vacationed in Costa Rica.

As for why fellow extremists are upset? That’s three-fold—and it involves Greene’s vocal support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy to be the next Speaker of the House, her public spat with onetime friend Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and the finalization of her divorce.

Judge dismisses remainder of Kari Lake’s election lawsuit following two-day trial

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3785655-judge-dismisses-remainder-of-kari-lakes-election-lawsuit-following-two-day-trial/

An Arizona judge on Saturday ruled against Kari Lake in her challenge of Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs’s (D) victory, dismissing the highest-profile case challenging the midterm election results.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson following a two-day trial found that Lake had not proven that election officials committed intentional misconduct sufficient to change the race’s outcome.

Haredi man whose arrest sparked riot indicted for arson of Jerusalem cellphone store

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-man-whose-arrest-sparked-riot-indicted-for-arson-of-jerusalem-cellphone-store/

A Beit Shemesh man was indicted on Friday over the torching of a cellphone store in Jerusalem several months ago.

According to prosecutors, Yehoshua Dadon, 34, and three others broke into the store in October and set it alight because the shop did not comply with religious strictures restricting the devices.

The resulting blaze destroyed the store and affected several adjacent buildings, causing around NIS 600,000 ($170,000) in damages. Dadon was charged with arson, extortion by threats and obstruction of justice.

Friday, December 23, 2022

Former President Donald Trump asked “for troops around the Capitol to make sure everyone is safe,” on Jan. 6, 2021, but was “turned down by the Democrats.”

 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/aug/10/facebook-posts/no-proof-trump-asked-troops-jan-6-or-democrats-den/

There is no record of former President Donald Trump authorizing or requesting thousands of National Guard troops for the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Several Trump administration officials who have testified before the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 said they never heard Trump request National Guard support before or during the attack.

Congressional Democrats did not deny a request for troops. The D.C. National Guard reports only to the president. If such a request had been made, they would not have had the authority to deny it.

Jan. 6 Committee Report—Seven Biggest Revelations About Donald Trump

 https://www.newsweek.com/jan-6-committee-report-seven-biggest-revelations-about-donald-trump-1769205

The House of Representatives' Select Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021 released its final report on Thursday with just days left in the current Congress.

The 845-page report outlined the alleged efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election as well as analysis of what took place on January 6 when a group of the former president's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

It comes just three days after the House committee made criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and recommended that Trump face charges obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to make a false statement, and conspiracy to "incite," "assist," or "aid or comfort" an insurrection.

Trump Rips Jan. 6 Final Report, Blames Pelosi, Says He Called for Peace

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-rips-jan-6-final-report-blames-pelosi-says-he-called-peace-1769201

Although Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that he requested troops to protect the Capitol on January 6, there are no records that indicate the former president actually made the request, according to PolitiFact.

New York congressman-elect campaigned as a Jewish Republican. Was he lying?

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-york-congressman-elect-campaigned-as-a-jewish-republican-was-he-lying/

Santos’ claims about his religious and ethnic origins are minor compared to the revelations in the Times expose, which offered new details as well as ones published previously elsewhere and uncovered by Democratic Party opposition research. There are no records of Santos attending the institutes of higher learning he claims to have attended, or of working at some of the financial brokerages he claims have employed him. A charitable institution he started has no evidence of being charitable. He has repeatedly identified with the far right, and then attempted to scrub such expressions from his social media.

Putin Finally Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

 https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-slips-comments-russia-ukraine-war-1769149

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a significant statement this week as he called the conflict in Ukraine a "war" for the first time since he ordered a full-scale invasion into the neighboring country.

‘Get Rid of the Video!’: Putin Crony Freaks Out in Live TV Flop Over Zelensky Clip

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-tv-flop-sends-vladimir-solovyov-raging-over-video-of-volodymyr-zelensky?ref=home

Simes described Zelensky’s speech as a total lie, from beginning to end. Solovyov and Simes bristled at comparisons to former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, made by Pelosi. Resorting to a grotesquely Orwellian distortion, Simes claimed that Putin, in his speech to rile up the masses to support his invasion of a peaceful neighboring nation, was the one worthy of being compared to Churchill. In contrast, he described Zelensky—the president of a country fiercely defending itself from unprovoked Russian aggression—as an “evil poodle.”