Month: September 2024

According to Breitbart, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, a so-called “comedy” show meant to mock current events, thought it acceptable to mock the attempts on President Trump’s life.

Saturday Night Live has a history of platforming radical liberals and mocking Republicans and conservatives while letting Obama, Biden, and other leftists off the hook.

Trump War Room on X, as well as other users, were quick to call out this inappropriate and hateful rhetoric.

Trump War Room shared, “There were two assassination attempts against President Trump within a span of seven weeks.@nbcsnl apparently finds that funny. Disgusting.”

There were two assassination attempts against President Trump within a span of seven weeks.@nbcsnl apparently finds that funny. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/huSqKsrGhM

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 29, 2024

There were two assassination attempts against President Trump in less than two months.

SNL apparently finds that funny…

Disgusting.pic.twitter.com/CHNhMSZDXZ

— Proud Elephant (@ProudElephantUS) September 29, 2024 

According to Breitbart, Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, addresses a pro-Trump crowd, saying, “Come on back because we’re having fun.”

He then goes on to proclaim, “We love my rallies, except when somebody goes bing bing bing bong bing right at me… you know that happened because of the rhetoric of the radical left.”

Throughout modern history, many on the left have called on Republicans to tone down their rhetoric. Yet while they virtue-signal their request, they openly compare Trump to Hitler and demonize Trump supporters.

This is the latest example of the left and media (one and the same) engaging in anti-Republican hate.

If a Republican made a similar comment about a Democrat, the entire left-controlled media apparatus would engage, and they would be censored. Yet somehow, even assassination attempts are considered humorous by the mainstream media and liberal “culture” as long as it happens to a Republican.

The show has actively avoided making fun of the Democrats on the top of the ticket because they’re terrified of doing anything that could be perceived as helping Trump.

In June, writers from the show were exposed for working with a pro-Biden PAC to help create messaging (propaganda) aimed at young voters.

While the left continues to lecture Republicans,  The Gateway Pundit reported that Democrat pundits and politicians continue to ramp up their anti-Trump hate and rhetoric while calling for a more civil discourse.

Saturday Night Live makes a mockery of the Trump assassination attempts.

This is freaking disgusting.pic.twitter.com/HTsYWQq4WJ

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) September 29, 2024

The post ‘SNL’ Jokes About Trump Assassination Attempts appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

As the whole of Europe shifts right, few parties inflict such panic to the Globalists of the Euro-establishment as Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party that is making sweeping gains in the East of the country and is polling nationally between 17% and 20%, in second place to the also right-wing opposition CDU.

While the failed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has broken down the economy, calls AfD ‘far-right’ and Nazi, he sends billions of Euros to the real-life, present day Nazis of Ukraine – go figure.

Now, the co-leaders of the AfD, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, have sealed an agreement for Weidel to be the party’s next candidate for chancellor.

The agreement does not mean her candidacy is totally confirmed, as she still needs to be backed by party members during the AfD’s conference, scheduled for March next year.

Deutsche Welle reported:

“Weidel, who ran on a joint ticket with Chrupalla as the party’s candidates at the last federal election, was already seen as the runaway favorite for the nomination for 2025.”

Germany will hold its next federal election in September next year, if Scholz can hold firm until there.

“Weidel, an economist, has been co-leader of the AfD since 2019. Earlier this year, her party colleagues voted 79.8% in favor of her staying in the role.”

Weidel has been an AfD member since 2013, and joined the executive committee in 2015.

She was elected member of the Bundestag in the 2017 federal election.

“In 2017, the 45-year-old became the first lesbian woman to serve as a lead candidate of her party. She is in a civil union with her female partner, who is from Sri Lanka and lives in Switzerland. They have two adopted children.

[…] Since being founded a decade ago, the AfD has grown to become a significant force in Germany’s political landscape. Initially founded as a euroskeptic party, it has become more radical and focused on issues such as immigration.

The AfD made major gains in the European Parliament elections in June, as well as in three recent state elections, even emerging as the largest party in the eastern state of Thuringia.”

The deeply unpopular German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat is shaking in its boots with the rapid growth of the AfD, and together with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have refused to enter into governing coalitions with the AfD.

That makes it difficult for it to be part of a future government and winning the chancellorship – but not nearly impossible.

Read more:

Unpopular German Globalists Now Impose ‘Temporary’ Control on All Land Borders, Trying To Look Tough on Immigration to Counter the Surging Right Wing AfD

The post Right Wing Firebrand Alice Weidel Is Poised To Be AfD’s Candidate for German Chancellor in Next Year’s General Election appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Tampon Tim attended the Michigan-Minnesota game on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Football fans waited out in the rain to boo Tampon Tim at the game.

Michigan Fans Wait in the Rain to Boo Tampon Tim at Big House on Saturday

Tim Walz wore his Army Special Forces hat at the Big Ten football game today.

Here is the Army Special Forces emblem.

And here is Tim Walz in his Army Special Forces hat.

Tim Walz poses with campaign workers at the Michigan game in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Walz is wearing an Army Special Forces hat tonight – a position he never held.

Via Amuse: Walz has never been in the unit and he’s been asked repeatedly to quit wearing the hat and pretending like he was Army Special Forces.

This guy is too much.

Tampon Tim was also caught grabbing his sack on camera.

At least it makes him smile.
Tim Walz grabs his sack at the Michigan game.

Video via Johnny MAGA.

Watch what Tim Walz did in front of students today in Michigan pic.twitter.com/98ac6FK1Cz

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) September 28, 2024

The post Tampon Tim Wears His Stolen Valor Cap at Michigan Game – Grabs His Sack for the Cameras appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The sheriff of the Arizona border county Vice President Kamala Harris visited on Friday had a good reason for talking up a message of conciliation before Harris arrived.

After all, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels knows Harris could well be the next president of the United States.

But for the Harris presidential campaign, and any American who follows the news, the “welcome” Dannels extended had to come across as pretty rough — because nothing really hurts like the truth.

Dannels told the U.K.’s Daily Mail that he was glad to see Harris visiting as at least a step in the right direction.

“If we’re not engaging, we’re not talking, we can’t solve it,” Dannels said, according to the Daily Mail. “So that’s why it’s good that she’s coming, it truly is.”

But he also planned to give her a letter detailing the tragedies the open-border policies Harris has inflicted on the country as part of President Joe Biden’s administration.

“Number one, she is still our sitting vice president,” Dannels told the Daily Mail. “Number two, if she is elected as president, hopefully this will be a foundation that she’ll remember, because I want to share our tragedies, I want to share our reality to her,’ he said.

“I have a letter I’m going to give her when I meet her off she comes off the plane today.

“But the reality is setting all that aside to meet with her. [If] she gets elected, and then she does nothing to fix it. She can’t say she didn’t know about it.”

That’s putting it gently, of course. If Harris doesn’t know about the problems illegal immigration is causing, it’s because she doesn’t want to know about them.

And judging by news coverage of her trip, she didn’t learn much.

According to The Associated Press, Harris visited with local officials — including Dannels — then made a speech that sounded like it could have been given by Barack Obama back in 2012 — a decade before the onslaught of the Biden-Harris immigration invasion.

“I reject the false choice that suggests we must choose either between securing our border and creating a system that is orderly, safe and humane,” Harris said, according to the AP. “We can and we must do both.”

That’s the kind of pablum only the most committed progressives can swallow.

Prior to Joe Biden’s inauguration as president, his predecessor, Donald Trump, was well on the way to securing the border and had obtained the cooperation of the government in Mexico for a system that was “orderly, safe and humane.”

That was the system the Biden-Harris administration blew up. And Dannels can’t help but remind Harris of that.

Now, when it comes to welcoming gifts, a letter — a written record of the faults of the Biden-Harris administration in one hard-hit area of the country — is not exactly a bottle of wine and a dozen roses.

And there’s no doubt the Harris advance team and her political advisers saw Dannels’ statements as nothing but public sniping by a Republican who has previously been publicly scathing about Biden-Harris policies.

But if the atmosphere was poisoned by Dannels’ comments, Harris has only herself and her administration to blame.

The illegal immigration crisis foisted on the country has been a disaster since the beginning of the Biden administration — and it’s one that Harris’ Democratic Party embraces, even as it devastates Democratic-run cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston.

But its first and worst impacts were in the border counties — where lawmen like Dannels and other local officials have been forced to deal with it ever since.

Reminding Harris of that might make for a rough welcome, no matter how gently it’s put in public.

Because when it comes to the modern version of the Democratic Party, the truth tends to hurt — badly.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Sheriff Gives Kamala Harris a Rough Welcome as She Arrives in Embattled Border State Arizona appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Commentary

Recent discussions between journalists and Taiwanese authorities helped generate some interesting conversations and potential new pathways for positively changing the dynamics of cross-strait tensions.

There has been a pathway of greater frankness toward China, which started after the July NATO summit communique holding the Chinese regime to account for its role as the key enabler of Russian aggression in Ukraine. China took great umbrage to being called out.

During the week of Sept. 9, the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted 11 international journalists for a week-long gathering to receive briefings from different Taiwanese government ministries and think tanks.

This was a unique opportunity for journalists to engage deeply and broadly with Taiwanese centers of governance and influence that are not regularly accessible to non-Taiwanese journalists. It was also an opportunity for journalists to provide observations and feedback to the Taiwanese government and the think tanks that are influential in developing Taiwanese policy.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization.

This article first appeared in Epoch Times and was reprinted with permission.

The post John Mills: A Way Forward on Taiwan? appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Biden political prisoner Jake Lang has been held without trial for 1347 days. His trial is now scheduled one day before the 2024 election.

My name is Jake Lang, and 1347 days ago I was taken hostage at gunpoint by the FBI on January 16th 2021, I am proud to be a January 6 Political Hostage.

Last week my contraband cell phone was taken at knifepoint by an armed group of gang members & I was nearly killed in Brooklyn Federal Prison.

Why am I in prison for nearly 4 years without a trial you might ask?

** Please donate to Jake Lang at J6Truth.

My crime? Standing up for our Constitution and protesting the STOLEN 2020 election.

Being an American Patriot who supports President Donald J Trump. Being a man who believes in the words: LIBERTY OR DEATH!

For 1347 brutal days, J6 patriots have languished in Biden and Kamala’s Politicial GULAGs, treated like Domestic Terrorists & abused by prison staff & denied justice by biased DC Jury pools & insane Communist liberal Judges.

I cant begin to describe the inhumane degrading experiences I have endured, the thousands of nights I have spent in subjection to Communist tyranny, the 850 days of solitary confinement, the 15 different prison transfers, the years without seeing my family or being given a haircut or shave…. But somehow so alive with the freedom of Christ in my heart, so deeply hopeful in God’s plan for my life & God’s country. There is no doubt in my heart God answers prayers & will deliver us from this monstrous evil.

I could tell you about the dozens of baptisms God has performed through me, the hundreds lives changed through the ressurected power of Jesus Christ – the sparkles of unbreakable hope & courage from my fellow J6 brothers – the strongest men in America.

But my experience will take many books to fully explain, and truly will never be fully understood because many circumstances are too painful to relive and too miraculous to even believe. I’ve seen praise break down prison walls & broken families restored, I’ve seen real life resurrection & love evade the hearts of stone cold savages. I’ve seen God’s grace in the darkest pits of solitary confinement & tasted and seen how good our Lord is.

There is no one like our God, when you are facing BIG ODDS, you need a BIG GOD. There is a unstoppable conviction that fosters and grows inside a man who believes in God more than his own eyes, more than the 4 concrete walls of seclusion around him, more than the weeks of starvation and years of waiting, I can’t speak on anything other than what He has welled up inside my heart to tell you – not a wasted word.

If you are worried about the 2024 election and the future of our country, rest your heart at the feet of Jesus, cry upon His feet and wash them with your tears. Approach our King with your heavy laden heart and pour your soul out to Him, weep and be restored.

No one in America has more at stake in this election than myself and all of the January 6ers / our families. We are already broken & torn apart, crying at the feet of Jesus, but we aren’t defeated, in fact – WE STILL HAVE MORE FIGHT IN US.

** Please donate to Jake Lang at J6Truth.

Be not dismayed for He has overcome the world. Whether Trump wins or I have to do another 10-15 years in prison, God is still faithful no matter what, and the measure of our faith is not when it goes according to plan but when all of our plans fall apart. Seek the Lord and acknowledge Him in all your ways & He will guide you to the living waters of Christ Jesus, where the Wellspring of Life alleviates you.

Sin is the enemy, not Kamala Harris or the Democrats. Conquer sin & put it in the grave, and then & only then will you Save America. Be born again, not of flesh and human will but of Spirit and God’s Will.

I’ll be in solitary confinement again this Tuesday until my trial on Nov 4th at 333 Constitution Ave in Washington DC Federal Court House, Judge Nichols courtroom.

Come support and watch Daniel in the lions den!!! Stand for something or fall for anything, 1776 – Edward Jacob Lang Political Prisoner #76480054

The post Biden Regime Will Hold Trial for Jake Lang After 1347 Days of Imprisonment on November 4th – One Day Before the 2024 Election – Please Pray for the J6 Political Prisoners appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

(Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

In yet another blatant attempt to secure votes ahead of the 2024 election, the Biden-Harris regime has found itself embroiled in a massive $5 billion Medicare scandal.

The administration’s $5 billion Medicare stabilization program, announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in July 2024, is part of a three-year demonstration project intended to keep premiums lower for seniors.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has sent an urgent letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ), calling for an investigation into whether the move violates the Hatch Act, which forbids the use of taxpayer funds to influence elections.

“We write to you today seeking additional information on the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to spend over $5 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies to insurers to offset Medicare premium increases before the November election,” Sen. Paul wrote to Corey Amundson, the Chief of the Public Integrity Section at the DOJ.

“My colleagues and I are concerned that the Biden-Harris Administration is inappropriately using taxpayer funds to mask the defective Medicare Part D policies enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. Given the IRA’s central role in the Biden-Harris Administration’s presidential campaign, these concerns warrant additional investigation.”

It’s no secret that Medicare premiums have skyrocketed, thanks in large part to the IRA’s rushed and poorly designed reforms. In fact, Medicare premiums surged by a staggering 21% in 2023 alone, leaving seniors struggling to afford their prescriptions.

Now, with premiums expected to rise even higher in 2024, the Biden administration’s convenient “solution” has arrived just in time for election season—a move that Paul says smacks of political interference.

The Kentucky senator’s letter goes on to highlight the dubious legality of the administration’s actions.

Under Section 402 of the Social Security Amendments of 1967, CMS is granted authority to modify payment methods to improve the efficiency of Medicare.

However, as Paul points out, the Biden administration’s $5 billion bailout of Medicare insurers lacks any credible research or analysis to justify its so-called “efficiency.”

Instead, it seems aimed solely at lowering premiums in the short term to save face and secure votes.

Even more troubling is the potential violation of federal law. According to Paul, the administration’s actions may run afoul of the Hatch Act, which prohibits public officials from using taxpayer dollars to influence elections.

Citing 18 U.S.C. § 595, Paul argues that the Biden-Harris administration’s actions represent a clear and egregious attempt to interfere with the election by artificially propping up their Medicare policies.

“It is hard to imagine a more decisive action the Biden-Harris Administration could take to influence the election than spending billions of taxpayer dollars to cover up the negative impacts of their own highly touted IRA,” Sen. Paul wrote in the letter.

The timing is certainly suspicious. For over a year, the Biden administration turned a blind eye to rising Medicare premiums, ignoring the pleas of seniors and healthcare advocates alike. But now, with election day fast approaching, they’ve miraculously found a way to freeze premiums—at the expense of hardworking taxpayers, of course.

Sen. Paul has requested that the DOJ launch an immediate investigation into the administration’s actions and report their findings by October 16, 2024.

“With these considerations in mind, I request an expeditious investigation by your agency into any communications, including but not limited to interviews, internal phone calls, notes, emails, and all CMS records regarding the section 402 demonstration, and provide a determination to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) if Biden-Harris officials may have acted in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 595 by October 16, 2024.”

Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which is now driving up seniors’ health care premiums. Americans deserve to know if Biden and Harris are now illegally handing taxpayer funds to insurance companies in order to hide those premium… pic.twitter.com/we3hddC58x

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) September 27, 2024

The post Biden-Harris Regime Accused of Exploiting $5 Billion Medicare Fund to Manipulate Election Outcomes appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Iraqi Shiites protest in Baghdad against the US following the targeted assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Twitter screengrab

As reported at The Gateway Pundit, Hezbollah terrorist group leader Hassan Nasrallah is now dead. Apparently, this didn’t go over so well among Shiite Muslims in Baghdad. According to Geller Report, thousands of Iraqis attempted to storm the US embassy in Baghdad.

On her blog Pamela Geller says, “Videos show protesters clashing with security forces in riot gear can be seen among the large crowd, along with flags of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Force.”

One Twitter account described these rioters as Hezbollah-affiliated.

Another pointed out, “Harris may have a Benghazi-like disaster on her hands unless something is done quickly. Pray for our embassy staff, their families, and those tasked with protecting them.”

While our embassy seems to be safe as of now this highlight yet again how the Iraq war was a disaster creating civil unrest in Iraq and allowing the Mullahs in Iran to add it to their Islamist sphere of influence.

– Clashes between Shiite protesters and Iraqi riot police on the suspension bridge in Baghdad intensify.

Hezbollah affiliated Protesters are trying to break the barricades to enter the US Embassy compound. pic.twitter.com/nZjGeXrROM

— The Informant (@theinformant_x) September 28, 2024

More from Baghdad.

A Shiite leader threatened to burn down the US Embassy.

Jabar al-Mamori, a member of the coordination framework of Iraqi Shiite parties, threatened to burn down the American embassy in Baghdad pic.twitter.com/x1QKwFWvuu

— Voice (@Voice1288291) September 28, 2024

The post Thousands Of Iraqis Attempt to Storm US Embassy in Baghdad Following Hezbollah Leader’s Targeting Killing appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent uses personal protective equipment as he prepares to take a photo of an individual encountered near Sasabe, Ariz. on March 22, 2020. CBP Photo by Jerry Glaser

Arizona sheriffs are causing a political firestorm by refusing to enforce a proposed state law that would criminalize illegal crossings at the Arizona-Mexico border.

Proposition 314, set to appear on November’s ballot, seeks to empower local authorities to arrest and prosecute migrants who enter the U.S. illegally.

According to the Arizona legislature’s website:

Proposition 314 would establish criminal penalties against a person who is not lawfully present in the United States and who submits false documentation when both applying for public benefits and during the employment eligibility verification process. An entity that accepts public benefits applications would have to verify the person’s identity by using a federal verification database.

Proposition 314 would make it a class 2 felony for a person to knowingly sell fentanyl if the person knows that the drug being sold contains fentanyl, that the fentanyl was not lawfully manufactured or imported into the United States and that the drug caused the death of another person.

Proposition 314 would establish state crimes related to entering this state from a location that is not a lawful port of entry or not complying with an order to leave this state.

These sheriffs, who oversee counties along Arizona’s southern border, are citing everything from “budgetary concerns” to accusations of “racism” as reasons for not enforcing the new law.

David Hathaway, sheriff of Santa Cruz County, a border region home to one of the largest ports of entry, made the audacious claim that enforcing the law would be “racist,” according to The Guardian.

“It would be ridiculous for me to go up to practically every single person in my county and say, ‘Let me see your papers, I need to check your immigration status’,” said Hathaway.

It’s not just Democrats like Hathaway shirking their duties. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, also a Democrat, declared he would refuse to enforce the law if passed.

Chris Nanos echoed Hathaway’s sentiments, warning that enforcing the new law would lead to “racial profiling.”

The real question is: since when did enforcing the law become optional?

Nanos argues that it would be too expensive for his department to arrest and detain illegal migrants.

“If I book a migrant in my county jail, I’m paying for those costs without any funding from the state,” said Nanos.

“Who wants to do this silly law with no funding from the federal government? But here’s another caveat that I’ve seen for a couple of decades: the federal government on the border doesn’t have enough courts, therefore they don’t have enough judges, they don’t have enough attorneys.”

“I’m not going to allow my deputies to be on that border, to arrest people, to book them in our jail when we have a federal government that has that responsibility. They should have solved it years ago. And now they have an opportunity to do real legislation in Washington, DC that says, ‘hey, we need to redo our immigration policies’ … the problem today is that Washington will never resolve it.”

The Guardian reported:

The Biden administration in June issued a new directive to curb high levels of migration into the US, which led to a dramatic decrease in unofficial border crossings in the following months.

The Cochise county sheriff, Mark Dannels, said: “I understand the spirit and the intent behind Proposition 314. And I think it will pass because the majority of the citizens in this state want a change.”

However, Dannels, a Republican, added: “Will I enforce the law? That’s like saying I’m not going to enforce DUI [driving under the influence] laws because I just don’t believe in that. No, you have to enforce the will of the people. I and other sheriffs are just trying to prepare ourselves before it passes because we don’t have infrastructure. We don’t have the funding, we don’t have the personnel.”

Meanwhile, in Yuma county, on the western end of the Arizona-Mexico border, the sheriff, Leon Wilmot, declined to speak with the Guardian. But at an earlier stage of the law’s passage through the legislature, Wilmot, a Republican, told a local ABC News affiliate that: “It will break the budget. And our county doesn’t have the revenue to be able to handle that.”

The post Sheriffs in Arizona Counties Refuse to Enforce State Law Making it a Crime for Migrants to Illegally Cross into the U.S. if Passed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Four years ago, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. public-health establishment set the conditions for a panic unlike anything witnessed in our lifetimes. Through an unholy combination of social-distancing edicts, stay-at-home orders, and vaccine mandates, the establishment induced a state of over-the-top alarm among millions of Americans.

These days, the most the bureaucrats can hope to provoke in the population is not compulsory panic but something like officially-sanctioned hypochondria.

Last week, I read that the U.S. government had resuscitated its pandemic-era initiative of flooding the country with free Covid tests. According to the Associated Press, the government will again provide families with as many as four tests “on the house,” so to speak—an act of would-be charity that loses some of its punch after the AP notes that the average cost of an over-the-counter test amounts to a whopping $11. 

Among other things, here we have a particularly pitiful example of a nanny state that condescendingly assumes that its subjects cannot even pull together the equivalent of the cost of a Big Mac, a medium French fries, and some pop. “Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests,” the AP glumly notes. (Two cheers for insurers!)

My objection to the reconstitution of the Covid test giveaway program, however, has relatively little to do with the tests being made available for free. Instead, I reserve my greatest disapproval for the assumption implicit in the proposition: That the public should be encouraged to monitor the nature and severity of their upper-respiratory symptoms to such an extent that it is worth distinguishing Covid from influenza, the common cold, hay fever, or a bad case of “I’ve been cleaning the attic and kicked up a lot of dust.” This amounts to a normalization of the unnatural obsessing over germs. If the government ever makes public the number of people who have signed up to receive the new free Covid tests, the figure might give us a clue about just how many of our fellow citizens can be led by the government to become as neurotic as Woody Allen in Hannah and Her Sisters. (Allen, in that movie, mistook a stain on his shirt for skin cancer.) 

To the best of my recollection, I have made use of a Covid test exactly once in my life—something I admit with a fair degree of sheepishness if not genuine repentance. Although I instantly viewed with intense skepticism the pandemic-excused shutdown of civilization as we knew it, I was not exempt from worrying about catching the virus. In my defense, my single use of a Covid test came early in the pandemic, and its negative result—the fact that I had bought a silly test when there was nothing wrong with me at all!—taught me a lesson: Catching a case of hypochondria is far worse than catching a case of the sniffles.

I also concluded that to test oneself for Covid encouraged the spurious thinking that catching Covid was itself a rare, notable, or, indeed, avoidable occurrence. The logic went something like this: Covid was singularly strange and scary, and so testing for it—something we do not do for more innocuous infections like the common cold—was called for. But the opposite was plainly true: Covid would eventually become so ubiquitous as to render testing for it decidedly anticlimactic. Therefore, to cease testing for Covid was to accept the inevitability of Covid—a healthy affirmation of reality.

And Covid did come for your faithful correspondent: Over the last few years, I have caught an upper-respiratory virus on at least three occasions, and the odds are likely that each time I had Covid. Yet I did not test myself once, so who knows? As I was sidelined with a fever, headache, and sore throat, I was more concerned with attempting to write and file my deeply engaging opinion journalism than I was with confirming that I had this virus rather than that virus. Actually, the fact that I can readily recall the number of times I have had Covid or some Covid-like condition must in and of itself be counted as a personal failing: We all get colds—stop keeping count!

The return of the free Covid tests might appear to be just another example of pandemic-era detritus. Perhaps it is no more significant than encountering the occasional discarded mask in a parking lot. Indeed, it is hard not to chuckle when standing in line at a store and looking down to find the scuffed-up stickers that once attempted to demarcate 6-foot social distancing; these are artifacts as surely as a book of S&H Green Stamps. 

Yet I maintain that the resuscitation of the Covid test handout scheme amounts to something more ominous: an attempt to convert panic into hypochondria, and thus free-thinking, otherwise sensible-minded citizens into permanent worrywarts. 

The post Why Is the Government Still Paying for Covid Tests? appeared first on The American Conservative.