Displaying posts published in

September 2018

Progressives: The Real World vs. Neverland by David C. Stolinsky

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12732/progressives-reality

Many of these children in adult bodies were told, and actually believed, that better health care for everyone, including an unlimited number of illegal immigrants, would be attainable at a low cost, if only the government were to run it.

Many children in adult bodies also seem not to know that Socialism failed in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, China, North Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Cuba, and is now failing in Venezuela. The irrational wish is evidently stronger than rational arithmetic.

These victims of arrested emotional development seem to confuse good motives with good results. They want better health care for a greater number of people at a lesser cost; so they fantasize that they can achieve it without denying care to those who are too old, too sick or too expensive to receive it. They kind-heartedly want a “more equal distribution of wealth”; so they fantasize that they can maneuver it without penalizing and discouraging the productive members of society, while rewarding and encouraging the unproductive ones.

“Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child,” Cicero astutely observed. For many self-described progressives today, however, this seems not to be a drawback. On the contrary, like adolescents — insisting that they are grown-ups when their parents get in the way of their fun, but then running home for all their basic needs and creature comforts — such people seem to give no thought to the past and equally little to the future.

Many people like this are said to suffer from a “Peter Pan Syndrome”: the inability or unwillingness to grow up. In thought, they seem to lean to the political left. They want the government to take on the role of parent, even if that involves maxing out the country’s “credit cards,” so that even for a short time, they can live beyond what they earn.

Palestinian Refugees: Trump’s Reality Check by Ruthie Blum

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12942/palestinian-refugees-unrwa-reality

“They are not necessarily doing things that would cause peace…” — US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

“UNRWA has, instead of resolving the problem, done everything in its power to perpetuate it. Instead of peace and coexistence, it teaches hatred and incitement. Instead of fighting terrorist organizations, it collaborates with them…” — Ron Prosor, former Israeli Ambassador to the UN.

“Responsibility for the Palestinians and the UNRWA budgets could be transferred to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which looks after the rest of the world’s refugees and, unlike UNRWA, works toward solving the refugee problem instead of perpetuating it.” — Ron Prosor.

The Trump administration’s reported plan to overturn US policy on the issue of Palestinian refugees is long overdue. According, initially, to media reports, the new policy — scheduled to be unveiled in early September and based on sealed classified information from the US State Department — will reduce the number of Palestinians defined by the UN as “refugees” from five million to 500,000, thus refuting the figures claimed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The UN figures include descendants (not only children, but grandchildren and great grandchildren) of Palestinians across the world who have never even set foot in Israel, the Gaza Strip or the Palestinian Authority (PA). The new plan will also apparently include a rejection of the Palestinians’ so-called “right of return” to Israel of refugees and their descendants.

Washington also announced that it is cutting all US funding to UNRWA, and will reportedly “ask Israel to ‘reconsider’ the mandate it gives UNRWA to operate in the West Bank.”

This reining in of UNRWA operations — which began in January 2018, when President Donald Trump imposed a $65 million freeze on America’s annual funding — is significant, as it is the first time an American administration has actually sought out and acted upon evidence about the Palestinian refugee organization. Until now, the US has continued to provide billions of dollars to UNRWA, even as monitoring organizations – such as UN Watch, Palestinian Media Watch and NGO Monitor – have repeatedly exposed the complete and ongoing abuse of its mandate, which is already rather a marvel:

“A more precise working definition of a mandate is difficult but necessary to determine how UNRWA’s mandate is derived. The Secretary-General recently discussed the meaning of the term for the purposes of identifying and analysing mandates originating from resolutions of the General Assembly and other organs. The Secretary-General referred to the nature and definition of mandates for the purpose of his exercise:

“…Mandates are both conceptual and specific; they can articulate newly developed international norms, provide strategic policy direction on substantive and administrative issues, or request specific conferences, activities, operations and reports.

You Are Not Going to Believe This List of CNN’s Bungled Reporting By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/trending/you-are-not-going-to-believe-this-list-of-cnns-bungled-reporting/

Donald Trump has been on a tear against the media in recent days, calling out most major media outlets for “lies,” “fake news,” and “phony news.” But the president has reserved his worst venom for CNN, which has been caught in what he is calling a “lie” that the network won’t retract.
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

CNN is being torn apart from within based on their being caught in a major lie and refusing to admit the mistake. Sloppy @carlbernstein, a man who lives in the past and thinks like a degenerate fool, making up story after story, is being laughed at all over the country! Fake News

Last month, CNN reported based on anonymous sources that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was willing to testify that Mr. Trump knew in advance that Donald Trump Jr. was going to meet with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton — a claim that the president and his son both vehemently deny.

However in the past week, one of the sources — Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis — admitted that he didn’t know that this was true, and his client told federal prosecutors under oath as part of a plea deal that he didn’t know that, either.

In addition, Mr. Davis was identified by name in CNN’s story as having no comment on the report — a lie given what he now says.

Seems pretty cut and dried. If Bernstein isn’t lying, why won’t he admit his error?

CNN has had plenty of other opportunities to admit they made mistakes. The Daily Caller compiled 20 of them:

CNN retracted a story in June of 2016 claiming that former Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci was under investigation by Congress for his alleged ties to Russia.

The story relied on one anonymous congressional source and CNN apologized to Scaramucci for the error. Three CNN reporters ended up resigning from the company over the botched report.

Judicial Watch: DoJ Says No FISA Court Hearings Held to Get Warrants Against Carter Page By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/trending/judicial-watch-doj-says-no-fisa-court-hearings-held-to-get-warrants-against-carter-page/

Judicial Watch announced that documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the Obama Department of Justice did not request a formal FISA court hearing to obtain warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

While a court hearing is not necessary to obtain a FISA warrant, it’s shocking that a request to spy on the campaign of the opposition party did not trigger extra caution that a court hearing would have demonstrated.

In the filing the Justice Department finally revealed that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the Page FISA spy warrants, first issued in 2016 and subsequently renewed three times:

[National Security Division] FOIA consulted [Office of Intelligence] … to identify and locate records responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA request…. [Office of Intelligence] determined … that there were no records, electronic or paper, responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA request with regard to Carter Page. [Office of Intelligence] further confirmed that the [Foreign Surveillance Court] considered the Page warrant applications based upon written submissions and did not hold any hearings.

The Department of Justice previously released to Judicial Watch the heavily redacted Page warrant applications. The initial Page FISA warrant was granted just weeks before the 2016 election.

The arrogance of these people is astounding, as JW President Thomas Fitton points out:

“It is disturbing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance courts rubber-stamped the Carter Page spy warrants and held not one hearing on these extraordinary requests to spy on the Trump team,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Perhaps the court can now hold hearings on how justice was corrupted by material omissions that Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the DNC, a conflicted Bruce Ohr, a compromised Christopher Steele, and anti-Trumper Peter Strzok were all behind the ‘intelligence’ used to persuade the courts to approve the FISA warrants that targeted the Trump team.” CONTINUE AT SITE

GOOD NEWS FROM ABSOLUTELY AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

An Israeli-developed molecule destroys Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
The UN’s most empowered female entrepreneur in Western Europe is an Israeli.
An Israeli company is protecting both UK and Australian armies.
Intel Israel has developed even faster computer processors.
An Israeli rescue robot is virtually unstoppable.
Israel’s SodaStream is bought by PepsiCo for $3.2 billion.
An Israeli gymnast won two World gold medals and broke a world record.
Readers can help launch a film that aims to give a huge PR boost to Israel.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Another leukemia success. I reported previously (see here) on new Israeli treatments for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Now the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and US biotech BioTheryX are developing a single molecule that attacks multiple leukemia proteins simultaneously. Lab tests show a 50% success rate.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-drug-brings-hope-in-acute-leukemia-battle-hebrew-u-researchers-say/
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/hebrew-u-drug-trials-show-50-cure-rate-in-lab-mice-acute-leukemia/2018/08/27/

Breathalyzer for Parkinson’s and much more. I reported previously on the breath analyzers to detect cancer developed by Ben Gurion University (see here) and Na-Nose from Technion’s Dr Hossam Haick (see here). Now Dr Haick’s team has a handheld device to detect early Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and 16 other diseases.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/researchers-say-breathalyzer-can-be-used-to-flag-early-onset-parkinsons/
https://cdn-pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00245
https://www.youtube.com/embed/VtDzt8H8H3E?rel=0

US approves Teva’s generic EpiPen. The US FDA has approved Israeli biotech Teva’s generic version of the EpiPen auto-injector for emergency treatment for those suffering with “anaphylactic” allergic reactions. Frantic parents in the US have been reporting a nationwide shortage of the original Mylan NV “brand” EpiPen.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/teva-shares-skyrocket-after-fda-approves-us-subsidiarys-generic-epipen/2018/08/20/

Another Israeli treatment for head lice. I reported previously (see here) on two innovative Israeli treatments for removing head lice. Now there’s a third – Israel’s Sphinx Smarthead Technologies is developing a device that destroys lice and their eggs in a 5-minute procedure that can be performed by children aged 7 and over.
https://www.oktopuscloud.com/terralab-sphinx https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwnpVctnboM?rel=0

Soil bacteria cures fungal infections. Researchers at Israel’s Technion have cured fungal infections using bacteria commonly found in the upper layers of soil. They used a gel and an innovative “factory” formula to produce Bacillus subtilis bacterium, more commonly found on plant roots, to rapidly heal infected skin.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/technion-researchers-use-soil-bacteria-to-tame-fungal-infections/

An app to help you sleep. Israeli startup Dayzz is launching an app for self-insured employers to offer their employees. The app uses big data and an algorithm to diagnose each user’s specific sleep problem and devise a personalized sleep-training plan. The employer enhances the sleep quality of its staff and reduces healthcare costs. https://www.israel21c.org/app-helps-fulfill-dreams-of-a-good-nights-sleep/ https://dayzz.com/

New medical school inaugurated. I reported previously (10th Sep) when the building of Ariel University’s new medical school began. It has now been officially opened in a ceremony attended by the Israeli President and several ministers. 70 students enrolled in its first class which is open to all citizens and Palestinian Arabs.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/overcoming-opposition-to-west-bank-location-ariel-u-inaugurates-medical-school/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZIWi2MJJrg

Glucose meters for Vietnam. (TY Rachel) I reported previously (7th Jan) that Israel’s GlucoMe was shipping its glucose monitors to 200,000 Indian diabetics. Now Germany’s Merck KGaA is trialing GlucoMe’s monitors to help many of the 3.5 million Vietnamese suffering from diabetes – some 5.5% of the entire population.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-glucome-joins-merck-in-venture-to-battle-diabetes-in-vietnam/
https://www.idf.org/our-network/regions-members/western-pacific/members/119-vietnam.html

UK PM honors fundraiser of 11 MDA ambulances. Retired UK surgeon Norman Rosenbaum received the Points of Light Award from UK Prime Minister Theresa May for helping to buy 11 ambulances for Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA). I was lucky to be present at the dedication of the 10th one.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/pensioner-who-raised-funds-for-11-mda-ambulances-honoured-by-prime-minister/ https://www.pointsoflight.gov.uk/magen-david-adom/
https://netanyareflections.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-gift-of-life.html