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February 2020

A Global Catastrophe: “260 Million Christians Experience High Levels of Persecution” by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15507/christians-persecution-global-catastrophe

Dictatorial paranoia continues to make North Korea (#1) the worst nation. “If North Korean Christians are discovered, they are deported to labor camps as political criminals or even killed on the spot.” — World Watch List 2020, Open Doors.

Otherwise, as has been the case in all statistics and reports on the global persecution of Christians, not only does “Islamic oppression” remain the chief “source of persecution” faced by Christians in seven of the absolute ten worst nations, but 38 of the 50 nations composing the list are either Muslim majority or have a sizeable Muslim population.

The targeting of Christians around the world has become more widespread than ever. Part of this is because “persecution against Christians has taken a technological turn.” ….in India (#10) — where “Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little to no consequences” — “the government plans to introduce a national facial recognition system. Similarly, China (#23)….” — World Watch List 2020, Open Doors.

Perhaps the most disturbing trend is that the number of persecuted Christians continues to grow year after year….

Will this trend ever stop and reverse, or will it continue to get worse — and possibly even spill into those nations that, for now, enjoy religious freedom and equality?

 

The global persecution of Christians has reached unprecedented levels: “260 million Christians experience high levels of persecution” around the world, notes the recently published Open Doors World Watch List 2020, an annual report that ranks the top 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted for their faith.

Tehran’s Chinese Dream Can’t Replace its Nightmare by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15508/iran-chinese-dream

The Chinese found out that producing and exporting goods that people wanted across the globe was easier and more profitable than trying to export a revolution that no one, perhaps apart from a few students in London and Paris, thirsted for.

The Shah had promised that he would turn Iran into “a second Japan”. Rafsanjani promised a “second China.”

Some of Rafsanjani’s close associates now tell me that he was “a bit of a coward” and lost his opportunity to do a Deng Xiaoping by being sucked into corrupt business deals. According to them, Rafsanjani didn’t realize that one starts making money for himself, his family and his entourage after one has done a Deng Xiaoping, and not before.

Today, the Tehran “deciders” constitute a small, increasingly isolated minority caught in an imagined past and fearful of the future. Worse still, many “deciders” have already put part of their money abroad, having sent their children to Europe and America. Going through a who-is-who of these “deciders” one is amazed by how many are behaving as carpetbaggers, treating Iran as a land to plunder, sending the proceeds to the West. They cannot produce an Iranian “Deng” because they don’t want to create a productive economy; all they are interested in is to get the money and run.

Could General Qassem Soleimani’s dramatic demise provide the shock therapy to persuade those who wield real power in Tehran to admit the failure of a strategy that has led Iran into an impasse? This was the question discussed in a zoom conference with a number of academics from one of Iran’s leading universities.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Prioritizing flu vaccinations. Israeli health company Maccabi has partnered with Israel’s Medial EarlySign (see here).  Maccabi will integrate EarlySign’s flu algorithm, which flags people at high risk of developing flu-related complications, to target them with its vaccination campaign.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3777715,00.html
 
New masks to help prevent spread of coronavirus. (TY UWI) Israel startups Sonovia (see here) and Argaman (see here)  are racing to produce production versions of their bio-inhibitive and anti-viral textiles and masks. They could be vital prevention tools in epidemics like the deadly Wuhan coronavirus.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-antiviral-masks-from-israel-may-help-stop-deadly-virus/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opeKFbbZxo8   http://argamantech.com/ https://vimeo.com/214152223
 
Another good trial of colon capsule scan. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Check-Cap has announced positive results from its latest US pilot study of its C-Scan colon capsule system. The dual-center study achieved both primary (safety) and secondary (patient satisfaction and performance) endpoints. C-Scan is already CE approved.
http://ir.check-cap.com/2019-12-30-Check-Cap-Announces-Positive-Results-from-U-S-Pilot-Study-of-C-Scan-R-System
 
Success at Phase 3 for acne cream. (TY Atid-EDI) Following on from good Phase 2 trials (see here) Israel’s Sol-Gel reported excellent results from pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials of its Twyneo treatment of patients with acne vulgaris. The trial significantly reduced moderate-to-severe acne in 858 patients aged nine and older.
http://ir.sol-gel.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sol-gel-announces-positive-top-line-phase-3-trial-results
 
Treating genetic diseases.  Israeli-founded Emendo Biotherapeutics, based in New York, utilizes protein engineering for precision gene editing, to treat certain genetic disorders and diseases. It has seven treatments in early stages of development. Emendo has just raised $61 million of funding.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3777874,00.html https://emendobio.com/
 
Optical discovery from shrimps. (TY WIN) Scientists at Israel’s Ben Gurion University and Weizmann Institute have discovered how shrimp can see in the murky depths of the sea. The biocrystal coating of their retina light detectors may inspire the development of new optical coatings and specialized paints.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-01/20/c_138721546.htm
 
More about low-cost X-rays. As reported previously (see here), Israel’s Nanox has developed technology to lower the cost of X-ray imaging and make it more accessible to the developing world. Nanox has just received $26 million funding for its Nanox.Arc digital X-ray device and accompanying Nanox.Cloud software.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-company-aims-to-make-medical-imaging-accessible-to-all-615156
 
A future end to dialysis. (TY UWI) Researchers at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center found that damaged kidneys can be rejuvenated by extracting healthy kidney stem cells from diseased cells, multiplying the healthy cells in a laboratory and reintroducing them into the kidney. Israel’s KidneyCure (see here) has begun human trials.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/scientists-in-israel-make-breakthrough-in-fight-against-kidney-disease/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/275123 https://www.kidneycure.com/approach
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdfExtended/S2211-1247(19)31704-8

San Francisco’s “Mr. Clean” Arrested By FBI For Alleged Porta Potty Scandal As Human Waste Reports Spike To New High Adam Andrzejewski

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/01/31/san-franciscos-mr-clean

This week, Mohammed Nuru, the Director of Public Works in San Francisco, was arrested and charged by the FBI on allegations of bribery, wire fraud, violations of honest service, and… porta potty contract corruption.

Nuru calls himself @MrCleanSF on Twitter and is the official best known for failed efforts to keep feces and hypodermic needles out of the public way. He oversees a $500 million budget, and, according to our data displayed at OpentheBooks.com, Nuru earned a $250,548 annual salary in 2017. Apparently, that wasn’t enough in light of an arrest that included allegations of bribery.

The indictment has yet to be proven in court. However, the feds, in part, referenceda porta potty scandal – a breach of honest services in the procurement of mobile potties and tiny container-type portable housing for the homeless.

Nuru’s tactics were always questionable. For example, fancy portable toilettes were designed in the architectural style of “Painted Lady” residences. These porta-potties cost $200,000 each to operate. Five employees were staffed on a “poop patrol” with pay, perquisites, and pension benefits costing $184,000 each per year.

“The False Promise of Equality” Sydney Williams

http://swtotd.blogspot.com/

Since time immemorial, a perfect society has been a dream. In the “Book of Revelations,” a thousand, golden, peaceful years are promised, when Christ returns to reign before the final judgment day. In 1516, Thomas More coined the word “Utopia” that he incorporated into the title of his classic work, in which he described perfect conditions on the island of Utopia. In 1620, Pilgrims came to the “New World,” in search of a “city on a hill,” a society under God’s guiding hand. Brook Farm, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts was founded by the transcendentalist and former Unitarian minister, George Ripley in 1841. It was to be an egalitarian, self-sufficient community with no distinction between intellectual and manual labor. While FDR’s New Deal was a response to the Great Depression, the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson was an attempt to banish poverty and let equality rule. The belief that man could live as brothers in peace has long been a promise of idealists, swindlers, fraudsters, charlatans and politicians – or do I repeat myself?

The word ‘inequality’ evokes emotion. Webster defines equality as the “quality or state of being equal.” When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…,” he was not implying that all persons are equal in talents, or that outcomes should be equal. He was saying we are equal in those natural rights granted by God. Under the Constitution, we are equal in our right to assemble and to speak freely; we are equal in our rights under and before the law, and we are equal in our right to vote.

NANCY PELOSI

https://jonathanturley.org/2020/01/31/pelosi-questions-why-the-presidents-lawyers-are-not-disbarred/

Pelosi Questions Why The President’s Lawyers Are Not Disbarred

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.) made an extraordinary statement yesterday that suggests that lawyers representing President Donald Trump should be disbarred: “I don’t know how they can retain their lawyer status, in the comments that they’re making.” Just as I have been highly critical of President Donald Trump’s attacks on Adam Schiff and others, this is a truly outrageous suggestion. These lawyers are performing a key function in our constitutional system in not just representing an accused person but fulfilling a vital role in an impeachment trial. Because Pelosi disagrees with their legal arguments, she insinuates that they should not be licensed attorneys. It is precisely the type of ad hominem attack that Democrats criticize with the President.

Rather than respond to the merits of their arguments, Pelosi elects to discredit their professional standing. Pelosi owes these attorneys an apology for this insulting and unwarranted comment.

https://canadafreepress.com/article/nancy-pelosi-he-will-not-be-elected-he-will-not-be-acquitted

Nancy Pelosi: He Will Not be Elected: He Will Not Be Acquitted Judi McLeod

To the celebratory delight of ‘deplorable’ Patriots, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has crossed the “Never-Forever” Rubicon from which there is no coming back.

“Donald Trump is not going to be President of the United States.”  “Take it to the bank, I guarantee it,” Pelosi told Recode Decode, host Kara Swisher, on May 15, 2016.

Meet The Socialist World Series Winning Pitcher Who Snubbed President Trump

https://www.theepochtimes.com/meet-the-socialist-world-series-winning-pitcher-who-snubbed-president-trump_3190952.html

After the Washington Nationals baseball team won the prestigious World Series on Oct. 31, 2019, the victorious team paid the traditional visit to the White House to be congratulated by President Donald Trump—except for one team member.

Pitcher Sean Doolittle declined to meet with the president. And he got political about it—which is not surprising because Doolittle is a bona fide socialist.

Doolittle told the Washington Post:

“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country. … At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it … I just can’t do it.”

I can’t condemn Doolittle for standing by his principles—as much as I disagree with them—but I can fault the many media outlets who gleefully reported the snub—without giving the public the full background.

No major media outlet, as far as I know, was willing to reveal that Doolittle is a card-carrying socialist. He is a member of the United States’ largest Marxist organization, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).