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August 2020

ANTI-SEMITISM, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Systemic Racism’ or Systemic Rubbish? Unlike systemic racism, intellectual indentureship could quickly become a reality in America. By Ilana Mercer

By on August 9th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/08/systemic-racism-or-systemic-rubbish/

The “systemic racism” refrain is a meaningless abstraction.

Operationalize the nebulous abstraction that is “systemic racism,” or get out of my face!

To concretize a variable, it must be cast in empirical, measurable terms—the opaque “racism” abstraction being one variable (to use statistical nomenclature).

Until you have meticulously applied research methodology to statistically operationalize this inchoate thing called “racism”—systemic or other—it remains nothing but thought crime.

That is to say, it is impolite and impolitic thoughts, spoken, written, or preached. Says you.  

Thought crimes are nobody’s business in a free society. (By logical extension, America is not a free society.)

The law already mandates that people of all races be treated equally under its protection. The law, then, is not the problem—logic is. In particular, the logical error of reasoning backward.

“Backward reasoning, expounded by mystery author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through his famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes,” writes Dr. Thomas Young, “applies with reasonable certainty when only one plausible explanation for the . . . evidence exists.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Man Who Wasn’t There Joe Biden doesn’t make gaffes. His is a gaffe. By Roger Kimball *******

By on August 9th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/08/the-man-who-wasnt-there/

Those things with which we are most familiar are often hardest to see. This is perhaps particularly true of such fraught subjects as politics. There we are every day staring at the same people, reading news stories that are virtually indistinguishable from one another, and what do we know?

Our situation is similar to Alice’s in Through the Looking Glass when she finds herself in a shop that seemed full of curious things. “[T]he oddest part of it all was, that whenever she looked hard at any shelf, to make out exactly what it had on it, that particular shelf was always quite empty: though the others round it were crowded as full as they could hold.” 

I feel that way about Joe Biden. Gertrude Stein once quipped of her native Oakland, California, “there is no there there.” Isn’t that how it is with Joe Biden? He doesn’t make gaffes; he is a gaffe, poor thing. (I’ve expatiated on this elsewhere.) 

I suspect that most Americans, whatever side of the political aisle they occupy, do not really see Joe Biden—especially when, like Alice, they are looking directly at him. They need to manage a sidelong glance, a sudden shift of perspective to catch his drift (and I employ the word “drift” advisedly). 

This was brought home to me by an article that appeared a few days ago in Le Figaro, the biggest newspaper in France. The headline summed up its burden: “La stupéfiante indulgence des grands médias américains envers Joe Biden”—“The stupefying indulgence of big American media towards Joe Biden.”

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MEDIA Comments turned off

Teen Vogue calls for the abolishment of private property, capitalism By Eric Utter

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/teen_vogue_calls_for_the_abolishment_of_private_property_capitalism.html

Teen Vogue recently published an op-ed by columnist Kandist Mallett in which she declared that no one should have the right to own property. She called for the elimination of landlords while averring that “an eviction crisis is coming” due to the coronavirus pandemic’s heavy toll on the United States, which, she says, is evidence of “the failures of capitalism.”

Mallett noted that “The pandemic didn’t create this housing crisis, but it did further expose the cruelty of payment-based housing.” No, but she herself may have just exposed the futility of payment-based higher education.

She rambled on: “Instead of seeing housing as a right and something that should not be commodified, the state enlists its own armed forces—sheriffs and police—to remove occupants from residences if they cannot pay rent. The lack of protections for non-landowners should be to no surprise from a country founded on the genocide and colonization of indigenous peoples.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Fear fatigue is more dangerous than COVID-19 By Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D.

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/fear_fatigue_is_more_dangerous_than_covid19.html

Our daily lives are filled with risks — lots of risks. Just look at these examples:

• Every year, 30,000 to 40,000 Americans die in automobile accidents, yet none of us is willing to give up cars to avoid the possibility of dying in a crash.

• Heart disease kills more than 600,000 of our fellow citizens annually, yet we continue to eat fast food and pack on extra pounds.

• Diabetes puts more than 80,000 Americans into their graves each year, yet we do not ban the use of sugar.

• Close to 50,000 Americans take their own lives annually, yet we have instituted COVID-19 policies that have increased the incidence of suicide to the highest levels seen since the Great Depression.

• Millions of children are infected with influenza each year, and hundreds die from the disease.  But we have never closed our schools or insisted on masking the population to prevent the spread of flu.

• Child abuse and child sex-trafficking are at record levels in this country, and many specialists believe that it is due, in part, to our schools being closed while adults are unable to go their normal daily routines.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Mark Kelly: Maybe a Good Astronaut, but Would Be a Terrible Senator By Elise Cooper

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/08/mark_kelly_maybe_a_good_astronaut_but_would_be_a_terrible_senator.html

Elections have consequences.  Whether voting for president or senator, Americans should be wary of those who avoid discussing their stands on the issues.  When Joe Biden and Mark Kelly do talk about the issues, it is obvious that their views are in line with the leftists.  Just because Mark Kelly’s name has the astronaut title, that does not mean that it should change to the title of senator.  Those who might think of voting for him should look at his stance or non-stance on the issues.  American Thinker interviewed some Arizonans who spoke about how Kelly is not right for Arizona.

David Eppihimer, the Pima County Republican Party chairman, strongly believes that “Mark Kelly tries to portray himself as an Arizonan, but he is not.  I believe he is a Texan and maintains a home there.  He wants to make himself out as an independent from Arizona.  This is how Kyrsten Sinema got elected to the Senate, by portraying herself effectively as a centrist, not as a hardline Democrat, which she is.  Kelly will vote straight down the Democratic/Chuck Schumer party line.”

Mark Kelly has also aligned himself with Joe Biden.  Kelly made his support known in a tweet: “Joe Biden understands the challenges Arizonans face and knows what it’s like to be knocked down, get back up, and keep serving others.  We need a president who will unite us and find common ground to get things done.  That’s why I’ll be voting for Joe Biden.”

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Half a million incorrect absentee ballot applications sent across Virginia, including to dead people “Approximately half a million applications sent to eligible voters in Virginia included incorrect information, and we are working diligently to address the issues,” says the Center for Voter Information.By Nicholas Ballasy

By on August 9th, 2020

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/virginia-absentee-ballot-applications-sent-dead-people-and-wrong

A non-profit group says more than a half-million inaccurate applications for absentee ballots were mistakenly sent across Virginia this week — including to dead voters, errant relatives and even a pet — in an unprecedented mailing flub that has heightened concerns about the integrity of expanding mail-in voting efforts.  

The mistakes raised alarms with recipients as diverse as election monitors, members of the League of Women Voters and a retired FBI agent. The Center for Voter Information, the nonprofit group that sent the mailers with pre-filled absentee ballots, is now apologizing.  

The Center for Voter Information said the absentee application mailings were sent to “eligible voters” in the state and “some of the mailers may have directed the return envelopes” for the absentee applications to the wrong election offices.

The counties impacted by inaccurate mailings included Fairfax City, Fairfax County, Franklin City, Franklin County, Richmond City, Richmond County, Roanoke City and Roanoke County. 

“Approximately half a million applications sent to eligible voters in Virginia included incorrect information, and we are working diligently to address the issues. Mistakes in our programming are very rare, but we take them seriously, and our methods overall are extraordinarily effective,” the center said in a statement.

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EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Invention of ‘Systemic Racism’ By Philip Carl Salzman

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2020/08/06/the-invention-of-systemic-racism/

It is now the official view in government, industry, and education that African Americans and certain other “people of color” perform poorly in schools and the workforce, but nonetheless must be treated as if they perform well. The statistically weak performance of African Americans, according to the official view, is not their fault; it is the fault of other people. Namely, as we have been told ad infinitum, it is the fault of American slavery. No less than the “newspaper of record,” The New York Times, has in its “The 1619 Project” advanced the thesis that slavery and only slavery is the foundation of America, and, as America’s “original sin,” has shaped and corrupted America through racism ever since. The alleged facts supporting the historical claims of The 1619 Project have been proven to be false by historians, and the lead author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, now admits that the Project is not history, but an attempt to change “the national narrative.”

Certainly slavery, while common around the world throughout most of history, is an evil institution. It has also not existed in the United States for one hundred and fifty years. No living African American has ever been a slave, nor were their parents; no living American has ever owned slaves, nor did their parents. Furthermore, millions upon millions of Americans descend from ancestors who immigrated to America long after slavery was abolished. Slavery is invoked because it has moral weight, which it should have, but it in no way explains the poor performance of African Americans a century and a half later.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

When Memory Becomes a Prison of Nations by Amir Taheri

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16328/algeria-france-history

Keeping alive the narrative of victimhood, successive Algerian leaders have tried to divert attention from their own shortcomings, not to say misdeeds.

Covering the 1990s troubles in Algeria, I was often told by Algerian politicians of all colors that all of their country’s troubles, including terrorism in the name of religion and police brutality, were due to French colonial rule. After a while… I suggested to Algerian interlocutors to fix a certain date up to which everything was the fault of the French but after that regard Algerians as responsible for their own troubles.

Should the writing of history be treated as a governmental project? French President Emmanuel Macron and his Algerian counterpart Abdul-Majid Tebboune seem to think so. They have ordered the creation of a joint commission to write the history of relations between the two countries since the French annexed that strand of North Africa in 1832.

Macron and Tebboune are not the first rulers to seek an officially vetted and approved narrative of our human story. However, their case is unique because other rulers just wanted to tell their side of the story while Macron and Tebboune demand a two-voices, presumably parallel, narrative.

There is one more difference between the old official histories and what we are likely to see this time. Old official histories were often presented with the modesty they merited as chronologies. And because they carried a heavy load of hagiography, they never pretended to be scientific. Macron and Tebboune, of course are not looking for props to build a cult of personality with. However, they may be seeking something even less dignified: the presentation of history in the colors of current, and necessarily transient, fads of political correctness.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Reverse-Colonization of France by Guy Millière

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16327/france-colonization

Asking the police not to give the name of killers is an attempt to hide the truth and prevent the public from knowing exactly who in France is committing these acts. Hiding the name shows a desire to appease the killers: when a killer has a Christian name, it is immediately printed on the front page.

“We only love what hates us, anything that destroys us is seen as great. There is a desire to destroy truth, history… We no longer teach the history of France and we no longer say what our civilization has accomplished. We only talk about our civilization to disparage it.” — Michel Onfray, Le Salon Beige, July 30, 2020 and YouTube, July 17, 2020.

“France is undergoing reverse colonization. Populations coming mainly from countries formerly colonized by France have settled in France without any intention of integrating. Most of them live in neighborhoods where the laws of Islam now reign and where imams spread hatred of France…. And in a gesture of submission, the French authorities say that hatred does not emanate from those who kill, but from those who want to react and say that we must put an end to assaults and murders. It is a suicidal attitude.” — Éric Zemmour, YouTube, November 22, 2016.

Lyon, the third largest city in France, July 20, 3 a.m. A middle-class neighborhood. A young woman walks her dog on a quiet street. A car arrives at high speed and crushes her dog. The driver stops, backs up, runs over the young woman and crushes her too. He goes forward again, at full speed, and drags her dead body half a mile. People awakened by the noise write down the license number of the car. The police officers who come to the scene are horrified. The young woman’s body was dismembered. A leg was found on one side of the street; the rest of her body was shredded. One arm was close to the body of her dog. The other was still holding onto the dog’s leash. Her name was Axelle Dorier. She was a nurse, only 23.

The French Department of Justice asked the police not to release the name of the killer. An anonymous policeman released it anyway on a social network site. The killer’s name is Youssef T. He was driving under the influence, without a license. The prosecutor charged him with “reckless murder”. He is in jail awaiting trial. He risks a maximum sentence of ten years. Residents of Lyon wanted to organize a peaceful march to pay tribute to the young nurse. They asked the government to get tough on crime. The young woman’s parents objected: they said they have “have no hatred” for the killer.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on August 9th, 2020

http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Aviptadil saves Covid-19 patients. As reported here previously, Aviptadil from Israel’s NeuroRx, is undergoing Phase 2/3 trials in Israel and the US. The adapted treatment, now known as RLF-100, prevents Covid-19 replication and has already significantly improved the health of 15 emergency cases in the US.
https://www.neurorxpharma.com/press-releases/rlf-100-aviptadil-clinical-trial-showed-rapid-recovery-from-respiratory-failure-and-inhibition-of-coronavirus-replication-in-human-lung-cells/
 
Latest progress at the HUJ against Covid-19. This video shows up-to-date information on the research work being conducted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem into testing and treatments for Covid-19.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woUrXXT1Jys
 
50 Technion labs battle against Covid-19. This video shows Technion scientists working on innovations to improve Covid-19 testing, screen for contagion, fast track vaccines, nano ghost decoys, liquid foam therapy for ARDS, self-cleaning mask, antiviral sticker, ventilator hood, air-filter mask, disinfectant, Corobot and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Puc6QNrB4
 
October start for human trials of Israeli Covid-19 vaccine. Israel’s Minister of Defense Benny Gantz has announced that the Israel Institute of Biological Research will begin human trials of its Covid-19 vaccine in October. Phase 1 clinical trials for safety and efficacy will begin after the Jewish holidays that end on Oct 9th.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-to-begin-covid-19-vaccine-human-trials-1001338518
 
Corona patient leaves hospital after 99 days. 74-year old Marina Chivatova was discharged from Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center after having spent no less than 99 days in the hospital’s Corona Unit.  It could be the world’s longest stay for a hospitalized Covid-19 patient and shows that Israel never gives up.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/284832
 
Matching therapy to tumor behavior. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute and at MIT and Harvard can identify the most suitable cancer therapy from the signals detected in the tumor itself. They analyze the pathway of the tumor using PathOlogist – an advanced bioinformatics tool developed by Bar-Ilan professor Sol Efroni.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/new-approach-tailoring-cancer-therapy-tapping-signaling-activities-cancer-cells  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17090-y
 
Nano antioxidant for CJD patients. (TY UWI & I24 News) More on the nano-engineered pomegranate oil antioxidant produced by scientists at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital. It is now being targeted at sufferers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) – common in specific Jewish groups.  The latest findings give hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY0jvY_AI20
 
Israeli neurosurgeons save Muslim boy’s life.  (TY JNS) A bullet from Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha celebrations hit a 9-year-old Arab boy in the head. At Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, Israeli neurosurgeons removed the bullet from deep inside the boy’s brain. Two days after the surgery, the boy was eating, talking and moving his limbs.
https://www.israel21c.org/surgeons-safely-remove-mystery-bullet-from-boys-brain/
 
Prospective treatment for children with autism. In her lab, Professor Illana Gozes of Tel Aviv University (reported here previously) repaired live but damaged brain cells taken from deceased Alzheimer’s patients and an autistic child. It showed that her experimental NAP peptide could be used to treat both conditions.
https://neurosciencenews.com/alzheimers-drug-autism-16714/  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32661233/
 
The science of sleep. Another excellent medical webinar from Techion UK. Sleep And Dreams featured Professor Peretz Lavie, former President of Israel’s Technion Institute. He explained some of the mysteries about sleep and dreams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqhgu6ehgII&t=388
 
Competition for remote Femtech. 15 startups are pitching their telemedicine for women to a panel at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. The Israeli startups include PulseNmore, Gyntools, MobileODT, HeraMed (HeraBeat), Nuvo (INVU), EfA (RevDX), MyMilk,and IsenseU (Milk-O-Meter).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tech-taking-ob-gyn-care-to-the-home-in-boost-of-telemedicine-for-women/
https://www.gyntools.com/   https://isense-u.com/
 
Israeli animal therapy reported in UK Guardian. (TY Eric F) A rare (mostly) positive article in the normally anti-Israel Guardian.  This emphasizes the importance of continually sending positive Israel articles to the Mainstream Media (MSM).  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/21/cats-camels-and-a-jesus-lizard-the-rise-of-animal-assisted-therapy

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