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September 2022

Top Med Schools Weed Out DEI-Skeptical Applicants, New Report Finds By Isaac Schorr

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/top-med-schools-weed-out-applicants-who-dont-support-dei-new-report-says/

The best medical schools in the country are weeding out applicants who are insufficiently devoted to the leftist creed of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), according to a new report released by the non-profit Do No Harm.

Do No Harm, a nonprofit dedicated to “protect[ing] healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology,” conducted an analysis of medical school application processes which found that these selective institutions are raising an additional barrier to entry on top of the strenuous testing and grade requirements.

“A review of the admissions process at 50 of the top-ranked medical schools found that 36 asked applicants their views on, or experience in, DEI efforts,” reads the Do No Harm report, which was obtained by National Review. “Many were overt in asking applicants if they agreed with certain statements about racial politics and the causes of disparate health outcomes.”

According to the report, medical schools are asking these questions in order to “turn ideological support for health equity and social justice initiatives into a credential that increases an applicant’s chance of acceptance,” “screen out dissenters,” and “signal to all applicants that they are expected to support this new cause.”

“Top medical schools have woven their commitment to woke politics into their application process, asking future doctors to prove their commitment to divisive ideologies or risk being rejected from medical school.” concludes the report.

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb founded Do No Harm after serving as associate dean at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. In his view, the use of ideologically slanted application questions will stunt the development of those applicants who do make it through the gauntlet to enter a top medical school.

Speech Reduction Act New documents reveal the federal government’s role in Twitter’s censorship decisions. Rav Arora

https://www.city-journal.org/did-the-government-pressure-twitter-to-curtail-speech

Last month, Covid vaccine skeptic Alex Berenson was allowed back on Twitter after being “permanently” suspended for allegedly violating the platform’s Covid-19 “misinformation” policy. Remarkably, Twitter acknowledged that his tweets “should have not led” to his suspension.

Now, new internal Twitter documents publicized by Berenson reveal that the Biden administration likely played a pivotal role in his suspension. As a Twitter employee reported on the company’s internal Slack messaging system, the company faced “one really tough question about why Alex Berenson hasn’t been kicked off from the platform” in an April 2021 White House meeting. Another employee reported that Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to President Biden’s Covid response team, claimed that he had seen evidence indicating that Berenson was “the epicenter of disinfo that radiated outwards to the persuadable public.”

In the summer of 2021, the federal government repeatedly pressured social media platforms to ramp up efforts to crack down on Covid “misinformation.” On July 16, 2021, Biden claimed that social-media companies were “killing people” by failing to censor Covid misinformation. A few hours after Biden’s comment, Twitter suspended Berenson’s account for the first time. The next month, Twitter banned him after he tweeted about the vaccine’s inability to stop transmission and infection over the long-term and its side-effect profile.

Berenson, who now plans to sue the White House after his recent legal success against Twitter, is the most prominent victim of social-media companies’ heavy-handed policies, but many distinguished scientists with far less public and financial support have faced similar fates.

Joe Biden, Lout, Liar, And Lunatic

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/09/02/joe-biden-lout-liar-and-lunatic/

After insulting half the country last week, the President did not mention “semi-fascists’ Thursday, but he dud mix meaningless bromides with a few more insults.

When candidate Joe Biden promised that if elected president he would unite the country, did he think he could do it alienating roughly half the population? Or did he mean he would unite the Democrats and independents against the “MAGA Republicans”? Thursday’s speech clearly indicates what he had in mind was the latter.

Last week, Biden smeared Donald Trump supporters, calling them semi-fascists who practice “burn-it-all-down politics” and face “​​backwards full of anger, violence, hate and division.”

One of the most appropriate and fitting responses we saw to this was Libby Emmons’ Biden Is The Semi-Fascist He’s Looking For in Human Events.

Biden followed up his “semi-fascist” rant with Thursday’s prime-time “soul of a nation” speech, in which he spoke of the 74.2 million who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 as white supremacists, extremists, rearward-looking deplorables, and wild-haired bogeymen who pose an existential threat to the country.

Which shows he’s a liar. Less than a week after the 2020 election, Biden swore before the country he would “​be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify; who doesn’t see red states and blue states, only sees the United States.”

A Deal Based on Lies: The Iran Nuclear Agreement Will Make War More Likely by Richard Kemp

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18845/iran-nuclear-deal-lies

These are the effects of the proposed nuclear deal brokered by the EU, Russia and China. Why is it brokered by the EU, Russia and China? Because the United States was outrageously banned from direct negotiations by Tehran. It is not outrageous that Iran demanded it, but that the US tolerated its own exclusion.

[T]he deal that is about to emerge will be even worse [than the 2015 deal]. The argument of the “bad” dealers is that it buys time for the West, with Micawberish optimism that “something will turn up”. This thinking is clear from President Biden’s preposterous hope that he can “lengthen and strengthen” the deal once it has been struck.

While in office, Obama declared that Iran would not be allowed to build nuclear weapons on his watch. He must have known that the only way to prevent that was through military action or perhaps crippling sanctions, but was unwilling to do either and the result was the JCPOA, which kicked the problem down the road onto someone else’s watch.

Tehran can legitimately commence operation of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges in two years, all the while working flat out to develop nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that, along with Iran’s terrorist activities, are not covered at all in the agreement.

The “buying time” argument, and indeed an argument for any agreement, only works if you do not understand Iran and are naive enough to believe the regime will honor what it agrees to.

The reality that the optimistic and the unschooled fail to grasp is that the regime in Tehran will ignore constraints imposed by the deal that it does not like.

Tehran will continue to develop the nuclear capability that it sees as its right — deal or no deal — at the speed it wants until it is physically stopped from doing so. Whatever shape Biden’s deal takes there are only downsides for the West and the Middle East and only upsides for Tehran.

More than that, according to Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid, Tehran will receive $100 billion a year as a result of lifted sanctions.

Released from sanctions, Iran will be used as an economic refuge by Moscow to evade its own international sanctions.

Under the draft deal, Iran will be able to retain the uranium that it has been illicitly producing since the original JCPOA, enriched beyond any requirements for a peaceful nuclear programme…. [I]t seems likely that Russia — despite its own repeated nuclear threats — will be handed control of this existing uranium stockpile.

This chilling scenario — for which the world will pay a very high price — is about to be made more likely by the ill-judged actions of governments in America and Europe, which lack the resolve and courage to apply sufficient economic pressure and military deterrence to put a stop to Iranian nuclear ambitions. Instead, as they did in response to Russian aggression, they are again opting for appeasement, the opium of the faint-hearted.

As Western governments quake in the face of Russian nuclear threats, they are on the verge of striking a deal that will give Iran that same power over them.

Iran’s school curriculum exposes diplomatic option failure Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinge

https://bit.ly/3eeK0Kp

*”Iran is fighting a global war and calls on oppressed Muslims and non-Muslims to unite under Islam and the Islamic Republic of Iran to overthrow the evil regimes [the “infidel” West led by the US and the “heretic” Sunni regimes]. The Islamic Revolution knows no borders [hence, the right of Iran to interfere in many conflicts in the Middle East and beyond]; it applies to the whole world (Literature and Humanities, Grade 12, 2021‒2022, page 110).

School curriculum reflects ideology

The school curriculum of Iran’s Ayatollahs is consistent with their constitution, domestic repression of ethnic and religious minorities, the subjugation of women, and the proliferation of anti-US terrorism in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. It provides a roadmap for an apocalyptic commitment to a global, anti-US Islamic revolution.

While US and Western policy makers rely heavily on statements and commitments made by Iran’s Ayatollahs in the negotiation rooms and in the public arena, the Ayatollahs’ school curriculum reflects most authentically their fanatic, religious and megalomaniacal anti-US strategy, tactics and vision: toppling the Sunni “apostate and heretic” regimes and bringing the Western “infidel” (especially “The Great American Satan”) to submission.

Moreover, Iran’s Ayatollahs have mastered the art of the Quran-sanctioned Taqiyya: dissimulation, doubletalk and deception-based statements and agreements, aimed at shielding the “believers” from the “infidels,” to be abrogated once conditions are ripe.

Furthermore, the school curriculum of the Ayatollahs has become an effective production-line for terrorists and suicide bombers.

LIZ PEEK: JOE BIDEN WANTS TO HAVE IT BOTH WAYS ON CRIME AND POLICING

https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/3624359-joe-biden-wants-to-have-it-both-ways-on-crime-and-policing/

Joe Biden wants to rewrite history.

Just recently, the president traveled to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and gave a speech trying to convince voters that – suddenly, magically, overnight – he’s become very, very concerned about crime. That he and his Democratic colleagues are pro-police, despite what you might have heard and seen over the past several years.

Biden unveiled his “Safer America Plan,” hoping voters will forget Democrats’ many policies that have made America distinctly unsafe. Looking at data from 23 cities, homicides for the first half of 2022 jumped 39 percent from the same time in 2019, before the George Floyd protests changed everything. Robberies were 19 percent higher.   

Biden’s sudden “super cop” persona is utter hogwash. It is a fiction driven by Democrats’ very real concern that they are being blamed for the crime spike horrifying much of the nation.

Polling shows crime to be one of voters’ top concerns this year, and Biden’s approval rating on the issue is one of his worst. According to a recent CBS poll, some 58 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the issue, while 42 percent approve. More importantly, 92 percent of respondents said that crime would be either very (67 percent) or somewhat (25 percent) important to how they will vote in the upcoming midterm elections.

Is it any wonder that Biden gets low marks on crime? This is the president who has said there is “absolutely” systemic racism in law enforcement and who ran for president promising to “Expand and use the power of the U.S. Justice Department to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.”

MY SAY: TIME OFF AND NO BONES ABOUT IT

Dear e-pals.

As a “seniora” of advancing years I have decided to take off some time  from  today, September 1 until September 10 to sort out  minor but vexing health issues from teeth to toes, knees and hands and assorted creaking joints which need repairs and maintenance, all to clear the deck for the fall and social and political and spirited blogging, and to buy and install a new computer.  Have a wonderful week ….rsk

The following excerpt of a song composed in 1917 by James Weldon Johnson with lyrics by Jerry Cantrell is amusing re old bones.

James Weldon Johnson was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where he started working in 1917.

The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone,
The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The leg bone’s connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The hip bone’s connected to the back bone
The back bone’s connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone’s connected to the head bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The finger bone’s connected to the hand bone,
The hand bone’s connected to the arm bone,
The arm bone’s connected to the shoulder bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

Why would we trust the media, ‘experts,’ bureaucrats, and other Democrats when they so willingly spread misinformation? By Jack Hellner

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/09/why_would_we_trust_the_media_experts_bureaucrats_and_other_democrats_when_they_so_willingly_spread_misinformation.html

Here are some examples of misinformation used to infect the U.S with a leftist agenda: 

In 2016, Hillary and the DNC couldn’t figure out how to beat Trump based on her record and the Democrats radical, leftist policies. Therefore, they decided to pay a foreign national millions of dollars to create a fictitious dossier to destroy Trump. Then, they committed fraud by lying to the Federal Election commission that the money was for legal fees.

The media and other Democrats never cared about all the laws Hillary broke, nor the massive amounts of kickbacks paid to her family and foundation. They wanted to defeat Trump and have a Democrat President. Criminal activity was irrelevant. The Clintons have always been above the law. 

4 experts make the case that the Clinton Foundation’s fundraising was troubling

“The idea that you have foreign governments … heavily involved in financing an institution that’s this tied to the secretary of state’s family — well, that appears to be something new.”

During and before the four years Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation run by her husband took tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments and corporations.

Many of these donors had a lot riding on Clinton’s decisions. Saudi Arabia gave the foundation up to $25 million, and Clinton signed off on a controversial $29 billion sale of fighter jets to the country. Oil companies gave the foundation around $3 million, and Clinton approved a lucrative gas pipeline in the Canadian tar sands they’d long sought.

The fictitious dossier was peddled through the complicit media and politicized, corrupt Justice Department in their efforts to destroy Trump and his associates. Some corrupt bureaucrats at the FBI then used the garbage dossier when they lied to the FISA court to get permission to illegally spy on people surrounding Trump. 

The Death Warrant for American Ingenuity By Janet Levy

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/09/the_death_warrant_for_american_ingenuity.html

Last September, scores of patent-holders demonstrated in six cities across the U.S. wearing black t-shirts that said, “Homo sapiens inventoris: Endangered Species.”  These men and women of ingenuity were protesting America’s decade of stolen dreams: the years since the passage of the America Invents Act (AIA) of 2011 and the establishment of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which together have made it easy for big corporations to steal their ideas and profit from them with impunity.

“We’ve had piracy for all the years I’ve been an inventor, but the AIA just put it on steroids, in the context that now you can get PTAB-ed and lose your rights without any due process at all,” said Dan Brown at the Detroit rally.  A professor with more than 40 patents, including inventions used in space shuttles, Brown invented the bionic wrench, a one-size-fits-all wrench that obviates the problem of stripped bolt corners.  He says Sears stole his idea, down to the marketing pitch, and replaced his product on its shelves with a Chinese rip-off.

Participants at these rallies, organized by U.S. Inventor, a non-profit fighting for inventors’ rights, had similar stories.  So do others represented by U.S. Inventor.  Among them are Molly Metz, a jump rope champion whose patented idea for a ball-and-eye pivot mechanism for speed ropes was stolen by a rogue competitor; Glenn Sanders, whose patent on Emmy award–winning wireless video recording equipment was invalidated by PTAB; and Gene Luoma, an octogenarian muscular dystrophy patient who lost his patent and millions in royalties on his Zip-It drain cleaner.

These are individuals who came up with brilliant ideas or solutions, worked on them, built prototypes, set up small businesses, and plowed ahead to sell their products.  But the new patent system under AIA is throttling them.  For them, it is destroying the culture of inventiveness, innovation, and creating original products and solutions that made America great and rocketed it into space.

To understand how that came about, a brief history of American patent law is in order.

Barr-a-Lago William Barr remains the defender of the deep state at its worst. By Lloyd Billingsley

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/31/barr-a-lago/

The FBI’s August 8 raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence has called out commentary from all quarters. Last week, former Attorney General William Barr told the Bari Weiss podcast what he thought about it. 

“Number one is that I think a lot of the attacks on the FBI are over the top because a decision like this is not made by the FBI,” Barr said. “In fact, I don’t think the FBI would push a decision that it’s best to go in and search and obtain those documents after being jerked around for a year and a half. The decision would be made at the Department of Justice, by subordinates of the AG, and ultimately signed off on by the AG. The FBI would be told to go and execute it. I think the idea that the FBI is the problem here is misplaced.” 

Barr was more disturbed by “the constant pandering to outrage” on the Right, without discussion of whether the outrage had any merit. The FBI seized Trump’s passports, leaving the impression that the former president had committed a crime and was now a flight risk. FBI agents also rummaged through the closets and dressers of Melania Trump. While Trump attorneys were forced outside, the FBI easily could have planted or destroyed information. If anyone was outraged about that conduct, it would be hard to blame them. 

Weiss brought up the “Russiagate” episode, as the host explained, “the idea that Donald Trump was a compromised agent of Moscow. That there were deep connections between Trump’s people and Russian intelligence. That the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians, including by hacking Democratic National Committee emails.” Barr remained in his defensive stance.