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2016

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Shame of Rep. Zoe Lofgren By Eileen F. Toplansky

By on May 31st, 2016

On January 12, 2016 House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) “announced the creation of a Task Force on Executive Overreach to examine the historic breakdown of the separation of powers and checks and balances that has led to the unprecedented increase in presidential power and executive overreach.” Part of the Task Force’s mission is to “study the impact the increase in presidential and executive branch power has had on the ability of Congress to conduct oversight of the executive branch, the lack of transparency that furthers unchecked executive power, and the constitutional requirement of the President to faithfully execute the law.”

Which is why it is so painfully ironic that this Task Force on Executive Overreach shut down a reasoned legal argument about the very behavior it is supposed to rein in.

On May 24, 2016 law professor Gail Heriot gave testimony to the U.S. House Taskforce on Executive Overreach describing the latest Obama edict on transgender guidance. In her 21-page testimony, Heriot spoke “as an individual member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and not on behalf of the Commission as a whole” stating that “Congress has succumbed to the temptation to confer more discretion on executive branch agencies” and this has severely damaged the separation of powers so integral to America’s governance.

Furthermore, Heriot describes the many administrative agencies that grab power that was never conferred to them via the Constitution. Thus, “the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has . . . managed to transform what was supposed to be a limitation on its power into a greater power . . . by issuing ‘guidances,’ which are devilishly difficult to challenge in court.” Consequently, “resistance by employers is usually futile.”

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

MY SAY: PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT’S LETTER TO THE FAMILIES OF THE FALLEN IN WORLD WAR 2

By on May 30th, 2016

In Grateful Memory of Harold G. King, American Soldier No. 32922362, Who died in the Service of His Country in the European Area, July 10,1944.

HE STANDS IN THE UNBROKEN LINE OF PATRIOTS WHO HAVE DARED TO DIE THAT FREEDOM MIGHT LIVE,AND GROW, AND INCREASE ITS BLESSINGS. FREEDOM LIVES, AND THROUGH IT HE LIVES IN A WAY THAT HUMBLES THE UNDERTAKINGS OF MOST MEN.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States.

Harold King died from wounds received during the Normandy invasion. He was 20 years old. His older brother George also died in the Normandy invasion in June 1944.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UK Labour Party Inquiry: Deny, Divert, Cover Up by Douglas Murray

By on May 30th, 2016

Today, as the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn has the opportunity either to tackle anti-Semitism or mainstream it into the UK body politic. The evidence that he has any interest in doing the former are not good.

Whenever the specific question of anti-Semitism was raised, Corbyn would say how opposed he was to all forms of racism, “including Islamophobia.” It has apparently proven impossible for Corbyn to realize the specific nature of anti-Semitism; whenever it has come up, he has used the opportunity to talk not about racial hatred against Jews but what he believes to be an epidemic of hatred towards Muslims.

The British Labour party today evidently is riddled with anti-Semitism from top to bottom, and led by people who want to divert attention from the fact or cover it over entirely. Things can only get worse.

How would you push away a problem you did not want to deal with? The best way, as any addict could tell you, is to pretend that you have dealt with it. The drug-addict pretends to have given up drugs. The alcoholic pretends to have cut down on drink. And the British Labour party pretends to have dealt with its anti-Semitism problem.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UK’s Co-operative Group – Boycotting Israeli Produce by Myra Carr

By on May 30th, 2016

The UK’s Co-operative Group is closely linked to — and a major funder of — the Co-operative Party, which has an electoral pact with the Labour Party, the UK’s official opposition.

This assumes that those advocating the boycott know exactly where the new borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state will be, despite that they are yet to be determined through negotiation. The enterprises boycotted by the Co-op Group employ many local Arab workers, whose livelihoods are endangered by the boycott.

The Co-op Group continues to refer to Israel’s “illegal settlements” as if these were the only disputed territories in the world. There is no boycott, of course, of major exporting countries with appalling human rights records, such as China (invasion of Tibet), Russia (invasion of the Ukraine) and other countries whose occupation of other areas is not recognized internationally, such as Nagorno-Karabakh or Northern Cyprus.

As usual, of all the countries in the world, Israel is being singled out. For the boycotters of the Co-op Group, Israel is the usual soft target.

The Co-operative Group is the only major British retailer to boycott Israeli goods. It is the fifth-largest retail grocery chain in the UK, with thousands of Co-op minimarkets throughout the United Kingdom. The Co-operative Group (formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society) is closely linked to — and a major funder of — the Co-operative Party, which has an electoral pact with the Labour Party, the UK’s official opposition. The Co-operative Party has, like the Labour Party itself, been infiltrated by a strong anti-Israel faction.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Germany’s New “Integration Law” by Soeren Kern

By on May 30th, 2016

The new law applies only to legitimate asylum seekers, not to the hundreds of thousands of economic migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East who have entered Germany illegally by posing as asylum seekers.

Of the more than 1.1 million migrants who arrived in Germany in 2015, only 476,649 have applied for asylum. Many of the rest have gone underground and are sustaining themselves through petty crime and drug dealing.

Nearly half (49%) of the migrants in Germany whose asylum applications were rejected during the past two years have not left the country, according to leaked government data.

“Regaining control of our borders is an existential issue for our culture and the survival of our society.” — Thilo Sarrazin, renowned German central banker and a former member of the Social Democrats.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on May 30th, 2016

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

EU and US boosts for surgical sealant. Israel’s LifeSeal, the no-leak sealant solution for patients who have undergone gastrointestinal (GI) surgery (see Aug 16), has received CE approval for use in the European Union. LifeSeal has also been fast-tracked for approval by the US FDA through its Expedited Access Pathway (EAP)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/lifebonds-surgical-sealant-gets-eu-approval-fda-fast-track-status/

New anti-bacteria coating. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University have developed an innovative anti-biofilm coating. The anti-adhesive patches can prevent destructive bacterial biofilm forming on metal surfaces. It could be used on medical implants, devices and surgical equipment and even on ships and bridges.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admi.201500486/abstract;jsessionid=5ACCD4A59A4ACAA3111353468DFEA702.f02t01 https://aabgu.org/bgu-researchers-develop-novel-anti-biofilm-coating/

Automatic diagnosis from radiology images. Tel Aviv University Professor Hayit Greenspan has developed a wide variety of “deep learning” tools to facilitate computer-assisted diagnosis of X-rays, CTs and MRIs, freeing radiologists to attend to complex cases that require their full attention and skills.
https://www.aftau.org/news-page-computers–technology?=&storyid4702=2263&ncs4702=3

US Jews study trauma in Israel. Social work students from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work are in Israel to attend an intensive course on trauma, emergency response and recovery. It features workshops on trauma intervention, and real-time emergency response simulation.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/us-social-work-students-explore-trauma-resilience-in-israel/2016/05/23/

Israel and US scientists join up to beat cancer. Israel’s Technion and New York University’s Langone Medical Center have begun a research project, targeting metastatic melanoma and mesothelioma. They will test the ability of a nanotechnology based on so-called “nanoghosts” using stem cells to home in on cancer cells.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Haifa-and-NY-researchers-collaborate-on-treatment-for-two-deadly-cancers-452214

Progress for DNA blood test. The DNA diagnostic breakthrough from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (see here) has been funded. Priority is now for a diagnostic tool for neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases plus a blood test for the early detection of multiple diseases at their asymptomatic stage.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-aurum-ventures-backs-hebrew-u-diagnostic-platform-1001126831

Mayo Clinic to work with Israeli startups. (TY Dan) The US medical organization Mayo Clinic is launching the Mayo Clinic Israeli Startups Initiative. It will encourage collaboration among Israeli health care startup companies and Mayo Clinic and fund joint R&D to accelerate availability of medical innovations to the public.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-mayo-clinic-to-collaborate-with-israeli-startups-1001126524

Malaria detection for India. (TY Hazel) The SightDX Parasight Malaria Detection Platform from Israel’s Sight Diagnostics is to be introduced into India. Approximately 880,000 cases of malaria were reported in India in 2013. http://www.livemint.com/Companies/tawvlTnMXHEnoHjT4K9qvN/Becton-Dickinson-brings-4minute-malaria-detection-kit-to-I.html (See Aug newsletter for more about SightDX)

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The European Union, the New European Soviet? Vladimir Bukovsky VIDEO

By on May 30th, 2016

The European Union, the New European Soviet? Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky was prominent in the Soviet dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s and spent a total of twelve years in psychiatric prison-hospitals, labor camps and prisons within the Soviet Union.  

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POLITICS Comments turned off

‘Berning’ the Jews: Sanders and the Democratic Platform Committee by Edward Alexander

By on May 30th, 2016

“Antisemitism is no longer a problem, fortunately. It’s raised because privileged people want to make sure they have total control, not just 98% control. That’s why antisemitism is becoming an issue.”

–Noam Chomsky, 2002.

“Over 99 percent of all new income generated in the economy has gone to the top 1 percent.”

—Bernie Sanders, 2016.

In mid-April of this year the exigencies of an impending primary election in New York, where he lagged far behind Hillary Clinton among likely Jewish Democratic voters, forced Bernie Sanders to suspend his national Jewish “outreach” coordinator—one Simone Zimmerman. It was revealed that her ostensibly warm Jewish heart had a very cold spot reserved for Israel. That he had appointed such a person to such a position in the first place was a true indication of where Sanders’ own sympathies lay. Any uncertainty about this was put to rest in a debate in Brooklyn where he said: “I believe the United States and the rest of the world have got to work together to help the Palestinian people.” He is now practicing what he preached.

No sooner did a desperate Hillary Clinton direct the head of the DNC to bestow upon Sanders five of the fifteen positions on the Democratic Party’s platform committee than he hastened to fill two of them with well-known Israel-haters, or what he calls “helpers” of the Palestinian people, and a third with a politician who is a convert to Islam and once recommended Louis Farrakhan as “a role model for black youth,” and “not an anti-Semite.” Sanders has in the past displayed unseemly envy and sycophantic admiration of foreign countries—the socialism of Sweden, the dictatorship of Nicaragua, the health care of Cuba, the charms of Yaroslavl as honeymoon site and sister city to Burlington, Vermont. But these appointments reveal not only his belief that the key to American foreign policy is the Arab-Israeli conflict, but that Israel’s “intransigence” is the cause of the manifold miseries of the Middle East—a view that even the State Department and its most dogmatic peace-processors have finally, albeit with great sadness, abandoned.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

Report: Syrians ‘buy Honduran I.D.s’ to get into U.S. Palestinians and Syrians Buy Honduran Identities to Make Their Way to the U.S.By Kausha Luna

By on May 30th, 2016

Honduras’ National Registry of Persons (RNP) confirmed that hundreds of Palestinian, Syrian, and citizens of other Arab nations were fraudulently registered as Honduran citizens. As a result, these foreigners can then acquire Honduran passports, which can be used to apply for visas to enter to the United States.

On Sunday, La Prensa, a Honduran newspaper, revealed the illicit sales of Honduran identity documents to Palestinian and Syrian citizens. La Prensa’s investigation was anchored on the case of a Palestinian, Kareen Samer Abdulhadi.

In October 2014, Abdulhadi presented himself to the Honduran consulate in Barcelona and with official documentation from the RNP and solicited a Honduran passport—arguing his status of “Honduran by birth.” Nevertheless, the language, his marked Arab features, and inconsistent birth data aroused the suspicions of the diplomatic staff about his true nationality and the legitimacy of the documents (including a birth certificate and identification card). Further investigation by consular staff revealed that in 2013 there had been an unauthorized intrusion and alteration in the database of birth registrations of one of the municipal records back in Honduras, which allowed the Palestinian to be documented as Honduran.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Vietnamese Communist Leader Says US Anti-War Activists Helped Their Victory :Richard Pollock

By on May 30th, 2016

In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day and President Barack Obama’s scheduled trip to Vietnam, a prominent Vietcong communist leader privately thanked American anti-war activists for helping defeat the U.S.-allied government in Vietnam in the 1970s, saying protest demonstrations throughout the United States were “extremely important in contributing to Vietnam’s victory.”

For Vietnamese guerrilla leader Madam Nguyen Thi Binh, who sent the private letter from Hanoi dated April 20, “victory” meant the communist takeover of South Vietnam. The letter addressed veteran American anti-war activists who gathered in Washington, D.C., at a May 3 reunion of radical “May Day” anti-war leaders.

The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained a copy of the letter at the meeting.

Binh, now age 90, originally served as the highest ranking Vietnamese delegate to the Paris Peace Talks that imposed a ceasefire in the country in 1973.

The “Vietcong” was a ragtag group of communist guerrillas who were allied with the official communist government in North Vietnam. The country was cut in two in 1954, with the south seeking to build a democratic state allied to the West.

Binh’s frank admission highlights a secret side of the communist’s effective lobbying influence in the United States. Rather than live in the southern part of the country, which for decades she represented as a diplomat, it appears after the war Binh was living in Hanoi, the original capital of North Vietnam.

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