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May 2022

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on May 1st, 2022

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

In the decolonization era commencing in 1945 three dozen new states in Asia and Africa achieved autonomy or outright independence from their European colonial rulers. Among them, Israel declared its independence and sovereignty on May 4th, 1948. No other nation achieved what Israel did subsequently with its epic rescue of shattered survivors of the Holocaust; creation of a model democracy in spite of wars and daily threats of enemies within and without; outsize and dazzling contributions to medicine, technology, science and cultural and philanthropic institutions that enhance the lives of billions; the creation of a state-of-the-art military-drafting men and women to defend the state with advanced ordnance on land, air and sea. Michael Ordman catalogs it all.

The national anthem of Israel is Ha-Tikvah- the “Hope”. Israel is the answer and reality! May you grow and thrive in peace.  rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A good place. The latest Coronavirus wave is over as far as Israel is concerned. Experts say the reasons include immunity from the previous Omicron wave, plus behavioral factors such as protecting the elderly. If there are no significant variants on the horizon, Israel is in a good place (and is a good place to visit!)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wave-that-never-was-did-israelis-common-sense-help-stop-a-new-covid-spike/

Protection against Covid-19. Experts from Tel Aviv University have shown that common dietary supplements can help protect us against the Covid virus as well as several common winter illnesses. They include Zinc and Copper, combined with flavonoids – polyphenolic compounds found in vegetables such as pumpkins & peas.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325628 https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/15/3/377/htm

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-made-dietary-supplement-fights-off-viruses-in-lab-tests-scientists-say/

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/15/3/377/htm

Smart sensors to ensure vaccine safety. Tel Aviv University researchers used smart sensors from Israel’s BioBeat to measure physiological reactions of 160 subjects to the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. They showed that side effects increased over a 48-hour period, often contradicting reports of the patients themselves.

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-703840

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00090-y

Severed ear reconstructed. Doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center saved the severed ear of a carpenter who suffered a serious work accident. To prevent rejection, they used tissue from his scalp and leg to create an artificial cartilage mold of the severed part of the ear and grafted it onto the remaining part.

https://worldisraelnews.com/miracle-surgery-israeli-doctors-save-mans-severed-ear/

AI finds source of mystery heart problem. Israeli Meidan Schwartzman faced life-altering surgery to trace a mystery heart arrhythmia. Then he read about Dr. Itzik Biton, a senior cardiologist at Hadassah’s Heart Institute who subsequently used Artificial Intelligence to locate and fix the problem in the sinus area of Meidan’s heart.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325140

Getting under the skin of an autoimmune disease. Researchers from Weizmann, Hadassah and Rambam medical centers have discovered a significant drop in a specific type of fibroblast (cell scaffold) occurs with the onset of scleroderma – a rare autoimmune disease. The research can shed light on the origin of other diseases.

https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/getting-under-the-skin-of-an-autoimmune-disorder/

Stethoscope detects sounds that no human can hear. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Sanolla (see here previously) has received US FDA approval for its VoqX, the first and only stethoscope that can listen to infrasound – acoustic sound waves (3 to 40 Hz) that aren’t detectable by the human ear but provide important diagnostic information.

https://nocamels.com/2022/04/sanolla-fda-infrasound-stethoscope/ https://sanolla.com/

US approval for steerable microcatheter. The Bendit21 microcatheter from Israel’s Bendit Technologies (see here previously) has just received US FDA approval. The device has already been used to save two lives in the US and is described as a game-changer in endovascular medicine.

https://nocamels.com/2022/04/bendit-microcatheter-fda/

No more blood shortages. Israel’s RedC Biotech is developing a process for mass-production of red blood cells for transfusions. Working with Accellta, a spin-off startup from Israel’s Technion Institute, they use stem cells from O-negative donors to mass-produce red blood cells for most humans, even without testing.

https://www.israel21c.org/the-startup-aiming-to-make-blood-donations-a-thing-of-the-past/

https://www.redcbiotech.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DChkGXSFVbA

Relief for swollen legs. The Robotic stocking from Israel’s ElastiMed (see here previously) for treating lymphatic and venous leg diseases is being tested in a clinical study at Sheba Medical Center. It already shows a 5-fold improvement in leg volume reduction, compared to the hospital’s standard compression bandages.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjjz4csec

Field hospital uses VR to treat refugees. Medics at Israel’s Kohav Meir field hospital brought Virtual Reality goggles and telehealth devices when they visited a refugee camp for Ukrainians. They used the VR goggles to diagnose patients remotely. And the goggles also provided relief for the trauma-affected refugee children.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/skbbgulnc

Physician cure thyself. Six years ago, Israel’s ex-Chief Scientist Dr. Orna Berry was diagnosed with cervical, ovarian, and thyroid cancer with six-months to live. Israeli startup Curesponse used genome sequencing to find her best treatment. Dr Berry is now cancer free and at the age of 72 is Google Cloud’s Director of Technology.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sk7fwvbv5 https://www.curesponse.com/

A very good spot. (TY UWI) 15-year-old MDA volunteer Ido spotted a bus strangely stopped in the middle of the road. He then noticed that the bus driver was clutching his chest. Ido immediately alerted his colleagues who spent 20 minutes administering CPR and 11 defibrillator shocks until the driver regained consciousness.

https://www.israel21c.org/teen-emts-quick-action-helps-save-tel-aviv-bus-driver/

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Upgrading properties to house refugees. The Israeli government is offering cities and regional councils grant money to upgrade housing projects for immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and other countries in the region. Some 10,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel in recent weeks, of which two-thirds are from Ukraine.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/cities-offered-money-for-renovating-buildings-to-house-ukrainian-migrants/

Israelis host Iftar meals for Muslim Arabs. (TY Hazel) Some 200 guests attended Israel’s President Herzog’s annual Iftar dinner, the traditional meal to break the Ramadan fast, at his official residence. And Yossi Dagan, Chairman of the Samaria Regional Council, hosted local Palestinian Arab leaders for the Iftar break-fast.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ramadan-meal-brings-together-unlikely-group-of-jewish-settlers-and-palestinians/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/politics-and-security-mar-the-festivities-at-herzogs-iftar-meal/

100,000+ Muslims pray on Temple Mount. (TY Hazel) Over 100,000 Muslim worshipers took part in mass prayers on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif / Al-Aqsa complex) in Jerusalem on the night of Apr 27, for Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Destiny) during Ramadan. https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-100000-muslim-worshippers-gather-on-temple-mount-for-nighttime-prayers/

Yoseph stuns Irish Parliament. Israeli Arab Yoseph Haddad made a brilliant speech to the Irish Parliament. Members of the Oireachtas were stunned by Haddad’s eloquence and rhetoric. His talk included his childhood, army service, freedom of religion and speech, Israeli Arab leaders, democracy, the judicial system, and the PA.

https://vinnews.com/2022/03/01/yoseph-haddads-brilliant-defense-of-israel-in-the-irish-parliament/

Abraham Accords brings global benefits. An international delegation visited the UAE, Bahrain, and Israel to see how the Abraham Accords model can spread economic benefits far and wide. They include new ties between the UAE and both Paraguay and Liberia. And between Bahrain and the Central African Republic.

https://www.jns.org/international-delegation-visits-israel-to-take-abraham-accords-to-next-level/

Mission to aid Ethiopia. (TY JNS) Most of the world has forgotten the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia. Not Israel, though, which has sent a medical team to Gondar and Addis Ababa to create a program where Israeli hospitals will adopt, train, equip, and support hospitals near the 2-year ongoing Ethiopian civil war zone.

https://www.israel21c.org/israelis-fly-to-ethiopia-to-alleviate-humanitarian-crisis/

MDA responds. Israel’s Magen David Adom has responded to the Ukrainian crisis with six more ambulances to add to the four it had already donated (see here previously). MDA has also set up an emergency field clinic in Moldova. https://mdauk.org/mda-responds-to-humaintarian-crisis-in-ukraine/

Ukrainian boy brought to Israel to save his eyesight. Corridor – Israel Aid for Ukraine has brought 7-year-old Mykhailo from Ukraine to Sheba Medical Center, together with his mother and twin brother. Mykhailo suffers from an aggressive form of retinopathy and Israeli doctors will try to save his eyesight.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-evacuates-ukrainian-boy-for-eyesight-saving-treatment/

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Four medals at Math Olympiad. Israel’s four competitors in the 2022 European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in Hungary won a gold medal and three bronze medals. Overall, the Israeli team came nineth out of 56 countries. Gold medalist Nogah Friedman is now ranked third in the world.

https://www.jns.org/israel-takes-home-four-medals-in-mathematics-competition/

Addionics wins ecology award. Israeli smart battery developer Addionics (see here previously) has won a BloombergNEF award (see here previously) for pioneering technology for a low carbon economy. Addionics was one of 12 winners from 270 applicants from 27 countries. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-maker-of-smart-3d-battery-tech-among-12-winners-of-bloombergnef-award/

Lightening up Tel Aviv. Visitors to Tel Aviv’s Atidim hi-tech park will benefit from the innovative Lumiweave fabric created by Israel’s Anai Green (see here previously). The environmentally friendly system will provide shade during the day and serve as a lighting installation once the sun sets.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-pilots-shade-giving-solar-powered-fabric-that-lights-up-at-night/

Saving the bee and its honey. Israel’s Bee-IO (see here previously) makes bee-free honey in the lab, removing the bee from industrialized honey production. The busy creatures can now focus on pollinating plants so that humans can continue to eat the real “fruits” of their labor. This Nas video has over 4.4 million Facebook views.

https://nocamels.com/2022/04/bee-honey-cultivated-startup/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6uC8pEQKag

Smart transportation. Interesting short video featuring some of the Israeli startups that are revolutionizing the transportation arena. Plus, the Navon railway station and the new Jerusalem to Modiin line have turned Jerusalem into a transportation hub that provides access to the whole country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzyr3WzUEbY

https://betelfriends.blogspot.com/2022/04/new-train-puts-jerusalem-in-center.html?m=1

A virtual model. Fashion designers work with Israel’s Styletech to showcase their designs using an AI virtual model. No need for stylist, makeup, hair, photographer, or location. Select from a database of 20,000+ AI models plus the appropriate gender, shape, age, height, weight, hair color, skin tone, and even expression.

https://nocamels.com/2022/04/alon-livne-virtual-model-fashion/ https://styletech.ai/

Speeding up blockchain transactions. Israel’s bloXroute increases the processing speed of blockchain transactions by a factor of one hundred. It solves the scalability issue that is preventing blockchain’s secure trading mechanism from being more widely adopted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEWU9CFv43E

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rkuvolvvq https://bloxroute.com/

The story of Ariel University. Israel’s 8th and latest University began as a college in 1982. Its school of Architecture opened in 1995; the Particle Accelerator Center (1999); Wine Research Center (2010); University status (2012); School of Medicine (2019); Autonomous Vehicle Lab (2020) and Satellites launched (2022).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM7xI8YG97s

The oldest star ever seen. Ben-Gurion University Professor Adi Zitrin was a key member of the US-Israeli team that identified Earendel – the most distant star ever seen. Light from Earendel has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, via the Hubble space telescope.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-israeli-scientists-document-oldest-star-ever-seen-13-billion-light-years-away/

Splashdown! (TY JNS) Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe and his Ax-1 colleagues safely landed off the Florida coast after an extended 17-day mission, including 15 days on the International Space Station. Read also about some of the Israeli Rakia Mission’s experiments and activities that he conducted and managed.

https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-astronaut-splashes-down-safely-from-17-day-mission/

https://www.eng.rakiamission.co.il/all-in-space https://www.eng.rakiamission.co.il/blog

https://www.eng.rakiamission.co.il/post/zero-gravity-hovering-eytan-stibbe

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

$5.6 billion raised in first quarter. Israeli tech companies raised $5.6 billion in 212 deals in the first quarter of 2022 – slightly more than the $5.4 billion raised in the same quarter last year. There were also 39 exits (including 7 IPOs) that raised nearly $9 billion. https://nocamels.com/2022/04/quater-funding-first-startups/

The skies are open. Over 50 countries participated in Tel Aviv’s 28th International Mediterranean Tourism Market. At the expo, Israel’s President Herzog declared, “Israel offers a truly unmatched experience of ancient holy sites, cities that never sleep, exquisite natural beauty, a mosaic of cultures, and an innovative society.”

https://www.jns.org/at-tourism-fair-in-tel-aviv-israeli-minister-announces-skies-are-open/

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324831

Lab-grown meat industry partnership. Israeli-based Tnuva is investing $7.5 million in partnering Israeli biotech Pluristem Therapeutics. They have formed a joint company NewCo to create meat and dairy products from animal cells, using sustainable technology.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-companies-at-nasdaq-want-to-bring-lab-grown-meat-to-the-masses/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/tnuva-beefs-up-food-tech-operations-with-new-cultured-meat-venture/

Smart distribution partners. Israel’s largest supermarket chain Shufersal has partnered Israel’s Via to create an efficient digital distribution system. This is the first time that Via will move from smart (ridesharing) transportation into the logistics space. It will help Shufersal reduce cost, fuel use and air pollution.

https://nocamels.com/2022/04/via-supermarket-shufersal-distribution/

Amazon invests in Israeli robotic warehouse system. Israel’s BionicHIVE (see here previously) has received funding from the new Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, which invests in emerging technologies. Previously Elon Musk recommended BionicHIVE to his 42 million Twitter followers.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/r1qg2lkbq

General Atlantic to open in Israel. Leading US investment firm General Atlantic is opening a Tel Aviv office. General Atlantic manages some $84 billion of assets and has invested $750 million in eight Israeli tech companies since 2019. It says Israel “stands out as a hub of global entrepreneurship and digital transformation”.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/leading-us-investment-firm-general-atlantic-opens-tel-aviv-office/

New hotel in Tel Aviv. The David Kempinski luxury hotel has opened overlooking the beach on Hayarkon Street in Tel Aviv. It is the 80th hotel in the Kempinski European hotel group, with 34 floors and 250 rooms. It includes 43 suites, massive, floor-to-ceiling windows in every room, to bring in the sea air and views.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-welcomes-latest-luxury-hotel-david-kempinski/

More startups ignited. Intel has selected another 10 Israeli startups for its sixth Intel Ignite Tel Aviv acceleration program. Redefine.dev, Verobotics, Xyte, Senser, Predicta Med, Kahoona, Volumez, PxE, Dual Bird Technologies, and Oligo Security. This is the first mention in this newsletter for all these startups.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sygls4bhc

Takeovers and mergers. Israel’s OpenWeb acquired France’s ADYOULIKE for $100 million;

Investment in Israeli startups to 1/5/22: bloXroute raised $70 million; Silverfort raised $65 million; FundGuard raised $40 million; Riverside.fm raised $35 million; Demostack raised $34 million; ARMO raised $30 million; RiseUp raised $30 million; Source Defense raised $27 million; Sentra raised $23 million; TULU raised $20 million; The Cultivated Meat Consortium received $18 million from the Israel Innovation Authority; Noogata raised $16 million; Loris.ai raised $12 million; Copyleaks raised $6 million; ElastiMed raised 0.85 million;

CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`

Art with Israel as a model. Chaya Esther Ort opened the Kiyor Studio in Nachlaot, Jerusalem in 2019 to spread the beauty and light of Israel’s land and spirit into the world. She uses the clay of the land so that her customers can have a beautiful, useable, and meaningful piece of Israel with them, materially and spiritually.

https://www.jns.org/the-art-of-making-art-using-israel-as-a-model/

Celebrate Israel’s birthday in London. If you are in the UK and unable to get to Israel for Yom Ha’atzmaut, you may wish to join the Technion UK’s lunch event on 5th May. Click below to register.

https://technionuk.org/event/israel74/

One million hours of football. Israel’s Pixellot (see here previously) celebrated the milestone of broadcasting one million live hours of AI-automated football. The event featured retired Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho. Pixellot broadcasts 150,000+ games a month from 67 countries, without camera operators or production crew.

https://nocamels.com/2022/04/pixellot-ronaldinho-sports-tech/

Israeli gymnast wins gold in Cairo. (TY Nevet) Israeli Olympic gold-medal gymnast Artem Dolgopyat took home the gold in the floor routine at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cairo. The win secures Dolgopyat’s place at October’s World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, England.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-gymnast-artem-dolgopyat-takes-gold-at-world-cup-in-cairo/

Israel’s team to the Deaflympics. Israel’s President Herzog hosted the Israeli delegation to the Deaflympics at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. The Deaflympics will take place in May in Brazil, with an Israeli delegation of deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes who have won medals in international sports tournaments.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325354

THE JEWISH STATE

Luxury imports by the first Jewish kingdom. Israeli archeologists have discovered remnants of vanilla spice in wine jars bearing the symbol of trade from the Kingdom of Judah during the 7th century BCE first Temple period. The exotic spice originated in the far East and was unknown in the West until the time of Columbus.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/6th-century-bce-jerusalemite-oenophiles-had-a-taste-for-exotic-vanilla-spice-wine/ https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324890

The Haredi team protecting Iron Dome. (TY Algemeiner) Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has a special cyber division in Jerusalem that includes 55 ultra-Orthodox employees, some former yeshiva students, that help make sure no one penetrates the air defense system. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rylojgre9

Adelsons sponsor 500 Ukrainian refugees. Members of the Adelson family, children of Dr. Miriam Adelson and the late Sheldon Adelson, recently sponsored flights for more than 500 Jewish Ukrainian refugees to find sanctuary in Israel. The flights were part of United Hatzalah’s Operation Orange Wings.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325350

Coming home. Four years ago, Eliyahu emigrated from Ukraine to Israel, leaving his parents behind. Thanks to Chabad of Kyiv the family had a long-awaited, tearful reunion at Ben Gurion Airport. Also, just before Yom HaShoah, 21 Holocaust survivors were rescued from Ukraine and flown to Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/fleeing-a-war-yet-again-9-holocaust-survivors-touch-down-in-israel-on-rescue-flight/ https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/326540 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-703448

Can you light Shabbat candles in space? Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe gave fourth graders a lesson called “Lighting Shabbat Candles in Space – the Halacha and Science Challenge.” Scientists are still learning how fire behaves in zero-gravity and may use the knowledge to develop more efficient combustion engines.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-kids-test-shabbat-in-space-with-candle-experiment/

Freedom in Free-fall. Eytan Stibbe, the first Jew to celebrate Passover in space, reveals how he relates to children the meaning of the Exodus story in the current technological age.

https://www.eng.rakiamission.co.il/post/the-first-passover-in-space-eytan-stibbe.

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What To Do About China by Gordon G. Chang

By on May 1st, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18480/what-to-do-about-china

Since about 2018, Chinese officials have been talking about the moon and Mars as sovereign Chinese territory, part of the People’s Republic of China. This means that China considers those heavenly bodies to be like the South China Sea. This also means that China will exclude other nations from going to the moon and Mars if they have the capability to do so. We do not have to speculate about that: Chinese officials say this is what they are going to do.

[W]hen Biden says, “Oh, the Chinese just want to compete with us,” he is wrong. They do not want to “compete” within the international system. They do not even want to change that system… They want to overthrow it altogether, period.

Is Xi Jinping really that bold… to start another war? … First, China considers the United States to be its enemy. Second the United States is no longer deterring China. China feels it has a big green light to do whatever it wants.

We Americans don’t pay attention to propaganda… After all, these are just words. At this particular time, these words… [suggest] to me that China is laying the justification for a strike on the United States. We keep ignoring what Beijing is saying. We kept ignoring what Osama bin Laden was saying.

We have to remember that the Chinese regime, unlike the Japanese, always warn its adversaries about what it is going to do

The second reason war is coming is that America’s deterrence of China is breaking down.

Di’s message was that with cash, China can do anything it wants, and that all Americans would take cash. He mentioned two words in this regard: Hunter Biden.

In February, [Biden] had a two‑hour phone call with Xi Jinping. By Biden’s own admission, he didn’t raise the issue of the origins of COVID‑19 even once. If you are Xi Jinping, after you put down the receiver, your first thought is, “I just got away with killing hundreds of thousands of Americans.”

We have news that China is building something like 345 missile silos in three locations: in Gansu, Xinjiang, and in Inner Mongolia. These silos are clearly built to accommodate the DF‑41. The DF‑41 has a range of about 9,300 miles, which means that it can reach any part of the United States. The DF‑41 carries 10 warheads. This means that China could, in about two years…, have a bigger arsenal than ours. …we have to assume the worst because Chinese leaders and Chinese generals, on occasion, unprovoked, have made threats to nuke American cities.

In July, 2021 China tested a hypersonic glide warhead, which circled the world. This signals China intends to violate the Outer Space Treaty, to which China is a party.

As of today, more than eight million people have died outside China. What happened? No one imposed costs on China.

For at least a half‑decade, maybe a little bit longer, Chinese military researchers have been openly writing about a new type of biological warfare….They talk about a new type of biological warfare of “specific ethnic genetic attacks.” In other words, pathogens that will leave the Chinese immune but sicken and kill everybody else, which means that the next disease from China can be a civilization killer.

A lot of military analysts talk about how the first seconds of a war with China are going to be fought in outer space. They are going to blind our satellites, take them down, do all sorts of stuff. Those statements are wrong. The first day of war against the United States occurs about six months earlier, when they release pathogens in the United States. Then we are going to have that day in space. The war starts here, with a pathogen ‑‑ a virus, a microbe, a bug of some kind. That is where it begins.

The One‑China policy is something many people misunderstand. Probably because Beijing uses propaganda to try to fuzzy up the issue…. China has a One‑China principle: that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China, full stop. We have a One‑China policy…, that the status of Taiwan is unresolved…. that the resolution of the status of Taiwan must be with the consent of people on both sides of the Strait.

We need a policy of “strategic clarity,” where we tell China that we will defend Taiwan. We also say we will extend a mutual defense treaty to Taiwan if it wants it, and we will put American troops on the island as a tripwire.

We are Americans. We naturally assume that there are solutions, and good solutions, to every problem. After three decades of truly misguided China policy, there are no … solutions that are “undangerous.” …The current trend of policy is unsustainable. There will be no American republic if we continue to do what we are currently doing and if we continue to allow China to do what it does. I do not think that enforcing a trade deal will start World War III.

China has not met its obligations. As of a few months ago, China had met about 62% of its commitments….. We should be increasing the tariffs that President Trump imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Remember, those tariffs are meant to be a remedy for the theft of US intellectual property. China has continued to steal US IP. As matter of fact, it has gotten worse…

I do not think that we should be trying to foster integration of Wall Street into China’s markets…. Do not take it from me, just look at their failure to comply with very simple, easy‑to‑comply-with requirements. It was a mistake.

The best response would be if we hit them with everything at once because China right now is weak. If we were going to pick the number one thing to do, I would think trade.

China now has a debt crisis, so they are not going to invest their way out of this crisis, which means the only way they can save their economy is net exports. We should stop buying their stuff.

China has bought the political establishment in the Solomon Islands, except for one brave man named David Suidani. Recently, somebody got the bright idea of publishing all of the specific payments that Beijing has made to Solomon Islands politicians…. We should be doing this with payments to American politicians, we should be doing this across the board.

What bothers me is that, although their assumptions about China have demonstrably been proven wrong, American policymakers still continue with the same policies. There is, in some people’s mind, an unbreakable view that we have to cooperate with China…. This is what people learn in international relations school when they go to Georgetown, and they become totally stupid.

Clearly, Nike and Apple and other companies are now, at this very moment, trying to prevent Congress from enacting toughened rules on the importation of forced‑labor products into our country.

Moreover, the Chinese regime is even more casualty‑averse than we are. Even if Beijing thinks it can take Taiwan by force, it is probably not going to invade because it knows an invasion would be unpopular with most people in China. It is not going to risk hundreds of thousands of casualties that would result from an invasion.

Unfortunately…, we taught the Chinese that they can without cost engage in these dangerous maneuvers of intercepting our planes and our ships. That is the problem: because as we have taught the Chinese to be more aggressive, they have been.

[W]e should have made it clear to the Chinese leadership that they cannot kill Americans without cost. Hundreds of thousands Americans have been killed by a disease that China deliberately spread. From October 2020 to October 2021, more than 105,000 Americans died from fentanyl — which China has purposefully, as a matter of state and Communist Party policy — sold to Americans… we have to change course.

I would close China’s four remaining consulates. I would also strip the Chinese embassy down to the ambassador and his personal staff. The thousands who are in Washington, DC, they would be out.

I would also raise tariffs to 3,600%, or whatever. This is a good time to do it. We have supply chain disruptions. We are not getting products from China anyway. We can actually start to do this sort of stuff.

I would… just hammer those guys all the time verbally. People may think, “Those are just words.” For communists, words are really important, because they are an insecure regime where propaganda is absolutely critical.

I would be going after the Communists on human rights, I would be going after them on occupying the South China Sea, on Taiwan, unrelentingly — because I would want to show the world that the United States is no longer afraid of China…. State Department people, they are frightened. We need to say to the Chinese regime, like Dulles, “I’m not afraid of you. I’m going after you, and I’m going to win.”

All the conditions for history’s next great war are in place. Jim Holmes, the Wiley Professor at the Naval War College, actually talks about this period as being 1937.

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French Elections: The Bad And The Not So Bad by Amir Taheri

By on May 1st, 2022

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18478/french-elections-not-so-bad

At the other end of the spectrum, Macron’s camp branded Le Pen as “extreme-right” or even “fascist”, labels that may suit juvenile student politics but need to be used with care by adults. The millions who voted for Le Pen could not be branded as “fascist”. Many with whom I talked turned out to be responsible citizens in a justified or unjustified angry mood for various reasons. Instead of dismissing them with a label, Macron and the governing elite must identify and try to address the sources of that anger.

Democracy is a substitute for civil war. In it, ballots replace bullets. But they must also replace hurtful words and arrogant gestures.

“Like the remake of a bad movie,” says a voter in Sarcelles, one of Paris’s many “underprivileged” suburbs that, having formed the “red belt” of the French capital for decades, have now shifted to far-right populism.

The second and final round of the French presidential election last Sunday was, indeed, a remake of the contest five years ago when a then little known Emmanuel Macron handily defeated the far-right champion Marine Le Pen on her second bid for supreme power. But whether or not it was a bad remake remains to be seen.

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The Disinformation Governance Machine  It is critical that we stand up to and forthrightly reject the Biden Administration’s unconscionable new assault on freedom.  By Roger Kimball

By on May 1st, 2022

Remember the date: April 27, 2022

That’s when the mask came off the creaky Orwellian juggernaut that is the Biden Administration. 

The senile rictus disappeared and something far more threatening took its place. 

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell called the enforcement mechanism of his totalitarian propaganda regime the “Ministry of Truth.” Appearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee, the ironically named Department of Homeland Security was slightly more subtle. 

Too many people have read Nineteen Eighty-Four. Calling a government-funded effort to suppress criticism of the regime the “Ministry of Truth” would cause people to worry and complain. Instead, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the creation of the “Disinformation Governance Board.” 

No, I am not making that up. 

I sympathize with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said he wondered whether this new assault on free expression was a “belated April Fools’ joke.”

Unfortunately, it’s not.  

Granted, it is as preposterous as an April Fools’ Day prank. So is its director, Nina Jankowicz, a 33-year-old anti-Trump hack, who is described—God help us—as an “internationally recognized expert on disinformation.” You can judge how expert by looking up her truly embarrassing videos on the subject (among many other subjects). 

So what will the Disinformation Governance Board actually do—besides, I mean, provide fodder for standup comics and incredulous commentators? In one sense, it is a little hard to say for sure since its actual duties and extent of its powers have yet to be spelled out.  

But one doesn’t need fine print to know that this new police force will have essentially two jobs.  

One job will be to suppress criticism. Former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is right. This is exactly the sort of thing, she told Fox News, one expects to see in dictatorships, not in free countries. The board, she said, amounts to a “department of propaganda” promulgated by a government that is afraid of its own people. Did someone discover that the president’s son had a laptop full of compromising, and probably criminal, information?  

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The Political Earthquake in New York That Doomed Democrats in 2022 By Rick Moran

By on May 1st, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2022/04/30/the-political-earthquake-in-new-york-that-doomed-democrats-in-2022-n1594043

Last Wednesday, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled that the redistricting map Democrats had so carefully drawn that gave them three additional congressional seats as well as effectively destroying the Republican Party in the state was illegal.

Until that moment, the national Democratic Party had been patting itself on the back for stealing a march on Republicans. When the redistricting process began late in 2021, it was widely assumed that the Republicans, with their legislative control of 26 states and the addition of three seats as a result of the census in red states, would have a distinct advantage in redistricting.

But until recently, Democrats had been more than holding their own, largely because of New York’s map — a masterpiece of gerrymandering.

FiveThirtyEight:

On Wednesday, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the congressional map New York Democrats enacted back in February was a partisan gerrymander that violated the state constitution and tossed it to the curb. The decision was a huge blow to Democrats, who until recently looked like they had gained enough seats nationally in redistricting to almost eliminate the Republican bias in the House of Representatives. But with the invalidation of New York’s map, as well as Florida’s recent passage of a congressional map that heavily favors the GOP,1 the takeaways from the 2021-22 redistricting cycle are no longer so straightforward.

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With Biden Reckless and Congress AWOL, Will the Supreme Court Save ‘Remain in Mexico’? Andrew McCarthy

By on May 1st, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/with-biden-reckless-and-congress-awol-will-the-supreme-court-save-remain-in-mexico/

Don’t count on it.

‘I guess I’m just wondering why that’s our problem.”

Chief Justice John Roberts was asking why the catastrophe at the southern border, which is clearly the nation’s problem, should be the Supreme Court’s problem. The catastrophe results from the hash the political branches have made of things. Since they caused the problem, and they alone have the wherewithal — if not the will — to address it, Roberts was grousing about the problem’s arrival at the doorstep of the judiciary, the branch least equipped to solve it.

But isn’t that always the way it is with a catastrophe? There are many good questions about how we got into this fine mess. What eludes us is how we get out of it.

The occasion for the chief justice’s musings was oral argument this week in Biden v. Texas. In its mulish determination to cancel all Trump policies, for no better reason than that they were Trump policies and regardless of how beneficial they were, the Biden administration has endeavored to undo “Remain in Mexico.”

That is the popular name for what is formally known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols.” These comprise a procedure, worked out after tough negotiations with the Mexican government, whereby aliens seeking to enter the United States without authorization are permitted to remain in Mexico while awaiting their hearings.

The illegal aliens at issue, who are now arriving at our border at a breathtaking, sovereignty-destroying rate of over 200,000 per month (221,000 last month), are overwhelmingly excludable. That is, they should be instantly turned away because they have no legal right to enter and no realistic basis to claim asylum. Nonetheless, our law allows even obviously meritless asylum claims to be made by illegal aliens (whom we’re now supposed to call “migrants” based on the nonsensical progressive trope that “no human being is illegal”). Something, therefore, must be done with the “migrants” while they await hearings on their frivolous claims — and those hearings are taking ever longer to schedule because the numbers arriving are ever more daunting, overwhelming the government’s finite resources — which is why what Roberts euphemistically refers to as a “problem” looks more like an invasion (although it is not referred to as such because our betters abide such leaps of language only for insurrection).

Policy-wise, Remain in Mexico has been a home run. It keeps out people who are not entitled to be in the U.S., thus incentivizing use of legal immigration processes. It discourages people in South and Central America (among other places) from making the dangerous trek to our border, since the risk is not worth bearing if there is no realistic expectation of admission. Consequently, the procedure relieves our government of the prohibitively costly burden of detaining and expelling illegal immigrants, or, worse, of dealing with the significant downsides of discharging an ever more massive illegal-alien population into the United States.

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Nazi Comparisons By Rabbi Michael Barclay

By on May 1st, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/columns/rabbi-michael-barclay/2022/04/30/nazi-comparisons-n1594179

A criminal is wrongfully killed, and “peaceful demonstrations,” which are actually violent riots, break out nationwide. The flag of a radical and violent group is placed next to the national flag on government buildings. Out of fear of being canceled and losing business, individuals and corporations succumb to publicly supporting this violent organization. Mandated behavior is compelled upon threat of arrest by the political elite and leadership. Despite objections from parents, schools begin teaching an alternative “history” and embrace prejudice, anti-Semitism, and sexual permissiveness as part of the school curriculum.

A President overreaches and takes on “emergency powers,” which create an authoritarian regime that demands supportive behavior and calls any criticism “disinformation.” A new agency of the government is created to “fight this disinformation”… an agency that even has access to armed personnel. This new agency is led by a fanatic who is arguably delusional in their own self-perception and fully committed to stopping the dissemination of any information that is not part of the authoritarian narrative. And through it all the media is a willing accomplice, even striking against other media outlets that try to present opposing views.

Sound like a brief recap of the recent past in this country?

The challenge is that this is actually a description of the development of the Nazi regime in Germany almost a century ago.

If this scares you, it should.

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New York Trump grand jury ends not with a bang but a whimper By Thomas Lifson

By on May 1st, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/new_york_trump_grand_jury_ends_not_with_a_bang_but_a_whimper.html

Two successive Manhattan District Attorneys, Cyrus Vance, Jr. and Alvin Bragg, have dug for dirt on Donald Trump, looking for something – anything – on which to indict him. And they have failed.

A six-month grand jury that was convened late last year to hear evidence against Donald Trump was set to expire this week, closing a chapter in a lengthy criminal investigation that appears to be fizzling out without charges against the former president, people familiar with matter said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who took office in January, inherited a probe launched by his predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who was convinced that there was a case against Trump for crimes related to manipulating the value of property assets to secure tax advantages or better loan rates.

The grand jury was convened in November with a mandate to hear evidence against the former president. But the decision on whether to finish the presentation and ask the panel to vote on charges would ultimately fall on Bragg, who decided to pause the process, according to people with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not been declared publicly.

Nobody wants to be publicly associated with this disappointment for Trump-haters.

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Darkest day yet under Biden by Byron York

By on May 1st, 2022

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/darkest-day-yet-under-biden

DARKEST DAY YET UNDER BIDEN. The specter of recession and war settled over Washington on Thursday, on top of inflation that has already cut into the public’s standard of living and increased its worries about the future. It was, in short, a very bad day — one of the most concerning so far in the presidency of Joe Biden.

Many experts professed to be surprised by the news that the economy shrank by an annual rate of 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022. “Gross domestic product unexpectedly declined at a 1.4 percent annualized pace in the first quarter … the worst since the pandemic-induced recession in 2020,” the business network CNBC reported. “The negative growth rate missed even the subdued Dow Jones estimate of a one percent gain for the quarter.”

For his part, in the course of a single sentence, Biden tried to suggest that the drop was the result of “technical factors” while at the same time blaming events around the world — and, most importantly, not himself. “While last quarter’s growth estimate was affected by technical factors,” he said in a statement, “the United States confronts the challenges of Covid-19 around the world, Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and global inflation from a position of strength.”

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Latest Progressive Policy Disaster: Homelessness In San Francisco  Francis Menton

By on May 1st, 2022

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-4-28-another-progressive-policy-disaster-homelessness-in-san-francisco

Three and a half years ago, in November 2018, the good people of San Francisco enacted by a referendum called Proposition C a new special corporate payroll tax which would raise multiple hundred million dollars per year for the specific purpose of finally and once and for all solving the problem of homelessness. During the run-up to that referendum, in October 2018, I had two posts discussing Proposition C, the nature of the progressive thinking behind it, and its prospects for success. On October 26 it was “The Morality Of Our Progressive Elite”; and on October 30 it was “More On The Morality Of Our Progressive Elite.”

Toward the end of that second post, I posed this question: “[What are] the prospects that San Francisco’s new $300 million might actually reduce the population deemed ‘homeless’?” My answer was: “Right around zero.”

In the intervening three plus years, I have from time to time checked back to see how it was going with San Francisco’s great project to end homelessness. But up until now I haven’t been able to find good information. Among other issues, the implementation of the new tax was delayed for two years by litigation. However, the information drought on this subject has now ended. On April 26 the San Francisco Chronicle ran a big feature article on the subject, with the headline “Broken Homes” (behind paywall). On April 28, that article was then reviewed and commented on by Steven Hayward at PowerLine (“California’s Ongoing Suicide Attempt”), and by Erica Sandberg at the City Journal (“San Francisco’s Housing First Nightmare”).

And the answer is: The results are far, far worse than mere failure to reduce the population deemed homeless. Since 2018 San Francisco’s spending on the homeless has soared by approximately a factor of four. But meanwhile the number of people deemed homeless has increased by somewhere between 47% and more than 250% (depending on what data you believe for the number of homeless in SF back in 2017). And, at least if you accept the Chronicle’s current reporting, the conditions under which the homeless live have seriously deteriorated. It is an epic disaster of progressive public policy.

How could everything have gone so terribly wrong?

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