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Ruth King

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Prison for Hong Kong Democrats Nine are sentenced, including Martin Lee and Jimmy Lai.

By on April 19th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/prison-for-hong-kong-democrats-11618612068?mod=opinion_major_pos2

A Hong Kong court confirmed this week what everyone has known for months: If you publicly challenge Beijing, you will be sent to prison. On Friday nine people charged with organizing or joining an unauthorized protest received prison sentences ranging from eight to 18 months. Four of them, including 82-year-old Martin Lee, founder of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, received suspended sentences.

The most prominent “convict” is Jimmy Lai, owner, publisher and writer for Apple Daily, which is frequently critical of China. Mr. Lai also has a following overseas, which especially rankles Communist Party leaders. Two months ago Beiing’s point man for Hong Kong affairs, Xia Baolong, gave a speech mentioning Mr. Lai by name, accusing him of “extremely notorious acts” and making clear that, in Beijing’s view, he needed “to be punished severely in accordance with the law.” It’s no surprise that the judge in the case obliged by giving Mr. Lai a long sentence of 12 months.

Most of the charges against those on trial related to an Aug. 18, 2019 peaceful, pro-democracy march that drew as many as 1.7 million Hong Kong people. The punishment is part of Beijing’s campaign to crush Hong Kong’s democracy movement. As Mr. Xia put it, “only patriots” must govern Hong Kong—i.e., only those who are willing to do Beijing’s bidding.

Mr. Lai’s trials aren’t over. Denied bail, he faces other charges related to the unpopular National Security Law that China demanded Hong Kong implement last year. On Friday the government added new security charges that could mean a life sentence for the 72-year-old publisher.

In his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February, President Biden raised China’s crackdown on Hong Kong as one of many areas where the U.S. takes issue with Chinese behavior. But the truth is that China has paid little international price for breaking its treaty with Britain that guaranteed autonomy for Hong Kong through 2047.

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The Castros Still Run Cuba Raúl’s resignation as head of the ruling Communist Party changes nothing.By Marcell Felipe

By on April 19th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-castros-still-run-cuba-11618783289?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

Raúl Castro announced his resignation as chief of Cuba’s Communist Party on Friday. Many U.S. media outlets characterized the move as the “end of an era” of communist rule on the Caribbean island. This is false. For many years Cuba has not really operated as a communist or socialist state. Instead it has been ruled by a military dictatorship that concentrates its power within a cartel-like chain of command of hard-line Castro family members and loyalists and generals who fiercely shield their wealth and status—as well as each other.

Many analysts are focused on whether Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel will inherit Mr. Castro’s leadership position as party secretary, which—on paper, at least—is the highest office in the land. This is a distraction, as is Mr. Díaz-Canel, who was installed by Mr. Castro in 2018 as part of a faux transition of power. In Cuba, the Castro family leads with an iron fist, and the party and government follow suit. Even the Communist Party’s online motto, #SomosContinuidad—“we are continuity”—implies the regime is determined not to change.

The key figure of Cuba’s silent elite is Gen. Luis López Callejas, Mr. Castro’s former son-in-law and the father of his grandchildren. Mr. López Callejas leads Gaesa, a military-run conglomerate that controls about 75% of the Cuban economy, including hotels, construction companies, shipping companies, hard-currency transmitters and currency exchanges. In 2018, a former State Department official told a Senate subcommittee that Cuban military personnel under Mr. López Callejas’s command were “directly involved” in trafficking cocaine from Venezuela.

Another key figure is Mr. Castro’s son, Col. Alejandro Castro Espín, a powerful member of the Cuban intelligence apparatus. He maintains a close relationship with the Kremlin and was directing Cuba’s spy agencies at the time of the 2019 sonic attacks against U.S. and Canadian diplomats in Cuba, which are still unexplained.

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The Fate of Alexei Navalny The Putin critic may be close to death in a Russian prison.

By on April 19th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fate-of-alexei-navalny-11618780971?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

The contest between freedom and dictatorship continues on many fronts, and the most stirring is the courage of individuals risking their lives by resisting oppression. Jimmy Lai and other Hong Kong democrats have been jailed at China’s insistence, while the Kremlin is slowly squeezing the life out of Alexei Navalny in prison.

The 44-year-old critic of Vladimir Putin has been languishing in Russia’s notorious IK-2 prison since March 11 on trumped up charges of violating his parole on a previous phony charge. He dared to recover in Germany after nearly dying after he was poisoned by government agents. But he bravely returned to Russia, where he was arrested and imprisoned.

Mr. Navalny has been on a hunger strike after being denied treatment for other ailments. “Alexey is dying now. Given his condition, it’s a matter of days,” Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Facebook.

The White House warned Sunday that there would be “consequences” if Mr. Navalny dies, and President Biden said Saturday that his treatment is “totally, totally unfair.” But Mr. Biden sent Mr. Putin mixed signals last week by inviting the autocrat he has called a “killer” for a leader-to-leader summit even as Mr. Navalny’s health was weakening in prison.

The free world—if we can still use that locution in the Age of Woke—needs to find its voice again on behalf of courageous dissenters like Alexei Navalny and Jimmy Lai. They should become global household names, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov were during the Cold War. And let’s hope the White House is serious about “consequences.”

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Remembering The Patriot With The Most Thorough Understanding Of Liberty Gary M. Galles

By on April 19th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/04/19/remembering-the-patriot-with-the-most-thorough-understanding-of-liberty/

Today is patriot’s day, marking the Revolutionary War’s opening shots at Lexington and Concord. An excellent way to commemorate it is by remembering Samuel Adams, who Murray Rothbard called “the premier leader of the revolutionary movement,” as far more than a name on a beer bottle.

Adams helped organize the Committees of Correspondence, authored “The Rights of Colonists,” founded The Sons of Liberty, and was the principal organizer of the Boston Tea Party. The British government wanted him for treason a year before the Declaration of Independence. He inspired the battle cry “no taxation without representation,” signed the Declaration of Independence and was a representative to both Continental Congresses. Even Paul Revere’s famous ride was to warn Adams. 

Samuel Adams’ most important contribution to America’s cause, however, was that, in his cousin John Adams’ words, he had “the most thorough understanding of liberty,” which was the central spark in America’s creation. The threats liberty faces today, including a host of government actions that treat the trampling of liberty as non-issues, make recalling his ideas particularly important. 

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them.

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A Left Turn Toward Biased Ignorance

By on April 19th, 2021

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/04/19/a-left-turn-toward-biased-ignorance/

With the extreme left culturally ascendant, many of our most treasured and valuable national institutions having become houses of progressive Groupthink. Our nation’s founding principles, basic morality, values and even science have come under sustained hostile ideological assault by both the media and academia. Bias and ignorance have been institutionalized. Sadly, according to a new report, voters bear much of the blame for this.

No question, America is a mess. But how did it get that way? The simple answer, the poll of voters suggests, is ignorance, along with pervasive media and political bias.

The study is based on a survey of voters taken shortly after the 2020 presidential election by Just Facts, which describes itself as “a non-profit institute dedicated to publishing comprehensive, straightforward, and rigorously documented facts about public policy issues.”

The group’s most recent study is eye-opening.

It shows, Just Facts says, “that the vast bulk of voters have embraced false and harmful dogmas that accord with their political views.” This, it adds, is largely due to what’s called confirmation bias, “the human tendency to reflexively accept anything that accords with one’s preexisting beliefs and ignore or twist everything that defies them.”

It’s true that both sides of the political debates have their biases.

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Breonna Taylor’s mother blasts Black Lives Matter movement Gustaf Kilander

By on April 19th, 2021

https://news.yahoo.com/breonna-taylor-mother-blasts-black-155635973.html

Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, blasted the Black Lives Matter movement in Louisville, Kentucky in a since-removed Facebook post.

“I have never personally dealt with BLM Louisville and personally have found them to be fraud [sic],” Ms Palmer wrote on Wednesday. A screenshot of the post was later published by a local media show.

She called Kentucky statehouse representative Attica Scott “another fraud”.

Ms Palmer gave credit to family, friends and local activists for supporting her family after the death of her daughter. Ms Taylor, who was 26, died following a police shooting in her home during the execution of a no-knock warrant.

Ms Scott has pushed for a ban on no-knock warrants since Ms Taylor’s death.

Ms Palmer said local activist Christopher 2x and other supporters had “never needed recognition”.

“I could walk in a room full of people who claim to be here for Breonna’s family who don’t even know who I am,” she added.

She criticised people who have raised money for Ms Taylor’s family without knowing them, writing: “I’ve watched y’all raise money on behalf of Breonna’s family who has never done a damn thing for us nor have we needed it or asked so Talk about fraud.

“It’s amazing how many people have lost focus Smdh. I’m a say this before I go I’m so sick of some of y’all and I was last anybody who needs it I’m with this enough is enough!!”

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Enough Destruction and Deception Black America survived all of the deprivations of the pre-Civil War period. They survived Jim Crow. They survived the KKK. Now, they are engaged in self-destruction. (June 2020)

By on April 19th, 2021

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/71552-enough-destruction-and-deception-2020-06-19

By Dr. R.M. “Zeb” Zobenica, Capt. USMC (Ret.)

I am an old man tired of being lied about. I’m tired of watching people destroy the country that I love and that my parents and my immigrant grandparents loved. I’m tired of being told that I’m a racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, greedy, deplorable, irredeemable, gun-toting, Bible-clutching rube whose life-long achievements are due to “white privilege,” not to individual effort, a lifetime of study and learning, sacrifice, sound financial management, risk taking, sleepless nights, or concerns about employee well-being. I’m tired of media types and academics who opine that destroying our businesses is justified in the name of “social justice.”

Now, who am I? What’s my background? Why do I care? Why should you continue to read on?

I’m the grandson of immigrant Serbs who grew up in a hard scrabble mining town carved out of the forests of northern Minnesota and populated with people from over 30 nationalities.

Diversity was a fact of life, not social theory. The housing was barely functional. There were outhouses. Rural areas had no indoor plumbing. Central heat was uncommon. Yet, my grandfather loved his new nation. He was a poor miner, a subsistence farmer, and didn’t have “a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of,” but he and his family were free. Back in the old country, in August 1941, my great-grandparents and their entire extended families were exterminated by the Ustashe who had come to power in the newly declared Independent State of Croatia. However, on the Mesabi Iron Range, Serbians and Croatians lived side by side in harmony. They sent their sons off to World War II under the Stars and Stripes. They mourned their losses together at Catholic and Eastern Orthodox funerals. Old country massacres, old country injustices, and old country madness were to be left behind. The old country perpetrators may have escaped earthly justice, but they would have to face eternal judgement by the Creator.

It is against that background that kids of my generation grew up on the immigrant-laden Iron Range. A high value was placed on education and the schools were excellent.

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Critical Race Theory: What It Is and How to Fight It Christopher F. Rufo

By on April 19th, 2021

http://hillsdalecollegian.com/2021/04/rufo-exposes-critical-race-theory-in-lecture/
Christopher F. Rufo is founder and director of Battlefront, a public policy research center. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and a former Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. As executive director at the Documentary Foundation, he has directed four films for PBS, including most recently America Lost, which explores life in Youngstown, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, and Stockton, California. He is also a contributing editor of City Journal, where he covers topics including critical race theory, homelessness, addiction, and crime.

The following is adapted from a lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on March 30, 2021.  Critical race theory is fast becoming America’s new institutional orthodoxy. Yet most Americans have never heard of it—and of those who have, many don’t understand it. It’s time for this to change. We need to know what it is so we can know how to fight it.

In explaining critical race theory, it helps to begin with a brief history of Marxism. Originally, the Marxist Left built its political program on the theory of class conflict. Marx believed that the primary characteristic of industrial societies was the imbalance of power between capitalists and workers. The solution to that imbalance, according to Marx, was revolution: the workers would eventually gain consciousness of their plight, seize the means of production, overthrow the capitalist class, and usher in a new socialist society.

During the 20th century, a number of regimes underwent Marxist-style revolutions, and each ended in disaster. Socialist governments in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Cuba, and elsewhere racked up a body count of nearly 100 million of their own people. They are remembered for their gulags, show trials, executions, and mass starvations. In practice, Marx’s ideas unleashed man’s darkest brutalities.

By the mid-1960s, Marxist intellectuals in the West had begun to acknowledge these failures. They recoiled at revelations of Soviet atrocities and came to realize that workers’ revolutions would never occur in Western Europe or the United States, where there were large middle classes and rapidly improving standards of living. Americans in particular had never developed a sense of class consciousness or class division. Most Americans believed in the American dream—the idea that they could transcend their origins through education, hard work, and good citizenship.

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on April 18th, 2021

On May 12th,1948 President Harry Truman assembled his advisers at the White House to decide whether to recognize the state of Israel. Clark Clifford made the case for recognition. Secretary of State George Marshall led the opposition, Both were highly trusted officials. Truman weighed personal, political and strategic concerns. On May 14th he acted. America recognized the new state of Israel.

On May 14th Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion read the proclamation of nationhood. Striking the speaker’s table for emphasis, he announced, “The name of our state shall be Israel.” It was a gift to those Christians and Jews who worked and lobbied for Zionism.

In the decades since Israel keeps returning the gift in the immeasurable ways that the nation contributes to the well being, and hope, and technology and science that ameliorate suffering throughout the world.

Thank you Michael Ordman for your weekly dispatches. God Bless America and Israel. Happy birthday and L’chaim! rsk

On May 12th,1948 President Harry Truman assembled his advisers at the White House to decide whether to recognize the state of Israel. Clark Clifford made the case for recognition. Secretary of State George Marshall led the opposition, Both were highly trusted officials. Truman weighed personal, political and strategic concerns. On May 14th he acted. America recognized the new state of Israel.

On May 14th Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion read the proclamation of nationhood. Striking the speaker’s table for emphasis, he announced, “The name of our state shall be Israel.” It was a gift to those Christians and Jews who worked and lobbied for Zionism.

In the decades since Israel keeps returning the gift in the immeasurable ways that the nation contributes to the well being, and hope, and technology and science that ameliorate suffering throughout the world.

Thank you Michael Ordman for your weekly dispatches. God Bless America and Israel. Happy birthday and L’chaim!   rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Vaccine even protects the unvaccinated. Unvaccinated children of Covid-19 vaccinated parents are far less likely to contract the virus. Researchers at Israel’s Technion and health company Maccabi used data from 223 Israeli communities to show each 20% increase in parental vaccination halves the incidence of child infection.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hope-for-herd-immunity-vaccines-shown-to-protect-israelis-who-dont-get-them/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.26.21254394v2
 
How to control aging. Ben Gurion University scientist Dr Debra Toiber and her team have identified several genes involved in the aging process. Whereas SIRT6 helps repair DNA to promote healthy aging, other genes cause damage. Longevity can be extended, and damage reversed with targeted gene therapy and interventions.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/genes_aging.aspx  https://www.aging-us.com/article/202755
 
The hunger switch. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with UK colleagues, have found that melanocortin 4 (MC4) receptor is the master switch for hunger in the brain. It is normally “on” (“I feel full”) until energy levels drop. Its discovery can help develop anti-obesity medications.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/304339
 
Brain cancer treatment breakthrough. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered a potential treatment for the aggressive brain cancer Glioblastoma. Over-secretion of the protein P-Selectin (SELP) boosts tumor growth. Inhibiting SELP slowed growth and stopped cancer cells migrating to the brain.
https://www.israel21c.org/cure-for-deadly-brain-cancer-may-be-on-its-way/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaWYYwbayUI
 
The impact of the microbiome on cancer. Israel’s MyBiotics (see here previously) is to partner Hadasit – the technology transfer arm of Hadassah Medical Center, to identify gut microbiome-based cancer therapies. They will study up to 100 melanoma patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/mybiotics-hadassah-to-study-impact-of-microbiome-on-cancer-therapies/
 
Breakthrough cancer treatment device. Israel’s IceCure already has US FDA approval for its cryogenic (freezing) treatment of cancer (reported here previously). The latest FDA Breakthrough Device designation, however, will speed up procedures regarding permits for IceCure’s Prosense device to treat cancer patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/icecure-shares-up-as-tumor-freezing-tech-gets-fda-breakthrough-device-nod/
 
Home telemedicine system approved. Israel’s MyHomeDoc has received US FDA approval to add to its EU and Israeli certifications. The device has 4 embedded sensors to analyze and report lung, heart, and bowel sounds, otoscopy for the ear, oximeter for pulse rate and saturation, thermometer, throat and skin camera test.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3903190,00.html  https://www.my-homedoc.com/
 
Speech therapy for special needs. Israel’s Ampliospeech has developed a digital intervention platform for special education students. Originally addressing dyslexics, Amplio uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to improve the speech-language capabilities of all children with special needs.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3903092,00.html  https://www.ampliospeech.com/
 
Heart surgery for Iraqi baby. Volunteers at the Shevet Achim aid organization brought baby Hena from the minority Yazidis of Iraq, for life-saving heart treatment at Israel’s Sheba hospital. From a refugee camp in Iraq, Hena’s father said, “We are grateful to the State of Israel for helping us in these difficult circumstances.”
https://unitedwithisrael.org/yazidi-baby-from-iraq-brought-to-israel-for-life-saving-surgery/
 
Muslims and Jews save disabled woman. When a disabled woman suffered a heart attack at a care facility, three EMTs from United Hatzalah’s Mevaseret region worked together to save her life. They included Murad Barhom – a Muslim Arab who has had a home in the Jewish Kibbutz of Kiryat Anavim for nearly 40 years.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/299728
 
World’s kindest kidney donors. (TY UWI) Israeli charity Matnat Chaim (Gift of Life) has facilitated 1,003 live kidney transplants since 2009 from altruistic donors – people who are not related to their recipients. Israel has the highest per capita rate of people donating kidneys to strangers. (See also here for previous news.)
https://www.israel21c.org/israel-tops-world-in-kidney-donations-to-strangers/

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Psaki: Biden ‘Proud to Have’ UN Ambassador Who Called U.S. Founding Principles Racist “He is proud to have her in that position. She is not only qualified, but he believes she is exactly the right person in that role at this moment in time.”by Mary Chastain

By on April 18th, 2021

https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/04/pskai-biden-proud-to-have-un-ambassador-who-called-u-s-founding-principles-racist/

UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield insisted that America has to acknowledge its own human rights failure before it rejoins the UN Human Rights Council. She claimed she has seen “how the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles.”

A journalist asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the comments, but I wish she had asked the second question first.

She first asked if Biden would remove Thomas-Greenfield, especially since she basically said what China said about the U.S.

Great way to imply the journalist is racist, Psaki:

Is the president going to remove an African-American woman with decades of experience in the foreign service who’s widely respected around the world from her position as ambassador to the UN? He is not. He is proud to have her in that position. She is not only qualified, but he believes she is exactly the right person in that role at this moment in time.

I have not seen her comments. I will say that there’s no question there has been a history of institutional racism in this country and that doesn’t require the UN ambassador to confirm that.

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