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Ruth King

Biden’s return to the Paris accord is a gift to China

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/bidens-return-to-the-paris-accord-is-a-gift-to-china

President Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris climate accord immediately delivered on a campaign promise, fulfilled a top priority of the Left, and delighted our European allies. But most of all, it was a gift to China.

Federal action to reduce the world growth of carbon emissions, particularly action as ineffective as that embodied in the Paris accord, should not be taken at the expense of U.S. citizens in relation to foreigners. Yet that is exactly what an immediate return to the Paris accord means. It commits the United States to reductions that will entangle American businesses and jobs in new lengths of red tape, and will also probably increase electricity prices.

Supporters of the Paris climate accord underplay or ignore these concerns. But it is a simple fact that renewable energy mandates have driven up household energy bills in states where they have been introduced. Democrats like to boast that they are lifting up struggling families, but this first step in their energy policies does nothing of the kind. Republicans should scrutinize Biden’s energy policies closely.

America has already reduced its carbon emissions significantly since the Paris accord was signed and has outstripped the achievements of its closest allies, which, on carbon emissions, mostly preach but do not practice. No international climate accord can work unless it considers seriously the emissions of the rapidly growing East. The Paris accord does nothing of the sort.

India emits roughly half as much carbon each year as the U.S. but will become a far worse polluter as its economy grows. China, which emits twice as much carbon each year as we do, has given the rest of the world nothing by empty promises and has been allowed to continue emitting greenhouse gases unabated.

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping says China will be carbon neutral by 2060. He is willing to discuss doing more in furtherance of what China calls “win-win” cooperation with the world. Yet there is a great divergence between Xi’s sweet words and what China’s communist-run government is actually doing — that is, bringing online hundreds of new and very dirty coal plants.

The Echo Chamber Era Trust in media is down, but if journalists don’t listen to critics anyway, why should they care? Matt Taibbi

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-echo-chamber-era

“It’s bad that trust in media is down, but even worse that so few in the business seem to think it’s a problem. ”

A day after Joe Biden’s inauguration, the headline in Axios read: “Trust in media hits a new low.” Felix Salmon wrote that “for the first time ever, fewer than half of all Americans have trust in traditional media.” The Edelman survey showed overall faith in the press dropping to 46%.

The traditional explanation for this phenomenon is that Republicans hate the press a lot, but Democrats just a little. The Axios story bore this out somewhat, as only 18% of Republicans reported trusting media, versus 57% of Democrats.

Still, 57% of half your potential audience is nothing to brag about, when you’re in the trust business. Other numbers, like 56% of respondents believing journalists are “purposely trying to mislead people,” or 58% thinking that “most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology… than with informing the public” are more ominous.

Media critics who work in the corporate press, like Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post, seem determined to look everywhere but inward for solutions. The dominant legend in our business is that if Republicans believe in fairy tales like Q and “Stop the Steal,” the traditional press can do nothing but stand its ground.

Sullivan’s reaction to at-times “embarrassing” Inauguration Day coverage was an injunction to reporters to resist the temptation to try to appear more balanced by showing “toughness” with regard to the incoming Biden regime. If anything, Sullivan said, the press should stand even taller in its opposition to red-state lie merchants like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, “without fearing that they’d be called partisan.”

Mitch McConnell’s Lie 75 million Americans are watching all of this. And it is very, very safe to say they will not forget. Jeffrey Lord

https://thejeffreylord.com/mitch-mcconnells-lie/?

So, of course, one of the Establishment’s favorite media outlets put the news front and center. The headline in The Washington Post said this:

McConnell says Trump provoked mob; hearings underway for Biden nominees

The story began this way:

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointedly blamed President Trump on Tuesday for having ‘provoked’ the violent mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.”

To be polite? This Trump-incited-riot business is bunk. Debunked bunk.

Where to start? How about with the timeline of events?

Over there at Conservative Review is this headline:

Timeline reveals Capitol Hill riot began 20 mins before end of Trump’s speech
The timeline shows that the violence at the Capitol building began 20 minutes before Trump finished his speech that Wednesday afternoon.

“The New York Times compiled video footage with timestamps to document nearly every moment of Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol building in Washington D.C.

The timeline shows that the violence at the Capitol building began 20 minutes before Trump finished his speech that Wednesday afternoon.

Roughly 20 minutes before the end of his speech is when scuffles began to break out between protesters and police on Capitol Hill, according to the NYT’s timeline.”

Justin Trudeau:The most immoral, unethical politician in Canadian history: Diane Bederman

https://dianebederman.com/justin-trudeauthe-most-immoral-unethical-politician-in-canadian-history/

Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Elliot and Margaret, is the most arrogant, entitled, corrupt, immoral and unethical politician in the history of Canada. He is a dictator in waiting, turning Canada into a Banana Republic. He makes Fidel Castro, a man he truly admired, and Venezuela’s Madura, look good.

His credentials to be the PM? He is a failed drama teacher. How do I know that he is a failed drama teacher? Because he can barely remember the words fed to him by his ventriloquists Gerald Butts, former top advisor to Justin Trudeau who left government following the Jody Wilson-Raybould scandal and Katie Telford, two more unethical people.

I am listing the various unethical, immoral and who knows, illegal actions, of our Dear Leader in no particular order. I apologize if some have been left out.

First, Trudeau has spent more time in his basement than Joe Biden.

When he comes out he commits treason. He harms Canadians and Canada. How is that vaccine roll out coming along Mr. PM?  What – no vaccine available? Begging the newly inaugurated Mr. Biden are you?

But you reached out to China to work with them on a vaccine. You know, China the country you so admire. Our Dear Leader, the man elected to protect our freedoms and democracy, actually prefers China’s methods. “There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say, ‘We need to go green … we need to start investing in solar.’”

China, the home of the virus. Like Canadians want a vaccine from a country that put melamine in baby powder formula. And  you sent our PPE to China in February 2020. What did you get in return? The #TwoMichaels, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were picked up for nothing except in retaliation for Canada holding Ms.Meng from Huawei at the behest of America?   Who have been in solitary confinement 24/7 with lights on while she sashays around Vancouver, leaving her mansion whenever because she has an ankle bracelet. And then what did you do? By gosh by golly you invited her family from CHINA to come over for Christmas while you sentenced Canadians to their rooms. And then the Meng’s went shopping. And what did you get in return? The two Michaels who were picked up for nothing except in retaliation for Canada holding Ms. Meng and are re in solitary confinement 24/7 with lights on all the time? Oh wait. No.

Guess you never learned from history that appeasement breeds contempt.

“Unity” With The Program Of The Left Is Not An Option  Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-1-23-re2mtojknndidfelg5aio0ugr7pn5a

January 2009, when Barack Obama took office as President, was several years before I began this blog. Of course I realized from the start that I disagreed strongly with nearly every policy that Obama intended to implement. However, I also recognized that Obama had been duly elected President, and was entitled to exercise the powers of the office. Therefore, I would oppose his policy initiatives as best I could within the bounds of the law. In my case that mainly meant collecting evidence and presenting to the world what I think are sensible arguments, in the hopes of swaying some potential voters over to rational positions. Within Obama’s first term, I had the blog up and running.

Well, now it’s Biden. Time to renew the commitment.

In his inaugural address on Wednesday, Biden’s principal theme was the call for what he called “unity”:

To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul, and to secure the future of America, requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: Unity. Unity. . . . Without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of this is our historic moment of crisis and challenge. Unity is the path forward. We must meet this moment as the United States of America.

And then, on the same day, Biden proceeded to execute some 17 Executive Orders to implement various parts of the program of the progressive Left. Much more of same is to come.

There is a fundamental disconnect here. The program of the progressive Left is foundationally inconsistent with the whole idea of “unity” among the people. The progressive program is a program to achieve a vision of perfect fairness and justice and utopia through force and coercion, and those who disagree or stand in the way are to be pushed aside or defeated or crushed. Suppose you disagree with almost all of of this program (like me), or even just some of it. There is no “unity” on offer to you. What is on offer is that you must surrender and accept your defeat.

‘Moving on from President Trump’ is a Failing Strategy for the GOP Laureen Lipsky

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/01/moving_on_from_president_trump_is_a_failing_strategy_for_the_gop.html

From the moment President Trump took office in 2017, the GOP almost instantaneously morphed into a strong political party helmed by a non-politician. Under Trump’s lead, the once weak-spine, dull, and globalist-focused party transitioned into the people’s party.

Although a registered Republican since the age of 18, I was never enthused about any Republican candidate; in fact, I would often stall at the polling booth and ponder if the Democrat candidate would be a better choice—on more than one occasion I ended up voting for the opposite side. 

Trump brought energy to his adoptive party not seen since President Reagan. America First was not only a Presidential campaign slogan but a policy that began to infuse the GOP overall. Aside from a handful of NeverTrumpers such as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ben Sasse (R-NE), and former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, the rest of the Grand Old Party was near lock step in supporting our President as he eased regulations that were choking business growth, decreased our dependence on foreign oil, re-examined our ties to international organizations, and pulled out of never-ending wars where the U.S military was no longer needed in its intended capacity.  

Our country was finally supercharged after Obama’s record of the slowest economic growth in decades. Through all of Trump’s accomplishments, the GOP seemed thrilled to ride on his coattails. And why wouldn’t they? The party was increasing in size by attracting disaffected Democrats, curious independents, and registering new voters. Minorities, whom the old-guard Republican Party never supported, were being enthusiastically welcomed by Trump and the RNC. Organically, a variety of ethnic groups — Vietnamese, Chinese, Iranians, Latinos, Jews, and numerous others had joined up with enthusiasm increasing numbers during Trump’s Presidency.

GOOD NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

From Cochabamba, Bolivia to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and across the globe citizens’ lives are improved by Israel’s amazing research and development of life enhancing technology, medicine, agriculture development and water recycling techniques. These things don’t make headlines or convince bigots, but the impact is epic. Michael Ordman brings us this good news every week. We are in his debt. RSK

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

 

Vaccination progress. 27% of Israelis (2.4 million) have had their first Covid vaccination and rollout to the over-40s has begun.  Numbers of seriously ill over-60s have fallen by a third and the reproduction rate is below one. Finally, Sheba hospital’s Professor Amnon Afek highlights how Israel’s experience can help the world.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israelis-aged-40-start-receiving-vaccines-in-race-to-halt-record-infections/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israels-trailblazing-vaccine-campaign-puts-a-dent-in-infections/

https://www.jns.org/israels-covid-19-r-number-drops-below-one-indicating-infections-may-be-slowing/

https://www.jns.org/opinion/israel-will-lead-the-world-back-to-normalcy/

 

AI monitors progress of Covid patients. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Zebra Medical (reported here previously) has previously adapted its AI imaging analysis platform to detect Covid-19 infection in the lungs. Now it can chart Covid-19 as it progresses in the lungs, to help decide if the patient needs ICU, ventilator, or can be discharged.

https://www.jpost.com/jpost-tech/israeli-ai-tech-aims-to-transform-patient-care-for-the-better-655302

 

Two Covid webinars. (TY Myer & Geoff F) Two Israeli experts explain about the latest coronavirus vaccines and the pandemic. First, Professor Jonatan HaLevy, President of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Second, Professor Manfeld Green, now Head of the National Public Health program at the University of Haifa.

https://vimeo.com/497554299   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6WVYTks9mA

 

Ventilators for California. Israel’s Inovytec (reported here previously) is to provide 1,500 of its advanced portable Ventway Sparrow turbine mobile ventilators to Californian hospitals. The ventilators are lightweight, durable, affordable, low maintenance and enable invasive and non-invasive ventilation for adults and children.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/inovytec-partners-with-california-to-provide-portable-ventilators-amid-covid-19-655306

 

3D-printing to repair spinal cords. Israel’s Matricelf (reported here previously) has extended its 3D-printing platform for tissues and organs to producing spinal cord implants. The patient’s own cells are re-engineered into stem cells and eventually into a spinal tissue implant that isn’t rejected. Human trials are planned to begin 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebox2Id4lnI   https://matricelf.com/solutions/spinal-cord/

 

Monitoring coma patients. Israel’s BrainWatch Tech is developing a device that will continuously check a coma patient’s pupils for their reactions to light stimulus. Over a million patients suffer severe brain injury each year. Reaction to light signifies brain stem activity. No response suggests urgent medication or surgery.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/startup-hopes-to-track-coma-patients-condition-with-goggles-that-monitor-pupils/   https://ehealthventures.com/ehealthportfolio/21/

 

Helping kids grow.  Israel’s Nutritional Growth Solutions (reported here previously) is expanding globally. Independent Medical Co-op (IMCO) will distribute NGS’ Healthy Height product to the US market. NGS is also selling to the Chinese market via Alibaba’s online Tmall; and NGS has just acquired the KidzShake brand.

https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/NGS/02322984.pdf

https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/NGS/02323593.pdf

https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/NGS/02328855.pdf  https://kidzshake.com/

 

Benefits of a Green MED diet. An 18-month study by researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University found that a Green Mediterranean (MED) diet reduced hepatic fat by 39%. This compared to 20% for the traditional MED diet and 12% for a regular healthy diet. The diet can prevent fatty liver disease, diabetes and heart disease.

https://www.jns.org/study-green-mediterranean-diet-lessens-liver-fat-cuts-non-alcoholic-liver-disease-by-half/

https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/early/2021/01/04/gutjnl-2020-323106.full.pdf

 

“This Is a Warning to Christians in All Parts of the World”: The Persecution of Christians, by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16985/persecution-of-christians-december

Muslim fighters tortured a 58-year-old Christian woman of Armenian descent by hacking off her ears, hands, and feet before finally executing her. — Medium.com, January 14, 2021, Artsakh.

As to why she was mutilated before being killed, jihadis often cite the Koran’s calls to cut off the hands, feet, and throats of infidels (e.g., Koran 5:33, 47:4). — Artsakh.

One of the survivors… managed to escape his home in time and hide in the outside bathroom: “through the ventilator of the latrine he saw the rebels killing 4 members of his family including his wife and 3 children.” — Virtueonline.org, December 3, 2020, Democratic Republic of Congo.

“My husband began reading verses in the Koran that allowed men to beat their wives if they disobey them, and after that he started beating me….” — Morning Star News, December 17, 2020, Uganda.

The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of December, 2020:

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: In a video that appeared on Dec. 29, Islamic terrorists executed five Christians. The footage shows five armed members of the Islamic State (West African province) standing behind five men dressed in orange suits, and on their knees with their arms tied behind their backs. The terrorists order each of the men to say their names and the hostages oblige, each adding, “I am a Christian.” One of the terrorists then says “This is a warning to Christians in all parts of the world and those in Nigeria…. Use the heads of these five of your brethren to continue with your ungodly celebrations,” a reference to Christmas. The five Muslims then open fire into the back of the Christians’ heads and kill them.

A few days earlier, on Christmas Eve, and into the early morning of Christmas Day, Muslim raiders terrorized a Christian village, where they slaughtered between seven and 11 people, including a 5-year-old, and kidnapped 11 more (it is believed that the five Christians who were executed on video were from among these 11). Riding on trucks and motorcycles, the jihadis opened fire indiscriminately, torched 10 homes and one church, and plundered the food supplies meant to be distributed on Christmas Day. Although traumatized, some Christians remained defiant. A text by Markus Bulus, a local, on Christmas Day states:

“Whatever Boko Haram planned against us has failed. Whatever it is, we shall still celebrate Christmas. Jesus, we’re so grateful this day even with the bad experience we had last night. We have nothing to offer as our thanksgiving, but we offer our hearts in deep supplication to your majesty on this Christmas Day.”

Elsewhere throughout month of December, Muslim Fulani herdsmen “killed 33 Christians, destroyed 18 homes and displaced more than 2,500 people.”

Turkey: Elderly Christian Man Still Missing Year Later by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16973/turkey-christians-abducted

“About 20 people who knew us wanted to help us with the searches, but the gendarmerie prevented them from coming…. and civilians were not allowed to help. If the permission required had been given, we would have found my mother right away….” — Father Remzi Diril, a priest of the Istanbul Chaldean Church and one of the couple’s sons, after his mother’s body was found bullet wounds in the head and back; interview with Milliyet, January 11, 2021.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Assyrians in southeast Turkey “suffered forced evictions, mass displacement and the burning down of their homes and villages.” They were exposed to severe persecution “including abductions (including of priests), forced conversions to Islam through rape and forced marriage, and murders. These pressures, and other more insidious forms of discrimination, have decimated the community.” — Minority Rights Group International, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, Assyrians, updated June 2018.

Today, EU candidate and NATO member Turkey is still not willing or able to provide security and basic human rights for this persecuted minority.

One year after the abduction and disappearance of an elderly Christian couple in southeast Turkey, their children are still asking the Turkish authorities for help in locating their missing father and holding the perpetrators accountable.

Hurmuz Diril (72) and Şimuni Diril (65) are Assyrian Christians who lived in the village of Mehr/Kovankaya in Şırnak Province before their disappearance on January 11, 2020. Two months later, on March 20, Şimuni Diril was found dead by her children in a nearby river. There has since been no news concerning the whereabouts of Hurmuz Diril.

Tehran’s Presidential Show: A Game of Exclusions by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16984/iran-presidential-show

The aim, here, is exclusion rather than qualifications.

One fake university with an address in the island of Saba, in the Caribbean, has sold over 500 doctorates to Iranian officials for $25,000 apiece.

To complicate matters further, the conditions demand other qualifications that are hard if not impossible to measure…. For example, how do you prove “heartfelt belief in the necessity of religion” or “transparent hostility to the West” or “opposition to all seditions that have taken place against the Islamic Revolution”?

Things become more complicated when would-be candidates are asked to prove loyalty not only to the regime and all its policies but also to be committed to preserving all the existing institutions of the Islamic Republic. This means that those who dream of reforming let alone disbanding the High Council of Guardians of the Constitution or merging the Revolutionary Guard with the national army need not apply.

Perhaps to divert attention from here and now problems, such as the ravages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, economic meltdown, hyperinflation and rampant corruption, Tehran’s ruling elite have decided to give an early start to a presidential election expected to be held in June.