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Ruth King

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Half a million incorrect absentee ballot applications sent across Virginia, including to dead people “Approximately half a million applications sent to eligible voters in Virginia included incorrect information, and we are working diligently to address the issues,” says the Center for Voter Information.By Nicholas Ballasy

By on August 9th, 2020

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/virginia-absentee-ballot-applications-sent-dead-people-and-wrong

A non-profit group says more than a half-million inaccurate applications for absentee ballots were mistakenly sent across Virginia this week — including to dead voters, errant relatives and even a pet — in an unprecedented mailing flub that has heightened concerns about the integrity of expanding mail-in voting efforts.  

The mistakes raised alarms with recipients as diverse as election monitors, members of the League of Women Voters and a retired FBI agent. The Center for Voter Information, the nonprofit group that sent the mailers with pre-filled absentee ballots, is now apologizing.  

The Center for Voter Information said the absentee application mailings were sent to “eligible voters” in the state and “some of the mailers may have directed the return envelopes” for the absentee applications to the wrong election offices.

The counties impacted by inaccurate mailings included Fairfax City, Fairfax County, Franklin City, Franklin County, Richmond City, Richmond County, Roanoke City and Roanoke County. 

“Approximately half a million applications sent to eligible voters in Virginia included incorrect information, and we are working diligently to address the issues. Mistakes in our programming are very rare, but we take them seriously, and our methods overall are extraordinarily effective,” the center said in a statement.

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EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Invention of ‘Systemic Racism’ By Philip Carl Salzman

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2020/08/06/the-invention-of-systemic-racism/

It is now the official view in government, industry, and education that African Americans and certain other “people of color” perform poorly in schools and the workforce, but nonetheless must be treated as if they perform well. The statistically weak performance of African Americans, according to the official view, is not their fault; it is the fault of other people. Namely, as we have been told ad infinitum, it is the fault of American slavery. No less than the “newspaper of record,” The New York Times, has in its “The 1619 Project” advanced the thesis that slavery and only slavery is the foundation of America, and, as America’s “original sin,” has shaped and corrupted America through racism ever since. The alleged facts supporting the historical claims of The 1619 Project have been proven to be false by historians, and the lead author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, now admits that the Project is not history, but an attempt to change “the national narrative.”

Certainly slavery, while common around the world throughout most of history, is an evil institution. It has also not existed in the United States for one hundred and fifty years. No living African American has ever been a slave, nor were their parents; no living American has ever owned slaves, nor did their parents. Furthermore, millions upon millions of Americans descend from ancestors who immigrated to America long after slavery was abolished. Slavery is invoked because it has moral weight, which it should have, but it in no way explains the poor performance of African Americans a century and a half later.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

When Memory Becomes a Prison of Nations by Amir Taheri

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16328/algeria-france-history

Keeping alive the narrative of victimhood, successive Algerian leaders have tried to divert attention from their own shortcomings, not to say misdeeds.

Covering the 1990s troubles in Algeria, I was often told by Algerian politicians of all colors that all of their country’s troubles, including terrorism in the name of religion and police brutality, were due to French colonial rule. After a while… I suggested to Algerian interlocutors to fix a certain date up to which everything was the fault of the French but after that regard Algerians as responsible for their own troubles.

Should the writing of history be treated as a governmental project? French President Emmanuel Macron and his Algerian counterpart Abdul-Majid Tebboune seem to think so. They have ordered the creation of a joint commission to write the history of relations between the two countries since the French annexed that strand of North Africa in 1832.

Macron and Tebboune are not the first rulers to seek an officially vetted and approved narrative of our human story. However, their case is unique because other rulers just wanted to tell their side of the story while Macron and Tebboune demand a two-voices, presumably parallel, narrative.

There is one more difference between the old official histories and what we are likely to see this time. Old official histories were often presented with the modesty they merited as chronologies. And because they carried a heavy load of hagiography, they never pretended to be scientific. Macron and Tebboune, of course are not looking for props to build a cult of personality with. However, they may be seeking something even less dignified: the presentation of history in the colors of current, and necessarily transient, fads of political correctness.

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The Reverse-Colonization of France by Guy Millière

By on August 9th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16327/france-colonization

Asking the police not to give the name of killers is an attempt to hide the truth and prevent the public from knowing exactly who in France is committing these acts. Hiding the name shows a desire to appease the killers: when a killer has a Christian name, it is immediately printed on the front page.

“We only love what hates us, anything that destroys us is seen as great. There is a desire to destroy truth, history… We no longer teach the history of France and we no longer say what our civilization has accomplished. We only talk about our civilization to disparage it.” — Michel Onfray, Le Salon Beige, July 30, 2020 and YouTube, July 17, 2020.

“France is undergoing reverse colonization. Populations coming mainly from countries formerly colonized by France have settled in France without any intention of integrating. Most of them live in neighborhoods where the laws of Islam now reign and where imams spread hatred of France…. And in a gesture of submission, the French authorities say that hatred does not emanate from those who kill, but from those who want to react and say that we must put an end to assaults and murders. It is a suicidal attitude.” — Éric Zemmour, YouTube, November 22, 2016.

Lyon, the third largest city in France, July 20, 3 a.m. A middle-class neighborhood. A young woman walks her dog on a quiet street. A car arrives at high speed and crushes her dog. The driver stops, backs up, runs over the young woman and crushes her too. He goes forward again, at full speed, and drags her dead body half a mile. People awakened by the noise write down the license number of the car. The police officers who come to the scene are horrified. The young woman’s body was dismembered. A leg was found on one side of the street; the rest of her body was shredded. One arm was close to the body of her dog. The other was still holding onto the dog’s leash. Her name was Axelle Dorier. She was a nurse, only 23.

The French Department of Justice asked the police not to release the name of the killer. An anonymous policeman released it anyway on a social network site. The killer’s name is Youssef T. He was driving under the influence, without a license. The prosecutor charged him with “reckless murder”. He is in jail awaiting trial. He risks a maximum sentence of ten years. Residents of Lyon wanted to organize a peaceful march to pay tribute to the young nurse. They asked the government to get tough on crime. The young woman’s parents objected: they said they have “have no hatred” for the killer.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on August 9th, 2020

http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Aviptadil saves Covid-19 patients. As reported here previously, Aviptadil from Israel’s NeuroRx, is undergoing Phase 2/3 trials in Israel and the US. The adapted treatment, now known as RLF-100, prevents Covid-19 replication and has already significantly improved the health of 15 emergency cases in the US.
https://www.neurorxpharma.com/press-releases/rlf-100-aviptadil-clinical-trial-showed-rapid-recovery-from-respiratory-failure-and-inhibition-of-coronavirus-replication-in-human-lung-cells/
 
Latest progress at the HUJ against Covid-19. This video shows up-to-date information on the research work being conducted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem into testing and treatments for Covid-19.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woUrXXT1Jys
 
50 Technion labs battle against Covid-19. This video shows Technion scientists working on innovations to improve Covid-19 testing, screen for contagion, fast track vaccines, nano ghost decoys, liquid foam therapy for ARDS, self-cleaning mask, antiviral sticker, ventilator hood, air-filter mask, disinfectant, Corobot and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Puc6QNrB4
 
October start for human trials of Israeli Covid-19 vaccine. Israel’s Minister of Defense Benny Gantz has announced that the Israel Institute of Biological Research will begin human trials of its Covid-19 vaccine in October. Phase 1 clinical trials for safety and efficacy will begin after the Jewish holidays that end on Oct 9th.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-to-begin-covid-19-vaccine-human-trials-1001338518
 
Corona patient leaves hospital after 99 days. 74-year old Marina Chivatova was discharged from Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center after having spent no less than 99 days in the hospital’s Corona Unit.  It could be the world’s longest stay for a hospitalized Covid-19 patient and shows that Israel never gives up.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/284832
 
Matching therapy to tumor behavior. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute and at MIT and Harvard can identify the most suitable cancer therapy from the signals detected in the tumor itself. They analyze the pathway of the tumor using PathOlogist – an advanced bioinformatics tool developed by Bar-Ilan professor Sol Efroni.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/new-approach-tailoring-cancer-therapy-tapping-signaling-activities-cancer-cells  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17090-y
 
Nano antioxidant for CJD patients. (TY UWI & I24 News) More on the nano-engineered pomegranate oil antioxidant produced by scientists at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital. It is now being targeted at sufferers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) – common in specific Jewish groups.  The latest findings give hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY0jvY_AI20
 
Israeli neurosurgeons save Muslim boy’s life.  (TY JNS) A bullet from Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha celebrations hit a 9-year-old Arab boy in the head. At Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, Israeli neurosurgeons removed the bullet from deep inside the boy’s brain. Two days after the surgery, the boy was eating, talking and moving his limbs.
https://www.israel21c.org/surgeons-safely-remove-mystery-bullet-from-boys-brain/
 
Prospective treatment for children with autism. In her lab, Professor Illana Gozes of Tel Aviv University (reported here previously) repaired live but damaged brain cells taken from deceased Alzheimer’s patients and an autistic child. It showed that her experimental NAP peptide could be used to treat both conditions.
https://neurosciencenews.com/alzheimers-drug-autism-16714/  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32661233/
 
The science of sleep. Another excellent medical webinar from Techion UK. Sleep And Dreams featured Professor Peretz Lavie, former President of Israel’s Technion Institute. He explained some of the mysteries about sleep and dreams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqhgu6ehgII&t=388
 
Competition for remote Femtech. 15 startups are pitching their telemedicine for women to a panel at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. The Israeli startups include PulseNmore, Gyntools, MobileODT, HeraMed (HeraBeat), Nuvo (INVU), EfA (RevDX), MyMilk,and IsenseU (Milk-O-Meter).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tech-taking-ob-gyn-care-to-the-home-in-boost-of-telemedicine-for-women/
https://www.gyntools.com/   https://isense-u.com/
 
Israeli animal therapy reported in UK Guardian. (TY Eric F) A rare (mostly) positive article in the normally anti-Israel Guardian.  This emphasizes the importance of continually sending positive Israel articles to the Mainstream Media (MSM).  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/21/cats-camels-and-a-jesus-lizard-the-rise-of-animal-assisted-therapy

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

 Joe Biden’s & Other Rice Selections…Redux                                                                                                                        by Gerald A. Honigman

By on August 8th, 2020

http://q4j-middle-east.com/

 Months ago, I was having a discussion with friends about favorite rice dishes. I usually prefer wild varieties.

A bit later, the story surfaced about the horrendous travesty of justice that General Michael Flynn, a much decorated career army officer and President Trump’s former National Security Adviser, was subjected to via the machinations of the previous Obama Administration–whose real target was/is President Trump himself. So this got me thinking about various “rice species” even more fervently again. 

The clincher prompting what follows below came at the end of the first week of August 2020. Breaking news said that President Trump’s opponent in the upcoming American election, former Obama VP Joe Biden, narrowed had his choice for a vice-presidential running mate down quite substantially.

Dr. Susan Rice–like Biden, another former pea in President Obama’s like-minded, carefully chosen pod–had made the final cut.

Given the above, let’s focus on certain “rice species” in particular…

The first is preferred by Republicans–that would be the Condoleezza variety—the one which/who shares many of her fellow Republican petro-business-related buddies’ interests in the Middle East. Think the likes of James (“F-the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway”) Baker III, the Bush family, John Sununu, and numerous others who made mucho dinero off of assorted autocratic Arab petro-potentates’ black gold. James Baker’s law firm, for example, was chosen by the Saudis to represent them against American 9/11 victims, and his law partner was the American ambassador to that desert kingdom.

Let’s turn the clock back to learn more about this bright, attractive, but somewhat troublesome rice variety–at least for those folks hoping that Israel would get a fair shake in Washington.

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Mail-in voting could accidentally disenfranchise millions of voters Marc A. Thiessen

By on August 8th, 2020

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/mail-in-voting-could-accidentally-disenfranchise-millions-of-voters/

President Trump is suing Nevada over its recent decision to send absentee ballots to all voters, and warning the country “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.” Trump’s critics argue that there is no evidence that voting by mail results in fraud. Trump is right that mail-in voting is a source of potential voter fraud, especially on the scale that is being proposed. But the bigger problem is not vote fraud — it’s vote failure.

There is plenty of evidence that mail-in voting has the unintended consequence of disenfranchising of millions of eligible voters. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study of the 2008 presidential election found that about 3.9 million voters said they requested mail ballots but never received them; 2.9 million ballots that were sent out did not make it back to election officials; and about 800,000 were rejected for a variety of reasons — either because they were postmarked after the election, arrived without a signature, were improperly filled out or did not match voting records. “The pipeline that moves mail ballots between voters and election officials is very leaky,” the study concluded.

More recently, the 2020 Democratic primaries should serve as a cautionary tale. About six weeks after New York’s congressional primaries, winners were not declared in two closely watched House races until Tuesday. That’s thanks to complications in counting the surge of more than 400,000 mail-in ballots, of which state officials have already invalidated 84,000. In California, election officials rejected more than 100,000 mail-in ballots in the state’s March presidential primary. To put these numbers in perspective, Trump won the White House in 2016 thanks to roughly 80,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin combined. In Pennsylvania alone, mail ballot problems kept about 92,000 people from voting in a primary in a state that Trump won by just 44,000 votes four years ago. In Florida, about 18,500 mail-in ballots were not counted, and in Nevada, about 6,700 were rejected. In a close race, such failures could easily call the results into question.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Should Judge Sullivan Be Disqualified from Flynn Case? An Appeals Court Is Asking By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on August 8th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/should-judge-sullivan-be-disqualified-from-flynn-case-an-appeals-court-is-asking/

D.C. Circuit judges seem disturbed by the degree to which Judge Sullivan has exhibited bias in Flynn’s case.

Maybe Judge Luttig was right all along.

I had the misgivings you’d expect back in late May, when I disagreed with J. Michael Luttig, the stellar scholar and former federal appeals court judge, regarding how the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals should handle the Flynn case.

At the time, that court’s three-judge panel had not yet heard oral argument on Michael Flynn’s mandamus petition — i.e., Flynn’s request that the panel find that federal district judge Emmet Sullivan was acting lawlessly. Sullivan had not only failed to grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn; he had appointed a former federal judge (the overtly anti-Trump John Gleeson) to posit the argument abandoned by DOJ — to wit, that Flynn should proceed to sentencing because he had pled guilty to a false-statements charge, waiving his right to contest the case any further in exchange for the government’s agreement not to file any other charges. Basically, Flynn was asking the appellate court to order Judge Sullivan to dismiss the case.

In a Washington Post op-ed, Luttig contended that “there are ample grounds in the actions the district court has already taken for the appeals court to order that the government’s motion to dismiss be heard by a different judge, and it should so order.”

It is interesting to revisit this assessment in light of an order issued by the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday. The Circuit directed that the participants in the dispute over Judge Sullivan’s actions, including Judge Sullivan himself, must address the question of whether Sullivan should either recuse himself or be disqualified by the Circuit. Arguments in the case will be heard this coming Tuesday, August 11, in a rare en banc review by the full Circuit (i.e., all active judges who have not taken senior status, minus one who has recused himself, so it will be a ten-judge panel).

Let’s back up for a moment.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

COWARDICE A LA CARTE: EDWARD CLINE

By on August 8th, 2020

https://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2020/08/cowardice-la-carte.html

cowardice

: lack of courage or firmness of purpose

Synonyms

cowardliness, 
cravenness, 
dastardliness, 
gutlessness, 
poltroonery, 
pusillanimity, 
spinelessness

High Noon

I never mind all the political “Red Scare” info surrounding “High Noon” (released 1952), nor the conflicts between Carl Forman and  Fred Zinnemann, the associate producers. What fascinates me about the film is not the gun fights, but rather the variety of  expressions of cowardice and of the betrayal of Will Kane, (played by Gary Cooper ) the marshal of the town of Hadleyville in the Arizona Territory, as he prepares to face a gang of killers who arrive to kill him. He can find no one willing to be deputized to help him face the gang. He experiences hostility, indifference, and hatred,

The cowardice evokes  for me the current cowardice of Americans who are willing to submit to the COVID-19 panic and are willing to don face masks and buckle into “social distancing” in their behavior. They are willing to wear face masks even during their personal, one-on-one  encounters.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Seth Rich Case Blown Wide Open, Judge Makes Shocking Move Mark Megahan

By on August 8th, 2020

http://newshourfirst.com/2020/08/07/breaking-seth-rich-case-blown-wide-open-judge-makes-shocking-move/

The Seth Rich case just got a fresh breath of life this week as a judge made a shocking request of the British government. Beltway pundits are jumping for joy because they think this is the crack in the lid which will blow the Deep State cover right off the whole can of worms.
 
Way back in the mists of time, on May 16, 2017, Fox news published a story then quickly retracted it. Fox claimed, at the time, that Seth Rich was the one who leaked emails to Wikileaks, not the Russians. The source they relied on backed down when he got a cease and desist order from the family. His parents cried foul and sued Fox News for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on them by “slandering” their murdered son.
 

It seems the only way to get to the bottom of it and decide whether the article was a “sham” as the Rich family claims, or “substantially true” as Fox News insists, is to ask Julian Assange. Federal Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn started the ball rolling to do exactly that. Fox news is the side which needs the evidence but the judge was the one required to make the formal request. “Mr. Assange, as founder of WikiLeaks, is exceptionally suited to provide testimony that will be highly relevant to these issues. Therefore, Fox News, by and through this letter of request issued by the District Court, is formally requesting the testimony of Mr. Assange for use at trial.”

Judge Netburn sent a formal Hague Convention request for testimony from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Many beltway insiders are convinced Assange’s testimony will blow the case “wide open and finally provide answers concerning the unsolved murder.” Assange has always denied he got the emails from Russia and also has hinted that the DNC employee was the real leaker. Right after the material was released, Seth Rich was killed in what police call a robbery, “even though his wallet, phone, jewelry and other valuables were not taken.

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