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Ruth King

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The ‘Diversity’ Trap by Zaid Jilani

By on July 5th, 2020

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-diversity-trap-jilani

Progressive ideas about diversity have taken over the corporate world but they offer a skin-deep version obsessed only with color and conformity.

A shallow, reductive version of diversity that first gained a foothold in progressive political spaces has rapidly spread across American institutions and the corporate world. It values skin color and other inherited characteristics above all else, largely ignores class issues, and overlooks the benefits of real diversity, like the anti-fragile resilience created by fostering people with different viewpoints. Yet, despite the many flaws and dangers of this new orthodoxy—or perhaps because of them—anyone who challenges it, risks damage to their career and social life.

Just look at the case of Denise Young Smith. Young Smith spent almost two decades working her way up in Apple, becoming one of the few black people to ever reach its executive team. She was named vice president of diversity and inclusion, and in 2017 traveled to the One Young World Summit in Bogotá, Colombia.

At the summit, she was asked by a reporter whether black women would be a priority in her new role promoting diversity in the company. In her answer, she described a lonely rise through the ranks: “I’ve been black and a woman for a long time. I have been a first, I’ve been an only,” she said. She talked about hearing from other black women in the industry who shared stories about people assuming they were the assistant or secretary rather than the manager.

Her words were a powerful testament to anyone who has ever been stereotyped or been on the receiving end of low expectations due to the color of their skin.

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Jobs Not Mobs . By Adriana Cohen

By on July 5th, 2020

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/07/03/jobs_not_mobs_143609.html

Voters have a clear choice this November.

If you want mobs vandalizing stores, destroying public property and setting churches on fire, then vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who has spent the majority of his time hiding out in his Delaware basement while our country has been in flames in the aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy.

If you scroll through Uncle Joe’s Twitter feed from the past several weeks, you’ll notice he hasn’t condemned the burning of St. John’s Episcopal Church by violent protestors. He hasn’t denounced the heinous assaults and killings of police officers that have taken place throughout the country. Nor has he said a peep about the brutal murder of civilians — including teenagers — shot and killed in the Seattle CHOP zone controlled by armed left-wing anarchists. And he certainly hasn’t called upon Democratic mayors and governors to get their ransacked cities and states under control.

The stark reality is that Democrats today would rather appease anarchists, looters and violent criminals than uphold law and order.

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Amid a pandemic, the woke-ist media are experiencing a psychotic break by Becket Adams

By on July 5th, 2020

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/amid-a-pandemic-the-woke-ist-media-are-experiencing-a-psychotic-break

If the press suffered a nervous breakdown after the 2016 election ⁠— and they did ⁠— they are experiencing a full-on psychotic break amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd protests.

It is as if the lockdowns and nationwide demonstrations caused media executives to snap, leaving them in a wide-eyed, obsessive frenzy to cleanse society of all problematics, screaming all the while, “Out, damned spot!”

CNN, for example, engaged in explicit political activism this week when it sought to shame companies that have yet to pull ads from Facebook over CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s persistent refusal to censor problematic speech.

“These are the big brands that haven’t pulled ads from Facebook yet,” reads the headline. The report then goes on to name and shame the businesses that have had the temerity to continue to advertise on one of the biggest social media platforms in the world.

This is not news reporting. This is activism. It is a poorly disguised effort by a major newsroom to pressure companies into boycotting a social media platform that is too committed to political neutrality and too opposed to political censorship for the media’s taste. In any other time and place, the press would have mocked and condemned the CNN article. But these are unusual times. Many journalists today agree with CNN’s shaming tactics and the reasons behind them, and so the Facebook report came and went this week with barely a whimper of objection from our brave Fourth Estate.

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on July 5th, 2020

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Treatment for Alzheimer’s and Covid-19. Israeli-founded AZTherapies is in Phase 3 trials for its ALZT-OP1 for Alzheimer’s disease. The treatment also suppresses the immune system’s “cytokine storm” that is often lethal to Covid-19 infected patients. AZTherapies is building commercial partnerships with Israeli institutions.

https://worldisraelnews.com/one-new-drug-may-treat-both-covid-19-and-alzheimers/

https://aztherapies.com/about-us/david-elmaleh-phd

Developing a mutation-proof Covid-19 vaccine.  Dr Frenkel-Morgenstern of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University has filed a US patent application for her research (see previously) on epitopes (proteins) that can build immunity against COVID-19. An advantage of such a vaccine is it will still work even if the virus mutates.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/mutation-proof-israeli-scientist-nears-vaccine-thatll-cope-with-covid-changes/

Israel’s best shots at a vaccine. (TY Hazel) A round-up of the leading Israeli prospects for a COVID-19 vaccine. One of them – the Israel Institute for Biological Research and the Weizmann Institute of Science – featured in the World Health Organization’s periodic report on international vaccine efforts.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/their-best-shots-israeli-efforts-to-invent-a-coronavirus-vaccine-explained/

From cancer to shrimps to a Covid-19 vaccine. Professor Avi Schroeder of Israel’s Technion (reported here previously) was working on a cancer cure using Elephant protein and a cure for a disease decimating the shrimp population. Then he discovered that the shrimp medication could also be adapted to make a Covid-19 vaccine.

https://technionuk.org/video/webinar-could-a-vaccine-for-shrimp-help-in-the-fight-against-covid-19-professor-avi-schroeder/   https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-scientist-could-adapt-shrimp-antiviral-for-humans/

Crowdsourcing for a Covid-19 algorithm. Scientists at Israel’s Technion are confident that they can monitor Covid-19 patients at home. For their algorithm that monitors oxygen levels, they issued an international call for statistics through an open source medical platform. They hope to receive tens of thousands of case files.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/globally-crowdsourcing-covid-stats-israeli-team-aims-to-boost-home-care-safety/

Cancer screening for UK NHS. Another instance of Israeli technology saving British lives. Israel’s Ibex Medical (reported here previously) is helping the UK’s National Health System (NHS) diagnose cancer from biopsies.  Ibex, has teamed up with UK’s LDPath to reduce pathology pressures on 24 different NHS trusts.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3836954,00.html

Israel is first to approve new AML cancer treatment. (TY Hazel) As soon as Phase 3 results were published, Israel added the new combo-therapy of venetoclax and azacytidine from global biotech AbbVie to the basket of treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Israel had the most patients enrolled in the Phase 3 study.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israel-becomes-first-country-to-incorporate-breakthrough-leukemia-therapy-633285

Slowing down the aging process. (TY WIN) Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have discovered, for the first time in mammals, that by slightly lowering body temperatures in mice, the animals lived 20 percent longer, Also, by reducing their oxygen level and increasing their CO2 level, their wounds healed faster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MycF-7T1zqY  https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/mice_lifespan.aspx

https://www.israel21c.org/researchers-can-extend-the-lifespan-of-mice-are-we-next/

Off-road rescue. United Hatzalah EMT Eilon crossed the Judean desert in 3 minutes to save the life of Elad – whose arm was almost severed in a car accident. Following Elad’s recovery, the Western Marble Arch synagogue in London (the Rabbi is Elad’s grandfather) donated an off-road ambucycle to United Hatzalah.

https://israelrescue.org/blog/london-community-donates-off-road-ambucycle-to-volunteer-who-saved-one-of-their-own/

Med-tech startups pitch up. (TY Charmaine) Five graduates of the Hadassah IBM Alpha Zone Accelerator presented their solutions to investors. Their products included wearable pain relief, distance eye diagnosis, preventing medication errors in hospitals, help for stroke patients and a brain-wave sleep headband.

https://www.ukisraelhub.com/event/il-hadassah-acclerator-class-2-demo-day/

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COVID-19 is close to losing its epidemic status in the U.S., according to the CDC The percentage of coronavirus deaths in the country has been declining for ten straight weeks.

By on July 5th, 2020

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/covid-19-close-losing-its-epidemic

Coronavirus deaths in the country have nearly reached a level where the virus will cease to qualify as an epidemic under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rules, the federal agency reported on Friday. 

The CDC qualifies a disease outbreak as an “epidemic” if the number of deaths attributable to the disease exceeds a certain percentage of total deaths per week. That threshold for pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 fluctuates slightly depending on the time of year, ranging from around 7% at the height of flu season to around 5% during less virulent months. 

CDC data indicate that deaths from those ailments began skyrocketing in the country around the second week of March, hitting a peak around early May and then plummeting quickly after that. 

The latest data show that the percentage of deaths in the country attributable to those factors had as of the last week in June reached its lowest point since the end of last year, becoming “equal to the [current] epidemic threshold of 5.9%,” the CDC said. 

The agency notes that the official tally of deaths “will likely change as more death certificates are processed, particularly for recent weeks.” Yet the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, pneumonia and influenza have been declining for 10 straight weeks, the agency said on its website, suggesting COVID-19 may cease to qualify as an epidemic in the next few weeks. 

The welcome news comes as fear over a “second wave” of the virus has gripped the U.S., with some states experiencing fresh surges of COVID-19 along with increased hospitalizations. 

Though infections are significantly up in some places, deaths throughout the country have remained flat, due likely to several factors including a younger cohort of infections as well as improved treatment methods. 

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A Magnificent Speech Looking back on the 2020 election, historians will say the Mt. Rushmore speech was the moment that Donald Trump won reelection. By Roger Kimball

By on July 5th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/04/a-magnificent-speech/

Donald Trump did not mention Lincoln’s First Inaugural address in his speech commemorating the spirit of American Independence at Mount Rushmore on Friday night. But the president’s speech—perhaps his most forceful and eloquent to date—vibrated with the same energy and existential commitment that fired Lincoln in March 1861. 

Lincoln came to office at a time of crisis. His election had precipitated the secession of seven Southern states. His inaugural address was both a plea for conciliation and unity as well as a warning that violence would be stopped with force. “We are not enemies, but friends,” Lincoln said. 

Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Donald Trump issued a kindred invitation to unity in the midst of conflict. The signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in July 1776 was a world-historical event. It represented, the president rightly said, “the culmination of thousands of years of Western Civilization—and the triumph not only of spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.” At the center of the triumph was the animating possession of liberty, made possible by the unanimous affirmation of the principles Thomas Jefferson articulated in the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . .” 

The president’s speech was a passionate celebration of American freedom and American greatness—a greatness, he noted, that was embodied by the sublime majesty of the heads of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt sculpted into the granite pinnacle of Mt. Rushmore. 

But just as Lincoln spoke on the eve of civil war, so Donald Trump spoke in the midst of widespread and organized violence against the emblems and the spirit of the American promise. “[T]here is,” he warned, “a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought, struggled, and bled to secure.”

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“November’s Election – None of the Above?” Sydney Williams

By on July 5th, 2020

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

On a multiple-choice test “none of the above’ may be a legitimate response. But no matter how tempting that answer may seem to voters sick and tired of politics, such a response on November 3, 2020 is not acceptable. As we celebrate our country’s 244th birthday, we should consider the critical importance of the election four months out.

While no politician is the paragon of virtue drawn by Parson Weems of an idealized George Washington, character has slipped down the scale of traits we treasure when electing leaders. In 2020, we will be offered a choice between a man whose thin skin exposes a large ego, and a man whose intellectual capacity wanes as his defects wax. Mr. Trump’s flaws are well publicized – orange hair, ungrammatical speech, his volatility and personal insecurity seen in his untempered Tweets and his apparent admiration for dictators. But they are all superficial. No matter his appeasing words about Putin and Xi Jinping, he has been tougher on Russia and China than his predecessors. His dyed hair and manner of speaking may offend those raised in coastal, elitist families, but they are far less damaging to democracy than was the misuse of intelligence services by the Clinton campaign and the Obama Administration in undermining a freely elected President. Charges of corruption against Mr. Trump have been investigated for four years by a zealous press, a partisan House, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and a complicit FBI. They came to naught. On the other hand, mainstream media has been largely silent on financial favors sought by Mr. Biden for his son in Ukraine and China and on his alleged sexual assault on a staff member.

Nevertheless, and despite the impurity of both candidates, the single most important factor in this election has been the hijacking of the Democrat Party by illiberal, so-called “progressives.” Professor Wilfred McClay of the University of Oklahoma described the random and willful destruction of statues, acts condoned by many city mayors: “…these acts of destruction are acts of pure, unmitigated hate…,” hatred not dissimilar in its intensity to that levied against President Trump by the New York Times and the Washington Post. “Unless new leaders come forth,” wrote Heather MacDonald in City Journal this past week, “who understand their duty to maintain the rule of law, the country will not pull back from disaster.”

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A Pledge for July 4 by Lawrence Kadish

By on July 4th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16161/a-pledge-for-july-4

As we encounter days of darkness;
Virus tyranny from abroad;
Criminality and
Insurrectionists at home;

With inner strength, and Light
from above, we shall endure and
prevail above adversities
As we honorably salute America’s Founding Fathers and our legacy of heroic Patriots!

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Germany’s Continuing Anti-Semitism Problem by Judith Bergman

By on July 4th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16098/germany-antisemitism

The German government’s new report flies in the face of major EU reports… German statistics on anti-Semitism have been the object of criticism for quite some time.

“The majority of [anti-Semitism] cases in Berlin are attributed to right-wing extremists — without evidence…” — Die Welt, May 7, 2019.

“For a long time, experts have criticized the attribution of the majority of cases to far-right perpetrators… and that too little attention is paid to other groups of perpetrators, such as those from Islamist and other Muslim circles”. — Die Welt, May 7, 2019.

Yet, despite problematic evidence and flawed statistics, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is still claiming that virtually all anti-Semitism comes from the far-right. Why?

Despite all these measures, anti-Semitic crime in Germany is the highest it has been in the past two decades. This news alone should raise concerns in Germany that hate-speech laws such as the NetzDG, while severely limiting free speech, are not working. It should also concern other EU countries, such as France, that are looking to Germany as an example to follow.

Almost all anti-Semitic crimes in Germany in 2019 were committed by right-wing extremists, according to a recently published government report, “Politically Motivated Crime in 2019.” In the report, “politically motivated crimes” are divided into right-wing crimes, left-wing crimes, crimes motivated by foreign ideology, crimes motivated by religious ideology and unassigned crimes.

According to the report, anti-Semitic crimes were 13% higher in 2019 than in 2018, with 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes committed in 2019, the highest number in Germany since 2001. According to the report, 93.4% of those crimes were committed by right-wing extremists.

“The biggest threat is still the threat from the right,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said following the release of the crime report. “We must remain alert and tackle it. It is an order of magnitude that accompanies us with concern, with great concern.”

The German government’s new report flies in the face of major EU reports: In November 2018, the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published a report, “Antisemitism – Overview of data available in the European Union 2007–2017,” which quoted the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) as stating that in 2017:

“The main perpetrators of antisemitic incidents are ‘Islamists’ and radicalised young Muslims, including schoolchildren, as well as neo-Nazis and sympathisers of extreme-right and, in some cases, extreme-left groups”.

Germany was among the countries surveyed.

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If It Weren’t for Double Standards, Our Media Would Have None By Angela Kelley

By on July 4th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/02/if-it-werent-for-double-standards-our

The Marxist blood running in the veins of the media, of celebrities in Hollywood, in nearly every Democratic politician, and unfortunately some weak sister Republicans, demands that we do not question the Left.

Since the death of George Floyd in May, the top headlines every day report that the protests stem from his alleged murder. Though the left-leaning woke media insists on describing the protests as “peaceful,” they have spiralled into destructive rioting and are responsible for deaths, in some cases, at the hands of Marxist opportunists looking to upend our Founders, our institutions, our Constitution, and our way of life. 

An MSNBC reporter standing in front of burning buildings said, “This is mostly a protest, it is not, it is not, generally speaking, unruly.” In the face of destroyed buildings (including a brand new low-income housing unit), looting, lawyers tossing Molotov cocktails into police cars, and the shooting death of David Dorn (a retired policeman who was guarding his friend’s business), the legacy media continues on with this “peaceful change” narrative.

Legacy media, as well as Antifa and some Black Lives Matter activists are little more than opportunists. They can “never let a crisis go to waste,” as Rahm Emanuel and now Hillary Clinton like to say. The progressive media understands what this means, and while it’s interesting to see how the news anchors, editors, and writers all seem to have similar talking points, they may only be loosely tied to actual Democratic directives. They don’t really need marching orders anymore. They are so very tightly anchored to the same political philosophies, attitudes, and methods that they speak as one voice even without prompting. As Alinskyite Democrats, they know “the issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution.”

The mainstream media continuously ignore the weekly shootings in Chicago and other large cities. Two young children died this past weekend in Chicago from the violence, and  at least 16 other people are dead while at least 50 others were wounded in shootings. These people matter too. The children matter. The adults matter. The police who put their lives on the line every day for people in those communities matter.

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