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Ruth King

MY SAY: Comments turned off

MY SAY: THE CUSTODIANS OF DEMOCRACY

By on July 7th, 2019

In 1969 my husband and I bought a pre-revolutionary house. While a kitchen and plumbing and electricity were obviously added, the original structure, inside and out were intact.  After one really harsh Connecticut winter when I contemplated certain restorations and changes, my late husband, the finest and most thoughtful person told me. “We must be cautious about changes…. we are not only owners…. we are custodians of a bit of history.”

His words echo when we celebrate patriotism and legacy in America. We are the custodians of the democracy crafted by our extraordinary founders. Some changes are always necessary and flaws must be fixed by discussion and legislation, but the basic tenets of our freedom and the right to vote and the laws that provide homeland security must always be guarded and protected, and they are being vigorously challenged.

The right to dissent is both a privilege and an obligation of our custody of democracy. But, there is no right to threaten and beat journalists; there is no right to censor those with whom we disagree; there is no right to assume power and challenge the legitimacy of an election by violence and libel;  there is no right to threaten national security by demanding open borders and giving sanctuary to those who break the law.

My rather gloomy mood was lifted by the President’s speech and military displays on July 4th,  when I saw thousands upon thousands of Americans who braved the blistering heat waving our flag and cheering for America and our defense forces.

They are the custodians of democracy. May patriotism always prevail….rsk

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Angry About Border Conditions? Blame Congress By Rachel Bovard

By on July 7th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/07/06/angry-about-border-conditions-blame-congress/

The woke social media over the Fourth of July was something to behold. On America’s birthday, posts were full Trump-baby angst, references to illegal militias, treasonous criminality, and concentration camps, and carefully styled photos of summer desserts that spelled out “close the camps” on top of seasonal fruit.

Because you know what you do if you think child migrants are actually being tortured by your government and dying in concentration camps? You channel all your first-world, virtue signaling rage into the creation of artsy and seasonally appropriate desserts that are just perfect for that People photoshoot.

But the misplaced rage was not limited to social media. In the annals of Wokes versus People Living in Reality, this week was one for the books. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the avatar of lefty rage-emotes everywhere, visited the border and had a complete meltdown.

Ocasio-Cortez told reporters she “was not safe from the officers,” and that migrants were forced to drink out of toilets while being subject to “psychological warfare.”

“This has been horrifying so far,” she tweeted. “It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We’re talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals.”

If what she’s saying is true—members of Congress being threatened for asking questions, migrants housed in World War II-style detention camps with only toilet water to drink, “mass atrocities” being perpetuated by the government—then we are indeed in a crisis.

But none of this is true. None of the migrants housed on the border are being held against their will. While Ocasio-Cortez provided no photos of the toilets from which she claims migrants are forced to drink, those familiar with border detention facilities suggest she is referring to this type of drinking facility which is connected to a toilet—but does not dispense actual toilet water from the faucet, as she claims. And, as former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pointed out this week, the practice of holding migrants in “cages” after detention started under President Obama.

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Tommy Robinson, embattled hero By Caroline Rausch

By on July 7th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/07/tommy_robinson_embattled_hero.html

The hero Tommy Robinson has been reconvicted of contempt of court, after his previous conviction was overturned and he was released from prison, but the door was left open for the attorney general to relitigate if he so chose.  He duly did, leading to Robinson’s trial at the Old Bailey on July 5.

Robinson’s lawyer, Richard Furlong, said Robinson was being convicted for what he is, not for what he did.  What he did, that so offended the elite, was stand up for the victims of child abuse.  What kind of a sick society defends child rapists and persecutes someone who wants justice for cruelly raped little English girls?

According to Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch, 4 July 2019), there were approximately 6,850 victims of organized child sexual exploitation in the U.K. in 2015.  That’s at least 18 girls a day in just one year.  For exposing this ghastly crime, Robinson was imprisoned for 2.5 months in solitary confinement, not held in his rightful category, but moved to a Category C prison with the highest number of Muslim inmates, subjected to mental torture and constant threats and abuse, and had all his rights denied “in the interest of public safety.”  Now this fate looms again, and the government wants to once again put him in harm’s way, in the hope that some Muslim inmate will dispatch this troublemaker.

What about being judged by one’s peers? There were only two judges and no jury at Tommy’s trial at the Old Bailey.  One was Rt. Hon. Dame Victoria Sharp, DBE, president of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of England and Wales, the other Justice Warby, two executioners acting on behalf of the establishment.  It’s time for British citizens to tear down the Old Bailey as French citizens tore down the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Socialism – Its Adherents and the Enduring Lies By Alexander G. Markovsky

By on July 7th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/07/socialism__its_adherents_and_the_enduring_lies.html

Paraphrasing Mark Twain, there are lies, damned lies, and socialism.

The leader of the White opposition, the distinguished admiral Alexander Kolchak, was defeated on the battlefield, betrayed by the Allies and captured by the Bolsheviks.

During the interrogation, the Bolsheviks, astounded by their own victory, were trying to understand how they could defeat the well-supplied regular army, led by experienced military commanders.

“Admiral, why didn’t you promise land to peasants? You could have won this war,” the interrogators asked (Russia was an agrarian country and the ownership of land was one of the most compelling issues of the revolution). “I would not promise what I could not deliver” was the admiral’s response.   

The interrogators just smiled. They did promise the land and won.

Bolsheviks who had a propensity for fancy names called it “monopoly on the revolutionary truth.” In other words, the truth in the “decaying” world of capitalism does not mean what it does in the world of “triumphant” socialism. In practical terms, when Bolsheviks promised democracy, freedom, liberty, and inexorable “land to the peasants,” “bread to the hungry,” “peace to the people,” those zealous Bolshevik slogans sounded great but the Russian people found soon enough that “land to the peasants” meant forced collectivization; “bread to the hungry” – man-made famine; and “peace to the people” — civil war.

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IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democratic Congresswoman (Veronica Escobar R- Texas- District 16) Caught Sending Staff to Mexico to Coach Asylum-Seekers By Rick Moran

By on July 7th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/democratic-congresswoman-sending-staff-to-mexico-to-coach-asylum-seekers/

Let’s just call it “voter outreach” by the Democrats.

According to the National Border Patrol Council’s El Paso chapter and several Customs and Border Protection personnel,  freshman Congresswoman Rep. Veronica Escobar has been sending members of her staff in secret to the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez to coach asylum seekers on how to game the system and make it into the U.S.

The Washington Examiner reports that the aides are looking to “find migrants returned from El Paso, Texas, under the ‘remain in Mexico’ policy, then coaching them to pretend they cannot speak Spanish to exploit a loophole letting them to [sic] return to the U.S.”

Is this a great country or what?

“What we believe is happening is Veronica Escobar’s office is going … to basically second-guess and obstruct work already done by the Border Patrol,” said one senior union official, who shared evidence with the  Washington Examiner from concerned CBP managers and rank-and-file members. Those documents have been held to protect identities.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy has been attacked despite it being a perfectly legal agreement between Mexico and the U.S., which is designed to relieve the crush of migrants flooding the border.

But there’s a loophole being exploited by Escobar.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Trump’s Iran Sanctions Face Seven Fallacies by Amir Taheri

By on July 7th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14499/trump-iran-sanctions-fallacies

…sanctions are working. The mullahs have started to reduce their footprint in Syria and Yemen… Offices in more than 30 Iranian cities, to enlist “volunteers” for “Jihad” in Syria, have been closed, and the recruitment of Afghan and Pakistani mercenaries has stopped. Tehran’s military and diplomatic presence in Yemen has been downsized, ostensibly for security reasons. Smuggling arms to Houthis continues albeit at a reduced rate.

Cash-flow problems caused by sanctions have also forced the mullahs to cut the stipends of proxies, notably the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian “Islamic Jihad” by around 10 percent with more cuts envisaged…. More importantly, perhaps, the mullahs have frozen their missile program at the current range of 2000 kilometers.

The seventh claim is that Trump’s sanctions strengthen hardline factions and weaken the “reformists” around President Hassan Rouhani. Since Rouhani and his associates have never said or even hinted, what it is they may want to reform, it is hard to speak of a “reformist” faction. Moreover, the extensive purge of the military currently undertaken by “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei does not seem to have affected any “moderates”.

As President Donald Trump tightens the screws on the current ruling elite in Tehran, the debate on the possible consequences of his policy rages on in American media, think tanks and political circles. Moreover, because Trump’s constituency is outside such elite spheres the impression created is that his Iran policy either has failed already or is set to produce undesirable unintended consequences.

In that context, seven claims form the main themes of the campaign launched by the pro-Tehran lobby with support from sections of the US Democrat Party and others who dislike Trump for different reasons. The first claim is that sanctions do not work.

That theme is developed without spelling out what the intended aims of sanctions are. Trump has said his aim is to persuade the Khomeinist clique in Tehran to change aspects of its behavior abroad. In that sense, sanctions are working.

The mullahs have started to reduce their footprint in Syria and Yemen, without quite opting for total withdrawal. Offices in more than 30 Iranian cities, to enlist “volunteers” for “Jihad” in Syria, have been closed, and the recruitment of Afghan and Pakistani mercenaries has stopped. Tehran’s military and diplomatic presence in Yemen has been downsized, ostensibly for security reasons. Smuggling arms to Houthis continues albeit at a reduced rate.

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“You Are Born to Clean Our Houses”: Persecution of Christians, by Raymond Ibrahim

By on July 7th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14469/persecution-of-christians-april

“We are a peace-loving community in this small city, we had never hurt anyone, but we don’t know from where this amount of hate is coming.” – a Christian man who survived the bombing at St. Sebastian’s Church, Morningstar News, April 22, 2019, Negombo, Sri Lanka.

“[C]rosses on graves in an Italian cemetery in Pieve di Cento have been covered with black cloth so as not to offend those who may come from another religion.” – Il Giornale, April 4, 2029, and Breitbart; Bologna, Italy.

“My brother… had compassion for me. He [told me of] the plan my father had devised; to have me beheaded in Qatar because I had refused to convert back to Islam.” – Charles Mudasir, Persecution.org (International Christian Concern), April 22, 2019, Mombasa, Kenya.

“It took about a year for me to save and arrange the required funds to establish a grocery store. However, Christians in this… society are not allowed to initiate a business. I had customers in my shop when Fiaz Khattak led an armed group…. ” — Kenneth Johnson, a poor agricultural laborer who takes care of three children, after he tried to open a small grocery store; Persecution.org (International Christian Concern), April 10, 2019, Pakistan.

Slaughter of Christians

Sri Lanka: On Easter Sunday, April 21, Islamic terrorists launched a bombing campaign on Christians; the death toll reached 253, with hundreds more wounded. Eight separate explosions took place, at least two of which were suicide bombings: three targeted churches celebrating Easter Sunday Mass; four targeted hotels frequented by Western tourists possibly in connection with Easter holiday; one blast was in a house, and killed three police officers during a security operation. At least 39 foreigners — including citizens of the United States, Britain, Australia, Japan, Denmark and Portugal — were among the dead.

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HISTORY Comments turned off

David Irving’s Great Adventure By Alex Grobman, PhD

By on July 7th, 2019

https://www.jewishlinknj.com/features/32233-david-irving-s-great-adventure

A recent report stated that David Irving, who lost a defamation suit against Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin publishers who accused him of Holocaust denial, had planned to lead a tour of Holocaust sites in Poland. According to Irving’s website, his 2019 tour begins on September 1 from Warsaw and ends there on September 9. The group will visit the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s primary headquarters on the Easter Front, not far from the town of Rastenburg in East Prussia. They will also tour Hochwald; the nearby bunker of Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS; and Treblinka, Sobibór, Belzec and Majdanek.

For those who know little about David Irving and Ernest Zündel, who before his death in August 2017 was the leading Holocaust denier in North America, this article will help provide some insight.

In “Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?” Michael Shermer and I wrote, “There is no more paradoxical character in the Holocaust denial movement” than David Irving. He seeks the respect and recognition of the academic historical community, while at times derides them for their failure to recognize the value of his works,” which include “Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden,” “Hitler’s War,” “The Trail of the Fox: The Search for the True Field Marshall,” “Goring: A Biography,” and “Churchill’s War: The German Atomic Bomb.”

He ridicules academic historians for being haughty and verbose, yet this is the manner he projects at times. Of all the Holocaust deniers, he is the most historically sophisticated, even though he has no professional training in history. In a widely quoted interview with Michael Shermer, Irving said “Without Hitler Israel probably would not exist today. To that extent he was probably the Jews’ greatest friend.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on July 7th, 2019

Gaza thugs throw incendiary balloons and rocks, the media and academics continue their libels, ignorant cretins continue their street theater demonstrations, and in spite of it all Israel makes outsize contributions in medicine, science, technology and cybersecurity which benefit the citizens of every nation on every continent. Amazing indeed! My friend and e-pal Michael Ordman compiles this list almost every week. rsk

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Hadassah surgeons realign baby’s organs. In a first-of-its-kind operation, a team of doctors at Hadassah Medical Center repaired the hernia (muscle between chest and abdomen) of a new-born baby.  Then using low-invasive thoracoscopic surgery, they pushed the baby’s small intestine and spleen back into the abdomen.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265335

Positive autism treatment results. (TY Stuart) Professor Lidia Gabis of Sheba Medical Center has published two important research articles on the treatment of autistic children. One showed that combined Donepezil and Choline improved their language skills. The other highlighted the benefits of medical clowning.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00431-019-03415-7 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31230222

The protein that weakens the immune system. Researchers from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, working in an international team, have identified that the protein known as TOX represses T-cells within the immune system. By neutralizing TOX, scientists could restore the immune system to fight cancer and chronic or viral diseases.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/study-identifies-protein-that-causes-exhaustion-of-immune-system-cells/

Device for treating ADHD. I mentioned previously (Feb 2017) about Israeli-Arab startup InnoSphere, which was developing a wearable device for treating ADHD. This article describes in detail InnoSphere’s electrode-embedded cap that stimulates neurons in the brains of ADHD sufferers to make new connections.

https://www.israel21c.org/high-hopes-for-new-adhd-treatment-device/

New way to unblock arteries.  (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Transseptal Solutions announced the first TSP Crosser transseptal puncture procedure in the US. Transseptal’s innovative device helps surgeons to insert diagnostic and therapeutic devices into the left atrium with control, speed and precision. It is FDA and CE approved.

https://www.transseptalsolutions.com/

Generic treatment for hypertension. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Teva has launched a generic version of Tracleer tablets in the US. The treatment allows sufferers of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) to exercise better and slows progression of the disease.  PAH is high blood pressure in the blood vessels of the lungs.

https://ir.tevapharm.com/investors/press-releases/press-release-details/2019/Teva-Announces-Launch-of-a-Generic-Version-of-Tracleer-bosentan-Tablets-in-the-United-States/default.aspx

Europe approves diabetes support system. (TY Atid-EDI) I’ve reported previously (see here) on Israel’s GlucoMe diabetes monitors. GlucoMe’s new Decision Support System (“DSS”) has just received the CE Mark. The DSS’s algorithm-based, clinical decision support software helps doctors monitor type 2 diabetes patients.

https://www.glucome.com/about-us/news/GlucoMe-now-has-CE-Mark-for-Diabetes-Decision-Support-Technology

Anyone can save a life. Ezer Mizion’s data processor found she was a DNA match on the Israeli NGO’s bone marrow registry for a woman suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). She flew halfway around the world to donate some of her stem cells. She tells both her story, and of those still needing a transplant.

http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/what-was-it-like/

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Boris Johnson: British Jews Among Immigrant Groups Who Have ‘Helped to Make Our National Culture’

By on July 7th, 2019

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/05/boris-johnson-british-jews-among-immigrant-groups-who-have-helped-to-make-our-national-culture/

In remarks at a Conservative Party hustings on Friday, Boris Johnson hailed British Jews as one of the immigrant groups who “adapted and they have made their lives and they have helped to make our national culture.”

“That’s what I want for our country, I want everybody who comes here and makes their lives here to be and to feel British,” he said.

Johnson — a former London mayor and foreign secretary — is battling current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May, who announced her resignation in May over her failure to handle the Brexit issue. The winner will be declared later this month.

Watch Friday’s event below (via The Guardian). Johnson’s comment about Jews occurs at around the 40:30 mark:

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