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Ruth King

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on October 28th, 2018

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Regenerating muscles. I reported previously (Feb 2015) on the recovery from muscle injury of hip-replacement patients treated with PLX-PAD stem cells from Israel’s Pluristem. Follow-up data has now confirmed the results and expanded Phase III trials are being supported by the European Horizon 2020 program.
http://www.pluristem.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Muscle_publication_final_isa.pdf

A map of good and bad proteins. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University have identified certain proteins in the human body that are key to progressing or preventing diseases such as cancer. They have mapped protein to protein interactions and are confident they can develop new treatments for those diseases.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-protein-map-method-offers-hope-for-target-specific-drugs-researchers/

Living to 200 and beyond. (TY WIN & I24 News) Israeli biotech Cellect is developing stem cell technology that may extend individual human life far beyond what currently can be conceived. And a new international study forecasts Israeli life-expectancy to rise to 84.4 by 2040, giving Israel a world ranking of 7 (currently 13).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/kG4Nmx_vVf0?rel=0
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/434231

New heart center doubles treatment capacity. A $10 million cutting-edge heart center has been dedicated at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem. The center more than doubles the department’s capacity to treat heart patients with 32 extra cardiac beds, 11 post-catherization beds and 11 intensive care private rooms.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/10-million-heart-center-dedicated-at-jerusalems-hadassah-hospital/

Successful 2nd heart op for Syrian baby. I wrote previously (31st Dec) about a seriously ill baby boy, born to Syrian refugees in Cyprus being flown to Israel for emergency heart surgery. He is now making a good and steady recovery in Israel’s Sheba Hospital after a second heart operation.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/seriously-ill-syrian-baby-recovering-after-major-heart-surgery-in-israel/

Stay healthy, the Israeli way. This video highlights seven ways that Israelis exercise to stay fit and healthy.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/GohnTcfXisg?rel=0

Think positively to beat cancer. I reported previously (24th July) that Israel Technion researchers have proved that positive emotions have the ability to shrink tumors. Here is another couple of articles about their research.
https://www.israel21c.org/can-positive-emotions-shrink-cancer-tumors/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05283-5

Smartphone urine tests. (TY Hazel) I reported previously (22 April) on Israeli start-up Healthy.io that allows patients to test their urine at home, using a smartphone camera. Patients with kidney disease (for example) can closely monitor their condition. Siemens Healthineers is now partnering Healthy.io to provide testing kits.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-healthineers-healthy-io/siemens-healthineers-partners-with-healthy-io-for-smartphone-based-urine-testing-idUSKCN1MX1SE https://healthy.io/

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Support for families of a cancer patient. Israel Cancer Support Network (ICSN) offers cancer patients and their families the support they need to meet the challenges of suffering through painful cancer treatments. ICSN and its 2,000 volunteers have helped over 11,000 families from giving lifts to helping to access top doctors.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/giving-cancer-patients-hope-is-as-valuable-as-giving-them-medicine/

Bedouin woman joins Israeli police rescue unit. I’ve included articles previously (see here) about Bedouin Muslim women integrating into Israeli society. Now Rana Jaboua, a resident of the Bedouin Negev village of al-Fara’a has become the first female Bedouin in Israel to join the Israel Police Rescue team.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/first-israeli-bedouin-woman-joins-police-rescue-unit/2018/10/23/

Israeli Arab woman goes to Stanford. Israeli Arab Mira Shalah gained her BSc at the University of Haifa and her PhD in Computer Science at Israel’s Technion Institute. She is now doing post-doctorate research into Computational Geometry at Stanford University, California. http://web.stanford.edu/~mshalah/home
https://www.graduate.technion.ac.il/Theses/Abstracts.asp?Id=29921

IDF helps Jordanian flood rescue. The Israel Defense Forces sent its elite 699 search-and-rescue unit to Jordan to assist the rescue operation after a tour bus was hit by flash flood near the Dead Sea. They deployed rescue equipment, established a ground command team and illuminated the area from the air.
http://www.bicom.org.uk/news/israeli-team-joins-jordanian-forces-flash-flood-rescue-operation/
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israel-sends-elite-rescue-unit-to-Jordan-after-flood-kills-at-least-14-570347

Israeli embassy in Rwanda. Israel is to open an embassy in the central African state of Rwanda in its capital, Kigali. Although the two countries have maintained diplomatic relations for years, previous contacts have been held via the Israeli Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/10/15/deepening-diplomatic-partnership-with-africa-israel-to-open-rwanda-embassy/

Chinese VP visits Israel. China’s Vice-President Wang Qishan made an important visit to Israel. After meetings with Israel’s President and Prime Minister, he addressed the fourth meeting of the Israel-China Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation. He also signed eight joint science and technology agreements.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/china/netanyahu-welcomes-chinese-vice-president-wang-qishan-at-foreign-ministry-avriel-hall/2018/10/24/ http://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/china/prime-minister-chinese-vp-chair-fourth-meeting-of-israel-china-joint-committe-on-innovation-cooperation/2018/10/24/

Thank you for helping save Thai boys. (TY Hazel) Thailand’s Ambassador to Israel Penprapa Vongkovit, thanked Israel’s Maxtech for its communication technology used in the rescue of the Thai boys earlier this year. She also thanked Israel for “its special navy team and specialized diving helmets to assist the operation.”
https://www.jpost.com/International/Thai-Ambassador-thanks-Israeli-company-for-aid-in-rescue-of-Thai-boys-570129

Guatemala’s new Ambassador. The Friends of Zion Museum hosted newly-confirmed Guatemalan Ambassador to Israel Mario Bucaro following his official presentation to President Reuven Rivlin. Guatemala has been a strong supporter of Israel in the United Nations in recent years and moved its embassy to Jerusalem.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Friends-of-Zion-hosts-event-to-honor-Guatemalas-new-ambassador-to-Israel-570356

Israeli PM visits Oman. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, made a “not so secret” visit to the Gulf nation of Oman – the first by an Israeli leader in 22 years. He discussed the peace process with Sultan Qaboos bin Said. See the extra-ordinary video of the event on the official Oman TV channel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-dramatic-sign-of-warming-ties-netanyahu-makes-secret-visit-to-oman/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEY3pISouJg

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Rent an Israeli space lab. For a tiny fraction of the development budget for a new treatment, you can now rent one of the orbiting “minilabs” of Israel’s SpacePharma for up to six months. Clients run experiments in zero gravity by remote control from Earth. SpacePharma has two tiny milk-carton size minilabs already in operation.
https://www.israel21c.org/rocket-launched-minilabs-enable-pharma-rd-in-zero-gravity/

Using AI to find a job. Israeli-founded startup Stellares helps tech companies find talented workers using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Tel Aviv R&D center has developed a questionnaire plus an algorithm that crawls the web and matches a candidate’s digital footprint with the job specification and company’s ethos.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tech-job-matching-startup-raises-3-5-million/

1-hour delivery with AI and robots. Israel’s CommonSense Robotics has launched a service that enables even small retailers to offer one-hour, on-demand grocery deliveries to consumers. Robots at CSR warehouses in urban areas use Artificial Intelligence to retrieve produce for humans to pack. Robots then dispatch orders.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/253718
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/15/commonsense-robotics/
https://www.cs-robotics.com/ https://www.youtube.com/embed/d34INdmwyIo?rel=0

Tel Aviv & Chicago pair up to innovate. Tel Aviv University is partnering with the University of Chicago, University of Illinois and Northwestern University to establish the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) in central Chicago. The DPI will focus on research and innovation into cyber security, AI, big data and food security.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Tel-Aviv-and-Chicago-pairing-up-to-advance-research-and-innovation-570182 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j0Xfm8M4Yw&t=157

Punjab seeks Israeli help to recycle water. (TY Hazel) Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh held extensive talks in Jerusalem with Israel’s Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Yuval Steinitz, on the issue of water management to boost water conservation in Punjab. Four Memorandum of Understanding were signed.
http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/-punjab-cm-seeks-israels-cooperation-in-recycling-of-sewerage-water-in-major-cities-6044 http://nocamels.com/2018/10/india-punjab-israel-agriculture-water-tech/

SodaStream’s “holy turtle” cleans sea of plastic waste. Israel’s SodaStream (now part of PepsiCo) has launched “Holy Turtle” – a 300m contraption that recovers plastic waste from open waters. During the 4-day pilot, the device captured tons of waste floating in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Roatán, Honduras.
http://nocamels.com/2018/10/sodastream-holy-turtle-environment-honduras/

Israeli tech used in Florida rescue missions. I reported previously (10 Mar)on Israel’s Edgybees whose First Response app saved lives after Hurricane Irma and the California wildfires. Edgybees’ Augmented Reality (AR) system was used recently during Hurricane Michael, by response teams in Florida and Missouri.
http://nocamels.com/2018/10/israel-startup-florida-hurricane-michael/

Alexa – vacuum seal my strawberries. Israel’s Silo Kitchen is developing an Alexa-controlled food vacuum container system that extends food-life up to 5-times. Silo aimed to raise $80,000 on Kickstarter but after just 10 days it had pledges worth over half a million dollars. Very informative video.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748070,00.html
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simplifyfreshness/your-remarkably-simple-one-touch-connected-vacuum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF6TnyBl5QU

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

New Jersey Governor’s first Israel mission. New Jersey Governor Philip Dunton Murphy visited Israel on his first commercial mission to strengthen economic and technological ties between his state and the State of Israel. A new agreement was signed that aims to triple the current $1 billion annual trade between the two states.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-jersey-israel-sign-accord-to-boost-tech-economic-cooperation/
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/ny/new-jersey-governor-welcomed-on-first-mission-to-israel-plants-tree-in-jerusalem/2018/10/23/

OBE for Israeli businessman. Israel’s Haim Shani, who chairs the UK Israel Tech Hub, is to be appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). British Ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey said, “Haim has helped transform the tech partnership between the two countries.”
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/israeli-businessman-to-be-given-obe-by-the-queen-for-his-economic-diplomacy/

Top multinationals invest in Israeli fund. Israel’s Team8 (formed from ex-IDF security unit 8200) has setup a second $85 million fund for technologies and startups focused on big data and artificial intelligence. It has attracted 14 multinationals including Walmart, Softbank, Airbus, Microsoft, Moody’s, Cisco and Barclays.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748243,00.html

Best Israeli workplaces. Google is still the best company to work for in Israel, with Facebook second as per last year. But Microsoft jumped ten places to 3rd, displacing Intel which dropped to 7th. The Dun & Bradstreet list analyzes wages, benefits, career development, support provided, employment stability, and wellness.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748431,00.html

Tech salaries keep rising. High demand for Israeli tech talent continues to push up local wages. The average pay for software professionals in Israel in the third quarter of 2018 increased by 6% year-to-year. Algorithm developers are the highest paid, but data scientists had the biggest pay rise (15%).
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748076,00.html

CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT

Open houses and busy streets. (TY Sharon) Jerusalem’s annual Batim MaBefnim, (Houses from Within) are free open houses, with over 100 options in all parts of the city. This article highlights the Art Museum in Heichal Shlomo, Beit Kadima, the Miffal, Hansen House and especially Villa Mamilla.
http://rjstreets.com/2018/10/24/jerusalem-open-houses-and-busy-streets/

Come aboard for Eurovision. Tens of thousands are set to visit Tel Aviv in May for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. To address the increased demand for accommodation, the Tel Aviv Municipality has hired a cruise ship with 500 cabins, which will dock near Tel Aviv and provide low-cost beds for many of the visitors.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Tel-Aviv-organizing-cruise-ship-hotel-for-Eurovision-570103

Israel’s 95-year-old skydiver. Walter Bingham, broadcaster on Arutz Sheva (Israel National Radio) waited until the grand age of 95 before he took to the air for his first skydiving experience. From 13,000 feet, he witnessed some amazing views of the Holy Land.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-meet-israels-95-year-old-skydiver/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/dVMnUSoLJw4?rel=0

Youth Olympics Israeli medal winners. At the Youth Olympic games in Buenos Aires, swimmer Anastasya Gorbenko won gold in the women’s 200m individual medley while Denis Loktev won bronze in the men’s 200m freestyle. Yonatan Fridman and Noa Kazdo Yakar won the acrobatic gymnastics mixed pair silver medal.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/israels-youth-olympic-team-brings-home-three-medals/
https://www.buenosaires2018.com/results/en/swimming/results-women-s-200m-individual-medley-fnl-000100-.htm?lng=en

Israel’s Alon Day wins NASCAR Euro again. Israel’s Alon Day had an impressive start to finish win at Belgium’s Circuit Zolder on the last day of the season to win the Euro NASCAR championship for the second consecutive year. Day’s seventh victory this year matches the record for the most wins in a season.
https://autoweek.com/article/nascar/alon-day-captures-second-whelen-nascar-euro-championship-circuit-zolder

THE JEWISH STATE

Look what they’ve done to the synagogue. (TY Erez) The ancient synagogue at Ein Keshatot in the Golan is now open to the public, nearly 1200 years after it was destroyed by an earthquake. 15 years of reconstruction involved 3D laser scanning technology and the numbering and positioning of each displaced brick.
https://hike-israel.com/2018/09/29/ein-kshatot/

US-Israeli stamps for Hanukah. (TY Sharon) US Ambassador David Friedman and Israel Cultural Minister Ayoub Kara, unveiled new Hanukah stamps at the American Center in Jerusalem. A parallel ceremony held in the Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island was live-streamed to the Jerusalem location.
https://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=37&ARTICLE_ID=109180
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ARTAlmi7TY?rel=0

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Today’s female Democrat ‘leaders’ make for a sorry spectacle By Thomas R. Ascik

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/10/todays_female_democrat_leaders_make_for_a_sorry_spectacle.html

In the Kavanaugh controversy, the acts of three women, all high-visibility national figures, and all of whom have now become the leaders of the Democratic party and the MeToo movement, were central. In July 2016, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg injected herself into the presidential elections by the unprecedented declaration of a Supreme Court justice that she could not “imagine” what the country would be like “with Donald Trump as our president.” She then called Trump a “faker.” Trump quite correctly responded that she should resign, but no one else at the time seemed to care about the compromise of her “judicial restraint and demeanor” – and her judicial impartiality.

After President Trump’s July nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the 85-year-old Ginsburg reassured Democrats about the future of the Court by announcing her intention to serve “at least five more years.” Then, one day before Kavanaugh’s Senate testimony, she inserted herself into the proceedings of the Senate by effectively testifying for Kavanaugh-accuser Christine Blasey Ford. In declaring her support for the #MeToo movement, Ginsburg said “women nowadays are not silent about bad behavior.” She then emphasized her views by the if-looks-could-kill expression on her face at Kavanaugh’s swearing in.

Topping off all these acts and statements from Ginsburg in the last three months, perhaps, will be the release in November of the movie On the Basis of Sex, a full-length feature film about the early life and litigating career of the justice. Trailers show that the movie will be worshipful.

Hawaii Democrat senator Mazie Hirono, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who questioned Kavanaugh at his hearing, expressed her own self-restraint in her calm and rational consideration of Kavanaugh’s nomination by telling all men “in this country” to “shut up and step up.” Senate Democrats comprehensively denied due process to Kavanaugh; Hirono’s remark extended that to the rejection of the protection of political speech, which was the original purpose of the First Amendment.

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Report: Iran Was ‘Closer to Nuclear Weapons than We Thought’ By Rick Moran

By on October 28th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/report-iran-was-closer-to-nuclear-weapons-than-we-thought/

A document published by the Institute for Science and International Security says Iran was much closer to constructing a working nuclear weapon than was previously realized.

The paper, authored by Institute director David Albright and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) former deputy director General Olli Heinonen, concluded that “the information highlights dual-use, controlled equipment used at the site, such as a flash x-ray system utilizing a Marx generator and a variety of neutron measurement equipment, with electronics, designed to monitor high speed, explosively driven tests of a neutron source commonly used in a nuclear weapon.”

“The site” is Parchin military base, where the vital neutron measurement tests were being conducted. These tests were necessary to determine if Iran had a workable bomb or not. Too many neutrons bombarding the nuclear mass would cause a fizzle. Too few, a dud.

If Iran was at this stage of nuclear bomb development, the game was over.

Express:

The report, written by watchdog director David Albright, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) former Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen and other top experts, concluded the findings “shows that the Parchin site did house high explosive chambers capable for use in nuclear weapons research and development.”

The news follows a chilling warning by Iranian General Hossein Salami, second-in-command of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards force, who vowed to destroy Israel in a furious attack that raised fears of a major outbreak of conflict in the volatile Middle East. CONTINUE AT SITE

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A Republican Tries to Beat the Odds in New York A Keith Wofford victory in the attorney general’s race would be an upset—and a blow to the ‘resistance.’ By Gerard Gayou

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-republican-tries-to-beat-the-odds-in-new-york-1540594559

Not since 2002 has a Republican won statewide office in New York. Keith Wofford, a 49-year-old African-American Harvard Law grad who is running for attorney general, just may be up to the task. His candidacy is a long shot in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1, and an Oct. 1 Siena College poll had him 14 points behind Democrat Letitia James. But then Mr. Wofford’s entire life has been a long shot.

Mr. Wofford grew up on Buffalo’s gritty East Side, where his father held a union job at the local Chevrolet plant and his mother worked odd jobs. Leaving high school as a junior to attend Harvard on a scholarship, Mr. Wofford ended up working as a bankruptcy lawyer in Manhattan. Earlier this year he took a leave of absence from law firm Ropes & Gray, where he is a partner, to make his first foray into politics. Despite his underdog status, Mr. Wofford has attracted a stream of donations. He has more cash on hand than Ms. James and is blasting TV ads across the state in an 11th-hour bid to shock the political world.

A Wofford victory would be more than a storybook ending; it would also be a gut-punch to the legal strategy of the Trump “resistance.” Since President Trump took office, Albany has been the nucleus of a litigation campaign against the White House. Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman—who resigned in May after the New Yorker reported he had physically abused women—had appointed himself the administration’s chief legal antagonist. In 2017 alone, Mr. Schneiderman took more than 100 legal or administrative actions against the administration and congressional Republicans.

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The Annihilation of Iraq’s Christian Minority by Raymond Ibrahim

By on October 28th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13193/iraq-christians-annihilation

“I’m proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my country is not proud that I’m part of it. What is happening to my people [Christians] is nothing other than genocide… Wake up!” — Father Douglas al-Bazi, Iraqi Catholic parish priest, Erbil.

“Contacting the authorities forces us to identify ourselves [as Christians], and we aren’t certain that some of the people threatening us aren’t the people in the government offices that are supposed to be protecting us.” — Iraqi Christian man, explaining why Christians in Iraq do not turn to government authorities for protection.

Government-sponsored school curricula present indigenous Christians as unwanted “foreigners,” although Iraq was Christian for centuries before it was conquered by Muslims in the seventh century.

“Another wave of persecution will be the end of Christianity after 2,000 years” in Iraq, an Iraqi Christian leader recently said. In an interview earlier this month, Chaldean Archbishop Habib Nafali of Basra discussed how more than a decade of violent persecution has virtually annihilated Iraq’s Christian minority. Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Christian population has dropped from 1.5 million to about 250,000 — a reduction of 85%. During those 15 years, Christians have been abducted, enslaved, raped and slaughtered, sometimes by crucifixion; a church or monastery has been destroyed about every 40 days on average, said the archbishop.

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Alleged Fake Bomber is Fillipino Ex-Con Who Claimed To Be Seminole Daniel Greenfield

By on October 27th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/271760/alleged-fake-bomber-fillipino-ex-con-who-claimed-daniel-greenfield

I don’t think there’s a profile that fits this guy. There’s no point in even bothering to try.

He identified on Twitter with the “WeUnconquered SeminoleTribe”. His LinkedIn page connects him to the Philippines. He was allegedly a former male stripper.

Career decision of becoming a Horse Doctor was always a love for animals, which were here first and never do anything to anyone. And respect all living things. My family very sound Sayoc name in Medical field Grandfather Col. Baltazar Zook Sayoc that perfect the conversion oriental eye to Americanize. The first plastic surgeon to be observed by 8 million people in NY city Hospital. He over through Communist Philippines liberated island. He built all hospitals in Philippines islands and sets standards highest level. Most surgeon use his instruments which are patented. And a lot surgeon use today. Also Sayoc intl. schools marshals arts Kali that used to over throw communist party . Also one 5 Hero’s disciplinary my mother Madeline Sayoc Giardiello First president Pharmacy Cosmetic Association, Who Who Business Women of Year, Soul buyer consultant for Home Shopping Network, head number 1 marketing consul in World Aventura Marketing consul, up for city counsel women Aventura,

This doesn’t sound like English as a first language. Or it could just be mental illness.

At least one of his businesses seem to have involved male burlesque dancers. And he has an extensive criminal record for pretty much everything. The media is going to cynically try to connect him to Trump and Republicans, but he seems to have been a mentally unstable man with a lot of anger and obvious personal issues.

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Opening up the Package Plot But mysteries linger about Florida suspect Cesar Sayoc. Lloyd Billingsley

By on October 27th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271762/opening-package-plot-lloyd-billingsley

This week suspicious, potentially explosive packages were sent to former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former vice president Joe Biden, former CIA boss John Brennan (via CNN), former DNC boss Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Maxine Waters, billionaire George Soros, and actor Robert De Niro. Warnings that more packages had been sent turned out to be true.

On Friday, authorities intercepted suspicious packages sent to senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, former national intelligence director James Clapper, and billionaire Tom Steyer. Like the first group, all are prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump.

FBI director Christopher Wray described the packages as improvised explosive devices and not “hoax devices,” though according to a U.S. News report it was unclear whether they could be detonated. To date, none of the devices exploded and no one has been harmed, but Wray believes “we’ve caught the right guy.” That turned out to be Cesar Sayoc, 56, and the establishment media cranked out stories on what was known about him.

CNN reported that his van featured images of President Trump as well as a sticker reading “CNN Sucks.” A Facebook video “showed the bomb suspect in a MAGA hat at Trump rally in 2016” and Sayoc was a “registered Republican.” Sayoc also had a criminal record, with arrests for bomb threats, grand theft, battery, fraud, drug possession and probation violations. His lawyer Ronald S. Lowy told CNN Sayoc “didn’t fit it” and he questioned Sayoc’s ability to execute a scheme of explosive devices.

The New York Times learned that Cesar Altieri Sayoc’s father was from the Philippines and his mother from Brooklyn. He “frequently posted in right-wing circles and shared conservative news stories and condemnations of liberal politicians.” Relatives told the Times Sayoc was a body builder who had worked as a male stripper. He had money, lost it, and “wasn’t the most stable guy in the world.” A hairdresser described him as “very antisocial” and “a loner” who lived in his van. Sayoc was not quoted in the article.

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#ThemToo Earlier women’s crusades tell us much about the one currently shaking up American life. Kay S. Hymowitz

By on October 27th, 2018

https://www.city-journal.org/metoo-movement

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” We don’t know for sure whether it was Mark Twain who came up with that bon mot, but it has proved useful enough to deserve a creator of that stature. It comes in particularly handy in times like these, when many seemingly unprecedented events turn out to have familiar echoes from the past.

Such is the case with the #MeToo movement. Extraordinary as this post–Harvey Weinstein moment may seem, it’s not the first time that American women have risen up to protest male misbehavior. During the nineteenth century, women were in the vanguard of reform movements dedicated to fighting licentiousness, most of it male, and much of it sexual. If you squint hard enough to blot out the Victorian archaisms, these #MeToo prototypes can yield considerable insight into today’s reckoning.

Sociopolitical movements like #MeToo have taken root in many parts of the world, but no soil has been quite as fertile for them as that of the United States. Alexis de Tocqueville was struck by this peculiarity of American life during his canonical visit in 1831. “Not only do [Americans] have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part,” he wrote, “but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small.” The Frenchman had a theory about the origin of this early form of community organizing: in a democracy, he suggested, where, unlike aristocracies, power was diffuse, individuals had to join together in groups to wield any influence over their social arrangements. Associations—particularly in the Northeast and the Midwest—were a civic by-product of America’s brand of equality, freed from feudal, hierarchical memory.

If the 26-year-old wunderkind noticed the role that women were playing in these democratic associations, he didn’t mention it. Yet women were the majority, as well as the most energized, of converts during the Second Great Awakening, and they brought their enthusiasm to great moral causes of the era, beginning with a battle against prostitution, a fact of collective life in those days. Ladies of the night were ubiquitous in ports where sailors and other male transients congregated; according to historian Stephen Mintz, as many as 10 percent of women in antebellum cities at least occasionally walked the streets. In an economy that had yet to create jobs for textile “mill girls” and telephone operators, the world’s oldest profession was one of the few available to single women without means. It was a more lucrative choice than the even more prevalent domestic service, though it was not unknown for servants themselves to freelance during free hours. During the Great Awakening, evangelical ministers denounced the practice, but it was their female congregants who turned the cause into a Tocquevillian movement: in 1834, they founded the Female Moral Reform Society in New York. Within a few years, the society had 400 chapters, mostly in northeastern and midwestern states.

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Georgetown Prep after the Smear By Patrick Coyle

By on October 27th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/georgetown-prep-kavanaugh-confirmation-media-circus-damage/

The media circus is gone, but mess they left behind remains.

On the afternoon of Thursday, September 13, as parents arrived at our school to pick up students, a journalist from a major network camouflaged herself among them, avoiding identification at our front gate. She was subsequently found snooping around the halls of our main building and was escorted off campus. She later apologized.

But others soon followed. One reporter from a national newspaper deceived his way into our library so that he could rummage through old yearbooks. Some of our alumni had news crews staked out in front of their houses. Reporters were even harassing their elderly parents, tracking down home addresses and banging on doors, demanding interviews.

Journalists phoned us by the dozens, mostly demanding to know how long we had presided over a circus of drug and alcohol abuse, misogyny, and criminality. At least these reporters gave us the courtesy of a call. Many other national media outlets simply ran archly critical stories without bothering to contact us at all.

This was all necessary for American democracy, some of them explained, since one of our graduates had become a Supreme Court nominee. In a sense, that’s understandable. But as I learned firsthand, the lens trained on Georgetown Prep was warped, obscuring details that ran counter to preferred narratives, and the resulting portrait of our community was grossly distorted.

We were garishly described as an institution that “celebrated heavy drinking,” “a troubled, morally questionable symbol of a snobby elite [where] alcohol was an integral part of the school’s identity,” and a place where “disregard or mistreatment of women [was] widely accepted.” A “debauched . . . scene of cloistered young men.” And those are just a few such insults from the more than 60 articles that appeared about Prep in the Washington Post alone.

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Update: 11 Dead in Synagogue Shooting; Suspect Had ‘Assault Rifle’ and ‘At Least Three Handguns’ By Paula Bolyard

By on October 27th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/law-enforcement-update-on-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/

Law enforcement officials gave additional insight into Saturday’s shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue in an afternoon press conference.

Pittsburgh public safety director Wendell Hissrich told reporters, “There were 11 fatalities as a result of the shooting incident” perpetrated by Robert Bowers, 46, of Pittsburgh. Hissrich added, “There were no children” among the victims.

“At 9:55 this morning,” Hissrich said, “calls were received at the Allegheny County Emergency Operations Center that an active shooter was inside the building.”

“Apparently, an initial contact between the subject and the officers occurred, injuring two of the officers. Two additional officers were injured during the altercation — those were SWAT officers,” he continued. “Multiple agencies responded to this incident this morning and without their courage, this tragedy would have been far worse.”

In addition to the 11 fatalities, there were six people injured, including four police officers, he said. That number does not include the suspect.

Pittsburgh police chief Scott Schubert said that he arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting. “Watching those officers run into the danger to remove people to get them to safety was unbelievable,” he said, noting that the injured officers and SWAT team members are in stable condition at area hospitals.

FBI Special Agent Bob Jones described the attack as the “most horrific crime scene I’ve seen in 22 years with the FBI.” Members of the Tree of Life synagogue “conducting a peaceful service in their place of worship were brutally murdered by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith,” he said. CONTINUE AT SITE

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