Temple Emanu-El Silences a Pro-Israel and Amplifies an Anti-Israel Voice by Alan M. Dershowitz

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18009/dershowitz-temple-emanu-el

[T]his is exactly how McCarthyism worked back in the 1950s. The institutions that banned people accused of being communists did not necessarily believe the accusations or think that they justified the ban, but they feared being tainted even by false accusations. So, they went along with the ban, just to be safe.

When I was first falsely accused of having had sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre in Epstein’s New Mexico ranch, his island and other specified locations, I stated categorically that I have documentary records that conclusively prove I could not have been in those locations during the relevant time periods. I produced cell-phone records, American Express charges, travel documents, recorded TV appearances, teaching schedules, calendars, court appearances and other documents that persuaded Giuffre’s own lawyers that it was “not possible” for her account to be true, and that—in her lawyer’s own words—she was “wrong … simply wrong” in accusing me.

We later found several “smoking gun” emails that proved she never met me or even heard of me. She had to be told by a journalist friend that I was a famous lawyer and that my name “was a good name for your [book] pitch,” even though there was “no proof” I had done anything wrong. Giuffre then followed the journalist’s advice and included my name in her book manuscript, but as a person she had seen, but never met, and certainly never had any relations with.

She told her best friend that she didn’t want to accuse me but “felt pressure” from her lawyers to do so. She also told her best friend’s husband that she never had sex with me. I have recordings confirming this.

We learned that at the same time Giuffre publicly accused me, her lawyers privately accused Wexner of nearly identical sexual misconduct and demanded a meeting to resolve her “claims” against him. Both Wexner’s wife and lawyer told me it was a “shakedown” (the word is recorded on a tape). It seems obvious that I was being used as a stalking horse to send the unmistakable message to Wexner that if he didn’t want to happen to him what happened to me—namely, a very public accusation—there are ways of resolving the matter.

When employment records proved she was 17, which is above the age of consent in New York and other states, she admitted she had been “mistaken.” She also admitted that she was “mistaken” when she said she had dinner with Al and Tipper Gore on Epstein’s island.

[H]er own lawyer has said on TV that based on his 11-year investigation, he does not believe that “any high-profile people” had sex with Giuffre. All of these high-profile people have categorically denied her accusations.

If her own lawyers don’t believe her sworn accusation—and they have said they do not—how can others credit them? That is probably why the U.S. Attorney’s office that indicted Epstein and Maxwell deliberately omitted Giuffre as a witness.

Nobody who has seen the evidence believes Giuffre, yet Temple Emanu-El nonetheless canceled me.

I offered to speak on how to combat these dangers [anti-Zionism and anti-Jewish attitudes in universities and among the hard left], but [t]he synagogue preferred to hear from Peter Beinart, who advocates the end of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and who supports boycotts against Israelis. At the same time that I was canceled, Beinart received a substantial speaker’s fee from the synagogue to make his case against Israel.

Silence is not the option in the face of unjustified McCarthyite censorship by a synagogue that claims to be a house of study, open-mindedness and Jewish values of dialogue and dissent. So, I will not quietly accept temple Emanu-El’s hypocrisy and cowardice. Nor should you.

Germany’s Multicultural Suicide by Giulio Meotti

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17971/germany-multicultural-suicide

“I will continue to take a critical stance against those… who use the liberal structure and tolerance of the constitution to impose totalitarian views of the state and who undermine the rules of the rule of law, using anti-Western indoctrination…. I will not adapt my vision of freedom of expression to… ‘Everyone has the right to freely express their opinion in a way that is not contrary to Sharia law'”. — Ralph Giordano, FAZ.net.

Once a dam breaks, there is only a competition to see who gives way faster.

The city is also changing the name of its squares…. The new name of a square in Aachen is “Moscheeplatz” (“Mosque Place”), a name desired by the Mayor Marcel Philipp, in agreement with the Turkish [Department of Religious Affairs] …

Then there is the question of demographics: 70% of Raunheim’s population are migrants. “Here we have more Muslims than Christians”. — Mayor Thomas Jühe, Social Democrats, Die Welt, November 16, 2021.

Despite this, they say that the “Great Replacement” and the Islamization of Europe are just conspiracy theories. Have we really understood what the Europe of tomorrow will be like?

“Western hegemony is over,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently. “It lasted centuries, but it is over”.

At the same time, the mosques of Cologne, the fourth-largest city in Germany, obtained permission to broadcast the call to prayer every Friday over minaret loudspeakers.

Congressional Report Details ‘Inhumane’ Conditions of January 6 Inmates

https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/07/congressional-report-details-inhumane-conditions-of-january-6-inmates/

A new report published by U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) office details “atrocious,” “cramped,” and “inhumane” conditions at the Washington, D.C., jail where January 6 defendants are being held ahead of trial. The congressional delegation had been turned away by jail officials in July and again initially in November, before they were given access.

The report, “Unusually Cruel,” was released by Greene’s office on Tuesday. It recounts a three-and-a-half-hour tour on November 4 of two Washington, D.C. jails by Greene along with Rep. Louie Gohmert and members of their staff. The purpose of the visit, according to the report, was to inspect the conditions of jails, “specifically the treatment of inmates held in the [Central Treatment Facility] in relation to the events of January 6, 2001.”

According to Greene’s office, “cells in the January 6 wing of the CTF were extremely small, composed of a single toilet, sink, and a small bed cot. The walls of the rooms had residue of human feces, bodily fluids, blood, dirt, and mold. The community showers were recently scrubbed of black mold—some of which remained. The interior walls of the common area were also freshly painted.”

“According to the inmates,” the report continues, “the U.S. Marshals had recently visited the area just days before, which caused a flurry of activity by guards to clean up the January 6 area while the U.S. Marshals were inspecting another area.”

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in October held D.C. Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth and warden Wanda Patten in contempt and ordered the Justice Department to investigate the CTF for possible civil rights violations after jail officials failed to provide treatment for a January 6 defendant in need of surgery. A November 2 report by the U.S. Marshals Service concluded the CTF failed to meet “minimum standards of confinement” and determined 400 inmates should be transferred to a different facility in Pennsylvania.

Read the entire report below.

A “Mini-Ice Age” Could Hit Earth By 2030, Scientists Warn

https://www.sciencenatures.com/2021/12/a-mini-ice-age-could-hit-earth-by-2030.html

Amid rising concerns over the effects of global warming, a group of scientists has claimed that the Earth could in a little over a decade be hit by a “mini ice age” that would freeze major rivers. The startling prediction is based on a mathematical model of the Sun’s magnetic energy which also suggests that Earth’s temperature will start dropping in 2021.

The plummeting temperature will then lead to something called the “Maunder minimum”, which is referred to a previous mini ice age that occurred between 1646 and 1715, turning London’s Thames into a frozen river, scientists claimed. The latest research, led by maths professor Valentina Zharkova at Northumbria University, is built on a previous research that predicts the movements of two magnetic waves produced by the Sun. It also foretells rapidly decreasing magnetic waves for three solar cycles that will begin in 2021, and last for as many as 33 years.

According to the model, the two magnetic waves will become increasingly offset during Cycle 25, which peaks in 2022. During Cycle 26 between 2030 and 2040, the waves will become out of sync, causing reduction in solar activity by as much as 60 percent.

 “In cycle 26, the two waves exactly mirror each other — peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the Sun,” Zharkova reportedly said in 2015 while conducting a previous research on the phenomenon. “Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other. We predict that this will lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder minimum’.”

Pearl Harbor 80th anniversary brings memories, tributes – and a lesson Lesson of Pearl Harbor is to be vigilant not only for the unexpected but also the expected By Walter R. Borneman

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/pearl-harbor-80th-anniversary-memories-tributes-lesson-walter-borneman
“As we honor those who gave their all 80 years ago, the need to adapt before the next attack remains the greatest lesson of Pearl Harbor. The aircraft carriers and air power that changed warfare in 1941 are still key components of American military might, but our enemies employ other weapons. Terrorism on unprecedented levels brought about the devastation of 9/11. Digital attacks on infrastructure and networks are evidence that keyboards more so than aircraft carriers are already fighting the next wars.”

The attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, 80 years ago today, remains one of the most traumatic events in American history. The date is a generational landmark comparable to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the horrors of Sept. 11. America changed overnight.  

Eighty years later, the Pearl Harbor tragedy is still highly personal. It continues to touch the families of the 2,403 servicemen who lost their lives and the many more who survived that Sunday morning. At a national level, the legacy of a country first surprised but then remarkably united still resounds. 

Many at Pearl Harbor found themselves on the front lines not out of patriotic pride or personal desire to see the world, but out of economic necessity. They were children of the Depression and the $5 or $10 most sent home out of monthly incomes of $36 for a seaman recruit helped to feed younger siblings. Less concerned with national strategies, their personal goals were a few dollars in their pockets, more letters from girlfriends and living to see another sunrise. 

Of a crew of 1,500 on the battleship Arizona, 1,177 sailors and Marines, including a rear admiral and the newest recruit, perished. Among the 78 men with a brother aboard, only 15 survived the attack – a staggering 80% casualty rate. The lucky ones lived with enormous personal grief and sometimes, profound survivor’s guilt. 

Clueless Joe Biden Can’t Grasp Any Of The Crises He’s Created

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/12/08/clueless-joe-biden-cant-grasp-any-of-the-crises-hes-created/

Has any administration been caught off guard on so many fronts as the Biden administration?

It was shocked by the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan. It was surprised by the surge in energy costs, the spike in inflation, and the depth of the supply chain crises. It hadn’t planned on a massive flood of illegal immigrants. It didn’t think COVID would still be around. It expected job growth and the economy to be stronger than it is. It didn’t foresee the sharp rise in crime.

Judson Berger of National Review Online had it right when he quipped that “the Biden administration sure is ‘surprised’ a lot.”

Just yesterday, the head of President Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, Cecilia Rouse, admitted that the White House didn’t expect a prolonged supply chain crisis. The administration “just didn’t fully appreciate that the supply system, the supply chain, wouldn’t be able to process through the elevated demand for durable goods,” she said.

These are just the surprises that team Biden has publicly admitted to.

What’s even more troubling is that Biden’s policies are (at least partly) to blame for every one of these crises. Worse still is the fact that Biden and his Keystone Cops cabinet are clueless about how to deal with any of them.

Take the nation’s ongoing supply chain crisis. Today, the Los Angeles ports are as clogged as they were before Biden announced his “solution.” The Marine Exchange of Southern California reports a backlog of 94 container ships as of Tuesday – right about where it was before Biden stepped in.

De Blasio’s Vaccine Mandate Looks Unlawful The Supreme Court has approved only far milder measures. By Eugene Kontorovich

https://www.wsj.com/articles/de-blasio-vaccine-mandate-looks-unlawful-shots-covid-19-private-employees-new-york-bill-11638916746?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio this week announced that all private-sector employees in the city will be required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of the month. The mayor calls his plan “Key to New York,” and its function is to lock hundreds of thousands of residents out.

The constitutionality of Mr. de Blasio’s mandate will turn primarily on Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), in which the Supreme Court upheld a smallpox vaccination law. The justices held that state governments have the power to exercise “self-defense” against infectious disease on behalf of the community, so long as the measures were “reasonable” and not “arbitrary.” But Mr. de Blasio’s measure goes far beyond the holding or reasoning of the precedent, to say nothing of the past century of constitutional doctrine.

Jacobson involved smallpox, which before its eradication was one of the most fearsome diseases known to man. It killed 30% of those infected. It disproportionately affected children and commonly left them disfigured by lesions. Covid-19 is serious, but it’s in a different league.

The town of Cambridge imposed a one-time fine of $5 (equivalent of roughly $160 today) on those who refused vaccination. The details of Mr. de Blasio’s scheme haven’t been announced—he promises “guidance” next week. But if it resembles President Biden’s federal mandates, it will impose mounting, ruinous fines. It isn’t the mild inducement the court upheld in Jacobson—it is pure coercion.

China Will Soon Lead the U.S. in Tech Beijing pulls ahead in 5G and artificial intelligence, while catching up in semiconductors. By Graham Allison and Eric Schmidt

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-will-soon-lead-the-us-in-tech-global-leader-semiconductors-5g-wireless-green-energy-11638915759?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns announced in October that the agency is establishing two new major “mission centers,” one focusing on China and the other on frontier technologies. This action reflects his judgment that China is the “most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century” and that the “main arena for competition and rivalry” between China and the U.S. will be advanced technologies. The question Americans should be asking is: Could China win the technology race?

A new report on the “Great Technological Rivalry” from Harvard’s Belfer Center answers: Yes. The report isn’t alarmist but nonetheless concludes that China has made such extraordinary leaps that it is now a full-spectrum peer competitor. In each of the foundational technologies of the 21st century—artificial intelligence, semiconductors, 5G wireless, quantum information science, biotechnology and green energy—China could soon be the global leader. In some areas, it is already No. 1.

Last year China produced 50% of the world’s computers and mobile phones; the U.S. produced only 6%. China produces 70 solar panels for each one produced in the U.S., sells four times the number of electric vehicles, and has nine times as many 5G base stations, with network speeds five times as fast as American equivalents.

In the advanced technology likely to have the greatest effect on economics and security in the coming decade—artificial intelligence—China is ahead of the U.S. in crucial areas. A spring 2021 report from the National Security Commission on AI warned that China is poised to overtake the U.S. as the global leader in AI by 2030.

An Education in the American Idea Mike Sabo

https://realclearwire.com/articles/2021/12/07/an_education_in_the_american_idea_806633.html

The American Idea podcast looks “to restore an understanding of the history and principles that show us what it means to be an American,” says Ashbrook Center executive director Jeff Sikkenga.

Presented by Ashbrook, the podcast “explores America’s Founding principles and their effect on American history and government.” Sikkenga notes that it “elevates lively and thoughtful conversations with renowned academics and public figures based on questions rooted in the fundamental documents and debates of America.” It’s what he calls “the Ashbrook way of teaching and learning.”

This approach, he says, transcends “accidents of time, place, class, and gender to pursue the truth with others through conversation.” It is an old idea of education, stretching back at least as far as Socrates and summarized in the Jeffersonian principle that “Almighty God hath created the mind free.” It’s neither about simply amassing information nor being subjected to indoctrination – rather, it amounts to a joint effort by teachers and students to pursue truth.

Greg McBrayer, the podcast’s executive producer and associate professor of political science at Ashland University, cites evidence from “study after study” showing that students “lack a basic civic understanding.” Unfortunately, he says that “few universities are filling in the gaps.” He points to a recent ACTA study that found “only 18% of American universities require a foundational course in U.S. history or government.” The podcast aims to correct this flaw by bolstering American civic knowledge.

Hosted by Sikkenga, conversations are centered around key American documents and speeches including the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” Calvin Coolidge’s speech on the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration, and Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural.

The America Idea podcast’s 16 episodes have featured Ashbrook’s own Christopher Burkett, John Moser, Jason Stevens, and McBrayer, and affiliated scholars including Lucas Morel, Joseph Fornieri, and Donald Drakeman. The most popular episodes feature journalist Mollie Hemingway, and, just recently, a special conversation with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Sikkenga calls hosting Vice President Pence a “great honor and a delightful surprise.” He notes that Pence was a “history major as an undergraduate and even wrote his senior paper on ‘The Religious Expression of Abraham Lincoln.’” Pence “knew a lot about American history and principles and clearly has thought about how to bring them to bear on contemporary political issues.”

The podcast’s producer and director – himself an Ashbrook alumnus – Tyler MacQueen reflects on the unique opportunity to speak to someone “who held the same office as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George H.W. Bush.” He reports that nearly half a million people – many of whom have not heard of Ashbrook previously – have listened to or watched the Pence conversation. (Episodes are available on Ashbrook’s YouTube channel.)

How American Technology Aids China’s Global Ambitions by Judith Bergman

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17945/china-american-technology

US technology has enabled China to build and successfully test an advanced nuclear-able hypersonic missile that could… evade US missile-defense systems, and succeed in striking the US mainland.

Overall, billions of dollars have been raised for Chinese companies producing computer chips, according to the Rhodium investigation.

Apart from investments, US companies are supplying Chinese companies with the trained manpower to boost their own microchip industry. China is intensively recruiting senior engineers and executives from US companies and their China affiliates.

The semiconductor field in China is booming: More than 22,000 new semiconductor companies were reportedly registered in China in 2020, and another 4,350 in the first two months of 2021.

Even though many of those companies might ostensibly operate for civilian purposes, China operates a strict policy of civil and military fusion. That policy boils down to an all-of-society effort towards boosting China’s military modernization through the use of all technological means at Chinese society’s disposal….

China has made AI its highest priority, vowing to lead the field globally by 2030. Like semiconductors, AI is a dual-use technology, used for civilian, as well as military purposes.

In 2017, for instance, American company Synopsys set up a $100 million strategic investment fund for the Chinese market “to collaborate with local companies and venture capital in investing in the areas of chip design, artificial intelligence cloud-computing, software security and EDA tools.”

In other words, American businesses rushing to invest in China — a country openly dedicated to unseating the US and dominating the planet “economically, militarily and technologically” — should have everyone worried.

US technology has enabled China to build and successfully test an advanced nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that experts and politicians fear could evade US missile-defense systems, and succeed in striking the US mainland.

“The People’s Liberation Army now has an increasingly credible capability to undermine our missile defenses and threaten the American homeland with both conventional and nuclear strikes,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), member of the House Armed Services Committee. “Even more disturbing is the fact that American technology has contributed to the PLA’s hypersonic missile program.”