GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

One million vaccinations.  Over a million Israelis have now had their first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. More than 150,000 vaccinations are being administered each day – the highest per capita in the world. The number of vaccinated Israelis is now double the total number that have ever been infected with Covid-19.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/294096

https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-health-minister-meet-500000th-israeli-to-receive-covid-19-vaccine/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-smashes-goal-of-150000-daily-covid-19-vaccinations/

Positive results for Covid-19 treatment. Preliminary data from Phase 2 trials of opaganib from Israel’s Redhill (reported here previously) on 40 hospitalized Covid-19 patients showed positive results. Patients receiving opaganib had significantly reduced dependence on ventilators and faster time to discharge.

https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/redhill-s-phase-2-3-covid-19-candidate-opaganib-reduces-ards-related-blood-clotting-in-preclinical-model-813822864.html

Treatment may cure genetic deafness. One in 400 children are born with a genetic mutation that causes hearing loss. Tel Aviv University scientists have developed a harmless synthetic virus that replaces defective genes with healthy genes. It may prevent deafness when injected into the inner ear hair cells soon after birth.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-develop-gene-therapy-to-restore-hearing-in-children/

https://english.m.tau.ac.il/news/gene-therapy-for-deafness

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.202013259

Futuristic surgery today. Doctors at Israel’s Galilee Medical Center successfully completed the first-ever repair of a fracture in the floor of an eye socket using augmented reality (AR) and 3D technology. A CT-scan of the patient’s eye was used to 3D print the new socket and the surgeon used HoloLens AR glasses to insert it.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israel-performs-first-ever-augmented-reality-3d-eye-socket-surgery-653901

15-minute Covid-19 test. Several years ago, Bar-Ilan University’s Dr. Amos Danielli founded the biotech MagBiosense (reported here previously) to commercialize his innovative device to detect an imminent heart attack and also to diagnose the Zika virus. He has now adapted it to diagnose Covid-19 in just 15 minutes.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3884554,00.html    https://magbiosense.com/

https://www.israel21c.org/israel-races-to-find-solutions-for-coronavirus/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8mwBY4UjEc

Race for the vaccine. An opportunity on 5th Jan to attend a Technion UK webinar featuring Professor Yotam Bar-On of Israel’s Technion Institute. Professor Bar-On is a virologist, specializing in COVID- 19 who will speak about immunity, about the virus itself along with its variants and how different vaccines work.

https://technionuk.org/event/race-for-the-vaccine/

Genesis winner donates prize to medical startups. Israel’s 2019 Genesis Prize winner, Natan Sharansky, donated his $1 million prize to 10 Israeli startups developing innovations to combat Covid-19. The 10 are Kamada, Pluristem, Sight Diagnostics, Sonovia, Biobeat, EyeControl, K Health, Picodya, IAI and MyZeppi.

https://nocamels.com/2020/12/sharansky-genesis-prize-10-companies-covid/

https://www.genesisprize.org/press-center/2020-12-24-genesis-prize-and-start-up-nation-central-announce-winners-of-the-competition-in-honor-of-natan-sharansky

Who Would Give a Tyrant Like Andrew Cuomo More Power? The New York State Assembly By Stacey Lennox

https://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/stacey-lennox/2021/01/02/who-would-give-a-tyrant-like-andrew-cuomo-more-power-the-new-york-state-assembly-n1300865

A new bill in the New York State Assembly seeks to give one of the nation’s worst governors, Andrew Cuomo, even more power. It is currently sitting in committee, and hopefully, New Yorkers will see it die there. Assembly Bill A416 is scheduled for the 2021-22 legislative session. It amends the public health law to give the governor additional powers after they declare a state of health emergency due to an epidemic. I guess that means now.

The additions to the law allow the governor, after consulting with the health commissioner, to order the removal or detention of groups or individuals deemed to be a suspected or actual case, contact, or carrier of a contagious disease that, in the governor’s opinion, poses a significant threat to public health. The governor or his delegees in the state’s public health apparatus may order the removal or detention. They only need to identify individuals and groups by a reasonably specific description.

Individuals could be detained until the health department determines they are no longer contagious or not infected. The good news is you can only be detained for three business days before having an opportunity to be heard. In other words, the Assembly is about to make it easier to detain someone suspected of having COVID-19 than someone who is having an obvious mental health crisis.

The good news is that the bill requires an individual’s medical needs and condition to be assessed regularly and they must be detained in a manner that includes isolation and infection control procedures. So that you know, prisons fit that bill. Yet New York has released thousands of inmates under the pretext of COVID-19. So detaining a few contrary citizens makes complete sense in this environment. Nothing to see here, right? Let’s look at the groups that are suing Governor Cuomo and the tactics he has used to quell dissent against his decrees.

From Cool to Cringe: what’s happened to American culture? From Miles D to Cardi B Will Lloyd

https://spectator.us/american-cool-cringe-end/

Back in March, around 4,000 years ago, the world was ending. Plague swept in from the east like a horde. Clam-tight lockdowns, unthinkable even days before, were announced everywhere. Who could save us?

On March 18 our prayers were answered. An honor roll of Hollywood bluebloods took action. Assembled by Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, they created a video montage cover of John Lennon’s masterpiece — yes! — ‘Imagine’, which she posted — thank goodness! — on Instagram. ‘We’re all in this together,’ said Gadot’s expensive oval face, and, in a sense, she was right. Will Ferrell and Mark Ruffalo, Sia and Zoë Kravitz, Norah Jones and Amy Adams: they were all in this big wet bathful of tears together. The stars were taking a forced break from riding their chariots through the clouds. They were just like you, just like me. ‘Imagine there’s no religion,’ they sang, as every church, mosque and synagogue in two hemispheres was padlocked and shuttered.

Now, on magazine paper, these were some of America’s coolest people. Tasteformers, platinum artists, red-carpeters — a glittering bunch. But this video, which quickly reached 10 million views, was mortifying. The global embarrassment it inflamed could’ve roasted the thigh fat off a regiment of sumo wrestlers. There was nothing to envy. It was tone-deaf, cheesy and, above all, cringe.

It wasn’t a one-off.

Somehow, being Cool blew up in America’s face. Cool became cringe, and cringe is everywhere you look. When the third millennium began, Tom Wolfe could write about ‘American superiority in all matters of science, economics, industry, politics, business, medicine, engineering, social life, social justice, and, of course , the military’.That superiority evaporated, leaving behind large, damp patches of awkwardness. Yes, America is still culturally hegemonic — no doubt there. But it’s limping along on anti-prestigious name recognition. Yes, through Netflix and Disney, Penguin Random House and Apple, Facebook and Twitter, and by a million other means, American mores are broadcast, published, disseminated; stubbornly world- dominating, ploddingly imitated. Yes, the United States still gives off a massive light. But it’s not the hopeful shine of a beacon on a hill. It’s the flickering glare of a dumpster fire.

Our Electoral Crisis: The Call of Conscience on Jan. 6 By Frank Miele

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/01/02/our_electoral_crisis_the_call_of_conscience_on_jan_6_144954.html

History beckons to all, but only a few dare follow. Such a person is Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has braved the derision of the news media and announced that he will not rubber-stamp the putative election victory of Joe Biden.

On Wednesday, Hawley will rise during a joint session of Congress and object to the certification of electors from states where fraud is suspected. In that task, he will join perhaps dozens of House members who say they have studied the evidence and cannot in good conscience declare Biden the victor in several states where fraud has been alleged.

Whether any of Hawley’s Senate colleagues will join him is unknown. Soon-to-be-sworn-in Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has hinted that he plans to object to the certification, but he has not committed to doing so.

It doesn’t matter. Only one senator and one member of the House need to object to the electors of any state in order to force a hearing. As long as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can’t cow Hawley into silence, the process will play out, and history will judge who stood and delivered and who ducked and cowered.

Mind you, there is no reason to expect that the Jan. 6 session of Congress will result in certification of President Trump as the victor of the 2020 election. Despite the extensive evidence of fraud that has been amassed, this vote will be an exercise in raw political power, not an expression of blind justice. Probably the best that Trump supporters can hope for is a fair hearing before the American people regarding the reason why doubts exist as to the legitimacy of Biden’s apparent victory. When it is over, Biden will be holding the reins of government, but he may not have the consent of the governed.

Black Lives Matter Vandalizes St. Patrick’s Cathedral… Again Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/01/black-lives-matter-vandalizes-st-patricks-daniel-greenfield/

During the original wave of mostly violent Black Lives Matter race riots, St. Patrick’s Cathedral was one of their targets and was hit with BLM graffiti. 

Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance however decided to give BLM race rioters a pass while trying to prosecute a woman who called the police in Central Park.

The Manhattan district attorney’s poor relationship with the police had cratered when he announced that he was giving Black Lives Matter rioters a pass. That included the BLM racist who had scrawled obscene and hateful graffiti on the walls of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

he Queens man arrested for scarring the landmarked façade of St. Patrick’s Cathedral during a George Floyd protest is now free — because the Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute him.

Yadir Avila Rosas, 26, was taken into custody at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, an NYPD spokeswoman told The Post.

Police charged Rosas with criminal mischief in the third degree and making graffiti, alleging that he was the “getaway driver” for two women who tagged the famous house of worship with spray-painted slogans on May 30.

But an expected Saturday afternoon arraignment never happened, at the DA office’s discretion.

Now here we go again.

Vandals tagged St. Patrick’s Cathedral with anti-police graffiti early on New Year’s Day, according to the NYPD.

The Challenge of Marxism by Yoram Hazony (August 16, 2020)

https://quillette.com/2020/08/16/the-challenge-of-marxism/

I. The collapse of institutional liberalism

For a generation after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, most Americans and Europeans regarded Marxism as an enemy that had been defeated once and for all. But they were wrong. A mere 30 years later, Marxism is back, and making an astonishingly successful bid to seize control of the most important American media companies, universities and schools, major corporations and philanthropic organizations, and even the courts, the government bureaucracy, and some churches. As American cities succumb to rioting, arson, and looting, it appears as though the liberal custodians of many of these institutions—from the New York Times to Princeton University—have despaired of regaining control of them, and are instead adopting a policy of accommodation. That is, they are attempting to appease their Marxist employees by giving in to some of their demands in the hope of not being swept away entirely.

We don’t know what will happen for certain. But based on the experience of recent years, we can venture a pretty good guess. Institutional liberalism lacks the resources to contend with this threat. Liberalism is being expelled from its former strongholds, and the hegemony of liberal ideas, as we have known it since the 1960s, will end. Anti-Marxist liberals are about to find themselves in much the same situation that has characterized conservatives, nationalists, and Christians for some time now: They are about to find themselves in the opposition.

This means that some brave liberals will soon be waging war on the very institutions they so recently controlled. They will try to build up alternative educational and media platforms in the shadow of the prestigious, wealthy, powerful institutions they have lost. Meanwhile, others will continue to work in the mainstream media, universities, tech companies, philanthropies, and government bureaucracy, learning to keep their liberalism to themselves and to let their colleagues believe that they too are Marxists—just as many conservatives learned long ago how to keep their conservatism to themselves and let their colleagues believe they are liberals.

This is the new reality that is emerging. There is blood in the water and the new Marxists will not rest content with their recent victories. In America, they will press their advantage and try to seize the Democratic Party. They will seek to reduce the Republican Party to a weak imitation of their own new ideology, or to ban it outright as a racist organization. And in other democratic countries, they will attempt to imitate their successes in America. No free nation will be spared this trial. So let us not avert our eyes and tell ourselves that this curse isn’t coming for us. Because it is coming for us.

In this essay, I would like to offer some initial remarks about the new Marxist victories in America—about what has happened and what’s likely to happen next.

UNREPORTED TRUTHS ABOUT COVID-19 AND LOCKDOWNS: Combined Parts 1-3: Death Counts, Lockdowns, and Masks Paperback – by Alex Berenson

https://www.amazon.com/UNREPORTED-TRUTHS-ABOUT-COVID-19-LOCKDOWNS/dp/1953039103/ref=zg_bsnr_books_53?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RBY8TCS8A4MX1CT3XESD

Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson offers all a combined version of three booklets in the controversial and best-selling Unreported Truths about Covid series – at one low price.Since the publication of the first booklet in June, Unreported Truths has offered an honest counterpart to over-the-top media coverage about the risks of the coronavirus and ways to stop it. Part 1 focused on the ways governments count and report Covid-19 deaths. Part 2 covered the history of lockdowns and the evidence that they work – or don’t. And Part 3 gave the same treatment to masks and mask mandates.All three booklets draw on primary sources like Centers for Disease Control reports, news articles, and scientific papers – and all three offer direct links to the material so that you the reader can judge it for yourself.With a quarter-million copies sold, Unreported Truths has become an independent journalism phenomenon. And as the fight over our response to Covid drags on, knowing the facts is more important than ever! Now, for the first time, all three booklets are available in a single package. Whether you are wondering about the series, have read one booklet but are interested in the others, or simply want them together for convenience, the Combined Edition offers fresh flexibility.With a new introduction!

In 2021, let’s challenge green tyranny Tim Black

http://www.spiked-online.com/2020/12/31/in-2021-lets-challenge-green-tyranny/

At the start of the year, the world’s plutocrats gathered alongside their political allies in Davos for the World Economic Forum, and listened excitedly while special guest Greta Thunberg berated them for not going far enough in the fight to save the planet. It was a telling moment, capturing just how central environmentalism – especially today’s self-flagellating, end-of-days version – now is to the worldview of the West’s political, business and cultural elites.
 

It has been quite the rise. For much of environmentalism’s history, it was largely on the fringes of elite discourse, not at the centre. It was the counter-enlightenment preserve of landed aristocrats, disillusioned Tories (the origins of the Green Party), and the New Left. Not the mission statement of prime ministers, multinationals and the very institutions of globalist rule, from the EU to the UN.

But that is what it has become in recent decades: the hug-a-husky purpose of governments; the corporate social responsibility of international conglomerates; the cause to unite nations.

Two key factors account for its ascendency: the long-standing demoralisation of capitalism, and the emergence of essentially technocratic governments after the end of the Cold War. In the anti-modern narrative of environmentalism, these managerial elites found their raison d’etre: to manage the risks and the threats produced by industrial modernity. It even provided them with an ultimate aim: to manage us out of environmental disaster.

But environmentalism has always been more than just a story appended to ‘third way’ governing. It is itself essentially technocratic. It invests authority in ‘the science’ and the expert at the expense of the demos.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s House Vandalized Over Stimulus Bill By Samuel Allegri

https://www.theepochtimes.com/senate-majority-leader-mitch-mcconnells-house-v

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Louisville house was found vandalized on Friday.

White spray paint on the door read “Weres my money [sic]”.

The quote is most likely referring to McConnell blocking the pandemic stimulus package that included $2,000 stimulus checks for Americans that was backed by President Donald Trump.

Besides the main door, red and white spray paint could be seen from the WDRB footage, that reads “Mitch kills … (illegible)”

“I’ve spent my career fighting for the First Amendment and defending peaceful protest. I appreciate every Kentuckian who has engaged in the democratic process whether they agree with me or not,” Sen. McConnell said in a statement released after the vandalism occurred, “This is different. Vandalism and the politics of fear have no place in our society.”

“My wife and I have never been intimidated by this toxic playbook. We just hope our neighbors in Louisville aren’t too inconvenienced by this radical tantrum,” McConnell said.

The Republican Party of Kentucky wrote on Twitter: “Vandalism is reprehensible and there’s no place in our politics for acts like this. Kentuckians deserve better and the Democrats should join us in condemning this act of vandalism.”

The Governor of Kentucky also wrote about the incident, reprimanding the acts.

More than 400 Ex-intelligence Officers to Investigate Election Irregularities By Terri Wu

https://www.theepochtimes.com/more-than-400-ex-intelligence-officers-to-investigat

Over 400 people from the Intelligence Community (IC), military, law enforcement, and the judiciary have formed a loose network to investigate irregularities in the 2020 election.

Robert Caron, one of the organizers of this network, began his intelligence career with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He later worked for the Special Situation Group, a task force established by President George H.W. Bush that includes strategic planning, technologies, and foreign and domestic investigations.

He told The Epoch Times that he was recruited to the network in 2014, during which time many in the intelligence community (IC) were seeing an increase in improper operations. Many IC officers were withholding information from their leaders, and their leaders were withholding information from the public. Caron mentioned that in 2014, Lt. General Michael Flynn called out then-President Barack Obama for “not acting properly on intelligence.”

In the same year, Obama fired Flynn over management issues. On Aug. 7, 2014, Flynn left his post as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and ended his 33 years of an army career. After President Donald Trump pardoned Flynn last month, Flynn said in an interview with The New York Post that he was framed via the Russia-collusion investigation partly because Obama was afraid of Flynn’s ability to expose his corruption.

“President Obama was not acting properly on intelligence that he received concerning Benghazi,” Caron said, referring to an attack of U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the deaths of several U.S. officials. He said he believes it was then that a lot of people from the intelligence community got together and started recruiting people to join the network.