NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

John McMillian Crime and History Academic historians avoid talking frankly about the twentieth century’s urban crime wave—and the one going on now.

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/crime-and-history

In Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe’s shimmering portrait of 1980s New York, Sherman McCoy’s father offers his son the following advice: if you want to live in the city, “you’ve got to insulate, insulate, insulate” yourself from crime and disorder. “The cynicism and smugness of the idea struck Sherman as very au courant,” Wolfe writes. “If you could go breezing down the FDR Drive in a taxi, then why file into the trenches of the urban wars?”

Academics are hardly less self-interested than Wall Street bond traders like the fictional McCoy. Indeed, scholars who hope to thrive in the American historical profession should “insulate, insulate, insulate” themselves from unfashionable topics—especially the crime crisis that plagued American cities in the last third of the twentieth century. If you can earn honors and accolades by condemning the carceral state and “warrior policing,” why venture into the vexing subjects of predatory crime or the crime-control strategies of the police?

Problem is, from the 1960s to the 1990s, urban crime was among the most significant domestic issues in the United States. It was an urgent matter of national concern, contributing to the changing complexion of our cities and to a political realignment that shapes our politics today. Yet scholars of recent U.S. history tend to downplay crime, either by minimizing its significance or by overzealously criticizing cops and the courts.

The reason for this is obvious, though rarely expressed. Left-wing intellectuals do not want us thinking too much about urban crime. When crime throws American cities into disarray—as has happened before and in some places is happening now—it is a bad look for the Left.  

Start with Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, one of the most influential scholarly books of the twenty-first century. Mass incarceration, Alexander writes, “is a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racial control,” designed perpetually to harm people of color—a “racial caste system.” Yet Alexander’s book should be infamous for its well-documented flaws. She defines “mass incarceration” as broadly as possible to make the problem seem worse than it is—she considers those on probation or parole, or awaiting sentencing, to be “incarcerated.” She doesn’t point out that in the early 1960s, violent crime began rising sharply along with nonviolent drug crimes. She doesn’t acknowledge that nonwhites drove the three-decade crime climb, or that urban African Americans are more likely to be victimized by crime, which is why many blacks supported the punitive crime measures she decries.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

How to End the Suffering of the Palestinians by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20315/palestinian-suffering

Palestinians in Lebanon are “prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law and engineering… are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon’s public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work…” — United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees, updated September 2020.

Arab citizens of Israel…. can own, buy and sell property, can vote and run in national and local elections, have equal access to free public healthcare, education and other services…. Many Arab Israelis serve in senior positions in hospitals, universities and colleges, courts, the civil service, and even in the Israel Police and the Israel Defense Forces.

Neither Syria nor Lebanon grants citizenship to the Palestinians living there…

[W]hat is happening inside the Syrian detention centers against the Palestinians is “a war crime by all standards.” – Action Group for Palestinians of Syria, alquds.co.uk, November 29, 2023.

By ignoring the profound suffering of the Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon, these self-proclaimed “pro-Palestinian” activists and groups are once again proving that their goal is not to help Palestinians, but only to make Israel into a pariah state.

If these activists and groups want to end the suffering of the Palestinians, they should be demanding that the Arab countries end their discriminatory and repressive measures against their Palestinian brethren. The activists and groups should also be raising the plight of the Palestinians at every available international platform instead of blaming Israel.

The real anti-Palestinians are not the Israelis at all, but the same old racist Jew-haters and antisemites who cannot be bothered to learn the truth when it comes to the actual human rights abuse of Palestinians: it is delivered from the hands of Arabs.

As the world’s attention is focused on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, including South Africa’s false “genocide” charges against Israel at the International Court of Justice, in Syria Palestinians are worried about a new government law that considers them “foreigners.”

By labeling the Palestinians as “foreigners,” the Syrian government is seeking to deprive them of the ability to purchase real estate. Like the majority of the Syrians, most of the Palestinians are Arab Muslims.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Illinois citizens group files formal complaint with state Board of Elections By Jack Gleason

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/01/illinois_citizens_group_files_formal_complaint_with_state_board_of_elections.html

A couple from Illinois, Jodie and Ken Zitko, have formed a group of concerned citizens who have been analyzing the Illinois state voter database.  They have found serious irregularities, detailed in a formal complaint filed with Bernadette Matthews, director of the Illinois State Board of Elections on December 21.

Here are some of their findings after almost 2,000 hours of analysis.  

There were over 300,000 votes from the 2020 election missing or deleted from the Illinois voter data prior to the conclusion of the federal retention period of 22 months.  
Over a four-year period, Illinois population decreased by 150,000, while the voter roll increased by 650,000.  
Over 2.5 million people had votes cast prior to their registration dates.  
More than 230,000 registrations show seemingly Illegal or illogical registration dates.  
There are more than 4 million apparent registration violations out of 8.9 million registrations.

This couple is not your ordinary pair of election sleuths.  Ken has been an MSSQL Data Analyst, DBA, and architect for 28 years, working with Fortune 50 companies, and Jodie has been working with “People Data” and analytics since the mid-’90s in large enterprise environments.  She’s a “subject matter expert” in integrated workplace management systems.  

They were able to view a copy of the Illinois State Board of Elections voter roll while working for a candidate for the U.S. Senate.  The couple also did an informal study of Illinois voting history, which began when they decided to check their own records.  They were shocked to find that their history showed votes cast in three midterm elections when they had never voted in a midterm election.  Ken did vote in the 2008 presidential election, but there was no indication of a vote.  

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

A 43% Drop in White Recruits Caused the Army’s ‘Recruitment Crisis’ The real military recruitment crisis is DEI discrimination against white people. January 16, 2024 by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-43-drop-in-white-recruits-caused-the-armys-recruitment-crisis/

The military recruitment crisis that has crippled our defense capabilities has been talked to death by generals, politicians and pundits who have blamed everything from rising minimum wages to obesity to Gen Z culture for the problem. They have raised enlistment bonuses to unprecedented levels, spent fortunes on ad campaigns that feature lesbian weddings and doubled down on DEI as the answer to the crisis. And yet the crisis has grown worse.

That’s because recruitment was a self-inflicted problem caused by a woke racist military.

Between 2018 and 2023, white Army recruits, once the mainstay, fell from a bare majority of 56% to a minority at 44%.

This was not an unintended effect, but policy.

“We are an Army that wants to look like America,” Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, the first black head of Army Recruiting Command, had proclaimed.

Gen. Gary Brito, the first black head of Army Training and Doctrine Command under whose purview recruiting falls, and the former deputy Army chief of staff for personnel, had boasted of Army “listening sessions” on racism, diversity and inclusion in order to maximize diversity.

Military brass had been tasked with creating a military that “looked more like America” and as a result the number of white Army recruits declined year by year and fell 43% from 44,042 in 2018 to 25,070 in 2023.

Black, Hispanic and other minority recruits became a majority, but there weren’t any more of them than there had been before. Minorities were joining the Army at the same rate as they had before, but with fewer white recruits they had become a majority by default.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Honoring the 75th Anniversary of Israel’s First Free Elections A milestone of free and open elections that puts the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and Israel’s neighbors to shame. Moshe Phillips

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/honoring-the-75th-anniversary-of-israels-first-free-elections/

January 25 is the 75th anniversary of Israel’s first open and free elections for its national legislature, the Knesset. Contrast that with the last time Palestinian Arabs had elections for their parliament—it was in 2006. And in 2006 the Hamas terrorist organization overwhelmingly won those elections. As a result of the Hamas win the Palestinian Authority’s presidential elections were postponed indefinitely and Mahmoud Abbas, elected in 2005, has never allowed elections again.

In its first 75 years Israel has had 25 national elections. Israel’s 1949 elections took place eight months after the Jewish State declared its independence and a month before Israel and Egypt signed its armistice agreement. In other words Israel was still at war when they held their first elections.

Israel’s commitment to free elections was without a doubt extremely important to Israel’s founding fathers otherwise they would not have held elections while a war was ongoing. Multiple parties led by Arabs participated in this initial Israeli election. Israel has always been an extremely vibrant democracy. Its politicians and jurists, as well as everyday Israelis, have gone to great lengths to ensure that anti-democratic ideas are marginalized while also protecting civil rights at the same time. None of the Arab nations that have fought wars against Israel have shown any interest in regular, free elections like the ones we have in the United States. Not one.

At the same time it is well worth noting that back in 2006 former president Jimmy Carter had a lead role in legitimizing Hamas as a political entity when nearly all Westerners had seen it as a terrorist organization up until then.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

John Kerry: Goodbye, Good Riddance

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/01/16/john-kerry-goodbye-good-riddance/

In a city overflowing with useless people, agencies and institutions, one of its most worthless figures is (finally) leaving his government post. While John Kerry is not quite going away, he is closer to the exit than the entrance. This is good for the country.

At some point this spring, Kerry will leave his billet as the administration’s climate envoy (see what we mean by “useless”?). He will reportedly join the re-election campaign of President Joe Biden, who was for decades useless but eventually became destructive, as the last three years have shown. If voters act rationally, Kerry, an insufferable hypocrite, will disappear from public life for good by the middle of November.

Ever an imperious scold, a male Karen before that term became widely used, Kerry has spent much of his adult life, more than four decades, implementing the Democratic Party dream, which is to convert our civil society to a political society. It’s a point we’ve made before that can’t be made enough:

The left, which has marched through our institutions, won’t rest until the civil society we have flourished in has been replaced with a political society. It craves a societal breakdown, to bury the political and social norms that stand in its path to unchallengeable power.

Most recently Kerry has served as the administration’s climate czar. It was the perfect post for a gasbag, providing its occupant endless opportunities to lecture climate crisis skeptics, whom Kerry surely regards as “stupid.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Federal Contracting Is the Next DEI Target Companies are required to meet strict hiring ‘goals’ that would be illegal anywhere else. By Michael Toth

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://www.wsj.com/articles/federal-contracting-is-the-next-dei-target-race-affirmative-action-supreme-court-ca60eaf4?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

Critics of diversity, equity and inclusion policies scored an important victory with last year’s Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and a symbolic one with Claudine Gay’s resignation as Harvard’s president. But while some universities and businesses have pivoted from DEI to get in line with the high court’s ruling, Washington’s diversity-industrial complex marches on. It’s time for the federal government to play by the same antidiscrimination rules private companies have to follow.

Federal affirmative-action programs originated in the Nixon administration. In 1969 Labor Secretary George Shultz launched the Philadelphia Plan, which required companies bidding for federal construction projects in that city to commit to minority hiring goals. Within a year of announcing the plan, the administration extended it to cover all federal agencies. Fifty-five years later, those rules are still in place.

Federal regulations require prime contractors or subcontractors “with 50 or more employees and a contract of $50,000 or more” to submit “a written affirmative action program” for each of their locations. The rules dictate that a contractor’s workforce should “reflect the gender, racial and ethnic profile of the labor pools from which the contractor recruits and selects.” Employing less than 80% of the local share of “any race, sex, or ethnic group” is categorized as an “adverse impact.” Failure to comply with these federal diversity mandates could mean the cancellation of existing contracts, and violators could be barred from doing future business with the federal government. It’s safest to hire by the numbers.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Ramaswamy Suspends Campaign after Poor Iowa Caucus Finish, Endorses Trump By Brittany Bernstein

Posted By on January 16th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ramaswamy-drops-out-of-presidential-race-endorses-trump/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=article

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announced Monday night that he is suspending his presidential campaign after a lackluster showing in the Iowa caucuses.

In a speech announcing his exit from the race, Ramaswamy endorsed former president Donald Trump, who was projected to have won the caucuses by a strong margin, according to the Associated Press and other media outlets.

With an estimated 95 percent of votes counted, Trump was winning with 51 percent of the vote, followed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis in second at 21.2 percent and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in third with 19.1 percent. Ramaswamy was in a distant fourth at 7.7 percent.

“There’s no path for me to be the next president, absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country,” Ramaswamy told his supporters. “And I think that I am very worried for our country. I think we are skating on thin ice as a nation.” 

ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on January 15th, 2024

The headlines have been full of specious accusations of “genocide” against Israel. Here is a pro-Israel argument from Spiked magazine in England: https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/01/13/these-accusations-of-genocide-bring-shame-on-humanity/

These accusations of ‘genocide’ bring shame on humanity South Africa’s case against Israel is the most absurd and sinister spectacle of the 21st century so far. Brendan O’Neill

Read it all: The last line is “I accuse you of dishonoring the values of Enlightenment, truth and reason by falsely accusing the survivors of genocide of being genocidal.”

As Michael Ordman details weekly, Israel contributes more to the life expectancy and to the better standard of life for billions of people than all the hypocritical and anti-Semitic participants of the kangaroo trials in South Africa. rsk

 

 

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

 

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR

US charity provides $7 million in supplies. (TY UWI) US non-profit Operation Israel has provided more than $7 million worth of supplies, medical equipment, and protective gear to IDF soldiers since Oct 7. 10,000 soldiers with a total of more than 50,000 items, including ceramic vests, ballistic goggles, and tactical gear.

https://www.jns.org/3pm-us-based-volunteers-helping-to-equip-idf-fighters/  

https://www.operationisrael.org/

https://www.livenowfox.com/video/1382593   https://www.operationisrael.org/donate

Free food for troops. (TY Yanky) Anyone in uniform can get a free pizza at Jerusalem’s La Piedra – the only Israeli pizzeria in the World’s Top 50 Pizza Guide. Also, free food (monthly) at Muffin Boutique; Friday buffet to lone soldiers at Piccolino; at Aroma Beit Kama soldiers eat free; and Hamal Hamatok (the sweet war room).

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-779932

Italian Jewish leader cooks for the IDF. (TY UWI & I24 News) Italian Jewish leader Riccardo Pacifici, the Vice President of the European Jewish Association, cooked for soldiers in Israel’s southern city of Sderot. He cooked pasta, sauces, and other foods to lift the spirits and hearts above the conflict.

Special delivery. At the IDF’s Emergency Logistics warehouse in Ramla, young soldiers of the “Special In Uniform” program join regular recruits to pack food and clothing, and prepare equipment to be delivered to IDF units across Israel. Their enthusiasm, diligence, and resilience contribute to a unique, positive atmosphere.

https://www.jns.org/soldiers-with-disabilities-contribute-to-israels-war-effort/

Operation Suitcase. (TY Yanky) Several members of UK’s Sussex Jewish Representative Council have just completed Operation Suitcase. They visited Israel with 13 suitcases, ten with supplies for the army units they visited, two with chocolate for children, and one filled with black wool for knitting woolly hats for soldiers.

https://www.thejc.com/community/sussex-group-extends-solidarity-to-israel-i0o3tekv

Kibbutz closed but the factory is open. Kibbutz Sasa near the Lebanese border has been evacuated to protect residents from Hezbollah attacks. But employees of the Plasan armor factory inside the Kibbutz are working around the clock producing body armor plates for bulletproof vests and bolt-on armor kits for military vehicles.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/shield-of-israel-at-evacuated-kibbutz-sasa-an-armor-factory-toils-to-protect-troops/

Green energy kept cellular networks running. The Oct 7 fighting crashed the Gaza border electricity grid and disrupted mobile communications. But networks supported by Israel’s Phinergy (see here previously) based on innovative “green” aluminum-air technology, kept going, providing essential connectivity.

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-phinergy-backup-prevented-collapse-of-cellular-networks-on-october-7-1001461554

Wounded soldier is treated at father’s hospital. Dr. Roni Eichel, head of neurology at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, was relieved when one of his IDF soldier sons woke up in SZMC’s intensive care unit. A bullet / shrapnel penetrated his ceramic vest but stopped short of the thorax and any permanent disability.

https://www.jns.org/a-wounded-soldier-ended-up-being-treated-at-his-fathers-hospital/

Book of Psalms found in Gaza. IDF soldiers have found a Book of Psalms dated 1986 in the home of a Hamas terrorist in Jabalia, Gaza. It contains a personal dedication to an Israeli Shmuel Goldring. The sender has been identified but at the time of writing, the recipient has not.

https://www.jns.org/israeli-soldiers-find-hebrew-book-of-psalms-in-gaza-home/

IDF soldier finds reporter’s house sign in Gaza. 19 years after Amiel Yarchi was evacuated from his home in Netzarim during the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, IDF soldiers in Gaza retrieved the name plaque that was on his house. Amiel reported the find on the Kipa News site that he works for. See the photos.

https://www.jns.org/19-years-on-idf-soldier-finds-gush-katif-evacuees-house-sign-in-gaza/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A new way to treat Sleeping Sickness. Scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have been able to destroy the genetic code of the trypanosome parasite that the tsetse fly infects with, to cause trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). It opens the way for development of RNA-based therapies to prevent transmission of the disease.

https://www.israel21c.org/scientists-discover-new-way-to-tackle-sleeping-sickness/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43263-6

Battlefield medic simulation training.  IDF medics have been receiving training using computer-controlled, anatomically correct, mannequins to learn key lifesaving procedures for use on the front lines. The Israel Center for Medical Simulation (MSR) based at Sheba Medical Center also trains civilian and overseas medics.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-tech-medical-simulation-training-arrived-just-in-time-for-idf-medics/

Medicare pays for ReWalk exoskeleton. Medicare Administrative Contractor Noridian Healthcare Solutions has paid the first ever claim by an eligible Medicare patient for a personal exoskeleton from Israel’s ReWalk. ReWalk is now an authorized medically necessary device when prescribed for a patient with spinal cord injury.  

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/01/05/2804599/32993/en/First-ReWalk-Personal-Exoskeleton-Claim-Paid-by-Medicare.html

Award for pressure sores detection. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s IR-MED (see here previously) has been awarded the “Most Innovative Non-Invasive Diagnostics Technology Developer 2023 – Israel” by UK-based Corporate Vision Magazine for the company’s PressureSafe device and technology platform. 

https://www.ir-medical.com/about-us/#Awards  https://www.corporatevision-news.com/winners/ir-med/

PTSD device is Best Startup. Israel’s GrayMatters (see here previously) was named the Prix Galien USA Best Startup 2023 winner. Its technology uses an EEG headset device to read biomarker activity in the amygdala. AI software, including an Avatar, relaxes the part of the brain which is overactive in people suffering from PTSD.

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-startup-graymatters-treats-ptsd-with-avatars-1001463926

EMT volunteer saves her own niece., United Hatzalah volunteer Adele had just left her mother’s Rehovot home when she was alerted that her niece was choking back at her mother’s apartment. She quickly returned and used Heimlich thrusts, plus back slaps to clear trapped food from her niece’s mouth.

https://israelrescue.org/stories/a-family-emergency-emt-saves-her-own-niece-from-choking/

The effect of missing genes. Williams syndrome is caused by 25 missing genes. Tel Aviv researchers have discovered the function of one of the deleted genes – Gtf2i. Its absence impairs the production and regulation of mitochondrial organelles in the brain’s neurons. Impacts include dental, cardiovascular, and visual problems,

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-781703

EDUCATION Comments turned off

How Equity Grade Inflation Hurts Jews, Asians and Other Disfavored Minorities by Alan M. Dershowitz

Posted By on January 15th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20303/equity-grade-inflation

Diversity equity and inclusion require that groups – rather than individuals – be treated “equitably”, and that preferred groups be advantaged in hiring, admissions and other benefits.

This is all part of the DEI attack on meritocracy. DEI demands that individuals be judged by the color of their skin and their identity rather than the content of their character — or their grades.

DEI now demands that schools begin with the goal of achieving equity grading by any means, including non-blind grading, grade inflation or grade abolition. Anything to undercut the equality of meritocratic blind grading that didn’t achieve the goals of DEI.

The negative impact of equity grading is incalculable. It stifles learning, hard work and creativity. It fails to prepare students for the competitive world they will inevitably face after they finish being coddled by universities. It will destroy the competitive advantages American universities used to have.

A recent study showed that grade inflation has become rampant at American universities. What used to be C+ has now become an A-, as more than 3/4 of students in elite universities get grades of A or A-.

This grade inflation is a direct result of the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) bureaucracies and their twin concept of intersectionality. DEI requires that groups – rather than individuals – be treated “equitably”, and that preferred groups be advantaged in hiring, admissions and other benefits.