NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Another Flawed Attempt at Criminal Justice Reform By Alfred S. Regnery Please see note

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

Criminal justice cannot be reformed unless there is serious bail reform. Minor offenders who cannot post bail must remain in prison until sentencing, and the length of that unendurable wait is often longer than the sentence which will ultimately by handed down. Men and women waiting for a hearing and sentencing lose jobs, leave families. Something requires change…..rsk
Criminal justice reform is returning to political prominence, thanks to Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, one of its most ardent advocates. Ordinarily, that might be good news. But once again, the legislation at issue is so badly flawed that passage would cost taxpayers billions, yield little in the way of public safety or relief for the federal prison system and—at least according to liberal prison reformers—little reform.

The House Judiciary Committee, in a rare burst of bipartisan energy, last week passed the latest rendition of this recurrent theme. In an unusual non-party line 25-5vote, HR 5682, a watered-down version of legislation that has been kicking around Congress for several years, advanced toward consideration by the full House. Supporters hope the bill—which is also known as the FIRST STEP Act—will have a vote in the next couple of weeks.

HR 5682 would require the Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide more resources to reduce the likelihood of recidivism and ease reentry of prisoners back into society. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate but has yet to be taken up by the Judiciary Committee. A very different bill, encompassing a considerably wider array of reform, did pass the Senate Judiciary Committee several months ago over the objection of five Republican members.

The current bill has, not surprisingly, a wide list of supporters and opponents. To try to gain supporters, some of the most objectionable provisions of older legislation were left out and several new provisions added. Kushner has been able to secure White House backing, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions strongly opposes it. Several libertarian right-of-center groups, including those controlled by the Koch brothers, are strong supporters, while a number of left-wing groups, including the ACLU, People for the American Way and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human rights strongly oppose the legislation because it doesn’t go far enough.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Guess Which Fields Have No Republican Faculty at Colleges? Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

Fascinating numbers from a new study by Mitchell Langbert. And its results just go to further reinforce the Freedom Center’s call for intellectual diversity in academia.

The political registration of full-time, Ph.D.-holding professors in top-tier liberal arts colleges is overwhelmingly Democratic. Indeed, faculty political affiliations at 39 percent of the colleges in my sample are Republican free—having zero Republicans. The political registration in most of the remaining 61 percent, with a few important exceptions, is slightly more than zero percent but nevertheless absurdly skewed against Republican affiliation and in favor of Democratic affiliation. Thus, 78.2 percent of the academic departments in my sample have either zero Republicans, or so few as to make no difference.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Making History In Jerusalem New US embassy opens, as assault on Israel’s borders continues. Joseph Klein

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

The United States is officially opening its Israeli embassy in Jerusalem today, making May 14, 2018 an historic day for the Jewish State of Israel. Other U.S. presidents have made campaign promises to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, only to abandon their promises in deference to the foreign policy establishment and “international” opinion. In moving forward to fulfill his promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem, President Trump ignored the foreign policy establishment and “international” opinion, much as President Harry Truman did when he gave de facto recognition to the newly created State of Israel only eleven minutes after Israel’s proclamation of its independence.

President Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law and key adviser Jared Kushner are representing President Trump for the opening of the new embassy. The Israelis are celebrating. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at his weekly cabinet meeting, “President Trump promised to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and he did so. He promised to move the American Embassy to Israel and he is doing so. Of course we will all celebrate this day.”

President Trump’s decision, denounced not only by the Palestinians themselves, as expected, but by amoral government leaders and opinion makers all around the world, should not be so controversial. Each nation has the sovereign right to locate its own embassies wherever it chooses. The U.S. embassy will be located in West Jerusalem, not in any area claimed by the Palestinians to be part of their future “capital” in East Jerusalem. Moreover, President Trump clearly stated that U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not intended to decide any final status issues regarding Jerusalem as a whole. Finally, the United Nations resolutions that the critics of President Trump’s decision rely upon to support their objections on “legal” grounds do little to help their case. The General Assembly has no legal authority under the UN Charter to require anything of the member states except payment of their annual budget assessments. The Security Council has huffed and puffed about so-called “illegal” Israeli settlements including in East Jerusalem and called upon member states to withdraw their embassies from Jerusalem, but did so solely in the form of completely non-binding resolutions.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mueller Indicted a Russian Company That Didn’t Exist By Rick Moran

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

You’ve heard that prosecutors have so much influence over grand juries that they can “indict a ham sandwich.” An embarrassing moment for Special Counsel Robert Mueller occurred in court the other day when the lawyer for one of the three Russian companies he indicted had some bizarre news for the judge.

The Daily Wire:

U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey asked Eric Dubelier, one of two lawyers representing the accused Russian company, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, if he was representing a third company listed in Mueller’s indictment.

What about Concord Catering?” Harvey asked Dubelier. “The government makes an allegation that there’s some association. I don’t mean for you to – do you represent them, or not, today? And are we arraigning them as well?”

“We’re not,” Dubelier responded. “And the reason for that, Your Honor, is I think we’re dealing with a situation of the government having indicted the proverbial ham sandwich.”

“That company didn’t exist as a legal entity during the time period alleged by the government,” Dubelier continued. “If at some later time they show me that it did exist, we would probably represent them. But for purposes of today, no, we do not.” CONTINUE AT SITE

ISRAEL Comments turned off

‘Next Year in Jerusalem!’ Israel Wins Eurovision By Bruce Bawer

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

On Saturday night, while yet another jihadist was terrorizing Paris, people all over Europe were tuned in to the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual display of the depressingly low level to which the quality of popular music has descended. First broadcast in 1956, Eurovision gave the world such songs as ABBA’s “Waterloo” (which won in 1974) and – um – did I mention “Waterloo”?

Seriously, the music wasn’t always so bad. During its early years, the competition was something of a cultural smorgåsbord, with songs sung in native languages and in accordance with national musical traditions. If you’re old enough, you’ll probably remember the Eurovision entries “Volare” and “Al Di La” and “L’amour est bleu.” There were nice ballads and cute novelty numbers.

Over time, however, more and more of the songs were all but interchangeable U.S.- and UK-influenced pop and dance tunes, increasingly sung in English. Among the memorable titles: “Boom Bang-a-Bang” and “Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley.” By degrees, songwriting gave way to spectacle. The whole thing had started off as a competition among composers and lyrics, but now the singer was the star. In the first few decades, at least one person onstage needed to be playing a musical instrument; nowadays, believe it or not, that’s totally prohibited. Any number of back-up dancers, acrobats, lighting effects, explosive devices, etc., etc., are permitted, but the singer or singers are required to sing to a pre-recorded track, just like at a karaoke bar.

After the Iron Curtain fell, Eastern European countries not only joined NATO and EU – they were swallowed up into the madness of Eurovision. For several years, many of their entries were even worse than the crap from Western Europe – illuminating the sober fact that Communism had produced even more appalling notions of popular music than capitalism had. One measure of the gradual adaptation of Eastern Europe to Western culture has been that the entries from countries like Moldova and Estonia are now, by and large, indistinguishable from the entries from France and Sweden.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Push Back against the Jihadists in Disguise By Eileen F. Toplansky

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

It has long been the absolute intention of the Muslim Brotherhood and other jihadist terror groups to infiltrate and completely alter the United States via American schools, the armed forces, the entertainment industry, and the government – and, of course, through U.S. borders.

So when the likes of Sheila Jackson Lee, Luis Correa, and Eleanor Holmes Norton are co-sponsoring H. Res 869, a bill to recognize American Muslims’ history and contributions to America, it is time to highlight how these Democrats are doing the bidding of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR is partially funded by the Saudi Wahhabi establishment and has numerous ties to extremist Islamic organizations.

H. Res. 869 states:

[M]any African slaves brought to the Americas, including the American colonies, later known as the United States of America, were Muslim, and made innumerable contributions to the founding of our Nation[.]

Notice how history is glossed over concerning the extent of Arab involvement in slavery.

According to the Assyrian International News Agency:

Over 28 million Africans have been enslaved in the Muslim world during the past 14 centuries. While much has been written concerning the Transatlantic slave trade, surprisingly little attention has been given to the Islamic slave trade across the Sahara, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

While the European involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade to the Americas lasted for just over three centuries, the Arab involvement in the slave trade has lasted fourteen centuries, and in some parts of the Muslim world is still continuing to this day. A comparison of the Muslim slave trade to the American slave trade reveals some interesting contrasts.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Paris Knife Attacker Was Flagged as Potential Terror Risk The suspect is a French national of Chechen origin and yelled ‘Allahu Akbar! during stabbing near opera house By Matthew Dalton

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

A French national of Chechen origin stabbed a person to death on the streets of central Paris on Saturday evening and wounded four others, in an assault that French investigators were treating as a terrorist attack.

Police shot and killed the man shortly after the attack began, French authorities said.

Paris prosecutor François Molins said the man yelled “Allahu Akbar!”—“God is great” in Arabic—during the stabbing, indicating the attack was the latest in a string of assaults committed by Islamist extremists in France.

A French judicial official said the man had previously been flagged as a potential terror risk in one of France’s security databases, where the government keeps the names of thousands of people who have expressed sympathy for radical Islam.

Islamic State quickly claimed the assault via its Amaq media service, calling the assailant a “soldier” of the extremist group.

The attack took place near the Palais Garnier, the opulent Parisian ballet and opera house, a neighborhood packed with restaurants and bars that was crowded with Saturday evening revelers. Police cordoned off the area for hours, interviewing witnesses and searching for any potential accomplices of the attacker.

The judicial official described the slain assailant as a French citizen who was born in Chechnya, without releasing his name.

France has been on high alert since January 2015 when gunmen killed 17 in the Paris region, including 12 at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. In November 2015, a team of militants sent by Islamic State from territory it then controlled in Syria killed 130 people in and around Paris, one of the worst terrorist attacks in European history.

Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region in the south of Russia, has been a major source of foreign fighters in the ranks of Islamic State. Western security officials have also been concerned about radicalization among Chechens living in Europe and the U.S.CONTINUE AT SITE

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mueller’s Investigation Crosses the Legal Line It’s unconstitutional under Morrison v. Olson—the decision, not the dissent. By Steven G. Calabresi

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

Judge T.S. Ellis has expressed skepticism about the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “What we don’t want in this country is . . . anyone with unfettered power,” Judge Ellis, who is to preside over the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, told prosecutor Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben May 4. “So it’s unlikely you’re going to persuade me that the special prosecutor has unlimited powers.”

Judge Ellis is right to be skeptical. Mr. Mueller’s investigation has crossed a constitutional line, for reasons the U.S. Supreme Court made clear in the 1988 case Morrison v. Olson. That case is best known for Justice Antonin Scalia’s powerful lone dissent arguing that the post-Watergate independent counsel statute was unconstitutional. But Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s opinion for the court, while upholding the statute, set forth limits that the Mueller investigation has exceeded.
U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1990. Photo: Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images

At issue is the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which provides that “principal officers” must be appointed by the president with the Senate’s consent. Rehnquist wrote that independent counsel Alexia Morrison qualified as an “inferior officer,” not subject to the appointment process, because her office was “limited in jurisdiction” to “certain federal officials suspected of certain serious federal crimes.”

Mr. Mueller, in contrast, is investigating a large number of people and has already charged defendants with many different kinds of crimes, including—as in Mr. Manafort’s case—ones unrelated to any collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia. That’s too much power for an inferior officer to have. Only a principal officer, such as a U.S. attorney, can behave the way Mr. Mueller is behaving. Mr. Mueller is much more powerful today than any of the 96 U.S. attorneys. He is behaving like a principal officer. CONTINUE AT SITE

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

America Recognizes One Jerusalem The new U.S. Embassy straddles the ‘Green Line,’ refusing to dignify claims of Israeli ‘occupation.’ By Eugene Kontorovich

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

The U.S. on Monday will officially open its new embassy to Israel in Jerusalem. This will correct a surreal policy whereby, since Israel’s independence 70 years ago, the U.S. and other nations have refused to recognize its sovereignty over its capital city. President Trump announced in December he would reverse the old policy. By moving the embassy he now translates words into deed.

The embassy’s exact location within Jerusalem has gotten much less attention, but it is equally consequential. It will be housed in buildings used by the American Consulate, as well as in an adjacent former hotel purchased by the State Department in 2014. Most of that complex is located on the far side of the armistice line that divided Jerusalem from 1949 to 1967. Thus the embassy site demonstrates that the U.S. not only sees Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but also—consistent with bipartisan calls from Congress—recognizes the city as unified.

The “Green Line” was created in the wake of Israel’s 1948-49 War of Independence. Upon the country’s founding, Jordan and its allies invaded, with the goal of preventing the creation of a Jewish state. Although they failed at that goal, the Arab armies did occupy significant territory when the armistice was called, including what is now widely referred to as the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Jordan subsequently expelled all Jews from the areas under its control.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on May 14th, 2018

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Eliminating major side-effects. A breakthrough by Israeli scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Weizmann Institute can reduce side-effects in chemicals. Treatments (e.g. thalidomide) contain both right and left-sided molecules. One type causes the side-effect and magnets can remove the “bad” sided molecules.
https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-05/thuo-dac051018.php https://vimeo.com/257954972
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jz300793y

99% success for freezing tumors. I’ve been reporting on Israeli-based IceCure for some time (see here). It has just reported results of clinical trials showing 99% effectiveness in eliminating cancerous breast tumors through freezing with liquid nitrogen without surgery. Of the 146 trial patients, the cancer re-occurred in only one.
https://www.globes.co.il/en/article-icecure-jumps-on-positive-breast-cancer-treatment-data-1001234568

European patent for bio-turmeric extract. Israel’s Arjuna has produced BCM-95 – an All-in-One formulation of natural curcumin & ar-turmerone, the most potent component of turmeric with its highest level of oral bioavailability. BCM-95 has just received a European patent to accompany its patents in the US and globally.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arjuna-naturals-bcm-95-curcumin-granted-new-patent-300644354.html http://www.arjunanatural.com/bcm95.html
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NdBatH3y27U?rel=0

Transforming sinus diagnosis and treatment. Israel’s 3NT Medical is developing and trialing its Sinusway platform of specialty single-use endoscopes and therapeutic devices for advancing care of ear, nose and throat (ENT) disorders. 3NT has just raised funds to complete development and commence marketing Sinusway.
https://www.3ntmedical.com/ https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03390257
https://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-ent-endoscopy-co-3nt-medical-raises-15m-1001235075

Using gut bacteria to fight disease. I reported previously (May 2017) on one Israeli biotech using the human microbiome (stomach bacteria) to fight cancer, IBD, acne etc. Now Israel’s Evogene’s new Biomica subsidiary is also developing microbiome therapies, for antibiotic resistant bacteria, immuno-oncology and GI disorders.
http://www.evogene.com/press_release/biomica-evogenes-newly-established-subsidiary-announces-therapeutic-areas-focus/ https://www.youtube.com/embed/xR_-RMe18Zs?rel=0

Eye surgeon sees no boundaries. Dr David Hartstein made Aliya from the USA in 2009. Since 2014 he has been performing eye operations on patients from Ethiopia, Gaza and the Palestinian Authority. He also visits Ethiopia where he treats up to 500 patients each visit – mostly Falash Mura Ethiopians seeking to make Aliya.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/245462

On-line spectacle prescription. I reported previously (Feb 2016) on one Israeli smartphone app to check your glasses prescription. Now here’s another – Tel Aviv based GlassesUSA checks the prescription of your existing spectacles. It allows you to scan simple prescriptions and lenses using an iPhone.
https://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-app-gives-eyeglasses-prescription-1001234738