MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

FDA’s Approval Of A New Alzheimer’s Drug Is A Real But Very Modest Advance Henry I. Miller

Posted By on July 20th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/07/20/fdas-approval-of-a-new-alzheimers-drug-is-a-real-but-very-modest-advance/

The Food and Drug Administration on July 6 granted full approval to the first therapy for Alzheimer’s that slows the cognitive decline associated with the disease. That “first” is good news, because it validates a therapeutic approach that has long been in doubt, but more important, it benefits patients afflicted with a terrible disease. 

The approval is hardly a breakthrough, however: The benefits of the drug, Leqembi (lecanemab) are meager; it does not restore lost function; it is expensive and administered intravenously every two weeks; and there are occasionally severe side effects. Nevertheless, my neurologist friends tell me that they’re being inundated with inquiries about Leqembi from Alzheimer’s patients and their families.

Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that afflicts more than 6.5 million Americans. It slowly destroys memory and cognitive skills and eventually, the ability to perform even simple tasks. Although the specific causes of Alzheimer’s are not fully understood, it is characterized by changes in the brain, including the formation of various abnormal structures that result in loss of neurons and their connections. 

The FDA had previously granted Leqembi accelerated approval based on a “surrogate endpoint” short of demonstrated clinical benefit, based on its ability to reduce amyloid plaques, or clumps, in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. As a postmarketing condition of the accelerated approval, the drug manufacturer, Eisai, was required to conduct a clinical trial to confirm the anticipated clinical benefit of Leqembi.  Safety and efficacy were evaluated in a Phase 3 multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial that included 1,795 patients.

That confirmatory trial, which was reported earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that in patients in the early stages of the disease, the drug slowed cognitive and functional decline modestly – perhaps by about five months – over 18 months compared with placebo.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Still More Evidence That Bidenomics Is ‘Working’

Posted By on July 20th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/07/20/still-more-evidence-that-bidenomics-is-working/

Thirteen days after President Joe Biden told the nation that “Bidenomics is working,” the Congressional Budget Office released a report showing just how well it’s working – bankrupting the country far faster than anyone expected.

The report looks at spending and revenues for the first nine months of this fiscal year, which started in October. What it reveals is remarkable, both because it shows how reckless the Biden administration has been with spending and how it’s sapped the economy of strength.

The topline number is that the federal deficit so far this fiscal year has already topped $1.4 trillion, which is $875 billion higher than the same months last year and bigger than the deficit for all of fiscal year 2022.

The CBO finds that overall spending this year is running 10% higher than last year. At the same time, revenues are down 11% compared with last year, which defies claims by the administration that the economy is strong.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Hunter Biden Whistleblowers The IRS agents are under oath in public. Will Attorney General Merrick Garland respond?

Posted By on July 20th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-whistleblowers-hunter-biden-joseph-ziegler-gary-shapley-merrick-garland-david-weiss-e052e714?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

With each day it’s getting harder to believe Attorney General Merrick Garland’s insistence that there was no interference in the Hunter Biden case. A month ago President Biden’s son was given a deal on tax and gun charges that probably means no prison time. Now comes Wednesday’s testimony by two IRS whistleblowers, who say their attempt to investigate Hunter faced unprecedented meddling.

The two IRS agents are Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. Two months back, each had spoken behind closed doors to the House Ways and Means Committee, but Wednesday was their first in the spotlight and the first time that Mr. Ziegler’s name was released.

They say the Justice Department interfered in their investigation, for example, by tipping off Hunter’s legal team to a planned search and preventing questions related to Joe Biden. They also said the IRS team didn’t have access to Hunter’s laptop and or the FD-1023 document in which an FBI informant alleged that Joe and Hunter each accepted a $5 million bribe from Ukrainian energy giant Burisma.

Some Democrats, such as Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, tried to dismiss this all as normal disagreement between investigators and prosecutors. But Mr. Shapley testified that Justice’s “handling of the Hunter Biden tax investigation was very different from any other case in my 14 years at the IRS.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Next Target for Ron DeSantis: the Military Fighting the culture war is important, but so is arming for a real war.

Posted By on July 20th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-desantis-military-plan-china-defense-culture-wars-pentagon-b3eb2211?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Ron DeSantis is gradually laying out his presidential agenda, and on Tuesday he unveiled a plan to build a “Mission First” U.S. military. The Florida Governor has several worthy ideas to restore American confidence in the armed forces, though fighting the culture wars isn’t a substitute for preventing an actual war.

“We need a military that is focused on being lethal, being ready and being capable,” Gov. DeSantis said in South Carolina. The U.S. military is suffering from institutional drift, as senior officers rush to associate themselves with progressive causes. One example: Space Force Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt in a June speech unleashed a political broadside against elected state legislatures for considering what she styled as “anti-LGBTQ+” measures.

One good priority is reviving American military education. Gov. DeSantis is right that the service academies ought to be “narrowly focused” on disciplines such as engineering or military history and leadership. Civilian academics have taken over most military educational institutions such as war colleges, and the instruction is often, as Gov. DeSantis says, “substandard.”

The Governor, a Navy veteran, also says he would review the performance of every four-star flag officer and remove those who aren’t focused on lethality. There is reason to wonder if the services are producing the war fighting talent the country needs by picking leaders on the merits. More aggressive civilian oversight would help.

Case in point: In 2021 a Navy admiral suggested the service should bring back photos as part of promotion boards to achieve more diversity. Gov. DeSantis said he’d ban “race and gender quotas in military recruiting and promotions.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Palestinians’ Summer Camps To Kill Jews by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on July 20th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19817/palestinians-summer-camps-to-kill-jews

For more than a decade, the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror groups have been holding summer camps for thousands of schoolchildren throughout the Gaza Strip. These camps have served as a framework for inculcating an extreme ideology that glorifies Jihad (holy war), terrorism, and armed struggle against Israel with the aim of “liberating Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.”

The camps also provide military training, such as practice with knives and firearms; hand-to-hand combat, and marching and foot drills. The children also stage plays and enact scenes of fighting and capturing Israeli soldiers or firing rockets at Israel.

On July 8, Hamas launched its summer camps for 2023, with the participation of more than 100,000 boys and girls…. The children are being trained to carry out terror attacks and serve as human shields in the Jihad against Israel.

In June 2022, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh denied any trace of Jewish history in Jerusalem…

When Hamas talks about “liberation,” it is expressing its desire to eliminate Israel, as explicitly stated in the charter of the group:

“Article 11: The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it.”

“Article 13: [Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion….”

The summer camp director in Rafah, Muhammad Barhoum, said that the camps are part of Hamas’ activities that focus on the [younger] generation “due to its importance as “the generation of liberation and victory.” — MEMRI, July 17, 2023

As in previous years, the summer camps focus on familiarizing the youngsters with various weapons, including the AK-47, sniper guns, RPG launchers, mortars and machine guns. The campers practice assembling and disassembling the weapons, holding them and using them, and also train in urban warfare and tunnel warfare…. Terrorists who carried out deadly attacks against Israelis are presented to the campers as role models, and their portraits feature in the camps and in camp activities. — MEMRI, July 17, 2023.

The spokesperson for the Hamas summer camps, Abu Bilal, said that… “the young people have [always] been the ones to carry out armed operations, and were the fuel of the intifadas and uprisings.” — MEMRI, June 28, 2021.

This sweeping child abuse by Palestinians is ignored by the Western media, the United Nations and most politicians. The next time Palestinians complain about minors being killed or injured while carrying out terror attacks against Israelis, it would be worthwhile recalling the scenes of children in the summer camps of the Gaza Strip, where the process to transform them into combatants begins.

It is time for the international community, and above all human rights organizations, to hold Palestinian leaders accountable for the child abuse inherent in training their children to become “martyrs,” in the Jihad to kill Jews, and in trying to destroy the region’s only democratic nation.

ISRAEL, MEDIA Comments turned off

The Leftwing Media’s mendacity and its prime victim: Israel Victor Sharpe

Posted By on July 20th, 2023

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave,When first we practice to deceive.”“But when we’ve practiced for a while,How vastly we improve our style.”

The Left’s domestic and international mainstream media, by ever falsely blaming the victim, Israel, for the endless and barbaric Palestinian Arab acts of terror against Israeli men, women and children simply encourages the terrorists and their Iranian financiers to continue their brutal crimes. They do this while hiding their lethal weapons within their own Arab settlements. This, while the same Palestinian terrorists cower behind their own women and children and repulsively use them as human shields, hoping that they will be killed and exploited as propaganda tools. These evil acts alone are Palestinian crimes against humanity.

Jenin is not a refugee camp but a city of some 15,000 residents. It has been deliberately transformed into a veritable hotbed of terror. Over 50 such terror attacks have been launched at Israeli civilians from Jenin in recent months and no country in the world would accept such aggression and endure a mounting civilian death toll without ending it. But when Israel does, the leftwing media then vomits forth its mendacity and bile.

Here are just a few of the 25 Israeli civilians murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the last few months. On February 26th, 2023, two brothers, aged 19 and 21 years old, Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, were driving through the city of Huwara when they were gunned down in cold blood. The two brothers left behind their parents and three younger siblings.

Just a few weeks later, on April 7th, 15-year-old Rina, 20-year-old Maia, and their mother Lucy were driving in the Jordan Valley when terrorists fired on the car, causing it to crash; the terrorists again fired on the vehicle killing the defenseless sisters and critically wounding the mother, who died three days later.

Just over a month ago, Meir Tamari was murdered while driving home to his wife Tal and two young daughters, Yahav, aged one, and Alma, age two. The family had just finished building a home in Samaria. At the funeral, the bereaved mother said, “today we were supposed to have a fun day with the children, to celebrate your birthday. Instead of congratulating you, we are here eulogizing you. This is a reality that does not make sense…We were supposed to grow old together and have more children. To do so many things. Now I’m alone with them.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

US’ banning of Israeli entities in Judea & Samaria – boomerang Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on July 20th, 2023

https://bit.ly/3K4dzeS

State Department policy

*The June 2023 banning of all Israeli research and scientific entities in East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Golan Heights from the mutually-beneficial US-Israel binational commercial research and development projects, such as BIRD, BARD and BSF, reflects the return of the State Department to the center stage of foreign policy making.

*This ban is consistent with the State Department’s systematically erroneous and counterproductive policy on critical Middle East issues, as documented by this video and this article.

For example:

*The State Department provided an essential tailwind to the Ayatollahs’ rise to power in Iran and the toppling of the Shah, who was “America’s policeman in the Gulf.” Foggy Bottom contended that the Ayatollahs would be moderate, anti-Soviet, pro-US, preoccupied with tractors and not with tanks, and refrain from the global exportation of the Islamic Revolution….

*The State Department considered Saddam Hussein as a potential ally (until the day of his 1990 invasion of Kuwait), worthy of an intelligence-sharing agreement, financial assistance, and the supply of advanced dual-use systems. It communicated to the ruthless despot that a military invasion of Kuwait would be treated as an intra-Arab matter.

*Foggy Bottom welcomed the 2010 turbulence on the Arab Street – which is still raging – as a “Facebook and youth revolution” and the “Arab Spring,” failing to realize that it has been an Arab Tsunami. 

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Latest in Teacher Union Ugly This year’s NEA convention left no doubt as to what the teachers unions are really about. By Larry Sand

Posted By on July 19th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/07/19/the-latest-in-teacher-union-ugly/

Earlier this month, the National Education Association held its yearly “Representative Assembly” in Orlando, Florida. A visitor from another planet might think that a gathering of teachers would find them concentrating on the tragic learning loss caused by the devastating COVID-related shutdowns, the shockingly high rates of violence against teachers or ways to improve the profession.

Hardly. This year’s theme centered around the “freedom to learn.” No, not learn the ABCs, but rather the debauched material that has become all the rage in public schools in recent years. And, of course, Florida and its feisty governor, Ron DeSantis, were the focal points of much of the unionistas’ scorn and outrage.

According to the NEA, the mood at the convention was “sober, but also defiant.” But at least one person was not at all sober. “You look magnificent!” shrieked NEA President Becky Pringle at a rally of teachers waving signs and rainbow flags. “Florida is our ground zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric and dangerous actions. You are showing what it means to fight against out-of-touch politicians like Ron DeSantis.”

As shown by this year’s New Business Items (messages of concern from the hoi-polloi to the NEA aristocracy), the union faithful were certainly in sync with Pringle. For instance, NBI 4 asserts, “The NEA will inform states and locals of the following sample language that may be put in contracts and policies that is LGBTQIA+ inclusive. The language will be as follows: ‘Parental leave’ instead of ‘maternity leave,’ ‘parent’ instead of ‘mother’ or ‘father,’ ‘birthing parent’ instead of ‘mother’ or ‘father,’ and ‘non-birthing parent’ instead of ‘mother’ or ‘father.’”

NBI 88 wants the NEA to declare a national educator day of action whose purpose is to rally – among other things – to “protect LGBTQIA+ students and educators including the right to gender-affirming care…and stop book bans.”

And speaking of “banned” books, the union’s “Great Summer Reads for Educators” includes kiddie porn like Gender Queer, which graphically depicts young people indulging in various kinds of sex. (It’s interesting that this “banned book” is on a reading list for teachers and is available on Amazon and in local public libraries. The union’s snit is over the fact that Florida does not want the book in school libraries – just as Playboy and Penthouse do not grace their shelves).

Another book on the NEA’s suggested reading list is Ready Player One, which explicitly describes blow-up sex dolls, online brothels and masturbation.

While sex is featured in many of the selections, other over-the-edge books are on the list. Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism is suggested reading.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The big takeaway from an ‘imminent’ Trump arrest By Michael Letts

Posted By on July 19th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/the_big_takeaway_from_an_imminent_trump_arrest.html

In an announcement that has sent shockwaves through the nation, former president Donald Trump declared that his arrest is imminent.  This declaration, shocking as it is, should be a cause for concern for anyone who values the principles upon which our nation was built.  As citizens, it is our duty to scrutinize the implications of this ongoing political assault.

In Mr. Trump’s words, this investigation is a “witch hunt,” an attempt to weaponize the law enforcement apparatus against him.  It appears to be an unprecedented attack on a former president, transforming political disagreements into legal battles, an alarming trend that threatens the stability of our constitutional republic.

The legal issues currently surrounding Mr. Trump range from a New York State case involving payments for a nondisclosure agreement to a federal case in Miami related to handling classified documents.  Now he is a target of the special counsel investigation of the January 6 Capitol Free Speech Demonstrations.  This exhaustive pursuit raises questions about the impartiality of our justice system, which should remain free from political biases.

On January 6, a faction of the crowd engaged in illegal activities, leading to a breach of the Capitol by some suspected of being planted provocateurs to discredit the peaceful event.  The justice system responded by indicting over a thousand individuals, with some defendants held for over 800 days before their trials.  Contrast this with the non-arrests or slaps on the wrists of participants of the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots.

Labeling the actions of a few as an “insurrection” and using it to generalize the entire crowd is a blatant attempt to paint conservatives and Trump-supporters as extremists.  Such a narrative deepens divisions and fosters animosity.  These blanket accusations undermine the constitutional rights of millions of Americans and disregard their legitimate concerns over election irregularities.

Ironically, the same voices that dismiss calls for law and order in the face of destructive riots in our cities now cry foul, alleging an insurrection where there was none.  Law enforcement should never be a tool for political gamesmanship, yet we are witnessing its blatant misuse.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Senate Republicans Despise Their Voters By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on July 19th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/07/senate_republicans_despise_their_voters.html

Lisa Murkowski is the perfect mascot for Senate Republicans.  She is a Democrat in all but name, an aristocrat who inherited her office, and a beneficiary of rigged elections.  She has more in common with Nancy Pelosi than the average Republican voter, and every time Alaskan Republicans attempt to throw her out of office, Mitch McConnell’s minions manipulate the rules to save her.  

For McConnell, Murkowski is another beholden senator kept securely in his pocket who will vote how he wants on any given day.  That might not be so bad (except for the good people of Alaska, whom she purportedly represents) if McConnell were not also an aristocrat who routinely betrays Republican voters.  However, because his loyalties lie with President Xi, multinational corporations, the World Economic Forum, and his good friend Joe Biden, China Mitch uses the leash around Murkowski’s neck only when he needs help sticking it to the American people.  And oh, how Senate Republicans love to screw over the American people!

I mention this person because she and other backstabbing Senate Republicans (think John Cornyn, Mitt Romney, John Thune, etc.) got together to do their version of Festivus in July, during which they told The Hill how much they absolutely loathe normal Republican voters.  “[O]ur party is becoming known as a group of kind of extremist, populist, over-the-top [people] where no one is taking us seriously anymore,” Murkowski laments.  

Our party?  Alaskan Republicans tried to cashier your rear years ago, and you thumbed your nose at their wishes, ran as a write-in candidate, and got elected by Democrats.  Instead of stripping you of your ranking position on choice committee assignments, Senate Republicans celebrated your “victory” over the actual Republican nominee (and Tea Party favorite, Joe Miller) by preserving your seniority.  Last year, Republicans again tried to be done with you, and McConnell and his boys rigged the election by implementing ranked-choice voting — an incumbent protection racket that also defeated Sarah Palin and sent a Democrat to the House!  Deep-red Alaska can’t represent conservatives’ interests when Senate Republicans work with Chuck Schumer to benefit Barack Obama’s favorite candidates!

That is the absurdity of the Murkowski position.  She and her ilk believe that the Republican Party should be represented by individuals who adore Barack Obama, voted for Hillary Clinton, and consider child-sniffer Joe Biden a close personal friend.  And because she is too daft to grasp the mood of the country and such a product of venal nepotism as to have scant self-awareness, she thinks the riffraff will eventually see things her way.  If they actually had elections in Alaska, Murkowski’s campaign slogan really could be “Let them eat cake,” and nobody would bat an eye.  It is what abused voters expect when Dirty Mitch McConnell’s election-riggers continue to hand out fortune cookies to the natives advising, “You shall be represented by a Democrat in Republican clothing.”