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October 2021

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Zuckerbucks 101: How A Media Mogul Took Over The 2020 Election And Why GOP Leaders Must Never Let It Happen Again Kylee Zempel

By on October 19th, 2021

https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/14/zuckerbucks-101-how-a-media-mogul-took-over-the-2020-election-and-why-gop-leaders-must-never-let-it-happen-again/

The last election was unacceptable. And before the next one, more Republican leaders must wake up to the mess that was created in 2020 and refuse to accept another sloppy round.

MADISON, Wis. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reaffirmed his state’s commitment to election integrity on Tuesday, especially keeping tech giants and their partisan CEOs from corrupting local elections. Given what we know now about how Mark Zuckerberg and other left-wing actors commandeered election operations in blue hubs of swing states in 2020, other states would do well to follow DeSantis’s lead — and Wisconsin is a good case study in why.

No conversation about 2020 election integrity — or about the integrity of future elections, for that matter — is complete without understanding the full picture of how Facebook CEO Zuckerberg strategically bankrolled and staffed local government election offices, which are in charge of voter registration, voting, and vote counting. He did this through two primary front groups, a process Federalist Senior Editor Mollie Hemingway painstakingly outlines in her new book out this week, “Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections.”

The Zuckerberg Infiltration

Here’s how it worked. Zuckerberg gifted nearly half a billion dollars to two left-wing groups that then gave the money to government election offices. One of these two groups was the Center for Technology and Civic Life. By the September before the election, Zuckerberg and his wife had given it $350 million, meaning the small organization’s prior revenues of $1.8 million exploded by roughly 20,000 percent.

The cash, or “Zuckerbucks,” wasn’t an unconditional donation, however. There were strings attached, which amounted to Democrat get-out-the-vote efforts, mass mail-in voting, and ballot “curing,” whereby election workers “fix” mail-in ballot problems after the ballot has been submitted.

These dollars also didn’t flow indiscriminately to needy areas of the country but largely to government election offices in the biggest cities of swing states, where the majority of Democrat voters are concentrated. Those funds were used for Democrat voter outreach, designing and translating ballots, and staffing ballot harvesting, curing, and counting operations.

Make no mistake, CTCL is no apolitical actor. All three of its founders previously worked for the New Organizing Institute, a now-defunct organization that was run by ex-Obama staffer Ethan Roeder and funded heavily by left-wing behemoths such as George Soros to train leftist activists in digital campaign strategy and with war games for election success.

The Washington Post championed the New Organizing Institute as “the left’s think tank for campaign know-how” and “the Democratic Party’s Hogwarts for digital wizardry.” These descriptors aren’t surprising given that its board was also composed of leftist leaders.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB Comments turned off

Biden Calls for the Prosecution of Anyone Refusing Subpoenas in the Jan. 6th Riot Investigation JonathanTurley

By on October 19th, 2021

https://jonathanturley.org/2021/10/17/biden-calls-for-the-prosecution-of-anyone-refusing-subpoenas-in-the-jan-6th-riot-investigation/

We recently discussed the troubling declaration of guilt made by President Joe Biden at the start of the investigation into border agents allegedly whipping or “strapping” undocumented Haitians trying to enter the country. The statement shattered the integrity of the investigation as well as the reputation of the federal agents. Now, President Biden has called for the Select Committee looking into the Jan. 6th riot to hold those who refuse subpoenas in contempt and for his Department of Justice to prosecute them.

During the Trump Administration, many of us criticized the President for commenting on pending investigations and crossing the line on seeking to influence the Justice Department. A chorus of legal experts declared such public comments to be an attack on the rule of law and the integrity of the Justice Department. Those voices have been largely silent on Biden’s own comments.

Any contempt prosecution would be handled by the Justice Department. I have long been critical of its handling of such cases. However, Biden’s call ignores the fact that most of the Democratic leadership in the House supported the Obama Administration in refusing to even submit contempt cases to grand juries. That was the case with Eric Holder who was in flagrant contempt of House subpoenas in the “Fast and Furious” investigation. If the Democrats seek the prosecution of these Trump officials, they will have to step over a mountain of hypocrisy on such cases.

Of course, such hypocrisy has never been a major obstacle for either party. Indeed, Holder himself seemed immune from the shame of hypocrisy during his calls for total transparency in the Mueller investigation.

Calling for prosecutions as President is always problematic and unwise, particularly given the still unfolding matter before the Select Committee. This is a fairly early stage in such conflicts. There is often some line drawing and then some negotiations on the narrowing of inquiries and the waiver of objections. That may not succeed in this case.  With the 2022 midterms looming, the Democrats are at risk of losing the House and these subpoenas may die on the vine. Yet, it is unlikely that there could be any prosecution decision made before the election anyway without an abnormal and reckless rush by the Garland Justice Department.

This matter has not been resolved in Congress, let alone reached any decision stage at the Justice Department. The President should retract his statement and allow the process to work.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China’s destructive creation hits GDP growth The country’s leadership has promised an omelet; for the time being we have some broken eggs David Goldman

By on October 19th, 2021

https://asiatimes.com/2021/10/china-must-lead-the-new-industrial-revolution/

The second great transformation of China’s economy is underway, and it won’t happen without some pain.

China’s meager GDP growth of 4.9% in the third quarter is both worse and better than it looks. Net of exports, GDP growth would have fallen to around 1%, mainly due to the air pocket in the property sector that comprises a quarter of GDP.

The good news is that China’s industrial supply chains rose to the occasion and compensated for disrupted manufacturing output elsewhere in the world. September exports rose 28% year-on-year.

China wants to shift investment toward high productivity outlets in manufacturing and services, away from construction. Its strategy depends on harnessing the new technologies of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, which offer a high growth path for a country with a stagnating labor force.

That’s the omelet that China’s leadership has promised; what we have for the time being are some broken eggs.

Chinese monetary officials, I reported September 24, want to reduce home prices as a matter of social policy, and they used the Evergrande crisis as a blunt instrument to do so. Once the government signaled lower home prices, current sales collapsed. The top 100 developers reported that September sales fell 37% compared with the same month in 2020. Anecdotal reports have asking prices for new homes down by 30% to 40% in some third- and fourth-tier cities.

Homes in top-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen now sell for about 50 times the average Chinese income. That number is exaggerated because employees in top-tier cities typically earn a multiple of the average income, but it still puts homes out of reach of a very large number of Chinese.

In second-tier modern cities like Chengdu or Wuhan, the ratio of home price to average income is 20:1, about the same as in Singapore. To put this in perspective, Taipei homes sell for 34 times the average income.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Medical Care in the 21st Century: FIRST DO NO HARM- Diane Bederman

By on October 19th, 2021

https://dianebederman.com/medical-care-in-the-21st-century-first-do-no-harm/

How can we condone health care that includes the unceremonious removal of a patient, especially a senior citizen, from their primary health care provider? It seems we do in Ontario. I wonder if this is all made possible by socialized medicine and  the new rules that our doctors are told to follow. Whatever happened to First Do No Harm?

I am sharing my story about “health care ” during Covid.

We talk a great deal about death with dignity. But rarely do we talk about life with dignity. We all witnessed the lack of care and compassion for our most vulnerable during Covid: seniors left alone in their beds and then denied the love of family as they died alone in hospital.

I am a senior citizen.   I was unceremoniously dumped from my health clinic; East Wellington Family Health Team in Erin, Ontario after reporting  what I consider to be below standard care from my primary physician. You know, the one that co-ordinates your health care.

I will not bore you with the details regarding the poor care given to me by my primary physician as this is not about him. I did report him to The College of Physicians and Surgeons. I should have accused him of dereliction of duty. I did my due diligence. First I reported my doctor to the lead physician, Dr. Khan, for his lack of care. No, this story is about the clinic.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A Sinking Ship of State Drowns Everyone by Lawrence Kadish

By on October 19th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17415/sinking-ship-of-state

To be clear, the spending bill is actually the creation of a national debt so massive that it has the means to destabilize a democracy dependent on a functioning economy.

For the Chinese Communist Party, seeking to master the 21st Century as the one global superpower, it represents a strategic victory without so much as firing a single bullet. They know that an economically weakened America cannot possibly sustain its military leadership when it is burdened with paying down a massive debt. Our allies and unaligned nations recognize this threat as well, and will reinvent their relationship with China if they believe America’s best days are in the past.

What makes the Administration believe that Corporate America would not respond with massive restructuring to avoid a confiscatory tax bill — or passing the added cost on to the consumer, or moving the company’s headquarters offshore to a country with a lower corporate rate — to avoid the threat of losing its international competitive edge? Corporations have good accountants, too.

Few debate the idea that our nation’s infrastructure is in need of serious attention but the level of political dishonesty in characterizing the Biden plan as “infrastructure” has even made many in his own party queasy. Significant portions of the bill are earmarked for “environmental” agendas and seeming favors to campaign donors, such as billions in subsidies for electric vehicles. The proposed bill cries out for more sunlight and vast quantities of disinfectant.

This recipe for an economic apocalypse comes at a time when new job creation has stagnated and the specter of a serious inflation has begun to emerge…. As historians will tell you if we have the wisdom to listen, no one escapes the devastation of a debtor nation. No one.

One suspects that historians and economists will consistently agree on one irrefutable fact: nations that allow their economies to bathe in red ink are destined to fail. This failure takes many roads and differs in timing, but massive, uncontrolled national deficits eventually reduce a nation state to being a pauper, a pariah — and pathetic.

Enter Joe Biden’s “American Jobs Plan,” a $2.3 trillion spending scheme that takes some Americans’ most fevered fantasies and wraps them inside an “infrastructure” label in an effort to convince Capitol Hill that the spending is all about roads and bridges. An analysis by the Wharton School places plenty of caution flags on this initiative.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Rabin, Peres, #MeToo and the battle among sacred cows Ruthie Blum

By on October 19th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/opinion/rabin-peres-metoo-and-the-battle-among-sacred-cows/

 Every year at this time, Israel stops to mourn and memorialize Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995 at a rally celebrating the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Whatever one thought of the late premier prior to after his murder at the hands of “right-wing extremist,” Yigal Amir instantly turned him into the country’s most hallowed figure—one with a legacy named after him. National trauma will do that, especially under the circumstances at the time.

The so-called “polarization” that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett bemoans and vows to rectify was on full display all those decades ago, just as it has been since the establishment of the state. Then, as now, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was called the culprit by the self-anointed peace camp.

It was allegedly his and his supporters’ ostensible incitement against Rabin and Oslo that led Amir to gun him down. That the accords would prove to be the disaster of which Netanyahu had warned—mass Israeli casualties at hands of Israel’s Palestinian “peace partners,” ruled by PLO chief Yasser Arafat—is absent from the discussion.

To everyone’s great surprise, Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged victorious in the Knesset elections that took place a mere seven months after the assassination. Though the entire nation was still reeling from the tragedy and the left demanded that the right engage in “soul-searching,” more voters opposed the Oslo Accords than supported them.
Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres, who had assumed the role of prime minister upon Rabin’s death. Ironically, Peres and Rabin had been personal and political archrivals for the bulk of their lives. They had managed, somehow, to bury the hatchet in plenty of time to jointly sign the first Oslo agreement with Arafat in 1993 on the White House lawn. The three subsequently shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the charade.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Election of atheist Harvard chaplain to leadership role continues to stir up controversy Harvard chaplains elected Humanist Greg Epstein unanimously, celebrating his selection as a victory for diversity, although some pushback has followed.by David Isaac

By on October 19th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/election-of-atheist-harvard-chaplain-to-leadership-role-continues-to-stir-up-controversy/;

 Greg Epstein, the new president of the Harvard chaplains, is an avowed atheist. His

election has led to a perception gap between the Harvard chaplains who voted for him and the general public, which hasn’t quite come to grips with the idea that an atheist can be a chaplain.

The big reason for the gap is that Harvard’s chaplains have had longer to get used to the idea. A Humanist chaplaincy has existed at Harvard for nearly 50 years. Founded in 1974, it was “the first university Humanist chaplaincy in the world,” reports The Harvard Crimson.

Epstein has filled the role since 2005.

Matthew Schmitz, senior editor of First Things, a journal that grapples with issues of religion and public life, said he stands with the general public. The “average Joe nine times out of 10 has it right,” he said. He told JNS that the selection of an atheist chaplain is a sign of “contempt” for religion at America’s premier educational institution and is “profoundly dangerous to the life of our nation” given Harvard’s “outsized role” in world affairs.

That incredulity was fueled by provocative headlines in the press about Epstein’s new position, particularly a New York Times feature titled: “The New Chief Chaplain at Harvard? An Atheist.”

In an op-ed in The Christian Post, Michael Brown, host of the nationally syndicated radio program Line of Fire, asked the question that drew people to the story in the first place: “How can an atheist be a university chaplain?”

“To be a chaplain, by definition, means to be a religious leader,” he wrote, and “to appoint an atheist to be chief university chaplain is like appointing a Christian evangelist to head up the university’s atheist club. Or a devout Muslim to head up the university’s Judaism club.”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

‘War is Real’: Defend Taiwan or Give It the Bomb by Gordon G. Chang

By on October 18th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17864/defend-taiwan-nuclear-bomb

U.S. President Joe Biden can reestablish deterrence by offering Taiwan a mutual defense treaty. If he does not want to do that, he should either base American nuclear weapons in Taiwan or transfer such weapons to the island so it can defend itself. In the 1980s, the U.S. beefed up deterrence of the Soviet Union by basing nuclear-tipped Pershing missiles in Europe.

China, in short, apparently believes it can run over America to make Taiwan its 34th province. To disabuse Chinese aggressors at this late date, the U.S. should ditch the decades-old “strategic ambiguity,” the policy of not telling either Beijing or Taipei what it would do when conflict was imminent, and publicly offer Taipei a mutual defense treaty.

Taiwan has always been critically important to America. The island makes advanced chips for U.S. products, anchors America’s western defense perimeter, and is a beacon of democracy. After the fall of Kabul, Taiwan is seen as the test of U.S. resolve. The U.S. should, therefore, be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect the island.

[T]here are no un-dangerous options for Washington.

Sha Zukang, the former Chinese ambassador for disarmament to the U.N. in Geneva, last month suggested that China create large exceptions to its announced no-first-use policy, the promise not to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict.

“The island’s society must be warned that they better not believe the ‘rock solid’ promise of the U.S. because Washington will never fight to the death with the Chinese mainland for the island’s secession,” the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times proclaimed on October 14, referring to Taiwan.

The words, contained in an editorial, reflects the Party’s propaganda line, and that line almost certainly reflects the thinking of Chinese leaders.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on October 18th, 2021

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
End of the 4th wave? The number of serious Covid cases in Israel is now under 400 (mostly unvaccinated) and several hospitals have closed their Covid wards. Over 3.8 million Israelis have now had the booster vaccination. The government plans to allow in fully vaccinated, individual tourists from 40 countries from late November.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-virologist-says-delta-defeated-predicts-6-months-of-covid-quiet-for-israel/
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-set-to-reopen-for-tourists-on-november-1-1001386943
 
Blood test to detect recurring cancer. (TY UWI) Asaf Zviran co-founded Israel’s C2i Genomics (see here previously). It has developed a blood test that can identify whether a cancer patient will survive after the tumor has been completely removed, or whether further chemotherapy is necessary.
https://www.israel21c.org/a-blood-test-that-can-identify-recurrent-cancer/
 
The biological basis of empathy. Scientists from Tel Aviv University and North America used phosphorus and calcium markers to monitor brain patterns in rats when they go to the aid of a trapped member of their breed. A neural network activates in a similar way to when they are given a chocolate reward.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-research-exposes-the-biological-basis-of-empathy/
https://elifesciences.org/articles/65582
 
High ranking for Sheba. (TY JNS) In its annual list of the World’s Best Specialized Hospitals, Newsweek magazine ranked Israel’s Sheba Medical Center number 40 for neurosurgery, 42 for cardiology care and 44 for gastroenterology. See here for previous top Newsweek rankings for Sheba.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/10/08/newsweek-lists-israeli-cancer-heart-treatment-among-worlds-best/
 
Personalized Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. (TY JBN) Israel’s Sagol Center at Shamir Medical Center is the world’s largest hyperbaric medicine and research facility. Israel’s Aviv Scientific has partnered with Sagol to provide personalized cognitive and physical HBOT training. It also has clinics in Florida and Dubai.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-aging-process-data-co-aviv-scientific-raises-40m-1001385214  
https://aviv-clinics.com/hyperbaric-medical-program/  
 
The doctor who invented a typhus vaccine in Buchenwald. Dr Ludwik Fleck, who fled to Israel from Poland in 1957, made a groundbreaking discovery of a vaccine for typhus whilst a prisoner in the Nazi’s Buchenwald concentration camp during WWII. He managed to fool the Nazis and vaccinated many thousands of Jews.
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/How-an-Imprisoned-Jewish-Doctor-Invented-a-Typhus-Vaccine-in-Buchenwald.html
 
7th partner for AI treatment discovery startup. Israel’s CytoReason (see here previously) has added SPI (part of Japanese giant Sumitomo) to its growing list of partners.  SPI will use CytoReason’s unique immune focused machine learning platform and represent CytoReason in the Japanese market – the third largest globally.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/japanese-pharmaceutical-firm-taps-israels-cytoreason-for-ai-drug-development/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3918547,00.html
 
A med-tech visionary. Israel’s PixCell Medical (see here previously) has won the 2021 MedTech Visionary award for Best Medical Device, plus MedTech Visionary in the Field of Medical Devices for Real-Time Blood Testing. PixCell’s HemoScreen allows blood tests to be performed by anyone, anywhere.
https://nocamels.com/2021/10/israels-pixcell-medical-wins-2021-medtech-visionaries-award/
 
Helping Jordan tackle Covid. (TY Hazel) Mohammed Al-Hadid, president of the Jordanian Red Crescent, praised Israel for training his paramedics to face the Covid pandemic.  He said Magen David Adom was “a fantastic organization” and the staff they trained “were instrumental in the Covid crisis.”
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/jordanian-red-crescent-chief-mda-training-prepared-our-medics-for-covid/
 
Muslim wedding couple’s first response. Muslim United Hatzalah EMTs Nour and Mohamed, had finished their pre-wedding photos when they saw an accident involving a young cyclist and a truck. Dressed in their wedding clothes, they didn’t hesitate to provide emergency medical treatment to the injured nine-year-old boy.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/bride-and-groom-respond-to-vehicular-accident-hours-before-their-wedding/
 
 

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Sadly, There’s No Turning Back the Green Tide: Peter Smith

By on October 18th, 2021

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2021/10/sadly-theres-no-turning-back-the-green-tide/

“Our whole civilisation is on course to being drowned by sinister forces, by Marxist greenies, by governments, by corporates and by the media, while being cheered on by useful idiots in posh inner-city suburbs. Hold on to your hats, and diesel generator if you have one.”

King Canute (1016-1035) might get my vote as the greatest ever English monarch. He’s got tough competition, I admit; and from the ladies, including the current one, as well as the odd man. But he takes the cake for me with his seaside demonstration.

Realism and modesty befit a leader and stand him or her, and the populace in tow, in good stead. Churchill was a bit like that when it mattered. “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,” he said in first speech to parliament as prime minister in May 1940. Contrast that with Hitler thinking he could fight a war on two fronts or Hirohito thinking he could take on the American war machine. Look at the misery they brought down on their own people.

More recently, George W Bush thought he could democratise Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at the way that turned out. Obama, the ultimate delusional narcissist, thought he could stop the oceans rising (Canute’s demonstration is especially apt). Trump, in his naivety, thought he could drain the swamp. He needed a much bigger pump.

This brings me to the current crop of Western world leaders, and I’ll throw in the Pope and the Prince (Charles) for good measure, all of whom could do with taking a lead from good King Canute, including our Scott Morrison, who I will single out a little. Though to be fair, in singling him out, I know that he blows with the wind and is simply a reluctant bedfellow of his more fanatical international peers.

Net Zero is the chimeric goal. That this is completely unachievable is by the way. Add an extra nought or two to whatever damage you think might be wrought in its forlorn quest. Also, add into the background Xi Jinping chortling away.

Of course, the Murdoch press and the BCA are now true believers giving additional cover for Morrison’s desperate flight from solid coal to nebulous hydrogen. There was much celebration among lefties at this news. Sinners seeing the light, as it were.

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