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June 2023

Social conservatism is on the rise. Maybe DeSantis is on to something with anti-‘woke’ fight.Ingrid Jacques

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/06/15/americans-more-conservative-liberal-social-issues/70320558007/

A new poll from Gallup found that 38% of Americans say they are conservative or very conservative on social issues – a nearly 30% increase since 2021. Those identifying as liberals declined.

It’s rare for a day to go by without some headline insinuating that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a fascist – or even a Nazi sympathizer. The Republican firebrand has “earned” the reputation by backing an agenda that pushes back against what he calls the “woke mob.” 

From critical race theory to gender ideology, DeSantis has built his brand on curbing the leftist agenda that has infiltrated K-12 classrooms and higher education. 

While liberals and many in the news media like to portray him as “dangerous,” it seems a growing number of Americans are empathetic to his cause. 

Conservatism is on the rise 

Americans Say ‘No Thanks’ To ‘Woke’ Corporations: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/06/19/americans-say-no-thanks-to-woke-corporations-ii-tipp-poll/

Companies, schools, amusement parks and even professional sports teams that have gone “woke” and adopted “diversity, equity and inclusion” measures are alienating many customers, leading to a drop in business, reports indicate. The latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows why: A strong plurality of Americans oppose such social activism rather than support it.

In recent months, companies as varied as Anheuser-Busch, Disney, and Target; the Los Angeles Dodgers; and major universities have suffered financial and reputational damage for pushing controversial DEI social and cultural issues on customers, fans and students.

To get to the bottom of this backlash, we asked I&I/TIPP poll respondents to tell us “Which of these statements best describes how you feel about these companies’ actions?” The online nationwide poll was taken from May 31-June 2 from 1,358 adults, with a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.

All told, 46% of Americans opposed the trend toward corporate social activism, compared to just 17% who supported it. But a large contingent, 29%, expressed indifference.

These totals came from reactions of those who took the poll to five separate possible responses.

Among those who opposed the “woke” corporate trend, the strongest reaction, at 29% approval, came in response to this statement: “Companies have no business promoting such radical, divisive ideas on their customers and shareholders.”

Islam, Rape and Western Capitulation Eileen F. Toplansky

European nations, to their eternal shame, continue to ignore the Islamic religious dictates about ongoing rapes of infidel women. Consequently, women and young girls in Germany, France and Britain have paid a grievous price over the years. 

In Cologne, Germany in 2016 during a New Year’s celebration, migrants ended up molesting over 1,000 women.  In Britain, grooming gangs composed largely of Muslims maintain that rape of the infidel women is acceptable in their culture and part of the religious requirement. 

Christian girls in predominantly Islamic lands, i.e., Pakistan are also abused because “. . . , it is not even a crime as Muslims regard the girls as spoils of war.”

Yazidi women were told that their rapes “please God.” And there are other victims as well.

Hindu girls are not exempt either.

The depressing accounts of these Hindus showed . . .  how inhumanely religious minorities are treated in Islamic countries [.] While speaking with the media, many said that they had fled Pakistan after becoming victims of rape and kidnappings.

The Koran verses 4:3 and 4:24 permit Muslim men to have sexual relations with as many women as “their right hand possesses” — meaning as many women – all non-Muslim … as they are able to take captive during a jihad.

The incomparable Raymond Ibrahim continues to spotlight the reality of Muslim teachings.

Newt’s World – Episode 571: Alex Soros Takes Over

https://www.gingrich360.com/2023/06/17/newts-world-episode-571-alex-soros-takes-over/

Newt talks with Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of “The Soros Agenda” about the recent announcement by billionaire George Soros, that his son Alex will be taking over the family business.

Tearing Apart the Governing Consensus A victory for the administrative state in the war on Donald Trump won’t be a victory for the rule of law. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/17/tearing-apart-the-governing-consensus/

We hear a lot about the loss of “institutional legitimacy” these days. One of the great ironies attendant on that loss is a revolution in sentiment among many—but by no means all—people who think of themselves as conservative. Hitherto, such people would have been staunch supporters of those institutions that, traditionally, had represented the rule of law, the continuity of our culture, etc. Nowadays, they look with a jaundiced eye upon once-respected institutions like the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the rest of the national security/surveillance apparat. 

How could it be otherwise? Recent revelations that scores if not hundreds of figures from that world had insinuated themselves into media, social and otherwise, to push a partisan agenda must give us pause. The stories are legion. Here’s one that just appeared in The Federalist by Margot Cleveland. 

The month before Joe Biden’s inauguration, FBI sources collaborated with the New York Times’ Russia-collusion hoaxer Adam Goldman to falsely portray the investigation into Hunter Biden as a big ole nothingburger. Americans just didn’t know it at the time. However, revisiting Goldman’s article now, in light of recent whistleblower revelations and statements by former Attorney General William Barr, reveals this reality—and more.

That’s bad, right? The FBI fed faked news to our former “newspaper of record” about a partisan matter that might well have determined the outcome of a presidential election. And the response? A little feckless hand-wringing on the Right. Some clucking tongues. At the end of the day, though, expect crickets. 

In one of the very best pieces I have seen about the Horrors!-Trump-had-classified-documents-at-Mar-a-Lago indictment, also published at The Federalist, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Scharf minutes several disturbing features of that 37-count farce. Much of what he has to say is broadly exculpatory of Trump, but one of the most disturbing items concerns the 38th item in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s partisan cudgel: the indictment of Trump’s aide Walt Nauta. 

Daniel Penny is a scapegoat for a failed system He violated the code that regular workers and taxpayers are an afterthought in public policy Heather MacDonald

https://thespectator.com/topic/daniel-penny-scapegoat-homelessness-system-neely/

Jordan Neely was given a hero’s funeral in Harlem last Friday, eulogized by New York’s most prominent race activists before an audience of the city’s Democratic elite. Neely died on May 1 on a New York City subway car, after being restrained by a Marine veteran who was trying to protect his fellow passengers from Neely’s psychotic outbursts.  

Neely has been turned into a symbol of a racist system of law enforcement and of civilian values that exaggerate the threat of mentally ill vagrants to keep minorities down. Three weeks after Neely’s death, on May 21, another homeless man in New York City slammed a woman’s head into a subway car, likely paralyzing her for life, if she even survives. Neely’s champions have been silent about this latest subway assault. 

All the pathologies afflicting American cities were present in that earlier fatal encounter and its aftermath: the grotesque parody of compassion that is conventional homeless policy; government’s elevation of the supposed interests of the anti-social and dysfunctional over those of the law-abiding and hard-working; anti-white race-baiting and racial bathos.

But the May 1 confrontation between the ex-Marine Daniel Penny and the mentally ill Neely stands for more than failed policy. Reaction to Penny’s intervention illuminates as well the war on manly virtues and their attempted replacement with an emasculated dependence on bureaucrats and social workers. 

Jordan Neely was a standard product of New York’s homelessness empire. A thirty-year-old schizophrenic drug addict, Neely had cut a swathe of destruction and fear through New York’s streets and subways for fifteen years. Despite his predilection for assaulting the elderly, he had been repeatedly allowed to skip out of treatment and jail. In 2019, Neely punched Filemon Castillo Baltazar in the head as the sixty-five-year-old waited for a subway in Greenwich Village. In June 2021, he walloped Anne Mitcheltree in the head inside a deli in the East Village; she was in her late sixties. In November 2021, Neely broke the nose and fractured the eye socket of a sixty-seven-year-old woman as she exited a subway  on the Lower East Side. 

These physical assaults were accompanied by a steady stream of disturbing behavior. In June 2019, for example, Neely banged on the door of a subway ticket agent’s booth and threatened to kill her.

None of these attacks landed Neely in long-term mental health confinement, even though, as a mentally ill chemical abuser (MICA), Neely was certain to attack again. Drug use sharply increases violence in the mentally ill, but Neely’s heavy use of the synthetic marijuana K-2 should have been particularly worrying to his social worker contacts. Due to its strength and powerful psychological effects, K-2 was even more likely to trigger violent outbreaks. No matter. His forty-two arrests produced at best brief jail stints and his hundreds of encounters with outreach workers always left him free to return to the streets. 

A must-see video to understand how bad the Deep State really is By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/a_mustsee_video_to_understand_how_bad_the_deep_state_really_is.html

The real power in America lies with the permanent, Democrat- and union-controlled, and very unconstitutional administrative state. Vivek Ramaswamy spoke about this problem with Philip Howard, who has been writing for decades about the problems with America’s overwhelming bureaucracy. If we are to change America’s destiny, a conservative president must break the Deep State.

1. The Deep State is unconstitutional. The Constitution does not authorize a permanent bureaucracy as a fourth branch of government. It says only that the Article II executive is responsible for certain tasks and implies that he may hire the people he needs to execute them. Congress has a say in the matter depending on its willingness to fund the people hired. This means that, under the Constitution, the president of the United States is the big boss.

Today, America has an all-powerful bureaucracy that exists separate from the president and acts as a legislature to create binding rules and as the police, judge, jury, and executioner to enforce the rules. This is patently extra-constitutional and, therefore, unconstitutional.

Image: Vivek and Philip Howard. YouTube screen grab.

2. Government unions are a huge part of the problem. When private sector unions began, there were no government protections for workers, and those workers on the lowest end of the economic scale had no negotiating power, making them vulnerable to abuse. Unions gave them the representation they needed to make demands about wages and humane working conditions.

France: Submission to Islamism Quickly Gaining Ground by Guy Millière

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19730/france-islamism-submission

Samuel Paty, a high school teacher [was] savagely beheaded on October 16, 2020 in… the suburbs of Paris where he taught…

The list of 14 people [indicted] does not include the murderer, Abdullakh Anzorov: he was shot dead by police.

[A]ll investigations show [that teachers] are afraid and practice self-censorship. For 10 years, teachers have not taught about the Holocaust. They have also given up on addressing the subjects that led to Paty’s murder: secularism, tolerance and the right to criticize religions.

Throughout France, Muslim students openly threaten teachers by telling them that they are “risking a Samuel Paty”. Many topics can no longer be addressed…. In biology class, discussing evolution or Charles Darwin is… unsafe.

Teachers have been resigning in increasing numbers, and recruiting new ones has become a problem.

Recently, anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Backler in a book called Le frérisme et ses Réseaux, l’Enquête (“The Brotherhood and its Networks: The Survey”), explained in detail the way the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements in France use social media networks and mosques to incite Muslim children and adolescents to challenge the education provided in high schools to push the French educational system to submit to their vision of Islam.

The French authorities are aware of what is happening, but do nothing. Apparently, government officials are afraid, too, and do not want to take any risks. They know that more than 750 no-go zones exist in the country, and that riots frequently erupt… Most ended in violence by young people from no-go zones who burned cars and looted shops.

Macron’s proposed law, called the “Law confirming respect for the principles of the Republic”, has since been rewritten. All references to Islam and Islamism have been removed from the text. Passed on August 24, 2021, it does currently not contain any measure likely to combat the Islamist danger. A paragraph speaks of the need to “protect teachers”, but teachers are still not protected. The Islamist movements in French high schools continue to exist.

About 400,000 legal immigrants arrive in France from the Muslim world every year, according to the latest informati0on available. These do not include the thousands who arrive illegally.

A study in September 2020 showed that 74% of French Muslims under the age of 25 placed Sharia above the laws of the republic…. Another study published a year later showed that two-thirds of Muslim high school students also placed Sharia above the laws of the Republic. The same survey showed that 9% of young Muslims said they “share the motivations” of Paty’s murderer.

No teacher from the high school where Paty taught supported him: instead, they distanced themselves from him. Some accused him of putting them in danger. The Ministry of Education also blamed him, for having offended the sensibilities of Muslim students.

The police took note of the threats but offered Paty no protection. Even though Anzorov’s name was in a police database, and even though the police and Paty’s colleagues knew he was threatened, Anzorov was able to spend hours in front of the high school where Paty taught. Anzorov spoke with students and asked them to point out Paty when the school day was over and the teachers were going home. Anzorov chased Paty through the streets, stabbed him, slit his throat, beheaded him, photographed himself next to the severed head, and posted the photos on social media networks around the world.

“Sleepwalking leaders must wake up…. Otherwise, the French will have no choice but submission or civil war…” — Ivan Rioufol, columnist, Le Figaro, October22, 2020.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Israel bashers in academia and the media have a field day defaming Israel with selective headlines and deceptive narratives occasioned by the democracy’s political follies and the biased and venal BDS (Boycott, Sanction & Divest) movement. Michael Ordman’s comprehensive catalog of Israel’s outsize contributions to the welfare and aspirations of humanity worldwide, gives the lie to the libels.

BDS indeed! Israel is Beautiful, Diverse & Special.  rsk

michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Predicting immunotherapy response. Ben-Gurion University researchers have partnered Israel’s OncoHost to develop a biosensor that safely predicts if anti-PD1 therapy may cure a specific cancer patient. The leading immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy is invasive and other treatments may be better. (see also here).
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/elkabets_porgador_immunotherapy.aspx
https://nocamels.com/2023/06/cancer/   https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg2809
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-technology-improves-prediction-of-patient-response-to-immunotherapy/
 
Nano-treatment for eye diseases. Israel’s BioNanoSim (see here previously) is joining forces with Greek-based manufacturer RAFARM, to market BioNanoSim’s eye disease treatments globally. Its product, BNSO-1, is a topical medication that will shortly begin trials on patients suffering from Chronic Anterior Uveitis.
https://nocamels.com/2023/05/eye-disease/  https://www.bionanosim.com/
 
The power of sleep. Researchers at Tel Aviv University and UCLA have shown that long-lasting memories are consolidated during sleep by communication between the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex. Deep-brain stimulation during sleep improves memory consolidation and provides hope for dementia patients.
https://english.tau.ac.il/memory_sleep  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01324-5
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-research-reveals-brains-mechanism-for-memory-consolidation-during-sleep/
 
Choose your hospital. From 1st Sep, Israeli patients will be able to pick the hospital of their choice to undergo free or subsidized treatments in neurosurgery, mental health services, gynecological surgery, and in-vitro fertilization. They can already choose hospitals for oncology and obstetrics.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-743221
 
A chatbot for cancer patients. Israel’s Belong.Life (see here previously) has launched “Dave” – the world’s first AI chatbot for cancer patients. Its purpose is to improve access to quality cancer care for patients around the world. It is available free of charge on Belong. Life’s Beating Cancer Together app. “Be well, Belong”.
https://www.israel21c.org/meet-dave-worlds-first-ai-chatbot-for-cancer-patients/  https://belong.life/cancer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkD9i1qzJAo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bEjH6-tiAo
 
$100 million cancer center. Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center has just opened its new state-of-the art Helmsley Cancer Center. The 12,000-square-meter center houses all Shaare Zedek’s medical, radiotherapy, counseling, spiritual and palliative oncological services under one roof.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/shaare-zedek-hospital-opens-oncology-center-designed-with-healing-aesthetic/
 
Prize for pain treatment. Israeli-founded TrainPain won the Grand Prize in the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) & MIT Hacking Medicine Innovation Challenge. TrainPain measures and retrains sensory neuroplasticity through home-based haptic (body-movement) mobile games, remote monitoring, and training.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trainpain-awarded-grand-prize-in-the-american-academy-of-pain-medicine–mit-hacking-medicine-innovation-challenge-301814260.html   https://www.trainpain.com/
https://pain.haifa.ac.il/projects/train-pain/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBMrU7gdGUI

Illegal border crossers so far this year outnumber the population of 8 states By Bethany Blankley

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_3227124e-0b78-11ee-9599-97d6d9962e84.html

At least 1.2 million people have been apprehended or reported evading capture at the southern border in the first five months of this year, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Center Square.

The estimate is based on official apprehension data reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as gotaway data. A Border Patrol agent provides this data exclusively to The Center Square on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Gotaways are those who illegally enter the U.S. and intentionally seek to evade capture. Border Patrol agents report those who have illegally entered and evaded capture based on several factors. CBP doesn’t publicly report gotaway data.

Gotaways are averaging roughly 60,000 per month, according to data analyzed by The Center Square. However, these numbers are believed to be higher for several reasons, including the fact that far fewer agents are out in the field and aren’t able to identify the tracks of those who’ve gotten away. Federal, state and local law enforcement officers have no idea who or where they are, or how many of them are known, suspected terrorists or violent gang members and criminals, those in law enforcement tell The Center Square.

Combined, the monthly totals are greater than the individual populations of eight U.S. states, two states more than last month when illegal border crossers in 2023 totaled more than the populations of six states.

At least 240,256 foreign nationals were apprehended or reported evading capture after illegally entering the southwest border in May, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square. The preliminary data excludes Office of Field Operations data and only includes Border Patrol data. The total increases after CBP publishes its official data because it includes OFO data.