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August 2023

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Biden Boosts New Vaccines for ‘Everybody’ Are you ready for Round 2? by Lloyd Billingsley

By on August 31st, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-boosts-new-vaccines-for-everybody/

“I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works,” said Joe Biden in Lake Tahoe last Friday, August 25. “Tentatively it is recommended that it will likely be recommended everybody get it no matter whether they’ve gotten it before or not.”

The Delaware Democrat, 80, did not reveal why a new vaccine is “necessary,” though the news report cited a new version of the Omicron strain called XBB.1.5. The new vaccine allegedly “works” and Biden was more certain that “everybody get it,”  whatever they had done before. Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are “working on doses of the XBB update,” but there’s more to it.

On Monday, August 20, an unnamed “White House official” told reporters the Biden administration urges all Americans to get booster shots to counter a new wave of infections. The announcement came days after the Centers for Disease Control announced that it is tracking a new COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, discovered in Michigan, Denmark, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

No word where BA.2.86 first appeared and how it arrived in Michigan if the point of origin was Israel, Denmark or the UK. Virologists and evolutionary biologists claim that the BA.2.86 variant will have equal or greater “escape” that the Omicron variants.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is tracking the new variants and the White House, according to the unnamed official, will be “encouraging all Americans to get those boosters in addition to flu shots and RSV shots.” If this leaves people confused, they might dial back to Biden’s top medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Fauci’s bio shows no advanced degrees in biochemistry or molecular biology. Nobel laureate Kary Mullis, inventor of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), was on record that Fauci “doesn’t understand electronic microscopy and he doesn’t understand medicine. He should not be in a position like he’s in.” But he was, heading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2023.

Dr. Fauci funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to perform gain-of-function research that makes viruses more lethal and transmissible. The WIV, in turn, received shipments of deadly pathogens courtesy of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, the Chinese national who headed the special pathogens unit at Canada’s National Microbiology Lab. In 2017-2018 alone, Dr. Qiu made at least five trips to the WIV.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Over 1,600 Scientists Sign ‘No Climate Emergency’ Declaration By Naveen Athrappully

By on August 31st, 2023

https://www.theepochtimes.com/science/over-1600-scientists-sign-no-climate-emergency-declaration-5482554?utm_

International scientists have jointly signed a declaration dismissing the existence of a climate crisis and insisting that carbon dioxide is beneficial to Earth, contrary to the popular alarmist narrative.

“There is no climate emergency,” the Global Climate Intelligence Group (CLINTEL) said in its World Climate Declaration (pdf), made public in August. “Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”

A total of 1,609 scientists and professionals from around the world have signed the declaration, including 321 from the United States.The coalition pointed out that Earth’s climate has varied as long as it has existed, with the planet experiencing several cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age only ended as recently as 1850, they said.

“Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming,” the declaration said.

Warming is happening “far slower” than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The Real Reason Behind the ‘Climate Emergency’ Push

“Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools,” the coalition said, adding that these models “exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases” and “ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.” For instance, even though climate alarmists characterize CO2 as environmentally-damaging, the coalition pointed out that the gas is “not a pollutant.”

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ELECTIONS Comments turned off

What if Biden Backs Out of the Race? By Charles Lipson

By on August 31st, 2023

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/08/30/what_if_biden_backs_out_of_the_race_149692.html

President Biden has declared he’s running for a second term, but it’s far from certain he actually will. His infirmity and low poll numbers raise serious doubts. His physical decline shows when he walks or climbs the stairs of Air Force One. His cognitive decline shows when he refuses to hold press conferences or answer even the simplest questions, like how he feels about the devastating fires in Maui. His decline in the public’s estimation shows when pollsters ask Americans how they’re doing. Four out of five answer, “Not good. Not good at all.”

Voters also say they don’t want another general election choice like the last one. So many votes in 2020 were negative ones “against the worse candidate,” not in favor of the better one. They don’t want another grudge match between two unpopular candidates.

Biden’s dismal poll numbers form a somber backdrop for his reelection campaign. That backdrop is even darker now that his health problems are so visible. These mounting problems may not prevent him from running, but they do lessen the chances. True, he keeps saying he is running. But, like all politicians, he may be deceiving the public or himself. The biggest “tell” is that Biden is avoiding the very things active candidates do. He’s not campaigning. He’s not attending a lot of small events with big donors. He’s not running ads. He’s not using the White House’s bully pulpit to address the nation on our challenges and his response to them.

Still, those signs are not definitive. Biden might be lying low because the Republicans are fighting among themselves. Why get in their way? Better to wait until late autumn to ramp up his campaign.

He might be unsure if he really is running, uncertain if he is up to the arduous task, physically and mentally.

Or he might have already decided, privately, that he will not run but is delaying the announcement since it would immediately turn him into a powerless lame duck.

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MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

We Urgently Need New Approaches To Obtain Organs For Transplantation — One Is Available Immediately Henry I. Miller and Sally L. Satel

By on August 31st, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/08/31/we-urgently-need-new-approaches-to-obtain-organs-for-transplantation-one-is-available-immediately/

Modern medicine has produced many high-tech miracles, among them gene therapy, electrical stimulation devices that restore significant function after traumatic spinal cord injury, and robot-performed surgery.

Another sector of medicine that needs a breakthrough is transplantation of solid organs. More than 100,000 Americans are waiting for transplants, and due to a shortage of hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys, at least 17 die each day. Currently, donor organs – from a living person or a cadaver – must match the recipient’s tissue type and size, and often, the match is not perfect. By one estimate, approximately half of transplanted organs are rejected by recipients’ bodies within 10-12 years. Compounding the shortage, the organ procurement system in the U.S. is inefficient, inconsistent, and unaccountable – in short, a mess that causes preventable deaths.

A high-tech approach that uses organs from genetically engineered pigs for transplantation, xenotransplantation, might both eliminate the need for human organ donors and reduce the risk of tissue rejection.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported in JAMA Surgery earlier this month that they had transplanted a pig kidney with 10 gene edits into a brain-dead man, where it functioned normally – producing urine and evading rejection – during a seven-day study.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘How to Serve White Victims’ Oakland, Calif., is plagued by crime—and by a district attorney, Pamela Price, determined to divide people by race. By Heather Mac Donald

By on August 31st, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-serve-white-victims-discriminatory-social-workers-training-crime-racism-california-f7fb7502?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

After “antiracist” consultant Karen Fleshman finished a training in Oakland, Calif., she took to Facebook to express pride in her work: “Great afternoon training Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s Victim Services team in ‘How to Serve White Victims.’ Madam DA Pamela Price is my shero [sic] and mentor. She is a lifelong warrior for justice with compassion.” A few days later, Ms. Price thanked Ms. Fleshman for her “wisdom and support.”

But when I started asking questions about the June 26 training, suddenly trainer and trainee didn’t want to talk about it. Ms. Fleshman didn’t respond to my queries. Neither did the head of the district attorney’s Victim Services Division, Kristina Molina. Ms. Price’s press officer, Patti Lee, told me that she deals with the press, whereas I, as a think-tank employee, have a “specific point of view.”

The Victim Services Division consists of social workers who help crime victims obtain psychological and financial support. Ms. Fleshman’s PowerPoint slides reinforce the idea of dividing victims by race. (Photos of those slides circulated among Oakland’s law-enforcement community, one of whose members forwarded them to me.)

One PowerPoint panel lists the session’s “Key Takeaways.” Among them: “White people are not entitled to harm you”; “When interacting with white victims, speak up for yourself or for your coworkers”; and “If a white victim continues to harm you, ask that they be transferred.” The slide also asserts that “white victims are entitled to the same compassion and practices as all victims,” but the rest of the slide is at odds with that message. It’s unclear how white crime victims “harm” government employees. Another panel from the training asserts that “White Supremacy Culture” is characterized by “Perfectionism,” “Objectivity,” “Sense of Urgency” and “Individualism.” Perhaps it’s harmful to expect government employees to respond to crimes objectively and urgently.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Human Rights Watch’s Jihad Against Israel by Bassam Tawil

By on August 31st, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19938/human-rights-watch-israel

[T]he report fails to mention that during this period Israel has faced a massive wave of terrorism sponsored and funded by the Iranian regime and its Palestinian terror proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

One of the cases “investigated” by HRW is that of Mahmoud al-Sadi, 17, reportedly killed by Israeli security forces as he walked to school near the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on November 21, 2022. Notably, the HRW report does not mention why Israeli troops had entered the refugee camp.

The Jenin Battalion terrorists, who are heavily armed, are mostly affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an extremist Islamist organization responsible for countless terrorist attacks that have killed and injured hundreds of Israelis in the past few decades. There is no mention of this militia or its activities in the HRW report. Evidently, HRW does not want to the facts to spoil its effort to slander Israelis by depicting them as child-killers.

While HRW presents al-Sadi as an unarmed teenage boy, Palestinians posted a photo of him carrying a M-16 rifle. Apparently, for HRW such photos, where Palestinian teenagers are featured brandishing weapons and dressed in military outfits, are irrelevant because they do not serve its anti-Israeli propaganda.

Bizarrely, HRW does admit that the remaining three “children” allegedly killed by Israel were involved in terrorist attacks. Yet, as far as HRW is concerned, Israeli soldiers or police have no right to defend themselves when they are attacked with stones, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks. Why? According to the logic of HRW, the perpetrators are “only” teenagers.

Does HRW really expect Israeli soldiers and policemen to ask someone who shoots or throws a Molotov cocktail at them how old they are before firing back to defend themselves?

Instead of denouncing the Palestinians for using children as combatants, HRW is condemning Israel for defending itself against terrorism.

“Israel, with a population of 7.4 million, is home to at least 80 human rights organizations, a vibrant free press, a democratically elected government, a judiciary that frequently rules against the government, a politically active academia, multiple political parties and, judging by the amount of news coverage, probably more journalists per capita than any other country in the world — many of whom are there expressly to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” — The late Robert L. Bernstein, founder and longtime chairman of Human Rights Watch, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

“Meanwhile, the Arab and Iranian regimes rule over some 350 million people, and most remain brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no internal dissent. The plight of their citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide is being ignored as Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division prepares report after report on Israel.” — Robert L. Bernstein, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

“Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere. This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” — Robert L. Bernstein, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

“Leaders of Human Rights Watch know that Hamas and Hezbollah chose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields. They know that more and better arms are flowing into both Gaza and Lebanon and are poised to strike again. And they know that this militancy continues to deprive Palestinians of any chance for the peaceful and productive life they deserve. Yet Israel, the repeated victim of aggression, faces the brunt of Human Rights Watch’s criticism.” — Robert L. Bernstein, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

HRW’s ongoing obsession with Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, serves as a reminder that the organization is on the side of the terrorists who appear as committed to killing Americans and other Westerners, as to destroying Israel and killing Jews

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