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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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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Slavery: The Ostentatious Hypocrisy of BRICS towards Black Africans by Paul Trewhela

By on August 30th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19926/slavery-brics-black-africans

In a garish example of anti-democratic, anti-West, collective state hypocrisy, leaders from the BRICS bloc — representing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — meeting in South Africa over three days last week invited four Muslim states and two others to join the bloc, while keeping total silence over the racist and Islamist massacre by heavily armed Arab militias of black African civilians being carried out in West Darfur in Sudan over the preceding weeks.

“[A]trocities pile up in Darfur after 100 days of Sudan fighting”, in which “Arab militias are accused of killing lawyers, human rights monitors, doctors and non-Arab tribal leaders”. — Al Jazeera, July 24, 2023.

” [The city of Al-Geneina in West Darfur] has been ethnically cleansed.” — Humanitarian worker, Sky News, broadcasting scenes of thousands of desperate Sudanese refugees displaced in neighbouring Chad, August 17, 2023.

The Africa Defense Forum disclosed on May 16 that Russia’s Wagner group was supervising gold-mining in Darfur, and smuggling nearly $2 billion in gold out of the country.

Yet the “great and the good” — China’s President Xi Jinping, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, with Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing the congregation by video to endorse Russia’s war in Ukraine — made no mention of this genocidal massacre.

Instead, the BRICS leaders invited states with the world’s longest history of enslaving black Africans to join them.

China’s Xinhua news agency reported how Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, who attended the BRICS conference, hailed it as a “commendable step that will facilitate worldwide development while upholding principles of justice.”

Justice? Raisi was deputy prosecutor general in a four-member committee codenamed the “death commission” in Iran in 1988, which was responsible for the executions of thousands of political prisoners who were loyal to a banned opposition movement, “on orders issued by Raisi and his three colleagues.”

Worse, although slavery continued legally in Iran until 1929, “It never went away”. — iranwire.com, April 30, 2020.

The article showed a series of photos of black African slaves in Iran, such as this one from the 1880s. — Denise Hassanzade Ajiri, “The face of African slavery in Qajar Iran – in pictures,” The Guardian, January 14, 2016.

The issue of the enslavement and oppression of black Africans — continuing to this day in Darfur and elsewhere — is an issue suppressed by BRICS.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Speech by Geert Wilders in Court Yesterday during Trial against Pakistani Who Wanted Wilders To Be Slaughtered by Geert Wilders

By on August 30th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19929/geert-wilders-speech

I have been on the death lists of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS for a very long time….

In recent years, several fatwas have been issued against me by imams and mullahs, two of which have been repeated quite recently. Fatwas, religious death sentences consisting of concrete calls to Muslims worldwide and also in the Netherlands to kill me.

I now receive so many death threats, every day and about a thousand a year, that I no longer even report everything, because then I would no longer be able to do my work as a Member of Parliament.

They are often descriptions of how they want to kill me, often with explicit pictures, beheading videos, there are audio recordings of threats, including imams from mosques, and other disgustingly violent material. Many of those threats come from various Islamic countries, but especially from Pakistan.

And with a few exceptions of Pakistanis who came to the Netherlands to kill me, but luckily were arrested and also convicted, 99.99% of all people who threaten me from abroad have never been prosecuted.

Luckily one is prosecuted today. And I would like to thank the Public Prosecution Office for that.

I do hope that they will also prosecute the Pakistani mullah Jalali and the political leader Rizvi, who issued the aforementioned fatwas against me. Please don’t forget them.

[T]oday your court is hearing the case against Khalid Latif, a well-known former cricketer from Pakistan, who in 2018 put a bounty of three million Pakistani rupees, then about 21 thousand euros [roughly $23,000], on my head as a reward for the one who murders me, and would post the video of that murder online as evidence. And if he had more money, he added, he would also give it to the one who kills me.

Khalid Latif thinks I should be killed because I (and I quote) would insult “the prophet of God” – he is referring to Muhammad – by organizing a cartoon contest [which did not take place].

But of course that is absolutely no reason to put a price on someone’s head, let alone kill someone.

I wanted to make it clear that making drawings is allowed by anyone and we should never, ever bow down to people who choose violence, threats, murder and terror.

Because of all the fatwas, threats and calls to kill, I have been living in high security for almost nineteen years.

I have lived in a prison with my wife for months for my safety, lived in a barracks, lived in a police station, had to dress unrecognizably in public with mustaches and wigs. And to this day, my wife and I live in a government safe house.

I can’t do the most basic things that every human being does every day without thinking about it…. Quickly get some air. Empty the mailbox. Driving. Walk around the block. Quickly run a message [errand] in the store…..

And frankly, you never get used to it. You learn to deal with it but you never get used to it. And that’s tough. You should know that.

I am grateful to be protected. I also want to say that today.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Blue City Blues Betsy McCaughey

By on August 30th, 2023

https://townhall.com/columnists/betsymccaughey/2023/08/30/blue-city-blues-n2627715

Eric Adams is trying to con us into believing New York City is “thriving.” Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but we’re not wearing rose-colored glasses.

On Sunday, Adams spoke at a brunch for New York Sun supporters at The American Hotel in tony Sag Harbor, New York. He said, “The city is not coming back. We’re back back.” Apparently, he thinks his job is public relations, not actually solving the city’s problems.

A Siena College poll shows more New York state voters disapprove than approve of Adams’ response to the migrant crisis. So, what does the mayor do?

Last week, he launched a highly coordinated social media campaign, requiring more than 20 city agencies to tweet out a message applauding New York City’s welcoming of migrants. “New York remains a beacon for all who come to our shores,” one of the posts read.

The propaganda blitz, paid for by tax dollars, praises the “brave New Yorkers ready to help,” including the mayor, of course. It’s a slap in the face to New Yorkers already footing most of the bill for the crisis

Adams dished more P.R. spin at Sunday’s breakfast. Here’s a taste:

Adams: “There’s only two types of Americans — either you live in New York, or you wish you could.”

Reality check: The city is going from Big Apple to shrunken apple, losing population massively. Some 400,000 people fled during 2020 and 2021, and in 2022, Manhattan was the only borough that did not lose population.

Worse, 158 financial firms have moved their headquarters out of New York City since 2019, taking nearly $1 trillion in managed assets with them.

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MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Control Versus Choice By John Stossel

By on August 30th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/columns/john-stossel/2023/08/30/control-versus-choice-n1723088

COVID cases are up. Hospitalizations climbed 24% last week.

But the media make everything seem scarier than it is. The headline “Up 24%!” comes after dramatic lows. Hospitalizations are still less than half what they were when President Joe Biden said, “The pandemic is over.”  

Yet the shallow media keep pounding away: “It may be time to break out the masks” headlined CNN.

Frightened people believe. The movie studio Lionsgate reinstated an office mask mandate. Atlanta’s Morris Brown College mandated masks and even banned parties.

This month, several school districts in Kentucky and Texas closed. “The safety and wellbeing of our students, staff, and community is a top priority,” said the school superintendent in Texas.

But kids rarely get very sick from COVID, and schools aren’t COVID hotspots. Studies on tens of thousands of people found “no consistent relationship between in-person K-12 schooling and the spread of the coronavirus.” 

A Lancet study found Florida had the 12th-fewest excess COVID deaths in the country, even though Florida students went back to school without masks relatively soon. 

At least Texas’ and Kentucky’s closures were isolated and brief. Long-term closures during the pandemic brought America’s lowest math and reading scores in decades. Florida’s kids suffered less learning loss than kids in other states. 

Sweden, which never closed its schools, suffered no learning loss. Sweden’s education minister wrote that children were “at much lower risk of serious illness” and that “keeping children learning was vital.” 

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