WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

France: Towards a Year of Uncertainty? by Amir Taheri

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20724/france-election-uncertainty

The election [French President Emmanuel Macron] unnecessarily provoked could produce a hung parliament in which no party has a majority.

That could make France ungovernable for at least a year, as the president cannot dissolve the parliament within a year of a previous dissolution.

It is still too early to decide how French President Emmanuel Macron might be remembered by history. But one distinction he is unlikely to win is that of “master of timing.” Yet his entourage claims that his decision to call an early general election was a master stroke in good timing.

This is how the argument goes:

With the ultra-right National Rally topping the polls in the European Parliament election earlier this month, Macron saw the danger that it would also win the next presidential election in 2027. So he decided to bring the parliamentary election forward so that the ultra-right’s youthful standard-bearer Jordan Bardella would get the premiership and more than two years in which to be exposed as a disagreeable and incompetent figure, thus allowing Macronists to keep the presidency with a new candidate of their own.

But what if things don’t happen the way Macron the super-strategist fantasized?

In the European election, Bardella’s list won what many see as a “stunning victory” with over 31 percent of the votes and 30 of the 81 French seats in the European Parliament.

Macron’s coalition received only 14.6 percent of the vote, translated into 13 seats. A normal reaction would have come in the form of “too bad, but so what?”

European Parliament elections have never been part of the mainstream of the French political process. These elections are held on a single-round proportional representation basis, which magnifies the rewards.

Held under a different electoral system, parliamentary elections in France do not mirror Euro-elections.

Here, a two-round voting system means 577 separate constituency elections affected by a variety of factors beyond a straight ideological duel.

To win a majority and thus get to name a prime minister, a party or coalition of parties must win at least 289 seats.

No party or coalition of parties has won that many seats in the first round of any parliamentary election in France.

That means you need coalition partners to secure a majority in the second round. Without that, the votes you get in the first round are simply wasted ballots.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

In spite of war, blood curdling threats of genocide, and media and academic libel and bias, Israel remains a freewheeling democracy with a model and diverse citizen army. Behind the headlines, as Michael Ordman catalogs every week, Israel’s scientists, doctors, and water, food, and agriculture technologies, bring hope and better lives to citizens throughout the world in disproportionate numbers. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR

Wounded IDF soldier welcomed at NY rehab center. (TY WIN) Due to an overload of war casualties Yonatan, an injured IDF soldier had his follow-up surgeries in Israel delayed. A compassionate doctor and Five Towns Premier Rehab Center in Woodmere, NY, agreed to admit him.

https://jewishbreakingnews.com/injured-idf-soldier-receives-heros-welcome-at-ny-rehab-center/

https://x.com/LivingLchaim/status/1800218431322783777 

96-year-old IDF reservist promoted. (TY Sam) Ezra Yakhin, 96, serves in reserve service as a motivational speaker in the Education Corps “Torchbearer Unit”. Since the beginning of the war, he has been inspiring the soldiers of today with fighting spirit. He has just been promoted to the rank of Command Master Sergeant.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391836

IDF officer and Prize-winning scientist. When Dr Nir Shlezinger isn’t on duty as an IDF reserve armored corps officer, he lectures Engineering Science students at Israel’s Ben Gurion University. He has also just won a Krill Prize from the Wolf Foundation for Excellence in Scientific Research in digital communications and AI.

https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/krill-prize-2024-for-nir-shlezinger/

Descendants of Nazis in pro-Israel march. (TY Yanky) Hundreds of Nazi descendants have been marching the streets of Ashkelon, and Jerusalem in solidarity with the Jewish State. Many participated in the March of the Nations because of the events of Oct 7.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA1dbkE4eJs

https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/139222/nazi-march-israel-solidarity

https://www.jewishtimes.com/ten-meters-from-eichmann/

Delivering results. Israeli NGO Social Delivery collects surplus goods, from clothes to furniture, from retailers and offices of tech firms and delivers them to Gaza border communities. For the first three months of the war, Social Delivery sent products to hotels housing evacuees. Now it sends the products to the Gaza border again.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/modern-robin-hood-with-a-social-justice-mandate-helps-returnees-on-path-of-renewal/

US volunteers help Israeli startups. Nonprofit Kachol Balev (Blue at Heart) has enlisted hundreds of volunteers in the US (students and others), with a whole range of hi-tech skills, to work remotely for Israeli startups. They occupy some of the gaps left by tens of thousands of Israelis called up for IDF reserve duty.

https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-tech-industry-gets-helping-hand-from-remote-volunteers/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Detecting cancer with saliva test. Israel’s Salignostics (see here previously) is working with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to develop a saliva test for the early detection of oral cavity cancer. It may save some of the 400,000 diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer, of whom only 50% will survive five years after diagnosis.

https://www.israel21c.org/saliva-based-cancer-testing-on-its-way/

$1.2 million to discover a gut feeling. The French-based Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) funds basic research in life sciences. It has awarded a $1.2 million grant to Ben Gurion University Prof Michael Meijler to investigate how certain gut bacteria affect human behavior, such as anxiety and stress.

https://www.bgu.ac.il/en/news-and-articles/meijler-grant-from-hfsp/

20,000 doctors available. Israel’s Air Doctor (see here previously) now has 20,000 doctors registered to its service globally, partnering with insurance companies in 80 countries. It has also added video telemedicine consultations on their platform and reduced insurance claim costs by 54%.

https://nocamels.com/2024/06/the-doctor-is-in-app-connects-foreign-travelers-to-local-physicians/

Booming IVF baby boomers. Israel’s AIVF (see here previously) reports that its EMA embryo analysis platform is 38% more accurate than the eye of a trained embryologist when assessing which IVF embryo is most likely to result in a successful pregnancy. AIVF is active in Europe, Australia, Brazil, and South Korea.

https://nocamels.com/2024/06/israeli-ai-platform-delivering-baby-boom-for-ivf-pregnancies/

New Haifa University Medical School. Haifa University governors laid the cornerstone of the Herta and Paul Amir School of Medicine. The 1,200-bed hospital is due to open in 2025, featuring state-of-the-art medical services; patient-centered care; hi-tech ICUs; and cardiovascular, thoracic, and surgical oncology departments.

https://www.jns.org/wire/haifa-university-inaugurates-medical-school-to-meet-israels-pressing-needs-and-strengthen-the-north/

Top training for top nurses at top hospital. The current 3-month SPARC training course for nurses at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center includes participants from Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa and the US. It selects innovative nurses who have ideas for life-saving solutions that they can develop into practice.

https://nocamels.com/2024/06/top-israeli-hospital-fosters-innovation-by-practical-creative-nurses/

Technology Pioneer. (TY OurCrowd) The World Economic Forum selected Israel’s BrainQ (see here previously) for the 2024 cohort of WEF Technology Pioneers. BrainQ, will contribute cutting-edge insights and expertise to the Forum’s global initiatives over the next two years, helping to scale their impact.

https://initiatives.weforum.org/technology-pioneers/organization-details/brainq/0010X00004MxJJ2QAN

United Hatzalah Gala raises $20 million. It was Eden Golan day at United Hatzalah’s gala fundraiser event in Manhattan. After delivering the first US performance of her song “Hurricane” and other songs, she received United Hatzalah’s “Hero Award”. The event raised $20 million for ambulances, e-bikes, and other equipment.

https://vinnews.com/2024/06/05/united-hatzalahs-nyc-gala-raises-20-million-in-strong-rebuke-to-protests/

https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/article-805174

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Medical Journal Editorial Urges Lawfare against Oil Companies: Wesley Smith

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/medical-journal-editorial-urges-lawfare-against-oil-companies/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_

Our most venerable medical journals have gone political, continually espousing the redefinition of our most contentious political controversies — race, climate change, guns, etc. — into public-health emergencies to permit the authority of medicine and people’s trust in doctors to sway outcomes.

A Perspectives editorial penned by law professors in the New England Journal of Medicine enters the fray again, this time, advocating lawfare by governments against fossil fuel industries. The authors take heart from a legal settlement between a Louisiana parish and oil companies. From, “State and Local Climate Litigation for Protecting Public Health:”

The case filed by Cameron Parish, which was settled in December 2023 for an undisclosed amount of money, was one of many that have targeted the oil industry. Louisiana communities have filed more than 40 lawsuits against oil companies over their dredging activities, alleging that the companies’ actions polluted local bodies of water and made the communities more susceptible to flooding.

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

In first five years, 79,000 of DACA recipients admitted to U.S. had arrest records New report found some DACA recipients “may have obtained lawful immigration status, failed to request renewal.”By Bethany Blankley

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/first-five-years-79000-daca-recipients-admitted-us-had-arrest-records

Within five years of a new program created to prevent deportation of minors brought into the country illegally by their parents, nearly 80,000 were released into the U.S. with arrest records.
 

The majority were between the ages of 19 and 22 when they were arrested, according to the latest available data published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced he was expanding deportation protections and job opportunities for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by executive order by former President Barack Obama in 2012.

According to USCIS, DACA applies to those who were brought into the country before reaching age 16 and were under age 31 as of June 15, 2012, among other criteria.

Tuesday was the 12-year anniversary of DACA, which a federal judge has twice ruled is illegal. Several states, led by Texas, are still fighting to end DACA in a case that is expected to eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, The Center Square reported.

While the majority of DACA supporters argue recipients should be granted citizenship, claiming they contribute to the U.S. economy and are constructive members of society, others argue those with criminal records, at a minimum, should be deported.

According to a USCIS report, in the first five years of DACA being implemented, from June 2012 to October 2019, nearly 80,000 illegal foreign nationals with prior arrest records, including for violent crimes, were granted DACA status.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Blue Morning Unchecked border-crossings, fading churches, disintegrating families, DEI deans and worthless degrees ensure that the American future will be miserable and that those who will inherit it will be DemocratsMichael Lind

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/blue-morning-inherited-future-demographics

In The Emerging Democratic Majority (2002), John Judis and Ruy Texeira argued that college-educated professionals and nonwhites, along with a minimum number of working-class whites, could form the basis for Democratic hegemony in national politics. As Judis and Texeira point out in their new book, Where Have All the Democrats Gone? (2023), Democratic strategists and journalists adopted a distorted, dumbed-down version of their thesis in which the Democratic Party could do without working-class non-Hispanic white voters at all. Conversely, the modest decline of Hispanic and Black voter support for the Democrats in the last few elections has led some to suggest that a racial realignment is underway that might enable Republicans to emerge as the party of the “multiracial working class.”

A more plausible explanation, however, is that Joe Biden has always been an unpopular candidate made more unpopular by inflation and botched immigration and foreign policies—and that he is likely to win anyway. Most demographic trends still favor the Democrats and hurt the Republicans. Democratic constituencies continue to grow as shares of the American electorate, while core Republican electoral blocs are steadily declining.

Consider the interaction between voting and religious belief. According to 2024 polling data, Republicans win supermajorities among only two religious groups—white evangelical Protestants (85%) and Mormons (75%)—while eking out bare majorities with white nonevangelical Protestants (58%) and Catholics (52%). All of these Republican-leaning religious communities are dwindling. As a share of the American population, white evangelical Protestants have shrunk by roughly a third from 33% in 1999 to only 21% in 2021. In only 15 years, from 2007 to 2023, Mormons also declined by about a third as a share of the U.S. adult population, collapsing from 1.8% to 1.2%. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are no longer the majority even in Utah. Since 2007, the Republican-leaning white Catholic share has dropped by 8 percentage points.

If demographic trends favor Democratic hegemony, why not maximize immigration? Why not expand the welfare state to enable illegitimacy? Why not pass out affirmative action bribes to newly invented official nonwhite ‘races’ like MENA?

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

How The Doctor At The Center Of Latest Texas Children’s Hospital Scandal Built An Alliance With Transgender Activists The doctor teamed up with professional transgender activists in a bid to halt a Texas law defending children from transitions. Spencer Lindquist

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://christopherrufo.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=

Dr. Richard Ogden Roberts III is a pediatric endocrinologist at the Texas Children’s Hospital who’s administered puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone medications to young patients suffering from gender dysphoria. He was also one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that sought to halt a ban against child sex changes, leveraging his medical credentials as he worked alongside radical activist organizations.

Now he’s found himself at the center of a new scandal at the hospital, which has been enveloped in criticism after one whistleblower exposed the hospital for lying to the public about their offerings of transgender medical interventions to children and was then targeted by the federal government as a result.

New allegations that Roberts committed Medicaid fraud have cast further doubt on his so-called “gender-affirming care” operation, with a whistleblower claiming that the hospital “is illegally billing Medicaid for transgender procedures” with the help of Roberts, who is now being investigated by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton since the state bars the use of Medicaid funds for any and all medical interventions that seek to change people’s sex.

Roberts embodies the partnership between radical transgender ideologues and the medical establishment. A closer look at Robert’s effort to halt Texas’ ban on child sex changes indicates that the doctor formed an alliance with far-left ideologues and activist groups, many of which enjoy the backing of the pharmaceutical companies that stand to profit from transgenderism in the process.

BOOKS Comments turned off

Daniel DiSalvo Renewing the Republic A new book offers a compelling defense of the U.S. Constitution.

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/renewing-the-republic

Keeping the Republic: A Defense of American Constitutionalism, by Dennis Hale and Marc Landy (University of Kansas Press, 2023). 

The United States Constitution is under attack—again. The chorus of critics—including prominent law professors, journalists, political scientists, and politicians—seems to grow louder daily. They call it a broken relic, standing in the way of furthering equality and social cohesion.

They say that the Constitution encourages excessive individualism, inequality, racism, isolation, and anomie. Only by jettisoning this eighteenth-century artifact, the argument goes, can America finally embrace the progressive ideals of unfettered majoritarianism, racial harmony, and economic redistribution. Doing so would make the American people freer, happier, better governed, more equal, and more community-oriented. God himself may even look kindly on us.

Such arguments have stirred two distinguished Boston College political scientists, Dennis Hale and Marc Landy, to mount a vigorous and erudite defense of the American constitutional order. In Keeping the Republic, the authors weave together political theory, institutional analysis, and policy history to offer a compelling case for preserving America’s constitutional democracy and republican ethos.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Import the Caracas slums, become the Caracas slums: thanks, Joe Biden By Monica Showalter

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/06/import_the_caracas_slums_become_the_caracas_slums_thanks_joe_biden.html

Based on the narrative of the left, we’re not supposed to notice anything new or negative about the unvetted foreigners rolling through on Joe Biden’s open border plan. Nothing to see here, move along.

There are those who give the flawed statistics about illegal immigrants commiting less crime than ordinary Americans, which must be very satisfying for the left to cite, given that the left believes America is a fundamentally flawed country. It’s odd how many foreigners want to come to this fundamentally flawed country, but the left has never been able to answer that one.

There are others, such as the Associated Press, which makes matters easier for us, by not printing the immigration status of people caught up in ugly crimes against Americans. That way, see, we won’t notice.

But it’s getting increasingly hard to ignore the new waves of crimes coming about from recent illegal border crossers — seems we are seeing a new grotesque crime every day, with women and children in the crosshairs almost like a slow motion Oct. 7.

The New York Post, which does notice the things the AP won’t, has a list of three:

One of the illegal Venezuelan migrants accused of strangling and killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas cut the ankle monitor he was given at the border after the slaying, The Post can reveal.

Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, were both released into the US with GPS monitoring after illegally crossing the southern border into El Paso, Texas this year.

Rangel Martinez, who crossed the border on March 14, was released from the monitoring program on May 15 because he had no known criminal history and had complied with check-ins, sources said.

ELECTIONS, ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

“Greenlash” is Here:Ruy Teixeira

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/greenlash-is-here

The results from the recent European parliament elections were quite something. Right populists did very well indeed while the European Greens took big losses. They lost 18 of their 72 seats in the European parliament and their performance was particularly bad in the E.U.’s two largest states, Germany and France. In Germany, the core country of the European green movement, support for the Greens plunged from 20.5 percent in 2019 to 12 percent. Shockingly, among voters under 25, the German Greens actually did worse than the hard right Alternative for Germany (AfD). That contrasts with the 2019 elections, when the Greens did seven times better than the AfD among these young voters.

And in France, Green support crashed from 13.5 percent to 5.5 percent. The latter figure is barely above the required threshold for party representation in the French delegation.

The Greens’ overall poor performance means they are now behind not only the traditionally largest party groupings—the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the social-democratic Socialists and Democrats group and the liberal Renew Europe group, but also both right-populist groupings—the European Conservatives and Reformists (which includes Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy) and the Identity and Democracy group (which includes Marine LePen’s National Rally group)—and even the non-affiliated group (which includes Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Hungary’s Fidesz party).

There’s a reason for this. While there’s no doubt that concerns about immigration were key to the right populist surge in these elections, the role of backlash against green policies (call it “greenlash”) should not be underestimated. And the fattest target for this greenlash was naturally the Greens, the most fervent proponents of the European “Green Deal” and associated policies. The implications of this are huge. As Adam Tooze, himself a strong supporter of green policies, admits:

The elections have tilted the European political balance against the green agenda which has served as an important reference point for politics in Brussels for the last five years….Even if Ursula von der Leyen succeeds in her bid for a second term as Commission President, she will not be pursuing the full-throated green-forward policy that launched the Green Deal in 2019 and Next Gen EU in 2020….There is a groundswell of opinion in Europe that is preoccupied with the cost of living, wants to keep its internal combustion-engined cars and sympathizes with farmers in their opposition to green regulation.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Affordability Crisis Is Shaping Up as a Key Issue in the Election — and Trump Has the Advantage Not enough has been written about this from a political standpoint. Only it sure should come up in the debate next week.Lawrence Kudlow

Posted By on June 23rd, 2024

https://www.nysun.com/article/the-affordability-crisis-is-shaping-up-as-a-key-issue-in-the-election-and-trump-has-the-advantage?

It’s a kitchen table election. Heading toward the CNN Presidential Debate next Thursday, one would think President Trump would be pulling together a scathing critique of President Biden’s performance regarding that old political cliché, kitchen-table issues, which surfaced again in the form of today’s affordability crisis for working folks.

Things like inflation, groceries, gas prices, et cetera — and I’ll get to those. Yet there’s an underrated issue which is looming larger and larger. And that is unaffordable housing.

Existing home sales for May came in just more than 4 million units — which is the lowest in 30 years. During the Trump years, home sales were running around 6 million.

Meanwhile, average home prices came in at $419,300, and that is a record high going all the way back to the recorded data beginning in 1999.

Pre-pandemic, during Trump’s term, home prices were running $270,000-plus.

And one of the keys to the unaffordable housing affordability crisis is the mortgage rate that has been running pretty consistently around 7 percent during the Biden years compared to below 4 percent during the Trump years.

Yes, it’s quite true that all these zoning-related regulatory burdens imposed by blue-state Democrats have limited the available supply of homes.

And it’s also true that a lot of those same blue-state Democrats want to incorporate the suburbs into the cities in order to build public housing and force crazy climate change regulations. Anything to stop gas-powered autos and basically destroy the value of your home.

Yet even in the healthier red states, sky-rocketing mortgage rates and home prices have made it very difficult, if not impossible, for working folks of any color or stripe to afford to buy a home — and in particular that includes younger folks.

Not enough has been written about this from a political standpoint. Only it sure should come up in the CNN Presidential Debate next week.