ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Etsy Bans MAGA Knitter Hats for ‘Harmful Misinformation’ By Catherine Smith

Posted By on December 6th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/04/etsy-blacklists-maga-knit-hats-for-harmful-misinformation/

Many of the Antifa-themed listings are still available as of this article’s publication, Breitbart reported.

E-commerce platform Etsy that sells handmade, vintage items and craft supplies, says it is stamping out “harmful misinformation… from knitters making MAGA-themed beanies, according to Breitbart.

“Conservative author and activist Michelle Malkin reported that Etsy user “Deplorable Knitter” had her beanie hats bearing the “Stop the Steal” slogan, a Republican rallying cry against voter fraud, banned from the platform,” Breitbart reports.

“Trump Derangement Syndrome strikes crafters AGAIN. My friend Deplorable Knitter told me her #StopTheSteal hats have been banned on Etsy,” said Malkin in a tweet.

The hats are still available for purchase via Deplorable Knitter’s Instagram page.

Malkin, a self confirmed crocheter, wrote, “Here’s the email notification from Etsy: ‘Certain types of content are not appropriate for the Etsy marketplace. This includes content that promotes or endorses harmful misinformation, including items that can obstruct election integrity.’”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

President Trump Persevered Trump’s policies and results over the past four years have been truly great. By Alex Zemek

Posted By on December 6th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/05/president-trump-persevered/

Eleven days before Christmas, on December 14, the Electoral College is set to meet to determine whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump has the requisite 270 electoral votes to be declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Against steep odds, I pray, along with some 74 million others, that a constitutional path still exists for Trump’s victory.  Regardless of the outcome, however, the accomplishments that have been achieved during Trump’s first term are noteworthy and worthy of reflection. 

Even though the Left and the Washington swamp never gave him a fair shake, fabricated stories against him, and sought to use the U.S. intelligence apparatus to entrap him, President Trump persevered.

While the biased media will never acknowledge it, Trump’s decisive action to address the threat of the coronavirus saved many lives. Five weeks before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, Trump had already imposed the travel restriction on China to slow the spread and buy critical time for researchers to learn more about this novel virus. The Obama-Biden Administration had left the strategic reserve of medical equipment bare, but Trump used his authority and connections with companies such as MyPillow and GE to have them retool factory machines to manufacture masks and ventilators. 

On average, it takes a decade to manufacture a vaccine for a virus. Trump’s “Warp Speed” initiative unleashed the power of American ingenuity and a vaccine was approved and ready for initial public distribution in about 10 months. It was not socialized medicine in France or Norway that produced the vaccine, but the systems of the United States. 

We can already guess what slanders the liberal academics will write about Trump in the history books, but three things for which he should be praised, in addition to decimating ISIS, historic Middle East peace deals, and spurring tremendous economic growth, are: confronting Communist China, standing for the sanctity of life, and being unapologetically pro-American.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Burden of Proof by Roger Kimball

Posted By on December 6th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/05/the-burden-of-proof/

The faith in fairness has been shattered beyond recovery, and the assumption of anything like a shared consensus seems more and more like a naïve pretense when it isn’t just a cynical hustings gambit.

Many people, including some good friends, believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fair and square. 

Many others—and I place myself among them—believe that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, or, to be more specific, in the cities of Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, not to mention Maricopa County, Arizona. I think what happened was so rotten that I regard the election as illegitimate. 

What proof, you might ask, do I have? 

Quite a lot, in fact, and I’ll get to some of it in a moment. First, I want you to behold the evolution of the Narrative about voter fraud in the 2020 election. At first, the memo came down and said, “There was no voter fraud.” 

On November 12, for example, the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a “Joint Statement From Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & The Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees” that “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” That’s from an official U.S. government entity—so game over, right? 

Not quite. The CIA and the FBI are also official government entities. Do you trust them? 

Anyway, stray ballots started turning up, analysis revealed massive statistical anomalies in voter turnout, the size and timing of votes for Joe Biden, and other irregularities. There were troubling videos of Democratic vote counters pulling out hidden suitcases of ballots after they kicked the GOP observers out of the room, for example. Another seemed to show one Democratic worker surreptitiously hand a thumb drive to another minutes before a massive influx of votes appeared for Joe Biden. There have been scores of affidavits attesting to voter fraud and scarifying testimony from witnesses who reminded their questioners that they made their statements under penalty of perjury. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley Give Up on California, Move to Texas By Victoria Taft

Posted By on December 6th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2020/12/05/founding-fathers-of-silicon-valley-give-up-on-california-move-to-texas-n1193826

This is becoming an all-too-familiar refrain. XYZ Company pulls up stakes in California and expands or moves to Texas or Tennessee. But even for the arrogant California commissars in Sacramento, who have seen more than 13,000 companies leave on their watch in the last few years, this one has got to hurt.

It’s got to be a public relations gut punch for California Governor Gavin Newsom, who’s done little to retain all the companies bailing out of Silicon Valley because it’s too expensive to conduct business there.

The headquarters for one of the Founding Fathers of the Silicon Valley is pulling up stakes and leaving the Golden State.

Bill Packard and Dave Hewlett’s legacy company, Hewlett-Packard, is packing up “the garage” and moving to Texas.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Weakling Squish Romney Pimps the Democrats’ COVID-19 Lies By Stephen Kruiser

Posted By on December 6th, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2020/12/05/weakling-squish-romney-pimps-the-democrats-covid-19-lies-n1192552

Mittens McMullin Ocasio-Romney-Cortez is at it again. This Trump-hating blight on the Republican party is back for another one of his “Aren’t I just the prettiest girl in the room?” eye-batting attention grabs in front of the mainstream media.

CNN:

Washington (CNN)Republican Sen. Mitt Romney on Thursday blasted President Donald Trump’s leadership — or lack thereof — during the deadly coronavirus pandemic as “a great human tragedy.”

“Well, this hasn’t been the focus of his rhetoric, apparently, and I think it’s a great human tragedy, without question,” Romney told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” when asked where Trump’s leadership is as the President focuses on other issues amid the worsening pandemic.

“The extraordinary loss of life is heartbreaking — and in some respects unnecessary. Not all respects, but we’ve relaxed our standards as individuals,” added Romney, who represents Utah. “Some states haven’t had mask mandates, and from Washington we have not had a constant, consistent plan and plea for people to wear masks, to social-distance, to take all the measures that would reduce the spread of this disease.”

Since this was a CNN appearance Romney’s horrible hot take here pretty much translates to: “Won’t you please, PLEASE like me?” What’s most pathetic about it is that this could have been scripted by the Democratic National Committee. Had Willard said this before November 3rd it would have been an in-kind contribution to the Biden campaign.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL

Posted By on December 6th, 2020

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

In the midst of so much gloom in the world-pandemic, catastrophic rise in global anti-Semitism and persecution of Christians, political upheaval and election tampering- I get hope and cheer from Michael Ordman’s compilations of Israel’s remarkable success and contributions. Happy Chanukah! (December 10-18) rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

More accessible cancer treatment. The Car-T cancer therapy invented by Israel’s Professor Zelig Eshhar (see here) is curing thousands of blood cancer patients. But the manual effort is hugely expensive. Now Israel’s ADVA Biotechnologies is developing a simpler, automated process. More lives will be saved with less cost.

https://www.advabio.com/   https://www.jpost.com/health-science/adva-biotechnology-643385

AI in Israeli hospitals. Good to see that Israel’s six largest medical centers are using AI-based software from Israel’s Aidoc (see here) to analyze CT scans and pinpoint cerebral hemorrhage, pulmonary embolism, stroke and C-spine fractures. They are Sheba, Hadassah, Sourasky (Ichilov), Rabin, Shaare Zedek and Assuta centers.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/6-biggest-israeli-hospitals-use-aidoc-software-to-read-ct-scans-firm-announces/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-discover-brain-injuries-in-record-time-with-new-ai-tech/

Go barefoot to reduce foot pain. Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered a simple cure for people suffering from osteophytes (bone spurs) – lumps that grow on the heels of the feet. A 1-month controlled study of 50 patients found a 10-30 minute daily barefoot walk at home, or on a treadmill, significantly reduced pain.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/foot-pain-israeli-researchers-discover-simple-cure-for-most-common-cause/

Not heart-stopping at all. Israel’s Mitrassist Medical (reported here previously) has advanced to human trials of its innovative heart valve implant that avoids the risks of stopping the heart during open heart surgery. Mitrassist has just raised funds to recruit more employees and tackle additional structural heart diseases.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3878551,00.html   http://mitrassist.com/

Blood test analyzers for Australia. (TY Hazel) Israel’s PixCell Medical (reported here previously) will be deploying its blood test analyzers in labs and emergency departments in New South Wales, Australia. PixCell’s HemoScreen low-cost portable hematology analyzer can perform a complete blood count at the point of care.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pixcell-to-deploy-blood-test-analyzers-in-australias-new-south-wales/

Relieving the pressure on Cypriot hospitals. (TY Hazel) Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem will accept non-Covid patients from Cyprus with serious and life-threatening medical conditions to relieve local hospitals under strain from Covid-19. Hadassah also wants to build a hospital complex and rehabilitation center in Cyprus.

https://cyprus-mail.com/2020/11/26/israels-hadassah-to-accept-critical-non-covid-patients-from-cypriot-hospitals/

Israeli masks are good for you. (TY Uri) Nice article in TravelTrend about how the SonoMask facemasks from Israel’s Sonovia (reported here previously) protect their wearers and the public against the coronavirus.

https://www.trvltrend.com/technology/sonovia-antiviral-facemask/   https://sonoviatech.com/

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Ratcliffe says he gave Durham thousands of docs, urges accountability: No question abuse of power took place Jon Dougherty

Posted By on December 6th, 2020

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/12/04/ratcliffe-says-he-gave-durham-thousands-of-docs-urges-accountability-no-question-abuse-of-power-took-place-1002399/

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe says he’s turned over “thousands of documents” to U.S. Attorney John Durham during his investigation into the origins of the so-called “Russian collusion” probe of the 2016 Trump campaign.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner published Thursday, Ratcliffe said he’s counting on Durham to uncover the truth about what the DNI believes is monumental corruption and wrongdoing by officials tied to the Russia investigation.

However, he added, that doesn’t mean all of what he’s passed along to Ratcliffe should be declassified and revealed due to the sensitivity of sources.

“Between my predecessor Richard Grenell in an acting capacity and myself, we have declassified most of the intelligence community documents that would be suitable for the public to see, that wouldn’t jeopardize sources and methods,” he told the outlet.

“There are others, many many documents — I think it’s been out there that I’ve provided literally thousands of documents to John Durham, but many of those do contain sources and methods that we can’t make public for a number of reasons, including to jeopardize any investigation that’s going there,” Ratcliffe continued.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

On the Passivity of Jews By David Mamet And the danger of assimilation*****

Posted By on December 5th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/12/17/on-the-passivity-of-jews/

Jabotinsky was one of the founders of the Jewish state. He was a Russian Jew living in England. He enlisted in the British Army during World War I, and negotiated, with the British government, to allow Russian-immigrant Jews to fight in the Mideast, known then as “Palestine.” He succeeded in getting a special but limited dispensation for the Jews: They would not be allowed to fight, but could be enlisted as mule drivers. They were formed into the Zion Mule Corps under the direction of a Colonel Patterson, fought at Gallipoli, and, reconstituted as the Jewish Legion, were, it seems, responsible for most of the victories attributed to Lawrence in the dime-novel journalism of Lowell Thomas.

Jabotinsky was the colleague of Josef Trumpeldor, an ex-colonel of the czarist army. Trumpeldor was the first Zionist to advocate, and practice, self-defense as an inalienable right. He, a Jew, rose to high rank in an anti-Semitic army through determination and strength, and he quite simply did not understand how his fellow Jews hoped to thrive in a hostile world without these qualities. Jabotinsky was his protégé. He said, “You can take the Jew out of exile, but you can’t take the exile out of the Jew.”

We Jews, individually, are human beings capable of heroism; but as a group, we are trained, first and most importantly, to escape notice. For notice has, for thousands of years, equaled death. I exempt from indictment for “camouflage” not only the Jews of Israel but the Orthodox communities of the Diaspora. And now my exemptions are complete.

I was stunned, last year, to see a television commercial proclaiming the universal appeal of its product. There were happy young and old, black and white, straight and gay, and, mirabile dictu, a young Jewish couple, identifiable by the man’s yarmulke.

Who had seen the like before? Not I.

Were Jews, in violation of all historical norms, being presented as human beings? No. They were being appealed to as consumers.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Federal Student-Aid Applications Down in 2020, Signaling Potential Drop in College Enrollment By Zachary Evans

Posted By on December 5th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/federal-student-aid-applications-down-in-2020-signaling-potential-drop-in-college-enrollment/

The number of high school seniors applying for federal student financial aid for college has dropped significantly since the previous year, signaling that college attendance may remain low during the 2021–2022 school year.

Schools and students have struggled to adapt classes during the coronavirus pandemic, with many institutions implementing hybrid remote and in-person learning. This combination has been more difficult to implement in rural areas, where college and high-school students are less likely to have Internet access.

The first two months of the cycle for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) saw a 17 percent decrease in applications compared with the same period last year, according to Education Department data analyzed by the nonprofit National College Attainment Network. High schools with high minority populations have submitted 22 percent fewer FAFSA forms when compared with last year, and high schools with a high number of low-income students have submitted 20 percent fewer applications.

“To still see double-digit percent decreases from last year is alarming to me,” NCAN data director Bill DeBaun told the Journal.

Overall, 24.3 percent of U.S. high school seniors completed the FAFSA by November 27, while 29.3 percent submitted the application in 2019 by the same date.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Trump Won His Other Campaign — to Destroy Media Credibility . By Larry Elder

Posted By on December 5th, 2020

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/12/03/trump_won_his_other_campaign_–_to_destroy_media_credibility_144775.html

“For four years, major media, along with their Democratic comrades, banded together to bring down Trump. They appear to have succeeded. But as to Trump’s campaign to expose the media’s blatant, often vicious anti-Republican bias so that much of America will never again trust it, Trump won. Huge.”

Convinced that President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection, the media suddenly became less hysterical. Just like that, the media, at least to some degree, rediscovered concepts such as fairness and perspective, AWOL the last four years. 

Two weeks after the election, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof haltingly, grudgingly and reluctantly, admitted that yes, Trump was right. Banning in-person school education to fight COVID-19 was and is bad policy. Kristof wrote: “Some things are true even though President Trump says them. Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen, and on that he seems to have been largely right. Schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children.” Kristof, of course, could not acknowledge Trump’s correct judgement without the “somethings are true even though Trump says them” snark. But remember, this is The New York Times, a paper that has not endorsed a Republican for president since 1956. Little steps.

Kristof even took a Trump-like swipe at Democratic-run cities. And, whether inadvertently or not, he made the case for K-12 vouchers for inner city kids: “So Democrats helped preside over school closures that have devastated millions of families and damaged children’s futures. Cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have closed schools while allowing restaurants to operate. … School closures magnify these inequities, as many private schools remain open and affluent parents are better able to help kids adjust to remote learning. At the same time, low-income children fall even further behind.”