A Spring of Leaks Judge Aileen Cannon knew the Justice Department’s recent history of bad behavior related to all things Donald Trump would repeat itself. How right she was. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/03/a-spring-of-leaks/

Judge Aileen Cannon was right.

In her controversial order authorizing the appointment of a neutral third-party to review the classification status of documents seized during the FBI’s pillage of Mar-A-Lago last summer, Cannon cited as a main concern the Justice Department’s chronic habit of leaking to the news media. Leaks hinting at what FBI investigators allegedly found, including perhaps nuclear secrets, were reported by reliable media apparatchiks just a few days after the FBI’s unprecedented raid of a former president’s home. 

Clearly aware that federal prosecutors already were collaborating with the media to spin the raid as legitimate amid a public outcry, Cannon granted Trump’s request for a special master to “ensur[e] the integrity of an orderly process amidst swirling allegations of bias and media leaks,” she wrote in her September 5 ruling. A proper investigation, she continued, “does not demand unquestioning trust in the determinations of the Department of Justice.”

Cannon, a Trump-appointed district court judge in Florida, at one point confronted prosecutors about the illicit leaks. “Government’s counsel stated that he had no knowledge of any leaks stemming from his team but candidly acknowledged the unfortunate existence of leaks to the press.”

A pile-on ensued against Cannon; the Justice Department appealed her order and prevailed in the appellate court. But Cannon foresaw exactly what has unfolded in the press over the past seven months. And as Trump prepares to fight his very first indictment handed down by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, leaks are springing up all over the corporate media to bolster the appearance of Trump’s criminality.

A lengthy piece in the Washington Post over the weekend gave a detailed account of the obstruction side of the classified documents investigation now led by Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last year to give the false impression of investigative impartiality. If the Post’s reporting is accurate, the obstruction inquiry seems as weak as the original case; recall of the 13,000 items of evidence stolen by FBI agents during the lengthy raid, the government later claimed only about 100 papers contained classified markings.

“The additional evidence comes as investigators have used emails and text messages from a former Trump aide to help understand key moments last year, said the people, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation,” Post reporters Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, and Perry Stein wrote.

The reporters specifically named Molly Michael, a former White House assistant who followed Trump to Florida after his term ended, as the aide whose communications are under scrutiny. Investigators also have “witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence” that purportedly proves Trump was involved in inspecting boxes of materials after receiving a subpoena last May to produce more classified records, the Post further disclosed.

It is highly unlikely those specifics were leaked to the Post by Team Trump—particularly since the carefully timed leak worked in the government’s favor.

Save Stanford: Appoint Scott Atlas or Jay Bhattacharya as President By Stella Paul

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/04/save_stanford_appoint_scott_atlas_or_jay_bhattacharya_as_president.html

Stanford University’s reputation is in freefall as this once-revered university makes headlines for all the wrong reasons. Recently, a mob of law school students shut down a conservative judge’s speech, screeching insults at him to the approval of a Diversity Dean and the disgust of the country. Then there’s the FTX fiasco, in which a Stanford-linked cryptocurrency company collapsed amidst lurid charges of fraud and money laundering. Victor’s Davis Hanson’s lament “What Happened to Stanford?” adds other disasters to the list, including the arrest of a Chinese agent and the disclosure of $64 million in Chinese donations.

I’ve been studying Stanford’s decline for a while, and I think I have a partial explanation: the fish rots from the head.  Stanford’s president is a renowned neuroscientist currently under investigation for scientific fraud. Dr. Tessier-Lavigne made his reputation studying Alzheimer’s, but evidence has emerged that has critics alleging that he may have manipulated images in multiple influential papers published in Science and Nature.

Americans are losing faith in their institutions, and the story of Dr. Tessier-Lavigne exemplifies why. His first problematic study dates back to 2001, but that didn’t stop his meteoric rise through biotech pioneer Genentech to the presidency of Rockefeller University and then Stanford in 2016. Now that his alleged frauds have come to light, Stanford’s Board of Trustees has opened an investigation, but it’s being conducted by Board members, instead of outside experts. To many observers, it appears that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne may be getting the privileged treatment awarded those with favored credentials and opinions.

Soros’s Justice in U.S. and Israel By Rachel Ehrenfeld

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/04/soross_justice_in_us_and_israel_.html

George Soros must be tickled pink. He is living out his childhood fantasy of being “some kind of god, the creator of everything,” as he told the British Independent in 1993, shortly after pocketing at least $2 billion after betting against the British pound. That allowed the megalomaniac billionaire “to live it out,” to meddle in domestic affairs and finances of many countries, lead numerous “color revolutions,” and promote his incoherent interpretations of Henri Bergson’s and Karl Popper’s philosophies on the Open Society, giving it an Orwellian twist by so naming his mega political foundations. 

Imagine the gleeful Soros watching the much-despised former president Donald Trump arrested on trumped-up charges. At the same time, his lavish (mostly indirect) funding to progressive-Left groups in Israel is creating chaos and division, threatening the unity and national security of the Zionist Jewish State.

Soros denies funding the election of Manhattan’s progressive-left District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who concocted the inditement. The New York Times reported, “A spokesman for Mr. Soros said that the two men had never met, nor had Soros given money directly to Bragg’s campaign.” Perhaps. But keep in mind that in 2016, Soros’s Open Society Foundation (OSF), which serves his global network, was judged the least transparent (rated 0) not only among U.S. major think tanks but… “200 think tanks… in 47 countries” worldwide that Transparify ranked.

So, how did Soros contribute to Bragg’s election?

In May 2021, Soros contributed $1 million to Color of Change, the leading online “racial justice” Political Action Committee (PAC). Most of Soros’s contribution, “a significant portion of the money [went] to support Bragg in his 2021 campaign.” In addition, Bragg was funded indirectly by large contributions Soros and his OSF gave to other Democrat PACS and not-for-profit organizations, which, in turn, funneled money to advance Soros’s progressive agendas and candidates, including Manhattan’s DA. 

Is This WaPo’s Worst Fact-Check Yet? Rebecca Downs

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2023/04/03/is-this-wapos-worst-fact-check-yet-n2621465

Questionable fact-checks that are almost certainly partisan in nature are nothing new from The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler. They may as well be par for the course at this point. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability to stun once in a while though, as he did when it comes to a fact-check on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg indicting former and potentially future President Donald Trump.

“The incendiary claim that George Soros ‘funded’ Alvin Bragg,” read the headline. Though it was published and updated on April 1, it does not appear to have been an April Fool’s Day joke, as Kessler doubled down. In response to reaction over Twitter, and even being slapped with a message for added context that actually fact-checked the fact-checker, Kessler remained stubborn.

Kessler’s fact-check took issues with claims from Trump that Bragg is “handpicked and funded by George Soros,” though it’s worth reminding that Trump is hardly the only person to raise such a connection when highlighting the DA’s–and others like him–soft-on-crime positions. Though Kessler is fact-checking Trump’s specific remarks, he goes on to acknowledge that others have picked up on it, though it could very well be to throw the party as a whole under the bus. 

As the fact-check claims:

But the intense focus on Soros is misplaced. Soros never directly funded Bragg, but instead contributed to a group that supported Bragg and other liberal candidates seeking to be prosecutors.

Moreover, the repeated mention of Soros plays into antisemitic conspiracy theories that Soros, a Hungarian American Holocaust survivor, is a wealthy puppet-master who works behind the scenes to manipulate elections and further his goals. The Anti-Defamation League found in 2018 that Soros figures in a significant number of antisemitic tweets.

The Trump campaign defended Trump’s focus on Soros. “It’s not antisemitic to point out Soros funded/supported Bragg,” said spokesman Steven Cheung. “What world are you living in?”

Timing is Everything… Thomas Buckley

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/04/04/timing-is-everything/

When it comes to all things COVID, it seems as if the worm is turning.

The past few weeks have seen the release of a “gold standard” report essentially saying the mask mandates did nothing, a pair of government agencies now say the “lab leak” hypothesis is most likely the correct COVID origin story, the “Twitter Files” are forcing society to look at the reality of government-induced censorship, and the legacy media is actually starting to run stories that maybe – just maybe – the whole lockdown thing may have been a teensy bit misguided.

In other words, everything that got people banned from social media and polite society last year is no longer misdisconspirafomation but are reasonable arguments that should be discussed rationally.

And that is very good; at least it’s a start.

But the past three years have taught those paying attention to look beyond public pronouncements and to ask “why the change?” and “why now?”

Why the change is relatively simple and a bit heartening: lies cannot live forever, especially when those being lied to stop believing.  Homer Simpson made an excellent point when he said “It takes two to lie – one to lie and one to listen.” 

But the “why now?” is more complicated and, as everything else is today, politically motivated.

Biden Fiddles While Social Security Burns

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/04/04/social-security-is-in-far-worse-shape-than-you-think/

The latest Social Security annual report, projecting that the Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2033, a year sooner than previously thought, politely explains that the Trustees “reassessed their expectations for the economy in light of recent developments.”

What recent developments, you ask? Rising inflation, declining output, weakened GDP forecast, and worsening labor productivity.

In other words, this is another bitter fruit from President Joe Biden’s poisoned economic tree.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen responded to the news about Social Security that “the Biden-Harris administration is committed to ensuring the long-term viability of these critical programs so that retirees can receive the hard-earned benefits they’re owed.”

But in his latest budget proposal, Biden offered no proposals whatsoever to shore up Social Security or prevent a looming 23% cut in retirement benefits that current law will require once the Trust Fund is emptied.

As bad as this seems, Social Security’s financial picture is actually far more dire. It’s likely that the Trust Fund won’t even make it to 2033.

The Social Security trustees have had to downgrade the Trust Fund repeatedly for the past 40 years when their economic and demographic assumptions turned out to be too optimistic. Back in 1983, for example, the trustees promised that the Trust Fund would remain solvent through 2058. By 2003, they were saying it would only be solvent until 2044.

‘I Felt Bullied’: Mother of Child Treated at Transgender Center Speaks Out She was told medical intervention would help relieve her 14-year-old’s psychological distress. That’s not what happened. By Emily Yoffe

https://www.thefp.com/p/i-felt-bullied-mother-of-child-treated

When he was 14 years old, Caroline’s son got a pharmaceutical implant in his arm that was supposed to help relieve his psychological distress. It was a puberty blocker called Supprelin, and it would continuously release a drug for about the next two years that would arrest further sexual development. Caroline, 43, had been queasy about approving this, but she was assured by the psychologist at the The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital that this was what her son needed—that it was the standard treatment for young patients experiencing discomfort with their sex.

Instead of providing relief, Caroline told The Free Press, her son experienced a devastating decline in his mental and physical health after this intervention. Among the side effects of Supprelin, according to a handout from the Transgender Center, are “mood changes, and weight changes.” The manufacturer’s website also lists “depression, including rare reports of suicidal ideation and attempt.” 

Casey (not his real name) soon experienced all of these. Within a semester, Casey went from all As and Bs to a report card dotted with Ds and Fs. Many days he found it impossible to get out of bed. He missed so much school that it triggered an official meeting about his truancy that included a circuit court judge. He gained more than 30 pounds. 

Most alarmingly, during one therapy session about seven months after he started the blocker, he told the center’s psychologist that he was having suicidal thoughts. She recommended he be immediately checked into the psychiatric ward at Children’s Hospital. When he came out, he was taking several drugs for depression and anxiety. 

Caroline felt desperate and helpless, and she’d had enough. In June of 2022, she wrote an email to the clinic demanding immediate removal of the puberty blocker. The doctors in charge disagreed.

The Supprelin is still in Casey’s arm.

Biden’s Hot Air About Spy Balloons It turns out the blimp was transmitting information to Beijing in real time.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-spy-balloon-intelligence-biden-administration-pentagon-beijing-27d5a9f8?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s

Remember when a Chinese spy balloon flew across the entire continental United States? The Administration is hoping the public has forgotten about the February fiasco, so it’s all the more important to note that the Biden narrative about this spectacle is losing altitude as more details emerge.

Press reports on Monday suggest that the Chinese spy balloon that entered U.S. air space near Alaska on Jan. 28 was able to collect intelligence on American military sites. The balloon was spotted flying in Montana, home to intercontinental ballistic-missile fields. U.S. officials told NBC News that the Beijing blimp could fly in figure-eight pirouettes, lingering over areas of interest. The balloon could pick up electronic signals and transmit information to Beijing in real-time, NBC reports.

This is a Sidewinder missile through the White House-Pentagon talking points at the time, namely that the balloon didn’t present a big intelligence risk and couldn’t suck up better information than Chinese satellites in low-earth orbit. Americans were supposed to believe that China would go through the trouble of building a global balloon flotilla, spotted all over Europe and Asia, for no spying benefit.

The Administration repeated this claim all over town. The Pentagon told reporters on Feb. 2 “that whatever the surveillance payload is on this balloon, it does not create significant value added” over satellites. After President Biden ordered the balloon shot down off the U.S. East Coast, defense officials said on Feb. 4 that the action “further neutralized any intelligence value it could have produced, preventing it from returning” to Beijing.

Prosecuting political foes is incompatible with democracy Comparisons between the legal problems of Trump and Netanyahu illustrate the way the left in both countries is wrongly trying to use lawfare tactics to take down foes. Jonathan Tobin

https://www.jns.org/opinion/prosecuting-political-foes-is-incompatible-with-democracy/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=Daily%20Syndicate%2004-03-2023&utm_medium=email

These are heady times for those who hate both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. The news that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had persuaded a grand jury to indict the former president on charges that have yet to be made public was greeted with chortles of satisfaction from the Jewish left, which was already celebrating the recent setback suffered by the Israeli prime minister after he put judicial reform on hold.

The prospect of Trump being booked in New York is not only being celebrated by those who call Netanyahu “crime minister” because of the long-running legal case on corruption charges that he has been fighting in and out of the courts for years. It has also allowed them to see the pair, despite the obvious differences between the two men and the legal stratagems that have been deployed against them, and their predicaments as part of a common struggle against what Haaretz called the way they both attack their respective countries’ democratic institutions.

To the left, that’s the important point.

Their claim is that both Trump and Netanyahu are enemies of democracy. That makes achieving their downfall not so much a matter of alleged wrongdoers getting their comeuppance but can be portrayed as a righteous cause in which threats to the common good are eliminated by lawfare. In that way, even the flimsiest of charges or the use of tactics that target an individual rather than enforcing the law is normalized rather than condemned as violating legal ethics. Actions that would easily be seen as an abuse of power are justified because of a supposedly higher purpose to the prosecution.

As different as the cases against Trump and Netanyahu are, what they have in common is that both men are political leaders being singled out by prosecutors for charges that weren’t so much tailored to their circumstances as they were invented for the sole purpose of taking them down.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Regardless of your opinions on the political developments in Israel, one can only be dazzled by the incredible contributions of Israel to the world cataloged by Michael Ordman. rsk

http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Breakthrough discovery about pancreatic cancer. (TY Nevet & I24) An international study let by Hebrew University researchers has discovered that pancreatic cancer spreads (metastasis) due to reduced levels of the RNA controlling protein RBFOX2. The finding provides a new target for pancreatic cancer treatments.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-735101
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05820-3
 
How the gut impacts cancer treatment. A Weizmann Institute-led international team of researchers has found how bacteria in the gut microbiome affects the body’s response to cancer immunotherapy (see also here previously). Also, patients treated with specific antibiotics had a poor response to CAR-T cancer treatment.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/368694
 
Diagnosing pre-diabetes from gut microbes. Bar-Ilan University scientists have been able to early diagnose gestational diabetes – glucose intolerance that 10% of women suffer during pregnancy. Analysis of gut bacteria highlights inflammation even in the first trimester, giving vital time for treatment and lifestyle changes.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369075
 
No-pill treatment for acid reflux. (TY Hazel & Sidney) Specialists at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Centre have performed a simple endoscopic procedure, for the first time in Israel, that successfully treats patients suffering from heartburn acid reflux. It reconstructs a valve, avoiding more complex surgery or pills.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-734163
 
Hereditary disease treatment may cure statin pain. Researchers from Ben Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center developed Methylmevalonolactone to save sufferers of a rare deadly hereditary muscle disease. They are now testing it as a treatment for tens of thousands of sufferers of chronic muscle pain due to statins.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/muscle_disease.aspx  https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217831120
https://nocamels.com/2023/03/new-israeli-drug-combats-deadly-muscular-disease/
 
Biological defibrillator. (TY Hazel & Sidney) Researchers at Rambam hospital and Israel’s Technion Institute have developed a biological receptor to treat heart rhythm disorders. If arrythmia is experienced, the patient takes medication that triggers the receptor to awaken the cells that regulate electrical activity in the heart.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-734381
 
The Waze of dental implants. (TY Israel21c) The Image Guided Implantology (IGI) system from Israel’s Image Navigation uses a CT scan and LED motion tracking to fix dental implants, even when a patient is moving. Red and green lights tell the dentist exactly where the drill tip is, thus reducing surgical treatment time.
https://jlm-biocity.org/image-navigation-to-launch-worlds-most-advanced-image-guided-dental-implant-technology/  https://image-navigation.com/
 
Laser treatment for jaw pain. (TY Israel21c) The cold laser therapy device from Israel’s B-Cure Laser treats many forms of pain due to inflammation. Two clinical trials in Italy proved its ability to treat pain in the jaw, known as chronic TMD and TMJ. Laser light promotes blood circulation to bring nutrients to affected muscles.
https://bcurelaser.com/temporo-mandibular-joint-disorder/
 
Remote lung analysis device approved. The US FDA has approved Tyto Insights™ for Wheeze Detection from Israel’s TytoCare (see here previously). The device uses a database of lung sounds to help clinicians accurately diagnose respiratory conditions remotely in adults and children aged 2+.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tytocare-receives-fda-clearance-for-its-ai-powered-tyto-insights-for-wheeze-detection-to-ensure-diagnostic-accuracy-from-home-301772786.html
 
Pioneering brain cooling saves Philippine woman. (TY UWI) Doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital saved Philippine caregiver Nurila, who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Medication, catheter, and surgery didn’t stop blood flow, so her brain was cooled to 33 deg C for 8 days. The bleeding stopped and Nurila is now well.
https://tps.co.il/articles/israeli-doctors-save-philippine-womans-life-with-new-brain-cooling-procedure/
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-734996