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Charles Fain Lehman Biden’s Mass Commutation Ignores the Purpose of Punishment Criminal-justice-reform groups like the ACLU deny the importance of retribution.

Posted By on December 18th, 2024

https://www.city-journal.org/article/biden-mass-commutation-criminal-justice-retribution

Last week, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 federal inmates. The administration bragged that it was the largest single-day granting of clemency in American history. But a backlash swiftly followed as the public learned whom the president had released: pill-mill doctors, Ponzi schemers, and a judge who got $2.1 million in kickbacks for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit facilities.

Biden’s mass commutation came at the behest of the American Civil Liberties Union and others of what Ezra Klein and Michael Lind referred to in a recent postelection conversation as “the Groups”—the vast but inchoate network of left-wing advocacy organizations that moderate Democrats are blaming for the party’s 2024 defeat. Biden’s lame-duck concession to these advocates raises questions about how much influence such radicals continue to hold in the Democratic Party.

But even more importantly, the popular outrage at Biden’s mass commutation highlights a fundamental problem with the argument advanced by criminal-justice-reform groups like the ACLU. Specifically, they deny the importance of retribution, the notion that the criminal-justice system should impose punishments not just instrumentally—for instance, because it makes the nation safer or discourages crime—but also because criminals deserve it.

Many of those who benefited were, on paper, reasonable recipients of a presidential commutation. They had been released under the provisions of the CARES Act Home Confinement Program, a Covid-mitigation strategy created during the Trump administration that sentenced low-risk, nonviolent federal offenders to serve their time at home rather than in federal prisons.

The program seems to have been a public-safety success. Of the 13,204 releasees, just 22 were rearrested between March 2020 and June 2023, and 96 percent had no violations of their parole, technical or criminal, over the same time period.

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THE STORY OF MARTIN KULLDORF: Complete biography of the medical professor at Harvard Medical School, encompassing the unbelievable dramas that happened in his career life by Millie Andrews

Posted By on December 18th, 2024

Embark on an extraordinary journey through the remarkable life and career of Martin Kulldorff, the Swedish biostatistician whose path from humble beginnings to Harvard Medical School is marked by unimaginable challenges, groundbreaking discoveries, and unwavering conviction. In “The Story of Martin Kulldorff,” delve into the gripping narrative of a man who dared to challenge the status quo, sparking controversy and captivating the world with his bold vision for public health.

From his groundbreaking research in epidemiology to his pivotal role in shaping global discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kulldorff’s story is one of resilience, courage, and unyielding determination. Experience the highs and lows of his career, the triumphs and tribulations, as he navigates through the corridors of academia and confronts the complexities of public health crises head-on.

With gripping prose and meticulous detail, this captivating biography sheds light on the man behind the controversies, revealing the profound impact of his work on public health and society at large. “The Story of Martin Kulldorff” is a testament to the power of one individual’s unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and the pursuit of scientific excellence.

Join us on this exhilarating journey as we unravel the mysteries of Martin Kulldorff’s extraordinary life and legacy. Discover the untold stories, uncover the hidden truths, and be inspired to question, challenge, and advocate for a better world. “The Story of Martin Kulldorff” is not just a biography—it’s a call to action to stand up for what you believe in, even in the face of adversity. Are you ready to embark on this transformative journey?

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An open letter to Harvard President, Alan Garber Reinstate Martin Kulldorff and others fired because of Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate: Vinay Prasad, MD MPH

Posted By on December 18th, 2024

https://www.drvinayprasad.com/p/an-open-letter-to-harvard-president

Dear President Garber

One actionable way you can show that Harvard has a commitment to academic freedom, and the free exchange of a range of ideas is to reinstate Professor Martin Kulldorff and other staff and faculty who were wrongly terminated at Harvard and it’s affiliate hospitals due to the vaccine mandates that were advanced by the Biden administration.

As you know, the use of mandates, particularly for medical products administered to individuals, has a long, complicated, and at times ignoble history. A general prerequisite to consider such mandates is that the benefit provided the third parties has to exceed the loss of individual autonomy. Notably, this has never been demonstrated for the covid-19 vaccine, which is unable to halt transmission, and whose repeated administration barely dampens it.

In the third and fourth quarter of 2021, the Biden administration, based on the advice of a handful of ill-informed advisors, decided to advance vaccine mandates across America. They utilized the power of the federal government, and OSHA to push these mandates. They also privately sought the agreement of major corporations and universities. This impetus led Harvard University and the affiliate hospitals to implement the mandate. Notably, the mandate did not exempt individuals who had previously had covid-19, a bizarre modern tactic— to compel vaccination in those who have natural immunity— that has no precedent in the history of vaccine mandates.

Martin Kulldorff was a professor of medicine at Harvard University and the Brigham and Women’s hospital. Because his primary appointment was in the hospital, he likely was subject to particularly harsh treatment under the false premise that there is a special obligation for people in patient facing roles to be vaccinated. That obligation cannot exist for a vaccine product that does not eliminate transmission, and barely blunts it. Moreover, Martin is not in a patient-facing role.

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In Schools, Jews Lose Antisemitism, “the world’s oldest hatred,” still flourishes in U.S. schools. By Larry Sand

Posted By on December 18th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/18/in-schools-jews-lose/

When Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists attacked Israel through air, land, and sea, killing more than 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, it was the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust. There were also countless numbers of gang rapes, and 251 Israelis were taken hostage. Sadly, the attack revealed an antisemitic cancer in many of the nation’s schools, which I wrote about at the time. And, sadly, it is still with us. To wit…

The Sequoia Union High School District in California’s Silicon Valley is being sued over rampant antisemitism their kids experienced in high school as administrators stood by and allowed it to fester. “When SUHSD parents and students raised concerns—through emails, petitions, and formal complaints—the District responded with bureaucratic obfuscation and outright denial, demonstrating a deliberate indifference to SUHSD’s Jewish students. Emails were ignored, and meetings were canceled without explanation,” the lawsuit says.

“The District’s administrators and trustees have consistently and deliberately refused to take concrete action to stem the scourge of antisemitism on their campuses, to the detriment of Jewish SUHSD students who, subjected to harassment and ridicule from both peers and teachers, have been forced to endure an increasingly hostile learning environment.”

In New York City, there are myriad examples. One concerns the mother of a Manhattan public school student who is outraged. “On Monday, Oct. 9, my child came to school and found their teacher chanting, ‘Palestine all the way!’ Israel is going to get what they (sic) deserve!’” In Harlem, a swastika was drawn on a wall immediately following Oct. 7, and another was carved into a desk at the beginning of this academic year. The principal sent out an email encouraging everyone to be tolerant of different points of view and said that the “person who drew the symbol probably didn’t know what it meant.”

Not surprisingly, the teachers’ unions are fully on board with unabashed Jew-hatred. For example, in Oregon, the Portland Association of Teachers suggests that kindergarteners be gathered into a circle and taught the history of Palestine: “Seventy-five years ago, a lot of decision-makers around the world decided to take away Palestinian land to make a country called Israel. Israel would be a country where rules were mostly fair for Jewish people with white skin. There’s a BIG word for when indigenous land gets taken away to make a country; that’s called settler colonialism.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

How Not to Think About Syria The thorny question of what comes next. by Josh Hammer

Posted By on December 18th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/how-not-to-think-about-syria/

The rapid demise of the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria has taken every geopolitical analyst and self-proclaimed Middle East “expert” by storm. Following 53 years of brutal Assad family rule and 13 years of bloody civil war, the Syrian strongman abruptly fled for asylum in Moscow as rebels finalized their encircling of Damascus. In the blink of an eye, one of the two Ba’athist Arab states — along with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq before the U.S.-led 2003 invasion — was no more.

Start with the obvious: Assad was a world-historical tyrant, even by bleak Arab world standards. He led with an iron fist, incarcerating political enemies and siccing his totalitarian security apparatuses on all those whom he deemed a threat. (You can see where Democrats may have gotten some ideas.) Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, he racked up a death toll of over half a million — the majority civilian noncombatants. He has used chemical weapons against his own people on multiple occasions. He allied with the very worst actors on the world stage, and by the time he fled, his regime had become a satrapy held in joint custody by two rogue states: Russia and Iran.

There are thus many reasons to be ecstatic that Assad, a minority Alawite in a majority-Sunni country, is no more. From a Western geopolitical perspective, it is a clear positive that Russia has lost easy access to Mediterranean ports, and Iran has a gaping hole in its “Shiite crescent” of influence, which, in the not-so-distant past, extended from Iran through Iraq and Syria into Hezbollah-overrun Lebanon. And from a humanitarian perspective, one of the very worst butchers in recent global history has been deposed.

The problem, as is so often the case, is the thorny question of what comes next. And therein lies the rub.

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Do Iran’s Leaders Smell the Coffee Yet? Has the regime’s Supreme Leader made his escape plans? by Kenneth R. Timmerman

Posted By on December 18th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/do-irans-leaders-smell-the-coffee-yet/

You can say a lot of things, most of them unpleasant, about former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. But you can’t say he didn’t have a nose for coffee.

He knew what was coming once the Syrian rebel fighters took Aleppo, more than 200 miles to the north.

He flew to Moscow the next day, on November 28, begging for Russian military support, but was given the cold shoulder. By the time the Iranian foreign minister visited him in Damascus on December 2, the rebels were moving south toward Hama and Assad knew it was only a matter of time — and not much of it — before they reached Damascus. Assad was so despondent he didn’t even ask the Iranians for help.

We now know that he secretly flew to Moscow in the wee hours of Sunday morning, December 8, after telling his top generals that help was on the way from Russia. He wasn’t going to get Qaddafied by his own people.

Now the question is, will Iran be next?

The regime’s Supreme Leader has undoubtedly already made his escape plans. Some of my Iranian sources believe he’s got a jet gassed and ready, but that could just be wishful thinking on their part.

What’s sure is this: all those surrounding Khamenei and his generals have been wearing adult diapers for the past week. They are terrified that they could be next.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden Seals His Legacy As Worst President In History

Posted By on December 18th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/12/18/biden-seals-his-legacy-as-worst-president-in-history/

Since the election, not-soon-enough-to-be-former President Joe Biden has provided a steady stream of reminders as to why the nation will be glad to be rid of him. His unique mixture of incompetence, cluelessness, disdain, arrogance, and sleaziness has been on full display.

Consider what Biden managed in a few short weeks.

The unprecedented, sweeping pardon of his son Hunter made a mockery of not only his solemn pledge that he’d trust the justice system but managed to infuriate every Democratic leader and media fanboy who’d sung his praises for that pledge.

The mysterious appearance of drone swarms around the country has showcased the ineptitude of Biden’s administration, which has attempted to: 1) tell Americans that they must be mistaken, 2) reassure everyone that the drones pose no threat and 3) admit that it has absolutely no idea what’s going on with these drone flights.

The administration’s muddied responses sparked bipartisan outrage. New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul complained that “this has gone too far” after drones temporarily shut down runways at New York Stewart International Airport.

Biden’s decision to commute nearly 1,500 sentences for people – who, he said, “have shown that they deserve a second chance” – and pardon 39 others has raised hackles, even among the mainstream media.

BOOKS Comments turned off

How the left fell to authoritarianism Luke Conway’s Liberal Bullies gets to the heart of what turned today’s progressives into tyrants. Patrick West

Posted By on December 17th, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/12/15/how-the-left-fell-to-authoritarianism/

We all know what authoritarians are when it comes to politics, don’t we? They are the people who enjoy telling others what they can and can’t do or say. They are reactionaries, the ‘hang ’em and flog ’em’ types. At worst, they are ‘fascists’, a word deployed to describe the most heinous authoritarians. This epithet accords with the long-standing assumption that the nastiest folk in politics are right wing.

Anyone who’s been paying attention to the news since the ‘great awokening’ of nearly 10 years ago will appreciate that this stereotype is now hopelessly outdated. As the recent inquisition of the Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson (regarding a reputedly ‘offensive’ post on social media) has laid bare, the forces of authoritarianism today have their origins most assuredly in the ‘progressive’ or ‘woke’ left. The urge to bully wrongthinkers and silence the views of others now invariably comes from those who think of themselves as most compassionate.

American psychologist and sociologist Luke Conway has been observing this development for some time. Like countless others who write about this topic, he is of the traditional centre left. While he hasn’t so much moved to the right, he has seen how the left in the US and beyond has drifted to the extreme. Seduced by voguish and outlandish narratives about race and gender, it has adopted an absolutist mindset that has little patience for disagreement. Conway’s new book, Liberal Bullies: Inside the Mind of the Authoritarian Left, does exactly as it says on the tin, so to speak. It explains how today’s autocratic spirit derives from erstwhile liberals.

‘You will see authoritarian leftists censor, bully, silence, harass and destroy their enemies’, says Conway. Conway points to the example of Mumford & Sons co-founder Winston Marshall, whose decision to speak out against Antifa in 2021 led to his social ostracism and eventual departure from the band.

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The Destruction of the Government’s Credibility By J.B. Shurk

Posted By on December 17th, 2024

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/12/domestic_propaganda_has_destroyed_the_government_s_credibility.html

Right now, swarms of drones on the eastern seaboard are captivating Americans each night.  Spotted in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Maryland, the flying pests often appear near military installations and other national security hotspots.  While everyday Americans share videos of the crafts on social media, they are not being dismissed as “conspiracy theorists” or “kooks.”  The interlopers hovering in America’s skies have equally intrigued politicians, law enforcement officers, and news reporters.

What is most interesting about this event (barring the emergence of little green men from the aerial vehicles before this essay’s publication) is the public’s general disregard for the federal government’s “official” explanation.  National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has dismissed thousands of sightings as overreactions to “manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.”  Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insists, “We haven’t seen anything unusual.  We know of no threat.”  Meanwhile, millions of Americans who have either witnessed the drones firsthand or watched recordings of their flights online are spurning the government’s response as horse manure–laden propaganda.  

Who can blame them?  Something’s going on.  Maybe amateur pilots are pulling a prank.  Maybe Russia, Iran, or China wants us chasing our tails.  Perhaps Putin is reminding war hawks in D.C. that expanded missile strikes into mainland Russia come with a price.  Or maybe Joe Biden and his Deep State handlers are keeping Americans distracted from the nauseating stench of White House pardons, unchecked inflation, and the growing prospect of WWIII.  While disparaging the drone sightings as a form of public hysteria, Mayorkas took the opportunity to push for greater government authority over drone operations in the United States.  So perhaps the whole thing is just another Intelligence Community psy-op meant to scare Americans sufficiently (à la COVID) to justify new government powers.

A similarly revealing public reaction has come over the last few years with regard to Congress’s increased interest in Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) — unexplained sightings including crafts formerly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).  After spending most of the last century dismissing UAP as hoaxes, meteorological events, classified military programs, or mass delusions, members of Congress are now openly investigating whether some faction of the U.S. government (think Deep State) has long covered up evidence of — or even contact with — extraterrestrial beings.  

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President Trump – Beware of HTS and the Moslem Brotherhood Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on December 17th, 2024

https://bit.ly/3ZU0Eo0

*The success of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorists to topple the Assad regime is traumatizing all pro-US Arab regimes, which, for decades, have had the machetes of Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Moslem Brotherhood at their throats.

*Contrary to some Western policy makers, journalists and academics, the pro-US Arab leaders do not take HTS’ moderate statements at face value. They are aware of the fanatic, religious vision, which has guided the HTS, and are familiar with the Middle Eastern gap between the talk and the walk, and with the Islamic tactic of Taqiyya (dissimulation).  Taqiyya was also employed by Bashar Assad upon assuming power in 2000, when his moderate talk led US legislators (e.g., Senator John Kerry), Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and NYT’s Tom Friedman to view him as a potentially peaceful leader. It was used by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1978/79, ahead of assuming power in Iran, convincing President Carter and the State Department that he would be “an Iranian edition of Ghandi…. preoccupied with tractors, not tanks.”  The Houthis issued moderate pronouncements that led to their delisting from the list of terror organizations in 2021 by President Biden.  Also, Arafat issued peaceful statements upon concluding the Oslo Accord, which won him the Nobel Prize for Peace, and led Tom Friedman to wonder: “Who’s Arafat? Is he Nelson Mandela or Willie Nelson?”). Etc.    

*The vision of the HTS is not limited to Syria. It aims to topple all national Islamic regimes, and establish a universal Islamic entity, as prescribed by the precepts of the Moslem Brotherhood, which has pursued its goals through politics, education, social welfare and affiliates, splinters and offshoots that engage in terrorism.

*The initial strategy of HTS, as suggested by their name (al-Sham = the Levant) is to “liberate” the Levant, which was “Greater Syria” (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus and Turkey’s Hatay province), then the entire Middle East, the “Abode of Islam,” and finally the “Abode of the Infidel,” preferably via peaceful means, or militarily, if resisted by the “infidel.”