NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump Grand Jury Session Abruptly Canceled By Matt Margolis

Posted By on March 23rd, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/03/22/breaking-trump-grand-jury-session-abruptly-canceled-n1680507

On Wednesday morning, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Bragg was having problems with the grand jury. “The Rogue prosecutor, who is having a hard time with the Grand Jury, especially after the powerful testimony against him by Felon Cohen’s highly respected former lawyer, is attempting to build a case that has NEVER BEEN BROUGHT BEFORE AND ACTUALLY, CAN’T BE BROUGHT,” he claimed. “If he spent this time, effort, and money on fighting VIOLENT CRIME, which is destroying NYC, our once beautiful and safe Manhattan, which has become an absolute HELLHOLE, would be a much better place to live!”

Trump was clearly on to something. The Wednesday session of the grand jury has been canceled, according to a report from Business Insider.

Two law enforcement officers have informed Insider that the grand jury in the Trump case has been instructed not to report for duty on Wednesday — the day previous reports suggested there would be a possible indictment vote against former President Donald Trump. Although there is no confirmed schedule beyond Wednesday, one of the sources, speaking anonymously, indicated that it is doubtful the grand jury will convene at all this week. The grand jury typically meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and Fox News reports that the grand jury is on standby for Thursday.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats, GOP Show Sharp Split On Ukraine War Aid: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on March 23rd, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/03/22/democrats-republicans-show-split-on-ukraine-war-aid-ii-tipp-poll/

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has dominated the news for a year, and has led to yet another sharp political split in the U.S. as fears grow that the conflict could spiral out of control and lead to a wider war in Europe with Russia. Average Americans are deeply concerned, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

In this month’s online I&I/TIPP Poll, taken from March 1-3 of 1,370 adults, we asked Americans a number of questions to gauge their opinions and feelings about the Russia-Ukraine war, and the U.S.’ role in supporting Ukraine.

The first question asked: “How concerned are you that the U.S. and Russia will fight a war over Ukraine?” A lot, it turns out.

Of those responding, 69% said they were either “very concerned” (35%) or “somewhat concerned” (34%). Just 23% answered they were not concerned, with 16% saying “not very concerned” and 7% saying “not at all concerned.” Another 8% said they were “not sure.”

Concern wasn’t just among members of one political party. Democrats were most concerned at 75%, but Republicans weren’t far behind at 67% and independents at 63%. All other major demographic groups were at 60% or higher.
The next question asked participants “How concerned are you that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine will lead to the use of nuclear weapons?”

Not surprisingly, the answers were a bit stronger, with 72% answering “very concerned” (36%) or “somewhat concerned” (36%), while just 21% responded they were “not concerned,” with 14% saying “not very” concerned and 7% “not at all” concerned.

Once again, the consensus across political parties was fairly strong, with Democrats at 78% “concerned,” Republicans at 71%, and independents at 65%.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Doctors Are Losing Their Calling The sanctity of the medical profession has been lost to corporate centralization and burnout. By Michael P.H. Stanley

Posted By on March 23rd, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-are-losing-their-calling-union-mass-general-brigham-resident-suicide-depression-representation-burnout-7f72ab6?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

Physician-trainees at Mass General Brigham are attempting to unionize. If they succeed, the union would be the largest of its kind in the country with more than 2,500 members, joining the estimated 15% of U.S. medical trainees who’ve assembled under the Committee of Interns and Residents in recent years. At the center of the doctors’ unionization efforts is a desire to reclaim their identity as service-driven providers and to fight for the autonomy and fair working conditions that they’ve lost as their profession becomes more commercialized and centralized.

Doctors are proud of their occupation’s mixture of sacrament and science in service to society. Urbanely trained at universities, these learned professionals once left the city to settle into solo practices or small partnerships in the towns they served. This autonomy allowed them to charge patients what they could afford—some more, some less and some not at all. Meanwhile, their authority allowed them to advocate effectively on behalf of their patients, even on nonmedical matters. Their familiarity with their neighbor-patients encouraged participation in the community, both economically and socially.

But as teaching hospitals were subsumed into larger corporate systems, and healthcare grew more expensive from the mid-20th century onward, hospital systems lobbied for policies that created a regulatory environment too thick and expensive for private practitioners to remain solvent. For doctors, hospital-acquired practices held the promise that as employees they could forget about red tape and bottom lines because the hospital would handle it. Doctors would purportedly get to focus on practice instead of administrative tasks.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Joe Biden’s Weak Defenses His budget isn’t close to adequate to meet the world’s growing threats.

Posted By on March 23rd, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-defense-budget-fiscal-2024-pentagon-army-navy-air-force-china-russia-573e4bea?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

China’s Xi Jinping traveled to Moscow this week to commune with Vladimir Putin, cementing the new axis against the U.S. Compare that scene to President Biden’s proposed fiscal 2024 defense budget, which isn’t serious about matching American military power to growing threats.

To the extent the press is covering Mr. Biden’s $842 billion Pentagon budget, it is to note the number is large. Yet defense spending at 3% of the economy is low by historical standards. The Pentagon says the proposal is a 0.8% real increase over fiscal 2023, but that is based on an inflation fantasy. This is a defense cut, and not from an epiphany of fiscal restraint. Mr. Biden is choosing to put welfare entitlements over national security. The risks of his choice are worth examining:

• A Navy in shoal waters. The U.S. Navy is the beat cop for deterring bad behavior in the Pacific, but the U.S. fleet would shrink to 291 ships by 2028 from 297 now. The Biden Pentagon wants to retire ships prematurely, such as the cruiser USS Vicksburg, which taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade for longer service.

The Navy is also telling the U.S. Marines to find another ride to work, declining to buy any San Antonio-class amphibious warships. This will wreak havoc on the production line and make it harder to grow the Navy to 355 ships, as Congress says it wants.

The Navy failed to submit a shipbuilding plan, and an institution that can’t articulate its strategy or reason for existing won’t command public support to grow. The Navy is already struggling to buy and maintain enough of the best platforms for deterring China, such as the Virginia-class attack submarine.

• An under-powered Air Force. The Air Force deserves points for buying 72 fighters, which is the minimum needed to keep inventory stable. Meanwhile, the service asks to retire 310 aircraft, and some of this is inevitable. The F-15C/Ds leaving Okinawa with no permanent replacement are structurally exhausted; the A-10 is 40 years old and too rudimentary to operate against adversaries like China.

ISRAEL, MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Israeli researchers discover breakthrough in pancreatic cancer treatment: Team of scientists led by researchers from Hebrew University discover way to prevent pancreatic cancers from metastasizing.

Posted By on March 23rd, 2023

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369093?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

In a new study published today in the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem discovered that changes in the processing of RNA molecules – and not genetic changes in the DNA – drive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) tumors to become metastatic.

This multinational study was conducted in collaboration with Sheba Medical Center and Bar Ilan University in Israel, Cornell University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the United States, and Toronto University in Canada. The study was led by doctoral student Amina Jbara of Professor Rotem Karni’s research group at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine.

Evaluating roughly four hundred PDA tumor samples, both non-metastatic and metastatic, the researchers discovered that a central protein that controls RNA processing, RBFOX2, is degraded and present in much lower levels in metastases.

“Our unique findings demonstrate that the disappearance of RBFOX2 protein causes hundreds of genes to produce RNAs and proteins in a different way, which contributes to the invasive capabilities of the cancer cells,” Professor Rotem Karni explained. “We found that restoring RBFOX2 to PDA metastatic cells inhibits the formation of metastases, while the elimination of RBFOX2 in non-metastatic PDA cells stimulates the formation of pancreatic cancer metastases.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Anti-reform protests reveal police double standards The force responds differently depending on who is demonstrating, analysts tell JNS. By David Isaac

Posted By on March 23rd, 2023

https://www.jns.org/anti-reform-protests-reveal-police-double-standards/

What began as Saturday evening mass protests against the government’s judicial reform program have morphed into “days of disruption” and increasingly extreme behavior as demonstrators block highways, clash with police, blockade Knesset members in their homes, refuse to show up for reserve duty, and, in one instance, barricade the prime minister’s wife in a hair salon.

This has raised questions about the limits of protest and eyebrows about how the police deal with the lawbreakers, suggesting different sets of rules apply for different citizens.

Itzhak Bam, an Israeli attorney specializing in freedom of expression, told JNS: “What is interesting in this case is the extreme tolerance of the police. From my experience as a criminal defense lawyer in cases of illegal assembly, and we have had a lot of such cases here in Jerusalem, I am pretty sure that if they were right-wing protesters, or haredim [ultra-Orthodox Jews], or Arabs—any of these groups—the police would be much more assertive, or maybe aggressive, in preventing them from blocking highways.

“Why softer tactics are being used now is a good question to ask the police,” Bam said, adding that rather than one rule for everyone, there are “good” and “bad” protests with the police taking a different tack depending on who is doing the protesting.

It’s not always about politics, said Bam, noting that police were tolerant of protests in 2021 by disability rights groups seeking more state benefits. Though few in number, they blocked major highways and even railroads.

The courts’ perspective

Ran Baratz, former head of public diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office and founder of MIDA, an online daily conservative magazine in Hebrew, echoed the view that police are acting less aggressively than they did against protesters who blocked roads during the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Democrats’ attitudes towards Israel reach a tipping point The rise of the intersectional left is the primary reason why, for the first time, Gallup says Democrats sympathize more with the Palestinians than with the Jewish state. Jonathan Tobin

Posted By on March 22nd, 2023

https://www.jns.org/opinion/democrats-attitudes-towards-israel-reach-a-tipping-point/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=Daily%20Syndicate%2003-21-2023&utm_medium=email

The history of the pro-Israel movement in the United States was always predicated on one goal: creating a bipartisan consensus in favor of support for the Jewish state. And for many years, it succeeded in doing just that. There is a strong tradition of support for the ideas of a Jewish state that dates back to the earliest days of the American republic so Zionism is baked deep into the nation’s DNA.

AIPAC activists, therefore, had little trouble cultivating rising politicians from both major parties. The result was that in the last half-century, the ranks of Congress were filled with politicians who could be counted on to support Israel, even if they had few Jewish constituents.

But it’s time to acknowledge that the era of bipartisan support for Israel is over.

As the latest Gallup tracking poll of attitudes towards Israel and the Middle East conflict indicate, when broken down by party affiliation, Democrats now sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel. Currently, 49% of Democrats favor the Palestinians with only 38% backing Israel.  By contrast, Republicans now back the Jewish state by a staggering 78-11% margin.

That’s the culmination of a trend decades in the making as the two parties have largely swapped identities when it comes to Israel in the last 60 years. In the first years of the Jewish state in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Democrats were overwhelmingly sympathetic to Israel and took pride in President Harry S. Truman’s recognition of the fledgling nation on its first day of existence.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

SEE THIS GREAT VIDEO OF FAUCI GETTING TOLD OFF!!!!

Posted By on March 22nd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/03/epic_video_informed_black_guy_on_dc_street_destroys_fauci_to_his_face.html

Epic video: Informed black guy on DC street destroys Fauci to his face By Ben Bartee

I don’t know how this clip slipped past me, but a video has resurfaced of Anthony Fauci and Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser canvassing the streets to encourage the urban population to get vaxxed and filming it for propaganda purposes.

First, some background, via East of the River:

Fairlawn residents answered their door Saturday morning to find some surprise guests on the front stoop: Dr. Anthony Fauci and Mayor Muriel Bowser (D).

The two spent an hour and a half canvassing the neighborhood as part of the DC COVID-19 Community Corps Day of Action.

“Oh my god, it’s Dr. Fauci!” one woman screamed as she opened the door. “I’d come give you a kiss, but I’ve got a cold on.” The woman, who was already vaccinated, blew him a kiss from the top of the stairs instead. “Y’all see Dr. Fauci over here?” she called to her neighbors.

Another woman told Dr. Fauci that she hadn’t gotten the vaccine because she was worried she would contract the virus and then convey it to her children, who are not yet eligible to get the vaccine.

“You should get it then, because not only would it protect you, but then you’d protect your whole family,” Fauci said. “If you were to get infected, you could pass it on to them, but if you get vaccinated, you’re not going to get infected. Want to do it today?”

Their photo op was totally ruined by a poorly-conceived interaction with one resident, who not only expressed no interest in getting injected but destroyed the entire narrative right to Fauci’s face with a tenacity never duplicated in any media interview that I’ve ever seen (the handpicked “journalists” permitted to interview Fauci being heavily vetted beforehand).

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Philosophy Professor: ‘Don’t go to College! Become an Electrician.’ By Richard McDonough

Posted By on March 22nd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/03/philosophy_professor_dont_go_to_college_become_an_electrician.html

I don’t think you should send your kids to any universities.  [I told] my daughter, “Don’t go to college.  Become an electrician.”  I never would have imagined 10 years ago that I would [say] that. … It’s better to stare at a wall … [or] do nothing than to learn things that are false.  — Peter Boghossian, former Philosophy Professor Portland State University, Feb. 28, 2023

It is astonishing when a liberal philosophy professor tells people, including his own daughter, not to go to university because they have become “indoctrination mills.”  Many other types of professors can make a living outside universities.  However, there is no real market for specialists in Kant’s transcendental deductions outside the university.  With slight exceptions, philosophers have little choice but to work in universities.  So, when Prof. Boghossian tells his own daughter not to go to university, he must believe that universities have become dangerously unhealthy.  Although Boghossian cites Harvard, Yale and Oberlin as “non-starters”, he says that all universities have been destroyed by “woke” nonsense and should be defunded.  University people, Boghossian says, “live in make-believe land.”

Boghossian was one of the professors who exposed the lack of academic standards in a set of “woke” journals in the 2017-2018 “Grievance Studies affair,” also referred to as the “Sokal Squared” scandal (referring to a similar case in 1996 perpetrated by NYU physics professor Alan Sokal). James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian and Helen Pluckrose, using pseudonyms or borrowed identities, submitted absurd papers to journals in culture, race, gender, fat, and sexuality studies to test the integrity of their editorial peer review process. 

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The World Economic Forum and the West’s Next Act? by J.B. Shurk

Posted By on March 22nd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19512/world-economic-forum-crap

[E]conomic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned [about] the “crapification” of the U.S. economy…. customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last.

Politicians seem to be heading in a similar direction…. Western governments are filled to the brim with people entirely lacking in real-world experience or specialized knowledge.

In recent decades, a noticeable trend in the West has been to elevate politicians, as young and inexperienced as possible, into offices as high as possible…. Such a system — in which those who have proven themselves the least are given responsibilities that would test even those who have proven themselves time and again — hardly looks ideal.

If Western politicians seem just as second-rate these days as what customers all too often find in stores, there may be a simple reason why: International financial titans make, sell, and own both… and may be planning to own you, too.

If you are a consumer today, inflation is only one of the problems harming you. As prices go up, quality continues to go down. What most stores have to offer you might crassly be called “cheap crap.” In fact, economic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned that the “crapification” of the U.S. economy is the natural result of a “neoliberal-hyper-financialization-hyper-globalization model,” in which quasi-monopolist manufacturers mass-produce goods with the cheapest possible components, while customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last.