NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Uber Clueless By John Stossel

Posted By on April 20th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/columns/john-stossel/2022/04/20/uber-clueless-n1591236

The media’s ignorance about basic economics is galling.

I expect it from politicians. I expect it from The New York Times. But it’s sad to see in the New York Post, my town’s rare alternative to Democrat media.

Recently the tabloid freaked out over higher prices imposed by ride-share companies. “New Yorkers are fed up with forking over excessive amounts for Uber and Lyft rides.”

Excessive? Just what is “excessive?” Who decides?

Prices were already up because gasoline costs more, NYC keeps imposing new taxes and regulations, and the federal government pays so many people not to work that there’s now a shortage of drivers.

That day, unusually high “surge” prices were in effect because there had been a horrible shooting on the subway. Commuters, fearful of another subway shooting, turned to ride-share services.

How should a company like Uber deal with that? Suddenly, there is much more demand for rides than supply. Should customers just wait in line? Most wouldn’t get a ride for days.

So, ride-share companies do the sensible thing: They temporarily raise prices. They lower them again when there are free cars. This is the best solution for the most people.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Almost 50 Years Ago, Soylent Green Portrayed a Grim Future for 2022 By Anthony Watts *******

Posted By on April 20th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/almost_50_years_ago_emsoylent_greenem_portrayed_a_grim_future_for_2022.html

In anticipation of Earth Day 2022, it is a good time to reflect on the upcoming 50th anniversary of the release of the eco-apocalypse movie Soylent Green:

It’s the year 2022. Cumulative effects of overpopulation, pollution, and “climate catastrophe” have caused severe worldwide shortages of food, water, and housing. Scientists confirm oceanographic reports saying the oceans are dying. The food chain is disrupted. Food is becoming scarce, and the temperature is so hot that heat waves have become year-round thanks to climate change aka “global warming.”

Homeless people are everywhere; only half the workforce is employed while the other half is barely making it. Many people are illiterate and few factories are producing new goods.

The homes of the elite are barricaded, with private security. Only the elite can afford air conditioning. Strawberries are now a delicacy at $75 a quart. The situation with food has gotten so bad that people are being harvested off the streets and “recycled protein” is being distributed to the population.

The movie Soylent Green was produced and filmed in 1972 and released in 1973. It is a futuristic tale of doom, describing life in the year 2022.

MEDIA Comments turned off

The Regime Media’s Quandary: By Exposing Joe Biden They Exonerate Donald Trump By Steve McCann

Posted By on April 20th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/the_regime_medias_quandary_by_exposing_joe_biden_they_exonerate_donald_trump.html

The regime media (the amalgamation of the legacy media, elitist opinion writers, and the internet troika: Google/Facebook/Twitter) finds itself in a quandary of its own making.  As the nation descends into recession and societal turmoil, the candidate for whom they prostituted themselves, Joe Biden, reveals on a daily basis that he is not mentally or physically capable of being President.  Further, it has become increasingly more difficult to continuously obfuscate not only the ongoing revelations in Hunter Biden’s laptop but Joe’s life-long history of corruption and mendacity. 

By comparison, for four years, despite a lack of evidence coupled with numerous exculpatory investigations, this same cabal incessantly promoted the fictitious narrative that Donald Trump was a racist, a xenophobe, a demagogue, and the most corrupt person to ever serve as president of the United States. 

Accordingly, the regime media proclaimed that was in the nation’s vital interest to replace Trump with the “decent, honest, and honorable” Joe Biden.  As he has the “experience and character” to rescue the nation and restore “decency and honor” in the White House.

The quandary: how does the regime media avoid the exposure of Joe Biden’s lifelong corruption and failures without the public’s inevitable comparison of the two men, their families, and their accomplishments?   A comparison that would result in the effective exoneration and rehabilitation of Donald Trump, whom they relentlessly accused of being the most unscrupulous person on earth.  A cudgel they could no longer use if he decides to run for the presidency in 2024.

EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Bulldozing Debate About the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Princeton radicals promote a toxic referendum to divest from Caterpillar, Inc. Richard L. Cravatts

Posted By on April 20th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/bulldozing-debate-about-israelipalestinian-richard-l-cravatts/

Last week, as Palestinian psychopaths murdered three more innocent Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv in an escalating campaign of terror, activist students at two American universities voted on repulsive resolutions to urge their respective universities to divest from companies doing business with Israel.

On April 5th, the undergraduate student government at Ohio State University passed what it categorized as an “emergency resolution,” asking the university to divest from Hewlett Packard and Caterpillar, Inc., and claiming that “by investing in such companies, The Ohio State University implicitly condones and profits from the decisions and actions of these companies, and, as such, becomes guilty by association . . , including, but certainly not limited to, the killing of innocent civilians.”

At Princeton University,  the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP) sponsored “Referendum Resolution 2-2022” that does not, like the Ohio State vote, include Hewlett Packard as a target of divestment but similarly calls on Princeton to “immediately halt usage of all Caterpillar machinery in all ongoing campus construction projects given the violent role that Caterpillar machinery has played in the mass demolition of Palestinian homes, the murder of Palestinians and other innocent people, and the promotion of the prison-industrial complex (among other atrocities).”

The Princeton Committee on Palestine is the University’s own version of the toxic Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the rabidly anti-Israel student group responsible for most of the campus activism against the Jewish state. So, it is no surprise that this referendum is peppered with the counter-factual, demonizing language of social justice, oppression, victimization, and Jew-hatred.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

CNN Frets That Children Are Being Brainwashed – by Conservatives Hide your kids – the right-wing children’s entertainment complex is upon us! Mark Tapson

Posted By on April 20th, 2022

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/cnn-frets-children-are-being-brainwashed-%E2%80%93-mark-tapson/

Hundreds of righteously concerned parents gathered recently outside the Walt Disney Company’s Burbank, California, headquarters to protest the corporation’s woke stance on gender ideology. The following weekend, Moms For America hosted a rally at Florida’s Disney World for the same reason. Now a mainstream media outlet has finally chimed in to warn its readers about the insidious political indoctrination of children – by conservatives.

CNN’s website recently featured an opinion piece by Nicole Hemmer titled, “The right-wing children’s entertainment complex is upon us,” which attempts to discredit conservative efforts to counter the leftist brainwashing of children that is widespread throughout America’s schools and the entertainment industry. Hemmer, an associate research scholar at Columbia University with the Obama Presidency Oral History Project and the author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics, paints such efforts as paranoid, cynical, exploitative, insular, and bigoted, while pretending the culture war being waged on impressionable young minds by the left is nothing more than a right-wing fantasy.

The essay is couched in phrasing which suggests that conservatives are “hand-wringing” about nothing (“conservatives claim”; “what the right sees as liberal indoctrination”; “supposed liberal indoctrination,” etc.). She never acknowledges that parents have legitimate concerns about identity politics being inculcated in schoolrooms and through children’s entertainment programming. Instead, she implies that the rise of conservative alternatives to such cultural Marxism stems from paranoia and greed.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Voter Registration Drive: What’s Biden Hiding? Mobilizing the federal government to sign people up may sound benign. Far from it. By Tarren Bragdon and Stewart Whitson

Posted By on April 20th, 2022

https://www.wsj.com/articles/voter-drive-whats-biden-hiding-justice-department-freedom-of-information-foia-transparency-corruption-lawsuit-

President Biden is ordering all agencies in the federal bureaucracy to “expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.” That language, from a March 2021 executive order titled “Promoting Access to Voting,” may sound benign. It isn’t, and it may conceal an abuse of power. The administration is making it difficult for the public to find out.

Promoting voter registration and participation—i.e., mobilizing voters—is an inherently political act for a partisan president. The resulting efforts can be directed at groups expected to vote for the president’s party and may take the form of pressure to support the party or its policies. A president has every right to sway potential voters on the campaign trail. He has no right to influence them using the force of the federal government.

The Constitution doesn’t grant the president authority over federal elections. It reserves that power to the states and to a lesser extent Congress. Mr. Biden’s order ignores that prohibition by expanding the role of federal agencies in elections. Congress hasn’t approved such an expansion, and election legislation Mr. Biden backs is stuck in the Senate.

The White House refuses to release the plans that various agencies created under the executive order. Agencies submitted their plans by September, yet the administration has provided only overviews of slightly more than a dozen, with little detail. Their full plans should be available, and so should those of hundreds of other agencies. With the federal government throwing its weight behind voter registration and participation, Americans have a right to see what it’s doing and which voters it’s targeting, especially with crucial midterm elections in November.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on April 19th, 2022

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Here are some highlights of two weeks in Israel brought to us by Michael Ordman:

For A (astronaut) to C (cancer cures) to Q (quantum computers) to T (Twelve Tel Aviv Techstars) to U (Ukraine and United Arab Emirates) to V (value ofIsrael’s 2021 exports volume of $143 billion) to W (women’s ice hockey team and whiskey distillery) to X (advanced x-ray tech) to Z and the legacy of Zionism-the dream of centuries and the reality in 1948. Happy holidays!

 

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Cancer therapy “double-whammy”. (TY UWI) Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a 2-in-1 anti-cancer nanoparticle. It is the world’ first RNA-based treatment to combine chemotherapy to destroy cancer cells and immunotherapy to stimulate the immune system to identify and attack the remaining cancer cells.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-2-in-1-cancer-drug-shows-promise-in-boosting-chemo-and-immunotherapy/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q88d4GVq9KM

Natural antibodies fight cancer too. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that in addition to cancer-fighting T-cells, the immune system’s B-lymphocytes also produce antibodies that take part in battles against cancer cells. They target the enzyme MMP14, a cause of metastasis and can be used in future therapies.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/antibodies-fight-cancer-too/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324515

Toxic cancer treatment made safe. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have improved a cancer therapy that killed tumors but was too toxic for use.  They added a specially created antibody that targets only the CD40 receptor protein molecule which stimulates the immune system to fight the cancer.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-lab-says-its-made-a-powerful-but-toxic-cancer-treatment-safe/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-022-00329-6

US approval for fast diagnosis of collapsed lung. Israel’s Aidoc (see here previously) has received US FDA approval for its newly developed X-ray solution that detects cases of pneumothorax (collapsed lung) on X-rays for more efficient triage. Fast diagnosis of the condition can prevent subsequent respiratory or cardiac failures.
https://nocamels.com/2022/04/aidoc-pneumothorax-lung-x-ray/

Eye-opening breakthrough. Doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center have performed the first implant of the thinnest artificial cornea ever printed in the world. The 50-micron thick EndoArt implant (see here previously) reduces recovery time and risk of rejection. The patient had a previous human cornea rejected.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/eye-opening-breakthrough-israeli-doctors-implant-worlds-thinnest-artificial-cornea/

The first “shining star” baby. (TY Hazel) Israeli doctors delivered by Caesarian section the first baby born at the “Shining Star” Israeli field hospital in Ukraine. Mother and baby are doing well.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/first-baby-born-at-israeli-field-hospital-in-ukraine/

Israeli Arab leads Ukraine field hospital lab. Arab-Israeli Amir Zoabi heads up the laboratory at the Israeli field hospital in Ukraine. Set-up in an unused schoolroom, his lab can conduct any required test. In this article Amir shares his feelings about being part of the Israeli humanitarian delegation.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-arab-israeli-leads-lifesaving-lab-in-war-torn-ukraine/

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

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth: Biden expresses ‘confidence’ in Sen. Dianne Feinstein Monica Showalter

Posted By on April 19th, 2022

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/when_dinosaurs_ruled_the_earth_biden_expresses_confidence_in_sen_dianne_feinstein.html

Joe Biden has been fully exposed as a dotard who’d be better off at the dog tracks than the Oval Office, but he’s got nothing on Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who’s reportedly so senile she can’t recognize her own staff.

Now, after a bombshell report from the San Francisco Chronicle on Feinstein’s desiccated state, Joe’s White House is telling the press that he’s got “confidence” in his former Senate colleague.

According to the New York Post:

President Biden has confidence in Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) despite a recent report that her Democratic colleagues believe she’s mentally unfit for office, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

Daily Mail reporter Nikki Schwab asked Psaki at her regular briefing if Biden still believes in Feinstein, 88, in light of last week’s San Francisco Chronicle bombshell.

“Yes, she’s a longtime friend, a proud public servant and someone he has long enjoyed serving with and working with,” Psaki replied.

Schwab followed up, asking, “After that report came out last week questioning her health, did the president reach out to her at all?”

“I don’t have any updates on private conversations,” Psaki said.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Professor Wins $400K Settlement over University’s Pronoun Policy By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on April 19th, 2022

https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/19/professor-wins-400k-settlement-over-universitys-pronoun-policy/

In Ohio, a university professor was awarded $400,000 after he sued his employers over their policy demanding that he refer to students by their “preferred” pronouns.

The New York Post reports Professor Nick Meriwether was first punished by Shawnee State University back in 2018 after he refused to refer to a male student with female pronouns, after the student claimed to be “transgender.” Meriwether said that, at the time, “I tried to find an accommodation with the student. I was willing to use his proper name, female proper name, and initially the administration was willing to go along with that.”

“But then the administration changed course and demanded that I defer to the ideology, that I refer to the student as a female,” Meriwether explained in an interview. “And I simply could not do that.”

In response to Meriwether’s stand for his religious beliefs, the university claimed that his beliefs were not protected under the First Amendment, since it was his job as a university professor to use whatever language the school ordered.

“I believe that God created men and women, male and female. But also the idea that my speech could be coerced, could be compelled by the administration…The college classroom is to be a place of debate and discussion and freewheeling ideas,” Meriwether continued. “The university has no place in telling professors how they are to think with the students. It was a coercion of my freedom of speech.”

BOOKS, HISTORY Comments turned off

Growing Up Under Mao :Book Review by Wolfgang Kasper

Posted By on April 19th, 2022

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2022/04/growing-up-under-mao/

When the Cultural Revolution raged in China in the 1960s, I was not very interested. Periodic violent repression and maltreatment of non-conformists was what communist regimes did. My attitude changed in the late 1970s when I met some Chinese academics who visited Australia. They told harrowing tales of their personal suffering in the Cultural Revolution. This was much more brutal than the suppression of uprisings in East Germany (1953), Hungary (1956), Poland (1956, 1980) and Czechoslovakia (1968). The Great Leap Forward (1959 to 1961, when an estimated 20 to 45 million were starved) and the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1977, when around 1.5 million were murdered) were orders of magnitude above the periodic ructions in Eastern Europe. In 1981, on a lecture tour around China, I met people then in their seventies and eighties who had recently been restored to leading positions. They were resolutely determined that these atrocities “must never be allowed to happen again”. Clearly, the Mao-era convulsions sprang not only from Marxist totalitarianism but also had roots in China’s history.

Summary accounts of these events of course circulated in the West. But where were the detailed personal stories that added colour and substance? Had Chinese authors written “literary digestions” of the events? In recent years, fewer and fewer mention the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, as the generations that lived through the terror are thinning and new worries have taken over. Are these horrors, and the lessons from them, slipping into oblivion?