One of the more disingenuous aspects of progressive thinking is their belief that what they say is so simply because they speak it. Their arrogance knows no end.
This is the case with those who defend Ms. Ford's accusation against Judge Kavanaugh. There argument is that she should not to be challenged because one must presume she would not say what she said unless it was so.
If we applied this to answers by progressives on an exam I assume that would earn them a perfect score.
Obviously, to any rational being, this is nonsense but that is the consequence when one extends their argument in a logical manner. Whatever they say is gospel because they said it.
As noted in the previous op ed posting from the WSJ, this is not only liberal insanity but dangerous and antithetical to the foundation of our nation's jurisprudence.
And, this must be so because I just wrote it. (See 1 below.)
And:
More educational hypocrisy. (See 2 below.)
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Ordman and Israel. (See 3 below.)
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Dick
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1)
How Feinstein is conspiring to destroy Kavanaugh
ByPaul Sperrry
Democrat leaders and their liberal aides, along with professional agitators, are all intermingled and conspiring together to achieve the same objective — in this case, to spike the confirmation of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
Hill Republicans claim Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein engineered the knee-capping of Kavanaugh from both inside and outside Congress — and they have a strong case, though Feinstein insists she merely dealt cards she was handed.
For starters, they argue that Feinstein, who is the top Democrat on the Senate committee vetting Kavanaugh, orchestrated an “11th-hour ambush” of the conservative nod by
withholding a letter from the committee’s Republican majority alleging sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh until the day the panel was preparing to take a vote to confirm him — almost two months after receiving the letter and well after the vetting and hearing process.
“You chose to sit on the allegations until a politically opportune moment,” a furious Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) scolded Feinstein in a letter dated Sept. 19.
“I cannot overstate how disappointed I am in this decision,” he added. “It has caused me to have to reopen the hearing.”
Grassley suggested that the last-minute allegations were “deployed strategically for political gain.” Democrats are hoping to delay the hearing until after the Nov. 6 congressional elections to give them a chance to win back enough Senate seats to defeat Kavanaugh. Indeed, Feinstein said, “We should delay this hearing.”
But Republicans point to other skullduggery as well.
In early July, after Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the high bench, Fallon stated that their primary goal was to “delay” confirmation hearings for him. Meantime, he outlined plans of attack, including ginning up questions about what Kavanaugh “knew and when he knew it” about allegations of sexual misconduct by a federal judge he once clerked for.This spring, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign press secretary Brian Fallon hired one of Feinstein’s top aides on the Judiciary Committee to help tank President Trump’s Supreme Court picks from the outside. Together, he and Feinstein’s aide — former deputy general counsel Paige Herwig — launched a liberal non-profit group called Demand Justice to lead the left’s attack on GOP nominees.
Later that month, a letter alleging Kavanaugh was involved in an “attempted rape” while in high school was hand-delivered to Feinstein’s office.
Curiously, Feinstein did not raise the accusation during confirmation hearings earlier this month. Throughout the hearings, however, Demand Justice dispatched protesters claiming Kavanaugh sought to deny women rights, while running attack ads warning he planned to “overturn Roe [v. Wade] and criminalize abortion.” The ads appeared in Alaska and Maine to try to sway those states’ moderate pro-choice Republican senators to vote against Kavanaugh.
The scare tactics didn’t work. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) sent strong signals they would back Kavanaugh, prompting Demand Justice to concede it might be unable to stop the Senate from confirming him.
Then, just days before the committee planned to vote for Kavanaugh, the letter that was handed to Feinstein was, in turn, leaked to the media and the accuser was identified. Christine “Chrissy” Blasey Ford, a registered Democrat and donor from San Francisco, claimed Kavanaugh tried to pin her down and sexually assault her at a party while the two were in high school. But her details are sketchy. She can’t remember exactly when or where the alleged incident took place, and she concedes she didn’t tell anybody about it at the time, making it hard to corroborate her story.
Kavanaugh, for his part, has categorically denied the allegation both publicly and during a committee staff interview conducted last week “under penalty of felony.” Grassley is trying to negotiate a public hearing to air the charges.
Last month, Blasey Ford took and allegedly passed a polygraph test conducted by a former FBI agent, and hired a law firm headed by major Democratic donors and activists who are working with Demand Justice to smear Kavanaugh as a sexual predator. They’ve created a Web site, I BelieveChristineBlasey.com, that encourages voters to call their senators and ask that they vote against Kavanaugh. The site maintains that “Brett Kavanaugh is NOT credible in his denial. Kavanaugh’s nomination is on the ropes; he has everything to gain by lying. He has already lied, multiple times, under oath before the Senate. There is no reason to trust his word now.”
Blasey Ford’s lead attorney, Debra Katz, at the same time heads a leftist advocacy group funded by liberal megadonor George Soros, who also is funding Demand Justice, which has raised $5 million to sink Trump’s high-court picks. In a new attack ad, the group compares Kavanaugh to “child predator” Judge Roy Moore.
Who paid for Blasey Ford’s polygraph, and who is covering her legal bills? Who leaked her letter to The Washington Post? Katz and Demand Justice did not reply to requests for comment. Nor did Feinstein’s office.
But one thing is for sure: Feinstein and her former aide’s fingerprints are all over the smearing of Kavanaugh — and that’s an ironic shame, given that Feinstein was swept into Congress as a reaction to the then-Democrat Senate’s mishandling of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas sex allegations. The San Francisco-based senator has made her own missteps some 25 years later.
Sperry is a best-selling author and a former Hoover Institution media fellow
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2)
Mitch Albom: Michigan professor let politics dictate student's education
Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press
The request was simple. Happens all the time. A University of Michigan student who planned to study a semester abroad asked one of her professors for a recommendation letter.
He was willing to do it.
And then he changed his mind.
Not because she wasn’t a good student. Not because of what she wanted to study. But because of where she wanted to study:
Israel.
“As you may know, many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine,” wrote John Cheney-Lippold, who teaches Internet and cultural studies. “This boycott includes writing letters of recommendation for students planning to study there…“…for reasons of these politics, I must rescind my offer to write your letter.”
Bottom line: no recommendation.
Let’s break this down. A college professor, hired to encourage young minds to think, slams his pen closed on a student’s desire to learn at a prestigious international university because he doesn’t like the politics of the country.
Question for U-M:
Who exactly are you here to serve?
Right to study should be untouchable
It’s getting harder to tell. Lately there has been a stream of headlines about free speech and radical professors and which speakers are welcome and which are not. U-M itself has been fighting
a lawsuit over its anti-bullying policies. Hate speech. Safe spaces. The echo from American campuses is mostly shouting.
But through it all, the right to study has stayed largely untouched. As it should be. If colleges shut books, they might as well shut doors.
Now here comes Cheney-Lippold to say that the recommendation letter, long a staple of opening doors for student opportunity, is OK to weaponize as a tool for personal politics.
“Everybody has the right to withhold something,” Cheney-Lippold
told the Washington Post, “and I chose to exercise that right based on what the movement needs from me as a solidarity activist.”
The “movement” he refers to is BDS, which stands for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions, a campaign that promotes various boycotts against Israel. And while Cheney-Lippold has every right to be a follower, when he says he’s doing what “the movement needs from me as a solidarity activist,” I might suggest U-M ask him, “What about what we need from you as a teacher?”
Which, unlike BDS, they pay him for.
Since when does a professor get to inject his politics ahead of a student’s academics? No, he is not required to write a recommendation letter, but the reasons should be that the student doesn’t warrant it or hasn’t earned it. Not because, despite the student’s apparent merit, he has got an issue with the location.
When Cheney-Lippold says, “everybody has the right to withhold something,” he’s conveniently ignoring his actual job. Would he be tolerated if he decided to withhold office hours, or marking a paper, because he didn’t like the politics of where a particular student came from?
Of course not. He’d be gone in a minute. So where is any U-M action on this blatantly capricious act — not to mention what some feel is his not-so-subtle antisemitism, a charge the teacher denies? You wonder if Cheney-Lippold refused to write a recommendation for a Muslim student wanting to study at the University of Damascus, citing Syria’s human rights record, would everyone be so quiet?
To date, while U-M has said it does not support boycotts of Israel, it has done nothing to Cheney-Lippold except issue a general statement that didn’t mention his name. It included this sentence:
“Injecting personal politics into a decision regarding support for our students is counter to our values and expectations as an institution.”
Well, OK. Do something about it.
The hypocrisy is astounding
Michigan did point out that Cheney-Lippold was wrong when he said “many departments” have chosen to boycott Israel. Actually, none have.
Hey, professor. Facts matter.
But that’s hardly the only thing wrong with his stance. Forget the puzzlement of discouraging study in perhaps the only nation in the Middle East that has laws protecting free speech. What about the academic notion that if you want to understand something, you should go and examine it?
If Cheney-Lippold thinks Israel is so oppressive, encouraging a student to go see for herself might sway her to his view, wouldn’t it?
But no. Cheney-Lippold wears his loyalty to BDS as a badge of honor, an academic in favor of shutting down academic choices. While decrying what he claims are human rights violations by Israel, he said in his email that he would gladly write the student a recommendation if she wanted to study someplace else.
What place, I wonder, would meet his approval? China? Russia? A host of African or South American countries? If being accused of a human rights violation by the United Nations is his criterion, he couldn’t write a recommendation to study in America.
But the hypocrisy of espousing open-mindedness while being close-minded is not limited to Cheney-Lippold. The co-founder of the group he so passionately aligns with, a Palestinian named Omar Barghouti, actually studied at Tel Aviv University himself — the same school the young woman wants to attend!
When asked about his studying there, Barghouti
told the Associated Press that Palestinians like himself “cannot possibly observe the same boycott guidelines” as they ask of their BDS followers, and that he was entitled to everything he could get from the Israeli system.
Really?
By the way, at the time, despite a petition reportedly signed by nearly 185,000 people calling for his expulsion,
Tel Aviv University refused to expel Barghouti. Perhaps it respected something Cheney-Lippold apparently does not: that shutting someone out of a legitimate education opportunity doesn’t make you righteous, it makes you small.
That’s called principle. It would be nice if U-M paid that principle more than lip service.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Download “The Sports Reporters” podcast each Monday and Friday on-demand through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify and more. Follow him on Twitter @mitchalbom.
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3) News of Israel's Achievements and Heartwarming Stories from the Jewish State.
· Israeli scientists have developed more effective, personalized melanoma treatment.
· An Israeli charity has tripled the number of Israelis willing to donate a kidney.
· An Israeli midwife enabled the opening of a new maternity clinic in Uganda.
· An Israeli eco-friendly fungicide is saving crops in 11 countries.
· The European Investment Bank made its first Israeli Investment.
· An Israeli-Ethiopian won “Best Female Director” at the Toronto Film Festival.
· Israel’s top rhythmic gymnast won two silver medals at the World Championships.
· The Czech Republic is moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Fast route to new treatments. (TY ILTV & NoCamels) Technion scientists have developed an Artificial Intelligent system for faster and cheaper discovery of new medical treatments. An algorithm identifies molecules with potentially beneficial therapeutic properties. It amazed delegates at London’s KDD conference.
Breakthrough melanoma treatment. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann and Technion Institutes have found that each melanoma patient has a different profile of neo-antigens (mutated peptides) on their tumors. Doctors can then extract and grow the T-cells best suited to target the neo-antigens on both primary and secondary cancers.
Canadian partner for research program. (TY Atid-EDI) A new clinical research program has been launched in Israel that will trial cannabinoid-based IBD treatment and other products from Israel’s SciCann. The program partners SciCann with Canada’s FSD and Mor – the technology transfer arm of Israel’s Clalit HealthCare.
Alternative to steroids. Israel’s Stero Biotechs has received a US patent for its Cannabidiol based treatment for over 100 autoimmune & chronic inflammatory diseases. Stero’s first product ST-101 for AutoImmune Hepatitis – a liver disease which requires long-term steroid treatment – is shortly to begin Phase 2 trials. (TY Atid-EDI)
US approval for migraine treatment. I reported previously (see here) on the AJOVY fremanezumab migraine treatment from Israel’s Teva. The US FDA has just given approval for AJOVY - the only anti-CGRP treatment for the prevention of migraine. About 40% of migraine sufferers may be candidates for this treatment.
Israeli diagnostics for cervical cancer. I’ve now reported (see here) on five Israeli bio-techs that have developed devices for diagnosing cervical cancer. Biop Medical (see here) has just raised $22 million in funds.
Afghan girl has heart treatment in Israel. 5-year-old Noorina was brought by her father to Israel where she will receive life-saving surgery by doctors from Israeli charity Save A Child’s Heart. Noorina is the fifth child from Afghanistan to be brought to SACH thanks to the efforts of “Jangzapali” – an anonymous Afghan man.
New treatment for day blindness. Israeli scientists (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Volcani Institute) used a virus to restore the sight of a herd of Awassi sheep suffering hereditary day blindness (achromatopsia). The virus replaced a missing gene. The US FDA has now approved human trials.
Kidney donations triple. (TY WIN) The number of live kidney transplants performed per year in Israel has nearly tripled since 2010 mainly due to increased donations from healthy orthodox Jewish Israelis. Key to the increase is Israeli NGO Matnat Chaim (“Gift of Life”) which both publicizes the need and facilitates donation.
Bringing closure. I reported previously (see here) on TopClosure from Israel’s IVT Medical. The innovative wound closure technique is now saving lives in China and Africa. IVT has also developed Vcare Alpha - a suction device to remove infectious materials from wounds and accelerate wound recovery.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Israel enforces OECD anti-bribery laws. (TY Hazel) Israel is one of only 7 countries to strictly enforce the OECD’s 1997 Anti-Bribery Convention. In just 3 years, Israel has gone from the bottom of the enforcement league to the top with several high-profile cases brought to justice.
Maternity center in Uganda. Israeli midwife, Ilana Shemesh, was shocked by the conditions of the centers treating pregnant women in Uganda. So, she raised $12,000 to help build the Shifra and Puah maternity center in Abayudaya. The center has already assisted in two births - the first during the night after its opening.
Rare white rhino born in Israel on Yom Kippur. (TY WIN) Israel is a major contributor to world efforts to save vanishing species. On Yom Kippur, a fifth baby white rhino was born to Tanda and Atari at Israel’s Ramat Gan Safari. Israel’s 13-rhino herd is the largest in Europe’s program to breed the endangered species.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
A robot that navigates like a bat. Tel Aviv University scientists have developed a “Robat” – the first fully autonomous robot that, like a bat, emits sounds and analyzes the returning echoes to recognize, map and navigate obstacles. Future applications include cleaning robots, agricultural robots and rescue robots.
Everyone needs to study innovation. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has established the HUstart Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. Its aim is that every student will learn about innovation, arguing that even historians and philosophers need to be innovative and entrepreneurial.
Projects for first responders. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation has granted $2 million for joint US-Israeli projects. Firstly, an advanced drone mounted search and rescue system; secondly a first responders emergency radio repeater system for high-rise buildings.
Israel’s first satellite – 30 years ago. Film just declassified of the 19 Sep 1988 launch of Ofek 1 (Horizon 1), Israel’s first satellite, from Israel’s Palmachim Air Base with a Shavit rocket. The Jewish State thus became the 8th country in the world to have launched an object into orbit. The latest Ofek (11) was launched in Sep 2016.
A high-tech hub in the Galilee. Yokneam, in Israel’s Lower Galilee, is the headquarters of several Israeli hi-tech companies. I featured previously (see here) UPnRide’s device which allows almost every wheelchair user to stand upright and recently PixCell’s blood analysis (see here). Here is the latest update on both companies.
Friendly fungicide. (TY Atid-EDI) Israeli biotech STK has developed REGEV – the world’s first leaf-targeted ‘hybrid’ fungicide. It combines Tea Tree Oil and Difenoconazole to give a low chemical residue. REGEV is used in 10 countries and has just been registered for use in Argentina, initially for peanut crops.
All-Israeli partnership for satellite tugboat. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Effective Space and its proposed tugboat solution for extending the life of space satellites. Now Effective Space has partnered with Israel Aerospace Industries in the tugboat (now named SPACE DRONETM) development.
Mobile communications using nanosatellites. Israel’s Sky and Space Global made history when it initiated the first mobile telephone call using its network of three nanosatellites launched in Jun 2017. It plans to have up to 200 nanosatellites in orbit by 2020, providing communications to remote parts of the world.
A most innovative cybersecurity company. I reported previously (Sep 2017) on Israel’s ITsMINE and how it secures companies from internal and external cybersecurity threats. ITsMINE has just been named in the “Top 10 most innovative cybersecurity startups” at China’s Internet Security Conference (ISC) in Beijing.
Bullet-proof backpack. Israel’s Masada-Armour has developed a unique backpack that transforms into a bulletproof vest in under two seconds. It was designed to protect children against the threat of school shootings. The basic 3kg version stops handgun bullets and the upgraded 4.2kg version blocks rifle fire.
A Virtual Reality seat at live events. Israel’s Texel makes it possible for broadcasters to offer viewers virtual seats for live events. Texel advertises an experience as if the viewer was physically at the venue, in the arena or at the pool. Texel has just raised $3 million in a funding round led by Deutsche Telekom.
A robot for hazardous environments. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel Aerospace Industries is partnering with Croatia’s DOK-ING to develop a robotic system for high risk areas, including ones contaminated by chemical, biological and radioactive agents. It will include autonomous movement and sensors for identifying contaminants.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Israel’s financial system is stable. The Bank of Israel’s analysis of the environment in which the domestic financial system operates, and its level of robustness, states that “it remains stable. This has improved over the years, supported by the economic environment and the positive business cycle enjoyed by the Israeli economy.”
Europe Bank’s first Israeli equity investment. (TY NoCamels) The European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the European Investment Bank, has made its first equity investment in Israel, injecting up to $20 million into a fund being set up by Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV). The EIF expects another two Israeli investments shortly.
Israel at the Paris Motor Show. I reported previously (17th June) about Israel’s center role in the tech conference at the 120th Paris Motor Show (Oct 2 – 6). Here are more details, and a video.
Engie moves up a gear. BNP Paribas is partnering with Israeli startup Engie. The European bank’s UK subsidiary Warranty Direct (WD) will issue Engie’s car maintenance device and app free to customers who buy WD’s extended warranty policies. Engie remotely detects car malfunctions and finds suitable mechanics.
Save money in the Cloud. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Spotinst helps businesses to manage mission-critical systems across different cloud providers but retaining high performance and availability. Spotinst promises savings of 80% on average on regular cloud computing costs. Spotinst has just raised $35 million of funds.
Smart money management. Israeli fintech Pagaya has developed an Artificial Intelligent (AI) asset management system that finds new opportunities for Institutional investors to manage fixed income funds. Pagaya has just raised $14 million of funds to expand its 20-person team.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Was beer invented in Israel? Archaeologists working in the Raqefet cave south of Haifa have found what they believe is the world's oldest site for alcohol production. They discovered equipment, used by a people called the Natufians, for brewing a fermented, weak alcoholic soup-like liquid, some 13,000 years ago.
Israeli-Ethiopian is Best Director. Aalam-Warqe Davidian won the “Best Female Director” award at the Toronto Film Festival. Her debut “Fig Tree”, in Amharic with Hebrew and English subtitles, takes place in Ethiopia at the end of the Ethiopian Civil War. Davidian, 38, made Aliya from Ethiopia at the age of 11.
See Israeli wildlife during the holidays. (TY Janglo) Israel has many sites where animal lovers can see and learn about a wide assortment of the creatures with which we share this land. Here are 10 of the best.
Fast recovery. Israeli soccer striker Tomer Hemed made a late appearance on Wednesday night for his English 1st Division soccer team QPR. He spent the first half fasting until Yom Kippur ended. Then, after a quick meal of pasta and fruit, he came on as substitute in the 72nd minute to help his side to a 2-0 victory over Millwall.
More medals for Linoy. (TY Janglo) Israeli rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram has just won her 26th medal of the year. She won a silver medal in the Hoop discipline at the World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She then went on to win a bronze in the Rope discipline followed by another silver in the individual all-around final.
THE JEWISH STATE
Next year in Jerusalem? Israel’s Prime Minister invites Jews from around the world to visit Israel.
Czech Republic to move embassy to Jerusalem. The Czech Republic’s President, Prime Minister, Parliament Speaker and Foreign and Defense ministers have all endorsed the move of the Czech embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Czech President Milos Zeman is scheduled to open the embassy during his visit in November.
Red heifer born in Israel. (TY Janglo) A red heifer (Para Aduma – totally red female calf) has been born – the first in Israel. A red heifer is the source of the purification waters that were sprinkled in Temple times on anyone with ritual impurity. https://www.youtube.com/embed/mOMH2qY6RCY/rel=0
A year to remember. A short glimpse of some of the more memorable of Israel’s achievements in 5778.
Fiji stands with Israel. Very moving video of Fijian Israel supporters celebrating Israel’s 70th anniversary.
The most important pro-Israel organization you may not have heard of. Since its launch in 2015, the Maccabee Task Force (MTF) has been providing students with “the strategies and resources they need to tell the truth about Israel.” Last year MTF held 891 pro-Israel events and brought 746 campus leaders to Israel.
US Ambassador corrects a mistake. In the excitement of the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Ambassador David Friedman misplaced an important item. Watch him on his mission to replace it.
Sukkot in Jerusalem. (TY Janglo) Highlights of activities in Jerusalem over the festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) include the Jerusalem Parade, tours in Safra Square , "BeChatzerot" ("In the Courtyards") music festival and tours in the enchanted courtyards of Jerusalem, Ein Kerem Festival and Beit Lechem Road Festival.
A million visit Western Wall. More than one million people visited the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem during the past month. And see the photos of the many thousands that went to the Kotel for special prayers on the day before Yom Kippur. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/431336
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