By Thomas Lifson, AMERICAN THINKER

I am one of the purportedly most vulnerable among us, elderly and with chronic lung problems, so I appreciate all the sacrifices the rest of society are making to protect my life. But even as an ostensible beneficiary of the lockdown, I worry that these sacrifices are just not worth it. I appreciate the efforts to save my life but would rather my children and grandchildren face a world that is not bankrupt. I think that many of us in the later stages of life worry less about prolonging the lives we have already lived for so many years, and more about the world we are leaving to “our scared honor… and posterity,” as the signers of the Declaration of Independence put it. We have already gone a long way down life’s path, but there are others who have yet to get very far.

In that vein, an elderly reader, seeing my thoughts via email, produced this calculus of the monetary cost of prolonging the lives of the elderly:

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Rose McGowan Calls on Joe Biden to Drop Out as Tara Reade Rape Allegation Roils Campaign

A vote for Biden,  is a vote to expel Jews from Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall.

By Ezequiel Doiny, INN

On April 20, 2020 Arutz 7 reported “The J Street organization announced that it endorses former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential bid. This is the organization’s first ever presidential endorsement…”

How is it possible that some Jews support Biden? In 2016 Biden convinced Ukraine to vote in favor of UNSC 2334. UNSC 2334 ruled that even the Western Wall is in “occupied Palestinian territories”. How is it possible that Jews who care about the Western Wall support Biden?

Jews in Jerusalem
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Professor of International Law, Eugene Kontrovich, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School:  A brief (15 minute) interview where Kontrovich provides unique insights into a) the EU’s vehement and unremitting ideological opposition to Israel superimposed upon its intrinsic antisemitic double-standard and b) an underappreciated aspect of Israel’s legitimate claim to Yehuda and Shomron, referred to by mainstream media as “The West Bank.”

https://www.facebook.com/ImTirtzuEnglish/videos/868226796935575/
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Shaked has proven to be a political bulldozer who knows how to get along with people with strong egos.

By Gil Hoffman, JPOST

When negotiations began on forming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in 2015, Ayelet Shaked did not dream that she would get the Justice Ministry.

But Yisrael Beytenu’s refusal to join the government suddenly enabled Shaked’s party to hold the balance of power and demand any portfolio. She used the plum post to reform the justice system and give it a right-wing imprint like none of her predecessors.

At first glance, the current situation looks completely different. Thanks to Shas, United Torah Judaism, Blue and White, Labor and Gesher, Netanyahu has a solid coalition of 73 mandates without the six-seat Yamina Party of Defense Minister Naftali Bennett and Shaked.
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By interpreting Jewish history and tradition as consistent with progressive ideology, non-Orthodox Jewish leaders have traded Jewish values for gun control, green politics or transgender activism with little or nothing to do with normative Judaism.

By Matthew M. Hausman, J.D., INN

The Democrats’ shameful tolerance for progressive antisemites has not inspired many Jews to quit the party or restrained non-Orthodox leaders from counseling their followers to vote against President Trump in November.  The continuing loyalty of secular Jews to a party that has turned against Israel, legitimized her enemies, and overlooked leftist bigotry is mindboggling, though not entirely shocking considering that many equate Jewish self-rejection with spiritual introspection and Democratic politics with rabbinic tradition.

Whatever the motivation, it would not be possible without an alarming rise in cultural illiteracy.  Jewish voters can dislike Trump for any reason or no reason at all, but given his record of support for Israel and Jewish causes, they cannot reasonably base their antipathy on religious tradition or cultural history with which they are largely unfamiliar.

Secular communal leaders and non-Orthodox clergy who preach Democratic politics and Trump-hatred as doctrinal imperatives play on the ingrained partisan orientation of their followers, many of whom know little about Jewish law, tradition, or history.  Indeed, many define Jewish identity negatively in relation to the Holocaust and think the history of Israel began only in 1948.
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Hypothetically, the EU’s current state of affairs is ideal for Israel in terms of its plans to annex the Jordan Valley and settlement clusters this summer, but the EU’s many ills should not blind Israel: It has always found a way to align against the Jewish state.

That could make it all the more dangerous to Israel

By Eldad Beck, ISRAEL HAYOM

Belgium, whose capital city Brussels is also the capital of the European Union, aptly reflects the difficult situation in which the EU finds itself, and which has only become more desperate in the wake of the coronavirus. With nearly 7,000 dead since the onset of the pandemic, the country of 11.5 million people has the worst mortality rate in the world in relation to its population size.

Worse than the US, Italy, and Spain.

Over the past two weeks, Belgium’s daily coronavirus death toll is similar – often higher – than Israel’s total coronavirus death toll since the beginning of the crisis. The heart of Europe is sick, very sick.
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T. Belman. Jordan is trying to prevent the annexation because the less likely there will be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan, the more likely Jordan will become the Palestinian state. The question is existential for it.

FM Ayman Safadi reportedly approached counterparts in Russia, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Sweden and Norway and others in wake of Netanyahu-Gantz deal that includes potential move

By AGENCIES and TOI STAFF

A Palestinian boy riding a donkey near the E1 settlement corridor, with Ma’aleh Adumim in the background (photo credit: (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)

Jordan last week approached a number of foreign governments and urged them to pressure Israel not to annex parts of the West Bank, Channel 13 news reported, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz signed a coalition agreement saying the move could potentially go ahead as early as July.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has reportedly approached counterparts in a number of countries including Russia, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Sweden and Norway.

Jordan was said to have warned that a possible annexation would have a “devastating effect,” marking the end of a two-state solution, and having potentially explosive consequences for the Middle East.
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www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

In the 26th Apr 20 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

• Another Israeli COVID-19 vaccine and a life-saving treatment are in development.
• An Israeli has co-developed the first entirely new antibiotic for 3 decades.
• Israeli-Arab support for Israel has surged during the pandemic.
• Two Israeli innovations to filter virus-contaminated air.
• Israelis use radar and thermal cameras to detect coronavirus infection.
• Economy gets A+ rating as Israel emerges from lockdown.
• Israel’s vaccine development gets a $12 million investment boost.
• Israel marks Yom HaShoah, Earth Day, San Remo and looks forward to Independence Day.

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By Robert Spencer, PJ MEDIA

The real pandemic today is not the coronavirus, but cowardice. Nonetheless, even in these days of political correctness, wokeness, the cancel culture, and “hate speech,” there are a few public figures with courage. One of them is Rick Phillips, a Republican Congressional candidate from Iowa, who has dared to grasp the third rail of American public life and state that Islam is not actually the cuddly religion of peace that every enlightened American assumes it to be at this point.

The Des Moines Register reported Monday that Phillips’ “platform calls for redefining Islam as ‘militant cultural imperialism seeking world domination,’” and that he “drew fire Monday for saying he doesn’t believe Islam is protected under the First Amendment.”

Phillips stated on Quad Cities TV station WHBF that the Founding Fathers had only Christianity in mind when they wrote the First Amendment. “They were not talking about anti-Christian beliefs,” he explained. “Now, if a person doesn’t want to believe in Christ, that’s their business. But to say that this First Amendment right includes all religions in the world, I think, is erroneous.”

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The writer believes that Americans need to understand that whether by design or not, China’s unleashing of the deadly coronavirus pandemic spreading panic in the U.S. was an act of war.

By Dr. Joe Tuzara, INN

The COVID-19 pandemic which originated  in Wuhan, China as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to expand its power abroad, was a functional equivalent of a new Cold War without consequences for decades.

Americans need to understand that by design or effects, China’s unleashing of deadly coronavirus pandemic and spreading panic in the U.S. were acts of war.

Resorting to bluster and misinformation, the CCP cover-up isn’t working.
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by A.J. Caschetta, The Hill
April 24, 2020

A bank in Shiraz, Iran is defaced with the slogans “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to Rouhani,” November 17, 2019.

At a time when Iran’s oppressive totalitarian regime is coming under increasing pressure from within and its grip on power is being tested daily, Democrats are rushing in with sanctions relief plans that would shore up its control. Ignorance, naiveté and a warped sense of priorities explains much of their recent activity.

Since last fall, protests in Iran have become bold. Rather than “Death to America!,” the chants in Tehran increasingly are “Death to the Dictator!” and “We don’t want the Ayatollahs!” If Ali Khamenei loses control because of his regime’s inept response to Iran’s COVID-19 deaths, it might be the only good thing to come out of the pandemic. That is, unless the Democrats have their way.

On April 9, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote to President Trump, urging him not to block Iran’s request for a $5 billion humanitarian aid loan from the International Monetary Fund. On March 26, 11 senators wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin requesting that the Trump administration suspend sanctions on Iran.
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By Cathy Burke, NEWSMAX    23 April 2020

Former Reagan administration Office of Management and Budget director  David Stockman on Thursday blasted the “lockdown nation” triggered by the coronavirus outbreak, alleging public officials have conducted “fraud on a massive scale.”

In a fiery interview on Newsmax TV’s “The Chris Salcedo Show,” Stockman, who also served as a GOP congressman from Michigan, decried the economic fallout from policies aimed to stem the virus spread.

“I have a news flash for [New York Democrat] Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo and most of Washington,” he said. “We are heading for a disaster fiscally at speeds that are breathtaking.”

According to Stockman, “revenue is collapsing … because of the disaster lockdown.”
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Howard Laitin.  Dr. Ioannidis argues[ The Bearer of Good Coronavirus News, Allysia Finley ,Wall Street Journal  4-24-20] that Covid-19 is far less deadly than modelers are  assuming.  Dr. Ioannidis estimated that the U.S. fatality rate could be as low as 0.025% to 0.625% and put the upper bound at 0.05% to 1%—comparable to that of seasonal flu.

“If that is the true rate,” he wrote, “locking down the world with potentially tremendous social and financial consequences may be totally irrational. It’s like an elephant being attacked by a house cat. Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat, the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.”

A substantial proportion of those dying with Covid-19 had one or more other serious underlying complications. Prof. Neil Ferguson, when discussing his sharply  downward revised estimates for English deaths,  stated that most of these  people would have died from other underlying causes within several months, had they not, at that time,  succumbed to the coronavirus<

However, NVSS’ recently revised  cause of death  reporting directive [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/vsrg/vsrg03-508.pdf ] plus Medicare’s  financial incentivization by paying   hospitals and treating physicians more when they report their patient as as suffering from covid-19  infection  have  made “Covid-19  associated deaths” the prime recording category and therefore “Covid-19  associated deaths” now shows up as ” the leading cause of death in the United States.”

The current CDC dominated federal draft guidelines threshold values for opening up the economy as they apply to Torrance  translate into the following: (Using  145,000  as Torrance’s  population)n   if Torrance exceeded either four  identified cases per month OR  exceeds one hospitalization per month Torrance  would be below the threshold  that would allow the reopening of the Torrance economy.[ Also given the expected increase in testing,  it is nearly  certain that more cases will be discovered  and  that  Torrance  will never be able to achieve the threshold  value that would allow the reopening of the Torrance economy.]

By Allysia Finley Wall Street Journal  4-24-20

Defenders of coronavirus lockdown mandates keep talking about science. “We are going to do the right thing, not judge by politics, not judge by protests, but by science,” California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defended an order that, among other things, banned the sale of paint and vegetable seeds but not liquor or lottery tickets. “Each action has been informed by the best science and epidemiology counsel there is,” she wrote in an op-ed.
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T. Belman. For those who do not know, the San Remo Resolution on the partition of the Ottoman Empire in 1920 gave binding international recognition to the right of the Jews to Palestine as it was then described. 78% of  which  lay east of the Jordan River. 

Before the Palestine Mandate was signed by the League of Nation in 1922,  Winston Churchill deleted the east bank lands from the lands the Mandate would include as Israel’s national home and it became known as Jordan.  But he also declared that the Jewish right to the land was a matter of right and not of sufferance. The Jews were given the right to “reconstitute” what was, in recognition of their historic right to the land, save for the lands to the east.

Nevertheless the San Remo Resolution stands as predcedent  for the right of the Jews to all of Jordan.

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