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Sunday, May 5, 2024

Ideological Roots Of The Open Borders Push

 by Simon Hankinson via The Epoch Times,

Why does the Biden administration want open borders? As a researcher and writer on immigration, that’s the question I often get asked.

Here are the three reasons I think are behind President Joe Biden’s deliberate border chaos:

  1. electoral politics,

  2. extortion, and,

  3. most insidiously, ideology.

I’ll start with ideology and come back to the other two reasons in my next columns.

The most dangerous driver behind Biden’s open borders is ideological. Policy differences can be negotiated, but as we’re seeing on college campuses, people fanatically committed to an idea can prove intransigent, regardless of the facts.

When you see the word “abolition” used in connection with criminal justice and immigration, you might be confused. Americans rightly associate the term with ending slavery and abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison who were active before the Civil War.

Why are academics, politicians, and race professionals using it in 2024?

Those saying “abolitionist” today have appropriated it for the positive historical connotation it possesses, but they mean something else entirely. To see the roots of their ideology, you have to go back to the dawn of the New Left, as described by Chris Rufo in his book “America’s Cultural Revolution.”

Under their intellectual godfather, German academic Herbert Marcuse, Marxist-Leninists, Black Panthers, the Weather Underground terrorist group, and Students for a Democratic Society gathered.

This leftist alliance believed—as the Students for a Democratic Society magazine Prairie Fire explained—that the United States was founded on genocide, slavery, and racism. Its goal was to abolish the existing capitalist America and build a new society. One element of this was destroying the justice system. The Black Panthers’ manifesto thus called for the release of all black men who were incarcerated, no matter for what crime.

As Rufo writes, “[Communist Angela] Davis and her comrades began to call not for the release of individual criminals, but for the abolition of the entire system.” Davis said that “a society without racism … has to be a society without prisons.”

The Black Lives Matter organization adopted the same agenda of “abolition.” The mobs that destroyed a police station and looted Minneapolis in 2020 shouted, “Abolish the police, then the prisons.” The “abolitionist” activists in the Seattle CHAZ commune wanted to abolish the police, prisons, and courts.

BLM founder Patrisse Cullors was crystal clear in this Harvard Law Review essay from 2019: “Abolition means no borders. Abolition means no Border Patrol. Abolition means no Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” America is the source of world evil, in her view, and thus has no right to exist as a nation state nor keep anyone in the world from entering its borders.

Some Biden administration officials seem to share this core belief. Avideh Moussavian, a senior appointee at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, tweeted “#abolishICE” in 2018 and “cut ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] funding” in 2019.

Another Biden appointee, Claire Trickler-McNulty, undermined ICE from within before leaving for a nongovernmental organization partly funded by the Vera Institute for Justice. The Vera Institute says, “The U.S. immigration system is an arrest-to-deportation pipeline rooted in racism,” wants no detention of people in the United States illegally, and grants millions to nongovernmental organizations defending illegal immigrants.

“Abolition” ideology also has clear links with today’s campus support of Hamas. Take a look at this course taught at Columbia University this Spring by professor Mohamed Abdou, titled “Decolonial-Queerness and Abolition in SWAN.” SWANA likely stands for South West Asian and North African people. A sentence from the course description sums it up:

“Using intersectional/assemblage-based theories, what decolonial, gender-based readings and formulations of feminisms/queerness exist that evade the apparent tidiness of European feminist and narrow LGBTQIA categories that characterizes most (non)Euro-American political queer-feminist scholarship beyond the depiction of queer BIPOC as co-opted and duped, colonized pawns of ‘Gay Empire’ towards elucidating critical discussions on identity, agency, subjectivity, and dissidence?”

Parents are paying $90,000 a year for their kids to learn that kind of balderdash. But even if you can’t make any sense of that sentence, you can be sure of what Abdou means by “abolition.”

Columbia University now resembles Gaza as designed by outdoor equipment retailer Eastern Mountain Sports. Meanwhile at Princeton University, students briefly set up a camp last week “in solidarity with Gaza to protest Princeton’s role in funding the ongoing genocide,” according to organizers Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest.

Dan-el Padilla Peralta was among faculty who signed a letter supporting the Princeton students and boycotting Columbia University. He is a “classics” professor who calls his field “equal parts vampire and cannibal” and the foundation of white supremacy, and argues that it should be abolished.

Peralta came from the Dominican Republic as a child, and his family overstayed their visas and became illegal immigrants. Leftist academics such as Peralta do not like nations or borders any more than they do classical antiquity. In his book “Undocumented,” Peralta wrote, “Demography is a [expletive]. Holla at me if you want me to break it down for you.” By this, Peralta implies that without immigration enforcement, the “global majority”—defined here as everyone but white Europeans—will be able to dominate every country.

What we’re seeing at the southern border and on college campuses comes from the same ideological roots and ends the same way: anarchy.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ideological-roots-open-borders-push

High Response Rates With Gene Therapies for BCG-Unresponsive Bladder Cancer

 More than 70% of patients with BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) achieved complete responses to a novel gene therapy, a small preliminary trial showed.

Across a range of doses, 16 of 22 patients had a complete response to detalimogene voraplasmid (EG-70), including 15 at 3 months and 10 at 6 months. Additionally, seven of 10 patients treated with the recommended phase II dose had complete responses. A majority of the responses persisted for 3-6 months.

About half of patients had treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), only one of which reached grade 3 severity, reported Gordon Brown, DO, of Summit Health in Voorhees, New Jersey, at the American Urological Associationopens in a new tab or window annual meeting.

"Interim data from the phase I portion of the LEGENDopens in a new tab or window study suggest a promising safety, tolerability, and efficacy profile," said Brown. "Reported TRAEs are mostly grade 1/2 and consistent with catheterization/intravesical administration. As a noninfective gene therapy, there are no special handling precautions, patient restrictions post-treatment or ultra-cold chain logistics considerations. The treatment was delivered effectively and easily within our clinics, using our existing infrastructure without burdensome changes."

Updated trial results for an adenoviral oncolytic gene therapy continued to show promising safety and efficacy. Cretostimogene grenadenorepvec led to complete responses in three-fourths of 105 evaluable patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC. Among patients followed for at least a year, more than 80% of the responses lasted at least 12 months, reported Mark Tyson, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona.

NMIBC accounts for about 80% of all newly diagnosed bladder cancers, and about 30% of the cases have high-risk features. Intravesical instillation of BCG is standard of care for high-risk patients, but the disease recurs or progresses in half of cases (BCG unresponsive). Patients with recurrent/progressive disease have limited options beyond radical cystectomy, which remains standard of care to prevent progression to muscle-invasive bladder cancer, Brown noted in his introductory comments.

EG-70 is a nonintegrating, nonviral gene therapy designed for administration in any urology clinic. The therapy has a simplified preparation and administration process and requires no specialized storage or handling, reducing treatment burden for patients and clinic personnel, he continued.

EG-70 has a unique delivery vehicleopens in a new tab or window containing a DNA plasmid that encodes retinoic acid-inducible gene (RIG) 1 agonist and interleukin (IL)-12. Administered intravesically, the gene therapy transfects and stimulates the immune system in the bladder.

The RIG-1 agonist stimulates NK cells and suppressor cell attenuation to promote tumor killing and also stimulates T-cell recruitment and neo-antigen presentation, Brown explained. IL-12 activates T-cell dependent cytokine response to promote tumor killing and immune memory. Bladder-restricted production has the potential to drive a strong therapeutic effect while reducing the potential for systemic adverse events.

The phase I component of the LEGEND trial included 24 patients (22 evaluable for response), who received two or four doses of EG-70 per 12-week cycle. The primary endpoint was safety, and the secondary endpoint was efficacy at 3 months.

Laboratory studies showed dose-dependent levels of IL-12 protein in the urine of every patient but no clinically significant levels in plasma.

The safety profile of all 24 patients showed that TRAEs occurred in 13 patients, and all but one TRAE was grade 1 or 2. The only grade 3 TRAE was renal failure, which occurred in a patient with a history of renal failure. The most common TRAEs (any grade) were hematuria (12.5%), dysuria (12.5%), and micturition urgency, fatigue, nocturia, and pyrexia (8.3% each).

The efficacy results showed a 3-month complete response rate of 68% (70% in patients who received the recommended phase II dose). Brown said 11 of 15 complete responses at 3 months persisted for at least 3 months, including six of seven responses with the recommended phase II dose.

Enrollment in the phase II component of the study has begun, with an accrual target of 100 patients. Patients will receive four doses of EG-70 at weeks 1, 2, 5, and 8 of a 12-week cycle.

Results after enrollment of 105 patients in the BOND-003opens in a new tab or window trial of cretostimogene remained consistent with earlier reports after 34 patientsopens in a new tab or window and 66 patientsopens in a new tab or window. The latest results showed complete responses in 79 (75%) patients at any time during follow-up. Additionally, responses persisted for 12 moths or longer in 29 of 35 (83%) responding patients followed for at least a year, said Tyson.

The results with single-agent cretostimogene compared favorably with those of the CORE-001opens in a new tab or window trial that combined the gene therapy with pembrolizumab (Keytruda). The combination led to complete responses in 29 of 34 (85%) patients, and 14 of 16 (88%) patients followed for a year had a response duration ≥12 months. Results from other recent trials of novel therapies for BCG-unresponsive bladder cancer showed complete responses in 41-62% of patients.

The collective results with cretostimogene suggest the gene therapy has the potential to become backbone therapy in NMIBC, according to Tyson.

Disclosures

The LEGEND study was supported by enGene.

Brown disclosed relationships with Astellas, Bayer, enGene, Janssen, mdxhealth, Sumitomo, Ferring, Lantheus, Novartis, Pfizer, UroGPO, and Veracyte.

BOND-003 was supported by CG Oncology.

Tyson disclosed no relationships with industry.

Primary Source

American Urological Association

Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowKalota S, et al "LEGEND: A phase I/II study of EG-70 (detalimogene voraplasmid), a novel, nonviral intravesical gene therapy for patients with BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive ladder cancer with carcinoma in situ" AUA 2024; Abstract P2-08.

Secondary Source

American Urological Association

Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowTyson MD, et al "Pivotal results from BOND-003: A single-arm study of intravesical cretostimogene grenadenorepvec for the treatment of high-risk, BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ" AUA 2024; Abstract P2-02.


https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aua/109967

"Nothing Wrong With Being Hamas": Radical Leftist Groups Trained Students

 It's very puzzling that the purple-haired communist revolutionaries sitting in tents across woke colleges and universities nationwide would advocate for Palestinians to break free from the support of freedom-loving Israel only to adopt the authoritarian control of Sharia law by Hamas. But perhaps, as we've explained before, the uprisings at colleges have very little to do with helping poor Palestinians and everything to do with abolishing capitalism and the socialist reconstruction of America. 

In the last several weeks, social unrest has been spreading like stage 4 cancer across college campuses nationwide. These uprisings have likely been influenced by Marxist groups grooming kids, infecting them with the woke mind virus (in this case, oppressor vs. oppressed). Really, how can these kids be oppressed if they're attending elite schools, living the dream on taxpayer-funded student loans while getting worthless gender studies degrees? Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans are struggling to pay bills and put food on the table in the era of failed Bidenomics as inflation runs rampant.  

Like many law-abiding Americans watching the protests, we spotted similarities with demonstrators at multiple colleges and universities, including the same-style tent and white construction worker helmets being utilized by demonstrators.

Also, professional protesters showed up... 

This began the questioning of just how organized and funded these protests were. 

To answer that question, the Wall Street Journal, published a new report that reveals the social unrest at colleges and universities was the result of a multi-month "training and planning" campaign by "activists and left-wing groups."

At Columbia University, student organizers consulted heavily with radical leftwing groups, such as National Students for Justice in Palestine, veterans of campus protests, and former Black Panthers, many months before the protests. 

"We took notes from our elders, engaged in dialogue with them and analyzed how the university responded to previous protests," Sueda Polat, a graduate student and organizer in the pro-Palestinian encampment, told WSJ. She said they met with former Black Panthers about how to organizer the movement. 

Meanwhile, the National Students for Justice in Palestine, or NSJP, with over 300 chapters across the US, was heavily involved in organizing college encampments and building takeovers. 

These building takeovers left the nation stunned... 

As early as November, we pointed out how NSJP was beginning to cause chaos across school campuses:

And...

WSJ pointed out, "NSJP have been received and administered by the Wespac Foundation." 

According to Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, in a recent Washington Examiner op-ed, Wespac's website has a photo of activists holding up a sign that reads "Another World is Possible." He said this slogan is well-known and used by organizations that "despise capitalism but feel they must cloak their communism." 

"WESPAC funds various revolutionary far-left/anti-Western groups," Ryan Mauro of Capital Research Center, who tracks these activists groups, told Gonzalez. 

Mauro told Gonzalez that WESPAC donations include monies from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and George Soros's Open Society. 

Back to WSJ's report, weeks before the college protests erupted, students at Colombia University were given "Resistance 101" training with activists from Samidoun. 

"There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas," Samidoun coordinator Charlotte Kates told university students. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli government declared Samidoun a terrorist organization in 2021.

"They support terrorism, and they want to gain public opinion — support — for terrorism," Yossi Kuperwasser, the former chief of the research division in the Israel Defense Forces' military intelligence unit, recently said. 

ActiveFence Research sheds more color on Samidoun

What's taking shape here is yet another Marxist movement, or perhaps 'BLM-style 2.0' emerging ahead of the summer months. These Marxists, like parasites, are hijacking the pro-Palestinian movement with their intent to destroy capitalism and America. 

Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago who studies political violence, warned that protests are expected to continue through summer and fall.  

Just remember, Marxists at these colleges said the quiet part out loud last week. 

In April, Samidoun and other groups unleashed protests that attempted to shutter airport terminals, bridges, and highways nationwide. These protests masqueraded as pro-Palestinian demonstrations, but their dark intentions by Marxists were to disrupt the economy.  

We asked in April: "Who Is Funding This Chaos? Pro-Palestinian Protesters Attempt To Paralyze Chicago O'Hare, Golden Gate Bridge."

So where are the FBI, Congress, and the Biden administration? Why aren't they investigating these left-wing artificial protests before they spark out of control and cause more chaos across the nation?

However, this time around, unlike the BLM riots several years ago, there are more than ten million unvetted illegal aliens from around the world, some of whom do not like the US. The nation is on the brink of chaos if this continues. Yet, Democrats are mostly silent. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nothing-wrong-being-hamas-radical-leftist-groups-trained-students-nationwide-campus-chaos

Trump accuses Biden of running 'Gestapo administration'

 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused Democratic rival President Joe Biden of running a "Gestapo administration" in a private address to donors in which he also attacked prosecutors involved in his criminal indictments, according to a recording heard by U.S. media outlets.

Trump made the comparison with the Nazi police in Germany's World War Two regime at a donor retreat Saturday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The comments came after Trump reprised his complaint that the multiple indictments against him were politically motivated. He had just concluded 11 days of a New York hush money trial in which he is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment made to a porn star.

"These people are running a Gestapo administration," Trump said, according to an audio recording heard by the New York Times and the Washington Post. "And it's the only thing they have. And it's the only way they're going to win, in their opinion, and it's actually killing them. But it doesn't bother me."

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the reported remarks.

The former president, who held office from 2017 to 2021, faces an array of legal troubles in criminal and civil cases while he seeks to regain the presidency in the Nov. 5 election. He denies wrongdoing in all the cases.The Biden campaign said the reported comments underscored the Republican candidate's anger and desire for revenge.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Trump-accuses-Biden-of-running-Gestapo-administration-46632069/

Watch: Hawley Eviscerates Biden Official Over "Dark Money Meetings"

 by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

During a Senate Energy and National Resources Committee hearing this week, Republican Senator Josh Hawley exposed a Biden official as having no clue what is going on in her own department.

Hawley grilled Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland regarding alleged shady meetings with foreign “dark-money groups” that actively fund radical left-wing environmental initiatives. 

“Is it common practice at your department to meet with dark money groups off the books and conceal it from the public?” Hawley probed.

Haaland Replied “Senator, thank you for the question, and of course, I can’t answer to, uh, if you’re referring to our former deputy secretary. He’s no longer at the department.”

“Who worked for you,” Hawley fired back.

“He worked for the president. He was appointed by the president,” Haaland said, attempting to to deflect responsibility.

“He’s your deputy secretary,” Hawley said, adding “Are you the secretary of the Department of the Interior? I thought that’s why you were here.”

Hawley then asked “Are you the secretary?” Scolding Haarland for attempting to look to colleagues for assistance. 

“Don’t look at her, look at me. Are you the secretary?” he repeated.

“I am,” Haaland responded.

Hawley further asked “Do these people who are sitting here today answering most of your questions, do they work for you? Do they report for you? You’re not in charge?”

“They work with me,” Haaland answered.

“They work with you. So you’re not in charge of the department?” An exasperated Hawley asserted, adding “Oh my gosh, I thought you were in charge! I thought that was why you were here!”

“We work as a team,” Haaland responded, 

“Oh, okay. So who’s in charge then?” Hawley demanded.

“Uh, I, I provide the vision, I provide the overall direction and —” Haaland stuttered. 

“But you’re not in charge,” Hawley proclaimed, asking “Do you take responsibility for what happens at the Department of the Interior?”

“I take responsibility,” Haaland said.

“Good, then why are your leadership meeting with dark money groups and concealing it from the public? Why are they doing it off the books? How many times did this happen?” Hawley asked, returning to the original question. 

“Senator, this is the first I’m hearing of this,” Haaland claimed, adding “I don’t, I didn’t … my deputy secretary is no longer there, and, um, I can’t answer to what he did when he was there.”

Hawley again accused Haaland of refusing to take responsibility again, and charging that Haaland’s Department has “a corruption problem.”

“We have foreign billionaires, who are funding dark-money groups, coming to meet with your leadership, concealing it from the public, while they are filing lawsuits adverse to the department,” Hawley urged, concluding “The American people should be charge—not the foreign billionaires.”

The full exchange is below:

*  *  *

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-senator-eviscerates-biden-official-over-dark-money-meetings

Trump Leads Biden By 10 Points In Latest Election Poll: Rasmussen Reports

 Despite the 'betting' odds still favoring President Biden in November (according to PredictIt)...

...Former President Donald Trump has boosted his lead over President Joe Biden to ten percentage points ahead of the upcoming elections, according to a recent poll.

In a three-way contest between President Trump, President Biden, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former president gets the backing of 46 percent of likely U.S. voters, according to results of an April 29–May 1 survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports. This is a 10 percentage point lead over President Biden who only received 36 percent support. Nine percent backed RFK Jr. The 10-point lead is an improvement from the six points President Trump had in April.

Additionally, as Naveen Athrappully reports at The Epoch Times, the incumbent president is not faring well in terms of his popularity. His job approval rating for the 13th quarter of his presidency is the lowest of his term and is the worst among all presidents in modern history, according to a recent Gallup poll.

According to an April 29 update from Morning Consult, both President Trump and President Biden were tied with 43 percent support of voters. However, President Trump had an advantage among Independents where he netted a two percentage point lead over President Biden.

In addition, 88 percent of Trump 2020 voters said they would vote for him once again. This is four percentage points higher than the 84 percent of Biden 2020 voters who said they will support President Biden in 2024.

The poll also found that President Trump’s popularity has increased.

“Trump’s net favorability rating - the share of voters with a favorable view minus the share with an unfavorable view - ticked up to minus 2 points, the highest since early December. His rating has increased 11 points since a 2024 low reached in January,” Morning Consult stated.

An April 30 survey from Emerson College Polling/The Hill found that President Trump was leading President Biden in all seven swing states.

President Trump had a lead of four percentage points in Arizona, three in Georgia, one percentage point in Michigan and Nevada, five percentage points in North Carolina, and two in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The state of the presidential election in swing states has remained relatively consistent since Emerson and The Hill started tracking them last November,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.

“The share of undecided voters has reduced and Biden gained ground in Georgia and Nevada, narrowing the gap, while Trump has maintained a slight edge on Biden in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”

However, when third-party candidates were included in the ballot, support was found to have withdrawn more from President Biden than President Trump in five states—Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

“Independent voters break for Trump over Biden in Arizona (48 percent–38 percent), Michigan (44 percent–35 percent), Nevada (43 percent–37 percent), Pennsylvania (49 percent–33 percent), and North Carolina (41 percent–38 percent). However they break for Biden over Trump in Georgia (42 percent–38 percent) and Wisconsin (44 percent–41 percent),” Mr. Kimball said.

Trump Advantage Over Biden

President Trump’s lead over President Biden comes as the GOP candidate is currently caught up in multiple indictments. In total, the former president is facing four indictments—one each in New York, the Southern District of Florida, the District of Columbia, and Fulton County, Georgia.

The New York trial is ongoing. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing President Trump’s immunity appeal as part of an indictment alleging the former president attempted to subvert the transfer of presidential power following the 2020 election.

While some Democrats calculate that the trials against the former president could work in favor of President Biden, a recent survey says otherwise.

An April 29 survey by market research firm Leger shows that 46 percent of likely voters supported President Trump compared to 45 percent who backed President Biden. If the former president were found “guilty and imprisoned,” President Trump’s support would fall to 37 percent. However, this decline won’t benefit President Biden whose backing continued to remain 45 percent.

If President Trump is found to be “guilty without imprisonment,” his support declines to a slightly better 39 percent. In this instance, President Biden’s backing drops one percentage point to 44 percent.

And if the former president were deemed “not guilty,” his backing would remain at 46 percent while President Biden’s support declines to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, an April 12 Pew Research poll showed that only 22 percent of American adults polled in December had a favorable opinion of the Biden administration’s third year in power, which is a ten percent decline from August 2019 when the Trump administration was in its third year.

President Biden continued to have a high approval rating of 83 percent among Democrats. However, he had a rating of only 2 percent from Republicans. His rating from independents was also weak at 33 percent.

“In this election year, when Biden is hoping U.S. voters reward him with a second term, he is needing some positive momentum to put him in a stronger position to be reelected,” Gallup stated.

However, that didn’t occur during the past three months, with Americans no more positive about how Biden is doing his job than they were in his prior quarter, or for most of the past three years.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-leads-biden-10-points-latest-election-poll-rasmussen-reports