It's almost silly to post yet another story about crony capitalism, but it's always useful to be reminded of what's going on. And in this case, the comments add another dimension

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"we'll be back — for more"

White Coat Larceny Turns 20

“71 will support research to find cures for diseases that affect millions of people, including cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Please support the effort to find cures. .  . It could save the life of someone you love.” That was actor Michael J. Fox in an ad for Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Research Initiative, also supported by Christopher Reeve and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose father-in-law Sargent Shriver was afflicted with Alzheimer’s. The 2004 measure passed in a landslide, but there was more to it than grandiose promises.

The prime mover was Democrat insider and real estate tycoon Robert Klein, who wrote the measure to install himself as chairman and required a 70 percent supermajority of both houses to make any structural or policy changes. Proposition 71 created the $3 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which was really about the redistribution of money.

In 2012, the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences, found that almost all CIRM board members were “interested parties with a personal or financial stake in the allocation of CIRM fundings.” As the investigators learned, CIRM was directing a full 91 percent of its research funding to institutions with representatives on its governing board. This seems to have escaped the attention of state attorney general Kamala Harris.

According to Klein, the life-saving cures would generate a steady stream of royalties that would make CIRM self-supporting. Trouble was, the state stem-cell agency reported no royalties until 2018, and only in the amount of $190,345.87. That is less than the salary of former state senator Art Torres, the non-scientist CIRM hired when a biotech professional was willing to work for no salary at all.

By 2020, CIRM stood in need of more money to redistribute. Americans for Cures, a non-profit headed by Robert Klein, floated Proposition 14, the Stem Cell Research Institute Bond Initiative, this time for $5.5 billion. As this writer twice verified, signature gatherers falsely claimed the measure sought only $1.5 billion. As the deadline approached, Americans for Cures began pushing for people to print out 16 pages and mail in the signatures. This was an open invitation to fraud, but Secretary of State Alex Padilla duly approved the measure for the November 2020 ballot.

Proposition 14 passed by 51.09 to 48.91, a far cry from 2004. In 2024, a ballpark figure for the promised life-saving cures is zero, and for all but the willfully blind, there’s a lesson or two here. Beware of white coat larceny, as in 2004, and white coat supremacy, as in 2020 under the loathsome Dr. Anthony Fauci. In 2024 moving forward, it’s all about memory against forgetting.

And here are two comments to the article that caught my eye: it’s not just a tale of politicians and their friends feeding from the same trough, but there’s SOCIAL JUSTICE! and evil Republicans in the mix as well — an unbeatable combination in California and among Concerned Compassionates everywhere.

  • Ann in L.A.

You missed the real motivation for the original referendum.

Back then, fetal stem cells were a promising technology (maybe), but the ethics of grinding up human fetuses for medical experiments caused GW Bush to balk. He questioned the use of fetuses--often from abortions--and worked to stop federal funding.

So, California, in its full righteousness and enmity to 1) GWB and 2) anything which brings ethical doubts to anything having to do with abortion, proposed the proposition.

The people in California, feeling all superior to those evil Republicans, voted to spend billions of their money on a tech that would prove within a year or two to be mostly supplanted and obsolete. Meanwhile, California's debt burden grows, and those same Californians have to carry the weight. That will show those evil R's!!

  • Jhericles Katz-Nelson

Long-time Californian here. That stem cell initiative was above all a way to say "we hate George Bush and we love abortion". Bush was hesitant about backing federal research that used (and discarded) what are arguably proto-human-beings.

Update: Here’s a third comment that adds to the discussion:

MartinAgain 6 hours ago

The dumb thing is that from what I have read there have only been negative results from embryonic stem cell research. Most of the progress has been made using adult stem cells. There has also been some positive uses of cells recovered from the umbilical cord. The thing about these positive results is they are all based on using stem cells from the person getting the therapy.

The gift that keeps on giving, no matter how much we wish she would

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israel lends encouragement to hezbollah 's decision to find new headquarters

Steve Hayward, PowerLine:

Posted on October 6, 2024 by Steven Hayward in 2024 Election, Kamala Harris

Would You Like French Dressing on That Word Salad?

Kamala Harris is making an appearance on 60 Minutes tonight, but already some excerpts have leaked out, including this gem that a satirist couldn’t invent:

“The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel, that were very much prompted by or a result of many things including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”

There have indeed been “many movements in the region by Israel” — mostly the rearrangement of body parts of terrorists, but I imagine the dolt isn’t claiming credit for that.

Kamilla to Bat Cave: "Drop Dead"

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Although she’s not altogether heartless: she’s taken the money that would have otherwise been wasted on MAGA Hillbillies and is sending it where it can do real good.

To that end, the United States will provide nearly $157 million in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon for essential needs such as food, shelter, water, protection, and sanitation to help those who have been displaced by the recent conflict. This additional support brings total U.S. assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million.

Two FEMA agents went bear hunting, but just before reaching camp they saw a sign "Bear Left”, so they turned around and went home

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FEMA abandons devastated NC town residents because they aren’t allowed to drive around ‘road closed’ sign: ‘Nobody’s been bringing in supplies except civilians’

BAT CAVE, North Carolina — Residents of a tiny North Carolina town that was almost totally destroyed by Hurricane Helene fending for themselves after FEMA told them that a “road closed” sign is an insurmountable obstacle for the agency to navigate.

“FEMA called me and told me they wanted to inspect my house then called me back to say they couldn’t drive around the ‘road closed’ sign. They weren’t allowed,” local Chelsea Atkins, 38, told The Post.

“You can drive it by car for sure, it’s not that bad, you just have to drive around the ‘road closed sign’. I explained that to them. They said they couldn’t,” she said, recounting her maddening exchange with the embattled federal agency.

Left to fend for themselves, Bat Cave residents banded together — opening the roads and starting the arduous work of cleanup and recovery. Residents told The Post that they don’t need FEMA now — and at this point, they don’t even want the disaster relief agency to come.

Here’s hoping the Bat Cave residents can show the same gumption to go around the sign in the other direction and make it to the polls in time.

Look what unrolled from the TP roll (UPDATED)

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Just another day at Columbia: David Rafferty says like it or lump it — and if you don't like it, transfer

Greenwich’s own, Mr. David Rafferty, has sized up the current campus thugs and written to the CT Insider to complain that Jews scared for their safety, and students whose classes, library study halls, and even their examinations are being disrupted and cancelled are free to shut up and stay, or find a new school and leave.

David Rafferty (opinion): Colleges are businesses. Students upset about protests can take their business elsewhere

“College is a business. … Ever since Saint Reagan kicked off the right-wing campaign to make America dumb (and also mean, bitter, and xenophobic) again, colleges and universities have been increasingly vilified by certain people as pinko ideological indoctrination centers. Liberal training camps that only serve to make people woke, question their gender and/or identity, and produce squishy navel-gazing young adults who are ill-prepared and ill-suited to survive in “real” America.” [No argument here — that’s exactly who and what they are; excellent description.]

“And sure, while it makes great headlines to cherry-pick stories about select students and select campus policies and movements that confirm some of those tropes, you know what else American colleges produce? A highly educated, highly engaged and highly motivated populace that continues to actually renew and replenish the cutting-edge workforce that remains the envy of the world.” [But those highly educated, motivated students are not the squishy, navel-gazing children mentioned above. Nor are they Molotov Cocktail-tossing Princeton graduates incinerating police cars.]

“Which is exactly what scares the deplorables when they see a boy on campus wearing mascara and a Me-Too T-shirt. They can’t, or won’t, see past his looks to see the critical thinker studying economics to better understand how climate change disrupts the supply chain. [Darn it, he’s right again: I don’t see that — can’t see what isn’t there]. What the deplorables actually can’t stand is that mascara boy will be smarter and more successful than they will be. Because done properly, higher education makes you better [I believe that Mr. Rafferty is himself a college graduate — and also a stay-at-home Mom. Just sayin’] so of course they have to hate the universities.”

“Enough soapboxing, and back to the premise that colleges are primarily a business. If you hired a painter or plumber and they didn’t do the job you wanted, you would fire them. If your bank laundered terrorist money you might take your money out and switch banks. If your landlord stopped repairing your home you’d move. That’s just business.” [So, our universities are the equivalent of incompetent tradesmen or corrupt bankers? I can buy that.] 

“Well, in the last year many colleges have been ground zero for pro-Palestinian protests, some of which were ugly and antisemitic, often leading to resignations, cancelled graduations, hostile police activities, harassment of students and teachers and so much more. These protests, regardless of what your position is regarding the never-ending Middle Eastern conflicts, sent tens of thousands of students home for the summer questioning everything, and wondering “what does it all mean?” for good ole State U.” [Sent home early, in fact, because the schools were forced to shut down.]

“It turns out that it meant very little. Yes, the protests are back and so are the responses from universities and law enforcement. But you know who else is back? All the students who said how much these protests, the hatred, and the over-the-top responses bothered them. Last year, thousands of alumni and university donors made headlines with very public denouncements of what was happening on campus, pulling their support and donations. You might have thought then that there would have been an uptick in students who did the same, deciding that they would rather take their education somewhere else.” [Certainly, the money did, as well as job opportunities for students: “Columbia University facing ‘donor crisis’ after anti-Israel protests on campus. Alumni money, and job opportunities for new graduates.”]

“Students [he means Jewish students] have been telling us for a year that they are struggling, that they don’t know what to do. They say their college is failing them, not supporting them, creating an unsafe space for them to learn and live. If they worked at Starbucks [as many of Rafferty’s favorite students will] and their boss regularly make them feel unsafe they’d quit. Yet they still overwhelmingly returned to the same schools, prepared to accept the same fearful, violent, antisemitic situations they left last May, and what should we make of that? Remember, college is a business. And this summer, students could have shown their schools they were serious about wanting better, telling them they’re taking their business elsewhere.” [And why should they?]

“Students choosing to transfer from Columbia or UCLA sends a message potentially even more powerful than alumni pulling their donations. It says you’re serious when you say you want a school that matches your moral and ethical code. It says too that obligation is a two-way street, [two-ways, or one-way? University administrators let the protestors rampage unpunished, while threatened students can leave. That might better be described as “our way or the highway”], and if the school isn’t prepared to support those morals, defend your safety and support you as a person [they aren’t — UVA caves, will not discipline disruptive anti-Israel activists: The students had all charges dropped after they met with Student Affairs officials.] then your leaving is on them. They will have cancelled themselves.”

“But if you stay, then that’s on you. Anyone currently on a campus where the protests and counter-protests, violence and fear is still front and center, well, you can’t say you didn’t have options.” [You have no right to expect your school to protect you or keep classes open — who do you think you are, anyway?]

Here’s an interesting fact Rafferty ignores or doesn’t care about:

More Than 10,000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Recorded in the U.S. Since Oct. 7, the Highest Yearly Total on Record, ADL Finds

At least 1,200 of those incidents occurred on college campuses, a 500 percent increase from the year prior

That rather dramatically shrinks the number of schools fearful students can flee to, no?

“It's clear however, that Greenwich is not immune from the tyranny of the stupid and small-minded that often lurks on the internet.” David raferty, November 17, 2017

UPDATE:

Reader Jennifer Lowitt has copied me with a letter she sent to the editors of CT Insider. It’s tone is far more polite than something I’d write, but I do like her penultimate point: “[S]tudents who choose not to be driven out by hate but instead continue their education and fight for their rights with their chins held high should be applauded, not vilified". I agree, though Rafferty won't — his admiration is reserved for the dolts, navel-gazers, and thugs who’ve infested the country’s campuses (query: why don’t they leave, if, as Rafferty claims students should “if you’re serious when you say you want a school that matches your moral and ethical code”? Are they choosing to stay because of principle? Then Rafferty should applaud Jewish students who are doing the same thing.)

To the Editor: 

I write to respond to David Rafferty’s opinion piece regarding “Colleges are Businesses…Students Upset about Protests can take their Business Elsewhere” and I was concerned by the tone and the statements on the subject. 

There actually has been a trend of Jewish students seeking transfers away from universities where antisemitism has exploded (see links below). I can also say that as a Jewish parent with college-age kids, I know more than a few Jewish students who are no longer applying to certain schools in the northeast and are instead applying in the south due to antisemitism concerns (as referenced in the free press article linked below) which will likely be further evident in the next application cycle. So, in fact, Jewish students are voting with their feet.  

In addition, transferring is not as easy as Mr. Rafferty makes it sound. Many students may be constrained by financial reasons (scholarships etc.) or geographical reasons. Yet he gives them no sympathy.  Finally, I would note that students who choose not to be driven out by hate but instead continue their education and fight for their rights with their chins held high should be applauded, not vilified. 

I’d be curious to see the resources Mr. Rafferty relied upon in forming his opinion if he would share them.  

Sincerely,  Jennifer Lowitt Riverside, Ct

Aha! So THAT's what she meant by "turn the page"

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“She was a major player in everything we’ve done, including the passage of legislation which we were told we could never pass. She’s been, and her staff is interlocked with mine in terms of all the things we’re doing.” Jos. Biden, October 4, 2024

More of this, please

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And as college campuses across the country prepare to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Hamas Massacre tomorrow, the kick-off for a so-called “Week of Rage”, the demonstrators’ dimwitted supporters might want to see this, first:

Liars, liars, skirts on fire

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Two small examples of why the demagogues and their flacks hate an unfettered Internet: their lies are now being exposed and fact-checked in minutes, instead of being buried by their captive press.

AND: