Type 2 diabetes: Covid's hidden accomplice

Covid and Diabetes, Colliding in a Public Health Train Wreck | New York Times - Andrew Jacobs:

April 3, 2022 - "After older people and nursing home residents, perhaps no group has been harder hit by the pandemic than people with diabetes. Recent studies suggest that 30 to 40 percent of all coronavirus deaths in the United States have occurred among people with diabetes.... 

"Characteristics of Persons Who Died with COVID-19 —  United States, February 12–May 18, 2020," 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 17, 2020

"People with diabetes are especially vulnerable to severe illness from Covid, partly because diabetes impairs the immune system but also because those with the disease often struggle with high blood pressure, obesity and other underlying medical conditions that can seriously worsen a coronavirus infection.... 

"Diabetes patients hospitalized with Covid spend more time in the I.C.U., are more likely to be intubated and are less likely to survive, according to several studies, one of which found that 20 percent of hospitalized coronavirus patients with diabetes died within a month of admission. Though researchers are still trying to understand the dynamics between the two diseases, most agree on one thing: Uncontrolled diabetes impairs the immune system and decreases a patient’s ability to withstand a coronavirus infection.

"Diabetes is a pernicious disease that is at once ubiquitous and invisible, partly because most people with the condition do not appear outwardly ill. It affects 34 million Americans, or 13 percent of all adults, ... annually claims 100,000 lives and soaks up one in four health care dollars spent.... [T]he burden of diabetes falls more heavily on Latino and Black Americans, highlighting systemic failures in health care delivery that have also made the coronavirus far deadlier for the poor, said Nadia Islam, a medical sociologist at NYU Langone Health. 'It’s not that diabetes itself makes Covid inherently worse but rather uncontrolled diabetes, which is really a proxy for other markers of disadvantage,' she said. Compounding the concerns, some studies suggest that a coronavirus infection can heighten the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a disease that is largely preventable through a healthy diet and exercise.... 

"More than 90 percent of all diabetes cases in the United States are type 2. One study published last month found that patients who recovered from Covid were 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within 12 months compared with the uninfected.... Over the past two years, doctors have also reported a sharp rise in young people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, an increase that many believe is tied to the drastic spike in childhood obesity during the pandemic.... About 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes each year, according to the C.D.C., and roughly 96 million, about one in three adults, are at high risk for developing the disease....

"Diabetes is an insidious disease that significantly increases the risks of premature blindness, stroke, and circulatory and neurological problems that can lead to infections requiring amputation.... Black and Latino Americans are more than twice as likely to receive a diabetes diagnosis as whites, and inadequate access to medical care can make it harder for them to juggle the complex dietary, monitoring and treatment regimens that can stave off its devastating complications. Although there is much researchers don’t understand, many believe that uncontrolled diabetes greatly amplifies the perils of a Covid diagnosis. That’s because a sedentary lifestyle, putting on extra weight or failing to keep close tabs on blood sugar levels fuel chronic inflammation inside the body, which can increase insulin resistance and weaken the immune system.

"Inflammation triggers the release of cytokines, tiny proteins that regulate the body’s immune response to infection or injury. Cytokines are a critical component of the normal healing process, but for people with diabetes and underlying chronic inflammation, all those cytokines can damage healthy tissue. Covid, it turns out, can provoke an uncontrolled release of cytokines, and the resulting “cytokine storm” can wreak havoc on vital organs like the lungs, leading to dire outcomes and death."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/health/diabetes-covid-deaths.html

Study: 80% of Covid patients Vitamin D deficient

Study: Vitamin D deficiency found in over 80% of COVID-19 patients | Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Kiersten Willis:

October 28, 2020 - "COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Spain were overwhelmingly found to be deficient in vitamin D, according to a new study. Researchers discovered 80% of 216 COVID-19 patients at the Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla had a vitamin D deficiency. Men had lower levels of vitamin D than women and COVID-19 patients with lower levels of vitamin D had increased serum levels of inflammatory markers such as ferritin, a blood protein containing iron, and D-dimer, a protein fragment made when a blood clot dissolves in the body. The latter is usually elevated in COVID-19 patients, according to a July study published in the Journal of Intensive Care.

"'One approach is to identify and treat vitamin D deficiency, especially in high-risk individuals such as the elderly, patients with comorbidities, and nursing home residents, who are the main target population for the COVID-19,' said the new study’s co-author Dr. José L. Hernández of the University of Cantabria in Santander, Spain. 'Vitamin D treatment should be recommended in COVID-19 patients with low levels of vitamin D circulating in the blood since this approach might have beneficial effects in both the musculoskeletal and the immune system.' The new findings were announced Tuesday by the Endocrine Society and published in the medical organization’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

"The kidneys produce the hormone vitamin D. It controls blood calcium concentration and affects the immune system. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a variety of health concerns, but research continues to examine why it affects other systems of the body. There are many studies that point out how beneficial vitamin D is on the immune system and how it offers protection against infections, in particular.

"Mayo Clinic infectious disease specialist Dr. William F. Marshall wrote that not enough data exists to recommend the use of vitamin D to stop the infection from the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, or to treat COVID-19, according to the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. 

"Multiple studies have reviewed vitamin D’s impact on COVID-19, according to Mayo Clinic. A study of 489 people discovered those who were deficient in the hormone were more likely to test positive for the coronavirus than those who had normal vitamin D levels. A small, randomized study saw that only one of 50 people hospitalized with COVID-19 who were administered a high dose of a type of vitamin D, calcifediol, required treatment in the intensive care unit ... compared to the group of 26 people who were not given calcifediol in which 13 of them had to be treated in the intensive care unit.

"While vitamin D deficiency is common in the U.S., Black and Hispanic people are especially deficient in the hormone, according to a 2014 study. The two groups have also been disproportionately affected by COVID-19."

Read more: https://www.ajc.com/life/study-vitamin-d-deficiency-found-in-over-80-of-covid-19-patients/A6W5TCSNIBBLNNUMVVG4XBPTGQ/

Bob Marley and identity politics

Music Legend Bob Marley and the Folly of Identity Politics - David Unsworth, Panam Post:

December 20, 2017 - "A few years ago, I spent two weeks in Jamaica [that included] the obligatory visit to the Bob Marley Museum. After touring the mansion, which once housed the headquarters of Marley’s Tuff Gong record label, we were ushered into a small movie theater to watch a brief documentary on the life of Bob Marley.... Marley said on camera something that surprised me; something that I had not known before.

“'My father was white and mother was black. Then call me half-caste or what ever. I don’t dip on nobody’s side. I dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white'....

"Marley’s words should give us much food for thought today, as the post-Trump environment has seemed to engender a new age of identity politics.... In the United States, we are faced with a situation where, politically, we are highly divided along racial lines.... Identity politics has exacerbated our differences, and the animosity that we feel along racial and geographic lines....

"The law is supposed to be color-blind; progressive groups routinely argue, however, that it is not. They likely have many reasonable enough points. Yet, is a nationwide lurch towards identity politics really the path forward for progress in America?

"It is time that Americans stop dividing themselves politically into groups and subgroups.... American politicians of both parties should be saying, 'What can we do, right now, that is good for America as a whole. For all Americans.' ... not dreaming up ways to offer political bargains to various identity politics groups in order to reach 51%. Good public policy, good fiscal policy, good monetary policy, well-written evenly-enforced law, is good for all Americans, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, language, religion, geography, or sexual orientation....

"Entrepreneurship, individuality, and social and economic freedom have always been at the heart of the impressive American success story. It is for that reason that millions of immigrants have sought a better [life] here. It is for that reason that hundreds of thousands still brave perilous sea crossings or hazardous desert treks to reach American soil, regardless of their immigration status.

"A free market economy does not inherently discriminate based upon these identity categories. The market doesn’t care about your sexual orientation, or your skin color, or your religion, or your language: it cares about the cost and quality of the good and service you provide....

"We can not change the past. What we can do now, is try to make public policy that will truly afford the greatest opportunities to all American citizens, regardless of their race or class, gender or ethnicity,"

Read more: https://panampost.com/david-unsworth/2017/12/20/bob-marley-identity-politics/
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CA governor vetoes campus sexcrimes bill

Jerry Brown Vetoes Campus Sexual Assault Bill Because It Threatens Due Process - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Robby Soave:

October 16, 2017 - "Today California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 169, which would have codified the Obama-era Education Department's guidance for how college campuses should deal with sexual misconduct.

"What's more, he vetoed the bill on explicit due-process grounds. Accused students, guilty or not, 'must be treated fairly and with the presumption of innocence until the facts speak otherwise,' he wrote in a statement.

"Brown's veto comes at a time when the new Education Department, led by Betsy DeVos, is revising the guidance.... The California legislature tried to ensure that schools keep doing things the old way. But as Brown noted:

Thoughtful legal minds have increasingly questioned whether federal and state actions to prevent and redress sexual harassment and assault — well-intentioned as they are — have also unintentionally resulted in some colleges' failure to uphold due process for accused students. Depriving any student of higher education opportunities should not be done lightly, or out of fear of losing state or federal funding.

Given the strong state of our laws already, I am not prepared to codify additional requirements in reaction to a shifting federal landscape, when we haven't yet ascertained the full impact of what we recently enacted. We have no insight into how many formal investigations result in expulsion, what circumstances lead to expulsion, or whether there is disproportionate impact on race or ethnicity.

"Brown isn't wrong to suggest that the softening of due process protections for accused students might have disproportionately affected students of color. As Emily Yoffe discussed in a thoroughly reported series for The Atlantic, there are good reasons to think minority students are much more likely to run afoul of the campus anti-rape bureaucracy.

"I'm pleasantly surprised that Brown vetoed this bill and released such a strong statement reaffirming the importance of due process ... a brave stance that makes him an outlier within the Democratic Party, whose leaders have been far more likely to condemn DeVos for trying to tamper with the system."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/16/gov-jerry-brown-vetoes-campus-sexual-ass
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Libertarian Party wants "racists and bigots" out

Libertarian Party to White nationalists: Get out - Christie Zizo, Central Florida News 13:

August 15, 2017 - The National Libertarian Party says it stands for freedom for all, but it won't stand for white nationalists.

"The party, considered the fastest growing third party in the country, issued a statement Tuesday asking any white nationalists who belong to the party to leave.

"'There is no room for racists and bigots in the Libertarian Party,' said Libertarian National Committee executive director Wes Benedict. 'If there are white nationalists who — inappropriately — are members of the Libertarian Party, I ask them to submit their resignations today. We don’t want them to associate with the Libertarian Party, and we don’t want their money. I’m not expecting many resignations, because our membership already knows this well.'

"Benedict says the Libertarian Party supports civil liberties, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. The party also believes in open borders, racial diversity and free trade -- things he says white nationalists abhor.

"The statement comes in the wake of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville that turned violent as protesters engaged with some counterprotesters and one suspected white nationalist drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring 19.

"Among the headliners of that 'Unite the Right' Rally was Augustus Invictus, who ran for U.S. Senate as a Libertarian in 2016. At the time his candidacy caused a stir. Florida Libertarian Party Chairman Adrian Wyllie resigned his post because he believed Invictus was a white nationalist who believed in eugenics [and] wanted to start a civil war. Invictus denied the charge....

"Invictus announced he was leaving the Libertarians in July for the Republican Party. He announced Tuesday he is running as a Republican candidate for Senate in Florida in 2018."

Read more: http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2017/8/15/libertarian_party_wh.html
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DeVos picks libertarian for Civil Rights position

DeVos pick for Office of Civil Rights opposes racial preferences, feminism – TheBlaze - Brandon Morse:

April 17, 2016 - "Candice Jackson, 39, is an attorney who graduated with honors from Stanford University. She got her law degree after graduating — with honors again — from the Pepperdine University School of Law. Since 2002, Jackson has been practicing law, specializing in entertainment and politics.

"She’s now been hired as the deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights. Since this position requires no senatorial approval, Jackson will act as head of the office until the position can be filled by an approved nominee.

"But ... Jackson once wrote that she once suffered discrimination on campus because she was white. This discrimination occurred when she attempted to seek help with her advanced calculus class ...  but she was rejected because [the program] would only allow in minority students.

"'I am especially disappointed that the University encourages these and other discriminatory programs,' she wrote in the Stanford Review.... 'As with most liberal solutions to a problem, giving special assistance to minority students is a band-aid solution to a deep problem,' she would later write. 'No one, least of all the minority student, is well served by receiving special treatment based on race or ethnicity.'

"Jackson stands opposed to race-based programs, and focuses more on individual liberty. She did a summer fellowship at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a think tank of free market Libertarian scholars. While at the Mises Institute, she gave some editorial assistance to a book consisting of a collection of essays put together by Murray N. Rothbard, the institute’s co-founder.

"Rothbard opposed mandated schooling, as he wrote in his 1999 book, Education: Free and Compulsory.... Rothbard also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, calling it 'monstrous,' though not for racially prejudiced reasons.... Jackson, a fan of Rothbard’s work ... wrote of his 1982 book, The Ethics of Liberty, that it 'shines as a monumental achievement, meeting Rothbard’s goal of setting forth ‘a positive ethical system … to establish the case for individual liberty’....

"In ... another article penned for the Review during her senior year, entitled, 'How I Survived Stanford Without Entering the Women’s Center,' she condemned feminism on campus....

"'In today’s society, women have the same opportunities as men to advance their careers, raise families, and pursue their personal goals,' she wrote. 'College women who insist on banding together by gender to fight for their rights are moving backwards, not forwards.'"

Read more: http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/17/devos-pick-for-office-of-civil-rights-opposes-racial-preferences-feminism/
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Some guy crashes libertarian event for publicity

Alt-Right Leader Richard Spencer Crashed a Student Libertarian Conference and Was Shunned - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Robby Soave:

February 20, 2017 - "On Saturday, alt-right leader Richard Spencer crashed the 10th annual International Students for Liberty Conference at a hotel in Washington, D.C. After quarreling with conference attendees, he left the premises.

"Spencer, a self-declared white nationalist who believes the U.S. is losing its white identity, had no business attending a gathering of libertarian students, and conference organizers had every right to eject him. Indeed, their decision to do so was a valid exercise of libertarian principles in action....

"Spencer set himself up in the bar of the hotel — the Marriott Wardman in Woodley Park — and attempted to host an unscheduled and unwanted conversation.... Spencer was not welcome at the hotel and had not been invited to participate in ISFLC.

"'We did not invite Mr. Spencer'" said SFL CEO Wolf von Laer in a statement. 'We reject his hateful message and we wholeheartedly oppose his obsolete ideology'....

"It's not completely clear whether Spencer departed of his own accord: he seems to think he was forced to leave, while others say he asked security to see him out safely, even though he was in no danger. But it hardly matters: the Marriott Wardman hotel is private property, and should enjoy the absolute right to evict irksome and unwelcome guests from its premises.

"Spencer has attempted to wring as much publicity from the incident as possible — he tweeted about it no fewer than 40 times, by my count. In his mind, libertarians are 'lolbertarians' who need to 'accept the reality of race' and get serious about 'white replacement.' To the extent that his only goal in life is to garner more attention for his fringe worldview, I suppose the stunt was a success — here I am writing about it. Congrats to you, guy who thinks 'the United States is a European country'.

"Spencer is entitled to broadcast his vile opinions, and to make equal use of public resources. He should not be attacked on the street, or anywhere else. But no private actor is required to give him a platform.... ISFLC, an organization that works tirelessly to support the cause of liberty all over the world — not just for white American college students — handled the matter correctly, in my view."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/02/20/alt-right-leader-richard-spencer-crashed
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Rapper Fauconier running for Virgina senate

Libertarian rapper's anthem for Virginia Senate run: 'You can't win it if you don't get in it' - Richmond Times-Dispatch: Local News - Graham Moomaw:

December 26, 2016 - "On his latest hip-hop track, Corey Fauconier asks listeners to 'embrace things that are a little different' and jumps right to the hook.

"'You can’t win it if you don’t get in it. So it’s Fauconier for Virginia state Senate. Lyrics are sick like I’m straight out the clinic. MSB produced so you know that WE GET IT!'

"A 45-year-old Libertarian activist from Highland Springs, Fauconier, who goes by 'Sage' when he performs, is a firm believer in music’s power to rally people behind a cause.

With just a few weeks to run an independent campaign against longtime Del. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, in a Jan. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 9th Senate District, he’ll need a surprise smash hit.

"A New York native who moved to the Richmond area after Sept. 11, Fauconier has had a variety of sales and customer service jobs and currently works as a manager at a company that transports railroad workers.

"In his forays into politics, hip-hop is front and center. 'Delegate on Twitter talking hella spit. The Libertarian Party’s not having it. I got a right to bear arms, empty this lyrical clip. It’s a open carry state I’m not concealing it,' Fauconier raps in the song 'Get In It,' which he released last week along with a lyrics sheet bearing his campaign logo.

"In an interview, Fauconier, who supported Libertarian Gary Johnson in the presidential election, said he brings a fresh perspective and will work to appeal to the full range of political thought in the district.... 'There are tea party folks. There are Republicans. There are independents,' he said. 'You have to across the board address everybody'....

"Fauconier said he was inspired by Libertarian Robert Sarvis, who ran for Virginia governor in 2013 and U.S. Senate in 2014. He found the message intriguing, but at Libertarian gatherings, he was often the only African-American in the room. That, he said, was baffling.

"'Because all African-Americans have ever said since the earliest time is we want freedom and we want liberty,' Fauconier said."

Read more: http://www.richmond.com/news/local/article_572bea37-c0c6-5468-ae15-92185add2c94.html
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Johnson: Drug war root cause of police shootings

Libertarian Johnson: Drug war 'root cause' of police shootings - POLITICO - Burgess Everett:

July 8, 2016 - "Gary Johnson believes the tensions between police and minorities that led to two high-profile police shootings and the deaths of five Dallas police officers has a root cause: The long-running war on drugs.

"The libertarian nominee for president did not directly tie the drug war to the shooting deaths in Minnesota and Louisiana by police or the sniper killings of five officers in Texas this week. But poor relations between police and African-Americans stems from the criminalization of drug use, he said.

"'The root is the war on drugs, I believe. Police knocking down doors, shooting first,' Johnson said in an interview Friday in Washington. 'If you are (black and) arrested in a drug-related crime, there is four times more likelihood of going to prison than if you are white. And shooting is part of the same phenomenon.... Shootings are occurring with black people, black people are dying,' he added. 'This is an escalation.'

"The former Republican governor of New Mexico is pitching a complete rewrite of the nation’s drug policy as part of his underdog run for the presidency alongside his running mate, former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Bill Weld. Johnson wants to legalize marijuana and find other ways to deal with harder drugs than long periods of incarceration....

"'The focus on drugs needs to be as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue. It can be illegal but does it need to be criminal? Do you need to go to jail for drugs?' Johnson said. 'I do believe that the root of the militarization, knocking on doors, is a drug war phenomenon.'

"The laid-back libertarian, dressed in jeans and an open-collared button-down in a hotel dining room, declined to join Republicans in criticizing Obama for pointing to 'powerful weapons' this week as a cause of violence between police officers and minorities. But Johnson said the focus on assault rifles is misguided.

"'That is a category of rifle that contains 30 million rifles. If you ban those rifles tomorrow and said hand ‘em in,' only half of the weapons would actually be turned over, Johnson said. 'And we’re going to have a whole new criminal class of people.'

"Johnson said that as president he’d be open to proposals designed to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and the mentally ill. But he said he’d seen no such workable proposals in Congress, despite unsuccessful attempts by both Democrats and Republicans."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/gary-johnson-dallas-shooting-225294
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Marc Allan Feldman: Beyond white Libertarianism

Beyond White Libertarianism | Marc Allan Feldman | The Blogs | The Times of Israel:

November 3, 2015 - "I am an American, but I am not a Democrat  or a Republican.  I am a Libertarian, a member of the largest national third party in the US.  We are believers in liberty, individual freedom, and limited government.  We support marriage equality for same-sex couples, gun rights, and ending the drug wars.  We oppose international military and economic intervention and aid.  I am a strong supporter of Israel and I am a friend of the IDF.  I support Israel with my credit card and my checkbook, through trade, tourism, education, and philanthropy, but I believe the correct amount of U.S. government aid should be zero.  I am a Life Member of the Libertarian Party,  I serve on the Libertarian National Committee, and I am a candidate for the Libertarian nomination for President of the United States....

"It was in 2009 that I learned about the Libertarian Party, the party of principle. The center of the philosophy was the non-aggression principle or NAP, expressed in the Libertarian pledge: 'I hereby certify that I do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force as a means of achieving political or social goals.' This is the message of fiscal responsibility, smaller government, lower taxes, and social tolerance, ending the drug wars and military interventions around the world, supporting the second amendment, and assuring marriage equality.

"Legalization of marijuana and same-sex marriage have led people to ask if we are experiencing a 'Libertarian moment.' But the Libertarian Party remains very small, and Rand Paul, the most libertarian-ish of the Republicans, has gone from being 'the most interesting politician in America' to nearly an afterthought. I found it strange to go to Libertarian meetings and see a group nearly completely composed of idealistic white men. Why would a movement of freedom be composed of one of the least oppressed groups? This has always been a puzzle to me....

"The Libertarian Party must embrace, not only gay rights, but also women’s liberation, black civil rights, the Hispanic fight for quality education.... This will not happen by giving more power to government or giving more power to corporations that control our government. Laws do not empower the individual. Laws take power away from individuals and give it to government to enforce those laws. It must be through effective private, voluntary, action of empowered individuals.

"We must remain dedicated to the ethical principle of non-aggression. At the same time we need a new political principle, a pro-empowerment principle. 'Act to maximize the power of all individuals, (white, black, Latino, LGBTQ, Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist, etc.) to make decisions to control themselves, their property, and their environment, as long as they are not infringing on the rights of others.' We cannot remain simply the party of Gays, Guns, and Ganja. We must also become the party of women’s liberation, Hispanic education, religious rights and civil rights, and #BlackLivesMatter.

"Call me an intersectional Libertarian populist, or just call me a New Libertarian."

Read more: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/beyond-white-libertarianism/
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The racist roots of the progressive movement

Progressive and Racist. Woodrow Wilson Wasn't Alone. - Bloomberg View - Virginia Postrel:

December 8, 2015 - "Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era, by Thomas C. Leonard, reveals the largely forgotten intellectual origins of many current controversies, including disputes over tightening voter identification laws, raising the minimum wage and restricting immigration....

"Early 20th-century progressives transformed American institutions, and the movement’s premises continue to inform thinking and policy across the political spectrum. 'It was the progressives who fashioned the new sciences of society, founded the modern American university, invented the think tank, and created the American administrative state, institutions still defined by the progressive values that formed and instructed them,' writes Leonard, a research scholar at Princeton’s Council of the Humanities.

"The progressives believed, first and foremost, in the importance of science and scientific experts in guiding the economy, government, and society. Against the selfishness, disorder, corruption, ignorance, conflict and wastefulness of free markets or mass democracy, they advanced the ideal of disinterested, public-spirited social control by well-educated elites. The progressives were technocrats who, Leonard observes, 'agreed that expert public administrators do not merely serve the common good, they also identify the common good.' Schools of public administration, including the one that since 1948 has borne Woodrow Wilson’s name, still enshrine that conviction....

"In the early 20th century, the progressive definition of the common good was thoroughly infused with scientific racism.... Leonard argues [that] eugenics and scientific racism fit particularly well with progressive thought: 'Eugenics was anti-individualistic; it promised efficiency; it required expertise, and it was founded on the authority of science.' Equally important, 'biological ideas,' Leonard writes, gave progressive reformers 'a conceptual scheme capable of accommodating the great contradiction at the heart of Progressive Era reform -- its view of the poor as victims deserving state uplift and as threats requiring state restraint.' They could feel sorry for impoverished Americans while trying to restrict their influence and limit their numbers.

"Take political participation. Nowadays, people argue about whether stricter voter identification laws are good-government protections against fraud or discriminatory attempts to deter minority and low-income voters. A century ago, leading progressives happily embraced both goals. 'Fewer voters among the lower classes was not a cost, it was a benefit of reform,' Leonard writes. After progressive reforms, including Jim Crow restrictions sold in part as anti-corruption measures, voter participation plummeted. In New York State, turnout dropped from 88 percent in 1900 to 55 percent in 1920, while national turnout fell from 80 percent in 1896 to 50 percent in 1924.

"Advocates similarly didn’t deny that imposing a minimum wage might throw some people out of work. That wasn’t a bug; it was a feature -- a way to deter undesirable workers and keep them out of the marketplace and ideally out of the country. Progressives feared that, faced with competition from blacks, Jews, Chinese, or other immigrants, native-stock workingmen would try to keep up living standards by having fewer kids and sending their wives to work. Voilà: 'race suicide.' Better to let a minimum wage identify inferior workers, who might be shunted into institutions and sterilized, thereby improving the breed in future generations....

"Although they generally assumed black inferiority, progressives outside the South didn’t worry much about the 'Negro question.' They were instead obsessed with the racial, economic, and social threats posed by immigrants.... So restricting immigration was as central to the progressive agenda as regulating railroads. Indeed, in his five-volume History of the American People, Wilson lumped together in one long paragraph the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act as 'the first fruits of radical economic changes and the rapid developments of trade, industry, and transportation' -- equal harbingers of the modern administrative state. With a literacy test and ban on most other Asian immigrants enacted in 1917 and national quotas established in 1924, the progressives bequeathed to America the concept of illegal immigration."

Read more: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-08/woodrow-wilson-wasn-t-the-only-progressive-racist
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Order book here: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10572.html

Libertarian rapper Eric July has fans in Fox News

Dallas' Viral Libertarian Rapper Eric July Has Fans in Fox News and Glenn Beck | Dallas Observer - Jeff Gage:

September 15, 2015 - "Eric July's life changed forever when his friend was murdered in front of him.... One night at a club called JeRenee, someone opened fire with an AK-47 — and after the terror had ended, July's friend, 15-year-old Juanita Payne, lay dying on the ground....

"Now 25, July has long since come to see the light and taken to the pulpit for the Libertarian gospel. He posts regular web videos in which he rants about the economy, racism and police violence, many of which have gone viral. One recent video in which he accused Bernie Sanders of being an 'economic illiterate' earned him an appearance on Fox News, and Glenn Beck is such a big fan that July has been invited to speak on Beck's The Blaze on multiple occasions....

"'I've never been a guy to set out to convert people to being Libertarian,' he insists. 'I'm trying to get people thinking more critically about things, get your mind going and be able to see right through all of it.' And now, after moving back to Dallas from South Texas earlier this year, he's focused his efforts on spreading the same message through music with his rap-metal hybrid BackWordz."

His conversion to Libertarianism had everything to do with his desire to see the lives of his fellow African Americans get better. He suddenly found that he couldn't place his faith in the government, much less expect it to cure his problems or those of his community. 'As I learned more about [African American] history, I could see the connection with our oppression because the government and extensions of our government had facilitated it from day one,' he says."

Read more: http://www.dallasobserver.com/music/libertarian-rapper-and-metal-singer-eric-july-has-the-attention-of-fox-news-7588399
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Trump pandering to racists, says Gary Johnson

Libertarian Gary Johnson: Donald Trump Appeals to “Racist” Voters - Milad Marvasli, Profit Confidential:

July 16, 2015 - "Donald Trump is pandering to bigots and destroying the Republican Party. At least, that’s according to former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.

"He 'is appealing to a segment I’ll just label racist,' explained the former two-term Republican governor and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential candidate in an interview with Reason magazine. 'I don’t want to have anything to do with it'....

"Trump announced his Presidential candidacy in June, which has been marred by controversy regarding his comments about Mexican immigrants.

"'When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best.' Trump explained in his campaign commencement speech, 'They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.'

"While Trump’s comments have sparked controversy, his views have struck a chord with voters. According to the results of a Suffolk University/USA Today survey released on Wednesday, July 15th, Trump is leading in the Republican primary elections with 17% support among voters....

"'It embarrasses me,' Mr. Johnson explained. 'The electorate will paint the entire Republican Party with a broad brush as a result of Trump and it won’t be positive'....

"Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s Chief Strategist and Communications Director; other GOP candidates among the[m] former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose wife is Mexican-American; former Texas Gov. Rick Perry; and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have expressed their frustrations about Trump’s comments."

Read more: http://www.profitconfidential.com/politics/libertarian-gary-johnson-donald-trump-appeals-to-racist-voters/
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Progressives libel libertarians over discrimination laws

Explaining the libertarian position on antidiscrimination laws - The Washington Post - David Bernstein:

April 2, 2015 - "With the recent and continuing hulabaloo over conflicts between antidiscrimination laws and freedom of religion, the charge inevitably arises that anyone who is opposed to, or even skeptical of, antidiscrimination laws that apply to private parties – which means most people who identify themselves as libertarians – is effectively not pro-liberty, but pro-discrimination.

"The most serious charge has been that libertarian skepticism of antidiscrimination laws that apply to private entities reflects, at best, insensitivity to race discrimination.  One blogger, reflecting a significant swath of progressive sentiment, argued that no matter how committed to racial egalitarianism any individual libertarian claims to be, 'Libertarianism is a racist philosophy. Libertarians are racists.'

"This is a rather odd criticism. For both philosophical and utilitarian reasons, libertarians are presumptively strongly opposed to any government regulation of the private sector.  It naturally follows that libertarians presumptively oppose restrictions on private sector discrimination.  It’s hardly an indication of racial animus, or even insensitivity, for libertarians to enunciate the exact same position on antidiscrimination laws that they take in all other contexts.

"The progressive libel of libertarians as racial troglodytes for their consistent defense of private-sector autonomy is ironic, given that similar illogic has so frequently been used against modern liberals.  When liberals defended Communists’ free speech and employment rights in the 1950s, their critics accused them of being Communist sympathizers, if not outright Communists.  More recently, progressives have been accused of being American-hating jihadist sympathizers when they stood up for the rights of terrorism suspects.  Critics have even charged civil libertarians with abetting racism for opposing hate speech laws.....

"While minorities can generally find productive economic niches in even highly prejudiced but market-oriented societies, there is no safe haven for minorities if racist ideas dominate politics and lead to harsh discriminatory legislation.

"Also, a free economic market protects minorities from discrimination to some degree because businesspeople have an economic incentive to hire the most productive workers and to obtain the most customers. By contrast, individual voters and political activists have no corresponding incentive to overlook or overcome their personal prejudices. Concern for the financial bottom line mitigates the temptation of economic entrepreneurs to discriminate; concern for the electoral bottom line, meanwhile, often leads politicians to stir up resentment against minorities."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/04/02/explaining-the-libertarian-position-on-antidiscrimination-laws/
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New York Times race-baits Rand Paul

NYT Smears Rand Paul with Claims of Racism, Religious Fanaticism - Joe Wolverton II, New American:

February 1, 2014 - "In a recent article entitled 'Rand Paul's Mixed Inheritance,' the New York Times, the oldest of the establishment’s mouthpieces, slammed Paul ... and took shots at The John Birch Society, the Tea Party, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and Lew Rockwell for good measure. (The article was posted online January 25, and a version of the article appeared the following day on page A1 of the Sunday print edition.)

"Accusing Paul of being 'steeped in a narrow, rightward strain' of libertarianism, the New York Times begins the race-baiting in the seventh paragraph.

"Paul and those like him, the article claims, 'have formulated provocative theories on race, class and American history, and routinely voice beliefs that go far beyond the antiwar, anti-big-government, pro-civil-liberties message' of the larger libertarian movement.

"Then, speaking of the Mises Institute, the Times makes sure readers realize that not only are libertarians such as Paul possessed of questionable racial biases, but they’re religious nuts, too."

Read more: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/17535-nyt-smears-rand-paul-with-claims-of-racism-religious-fanaticism
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"Randsplaining" by David Wiegel

Rand Paul speaks at Howard University: The libertarian presidential hopeful went to the historically black college to find voters Republicans always neglect. - Slate Magazine - David Wiegel:

April 10, 2013 - "It was all going fine until Rand Paul got stuck on a name. The Kentucky senator had just finished a 20-minute speech at Howard University, the 167-year-old historically black college in northwest Washington, D.C. He’d survived the inevitable civic demonstration, when Brian Menifee, a mechanical engineering senior, tried to unfurl a red and black and green banner reading “Howard University Doesn’t Support White Supremacy.” Menifee, wearing dreadlocks and a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe T-shirt, was yanked out of the room by security as the senator looked on and the audience applauded.

''You know, I wasn’t sure if my speech would be entertaining,' joked Paul.

"That got a laugh. Paul got through his remarks, all about how 'when the time is right, I hope that African-Americans will again look to the party of emancipation, civil liberty, and individual freedom.' Students ran to the microphones, the queues for questions spilling into the aisles of the auditorium...."

Read more: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/04/rand_paul_speaks_at_howard_university_the_libertarian_presidential_hopeful.html
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Rand Paul: GOP rooted in push for racial progress

GOP rooted in push for racial progress | Op-Ed | Kentucky.com - Rand Paul:

February 24, 2013 - "On June 30, 1870, 10,000 African-Americans gathered in Court Square in Louisville ... to celebrate the passage of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited using race as a disqualification for voting ... those gathered sang: 'Come all ye Republicans, faithful and true, here is a work for you / The Democrat Party its race has run, to give a way for an era that freedom has won.'

"It was the Republican Party that ushered in abolition, then emancipation and then voting rights. And blacks — virtually all blacks — became Republicans.

"Democrats in Louisville, led by Courier-Journal editor Henry Watterson, were implacably opposed to blacks voting. Watterson wrote in the Courier-Journal that his opposition was 'founded upon a conviction that their habits of life and general condition disqualify them for the judicious exercise of suffrage'."

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/02/24/2529351/rand-paul-gop-rooted-in-push-for.html
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The story behind the 'Bath Salts' drug panic

Why People Thought 'Bath Salts' Made Rudy Eugene Eat Ronald Poppo's Face - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Jacob Sullum:

December 24, 2012 - "In a well-informed and revealing Playboy article, Frank Owen analyzes 'a classic drug panic,' explaining how and why Rudy Eugene's grisly assault on Ronald Poppo in Miami last May came to be blamed on 'bath salts,' a group of quasi-legal stimulants that Eugene, a.k.a. the Causeway Cannibal and the Miami Zombie, had not in fact consumed....

"Armando Aguilar, president of the local police union ... decided to bury the racial angle by feeding local reporters an alternative narrative.... Reporters didn’t seem to care that Aguilar had no expertise in the pharmacological action of drugs on the human brain or that he didn’t provide a scintilla of credible evidence that bath salts were involved....

"To this day, even after toxicological tests on Eugene's body revealed no drug but marijuana, Aguilar insists 'there was something else in Rudy Eugene’s system other than marijuana that the medical examiner didn’t detect,' possibly 'a new form of bath salts or maybe even a completely new compound that we don't yet know about'."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2012/12/24/why-people-thought-bath-salts-made-rudy
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