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Newly identified genetic marker may help detect high-risk flu patients – Medical Xpress

Posted: July 18, 2017 at 3:44 am

July 17, 2017 First author Kaity Sliger, PhD, and corresponding author Paul Thomas, PhD, member of the Department of Immunology, examine liquid nitrogen samples. Credit: Peter Barta / St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Researchers have discovered an inherited genetic variation that may help identify patients at elevated risk for severe, potentially fatal influenza infections. The scientists have also linked the gene variant to a mechanism that explains the elevated risk and offers clues about the broader anti-viral immune response.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital led the research, which appears as an advance, online publication today in the scientific journal Nature Medicine.

Researchers screened 393 flu patients ranging from infants to 70 years old. Patients with a particular inherited variation in the gene IFITM3 were more than twice as likely to develop severe, life-threatening flu symptoms as those who carried the protective version of the gene.

Working at the molecular level, the investigators showed how expression of the IFITM3 protein was reduced in killer T cells of patients with the high-risk variant compared to other patients. Researchers also found more killer T cellswhich help patients fight the infectionin the upper airways of flu patients with the protective variant compared to other patients.

"A genetic marker of flu risk could make a life-saving difference, particularly during severe flu outbreaks, by helping prioritize high-risk patients for vaccination, drug therapy and other interventions," said corresponding author Paul Thomas, Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. "These results raise hopes that this newly identified IFITM3 variant might provide such a marker."

Estimated U.S. flu-related deaths in recent years have ranged from 12,000 to 56,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Factors like age, obesity, pregnancy and such chronic health conditions as asthma, chronic lung disease and heart disease are associated with an elevated risk of flu complications and death. However, there are no proven genetic markers of flu risk with an established mechanism of action.

IFITM3 is an anti-viral protein that helps to block flu infection of lung cells and to promote survival of the killer T cells that help clear flu infection in the airways. Previous research from other scientists had reported an association between another IFITM3 variant (rs12252) and flu severity in Han Chinese patients. The underlying mechanism has remained unclear, and the rs12252 variant is rare in individuals of European ancestry.

Thomas and his colleagues began this study by searching for other possible IFITM3 variants that correlated with gene expression, levels of the IFITM3 proteins and were common in flu patients in the U.S. The search led to an IFITM3 variant known as rs34481144.

Researchers screened three different groups of U.S. flu patients and found those with the high-risk version of IFITM3 rs34481144 were likely to become infected with flu more rapidly and to develop more severe symptoms than those with another variant. For example, researchers checked 86 children and adults in Memphis with confirmed flu infections and found two-thirds of patients with the most severe symptoms carried at least one copy of the newly identified high-risk IFITM3 variant. The high-risk variant was found in just 32 percent of patients with milder symptoms.

Researchers also found an association between the newly identified high-risk variant and severe and fatal flu infections in 265 critically ill pediatric flu patients hospitalized in one of 31 intensive care units nationwide. The patients did not have health problems that put them at high risk for severe flu. Of the 17 patients in this group who died from the infection, 14 carried at least one copy of the newly identified high-risk variant. "When we looked at patients of European descent who died, they all carried at least one copy of the high-risk variant," Thomas said.

The predictive value of the newly identified IFITM3 variant is now being studied in flu patients in other countries.

The newly identified variation is found in the region of IFITM3 involved in regulation of gene expression through the binding of proteins and other chemicals that promote or suppress gene activity. Working in the laboratory, researchers showed how binding of proteins like CTCF, which can suppress gene activity, differed between the high-risk and protective variants.

Further study revealed how binding differed between the high-risk and protective variants. Those differences led to lower levels of the IFITM3 protein in ndividuals with two copies of the high-risk gene variant compared to other patients, researchers said. The Memphis flu patients also had fewer of the killer T cells in their upper airways.

"While this research focused on flu infections, the mechanism we identified has implications for regulating many genes involved in anti-viral activity," Thomas said. "CTCF has gained prominence in recent years as a master regulator of genomic organization. Evidence in this study suggests the high-risk variant we identified may be part of a larger network of CTCF binding sites involved in regulation in other genes with anti-viral activity."

Explore further: Genetic variant linked to overactive inflammatory response

More information: E Kaitlynn Allen et al, SNP-mediated disruption of CTCF binding at the IFITM3 promoter is associated with risk of severe influenza in humans, Nature Medicine (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nm.4370

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How Trump’s latest Russia spin contradicts his claims during the campaign – Washington Post

Posted: at 3:43 am

Theres a transition point that comes in many scandals when the facts make it impossible to sustain the argument the administrations allies had been using. Specifically, it requires them to go from saying, These accusations are false; it never happened to saying, Sure, it happened, but theres nothing wrong with it.

That is where Republicans now find themselves, and theres a deep irony at work. Donald Trump rode into office on the widespread belief that politics is corrupt and only an outsider like him could clean it up. Now, it looks like his all-purpose excuse for his own misdeeds and those of his family and advisers will be, Hey, dont blame me we all know politics is corrupt!

You can see it in this tweet President Trump sent this morning:

As numerous politicians and political professionals from both parties have attested since the story of the meeting between Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a group of Russians who were explicitly presented to them as acting on behalf of the Kremlin, thats not just untrue but absurd. When a hostile foreign government offers you help in your campaign, what you do is call the FBI.

The idea animating Trumps position is that during a presidential campaign there is virtually no sin or even crime that cant be justified on the grounds that, well, its a campaign. As Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro saidin defending Trump, As someone whos run for office five times, if the devil called me and said he wanted to set up a meeting to give me opposition research on my opponent, Id be on the first trolley to Hell to get it. Or in the words of Sean Hannity, It always happens. And if anyone says it doesnt, its a lie.

So having spent months claiming that the accusation that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government in its attempt to swing the election to Trump was ridiculous, now their position is that theres nothing wrong with collusion. Forget it, Jake. Its Chinatown.

This can become a handy excuse for almost anything. Did Trump fire FBI Director James B. Comey to shut down the Russia investigation? Its politics! Is Trump using the office of the presidency to enrich himself and his family? Its politics! Having convinced his supporters that Washington is an irredeemable swamp of corruption that he will clean up, Trump now holds himself blameless for any malfeasance, because look at what a swamp this place is.

The people who actually have experience in politics agree that there are ethical limits to what you may do in pursuit of your political goals. But Trump, believing his own caricature of what politics is, feels constrained by no limits whatsoever. He approaches governing as though it were professional wrestling, not something with any substantive meaning but a series of staged fights you perform so your side cheers. Sure, there are rules, but theyre no more important than the rule that youre not supposed to hit your opponent with a folding chair. If its part of the show, you do it.

In the context of that show, theres no such thing as a political opponent with whom you still share some things in common, like a commitment to the countrys founding ideals. There are just enemies, and the war against them has to be total. If Russia wants to help you fight your true enemy (Hillary Clinton), then you welcome the help.

And there are a certain number of Trumps supporters for whom the fight is its own reward, just as his 2016 campaign was its own reward even before he won. It was thrilling and liberating, allowing them to stop hiding their thoughts and give vent to their feelings, no matter how politically incorrect they might be. No need to worry anymore about some liberal calling you racist or sexist just put on your Trump That Bitch T-shirt, tell somebody with a Spanish accent what you think of immigrants, and let it rip. Who cares if he actually accomplishes anything on policy or makes anyones life better? As one Republican voter tells the Des Moines Register, I just want him to annoy the hell out of everybody, and hes done that.

Just to be clear, there are Republicans criticizing the Don Jr./Jared/Manafort meeting and no doubt dreading what the next revelation will bring. Trumps approval is down to the mid-30s, and when the latest Post/ABC News poll asked about the meeting, only 48 percent of Republicans said it was appropriate, hardly unified support for the White Houses position.

Theres obviously a great risk for Trump and his allies in using the Its politics defense. As pollster Guy Molyneux recently explained in the American Prospect, while we use the word populism to describe both Trumps appeal to working-class voters and that of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, unlike those Democrats Trump made an argument focused not on economic elites but on politicians and Washington, and his voters responded. But hes now saying that hes no different from any other politician, and the people he brought with him (including his own family) are simply adopting the mores and standards of Washington.

Even if that excuse were to fly, it wouldnt leave him a lot of room to claim in 2020 that he had transformed politics, drained the swamp and fulfilled the promise of his 2016 campaign. Most of his supporters might decide that its enough for him to have the right enemies. But they may not be as excited to get out to the polls again if he keeps telling them that what he does is just politics.

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What to do with the narcissist’s children – Washington Times

Posted: at 3:43 am

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Pity the poor presidents. Its not enough for presidents to deal with enemies foreign and domestic, conduct warfare with Congress and dispense lollipops. Sometimes they have to deal with help from sons, daughters, brothers, in-laws and other hangers-on to the bully furniture at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Sometimes its a son or daughter who just wants to help the old man, but at other times its an in-law who just wants to help himself to whatevers available. A grateful child, offering help from a big heart and an untutored brain, can be the greatest threat of all.

The current president, like most fathers, thinks his kids are the greatest. He has described his son Donald Jr. as a lad like he once was, smart, clever, ambitious and a man who subscribes to the gospel of famous football coaches that winning isnt the most important thing, its the only thing.

Psychologists are lately brought in to diagnose the Donalds various failings. One of them is that he suffers narcissism, a common affliction of politicians. Even doctors of voodoo can make a diagnosis that sounds, if not profound, at least plausible.

The witch doctors have concluded that Mr. Trump sees his adult children, particularly Ivanka, his daughter, and Donald Jr., as extensions of himself, like most fathers, only more so. They are his world because they are him, says Elan Golomb, author of Trapped in the Mirror: Adult Children of Narcissists in Their Struggle for Self. Such children, she says, dont exist in their fathers eyes as separate persons. To a narcissist, the child is seen as me.

Even [Mr. Trumps] children agree that there is little separation between themselves and their celebrity father, writes Marc Fisher in a psychological autopsy in The Washington Post. Weve all made peace with the fact that we will never achieve any level of autonomy from him, Ivanka told an interviewer. No wonder [the president] places them in positions of power.

A simpler explanation of why the president indulges his children, even as they distract attention from what he is trying to do as president, is that theyre the only people in town whom he can trust, fully and completely. Every president yearns for someone like that. If you want a friend in Washington, Harry S. Truman once remarked, get a dog. That goes double for presidents.

John F. Kennedy braved considerable criticism when he appointed his brother, Robert, to be his attorney general. Robert was a lawyer picked green and of limited accomplishment, but he was a brother whom the president could trust. Bobby was thus more important than a million dollars worth of Harvard lawyers, who are usually worth only what theyre paid.

Its not just the kids and other relatives in official positions who can be a distraction, or worse, for a president. Jimmy Carter, full of piety and rectitude, was embarrassed by his beer-swilling brother Billy, who more often exhibited the familys common sense and street smarts. Bill Clinton not only had to abide Hillary, but his half-brother Roger, a drug dealer whom he pardoned to get him out of the pokey.

Harry Truman, who has become everybodys idea of a president who wont abide misfeasance and nonsense from anybody, had his burdens, too. His mother, Martha Ellen Young, had a delightfully politically incorrect tongue and to the delight of reporters, wagged it frequently. She was an unreconstructed rebel whose hatred of the Yankees was born of watching, as a 10-year-old girl in Missouri, a Union Army detail plunder and burn the family homestead. Once, when her son Harry was invited to dinner at the home of a prominent Kansas City family, she told him, When you go there, turn the silverware over and check the hallmark. Its probably ours. When she visited the White House for the first time she even refused to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom. Her heroes were Lee, Jackson and Sterling Price (you could look it up).

The Trump children, like American children of an earlier generation, are devoted to their father in a way that seems strange and even subversive in the present day, when the dysfunctional family is in fashion. You would never hear us yelling at our parents or using a tone that was inappropriate or disrespectful, Ivanka told Politico. Even a tone.

Another son, Eric, thinks he figured out why they so viciously attack the family. They cant stand that we are extremely close and will always support each other.

President Trump often boasts about his children, and hes entitled. Theyre good children, he says. Who could argue? The president owes it to them not to put them in troubled water over their heads. He should repay their loyalty by sending them home to run the family business. A swamp full of alligators is no place for worthy progeny.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief emeritus of The Washington Times.

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Liu Xiaobo’s Death Pushes China’s Censors Into Overdrive – The … – New York Times

Posted: at 3:43 am

In one experiment, researchers at the Citizen Lab found that a photo of Liu Xiaobo posted to an international users WeChat social media feed was visible to other users abroad but was hidden from users with Chinese accounts.

The heightened yet uneven censorship in recent days has elicited frustration and confusion among Mr. Lius supporters.

On the day after Mr. Lius death, one user posted on his WeChat feed: Did you see what I just sent? No, I cant see it. For the last two days, this has been the constant question and answer among friends.

The aggressive attempt at censorship is just the latest indication of the strong grip that the Chinese government maintains on local internet companies. In addition to automatically filtering certain keywords and images, internet companies like Baidu, Sina and Tencent also employ human censors who retroactively comb through posts and delete what they deem as sensitive content, often based on government directives.

Failure to block such content can result in fines for companies or worse, revocation of their operational licenses. Censors have been on especially high alert this year in light of the Communist Partys 19th National Party Congress in the fall.

Over the years, the constant cat-and-mouse game between Chinese censors and internet users has led to the rise of a robust internet culture in which censorship is normalized and satire and veiled references are par for the course.

So even as censors stepped up scrutiny in recent days, many savvy Chinese internet users found ways to evade those efforts. In tributes to Mr. Liu, users referred to him as Brother Liu or even XXX. They posted passages from his poems and abstract illustrations of Mr. Liu and his wife, Liu Xia.

Over the weekend, however, the tributes gave way to scathing critiques as friends and supporters of Mr. Liu reacted angrily to the news of Mr. Lius cremation and sea burial under strict government oversight.

One user took to his WeChat feed on Sunday to express disgust with the use of Mr. Lius corpse in what some called a blatant propaganda exercise. Swift cremation, swift sea burial, he wrote. Scared of the living, scared of the dead, and even more scared of the dead who are immortal.

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The Coming Censorship From the Left – Church Militant

Posted: at 3:43 am

After President Trump won the 2016 election, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was hit with a wave of complaints from liberals claiming "fake news" on his social media platform had contributed to the Republican's victory. Zuckerberg responded by setting up a board to vet false reports and stacked it with left-leaning media outfits: Snopes, Politifact, FactCheck.org, ABC News and Associated Press (which just issued writing guidelines discouraging use of the phrase "pro-life" in favor of "anti-abortion").

And in May, Zuckerberg placedNew York TimesveteranAlex Hardiman at the helm of Facebook's News products, in charge of overseeing monetization and collaboration with other news organizations.

It's this same department that manipulated news content to artificially bump left-leaning causes while suppressing conservative stories. A 2016 report reveals that former Facebook staff admit they "routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readersfrom the social network's influential 'trending' news section."

Facebook news curators also claimed they were ordered to artificially inject topics into the trending section (e.g., Black Lives Matter), even when they weren't popular, while deleting articles related to the GOP. According to reporter Michael Nunez,

Facebook's news section operates like a traditional newsroom, reflecting the biases of its workers and the institutional imperatives of the corporation. Imposing human editorial values onto the lists of topics an algorithm spits out is by no means a bad thing but it is in stark contrast to thecompany's claimsthat the trending module simply lists "topics that have recentlybecome popular on Facebook."

The Wall Street Journalreported in 2016 that Facebook had been caughtcensoring conservative, pro-Israel postswhile allowing liberal, pro-Palestinian content.

Even more concerning, in 2015 Zuckerberg wascaught agreeing to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's requesttohelp get rid of anti-immigration posts on social media.

The conversation, caught on a hot mic, involved messages about the refugee crisis, with Zuckerberg admitting "we need to do some work" on the issue.

"Are you working on this?" Merkel asked him.

"Yeah," Zuckerberg answered.

Shortly after, Facebook implemented its "Initiative for Civil Courage Online" to delete what it deemed "racist" or "xenophobic" comments. But Douglas Murray at the Gatestone Institute warned it was a tool for further censorship of legitimate conservative voices.

"The sinister thing about what Facebook is doing is that it is now removing speech that presumably almost everybody might consider racist,"said Murray, "along with speech that only someone at Facebook decides is 'racist.'"

Last year, WikiLeaks exposed anattempted meet-up between Zuckerberg and the Clinton campaignin order to give the entrepreneur advice on how to "move the needle on the specific public policy issues he cares most about."

Although Zuckerberg hasnever publicly identified as Republican or Democrat, and has contributed to candidates of both parties in the past, according to Federal Election Committee records, his political action committee made its biggest one-time donation to the Democratic Party in San Francisco in 2015 when it wrote a check for $10,000. He's also been open about his criticism of Trump and his immigration policies.

And it's not just Facebook. Other internet giants are also in on the conservative targeting: Google, Vimeo, YouTube, Twitter.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in June 2016 that Google was "directly engaged in Hillary Clinton's campaign."

"The chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, set up a company to run the digital component of Hillary Clinton's campaign," Assange declared at a journalism forum in May 2016. A number of Google employees appear in theWikiLeaks Clinton email archives, noting a cozy relationship with the Democrat leader. Evidence shows the search engineskewed resultsfor hits pertaining to Clinton's health back when it was a hot topic.

Google also had a close association with Obama: It was the single most frequent visitor to his White House, averaging one visit per week.

"Google controls 80 percent of the smartphone market through its control of Android," Assange noted, "and if you control the device itself that people use to read then anything that they connect to through that device you have control over as well."

The video hosting platform Vimeo is also targeting voices that don't fit the leftist narrative. Over the course of two years, it's deleted content and shut down accounts of ministries that help homosexuals leave the gay lifestyle.

In March, Vimeo deleted without warning 850 videos from Christian ex-homosexualDavid Kyle Foster's website. When Foster wrote to ask why,Vimeo responded, "To put it plainly, we don't believe that homosexuality requires a cure and we don't allow videos on our platform that espouse this point of view. ... We also consider this basic viewpoint to display a demeaning attitude toward a specific group, which is something that we do not allow."

And last year, Vimeo took down the account of Restored Hope, a group of ministries that help rid individuals of unwanted same-sex desires. It also closed down the account of theNational Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, headed by the late Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, a pioneer in reparative therapy.

Foster has called Vimeo's actions "pure religious bigotry and censorship."

Social media giant Twitter has displayedbias against the pro-life message, censoring ads critical of Planned Parenthood while giving the abortion giant free rein to spread its misinformation online.

"Planned Parenthoodis allowed to promote their pro-abortion and misleading messages, whileLive Actionis barred from promoting any content exposing abortion andPlanned Parenthood," said Live Action CEO Lila Rose in June, after Twitter removed the pro-life group's ability to advertise.

Contents of banned ads were benign, including a tweet that declared thatPlanned Parenthoodis "about abortion, not women's health care," accompanied by a brief, all-text video casting doubt on the abortion conglomerate's "healthcare services."

More than ever, conservatives are at the mercy of those controlling the organs of social communication, and must find a way to preserve their voice on the internet in the face of increasing encroachments. Church Militant relies heavily on various online platforms to publish and promote our content, and we recognize the growing threat of censorship from the powers that be, most who hate the message of the Catholic faith.

Just this past week, Church Militant was the target of hackers, who were able to take down the site for a full day. Although no internal information was compromised, our message the message of Christ in His Church was kept from being disseminated to the millions who regularly view our programming as well as to new viewers who need to hear the truth.

Church Militant has taken beginning steps to protect the apostolate and its content by purchasing our own internal server but it comes at a cost $50,000, to be precise. If you believe in the mission of Church Militant and want us to continue spreading the light of the Faith, reporting on issues that matter to Catholics, and being the voice for authentic reform in the Church, consider donating to ourPreserving Catholics campaignto cover the cost of our server. We're grateful for any amount, large or small. We are especially grateful for your prayers in support of our work.

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Why China censors banned Winnie the Pooh – BBC News

Posted: at 3:43 am


BBC News
Why China censors banned Winnie the Pooh
BBC News
The blocking of Winnie the Pooh might seem like a bizarre move by the Chinese authorities but it is part of a struggle to restrict clever bloggers from getting around their country's censorship. When is a set of wrist watches not just a set of wrist ...
Winnie the Pooh is the latest victim of censorship in ChinaVox
Chinese Censors Have Apparently Blocked 'Winnie the Pooh' Over a Silly MemeGizmodo
China censors Winnie the Pooh on social mediaFOX 61
Financial Times -NBCNews.com -Global Risk Insights -The Guardian
all 117 news articles »

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To tackle online crime, Israel approves web censorship law – The Times of Israel

Posted: at 3:43 am

The Knesset on Monday approved a law allowing the court-ordered blocking or removal of internet sites promoting criminal or terror activity, marking the first introduction of laws restricting the internet in Israel.

We are closing an enforcement gap of many years during which the existing law was disconnected from the migration of crime to the internet, said Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, whose office oversees the Israel Police. The new law will give the police the necessary tools to fight criminals, felons, and inciters who have moved their activities online.

The law targets illegal gambling websites, prostitution and child pornography advertisements, online dealing of hard drugs and synthetic cannabinoids and the websites of terror groups.

Clearing the Knesset plenum in its second and third reading with 63 lawmakers in favor and 10 opposed, the law stipulates that a district court judge who has received special permission by the court president may issue an order to internet providers to block websites linked to criminal activity.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan attends a meeting at the Knesset, Jerusalem, May 17, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

An internet provider that does not comply with the court order will be imprisoned for two years, the law says.

The court order may only be issued if it is essential to halting the criminal activity taking place online; or essential to prevent the exposure of the Israeli user to an activity that, would it be done in Israel, would be a crime, and the websites activity has some connection to Israel; or if the website belongs to a terror organization.

In certain cases, if the owner of the website is Israel-based, the court may order the provider to seek the websites removal, rather than merely restricting access, it said.

The courts may also order search engines to remove the websites from their search results and may rely on classified government testimony to make their decision. All affected parties must be present in court, the law said, unless they were summoned and failed to appear.

Due to warnings from rights groups that the law poses a slippery slope toward additional censorship, the final version of the legislation dictates that rights groups may appeal the decisions. It said the Justice Ministry must report to the Knessets Justice, Law and Constitution Committee once a year the number of requests for court orders to restrict internet content and for what crimes.

In addition to the law, lawmakers over the past year have been seeking so far unsuccessfully to advance legislation for court-mandated removal of Facebook content calling for violence against Israelis, as well as a law that would restrict access to online pornography.

The Knesset plenum on Monday also approved a bill in its first reading that would allow police to block cellphone users from their service providers for 30-day periods if there is a reasonable basis to assume the device is being used for criminal activity such as drug-dealing or prostitution. The bill was approved with 27 MKs in favor, with none opposed, and requires two more readings to become law.

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Ron Paul: Big Military Budget Threatens America | FITSNews – FITSNews

Posted: at 3:42 am

THIS ISNT MAKING U.S. SAFE

On Fridaythe U.S. House overwhelmingly approved a massive increase in military spending, passing a $696 billion National Defense Authorization bill for 2018. President Donald Trumps request already included a huge fifty or so billion dollar spending increase, but the Republican-led House found even that to be far too small. They added another $30 billion to the bill for good measure. Even President Trump, in his official statement, expressed some concern over spending in the House-passed bill.

According to the already weak limitations on military spending increases in the 2011 sequestration law, the base military budget for 2018 would be $72 billion more than allowed.

Dont worry, theyll find a way to get around that!

The big explosion in military spending comes as the US is planning to dramatically increase its military actions overseas. The president is expected to send thousands more troops back to Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history. After nearly 16 years, the Taliban controls more territory than at anytime since the initial American invasion and ISIS is seeping into the cracks created by constant U.S. military action in the country.

The Pentagon and Defense Secretary James Mattis are already telling us that even when ISIS is finally defeated in Iraq, the U.S. military doesnt dare end its occupation of the country again. Look for a very expensive array of permanent U.S. military bases throughout the country. So much for our 2003 invasion creating a stable democracy, as the neocons promised.

In Syria, the United States has currently established at least eight military bases even though it has no permission to do so from the Syrian government nor does it have a UN resolution authorizing the U.S. military presence there. Pentagon officials have made it clear they will continue to occupy Syrian territory even after ISIS is defeated, to stabilize the region.

And lets not forget that Washington is planning to send the U.S. military back to Libya, another American intervention we were promised would be stabilizing but that turned out to be a disaster.

Also, the drone wars continue in Somalia and elsewhere, as does the U.S. participation in Saudi Arabias horrific two year war on impoverished Yemen.

President Trump often makes encouraging statements suggesting that he shares some of our non-interventionist views. For example while Congress was shoveling billions into an already bloated military budget last week, President Trump said that he did not want to spent trillions more dollars in the Middle East where we get nothing for our efforts. Hed rather fix roads here in the U.S., he said. The only reason we are there, he said, was to get rid of terrorists, after which we can focus on our problems at home.

Unfortunately President Trump seems to be incapable of understanding that it is U.S. intervention and occupation of foreign countries that creates instability and feeds terrorism. Continuing to do the same thing for more than 17 years more U.S. bombs to stabilize the Middle East and expecting different results is hardly a sensible foreign policy. It is insanity. Until he realizes that our military empire is the source of rather than the solution to our problems, we will continue to wildly spend on our military empire until the dollar collapses and we are brought to our knees. Then what?

Ron Paulis a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column reprinted with permission can be foundhere.

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Ron Paul Yellow Sr. – AberdeenNews.com

Posted: at 3:42 am

Ron Paul Yellow Sr.
AberdeenNews.com
Fort Yates, N.D.: Funeral arrangements for Ron Paul Yellow Sr. age 71 of rural Fort Yates, ND are pending with Oster Funeral Home of Mobridge, SD. Ron Yellow Sr. passed away on July 16, 2017 at his home in Fort Yates, ND.

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We Will Extend Our Lives but Not Attain Immortality, Says Anti-Aging Researcher – Futurism

Posted: at 3:42 am

In BriefEric Verdin, a world-leading researcher on aging, recentlyshared what he has learned about the future of growing old. WhileVerdin views immortality as a fairy tale, he said that manypromising methods for extending life are being studied. The Future of Getting Old

The Population Reference Bureau has projectedthat the percentage of the population over the age of 65 will rise from the current 15 percent to a staggering 24 percent by 2060. This means that research into aging has never been more important.

Eric Verdin is at the forefront of this research and has become thePresident and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. The institute is the worlds biggest independent research facilitystudying the causes of growing old and how to combat them. Recently, he conducted an interview with Nautilus to discuss how aging is effecting our lives.

Verdin believes that the explosion in age-related research is due to researchers discovery in the 1990s that aging is not necessarily an inevitability. Instead, it is caused by mutations and scientists could make changes to the genome of other species that led to a lifetimes of up to twice as long. Verdin stated in the interview this resulted in a belief that there might be pathways to regulate aging, and if there are pathways that means there are proteins, and that means you can eventually develop drugs.

Despite this, he says, if you hear the word immortality, just run. There is no drug that can give you that. While Verdin believes we can increase the average human lifetime significantly, the fountain of youth is still just a fairy tale. Its just nonsense from my perspective, and I think we should really resist the I-word.

The best way to maximize your lifespan, he said in the interview, is to maintain your body well. Good nutrition and exercise are incredible anti-aging medicine. His general advice is to treat the cause rather than the symptom with a combination of lifestyle and pharmaceutical treatments to fight aging itself rather than dealing with Alzheimers, Parkinsons, or macular degeneration when they occur.

The human attraction to immortality has been present in our cultural landscape since the beginning of time the human mind seems to be unable to resist its lures. There are countless myths and stories based on it: the fountain of youth, the Wandering Jew, the philosophers stone, and the Bibles Enochare a few examples.

Recently, this mystical desire has birthed amyriad of promising methods forreversing the aging process which are currently underinvestigation: from transfusing young peoples blood into older people to give them more osteopontin, to digging into the role telemores play on the aging process, to developing anti-aging, bacteria-based pills.

However, when our increasing life expectancy is combined with the decrease in fertility that many nations are facing, the results arean aging population.In an interview with CNN, Elon Musk pointed out why this is undesirable, saying it causesa very high dependency ratio, where the number of people who are retired is very high relative to the number of people who are net producers an economically detrimental state of affairs.

Due to technological and therapeutic advancements, aging is looking less like an ugly inevitability of our condition and more likea new and exciting epoch in our lives. However,we must ensure that longer lives for people do not come at the expense of the environment, economy, orwellbeing of others.

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We Will Extend Our Lives but Not Attain Immortality, Says Anti-Aging Researcher - Futurism

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