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The tyranny of the minority: A post-Charlottesville theory of the First Amendment

by David Snyder
First Amendment Coalition

The framers of the U.S. Constitution understood the protections of the First Amendment to be a bulwark against the “tyranny of the majority” — a shield to protect those with unpopular views against oppression by a popularly elected majority.

President Donald Trump has turned this concept on its head, at least in his rhetoric. His statements have offered the support of the most powerful elected office in the land to views that the vast majority of Americans have rejected. He has, perhaps, instituted a “tyranny of the minority,” in which a (vanishingly small) minority viewpoint has not only the protections of the First Amendment behind it, but the full force of the American government at its service.

So when free-speech advocates such as myself opine that white supremacist Richard Spencer and his supporters are entitled to First Amendment protection against the “tyranny of the majority,” our pleas often fall on deaf ears. There is a broad sense that Spencer and his ilk should not be “given a platform” for their hate, the First Amendment notwithstanding — that speech which has the imprimatur of the White House behind it, and which is so harmful to so many, is the last thing in need of protection. Thus, calls to silence fringe views have grown over the course of the past year with alarming speed.

This is dangerous territory. Banning speech is banning speech, no matter how odious that speech may be. It’s something Americans don’t do — or at least something our better angels would have us not do.

So how to account for the apparently widespread belief that “hate speech” such as Spencer’s can and should be banned? Has there been some broad-scale, collective forgetting of the fundamental First Amendment principle that virtually all speech, no matter how noxious, deserves protection? Have Twitter’s terms of use — which generally bar “hate speech,” while the First Amendment does not — fundamentally altered our expectations of what speech is “allowed” and what speech is not?

Perhaps. But here’s another explanation: when the president of the United States asserts that “both sides are to blame” for the violence that erupted in Charlottesville, people rightly sense that a government elected by a popular (electoral college) majority is forcing a distinctly minority viewpoint down the people’s throats — that the minority is, in some way, oppressing the majority. The First Amendment feels more like a sword wielded by the minority than a shield to protect that minority.

This sense is not unusual in the annals of U.S. presidential politics. It is not at all uncommon for a president to embrace and promote some views or policies that a majority of Americans disagree with. What is unusual, and is perhaps sui generis, is for a president to embrace (or at least fail to unequivocally denounce) views, such as neo-Nazism, that have been overwhelmingly and vehemently rejected by the vast majority of Americans — and to do so on such a broad range of issues, from climate change (which more than three-quarters of American public believe is real, but which the Trump administration questions the existence of) to the need for Trump’s border wall.

But in both a “real world” and a legal sense, this feeling is wrong: neo-Nazism is a minority viewpoint and it is thus vulnerable, from a First Amendment perspective, to majority oppression. It is subject to protection by the courts, and the fact that the president appears to have at least tacitly endorsed it does not change the fact that an overwhelming majority views it as abhorrently fringe.

So, my advice to those who would reject the “tyranny of the majority” principle in light of the Trump administration’s perversion of the concept: This, too, shall pass. Don’t throw out your constitutional birthright for what may well be a passing outrage. Majorities change. An elected leader who repeatedly embraces truly minority views eventually will find himself in the minority at the ballot box.

To be sure, the “tyranny of the majority” concept can be an uncomfortable fit in a representative democracy. It requires the state — in practice, the courts — to protect ideas and viewpoints that a majority of voters have rejected. In a system where the government is supposed to express the popular will of the people, this “feels” like a rejection of the basic premise of democracy.

And yet the idea is fundamental to the American project. The Founders ascribed such importance to the right of free speech (among other rights) that they enshrined it in our Constitution, to be protected irrespective of the “will of the majority” — in other words, irrespective of the basic premise of any true democracy.

With Trump’s ascension, has an ideological minority “hijacked” the force and power of the political majority? Maybe. But the proper solution, reflected in our founding principles, is to replace a “majority” that does not truly reflect a majority of the population with one that does. This is the point of elections. Yet only time will tell whether Trump’s fringe views will harm him at the ballot box in 2020.

“The tyranny of the minority: A post-Charlottesville theory of the First Amendment” by David Snyder, Executive Director of the First Amendment Coalition, first appeared in The Hill.

Another mental case shoots up Florida school

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Readers:

How do we stop a mass shooter in a situation like the one we have heard about in Florida? With this question in mind, I bring to you the following article written by Bob Adelmann, who with much cleverness offers a sound solution at the end. — MR

by Bob Adelmann

Almost immediately after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon, anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety decried it as the sixth school shooting so far this year. Others claimed that the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who was previously expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons, was a mental case who should never have had a firearm in the first place. In most media the common theme was the danger of guns and their proliferation.

Cruz left abundant clues about his mental instability: gruesome pictures he published on social media of animals that he had brutally killed, claims that he wrote “Allahu Akbar” on Instagram, revelations that the FBI knew of his erratic behavior months ago when it was reported to them by one of Cruz’s classmates, the decision to expel him last year from the same school he attacked for “disciplinary” reasons, classmates being intimidated by him and avoiding contact with him because he was “weird” and a “loner,” and so forth.

Regardless of his mental condition, Cruz carefully planned the assault. He entered the building near the end of the class day on Wednesday, wearing a gas mask and armed with smoke grenades and firearms. He set the grenades off and then triggered the fire-alarm system, which sent students scurrying into the halls where Cruz picked them off one by one with his rifle.

Twelve of the people he shot were found dead inside the school building, while two others were killed just outside and another one on a street near the school. In all, Cruz murdered 17 and wounded dozens more.

He wasn’t found and arrested until nearly two hours later, as he had left the building and deliberately blended into the crowd of fleeing students. Surveillance cameras later picked him out of the crowd, and he was discovered, arrested, and taken into custody about two miles away from the school. He’s being charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder.

President Trump agreed with the assessment that Cruz was unstable when he tweeted: “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem.” This view was confirmed by one of Cruz’s former classmates, Matthew Walker, who told a local television station that he “knew it was going to be him. A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That’s crazy.”

Some of the school’s teachers knew Cruz was a problem and a danger, including his former math teacher, Jim Gard. Gard told the Miami Herald last year that Cruz “wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him. There were problems with him last year threatening students and … he was asked to leave campus.”

Solutions to the problem of mental cases such as this surfaced immediately, nearly all of them asking the wrong question: How do we keep guns out of the hands of crazies? President Trump tweeted his solution: “Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel offered his solution:

If you are on a website and you know something or you’ve seen something, you see a person with rifles and weaponry, and you see something that’s not right, you owe it to your family, you owe it to your community and you owe it to law enforcement to make this a safer nation by calling up someone tonight.

Call up the FBI, call up the Broward Sheriff’s Office, call up someone tonight and let them know that you have information that something’s not right. You can prevent a major tragedy like this devastation that happened in Parkland tonight.

So the solution appears to consist of turning every student into a snitch whenever strange — definition yet to be defined — behavior is observed. Of course, if students bought into such a plan, each separate clique of students in each school in the country would likely single out several people. Are they all going to lose their gun rights, or will they pass some sort of superficial review, as Cruz apparently did. Big Brother here we come!

The problem with giving government the power to determine who is crazy, as some are suggesting, is the risk that the government eventually declares everyone crazy and therefore no one is entitled to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Unnoticed or deliberately missing from the discussion over solutions on how to avoid ghastly atrocities such as this one from occurring in the future is the issue of armed adults being prohibited from carrying on school grounds and consequently unable to protect themselves thanks to “gun free” zones. Cruz walked right by two police cruisers on his way into the halls of Marjory Stone Douglas High School, knowing that, once inside, there would be no one there to return fire. Under Florida law it was a “safe zone” for shooters, and Cruz knew it.

In a world increasingly populated with crazies such as Cruz, there is no way that a “hardening” of the site will work: cameras, metal detectors, police cruisers in the parking lot, etc. Even if one is crazy, he may be still smart enough, like Cruz was, to work his way inside, knowing that once inside he would be free to wreak the havoc the mainstream media would only be too happy to publish in all its lurid bright red details, through hundreds of videos of dead and dying students.

It would only have taken one individual — an adult student, teacher, janitor, or administrator — armed and with skill at arms, to have solved the problem of Cruz. But somehow, in the twisted logic of anti-gunners, by attempting to make Florida schools safe by declaring them to be “gun free,” they have instead turned them into shooting galleries.

An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at badelmann@thenewamerican.com.

RussiaGate is all sbout stopping US ‘momentum to a Police State’

FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

Much has been said in the news about a conspiracy that Russia interfered in the US elections, and because of the mainstream media that has been banging on the subjects so much, the people don’t know what to believe anymore. The following article, written by Paul Craigs Roberts, a respected investigative journalist and author, brings some interesting points in his analysis, which will enlighten us all. – MR

RussiaGate is all sbout stopping US ‘momentum to a Police State’

“If the highest reaches of the police state agencies can get away with an attempted or successful coup against the president of the United States, then that is the complete end of democracy and all accountability in government.”

by Paul Craig Roberts

The Republicans’ delay in releasing the summary of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russiagate investigation is giving weight to the presstitutes’ claim that the report is not being released, because it is a hack attempt at a Trump coverup that is not believable. Only Republicans are stupid enough to put themselves in such a situation.

Readers ask me why the summary memo is not released if it is real. There must be some reasons besides the stupidity of Republicans. Yes, that is so. Among the many reasons that might be blocking release are:

1) Republicans are very national security conscious. They don’t want to provide precedents for the release of classified information.

2) Many Republican congressional districts host installations of the military/security complex. Upsetting a large employer and directing campaign financing to a challenger is a big consideration.

3) The George W. Bush/Dick Cheney regime was a neoconservative regime. One consequence is that Republicans are influenced by neoconservatives who stress the alleged “Russian threat.”

4) The Israel Lobby can unseat any member of the House and Senate. The Israel Lobby is allied with the neoconservatives and this alliance intends to keep the US militarily active against perceived threats to Israel’s hegemony in the Middle East and against Russia, which supports Syria and Iran, countries perceived as threats by Israel.

5) Many Republicans are themselves invested in false Russiagate allegations against Trump and would like to replace him with Pence. Other Republicans believe that Trump is undermining Washington’s expensively-purchased foreign alliances and, thereby, undermining US power.

Many Americans do not seem to understand what is at stake.

What America is confronted with is a coup conspiracy organized by top officials of the Obama Justice Department, FBI, CIA, the Hillary DNC, and the presstitute media to overturn the result of a democratic election and remove the president from office. The basis of the coup is a fake dossier purchased for money that consists of unsupported allegations against Trump and that was used to obtain warrants from the FISA count to spy on Trump and various associates hoping to find something that can be used against Trump. Regardless, the false allegations could be fed to the CIA’s media assets and used to create a scandal requiring a special prosecutor to investigate Russiagate.

Once the investigation was under way, the presstitutes kept the scandal alive hoping to convince enough Americans that Trump must have done something—“where there is smoke, there is fire”—that justifies his removal. It worked against Richard Nixon, but not against Ronald Reagan, and Trump is no Reagan.

If the highest reaches of the police state agencies can get away with an attempted or successful coup against the president of the United States, then that is the complete end of democracy and all accountability in government. The House, Senate, and judiciary will become as powerless as the Roman senate under the caesars. We will live under a dictatorship ruled by police state agencies.

Many Americans say they don’t need the House Intelligence Report, because they don’t believe the Russiagate BS in the first place. They miss the point. They need the report, because those responsible for this attempt at a coup must be identified, charged, and prosecuted for their act of high treason.

This is not minor stuff. This goes to the heart of whether any form of liberty will exist. We all know that the ability of the people to hold government accountable is not assured by democracy. However, there is no prospect of holding government accountable if it is a police state, a road that the US has been going down for some time. The audacious coup attempt against President Trump is our opportunity to stop the momentum to a police state.

Despite my recent postings, many people do not understand that the somewhat redacted FISA court document that has been declassified and released and explained by myself, William Binney, and former US Attorney Joe di Genova (see: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/01/22/here-are-all-the-facts-about-russiagate/ ) contains admissions by the FBI and DOJ that they improperly spied and obtained warrants from the court under false pretenses. In other words, we have it on the authority of the FISA court itself that the FBI and DOJ have admitted to the court their transgressions. When Department of Justice (sic) congressional liaison Stephen Boyd says the DOJ is “unaware of any wrongdoing,” he is lying through his teeth. The DOJ has already confessed its wrongdoing to the FISA court.

(See Lendman on Boyd’s claim that releasing the memo would harm national security and ongoing investigations. This is always the claim made when government has to cover up its crimes. http://stephenlendman.org/2018/01/memo-detailing-russiagate-abuses-names-high-level-us-officials/).

When Admiral Rodgers, director of the National Security Agency, discovered that the FBI and DOJ were misusing the spy system for partisan political reasons, he let it be known that he was going to inform the FISA court. This caused the FBI and DOJ to rush to the court in advance and confess to “mistakes” and to promise to tighten up procedures so as not to make mistakes in the future. It is these “mistakes” and corrections that the FISA court document reveals.

In other words, the information already exists in the pubic domain that proves that Russiagate was a conspiracy organized for the purpose of bringing down the elected president of the United States.

A case can be made that it would be just as well if the coup succeeds as it would bring an end to Washington’s cover as the government of a great democracy with liberty and justice for all. Most other governments, and one would hope certainly the Russian and Chinese governments, would see the coup as America’s final transition into a police state and give up their utopian ideas of reaching accommodation with Washington. The constraints on Washington’s ability to bully the world would be greatly strengthened by the universal perception that the government of the United States had devolved into a police state.

The individual, his freedom and victory

by Jon Rappoport

The State, as now constituted, pretends it favors giving away the farm for nothing “to those in need.” What they really mean is: they steal the farm, and then they give a few pieces away on their terms.

There are people who don’t understand what a FREE INDIVIDUAL is. They want a world of Central Planning. They feel a welter of emotions, all negative, when they contemplate THE FREE INDIVIDUAL.

For the free individual, “the highest work possible” doesn’t involve leaving one’s desires behind, in order to become the abject servant of a Cause. He doesn’t suddenly develop an egoless and empty personality in order to “connect” with a goal that floats in an abstract realm.
The free individual isn’t shaped. He shapes.

He doesn’t fall on his knees and grovel to seek public acceptance.

The mob, the herd operates on debt, obligation, guilt, and the pretense of admiration for idols. These are its currencies.

The herd, seeking some reflection of its unformed desire, constructs a social order based on need—and the substance of that need will be extracted through coercion, if necessary, from those who already have More.

This need, and the proposition that the mob deserves its satisfaction, creates a worldwide industry.

Among the industry’s most passionate and venal supporters are those who are quite certain that the human being is a tainted vile creature. Such supporters, of course, are sensing their own reflections.

The great psychological factor in any life is THE DESERTION OF INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM. Afterward, the individual creates shadows and monsters and fears around that crossroad.

Freedom is the space and the setting, from which the individual can generate the thought and the energy-pulse of a great self-chosen objective.

In that place, there is no crowding or oppressive necessity. There is choice. There is desire. There is thought.

“Being absorbed in a greater whole” isn’t an ambition or philosophical prospect for the free individual. He sees that fixation as a surrender of self.

The Collective, whether envisioned as a down-to-earth or mystical group, promises a release from self. This grand solution to problems is a ruse designed to keep humans in a corral, a prison. After all, how are you going to control and eventually enslave people if you promote the notion that each individual has freedom and free choice? The abnegation of self is a workable tactic, as long as it is dressed up with false idols and perverted ideals.

Self is fundamentally creative, dynamic, forward-looking, energetic, powerful, engaged. The Collective looks for shadows of those qualities in the government as its source of survival.
The free individual certainly helps others, but he is against a culture that is so preoccupied with “raising up the lowest” that it nurtures a hatred of liberty. And this is a crux, because growing millions of people are all too eager to shed the last fragments of Self to join in a fantasy of “everybody gets everything.”

The fantasy doesn’t work. The melting down of all of humanity into a mystical goo is an illusion that can’t stand the test of time. Eventually, a person falls out of that construct and remembers he must depend, to an alarming degree, on his own inner resources.

The free individual doesn’t act in ways that limit the freedom of others.

Self-sufficiency is both an essence and outcome for the free individual.

The free individual discovers his way through imagination and creative power, because that is the answer to the question: what is freedom for?

Without exercising imagination and creative power, freedom withers and dies. It becomes an empty slogan. It becomes an empty stage.

We are told, in a thousand ways, that the free individual is the personification of greed and theft and crime. That is false.

The free individual imagines and creates on a scale that supersedes and ignores the Collective. His work naturally spills over and benefits others.

Advocates of the Collective falsely claim the free individual is cold and uncaring and remote and “without humanity.” Meanwhile, their picture of a society based on need is a poisonous affectation; it is constructed because these advocates are walled off from their own power. Therefore, they substitute endless entitlement.

Their only nod of acknowledgment to the individual has been to propagandize him as an outsider, a potential danger, a lurking menace, a person waiting to be diagnosed with a mental disorder.
These days, it is the Group that is elevated. We must absorb the individual in the system so the Group is protected and safe.

Even accepting Mill’s specious pronouncement that society should be organized on the basis of the greatest good for greatest number, the questions remains: what is the greatest good? Is it that which makes us, more and more, into a Group? Or is it that which liberates the individual to pursue his highest aspirations?

The greatest good liberates the individual, and then the door is open. Who will walk through it? Every person who has divested himself of the collective mindset.

The titanic myths that have been foisted on humanity and the titanic acceptance of those myths by humanity are all focused on one lie: the individual cannot stand on his own; he must subjugate himself to a system.

I don’t care what form that higher system takes. It’s a lie. It’s all geared to promoting slavery. It’s all geared to allowing the few to control the many.

And the few WILL control the many, until the day comes when enough individuals throw off ALL the deceptions that permitted them to think The Individual was less than he is.

The day will dawn when the individual knows he is greater than any and all groups and collectives by any name flying under any flag, espousing any gibberish, elevating any fairy tale, seducing with any promise, hypnotizing with any idol or misbegotten legend.

That day will dawn.

But why wait?

Why not act now?

Why not launch your greatest dream?

Health warnings in fingernails

by Ben Fuchs

We humans love our nails. We spend nearly 8 billion dollars a year on those hard dead shell like materials on the tips of our fingers and toes. While adorning them with polish, varnish and even art may imply “cosmetic” and “superficial”, as it turns out, their condition, for better or worse, is a function of the entire body, and if you’re observant you can tell a lot about overall physical health by looking at the nails.

Technically speaking, nails are an extension of the skin. They’re a modified version of the epidermis, the top layer that composes about 10 percent of the body’s largest organ. Although it may look like one uniform structure, in reality, the nail (like the skin) is composed of numerous layers lying atop of each other. In fact, the average fingernail is composed of 25 of these ultra-thin slices that fuse into a firm, slightly elastic form by the action of microscopic threads called keratin. This is what gives them remarkable resilience and horse-hoof like strength. Keratin is a hard, flexible protein substance that is a common feature of hooves, horns, antlers, as well as the outer sheath that coats human hair. In addition to keratin, nails contain lots of minerals too, including: Iron, Carbon, Magnesium, Selenium, Silica, Calcium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Sulfur and Oxygen, all of which contribute to their characteristic qualities. Interestingly the nail appendage (technically called the “nail organ”) also contains small amounts of the well-known cosmetic ingredient called glycolic acid, which acts to trap water and assure hydration.

Because of their rapid growth (healthy fingernails grow up to 4mm a month) the nails are an accurate portal into the inside of the body. While the eyes may be the window to the soul, the nails can be thought of as windows to your biochemistry. There’s a lot of information a good health care professional can glean from their appearance.

As they are part of the skin, most nail conditions are assessed by dermatologists. Nail disorders account for 10 percent of all dermatological conditions.

Patients with soft, flaky nails that are prone to splitting may be missing minerals, particularly selenium and magnesium. “Terry Nails”, which are white nails with an opaque, “ground glass” look that occasionally have brown to pink bands, are associated with chronic liver disease. And spoon shaped nails, the mark of a condition called Koilonychia (pronounced: “coyl-oni-kia”), are classically a sign of iron deficiency.

While normal nails exhibit a pink color, which indicates healthy blood flow underneath, nails that are pale or white may indicate circulatory problems such as a low red blood cell count, anemia, and perhaps kidney disease. On the other hand, nails that have a beet red hue may point towards heart disease. Nails that are white and grainy with a rosy red strip can be indicative of liver cirrhosis, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, or HIV. Sometimes, abnormal circulation in the nail bed creates the appearance of horizontal white lines, most often in the middle three fingers. Because this problem occurs in the nail bed, it will not progress up as the nail grows.

This condition which dermatologists call “Muehrcke’s Nails”, can be caused by liver disease and chemotherapy. Other causes of horizontal white lines include Hodgkin disease, kidney failure, system-wide infection, or poisoning by arsenic, thallium, or other heavy metals.

Nutritional status also plays an important role in nail health. Because of their rapid growth, shortages in key nutrients will show up in the nails before any other part of the body. As mentioned above a lack of magnesium can lead to nail softening and shortages of iron can cause them to spoon becoming concave, rather than convex.

Other minerals like calcium, sulfur, zinc and silica are critical for nail strength and resilience. Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption and a dearth can also have an impact. A lack of the B-vitamins (especially B-12) and Vitamins A and C can affect nail shape and create both horizontal and vertical ridges, and because the nail is mostly made up of protein both lack of intake as well as digestive impairment can lead to nail thinness and fragility. Essential Fatty Acids are important and nail cracking and splitting can result under conditions of Omega-6 deficiency. Low levels of digestive juice (i.e. enzymes and stomach acid) can compromise the absorption of minerals even when they’re present in the diet. Likewise, in the case of gall bladder disease or its removal, mineral absorption can be compromised resulting in unhealthy nails.

Did you know…
Nail biting which affects one out of three children between the ages of 7 and 10 and nearly half of all teenagers is considered to be a mental health issue and is classified as a type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Nails grow faster in the summer than the winter, grow faster after illnesses and grow faster on the fingers of your dominant hand. The nails of the middle finger exhibit the most rapid growth and the thumbnail grows the slowest.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the longest fingernails ever recorded on a woman measured over 28 feet. The nails were on the hand of a California woman named Lee Redmond who started manicuring them in 1979 until she lost them in an automobile accident in 2009.

The true causes of eczema

by Ben Fuchs

One of the most interesting aspects of the cells that make up the surface of the skin is their multi-functionality. While mostly known for their protective barrier properties, the living beings colloquially known as “skin cells” (and more technically as “keratinocytes” in honor of their most prolific extrusion, the fingernail like protein called keratin) are much more than a cellular shield. “Skin cells” are biochemical dynamos, each one producing, secreting and becoming ultimately a wide range of very functional chemicals.

“Skin cells” make vitamin D, they produce prodigious quantities of skin fats (lipids), and they are also the source of many hormone chemicals. Some, like cortisol, are involved in obvious skin functions like protection. Others, like the nervous system’s serotonin and dopamine, make the skin a type of brain appendage. Not to forget pheromones, which are involved in less obvious skin functions, like signaling, sexual attraction and fertility.

One of the less apparent roles of keratinocytes (“skin cells”) involves the production of inflammatory chemicals known as prostaglandins and cytokines. Although these chemicals are supposed help keep local invaders sequestered, they also can be produced and activated in a less specific way by systemic immune responses to foods or other ingested substances. When this occurs, regulation and control of skin cell production and development can be impaired. They can cause cells to grow in a messed up, chaotic, out-of-control fashion. This is at least partially the genesis of many skin health issues, including acne and psoriasis.

One of the more troubling inflammatory skin health issues is eczema, an itchy, unpleasant condition that affects tens of millions of people worldwide. Here in the USA, a substantial proportion of the population suffers from the uncomfortable and sometimes unattractive symptoms of eczema. According to the American Eczema Association, one out of ten (nearly 32 million people) have the disease, which is characterized by defects in the development of the skin surface barrier. It’s most notably caused by the inflammation associated with the secretion of defensive prostaglandins and cytokines, stimulated by perceived threats, whether introduced to the skin internally from the food toxicity and digestive difficulties via the blood or occasionally by topical contact.

Although eczema has been a recognized skin disease for millennia, (ancient Egyptian recommendations recorded on papyrus suggest honey salves as a treatment), the medical model remains so mystified by how to address it, that most modern treatments available today (typically steroid creams) haven’t substantially changed in decades.

The inflammatory aspect of eczema makes it a classic type defensive skin disease. Inflammation is the calling card of the immune system, and eczematous skin is a sign that the body is protecting itself. This protective response is what we call inflammation, and it affects how skin cells grow and ultimately how surface barrier is formed. The end result is the raw, rashy symptomology of eczema.

While the dermatologist strategy for dealing with this distress and discomfort involves suppression of the defenses with steroid creams and ointments, at best this can only give temporary and symptomatic relief. The most effective, intelligent and non-medical way to address eczema is to eliminate the stimulus of the defensive response by first asking the logical question: what is the offending agent? Food and digestion are almost always involved, and yes, gluten is a possible suspect. But there’s no way of knowing what you are reacting to without linking skin flare-ups and digestive symptoms (like gas, constipation or heartburn) to specific foods.

Nutritional supplements can be helpful too. Essential fatty acids, fatty vitamins, especially A, (20, 000 iu daily), D (5000 iu daily), lots of sunshine exposure are important. While minerals like zinc picolinate (50mg daily) and selenium Monomethionine or chelate (400 mcg daily) can be helpful too. I hope that helps. Also, it’s important to keep in mind: It’s not just what you “take,” it’s also what you absorb. Digestive distress and malabsorbtion (especially fat mal-absorption) often accompany eczema as well as other skin conditions. (Critical Health News).

Processed food is fueling the obesity epidemic: study

People are at increased risk of heart disease and stroke

by Frances Bloomfield

Eating too many processed foods will make you fat; this in turn makes you more susceptible to a plethora of diseases. We know that to be the case here in the U.S. But this seems to be happening in the U.K. as well. According to a team of researchers from the University of São Paulo, British people have the unhealthiest diet in all of Europe. Because of this, they’re also at the highest risk of obesity, heart, and strokes.

For their study, the researchers examined 19 countries across the continent. They used surveys carried out between 1991 to 2008 to determine the amount of ultra-processed foods that was being consumed by each region. Foods and beverages such as ice cream, carbonated drinks, ready meals, and pastries were included under the study’s definition of ultra-processed foods. Moreover, the researchers also utilized surveys to evaluate the prevalence of obesity.

Out of all the countries, Portugal was found to have the healthiest diet. Only 10.2 percent of the average Portuguese diet was composed of ultra-processed foods. Italy, Greece, and France were just as healthy, with ultra-processed foods making up 13.4 percent, 13.7 percent, and 14.2 percent of their diets, respectively. By contrast, Britons consumed five times more ultra-processed foods than the Portuguese did. These types of foods accounted for 50.4 percent of the British diet. Following close behind were Germany (46.2 percent), Ireland (45.9 percent), and Belgium (40.9 percent).

In addition, the researchers discovered that upping the dietary ratio of ultra-processed foods by one percent increased the chances of obesity by 0.25 percent. The investigative team believed this to be the explanation behind the radically different obesity rates between the U.K. (24.5 percent) and Portugal (15.2 percent).

Lead study author, Carlos Monteiro, has called the British diet a “serious problem.” The growing obesity rate, in particular, he pointed out as being highly concerning. (Related: Great Britain sees spike in heart disease, cancer and stroke as two-thirds of nation is now obese).

Monteiro’s sentiments are shared by dietitians and by food researchers. Tim Lang, a professor of food policy at City, University of London and unaffiliated with the study, said of the results: “The British diet in general is a public health disaster zone. We have a terrible problem with diet-related ill health.”

British Heart Foundation Senior Dietitian, Victoria Taylor, concurred with: “The problem with ultra-processed foods is that they are high in saturated fat, salt and sugars. Too much of these can seriously impact our health, putting us at greater risk of heart attack and stroke. As a nation, we should be making a greater effort to eat less of these types of processed foods, like sweet treats, chocolate and sugary drinks.”

To that end, Monteiro has suggested that the British government step in to curb the consumption of processed foods. One way this could be done is by making these kinds of foods less readily available and more difficult to acquire by adding extra taxes. Another idea was to put health warnings on the labels, just like how many cigarette companies do for their wares.

How to eat less-processed foods

Until that happens, it’s up to the people to make smarter food choices. These include:

• Having healthy snacks on hand: When no food is around, people are more likely to go out and buy processed foods. Get around this by packing low-sugar, high-nutrient snacks such as fresh or dried fruit and raw nuts.

• Meal prepping in batches: Preparing healthy meals for an entire week is a surefire way to avoid the temptation of eating out. Plus, it saves on time and energy that most people don’t have. Stocking up on healthy breakfast meals, lunches, dinners, and snacks all ready to go in the refrigerator can do wonders.

• Making homemade salads: Fresh just can’t be beat, especially when it comes to salads. Rather than relying on expensive salads that may contain less-than-healthy dressing, go down the DIY route. (Natural News).

With each attack, life itself is attacked, advocates say

Immigration is not a political problem, it is a human problem

by Fernando A. Torres

While the Senate rejected four immigration proposals last Thursday, a group of experts discussed in a national conference the effects that the issue and the actions are having on the diverse communities of the country. The panelists agreed that the problem of immigration is a problem of flesh and blood that is being used to satisfy political ambitions and an agenda of nationalist targets.

Angelica Salas said that the administration’s attacks against immigrants and refugees are part of the objectives with which Trump came to power: “the strictest vigilance against undocumented communities in collaboration with local police.”

Salas, Executive Director of the Coalition for Human Rights of Immigrants (CHIRLA) in Los Angeles, added that “the most important thing is to understand” that with each attack on different programs, “life itself is attacked; to individuals that we see every day. They fear their future, for the protection of their families, the lack of work and the uncertainty of their status, “he said.

Among the proposals that were not approved by the Senate were the end of the lottery program for visas for ethnic diversity, a solution for the citizenship of Los Soñadores, the term of immigration based on family reunification and 25 billion dollars for the Trump wall.

Salas added that the programs for refugees are ending and for more than a year “we are seeing vigilance and indiscriminate attacks”, the annulment of the legal process that must be followed to detain and deport a person … The dreamers are treated differently; with them a class of second category is being created, “he said.

CHIRLA has different support programs for immigrants, one of which is the California Dream Network, which has a youth presence in 33 state colleges and universities.

Salas also warned that these attacks are based on the “white nationalist” agenda that says that – based simply on the countries where they were born and their religion – “certain individuals are not qualified to enter the United States.”

The speakers stressed that all immigration in general is being attacked and it is very likely that the United States will stop receiving refugees altogether. They also agreed that Trump’s wall is a kind of ideological and populist flag; a “racist symbol”.

Salas called the wall “Trump’s ego project” because “it was something he based his entire campaign on. It became a symbol of racism that is being used against the Mexican community; of Mexicans in Mexico and the United States. “ Trump’s agenda “is an attack on refugees, on individuals who seek refuge by escaping violence, war and political persecution,” he said.

The national conference was organized by the Ethnic Media Services, an organization that brings together media from the so-called minority groups, and moderated by its director, Sandy Close.

From Washington, DC, lawyer Sameera Hafiz said that “Trump’s decision in September to cancel the DACA program” put “the lives of 800 young people in chaos and uncertainty.”

But analysts also agreed to analyze immigration not as a police issue but as a social issue that has to do with racism and classism; how we relate to communities of other colors, that look different, with different religions and that come from poor countries.

Zahra Billoo said that Trump’s attack on the Muslim community has been constant and does not seem to subside soon. Apart from physical attacks and the constant denigration they are suffering, there have been three specific entry bans against Muslims and another against refugees from poor countries. “In total there have been 4 bans on this administration to try to keep the Muslim community and other immigrants out of this country,” said Billo, who is the Executive Director of the Council of American Islamic Relations.

“Trump has taken a very tough position … eliminating diversity in visa programs

severely cutting the visa program for families and increasing surveillance on the border … Today it is more important than ever to have plans that protect our loved ones and continue to resist this agenda that is attacking all the people we defend. “ said Hafiz, who is a lawyer with the Legal Resources Center for Immigrants in the capital.

Adoubou Traore, is the executive director of the African Defense Network in San Francisco. Traore said it was essential to look at this problem from “the perspective of black immigrants. What does it mean when we can not request?

Adoubou Traore, is the executive director of the African Defense Network in San Francisco. Traore said it was essential to look at this problem from “the perspective of black immigrants. What does it mean when we can not petition for our families? What is the experience of black immigrants in America? How much do we know what it means to be black in America?

“What does it mean when you escape persecution, violence, discrimination and come here to America looking for a safe haven to face the greatest fears? Traore, who is originally from the Ivory Coast, concluded: “this has nothing to do with immigration, it has to do with being black in America.”

Is gun control really the answer? The bic picture might surprise you

by Emma Fiala
Analysis

While the outrage and horror being expressed about the most recent mass school shooting that took place on Valentine’s Day in Florida is certainly warranted, the anger is incredibly displaced. Anger, disappointment, fear and sadness are all acceptable and understandable emotions to experience after an event such as this takes place in the United States or elsewhere. But it is the elsewhere that I want to focus on right now.

We get upset, rightfully so, when a mass school shooting occurs. We get upset when a black man is murdered by police. We get upset at the opioid crisis and the consequences of a pharmaceutical industry operating for profit seemingly unchecked. We get upset about food boxes and walls and bans. But we get upset at each of these things individually when, in fact, each of these things are actually connected. Each of these things are symptoms of a problem.

Thus far in 2018, there have been 18 school shootings. We are only halfway through the second month of the year and numerous children have lost their lives due to gun violence while in school, where their parents send them with the expectation that they will learn, grow, and be safe.

In 2018, there have been 30 known mass shootings. A mass shooting is defined as a shooting in which four or more people were shot during a single event, not including the shooter.

Why is this a phenomenon that we see and have become sickeningly used to in the United States? Our mental health statistics are comparable to many other nations. And we are certainly not the only nation on the planet in which everyday citizens have access to firearms. So why are we the only country mourning the loss of young lives who were murdered in cold blood while at school 18 times so far this year?

Our efforts to grasp at ideas and policies to curb control won’t solve the problem of school shootings. Universal healthcare won’t solve it. Nor will open borders or a living wage or abolishing the NRA. So what will?

The answers to these questions are simple but multifaceted. The answer is obvious if you’re able to step back and look at the big picture of this nation and the culture it has cultivated. But most of us don’t. Most of us react to each individual issue or event as if there is no correlation between them and anything else. We look at the issues on the surface and we grasp for a bandage for temporary relief.

School shootings are a symptom of a very large, very dangerous problem. They are not simply a symptom of a need for gun control, or a symptom of a lack of accessible mental health services, or a symptom of an over-medicated, desensitized youth population.

Our problem, a problem that has bled into every level of our society, is simple. We are a nation that does not value life.

This country was built on the genocide of its native inhabitants and not long after we bought and sold humans as if they were commodities. We have occupied nations and murdered their inhabitants for years. We have been at war with the idea of terror for 16 years. And we wholeheartedly support a nation actively engaged in apartheid.

Each one of these things is woven into the fabric of our very beings. Each one of these things is connected to our identity as citizens of the United States. And each one of these things influences the actions of our nation today. On our own soil there continues to be a race and class struggle that results in the ruining of lives and actual loss of life. Halfway around the world our nation is responsible for the murder of innocent lives. Every single day children die at the hands of the United States or because of something our nation had its hands in. There is no ignoring this and there is no way to gloss it over.

The United States is directly responsible for the deaths of over 4 million Muslims. Four million. Pause for a moment and let that number sit in your mind. Picture it and then try to picture 4 million people. Do you even know what 4 million people looks like? That’s the population of Los Angeles.

And who bats an eye? Hardly anyone. Collateral damage. Consequences. We make excuses daily. But every time we allow more death and destruction in our names, we allow that death and destruction to seep into the fabric of who we are.

The children who are dying at the hands of their classmates have lived in a world in which their nation has been at war for their entire lives. They see it on the news, they see television shows and movies that glorify the war on terror, and they play video games set in actual war zones. Most of us cannot even begin to imagine how this might influence development or perception of the world, reality, and understanding of the role we play the greater collective of humanity. They have grown up with a constant enemy, a constant vibration of unrest and violence in their universe.

So we find ourselves angry and saddened when these lives are lost. And we are understandably eager to solve the problem so we bark out our idea of solutions on social media, we cry, and we find ourselves glued to the news for the latest culprit of what went wrong that allowed this young person to purchase a weapon and to have such hate in their heart.

But the problem is us. The problem is our culture. As long as we praise a former president who carried out hundreds of drone strikes, as long as we idly sit by while we provide the means for deadly famine in Yemen, as long as we refuse to aid victims of natural disasters, continue to spend $8.3 million per hour on war and perpetuate a culture of sexual exploitation of minors, school shootings, mass shootings, and other untold violence will continue on our soil.

It’s high time we remove the bandages and repair the underlying disease and decay that is embedded in the flesh of our nation. We must fully grasp our place in the universal collective of the human race and act with love, compassion and caring toward our physical neighbors as well as our brothers and sisters across the globe. We are one. And until we act like it our nation will continue to crumble, and reports of school shootings and violence will continue to flash across television screens across the country and on smart phones in the hands of Americans.

Emma Fiala is MPN’s Editorial Assistant and social media guru. She is also a documentary photographer, mom of two, and an independent journalist. Her stories have been featured on MintPress News, the Anti-Media, Media Roots, and Steemit. Find her on Twitter.

MORENA gains more Mexican politicians

by the El Reportero’s wire services

The exodus of politicians and legislators from various Mexican parties to the Movement of National Regeneration (MORENA) continues today, when that organization will proclaim the candidacy for the Presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The last of a long list that changed party was senator Miguel Ángel Chico Herrera, who resigned from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, in the government), after over 40 years of political militancy.

Chico Herrera decided to join MORENA and support López Obrador’s project, amidst criticism of the PRI’s national leader, Enrique Ochoa, whom he accused of privileging ‘simulation and personal interests’

The legislator had expressed for several weeks his dissatisfaction with the way in which the internal process was carried out in the PRI to elect the candidate of such party to the governorship of Guanajuato in the elections of July 1, when there will also be elected President of the Republic and other positions of popular election.

MORENA’s number has grown up with legislators and politicians from the PRI, National Action Party, Citizen Movement and most of all from the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

Agri-food trade grows between Mexico and China

Agricultural exports from Mexico to China has reached a commercial value of $321 million USD in 2017, according to the Customs of the Asian country consigned by the Secretariat of Agriculture.

Exports from that sector increased 54 percent compared to 2016, as part of the diversification policy of the Mexican government, said a statement from the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA).

The best conditions to have access to Mexican products in the market of the Asian nation took place in 2017, thanks to the early negotiation of several health protocols including blackberries and raspberries, beef, white corn, dairy products (milk powder and milk-based infant formula), tobacco leaves, blueberry, fish meal and pork by-products, the statement said.

Imports of agricultural products from China to Mexico increased nine percent in 2017, representing a 19.6 percent advance in the bilateral agro-food trade.

Freedom for Argentinean Milagro Sala demanded on her birthday

Political figures and social organizations demanded through the social network Twitter the freedom of Argentinean social leader Milagro Sala, who turns 55 today in preventive detention.

Under the hashtag #3ercumplepresa, ordinary citizens also demanded her immediate release while unions such as the Association of State Workers (ATE) pay tribute to the also member of Parlasur.

‘Today is Milagro’s birthday. It is the third she passes deprived of her freedom. While there are prisoners and political prisoners in Argentina there will be nothing to celebrate. We demand the state to comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation,’ published on social networks the committee for her release, which convened a national tweet in her honor.

The Jujeña leader was arrested on Jan. 16, 2016, on the alleged incitement to violence for leading a protest in Jujuy against the changes imposed by Governor Gerardo Morales in the cooperative system and program.

During the subsequent months to that cause, there were added others such as the alleged irregularity of administration of funds destined to housing construction and also the authorship of the crimes of illicit association, fraud to the public administration and extortion.

Five international organizations, including the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations and the Organization of American States, have asked the government for her release.

Violence and quakes affected tourism in Mexico

The consumption of both foreign and domestic tourists in Mexico fell 1.9 % from July to September 2017, reported today the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

The organization also indicated that the Quarterly Indicator of Tourism Gross Domestic Product decreased by 2.23 percent, the most pronounced drop since the second quarter of 2009.

These indicators were caused by the wave of violence generated in Mexico last year along with the September earthquakes, which provoked that tourism, one of the three main economic activities and source of currencies of the country, decreased in the third quarter of 2017.

In August, the US Department of State updated the Travel Alert for its citizens and added restrictions regarding security conditions in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Quintana Roo and Veracruz.

The year 2017 was the most violent in Mexico in a decade, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.

However, Mexico is currently the eighth most visited country to register 35,000,000 international travelers in 2016, according to the list of the World Tourism Organization.

In terms of foreign exchange tourism entered 19,571,000,000 dollars, according to official data.

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