Pennsylvania's Democratic governor has vetoed a bill that was created to protect babies from abortion after they've been diagnosed in the womb with Down syndrome.

Gov. Tom Wolf had said he would reject the bill if it made it to his desk, and that's just what he did.

Pennsylvania state law allows for abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy for any reason, except in cases where it is used for gender selection. In other words, a mother can't abort her baby just because he's a boy when she really wanted a girl.

This new bill would have also prevented the eugenic targeting of a specific population of people, protecting individuals with Down syndrome from selective elimination. Republicans who control the state Senate said it would've protected a "vulnerable population whose lives are productive."

Supporters of the measure believe it's essential because other countries have expressly targeted people with Down syndrome for elimination. For example, in Iceland, nearly 100% of babies with the syndrome are aborted, and in Denmark, that figure stands at roughly 98%. In the US, an estimated 67% of children with the condition are aborted.

The Pennsylvania Family Council stated, "Children are being targeted for abortion simply because they may have Down syndrome. Medical professionals are pressuring women and families to have an abortion upon a diagnosis of Down syndrome. And tragically, the vast majority of babies that are diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted after the diagnosis. A diagnosis of Down syndrome should never be a reason to terminate a child. Down syndrome is a life worth living."

Earlier this year, President Trump summed up what's at stake in the battle to protect the lives of unborn children with this condition.

"Sadly, there remain too many people both in the United States and throughout the world that still see Down syndrome as an excuse to ignore or discard human life. This sentiment is and will always be tragically misguided," he wrote. "We must always be vigilant in defending and promoting the unique and special gifts of all citizens in need. We should not tolerate any discrimination against them, as all people have inherent dignity."

The Pennsylvania Family Council has created a powerful photo series that gives nearly 30 examples of Pennsylvania residents with Down syndrome who are enjoying life and contributing in many ways to our world. Click here to see their smiling faces.

Original post:

'Targeted for Abortion Simply Because They May Have Down Syndrome': PA Gov. Blocks Anti-Eugenics Bill - CBN News

The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law that kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants out of America by Daniel Okrent is this weeks book of the week.

It traces the impact of anti-immigration sentiment in late 19th and early 20th century America.

The book also discusses multiple changes that were attempted or made as a result of those sentiments: from pushing for literacy test and tax requirements for immigrants to the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act, a law that put random restrictions on how many people could be allowed into the United States from different countries.

If anyone would like to better understand the historical roots of how immigration and its regulation became such hot-button issues in America, The Guarded Gate is a good place to start.

This book is available at the Beckley branch.

Elizabeth Hoyle is a reference assistant at the Raleigh County Public Libraries.

See original here:

Book review - "The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law that kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants out of...

Photo: Westend61/Getty Images/Westend61

Some depressing new research suggests that your dog might not really be obsessed with you. Well, it might be, but not because of a special human-dog bond. It turns out that dogs love basically every species they come into contact with, be it a sheep, a duck, or a dolphin.

While I refuse to believe that the human-dog connection is anything less than sacred, a dogs ability to fall for basically every living thing is not necessarily a bad thing, says Clive Wynne, a dog behavior specialist who has been researching dog emotions for decades. He explained to the New York Times that dogs abnormal willingness to form strong emotional bonds with almost anything that crosses their path has helped them thrive relative to other members of the animal kingdom (they outnumber their canine cousins, meany wolves, 3,000 to 1.)

And while dogs may be better at following human directions than other animals, and are nicer to us too, this is mostly thanks to thousands of years of domestication, Wynne says. He even found genes in dogs that are associated with indiscriminate friendliness in humans, suggesting that humans have bred so many good dogs that the dog genome actually changed.

Outside of that light bit of eugenics, dogs will be mostly nice to anything humans just have a little bit of an evolutionary advantage. And while that may be the case, it doesnt make love from these very good boys any less real.

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Does Your Dog Actually Love You? - The Cut

Outrage was the general researcher and media response to the Chinese bioengineer He Jiankui's announcement last November that he had used CRISPR gene-editing technology to modify the genomes of several human embryos with the goal of making them resistant to HIV infection. The result was the birth of twin girls; one with the genetic modification in all of her body's cells and another whose body is a mosaic of modified and unmodified cells. He did certainly cut both scientific and ethical corners in applying CRISPR technology to human embryos. Happily, a preliminary study in June that suggested the He's modifications might shorten the twins' lifespans appears to be wrong.

Setting aside He's moral shortcomings, is it ever ethical to use CRISPR and other gene-editing technologies to modify the genomes of human embryos? Yes, argues Abertay University bioethicist Kevin Smith in the journal Bioethics. Smith addresses the question using a rigorously applied utilitarian ethics approach. He details recent advances in CRISPR gene-editing safety and concludes that the benefits of preventing heritable diseases already outweigh the risks of using the technology.

In his article, Smith deals with "several wellrehearsed positions and arguments" against permitting parents to use CRISPR gene-editing to fix genetic flaws in their prospective offspring. These include "claims of unnaturalness, the alleged interests of embryos, questions of identity, fears of eugenics, and simply the 'yuck factor.'" Smith points out that critics once denounced in vitro fertilization (IVF) on the grounds of that it was "unnatural." Millions of parents have freely chosen unnatural IVF techniques to overcome their natural infertility. Some 8 million children have been born via assisted reproduction since the first IVF baby was born in 1979.

Some opponents argue using CRISPR would be unethical because embryos can't give their consent to being genetically modified. A requirement for prenatal consent is obvious ethical nonsense. No one has ever given their consent to be born much less to be born the specific complement of genes they bear. In addition, it's hard to imagine that a child will later feel morally aggrieved that his or her parents had prevented them from suffering a debilitating genetic disease. Providing parents with the ability to choose to prevent heritable disease and disability in their progeny using biotechnology is not to be equated with morally pernicious state-imposed eugenics. And lots of biomedical treatments and reproductive technologies have gone from yuck to yippeeas their significant benefits became evident. CRISPR gene-editing will do the same.

Smith persuasively argues that not only would the early application of the technology improve the welfare of prospective parents and their progeny now, it will usher in a human germline genetic modification (HGGM) revolution that will greatly benefit future generations. As Smith explains, "The longer we wait until commencing the HGGM revolution and moving towards a world of increased utility, the greater will be the quantity of suffering accrued meantime through genetically influenced disease."

When should CRISPR and even better gene-editing technologies be made available to parents seeking to prevent genetic diseases in their offspring? Given that some folks are still spooked by He's announcement last November, Smith prudentially suggests that "wekickstart the next biomedical revolution by proceeding not immediately but within around 12 years to intervene in the human germline."

The revolution, however, may start sooner than that. Russian researcher Denis Rebrikov says that he hopes to gain permission in the near future from the appropriate authorities to gene-edit embryos to repair a gene that causes congenital deafness.

Originally posted here:

Genetically Modified Babies Are Ethically OK - Reason

Since 2016,Andrew Marantzhas been reporting on how the extremist right has harnessed the Internet and social media to gain startling prominence in American politics. One day, he was contacted by a woman named Samantha, who was in a leadership position of the white-nationalist group Identity Evropa. (She asked to be identified only by her first name.) When I joined, I really thought that it was just going to be a pro-white community, where we could talk to each other about being who we are, and gain confidence, and build a community, Samantha told Marantz. I went in because I was insecure, and it made me feel good about myself. Samantha says she wasnt a racist, but soon after joining the group she found herself rubbing shoulders with the neo-Nazi organizer Richard Spencer, at a party that culminated in a furious chant of Sieg heil. Marantz and the New Yorker Radio Hour producerRhiannon Corbydove into Samanthas story to understand how and why a normal person abandoned her values, her friends, and her family for an ideology of racial segregation and eugenicsand then came out again. They found her to be a cautionary tale for a time when facts and truth are under daily attack. I thought I knew it all, she told them. I think its extremely nave and foolish to think that you are impervious to it. No one is impervious to this.

Samantha appears in Marantzs new book, Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation.

Read the original:

Samanthas Journey Into the Alt-Right, and Back - The New Yorker

The 1950s were the first sign that with a booming economy, progressive busy-bodies were going to once again turn their sights on controlling behavior. Though Prohibition had ended the Puritan Piety attack on alcohol, and Hitler had put a halt to progressive dreams of eugenics, the war on inferiors continued by well-meaning elites unabated after the soldiers came home.

They just attacked on a new front. Comic books, for example, were ruining children, according to psychiatrist Fred Wertham, who wrote a book making his case called "Seduction of the Innocent." Though Captain America had punched Hitler in the face six months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, now they were the enemy of decency. The Senate took up the case in 1954 but states were already reacting. Ohio Governor Frank Lausche was all for censorship, for example, and supported Akron in its efforts to ban them. Only Akron Councilman Howard Walker, a Ward 8 Republican and chairman of the public welfare and safety committee, resisted the call for bans. Who is qualified to say which books are good and which are bad?

Though conservatives get the bad press in corporate media, it's often social authoritarian progressives out to control behavior. You don't see writers at Reason arguing for censorship but plenty of California politicians want to ban Happy Meals and golf. It was Tipper Gore who declared war on music, supported by her husband Al. And it is Democrats who want vaping banned today. Credit: Pessimists Archive

Once comic books were censored, busybodies found that children still weren't docile automatons, any more than after their efforts to ban radios, books, and "idle minds" so they then turned on pinball machines, rock music, marijuana, TV, birth control, Dungeons & Dragons, rap music, video games, cell phones, and now ... vaping.

If you watch the array of anti-vaping ads appearing on televisions (what used to be corrupting children, according to busybodies) and the Internet (ditto), kids are throwing their video game(ditto) controllers through computers (ditto) because of that demon nicotine; a product that they can't legally buy but some greedy merchant on the internet is still selling so they shout it all needs to be banned.

It's Reefer Madness all over again, which took 60 years to undo. Yet now the same social authoritarian progressives(1) who got marijuana banned and comic books censored have adopted a similar mantra about vaping.

I am not pro-vaping, I don't smoke and never have, nor do I vape, we get no donations from any vaping or tobacco company or trade group, I am simply anti-smoking. It kills, but it is not the nicotine that is harmful, it is the smoke. Vaping needs to be an option for smokers because it simply works better than gums or patches or abstinence only posturing.

Just like Baby Boomers still read comic books in the 1950s - censorship crippled the industry, but it didn't eliminate kids reading comics - they need to realize that kids today are going to do something rebellious or even risky. Some will drink alcohol, some will race cars on streets, some will get addicted to caffeine. But we don't ban beer, automobiles, or Red Bull due to those things, we enforce laws that exist.

That should be the approach we take to vaping. The Trump administration is right to want second opinions instead of listening to what have become increasingly social authoritarian organizations like American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics. They represent only a fraction of doctors and the people forcing through fundamentalist beliefs about nicotine are only a tiny fraction of the members in those organizations. More doctors don't stand up to hysteria because they don't want to look like they are for JUUL. Nor do I, I have blasted the company too many times to count. But just like I defend GMOs even though I didn't like Monsanto as a company, doctors should be going with the evidence and not engaging in culture wars rather than being too timid to stand up to the "cool kids" in their tribes.

FDA, EPA, etc. didn't issue a call to ban GMOs because NRDC, Greenpeace, et al. hate science, even though those groups have gotten plenty of fifth columnists placed inside those government agencies. Nor did academic biologists even though they are 94 percent on the left. Doctors should show as much backbone as scientists and tell government to enforce laws to keep kids from using products, not wrap themselves in the flag of Seduction Of The Internet rhetoric.

NOTE:

(1) Progressives were not alone in using government to force their social authoritarian agenda. Also in 1954, Senator Eugene McCarthy became convinced that the U.S. Army was "soft" on communists. Unlike comic books and other efforts by the left, McCarthy's effort ended in a spectacular failure. Then the left got their revenge on him in history. Though only 7 people in Hollywood were actually Blacklisted - and they were actually communists trying to overthrow the government - you can't find anyone old in that town today who doesn't attribute any career setbacks they may have had to being on the blacklist. It became a badge of honor.

See the article here:

Reefer Madness And Seduction Of The Innocent Are Now The Anti-Vaping M.O. - Science 2.0

President Marc Tessier-Lavigne introduced two women, each renowned in their respective fields, as scientific trailblazers to a packed CEMEX auditorium of 600 people on Monday. Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist who invented CRISPR, and Fei-Fei Li, who currently heads the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) endeavor, discussed the twin revolutions of CRISPR and artificial intelligence with moderator Russ Altman, a bioengineering professor.

But beyond just talking about those innovations, Tessier-Lavigne noted the significant urgency present to consider the broader societal impacts of their work: to notice both the promise and peril that accompany innovation.

Innovation alone isnt sufficient, Tessier-Lavigne said. Creating a disruption does not guarantee positive effects for our society or for individuals. Disrupting just for disruptions sake is no honorable activity. Remarkable opportunities for good can also be misused.

Doudna and Lis work has been influential within the fields of gene editing and artificial intelligence, respectively. Doudna and her team developed the technology known as CRISPR-Cas9, which allows for the editing of DNA and genomes as well as for a myriad of control applications within the body and potential development of biotechnology products.

Li was the leading scientist of ImageNet, a database used in visual object recognition software that enables computers to recognize a wide variety of human, everyday objects through machine learning.

Both speakers acknowledged the ethical concerns looming over these innovations. This beginning of a revolution in deep learning is accompanied by the threat of ethical complications such as eugenics, patentability and heritable genome editing.

The recognition ability [of ImageNet] is in the background of Google searches when you use Facebook or when you communicate with your phone; its always present, Altman said, adding that recent developments in AI have caused the field to become a breeding ground of questions surrounding ethics.

When asked if it was obvious that the results were going to lead to such an explosive reaction both inside and out of the scientific community, Li said that she knew they were approaching a holy grail question.

We were granting the computers an ability that took humans 540 million years of evolution to achieve, she said. I would be lying, however, if I said I recognized the societal implications of the work at the time.

Doudna replied similarly, saying that for those of us working in the world of CRISPR, it was a very esoteric area of biology back then. It was surprising to see that our very esoteric area was merging with a very important part of biotechnology.

Could I have predicted the advancements, CRISPR babies? she asked, referring to former Stanford postdoctoral fellow He Jiankui who launched international controversy when he announced he created the worlds first gene-edited babies using CRISPR technology. Definitely not, but it was a very exciting progression.

A significant part of the discussion centered on ethics, with Altman asking the innovators about their engagement with ethics throughout their research. Doudna recalled 2012 as the year that a moral obligation really arose in her life. After reading a published article of CRISPR being applied to human primates, she recalled realizing the potential for genome editing in humans.

I was quite reluctant, but I did feel a real responsibility to engage in the discussion at that point, Dounda said.

Li also described her surprise when her own career in AI came under public scrutiny, with some critics calling genome editing a field summoning a demon.

While major parts of their professional journeys align, their paths diverge in terms of confronting the ethical problems of their work. To combat the potential misuses of CRISPR, Doudna felt like the scientific community really needed to [be] engaged as a whole. She convened meetings to broach the subject of the morality behind CRISPR applications and recalls thinking that that was the beginning of my education in ethics I felt like a student learning how to think about this and how to approach it.

Lis approach was different because CS was a much younger discipline, without an ethics sub-area, and I didnt know who to talk to. She decided to turn her focus to the drivers of AI, the human representation in the field, especially to diversify the field and open it up to more women and minorities.

Li went on to start the program AI4ALL, which began at Stanford and then grew to become nationally recognized 500 alumni of the program and 11 college campuses that host the students, all with the mission of engaging underrepresented students in underserved communities.

The academic pioneers were then asked about the exposure of young scientists to ethical information, with both agreeing that there needed to be more educating done in their fields.

Its a cultural thing in our field, Doudna said. We are in the vein of creating scholars in our specific subject rather than creating a group of holistically knowledgeable people.

Li added that students of mine dont even have the language to talk about these issues.

Altman went on to note that these are unlikely to be the last scientific revolutions. He wondered what advice the two women had for handling these explosive introductions of research.

We definitely havent seen the end of the AI story its just the beginning, Li answered. We need to invest in people. Diversity and inclusion is a way to ensure that we maximize human representation during these times.

As for representation in policy, Doudna said she would like to see more scientists in Congress.

I was really struck when I met with Bill Foster and he pointed out that he was the only Ph.D. in congress, Doudna said. I think we need to see more representation.

As for their hopes for their work moving forward, their visions were the same: an international framework to cooperate and communicate. Li noted that there are issues of warfare, bioterrorism and a myriad of other potential dangers. She noted that every discovery has a dual potential, which is why we need laws, ethical principles, an international framework given how powerful these technologies are.

Contact Hannah Shelby at hshelby at stanford.edu.

See the rest here:

Renowned scientists address ethics, 'twin scientific revolutions' of AI and CRISPR - The Stanford Daily

Like the president he serves, White House senior adviser Stephen Miller is a white supremacist. Miller believes that white people should be the most powerful group in the United States and around the world. He has worked diligently and enthusiastically to advance that goal through public policy.

Miller is not a white nationalist. To use such language is to legitimate the ways white supremacists have tried since the 1970s to repackage themselves so as to appear more mainstream and reasonable in order to win over more white Americans.

As though more evidence is necessary after three years of Stephen Millers influence on Donald Trumps regime and its unrepentant and enthusiastic cruelty against nonwhites, 900 emails recently obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center offer further proof of Millers white supremacist ideology.

In his communications with a former editor of the right-wing website Breitbart, Miller then an aide to Sen. Jeff Sessions, who went on to become Trump's first attorney general advanced talking points from white supremacist websites that advocate eugenics against nonwhites and a general belief in the inferiority of black people and others.

Miller praised the notorious white supremacist novel The Camp of the Saints (also a favorite of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon) which depicts nonwhite immigrants and migrants in Europe as subhuman, murderous invaders.

In these emails Miller also channeled white supremacist talking points about nonwhite immigrants being invaders in white countries and the premise that white people are somehow being replaced.

Writing at the New York Times, Jamelle Bouie observesthat "there's no way to spin these emails into something innocuous":

The evidence is overwhelming: Miller was immersed in white power ideology. He was fluent in the language of white nationalism, attuned to its ideas. He was an obvious sympathizer who brought that sympathy to the federal government, where he has a direct hand in making immigration policy and choosing personnel.

For three years, Miller has used his perch to inflict fear and anxiety on refugees, asylum-seekers and unauthorized immigrants. Maybe, if you were charitable to Miller and sympathetic to restricting immigration, you could frame this as a misguided but good faith attempt to pull back from a more liberal status quo. No longer. These emails show that Millers views flow from his commitment to racist exclusion and the protection of a white demographic majority.

As a practical matter, Miller views nonwhite people as his enemies. In other words, a senior adviser to the president of the United States is crafting public policy that both directly and indirectly hurts tens of millions of nonwhite Americans. This is a treacherous betrayal of America's multiracial democracy and a direct threat to its future, and provides more evidence that Donald Trump and his regime are illegitimate.

In response to Miller's emails, more than 100 Democratic members of Congress have called for him to resign. No senior Republican elected officials, to my knowledge, have done the same.

These revelations about Stephen Millers white supremacist emails are not secondary to the current impeachment inquiry, or somehow coincidental to a rogue regimes assault on the rule of law and the Constitution.

Indeed, Millers emails are better understood as huge flashing road signs that illustrate how racism and the ideology of white supremacy made Trumps presidency possible and continue to fuel the Republican Party's fascist and authoritarian crusade against American democracy.

There are many examples. Social scientists and others have shown that white racism in combination with nativism and hostile sexism (and assisted Russian interference) that gave Donald Trump the White House in 2016.

Vladimir Putins spies and other agents launched a sophisticated psy-ops campaign, via social media and other means, to exacerbate racial tensions. The goal was to mobilize Trumps voters and demobilizing those more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Research shows that Trumps racially intolerant white voters reject the very idea of democracy if it means that white people will no longer be the dominant and most powerful group in America.A large proportion of Trumps voters are racial authoritarians.

From the post-civil rights era onward, the Republican Party and movement conservatives have embraced racism and white supremacy as a dominant strategy for winning elections and then keeping and expanding power.

Republicans are more likely to be racist and generally more hostile towards nonwhites than are Democrats. Racism and white racial resentment are central to conservatism as a system of motivated social cognition.

In his recent book Post-Racial or Most-Racial? political scientist Michael Tesler shows in exhaustive detail how white racial resentment and racial backlash against Barack Obama now structures the partisanship and other political values of Republicans and right-leaning independent voters.

Political polarization is not race neutral. In reality, the increasing extremism of the Republican Party, as manifested through asymmetrical political polarization from the end of the civil rights movement to the backlash against Obama and then the election of Donald Trump is a function of white racism and white racial resentment. Negative partisanship and political tribalism, where politics is viewed not just as a reasonable difference of opinion between fellow citizens who share common values but rather as a referendum on their human worth and personhood, has also been fueled by white racism and an increasing hostility by Republicans and other conservatives toward the increasingly multiracial and diverse Democratic Party.

Todays Republican Party is opposed to multiracial democracy and the full and equal citizenship rights of nonwhite people, especially black Americans. Through gerrymandering, voter suppression both legal and otherwise and other tactics, the Republican Party has made itself increasingly immune from political accountability for its embrace of white supremacy and racial authoritarianism. In essence, the post-civil rights era Republican Party is the United States largest white racist organization.

Furthermore, this racialization of white group interests in the Age of Trump is increasingly central to white identity and political decision making.

Political scientist Ashley Jardina explained this to Salon in a July 2017 interview:

The idea behind "white identity politics" is that there is a subset of white voters and/or white Americans in general who feel a sense of attachment to their group. They feel a sense of solidarity. They think that their race and their racial identity is important to who they are. Their "white identity" influences how they see and view the political world. Tied up in that sense of identity is a belief that whites are losing out in the United States, their status and power is somehow under threat.

Subsequently those white people who manifest white identity politics are responding to that perception in a political way by supporting policies and candidates who they view as protecting their racial group and preserving its status. Donald Trump is very much the candidate of white identity but white identity mattered before Trump came on the scene.

Yes, white identity is still part of the system of racism because it's about wanting to maintain their power at the top. By implication, this means that people of color necessarily cannot be equal with white people. This type of white identity is about maintaining a system of inequality.

In total, the Trump regimes corruption and lawlessness is made legitimate in the eyes of the Republican Partys leaders, the right-wing propaganda news media and Republican voters because they believe themselves to be defending America from the Democratic Party and its nonwhite supporters.

To this point, Adam Serwer of the Atlantic observes: The Republican Party has responded to the increasing diversity of the electorate with an accelerating intolerance for ethnic and religious minorities, and with elaborate schemes to disenfranchise rival constituencies and rig election rules to its advantage. Crucial to this effort is its conviction that the Republican electorate is the only one that can confer legitimacy on elected officials, and that the partys political opponents are no longer wrong but fundamentally illegitimate, faithless usurpers with no right to determine the direction of the country. This has manifested in the quasi-religious dogma that Trump represents the will of Real America, and therefore defiance of his will is itself a form of treason.

Leading Republicans know that democracy is their enemy precisely because the policies they want to force on the American people are so unpopular. Perhaps even more important, because the Republican Party is organized around white racial tribalism, Republican leaders, their news media and their voters view multiracial democracy, embodied (at least in their eyes) through the Democratic Party, as an existential threat.

Writing in the Guardian, civil rights law professor Carol Anderson summarizes the Republican Party and movement conservatisms commitment to racial authoritarianism and what has been called "Herrenvolk democracy":

The party of Lincolns electoral cul de sac was mapped out by the Republicans contempt for democracy and, especially, fear of the broader American publics access to the ballot box. Despite numerous warnings about the consequences of doubling down on racism, homophobia and misogyny in an increasingly diverse and liberalizing nation, the Republican party ignored those broadsides and chose, instead, to hollow out, shrink and tilt the electorate as far to the right as possible.

I dont want everybody to vote, bellowed Paul Weyrich, the co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation. Those marching orders were dutifully supported by a series of supreme court decisions that gutted the Voting Rights Act, sanctioned voter roll purges in defiance of federal law and ignored the racism embedded in extreme partisan gerrymandered districts.

As a result, a range of Republican-sponsored voter suppression policies now scars the American landscape in a concerted effort to politically silence the majority of the people. Those sheer numbers and the Republican partys hardcore refusal to jettison white supremacy as its operating code has led to policy choices that exacerbate the range of crises facing the nation.

Anderson notes that as of July 2018, even with all the Republican efforts at voter purges, there were 12 million more Democrats than Republicans in the United States. Democrats are 40% of registered voters compared with just 29% listed as Republicans. In fact, the percentage of Americans who identified as members of the Republican party dropped by 5% in four short years. And independents lean overwhelmingly toward Democrats.

The Trump regimes embrace of white supremacy and racism is not limited to the United States. It is also international.In 2018, this administration withdrew the U.S. from the UN Human Rights Council. It has pushed for language condemning racism and nationalism to be removed from official UN documents language that has been present for decades.

In what would in more normal times be a stunning admission, the director of Americas National Counterterrorism Center recently admitted that under the Trump regime the United States is now viewed by the world as an exporter of white supremacist terrorism.This report is from Yahoo News:

After an upsurge in racially motivated attacks around the world, other countries are beginning to regard the United States as an exporter of white supremacism, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said Friday.

For almost two decades, the United States has pointed abroad at countries who are exporters of extreme Islamist ideology, Russell Travers, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told an audience in Washington, D.C. We are now being seen as the exporter of white supremacist ideology. Thats a reality with which we are going to have to deal.

Travers said there is now a global movement of what he termed racially motivated violent extremism, or RMVE (pronounced rem-vee), fueled by a wide variety of motivations and facilitated by social media and other online communications.

A large percentage of RMVE attackers in recent years have either displayed outreach to like-minded individuals or groups or referenced early attackers as sources of inspiration, he said.

While the Trump regime has brought America low and sacrificed the countrys prestige and honor abroad in apparent supplication to Vladimir Putin and Russia it can claim one success. Under Donald Trump and Stephen Millers stewardship, America is now viewed as the world leader in exporting white supremacist terrorism and violence.

Such an outcome is foundational, not coincidental.Vladimir Putins Russia is viewed by many white supremacists and other members of the New Right as a beacon for maintaining global white power and as a champion against a more cosmopolitan and diverse present and future. To the degree that the Trump regime aligns Americas interests with those of Russia, it is doing the work of global white supremacy.

Stephen Miller should of course be forced to resign. There should also be public hearings in Congress about Miller's role in the Trump regime and the policies he inflicted on the country. Miller also represents a much larger problem, beyond systemic and institutional racism in the United States.

The Trump regime has nurtured a permissive environment that welcomes and empowers white supremacists such as Miller, Bannon, Michael Anton and others, at both senior levels and as middle or lower-level bureaucrats. This problem extends to the courts, police and other law enforcement and the military. Congressional hearings could use Stephen Miller as an entry point to a larger discussion of white supremacist infiltration at all levels of the United States government.

In the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, should Democrats include the full panoply of his crimes and other unpresidential behavior encouraging white supremacy and other political violence; crimes against humanity, as demonstrated by his regimes treatment of nonwhite migrants; betrayal of the presidential oath of office; violations of the emoluments clause and abundant corruption or should they instead go small and just focus on abuse of power, obstruction of justice and the Ukraine scandal?

Ultimately, those questions will reflect on how the Democratic Partys leaders balance political expediency with principle.

At the Inquirer, Will Bunch summarizes this dilemma:

The evidence is piling up that Trumps political extortion ploy on Ukraine was bribery, an extreme abuse of power, and a violation of his sacred oath to protect the best interests of the United States. That alone merits his impeachment (which will happen), his removal (which probably wont) and a harsh judgment from 2020 voters (when it doesnt). But given the sweep of this presidents assault on both the Constitution and on human decency, it almost feels and Im hardly the first to write this like busting the murderous Al Capone for income tax evasion.

Capone wasnt charged with the St. Valentines Day Massacre, and Trump wont be impeached for ripping toddlers away from their refugee mothers and fathers, or for locking tens of thousands of kids at the border in cages or squalid detention centers. Even worse, confirmation of something awful yet long suspected that the man shaping U.S. immigration policy is a fairly unabashed white supremacist barely caused a ripple.

Yet this unconscionable assault against the tired, the hungry, the poor, and their defenseless children on the southern border is the very worst crime of Donald Trumps presidency, an offense against humanity. Its good to see our elected officials finally holding this president accountable for violating his oath when he put his hand on that Bible on January 20, 2017.

Holding Trump and Stephen Miller accountable for violating the words inside that Bible to love thy neighbor will have to wait on a higher authority than Congress.

Trumps impeachment and the 2020 presidential election offer a referendum on what type of country America is and what kind it will be in the future. The Democrats will impeach Donald Trump. Republicans in the Senate, in all likelihood, will not convict him. Trump and his cult will claim victimhood and be further empowered in their assault on democracy, the rule of law and human decency.

This leaves the American people to decide on Election Day 2020 whether they are prepared to save the countrys multiracial democracy or abandon it to fascists, racial authoritarians and their dream of a 21st-century American apartheid where making America "great again" is an updated version of Whites Only.

Originally posted here:

Stephen Miller's white supremacy is no surprise but it raises the stakes on impeachment and 2020 - Salon

Jonathan McIntosh [CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

November 22, 2019; Charlotte Agenda

A community foundation based in Charlotte is facing intense public scrutiny after recent investigations uncovered that funds managed by the organization have been funding anti-immigrant groups for decades.

The Charlotte Agenda reports that the Foundation For The Carolinas (FFTC) is the sixth-largest community foundation in the country with $2.6 billion in assets. Their CEO, Michael Marsicano, is considered a civic leader in many circles, and the Foundation is influential in its ability to set the policy agenda with local officials.

FFTC is currently facing a whirlwind of criticism after a variety of news outlets have reported on the developments related to foundation-housed, donor-advised funds. An investigative report by the Charlotte Observer found that the foundation granted roughly $21 million in donor-advised dollars to organizations that advocate for limits on immigration between 2006 and 2018. Two organizations that received funding have caught the attention of the public: The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Those two groups, along with one other group, Numbers USA, received about 85 percent of the $21 million.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has designated both CIS and FAIR as hate groups. A quick glance at their history provides an understanding of how they operate today. John Tanton founded both groups and was also listed as a board member of FAIR up until 2010. Tanton was a white supremacist and eugenicist who regularly associated with former Klan members and leaders of the white nationalist movement.

A report from the Council on Foundations (COF) explains how community foundations acquire their resources and details the challenges to the overall model in the 21st century. Donor-advised funds (DAFs) have become an increasingly important aspect of generating revenue for many community foundations. Over the years, donor-advised funds have seen huge growth. Total DAF assets reached $121.42 billion in 2018. Community foundations hold a good share of these funds, but over time, funds run by investor firms like Fidelity and Schwab, which now run commercially-sponsored nonprofit DAFs, have grown in market share and have emerged as the nations largest nonprofits.

FFTC provides its DAF holders with full discretion over where their donations go, which is how the donations have ended up in the coffers of groups like CIS and FAIR.

In fairness to FFTC, providing donor-advised fund holders nearly full discretion over disbursements while maintaining legal responsibility for them is a common practice for community foundations. Most community foundations separate their programmatic work in the community from the more transactional work of managing donor-advised funds. It may even make sense in a lot of ways. It allows the community foundations to continue operating and making impact in the community, while maximizing the amount of donor-advised funds at the foundation means increased revenue. It also promotes democratic ideals by allowing a wide range of ideas to receive support.

But when a grant made is considered to be counter to the ideals of the donor-advised sponsor, that rather frail contract can fall apart. We have seen this occur in networks of Jewish federations, some of which have refused to make donations to groups critical of Israel. The issue became serious enough that the New Israel Fund sprung up to meet the needs of progressive Jewish donors.

As for FFTC, Marsicano gives many justifications for the foundations funding of anti-immigrant groups. He asks, Where does one draw the line in what should be funded and what should not be funded? He claims that it is the job of the IRS to determine who receives charitable status. He also mentions how a diversity of viewpoints makes for a healthier community, and that no institution should be engaged in cutting off the freedom of speech of its community members.

These are fair arguments until you begin to examine the current context at a deeper level. Nearly every organization that applies for charitable status is approved. And it is now common knowledge that there are many hate groups who are registered as charitable organizations. Additionally, the gutting of the IRS following the Lois Lerner scandal continues. The IRS have very few resources to regulate whether organizations are staying true to their charitable missions.

The stakes have also gotten higher, given the increase in hate crimes since the 2016 election. Charlotte residents have also been the subjects of increased raids and deportations because of the stance of their sheriff, who refuses to collaborate with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Speaking to the Charlotte Agenda, Sil Ganz of ourBridge for KIDS wonders how the Foundation can provide so much support to her immigrant-focused nonprofit, while also channeling funds to anti-immigrant groups. She adds, I find [the FFTCs] position of neutrality highly problematic as it puts our neighbors and families at risk. Aaron Dorfman, of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, offers a more critical view of the situation, there is no such thing as neutrality on thisyou cant be a big tent for your community if youre facilitating harm on some members of your community. Thats exactly whats happening here. In response to the recent developments, over 80 foundations have signed a pledge to filter out hate groups from their grantmaking.

Still, the fact that donors could certainly find another institution to channel their tax-deductible donations speaks to a broader problem in how the US treats charitable organizations. Increasingly, the community foundation world is faced with challenging questions about whether they are more committed to growth and increasing their assets under management, or more committed to their values and mission. These are important developments to follow because community foundations play such a crucial role in our communities. As the famous late historian Howard Zinn said, you cant be neutral on a moving train.Benjamin Martinez

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When DAFs Belie the Community in Community Foundation - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly

Eric Rasmusen is a tenured business school professor at Indiana University Bloomington; for many years, he's posted a stream of "racist, sexist, and homophobic views" to his personal social media, including the idea that women do not belong in the workplace (he often refers to women by slurs like "slut" when discussing this and other subjects); that gay men should not be allowed in academia because of their insatiable sexual appetites and propensity for abusing students; that Black students are academically inferior to white students and do not belong at elite academic institutions.

Indiana U is a state college and bound by the First Amendment's prohibition on discrimination on the basis of speech and Rasmusen has confined his odious speech acts to his personal social media, apparently refraining from voicing these views on campus while acting in a professional capacity. As a result, it's the view of the university provost that he cannot be fired, despite her characterization of Rasmusen's views as "vile and stupid" and "stunningly ignorant." Provost Lauren Robel has also said that her own respect for the First Amendment is such that she would not fire Rasmusen for his personal views, even if she could.

However, Robel and the university acknowledge that Rasmusen's views call into question his impartiality and also expose students to a reasonable belief that they could not be fairly graded or assessed by Rasmusen. Accordingly the university has undertaken a pari of extraordinary measures to protect students without trampling the First Amendment.

1. All classes that Rasmusen teaches will also be offered by another instructor so that any student can chose to take the class without coming into contact with Rasmusen.

2. Rasmusen will be required to grade all assignments on a double-blind basis, and when that is not possible, he will be closely supervised by another business school prof who will ensure that he does not practice discrimination.

The provost goes on to say that this is not exhaustive, and the university is prepared to take further steps to protect students and faculty members from Rasmusen's bigotry.

Rasmusen's publications include articles like "Are Women Destroying Academia? Probably." He has posted a detailed rebuttal to the provost's article.

I think the most interesting thing about this is that Rasmusen was tenured: for decades after the rise of Reaganism, a lot of people assumed that right wingers who dabbled in eugenics, white supremacy, dominionism and other medieval/crypto-fascist ideas were just colorful provocateurs LARPing Archie Bunker. It turned out they were deadly fucking serious. They were a sleeper cell from Gilead, and now they're finished masturbating over the Turner Diaries and have broken cover and plan on enacting a full-blown Dominionist white theocracy.

The First Amendment is strong medicine, and works both ways. All of us are free to condemn views that we find reprehensible, and to do so as vehemently and publicly as Professor Rasmusen expresses his views. We are free to avoid his classes, and demand that the university ensure that he does not, or has not, acted on those views in ways that violate either the federal and state civil rights laws or IUs nondiscrimination policies. I condemn, in the strongest terms, Professor Rasmusens views on race, gender, and sexuality, and I think others should condemn them. But my strong disagreement with his viewsindeed, the fact that I find them loathsomeis not a reason for Indiana University to violate the Constitution of the United States.

On the First Amendment [Lauren Robel/Indiana University]

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Indiana University Provost: The First Amendment says we can't fire our notorious bigot professor, so here's what we're doing instead - Boing Boing

Arecurring line from the Twilight Zone movie came back to me last week: You want to see something really scary?

Eugenics: Sciences Greatest Scandal (BBC4) over the last two Thursdays made for very scary viewing. Were familiar with eugenics, pure race theory and the like from Nazi ideology, but the programmes showed that the seeds of it began in Britain.

Journalist Angela Saini and Adam Pearson were in no doubt about the ugliness and evil consequences of this patronising an arrogant ideology, where the individual was sacrificed, ostensibly for the good of society and the gene pool.

We heard the ideology described as bizarre, creepy, this terrible idea, malicious and terrifying. The language of the eugenicists was repulsive, with quotes like imbecile girl, mentally defective family, parasitic race, superior stocks and racial hygiene.

Prominent figures were in the dock apparently Churchill was a fan of eugenics, at least before World War II, and several prominent scientists developed and promoted it, even though it took the Nazis to follow it to the conclusion that the weak, infirm and disabled should be experimented on and murdered.

Likewise with Marie Stopes (she of the clinics) she promoted birth control for the poor so that they wouldnt reproduce so much. I was glad to see that the Catholic Church and some MPs successfully campaigned to halt forced sterilisation in Britain in the early 20th Century.

Its easy to see the moral failures of the past and be smug about it, when maybe we should just be glad weve moved on and learned lessons, but the programme suggested that maybe we havent moved on.

At the start of last weeks episode we saw protests from the Dont Screen Us Out campaign against the aborting of babies because they have Downs syndrome. In fact abortion had been used in Britain in the past when efforts to stop the mentally defective from procreating didnt work. And it definitely rang a bell when I heard of two doctors casually certifying a woman, Mabel Cooper, as unfit and incarcerating her into an institution unbelievably in 1957.

Eventually she got out, received an honorary degree and ran a disability rights campaign.

That latest episode dealt with more contemporary manifestations of eugenic ideology, for example the worrying news that it continued after the second world war and fed into forced sterilisations, apartheid and far-right ideology (do media people ever worry about the far left?).

The eugenicist attitudes of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger (she of Planned Parenthood) was also outlined. Fears were also expressed about modern scientific developments, especially non-invasive screening of babies in the womb leading to the destruction of most unborn babies diagnosed with Downs syndrome (90% in the UK we were told).

Finally, compliments to RT and EWTN for live coverage of the canonisation ceremony for Cardinal Newman. It was quite an event, with significant relevance for Ireland, and also it wasnt until the live coverage that I got a handle on the four holy women that were canonised as well.

The Leap of Faith (RT Radio 1) was early into the breach two Fridays ago with an informative interview with Newman biographer Fr Dermot Mansfield. He described the saint as a man of integrity, truth, humanity and prayer.

Last weekends Sunday programme on BBC Radio 4 featured a thorough and very positive exploration of Newmans life and influence. They reported one priest claiming that Newman would have been a remainer in relation to Brexit a rather large and divisive assumption!

This was followed by a dignified service from the Birmingham Oratory, where Newman ministered. This newspapers Managing Editor editor Michael Kelly contributed to Sunday Sequence (BBC Radio Ulster), pointing out how the gathering in Rome illustrated the universality of the Church, stressing how Newman can be a unifying figure in a Church with divisions and drawing attention to the hastily arranged visitof an Irish Government representative to the event.

On Sunday Morning Live (BBC1) Bishop John Arnold of Salford emphasised how Newman was both intellectual and pastoral in his approach. Later on Songs of Praise (BBC One, Sunday) Rev. Kate Bottley visited Birmingham Oratory where we got a look at Newmans study, left as it was when he died. Fr Anton Guziel pointed out how Neman ministered to the rich and the very poor.

I hope all the coverage inspires more people to look into the saints writings.

****

Mass for Mission Sunday with music from the choir of the National Centre for Liturgy, St Patricks College, Maynooth. Co-celebrants are Fr Frank Conlisk and Fr Martin Smith.

Joe Duffy narrates the story of a Dublin priest and amateur filmmaker, Fr Jack Delaney, who captured all walks of Irish life in the days before television.

This special programme takes a close look at the role that plants and gardening play in mental and physical wellbeing, exploring the idea that gardening is good for you.

Related

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At least we've on from eugenics...maybe - The Irish Catholic

Surf City Beginning in 1912, the people of the New Jersey Pine Barrens were under attack and faced extermination. It didnt come from an enemy army or disease, but from the modern science of eugenics and the progressive political movement of the day. Two government-funded reports had labeled the residents in the press as incestuous inbreeders who lived a life of crime. Soon, shouts of what will we do with those people resounded from the states urban centers. It wasnt long until the politicians answered the call.

The April 23 edition of the Camden Courier reported, The startling conditions that have been reported as existing in the pines of Burlington county, by Miss Elizabeth Kite, will be investigated by the grand jury summoned at the opening of the term of court of Burlington county yesterday. Action along this line has been caused by the publication of Miss Kites report. Attracted by Miss Kites touch upon the alleged unlawful conditions and responding to suggestions made by the public press, Prosecutor Atkinson had Miss Kite summoned to appear before the grand jury.

On May 13, the Asbury Park Press told readers there had been some action.

The grand jury also disposed of its investigation into alleged immoral conditions in the pines of Burlington county, as presented in recent reports by Miss Elizabeth S. Kite. There was action in one case, Gardner Hendrickson of Southampton township, being indicted for bigamy. He thought, he declared, because his wife had married his brother, he had a right to marry another woman.

The problem was also handed over to the state saying, The grand jury in its presentment stated that it was the duty of the state to provide that the propagation of deficient classes be stopped by the enforcement of adequate laws made for the purpose.

By the spring of 1913, Gov. Woodrow Wilson, who signed a bill authorizing forced sterilizations, had left the state to become president, leaving behind his hand-picked choice, James Fiedler, to serve as temporary governor.

On June 26, the Paterson Call announced, Acting Governor Fielder, moved by the recent report of Miss Kite on immorality in the section of South Jersey known as the pine belt, will make a personal tour of inspection tomorrow to study the habits of the people in that section. The executive intends to spend the entire day in the country embraced in the exhaustive report of Miss Kite. If there is any immorality going on Mr. Fielder wants to see it.

Today what took place would be called a media circus, as a governor went in search of immorality. The Asbury Park Press of June 28 explained, Following a strenuous days tour of the notorious belt the executive diagnosed the trouble with the inhabitants of the pine lands. Discussing the subject with a staff reporter from The Press he set forth his views in no uncertain words. He laid the blame to a great extent at the door of those who live among the people whose morality is practically null and who have raised no hand to aid them. (H)e suggested that he would use his influence to bring the grand juries of the counties affected to indict those whose vices are responsible for the mental, moral and physical degeneration of the inhabitants of the belt.

The governor had other dignitaries traveling with him.

The Rev. A.W. Bostwick a member of the party who made the tour suggested during the day that the state establish segregation colonies where the mentally defective could be sent and where the immoral could be detained. Even more radical surgical steps toward the obliteration of the deplorable conditions were spoken of but neither appealed to the executive as practical. In the former case the segregation, it was argued might work toward the introduction of more revolting actions and the second would require trial.

Being a good politician and thinking about re-election, Fielder proposed a gentler remedy.

He advocated the introduction of properly censored motion pictures, illustrated lectures, and any form of amusement that would serve to interest the people in a cleaner form of living. He said that from his observations he did not think that it was due so much to the fact that they were imbued with a desire toward immorality as it was that they were uneducated, illiterate. They must first be taught what they must not do and then it will be time to show what they must do. On his trip today he found much that needed immediate remedy.

The Press concluded, The need of social workers was strongly apparent to the governor when he entered a little two room house where the front room served, he said, for living room, bed room, kitchen, dining room and hen house. He said that while he was in the front room the chickens were walking over the bed, and the house was in a filthy condition. In the heart of one of the principle towns in the belt he found a man and woman dwelling together with children, tho, they had never been married. Everyone in town knew it, he said but paid no heed to the effects that might come.

While the Asbury Park newspaper was generally sympathetic, the New York Sun took a hard line.

NEW JERSEY should do something quickly about the Pineys, that degenerate race which dwells in the sand and pine barrens in the heart of the State, decided acting Governor James E. Fielder on Friday night after an all-day trip through the wilder parts of Burlington county. Not much longer should these degenerate descendants of a fine stock be allowed to multiply and inbreed to swell the States list of public charges, he declared. Segregation will be tried and perhaps sterilization to stop the birth of idiots and criminals and defectives. Social centres are to be established in the little red school-houses. The decent folk of the district are to be pilloried if they do not see that the law is enforced against their worthless neighbors.

To the Sun, Fiedler didnt seem as kind.

I have been shocked at the conditions I found. Evidently these people are a serious menace to the state of New Jersey because they produce so many persons that inevitably become public charges. They have inbred and led lawless and scandalous lives till they have become a race of imbeciles, criminals and defectives.

The state must segregate them, that is certain. I think it may be necessary to sterilize some of them. They tell me there are as many as 1,500 right here in Burlington county and several thousand in the pine belt of the state.

For the children we must have social centers in the schools, and these would do something for the grown persons. There must be sharp heed that the children attend school, and it will be possible to educate parents in many cases.

He concluded his interview with The low mentality of these people is the great handicap, and it is plainly responsible for the low moral standards among them. Lack of education is another factor, and the universal poverty and the fact that the children all have to go to work at a tender age contribute to keep these people down. But from what I have seen today I believe that the Pineys largely know their plight. They are now generally sending their children to school. They are no longer indifferent to whether the child can read or write. There is hope for a race that knows where it stands. But I will act on the situation at once.

Segregation camps and sterilization or movie theaters and recreation centers which way would the state of New Jersey go when it came to dealing with those people in the pines?

Next Week: the colony.

tpfcjf@comcast.net

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New Governor Addresses Piney Situation - By THOMAS P. FARNER - The SandPaper

The extent of racism in UK universities has been yet again exposed by a new Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report. But while statistics like the fact that more than a quarter of minority ethnic students have faced both physical and verbal racist attacks are shocking, theyre not new. Last year the Student Room found that one in two students had witnessed or faced racism on campus, while a National Union of Students (NUS) report said that incidents of racism made students of colour want to discontinue their education.

I have heard anecdotes such as these firsthand. When the EHRC enquiry was launched I was serving as black students officer at the NUS, where I was regularly contacted by students of colour to support them with the racism they were experiencing on and off campus. Some of these stories made it into the news, with stories of leaked Facebook and WhatsApp chats, pictures of socials, and videos in halls going viral.

These stories and statistics can no longer be waved away as an aberration or minor part of some peoples experiences. For students of colour, racism is a constant in their lives. It is woven into every part of their so-called student experience, from being freshers to finding employment. For black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff, the challenge of getting a job in a university is surpassed only by the difficulty in getting promoted in a profession in which only 0.6% of UK professors are black. Although some universities have begun to make progress on these issues, often by using the Race Equality Charter framework, too many are sitting idly by and failing students and staff.

The problem is that racism and other forms of oppression are not something institutions want to readily admit exist, let alone begin the difficult work of rectifying. The marketisation of higher education has led to universities shifting focus from teaching and learning to protecting their reputations for fear of dropping in the league tables and losing out on students. In such a system, how can we expect universities to address racism, when the threat of bankruptcy looms with every low student intake? Meanwhile universities that are successful enough to expand are incentivised to increase their surplus, rather than looking after their students by increasing student support services or grants to the students union.

The focus on protecting the reputation of the institution was a theme of the EHRC report. One student said their university was more bothered about covering the incident up to maintain a spotless reputation than it was about tackling racism. Universities have begun to fear that talking openly about racism will deter potential applicants, but an honest conversation about race in our universities is desperately needed. This has been called for by students, staff and academics for decades, but has gained momentum over the past few years with the Why is my curriculum white? and decolonising movements enabling people to articulate their visions of a fairer campus.

For far too long universities have been exempt from public criticism thanks to their perception as elevated spaces of knowledge; places where liberalism and tolerance rule and which have meritocracy at their very heart. But studies like the EHRC report or research by the NUS black students campaign have begun to tear down this myth.

Yet for many, this myth never existed. Their experience at university isnt discussing lofty ideas in dreaming spires. Its being stopped by security; being asked to represent your people in a seminar; watching your junior colleagues getting promoted above you; being fearful of being referred to the home office at every student demonstration you attend; hearing lecturers use the n word; not using your ethnic name when applying for graduate schemes and fearing the prevent duty.

The truth is that from a historical perspective, universities have never been meritocratic or liberal. Many were created with the sole purpose of enabling people of wealth and prestige to accumulate further wealth and prestige. Their legacy includes training the next generation of people to run the British empire, funding from slavery and intellectualising eugenics to justify the racism on which the empire was built.

The writing is once again on the wall, and universities have a choice to make. They can continue to resist calls to change by hiding behind their reputations. Or we can finally see the tearing down of the myth of the liberal, tolerant institution and the creation of a progressive, democratic alternative.

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Universities must stop covering up racism in order to protect their own reputations - The Guardian

This Dystopian Hell Hole Nightmarish Hellscape That Democrats Are Putting Out

Whoopi Goldberg repeatedly fact-checked Meghan McCains analysis on The View of Sen. Bernie Sanders remarks about population control in light of climate change.

The Democratic presidential candidate agreed that family planning was a key feature in addressing climate catastrophe, and McCain backed her friend S.E. Cupps assessment of the remarks as an endorsement of eugenics.

Population growth is on the decline, McCain said. The worlds population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century and in all clarity, I think people know this, but S.E. Cupp is one of my closest friends, and I agree with that. We were actually texting each other when this moment happened in the climate change debate.

Any time youre talking about population control, she added, if youre a pro-life person, it starts sounding alarms. Because, again, like in China they enacted a one-child policy, and now men outnumber women by 70 million in China and India. Its disgusting.

Related: Gross Distortion: S.E. Cupp Roasted for Insane Attack Accusing Bernie Sanders of Promoting Eugenics

Co-host Sunny Hostin pointed out that wasnt eugenics, which Goldberg had already defined earlier in the discussion, but McCain pressed on.

I believe its a slippery slope towards that, McCain said, and I do think this dystopian hell hole nightmarish hellscape that Democrats are putting out that climate change is just going to end everything to the (point) that were going to have to have population control in this country seems very extreme.

McCain and Abby Huntsman agreed that Sanders seemed to be supporting population control through abortion, while Hostin and Joy Behar argued thats not was he was saying at all and Goldberg cut in with a fact check.

Lets be clear about what he is saying, Goldberg said. Lets not make something up when its not what he said, because when you bring in eugenics, thats a different conversation. That is the controlling of a population because you dont like the size of your nose or theyre too dark.

McCain interjected to say that eugenics disproportionately impacts minorities and people with disabilities, but Goldberg said that was beside the point.

Eugenics doesnt have anything to did with minorities or anybody else, Goldberg said, over McCains protest, and I will say this to you also. Think about all the women in Ireland who for years just wanted birth control, they just wanted birth control because they live in a Catholic country that said you cannot have it.

They were having an insane amount of children, Goldberg added. What these women fought for and pressed for and marched for and got was the right to make that decision for themselves. I think thats clearly and maybe I misinterpreted it, but when he says, I think especially in poor countries around the world, where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, thats something I support. Thats different than eugenics.

McCain said she heard Sanders through the prism of a conservative, and she was alarmed.

I was shocked by what was coming out of his mouth, McCain said, and clearly everyone else at the table thought it was normal and just in the vein of climate change.

Huntsman was also alarmed, and the panelists argued over Sanders meaning, but Goldberg stepped back in again to restore order.

Listen, you can be pissed at what he said all you want to, she said, but report it correctly.

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Trump Makes Startling Statement: 'We've Taken Control of the Oil in the Middle East US Has Control of That' - The New Civil Rights Movement

Overpopulation is a major contributor to climate change, but according to new research, a solution is lying in plain sight: increased access toeffective contraceptives.

Global climate change represents a grave threat to the future of human welfare and our natural environment, write doctors John Bongaarts and Rgine Sitruk-Ware of the Population Council in New York in an article published Tuesday in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health. The contentious ongoing policy debate about potential interventions focuses on switching to renewable energy sources and increasing energy use efficiency. But given the urgency of the problem and the lack of political will, other approaches to limit greenhouse gas emissions should be given higher priority. Improving access to effective contraception is one such policy that has thus far been largely ignored by the international climate community.

The authors claim that improved access to contraception could slow population growth and thereby reduce long-term greenhouse gas emissions globally by 40 percent or more. Bongaarts and Sitruk-Ware write that many married womenmore than half in some countrieswho do not wish to become pregnant still fail to use contraception due to barriers to access, high costs, and social stigma. Consequently, there are about 99 million unintended pregnancies worldwide each year. By 2100, Earths population is expected to reach 10.9 billion people. (The current population is about 7.7 billion.)

As Paul Ehrlich, author ofThe Population Bomb, toldMother Jones in 2010, overpopulation, combined with overconsumption, is the elephant in the room in climate discussions. We dont talk about overpopulation because of real fears from the pastof racism, eugenics, colonialism, forced sterilization, forced family planning, plus the fears from some of contraception, abortion, and sex. We dont really talk about overconsumption because of ignorance about the economics of overpopulation and the true ecological limits of Earth.

Bongaarts and Sitruk-Ware recommend that governments worldwide increase access to contraceptives by investing in family planning programs. They also encouragethe research and development of new forms of contraception, and they suggest combatting social opposition to birth control through media campaigns.

Wider distribution of contraceptives already on the market through greater investment in voluntary but underfunded family planning programmes is sufficient to raise contraceptive use substantially, they write. This in turn would have a profound positive impact on human welfare, the climate and the environment.

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The Climate Change Solution Scientists Have Been Overlooking - Mother Jones

Eugenics is a concept often associated with the horrors of Nazi Germany. But, as disability rights activist Adam Pearson explores in a new documentary series, the ideology had its roots in 19th century Britainand still affects people alive today.

Known as the "father of eugenics," British Victorian scientist and statistician Sir Francis Galton developed the since debunked theory that individuals deemed "superior" according to factors such as their race or class could be socially engineered. Those regarded as biologically inferior and "feeble-minded" should, meanwhile, be prevented from having children, he argued.

Cherry picking the theories of his cousin Charles Darwin, who pioneered the theory of evolution, Galton developed a ranking of humansfor instance placing Australian Aborigines one "grade" below Africans.

In the decades that followed, these ideas have inspired horrifying policies from the murder of thousands of disabled people in Nazi Germany, to the sterilization of tens of thousands of people in the U.S. in the early 20th century.

Newsweek asked Pearson, a presenter and anti-bullying campaigner, what he learned while filming BBC Four's Eugenics: Science's Greatest Scandal Pearson alongside science journalist Angela Saini.

Were theories related to eugenics dark from the start, or did they come from a place of genuine scientific curiosity and later misused?

Everything comes from a place of curiosity, and science is a weapon of great power for change. The extent to which change happens, and more significantly, how it is allowed to happen, all comes down to those people who are wielding it. In this instance, the power was in that hands of well-thought of men whoin what we now know to be misusewas left to go unchallenged.

What are some policies that were influenced by or based on the theories of eugenics?

One of the big ones, as pertains to disability, was The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913. Whilst the act wasn't used until 1919, due to us [Britain] being at war, what it meant was that individuals whom were deemed "imbeciles" on grounds of both intellect and morality, could be segregated from society and literally locked away in an asylum. The number involved and the loss of freedom, with the benefit of retrospection, is truly shocking and heart breaking.

What were the most shocking things that you learned while filming this program?

We went to one of the earliest of examples of these asylums in Leeds [U.K.], a place called Meanwood Park. Mark Davis [a photographer and archivist] who I met was fascinated by the whole place and has kept loads of archives from its history.

If you add up the amount of years served by its 35 longest-serving inmateswho had committed no crime other than being disabledit comes to just under 2,000 years. Truly heartbreaking.

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Do any moments from filming the program stand out to you?

There was no one moment in particular, but there was an overwhelming sense of "this would have been me." Had I been born in those times I'd definitely been sent to one of these asylums, or even worse taken to a Nazi Aktion T4 camp and executed as one the 300,000 disabled people murdered under Hitler's regime.

As a disability rights activist, how did learning about eugenics and creating this documentary make you feel?

I've honestly been all over the spectrum of emotions. I've felt seething anger, great sorrow and even mild heartbreak. I interviewed a man called Harvey Waterman [a man in his eighties] who was kept in one of these asylums, a place called St. Lawrence's [in Caterham, Surrey, U.K.]

As a journalist and activist, I'm no stranger to pain, but this is the only interview where I have to take a break halfway through. I pretended to need to toilet and had to take time to pull myself together. Though, more importantly, I felt inspired and hopeful. Having met several other activists, alongside medical professions and scientists, I believe the weapons of science are now in safer hands.

How much did you know about the history of eugenics before you started filming? Do you think it is a topic there is enough awareness of?

I knew the term, as should everyone, though I was unaware of the extent of how well respected it was. Even Winston Churchill [British Prime Minister during the World War II] was a heavy endorser of eugenics and what it stood for.

Are people still suffering from the effects of the ideology? I believe you met a woman who was sterilized?

Yes, Elena [Gorolova]. She was sterilized due to medical complications during child birththat was the medical answer. However, there are a disproportionate number of Roma Gypsy women from her country of Czechia who this has happened to.

She set up a campaign group and after years of fighting for justice politicians, finally passed a bill in order to compensate them. It just proves that while the term eugenics has been laid to rest, eugenic thinking is still alive, well and thriving in society.

Amid a divisive political climate which saw white supremacists rally in Charlottesville in 2017, do you worry that the theories of eugenics will drawn upon once again?

I do, but by the same token I like to think that we have learned enough from the past to be able to halt such propaganda and eugenic thinking as and when it arises.

Moving forward, how can we avoid ideas reminiscent of eugenics becoming widespreadparticularly as scientists make breakthroughs in fields like genetics and so-called human enhancement?

We have a whole area of science called bioethics, whose sole job is to ensure that this whole "designer baby" debate doesn't happen, and that science and medicine are always used for the betterment of patients, not to make a master society.

What do you want viewers to take away from the documentary?

That eugenics has a history and that it affects all of us. It isn't just a disabled issue, or Jewish issue. It's a humanity issue. I want people to watch this and feel the weight of the issue like Angela and I did. If this documentary makes you feel highly uncomfortable then good, it should.

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Eugenics: The Scientific Scandal That Helped Hitler Murder 300,000 Disabled People - Newsweek

CultureTVPlus: a third season of Young Sheldon begins, and Catherine the Great is pining for her lover

Thursday, 10th October 2019, 15:51 pm

PICK OF THE DAY

The Met: Policing London

Deadly stabbings and shootings almost seem to be a daily occurrence in Englands capital, with a dramatic rise in the murders of under-25s in 2018 the year during which this excellent blue-light series was filmed. The programme begins with the distressing phone call made by 22-year-old youth worker Kobi Nelson after he was fatally stabbed. DNA from the crime scene matches that of a known 20-year-old and indicated that Nelsons killing might be related to drugs gangs. Five weeks later, Kelvin Odunuyi is shot dead at a cinema in Wood Green, leaving DCI Luke Marks and his team to determine whether it was connected to the earlier murder.

Young Sheldon

Inside Prison: Britain Behind Bars

This eye-opening docuseries lifting the lid on life behind bars focuses on HMP Isle of Wight, a specialist prison housing many sex offenders and paedophiles. Intelligence has been gathered that a USB stick containing child pornography is doing the rounds, so the officers launch a search. But finding such a small item in a vast prison is no easy task. The staff are also seen trying to combat the increasingly creative ways to smuggle drugs into the jail, from letters sprayed with a spice solution to hollowed-out chess pieces.

Celebrity First Dates Hotel For SU2C

Eugenics: Sciences Greatest Scandal

Eugenics did not die with the Nazis, argue science journalist Angela Saini and disability campaigner Adam Pearson in the second part of their penetrating look at the idea that, for the betterment of the human race, some people shouldnt be allowed to reproduce. Programmes of selective breeding to weed out disability and the mass sterilisation of the poor in so-called third world countries have continued, while emerging science such as gene editing could be leading to a new era of eugenics.

Catherine The Great

Helen Mirrens Russian empress is pining for her lover, Major General Potemkin (the man after whom the mutinous battleship was named), but he is away fighting the Turks a suddenly topical plot development given a certain US politicians late-night tweets. War, war, war! All I want to do is talk about sex, complains Catherine, as Paul Kaye joins the cast as a murderous peasant with radical views.

Continue reading here:

What's on TV tonight: The Met investigates London's drugs gangs, and celebrities head to the First Dates Hotel - iNews

Until November 1912, 48-year-old Elizabeth Kite was a little-known, European-educated social worker from Philadelphia who was working for the state of New Jersey. On the 25th, the Los Angeles Times along with papers across the country ran SELL BABIES IN NEW JERSEY. Report Charges People Also Exchange Wives in Mosquito State.

A report charging people in the Pine section of New Jersey with exchanging wives and selling babies for small sums of money lies on the desk of Gov. Wilson. The report was prepared by Miss Elizabeth Kite, investigator for the State Department of Charities and Corrections.

The Daily Record, a Long Branch, N.J., paper, investigated.

Elizabeth Kite ... has been making a study of conditions in New Jersey relating to degeneracy and feeble mindedness as existing in The Pines including sections of Burlington, Atlantic and Ocean counties.

Miss Kite has spent three years among the people of this District, and her report made to the state commissioner of charities ... maintains that the low type of people of The Pines think nothing of trading their wives and selling their children. Substantiation of her statements can be had by a number of recent cases which have been investigated. Wives are traded and children are sold, according to the society, for small sums of money and for liquor.

Kites report, which was published in October 1913, did give an example.

Only a few years ago a notorious Piney bearing a perverted Huguenot name died in his cabin in the heart of the pines at the age of ninety-eight.

Four years before his death he was found one day returning to his shack after a prolonged absence. Questioned as to where he had been, he said he had gotten tired o the gal he had been livin with too giddy he said shaking his head, too giddy fer me, so I took her down shore an traded her. Did pretty well, too got this old hoss and this here keg orum.

Such conditions are common today in the Pines and many another Piney can be found whose ancestry could be traced back to some off-shoot of a rigid, highly respectable, intelligent family which in other branches, has furnished us some of our best citizens.

Kite, who was a supporter of the new science of eugenics, felt many of the people living in the Pines were the descendants of what she called outcasts from society, deserters from the British Army, criminals and a product of inbreeding, and had become a unique society. She even blamed the French.

Prince Joseph Bonaparte held his miniature court at Bordentown, many were the revels and hunting parties in the Pines which were indulged in by the members of his suite. All these revelers came back, leaving a train of nameless offspring to complicate still further the mixed social problem of the pines, so that today, in tracing the ancestry of any particular group, one runs up continually against the impossibility of proving exact ancestry.

Gov. Woodrow Wilson had just been elected president. As a lame duck, he awaited his inauguration and for the most part remained silent. But the newspapers of the day did not. The Trenton Times of Dec. 26, 1912, declared, Marrying and intermarrying into defective and often imbecile families, the stock has dropped lower in the human scale with each succeeding generation until the State, now finds that it has numbers of small communities scattered through the pines in which practically every inhabitant shows signs of degeneracy. Science, in fact, brands them as a people lost irrevocably to society and civilization. Neither education nor religious influence can aid a people, the scientists say, whose defective adult minds are capable of no greater mental perception than those of children of 9 or 10 years.

Children of this stock, science says and this is the most serious phase of the problem from any viewpoint are doomed by the law of heredity to become a menace to the community and a burden to the State.

The paper focused on the perceived condition of the children, saying, It is the pitiable cases of the children of these Pineys that opened the eyes of the Department of Charities and Corrections to the need for immediate steps to remedy as far as possible the conditions that now exist. Often deserted by their parents, frequently living more like wild animals than human beings, sometimes throughout the summer months wearing little or no covering for their bodies, and suffering in winter from lack of proper clothing, the lot of these children is desperate beyond the power of narration. Efforts made to help them by placing some of these children in good homes in different parts of the state, to be brought up under the intelligent, loving care of foster parents, has shown a pitiable failure of such charitable effort.

Kite in her report wasnt so kind.

The general opinion current regarding the Piney and his class, has been that he is what he is from environment, that surrounded with other conditions and given a chance he would come out all right. That he is a problem, that his presence tends to lower standards of living among the normal people who come in contact with him, is a universally recognized fact, but until recently it has been confidently hoped that through education and the opening up of the Pines, he would eventually become a normal citizen. But the real Piney has no inclination to labor, submitting to every privation in order to avoid it. Lazy, lustful and cunning, he is a degenerate creature who has learned to provide for himself the bare necessities of life without entering into lifes stimulating struggle. Like the degenerate relative of the crab that ages ago gave up a free roving life and, gluing its head to a rock, built a wall of defence around itself, spending the rest of its life kicking food into its mouth and enjoying the functionings of reproduction, the Piney and all the rest of his type have become barnacles upon our civilization.

By March 1913, Wilson was in Washington, but the progressive urban newspapers still had their cause. The Philadelphia Record stated, After spending millions of dollars in corrective measures and worrying a hundred years with the economic problems presented by the criminally degenerate element of the inhabitants of the pine belt, including parts of Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean counties, New Jersey is now seeking a method of halting the spread of this defective race.

It is as cruel for the State to permit these children of degenerate parentage to remain at large as it would be to neglect those suffering from some terrible malady, says Miss Kite. Many of the children are imbeciles, and the conditions in which they live are often horrifying.

To support the claims, the Record presented, One woman has three husbands, all living, bearing children to each, while her present husband has had two previous wives, also living. According to the remarkable story of another woman, she grew tired of her man, and finding no other way to get rid of him, she got the aid of a negro in hanging him to a tree when he was drunk. His death appears on the county records as a suicide.

In another case, a girl of sixteen married an old man of sixty-eight. The bait the old fellow offered was that when he died, which looked like an early prospect, she would get his pension. What his four or five other wives the department has since discovered would have said about the pension arrangement was not considered.

To be sure, the urban newspaper had to point out, Strangely enough, some of the worst examples of this degenerate race are found near the splendid winter resorts springing up in the pines. It is only a step from Browns-Mills-in-the-Pines, where wealth and fashion of Philadelphia and New York winters, into communities of little groups of huts where humanity has touched its lowest level. And the wonderful fertility of this sandy soil, as demonstrated where Italian immigrants have grubbed out the pine stumps and planted truck crops, shows what the Pineys could have done.

The paper quoted Kite as saying, When the State finds a way of eliminating this degeneracy and is courageous enough to put it into effect, we shall have gone a long way toward settling the criminal problem. In this investigation we find we are dealing with crime and degeneracy as a heredity disease. The present criminal element among the Pineys can scarcely be held personally responsible for their short-comings. The department is seeking facts and uncovering these unsavory conditions only that it may aid where immediate aid is needed and, in the hope, that it will open a way to stamp out such conditions in the future.

What did Kite mean by stamp out? What did the progressive science of eugenics have in mind for the Jersey Pine Barrens?

Next Week: The governor visits the Pines.

tpfcjf@comcast.net

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Selling Babies, Trading Wives - By THOMAS P. FARNER - The SandPaper

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced today that Taltz met co-primary endpoints as well as all major secondary endpoints in a Phase 3 study in pediatric patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, demonstrating that 89 percent of patients treated with Taltz achieved a significant 75 percent improvement from baseline to Week 12 on their Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI 75) and 81 percent of patients treated with Taltz achieved a static Physician's Global Assessment of clear or almost clear skin (sPGA 0,1). Results of the study are being presented as a late-breaking oral presentation at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress (EADV) in Madrid, Spain. Based on these positive results, Lilly plans to submit for U.S. regulatory approval for pediatric patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.

"Results from our study indicate that Taltz may have the potential to clear skin and reduce itch in pediatric patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis," said study investigator Kim Papp, MD, PhD, Probity Medical Research, Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. "While it is estimated that up to one third of people with psoriasis first develop symptoms during childhood, there are limited medications available for pediatric patients. This study provides encouraging data supporting the potential for Taltz to become another treatment option for this patient population."

The co-primary endpoints of the study were the proportion of patients achieving a significant 75 percent improvement from baseline on their Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI 75) and a static Physician's Global Assessment of clear or almost clear skin (sPGA 0,1) at Week 12. Key secondary endpoints included the proportion of patients achieving PASI 90, sPGA (0) and PASI 100 at Week 12, and at least a four-point improvement in Itch Numeric Rating Scale (Itch NRS 4) among patients with baseline Itch NRS 4 at Week 12, as well as PASI 75 and sPGA 0,1 at Week 4. The proportion of patients achieving 0 or 1 on the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI, patients 6 to 16 years old) or DLQI (patients 17 years old) at Week 12 was also evaluated.

"We recognize that psoriasis can have a significant impact on children and adolescents, causing challenging symptoms and affecting their self-esteem and ability to connect to peers," said Lotus Mallbris, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of immunology development at Lilly. "We're pleased to see positive results for Taltz in pediatric patients. These results build on more than five years of safety and efficacy data in adults and support the potential for Taltz in this new population, pending regulatory approvals."

A total of 201 patients aged 6 to <18 years of age with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis were randomized to receive Taltz (20 mg for <25 kg, 40 mg for 25-50 kg or 80 mg for >50 kg through Week 12, with 40 mg, 80 mg or 160 mg starting doses, respectively) or placebo. At 12 weeks, the proportion of patients achieving the co-primary endpoints was superior to placebo with statistically significant difference (P<0.001), including:

Taltz also met all major secondary endpoints in the study (P<0.001).

In this trial, the overall safety profile of Taltz was consistent with previously reported results. The Taltz safety profile has been studied across 15 clinical trials in plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, with 6,989 patients receiving Taltz, with a total exposure of 16,586 patient-years.1,2,3

INDICATIONS AND USAGE FOR TALTZTaltz is approved for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy. Taltz is also approved for the treatment of adults with active psoriatic arthritis and active ankylosing spondylitis.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION FOR TALTZ

CONTRAINDICATIONSTaltz is contraindicated in patients with a previous serious hypersensitivity reaction, such as anaphylaxis, to ixekizumab or to any of the excipients.

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONSInfectionsTaltz may increase the risk of infection. In clinical trials of patients with plaque psoriasis, the Taltz group had a higher rate of infections than the placebo group (27% vs 23%). A similar increase in risk of infection was seen in placebo-controlled trials of patients with psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Serious infections have occurred. Instruct patients to seek medical advice if signs or symptoms of clinically important chronic or acute infection occur. If a serious infection develops, discontinue Taltz until the infection resolves.

Pre-Treatment Evaluation for TuberculosisEvaluate patients for tuberculosis (TB) infection prior to initiating treatment with Taltz. Do not administer to patients with active TB infection. Initiate treatment of latent TB prior to administering Taltz. Closely monitor patients receiving Taltz for signs and symptoms of active TB during and after treatment.

HypersensitivitySerious hypersensitivity reactions, including angioedema and urticaria (each 0.1%), occurred in the Taltz group in clinical trials. Anaphylaxis, including cases leading to hospitalization, has been reported in post-marketing use with Taltz. If a serious hypersensitivity reaction occurs, discontinue Taltz immediately and initiate appropriate therapy.

Inflammatory Bowel DiseaseDuring Taltz treatment, monitor patients for onset or exacerbations of inflammatory bowel disease. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, including exacerbations, occurred at a greater frequency in the Taltz 80 mg Q2W group (Crohn's disease 0.1%, ulcerative colitis 0.2%) than in the placebo group (0%) during clinical trials in patients with plaque psoriasis and in the Taltz Q4W group in ankylosing spondylitis trials (Crohn's disease 1.0% [2 patients], ulcerative colitis 0.5% [1 patient]) than in the placebo group (Crohn's disease 0.5% [1 patient], ulcerative colitis 0%). In the ankylosing spondylitis trials, serious events occurred in 1 patient in the Taltz group and 1 patient in the placebo group.

ImmunizationsPrior to initiating therapy with Taltz, consider completion of all age-appropriate immunizations according to current immunization guidelines. Avoid use of live vaccines in patients treated with Taltz.

ADVERSE REACTIONSMost common adverse reactions (1%) associated with Taltz treatment are injection site reactions, upper respiratory tract infections, nausea, and tinea infections. Overall, the safety profiles observed in patients with psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis were consistent with the safety profile in patients with plaque psoriasis, with the exception of influenza and conjunctivitis in psoriatic arthritis.

Please see accompanying Prescribing Information and Medication Guide. Please see Instructions for Use included with the device.

IX HCP ISI 23AUG2019

About TaltzTaltz (ixekizumab) is a monoclonal antibody that selectively binds with interleukin 17A (IL-17A) cytokine and inhibits its interaction with the IL-17 receptor.4 IL-17A is a naturally occurring cytokine that is involved in normal inflammatory and immune responses. Taltz inhibits the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines.4

About Moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis Psoriasis is a chronic, immune disease that affects the skin.5 It occurs when the immune system sends out faulty signals that speed up the growth cycle of skin cells. Psoriasis affects approximately 125 million people worldwide, approximately 20 percent of whom have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.5,6 The most common form of psoriasis, plaque psoriasis, appears as raised, red patches covered with a silvery white buildup of dead skin cells.5 Patients with plaque psoriasis often have other serious health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease and experience negative impact on their quality of life.5

About the Phase 3 Pediatric Study This study is a Phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled study to evaluate safety, tolerability and efficacy of Taltz in patients from 6 to <18 years of age with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. The co-primary endpoints of the study were the proportion of patients achieving a 75 percent improvement from baseline on their Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI 75) and a static Physician's Global Assessment of clear or almost clear skin (sPGA 0,1) at Week 12. Key secondary endpoints included the proportion of patients achieving PASI 90, sPGA 0 and PASI 100 at Week 12, and at least a four-point improvement in Itch numeric rating scale (Itch NRS 4) among patients with baseline Itch NRS 4 at Week 12, as well as PASI 75 and sPGA 0,1 at Week 4. The proportion of patients achieving 0 or 1 on the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI, patients 6 to 16 years old) or DLQI (patients 17 years old) at Week 12 was also evaluated.

About Lilly in DermatologyBy following the science through unchartered territory, we continue Lilly's legacy of delivering innovative medicines that address unmet needs and have significant impacts on people's lives around the world. Skin-related diseases are more than skin deep. We understand the devastating impact this can have on people's lives. At Lilly, we are relentlessly pursuing a robust dermatology pipeline to provide innovative, patient-centered solutions so patients with skin-related diseases can aspire to live life without limitations.

About Eli Lilly and CompanyLilly is a global health care leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. To learn more about Lilly, please visit us at lilly.com and lilly.com/newsroom. P-LLY

This press release contains forward-looking statements (as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) about Taltz (ixekizumab) as a potential treatment for pediatric patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, and reflects Lilly's current belief. However, as with any pharmaceutical product, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the process of development and commercialization. Among other things, there can be no guarantee that future study results will be consistent with the results to date, that Taltz will receive additional regulatory approvals, or be commercially successful. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see Lilly's most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Lilly undertake no duty to update forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release.

1 Data on file. Lilly USA, LLC. TAL20171211A.2 Data on file. Lilly USA, LLC. DOF-IX-US-0019.3 Mease P, Roussou E, Burmester GR, et al. Safety of ixekizumab in patients with psoriatic arthritis: results from a pooled analysis of three clinical trials. Arth Care Res. 2018 (Epub). doi:10.1002/acr.23738.4 Taltz Prescribing Information, 2019.5 Psoriasis media kit. National Psoriasis Foundation website. https://www.psoriasis.org/sites/default/files/for-media/MediaKit.pdf. Accessed September, 2019.6 Skin conditions by the numbers. American Academy of Dermatology website. https://www.aad.org/media/stats/conditions/skin-conditions-by-the-numbers. Accessed September, 2019.

SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company

https://www.lilly.com/

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Lilly Presents Positive Results for Taltz (ixekizumab) in Pediatric Patients with Moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis at the 28th Annual European...

- Twenty new abstracts underscore AbbVie's commitment to advancing standards of care for people living with serious skin diseases

- Results from the LIMMitless trial evaluating continued safety and efficacy with SKYRIZI (risankizumab) in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis at 2.5 years will be presented

- Safety and efficacy data up to 24 weeks will be presented from risankizumab Phase 2 investigational studies for the treatment of active psoriatic arthritis

- New data from a Phase 2b investigational study evaluating time to treatment response with upadacitinib for patients with atopic dermatitis

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill., Oct. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- AbbVie (ABBV), a research-based global biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it will present new results evaluating the safety and efficacy of SKYRIZI (risankizumab) at 2.5 years in adult patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, as well as additional data on HUMIRA (adalimumab) and the investigational JAK inhibitor upadacitinib, at the 28th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress, October 9-13, in Madrid.

"Leveraging more than two decades of clinical experience with HUMIRA, AbbVie recently expanded its dermatology portfolio with the approval of SKYRIZI for patients living with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis," said Marek Honczarenko, MD, PhD, vice president, global immunology development, AbbVie. "The new data presented at EADV will advance the knowledge around new and existing treatments for serious skin diseases, like psoriasis, as well as diseases with high levels of unmet need, such as atopic dermatitis and hidradenitis suppurativa."

In addition to sharing new long-term data from the LIMMitless open-label extension study in moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, AbbVie will share results from its ongoing investigational Phase 2 program evaluating risankizumab for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. Risankizumab is part of a collaboration between Boehringer Ingelheim and AbbVie, with AbbVie leading development and commercialization globally.

In addition, Phase 2b results evaluating time to treatment response with upadacitinib, an oral JAK inhibitor, under investigation for patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis will be shared as an oral presentation. Upadacitinib is not approved for atopic dermatitis by any regulatory authority, and its safety and efficacy have not been established in this indication.

Additional presentations include efficacy and safety results further evaluating HUMIRA in hidradenitis suppurativa.

"Chronic skin diseases can have a significant physical and psychosocial impact on patients," said Jean-Marie Meurant, board president of the International Alliance of Dermatology Patient Organizations. "While progress has been made to improve the lives of patients, many still do not have access to the treatment and care they need and deserve. It's critical that the scientific community build upon current research to better understand these diseases and continue to keep the patient experience at the forefront of their efforts."

AbbVie Data at EADV

Risankizumab Abstracts Psoriasis

Psoriatic arthritis

Upadacitinib AbstractsAtopic dermatitis

HUMIRA AbstractsPsoriasis

Hidradenitis suppurativa

Disease State AbstractsHidradenitis suppurativa

About SKYRIZI (risankizumab) in the EU1

SKYRIZI (risankizumab) is indicated for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults who are candidates for systemic therapy.

Important EU Safety Information1

SKYRIZI is contraindicated in patients with hypersensitivity to the active substance or to any of the excipients and in clinically important active infections. SKYRIZI may increase the risk of infection. In patients with a chronic infection, a history of recurrent infection, or known risk factors for infection, SKYRIZI should be used with caution. Treatment with SKYRIZI should not be initiated in patients with any clinically important active infection until the infection resolves or is adequately treated.

Prior to initiating treatment with SKYRIZI, patients should be evaluated for tuberculosis (TB) infection. Patients receiving SKYRIZI should be monitored for signs and symptoms of active TB. Anti-TB therapy should be considered prior to initiating SKYRIZI in patients with a past history of latent or active TB in whom an adequate course of treatment cannot be confirmed.

Story continues

The most frequently reported adverse reactions were upper respiratory infections, which occurred in 13 percent of patients. Commonly (greater than or equal to 1/100 to less than 1/10) reported adverse reactions included tinea infections, headache, pruritus, fatigue and injection site reactions.

This is not a complete summary of all safety information. See the full summary of product characteristics (SmPC) at http://www.ema.europa.eu. Globally, prescribing information varies; refer to the individual country product label for complete information.

About Upadacitinib

Discovered and developed by AbbVie, upadacitinib is an investigational, oral, small molecule JAK inhibitor being studied for moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis and other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.2-15 Phase 3 trials of upadacitinib in psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease, atopic dermatitis and ulcerative colitis are ongoing and it is also being investigated to treat ankylosing spondylitis and giant cell arteritis.10-15

About HUMIRA in the EU16

HUMIRA is indicated for the treatment of moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis in adult patients who are candidates for systemic therapy.

HUMIRA is indicated for the treatment of active moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa (acne inversa) in adults and adolescents from 12 years of age with an inadequate response to conventional systemic HS therapy.

Important EU Safety Information16

HUMIRA is contraindicated in patients with active tuberculosis or other severe infections such as sepsis, and opportunistic infections and in patients with moderate to severe heart failure (NYHA class III/IV). It is also contraindicated in patients hypersensitive to the active substance or to any of the excipients; serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis have been reported. The use of HUMIRA increases the risk of developing serious infections, including hepatitis B reactivation, which may, in rare cases, be life-threatening. Rare cases of lymphoma and leukemia have been reported in patients treated with HUMIRA. On rare occasions, a severe type of cancer called hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma has been observed and often results in death. A risk for the development of malignancies in patients treated with TNF-antagonists cannot be excluded. Rare cases of pancytopenia, aplastic anaemia, demyelinating disease, lupus, lupus-related conditions and Stevens-Johnson syndrome have been reported in patients treated with HUMIRA. The most frequently reported adverse events across all indications included respiratory infections, injection site reactions, headache and musculoskeletal pain.

This is not a complete summary of all safety information. Globally, prescribing information varies; refer to the individual country product label for complete information.

Full summary of product characteristics is available at: http://www.ema.europa.eu

About AbbVie

AbbVie is a global, research and development-based biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative advanced therapies for some of the world's most complex and critical conditions. The company's mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to markedly improve treatments across four primary therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, virology and neuroscience. In more than 75 countries, AbbVie employees are working every day to advance health solutions for people around the world. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at http://www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements in this news release are, or may be considered, forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project" and similar expressions, among others, generally identify forward-looking statements. AbbVie cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition from other products, challenges to intellectual property, difficulties inherent in the research and development process, adverse litigation or government action, and changes to laws and regulations applicable to our industry. Additional information about the economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect AbbVie's operations is set forth in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," of AbbVie's 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AbbVie undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law.

References:

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AbbVie Announces New Data from its Dermatology Portfolio and Pipeline at the 28th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress -...