Daily Archives: July 5, 2017

Today in mixed emotions: The human life span may have no upper limit – A.V. Club

Posted: July 5, 2017 at 8:45 am

In case you havent seen Logan yet, living way longer than the average person isnt all its cracked up to be. In fact, it kind of sucks. You see, although centenarians disagree on the secret to a long life117-year old Emma Morano, currently the oldest living person on Earth, says that she eats three eggs every morning111-year-old Agnes Fentons prescription of three Miller High Lifes and a shot of Johnnie Walker Blue Label a day seems to be, sadly, very much a minority opinion.

So its with a healthy fear of our own mortality and a bowl of wheat germ that we relate a story that recently ran in The Guardian about a series of papers printed in the journal Nature, suggesting that the human life span has no naturally occurring upper limit. Professor Jim Vaupel from Germanys Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research tells the paper, at present the balance of the evidence suggests that if there is a limit it is above 120, perhaps much aboveand perhaps there is not a limit at all. And Professor Siegfried Hekimi of McGill University in Montreal predicts that by the year 2300, the oldest person on Earth will be around 150 years old. In a delightfully spiteful turn, all this new research seems to have been prompted by the desire to refute another recent paper, which suggested that human life maxes out at around 115 years.

With the proper advancements in medical care, then, a person could theoretically live for centuries, watching the world get dumber and dumber for decades upon end in their own private hell. But hey, at least we could fix the whole friends and family slowly dying before our eyes part of the immortality = suffering equation, right? Only time will tell.

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Dispute Erupts Over the Limits of the Human Lifespan – Seeker

Posted: at 8:45 am

Now scientists from around the world are refuting this claim.

The original research paper, by Jan Vijg and his colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was published in Nature last October. Our results strongly suggest that the maximum lifespan of humans is fixed and subject to natural constraints, they wrote.

The researchers settled on the magical 115 number by using two databases: the International Database on Longevity and the Human Mortality Database. They identified the five top maximum reported ages at death (MRAD) for four countries, and plotted them on a graph. These four countries (France, Japan, UK, and the US) have the highest number of supercentarians, people who live to be 110 or older.

The graphs led the authors to conclude that the maximum human lifespan has already been reached. They found that the MRAD continued to rise until 1990s, around the time of the death of Jeanne Calment, the worlds longest living person on record, who died at the age of 122. Since then, Vijg and colleagues argued, the MRAD has plateaued.

RELATED:Humans Aren't Likely to Ever Live Longer Than 125 Years, Study Claims

But almost immediately after the study was published, controversy and criticism followed. This week, Nature released separate critical responses from five unaffiliated research groups. The researchers of the Dong et al. study responded to each one.

Their whole article was a fairly large extrapolation, Nick Brown, a Ph.D. student in psychology from the University of Groningen and a member of one of the research groups, told Seeker. There is such a small sample size of supercentarians around the world that the result isnt even statistically significant, he added.

Other scientists pointed to flaws in study design and methodology.

They made basic errors in how they went about assessing the statistical significance of their conclusions, wrote Maarten Rozing, a longevity researcher from the University of Copenhagen who joined two colleagues in criticizing the paper, in an email to Seeker. We therefore think that their findings do not contradict the possibility that lifespan will continue to increase.

Researchers also criticized the study authors for splitting the data in 1994.

If the partition date is moved two years, from 1994 to 1996, it no longer shows a lifespan plateau, noted another group of critics.

None of the dissenting researchers claimed that immortality is possible. The common consensus seems to be that there is simply not enough information to know whether or not human life will biologically end at a fixed point.

RELATED:Life-Extending Discovery Renews Debate Over Aging as a Disease

The right answer is that no limit to human lifespan can yet be detected, wrote Siegfried Hekimi, a biologist at McGill University and another critic of the paper, to Seeker over email. But, he added, it does not mean there is no such limit.

Brown echoed this sentiment.

We would say that there is no evidence at all right now for a limit on the human lifespan, he said. But that doesnt mean a limit will not exist in the future. It would be a bit like coming along in 1940 and saying airlines arent going to get any faster because you cant put more propellers on the plain, Brown remarked.

There was a technological limit on flight speed at that time, but no one had yet foreseen the invention of the jet engine. New anti-aging technologies are being developed every day right now, theres just no way to know if a hard limit exists.

Vijg, responding to the criticism, disputes that this was his claim in the first place.

We would never claim that there is a hard ceiling, he told Seeker. Its always possible that something happens that we cannot foresee.

But in terms of current technology, he went on, their research shows that it is highly unlikely for anyone to live past the age of 115 without significant medical advances in the near future.

RELATED: Young Blood Transfusions Sell for $8,000 at This California Startup

Vijg also disagrees that there was anything wrong with his teams statistics. They had a small sample size, he acknowledged, but with supercentarians, youre dealing with a rare breed.

And while neither Vijg or his co-authors are demographers or statisticians themselves, Vijg pointed out that all three peer reviewers of their article were top of the line demographers.

If the sample size was too small, believe me, we would have known it, he said. This is Nature for Gods sakes.

Nature is indeed a well-regarded academic journal, though some people have used the debate over this paper as an opportunity to criticize the secrecy of the journals peer-review process.

In the end, finding a maximum age number might not even matter. Most scientists who focus on aging are more concerned with average lifespan anyway, Brown pointed out.

This is a completely irrelevant measure to almost everybody except for the people who like reading newspaper stories about extremes, Brown said.

He characterized the dispute over the findings as a perfect example of what has been coined Sayres law.

Academic politics, said Columbia University professor Wallace Sayre in 1973, is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low.

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Decreasing height, increasing arthritis risk evolutionarily advantageous for humans – Stanford Medical Center Report

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Many people think of osteoarthritis as a kind of wear-and-tear disease, but theres clearly a genetic component at work here as well.

The researchers were studying a gene called GDF5 that Kingsleys laboratory first linked to skeletal growth in the early 1990s. GDF5 is involved in bone growth and joint formation, and mutations in the coding portion of the gene have been shown to cause malformations in leg-bone structure in mice. In humans, GDF5 mutations are associated with shorter stature and joint problems; in particular, two nucleotide changes immediately upstream of the gene have been strongly associated with a 1.2- to 1.8-fold increase in the risk of osteoarthritis.

In the new study, the researchers were interested in learning more about how the DNA sequences surrounding GDF5 might affect the genes expression. Often, these noncoding sequences contain key regulatory regions known as promoters and enhancers. Capellini, Chen and Cao were able to identify a previously unknown enhancer region they termed GROW1, which is several thousand nucleotides downstream of GDF5.

When the researchers analyzed the sequence of GROW1 in the 1,000 Genomes Project database, which collects and compares sequences from many human populations around the globe, they identified a single nucleotide change that is highly prevalent in Europeans and Asians but that rarely occurs in Africans. When they introduced this nucleotide change into laboratory mice, they found that it decreased the activity of GDF5 in the growth plates of the long bones of fetal mice.

Further research showed that this nucleotide change has been repeatedly favored during human evolution. Modern humans migrated from Africa between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. But they werent the first to leave the continent. Neanderthals and Denisovans moved north into Europe and Asia about 600,000 years ago. Interestingly, the researchers found that the same GROW1 variant was found in the DNA of both ancient and modern humans in Europe and Asia.

However, theres a dark side to this stocky, hardy body type: The GDF5 variant that reduces bone length comes hand-in-hand with the two upstream nucleotide changes known to confer an increased risk for osteoarthritis.

Its clear that the genetic machinery around a gene can have a dramatic impact on how it works, said Capellini. The variant that decreases height is lowering the activity ofGDF5in the growth plates of the bone. Interestingly, the region that harbors this variant is closely linked to other mutations that affect GDF5 activity in the joints, increasing the risk of osteoarthritis in the knee and hip.

The potential medical impact of the finding is very interesting because so many people are affected, said Kingsley. This is an incredibly prevalent, and ancient, variant. Many people think of osteoarthritis as a kind of wear-and-tear disease, but theres clearly a genetic component at work here as well. Now weve shown that positive evolutionary selection has given rise to one of the most common height variants and arthritis risk factors known in human populations.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, also contributed to the study.

The research was supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Arthritis Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (grant AR42236), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Milton Fund of Harvard, the China Scholarship Council and the Jason S. Bailey Fund of Harvard.

Stanfords Department of Developmental Biology also supported the work.

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Racial genes disparity in breast cancer mortality linked to genes – ModernMedicine

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Findings of a large, multi-institutional breast cancer study could lead to more personalized risk assessment for women of African heritage and hasten approaches to diagnosing aggressive breast cancers early and treat them effectively. While the odds of developing breast cancer are nearly the same in white and black women, black women are 42% more likely to die from the disease.

The study, published online May 4, 2017, in JAMA Oncology, was designed to understand the racial disparity in survival rates by beginning to unravel the germline genetic variations and tumor biological differences between black and white women with breast cancer.

People have long associated breast cancer mortality in black women with poverty, or stress, or lack of access to care, but our results show that much of the increased risk for black women can be attributed to tumor biological differences, which are probably genetically determined, says study author Olufunmilayo Olopade, MD, professor of medicine and human genetics at the University of Chicago.

The good news, she says, is that as we learn more about these genetic variations, we can combine that information with clinical data to stratify risk and better predict recurrences especially for highly treatable cancers and develop interventions to improve treatment outcomes.

This is a great example of how team science and investments in science can accelerate progress in identifying the best therapies for the most aggressive breast cancers, says co-author Charles Perou, PhD, a member of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of genetics, and pathology & laboratory medicine at the UNC School of Medicine.

In the largest dataset to date that has good representation of tumors from black women, we did not find much difference between the somatic mutations driving tumors in black and white women, he says. Yet, black women were more likely to develop aggressive molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Now we provide data showing that differences in germline genetics may be responsible for up to 40% of the likelihood of developing one tumor subtype versus another.

The study used DNA data collected from 930 women154 of predominantly African ancestry and 776 of European ancestryavailable through The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), established by the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute. Researchers combed through the data methodically, looking for racial differences in germline variations (normal DNA), somatic mutations (tumor acquired), subtypes of breast cancers, survival time, as well as gene expression, protein expression and DNA methylation patterns.

The crucial long-term benefit of this study, according to Olopade, is that it is a step toward the development of polygenic biomarkers, tools that can help us better understand each patients prognosis and, as we learn more, play a role in choosing the best treatment.

Genes matter, she says. This is a foot in the door for precision medicine, for scientifically targeted treatment.

Managed care executives need to learn how to do population risk stratification so they can get better outcomes for ALL patientsblack and white, Olopade adds. It is no longer acceptable to see the widening disparities in survival among black and white and not develop interventions to reduce it.

Breast cancer is not one disease, and it impacts women differentially, she says. We now have very effective treatment for the most aggressive breast cancers, and we should make sure all patients benefit from genomic testing. We also need to make sure that women get the right treatment at the right time based on their level of risk. We can no longer practice as if one size fits all.

Managed care should cover genetic testing and comprehensive risk assessment at diagnosis and promote accurate diagnosis to get the best therapies for (their) enrollees. (They) should promote access to clinical trials. It pays high dividend to get it right and not have to treat advanced cancers.

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Gene That Helped Humans Survive Migration Out Of Africa Increases Arthritis Risk – IFLScience

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A single gene mutation that helped early humans survive in Europe and Asia during the Ice Age may alsoincrease the risk of arthritis in modern-day humans.

Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Harvard University have found a gene mutation thathelped our ancestors survive colder temperatures by coding for shorter limbs, according to new research published in the journal Nature Genetics.

As modern humans migrated out of Africa between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago during the last Ice age, they were faced with colder temperatures.Agenetic variant for shorter limbs may have helped thembetterwithstandfrostbite, the researchers argue. Shorter bones also meant there was less chance of breaking a bone if they slipped on ice.

Theres a downside, however.The gene in question, known as GDF5, which isinvolved in bone growth and joint formation,also increases one'srisk of osteoarthritisa condition that causes joints to become painful and stiff. In humans, mutations in the GDF5 gene have been shown to belinked to a 1.2 to 1.8 times increase in the risk of osteoarthritis.

Of course, the prospect of painful joints is not a pretty one, nor particularly useful if youre hunting mammoths inIce AgeEurope. However, the risk from cold temperatures may have outweighed the risk ofosteoarthritis,which usually occurs after prime reproductive years. The gene was repeatedly favored as early humans migrated out of Africa and moved into colder corners of the world. Its thought that at least half of Europeans and Asians have the gene variant, yet it remains relatively rare in African populations.

Because its been positively selected, this gene variant is present in billions of people, David Kingsley, professor of developmental biology at Stanford, said in astatement. So even though it only increases each persons risk by less than twofold, its likely responsible for millions of cases of arthritis around the globe."

Armed with thisfresh insight, Professor Kingsley believes their study could havepractical implications in the world of medicine.

"This is an incredibly prevalent, and ancient, variant. Many people think of osteoarthritis as a kind of wear-and-tear disease, but theres clearly a genetic component at work here as well," he added. "Now weve shown that positive evolutionary selection has given rise to one of the most common height variants and arthritis risk factors known in human populations.

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Chief medical officer calls for gene testing revolution – BBC News

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BBC News
Chief medical officer calls for gene testing revolution
BBC News
"I want the NHS across the whole breadth to be offering genomic medicine - that means diagnosis of our genes - to patients where they can possibly benefit," her report says. People with rare diseases could benefit from having greater access to the ...
Gene testing could revolutionise cancer treatmentITV News
All cancer patients should have their DNA tested to save lives, Chief Medical Officer saysTelegraph.co.uk
Call for revolutionary DNA cancer care on NHSSky News
The Sun -The Times (subscription)
all 29 news articles »

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Unicorns and hypocrites – The Augusta Chronicle

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Are only hypocrites allowed to be politically incorrect?

I frequently hear people complaining that things are too politically correct these days; people should just get over themselves and stop being angry and offended.

So, a couple days ago, I was chatting via email with a good friend, until I made some sarcastic comments about Ronald Reagan. The next response from this friend was a sudden, super serious, Stop trying to pick a fight!

I was floored. This person claims to hate politically correct people. My response was, So, political incorrectness stops at Reagan? I still havent received a reply.

I have very little filter and adore political incorrectness. I dream of finding truly politically incorrect people impervious to offense. What I find is myself being invariably snookered by every new person who waltzes in howling to the rafters how much they dislike politically correct people.

Ill happily listen to whoever berates both Clintons, Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the politically correct. But Ive learned the hardest way that the moment I say something sarcastic about Joseph McCarthy or Nixon or Rush Limbaugh or George W. Bush or Trump, the conversation quickly derails.

My wish in life is to know lots of people who can happily handle an eternal, wide-ranging, politically incorrect conversation laced with sarcasm about politics, social issues, religion everything.

But I find myself continually wondering, does anyone know political incorrectness isnt a one-way street? Does anyone know, if you truly want political incorrectness to reign supreme, you have to accept it as happily as you dish it? Does anyone know that, if this letter upsets them, theyre as politically-correct as everyone else?

My sad reality is, when I meet someone claiming to hate political correctness, acting like theyre immune to all verbal offense, I think: yeah, and unicorns exist and hypocrites arent a dime a dozen.

Nathan Kirby

Augusta

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Uncertainty clouds future of RI’s satirical parade – The Providence Journal

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Rhode Island's most politically incorrect Independence Day tradition packed the narrow sidewalks of Chepachet Village for the 91st consecutive year Tuesday with a touch of existential uncertainty mixing in with the usual supply of patriotism and irreverence.

GLOCESTER, R.I. "Save Our Parade," read a sign on the first truck rolling down Putnam Pike Tuesday in the annual Ancients & Horribles Parade. "Donate to Bucket Brigade."

Rhode Island's most politically incorrect Independence Day tradition packed the narrow sidewalks of Chepachet Village for the 91st consecutive year Tuesday with a touch of existential uncertainty mixing in with the usual supply of patriotism and irreverence.

Faced with a shortage of volunteers, parade committee ChairmanMichael DeGrange has warned the event might not go on in 2018 if more people don't join in to help raise money, line up sponsors and organize.

"We'll see after this is over and we have our meeting," DeGrange said about the parade's future from the finishing line. "If we get enough volunteers I will stay on for another couple of years. We don't have the budget like Bristol."

DeGrange, who took over running the parade five years ago when a change in leadership forced a scramble to keep the parade going,said he needs to at least double the 10 adult volunteers involved next year.

Held each year since 1926, the Ancients & Horribles Parade's often rough take on the politics of the day reflects the independent streak of this rural corner of the state, but can be a hurdle to creating institutional support.

Fans of the parade admit that some satirical floats may push the limits of taste, but say that's what free speech is about.

"You have to express your freedom of speech," said DeGrange. "That's why we are here."

Along the parade route, spectators said the down-to-earth, grass-roots spontaneity of the Ancients & Horribles adds to its appeal.

"Everything is unique," said Eleanor Lafazia, of Warwick. "It doesn't look like it was over organized, which is what we like."

"It's part of the fun," said Jeannine Shaw, of Glocester, about the political satire in the parade. "It would be a shame if it went away."

"I'd cry," said Nancy Angell, also of Warwick, about a July 4 without the parade. "What else would I do?"

The subjects of this year's satire were numerous and bipartisan.

A potential deal for a new Pawtucket Red Sox stadium appeared on a few signs, but by far the most frequent target of abuse was the proposed Invenergy power plant in neighboring Burrillville, which drew several groups of protesters.

On the national side, a "Chepachet Fake News" float adorned with Twitter logos carried a mock White House press briefing room podium complete with a Sean Spicer impersonator.

"Record-breaking crowd at parade," a sign on the float said.

The General Assembly's four-day-old budget impasse inspired a large sign with likenesses of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio doing battle. "Taxpayers in the crossfire," it said underneath.

Even internal state Republican Party politics made the parade, with a float asking for GOP Rep. Michael Chippendale, who represents Glocester, to get his place back on the House Oversight Committee.

Recent years have seen complaints about parade trucks flying the Confederate flag, and again this year the flag was present on two vehicles.

"Anyone who is not going to sponsor the parade because of this, we don't need," said Steve Bemis, driver of an antique tractor with one of the flags.

"It's part of our country," said Brian Baxter, driver of a pickup truck with another.

panderson@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7384

On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_

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3 of the Biggest Misogynists to Reach the Oval Office Before Donald Trump Got There – AlterNet

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Photo Credit: Marc Nozell / Flickr Creative Commons

Perhaps something useful can be accomplished as a consequence of the transparently repulsive Trump: rousing Americans to reconsider honoring US presidents with Presidents Day, and replacing it with a holiday that recognizes a more respectable group of people.

Trumps misogyny has long inflamed Democrats, but now even Republicans, including Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham, haveexpressed repulsionover his bleeding badly from a face-lift insult of Mika Brzezinski. For both Republicans and Democrats, recent history tells us that drone bombings of117 civilian noncombatants,whistle-blower persecutions, andbanker stay-out-of-jail-free cardsare not politically incorrect offenses. But a transparent misogynistnow thats a politically incorrect offender.

So, one way to eliminate Presidents Day would be for Americans to discover that Trump is not even the worst misogynist or worst sexual predator president ever. Below are some US presidents misogyny and sexual predatory practice lowlights. Spoiler alert: Except in the arena of transparency and bragging, Trump cannot out-scum Grover Cleveland or Thomas Jefferson, or maybe even Ronald Reagan.

Grover Cleveland: Honoring Presidents Day in 2015, theBoston Globetold us how Americans once elected a president with great integrity: Not since George Washington had a candidate for president been so renowned for his rectitude. Grover the good, his supporters dubbed him. The standard account of Cleveland is the following: The 22ndand the 24thpresident, the only one to serve two non-consecutive terms, who as mayor of Buffalo, governor of New York, and president was a crusader against corruption. Some accounts include that Cleveland was alleged to have fathered an illegitimate child and was taunted in the 1884 presidential campaign with, Ma, Ma, wheres my Pa, but that Cleveland honorably handled this matter, was victorious, and his supporters had the last laugh, retorting, Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!

But was he really Grover the Good or Grover the Gross?

For several months in 1873, Cleveland courted Maria Halpin, an attractive 38-year-old sales clerk; then Cleveland date-raped her. Journalist Charles Lachman, author ofA Secret Life(2011),discoveredan affidavit from Maria Halpin about her sexual assault by Cleveland by use of force and violence and without my consent, she stated. When Halpin threatened to notify the authorities, she said Cleveland told her he was determined to ruin me if it cost him $10,000. Impregnated by Clevelands rape, Halpin gave birth in 1874 to a baby boy in a hospital for unwed mothers in Buffalo; and then Cleveland arranged to have the child forcibly removed from Halpin and placed in the Buffalo Orphan Asylum. Halpin was thrown into the Providence Lunatic Asylum but released after it became clear that her incarceration was the result of an abuse of power by political elites.

Cleveland won the Democratic nomination for president in 1884, and the media exposed the existence of Clevelands illegitimate son. In response to that, Grover Clevelands team conducted a malicious smear campaign against Halpin: falsely claiming that she drank to excess and was sexually active with at least three (and possibly four) married men; and that Cleveland honorably took responsibility for the childs conception because he was the only bachelor among Halpins sexual partners. The truth was that Halpin was the opposite of promiscuousa widow with two young children, and a church-going woman held in high esteem by all who knew her.

The salient difference between Cleveland and Trump is their private-public congruence. Trump has beenaccusedof sexually assaulting twelve women. However, unlike Cleveland, Trump has publicly braggedmost notably inseveral interviews with Howard Sternabout his predatory behaviors, for example, going backstage at beauty pageants to ogle naked contestants changing clothes. And Trump is tweet-transparent in his misogyny.

Thomas Jefferson:The standard account is Founding Father and author of the Declaration of Independence, and so venerable as to be one of four presidents on Mount Rushmore as well as having a memorial for him in Washington D.C. While many of his contemporaries saw him as the supreme hypocrite, it is only recently that popular culturefor example, Lin-Manuel Mirandas musical,Hamiltonhas caught up with Jeffersons hypocrisy and ignobility.

Henry Wienceks 2012Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slavesis one of many books that document how Jefferson was a hypocrite in many regards: espousing freedom while holding slaves; advocating revolutionary militancy while exhibiting chicken-hawk cowardice; and promoting frugality while amassing huge debt with an extravagant lifestyle. More than simply hypocritical, the case has increasingly been made that Jefferson was a sexual predator, or asFeministeproclaimed,Thomas Jefferson: The Face of a Rapist.

For generations, Jefferson apologists disputed the claim of the descendants of Jeffersons slave Sally Hemings that Jefferson had fathered children with her.Genetic testing has helped change most historians minds, and today even the official Thomas Jefferson/Monticello site reports (inThomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account) the following: Based on documentary, scientific, statistical,and oral history evidence, theThomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) Research Committee Report on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings(January 2000) remains the most comprehensive analysis of this historical topic.. . TJF and most historians believe that. . . Thomas Jefferson was the father of the six children of Sally Hemings.It is now accepted by most historians that Jefferson had a sexual relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, likely beginning when she was 14 or 15 years old.

InThomas Jefferson: Americas Founding Sociopath, investigative reporter Robert Parry notes:

Recent historical examinations of records at Jeffersons Monticello plantation have providedsupport for contemporaneous accounts of Jefferson having sexual relations with at least one other slave girl beside Hemings and possibly more. . . .The historical record increasingly makes Jefferson out to be a serial rapist, exploiting at least one and possibly more girls who were trapped on his property, who indeed were his property, and thus had little choice but to tolerate his sexual advances.

The Monster of Monticello was the title of a 2012New York Timesreview of Wienceks book, and monster does not seem hyperbolic, considering the following. Jefferson wrote, A child raised every 2 years is of more profit than the crop of the best laboring man, and according to Wiencek, The enslaved people were yielding him a bonanza, a perpetual human dividend at compound interest. While Jefferson ultimately freed the children he had with Sally Hemings (in what is believed to have been a deal he made with her so she would not flee him in Paris), Jeffersons slave breeding enhanced his personal wealth.

Ronald Reagan:Ronald Reagans all-American pristine public image is certainly the opposite of Trumps, but what was Reagans private reality? In 1991, themainstream press ridiculedKitty Kelleys account (in her bookNancy Reagan) of actress Selene Walters claim that Ronald Reagan date-raped her in the early 1950s.The ridicule continued even thoughPeoplemagazine got Walters to repeat this story almost verbatim. Walters did correct some of Kelleys version, as Walters said, I opened the door. Then it was the battle of the couch. I was fighting him. I didnt want him to make love to me. Hes a very big man, and he just had his way. Date rape? No, God, no, thats [Kelleys] phrase. I didnt have a chance to have a date with him.

Given Reagans gentleman image, Walters story was mostly dismissed, but in 2011, actressPiper Laurie wroteabout her sexual encounter with Reagan. They had met when Laurie was 18 and still a virgin, and Reagan was 39, playing her father in the 1950 dramaLouisa. In Lauries autobiographyLearning to Live Out Loud, she reports that Reagan was initially the perfect gentleman, asking her mother for permission to take her out on a date. But instead of going out, Reagan took her to his home where he made hamburgers, then took her into the bedroom where he turned into a show-off who had sex without grace, with Reagan bragging about his staying power. Laurie wrote, He made sure I was aware of the length of time he had been ardent, but when she told him that she was not satisfied, Reagan responded: Theres something wrong with you. You should have had many orgasms by nowafter all this time. Youve got to see a doctor. While Laurie did not claim that Reagan raped her, her description of Reagans emotional abuse following intercourse makes Walters claim more plausible.

Womanizing, misogynist, sexual predator presidents have actually been quite common in American history. Bill Clinton was forced to admit his sexual escapade with Monica Lewinsky, but there were numerous other accusations, includingJuanita Broaddricks claimthat he raped her. John Kennedy biographersdescribe himas a compulsive womanizer; and when Kennedys many affairs were mentioned to Lyndon Johnson, he would competitivelybragthat he had more women by accident than Kennedy ever had on purpose. This is by no means the complete list of womanizing, wife-cheating, sexual predator presidents.

The reality of course is not only private sexual predatory practices but monstrous crimes against humanity are common among US presidents. Numerous presidents presided over the crimes of African-American slavery and Native-American genocide; and since WWII alone,by some estimates, 20 to 30 million deaths around the world have resulted from multiple presidents trumped-up wars and shameful foreign policies.

With the transparently repulsive Trump, can we finally end the humiliation of Presidents Day, and replace it with another holiday that recognizes a more respectable group of Americans? How about Mail Carriers Day?

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Ron Paul Says it Wouldn’t be a Total Shock for Gold to Spike 50 Percent by October – Investing News Network (press release) (registration) (blog)

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Paul said in a weekend interview that he wouldn't be surprised to see US markets fall 25 percent and gold rise 50 percent in the next several months.

The gold priceclosed Monday (July 3) at $1,219.70 per ounce, but according tolibertarian pundit Ron Paul it could be significantly higherbefore the end of the year.

If [US]markets are down 25 percent [by October] and gold is up 50 percent it wouldnt be a total shock to me, he told CNBC during an interview this past weekend. That would place the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) at 1,819 points and gold at $1,867.

Paul, whos also a former Republican congressman and presidential candidate, said that the US economy is not as strong as many people think it is, and emphasized that uncertainty is a major issue. In particular, he mentioned that the NASDAQ Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC), the US dollar and bonds look a little shaky, and questioned whether Trump will be able to pass reform measures.

Theres a lot of subjectivity in the markets, reassurances, Paul also noted. People have been convinced that everything is wonderful right now and that stocks are going to go up forever, its a new era. I dont happen to buy this. I think the old rules always exist, and theres too much debt and too much mal-investment the adjustment will have to come.

While US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen recently expressed confidence in the US economy, saying another financial crisis will likely not happen soon, other market watchers have views that that are more in line with Pauls.

For example,Marc Faber,a notedThailand-based Swiss investor known as Dr. Doom, is calling for a drop in the US stock market. In conversation with CNBC he said, we have a bubble in everything. Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital also recently describedthe US economy as a bubble.

Do you think the US economy is headed for a crash? Let us know in the comments below. You can also watch CNBCs interview with Paul below:

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Photo by GageSkidmore via Wikimedia Commons.

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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Ron Paul Says it Wouldn't be a Total Shock for Gold to Spike 50 Percent by October - Investing News Network (press release) (registration) (blog)

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