lewrockwell--2020-07-24--Is the West Repeating India’s Mistakes?

Is the West Repeating India’s Mistakes?

Following the publication of our last conversation with Jayant Bhandari , I received a lot of interesting feedback and remarks .
The common denominator of all those comments was the astonishment of many Western readers at the real conditions and dynamics on the ground in India .
In fact , I was surprised myself by how little we actually know and understand about a country so vast , so populous and so potentially influential on the world ’ s geopolitical stage .
The coverage we receive by Western media is often so superficial , ahistorical and frequently biased , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understand the politics and social problems there , when in reality we are entirely clueless .
This dangerous illusion of knowledge in turn comes to shape our beliefs and opinions , leads us to false conclusions and causes us to make erroneous generalizations .
Overall , the recent tensions and the riots that started in the US and spread throughout the West , all seemed to have the notion of inequality and social injustice at their core .
Groups were pitted against other groups and all kinds of deep divisions in society came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a parallel in modern history , to examine and to learn from , I thought of India and its caste system .
From an outsider ’ s perspective , it seemed to me that a lot of the same issues and problems arose there too and a lot of the same solutions were already tried , albeit in a massively larger scale .
So , I decided to turn to Jayant again , to understand that system more clearly and more objectively , to see if that parallel really holds up and if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the West can learn from India ’ s policies and their results ?
Having lived and worked in both worlds , he is far better equipped than most to assess these issues and even though he has strong views that go well beyond and very often contradict mainstream narratives , his insights , based on direct , first-hand experiences , certainly challenge commonly held beliefs and can set the stage for deeper debates .
After all , different perspectives , dissenting views and free dialogue are the prerequisites and the main ingredients for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sardi ... Best Price : null Buy New $ 27.69 ( $ 0.52 / Ounce ) Jayant is a globetrotting institutional investment consultant , who has amassed extensive international experience in the mining and natural resource sector .
Apart from his investment insights , he has published numerous interesting analyses on political , cultural and social issues , while he also runs a yearly seminar in Vancouver , “ Capitalism & Morality ” .
Claudio Grass ( CG ) : India has been routinely making headlines for all the wrong reasons .
Its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lack of public services and infrastructure and violent incidents in the streets often feature in international media coverage , prompting many Indians to criticize what they see as unfair reporting .
Do you think there really is a negative bias against the country in the West ?
Jayant Bhandari ( JB ) : In just about every human development metric , India is worse than sub-Saharan Africa .
The conditions in India are a lot worse and far more backward than what you see in the media and what you imagine when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reports and images that reach you can not convey the ever-present smell of human waste , the unceasing noise , the feeling of people constantly violating your space and the daily reality of dysfunction and failure at every conceivable level .
For the majority of Indians , life is no better today than what it was in medieval times .
Perhaps it is even worse now , with pollution , over-population , and the alien lifestyle of “ modern living ” added to the mix .
Corruption , tribalism , and “ might-is-right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The police , the politicians , the courts , and the criminals are all in bed together .
The bureaucrat will humiliate you , extract bribes , and expect god-like reverence from you .
The work ethic and lack of integrity are so bad that if you give away bribes too early , your work won ’ t get done .
Citizens must grovel , prostrate , and bow down with folded hands .
Every time I have to deal with those in the government , I use an agent to avoid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Contrary to conventional wisdom , the citizens—men or women—are not innocent .
While the government gets most of the blame , it is merely a symptom of the underlying cultural disease .
The real problem is Indian tribal ways , superstitious , irrational and circular thinking , and the absence of moral and rational mental anchors .
This is the root of all of India ’ s problems and why it is not and will not be a functioning civilization .
2 oz .999 Silver Bullet Buy New $ 70.00 People with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it and become predatory .
If you need a taxi , be assured that the driver will overcharge you and exploit you to the extent he can .
The more power the individual has , the worse his conduct becomes .
And this is not a case of a “ few bad apples ” , but the reality of day to day life in India .
As men and those from the higher castes tend to get all the blame , I should hastily add that women also have a solid track record @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worst atrocities on other women , especially those from the lower castes , who routinely engage in caste-related violence .
The dystopia is far broader , deeper , more entangled , and complex than what most people can ever imagine from the outside .
And I haven ’ t seen any positive change since the IT and the educational revolution started .
If anything , the cultural situation is even worse now .
So , why do Indians see any honest reporting of the problems in the country as unfair ?
Well , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deeply tribal .
Their sense of identity is hinged to your perception about their caste , religion , sect , language , or the country as a whole .
Fairness , justice , and the suffering of their fellow citizens are of no interest to them .
All they care about is what others , especially the outsiders , think of them .
If you feel that this thinking is no different from that which exists behind honor killings , you are on track to understanding the Indian mind .
And they take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as this defensiveness only intensifies once they have moved to the West .
CG : Very frequently , the reports in Western media identify India ’ s caste system as the source of all these evils .
Inequality , extreme poverty and lack of opportunity is blamed on the social and economic isolation that the lower castes seem to suffer from those “ higher-born ” .
However , there have been important changes and government interventions to this system over the last decades , so how accurate is this narrative in 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ playing the victim card , and a grievance-based culture is the most comfortable option for those who can not make it in life .
It helps them extract unearned resources and hope for an easy life .
It enables them to pass the blame onto others , so that they can enjoy some emotional comfort , believing their failures are not their own and that they could not have done well in life anyway .
But this attitude also disempowers them , perpetuates their misery and eventually worsens their feeling of impotence , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Last Gold Rushu202 ... Haynes , Bill Buy New $ 28.00 Of course , the media , the shallow-thinking intellectuals , journalists , and social activists play along , for siding with the weaker party is not only politically correct , but can also be quite profitable .
Intellectuals , who lack a real-life experience and are ridden with envy and bile against any semblance of actual success , agitate the underclass .
Nowhere in the world are the underprivileged so prone to blaming their situation on those who are successful .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” that is the prime agitator .
The caste system exists , but it is a part of a much bigger problem .
Indians are tribal and are constantly positioning themselves in the pecking order .
The lower you go in the food chain , the worse it becomes .
The lower caste people are the worst perpetrators of the caste system .
Most media presentations of caste issues in India , especially those aimed at foreign audiences , follow a passive narrative , leaving you to assume that it must be the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and thus responsible for all that is wrong in Indian society .
However , this view is as ahistorical and as it is factually groundless .
The statistics speak for themselves .
Most caste problems arise out nothing else but a lower-caste group subjugating another lower-caste group to show who among them is higher .
As for all those horrific reports you see in Western media about caste-related violence , the vast majority of these atrocities are committed strictly within the lower castes , not by the imagined “ oppressor ” class .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Hindu-fanatic Prime Minister of India .
Both he and the President are from the lower caste .
One would have expected this to have made a dent in the oppressor-oppressed narrative , but , of course , it didn ’ t and oppression has only increased under their regime .
The real reasons for the chronic backwardness of India are much more mundane and “ pedestrian ” and as such , they don ’ t really support that timeless , romantic fairytale of rich and privileged villains against poor but noble underdogs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the utter lack of skills , lack of work ethic , absence of integrity and honesty in work and social relations , tribalism , belief in might-is-right , and a lack of reason and moral values .
In all this , the caste system is only one of the symptoms , which , as I said , gets worse among those in the lower castes .
For this reason , any caste-based solution to India ’ s problems is simplistic and makes the problem worse by adding fuel to the fire .
Silpada @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 29.00 CG : The reforms and legislative measures that the state has enforced over the years in order to break down caste barriers have been quite drastic .
There has been a massive effort to lift the lower castes socioeconomically , including subsidies , quotas , reserved seats in parliament and places in universities .
How do you assess the results of these policies ?
Have they achieved their stated aims in promoting social harmony and economic prosperity for all ?
JB : In a tribal society , where no one trusts anyone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ illusion .
Subsidies , quotas , and the like , have enabled a massive grievance-based culture to emerge in the country .
You can not make a community proud and honorable by giving them free stuff .
The affirmative action policies have trapped those of the lower castes in low-level thinking : being beggars and servile , being lazy , and expecting free stuff .
I went to a catholic school in India .
Until I got to university , I did not know much about the caste system .
It simply never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issue in urban areas and it still isn ’ t .
I went to one of the top engineering colleges in India .
The affirmative action policy , called the “ reservation system ” in India , allocates a majority of seats to the lower castes .
Compare the 78 % entrance marks that I had to attain to be admitted with the close-to-zero scores that those who joined from the lower caste had .
As can be expected , the net effect of this was to make their self-esteem worse and to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Predictably , they kept on failing , and many of them stayed in the college for a decade or more .
I personally knew of a student who had been there for thirty-five years .
They had been artificially placed in a position with challenges that they were not prepared for and were not equipped to handle .
In effect , they ’ d been set up for failure .
Eventually , after being stuck for many years , unable to pass exams and finish their degrees , the administration simply did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and waived them through , in order to get them out and clear the bottleneck for the next batch to enter .
The situation is the same in medical colleges , rendering those degrees basically meaningless .
Knowing these practices have been going on for so long , producing dangerously unqualified professionals , what hope does a lower-caste doctor have of being trusted by a patient ?
How confident would you be if you had to go under the knife in a public hospital in India ?
Donald Trump 2020 Coll ... Buy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deeper than that .
Very early in my university days , I realized that if , for whatever reason , someone from a lower caste filed a police report against me , on his word alone , the laws would have required the police to arrest me without a warrant or possibility of bail .
In a country where simple cases drag on for decades , I would have been barred from getting a passport or a job .
Why should I take such a risk by befriending or even interacting with someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could avoid the risk altogether by keeping my distance ?
So you see , the very laws that were supposed to erase caste barriers actually ensured that the distance between groups would grow wider .
This toxic effect is even more apparent in government .
This “ reservation ” policy offers the majority of government jobs to those from the lower caste , with accelerated promotions .
The lower caste people , once in power , turn their back to their communities and merely show off their influence in expectation of reverence .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of anyway , so all they feel proud of is their position and their perceived status , which is effectively monetized through rampant corruption .
This has been a significant factor in rapidly degrading Indian institutions .
All these affirmative action policies have been an unmitigated disaster for the country .
They were designed by populist politicians who care not a bit for the citizens , certainly not for those in the lower caste .
The caste system , and more importantly , the general tribalism of Indians is oppressive , but these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ situation far worse .
Of course the caste system is ugly and unjust .
But it is only one of many destructive forces and problems , and it is merely symptomatic of a chronic disease that runs way deeper .
As for its actual role in today ’ s society , it is ridiculously overstated .
Although it can be a hindrance , it is no longer a decisive factor , certainly not in cities .
India is wretched , miserable , and backward because the society wallows in regressive thinking , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caste system is only one factor .
In the upcoming second part , we explore the similarities between India ’ s experience with policies that promised social change and equality and the debates we ’ re having in the West , as well as their wider implications for the economy and for society at large .
This article has been published in the Newsroom of pro aurum , the leading precious metals company in Europe with an independent subsidiary in Switzerland .
The Best of Claudio Grass

Interview with Jayant Bhandari: Part I
Following the publication of our last conversation with Jayant Bhandari, I received a lot of interesting feedback and remarks. The common denominator of all those comments was the astonishment of many Western readers at the real conditions and dynamics on the ground in India. In fact, I was surprised myself by how little we actually know and understand about a country so vast, so populous and so potentially influential on the world’s geopolitical stage. The coverage we receive by Western media is often so superficial, ahistorical and frequently biased, that it deceives us into believing we roughly understand the politics and social problems there, when in reality we are entirely clueless. This dangerous illusion of knowledge in turn comes to shape our beliefs and opinions, leads us to false conclusions and causes us to make erroneous generalizations.
Overall, the recent tensions and the riots that started in the US and spread throughout the West, all seemed to have the notion of inequality and social injustice at their core. Groups were pitted against other groups and all kinds of deep divisions in society came to the surface. In search of a parallel in modern history, to examine and to learn from, I thought of India and its caste system. From an outsider’s perspective, it seemed to me that a lot of the same issues and problems arose there too and a lot of the same solutions were already tried, albeit in a massively larger scale. So, I decided to turn to Jayant again, to understand that system more clearly and more objectively, to see if that parallel really holds up and if so, what are the lessons that the West can learn from India’s policies and their results? Having lived and worked in both worlds, he is far better equipped than most to assess these issues and even though he has strong views that go well beyond and very often contradict mainstream narratives, his insights, based on direct, first-hand experiences, certainly challenge commonly held beliefs and can set the stage for deeper debates. After all, different perspectives, dissenting views and free dialogue are the prerequisites and the main ingredients for an enlightened civilization. Wild Planet Wild Sardi... Buy New $27.69 ($0.52 / Ounce) (as of 11:55 UTC - Details)
Jayant is a globetrotting institutional investment consultant, who has amassed extensive international experience in the mining and natural resource sector. Apart from his investment insights, he has published numerous interesting analyses on political, cultural and social issues, while he also runs a yearly seminar in Vancouver, “Capitalism & Morality”.
Claudio Grass (CG): India has been routinely making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Its citizens’ poor quality of life, lack of public services and infrastructure and violent incidents in the streets often feature in international media coverage, prompting many Indians to criticize what they see as unfair reporting. Do you think there really is a negative bias against the country in the West?
Jayant Bhandari (JB): In just about every human development metric, India is worse than sub-Saharan Africa. The conditions in India are a lot worse and far more backward than what you see in the media and what you imagine when you’re reading these headlines. The reports and images that reach you cannot convey the ever-present smell of human waste, the unceasing noise, the feeling of people constantly violating your space and the daily reality of dysfunction and failure at every conceivable level. For the majority of Indians, life is no better today than what it was in medieval times. Perhaps it is even worse now, with pollution, over-population, and the alien lifestyle of “modern living” added to the mix.
Corruption, tribalism, and “might-is-right” are the governing principles in society. The police, the politicians, the courts, and the criminals are all in bed together. The bureaucrat will humiliate you, extract bribes, and expect god-like reverence from you. The work ethic and lack of integrity are so bad that if you give away bribes too early, your work won’t get done. Citizens must grovel, prostrate, and bow down with folded hands. Every time I have to deal with those in the government, I use an agent to avoid the degradation that every citizen must face.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the citizens—men or women—are not innocent. While the government gets most of the blame, it is merely a symptom of the underlying cultural disease. The real problem is Indian tribal ways, superstitious, irrational and circular thinking, and the absence of moral and rational mental anchors. This is the root of all of India’s problems and why it is not and will not be a functioning civilization. 2 oz .999 Silver Bullet Buy New $70.00 (as of 04:22 UTC - Details)
People with the slightest bit of power will exploit it and become predatory. If you need a taxi, be assured that the driver will overcharge you and exploit you to the extent he can. The more power the individual has, the worse his conduct becomes. And this is not a case of a “few bad apples”, but the reality of day to day life in India. As men and those from the higher castes tend to get all the blame, I should hastily add that women also have a solid track record as aggressors and they often commit the worst atrocities on other women, especially those from the lower castes, who routinely engage in caste-related violence.
The dystopia is far broader, deeper, more entangled, and complex than what most people can ever imagine from the outside. And I haven’t seen any positive change since the IT and the educational revolution started. If anything, the cultural situation is even worse now.
So, why do Indians see any honest reporting of the problems in the country as unfair? Well, it’s because they’re deeply tribal. Their sense of identity is hinged to your perception about their caste, religion, sect, language, or the country as a whole. Fairness, justice, and the suffering of their fellow citizens are of no interest to them. All they care about is what others, especially the outsiders, think of them. If you feel that this thinking is no different from that which exists behind honor killings, you are on track to understanding the Indian mind. And they take this mentality with them when they leave, as this defensiveness only intensifies once they have moved to the West.
CG: Very frequently, the reports in Western media identify India’s caste system as the source of all these evils. Inequality, extreme poverty and lack of opportunity is blamed on the social and economic isolation that the lower castes seem to suffer from those “higher-born”. However, there have been important changes and government interventions to this system over the last decades, so how accurate is this narrative in 2020?
JB: Whining, complaining, playing the victim card, and a grievance-based culture is the most comfortable option for those who cannot make it in life. It helps them extract unearned resources and hope for an easy life. It enables them to pass the blame onto others, so that they can enjoy some emotional comfort, believing their failures are not their own and that they could not have done well in life anyway. But this attitude also disempowers them, perpetuates their misery and eventually worsens their feeling of impotence, low self-esteem, and psychological subservience. The Last Gold Rushu202... Haynes, Bill Buy New $28.00 (as of 04:04 UTC - Details)
Of course, the media, the shallow-thinking intellectuals, journalists, and social activists play along, for siding with the weaker party is not only politically correct, but can also be quite profitable. Intellectuals, who lack a real-life experience and are ridden with envy and bile against any semblance of actual success, agitate the underclass. Nowhere in the world are the underprivileged so prone to blaming their situation on those who are successful. It is this intellectual “Middle Class” that is the prime agitator.
The caste system exists, but it is a part of a much bigger problem. Indians are tribal and are constantly positioning themselves in the pecking order. The lower you go in the food chain, the worse it becomes. The lower caste people are the worst perpetrators of the caste system.
Most media presentations of caste issues in India, especially those aimed at foreign audiences, follow a passive narrative, leaving you to assume that it must be the higher caste that is the oppressor, and thus responsible for all that is wrong in Indian society. However, this view is as ahistorical and as it is factually groundless. The statistics speak for themselves. Most caste problems arise out nothing else but a lower-caste group subjugating another lower-caste group to show who among them is higher. As for all those horrific reports you see in Western media about caste-related violence, the vast majority of these atrocities are committed strictly within the lower castes, not by the imagined “oppressor” class.
Also, you might have heard of the Hindu-fanatic Prime Minister of India. Both he and the President are from the lower caste. One would have expected this to have made a dent in the oppressor-oppressed narrative, but, of course, it didn’t and oppression has only increased under their regime.
The real reasons for the chronic backwardness of India are much more mundane and “pedestrian” and as such, they don’t really support that timeless, romantic fairytale of rich and privileged villains against poor but noble underdogs. What is really to blame is the utter lack of skills, lack of work ethic, absence of integrity and honesty in work and social relations, tribalism, belief in might-is-right, and a lack of reason and moral values. In all this, the caste system is only one of the symptoms, which, as I said, gets worse among those in the lower castes. For this reason, any caste-based solution to India’s problems is simplistic and makes the problem worse by adding fuel to the fire. Silpada ’Big Ide... Buy New $29.00 (as of 04:22 UTC - Details)
CG: The reforms and legislative measures that the state has enforced over the years in order to break down caste barriers have been quite drastic. There has been a massive effort to lift the lower castes socioeconomically, including subsidies, quotas, reserved seats in parliament and places in universities. How do you assess the results of these policies? Have they achieved their stated aims in promoting social harmony and economic prosperity for all?
JB: In a tribal society, where no one trusts anyone, social harmony will always be an illusion. Subsidies, quotas, and the like, have enabled a massive grievance-based culture to emerge in the country. You cannot make a community proud and honorable by giving them free stuff. The affirmative action policies have trapped those of the lower castes in low-level thinking: being beggars and servile, being lazy, and expecting free stuff.
I went to a catholic school in India. Until I got to university, I did not know much about the caste system. It simply never was, per se, a dominant issue in urban areas and it still isn’t. I went to one of the top engineering colleges in India. The affirmative action policy, called the “reservation system” in India, allocates a majority of seats to the lower castes. Compare the 78% entrance marks that I had to attain to be admitted with the close-to-zero scores that those who joined from the lower caste had. As can be expected, the net effect of this was to make their self-esteem worse and to render any professional relationship between us impossible.
Predictably, they kept on failing, and many of them stayed in the college for a decade or more. I personally knew of a student who had been there for thirty-five years. They had been artificially placed in a position with challenges that they were not prepared for and were not equipped to handle. In effect, they’d been set up for failure. Eventually, after being stuck for many years, unable to pass exams and finish their degrees, the administration simply did it for them. They graduated them and waived them through, in order to get them out and clear the bottleneck for the next batch to enter. The situation is the same in medical colleges, rendering those degrees basically meaningless. Knowing these practices have been going on for so long, producing dangerously unqualified professionals, what hope does a lower-caste doctor have of being trusted by a patient? How confident would you be if you had to go under the knife in a public hospital in India?
Donald Trump 2020 Coll... Buy New $37.94 (as of 05:17 UTC - Details) But it goes even deeper than that. Very early in my university days, I realized that if, for whatever reason, someone from a lower caste filed a police report against me, on his word alone, the laws would have required the police to arrest me without a warrant or possibility of bail. In a country where simple cases drag on for decades, I would have been barred from getting a passport or a job. Why should I take such a risk by befriending or even interacting with someone from a lower caste, when I could avoid the risk altogether by keeping my distance? So you see, the very laws that were supposed to erase caste barriers actually ensured that the distance between groups would grow wider.
This toxic effect is even more apparent in government. This “reservation” policy offers the majority of government jobs to those from the lower caste, with accelerated promotions. The lower caste people, once in power, turn their back to their communities and merely show off their influence in expectation of reverence. They have no skill to feel proud of anyway, so all they feel proud of is their position and their perceived status, which is effectively monetized through rampant corruption. This has been a significant factor in rapidly degrading Indian institutions.
All these affirmative action policies have been an unmitigated disaster for the country. They were designed by populist politicians who care not a bit for the citizens, certainly not for those in the lower caste. The caste system, and more importantly, the general tribalism of Indians is oppressive, but these simplistic, nonsensical laws have made the situation far worse.
Of course the caste system is ugly and unjust. But it is only one of many destructive forces and problems, and it is merely symptomatic of a chronic disease that runs way deeper. As for its actual role in today’s society, it is ridiculously overstated. Although it can be a hindrance, it is no longer a decisive factor, certainly not in cities. India is wretched, miserable, and backward because the society wallows in regressive thinking, of which, as I said, the caste system is only one factor.
In the upcoming second part, we explore the similarities between India’s experience with policies that promised social change and equality and the debates we’re having in the West, as well as their wider implications for the economy and for society at large.
————-
This article has been published in the Newsroom of pro aurum, the leading precious metals company in Europe with an independent subsidiary in Switzerland.
The Best of Claudio Grass


lewrockwell--2020-07-24--Blood Money: The Civil War and the Federal Reserve

Continuing from the prior column John Remington Graham ’ s thesis that the mis-named “ civil war ” was fomented by bankers who desired a large national debt that they could acquire in order to exand and contract currency and credit and thus control the econony and government , I present today with permission Graham ’ s analysis of the repeal , in effect , of the Missouri Compromise .
The Missouri compromise was put in place by statesmen determined to keep the North and the South , two separate countries with different legislative interests , in a state of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The compromise admitted Maine as a non-slave state and Missouri as a slave state .
Thus , North and South retained the same number of senators , which forced compromise if anything was to happen .
Graham reports that this achievement was destroyed by Stephen Douglas ’ ambition to become president .
This ambition caused Douglas to conspire with railroad interests and their financiers against a railway that would serve southern interests .
Blood Money : The Civil ... Graham , John Best Price : $ 6.52 Buy New $ 26.99 In an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ railroad dealings , Douglas , Chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories , secured the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 which repealed the provision of the Missouri Compromise that prohibited slavery above 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude .
Some southerners went along with the Kansas-Nebraska act , and others regarded it as a blunder .
And blunder it was .
Kansas Territory became inhabited by both the northern and southern ways of life .
Banking interests financed a campaign of libel and hatred that resulted in civil war in the territory .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brought Kansas into the Union as a non-slave state .
That unbalanced the power in the Senate and made the passage of a high tariff possible .
The Morrill Tariff passed the Republican Congress on March 2 , 1861 , after Lincoln ’ s election and prior to his inauguration .
The declaration of war against the South passed Congress on July 25 , 1861 , five months later .
In its first year , the Morrill Tariff increased the effective rate on dutiable imports by 70 % .
The Morrill Tariff played @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his address to the South Carolina convention in December 1860 , Robert B. Rhett said that as the southern states had minority representation in Congress , they were unprotected “ against unjust taxation , and they are taxed by the people of the North for their benefit , exactly as the people of Great Britain taxed our ancestors in the British parliament for their benefit .
For the last forty years , the taxes laid by the Congress of the United States have been laid with a view of subserving the interests of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ South have been taxed by duties on imports , not for revenue , but for an object inconsistent with revenue—to promote , by prohibitions , Northern interests in the productions of their mines and manufactures.
” The New York Times opposed the Morrill Tariff partly on Adam Smith ’ s free trade grounds and partly for the reason that the tariff was imposing high duties at the very moment that the southern states saw the tariff as cause for secession .
As secesson became more likely , the Times changed its position and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to pay the tariff .
Graham sees the civil war in the Kansas Territory as a “ dress rehersal for the big event coming up.
” The Pioneers : The Hero ... McCullough , David Best Price : $ 5.74 Buy New $ 9.83 Transcontinental Railroads and the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Next came legislative adjustments in the Federal territories concerning the institution of slavery : In 1820 Missouri was admitted into the Union .
The new State lay to the west of the Mississippi River .
On the other side of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the Mason-Dixon Line distinguished the modern industrialized society in the Northern States , from the quasi-feudal agrarian society in the Southern States .
While the two cultures could exist side by side on the same continental expanse , they could never be mixed , because each civilization was radically different from the other .
Human beings are remarkably territorial .
They will fight and kill for land to maintain a particular way of life .
If the latitude of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were extended in a westerly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Northern and Southern States , Missouri should have come into the Union without slavery .
Yet , because the planter way of life was well entrenched in Missouri when she applied for admission to the Union , it was wholly impractical to prohibit slavery in the new State .
Legislators from Northern States wanted to be sure that they would get a good piece of the Federal territories .
It was not altruism , but a desire to preserve an adequate domain for their civilization that prompted this desire .
They were indifferent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but they knew that , if the institution were firmly implanted anywhere , it would be more difficult to implant their way of life in that place .
Under the guidance of Henry Clay , an accommodation was reached to allow the new State with slavery .
The deal extended the southern boundary of Missouri , which was at 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude , in a westerly direction , cutting the Federal territories in two parts .
Below that line were Indian lands or Oklahoma and what became Texas upon her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and there slavery was allowed by law .
Above that line was then-unorganized territory , a major part of the Louisiana Purchase transacted in 1803 , and there slavery was prohibited by law .
In that unorganized territory just to the west of Missouri lay what later became Kansas , and to the north and west lay what later became Nebraska .
The Wit and Wisdom of ...
Twain , Mark Best Price : $ 1.79 Buy New $ 8.48 This “ Missouri Compromise ” or Compromise of 1820 was considered by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pact between the North and the South , enabling the two civilizations to co-exist within the same Union .
Again under the guidance of Henry Clay , the Compromise of 1850 was reached to deal with the expanse of continent ceded two years earlier by Mexico to the United States .
This legislation did not formally prohibit slavery in the new Federal territories , nor was such an interdiction necessary , because geography made it impossible to implant slavery to the south and west of the Nueces River in Texas , or into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of the land acquired from Mexico .
Aging patriots made these arrangements to save the Union .
The great ones among them — Henry Clay , Daniel Webster , and John Calhoun — died by the end of 1852 , and slavery began to pass into the mists of history .
All that was needed was the quiet passing of time .
The inflammatory language of Uncle Tom ’ s Cabin stirred up passions , but even that baneful influence was not enough to prevent the Compromises of 1820 and 1850 from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they remained untouched .
But they were not left untouched .
And the meddling hands , as with Uncle Tom ’ s Cabin , were again the hands of large banking houses , this time financing a grand transcontinental railroad , from the eastern end at Chicago through Iowa , then across the unorganized territory to the north and west of Missouri , and from San Francisco on the Pacific coast across territory ceded by Mexico until the two projects joined in Utah .
The difficulty was that the South offered and wanted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Texas , thence by the Gila Valley to San Diego .
Stephen Douglas , Chairman of the Committee on Territories in the United States Senate , was ambitious to become President , and was supported in his ambition by the financiers behind the central route from Chicago to San Francisco .
As a quid pro quo , Douglas supported the central route which those financiers wanted .
In order to buy off enough Southern votes to get the central route , Douglas secured the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 .
This legislation established the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and included a provision repealing the prohibition of slavery in the Louisiana Purchase above 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude as ordained by the Missouri Compromise .
More Liberty Means Les ... Williams , Walter E. Best Price : $ 3.97 Buy New $ 18.95 There were great Southerners who opposed this sale of the Missouri Compromise to suit the demands of political ambition , railroad building , and high finance .
Among them was Sam Houston of Texas .
But enough Southerners went along , including some good men who did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The repeal meant that the Kansas Territory , directly to the west of Missouri , was open to settlement both to people from the North , with their way of life , and people from the South , with their way of life .
In the bulk of the Federal territories , such a possibility really would not matter , because the climate and terrain generally did not welcome slavery .
But there was one exception , of all places within the Kansas Territory : in a small region along the Kansas and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been profitably grown and harvested by slave labor .
That was enough to bring people from both the North and the South into the Kansas Territory .
As night follows day , a civil war broke out between the two populations in 1855 , and it continued on and off over several years .
Hatred had been incited by large banking houses financing libel , and a battle ground had been arranged by large banking houses financing a railroad .
The hostilities erupting in the new territory were a kind of dress @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A lot of howling and posturing over “ Bleeding Kansas ” was stirred up by Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the United States Senate .
Both of them were closely allied to Northern railroad , industrial , and financial interests , for it was practically impossible for anybody in the United States Senate from a State above the Mason-Dixon Line and the Ohio River not to have “ conversations ” with individuals representing such powerful concerns .
But in spite of Chase and Sumner , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and out of it came a new State admitted to the Union without slavery in 1861 .
The most interesting feature of this episode is that , not the likes of Chase and Sumner , but Southern statesmen caused the fighting to end in the Kansas Territory .
It was these Southern statesmen who caused peaceful voting to occur , votes to be honestly counted , and a new free State to enter the Union .
They included especially Robert Toombs of Georgia in the United States Senate , and territorial governors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Tennessee .
The Best of Paul Craig Roberts

Continuing from the prior column John Remington Graham’s thesis that the mis-named “civil war” was fomented by bankers who desired a large national debt that they could acquire in order to exand and contract currency and credit and thus control the econony and government, I present today with permission Graham’s analysis of the repeal, in effect, of the Missouri Compromise.
The Missouri compromise was put in place by statesmen determined to keep the North and the South, two separate countries with different legislative interests, in a state of even power in the US Senate. The compromise admitted Maine as a non-slave state and Missouri as a slave state. Thus, North and South retained the same number of senators, which forced compromise if anything was to happen.
Graham reports that this achievement was destroyed by Stephen Douglas’ ambition to become president. This ambition caused Douglas to conspire with railroad interests and their financiers against a railway that would serve southern interests. Blood Money: The Civil... Graham, John Best Price: $6.52 Buy New $26.99 (as of 04:05 UTC - Details)
In an effort to ameliorate southern opposition to his railroad dealings, Douglas, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, secured the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 which repealed the provision of the Missouri Compromise that prohibited slavery above 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude. Some southerners went along with the Kansas-Nebraska act, and others regarded it as a blunder.
And blunder it was. Kansas Territory became inhabited by both the northern and southern ways of life. Banking interests financed a campaign of libel and hatred that resulted in civil war in the territory. The war was ended by southern statesmen who brought Kansas into the Union as a non-slave state. That unbalanced the power in the Senate and made the passage of a high tariff possible.
The Morrill Tariff passed the Republican Congress on March 2, 1861, after Lincoln’s election and prior to his inauguration. The declaration of war against the South passed Congress on July 25, 1861, five months later. In its first year, the Morrill Tariff increased the effective rate on dutiable imports by 70%.
The Morrill Tariff played a key role in secession. In his address to the South Carolina convention in December 1860, Robert B. Rhett said that as the southern states had minority representation in Congress, they were unprotected “against unjust taxation, and they are taxed by the people of the North for their benefit, exactly as the people of Great Britain taxed our ancestors in the British parliament for their benefit. For the last forty years, the taxes laid by the Congress of the United States have been laid with a view of subserving the interests of the North. The people of the South have been taxed by duties on imports, not for revenue, but for an object inconsistent with revenue—to promote, by prohibitions, Northern interests in the productions of their mines and manufactures.”
The New York Times opposed the Morrill Tariff partly on Adam Smith’s free trade grounds and partly for the reason that the tariff was imposing high duties at the very moment that the southern states saw the tariff as cause for secession. As secesson became more likely, the Times changed its position and advocated military action to force the South to pay the tariff.
Graham sees the civil war in the Kansas Territory as a “dress rehersal for the big event coming up.” The Pioneers: The Hero... McCullough, David Best Price: $5.74 Buy New $9.83 (as of 04:24 UTC - Details)
Transcontinental Railroads and the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise
Next came legislative adjustments in the Federal territories concerning the institution of slavery:
In 1820 Missouri was admitted into the Union. The new State lay to the west of the Mississippi River. On the other side of that great waterway, the Ohio River and the Mason-Dixon Line distinguished the modern industrialized society in the Northern States, from the quasi-feudal agrarian society in the Southern States. While the two cultures could exist side by side on the same continental expanse, they could never be mixed, because each civilization was radically different from the other. Human beings are remarkably territorial. They will fight and kill for land to maintain a particular way of life.
If the latitude of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were extended in a westerly direction as a continuing boundary between the Northern and Southern States, Missouri should have come into the Union without slavery. Yet, because the planter way of life was well entrenched in Missouri when she applied for admission to the Union, it was wholly impractical to prohibit slavery in the new State.
Legislators from Northern States wanted to be sure that they would get a good piece of the Federal territories. It was not altruism, but a desire to preserve an adequate domain for their civilization that prompted this desire. They were indifferent to slavery as a moral question, but they knew that, if the institution were firmly implanted anywhere, it would be more difficult to implant their way of life in that place.
Under the guidance of Henry Clay, an accommodation was reached to allow the new State with slavery. The deal extended the southern boundary of Missouri, which was at 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, in a westerly direction, cutting the Federal territories in two parts. Below that line were Indian lands or Oklahoma and what became Texas upon her admission to the Union some years later, and there slavery was allowed by law. Above that line was then-unorganized territory, a major part of the Louisiana Purchase transacted in 1803, and there slavery was prohibited by law. In that unorganized territory just to the west of Missouri lay what later became Kansas, and to the north and west lay what later became Nebraska. The Wit and Wisdom of ... Twain, Mark Best Price: $1.79 Buy New $8.48 (as of 04:24 UTC - Details)
This “Missouri Compromise” or Compromise of 1820 was considered by statesmen of the country as a solemn pact between the North and the South, enabling the two civilizations to co-exist within the same Union.
Again under the guidance of Henry Clay, the Compromise of 1850 was reached to deal with the expanse of continent ceded two years earlier by Mexico to the United States. This legislation did not formally prohibit slavery in the new Federal territories, nor was such an interdiction necessary, because geography made it impossible to implant slavery to the south and west of the Nueces River in Texas, or into or beyond Oklahoma, or upon any part of the land acquired from Mexico.
Aging patriots made these arrangements to save the Union. The great ones among them — Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun — died by the end of 1852, and slavery began to pass into the mists of history. All that was needed was the quiet passing of time. The inflammatory language of Uncle Tom’s Cabin stirred up passions, but even that baneful influence was not enough to prevent the Compromises of 1820 and 1850 from doing their merciful work, if only they remained untouched.
But they were not left untouched. And the meddling hands, as with Uncle Tom’s Cabin, were again the hands of large banking houses, this time financing a grand transcontinental railroad, from the eastern end at Chicago through Iowa, then across the unorganized territory to the north and west of Missouri, and from San Francisco on the Pacific coast across territory ceded by Mexico until the two projects joined in Utah. The difficulty was that the South offered and wanted a shorter route from New Orleans through Texas, thence by the Gila Valley to San Diego. Stephen Douglas, Chairman of the Committee on Territories in the United States Senate, was ambitious to become President, and was supported in his ambition by the financiers behind the central route from Chicago to San Francisco. As a quid pro quo, Douglas supported the central route which those financiers wanted. In order to buy off enough Southern votes to get the central route, Douglas secured the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. This legislation established the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory, and included a provision repealing the prohibition of slavery in the Louisiana Purchase above 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude as ordained by the Missouri Compromise. More Liberty Means Les... Williams, Walter E. Best Price: $3.97 Buy New $18.95 (as of 11:12 UTC - Details)
There were great Southerners who opposed this sale of the Missouri Compromise to suit the demands of political ambition, railroad building, and high finance. Among them was Sam Houston of Texas. But enough Southerners went along, including some good men who did not appreciate the magnitude of the blunder. The repeal meant that the Kansas Territory, directly to the west of Missouri, was open to settlement both to people from the North, with their way of life, and people from the South, with their way of life. In the bulk of the Federal territories, such a possibility really would not matter, because the climate and terrain generally did not welcome slavery. But there was one exception, of all places within the Kansas Territory: in a small region along the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, hemp and tobacco might have been profitably grown and harvested by slave labor.
That was enough to bring people from both the North and the South into the Kansas Territory. As night follows day, a civil war broke out between the two populations in 1855, and it continued on and off over several years. Hatred had been incited by large banking houses financing libel, and a battle ground had been arranged by large banking houses financing a railroad. The hostilities erupting in the new territory were a kind of dress rehearsal for the big event coming up.
A lot of howling and posturing over “Bleeding Kansas” was stirred up by Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the United States Senate. Both of them were closely allied to Northern railroad, industrial, and financial interests, for it was practically impossible for anybody in the United States Senate from a State above the Mason-Dixon Line and the Ohio River not to have “conversations” with individuals representing such powerful concerns. But in spite of Chase and Sumner, the trouble in the Kansas Territory was settled, and out of it came a new State admitted to the Union without slavery in 1861. The most interesting feature of this episode is that, not the likes of Chase and Sumner, but Southern statesmen caused the fighting to end in the Kansas Territory. It was these Southern statesmen who caused peaceful voting to occur, votes to be honestly counted, and a new free State to enter the Union. They included especially Robert Toombs of Georgia in the United States Senate, and territorial governors Robert Walker of Mississippi and Frederick Stanton of Tennessee.
The Best of Paul Craig Roberts


lewrockwell--2020-07-24--Stress Test of a Straining Superpower

Stress Test of a Straining Superpower

How great a burden can even an unrivaled superpower carry before it buckles and breaks ?
We may be about to find out .
Rome was the superpower of its time , ruling for centuries almost the entirety of what was then called the civilized world .
Great Britain was a superpower of its day , but she bled , bankrupted and broke herself in the Thirty Years War of the West from 1914-1945 .
By Winston Churchill ’ s death in 1965 , the empire had vanished , and Britain was being invaded by a stream of migrants from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... Xiangsui , Wang Best Price : $ 18.24 Buy New $ 13.48 America was the real superpower of the 20th century and became sole claimant to that title with the collapse of the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991 , an event Vladimir Putin called “ the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.
” Has America ’ s turn come ?
Is America breaking under the burdens it has lately assumed and is attempting to carry ?
Today , at the presidential library of Richard Nixon , who ushered Mao ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is laying out a strategy of containment and confrontation of a China that is far more the equal of the USA than was the USSR .
“ In the 1960s , manufacturing made up 25 % of U.S. gross domestic product .
It ’ s barely 11 % today .
More than five million American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000.
” China controls the production of 97 % of the antibiotics upon which the lives of millions of Americans depend .
She provides critical components in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Beijing commands more warships than the U.S. Navy and holds a trillion dollars in U.S. debt .
Moscow never had this kind of hold on us .
Ages of Discord : A Str ... Turchin , Peter Best Price : $ 30.40 Buy New $ 32.12 Writes Herman : “ Since 2000 , America ’ s defense industry has shed more than 20,000 U.S.-based manufacturing companies .
As the work those companies once did domestically has shifted overseas , much of it has gone to China .
From rare-earth metals and permanent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circuit boards , the Pentagon has slowly become dependent on Chinese industrial output .
Asia produces 90 % of the world ’ s circuit boards — more than half of them in China .
The U.S. share of global circuit-board production has fallen to 5 % .
” Decoupling from China and re-industrializing America would be an immense undertaking .
But unless and until we do it , we remain vulnerable .
Another decades-long struggle , this time with China , like the Cold War that consumed so much of our attention and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not the only challenge America faces .
Through NATO , the U.S. is still the principal protector of almost 30 European nations .
And despite Donald Trump ’ s promise to end our forever wars , 8,500 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan , 5,000 in Iraq , hundreds in Syria , thousands more in Kuwait and Bahrain .
The Red Trojan Horse : ... Elder , Alasdair Best Price : $ 14.85 Buy New $ 14.50 There are other huge new claims on America ’ s time , attention and resources .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ months of the coronavirus pandemic , more U.S. dead than all the Americans soldiers lost in Korea , Vietnam , Iraq and Afghanistan .
A thousand Americans are dying every day , a higher daily death toll than in World War II and the Civil War combined .
The U.S. economy has been thrust into something approaching a second Depression .
The 2020 deficit runs into the trillions of dollars .
Our national debt is now far larger than our GDP and soaring .
Tens of millions are unemployed .
And the shutdowns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , riots , rampages and statue-smashing of the last two months , it is apparent that millions of Americans detest our history and heroes .
Though nowhere in recorded time have 42 million people of African descent achieved the measures of freedom and prosperity they have in the USA , we are daily admonished that ours is a rotten and sick society whose every institution is shot through with “ systemic racism.
” Yes to Life : In Spite ... Frankl , Viktor E. Best Price : $ 17.20 Buy New $ 14.79 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as during the riots of the 1960s in Harlem , Watts , Newark and 100 cities that exploded after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King .
In the numbers of citizens now shot and killed every week , great American cities such as Baltimore , St. Louis , Detroit and Chicago are looking more like Baghdad .
The Democratic Party is promising to take up the issue of racial reparations for our original sin of slavery .
The first order of business , we are told , is ending inequality — of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health care .
The racial disparity in police arrests , prosecutions , incarcerations and school expulsions , must end .
But if the trillions we have spent to address these inequalities since the Great Society days have failed to make greater progress , why should we believe that we even know how to succeed , absent the imposition of a rigid socialist egalitarianism of results ?
The Old Republic is facing a stress test unlike any it has known since the Union was threatened with dissolution in the Civil War .
The Best @ @ @ @

Shop all books by Pat Buchanan
How great a burden can even an unrivaled superpower carry before it buckles and breaks? We may be about to find out.
Rome was the superpower of its time, ruling for centuries almost the entirety of what was then called the civilized world.
Great Britain was a superpower of its day, but she bled, bankrupted and broke herself in the Thirty Years War of the West from 1914-1945.
By Winston Churchill’s death in 1965, the empire had vanished, and Britain was being invaded by a stream of migrants from its former colonies. Unrestricted Warfare: ... Xiangsui, Wang Best Price: $18.24 Buy New $13.48 (as of 03:44 UTC - Details)
America was the real superpower of the 20th century and became sole claimant to that title with the collapse of the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991, an event Vladimir Putin called “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.”
Has America’s turn come? Is America breaking under the burdens it has lately assumed and is attempting to carry?
Today, at the presidential library of Richard Nixon, who ushered Mao’s China onto the world stage, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is laying out a strategy of containment and confrontation of a China that is far more the equal of the USA than was the USSR.
Writes Hudson’s Institute’s Arthur Herman:
“In the 1960s, manufacturing made up 25% of U.S. gross domestic product. It’s barely 11% today. More than five million American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000.”
China controls the production of 97% of the antibiotics upon which the lives of millions of Americans depend. She provides critical components in the production chains of U.S. weapons systems.
Beijing commands more warships than the U.S. Navy and holds a trillion dollars in U.S. debt. Moscow never had this kind of hold on us. Ages of Discord: A Str... Turchin, Peter Best Price: $30.40 Buy New $32.12 (as of 11:39 UTC - Details)
Writes Herman: “Since 2000, America’s defense industry has shed more than 20,000 U.S.-based manufacturing companies. As the work those companies once did domestically has shifted overseas, much of it has gone to China. From rare-earth metals and permanent magnets to high-end electronic components and printed circuit boards, the Pentagon has slowly become dependent on Chinese industrial output. Asia produces 90% of the world’s circuit boards — more than half of them in China. The U.S. share of global circuit-board production has fallen to 5%.”
Decoupling from China and re-industrializing America would be an immense undertaking. But unless and until we do it, we remain vulnerable.
Another decades-long struggle, this time with China, like the Cold War that consumed so much of our attention and wealth from the 1940s to 1991, is not the only challenge America faces.
Through NATO, the U.S. is still the principal protector of almost 30 European nations. And despite Donald Trump’s promise to end our forever wars, 8,500 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, 5,000 in Iraq, hundreds in Syria, thousands more in Kuwait and Bahrain. The Red Trojan Horse: ... Elder, Alasdair Best Price: $14.85 Buy New $14.50 (as of 03:45 UTC - Details)
There are other huge new claims on America’s time, attention and resources. Some 145,000 Americans have perished in five months of the coronavirus pandemic, more U.S. dead than all the Americans soldiers lost in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
A thousand Americans are dying every day, a higher daily death toll than in World War II and the Civil War combined.
The U.S. economy has been thrust into something approaching a second Depression. The 2020 deficit runs into the trillions of dollars. Our national debt is now far larger than our GDP and soaring. Tens of millions are unemployed. And the shutdowns are beginning anew.
From the protests, riots, rampages and statue-smashing of the last two months, it is apparent that millions of Americans detest our history and heroes. Though nowhere in recorded time have 42 million people of African descent achieved the measures of freedom and prosperity they have in the USA, we are daily admonished that ours is a rotten and sick society whose every institution is shot through with “systemic racism.”
Yes to Life: In Spite ... Frankl, Viktor E. Best Price: $17.20 Buy New $14.79 (as of 04:25 UTC - Details) The racial divisions are almost as ugly as during the riots of the 1960s in Harlem, Watts, Newark and 100 cities that exploded after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
In the numbers of citizens now shot and killed every week, great American cities such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago are looking more like Baghdad.
The Democratic Party is promising to take up the issue of racial reparations for our original sin of slavery. The first order of business, we are told, is ending inequality — of income, wealth, educational attainment and health care. The racial disparity in police arrests, prosecutions, incarcerations and school expulsions, must end.
But if the trillions we have spent to address these inequalities since the Great Society days have failed to make greater progress, why should we believe that we even know how to succeed, absent the imposition of a rigid socialist egalitarianism of results?
The Old Republic is facing a stress test unlike any it has known since the Union was threatened with dissolution in the Civil War.
The Best of Patrick J. Buchanan


lewrockwell--2020-07-24--Hard Head, Soft Heart

Hard Head, Soft Heart

Walking through Paris yesterday , I saw the following slogan daubed on a wall : I doubt that this was done by someone completely without education .
Indeed , I would be prepared to place a small bet that , to the contrary , whoever did it had a university degree .
Nevertheless , what he wrote was not only inaccurate but inaccurate in a very significant way , insofar as it implied , and was intended to imply , that inequality was a factor that causes the illness occasioned by coronavirus .
Admirable Evasions : Ho ... Theodore Dalrymple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 13.35 It is true , of course , that the relatively poor in France , as elsewhere in the world , were more affected , and more severely affected , by it than the rich .
There is nothing unusual in this : There are very few diseases , especially infectious , that strike the rich more and worse than the poor , and this is so even in countries that are rich overall .
The confusion is a common one .
An analogous confusion is that between equity and equality , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outcome .
Medical journals are particularly prone to this confusion , or perhaps I should say ( to be accurate ) that I am particularly prone to notice it in them .
A recent opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association , written by an eminent black cardiologist in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement , was only the latest to elide the two concepts .
The Terror of Existenc ... Kenneth Francis Best Price : $ 13.47 Buy New $ 14.96 Equity is the quality of fairness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but far from identical , it being unfair that I am not more handsome than I am , but not unjust ) .
Equality is the identity of persons in some respect or other , and even where it is a reasonable aspiration , as in equality before the law , it is rarely fully accomplished in practice .
Furthermore , it is rarely acknowledged ( though it is also perfectly obvious ) that while equity and justice are desirable , they are not the only qualities that are desirable , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We should always bear in mind Hamlet ’ s response to Polonius when the latter says that he will treat the actors who have come to Elsinore as well as they deserve : Use every man after his desert , and who should ’ scape whipping ?
And if justice entails using every man after his desert , as surely it must , justice would require a universal whipping for Mankind , but few except evangelical sadomasochists would propose such an eventuality because it was in accordance with the dictates of justice @ @ @ @ @ @

Walking through Paris yesterday, I saw the following slogan daubed on a wall:
Coronavirus: Inequality Equals Comorbidity
I doubt that this was done by someone completely without education. Indeed, I would be prepared to place a small bet that, to the contrary, whoever did it had a university degree.
Nevertheless, what he wrote was not only inaccurate but inaccurate in a very significant way, insofar as it implied, and was intended to imply, that inequality was a factor that causes the illness occasioned by coronavirus.
Admirable Evasions: Ho... Theodore Dalrymple Best Price: $12.26 Buy New $13.35 (as of 11:00 UTC - Details) It is true, of course, that the relatively poor in France, as elsewhere in the world, were more affected, and more severely affected, by it than the rich. There is nothing unusual in this: There are very few diseases, especially infectious, that strike the rich more and worse than the poor, and this is so even in countries that are rich overall.
But is the cause inequality in itself? It is, rather, the conditions in which the relatively poor live: overcrowding, poorer diet, dirtier work, and so forth. A society in which everyone was equal but lived in the conditions in which the poorest now live would not be healthier or better able to resist coronavirus than the society we actually have, rather the reverse. In other words, it would be as true to say that inequality is a precondition for health as it is to say that it is a comorbidity of coronavirus, both propositions being absurd and misleading.
The confusion is a common one. An analogous confusion is that between equity and equality, where by equality is meant equality of outcome. Medical journals are particularly prone to this confusion, or perhaps I should say (to be accurate) that I am particularly prone to notice it in them. A recent opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association, written by an eminent black cardiologist in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, was only the latest to elide the two concepts. The Terror of Existenc... Kenneth Francis Best Price: $13.47 Buy New $14.96 (as of 03:14 UTC - Details)
Equity is the quality of fairness or justice (again, related concepts, but far from identical, it being unfair that I am not more handsome than I am, but not unjust). Equality is the identity of persons in some respect or other, and even where it is a reasonable aspiration, as in equality before the law, it is rarely fully accomplished in practice.
Furthermore, it is rarely acknowledged (though it is also perfectly obvious) that while equity and justice are desirable, they are not the only qualities that are desirable, and in some instances may actually be undesirable. We should always bear in mind Hamlet’s response to Polonius when the latter says that he will treat the actors who have come to Elsinore as well as they deserve: Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping? And if justice entails using every man after his desert, as surely it must, justice would require a universal whipping for Mankind, but few except evangelical sadomasochists would propose such an eventuality because it was in accordance with the dictates of justice.
Read the Whole Article
The Best of Theodore Dalrymple


lewrockwell--2020-07-24--What’s Wrong With Public Schools?

What’s Wrong With Public Schools?

I want to be precise with my language here…
F**k The NY Times. pic.twitter.com/soQpChTLhe
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) July 23, 2020


lewrockwell--2020-07-24--The Financial System – A Hubristic Swindle

Zeus punished the hubristic King Sisyphus to roll a huge boulder up a very steep hill in Hades .
Before Sisyphus reached the top , the stone rolled down and he had to start all over again .
Hubris is serious sin that seldom goes unpunished .
The arrogance and uber-confidence which TPTB ( the powers that be ) have displayed in leading the world to ruin will clearly be severely punished .
But sadly the punishment will affect the whole world and not just the Elite that caused it .
Manipulating The World ... Martin Armstrong Check Amazon for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blaming one group for the coming global collapse might be unfair .
The world economy has always oscillated between boom and bust and is thus a natural phenomenon like the seasons .
But the main difference this time is the incredible damage that governments , central bankers and bankers have inflicted on the world .
In 2006 when the Great Financial Crisis started , US Federal debt was $ 8.5 trillion and today it is $ 26.5t .
In 14 years debt has more than trebled .
GDP in 2006 was $ 14t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt to GDP has gone from 60 % to 123 % .
This is what is called running on empty .
US debt creation has nothing to do with investing in productive assets .
With the debt to GDP ratio doubling in 14 years it is clear evidence that all the printed money is not going into the real economy but is supporting a bankrupt financial system which has kept the money to prop up their own insolvent balance sheets and to remunerate the top executives with fantasy money .
PRINTED MONEY TO @ @ @ @ @ @ @ book that the ... Sharratt , Robert Best Price : $ 9.93 Buy New $ 8.99 The printed money has also gone to inefficient mega-corporations which have leveraged their balance sheets with total borrowings going from $ 3t in 2006 to $ 7t today .
During the same period , US companies have spent in excess of $ 6t in share buybacks .
So instead of investing in the business , companies have borrowed money in order to buy back their own shares with the purpose of inflating the share price and executive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is hubris of the highest degree .
Ignore investing to grow the business .
Instead leverage the company to the hilt to inflate the share price and compensation for the top echelon .
Will this corporate arrogance go unpunished ?
The executives will hardly roll a big boulder up a hill in Hades but when the US and global economy collapses and social unrest spreads , the have-nots are not going to treat the haves kindly .
As I have stated many times , it is absolutely guaranteed that the global sand castle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Timing is always tricky and central banks have performed the most outstanding act of wizardry since 2006 .
Unleashing Usury : How ... Westra , Richard Best Price : $ 12.61 Buy New $ 24.95 By increasing global debt from $ 125t in 2006 to $ 270t today , they have drowned the world in so much worthless money that virtually nobody has understood that it is all fake money and fake wealth that has been created .
Actually , nobody understands it , not even Nobel prize winners who believe that MMT @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to everything .
You wonder how anybody can believe that creating money out of thin air can actually create wealth .
But since so many have benefitted why worry .
The Elite has become mega wealthy ( measured in fake money ) and the masses have a perceived improvement in living standards with more gadgets like cars or iPhones .
What few realise is that it all comes from debt .
Either increased personal debt or more government borrowing .
The Best of Egon von Greyerz

Zeus punished the hubristic King Sisyphus to roll a huge boulder up a very steep hill in Hades. Before Sisyphus reached the top, the stone rolled down and he had to start all over again.
Hubris is serious sin that seldom goes unpunished. The arrogance and uber-confidence which TPTB (the powers that be) have displayed in leading the world to ruin will clearly be severely punished. But sadly the punishment will affect the whole world and not just the Elite that caused it.
BANKERS AND GOVERNMENTS HAVE INFLICTED INCREDIBLE DAMAGE
Manipulating The World... Martin Armstrong Check Amazon for Pricing. It could be argued that blaming one group for the coming global collapse might be unfair. The world economy has always oscillated between boom and bust and is thus a natural phenomenon like the seasons. But the main difference this time is the incredible damage that governments, central bankers and bankers have inflicted on the world.
In 2006 when the Great Financial Crisis started, US Federal debt was $8.5 trillion and today it is $26.5t. In 14 years debt has more than trebled. GDP in 2006 was $14t and is now $21.5t. So debt to GDP has gone from 60% to 123%.
This is what is called running on empty. US debt creation has nothing to do with investing in productive assets. With the debt to GDP ratio doubling in 14 years it is clear evidence that all the printed money is not going into the real economy but is supporting a bankrupt financial system which has kept the money to prop up their own insolvent balance sheets and to remunerate the top executives with fantasy money.
PRINTED MONEY TO FATTEN CORPORATE EXECUTIVES 1%. The book that the... Sharratt, Robert Best Price: $9.93 Buy New $8.99 (as of 02:53 UTC - Details)
The printed money has also gone to inefficient mega-corporations which have leveraged their balance sheets with total borrowings going from $3t in 2006 to $7t today. During the same period, US companies have spent in excess of $6t in share buybacks. So instead of investing in the business, companies have borrowed money in order to buy back their own shares with the purpose of inflating the share price and executive remuneration in options and stocks.
This is hubris of the highest degree. Ignore investing to grow the business. Instead leverage the company to the hilt to inflate the share price and compensation for the top echelon. Will this corporate arrogance go unpunished? The executives will hardly roll a big boulder up a hill in Hades but when the US and global economy collapses and social unrest spreads, the have-nots are not going to treat the haves kindly.
GLOBAL SAND CASTLE BUILT ON MMT
As I have stated many times, it is absolutely guaranteed that the global sand castle resting on worthless debt will crumble. Timing is always tricky and central banks have performed the most outstanding act of wizardry since 2006. Unleashing Usury: How ... Westra, Richard Best Price: $12.61 Buy New $24.95 (as of 03:15 UTC - Details)
By increasing global debt from $125t in 2006 to $270t today, they have drowned the world in so much worthless money that virtually nobody has understood that it is all fake money and fake wealth that has been created.
Actually, nobody understands it, not even Nobel prize winners who believe that MMT or Modern Money Theory is the solution to everything. You wonder how anybody can believe that creating money out of thin air can actually create wealth. But since so many have benefitted why worry. The Elite has become mega wealthy (measured in fake money) and the masses have a perceived improvement in living standards with more gadgets like cars or iPhones. What few realise is that it all comes from debt. Either increased personal debt or more government borrowing.
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lewrockwell--2020-07-24--UV Radiation Protects Against Coronavirus

According to a British observational study1 posted July 6 , 2020 , on the preprint server medRxiv , ultraviolet ( UV ) radiation exposure appears to lower COVID-19 mortality rates .
As reported by News Medical Life Sciences,2 environmental factors such as temperature , humidity and UV irradiation are known to play a role in other infectious diseases , including seasonal influenza , so it shouldn ’ t come as a surprise that SARS-CoV-2 — the virus responsible for COVID-19 — can be affected in a similar manner .
I ’ ve written extensively about the importance of vitamin D @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but this research suggests there are other benefits to sun exposure besides vitamin D production .
humanN SuperBeets Circ ... Buy New $ 37.95 ( $ 7.16 / Ounce ) The researchers looked at UVA measures and COVID-19 death statistics in 2,474 U.S. counties , 6,755 Italian municipalities and 6,274 areas in England between the months of January and April 2020 , which is when vitamin D production due to low sun exposure tend to be minimal .
According to the authors:3 The researchers hypothesize UV exposure “ may have a direct effect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ airborne droplets , ” as well as the virus ’ ability to stay viable on various surfaces , thus reducing overall infection rates and lowering the initial inoculation load in those infected , which in turn might reduce the risk of severe illness .
Another mechanism of action may involve nitric oxide .
UVA radiation triggers the release of nitric oxide in your skin , mobilizing it into your circulation .
This lowers blood pressure by causing your blood vessels to expand .
This , the researchers say , is one important metabolic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ involve vitamin D. Curing the Incurable : ... Levy , MD JD Thomas E Best Price : $ 22.60 Buy New $ 18.89 What ’ s more , nitric oxide may help mitigate the endothelial damage seen in severe COVID-19 infection that leads to organ failure .
While not mentioned in this study , nitric oxide also improves your immune function , thins your blood and decreases blood viscosity , which in turn decreases platelet aggregation .
As such , nitric oxide helps reduce your risk of developing a life-threatening blood clot .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ inhibits replication of the SARS virus ( SARS-CoV ) , and the researchers hypothesize that , since the spike proteins of the two viruses are similar , nitric oxide may have a similar effect on SARS-CoV-2 .
If correct , this could be yet another mechanism of action by which nitric oxide helps reduce disease transmission and severity .
So , to summarize , not only does exposure to sunlight lower COVID-19 mortality , but just about any strategy that boosts nitric oxide production may also have a similar effect .
Examples of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workout and consuming nitrate-rich foods such as beetroot juice , arugula and cilantro .
In related news , another study4 posted on medRxiv , July 2 , 2020 , asks whether lockdown orders might do more harm than good by decreasing the protective role of UVB radiation — the kind that triggers vitamin D production in your skin — which has also been shown to lower COVID-19 mortality rates .
As noted by the authors : According to their calculations , mortality rates could have been reduced by an average of 21 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get regular sun exposure .
The Optimal Dose : Rest ... Judson Somerville MD Best Price : $ 9.96 Buy New $ 9.98 As reviewed in several previous articles , vitamin D appears to impact virtually all COVID-19 related risks , including your risk of testing positive for active infection , disease severity and your risk of death .
For example : Research5 posted on the preprint server medRxiv , May 13 , 2020 , found low vitamin D status at the time of COVID-19 testing was a risk factor for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sufficient vitamin D levels , those with deficient levels were nearly twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 ( 21.6 % versus 12.2 % ) .
A study6 from the Philippines found that for each standard deviation increase in serum vitamin D , the odds of experiencing only mild disease rather than severe illness was 7.94 times greater , and the odds of having a mild clinical outcome rather than a critical outcome was 19.61 times greater .
Research7,8 posted on the preprint server MedRxiv June 10 , 2020 , reports a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ B12 inhibited the progression of COVID-19 in patients over the age of 50 , resulting in “ a significant reduction in proportion of patients with clinical deterioration requiring oxygen support and/or intensive care support.
” A study9 from Indonesia found COVID-19 patients with a vitamin D level between 20 ng/mL ( 50 nmol/L ) and 30 ng/mL ( 75 nmol/L ) had a sevenfold higher risk of death than those with a level above 30 ng/mL .
Having a level below 20 ng/mL was associated with a 12 times higher risk of death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from 20 European countries found that “ the probability of developing COVID-19 , and of dying from it , is negatively correlated with mean population vitamin D status , with both probabilities reaching zero above about 75 nmol/L , ” ( 30 ng/mL ) .
A paper11,12 posted on the preprint portal medRxiv May 18 , 2020 , found a strong correlation between severe vitamin D deficiency and higher mortality rates in countries across the globe .
The researchers attribute this to a connection between low vitamin D and high risk for cytokine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ D levels among the general population could cut mortality in half by reducing complications.13 COVID-19 certainly isn ’ t the only disease influenced by vitamin D. As noted in a study14 published July 4 , 2020 , in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism , higher vitamin D levels are “ non-linearly linked to lower risk of all-cause , [ cardiovascular disease ] CVD , and cancer mortality.
” Interestingly enough , this study found the risk for CVD and all-cause deaths tapered off at a vitamin D level of just 24 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths leveled off at a mere18 ng/mL ( 45 nmol/L ) .
This is surprisingly low , considering large-scale studies suggest the cutoff for optimal cancer protection is around 40 ng/mL ( 100 nmol/L ) , with a level of 60 ng/mL to 80 ng/mL ( 150 nmol/L to 200 nmol/L ) being ideal for health and disease prevention .
You can learn more about this in “ For Optimal Health , Make Sure You Have a Vitamin D Level of 60 ng/mL.
” According to a scientific review15,16 published in 2018 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking vitamin D supplements may not get significant benefit as the vitamin D simply gets stored in its inactive form , and the reason for this is because they have insufficient magnesium levels , and magnesium is required in the conversion of vitamin D into its active form .
Research17 published in 2013 also highlighted this issue , concluding that higher magnesium intake helps reduce your risk of vitamin D deficiency by activating more of it .
More recently , research18 by GrassrootsHealth reveals you need 146 % more vitamin D to achieve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100 nmol/L ) if you do not take supplemental magnesium , compared to taking your vitamin D with at least 400 mg of magnesium per day .
You can cut your need for oral vitamin D even further — by as much as 244 % — by taking it concurrently with both magnesium and vitamin K2 , as reported in “ Magnesium and K2 Optimize Your Vitamin D Supplementation.
” While oral vitamin D supplementation may be a good idea for most people , it ’ s important to remember to get your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reason for this is because you can not rely on blanket dosing recommendations .
The crucial factor here is your blood level , not the dose , as the dose you need is dependent on several individual factors , including your baseline blood level .
Organic Zinc Sulfate L ... Buy New $ 18.95 ( $ 4.74 / Fl Oz ) I recently published two vitamin D reports , a comprehensive scientific review and a shorter summary , in which I detail vitamin D ’ s mechanisms of action and how to ensure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sharing those reports with everyone you know .
Here ’ s a condensed summary of the key steps to optimizing your vitamin D : 1.First , measure your vitamin D level — One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways of measuring your vitamin D level is to participate in the GrassrootsHealth ’ s personalized nutrition project , which includes a vitamin D testing kit .
You also have the option of testing vitamin D in conjunction with magnesium and omega-3 .
Once you know what your blood level is , you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ improve your level .
If you can not get enough vitamin D from the sun ( you can use the DMinder app19 to see how much vitamin D your body can make depending on your location and other individual factors ) , then you ’ ll need an oral supplement .
2.Assess your individualized vitamin D dosage — To do that , you can either use the chart below , or use GrassrootsHealth ’ s Vitamin D*calculator .
To convert ng/mL into the European measurement ( nmol/L ) , simply multiply the ng/mL @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much vitamin D you may be getting from regular sun exposure in addition to your supplemental intake , use the DMinder app.20 Remember , you won ’ t need as much oral vitamin D if you also take magnesium and vitamin K2 , as discussed above .
3.Retest in three to six months — Lastly , you ’ ll need to remeasure your vitamin D level in three to six months , to evaluate how your sun exposure and/or supplement dose is working for you .
The Best of Joseph Mercola

According to a British observational study1 posted July 6, 2020, on the preprint server medRxiv, ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure appears to lower COVID-19 mortality rates.
As reported by News Medical Life Sciences,2 environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and UV irradiation are known to play a role in other infectious diseases, including seasonal influenza, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that SARS-CoV-2 — the virus responsible for COVID-19 — can be affected in a similar manner.
UV Radiation Lowers COVID-19 Mortality
I’ve written extensively about the importance of vitamin D and its influence on COVID-19 specifically, but this research suggests there are other benefits to sun exposure besides vitamin D production. humanN SuperBeets Circ... Buy New $37.95 ($7.16 / Ounce) (as of 04:33 UTC - Details)
The researchers looked at UVA measures and COVID-19 death statistics in 2,474 U.S. counties, 6,755 Italian municipalities and 6,274 areas in England between the months of January and April 2020, which is when vitamin D production due to low sun exposure tend to be minimal. According to the authors:3
“Our fully adjusted model showed an inverse correlation between UVA and COVID-19 mortality with a Mortality Risk Ratio (MRR) of 0.73 … per 100KJ/m2 increase UVA in the USA, 0.81 … in Italy and 0.51 … in England. Pooled MRR was 0.68 …
This represents a halving of the average risk of death across the lower and narrower range of UVA experienced across England and across the higher and wider range across Italy and the USA …
Our analysis suggests that higher ambient UVA exposure is associated with lower COVID-19 specific mortality. This effect was independent of temperature and UV within the vitamin D action spectrum.
Relatively higher UVA, across a country experiencing lower average levels of UVA during and immediately preceding the pandemic (England), is associated with greater falls in mortality risk compared to countries (Italy and the USA) with a higher average level suggesting an exposure tolerance effect …
We have been able to show a possible benefit from UV at wavelengths that do not cause synthesis of vitamin D. this suggests that explanations for seasonal and geographic variations in COVID-19 prevalence need to consider mechanisms other than just vitamin D.”
Mechanisms of Action
The researchers hypothesize UV exposure “may have a direct effect on the viability of SARS-CoV-2 virus in airborne droplets,” as well as the virus’ ability to stay viable on various surfaces, thus reducing overall infection rates and lowering the initial inoculation load in those infected, which in turn might reduce the risk of severe illness.
Another mechanism of action may involve nitric oxide. UVA radiation triggers the release of nitric oxide in your skin, mobilizing it into your circulation. This lowers blood pressure by causing your blood vessels to expand. This, the researchers say, is one important metabolic benefit of UV exposure that does not involve vitamin D.
“As cardio-metabolic disease and possibly hypertension increase the risk of death from COVID-19, any UV driven improvements in these risk factors would be expected to reduce mortality,” the researchers note.
Curing the Incurable: ... Levy, MD JD Thomas E Best Price: $22.60 Buy New $18.89 (as of 08:55 UTC - Details) What’s more, nitric oxide may help mitigate the endothelial damage seen in severe COVID-19 infection that leads to organ failure. While not mentioned in this study, nitric oxide also improves your immune function, thins your blood and decreases blood viscosity, which in turn decreases platelet aggregation. As such, nitric oxide helps reduce your risk of developing a life-threatening blood clot.
Previous research has also found nitric oxide inhibits replication of the SARS virus (SARS-CoV), and the researchers hypothesize that, since the spike proteins of the two viruses are similar, nitric oxide may have a similar effect on SARS-CoV-2. If correct, this could be yet another mechanism of action by which nitric oxide helps reduce disease transmission and severity.
So, to summarize, not only does exposure to sunlight lower COVID-19 mortality, but just about any strategy that boosts nitric oxide production may also have a similar effect. Examples of such strategies include the Nitric Oxide Dump workout and consuming nitrate-rich foods such as beetroot juice, arugula and cilantro.
Are Stay-At-Home Orders Increasing COVID-19 Mortality?
In related news, another study4 posted on medRxiv, July 2, 2020, asks whether lockdown orders might do more harm than good by decreasing the protective role of UVB radiation — the kind that triggers vitamin D production in your skin — which has also been shown to lower COVID-19 mortality rates. As noted by the authors:
“Recent studies indicate that measures such as lockdowns may have slowed down the growth of COVID-19. However, in addition to substantial economic and social costs, these measures also limit the exposure to Ultraviolet-B radiation (UVB).
Emerging observational evidence indicate the protective role of UVB and vitamin D in reducing the severity and mortality of COVID-19 … In this observational study, we empirically outline the independent protective roles of lockdown and UVB exposure as measured by ultraviolet index (UVI), whilst also examining whether the severity of lockdown is associated with a reduction in the protective role.”
According to their calculations, mortality rates could have been reduced by an average of 21% had lockdown orders been accompanied by instructions to get regular sun exposure. The Optimal Dose: Rest... Judson Somerville MD Best Price: $9.96 Buy New $9.98 (as of 06:05 UTC - Details)
Vitamin D Lowers All COVID-19 Related Risks
As reviewed in several previous articles, vitamin D appears to impact virtually all COVID-19 related risks, including your risk of testing positive for active infection, disease severity and your risk of death. For example:
Research5 posted on the preprint server medRxiv, May 13, 2020, found low vitamin D status at the time of COVID-19 testing was a risk factor for a positive result. Compared to those with sufficient vitamin D levels, those with deficient levels were nearly twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 (21.6% versus 12.2%).
A study6 from the Philippines found that for each standard deviation increase in serum vitamin D, the odds of experiencing only mild disease rather than severe illness was 7.94 times greater, and the odds of having a mild clinical outcome rather than a critical outcome was 19.61 times greater.
Research7,8 posted on the preprint server MedRxiv June 10, 2020, reports a combination of vitamin D3, magnesium and B12 inhibited the progression of COVID-19 in patients over the age of 50, resulting in “a significant reduction in proportion of patients with clinical deterioration requiring oxygen support and/or intensive care support.”
A study9 from Indonesia found COVID-19 patients with a vitamin D level between 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L) and 30 ng/mL (75 nmol/L) had a sevenfold higher risk of death than those with a level above 30 ng/mL. Having a level below 20 ng/mL was associated with a 12 times higher risk of death.
A study10 that looked at data from 20 European countries found that “the probability of developing COVID-19, and of dying from it, is negatively correlated with mean population vitamin D status, with both probabilities reaching zero above about 75 nmol/L,” (30 ng/mL).
A paper11,12 posted on the preprint portal medRxiv May 18, 2020, found a strong correlation between severe vitamin D deficiency and higher mortality rates in countries across the globe.
The researchers attribute this to a connection between low vitamin D and high risk for cytokine storms. The analysis suggests higher vitamin D levels among the general population could cut mortality in half by reducing complications.13
Higher Vitamin D Lowers All-Cause Mortality Risk
COVID-19 certainly isn’t the only disease influenced by vitamin D. As noted in a study14 published July 4, 2020, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, higher vitamin D levels are “non-linearly linked to lower risk of all-cause, [cardiovascular disease] CVD, and cancer mortality.”
Interestingly enough, this study found the risk for CVD and all-cause deaths tapered off at a vitamin D level of just 24 ng/mL (60 nmol/L). Cancer deaths leveled off at a mere18 ng/mL (45 nmol/L).
This is surprisingly low, considering large-scale studies suggest the cutoff for optimal cancer protection is around 40 ng/mL (100 nmol/L), with a level of 60 ng/mL to 80 ng/mL (150 nmol/L to 200 nmol/L) being ideal for health and disease prevention. You can learn more about this in “For Optimal Health, Make Sure You Have a Vitamin D Level of 60 ng/mL.”
Magnesium Optimizes Vitamin D Supplementation
According to a scientific review15,16 published in 2018, as many as 50% of Americans taking vitamin D supplements may not get significant benefit as the vitamin D simply gets stored in its inactive form, and the reason for this is because they have insufficient magnesium levels, and magnesium is required in the conversion of vitamin D into its active form.
You need 146% more vitamin D to achieve a blood level of 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/L) if you do not take supplemental magnesium, compared to taking your vitamin D with at least 400 mg of magnesium per day.
Research17 published in 2013 also highlighted this issue, concluding that higher magnesium intake helps reduce your risk of vitamin D deficiency by activating more of it.
More recently, research18 by GrassrootsHealth reveals you need 146% more vitamin D to achieve a blood level of 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/L) if you do not take supplemental magnesium, compared to taking your vitamin D with at least 400 mg of magnesium per day.
You can cut your need for oral vitamin D even further — by as much as 244% — by taking it concurrently with both magnesium and vitamin K2, as reported in “Magnesium and K2 Optimize Your Vitamin D Supplementation.”
Optimize Your Vitamin D Level to Minimize COVID-19 Risks
While oral vitamin D supplementation may be a good idea for most people, it’s important to remember to get your vitamin D level tested first. The reason for this is because you cannot rely on blanket dosing recommendations. The crucial factor here is your blood level, not the dose, as the dose you need is dependent on several individual factors, including your baseline blood level. Organic Zinc Sulfate L... Buy New $18.95 ($4.74 / Fl Oz) (as of 02:28 UTC - Details)
I recently published two vitamin D reports, a comprehensive scientific review and a shorter summary, in which I detail vitamin D’s mechanisms of action and how to ensure optimal levels. I recommend downloading and sharing those reports with everyone you know.
Here’s a condensed summary of the key steps to optimizing your vitamin D:
1.First, measure your vitamin D level — One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways of measuring your vitamin D level is to participate in the GrassrootsHealth’s personalized nutrition project, which includes a vitamin D testing kit. You also have the option of testing vitamin D in conjunction with magnesium and omega-3.
Once you know what your blood level is, you can assess the dose needed to maintain or improve your level. If you cannot get enough vitamin D from the sun (you can use the DMinder app19 to see how much vitamin D your body can make depending on your location and other individual factors), then you’ll need an oral supplement.
2.Assess your individualized vitamin D dosage — To do that, you can either use the chart below, or use GrassrootsHealth’s Vitamin D*calculator. To convert ng/mL into the European measurement (nmol/L), simply multiply the ng/mL measurement by 2.5.
To calculate how much vitamin D you may be getting from regular sun exposure in addition to your supplemental intake, use the DMinder app.20 Remember, you won’t need as much oral vitamin D if you also take magnesium and vitamin K2, as discussed above.
3.Retest in three to six months — Lastly, you’ll need to remeasure your vitamin D level in three to six months, to evaluate how your sun exposure and/or supplement dose is working for you.
Sources and References
The Best of Dr. Joseph Mercola