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Jan 11, 2016
<blockquote><p>Ryan, like many politicians on both sides of the aisle, is being cynical. True, it’s particularly disconcerting when someone exercises that kind of cynicism in response to a president crying for the dead—the dead schoolchildren, the dead churchgoers, the dead on the streets of Chicago—and all other varieties of gun-murdered citizens—but Ryan and the Republicans are hardly our only detached cynics. They are, however, our most open and brazen ones, particularly on the issue of modest gun-control measures of the sort that—it’s a cliché at this point to state—<a href=a vast majority of Americans and Republicans support.

Values voters, Tea Party conservatives, faux-populists grifting for book deals and Fox spots – meet today’s GOP

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Ayn Rand will destroy the GOP: Paul Ryan, gun control and the brazen, cynical politics of self-interest

By Aaron R. Hanlon

Ryan, like many politicians on both sides of the aisle, is being cynical. True, it’s particularly disconcerting when someone exercises that kind of cynicism in response to a president crying for the dead—the dead schoolchildren, the dead churchgoers, the dead on the streets of Chicago—and all other varieties of gun-murdered citizens—but Ryan and the Republicans are hardly our only detached cynics. They are, however, our most open and brazen ones, particularly on the issue of modest gun-control measures of the sort that—it’s a cliché at this point to state—a vast majority of Americans and Republicans support.

Values voters, Tea Party conservatives, faux-populists grifting for book deals and Fox spots – meet today’s GOP

Jan 7, 2016
<blockquote><p>An actor, a T-shirt – what’s the big deal? But an old photo of Oscar Isaac, who plays the brooding folk musicians in “Inside Llewyn Davis” and a courageous pilot in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” has the Internet in an uproar. One former fan<a href=calls herself “deeply betrayed.”

Why are people – or at least, people on Tumblr – so bent out of shape about a pic from 2009 that shows Isaac sporting an “Atlas Shrugged” t-shirt? Let’s walk through this for a second.

Fans feel “so betrayed” seeing the “Star Wars” heartthrob in an “Atlas Shrugged” shirt

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Sorry about your boyfriend, Internet: Why Oscar Isaac’s Ayn Rand t-shirt broke a million heart-emojis

By Scott Timberg

An actor, a T-shirt – what’s the big deal? But an old photo of Oscar Isaac, who plays the brooding folk musicians in “Inside Llewyn Davis” and a courageous pilot in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” has the Internet in an uproar. One former fancalls herself “deeply betrayed.”

Why are people – or at least, people on Tumblr – so bent out of shape about a pic from 2009 that shows Isaac sporting an “Atlas Shrugged” t-shirt? Let’s walk through this for a second.

Fans feel “so betrayed” seeing the “Star Wars” heartthrob in an “Atlas Shrugged” shirt

Oct 14, 2015
<blockquote><p>Ayn Rand is the patron saint of the libertarian Right. Her writings are quoted in a quasi-religious manner by American reactionaries, cited like Biblical codices that offer profound answers to all of life’s complex problems (namely, just “Free the Market”). Yet, despite her impeccable libertarian bona fides, Rand defended the colonization and genocide of what she called the “savage” Native Americans — one of the most authoritarian campaigns of death and suffering ever orchestrated.</p><p>“Any white person who brings the elements of civilization had the right to take over this continent,” Ayn Rand proclaimed, “and it is great that some people did, and discovered here what they couldn’t do anywhere else in the world and what the Indians, if there are any racist Indians today, do not believe to this day: respect for individual rights.”</p></blockquote><h2><b>EXCLUSIVE: <a href=New transcript of Rand at West Point in ‘74 enthusiastically defends extermination of Native Americans">
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Libertarian superstar Ayn Rand defended Native American genocide: “Racism didn’t exist in this country until the liberals brought it up”

By Ben Norton

Ayn Rand is the patron saint of the libertarian Right. Her writings are quoted in a quasi-religious manner by American reactionaries, cited like Biblical codices that offer profound answers to all of life’s complex problems (namely, just “Free the Market”). Yet, despite her impeccable libertarian bona fides, Rand defended the colonization and genocide of what she called the “savage” Native Americans — one of the most authoritarian campaigns of death and suffering ever orchestrated.

“Any white person who brings the elements of civilization had the right to take over this continent,” Ayn Rand proclaimed, “and it is great that some people did, and discovered here what they couldn’t do anywhere else in the world and what the Indians, if there are any racist Indians today, do not believe to this day: respect for individual rights.”

EXCLUSIVE: New transcript of Rand at West Point in ‘74 enthusiastically defends extermination of Native Americans

Oct 8, 2015
“Since Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., launched his campaign for president this spring, he has gone from being a fringe candidate of the left to a serious challenger of Hillary Clinton, who has long been considered a shoo-in for the Democratic...

Since Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., launched his campaign for president this spring, he has gone from being a fringe candidate of the left to a serious challenger of Hillary Clinton, who has long been considered a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination. When Sanders started gaining traction at the beginning of the summer, most shrugged him off as the new Ralph Nader, or even the Ron Paul of the left, an insurgent who would attract a dedicated but slim following.

Today, these comparisons are looking less accurate, and Sanders is no longer a fringe candidate. Last week, the Sanders campaign released its fundraising results for the third quarter of 2015, and not only did it nearly match Clinton’s third quarter results in cash, but broke the fundraising record in small donations. Indeed, the Sanders campaign has reached one million individual donations faster than both of President Obama’s historic campaigns (in 2008, Obama didn’t reach one million until February).

Conservatives have long wielded “socialism” as a pejorative – but Sanders owns it and is transforming politics

May 5, 2015
Law enforcement, education, health care, water management, government itself — all have been or are being privatized. People with money get the best of each service. At the heart of privatization is a disdain for government and a distrust of society, and a mindless individualism that leaves little room for cooperation. Adherents of privatization demand ‘freedom’ unless they need the government to intervene on their behalf.

Law enforcement, education, the list goes on. In just a few decades, the whole country has been put up for sale

Apr 9, 2015
Yet while there have been books about Rand before, none of them have been quite like “The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality and the Financial Crisis,” a new graphic novel from artist, photographer and sculptor Darryl Cunningham. The artist and former mental health care worker combines mediums to take a long look at Rand’s history, but he goes one step further, looking at how her influence extends into the present day, and even played a role in bringing on the Great Recession and financial crisis.

The libertarian novelist and heroine was as selfish as you’d think, artist-author Darryl Cunningham tells Salon