I am continually appalled by the crass corruption of the GOP/Maga Supreme Court as well as the Maga Senators and Congressmen and women . Their corruption is crass , brash , craven and conscience free . They dare to call themselves and to manage outrage with their wild ( Christianity) .
They have proven themselves individually and collectively as “ anti Christ” .
They are cheered on by the likes of their paltry , insane leader who oozes corruption with his speech and personal.
They threaten and are committing daily violence against the American people , with their cries of “ Screw the people” getting louder everyday .
Their professed ignorance pile is growing into a mountain every day .
It is time to remove these criminals from office .
Their allegiance to Putin and the Orange stooge is more visible every time they open their rancid , lying mouths. These are the corrupt goons who reverse our laws into their perverse platform and grab money and power away from the people of America . Send them on their way . Of course the Supreme Court Six can go right with them into the sewers they belong in .
I don’t care anymore how they are removed. They are corrupt. This is an ongoing insurrection for which the corrupt Supreme Court denied the American people justice. In fact, the strategy was brilliant to corrupt/capture the Supreme Court early on in the insurrection because so they would nullify our Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification clause.
The American people have been subjected to this trump/MAGA/Putin trauma for almost 10 years now. Enough!!!
Trump is the ex president who was fired but is still directing policy.
Handle the crazy, compromised, traitorous jackass and his crew before they put us in a civil war.
That’s what Putin (and the others) have been pushing.
Although it feels higher, approximately 70% of the TV ads are for pharmaceuticals. It is beyond ridiculous that we pay for the research and development and THEN we pay to be tortured with these ads. I use the mute button a lot.
Less than 20% of docs belong to the AMA these days, so I can see why they have no clout with Republicans.
The smartest thing I ever did was read a book called "Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health"--by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz, and Steven Woloshin. It's probably in your library; it was published in 2011. Then if you have the stomach left for it try "White Coat, Black Hat" by Carl Elliott for another dose of truth on this subject. It was published in 2010 and the situation with our "unhealthy" care in this country has only gotten worse as have the perpetrators involved.
Thanks Thom. This Report is going to get some good comments.
Carl Fowler, of Pembroke Pines, has a proposal he believes will lower drug costs: “Get rid of the loud, annoying pharmaceutical advertisements that serve no viable purpose.” he said. He wants to see the U.S. reinstate the ban on direct-to-consumer ads and require drug manufacturers to redirect their advertising budget to lower the cost of prescription drugs. “I trust my doctors to prescribe the drugs that are right for me, not some TV ad with an over-the-top production number.”
I never got it with the ads. Don't physicians already know what drugs to prescribe? But just one time watching people happily sing and dance as they celebrate their diabetes is a good way to see how stupid this is. (Obviously it is profitable though; I guess something would come along to fill in for the long-departed cigarette ads.)
Regarding the AMA, that is a mixed bag. Until 1972 it denied a link between tobacco and cancer, and for decades was opposed to single payer health care. It has shifted a lot, but given its much smaller influence on the medical profession it has, as you said, far less political influence. A deeper dive can be read at
This subject fits into my category of political advice, "don't slit your own throat." Even MAGA, get sick and need medical care.
As my wife and I are old and decrepit, we have roughly 20 prescriptions. Both of us worked in the field. My wife worked many years ago for HCFA, the Health Care Financing Administration a federal agency that oversaw the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and was renamed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Once upon a time, I heard HHS appeals.
When we retired, we both kept our BC/BS insurance, which includes drug coverage, and we both have Medicare Part A and Part B coverage. This past year, we were encouraged to pick up Medicare Part D as primary. We checked it out. Part D is far inferior to BC/BS coverage. We each have several medications that Part D does not cover, so we declined their invitation.
Meanwhile, many pharmacies cannot or will not provide a prescription, even when there is coverage. I am not completely clairvoyant, but I think the fix is in. As a result we shop pharmacies.
Yesterday my fellow Pennsyltuckian who used to have a yacht moored across from our old condo and who was the host on a basketball players for Kamala phone bank gave an interview. I was surprised to hear him (considering he is a billionaire free marketer) repeat many of Thom's contentions. Turns out he is doing something.... He says: "Our goal is to dramatically reduce the cost of drugs ...., but we also think that it is just as important to introduce transparency to the pricing of drugs so patients know they are getting a fair price..... We started this company as an effort to disrupt the drug industry and to do our best to end ridiculous drug prices. Thanks for your support, and please let us know what you think! "
I looked up a couple of our medicines that are tough to find....he didn't have them either. But here is the link to Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company. https://costplusdrugs.com/
IMHO the Harris campaign can take advantage... How about adding a new group.....RX prescription Kamala on Mobilize?
Mr. Cuban is an acquired taste, but I have grown to admire him, especially for his Cost Plus project. He has a pretty good basic list, and I know he said he wants to expand it. It's worth checking from time to time.
Medication prices can vary widely from county to county or even among locations within a chain. Florida modernized its MyFloridaRX Prescription Drug Price Locator last year, adding more medications and geographic areas within the state. The site uses an interactive map that illustrates the differences in prescription drug costs across Florida’s counties.
Part D is a scam. I signed up as you get hit with a lifelong penalty if you don't do so, but I don't use it. Amazon pharmacy is cheaper than the Part D deductible for the 3 Rx's I take daily, so my doc sends scripts there.
Many Americans are spending more money on prescribed drugs than any other expenditures--rent, utilities, food. Sometimes, combined totals. Couple the pregnant prices of these drugs with an obscene increase of prescriptions by doctors who are regularly greased by big pharma and you have quite possibly the largest criminal enterprise in the country. I harken back to the warnings of Lyndon LaRouche, who had his flaws, who wrote books describing the activities of pharms. He pointed out that, at that time, all pharmsceutical corporations were located in Switzerland, all started and manned by transplanted Nazis from Germany. He wrote books about direct links to illegal drug activities in the USA. 'How was it possible that when shortages of illegal drugs occured, every street corner in America, by , Friday, had copious amounts of Valium readily available instead?'. He was savagely attacked by politicians led by Geo HW Bush--trivialized and eventually imprisoned on trumped-up charges re credit-card "irregularities". The US attorney general stated that LaRouche 's trial was the biggest travesty of justice in the history of the country. He was so trivialized that today any comment about LaRouche is smugly dismissed, most loudly by truly clueless, spoon-fed people who have been fed and regurgitated the propaganda put out to them. There is also echoes of JFK,Jr. here. His statements regarding medical manipulations are quite possibly the reasons for the well-orghanized series of journalistic hit-jobs that came like a tidal wave. Pharma now has made the American Medical Association and all conjunct medical agencies, the FDA (Food and Drug Association) its grovelling bitches. The influence in all American politics? Same as always--thorough.
Mr. Lewis, the American Heart Association and the AMA both take money from Big Pharma, hundreds of millions every year. More "groveling bitches" I would say.
I too remember Lyndon LaRouche. I never met the man. But I had acquaintances who knew him. I regarded him as a type I have seen all my academic life. He was the type who hung around on university campuses because there is no shortage of interesting people and exciting things going on in those places. But his type is never serious enough or lacks the will power to complete a curriculum and earn a BA, MA, or PhD. These kinds of people are typical "hangers-on." I have known a number of them over the years. When I was an active member of SDS as a grad. student in Michigan, I met a non-student hanger-on from Point Pleasant, New Jersey who was always around attending our meetings; but never seemed to fit in. He turned out to be a narc and agent provocateur working for military intelligence. LaRouche undoubtedly got mixed up with these kinds of people.
reminds me somewhat of Elon Musk in personality. But his program in exposing the pharma cabal was serious. I am not one common today who looks for a chink in order to dismiss completely. You mentioned the CIA. LaRouche followers told me that the CIA tried hard to stop the publication of his Dope, Inc.book was unsuccessful. Then they swarmed the bookstores who carried the book and bought all copies. True? I was never able to verify this in visiting many bookstores over the years. Some suggested I was just being silly since the CIA held no jurisdiction in domestic USA. Silly is as silly is.
Mr. Lewis, thank you. I did not know that about LaRouche's book. The CIA is not legally permitted to operate in the US. But because everything they do is kept secret, they do as they please. Actually, I mentioned military intelligence. Almost as dangerous as CIA.
This piece reminds me of Martin Shkreli, fresh out of prison and ready to grift again--this time, in the bitcoin market. Prison taught him nothing about how to be human. Look for him to become a future GOP nominee for president.
Corruption has become a basic moral in business in America. It is so deep that small family businesses common during my youth no longer exist. Moreover, there is no more businesses built to hand down to the family as they exist to be bought by big business to gain innovation as big business does not do any R&D on their own as the nation use to do. All money is used as cheap money in the stock market in commodities and stocks buy backs and payments for executives which does not increase company wealth but as a bookkeeping trick to increase the stock price. The lack of R&D is a danger to the nation for a scam. Finance hollow outs the nation to keep labor from being strong and healthy along with the politicians taking part in scamming the nation for personal gain. Large incomes for labor and multiple layers of healthy domestic businesses and R&D is the path of national security and a healthy economy.
I'd like to think that people still need the necessities of life-- food, shelter, clothing and there is room for a petit bourgeois class to service those needs. Thus the rise of the gig economy.
I can't but help wonder what it is about serving in congress that motivates these people to endure the stress of having to run for re election every two years.
Truth is that Congress critters spend most of their time dialing for dollars, unless they are like AOC, or Ilhan Omar in safe districts is $174,000. That sounds like a lot, but considering you have to maintain a home in your district or state, and a residence in the D.C. area, spend money on transportation, clothing for dinners and events, food and maintenance in D.C., and then there is the hazzle of having to raise money and campaign every two years
Congress is an exclusive club. It’s also a wealthy one.
More than half of those in Congress are millionaires, data from lawmakers’ most recent personal financial disclosures shows. The median net worth of members of Congress who filed disclosures last year is just over $1 million.
Much of the wealth in Congress is concentrated at the top. The top 10 percent of wealthiest lawmakers have three times more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. While some lawmakers are still paying off student loans, others are paying off their third or fourth mortgage. The group of wealthiest members includes career politicians who boosted their portfolios over decades in Congress and recently elected lawmakers.
It is the long serving Representatives (I am excluding Senators who are in a separate class)
that are the millionaires, so how did they get there.
Insider trading, no doubt, gifts, emoluments most certainly, dipping into the campaign stash, PAC;s.
And though there is a law against using campaign funds for personal business, when has laws ever been an impediment. And a politician can and do file for reimbursement of personal expenses like dinners, travel
When Congress critters travel on official business they get $178 a day, more if they have receipts to support the claim when they file a travel voucher. As military back in the 1960's and 70's it was $25 a
They also get an MRA (Minimum Representational Allowance) The minimum is $1,849,149 and the Maximum is $2,088, 449 for which to hire staff, office space
Members of the House of Representatives have one consolidated allowance, the Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA), with which to operate their offices. The MRA was first authorized in 1996 and was made subject to regulations and adjustments of the Committee on House Administration. Representatives have a high degree of flexibility to use the MRA to operate their offices in a way that supports their congressional duties and responsibilities, and individual office spending may be as varied as the districts Members represent.
For those of inquiring minds who want more info an detail thislink: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30064
Corrupt capitalists + phoney Christians + No attorney general = A future third world cesspool. God's justice will prevail!
Most Americans want cheaper healthcare, access to abortions, a clean environment, I suspect a maximum wage for the rich, lower housing costs... Kamala needs to run on what we almost all agree on, Rethuglicans and Democrats!
Tom, are you looking for more muck to rake? How about a series about "Medicare Advantage" plans? My wife is a retired teacher, and we've been notified that her retirement plan's Medicare Supplement will be switched to a [dis]advantage plan at the end of the year. The insurance company's spokesperson told a ballroom full of people how we will receive more and better care for hundreds of dollars less a month. The audience was old enough to know better; but with a few of us objecting, the crowd lapped it up. I swore I was listening to the pied piper.
If you don't think money has changed hands, there's a beautiful old suspension bridge on the Lower East Side looking for a new owner.
The "Advantage" plans should NOT be allowed to even use the word Medicare; so many ppl think, "A better version of Medicare? That's what I want!" but don't find out the truth until it's too late.
P
BTW - Thom has discussed the Advantage/Part C scam several times.
The advantage goes to the insurance company. We are having a contagion of such firms in liquidation, Also medical providers. Big hospital chains. Reminds me of the early 90's when HMOs (and S&Ls) went under. The managing partners of one of the largest law firms in Miami involved went to the top of out tallest building, held hands and jumped.
The more I read about corruption in America, the happier I will be to go back to Ukraine. At least our corruption is honest corruption.
I have 6 prescription drugs that cost me $198 per month. My wife has four that cost her about $250 per month. I have one that costs over $150, and she has one that costs $230.
We used to have a drug manufacturing company in Canada, Conaught Laboratories. One of our conservative governments shut it down.
Mr. Hartmann, the most frequently prescribed drug in the US is Statins. No other drug comes even close. This, in spite of the fact that the evidence supporting its effectiveness is overblown to the extent of being faked.
When the now infamous West of Scotland Study was first published; I ran the two
most commonly used mathematical tests of significance on their data. Neither test showed a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. I used a 5% interval of rejection. Anyone who has taken even an undergraduate level Statistics course should understand what I am saying. To be complete here I must also point out that in their conclusion; the researchers themselves said the same thing. They said the drug has no significant effect.
Statins will eventually be revealed as the biggest financial fraud played on the American public since tobacco was exposed as a carcinogen. In the mean time Big Pharma will make billions from the drug.
And people will suffer side-effects. This subject was in the book I recommended, "Overdiagnosed". It's written by 3 docs. Here are the titles of the first two chapters:
Chapter 1) Genesis: People Become Patients with High Blood Pressure
Chapter 2) We Change the Rules: How Numbers Get Changed to Give You Diabetes, High Cholesterol, and Osteoporosis
My neighbor was violently ill from Lipitor. Made me laugh when he said if anyone wants me to behave, just mention the word Lipitor.
Alis, statins reduce about 8 fat soluble vitamins. CoQ10 is one of them and it is essential to every cell in the body for the mitochondria to function.
Statins made me feel angry continuously for about a year before I realized what was causing this. Then I stopped taking it. My doctors all went kookoo over my refusal to take it. Even though I showed them the statistical tests based on empirical evidence taken from about 8 studies. The doctor who first put me on the drug at maximum dose, never told me about any possible side effects. I had to learn about side effects on my own.
I think there is a tendency for busy, overworked Physicians to rely upon the claims made by drug salesmen who regularly visit them in their clinical offices. In medical schools doctors have it pounded into their heads that they must be accurate, careful and honest in their work or else they will harm their patients. I am thankful for this kind of "first do no harm" protocol. It protects the public. But perhaps physicians naively expect drug salesmen and drug companies to be as honest and responsible as doctors are.
Unfortunate that you write from experience, Gerald. It's brilliant that you figured it out and have done your research. My brother just started on some, and I will pass this on to him.
That second book I recommended, "Black Hat White Coat" by Dr. Carl Elliott describes what is being done to and with the docs when it comes to drugs.
Elliott is also a professor of philosophy, writer, and editor besides being an MD. Came from a medical family---he KNOWS.
Some docs get greedy or are just plain crooks---just like we saw with Matthew Perry. Small percentage, but they do immense damage.
Alis, thank you for that book recommendation; BLACK HAT, WHITE COAT. I made a note of it and shall fit it in with the three projects I am currently working on.
As for your your bother's recent prescription to take Statins: I do not know how much I should write here or how well versed he is in research methods.
Perhaps a precis will do.
The whole cholesterol topic got off to a bad start after WWll.
President FDR appointed a man named Ancel Keys to be the person responsible for organizing the effort to make certain that American GIs received adequate nutrition while in combat. This is why the boxes of food the soldiers got were called "K" rations. Dr. Keys had a BA in economics and a PhD in Fish Nutrition ( don't ask me???????? I guess human nutrition experts were rare back then.)
In 1950 Keys conducted what he called the 7 Countries Study. His conclusion was that diets lower in fat produce fewer deaths from Coronary Artery Disease
CAD. In 1961 Time magazine put his picture on its cover with the heading, in bold letters: "FAT IN DIET CAUSES DEATH FROM CAD."
The only problem was that Keys purposely biased his study and produced an invalid conclusion. ie. he lied. The lying, fabrication and distortions have been coming at us since then with only little resistance in the research literature. The resistance is mainly out of New Zealand, Australia and England. Look especially for Dr. Aseem Malhotra.
Only 30 years later did Keys admit to the bias which invalidated his study; and then only because of the pressure put upon him by independent scientists who were real, actual experts in human nutrition. So much for Keys.
The famous and important Framingham study was initiated in 1950. It was designed by George Mann, world renowned Human nutritionist at Vanderbilt University. The size of the sample was immense 28,000 people. In 1960, after 10 years of work on the study, Mann wrote up his initial report in which he stated there was no relationship between fatty food and death from CAD. This data analysis by Mann was never published.
Instead, William Kannel who became director of the study from 1966 to 1979 published a report which amazingly, claimed just the opposite: He said the data showed that a 1% reduction in blood cholesterol produced an 11% increase in survival rate.
In 1977 George Mann insisted that the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE allow him to publish his analysis; which, of course denied Kannel's claim. The New Eng.J. of Med. insisted that he could publish his remarks as only an opinion in the editorial section.
And so it has continued up until today. If I tried to print all my notes on studies and publications along these lines; I would write a dissertation.
While Statins are not quite the most profitable drugs in existence; they are nevertheless extremely profitable and easy to manufacture. Big Pharma is making billions by continuing the ruse.
Truly appreciate the info and the time you spent on this response, Professor Dobbertin. Seems we have a long way to go on the research concerning diet and disease.
I heard an endocrinologist explain it isn't even calories in/used. There is no "burning" involved. She said we are not so much a furnace as we are a chemical factory.
That other book "Overdiagnosed" talks more about the research, stats, and skewed conclusions. "Black Hat" has info on professional human guinea pigs hired for drug tests.
I have my list of what I'd do if I ran the world, and it's interesting to read about advocacies for anti TV drug advertising that I didn't know existed. I thought I made it up when I put "banning drug advertising for diseases only some people have" on my list. I'm saying this is because of course we need rules and regulations, but there is also a fundamental rightness about being human beings that I was tapping into and I want to cite so as to not ignore that in favor of being all statistics which dehumanizes us. Meeting in our humanity is fundamental!
I am continually appalled by the crass corruption of the GOP/Maga Supreme Court as well as the Maga Senators and Congressmen and women . Their corruption is crass , brash , craven and conscience free . They dare to call themselves and to manage outrage with their wild ( Christianity) .
They have proven themselves individually and collectively as “ anti Christ” .
They are cheered on by the likes of their paltry , insane leader who oozes corruption with his speech and personal.
They threaten and are committing daily violence against the American people , with their cries of “ Screw the people” getting louder everyday .
Their professed ignorance pile is growing into a mountain every day .
It is time to remove these criminals from office .
Their allegiance to Putin and the Orange stooge is more visible every time they open their rancid , lying mouths. These are the corrupt goons who reverse our laws into their perverse platform and grab money and power away from the people of America . Send them on their way . Of course the Supreme Court Six can go right with them into the sewers they belong in .
I don’t care anymore how they are removed. They are corrupt. This is an ongoing insurrection for which the corrupt Supreme Court denied the American people justice. In fact, the strategy was brilliant to corrupt/capture the Supreme Court early on in the insurrection because so they would nullify our Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification clause.
The American people have been subjected to this trump/MAGA/Putin trauma for almost 10 years now. Enough!!!
Trump is the ex president who was fired but is still directing policy.
Handle the crazy, compromised, traitorous jackass and his crew before they put us in a civil war.
That’s what Putin (and the others) have been pushing.
The current President has the power - use it.
Although it feels higher, approximately 70% of the TV ads are for pharmaceuticals. It is beyond ridiculous that we pay for the research and development and THEN we pay to be tortured with these ads. I use the mute button a lot.
Less than 20% of docs belong to the AMA these days, so I can see why they have no clout with Republicans.
The smartest thing I ever did was read a book called "Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health"--by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz, and Steven Woloshin. It's probably in your library; it was published in 2011. Then if you have the stomach left for it try "White Coat, Black Hat" by Carl Elliott for another dose of truth on this subject. It was published in 2010 and the situation with our "unhealthy" care in this country has only gotten worse as have the perpetrators involved.
Thanks Thom. This Report is going to get some good comments.
In Today's Sun Sentinel
Carl Fowler, of Pembroke Pines, has a proposal he believes will lower drug costs: “Get rid of the loud, annoying pharmaceutical advertisements that serve no viable purpose.” he said. He wants to see the U.S. reinstate the ban on direct-to-consumer ads and require drug manufacturers to redirect their advertising budget to lower the cost of prescription drugs. “I trust my doctors to prescribe the drugs that are right for me, not some TV ad with an over-the-top production number.”
I never got it with the ads. Don't physicians already know what drugs to prescribe? But just one time watching people happily sing and dance as they celebrate their diabetes is a good way to see how stupid this is. (Obviously it is profitable though; I guess something would come along to fill in for the long-departed cigarette ads.)
Regarding the AMA, that is a mixed bag. Until 1972 it denied a link between tobacco and cancer, and for decades was opposed to single payer health care. It has shifted a lot, but given its much smaller influence on the medical profession it has, as you said, far less political influence. A deeper dive can be read at
https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/the-fight-within-the-american-medical-association
Wonder about the treatment for an "ear-worm". I hate that ad and also mute it.
This subject fits into my category of political advice, "don't slit your own throat." Even MAGA, get sick and need medical care.
As my wife and I are old and decrepit, we have roughly 20 prescriptions. Both of us worked in the field. My wife worked many years ago for HCFA, the Health Care Financing Administration a federal agency that oversaw the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and was renamed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Once upon a time, I heard HHS appeals.
When we retired, we both kept our BC/BS insurance, which includes drug coverage, and we both have Medicare Part A and Part B coverage. This past year, we were encouraged to pick up Medicare Part D as primary. We checked it out. Part D is far inferior to BC/BS coverage. We each have several medications that Part D does not cover, so we declined their invitation.
Meanwhile, many pharmacies cannot or will not provide a prescription, even when there is coverage. I am not completely clairvoyant, but I think the fix is in. As a result we shop pharmacies.
Yesterday my fellow Pennsyltuckian who used to have a yacht moored across from our old condo and who was the host on a basketball players for Kamala phone bank gave an interview. I was surprised to hear him (considering he is a billionaire free marketer) repeat many of Thom's contentions. Turns out he is doing something.... He says: "Our goal is to dramatically reduce the cost of drugs ...., but we also think that it is just as important to introduce transparency to the pricing of drugs so patients know they are getting a fair price..... We started this company as an effort to disrupt the drug industry and to do our best to end ridiculous drug prices. Thanks for your support, and please let us know what you think! "
I looked up a couple of our medicines that are tough to find....he didn't have them either. But here is the link to Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company. https://costplusdrugs.com/
IMHO the Harris campaign can take advantage... How about adding a new group.....RX prescription Kamala on Mobilize?
Mr. Cuban is an acquired taste, but I have grown to admire him, especially for his Cost Plus project. He has a pretty good basic list, and I know he said he wants to expand it. It's worth checking from time to time.
From today's Sun Sentinel
Medication prices can vary widely from county to county or even among locations within a chain. Florida modernized its MyFloridaRX Prescription Drug Price Locator last year, adding more medications and geographic areas within the state. The site uses an interactive map that illustrates the differences in prescription drug costs across Florida’s counties.
https://prescription.healthfinder.fl.gov/
Part D is a scam. I signed up as you get hit with a lifelong penalty if you don't do so, but I don't use it. Amazon pharmacy is cheaper than the Part D deductible for the 3 Rx's I take daily, so my doc sends scripts there.
I use Amazon for some things....subsidized by my BC/BS, but they don't have everything......
Many Americans are spending more money on prescribed drugs than any other expenditures--rent, utilities, food. Sometimes, combined totals. Couple the pregnant prices of these drugs with an obscene increase of prescriptions by doctors who are regularly greased by big pharma and you have quite possibly the largest criminal enterprise in the country. I harken back to the warnings of Lyndon LaRouche, who had his flaws, who wrote books describing the activities of pharms. He pointed out that, at that time, all pharmsceutical corporations were located in Switzerland, all started and manned by transplanted Nazis from Germany. He wrote books about direct links to illegal drug activities in the USA. 'How was it possible that when shortages of illegal drugs occured, every street corner in America, by , Friday, had copious amounts of Valium readily available instead?'. He was savagely attacked by politicians led by Geo HW Bush--trivialized and eventually imprisoned on trumped-up charges re credit-card "irregularities". The US attorney general stated that LaRouche 's trial was the biggest travesty of justice in the history of the country. He was so trivialized that today any comment about LaRouche is smugly dismissed, most loudly by truly clueless, spoon-fed people who have been fed and regurgitated the propaganda put out to them. There is also echoes of JFK,Jr. here. His statements regarding medical manipulations are quite possibly the reasons for the well-orghanized series of journalistic hit-jobs that came like a tidal wave. Pharma now has made the American Medical Association and all conjunct medical agencies, the FDA (Food and Drug Association) its grovelling bitches. The influence in all American politics? Same as always--thorough.
Mr. Lewis, the American Heart Association and the AMA both take money from Big Pharma, hundreds of millions every year. More "groveling bitches" I would say.
I too remember Lyndon LaRouche. I never met the man. But I had acquaintances who knew him. I regarded him as a type I have seen all my academic life. He was the type who hung around on university campuses because there is no shortage of interesting people and exciting things going on in those places. But his type is never serious enough or lacks the will power to complete a curriculum and earn a BA, MA, or PhD. These kinds of people are typical "hangers-on." I have known a number of them over the years. When I was an active member of SDS as a grad. student in Michigan, I met a non-student hanger-on from Point Pleasant, New Jersey who was always around attending our meetings; but never seemed to fit in. He turned out to be a narc and agent provocateur working for military intelligence. LaRouche undoubtedly got mixed up with these kinds of people.
LaRouche was a kind of elitist with a hint of presumed royalty common among European poseurs. He r
reminds me somewhat of Elon Musk in personality. But his program in exposing the pharma cabal was serious. I am not one common today who looks for a chink in order to dismiss completely. You mentioned the CIA. LaRouche followers told me that the CIA tried hard to stop the publication of his Dope, Inc.book was unsuccessful. Then they swarmed the bookstores who carried the book and bought all copies. True? I was never able to verify this in visiting many bookstores over the years. Some suggested I was just being silly since the CIA held no jurisdiction in domestic USA. Silly is as silly is.
Mr. Lewis, thank you. I did not know that about LaRouche's book. The CIA is not legally permitted to operate in the US. But because everything they do is kept secret, they do as they please. Actually, I mentioned military intelligence. Almost as dangerous as CIA.
This piece reminds me of Martin Shkreli, fresh out of prison and ready to grift again--this time, in the bitcoin market. Prison taught him nothing about how to be human. Look for him to become a future GOP nominee for president.
Corruption has become a basic moral in business in America. It is so deep that small family businesses common during my youth no longer exist. Moreover, there is no more businesses built to hand down to the family as they exist to be bought by big business to gain innovation as big business does not do any R&D on their own as the nation use to do. All money is used as cheap money in the stock market in commodities and stocks buy backs and payments for executives which does not increase company wealth but as a bookkeeping trick to increase the stock price. The lack of R&D is a danger to the nation for a scam. Finance hollow outs the nation to keep labor from being strong and healthy along with the politicians taking part in scamming the nation for personal gain. Large incomes for labor and multiple layers of healthy domestic businesses and R&D is the path of national security and a healthy economy.
I'd like to think that people still need the necessities of life-- food, shelter, clothing and there is room for a petit bourgeois class to service those needs. Thus the rise of the gig economy.
https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/gig-economy-market-102503#:~:text=Gig%20Economy%20Market%20Report%20Overview&text=The%20global%20Gig%20Economy%20Market,16.18%25%20during%20the%20forecast%20period.
I can't but help wonder what it is about serving in congress that motivates these people to endure the stress of having to run for re election every two years.
Truth is that Congress critters spend most of their time dialing for dollars, unless they are like AOC, or Ilhan Omar in safe districts is $174,000. That sounds like a lot, but considering you have to maintain a home in your district or state, and a residence in the D.C. area, spend money on transportation, clothing for dinners and events, food and maintenance in D.C., and then there is the hazzle of having to raise money and campaign every two years
Congress is an exclusive club. It’s also a wealthy one.
More than half of those in Congress are millionaires, data from lawmakers’ most recent personal financial disclosures shows. The median net worth of members of Congress who filed disclosures last year is just over $1 million.
Much of the wealth in Congress is concentrated at the top. The top 10 percent of wealthiest lawmakers have three times more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. While some lawmakers are still paying off student loans, others are paying off their third or fourth mortgage. The group of wealthiest members includes career politicians who boosted their portfolios over decades in Congress and recently elected lawmakers.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/04/majority-of-lawmakers-millionaires/
It is the long serving Representatives (I am excluding Senators who are in a separate class)
that are the millionaires, so how did they get there.
Insider trading, no doubt, gifts, emoluments most certainly, dipping into the campaign stash, PAC;s.
And though there is a law against using campaign funds for personal business, when has laws ever been an impediment. And a politician can and do file for reimbursement of personal expenses like dinners, travel
When Congress critters travel on official business they get $178 a day, more if they have receipts to support the claim when they file a travel voucher. As military back in the 1960's and 70's it was $25 a
They also get an MRA (Minimum Representational Allowance) The minimum is $1,849,149 and the Maximum is $2,088, 449 for which to hire staff, office space
Members of the House of Representatives have one consolidated allowance, the Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA), with which to operate their offices. The MRA was first authorized in 1996 and was made subject to regulations and adjustments of the Committee on House Administration. Representatives have a high degree of flexibility to use the MRA to operate their offices in a way that supports their congressional duties and responsibilities, and individual office spending may be as varied as the districts Members represent.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R40962.pdf
For those of inquiring minds who want more info an detail thislink: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30064
Corrupt capitalists + phoney Christians + No attorney general = A future third world cesspool. God's justice will prevail!
Most Americans want cheaper healthcare, access to abortions, a clean environment, I suspect a maximum wage for the rich, lower housing costs... Kamala needs to run on what we almost all agree on, Rethuglicans and Democrats!
I LOVE this piece! Thank you Thom for your bravery in making this crystal clear!!!
Vote blue up and down the ballot! End Citizens United!
Sorry to go off topic, but....
Tom, are you looking for more muck to rake? How about a series about "Medicare Advantage" plans? My wife is a retired teacher, and we've been notified that her retirement plan's Medicare Supplement will be switched to a [dis]advantage plan at the end of the year. The insurance company's spokesperson told a ballroom full of people how we will receive more and better care for hundreds of dollars less a month. The audience was old enough to know better; but with a few of us objecting, the crowd lapped it up. I swore I was listening to the pied piper.
If you don't think money has changed hands, there's a beautiful old suspension bridge on the Lower East Side looking for a new owner.
The "Advantage" plans should NOT be allowed to even use the word Medicare; so many ppl think, "A better version of Medicare? That's what I want!" but don't find out the truth until it's too late.
P
BTW - Thom has discussed the Advantage/Part C scam several times.
The advantage goes to the insurance company. We are having a contagion of such firms in liquidation, Also medical providers. Big hospital chains. Reminds me of the early 90's when HMOs (and S&Ls) went under. The managing partners of one of the largest law firms in Miami involved went to the top of out tallest building, held hands and jumped.
The more I read about corruption in America, the happier I will be to go back to Ukraine. At least our corruption is honest corruption.
I have 6 prescription drugs that cost me $198 per month. My wife has four that cost her about $250 per month. I have one that costs over $150, and she has one that costs $230.
We used to have a drug manufacturing company in Canada, Conaught Laboratories. One of our conservative governments shut it down.
Mr. Hartmann, the most frequently prescribed drug in the US is Statins. No other drug comes even close. This, in spite of the fact that the evidence supporting its effectiveness is overblown to the extent of being faked.
When the now infamous West of Scotland Study was first published; I ran the two
most commonly used mathematical tests of significance on their data. Neither test showed a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. I used a 5% interval of rejection. Anyone who has taken even an undergraduate level Statistics course should understand what I am saying. To be complete here I must also point out that in their conclusion; the researchers themselves said the same thing. They said the drug has no significant effect.
Statins will eventually be revealed as the biggest financial fraud played on the American public since tobacco was exposed as a carcinogen. In the mean time Big Pharma will make billions from the drug.
And people will suffer side-effects. This subject was in the book I recommended, "Overdiagnosed". It's written by 3 docs. Here are the titles of the first two chapters:
Chapter 1) Genesis: People Become Patients with High Blood Pressure
Chapter 2) We Change the Rules: How Numbers Get Changed to Give You Diabetes, High Cholesterol, and Osteoporosis
My neighbor was violently ill from Lipitor. Made me laugh when he said if anyone wants me to behave, just mention the word Lipitor.
Alis, statins reduce about 8 fat soluble vitamins. CoQ10 is one of them and it is essential to every cell in the body for the mitochondria to function.
Statins made me feel angry continuously for about a year before I realized what was causing this. Then I stopped taking it. My doctors all went kookoo over my refusal to take it. Even though I showed them the statistical tests based on empirical evidence taken from about 8 studies. The doctor who first put me on the drug at maximum dose, never told me about any possible side effects. I had to learn about side effects on my own.
I think there is a tendency for busy, overworked Physicians to rely upon the claims made by drug salesmen who regularly visit them in their clinical offices. In medical schools doctors have it pounded into their heads that they must be accurate, careful and honest in their work or else they will harm their patients. I am thankful for this kind of "first do no harm" protocol. It protects the public. But perhaps physicians naively expect drug salesmen and drug companies to be as honest and responsible as doctors are.
Unfortunate that you write from experience, Gerald. It's brilliant that you figured it out and have done your research. My brother just started on some, and I will pass this on to him.
That second book I recommended, "Black Hat White Coat" by Dr. Carl Elliott describes what is being done to and with the docs when it comes to drugs.
Elliott is also a professor of philosophy, writer, and editor besides being an MD. Came from a medical family---he KNOWS.
Some docs get greedy or are just plain crooks---just like we saw with Matthew Perry. Small percentage, but they do immense damage.
Alis, thank you for that book recommendation; BLACK HAT, WHITE COAT. I made a note of it and shall fit it in with the three projects I am currently working on.
As for your your bother's recent prescription to take Statins: I do not know how much I should write here or how well versed he is in research methods.
Perhaps a precis will do.
The whole cholesterol topic got off to a bad start after WWll.
President FDR appointed a man named Ancel Keys to be the person responsible for organizing the effort to make certain that American GIs received adequate nutrition while in combat. This is why the boxes of food the soldiers got were called "K" rations. Dr. Keys had a BA in economics and a PhD in Fish Nutrition ( don't ask me???????? I guess human nutrition experts were rare back then.)
In 1950 Keys conducted what he called the 7 Countries Study. His conclusion was that diets lower in fat produce fewer deaths from Coronary Artery Disease
CAD. In 1961 Time magazine put his picture on its cover with the heading, in bold letters: "FAT IN DIET CAUSES DEATH FROM CAD."
The only problem was that Keys purposely biased his study and produced an invalid conclusion. ie. he lied. The lying, fabrication and distortions have been coming at us since then with only little resistance in the research literature. The resistance is mainly out of New Zealand, Australia and England. Look especially for Dr. Aseem Malhotra.
Only 30 years later did Keys admit to the bias which invalidated his study; and then only because of the pressure put upon him by independent scientists who were real, actual experts in human nutrition. So much for Keys.
The famous and important Framingham study was initiated in 1950. It was designed by George Mann, world renowned Human nutritionist at Vanderbilt University. The size of the sample was immense 28,000 people. In 1960, after 10 years of work on the study, Mann wrote up his initial report in which he stated there was no relationship between fatty food and death from CAD. This data analysis by Mann was never published.
Instead, William Kannel who became director of the study from 1966 to 1979 published a report which amazingly, claimed just the opposite: He said the data showed that a 1% reduction in blood cholesterol produced an 11% increase in survival rate.
In 1977 George Mann insisted that the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE allow him to publish his analysis; which, of course denied Kannel's claim. The New Eng.J. of Med. insisted that he could publish his remarks as only an opinion in the editorial section.
And so it has continued up until today. If I tried to print all my notes on studies and publications along these lines; I would write a dissertation.
While Statins are not quite the most profitable drugs in existence; they are nevertheless extremely profitable and easy to manufacture. Big Pharma is making billions by continuing the ruse.
Truly appreciate the info and the time you spent on this response, Professor Dobbertin. Seems we have a long way to go on the research concerning diet and disease.
I heard an endocrinologist explain it isn't even calories in/used. There is no "burning" involved. She said we are not so much a furnace as we are a chemical factory.
That other book "Overdiagnosed" talks more about the research, stats, and skewed conclusions. "Black Hat" has info on professional human guinea pigs hired for drug tests.
Great revealing article on Pharma. Thanks
Trump will and then break all those promises like a good liar!
I have my list of what I'd do if I ran the world, and it's interesting to read about advocacies for anti TV drug advertising that I didn't know existed. I thought I made it up when I put "banning drug advertising for diseases only some people have" on my list. I'm saying this is because of course we need rules and regulations, but there is also a fundamental rightness about being human beings that I was tapping into and I want to cite so as to not ignore that in favor of being all statistics which dehumanizes us. Meeting in our humanity is fundamental!
Reading Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean. Background is always rewarding in order to understand today’s news. I highly recommend.