PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalReport: Pharma exec says he had 'moral requirement' to raise drug price 400%
Source: CNN
(CNN)A pharmaceutical company executive defended his company's recent 400% drug price increase, telling the Financial Times that his company had a "moral requirement to sell the product at the highest price." The head of the US Food and Drug Administration blasted the executive in a response on Twitter.
Nirmal Mulye, founder and president of Nostrum Pharmaceuticals, commented in a story Tuesday about the decision to raise the price of an antibiotic mixture called nitrofurantoin from about $500 per bottle to more than $2,300. The drug is listed by the World Health Organization as an "essential" medicine for lower urinary tract infections.
"I think it is a moral requirement to make money when you can," Mulye told the Financial Times, "to sell the product for the highest price."
The Financial Times said Mulye compared his decision to increase the price to that of an art dealer who sells "a painting for half a billion dollars" and said he was in "this business to make money."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/11/health/drug-price-hike-moral-requirement-bn/index.html
First, Medicare for all Americans with the government empowered to negotiate prices down. The profit motive doesn't mix with healthcare.
Second, the government needs to force changes in the corporate charters of publicly held companies doing business in the USA to expand fiduciary responsibility beyond shareholders to the welfare of workers, consumers and the environment. Do this, and problems like this will be nipped in the bud.
Kavanaugh may well be voted in. Here's a post I just made on The Hill.
(I made this post in response to the criticism being levied at Cory Booker for releasing those emails).
Then, in 2017, he ramrodded the vote on Neil Gorsuch, and now he's trying to ram Kavanaugh, who is even more partisan than Gorsuch, down our throats. This in spite of the fact that Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in at least eight counts of money laundering and bank fraud, and in spite of the current constitutional crisis where members of Trump's own administration think him incompetent and are purposely sabotaging his agenda.
In light of the latter, the nomination of Kavanaugh should not even be considered.
When the Democratic party takes power again, which it will, I'm going to be advocating impeaching these two justices, should Kavanaugh be confirmed, and bringing back Merrick Garland as the nominee - because there is NO NO NO excuse for McConnell to fail to do his job and not allow the advice and consent of Garland.
In addition, I believe McConnell and the rest of the Republicans in the Senate should be the subjects of ethics investigations because to my mind the partisanship they displayed by not considering Garland was despicable.
We knew about Trump clear back in 1943. This short video, well worth watching,
was made by the US Government in 1943 as an anti-nazi message to the American people.
Please watch and send on.
Some thoughts growing from the funeral of an American hero.
Donald Trump's hatred and fearmongering are as American as apple pie. Hatred, fear, xenophobia, homophobia, racism, bigotry, intolerance and the propensity to violence, as in lynchings - are the dark underbelly of this nation. The sad truth is that America was built on genocide and slavery, and until we confront these gut-wrenchingly sad truths and shore up this half-rotten foundation, we can never really be the light on the hill.
Obama was as near-perfect as a US president could be. Moral, just, intelligent, a master of the big picture, and a long-term thinker that put policies in place that really did some good. Without drama, he saved us from a worldwide depression, worked with Congress to pass the ACA, got Bin Laden, and through his cabinet implemented some truly good policies. But...he did all this while (gasp!) being black!
So...enter Trump. A white guy. As unintelligent, inept, incompetent, corrupt and treasonous as a president can be - in fact, we really haven't even touched the surface of how bad Trump really is, and how dangerous he is to the entire human race. But he's white. A sort of pale and rotten counterpart to the noble nature of his predecessor.
We really COULD be great, you know. A light on the hill. Even now, people aspire to come here because for many it is the land of opportunity. But we have to get to the bottom of this capitalist cancer that was born at the death of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, became tumescent with the growth of Fox 'news,' and metastasized through hundreds of hate-talk radio shows and alt-right websites. The problem is that these propaganda organs are funded by, and promote a capitalist message of rugged individualism, hooray for me and to heck with you, pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
That message is underpinned by a constant hatred for the government, a transformation of government from 'of, by and for' the people to some 'deep-state enemy of the people.' Something wasteful and stupid that people like Grover Norquist want to shrink to the point where we can 'drown it in the bathtub,' because then oligarchs can reign supreme with the help of an alt-right nationalist theocracy.
That is the plan.
Why? Because it is the best interests of the capitalists to have us make our very own government the enemy. If we are worried about government overreach and the 'deep state' somehow betraying those who cheated to be elected into office in the first place, through gerrymandering and voter-suppression measures, then we don't have time to understand who is really picking our pockets, and who is systematically raping the treasury and routing as much money as possible to corporate profits and billionaires while we are left with an aging infrastructure, a healthcare program so sabotaged by Republicans that it is once again profoundly broken, the sacred trust of Social Security starving for funds, and virtually every program that actually helps Americans in danger of folding for lack of money.
But, hey, we've got PLENTY to route to 'defense' spending, including a brand-new, shiny Space Force!
It will take us years, decades, to wise up the American people, engage them in democracy at the local, state and national level, and create a system where people actually DO have a say in policies that affect them.
The biggest danger to humanity? To the world itself?
The Republican Party of Donald Trump.
Way out at sea. I just posted this in response to the Pecker immunity article on the Hill.
This thing is just surreal. I mean, did you ever think we'd be here? With two campaign officials convicted of 8 felony counts each, and Trump an 'unindicted co-conspirator?' Did you ever think we'd have a president as corrupt or profoundly ignorant? Did you ever think we'd have a president who did not understand Puerto Rico was part of the US?
Did you ever think we'd have a president who has such a childish understanding of international trade that he imposes tariffs, hurting both US consumers and costing ultimately hundreds of thousands of jobs?
Did you ever think we'd have a president whose campaign, at least, and possibly who did himself, collude with a hostile foreign power to win an election? Did you ever think we'd have a president who is now being talked about in the same breath as the word 'treason?'
Never in a million years. I would never, ever have thought this country could fall so far so fast. I'm just plain disgusted. We've had a bunch of 'do-nothing' ideologues in Congress since 2016, and all they've done is give a giant tax cut to billionaires and corporations that has broken the budget, and at the same time bumped the military budget past all common sense. And a space force?
Really?
Perhaps someone could explain to me how a space force is better for the American people than massive infrastructure upgrades? or healthcare? or expanded Social Security?
Just wondering, because...well...excuse me while I go throw up.
Here's the link to the Hill piece: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/403279-prosecutors-grant-immunity-to-national-enquirer-publisher-in
I have a garden gnome. His name is Chomsky.
Every day, we wake to some new outrage as decency is attacked on a thousand fronts. I replied to someone else here, a retired man in TX who deplores the hatred that dwells now in that state. He says there is real hatred now in this nation, and I'm made mindful of McCain's comment during his campaign when a woman said Obama is a Muslim who wants to destroy our way of life or some such. McCain said, "No, he's a decent man who has different opinions than me."
I guess that was how civility died, a casualty of the constant Koch-funded propaganda organs which spew out dehumanizing hatred towards us Democrats. So here's what I said to the gentleman, and NOW I SAY IT TO YOU BECAUSE THE ELECTION THIS NOVEMBER MAY WELL BE THE LAST CHANCE WE HAVE TO PEACEFULLY END THE RIGHT-WING COUP AND SAVE OUR REPUBLIC.
So here goes: if you disagree with me, fine. No problem. I'm not asking you to feel like I do, but I am pointing out some stuff and saying that all of us need to do everything we can to turn our government blue in November!
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There is real hatred. The Koch brothers and the other billionaire freaks who own the Republican party and its propaganda organ love to spew out vitriol that dehumanizes Democrats.
Why? Well, this is a slow coup. The billionaire freaks and multinational corporations are trying to make America an oligarchy where we are merely wage slaves with no rights as workers. They want to exploit us for starvation wages, work us long hours in unsafe working conditions and not provide any healthcare or old age pensions. Ideally for them, we should live in constant fear because they believe such fear motivates us to work harder longer - even if we are sick or become disabled. You want to know their vision? Read Jack London's 'People of the Abyss.' Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' alludes to it as well. Unrestrained capitalism is heaven for a few, and a life of unremitting, grinding poverty, fear, hunger, illness and wage slavery for the rest of us.
So these jokers know that if they dehumanize us, it will be easy for them, should the need arise, to send the neonazis, nazis and kluxers out into the streets with truncheons and guns to bloody us and make us run.
At least that's how I see the current situation. Fortunately we still have enough real Americans, people who put nation over party, in powerful enough positions to try and save the republic. They are disparagingly called 'deep state,' again a term the billionaire freaks have ejaculated into common lexicon through their throbbing propaganda organs of Info Wars and hate-talk radio.
And, we have the press, which Trump, of course, for his own reasons is disparaging and calling an 'enemy of the people.' Because Trump is basically a shill. Like the Kruppers and IG Farbens thought Hitler would be. He wants to impose a white nationalist government, which taken in combination with the oligarchy the billionaire freaks want is a FASCIST government that will lead us to a world war as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.
That, my friend, is why we must get the vote out in a big way in November. It may really be our last chance to avoid a long, dark, hungry, terrible and bloody ride.
Some cheerful news today, which we can use after Trump's disgrace on the international stage with
Putin.
Here's the story of how a man who has been a Republican all his life and has always voted a straight Republican ticket, including in 2016, has gotten to the point that he's going to vote blue in November!
*****************
Was on the phone today with my wife's brother, who owns a wholesale operation in KY serving a national chain of stores. We'll call him R.
R called my wife today to get a phone number, and he and I chatted a bit. He and his wife are going to Ireland on vacation soon, and he expressed some concern about how they might be treated because of Trump. I said that I'm sure the Irish understand and differentiate between the American people and Trump.
And HERE'S the cheerful part. He said, "You know, Pat, I've been a Republican all my life, but in November I'm voting straight Democratic because I'm so disgusted with Trump and with how things are going."
Oh, man, my wife and I looked at each other, eye wide, jaws on the floor. We talked a bit more after this, about how Trump has lurched from one disastrous policy to another and the disgust R expressed was very heartening.
So...shall we be like the Salvation Army and save 'em one at a time?
GOP candidate in Kansas: 'Outside of Western civilization, there is only barbarism'
Source: CNN
The comments from State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, a candidate seeking the Republican nomination in the race to replace retiring Rep. Lynn Jenkins, came at a July 2 meeting of the Leavenworth County Republican Party. During his more-than-30-minute speech, Fitzgerald lamented the fact that people believe "Western civilization is the problem," argued that Christendom is "under attack" and doubled down on his previous statement that Planned Parenthood is worse than a Nazi concentration camp.
"We are being told that Western civilization is the problem in the world," Fitzgerald said, according to video provided by a Democratic operative. "Outside of Western civilization there is only barbarism."
He added: "Our Judeo-Christian ethic is what is civilization. And that is what is under attack here and abroad. It also goes by a different name. Christendom. It's under attack. And even speaking about it can bring you under attack. It has brought me under attack."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/07/politics/steve-fitzgerald-kansas-candidate-barbarism-comments/index.html
This is how white nationalist racism looks on the ground, people. Let's make sure we watch this race and help whoever the Democrat is that is running against this cretin.
Scott Pruitt is the face of America's big problem
Great opinion piece from CNN. Here is the link: https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/09/opinions/pruitt-sums-up-americas-biggest-challenge-sachs/index.html
Well worth reading. Here are some selected excerpts.
They both work for larger financial interests. Our country today, and indeed much of the world, is run by and for billionaires actively manipulating the political process. They have the means, power, influence and muscle to get their way. Trump was elected with the backing of several, including Sheldon Adelson, Carl Icahn, Robert Mercer, John Paulson, T. Boone Pickens and Peter Thiel. And Trump has delivered for them, most importantly by signing into law last December a budget-busting $1.5 trillion tax cut that largely benefits the rich.
Even now, all is not lost. The rich may have the money but the people still have the votes. Yet time is short. November is our best hope to reclaim our democracy from the likes of Pruitt and Trump.
I have a promise for all of you.
First, we must totally repudiate the Republican evil this November by voting straight D. We must accomplish this first.
*****
Yesterday morning I hugged my little 2 1/2 year old granddaughter - she is so precious, so smart, full of love and life.
Then I wept at the picture of the little Honduran girl. Now we find out there is no real record of where these kids are and it will be nearly impossible for the parents to find them in the living hell that is Trump's gulag.
SO THIS IS MY PROMISE TO ALL OF YOU:
I will work, for years if need be, to bring these criminals to justice. They are guilty of crimes against humanity, and there is blood and death on their hands and in their souls. I believe we should set up an international tribunal where these criminals can be put in the dock and the whole sordid story can come out, and they can be sentenced to just punishment.
What will happen, I wonder to that little Honduran girl? To the other 2,300 kids lost in the shit-hole of immorality that passes for ICE. Where are all the private concentration camps where these kids are being held? How much money have they sucked from the treasury to perpetrate suffering. How much pain and suffering must happen before we get rid of these fucks?????
THERE SHALL BE A TRIBUNAL WHERE THESE CRIMINALS CAN BE TRIED FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. THEY MUST AND WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THESE ATROCITIES.
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