October 8, 2019: Bad Year for Big Pharma, Addicts, Congressional Crooks, and Fish

 

Republicans used socialism to scare people.

Big Pharma actually kills them.

10/8/19: Republicans are still in a dither over Democrats and their flirtation with Bernie Sanders and socialism, Meanwhile, we keep getting lessons in the grotesque imperfections of capitalism. For example: Big Pharma. 

Faced with thousands of opioid-related lawsuits, manufacturers and distributors begin caving. Three of the largest distributors and two manufacturers offer $22 billion in damages and promise to spend an additional $28 billion on drugs to combat the damage opioids have caused.

 

In related news, Dr. Joel Smithers, a capitalist if ever there was one, is sentenced to 40 years in prison. His crime: writing 500,000 opioid prescriptions, mostly bogus, and pushing millions of pills out to the streets. His sentence won’t help the 2.5 million Americans who are currently addicted. Nor will it bring back the tens of thousands who have died from opioid overdoses since 2000. 

It’s one small step for mankind, though.

 

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IN OTHER NEWS, Congressman Chris Collins, who represented an upstate district in New York, resigns and pleads guilty to charges of insider trading. Collins had long insisted on his innocence – and President Trump had talked about how unfair it was that Collins was investigated in the first place. Now the former lawmaker is a felon, facing up to five years in prison. 

His son, Cameron, pleads guilty the next day. Prosecutors note that the pair, and the father of Cameron’s fiancé, avoided more than $800,000 in losses by dumping stock, based on insider tips.

 

So, bad day for Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins, and the younger Mr. Collins’ future father-in-law. Good day, however, for justice.

 

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WE ALSO LEARN that the sea is running out of fish. Scientists warn that unless the nations of the world face the challenge, food supplies crucial to hundreds of millions of human beings will begin to decline. Climate change alone may drive down catch rates by 24% by the end of this century. 

A third of all fishing stocks are already overfished at unsustainable rates; and 90% of stocks are fully exploited. 

Bad year for fish.

Resources are finite.

February 23, 2020; Bernie Sanders Denounces Russians for Helping His Campaign

 

2/23/20: All the usual sycophants came crawling out of the woodwork to defend the president this weekend. At first, they claimed U.S. intelligence experts were wrong. No way would Putin and the Russians prefer Trump to win again. 

As late as Sunday, Trump seemed bizarrely out of any loop. When reporters asked about the Russians’ supposed preference, Trump replied, “Nobody said it to me at all.” Then he honed in on the real issue. “They ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that intelligence,” he fumed. 

Again, the president had no evidence for that claim; but once Trump Justice kicks in, should he win a second term, evidence will be a luxury.

 

In a tweet later that day, the president seemed to threaten the Democratic lawmaker. The Russians were the ones interfering; but Trump was threatening a political opponent, instead of focusing on Putin and his machinations. 

Somebody please tell incompetent (thanks for my high poll numbers) & corrupt politician Adam “Shifty” Schiff to stop leaking Classified information or, even worse, made up information, to the Fake News Media. Someday he will be caught, & that will be a very unpleasant experience [emphasis added]!

 

And yet, the story only got weirder by the hour. 

Reporters made it clear that U.S. intelligence had already warned Sen. Bernie Sanders that the Russians were trying to advance his campaign. Unlike Trump, who seemed to know nothing about what briefers had said, Sanders told reporters, yes, he had been informed that the Russians were trying to boost his chances. Sanders then did what any patriotic American should do. He denounced Russian interference. 

“I don’t care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president,” Sanders made plain. “My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.”

 

 
Sanders denounces Russian interference.

He went on to add emphatically, 

In 2016, Russia used internet propaganda to sow division in our country, and my understanding is that they are doing it again in 2020.

 

…Let’s be clear, the Russians want to undermine American democracy by dividing us and, unlike the current president, I stand firmly against their efforts, and any other foreign power that wants to interfere in our election.”

 

Assuming Trump fans cared, you could point out: That’s how it’s done. You don’t deny, as Trump did, that the Russians interfered in 2016. You don’t deny – when you had to know, even before you won the election – and we all know now – because a dozen members of that first campaign have since admitted (usually under legal duress) that, yes, they did meet with Russians offering help. (See: 9/24-30/19.) 

You don’t say last summer that if “Norway” had dirt on an opponent running against you in 2020, why wouldn’t you take it? 

You don’t ask Ukraine to gather dirt on an opponent. 

You don’t ask China to investigate Joe Biden. You condemn foreign meddling in our democratic processes.