Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
Stephan: Americans pay orders of magnitude more for the same drugs than people in any other country. The difference is so great that if you have ever bought a drug with which you are familiar in Europe, Canada, Latin America, or Asia you will be stunned at the difference. Why do drugs in the U.S. cost more than anywhere else on Earth? Big Pharma's propaganda machine aided and abetted by corporate media spews out the line that the higher cost covers research and development. Study after study, however, has shown this is just an out and out lie. Here is a good assessment as to the true answer.
Credit: Shutterstock
America’s soaring drug prices are suddenly getting lots of attention. For that, you can thank Martin Shkreli, the much-loathed CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals who recently raised the price of an anti-parasitic drug by 5,500 percent. Overnight, a single tablet went from $13.50 to $750, making an essential medicine unreachable for some.
Many people have wondered how Shkreli could do something like this. But to understand that story, you first have to understand how the US system of drug pricing actually works — and why it’s so wildly different from other countries.
1) In the United States, drug prices are set by the market — unlike elsewhere
In other countries with single-payer systems, governments exert much more influence over the entire health care process. That allows them to negotiate directly with drugmakers. The government sets a maximum price that it will pay for a drug, and if the company doesn’t agree, it simply loses out on the entire market. This puts drugmakers at a disadvantage, driving down the price […]
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Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
Stephan: Largely as a result of the Bush-Cheney Neocon foreign policy, augmented by the transfer of real global power from national states to virtual corporate states, 1 in 8 children born into the world, come into a situation of crisis and death. It is a horrifying story, as this UNICEF report spells out. And almost no one in American corporate media ever talks or writes about it in this global sense.
Middle Eastern baby
Credit: China Daily
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — More than 16 million babies were born in conflict zones in 2015 – 1 in 8 of all births worldwide this year – UNICEF said today, a figure that underscores the vulnerability faced by increasing numbers of children.
“Every two seconds, a newborn takes its first breath in the midst of conflict, often in terrifying circumstances and without access to medical care,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “Too many children are now starting their lives in extreme circumstances – from conflict to natural disasters, poverty, disease or malnutrition. Can there be a worse start in life?”
In conflict-affected countries such as Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, or on perilous journeys to escape fighting, newborn children and their mothers face enormous risks. Pregnant mothers are in danger of giving birth without medical help and in unsanitary conditions. Their children are more likely to die before they reach their fifth birthdays and to experience extreme – or “toxic” […]
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Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
Stephan: If you have ever had a friend contract PTSD, you know how insidious and devastating this trauma disorder can be. I have friends from Viet Nam who still deal with it almost half a century later, and it was clear this was true after World Wars I and II. Why? Probably because no one wanted to acknowledge it, particularly politicians. If they did they would have to take care of these men and women for the rest of their lives, and they didn't want to spend the money. And many still don't. But as this report describes, the evidence is overwhelming that this is an ongooing problem, and so is the ethical responsibility to care for these veterans.
War in the age of climate change, where inconceivable sums are going to be required to sustain civilization, is a truly stupid idea.
New research is turning current understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on its head. A surprising new study indicates that PTSD can suddenly spike five years after a person leaves the battlefield, even when PTSD levels had declined to normal, according to a Reuters report.
It’s an indication that soldiers may need to be screened for PTSD long after getting back from a deployment, as the disorder can lie dormant for a while before suddenly reemerging.
The goal of the study was to gain insight into the changes in posttraumatic stress complaints in a long-term period after deployment, ultimately to evaluate the timing of an increase in treatment demand after deployment,” Iris Eekhout of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the lead author on the study, said in an interview with Reuters. The study focused on 1,007 Dutch soldiers who had been deployed to Afghanistan between 2005 and 2008. They found that PTSD levels spiked six months after returning home but returned to pre-deployment levels after about a year. Unexpectedly, however, they found another huge spike about five years after deployment.
PTSD affects up to 20 percent of Iraq war veterans. Until now, studies had been focused on the short-term health effects.
PTSD can be […]
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Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
Tom Boggioni, - The Raw Story
Stephan: I believe Donald Trump is the dark ID of a large portion of Americans. His success is telling us something very important about our country. And the words of Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson ought to be getting special attention in public discussion.
Maybe it has just been too many years since the mass death and devastation of World War II. The reality has faded from the experiential zeitgeist of our society, and only lives in the history books. War today involves only a bit more than 1 per cent of the population. Or maybe it is something else altogether. Whatever. Proposing the use of nuclear weapons ought to disqualify one from public life, and result in a degree of avoidance. Nuclear bombs in addition to killing at an industrial rate, actually threaten civilization. Any elder in Japan can tell you that. No responsible human being speaks this way. That Donald Trump approves this, which he must, because he knows his voters think this same way, ought to seriously alarm the rest of us. We are seeing fascism arise.
A spokesperson for Donald Trump’s front running GOP presidential campaign lashed out at his fellow Republican candidates for saber-rattling about war — inferring that they are all talk and no action — before wondering whether it does the U.S. any good to have nuclear weapons if our leaders are afraid to use them.
Appearing on The O’Reilly Factor, Trump spokesperson Katrina Pearson hammered at the other candidates while covering for her boss who, in a recent debate, was stumped when asked the country’s nuclear strike capability known as the “nuclear triad.”
“What good does it do to have a good nuclear triad if you’re afraid to use it?” Pierson asked. “And that’s where we are today and we need to fix these problems. Not just complaining and name-calling about who started this and who started that.”
Pierson’s comments stunned conservative columnist and Desert Storm veteran Kurt Schlichter, who got into a contentious argument with Pierson over her boss’s ignorance on nuclear matters.
“The point of the nuclear triad is to be afraid to use the damn thing. You want to scare the hell out of the other side,” Schlichter excitedly yelled. “And frankly, my side will be more scared if Donald Trump gets his […]
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Monday, December 21st, 2015
Lucas Mearian , General Assignment Reporter and Storage Specialist - Computerworld
Stephan: This is excellent news, going almost unacknowledged in the corporate media that has given itself over to Donald Trump. MSNBC to my real surprise did not even cover the Democratic debate. Before during and after the event they ran their despicable prison porn. No commentary, no news, nada. I thought it was a teaching moment showing how far news has been commodified.
This tax credit extension, is so much more deserving of public discussion than most of what passes for news. It will impact millions of people, and is productive of wellness at several levels. It speeds our transition out of carbon, it helps us stay below the 2º threshold, it will employ lots of people, it lowers prices for consumers, it decentralizes and thus increases security. So we start today with some good news.
SolarCity Corp. employees install solar panels on the roof of a home in Kendall Park, N.J.
Credit: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
Just two weeks before it was set to expire, a tax credit for installing renewable energy systems, such as solar and wind power, has been extended for five years by Congress. (emphasis added)
The U.S. government’s investment tax credit (ITC), which went into affect in 2006, was the main catalyst for growth of solar installations in the U.S. The ITC offers a tax credit equal to 30% of a solar or wind project’s costs.
Analyst forecasts had indicated there would be a major decline in solar and wind power growth after the ITC expired in 2016 and dropped to a more permanent 10% credit.
In a surprise move, however, U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind as part of a larger package of tax breaks and spending plans.
“This is massive,” said Ethan Zindler, […]
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