Big Pharma Criminals Rebranding Deadly Drugs

If you go by their portrayal in movies and TV shows, you'd think that huge pharmaceutical corporations make all their money by turning children into zombies and having them steal grandma's heart medication, or whatever the plot of Resident Evil was. But the truth is that Big Pharma (as hippies and crackpots call it) isn't a modern-day Legion of Doom. They're businesses focused on making money, just like every other company out there ... which isn't to say they aren't capable of evil. They totally are. It's just that their evil usually involves less illegal genetic experiments and more down-to-earth dick moves like ...

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Repackaging Medication to Trick You into Taking It

miroslavmisiura/iStock/Getty Images

The name of a drug is a crucial part of its marketing. The antidepressant Prozac, for example, is meant to sound sciency, while the drug Sarafem, which is targeted at women, sounds distinctly feminine. (It's also pink, because ... vaginas, we suppose?) However, the only differences between these supposedly very different drugs are their names and colors: Sarafem is actually just Prozac, because Eli Lilly, the drug company behind both medications, wanted women to take the drug without telling them what it was.

Warner Chilcott/Eli Lilly"But it says 'fluoxetine' right on the label. How can you not immediately know what that is?!"

Sarafem was marketed as the cure for an ailment called premenstrual dysphoric disorder -- essentially, all the unpleasantness that goes along with menstruation, plus horrible panic attacks, anxiety, and souped-up mood swings. And we're not saying that Prozac doesn't treat those symptoms; it might (we're not doctors). We just think that tricking people into taking drugs they wouldn't otherwise take is a moral gray area, although it could be forgiven if it was done for noble intentions. Like, say, if women suffering from PMDD really needed to take Prozac but were avoiding it due to its negative association with depression. That, however, is not what happened here.

Prozac was a huge money maker for Eli Lilly, and Sarafem was released only a few months before their patent on Prozac was set to expire. When a drug patent expires, its price drops sharply, as competitors start releasing their own generic versions. But by releasing a new drug identical to Prozac, Eli Lilly managed to extend their patent by a few years, allowing the price of Prozac to remain nice and high.

Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty ImagesDepressing, huh? Don't worry -- Eli Lilly has the cure!

In 1997, GlaxoSmithKline did something similar when they released the well-known antidepressant Wellbutrin as a pill that helps you quit smoking, but only after rebranding it as Zyban. Again, the science behind the drug might have actually been sound, but it doesn't change the fact that deceiving people into taking mind-altering drugs is something you usually expect to end with James Bond blowing up a skull-shaped island fortress in the middle of the Pacific.

Trump's Felonies

A Complete List of All the Times Donald Trump Has Broken the Law

Trump committed a treasonous felony by inciting Vladimir Putin and the Russian government to hack an American citizen and release personal emails. It’s just the latest questionably illegal action by the Republican nominee for President, who has been sued over 3,500 times in his career, including 70 times since he kicked off his campaign. In fact, two groups have threatened to sue him this week for refusing to pay for services rendered. More chilling than even his potentially treasonous comments was his suggestion yesterday that, if he had the power, he would hack into the private communications of political opponents (and the Presidency would give him that power).

That’s terrifying.

It’s also just the latest illegal or potentially illegal act in the life and career of Donald Trump. Here’s a taste of Donald Trump’s other illegal activities:

— Donald Trump has a long history of not honoring contracts with construction companies

— Donald Trump has knowingly and intentionally defrauded Trump University students, fleecing them out of thousands of dollars

— He may have illegally coordinated with his SuperPac

— He illegally used corporate resources to pay an employee to write a political speech

— He violated federal law by claiming proceeds from various Trump products would go to charity, although there is no evidence that Trump ever donated the money to charity

— He violated IRS rules by using $12,000 from his charity organization to purchase a Tim Tebow helmet

— He violated election laws by emailing foreign officials to solicit political contributions

— He violated federal laws by offering Ben Carson a job in exchange for his endorsement

— His employees violated a U.S. trade embargo by pursuing commercial activities in Cuba when it was illegal to do so

— He’s run afoul of election laws by using campaign contributions to pay $6 million to his own businesses

— He violated Wisconsin election laws by talking with voters as they stood in line to vote

— He violated New York state education laws for operating a for-profit investment school without the required license

— His foreign policy proposals would violate NATO

— He’s violated copyright law for using copyrighted images without permission

— Many of the proposals he has vowed to pursue as President violate the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments of the Constitution

— Trump broke New York state law by lobbying to prevent an Indian casino from opening in the Catskills

— His vow to use torture on suspected terrorists would violate the Geneva conventions. He would be committing war crimes.

— He broke anti-discrimination laws to keep a mob boss gambling at one of his casinos

— He violated immigration laws by misrepresenting his company on work-visa applications

Hillary Clinton has been investigated and scrutinized for decades. She’s endured years of partisan Congressional hearings, FBI investigations, and independent counsel probes. Donald Trump can’t even handle the scrutiny of having one year of tax returns examined, in spite of his own hypocrisy about the release of personal records:

The Trump Diet

As most fatlings know most diets end in failure. This is because food it more motivating than the desire to lose weight. The Trump Diet overcomes that by creating an aversion to food. The Trump diet does this simply and effectively. When you see his ugly face you will instantly lose your appetite.

Socialist Denmark vs Capitalist USA

United States vs. Denmark, in 17 Charts

Posted by Matt Bruenig on October 20, 2015

 
 
 

Here is how the country stacks up the US on a number of important social indicators.

The Poor

Here are the overall poverty rates for the two countries:

Here are the child poverty rates for the two countries:

Lest you think I am pulling some kind of "relative poverty" trick, here is per-capita income of the 5th, 10th, and 20th percentiles in Denmark and the US, displayed in 2005 PPP-adjusted dollars:

This measure will tend to understate the standard of living in Denmark as well because it only includes cash and cash-like benefits, but does not include public services provided in kind such as free college, free/subsidized child care, and free health care.

Here is the same graph, but for per-capita income of children, a population Denmark focuses special welfare attention on:

Inequality

Here is the level of income inequality in each country, as measured by the Gini coefficient:

Under this measure, Denmark is the most equal country in the world. Among countries for which there is OECD data, the US is the third most unequal behind Turkey and Mexico.

Health Care

Here is the percentage of citizens lacking health insurance in the two countries:

Paid Parental Leave

Here are the number of weeks of publicly-funded paid parental leave you receive for the birth of a child:

Guaranteed Vacation

Here are the weeks of guaranteed vacation you receive each year:

Work Hours

Here are the average hours worked by workers:

More leisure, more time with friends and family.

Welfare Expenditures

Here are welfare expenditures overall and on certain topics as a percent of GDP. Welfare expenditures are defined here as public social expenditures, per the OECD:

This is the sort of stuff that gets the low-poverty, low-inequality goods. Most of the categories are self-explanatory. ALMP refers to active labor market policies. These are policies like public employment services, retraining, and employment subsidies that help unemployed people get back into work. Denmark spends twice as much on ALMP than the US spends on unemployment benefits and ALMP combined.

Employment Rates

Here are the percentage of prime-age people (ages 25-54) who are employed in the two countries:

Denmark is ahead overall, among males, and especially among females. It turns out generous welfare is compatible with high employment levels. Perhaps spending 2.2% of your GDP on active labor market policies and providing robust child care and paid leave benefits can actually make it easier for people to remain in the labor force.

Taxes

How do you afford all these great welfare benefits and the low poverty and low inequality that they bring. You levy taxes of course. Here is government revenue as a percent of GDP:

At 56% of GDP, Denmark's government revenue is the highest in the world.

Government Debt

Here is government debt as a percent of GDP and government financial networth (government financial assets minus government financial liabilities) as a percent of GDP:

Growth

Comparing growth can be difficult because different countries make different labor/leisure trade offs. Denmark is much more likely to use its growth gains to reduce the amount of work they do than the US is. The best way to account for growth in a way that is sensitive to differences in labor/leisure decisions is to track it in terms of GDP per hour worked (as I discussed earlier). Here is the cumulative percent change in GDP per hour worked (using 2005 $PPP):

Innovation

Directly measuring innovation is a tricky (and arguably impossible) thing to do. Nonetheless, Denmark does quite well on common innovation indicators.

Here is the number of triadic patents (patents filed in the US, EU, and Japan) per million inhabitants:

Here is venture capital as a percent of GDP:

Here is the number of researchers per 1000 employees:

There is more, but I won't bore you. Generally, innovation indicators show Denmark do as well or slightly better or slightly worse than the US. Overall, I'd say it's a wash.

Can We Do It Here?

People claim we can't do this sort of thing here, but their arguments are fairly unpersuasive. There is good reason to think we won't do it here for political reasons and for reasons having to do with the fact that whites in the US generally don't want to improve the well-being of Blacks and Latinos, and this turns them off from high taxes and welfare. But if you put that political question aside, the policy side of things is not that complicated.

The US is bigger than Denmark by a lot, but with its larger size also comes a larger national income. On a per-capita basis, the US actually has quite a bit more national income than Denmark (in 2005 $PPP). So we don't lack for the income necessary to fund a Denmark-like system.

The US has shown itself to have a good ability to administer tax systems. Unlike some large states where the central government has a difficult time exerting itself in the hinterlands, it appears the US government has been quite able to collect taxes from all over the country. It also has a lot of room available in its tax level (as indicated by the taxes section above).

Finally, the US has shown itself to have a good ability to administer welfare systems. As Michael Calderwood notes, the US Social Security Administration alone sends out 59.5 million checks per month, a number which is greater than the entire Nordic population combined (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden). If anything, the larger size of the US should make it easier to implement Nordic-like systems because economies of scale should reduce the per-capita administrative costs of running the welfare programs.

Conclusion

So, in total, Denmark is a low-poverty, low-inequality, high-income, high-tax, high-welfare, high-innovation, high-employment country that has generous time off for vacations and newborns and has a relatively high amount of leisure time for workers. The US could easily move in the Danish direction, and it would be a big improvement for poor and working people if it did so, but given the toxic politics of the country, I wouldn't expect it any time soon.

Trump Clinton 3rd Debate Fact Check

TRIGGER WARNING! This article contains facts!

To nobody's surprise, Trump lied his orange baboon ass off. Keep in mind, this is a preliminary fact check. More and more Trump lies will be uncovered.


LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump repeats False claim that illegal immigrants are treated better than vets.http://bit.ly/2cMe5A1 

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump’s claim about Obamacare premiums going up is only partially accurate.http://bit.ly/1Lh6cOX 

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump’s claim that Clinton failed to keep U.S. troops in Iraq is Mostly False.http://bit.ly/2dD4Emk 

LIVE FACT-CHECK: The Pew report Trump cited found no evidence of voter fraud. http://bit.ly/2en7SqS TRUMP LIED!

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Save Gerald Ford, Trump is first nominee not to release tax returns.http://bit.ly/2dk2OHb Hillary Told the Truth

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump off-base saying his situation is comparable to Warren Buffet.http://bit.ly/2emeRBe MOSTLY FALSE!

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump claimed he did not mock a disabled reporter. Trump LIED, he did mock a disabled reporter. http://bit.ly/1Ymubjv TRUMP LIED!

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump’s comparison between Clinton and Petraeus cases doesn’t add up.http://bit.ly/2ehB6ZW TRUMP LIED!

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump says Clinton ‘gave us ISIS.’http://bit.ly/29Uu8rp TRUMP LIED!

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Clinton says federal govt sued Trump for housing discrimination. http://bit.ly/2dBoxto TRUE! DAMN TRUE!
LIVE: The $6 billion lost? Shoddy paperwork, not lost money. Part of a previous Trump Pants on Fire claim. http://bit.ly/29PuXQj 

LIVE FACT-CHECK: Clinton says Trump’s tax plan overwhelmingly helps the wealthy. True, experts say.http://bit.ly/2diWgHT TRUE!
LIVE FACT-CHECK: Trump said Clinton would double taxes for Americans. False. http://bit.ly/2b79s2h 

What Trump said about Japan: "Does that mean nuclear? It could mean nuclear." http://bit.ly/1OaIRA0 
LIVE FACT-CHECK: Clinton is right, Trump encouraged Japan to get a nuclear weapon.http://bit.ly/1OaIRA0

Trump Roars Compares Himself to a Lion

Note: Bigger Fatter Politics would like to officially welcome back our political analyst Jenna Talia. Most of our readers recall that Jenna was attacked a few years ago at a Ben and Jerrys by a herd of jealous angry fat girls with neo Nazi ties.  Jenna was again recently attacked while covering a Trump rally in Texas for another news outlet. 

Jenna survived the attack and instead of suing the trailer trash who attacked her, she has decided to turn the other cheek. Jenna penned the following article as a way of exposing the hypocrisy of the herds of false Christians who still support sexual predator Donald Trump. 

Be clear-minded and alert. Your opponent, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

Trump Roars by Jenna Talia

There is abundant evidence that Trump is more than merely a seriously flawed candidate and there is just as much evidence that Trump is a profoundly evil and dangerous man who is unfit to be POTUS. Worse than Trump are the mindless goats who follow him.



It it not surprising that Trump compares himself to a lion. The lion is a predator and so is Donald Trump. Trump prey on the weak, the vulnerable, the unaware, the innattentive and the impulsive

The early Christians were fed to lions by the anti-Christ of their day. Why would anyone who professes to be a Christian admire and support a known predatory animal like  DonaldTrump?

John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

What would you rather be, a lion or lamb in the arms and under the protection of Jesus the Good Shepherd?

Psalm 23

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

A true Christian would rather be a lamb with the good shepherd.

Trump is The Father Of Lies