Author: KJ McElrath

Big Pharma and Medical Device Manufacturers Pay Billions to Doctors to Prescribe Their Drugs

Big Pharma and Medical Device Manufacturers Pay Billions to Doctors to Prescribe Their Drugs

Posted by | Jul 1, 2015 | |

In the wake of news about the largest Medicare fraud case in history, more disturbing facts have come to light. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, drug companies and medical device manufacturers paid out nearly $6.5 billion to physicians and medical training programs last year. The worst part of it: most of it appears to be legal. This information is public thanks largely to another provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring players in the health care industry to disclose these payments. In addition, these companies must provide information on  the value of  non-monetary “perks” such...

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Bill Gates – Federal Government Must Invest in Renewable Energy Like We’re Fighting a War

Bill Gates – Federal Government Must Invest in Renewable Energy Like We’re Fighting a War

Posted by | Jul 1, 2015 | |

Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates has gotten tired of waiting for our government to get serious about renewable energy. Already having invested $1 billion of his own money in such projects, he’s getting ready to put in another billion over the next five years. Meanwhile, the U.S. federal government has committed $4 billion over the same time period. The federal programs are primarily reliant on tax credits and commitments from the private sector. That’s not going to cut it, according to Gates. For all their vast wealth, even America’s billionaire entrepreneurs (at least, those not tied to the...

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce Finds Its New Mission — Global Drug Pusher

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Finds Its New Mission — Global Drug Pusher

Posted by | Jul 1, 2015 | , |

Realizing that its credibility, function, and future is deteriorating quicker than the Arctic ice, the United States Chamber of Commerce has found a new business model. It’s pushing American tobacco companies globally into countries that are trying to stop their citizens from dying from tobacco related diseases.  Ring of Fire suggest a new name for this organization started 100 years ago – U.S. Death Chamber of Corporate Greed. How did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Become an International Drug Pusher? In recent decades, public awareness of the connection between tobacco use and a host of  diseases that include cancer,...

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Supreme Court Justices Raise Issue of Constitutionality of Death Penalty – Scalia Responds in Anger

Supreme Court Justices Raise Issue of Constitutionality of Death Penalty – Scalia Responds in Anger

Posted by | Jun 30, 2015 | |

Yesterday, the Supreme Court voted along its usual ideological lines to uphold the use of a specific sedative employed in executions by lethal injection. Justices Breyer and Ginsburg, however, raised serious questions about the whole concept of capital punishment, and whether it is Constitutional. This is how Justice Scalia responded to the constitutionality of the death penalty simply being raised: [I] write to respond to Justice Breyer’s plea for judicial abolition of the death penalty. Welcome to Groundhog Day. The scene is familiar. . . . A vocal minority of the Court, waving over their heads a ream of...

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Supreme Court Says State Citizens Can Stop Legislative Gerrymandering – Politicians Furious

Supreme Court Says State Citizens Can Stop Legislative Gerrymandering – Politicians Furious

Posted by | Jun 30, 2015 | , |

Yesterday, the GOP’s own Frankenstein Monster, the U.S. Supreme Court, again turned on its maker. In a 5-4 ruling, the SCOTUS affirmed the right of voters to appoint independent panels for drawing electoral district lines.  This is very bad news for partisan lawmakers, but great news for the rest of us.  The ruling is a serious blow to one of the key strategies that the GOP has been using to keep its death-grip on citizen rights, and to enhance their personal and corporate wallets. For decades it has been the plan of the GOP to focus their money, lobbyists,...

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