DISQUS

gustavmahler · 1 year ago

Wow, go south africa!!! i wonder if it was blacks and whites there together that refused. that would be great, but its great anyway. yes they can!!!!!!!

Polly_Tics · 1 year ago

On arms shipments to Zimbabwe I've got nothing.

I was kinda hoping there would be an open link where we could chat about the intricacies of Joe Scarborough's temper and what can be done to make him wig out again. This could be fun, ya know...

devis1 · 1 year ago

FYI Polly-
John Ridley, a frequent puppet for Scarborough has been outed as a writers guild scab over at Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reny-monk/writers...

devis1 · 1 year ago

O/T Drug companies continue to rape US--but employers with health plans are getting mad now.
Charging $23,000 for a vial of a drug to treat severe epilectic children. Yes that's $23,000. It had been selling for $1,600 last fall--which is no bargain either. Can you say windfall profits tax?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/business/19sp...

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Zimbabwe will get the shipment, no matter what. But it was a good faith effort on the part of SA's workers!

Meanwhile, exactly how much trouble is Citigroup in? And how much sovereign wealth are US banks going to trade for part ownership in the company? How much of US banks are already owned by sovereign countries? This doesn't say about all US banks, but it would be interesting to find out:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087...

Also on Bloomberg, a story on UK woes about it taking $200 billion to clean up subprime mess there. It's taking more than that to keep some US banks solvent, after all.

devis1 · 1 year ago

I am on Long Term Disability from Citicorp (with Express Scripts drug plan--who got the exclusive rights for the drug mentioned below), so I have been watching this OandW. Conflicted for personal stake in that I'd be really screwed if they go belly up.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Devis, a story I saw the other day showed nursing homes dumping thousands of units of pills, injecctions, etc. (down the toilet!!!) because they cannot be transferred to other patients, or given to charity. These drugs are mostly paid for with Medicare and Medicaid, and govt rules demand that any unused drugs be destroyed, to the tune of who knows how much each year, at least in the tens or perhaps hundreds of millions..

One box of 10 injections cost $10K, and was destroyed.

devis1 · 1 year ago

Oh and the Saudis have had a large interest in Citi for quite some time. Way before the current crisis.

devis1 · 1 year ago

Maybe that's why the water is so polluted with prescription drugs....

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

devis, I'm covered by Medicare, and it's probably criminal how much money is wasted by the pharms in promoting their drugs. And what your copay is depends on the drug. Tamiflu, in which Cheney has an interest, was covered less than half for my neighbor, also on Medicare. She wound up paying more herself for that drug which was only a precaution because, although she didn't have the flu, but a compromised immune system from lupus and her husband did have the flu, her doctor prescribed it to protect her. Ironically, like Cheney, she also has a pacemaker as well (first installed when she was 21 and finally changed out this year after 10 years).

She's also had a horrible time finding doctors here who can treat her properly (one recently described too much of one drug which mimicked kidney failure), and has to travel 100 miles to a specialist.

She's 31 and looks normal otherwise, but she knows her chances for staying alive are looking grim. In the land of plenty; in a country that touts it's #1 in everything...

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

Another friend who went to the dentist for an abscessed tooth was prescribed Lortab; she doesn't really need it right now, but is filling it for her husband, who also has no insurance; he suffers from kidney stones and only goes to the ER when the pain is unstoppable.

Lots of people are also using their own insurance or Medicaid, etc. to obtain Rxs for family and friends who wouldn't otherwise get drugs. I don't mean black market stuff, but antibiotics, blood pressure medicine, etc. Self prescribing and self medicating because most don't have the doctor's fee to begin with. It's a dangerous practice, but a widespread one among people with no means to do otherwise.

devis1 · 1 year ago

Actually Medicare is my primary too (been out on LTD since '91) but I didn't have to go for Part D because of the Citi coverage. I am very grateful for what I have--Citi has been incredible really.

Rumsfeld, when he was in the private sector was high up there with one of the pharma's too. Military industrial complex, oil companies and big pharma...

I hope universal health care can bring some hope for your neighbor.

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

devis, I wish you the best--you've surely paid for it, in one way or another.

devis1 · 1 year ago

I really haven't looked at the specifics on Hillary or Barack's plans, but I'm guessing it doesn't include dental. Do you know? I'm a little nervous about the whole thing because I've got it pretty good right now and am afraid the employer plans are going to all go away. Selfish, I know!

devis1 · 1 year ago

Yeah, I'm paying for it right now--insomnia, havn't been to bed yet and it's 5:30 in the morning. Side effect of my covered drugs!

devis1 · 1 year ago

Oh and thanks, Older and Wiser :)

Sage24 · 1 year ago

I am so glad that S. Africa refused to do Mugabe's dirty work. It is quite bold of China to send these weapons to this ruthless dictator, knowing how he uses them against his own people.
I cannot understand why the US is spineless about this. If this was Iran sending
Mugabe tons of weapons, they might have bombed Tehran by now.

The US and it's double standards, is why so many people are mad with us.

jr · 1 year ago

"leave Robert alone!"-Mbeki

Mum48 · 1 year ago

Amazing! Absolutely amazing! Imagine what kind of world we could make if similar actions were taken worldwide. We could disarm the world's arm merchants. And The Guardian article states that the Chinese shipped machetes to Rwanda before the genocide there. There are more than enough reasons to boycott the Olympics in Beijing.