However, the logic of why drugs are so expensive in the USA is easy to follow from this post. Just write off $15M/year as the "research costs" that big pharma uses to justify overpriced meds. That, and the $279.5M pharma spent in 2017 lobbying to "access" our lawmakers.
It's a little early, but the rooskies might be prepping their attack vectors for when the electoral season gets into full swing. If so, one would expect other major carriers to experience mysterious problems as politics heats up.
You have my sympathy. Drinking water quality from various utilities can vary immensely. I have tasted sparkling 'springwater' pure product from one facility and seen brown ice cubes from water by another facility. Much depends on whether the utility is focused on product quality and customer service or instead focused on local politics and money. [ref the 'beancounter' posts a couple of items above this one] Your example may be overchlorinated (bleach taste) to disinfect and pass bacteriological testing with water that is inadequately treated. The lime taste often results from efforts to correct the pH of the water after flocculation and filtering. This is more common if poor quality raw water feeds the treatment plant, requiring heavier chemical dosing.
Good point about the bean counters. In too many scenarios it's the money people who make the final decisions but not knowledgeable experts in the relevant field. And you just have to love that beady-eyed beancounter look they have while determining others' fates. Or in this particular case, Flint's fate.
"Why does the child molestation by members of a church make the news?"..."But because it's a follower of Christ therefore it's news." It's newsworthy because of the hypocrisy by holier-than-thou power seekers hiding behind Christ's message of love. Most other religions have the same predatory problem. They don't care about saving souls as much as dictating the behavior of the flock for their own benefit.
"...The Secure Elections Act would give states grants specifically earmarked for replacing these systems with more secure systems that use voter-verified paper ballots..." So, states using secure systems have to fund grants bailing out states that willfully (after warnings) purchased insecure voting machines? Alternative solution: Don't accept their election results until they purchase and install secure systems on their own. The votes of their reps in Congress don't count unless secure standards are met.
Sounds a lot like Sinclair Networks. They give their local stations 'Must Run' segments that promote their biased opinions. Next step will be to close the local broadcast studios and supply all content from their headquarters instead. FCC chairman Ajit Pai is trying to change regs to allow that dumping of local studios and content. His political views echo those of Trump, Fox, and Sinclair.
Enjoy your Local News coverage while it lasts. Broadcasts originating in smaller communities are an endangered species that Ajit Pai (FCC Chairman) is trying to exterminate. Current rules require a local originating studio for those stations. Pai's proposal would allow syndicates (like Sinclair) that own local stations to eliminate that local originating studio. They would convert your 'local station' into a repeater of the network's material. Then, your 'local' news might originate 3 time zones away. Politically motivated owners already order 'Must Run' segments that fit their agenda but not our community.
We are the people, and the sheep to be sheared. Corporations and lobbyists pay politicians big bucks. The pols then invite the CEOs and lobbyists to write the rules and laws that govern their industry. And we sheep keep electing those politicians because of some smokescreen wedge issue. Today the smoke is even murkier with 'alternative facts' and 'truthiness' being accepted as reality. Evidently critical thinking is beyond sheeps' ability. When we sheep vote based on listening to our gut one has to wonder where our heads are.
"...there is a major oversupply of labor" is certainly true in more sectors of the workforce every year. Yet there are jobs that go begging, usually requiring technical expertise and possibly licensing or certification. Think in terms of post highschool or Associate Degree levels of education. Some may continue OJT equivalent to 4 years of college, but without the flooded job market and student loans. Been there, done that, & comfortably retired. My last employer had a hard time finding suitable applicants for open positions.
"Foxconn has no reason to pay a cent in kickbacks..." They do if Wisconsin politicians make that gift wrapped $3 billion contingent on certain palms being greased off camera. Keep your eye on the carrot, er, jobs. Pay no attention to what's going on behind the curtain.
Republican lawmakers may not be quite as sharp as Foxconn's economists but they are sharp enough to find a way to take Foxconn's kickbacks (aka bribes) under the table. And Foxconn's economists know exactly how much it's worth to pay them. Whether or not Wisconsin benefits is just a side issue: part of the smokescreen.
Problem is, Trump would gleefully applaud rescinding Obama's expansion of EO12333 only to replace it with a much more invasive Trump/Pompeo version. And keep in mind Pompeo founded his own private security firm. https://www.theatlantic.com/te...
Actually we Idahoans tell jokes about Montana sheep herders. Seriously, Idaho's competitive status is quite good. You will have to look long and hard to find better onion field labor. And lookit the money we've saved by educating our workforce accordingly. Them education cuts have allowed some handsome tax incentives for our rich folks. After all why should we allow our stoop labor to take all their trade secrets to the San Juaquin valley?
Don't be so hard on Mr. Greasak for being a thin-skinned belligerent egomaniac. He is just trying to help make America great again like the current resident of the White House.
And if by some miracle we develop a low cost energy source that converts toxic waste to usable electricity with zero pollution and 100% efficiency rest assured that most of humanity will immediately turn up the heat or air conditioning and open all the windows to let in fresh air. Homo: yes; sapiens: not.
Bought a inexpensive 2016 version of a turntable for digitizing my collection of hissy, scratchy, 60's & 70's albums. Teeny Bopper daughters wore out our Sears portable record player & half wore out my Rock'n'Roll and Folk albums 5 decades ago. All those LPs on something smaller than a finger. Computers that looked so futuristic on StarTrek (TOS) now look hopelessly quaint. Our imaginations just couldn't outguess Moore's Law.
We is compu-GEEZERS, not compu-geysers. Unless, of course, you are snarkily referring to our propensity to froth at the mouth while eating milk toast while sitting in our wheelchairs.
Why waste time impeaching a lame duck president when they can call it one more Clinton conspiracy and have Hillary called onto their carpet? She and Bernie are much more of a threat to the GOP-RightWingNut future than is Obama.
Historically Idaho IS where the preppers, sagebrush rebels, neonazis, and northwest tea party types form their enclaves. But if you want anything done, just contact someone connected to the sitting Butch Otter governorship. 'Gladiator School' prisons and defrauding Idaho taxpayers? Done! Illegal ISP contracts issued to connected overpriced bidders? Done! Somehow DOE has missed the boat so far. NOT done -- YET. It would just be one more confrontational issue between tea party and traditional corporate Republicans. Idaho's last Republican caucus was an abortion, dead on arrival as each contingent took its half of the fetal corpse home rather than reach accord. It was a less civil precursor of this year's feuds in the U.S. House of Representatives. As one of the reddest of red states, don't worry that Democrats will be allowed to intercede on behalf of average citizens.
Graphics in linked articles show the effluent of Indian wastewater treatment plants. Few public wastewater facilities can, or were designed to, remove antibiotics from our waste. They are designed for household waste, not industrial waste. Most antibiotics and other drugs pass straight through a typical wastewater plant unharmed. In the USA, Industrial PreTreatment is required for businesses that would otherwise discharge toxic or damaging substances to a public treatment plant. Usually the offending business builds, runs, and pays for pretreatment. Unless, of course, the "good ol' boy" system can unload the cost onto local residents. America and India have the same problem; India just has more metric tons of it and far less regulation. FYI: licensed wastewater operator (retired).
Slashdot Mirror
Citation:
Wikipedia, "pharmaceutical lobbying" - do the math.
Open Secrets, same topic for year 2017.
However, the logic of why drugs are so expensive in the USA is easy to follow from this post.
Just write off $15M/year as the "research costs" that big pharma uses to justify overpriced meds.
That, and the $279.5M pharma spent in 2017 lobbying to "access" our lawmakers.
It's a little early, but the rooskies might be prepping their attack vectors for when the electoral season gets into full swing.
If so, one would expect other major carriers to experience mysterious problems as politics heats up.
"To sum it up...intensive weight loss via exercise.
Well no shit."
Are you sure you didn't mean
"...minimal weight loss via intensive exercise.
Oh well, no shit time left in the day."
Adios, you motherflashing software cesspool.
You have my sympathy.
Drinking water quality from various utilities can vary immensely.
I have tasted sparkling 'springwater' pure product from one facility and seen brown ice cubes from water by another facility.
Much depends on whether the utility is focused on product quality and customer service or instead focused on local politics and money. [ref the 'beancounter' posts a couple of items above this one]
Your example may be overchlorinated (bleach taste) to disinfect and pass bacteriological testing with water that is inadequately treated.
The lime taste often results from efforts to correct the pH of the water after flocculation and filtering.
This is more common if poor quality raw water feeds the treatment plant, requiring heavier chemical dosing.
Good point about the bean counters.
In too many scenarios it's the money people who make the final decisions but not knowledgeable experts in the relevant field.
And you just have to love that beady-eyed beancounter look they have while determining others' fates.
Or in this particular case, Flint's fate.
"Why does the child molestation by members of a church make the news?"..."But because it's a follower of Christ therefore it's news."
It's newsworthy because of the hypocrisy by holier-than-thou power seekers hiding behind Christ's message of love.
Most other religions have the same predatory problem.
They don't care about saving souls as much as dictating the behavior of the flock for their own benefit.
"...The Secure Elections Act would give states grants specifically earmarked for replacing these systems with more secure systems that use voter-verified paper ballots..."
So, states using secure systems have to fund grants bailing out states that willfully (after warnings) purchased insecure voting machines?
Alternative solution: Don't accept their election results until they purchase and install secure systems on their own.
The votes of their reps in Congress don't count unless secure standards are met.
Sounds a lot like Sinclair Networks.
They give their local stations 'Must Run' segments that promote their biased opinions.
Next step will be to close the local broadcast studios and supply all content from their headquarters instead.
FCC chairman Ajit Pai is trying to change regs to allow that dumping of local studios and content.
His political views echo those of Trump, Fox, and Sinclair.
Enjoy your Local News coverage while it lasts.
Broadcasts originating in smaller communities are an endangered species that Ajit Pai (FCC Chairman) is trying to exterminate.
Current rules require a local originating studio for those stations.
Pai's proposal would allow syndicates (like Sinclair) that own local stations to eliminate that local originating studio.
They would convert your 'local station' into a repeater of the network's material.
Then, your 'local' news might originate 3 time zones away.
Politically motivated owners already order 'Must Run' segments that fit their agenda but not our community.
We are the people, and the sheep to be sheared.
Corporations and lobbyists pay politicians big bucks.
The pols then invite the CEOs and lobbyists to write the rules and laws that govern their industry.
And we sheep keep electing those politicians because of some smokescreen wedge issue.
Today the smoke is even murkier with 'alternative facts' and 'truthiness' being accepted as reality.
Evidently critical thinking is beyond sheeps' ability.
When we sheep vote based on listening to our gut one has to wonder where our heads are.
"...there is a major oversupply of labor" is certainly true in more sectors of the workforce every year.
Yet there are jobs that go begging, usually requiring technical expertise and possibly licensing or certification.
Think in terms of post highschool or Associate Degree levels of education.
Some may continue OJT equivalent to 4 years of college, but without the flooded job market and student loans.
Been there, done that, & comfortably retired.
My last employer had a hard time finding suitable applicants for open positions.
"Foxconn has no reason to pay a cent in kickbacks..."
They do if Wisconsin politicians make that gift wrapped $3 billion contingent on certain palms being greased off camera.
Keep your eye on the carrot, er, jobs.
Pay no attention to what's going on behind the curtain.
Republican lawmakers may not be quite as sharp as Foxconn's economists but they are sharp enough to find a way to take Foxconn's kickbacks (aka bribes) under the table.
And Foxconn's economists know exactly how much it's worth to pay them.
Whether or not Wisconsin benefits is just a side issue: part of the smokescreen.
How soon will the retirement robots be forcing us geezers out of retirement?
Problem is, Trump would gleefully applaud rescinding Obama's expansion of EO12333 only to replace it with a much more invasive Trump/Pompeo version.
And keep in mind Pompeo founded his own private security firm.
https://www.theatlantic.com/te...
Actually we Idahoans tell jokes about Montana sheep herders.
Seriously, Idaho's competitive status is quite good.
You will have to look long and hard to find better onion field labor.
And lookit the money we've saved by educating our workforce accordingly.
Them education cuts have allowed some handsome tax incentives for our rich folks.
After all why should we allow our stoop labor to take all their trade secrets to the San Juaquin valley?
Don't be so hard on Mr. Greasak for being a thin-skinned belligerent egomaniac.
He is just trying to help make America great again like the current resident of the White House.
And if by some miracle we develop a low cost energy source that converts toxic waste to usable electricity with zero pollution and 100% efficiency rest assured that most of humanity will immediately turn up the heat or air conditioning and open all the windows to let in fresh air.
Homo: yes; sapiens: not.
Bought a inexpensive 2016 version of a turntable for digitizing my collection of hissy, scratchy, 60's & 70's albums. Teeny Bopper daughters wore out our Sears portable record player & half wore out my Rock'n'Roll and Folk albums 5 decades ago. All those LPs on something smaller than a finger. Computers that looked so futuristic on StarTrek (TOS) now look hopelessly quaint. Our imaginations just couldn't outguess Moore's Law.
We is compu-GEEZERS, not compu-geysers.
Unless, of course, you are snarkily referring to our propensity to froth at the mouth while eating milk toast while sitting in our wheelchairs.
Why waste time impeaching a lame duck president when they can call it one more Clinton conspiracy and have Hillary called onto their carpet?
She and Bernie are much more of a threat to the GOP-RightWingNut future than is Obama.
Historically Idaho IS where the preppers, sagebrush rebels, neonazis, and northwest tea party types form their enclaves.
But if you want anything done, just contact someone connected to the sitting Butch Otter governorship.
'Gladiator School' prisons and defrauding Idaho taxpayers? Done!
Illegal ISP contracts issued to connected overpriced bidders? Done!
Somehow DOE has missed the boat so far. NOT done -- YET.
It would just be one more confrontational issue between tea party and traditional corporate Republicans.
Idaho's last Republican caucus was an abortion, dead on arrival as each contingent took its half of the fetal corpse home rather than reach accord.
It was a less civil precursor of this year's feuds in the U.S. House of Representatives.
As one of the reddest of red states, don't worry that Democrats will be allowed to intercede on behalf of average citizens.
Graphics in linked articles show the effluent of Indian wastewater treatment plants. Few public wastewater facilities can, or were designed to, remove antibiotics from our waste. They are designed for household waste, not industrial waste. Most antibiotics and other drugs pass straight through a typical wastewater plant unharmed. In the USA, Industrial PreTreatment is required for businesses that would otherwise discharge toxic or damaging substances to a public treatment plant. Usually the offending business builds, runs, and pays for pretreatment. Unless, of course, the "good ol' boy" system can unload the cost onto local residents.
America and India have the same problem; India just has more metric tons of it and far less regulation.
FYI: licensed wastewater operator (retired).