“WE must have WAR on WAR so that we can have peace on peace”
Nobel Prize winning, leader of the Free World, President of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, and head of UN Security Council, Barrack Insane I’ll O Bomb-ya all, Sept. 24th, 2014
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Here is just a small fraction of the tacit acknowledgement of absolute power that is absolutely corrupted to its rotten core.
Jack Abramoff, former Super Lobbyist on Capitol Hill on Legalized Corruption in all branches of Congress
http://www.personalgrowthcourses.net/video/g/abramoff_young_turks_legal_corruption
Rigged USA Elections Exposed
(the only thing that has changed since 2000 is that electronic voting machine company Diebold changed their name and fixed the problem with discovering their back door access’ to rig the vote.)
“Mr. Curtis,” said the questioner at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee proceedings, “are there programs that can be used to secretly fix elections?”
And so begins the story of Clint Curtis – computer programmer, Floridian, Republican – who was asked by the company he worked for to create a vote-rigging software prototype that he assumed would be used to try and “catch” would-be fraudsters. It was a standard “opposition research” assignment – or so he was told. The truth, of course, was something completely different and weaves into a tangled web the 2000 Presidential Election debacle, a now-sitting U.S. Congressman, and the number one threat to our national security – electronic voting.
Government Officials Voting Fraudulently: Lawmakers Breaking the Law – Texas Legislature
What would happen to you if police caught you on video fraudulently voting? Would cops quickly arrest you and throw you in jail, only to have the District Attorney immediately charge you with fraud?
What would happen to elected government officials if they were caught doing the same? Absolutely nothing?
In fact, our representatives in the U.S. government have become so brazen, that they commit fraud in plain view, on a daily basis, while at the same time trying to pass laws that would further restrict and criminalize the public for doing the same.
This is a clear sign of excessive government, when the government is so large and overwhelmingly powerful that it’s agents can abuse the civilian population without any sense of guilt, remorse, or fear – when government officials deny charges of illegal conduct made against themselves as a matter of semantics, and when agents of the government expect and get immunity from any of their actions; actions that would be criminally prosecuted upon any other citizens.
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FEDGATE: Whistleblower’s Secret Tapes Threaten to Expose Federal Reserve…but nothing will happen because its just BAU (business as ususal)
At a March 2012 meeting, a group of examiners at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York agreed that Goldman Sachs had inadequate procedures to guard against conflicts of interest — guidelines aimed at stopping firms from putting their pursuit of profit ahead of their clients’ best interests.
The examiners voted to downgrade a confidential rating assigned by the New York Fed that could have spurred costly enforcement actions and other regulatory penalties. It is not known whether the vote in fact led to a rating change. The former examiner who pushed for a downgrade, Carmen M. Segarra, now contends in a lawsuit filed on Thursday that just weeks after the vote, her superiors asked her to change her findings on Goldman and fired her after she refused.”
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G.O.P. Error Reveals Donors and the Price of Access
Republicans and Democrats, and groups sympathetic to each, spend millions on sophisticated technology to gain an advantage. But sometimes, a simple coding mistake can lay bare documents and data that were supposed to be concealed from the prying eyes of the public. Such an error by the Republican Governors Association recently resulted in the disclosure of exactly the kind of information that political committees given tax-exempt status usually keep secret, namely their corporate donors and the size of their checks. The documents, many of which the Republican officials have since removed from their website, showed that many of America’s most prominent companies, from Aetna to Walmart, had poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of Republican governors since 2008. “This is a classic example of how corporations are trying to use secret money, hidden from the American people, to buy influence, and how the governors association is selling it,” said Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21. The trove of documents, discovered by watchdogs at the Democrat-aligned Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, sheds light on the secretive world of 501(c)(4) political groups, just as the battle over their future intensifies. The tax-exempt Republican Governors Public Policy Committee is not required to disclose anything, even as donors hit the links, rub shoulders and trade policy talk with governors and their top staff members. In a tit for tat, the Republican association unearthed documents from the Democratic Governors Association that also name corporate donors and the benefits
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Doctors’ Magical Thinking About Conflicts of Interest
When the Food and Drug Administration creates an advisory committee to help it decide whether to approve drugs, it often asks academic physicians to serve on the committee as external experts. This is supposed to help the committee render judgments that are unbiased and scientific. A study published today brings that assumption into question. [It] reviewed the voting behavior and financial interests of almost 1,400 F.D.A. advisory committee members.
On average, 13 percent of participants on each committee had some reported financial interest in a drug company whose product was up for a review. About half of all meetings had at least one participant with such a financial interest. One quarter included an ownership interest. Over all, committee members had a 52 percent chance of voting in favor of a sponsor of a drug. But members who had financial interests [had an approval] probability of 63 percent. If members served on advisory boards for only the company whose product was up for review, then the chance they would vote in favor of it shot up to 84 percent. Data show[s] that top Medicare prescribers of the expensive drug Acthar had financial ties to its maker.
Financial relationships between doctors and industry are not uncommon. In 2007, research showed that 94 percent of physicians in the United States had such relationships. More than 80 percent of doctors had accepted gifts, and 28 percent had received payments for consulting or research. [One study] followed doctors who went to two all-expenses-paid symposia on new drugs. Their prescriptions for those drugs nearly tripled after the meetings. Conflicts of interest are real, and they are still influencing decisions from the level of the patient all the way up to national health policy.
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None of the people that got screwed get anything back, it just goes to the corrupt government in a cycle of back scratching and accounting. No one goes to jail. No one gets in trouble. It’s all just good, sound business.
Bank of America agrees to $17bn fine over mortgage fraud
JPMorgan Chase Will Pay $13 Billion In Record Settlement
Citibank to Record $7B Fine in Mortgage Settlement Agreement
Royal Bank Faces Massive Fine
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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Fined $488.8 Million for ‘Massive Bribery Network’ in China
In other notable Big Pharma news, GlaxoSmithKline is still reeling from a $490 million fine it was slapped with by a Chinese court last week after it was found guilty of bribery. The ruling included a suspended three-year jail sentence for Mark Reilly, the company’s ex-chief of operations in the country, who is now waiting to be deported. The case involves a systemic culture of corruption in the firm’s Chinese branch that included bribes and payola for Chinese doctors to help sell their products. The company conducted its own internal investigation last year and made adjustments to its bonus structure to try to rein the problem in, but the court became the final arbiter in the scandal. As a result, GSK has issues a formal apology: “GSK Plc sincerely apologizes to the Chinese patients, doctors and hospitals, and to the Chinese government and the Chinese people…and [it] must work hard to regain the trust of the Chinese people.” The market’s reaction? “China clarity makes Glaxo a buy!” Especially odd advice considering the company is still facing a criminal probe into fraud by UK investigators fresh off the largest fraud settlement in US history ($3 billion) just two years ago for failing to report safety data on some of its most popular products.
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The following is a list of the 20 largest settlements reached between the United States Department of Justice and pharmaceutical companies from 1991 to 2012, ordered by the size of the total settlement. The settlement amount includes both the civil (False Claims Act) settlement and criminal fine. Glaxo’s $3 billion settlement included the largest civil, False Claims Act settlement on record,[1] and Pfizer’s $2.3 billion settlement including a record-breaking $1.3 billion criminal fine.[2] Legal claims against the pharmaceutical industry have varied widely over the past two decades, including Medicare and Medicaid fraud, off-label promotion, and inadequate manufacturing practices.[3][4] With respect to off-label promotion, specifically, a federal court recognized off-label promotion as a violation of the False Claims Act for the first time in Franklin v. Parke-Davis, leading to a $430 million settlement.[5]
| Company | Settlement | Violation(s) | Year | Product(s) | Laws allegedly violated (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GlaxoSmithKline[1] | $3 billion ($1B crimimal, $2B civil) | Criminal: Off-label promotion, failure to disclose safety data. Civil: paying kickbacks to physicians, making false and misleading statements concerning the safety of Avandia, reporting false best prices and underpaying rebates owed under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program |
2012 | Avandia, Wellbutrin, Paxil, Advair, Lamictal, Zofran, Imitrex, Lotronex, Flovent, Valtrex; |
False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Pfizer[2] | $2.3 billion | Off-label promotion/kickbacks | 2009 | Bextra/Geodon/ Zyvox/Lyrica |
False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Abbott Laboratories[6] | $1.5 billion | Off-label promotion | 2012 | Depakote | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Eli Lilly[7] | $1.4 billion | Off-label promotion | 2009 | Zyprexa | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| TAP Pharmaceutical Products[8] | $875 million | Medicare fraud/kickbacks | 2001 | Lupron | False Claims Act/ Prescription Drug Marketing Act |
| Amgen[9] | $762 million | Off-label promotion/kickbacks | 2012 | Aranesp | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| GlaxoSmithKline[10] | $750 million | Poor manufacturing practices | 2010 | Kytril/Bactroban/ Paxil CR/Avandamet |
False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Serono[11] | $704 million | Off-label promotion/ kickbacks/monopoly practices |
2005 | Serostim | False Claims Act |
| Merck[12] | $650 million | Medicare fraud/kickbacks | 2008 | Zocor/Vioxx/Pepsid | False Claims Act/ Medicaid Rebate Statute |
| Purdue Pharma[13] | $601 million | Off-label promotion | 2007 | Oxycontin | False Claims Act |
| Allergan[14] | $600 million | Off-label promotion | 2010 | Botox | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| AstraZeneca[15] | $520 million | Off-label promotion/kickbacks | 2010 | Seroquel | False Claims Act |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb[16] | $515 million | Off-label promotion/ kickbacks/Medicare fraud |
2007 | Abilify/Serzone | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Schering-Plough[17] | $500 million | Poor manufacturing practices | 2002 | Claritin | FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practices |
| Schering-Plough[18] | $435 million | Off-label promotion/ kickbacks/Medicare fraud |
2006 | Temodar/ Intron A/K-Dur/ Claritin RediTabs |
False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Pfizer[19] | $430 million | Off-label promotion | 2004 | Neurontin | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Cephalon[20] | $425 million | Off-label promotion[21] | 2008 | Actiq/Gabitril/Provigil | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| Novartis[22] | $423 million | Off-label promotion/kickbacks | 2010 | Trileptal | False Claims Act/FDCA |
| AstraZeneca[23] | $355 million | Medicare fraud | 2003 | Zoladex | Prescription Drug Marketing Act |
| Schering-Plough[24] | $345 million | Medicare fraud/kickbacks | 2004 | Claritin | False Claims Act/ Anti-Kickback Statute |
Worst President Ever for the people, Best President ever for the 1%.
national debt since 2008 under Obama…$6 Trillion to $14 Trillion!
Syria Becomes the 7th Predominantly Muslim Country Bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate
September 23, 2014, The Intercept With Glenn Greenwald
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/23/nobel-peace-prize-fact-day-syria-7th-country-bombed-obama
The U.S. today began bombing targets inside Syria, in concert with its lovely and inspiring group of five allied regimes: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan. That means that Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama—after Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq. The utter lack of interest in what possible legal authority Obama has to bomb Syria is telling indeed: Empires bomb who they want, when they want, for whatever reason (indeed, recall that Obama bombed Libya even after Congress explicitly voted against authorization to use force). It was just over a year ago that Obama officials were insisting that bombing and attacking Assad was a moral and strategic imperative. Instead, Obama is now bombing Assad’s enemies while politely informing his regime of its targets in advance. It seems irrelevant on whom the U.S. wages war; what matters is that it be at war, always and forever. Six weeks of bombing hasn’t budged ISIS in Iraq, but it has caused ISIS recruitment to soar. That’s all predictable: the U.S. has known for years that what fuels and strengthens anti-American sentiment is exactly what they keep doing: aggression in that region. They do all of this not despite triggering those outcomes, but because of it. Continuously creating and strengthening enemies is a feature, not a bug. It is what justifies the ongoing greasing of the profitable and power-vesting machine of Endless War. As the disastrous Libya “intervention” should conclusively and permanently demonstrate, the U.S. does not bomb countries for humanitarian objectives. Humanitarianism is the pretense, not the purpose.
Note: Read this powerful essay showing how the US has fed Islamic extremism in order to fill the pockets of those who run the war machine. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war news articles from reliable major media sources.
Who profits from our new war? Inside NSA and private contractors’ secret plans
September 24, 2014, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/24/heres_who_profits_from_our_new_war_inside_nsa_and_an_army…
A massive, $7.2 billion Army intelligence contract signed just 10 days ago underscores the central role to be played by the National Security Agency and its army of private contractors in the unfolding air war being carried out by the United States and its Gulf States allies against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. INSCOM’s “global intelligence support” contract will place the contractors at the center of this fight. Under its terms, 21 companies, led by Booz Allen Hamilton, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, will compete over the next five years to provide “fully integrated intelligence, security and information operations” in Afghanistan and “future contingency operations” around the world. INSCOM announced the global intelligence contract two days after President Obama, in a speech to the nation, essentially declared war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria and outlined a campaign of airstrikes and combat actions to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the terrorist group. The top contractors on the INSCOM contract are already involved in the war. Lockheed Martin, for example, makes the Hellfire missiles that are used extensively in U.S. drone strikes. Northrop Grumman makes the Global Hawk surveillance drone. Both companies have large intelligence units. 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget is spent on private contractors. This spending [is] estimated at around $70 billion a year. [There is a] revolving door between INSCOM and its contractors. The system is corrupted by the close relationships between the companies and their agencies, said [Tom] Drake, who as a whistle-blower was nearly sent to prison for exposing the waste, fraud and abuse in a contracted program at the NSA that ended up losing over $7 billion.
Note: Read a powerful essay written by a top US general showing how he was fooled into supporting wars that were generated by the powerful global elite who want never-ending war in order to keep their profits flowing.
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U.S. Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms
September 21, 2014, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/us-ramping-up-major-renewal-in-nuclear-arms.html
A sprawling new plant [near Kansas City] in a former soybean field makes the mechanical guts of America’s atomic warheads. Bigger than the Pentagon, full of futuristic gear and thousands of workers, the plant, dedicated last month, modernizes the aging weapons that the United States can fire from missiles, bombers and submarines. It is part of a nationwide wave of atomic revitalization that includes plans for a new generation of weapon carriers. A recent federal study put the collective price tag, over the next three decades, at up to a trillion dollars. This expansion comes under a president who campaigned for “a nuclear-free world” and made disarmament a main goal of American defense policy. Supporters of arms control, as well as some of President Obama’s closest advisers, say their hopes for the president’s vision have turned to baffled disappointment as the modernization of nuclear capabilities has become an end unto itself. “A lot of it is hard to explain,” said Sam Nunn, the former senator whose writings on nuclear disarmament deeply influenced Mr. Obama.
Note: Consider the possibility the Obama, shortly after becoming president, may have received a death threat to his children if he didn’t comply with the desires of powerful, greedy forces which want everlasting war on our planet. The trillion-dollar war industry has no qualms threatening anyone who gets in the way of their profits. For more on this, see concise summaries of deeply revealing war news articles from reliable major media sources and read what a top US general had to say about how he was manipulated.
TABU; Towards A Better Understanding 