Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1115
January 5, 2018
Faircoin: the Eco-Solidarity money that could Sweep the World
An equitable, collectively managed cryptocurrency that can’t be used for speculation like bitcoin.
1:1 FairCoop rising
The Post-capitalist movement known as FairCoop steadily grows stronger, worldwide, in an integrated way. Independently from the decisions of centralized institutions, statements of hierarchical organizations, fluctuations of market speculation and mainstream skepticism … we are empowering ourselves in an exponential and radiant way.
CONSULT FAIRCOIN DIRECTORY: HERE
Three years of intense cooperative activism have made economic and social emancipation tools a reality, to the point where anyone with Internet access can become autonomous in their local environment, regardless of the culture, political situation, economic pressures or legal impositions, and become part of the new global fair economy.
Entender Faircoin, la economía real del común de las personas.
For three years with FairCoop, a group of cooperative activists have spent their energy to build an innovative set of tools and solutions to help people to have an actual, practical alternative choice: for instance, they are creating a…
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When Lawsuits Aren’t Enough: Big Pharma and the Opioid Epidemic
Guest Post by Morgan Statt
Hardly a day goes by without hearing news of America’s opioid epidemic. 2016 was the worst year for opioid deaths, with overdoses claiming over 63,000 lives. With jarring statistics like this one, government officials have started to assign blame for opioid use reaching crisis levels.
Their target? Drug companies
Almost every single state in the U.S. has filed lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors for their involvement and essential creation of the opioid epidemic. Sadly the cost penalties, which are minuscule in the face of humongous profits, are unlikely to trigger genuine reform.
Big Pharma is Big Business.
We can assign blame to the drug companies for their involvement in the crisis, and lawsuits are an effective way to do that. However if we are genuine about stemming the current opioid crisis, we must commit to making fundamental changes in the US health care system.
Two areas in vital need of reform are clinical trial funding and massive Big Pharma lobbying.
Drug companies are allowed to fund clinical trials
Each year, the National Institute of Health sets aside a portion of its budget to fund clinical trials that are needed before a drug can hit the market. In recent years, however, a Johns Hopkins study revealed that this funding has drastically fallen and is now largely supported by pharmaceutical companies. With financial interest in the outcomes of certain clinical trials, industry funding presents the opportunity for drug companies to favor positive results over negative outcomes that may affect patient safety.
Look no further than the blood thinner Pradaxa’s clinical trial RE-LY to serve as an example. Critics of this industry-funded trial pointed out that it generalized the medication’s population and failed to be a double-blind study, presenting a prime possibility for bias and misreporting.
Hasty FDA approval followed these skewed trial results, and Pradaxa was put on the market in 2010 without an antidote to reduce its blood thinning effects. For five years, an antidote failed to be introduced, and severe bleeding incidents and over 1,000 deaths occurred as a result of taking the medication. Since then, a wave of lawsuits have been filed against manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim for its hand in the bleeding incidents. Finally in 2014, over 4,000 claims were satisfied with a $650 million settlement.
The #1 Lobbying Industry is Pharmaceutical/Health
Lobbying is a legal activity that is meant to help those who don’t have direct access to members of Congress get their voices heard. Although this practice is theoretically good-hearted, the reality is that money has the power to influence decisions that negatively impact the American public. In the first quarter of 2017 alone, the pharmaceutical industry spent $78 million in its lobbying efforts, an increase of $10 million since 2016.
This phenomenal dollar spend has enabled Big Pharma to sway policy decisions in favor of big business rather than public safety. In regards to the opioid crisis, The Pain Care Forum, funded by the pharmaceutical industry, spent over $740 million to stop legislation that would have put limits on opioid prescribing habits.
Morgan Statt is a Safety Investigator at ConsumerSafety.org
photo credit: DES Daughter Opioid Epidemic via photopin (license)
January 4, 2018
Dentists Explain How Dangerous Mercury Fillings (Amalgams) Are & What They Can Do To Your Body
In 2013, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) formalized a global convention to reduce mercury usage, which includes initiatives to phase down the use of dental mercury. The UNEP mercury convention will come into force on August 16, 2017, and as part of this effort, the European Union is taking action on dental mercury. A new EU mercury regulation plans to prohibit the use of amalgam for vulnerable populations (pregnant or breastfeeding women, children under 15 years old) and provide for discussion about the feasibility of ending dental amalgam use in the European Union by 2030.
By Amanda Just and John Kall, DMD of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), re-printed by us with permission from The World Mercury Project.
1. All silver-colored dental fillings, also called amalgams, contain approximately 50% mercury, and dental mercury is still being used in the USA.
In 2013, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) formalized a global convention to reduce mercury usage, which includes initiatives to phase down the use of dental mercury. The UNEP mercury convention will come into force on August 16, 2017, and as part of this effort, the European Union is taking action on dental mercury. A new EU mercury regulation plans to prohibit the use of amalgam for vulnerable populations (pregnant or breastfeeding women, children under 15 years old) and provide for discussion about the feasibility of ending dental amalgam use in the European Union by 2030.
Prior…
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YALE UNIVERSITY STUDY FINDS LINK BETWEEN VACCINES & MULTIPLE BRAIN DISORDERS
New study reveals young people vaccinated in the previous three to 12 months were much more likely to be diagnosed with certain neuropsychiatric disorders than their non-vaccinated counterparts.
It’s become a common question to ask if someone is anti- or pro-vaccination. With heavy arguments on either side and truths and lies at every turn, the controversy surrounding the topic seems only to heighten with each passing year. So when researchers find valuable information that is for or against vaccinations, it’s worth reading up.
Over the last 50 years, we’ve seen a devastating rise in brain disorders like Autism, ADHD, and major depressive disorders — a phenomenon that, understandably, has people searching for answers, particularly those directly affected. In this regard, an overwhelming amount of parents have reported that their children went from being seemingly healthy to suddenly suffering from disorders like Autism or ADHD as a result of vaccinations.
Now a team of researchers from the Yale School of Medicine and Penn State College of Medicine have lent further weight to many of these parents’ words. The study, which analyzed five years’ worth of private…
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Grass Roots Democracy in Vermont: The Birth of Burlington’s Neighborhood Assemblies
How grassroots Neighborhood Planning Assemblies revived democracy and popular participation in Vermont. Mayor Bernie Sanders’ role.
By Greg Guma
Global Research, January 03, 2018
Featured image: Graphic: March 1981 City Council Campaign flyer
Burlington’s Neighborhood Planning Assemblies are back in the local spotlight, and likely to be a contentious issue in the 2018 race for mayor of Vermont’s largest city this March.
Last Fall, an “assembly of the assemblies” demanded a formal role in deciding the future of Memorial Auditorium, a major local venue for 90 years. Since then, Infinite Culcleasure, one of two Independents challenging Mayor Miro Weinberger, has announced that “more public investment should be made to strengthen existing neighborhood assemblies.” And Progressive-backed Independent Carina Driscollsays,
“We need to empower our Neighborhood Planning Assemblies so that they may again be actively involved with public engagement, city planning and prioritizing city resources.”
NPAs, as they have become known over the years, officially became part of Burlington city government in the summer of 1983. The…
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January 3, 2018
Kim Jong-un Opens Contact Between Two Koreas
© Sputnik/ Ilya Pitalev
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the reopening of a contact channel between Pyongyang and Seoul to discuss issues related to the upcoming Olympic games in Pyeongchang, Ri Son Gwon, the head of North Korea’s agency handling inter-Korean affairs, said as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
“I was instructed to open the Panmunjom [the shared border village] contact channel between North and South at 15:00 [3:30 p.m. in Seoul, 6:30 GMT] in order to settle issues related to hosting the PyeongChang Olympic Games, including sending [North Korea’s] delegation to the Games,” Ri said.
The officials added that Pyongyang would closely work with Seoul on practical issues related to sending the country’s delegation to the upcoming sports event, based upon the leadership’s stance, and expressed the hope that the Olympics would be successful.
“We sincerely wish once again that the PyeongChang Olympic Games will be held successfully,” Ri said.
Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea’s presidential office welcomed the announcement.
“I believe it signals a move toward an environment where communication will be possible at all times,” Yoon Young-chan, the chief presidential spokesman, told reporters, as quoted by the news agency.
Pyongyang’s statement came a day after Seoul proposed high-level discussions with the DPRK following Kim’s New Year’s address in which he had stressed he was willing to launch a dialogue with South Korea.
Meanwhile, US Envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned in a statement on Tuesday that Washington would not recognize any talks between the two Koreas unless the nuclear issue is resolved and all of their nuclear weapons banned. . .
via Kim Jong-un Opens Contact Channel Between Two Koreas
Boobs on Credit
This article raises an excellent question – what happens when a woman defaults on debt repayments for her breast enhancement?
From BreastImplantFailure.net
By Jim Quinn
Source: The Burning Platform
Do you ever hear something so startlingly mind numbingly ridiculous you realize it must be a sign things have gotten so fucked up something has got to give? As I was driving to work yesterday morning on the Schuylkill Expressway a commercial comes on the radio from a plastic surgeon advertising for anyone looking for a better set of boobs. I had never heard a plastic surgeon commercial before, so I thought that was unusual. But, that wasn’t the best part. This plastic surgeon was offering no money down 18 month interest free financing on your new boobs.
I wonder if they are moving boobs with subprime debt the same way the auto companies have used subprime debt to move cars. Of course, when a deadbeat defaults on an auto loan the car is easily repossessed. What happens when a bimbo…
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Pill Pushers in Suits: The Addition Potential of Psychotropic Medication
Overpill: The Darker Side of America’s Mental Health
RT (2017)
Film Review
Overpill is a documentary based on the investigation of a Russian-born accountant into the massive overprescription of psychotropic drugs (medications for depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and ADHD) in the US. He became aware of the issue while working for Health Care Communications, a company that markets prescription drugs to Americans for ordinary problems of living. He undertook this investigation after becoming romantically involved with a woman who was addicted to antidepressants and antispsychotics while, despite experiencing horrendous side effects.
The film features extended interviews with former patients who got their lives back after the excruciating ordeal of weaning themselves off medication, with others still struggling with side effects while weaning themselves off, with a malpractice attorney who represents patients experiencing permanent and painful psychotropic complications and Dr Peter Breggin, a controversial American psychiatrist and outspoken critic of the overuse of psychotropic medication.
Both men are alarmed by the deliberate effort by pharmaceutical companies to conceal the addictive potential of antidepressants and antipsychotics, as well as studies showing these drugs can permanently alter the submicroscopic architecture of the brain. This is of special concern with the growing number of psychotropics prescribed in children with developing brains. There are virtually no studies of the long term effect of these drugs in either adults or children.
While the film acknowledges that psychotropic medication can be literally life-saving in some patients with severe mental illness, it rightly points out there are far too many cases in which they’re being inappropriately prescribed.
As a class psychotropic drugs (which are heavily marketed to consumers), are the third most profitable for the pharmaceutical industry.
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January 2, 2018
Facebook Drops “Fake News” Red Flags After Users Appear Not to Have Trusted Them
It seems Facebook’s fake news “red flags” increased likelihood that users would share them. Is anyone surprised?
New America
Just one year after introducing its “fake news” red flags, Facebook has discontinued the tool after having to face the fact that it just didn’t work. In fact, many users were sharing articles tagged by the social media giant as a result of their being tagged. Facebook, it appears, is does not have the credibility it seems to have thought it had.
The “Disputed” article flagging feature — introduced in December 2016 — was designed to stop the spread of articles the leadership of Facebook considers as misinformation. Of course, Facebook — with its record for manipulating users’ newsfeeds, censoring posts expressing views differing from those of its leadership, and violating users’ privacy — is not, perhaps, the best judge of what is and is not “fake news.” It is certainly not the sole arbiter of truth.
In announcing its decision to ditch the “fake news” red flags…
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US Empire Is Running The Same Script With Iran That It Ran With Libya, Syria
Deja vu all over again.
By Caitlin Johnstone
January 01, 2018 “Information Clearing House” – Two weeks ago a memo was leaked from inside the Trump administration showing how Secretary of State and DC neophyte Rex Tillerson was coached on how the US empire uses human rights as a pretense on which to attack and undermine noncompliant governments. Politico reports:
The May 17 memo reads like a crash course for a businessman-turned-diplomat, and its conclusion offers a starkly realist vision: that the U.S. should use human rights as a club against its adversaries, like Iran, China and North Korea, while giving a pass to repressive allies like the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.“Allies should be treated differently — and better — than adversaries. Otherwise, we end up with more adversaries, and fewer allies,” argued the memo, written by Tillerson’s influential policy aide, Brian Hook.
With what would be perfect comedic timing if it weren’t so frightening…
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