Maybe Sesame Street could help? Oh, wait. Donald Trump has been briefed on national security issues just 14 times since he took office. The normal number by now should be around 60 briefings. It shouldn’t even have to be said but when presidents are up to date on world events, bad things can happen. Months before the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush, our second stupidest president, dismissed a PDB on Bin Laden months by telling his advisor, “All right. You’ve covered your ass.” To counter Trump’s boredom with these critical issues, National Security Advisor Tulsi Gabbard has come up with a unique idea. She wants to produce the PBD to resemble a Fox News segment. Sesame Street would be an even better way to keep the babyman’s attention. Too bad he canceled PBS.
Elon’s Ketamine bladder. The New York Times and other sources have reported that during his time as co-president of the United States, Elon Musk’s Ketamine abuse was so excessive that it damaged his bladder. This has led to speculation that as a result the world’s richest man often peed in his pants. Excessive recreational use of the anesthetic drug causes Ketamine Bladder Syndrome. The number one symptom of KBS is not excessive urination. According to urologists, the symptoms are:
- Pain on passing urine
- Blood in urine
- Incontinence (having accidents)
- Needing to go to the toilet more frequently
- Feeling a sense of urgency to pass urine (even when it hasn’t been long since you last went)
- Needing to get up in the night to pass urine
- Pain in the lower abdomen and pelvis area
Pharmacy benefit managers. Writing in Salon.com, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a physician, suggests that Democrats should dismantle a ‘legal’ drug cartel: corporate pharmacy benefit managers.
These middlemen in the drug supply chain don’t discover new medicines. They don’t manufacture them. They don’t even physically dispense most prescriptions. Yet they rake in tens of billions of dollars each year by driving up costs for everyone else — especially patients battling cancer, HIV, heart disease, and autoimmune conditions.
In their report, FTC investigators documented how the PBM industry — which is dominated by just three firms, CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx, that collectively oversee roughly 80% of all prescriptions dispensed nationwide — imposed eye-popping markups on generic drugs used to treat deadly diseases. The PBMs’ affiliated pharmacies charged hundreds — even thousands — of percent more than they paid to acquire drugs like the cancer treatment Gleevec and multiple sclerosis medication Ampyra.
Underpinning this is a universal misunderstanding about our approach to healthcare. U.S. healthcare delivery is not a “system.” It’s a legalized criminal racket. Private health insurance corporations, like pharmacy benefit managers, provide no service to patients or their providers. They are nothing more than paywalls that suck up working- and middle-class income to benefit billion-dollar corporations’ bottom lines. It’s a sickness at the heart of U.S. healthcare.
