How Big Pharma got Americans hooked on anti-psychotic drugs.
James Ridgeway, 12 July 2011
Al Jazeera
Has America become a nation of psychotics? You would certainly think so, based on the explosion in the use of antipsychotic medications. In 2008, with over $14 billion in sales, antipsychotics became the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the United States, surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and acid reflux.
Phi Beta Iota: The industrialization of agriculture, and the industrialization of “medicine,” have poisoned the Western population, the USA most of all. The degree to which toxins and other poisons are allowed by law is now criminally insane.
A longtime CIA officer who spent 21 years in the Middle East is predicting that Israel will bomb Iran in fall, dragging the United States into another major war and endangering U.S. military and civilian personnel (and other interests) throughout the Middle East and beyond.
Earlier this week, Robert Baer appeared on the provocative KPFK Los Angeles show Background Briefing, hosted by Ian Masters. It was there that he predicted that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is likely to ignite a war with Iran in the very near future.
Phi Beta Iota: We know and admire Bob Baer, one of the greats in clandestine case officering, whose books, Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude and See No Evil–The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism correctly observe that no amount of professionalism in the intelligence ranks can make up for massive ideology, corruption, and impeachable malfeasance in the White House, Congress, and the military-industrial cabal. War is how the unethical elite deal with unrest at home–it syphons the poor angry young men out of the system and distracts the booboisee. Israel, like the USA, has multiple governments, and right now the two extremist versions are nominally in charge and think they can get away with bombing Iran and then redirecting the US military against Iran. The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty is the best “truth-teller” on how crazy they can get, and how much they disrespect the USA. They give no thought at all to the five front war that George Bush started with the Islamic virtual caliphate, or the consequences of “burning” the young seeking reform, turning them all against Israel and the USA.
President Obama in trouble at home and around the world. The common denominator in his problems is a failure to follow through on expectations he recklessly excites … while this mismatch is clear in the mounting alienation of his domestic political base in the United States, it is also evident his plummeting popularity abroad, particularly in the Arab World, as shown in the attached survey by Zogby International for the Arab American Institute Foundation.
ARAB ATTITUDES, 2011
Conducted by Zogby International, Analysis by James Zogby
After improving with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, U.S. favorable ratings across the Arab world have plummeted. In most countries they are lower than at the end of the Bush Administration, and lower than Iran's favorable ratings (except in Saudi Arabia).
The continuing occupation of Palestinian lands and U.S. interference in the Arab world are held to be the greatest obstacles to peace and stability in the Middle East.
While many Arabs were hopeful that the election of Barack Obama would improve U.S.-Arab relations, that hope has evaporated. Today, President Obama's favorable ratings across the Arab World are 10% or less.
Obama's performance ratings are lowest on the two issues to which he has devoted the most energy: Palestine and engagement with the Muslim world.
The U.S. role in establishing a no-fly zone over Libya receives a positive rating only in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, but, as an issue, it is the lowest priority.
The killing of bin Laden only worsened attitudes toward the U.S.
A plurality says it is too early to tell whether the Arab Spring will have a positive impact on the region. In Egypt, the mood is mixed. Only in the Gulf States are optimism and satisfaction levels high.
The military must move from defending against major cyberattacks to deterring assaults by letting enemies know the U.S. is willing to retaliate with its own virtual weapons or military force, a top general said Thursday.
The Pentagon's new strategy for threats from computer hackers primarily deals with enhancing the defense of its computer systems and those of its military contractors. But Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that policy is just a start. He said that over the next decade the military would move beyond building better firewalls and make clear to adversaries that they will pay a price for serious cyberattacks.
“There is no penalty to attacking us now. We have to figure out a way to change that,” Gen. Cartwright said.
Phi Beta Iota: Never mind ignoring sound advice in the early 1990's [1994 Sounding the Alarm on Cyber-Security]; never mind DoD following the secret world into the technology rabbit-hole, sacrificing all human productivity on the altar of out-sourced incoherent contracting. What the above really says is that Cyber-Command realizes it has no hope at all of defending the rat's nest it has inherited, and it is now going to do a theatrical exit toward “counter-strike.” This is absurd in various ways. First off, only 20% of what we are calling secret actually is secret. Second off, we are so far out of touch with reality that the best way to retard adversary countries is to give them our acquisition system and our incoherent technology gameplan. Third off, the denial service of attacks are now coming from angry individuals, not nations, and London is one of the hubs. Last but not least, GAO has made it clear that the DoD Global Grid is dead in the water and will never breathe–ever. Bottom line: these folks not only don't understand the new game, they cannot even find the ball.
This is an interesting dialogue I’ve been eavesedropping on..
Cheers,
John
Phi Beta Iota: Others have been on this story for decades–the rest of the world is just now catching on. It is a two-party tyranny–voting for one or the other is NOT an option. What we need is an end to the one party winner take all system. Here's a starting point: Seven Promises to America–Who Will Do This?
From: John Neffinger
To Drew's point, check out this AP story from a couple days ago, noting that Obama is having trouble selling the Republican talking points he has adopted about how budget cuts that lay people off create jobs by reassuring the business community.
What is new about this moment is that things have gotten so bad, the American people see very clearly that the richest few of us are paying less than ever in taxes and should pay more. Even Republicans know this. David Brooks lashed out at his own party last week for taking its ideological aversion to taxes to a new, cult-like level of irrationality.
But to call them ideologues misses the point. The majority of rank-and-file Republicans admit that taxes on top earners should be higher, and the people calling the shots aren't mere ideologues either. They are running a hugely successful business enterprise. It's not irrational, it's very rational (if not so enlightened). The contributors invest in the politicians and lobbyists, and they make very handsome returns on their investments. To Brooks' question, the reason Washington Republicans won't cut any taxes at all as part of an otherwise very favorable deficit deal is that lowering taxes is the entire point. The concern about deficits is only a charade, just another way to discredit our government. The Republican party is not a cult. The Republican party is a racket.
This might be a moment we could make that point with new clarity. That yes there are honest and well-meaning Republicans all across the country, but their whole party is run as a racket. That Republican politicians are just errand boys, as Colonel Kurtz would say , who work only for the rich conservatives who pay for their campaigns.
A new survey from Insite Security and IBOPE Zogby International of those with liquid assets of $1 million or more found that 94% of respondents are concerned about the global unrest around the world today.
Fully 90% of respondents have a negative view of the current global economic climate and 41% say they have little or no faith that the U.S. will be able to right itself in this fiscal climate.
Phi Beta Iota: The super rich have created a global plague of failed states, poverty, infectious disease, and environmental degradation, thinking governments that they corrupted will take care of it. Not so. Corruption is a super-plague. Integrity is the antidote, M4IS2 is the method by which the super-rich can fund a win-win recovery. They did it once before, addressing public health in New York City. Time for big ideas again.
How the financial industry is buying off Washington—and killing reform.
Gary Rivlin
Newsweek, 11 July 2011
Phi Beta Iota: Read every word. A blow by blow description of why Washington is as corrupt and pathologically ineffective at governance as any “failed state.”
