USA Pharmaceutical Prices all over the map: Want cheaper prescription drugs? You better shop around

The American Health-Care System rated worst in the Western World

Consumer Reports found that in the US cash prices for several common generic medications like Cymbalta could vary greatly from pharmacy to pharmacy, even in one zip code.

Desiree Bercilla's life was jolted in May when her boyfriend was diagnosed with Bell's palsy. She received another surprise when she phoned her local pharmacy and found the drug he needed, the antiviral Valtrex, would cost nearly $600.

That was the price for the brand-name version but even the generic was more than $200. Bercilla continued to make calls until Costco, the warehouse chain, quoted her a price of less than $39 for the generic.

"My initial reaction was shock," Bercilla said. "Because I can't believe that in order for me to get the best price from the pharmacy, I have to shop around."

Bercilla, a 37-year-old with a 3-year-old daughter, got similar results when NBC News asked her to check the cash price — the amount paid by someone not using insurance — of Valtrex in her area again last month.

Prices ranged from a high of $596 at Walmart to $473 at Costco for the brand-name prescription. For the generic, Walgreens had the highest price at almost $242 while the cheapest was at Costco, selling for just under $39.

Experts say the disparity Bercilla encountered isn't a fluke. Lisa Gill, prescription drug editor at Consumer Reports, told NBC News that prices vary wildly from pharmacy to pharmacy, even in the same region.

A new Consumer Reports survey of 1,200 adults on prescription medication found 22 percent — which would translate into about 27 million Americans — saw a price hike for at least one drug. For one in three of those consumers, the hike cost them at least $50 extra per month.

That's why shopping around can really pay for consumers, many of whom don't even realize how much they can save.

"When we look at retail prices across the country we see — for the same drug, for the same dose, for the same quantity, everything the same — incredible price differences even within the same zip code," Gill said.

"It can be up to 10 times bigger," Gill said.

Read more: Want cheaper prescription drugs? You better shop around | Euronews

US Government: Republicans are in full control of government — but losing control of their party - by S.Sullivan and R.Costa

Six months after seizing complete control of the federal government, the Republican Party stands divided as ever — plunged into a messy war among its factions that has escalated in recent weeks to crisis levels.

Frustrated lawmakers are increasingly sounding off at a White House awash in turmoil and struggling to accomplish its legislative goals. President Trump is scolding Republican senators over health care and even threatening electoral retribution. Congressional leaders are losing the confidence of their rank and file. And some major GOP donors are considering using their wealth to try to force out recalcitrant incumbents.

“It’s a lot of tribes within one party, with many agendas, trying to do what they want to do,” Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) said in an interview.

Read more: Republicans are in full control of government — but losing control of their party - The Washington Post

Net Neutrality Rules: Tech firms protest proposed changes to U.S. net neutrality rules-by A. Moon and D. Shepardson

Facebook, Twitter, Alphabet Inc. and dozens of other major technology companies are participating in an online protest on Wednesday to oppose proposed changes to U.S. net neutrality rules that prohibit broadband providers from giving or selling access to certain internet services over others.

In support of the "Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality," more than 80,000 websites are displaying alerts, ads and short videos to urge the public to oppose the overturn of the landmark 2015 net neutrality rules.

Net neutrality is a broad principle that prohibits broadband providers from giving or selling access to speedy internet, essentially a "fast lane," to certain internet services over others. The rule was implemented by the Obama administration in 2015.

Read more: Tech firms protest proposed changes to U.S. net neutrality rules

Turkey - Erdogan tightens grip on the country as arrests now hit 6,000 which Erdogan calls "rooting out the virus"

A "coup" which formalized Erdogan's dictatorship

Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the "virus" that caused the revolt. 

At a funeral for one of the 290 victims, Mr Erdogan repeated an accusation that US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the plot.

Mr Gulen strongly denies any involvement.

High-ranking military officers are among those held.

One of Mr Erdogan's top military aides, Colonel Ali Yazici, is among those now in custody, Turkish media reported.

The death toll rose on Sunday to more than 290, a foreign ministry statement said. More than 100 of those killed were involved in the coup, officials said.

"We will continue to cleanse the virus from all state institutions, because this virus has spread. Unfortunately like a cancer, this virus has enveloped the state," Mr Erdogan told mourners at the Fatih mosque in Istanbul.

He had earlier suggested parliament might consider a proposal to restore the death penalty.

Tens of thousands of Turks partied into the small hours of Sunday on the main squares of key cities to celebrate the failure of the coup.

A military coup is always to be condemned, but so is a total disregard for Democracy and violations of Human Rights.

Erdogan must be condemned for releasing a "mob" of his AKP people into the streets to commit acts of violence and vandalism in order to quell a dubious  coup attempt, while during the Taksim demonstrations he used  maximum security measures to disperse pro-democracy demonstrators.

Say no to Erdogan's human rights violations

Unfortunately, no official condemnation of Erdogan's Human Rights violations in his dealing with this so-called "coup" have been heard from either the EU or the US.  

Some additional facts about Erdogan's Turkey

• Between August 2014 and March 2015, 236 people investigated for "insulting the head of state"; 105 indicted; eight formally arrested
• Between July and December 2014 (Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidency), Turkey filed 477 requests to Twitter for removal of content, over five times more than any other country and an increase of 156% on the first half of the year
• Reporters Without Borders places Turkey 149th of 180 countries in the press freedom index
• During Mr Erdogan's time in office (Prime Minister 2003-14, President from 2014), 63 journalists have been sentenced to a total of 32 years in prison, with collective fines of $128,000
• Article 299 of the Turkish penal code states that anybody who insults the president of the republic can face a prison term of up to four years. This sentence can be increased by a sixth if committed publicly; and a third if committed by press or media

EU-Digest

Terrorist Financing: Gulf Donors Remain Important Source of Terrorist Financing says US Treasury

Criticism of Saudi Arabia has mounted in recent weeks on Capitol Hill, after one of the authors of a congressionally-commissioned report on the 9/11 terrorist attacks called for the declassification of 28 pages he says show that the kingdom was involved..

Iraq has called on Saudi Arabia for explanation after a senior official admitted fundraising in the kingdom for ISIS terrorists fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

The call by Iraq’s Foreign Ministry came after Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said earlier this week that Iraq’s current offensive against Daesh has sparked a flurry of new fundraising campaigns in Saudi Arabia.

“You cannot control the sympathies of people,” Turki said before acknowledging that those were potentially fake campaigns to raise money in the name of the “children of Fallujah” that actually funds terrorism.

"They are focusing on any event that results in a humane crisis, like the one going on in Fallujah now in Iraq," he said.

"This is now heavily being used by many to encourage people to give money for the children of Fallujah," Turki added during a conference call with reporters on terrorist financing.

In a statement on Saturday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry denounced the case as “an obvious violation of the Security Council’s decisions.”


Saudi Arabia threatened to pull out several hundreds of billions of dollars in assets held in the US if the country was incriminated in the attacks.

Hence, US Treasury officials have said their concerns about wealthy Saudis funneling money to terrorist organizations have largely abated.

Riyadh is widely viewed as one of the major supporters of Daesh, mainly operating in Syria and Iraq.

EU-Digest

 

US Congressional Elections: The Best Government Wall Street and the Billionaires Can Buy - by Miles Mogulescu

The past few weeks have provided vivid evidence that the U.S. government has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street and other wealthy special interests and no longer a government of, by, and for the people.

It's only five weeks since the 2014 mid-term elections which cost $3.67 billion. Fewer, but larger, donors provided those funds than in past elections. The candidate who spent the most money won their race House race 94.2 percent of the time.

Yet despite the colossal sums spent on campaign ads, how many candidates ran on a platform promising to let banks make risky, taxpayer-guaranteed bets on the kind of complex financial derivatives that tanked the economy in 2008 and led to the government bailing out the big banks while millions of ordinary Americans lost their jobs and their homes?

How many ran on a platform promising to gut what's left of the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reforms and allow millionaires and billionaires to donate 10 times the current limit to political parties, up to $1,296,000 a couple in a 2-year election cycle?

The answer, of course, is that almost no political candidates ran promising to enact such disastrous policies. And hardly any voters went to the polls hoping that their elected representatives would do these things.

Yet in buried riders to the just-passed omnibus spending bill, a majority of the House and Senate -- with votes from both Republicans and Democrats -- did exactly these things that are bad for the vast majority of Americans and good only for Wall Street and other billionaire special interests who fund elections.

And when some progressive Democrats led by Elizabeth Warren rebelled, President Obama lobbied Congress to put down the rebellion and ensure the bill passed so he may sign it.

If it wasn't clear before, it's crystal clear now that the US government enacts the will of its campaign contributors, not the will of the voters.

Read more: The Best Government Wall Street and the Billionaires Can Buy | Miles Mogulescu

Genetically Modified Foods could kill you but the culprits have "friends" in high places

There appears to be no question about the fact that the modified crops are designed to “handle” large doses of herbicide.

 Therefore it would only follow the GMO farmers are spraying their crops with more poison to fight off bugs, and the residue of these poisons can follow the food to the market and to your table.

 It’s possible we are all being slowly poisoned by crops that absorb sprayed poisons and may be eaten raw as a vegetable or even survive some cooking methods. One person, a laymen who has studied genetically modified foods a great deal says genetically modified corn causes colon and gastrointestinal problems because the corn sticks to the inside of the body.

One of the major concerns with genetically modified food is the eventual control of the food chain by a company such as Monsanto, who patents every seed modification they make. The implications of this are complex but sobering.

If Monsanto owns the rights to all seeds being planted, then no one can buy, use or plant any seeds without Monsanto’s express consent. The future failure of an entire seed chain could drastically reduce the availability of food and cause even more starvation in underdeveloped countries. There are even a group of conspiracy theorists who think a company like Monsanto could be used to severely limit food supply, resulting in the “culling” of millions of people worldwide.

I am not sure I buy in to this theory but with all that is going on in the world today, my mind is not closed to the “unbelievable” any more. It could even become illegal to use, plant, germinate, grow any seed that is not patented by a company such as Monsanto.

Their lawyer czars may have fashioned legislation that argues any seed not theirs could harm the seed or food chain, could contaminate it and therefore it should be illegal. Now, that may sound a little paranoid but you should pay attention to developments.

Washington and EU  lobbyists have huge capabilities. Regardless of whether modified food is harmful or could turn out to be harmful,  People have a right to know which foods are modified. Is that asking to much? We are supposed to be able to make free choices in this world, and the selection of which foods we eat is one of the most important.

Genetically modified foods are still to new for scientists to provide conclusive evidence of harm to humans. However, there are strong indications and factors that cause many scientists to believe some genetically modified food causes health problems in humans, including cancer.

Genetically modified food leaves a larger footprint in it’s aftermath, meaning the residue, the traces of it stay around in the body long after non-modified food is completely left the body. While genetically modified food must be labelled as such in Europe,

The US Food and Drug Administration in the United States not only does not require labeling, it does not require companies to even provide a list of their modified food, or to announce or send out notice there is a new modified food on the market. The Deputy Commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is Michael Taylor.

In the 1980’s Taylor was a lawyer for Monsanto and developed their food and drug defense against the government and any others who would question their practices.

 Click here for more on GMO altered foods

Automobile Industry: General Moters: U.S. government says it lost $11.2 billion on GM bailout

The U.S. government lost $11.2 billion on its bailout of General Motors Co, more than the $10.3 billion the Treasury Department estimated when it sold its remaining GM shares in December, according to a government report released on Wednesday 30 March.

The $11.2 billion loss includes a write-off in March of the government's remaining $826 million investment in "old" GM, the quarterly report by a Treasury watchdog said.

The U.S. government spent about $50 billion to bail out GM. As a result of the company's 2009 bankruptcy, the government's investment was converted to a 61 percent equity stake in the Detroit-based automaker, plus preferred shares and a loan.

Treasury whittled down its GM stake through a series of stock sales starting in November 2010, with the remaining shares sold on Dec. 9, 2013.

At the time of the December sale, Treasury put the total loss at $10.3 billion but said it did not expect any significant proceeds from its remaining $826 million investment in "old" GM, the report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said.

Read more: U.S. government says it lost $11.2 billion on GM bailout -Reuters

Obama focuses on military as government shuts down - by Jim Kuhnhenn and Josh Ledererman

As much of the federal government grinds to a halt, President Barack Obama is telling the U.S. military he'll push Congress to re-open the government as soon as possible.

In his sole response early Tuesday to Congress' failure to avert the first shutdown in nearly two decades, Obama addressed his comments in a video to American troops, rather than the lawmakers he's been scolding for weeks.

There was no reference in the three-minute video message to Republicans, whose insistence that Obama's health care law be scaled back has been at the center of a grueling back-and-forth between the GOP-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate.

"Unfortunately, Congress has not fulfilled its responsibility," Obama said. "It has failed to pass a budget and, as a result, much of our government must now shut down until Congress funds it again."

Troops in uniform in Afghanistan and elsewhere will stay on duty, Obama said, noting he'd signed a law Monday to ensure they get their paychecks on time. That GOP bill began in the House and was taken up by the Senate, reflecting a rare measure of agreement among Democrats and Republicans: No one wants to be blamed for the military not getting paid.

But thousands of civilians who work for the Defense Department face furloughs, compounding the damage already inflicted on the military by automatic spending cuts.

Read more: Obama focuses on military as government shuts down - US News and World Report

PRISM, secret US government spying program, mines data from Google, Facebook and others

A career intelligence officer has provided PowerPoint slides and other materials to the Washington Post that reveal that the US National Security Agency and the FBI have been tapping directly into the servers of nine US Internet companies through a clandestine government program called PRISM. The program was launched in 2007.

The nine companies – Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple – allow analysts free reign to extract audio, video, photographs, emails, Skype chats, documents and connection logs from their servers, according to the Washington Post.

Several of the companies told the Guardian, however, that they had never heard of PRISM and had not granted the government secret access to their servers.

"Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data," the search company said in a statement. "We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data."

Facebook, Yahoo and Apple have made similar denials.

Read more: PRISM, secret US government spying program, mines data from Google, Facebook and others: report | GlobalPost

US Aircraft Industry: Boeing 787 Dreamliner to be investigated by US authorities - by Gwyn Topham

Boeing's troubled 787 Dreamliner is to face a full review of its design and manufacture by the US government after two more incidents were reported – making five in five days for the model that promised to revolutionise flying.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a comprehensive review of the 787's critical systems, including the design, manufacture and assembly, but stressed its confidence in the plane's safety.

The US transportation secretary Ray LaHood said he would have "no reservation in boarding these planes and taking a flight" but admitted the administration was concerned about recent events and would be looking for the root causes.

Pilots on an All Nippon Airways (ANA) domestic flight in Japan reported a crack developing in the cockpit windscreen before landing safely on Friday, while oil was found leaking from the engine of another of the airline's Dreamliners.

 Read more: Boeing 787 Dreamliner to be investigated by US authorities | Business | The Guardian

US Banking Industry: Banks in $25B deal to settle foreclosure abuses

Government officials have struck a $25 billion settlement with five of the nation's largest lenders to address mortgage-servicing and foreclosure abuses committed by the companies.

The agreement, which the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday after more than 16 months of negotiations involving all 50 U.S. states, federal authorities and the banks, provides financial relief for homeowners and toughens standards for how financial firms service mortgage loans. Joining the deal are the country's largest mortgage servicers: Ally Financial, Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Wells Fargo (WFC).

Under the terms of the deal, mortgage servicers must allocate $20 billion to various types of mortgage relief for borrowers. At least $10 billion of that total will go toward reducing the principal for borrowers who are behind, or at risk of defaulting on, their loans at the time of the settlement and who owe more on their mortgages that their homes are worth. A minimum of $3 billion will go toward helping homeowners who also are "underwater," but current on their loans, refinance at lower interest rates. Up to $7 billion will be allocated toward offering other forms of aid, including forbearance of principal for unemployed borrowers, "short sales," and financial assistance for homeowners whose homes are foreclosed. In addition, loan servicers must pay $4.25 billion to the states and $750 million to the federal government.

For more: Banks in $25B deal to settle foreclosure abuses - CBS News

European Aircraft Industry: Airbus Alleges U.S. Interference in Boeing Deal

Airbus, European based leading aircraft manufacture, accused the United States government of disrupting competition of an order by taking the side of Boeing Co. to facilitate it win a $22 billion aircraft deal in Indonesia.

John Leahy, Chief Executive Officer at Airbus, said lobbying over the aircraft deal on behalf of U.S. President Barack Obama had proved double standards on free market race that is ongoing row between Europe and Washington over aircraft wanes.

Leahy on Thursday at a market briefing inWashingtonsaid that there is only one superpower in the whole world and it’s not France, it is probably represented by U.S. president Barack Obama. Last month, an order of 230 aircrafts was showcased by Obama from Lion Air, Indonesian budget carrier, worth $21.7 billion at list rates, Boeing’s largest commercial deal so far.

For more: Airbus Alleges U.S. Interference in Boeing