Access should be, has to be in a democracy, determined solely by meritocratic criteria. Political leaders like Hillary Clinton need to be meeting with people who can offer them the best advice and who need the most help -- not those who bought their way in. Anyone who doesn't understand that access always equals corruption, even when access doesn't result in favors, doesn't deserve to hold political office.
about the Clinton foundation's appearance of ethical problems. Give money for a good cause, get a visit with the secretary of state. Results are not guaranteed so it's not bribery.
of course, in Mrs Clinton's case, there are also questions about getting huge sums for corportate speeches.
and the meme that 80 percent of the Clinton Foundation money goes to "overhead" is wrong, as Polifact explains:
While measuring charitable endeavors by the amount of grants awarded may be appropriate for many private foundations, it is not for an organization that acts as a direct service provider like the Clinton Foundation."They name three such grass roots initiatives, which would require only small grants if they had outsourced it. They go on to say that actually if you include the many foundations that exist under the Clinton foundation umbrella, that over 85 percent of their funding goes to "program services".
And then Polifact insists:
they then bring up that they got cheap generics for poor HIV patients in Africa.
While measuring charitable endeavors by the amount of grants awarded may be appropriate for many private foundations, it is not for an organization that acts as a direct service provider like the Clinton Foundation."
Heh. I wrote about that last week: That they got them from a company who was fined for faking their quality control data. And since substandard, fake and counterfeit medicine is a major problem in the third world, getting a bargain generic is not always a good thing.
From the right wing WashingtonExaminier:
Clinton denied on Sunday that she participated in any foundation activities while she served as secretary of state, employing a new defense of its operations by highlighting the negotiated healthcare deals.But under her leadership, at least a handful of the State Department's global health efforts relied on drug companies that were also major Clinton Foundation donors in arrangements that raise questions about the distance Clinton kept from her family's philanthropy
So where does the money go? InsidePhilanthropy notes that the organization is so complicated that few can actually follow the money.
I'll have to read it later.
but the UKMail has an article on Jerome Corsi's book, and he was on C2C recently about the problem. VideoLink. He's a nut case, of course, and I would put an article from the MSM to refute this, but all their articles seem to be (correctly) pointing out that this guy is a cospiracy theorist, but not actually discussing his accusations. Sigh. Ad hominem attacks before facts. And the question is if the generic medicines didn't work, and if as Corsi claims that many of those getting the medicines died.
Glenn Greenwald interview here includes some stuff about the Clinton Foundation
I have a personal interest in this: the hospital I worked at in Africa and some of the nuns I worked with run HIV medicine programs... and one African sister just lost her 19 year old niece from HIV related causes even though she was on anti virals. Did the medicines stop working or were they substandard, I wonder...
Having cheap generic medicines is literally lifesaving for people in the third world, not just for HIV but for malaria and ordinary infections. People die because they can't afford the medicine, or they take a smaller dose or stop it too soon because of the cost.
But unless you realize the problem of substandard, fake and counterfeit drugs, you are fooling yourself.
PEPFAR works with the FDA to insure HIV medicines are okay.
I couldn't find any articles to back Corsi yet, but this PLOS article on Thailand HIV drugs says only a small percentage are inferior. (3%).
Annals of Internal Medicine worried about the problem: Economic savings vs Health Loses. and this article on generic anti virals
but the WHO defended the use of generics.
Translation: Problems that people are trying to stop
and as a cynical doc, remember: Lots of money could be made by stealing/diverting the real pills and selling them on the side. not just by patients but also by Pharmacists, import businesses and bypeople who transport
And how many people remember to take their pills?
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Speaking of Hillary: That National Enquirer story on her health is just rehashing the here-say. No hard facts...And a lot of it is absurd. (she might have congenital Muscular dystrophy? give me a break.)
What is behind this hysteria?
She needs help going up stairs? Looks like quadriceps are weak....Lower back problems or knee problems from arthritis, diabetic neuropathy, or it could be muscle weakness from hypothyroidism or post stroke weakness on one side.
The real question is: what are her cognitive abilities? Were these affected by her strokes?
They are either printing this nonsense to make money or to suck up to Trump.
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Bad superbug has reached Massachusetts.
Colisten resistant E Coli.
The mcr-1 gene was first reported in 2015 in food, animal, and patient isolates from China (1) and is notable for being the first plasmid-mediated colistin resistance mechanism to be identified. Plasmids can be transferred between bacteria, potentially spreading the resistance gene to other bacterial species. Since its discovery, the mcr-1 gene has been reported from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America (2,3), including the United States...
apparently, it was from antibiotics being given to farm animals in China.
But the real danger is overusing antibiotics in chicken and pigs farms.
scientificAmerican story.
and the bad news: The gene can be spread to cousin bacteria.
the good news: no links, but my "chicken business" email newsletter has a lot of articles about using probiotics or other ways to keep the chickens safe without filling them with antibiotics.
the "free range" and people thinking a backyard chicken is the answer need to realize that these birds are more likely to catch bird flu from passing migrating birds than those brought up en masse in chicken houses.
And of course, without "chicken farms", the poor in the mega cities would have little or no cheap sources of protein in their diet.
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a spoonful of sugar no more.
The problem of the rare mutation of the weakened polio virus becoming strong again and causing mini epidemics has led to using the old fashioned shot that uses the dead virus.
it is being phased out. Technical report:
CDC report here.
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a shorter version of this is on my regular blog
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