Another Type of Quid Pro Quo

And another kind of “drug deal”

By Phil Mattera for the Dirt Diggers Digest

As the political news is dominated by discussion of quid pro quo and bribery, there has been another ongoing series of allegations about improper payments for things of value. 

The other quid pro quo relates to the pharmaceutical industry, which has been the subject of a seemingly never-ending scandals about financial inducements given to healthcare professionals.

The most significant recent case involves a company called Avanir Pharmaceuticals, which had to pay more than $115 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to physicians to get them to prescribe its drug Nuedexta for uses not approved as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

Among those uses were the treatment of behaviors associated with dementia among residents of long-term care facilities. Nuedexta was tested and approved for patients exhibiting what is known as pseudobulbar affect (PBA) — involuntary, sudden, and frequent episodes of laughing or crying that occur secondary to a neurologic disease or brain injury.

The case against Avanir included allegations that physicians receiving its payments ended up putting large numbers of patients on Nuedexta who showed no symptoms of PBA, exposing them to unknown risks.

The Justice Department regarded Avanir’s behavior to be serious enough to warrant criminal charges, but like in so many other cases, the company was offered a deferred prosecution agreement that allowed it to buy its way out of full legal jeopardy by paying criminal penalties of nearly $13 million. 

Trump is getting nuttier

Trump’s 53-minute Fox rant is another dangerous sign of his worsening mental state: Yale psychiatrist

By Bandy X. Lee, DC Report @Raw Story

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the White House doctor said of Donald Trump’s recent, sudden visit to Walter Reed Hospital: “Despite some speculation, the President … did not undergo any specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations.”

You don’t have to be a medical professional to recognize that the patterns of the unscheduled visit, interrupting the weekend on a Saturday evening, conform more closely to a medical emergency than a routine check-up.

Just as the reality of Mr. Trump’s corruption and criminality is catching up with him through the impeachment hearings, the reality of his mental and physical condition cannot help but catch up with him.

Some of this was on full display in his highly concerning, 53-minute breathless outpour of grievances that his interview with Fox and Friends on Friday morning became.

He reverted to conspiracy theories—as he often does under stress—of Barack Obama’s wire surveillance of him, a coup in the works from the beginning, and the claim that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election and had a secret DNC server.

These are the very self-defeating, blatantly abnormal signs that have raised alarms for psychiatrists and neurologists for years.

Turkey pardon quid pro quo

What about you?

This year is nuts

Tons of acorns? It must be a mast year

Emily Moran, University of California, Merced

If you have oak trees in your neighborhood, perhaps you’ve noticed that some years the ground is carpeted with their acorns, and some years there are hardly any. 

Biologists call this pattern, in which all the oak trees for miles around make either lots of acorns or almost none, “masting.”

In New England, naturalists have declared this fall a mast year for oaks: All the trees are making tons of acorns all at the same time.

Many other types of trees, from familiar North American species such as pines and hickories to the massive dipterocarps of Southeast Asian rainforests, show similar synchronization in seed production. But why and how do trees do it?

The key inside guy

Prosecutors Investigating the Trump Organization Zero In on Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg
By Peter Elkind for ProPublica

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s criminal investigation of the Trump Organization is scrutinizing the actions of one of the president’s oldest and most trusted deputies, ProPublica has learned.

The focus on Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, a 72-year-old accountant now running the business with Trump’s two adult sons, stems from his involvement in arranging a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump (which Trump has denied).

Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, or SDNY, contended that the Trump Organization had improperly booked reimbursements for the hush-money scheme as “legal expenses,” with the aid of sham invoices. 

They granted legal immunity to Weisselberg and later closed their 18-month investigation with the guilty plea of one Trump associate, Michael Cohen. But Weisselberg’s immunity deal applied only to federal proceedings.

Now Vance’s state grand jury is examining whether Weisselberg, among others — and even the Trump Organization — should face state criminal charges for falsification of business records, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Neither Weisselberg nor the Trump Organization responded to requests for comment. Vance, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

Science under siege

Trump’s Attack on Science Is an Attack on Public Health
By Gretchen Goldman

Thirteen years ago, as an engineering graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, I stood on a rooftop in midtown Atlanta and took in a 360-degree view of the “city in the forest." 

It was a warm day, typical of spring in the southeast, but I wasn't just sightseeing. 

Rather, I was trying to better understand what I couldn't see with my eyes: the microscopic airborne particles — technically called particulate matter — that kill tens of thousands of people a year in the U.S.

Wrong answer

By Matt Davies, Newsday

Fight xmas commercialism

RI Joins REI, America's State Parks to #OptOutside on Black Friday

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) along with specialty outdoor retailer REI Co-Op and America's State Parks are encouraging individuals and families to opt for a healthier way to spend Black Friday – one that reconnects them with nature by spending time outdoors. 


Rhode Island's natural and public assets – including 8,200 acres of parkland, 400 miles of hiking and biking trails, 25 parks and nature preserves, and eight saltwater beaches – offer healthy, stress-free alternatives to crowded Black Friday shopping. From hiking, biking, fishing, and more, there are many ways to enjoy time outdoors.

Get over it?

When it comes to recycled water, consumers won't

University of California - Riverside

If people are educated on recycled water, they may come to agree it's perfectly safe and tastes as good -- or better -- than their drinking water. They may even agree it's an answer to the critical water imbalance in California, where the northern third of the state holds 75% of the water despite 80% of the demand coming from the southern two-thirds.

But that doesn't mean they're going to use recycled water -- and it sure doesn't mean they'll drink it. And the reason lies in the word "disgust."

That's the result of a series of studies by UC Riverside psychology researchers Mary Gauvain and Daniel Harmon published recently in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Past research by Harmon and Gauvain explored whether people sense a difference in taste among recycled water, conventional tap water, and commercially bottled water. That study, released in spring 2018, was based on a blind taste test and found people actually preferred the taste of recycled water over conventional tap water.

However, "The idea of recycled wastewater in general evokes disgust reactions," Harmon said at the time.

Is Greta Thunberg a Time Traveler?

120-Year-Old Photo Sparks Flood of Conspiracy Theories

By Common Dreams staff

Insider.com

Is 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg a time traveler "here to save us" from the global climate emergency?

A photo taken during the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush in Yukon, Canada features a child that so closely resembles the world renowned climate campaigner that some Twitter users initially dismissed it as a fake.

But the 120-year-old photo was sourced to the University of Washington's Special Collections archive, leading many to jokingly conclude that Thunberg is a time traveler who arrived in 2019 to warn the world about the planetary climate crisis.

Where are the Charlestown 1906?

How can they explain their support for an agent of Russia?

By Will Collette

On November 8, 2016, almost two thousand (1,906) of our Charlestown neighbors cast their ballots for Donald J. Trump. 

They comprised 42% of those who voted for a Presidential candidate and roughly 30% of the total number of registered Charlestown voters.

I challenged those 1906 Charlestown voters to speak up, to explain why they supported Trump in the first place and to defend, if they could, Trump’s first year in office (The Charlestown 1906, November 7, 2017). 

I asked them to send Progressive Charlestown e-mails, which we would then publish.

No one answered, not even Trump’s only public supporter, Jim Mageau.

Now we are at the three-year mark. Trump is on the way toward impeachment articles in the House and trial in the Senate to determine whether he should be removed.

Two weeks of impeachment hearings have shown how Trump, acting on a "false narrative" that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered with the 2016 election, tried to bribe and extort Ukraine to help him win the 2020 election. That false narrative was planted in Trump's head by Vladimir Putin.

As Putin himself said a couple of days ago, "Thank God no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore; now they’re accusing Ukraine."

Trump’s actions on Ukraine make manifest his well-established, servile relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. CNN has compiled a list of 25 specific ways Trump has acted to Make Russia First. I’d love to hear comments from the Charlestown 1906 about how they feel about the choice they made in November 2016.

Here’s CNN’s list:

Duh

Son of Rudy

RI Nature Video Festival

Call for Submissions, Due December 20th

Rhode Islanders are invited to submit nature videos for the RI Nature Video Festival to be held at URI on Saturday February 22, 2020 at 2 PM

Rhode Island has an abundance of nature, even in the city, and often times many people carry a camera capable of taking video. 

We are gathering RI nature videos, RI nature video-makers, and everyone who appreciates them for a fun, entertaining, and informative winter's afternoon nature showcase with a discussion/reception to follow.

This event is presented by the Environment Council of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Natural History Survey. It will be held in the Doody Auditorium at Swan Hall on the main URI campus.

Please note our video submission guidelines below. 

This year's festival will have FREE ADMISSION!

If you have any questions email the Environment Council of Rhode Island or if you prefer you may call the ECRI office at 401-621-8048.

We look forward to your submissions,

Greg Gerritt for ECRI – Youtube: Moshassuckcritters