Friday, May 06, 2016

Kentucky Derby Preview - Horses, Post Position, Odds 2016

Post Position : Horse : Jockey : Mike Battaglia’s Morning Line Odds

1. Trojan Nation Aaron Gryder 50-1

2. Suddenbreakingnews Luis Quinonez 20-1

3. Creator Ricardo Santana Jr. 10-1

4. Mo Tom Corey Lanerie 20-1

5. Gun Runner Florent Geroux 10-1

6. My Man Sam Irad Ortiz Jr. 20-1

7. Oscar Nominated Julien Leparoux 50-1

8. Lani Yutaka Take 30-1

9. Destin Javier Castellano 15-1

10. Whitmore Victor Espinoza 20-1

11. Exaggerator Kent Desormeaux 8-1

12. Tom’s Ready Brian Hernandez Jr. 30-1

13. Nyquist Mario Gutierrez 3-1

14. Mohaymen Junior Alvarado 10-1

15. Outwork John Velazquez 15-1

16. Shagaf Joel Rosario 20-1

17. Mor Spirit Gary Stevens 12-1

18. Majesto Emisael Jaramillo 30-1

19. Brody’s Cause Luis Saez 12-1

20. Danzing Candy Mike Smith 15-1

AE-21. Laoban Cornelio Velasquez 50-1

AE-22. Cherry Wine Robby Albarado 30-1

KENTUCKY DERBY 142 POST POSITION DRAW QUOTES

Trojan Nation (Post position 1, morning line 50-1) – Paddy Gallagher (trainer) – “We’re in! He’s got no (early) speed. We’re fine there.”

Suddenbreakingnews (Post position 2, morning line 20-1) – Donnie Von Hemel (trainer) – “It's good with us. He's surrounded by horses with similar running styles and shouldn't get shuffled back. He should be able to get comfortable from there."

Creator (Post position 3, morning line 10-1)/Gun Runner (Post position 5, morning line 10-1) – Steve Asmussen (trainer) – “Creator, he's kind of out the back early. He won't have a long ways to go left to find the fence early. (Gun Runner) "It's looks like all the pace is to the outside. Hopefully, prerace, everything goes smoothly. Hopefully, he stands up in the gates. Hopefully, he's away from there really good. But, we're very anxious right now with a very good horse going into the Derby. He's a tremendous horse. You want a good trip to show who he is.''

Mo Tom (Post position 4, morning line 20-1) – Tom Amoss (trainer) – “I think the two most significant things about the draw are we drew toward the rail but not so close that it's a problem, and that there's a lot of speed way on the outside in this post-position draw. Those horses are going to have to be used out of the starting gate, and that I think will ensure a good pace, which is what we need.''

My Man Sam (Post position 6, morning line 20-1)/Shagaf (Post position 16, morning line 20-1) – Chad Brown (trainer) – “I’m fine with both posts. I was looking for an inside post with My Man Sam so six will work just fine and we were looking for something on the outside with Shagaf with as big as he is so he’ll stay out of trouble. Sixteen will work just fine. So now it’s just up to the horses and the jockeys.”

Oscar Nominated (Post position 7, morning line 50-1) – Mike Maker (trainer) – “I’m pleased, obviously. It’s better than the one-hole that we drew a couple of years ago. No complaints.”

Lani (Post position 8, morning line 30-1) – Mikio Matsunaga (trainer) – “It was a good draw, ideal. The middle was ideal so I have no complaints about drawing number eight.”

Destin (Post position 9, morning line 15-1)/Outwork (Post position 15, morning line 15-1) – Todd Pletcher (trainer) – “I’m good with them. We like the 15 for Outwork. It gives us some room inside between the gates. And I’m OK with the nine for Destin. The only thing that concerns me is the horse inside Destin (Lani, the Japanese representative). I have some concern about that horse acting up. But the posts themselves are fine.”

Whitmore (Post position 10, morning line 20-1) – Ron Moquett (trainer) – “We're tickled with it. All we've been wanting is a good post and a good trip. Last year, we didn't get a good post and I don't know if it would have changed anything, but this year we have a better post and a better horse."

Exaggerator (Post position 11, morning line 8-1) – Keith Desormeaux (trainer) – “I’m fine with it. Kent (Desormeaux, his brother and his rider) seems a bit concerned because he’ll have to wait some after they load. But I don’t see a problem. The horse is as cool as a cucumber. It’ll be fine.”

Tom’s Ready (Post position 12, morning line 30-1) – Dallas Stewart (trainer) – “Great draw. Great field. We're ready to go. The Bensons are ready to go. We're ready to roll.''

Nyquist (Post position 13, morning line 3-1) – Doug O’Neill (trainer) – “We like it. We see a good sign. We were post No. 13 when we won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.”

Mohaymen (Post position 14, morning line 10-1) – Kiaran McLaughlin (trainer) – “We’re happy. He’ll be the last one in the main gate, so it’s great. There’s a little space between the two gates. There are a lot worse posts, so we’re happy.”

Mor Spirit (Post position 17, morning line 12-1) – Gary Stevens (jockey) – “I’m happy with it.”

Majesto (Post position 18, morning line 30-1) – Gustavo Delgado (trainer) – “I’d prefer a little more inside, but I cannot change it. But remember he’s a strong horse.”

Brody’s Cause (Post position 19, morning line 12-1) – Dale Romans (trainer) – “At first, I was a little bit disappointed, but after looking at the draw with the speed (Danzing Candy) outside of us, we’ll let him clear. I think it’s going to be all right.”

Danzing Candy (Post position 20, morning line 15-1) – Cliff Sise (trainer) – “At first you're kind of stunned when they say 20, but when you start thinking about it, it's not that bad. It's better than the one-hole, especially for a speed horse -- he can come over very gradually and he won't sit in the gate long. Actually, it might be in our favor. We're outside of any other speed horse, so we'll take it.”

KENTUCKY DERBY 142 FACT BOX

Date: Saturday, May 7, 2016
Raceday Information: Gates Open: 8 a.m. / First of 14 Races: 10:30 a.m. ET
Race: Churchill Downs Race 12 Approximate Post Time: 6:34 p.m. ET Television: NBC (4-7:30 p.m. ET)
Radio: Horse Racing Radio Network (5-7 p.m. ET)
Grade: I
Distance: 1 ¼ Miles
Total Purse (if 20 horses start): $2,391,600 First (if 20 horses start): $1,631,600 Second (if 20 horses start): $400,000 Third (if 20 horses start): $200,000 Fourth (if 20 horses start): $100,000 Fifth (if 20 horses start): $60,000 Scratch Time: Friday, May 6, 2016 at 9 a.m. ET

Kentucky Derby Post Position History

Post Record Win% ITM% Avg.

1 86-8-4-5 9.3% 19.8% 8.26

2 86-7-5-13 8.1% 29.1% 7.76

3 86-5-6-8 5.8% 22.1% 8.10

4 86-5-6-4 5.8% 17.4% 8.44

5 86-9-8-2 10.5% 22.1% 7.44

6 86-2-7-3 2.3% 14.0% 9.28

7 85-6-6-5 7.1% 20.0% 7.69

8 85-8-5-4 9.4% 20.0% 8.34

9 82-4-5-8 4.9% 20.7% 8.72

10 79-9-6-9 11.4% 30.4% 7.54

11 75-2-4-3 2.7% 12.0% 8.96

12 71-3-3-3 4.2% 12.7% 9.51

13 69-4-5-7 5.8% 23.2% 8.36

14 61-2-5-5 3.3% 19.7% 9.23

15 54-5-2-1 9.3% 14.8% 10.06

16 45-4-3-3 9.1% 22.7% 9.39

17 37-0-1-2 0.0% 8.1% 11.16

18 29-1-4-0 3.4% 17.2% 9.17

19 24-1-1-0 4.2% 8.3% 12.58

20 14-1-0-1 7.1% 14.3% 10.57

21 2-0-0-0 0.0% 0.0% 13.50

22 1-0-0-0 0.0% 0.0% 8.00

23 1-0-0-0 0.0% 0.0% 7.00

Thursday, May 05, 2016

Is this the beginning of the end, for Hillary Clinton as US Authorities Extradite Romanian hacker Claiming to have Hacked Clinton's classified and Top Secret emails?

Reuters News, NBC News, and Fox News, confirmed the Justice Department Indictment claimed the following US officials were hacked:

"a family member of two former presidents, a former Cabinet member, a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former presidential advisor"

In addition to the action by the Justice Department in recent days there was an additional very disturbing release of events taking place in the Courts of the Russian Federation, in which the Federal Security Services (FSB) introduced evidence in court including "Beyond Top Secret" emails from a private server of the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Here are three stories on the startling developments in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

January 30, 2016
“Beyond Top Secret” Hillary Clinton Emails Used In Russian Court Against Ukraine Pilot

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

A very intriguing Federal Security Services (FSB) report prepared for The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (SLEDKOM) relating to the trial of Ukrainian “spy/terrorist” Nadiya (Nadezhda) Savchenko states that “beyond top secret” emails obtained from a “private computer storage device” belonging to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “should/must” be allowed into the sentencing phase of this case due not only to their “critical relevance”, but, also, because the “apprehension” of them falls outside the purview of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

According to this report, Nadiya Savchenko is a former Ukraine Air Force pilot who in 2014 joined the neo-Nazi Aidar Battalion, which is a volunteer military detachment of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense currently fighting against Russian separatist factions in their eastern regions and has been the target of many war crimes investigations.

On 6 June 2014, this report continues, Nadiya Savchenko entered into the Federation from Ukraine and presented herself before Federal Migration Service (FMS) officials stating that she was a refugee and requesting she be granted Russian identity documents—which were approved.

On 17 June 2014, this report notes, while on Federation soil and in the possession of (legal) Russian identity documents, Nadiya Savchenko used her cellular phone to secretly adjust mortar fire from her Aidar Battalion terrorist allies in Ukraine onto a militia roadblock in the vicinity of Metallist village in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) killing Russian television reporter Vladimirovich Kornelyuk and his sound engineer Anton Voloshin.

With the facts relating to Nadiya Savchenko’s terrorist crimes and neo-Nazi affiliations having been fully documented during her trial, FSB legal analysts in this report state, the “beyond top secret” emails belonging to former Secretary Hillary Clinton are critical for the court’s “understanding/consideration” in sentencing as they “directly relate” to the causes as to why this murderer has become the West’s latest cause célèbre against Russia.

According to these FSB analysts, the specific emails obtained from former Secretary Hillary Clinton involving Nadiya Savchenko were written by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland who masterminded what the private American intelligence firm Stratfor (known as the Shadow CIA) called the “most blatant coup in history” in toppling Ukraine’s legitimate government.
And with these emails having a US government classification of SAP (an acronym for ‘special access programs,’ a level of classification above top secret), this report further notes, the “black project” nature of the American’s attempting to subvert justice in the case of Nadiya Savchenko has not only been confirmed, but also explained.

For what these emails show, this report explains, was that upon the FSB’s arrest and detention of Nadiya Savchenko for her crimes in 2014, Assistant Secretary Nuland began a “counter campaign” of Western propaganda depicting this neo-Nazi terrorist as a heroic female pilot unjustly being persecuted by Russia—and while at the same time not a single report of Foreign Minister Lavrov’s extensive report to the international media has yet appeared on any major online American, French, British and German newspaper portals or television channels, the coverage of this Nazi terrorist has been non-stop.

Most intriguing, however, about this FSB report is its advising the Investigative Committee that it is legal to use these Secretary Hillary Clinton’s emails against Nadiya Savchenko as the method(s) in which they were obtained were outside of the jurisdiction of the SVR.

This is an important distinction to note due to if these were emails obtained from a foreign government (in this case the US), the SVR would have “sole and exclusive” domain over them and would never allow their admittance in court due to the high security level they would be held under.

Having been obtained from Secretary Hillary Clinton’s “private computer email server” though, FSB legal analysts state in this report, these emails are to be considered as outside of US government jurisdiction and thus legal, under Russian law, to be used in any matter before the court.

As to how exactly the FSB obtained these “beyond top secret” Secretary Hillary Clinton emails this report doesn’t say, but it is important to note that the former US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, did recently acknowledge that they were in the possession of Russia and, just yesterday, the US State Department was forced to admit that 22 “top secret” emails were found on her private email server she had previously told the American weren’t there because she deleted them.

January 30, 2016 © EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.

Infamous hacker ‘Guccifer’ appears in US court

By Reuters

April 1, 2016 | 6:19pm

Modal Trigger

Marcel Lazar Lehel after his arrest in Romania in 2014.Photo: Reuters

WASHINGTON – A Romanian hacker known as “Guccifer” who posted unofficial emails sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Internet was extradited from Romania and made his first court appearance in the United States on Friday.

Marcel Lehel, 44, is charged in a nine-count indictment that includes three counts of gaining unauthorized access to protected computers, the Justice Department said in a statement.

According to the indictment, Lehel “hacked into the email and social media accounts of high-profile victims, including a family member of two former presidents, a former Cabinet member, a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former presidential advisor,” the statement said.

It did not name the victims, but in 2013 news websites published hacked emails sent to Clinton by her former adviser Sidney Blumenthal, offering the first public clues about Clinton’s unconventional email arrangements and attributing the hack to Guccifer.

Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic 2016 presidential nomination, has apologized for using a private email server for official business while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. The FBI is conducting an inquiry into the arrangement.

Guccifer shot to fame in 2013 after he claimed responsibility for hacking into George W. Bush’s family emails and posted artwork by the former president, including self-portraits in the bathtub.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Are prescription drugs destroying America? Why is the government protecting the legal drug dealers? Is anybody listening? Does anybody care?

America

's Collective National Trip - Legal Prescription Drugs

Is Prince the latest victom?

Perhaps the fallout of the Germanwings A320 airplane crash in France caused by a depressed and psychotic co-pilot on prescription drugs should be a wake up call to America. You are not safe in society now that 70% of Americans are on prescription drugs.

Over the years, I have closely followed the relationship between "isolated" cases of extreme violence and prescription drugs, and more often than not, the perpetrator of the crime was on some type of prescription drug, just like the pilot who killed 150 people.

From mass murders in schools to suicide airplane crashes, the world has gone crazy and we need to know the role prescription drugs are playing in this nightmare.

It was forty-five years ago when then Vice President Spiro Agnew declared that America was on a collective national trip because of the increasing abuse of prescription drugs along with the use of illegal drugs.

Jun 17, 1971

Nixon Begins War on Drugs

President Richard Nixon coins the phrase, "War on Drugs," promising in a major speech to defeat "public enemy number one in the United States. If we cannot destroy the drug menace, then it will destroy us."

That was forty-four years ago that America launched a war on drugs, both illegal drugs, and the pre-occupation of Americans with legal prescription drugs.

Drug statistics, conveniently, it may seem, run about five years behind in reporting.

Prescription drug use

Percent of persons using at least one prescription drug in the past 30 days: 48.5% (2007-2010)

Percent of persons using three or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days: 21.7% (2007-2010)

Percent of persons using five or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days: 10.6% (2007-2010)

Source: Health, United States, 2013, table 92[PDF - 9.8 MB](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus13.pdf#092)

Physician office visits

Number of drugs ordered or provided: 2.6 billion

Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 75.1%

Most frequently prescribed therapeutic classes:

Analgesics

Antihyperlipidemic agents

Antidepressants

Source: National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2010 Summary Tables, tables 22, 23, 24[PDF - 382 KB](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ahcd/namcs_summary/2010_namcs_web_tables.pdf)

Hospital outpatient department visits

Number of drugs ordered or provided: 285.1 million

Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 74.4%

Most frequently prescribed therapeutic classes

Analgesics

Antidiabetic agents

Antihyperlipidemic agents

Source: National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2010 Outpatient Department Summary Tables, tables 18, 19, 20[PDF - 330 KB](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ahcd/nhamcs_outpatient/2010_opd_web_tables.pdf)

Hospital emergency department visits

Number of drugs ordered or provided: 286.2 million

Percent of visits involving drug therapy: 80.3%

Most frequently prescribed therapeutic classes

analgesics

Antiemetic or antivertigo agents

Minerals and electrolytes

Source: National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2011 Emergency Department Summary Tables. Tables 20, 21, 22[PDF - 1

The report -- titled "Health, United States 2013" -- found the percentage of Americans taking prescription drugs has increased dramatically. During the most recent period, from 2007 to 2010, about 48% of people said they were taking prescription medication, compared with 39% in 1988 to 1994.

Prescription drug use increased with age. About one in four children took one or more prescription drugs in the past month, compared to nine in 10 adults 65 and older, according to the study.

"This is really not earth-shattering news. There's an increasing number of people with chronic illnesses, and the primary management tool available for dealing with chronic illness is medication," said William Lang, vice president of policy and advocacy for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

One in 10 Americans said he or she had taken five or more prescription drugs in the previous month. That raises concerns about potential drug interactions, said Anne Burns, senior vice president for professional affairs at the American Pharmacists Association.

"We know that the number of adverse drug events a patient is likely to experience increases as the number of medications they are taking increases," Burns said. "You've got everything from potential interactions between medications to timing issues taking a variety of medications throughout the day."

People who took five or more drugs in the past month tended to be older. Only 10.8 percent of people taking that many drugs were between 18 and 44, while 41.7 percent were between 45 and 64 and 47.5 percent were 65 and older.

Drugs to manage cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and kidney disease are the most widely used medications among adults, the CDC report found.

In particular, the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs among people 18 to 64 has increased more than six-fold since 1988-1994, due in part to the increased use of statins. Also, nearly 18 percent of adults 18 to 64 took at least one cardiovascular drug during the past month.

The CDC report noted some headway in efforts to combat the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Prescriptions of antibiotics for cold symptoms during routine medical visits declined 39 percent between 1995-1996 and 2009-2010.

But the report also found a tripling of overdose deaths due to prescription narcotics. Painkillers taken among people 15 and older caused 6.6 deaths for every 100,000 people in 2009-2010, compared with 1.9 deaths per 100,000 in 1999-2000.

There has been a fourfold increase in antidepressant use among adults, but Holmes said that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Seeking help for a mental health disorder isn't as stigmatized as it once was, she noted. In addition, companies have introduced more effective antidepressants, and researchers have found that antidepressants also can be used to treat panic and anxiety disorders.

"If antidepressants enable people to function fully in their social roles, that's a good thing," Holmes said.

All that said, prescription drug use has spiraled out of control since 2010 as health officials now say antibiotics, antidepressants, and opioids are used by seven out of ten people.

Drug overdose death rates have never been higher. In the United States alone, 100 people die from drug overdoses every day, most of them caused by prescription drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has officially declared prescription drug abuse in the US an epidemic.

Antibiotics -

Number one on the list of prescribed drugs, we continue to be subject to levels of antibiotics far in excess of our needs, and the shift of antibiotics to animal feed from human treatment assures our contamination for years to come, even if we stop taking antibiotics for a toothache, and for many other reasons.

It is also important to note that antibiotics are frequently used in settings where they will not provide any benefits. An example of this sort of inappropriate use of antibiotics is for viral infections, such as the common cold. In fact, there is a tendency for patients to believe that if they are ill with an "infection", an antibiotic is the solution. Well, it's not always.

As recently reported in the news, For The Love Of Pork: Antibiotic Use On Farms Skyrockets Worldwide.

The love of meat is exploding in Asia, and with it, comes antibiotic consumption by chickens (top) and pigs (bottom). Green represents low levels of drug used; yellow and orange are medium levels; and red and magenta are high levels.

Pig farmers around the world, on average, use nearly four times as much antibiotics as cattle ranchers do, per pound of meat. Poultry farmers fall somewhere between the two.

That's one of the conclusions of a study published Thursday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It's the first look at the amount of antibiotics used on farms around the world — and how fast consumption is growing.

The numbers reported are eye-opening. In 2010, the world used about 63,000 tons of antibiotics each year to raise cows, chickens and pigs, the study estimated. That's roughly twice as much as the antibiotics prescribed by doctors globally to fight infections in people.

"We have huge amounts of antibiotic use in the animal sector around the world, and it's set to take off in a major way in the next two decades," says the study's senior author, Ramanan Laxminarayan, who directs the Center for Disease Dynamics Economics & Policy in Washington, D.C.

In all cases, since we know the over-use of antibiotics increases drug resistance in cells in our bodies, which make us susceptible to many new mutant, drug-resistant bacteria and virus's such as staff infections and others. It may also be a contribution factor to increases in well known diseases like cancer.

Antidepressants - Feel Good Medicine

Antidepressants Aren't Taken By The Depressed; Majority Of Users Have No Disorder

Depression’s increase in the U.S. has been persisting for years, and it’s going on decades. And while the increase in antidepressant use has followed a predictably similar path, not all cases can be explained by the parallel rise in disease. Many people, in fact, take antidepressants regardless of a diagnosis.

A new study published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reports some 69 percent of people taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the primary type of antidepressants, have never suffered from major depressive disorder (MDD). Perhaps worse, 38 percent have never in their lifetime met the criteria for MDD, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder, yet still take the pills that accompany them.

In a society that is increasingly self-medicating itself, capsules, tablets, and pills are turning from last resorts to easily obtained quick fixes. Between 1988 and 2008, antidepressant use increased nearly 400 percent. Today, 11 percent of the American population takes a regular antidepressant, which, by the latest study’s measure, may be a severe inflation of what’s actually necessary.

Opioids - Pain Killers

Although many types of prescription drugs are abused, prescription opioids take the lead. Chronic pain is frequently treated with prescription opioids, the clinical use of which nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010. This increase was accompanied by a rise in opioid abuse; it’s estimated that over two million people in the US currently abuse prescription opioids. Nearly 75% of prescription drug overdoses are caused by prescription opioid painkillers; these drugs are involved in more deaths than cocaine and heroin combined. In 2010, pharmaceutical drug overdoses were established as one of the leading causes of death in the US; drug overdoses were more lethal than firearms or motor vehicle accidents.

If you take any of the following you could be subject to drug abuse.

Opioids include:

Fentanyl (Duragesic®)

Hydrocodone (Vicodin®)

Oxycodone (OxyContin®)

Oxymorphone (Opana®)

Propoxyphene (Darvon®)

Hydromorphone (Dilaudid®)

Meperidine (Demerol®)

Diphenoxylate (Lomotil®)

Central nervous system depressants include:

Pentobarbital sodium (Nembutal®)

Diazepam (Valium®)

Alprazolam (Xanax®)

Stimulants include:

Dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine®)

Methylphenidate (Ritalin® and Concerta®)

Amphetamines (Adderall®)

The Most Popular Drug in America is an Antipsychotic—and No One Really Knows How it Works

The Raw Story – November 16, 2014

By Martha Rosenberg

Does anyone remember Thorazine? It was an antipsychotic given to mentally ill people, often in institutions, that was so sedating, it gave rise to the term “Thorazine shuffle.” Ads for Thorazine in medical journals, before drugs were advertised directly to patients, showed Aunt Hattie in a hospital gown, zoned out but causing no trouble to herself or anyone else. No wonder Thorazine and related drugs Haldol, Mellaril and Stelazine were called chemical straitjackets.

But Thorazine and similar drugs became close to obsolete in 1993 when a second generation of antipsychotics which included Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Geodon and Abilify came online. Called “atypical” antipsychotics, the drugs seemed to have fewer side effects than their predecessors like dry mouth, constipation and the stigmatizing and permanent facial tics known as TD or tardive dyskinesia. (In actuality, they were similar.) More importantly, the drugs were obscenely expensive: 100 tablets of Seroquel cost as much as $2,000, Zyprexa, $1,680 and Abilify $1,644.

One drug that is a close cousin of Thorazine, Abilify, is currently the top-selling of all prescription drugs in the U.S. marketed as a supplement to antidepressant drugs, reports the Daily Beast. Not only is it amazing that an antipsychotic is outselling all other drugs, no one even knows how it works to relieve depression, writes Jay Michaelson. The standardized United States Product Insert says Abilify’s method of action is “unknown” but it likely “balances” brain’s neurotransmitters. But critics say antipsychotics don’t treat anything at all, but zone people out and produce oblivion. They also say there is a concerning rise in the prescription of antipsychotics for routine complaints like insomnia.

They are right. With new names and prices and despite their unknown methods of action, Pharma marketers have devised ways to market drugs like Abilify to the whole population, not just people with severe mental illness. Only one percent of the population, after all, has schizophrenia and only 2.5 percent has bipolar disorder. Thanks to these marketing ploys, Risperdal was the seventh best-selling drug in the world until it went off patent and Abilify currently rules.

More manipulations

Just as Big Pharma has camped out in Medicare and Medicaid, living on our tax dollars while fleeing to England to avoid taxes, Pharma has also camped out in the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Arguably, no drugs have been as good for Big Pharma as atypical antipsychotics within the military. In 2009, the Pentagon spent $8.6 million on Seroquel and VA spent $125.4 million—almost $30 million more than is spent on a F/A-18 Hornet.

Risperdal was even bigger in the military. Over a period of nine years, VA spent $717 million on its generic, risperidone, to treat PTSD in troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet not only was risperidone not approved for PTSD, it didn’t even work. A 2011 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found the drug worked no better than placebo and the money was totally wasted.

Trump Juggernaut Crushes the Most, the Best, and the Brightest to win GOP Primary

Billionaire Queens Rich Kid New Voice for the Silent Majority

Over the years, I worked on 32 political campaigns ranging from local, state, and federal including executive and legislative branches. While I know it may upset the diehard political activists among my readers, I worked for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. You see, I never believed in the litmus test theory where you had to pledge blind faith and unwavering loyalty to a philosophical political dogma.

I held fast to the old fashion belief, vote for the person who will do the most good for the people. Once elected, you serve all the people not just those who voted for you. In today's partisan world serving a higher purpose does not work.

Perhaps the hardest point of a campaign is the end when you finally know definitively that you won or lost. Only then does reality set in. If you were like me then sleep deprivation, horrible eating habits, measuring coffee intake by the pots consumed, stress, expecting the unexpected, and planning for every contingency imaginable and unimaginable, consumed you.

Add to that the mountain of management difficulties from a staff trying to blend professional staff with volunteers, horrendous egos with the darkest of fears of losing, the never-ending pressure to raise more and more money, and assigning critical tasks to thousands of volunteers, and you begin to see the problem.

Of course, that is just the beginning. Controlling what the staff says to contributors, politicians, and the dreaded media, what the candidate says to the same groups, and what the spouse of the candidate says compounds the complexity tenfold.

Hold on folks, because there is more. You can take everything I said and multiply it times two, because there is a primary and then a general election. That is the picture when you plan a campaign. However, the unexpected still looms large over both campaigns.

Take the current campaign for president. Donald Trump spent most of the last year defying the experts. Like him or not, what he did was historic.

No Trump

There was:

1. John Kasich, Governor

2. Ted Cruz, Senator

3. Marco Rubio, Senator

4. Ben Carson, Surgeon

5. Jeb Bush, Governor

6. Jim Gilmore, Governor

7. Chris Christie, Governor

8. Carly Fiorina, Senate candidate and CEO

9. Rick Santorum, Senator

10. Rand Paul, Senator

11. Mike Hukabee, Governor

12. George Pataki, Governor

13. Lindsey Graham, Senator

14. Bobby Jindal, Governor

15. Scott Walker, Governor

16. Rick Perry, Governor

17. Donald Trump, CEO

Competition was fierce with nine governors, five senators, one senate candidate, and two with no political experience. It was the largest primary field in the history of American politics and some say the best field of experienced candidates ever to run in a primary.

The last primary elections are June 7 when California, New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota vote. As of yesterday, May 3, there were just three survivors, a senator, governor, and CEO with no political experience.

By this afternoon, the senator and governor withdrew from the race with no chance to catch the last one standing, Donald Trump. In the end, it was Trump, the most inexperienced person in the massive field, who connected with the voters and taught the politicians a lot about politics.

The only billionaire in presidential history ran against the establishment and obliterated the field, leaving the political pundits, the right wing think tanks, the news media, the corporate owners of politicians, even the Democrats stunned.

July 18-21 the Republican National convention will take place in Cleveland, Ohio when the delegates vote for the party nominees. The news media and other candidates have been trying to convince the public no one would have the votes to win on the first ballot and formal Stop Trump movements could derail Trump's potential victory with an open convention.

Well the people had a different idea and gave Trump such a crushing victory last Tuesday in the Indiana primary the last of the competition faded away. The rich kid from Queens, New York who owns buildings all over the world and some of the greatest golf courses in the world stunned the world and himself, by winning two and a half months before the convention takes place.

The victory came though Trump spent less money than any other major opponent did, and in spite of his opponents running nearly 60,000 attack ads against him. Perhaps this explains why Trump seemed so subdued when he gave his victory speech. The victory came way before it was expected.

It is going to be a fascinating general election and once again, you can expect the media and political experts to continue to be wrong because the American public is sick and tired of the empty promises of politicians and the establishment, including the Republican, Democratic, and media.

After defeating a Bush and ending a family political legacy in the primary, Trump now faces a Clinton and another family political legacy in the general election with Hillary Clinton.

Trump has pulled ahead of Clinton in latest poll

By Bob Fredericks

May 2, 2016 | 1:39pm

A national poll released on the eve of Tuesday’s pivotal Indiana primary showed Republican Donald Trump with a 2-point lead over the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s 41 percent to 39 percent edge marked the first time he has led the race since October.

As recently as March, Clinton led 41 to 36, according to Rasmussen Reports, which conducted the survey.

“I will defeat Crooked Hillary Clinton on 11/8/2016,” Trump triumphantly tweeted on Monday, shortly after the poll’s release.

But the national telephone survey of likely voters also showed that 15 percent of respondents would rather cast their ballots for anyone but the two front-runners.

The tycoon has the support of 73 percent of Republicans, while 77 percent of Democrats back the former first lady.

Trump picked off 15 percent of Democrats, while 8 percent of GOP voters prefer Clinton.

The former “Apprentice” TV star leads 48 percent to 35 percent among men, while Clinton is favored by women, 44 to 34.

Clinton also has a 38-to- 32 lead among those under the age of 40, traditionally a reliable Democratic base, suggesting that younger voters — many of whom now prefer Democrat Bernie Sanders — will be a major target in the upcoming campaign.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, Trump leads 37 percent to 31 percent, with 23 percent backing another candidate.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on April 27 and 28 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.

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