Crazed Republican Candidate Says We Should Kill The Poor And Disabled

In a Facebook post that has since been deleted, a Republican candidate for Oklahoma governor suggested euthanizing the poor and the disabled in order to cut down on the amount of money spent on programs like food stamps. Christopher Barnett claims that he didn’t write the post, but it was on his official Facebook page for his campaign. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.   Link – https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/okla… Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!: https://www.patreon.com/TheRingofFire Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire’s video content! Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/theringoffire Be sociable! Follow us on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RingofFireRadio Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RingofFireRadio Google+: http://plus.google.com/11841583157319… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ringoffiren… Follow more of our stories at http://www.TROFIRE.com Subscribe to our podcast: http://www.ROFPodcast.com Few people outside of the state of Oklahoma know who Christopher Barnett is but just in case you were wondering, he is a Republican candidate right now for governor in the state of Oklahoma. And this week on his Facebook page he actually advocated for euthanizing the poor and the disabled in the United States as a way to cut back on the amount of money we have to spend, as a country, on food stamps. Here is the Facebook quote that his campaign posted on their official Facebook page that is supposed to be speaking for the candidate, “The ones who are disabled and can’t work, why are we required to keep them? Sorry, but euthanasia is cheaper and doesn’t make everyone a slave to the government.” Now, the post has since been deleted. It was deleted I believe sometime on Tuesday evening after huge public backlash, after everyone found out what a disgusting person Chris Barnett is, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was there. Now Barnett says he didn’t write the post, he just didn’t know. He won’t say if the page was hacked or if it was a staffer or if maybe he had a few too many and decided to let his real thoughts out. But regardless, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who wrote the post because it’s a page for him, so he represents everything that is said on that page from the official account. And to be honest, this is just another in the long line of Republicans accidentally saying what they actually believe, like when we had the Colorado Republican Party recently tell us that they hate poor people. Well this guy’s just doing the same thing, except he’s going one step further. It’s not just hate, he’s saying, “Hey, here’s a great idea! Let’s just kill them.” This is what Republicans want. The party that’s so pro-life thinks that if you’re disabled, or hell even if you’re just poor, you should just die, just die. Remind me again which party is the one that Republicans say is just for killing babies, killing people, when you have these Republicans out there literally advocating for euthanizing those who aren’t wealthy enough to pay for their campaigns. And that’s what it’s about at the end of the day, they’re just pissed off that these people don’t have enough disposable income to donate money to their campaigns. You don’t hear them calling for the euthanasia for these corporate CEOs who poisoned one million people by dumping their toxic chemicals in the waterway, you know, the real criminals responsible for generations of people developing incurable cancers. No, because those people fund their campaigns. But if you’re poor, if you’re disabled, if you have to rely on the federal government program, food stamps or Medicaid or social security, just in order to survive, Republicans want to kill you. And that’s not me talking, that’s just us using their own words to tell you what they really think of you.

This just validates my opinion that both parties have “loose screws” within the party and we have a mental health crisis in this country

when the truth that is stated… is really HALF-TRUTHS ?

Dr Kessler can make the statement that there is no appropriate clinical studies about the use of opiates for long term pain management. All such studies that I have seen have been stopped at 12 weeks out of the concern of the studies lead over possible addictions/dependency.  Unfortunately, long term use of opiate treatment for chronic pain is defined as the routine taking of opiates for pain for > 90 days.

The 12 week studies is only 84 days…so were they intentionally stopped to avoid having a clinical study that reached the legal definition of > 90 days on opiates ?   One can be guess at the reasons this is done, but it gives Dr Kessler and others to claim that there is no valid clinical studies that document long term opiate use is safe and effective.

DOC admitted that reducing my pain meds is medically contraindicated

I am 57 years old and live in Hemet, California.  I have suffered from chronic intractable pain for over twenty-five years.  The primary causes of my pain are diagnosed as early severe degenerative cervical spine disease, Chiari malformation, spondylosis and subsequent nerve damage, and spinal cord impingement by bone spurs.  I have worked with two pain management doctors through all available step therapies without success.  Managed pain medication is the only treatment that has afforded me a reasonable quality of life; allowing me to work and volunteer part time.

In 2017, my pain management doctor began reducing my dosages of pain medication and intentionally under-treating my intractable pain.  He has admitted that this was medically contraindicated, since my condition is worsening.  But pressures from the DEA to comply with CDC dosing “guidelines” are making him taper all his patients regardless of condition or impact on their quality of life.

He fears DEA actions that would lead to prosecution if he treats under prevailing best practices. 

In addition, he has shared that scrutiny from the Medical Board of California under the Death Certificate Project has further restricted his ability to provide safe, adequate medical treatment to relieve suffering.  His attorney has advised him that deviating from forced tapering of patients could lead to closure of his practice, leaving hundreds of patients with no treatment.  He has shared that several of his colleagues have expressed to him a similar concern and many have closed their pain management practices as a result of draconian government regulation.

For me, this unwarranted reduction in pain medication dosing is forcing me into an unbearable quality of life (unrelenting pain, lack of sleep, limited activity, poor appetite, depression).  Due to my worsening condition, I have been accepted in a palliative care program with the Visiting Nurses Association.  Unfortunately, after eight months I have yet to find a pain management physician who will adequately treat my pain under the palliative care exemption frequently stated in the 2016 CDC guidelines.  All of the doctors I have consulted with declared concerns with DEA and Medical Board sanctions as reasons for not providing treatment.  Without adequate pain treatment, I will not be able to make the monthly 140 mile round trip to my pain management physician.  I will have to quit my part-time job and volunteering and will end up bed-ridden.

Additionally, the pharmacy I have used for over fifteen years has declined to fill my legitimate controlled medication prescriptions, stating that they fear scrutiny from the DEA.  Even the administrators for our insurance carrier are interpreting the CDC prescribing guidelines as strict regulations, causing my physician to spend an inordinate amount of time securing medication pre-authorizations and justifying medical diagnosis to people with no medical training.  The CDC dosing guidelines state they do not necessarily apply to patients being treated for long-term, chronic pain, and cancer/palliative/hospice patients yet innocent doctors are being bullied and threatened.  The broad brush of government regulations and miss-applied guidelines is causing unnecessary suffering for countless, law-abiding intractable pain sufferers.  Even cancer patients who only have a short time to live are dying or have died in agony.  Intractable pain is very individualized and should be controlled by pain management physicians.

I have stated before and this letter from a pt seems to validate my conclusions.  I have always suspected that the CDC was doing some of the “dirty work” for the DEA… because the DEA could never get by with publishing things like the opiate dosing guidelines and many believe that the CDC does not have the statutory authority to do it either… but… so far they have gotten by with this ILLEGAL ACTIVITY…

The end goal – IMO – was to get >50% of the health care community to adopt these guidelines, and once that happened then they could be considered to be the “standard of care” and “best practices” for ALL HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS and it would then be EASY for the DEA to get one of their “experts” to testify against prescribers that the DEA wanted to TAKE DOWN … that they were providing opiates greater than standard of care and best practices suggests is not appropriate… and thus could come to the conclusion that the prescriber was treating/maintaining a person who suffers from opiate use disorder, substance abuse or opiate addict.  Seems very easy for the DEA to FABRICATE a story line for a jury to find a prescriber GUILTY.

There is a lot  in the news media that is accusing President Trump with the MANUFACTURED CRISIS AT THE BORDER… but they can’t see how the war on drugs seems to be equally MANUFACTURED/FABRICATED since it began in 1970 with the passage of the Controlled Substance Act.

What is the PRICE for a pt’s QUALITY OF LIFE ?

$375,000 price leads disabled mom to ration meds

https://www.krdo.com/health/375000-price-leads-disabled-mom-to-ration-meds/1031640099

Bhanu Patel couldn’t believe the news. The cost of the medication that allows her to move — the one that enabled her to walk stairs again — shot up to $375,000.

Fear gripped her: What would this mean for her independence? Would she become a financial burden on her family? How is this possible in the country that’s given her so much?

The past three years, she said, the medication had been completely free as part of a specialty program. Until recently, the drug was known as 3,4-DAP made by Jacobus Pharmaceutical. But late last year, Catalyst Pharmaceuticals won FDA approval for a slightly modified version of the drug after two small clinical trials and announced an annual list price of $375,000 for the new drug, called Firdapse.

For Patel, the drug has been a game-changer. She was diagnosed in 2015 with a rare neuromuscular disease called Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, a condition known as LEMS that affects about 400 people in the United States, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

The disease attacked her hip muscles and abdominal muscles first, then her back muscles she said. Just trying to stand up to walk was agonizing. She dragged herself across rooms and up and down stairs to get around her home. For two years, she wore three back braces on top of each other to allow her to stand.

The disease even attacked her tongue, making it difficult to eat. She lost a lot of weight, and her muscles atrophied. Every aspect of her life was impacted.

When she was introduced to the drug, her doctor told her it would make her feel more alert and allow her to regain basic functions. Her eyes opened wide when she first took the pills. “I said, ‘Wow, you’re right about that,’ ” Patel, 67, recalled. “You feel you want to live and have a life.

“Without this medication, you just can’t even move. It’s like your body is totally like a sweet potato.”

So imagine the predicament a skyrocketing price hike puts a patient like her, she said.

Fearful of burdening her family with exorbitant bills, Patel said, she’s begun rationing her meds — taking two pills a day, instead of four. She said she’s trying to stretch her three-month supply for as long as possible.

“The words that I can use is I can’t believe this is happening, to be honest,” she said.

Her son, Krishan Patel, said his mother has been rejected by Medicare for coverage of the medication, raising concerns the family could get stuck with a massive bill. He said she is appealing for coverage as an exception. His mother has also applied with the Assistance Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps pay for patients’ co-pays. He said she has yet to hear back.

Between he and his sister, Krishan Patel said, they will do everything they can to help their mother. He’s already begun writing and calling lawmakers, AARP, the drugmaker and anyone else who will listen.

He said he’s not just speaking up for his mom, but for those less fortunate. “If we’re not shining a light on these things,” he said, “then really what the hell are we doing?”

“My mother’s livelihood is fundamentally at the hands of a small outfit with full capability to do whatever they want,” he said. “You’re leveraging human suffering to make money — and that is a heartbreaking idea.”

Bernie Sanders demands action

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who earlier this month demanded answers from Catalyst Pharmaceuticals about the drug’s $375,000 price, blasted the company for not responding, and he ripped Catalyst for endangering patients’ lives.

“Instead of answering my questions or lowering the price of this drug, they’ve hired a lobbying firm,” Sanders told CNN in a written statement Wednesday. “It is now clear that some patients are rationing their supply of Firdapse because they cannot afford to cover the outrageous cost of the drug, which they used to receive at no cost.

“If Catalyst does not immediately lower the price of the drug, I will ask FDA to allow pharmacies and manufacturers who were previously making this drug to be permitted to resume providing it, so that all patients can get the medication they need.”

CNN has contacted the US Food and Drug Administration for comment.

Two weeks ago, Sanders sent a blistering letter to Catalyst for its decision to raise the price of Firdapse — “and forcing production and distribution of the older, inexpensive version to cease.” Patients had been able to get the previous version of the drug for free through a compassionate use program through the FDA.

“Catalyst’s decision to set the annual list price at $375,000 is not only a blatant fleecing of American taxpayers, but is also an immoral exploitation of patients who need this medication,” said Sanders, who on Tuesday announced his latest Democratic presidential bid. “I am profoundly concerned that Catalyst’s actions will cause patients to suffer or die.”

Assuming his mother gets approved for the drug, Krishan Patel said Firdapse is listed as a Tier 4 medication on his mother’s Medicare with a 40% co-insurance. Even after rebates, he said, the family fears the possibility of spending more than $100,000 a year on the medication.

Catalyst maintains patients will be left with little to no cost, despite the fears within the LEMS community. CNN asked Catalyst about the possibility of patients getting stuck with a $100,000 tab as the Patel family has expressed.

“All Medicare patients are being directed to foundations that support the LEMS community. These foundations are reducing the co-pay for all patients to $0,” Catalyst spokesman David Schull said in an email. “No out-of-pocket costs for Medicare patients with this set-up.

“Your facts are wrong.”

Asked how Catalyst is informing patients about the co-pay program, Schull shot back: “Everyone is well informed. We do not have any additional information. I suggest you look for what will be a launch update when the company provides its year-financial results and corporate update in March.”

Krishan Patel said patients like his mother don’t have until March to wait when they need answers now. He blasted what he called Catalyst’s “inconceivable behavior to create anxiety in some of the most vulnerable patients with this disease.”

“That sounds like the most insane statement I’ve ever heard,” he said of Catalyst’s response. “At the end of the day, it’s like: ‘Really?’ “

The Patels aren’t the only ones filled with anxiety over this issue.

Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar, a hematologist oncologist with the Mayo Clinic, said he was giving a lecture to Mayo doctors on the rising costs of prescription drugs and what can be done about the issue. Unbeknownst to Rajkumar, one of the doctors brought along a patient who suffers with LEMS. The patient told him she’d been getting the drug from Jacobus for free since 2004 and that she had just been told she would have to pay $3,800 a month in co-pay.

That patient was Lore Wilkinson. She was outraged by the price hike she’s decided she’s not going to take the medicine — even if it means a rapid decline in her health. She’s already begun looking into getting a wheelchair “because my quality of life is going to tank.”

“I’m going to do without. I’m not going to be a party of enriching the pockets of this predatory pharmaceutical. Unconscionable!” she told CNN. “I don’t think it’s right to be a party to this highway robbery.”

“I would probably choke on it if I took it,” she said. “That’s because I think it’s such an outrage.”

Wilkinson said she was in the process of writing a “thank you” note to Jacobus for providing the medication for free for so many years. “You just wish every pharmaceutical was like theirs,” she said.

Jeane Arlowe leads a private Facebook group for the LEMS community. She said members of her group “have been reeling from the news and trying to wade through the insurance quagmire and Catalyst’s enrollment forms.” Beyond the price hike, Arlowe said, are other complaints.

“Most in my support group were on Jacobus DAP,” Arlowe said. “Many are reporting side effects since being on Firdapse such as racing heart, severe headache, dizziness, exacerbated weakness and gastrointestinal issues. A common complaint is that the Firdapse kicks in too fast and wears off too fast or doesn’t work at all.”

Many of these side effects are identified as possibilities in the drug’s packaging and product information.

A mother weeps

For Patel, the entire ordeal is overwhelming.

She grew up in South Africa during apartheid, often hiding from violence. Her father traveled the world to try to find a better place for his family to live — Europe, South Asia and South America. Her family eventually settled in Canada, before moving to the United States decades ago.

She remembers being taught about America as a girl — a shining beacon of hope that stood for justice.

But her experience with this price hike has soured her. “This is the America we live in,” she said.

An America where one drug can break a person. “What does the future hold for my children — and the children of this country?”

She sobbed as she described not wanting to be a financial burden on her family.

“It’s just a lot of fear. I have to be honest,” she wept. “It just doesn’t feel good.”

New blog focusing on the bureaucrats and how they track data

Chronic Pain, Medical Research, Standards of Care, Government Policy, Guidelines and Regulations, Ethics in Medicine and Government

Patient Files a Complaint, Now What?

YouTube’s Doctor Mike learns from his mistakes

Mikhail Varshavski, DO, (better known on social media as “Doctor Mike”) is a board-certified family medicine physician at the Atlantic Health System’s Overlook Medical Center in Summit, New Jersey. His YouTube channel educates over 3 million subscribers with two weekly shows covering everything from trending medical stories, to health myths, to reaction videos critiquing popular medical TV dramas. His goal is to expose medical misinformation and increase the health literacy of young adults.

 

Your rights are at risk. The real opioid Epidemic EXPOSED

A New Documentary – Chronicling the Scary Truth about our Pain Problem

A New Documentary – Chronicling the Scary Truth about our Pain Problem

www.nationalpainreport.com/a-new-documentary-chronicling-the-scary-truth-about-our-pain-problem-8838786.html

There are no marathon runs for chronic pain, no walks for its cure. Yet chronic pain disables some 25% of the population in developed countries such as Canada and the U.S.A. This is no small disease. In Canada, chronic pain costs the economy an estimated 60 billion annually in treatment, lost wages & productivity; in the U.S.A. a staggering 634 billion.

Those who suffer with intractable pain in North America now outnumber heart disease, cancer & diabetes patients combined. The current media focus on “The Opioid Crisis,” a dramatic but not necessarily more serious issue – has unfortunately resulted in a profound loss of care for chronic pain sufferers who in many cases are being undertreated- with dire consequences. This burgeoning epidemic is largely ignored &underfunded.

Pain Warriors by award winning filmmakers Tina Petrova and Eugene Weis, examines with unflinching truth “the forgotten ones.” Long time pain patients denied life giving medications by government policies can be driven to suicide while some doctors who bravely fight to uphold their Hippocratic oath are threatened with loss of license, livelihood and even criminal charges that can lead to incarceration. Would we take away someone’s insulin, beta blocker or Warfarin because a small percentile of the population found a way to monetize those drugs and get high off them? Are the human rights of pain patients being sacrificed for politically expedient policies, and extreme cuts to patient care costs?

Pain Warriors serves up a plate of disturbing truth: chronic pain patients face a lifelong battle with no cure in sight. They build their lives around managing pain and struggle to perform simple every day functions like walking or shopping for food. Their demographic is invisible, shunned and disbelieved. And yet “they” “could be “us” in a flash. We are all a car accident, a surgery, or a degenerative condition away from this tragic outcome. This brave documentary shines a light on patients fighting for the right to manage severe pain, including an eleven-year old who draws his pain as long toothed monsters, as well as specialists prevented from helping their patients achieve a small degree of comfort and dignity through pain control. Tragically, when opioids and other medications are suddenly withdrawn because of a blanket “one-size-fits-all” legislation, doctors and patients alike are being left with nowhere to turn. From the somber spreading of ashes at Newport Beach Ca. to H.H. The Dalai Lama’s hospital in Zanskar India, viewers are swept up in a stunning cinematic journey featuring gripping stories from the trenches.

Pain Warriors~ enters into the desperate lives of pain patients fighting for their very survival, families torn apart by suicide, and the troubled worlds of compassionate doctors who stand up for them, risking reputations and licenses in doing so. Tina and Eugene bring a balanced view, to a timely issue. painwarriorsmovie@gmail.com/ www.painwarriorsmovie.com

 

When a chronic pain wife gets her opiates cut off… what is a husband to do ?

Twin Lakes police captain accused of illegally removing prescription medication from department

https://fox6now.com/2019/02/18/twin-lakes-police-captain-accused-of-illegally-removing-prescription-medication-from-department/

TWIN LAKES — Captain Dennis Linn, the second in command at the Twin Lakes Police Department, was placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations he illegally removed prescription medication from the department.

In 2016, Captain Linn was awarded for 20 years of service, and on Monday, Feb. 18, FOX6 confirmed the Twin Lakes Police Department, along with the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) launched an investigation into allegations against him.

According to an affidavit, comments Linn made to a fellow detective in the evidence room raised “red flags.” Captain Linn told the fellow detective his wife was in “a lot of pain” and was recently cut off from her prescriptions by her doctor. This, as Linn and the detective processed medication collected through the “Drug Take Back Program.” The affidavit said the detective was about to leave to get supplies when Linn said “I wouldn’t leave me down here. I don’t want to be suspected of anything, especially after I just told you about my wife.”

The detective stayed in the room and soon alerted the police chief when she noticed a bottle of oxycodone hidden inside a small garbage can.

According to the affidavit, a body camera was placed in the evidence room, which recorded Linn picking out an item from the garbage can at the end of his shift. The camera picked up sounds of “pills rattling.”

A search warrant executed at Linn’s home revealed three empty Walgreens prescription bottles, one for oxycodone and two for hydrocodone. The names on the bottles did not match Linn’s name or that of his spouse.

Marijuana concentrates and six twisted tissues with black material were taken — found in garbage cans at his home, according to the affidavit.

FOX6 News knocked on the door at Linn’s home Monday. No one answered. He has not been charged with a crime at this point, but the police chief said the investigation is ongoing — including a separate, internal investigation into whether Linn violated any department policies or procedures.

Linn has been a full-time member of the Twin Lakes Police Department since 2002.

Prosecutor: will “turn on their own” JUST TO GET A WIN ?

Attorneys for ex-DEA agent Chad Scott say prosecutors retaliated against defense witness

https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/courts/article_191e2f6a-354b-11e9-83da-cba26c0974a5.html

In a sharply worded new court filing, attorneys for indicted former federal drug agent Chad Scott are accusing federal prosecutors of improperly retaliating against a defense witness. They are asking the judge to dismiss the charges against Scott as a result.

The broadside, filed Tuesday in federal court, is the latest in a series of blistering motions filed by Scott’s attorneys, Matt Coman and Stephen Garcia. It comes less than three weeks after jurors were unable to reach a verdict on any of the seven counts Scott faced, forcing U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo to declare a mistrial.

In another motion, Coman and Garcia urge Milazzo to postpone the March 18 scheduled date for Scott’s retrial, arguing that they have crowded trial schedules and that it will be difficult to subpoena witnesses and experts for the second trial. 

Coman and Garcia reserved their strongest language for their motion to dismiss. 

Prosecutors ran afoul of the law when they “intimidated and retaliated against James ‘Skip’ Sewell after that witness testified and the first trial ended in mistrial,” Scott’s attorneys wrote. Their actions “must not be sanctioned by allowing this prosecution to continue.”

Sewell, one of three witnesses who testified for Scott, was a longtime, highly decorated DEA agent who had been Scott’s supervisor before Scott was suspended in 2016 as part of the investigation into the task force he led.

Sewell was also caught up in the probe. Although there were no allegations against him, he was put on light duty for more than a year while the investigation proceeded. He then retired — in good standing — from the DEA and went to work for 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomery as an investigator.

During his time with Montgomery’s office, he was placed on a violent crime task force and was sworn in as a DEA task force officer in late 2018. But soon after his Jan. 30 trial testimony, he was notified by DEA brass that he was no longer on the task force. The government’s actions were ” ‘intentional and in bad faith,’ warranting the dismissal of the indictment with prejudice,” the defense filing says.

This is at least the second time that Scott’s legal team has accused prosecutors of misconduct. In June, they accused prosecutors of “framing” Scott and hiding evidence that supported his innocence. They asked Milazzo to toss out the indictment, but she refused.

In a separate filing, Coman and Garcia say that both of them have trial commitments in different parts of the country during late March and April, and that forcing them to reconvene to retry Scott at that time would place an undue burden on the defense. They also say they are trying to secure the testimony of an additional expert, which would be difficult given the quick turnaround of the trials. They suggest a trial date in September.

Scott faces 11 total charges, but last year, Milazzo split the counts into two trials. The first, on seven counts of obstruction, perjury and falsification of government forms, ended Feb. 4 in a mistrial. The trial on the remaining four counts is currently set for Oct. 1, though that date has been thrown into question by the status of the retrial on the first seven counts. 

Scott and some members of the Metairie-based task force he led have been the targets of an investigation that began more than three years ago. Two task force members, former Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies Johnny Domingue and Karl Newman, have already pleaded guilty to federal crimes. Both testified for the prosecution in Scott’s trial.