Bloomberg reports that the Feds have indicted Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli on fraud charges.
Surely you remember Martin, no? He founded Turing, bought the rights to a drug used to treat AIDS patients, and proceeded to raise the price from $13 a pill to $750 a pill, thus earning him the title to “the most hated man in America”. Even Donald Trump said he was a “spoiled brat”.
Shkreli promised to reduce the drug price cost after receiving a torrent of abuse, but then reneged on that promise. And just this week, in what can only be described as a “fuck you” to the world, he bought the only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million. Because when you’re a sociopath, you do things like that.
As the Bloomberg article points out, when he was again prodded to reduce the drug’s price, his response was a tweet which merely said “lol”. He also said if he had to do it over again, the would have raised the price even more, as his investors expected him to “maximize profits.”
The Federal indictment stems from his time with a former company. The indictment alleges that he took money from the company to pay other debts from other failed businesses. Investigators had been looking into his dealings since 2012, predating his launch into infamy.
I have to say, when I woke up this morning seeing this news from one of my Twitter followers, I was awash in schadenfreude. Any cursory perusal of his story shows that he is a sociopath, concerned only with his own needs, and willing to run over anyone who stands in his way. He has no morals guiding him, except for what gives him gratification.
He’s different in degree, not in kind, however. The world economy was brought to collapse in 2008 by people perhaps not as sociopathic, but nevertheless having no regard for the greater good. “Maximizing profits” is the only thing which matters in our hyper-capitalist world. There is no commonwealth to consider; what’s good for a multinational is good for a multinational and screw everyone else.
I’m not writing this as a socialist or a proponent for a “mixed economy”. Capitalism, when properly regulated, is the best way to structure an economy. It’s when regulations are lax or non-existent that the trouble starts. When maximizing profit is the only lodestar, you get men like Shkreli. Before the Turing fiasco, he was lauded on Wall Street. If he hadn’t been so bent on bursting into the limelight, today’s indictments would be a minor article in the business pages.
A capitalism which isn’t rooted in the community, which doesn’t take community needs into account, is a capitalism which runs rampant, trampling rights. “Let the market decide” is the mantra of laissez-faire capitalists. The market, left unchecked, produces men like Martin Shkreli. Men like him serve no one’s interests, save those of a small clique.
Up with capitalism! Also, up with stricter regulation, so that men like Martin Shkreli are the aberration, not the norm.
White House.gov
Thank you soooooooooooo much LL, when I saw this news this morning I did a literal happy dance!
I was verklempt.
As for the other news …… are you sad?
Meh. It was untenable. Jose had lost the dressing room. The whys and wherefores are immaterial. The fact is that Roman stuck with him much longer than he normally would have. The BBC write up on what went wrong with this season is quite illuminating.
At this rate, Pep might have a choice of Chelsea, Manchester City and United at the end of the season. Maybe even Arsenal too if they screw up. Spoiled for choice.
Oh, Golden Pep. Come to the Bridge and I’ll take back every snarky thing I’ve ever said about you.
How could he resist the lure of living in Majestic Manchester?
Barcelona. Munich. Manchester. Yeah, I can see that being the logical progression in livable cities. :roll:
Just checked to see where he was born: Santpedor, Spain.
That could be Manchester :cool:
The fact that he’s run away from there to pursue fame and glory doesn’t give you pause?
Yeah but: you’re usually drawn back to your home-place as you get creaky, and Manchester being Santpedor’s twin town would ease him back in that direction as he approaches retirement. He’d feel completely cozy there.
Heh…even GOD had a response! :)
:lol:
I am VERY MUCH looking forward to this!!!
It will be the biggest “I’ve-got-no-more phucks-left-to-give” speech of all time!!!
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok you can all relax now, I’m here. I had to take an 8 hour safety class at work today. After the first few minutes of the instructor telling us to “don’t do no dumb shit,” it was 7 hours and 45 minutes of “take a five minute break” and listening to stories of people getting mangled on the job.
Love our Joe. Thank you, Chips.
You are enormously welcome, Mega Meta!
We won’t see another exemplary VP like him in this lifetime.
Hello TOD, Chips. Seeing VPB in action leaves me wanting. He would be such a good president. Sigh !!
Study: White people react to evidence of white privilege by claiming greater personal hardships
Researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business have found that white people respond to evidence that they are privileged by their race by insisting that they face greater hardships in life.
In a study published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, L. Taylor Phillips and Brian S. Lowery point out that progress on racial equality is limited by the fact that many whites deny the existence of inequities.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/study-white-people-react-to-evidence-of-white-privilege-by-claiming-greater-personal-hardships/#.VnNEp5qLt5k.twitter
No surprise there.
It’s an intellectually dishonest exercise that they engage in - which allows them to retain that privilege. As Chris Rock once said, no white person on the face of this earth would want to exchange places with him, a successful Black man earning a good living as a Hollywood celeb.
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
not at all.
It is illustrated, illuminated and proven 24/7 watching, listening and reading what GOPer Presidential Candidates have been doing since 2008. Having a Black President drives this lunacy even further down to psychosis.
Who Runs the Corporate News Media? That again is helping in backing up the delusion. How many in the Mass Communication Business are quick to analysis Pres Obama’s Emotion, Motive, Judgement, Region, Birth Right, Love of Country, but are indignant of using the same barometer to measure Trump, Romney, etc?
Finally, after building countless websites for others, and launching innumerable people and their endeavors on social media, my social media strategist daughter has built her own website!! Take a peek, it is brand new as of yesterday. She is the one you want, if you need a genuine strategist!! Love it! <3 http://innovativedigitalmedia.com/
Congratulations to your daughter. Very elegant website.
Congratulations to your daughter. Very elegant website. You have a skilled daughter.
Really nice website MP.
MP, it’s a lovely website. I wish your daughter all the best <3
Congrats, MP. May her clients list continue to grow. Great that she and her business partner are into social work too.
Congratulations to your daughter, MP! Very nice website. I liked it on Facebook.
Notice how very little, if anything to do with surveillance was discussed in CNN’s yuuuuuge Republican debate on FP /terrorism with Trump & Friends? If that doesn’t tell you that Little Snowdie and his pal GG are working HARD for the GOP, think again….
From what I read there was a brief exchange initiated by Rubio with Ted Cruz where he called the NSA reform bill bad because it made it more difficult to find terrorists. Predictably Rand Paul rushed to the defense of Cruz and the NSA bill.
Oh yes, now I remember - I actually saw that brief exchange that you’re referring to. But given that NSA was the whole rage in 2013 and beyond, and this week’s debate focused squarely on terrorism…I would have expected a much larger and substantive discussion….
I am going to record this show. Looking forward to seeing our POTUS in the wild.
Bear has been super psyched all day…if you go down his Twitter TL, it’s nothing but Running Wild with POTUS!!! And I’m even more psyched than Bear! :) :)
Thank you all for your best wishes and hugs to me this morning. I get through the season OK. I am more concerned about the idiots running for office. We are in for a rough 2016 I think. Thank God for all of you, “the sanity site” unless youaretalking Soccer. :-)
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{{{{ <3 Roberta <3 }}}}
Chips, this will be Danny’s Christmas present from me… You’re welcome!
:lol: As if he didn’t already think he was a babe magnet!!!
Had that ‘talk’ with him yet?
No?
#chicken
About the birds and the bees? I was hoping you might do it by Skype. When are you free?
just one word.
just.go.for.it.
/so, it’s four words, but he doesn’t know it.
Are you telling me to tell him ‘just go for it’? See, it’s sex education of that nature that has the world so drastically over-populated.
#bollocks
Jesus.
Huh, he might be next.
Le Professeur? Nevah. 20 years and counting.
I’ll be front and center:
Same, meta…same. :) :)
And we here on TOD will Savor.Every.Damn.Moment.of.it.
It will be symbolically the beginning of the end, and I’ll be both exhilarated and profoundly sad. We are facing a new transition and I’m not real sure how to deal.
Yup. A very bittersweet moment. People will begin to miss him in earnest at this point…
Especially with the dangerous crap with Trump and the GOP going on right now…and the Dem party being rather uninspiring at the moment.
Every.Damn.Minute
the line that will live forever…
I will love my President Forever!HZ
Ditto….I will love my President forever
/smh
With a promise of this “Non-traditional” SOTU speech, you know the media’s pre-Obama speech anxiety levels will be even higher than their already off-the-charts pre-Obama speech anxiety levels!
lol…lol
Awww….Lil Jebbie doesn’t find it so funny anymore…
All you need to know about sea monkeys, the hardiest survivors.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151217-the-tiny-creatures-that-flew-to-the-moon-twice-and-survived
#WeirdestRandomLinkOfTheNight
#ItiscalledEDUCATION.
LL, your articles are informative, educational, and just down right entertaining to read. Thank you!
Jeb’s a wuss, but Trump’s a dick.
OOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!
PURFFECTO!!!
New post
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/12/17/running-wild-with-the-president/