12/5/13

ALEC leading assault on working poor, middle class




And, I mean there was a consistent thread even within the Birch Society there, too, which was that the Birch Society was founded mostly by largely businessmen who were opposed to labor unions and, you know, minimum wage laws, and specifically opposed to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and a larger federal government. So there's kind of a consistent line that moves from the father, whose name is Fred Koch, to these sons. [Jane Mayer, interview, NPR's Fresh Air].

Huh: Zoloft, Prozac, Effexor, Ritalin and Paxil all seem to weave through gun violence. They all love the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), too.
The worst of all of ALEC's model legislation is what they call the "Healthcare Freedom Act," which, if passed in a state, would bar insurers from accepting federal subsidies if it would cause the employer mandate to apply. In fact, if insurers did accept federal subsidies they would lose their license to sell health insurance in that state. Because liberty. [Crooks and Liars]



Ok, so Natural News is a capitalist rag with ties to Herbalife, also in the news. Its editor is freaking nuts and a delusional christian wacko; but, he links psychoactive drugs manufactured by those who helped craft ACA to mostly young men going postal as the Whole Foods CEO calls ObamaCare "fascism" and more. Chilling:
Prominent rifle manufacturer killed in mysterious car crash days after posting psych drug link to school shooters.
RT @ConspiracyWATCH. More here.

This should be a no-brainer: states where cannabis is easily available can expect fewer instances of violent crimes.

Chelsi Moy tells readers of the Missoulian:
A report authored by a D. Mark Anderson, a Montana State University economics professor, and Daniel Rees, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, discovered a 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities in states that passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. The study points to marijuana as a substitute drug for alcohol. Researchers also aren't saying that smoking marijuana impairs drivers less than alcohol, but "it could be that," Anderson said. "We're saying our results would be consistent with that."
New York is a state that has seen dramatic decreases in crime where cannabis arrests are draining resources according to NPR:
We've reported that crime continues to fall in the United States. The FBI said it was down for the first six months of the year and the Justice Department said violent crime was down 12 percent in 2010. It's a 20-year trend. One that has continued, despite a recession when people expect crime to pick up.
There have been movements afoot in red state legislatures to limit lawsuits against medical providers and the pharmaceutical industry usurping the power of end-users to sue for damages caused by their products: the gun industry is already immune to such class actions even as they collude in violent deaths.
But unlike the five big oil companies — ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP and Shell, all major contributors to the Republican party — Koch Industries, a conglomerate that has played a major role in pushing Republicans away from action on climate change, is ramping up an already-aggressive campaign against climate policy — specifically against any tax or price on carbon. Owned by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, the company includes oil refiners and the paper-goods company Georgia-Pacific. [Coral M. Davenport, New York Times]










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