And yet prior to Bill Clinton’s signature in 1996, prescription drugs were not allowed to be advertised to the general public, only to doctors in professional journals. Thanks Bill, for groveling before Big Pharma and unleashing the shameless mess we have today.
I looked up information on the 1986 bill that charged the law and subsequently the operating practices of big pharma. I came across an article in the NYTimes from 1986. To his credit, Reagan questioned the wisdom of removing lawsuits as an incentive for pharma to not screw us over so much. He was assured that there was to be a follow up that would set aside money into a fund for any damages. Of course, that never happened. At least Reagan questioned the measure, but congress, in its infinite "wisdom" sold out.
And just 130 years earlier Democrats led the Confederacy! And just 70 years earlier Democrats actively formed and participated in the KKK. And just about the same time in the 1990s the Democrats strongly supported segregation even though it was banned 30 years earlier. Uho...wait a minute. That was Biden and his jungle rhetoric!
When some Brits were watching the SuperBowl, apparently on Vpn, or whatever, someone commented regarding all our pharma commercials, something to the effect, “ you all alright over there!” 🧐🤨😂, seeing all the drug advertisements. They don’t have drugs advertisements.
The FDA controls all drug advertisements. It is not anything goes. But as the FDA has been corrupted there is less useful regulation and infinitely more useless regulation around money! Compliance with Sunshine Laws are costly and labor intensive.
I don’t do Google, could not sign in to your link. Scamdemic or Plandemic, your choice. It was an inside job, all the way . The Medical Industrial Complex is visible to the more perceptive amongst us. It’s every bit as real as the Military Industrial Complex
At this point they are one in the same because the ying and yang of biological research that falls under the category of military “countermeasures” — it is all so-called duo-purpose, as RFK Jr has revealed (among others). And speaking of, I commend the newly released “From the Vault Darkhorse”interview between Kennedy and Weinstein that took place Dec 2021 I believe.
It is also irrational which is what one of my favorite philosopher/theologians, the late Dallas Willard, argued makes gambling immoral. We are meant to live rationally.
a good place to start would be banning state-run lotteries, aka 'a tax on the stupid'. get a bag of potato chips at any bodega in New York City and you will see people who plainly cannot afford it lined up to lose 10, 20 50, 100 dollars. every week. its shameful enough that our governments collect tax revenue off of these vices, but the lotteries are actually state-run enterprises. imagine if these poor slobs learned about the power of compound interest in school rather than this instant millionaire lie.
Lotteries are simply a regressive tax on the people who can least afford it. I almost want to cry when I see the people who plunk down their hard earned $. They actually think that spending $100 gives them a better chance than $1. Nope.
I am old enough to remember when NYC pushed the lottery to “help schools!” Because the revenue was going to help the schools! I probably could write another 100 paragraphs on this insanity but if you don’t see the scam already it’s not worth trying! Sadly, the most desperate among us are the ones shelling out the most money!
"State run" really means "state legally controlled" but in nearly all cases a private company admisters the lottery system. Now you know who the winners are.
The Tribal Casinos are Vegas times 1000 for watching society collapse. I’ve always thought if you can afford to travel to Vegas you can probably afford to lose a little money. The Tribal Casinos are a totally different story and make me depressed every time I stop by thinking granny is gambling her social security and her son is gambling his electric bill.
I started visiting Vegas -- always for business -- in 1985. Until Binion's closed about 20 years ago, I enjoyed it. It was fun to sit down at a table and spend a few hours hooting and carrying on with visitors from Texas or Illinois or Los Angeles. People flew or drove all the way out to Vegas to enjoy themselves, to have a good time, mostly socializing with strangers.
In the early 1990s I visited Atlantic City for the first time. Man, that was grim. It's a couple hours from several very large cities, and the people I saw at the tables weren't enjoying themselves, they were desperate. I thought, holy cow, this is the last place I would ever come for a good time. It would be like spending a weekend on the New York subway.
As I said, Vegas stopped being fun for me about the time Binion's closed; it was the last of the old time casinos. And since then, the industry has focused all its imagination on coming up with more and more ways to put the screws to its customers. At least in the past the hospitality industry was . . . hospitable. Not any more.
I still have to spend a week annually in Las Vegas, and I truly loathe it. I honestly don't understand why anyone would go there who didn't have to.
Three people I know gambled away their homes at the tribal casinos in CT. One actually gambled away her aunt's home that she inherited as well as her own. Casinos were one of the worst things that happened to the state.
Take the 2 hour drive north to St. George Utah (30 min past mesquite) and you will not find a more stark contrast to the Vegas “culture.” Two desert cities with values and outcomes so opposed it will make one or the other look stupid, depending on your morals. Hint: it’s Vegas that looks stupid and gross, because it is.
We are going there in about six weeks (via Vegas, cheapest place to fly into) to do an organized bicycling trip to Boulder, Bryce and Zion. I can't wait!
Several summers ago my road warrior hubby took our family of five through Bryce and Zion (and Lake Powell and Yellowstone and Grand Teton and Monument Valley and Yosemite and more)
We loved Zion but gosh it was crowded! Shortly after our return Yosemite lit on fire.!!
I am old enough to remember when Las Vegas was run by the Mob, Bugsy Seigel anyone? Now it is not the mob promoting legalized gambling, but the government. Far be it from me to liken government to the mob, but you can draw your own conclusions.
Alex, you couldn’t be more right. For all the reasons you alluded to (e.g. the legalization of sports betting, lotteries, weed, etc.) Vegas has become a microcosm of the United States. Everywhere you look there is evidence of incredible material affluence alongside examples psychological and spiritual despair and emptiness. Vegas is bipolar: it’s exciting, depressing, happy, sad, glitzy, dirty, crowded and empty. We are seriously headed in the wrong direction as a country. We are systematically dismantling and abandoning everything that made this country great. I hope I’m wrong but I see no evidence that it’s going to turn around. We are all witnessing in real time the decline and fall of a once great nation
What a refreshing article...something kind of fun, yet thought provoking. We need more like this! I only go to Vegas because it's the gateway to a lot of the bicycling trips we go on. Death Valley a few years back, and Utah in about six weeks, fly to Vegas, get the hell outta there asap and go to St. George, UT.
We just flew home from Vegas after a national parks trip that included the Grand Canyon (both rims), Bryce, and Zion. Due to the timing of the travels we did spend the night in Vegas and saw a Cirque du Soleil show at the Bellagio. Was quite turned off by the casinos. I've never gambled anyway and have no intent to start. Also wasn't very interested in leaving the hotel and walking around Vegas.. didn't feel particularly safe to me.
Have an awesome time on your trip! It's beautiful country over there despite the strip!
It is NOT safe! It’s the only place I have ever experienced being battered by a mentally ill woman. She punched me in the face outside the Bellagio in broad daylight in front of many witnesses. I suffered a black eye and I left town the next day - never to return.
it's easy to watch tv for hours or doomscroll social media if your life has no meaning.
if there is no universal good, then you decide what is "good".
but can you?
it's harder than you think to get it right or even mostly right. if you need some help, then try finding a church without rainbow banners & limit tv & internet.
We spend a vast amount of time entertaining ourselves. Talk about solitary vice. Whether it's in a poker game or in front of a screen with people all around, we are alone. Reading books is different. It's like a dialog, where the reader dialogs without talking. Of course, it depends on the book somewhat. Dark Thomas is on to something here. Loneliness and unbelief are painful and destructive to health, especially mental health. Unbelief destroys the rationale for temperance. The struggle is real, but entertainment (drugs) is unreal. Enter a world where reality matters not. Entertainment is the best medicine. Don't think about your pain, medicate it.
These days it's easy to survive (unless you were unlucky enough to be born in the Ukraine during a historic money laundering operation - er, I mean - war for sovereignty).
"The societal barriers were probably more important. They always are."
This is the most important line in the post. And it is the root of any of the problems that your local government tells you that they want to create "solutions" for. In the meantime, the same government has been diligently working to remove such barriers, claiming that they're "stigmas" that "oppress" "marginalized" communities.
From a philosophical angle, I have no objection to gambling. But as a baseball fan, I have to admit that I find it distracting and intrusive to see the bottom third of my TV screen inundated with betting numbers that mean nothing to me and that I have zero interest in. Enough visual obstructions already, give me back the bottom of the screen! 😠
And now, gambling talk has even started to invade the play-by-play commentators' conversations. I couldn't care less whether Team A is "over 125" or Team B "under 150," whatever the heck that means. Talk baseball, not betting odds!! 😡
No one puts a gun to your head and says GAMBLE. It's a CHOICE every GOD given brain has, as are most things in life. Personal responsibility HAS to make a comeback. The coddling, entitling and victim minded American mind is REAL!
And the things that will best support us are now frowned upon as old-fashioned and not progressive enough, to wit a solid family structure and traditional religion.
Interesting that you play poker! Isn't it frustrating that over a decade after "Black Friday", we still can't legally play poker on the internet?
America might be becoming more like Vegas, but at least in Vegas it's important to keep up appearances. Many places (especially west coast) are simply open-air cesspools these days. All of the downside of the Vegas experience but none of the glamour.
And yet prior to Bill Clinton’s signature in 1996, prescription drugs were not allowed to be advertised to the general public, only to doctors in professional journals. Thanks Bill, for groveling before Big Pharma and unleashing the shameless mess we have today.
Democrats, Pharmaceutical Companies and the Media have become one.
And just 10 years prior Congress and Reagan gave Pharma immunity for damages caused children by vaccines
To this day, I ask myself what was he thinking?
In truth the Uniparty has delivered the bad situation we have today. The research of Katherine Watt here at Substack has proven that.
Agreed! We do have a Uniparty with a few good people, all of them on the Republican side.
I looked up information on the 1986 bill that charged the law and subsequently the operating practices of big pharma. I came across an article in the NYTimes from 1986. To his credit, Reagan questioned the wisdom of removing lawsuits as an incentive for pharma to not screw us over so much. He was assured that there was to be a follow up that would set aside money into a fund for any damages. Of course, that never happened. At least Reagan questioned the measure, but congress, in its infinite "wisdom" sold out.
And just 130 years earlier Democrats led the Confederacy! And just 70 years earlier Democrats actively formed and participated in the KKK. And just about the same time in the 1990s the Democrats strongly supported segregation even though it was banned 30 years earlier. Uho...wait a minute. That was Biden and his jungle rhetoric!
The GOP be hoes, too.
I doubt many Republicans voted against Pharma in 1996
When some Brits were watching the SuperBowl, apparently on Vpn, or whatever, someone commented regarding all our pharma commercials, something to the effect, “ you all alright over there!” 🧐🤨😂, seeing all the drug advertisements. They don’t have drugs advertisements.
And they're healthier. Hmmm . . .
The FDA controls all drug advertisements. It is not anything goes. But as the FDA has been corrupted there is less useful regulation and infinitely more useless regulation around money! Compliance with Sunshine Laws are costly and labor intensive.
Regulatory capture
No Medical Industrial Complex, no Scamdemic.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtwCwltzgTZvGsrDwTpngKXKDw
I don’t do Google, could not sign in to your link. Scamdemic or Plandemic, your choice. It was an inside job, all the way . The Medical Industrial Complex is visible to the more perceptive amongst us. It’s every bit as real as the Military Industrial Complex
At this point they are one in the same because the ying and yang of biological research that falls under the category of military “countermeasures” — it is all so-called duo-purpose, as RFK Jr has revealed (among others). And speaking of, I commend the newly released “From the Vault Darkhorse”interview between Kennedy and Weinstein that took place Dec 2021 I believe.
Gambling is a serious addiction that nobody talks about.
It is also irrational which is what one of my favorite philosopher/theologians, the late Dallas Willard, argued makes gambling immoral. We are meant to live rationally.
a good place to start would be banning state-run lotteries, aka 'a tax on the stupid'. get a bag of potato chips at any bodega in New York City and you will see people who plainly cannot afford it lined up to lose 10, 20 50, 100 dollars. every week. its shameful enough that our governments collect tax revenue off of these vices, but the lotteries are actually state-run enterprises. imagine if these poor slobs learned about the power of compound interest in school rather than this instant millionaire lie.
Lotteries are simply a regressive tax on the people who can least afford it. I almost want to cry when I see the people who plunk down their hard earned $. They actually think that spending $100 gives them a better chance than $1. Nope.
$100 increases the odds a lot, except 1 x ~0 = 0, 100 x ~0 = 0 as well.
I am old enough to remember when NYC pushed the lottery to “help schools!” Because the revenue was going to help the schools! I probably could write another 100 paragraphs on this insanity but if you don’t see the scam already it’s not worth trying! Sadly, the most desperate among us are the ones shelling out the most money!
"State run" really means "state legally controlled" but in nearly all cases a private company admisters the lottery system. Now you know who the winners are.
The Tribal Casinos are Vegas times 1000 for watching society collapse. I’ve always thought if you can afford to travel to Vegas you can probably afford to lose a little money. The Tribal Casinos are a totally different story and make me depressed every time I stop by thinking granny is gambling her social security and her son is gambling his electric bill.
I started visiting Vegas -- always for business -- in 1985. Until Binion's closed about 20 years ago, I enjoyed it. It was fun to sit down at a table and spend a few hours hooting and carrying on with visitors from Texas or Illinois or Los Angeles. People flew or drove all the way out to Vegas to enjoy themselves, to have a good time, mostly socializing with strangers.
In the early 1990s I visited Atlantic City for the first time. Man, that was grim. It's a couple hours from several very large cities, and the people I saw at the tables weren't enjoying themselves, they were desperate. I thought, holy cow, this is the last place I would ever come for a good time. It would be like spending a weekend on the New York subway.
As I said, Vegas stopped being fun for me about the time Binion's closed; it was the last of the old time casinos. And since then, the industry has focused all its imagination on coming up with more and more ways to put the screws to its customers. At least in the past the hospitality industry was . . . hospitable. Not any more.
I still have to spend a week annually in Las Vegas, and I truly loathe it. I honestly don't understand why anyone would go there who didn't have to.
Do a little research and find the great Don Rickels' take on the transformation of LV.
Three people I know gambled away their homes at the tribal casinos in CT. One actually gambled away her aunt's home that she inherited as well as her own. Casinos were one of the worst things that happened to the state.
Take the 2 hour drive north to St. George Utah (30 min past mesquite) and you will not find a more stark contrast to the Vegas “culture.” Two desert cities with values and outcomes so opposed it will make one or the other look stupid, depending on your morals. Hint: it’s Vegas that looks stupid and gross, because it is.
We are going there in about six weeks (via Vegas, cheapest place to fly into) to do an organized bicycling trip to Boulder, Bryce and Zion. I can't wait!
I’m going biking in Zion tonight after the park closes.
Have a blast on your trip, it sounds awesome.
Several summers ago my road warrior hubby took our family of five through Bryce and Zion (and Lake Powell and Yellowstone and Grand Teton and Monument Valley and Yosemite and more)
We loved Zion but gosh it was crowded! Shortly after our return Yosemite lit on fire.!!
Hoping we will be OK after summer as we are going mid September.
I am old enough to remember when Las Vegas was run by the Mob, Bugsy Seigel anyone? Now it is not the mob promoting legalized gambling, but the government. Far be it from me to liken government to the mob, but you can draw your own conclusions.
In the mob, at least there was honor.
Now you know what the biggest criminal enterprise on Earth's name is...
Agreed 100%. That is why our problems will not be solved with a political solution. It is a spiritual solution.
Alex, you couldn’t be more right. For all the reasons you alluded to (e.g. the legalization of sports betting, lotteries, weed, etc.) Vegas has become a microcosm of the United States. Everywhere you look there is evidence of incredible material affluence alongside examples psychological and spiritual despair and emptiness. Vegas is bipolar: it’s exciting, depressing, happy, sad, glitzy, dirty, crowded and empty. We are seriously headed in the wrong direction as a country. We are systematically dismantling and abandoning everything that made this country great. I hope I’m wrong but I see no evidence that it’s going to turn around. We are all witnessing in real time the decline and fall of a once great nation
What a refreshing article...something kind of fun, yet thought provoking. We need more like this! I only go to Vegas because it's the gateway to a lot of the bicycling trips we go on. Death Valley a few years back, and Utah in about six weeks, fly to Vegas, get the hell outta there asap and go to St. George, UT.
We just flew home from Vegas after a national parks trip that included the Grand Canyon (both rims), Bryce, and Zion. Due to the timing of the travels we did spend the night in Vegas and saw a Cirque du Soleil show at the Bellagio. Was quite turned off by the casinos. I've never gambled anyway and have no intent to start. Also wasn't very interested in leaving the hotel and walking around Vegas.. didn't feel particularly safe to me.
Have an awesome time on your trip! It's beautiful country over there despite the strip!
It is NOT safe! It’s the only place I have ever experienced being battered by a mentally ill woman. She punched me in the face outside the Bellagio in broad daylight in front of many witnesses. I suffered a black eye and I left town the next day - never to return.
Thats absolutely horrible... I'm sorry that happened to you.
Thank you.
our prime struggle has shifted from survival to temperance
it's easy to watch tv for hours or doomscroll social media if your life has no meaning.
if there is no universal good, then you decide what is "good".
but can you?
it's harder than you think to get it right or even mostly right. if you need some help, then try finding a church without rainbow banners & limit tv & internet.
bookmarking this comment, DT. Godspeed.
you just motivated me to shut down my computer and get outside. thank you.
We spend a vast amount of time entertaining ourselves. Talk about solitary vice. Whether it's in a poker game or in front of a screen with people all around, we are alone. Reading books is different. It's like a dialog, where the reader dialogs without talking. Of course, it depends on the book somewhat. Dark Thomas is on to something here. Loneliness and unbelief are painful and destructive to health, especially mental health. Unbelief destroys the rationale for temperance. The struggle is real, but entertainment (drugs) is unreal. Enter a world where reality matters not. Entertainment is the best medicine. Don't think about your pain, medicate it.
I like this.
These days it's easy to survive (unless you were unlucky enough to be born in the Ukraine during a historic money laundering operation - er, I mean - war for sovereignty).
But surviving is not the same as living.
"The societal barriers were probably more important. They always are."
This is the most important line in the post. And it is the root of any of the problems that your local government tells you that they want to create "solutions" for. In the meantime, the same government has been diligently working to remove such barriers, claiming that they're "stigmas" that "oppress" "marginalized" communities.
Government is ALWAYS the problem - never the solution.
From a philosophical angle, I have no objection to gambling. But as a baseball fan, I have to admit that I find it distracting and intrusive to see the bottom third of my TV screen inundated with betting numbers that mean nothing to me and that I have zero interest in. Enough visual obstructions already, give me back the bottom of the screen! 😠
And now, gambling talk has even started to invade the play-by-play commentators' conversations. I couldn't care less whether Team A is "over 125" or Team B "under 150," whatever the heck that means. Talk baseball, not betting odds!! 😡
No one puts a gun to your head and says GAMBLE. It's a CHOICE every GOD given brain has, as are most things in life. Personal responsibility HAS to make a comeback. The coddling, entitling and victim minded American mind is REAL!
And the things that will best support us are now frowned upon as old-fashioned and not progressive enough, to wit a solid family structure and traditional religion.
Well written. Sure gets lots of pushback. I’m glad Texas continues to hold out on casinos although they are all just over the state lines.
Interesting that you play poker! Isn't it frustrating that over a decade after "Black Friday", we still can't legally play poker on the internet?
America might be becoming more like Vegas, but at least in Vegas it's important to keep up appearances. Many places (especially west coast) are simply open-air cesspools these days. All of the downside of the Vegas experience but none of the glamour.
"I know the First Amendment effectively makes any restrictions on advertising impossible. And if it’s legal, and can be advertised . . . "
When was the last time you saw cigarettes advertised anywhere except on Native American reservations?
Tobacco and liquor cannot be advertised on media regulated by the FCC.