“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”
Aldous Huxley
I have anger issues. (Common in combat veterans.) In comments on a Facebook post, someone responded to me with “alternative facts” and I lost it. I made a few points and left the confab. But I left angry. That person was supposed to be educated. (See below on the Dumbing Down of America)
The discussion was on the political side, and we being a charity cannot get involved in politics, but the line isn’t that fine. For example, I can tell you all the things Trump and Musk are doing right now, because that’s journalism. I cannot tell you that they are sick oligarchs fucking over the masses and creating the most dangerous kakistocracy in the world, because that is involving us in politics.
So let me explain my anger.
This guy called Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders “grifters.” I asked why and he said something to the effect that they sold out to pharmaceutical interests, that they took the most money (I’m trusting my poor memory) from the pharmaceutical industry than all the other politicians . . . or something like that.
I could not respond. It wouldn’t have gone well. Besides his first comments showed that he was all for putting an anti-vaxxer in charge of our health care, and putting someone who was on the TSA Quiet skies domestic terror watchlist in charge of our national intelligence. [Facts!] Then his telling me this crap about Bernie and Warren just lit my rocket launcher and I walked away.
Because of what is happening right now to our health care system, I must post this “Twitter thread” from a physician I follow (MAHA is, get this, Make America Healthy Again): Thread by Dr Angela Rasmussen
I am a journalist and I am interested in the truth, and if I get it wrong, I admit it, fix it, and move on.
First off, neither Bernie nor Warren took money from pharm corporations or pharm PACS. They took what you can call pharm money — from — “employees of pharm companies.” They both received donations from “individuals” from all walks of life who are allowed to donate up to a certain amount. But their pharm money came from rank-and-file members (employees) of the pharm industry, as I will show you in just a sec.
It’s the corporations, their PACs and their lobbyists who seem to be able to bribe politicians endlessly, but I know neither the figures nor the laws, so I stay out of that. (Oh, yes, you can find the answers. Watch: That’s a great question! As of 2023, the Pharmaceutical and Health Products industry employs the most lobbyists in Washington, D.C. This industry has a particularly significant presence on Capitol Hill, with approximately 1,600 registered lobbyists working on its behalf. To put that into perspective, that’s about three lobbyists for every member of Congress!
In terms of lobbying expenditures, the Pharmaceutical and Health Products industry consistently tops the charts among all industries. Here’s a snapshot of their lobbying spending over recent years:
2022: Approximately $374 million spent on lobbying activities.
2021: Around $356 million invested in influencing policy.
2020: About $310 million dedicated to lobbying efforts.)
What I’m getting at here is that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. If you know a fact, but you do not know the “context,” you really know nothing. To find the truth, journalists dig up facts along with their contexts.
Obviously this guy asked a question, but it was the wrong question, and he certainly didn’t question the answer he got.
If you have ChatGPT or Copilot you can ask, “Who were the top 20 senators to get money from pharmaceutical interests?”
The answer: Here are the top 20 senators who received the most money from pharmaceutical interests during the 2019-2020 election cycle, according to data from OpenSecrets:
- Bernie Sanders (I-VT) – $1,417,633
- Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) – $822,573
- Mark Kelly (D-AZ) – $631,838
- David Perdue (R-GA) – $607,378
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – $582,282
- Thom Tillis (R-NC) – $513,089
- Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) – $487,825
- Gary Peters (D-MI) – $409,258
- Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – $359,723
- Cory Gardner (R-CO) – $347,214
- John Cornyn (R-TX) – $323,152
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) – $319,201
- Steven Daines (R-MT) – $297,230
- Martha McSally (R-AZ) – $287,973
- Doug Jones (D-AL) – $287,902
- Kamala Harris (D-CA) – $266,114
- Joni Ernst (R-IA) – $260,486
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA) – $246,143
- Chris Coons (D-DE) – $240,786
- Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) – $176,700
The thing is, to get the right answer:
- you have to ask the right question
- you have to question the answer.
If you ask if either Bernie or Liz took money from pharmacy corporations, execs, or PACS, you get this:
“Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren did not receive donations from pharmaceutical political action committees (PACs) or top pharmaceutical executives. However, they did receive contributions from individuals employed in the pharmaceutical industry.
“It’s important to note that these contributions came from rank-and-file employees, not from corporate PACs or executives. Sanders and Warren have both been vocal critics of the pharmaceutical industry and have advocated for measures to reduce drug prices and increase transparency.”
Thus asking the right question really does get you the right answer.
This time we’ll ask: Name the top twenty senators to take money from corporate lobbyists of the pharmaceutical industry and from pharmaceutical PACS.
And here is the answer: Here are the top twenty senators who received the most money from pharmaceutical lobbyists and PACs during the 2023-2024 election cycle:
- Kamala Harris (D-CA) – $803,649
- Maria Cantwell (D-WA) – $697,871
- Bob Casey (D-PA) – $605,665
- Jon Tester (D-MT) – $597,187
- Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) – $593,589
- Martin Heinrich (D-NM) – $471,808
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – $468,916
- Tim Kaine (D-VA) – $457,786
- Ken Calvert (R-CA) – $432,760
- Jacky Rosen (D-NV) – $428,630
- Steve Scalise (R-LA) – $428,626
- Mike Johnson (R-LA) – $409,873
- Tom Emmer (R-MN) – $394,897
- Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) – $384,679
- Larry Hogan (R-MD) – $347,928
- Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) – $346,178
- Ted Cruz (R-TX) – $342,400
- Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) – $336,716
- Roger Wicker (R-MS) – $330,938
- Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) – $329,632
See? Asking who got corporate money, you get a completely different set of numbers.
Remember, Folks, you can have your own opinions, but not your own facts. And oftentimes naked facts are meaningless because facts have context.
In this case, knowing that Bernie and Liz got the most money of all the senators in Washington from pharmaceutical interests is not knowing all the facts. They both took no corporate money. That’s the whole truth.
Dumbing Down America
You could write a history book on this subject only. Briefly, it began in the late seventies and early eighties. The Koch brothers found it was cheaper to buy “local” governments than senators, representatives, and presidents. In fact, the cheapest investments they made were school boards. Members of school boards are elected primarily by name recognition. Buying up lawn signs is an insignificant cost to people like the Koch brothers.
Then the Kochs and other conservatives started buying up textbook publishing companies. Suddenly missing was the history of labor unions. Then women’s history. Then black history. Then misinformation crept in, like Moses was one of our founding fathers. If this keeps up, soon Jesus will be riding a dinosaur.
Currently we are seeing an attempt to destroy the Department of Education. Thomas Jefferson said:
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
And now you know why oligarchs are trying to dismantle the Department of Education.
