corporate greed | THE BLACK LADDER

By: Dr. Samori Swygert

This week I wrote a post detailing the various ways in which our health is under attack by profit driven corporations. I encourage you to read part 1. Let’s jump right into the final part.

What’s at stake/or at “steak”?

Two pharmaceutical classes of drugs are being introduced into our dietary consumption (antibiotics and hormones). The regulation appears to be insufficient. Have you noticed the recurrent meat recalls? Do you question the logistics behind the cause?

Think of all the farms that raise cattle, hogs, chicken, and etc. These are just farmers, they are not doctors! However, farmers are dosing our meat supply with antibiotics. As a healthcare practitioner, I understand how diseases are assessed, and how antibiotics are prescribed. A patient will enter the hospital, and may receive a prophylactic dose of antibiotics (ABX). However, if the patient is fully admitted, the M.D. will order blοod and sputum cultures to find out what specific infection the patient has, and what drugs the organism is susceptible or resistant to.

Does each farm in the United States have an onsite veterinarian that assesses each and every animal, and prescribe the appropriate drug for each specific infection? The answer is no! Nationally, we have farmers untrained in the medical field that may be giving animals inappropriate drugs for infections.

August 2013, NPR did an interview with doctors from the University of Minnesota, and researchers at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University.¹They confirmed that there is overuse of antibiotics with no true oversight. They revealed that the FDA only releases an annual report of how many types of antibiotics are sold to animal farms. However, that doesn’t reveal how much is used, or if the drugs are given at the right dose per animal, or if it is for the right infection. Imagine being given Penicillin to treat HIV! This is contributing to drug resistant bacteria in our food supply.

The researchers said the agricultural and pharmaceutical industry don’t think this is causing harm to humans. Well, in July 2013 there was 50,000 pounds of beef recalled due to E. Coli contamination by National Beef Packing Company, and this same company recalled 23,000 pounds of beef in June 2013 for E. Coli contamination.²

Furthermore, the beef industry has been adding a pharmaceutical class of drugs to beef called, Beta-Agonists. This drug is used in humans to treat asthma, but in cattle it’s shown to add 15-30 pounds of beef in the last phase of fattening (~3 weeks). However, Guy Loneragan, a professor of food safety and public health at Texas Tech University, revealed data at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association proving that the cattle receiving this drug are dying faster than the cattle that weren’t .³The drug maker, Merck, still thinks that the drug is safe.

Too Chicken to talk about this!

Just a few days ago, Foster Farms has come under tremendous scrutiny because 300 people in 17 states got sick from a multidrug resistant strain of Salmonella bacteria. Three of their processing plants are under investigation, and being evaluated by the CDC. However, according to an article by Consumer Reports, the company expressed that the chicken should just be cooked well, and they have not officially declared a recall!⁴

You’re not “slick”!

NPR published an article in August 2013, which detailed how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has allowed oil companies to dump their oil waste in the Wind River of on an Indian Reservation in Wyoming.⁵A tribal leader, Wes Martel, had a legitimate point. He basically pondered the legitimacy of this, because this runoff goes into the drinking water, land irrigation, cattle feed, and aquatic wildlife of their reservation. Rob Jackson, a professor of environmental science at Duke University, assessed the situation and revealed that this runoff is contaminated. The samples he evaluated contained metals, radioactive elements like radium, and benzene. He also stated that the levels have been “150 times of that allowed for drinking water”.⁵

Tying it all together!

Corporate industries have very little regard for our heαlth, and are willing to cμt corners, cheat, cover-up, and deceive us just to get a buck! We are being victimized by a cabal of industries, and it all starts from our taste buds! I believe 7 industries are profiteering from our taste buds.

Prolonged consumption of fast-food or contaminated food will eventually result in hospitalization. This will occur by food poisoning, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or cholesterol. The Kaiser foundation stated that the average hospital admission costs up to $14,662, and up to $27,100 for surgical admissions.⁶ The food industry gets their cμt first, then the healthcare industry gets a c*t due to hospitalization (diagnostics, admissions, surgeries). Next, the doctor prescribes medication, and thus the pharmaceutical industry gets a c*t. Let’s not forget the pharmaceutical industry gets paid twice from the antibiotics and hormones they sell to farmers! The insurance industry then gets a cμt, because we become a high risk policy holder due to our diseases. They then sell us high insurance premiums. The diet and fitness industry then takes a cμt, because we must have a lifestyle change. This lifestyle change makes billions from Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slim Fast and etc. The fitness component gets a cμt through the latest workout DVDs like: P90x, Hip Hop abs, Insanity, Tae-Bo, or even fitness equipment like the Ab-Roller, Total Gym, or Nordic Track. The clothing industry gets a c*t by selling the sneakers, sweat suits, fitness apparel, and even the new wardrobe as our weight fluctuates. Lastly, the TV industry makes off like a fat rat, because it costs millions just to have a 90 second commercial or infomercial.

Lastly, don’t be fooled when certain government agencies and biotech companies tell you that certain foods are okay and safe. Think for yourself and be logical. Watch this YouTube link about Camel Cigarettes from 60 years ago, and see how they had doctors telling us smoking was okay and preferred by them. YouTube link

References

http://n.pr/19DksYA
http://huff.to/17svu1V
http://n.pr/16dTvcb
http://bit.ly/1bJnFgQ
http://n.pr/19Os7cj
http://bit.ly/KV7TQg

Humanity vs Humoneyty = American Hypocrisy

By Dr. Samori Swygert

The secret is out! The government of the United States of America is officially SHUTDOWN! This may come as no surprise to many citizens. The Democrats and Republicans have come to a stalemate yet again. The citizens are again the collateral damage in the clash of egos, arrogance, philosophy, and greed.

This repetitive battle has become an infuriating conundrum among the people. As citizens, we work hard, sacrifice, and pay taxes. The government’s payroll, and services operate off the tax base of our hard earned money. However, members of congress are embracing the belief that they can operate with impunity, unaccountability, and still receive a paycheck for not doing their jobs.

Tea Party members and Republicans have a consistent complaint of their American tax dollars going to welfare programs. Many of these individuals feel that their money will be funding citizens that won’t work, and just collect a paycheck! Ironically, they are exercising the exact accusations they make of individuals on welfare now. Our congress men and women decided not to work, and still collect a paycheck for services not rendered.

We’ve been indoctrinated with the hypocrisy of cliched patriotic slogans, and mottos. Routinely we hear: “Liberty and Justice for All, In God We Trust, Be Patriotic, Provide Humanitarian Aid, This land is your land-This land is my land”. When do we get past the platitudes and elegant rhetoric of an American Utopia? The fact is, America is broken, been broken, and is currently breaking!

Where is the true sense of God, humanity, and patriotism? Our elected officials should be harangued, and lambasted out of office. Their actions demonstrate that they have no HEART or CONSCIENCE. Approximately 890,000 individuals will be out of a job due to their lack of commitment to the citizens they pledged to serve. I say, “even one day out of work is too much!”

Many people are so financially strapped in this economy, that each dollar of their paycheck is itemized and accounted for in their household budget before it’s spent. The wealth gap has expanded tremendously that the line between middle class and poor has dissolved. I have long felt that we are a society of “haves and have nots”, but this makes it evidently clear if you had prior doubts.

How do we continue to embrace these insults? They have dismantled Affirmative Action, which was put in place to show some form of acknowledgement of wrong done to blacks, and that got watered down and diluted to the point that anybody fits the criteria. They have dismantled the Voting Rights Act. They have dismantled the SNAP program that provided welfare and public assistance to struggling families. They have closed public schools and allowed the privatization of charter schools to flourish.

They have tried numerous times to increase the interest rates on student loans. They have allowed the proliferation and privatization of prisons. They have allowed the shipping of manufacturing jobs overseas, which increases the U.S. unemployment rate, and allow multinational corporations to warehouse $32 Trillion dollars in offshore accounts, but then complain about a debt ceiling! They allow companies like McDonald’s and Walmart to profiteer off employees with out paying them wages that are congruent to the contemporary living standards. Families are going into bankruptcies and foreclosures from predatory loan lenders.

They allow banks and other financial institutions to operate while conducting all kinds of monetary malfeasance, and get away with Golden Parachutes and slaps on the wrists. Many CEOs have even been given bonuses. We want wars overseas, and still haven’t processed the VA hospital benefits of over 860,000 veterans. So 860,000 veterans benefits have yet to be fully processed, and about 890,000 citizens are out of work? Urban renewal and gentrification is occurring nationwide. IS ANYONE TALLYING THE ENORMITY AND TOTALITY OF THIS DATA? Is this America?

Members of congress have amassed so much in pay, and have accumulated so much from corporate lobbyists that they feel they are above the fray ,and are immune or exempt from any kind of scrutiny and punitive actions. Maybe they feel secure because they have insulated their family, friends, finances, and partnerships from the impending collapse of the American economic system. Maybe they are comfortable and able to retreat to the security of quiet luxury homes, estates, condos, private schools, and suburban fortresses.

It’s convenient to embrace these “Disneyland Kumbaya Moments”, when there is national tragedy such as hurricanes, earthquakes, mass shootings, and acts of terror. However, what happens to the continuum of humanity and care for your fellow citizen, neighbor, and brother when the National Day of Prayer is over, and individuals go back to their separate realities of life?

890,000 citizens out of work is unacceptable and represent 890,000 households affected by these political wargames. Our congressmen and women need to comeback to the negotiation table or need to be kicked out the house. American families, children, elderly, and infirmed have no time for this grandstanding. STOP PLAYING WITH OUR LIVELIHOOD, and that goes to both political parties!

Empowering the climb to success and higher understanding!