The White House has its own pharmacy—and, boy, was it shady under Trump

Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 232 points –
The White House has its own pharmacy—and, boy, was it shady under Trump
arstechnica.com
19

If Donnie had the balls of a hamster he'd have just extorted Putin for $50 billion on inauguration day and relaxed for the next four years. Small time crooks always act like small time crooks.

The report does not mention Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, who served as the physician to the president from 2013 to 2018 under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Stat, which first reported on the OIG's new report, noted that Jackson had been accused of fostering a toxic work environment, engaging in alcohol-fueled misconduct, and misusing Ambien, specifically. OIG received those allegations during the first part of 2018, around the same time when the pharmacy complaints came in. And some of the allegations against Jackson were confirmed by a separate OIG investigation released in 2021.

Yikes.

That's the House Representative from TeQxas, Ronny Jackson.

TeQxas, you miserable bastards.

I remember that guy from when he took the piss answering questions about Trump's health.

Said something like "yeah some people are just big boned. Never seen a healthier man in my entire life"

The Pod Save Johns said he was called Dr. Feelgood by Obama’s WH staff.

Honestly, I’d be more surprised if there was a time where the White House pharmacy wasn’t abused or misused.

For those of you who were too young, there was once a George Bush who was president but not the one who invaded Iraq for no reas- well, I mean he invaded Iraq for no good reason, but he . . okay it was that guy's dad, ok. Anyway G.H.W.Bush was a president once ok. The one after Reagan, when America officially started going really wrong in the modern era.

Anyway, the crack epidemic was in full swing so some enterprising cops staged a crack-buy sting outside the White House for a press event to show how they were tough on drugs or whatever. I don't remember who actually said it, but the quote that I remember most from that news story was "they didn't have to go that far from the White House to find cocaine"

When reminding or teaching the younger community about George H.W. Bush, let us not forget to mention that when the US elected him, it elected the former CIA director to the presidency.

A supposedly democratic Republic elected its own chief of secret police to lead the executive branch of government. Somehow even at that time most Americans didn't seem to be aware of that glaring fact, and far fewer have seemed to realize it ever since.

And then the country went on to elect that guy's completely unqualified son to the same office less than a generation later. /facepalm

For the real deep Bush lore you've also got to mention that Prescott Bush was a part of the planned fascist Business Plot coup.

You also can’t miss George Bush and JFK

Because . . . Wtf

I almost decided to mention that earlier/above. I'm not convinced yet that Russ Baker isn't a little off the deep end overall, but that whole story certainly is a fascinating and disturbing read, as is much of the material on his site.

Well, fuck me. That is wild. TIL.

Prescott also had business ties with the Nazis as well, iirc. Though it feels like most big businessmen of that era did.

Lucky for us, they thought Smedley Butler was the one to lead the US fascist movement but he became "woke" after serving in the military for decades:

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

  • Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket

Facts in the pre Internet era were vastly held up by word of mouth. It may have been said, but no one paid much attention unless a lot of people kept it going. The Internet has this ability to recall facts now that you would need to go to scholar about or a newspaper and find the exact article that printed that exact fact.

Early Internet did not have the news everywhere. It has some specialty news and cat facts.

‘Member when they found a baggie of coke?

And people freaked.

Technically… they’re not doctors, or pharmacists, so it should be public domain right?

Let’s find out what kinds of drugs were being handed out like candy…

This is the best summary I could come up with:


During that time, staff at the White House pharmacy kept handwritten records of prescriptions, the OIG found.

The pharmacy let White House staff pick up over-the-counter drugs from open bins, in violation of Navy medical regulations.

And it dispensed pricey brand name products freely, rather than generic equivalents that are considerably cheaper—also a violation of regulations.

In addition to the excessive costs of Ambien and Provigil, the White House Medical Office may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on health care for ineligible staff members.

White House Medical Unit senior officials estimated that its Executive Medicine clinic has 60 enrolled patients, but it provided care for 6,000 employees, potentially billing the DoD.

The report does not mention Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, who served as the physician to the president from 2013 to 2018 under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump.


The original article contains 883 words, the summary contains 141 words. Saved 84%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

If Whitehouse staffers need uppers and downers to get through their day I mean I guess, whatever.