• ickplant@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    As one former senior administration official puts it: “You try working for him and not chasing pills with alcohol.”

    Have you tried having integrity and not working for him though?

    • mipadaitu@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The federal government still needs to function, or a lot of people will suffer. Many people felt it was their duty to continue to do their best for the American people, even though they didn’t agree with the senior leader.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        “Senior administration officials” are not the people making the federal government function. They’re figureheads who assign priorities to the senior bureaucrats and show up at press conferences. The “senior administration officials” are completely replaceable and have no effect on the government’s ability to function.

  • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    While this is 100% true the reason I can say that is because the hill itself is rife with speed and meth and coke and then the downers they need to sleep / not shake apart.

    Source: I seent it, it’s wild.

      • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Oh shit I can only imagine, the Jan 6th footage before the speeches you can see trump folks just absolutely clenching their jaws with saucer pupils.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 months ago

          On top of that, the article talks about how people’s therapists were questioned for personal information revealed in sessions to use as blackmail material.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Other admins only do a little meth so it’s fine!

        /S

        It’s still bad, just because it’s less bad sometimes doesn’t mean it’s good.

        Have higher standards than donald trump

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            The rational solution is to stop letting White House doctors do whatever they want.

            But Dems won’t do that, because they abuse it as well. And Republicans sure as shit won’t do it.

            Which is why instead of talking about how trump was more insane than normal, we should talk about why ever WH doctor can hand out addictive drugs to anyone in the White House or on Air Force 1 like they’re jelly beans.

            It’s just another example of why so much shit in our government shouldn’t operate under the assumption of good faith.

            It’s just neither party wants to limit their own power when they’re in charge.

            We don’t have a party that’s actually trying to do the right thing.

            Just “bad and HOLY FUCK!” as you put it

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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              4 months ago

              It seems to me that it is possible to be critical of an administration without turning it into “they do it too and they won’t stop it either!” That’s just whataboutism.

              • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                No, it’s pointing out that we shouldn’t just blame one president, we should also blame the current president for not lifting a finger to change the system.

                Like, imagine if someone kept talking about how bad the Holocaust was, and anytime people brought up a current genocide, they say we can’t talk about that because the Holocaust was worse.

                But also they refuse to take any steps to prevent future or even current genocides.

                We shouldn’t ignore the problem was worse. But we definitely shouldn’t refuse to fix the system because it’s not currently as bad as it used to be. Because absolutely nothing is stopping it from being even worse than the current worst time.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yep.

      People keep shitting on trump’s “Dr feel-good”, and they should be shitting on that doc.

      But Obama picked his junky ass, and I doubt he was a competent doctor before trump.

      The only good thing about trump, was people started calling out some of the bullshit every president does. But it doesn’t really matter because loads of people were fine with it again as soon as Biden took office.

      It’s normalized to use drugs to make all those geriatric fucks seem functional on camera, but we end up with the highest up politicians being in their 70s and having decades long stimulant use.

      We can do better than 80 year old meth heads. Even if they have a doctor and not a dealer.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          You said:

          While this is 100% true the reason I can say that is because the hill itself is rife with speed and meth and coke and then the downers they need to sleep / not shake apart.

          I agreed, and said neither of our two options have shown any interest in making WH medical staff follow the same rules regarding addictive and dangerous prescriptions that every other American doctor needs to follow

          If people want to just blame the doctor, why not blame the president that hired him?

          • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            You quoted me, you’re right.

            You’re still not saying what I am saying and my words weren’t meant to lend credence to your “yeah what about the other team” arguments.

            To be frank my comment is specifically about inside the capitol building not inside the White House.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              yeah what about the other team” arguments.

              Saying “hold everyone accountable and prevent these abuses from continuing” is valid.

              It’s not “only get mad at the other team”.…

              Which is what you’re accusing me of doing, while doing yourself.

              I’m not sure if a simpler way to explain it, and I feel like any second now you’re just going to resort to insults because someone dared to want standards applied to everyone instead of just the ones you don’t like.

              • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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                4 months ago

                My dude the bias in what you said comes right through.

                I am not talking about Obama or Biden and my comment wasn’t even about Trump.

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        So while prescription drugs have long been in the White House — John F. Kennedy reportedly took a cocktail of uppers and downers to fight back pain, and Richard Nixon allegedly took an anti-epileptic drug “when his mood wasn’t too good” — they have rarely been dispensed as widely as they were in the Trump years.

        Emphasis added

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yes…

          trump has been the worse, but the issue happened before trump, and still happens today.

          And it’s legal.

          So we should change the exemptions the WH doctor has and make them follow the same standards as every other medical doctor in America.

          This shouldn’t be an unpopular opinion…

      • Smeagol666@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        I totally agree. Imagine the pharmalogical cornucopia keeping that walking corpse Sleepy Cornpop walking around. I’m sorry you’re getting down voted to hell, it seems we’ve fallen into a shit-lib circle jerk. These assholes are even more brainwashed than MAGA morons.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The media - or coroporate news, to be specific - not only failed spectacularly, they absolutely sold their souls and everyone else down the river in a truly astonishing display of cowardice and greed.

      I’m not saying the pizza shop owner has to take on the mob, I’m saying every single outlet joined in in supporting Trump at every level, even when they supposedly ran “anti-trump” stories. Their weaselly phrasing and mealy-mouthed spin - for years - was (AND IS) disgusting.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Not just that, imagine when Don Jr. found out he could go to the White House and get a prescription alternative to cocaine whenever he felt like it…

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    There wasn’t much the medical unit staffers could do, even if they wanted to hold the line. Several told Pentagon investigators “they feared they would receive negative work assignments or be “fired” if they spoke out.

    To any future poor bastards unfortunate enough to work for trump in any capacity, I offer the following: GET OUT. Science has proven, again and again ad nauseum, the guy is a demented rapist shitbag who is absolutley hell-bent on crime. Don’t be stupid.

    • Pofski@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I have seen people during the Trump administration that were proud to get fired. I am not saying that I don’t get it, but I respect those people more.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Dr. Ronny Jackson “would come around Air Force One asking Donald Trump’s senior staff if they needed anything. This included Provigil and [the sleep aid] Ambien, and he would hand them out, typically in the form of packets with two or three pills in them. . . . On a trip to Argentina in March 2016, one of those reports notes, Jackson’s “intoxicated behavior in the middle of the night, pounding on [a female subordinate’s] hotel room door, screaming, yelling, and overall loud behavior in his hotel room exhibited less than exemplary workplace conduct while on official travel to provide medical care for the President.” The Pentagon interviewed 60 of Jackson’s former subordinates; 56 “experienced, saw, or heard about [him] yelling, screaming, cursing, or belittling subordinates.” During a six-week stretch in 2018, a Defense Department hotline received 12 complaints” about Jackson.

    That’s current Texas representative Ronny “coked to the gills” Jackson, making those keen decisions for the people of Texas.

        • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I’ll say this: Adolf Hitler had his foibles, but at least you know he wouldn’t have needed a YouTube tutorial to blow his own brains out

          Could not even write that with a straight face

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            No bone spurs for him, either, he eagerly served in WWI.

            Trump: literally worse than Hitler.

            • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              As despicable as Hitler was, at least he passionately believed in something other than himself. Conviction tempered with enough crazy led him to start an ambitious campaign of regional/global domination.

              I can’t confirm Trump’s biggest ambitions, but he certainly appears as if he’s desperate to avoid jail and keep creeping on his own daughter.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Hmmm… I’m trying to guess which government you’re talking about. What connected dots are you seeing that I can Nazi?

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    OUR INTEREST IN THIS STORY was sparked, in part, by a handwritten ledger reprinted on page 14 of the January inspector general’s report: a tracking form for the controlled substances ordered by the White House Medical Unit. In addition to the thousands of pills of Ambien and Provigil listed are even more potent sedatives and pain pills: morphine, hydrocodone, diazepam and lorazepam (better known by their brand names, Valium and Ativan), fentanyl, and even ketamine.

    . . . But as the handwritten ledger shows — and our sources confirm — the medical unit’s procedures had grown so sloppy, so lax, that it’s impossible to prove the negative, that these sedatives and dissociatives weren’t given to White House staff.

    . . . That might sound like minor errors in paperwork. They’re not. They’re the kind of transgressions that turn patients into addicts, and doctors into ex-doctors. “If you’re sloppy even a little bit with controlled substances, you’ll lose your [medical] license,” one source notes. Without proper record keeping, there’s no way to say just how much of the Trump White House was on drugs. There’s no way to tell how they might use — and abuse — prescription medications if they come back to power. “Nothing is written down,” another source says of the unit’s drug distribution during the Trump years, “because we will always get to yes.”

  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    easy access to powerful stimulants and sedatives

    modafanil

    Jesus fucking christ. This is terrible journalism. Modafanil is NOT a “powerful stimulant”. It’s in an entirely different class of drugs than amphetamines, or even methylphenidate. It’s most commonly prescribed to people with sleep apnea or nacrolepsy, because it helps you feel awake and aware without having any of the less desirable effects of stronger stimulants. On a typical dose, all you’ll notice is that you aren’t passing out from exhaustion (and it’s not particularly fast; the effects take about 45 minutes on an empty stomach); you just feel awake. Someone that’s taking modafanil isn’t going to seem coked out, nor are they going to be tweaking.

    As far as taking alprazolam with alcohol, you have to take a LOT in order to be likely to suffer anything worse than a blackout. IIRC, the comedian Stephen Fry attempted suicide by taking an entire bottle of alprazolam and washing it down with alcohol (vodka?), and ended up waking up on his own two days later. I’ve done it, unintentionally; my memories of that night are very, very hazy. Alprazolam is not a particularly powerful sedative, and it’s far, far safer than stronger classes of sedatives, like barbiturates.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      It literally says that in the article. Just, apparently, further down than you read:

      MODAFINIL WAS DISCOVERED in the 1970s by French scientists and was first handed out to pilots to help keep them awake and on task in the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S. military started to use modafinil in earnest around the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the time, it was heralded as a massive improvement over previous stimulants: stronger and more effective than caffeine, less physically addictive than amphetamines. “These medications aren’t stimulants like the old military ‘go pills,’ there are few if any side effects when taken as prescribed. They simply stave off drowsiness until the medication wears off, then you naturally fall asleep,” one knowledgeable source writes.

      But that “taken as prescribed” caveat is crucial. When handed out willy-nilly, outside a doctor’s supervision, modafinil can pose serious risks, notes Dr. Rachel Teodorini, a researcher at London South Bank University’s division of psychology who has examined the drug and its effects. “If people have cardiovascular problems, heart problems, or blood pressure issues, it could cause things like strokes or heart attacks,” she tells us. And while modafinil doesn’t appear to physically hook patients, “there’s an element of at least psychological dependence. Tolerance builds up, and you need more and more.”

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Right, but when RS makes wild claims in the title - “‘Awash in Speed’” - and then calls it a “powerful stimulant” in the first paragraph, that’s just irresponsible. Or intentionally and willfully deceptive, because the only drug commonly referred to as speed is amphetamines and methamphetamines. Or all three at the same time.

        Given that RS isn’t exactly a neutral source regarding Trump (and hey, I think Trump can eat a bag of dicks, and I can count the number of Republicans that I would vote for on the fingers of one foot), I lean towards it being all three at the same time.

    • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Alprazolam(Xanax) is one of the strongest anxiolytics made. Times one hundred with alcohol. You are trying to downplay the seriousness of this revelation

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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        No it’s not, and I don’t need to downplay it because it’s not that fucking serious.

        Seriously, if you’re worried about modafanil and alprazolam, of all the godawful shit that the Trump administration did in their official capacity, then IDK what to tell you. That’s not even a fucking blip on my radar for the garbage that he and his administration did, and I don’t see why people want to treat this like it’s some huge revelation that is going to affect who they vote for. Because if this is your tipping point, and all the other stuff wasn’t enough, then your moral compass needs to be recalibrated.

        • Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world
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          Xanax is very serious, if it is so unimportant why did you take the time to type out your comment and reply downplaying it. You are defending Trumps White House drug use, perhaps it is you who needs to recalibrate their moral compass

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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            On the scale of drug abuse in general, and on the scale of maliciousness engaged in by Trump and his administration, alprazoplam is not serious. It’s right up there with huffing nitrous.

            Oh no! They did bars of Xanax! Oh, and Trump tried to get Pence killed when he certified the election, tried to strong-arm Brad Raffensperger into commiting election fraud, sucked Putin’s dick for four years, and on, and on, and on. There’s so much really, really bad stuff that worrying about the illegal use of safe and effective prescription drugs with fairly low rates of habituation used by tens of millions of people daily in the US is dumb. For fuck sake, when you compare this against stealing and storing highly classified documents about the US nuclear arsenal in his fucking bathroom, a bathroom that could have been accessed by hundreds of people, it’s not even on the chart.

            Shit, I don’t even think that what someone does or doesn’t use is any of my goddamn business, in much the same way that I don’t think Bill’s affair with Ms. Lewinsky was any of my business (…as long as she wasn’t coerced), especially since it’s very unlikely that either of those drugs would significantly alter Trump’s chimp-throwing-shit-at-the-walls decision making “process”.

        • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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          4 months ago

          Well, ever since they ran that hilariously fake story about gunshot victims not receiving hospital treatment due to Ivermectin overdoses, I’ve gotten in a habit of treating all of their reporting as potentially fraudulent. And this headline certainly isn’t helping to restore their reputation.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Eh, apparently a lot of reputable news outlets fell for that one. They–and others–were reporting on a story done by KFOR, and didn’t do any independent fact checking.

            • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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              4 months ago

              From what I remember, it was Rolling Stone who broke that story, or at least managed to give it national attention. Many of those other outlets probably trusted them to have done their homework and only reported it because they did.

              But that’s exactly how fake news spreads, isn’t it? One outlet runs a sensational story and everyone else simply reports on it, assuming they did their due diligence. When it eventually turns out to be a hoax, they just issue a correction, but of course that doesn’t get nearly the same amount of attention, so most people miss it and continue to spread unsubstantiated rumors.

              I bet if you asked around on the street, you’ll still find people who believe that this is a thing that actually happened during the pandemic.

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        It’s really what you get when you don’t RTFA and respond to a quote used in the headline.

            • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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              4 months ago

              What am I wrong about? Is it not misleading to talk about “speed”, which is commonly understood to be a street name for amphetamines, when the actual reporting is only about Modafinil, which is a completely different substance?

              Amphetamines are Schedule II controlled substances while Modafinil is Schedule IV (i.e. a regular prescription drug). The headline is making it sound like they were throwing raves at the White House when actually they were just using a stimulant that’s slightly more potent than caffeine. There is no “high” from Modafinil in any way that’s even close to what you get from amphetamines. I know this because I’ve tried both for my ADHD.

              High doses of amphetamine can make you aggressive, exuberant, and take wildly miscalculated risks. It can produce delusions of grandeur, paranoia, and various other dangerous behavior. Modafinil does neither of those things. It just keeps you from falling asleep.

              • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                Literally the article explains this, they used a quote from someone in the administration. Ya don’t even know if the person quoted us wrong, only that the known drug that the pharmacy was handing out Willy nilly to staff was modafinil. Your complaint is that they used the word speed and it’s just another stimulant not normally referred to as speed.

                It’s nit-picky at best.