A couple of years before he was convicted of securities fraud, Martin Shkreli was the chief executive of a pharmaceutical company that acquired the rights to Daraprim, a lifesaving antiparasitic drug. Previously the drug cost $13.50 a pill, but in Shkreli’s hands, the price quickly increased by a factor of 56, to $750 a pill. At a health care conference, Shkreli told the audience that he should have raised the price even higher. “No one wants to say it, no one’s proud of it,” he explained. “But this is a capitalist society, a capitalist system and capitalist rules.”
This is a capitalist society. It’s a fatalistic mantra that seems to get repeated to anyone who questions why America can’t be more fair or equal. But around the world, there are many types of capitalist societies, ranging from liberating to exploitative, protective to abusive, democratic to unregulated. When Americans declare that “we live in a capitalist society” — as a real estate mogul told The Miami Herald last year when explaining his feelings about small-business owners being evicted from their Little Haiti storefronts — what they’re often defending is our nation’s peculiarly brutal economy. “Low-road capitalism,” the University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist Joel Rogers has called it. In a capitalist society that goes low, wages are depressed as businesses compete over the price, not the quality, of goods; so-called unskilled workers are typically incentivized through punishments, not promotions; inequality reigns and poverty spreads. In the United States, the richest 1 percent of Americans own 40 percent of the country’s wealth, while a larger share of working-age people (18-65) live in poverty than in any other nation belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.).
Pete Alonso hit his 40th home run to break the National League rookie record, capping a late outburst by the New York Mets in their 11-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Michael Conforto hit a long homer in the first inning and drove in four runs. Amed Rosario put the Mets ahead 6-4 with a two-run single in the seventh, and Alonso went deep in the ninth on an 0-2 pitch. He snapped a tie with Cody Bellinger, who launched 39 long balls for the Dodgers in 2017 on the way to winning Rookie of the Year honors.
Back in the thick of a crowded NL wild-card race thanks to a second-half surge, New York completed a 3-3 road trip and improved to 24-10 since the All-Star break.
Alonso also had an RBI double and scored three times during his second consecutive three-hit game. Rosario had three hits and three RBIs in the leadoff spot, and Joe Panik added three hits as the top four batters in the Mets’ lineup combined to go 11 for 18 with nine RBIs and seven runs.
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New York Mets relief pitcher Edwin Diaz (39) shakes hands with catcher Tomas Nido (3) following a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019. The Mets defeated the Royals 11-5. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to set a legal precedent that would make it OK for an employer to fire a person for being transgender.
In a brief filed Friday, the Justice Department argued that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 only protects workers from discrimination based on their “biological sex.”
“Title VII does not prohibit discrimination against transgender persons based on their transgender status,” the Justice Department wrote. “It simply does not speak to discrimination because of an individual’s gender identity or a disconnect between an individual’s gender identity and the individual’s sex.”
The Supreme Court agreed earlier this year to hear three cases that look at whether Title VII, the federal civil rights law that prohibits workplace discrimination, applies to LGBTQ workers.
Staring through a swarm of photographers and television crews, self-described introvert Greta Thunberg took the stage at a Swiss university last week to pointedly reiterate a message that has captured the attention of leaders and like-minded young women around the globe: The world must take drastic action now to avert ecological and civilizational collapse.
“We know that our future is at risk,” the small, soft-spoken 16-year-old Swede tells journalists at the start of a weeklong youth summit at the University of Lausanne. “We would love to go back to school and continue with our everyday lives, but as crucial as this situation is, as serious as this situation is, we feel like we must do something about this now.”
Thunberg — whose central point is that humanity must immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions that have unrelentingly increased since the start of the industrial revolution, resulting in global warming — is the driving force behind a movement that has seen more than 2 million teens around the world take part in Fridays for Future school strikes against climate change.
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Greta Thunberg is the driving force behind a movement that has seen more than 2 million teens around the world take part in school strikes against climate change.Eleanor Taylor / for NBC News
Peter Fonda, the tall, lanky actor who became a star and a counterculture sex symbol in the film “Easy Rider,” carrying on the Hollywood dynasty begun by his father, Henry Fonda, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 79.
The death was confirmed by his family, who said the cause was respiratory failure because of lung cancer.
During his acting and filmmaking career, Mr. Fonda earned two Oscar nominations, almost three decades apart. He shared, along with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern, a best original screenplay nomination for “Easy Rider,” the story of two hippie bikers on a cross-country trip fueled by drugs and the thrill of youthful freedom.
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Peter Fonda in the counterculture classic “Easy Rider,” from 1969. He and two co-writers, Terry Southern and the actor and director Dennis Hopper, were nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay.
Antonio Basco stood in front of his wife’s casket for two hours Friday hugging strangers.
The El Paso man initially thought no one would show up for his wife’s visitation service. His wife, Margie Reckard, 63, was killed when a gunman opened fire at a Walmart. The couple had no relatives in the area.
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Basco walked into the La Paz Faith Memorial and Spiritual Center to a storm of applause and a procession of people wanting to hug him. The building was at capacity with 400 mourners. Outside, another 700 waited in nearly 100-degree heat to pay respects, according to funeral organizers.
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“People were telling me they came from different faiths, different cities. It’s just incredible how much love and support every single one of you has shown,” Reckard’s grandson, Tyler, said.
It was only two months ago that Josh McCown decided to call it a career.
After 16 NFL seasons with eight different teams, the 40-year-old quarterback decided it was time to retire. And so, he hung up his helmet and began working for ESPN as analyst this offseason. One chapter of McCown’s life was over, but another was just beginning.
Or so it seemed.
McCown changed his mind about retirement on Saturday, signing a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. The contract will pay him a base salary of $2 million, fully guaranteed, with a max value of $5.4 million, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Then, after the 2019 season, the plan is for the journeyman to resume retirement and his second career at ESPN.
It’s easy to see why McCown had a change of heart regarding retirement — and why the Eagles would try to talk him out of it.
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NASHVILLE, TN – DECEMBER 2: Josh McCown #15 of the New York Jets walks off the field after losing to the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium on December 2, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images
Zhangye, formerly romanized as Changyeh or known as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Gansu Province in the People’s Republic of China.It borders Inner Mongolia on the north and Qinghai on the south.
Diabetics skipping regular checkups. Young asthmatics not getting preventive care. A surge in expensive emergency room visits.
Doctors and public health experts warn of poor health and rising costs they say will come from sweeping Trump administration changes that would deny green cards to many immigrants who use Medicaid, as well as food stamps and other forms of public assistance. Some advocates say they’re already seeing the fallout even before the complex 837-page rule takes effect in October.
President Donald Trump‘s administration trumpeted its aggressive approach this past week as a way to keep only self-sufficient immigrants in the country, but health experts argue it could force potentially millions of low-income migrants to choose between needed services and their bid to stay legally in the U.S.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Lyle Ashton Harris for The New York Times
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Peter Fonda in the counterculture classic “Easy Rider,” from 1969. He and two co-writers, Terry Southern and the actor and director Dennis Hopper, were nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay.
An El Paso shooting victim
An image of Zhangye China
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