Cult of Personality

There are many ways we can come to define what compromises a Cult. There are a couple of podcasts on the concept of Cults and they fairly do a broad sweep of the subject which can include Bravo’s Housewives franchises to certain types of diets. My personal favorite: The Cult of Dolly Parton. I have to admit that while I respect fandom there is this point where you cross lines, but I am not sure I have heard of anyone altering their body physically and dressing like Dolly daily, relocating to Tennessee and taking up residence near Dollywood to be closer to their icon where her songs are on permanent playlist. The Cult of Kardashians however…..

But the point is that when you become obsessive to the point where all rational thought and all spare time and energy is devoted to a singular subject that you are willing to change your lifestyle, your appearance, donate your money or turn over your finances and independence in which to pursue and remain in the society in which you are a member, you are in a cult. There is the Sarah Lawrence Cult that was in the news of late and a subject of a Documentary and now a play. That is a cult.

There are cults around business, NXVIM is one that stands out as perhaps the most bizarre of those, but I would include Scientology as that is a publishing industry as well as a Real Estate Firm despite having the designation of a “Religion” enabling them tax breaks and exemptions. Nice work if you can get it.

And that is the biggest cult of all – Organized Religion. The idea that you can have a “house” as it is called for worship, draw people in to listen to someone read a version of a book, take that an interpret its meaning, then demand fealty, in turn submission of one’s soul to that and demand money in which to enable you to do it all again and then not pay taxes on earnings, that is to say a hell of a cult.

And like all Cults sex is the big tool, pencil in which to draw and of course the weapon to further the submission of now both body and soul. The Catholic Church really mastered that craft and with that there are more Revelations than in the Bible (pun intended) about other organized Churches that have similar problem, the Southern Baptists are one such example. With that the promises of investigations and repentance, the big tool of Churches that one there, in which to ostracize those who harmed others. In other words, like Police who get busted for shooting/killing/harming someone they are just moved to a new place on the Chess Board. They then spend their days hoping to not get caught again for doing the same or just at least not outed for something they did in the past and promise, pinky swear, to never do again.

When one thinks of Cults almost always you think of Religion. There are many and the cross the globe. The fill a Wiki page and include largely those centered on the concept of faith. But they are more than that. You really have to examine what a cult is, and despite the idea that they are some sort of thrown together crazies who are nuts is actually kind of right and wrong. Charlie Manson was an example of that but when you look at the Cult of Nike Shoes, aka Heaven’s Gate, they were not. They were highly organized, had a dogma, a Hierarchy and in turn financial records, established income and were to all their members it was a “religion.” If they had the appropriate tax documentation and legal registration filed that I cannot answer but I suspect they did. And yes there is a podcast about them too.

And with that the idea of Mass Suicide aka Homicide features in many cults. There was Jim Jones, the above mentioned Heaven’s Gate and this cult in Kenya that had members starve themselves while the founder managed to survive. This is not unlike the one in Tennessee, subject of another documentary The Way Down, about the Remnant Fellowship and their founding Minister, Gwen Shamblin, who died in a plane crash. Guess weight was not a problem in why that plane crashed.

And there is a debate that groups like Heaven’s Gate and many other established groups, almost all of them subjects of movies, documentaries, podcasts and books, such Wild Wild Country. And are they in fact organized religions that simply like Scientology have a different angle on historical canons or are they are a cult? Again, I think ALL and any of it are cults but again I will say that you are free to go in and out of a Church at any time and not feel compelled to shave your head, wear a costume, donate all your money and go live in social isolation dedicated to the faith. Oh wait? Never mind. Still love Audrey Hepburn in a Nun’s Story though.

I have found some similarities to cults, they are all started by Men and then they get Women involved to be the recruiters, the beards, the front faces to show the legitimacy of the organization. Even Jeffrey Epstein had Jizzehlda/Ghislaine or Beard, to pose as his companion in which to enable him to move among the movers and shakers of leadership and finance in which to gain trust, gain money and fuck young girls. The revelations of that family/cult/business is still coming to light. I love the denial by all those whose interests coalesced with Epstein in pursuit of more money (sure but really isn’t sex part of that?) I love that they never saw a “young” girl in his company or on his properties and planes. Really you didn’t? They seem to remember you.

Yes folks Money is a type of cult, where the Billionaires and Millionaires meet, greet, fuck and do it all again in pursuit of money and fame. And all of that comes or do I mean cum, in the forms of buying, planes, boats, art or homes in which to prove how your bank account and dick are the biggest. Look at Newport or Beverly Hills, the Hamptons, Manhattan where they have erect ones lining the sky. Islands or Ranches are another way to hide one’s crimes right in the open and with that they are telling us to fuck off as this is an exclusive cult where membership is closed.

There would be no NXIVM or many cults without the Multi Level Marketing one sees in other business oriented “cults” such as Amway and Herbalife. That is how that nut, Raniere, in NXIVM made a living prior to his founding of that cult. MLMs have been called many names, including network marketing, social marketing, pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, product-based sales, referral marketing, and direct sales. MLMs are pyramid schemes that focus on recruiting people to recruit others, presumably giving a cut of the income up the chain. Bernie Madoff anyone?

When you dedicate yourself to preserving a belief, a lifestyle, a type of faith falls in line. Without that you have well just life and free will, and cults do not want free will, they want submission and obsession. The idea that you will have a better life, maybe not on this planet or even when alive but later so keep on believing, starving, earning, worshiping or fucking. That last one is always the biggest element in most cults. Remember they are almost all started by Men. Gwen broke that glass ceiling literally and is now with her God so I assume she can eat now, you don’t need food in heaven. And that Men are well men and they are ruled by the Dick. Why do you think all are Warriors of God and carry a big Sword there?

There are many cults and many types of them. The John Birch Society, the KKK, the White Supremacy movements that have many extensions the same way the Southern Baptists have Churches. Where to you think White Christian Nationalism comes from? I often recall the Westboro Baptist Church. But think of all the Pro Life Movements, where they literally killed Doctors, so much for pro life. And Politics make for strange bedfellows and none are more strange than the obsessive histrionic belief in Donald Trump. I have long said he hit the boxes of having money and fame. We all know that both are due to bluster and production values that the show The Apprentice provided. Like all Churches, Businesses have the Front of the House and the Back of the House. The back runs it all, they collect the money, hide the money and disperse the money, to themselves. It is all a type of grifting, or the long con. And without a certain type of believers that continue to come through the doors there is no way a business can last and you need that door open 24/7. Thank GOD for the Internet as now you never are closed.

The rise of Social Media parallels the rise of White Supremacy as it enabled, permitted, tolerated and allowed it. There were always factions and groups who in their isolation found support but then you have a massive communication too to facilitate it. Fox News and Tucker Carlson became the de facto propaganda machine and in turn those incidents of violence prompted by racial and religious animosity were easily dismissed and the faux rise of “antifa” became the new warrior cry and ones to blame. In my day it was Hippies, before that Communists and so on. The same way the lay elections at Soccer Moms, Tea Partiers and other “groups” that will be the determining factor are just concocted by the Media in which to bring eyes to screens, now those screens are more than Televisions, they are Phones, Computers, IPads and any form of technology one uses to find like. And as in all Math equations, like likes like.

As I watched the recent film on Showtime on Waco and I began to realize the complex web of how Guns and how those with guns meet, interact and the individuals, almost all exclusively white men who are lost and misdirected and use often Religion as their expression of frustration it allowed me to learn more about the way we use whatever tool we have in our kit to become a weapon. McVeigh was prompted by Waco and led him to find an enabler or more than one (which we still do not know and never will) I do find it ironic that it was the current DOJ Head, Merrick Garland who Prosecuted him but I am not sure I agree that it was flawless as he failed to realize that others were involved to help him plan and act upon it. And when we look at many of the mass shootings they are prompted by far more than a lone wolf who did not get laid, were bullied, were Racist, were Homophobic, Misogynist, Anti Semitic or whatever “ist” you need to validate your rage.

Jeffrey Toobin has written a new book, Homegrown, documenting some of this history behind Waco and the fanaticism that grew out of the 90s. The culmination of that was in fact Columbine. I had read the great book by Dave Cullen on the subject and knew the boys were not in fact bullied or sad losers. They had been in fact arrested and with that they conned their Parents, the Authorities that they were not a problem. But the myths remain. The same way a Teacher called that trigger by the drawings by one of them, the same was true in Michigan and yet the Parents there did know and in turn took off running. Denial is the same as complicity in many of these young men who are enabled to get guns, to hide the second life in the same way a Man hides a Mistress. Talk about Cults again and its relationship to reality TV take a look at Scandoval. What a farce that took up hours of rage and mob mentality to denigrate an idiot on a “reality” show and his affair. Do you actually know these people? Why do you care? Apply that rationale to the angry white men/boys who for some reason seen others as enemy’s and wish to do them harm. And when I got into an online argument with someone who was convinced that Columbine was a standard school shooting (again are any?) I pointed to the facts behind their reasoning, how they were perceived in legal filings as “good young promising men” by Therapists and Law Enforcement. Their parents relieved and meanwhile they planned on. Their killing of most of the victims was in the School Library and they took pleasure while shooting them. It is not a pretty story but again we have a gun problem, we have a massive mental health problem and we have no way of stopping or circumventing any of it. Time and time again we have failed to see signs, ignore flags and in turn we are so afraid we in fact contribute to it by buying more guns. And I will write a post about the history of how guns became the most significant issue in America today, a type of de facto defense mechanism that has little to do with the 2nd Amendment but more about money and strategy by the NRA and Gun Manufacturers. As all things in life there is always history and a back story.

But without a leader, a type of person, either dead or alive, in which to draw members there is no cult. Think Jesus and that is the starring member of that cult. When one looks at many “cult” fanatics there are usually patterns of behavior and failed businesses that often push one to form a type of community and in turn prove the naysayers wrong. The intent may be benign, but usually it evolves and becomes grander in both scope and scale. They almost always do. But as Americans we are illiterate, we like to emote, we like to believe what we believe and refuse to spend anytime doing the homework, taking the time to ask questions, and expect that our “instincts” are right. Really? Your instincts? We have two: Fight or flight. And with that we have some with higher order thinking skills motivated largely by the biggest motivator – Money. Money is the only thing that matters regardless of Class, Race, Gender etc, etc etc. And anyone who tells you different is either a Charlatan aka a Cult Leader or a Pathological liar aka a Cult Leader. Some are better than others at manipulating people to BELIEVE and not all of it is about a belief but it is about money. See Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos on that one.

It all falls to those who are Believers, Followers and those who are Leaders. And they are distinctly different. It is the Cult of Personality.

Oh Contrary

One must avoid snobbery and misanthropy. But one must also be unafraid to criticise those who reach for the lowest common denominator, and who sometimes succeed in finding it. This criticism would be effortless if there were no “people” waiting for just such an appeal. Any fool can lampoon a king or a bishop or a billionaire. A trifle more grit is required to face down a mob, or even a studio audience that has decided it knows what it wants and is entitled to get it. And the fact that kings and bishops and billionaires often have more say than most in forming appetites and emotions of the crowd is not irrelevant, either.” – Christopher Hitchens

I am a contrarian by nature, I ask questions, don’t accept the first answer given and often do my own research and come up with the answer prior to asking said questions in my way to out those to whom I feel don’t. In some ways it affirms my own perception and beliefs, that is the self-fulfilling prophecy in action, but it also gives me an opportunity to hear someone out and in turn look into that perspective further. It may not change my mind but it does open it. But we now in the age of social media are a tribal lot, we prefer to seek out those of like minds, who agree with us and affirm our beliefs are right and everyone else is wrong. And when we disagree we don’t argue on fact and figure we argue on personal and diabolical. We in other words launch into ad hominem attacks and physically threaten or doxx people by providing real life info such as addresses and places of employment to further bring harm. Sounds sane, no, not really.

I sadly am a misanthrope as I have given up finding the nature of people willing to learn and as a Teacher I am fully comfortable saying that. I know few adults who read anything, anything. And as I just started posting on my Substack account, Hate Male, I decided to make that site one that talks only about sex and not in salient way, but more about what it means to have sex and the repercussions of it. Sex sells. Maybe.

And with that I am a Contrarian and I appreciate the willingness of those who like Hitchens thought outside the box and was willing to push boundaries. We have lost a strong voice and with that loss we all lose. But I do not think it was deliberate or intentional to do damage, it was to shake limbs of trees, to open the thought process that not all things are as they appear. His vitriol about the vaunted Mother Teresa have since been supported that she was not as virtuous and generous as appeared, was a dogmatic bitch who did do harm in her quest to do right. Shocking! I know, not really. But when you do as such you are immediately ostracized and “canceled” for being a horrible negative person. What.ever. What comes from this is tragic on some levels and some can simply recover or move on but for many not so much. I am not sure what you do when your livelihood is taken from you, you are ostracized from the community and given the scarlet C as a moniker that makes others distance themselves in fear of being also labeled as an enabler and in turn also canceled. It is a circle of hate. With that I read this great article (WHAT READING???) in The Atlantic, The New Puritans, about our new social mores and the problems that it has created as we move into a post pandemic society.

In that article he mentions the former Science writer for the New York Times, Donald McNeil, who was terminated for using the “N” word, a word so troublesome we cannot even write it on a page or use it in speech to discuss its significance or relevance in culture. Yet it is used on the streets as a superlative and demonstrative all the time in the same culture that was once derided by it, so explain that to me. And do I want someone to address me as Bitch or Cunt as I have no problem using those words to explain myself or in fact label others? Gosh let’s start just saying “B” and “C” from now on. And we already know that Faggot is no longer allowed, just ask Matt Damon about even discussing it as a word he used in context to explain how he examined such names even in jest were damaging. Ah yes words about women will always stand up as fine I guess. Or not. What.ever.

I read Mr. McNeils Medium pages as his insight into the pandemic are critical to understanding the current state of global affairs about vaccines, the virus origins and other hot bed issues. Another I do read is Alec Berenson’s Substack, who is perhaps the most vitriolic former New York Times reporters when it comes to Covid. Where we disagree is the anti vaxx position he takes as it is loaded with errors and extrapolated facts he uses to misinform and support his views. The man is an outstanding writer and he has a voice but he chooses a megaphone that is just loudly out of balance, Mr. McNeil, no. One is cantankerous the other just a asshole who is smart and uses it to do damage. The one thing we agree on is that Fauci is the worst mouthpiece that the two Administrations needed to muzzle. So see, sometimes you find a position where you can agree, note, I sad SOMETIMES. But with Mr. Berenson he was also a profile in The Atlantic and there is little I disagree with when it comes to that portrayal. Balance is the key to life and as a Libra I constantly seek balance. And when all else fails I read (READING AGAIN???) Fact Check.org where I can also find some facts that are failed to mention when it comes to statements made by anyone on either side of the political spectrum. Not an easy gig, as Snopes as found out. Irony that Buzz Feed which still thinks it is an alternative medium to the mainstream kind. That worked out as one of the founders now works for where? The New York Times.

And because I read and read a great deal of news and in turn listen to news via NPR I have the time to ask the questions, seek out the information need to hear all sides of the story. I have a better understanding now of the FDA’s approval of the Covid vaccine that is not the current one being administrated and why it is not available. Understanding the complicated nature of drug production and manufacturing allows for the problems that Johnson and Johnson faced when they had a facility who had no expertise or knowledge to manufacture this drug, had a facility already plagued with problems and now put to use to actually work it tanked. Again had the New York Times NOT exposed that information the damage done to the vaccines, to people who were given them could have been serious and with emergency declaration the liability is waived. So it was a lose lose but it was a conventional mainstream press that exposed it through the due diligence of investigative reporting that did so. The same way that The Wall Street Journal through the work of John Carreyrou exposed the fraud of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos whose trial began this week.

It was a conventional reporter, John DeRogatis, who doggedly pursued the R. Kelly abuse and assaults of women that have finally placed Mr. Kelly under arrest and being prosecuted for Sex Trafficking in federal court when conventional court failed the first time. He too was derided and dismissed as we now learn not wrong, thanks to the dozens of enablers that protected and in fact covered the abuse of dozens of girls and boys under the hands of R. Kelly. Follow the money and as the trial of Robert Durst is ongoing in Los Angeles one wonders if in fact had the documentary, The Jinx, not been made would he be at all?

Contrarians fall under a large umbrella and within that comes an agenda and of course a sense of need to find support and validation for the theory’s, ideas or belief’s they have. I have exhausted myself trying to explain just basic facts to adults and when I am not paid I have decided to refuse to do so. My desperation for any human contact and conversation became exhausted during the early days of the pandemic so I am shutting down and confining myself to writing finally a book. I decided to turn fact into fiction as I realized people have difficulty accepting facts and truths unless they believe in them. So something good came out of this. And for the first time in decades I want to put down roots, no compromise and with that comes the next phase of doing such, including finding work that does take me out of the house at least some of the time. Teaching? Maybe but with N-95 masks, doors and windows open as that is the most compromise I will do.

So read, be informed, be educated. Have an opinion that is your own that comes from a place of knowledge, including those that are not of the mainstream. They may help you come to that decision independently, maybe change your view or at least affirm it. Or not. Does it matter? Only to you and yours. And no those are not those voices in the empty room of social media.

Blame the Patriarchy

I wrote yesterday about how particularly White Feminism is in fact as judgmental, racist and discriminatory as any white supremacist group as they use their moral superiority to patronize and demoralize anyone who refuses to subscribe and follow the script. The lack of diverse voices ( a wide swath largely of class and color) and of course voices that offer disagreement (see the current issues about Times Up) often enable, if not further, the belief that the sole course of action is right. And largely is that it is all about gender and in turn believing that one gender is morally superior over another. See the White Supremacist similarity? And with that women of color, women who are not American born are often equally subjugated and dismissed with regards to their complaints, blaming said failures on again intrinsic behaviors and not extrinsic factors that block access. What is the untold secret is that many of these women who have attained a place or position of authority that they did not bypass traditional pathways, networks, or accomplish said success without (usually) a white male mentor who either fucked them, or had some type of father dynamic in place in which to foster and develop the relationship that enabled the same women to have both access and availability to powerful people and positions. There are some women who have made success without male influence but they also had a large cohort of other women who embraced and encouraged them, as one can look to the early days of Feminism that arose in the 60s, much like Civil Rights it is a movement over a cause that enables if not encourages it, but today there are few if any women who have not found their place in society secured by either marriage or from birth.

And this brings me to the story of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame and infamy. The story of her fraud and duplicity in rising the company to amazing heights gives illustration to the ability to con. This woman conned many successful and well known men and Betsey DeVos (not a challenge there intellectually as we have come to know) into investing into her company based on an idea. This is the foundation of the Valley, the BIG IDEA, which in many cases are often just BIG LIES passed off as ideas and plans, see Adam Neumann of We Work as another example of this kind of P.T. Barnum bullshit in the land of cash and gravy. But the road to riches is paved with lies and exaggerations, and of course, men chest thumping and dick swinging. And then came Elizabeth with her contrived deep voice, blonde hair and black turtlenecks it was still easy being a child who extrinsically demonstrated the idea of white privilege and still now breaking the glass ceiling that someone less glamorous like say, Hillary Clinton, failed to do. But she managed to do it and for awhile rode that ride like a child at a carnival. And then it was a man, a man from the Wall Street Journal who began to ask questions thanks to another young man and a young woman who too had questions and they began to blow some whistles. But this kind of shit can only be covered up so long before the stink rises and we have seen this with many men of late, Scott Rudin, Andrew Cuomo come to mind, but this is still toxic regardless of who shat it. But what is fascinating is how they never admitted guilt or truly apologized they just retreated and we await to see their inevitable return or not, hey whatever.

But, today as she is prepping for her trial, Elizabeth’s success ladder has collapsed and now in an attempt at redemption is doing what anyone does best in these times, BLAME SOMEONE ELSE. Ah yes that is always a good idea and saying one is a victim of domestic violence is a good defense when any other possible one has been exhausted. Not only is it tragic, this is a horrific notion that further pushes women back into the professional closet. We are either fucking our way to the top or being raped while at the bottom, it is an either/or neither/nor choice that only once again seems to validate the idea that women are stupid manipulative bitches. One of these days Alice!

Elizabeth Holmes expected to argue she suffered abuse from ex-boyfriend during Theranos trial

Unsealed documents in the high-profile case that begins with jury selection Aug. 31 include accusations against Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of “essentially dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions.”

By Jay Greene and Rachel Lerman The Washington Post August 29, 2021

Former Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes is likely to argue in her criminal trial that abuse by her ex-boyfriend, who was the company’s president, rendered her incapable of making her own decisions, according to documents unsealed in the case early Saturday morning.

Holmes, who started Theranos when she was a 19-year-old student at Stanford University, is charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly defrauding investors and patients in connection to her failed blood-testing firm. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Aug. 31, with the trial starting Sept. 8.

The unusual defense strategy in one the highest-profile corporate trials in years offers clearer details on how Holmes plans to frame the implosion of a company that was once one of the industry’s start-up darlings. Holmes graced magazine covers and regularly appeared on business television programs while Theranos took in hundreds of millions of dollars from household-name investors such as Rupert Murdoch and Betsy DeVos. But her fall, after a 2015 Wall Street Journal investigation showed the company’s technology was unreliable, led to the many claims of fraud.

Several of the newly unsealed documents relate to the successful efforts by Holmes’s ex-boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, to separate his trial from hers. Holmes’s plans to argue intimate partner violence as a defense would prevent him from receiving a fair trial if the cases were joined, Balwani’s lawyers argued in the documents.

One unsealed Balwani filing from February notes the strategy: “Ms. Holmes plans to introduce evidence that Mr. Balwani verbally disparaged her and withdrew ‘affection if she displeased him’; controlled what she ate, how she dressed, how much money she could spend, who she could interact with — essentially dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions.”

Holmes’s lawyers introduced the possible defense in December, noting that it might call an expert witness to testify about “whether and how Ms. Holmes’ relationship with Mr. Balwani was consistent with intimate partner abuse,” and also attest to “Ms. Holmes’ particular vulnerability to an abusive relationship.” In a separate filing, Holmes’s lawyers note that it is “highly likely” Holmes will introduce evidence of “intimate partner abuse.”

Holmes’s filings provide some detail into her allegations of abuse. She alleges that Balwani monitored her calls, texts and email messages, that he threw “hard, sharp objects” at her, and that he restricted her sleep and monitored her movements, among other charges.ADVERTISING

In his legal response, Balwani’s lawyers disputed Holmes’s abuse claims, arguing they are “deeply offensive to Mr. Balwani, devastating personally to him, and highly and unfairly prejudicial to his defense of this case.”

The filings also answer a question about which has been widely speculated, whether Holmes will testify in her own defense, something that often is a perilous legal strategy because it opens a defendant up to cross-examination by prosecutors. The apparent answer is yes.

“Ms. Holmes is likely to testify herself to the reasons why she believed, relied on, and deferred to Mr. Balwani,” according to one of her legal filings in February.

Court documents had previously indicated that Holmes was evaluated by a psychologist who specializes in violence against women and interpersonal violence, leading to speculation that her attorneys could mount a so-called “mental defect” defense. The government also asked, and was granted, the chance to have Holmes evaluated by medical professionals they appointed.https://85c90c650def3b002604d56bc0e8515c.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The documents were unsealed after a lawyer for Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, asked the court to make them public. Balwani’s lawyers opposed the unsealing, and Holmes’s lawyers asked the judge to wait longer before making them public.

Balwani was initially charged with Holmes, but the two later had their cases separated. His trial is scheduled to begin in January. The unsealed documents also show that Balwani requested to be tried first. And they show that the government opposed severing the trial.

Theranos attempted to develop miniature lab technology, which sometimes was called the “Edison,” that could quickly and inexpensively run hundreds of tests from just a couple of drops of blood collected after pricking a finger. But investigations led by reporting from the Journal revealed severe dysfunction within the young company and technology that was erratic and unreliable.

Theranos was actually using traditional lab equipment, made by outside companies, to run most tests, the Journal’s reporting showed. And scientists within the company were uneasy about how often the company’s machine seemed to give unreliable results.

Holmes launched Theranos in 2003 and grew it to about 800 employees and a valuation of $9 billion before it ultimately collapsed in 2018. In a chaotic period after the Journal’s bombshell reports were published, partners including Safeway and Walgreens dissolved deals with the company.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees clinical labs, found deficiencies at the company’s lab. Theranos eventually settled with the agency and agreed not to operate any clinical labs for two years. Holmes also settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over fraud allegations, and was barred from serving as a director or officer of a public company for a decade.

Judge Edward J. Davila, of the federal court in the Northern District of California, said during a hearing Thursday that he thought it wise to unseal the documents before potential jurors are brought in to be questioned next week. That way, lawyers could ask them if they had seen any recent media coverage of the case, he said.

Holmes’s lawyers had asked that the unsealing be delayed until after jurors had been chosen and directed not to read media items.

Liars who Lie

This week was full of liars getting caught lying.  Imagine if they prosecuted people for lying there would not be one single individual not imprisoned in the South.  Lying is an art form one perfects by talking here.

First up was the jailing of Paul Manafort.   Well so much for White Privilege.  Again the wagons are circling around Trump and his cohorts as Trump’s foundation is now being sued by the State of New York for fraud and this is new as in news?  There had been endless reports on the fraud and duplicity of this “non profit” that was basically a slush fund.   Just ask the 50 Shades of Shit I was busted former Missouri Governor who is still being investigated by the Sate regarding mining his “non profit” for names as potential donors.   And boo hoo his legal bills will not be covered by the State. But hey I am sure Trump will pardon him. And talk to Cohen about writing those legal bills off, I am sure he has some ideas.  Well he is sorta kinda busy right now but hey give Martha Stewart a call about what federal prison is like.  Did she get her pardon yet? Or is that just for the dead or irrelevant?

We have Scott Pruitt who is the ideal Cabinet Member for the Grifter in the White House.  The thing that may actually lead him to terminate his job terminating all laws and protections for the environment and the people who live in it may be his pursuit of a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife.  Dear god if they can’t kill us by poisoning the air and water they will kill people with trans fats.

The GOP.   Senator Corker a man who perfected the art of Tennessee statesman, lying while talking, has called the current state of Government a cult.  This from a man who voted regardless for any law or bill that passed his desk and signed by Trump.  Maybe just one thumbs down explains why John McCain has brain cancer, the cult willed his death for standing up to a nut fuck bully. Something Trump failed to do with his infamous meet and greet with North Korea’s Dictator in Chief.  There was a point there and I failed to see let alone care about it.

In Trumplandia that is the point – care about nothing but the leader.   The parallels are lost for those who realize that Trump admires Dictators and Strongmen other than any affiliated with a Theocracy unless those are affiliated with oil and money as in Saudi Arabia.  It is amazing how he can distinctly exempt followers of Islam when it suits his needs or desires for respect and golden sword dancing and golden globe touching.  Ah the orb has magical powers.

Which brings me to the Inspector General report and like Congress at this point I have no interest in reading it either but I do know this much,  both McCabe and Comey are self serving assholes who did nothing wrong but nothing fully right, much like Hilary Clinton’s campaign.  Win some and lose some – big time. 

Then the Washington Post who outed a Trump staffer for no, not being Gay that is so 90s!,  as inexperienced and having a fraudulent resume being in charge of a major office interviewed the punk to set the record straight.  Oh a gay pun!

The audacity of this kid believing that he could be a Chief of Staff without any relevant experience and education only validates my point about Millennials and their insatiable need to prove that they are smarter, better and people like them more than any cohort that has ever crossed the planet since the beginning of time.  He reminded me of the charming 25 year old I met on the Greyhound going to Louisville to interview for a CEO position at the Y there overseeing a 60 Million dollar upgrade and change to the facility, despite never doing such a thing and believing that yes he would be Charles in Charge.  Right, I live in the South and the backroom door is a revolving one with players wandering in and out making sure they are the hands behind the wheel of the driverless car.  They just have a Chauffeur as the front man to make them believe they are driving the car.

And lastly I conclude with the Theranos bitch and her boyfriend being indicted on Wire Fraud charges.  She should have taken a gig with the Trump clusterfuck as he could have pardoned her.  And does this qualify as #MeToo as she was the boss in charge of her 53 year old boyfriend whom she likely intimidated to perform criminal acts in order to keep his job?  Asking for a friend.

My Bad So Sad

I did laugh when Pharma Bro, Martin Shkreli, was sentenced to seven years in prison for – FRAUD. Not, however, for raising the prices of a when he increased by 5,000 percent the price of Daraprim, a previously cheap drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be fatal to people with the AIDS virus or other immune system disorders.  A drug needed to save lives and that act in turn contributing to the untenable and consistent rise of prices of pharamacetical drugs. No, his punishment is for defrauding investors whom he largely restored while playing checkers with other peoples money to buy a Wu-Tang album or whatever.  Piss rich people off that will get you in jail sir! Just ask Bernie Madoff.

The Theranos Bitch looks as if she too will be walking into a courtroom soon, I just hope she likes orange. See women can break the glass ceiling. 

This was surprising as again had Pharma Bro turned out differently I suspect we would never see the Marni of the Valley Dolls again.  (You are own your own to figure those references out) but what it may also mean is the Unicorns are coming home to roost or whatever unicorns do.

The bullshit surrounding Silicon Valley of late particularly with the backlash against tech companies as evidenced by SXSW rejection of them after years of courting them is the first sign. The fall back of companies hitting Wall Street up to go public, as Dropbox found out and dropped more than boxes, and the sudden interest in the heartland by the Valley Bros makes one wonder if we are hitting up for another 2001.  Remember that? It was the dot com bomb, the one before the real estate collapse of 2008.

 Shit is hitting the fan and just not in the White House. Literally the Cabinet members seem to think the Federal Reserve is their personal bank in which to raid for trips, furniture and whatever floats their boat – such as a private telephone booth.  Next up hookers and blow!

This does go against the current economic reports but the confusion about wages and health care in the working class as again evidenced by West Virginia Teachers shows more are coming.   And this bankruptcy of ToyRUs is another bad sign with that proverbial fan working overtime with the tariffs and possible trade wars and of course Trump’s insanity that has led anyone with a functioning mind to ask what the fuck is going on here?  The reality is that whatever Trump did it made the poor finally want to stand up to the rich and ask questions that they refuse to answer.   Funny how that worked out.   And let’s hope for more.

It is like a perpetual wrong number where you call them and apologize to them for disturbing them – my bad so sad. Shit happens but it was not your fault. But then the rich make you believe it is.  Ah that is their true gift.  My bad. So sad.

Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes charged with massive fraud
by Carolyn Y. Johnson The Washington Post March 14  2018

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and chief executive of the blood-testing company Theranos, has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with an “elaborate, years-long fraud” in which she and former company president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani allegedly “deceived investors into believing that its key product — a portable blood analyzer — could conduct comprehensive blood tests from finger drops of blood,” the SEC said.

Holmes agreed to a $500,000 penalty and a 10-year ban on serving as an officer or director of a public company to settle the charges, but she did not admit or deny the allegations.

Jeffrey Coopersmith, a lawyer withDavis Wright Tremaine, said in a statement that Balwani “accurately represented Theranos to investors to the best of his ability.”

Holmes is relinquishing shares and ceding her voting control of Theranos, which was on the verge of bankruptcy late last year. She will not profit from her remaining ownership stake until money is recouped by other investors and shareholders.

In a statement, Theranos’s independent board of directors said the company is “pleased to be bringing this matter to a close and looks forward to advancing its technology.”

A lawyer for Holmes declined to comment.

Theranos, a blood-testing start-up that promised to revolutionize consumers’ access to their medical information, was a Silicon Valley darling once valued at $9 billion.

Holmes had the perfect backstory: a college dropout turned chief executive who had assembled a company board filled with powerful ex-government and military leaders and wanted to change the world. Her personal story about a fear of needles driving her to develop a better solution was heavily featured in the media, even as some medical experts puzzled over what was so novel about her technology and asked for evidence that showed how it worked and why.

The company fell from grace in a snarl of regulatory problems and the revelation that its proprietary technology was not being used in its blood tests, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The SEC alleges that Holmes, Balwani and Theranos raised more than $700 million from investors by misrepresenting the capabilities of the proprietary blood-testing technology that was at the core of its business — as well as by making misleading or exaggerated statements about the company’s financial status and relationships with commercial partners and the Department of Defense.

Theranos’s miniLab blood analyzer “was not commercially ready” in 2010 when Holmes and Balwani decided to try to sell their services to consumers through partnerships with pharmacy and grocery chains, the complaint says. The commercial partners are not named by the SEC, but Theranos opened wellness centers in Walgreens drugstores in Arizona and California. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Safeway spent $350 million to build wellness clinics in its stores. Both agreements have since been terminated.

When the technology was due to be launched in the first drugstores in September 2013, it was not ready, according to the complaint. Instead, Holmes and Balwani allegedly asked company engineers to modify technology already commercially available to analyze samples — but did not tell their commercial partners. Holmes and Theranos created elaborate technology demonstrations in which they showcased their proprietary analyzers but actually processed the samples on machines made by other vendors. For example, Holmes allegedly led executives from the pharmacy company on a tour including a room full of miniLab analyzers, leaving the impression that samples could be clinically analyzed there, though the analyzers were not able to be used for testing

The complaint also alleges that Holmes and Balwani reassured the grocery chain that their proprietary technology could perform 90 percent of the most commonly used blood tests, when the proprietary technology was capable of only a dozen.

Holmes met with investors, explaining her fear of needles and her vision for fast, cheap blood testing. Potential investors would receive a finger stick blood test and then see the sample inserted into Theranos’s device or taken away to be analyzed, leading them to believe samples were being analyzed on the technology the company had invented.

Holmes allegedly told investors the company did not need approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But in late 2013 and 2014, the FDA told Theranos and Holmes that the company needed FDA approval or clearance of its tests.

Theranos also projected that the company would generate more than $100 million in revenue in 2014; in fact, the company recorded $100,000, according to the SEC.

The SEC also alleges that Holmes claimed to investors that Theranos technology was being used by the Defense Department on the battlefield in Afghanistan and on medevac helicopters. Those statements “were important to potential investors because these relationships lent legitimacy to Theranos’s business and its proprietary analyzer,” the SEC alleges.

That technology was never deployed on the battlefield by the Defense Department, even though Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, who then led the U.S. Central Command, personally pushed for it. Regulatory officials in the military had flagged problems with Theranos’s approach. Mattis later joined Theranos’s board; he resigned to become defense secretary.

“The Theranos story is an important lesson for Silicon Valley,” Jina Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco regional office, said in a statement. “Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday.”

Bye Felicia

I cannot say I am sorry about this one in the least.  I suspect there are more trees in the woods that will make sound as the excessive almost exuberant evaluations over the new”ly” and other apps that are changing the world, or not, eventually crash to the ground when we find they have root rot. Theranos was an enigma, wrapped in a riddle of dead Steve Jobs turtlenecks.

Theranos will close labs and wellness centers, laying off hundreds of employees
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
The Washington Post
October 5 at 9:46 PM

Elizabeth Holmes, the embattled founder and chief executive of Theranos, said late Wednesday that the company will close its clinical labs and wellness centers. The open letter, posted on the company’s website, was essentially an epitaph for the consumer business that was the focus of the once-celebrated Silicon Valley company that Holmes boasted would change the world with its simple and inexpensive pinprick blood test.

In magazine interviews, TV appearances and keynote speeches she gave around the world, Holmes said the innovation would empower consumers by giving them the ability to bypass the gatekeepers — their doctors — to get important information about the health of their own bodies. Numerous investors and consumers fell for her story, and at one point the company was valued at $9 billion, making Holmes the youngest self-made female billionaire ever.

But as the company grew, so did questions about its technology. In a series of skeptical reports starting in October 2015, the Wall Street Journal recounted how even Theranos’s own employees questioned the accuracy of the results of its testing and revealed that government regulators had been looking into the matter.

The company aggressively defended itself against the accusations but over the summer acknowledged major defeats. In June, Walgreens said it had terminated its partnership with the blood testing start-up effective immediately. In July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services imposed harsh sanctions against Theranos, imposing a fine, revoking its certificate for a lab and banning Holmes from owning, operating or directing a blood-testing lab for at least two years.

The move will affect about 340 employees in Arizona, California and Pennsylvania, and Holmes was generous in recognizing them for sticking by her.

“We are profoundly grateful to these team members, many of whom have devoted years to Theranos and our mission, for their commitment to our company and our guests,” she wrote.

Holmes said the company will now focus its “undivided attention” on the Theranos miniLab platform which she described as a product that would be “miniaturized, automated laboratories capable of small-volume sample testing, with an emphasis on vulnerable patient populations, including oncology, pediatrics, and intensive care.”

Zero is Cold

I have been long predicting the flying unicorns crash and fall for quite some time. This I suspect is the first of many.

The heralded Theranos with its black turtleneck clad blonde Hitchcock siren has now a zero valuation according to Forbes.

Forbes just cut its estimate of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes’ net worth from $4.5 billion to zero

Oliver Staley Quartz June 1, 2016

Not long ago, Elizabeth Holmes was regarded as one of the US’s most successful female entrepreneurs, with a net worth of $4.5 billion, Forbes estimated.

Today Forbes cut that figure to zero.

Holmes’s wealth is entirely wrapped up in her 50% stake in Theranos, the medical testing start-up she founded in 2003. The privately-held company in Palo Alto became a standout for its bold attempts to revolutionize the diagnostic industry—it claimed it could test for 240 diseases from a few drops of blood—and for A-listers like Henry Kissinger and Bill Frist on its advisory board.

Last year, Forbes pegged its value at $9 billion, based on the sale of stakes to investors. Since that lofty estimate, Theranos has been battered by bad news, starting with reports in the Wall Street Journal in October that its tests were inaccurate. That triggered an inquiry from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which proposed banning Holmes from the industry.

Forbes went back to its slide rule and, after talking to venture capitalists and industry experts, recalculated Theranos’ value at $900 million, based on its intellectual property and money it has already raised. “At such a low valuation, Holmes’s stake is essentially worth nothing,” Matt Herper writes.

That’s because Theranos’s other investors own preferred shares, and since Holmes owns common shares, they would get paid first if the company were forced to liquidate.

Theranos didn’t provide a comment to Forbes and has yet to respond to an email from Quartz sent before the start of business hours in California today.

I have been looking at economic trends and as this is a major election year and coupled with European, Middle East and China in some type of crisis be it economic or social, I cannot think we are entering a period of recession. There are big building boons in major cities and Seattle and Portland are now the highest cost of housing prices nationally. Irony that we are facing layoffs at Boeing, Microsoft and Nordstrom which crosses all economic sectors. And we have funding problems in schools across the nation with respective State Supreme Courts demanding adequate funding for K-12 schools, which are also bursting at the seams, as this story from Kansas elaborates. 

There are other indicators that we are heading to a type of recession regardless of who wins the crown, whoops I mean the White House, as either of the two presumptive candidates do have a regal disposition.

Eduardo Porter of The New York Times has an excellent interview with some of the current to past players with regards to ways to mitigate a prospective recession.

And businesses are now looking outside the conventional box to fund their business model and many of them are in fact in manufacturing and production versus online app media the love child of VC.

Jobs are created by people creating real products for real people to buy, to sell, to eat, to live and to use. As our economy is now largely a service sector economy we need to evaluate how people earn, what they earn and the ratio of income it costs to live in our increasingly large urban sectors that are driving population and migration.

But why when we have pretty girls selling us bullshit? It makes us feel less cold.

Elizabeth Holmes, Founder of Theranos, Falls From Highest Perch Off Forbes List

By REED ABELSON THE NEW YORK TIMES JUNE 1, 2016

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood testing company Theranos, lost her place on Forbes’s list of America’s richest self-made women. Credit Kimberly White/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood testing company Theranos, was a rare breed, something more rare than even the Silicon Valley unicorn she created: a self-made female billionaire. Forbes, the business publication that has made a franchise of cataloging the rich, had put Ms. Holmes on the top of its list last year of America’s richest self-made women.

The magazine’s new estimated tally of her wealth? It went from $4.5 billion to $0.

Ms. Holmes’s unusual status, as a young woman who created and controlled a company seemingly valued at about $9 billion, captivated the media: She graced countless magazine covers, including T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Theranos, she said, would revolutionize the lab industry by offering blood tests from a single finger prick at a fraction of the cost of traditional testing.

But over the last year, Theranos became the subject of a series of hard-hitting Wall Street Journal articles and intense regulatory scrutiny from an array of federal agencies.

The media is now mesmerized by Ms. Holmes’s fall. Truth be told, the half of the $9 billion valuation ascribed to Theranos and previously listed as Ms. Holmes’s wealth was nothing more than an estimate based on investors’ best guesses. Taking into account all the controversy and uncertainty surrounding the value of the company’s top-secret technology, Forbes is now guessing that the company is worth more like $800 million. While Ms. Holmes still owns at least half of the company, much of that value would be tied up with outside investors.

But, as an article in Forbes on Wednesday about Ms. Holmes is quick to acknowledge, no one really knows. Theranos has not let anyone really kick the tires. Ms. Holmes, 32, who has repeatedly vowed to reveal all, is now expected to present some data to the public in August at the annual meeting of the AACC, formerly the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. Even then, it may be impossible to come up with a better estimate of what her company is worth.

Not surprisingly, Theranos refused to shed any light on the matter, except to dispute Forbes’s analysis.

“As a privately held company, we declined to share confidential information with Forbes,” Brooke Buchanan, a company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement. “As a result, the article was based exclusively on speculation and press reports.”

Drawing Blood

 I have long laughed at the now collapse of Theranos.  I would not have been remotely interested in this business had I not had an Attorney who understood blood work and the science behind testing of it to the point he could diagnose a disease if given the opportunity.  What is interesting is that when a Hitchcock blonde is spewing the bullshit it goes down much easier.  Perhaps if Big Pharma had CEO’s that look like their attractive sales crew, the bullshit they spill would go down much easier.

This weekend I read an immensely defensive op-ed with regards to the company and its failings and of course the finger pointing was the media and Walgreens and not the eponymous Silicon Valley geniuses that had not invested in said company and had anyone bothered to ask they could have told you so! So take that haters. 

When I read the below article about the FDA finding their way to San Jose,  I went to the comments section to find I feel the below explain why the surge in the tech sector to create the next big thing, largely due to the ACA, the whole save the world thing is secondary, just ask Elisabeth Holmes.

DrMink : It is important to note that the proliferation of technologies that are no better, and in many cases worse, than existing technologies and therapies was the primary driver of health care inflation prior to the ACA. The reality is most are a waste of money.

Kenneth Gruber: The scientific problem with the liquid biopsy approach (not even hinted at in the article) is the evidence that everyone has malignant cells in their body throughout life. However, only a small fraction of these cells ever develop into a clinical cancer. Immune system surveillance (e.g. natural killer cells) kills the overwhelming majority of malignant cells. So how does a sensitive assay differentiate between DNA from cells that will not develop into cancers from those that will. This exact problem has previously come up with other assays for specific malignancies. Microscopic tumors were detected and treated, but the incidence of the cancer was not decreased. Why? The majority of the cancers detected/treated were ones that would not have developed into a clinically significant tumor! The reporter on this story, Ms Cha, needs to do her homework!

Knotsofast: Much of the success of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs derives from the fact that most of the technology invented there is minimally regulated by the Federal government. If you have a good idea, get some investors, make the product, take it to market, and profit. Maybe the FCC regulates the electromagnetic radiation coming out of the electronic device (phone, tablet, computer), but there are well-worn pathways that everyone knows to follow to put this kind of device in the hands of consumers. When it comes to healthcare, it is a 180 degree turn to negotiate. Healthcare products and related devices are the most heavily regulated components of our economy, largely through the FDA. You can write any kind of code for a consumer app and sell it straight away. Not so software related to running healthcare devices. Most companies don’t understand the difference between sound science that proves a product “works” and regulatory science that shows how robust the process is, what are the limitations, how is the process validated, and how do you know what you know and don’t know about the product? With all the documentation to convince the regulators that you have ongoing quality control. That is not something that the typical (or mythical) Mountain Dew stoked 20-something programmer pulling an all nighter in a tech start up can typically do. And the FDA does not care about your hype or the grey emminences vouching for your product sitting across the table from them when it is time to discuss approval of the product. Theranos made the mistake of trying to sell its one-drop-of-blood pan-diagnostic test technology on the promise of things to come. They also thought that having an advisory board with a flotilla of admirals and multi-star generals and luminaries like Henry Kissinger was going to impress the FDA. The GS-13/10 chemist sitting in a cubicle or a GS-14/20 medical officer reviewing your clinical trial plan don’t care about your advisory board. At all.

There’s a new sheriff in town in Silicon Valley — the FDA

By Ariana Eunjung Cha April 28 at 11:24 AM

 

SAN FRANCISCO — Helmy Eltoukhy’s company is on a roll. The start-up is a leading contender in the crowded field of firms working on “liquid biopsy” tests that aim to be able to tell in a single blood draw whether a person has cancer.  

Venture investors are backing Guardant Health to the tune of nearly $200 million. Leading medical centers are testing its technology. And, earlier this month, it presented promising data on how well its screening tool, which works by scanning for tiny DNA fragments shed by dying tumor cells, worked on an initial group of 10,000 patients with late-stage cancers.

Just one thing is holding the company back: Guardant Health has yet to get approval from government regulators.

As a tidal wave of new health-related gadgets, apps and tests hits the market, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and other enforcement agencies are showing up in Silicon Valley like they’ve never done before. They have slapped companies such as Theranos, 23andMe, Lumosity and Pathway Genomics with warning letters and fines and opened investigations into products that regulators believe promise more than they can deliver.

More regulatory scrutiny is likely coming. Venture capital investments in life sciences hit a record high in 2015, with $10.1 billion invested in 783 deals, and total start-up funding is approaching levels of the last dot-com bubble — a development that has some industry observers worried that pseudoscience is being confused with innovation.

But even as some companies push back against federal agencies’ reach — contesting which rules, if any, apply to their work — there’s now recognition that the government can be a powerful ally rather than a brake on progress. And its stamp of approval can take firms from being worth multimillions to multibillions.
Jeff Huber, a former senior Google executive who is now chief executive of Grail, which is also working on liquid biopsy tests, said his company reached out to FDA officials while still in the research-and-development phase and is “carefully considering their input as to the right approach.”

“A core part of our reputation and brand is the scientific rigor we’re putting behind this,” Huber said. That includes designing rigorous, large-scale clinical trials targeted to begin in 2017. (Grail’s early backers include Bill Gates and Jeffrey P. Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.)

Putting a product on the market without consulting with the FDA is risky, but companies doing so have a legal argument for their move. Guardant Health contends that the liquid biopsy test it began selling to oncologists in 2014 falls outside the agency’s purview because the end result is data about the composition of a person’s blood, not a definitive diagnosis. Even so, its founder said he proactively contacted a local FDA office a few months ago to express his eagerness to work with the agency in the future.

“It’s the patient at the end of the day who is the person we’re trying to help,” said Eltoukhy, who has a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University. “We’re not doing them any justice or any benefits by putting a technology that’s not ready for prime time into the market.”

Given the super-hot field, the pressure to be first remains intense, however. Nearly 40 companies are working there, according to a research report by Piper Jaffray analysts William Quirk and Alexander Nowak, who valued the U.S. market alone at $32.6 billion a year. Liquid biopsies, they noted, could “revolutionize” cancer, transplant and prenatal care.

Being tested for cancer today often means having a slice of tissue cut out — which can be painful and dangerous — and waiting days or even weeks for the results to come back. The promise of liquid biopsies is that the same information might be available based on an extremely low-risk blood draw that takes mere minutes.


The concept is so simple and potentially inexpensive that it could upend practically everything about the disease. Healthy people would be able to walk into their doctor’s office for an annual checkup and know whether they had cancer well before it becomes life-threatening. Doctors would be able to track their patients’ responses to therapies in almost real time by studying which cancerous mutations are in the mix and in what concentration.

Yet the science behind liquid biopsies is incredibly tricky because of how cancerous DNA is obscured by healthy DNA in the blood, with a sophisticated combination of molecular biology, informatics, genetic sequencing and other disciplines required to reveal it. Eltoukhy likens the challenge to trying to find the fine details in the “snow” on a TV screen that’s relying on an old rabbit-ear antenna.

Guardant Health has had early success with its screening tool in late-stage cancer patients, and about 2,000 oncologists are using it to help create personalized therapies when first-line treatments have failed. The company says its test is the most comprehensive on the market, examining over 150,000 places in the genome compared with the half-dozen or so that many competitors review. It has partnered with the National Cancer Institute as well as some major pharmaceutical companies for further investigations.

In the abstract presented at the American Association for Cancer Research this month — though not peer reviewed, it is being submitted to a journal, according to Eltoukhy — the company said the test was as “highly accurate” as a surgical biopsy in detecting the cancer DNA. Lung, gastrointestinal and breast cancers were most commonly found.

Guardant Health chief technology officer AmirAli Talasaz, left, and chief executive Helmy Eltoukhy at their labs in Redwood City, Calif., where the company is developing a “liquid biopsy” that may allow doctors to diagnose cancer through a simple blood draw. 
 

Still, the real game-changer would be a test that can pinpoint cancer in its earliest stages, when the amount of DNA in the blood is mind-bogglingly small.

Pathway Genomics claimed to have done just that when it launched a direct-to-consumer $699 screening tool last year for the early detection of up to 10 different cancer types among people at high risk but without symptoms. The FDA disagreed. In a letter in  September, the agency warned that it had not found any evidence to support the claims and that the product could “harm the public health.”

The company declined to talk about its discussions with regulators, but the FDA said Pathway Genomics has since made the test available only by prescription and “also limited the claims of what their test does to ones that seem to be more in line with the current available evidence.”

Separately, the company recently paid the Justice Department $4 million to settle allegations that it offered kickbacks to physicians to refer patients to its service. It admitted no wrongdoing.

The FDA’s mandate was written decades before anyone could imagine these new technologies, so the extent of its powers continues to be much debated.  The agency said in a statement Thursday that it considers all diagnostic in vitro tests – which include blood tests – to be medical devices but that it has not always “exercised enforcement discretion over laboratory-developed tests except for those being marketed direct-to-consumers.”

“All devices, including diagnostic tests, are subject to FDA regulation,” the statement noted.

Guardant Health is far from the only firm to claim that its blood tests — or spit tests in the case of 23andMe — fall outside the regulatory bounds because they’re simply informational and do not definitively detect diseases, conditions or infections that lead to treatment decisions. But growing evidence suggests the tide may be shifting on this view.

Massimo Cristofanilli, an oncologist at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, has used Guardant Health’s test on more than 200 breast cancer patients with late-stage disease and said it has been helpful in about 6o to 70 percent of cases to determine a next course of treatment. He sees FDA approval as critical for widespread adoption.

“Physicians, especially community physicians, won’t feel comfortable until they have more of a guarantee that the tests are doing what they are supposed to be doing,” he said.

Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, thinks FDA approval isn’t the panacea some believe it to be. Even if a liquid biopsy is rigorously validated, he said, it may only be able to identify the presence of a cancer, not where it is or whether it will have an impact on a person’s health. It’s possible that some people could have cancer, per a DNA test, that will never grow into something that will hurt them.

“The purpose of the screening test is more than to find disease. The purpose is to find disease in a situation such that medical treatment can prevent death,” Brawley said. “There’s a bunch of folks in the corporate community who don’t understand that fine detail.”

Thorn on a Rose

Ah another Silicon Valley superstar comes crashing to the ground. I have been fascinated with this story from the outset, the very “typical” story of the Stanford “drop out” to the mystique making, an almost Hitchcock blonde type black turtleneck, Jobs type, wearing CEO; to the illustrious board, largely white men natch right to the usual suspects including an appearance by David Boies,lawyer to the stars, to the Venture Capitalist dollars flying, culminating to being a guest at the State Dinner for Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. It was then I had flashbacks to the DC Housewives crashing one of a few years ago and that did not end well either.

 One must admit is has all the aspects of a reality series, down to FDA warnings and potential criminal investigations, it all seems so perfect as my favorite docu-comedy, Silicon Valley returned on Sunday. This was always bogus and to think that men fell for Marnie.. there is your Hitchcock reference…it was one of my favorites.

 Theranos’s Fate Rests With a Founder Who Answers Only to Herself

 By REED ABELSON
THE NEW YORK TIMES
 APRIL 24, 2016

Theranos, a blood-testing lab started and led by Ms. Holmes that promised to revolutionize the industry, is now under criminal investigation and faces increasing skepticism about whether its core technology works. Several federal agencies are looking into the company’s operations. Ms. Holmes herself may have to answer to federal regulators about what she told investors.

 Just last year, Theranos was a Silicon Valley favorite with a $9 billion valuation. Now, depending on the outcome of the investigations, including the threat of crippling sanctions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the company could be forced out of business and Ms. Holmes could lose her position as chief executive.

 The troubles have led to a cascade of questions about what changes Theranos might make to rebuild its reputation and business prospects. Some have even said that Ms. Holmes should step aside. After more than six months of intense questions, though, changes have been limited. And whatever future moves the company makes are up to Ms. Holmes. She — not the investors, and not even the board — controls the switches.

 Ms. Holmes, a 32-year-old Stanford University dropout, owns a majority interest in Theranos, a privately held company she founded in 2003. She is also the company’s chairwoman and chief executive. What she wants done at her company, she can demand. Ms. Holmes declined to be interviewed. But in an extended interview, David Boies, a heavyweight lawyer who is one of three outside directors on the Theranos board, hinted that some management changes may be coming soon.

 “The board is right now in the process, and Elizabeth Holmes is in the process, of adding significant talent to the company,” he said. But an adviser to the company, Richard Kovacevich, a former chief executive at Wells Fargo, acknowledged the limited role played by anyone other than Ms. Holmes.

“She doesn’t have to answer anything she doesn’t want to,” he said. The situation at Theranos offers a stark reminder of the perils of investing in Silicon Valley, where it is common for founders to control a company, leaving boards with little real power, including over who should be chief executive. The examples are legion, including huge success stories like Google and Facebook.

The upside for venture capitalists is that betting on an individual and getting in early can lead to riches. But if trouble brews, it is nearly impossible for a board or anyone but the founder to make any changes — a risk that, for now at least, investors remain willing to make. “For every Theranos, there’s a Facebook,” said Bryan Roberts, a partner at Venrock, a leading venture capital firm. Even in a case like Zenefits, where its founder, Parker Conrad, stepped down as chief executive in February after regulatory problems emerged, the decision to resign was ultimately his.

 Theranos’s board, which in its early years included some of its large investors, was later composed of an array of diplomatic, military and political leaders, including former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger and former Senator Bill Frist. Last year, the company divided the directors into advisers and an actual governing board, which includes Mr. Boies, whose law firm represents Theranos. While critics have pointed to the board’s lack of industry expertise and the advanced age of some advisers, Mr. Boies defended it as “extraordinarily qualified.”

 But legal experts say that while the directors are responsible for representing the interests of all investors, Ms. Holmes does not have to listen. A founder with controlling interest can replace the board, so directors are ultimately left with the choice of being fired or resigning if they strongly disagree with the executive. Supervoting shares, another common practice among start-ups, grant founders like Ms. Holmes even more power. “You’re practically a paper tiger and have fiduciary responsibility,” said Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware. Mr. Boies says Ms. Holmes has the board’s backing.

“I think the board has complete confidence in Elizabeth Holmes as a founder of the company, as a scientist and as an administrator,” he said. The board is represented by an independent law firm, Mr. Boies said, which is answering queries from the United States attorney’s office in San Francisco and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as conducting an independent investigation into whether Theranos made proper disclosures to investors. No formal accusations have been made.

While Theranos is privately held, its investors still have protections, said Joseph Grundfest, a law professor at Stanford. “The federal securities laws have very strict anti-fraud provisions, and they apply to sophisticated investors, not just unsophisticated ones.” But Mr. Kovacevich, who is also an investor, emphasized that Theranos was not a publicly held company with the same responsibilities and that the shareholders understood this.

“Not only is this a private company, but it has also been stated to the world, to the board and stockholders, that she has no intentions of ever going public,” he said of Ms. Holmes. “The intention, and a strong intention, is that this company is going to be private forever.” The Medicare investigation is the most pressing threat, and Mr. Boies is largely mum about what Theranos is planning and how the board is reacting.

Theranos has been the subject of scathing coverage in The Wall Street Journal, which has relentlessly questioned the reliability and safety of its blood tests, and it is under intense regulatory scrutiny. “The exact focus of what needs to be done keeps changing,” Mr. Boies said. Medicare, concerned about the company’s California operations, has said Theranos could face severe sanctions if the company does not adequately address the deficiencies uncovered last year.

Theranos’s California lab certification could be revoked, and Ms. Holmes and the company’s chief operating officer could be barred from the industry for two years. The lab and its procedures have been overhauled, Mr. Boies said. Ms. Holmes has hired new management to run the lab, and because the people who ran it previously did not report directly to her, he said he hoped the agency would not take punitive action against her.

 The company’s other lab, in Arizona, which performs more traditional tests, continues to draw customers, he noted. But Theranos still faces extraordinary skepticism about whether its main technology works, especially given its history of secretiveness, and Mr. Boies said Theranos was taking steps to address the doubts. He pointed to plans to finally publish its results in peer-reviewed journals and the addition of some well-respected individuals to its scientific advisory board.

“We’ve got to reveal much more about the proprietary technology than is desirable,” given the risk of companies’ and countries’ copying what Theranos does, Mr. Boies said. The company’s intellectual property is essentially its main asset, and if the technology works, some observers say, the company could remain a viable business.

“I don’t think they’re beyond salvage, beyond redemption,” said Lakshman Ramamurthy, an industry consultant with extensive regulatory experience. But while he did not rule out a sale, Mr. Boies dismissed the idea of handing Theranos over to the highest bidder.

“This technology is not going to be sold to somebody who wants to just make more profits from it and charge what is charged today,” he said. And, as Mr. Kovacevich emphasized, Ms. Holmes will ultimately determine what happens next. “You have to ask Ms. Holmes what the steps are,” he said.

Santa’s Bag

The hipster roundup is always interesting. Part MEllinnial part Steve Jobs meets Quaker meets the Duck Dynasty, the accouterments, the business savvy that includes a false narrative, a uniform and a propensity for social media. The MEprenuer is defined as one who simply rebrands the wheel and says its new.  And  this week Santa dropped a few gifts under the tree for me to have laugh at the MEMEME generation.

First up:   The Mast Chocolate scandal. I have never eaten a Mast bar, I prefer French Chocolate and when not available I used to love British Cadbury until they made that illegal to import.  And when I do grab some chocolate, I am fine with the cheap shit that I buy at a drugstore. I really don’t eat candy as a bar except upon rare occasion so I was unaware of the Mast mythology. Emphasis apparently on Myth as this story reveals.

One MEME who started the year under quite the headlines was the CEO who promised to raise all salaries to 70K,  but his personal life has unraveled as a result.  Yet one may find that business is all that matters when it comes to being a Mepreneur.

Then we have more on the Theranos chick who in a shortage of news stories this false narrative continues. Yes Theranos has a lovely leading lady, a well connected family, and of course a legion of white men who are sure she is on to the next Ebay, Paypal, Etsy, Google, Apple combined. What.ever

Of course my favorite MEllinneal the douche of small pharma was let go from his other day job: On Monday, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals said Shkreli was “terminated” as CEO and had resigned from the board.

He now has a lot of time on his hands and that should give him plenty of time to live stream his utterly uninteresting life. I want to remind ladies he is single as he likes to keep telling us, but so far the only date offer other than his future cellmate Big Dick (in every sense of the word) was a high school girl asking him to the prom. Lovely can we add child molester to the charges, a lifetime on a sex registry would be perfect.

I am not sure what I love more about this douche bag and his business partner the Lawyer (figures) who is out on bail relaxing in Mexico while on bail. That is apparently the difference between white collar crime and well everyone else. As for Turing the company that Shrkeli ran until his arrest are now planning layoffs. Will they also be reducing their price for the drug Daraprim?

Shrkeli has redefined the concept of too much is too much. But he is not alone in the need to share everything including regular bowel movements. But it is not exclusive to the MEME generation.

I don’t do Facebook, I only tweet random thoughts about TV shows and this blog is my last outlet of expression of which my name is no longer attached. I learned that the hard way that one can never have enough privacy. And no it is not about hiding or sharing it is about privacy and having some separation from what I say and what I do. I learned early on that you cannot say what you think to people it does no good. Irony that the Internet was created to do just that only with anonymity and well look what resulted from that. I am sure Ellen Pao can share that when she talks about her experiences in a book she is thinking of writing.

Hate mail is so much better sent the snail way.

For Martin Shkreli and Others, ‘No Comment’ Is Not in the Script

By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN and ALEXANDRA STEVENSON
The New York Times
DEC. 22, 2015

It used to be that money managers and entrepreneurs charged with a crime or civil securities fraud would keep their mouths shut and routinely refer any questions to their lawyers.

But in the age of social media, those days are gone. For some media-savvy defendants there is a new script: They jump on Twitter to tell the world they are innocent, even though lawyers think doing so is a terrible — and legally risky — idea.

Two days after the pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was arraigned on federal securities fraud charges, which accused him of defrauding investors in his former hedge funds and looting a drug company he once ran, he proclaimed his innocence in a Twitter post after pleading not guilty in court.

“I am confident I will prevail,” Mr. Shkreli, 32, wrote to Twitter followers on Saturday. On Tuesday, he wrote, “I’m not a criminal,” in response to a comment on Twitter.

Mr. Shkreli, best known for raising the price of a decades-old drug by 5,000 percent and later paying $2 million to buy the only known copy of an album by the rap group Wu-Tang Clan, has tried to present a carefree attitude online since his arrest on Thursday.

He has also posted streaming videos of himself on YouTube sitting at his computer — combing his hair, playing chess and strumming a guitar — and responding to comments from his supporters as if the possibility of going to prison were just a bump in the road.

Last spring, Lynn Tilton, a private equity executive, embarked on a similar public relations strategy after federal securities regulators filed a civil lawsuit that charged her with defrauding investors in distressed-debt securities managed by her firm, Patriarch Partners.

Ms. Tilton, 56, posted a video online defending herself and denying the charges and later used Twitter to attack the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to bring her case before an administrative law judge, as opposed to filing the matter in federal court.

And in a twist on the strategy, Charlie Shrem, an early proponent of the digital currency Bitcoin and chief of the money exchange service BitInstant, gave a speech via Skype to a Bitcoin conference while under house arrest before he pleaded guilty in 2014 to aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business. Mr. Shrem, 26, has continued to post on Twitter, with the assistance of some friends, from federal prison.

His Twitter profile describes him as “Bitcoin pioneer & first felon.” In April, shortly after beginning to serve his two-year sentence, Mr. Shrem posted, “I’m in prison for a victimless crime” and invited people to write to him.

It is a kind of do-it-yourself defense strategy for those naturally disposed to a certain amount of vanity and self-absorption, experts say. And it is gaining favor even though defense lawyers have counseled against it and warned that the strategy could backfire because some things defendants say can be used against them at trial or sentencing.

Dealing with outspoken clients has become increasingly normal, lawyers say, especially as many of these clients have cultivated online personas that extend beyond their day jobs.

Gregory Morvillo, a lawyer who specializes in representing white-collar defendants, says having a client who posts on Twitter is a “recipe for disaster.”

“I am generally averse to my clients going out and speaking publicly, but the reality is there has been a seismic shift in how we communicate,” said Mr. Morvillo, who represented Anthony Chiasson, a hedge fund manager whose conviction on insider trading charges was overturned by an appellate court.

Joshua B. Newman, a New York entrepreneur charged in a criminal complaint by federal prosecutors with defrauding investors in a number of CrossFit training ventures, has referred on Twitter to having seen “better days” and quoted Abraham Lincoln saying, “Folks with no vices have very few virtues.” The case is still pending.

Recently, Mr. Newman, 36, started a new online fitness training venture that makes no mention of the fraud charges against him but talks about the favorable media coverage he has received over the years.

Priya Chaudhry, Mr. Newman’s lawyer, said in a statement, “We encourage our clients to right their ships quickly and permanently, so they can return to good, productive lives.”

This new era of defiance on social media has led to the unusual situation in which the person charged with wrongdoing is the one doing the talking, while the lawyer is often the one to say no comment. That has been the case with Mr. Shkreli’s lawyers at the big law firm Arnold & Porter, which has repeatedly declined to comment on the charges against Mr. Shkreli.

Marc A. Agnifilo, the lawyer who represented Mr. Shrem, said that for clients who take to social media to defend themselves it “can feel good at the time,” but it has the potential to undermine plea negotiations that might be taking place.

“We are in the age of oversharing,” Mr. Agnifilo said.

Mr. Agnifilo and Mr. Morvillo both said they could imagine a situation in which they might be forced to let go of a client who did not heed advice and said too much about a case on Twitter or other social media forums.

Legal experts say they are less concerned about a person facing civil fraud charges, like Ms. Tilton, speaking out on Twitter since there is no risk of jail time.

Denise Shull, a former trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and a coach to Wall Street money managers, said there was an element of narcissism behind the social media defense.

“If you’ve already displayed attention-seeking behavior, the chances are you’re going to continue along that path if you can,” Ms. Shull said.

In the case of Ms. Tilton, being in the public eye is not new. She has cultivated an image that plays on her role as a powerful executive in the male-dominated private equity industry. “It’s only men I strip and flip,” she said in the pilot for a reality television show about her life called “The Diva of Distressed.”

Ms. Tilton has contested allegations by the S.E.C. that she breached her fiduciary duty to clients by failing to properly value the assets of distressed companies in some portfolios, allowing her to collect as much as $200 million in management fees. Ms. Tilton released a video called “Fight Like a Girl” soon after the S.E.C. brought its complaint.

She filed a countersuit against the S.E.C., and the agency’s case has been stayed by a federal appeals court while it considers the legality of regulators’ decision to proceed with the matter before an administrative law judge.

In a statement, Ms. Tilton said social media gave her the best forum to speak directly to the public. “Social media has provided me the medium to best reflect my ideas, my business and me in my own words and images,” Ms. Tilton said.

Other defendants, such as Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman, reality TV show star and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, have frequently used social media to jab at the S.E.C. He has gone after the regulator on Twitter several times since a Dallas jury cleared him of federal insider trading charges in October 2013.

As for Mr. Shkreli, the streaming videos appear to be one way for him to keep his relevance and the degree of fame he has found since defending the decision by Turing Pharmaceuticals, which he ran, to raise the price of a critical drug to $750 a pill from about $13. Turing fired Mr. Shkreli after his arrest, giving him more time to produce the videos from his Midtown Manhattan apartment.

“A small bit of it is, ‘I’m going to try to win this P.R. battle,’ ” Ms. Shull said of Mr. Shkreli’s tactics. “But to go on and on? That would suggest that he is petrified.”

In one video, Mr. Shkreli spends time removing some of the critical and profane comments viewers posted online about him. He also takes time out to answer a question about why he is making the videos, saying, “I am doing this to mostly relax.”