Happy Friday BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! This is News for the Mighty, News of the Week, the recurring segment where everything you need to know going into the weekend is served to you on a sterling silver platter. This weekend, while you’re getting turnt and deciding if you should hit on that good lookin guy/gal across the room (you totally should dude), you can impress her/him with some topical information. Here is some of that information.

AIDS Pill Price Gouge 

So we can all agree that capitalism is a reasonably good system, right? Alright, now that all the hippies are gone I’ll continue. However, capitalism works best when there a government is involved in the business world and creates regulations and also prevents some of the negative aspects of capitalism from becoming too detrimental. Okay, now that the conservative hippies are gone, I’ll go on with the news story.

Former hedge fund manager, Martin Shkreli, recently purchased a drug company that produces several medical products, including the drug Daraprim. This drug is taken by AIDS patents, pregnant women, and cancer treatment patients in order to combat temporary food diseases that they may develop do to the strain put on their bodies. Before Shkreli bought the company that makes Daraprim, it cost $13.50 a pill. After he bought the company it was raised to $750 a pill. Martin Shkreli raised the price of a drug that prevents AIDS victims, pregnant women, and cancer patients from dying by 5,000 percent. This has generated enormous outcry from…..well pretty much from anybody with an internet connection. Since this price gouge, Shkreli has said that the price raise was intended to take money away from insurance companies and that he will give the pills to people who do not have insurance and still need the medication. He has also said that he intends to lower the price in the near future.

However, if I’ve learned anything about money, it is that none of what he says matters unless it is in a legally binding document. What has happened here is one of the worst thing that can happen in a capitalistic society. I generally try to keep things on this blog clean and avoid saying overly derogatory things about specific individuals, but Martin Shkreli is a fucking asshole.

Click here for more information on this douche.

Volkswagen 

It was discovered this week that Volkswagen cars have been using devices that prevent testing devices from detecting the amount of toxic emissions coming from diesel vehicles. Once this cover-up was discovered, it was reveled that some Volkswagen cars and trucks were expelling 10 to 40 times the legal amount of pollutants. While there have not been any recalls made yet, several models of vehicles will no longer be sold. In response to this, Volkswagen’s stock has plummeted and it seems like this may change the diesel car industry as we know it.

More on Volkswagen right here.

John Boehner Steps Down

Today John Boehner has announced that he will step down from his role as speaker of the House of Representatives. I’ll unpack more of what this means in the long term for American politics in Sunday’s installment of Politics, Politalks, but for know I’ll just report what and why this happened. Boehner stepping down is a huge surprise and will allow the Republican controlled house to elect a new Speaker. It seems as though the reason for Boehner stepping down is that he is no longer able to lead his increasingly fractured Republican party. The most recent example of this is when Boehner attempted to create a solution to fund the federal government for the rest of the year. However, a large number of conservatives refused to vote in affirmation of any bill that did not defend planned parenthood. While I personally am not the biggest supporter of John Boehner, it is still a shame to see a politician resign due to the increasing radicalization of a political party.

More on John Boehner’s stepping down right here.

That is just about everything you need to know to fake your way through a conversation this weekend. As always, if you enjoyed reading this be sure to like it and leave a comment down below. You can also subscribe via email in the tab on the upper-right part of this page. You should probably also like the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page, and my, @LucasDeRuyter, twitter page. Enjoy your Friday and be sure to come back here tomorrow for the next installment of Game Grind.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye