We respond…
Okay. We all knew this would be the case — but here it is — in black and white, from a well respected expert’s testimony.
So, this page alone, at right — likely means Tangerine will be found liable for tax fraud, and bank borrowing frauds — hundreds of counts… in New York state court.
Do take a look.
He wildly overstated the value of his real estate holdings, when borrowing.
And wildly UNDER-stated them — when required to pay any NY tax bill on the properties.
Y A W N.
What a putz.
Out.
I am loathe to even mention it.
It is stupid, racist, homophobic BS. Utterly… churlish. [It seeks to trash a former president, on the basis of some college writings that were supposedly supportive of some people being… gay. Not in any manner a controversial idea.]
And, as ever, even three decades afterward, Billings-puss seeks to libel BHO 44. Why? To what point and purpose? Who knows?
Perhaps it reflects Billings-puss’s own insecurities about his… sexuality.
In any event, what a feckless prick… this Billingpuss is.
Y A W N…
Out.
As we see inside Steve’s own silly piece — Dave Portnoy chose to video a call with a WaPo reporter.
Seems like pretty robust first amendment activity on both sides — Dave’s and the WaPo’s.
Arguably, Dave’s is more likely to reach his audience, via BarStool Sports, than the WaPo reporter is… to reach them.
But so be it — that’s the marketplace of ideas.
My simple point is… that Steve H. has… NO POINT, here.
He’s just (as ever)… whining… about essentially… nothing.
People are allowed to express their own opinions, Steve. Even ones you don’t much like. Portnoy’s — and your… remedy: you are free to cry harder, on your blogs.
In print; in pixels… and yes, on video. Get over yourself.
Out.
This item was rejected by a terse letter, at the Sixth Cir., and correctly so.
But the actual brief is… (unintentionally) illuminating, in that it explains why so many hard right evangelicals feel it is their “right” to exercise control over other peoples’ genitals and bodies, more broadly.
It is both odiously sad, and massively confused — representing no coherent set of legal principles whatsoever.
Y A W N.
But just as we must read mass shooters’ manifestos, in an attempt to avoid future mental breakdowns of that sort… I think we ought to read this — to understand why at least some low education Tennessee legislators think they better understand medicine than doctors with decades of training in the sciences.
Even so, do read it, at your considerable… peril. The “thinking” there is… polluted and illogical.
नमस्ते
As the archived masthead below right now reflects — a nearly three year journey, to return home is coming to a successful conclusion, albeit on a “fly-by” basis.
We have covered it closely — the first time humans have collected samples of the early proto-planetary materials which formed around five billion years ago… and brought that “star stuff” home for analysis. It seems to be not too relatively dense, certainly not as dense as rocky solid lead-bearing, or iron-ores might present — as it spewed wildly into space, when airbrushed into the collection canister, off of a pogo stick touchdown maneuver in the fall of 2020. Here’s the Sunday coverage rundown, from Goddard/NASA:
…The sample of rocks and dust, which the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected from the asteroid Bennu in Oct. 2020, will return to Earth. . . safely landing at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample will give generations of scientists a window into the time when the Sun and planets were forming about 4.5 billion years ago….
The first asteroid sample collected in space by NASA will arrive on Earth Sunday, Sept. 24, and there are multiple events leading up to its landing.
NASA’s live coverage of the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) capsule landing starts at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT) and will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website….
To successfully deliver a sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, spacecraft operators need to ensure OSIRIS-REx travels at the right speed and direction to release the sample capsule into the atmosphere, landing it on the U.S. Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. Mission leadership will discuss the results of the spacecraft’s final trajectory maneuvers, and expectations for the capsule’s entry, descent, and landing, and plans for recovery operations in Utah’s western desert….
Now you know. I’ll likely only tune in to the audio-cast on Sunday morning — over a bowl of yogurt, fresh dark cherries, a banana, piping hot coffee & cream, and fresh OJ. See you then!
नमस्ते
This afternoon, to hear John tell it, one would believe that the wearing of a hoodie inside the chambers of the Capitol, alone… is the sole cause of the decline of… Rome. Or… something.
Perhaps realizing (by the middle of his first paragraph, that his supposed “point” is… foolish, and sad), Johnnie lards on that there have been some intemperate Tweets. Not on the floor — just… Tweets (after hours, DC time).
Oh. The. Humanities!
Funny, though — when Margrie Taylor Green screeched “Liar!” — in wild whyte ape fashion, during the state of the union, or when Boebert called Rep. Ilhan Omar a “terrorist” on the floor of the House… or when Santos falsely said he was Jew-ish (when he plainly… is not) on the floor and began trying supposedly Hebrew impersonations (in heavily Jewish Babylon, Long Island), for / on fund-raising calls… John uttered not a peep — didn’t make a sound.
Nope, not a… peep — but let one Democratic member wear a hoodie, or refer to “hogs”… about no one in particular… and Hinderaker falls as limp as last week’s daisies — onto his fainting couch.
How very… precious.
Out.
However you need to do it there, son — do take a seat, John.
Your… a$$ is showin’.
We have been covering this, pretty regularly.
It is regrettable that GOP Gov. Abbott feels entitled to directly violate US treaty obligations. But it is… deplorable that now many asylum seekers have been lacerated — and in at least three cases, drowned — in the attempt to enjoy the promises of our bilateral treaties with our good friend Mexico.
We as a nation are better than this. We cannot let whiny brown shirted despots try to end our status as that shining beacon on the hill, for oppressed peoples around the globe. That much is clear.
But today’s update is more prosaic.
Texas (Gov. Abbott) finally has admitted that the barrier was in part in Mexican water. And he had it moved, at the end of August. Now both sides agree it is wholly in a US waterway.
All that means though is that Mr. Biden should win at the Supremes — as the trial court correctly ruled Texas cannot impede a federal waterway (not without explicit permission from the feds). And Gov. Abbott specifically declined, by press conference to even ask for say-so. Game over — as soon as it is referred by Alito to the full nine Supremes for resolution.
Onward, smiling — getting used to breathing a very rich-oxygen atmosphere, at sea level, again… it is sort of like drinking an extra cup of coffee in the morning… and it will persist (at least it does, for me, based on many prior such trips) for about two weeks — before the “oxygen dep” rebound finally fades out… from living/gasping(!) at 12,000 feet elevation — for a week. [Odd, that I am a flatlander, now — for almost 30 years. Grin.]
नमस्ते
Merck’s KEYNOTE-A18 trial showed fairly impressive improvements in progression free survival in a wider range of first line but aggressive uterine cance patients, over simply using chemo-.
So it is highly likely that Merck will win the approval after priority review is complete, in January at FDA.
In any event, here’s the latest from the wires — but do go read it all:
…Merck’s KEYNOTE-A18 clinical trial showed that Keytruda plus chemoradiotherapy outperformed concurrent chemoradiotherapy. The endpoint offered a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival.
The FDA circled January 20, 2024, as the target action date for a decision on the priority review. Keytruda is already approved in the U.S. in combination with chemotherapy and as a mono-therapy, for patients with cervical cancer whose tumors harbor the PD-L1 biomarker….
All good news, to be sure.
And now, if I might editorialize a bit — it is true that all these clinical trials are wildly expensive — and the ten year development arc for pembrolizumab likely cost close to $2 billion if fairly valued in today’s dollars. All that is true.
And Keytruda is one of dozens of projects like it at Merck — though in fairness it is the largest, in dollars spent.
Having said that, Keytruda is also the most successful therapy in Merck’s long history — now generating almost $22 billion a year in revenue, globally — and still growing at over 15 per cent a year, on the back of great study results in new arenas, like the above. It will enjoy exclusivity at the patent office until well after 2035 (with even moderately aggressive additional filings).
Contrast all that with the suit update we posted yesterday. There, the admittedly very good diabetes drug Januvia has been on market since 2006 — for 17 years, raking in a total of over $20 billion — having long ago made back about 20X what Merck spent in development. And yet, Merck continues to increase the selling price (at least to the federal government payors). Many elderly diabetics make a monthly choice: pay the winter heating bill (and/or wear down parkas indoors — in their apartments) or pay as much as $848 a month out of pocket, for their diabetes medication, Januvia.
It is not hyperbole to call that. . . a life or death choice. And that is simply… wrong. And Mr. Davis well-knows it. [This is not simply being unable to afford Mr. Musk’s latest screaming cyber-truck, or roadster. This is… life altering therapy — or the lack of it.]
He should voluntarily dismiss his silly strike suit — and sit down to negotiate sensible prices on these old (long paid for) drugs, with HHS and CMS. Out.
नमस्ते
Welp… while I vehemently disagreed with Ari when he was a Bush admin press flack, I never saw a racist or anti-gay bone in his body. That’s about the only positive thing I can say about him.
Something I cannot say about… John. [Copious documentation here; just search “racism” here. You’ll find over 100 posts implicating Hinderaker, from his own keyboard.]
In any event, Hinderaker is shilling for a book he hasn’t read, by Ari, this morning… and that is almost too precious for words.
It’s a vain attempt by John to sidle back up to the deep pockets of the more sensible folks in the middle of the road / old 1990s GOP.
It won’t work.
John is indelibly branded — as a leader among the Freedom Caucus nut jobs now.
Hysterical.
Back on the grid… rested and ready. Grin.
And while in transit yesterday, AARP filed its amicus brief — explaining why Merck’s purported federal suit ought to be dismissed, in DC.
There simply is no legal US property right — to avoid at least listening to government / customer initiated price negotiations, before they even begin. In any event, here is that filing, from yesterday, and a bit:
…[T]he list price of Januvia has increased by 275 percent since it entered the market in 2006, and the drug has accounted for $21.6 billion in Medicare Part D spending between 2017 and May 2023….
Merck seeks to protect the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to charge unreasonable and astronomical prices at the expense of what people with chronic conditions need to survive. [Merck’s] efforts threaten the financial health of Medicare….
This is a medicine (Januvia) that, in many many cases, the lack of which will lead to… death, for diabetics. One that Merck has been profiting from, for 17 years already — likely to the tune of over $60 billion, life to date. C’mon, man!
नमस्ते
