Category: Uncategorized

Hinderaker Cannot Comprehend… That Bill Barr / Tangerine… Is NOT The Model.

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See lil’ Johnny — only Trump ran the DoJ like it was part of his Campaign staff.

And Bill Barr willingly played along, for more than two years. But that is an aberration, in US history, over the last 75 years at least.

Most non-corrupt Presidents would tell the guy in Merrick Garland’s (AG) seat… “as to specific prosecuting / warrant execution decisions… of [former] political figures… YOU make the final call.”

I will not weigh in. You are an independent prosecutor.

In sum… what a dipsh!t Hinderaker has become. Not even Bush43 / Cheney ever tried what Trump actually did. And John’s mind (and sense of bearings) is forever… broken, by that aberration.

Out, grinning — for a cool, but very sunny bike ride along the lake path… be excellent to one another.

Apparently, A Texas Orthodontist Thinks He Can Sue Insurance Companies… To Avoid Paying For The Coverage He Doesn’t Use… Charming.

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I won’t quote his wholly-specious federal suit, but of course, at the bottom of it… is a desire to gut the ACA of 2010 provisions (long upheld as a valid use of Congress’s taxing powers) mandating specified items of minimum preventative care at a zero co-pay, for anyone offered health insurance. To state his premise, in full… is to refute it, in spades.

Look — we all know he is really aiming to block coverage of birth control and other family planning items, claiming these violate HIS religious beliefs.

[Sheesh — if he doesn’t want to buy insurance at all, he need not buy it — he can just pay in, to the uninsured risk pool, or fund it all — out of his own pocket. Or create his own insurance cooperative, among other Luddites.]

But he alone cannot prevent all other Americans from accessing these vital items of preventative care.

His religious beliefs can never be tortured sufficiently to end… my freedom to ignore his… befuddled, even if genuinely held, beliefs. [What about your — and my — beliefs, in effective health care?]

However, as NPR notes, he may have a slightly-better shot (but just a little less than zero probability) post the Dobbs decision. In any event, I might ask:

When in recorded history, as against a commerce clause defense, has an individual been able to order all car-makers to sell him a car without turn-signals and seat-belts, at a reduced from retail price… because he hates seat belts and turn signals?

Even more directly… when have we ever seen a court of last resort order the removal of seat belts, and turn lights… for ALL US auto purchasers… on the “say so” of a single Texas… moron? Again… never. Never gonna’ happen.

नमस्ते

[U] Tangerine’s Country Club Residence Raided By FBI… Couldn’t Happen To A Nicer Guy.

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I will wait for a bit, to offer any speculative / broader “what ifs“… but I’d be almost certain the FBI was after (and secured) far more than just archives, long missing. What else? Who knows? But it is likely Tangerine’s people had been working on this response for weeks (knowing a raid was likely, against his endless foot-dragging and obstruction). That much seems clear.

And yet, it is full of the usual false claim/illogical nonsense, that is his stock-in-trade.

The as published “Tangerine’s Screed” is truly unhinged — so I won’t quote all of it — but it is particularly silly to suggest that burglars… under cover of night, breaking into DNC offices at the Watergate… are equivalent to the FBI itself, with a warrant from a federal judge, after a probable cause hearing. This is… deliciously precious.

Yep — he is every bit the crook Nixon was (times 1,000) — and nowhere near as smart. [Hinderaker echoes his idiocy, in claiming that an FBI warrant, from a federal judge — is somehow a Democratic Party conspiracy to smear Tangerine. Though I do hope John is right — that the GOP chuckleheads choose to nominate him for 2024. It will hand the White House to any Democratic nominee (Harris or Newsom included!) — in a cake walk.]

Here’s the bit:

“…These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats….

They even broke into my safe! What is the difference between this and Watergate, where operatives broke into the Democrat National Committee? Here, in reverse, Democrats broke into the home of the 45th President of the United States….”

Any sensible felony search warrant (given what is already known, and in the public record, about 1.6.21, and a host of other matters) would have allowed the search of the safe, and all phones.

He’s an just… an idiot.

But that is no news whatsoever.

Out.

[U] Life Without Parole — Justice, Finally Arriving: In Arbery / Georgia Lynching Case.

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To be sure, none of it will bring young Mr. Arbery back. [Updated: Roddy Bryant gets 35 years… the father and son get natural life without parole, and must serve the time in the Georgia state prison system, not the federal prison system. End update.]

Each of the other two will now die in prison.

[While they appeal their state court life sentences, today is the day they learn their federal hate crime sentences. First one? Life in prison; no parole.]

A sad but much-needed moment — to begin to get closure here. Onward. If either of the other two get less than natural life, this afternoon — I will report it as an update. [In the wake of the state court convictions in Mr. Arbery’s lynching, Georgia state bar authorities have also filed a misconduct case against then-prosecutor Jackie Johnson, claiming that she obstructed law enforcement “by directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest, contrary to the laws of the State.” Condor opines that she ought to be disbarred. It appears that, while a prosecutor, she secretly advised McMichael (an ex-cop) on how avoid ever being charged.]

The federal hate crimes, though are really “insurance policy” sentences: that is, in the highly unlikely event that any of them win out, in the appeals of their state court guilty verdicts, and sentences — these federal hate crime life sentences. . . will remain in full force and effect — denying any of them any sort of release from prison. Ever. Justice.

नमस्ते

Curiosity Reaches A Decade Of Driving, Scoring / Sampling And Climbing — On Mars.

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It is hard to imagine that it’s been a decade since I walked back off that Carribean cruise ship — to read news of Curiosity starting its mission of discovery on Mars. And harder to imagine all that followed.

The rover will have support from NASA Earth-side for another three year extension — and we will be watching, closely — even if all that was post that cruise… has fallen silent. The lil’ rover has not — onward it motors, on partially shredded wheels to be sure — but… ever, onward:

…Curiosity has driven nearly 18 miles (29 kilometers) and ascended 2,050 feet (625 meters) as it explores Gale Crater and the foothills of Mount Sharp within it. The rover has analyzed 41 rock and soil samples, relying on a suite of science instruments to learn what they reveal about Earth’s rocky sibling. And it’s pushed a team of engineers to devise ways to minimize wear and tear and keep the rover rolling: In fact, Curiosity’s mission was recently extended for another three years, allowing it to continue among NASA’s fleet of important astrobiological missions….

So… it is indeed well, with my soul… at peace, am I — with all of it… the many bright lilting highs and the few deep, dark lows. Even the losses along the way, remind us of the beauty of it all — at least five deaths; and yet six new arrivals, overall. So, “Life, life, life… isn’t it… grand?” It is… it is.

नमस्ते

Tonight, In Full-On Loony Mode, Hinderaker Claims Allowing The US To Negotiate Drug Prices…

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…will mean that (wait for it!) CHINA will become the dominant pharma power, on the planet. Welp. That’s just…

I N S A N E.

He “gets there” by saying that since (from an era over 75 years ago!), Europe was the center of drug innovation, and then about fifty years ago (and ever since), the US has been the center of most of the innovation… that entire affect was due SOLELY to Europe making medicines more affordable for humans. Uh-huh.

Well — that’s just silly. And to extrapolate from that fiction, to assume that China can catch the US on innovation, in new drug candidates… [will it break into the US Patent office?!] is like assuming that any smaller but developed nation could leapfrog perhaps a trillion dollars in total sunk investments, and forty years of bench work… to suddenly take the lead in all drug research franchises. Um… how?!

But that (not just coincidentally) is only slightly more outrageous than the fictions PhRMA is now peddling, to try to dissuade / prevent federal government agencies from negotiating directly for drugs, on pricing.

And to top it off, he makes equally stupid claims about US tax policy / enforcement.

I will, in future posts explain where PhRMA has gone wrong, on most likely policy outcomes.

But for tonight, ask yourself: could China spend a trillion dollars next year, just to build drug research capacity? Maybe — but it couldn’t do anything else. And where would it find three generations of truly creative cutting edge science leaders? [They almost all work in the Western world now.]

And so — Hinderaker is so far out in right field, that he’s well outside the parking lot fence.

Merck’s CFO Defends The Tax-Management Strategies That Let It Pay About HALF The Straight US Corporate Tax Rates.

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About ten days ago, in an earlier piece, I mentioned Merck’s various complicated machinations — which reduce the level of taxes it pays, world-wide — which in turn, per force deeply cut the amount it pays to the US tax authorities, since US is a relatively high-tax rate jurisdiction. [But (as we’ve long explained) the US is also where most of the highest margin Keytruda® sales occur — in US hospital oncology wings.]

[I would also note that Pfizer, Amgen, Abbott, Baxter and Lilly do very much these same things — it is an industry wide problem, from the perspective of paying one’s fair share — where most of the high margin sales are made.] To be fair though, and offer a little “equal time” — we will run this link, from FinancialTimes, as it contains the CFO’s defense of its global tax strategies:

…Litchfield said Merck’s decision to hold the intellectual property for Keytruda in the Netherlands is entirely appropriate, noting that a team of Dutch scientists invented the drug.

“It’s within the ethical boundaries to have intellectual property owned where that intellectual property was discovered. That’s what the situation is with regards to Keytruda….”

Well… that is true — but it doesn’t really address the underlying concern: paying ones’ fair share on the soil where the highest-priced sales are made. Where the drug is consumed, and reimbursed at huge mark-ups. Which is where we are headed, in supporting the right of the US government payors… to negotiate prices, for such medicines directly with big pharma. That is something that has been unlawful for almost 48 years, now. [Via very well-run pharma lobbying efforts, across multiple decades. But it was last close to getting repealed under President Obama in about 2009.] Time to change… all that — to move forward, toward greater equity.

With all due respect, it is not just “where it was invented“, Ms. Litchfield, that should decide how it is taxed, or priced.

नमस्ते

Over 13 Years Ago, We Took A Position Against Tauzin/PhRMA…

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When what became the ACA of 2010 was still being chewed over, drafted and redrafted… we ran a series of pieces on how badly Billy Tauzin handled industry responses.

And tonight it seems PhRMA is making all those same mistakes — as a “negotiate drug prices” measure is likely to pass, in favor of government payors.

I’ve repeatedly said such a measure is good for America — ordinary Americans, more precisely.

So, in the coming months, I’ll have much more to say on this topic. And big pharma won’t like it — not one bit.

Do stay tuned… and do go see “Bullet Train“. Smile….

नमस्ते

Largely Because Gov. Abbott’s “Stunt” Has Backfired…

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Tonight, Hinderaker writes anew, in deeply jingoistic terms — about the fact that the sitting Governor of Texas, Abbott (R), has taken asylum seekers he himself had detained, claiming they were unlawfully present in his state, and driven them into DC and New York, only to dump them there.

Aside from the basic violation of due process — not allowing them to have a hearing and stand trial — this action by Abbott also violates several US treaties with Mexico and most of the rest of the world.

Hinderaker is just now figuring out that Abbott, et al. may well lose office soon… and here tries to “pretty up” this deplorable lawlessness.

Nope. Not possible. This hangs around ALL Republicans’ necks — into the 2022 midterms.

Cheers, morons.