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UPDATE: Prisoner Swap Proposed To Putin — 2 For 1 — Brittney Griner Included; Russia Gets Back A Notorious Arms-Dealer.

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She only had a few THC vape cartridges in her luggage, at the Moscow airport.

But Putin had invaded Ukraine and wanted some high-profile leverage, if one of his generals was captured. That’s about the sum and substance of it. She’s entered a guilty plea, to get to a verdict… and be eligible for a diplomatic swap.

The news is that Mr. Biden has proposed giving Putin the most notorious Russian we hold, an arms-dealer, in return for Ms. Griner’s freedom. This is clearly a deal Putin should take. In any event, here’s NPR on the latest:

…Washington would like a response from Moscow. Russia has for years expressed interest in the release of Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer once labeled the “Merchant of Death,” who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on charges that he schemed to illegally sell millions of dollars in weapons….

[The two diplomats working on a deal] will next be in the same city at the same time next week in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they will both be attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum. It was not immediately clear if the phone call ahead of that meeting, set for Aug. 4-5, would presage an in-person discussion….

I agree with Joe — and Kamala — let’s get our girl… home, already.

I hate that we need to give up a clear murderer, serving a long and just sentence here, to do so — but she and Paul Whelan deserve to be home. Out.

नमस्ते

An Age Old Multinational Taxation Question: Where, Exactly, Does US Tax “Equity” Come To Rest? Which Nation’s Jobs Should Be… On The Block, For Chopping?

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We have covered, for over a decade, the delicate balance between creating high-paying jobs in Northern Ireland (and elsewhere in the EU), and still fairly paying the IRS, for profits on wonder-drugs like Keytruda® (since the highest-priced sales mostly occur in the US).

But the way international taxation laws work (or, actually don’t really work)… Merck and all big multinational public companies see a vast incentive for moving profits offshore. Apple plainly included, here. The way they do it is to set up Irish financial consolidation centers, where the revenue and profits are actually booked — and use many many high paid, skilled English speaking cousins o’ mine, as employees.

Then, via a series of complicated EU denominated debt offerings, into the multiple billions of euros, these companies (Merck and Apple; Pfizer and Amazon too) set up liabilities that must be paid down, in the US. So, the companies eventually bring back EU cash to pay the EU denominated debt… and are able to move all those off-shored earnings back, very efficiently from a US tax standpoint.

I am not defending any of it, as any form of wise policy, but I will say that the Senate Finance Committee’s renewed focus on it (last closely examined while Mr. Obama was in office)… might lead to some real reforms — and hopefully, strike a balance between paying ones’ fair share — and not cratering the Irish economy, as just one example.

As it is, while the US and EU workers enjoy the highest prevailing wage rates at all these companies… the rise of unions anew may well mean that “US tax paying equity” is back on the table. We shall see.

Excuse any typos, this was typed on an iPhone (tiny keys; big fingers) in the car bumping along at 55 mph-plus… yep, from the road. Off to the botanic gardens, in a change of venues… smile. Cliffs tomorrow — or Friday.

नमस्ते

Someone Named Eleanor Warnock Perfectly… Nailed The Monday Martin Shkreli Announcement…

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I am mostly off-grid with family fun this week, to next Wednesday… but I will reproduce her tweet (albeit slightly delayed), at right. Flawless. Simply… flawless.

And for those who still don’t get it, I quote our erstwhile anon. commenter (at another property), who quotes the injunction at page 3:

…“Development” means all preclinical and clinical research and development activities related to a Drug Product, including discovery or identification of a new chemical entity, test method development, all studies for the safety and efficacy of a Drug Product, toxicology studies, bioequivalence and bioavailability studies, pharmaceutical formulation, process development, manufacturing scale-up, development-stage manufacturing, quality assurance/quality control development, stability testing, statistical analysis and report writing, for the purpose of obtaining any and all FDA Authorizations, licenses, approvals, or registrations necessary for the manufacture, use, storage, import, export, transport, promotion, marketing, and sale of a Drug Product, and regulatory affairs related to the foregoing….”

Entity is defined as “means any partnership, joint venture, firm, corporation, association, trust, unincorporated organization, or other business or government entity, and any subsidiaries, divisions, groups, or affiliates thereof….”

So it goes. He has literally no path to bring this lawfully — to any investor.

Out — grinning.

नमस्ते

Not A Merck Story — GOP Congressman From Indiana: Insider Trading; Ex-BF Of Lawyer, Too…

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I note this one solely to point out that no one at Merck, or at its law firm(s)… are suspected of any wrongdoing.

As was last true in 2008, someone got access to law firm drafts of merger agreements, involving Merck as the acquiror… and traded the target’s shares pre-announcement.

Here’s the NPR story on it all:

…A former U.S. congressman from Indiana, technology company executives, a man training to be an FBI agent, and an investment banker were among nine people charged in four separate and unrelated insider trading schemes revealed on Monday with the unsealing of indictments in New York City.

It was one of the most significant attacks by law enforcement on insider trading in a decade, and a prosecutor and other federal officials pledged fresh enthusiasm for similar prosecutions in the future. They said the cheating resulted in millions of dollars of illegal profits for defendants situated on both coasts and in middle America.

Stephen Buyer was accused in court papers of engaging in insider trading….

Now you know. Onward, grinning….

नमस्ते

John & Scott Don’t “Get” Docile Compliance (By Ppl Of Color) When Arrested.

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Last week, he and Hinderaker told us the central reason black & brown people in the US are twice as likely to end up dead in any police encounter, compared to whytes… is because they don’t fully and swiftly obey police commands.

Uh-huh.

That’s bull crap. But now, this Sunday evening, Scott claims AOC’s docile compliance means she wasn’t… arrested at all.

Again, bull crap.

She even pointed out that keeping her hands behind her back where the officer can both see them and control her… increases her odds of not being injured or charged with “resisting”.

These f-in’ racist old men at Powerline can’t have it both ways: if they truly think a more docile black and brown presentation, and excessive cooperation… will avoid police involved killings at what are often simple traffic stops, they should applaud AOC.

But no, they get all frothy when they see her, and will stoop to just about anything (including running clips of a GOP a-hole calling her his “favorite big booty Latina” in Congress, on the Capitol steps)… to discredit or objectify her beauty and brains.

Damn.

Even By Hinderaker’s Insipid Standards, This Is… Stultifying.

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Again with the lie that only “communist” China benefits from wind and solar renewable energy sources.

Hilariously… stupid, as lies go.

And John ignores the fact that Bitcoin miners in Texas are the cause of Texas brown-outs, and high prices, to consumers (not solar- or wind-) — via an insatiable demand factor, on a privatized grid increasingly held together by rubber bands, and bailing wire.

Charming — but unsurprising, that he shills for the fossil fuel lobby — in fabulist fashion.

She’s Nearly Running Sub 10-Second 100s — Over Hurdles… For 400 Meters!

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Look, this is properly a… life science post… because I think it at least approaches what must be a biological hard limit, for human speed, at four hundred meters — over hurdles.

Consider that the prior world record stood for 33 years, then along she comes — and knocks a full second off of it (at the last Olympics!), on her first “real try” — and then proceeds to better her own mark, in three more successive world stage outings, over just the last two years.

But now, as of yesterday, at 2022 Worlds — in Eugene Oregon’s glorious facility, she’s taken it to where each of her successive 100 meters… would have been a world record on their own, just two decades ago, in womens’ competition.

And she does it for 400 meters… straight. At some point, as a once in a generation athlete, she is likely to show us where the biological limit is, for speed, in this event — as Usain Bolt had, about 15 years ago in the mens’ 100.

Here is to all the great things, both on-, and off- the track — this gifted young human will achieve. Grinning ear to ear.

नमस्ते

The Frothy Hard-Right Now Wants To Make J6 Defendants Who Commit Suicide… Out To Be… Martyrs?

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Hinderaker hasn’t written on this yet, but I am sure he’s commented on one of his web-radio programs about it.

Something called The Gateway Pundit is (but of course!) blaming the Committee for the fact that a guy who pled guilty in the J6 insurrection, and was to be sentenced… committed suicide.

I won’t name him, but they do.

Look, he only pled guilty to a “parading” charge, and was fined $5,000 — facing only a maximum of six months in jail. And while any suicide is a tragedy, it strikes me that perhaps he is dead NOT because of the Committee’s work, but because his crimes were clearly something he became… ashamed about. As well he should be… ashamed.

The world now sees Tangerine for what he is — and people who now realize they were duped by him… now deeply regret their fecklessness. It really is that simple.

That seems a better read of this situation… than to effectively blame the detectives (as so many MAGA-nuts do), for rooting out clearly felonious — if not technically treasonous crimes — against our nation. In a real sense, his death is on Trump’s hands.

नमस्ते

Amazon Spent Over $5 Million On Lobbyists In Q2 2022; Pfizer Was Over $3.4 Million, While Merck Spent About $2.9 Million; Amgen ~$2.2 Million.

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The increases in quarterly spend at these companies are surprisingly-large, for a mid-terms year — and quite widespread. [This is an all-time high-water spend figure for Amazon, in a quarter (between all three fronts: antitrust, labor and tech measures).]

In a future post, I will detail Amgen’s spend, as well as Pfizer’s — and for the first time, perhaps… Amazon’s (with only a bit of it, as a footnote today, bottom of this post).

Here is a partial run down of what Merck itself says it lobbied about in Q1 2022:

…H.R. 3, Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act; H.R. 19 Lower Costs, More Cures Act of 2021; H.R. 1550, PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2021; H.R. 2873, Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Through Promoting Competition Act of 2021; H.R. 3173, Improving Seniors Timely Access to Care Act of 2021; H.R. 3932/S. 2079, Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions To End Up surging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act of 2021; H.R. 4127, Developing an Innovative Strategy for Antimicrobial Resistant Microorganisms (DISARM) Act of 2021; H.R. 5260, Reduced Costs and Continued Cures Act; H.R. 5376, Build Back Better Act; H.R. 5416, Give Kids a Chance Act; H.R. 5801, Help Ensure Lower Patient (HELP) Copays Act; H.R. 6584, Diverse and Equitable Participation in Clinical Trials (DEPICT) Act; H.R. 6963, Accelerated Approval Integrity Act of 2022; H.R. 7559, Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2022; H.R. 7667, Food and Drug Amendments of 2022; S. 1435, Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2021; S. 1712, Developing an Innovative Strategy for Antimicrobial Resistant Microorganisms (DISARM) Act of 2019; S. 2774, Pride in Patent Ownership Act; S. 2891, Restoring the America Invents Act; S. 2543 (116th Congress) Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019; S. 1895 (116th Congress) Lower Health Care Costs Act; S. 4348, Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements (FDASLA) Act of 2022….

Issues relating to 340B program integrity; 340B of the Public Health Services Act; 340B policy; 340B issues; 340B drug pricing program; Drug pricing; Drug Pricing reforms – international reference prices and government price setting; Anti-microbial Resistance; Vaccines; COVID-19 vaccines; COVID-19 therapeutics coverage issues; COVID-19 Pandemic response; Cost and value of medicines; Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) immunization; Vaccines catch up; Vaccine provisions; Vaccine Issues, including return to care access, and pandemic-related policy; Package inserts, labeling issues, and E-Labeling authorization legislation; Pharmaceutical Supply Channel Isssues; Prescription Drug User Fees Act (P.L. 102-571); Prescription drug cost-sharing; Accelerated approval reform; Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements (FDASLA); Executive Order 13937, Access to Affordable Life-Saving Medications; FY-2023 Budget and Appropriations Legislation; Intellectual property protection; WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement; Animal Health; Animal Health Technology Issues; One Health Issues; Rural Broadband Issues; General pharmaceutical issues; Farm Bill 2023; Animal Drug User Fee Act 2023….

As a footnote, I did want to mention that in addition to lobbying in favor of broader cannabis legalization, Amazon lobbied for quite a bit of direct health care / life sciences measures: “Issues related to health care, including employee health care plans, HIPAA, health information technology, telehealth, including the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Public Law 117-103), the Telehealth Modernization Act (H.R. 1332 / S. 368), the CONNECT Act (H.R. 2903 / S. 1512), the Telehealth Expansion Act (S. 1704), and the Ensuring Telehealth Expansion Act (H.R. 341), the Cures 2.0 Act (H.R. 6000), and the Food and Drug Amendments Act of 2023 (H.R. 7667), the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements Act of 2022 (S. 4348), and the Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2022 (H.R. 7559). Issues related to pharmacy, vaccines, and COVID-19 testing, including implementation of the CARES Act (Public Law 116-136)….”

Now you know. . . grinning, with baby girls sleeping over, tonight — and youngest grown son home by early Monday morning. Blog-forecast: spotty to intermittent, next week. Smile.

नमस्ते

Hey John — NASA, NCAR and NOAA and GOES-5… Disagree With A Feckless Guy With A Half Century Old Undergrad Degree.

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Me? I think NASA, GOES, NOAA, and NCAR (where I had interned while an undergrad, at Boulder)… are better at this stuff than some semi-retired old Dartmouth guy, who (maybe) took one Environmental Sciences survey course, and likely pass/fail, now half a century ago.

Yeh. I trust not “climate alarmists” (as you shamelessly libel them) — but real scientists who’ve made studying our impact on the planet… their lives’ work.

Again — sit down, Hinderaker. You’re well past your… expiration date.