Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

Boris Johnson has become the leader of the Conservative Party in British Parliament and will replace Theresa May as PM on Wednesday.

Boris is very Trumpian in his world view except he is a smarter politician, doesn't have a twitter account - or if he does is smart enough not to use it like Trump does - and refrains from saying stupid stuff ..... most of the time. He is a character though but with a sense of humor which the Brits insist is an electable characteristic and must be present in those seeking high office.

Oh, and if you think American politics and Issues are complex, if you can figure out all the shit going on in GB/NI that May left behind for Johnson to unfuck, please explain it to me.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[froot loops]

None of the jackals pushing Brexit gave one word to the Irish border question. Idiots.

[Dr. Strangelove]

This one cracks me up. Especially since it was followed up almost immediately with "Hannity should be great tonight"

[Dr. Strangelove]

There was an article in the NY Times about Macomb County a few days ago. Basically it was saying Dems should be nervous that their generic candidate was only slightly ahead of Trump in the county.

I don't doubt that the Dems want more than a narrow lead over Trump everywhere but unless Trump wins Macomb County by a similar margin (he won it in 2016 by 11.5 points) there's a very good chance he will lose Michigan. It's probably going to be the most decisive county in the state for 2020.

Was tossing around data to find counties that voted for Trump but then went Whitmer/Stabenow in 2018. May post more about the others tomorrow. It's hard to know if it's reaction to Trump, reaction to the specific R candidates, or just swing voters splitting their tickets, basically.

Here are results from the last 8 major statewide elections in Macomb (President, Governor, and Senate)

2010 - Snyder (R) 61.28%, Bernero (D) 36.72%
2012 - Obama (D) 51.30%, Romney (R) 47.33%
2012 - Stabenow (D) 59.75%, Hoekstra (R) 36.98%
2014 - Snyder (R) 53.88%, Schauer (D) 44.00%
2014 - Peters (D) 53.87%, Land (R) 41.43%
2016 - Trump (R) 53.58%, Clinton (D) 42.05%
2018 - Whitmer (D) 49.69%, Schuette (R) 46.26%
2018 - Stabenow (D) 49.24%, James (R) 47.43%

[iam416]

Boy, one BOMSHELL after another BOMBSHELL from Mueller. This shit is EPIC!

[iam416]

In other news, the African-American state rep from Georgia that took to Twitter to accuse a white guy of telling her to "go back to where she came from" is looking like yet another in a long line of #GentryCommunist hoaxes. The incident started when Rep. Erica Thomas opted from the express lane with a shit-ton of items. Personally, that's a capital fucking offense, but whatever. The white dude admittedly called her a lazy bitch or something to that effect. It turns out the white dude is ardent progressive PDJT-hater who spends much of his time being woke as shit defending the likes of the detestable Mod Squad. It also turns out that he was pretty pissed about being falsely accused of being un-woke. Rep. Thomas then sort of back off it a bit, but not really. Welp, police reports now have witnesses saying that it was Rep, Thomas saying "go back to where you came from" -- so, umm, yeah.

Standard #GentryCommunist victimhood hoaxing.

[Ghengis Jon]

Not exactly must watch TV, but Mueller is not rising to the bait from the GOP or providing the Dems with sound bite material. Texan Louie Gohmert did his best to spew Trumpian fantasies and faux outrage that bordered on mental illness which Mueller simply acknowledged and moved on to the next lawmaker. I'm a little more disappointed in the GOP than the Dems who are staging this show. Rather than ask thoughtful questions concerning unclear matters, they are following a script of verbal deep throating Trump. Better to shamelessly pander than uncover clarity. Kudos to Mueller for not allowing the Dems to put words into his mouth for the six o'clock news.

Uncovering and acknowledging truth seems to be the casualty in this partisan bickering.

[iam416]

It's astounding that the Ds wanted Mueller to testify after he provided a detailed 400-page report.

What did they think would happen -- "Oh, yeah -- forgot to mention that..."

[Ghengis Jon]

Heh, there is that....

I think it's simply a hope that something will come out that will add pressure for the release of the unredacted report.

[froot loops]

There was an article in the NY Times about Macomb County a few days ago. Basically it was saying Dems should be nervous that their generic candidate was only slightly ahead of Trump in the county.

I don't doubt that the Dems want more than a narrow lead over Trump everywhere but unless Trump wins Macomb County by a similar margin (he won it in 2016 by 11.5 points) there's a very good chance he will lose Michigan. It's probably going to be the most decisive county in the state for 2020.

Was tossing around data to find counties that voted for Trump but then went Whitmer/Stabenow in 2018. May post more about the others tomorrow. It's hard to know if it's reaction to Trump, reaction to the specific R candidates, or just swing voters splitting their tickets, basically.

Here are results from the last 8 major statewide elections in Macomb (President, Governor, and Senate)

2010 - Snyder (R) 61.28%, Bernero (D) 36.72%
2012 - Obama (D) 51.30%, Romney (R) 47.33%
2012 - Stabenow (D) 59.75%, Hoekstra (R) 36.98%
2014 - Snyder (R) 53.88%, Schauer (D) 44.00%
2014 - Peters (D) 53.87%, Land (R) 41.43%
2016 - Trump (R) 53.58%, Clinton (D) 42.05%
2018 - Whitmer (D) 49.69%, Schuette (R) 46.26%
2018 - Stabenow (D) 49.24%, James (R) 47.43%

He's going to have to win Macomb by more than the 2016 margin to win Michigan.

[Ghengis Jon]

A bipartisan effort by the US Senate?!? The nerve of those bastards!

https://www.apnews.com/da871155354e460cbcc0c0f3ee7fe115

[Jeff Buchanan]

The out of pocket drug cost cap legislation is a start. I have some sympathy for the pharmaceutical companies but not much. It takes years, often a decade, to bring a drug to market and the costs of complying with all the Federal regulations to do so are staggering. I get that. What I don't get is taking a drug like Claritan (an antihistamine), making the primary molecule in this drug a mirror image of the original, re-branding it as Clarinex and getting another patent on it. All of this to keep the drug's price both high and protected. I can't find where the new legislation addresses that. It probably doesn't

This may be the most important part of the bill:

Require middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers to disclose details of the discounts they are negotiating and how much they are passing on to consumers. The benefit managers negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of insurers and consumers.

My only question is, what if they refuse or conceal this data? Not sure the requirement here has the teeth it needs. Why? Because what the PBM's and the drug companies are getting away with in the current regulatory environment concerning Medicare amounts to blatant thievery and is a factor contributing to drug price increases.

Also missing, for now, as the article points out is the ability for The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via HHS to negotiate prices for drugs on the Medicare formulary directly with the drug companies. This is a tough nut to crack because it is complicated. When this idea came up in 2007, the CBO was asked to study cost savings inherent in such rules. The CBO reported, not much that private insurers aren't already accomplishing ..... unless there was downward pressure exerted by the government on drug pricing in general. The new legislation may be - sort-of - just that and potentially a step toward direct negotiations.

There are several other proposals being tossed around in Congress that may end up - in part - in the final bill that the Senate has advanced. They are interesting and intelligent ways of bringing down drug prices that don't hang there hat on the potential benefit of "direct negations" and look at other ways to achieve a similar result. There's a link below if you are interested in the history of this and alternative proposals to a set of Federal regulations allowing HHS to negotiate prices with big pharma.

https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/whats-the-latest-on-medicare-drug-price-negotiations/

[Hannibal]

I'm OK with price controls. Let other countries fund drug research for a change. And I'm OK with not letting companies repatent the same molecule.

This may be the most important part of the bill:

Require middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers to disclose details of the discounts they are negotiating and how much they are passing on to consumers. The benefit managers negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of insurers and consumers.

If you want to reduce costs, then requiring even more government paperwork probably isn't going to help.

[Cody_Russell]

Not exactly must watch TV, but Mueller is not rising to the bait from the GOP or providing the Dems with sound bite material. Texan Louie Gohmert did his best to spew Trumpian fantasies and faux outrage that bordered on mental illness which Mueller simply acknowledged and moved on to the next lawmaker. I'm a little more disappointed in the GOP than the Dems who are staging this show. Rather than ask thoughtful questions concerning unclear matters, they are following a script of verbal deep throating Trump. Better to shamelessly pander than uncover clarity. Kudos to Mueller for not allowing the Dems to put words into his mouth for the six o'clock news.

Uncovering and acknowledging truth seems to be the casualty in this partisan bickering.