Just got an email this morning from Public Citizen, a 501(c)(4) organization that is very upset about the Citizens United decision, which allowed 501(c)(4) organizations to spend money to forward their respective political agendas--but not to donate to campaigns. They want it overturned.
A snippet: "If we lose, the forces of plutocracy — like the notorious Koch Brothers and casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, the Big Banks and Big Pharma, Karl Rove and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and so many more — would be even more emboldened to continue exploiting Citizens United and dismantling our democracy."
This guy is not on the list. Nor is Tom Steyer, George Soros, or Michael Bloomberg. Nor the millions spent by the SEIU, AFL-CIO, and other unions. By doing so they paint their organization as nothing more than a group of partisan hacks and not as true defenders of the democratic process.
The money flowing from their rich donors and supporting their causes is just a righteous investment in good government...the money from the other guys are bribes.
Speaking of Public Citizen, I recently received an email from them. Now, PublicCitizen.org is a 501(c)(4) corporation, who's primary purpose seems to be opposing the ruling handed down in the Citizens United case. Recall that the Citizens United case hinged on the fact that a 501(c)(4) corporation produced a movie that had a political purpose, in this case a documentary "Hillary: The Movie" that was intended to highlight Mrs. Clinton's shortcomings the first time she was running for president.
The email from Public Citizen was urging me to donate money to support their production of a documentary DVD highlighting how bad the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United was.
That's right: a 501(c)(4) corporation made a movie with the express political purpose of protesting the Supreme Court decision that a 501(c)(4) corporation could make a movie with an express political purpose!
So Big Pharma, being a scorpion, did what scorpions do. Was completely foreseeable and expected. But it only works when Government provides the monopoly.
"A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, they would both drown. Considering this, the frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When the frog asks the scorpion why, the scorpion replies that it was in its nature to do so."
" The highest costs are in marketing and lobbying."
And litigation. Don't forget the lawyers getting rich off of 1-800-BAD-DRUG lawsuits.
Frankly, I'm shocked that anyone would even try to bring a new drug or medical device to market without allocating several billion dollars to litigation costs, which has to be recouped before lawsuits shutdown sales of the new drug.
I'm pretty sure that if someone invented a 100%-effective drug that cures cancer (all kinds) that cost $10 per dose and only one dose was needed to cure cancer...but 1 in 100 patients would have orange pee for the rest of their life, the company would be run out of business by lawyers.
" vast majority of money spent by drug companies goes to sales and marketing, not research and development."
Don't forget lawsuits. Billions and billions of dollars go into the pockets of plaintiffs bar attorneys and their 1-800-BAD-DRUG litigation.
" The various owners of the device have fought other company's attempts to bring generics to market. This saga is pure profit taking my Mylan. Without effective competition they can do what they want unless the government finally implements price controls in the health care sector like every other developed nation."
Pretty much the FDA has done the bidding of the manufacturer and prevented alternatives from coming to market. So it was government regulation that caused the problem by putting the FDA in the role of gatekeeper for all drugs. A little corruption there can go a long way, and it certainly can't hurt to have the CEOs daddy be a Senator from WV.
"That is what we are seeing happen with things like the Epi-Pen. And in cases where patents are creating artificial monopolies, we have to examine if there should be regulation (as we rightfully regulate all other monopolies)."
The FDA created this monopoly through their regulations. But the answer is more regulation?
The real question is whether there has been any quid pro quo or unethical behavior between the Senator from WV, whose daughter is the CEO, and the FDA and/or the Administration.
Also,
"I am one of the people that must have an Epi-Pen or risk losing my life"
No, you probably don't need an Epi-Pen (TM). You'd probably be just fine with an equivalent auto-injector made by another company. Or even with ampules and syringe. If you insist on the brand name item, then expect to pay brand-name prices.
The question that has to be addressed is what created the monopoly that fosters the "price gouging" (no such thing by the way)?
Always, always, always there is government involvement that creates the situation where consumers have no choice. Corporations can't really be held to blame, they are simply scorpions doing what scorpions are going to do (q.v. parable about scorpion and frog). If the government said that ACA plans must cover a monthly pint of Ben & Jerry's, I have zero doubt that the cost of a pint of Ben&Jerry's would rise significantly no matter how crunchy the CEO might be.
Situation is even worse when government creates a monopoly. Why is there no generic form of EpiPen costing $25 per? I had my first epi-pen 30 years ago. Surely their patents have expired? Search and you will certainly find some government regulations propping up the monopoly. See https://mises.org/blog/lack-ep...
(from the Mises link above)
"As it turns out, Mylan has a great friend who keeps would-be competitors out of the market...That friend is the FDA.
"Just this year, Teva Pharmaceutical’s attempt at bringing a generic epinephrine injector to market in the US was blocked by the FDA. Adrenaclick and Twinject were unable to get insurance companies on board and so discontinued their injectors in 2012.
"Adrenaclick has since come back...and the FDA has made it illegal for pharmacies to substitute Adrenaclick as a generic alternative to EpiPen. Another company tried to sidestep the whole auto-injector patent barrier by offering prefilled syringes, but the FDA has stalled them, too.
"Mylan has been repeatedly protected from competition, and it has repeatedly (and predictably) increased the price of EpiPens in response.
"One thing is for sure: capitalism is not to blame. Government regulations have choked this market and many others. What we need is a big dose of freedom.
It has been pointed out that the CEO is a Democrat, the daughter of a Democrat Senator from WV so all of Hillary's bluster on the issue rings hollow.
The solution is not *more* government, as it was more government that caused the problem in the first place.
"The program was intended to serve employers who could not find the skilled workers they needed in the United States." Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect wages or working conditions of U.S. workers. For every H-1B petition filed with the USCIS, there must be included a Labor Condition Application (LCA) (not to be confused with the labor certification), certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA is designed to ensure that the wage offered to the non-immigrant worker meets or exceeds the "prevailing wage" in the area of employment. ("Immigration law has a number of highly technical terms that may not mean the same thing to the average reader." [wikipedia]
Given the above, modify H-1B so that not only must the employer must pay H-1B positions 150% of the average wage rate for the position computed by DOL and pay an additional 50% of the wage rate (total 200% effective wage rate for each H-1B) into a fund for training displaced workers.
If there truly are no Americans who can do the job at 200% of the DOL wage rate, then employers should be happy to pay 200% to import the skilled labor they say they need.
And my stated reason for murdering both Person A and Person B was "I didn't like they way he looked," should the punishment be different? I should hope not.
But if Person B was a member of some racial minority and Person A was not, you would probably want to tack on some sort of racial hate crime even though my inner crazy criteria was "His left ear is bigger than his right, he must die."
Even most die-hard Republicans are not heartless and don't really want people to starve in the street.
I doubt you'd have much of a fight in Congress if the solution to the foodstamp program's problems was to do something like provide free subsistence foodstuffs to anyone who asked where "free subsistence foodstuffs" would be a bag of rice and a bag of beans. All the daily calories met. Perhaps we enrich with some vitamins so that the RDA doses are met.
In such a program no one would ever have to go hungry; if they run out of rice and beans and are hungry, go get some more. In such a program, there's not much to abuse as there is little arbitrage value to a bag of rice or a bag of beans when anyone can get them for free. No one's going to be trading their free bag of rice for a pack of smokes.
Such a program provides the bare minimum for subsistence with respect to food, but will surely meet with howls from the liberals who will complain its not fair to poor people to have to eat only beans and rice! Poor people can't cook rice and beans without electricity or gas! Poor people should be able to buy steak, lobster, and potato chips just like everyone else!
A similar line of reasoning for housing. A dormitory situation with bunks for anyone who wants one, rice and beans included! You will be expected to contribute to basic chores needed to keep the dorms clean and functional and not commit crimes against your roommates. Imagine the outrage among the left.
"Effective July 1, [2015] AB 1733 requires county recorders to issue free birth certificates to any person who demonstrates he or she is homeless. On Jan. 1, the law also will require the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a free original or replacement identification card to anyone who can verify homelessness.
"Though, really, in-person vote fraud is likely to be peanuts "
Indeed, given the kind of fraud progressives want to think about as "in-person vote fraud", which is John Doe pretending to be John Smith to he can vote twice, mwah-hah-hah.
A far bigger and rational concern, given the number of people potentially involved, is non-citizens, especially illegal aliens, voting. I mean, the DNC has a number of known illegal aliens active on their Party committees, and even had them on stage during the convention. I won't be holding my breath waiting for anyone there to be prosecuted under Title 8, U.S.C. 1324(a) (e.g., domestic transportation of unauthorized aliens, concealing or harboring unauthorized aliens, encouraging or inducing unauthorized aliens to enter the United States, and engaging in a conspiracy or aiding and abetting any of the preceding acts). But I imagine that the DNC Party illegals will be right up a the front of the line to vote come election day. What would prevent them from voting?
Is it really asking too much that only legal citizens be permitted to vote?
But the IOC's over-the-top "We own it all!" is just a bit much. They're almost to the point of enforcing death penalty should someone even think about posting a selfie of themselves at the Olympics.
Big pharma is just buffering up the cash to deal with the inevitable 1-800-BAD-DRUG lawyers and class action suits. I'm pretty certain they'll cure cancer but the cure may cause ouchy hangnails in 0.0001% of patients, and 1-800-BAD-DRUG will put them out of business.
Trump is just a blowhard who doesn't think before he speaks. It is pretty clear in context that he was not actually calling for any hacks.
"Why do I have to get involved with [Vladimir] Putin? I have nothing to do with Putin. I’ve never spoken to him. I don’t know anything about him other than he will respect me. He doesn’t respect our president. And if it is Russia [behind the WikiLeaks release of stolen Democratic National Committee emails]—which it’s probably not, nobody knows who it is—but if it is Russia, it’s really bad for a different reason, because it shows how little respect they have for our country, when they would hack into a major party and get everything. But it would be interesting to see—I will tell you this—Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.
Slashdot Mirror
Just got an email this morning from Public Citizen, a 501(c)(4) organization that is very upset about the Citizens United decision, which allowed 501(c)(4) organizations to spend money to forward their respective political agendas--but not to donate to campaigns. They want it overturned.
A snippet: "If we lose, the forces of plutocracy — like the notorious Koch Brothers and casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, the Big Banks and Big Pharma, Karl Rove and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and so many more — would be even more emboldened to continue exploiting Citizens United and dismantling our democracy."
This guy is not on the list. Nor is Tom Steyer, George Soros, or Michael Bloomberg. Nor the millions spent by the SEIU, AFL-CIO, and other unions. By doing so they paint their organization as nothing more than a group of partisan hacks and not as true defenders of the democratic process.
The money flowing from their rich donors and supporting their causes is just a righteous investment in good government...the money from the other guys are bribes.
Speaking of Public Citizen, I recently received an email from them. Now, PublicCitizen.org is a 501(c)(4) corporation, who's primary purpose seems to be opposing the ruling handed down in the Citizens United case. Recall that the Citizens United case hinged on the fact that a 501(c)(4) corporation produced a movie that had a political purpose, in this case a documentary "Hillary: The Movie" that was intended to highlight Mrs. Clinton's shortcomings the first time she was running for president.
The email from Public Citizen was urging me to donate money to support their production of a documentary DVD highlighting how bad the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United was.
That's right: a 501(c)(4) corporation made a movie with the express political purpose of protesting the Supreme Court decision that a 501(c)(4) corporation could make a movie with an express political purpose!
They could have changed this. Instead we got the ACA, which pretty much doubled down on the whole deal.
So Big Pharma, being a scorpion, did what scorpions do. Was completely foreseeable and expected. But it only works when Government provides the monopoly.
"A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, they would both drown. Considering this, the frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When the frog asks the scorpion why, the scorpion replies that it was in its nature to do so."
" The highest costs are in marketing and lobbying."
And litigation. Don't forget the lawyers getting rich off of 1-800-BAD-DRUG lawsuits.
Frankly, I'm shocked that anyone would even try to bring a new drug or medical device to market without allocating several billion dollars to litigation costs, which has to be recouped before lawsuits shutdown sales of the new drug.
I'm pretty sure that if someone invented a 100%-effective drug that cures cancer (all kinds) that cost $10 per dose and only one dose was needed to cure cancer...but 1 in 100 patients would have orange pee for the rest of their life, the company would be run out of business by lawyers.
" vast majority of money spent by drug companies goes to sales and marketing, not research and development."
Don't forget lawsuits. Billions and billions of dollars go into the pockets of plaintiffs bar attorneys and their 1-800-BAD-DRUG litigation.
" The various owners of the device have fought other company's attempts to bring generics to market. This saga is pure profit taking my Mylan. Without effective competition they can do what they want unless the government finally implements price controls in the health care sector like every other developed nation."
Pretty much the FDA has done the bidding of the manufacturer and prevented alternatives from coming to market. So it was government regulation that caused the problem by putting the FDA in the role of gatekeeper for all drugs. A little corruption there can go a long way, and it certainly can't hurt to have the CEOs daddy be a Senator from WV.
"That is what we are seeing happen with things like the Epi-Pen. And in cases where patents are creating artificial monopolies, we have to examine if there should be regulation (as we rightfully regulate all other monopolies)."
The FDA created this monopoly through their regulations. But the answer is more regulation?
The real question is whether there has been any quid pro quo or unethical behavior between the Senator from WV, whose daughter is the CEO, and the FDA and/or the Administration.
Also,
"I am one of the people that must have an Epi-Pen or risk losing my life"
No, you probably don't need an Epi-Pen (TM). You'd probably be just fine with an equivalent auto-injector made by another company. Or even with ampules and syringe. If you insist on the brand name item, then expect to pay brand-name prices.
The question that has to be addressed is what created the monopoly that fosters the "price gouging" (no such thing by the way)?
Always, always, always there is government involvement that creates the situation where consumers have no choice. Corporations can't really be held to blame, they are simply scorpions doing what scorpions are going to do (q.v. parable about scorpion and frog). If the government said that ACA plans must cover a monthly pint of Ben & Jerry's, I have zero doubt that the cost of a pint of Ben&Jerry's would rise significantly no matter how crunchy the CEO might be.
Situation is even worse when government creates a monopoly. Why is there no generic form of EpiPen costing $25 per? I had my first epi-pen 30 years ago. Surely their patents have expired? Search and you will certainly find some government regulations propping up the monopoly. See https://mises.org/blog/lack-ep...
(from the Mises link above)
"As it turns out, Mylan has a great friend who keeps would-be competitors out of the market...That friend is the FDA.
"Just this year, Teva Pharmaceutical’s attempt at bringing a generic epinephrine injector to market in the US was blocked by the FDA. Adrenaclick and Twinject were unable to get insurance companies on board and so discontinued their injectors in 2012.
"Adrenaclick has since come back...and the FDA has made it illegal for pharmacies to substitute Adrenaclick as a generic alternative to EpiPen. Another company tried to sidestep the whole auto-injector patent barrier by offering prefilled syringes, but the FDA has stalled them, too.
"Mylan has been repeatedly protected from competition, and it has repeatedly (and predictably) increased the price of EpiPens in response.
"One thing is for sure: capitalism is not to blame. Government regulations have choked this market and many others. What we need is a big dose of freedom.
It has been pointed out that the CEO is a Democrat, the daughter of a Democrat Senator from WV so all of Hillary's bluster on the issue rings hollow.
The solution is not *more* government, as it was more government that caused the problem in the first place.
Filter error: You can type more than that for your comment.
But it was not necessary.
"the law, which specifically bans ride-sharing services from passing those costs on to their drivers or riders"
And how is that supposed to work?
"The program was intended to serve employers who could not find the skilled workers they needed in the United States." Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect wages or working conditions of U.S. workers. For every H-1B petition filed with the USCIS, there must be included a Labor Condition Application (LCA) (not to be confused with the labor certification), certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA is designed to ensure that the wage offered to the non-immigrant worker meets or exceeds the "prevailing wage" in the area of employment. ("Immigration law has a number of highly technical terms that may not mean the same thing to the average reader." [wikipedia]
Given the above, modify H-1B so that not only must the employer must pay H-1B positions 150% of the average wage rate for the position computed by DOL and pay an additional 50% of the wage rate (total 200% effective wage rate for each H-1B) into a fund for training displaced workers.
If there truly are no Americans who can do the job at 200% of the DOL wage rate, then employers should be happy to pay 200% to import the skilled labor they say they need.
And my stated reason for murdering both Person A and Person B was "I didn't like they way he looked," should the punishment be different? I should hope not.
But if Person B was a member of some racial minority and Person A was not, you would probably want to tack on some sort of racial hate crime even though my inner crazy criteria was "His left ear is bigger than his right, he must die."
and you've got enough energy to time travel.
Even most die-hard Republicans are not heartless and don't really want people to starve in the street.
I doubt you'd have much of a fight in Congress if the solution to the foodstamp program's problems was to do something like provide free subsistence foodstuffs to anyone who asked where "free subsistence foodstuffs" would be a bag of rice and a bag of beans. All the daily calories met. Perhaps we enrich with some vitamins so that the RDA doses are met.
In such a program no one would ever have to go hungry; if they run out of rice and beans and are hungry, go get some more. In such a program, there's not much to abuse as there is little arbitrage value to a bag of rice or a bag of beans when anyone can get them for free. No one's going to be trading their free bag of rice for a pack of smokes.
Such a program provides the bare minimum for subsistence with respect to food, but will surely meet with howls from the liberals who will complain its not fair to poor people to have to eat only beans and rice! Poor people can't cook rice and beans without electricity or gas! Poor people should be able to buy steak, lobster, and potato chips just like everyone else!
A similar line of reasoning for housing. A dormitory situation with bunks for anyone who wants one, rice and beans included! You will be expected to contribute to basic chores needed to keep the dorms clean and functional and not commit crimes against your roommates. Imagine the outrage among the left.
If the new AI didn't outperform the old AI, it seems unlikely that they would have deployed it.
Won't be surprised when the certified mail or "you've been served" paperwork arrives.
At least in certain circumstances.
"Effective July 1, [2015] AB 1733 requires county recorders to issue free birth certificates to any person who demonstrates he or she is homeless. On Jan. 1, the law also will require the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a free original or replacement identification card to anyone who can verify homelessness.
"Though, really, in-person vote fraud is likely to be peanuts "
Indeed, given the kind of fraud progressives want to think about as "in-person vote fraud", which is John Doe pretending to be John Smith to he can vote twice, mwah-hah-hah.
A far bigger and rational concern, given the number of people potentially involved, is non-citizens, especially illegal aliens, voting. I mean, the DNC has a number of known illegal aliens active on their Party committees, and even had them on stage during the convention. I won't be holding my breath waiting for anyone there to be prosecuted under Title 8, U.S.C. 1324(a) (e.g., domestic transportation of unauthorized aliens, concealing or harboring unauthorized aliens, encouraging or inducing unauthorized aliens to enter the United States, and engaging in a conspiracy or aiding and abetting any of the preceding acts). But I imagine that the DNC Party illegals will be right up a the front of the line to vote come election day. What would prevent them from voting?
Is it really asking too much that only legal citizens be permitted to vote?
On any media at all.
But the IOC's over-the-top "We own it all!" is just a bit much. They're almost to the point of enforcing death penalty should someone even think about posting a selfie of themselves at the Olympics.
I cannot imagine a worse combination.
Big pharma is just buffering up the cash to deal with the inevitable 1-800-BAD-DRUG lawyers and class action suits. I'm pretty certain they'll cure cancer but the cure may cause ouchy hangnails in 0.0001% of patients, and 1-800-BAD-DRUG will put them out of business.
Whitewater. Troopergate. Paula Jones. Monica Lewinsky. Impeachment. Travelgate. Vince Foster. Juanita Broaddrick.
Clinton Foundation: bogus tax returns, pay-for-play, violations of State Dept rules on outside jobs, ...
Blumenthal. Benghazi. Huma Abedein's "special status" at State/Foundation/Teneo (not to mention her marriage to Anthony Weiner).
Clinton’s State Department Emails. Mishandling classified documents. Private email server.
DNC hack exposing dirty play by DNC. DCCC hack exposing?
That landed in Hillary's pocket from Uranium One and other Russian deals facilitated by the Clinton Foundation.
How dare Russia try to influence our potential President?
I know, mixing my allusions.
The Chewbacca Defense in the annals of brilliant legal maneuvers.
Trump is just a blowhard who doesn't think before he speaks. It is pretty clear in context that he was not actually calling for any hacks.
"Why do I have to get involved with [Vladimir] Putin? I have nothing to do with Putin. I’ve never spoken to him. I don’t know anything about him other than he will respect me. He doesn’t respect our president. And if it is Russia [behind the WikiLeaks release of stolen Democratic National Committee emails]—which it’s probably not, nobody knows who it is—but if it is Russia, it’s really bad for a different reason, because it shows how little respect they have for our country, when they would hack into a major party and get everything. But it would be interesting to see—I will tell you this—Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.