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Post by doddeb on May 28, 2018 12:04:32 GMT -5
What could possibly go wrong The White House official who will shape a large part of the administration's drug price plan worked on many of the same issues as an industry lobbyist, raising questions about whether he violated President Donald Trump's ethics rules. Joe Grogan — who has sweeping authority over drug pricing, entitlement programs and other aspects of federal health policy at the Office of Management and Budget — didn't obtain a waiver from a directive Trump issued during his first week in office that imposed a two-year cooling-off period between lobbying and regulating on the same "specific issue area." Grogan worked as the top lobbyist for Gilead Sciences until he arrived at OMB last March, dealing with issues including how much federal health programs would pay for its medicines. Gilead was the company that in 2014 effectively set off the drug price controversy with Sovaldi, its breakthrough hepatitis C cure that cost $1,000 per pill and triggered a lengthy and highly critical Senate Finance Committee probe. The administration says Grogan didn't need such a waiver because his OMB job doesn't overlap with what he did for California-based Gilead. His new role, OMB says, affects policy for an entire industry, not simply the one company he worked for. But with the Trump administration now pledging to take on the high cost of prescription medicines, in large part through regulatory actions, Grogan, as OMB's associate director of health programs, will be in a pivotal position shaping drug policy — including aspects of Medicare and Medicaid. Some critics see a conflict. “This is too close to what Mr. Grogan worked on when he was a drug lobbyist,” said Norman Eisen, chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and former ethics chief for the Obama administration. www.politico.com/story/2018/05/27/trump-drug-plan-lobbyist-joe-grogan-609170
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Post by doddeb on May 28, 2018 12:12:18 GMT -5
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Post by Outsider on May 28, 2018 12:23:01 GMT -5
China steps up pace in new nuclear arms race with U.S. and Russia as experts warn of rising risk of conflict Chinese scientists are running simulated tests at a faster rate than America as world’s leading powers develop arsenal of ‘usable’ next-generation weapons. This story is being published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It originally appeared on scmp.com on May 28, 2018. China is aggressively developing its next generation of nuclear weapons, conducting an average of five tests a month to simulate nuclear blasts, according to a major Chinese weapons research institute. Its number of simulated tests has in recent years outpaced that of the United States, which conducts them less than once a month on average. Between September 2014 and last December, China carried out around 200 laboratory experiments to simulate the extreme physics of a nuclear blast, the China Academy of Engineering Physics reported in a document released by the government earlier this year and reviewed by the South China Morning Post this month. In comparison, the US carried out only 50 such tests between 2012 and 2017 – or about 10 a year – according to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As China joins the US and Russia in pursuing more targeted nuclear weapons as a deterrent against potential threats, the looming arms race would in fact serve the opposite purpose by increasing the risk of a nuclear conflict, experts warn. www.politico.com/story/2018/05/28/china-nuclear-arms-race-610028
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Post by Outsider on May 28, 2018 12:24:41 GMT -5
Senators to Trump: It’s do-or-die time on DACA A small group of bipartisan senators has been holding back-channel talks in the hopes of reviving a deal. But it’s a tall order. Cory Gardner, the leader of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, delivered an urgent message to President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation earlier this month: Congress and the White House need to act pronto on immigration reform. “The sweet spot for getting an immigration deal remains now. The closer we get to the election and certainly post-election, the more difficult it will be,” the Colorado Republican recounted telling the president. “If we wait longer, the more difficult it becomes. They’ll blame it on both parties at that point.” A group of senators in both parties is beginning to restart back-channel talks across the aisle and with the White House in hopes that the chamber will be ready to act if the House or the courts throw the issue back to the Senate this summer. But the Senate isn’t ready to take up the issue after a thoroughly unproductive immigration debate in February, followed by months of radio silence. And lawmakers are growing more and more worried the upper chamber could be blindsided by a call to action later this year. The House, meanwhile, has become a hotbed of immigration debate — and it’s preparing to take up one or several Republican bills in June. But even if the GOP is able to resolve its intense disagreements and pass something, the Senate is very unlikely to accept it, according to interviews with nearly a dozen senators of both parties. Their opposition extends from a conservative bill written by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). to a more moderate one pushed by centrist House Republicans. www.politico.com/story/2018/05/28/trump-daca-dreamers-senators-back-channel-608719
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DocDrama
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Post by DocDrama on May 28, 2018 12:37:19 GMT -5
IT’S TIME FOR SOME GAME THEORY! I don’t find proposed “grand bargains” in which Democrats trade spending cuts for tax increases very appealing even in the abstract. But in the current partisan context, they’re transparently indefensible because they fail even on their own terms: you can’t actually make deficit reduction deals with a party that doesn’t care about deficits. Any deal will be immediately blown up by the next unified Republican government, which will inevitably pass defense increases and a massive upper-class and corporate tax cut, all almost entirely debt-funded. Unilateral fiscal responsibility is just being a massive sucker — a more generously subsidized ACA would have been more immediately popular, for example, and having it pay for itself did not actually gain any political rewards, and the deficit has now been completely blown up anyway. Fortunately, some of our Democrats is learning: More of this, please. Democrats cannot let their agenda be constrained by Republican bad faith. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/05/time-game-theoryYeah, if you can't beat'em, join'em. Just print more money. It worked perfectly in Germany in the 1920's.
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Post by doddeb on May 28, 2018 12:37:37 GMT -5
Ivanka's taking some heat over a tweeted picture of she and her son, while her batshit crazy dad is busy playing Doctor Mengele down at the border, separating children from their parents
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 12:45:25 GMT -5
WH: ‘Lawless Policies’ Of Dems Lead To Separation Of ‘Illegal Alien Families’ The White House buckled down on President Donald Trump’s claim that Democrats are to blame for his own administration’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents arrested at the border, according to an email statement Monday. White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley ripped into what he calls the Democratic Party’s “cruel and inhumane open borders policies” that are “responsible for encouraging mass illegal migration, enabling horrendous child smuggling, and releasing violent MS-13 gang members into American communities.” “Their lawless policies spread human suffering and finance criminal cartels,” Gidley said. “These Democrat policies lead to the temporary separation of illegal alien families, because they refuse to close border loopholes that prevent those families from being swiftly returned home.” talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/white-house-statement-immigrant-children-border-separationSo trump and and his jack booted minions are abusing asylum seeking parents and children because current law (not sure that this is Democrat’s law but whatever) demands that they be given a fair hearing of their claims. Glad they cleared that up for everybody.
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 13:02:56 GMT -5
IT’S TIME FOR SOME GAME THEORY! I don’t find proposed “grand bargains” in which Democrats trade spending cuts for tax increases very appealing even in the abstract. But in the current partisan context, they’re transparently indefensible because they fail even on their own terms: you can’t actually make deficit reduction deals with a party that doesn’t care about deficits. Any deal will be immediately blown up by the next unified Republican government, which will inevitably pass defense increases and a massive upper-class and corporate tax cut, all almost entirely debt-funded. Unilateral fiscal responsibility is just being a massive sucker — a more generously subsidized ACA would have been more immediately popular, for example, and having it pay for itself did not actually gain any political rewards, and the deficit has now been completely blown up anyway. Fortunately, some of our Democrats is learning: More of this, please. Democrats cannot let their agenda be constrained by Republican bad faith. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/05/time-game-theoryYeah, if you can't beat'em, join'em. Just print more money. It worked perfectly in Germany in the 1920's. I believe the argument is that if you want to push policies that help people through debt financing such as healthcare, cheap public education, and infrastructure, things that would actually boost economic growth, don’t let a bunch of disingenuous debt mongers lie about how it can’t be afforded.
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 13:18:47 GMT -5
America’s megalomaniac: Delicate balance in Trump’s brain between glorification and mortification can tip either way at any moment I spent last week at a conference in South Korea, during which time Trump went from seeking a meeting with Kim Jong un to canceling it, then suggesting it might be back on. “What does Trump want?” South Korean officials at the conference kept asking me. Notably, no one asked what the United States wants. They knew it was all about Trump. Trump’s goal has nothing to do with peace on the Korean peninsula, or even with making America great again. It’s all about making Trump feel great. “They are respecting us again,” Trump exulted to graduating cadets at the Naval Academy last Friday. “Winning is such a great feeling, isn’t it? Nothing like winning. You got to win.” In truth, the United States hasn’t won anything, in Korea or anywhere else. After fifteen months of Trump at the helm, America is far less respected around the world than it was before. The only thing that’s happened is Trump is now making foreign policy on his own – without America’s allies, without Congress, even without the State Department. Trump may consider this a personal win but it hardly makes America safer. Some earnest foreign policy experts are seeking to discover some bargaining strategy behind Trump’s moves on North Korea. Hint: There’s no strategy. Only a thin-skinned narcissist needing flattery and fearing ridicule. Trump got excited about a summit with Kim when he thought it might win him praise, even possibly a Nobel Peace Prize. He got cold feet when he feared Kim might be setting Trump up for humiliating failure. Now he’s back to dreaming about the Prize. The delicate balance in Trump’s brain between glorification and mortification can tip either way at any moment, depending on his hunches. All international relations become contests of personal dominance. He rejected the 2015 Iran treaty for no apparent reason other than Obama had entered into it. Trump couldn’t care less that by doing so he has harmed relations with our traditional allies, who pleaded with him to stay in. And he’s undermined America’s future credibility. Why would any nation (including North Korea) enter into a treaty with the United States if it can break it on the whim of a president who wants to one-up his predecessor? Ditto with the Paris climate accord. Obama got credit for it, so Trump wants credit for unilaterally sinking it. Trump has demanded that America’s nuclear arsenal be upgraded. Why? Since 1970, the United States has been committed to nuclear nonproliferation. What changed? Trump. A more powerful arsenal makes him feel more powerful – “respected again.” It’s not about American interests in the world. It’s about Trump’s interests. Wonder why Trump promised to lift trade sanctions on ZTE, China’s giant telecom company? ZTE has been trading with North Korea and Iran, in violation of American policy. Everyone around Trump advised against lifting the sanctions. Look no further than Trump’s personal needs. ZTE is important to China, and China recently pledged a half-billion-dollar loan to Trump’s family business. While we’re on the subject of high tech, why has Trump pushed the Postal Service to double the shipping rate it charges Amazon? I mean, isn’t Amazon important to America’s high-tech race with the rest of the world? The most likely explanation is that the CEO of Amazon is Jeff Bezos, who’s also far richer than Trump. Bezos also owns The Washington Post, and the Post has been critical of Trump. As you may have noticed, the man doesn’t like to be criticized. As Trump recently explained to Leslie Stahl of “60 Minutes,” his aim is “to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.” Any halfway responsible president of the United States would be worried about Russian meddling in U.S. elections. Protecting American democracy is just about the most important thing a president does. But Trump has turned the inquiry about the Russians into a “dark state” conspiracy against him. And he’s demanded that the Justice Department investigate the people who are investigating him. With Trump, there’s no longer American foreign policy. There’s only Trump’s ego. If peace is truly advanced on the Korean peninsula, the Prize shouldn’t go to Trump. It should go to South Korean president Moon Jae-in, who has tirelessly courted the world’s two most dangerous megalomaniacs. www.rawstory.com/2018/05/americas-megalomaniac-delicate-balance-trumps-brain-glorification-mortification-can-tip-either-way-moment/
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 13:23:04 GMT -5
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Post by forgottenlord on May 28, 2018 13:28:25 GMT -5
FYI: On Wednesday, XKCD is posting his 2000th comic
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Post by Outsider on May 28, 2018 13:37:37 GMT -5
Yeah, if you can't beat'em, join'em. Just print more money. It worked perfectly in Germany in the 1920's. I believe the argument is that if you want to push policies that help people through debt financing such as healthcare, cheap public education, and infrastructure, things that would actually boost economic growth, don’t let a bunch of disingenuous debt mongers lie about how it can’t be afforded. You missed the point: they're both bad, so why bother? Just let the country continue to ruin itself, at least until there is a perfect candidate with a complete solution. Head in the sand bro; it is where it is at!
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 13:52:09 GMT -5
I believe the argument is that if you want to push policies that help people through debt financing such as healthcare, cheap public education, and infrastructure, things that would actually boost economic growth, don’t let a bunch of disingenuous debt mongers lie about how it can’t be afforded. You missed the point: they're both bad, so why bother? Just let the country continue to ruin itself, at least until there is a perfect candidate with a complete solution. Head in the sand bro; it is where it is at! Ha! Ran across a comment that describes this phenomenon the other day: the extended version of my theory is that by taking the most politically-impossible / ideologically-maximal stand, you'll never have to say anything positive about any politician who is likely to get elected. this insulates you from ever being responsible for anything any politician ever actually does, and ensures that you can stay in the comfortable, responsibility-free spot of the Eternal Complainer. - Cleek
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Post by doddeb on May 28, 2018 13:59:43 GMT -5
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 14:04:11 GMT -5
Steve M presents a somewhat dour outlook, I believe a change will happen: THE ECONOMY IS BOOMING -- JUST NOT FOR YOU Axios reports on some frank talk by our corporate overlords about how screwed the rest of us are: So much for Paul Ryan's claim that, as a result of "corporate tax reform" in the 2017 tax bill, "on average, American families will see a wage increase of at least $4,000 annually" -- although... This comes as The New York Times reports on the massive wage gaps between CEOs and their average workers: In many cases, the gap is effectively worse, because companies outsource their labor to countries where the pay is low and the workers aren't actually employees, so they don't show up on payrolls. I suppose the CEO-worker gaps will narrow when the replacement of lower-wage workers with robots really kicks into high gear -- mid-level employees may keep their jobs while other workers lose theirs, so the pay gap will narrow. (But unemployment will skyrocket.) As this goes on, some commentators blame the surviving white-collar workers, as is done in a recent Atlantic cover story titled "The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy." Sorry -- I blame the rich. Upper-middle-class people may have a disproportionate share of what's left after the really rich take what they want, but the upper middle class doesn't shape the economy. The superrich shape it. They're the ones who lobby for the laws and policies that decide how the world works. I hope politics can mitigate this, but I fear it may be too late for a political solution -- the rich have too much money and too much power, and democracy is unresponsive to the rest of us. The non-rich are urged to fight among ourselves -- white vs. non-white, native-born vs. immigrant, union vs. non-union, Fox viewer vs. "cultural elitist" -- when we should recognize a common enemy and act accordingly. At this point I can't see a significant reordering of the way things are without violent social unrest, and I see no sign that that will happen anytime soon. For now, massive inequality is here to stay. nomoremister.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-economy-is-booming-just-not-for-you.html
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Post by doddeb on May 28, 2018 14:06:42 GMT -5
Classy.
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 14:25:22 GMT -5
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 14:48:04 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2018 14:49:31 GMT -5
Memorial Day! Thank you, troops! And here's hoping they don't have to go fight another phony WAR in the Middle East! Exactly!
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Post by Outsider on May 28, 2018 15:13:35 GMT -5
You missed the point: they're both bad, so why bother? Just let the country continue to ruin itself, at least until there is a perfect candidate with a complete solution. Head in the sand bro; it is where it is at! Ha! Ran across a comment that describes this phenomenon the other day: the extended version of my theory is that by taking the most politically-impossible / ideologically-maximal stand, you'll never have to say anything positive about any politician who is likely to get elected. this insulates you from ever being responsible for anything any politician ever actually does, and ensures that you can stay in the comfortable, responsibility-free spot of the Eternal Complainer. - Cleek That was really good!
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 18:02:54 GMT -5
Ha! Ran across a comment that describes this phenomenon the other day: the extended version of my theory is that by taking the most politically-impossible / ideologically-maximal stand, you'll never have to say anything positive about any politician who is likely to get elected. this insulates you from ever being responsible for anything any politician ever actually does, and ensures that you can stay in the comfortable, responsibility-free spot of the Eternal Complainer. - Cleek That was really good! In case anybody has never googled Cleek’s Law: Cleek’s Law Today’s conservatism is the opposite of what liberals want today, updated daily. ok-cleek.com/blogs/?page_id=18788
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Post by doddeb on May 28, 2018 18:45:15 GMT -5
Memorial Day music. This is for my brother and my dad, both veterans, who are on my mind today.
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DocDrama
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Post by DocDrama on May 28, 2018 18:54:09 GMT -5
Yeah, if you can't beat'em, join'em. Just print more money. It worked perfectly in Germany in the 1920's. I believe the argument is that if you want to push policies that help people through debt financing such as healthcare, cheap public education, and infrastructure, things that would actually boost economic growth, don’t let a bunch of disingenuous debt mongers lie about how it can’t be afforded. That's called 'campaign talk.'
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DocDrama
Hive Whisperer
A Musical Note or a Shark Fin
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Post by DocDrama on May 28, 2018 18:56:07 GMT -5
I believe the argument is that if you want to push policies that help people through debt financing such as healthcare, cheap public education, and infrastructure, things that would actually boost economic growth, don’t let a bunch of disingenuous debt mongers lie about how it can’t be afforded. You missed the point: they're both bad, so why bother? Just let the country continue to ruin itself, at least until there is a perfect candidate with a complete solution. Head in the sand bro; it is where it is at! As I replied to Randy above, it's 'campaign talk.'
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DocDrama
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A Musical Note or a Shark Fin
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Post by DocDrama on May 28, 2018 19:03:02 GMT -5
In case anybody has never googled Cleek’s Law: Cleek’s Law Today’s conservatism is the opposite of what liberals want today, updated daily. ok-cleek.com/blogs/?page_id=18788You Dems don't seem friendly today. Did you burn your Memorial Day Bread and Water?
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Post by LA_Randy on May 28, 2018 20:45:10 GMT -5
In case anybody has never googled Cleek’s Law: Cleek’s Law Today’s conservatism is the opposite of what liberals want today, updated daily. ok-cleek.com/blogs/?page_id=18788You Dems don't seem friendly today. Did you burn your Memorial Day Bread and Water? Not my fault, I was blinded by Green Lanternism!
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