Stop attacks on Biden. Focus on Infrastructure, Big Pharma fraud, GOP COVID dereliction, & Voting
Democrats better keep their eyes on the goal. Getting out of Afghanistan was always going to be a disaster. We must focus. All else will fall into place.
Damn It, Democrats! Matthew Dowd is absolutely right. Attacking Biden? Winning’s not all that hard.
Houston Chronicle editorial destroys Gov. Greg Abbott & takes him down on incompetence/more.
Register: Ask Egberto Anything. It is Saturday, September 4th, at 11:00 AM Central.
MSNBC Host Nicolle Wallace was not kind to the media’s take on Biden & Afghanistan withdrawal!
New Big Pharma Harry and Louise type ad to scare folks into paying more for their prescriptions
Dr. Glaude on why filibuster gives Dems cover for the real reason there’s no meaningful voter bill.
Damn It, Democrats! Matthew Dowd is absolutely right. Attacking Biden? Winning’s not all that hard.
Over the last several days, it is clear that Democrats were flying off the wheel. Most seem to be attacking President Joe Biden's Afghanistan messy withdrawal with abandon. While Republicans are attacking him as well, I expected their attack to be much sharper.
But then again, it would do Democrats well to remember the phrase, "Never interfere with an enemy while he’s in the process of destroying himself." It's apropos.
I knew that the media would hyperventilate on the withdrawal. Worse, I knew that it would mean less coverage on what needs to be covered. And Matthew Dowd hit the nail on the head. He qualifies two specific aspects of Democrats' behavior.
"The Democrats, time and time again," Dowd said. "keep acting as if they are going to play by the old rules of we are going to be all nice to each other. ... And we are going to feel guilty of stuff. And we are going to respond with a committee. ... Democrats, we have noticed every single time there is some pushback on some crisis, some situation, not all Democrats, many Democrats just fold."
He is specifically speaking about Democrats wanting Biden to fall on his sword and beg for forgiveness because of the messy start of the Afghanistan withdrawal. He further said, and I agree, that it is time for them to be vociferously standing by the President.
But he hits another important point.
"We are focusing on this issue," Dowd said., "We are in the process of losing our Democracy at home. ... It is pretty clear. Republicans feel zero shame on anything. Democrats feel it way too quickly and back off way too quickly."
This week I have been covering this topic on Politics Done Right and in several blogs. I wrote two blogs that expanded on this issue. The first "Are we blowing it? We’ve no control of Afghanistan. But this is on COVID, Democracy, Infrastructure?" and the second "I feel for Afghanistan, but I wish the same concern for Afghans applied to the oppressed in America." And it was great seeing National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan dispel the silly notion that leaving Afghanistan will increase America’s security risk.
If Democrats are to win, we cannot fall into the trap. We cannot be our worse enemy. We must keep our eyes on the ball.
Houston Chronicle editorial destroys Gov. Greg Abbott & takes him down on incompetence/more.
The article starts at the core of the excuse Abbot claims is his rationale for prohibiting mask mandates.
Personal responsibility, apparently, is for the little people. The powerful have Regeneron cocktails at the ready. The powerful have good health insurance and doctors who make house calls. The powerful can quarantine in the comforts of a taxpayer-funded mansion in downtown Austin.
That’s one takeaway from the announcement Tuesday that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has COVID-19 — the very day after he tweeted about his appearance at “another standing room only event in Collin County” attended by an estimated 600 people. The tweet included photos of the event in which the maskless governor waves from a stage, facing a tight crowd of applauding supporters — nary a mask in sight.
And then, the paper expresses why we cannot trust Governor Greg Abbott.
How can we trust the governor to protect Texas from this raging pandemic when he doesn’t even protect himself — or, for that matter, his supporters?
The article castigated the governor for “rubbing elbows without a mask in large indoor gatherings, at times in up-close-and-personal conversation, at times squeezing in for photos or sharing a laugh under a crowded tent.”
And the stupidity of his masking denial on a false “mastering of the safety protocol” in Texas.
If a man elected to lead nearly 30 million Texans can’t be trusted to act responsibly, how can he effectively persuade others? We’re not just talking about the upper-income folks who attend Republican gubernatorial fundraisers. We’re talking about the millions of children returning to school who can’t be vaccinated. We’re talking about the rural Texans who must travel an hour to a hospital, only to find there are no beds available. We’re talking about the multitudes of Texans who have no health insurance and no relationship with a trusted doctor who can inform them about vaccines.
Texans are watching you, governor. What are you showing them? Not a champion of personal freedom. Only a mascot of incompetence. An elected chief executive who is now contagious and home-bound because he refused to follow his own advice to the little people. A governor who not only refuses to lead an effective campaign urging Texans to protect themselves and their communities, but actively threatens to punish and sue local leaders who try to impose safety requirements such as mask-wearing.
The article continued as it knocked the Governor for getting special treatment as he disregards everyone else. Thank you, Houston Chronicle.
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MSNBC Host Nicolle Wallace was not kind to the media’s take on Biden & Afghanistan withdrawal!
MSNBC Host Nicolle Wallace was not shy about stating that while most media object to Biden's withdrawal, it is the opposite for Americans.
Nicolle Wallace did not mince her words. She is sure that the American population is more in line with President Joe Biden.
"95% of the American people will agree with everything he [President Joe Biden] just said," Nicolle Wallace said. "95% of the press covering this White House will disagree. And for an American president to finally be completely aligned with such an overwhelming majority of what the American people think about Afghanistan is probably a tremendous relief to the American people."
Exactly. Americans support his Afghanistan withdrawal more so than the media articulate. In fact, Later Wallace said that Americans are not appreciative of the pile-on.
The real question one must ask is why the pile-on was so well-orchestrated. It was all right on cue. Biden is doing something seldom done. He is actually taking away money from the Military-Industrial Complex.
We often talk about welfare fraud. It does not come close to matching military contractor fraud. The idea is to make Biden as uncomfortable as possible. After all, it is about stopping Biden from closing another major U.S. outpost.
New Big Pharma Harry and Louise type ad to scare folks into paying more for their prescriptions
I had to do a doubletake on this Big Pharma ad. It was reminiscent of the Harry and Louise ads that killed healthcare reform before.
The United States pays more than any other country for its pharmaceutical drugs. It is not by accident.
Big Pharma is scared that H.R. 3, a bill passed in 2019 by the U.S. House of representatives that included a Medicare drug price negotiation mechanism, would come to fruition. They want to poison the well. How would it work? According to Kristi Martin at the Common Wealth Fund,
Under H.R. 3, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) would be authorized to negotiate directly with drugmakers in the Medicare program for lower prices for up to 250 prescription drugs each year, including the 125 most costly drugs offered by Medicare Part D plans or sold anywhere in the commercial market. This authority would apply to brand-name drugs that have little or no competition from generic or biosimilar medicines and all insulin products.
Each year, the HHS secretary would select at least 50 drugs from among the up to 250 drugs eligible for negotiation. Drugs that are new to the market may be eligible for negotiation if the wholesale acquisition cost, also called the list price, is equal to or greater than the U.S. median household income ($78,500 in 2020).
Before the negotiations, the HHS secretary and manufacturer would prepare bids based on various information, including, but not limited to, research and development costs, manufacturing costs, and findings from studies on drugs’ clinical and comparative effectiveness. An upper limit would bind negotiations based on 120 percent of each drug’s average international market (AIM) price, representing the average price in six countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. For drugs without an AIM price, the upper limit would be set at 80 percent of the average U.S. manufacturer price.
The agreed-upon negotiated price would be made available to insurers and other organizations that sponsor Medicare Part D plans and commercial insurance carriers and group health plans. These entities would be permitted to enter further negotiations with manufacturers for deeper discounts.
If a drug is selected for negotiation and the manufacturer either does not participate in negotiations with the HHS secretary or does not reach an agreement on a price, an excise tax of up to 95 percent of the drug’s sales, as reported by the manufacturer, would be imposed on the manufacturer.
Big Pharma is using a CBO, finding that over 20 years, 30 fewer drugs would make it to market. No mention is made to what drugs. But one can infer it is likely useless drugs. Remember how Clarinex happened to come out when the Claritin patent was expiring?
We have to enlighten folks to prevent them from falling for corporate traps that zap their hard-earned dollars. Our healthcare system is a wealth transfer engine from the poor and middle-class to the rich. It robs us of generational wealth.
Dr. Glaude on why filibuster gives Dems cover for the real reason there’s no meaningful voter bill.
Dr. Eddie Glaude presents two reasons why Dems reluctant to create a filibuster carve-out for a voter bill to save our Democracy. One is not kind.
Professor Eddie Glaude never bites his tongue. He knows what he has to say, and he does it with the right tenor. He points out the real reason why Democrats so far have not created a carve-out for the filibuster to save our Democracy.
Nicolle Wallace first pointed out that the filibuster is not a constitutional law but a Senate norm. She said both Democrats and Republicans had created carve-outs to judges and other things they deemed important. One would think that saving our democracy should be more important.
"Where do you think the head of the Democrats are in their headspace," Wallace asked. "About doing something abnormal to protect the right to vote?"
Dr. Eddie Glaude did not disappoint.
"I'm not sure, Nicolle. And I think there are two ways in which we could read this," Dr. Eddie Glaude said. "And you used the word existential. I think for Republicans, given the data that Matt cited with regards to the changing demographics of the country, they view those demographics as an existential threat to the country. ... They believe America should be a white nation. So they're approaching the issue of voting in the ballot box as an existential question while many Democrats are approaching it as a procedural or process question. That's the generous read."
It was clear that Dr. Glaude does not believe that is the real reason.
"The more cynical read is that the voting. The "For The People Act" actually empowers voters across the board and would jeopardize Democrats' political position. It would make insurgent candidacies even more likely because they could mobilize and actually get out the vote in very different -- more people can vote, which means that politicians, no matter where you are on the political spectrum, would have to defend themselves. They have to defend their seats. So the cynical read -- it's not about Republicans, Democrats. It's about politicians who are interested and invested in keeping their seats, and we have to understand that as one reason why some of these folk are hesitant, Nicolle, that's the only reason I can jump. That's the only conclusion I can come to because they're saying one thing out of their mouths, and they're doing another thing."
Glaude hits the nail on the head.
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