Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

This blog will pay for itself.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

White supremacy is terrorism.

The words do not have to be perfect.

In my day, never was longer.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Books are my comfort food!

American history and black history cannot be separated.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The National Guard is not Batman.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Giving up is unforgivable.

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Repubs in Disarray, Michigan Edition

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A little schadenfreude, to set us up for the weekend. When the Spousal Unit & I fled Michigan thirty years ago, we thought the GOP was going to turn our beleaguered home into a Rust Belt Mississippi. Fortunately, we underestimated the strength and smarts of Michigander Democrats!

Per the Associated Press, “Michigan Republicans call for meeting to consider removing chairperson Karamo amid fundraising woes”:

A group of Michigan Republicans plan to meet Saturday and discuss whether to remove Michigan GOP Chairperson Kristina Karamo following months of infighting among party members ahead of key Senate and presidential contests in the swing state.

It’s unclear whether enough party members will attend for the gathering to be official, and Karamo has made clear that she won’t recognize the vote either way, but the call for the meeting signals a remarkable decline in support for the chairperson among her grassroots supporters.

An election conspiracist who unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state in 2022, Karamo had been overwhelmingly elected in February to lead the state party through the next presidential election.

A lack of fundraising and transparency during Karamo’s tenure has pushed many of her former supporters to seek to oust her. Karamo revealed during an Oct. 19 meeting that the party had nearly $500,000 in debt and opponents have argued that the chairperson has done little to improve the financial situation in recent months.

Eight of the state party’s 13 congressional district chairs called on Karamo to resign last week and her own co-chair, Malinda Pego, signed onto a petition seeking a removal vote…

Elect a clown, expect a circus.

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Promises, Promises! We Can Only Hope

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🌼

Can I just say that one thing I hate about social media is that too many people are so cryptic in their posts, as if we can read their mind or know what they just looked at that prompted them to write what they did.

For instance, I can take this two different ways.

The SC can move quickly when they want to, and they have done that here. (possible subtext: this is super fast, only one month away!)
OR
The SC can move quickly when they want to, and they have NOT done that here. (possible subtext: they could move super fast, but instead they set this for over a month from now when it’s too late for the primary ballot in CO.)

Update:

Mueller She Wrote included this for context in her tweet.

BREAKING: SCOTUS has GRANTED cert in the §3 14th amendment challenge. Petitioners brief due 1/18. Respondent’s brief due 1/31. Reply due 2/5. Oral arguments 2/8.

Seeing those details, 2/8 seems pretty fast.  Not quite two weeks for a brief from Trump.  Another 13 days for the state.   5 days for Trump to reply.  Oral arguments 3 days later.

But that sort of just makes my point.  How hard is it to include a bit of detail?

🌼

Including this just for fun, because it’s true.  Though someone did point out in a reply that (fake) jack Smith left out the category of the lawyers who work for Trump for free.

Promises, Promises! We Can Only Hope 1

Open thread.

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LIVE: Biden Speech at Valley Forge

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So the speech was moved from Jan 6 to today.

President Biden moved his speech on democracy, marking the anniversary of Jan. 6, up a day due to the incoming winter storm in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions this weekend. The president was set to travel to the Philadelphia area on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Here is the live link.  It’s the NBC embed, if they put up one from the White House feed (or Joe Biden campaign account) I’ll add that one.

As promised, here’s the official link from the Joe Biden campaign:

I’ve scheduled this to post a few minutes before his speech is to begin. Who knows if the scheduling will work (!) or if he’ll be on time. I’ll try to keep an eye on all of it while I’m painting today (laundry room cabinets to change things up). (Good intentions gone poof! – I instead decided to make two loaves of Rye Bread)

Otherwise, open thread

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“God Made Me Upchuck”

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Y’all, Trump dropped the smelliest turd of an ad — the worst political ad I’ve ever seen in my life — on his Twitter knock-off site today. It’s called “God Made Trump.” It begins with scratchy, somber piano music and a visual of an old-timey record player. Then the ad zooms in on the planet while a narrator intones Trump’s date of birth and a photo of toddler Trump looms on the screen while voiceover declares that God sent Trump as a “caretaker” to protect his “planned paradise.”

There’s a montage of Trump’s greatest hits as president, including that time he placed a tiny wingtip over the North Korean border and when he rudely shoved another world leader aside at an international summit as the narrator sings his praises and implies that Trump personally delivered at least one of Ivanka’s babies. (No, really. I have a vivid imagination, but I could not make that up!) The ad claims Trump worked 110 hours per week as president and that he attends church every Sunday.

It’s a rip-off of DeSantis’s “God Made a Fighter” ad, which was a rip-off of old-timey radio man Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” bit. But it’s so much more over-the-top than even DeSantis’s puke-worthy paean to his own greatness. Trump will not be out-narcissisted! Here’s a link in case you’re feeling masochistic, but I do not recommend clicking through. You might actually puke.

Open thread.

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Florida to Outsource the NO Function to Canada

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Florida just received approval from the FDA to engage in bulk drug imports from Canada. Florida believes that if they can buy a limited set of prescription drugs at Canadian prices, the state will save oodles and oodles of money. The state is relying on the Canadian willingness and ability to credibly say “NO, not at that price” to manufacturers and distributes to get these good prices.

The NY Times has details and the obvious objection:

Florida has estimated that it could save up to $150 million in its first year of the program, importing medicines that treat H.I.V., AIDS, diabetes, hepatitis C and psychiatric conditions. Other states have applied to the F.D.A. to set up similar programs.

But significant hurdles remain. The pharmaceutical industry’s major lobbying organization, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, which has sued over previous importation efforts, is expected to file suit to prevent the Florida plan from going into effect. Some drug manufacturers have agreements with Canadian wholesalers not to export their medicines, and the Canadian government has already taken steps to block the export of prescription drugs that are in short supply.

Price levels are a function of leverage and substitution-ability. The US has very few entities that can credibly threaten “No, not at that price…” to prescription drugs manufacturers. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMS) perform this function with fragmented pools. The VA has substantial cost savings compared to Medicare Part D because the VA can credibly threaten to exclude numerous drugs:

To repeat, the key findings are:

  • The VA pays 40% less than Medicare plans for prescription drugs.
  • Medicare plans cover about 85% of the most popular 200 drugs on average (ranging from a low of 68% to a high of 93%).
  • The VA’s national formulary includes 59% of the most popular 200 drugs.

<//blockquote>

Canada (and most other rich industrialized countries) have some set of systems that can far more credibly commit to “No, not at that price” or “HELL NO, NOT AT ALL” to manufacturers and distributers than the US.

Florida, and the other states that want to do bulk importation want to free ride on the costs that Canada pays to get Canadian price levels without having to say no directly.

I have a modestly strong belief that the Canadians and the drug manufacturers are unlikely to play ball to the extent that Florida and other American states think they will.

UPDATE:  Some commentary from Dr. Stacie Dusetzina of Vanderbilt on this proposal. Dr. Dusetzina is one of the national experts on US drug pricing.  Her opinion is that operationalization is going to be a challenge. She is also a friend, colleague, co-author and mentor for me:

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Open Thread: Officer Harry Dunn is Running for MD 3

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My first thought was, hasn’t he done enough for us? And my second was, good for him, we need more integrity in elected office.

I have a post scheduled for this afternoon for Pres. Biden’s speech (which has been moved, it was originally scheduled for tomorrow).

President Biden moved his speech on democracy, marking the anniversary of Jan. 6, up a day due to the incoming winter storm in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions this weekend. The president was set to travel to the Philadelphia area on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the riots at the U.S. Capitol.

This is an open thread

ETA:

Dunn is running to succeed retiring Rep. John Sarbanes, a Democrat who represents Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, located west of Baltimore. He left the Capitol Police force late last year, ending a 15-year career.

“On Jan. 6th, 2021, I did my duty as a police officer and as an American and defended our nation’s Capitol from violent insurrectionists,” Dunn said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “Today, I’m running for Congress because the forces that spurred that violent attack are still at work and as a patriotic American, it is my duty to defend our democracy.”

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TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Busy Campaign Season Already

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