I think our country is sinking lower everyday. Only 12 House Republicans joined all the Democrats in voting to lower the cost of insulin. In fact, price gouging is now part of the GOP Platform.
No issue is simple but facts are facts. Two important ones are as follows:
1. Insulin is required to save lives. There is no substitute.
2. Insulin has been around 100 years. The usual argument made by the pharmacy companies is that their prices have to be high to cover development costs. There are no development costs for insulin.
So the argument becomes, "but we still have the development costs for other drugs and the huge profits from insulin help us fund those costs." Buy that argument, or not. I do not buy it because of the fact that insulin is a necessity. Hell, in Italy, the price of bread is regulated to assure everyone has access to this necessity.
While I write this semi-rant on the big pharmacy companies, remember they are also still selling their products to Russia. They claim their drugs are a necessity and it is inhumane to stop selling Russia. I call “bullshit.” Big Pharm has convinced me that all they care about is profits. If they could make more money not producing a drug, my bet is they would.
I also think that Biden must quickly, not gradually, increase the sanctions against Russia. If he has the power, he should order the big pharmacy companies to stop selling in Russia.
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A fabulous jobs report yesterday. Where are the Democratic trumpets?
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I read, but have not confirmed, that Sarah Palin is running for Congress. It was not long ago that I would shake my head and think “we cannot possibly have someone so ignorant in Congress." Putting aside that there is probably nothing that Palin thinks to which I would agree, Palin’s level of intelligence would probably put her in the top half of House Republicans. Hell, I would take ten Palins for one MTG, Matt Gaetz, and many others. Everything is relative.
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Writing about current events is risky because current events are risky. Writing about current events from Florence, Italy, is even more risky. The internet coverage is outrageously bad.
Yesterday, an article was published saying not only had Colin Kaepernick signed with the Dolphins, but it also named his salary at $1.6 million. Of course, not true, but I knew that for one not so obvious reason: my daughter Beth would have called me immediately. So, by not hearing from her, I knew the story was false.
At the same time, I read and bemoaned the fact that the Dolphins had lost their great cornerback Xavien Howard over a contract dispute. I thought ,“how dumb is that? Ross just signed a great offensive tackle to protect his quarterback, and then signed a superstar wide receiver, I think the fastest man in football, but is now letting a potentially outstanding defense significantly deteriorate”. The article detailed why and how Howard was gone.
Then, when I woke up this morning, one of the headlines was that Howard just signed a huge contract with the Dolphins making him the highest paid cornerback in the league.
Wonder if Ross or his lawyers thought about how these huge moves in any way effect Flores’ allegations that Ross offered to pay him to lose games.
I really just raised a red herring. If I were advising Ross, I would strongly advise him to make the moves deemed best for the Dolphins. Clients often get into trouble because they are afraid doing a particular thing will be used against them in pending litigation. My advice never varies from “do the right thing which I can easily defend rather than doing the wrong thing which is often indefensible”.
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Getting stronger. Went to neighborhood pharmacy, a little pharmacy where they care about customers, and got a really good medicine that has already broken up most of my congestion. In Italy, lots of things can be bought over-the-counter that require prescriptions at home. Moreover, where at Walgreens or the like you can wait half an hour or more and then get someone who knows nothing, In Italy, it is rare to wait more than five minutes, and there are no clinkers behind the counter. Everyone is a real pharmacist and the pharmacy training here is first rate so you really can be helped.
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I listened to some Bob Dylan and then to my favorite piece of classical music Beethoven’s violin concerto.
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Received a lot of very positive feedback to yesterday’s post. It was much appreciated. Thank you.
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Go Ukraine
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