It would seem that the big drug companies have done a splendid job of turning out the vaccine that has been needed in the United States to combat the Coronavirus. But if you paid attention you would have realized that even though they moved fast in developing the vaccine it was always with the motivation of huge profits on the drugs when the government paid them. Nothing motivates big business like huge profits. Dying people? Not so much. And that is being proven now in India and other poor countries around the globe as their inability to quickly pay exorbitant prices for the drugs have left them far behind our ability to get shots into arms.
The United States government financed all that brilliant speedy research through guarantees to drug companies. It also guaranteed payment on all the drugs it ordered even before they were developed and no one pays up like the good old US of A. Would we have had all these drugs flowing into arms if our government hadn’t guaranteed payment? Not bloody likely. All you have to do is look at the rest of the world and see the problems they are having getting the drugs. The big drug companies don’t give a rat’s ass how many people die as long as they get paid. That’s how they got to be hugely successful and that’s the way they plan to stay that way.
The COVID horror is just the latest expression of this position but the drug companies’ failure to research and develop all sorts of other drugs and vaccines only because the market isn’t big enough is writ large in medical history. Now we are going to see it on a monstrous scale all over the world as the citizens of poor countries die at exponential rates simply because their nations can’t guarantee fast payment to the vampiracle drug companies.
Is there an answer? Of course there is and the big drug companies, by their grotesque behavior, have been begging for it for years. The government through Single Payer must regulate the sale and distribution of prescription drugs in this country. It’s exactly what most of us don’t want, certainly not the GOP but such a move would immediately get our drug costs in line with that of the rest of the world. It would also save the American people over $456 billion across the next decade. When they pass Single Payer the congress must make sure that all R & D must move to government control so that patents, the research on which is mostly paid for by government grants, can no longer be used to scalp those in need of drugs. There would still be huge profits for the drug companies, just not the criminal rape they are inflicting on the American public now.
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The GOP, facing a Biden tidal wave which threatens huge changes to the American social and economic landscape, and unable to develop anything like a legitimate reason why he shouldn’t, have decided that they will fall back on the deficit as their only possible excuse to oppose what the President wants to implement and the nation demands.
The Biden administration is doing what America is supposed to do. It’s trying to make America a good place to live for all Americans, not just the rich. This is something the GOP never considered. All they ever worried about is how to keep the rich, rich and donating. What difference does it matter how much we spend to make the country greater, as long as it works? America is supposed to be about taking a shot. This is the ultimate shot and if it hits the target, millions of Americans will be better for it. Isn’t that the American dream? The GOP doesn’t have a dream. It has a position, and that position is, keep the rich, rich. It doesn’t consider any alternative that doesn’t have that as its primary goal.
“It’s too expensive,” the Republican’s shout. It will cause inflation, destroy small businesses and wreck the stock market. There’s no way to pay for it. It’s BIG GOVERNMENT! Well, those are all les except that it is big government. And what’s wrong with big government as long as it’s well run? This is a huge country. We need big government. If you want small government move to Malta.
What they are most wrong about is the money. Biden wants to spend about six trillion to fix a multitude of ills including infrastructure and education, along with certain other social problems that most sane minds agree need fixing. The GOP clowns are screaming about how much it will cost, ignoring of course the fact that they all backed Trump when he spent two trillion to give a tax break to the rich who didn’t need it. The Republicans understand this, but there’s no way they can admit it so they just stand around flapping their wings and cackling about big government.
What they don’t want to admit is that this is a plan that will reimagine the whole American experience. Think about a land where there is almost no poverty, where all children, regardless of economic reality are educated. What can emerge from that? What heights can our nation rise to?
Biden’s plan is simply the culmination of years of progressive thinking that has been frustrated by one do nothing Republican congress after another and by the failure of men like Bill Clinton to take advantage of their positions to push for what this country needs. Will there be abuse? Sure. There’s always abuse. It’s human nature, but even with the standard barrel of abuse there will still be progress, more progress than would ever be possible without such reform.
The GOP will shout “socialism” but that’s become nothing but a name for anything they don’t want. Most of them couldn’t define it correctly if you gave them a dictionary.
Not since Roosevelt has this nation tried something this all consuming and it’s way past time. Trump knew that there were places to go for this country but he only saw them as means to enrich him instead of the nation.
Somewhere between 68% and 74% of the people of this country want these reforms. A lot of those people are Republicans. If the GOP in congress keep them from happening they will be massacred in 2022. On the other hand if Biden’s bills pass and work, it could be the end of the GOP.
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As if to prove that the Republican’s demanding that Trump should still be President aren’t the dumbest people in the world, there is now a significant segment of the Progressive Left that has decided that all behavior, past and present must be judged on the basis of what a small group of politically correct influencers see as the only acceptable comportment.
Yes, these are the people who want to tear down statues of Ulysses Grant and Christopher Columbus with the same zeal as they did those of Confederate Generals. It’s probably not that they don’t see the difference; it’s probably that they just see everything as being condemnable. Let’s close that code of conduct down to just what you found acceptable yesterday, maybe that will suite our PC friends.
In that vein, we find the case of Scott Stringer. If you are not a New Yorker you may not recognize the name but Scott Stringer is a long time city councilman who is now running for mayor. He is being accused of improper advances by a woman who was a volunteer in one of his city operations twenty years ago. For those of you who are already jumping to conclusions, I am not a Scott Stringer supporter. I think he has been a good councilman but he has nowhere near the charisma or leadership qualities to be mayor of NYC. That said, I still think this whole accusation is nothing but a crock of shit. There is no way in the world I can see Scott Stringer thrusting his hand into a woman’s pants and grabbing her private parts. It’s way too Trumpish.
I absolutely believe that in order for us to make any progress in the ways in which we treat women, these accusations must be acknowledged, investigated and often believed but maybe not all of them and maybe not all the time. I won’t go into the myriad ways in which this lady’s dog won’t hunt, mainly because she’s skidding around on very thin ice but that’s not the point. The point is that we are losing far too many potential leaders to accusations that are way too easy to make without real proof.
It’s time to cancel, cancel culture.
I read the other day that some professor was censured for using the comedy of Bill Cosby as an example in one of his classes. There seems to be no argument that Cosby is a real scumbag but there is also no denying that, at one time, he was one hilariously funny guy. I know. I ran a club, The Bitter End, where he killed every time he walked on stage. The point is that one thing has nothing to do with the other. That’s what the politically correct, or the cancel culture must learn. You can be both very funny and a scumbag and one aspect of your being has nothing to do with the other. Put Cosby in jail but don’t tell me he wasn’t a very funny man, I can despise Roman Polanski for molesting an underage girl but I can still admire his work in many films he directed. The same is true in one way or another of Mel Gibson, but when you get to the likes of Christopher Columbus, Alexander Hamilton and so many other historical figures it’s a completely different ballgame. You just can’t judge the behavior of men who existed in the 15th, 17th or even 20th century by today’s constipated concepts of what is acceptable behavior. It’s time to stop shouting “FIRE” every time someone lights a match or freedom of speech will come to mean nothing.