“Cigna gets major boost from Express Scripts in Q2,” Robert King, FierceHealthcare, August 1, 2019

And some claim PBMs do not matter in the cost of healthcare? Cigna healthcare insurance generated ~ $38 billion in revenue the second quarter 2019 and a major increase due mostly to a merger with pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts.

According to company financial results released Thursday, Cigna’s pharmacy services business generated $23.5 billion in revenue in the second quarter which represents a massive increase compared to the $1.1 billion generated in the second quarter of 2018. The company reported $1.41 billion in net income.

The major reason for the spike is the gain from the membership and resources achieved from the deal for Express Scripts. Cigna completed the $67 billion merger with the PBM giant late last year.

“More Plant-Based Protein in Diet May Add Years,” Nicole Lou, MedPageToday, August 27, 2019

“Significant reductions were found (specifically) in mortalities related to cardiovascular disease. Norie Sawada, MD, PhD, of Japan’s National Cancer Center in Tokyo reported and colleagues reported a positive result in a prospective cohort study of plant protein being substituted for meat protein. It was reported in recent JAMA Internal Medicine study, “Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality.”

The JAMA study (Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality) suggests diets with higher plant-based protein intake may contribute to long-term health and longevity. In this cohort study; 70,696 Japanese adults were followed up on for a mean period of 18 years. The outcome associated a higher intake of plant protein resulted in lower total mortality. Moreover, the substitution of plant protein for animal protein, mainly for red or processed meat protein, was associated with lower risk of total, cancer-related, and cardiovascular disease–related mortality.

Furthermore, switching out 3% of daily calories from red meat to plant protein — approximately 260 g of a soy-based food for the average person eating 2,000 calories per day — was linked in statistical models (not through analysis of individuals who actually changed their diets) to reductions in mortality risk.

It is no secret retail drives the meat processing market where large manufacturers and meat packers are big enough to control the market and can drive the pricing down or up per each of cattle. Smaller cattle producers can be driven out of the market as they do not have the massive volume ability to lower their costs of production past a certain point. The criticisms of the plant based protein study I have read are similar to the criticism I have read limiting opioid prescriptions in which they advocate do not limit opioid at all. We could all do with less red meat in our diets which still remains a reality.

The $6 Million Drug Claim, Katie Thomas and Reed Abelson, NYT, August 25, 2019

The link should take you to a different site other than the NYT where you can read the article.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals manufactures Strensiq a drug used to treat a rare bone disease perinatal/infantile and juvenile – onset hypophosphatasia. Adult Dawn Patterson also suffers from the same disease, the excruciating pain from it, which leaves her struggling to work or care for her family. It is a rare disease found more often in children and even rarer in adults.

Dawns husband’s union covers the cost of the drug. The union is suffering sticker shock from the mounting bills for treatments of her and her two of her children who also have the disease. In 2018, the union faced a potential $6 million bill for the Patterson household with an estimated a lifetime cost of $60 million to treat the family over 10 years.

The cost of Strensig as well as other drugs is coming under increased scrutiny and debate over whether any drug should cost $millions of dollars after cost of R&D and start up are recovered. Americans are being priced out of lifesaving treatments as drug companies maximize their profits well beyond start up costs. It has been found, the investment of $1 invested in R&D has provided $14.50 in revenue for cancer drugs (World Health Organization).

As I reported in “Cigna gets major boost from Express Scripts in Q2” (above), Pharmacy Benefit Managers are taking a hefty cut in the process in representing insurance companies with manufacturers. In an earlier post “Can you Patent the Sun,” I had talked more on the topic of costs and company reasoning to set higher prices. Manufacturers are pricing new and older drugs higher and establishing a pseudo morality to maximize their profits.

The US is more vulnerable than is European countries only because Europe sets pricing rather than allow the market to do so.

Opioid Maker Turned Blind Eye to Diversion, Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today, August 28, 2019

In newly unsealed documents, Mallinckrodt employees were worried the existing programs to prevent opioid diversion were not working. One former employee testified about Mallinckrodt not having a computerized system from 2008 to 2009 for tracking unusual orders. Employees had to use their judgment to identify suspicious sales. U.S. Drug Enforcement Agents met with Mallinckrodt PLC and informed the company the agency viewed it “as the kingpin within the prescription drug cartel.”

Superior Court for the State of Alaska Third Judicial District in Anchorage, State of Alaska, Plaintiff vs. Mallinckrodt PLC, Mallinckrodt LLC, and SPECGX LLC.

“In reality, however Mallinckrodt shipped opioids into Alaska without an adequate system in place to prevent diversion of its opioids and to investigate, report, and refuse to fill orders that it knew or should have known were suspicious, breaching both its common law duties and its statutory duties under Alaska law. Despite its legal and ethical duty to report “suspicious orders” of its drugs, and, upon information and belief, ample red flags of potential diversion, Mallinckrodt has never once reported a single prescriber to state law enforcement or the Alaska State Medical Board. Instead, Mallinckrodt incentivized distributors to flood the State with opioids beyond even what the expanded market for chronic pain market could bear.”

Mallinckrodt Was Required to and Failed to Maintain Effective Controls Against Diversion and to Report Suspicious Prescribers. , Page 35, B

There are multiple state lawsuits being filed federal courts nationwide claiming pharmaceutical companies misled people as to the safety of opioid usage.

Opioid settlement would divide money based on local impact, Geoff Mulvihill and Andrew Welsh-Huggins, AP, August 30, 2019

Purdue the maker of OxyContin is negotiating a multi-billion-dollar settlement to resolve a crush of lawsuits over the nation’s opioid crisis. The settlement contains formulas for dividing up the money amongst state and local governments across the country.

The formulas would take into account several factors; opioid distribution in a given jurisdiction, the number of people who misuse opioids, and the number of overdose deaths.

Spelling out the way the settlement is to be split is meant to prevent squabbles over the money avoiding the mistakes experienced with the hundreds of billions of dollars received under the nationwide settlement with Big Tobacco during the 1990s.

September 8; States Attorneys and Purdue have reached an impasse and it is expected Purdue will now file for bankruptcy. It is not clear what the breakdown is over. One of the four states attorneys negotiating with Purdue, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro said Saturday he intends to sue the Sackler family as other states have.

“I think they are a group of sanctimonious billionaires who lied and cheated so they could make a handsome profit. I truly believe that they have blood on their hands.”

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For seven years from 2012 to 2018 the monthly payroll employment showed a solid trend of around 200,000 gains each and every month.  If it was much above or below this trend, analysts found some excuse to explain the difference and expected the off-trend observation to be quickly reversed.  So far this year most analysts continued to act as if this pattern was being repeated.

However, in August the Bureau of labor Statistics (BLS) rebenchmarked the data to more recent Census data. They announced that it would lower reported employment growth but they did not release the revised data until the August employment report last Friday.  The new data shows that 2019 payroll employment was significantly weaker than originally reported. The January monthly increase was still around the old 200,000 trend.  But in the seven months from February, 2019 to August,2019 the average monthly gain was only 123,000, roughly 60% of the old trend. Moreover, the 12 month moving average fell from 225,000 in January to 165,000 in August and every observation from February to August was below the still declining  12 month moving average.

Seven consecutive months should be enough to clearly demonstrate that trend payroll employment growth has fallen to a new, significantly lower trend than the old 200,000 trend.

Figure 1

Analysts tend to focus on the month over month change so it was understandable that they did not notice that the revised data was showing much more weakness than the old data. Remember,guessing monthly economic releases was a game created by the brokerage house, especially the bond houses, to generate volume because their earnings was much more sensitive to volume changes than other variables.

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I was doing my usual reading in the internet world and ran across this comment to another commenter who claimed Labor Day is a made up holiday. A lot of history in this reply:

“‘A made-up holiday that never had a great basis for its existence?’

How about the Ludlow Massacre where 57 miners were killed by Rockefeller guards that set fire to miners tents even though they were on private property? Their union leader was held by two militia members and shot in the back by a third. All they wanted was mine safety, their own doctor instead of a company doctor, an eight-hour day, fair pay and a union. Or how about the five workers shot in the back at McCormick Iron Works as they ran from armed guards. They too were just demonstrating for an eight-hour day and better working conditions generally. How about the women who died in a shirt manufacturing factory in New York? They died because they were deliberately locked in a room with no way out when the building caught on fire. How about the workers hung in Chicago after the Haymarket Riot because the Chicago Tribune just about sealed their fate with a horrific attack on them? The Governor of Illinois pardoned others scheduled to be hung because of what he thought was shaky evidence. What about the five marchers shot by police in a Hunger march in Detroit in the middle of the Depression? Or what about the Battle of the Overpass, where UAW organizers were beaten and bloodied by Ford thugs while the Dearborn police stood by and watched. That is except for one time when they stopped the Ford goons from further beating on a lady unionist. The police thought Fords thugs were going to kill the lady. What about Walter Reuther, who was picked up an thrown down again over three flights of stairs, probably avoided being killed because some reporters saw what was happening, picked Reuther up and threw him in their car, then drove away. Then there was the Homestead strike at Carnegie’s steel mill in Pennsylvania—more unionists killed.

How about the practice of blackballing workers if they gave management any grief? It was common practice for owners to put the word out about a worker to other businesses if that worker was deemed a problem or in favor of a union. A blackball meant that a worker would not be hired by other businesses. Indeed, the leader of the Homestead union, nicknamed Lucky by the way, was blackballed and could not find work in this country. He was last seen working in a mine in Mexico.

Closer to home, the accepted narrative is that Henry Ford was a generous man. He wanted his employees to be able to purchase the cars that they were manufacturing. So he started the five dollar day pay rate. Ford deserves his elevated place in history because he was a pioneer in the standardization of parts necessary for mass production. That being said, the five dollar a day came about, not because Ford cared about his employees, but because the annual employee turnover rate was 309%. Work conditions were so bad in Ford’s factory that nobody would stick around. Ford had to replace his entire workforce three times a year. He had to pay five dollars a day to keep the workforce in his shop. Even then Ford’s Sociology Department could enter your home for inspection. If your lifestyle dissatisfied Ford, you did not get five dollars a day.

Let’s touch briefly on the law and government, starting with the Clayton and Sherman Anti-Trust laws. Inspired by the great trust-buster Teddy Roosevelt, those laws were clearly intended to hinder a monopoly condition by business interests, Unfortunately President Grover Cleveland and his Attorney General, Richard Olney, thought differently. When union members went on strike during Cleveland’s administration, they turned the Clayton and Sherman laws on their respective heads, claiming that unions, as monopoly’s, were in restraint of trade, Clearly, that was not the intent of the legislature that created Clayton and Sherman. That’s just one of a ton of examples.

More recently, the Republican legislature and Governor in Michigan passed an anti-union Right to Work bill. Then they attached a financial appropriation to the bill, in affect disallowing Michigan citizens from putting the issue on the ballot through a referendum procedure,

From the Republican’s point of view, that’s probably a good thing as a recent poll shows 64% of Americans favoring unions.

>>> never a great basis for its existence? Aside from the people of color among us, I doubt that any group in this country has so been so hammered and consistently beaten down as America’s workforce. Let’s not forget that today the top 1% are in possession of 40% of the country’s total wealth while wages have been stagnant for forty years. The CEO of Disney makes 1100 times what the average worker makes. If I have read Adam Smith correctly, there is no economic theory that justifies either being the case. Let’s also not forget that our current President has put a corporate lawyer that has spent a lifetime litigating against unions and employees generally at the head of the federal Department of Labor.

Those among us that have grabbed a cup of coffee and a piece of toast on the way to work as employees have earned a special day and much more respect than Matt is able to give us.

I know. I walked on a picket line with one of the brightest, most imaginative, man this country has ever produced — ‘Walter Reuther.'”

Al Churchill’s Comment

Bridge Magazine, “Labor Day has lost some luster, as partisanship pulls us apart,” Phil Power, August 30, 2019

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Just revealed:

The opioid/OxyContin maker Purdue and members of the billionaire Sackler family owning the company have offered to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company for $10 to $12 billion. according to people briefed on the offer. More than 2,000 states, cities, and counties across America are pursuing the OxyContin maker over the large bills for cleaning up the opioid crisis — and are deciding whether to accept the offer by Friday. The Financial Times is reporting on this offer from the Sacklers and Purdue.

On August 26, Purdue paid $270 million to Oklahoma and Teva Pharmaceuticals paid $75 million also to Oklahoma.

From the Financial Times: “Purdue said it believes a ‘constructive global resolution is the best way forward’ and is working with state attorneys-general and other plaintiffs to achieve it. While Purdue Pharma is prepared to defend itself vigorously in the opioid litigation, the company has made clear that it sees little good coming from years of wasteful litigation and appeals”.

For all the harm done to this nation due to purposeful deceit and lies on the use of opioids claiming it was not addictive, someone needs to go to prison from the Sackler family.

Purdue Exposed

Medpage Today, Kristina Fiore, August 28,2019

I suspect with the new information being available, Purdue finally threw in the towel and offered a settlement. I also suspect this will impact other companies decisions to appeal as J & J is doing.

STAT News Wins Legal Fight Over Purdue Documents

A trove of documents detailing Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid epidemic will be made public, STAT News reported, as the Kentucky Supreme Court denied the company’s request to review lower courts’ decisions to release them.

STAT waged a 3.5-year legal battle to make those records public. While some remain under seal, the outlet posted a sought-after video deposition of Richard Sackler. It had obtained a transcript of that deposition in February, which gained further attention when comedian John Oliver hired famous actors including Bryan Cranston and Michael Keaton to re-enact it.

The documents promise new information on how Purdue promoted its oxycodone product OxyContin and what, exactly, its executives knew about its risk of addiction. Among those documents are depositions of other Purdue executives; physician testimony; emails and memos about marketing strategies; internal reports on clinical trials; and communications about earlier legal cases.

All of the documents were part of Kentucky’s lawsuit against Purdue over its alleged illegal marketing of OxyContin. That suit was settled in 2015, with Purdue shelling out $24 million.

Purdue may soon be paying a far higher bill, with media including NBC News reporting that the company has pitched a $10 to $12-billion settlement in the consolidated cases set to go to trial before a federal judge in Ohio in October.

This does not bode well for Purdue, its settlement, or threat of years of litigation. The smoking gun was always there and pieces of it can be found in previous posts of mine. Relating the US Senate Joint Committee numbers to when Oxycontin was introduced after 1995 and the incremental increase in deaths from opioids, the use of a part of the Porter and Jink letter to the NEJM which said opioids were not addictive “minus the part where it said when used in a hospital setting,” the abuse of the Porter and Jink letter in the number of citations, the millions spent in lobbying state legislatures to block new laws, etc.

John Oliver uses Keaton and Cranston to portray Richard Sackler in this 20 minute Clip. It is worth watching. “the launch (Oxycontin) would be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition. The blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white,.”

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“The court found that Johnson & Johnson’s actions had created a “public nuisance,” which Oklahoma law defines to mean an act (or failure to act) that ‘annoys, injures or endangers’ the health and safety of an ‘entire community.’

In a 42-page opinion, Oklahoma State Judge Thad Balkman details how Johnson & Johnson’s sales and marketing assured doctors the appearance of addiction in patients due to the use of J & J opioid products was actually evidence of ‘under-treated pain’ and required the prescribing of more opioids. Sales representatives used these aggressive marketing tactics to target prescription-happy doctors referred to as ‘Key Customers’ in internal correspondence.”

I can not help but feel there comes a time when one must look at the continuing misuse of opioids under a doctor’s care and wonder what the doctors were thinking.

Multiple times I have written on the deadliness of opioids. To market and promote the use of opioids, the pharmaceutical industry deliberately took one sentence of a letter written by Doctors Porter and Jink to the NEJM in 1980 and claimed the use of opioids as safe in all environments and not mentioning Porters and Jink’s study was done in a hospital setting.

Addition Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics, NEJM 1980: “Recently, we examined our current files to determine the incidence of narcotic addiction in 39,946 hospitalized medical patients who were monitored consecutively. Although there were 11,882 patients who received at least one narcotic preparation, there were only four cases of reasonably well documented addiction in patients who had no history of addiction. The addiction was considered major in only one instance. The drugs implicated were meperidine in two patients, Percodan in one, and hydromorphone in one. We conclude that despite widespread use of narcotic drugs in hospitals, the development of addiction is rare in medical patients with no history of addiction.” Boston Collaborative Surveillance Drug Program, Boston University Medical Center, Waltham NA 02154

From 1980 till 2015 the letter was cited 491 of 608 times affirming the use of opioids does not cause addiction. There was a significant increase in citation after the introduction of OxyContin in 1995. The “median number” of citations of a NEJM letter was 11 times in total. The citation of one sentence in whole or partially was many times more.

“In Prescription Painkiller Addiction: A Gateway to Heroin Addiction,” Recall Report documents the start of the explosion in opioid use tying it to the introduction of OxyContin by Purdue Pharma in 1995/96.

The United States Congress Joint Economic Committee provides two charts detailing the total “number” of deaths per year from overdoses solely from opioids and Overdoses from all drugs during the time period of 1968 to 2015. The bar chart on the right represents the “numbers” of deaths per 100,000 (rate) of population from Overdoses solely from opioids and Overdoses from all drugs during the time period of 1968 to 2015. There has been arguments made there is no discernable evidence showing the impact of prescription opioids on the numbers of deaths. These two charts certainly points in a direction of the impact of prescribed opioids on the death rate.

Up till seeing the Joint Committee data, I had not seen earlier data. In these charts can be seen the additional yearly data predating 1980 when the Jick and Porter letter had been written to the NEJM going back as 1968. This data is important to see the magnitude of the introduction of prescribed opioids such as Oxycontin and the influence of them and the pharmaceutical industry on the usage of opioids said to be a safe drug to use outside of supervision.

State Judge Thad Balkman’s verdict will be appealed in higher state courts. If upheld, it will go to the federal courts. J & J is not a company without financial resource and they will contest this verdict as far as they can take it. The importance of the verdict is in holding a company, a citizen amongst us as declared by SCOTUS responsible for the abuse of opioids as shown in the numbers presented in this post, in earlier posts, and in the related documentation presented in all of my posts on opioids.

Reference Data

What the Oklahoma Johnson & Johnson Verdict Means for the Future of Opioid Litigation, Jay Willis, Microsoft News, August 27, 2019

Opioid Use since 1968 and Why It’s Abuse Increased, run75441 (Bill H), April 7, 2019

The Rise in Opioid Overdose Deaths, US Senate Joint Economic Committee, August 01 2017

Prescription Painkiller Addiction: A Gateway to Heroin Addiction, Recall Report

run75441 (Bill H)

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End of month July and Pfizer is spinning off Upjohn to generic drug/device company Mylan NV. Pfizer bought 57% of the unnamed (mid – 2020) new company. This move comes under Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla who took over the reins from Ian Read in January, 2019. Bourla has been with Pfizer for 25 years. Before becoming the CEO, Bourla was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) overseeing the company’s commercial strategy, manufacturing, and global product development functions.

CEO Bourla has been making strategic moves following what he has called a “pruning the tree when spring starts and Pfizer is in the spring of high growth” strategy. What caught my eye is this one comment in the Wall Street Journal about remaking Pfizer into a company focused on patent-protected prescription medicines with the potential for significant sales growth from a more diversified but slower-growing player. To me, this translate into a; “hey the Mylan EpiPen strategy worked, lets do the same with other products” strategy.

To date, he has overseen a restructuring at the company and made smaller deals to boost Pfizer’s pipeline of cancer and other drugs under development. Still not the biggest deal which would make Pfizer a giant. He has been guiding the combining of a division selling Advil, vitamins, bathroom found meds with GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s own consumer-health business to be spun off in a joint venture. Nothing earth-shattering there.

CEO Bourla focus for Pfizer on higher profit, exclusive, prescription drugs while moving the rest of its lower profit operations into other ventures. Off-patent drugs such as Lipitor and Viagra having lower profit margins would be targeted for joint ventures and Pfizer would still retain sizeable amounts of cash flow from these drugs to fund R&D. Pfizer is shifting the declining brands to Upjohn. The intent is to consolidate this business with Upjohn and merge Upjohn with the EpiPen company Mylan and rename the two.

The new Pittsburgh – based unnamed company is expected to be among the world’s largest sellers of generic and off-patent medicines with more than $19 billion in yearly sales. Pfizer Shareholders will own 57% of the new company and Mylan shareholders would the rest. Pfizer would be paid $12 billion raised from new debt acquired from the joint venture. Upjohn would return to the US from its corporate base in Shanghai, a reversal of its earlier inversion.

To me, this is a strategic move along the lines of Pfizer selling off the marketing of EpiPen to Mylan and keeping the manufacturing of it. Pfizer owned Meridian Medical Technologies manufactured EpiPen for Mylan and it will now be a part of the sale to Mylan. EpiPen was a huge success story for Mylan. A quadrant strategy of milking of a cash cow to fund new ventures.

Including EpiPen, “Mylan’s operating profit for its Specialty segment grew from about 35% in 2012 to roughly 60% in the second quarter of 2016.” Most of this can be traced back to the change in design of the EpiPen (cap) , exclusivity of it due to design changes which was covered by patents, and the rejection of Teva’s generic by the FDA due to a difference in application.

Add to this strategy story, Eli Lilly’s Alex Azar’s success profiteering off of the decades old diabetes drug Humalog and one can begin is imagine what the new “unnamed” company’s role will be under CEO Albert Bourla’s direction . . . more of the same.

In its analysis, World Health Organization determined the expenditure of one dollar in R&D being covered by $14.50 profit for cancer pharmaceuticals or more than enough to recoup expenditures for R&D and provide a healthy return for investors. The generics Upjohn will acquire have more than paid back the costs of R&D and are more than likely to be in a decline in producing profits. The question then becomes how to enhance the return on these generics.

Mylan changed Pfizer’s EpiPen design to achieve patented exclusivity. Teva could not duplicate it as a generic because patients could not use the Mylan instructions in applying the Teva generic. According to FDA’a rules, the Teva product could not be cast as a generic for the Mylan EpiPen in the marketplace as it could “not” be used in the same manner..

EIi Lilly’s Humalog, same formulation as what was made decades ago. The list price for one vial of Humalog has nearly tripled over the last decade. No new and improved or patent changes. Lilly appears to be taking increased profits from the price changes and passing on a larger slice to Pharmaceutical Benefit Managers to gain preference by healthcare insurance plans represented by the PBMs.

The same at the other diabetes med manufacturers Sanofi and Novo. Sanofi, a diabetes drug manufacturer and competitor to Eli Lilly gave insurers and pharmacy benefit managers rebates totaling more than half of its gross sales in the U.S. last year, resulting in net price declines across its portfolio despite list price hikes taken on dozens of its prescription products.

What is occurring is “shadow pricing” increases where one company raises pricing and the others follow.

A lawsuit filed in 2017 alleged three companies (Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi) intentionally raised the list prices on their drugs to gain favorable treatment from pharmacy benefit managers, who work with health insurers and drug makers and help decide how a drug will be covered on a list of approved drugs. Insurance companies do not pay manufacturer list pricing. The PBMs negotiate a rebate to the insurance companies from which they take a portion of it for themselves. The insured gets the net price after Rebates are paid to insurance company minus the PBM bonus for negotiated price.

It is in this circus of net profits after rebates and bonuses, I believe the Upjohn/Mylan “nameless” new company battle will be fought to increase Pfizer’s profit. This is not like the EpiPen medical device where a change in design of the pen can be made and a new patent secured. Some drugs may be changed which would result in a new patent. I suspect much of Upjohn/Mylan product profit improvement will be fought by getting preference from Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

CEO Albert Bourla will be watching the new company to see how successful they are in creating preference with PBMs and the resulting profit.

Why are our drugs so Costly? Watch the YouTube Presentation to Understand why Drugs are so Expensive to You.

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Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report, COPENHAGEN: After rebuffing Donald J. Trump’s hypothetical proposal to purchase Greenland, the government of Denmark has announced that it would be interested in buying the United States instead.

“As we have stated, Greenland is not for sale,” a spokesperson for the Danish government said on Friday. “We have noted, however, that during the Trump regime pretty much everything in the United States, including its government, has most definitely been for sale.”

“Denmark would be interested in purchasing the United States in its entirety, with the exception of its government,” the spokesperson added.

A key provision of the purchase offer, the spokesperson said, would be the relocation of Donald Trump to another country “to be determined,” with Russia and North Korea cited as possible destinations.

If Denmark’s bid for the United States is accepted, the Scandinavian nation has ambitious plans for its new acquisition. “We believe that, by giving the U.S. an educational system and national health care, it could be transformed from a vast land mass into a great nation,” the spokesperson said.

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Sorry to bring garbage from twitter over here, but this will take more than 280 characters.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion including the neologism “Antifa”. In particular, Trump has threatened to declare Antifa an “organization of terror” following senators Cruz and Cassidy direction in a nonbinding resolution.

This is crazy. Trump, in particular, is not capable of telling plausible lies. His assertion is obviously false: because whatever Antifa is, it sure isn’t an organization. It would not be possible to list the members of Antifa as there are no conditions for membership and there is no trace of a chain of command. In contrast it is clear that the “Proud Boys”, “Patriot Prayer” are organizations.

On the other hand, there are people on Twitter claiming that I belong to Antifa, because I am opposed to fascism. That is silly too. I don’t consider myself a member of Antifa and I am more expert on myself than they are.

I would define Antifa as the set of counter demonstrators who assemble when one of the far right organizations holds a rally. So it’s a bunch of people who come to a general area with the general intention of contesting the far right organization.

This included the black block of Antifa, who are people who dress all in black often with masks and helmets, and who are clearly looking for a fight (as are the Proud Boys. They are all consenting adults, so I say let them fight provided; they don’t bother normal people, don’t bring deadly weapons, and there are police to referee making sure no one gets hurt (police services provided free because I’m generous with other people’s overtime).

But Antifa is also people who just want to stand and be counted and make sure the number of counter demonstrators dwarfs the mobilization of the far right organization. It also includes people who mock the proud boys and treat them as a joke including the dancing unicorn.

Not terrorists and not an organization. I don’t think the Proud Boys are a terrorist organization either. They are an organization and they are violent, but they are like the Jets and the Sharks not like al Qaeda or the Crips.

I think this is a tiny bit interesting, because it is clear that the talkingpoints memo has gone out directing Republican hacks and conservatives (but I repeat myself) to denounce Antifa. This shows three things. First and like the talking points about white supremacist terror; Republcans need to “what-about” when asked to discuss the violent far right (they doth protest too much). Second it shows how the MSM always fall for it; no matter how many times the GOP demonstrates bad faith, their latest BS is treated as if it were worthy of consideration. Finally, it shows how progressives always fall for it.

For example, I just wrote a long post attempting to refute obvious nonsense.

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What is going on lately in the nation. Maybe you do not read it, but these authors/cartoonists can depict each of today’s issues in one image.

Immigration, CEO Pay, Guns, and Retirement

Click on each image to enlarge.

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” The long line of trucks is a traffic jam of military trucks. Shenzhen (China), to state the obvious, is across the border and located just north of Hong Kong (see map). This show of force could still be a well poised threat to Hong Kong warning them to discontinue their protests or else. Shenzhen is an approximate 20 miles from Hong Kong and can be traveled by rail, bus, or limo.

Click on the images to enlarge.

In an update, it appears the Chinese military have started military exercises in Shenzhen as well as hundreds of the People’s Armed Police (PAP) in preparation of an invasion. Another saber rattling action intent on intimidating Hong Kong protesters. This is an scalation from previous efforts when Traffic Police were the ones used to make a similar point. It remains to be seen if China is willing to break the “one – country, two governing systems model” allowed Hong Kong and at the heart of China’s delay in deploying. Hong Kong is a global economic hub. Any intrusion would be noticed, lead to a destabilization, and potential sanctions on China.

On a forced (German VP boss) business trip, I was scheduled to visit a PCB manufacturer in Shenzhen. The travel agency routed me through Shanghai instead of Hong Kong which added hours to my trip (1 hour sitting in Shanghai) as compared to an ~ hour coming out of Hong Kong. A train would have stopped near the Westin where I was staying.

It was obvious the company travel agency did not know the route or bother to look at a map. I arrived after midnight. I informed my Chinese associate, we would be meeting later in the morning so I could be rested enough to negotiate the return of the excess air freight costs charged and my own agenda of negotiating the freezing of gold prices for two years. I was successful in both cases. My boss saved face, I became a star, and my American Planning associates did mot suffer a boot in the pants for their deliberate laziness.

As you can see on the map going back and forth between Shenzhen and Hong Kong is easy to do for travelers and the military too.

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