Sunday Night

 Rock on.

Why Not All Of Them

The WaPo editorial board is concerned that Ozempic/etc. are too expensive and is struggling to figure out how to force our Rube Goldberg health care system to make them affordable for more people.

Insurers can lower their prices by buying the medicines in bulk, guaranteeing drugmakers large markets. This strategy could also work for state Medicaid programs, only a limited number of which now pay for the drugs.

For Medicare specifically, Congress needs to grant Part D the authority to not only cover the medicines but also include them among the medicines for which the program can negotiate prices.

Why aren't insurers doing that already, with all drugs? Why doesn't the WaPo's giant floating head advocate for Medicaid/Medicare to negotiate the prices of all drugs? Mysteries left unanswered.

Sunday Funday Afternoon

Haven't even had a chance to watch the new Doctor Who yet.

World's Easiest Marks

A piece I would read would be from a journalist at a mainstream publication explaining why they regularly extol the virtues and intelligence of obvious dumbasses like Elon and SBF. Are they really impressed with these people or do they face pressure from editors/etc to do these? If so, why?

Lots of "a dumb guy's idea of a smart guy" guys get this treatment, and what does this say about elite journalists? 

#Notalljournalists, of course. I'm happy for one of the actual smart ones to dish on why his/her colleagues can't wait to be impressed by the next guy who uses sciencey sounding words and misappropriates basic philosophic concepts.

"Mistakes"

Several passports later this shouldn't even be a possibility.

As he tells it, when he sent in an application for a new passport in February, he had no reason to expect he’d face any difficulties. He had renewed his passport several times previously without problems. This time, it was set to expire in June, and he wanted to make sure he had a valid one in hand before his family took a trip in July.

But he did not receive a new passport. Instead, at the age of 61, he lost what he had held since he was an infant: U.S. citizenship.

The entire concept of revoking citizenship - or its equivalent, claiming it was never really granted - needs to be banished.

Maybe Joe the Biden can get on this.

Morning

Sunday funday.

I am slacking a bit this weekend. In part because it's a holiday weekend! In part because I find the current Discourse to be a bit draining.

Saturday Night

Rock on.

World's Greatest Brain Genius

He is also one of those guys who thinks he needs to create as many children as possible in order to improve the gene pool.

Slacker Saturday Afternoon Thread

Keep on slackin'

Notable

Both the facts and that the NYT is reporting it this way.

Sure, Bro

I don't know if this is the story they're telling themselves, the story they're telling us, or both.

A reporter asked Biden his thoughts on calls to condition U.S. aid to Israel as a way to halt Israel's invasion of Gaza.

"I think that's a worthwhile thought, but I don't think if I started off with that we would have gotten where we are today." pic.twitter.com/Ur8pwN0qjX

— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) November 24, 2023

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

On the blackest of Fridays

Afternoon Thread

I got nothin'

Lunch

Black Friday! Last chance to buy Xmas presents!!! (Ad, I get a commission)

"Alleged Clients"

I suspect we will never learn who they are.

The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said at the time of their arrests that the “commercial sex buyers allegedly included elected officials, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors, attorneys, scientists, and accountants, among others.”

Keeps These Guys Distracted, I Guess

AI will destroy the world not because it's a malevolent sentient supervillain, but because dumb guys like this will be like 'what if we put it in charge of our logistics systems.'

The biggest coup was convincing everyone to call it "AI" when it's just fancy Alexa.  If Amazon had been behind it, and stupidly called it SuperAlexa or ALEXAPRIME, people would say "neato" but we wouldn't be pretending it's going to alter the world.

Morning

Black Friday - America's holiday export.

Thursday Night

Rock on.