Monthly Archives: August 2021

Government Fiat

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This is what the Progressive-Democrats in charge of our Federal Government are plotting [sic] in the way of drug pricing under Medicare Part D (the drug provision of Medicare), per the Tax Foundation.

Under HR 3 [the Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act], if drug manufacturers do not agree to participate in negotiations, or do not agree to the negotiated price, they would be subject to an escalating excise tax on the sale of the drug in question. The tax would kick in at 65 percent and would rise by 10 percentage points each 90 days the manufacturers are in “noncompliance,” reaching a maximum tax rate of 95%.

What “negotiation?” This is the price we’re negotiating for, says the Health and Human Services Secretary, the Government official that HR3 says will represent the Government.

Here’s our counteroffer, says the drug manufacturer.

No, no, that’s too high, says SecHHS, repeating his original offer. Then he says, Here’s your noncompliance tax.

This isn’t negotiation, yet that’s what will occur, with the Government holding all the cards. Targeted drug manufacturers and sellers would not even be allowed to opt out of Medicare under HR3.

The Tax Foundation is concerned about drug innovation, and rightly so.

I’m also concerned about the fate of free enterprise and of individual freedom.

Life Sentences and Parole

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Robert F Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, is up for parole, again. Sirhan’s current defense attorney, Angela Berry, in arguing for his release on parole this time (the 16th time he’s faced a parole hearing):

We can’t change the past, but he was not sentenced to life without the possibility of parole[.]

That’s true enough (he was sentenced to death originally, but when California subsequently (and briefly) eliminated the death penalty, his sentence was commuted to life). However, a life sentence with the possibility of parole carries no guarantee of parole.

Beyond that, parole boards that deny parole aren’t extending the felon’s court-determined sentence; they’re only requiring more of the felon’s sentence to be served in prison. That’s not always a bad thing.

In the particular case, Sirhan’s parole board has granted parole; now the matter goes to the board’s staff, and if they agree, the question will go to the California Governor for approval or disapproval.

Maybe It’s Time

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Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston had this on the importance of “diversity and inclusion” relative to combat capability:

Diversity is a number—do you have people that don’t look or think like you in the room? Inclusion is listening and valuing those people[.]

Our army’s Training and Doctrine Command, via its official twitter account had this:

Inclusion & Diversity is what makes our [U.S. Army] better.

No. What makes our army—our military establishment in general—is whether we have soldiers and formations of soldiers who are capable, in defense of our nation and when called of our friends and allies, of successfully engaging, pursuing, and killing our enemies’ soldiers, our enemies’ formations, our enemies’ capability of mounting further attacks.

That’s also who we should see “in the room.” And no one else. Diversity will fall out of that, if we do a proper job of training for combat, rather than for political correctness. Every combat or combat support training graduate will be included—and that’s the inclusiveness that we need.

Our current military management’s (we seem to have a serious lack of leadership) emphasis on “diversity and inclusion” for their own sake, as epitomized by Grinston, is divisive, it’s stinking racism and sexism.

Grinston had the…political correctness…to make his claim against the backdrop of the travesty exploding in Afghanistan. About that contrast, Marine veteran Jessie Jane Duff is on the right track [emphasis hers].

This is what matters: 11 Marines and one Navy Corpsman killed. Americans.
I’m positive they didn’t look or think like you, Sergeant Major. Every flag drapped coffin looks the same.
We have an #AfghanistanCrisis and this is your tweet. Shameful.

Maybe it’s time to clear out the foolish and the idiotic who choose not to understand what it takes to have an effective military. Maybe it’s time to discharge or retire our military managers, from the Secretary of Defense and JCS Chief on down through most of the flag and GS equivalents in the Pentagon.

Alternatively

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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has told the recalcitrant (because this is a more-or-less family blog) Maricopa County management folks to

comply with a state Senate subpoena and turn over its election routers to auditors or risk losing millions of dollars in state aid.

Specifically,

If MCBOS fails to resolve the violation within 30 days, the AGO, in accordance with state law, will notify the Arizona Treasurer to withhold state revenue from Maricopa County until MCBOS complies[.]

The withheld amount would run to $700 million, which amounts to roughly 23% of Maricopa’s 2020 budget.

It’s a nice step, but 30 more days? Maricopa’s managers have been ignoring the State Senate’s subpoena for some months already.

Alternatively, the AG or Governor could send the State Troopers in to execute the subpoena by seizing the routers and arresting any Maricopa County person who gets in the way of the execution.

A Letter Writer Points Out a Fact

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Wayne Detring makes what should be a statement of the obvious in his Letter in The Wall Street Journal‘s Letters page.

Rule 3.1 of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibits lawyers from bringing or defending a proceeding unless there is a basis in law or fact for doing so.

Granted, that’s not strictly binding on lawyers, but it is a strong statement of what’s not acceptable for lawyers to do.

Detring cited further:

Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure states that by signing or submitting a pleading, an attorney certifies that it is not presented for any improper purpose, such as to “cause unnecessary delay.” Rule 11 also provides a process for sanctioning violators.

That Rule is binding on lawyers.  With that background, he continued:

President Biden (Mr Garland’s client) publicly stated he and his staff were “unable to find the legal authority” for the executive order despite checking multiple times. He also admitted he couldn’t in good faith defend the order. But, the president said, “by the time it gets litigated, it will probably give additional time” for him to enforce his illegal order.

And the case:

Ordinary practicing attorneys would be in grave danger of sanctions for filing a pleading knowingly unsupported by law or fact, and by admittedly filing the pleading for the purpose of delay. The US attorney general should be no exception. In fact, those in power should be held to a stricter standard.

However, the only facility for bringing AG Garland to justice under Rule 11 (or the ABA’s Rule 3.1) is the Progressive-Democrat-controlled Congress. Those worthies are unlikely to worry about the misbehaviors of one of their own (and neither have been Republicans in their turn).

Sadly, rather than stricter standards, our Government personages are held to lesser standards than the rest of us. Which puts it on the rest of us to rectify the matter ourselves in 2022 and 2024.