CIVIL UNREST ... WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

- Mark

WHY THE UNICORNS DIDN'T MAKE IT ...

- Mark

READING FOR THE MLK WEEKEND (1-15-16)

Martin Luther King Day: How much do you know about MLK? Take our quiz (CS Monitor).

Martin Luther King, Jr. ... Test your knowledge (Seattle Times).

'Navigation error' led U.S. sailors into Iranian waters - Carter (RT).

Denial, paranoia and bigotry: Obama warns against Republican ugliness and they immediately prove him right (Salon).


THIS IS JUST WRONG
Day care teacher faces decades-long prison sentence after 'baby fight club' conviction (RT).

The shaming of Izzy Laxamana (Slate).

Atlanta police stop and put gun to head of rapper after he withdraws $200,000 from his bank (Raw Story).

Following Flint tragedy GOP led Congress votes to block clean water bill (U.S. Uncut).

Ronald Reagan stuck it to millenials: A college debt history lesson no one tells (Salon).

Seriously? North Carolina legalizes prostitution for state politicians (The Daily Beast).


ECONOMIC TRENDS, AND COUNTER-TRENDS
The Obama Boom (NY Times).

Paul Krugman: Are we heading to a global economic catastrophe (Alternet).

The country that tricked the world ... China (Washington Post).

Sell everything ahead of stock market crash, say RBS economists (The Guardian).

More than half of Americans reportedly have less than $1,000 to their name (Esquire).


NEW WAVE ECONOMICS
Billionaire blasts companies that jump overseas to duck taxes: 'I'm selling your stock' (Think Progress).

Pay it Forward: The New Zealand town where your time is a currency (The Guardian).

Republicans silent as Seattle's economy booming with higher minimum wage (Occupy Democrats).


YEAH, BERNIE'S IDEAS WILL WORK
170 top economists back Bernie Sanders' plan to rein in Wall Street (U.S. Uncut).

Bernie Sanders' single-payer health care plan will save American taxpayers $1200 a year (Nation of Change).


TED CRUZ ... NEEDS ANCHOR PARENTS TO ADOPT HIM
Ted Cruz is not eligible to be president (Washington Post).

Karma: Ted Cruz releases Mother's birth certificate after she's found on Canadian voter list (Occupy Democrats).

Ted 'Duck Hunter' Cruz goes full camo in BIZARRE new ad pandering to Idiot America (Addicting Info).

OREGON (BUNDY) NUTJOBS
Expert: Majority of Oregon militia thugs likely broke, unemployed, or on disability (Liberal America).

Thank you, Oregon militiamen: The longer you stay, the more ridiculous you and the conservative movement look (Salon).

BUSTED: Oregon militia thugs caught falsely posing as Marine veterans (Liberal America).

Outrage in Oregon: Taking over a federal building at the point of a rifle gives protest a bad name (Common Outrage).

Bundy militia terrorists remove fence at Oregon wildlife refuge as protest escalates (The Guardian).


OREGON FUMES
The GOP's sympathy for sedition (Dana Milbank).

How about some Oregon militia homoerotic fan fiction (JoeMyGod).

7 kind of government subsidies those angry ranchers get that you don't (Grist).

An excellent read ... Former forest supervisor explains "Why I resigned over a public land dispute" (Time).

SERIOUSLY, THESE PEOPLE ARE NUTS
Texas governor calls for huge, insane changes to U.S. Constitution (Slate).

Felon enraged over Obama's gun reforms shoots up apartment building (Occupy Democrats).

Anti-Obama march organizer fatally shoots right-wing militant buddy in drunken dispute over gun (Raw Story).


MISCELLANEOUS
President Obama drops a fact bomb and obliterates the NRA at CNN gun town hall (Politics USA).

Why "collateral damage" elicits little empathy among Americans (Common Dreams).

Melvin Russell: I love being a police officer, but we need reform (TED).

Signs of the 'Human Age' ... It's not pretty (NY Times).

- Mark

MARKETS AT WORK, SORT OF ... HOW PATENT LAW IMPACTS DRUG PRICES AROUND THE WORLD

Harvoni is a pill that effectively treats those afflicted with Hepatitis C (disease of the liver). Here's the break down of what a 12-week Harvoni treatment costs in the United States and what it costs in other countries, according to Esofosbuvir.com ...

Harvoni is the most effective Hepatitis C treatment known to man. Here are the cost of standard 12-week treatment around the world:

• US – $94,5000

• Canada – $84,000

• UK – £39,000

• France – 48,000€

• Egypt – $1,200

• India – $900

• Germany – 41,000€

If you're wondering - and I'm sure you are - one of the reasons for the price difference between countries has to do with global gaps in how patent law is applied.

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In India the Indian Patent Office (in Mumbai) declined patent protection for Harvoni because - among other reasons - they determined that the primary compound of the drug was niether developed as a drug originally, nor was it deemed to be significantly more effective than other compounds submitted (or on file).

Then we have the actions taken by Doctors of the World. They took a look at the molecular structure of sofosbuvir - the primary property in the Harvoni - and objected to the patent filed at the European Patent Office for Harvoni. They argued that the molecular structure of the medicine is based on already known molecules. Put another way, Doctors of the World argue that the "technology" behind the drug is not new, which means that it is not deserving of patent protection.

You can't get a patent for something that's already invented, or already in nature.

For what it's worth, the relatively high price of Harvoni in the United States is justified by R&D costs, a lack of alternative treatments (i.e. monopoly) and/or the fact that a new liver costs about $250,000 in America. I'll let you be the judge as to the merits behind these arguments.

Finally, in the FYI department, this site has information for people looking for alternatives to purchasing Harvoni in the United States.

- Mark

UPDATE: The plot thickens ... From RT, "Congress outraged that cure developed by VA scientist sells for $1k a pill, out of reach to vets"

OBAMA BEGINS HIS VICTORY LAP ... "PEACE, OUT"

After saving the economy, getting reelected, and achieving success in the face of unprecedented obstructionism and disrespect from his political enemies this pretty much captures President Obama's final State of the Union moment ...

- Mark

Hat tip to Agulia for the post. 

ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS ON KGET 17 NEWS

I had an interesting exchange with Cathy Abernathy on KGET's Sunrise program this morning. We discussed President Obama's final State of the Union address. You can access the exchange by clicking here.

- Mark

STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS ON KGET 17 NEWS

For those of you in the Bakersfield and Kern County region, I'll be on KGET 17 News tonight a little after 5 pm discussing President Obama's last State of the Union address with Cathy Abernathy. As usual, it should be fun.

I'll also be on KGET's early morning segment (6:10?) tomorrow morning.

- Mark

UPDATE: You can access our KGET Sunrise morning exchange-analysis by clicking here.

THE MORAL CRISIS OF OUR AGE

This about sums it up ...

- Mark

EXPLOITED COLLEGE ATHLETES A LABOR ISSUE? YES ...

One of my former colleagues, David Berri, is fast becoming one of the most knowledgeable and sought after voices in sports economics. He posted the following on his Facebook page.

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This is a great article on college sports, exploitation, and race. These three paragraphs are especially important:

In some cases, officials have made small concessions to avoid bigger ones. When football players at Northwestern tried to unionize in March 2014, alarm bells went off in athletic directors’ offices nationwide. Suddenly, that June, USC committed to giving football players guaranteed four-year scholarships. Before then, scholarships were a year-to-year proposition, renewable at the discretion of the head coach. Some other schools quickly followed suit, lest they be put at a competitive disadvantage. 

When University of Connecticut basketball player Shabazz Napier complained in April 2014 of often going to bed hungry, the NCAA passed emergency legislation allowing for expanded year-round meals for athletes. 

The NCAA could have made these changes at any time — it didn’t have to wait for players to complain. Only when the free labor threatened to take action did the NCAA respond.

The history of labor relations in sports tells that story over and over again. Ownership does not voluntarily share with workers. Only when workers take action do things change. And you should never, ever believe that owners have the best interest of their workers at heart. Owners are interested in their interests. That is it.

There is a very important lesson here. If you are working for someone else and you are anti-labor, you are against your own interests. You might want to think a bit harder then about your political beliefs.

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Sports economist David Berri, author of Wages of Wins (2006) and Stumbling on Wins (2010). 

I encourage you to read the entire article, which you can access here.

- Mark

FYI Category: As an aside, if you are a sports fan and consider yourself an expert when it comes to evaluating talent or the value of sport athletes - and especially those in the NBA - you really aren't unless you've read David Berri's stuff. You'll understand why once you read what he writes, including his first book, Wages of Wins, which you can access here. 

ONLY DICTATORS GOVERN WITH EXECUTIVE ORDERS? OK, LET'S GO WITH THAT ...

Meme from early 2013.

For an updated count on executive orders by President Obama (he's at 227 today), click here ...

So, yeah, as it stands today, President Obama could sign another 100 executive orders over the next year that he's in office and he still wouldn't catch President Reagan.

- Mark