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Politics

Reince-Priebus

RNC Chair Reince Priebus speaks to the debate crowd before the CNBC Republican presidential debate in Boulder, Colorado, on Oct. 29, 2015.

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus posted on social media that Donald Trump is now “the presumptive nominee” and “it’s time to unite” against Hillary Clinton. The statement was tweeted out only moments after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the frontrunner’s closest rival, suspended his campaign after losing the Indiana Republican primary.


will be presumtive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton

The chairman didn’t wait for a statement by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who vowed to continue the fight and said Sen. Cruz “should be proud of his strong and disciplined campaign.” Gov. Kasich has no path to the nomination and only won his home state of Ohio. Worth noting, a poll released on Tuesday showed a significant majority of Ohio Republicans say the governor should drop out of the race.

Kasich’s campaign posted a note to his Facebook page claiming the loss in Indiana “would not alter” the governor’s plan.

“Tonight’s results are not going to alter Gov. Kasich’s campaign plans. Our strategy has been and continues to be one that involves winning the nomination at an open convention,” the note said. “The comments from Trump, on the verge of winning in Indiana, heighten the differences between Governor Kasich and his positive, inclusive approach and the disrespectful ramblings from Donald Trump. Gov. Kasich will remain in the race unless a candidate reaches 1,237 bound delegates before the Convention.”

RNC Chair Reince Priebus posted on social

World

London Set to Elect 1st Muslim Mayor of a Western Capital

Goldsmith-Khan-London-Mayor

Conservative Party candidate Zac Goldsmith (left), who is from a prominent German-Jewish family, and Labour candidate Sadiq Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants, at a mayoral debate in London last week. Mr Khan has said that electing a Muslim mayor would send a message that Londoners value diversity. (PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE)

There are disturbing trends being reported out of London. It seems the agenda the leftist Islamic sympathizers have always dreamed of and attempted to bring about in the United States is actually being somewhat implemented in the United Kingdom. The unfettered Muslim immigration into the British capital is taking its toll. Western values are being supplanted by dreams of Sharia law and a creeping anti-Israeli policy.

No less than 50 members of the British Labour Party have been suspended in recent weeks over anti-Semitic comments. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was praised today by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. Breitbart Jerusalem reported that a Hamas spokesperson bragged that Corbyn’s readiness to maintain contacts with the Palestinian organization was “a painful hit that the Zionist enemy received.”

London is set to elect the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital. U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump caused a firestorm across the pond in 2015 when he spoke of “no-go” zones in Britain, Islamist neighborhoods where police fear to tread. The Daily Mail reported last year comments by policemen, “We can’t wear our uniforms in our own cars and some Muslim areas of London are so radicalized, they are virtual ‘NO-GO’ Zones,” say serving police officers today, who backed Donald Trump’s claim that some Muslim communities in the UK are no-go areas because of Muslim extremism.

The Telegraph reports, Also on Sunday night shadow education secretary Lucy Powell became the first shadow cabinet minister to acknowledge the party had a problem with anti-Semitism. She told Channel 4 News : “There clearly is an issue with anti-Semitism in the Labour Party otherwise we wouldn’t have spent the best part of the last six or seven days talking about it.”

What’s going on in London?

(H/T Threat Assessment via The Washington Times)

[mybooktable book=”currency” display=”summary” buybutton_shadowbox=”true”]

There are disturbing trends being reported out

Politics

Cruz-Fiorina-2016

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced on April 27, 2016, that if he is the Republican presidential candidate, his vice presidential pick would be Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO and presidential candidate. (Photo: Michael Conroy/AP/Associated Press)

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has suspended his campaign for president and his bid for the Republican nomination after his loss in the Indiana Republican Primary to Donald Trump. In a passionate speech to supporters on Tuesday night, Sen. Cruz vowed to continue the fight for liberty and traditional values, making what sounded unequivocally like the beginning of a unity speech.

Several Cruz staffers were crying before Sen. Cruz took the stage and his family appeared visibly emotional alongside the candidate as he made his announcement.

“The move you have started is extraordinary and I love each and every one of you,” Sen. Cruz said. “From the beginning I promised to continue to fight as long as there was a viable path. It appears that path has been foreclosed. Together, we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we got. But the voters chose a different path.”

The senator thanked his supporters, his family and his running mate Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO and 2016 presidential candidate. Sen. Cruz had taken the unprecedented step to name a running mate even after he was mathematically eliminated in an effort to blunt Mr. Trump’s momentum.

“When we launched this campaign 13 months ago we saw a movement grow. We saw almost 300,000 volunteers all across this nation,” Sen. Cruz said. “Over 1.5 million contributions averaging about $60.00 each. Many of those contributions you never forget. “So with a heavy a heart, but with boundless optimism, for the long term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.”

Sen. Cruz and the remaining anti-Trump super PAC forces in the party establishment were hoping to repeat his upset in Wisconsin. However, the frontrunner did everything possible to avoid making the same mistakes. A win in that state’s primary would’ve given Mr. Trump a chance to end a protracted primary process, which he saw this time and took action he’s been reluctant to take up until now.

Through April 26, Mr. Trump actually ran more broadcast television spots in the state of Indiana than Sen. Cruz, according to data from Kantar Media’s CMAG. The Donald aired 1,249 spots in the state juxtaposed to 639 for Sen. Cruz. However, dominance in the air war overall still favors Sen. Cruz, who enjoys the support of outside groups either supporting him or opposing Mr. Trump.

Super PACs such as Trusted Leadership PAC, Club for Growth Action and Our Principles PAC, all have spent millions of dollars in the collaboration to deny Mr. Trump the nomination. In total, they ran a combined 1,227 spots in the state, the CMAG study revealed.

With Sen. Cruz out of the race, the lion’s share of his support will undoubtedly fall behind Mr. Trump in the remaining contests, but the party will need to make an effort to unify before November. The race for Indiana got nasty on Tuesday when Sen. Cruz had a media availability Tuesday morning to respond to Mr. Trump allegedly accusing his father of being associated with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to assassinating John F. Kennedy. The senator, who once promised to “continue to sing Donald’s praises,” call him “a pathological liar” who was “amoral” in his non-existent values.

“The man cannot tell the truth, but he combines it with being a narcissist,” Sen. Cruz said. “A narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen.”

Still, as we saw in the Northeast, the anti-Trump–or more specifically, the #NeverTrump movement–is fading despite the result of the vote. The Texas senator, who is now seen as more establishment than outsider, as well as more negatively than positively, has poisoned the well among non-Cruz supporters. In Indiana 4 in 10 said they would not vote for him if he were the nominee. The number of non-Trump supporters who say they wouldn’t vote for Trump was slightly more than 4 in 10, but there were fewer. Only 3 in 10 non-Kasich supporters said they wouldn’t vote for Kasich.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich hopes to continue to exploit that division, releasing a statement after the race was called vowing to continue until June 7. However, Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said on social media after Mr. Cruz’s announcement that Mr. Trump is “the presumptive nominee” and it’s time to unite.

The frontrunner now leads on the PPD Delegate Tracker by a count of 1,041 to 565. He needs only 1,237 to clinch the nomination. In California, where he enjoys a lead of more than 30 points in the latest poll, there are 172 delegates up for grabs. In New Jersey, where he leads by a similiar margin, there are 51 delegates awarded on a winner-take-all basis.

Mr. Trump is also favored to win in The Garden State. Nevertheless, the Kasich campaign released a statement vowing to continue until Mr. Trump reaches the 1,237 delegates needed. That scenario has now become highly likely.

“This was it. Game. Set. Match,” said Richard Baris, PPD’s senior political analyst. “Mr. Trump has now outperformed our delegate projections on the PPD Election Projection Model for the seventh consecutive contest. With this victory, he is on track to haul in more than enough delegates to clinch the nomination.”

Sen. Cruz officially announced his 2016 presidential campaign on Twitter in May 2015, posting a video saying it will require a “new generation” to lead the country. But, even though Sen. Cruz recognized the reality of the race moving forward, he made it clear he would be a leading conservative voice in the future.

“But hear me now, I am not suspending our fight for liberty, our fight to defend the Constitution or the Judaeo-Christian values that founded our country,” Sen. Cruz said. I give you my word that I will continue this fight with all my strength and ability.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has suspended his

Elections

Donald-Trump-Bobby-Knight-Indiana-Raly

Donald Trump was joined by former Indiana University coach Bobby Knight at a rally in Indianapolis Wednesday, April 27.

Donald Trump has won the Indiana Republican Primary, defeating Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the state that became a must-win for him and the entire anti-Trump movement. The win, which was dominant and marks the seventh straight, effectively makes The Donald the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

“This is it. Game. Set. Match,” said Richard Baris, PPD’s senior political analyst.. “That’s the reality no matter what you hear from Mr. Cruz later Tuesday night or even Wednesday morning. Not that Donald Trump has beaten the senator in Indiana, there are those previously loyal to the #NeverTrump movement that have told us it is time to pack it in. If Sen. Cruz doesn’t recognize that, then all he will be doing is helping to elect Hillary Clinton.”

Baris says the results will impact other states that previously favored the senator such as Nebraska, Montana and Washington, which will all begin to move further out of Sen. Cruz’s grasp.

There were 57 delegates up for grabs in Indiana’s winner-take-most primary contest, with 30 awarded to the statewide winner (Trump) and 3 in each of the state’s 9 congressional districts. As of last count, Mr. Trump is leading in 9 of 9 congressional districts. Sen. Cruz was expected to run strong in the Northeastern region of the state, but is only holding tiny leads in two counties, Whitley and Wells. Mr. Trump leads in every single other county in the district.

In Indiana today, 6 in 10 Republican primary voters in preliminary exit polls said they wanted an outsider candidate, far higher than the average 52% measured in previous Republican primaries this cycle. Mr. Trump won roughly 8 in 10 of these voters. Exit polls in Indiana found a typical split in the size of each group, with “change” and “plain talk” voters accounting for more than half.

On immigration, nearly half said they (47%) favor deportation, up from the average 41% in previous races to date. Exit polls also showed 74% of Republican primary voters cast their ballot for their candidate, while 25% cast it against another. In Indiana, 27% said they were excited about a Trump presidency, while just 13% said the same of Sen. Cruz and 7% for Gov. Kasich.

Sen. Cruz won late-deciders 47% to 38% and nearly 6 in 10 voters who described themselves as “very conservative” Republicans. However, evangelicals went for Mr. Trump 49% to 44% for Sen. Cruz. Non-evangelicals went for the frontrunner 55% to 29%. Among other demographics, it was all Trump. Independents, a bloc that made up 23% of the electorate, went for Mr. Trump 53% to 33%. He carried Republicans 50% to 40% and Democrats 60% to 28%.

Mr. Trump not only carried voters without a college degree (57% to 35%) but those with a college degree (44% to 43%). The former made up 48% of the electorate while the latter 45%. He carried men 57% to 34% and women 46% to 42%. While Sen. Cruz has had support from younger voters, they went for Mr. Trump by 4 points, 44% to 40%.

Further, early-deciders represented nearly half of Indiana Republican Primary voters, a bloc the frontrunner dominated in the latest indicator the debate was won months ago. The early deciders in Indiana exit poll results were similar to the average in previous contests.

As we saw in the Northeast, the anti-Trump–or more specifically, the #NeverTrump movement–is fading despite the result of the vote. The Texas senator, who is now seen as more establishment than outsider, as well as more negatively than positively, has poisoned the well among non-Cruz supporters. In Indiana 4 in 10 said they would not vote for him if he were the nominee. The number of non-Trump supporters who say they wouldn’t vote for Trump was slightly more than 4 in 10, but there were fewer. Only 3 in 10 non-Kasich supporters said they wouldn’t vote for Kasich.

The race for Indiana got nasty on Tuesday when Sen. Cruz had a media availability Tuesday morning to respond to Mr. Trump allegedly accusing his father of being associated with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to assassinating John F. Kennedy. The senator, who once promised to “continue to sing Donald’s praises,” call him “a pathological liar” who was “amoral” in his non-existent values.

“The man cannot tell the truth, but he combines it with being a narcissist,” Sen. Cruz said. “A narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen.”

Worth noting, 4 in 10 supporters of Hillary Clinton in 2008 said they would not vote for then-Sen. Barack Obama. Obviously, they unified and went on to win in a landslide.

While Cruz & Co. were hoping to repeat Wisconsin, the frontrunner did everything possible to avoid making the same mistakes. A win in that state’s primary would’ve given Mr. Trump a chance to end a protracted primary process, which he saw this time and took action he’s been reluctant to take up until now.

Through April 26, Mr. Trump actually ran more broadcast television spots in the state of Indiana than Sen. Cruz, according to data from Kantar Media’s CMAG. The Donald aired 1,249 spots in the state juxtaposed to 639 for Sen. Cruz. However, dominance in the air war overall still favors Sen. Cruz, who enjoys the support of outside groups either supporting him or opposing Mr. Trump.

Super PACs such as Trusted Leadership PAC, Club for Growth Action and Our Principles PAC, all have spent millions of dollars in the collaboration to deny Mr. Trump the nomination. In total, they ran a combined 1,227 spots in the state, the CMAG study revealed.

The frontrunner now leads on the PPD Delegate Tracker by a count of 1,041 to 565. He needs only 1,237 to clinch the nomination. In California, where he enjoys a lead of more than 30 points in the latest poll, there are 172 delegates up for grabs. In New Jersey, where he leads by a similiar margin, there are 51 delegates awarded on a winner-take-all basis.

Mr. Trump is also favored to win in The Garden State. Nevertheless, the Kasich campaign released a statement vowing to continue until Mr. Trump reaches the 1,237 delegates needed. That scenario has now become highly likely.

“Mr. Trump has now outperformed our delegate projections on the PPD Election Projection Model for the seventh consecutive contest,” Baris added. “With this victory, he is on track to haul in more than enough delegates to clinch the nomination.”

Donald Trump has won the Indiana Republican

Polls

Losing Outsider Label Was the Kiss of Death for Ted Cruz

Cruz-Kasich-Handshake-FOX-Debate

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, left, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, right, shake hands in a debate sponsored by Fox News on Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Detroit. (Photo: Paul Sancya/Associated Press)

At a time when he is fighting for his political life, a new [content_tooltip id=”39930″ title=”Gallup”] finds Republican primary voters’ views of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have declined precipitously. Republicans’ views of Sen. Cruz are now the worst ever in the history of Gallup tracking the Texas senator’s favorability rating.

The survey, which was conducted from April 24 to April 30, Sen. Cruz’s image among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents clocked in at 39% favorable and 45% unfavorable, for a net favorable score of -6. However, the last few days of interviews have marked the first time Gallup has found Sen. Cruz’s image underwater since daily tracking began in July. The net -6 favorability rating represents a stark shift from where it was in late December and early January, when Gallup pegged his net favorable was +48. That’s 54 points higher than today.

Ted Cruz Favorability Ratings -- Gallup Poll

“Cruz now joins the ranks of several other GOP presidential candidates whose images among Republicans fell into net negative territory,” said Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport. “South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki hold the records for the worst images during the 2016 campaign; both of them had net favorables in the -13 to -14 range last August.”

Meanwhile, as the trajectory of Cruz’s image continues to decline, Gallup found Mr. Trump’s image on the upswing. Even though PPD repeatedly cautions our readers about putting too much stock in general election polls prior to Labor Day–for the simple reason they have no predictive value–it is noteworthy that the frontrunner’s national numbers have slightly overtaken Hillary Clinton. From April 24 to April 30, Mr. Trump had a 59% favorable and 35% unfavorable rating among self-identified Republicans.

That +24 net favorability rating is not Mr. Trump’s high point, indicating he has more room to grow and more work to do to consolidate the party base. His favorability rating was measured at 63%, while his unfavorable came in at 30% in late August and early September. But his rating is up in recent days even as Sen. Cruz’s is on the decline.

Donald Trump Favorability Rating -- Gallup

Comparing the net favorability ratings put this trend into further perspective.

“The remarkable aspect of this trend line is the degree to which since mid-April Trump’s net favorable rating has moved steadily upward just as Cruz’s net favorable rating has moved steadily downward,” Mr. Newport added. “Cruz’s image was consistently more positive than Trump’s from July through the end of February; then the two closely tracked one another before the recent divergence.”

Cruz and Trump Net Favorability Ratings -- Gallup

The reason for this shift wasn’t identified per se in the Gallup Poll, but it’s safe to assume in the year of the outsider the last label a Republican candidate should want to be branded with is “establishment.” However, with establishment pols lining up to endorse him, deals being cut with Ohio Gov. John Kasich to collude against Mr. Trump, and party elites awarding him their state’s delegates without a vote, it would appear that is what Donald Trump has managed to do to Sen. Cruz.

A recent [content_tooltip id=”39935″ title=”YouGov”] found for the first time more Republicans viewed him to be an establishment candidate rather than an outsider. More voters than not–and ever (62%)–now say Sen. Cruz is more of an establishment candidate than an outsider. As a result, Sen. Cruz’s image has taken a hit in Gallup and other recent polls.

Another YouGov survey conducted for The Economist pegged his favorability rating among Republican and Republican-leaning voters at 56%, but that was prior to the period polled by Gallup and is down significantly from the 67% measured in January.

At a time when he is fighting

Politics

Ted Cruz in Indiana

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, takes questions from the media before a rally at the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Franklin, Ind., Monday, April 25, 2016. (Photo: AP/Michael Conroy)

Indiana Republican primary voters head to the polls on Tuesday to decide the fate of Sen. Ted Cruz and the movement to stop Donald Trump from clinching the nomination. The Hoosier State has become the last stand for the Texas senator, who along with his allies, had hoped to repeat the success of the anti-Trump movement in Wisconsin.

Despite barnstorming the state on Monday, with their candidate holding ten separate events, campaign insiders are increasingly pessimistic about the situation they will wake up to on Wednesday morning. Following his sixth-straight loss last Tuesday, Sen. Cruz argued publicly and privately to supporters and donors that the race would shift back to favorable territory in the Midwest.

However, with the exception of one poll, the aggregate public and private polling data suggest Mr. Trump is headed for a campaign-ending win in Indiana. A new [content_tooltip id=”39612″ title=”Gravis Marketing”] released on Monday showed the New York businessman leading Sen. Cruz by 17 points, 44% to 27%.

While Cruz & Co. were hoping to repeat Wisconsin, the frontrunner was doing everything possible to avoid making the same mistake. A win in that state’s primary would’ve given Mr. Trump a chance to end a protracted primary process, which he sees now and has done something he’s been reluctant to do up until now.

Through April 26, Mr. Trump actually ran more broadcast television spots in the state of Indiana than Sen. Cruz, according to data from Kantar Media’s CMAG. The Donald aired 1,249 spots in the state juxtaposed to 639 for Sen. Cruz. However, dominance in the air war overall still favors Sen. Cruz, who enjoys the support of outside groups either supporting him or opposing Mr. Trump.

Super PACs such as Trusted Leadership PAC, Club for Growth Action and Our Principles PAC, all have spent millions of dollars in the collaboration to deny Mr. Trump the nomination. In total, they’ve run a combined 1,227 spots in the state, the CMAG study revealed.

“Indiana is facing a unique moment in history: the opportunity to stop Donald Trump,” Club for Growth Action president David McIntosh told PPD in an email before the launch. “After success with our ads in Wisconsin, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Utah, CFG Action is about to blanket the Hoosier State with a simple message: To stop Trump, vote Cruz. There is now no state more important than Indiana for electing Cruz and keeping Trump from reaching 1,237.”

By comparison, Mr. Trump ran just 457 spots in the state of Wisconsin prior to that state’s primary on April 5, one of only three primaries he has lost to Sen. Cruz. The Texas senator, together with those same pro-Cruz and anti-Trump groups that have aired ads in Indiana, ran a total 1,439 television spots in Wisconsin.

However, the anti-Trump forces didn’t have the perfect anti-Trump storm that they had in Wisconsin, where local talk radio was united against him. Further, while Indiana Gov. Mike Pence offered a tepid endorsement of Sen. Cruz, which he tried to firm up on Sunday after praising Mr. Trump, he doesn’t possess the GOTV operation that Gov. Scott Walker built. Gov. Walker, who remains more popular among state Republicans than Gov. Pence, had to win three elections in four years.

Further, if Sen. Cruz loses to Mr. Trump on Tuesday in Indiana, analysts say it would largely be attributed to the anti-Trump forces underestimating the anti-establishment mood among the electorate. While the deal struck with Ohio Gov. John Kasich was meant to deny Mr. Trump the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, it is proving to be an asset. An [content_tooltip id=”39829″ title=”NBC/WSJ/Marist”], which was released on Sunday, showed that 58% of likely Republican primary voters in Indiana disapproved of the two candidates colluding to stop Mr. Trump.

The survey found Mr. Trump leading Sen. Cruz by 15 points, 49% to 34%. The results of both polls confirmed internal polling data obtained by PPD earlier this week.

“What we have seen between public and private polling is that Sen. Cruz has a low ceiling in the low 30s,” said Richard Baris, PPD’s senior political analyst. “The aggregate data doesn’t suggest the same movement behind Sen. Cruz that we saw in Wisconsin.”

There are 57 delegates up for grabs in Indiana on Tuesday May 3. While it’s not a must-win for Mr. Trump–though it would make his path significantly easier–it has become the last stand for Sen. Cruz and the anti-Trump forces. Baris says if Sen. Cruz cannot pull off an upset in Indiana, other states that previously favored the senator such as Nebraska, Montana and Washington, could all begin to move further out of grasp.

“This is it. Game. Set. Match,” said Baris. “That’s the reality no matter what you hear from Mr. Cruz on Tuesday or even Wednesday morning. If Donald Trump beats the senator in Indiana on Tuesday, there are those previously loyal to the #NeverTrump movement that have told us it will be time to pack it in. If Sen. Cruz doesn’t recognize that, then all he will be doing is helping to elect Hillary Clinton.”

In an attempt to blunt Mr. Trump’s momentum, Sen. Cruz took the unprecedented step to announce Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential running mate in the event he is nominated. No doubt, the 172 delegates up for grabs in The Golden State played a role in his decision. Mrs. Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2016 presidential candidate, previously called California home before she moved to the D.C. suburbs.

A new [content_tooltip id=”37972″ title=”SurveyUSA”] released on Monday finds the frontrunner with a whopping 34-point lead, 54% to 20%. The winner of the statewide vote in California is awarded 13 delegates, while the remaining 159 delegates are awarded to the plurality winner of the state’s 53 congressional districts. The Hoosier State will award 57 delegates; 30 to the statewide winner and three in each of the state’s nine congressional districts.

Indiana Republican primary voters head to the

World

U.S. Airstrikes Pound Islamic State (ISIS) Fighters in Response

ashton-carter

File photo: Ashton Carter seen on July 20, 2012. (Photo: REUTERS)

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced on Tuesday morning that a U.S. service member was killed “in the neighborhood” of the northern Iraq city of Irbil. Speaking to reporters while traveling in Stuttgart, Germany, Secretary Carter offered few details but PPD has confirmed ISIS was responsible.

“It is a combat death, of course,” Secretary Carter said.

However, a Pentagon official who asked not to be named added that the service member was “killed by direct fire” about 9:30 a.m. local time when Islamic State fighters breached the Kurdish peshmerga’s front lines. The American was about three to five kilometers behind the front lines.

“We provided air support to help the [Peshmerga] counter this attack,” the official said.

What followed was a staggering 23 total airstrikes on the ISIS fighters, using F-15 fighters and drones.

No further details were immediately available.

DEVELOPING: Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday

Opinion

Big-Pharma-Getty-Images

Photo: Getty Images

Sometimes the road to hell is paved with bad intentions. A company adopts a business model so twisted that justice must come clanking down on its executives and bankrollers. Justice is now being served on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Evil this blatant is headed for the full Hollywood treatment.

Valeant preys on sick people by acquiring essential drugs and then multiplying their price for a fast profit. Example: Upon buying the maker of Cuprimine, a 53-year-old drug that treats a rare genetic disorder, the Canadian company hiked its price 5,787 percent. Example: After obtaining the rights to two heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, Valeant jacked up their prices by 525 percent and 212 percent, respectively.

Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, called Valeant a “sewer” at the conglomerate’s recent annual meeting. If the burning fires of hell are not available, a sewer will do.

Get this: Valeant charges Americans almost 100 times more for flucytosine than it does Britons. Used to treat cryptococcal meningitis, flucytosine costs $2,000 a day in the United States, versus $22 a day in Britain.

How could this be? Ask your Congress.

From the Medicare drug benefit on up, it has written laws to enrich drug companies at the expense of American consumers and taxpayers. Valeant’s going down not because it was greedy but because it was insanely greedy.

Calling Valeant a “drug company” is problematic because it’s not much into researching and developing new medications. “Bet on management, not on science,” its outgoing CEO, J. Michael Pearson, was fond of saying.

It takes some doing to provoke the U.S. Senate to hold a hearing on a drug company’s pricing. In this, Valeant (and previously Martin Shkreli’s Turing Pharmaceuticals) succeeded.

Under the harsh lights, Pearson conceded that his company made “mistakes.” His big mistake was not recognizing that even the most pliable champions of America’s medical-industrial complex have their limits.

Pearson’s description of Valeant’s program offering price breaks for hospitals that use some of its drugs didn’t glow for long. Hospitals responded that when they tried to obtain those alleged discounts, they got nowhere. Valeant didn’t answer their emails. It didn’t answer the phone.

What else made Valeant think it could get away with such anti-social behavior? No doubt Wall Street’s willingness to invest in its money-raking scheme contributed. Hedge fund giant William Ackman was Valeant’s leading pitchman, enticing other big funds to join in the pillage.

Valeant has problems in addition to a business model so repugnant it couldn’t be allowed to live. Among them is a high pile of debt. And its accounting practices aren’t so hot, either.

Thus, it’s no huge surprise that Valeant’s stock price has collapsed 85 percent since last summer. Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management and other hedge fund participants have lost billions.

Ackman told the hearing that his fund was not entirely aware of Valeant’s drug pricing policy. He was a “passive” investor, he said. Somehow the truth would have seemed less damning. Are we to believe that Pershing Square poured $4 billion into a company without inquiring as to how it made money?

In an almost comical exchange with the senators, Ackman said: “I totally get it. We’re going to come up with an appropriate (drug) price based on an appropriate rationale.”
All is not forgiven. Investors lost billions, but patients may have lost far more.

One hopes that spotlighting this egregious gouging on drug prices won’t deter attention from the lower-level daily gouging that our laws enable. The only remedy for that, frankly, is new lawmakers.

Justice is now being served on Valeant

Opinion

Thomas-Sowell

Random thoughts on the passing scene:

One of the problems with being a pessimist is that you can never celebrate when you are proven right.

If what you want from politicians are quick and easy answers, someone is sure to supply them, regardless of which party you follow. History can tell you where quick and easy answers lead. But, if you don’t want to bother reading history, you can just wait and relive its catastrophes.

What is “economic power”? What can Bill Gates stop you from doing?

I don’t understand how people who cannot predict the weather five days in advance can predict the climate decades from now.

One of history’s painful ironies is how often people on the brink of disaster have been preoccupied with trivialities. With a nuclear Iran with intercontinental missiles looming on the horizon, our intelligentsia are preoccupied with calling achievements “privilege” and playing other word games.

Of life’s many surprises, encountering an old flame, years later, is in a class by itself.

Some people seem to think that Donald Trump has great abilities because he is a billionaire. But being born rich and getter richer is not exactly a Horatio Alger miracle.

Of all the disheartening signs of the utter ignorance of so many American college students, nothing so completely disheartened me as seeing on television a black college student who did not know what the Civil War was about. Fifty years ago, it would have been virtually impossible to find a black adult, with even an elementary school education, who did not know what the Civil War was about.

Global warming, due to greenhouse gasses, is the latest in a long series of one-factor theories about a multi-factor world. Such theories have often enjoyed great popularity, despite how often they have turned out to be wrong.

One of the most richly rewarded skills in politics is the ability to make self-interest sound like idealism. Nowhere is this tactic more successful than in so-called “campaign finance reform” laws — spending restrictions that prevent challenger candidates from buying enough publicity to offset the free publicity that incumbents get from the media.

At one time, it seemed as if the free world had defeated the world of totalitarian dictatorships twice — first the Nazis and then the Communists. But, with the slow but steady expansion of government control over our lives and the spread of the idea that people who deny “climate change” should be punished as criminals, it seems as if totalitarianism may be winning, after all.

People who want to redistribute wealth often misunderstand the nature and causes of wealth. Tangible wealth can be confiscated, but you cannot confiscate the knowledge which produced that wealth. Countries that confiscated the wealth of some groups and expelled them, destitute, have often seen the economy collapse, while the expelled people became prosperous again elsewhere.

Some people think that Ted Cruz would not have as good a chance against Hillary Clinton as would Donald Trump. They say that Cruz does not have a sparkling style of speaking. But, after months of hearing childish insults from Trump, the public may be ready for some serious adult talk by someone with substance, who can cut right through Hillary’s shallow evasions.

To me, beautiful music is whatever music makes you glad to be a human being, whether it is “Musetta’s Waltz” from “La Boheme” or “Muskrat Ramble” from New Orleans. Much of what passes for music today makes me wish that, if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I can come back as a dolphin.

Republican leaders seem to be worried that Donald Trump will get the nomination and lose the election. Those of us who are not Republicans should worry that Trump will get the nomination and win the election. After all, the fate of the country is a lot more important than the fate of a political party — and in far greater danger.

As this country continues to degenerate, we hope that it never reaches the desperate stage where only a military coup can rescue it from catastrophes created by feckless politicians. But, if that day ever arrives, we can only hope that the military will do their duty and step in. It is one of the few institutions dedicated to something besides individual self-interest.
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Random thoughts from Thomas Sowell: One of

World

Russia Signals Shift in the Fight

Eastern-Ukraine-Russian-Troops

Russian troops on the eastern front continue low-intensity military operations against Ukraine. (Photo: Max Black/AP)

Russia has pulled some jet aircraft out of Syria, but has replaced them with high performance helicopters, signaling a shift in the fight to more close-in operations. As the tempo of Russian operations in Syria draws down, the situation in East Ukraine is flaring as the Kremlin is possibly placing a greater emphasis on the Novorossiya theater of operations.

The Ukrainian government reported that three servicemen were killed and seven injured over the Orthodox Easter weekend in spite of a truce negotiated for the religious holiday in advance. Pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk said their lines had been shelled over 160 times by government forces during the same period.

Perhaps Moscow sees an opening to push its agenda in the East as the government in Kyiv fails in fighting corruption and struggles to maintain an effective government, angering their Western benefactors in the process. The Kremlin most likely smells weakness in the Ukrainian position and may attempt to cement further gains with its mercenary army in Novorossiya.

Recently concluded talks in Minsk, aimed at restarting the ceasefire, seem to have failed as fighting continues to flare. The real question will be if heavy weapons are once again brought to the front lines on both sides with an accompanying uptick in large-scale operations. In the meantime, the civilian population in Donbass continues to suffer. The conflict in East Ukraine has now claimed more than 9,300 lives since it started in 2014.

(H/T Threat Assessment via The Washington Times)

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Russia has pulled some jet aircraft out

People's Pundit Daily
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