Monday Musings

Monday Musings

         As usual, 15 minutes of GMA is ammo for the day. Let's get the best out of the way first. After the homage paid Beyoncé, Rihanna and Britney (doesn't anyone have two names anymore?), the voiceover announced that some guy named Kanye went on a 12 minute rant. Cut to the video of Mr. West, college educated and supposedly very bright; just ask him! West, the son of a PhD English professor, and himself an English major in college, starts with "I'mma talk..." At which point ABC thankfully cut away, sparing us yet another wasted 12 minutes of West's hot, bloviating, self absorbed rhetoric. I'm going into shaky ground now, but...

       I had several African American colleagues during my 20 years of High school teaching post Navy. One  was a charming woman  who taught World History, another was an administrator. Two others, both  male, taught  biology and US History.  One thing they all had in common was that no one had ever convinced them that speaking standard English was to be avoided because it was "Acting White."

       They perceived the reality of success in any occupation which has a public interface which is that, regardless of background, ethnicity or geographical origins, standard English, like it or not, remains the  language of successful business, education and public endeavor in this country. One of the hardest biases for me to overcome is  the internal  "shitkicker"  alarm which sounds every time I hear  mush mouthed, Southern, mangled pronunciation and syntax of someone like, say the entire cast of Duck Dynasty. Similarly, I have attempted over the years to rid myself of the trashy western Maryland  jargon I heard growing up, albeit never at home.  In fact, in two miserable years in Frostburg Md. I almost came to believe that the "th" digraph had been repealed. "Like that" in Western Marylandese somehow became "Like at dare". One might "Go downa crick, jump the bob war fence and start a far!"  One could go "over air," "down air" etc.  

        When speaking in any public setting, those of us raised with that idiom who know better don't speak like that, lest we be deemed uneducated rubes. Mr. West, on the other hand, almost assuredly reverts to mush mouth slang in public  intentionally, attempting to convince  others of his creds as a street- wise guy. The fact that he's almost invariably rude and inappropriate needs no proof, res ipsa  loquitur.  Quite the opposite, he actually went to grammar school in Nanjing China where his mother was a full professor. He followed that with a college scholarship, which he abandoned in favor of hip-hop, an occupation which seems to revolve around the concept of "How much can I shade/disrespect others without getting shot?"

  

         So, back to the beginning. English isn't a white language, regardless of origins. It's the international language of business and commerce. Ask my British Indian friend, Arti Kumar, PhD. OBE. She is neither Caucasian or British by birth . Ask Bishop Desmond Tutu. Ask the black citizens  of any number of African nations. Also ask the friends I referred to at the onset, who also get it. Better yet ask the POTUS and First Lady of the United States. Then, Mr. West, why not make a positive difference by setting a decent example of public behavior! One shoot from the hip, mouth off before thinking, appeal to the worst of human nature,  a la Donald Trump is already one too many.

                Next was a brief blurb in the continuing saga of the Epi-pen. In today's WTF? moment, Mylan Pharma  announced that it will manufacture a generic equivalent of the product at about half the price. Whaaaat?  One supposes that this might calm the furor over the huge price increase for the on-brand model. What Mylan obviously hopes will "slip under the radar" here, is that it avoids the precedent of a major drug manufacturer having to admit its own greed and reduce an outrageously increased  brand name price due to public opinion.

        Meanwhile, Mylan obviously believes that enough doctors will continue prescribing by brand name that the $600 dollar  Epi-pen will continue  selling at the new extortionate pricing. MDs are as much to blame as Mylan in a sense, because both the Adrenaclik and the also available generic epinephrine auto injector  provide the exact same dose of the exact same drug for a fraction of the cost. In the UK, branded Epi-pens that sell for over $600 in the US, cost $117 ! Remember, this is simply a device to deliver about $1.00 worth of a generic medication, no more, no less.

       When Mylan CEO, Heather Bresch  produces her myriad lame excuses for the recent price hike, she essentially says it shouldn't matter, because in Breschworld, everyone has insurance and low co-pays for drugs.  The flawed concept that drug prices don't matter because of insurance ignores the fact that insurance rates increase as the insurer's costs do. Of course in the real world, Medicare and Medicaid are forbidden by a 2006 law from  negotiating or paying reduced prices for prescription drugs, so we taxpayers will continue buying the $600 version.

        And finally:

        In one of myriad lies promulgated and sponsored by the Rick Scott led Trump Super PAC, the claim is made that "In Hillary Clinton's America... (I didn't know it was hers!) -illegal immigrants will get Social Security and jump to the head of the line."

            Not so, for several reasons. First, if the Dream Act were to be enacted (it isn't and is on hold by federal court decision) the only former "illegals" who would be eligible for anything would be persons who had already paid into Social Security. As of today, these workers are paying into the system, if their employers are honest, and as long as they remain undocumented they will get nothing back.

       Second the "head of the line" statement is simply wrong. There is not, nor has there ever been any such provision or suggestion.

        Finally, neither the "Dream Act" or any other legislation, pending or otherwise has Mrs. Clinton's imprimateur.

        In summary, this scurrilous bundle of lies was promulgated under the leadership and  nominal supervision of the most successful Medicare scammer not currently in federal custody, Rick Scott.

That's correct, the same Fl Governor  Rick Scott whose wife Ann has a huge (muti million dollar) investment in Mosquito Control Services LLC of Metairie, LA.. In a remarkable coincidence, guess who we Floridians are paying to combat Zika? I guess no one in Florida needs the work? I mean, Scott brags about job creation, doesn't he?  In a related story, Scott's revocable trust (nominally under his wife's control) has a controlling interest in Solanta, a Florida network of walk in urgent care clinics, such as might be used to vaccinate against Zika when/should  such a vaccine become available? Of course he and the woman he shares a bed with (yuck. Sleep with Voldemort?) never discuss such issues, as that would be wrong!

        Also, under Scott, state-aid to mosquito control programs was reduced 40 percent, from $2.16 million to $1.29 million in 2011. Scott  ignored pleas, even from fellow Republicans, that same year when he cut a special $500,000 appropriation for the Public Health Entomology Research and Education Lab in Panama City Beach, which had been founded in 1964.

        Called PHEREC, the center was simply known as “the mosquito lab.” Already wounded by budget cuts, the lab effectively closed. Its pesticide research shut down. Scientists lost their jobs, causing the state to lose half of its mosquito researchers. This decision was decried by scientists and legislators of both parties, and they were right to do so. So now Scott lambasts the Federal Government for their efforts in dealing with a mess which might not have existed except for his (Scott's) actions.  Perhaps Rick Scott should concentrate on doing his job in Florida rather than  fictionalizing campaign propaganda .