Quick Hits for 8/24/16

I should actually title this Two Greedy's and a Jerk.

Warning, I'm going to use a bad word or two towards the end of this post.

• The country is moving away from for profit run prisons, because (SHOCK!) they run far less efficiently or competently than government run prisons.  When profit is your first priority...  The Corrections Corporation of America was pressing hard to try to get the state of Minnesota to use their Appleton facility in the last legislative session, but the proposal went nowhere.  The state didn't want  to work with a private prison.  Apparently CCA met with the Governor and state officials to offer the state a lease option, hence allowing the state to operate the facility with state employees and staffing levels, and presented a further option for the state to outright purchase the facility, kind of like an AMC Pacer.  The cost to lease would be 6 to 8 million a year, but if the state opted to, they could purchase the facility for 99 million dollars, this according to Republican Representative Tim Miller of Prinsburg.  The price was questioned by residents of Appleton, who pointed out the assessed property tax value on the facility was only $15 million dollars.  Tim Miller's response basically boils down to "well that's the offer."  Fiscal conservative my caboose.  The good news is Governor Dayton has said the state has zero interest in the Appleton facility, but can someone in the media ask Tim Miller why he's implying the state should even entertain the idea of paying over six times the value for the prison.  For the on going saga of the prison, Blue Stem Prairie has been coving it:  http://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestemprairie/2016/08/fairpriceforappletonprison.html

• There clearly is a new business model in the medical word, one created by greedy jackasses: buy up the rights to a product, such a medical device or pill, to a point where you control the entire market, or a substantial part of the market, and then inflate the cost of the product hundreds of percent, raking in tons of money.  Think 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli who took a life saving drug to treat toxoplasmosis and raised the cost 5500%, just so he could light cigars with 100's and finally fulfill his life goal of being scum of the earth.  This must be an actual business model.  Meet Mylan Pharmaceuticals CEO Heather Bresch, 'Pharma Gal.'  The company cornered the market on EpiPens, the life saving devices which save people with serious allergies.  EpiPens are a necessity if you have violent reactions to allergies, particularly food allergies.  Heather looked at EpiPens, and must have said, "How much would the pathetic masses be willing to pay to keep breathing?"  The price of them has gone from $56 in 07, to $317 last year. Consequently, Heather has increased her salary from $2 million to $18 million in the same time frame. I don't know what's more tragic; the fact people have likely died because they couldn't afford the cost of an EpiPen to treat their severe allergic reaction, or that there are other greedy jackasses who are trying to figure out a way to corner the market on a different life saving drug.  The EpiPen fiasco has got people's attention, including Rep. Tim Miller's opponent for 17A, former Representative Andrew Falk, and MN Senator Amy Klobuchar is calling for an investigation on Mylan's price gouging.  http://usuncut.com/class-war/pharma-ceo-epipen/

• Finally, we had another case of a conservative reading a parody/satire news story, thinking it's true, going off on an unhinged, deranged rant, and then having reality smack them in the face like a two by four.  Let me introduce Neal Larson, an incredibly stupid, right wing idiot from Idaho, a proud graduate from Idaho State University (Go Fighting Dysentery's), who not only has a far righto radio talk show, but also a newspaper column.  He took on Neil deGrasse Tyson, the incredibly intelligent astrophysicist, because of a parody story Larson thought was real, even going as far as to personally insult deGrasse Tyson with cheap shots (Hey! Insulting people with cheap shots and salty language is my gig!).  I don't want to give Mr. Larson any more credit, or story clicks, than he's already received.  Trust me, he's dumb, beyond dumb, to think this fake story was real, and to not do basic research to see if the story was real.  deGrasse Tyson penned a very eloquent response, far more than Larson deserved, where he counterpointed every one of Larson's ignorant claims, and pointed out the basis of Larson's story was a made up parody piece.  Let me take a moment:  There's no win for Larson on this.  He just got bare bones exposed for being a jackass.  He should take his shame and wear it.  The only thing he can do to save face is to profusely apologize, and appreciate how gentle deGrasse Tyson's smack down was.  But then again, the modern conservative's a**holery knows no limits.  This morning Neal Larson admitted on Twitter he used a fake news story, and IMPLIED he made a deep apology.  The link for his 'apology' was a story of another anti-Neil deGrasse Tyson story from The Federalist.  No apology, so Larson's a liar, and clearly Idaho State University's degree programs suck!  Larson opted to try to find a path where he could attempt to claim victory, when there was no path to victory for him.  I don't need Neil deGrasse Tyson's intelligence to make a final conclusion on Neal Larson; he's a d!ck.