The 47th Presidency may ‘usher in’ a Golden Age if we’re lucky. But it will take twenty years of sanity to bring the nation to “normal” or possibly “above average.” It will be a “long march.”
Bullet Points:
** Those with TDS definitely do not want to usher in a Golden Age. A graphic note on how things are changing is located to the right –>
** Golden Age or the Golden Years? Something different?
** How did 80,000 Somalis end up in Minneapolis, MN? Could we send them back?
** Sparticus speaks.
** At the boat ramp – with EdB.
** “We don’t need no man.” – obviously.
** Do you like Texas Twinkies? Easy carnitas – a recipe that even you can follow to elevate Taco Tuesday. Where has cooking with LSP gone? I miss it. All we’re seeing at the Hillsboro compound these days is LSP shooting paper targets. Not a single Taco Tuesday.
** Not that far from the White Wolf Mine – there is Cottonwood Creek – and Slide Rock State Park. It’s where my grandchildren like to spend the day. That and the Salt River inner tube float.
** Sometimes it’s good to return to your roots – to figure out who you are in your journey of discovery…even if it means you end up at the cackling hyena.
Neuralink
Audrey Crews, who has been paralyzed for more than 20 years, has made history by becoming the first woman to receive Neuralink’s brain chip implant, developed by Elon Musk’s company. In a groundbreaking moment that amazed people around the world, Audrey successfully wrote her name on a laptop screen using only her thoughts, something she hadn’t done in over two decades.
The tiny chip, roughly the size of a coin, was implanted in her motor cortex during delicate brain surgery. The implant contains 128 ultra-thin threads that enable it to detect and interpret neural signals, allowing the user to control digital devices solely through brain activity.
Audrey explained that although the chip doesn’t restore physical movement, it has given her the incredible ability to interact with the world digitally. She sees the device as a life-changing tool for those with severe disabilities, offering hope, control, and new ways to communicate.
Another Neuralink trial participant, Nick Wray, has also shared positive experiences with the implant, suggesting that the technology is showing consistent success among early users. With multiple individuals now benefiting from the device, excitement continues to grow around Neuralink’s potential to transform lives.
This significant milestone marks a new era in brain-computer interface technology, restoring voice and power to those who had lost them.
Pharma
The following is from the White House Office of Communications.
REDUCING DRUG PRICES FOR AMERICANS AND TAXPAYERS:
President Donald J. Trump sent letters to leading pharmaceutical manufacturers outlining the steps they must take to lower the prices of prescription drugs in the United States to match the lowest prices offered in other developed nations (known as the most-favored-nation, or MFN, price). The steps include:
- Calling on manufacturers to provide MFN prices to every single Medicaid patient.
- Requiring manufacturers to stipulate that they will not offer other developed nations better prices for new drugs than prices provided in the United States.
- Providing manufacturers with an avenue to cut out middlemen and sell medicines directly to patients, provided they do so at a price no higher than the best price available in developed nations.
- Using trade policy to support manufacturers in raising prices internationally, provided that increased revenues abroad are reinvested directly into lowering prices for American patients and taxpayers.
The letters inform manufacturers that if they “refuse to step up,” the federal government will deploy every tool in its arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.”
Letters were sent to AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron, and Sanofi.
ENDING GLOBAL FREELOADING ON AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL INNOVATION:
President Trump is taking decisive action to rebalance a system that allows pharmaceutical manufacturers to offer low prices to other wealthy nations while charging Americans significantly higher prices.
According to recent data:
- The prices Americans pay for brand-name drugs are more than three times the price other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations pay, even after accounting for discounts manufacturers provide in the U.S.
- The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet roughly 75% of global pharmaceutical profits come from American taxpayers.
Drug manufacturers benefit from generous research subsidies and enormous healthcare spending by the U.S. Government. Instead of passing that benefit through to American consumers, drug manufacturers then discount their products abroad to gain access to foreign markets and subsidize those discounts by charging high prices in America.
Americans are subsidizing drug-manufacturer profits and foreign health systems, both in development and once the drugs are sold.
ONCE AGAIN DELIVERING ON PROMISES TO PUT AMERICAN PATIENTS FIRST:
Today’s letters are an essential step in President Trump’s efforts to secure the best deal in the world for Americans on prescription drugs.
On May 12, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled: “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients,” directing the Administration to take numerous actions to bring American drug prices in line with those paid by similar nations.
Following the Order, the Administration engaged in discussions with pharmaceutical manufacturers to achieve MFN pricing in the United States. Today’s letters indicate that industry proposals have fallen short. From this point forward, President Trump will only accept commitments from drug manufacturers that provide American families with immediate relief from vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the freeriding by European and other developed nations on American innovations.
President Trump has been relentless in his effort to address the unfair and outrageous prices Americans pay for prescription drugs:
President Trump:
“In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism abroad with skyrocketing prices at home. So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different.”
Will the Red Chinese Harvest a Lunar Bounty?
Over the summer, in a remote corner of northern China, a small space capsule touched down. What made this event important was that it was the first time any nation had brought back soil samples from the moon’s far side.
It is all part of an ambitious series of Chinese lunar missions, evidence of a new space race focused on the moon, with the US, China, and India all competing. The prize: reaching the moon’s south pole, where scientists expect to find vital minerals and water contained in permanently shadowed craters.
Rep. Bill Posey: We know there’s water on the moon from water that can make fuel. It’s also a lower-gravity liftoff pad for other space travel. Bill Posey is a Republican Congressman from Florida. He represents what’s known as the Space Coast, where the Kennedy Space Center is located. Posey: Whoever dominates space, including the moon and airspace, is going to control the destiny of the planet. We need to establish a presence on the moon to demonstrate our rights to the moon. It’s that idea of establishing rights that’s creating the rush to reach the lunar south pole. Whoever gets there first, the argument goes, can dominate and keep others out.
Many experts point to the example of the disputed islands in the South China Sea, where China has deployed troops and constructed military bases as a means of controlling the area and denying it to its rivals. If that happened at the lunar south pole, it could give China an unbeatable advantage.
NASA’s chief Bill Nelson is seriously concerned about China’s plans, and he’s been sounding the alarm for several years.
Bill Nelson: If there’s water, there’s rocket fuel, hydrogen, and oxygen. When the Chinese get there, there’s always the possibility that they say, “You stay out. This is our exclusive zone.”
Professor Everett Dolman teaches space strategy at Johns Hopkins University and the US Air Force Air War College. He’s also a veteran of the National Security Agency.
Everett Dolman: The Chinese have done something that, in retrospect, seems quite obvious but was not talked about very much in prospect. They have decided to put a research base on the south pole of the moon. This will be a scientific research base, not a military base. Still, it does allow them to establish a zone around the base that no one else can occupy, as it would interfere with their scientific experiments.
The United States also plans to build a base near the moon’s south pole, but delays have beset NASA’s Artemis program, while China’s mission schedule seems to be on track for now.
Dolman: For the Chinese, their entire space program, commercial, civil, and military are all under the People’s Liberation Army; there is no distinction, and the Chinese have also said, and the Russians have also said that if you can control space, you can control the destiny of the future, you control all of humankind. And so the stakes could not be higher.
China’s next two missions to the moon are already planned and scheduled, meaning the race to the moon’s resources is well underway.
And yes, I’ve posted this before:
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
Two graphics – It flew and was crewed, but might be a tough ID
3
Parting Shot
End
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Performance Garrett Turbine Legend
2. MiG-105
3. CASA CN-235
Excellent
Big Pharm would have a lot of room to lower prices if they’d stop advertising to consumers.
They could stop television advertising and redirect those funds to other purposes. RFK Jr wants that. I see 1st Amendment issues.
For years we restricted doctor, lawyer and pharma advertising (as well as hard liquor) on broadcast tv.
There was no issue.
Now look where we are.
I’ve heard that there is no revenue stream generated from the pharma ads.
They are a payoff to the networks to keep them from reporting on pharma.
Remind me. What is broadcast tv?
There are only pharma and ShamWow ads on Fox.
X10 ALL…no more Loy-Yer or Pharma ads on all public media. If they won’t eliminate then go pre-Rockefeller era and include home remedies (for the loy-yer aspect…use yer imagination on what a ‘home remedy’ looks like).
“Texas Twinkies”- aka locally as “Rectum Rockets”.
They keep the baffles clear.
No Metamucil required.
I’m amazed at the things I learn here…..
Regarding pharmaceutical costs.
I am on an oral chemo, after a week of oral and IV chemo initially.
I’m on day 21 of 28.
I am no longer on a hydration drip or any IV.
They draw blood daily and give me an oral chemo pill (Venetoclax) and a number of anti biotics/fungals/virals.
This could now be done outpatient.
Since last Tuesday.
A process was initiated to have the Venetoclax delivered to my house along with the others.
Then the negotiations began.
The hospital pharmacy can offer me the Venetoclax on an in-patient but NOT an out-patient basis.
My stay in the hospital is paid for by the insurance similar to an all-inclusive resort. Meals lodging, nursing, pharma, tests, etc. at one negotiated price.
When I go home, the meds are itemized and then it’s to be decided what is needed or paid for.
I submitted forms to the hospital to fill out for my insurance which they did and returned to the insurance.
The outpatient pharmacy for the chemo is in Indiana, part of the hospital system.
I was told they could not fulfill the Venetoclax until I was discharged and home an out-patient.
I cannot go home without the chemo being there.
Catch-22.
I was told that if the pharmacy calls, tell them I am home. Well, this has become a home away from home.
Each day I awaited the call.
It came Thursday.
It seems my insurance will not pay for the Chemo until I register with something called SaveonSP (https://www.saveonsp.com/).
My insurance did not tell me that, they told the pharmacy who relayed it to me.
I registered with SaveonSP over the phone and after a half hour of that, I was told I was approved.
My cost (copay) would be $4300, not applicable to my annual deductible ($5000)!
And this might be a repeating charge for the next chemo cycle of 29 days at home.
If that was the case, it would be cheaper for me to stay in the hospital under the all inclusive resort setup.
SaveonSP then told me that I should register with the manufacturer, as they offered a copay assistance plan, which only worked under certain circumstances (private insurance plus Medicare part A only). They gave me the phone number assuring me I qualified.
I spent the next half hour registering with that program on the phone. There were websites for this, but nobody told me that at the time.
At the end of that phone call I was told I was denied the copay rebate. They gave me a reference number and told me to contact SaveonSP again.
I did and I was told they had never heard of anyone being rejected like that and to call the copay assistance again.
I did and got someone else who started the process all over until I said that I had a reference number.
She looked it up and said that I had NOT been denied, but that my case was pending.
They needed my oncologist to call them.
I have so many doctors introducing themselves as my oncologist on a rotating basis, I was at a loss.
I think that was the crux of the denial/pending issue.
My main point of contact has been a great PA throughout this process.
I talked to her on Friday and asked her to make the call.
She wasn’t sure she was the person to make the call, but couldn’t figure out who was.
So she finally did.
After that, the outpatient pharmacy called me and asked me some questions.
I told them the Catch-22 I was in and they didn’t care where I was. No Catch-22.
They told me the copay assistance was approved and that they were ordering the meds to be shipped to their Indiana office which would then ship them to my house.
They may be there Tuesday and then I can go home a week early.
That wasn’t too complicated, was it?
That $4300 copay covered about 14 tablets. What the heck was the full price?
Enough that the manufacturer could write off the $4300.
We have seen the photos. We know the pills work.
😳
Call a DVM supplier, same products for 1/10 the price as many were developed first for animals. Seriously true.*
*See “get Big Pharma out of our lives” above…and no, Ivermectin isn’t JUST horse liquid/paste dewormer (which would wreck your gut).] But your hospital stay/billing is to cover for a lot of those Minnesota Somali “refugees” (one of which looks like the Captain Phillips pirate who’s now running for mayor).
Our dog’s heartworm medicine is mostly Ivermectin, with a few of the other “Oh, NO! That won’t work on humans” meds in it.
Get well soon.
*
Since they’re doing all that blood work ask them to check your vitamin A, C , D, B12, selenium, zinc, folate and iron… hard to get better unless you have enough of them. Especially vitamin D… critical… plus, if they prescribe the vitamins… which they can… your cost for them should decrease a lot.
Sun…the best healer (in measured amounts of course).
I get out in the sun as much as I can. Vitamin D.
Thanks.
I can’t ask for specific test, but I am a regular imbiber of those vitamins and supplements.
I’ve gone through a very similar process to obtain the several meds for my problem(s?).
The gal I married over 50 years ago worked in these fields; I sicced her onto these not-high-school-graduates who now have important jobs as “administrators”; she also speaks medical, as well as insurance, quite fluently.
It took her several days, but I now have the situation I wanted at zero cost to me.
I told her she should advertise and work at what she loves best; she didn’t speak to me for several days thereafter..
Sounds like she is enjoying retirement…
Back in 2009 hubby went on dialysis 3 days a week. First bill I received was for 30 day and the total was $79,000.00. Looked at bill then hubby and said I’m sorry but you are going to die. He agreed but asked why now. Showed him the bill and we just looked at each other with tears. We were not multi millionaires. The center for the treatment had forgotten to tell us that the Kidney Foundation paid 100% of all treatments given. It’s now where my contributions go.
Oh, and Star fruit will kill a dialysis patient.
Thank you for that, Liloldlady.
The story on the Chinese attempting to get to the lunar south pole and take exclusive control is still true, AFAIK, but it’s probably a year old, or thereabouts. Congressman Bill Posey retired abruptly at the end of last year and Bill Nelson resigned as NASA administrator close to Trump’s election. The big, big, problem is Artemis and especially the SLS. With the cost of that rocket at over $4 Billion **per launch** it’s killing any chance we have of competing with the Chinese. One launch per year just doesn’t get it done.
~~
All of Artemis is just a giant Fustercluck designed to harvest as much taxpayer money as possible. Parts of the plan for Artemis are apparently only there to get more tax money – the orbiting “Lunar Gateway” (call it a space station) is the big one. Compare that $4 Billion per launch to a Falcon Heavy. A FH can only lift 2/3 of what the SLS can launch, so you need two FH launches. But TWO Falcon Heavy launches will cost about $300 million. Less than 1/10 of what one SLS launch costs.
~~
The people who came up with Artemis need to be gotten rid of.
Yes, it’s an old(er) story that has been hashed and rehashed. Mia culpa on that.
Neuralink: Visions of Star Trek…whereas Dad’s admonition said “Things are rarely invented, but are usually reworked/redesigned older ideas with newer technologies.”
Later he got hypoglycemia – business stress. Called me at the office (like, 1996) and says “By the end of the week I’m running out of fingers to check my blood, this seems so antiquated, isn’t there a noninvasive way to check blood sugar you could develop?” Did the research…not much out there, not even from my client at Medtronic. Best I saw was an MIT study using a small MRI to check sugar levels in peaches. Now…we have a dang App connected to a Smart Watch.
***
Boat-Pickup Launch: This is why I never congregate in too many public spaces, and that wasn’t a one-off, happens all the time – as showcased here dang near daily. The slide area looks nice, but only on a weekday, otherwise too crowded for my sensitivities of voluntarily being “out there among the English”.
***
Parting Shot: Five bucks PDJT still has plans for Gaz-A-Largo…which is a much better use of that ‘strip of contention’ and a made-up “country”. Ocean front, sandy beaches, nice weather…pre-dug infrastructure tunnel system and a free bridge for the taking…what else could you ask for?
There’s a lot of unemployed Gazans.
…ready [apparently] to do those jobs us whitebread folks won’t.* Win, win.
*For the record, I have done more gnarly jobs in my youth and adulthood than many people, and unafraid to get dirty (still). Guessing, anyone in the military, or who grew up in rural areas, or were serious about learning from the bottom up, did the same.
Yup. I had grease under my fingernails, and gasoline in my veins! Favorite quite from a girlfriend: “Gee….You clean-up real nice!”…..
I’m enjoying the Golden Age. Very much.
Have a fabulous day and week. :)
“Dolman: For the Chinese, their entire space program, commercial, civil, and military are all under the People’s Liberation Army; there is no distinction, and the Chinese have also said, and the Russians have also said that if you can control space, you can control the destiny of the future, you control all of humankind. And so the stakes could not be higher.”
Even Robert Heinlein said that who ever controls space/the Moon can control the earth!
X2
I wonder if Musk could get us a base on the moon faster than NASA? I know Musk has his sights set on Mars and NASA/the legacy space companies have their sights on a Moon base but they will only do it on a “cost plus” basis [wink wink] just like it’s always been done…
Someone ought to ask Mr Musk if he’d take this project on, (as a separate one from his own goal). We really do need to get there first..
Somalis in Minnesota – I remember a site that, early on, was quite happy about the open-mindedness being shown to the invaders. Once their nature started to become apparent, said site disappeared.
As one would expect, they’re odious guests.
Yep, love “Texas Twinkies”, and so do most of our group! Re the Chicoms and moon ‘dirt’, it’s VERY abrasive! No wind/movement to ‘grind it smooth’, so it is very rough, more like 40 grit sandpaper. And yes, Pharma is crooked as hell from top to bottom! What Ed ran into is typical, as most insurers do that knowing people will give up rather than follow through.
My Dear LL,
I’m all in favor of El Jefe 47 but how can we have a Golden Age without a return to fiscal sanity? As in GOLD STANDARD. Leftists look at me when I say this and shriek and sneer. That in mind, perhaps we’ll pull a Weimar Hitlerian reset and simply issue a new, Trumpian, Dollar? Maybe that’ll be backed by something real, like precious metal.
Do forgive rambling, destroy all enemies,
LSP
There is not enough precious metal (or whiskey in Texas) to cover the US National Debt (see debt clock).
OK, Cooking With LSP. Back by demand.
Finally. I shouldn’t have to threaten.