Eric Trump claims the safe at Mar a Lago was empty. From the search return = eric trump safe was empty it does not look as if mainstream outlets are early return list publishers of the info.
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DWS throws apt cold water of the bill the Senate passed, awaiting House passage, including this opeining graphic -
From the DWT text -
To put it bluntly, the drug-price victory that Democrats are celebrating is far less than it seems. Here's a handy summary from The Hill of the contents of the bill. This is about its health care provisions:
Medicare can negotiate lower prices.The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some drugs for the first time, a policy Democrats have been trying to enact for years over the fierce objections of the pharmaceutical industry. The provisions save more than $200 billion over 10 years.• It would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for 10 high-cost drugs beginning in 2026, ramping up to 20 drugs by 2029. There is a steep penalty if a drug company doesn’t come to the table: a tax of up to 95 percent of the sales of the drug. There is also a ceiling that the negotiated price cannot rise above.• In a deal with moderates including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), only older drugs are subject to negotiation after a period of nine years for most drugs and 13 years for more complex “biologic” drugs. That means the negotiations are more limited than many Democrats wanted.So Medicare can negotiate lower prices:
But for 10 drugs only … starting four years from now
Followed by 10 more drugs only … starting three years after that
Meanwhile, more than 20,000 prescription drugs are marketed and sold in the U.S. At the rate of 10 new drugs covered every three or four years, let’s see … carry the four … you’ll be dead before less than 1% of them are price-controlled. Call that a win for the industry.
Add to that the sweet deal Sen. Sinema cut for her clients (sorry, friends in rich places), sweet because “older drugs” (like insulin) and “biologics” (like Humira and Eliquis) are where the real money is.
Humira, an arthritis medication, can be had “with coupon” for as little as $6,300 per carton of two pens, down from $9,200 retail.
Eliquis, a blood clot and stroke preventative, can be had for as little as $510 for 60 tablets. As a maintenance drug, that’s about 10 days’ worth.
None of those prices will be coming down ever under this agreement, if “ever” means after most of those who need the relief are dead.
The climate provisions of the IRA bill are another discussion. [...]
Yes, tepid measures given much shouting. Yet Bernie is correct, it is a starting step in a correct direction, and revisiting things to better "reform" can be pushed later.
That Warren eschewed all of Bernie's proposed amendments shows a team player when the chips are down.
Bernie tried. And in the end voted yes. The vote was needed. And he defends it as an easy vote. And it is cause to push GOTV to better the people's chances in the upcoming election. For the future.
This image from atop CommonDreams coverage says much - about the process, about the outcome, about reality in DC. It is Sisyphus pushing big rock, steep long hill.
Tom Waits lyrics -
[...] I'm diggin all the way to China
With a silver spoon
While the hangman fumbles with the noose, boys
The hangman fumbles with the noose
(Chorus)
Pin your ear to the wisdom post
Pin your eye to the line
Never let the weeds get higher
than the garden
Always keep a sapphire in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
(Chorus)
From here. [Expand the upload box under the video display.]
Bottom line: Always keep a diamond in your mind.
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FURTHER: Latest Strib/AP item re FBI - Mar a Lago:
All Garland has said publicly is that "no one is above the law."
FBI agents descended on Trump's shuttered-for-the-season home — he was in New York, a thousand or so miles away — with search warrants.
[...] Justice Department spokesperson Dena Iverson declined to comment on the search, including whether Garland had personally authorized it. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the West Wing first learned of the search from public media reports and the White House had not been briefed in the run-up or aftermath.
Jean-Pierre refused to say whether Biden wanted the attorney general to explain publicly the rationale for the search amid the concerns about politicization of the probe.
"The Justice Department conducts investigations independently and we leave any law enforcement matters to them," she said. "We are not involved."
There is nothing on whitehouse.gov about the FBI or DOJ or Trump or Mar a Lago.