text:
Mylan to Bring a Biosimilar of BOTOX to the Market Through a Collaboration and License agreement with Revance Therapeutics
HERTFORDSHIRE, England and PITTSBURGH, and NEWARK, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mylan N.V. (NASDAQ: MYL) and Revance Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: RVNC) today announced a global collaboration and license agreement for the development and commercialization of a proposed biosimilar to BOTOX® (onabotulinumtoxinA). BOTOX is the market-leading neuromodulator approved for the treatment of multiple indications and usage in the United States with additional approvals globally. The addition of this product further solidifies Mylan's long term commitment to the development and commercialization of biosimilars and complex products globally.
"This will be a significant opportunity for Mylan as we add another difficult-to-manufacture product to our pipeline. We have reviewed the work done to date by Revance and we are extremely excited and confident about our ability to bring this important product to market. Bringing an affordable biosimilar version of BOTOX to commercialization will offer patients a safe alternative to this popular and highly effective treatment," commented Mylan President Rajiv Malik. "Mylan is pleased to partner with Revance in the global collaboration, and share our scientific, regulatory and manufacturing capabilities and commercialization expertise. Our global platform enables investing in worldwide R&D collaborations for hard to make products that will benefit patients across the globe."
The companies plan to work together to gain regulatory approval in the development of this important biosimilar product, and commercialize this product in the U.S., Europe and applicable markets throughout the rest of the world. The collaboration includes an upfront payment of $25 million to Revance, with contingent milestone payments upon achievement of additional clinical, regulatory and sales targets, plus sales royalties in all relevant markets.
"Global neuromodulator sales today are estimated at $4 billion and forecasted to grow steadily, exceeding $7 billion by 2024*. Strategically, this partnership with Mylan allows Revance to remain focused on the development and launch of our own premium, long-acting RT002 neuromodulator, while also benefitting financially from potential future milestones and sales royalties on a short-acting biosimilar to BOTOX," said Dan Browne, President and Chief Executive Officer of Revance Therapeutics. "We believe Mylan is the ideal partner to co-develop, seek regulatory approval and market a biosimilar to BOTOX, due to its significant expertise in the field and its global commercial infrastructure."
About Mylan N.V.
Forward Looking Statement for Mylan N.V.
This press release includes statements that constitute "forward-looking statements", including with regard to: that Mylan will bring a biosimilar of BOTOX to the market through a collaboration and license agreement with Revance Therapeutics; that the addition of this complex product further solidifies Mylan's long term commitment to the development and commercialization of biosimilar and complex products globally; that this will be a significant opportunity for Mylan as we add another difficult-to-manufacture product to our pipeline; that we have reviewed the work done to date by Revance and we are extremely excited and confident about our ability to bring this important product to market; that bringing an affordable biosimilar version of BOTOX to commercialization will offer patients a safe alternative to this popular and highly-effective treatment; that Mylan is pleased to partner with Revance in the global collaboration and share its scientific, regulatory and manufacturing capabilities and commercialization expertise; that our global platform enables investing in worldwide R&D collaborations for hard to make products that will benefit patients across the globe; and that the companies plan to advance the regulatory approval in the development of this important biosimilar product, and commercialize this product in the U.S., Europe and applicable markets throughout the rest of the world; that global neuromodulator sales today are estimated at $4 billion and forecasted to grow steadily, exceeding $7 billion by 2024. These statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because such statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties, actual future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: success of clinical trials and our or our partners' ability to execute on new product opportunities; any regulatory, legal or other impediments to our or our partners' ability to bring products to market; other risks inherent in product development; the scope, timing, and outcome of any ongoing legal proceedings, including government investigations, and the impact of any such proceedings on our or our partners' businesses; actions and decisions of healthcare and pharmaceutical regulators, and changes in healthcare and pharmaceutical laws and regulations, in the United States and abroad; the impact of competition; strategies by competitors or other third parties to delay or prevent product introductions; the effect of any changes in our or our partners' customer and supplier relationships and customer purchasing patterns; any other changes in third-party relationships; changes in the economic and financial conditions of the businesses of Mylan or its partners; uncertainties and matters beyond the control of management; and the other risks detailed in Mylan's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mylan undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.
About Revance Therapeutics, Inc.
Revance Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing neuromodulators for use in treating aesthetic and underserved therapeutic conditions, including muscle movement disorders and pain. The company's lead drug candidate, DaxibotulinumtoxinA for Injection (RT002), is currently in development for the treatment of glabellar lines, cervical dystonia and plantar fasciitis, with the potential to be the first long-acting neuromodulator. Revance has developed a proprietary, stabilizing excipient peptide technology designed to create novel, differentiated therapies. The company has a comprehensive pipeline based upon its peptide technology, including injectable and topical formulations of daxibotulinumtoxinA. More information on Revance may be found at www.revance.com.
"Revance Therapeutics" and the Revance logo are registered trademarks of Revance Therapeutics, Inc.
BOTOX® is a registered trademark of Allergan, Inc.
*Sales estimates based on GIA Jan 2018 Report: Botulinum Toxin – A Global Strategic Business Report
Forward Looking Statement for Revance Therapeutics, Inc.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements related to our business strategy, timeline and other goals and market for our anticipated products, plans and prospects; statements about our ability to obtain regulatory approval; and statements about potential benefits of our drug product candidates and our technologies.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome, cost, and timing of our product development activities and clinical trials; the uncertain clinical development process; our ability to obtain funding for our operations; our plans to research, develop, and commercialize our drug product candidates; our ability to achieve market acceptance of our drug product candidates; unanticipated costs or delays in research, development, and commercialization efforts; the applicability of clinical study results to actual outcomes; the size and growth potential of the markets for our drug product candidates; our ability to successfully commercialize our drug product candidates and the timing of commercialization activities; the rate and degree of market acceptance of our drug product candidates; our ability to develop sales and marketing capabilities; the accuracy of our estimates regarding expenses, future revenues, capital requirements and needs for financing; our ability to continue obtaining and maintaining intellectual property protection for our drug product candidates; and other risks. Detailed information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by statements in this press release may be found in Revance's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including factors described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" of our quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed November 3, 2017. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Revance disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mylan-to-bring-a-biosimilar-of-botox-to-the-market-through-a-collaboration-and-license-agreement-with-revance-therapeutics-300606109.html
SOURCE Mylan N.V.; Revance Therapeutics, Inc.
For further information: Mylan Contact, Lauren Kashtan(Media), 724.514.1968; Melissa Trombetta (Investors), 724.514.1813; Revance Investor Contact: Jeanie Herbert, 714.325.3584, jherbert@revance.com; Revance Media Contact: Mariann Caprino, 917.242.1087, m.caprino@togorun.com


text:
Category: Zombie Reaganism
Raging against the Machine
Jyoti [the writer's wife] was a psychiatrist who earned actual money. But psychiatry was killing her, her role was not to cure people but to medicate them, to stick plasters on the wounds the Machine had gouged into the people at the bottom of the pile. There was nothing she could do about the wounds, and they kept coming.
My culture comes, most recently, from the southeastern suburbs of England. It's a culture of hard work, of 'getting on,' of English Protestantism channeled into secular ambition. It's about settling down and having a family, contributing, progressing, climbing up; not bad things, necessarily, not for a lot of people. But it's also about selling up, moving on, about property ladders and career ladders, about staking your place on the consumer travelator that represents progress in a burning world. It's about feeding the Machine that rips up the people and rips up the places and turns them all against each other while the money funnels upwards to the people who are paying attention. This is the crap our children are learning. There is not much sign at all that the tide is turning.
The only possible opening for a statement of this kind is that I detest writing. The process itself epitomizes the European concept of 'legitimate' thinking; what is written has an importance that is denied the spoken. My culture, the Lakota culture, has an oral tradition, so I ordinarily reject writing. It is one of the white world's ways of destroying the cultures of non-European peoples, the imposing of an abstraction over the spoken relationship of a people. … Newton, for example, 'revolutionized' physics and the so-called natural sciences by reducing the physical universe to a linear mathematical equation. Descartes did the same thing with culture. John Locke did it with politics, and Adam Smith did it with economics. Each one of these 'thinkers' took a piece of the spirituality of human existence and converted it into a code, an abstraction … Each of these intellectual revolutions served to abstract the European mentality even further, to remove the wonderful complexity and spirituality from the universe and replace it with a logical sequence: one, two, three. Answer! (Quoting Russell Means)
'In Western Civilization,' says the poet Gary Snyder, 'our elders are books.' Books pass on our stories. Books carry the forbidden knowledge and the true. Books are weird things, inhuman things, abstract things, but they are gateways, at their best, to the world to which the drum and the fire and the sweat lodge used to take us. The Otherworld. At her best, the writer is a shaman, a priestess, a summoner.
Paul Kingsnorth, in Savage Gods.
Tucker in Hungary
Of Tucker Carlson in Hungary, Bill Kristol says out loud what others have been insinuating:
The New American Right is now explicitly embracing the Old European Right. Not to put to fine a point on it, the New American Right is…anti-American.
Rod Dreher is having none of it — from Kristol the rest of the Sacred Confraternity of Circle-Jerking Pundits:
Is anybody really moved by an older man calling a younger man "anti-American" because he goes to a NATO country and American ally, and speaks well of it? Isn't that, you know, nuts?
The idea that an American conservative who admires some of what Viktor Orban does, and believes, is somehow "anti-American" is not only insulting, but is a smear designed to make people believe that to be a real American, you have to endorse selling your country, its institutions, and its traditions out to globalist liberals and American hegemons willing to start wars to turn the whole world into America. Forget it. I love my country, though I don't love what it's becoming. If I can learn from the Hungarians how to better resist what the people who are ruining America are doing, then that's pro-American to me.
Which is less bad?
I would rather have honest government over dishonest government, but if I had to choose between a corrupt president who rewarded his cronies, and a president who was morally fastidious, but whose administration stopped using the word "mother" in federal documents, substituting instead "birthing people" — well, that's not a hard choice to make. A society can survive Huey P. Long; it cannot survive losing the meaning of "mother".
Rod Dreher, Why Conservatives Should Care About Hungary
The last word on Andrew Cuomo
Are you getting tired of news about Andrew Cuomo? Me too.
Peggy Noonan has the mike-drop line:
No one in New York is walking around saying "I don't believe it" or "That's not the Andrew I know." It's apparently the Andrew Cuomo a lot of people knew.
You may now resume your regularly-scheduled activities.
Another inversion, realignment
I've said since Election 2016 that a major political realignment was under way (though I said it much more in the early days, before the daily assaults from Trump became too dominant in my thoughts). Here's an emergent example:
We've come to an odd pass in American politics. The people who have the deepest suspicions about the way government works are increasingly enthusiastic about the use of government power.
Somehow, many of the same folks who say that government authorities shouldn't be trusted to make sure vaccines are safe or that elections are fairly conducted also say that we should have the government set industrial policy, regulate speech on the internet, or even engineer the size and shape of American families. How can institutions so corrupt as the ones described by right-wing nationalists be trusted with the power to administer matters far more complicated than testing vaccines or counting ballots?
Chris Stirewalt, The Contradictions of Paranoid Nationalism.
This is perhaps hyperbolic, but it is at least directionally right as to some of Rod Dreher's recent utterances, for instance:
Hungary is an important example for American conservatives in part because it compels us to recognize that the state is the only means we have left to defend ourselves from those who despise us and our institutions, and want to force us to bow to soft totalitarianism. This is a hell of a thing for an American conservative raised in the Reagan era to grasp, but that's where we are. Just as the king's role was in part to protect the people from the depredations of the nobility, in this current era of leftist capture of US institutions (including the military!), the state is the only means by which we conservatives can exercise power in our own self-defense.
Sullivan the Prophet
[Andrew Sullivan's] term "Christianist" felt like a mild slap in the face, right until the afternoon of Jan. 6, when a mob of believers stormed the Capitol on a "righteous" mission to overturn an election — with crosses in the crowd and prayers on their lips.
David French, reviewing Out on a Limb
readerjohn Culture, Damn rackets, Free-range Christians, Jeremiad, Miscellany, Patriotic Correctness, Political Matters, realignment, Sundry flakes, Zombie Reaganism August 8, 2021 5 Minutes
It's over, and Brian Carroll did not win
What I dared not hope for may happen: Biden in the White House (my preference between the two major parties) with the Senate still in Republican hands. I will not support the QAnon Georgia Republican Senate candidate, but I may try to push David Perdue over the top in the January Georgia runoff.
My struggling local newspaper, always eager for free content that will interest readers, has a panel of Rapid Responders who it periodically polls with rather open-ended questions. One of two this week was "what are your take-aways from this election?" My (50 words or fewer) response, written in a sudden burst of late-night energy:
The median American loathes Donald Trump slightly more than he/she fears The Squad and the rest of the Democrats' Left.
The Republican Workers Party is an emergent force to be reckoned with.
I stand by both.
The networks have just called the election for Joe Biden. Sic transit gloria MAGA.
The (Wall Street) Journal story is pretty incredible … but about what you would expect from a president whose mouth writes checks the rest of him can't cash. Seriously, how is it that you spend months telling your supporters that you are going to fight this in court if you have to, but then half-ass the legal prep? When the GOP went down to Florida in 2000 to wage legal war in the Bush-Gore contest, they sent the lawyer equivalent of Seal Team Six. Now? The fact that Trump doesn't take this seriously telegraphs to conservatives how seriously we should take him from now on.
Rod Dreher, MAGA Blues And Bitter Klingers | The American Conservative (emphasis added).
The one person who I won't give the benefit of the doubt to is Trump himself. He is lying. He anticipated this scenario precisely so he could lie about the election being stolen. For months he told his voters that they should vote on Election Day—and they listened to him. Meanwhile, Biden voters didn't. That's why early votes went wildly for Biden and Election Day votes went wildly for Trump. We knew this would happen. We talked about this happening. Trump knew that the early votes would be for Biden. He said in advance that he would claim victory on Election Day if he was ahead before the early votes—which were cast first but counted last in many jurisdictions—were counted. He even telegraphed that he would claim those mail and absentee votes were fraudulent. And lo and behold, that's precisely what he did. If he actually had the power to "stop the voting"—which really meant "stop the counting"—in those states, he would be guilty of the greatest example of mass voter fraud in American history. He tried—and is still trying—to commit voter fraud, and it is flatly outrageous and disgusting. He's literally the one trying to steal the election, and—as is so often the case—he's trying to do it by claiming his enemies are the guilty ones.
I could vent more. But if you can't see the incredible shame of this series of events by now, you're part of the problem.
Jonah Goldberg, Mandates, Clowns, Oh My – The G-File (emphasis added).
Just this morning, Nancy Pelosi said that Biden will have a bigger mandate than JFK. This is ridiculous for a bunch of different reasons, which I'll get to in a second. But my point here is just to note that, having said Trump didn't have much of a mandate with 306 Electoral College votes makes it much easier for me to say the same thing about Biden. If you went around yammering about how Trump had a massive mandate to do whatever he wanted, denying that Biden has a mandate is just that much harder.
As I've been saying to my Trumpy friends throughout the Trump era, think about your answer to the question: "What can the next Democratic president do that you won't be a hypocrite for criticizing?"
The moment he takes the oath of office he will have already fulfilled his core mandate: to not be Donald Trump. His second most obvious mandate will be well on its way to fulfillment the moment he starts taking Anthony Fauci's phone calls.
After that, everything else is up for negotiation …
Jonah Goldberg, Mandates, Clowns, Oh My – The G-File
Note these names as people never to trust again:
Senator Ted Cruz: "What we're seeing tonight, what we've been seeing the last three days, is outrageous. It is partisan, it is political and it is lawless. We're seeing this pattern in Democratic city after Democratic city, with the worst in the country right now is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich: "You have a group of corrupt people who have absolute contempt for the American people, who believe that we are so spineless, so cowardly, so unwilling to stand up for ourselves, that they can steal the presidency … No one should have any doubt: You are watching an effort to steal the presidency of the United States."
Senator Lindsey Graham: "The allegations of wrongdoing are earth-shattering … So Senate Republicans are going to be briefed by the Trump campaign Saturday, and every Senate Republican and House Republican needs to get on television and tell this story."
Fox News Hits a Dangerous New Low – The Atlantic
In what must surely be among the most noxious claims printed in recent years by the New York Times, he concludes that, "All of this to me points to the power of the white patriarchy and the coattail it has of those who depend on it or aspire to it. … Some people who have historically been oppressed will stand with the oppressors, and will aspire to power by proximity."
Blow's gross accusation follows "analyses" from several other writers blinded by staring incessantly through the same racial lens. Nikole Hannah-Jones of 1619-Project fame solves her conundrum by deciding that some minorities who support President Trump actually are white while The Root's Michael Harriot explains that such support is how they become white. Washington Post reporter Eugene Scott says they "support white supremacy" and his colleague Karen Attiah describes them as "going along to get along" with white supremacists as a "survival strategy." A befuddled Paul Krugman, perhaps looking backward through his binoculars, declares that he has "no idea what the true lessons are."
Turn the binoculars around, and it is easy to see a realignment of working-class voters, regardless of race, toward the party that expresses an interest in their economic concerns.
The idea of conservatives as the vindicator of workers' interests may sound strange, but only because we have forgotten what conservatism means. The market fundamentalism that we call "conservative," celebrating growth and markets without concern for their effects on family and community, and trusting that the invisible hand will invariably advance the interests of the nation, is libertarian. Conservatives are moving beyond it. And experience now suggests that, as they do, a broad-based, multi-ethnic coalition of working families could be eager to join them.
Oren Cass, A Multi-Ethnic, Working-Class Conservatism – American Compass
(I made my Rapid Response before I read this, though I was already somewhat familiar with Cass's thinking.
Bookend 1, a case for not reading or watching news.. Bookend 2, a case, essentially, that today's news environment causes acedia. Between the two stands sanity.
I could add to these C.S. Lewis, who wrote of modern news as, basically, exceeding our design specifications – a similar very point to the second bookend.
Like my other diets, I broke my news diet during th'illiction, but hope to get back on track.
I suspect Trump is going to file lawsuits so he can blame incompetent lawyers or corrupt judges for his loss instead of admitting it's on him alone.
Trump Isn't Going Anywhere
"There is nothing about him that goes gently into the night."
Peter Nicholas
That threat — that the Trumps would undermine any future presidential candidate who didn't support them in their hour of need — is only powerful if Trump himself can still draw eyeballs. Without Twitter, without the ability to get live television coverage wherever he goes, that power will be diminished. And without that power, what exactly does Trump have going for him to ensure the loyalty of ambitious Republicans?
The day the world stopped paying attention to Donald Trump
Peter Nicholas seems right, Joel Mathis too hopeful. The media have made millions if not billions off Trump, and are unlikely to un-person him if there's more to be made.
A Twitter account belonging to President Donald Trump's former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was permanently suspended late Thursday after he suggested Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert, and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded for failing to adequately back Trump.
Bannon actually said some thoughtful things in the distant past. His loss to the fever swamps, of which he was a builder, is a shame.
Blogging note: For years, I criticized the GOP for "Zombie Reaganism," a resort to the Gipper's tropes in changed times. I even created a category for it.
Say whatever else bad you will about Trump, but he was not a Zombie Reaganite, and he quickly suppressed it in the GOP. I haven't needed that category for years. We'll see if that holds with the GOP out of the White House.
And finally, one a more timeless topic:
The shift from church power to state power is not the victory of peaceable reason over irrational religious violence. The more we tell ourselves it is, the more we are capable of ignoring the violence we do in the name of reason and freedom.
William Kavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence
You can read most of my more impromptu stuff here or join me and others on micro.blog. You won't find me on Facebook any more, and I don't post on Twitter (though I do have an account for occasional gawking).
readerjohn "Spiritual" (maybe Religious), 9th Commandment Watch, alt-right, grievance mongering, irony, Journalism, Political Matters, populism, the worst are full of passionate intensity, Zombie Reaganism November 8, 2020 November 8, 2020 7 Minutes
Zombie Reaganism lives
Everyone I've read has been conceding that Trump was right about the need for NATO Countries in Europe to spend more on their own defense. It sure made sense to me.
But have we thought this through, especially those of us who appreciate that the Cold War is over?
The president's antagonism at last week's North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit was similarly destructive. Mr. Trump called out German Chancellor Angela Merkel for free-riding on the U.S. military. But NATO was formed to defend the West from the Soviets, and Mr. Trump currently is trying to make Russia an ally. While our rapproachement with Russia is long overdue, if Russia is going to become an ally somehow why should NATO increase its military spending? Shouldn't we be talking about a peace dividend instead?
Germany spends about 1.2% of gross domestic product on defense, less than the 2% target NATO adopted in 2006 and far below the 4% Mr. Trump wants. But Germany's puny spending level is owing in part to its self-conscious decision after World War II to keep its armed forces small. Does the U.S. really want to change that? NATO's first secretary general described the purpose of the alliance as keeping the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down. Mr. Trump and his supporters should seek to uphold that mission.
F.H. Buckley. Shouldn't that be on the table, especially since part of the growning populist/nationalist dissatisfaction with the EU is the perception of growing German hegemony in Europe?
I've noted under Trump a reduction of what I (following others) call Zombie Reaganism in economics. But the reflex for a robust, heavily-armed NATO qualifies, too.
Reagan was right for his historic moment. He's not right for all ages.
Mr. Buckley's larger point, reformatted:
Mr. Trump's statements and actions often are not admirable.
Honest commentary is especially needed now on the right.
Honest commentary on the right might include something stronger than "not admirable," but Mr. Buckley, author of the forthcoming The Republican Workers Party: How the Trump Victory Drove Everyone Crazy, and Why It Was Just What We Needed, got a lot right. (The telltale colon in the middle of that title marks the author as a lawyer.)
The waters are out and no human force can turn them back, but I do not see why as we go with the stream we need sing Hallelujah to the river god.
(Sir James Fitzjames Stephen)
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
(Philip K. Dick)
Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes. Where I glean stuff.
Follow me on Micro.blog, too, where I blog tweet-like shorter items and … well, it's evolving. Or, if you prefer, those micro.blog items also appear now at microblog.intellectualoid.com.
readerjohn Anodynes & Nostrums, conservatism, Political Matters, Russia, Zombie Reaganism July 19, 2018 July 19, 2018 2 Minutes
What I miss these days
After Obama's opening remarks, CEO Eric Schmidt — who would later endorse Obama and campaign for him — joined him on stage to lead a long and wide-ranging Q&A. While much of the discussion focused on predictable subjects, in the closing minutes Obama addressed a less obvious issue: the need to use technology and information to break through people's ill-founded opinions. He said that as president he wouldn't allow "special interests" to dominate public discourse, for instance in debates about health care reform, because his administration would reply with "data and facts." He added, jokingly, that "if they start running 'Harry and Louise' ads, I'll run my own ads, or I'll send out something on YouTube. I'm president and I'll be able to — I'll let them know what the facts are."
But then, joking aside, he focused squarely on the need for government to use technology to correct what he saw as a well-meaning but too often ignorant public:
You know, one of the things that you learn when you're traveling and running for president is, the American people at their core are a decent people. There's a generosity of spirit there, and there's common sense there, but it's not tapped. And mainly people — they're just misinformed, or they are too busy, they're trying to get their kids to school, they're working, they just don't have enough information, or they're not professionals at sorting out all the information that's out there, and so our political process gets skewed. But if you give them good information, their instincts are good and they will make good decisions. And the president has the bully pulpit to give them good information.
And that's what we have to return to: a government where the American people trust the information they're getting. And I'm really looking forward to doing that, because I am a big believer in reason and facts and evidence and science and feedback — everything that allows you to do what you do, that's what we should be doing in our government. [Crowd applauds.]
I want people in technology, I want innovators and engineers and scientists like yourselves, I want you helping us make policy — based on facts! Based on reason!
The moment is captured perfectly in Steven Levy's book In the Plex, where he writes of Obama: "He thought like a Googler."
Obama then invoked the famous apocryphal line of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "You are entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts." Obama finished his speech by pointing to the crucial role that Google could play in a politics based on facts:
And part of the problem that we're having … is, we constantly have a contest where facts don't matter, and I want to restore that sense of decisions being based on facts to the White House. And I think that many of you can help me, so I want you to be involved.
Adam J. White, Google.gov, The New Atlantis.
This quote is not remotely representative of the whole long article (which I commend to those hardier than me or with even more time on their hands), but it evoked in me a nostalgia for Barack Obama, who for all his flaws (I particularly rued his tone-deafness on religious liberty) had a temperament that I miss terribly these days.
But lest it be thought that I have nothing good to say about Donald Trump, I note that one of my blog categories has fallen into disuse: "Zombie Reaganism," my epithet for the prevailing Republican political posture for a decade or so.
Trump has cured the GOP of that, though I fear his cure is worse than the disease.
Place. Limits. Liberty.
readerjohn 9th Commandment Watch, Asceticism, History, Political Matters, Zombie Reaganism June 25, 2018 3 Minutes
Neither Nor
Neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, I nevertheless pay a lot of attention to both, because they are where the culturally significant religious action is in my homeland.
Likewise, I pay attention to doings in the Republican and Democrat parties. The sicknesses of those parties is also part of the sickness of my homeland. Politically, I'm not as settled in my American Solidarity Party affiliation as I am in Orthodoxy religiously.
I never was a partisan activist for either party, though I considered myself a Republican until January 20, 2005. GOP insanities bother me more than Democrat insanities because I never hoped for much from the Democrats (though it earlier seemed an inversion of the characteristic party tendencies when Democrats became the party of war on the defenseless unborn while Republicans nominally rose to their defense; I now recognize that the Democrat "party of the ordinary man" is dead).
I think Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter, still considers herself Republican, and she, too, focuses more on GOP shortcomings. If you can get through the paywall, her April 13 Wall Street Journal column will reward you:
Mr. Trump came from the chaos, he didn't cause it. He just makes it worse each day by adding his own special incoherence … He happened after 20 years of carelessness and the rise of the enraged intersectional left. He … can't capitalize on this moment—he can't help what is formless to find form—because he's not a serious man.
Republicans will have to figure it out on their own. After they lose the House, they will have time!
Here's what they should do: They should start to think not like economists but like artists.
The thing about artists is that they try to see the real shape of things. They don't get lost in factoids and facets of problems, they try to see the thing whole. They try to capture reality. They're creative, intuitive; they make leaps, study human nature …
If an artist of Reagan's era were looking around America in 2018, what would she or he see? Marvels, miracles and wonders. A church the other day noted on Twitter that all of us now download data from a cloud onto tablets, like Moses.
But think what would startle the artist unhappily. She or he would see broad swaths of the American middle and working class addicted and lethargic …
A Reagan-era artist would be shocked by our culture, by its knuckle dragging nihilism … The artist would be shocked that "the American dream" has been transmuted from something aspirational and lighted by an egalitarian spirit to something weirdly flat—a house, a car, possessions—and weirdly abstract.
And think twice about your saviors. Those NeverTrump folks trying to take back authority within the party—having apparently decided recently not to start a third one—are the very people who made the current mess. They bought into open-borders ideology. They cooked up Iraq. They allied with big donors. They invented Sarah Palin, who as much as anyone ushered in the age of Trump. They detached the Republican Party from the people.
I also listened to a fascinating podcast last night on a late drive back from a meeting in Indianapolis.
Historian Michael Doran from the Hudson Institute traces The Theological Roots of Foreign Policy, American foreign policy in particular. He starts with Andrew Jackson and traces the "Jacksonian tendency" through the manufacture of dispensational premillenialism with its Zionist obsessions, William Jennings Bryan, Harry Truman and to Donald Trump (in a party jump that's part of our ongoing realignment — my comment, not his).
Then he traces the competing "progressivist tendency" from mainline missionaries (who substituted imperialist-tinged foreign aid for the mandate to preach, baptize, and teach the Christian faith) through its descendants — John D. Rockefeller, Harry Emerson Fosdick, William Sloan Coffin and others less familiar and memorable to me because they's not my religious kin as are the Jacksonians.
If you're looking for a satisfactory wrap-up, it's not here. Once again, I'm neither-nor.
UPDATE: Doran's article appears in print, close to verbatim from his speech so far as I can tell. By June 1, it should be free.
readerjohn Christianity generally, Dispensationalism, Foreign Affairs, Life political issues, progressivism, realignment, Zombie Reaganism April 13, 2018 April 14, 2018 3 Minutes
Not without friction
This afternoon, Migranyan was lecturing on Putin's speech at the 2007 Munich Conference on Security Policy, a speech that seems to be Russia's sole post-Soviet ideological document—and key to understanding how the relationship between Russia and the U.S. reached today's nadir. Putin, still a painfully awkward speaker at the time, was seven years into his now nearly two-decade reign. Eighteen years prior, in 1989, he had been a KGB officer stationed in Dresden, East Germany, shoveling sensitive documents into a furnace as protesters gathered outside and the Berlin Wall crumbled. Not long after that, the Soviet Union was dead and buried, and the world seemed to have come to a consensus: The Soviet approach to politics—violent, undemocratic—was wrong, even evil. The Western liberal order was a better and more moral form of government.
For a while, Putin had tried to find a role for Russia within that Western order. When Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first post-Soviet president, named him his successor in 1999, Russia was waging war against Islamist separatists in Chechnya. On 9/11, Putin was the first foreign leader to call President George W. Bush, hoping to impress on him that they were now allies in the struggle against terrorism. He tried to be helpful in Afghanistan. But in 2003, Bush ignored his objections to the invasion of Iraq, going around the United Nations Security Council, where Russia has veto power. It was a humiliating reminder that in the eyes of the West, Russia was irrelevant, that "Russian objections carried no weight," as Migranyan told his students. But to Putin, it was something more: Under the guise of promoting democracy and human rights, Washington had returned to its Cold War–era policy of deposing and installing foreign leaders. Even the open use of military force was now fair game.
In 2007, speaking to the representatives and defenders of the Western order, Putin officially registered his dissent. "Only two decades ago, the world was ideologically and economically split, and its security was provided by the massive strategic potential of two superpowers," Putin declaimed sullenly. But that order had been replaced by a "unipolar world" dominated only by America. "It is the world of one master, one sovereign."
A world order controlled by a single country "has nothing in common with democracy," he noted pointedly. The current order was both "unacceptable" and ineffective. "Unilateral, illegitimate action" only created "new human tragedies and centers of conflict." He was referring to Iraq, which by that point had descended into sectarian warfare. The time had come, he said, "to rethink the entire architecture of global security."
This was the protest of a losing side that wanted to renegotiate the terms of surrender, 16 years after the fact. Nonetheless, Putin has spent the decade since that speech making sure that the United States can never again unilaterally maneuver without encountering friction—and, most important, that it can never, ever depose him.
"You should have seen the faces of [John] McCain and [Joe] Lieberman," a delighted Migranyan told his students, who appeared to be barely listening. The hawkish American senators who attended Putin's speech "were gobsmacked. Russia had been written off! And Putin committed a mortal sin in Munich: He told the truth."
The year that followed, Migranyan said, "was the year of deed and action." Russia went to war with neighboring Georgia in 2008, a move that Migranyan described as a sort of comeuppance for NATO, which had expanded to include other former Soviet republics. But Western encroachment on Russia's periphery was not the Kremlin's central grievance.
The U.S., Migranyan complained, had also been meddling directly in Russian politics. American consultants had engineered painful post-Soviet market reforms, enriching themselves all the while, and had helped elect the enfeebled and unpopular Yeltsin to a second term in 1996. The U.S. government directly funded both Russian and American nongovernmental organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy, to promote democracy and civil society in Russia. Some of those same NGOs had ties to the so-called color revolutions, which toppled governments in former Soviet republics and replaced them with democratic regimes friendly to the West.
Putin's Munich doctrine has a corollary: Americans may think they're promoting democracy, but they're really spreading chaos. "Look at what happened in Egypt," Migranyan said, beginning a litany of failed American-backed revolutions. In 2011, the Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak stepped down following protests the U.S. had supported, Migranyan contended. But after "radical Islamists" won power democratically, the U.S. turned a blind eye to a military coup that deposed the new leaders. Then there was Libya. "You toppled the most successful government in North Africa," Migranyan said, looking in my direction. "In the end, we got a ruined government, a brutally murdered American ambassador, chaos, and Islamic radicals."
"If we count all the American failures, maybe it's time you start listening to Russia?," Migranyan said, growing increasingly agitated. "If [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] has to go, then who comes in, in place of Assad? … Don't destroy regimes if you don't know what comes after!"
(Julia Ioffe, What Putin Really Wants, Atlantic)
This is a very long article, in which I was watching for what Putin really wants according to Ioffe. I have a somewhat biased eye, but this was the best I could come up with (although there are echoes of it as well):
Putin has spent the decade since that speech making sure that the United States can never again unilaterally maneuver without encountering friction—and, most important, that it can never, ever depose him.
Judge for yourself whether his fears are realistic. I've made my judgment.
readerjohn Foreign Affairs, Russia, war, Zombie Reaganism December 23, 2017 December 23, 2017 4 Minutes
We have always been at war with Eastasia
I have alluded from time to time to America's unclean hands in tensions with Russia and/or Vladimir Putin, and specifically to our expansion of NATO right up to Russian borders.
Wednesday, I learned that it's worse than that. We weren't acting obliviously. The first Bush administration specifically argued that it was in Russia's interests that the reunited German be in the NATO orbit, but that NATO would expand no further:
When Gorbachev signaled that unlike his predecessors he had no intention of using force to maintain the Soviet Empire, it almost immediately disintegrated. With that, momentum for German reunification became all but irresistible.
By the end of 1989, the issue facing policymakers on both sides of the rapidly vanishing Iron Curtain was not whether reunification should occur, but where a reunited Germany would fit in a radically transformed political landscape … No one—including German Chancellor Helmut Kohl—thought it a good idea to allow this new Germany to become a free-floater, situated in the center of Europe but untethered from the sort of restraints that the Cold War had imposed.
For Washington, London, and Paris, the solution was obvious: keep the Germans in a warm but firm embrace. Ensuring that a united Germany remained part of NATO would reduce the likelihood of it choosing at some future date to strike an independent course.
The challenge facing the Western allies was to persuade Gorbachev to see the wisdom of this proposition …
To make that prospect palatable, the Bush administration assured the Soviets that they had nothing to fear from a Western alliance that included a united Germany. NATO no longer viewed the USSR as an adversary. Apart from incorporating the territory of the former East Germany, the alliance was going to stay put. Washington was sensitive to and would respect Russia's own security interests. So at least U.S. officials claimed.
Thanks to newly declassified documents published by the National Security Archive, we now have a clearer appreciation of just how explicit those assurances were. Among the documents is the transcript of an especially revealing conversation between Gorbachev and Secretary of State James Baker in Moscow on February 9, 1990.
… [T]here was no need for Gorbachev to trouble himself about NATO …
"We understand," Baker continued, "that not only for the Soviet Union but for other European countries as well it is important to have guarantees that if the United States keeps its presence in Germany within the framework of NATO, not an inch of NATO's present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction [emphasis added]." …
Gorbachev replied, remarking only that "it goes without saying that a broadening of the NATO zone is not acceptable."
To which Baker responded: "We agree with that."
Later that very year German reunification became an accomplished fact. By the end of the following year, Gorbachev was out of a job and the Soviet Union had become defunct. Before another 12 months had passed, Baker's boss lost his bid for a second term as Americans elected their first post-Cold War president. By this time, countries of the former Warsaw Pact were already clamoring to join NATO. The administration of Bill Clinton proved more than receptive to such appeals. As a consequence, the assurances given to Gorbachev were rendered inoperative.
NATO's eastward march commenced, with the alliance eventually incorporating not only former Soviet satellites but even former Soviet republics … apparently assuming that Kremlin leaders had no recourse but to concede.
… Clinton's successors even toyed with the idea of inviting Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO …
At that point, a Kremlin leader less trusting of the West than Gorbachev had been decided that enough was enough. Vladimir Putin, a very nasty piece of work but also arguably a Russian patriot, made it clear that NATO's eastward expansion had ended. Putin's 2008 armed intervention in Georgia, annexation of the Crimea in 2014, and multiple incursions into Ukraine beginning that same year elicited howls of protest from the Washington commentariat. Putin, they charged, was trampling on the "norms" of international conduct that were supposed to govern behavior in the post-Cold War world.
But Putin was not wrong to observe that the United States routinely exempted itself from any such norms when it perceived its own vital interests to be at stake …
Today's NATO consists of 29 nations, nearly double what its membership was when Secretary Baker promised Gorbachev that the alliance would not advance a single inch eastward …
In today's Washington, where Russophobia runs rampant, it has become fashionable to speak of a New Cold War, provoked by Putin's aggressive actions. Yet if we are indeed embarking upon a new age of brinksmanship, we can trace its origins to 1990 when Putin was merely a disgruntled KGB colonel and we were playing the Soviets for suckers.
In his meeting with Gorbachev, Baker expressed regret about the victorious allies mismanaging the opportunity for peace created by the end of World War II. A similar judgment applies to the opportunity for peace created by the end of the Cold War. Upon reflection, the United States might have been better served had it honored its 1990 commitment to Gorbachev.
(Andrew J. Bacevich, emphasis added)
But we have always been at war with Eastasia, haven't we?
readerjohn Foreign Affairs, Russia, Zombie Reaganism December 20, 2017 4 Minutes
No true conservative …
I was pondering this quote, probably just going to put it in my personal journal with a pithy remark or two:
Conservatism is what conservatives think, say, and do. As conservatives change—as much through the harsh fact of death and birth as by the fluctuations of opinion—so does what it means to be a conservative.
(David Frum) But then Rod Dreher weighed in with a more elaborate set of remarks, reflecting his wider reading:
Here are Russell Kirk's Six Canons of Conservatism:
A belief in a transcendent order, which Kirk described variously as based in tradition, divine revelation, or natural law;
An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence;
A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize "natural" distinctions;
A belief that property and freedom are closely linked;
A faith in custom, convention, and prescription, and
A recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence.
Which of these general principles describes popular American conservatism today? Maybe No. 4, with smidge of No. 1, most of them people who take the Jeffress Option. I subscribe to Kirk's Canons, but I can't pretend that they are much in evidence outside of the religious, literary, and philosophical circles I frequent.
The truth is, they probably haven't been for a long time, because the world that produced Kirkian traditionalism has been largely obliterated by mass culture, consumerism, media, and technology. The fact that so many conservatives responded to my 2002 cover story in National Review describing "crunchy cons" (my name for 21st-century conservatives who are more or less Kirkians) by treating it as if I were trying to smuggle liberalism in through the back door revealed how little influence Kirk's ideas have on the contemporary conservative mind. (Alas for the contemporary conservative mind!)
What do you call Kirkian conservatives in the age of Trump? Reactionaries? What? All I can tell you is that I identify less and less with what people mean today when they use the word "conservative." Then again, it's been like that for me for about a decade, so I'm used to it. It's kind of vain to say that we are the true conservatives. At least orthodox Catholics who affirm the Church's doctrinal teachings can appeal to an authoritative standard. Political parties — unless, like the Communist parties, they are run like religious cults — don't have authoritative standards.
Although more erudite (I don't have Kirk's Six Canons in mind, but they're in my heart), Rod captures my feelings exactly. But don't miss one key sentence: "It's kind of vain to say that we are the true conservatives." That's the "No True Scotsman" fallacy, which I learned from my friend Doug Masson. Kirk is venerable, but he's no "authoritative standard" if he ever was.
readerjohn alt-right, Bread & Circuses, conservatism, Patriotic Correctness, Political Matters, populism, Zombie Reaganism December 20, 2017 2 Minutes
Wednesday, 12/13/17
Angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house
Evangelical domestic violence?
What's Wrong with Radicalism
90 Theses Short of a Full Deck
Self-help Guru limitations
Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise. For we are sick at heart. Our hearts give us no rest for thinking of the Land of Burning Children and for thinking of that other Child of whom the poet Luke speaks. The infant was taken up in the arms of an old man whose tongue grew resonant and vatic at the touch of that beauty.
Fr. Daniel Berrigan, writing of the destruction of draft records as part of the Catonsville Nine. Quoted by Jim Forest, a friend and now biographer and memoirist of the late Priest. Be it remembered that Fr. Berrigan was a published poet.
Is our morality in any sense superior to that of those ancient peoples who commonly exposed the newborn to death, as unwelcome aspirants to the sweet air of life? Can we help everyone walk into the full spectrum and rainbow of life, from womb to old age, so that no one is expendable? Especially in the religious pacifist community, we who believe no political idolatry can excuse the taking of life, can we help remind and symbolize the splendid range of nonviolence, from before birth to the aged? What is a human vocation anyway? Was not our first political act just getting born?
The good news, from Brad Wilcox's perspective, is that "churchgoing evangelical Protestant husbands were the least likely to be engaged in abusive behavior."
His bad news, congruent with a surmise I published Sunday:
Although the empirical story of religion and domestic violence looks good for practicing believers, it's much less rosy for others. My research suggests that the most violent husbands in America are nominal evangelical Protestants who attend church infrequently or not at all. The reasons are not entirely clear. It's possible they believe Christian teaching about male headship gives them a hitting license. Or perhaps their class or culture—many of these men hail from parts of the South and Appalachia populated by working-class Scots-Irish descendants with a greater propensity for violent behavior —explains these results. Religiously mixed couples may also have a greater risk for domestic violence, especially theologically conservative men married to women who do not share their religious views. In these cases, religion is not protective against abuse.
David Brooks reflects on What's Wrong with Radicalism of both left and right.
Most of our actual social and economic problems are the bad byproducts of fundamentally good trends.
Technological innovation has created wonders but displaced millions of workers. The meritocracy has unleashed talent but widened inequality. Immigration has made America more dynamic but weakened national cohesion. Globalization has lifted billions out of poverty but pummeled the working classes in advanced nations.
What's needed is reform of our core institutions to address the bad byproducts, not fundamental dismantling.
That sort of renewal means doing the opposite of everything the left/right radicals do. It means believing that life can be more like a conversation than a war if you open by starting a conversation. It means collectively focusing on problems and not divisively destroying people. It means believing that love is a genuine force in human affairs and that you can be effective by appealing to the better angels of human nature.
Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy published Five Theses on Voting and the Alabama Senate Election early on Tuesday, but it's really intended for political thought in days and years to come, not to influence the Alabama vote.
Meador admits that he's relatively unfriendly to the American Right—a bias he offsets by publishing friends who don't share it. That said, here's some of his indictments of the American Right as instantiated in the GOP:
2. The GOP as a party is not actually interested in governing.
There are any number of examples you could furnish here to make the point . We might begin by the years of cynical obstruction the party engaged in under President Obama, to the point of torpedoing a healthcare agenda whose signature element was an idea taken from the Heritage Foundation! … Since the late 80s or early 90s, the GOP has been hardening and hardening, such that today the party's agenda is divorced almost entirely from coherent governing policy.
The most recent example is the tax reform bill. First, they took steps with the tax reform bill that will, according to almost all third party organizations, increase the deficit …
That said, almost immediately after they passed this bill, … Paul Ryan turned around and said that the House agenda in 2018 is going to be cutting Medicaid and Medicare, specifically citing fear about the deficit as a reason for that agenda. … You either care about the deficit… or you don't.
The GOP, as others have noted, has become a drunken caricatured version of Zombie Reaganism. And whatever else we might say about it, it does not have a coherent approach to governing.
3. We should not glide easily over the substantive problems with the GOP's policies.
One of the unfortunate side effects of the Democratic support for abortion has been that many evangelicals essentially give the GOP a pass on policy issues. For many evangelicals in the past 30 years, voting Republican is a kind of natural default that is often done without taking the time to soberly reckon with the consequences of Republican policy. But because the GOP is, increasingly, unconcerned with character and unconcerned with actually governing, it is more important than ever that we learn again to understand and care about policy and factor it into our political choices.
I cannot find anything to disagree with in that because I excised what I didn't necessarily believe.
The widely expected passage of the tax reform bill will almost undoubtedly cause significant harm to Medicare. And provocative statements by President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan declaring that "entitlement reform" will be next threatens Medicaid. Put these two together and, I think, one thing is clear: big Medicare and Medicaid cuts are coming.
"We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit, Ryan said in a radio interview last week. And, he said, "I think the president is understanding choice and competition works everywhere, especially in Medicare." Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said: "We have to do two things. We have to generate economic growth which generates revenue, while reducing spending. That will mean instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future."
(Bob Blancato, Why Big Medicare and Medicaid Cuts Are Likely)
But for an orthodox Evangelical like Meador, that's not the whole story:
4. We should not pass over the abortion question as "a policy issue."
That said, the larger moral emergency amongst the Democrats is their increasingly strident support for abortion. The Jones candidacy is, in fact, the perfect symbol of that emergency: According to Pew, 58% of Alabamians think that abortion should be illegal in all or most situations. Mississippi and Arkansas are the only states that top them on that metric. If there is any state where the Democrats would be incentivized to tolerate a pro-life candidate, it'd be Alabama. Yet even there, the Democrats have nominated an unapologetically pro-choice candidate of the sort that you simply did not see regularly in the mainstream Democratic party until Barack Obama's presidential candidacy in 2008. Now this view is normal in the party, even in a state as staunchly pro-life as Alabama.
Abortion in America is a national plague and one that, alone, would be sufficient to merit severe divine judgment. Indeed, for Christians it should not seem intuitively crazy to suggest that the decline we are experiencing now may well be a product of God's judgment on our country for the death of nearly 60 million people since 1973. To support abortion as dogmatically as the contemporary Democratic party has is not simply taking a stand on "a policy issue."
Again, no dissent from me.
I've said that I think a epochal political shakeup is in the works. Beyond the possibility of the GOP becoming dominated by populist bomb-throwers and Democrats becoming a bit tent for everyone who benefits somewhat from the status quo, the I cannot imagine its contours. But my car now sports a bumper sticker for the American Solidarity Party, with some of whose policies I'm not thrilled but which avoids the abortion extremism of the Democrats and the Zombie Reaganism of the Republicans.
If you are one of those people in a big city who is feeling lonely or disconnected, I've got a nearly sure-fire way to change things. Go look for someone who is even lonelier and more hurting than you, and go be that person's friend.
I'm always astonished that there could be so many lonely people in the city. This would seem to be an easy problem to solve; just go be each other's friends. But it doesn't seem to work that way. I think in part that's because we're always looking for relationships that are going to deliver value to us, instead of us looking for how we're going to deliver value to others. We always want to network up. We seldom want to network down. (Though we often stay in our lanes on social media, as I noted above).
This is an area where I part ways with a lot of the secular self-help gurus. Most of those guys tend to recommend pruning the deadweight relationships out of your life, and purging the losers, energy drainers, etc. There's a place for that if you're in unhealthy relationships. But Christians simply can't apply that as a rule for life. We are called to be there for those who have nothing to offer us (or at least that we think don't have anything to offer).
(Aaron Renn in The Masculinist #16) I greatly admire Renn's work as the Urbanophile and now on urban issues with the Manhattan Institute. I'm taking his The Masculinist newsletter with several grains of salt, but that third paragraph is right on (first two are there mostly for context).
As I schedule this for publication, the Alabama vote outcome is unknown, but there's a margin that I, sitting many states to the north, have trouble imagining Jones closing. Let the festivities begin as the Senate GOP says "the 2016 vote is the verdict on Trump but the Alabama vote is not the verdict on Moore."
readerjohn American Folk Religion, Christianity generally, conservatism, Evangelicalism, Life political issues, Political Matters, war, Zombie Reaganism December 13, 2017 December 12, 2017 7 Minutes
Tuesday, 12/12/17
The flesh became words …
… but the math became music.
Public intellectuals
Law of Merited Impossibility update
Continue reading "Tuesday, 12/12/17" →
readerjohn conservatism, Damn rackets, Declinism, Economia, Education, Gaying away the Pray, Justice, Pinch of Incense, progressivism, Religious freedom, Speech & Press, Sundry flakes, Technology, Zombie Reaganism December 12, 2017 December 12, 2017 4 Minutes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


What are they doing in heaven today Where sin and sorrow have all gone away Peace abounds like a river they say What are they doing there now?
What are they doing in heaven today Where sin and sorrow have all gone away Peace abounds like a river they say What are they doing there now? I'm thinking of friends that I used to know Who lived and suffered in this world below But they're gone off to heaven, but I want to know What are they doing there now? What are they doing in heaven today Where sin and sorrow have all gone away Peace abounds like a river they say What are they doing there now? There's some whose hearts were burdened with care They pay for their moment with fighting and tears But they clung to the cross with trembling and fear What are they doing there now? What are they doing in heaven today Where sin and sorrow have all gone away Peace abounds like a river they say What are they doing there now? And there's some whose bodies were full of disease Physicians and doctors couldn't give them much ease But they suffered 'til death brought a final release But what are they doing there now? What are they doing in heaven today Where sin and sorrow have all gone away Peace abounds like a river they say What are they doing there now? There's some who were poor and often despised They looked up toward heaven with tear-blinded eyes While people heedless and deaf to their cries What are they doing there now? What are they doing in heaven today Where sin and sorrow have all gone away Peace abounds like a river they say What are they doing there now? What are they doing in heaven today Where sin and sorrow have all gone away Peace abounds like a river they say What are they doing there now?


text:
ARSENAL INJURY NEWS FEATURING PARTEY, ELNENY, SAKA, AND MORE
index December 11, 2020
Premier League club Arsenal return to the league action to take on Wolverhampton Wanderers in a must-win clash for Gunners boss Mikel Arteta. The Gunners' last two fixtures in the Premier League ended in a 3-0 defeat against Aston Villa and a disappointing goalless draw against Leeds.
They however returned to winning ways having beat Norwegian side Molde on Thursday in their Europa League Group-stage encounter. They take on fearless Wolves at the Emirates stadium eager to return to Premier League winning ways as they look to restore some lost confidence and morale.
The Gunners had a lackluster performance in the first half against Molde, but turned up in style and scored three second-half goals to secure victory over their Norwegian opponents. Goals from Nicolas Pepe, starlet Folarin Balogun, and Reiss Nelson helped the London club secure the pressure-relieving win.
Ahead of their home game against Wolves, here is the team news.
Luiz sustained an injury against Molde in their 3-0 win and will be a big miss for Arteta at the weekend. The extent of the injury is not yet known, but the coach said that the defender's substitution in the second half was more of a precaution.
Arteta hopes Luiz would be fit for the clash.
Willian was also forced off at half-time but in the game at Leeds on Sunday. His withdrawal however wasn't for tactical reasons as he played with a slight jiggle in the opening 45 minutes. Arteta said it is a muscle problem but hopes he doesn't stay out for long.
BukayoSaka
Saka was in action for England over the international break three times and picked up a knock in their game. He isn't going to be risked, but if fit, he will play.
Partey was subbed off against Villa after also sustaining a knock. He didn't join up with the Ghana squad for the international break but stayed behind to regain fitness. He missed the Leeds and Molde games and will also likely miss the one against Wolves.
The Egyptian midfielder was absent for the Gunners' last two games having been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus. He then needed to self-isolate and missed Egypt's games at the international break. He may return against Wolves.
Category : Arsenal News	Mikel Arteta
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James E. Arnold & Associates, LPA, is a Columbus, Ohio law firm that also serves the Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton areas. We focus on trial practice for both individuals and corporate clients, in both state and federal courts, including ERISA and executive compensation litigation.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) aims to protect an employee's interest in employer-provided health and retirement plans. Our attorneys have litigated numerous ERISA claims on behalf of our clients. Issues have included breach of fiduciary duty, prohibited transaction claims, Department of Labor audits, IRS investigations, benefit claim disputes, and ERISA-based criminal matters.
Our ERISA litigation attorneys at James E. Arnold & Associates, LPA, are well-versed in all facets of ERISA as well as employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), and we handle ERISA and ESOP litigation on behalf of plaintiffs as well as defendants.
Clawback provisions are attempts by a company to reclaim paid-out bonuses, stock options and other compensation. The prevalence of clawback provisions is on the rise, and our lawyers handle executive compensation litigation involving disputes over "clawback" provisions and losses from bad trades.
Attorneys practicing in employment and ERISA litigation include Julie Davis.
For an ERISA or ESOP litigation lawyer, whistleblower protection, discrimination or wrongful termination, contact James E. Arnold & Associates, LPA. We represent clients in the state of Ohio including Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Dayton.


Rolf Method of Structural Integration (SI), is a holistic system of bodywork and movement education that organizes your whole body in gravity. Structural Integration works with connective tissue, also known as fascia. Due to physical injury, emotional trauma, or inefficient, chronic patterns of movement, adhesions can form in the body's fascia which can result in pain and limit our range of motion. Rolfing aligns and balances the body by lengthening and repositioning the fascia. As fascia is lengthened, it allows the muscles to move more efficiently and with less pain. The practitioner will apply pressure to the body, working the entire fascial system in a systematic way. When restricted fascia is released, the body can return to its structurally optimal position in gravity.
Instead of feeling weighed down by gravity, there is a sense of lift and organization that many people experience. People seek Rolfing as a way to improve their posture, reduce or eliminate pain and relieve chronic stress. SI can literally change the shape of your body, and is used by many professional athletes and dancers to improve performance. Results include a more relaxed and supported structure, balanced tone throughout the tissues, ease and fluidity of movement, greater breathing capacity, better balance, less effort in activity and increased energy overall. Structural Integration changes lives!
Fascia surrounds every cell in the body. Fascia enwraps, supports and separates the muscle fibers, bones and organs throughout your body in continuous web of layers. This fascial web is the body's internal support system which gives strength and shape to our bodies. When the fascia responds to injury, chronic tension and habitual movements it secretes a fluid that protects at first but then dry's and creates a glue like substance therefore sticking one layer of fascia to another. As the fascia thickens and shortens it limits our range of motion and refers pain either locally or through out other areas of the body. These adhesions can pull the body out of alignment with gravity and enhance the body's pain response over time. Fascia is continuous like a web so as we apply pressure or stretch the tissue in one area it affects the entire web over the whole body.
How are Massage and Rolfing Different?
Unlike Massage, Structural Integration focuses on the fascia not on the individual muscles. SI looks at the whole body. It addresses chronic patterns in our movement and posture that contribute to the pain felt in our bodies. SI is interested in resolving long term pain responses. It is the process of integrating the body's segments as it frees up the adhesions in the fascia that have caused restrictions and pain. Structural Integration helps to provide support and efficient movements as we carry ourselves in life. Massage is a broad term that refers to many styles of bodywork. In general, massage promotes relaxation, detoxifies the body, increases circulation and loosens tight tissue. A deep relaxing Swedish massage helps to melt away the stresses of the day. Deep Tissue massage works to release the pain response in certain areas such as the neck or low back. SI works to release those same areas but is also concerned with how the pain got there in the first place. SI addresses what is going on in the other parts of the body that have played a part in promoting the restrictions or painful symptoms. Chronic stresses, strains and discomforts typically disappear as clients transform themselves through the Structural Integration process. Structural Integration achieves results that are visible.


Here's a letter that we shared today with our clients, friends and prospects. I'm posting it in hopes that you might find some value in it.
As the summertime fun draws nearer to its final days, I hope that you've been able to take some time to get out there and relax with your families.
The markets have been kind over the summer and have given us much to be optimistic about. But if you've heard or listened to the never ending supply of prognosticators out there, you'd think that the market was about to fall out of the sky any day now. As I've mentioned before, while it seems that the market may have gotten ahead of itself a bit, and the fundamental economic factors may not fully support such a bullish run, I don't see anything that supports a return to anywhere near the March lows. However, there's a "but" to be mentioned.
A few technical signs have developed over the last few days that signal that the current market may be a bit overbought, and therefore may be ripe for some profit taking. I therefore want to caution you that we may see a correction of sorts come September, perhaps in the range of 3-5%, maybe more. However, I believe that based on all of the improving economic reports, we will eventually resume our uptrend and I predict that we will see double-digit gains come year-end. The funny thing is though, my crystal ball did not come with a money back guarantee, so please accept my prediction solely for its entertainment value rather than anything to rely or invest on.
The month of September traditionally has not been kind to the stock markets, so please be prepared for some bumpiness. Should we see an overall deterioration or any hint of a so called double-dip recession, we will take appropriate protective action for our client portfolios. But right now, all signs point to a very slow economic recovery over the next year.
Now a Doubly Great Deal: You may recall that I touted this cash back deal from Bing last month. This month, Microsoft is doubling the cash back for a limited time. If you're shopping for anything online, try the price comparison tool at http://Pricegrabber.com, then look for that merchant on Microsoft's new search tool at http://bing.com. Click on "Shopping". Enter the item name in the bing search box, and look for merchants offering "Bing cash back" of 2-40%. Compare the prices on the two sites (PriceGrabber and Bing) and, if the price is less after the rebate on Bing, then buy it there and have the rebates deposited into your PayPal account. Ka-ching!
1st Time Home Buyer's Credit: If you know of a 1st time home buyer (anyone who hasn't owned a home in the last three years), they have until November 30 to close on a home and get a refundable 10% tax credit up to $8,000. They get this money back even if they owe no federal income tax. But since banks are taking upwards of 60 days to close a deal, getting to an agreement by the end of September is essential so the buyer does not miss out on the tax credit. See http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/2009/index.html for more details on this credit.
Please enjoy the last few days of summer and your Labor Day weekend.
I welcome your comments and feedback. If you have any questions, please feel free to get it touch with me and be sure to share this message with your friends and colleagues. And please be sure to let your friends know about me if you think that they might benefit from my services. As a CFP® and NAPFA registered investment advisor, we have a fiduciary responsibility to always put your interest ahead of ours and avoid conflicts of interest. Most brokers and advisors cannot say this nor do they adhere to this very high standard of care.
Sam H. Fawaz CFP®, CPA is president of YDream Financial Services, Inc., a registered investment advisor and can be found at http://www.ydfs.com. All material presented herein is believed to be reliable, but we cannot attest to its accuracy. Investment recommendations may change and readers are urged to check with their investment advisors before making any investment decisions. Opinions expressed in this writing by Sam H. Fawaz are his own, may change without prior notice and should not be relied upon as a basis for making investment or planning decisions. No person can accurately forecast or call a market top or bottom, so forward looking statements should be discounted and not relied upon as a basis for investing or trading decisions.
You just earned yourself a lifetime reader with this post. Came across your site on a search and love it!


Happy Christmas (again) to Everybody!
I hope you started well today and enjoying the festive time in these days, I definitely do.
If you still have no ideas what to give for presents I hope you will be inspired with the following recipes. Actually we stopped giving christmas gifts in our family but of course I like appearing always with something self-made. This year I went for some vegan (kind of) ginger bread, Panettone Muffins and pear marmalade (which I will post in a later state).
The ginger bread was pretty easy to do even if its taking your time for two days to complete everything. But on the other side the Panettone Muffins were reaaaaaaaaally a lot of work and when I finished in the end (somewhen in midnight), I swore I would never ever do it again. 🙂 Anyway, it was worth it taking so much time and it makes fun too when preparing because you know you are doing them to give away and make some people happy.
← who is knocking at the door…?


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FIG. 2 is a top and plan view of SubQ ICD 14. SubQ ICD 14 includes a generally ovoid housing 15 having a substantially kidney-shaped profile. Connector block 25 is coupled to housing 15 for receiving the connector assembly 27 of subcutaneous lead 18. SubQ ICD housing 15 may be constructed of stainless steel, titanium or ceramic as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,180,078 "Lead Connector for a Body Implantable Stimulator" to Anderson and 5,470,345 "Implantable Medical Device with Multi-layered Ceramic Enclosure" to Hassler, et al, both incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Electronics circuitry enclosed in housing 15 of SubQ ICD 14 may be incorporated on a polyamide flex circuit, printed circuit board (PCB) or ceramic substrate with integrated circuits packaged in leadless chip carriers and/or chip scale packaging (CSP). The plan view shows the generally ovoid construction of housing 15 that promotes ease of subcutaneous implant. This structure is ergonomically adapted to minimize patient discomfort during normal body movement and flexing of the thoracic musculature.
Electrode assemblies included in SEA 28 are welded into place on the flattened periphery of the housing of SubQ ICD 14. The complete periphery of the SubQ ICD may be manufactured to have a slightly flattened perspective with rounded edges to accommodate the placement of SEA assemblies. The SEA electrode assemblies are welded to SubQ ICD housing 15 (in a manner that preserves hermaticity of the housing 15) and are connected via wires (not shown in FIG. 2) to internal electronic circuitry (described herein below) inside housing 15. SEA electrode assemblies may be constructed of flat plates, or alternatively, spiral electrodes as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,512,940 "Subcutaneous Spiral Electrode for Sensing Electrical Signals of the Heart" to Brabec, et al. SEA electrode assembly are mounted in a non-conductive surround shroud, for example as generally described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,522,915 "Surround Shroud Connector and Electrode Housings for a Subcutaneous Electrode Array and Leadless ECGs" to Ceballos, et al. or in U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,046 "Subcutaneous Sensing Feedthrough/Electrode Assembly" to Fraley, et al., all of which patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
The algorithms and functions of the microcomputer 142 and control circuit 144 employed and performed in detection of tachyarrhythmias are set forth, for example, in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,354,316 "Method and Apparatus for Detection and Treatment of Tachycardia and Fibrillation" to Keimel; 5,545,186 "Prioritized Rule Based Method and Apparatus for Diagnosis and Treatment of Arrhythmias" to Olson, et al., 5,855,593 "Prioritized Rule Based Method and Apparatus for Diagnosis and Treatment of Arrhythmias" to Olson, et al.; and 5,193,535 "Method and Apparatus for Discrimination of Ventricular Tachycardia from Ventricular Fibrillation and Treatment Thereof" to Bardy, et al., all of which patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Particular algorithms for detection of ventricular fibrillation and malignant ventricular tachycardias can be selected from among the comprehensive algorithms for distinguishing atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias from one another and from high rate sinus rhythms as set forth, for example, in the '316, '186, '593 and '593 patents.
Programmers and telemetry systems suitable for use in the practice of the present invention have been well known for many years. Known programmers typically communicate with an implanted device via a bi-directional radio-frequency telemetry link, so that the programmer can transmit control commands and operational parameter values to be received by the implanted device, and so that the implanted device can communicate diagnostic and operational data to the programmer. Programmers believed to be suitable for the purposes of practicing the present invention include the Models 9790 and C are Link® programmers, commercially available from Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn. Various telemetry systems for providing the necessary communications channels between an external programming unit and an implanted device have been developed and are well known in the art. Telemetry systems believed to be suitable for the purposes of practicing the present invention are disclosed, for example, in the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,404 to Wyborny et al. entitled "Telemetry Format for Implanted Medical Device"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,382 to Markowitz entitled "Marker Channel Telemetry System for a Medical Device"; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,063 to Thompson et al. entitled "Telemetry System for a Medical Device". The Wyborny et al. '404, Markowitz '382, and Thompson et al. '063 patents are commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and are each hereby incorporated by reference herein in their respective entireties. SubQ ICD 14 may employ a distance telemetry system that does not require the use of a programming head, for example, as generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,482,154 to Haubrich et al., hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Vector selection may include methods generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,966 "Subcutaneous Multi-Electrode Sensing System, Method and Pacer" to Bennett, et al. In some embodiments, vector selection block 226 may generate a virtual vector signal as some combination of the physical vectors under control of microprocessor 142 and control block 144′ (FIG. 3) as generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,067 "System and Method for Deriving Virtual ECG or EGM Signal" to Lee, et al. Both patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. ECG sensing vector selection may be determined by the patient's physician and programmed via telemetry link 22 from external device 20 or, alternatively, may be automatically selected by SubQ ICD 14 under control of microprocessor 142 (FIG. 3) by selecting the vector(s) having the greatest signal quality or signal independence (uniqueness).
a processor for determining a first signal quality metric in response to a first subcutaneous sensing vector signal, comparing the first signal quality metric to a predetermined threshold, and generating a first loss of signal quality response in response to the first signal quality metric crossing the threshold.
determining a first signal quality metric in response to a first selected subcutaneous sensing vector signal, comparing the first signal quality metric to a predetermined threshold, and generating a first loss of signal quality response in response to the first signal quality metric crossing the threshold.
provide a loss of signal quality response in response to the signal quality metric crossing the threshold.


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Chinese Tennis Player Peng Shuai Denies Previous Sexual Assault Claim
More from Dublin News
Monday, December 20th, 2021 3:20pm
By Eric Hillis
Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai has now denied the accusations of sexual assault she previously appeared to make against a high-ranking Communist Party official.
On November 2nd Peng appeared to make a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo in which she accused former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. She subsequently disappeared from public view, leading to speculation that she may have been silenced.
In a new video posted by Chinese newspaper The Lianhe Zaobao, Peng denies the assault and says she has been staying at home in Beijing and is free to move as she pleases.
"First of all, I want to emphasise something that is very important," she told The Lianhe Zaobao. "I have never said that I wrote that anyone sexually assaulted me. I need to emphasise this point very clearly."
Peng failed to elaborate on how or why the post appeared on her Weibo account last month.
The tennis star was filmed at a promotional event for next February's Beijing Winter Olympic Games alongside other prominent Chinese athletes, including NBA star Yao Ming.
The Women's Tennis Association had suspended all events in China in reaction to what the organisation believed was a silencing of Peng by the country's government. WTA chief Steve Simon has called for the Chinese authorities to investigate Peng's previous claims and allow her to speak to his organisation.
Representatives of the International Olympic Committee have said they believe Peng is fine after speaking with her on a video call.
Ireland's Classic Hits Records Third Successive All-Time Listenership High
Ireland's Classic Hits Radio has recorded its third successive JNLR all time high in the latest JNLR. The ratings, which cover the period May-December 2021, give the multicity broadcaster 321,000 weekly and 161,000 daily listeners, increases from 309,000 and 158,000 respectively on the last JNLR survey. Market share now stands at 5.2% in the multicity area. *


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Home > Bujumbura Mairie > UNHCR will continue to support the return of refugees who choose to return home
12 Apr 2018 Jean de DieuLeave a comment
BUJUMBURA April 11th (ABP) – The President of the Republic, Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza, received in audience on Tuesday April 10, 2018, the representative of the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr. Fillipo Grandi, after his tour in the Great Lakes region, a check by ABP revealed.
His visit to Burundi is the last leg of a tour he conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda before returning to Geneva, the deputy spokesman of the President of the Republic, Mr. Alain Nzeyimana, told the reporters
President Nkurunziza's meeting with Mr. Grandi focused on the situation of refugees from the Great Lakes region. The two personalities discussed the situation of some 73,000 Congolese refugees living in Burundi. In that context, Mr. Filippo thanked President Nkurunziza and the Burundian people for the very generous welcome and hospitality they continue to give the Congolese refugees, despite the limited resources. Mindful of Burundi's efforts, the representative of UNHCR appealed to the international community to make greater efforts to support the country and surrounding communities of the camps hosting those refugees to help them support this burden up to those refugees can return to their country of origin. The issue of Burundian refugees in neighboring countries was raised during the interview. Mr. Grandi said that 21,000 Burundians have returned spontaneously and voluntarily from Tanzania from the end of 2017 until the beginning of 2018. He promised President Nkurunziza that UNHCR will continue to support the return of those who choose to return to the country and appreciated that President Nkurunziza is willing to continue this collaboration.
The UNHCR representative is convinced that it is always important to resolve refugee problems through dialogue and discussion. It is in this context that he raised this issue the day before yesterday during his meeting with the Rwandan President and yesterday with President Nkurunziza, he said. Although collaboration with Rwanda on the refugee issue is still complicated, he promised to work for the establishment and facilitation of meeting and dialogue in a tripartite framework involving Burundi, the Rwanda and UNHCR. The aim is to examine all issues relating to Burundian refugees living in Rwanda. Another point raised during the hearing is the controversy over the number of Burundians still in refugee situations in neighboring countries. Although Mr. Grandi refused to admit that this is false numbers, he promised that those figures will be verified. Biometric registration, the safest, has already begun in countries hosting Burundian refugees. "My tour is also part of accelerating this process which is very important," he said. He refuted allegations that UNHCR would prevent refugees from voluntarily returning home. "How can UNHCR prevent people who want to return home? He wondered, admitting that his organization is against forced return because, he explained, this is against the practice and principles of UNHCR.
On the sidelines of the meeting with President Nkurunziza, the UNHCR representative also plans to visit, today, the camp of Congolese refugees at Musasa in Ngozi province (north) to see the situation himself
17 Oct 2019 Jean de Dieu
30 Dec 2018 Jean de Dieu
1 Feb 2019 Jean de Dieu
Le taux des réalisations du MPAEAC est très satisfaisant pour le 1er trimestre de 2018


Yes, my latest eBook, Little Lost Leon, is now out. No, I do not have it on FishHawk Droppings yet. For I am wanting to reformat the site to pages instead of blogging, as it now is. Nonetheless, you can download Little Lost Leon [here] or I will email it to you.
The feedback has been very encouraging. In fact, I feel like this is THE ONE to get the proverbial ball rolling, so to speak, but three have balked. For they said that the first chapter is just too descriptive for them to go further than five or six pages.
Alas, it would be quite unreasonable to expect everyone to like it. For there are different strokes for different folks, as they say, but I would still like to explain what the first chapter, which is by far the worst in that regard, is all about.
The first chapter of Little Lost Leon provides a very small taste of what our Heavenly Father has been enduring to accomplish His purposes in this world—plain and simple. No, He most certainly does not delight in such despicable behavior, but He delights in where it is leading.
Little Lost Leon does become lighter and back to darker. This pattern repeats throughout the book, which is actually five different storylines leading to a very bright ending.
No, Little Lost Leon will not be a delight to everyone, but you just might be surprised that it may be to you. Besides, the price is right. For with all of the books I have been given to publish, Little Lost Leon is offered for free, but with my personal finances still being quite desperate, I also ask for a small donation from those who receive some value from the book. Just a dollar would help so very much.