Bayer CEO Actually Said This: Cancer Drug Is For Rich Westerners, NOT Poor Indians

This controversy out of Bayer Pharmaceuticals has been pretty much ignored by the American media. You won't find it on CNN or any of the network channels. I don't know whether its because Bayer is a huge advertiser or whether they think the American people had their fill of "affluenza" stories this week on the heels of Tim Perkins' idiotic statement comparing rich people troubles to the Holocaust. (It goes without saying that its not on Fox either, but they aren't "news").

But its a pretty big deal...

Nexavar is a kidney and liver cancer-fighting drug that was developed by Bayer and approved for use over 9 years ago. Despite it being almost a decade, the price has not come down much for the drug. A one-year drug treatment costs $69,000 at minimum.

You read that right. To get a one year supply of pills it will cost you 69K US dollars.

India has a law that says they will allow other companies to manufacture a generic version of any life-saving drug IF that drug is massively overpriced.

In 2012, an Indian patent court ruled that, yeah, $69,000 dollars is quite a freaking lot to ask a dying person to pay for a damn drug treatment. (At least if your last name isn't "Koch".) As The Young Turks pointed out, 69K is 41 times the country's annual per capita income.

So India allowed a generic version to be made by another company at a cost of $177 a year-- a trite more reasonable. That's 99.7% less than the 69K.

Bayer's CEO, Marijn Dekkers, was outraged by the ruling. In an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek a few days ago he didn't even try to hide his contempt:

"We did not develop this medicine for Indians... we developed it for Western patients who can afford it!"

He said that.

Wow. He was able to not only piss on dying poor people but be racist while doing it.

Dekkers went on to say that the ruling was "essentially theft". (Said the man who charges 69k for a drug that can be made 99 times cheaper.)

I get the argument that drug companies have a reasonable expectation of profit. Yes, I also get that research and development can be expensive and they want to recoup some of that. But come on... you've charged $69,000 per person for life-saving treatment for almost a decade. I think you've recouped your expenses. There is no justification for charging that much to someone.

I remember the outrage I felt when affluenza was used as a murder defense last year, but I'm starting to think its a real affliction for people so ungodly rich they lose touch with humanity. No rational, healthy person would say they developed a life-saving drug for only rich people. Or compare complaints about obscene income inequality with being attacked by Nazis. Or play dress-up as a wage employee to mock working families.

At least this guy is being honest. But you'll understand that the next time I get a headache, I'll be passing over the Bayer aspirin.

UPDATE: Gooserock asked if government funds were used to foot the bill of development. I don't know the specifics of this drug, but I can tell you that it is often the case. The federal government spent $484 million to develop the cancer drug Taxol. Bristol-Myers reaped massive profits by selling 9 billion dollars worth. The National Institute of Health only received a 35 million royalty.

A Rick and a Hard Place

As a new Q-poll shows Charlie Crist up on Rick Scott by 8 points, and also shows that 54 percent of Floridians believe Scott does not deserve another term, it’s a good time to reflect on a conundrum Scott finds himself in which will make him wish medical marijuana was the worst thing he had to worry about affecting his vote count.

On the one hand, Scott wants to emphasize his (alleged) record for jobs and lowering the unemployment rate. But we may recall that during the 2012 election, there was a lot of talk about how Scott’s message of success was at odds with Mitt Romney’s message that things weren’t going so hot. 

In the same way, Scott has a difficult time explaining why some or all of what success there is in Florida doesn’t go to the Obama administration. (For my part, as I say in my list, I don’t think politicians really do that much to affect things like jobs and the economy, comparatively speaking. But that’s not a message that will go well in Scott’s campaign quiver.)

On the other hand, Scott desperately wants to be able to blame Charlie Crist for Florida’s prior woes. That’s an absurdity on the face of it; as I also notice in the list, you can’t blame a state governor for what amounted to an international crisis. And yesterday Scott said something so dumb that it made #161 on my list (#147 in the numbering setup):

147) Rick Scott has criticized Charlie Crist for “raiding” a budget fund by using it for its intended purpose – to make up for budget shortfalls.

Scott referred to his 2014 budget, saying it “pays back money the previous administration raided from the Budget Stabilization fund.” This is bizarre for two reasons. The first is that the “previous administration” included a Republican legislature that approved of this “raid” and is also substantially the same Legislature that now serves under Scott. The second is that the fund in question, the Budget Stabilization Fund, was instituted precisely for the purpose (among others) of being drawn from when there were budget shortfalls. What Scott calls a “raid” was in reality an entirely appropriate action.

If you look at the Florida statute that covers this, one of the chief purposes is stated as, “Offsetting a deficit in the General Revenue Fund.” By law, Crist (and the Legislature) were supposed to “raid” the Budget Stabilization Fund in precisely the circumstances that emerged during Crist’s term. But Rick Scott wants to paint this as Crist engaging in piracy and endangering Florida. Obviously, nothing is further from the truth.

Which leads back to the other hand: Scott wants to blame Crist for prior woes, but when he does, he’s also pointing a finger at the same overall legislative body that now serves with him. It’s like the joke about pointing with one finger while three more point back at you. Scott can’t blame Crist for anything without making dozens of members of his own party just as culpable.

Trapped between these two blades, Scott will find himself in enormous trouble with any voters who realize this. And he’s got no way to explain himself out of it.

When we saw him on the news last night, we thought he looked pretty angry when he was bashing Crist. It’s not hard to see why. Wouldn’t it be splendid if Rick Scott had a meltdown right there during a press conference and started shouting at reporters, while his entire head turned beet red?

It could happen.

Issues to Waste Your Vote for Rick Scott On

My list of reasons to dis-elect Rick Scott hasn’t grown much in the last week, mostly because he’s been lying low and saying as little as he can, which under the circumstances is probably the smartest thing Rick Scott can do if he wants to be re-elected. His approval rating seems to go up mostly when he does nothing at all. At least I can say SemDem’s post on Monday upped the number on my list to 158, which means I have two more to go before I officially revise it again. Might be a nice way to celebrate Groundhog Day.

Scratch that: A couple of hours after I first made this post, I checked the archive at Rick Scott Sucks, and dug out two more good ones. So it's now at 160, and newer ones start at 146.  Have a look.

 In the meantime, I want to discuss something about reasons that some people out there may vote for Rick Scott, in spite of his monstrous performance so far – and why they’d be wasting their time doing it.

If you have friends planning to vote for Rick Scott, there are two partisan issues that are likely to be at the center of their motivation: Same-sex marriage and abortion. The irony is that Rick Scott has 1) done little or nothing on either issue, and 2) really can’t do anything about either one, anyway.

On same-sex marriage, Scott has done nothing more than affirm his support for the 2008 amendment approved by Florida voters.  It’s just talk, of course, because right now, that amendment will stand or fall based on what is done by courts above Rick Scott’s jurisdiction. He can’t do anything about it.

Abortion, likewise, stands or falls based on Roe vs. Wade at this time. Scott can huff and puff all he wants, but ultimately, the decision is out of his hands. And, as I show in my list, he really doesn’t care about the issue; HCA hospital performed abortions under his watch, and he did nothing to stop them, and said nothing against them. So he’s only “pro-life” as far as it buys him votes. Pro-lifers in Florida are being taken for a ride by him.

So in the end, if your friends plan to vote for Scott based on either of these issues, they’re doing so based on reasons that are ultimately empty. They would be voting for a talking head, not someone who can actually do anything about the issue either way.  They might as well be voting for one of those old fashioned toys (like Woody from Toy Story) that you can make talk by pulling a string on their back. 

We tend to forget sometimes that the executive branch of government isn’t in charge of making law. When a candidate, or governor says, “I plan to outlaw ______,” what they mean is, “I plan to ask a buddy of mine in the Legislature to sponsor a law outlawing ______, which I hope the Legislature will pass. Then I’ll sign it.” Which means neither same-sex marriage nor abortion is a reason for anyone to ignore Scott’s innumerable other blunders and re-elect him.  He can’t do anything about them other than run his mouth.

Given the events of this week, I should also probably add medical marijuana to the list of social issues here which may be decisive for some voters. It’s going to be interesting, because as some commentators have observed, Rick Scott desperately wanted that one off the ballot, because he knew it would raise voter turnout – which is a likely sentence to the outhouse for him. Either way, it still won’t be anything he’ll be able to do anything about. Voting for him won’t budge what voters decide either way on medical marijuana.

There’s an added irony on that one. Doctors have come out with a pill that uses THC (the active ingredient in marijuana which aids the sick), and initial studies show it is more effective than smoking marijuana. The amendment may get on the ballot, only to become moot within a year. And wouldn’t that be such appropriate justice, if Rick Scott gets kicked out of office because of something that shortly thereafter becomes irrelevant?

It’s too bad we can’t take a pill to get rid of all the pain he’s caused people here in Florida.

The only good Rx for Rick Scott is a bootprint in the backside.

Another Major Medicaid Scandal for Rick Scott

#94 of My Stupid State

Crossposted on DKos

Rick Scott's appointed a new finance chairman for his campaign last week: Miguel Fernandez. Congrats, Mike!

And Mike is feeling froggy: He just wrote a $1 million check to Scott's re-election committee. And yes, that's a preposterous amount from one person:

Before Fernandez, an individual had never given a check of $1 million or more to a candidate-aligned committee.

Now, who the hell donates that much money and doesn't expect something in return?

Well, as it turns out, not Mike. Mr. Fernandez obviously expected something-and boy did he get a freaking FANTASTIC deal for his "donation". From the same article:

Two companies partly owned by the finance chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign [Miguel Fernandez] have won contracts worth potentially billions to serve Medicaid patients in regions across the state.

BOOM goes the dynamite! Make it rain!

And it gets worse...

First, a little background:

The agency that awards these contracts is the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, or the AHCA. The article doesn't make clear what the AHCA is or who runs it. The agency manages the state Medicaid program and regulates our state hospitals. The head is appointed by the governor. In March 2011, Rick Scott picked a lackey for this spot named Elizabeth Dudek.

Dudek is a vocal supporter of Rick Scott. She features him on the ACA home page, which no other non-executive agency does. Last year, when Scott came under fire for making up outrageous estimates for Medicaid expansion, (deemed false by Politifact), Dudek pretty much said "F__ my reputation" and supported his bogus numbers with no basis whatsoever.

Under her, patient complaints have grown as hospitals have been allowed to gouge and aggressively bill. (By the way, remember HCA? That was Rick Scott's company involved in the $1.7 billion Medicare fraud where he took the Fifth 75 times. Coincidentally, HCA is now raking in record profits due to turning away patients, aggressive billing, and cutting staff to dysfunctional levels. Well-played.)

But that's not the worst of it.

Florida moved Medicaid into so-called “managed care,” which carves up the state into 11 regions where private insurers can compete to serve Medicaid patients in those districts.

The article mentions this, but fails to point out this was done under Rick Scott, nor does it mention that the idea was the brain-child of Mr. Fernandez to begin with. In fact, Rick Scott came under fire for taking a $125,000 campaign donation last year from the same Mike Fernandez soon after Rick Scott overhauled Medicaid into these private districts.

Rick Scott wouldn't talk about it, of course:

Since this happened all the way last year, our pathetic media forgot about it.

Fast forward one year: one of Mike's companies that he just threw together, Better Health, won THREE contracts from Dudek's AHCA potentially worth billions allowing it to serve three of the larger districts: the Panhandle, Central Florida and South Florida. Another company he owns won the right to service HIV and Aids Medicaid patients in 10 out of the 11 districts.

Again, Congratulations Mike!

All of this would be bad enough, but this being Florida, it gets worse.

As the article mentions, Better Health, Inc. is a PSN (Provider Service Network), which means it has to be a majority-owned by a health-care provider. Tell me how shady this sounds to you: Fernandez owns 49 percent of this company, and some Coral Gables doctor owns 51 percent!

These shady companies are nothing new under Rick Scott's regime. They are primarily nothing more than conduits for campaign cash for GOP candidates and campaigns. Now, I can't say for certain that Better Health, Inc. is one of these companies, but their "official" website doesn't fill me with much confidence. Putting aside that it was clearly thrown up in an afternoon, (and from the looks of it--back in 1995), look at the company information under "About Us" and "Our Senior Management Team". See what I mean? As far as I can tell, Fernandez and the doctor are the only employees.

You would think one of our news teams would want to look into this. But as it so happens, only Jacksonville's paper even bothered to cover this story and they only picked up the headline of Scott's newly appointed finance director donating a million and getting a windfall in return. Delving into Mike Fernandez' connections to the new law, details about his shady company, and how the hell it beat out other qualified applicants to get picked---well, you won't find that anywhere.

A competent Attorney General would investigate this. But we have PamBo. A functioning legislature would demand answers. Ours legalized bribery so don't expect much there either.

Spokespeople for the AHCA, Rick Scott, and Mike Fernandez have all made statements that seem pretty well-coordinated. They all talk about how fair this process was; how it was oh so "competitive"; no "favoritism"; used "objective criteria", and some other catchwords to essentially say move on, nothing to see here.

All I can say is, taking them at their word, Better Health, Inc. must have given one heck of a pitch to AHCA.

UPDATE: La Gitane just gave me a pic from the website. This no look good:

Just How AWFUL is Our Attorney General in Rick Scott's Florida?

#93 of My Stupid State series

Crossposted on DKOS

Rick Scott said this week he will vote against a proposed constitutional amendment to allow the medical use of marijuana, which would be shameful enough if he also wasn't trying to stop the people of Florida from even having the opportunity to vote on this compassionate measure. Rick Scott turned to his young, lackey Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to try to stop it. Out of all the issues facing Floridians, she has made keeping this proposal off the ballot her top priority by arguing the 74-word summary is confusing.

(Mind you we had 11 amendments in 2012, none of which came from citizens but from the GOP legislature, that were purposefully written to be as confusing as possible. One columnist compared them to a Chinese menu written upside down in Hebrew. Yet PamBo had no problem with those.)

It was PamBo who did her Master's bidding and led the fight to deny healthcare to millions of Floridians with a Quixotic attack on Obamacare, costing our state millions. In fact, over a million in legal fees alone has been spent on a pointless defense of Rick Scott's long list of controversial legislation: ruining our states pension plans, requiring drug tests of state employees and welfare recipients, cutting teacher's salaries, and purging voters.

In fact, you can always tell a Rick Scott initiative by asking three questions:

• Is it unConstitutional?
• Is it designed to HURT rather than HELP Floridians?
• Will Bondi fight for it?

In FL Democrats' obsession over Rick Scott, they often overlook this crucial piece in the GOP's oppressive regime--- one who is a character all of her own. But who exactly is Pam Bondi?

PamBo is Florida's Attorney General. Before being AG, she was only known for being a right-wing talking head on Sean Hannity's show on Faux News.

She is the most ideological AG in Florida's history and probably the nation's history. She is exactly what the wingnut powerbrokers wanted when they took over Tallahassee in 2010: a partisan who would finally implement a doctrinaire conservative interpretation of the law. (Or should I say "misinterpret", which is why she costs the state so much in fighting battles based on ideology rather than law. But her anti-intellectualism is part of her base's appeal).

Bondi is dishonest. She is also, frankly, stupid. She is rightfully considered the worst AG in the country today by many members of the American and Florida bar.

I will just point out a few things to enhance my points:

Ideologue

Its easy to forget that Pam Bondi doesn't work at Fox News anymore since she's been on there more times than when she was actually working there. Whether its to lie about the healthcare navigators, defend herself from turning her office into a partisan hackshop, or just to bask in the hollow praise of the idiots at Fox and Friends, you will always see her dumb smile. She's so well known at Fox that she even made that part of her pitch to voters.

If you have been reading the MY STUPID STATE series, you may wonder why no one has tried to stop Rick Scott with all the clearly illegal things he is doing. Well, its because Democrats here have also lost 10 out of the 11 cabinet races, and elections have consequences. We now have a Fox News lackey as our Attorney General and, so far, has ignored everything he has done. So, for example, when we expect our AG to fight against Scott's illegal voter purges, instead we have PamBo vigorously defending the voter purges (both in the Courts and on Fox News) even after knowing the majority of people kicked off were legitimate!

Incompetent

Every state in the union was awarded 25 billion from the five largest banks due to mortgage fraud. Our state led the nation in bad foreclosures, but unfortunately for us, each state's AG was responsible for handling the funds. Our idiot AG struck a horrible, horrible deal that didn't give the money to the distressed homeowners, but to our corrupt legislature who were already in bed with the mortgage companies to begin with.

Not like Bondi really cared. She has always put the fraudulent mortgage companies first. In fact, she abruptly fired two assistant AGs because they were successfully fighting mortgage fraud. She claimed they were fired because of poor performance, despite the fact that they received glowing reviews right before their firings.

Corrupt

Even worse than politically motivated firings is her reluctance to pursue charges against people who give her money. Donald Trump ran a get-rich quick seminar that fleeced Floridians and New Yorkers out of tens of thousands of dollars. When this scam came to light, the New York AG immediately filed charges. Pam Bondi's office told the Orlando Sentinel on September 14 of last year that she was studying the New York case and was planning on taking action here as well.

Three days later, Sept. 17--Trump cut Bondi a LARGE check for her re-election this year. Bondi then miraculously decided not to press charges.

So how much does campaign cash trump justice for PamBo? She literally moved an execution date for a prisoner because it coincided with a fundraiser. Yeah, that stuff happens here. She was called out on it, apologized, and it was never to be heard from again in our media.

Just recently, she used taxpayer money to sue to stop the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. WTF?! you might be asking. Why is she trying to spending money to fight a cleanup in a Bay that isn't even in freaking Florida? Big agriculture wants her to. And she works for the special interests, not the people of Florida.

Awful

And when she is not being just awful at her job, she is just being plain awful. She took a Louisiana family's Katrina dog and refused to give it back to them when they were finally able to track the St. Bernard down. The children's pleas for their dog back fell on deaf ears, and PamBo even accused the family of neglecting the dog. (I guess it was their fault for allowing the dog to be washed away in the hurricane).

The case was settled. The family got the dog back but PamBo was allowed to visit and promised to provide for the dog with food and medication for life.

She stopped after one month.

Thankfully, PamBo is fighting for her political life and will be defeated unless our incompetent State Party doesn't screw this up. Even though she has clearly been obsessed over fundraising and has been campaigning vigorously, she leads only slightly against her two potential Dem rivals: George Sheldon and Perry Thurston.

This race deserves some attention. More so than any other cabinet race.

1. Donate to George Sheldon!
2. Spread the word on PamBo! Share this post. Write about her in your local paper or on a blogpost. Talk to your friends when they bring up how much they hate Rick Scott.
3. Get Pam Bondi Out of Office Facebook Page

Send this Fox News flunkie back to Hannity and out of office so we can put someone there who will actually fight for Floridians for a change.

Bondi serving drinks on a bizarre trip to the Caymans

Crist Only up by Two...So?

The way I see it, if you watch the polls and live by them, you're going to end up in a straitjacket someday, so the latest PPP poll showing Rick Scott only down to Crist by 2 points, while a sad case study of how remarkably out of touch some people in Florida can be, doesn't mean it's time to throw in the towel. Not that I expect readers of this blog to do so anyway, but here's some things to use to remind friends and relatives of yours with less starch in their spine not to give up.

Scott is down 2 to Crist, and only up by 6 on Rich, in spite of the fact that neither Democratic candidate has done any real campaigning yet -- not one TV ad, not one serious fundraiser. What do you suppose will happen when the Democratic candidate starts putting Scott's record on the block? How about what happens when we have some ads using the same pathos Perry Thurston invoked, by using Christmas presents to represent the 40 children who died under Scott's mismanagement of DCF? That's going to make Scott's "Crist the opportunist" ad look like the sourest grapes in the vineyard.

This is why I made my list of reasons to dis-elect Scott. Use them. 

Let's also remember that this was a poll done AFTER Scott did his worst to trash Crist with this year's chosen game show buzzer for the right wing:  Obamacare. In Virginia, the Democratic governor was thrashed with the same baton, and still won, although by a slim margin. But so what? Scott won by a slim margin, too. That's all it takes.

Finally, many, many people in the poll still said they were not sure who they would vote for. You can be sure the undecideds turned that way, to some extent, because they fell for some of Scott's cheap election year tricks, like extending the tax holiday longer.  Well, we have louder buzzers than that still in the arsenal we haven't even pressed yet.

10 months and a bit more still remain. I'm sure we can all remember past elections with up and down polls. They run in a cycle. A candidate, one observer pointed out, always dips some when they go from "maybe I'll run" to "yes, I'll run."

So, keep going, keep passing that list around, and remind any people you know who might spend Election Day on their rear ends, that a few hours in line is a small price to pay to avoid four more years of Rick Scott.

On MLK Day: Florida State House Candidate Threatens to Hang Barack Obama

This is just disgraceful...

As Americans honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, a Republican candidate for Florida House District 68 said President Barack Obama should be hanged for war crimes.

"I'm past impeachment," Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. "It's time to arrest and hang him high."

Really? You are going to go there? Today?

Black, 31, of Pinellas Park, moved to Florida in 2007 after practicing street evangelism in St. Louis and works as a taxi driver. According to his campaign website, Black entered politics in 2012 when he tried influencing the presidential primary.

The website says: "Republicans have a serious communication problem. Everything we say sounds like spears."

Hours after the tweet, Black defended his comment.

Obama should be held responsible for ordering a drone strike that killed an American citizen overseas, he said.

"He should be executed for treason," Black said. "I think the appropriate punishment is death. They killed Benedict Arnold. (Obama) shouldn't be allowed to kill Americans without a trial."

The political newcomer said he doesn't fear U.S. Secret Service agents showing up on his doorstep. Many voters might agree with his position, he said, adding: "I guess they're going to call me a racist now."

...or sadly, a typical teabagger. Your choice.

How's that rebranding going, GOP?

On this MLK Day....

After Sarah's Racial Attack Today, A Quick Recap of Her Racist Past

Mr. President, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and all who commit to ending any racial divide, no more playing the race card,
--Sarah Palin's words of wisdom for today

Classy, Sarah. On MLK day, no less.

Racists hate being called racists. Anytime you call them out on their racism, they attack you for "playing the race card." And Sarah has had plenty of practice.

Chris Mathews called Sarah Plain, correctly, the "poster face of racism".

When Obama defeated Hillary in 2008, her comment was Sambo beat the bitch.

It was Sarah Palin who, with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball, started the Muslim traitor "palling around with terrorists" theme that quickly engulfed the McCain campaign. Those that questioned her racial baiting weren't from "the real America" and she spoke fondly of the "pro-America areas of this great nation" (wink, wink).

She has claimed that Obama is single-handedly leading this country to ruin, yet simultaneously says he's a lazy black guy.

She once said that black people don't understand the word slavery; while lecturing people last year that slavery was just like our national debt. (And preceded her idiotic statement "This isn't racist, but...")

As governor, she refused to recognize Juneteenth (which is Freedom Day for slaves) in violation of Alaska law and refused to do it even after she got sued for failing to carry out her gubernatorial duties.

Alaska is a state where 35% of the people are black, Asian, or Alaskan native, yet she couldn't find one minority to put on her staff and worse, said "she didn't have to."

She fiercely defended Rush Limbaugh's racism; and defended Laura Schlesinger for using the n-word 11 times in a racist rant. (I'm sure she only got upset when she found out Laura earlier called her a moron.)

And this is just a partial list concerning her disregard for African Americans. Jews, Muslims, gays, Asians, Hispanics all had their turn. But its really all of their fault for playing the race card and trying to "divide" us.

Poor Sarah. Why can't she just insult and degrade you people IN PEACE!!?!

Today We Learn Christie Held Hurricane Money Hostage; Today Rick Scott Campaigns With Him

Today, things got much worse for Chris Christie, who is still reeling from the Bridgegate scandal and the mountain of subpoenas. Today we learned he was not above extortion:

Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie's administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with MSNBC."

"In this account -- supported by email, public records and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer's own diary entries -- Christie's inner circle was willing to cut off devastated constituents, muscle a friendly mayor and arrange public funds to finance a study for a project the governor supported."

What a scumbag. No wonder he and Rick Scott are buddies.

Most GOP politicians would tell Christie to stay the hell away, but that doesn't take into account just how bad Rick Scott is. State Senate President Dan Gaetz said that Christie would bring some much needed "positive reinforcement to Gov. Scott."

How low do people have to think of you to think you'd get a boost from Freaking Chris Christie right now?

Someone this bad, and someone who loves to surround himself with like-minded individuals. Rick Scott probably thinks Christie is a rank amateur:

Christie screwed over middle class commuters for a few days, Rick Scott literally stole from the elderly.

Christie hires thugs. Scott hires thugs but unlike Christie, doesn't fire them. He has had a record number of resignations due to corruption, and instead of condemning any of them he has said, EACH AND EVERY TIME they get caught, that they have done a "great job."

(It became a meme here.)

So today in Central Florida you got two political criminals for the price of one:

Don't try to get in, by the way. There are a TON of security guards making sure only high-paying donors get in to see these two clowns at the posh Orlando Country Club.

Unless you are at the event, you won't be seeing any pictures today of Scott and Christie together. There are no private cameras and absolutely no press--the event is closed to the media. I am told that the staff was sufficiently threatened to ensure there would be no leaks (ala Romney--you know how it is getting a bunch of rich, white folks talking in a country club.) I suppose the speakers could just try and not say anything offensive, stupid, or incriminating, but these are Christie and Scott supporters we are talking about here. Its just easier to try to threaten the "help" not to repeat what was said.

My idiot GOP Rep. John Mica said it was packed and praised both men:

"The governor [Chris Christie] handled the situation, I thought very well, and his leadership has been outstanding,” Mica said. “Gov. Scott also has proven to be one of the most responsible effective governors we have in the nation."

The DNC with Debbie-Wasserman Schultz was outside the club right now giving a press conference nailing these two slimeballs. Ironically, Rick Scott is probably going to need every penny of the $2500 per person invites to run damage control from this event.

You are welcome, Charlie.

Do ANY Intelligent People Support Rick Scott?

Note: This article is by Independent Thinker, the latest author to join The Seminole Democrat. If you would like to write for us, contact us

Part of my effort to create the non-partisan list of reasons to dis-elect Rick Scott has included making sure all the points in it are sound by looking for any contrary arguments by intelligent Rick Scott supporters. One of the problems with doing that is that I can’t seem to find any intelligent Rick Scott supporters.

Not that I haven’t looked. I’ve been surfing around taking part in online discussions at various newspaper websites and blogs, hoping to find some iron to sharpen iron. Instead, I mostly seem to be running into rubber chickens instead of iron. Nearly every Rick Scott supporter I find is presenting nothing but the same talking points. (To be fair, some who oppose him do that, too, but they are balanced out by many more who at least present some reasonable arguments.) But again and again, this is all I see:

“Rick Scott lowered the unemployment rate!”

“Rick Scott reduced the state debt by $5 billion!”

“Charlie Crist oversaw the biggest jump in unemployment in state history!”

And so on. They’re all the sort of thing my non-partisan list tackles. But as yet, I haven’t found anyone who can advance a response to any of them that I present.

It’s not likely I will, either. When Rick Scott supporters sign on to places with usernames like “Global Warming Scams” (that’s a real handle for someone on the Orlando Sentinel boards), it’s pretty clear I’m not dealing with someone who can give me a challenge.  GWS’ favorite posts include things like, “Yawn,” and slogans like, “Pick Rick!” He also creates rants like this one which describe Scott in fanatical, messianic terms:

Watch and observe the Greatest Governor the Great State of Florida has ever had.Governor Scott refused to take the bait from the clowns at the sentinel and blew them and their idiotic questions out of the water.We are blessed to have this Great Man as Our Governor, and we will all be dancing in the streets when this Man is re-elected by the biggest landslide in Florida's History.All of the useful idiots who complain about this Great Man will never admit the wonderful thing He has accomplished for Our State....Our State is in much better shape than it was before He became 

Governor.Christ/Morgan?????...hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahsLive with the Man fools, because He will be ruling you for a long time.It's HISTORIC!!!!

Not exactly a brain trust, is he?

The most intelligent Rick Scott supporter I found so far goes under the username “sixzz,” and he haunts the boards over at the Tampa Bay Times web site. The best he could do involved an exchange where he said that Florida has created a lot more jobs than other states, and I replied that the state with the 4^th largest population had better be close or at the top in that category, otherwise we’d better check it’s residents for a pulse. He replied that well, Florida has created more jobs per capita. That’s nice, but even if true (I couldn't verify it one way or the other), my answer is still the same. With our population 4^th among states, verging on 3^rd, we’d better have the chance to create the most jobs of any state, even per capita, and even if Donald Duck were our Governor (instead of Goofy). And never mind all the other factors involved, like our excellent climate and lack of state income tax, which Scott can’t take credit for – although I expect GWS would say he could.

Otherwise, the only type of person I find who supports Scott, does so for selfish reasons. On one board I found a man who said he'd never vote for Crist, because while Crist was governor, he said, Crist signed off on some bill regarding the regulation of fuels and ethanol, which required this man to have to haul large containers of gasoline down to his marina so that he didn't have to put ethanol in his Sea-Doo. I feel sorry for him -- don't you? Even if all of that was true, it's nice to know he plans to make a voting decision that affects millions, based on such substantial grounds.

Anyway, if you know an intelligent Rick Scott supporter, tell me where I can find them. And while you’re at it, introduce me to the Tooth Fairy if you get a chance.