Hasta La Gadget!

Cash and carry has become nothing more than standard operating procedure in politics and government, and it’s wrecking the republic. The whole system is rotten to the core, corrupted by big business and special interests from the seventh son to the seventh son.

Or daughter, as we learned these past few days when the news introduced us to Heather Bresch, CEO of a drug company called Mylan and daughter of Democratic US Sen. Joe Manchin III, who’s also the former governor of West Virginia.

Mylan manufactures and sells EpiPen, the emergency delivery system for an allergy drug, epinephrine, that can make the difference between life and sudden death. The cost for a two-pack of the devices has soared nearly 550 percent to $608.61. That’s a price far beyond the means of most families with kids threatened by possibly fatal allergic reactions.

At the same time, Bresch has seen her own compensation increase a whopping 671 percent, from $2,453,456 in 2007 (the year that Mylan bought EpiPen) to $18,931,068 in 2015.

She should resign for price gouging rather than get a raise, but like so many of her fellow executives Bresch sails serenely on as her fellow Americans drown in health care debt. Her career and the success of her company epitomize everything that so enrages every voter who believes that the fix is in and that the system is weighted in favor of those with big money and serious connections.

According to reports, Bresch got her first job at Mylan working in the factory basement, when her well-connected dad asked the company’s then-CEO, Milan Puskar, for a favor. Later, a scandal erupted when it was discovered that West Virginia University, which had received a $20 million donation from Puskar and whose president was a Manchin and Bresch family friend, had awarded her an MBA although she had not completed the required coursework.

The school president and other administrators were forced to resign, but Bresch survived the controversy and has done very well indeed in the pharmaceutical business, rising through the ranks and at the same time learning how to adroitly manipulate government and its regulations — lessons for which life in a successful political family with its network of friends and colleagues prepared her well.

For a time, she was Mylan’s chief lobbyist (working to help pass the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, among other legislation) and Anna Edney at Bloomberg Politics writes that “Mylan spent about $4 million in 2012 and 2013 on lobbying for access to EpiPens generally and for legislation, including the 2013 School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Office of the Clerk for the House of Representatives. Mylan also was the top corporate sponsor of a group called Food Allergy Research & Education that was the key lobbyist pushing for the bill encouraging schools to stock epinephrine auto-injectors, of which EpiPen is by far the leading product.”

The company also took advantage of what President Obama has called an “unpatriotic tax loophole,” making a deal in 2014 with Abbott Laboratories to incorporate in the Netherlands — one of those infamous “inversions” that allow companies to pay a much lower tax rate abroad than here at home — even as they rake in profits from US taxpayer-subsidized programs like Medicare, Medicaid and veterans’ benefits. Political expedience and maybe embarrassment saw Joe Manchin denouncing his daughter’s inversion deal. But no one stopped it.

Like so many businesses eager to purchase politicians all their own, Mylan has made significant cash contributions to both sides of the aisle. Emmarie Huetteman at The New York Times reports, “Mylan’s political action committee has given at least $71,000 to congressional candidates from both parties this election cycle,according to the Center for Responsive Politics, with about 72 percent of those contributions going to Republicans.”

Dad got a taste, too: “It has been one of the biggest donors to Mr. Manchin since he joined the Senate in 2010, giving more than $60,000 in total.”

Mylan also has brushed up against both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The company has contributed up to $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation and one of its leading stockholders — with 22 million shares — is the hedge fund owned and managed by billionaire John Paulson, a big Trump bankroller.

Hillary Clinton decried the EpiPen price hike as “outrageous, and just the latest example of a company taking advantage of its consumers.” Several of Manchin’s Senate colleagues have called for hearings and an investigation into Mylan. Manchin himself has said he is “aware” of the soaring prices of prescription drugs and looks forward to reviewing Mylan’s response. He did not mention his daughter’s name.

Meanwhile, in response to the current furor, Mylan announced plans to widen a patient assistance plan, provide $300 savings cards and on Monday said they would begin producing a generic alternative to the EpiPen that would cost half as much (there’s a certain rounding of the circle, even irony here, as Mylan began business as a manufacturer of cheap generics).

But of the expanded assistance plan, Mike Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times says, “at heart it’s a cynical move that actually protects the company’s profits and harms the health care system… In fact, they’re illegal when applied to Medicare or Medicaid patients, because they may violate federal anti-kickback laws, which bar payments made to induce patients to choose particular services. Insurers and government programs will have to cover everything beyond the co-pay or deductible…”

And even at half-price, the cost of an EpiPen remains an outrage. In fact, some estimate that the dose of epinephrine used in the injector may really cost as little as a dollar.

In other words, this is one more, big old scam — yet another case of big business trying to pull the wool over the citizens’ eyes and pick our pockets while the government and our politicians mostly look the other way.

The Mylan mess is the cozy relationship between regulators and the regulated in a nutshell. Throughout government, politics and business, cash contributions are made, connections are used, strings are pulled and favors are requested and returned. So the system wins again, corrupt as hell.

But take notice. Realize that the rest of us are more and more aware of how we’re being had — and that we truly must be heard and heeded. Unless the tiny-hearted, gold-digging CEOs of America’s corporations and our leaders get the dollar signs out of their eyes and come to their senses, they are writing a prescription for an angry public response that not even their bought-and-paid-for Congress can hold at bay.

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I saw it on Facebook, where I trip over all sorts of things that make me crazy. Especially during this election season where the main lesson I’ve learned is that screaming at the idiotic statements people make about candidates doesn’t really help.

But this annoying tidbit wasn’t about the election. It was about the second most important event to happen on Facebook: Birthdays.

In case you live under a rock where you don’t see Facebook, you need to know that people on Facebook are bombarded daily with the reminders of whose birthday it is. That way, you can reach out across the miles to insincerely wish someone you haven’t seen or wanted to see since high school, a Happy Birthday! And you can send photos of cake, too, or emojis of someone attending a fabulous party for one.

On one such post, a well-wisher wrote, “Remember 60 is the new 40!”

No, it so isn’t.

Sixty may be the new 60 and that’s a good thing, but is sure ain’t the new 40 and no one should want it to be. There are some wonderful things about being 60+ and wishing we were 40 isn’t one of them.

What is terrific is that we who are enjoying the new 60 are so much smarter than we were at 40. And, with that wisdom of age comes a great deal of happiness. So let us new “60” folks school you people looking wistfully at 40 by sharing some of what we’ve learned.

1. You really do have the power to make your own luck. Pay attention to the small opportunities for improvement or change. Luck helps, but not being afraid to change is the first step toward bringing good fortune into your life. We know now that change is often a good thing and we’ve also learned that making a change doesn’t have to be permanent. You can undo most of what you try if it doesn’t work out. We know now that the “worst that can happen” usually doesn’t, so go for it.

2. Problems that can be solved with money aren’t really problems unless you actually don’t have any money and that’s a separate problem. But, for example, being wildly annoyed because you got a $175 ticket for driving 62 mph in a 35 mph zone isn’t a real problem. The giant red wine stain on your carpet isn’t a real problem. Write the check and move on. That brings us to the next valuable lesson.

3. Forgiving yourself for stupidity is a gift only you can give. And, it’s the key to happiness much of the time.

4. The new 60 means you can stop having angst from trying to “be” anything. The part of your life where you’re striving to “be” successful, or rich, or have the flawless body or be the perfect parent raising Ivy League kids is behind you. Now you can revel in “being” who you are. You can feel free to continue learning, exploring, evolving, and challenging yourself to try new things; you’re not dead, you’re just off the competition conveyor belt you boarded in your 20s and forgot to step off of. The only thing I have to be now is someone who takes care of my body thoughtfully enough to provide me with more days to be me.

5. You get to spend time with people whom you enjoy. The days of obligatory social engagements are behind you. This is the stage of life when you can cut loose the people you simply don’t like. You’ve learned that life is, as they say, short and certainly too short to spend any of it with people who make you wish your life was closer to its end. It’s also too short to drink crappy wine, another perk of being the new 60. I drink less, but I drink better and enjoy it more.

Would I go back to 40? Absolutely not. I am freer now than I was then. I’ve been able to let go of so many “should do” items and in their place I have “want to do” items. I can stop worrying about who I will be when I “grow up.” I am a grownup and for better or worse, I’m pretty much who I am ever going to be. The sheer joy of the relief of accepting life and myself cannot be overstated.

Come hang out with me over at GRAND Magazine. We’ll drink better wine and toast to the new 60 … until we’re the new 70.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

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I recently discovered the teachings of Victor Frankl, a trained psychiatrist and neurologist, who spent three years in four Nazi concentration camps, an experience that helped him develop Logotherapy. Logotherapy is a term derived from the words “logos,” a Greek word that translates as “meaning,” and therapy, which is defined as treatment of a condition, illness, or neurosis. Frankl observed that those who were able to survive the experience were more likely to find meaning in their suffering. After the camps were liberated Frankl resumed his work and published “Man’s Search for Meaning,” a book which centered on the premise that life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones. Frankl felt humans were driven to find a sense of meaning and purpose in life. What I like most about Frankl’s teachings in the face of the worst possible adversity imaginable, is his concept that we have the freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the outlook we choose when faced with a situation of unalterable suffering.

If I take Frankl’s premise to heart, I can see that in the face of my sorrow, I have the freedom to write down my feelings and more importantly I have the freedom to blog about my emotions with others across the world. I have blogged my heart out to ease my own personal anguish, as well to give voice to others experiencing deep grief. I am finding meaning in loss. I am finding positivity in sorrow. I am finding a way to keep living with purpose.

I am also looking to other parts of my life for purpose. I find that forging a stronger bond with my son and daughter-in-law has been immensely welcome and gratifying. Being with my grandkids has always been a win-win situation and now it is so, in spades. We exchange love, warmth, humor, and joy, a quality that has often eluded me since my husband Peter died last year. I have learned a new acceptance and tolerance of others that I consider a trusted attribute to have in my arsenal of purpose. I have always been hyper-vigilant, meaning my bull#&*t detector is on high alert as a protective mechanism. After Peter died I learned to be more open. I developed a sense of compassion so that I could sympathize with other widows and widowers as well as those who wanted to help me on my journey.

Dealing with my own loss has been unbearable. Sometimes grief literally takes my breath away so that the only way I can breathe is by sobbing, while gulping in bursts of air. But Frankl’s teachings tell me to imagine the worst. So, I envision a scenario in which I die before Peter and my body shakes uncontrollably at the thought of his suffering. My “meaning” is that I spared sweet Peter this agony. Yes, I am paying a price by surviving and grieving but I have found a strange comfort in knowing he didn’t suffer this anguish. I am finding meaning in life even when confronted with a heartbreaking situation that is unchangeable. I am trying to transform a tragedy into something meaningful. I am trying to make sense of my loss.

Frankl encourages us to recognize our grief and rage and to see our heartache as an experience in which it is possible to find some positivity from the pain. There is something in Frankl’s “search for meaning” that is just evolving in my mind and gives me the hope to go on. The nature of meaning is different for all of us. For me writing is what keeps me going. This is my purpose to help me heal and to give a voice to others that it is okay to grieve openly. The comments I receive online bring both tears and smiles. Please keep your responses coming and let us continue the dialogue of grief in the open and out there for all to witness. If we must grieve, please let us do it openly, sobbing away our pain, without stigmas, taboos, and other hindrances in our paths.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Victor Frankl

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Although he wished Sarah Palin a speedy recovery from her recent bloody fall, “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert wasn’t about to let her off the hook. Not after Palin turned her injury into a bizarre rant against Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday, Colbert took a dig at Donald Trump, then segued with, “Speaking of fake politicians… Sarah Palin.” 

He brought viewers up to speed on Palin’s “rock running” accident and her rambling diatribe.

“Now I would chalk that up to head trauma ― if it didn’t sound like everything else she says,” he remarked.

Colbert then sent her a get-well message “in a language she’ll understand.” What followed was hilarious, stream-of-consciousness drivel that proved you didn’t need to take a rock to the head to have rocks in your head.

Check out the free-verse nonsense above. The Palin bit begins around the 2:10 mark.

type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related…Sarah Palin + articlesList=57724e9fe4b017b379f736ce,569e3bd5e4b0cd99679b4244

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Amazon’s Dash Button service has become fairly common in the US after launching a year and a half ago with the small, WiFi-connected devices that let shoppers re-order household items and snacks with just a single press, and now totaling over 100 brands and products. But in all that time, Amazon has never made the buttons available outside the US … Continue reading