Last weekend President Trump set off a fire storm when he suggested that owners fire “son of bitch players” who do not stand for the National Anthem. The dog whistle was heard loud and clear. Nascar came out on the side of the President, suggesting that if anyone doesn’t want to stand for the National Anthem at Nascar events that they should simply go home. Corporate sponsors have pulled endorsements for some of the players. Others have cancelled sponsorships for the NFL. Fans have burned jerseys and voiced their distaste for watching games.
The NFL owners were rather in unison that the President was way off base in his comments. Patriots owner Robert Kraft voiced disappointment in the President. This well telling, given that the two are personal friends and Kraft was one of the few people to endorse Trump’s presidential candidacy. In an “I’ll show Trump” moment, a few of the owners kneeled or locked arms with the players while the Anthem was being performed. Were they protesting the inequality and police brutality suffered by African Americans or were they protesting the right not to be told what to do by the President? Heck, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had previously stated his players would stand, yet he kneeled alongside them Sunday. I was confused until Shannon Sharpe cleared things up on Undisputed:
Jerry Jones And President Trump Sort Out How To Handle Black Players
Chatter suggested that President Trump called Jerry Jones on his cell phone about four times during the Cowboys’ game Sunday … did this really happen? Really?
President Trump blew up Jerry’s cell Monday, calling him four times throughout the day to talk about anthem stuff. Wow.
— Jean-Jacques Taylor (@JJT_Journalist) September 27, 2017
What we can confirm is that they have spoken about have the blacks stand during the National Anthem and two are in agreement:
Spoke to Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys yesterday. Jerry is a winner who knows how to get things done. Players will stand for Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2017
Whether the blacks stand for the Anthem or not has become a matter of national security, and could potentially tear the country apart. Whether you are for or against Glass-Steagall, Wall Street criminals going to jail or undoing the Obama administration’s faux “wealth effect” have taken a back seat to the blacks. Trump raised an non-issue – the blacks standing for the Anthem – and now he is about to solve it. This will be one of several victories – tax reform, repealing Obamacare and infrastructure investing – Trump can claim. Who said the President doesn’t know politics?
*Crickets* On Allergan
While handling the blacks is a major priority, when it comes to Allergan …. *crickets* … The blacks protest silently. Allergan has been price-gouging in the dry eye market. When its patent for Restasis was challenged by generic rivals the CEO, Brent Saunders, protested by selling the patent to a Mohawk Tribe with sovereign immunity. And Brent was loud about it too. He halted Alergan’s stock and crafted a press release detailing the sale and practically dared Trump and other lawmakers to do anything about it.
The Mohawk’s sovereign immunity allows them to dismiss an inter partes patent challenge brought on by Mylan. Allergan is paying $15 million in annual royalties to “rent” this immunity, yet it keeps the $1.4 billion in annual revenue from the drug. It sounds rather squirrelly but Brent Saunders is sticking to his guns:
Mylan didn’t wait long before challenging Allergan’s bid to safeguard its patents for its blockbuster eye drug Restasis by flipping the rights to the drug to a Mohawk Indian tribe and then licensing them back.
Last week’s legal gambit, Mylan said in a court filing, is a simple attempt to “misuse Native American sovereignty to shield invalid patents from cancellation.”
But don’t look for Allergan — or its lawyers — to cave in now or anytime. No matter what reaction they get, they plan to fight this one out … “We are absolutely going to stick with this,” adds the CEO, as a necessary strategy for balancing the needs of the market and investors against the uncertain world of drug R&D, where the risk of failure runs deep.
To invest in R&D, they add, “we need the full protection of the courts.” If anything, the focus should be on patent reform.
A few days ago four senators asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation into Allergan’s the “anti-competitive patent sale.” The patent sale has been called out by lawmakers and consumers alike, yet still no news from Trump who campaigned on tamping down healthcare costs and stamping out price gougers. He’s too busy handling the blacks for protesting silently about injustice.
If its Phase 3 clinical trial for the dry eye treatment is successful then maybe RegeneRx can disrupt Restasis and the dry eye market. Then maybe … just maybe the Restasis patent sale could be a moot point. It’s a good thing somebody is on the case since the President appears to be preoccupied with more pressing matters.
On Shock Exchange
Shock Exchange: How Inner-City Kids From Brooklyn Predicted the Great Recession and the Pain Ahead explains the stock market and U.S. economy through the eyes of the New York Shock Exchange, a financial literacy program Ralph Baker started in 2006 to share his passion for investing and basketball with his 11-year-old son and other boys his age. The book predicts the “pain ahead” for the U.S. economy, the demise of China, the pending stock market crash and social unrest.
Shock Exchange has been trumpeted by President Obama, the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. However, they conveniently forgot to cite the source. Critics try to make and unmake authors, but the market always decides. The book was also recently added to Trump Syllabus K12, crafted by Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead of Loyola University Maryland. Shock Exchange is the best book on Wall Street in the past 20 years, and on economics, it may be the most important book since the Great Depression.
[…] 30 years later Jones is still making waves. He has been vocal about players to stand for the Anthem and has been obstinate on the NFL renewing commissioner Roger […]