Friday Reads: Douchy Dude Bro-paloozah Day

Good Morning!

I have to admit that this has not been one of my favorite years.

I’m looking towards the night we usher it off with hope that the next year is more promising.  Meanwhile, it is what it is.

This seems to be the year of the Douchy Dude Bro.  Maybe that’s why I feel so alienated from what passes as reality these days.

So, let’s start with a little discussion of what goes around comes around.  It’s always nice when a total jerk gets a perp walk. Jerk probably isn’t the best description of ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shekreli but I’m the economist at the blog, not the psychologist.  I leave the technical jargon to BB and the more graphic descriptions to JJ.  Let’s just say the pictures did him justice and I’m waiting for the system to do the same.

Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old former hedge fund manager notorious for jacking up the price of an obscure but critical drug, was arrested Thursday on securities fraud charges.

The charges are unrelated to Shkreli’s leadership of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which bought a drug, Daraprim, for $55 million this summer, then increased the price of the 62-year-old drug by more than 4,000 percent.

Instead, the charges brought by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York are related to Shkreli’s time at Retrophin, another bio-pharmaceutical company he founded, and his time at MSMB Capital Management, a hedge fund.

Federal prosecutors alleged that for five years, Shkreli lied to investors in two hedge funds and bio-pharmaceutical company Retrophin, all of which he founded. After losing money on stock bets he made through one hedge fund, Shkreli allegedly started another and used his new investors’ money to pay off those who had lost money on the first fund. Then, as pressure was building, Shkreli started Retrophin, which was publicly traded, and used cash and stock from that company to settle with other disgruntled investors, prosecutors contended.

Shkreli “engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit,” U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers told reporters. “His plots were matched only by efforts to conceal the fraud, which led him to operate his companies … as a Ponzi scheme.”

So, even the SEC eventually catches up with Wall Street Sociopaths.  Good thing this event was sooner than the Bernie Maddoff situation.  Too bad they still save the cushy prisons for these types.

Speaking of douchy dude bros, one or more of Bernie Sanders Campaign staff seems to have gone all Nixonian on Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Data in a feat reminiscent of CREEP. It seems that the DNC database needs better security.

The Democratic National Committee has suspended Bernie Sanders’ access to the party’s 50-state voter file in response to a software glitch that allowed the Sanders campaign to access Hillary Clinton’s internal voter data.

The DNC move effectively freezes Sanders’ field organizing program six weeks from the first caucuses and primaries.

The breach occurred on Wednesday, a DNC official confirmed, through the NGP VAN, the leading technology company that allows campaigns to identify voters, as well as monitor their preferences and leanings, in what’s called the 50-state voter file. For a “brief window” — about 30 minutes, an official said — a bug in the software exposed the campaigns’ internal “voter ID” data.

During that period, the Sanders campaign discovered the breach, accessed the Clinton campaign’s data, then called the vendor to point out the flaw, according to the official. The DNC has since cut off Sanders’ access to the voter file — until his campaign officials can “prove” they’ve deleted the Clinton data.

“The DNC places a high priority on maintaining the security of our system and protecting the data on it,” said the committee’s communications director, Luis Miranda. “We are working with our campaigns and the vendor to have full clarity on the extent of the breach, ensure that this isolated incident does not happen again, and to enable our campaigns to continue engaging voters on the issues that matter most to them and their families.”

It seems the Sanders campaign made use of a brief period of time when a patch was being applied.  The breach did not go unnoticed. 

The DNC maintains the master list and rents it to national and state campaigns, which then add their own, proprietary information gathered by field workers and volunteers. Firewalls are supposed to prevent campaigns from viewing data gathered by their rivals.

NGP VAN, the vendor that handles the master file, said the incident occurred Wednesday while a patch was being applied to the software. The process briefly opened a window into proprietary information from other campaigns, said the company’s chief, Stu Trevelyan. He said a full audit will be conducted.

The DNC has told the Sanders campaign that it will not be allowed access to the data again until it provides an explanation as well as assurances that all Clinton data has been destroyed.

Having his campaign cut off from the national party’s voter data is a strategic setback for Sanders — and could be a devastating blow if it lasts. The episode also raises questions about the DNC’s ability to provide strategic resources to campaigns and state parties.

Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said four Sanders campaign staffers accessed Clinton data, and that three of them did so at the direction of their boss, Josh Uretsky, who was the operative fired.

Uretsky told CNN Friday morning that he and others on the campaign discovered the software glitch Wednesday morning and probed the system to discover the extent of their own data’s exposure. He said there was no attempt to take Clinton information but said he took responsibility for the situation.

“We investigated it for a short period of time to see the scope of the Sanders campaign’s exposure and then the breach was shut down presumably by the vendor,” he told CNN. “We did not gain any material benefit.”

Weaver said the Sanders campaign never downloaded or printed any of the data, meaning it is no longer in possession of any proprietary information. He squarely blamed NGP VAN for the glitch — and blamed the DNC for hiring the company.

I’m still checking to see if any of the alleged hipster campaign bros sport man buns.  That’s just in the interest of demographics mind you.  If you really want to know how most Hillary supporters feel, follow Uppity Woman on Twitter.  I’ve found the whole thing douchy and laughable since I consider Bernie Sanders to be the definition of a gadfly campaign.

We’re less than 48 hours from the next Democratic debate so the timing is a bit interesting.  The third debate will be on December 19th, Saturday, in New Hampshire.

Hillary Clinton looks increasingly like a general election candidate performing from a primary stage.

The challenges that come along with that, both for her and her Democratic competitors, will be clear at the party’s third debate Saturday in New Hampshire.

Clinton, who’s maintaining more than a 20-point lead in national polls over her nearest competitor, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has focused less on mirroring his progressive positions — with the exception of a pledge Wednesday to raise taxes on the wealthy — and more on positioning herself for the general election.

With much of the 2016 spotlight focused on the GOP battle and Donald Trump’s provocative statements and proposals (such as his recent call to temporarily ban non-citizen Muslims from entering the country), the debate is a chance for the Democrats to get some media exposure. Clinton and Sanders will be joined on stage by former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley.

The last debate, held in Iowa the day after the Paris terrorist attacks, was punctuated by hits on Clinton’s foreign policy record, including her vote as a U.S. senator to authorize the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Now, the question is whether O’Malley and Sanders sharpen those attacks with polls showing the race largely stagnant since October.

“For Sanders and O’Malley it’s a gut-check moment,” said Dante Scala, a political expert at the University of New Hampshire. “Are they, in their hearts, fine with Hillary being the nominee,” or do they want to escalate attacks that could hurt her in a general election, he said.

Speaking of douchy dude bros,  first generation douchy dude bro Donald Trump shocked the monkey err fellow first generation douchy dude bro Joe Scarborough today on Morning Joe.  Just what won’t come out of the Donald’s active orifices?   Oh, and does a man bun turn into one gigantic comb over after most of the hair’s gone?  Just asking as a matter of public interest. After all, inquiring minds want to know.

During a Friday-morning interview with Donald Trump, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was baffled by the Republican front-runner’s embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Sure, when people call you ‘brilliant’ it’s always good. Especially when the person heads up Russia,” Trump told cohost Mika Brzezinski when asked about Putin praising him as “very talented” the day before.

Scarborough pointed to Putin’s status as a notorious strongman.

“Well, I mean, it’s also a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that would be a concern, would it not?” Scarborough asked.

“He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader,” Trump replied. “Unlike what we have in this country.”

“But again: He kills journalists that don’t agree with him,” Scarborough said.

The Republican presidential front-runner said there was “a lot of killing going on” around the world and then suggested that Scarborough had asked him a different question.

“I think our country does plenty of killing, also, Joe, so, you know,” Trump replied. “There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that’s the way it is. But you didn’t ask me [that] question, you asked me a different question. So that’s fine.”

Scarborough was left visibly stunned.

“I’m confused,” the MSNBC host said. “So I mean, you obviously condemn Vladimir Putin killing journalists and political opponents, right?”

“Oh sure, absolutely,” Trump said.

Several of Trump’s Republican presidential rivals criticized the billionaire businessman on Thursday for saying it was a “great honor” to receive Putin’s praise.

Okay, I can’t take any more of this thread as well as the remainder of 2015.  Oh, btw, I consider douchy to be the perfect word for these misogynists.  Let them be associated with the thing that disturbs them the most: VAGINAS!!!

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?