☕️ FOLLOWING THE SCIENCE ☙ Wednesday, September 2, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

"Handful of drugs" is now 89% of the market; 110 CDL schools shut over drivers who flunked English; Johnson dares Dems to vote for court-packing; CDC's fugitive vaccine scientist flattened; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Wednesday! Your roundup includes: corporate media sneered at TrumpRX as “a handful of drugs” in February, and yesterday the handful became 89% of the branded market plus twenty billion dollars in new American factories, so pass the crow; Secretary Duffy pulls the plug on 110 truck-driving schools whose 5,000 graduates flunked an English test, which is bad news for anyone sharing an interstate with them and good news for the road signs, which had been talking to themselves; Speaker Johnson forces House Democrats to vote yes or no on packing the Supreme Court, and I float a generous bipartisan compromise; and a CDC vaccine-safety scientist finally pleads guilty to wiring himself a million dollars of autism grant money, fifteen years, one Atlanta house, and one Harley after his indictment.

🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍

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Corporate media usually proves itself wrong about everything eventually. This time, 89% wrong. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported, “Trump Administration Reaches Drug Pricing Deals With 9 Companies.” He announced it with representatives from the companies and a very cool CH-47 Chinook model helicopter sitting on his desk.

CLIP: President Trump announces reaching nearly 90% of prescription drugs in MFN plan (4:19).

When the President first launched TrumpRX in February, corporate media sneered so hard it pulled its groin muscle. Reporters cruelly curled their lips and dismissed Trump’s Most Favored Nation Plan as “only a handful of drugs,” “a limited selection,” and “a tiny fraction of the market.” Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) complained, “TrumpRx is yet another PR stunt and a money-making scheme for the Trump family.”

Welp. “The U.S. has now reached 26 such deals covering 89% of the branded drug market,” the Journal reported. It would be great enough that the nine new companies that signed agreements yesterday will offer most of their drugs to Medicaid —the largest single domestic drug buyer— at the lowest price paid by any developed nation. One of the nine was Teva— the world’s largest generic drug maker.

In February, it was a “handful of drugs.” Turns out Trump’s hand held the high card.

But President Trump used the Art of the Deal and got more. He’s making it look easy. The Journal reported that the nine drugmakers “also agreed to collectively commit $19.6 billion to manufacturing in the U.S. in the near term.” So he got them to lower prices and commit to spending $20 billion to build permanent facilities here in the U.S., which is a negotiating tactic the literature refers to as sweeping the board.

What the drugmakers got in return was a three-year exemption from Trump’s threatened 100% tariffs. Admittedly, as critics are quick to point out, the deal doesn’t directly apply to private insurance simply because the Administration can’t rewrite private contracts. But the deals are nevertheless restructuring the entire market.

We can see the evidence that drug prices are falling overall, not just for Medicaid, but across the board. On Monday, TDS-infested FactCheck.org ran a story conceding that, so far this year, 2026, drug prices have seen the largest one-year price drop since 1963, and the steepest six-month drop since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking prescription drug costs in 1947. In other words, Trump just set the record. Nobody’s lowered prices faster than he has. Ever.

💊 Out-of-pocket prescription expenses are the single largest category of healthcare expenses for most Americans. While Democrats keep crying about healthcare affordability, they’ve done nothing to make it more affordable, unless you count making healthcare roughly ten times more expensive under Obamacare. Well, President Trump and his team just lowered the biggest component of individual healthcare costs faster than has ever happened before in American history. That is a fact.

It’s too much to expect corporate media to give this news the attention it deserves, considering how much of a stink they’ve made about affordability lately. But you’d think the media would at least admit it was wrong to sneer at TrumpRX back in February. But we must forgive them, because when it comes to Trump, the corporate media’s imagination stops at guessing which of his racist motives explain the price cuts.

Anyway, more TAW. You’re welcome.

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Yesterday, Idaho affiliate KTVB-7 reported, “Federal crackdown removes 110 CDL training providers, including Nampa school.” The subheadline added, “Officials say the removed providers are tied to more than 5,000 drivers who failed English-proficiency tests.” Know what else the drivers lacked besides English? Passports.

CLIP: Secretary Duffy yanks CDLs from immigrant drivers (1:33).

In an emergency action this week, federal officials removed 110 truck-driving schools connected to more than 5,000 drivers who failed English-proficiency tests, suggesting the schools’ admissions policy was: Do you have a pulse, a wallet, and a rough idea which end of the truck to get in?

Since June, 2025, DOT has purged more than 28,000 drivers and linked fraudulent school graduates to 239 traffic fatalities. So.

At a press conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described one school where commercial driver’s license (CDL) students —people allowed to drive 80,000-pound tractor-trailers on U.S. highways— was operating out of a broken-down school bus parked inside a trailer. The bus was the school. Allegedly.

But the problem was far bigger than the bus.

One might reasonably wonder whether men who don’t speak or read English can possibly drive safely on American highways, given that they can’t understand road signs, read scrolling DOT notices that say “BRIDGE OUT” or “HAZARDOUS SPILL,” or explain clearly to police why three of its wheels were passing the truck.

States issue CDL licenses. But in many states, teaching and testing are provided by private ‘CDL schools,’ which complete the paperwork once a driver “passes,” and the state then automatically rubber-stamps the license. Good luck! We’re all counting on you.

Defenders argue that CDL (commercial driver’s license) schools are fine to teach in languages other than English, because the students can just memorize what all the different types of signs look like. They only need a ‘minimum proficiency’ in English. This has, apparently, been going on for a long time.

So Secretary Duffy said fine, let’s check. Transportation tested non-English drivers for their ‘minimum proficiency.’ It discovered that in many mostly blue states, ‘minimum proficiency’ translated to ‘no proficiency.’ They found five thousand drivers who failed roadside English checks. The operation was called Joint Task Force Crossroads of America and involved DOT, DHS, DOJ, FMCSA, HSI, ICE, FBI, DEA, and ATF—nearly an entire alphabet of acronyms, which, ironically, were utterly illegible to most of the drivers being investigated.

The government’s evidence suggested the schools were less Harvard of the Highway and more like a DMV-themed escape room where they leave the door unlocked. Until recently, CDL certificates have carried about as much assurance of competence as a Carnival-cruise wristband during Spring Break.

The subtext that nobody says out loud is that, apparently, commercial driver’s licenses have basically been a jobs program for illegal aliens or immigrants here under temporary asylum visas. Trucking companies don’t mind because these drivers are cheaper than Americans. Removing these unqualified drivers will boost wages for real ones who can read the signs. Secretary Duffy warned, “Don’t hire people who can’t speak English or can’t read English, or you’re all going to be subject to this task force.”

Sheriff Buford T. Justice had many shortcomings, but a failure to communicate was not among them. People understood him in adjoining counties. In Over the Top, Lincoln Hawk had to win an arm-wrestling tournament to get a new truck. Ridiculous, true— but still more rigorous than many real CDL certification programs.

I’ll add this one to the 2.0 version of the list of Trump Administration achievements.

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It was, perhaps, merely symbolic, but still. Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported, “Mike Johnson Says He’ll Introduce Bill To Cap Supreme Court At 9 Justices.” The bill proposes a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate and ratification by 38 states. In other words, not bloody likely.

CLIP: House Speaker Johnson announces bill for constitutional amendment (1:06).

It won’t pass, but it’s a shrewd political play, driving the iron wedge deeper into the Democrat polycrisis. “Now you’ve heard of the Democrat Socialists of America, the communists and socialists who are taking the Democrat Party over,” Speaker Johnson said. “They published their platform; they want to abolish the border, they want to abolish prisons, defund police. One of their objectives, among all the crazy things, is they want to pack the US Supreme Court. We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Some Democrats here in the House have suggested that they’re not on board with the Democrat Socialists of America. We will have them put their money where their mouth is,” he added. It’s not clear how many Democrats will reject the DSA’s court-packing platform. That’s what this is meant to find out.

Currently, as you know, the Supreme Court has nine justices. Gerontocratic Representative James E. “Jimbo” Clyburn (D-SC), a spry 86-year-old, said thirteen sounded like “a pretty good number” to him, which is also the complete mathematical proof offered by people who buy lottery tickets.

Their packing proposal, so far as I can understand it, would be passed by Democrats when next they hold the presidency, giving them a fast track to appointing four new justices— just enough to create a new liberal majority.

Democrats are playing nuclear Calvinball— make up the rules as you go along. Fun! Assuming Democrats get their thirteen, Republicans, if they had the stones, would wait and then, in turn, expand the Court to twenty, giving them seven new appointments and the next new majority.

Lather, rinse, and repeat, until eventually the Supreme Court would have to hear oral arguments in a mid-sized football stadium.

The Republicans not-so-disguised strategy is that Speaker Johnson is creating a permanent record that can become a campaign talking point for 2026 and beyond. The point is, if Democrats ever regain political power, things will get crazier than a nest of sprayed roaches. The Donkey Party needs to be fumigated. Politically, of course.

But wait.

Hear me out. Maybe we should accept the Democrats’ proposal. If a majority of Democrats vote the bill down, agreeing with the DSA and Jimbo Clyburn, then maybe Republicans should say fine and take yes for an answer. Pack it. We’ll graciously add the four more justices to make an ‘even’ thirteen. Trump can appoint them all. Maybe that compromise would make impossible-to-please Democrats happy. Nothing else seems to work.

Better yet, to be extra accommodating and really reach across the aisle in a spirit of true bipartisanship, maybe Republicans should splurge and go for fifty justices total— one per state. Super Bowl at the Supreme Court! Share what you think of my modest proposal in the comments.

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Finally, how about some more delicious accountability news? Yesterday, Atlanta News First reported, “Danish autism researcher pleads guilty to stealing more than $1M in CDC grant money.” More white coat fraud. Unsurprisingly, from a CDC vaccine scientist.

Poul Thorsen, a former CDC visiting scientist who became the principal investigator administering more than $11 million in CDC-supported research grants, pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to wire fraud. Prosecutors said he stole more than $1 million through over a dozen phony invoices bearing the forged signature of a CDC laboratory section chief. I guess nobody ever asked questions. Air-tight security.

Aarhus University wired money to Thorsen’s personal CDC Credit Union accounts, which Aarhus somehow mistakenly believed only held the CDC’s accounts. Denmark’s best and brightest. Thorsen used the grant money to buy an Atlanta home, a Harley-Davidson, and Audi and Honda vehicles, and make credit card payments, cash withdrawals, cashier’s checks made out to ‘cash,’ and transfers to his other accounts. It’s Science! Shut up!

For years, corporate media hectored us till our ears bled to follow the science. Well, federal investigators followed the science. It turned left at Aarhus University, forged a CDC signature, and wired itself a down payment.

Thorsten stole from grants involving autism and vaccine exposure, cerebral palsy and prenatal infection, fetal alcohol exposure, infant disabilities, and birth defects. DOJ first issued a warrant in April 2011 but took no further action; Thorsen remained in Denmark for over fourteen years.

In June 2025, Trump’s DOJ arrested the scientist while he was traveling in Germany. He was extradited in May 2026 and finally pleaded guilty fifteen years after his indictment. Sentencing is set for December 1st. It only takes two weeks to flatten the curve, but fifteen years to flatten the scientist.

💉 The CDC’s internal grant controls consist of a sophisticated fraud-detection system known around its campus as “please be honest.” As principal investigator, Thorsen’s job was to lead the research and serve as the grant administrator, which meant the vaccine researcher principally investigated how quickly the Audi dealership could deliver his new car. Thorsen also discovered a statistically significant relationship between forged invoices and personal liquidity.

Trust the experts! (Maybe not with our wallets, though.) “Poul Thorsen ran a multi-year fraud scheme to cheat the CDC, diverting valuable federal grant money to service his greed and inflated lifestyle,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg. But the science was settled. As were the deposits into Thorsen’s accounts.

Thorsen was a big name in the area of vaccine safety. He coauthored two influential and widely cited vaccine-safety papers: a 2002 New England Journal of Medicine study of 537,303 children that reported strong evidence against any MMR-autism association, and a 2003 Pediatrics study reporting that Danish data did not support any thimerosal-autism correlation.

But the CDC’s grant money was strongly correlated with a scientist’s acquisition of a house in Atlanta and several luxury vehicles. Trust, they remind us, is essential to science. So are controls, audits, disclosures, reproducibility, and noticing when the CDC reimbursement account belongs to the grant administrator.

💉 Thorsen’s coauthors on the seminal vaccine safety studies have since downplayed his scientific role as “minor or administrative,” claiming that he lacked access to the NEJM data and that the financial fraud “did not compromise the findings.” He was an honest fraudster. Trust us. Well, if he was so uninvolved, it raises the awkward question of why a man the CDC trusted with millions was apparently considered both important and irrelevant, depending on the date of the search warrant.

His defenders have gotten very quiet. They originally argued that, although on the lam for fourteen years, he still deserved his day in court. Innocent till proven guilty. Now that he’s pleaded guilty, the defense has shifted to he was never that important anyway.

The real problem is that grant-handling institutions, like Aarhus University, who take generous ‘management overhead’ fees (that NIH is currently fighting), aren’t held responsible for what happens to the rest of the money. They shouldn’t be able to say, oops, we “mistakenly” thought those oddly named credit-union accounts belonged to the CDC. If they fail to exercise reasonable stewardship over the money, like confirming the transferee’s account —which anyone who’s gotten an email from the Nigerian Prince Credit Union already knows— they should have to pay us back.

The whitecoats used to enjoy de facto immunity, even if they were already on HHS’s most wanted list. Nothing ever happened. Well, it’s happening now. The Reckoning™ is following the science faster than ever. Fifteen years may be a long time to flatten science’s grant-grifting curve, but it is approaching pancake depth.

Have a wonderful Wednesday! Get back here tomorrow morning, for more delicious C&C-style essential news and colorful, caffeinated commentary.

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