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Beshoy Wasef

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The left praises the movie, arguing that it is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

" Barbie is an impressive achievement as a film and far, far funnier than any studio comedy I can remember in recent history. There are perfect jokes about everything from stilettos to boy bands to fascism and Matchbox Twenty; I'm still giggling at some of the gags...

"Gerwig's solo directing career thus far (which includes Lady Bird and Little Women) is a triumph of reimagination, an exploration of what it means to find out who you are and not allow yourself to be shaped by nostalgia and sentimentality while also living with deep, real love. That she managed to infuse the same sensibilities into Barbie is something near a miracle."

‍ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

"'If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you,' promises (or threatens) the trailer... Are audiences meant to cheer on the empowered girlboss exploits of the live-action embodiment of a now 64-year-old fashion doll? Or, on the contrary, should we be critiquing the male gaze-driven industrial economy that made generations of little girls believe that the highest achievement of adult womanhood was an anatomically impossible waist-hip ratio? And what about those of us who grew up Barbie-indifferent?...

"Yes, yes, and yes, responds Barbie: This movie is for you... Can any one movie be all those things at once? Gerwig's answer to that conundrum is to serve up a multilayered concoction that's as busy as a fully accessorized Dreamhouse: an earnest feminist manifesto inside a barbed social satire inside an effervescent musical comedy, all designed in colors and textures so sumptuous they make 1950s Technicolor look desaturated. Barbie never completely resolves the paradox at its heart... [But it] is a delight of improbable proportions."

‍ Dana Stevens, Slate

"The reactionary weirdoes decrying Barbie as peddling the 'woke' agenda haven't pulled much of a gotcha, accurately summarizing the textual substance of a film about one woman's sudden burst of institutional consciousness. Like a college freshman taking an intro class on gender - or perhaps like a high-schooler seeing a mass-market blockbuster with a developed political streak for the first time - Barbie becomes abruptly aware of the untenable societal pressures heaped upon womankind, released in a cathartic monologue by normal-person surrogate America Ferrera...

"She resolves the many contradictions of the male gaze by slicing through the Gordian knot, simply concluding that whatever women want is fine, so long as everyone lets them live their lives in peace. It's a pretty anodyne statement... The steadfast refusal to coddle male ego may be the most unabashedly subversive notion in a project often conflicted about its opposing mandates as a critical work of art and a commercial good for sale."

‍ Charles Bramesco, The Guardian

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The left supports the reform, arguing that worries about reduced funding for new drugs are overblown.

"'The cancer moonshot will not succeed if this administration continues to dismantle the innovation rocket we need to get there,' PhRMA stated Tuesday. That's debatable. Most of the basic research on curing cancer and other diseases is funded by the government and philanthropy. Big Pharma is mainly involved in clinical trials and marketing...

"Also, the negotiations apply only to drugs that are nearing their patents' expiration. What's more, even if price caps do reduce Big Pharma's profitability, business logic says that they should still have a strong incentive to bring innovative drugs to market...

"The real issue here is not that pharma is good and government is bad or the other way around but that there is no clear standard for what a fair price should be for a drug that is available from only one source, that costs a lot to research and develop but very little to manufacture and that provides important health benefits."

‍ Peter Coy, New York Times

"It's reasonable to ask how many fewer drugs might get developed and which drugs those might be. The Congressional Budget Office, the economic referee in legislative debates, estimated that the drug pricing provisions of the I.R.A. would result in 13 fewer drugs coming to market in the United States over the next three decades. That's a very small share of the 1,300 new drugs expected over that period...

"One of the big reasons any effects on innovation may be muted is that drugs are shielded from government negotiation for quite a while: until nine years after Food and Drug Administration approval for small-molecule drugs like pills and 13 years for injectable biological products. Drugmakers can continue to set their own prices and reap substantial profits before having to submit to negotiation."

‍ Larry Levitt, New York Times

"We analyzed how much it costs on average to bring a drug to market and how much these companies have earned from the selected drugs since their launch. Not only are revenues enough to justify the investment in these particular drugs, they are enough to fund several more generations of pharmaceutical development...

"Seven of the 10 selected drugs had cumulative earnings of over $25 billion, using the estimate of $3.4 billion for R&D favored by the industry. At the high end, Eliquis, an anticoagulant, has earned $87.5 billion above the cost of the average new drug since 2012. At the low end, the heart medication Entresto has earned $13.7 billion over the average cost of bringing drugs to market since 2015...

"Despite the pharma companies' fears, negotiating Medicare prices will not lead to a 'nuclear winter' - just perhaps a small chill in their profit margins."

‍ Richard G. Frank and Caitlin Rowley, Bloomberg

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Trump and the 14th Amendment | The Flip Side

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https://www.theflipside.io/archives/mitt-romney

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https://www.theflipside.io/archives/nyc-migrant-crisis

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The left supports the reform, arguing that worries about reduced funding for new drugs are overblown.

"'The cancer moonshot will not succeed if this administration continues to dismantle the innovation rocket we need to get there,' PhRMA stated Tuesday. That's debatable. Most of the basic research on curing cancer and other diseases is funded by the government and philanthropy. Big Pharma is mainly involved in clinical trials and marketing...

"Also, the negotiations apply only to drugs that are nearing their patents' expiration. What's more, even if price caps do reduce Big Pharma's profitability, business logic says that they should still have a strong incentive to bring innovative drugs to market...

"The real issue here is not that pharma is good and government is bad or the other way around but that there is no clear standard for what a fair price should be for a drug that is available from only one source, that costs a lot to research and develop but very little to manufacture and that provides important health benefits."

‍ Peter Coy, New York Times

"It's reasonable to ask how many fewer drugs might get developed and which drugs those might be. The Congressional Budget Office, the economic referee in legislative debates, estimated that the drug pricing provisions of the I.R.A. would result in 13 fewer drugs coming to market in the United States over the next three decades. That's a very small share of the 1,300 new drugs expected over that period...

"One of the big reasons any effects on innovation may be muted is that drugs are shielded from government negotiation for quite a while: until nine years after Food and Drug Administration approval for small-molecule drugs like pills and 13 years for injectable biological products. Drugmakers can continue to set their own prices and reap substantial profits before having to submit to negotiation."

‍ Larry Levitt, New York Times

"We analyzed how much it costs on average to bring a drug to market and how much these companies have earned from the selected drugs since their launch. Not only are revenues enough to justify the investment in these particular drugs, they are enough to fund several more generations of pharmaceutical development...

"Seven of the 10 selected drugs had cumulative earnings of over $25 billion, using the estimate of $3.4 billion for R&D favored by the industry. At the high end, Eliquis, an anticoagulant, has earned $87.5 billion above the cost of the average new drug since 2012. At the low end, the heart medication Entresto has earned $13.7 billion over the average cost of bringing drugs to market since 2015...

"Despite the pharma companies' fears, negotiating Medicare prices will not lead to a 'nuclear winter' - just perhaps a small chill in their profit margins."

‍ Richard G. Frank and Caitlin Rowley, Bloomberg

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" Lizzo has been sued by three former dancers who accuse the Grammy winner of sexual harassment and allege the singer and her production company created a hostile work environment. The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court claims Lizzo pressured the dancers to engage with nude performers at a club in Amsterdam and shamed one of them for her weight gain before firing her." AP News

" Lizzo said [last] Thursday that she's 'not the villain' that three of her former backup dancers falsely accuse her of being in a sexual harassment lawsuit... She said the 'sensationalized stories' were coming from former employees 'who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.'" AP News

Both sides condemn the alleged behavior and warn about the risk of idolizing celebrities:

"The plaintiffs claim they were made to feel their employment was precarious, and that they had to comply with requests that made them uncomfortable in order to continue working. Some of those requests were of a sexual nature, including, among other things, pressure from Lizzo to attend a performance with nude dancers in Amsterdam, to eat bananas placed in nude dancers' genitals, and pressure on one of the plaintiffs to touch a dancer's breasts...

"The lawsuit underscores the poor working conditions in the music industry, and the lack of accountability that exists for such abuses. Long hours, difficult physical labor, and short-term contracts are common, while institutional oversight of individual artists isn't always present. Other artists including Cher and Britney Spears have been sued by their employees in the past for alleged discrimination and battery, respectively, for example."
Li Zhou, Vox

" Overweight celebrities shaming others for being overweight is hardly novel. Earlier this year, staffers for former late-night host James Corden told The Daily Mail that Corden asked them to move overweight audience members to the back rows during his tapings. Corden didn't want the fat members of the crowd to make it on television during the crowd shots. He preferred only one fat person to appear on the broadcast: Himself. Though, unlike Lizzo, Corden didn't force dancers to eat bananas from sex workers' vaginas."
Bobby Burack, OutKick

"Lizzo, of course, has built an ever-growing empire largely on the idea that we should all be comfortable in who we are, that our bodies aren't projects in constant need of improvement and that, in order to create the society we desire, we have to leave the door open for those coming behind us...

"That makes these allegations, if true, all the more alarming - if she knows better and has been on the same journey so many others of us have been on to unlearn such toxic ideas, then that should have led to improved behavior. As the adage goes, when you know better, you do better. Instead, these dancers claim that Lizzo chose to humiliate them time and again, rather than treat them with the kindness she so often sings about...

" Is it possible to treat people well and still be on top of the world? That's one question that the lawsuit prompts us to ask and one that I've been asking myself. While Lizzo is entitled to have flaws, as we all do, it's deeply disappointing to learn that she may not be who she has very publicly claimed to be, and that deception may have harmed the people she and her company employed."
Evette Dionne, MSNBC

"It's crucial to note that Lizzo's public decline is not an isolated event but a symptom of the same cult of celebrity that fueled her rise. Our fascination with celebrities, amplified in the age of social media, often sets unrealistic expectations for these public figures we idolize. Channeling society's collective ambitions, in this case, opposing unrealistic body weight standards, into a single singer is a precarious move... We crave perfection and authenticity from them, conveniently forgetting that these individuals are just as fallible as the rest of us...

"Ellen DeGeneres, the erstwhile queen of daytime television whose public relations team had cultivated her image as the nicest person in show business, was revealed to be a sham as a bevy of accusations of harboring a toxic workplace sank her ratings. Similar allegations have always peppered the press, from illustrious television stars such as Bill Cosby (rape) to stand-up comics such as Louis C.K. (lecherous indecency)...

"It's like gazing into a contemporary enactment of Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, where the public image remains unblemished, but behind the scenes, a different picture emerges. The facade begins to crumble when those close to them, those without the spotlight or a public platform, start sharing their experiences. In the end, a person's true character isn't measured by their public image but by how they treat those in their lives who don't share their fame or power."
Harry Khachatrian, Washington Examiner

Other opinions below.

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The left supports the reform, arguing that worries about reduced funding for new drugs are overblown.

"'The cancer moonshot will not succeed if this administration continues to dismantle the innovation rocket we need to get there,' PhRMA stated Tuesday. That's debatable. Most of the basic research on curing cancer and other diseases is funded by the government and philanthropy. Big Pharma is mainly involved in clinical trials and marketing...

"Also, the negotiations apply only to drugs that are nearing their patents' expiration. What's more, even if price caps do reduce Big Pharma's profitability, business logic says that they should still have a strong incentive to bring innovative drugs to market...

"The real issue here is not that pharma is good and government is bad or the other way around but that there is no clear standard for what a fair price should be for a drug that is available from only one source, that costs a lot to research and develop but very little to manufacture and that provides important health benefits."

‍ Peter Coy, New York Times

"It's reasonable to ask how many fewer drugs might get developed and which drugs those might be. The Congressional Budget Office, the economic referee in legislative debates, estimated that the drug pricing provisions of the I.R.A. would result in 13 fewer drugs coming to market in the United States over the next three decades. That's a very small share of the 1,300 new drugs expected over that period...

"One of the big reasons any effects on innovation may be muted is that drugs are shielded from government negotiation for quite a while: until nine years after Food and Drug Administration approval for small-molecule drugs like pills and 13 years for injectable biological products. Drugmakers can continue to set their own prices and reap substantial profits before having to submit to negotiation."

‍ Larry Levitt, New York Times

"We analyzed how much it costs on average to bring a drug to market and how much these companies have earned from the selected drugs since their launch. Not only are revenues enough to justify the investment in these particular drugs, they are enough to fund several more generations of pharmaceutical development...

"Seven of the 10 selected drugs had cumulative earnings of over $25 billion, using the estimate of $3.4 billion for R&D favored by the industry. At the high end, Eliquis, an anticoagulant, has earned $87.5 billion above the cost of the average new drug since 2012. At the low end, the heart medication Entresto has earned $13.7 billion over the average cost of bringing drugs to market since 2015...

"Despite the pharma companies' fears, negotiating Medicare prices will not lead to a 'nuclear winter' - just perhaps a small chill in their profit margins."

‍ Richard G. Frank and Caitlin Rowley, Bloomberg

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Madisyn c

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The left praises the movie, arguing that it is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

" Barbie is an impressive achievement as a film and far, far funnier than any studio comedy I can remember in recent history. There are perfect jokes about everything from stilettos to boy bands to fascism and Matchbox Twenty; I'm still giggling at some of the gags...

"Gerwig's solo directing career thus far (which includes Lady Bird and Little Women) is a triumph of reimagination, an exploration of what it means to find out who you are and not allow yourself to be shaped by nostalgia and sentimentality while also living with deep, real love. That she managed to infuse the same sensibilities into Barbie is something near a miracle."

‍ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

"'If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you,' promises (or threatens) the trailer... Are audiences meant to cheer on the empowered girlboss exploits of the live-action embodiment of a now 64-year-old fashion doll? Or, on the contrary, should we be critiquing the male gaze-driven industrial economy that made generations of little girls believe that the highest achievement of adult womanhood was an anatomically impossible waist-hip ratio? And what about those of us who grew up Barbie-indifferent?...

"Yes, yes, and yes, responds Barbie: This movie is for you... Can any one movie be all those things at once? Gerwig's answer to that conundrum is to serve up a multilayered concoction that's as busy as a fully accessorized Dreamhouse: an earnest feminist manifesto inside a barbed social satire inside an effervescent musical comedy, all designed in colors and textures so sumptuous they make 1950s Technicolor look desaturated. Barbie never completely resolves the paradox at its heart... [But it] is a delight of improbable proportions."

‍ Dana Stevens, Slate

"The reactionary weirdoes decrying Barbie as peddling the 'woke' agenda haven't pulled much of a gotcha, accurately summarizing the textual substance of a film about one woman's sudden burst of institutional consciousness. Like a college freshman taking an intro class on gender - or perhaps like a high-schooler seeing a mass-market blockbuster with a developed political streak for the first time - Barbie becomes abruptly aware of the untenable societal pressures heaped upon womankind, released in a cathartic monologue by normal-person surrogate America Ferrera...

"She resolves the many contradictions of the male gaze by slicing through the Gordian knot, simply concluding that whatever women want is fine, so long as everyone lets them live their lives in peace. It's a pretty anodyne statement... The steadfast refusal to coddle male ego may be the most unabashedly subversive notion in a project often conflicted about its opposing mandates as a critical work of art and a commercial good for sale."

‍ Charles Bramesco, The Guardian

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" Lizzo has been sued by three former dancers who accuse the Grammy winner of sexual harassment and allege the singer and her production company created a hostile work environment. The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court claims Lizzo pressured the dancers to engage with nude performers at a club in Amsterdam and shamed one of them for her weight gain before firing her." AP News

" Lizzo said [last] Thursday that she's 'not the villain' that three of her former backup dancers falsely accuse her of being in a sexual harassment lawsuit... She said the 'sensationalized stories' were coming from former employees 'who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.'" AP News

Both sides condemn the alleged behavior and warn about the risk of idolizing celebrities:

"The plaintiffs claim they were made to feel their employment was precarious, and that they had to comply with requests that made them uncomfortable in order to continue working. Some of those requests were of a sexual nature, including, among other things, pressure from Lizzo to attend a performance with nude dancers in Amsterdam, to eat bananas placed in nude dancers' genitals, and pressure on one of the plaintiffs to touch a dancer's breasts...

"The lawsuit underscores the poor working conditions in the music industry, and the lack of accountability that exists for such abuses. Long hours, difficult physical labor, and short-term contracts are common, while institutional oversight of individual artists isn't always present. Other artists including Cher and Britney Spears have been sued by their employees in the past for alleged discrimination and battery, respectively, for example."
Li Zhou, Vox

" Overweight celebrities shaming others for being overweight is hardly novel. Earlier this year, staffers for former late-night host James Corden told The Daily Mail that Corden asked them to move overweight audience members to the back rows during his tapings. Corden didn't want the fat members of the crowd to make it on television during the crowd shots. He preferred only one fat person to appear on the broadcast: Himself. Though, unlike Lizzo, Corden didn't force dancers to eat bananas from sex workers' vaginas."
Bobby Burack, OutKick

"Lizzo, of course, has built an ever-growing empire largely on the idea that we should all be comfortable in who we are, that our bodies aren't projects in constant need of improvement and that, in order to create the society we desire, we have to leave the door open for those coming behind us...

"That makes these allegations, if true, all the more alarming - if she knows better and has been on the same journey so many others of us have been on to unlearn such toxic ideas, then that should have led to improved behavior. As the adage goes, when you know better, you do better. Instead, these dancers claim that Lizzo chose to humiliate them time and again, rather than treat them with the kindness she so often sings about...

" Is it possible to treat people well and still be on top of the world? That's one question that the lawsuit prompts us to ask and one that I've been asking myself. While Lizzo is entitled to have flaws, as we all do, it's deeply disappointing to learn that she may not be who she has very publicly claimed to be, and that deception may have harmed the people she and her company employed."
Evette Dionne, MSNBC

"It's crucial to note that Lizzo's public decline is not an isolated event but a symptom of the same cult of celebrity that fueled her rise. Our fascination with celebrities, amplified in the age of social media, often sets unrealistic expectations for these public figures we idolize. Channeling society's collective ambitions, in this case, opposing unrealistic body weight standards, into a single singer is a precarious move... We crave perfection and authenticity from them, conveniently forgetting that these individuals are just as fallible as the rest of us...

"Ellen DeGeneres, the erstwhile queen of daytime television whose public relations team had cultivated her image as the nicest person in show business, was revealed to be a sham as a bevy of accusations of harboring a toxic workplace sank her ratings. Similar allegations have always peppered the press, from illustrious television stars such as Bill Cosby (rape) to stand-up comics such as Louis C.K. (lecherous indecency)...

"It's like gazing into a contemporary enactment of Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, where the public image remains unblemished, but behind the scenes, a different picture emerges. The facade begins to crumble when those close to them, those without the spotlight or a public platform, start sharing their experiences. In the end, a person's true character isn't measured by their public image but by how they treat those in their lives who don't share their fame or power."
Harry Khachatrian, Washington Examiner

Other opinions below.

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"Hollywood actors are joining screenwriters in the first dual strike from the two unions in more than six decades... Union leaders say the streaming model that has taken over the industry in recent years has cheated actors of their share of income and funneled money to executives...

"For decades, an actor who appeared on a popular TV show like 'Seinfeld' or 'The Office' even once could count on getting royalty checks when the show appeared in reruns, bringing pay even at times they were unable to find work. The streaming model has largely dried up that income, with residual payments untethered from a show or movie's popularity. Actors want a long-term share of that revenue...

"The move to streaming and its ripple effects have also meant shorter seasons of shows with longer gaps between them, and therefore less work. They say inflation is outpacing the scheduled pay bumps in their contracts. And both writers and actors fear the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence. The actors say studios want to be able to use their likenesses without having to hire them, or pay them." AP News

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The left argues in favor of student loan relief, and urges Biden to explore alternative methods.

" Estimates show that 87 percent of the relief from Biden's plan would go to individuals earning less than $75,000 a year, while none would go to those earning more than $125,000. Ninety-five percent of the total benefits would go to households making less than $150,000...

"Biden has previously said he would veto such a measure to block his plan; some thus argue the conservative Democrats' votes are symbolic. But even if they are, the symbol is one of cowardice, of an incredible refusal to communicate to voters that a policy that uplifts millions of working people is worth pursuing at all."

‍ Prem Thakker, New Republic

"When Congress was negotiating a COVID relief package in March 2020, Biden argued from the campaign trail that the bill should cancel a minimum of $10,000 in debt per federal borrower. The legislation Trump ultimately signed didn't cancel any student debt, but it paused payments and interest accrual. Biden promised additional relief. At a town hall just before the November election, he told voters, 'I'm going to make sure everyone gets $10,000 knocked off of their student debt.'...

" He can still attempt to salvage his campaign promise. If the Supreme Court strikes down his original order, Biden can cancel debt through a different avenue known as 'compromise and settlement' under the Higher Education Act of 1965. Under this authority, the Education Secretary can enter into settlements with debtors to lower the amount they owe or cancel their debt altogether...

"Conservatives would likely bring legal challenges to this authority, too, but it might have a better shot at surviving than his original debt-cancellation plan. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court denied a challenge to a compromise and settlement agreement that canceled $6 billion in debt for graduates of three for-profit schools."

‍ Julia Rock, Lever News

Student debt "is a racial justice issue. Due to systemic racism, Black and brown Americans have to borrow more money to achieve the same level of education. And even after achieving that same level of education, we are subjected to workplace inequities rendering us as statistically more likely to be underpaid, under-promoted, and undervalued no matter our field of employ...

"That doesn't mean the Republicans are totally wrong, though. People need to be accountable for their own financial decisions, and most of those who would be impacted by Biden's plan are not the truly destitute...

" Partisan efforts at student loan reform are not actually helping the majority of Americans, regardless of racial identity. To meaningfully achieve such reform would require politicians to leave partisan lines and come together to find true long-term solutions focused on the prohibitive cost of an education these days."

‍ Carmen Black, Newsweek

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-TAHA

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" Former U.S. President Donald Trump's historic mug shot, posted by a Georgia courthouse [last] Thursday evening, is being turned into T-shirts, shot glasses, mugs, posters and even bobblehead dolls by friends and foes alike." Reuters

Both sides agree that the mug shot benefited Trump's campaign:

"Trump was a showman before he was a politician, and even while governing the largest economy on the planet, Trump was known to call media personalities occasionally to offer unsolicited advice about camera angles, lighting, and posing... If you were a liberal prosecutor hellbent on ending Trump's career as the former (and possibly future) leader of the free world, why would you want to deliver him the most iconic campaign poster in political history?"
Tiana Lowe Doescher, Washington Examiner

"Even at what should be his weakest moment, personally and politically, it's hard to avoid the impression that Trump is in his element. The bleakly historic nature of his arrest - the first time a former U.S. president has been indicted on criminal charges - is largely undercut by the fact that he's outpolling the rest of the GOP primary field by 40 points...

"It's a remarkable turnaround after Trump was left for dead in 2021 and banned from his preferred social-media platform. He spent years in crotchety solitude at Mar-a-Lago, then launched what looked like an extremely ill-advised presidential campaign, all with the coup-related indictments looming. His surrender in Georgia was a coming-out party of sorts, a reminder of what he really is."
Zak Cheney-Rice, New York Magazine

"Trump quickly posted his booking photo to his Truth Social network, and used it to return to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. His campaign is already plastering it everywhere - likely to help raise the cash he's spending on his defense and turning his shame into a new kind of power, in another affront to the justice system. For any other politician, a mug shot would be the end. For Trump, it's a springboard."
Stephen Collinson, CNN

"Those who have long been publicly rooting for the moment to be a humiliating experience - among them Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC, who said the booking 'will be the greatest humiliation Donald Trump has suffered in the 77 years of his relentlessly humiliating life' - are now appreciating the adage 'be careful what you wish for.' Trump supporters on social media are declaring the mugshot to be 'the world's biggest backfire,' and they may not be wrong...

"In addition to freshly invigorating Trump's supporters, the mugshot and booking delivered a one-two punch in virtually wiping [last] Wednesday's GOP presidential debate out of the national conversation."
Jennifer Graham, Deseret News

Other opinions below.

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The left praises the movie, arguing that it is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

" Barbie is an impressive achievement as a film and far, far funnier than any studio comedy I can remember in recent history. There are perfect jokes about everything from stilettos to boy bands to fascism and Matchbox Twenty; I'm still giggling at some of the gags...

"Gerwig's solo directing career thus far (which includes Lady Bird and Little Women) is a triumph of reimagination, an exploration of what it means to find out who you are and not allow yourself to be shaped by nostalgia and sentimentality while also living with deep, real love. That she managed to infuse the same sensibilities into Barbie is something near a miracle."

‍ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

"'If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you,' promises (or threatens) the trailer... Are audiences meant to cheer on the empowered girlboss exploits of the live-action embodiment of a now 64-year-old fashion doll? Or, on the contrary, should we be critiquing the male gaze-driven industrial economy that made generations of little girls believe that the highest achievement of adult womanhood was an anatomically impossible waist-hip ratio? And what about those of us who grew up Barbie-indifferent?...

"Yes, yes, and yes, responds Barbie: This movie is for you... Can any one movie be all those things at once? Gerwig's answer to that conundrum is to serve up a multilayered concoction that's as busy as a fully accessorized Dreamhouse: an earnest feminist manifesto inside a barbed social satire inside an effervescent musical comedy, all designed in colors and textures so sumptuous they make 1950s Technicolor look desaturated. Barbie never completely resolves the paradox at its heart... [But it] is a delight of improbable proportions."

‍ Dana Stevens, Slate

"The reactionary weirdoes decrying Barbie as peddling the 'woke' agenda haven't pulled much of a gotcha, accurately summarizing the textual substance of a film about one woman's sudden burst of institutional consciousness. Like a college freshman taking an intro class on gender - or perhaps like a high-schooler seeing a mass-market blockbuster with a developed political streak for the first time - Barbie becomes abruptly aware of the untenable societal pressures heaped upon womankind, released in a cathartic monologue by normal-person surrogate America Ferrera...

"She resolves the many contradictions of the male gaze by slicing through the Gordian knot, simply concluding that whatever women want is fine, so long as everyone lets them live their lives in peace. It's a pretty anodyne statement... The steadfast refusal to coddle male ego may be the most unabashedly subversive notion in a project often conflicted about its opposing mandates as a critical work of art and a commercial good for sale."

‍ Charles Bramesco, The Guardian

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-Danny Huang

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- Nayeli Vazquez

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The left supports the reform, arguing that worries about reduced funding for new drugs are overblown.

"'The cancer moonshot will not succeed if this administration continues to dismantle the innovation rocket we need to get there,' PhRMA stated Tuesday. That's debatable. Most of the basic research on curing cancer and other diseases is funded by the government and philanthropy. Big Pharma is mainly involved in clinical trials and marketing...

"Also, the negotiations apply only to drugs that are nearing their patents' expiration. What's more, even if price caps do reduce Big Pharma's profitability, business logic says that they should still have a strong incentive to bring innovative drugs to market...

"The real issue here is not that pharma is good and government is bad or the other way around but that there is no clear standard for what a fair price should be for a drug that is available from only one source, that costs a lot to research and develop but very little to manufacture and that provides important health benefits."

‍ Peter Coy, New York Times

"It's reasonable to ask how many fewer drugs might get developed and which drugs those might be. The Congressional Budget Office, the economic referee in legislative debates, estimated that the drug pricing provisions of the I.R.A. would result in 13 fewer drugs coming to market in the United States over the next three decades. That's a very small share of the 1,300 new drugs expected over that period...

"One of the big reasons any effects on innovation may be muted is that drugs are shielded from government negotiation for quite a while: until nine years after Food and Drug Administration approval for small-molecule drugs like pills and 13 years for injectable biological products. Drugmakers can continue to set their own prices and reap substantial profits before having to submit to negotiation."

‍ Larry Levitt, New York Times

"We analyzed how much it costs on average to bring a drug to market and how much these companies have earned from the selected drugs since their launch. Not only are revenues enough to justify the investment in these particular drugs, they are enough to fund several more generations of pharmaceutical development...

"Seven of the 10 selected drugs had cumulative earnings of over $25 billion, using the estimate of $3.4 billion for R&D favored by the industry. At the high end, Eliquis, an anticoagulant, has earned $87.5 billion above the cost of the average new drug since 2012. At the low end, the heart medication Entresto has earned $13.7 billion over the average cost of bringing drugs to market since 2015...

"Despite the pharma companies' fears, negotiating Medicare prices will not lead to a 'nuclear winter' - just perhaps a small chill in their profit margins."

‍ Richard G. Frank and Caitlin Rowley, Bloomberg

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