There is a lot of bad news out there and no shortage of awful people doing bad things. On Molly Jong-Fast’s great podcast The New Abnormal they have the “Fuck that guy” segment to highlight the awful people and on Joy Reid’s The Reid Out she offers the “Absolute Worst.” For balance I’d like, once a week, to focus instead on people who are fighting the good fight. I’ll let you know who my Good Guy of the Week* is get get us started and then you all have 24 hours to let me know who yours is. Whoever gets the most votes is the winner.
* “Guy” is my choice of gender neutral terms.
I had already chosen my nominee and was almost ready to post the newsletter yesterday morning when my daughter arrived home from college and surprised me with an early Christmas present. A couple of days ago she told me she needed to give me my present early and I was intrigued. I asked her if it was something that needs to be planted, for absolutely no reason that makes sense. I had no idea what she had in store for me.
Here is Cap, the newest member of our family:
She is four months old and weighs 3 pounds. Avary adopted her from a shelter that rescues cats and kittens from kill facilities. I haven’t gotten a decent picture of her because she moves like Flash and I have yet to see her sleep. Suffice it to say there will be many other pictures forthcoming. Because this was a total surprise Sebastian and Linden weren’t at all prepared. Sebastian seems a little confused and attempts to assert his dominance by trying to remove Cap’s ear while, Linden has been growling and hissing a lot but not hiding, which I take as a good sign.
Linden’s brother, Trumpy, died a little over two years ago at the age of six and, honestly, I’m still not over it. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I started even thinking about getting a kitten. I wasn’t sure if I was ready but Cap immediately changed my mind.
And now back to our regularly scheduled newsletter.
Good Guy of the Week
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon overturned a $4.5 billion settlement that legally shielded members of the Sackler family who—through deceptive advertising, lying, strong-arming federal agencies, doctors, and pharmacists, along with buying everybody off—started, perpetuated, and profited off of the U.S. opioid epidemic.
The original settlement allowed for a bankruptcy reorganization of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, a highly addictive opioid. There’s no way to know precisely how many deaths the Sacklers and their drug caused but it’s certainly in the hundreds of thousands. The misery they’ve cause is unfathomable.
According to Reuters, Judge McMahon stated in her written opinion that “the New York bankruptcy court that approved the settlement did not have authority to grant the Sacklers the legal protection from future opioid litigation that formed the linchpin of Purdue’s reorganization.”
Hallelujah.
Steve Miller (what is it with that name?), the despicable chairman of Purdue (redundant, I know), said in a statement, "While the district court decision does not affect Purdue’s rock-solid operational stability or its ability to produce its many medications safely and effectively, it will delay, and perhaps end, the ability of creditors, communities, and individuals to receive billions in value to abate the opioid crisis.”
Of course, Purdue will appeal the decision and this will drag out for years, as these things do. One can only hope in the end there will be some measure of justice.
A day before news of Judge McMahon’s decision was announced, John Fugelsang (whose excellent show on Sirius XM should be required listening) tweeted about the Sacklers and I responded:
People let me know what they thought:
Which required a response:
I love Twitter.
Let me know who your Good Guy of the Week is in the comments. You’ve got 24 hours to vote. Whoever gets the most votes wins. I’ll let you know the results tomorrow at around 1:45 p.m. ET.
Introducing "Good Guy of the Week"