More than 572 million for what you have done, the judge orders you to pay more than half a billion dollars. One way to know that you have been a very bad company or at least people perceive you to have been very bad is if in reaction to that news, your stock price as a Company Actually goes up 5 because, whew, thats a relief. Everybody thought you were so bad it was possible you were going to be paying billions of dollars, like 10 billion, 15 billion, 17 billion. Everybody thought that was going to be what the judge made you pay today. Not just hundreds of millions of dollars, which is, in fact, the verdict that Johnson Johnson faced today. Theyll have to pay 572 million unless theyre able to turn this thing around on appeal, and i swear their stock price went up in response because people thought it was going to be so much worse than even that. This ruling today in oklahoma holding Johnson Johnson accountable for its role in fueling the american Opioid Epidemic that has claimed more than 400,000 american lives, this is a ruling that will be appealed by the company, but their shareholders were delighted today. The state of oklahoma had asked for more than 17 billion from Johnson Johnson to cover the full cost of the injury to the state of hooklahoma and its citizens that has been caused by the Opioid Epidemic in part fueled by Johnson Johnson which the state in their case called a kingpin of the opioid drug trade. This was a landmark decision today. This is the first trial verdict to hold a Pharmaceutical Company c culpable for the opioid catastrophe in this country. I know youve heard about companies being required to pay a lot of money. Those have all been settlements. Theres a whole bunch of different settlements that have been paid by the various opioid manufacturers and distributors in these countries as they have not let these things come to the end of the case. Theyve not let those things come to a verdict. But in this case, its a judges ruling and if this 572 million order stands up to appeal, this could be the first very big step toward pharmaceutical Companies Really finally being put on their back foot, really finally being put on the defensive over what they have done to the country with the purposeful overprescribing of these drugs. But, again, it remains to be seen whats going to happen on appeal. Remains to be seen if this might have just been a oneoff trial verdict, but its the first trial verdict holding a Pharmaceutical Company to account for what they did and that was a very big deal today in oklahoma. We also at the end of the afternoon today got some surprise political news. When we learned that the agency thats in charge of enforcing election law, enforcing Campaign Finance law, the fec, federal Election Commission, theyve long been a fairly toothless government agency. The trump administration, for example, has been content with there being vacancies on the board of commissioners that oversees the fec. Today, though, it went to a different level. Today we learned the fec is about to lose one of its existing commissioners. When that happens, the fec will no longer have enough commissioners to have a quorum, which means heading into the 2020 president ial season, the federal agency thats in charge of making sure theres no Monkey Business in our elections, that theres no Monkey Business, no shenanigans in terms of money around our elections, they have just had their last tooth pulled. And there has been a lot of alarm expressed in response to this news this afternoon in terms of what this means for the fec, what this means for the 2020 election. One of the remaining commissioners on the fec, the chair of the fec, has actually been sounding a little bit of a cautionary note today about the implications of what this means for our elections, what this means for the 2020 president ial campaign, in particular. That commissioner, allen weintraub, is going to be joining us a little bit later on. Shes always got something to say, whenever you interview her on anything, shes always a really good person to talk to. Shes very frank, shes very blunt. On this shes sort of telling people, you know, this is worth paying attention to but not worth freaking out about. Very much looking forward to talking to her about that. Just briefly i also want to tell you we got additional news late in the day today about a story we covered a bunch of times on this show in the past couple weeks which is that mysterious deadly explosion in northwestern russia. First week in august. It had some sort of Nuclear Component to it, but we havent been able to say much more than that. This was 2 1 2 weeks ago, august 8th. Russian government appears to still mostly be in blackout and denial mode about what happened there. But we did get a little bit of interesting and specific new information today and we got it from the Russian Meteorological Agency. This was basically the part of the russian government thats in charge of weather forecasting. Im not exactly sure why we are hearing this from them, but today, thats the agency that announced that they have some very specific readings in terms of the fallout, literally, from this disaster. Today, the Russian Meteorological Agency announced that at the city nearest where that Nuclear Blast happened on august 8th, they have since detected four specific radioactive particles in that city. And whether or not these specific elements mean anything to you, just as a layperson watching the news, the fact that the russian government is announcing what these isotopes are, a, is progress because its something specific, but b, to people who know how to interpret the sort of things, people who understand the Nuclear Science of this, this actually tells a much more fulsome story. Apparently what has been found in the 15 days after the explosion in this nearby city, strantium 91, barium 140, strontium 91 and lanthanum140. Indicates exculusively what exploded at that site weeks ago was definitely a Nuclear Reactor. The presence of decay products like barium and strantium is coming from a Nuclear Chain reaction and not an isotope source in a propellant engine which is one of the things the russian government initially tried to describe this blast as being from. The isotopes being found in the nearby city according to this expe expert interviewed by Bloomberg News today is, quote, it was proof that it was a Nuclear Reactor that exploded. A Nuclear Reactor. I mean, thats important because the russian government, including russian president Vladimir Putin, himself, theyve been very vague as to what actually exploded and just exactly what type of Nuclear Device or what sort of Nuclear Material was involved. Whether or not any radiation was released. Well, this gives us some more information about what it was. This would indicate that its a Nuclear Reactor and, yes, there was radiation released. And something more specific even than that. One interpretation conveyed by New York Times reporter Andrew Cramer today in his report on the findings is that he says this list of isotopes that they found is basically an announcement that offers, quote, hints, that other still undisclosed heavier elements could have been released closer to the blast site. The presence of these isotopes miles from the site of the accident suggests that heavier, more dangerous contaminants such as plutonium, cesium 137, or radioactive iodine likely fell into the sea near the blast site. Green peace also issued a statement saying the presence of these isotopes suggests that cesium 137 was also released in the blast. Youll recall one of the doctors who treated some of the injured from this explosion was found to have cesium 137 in his own muscle tissue. After he treated those injured people from the blast site without wearing any protective gear because none of the doctors were warned that their patients were going to be highly radioactive. One russian news source saying that doctor was told he was likely contaminated with cesium 137 not because of his working on the radioactive patients from the Nuclear Blast, apparently, russian officials told him that he had that cesium 137 in his muscle tissue because he had recently gone on vacation in thailand so russian government officials told him he probably, quote, ate some fukushima crabs while he was on vacation. See, the crabs from fukushima where there was the Nuclear Accident years ago, they probably ended up in his vacation dinners in thailand. Thats definitely why that doct doctor has now got cesium in his muscles. If there is seecesium 137 and radioactive adon and plutonium all over the blast site and the sea, russia is going to have a hard time blaming that on thailand or on crabs for all that much longer. Dont worry, though, the same Russian Nuclear agency rasadam that had five scientists killed in the mysterious blast, the same Russian Nuclear agency has also now made a big new announcement that we all can see happening, which is that they just set sail into the arctic with this nimble little vessel. Its longer than a football field. It is loaded up with nuclear fuel. Russias very, very proud of it. Just this weekend, this was the worlds First Floating Nuclear Power Plant which russia set sail into the arctic aiming right toward alaska. Literally, it is a Floating Nuclear power plant. What could possibly go wrong . It just left russia this weekend. Is heading up through the arctic toward a remote part of russia that is just across the Bering Strait from alaska. So, thats fine. Green peace is calling this vessel the nuclear titanic. Russia said in response to green peace that theyre a bunch of scare mongers. The russian news agency, which lost five of its Nuclear Engineers in the explosion of a Nuclear Reactor maybe 18 days ago, who knows, they wont say, maybe the plutonium is all in the sea now. That exact same agency is insisting publicly that everybody should actually be very excited about them putting the worlds first floating Nuclear Reactor up into the arctic sea for a 3,000plusmilelong journey toward alaska. Rasadam announcing their Floating Nuclear plant is able to, quote, safely withstand a full spectrum of negative scenarios including manmeat aad natural disasters. Both kinds. It will be fine. Its indestructible. Did we mention that its the worlds first Nuclear Power plant that floats . In case you thought the world was missing a little Russian Nuclear risk taking, what the arctic needed was the worlds first stop of putting a Nuclear Power plant onnen to en ttop od floating it on ice, your dreams have come true, thats all just happened. When it comes to energy stuff and climate stuff, because we are still the worlds biggest economy, there is still no important decisionmaker than the United States of america when it comes to these things and at this point with our current leadership, most of what the rest of the world is doing on this subject when it comes to us is theyre laughing at us and occasionally taunting us. Windmills. If it doesnt blow, you can forget about television for that night. Mr. President , i want to present you to the greatest deal you have ever seen. It is so great that i thought i might actually get your attention by standing here next to this birdkilling, cancercausing, blackoutgenerating, windenergyproducing beast here. My name is eda, a member of the Danish Parliament and now that youre here lets talk about the deal. Okay. Its about cheap energy and saving the climate. Heres an example. The north sea region, thats the sea on top of europe, can produce twice as much electricity as all the coal fired power plants of europe combined. And, look, its smaller than nebraska. Imagine the possibilities in all of your great United States of ameri america. Reer, reer. Darling, i want to watch television, sorry the wind isnt blowing. Oh, yeah, the blackouts, dont worry about your tv dinners and movie nights. In denmark where most our l electricity comes from wind, we have an average 15 blackouts per year and the u. S. With all your coal fired power plants, two hours every year. Our country is in serious trouble. So, mr. President , we all know you can do this. Just grab your pen, sign a deal and lets save the climate. Thats the sea on top of europe. That was released in the last few days by a member of the Danish Parliament. In normal circumstances that might get americans backs up in defense of our president , right, however much we have internal disagreement, dissension in terms of our own feelings about our own leaders, usually youd expect a broad swath of americans to feel bad about some politician from some other country making fun of our president in this way. In this way, its harder for us to get there because our president canceled a trip o that country, to denmark, because he complained that countrys leadership did not want to talk to him about him buying greenland. I really dont want to talk about donald trump suggesting that he could do that, you know, that he wants to buy greenland. I just im just going but separate and apart from the insanity of that entire concept, i mean, he really did just cancel a trip to denmark because they sa he said they werent going to talk to him about the u. S. Buying greenland. He said that after he publicly insisted he wasnt going to denmark to talk to them about buying greenland. Again, whether or not you care about the incredibly insane idea that the u. S. Would buy greenland, how is it that a u. S. President says, no, dont want that, then says, oh, yes, i want that and im canceling my International Trip because i didnt get it . Right, no matter the subject or the stupidity or insanity of the original subject, that thasort an 180degree turn from an american president is honestly nuts. Him saying, no, i dont want that. Im canceling my trip because i didnt get that. I thought you said you didnt want that. My earlier statement i dont acknowledge i made my earlier statement. What are we talk bing about . Its greenland . I know weve gotten used to this kind of thing but it is nuts. It was also nuts this weekend at the g7 when President Trump was asked if he attended the meeting at the g7 that was about climate. The president responded by saying that that meeting had not yet happened yet. That it was going to be next. The next thing, like the next thing in the future. In fact, the meeting had already happened. And he just hadnt been there. Then the White House Press secretary put out a formal statement explaining that the reason the president hadnt gone to the climate session was not because it was still in the future, as far as he was concerned, but, instead, because at the time of the climate meeting, he was busy. He was having bilateral meetings with the leaders of india and germany. Well, heres a picture of the climate meeting that he didnt go to. Theres the leader of germany in the purple there. Thats the leader of india in the black. The indian and german leaders were there. President trump didnt skip the climate meeting so he could meet with the two of them. They were at that meeting. Had he been meeting with them, hed have to do it there because thats where they were. Hes the only one who wasnt there. His empty chair is there instead. It was also nuts when the president was asked by a reporter that the g7, mr. President , any second thoughts on escalating the trade war with china . And he answered, yeah, sure, why not . The reporter followed up, second thoughts, yes . The president said, might as well, might as well. The reporter tried again, you have second thoughts about escalating the war with china . President s response, i have second thoughts about everything. At which point somebody dista distantly in the room started laughing out loud because they couldnt control themselves. I mean, if this were anybody involved in the United States government in any official capacity who spoke this way publicly at an International Gathering like this, right, their colleagues or their superiors or at least security would, like, lift them up by the armpit and rush them out the door, right, until they could be revived or given medical treatment. In this case, its the president and everybody goes, okay, i guess their new line is the american president has second thoughts about everything. When the president doesnt show up for meetings, well just make stuff up about that meeting having not happened. Or him having been somewhere where he wasnt. After the president told reporters explicitly he was having second thoughts about his new tariffs on china, the administration had to figure out what they were going to do with that one, right . I have second thoughts about everything. They quickly mounted this sort of cleanup effort. 3 02 p. M. , larry kudlow went on cnn to explain that maybe the president had