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GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy grimaces during final debate.
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We Are Who We Hate, Father Time Is Undefeated, and Other Lessons From the GOP

Hoo boy. Hopefully you missed the GOP "trash fire," "play date," "darkest saddest game of MadLibs ever" and "rancid buffet of bigotry" that was the final debate among four also-rans who again confirm the party isn't sending their best, or there aren't any. In an ugly, hollow, extremely loud and incredibly dumb display, Haley, Christie, DeFascist and "the most obnoxious blowhard in America" yelled at each other in a sordid effort to out-hate anyone who isn't a straight white Christian male. The result: They/we all lost.


Full disclosure: We didn't watch it. Honestly, we just couldn't. But we read some accounts, viewed some clips, looked at the pictures. It was enough, and then some. According to breathless, horse-race, mainstream media, the current status of the "casting couch for B-actors" auditioning for the slow but implacable debasing of American democracy shows Nikki Haley in a wobbly lead - albeit one that remains about 50 points behind the guy Chris Christie has taken to calling, "He who shall not be named." Nobody's sure why Christie's still there, but he retains the honor of being the only candidate who ever calls out our own monstrous Lord Voldemort, and who dares to suggest maybe bigotry isn't the best governing principle. DeSantis is said to be flailing because he's weird as fuck and obsessed with "genital mutilation," aka transgender health care. And evidently everyone agrees with Aaron Rupar's sentiments on "one of the most insufferable people around" - "Vivek Ramaswamy, please go away."

Despite fitful, malignant mentions of China, fentanyl, Ukraine, the border, most of the two-hour "debate" consisted of the candidates, faces twisted by rage, hammering each other. "While almost entirely irrelevant, it did give viewers a dreary view into the mind and soul (sic) of the GOP," writes Noah Berlatsky of a "compulsive xenophobia and fear-mongering (that) shows they've thrown off any pretense of offering anything other than white grievance." "If you're not a white Christian man," he notes, "the GOP probably hates you." Speakers moved from "denigrating one marginalized group to the next, targeting each for hate" while vying with each other to see who could be most virulent. Topping the list of targets were trans people; immigrants came a close second. "Trump wasn’t on that sad debate stage in Alabama. But his orange spirit hovered, spreading its miasma of fear and paranoia," notes Berlatsky. "The GOP, now more than ever, is a party that defines itself by who it hates."

Its immersion in white grievance and unapologetic racism - no talk of hope, unity, achievement here - offers more grim proof the GOP is now utterly Trump's party: "His cruelty has won." One sage likened the pleasure factor of watching its denizens gather and snarl at each other to that of Alaska's 4th of July Glacier View Car Launch, wherein junk cars go careening over a 300-foot cliff as revelers gawk and cheer. And the GOP brawlers were ready out of the gate: It took 30 seconds for DeSantis to assail Haley on what bathrooms transgender people should use, after which they sparred about who'd more quickly deny them health care. He bragged (again) about shooting drug-smugglers and, pivoting to the old stand-by anti-Semitism, bragged about fighting the pernicious influence of George Soros: "I have a record of standing up and doing what's right." (Haley: "You have a record of lying.") Asked if he thinks Trump is fit for office, DeSantis went deeper than those junk cars: "Father Time is undefeated." Umm, ok.

Often targeted by the three men - see wobbly lead, also girl - Haley argued "they're just jealous" because she's getting Koch money now. On the attack, she was mostly wrong and/or paranoid: Iran knows "the easiest way" to enter the U.S. is at the southern border (Iranians are unheard-of there); China, not Mexico is the main source for fentanyl (not); she wants a Muslim travel ban in places where "they say 'Death to America'" like Yemen and Iran (home to fierce pro-democracy protests); the biggest issue women face is trans women playing sports, but tell it to those forced to give birth. She inspired extra venom from Ramaswamy, who held up a lame “Nikki=Corrupt" sign to charge she's bought and paid for by the GOP (but aren't they all?), questioned her knowledge of Ukraine - "Foreign policy experience is not the same as foreign policy wisdom" - and pumped up his "spoiled-frat-boy-on-coke" shtick to blast the intriguing if incoherent insult, "You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney, and it’s still a fascist neocon.”

Mostly, he spewed bizarro conspiracy theories: Jan. 6 was "an inside job," "Big Tech" stole the 2020 election, Dems are all about "the Great Replacement." Nobody challenged him. Nor did anyone mention guns, though the U.S. just recorded its highest number of mass shootings - most recently in Texas, Washington, Las Vegas - and Senate Republicans just refused to reauthorize 1994's Assault Weapons Ban, which worked. But he did, alone among the rabble, mention climate change - to say it's "a hoax." He really said that. "If you thought COVID was bad, what’s coming with this climate agenda is far worse," he babbled. "We should not be bending the knee to this new religion. We are flogging ourselves and losing our modern way of life bowing to this new god of climate, and that will end on my watch." Yeah, sure, let's make any of these vile, petty, dithering, bigoted, malevolent morons president. James Baldwin: "Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”


So Long, Ronwww.youtube.com

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Greenpeace activist holding sign "Stop Deep Sea Mining"
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​'Shameful': Norwegian Government Backs Deep-Sea Mining

Environmental protection groups on Tuesday warned that the Norwegian government's new deal with two right-wing minority parties to open the Arctic Ocean to deep-sea mining would be "a disaster" and flies in the face of warnings from scientists about companies' exploration of the seabed.

The Labor and Center Parties, which have control of the government, reached an agreement with the right-wing Hoeyre and Progress Parties to allow Stortinget, the Norwegian parliament, to approve the first projects by deep-sea mining firms such as Loke Marine Minerals.

The plan would gradually open areas of the Greenland and Barents seas in the Arctic, and proponents claimed it would set strict environmental survey requirements. The proposal is set to be formally debated by the Stortinget on January 4, followed by a vote.

Despite the promises of environmental protections, Greenpeace Norway said the government cannot claim to know "what consequences this will have for the ecosystems in the sea, for endangered species such as whales and seabirds, or for the fish stocks on which we base our livelihood."

Norway is "giving up any pretense of being an environmental leader" by embracing deep-sea mining, said the group.

The European Academies Science Advisory Council in August said the push to extract metals like cobalt and copper from the fragile seabed—ostensibly to support the production of batteries for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and other products—is "misleading" and could cause "irreparable damage" ecosystems where thousands of newly discovered species live.

The minerals are already mined elsewhere on Earth, scientists have pointed out, and the deep sea could be placed at risk for chemical leaks and spills as well as harmful noise and light pollution.

More than 800 marine scientists have called for a global moratorium on deep-sea mining, and 119 members of the European Parliament have called on Norwegian lawmakers to reject the proposed opening process.

Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway, called Tuesday's proposal "shameful" for the country.

"The Norwegian government is not only ignoring hundreds of concerned scientists, but also showing disregard for its international obligations and national environmental legislation," said Pleym. "By opening up for deep-sea mining, Norway has lost all credibility as a responsible ocean nation that signed the United Nations ocean treaty."

Martin Sveinssønn Melvær of the Bellona environmental group in Norway said it would be "a dangerous derailment in the fight against climate change to open up seabed minerals."

Pleym pledged that the fight against deep-sea mining in Norway "doesn't end here."

"Across the Greenpeace network, we will work to stop every deep-sea mining project presented to the Norwegian parliament," he said. "The wave of protests against deep-sea mining has just started to grow... We will not allow Norway to destroy the unique life in the deep sea, not in the Arctic nor anywhere else."

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FTC Chair Lina Khan
News

Biden FTC Applauded for 'Going After Big Pharma' by Challenging 100+ Patents

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday disputed more than 100 patents held by pharmaceutical companies that make asthma inhalers, EpiPens, and other items listed in the Food and Drug Administration's so-called "Orange Book," which identifies products the agency considers safe and effective.

The FTC sent letters to 10 companies—including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals—notifying them that the commission believes some of their patents are improperly listed in the FDA's Orange Book.

Drug companies have long been accused of abusing the FDA patent listing system to undercut generic competition. In its warning letters to the pharmaceutical companies, the FTC notes that "patents improperly listed in the Orange Book may delay lower-cost generic drug competition."

"By listing their patents in the Orange Book, brand drug companies may benefit from an automatic, 30-month stay of FDA approval of competing generic drug applications," the agency's letters explain. "In addition to delays resulting from such a stay of approval, the costs associated with litigating improperly listed patents may disincentivize investments in developing generic drugs, which risks delaying or thwarting competitive entry. The Supreme Court recognizes that improper Orange Book listings have prevented or delayed generic drug entry since at least the 1990s."

While the letters state that the FTC has chosen to make use of the FDA's formal dispute process to target the allegedly improper listings, the agency said it retains "the right to take any further action the public interest may require," including legal action.

In an interview on NPR Wednesday morning, FTC Chair Lina Khan said that companies are only supposed to list in the Orange Book patents covering active drug ingredients.

"Instead, we have found that firms are listing device patents that have absolutely nothing to do with the active ingredient," said Khan. "So they're instead covering the dispenser cap on a multidose eyedropper or the cap strap on an inhaler, which just keeps the inhalers in place."

"We've identified patents covering these components of devices," Khan added, "and that may in fact be resulting in Americans having to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars more than they should be."

"Big Pharma has been intentionally gaming the United States' drug safety system to block other manufacturers from making and selling the same treatments at lower prices."

Consumer advocates applauded the FTC's move as a key step toward challenging the pharmaceutical industry's profit-seeking manipulation of the U.S. patent system.

"We're thrilled to see the FTC crack down on over a hundred sham Orange Book listings, which keep lifesaving medicines like asthma inhalers and epinephrine prohibitively expensive for those who need them most," said Erik Peinert, research manager and editor at the American Economic Liberties Project. "Big Pharma has been intentionally gaming the United States' drug safety system to block other manufacturers from making and selling the same treatments at lower prices."

Public Citizen also welcomed the FTC's action in a social media post:

The FTC's warning letters to drug companies came after the agency issued a policy statement signaling that it intends to "scrutinize improper Orange Book listings to determine whether these constitute unfair methods of competition."

The statement notes that "patents listed in the Orange Book must claim the reference listed drug or a method of using it."

"Brand drug manufacturers are responsible for ensuring their patents are properly listed," the statement continues. "Yet certain manufacturers have submitted patents for listing in the Orange Book that claim neither the reference listed drug nor a method of using it. When brand drug manufacturers abuse the regulatory processes set up by Congress to promote generic drug competition, the result may be to increase the cost of and reduce access to prescription drugs."

A report published earlier this year by the American Economic Liberties Project estimated that antitrust violations by the pharmaceutical industry—including shame Orange Book listings—cost U.S. patients, insurers, and federal health programs more than $40 billion in 2019 alone.

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Former President Donald Trump
News

Trump Pledges to Be a Dictator on 'Day One'

Amid mounting alarm over his authoritarian ambitions for a second term, former President Donald Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Tuesday that he would be a dictator only on "day one," pledging to unilaterally close the U.S.-Mexico border and accelerate fossil fuel drilling.

Trump's remarks came in response to a question from host Sean Hannity, who asked the former president if he would promise to never "abuse power as retribution against anybody."

"Except for day one," Trump replied. "I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill... We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I'm not a dictator."

"The moment for resisting Trump is right now, not waiting until January 21, 2025."

President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign immediately highlighted Trump's comments, posting a clip on social media and saying in a statement that the former president "has been telling us exactly what he will do if he's reelected."

"Tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one," said Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. "Americans should believe him."

Trump's remarks Tuesday were just the latest evidence that the former president is preparing to aggressively wield executive power and arms of the federal government to pursue a far-right agenda and target his political enemies if he wins another White House term next year.

The Washington Postreported last month that Trump and his allies "have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents... with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations."

"Much of the planning for a second term has been unofficially outsourced to a partnership of right-wing think tanks in Washington," the Post noted. "Dubbed 'Project 2025,' the group is developing a plan, to include draft executive orders, that would deploy the military domestically under the Insurrection Act."

During a speech in New Hampshire last month, Trump promised to "root out" those he dubbed "radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country," a threat that critics likened to Nazi rhetoric.

The former president, who is currently facing more than 90 felony charges, also pledged that his administration would carry out "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," revive the Muslim ban, slash taxes for the wealthiest even further, and accelerate pipeline approvals.

The New York Timesreported Tuesday that a Trump confidant who is "likely to serve in a senior national security role in any new Trump administration" threatened to "target journalists for prosecution if the former president regains the White House."

Kash Patel, who served as Trump's counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council, said during an appearance on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon's podcast that "we will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media."

"Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections—we're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out," Patel said. "We're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have."

In a column published Tuesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch expressed concern about what he described as the lack of mass mobilization against Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, given his openly fascistic threats and behind-the-scenes planning.

"Trump is back, and no one calls him a demagogue anymore—because that's too polite," Bunch wrote. "The 47th presidency he envisions is tyrannical, even dictatorial—siccing zealous MAGA prosecutors on his political enemies and the media, pardoning 2021's insurrectionists, mass detention camps for deporting migrants, and calling out troops to put down protests, perhaps as early as his Inauguration Day. And yet he is all but guaranteed the GOP nomination, and an even-money bet against President Joe Biden next fall."

"As I write this on Monday night, 'dictator' is a trending topic on X/Twitter. It could be trending nightly if the too-silent majority of Americans who believe in democracy don't take a more forceful stand," Bunch warned. "The moment for resisting Trump is right now, not waiting until January 21, 2025."

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Family members who lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic rallied at the U.S. Supreme Court
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Families Rally for Opioid Accountability as Supreme Court Hears Purdue Case

At the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, families whose loved ones are among the tens of thousands of Americans who have died of opioid use disorder each year over the past two decades rallied to push the nine justices to reject a proposed bankruptcy plan that would give the former owners of Purdue Pharma legal immunity—with many joining the U.S. Justice Department in arguing that the company should not be released from accountability for the opioid epidemic.

Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in 2019, as the number of Americans killed by opioids hit 50,000 and the OxyContin manufacturer faced thousands of lawsuits alleging its aggressive marketing of the addictive painkiller had fueled the rising death toll.

The company agreed to settle the lawsuits for $10 billion, with the Sackler family—which oversaw Purdue when OxyContin was introduced and flooded communities across the U.S.—contributing $4 billion. In exchange, the Sacklers would be shielded from future lawsuits.

The bankruptcy plan—which now includes $6 billion from the Sacklers following a push from lawsuit plaintiffs—has been approved by state and local governments, tribes, and families and individuals who would be entitled to money.

But the U.S. Trustee Program, a watchdog at the Justice Department, has joined some families in arguing that the Sacklers should not be shielded from liability for the opioid crisis.

"No Sackler immunity at any $$," read one sign held by a woman outside the Supreme Court on Monday, while another said, "My dead son does not release Sacklers."

The issue at hand in the case, Harrington v. Purdue Pharma, is whether it is legal to give a third party—the Sackler family—legal immunity in a bankruptcy case even though they themselves have not declared bankruptcy, also known as nonconsensual third-party release.

A lawyer for groups and individuals told the court that families and governments are highly unlikely to get any more out of Purdue and the Sacklers than the money the company and family have offered as part of the deal.

The plan would include $161 million in a trust set aside for Native American tribes and $700 million to $750 million in a trust for families and individuals who were able to file claims, with payouts expected to range from about $3,500 to $48,000. Governments would use the money to set up addiction treatment centers and other programs to mitigate the opioid crisis.

"Forget a better deal—there is no other deal," lawyer Pratik Shah told the Supreme Court on Monday.

Curtis Gannon, representing the U.S. Trustee Program, noted that the Sackler family already showed that a "better deal" could be possible when it offered $6 billion for the plan instead of $4 billion. The Justice Department is advocating for a new settlement that would not include nonconsensual third-party releases, saying the current bankruptcy deal violates federal law.

"We do hope there is another deal at the end of this," said Gannon.

The justices appeared split on the case, in which a ruling is expected next summer. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that appeals courts do not allow bankruptcy plans that take away the rights of alleged victims to sue parties that have not declared bankruptcy.

Outside the court, Alexis Pleus, who lost her son to opioid use disorder, told Aneri Pattani of KFF Health News that many families, including hers, will not be entitled to money under the current deal because they are required to provide records such as the original opioid prescription.

Beth Macy, author of the book Dopesick, told CNN Monday morning that while some families "are divided" about whether the bankruptcy plan and payouts should move forward, as the U.S. Trustee Program "has pointed out, only 20% of the families who were eligible to vote on [the proposal], even voted."

"I don't want their money," Jen Trejo, whose son Christopher was prescribed OxyContin at age 15 and died of an overdose when he was 32, told Pattani. "I want them in prison."

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Guterres
News

UN Chief Invokes Article 99 to Spur Security Council Action on Gaza

With over 16,000 Palestinians dead just two months into Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday demanded immediate action by the U.N. Security Council.

For the first time since becoming secretary-general nearly seven years ago, Guterres invoked Article 99, a rarely used section of the U.N. Charter empowering him to bring to the attention of the council "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security."

U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that Guterres was invoking Article 99 "given the scale of the loss of human life in Gaza and Israel, in such a short amount of time."

"I think it's arguably the most important invocation," Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters, "in my opinion, the most powerful tool that he has."

"The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis."

Guterres wrote to José Javier De la Gasca Lopez Domínguez, the Ecuadorian president of the Security Council, that "more than eight weeks of hostilities in Gaza and Israel have created appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory."

The U.N. chief reaffirmed his condemnation of the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel—in which around 1,200 people were killed and over 200 others were captured—that led to the war. He called accounts of sexual violence "appalling" and stressed that the remaining hostages "must be immediately and unconditionally released."

He also emphasized that "civilians throughout Gaza face grave danger," with the Israeli airstrikes and raids damaging more than half of all homes and displacing about 80% of the 2.3 million residents. Over a million of them have sought shelter at U.N. facilities, "creating overcrowded, undignified, and unhygienic conditions," while others "find themselves on the street."

"The healthcare system in Gaza is collapsing," he noted, pointing out that only 14 of 36 hospitals are operating at all. "I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible. An even worse situation could unfold, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into neighboring countries."

Already, conditions in Gaza are making "it impossible for meaningful humanitarian operations to be conducted," Guterres added. "The capacity of the United Nations and its humanitarian partners has been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications, and growing insecurity."

"The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost," the U.N. leader warned. "The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis."

"I urge the members of the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe," he wrote. "I reiterate my appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared. This is urgent. The civilian population must be spared from greater harm."

The United States—a supporter of Israel's war and one of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members—vetoed a mid-October resolution condemning violence against civilians in Israel and Gaza and urging "humanitarian pauses" for aid delivery.

Roughly a month later, the Security Council approved a Gaza resolution that calls on all parties to abide by their obligations under international law and advocates for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors."

Dr. Christos Christou, international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said at the time that "the unacceptably jumbled and sluggish process finally led to the adoption of a text that does not come close to reflecting the severity of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza."

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