Stephan: The pharmaceutical industry is a major part of America's illness profit system, and the whole vaccine trend illustrates its operation. It is a story of profit over human wellbeing. This interview with Stephen Buranyi makes the fact-based case very clear.
In the future, societies that only have profit as a social priority will prosper much less than societies that make fostering wellbeing their first priority. The social outcome data is already clear about this.
Preparing an injection of Covid-19 vaccine
During the earliest months of the coronavirus pandemic, world leaders and corporate executives alike embraced the rhetoric of social solidarity, often drawing on nostalgic memories of war efforts past and common sacrifice in the face of adversity. That rhetoric, to put it mildly, did not realize itself in the form of policy: the pandemic has disproportionately hit the most vulnerable while billionaires have made a killing.
Despite early suggestions that the knowledge and expertise required for mass production of vaccines would be widely shared, private industry has maintained control thanks to restrictive intellectual property laws designed to protect its profits — the result being a slowed rollout that puts private wealth ahead of human need, even as pharma companies reap the benefits from public subsidies and publicly funded scientific research.
Stephen Buranyi is a science journalist living in London and a former researcher in immunology who has written on vaccine politics and production for the Guardian, the New York Times, and Prospect magazine. Jacobin spoke with Buranyi about the moral and political failure that is the global pandemic response, the history of patent sharing […]
NICHOLAS RICCARDI and MIKE SCHNEIDER, - Associated Press
Stephan: Population movement is an important but little-noticed trend. One which is only going to become a bigger issue as the effects of climate change and sea rise become more apparent. Anf it is going to have tremendous political overtones.
Garima Vyas
Garima Vyas always wanted to live in a big city. She thought about New York, long the destination for 20-something strivers, but was wary of the cost and complicated subway lines.
So Vyas picked another metropolis that’s increasingly become young people’s next-best option — Houston.
Now 34, Vyas, a tech worker, has lived in Houston since 2013. “I knew I didn’t like New York, so this was the next best thing,” Vyas said. “There are a lot of things you want to try when you are younger — you want to try new things. Houston gives you that, whether it’s food, people or dating. And it’s cheap to live in.”
The choices by Vyas and other members of the millennial generation of where to live have reshaped the country’s political geography over the past decade. They’ve left New York and California and settled in places less likely to be settings for TV sitcoms about 20-something urbanites, including Denver, Houston and Orlando, Florida. Drawn by jobs and overlooked cultural amenities, they’ve helped add new craft breweries, condominiums and liberal voters […]
Stephan: How strong is White supremacy in the United States? I think this poll gives us a fact-based sense of the answer. White supremacy has been baked into American culture starting in colonial times and healing that, starts with recognizing what this poll is telling us.
Derek Chauvin listens to the court’s ruling on his guilt Credit: MPR News
Three-quarters of Americans overall said they agree with the guilty jury verdict found for each of the three charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd. But among Republican voters, about half said the outcome was the “wrong verdict,” according to a new survey.
A CBS News/YouGov poll of more than 2,500 U.S. adults released Sunday found that white Americans’ reactions to the Chauvin verdict were “largely related to partisanship.”
About 9 in 10 Democrats surveyed said Chauvin’s conviction on all three counts—second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter—was the “right” decision. The 75 percent of independent voters who agreed it was the right verdict directly corresponded to the overall response from Americans. Eighty-two percent of people who identify as political moderates said they agree the guilty verdict was the right decision.
But among Republican Party voters, 46 percent said it was the “wrong verdict,” about five times the amount of disagreeing Democrats.
Stephan: How weird has America's gun psychosis and its marriage with grievance authoritarianism become? This article will give you a hint. And, of course, notice the "sport" characterization.
White militia men Credit: Anthony Crider
Efforts to form militias are being hampered by the firearm ammo crisis gripping America.
“If you don’t own guns or particularly care about guns, you probably had no idea that the United States is currently in the throes of the Great Ammunition Shortage of 2021. But in the gun world, it’s all anyone can talk about,” Tess Owen reported for Vice News on Monday.
“A perfect storm of factors led to the national ammo drought, which is forecast to drag out for at least another year,” Owen explained. “Americans began buying guns at a record pace in 2020 after COVID-19 hit the U.S. Between March and September 2020, gun sales jumped by 91 percent over the same period the previous year. And the approximately 15.1 million new guns needed ammo. But there were manufacturing issues. International shipments of materials used in ammunition were delayed amid restrictions. Ammo and firearm manufacturers were required to temporarily halt operations in certain states where they weren’t deemed essential business.”Raw Story […]
Stephan: I have just finished listening to President Biden's "State of the Union" address. I agreed with every word, and was heartened that someone with real vision has laid out a path into the future that will foster wellbeing. There is hope.
