Given the atrocity of poor countries not being able to afford vaccine as their population dies, it's worth remembering what Lula did with HIV medications: constantly threaten to break the patent to get lower prices, then broke it to make generic pills:
Lula's threats and then patent-breaking provoked fury and threats of WTO retaliation, but he wasn't willing to watch Brazilians die of a disease for which rich countries had effective treatments. To this day, Brazil provides free HIV medicine to all people with that disease.
I'm not saying India or Brazil or anyone else should do this with the COVID vaccine. The retaliation is real for countries which do it. But there's something uniquely horrible about watching humans die of a disease for which effective vaccines have been created.
The first time Brazil broke a patent on AIDS drugs was 2001, during the center-right administration preceding Lula. Brazil was unable to negotiate an affordable price with Roche, so began producing generics at half the price (then reached agreement).
CNN: "The Justice Department on Tuesday abandoned the idea that pro-Trump rioters had used bear spray against Officer Brian Sicknick during the January 6 riot, a major change after implying for weeks that bear spray, not pepper spray, had been deployed."
Virtually everything the corporate media said about Officer Sicknick's death from Jan 6 until this week - almost four months: from fire extinguisher to bear spray - was completely false. It became part of the impeachment trial and the script Biden reads:
Today is a day ending in "y," which means that @theguardian published a false claim that could have been checked in about 5 seconds and that multiple outlets have already corrected.
Or the Oklahoma City bombing? Or the dismantling of civil liberties in the name of the Cold War and War on Terror? Or the mass surveillance program secretly and illegally implemented by NSA aimed at US citzens?
Completely unhinged drama queen script to say that about Jan 6.
In the U.S. corporate media, the surest way to advance is to loyally spread lies and deceit from the U.S. security state. Jeffrey Goldberg and Ken Dilanian are perfect mascots for this perverse reward and incentive system. CNN's newest hire is just the latest example.
Bertrand was no ordinary Russiagate fanatic. There was no conspiracy theory too unhinged for her to promote. So she joins CNN's stable of former operatives of the US security state whose propagandistic scripts she loyally peddles. *That* is the US media:
Good morning to everyone from the brave and brilliant @RoseMcGowan, who liberals turned into a hero until they realized they couldn't control her, just like they do to anyone who doesn't fully submit to Party orthodoxies (read about Cindy Sheehan to see that playbook):
For those who don't recall, Cindy Sheehan became a liberal/media hero after her son, Casey, was killed in the Iraq War & she valiantly hounded George Bush & Dick Cheney. But then she did this and they declared her crazy & bad: don't hear from her anymore:
There's a reason this is the person who gave birth to the current form of MSNBC liberal politics, rhetoric, and mentality, including hand-picking @Maddow. @KeithOlbermann remains important solely as a museum to understand where and how it all started:
Very excited to launch our freelance program today at Substack -- "Outside Voices" -- where we'll be regularly publishing new writers and some established ones to do independent reporting and commentary for freelance pay competitive with large outlets:
Our debut article is by @lwoodhouse, reporting on the abuse of anti-free-speech laws to target various activists as "domestic terrorists" on both right and left, with a focus on how this repressive model is being weaponized against animal rights activists
"This dismal [War on Terror] history should be an obvious cautionary tale about the hazards of enhancing the state’s power to surveil and prosecute people for politically motivated acts. But in the wake of the Capitol Riot, progressives have gained an appetite for more."