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Smoke, Mirrors, and the Pfizer Deal

Iam a mother. I have never been vaccinated myself. I believe deeply in informed consent. And I want to say clearly that I am hopeful about Bobby’s leadership at HHS. I want to believe that he can bring real transparency and accountability to a government that has too often cozied up to the corporations it is supposed to regulate.

But when I read the headlines about Trump’s “landmark” deal with Pfizer, I don’t feel hopeful. I feel misled.

We are told that Pfizer has committed $70 billion to research, development, and production here in the United States. That sounds impressive, like a historic victory for the American people. But the truth is, Pfizer already spends billions every year on research and development. That is simply the business they are in. Without that constant pipeline, they do not survive.

So what is really new here? Nothing at all. It is the same budget they were already going to spend, repackaged and sold as a bold new commitment. The difference now is that Pfizer gets something in return: tariff relief, political cover, and a government-backed direct-to-consumer program called TrumpRx.

That is what makes this deal so frustrating. Pfizer is not changing its behavior. They are not suddenly sacrificing profits or doing more for patients. They are being rewarded for business as usual, only now with added advantages that strengthen their market position even more. And we are being asked to celebrate it as if it is some great victory for ordinary families.

Every producer wants to cut out the middleman. I know this from my own life. As a meat producer, I do not want to pay one. As a vegetable producer, I do not want to pay one. As a content creator, I do not want to pay one. Nobody does. And now Pfizer, of all companies, is getting the official blessing of the US government to do exactly that.

This is the same Pfizer that misled the public during Covid. That is not a rumor, it is documented. Whistleblowers from trial sites described falsified records, patients who were not properly followed up after adverse events, and unqualified staff handling sensitive data. State attorneys general have accused Pfizer of downplaying serious risks, including heart inflammation in young men and pregnancy complications in women. 

Kansas has even claimed the company hid internal studies that showed risks while telling the public something different. And the most central promise of all, that the vaccines would stop transmission, simply was not true, even though the marketing never caught up to that reality.

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NATO Jets Scrambled Over Lithuania After Russian Aircraft Breach Airspace

NATO member Lithuania on Thursday alleged that a pair of Russian jets violated its sovereign airspace, in what the government quickly condemned as a breach the country’s territorial integrity.

“This evening, Russian military planes violated Lithuanian air space. This is a blatant breach of international law and territorial integrity of Lithuania,” the country’s President Gitanas Nauseda said in a statement.

Alluding to recent EU plans to create a joint aerial defense and drone shield to protect European airspace from Russian incursions, he added: “Once again, it confirms the importance of strengthening European air defense readiness.”

Nauseda further announced that his foreign ministry will be summoning Russian diplomatic representatives, to lodge formal protest against the “reckless and dangerous behavior”.

Lithuania’s military said it scrambled jets in response to the brief incursion. It said:

Today, Russian military aircraft briefly entered Lithuanian airspace. Our forces acted quickly with NATO jets on patrol. Lithuania remains strong and ready. Every inch of our country is protected.

Initial reports say that two Russian military planes violated the airspace for a mere 18-seconds.

Baltic and Eastern European countries, including Poland, have for several weeks been complaining of Russian aerial incursions. This month Denmark hosted a summit where a ‘drone wall’ was the focus:

Fortified by intense security measures after a wave of drone incursions above airports and sensitive sites, two high-stakes summits in the Danish capital offered a mounting sense of collective clarity — and a possible solution that sounds like science fiction: a “drone wall.”

“There is only one country that are willing to threaten us, and it is Russia,” Danish President Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday, adding that Europe was in the middle of a “hybrid war.”

“I think we are in the most difficult and dangerous situation since the end of the Second World War,” she added. “I want us to rearm. I want us to buy more capabilities. I want us to innovate more.”

Likely Thursday’s event happened off Lithuania’s coast over the Baltic Sea, where Russian and NATO planes frequently patrol.

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ACLU distributes mailer clearly favoring Dem Jay Jones in Virginia AG race despite policy of not endorsing candidates

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently paid for and distributed a left-wing mailer in Virginia regarding the state attorney general race, using language that clearly favors Jones as the candidate, despite the organization having a policy against endorsing or opposing political candidates as a nonprofit organization.

The mailer, which was delivered to multiple locations in Virginia, stated, “The ACLU does not endorse or oppose candidates, but we do want voters to make an informed choice” under a table showing the positions of Jones on Miyares on the topics of abortion, voting rights, federal funding, and Medicaid.

Although the flyer did not explicitly endorse Jones, the ACLU provided multiple direct quotes from the Democrat, who was recently revealed to have wished for the death of GOP politician Todd Gilbert as well as his children. In the portion dedicated to Miyares, no quotes from the GOP politician were cited and the ACLU used left-wing phrasing such as that Miyares wanted to “take away the federal constitutional right to abortion” and painted the AG candidate in a negative light. 

On federal funding cuts, the ACLU characterized Miyares negatively, saying that the Virginia AG did not join a wave of left-wing Attorneys General who “challenged federal layoffs that gutted civil rights enforcement and impacted thousands of Virginians.”

Conversely, the ACLU pulled a direct quote from Jones, which was not only a talking point in favor of Jones, but also an attack on Miyares. “While our current AG enables Trump’s attacks on our workforce, I promise to use every tool to protect Virginia federal workers,” the ACLU cited as Jones’ position on federal funding.  

One individual reported getting the mailer in Virginia, and posted a video to X, shredding the flyer with the caption, “The only thing to do with the ACLU’s pro Jay Jones mailers.”

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Why Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Sewer Socialism’ Won’t Help Poor People

New York City is poised to elect a Jew-hating, jihadi-loving, police-defunding socialist for mayor. But New York Times contributor E.J. Dionne thinks that this is fine, because Zohran Mamdani wants to be a “sewer socialist.” Which is to say that “he is far more interested in the practical task of being a successful mayor than in the impossible dream of turning a single city into a socialist paradise.“

Dionne is the sort of self-described Catholic Democrat who prefers the party platform to the catechism of his church, and so he is a willing mark for Mamdani’s efforts to reassure voters that he isn’t a dangerous radical. Per Dionne, Mamdani understands that the best advertisement for socialism is success, and he therefore seeks to revive a tradition of socialist mayors who eagerly worked on “the grubbiest of urban amenities because doing so underscored their aim of running corruption-free governments that did whatever they could to improve the lives of working-class people.” 

That sounds nice. It would be good for the Big Apple if Mamdani delivered on this ideal. Indeed, if the Democrats who run our nation’s cities focused on good government, it would be good for their constituents, their party’s political fortunes, and the nation as a whole, which is harmed when Leftists such as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson run our cities into the ground. But an outbreak of good government via urban socialism is not going to happen, no matter how much credulous liberals such as Dionne want to believe.

The first barrier is ideological. Socialism has changed since the early 20th century days that Dionne pines for. It is not about taking from the haves to give to the have-nots anymore (if it ever was). Rather, today’s socialism is an amalgamation of woke ideology, from intersectionality to anti-colonialism. Its advocates don’t care about sewers in working-class neighborhoods nearly as much as they do about climate change and letting sex offenders into the girls’ locker room. Today’s Left will enthusiastically take food from poor kids to pressure schools into implementing the rainbow agenda.

The result is an incoherent agenda that will hurt those whom Mamdani claims to want to help. For example, because socialism views excellence with suspicion, he wants to eliminate gifted programs for young public-school students. This will do nothing to advance the interests of the working class; it will only sabotage the chances of bright kids whose parents cannot afford private school tuition. Likewise, his antipathy toward law enforcement will undermine his signature initiatives, such as free busses. It is not just that “free” busses will, by his own estimate, cost taxpayers billions, but that people will avoid them because the Left refuses to enforce the laws that keep public spaces safe.

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Burma Army’s “Scorched Earth” Campaign Against Civilians Ahead of National Elections

Thick black smoke billows into the sky, twisting above the charred remains of what was once a thriving village. Flames consume wooden homes, their roofs collapsing as fire spreads relentlessly through the community. The air is heavy with the acrid scent of burning thatch and scorched earth, while displaced villagers watch helplessly from a distance, their lives reduced to ashes.

This scene of devastation followed a Burma Army airstrike on a civilian village in Arakan State on January 9, marking the start of another year of intensified fighting. After losing significant ground through February, the junta is now escalating attacks ahead of planned national elections, polls that exclude resistance-held territories and bar participation by pro-democracy parties. The regime’s objective is to recapture enough territory to present the election results to the international community as representing the will of the entire nation.

The attack in Arakan, like most strikes against civilians today, came without warning, sending families scrambling for cover as bombs rained down. Witnesses reported the deafening roar of jets overhead before the first explosion shattered the midday silence. Within minutes, homes, schools, and places of worship were engulfed in flames, leaving behind only smoldering ruins.

According to local reports, at least 42 civilians were killed and 50 others wounded, though the true death toll is believed to be much higher. Nearly 500 homes were reduced to rubble, forcing survivors to flee into nearby forests with whatever they could carry. The Burma Army has since cut off communication with the area, making it nearly impossible to assess the full extent of the destruction or deliver aid to those in desperate need.

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Oligarch-Battling Bernie Sanders Thinks It’s Perfectly Normal To Own Three Homes

Oligarchy fighter and working class man of the people Bernie Sanders sees nothing out of the ordinary in owning three large properties.

When recently questioned about his three houses, the ‘No Kings’ figurehead passed it off as if most Americans own multiple properties and he’s just like everyone else.

“Do I own three residences? Yes I do,” declared Sanders.

He then explained that he has “a beautiful home in Burlington,” a place in Washington, and “like many thousands of people in the State of Vermont” he has a “Summer camp on Lake Champlain.”

“It’s a nice one,” he enthused.

“That’s it!” Sanders declared.

Oh is that all?

Everyone has a vacation pad, right?

Aside from their other two houses.

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Mamdani Vows To Shut Down Rikers Island, Release Almost 8K Criminals

If New York City voters elect Muslim democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor, they will come to appreciate H.L. Mencken’s maxim that “democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

The latest on the far-far-far left radical goes well beyond raising taxes on whites, providing free day care and bus transportation, and, famously, “seizing the means of production.”

Last night, during the final mayoral debate against independent candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo and radio talker and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, Mamdani vowed again to shut down the Rikers Island prison facility in 2027, as city law requires. The problem: Other jails cannot be built before the deadline.

Result: Almost 8,000 dangerous criminals would be loosed upon the city. Not that Mamdani would care. Aside from the other communist ideas he espouses, he would also abolish jails and prisons.

Rikers Island is a 413-acre property with 12 facilities, almost all the city’s jails. In 2019, the city passed a law to close the facility and replace it with jails in four of the city’s five boroughs. That was a pipe dream, and now, the deadline for shuttering Rikers looms.

Answering a debate moderator’s question about it, Cuomo said “you cannot close Rikers in 2027 because there’s no place to put the people unless you’re going to release 7,000 people.” Noting that Mamdani would release them, Cuomo added that “I’m not going to release 7,000 criminals into New York.”

Releasing the criminals is the Democratic Socialists’, and therefore Mamdani’s, policy, Cuomo said. The former Empire State governor would build new jails on the island.

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China Is Smuggling Fentanyl to US Through Venezuela, Trump Says

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed on Oct. 23 that China is smuggling fentanyl into the United States through Venezuela to bypass U.S. and Mexican controls.

“They are doing that, yes, but they are paying right now 20 percent tariff because of fentanyl,” Trump told reporters.

Trump said it is one of the issues he will bring up with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping at their bilateral meeting next week.

“The first question I’m going to be asking them about is fentanyl,” he said.

Trump said that with the tariffs on China, which will rise by an additional 100 percent on Nov. 1 if no deal is made, the fentanyl operation will no longer be sustainable for China.

“They make $100 million sell[ing] fentanyl into our country … they lose $100 billion with the 20 percent tariff. So it’s not a good business proposition,” Trump said. “They pay a very big penalty for doing that, and I don’t think they want to be doing it.”

Trump’s meeting with Xi will come at the tail end of his Asia tour, for which he is departing on Oct. 24.

Earlier this year, FBI Director Kash Patel told lawmakers he had spoken to counternarcotics authorities in China and urged them to restrict exports of more fentanyl precursor chemicals.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security in August added seven chemicals to an export control list, three of them central to producing fentanyl. The restrictions went into effect Sept. 1.

The United States has determined that China is the main supplier of the deadly illicit drug in the United States, and Trump in an executive order on Feb. 1 imposed initial tariffs on China for its “central role” in the fentanyl crisis.

In the order, Trump noted that despite a long history of discussions over the years, Chinese regime officials “have failed to follow through with the decisive actions needed to stem the flow of precursor chemicals.”

According to the order, in addition to subsidizing and incentivizing chemical companies to create and export fentanyl precursors, the regime has also provided “support and safe haven” for transnational criminal organizations that launder the related profits.

“The CCP does not lack the capacity to severely blunt the global illicit opioid epidemic; it simply is unwilling to do so,” the order reads.

In recent weeks, Trump has authorized nine strikes on vessels suspected of trafficking drugs.

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Harvard Silent as Dean Defends Death Threats Against Trump

A Harvard dean defended death threats against Donald Trump and said “rioting and looting” are legitimate “parts of democracy.” Will the Ivy League institution sanction him? Even though the school is at loggerheads with the Trump administration, it’s looking the other way at this behavior.

The dean, Gregory Davis, is the “main liaison for students needing extra help achieving their academic and wellness goals” at Harvard University’s Dunster House. “Over the past two weeks,” the Free Beacon‘s Aaron Sibarium reports, “Over the past two weeks, conservative students at Harvard have unearthed a series of social media posts they say disqualify Davis for his position.” Chief among them: “I don’t – at all – blame people wishing Trump ill. … [F]uck that guy and [i]f he dies, he dies.”

Harvard has not commented publicly on the posts, and a spokesman for the school, Jonathan Palumbo, said he couldn’t discuss personnel matters. Davis has said the posts do not reflect his “current thinking or beliefs,” though it was kind of recently—June 2024—that he exhorted people to “hate the police.” Palumbo declined to comment regarding whether it was appropriate for a dean to legitimize calls for political violence.

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How Leftist Think Tanks Twist Facts To Manipulate Congress On Obamacare

As the government shutdown winds on, Democrats continue to hold the federal government hostage because, they claim, “premiums will double” if Congress does not extend Covid-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies.

I’ve debunked that topic in detail here and elsewhere, but to quickly summarize the argument: 1) The federal government will still pay on average 75-80 percent of enrollees’ premiums if the enhanced subsidies expire. 2) Nearly half of Exchange enrollees currently pay nothing in out-of-pocket premiums for benchmark coverage, which the Congressional Budget Office and others have concluded has led to over $10 billion in fraud every year. 3) Focusing on relative (i.e., percentage) increases ignores the comparatively modest effects most Exchange enrollees will face in absolute terms — no more than $50-100 per month on average.

But it’s worth taking a closer look at one of the think tanks pumping up the message about premiums supposedly doubling: KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation. It’s fair to question whether its messaging has deliberately contributed to confusion regarding this topic in a way that not-so-subtly exaggerates the case for extending the enhanced subsidies.

Inaccurate Graphic

KFF’s September report claimed that “premium payments will more than double” if the enhanced subsidies expire as scheduled. As I previously noted in these pages, this misleading terminology conflates premiums with out-of-pocket costs, which ignores the sizable subsidy the federal government will still provide to most enrollees if the Biden-era portion expires.

If the “premium payments” terminology is misleading, the “premiums will more than double” language moves into the realm of flat-out false and directly contradicts KFF’s own research on premium increases for 2026. So I wrote to KFF staff and asked them, “Do you plan on 1) correcting the graphic, 2) noting the correction on the homepage of your site (i.e., where it is located now) and 3) notifying your press lists of said correction?”

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