Glenmark Pharmaceuticals issued seven recalls for pills that didn’t dissolve properly, records show. All were made at the same factory in India. But the FDA still hasn’t stopped the company from shipping other pills made there to the U.S.
— Read on www.propublica.org/article/glenmark-pharmaceuticals-recalls-fda-oversight
-
-
Russia’s leadership is betting that chaos and infighting among the Islamist rebels who overthrew Syria’s regime will allow Moscow to hang onto its strategically important foothold in the country, Russian officials told The Moscow Times.
— Read on www.themoscowtimes.com/This foreign policy embarrassment could expand into a domestic political issue if Russian military personnel stationed in Syria are harmed.
While Russian diplomats agree that Moscow is unlikely to hold onto its Syrian military bases with Assad gone, one diplomat believes that potential internal conflicts within the victorious Syrian opposition could play in the Kremlin’s favor.
‘In half a day’
In May 2016, after Russian forces intervened in the bloody Syrian Civil War to help Assad regain control over the country, Russia staged a triumphant ceremony in Palmyra to celebrate the ancient city’s recapture from Islamic State terrorists.
-
Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, tells the Observer he advised Tories to criminalise foreign agents in 2019
— Read on www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/14/advice-ignored-by-ministers-could-have-blocked-prince-andrew-spy -
“People are afraid to go out to protest.
— Read on www.themoscowtimes.com/Suleymanova co-organized an all-women rally near the Russian Embassy in Belgium to spotlight Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s “fight against defenseless women” as well as the many cases of women kidnapped or imprisoned in the North Caucasus republic.
The protest’s organizers say their primary motivation behind the protest was fresh criminal charges against Zarema Musaeva, the imprisoned mother of prominent Kadyrov critics.
Musaeva, the mother of activists Abubakar, Baysangur and Ibragim Yangulbaev, was violently detained in the western Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod and forcibly taken to Chechnya in January 2022.
She was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison on charges of fraud and assault on a police officer — accusations she strongly denied.
-
We publish below the short, 262-word, hand-written manifesto which was allegedly in Luigi Mangione’s possession at the time of his arrest. We publish it in full
— Read on marxist.com/manifesto-of-luigi-mangione.htm.“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
The corporate media is trying to paint Mangione as unstable and mentally ill. FBI profiler on CNN is saying this “manifesto” is rambling and incoherent. She is also saying his school friends are portraying him as a nice guy because that was him “before” his mental illness. Bullshit.
-
It makes me so sad. Syria. The stories. All the hope, all the dreams, of freedom, of democracy, of fulfillment. I lean for them, how I lean for them, but as a snarky old lady living in a country that just gave itself away to fascists, I am not optimistic.
I am living in a country that would not risk fighting for what was right, a country of cowards protecting their positions in the elite. And now, after pardoning the son of the president, they are talking about pardoning the entire Democratic Party elite. And, on top of that, they are talking about pardoning Donald Trump.
Yes, let’s just pardon the entire political elite class and leave the rest of us out here twisting in the wind. And let’s pardon Donald Trump because the Democratic Party Elite think that that may bring about a system where they can continue to grift and make millions as “democratic strategists.” Who cares about what happens to the rest of us, who are living on Social Security, or Medicare, or Veterans benefits and hospitals. As long as the Rham Emanual’s of the party can continue to do their insider trading and whatever else they do to wind up as millionaires after a few years in office.
I am sick of it. Sick up to the back teeth. I will never vote for another Democrat if they pardon the Democratic elite and especially if they pardon Trump claiming “healing.” Fucking healing? You want to know what would be healing to me? To see Donald Trump for once treated like every other person before the law. Donald Trump in prison would heal me. James Clyburn can go to hell.
I’m really in now for the night. The cats have chosen their spots, after a little discombobulation about me running the vacuum at 9:40 PM at night. I could hear the murmurs of disapproval. But, I think we are alright. Pooper is upstairs with me settling in his heated bed.
Night. I hope we survive tomorrow.
-
-
SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER 2024
Syria
After decades of support, Iran is abandoning Syria. Rebels are expected to advance soon on Damascus. Iran seems unable to muster a defense of Assad and his government. Iran “operated military bases, weapons warehouses and missile factories” in Syria. The Iranians were shocked with how quickly the rebels gained ground and the Syrian Army abandoned its bases. (Note: Podcast comment that Assad was paying soldiers with badly inflated currency, so they were broke.)
Some commented that this would make Israel the “dominant force” in the region. (NYT, 12/7/240
SUNDAY MORNING 8 DECEMBER 2024
Syria (Telegraph, 12/8/24)
Russian ships left days ago from the port of Tartus in Syria. Tim Collins, former British Army officer, writes in the Telegraph that the Russians are “desperately evacuating their warm-water naval base” in Syria. Collins continued, “this is a disaster for Putin.” He now has no warm water naval access.
Collins at one point years ago thought that the separate Kurdish groups could unite, but it seems they are now characterized by infighting and disunity.
Regime change in Tehran is now a possibility.
Iranian embassy in Damascus has been stormed.
Assad has left the country. There were reports on Reuters that his plane had crashed, but the reporting was later taken down.
Sources are not sure where Assad is, but one plane that took off from Damascus flew toward the western coast of Syria toward a region which is a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, then the plane did a u turn and disappeared.
The Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia. The new rebel group is part of the Sunni Arab majority.
CNN
- Nobody knows where Assad is. CNN is reporting that he left the country in a Russian plane. Even though Russia is saying that he gave orders to hand over power peacefully, CNN is reporting that as recently as yesterday, Assad was telling his forces to fight.
- 54-year reign of the Assad family.
- It is a “momentous” set back for the allies of Syria. Nic Robertson, CNN. For Iran, Russia and Hezbollah, it is a massive “blow.”
Podcast: BBC Global News. (12/8/24) Damascus Special.
- HTS (rebel group) says Assad has fled the country. (Note: I don’t understand surviving a civil war and then risking everybody’s life by shooting bullets in the air.)
- BBC Arabic reporter says, Assad and his family have left. It is returning to an “Arab Spring” (Note: Note sure I understand this reference to the Arab Spring?) after more than 14 years of civil war. Russia was not willing to fight for the Assad regime anymore. (Note: Podcast comment, Syrian military forces wouldn’t fight and the Russians told them, you won’t fight? We aren’t fighting for you.) Whenever the rebels conquer a city, they release the prisoners believing they are political prisoners. (Note: As a criminologist and sympathetic to inmates, this is an assumption that will come back to bite you.) The rebel group now controls the official TV. Who is going to deliver the message for the group and what will that message be?
- Some of the actors were affiliated with DASH or IS. There were no atrocities when they entered these cities. They may have reinvented themselves into a more moderate group, but that is only speculation.
- HTS (rebel group) is head of this offensive.
- Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent:
- If they (HTS) do rule fairly and for all Syrians and not persecute minorities, they will get that designation (as a terrorist group) removed by the UN Security Council, but if they do what the Taliban did – push the country back to a dark age – the future is going to “be bleak.”
- A big question is what Russia will do. Russians made an official statement: We will do whatever it takes to combat this terrorist organization.
- They are losing their protégé in Syria and an airbase and seaport.
- Syria is a cosmopolitan county – there are a great number of factions, and for the group that supported Assad, there is likely fear among the Alawites. They have been loyal to Assad. Turkey, backing the rebels, said to Assad regime – we offered you a way out of this and you didn’t’ want to hear. (Note: I’m not sure what he was talking about here.)
- This is Russia’s and Iran’s problem. And Turkey because they backed the rebels. There is a small contingent of US forces. (Note: Biden said today in a dreadful example of how he cannot read a teleprompter anymore, that we would protect the American troops there.)
- If chaos ensues, ISIS will try to take advantage of it. There are thousands of prisoners guarded by Syrian Kurds in Syria.
- International Correspondent:
- Negotiations were going on into the night on Saturday, trying to find a compromise.
- The HTS has tried to reassure Syrians and the international community that they are not as radical. The concern may be about the leader and his transition to a less radical fundamentalist, but there is also concern about the people around him.
- Lavrov said that terrorists cannot rule Syria, but there is a new reality.
- In 2011, people were not even calling for Assad’s ouster, but just for more democracy. Assad never moved an inch. Most Syrians are living in poverty. Some family members have disappeared into the prison system.
- (Note: The State Department released a statement documenting the fact that Assad had built a crematorium in the prison just outside Damascus to burn the bodies of all the people he was killing. Where is the f…ing media? I never heard of this. We get no international news and it is only worse since the election. Joe and the dreadful Mika have taken to talking more and more about sports.)
MSNBC
- US strikes on ISIS in Middle East.
Well, I’m out of it for tonight. I am livid actually. Rep. James (did a deal to keep Bernie Sanders from being the Democratic nominee) Clyburn is publicly advocating a pardon FOR DONALD TRUMP. I am so mad I can hardly contain myself. Clyburn is spouting this “healing” nonsense. No, we do not need a pardon for Donald Trump to heal. We need to see that he is not above the law. I am 73 and if they pardon Donald Trump and the rest of the Democratic elite (see Laurence Tribe) I will start a revolution myself.
Night from the snarky old lady.
-
Less than 24 hours after former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) withdrew his name from consideration for Attorney General, President-Elect Donald Trump announced Gaetz’s replacement for the nomination.”I am proud to announce former Attorney General of the Great State of Florida, Pam Bondi, as our next Attorn…
— Read on www.rawstory.com/pam-bondi-2669969108/
Law, Power, and Justice 