“Every one of the 210 new drugs approved by the FDA from 2010–2016" was developed using public research funds, according to the National Academy of Sciences. The NIH used to have a rule that drugs developed with public research funds had to be sold for a reasonable price, The plutocratist president, Bill Clinton, eliminated that rule.

Congress could restore that rule now with a law, if we replace the plutocratists in it.

Big Pharma says it needs monopolies to get the money to pay for the large studies of the effects of drugs. Those studies are crucial but we must not allow pharma companies to play any role in them -- because when they pay for studies, they corrupt the studies.

If we are wise, we will pay for those studies with public funds, too.

After all, it's our money either way, whether we pay it via the government or through the pharma companies.

*COVID-19 ‘Liberate’ Groups Are the Same Ones Pushing Climate Denial.*

There is no activity more essential than protesting when necessary. But the thugs of Raleigh, North Carolina, say it is forbidden because it is "non-essential".

However, we should recognize that one of the ways Covid-19 threatens to do permanent harm is by allowing governments (including the US) and companies (Google, Apple, Amazon, Zoom and others) to increase their levels of surveillance and control over people.

Ironically, even as government threatens us with repression, it is also a necessary platform for serving many vital needs, and the only tool we could use to keep the companies and plutocrats in check, and stop global heating before it destroys technological civilization.

This means we must first take control of our government, then use it to defeat the plutocratists. It's a devil of a situation, but it's that or serfdom.

We must not allow discrimination between protests based on what cause they advocate. If we permitted that, the plutocrats would ban protests against them.

Washington State passed a law limiting government use of face recognition. The ACLU says the limits are not enough to avoid the danger.

It appears that the law does not apply to businesses, indeed to anyone other than government agencies. That makes the law inadequate, since it does nothing to limit the businesses, such as Safran that accumulate face recognition dossiers about everyone and sell access to these dossiers.

(satire) *Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) assured Democratic House representatives Wednesday they don’t need to try being productive during the stressful pandemic.*

*Nobel laureates condemn 'judicial harassment' of environmental lawyer.* This refers to Steven Donziger, being persecuted by Chevron for being the lawyer for the Ecuadorian farmers who sued Chevron.

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