Corned Beef Briefs: Big Pharma, Big War & Big Media

The different elements making up what we call the Deep State all had some notable developments this week. Here's a look at three notable stories.

Aug 20, 2023

The Deep State—that Iron Triangle that includes government agencies, the large corporations that profit from them, and the corporate media apparatus that pushes their narratives, all saw three stories develop this week. The stories covered the good, the bad and the illuminating…

FDA Approves Ivermectin As COVID-19 Treatment

Yes, that headline is correct. Ivermectin—the anti-viral drug that many of us used to treat COVID-19, was given approval by the Food & Drug Administration. For our many readers that are familiar with Ivermectin and the controversies surrounding it, this approval is seen as maddening and outrageous. For those that perhaps didn’t follow the story, this is the reason we find this outrageous, even though we completely agree with the FDA approval…

*This approval should have happened over three years ago. Ivermectin should have been at the forefront of early treatment as soon as the pandemic started. There were plenty of doctors who wanted to prescribe it and plenty of us who were prepared to use it. Ivermectin was an established antiviral and easily accessible for everyone.

*Ivermectin was also low-cost, meaning everyone could afford it. Here, of course, is where the problem comes in. In advocating for low-cost early treatment, I’m clearly being insensitive to the needs of Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J, all of whom needed the vaccine to make the billions of dollars they would all ultimately pocket because of COVID-19.

*Thus, Ivermectin was suppressed. It has a history of being used as a horse dewormer. The FDA themselves ran a mocking tweet telling us we weren’t horses and to instead take the untested and risky vaccine. Rachel Maddow, then the highest-rated nightly host on MSNBC, devoted a show to mocking people who took Ivermectin. Doctors that tried to prescribe it faced license suspension. Pharmacies refused to fill legitimate prescriptions.

How many people died because they were denied early treatment? How many people lost jobs because they wanted to use Ivermectin rather than subject themselves to early treatment? How many family relationships and friendships were damaged—perhaps irreparably--because millions believed the lies of the FDA, the pharmaceutical industry, and their corrupt media apparatus?

That’s why this approval, while vindicating, also fuels just anger. It’s only happening now because public confidence in the vaccine and its accompanying 25 booster shots is basically gone. The money to be made on vaccinations is dwindling, so they’ll quietly approve Ivermectin and start plotting their next move.

It’s one more part of 2020 and its aftermath that should never be let go of until we get a full investigation—one that includes subpoenas for prominent media outlets and personalities, asking what they knew and when they knew it.

A War Industry Swamp Creature

Investigative reporter Glenn Greenwald did a terrific expose on one of Washington’s most notorious swamp creatures. Have you heard of the name Victoria Nuland? Unless you’re a political junkie, probably not. But Nuland is arguably more responsible than anyone for the foreign wars the United States has been enmeshed in, from Iraq to Afghanistan to Ukraine.

Nuland is one of the many entrenched bureaucrats who amass power and are there through most every administration, both Republican and Democrat. She was a top adviser to then-Vice President Dick Cheney and was instrumental in pushing the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Now, given that Barack Obama rose to the presidency precisely because of his opposition to that war, and because Obama’s base quite literally considered Cheney a war criminal, you’re surely assuming that Nuland was shown the door in the Obama Administration. But you would be wrong. Victoria Nuland remained instrumental in guiding U.S. foreign policy. She also went on to be a key advisor to Hillary Clinton, and she currently runs point on Ukraine for Joe Biden.

Everywhere Victoria Nuland goes, wars follow. Wars that have no bearing on the national security of the United States. That alone makes her significant. But what’s even more significant is that there are thousands of Victoria Nulands running around Washington D.C., making policy, immune from accountability for failures, and there regardless of which candidate gets elected president. Victoria Nuland is the Anthony Fauci of the military apparatus.

Well, let me make one correction. Victoria Nuland hasn’t worked for every Administration in recent years. There’s one exception. By an astonishing coincidence it’s the one Administration that’s notable for not having started any new wars. By an equally astounding coincidence, that Administration can be easily identified as the one whose leader is under constant indictment and the threat of prison, lest he return to office and banish Queen Victoria all over again.

Trump & Tucker Vs. Fox

We’ve covered Big Pharma and Big War. How about we move on to Big Media, and close with some promising news. This Wednesday, August 23, Fox News will host the first debate of the Republican primary season. It’s a debate that will be notable by the fact Donald Trump will not be in attendance. Instead, Trump is going to do an interview with Tucker Carlson that will be shown via Carlson’s Twitter feed.

That the Trump-Tucker interview is going to completely obliterate the GOP minor leaguers in terms of views is not really in question. What I’m wondering is whether or not this signifies something bigger than just the ups and downs of the media viewership battles.

Fox News has made every effort to rid itself of Trump, from its premature call of Arizona on Election Night 2020 (even if you accept the dubious proposition that Arizona’s final results were legitimate, that was still far too early of a call) to a concerted effort to keep Trump off its airwaves, to bestowing massive amounts of favorable coverage on Ron DeSantis’ primary challenge. And, of course, Fox News actually did rid itself of Carlson, whose annoying pokes at corporate narratives on vaccines, war, and January 6, had merely made him the most popular political host on television.

Now, you have Trump and Tucker combining to openly throw down on Fox News, virtually guaranteeing a spate of embarrassing headlines for the network.

Fox News has long sought to shape the Republican Party in its image—corporate-friendly, foreign-intervention-friendly on policy. The Fox News GOP has also played a role as dutiful enabler of the Deep State.

The way Big Media has served its function in the Iron Triangle is to essentially provide entertainment for the masses—the rubes on the right get Fox News, and the wackos on the left get MSNBC and CNN. But—as the example of Victoria Nuland demonstrates—that’s just a fake fight. The political “battles” these networks sell us are as staged as the casino vault robbery in the remake of Oceans 11.

But what happens if Fox News collapses—or at least its role as the Republican enabler of the Deep State collapses? If the Deep State is an Iron Triangle, and the media is one part of that Triangle, what happens to the Triangle when you pull one of the legs out? The coming contrast in exposure between Trump/Tucker and the Republican B team might be when we start to find out.

Corned Beef Catholicism

Discussion about this post