CAPITALIST FRONTS

EDITOR—Though drug giants Novartis AG and Gilead Sciences Inc. have been marketing CAR-T globally since 2017, it’s expensive. The process of engineering an individual’s cells in a laboratory and then replicating them has also meant that some patients with more aggressive cancers can die waiting for treatment.

That’s where Gracell’s therapy was revolutionary. Instead of the two to three weeks taken by current treatments from American and European drug makers, the Shanghai-based company — set up by a group of veteran Chinese cell-therapy researchers — is churning out cancer-killing immune cells overnight.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—I found it incredibly sleazy how they were making a product that could actually help make households a kinder to the environment less accessible while presenting themselves as ecowarriors who want to save the planet. I told them I charge way more than I knew they’d ever pay me for the job and got the hell out of there, but lo and behold I did see Lectric Soda shoot up in price fourfold shortly thereafter.

EDITOR—On January 24, 2022 (US) Senator Ron Johnson invited a group of world-renowned doctors and medical experts to the U.S. Senate to provide a different perspective on the global pandemic response, the current state of knowledge of early and hospital treatment, vaccine efficacy and safety, what went right, what went wrong, what should be done now, and what needs to be addressed long term. 

JIMMY DORE—If you’re wondering why Democrats appear to be so terrified of Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential candidacy, just watch his opening statement during this week’s House hearings about online censorship. RFK very effectively sang the praises of the First amendment while excoriating Democrats who sought to silence him.

CHRIS HEDGES—There was once a wing of the Democratic Party that stood up to the war industry. J. William Fulbright, George McGovern, Gene McCarthy, Mike Gravel, William Proxmire, and, of course, Dennis Kucinich. But that was largely decades ago. The new Democrats, especially with the presidency of Bill Clinton, became shills not only for corporate America, but the arms industry. The massive military budget, $858 billion in military spending allocated for fiscal year 2023, is an increase of $45 billion over the Biden administration’s budget request, and nearly $80 billion more than the amount appropriated by Congress for the current fiscal year.