news, new scholarship & more from around the world
Thankfully, the production of new fentanyl-based compounds seems to have slowed. In Europe, eight new fentanyl derivatives were reported in 2016 and ten in 2017. However, no new fentanyl derivatives were reported in the period 2021 to 2023. In this period, the new compounds have been dominated by another group of opioids called nitazenes. Above: Thirteen milligrams of carfentanil is enough to knock out an elephant.
Top California Democrats are pressuring Kaiser to make a deal with the union representing Southern California therapists, while patients say they’re just holding on.
The dominant societal ethos is that quality of life is more important than quantity of life
President-elect Donald Trump does not herald the advent of fascism. He heralds the collapse of the veneer that masked the corruption within the ruling class and their pretense of democracy. He is the symptom, not the disease. The loss of basic democratic norms began long before Trump, which paved the road to an American totalitarianism. Deindustrialization, deregulation, austerity, unchecked predatory corporations, including the health-care industry, wholesale surveillance of every American, social inequality, an electoral system that is plagued by legalized bribery, endless and futile wars, the largest prison population in the world, but most of all feelings of betrayal, stagnation and despair, are a toxic brew that culminate in an inchoate hatred of the ruling class and the institutions they have deformed to exclusively serve the rich and the powerful. The Democrats are as guilty as the Republicans.
De-commodify health care? Yes, and everything else, including ourselves!
