how corrupt is the FDA?

Will a Turkey Related Event Spark a Much Wider Regional War?

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I haven’t commented on the Middle East in a while, but a lot has been going on. In particular, Turkey continues to concern me the most, as president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears increasingly unstable, paranoid and tyrannical. The latest example came last month, when his government went ahead and arrested academics merely for signing a petition. Here’s what we learned from the post, U.S. Ally Turkey Arrests Academics for the Crime of Signing a Peace Petition:

Hundreds of Turkish academics are waiting to find out whether they will be prosecuted or sacked for spreading “terrorist propaganda”, after they signed a petition calling for violence to end in Turkey’s southeast, where government forces have been fighting Kurdish separatists.

Turkey’s government has previously clamped down on scientists and students who question its policies, imprisoned scientists charged with terrorism offenses, and restricted the freedom of funding agencies and scientific academies. But the number of arrests and investigations makes the current episode one of the larger Turkish attacks on freedom of expression in recent years, prompting outrage among human-rights advocates.

While this is bad enough, Turkey’s reputation on the global stage had already been severely damaged by the emergence of evidence of government support for ISIS. Throw in the downing of a Russian jet, and you start to see an increasingly chaotic country with the potential to kick off some serious geopolitical fireworks.

With all that in mind, an article I recently read in Al Monitor materially added to my fears. Here are some excerpts from the piece, Will Turkey Risk Military Confrontation with Russia?

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Obama’s Nominee to Head the FDA Has Very Deep Ties to the Pharmaceutical Industry

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No one who knows him thinks he wants to weaken the regulatory agency he has been chosen to lead. But he has deeper ties to the pharmaceutical industry than any FDA commissioner in recent memory, and some public health advocates question whether his background could tilt him in the direction of an industry he would be in charge of supervising.

– From the All-Gov article: Obama’s Nominee for FDA Chief Scrutinized for Ties to Big Pharma

Nothing from the above quote should surprise anyone. One of the hallmarks of the Obama Administration, has been his penchant for consistently surrounding himself with some of the biggest cronies America has to offer. From choosing Tim Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury, to the coronation of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the list is almost endless.

Of course, it’s not just his cabinet choices that have justifiably raised eyebrows, but also his nominees to head various agencies, seemingly for the sole purpose of maintaining the status quo and protecting “elite” criminals. No such choice was more blatant than Mary Jo White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As I noted before she even worked a single day on the job: Meet Mary Jo White: The Next SEC Chief and a Guaranteed Wall Street Patsy.

This prediction proved to be accurate in spades, as we learned in subsequent years. See:

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