“A German palliative care doctor has been charged with murdering 15 of his patients using a cocktail of lethal drugs. Prosecutors in Berlin have accused the 40-year-old of setting fire to the homes of some of his suspected victims to cover his tracks. He allegedly killed 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024, though prosecutors have said they believe that total could rise. The doctor, who has not been named due to strict privacy laws in Germany, has not admitted to the charges, prosecutors said. He is accused of administering an anaesthetic and a muscle relaxant to his patients without their knowledge or consent. The relaxant ‘paralysed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes,’ the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.” (04/16/25)
“Over the past decade, the leaders of corporate and international organizations became used to being lauded for making grand but ultimately empty, green promises on stages in Davos and climate summits. How quickly things have changed. Fear of being called out by the Trump administration is forcing many leaders into changing course – at least in their rhetoric. World Bank president Ajay Banga’s first move when he took over the institution in 2023 was to extend its mission from ending poverty to incorporate climate change and making the planet ‘livable.’ Last November, as he headed to the COP summit in Azerbaijan, Banga graced the cover of Time magazine’s ‘climate issue’ and warned that climate change was ‘intertwined’ with every challenge. Yet today, he somewhat implausibly tells reporters, ‘I’m not a climate evangelist.'” (04/16/25)
“While American taxpayers are familiar with the annual rigmarole of filing their federal taxes and realizing just how much of their hard-earned money Uncle Sam is taking away, several House Republicans are pushing a proposal to take some things away from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS): Guns and ammunition. The ‘Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act’ would disarm the federal agency, prohibiting the commissioner of internal revenue from using funds to buy, receive or store firearms and ammo, and requiring the transfer of IRS firearms and ammunition to the Administrator of General Services. The guns would then be sold or auctioned to licensed dealers and the ammo would be auctioned to the public. Proceeds would go to ‘the general fund of the Treasury for the sole purpose of deficit reduction,’ the measure stipulates.” (04/16/25)
“The State Department has shut down its office that sought to deal with misinformation and disinformation that Russia, China and Iran have been accused of spreading. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Wednesday that he had closed what had been known as the Global Engagement Center because it had taken actions to restrict freedom of speech in the United States and elsewhere. The center has been a frequent target of criticism from conservatives for calling out media and online reports that it said are biased or untruthful. At times, it has identified U.S. websites and social media accounts that it argued were amplifying misinformation, particularly related to the Russia-Ukraine war. ” (04/16/25)
“Diana Greene Foster is responsible for landmark research on the effects of abortion access — a massive 10-year study that tracked thousands of people who had an abortion or were denied one. But funding for a follow-up to her seminal Turnaway Study has just been cut as part of a wave of canceled health policy research. Foster received a MacArthur ‘genius grant’ for the Turnaway Study. That piece of research, which examined the impact of restrictions even before the fall of Roe v. Wade, helped shape public understanding of how abortion access can affect people’s health and economic well-being …. Foster’s new study was meant to build on that research, using quantitative analysis and in-depth interviews to follow people who sought abortions in or outside of the medical system after federal abortion rights were terminated, as well as those who carried their pregnancies to term.” [editor’s note: So get private funding as with the first study. “Problem” solved – TLK] (04/16/25)
Source: TomDispatch
by Liz Theoharis & Noam Sandweiss
“The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, the 10 richest people in the world — including nine Americans — expanded their wealth by nearly $64 billion, the greatest single-day increase in recorded history. Since then, an unholy marriage of billionaire investors, tech bros, Christian nationalists, and, of course, Donald Trump has staged an oligarchic assault on our democracy. If the nation’s corporate elite once leveraged their relationships within government to enrich themselves, they’ve now cut out the middleman. We’re living in a new Gilded Age, with a proto-fascistic and religiously regressive administration of, by, and for the billionaires. With the wind at their backs, leading elements in the Republican Party have rapidly eschewed euphemisms and political correctness altogether, airing their anti-immigrant, anti-Black, and anti-poor prejudices in unapologetically broad and brazen terms. The effect of this, especially for the most vulnerable among us, is seismic.” (04/15/25)
“Each year for Tax Day, my colleagues and I at the Institute for Policy Studies release a tax receipt so you can learn where your taxes are actually going. This year, you may be more worried about the price of eggs than your tax dollars. But with President Donald Trump now urging a $1 trillion military budget, it’s worth thinking about what we’re already spending. Last year, the average taxpayer paid $3,707 for weapons and wars. That’s the equivalent of 628 dozen eggs. So if you thought buying a dozen or two a week for your family was taxing, well, that’s just the beginning. Taxpayers are directly subsidizing the world’s wealthiest man even as he cuts programs for the poorest people on Earth.” (04/15/25)
“Yesterday was the day democracy in our nation officially died. We no longer live in the America we grew up in: ‘The land of the free and the home of the brave.’ … The country that claimed to follow the rule of law, and valued compassion and the protection of its most vulnerable people. We are now in the midst of a outright coup against the Constitution, against the United States, and against our founding ideals: Donald Trump proclaimed it yesterday when he openly defied the Supreme Court and our founding documents with a sneer, and his neofascist sycophants chuckled and giggled in the Oval Office. When Marco Rubio claimed that arresting and deporting a man legally living in the US was ‘foreign policy’ that can’t be overseen by the Supreme Court and then congratulated himself on his cleverness.” (04/15/25)
“Before the Liberation Day tariffs were imposed on April 2, grocery giant Albertsons sent a letter to its suppliers, noting the potential economic challenges ahead. ‘We understand this situation may raise concerns for your business operations and the ongoing relationship we share,’ stated Albertsons executive vice president and chief merchandising and digital officer Omer Gajial, who wrote that he wanted to ‘clarify’ Albertsons’ policy regarding the tariffs. ‘We are committed to maintaining the value proposition our customers expect,’ Gajial continued. ‘Therefore, with few exceptions, we are not accepting cost increases due to tariffs.’ In other words, regardless of higher supplier costs from components of their goods sourced from China or other countries, they would have to absorb those increases if they want to sell to Albertsons. Tariff costs could not be included in invoices without prior authorization, Gajial said.” (04/15/25)
“Hear me out, members (and staffs) of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee. Do not raise taxes on anyone, even those making a million or more a year. That should be a red line for Republicans. But you need revenue to pay for extending and expanding the Trump 2017 tax cuts that powered the explosive growth of his first term before the Covid curtain came down. Here’s an option. According to the Investment Company Institute, Americans had $8.9 trillion invested in 401(k)s and $15.2 trillion in IRAs in the third quarter of 2024. Let’s call it $22 trillion in yet-to-be-taxed money.” (04/15/25)
