The military coup in Gabon prompted Western news outlets to bemoan the threat to democratic institutions and instability in Africa. It’s amusing that they ignored analogous issues in the United States and Europe.
Et Tu, Coup?
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Translation of Reuters quote at top of comic.
Re: ” … foreign powers that have strategic interests in the region.”
Code for “Those miserable SOB’s want a fair market price for the natural resources (e.g. uranium, gold) found in these countries that actually belong to we the ‘exceptional’ hyper-consumers”
Re: ” … Democratic gains since the 1990’s …”
Code for: “The West’s tighter control over institutions and people of power in the region.”
For example, the ouster of the Bongo family dynasty*** of some 50years of West-serving rule in Gabon.
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*** reputed favorite lackeys of President Saint Obumma.
In that vein, Ted, look at the “victory” Biden’s people managed and which the media keeps trumpeting: 10 drugs will go to price negotiation in 2026. Here’s the 10: Eliquis 2026, Jardiance 2025, Xarelto 2024, Januvia 2026, Farxiga 2025, Entresto 2025, Enbrel 2029, Imbruvica 2036, Stelara 2023, and Fiasp/NovoLog 2034.
The four digits after each one? That’s the year its patent expires. When the patent expires, generics can be made, which means the prices plummet. So, Enbrel ($12K a month — 200,000 patients worldwide), Imbruvica ($11K a month — 230,000 patients worldwide) , and Fiasp (it’s insulin, and those prices are harder to place due to patients needing more or less depending on their case, but 9 million people in the U.S. take insulin).
In Canada, Enbrel is about $1,600 a month, Imbruvica about $2,800 a month. So, in two years, Biden’s “accomplishment” will be that he has managed to get the pharmaceutical companies to agree to negotiate so that the U.S. can hope to get prices similar to what Canada is already getting. And this, this is the big achievement the dems are going to point to during the election.
And why not? No one in the media is saying a word or typing a paragraph about this enormous con job. It’s almost as bad as how the anti-vax crowd keeps going on about mercury in vaccines causing autism (and causing higher rates of autism too) even though all the mercury was removed back in the late 1990s/early 2000s.