FDA Black Box Warning, Healthcare Cuts, Trump’s Face On Our Money

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This episode takes a closer look at several political and policy decisions that are drawing attention across Washington and beyond.

It begins with the FDA, and a warning so serious from them that it has sparked concern, confusion, and debate inside government and among professionals who follow federal health oversight closely.

The discussion then moves to Congress and the ongoing fight over healthcare, including negotiations and positioning that could have real consequences for coverage and affordability.

The episode also explores a proposal involving Donald Trump and U.S. currency, and what decisions like this reveal about priorities and influence inside government. 

Is this economics or ego?

The Friday edition concludes with News From the Edge of Sanity and a bizarre real world crime story that adds a dose of absurdity to an otherwise serious news cycle.

And, if you’d like to help support this podcast with a small donation before the holiday’s…

here is the link: 

https://ko-fi.com/aworldgonemad

[e-mail]

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
This is a worldbone.
This is a worldbone.

SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
I'm Jeff Fallon Wolf.
This is The World Gone Mad.
Welcome to the Friday edition.
It's the part of the week wherelater in my podcast I share with
you a segment called, some ofyou know this, News from the
Edge of Sanity.
I try to put a smile on yourface before you head into your
weekend.
But first, let me talk about thereal news stories from the last

(00:32):
48 hours.
Here we go.
Let's see if I can connect a fewdots.
Because right now, Americanpolitics feels like someone
shook the etchetch and thendared us to pretend there's a
plan.
Vaccines, healthcare subsidies,coins, pennies, quarters.

(00:56):
It all sounds random until yourealize it keeps circulating the
same drain.
Who gets protected, who getserased, and who gets put on
display?
Start with the FDA, the Food andDrug Administration, the most
aggressively boring agency inAmerica.

(01:18):
These people are supposed tohave the charisma of a beige
wall.
No opinions, no vibes, nopolitics, just data charts, and
long words nobody couldpronounce.
And now the FDA wants to issue ablack box warning.

(01:39):
Do you know what that is?
Some of you may not.
A black box warning is not asuggestion.
It's not a reminder.
It's not ask your doctor.
It's the FDA pulling the firealarm.
That warning is reserved forworst-case scenarios, death,
permanent injury, life-alteringdamage.

(02:02):
The kind of warning that makesdoctors stop mid-sentence and
say, hold on before prescribinganything.
This is not some people may feeldizzy.
This is this drug can seriouslyfuck you up.
That warning exists formedications where the treatment

(02:23):
itself can be as dangerous asthe disease.
And now the FDA wants to stickthat black box warning on.
COVID-19 vaccines.
Listen to that again.
COVID-19 vaccines.
The same vaccines given hundredsof millions of times, the same

(02:46):
vaccines with years of realworld data, the same vaccines
outside experts say absolutelydo not justify this black box
warning.
So what changed?
Did the science suddenly flipovernight?
No.
Did the data take a traumaticturn?
No.

(03:06):
Did viruses hold a pressconference?
No.
Politics changed.
This vaccine used to be atrophy.
Warp speed.
Remember the victory lapse?
Remember the chest pounding?
Remember how proud everyone waswhen it was convenient?
And now suddenly the FDA isbeing turned into a fear

(03:28):
machine.
Not to protect people, not toinform people, but to scare the
hell out of them.
And fear works.
Fear creates hesitation.
Hesitation turns into skipshots.
Skip shots turn into hospitalbeds, and hospital beds turn
into funerals.
This is not rhetoric.

(03:49):
This is cause and effect.
Which drops us directly intohealth care.
Because while trust and medicineis being kneecapped, Congress is
doing what it does best.
Nothing.
Affordable Care Act subsidiesare about to expire.
A lot of you listening, thataffects.

(04:09):
And instead of acting likeadults, leadership is hiding
behind procedure and pretendingthis is some abstract budget
discussion.
House Minority Leader HakeemJeffries is talking about
discharge petitions.
As Washington code forleadership refuses to act, so
someone is trying to drag themonto the floor against their

(04:31):
will.
And strip away the jargon.
Here's the reality.
If these subsidies, theAffordable Care Act, expire,
premiums jump in January.
Not eventually, not in theory,January.
Which means people sit at theirkitchen tables staring at
numbers that do not work.

(04:53):
People drop coverage.
People skip medications.
People cancel doctor visits andhope their bodies behave.
Hope is not a healthcare plan.
Choosing between rent andinsulin is not a policy
disagreement.
It is cruelty with paperwork.

(05:13):
Democrats say they're willing tonegotiate.
Republican leadership saysnothing useful.
No replacement plan explained,although late today they were
trying to push something throughthe Republicans, and it really
looked like the same oldgarbage.
No safety net described, justtrust us, while millions of
people are about to feel this intheir bank accounts and their

(05:37):
bodies.
And while all of that ishappening, while protections are
being stripped away and trust isbeing shredded, the
administration is very busyredesigning America's pocket
change.
Because nothing screamsstability in our country like
messing with coins.

(05:57):
First the penny disappears.
Fine.
Nobody cried.
Most of us forgot pennies onceexisted.
But then comes the$1 coin withDonald Trump's face on it, a
sitting president on U.S.
currency.
Because when your country isdivided and people cannot afford
health care, the obviouspriority is turning money into

(06:21):
merchandise.
At the same time, quarters thatwere supposed to honor
abolition, women's suffrage, andthe civil rights movement
quietly vanish.
No explanation, no debate, justgone.
Instead, we get the samefamiliar faces again.
Washington, Jefferson, Madison,Lincoln, the Mayflower, and if

(06:42):
those stories were ever at riskof being forgotten, right?
We know those stories.
And the justification is alwaysthe same.
Unity, tradition, a morepositive view of history.
Translation, stop remindingpeople that progress was fought
for.
Abolition makes peopleuncomfortable because it reminds

(07:05):
them slavery existed.
Suffrage makes peopleuncomfortable because it reminds
them women were excluded.
Civil rights makes peopleuncomfortable because it reminds
them the system did notmagically fix itself.
People had to push, people hadto bleed, people had to be loud

(07:26):
and inconvenient.
And this administration hatesthat story because it suggests
power does not give things upwillingly.

Put all of this together (07:35):
the FDA black box warning, the
healthcare subsidies, the coins.
This is not chaos.
This is strategy.
Undermine trust and science,reduce access to health care,
rewrite the symbols people carryevery day.

(07:55):
Fear, money, memory.
That's not governing, that'snarrative control.
Who gets protected, who getserased, and who gets put on
display.
Because when you scare peopleaway from vaccines, price them
out of healthcare, and decidewhat part of history they are
allowed to hold in their hands,you do not need to win

(08:18):
arguments.
You just need people tired,confused, and looking somewhere
else.
And that is precisely the point.
Okay, Wolfpack listeners, it'stime for news from the edge of
sanity.
These crazy, bizarre, offbeatstories exist in the world

(08:40):
because why the hell not?
Alright, this story starts inAuckland, New Zealand.
Bright city, clean streets,middle of the day.
One of those places where crimeusually feels orderly, polite,
and slightly apologetic.
Inside a high-end jewelry store,everything looks exactly the way

(09:02):
it is supposed to.
Glass cases, soft lighting,quiet.
The kind of place where peoplelower their voices without being
asked.
No alarms blaring, no securityrunning, just calm.
A man walks in, he doesn't rush,he doesn't act nervous, he
browses.

(09:23):
He looks like every othercustomer who's killing time or
pretending they're just looking.
Staff notice him because staffnotice everyone.
And then he leaves.
A few minutes later, someonebehind the counter in the store
realizes something is wrong.
Not everything, one thing.

(09:45):
One very specific item ismissing.
A rare Fabroget pendant inspiredby the James Bond film
Octopussy.
About$19,000 it was.
Highly recognizable.
Not the kind of item you confusewith anything else.
When it's gone, you know itimmediately.

(10:07):
Police respond quickly.
Surveillance footage is clear.
Store staff can identify theman, and more importantly, they
can see the pendant in hispossession moments before he
walked out of the store.
This isn't a mystery suspect.
This is a fast arrest.
Police find him nearby.
They detain him, handcuffs.

(10:29):
End of story.
Except it isn't.
Because when officers searchhim, the pendant is not there.
And now everyone is stuck withthe same problem.
They know he had it.
They saw it on footage.
The timeline is airtight.
He's stopped minutes later.
No time to ditch the pendant.
No time to hand it off.

(10:50):
No accomplice waiting on acorner.
Police question him.
He doesn't produce it.
The police consult medicalstaff.
And without anyone wanting tosay it out loud, the math does
the talking.
The pendant didn't leave thescene.
It didn't go somewheresearchable.
It went somewhere that doesn'tcooperate.

(11:15):
The suspect didn't hide it.
He didn't drop it.
He didn't pass it off.
He swallowed the pendant.
And just like that, this stopsbeing a normal theft and becomes
a waiting game.
No chase, no drama, just policeguarding a man whose digestive

(11:36):
system is now officially part ofthe evidence chain.
Doctors advise monitoring him.
So that's what happens.
For six days.
Six days of round the clocksupervision, police guarding
this man whose digestive systemis now officially part of the
crime.

(11:58):
Somewhere in Auckland, anofficer is realizing this is not
what they envisioned when theyjoined the force.
This becomes a full-scalegastrointestinal stakeout.
Not metaphorically, literally.
Evidence recovery is now on thebody schedule, not the police
departments.

(12:19):
There is no rushing biology.
There is no fast-forwardingnature.
You simply observe.
And then finally, nature doeswhat nature does.
The pendant reappears.
Intact, recovered, logged,bagged, literally.

(12:40):
Police issue a public statementconfirming the evidence has been
retrieved, which means an adulthuman typed that sentence.
Another adult approved it, andno one laughed out loud while
doing it.
The jewelry store gets itspendant back, the suspect faces
charges, and New Zealand lawenforcement now owns a story

(13:01):
that will outlive everyretirement party.
Because no matter how advancedcrime gets, no matter how clever
people think they are, someonewill always decide the best plan
is this.
I'll eat the evidence.
And that's your reminder thatcivilization is held together by

(13:23):
rules, patience, andoccasionally digestive
processes.
Wolfpack listeners, that's yournews from the Edge of Sanity.
Hope you got a smile or two outof this story for your weekend.
Also to the Wolfpack listeners,I still have my holiday
fundraiser for my podcast tohelp offset some of the costs

(13:44):
associated with doing thispodcast for two years.
My initial goal is to raise$1,500 before the holidays at
the end of the year.
To those of you thatcontributed, thank you.
Those few dollars is a start.
This is the World Gone Man.
I'm Jeff Allen Wolf.
I will be back Monday.

(14:05):
Until then, Wolfpack listeners,remain skeptical, keep focused,
but most of all, stay hopeful.

SPEAKER_01 (14:13):
There is chaos in the world.