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

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

AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Friday Welcome And Setup
• 0:36 Connecting The Political Dots
• 1:09 FDA Black Box Warning Debate
• 3:12 Fear, Hesitation, And Health Outcomes
• 3:52 ACA Subsidies On The Brink
• 6:00 Coins, Memory, And Historical Erasure
• 7:35 Strategy Behind Chaos
• 8:31 News From The Edge Of Sanity
• 10:23 The Gastrointestinal Stakeout
• 12:34 Wrap-Up And Fundraiser

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

This is a worldbone. This is a worldbone.

SPEAKER_00: 0:09

I'm Jeff Fallon Wolf. This is The World Gone Mad. Welcome to the Friday edition. It's the part of the week where later in my podcast I share with you a segment called, some of you know this, News from the Edge of Sanity. I try to put a smile on your face before you head into your weekend. But first, let me talk about the real news stories from the last 48 hours. Here we go. Let's see if I can connect a few dots. Because right now, American politics feels like someone shook the etchetch and then dared us to pretend there's a plan. Vaccines, healthcare subsidies, coins, pennies, quarters. It all sounds random until you realize it keeps circulating the same drain. Who gets protected, who gets erased, and who gets put on display? Start with the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, the most aggressively boring agency in America. These people are supposed to have the charisma of a beige wall. No opinions, no vibes, no politics, just data charts, and long words nobody could pronounce. And now the FDA wants to issue a black box warning. Do you know what that is? Some of you may not. A black box warning is not a suggestion. It's not a reminder. It's not ask your doctor. It's the FDA pulling the fire alarm. That warning is reserved for worst-case scenarios, death, permanent injury, life-altering damage. The kind of warning that makes doctors stop mid-sentence and say, hold on before prescribing anything. This is not some people may feel dizzy. This is this drug can seriously fuck you up. That warning exists for medications where the treatment itself can be as dangerous as the disease. And now the FDA wants to stick that black box warning on. COVID-19 vaccines. Listen to that again. COVID-19 vaccines. The same vaccines given hundreds of millions of times, the same vaccines with years of real world data, the same vaccines outside experts say absolutely do not justify this black box warning. So what changed? Did the science suddenly flip overnight? No. Did the data take a traumatic turn? No. Did viruses hold a press conference? No. Politics changed. This vaccine used to be a trophy. Warp speed. Remember the victory lapse? Remember the chest pounding? Remember how proud everyone was when it was convenient? And now suddenly the FDA is being turned into a fear machine. Not to protect people, not to inform people, but to scare the hell out of them. And fear works. Fear creates hesitation. Hesitation turns into skip shots. Skip shots turn into hospital beds, and hospital beds turn into funerals. This is not rhetoric. This is cause and effect. Which drops us directly into health care. Because while trust and medicine is being kneecapped, Congress is doing what it does best. Nothing. Affordable Care Act subsidies are about to expire. A lot of you listening, that affects. And instead of acting like adults, leadership is hiding behind procedure and pretending this is some abstract budget discussion. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is talking about discharge petitions. As Washington code for leadership refuses to act, so someone is trying to drag them onto the floor against their will. And strip away the jargon. Here's the reality. If these subsidies, the Affordable Care Act, expire, premiums jump in January. Not eventually, not in theory, January. Which means people sit at their kitchen tables staring at numbers that do not work. People drop coverage. People skip medications. People cancel doctor visits and hope their bodies behave. Hope is not a healthcare plan. Choosing between rent and insulin is not a policy disagreement. It is cruelty with paperwork. Democrats say they're willing to negotiate. Republican leadership says nothing useful. No replacement plan explained, although late today they were trying to push something through the Republicans, and it really looked like the same old garbage. No safety net described, just trust us, while millions of people are about to feel this in their bank accounts and their bodies. And while all of that is happening, while protections are being stripped away and trust is being shredded, the administration is very busy redesigning America's pocket change. Because nothing screams stability in our country like messing with coins. First the penny disappears. Fine. Nobody cried. Most of us forgot pennies once existed. But then comes the$1 coin with Donald Trump's face on it, a sitting president on U.S. currency. Because when your country is divided and people cannot afford health care, the obvious priority is turning money into merchandise. At the same time, quarters that were supposed to honor abolition, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement quietly vanish. No explanation, no debate, just gone. Instead, we get the same familiar faces again. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, the Mayflower, and if those stories were ever at risk of being forgotten, right? We know those stories. And the justification is always the same. Unity, tradition, a more positive view of history. Translation, stop reminding people that progress was fought for. Abolition makes people uncomfortable because it reminds them slavery existed. Suffrage makes people uncomfortable because it reminds them women were excluded. Civil rights makes people uncomfortable because it reminds them the system did not magically fix itself. People had to push, people had to bleed, people had to be loud and inconvenient. And this administration hates that story because it suggests power does not give things up willingly. Put all of this together: 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 carry every day. Fear, money, memory. That's not governing, that's narrative control. Who gets protected, who gets erased, and who gets put on display. Because when you scare people away from vaccines, price them out of healthcare, and decide what part of history they are allowed to hold in their hands, you do not need to win arguments. You just need people tired, confused, and looking somewhere else. And that is precisely the point. Okay, Wolfpack listeners, it's time for news from the edge of sanity. These crazy, bizarre, offbeat stories exist in the world because why the hell not? Alright, this story starts in Auckland, New Zealand. Bright city, clean streets, middle of the day. One of those places where crime usually feels orderly, polite, and slightly apologetic. Inside a high-end jewelry store, everything looks exactly the way it is supposed to. Glass cases, soft lighting, quiet. The kind of place where people lower their voices without being asked. No alarms blaring, no security running, just calm. A man walks in, he doesn't rush, he doesn't act nervous, he browses. He looks like every other customer who's killing time or pretending they're just looking. Staff notice him because staff notice everyone. And then he leaves. A few minutes later, someone behind the counter in the store realizes something is wrong. Not everything, one thing. One very specific item is missing. A rare Fabroget pendant inspired by the James Bond film Octopussy. About$19,000 it was. Highly recognizable. Not the kind of item you confuse with anything else. When it's gone, you know it immediately. Police respond quickly. Surveillance footage is clear. Store staff can identify the man, and more importantly, they can see the pendant in his possession 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. End of story. Except it isn't. Because when officers search him, the pendant is not there. And now everyone is stuck with the 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. No accomplice waiting on a corner. Police question him. He doesn't produce it. The police consult medical staff. And without anyone wanting to say it out loud, the math does the talking. The pendant didn't leave the scene. It didn't go somewhere searchable. It went somewhere that doesn't cooperate. 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 stops being a normal theft and becomes a waiting game. No chase, no drama, just police guarding a man whose digestive system is now officially part of the evidence chain. Doctors advise monitoring him. So that's what happens. For six days. Six days of round the clock supervision, police guarding this man whose digestive system is now officially part of the crime. Somewhere in Auckland, an officer is realizing this is not what they envisioned when they joined the force. This becomes a full-scale gastrointestinal stakeout. Not metaphorically, literally. Evidence recovery is now on the body schedule, not the police departments. There is no rushing biology. There is no fast-forwarding nature. You simply observe. And then finally, nature does what nature does. The pendant reappears. Intact, recovered, logged, bagged, literally. Police issue a public statement confirming the evidence has been retrieved, which means an adult human typed that sentence. Another adult approved it, and no one laughed out loud while doing it. The jewelry store gets its pendant back, the suspect faces charges, and New Zealand law enforcement now owns a story that will outlive every retirement party. Because no matter how advanced crime gets, no matter how clever people think they are, someone will always decide the best plan is this. I'll eat the evidence. And that's your reminder that civilization is held together by rules, patience, and occasionally digestive processes. Wolfpack listeners, that's your news from the Edge of Sanity. Hope you got a smile or two out of this story for your weekend. Also to the Wolfpack listeners, I still have my holiday fundraiser for my podcast to help offset some of the costs associated with doing this podcast for two years. My initial goal is to raise$1,500 before the holidays at the end of the year. To those of you that contributed, thank you. Those few dollars is a start. This is the World Gone Man. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf. I will be back Monday. Until then, Wolfpack listeners, remain skeptical, keep focused, but most of all, stay hopeful.

SPEAKER_01: 14:13

There is chaos in the world.