Democrat Kings Want Our Heads

 by J.B. Shurk

American leftists held another “No Kings” rally last weekend.  Democrats and their ideological allies gathered in city parks and town squares to tell the rest of us how awful we are.  They screamed obscenities and called us “fascists” and “Nazis.”  They demanded President Trump’s removal from office.  Some even brazenly wished for his death. 

To non-leftists, these things are cringeworthy spectacles.  The participants look loony and behave immaturely.  They are not serious people.  Their messages make no sense.  How are they able to protest so vocally if they are living under the yoke of tyranny?  How are they able to call for President Trump’s death if he is truly a malevolent king?  Such riddles are never asked or answered.  We are expected to treat their hurt feelings as reasonable justification for their demands to overthrow the government.  

Democrats’ tantrums resemble nonsensical petitions listing infantile grievances, such as: (1) Hillary really won!  (2) Russia, Russia, Russia!  (3) Don’t forget Epstein!  (4) Trump incited an “insurrection” on January 6!  (5) Biden should have imprisoned Trump!  (6) Kamala really won!  (7) The War in Ukraine is good; the War in Iran is bad!  (8) Trump is attacking the press!  (9) Trump is raising oil prices!  (10) Trump has lost his mind!  (11) Trump will never leave office!  (12) Trump must leave Venezuela and Cuba alone!  (13) Israel controls Trump!  (14) We’re all going to die from “climate change”!  (15) Trump wants to bring back slavery!  (16) Trump is committing “violence” against “trans” kids!  (17) Trump is intentionally dividing the country!  (18) “Undocumented” immigrants are Americans!  (19) The votes of “undocumented” voters must be counted!

This “writ of grievances” sounds as if it came from the addled minds of a bunch of nutters hopped up on amphetamines.  Leftists want to overthrow the government but insist that Trump should be in prison for trying to “overthrow” the government.  They think Biden was of sound mind but that Trump has lost his marbles.  They ignore all of Epstein’s ties to Bill Clinton and other Democrats, while insisting Trump did something nefarious.  They call for “hate speech” and “misinformation” to be prosecuted as crimes, while denouncing Trump’s “attacks” on free speech.  They want Trump’s “monarchy” to impose “climate” regulations that would increase fuel costs, while condemning Trump for causing gas prices to rise.  They accuse Trump of fomenting “division,” while organizing nationwide protests fomenting division.  They insist that Trump’s speech represents “violence” but that their violence is protected “speech.”  It’s all very crazy.  If you are incapable of bending over and sticking your head up your own derrière, then you probably can’t make sense of anything they say.

One social media guru named Yogi beautifully lampooned the “No Kings” protests: “The modern left’s definition of fascism: You love your country?  Fascist.  You want to enforce the border?  Racist.  You think parents should raise their kids?  Bigot.  You want to know who’s voting in your elections?  Jim crow.”  Yogi then pointed out how ridiculous leftists are for ignoring all the aristocrats who have been ruling over them for decades: 

“Congress has a 15% approval rating.  80% of Americans disapprove.  97% of incumbents got re-elected.  Chuck Schumer.  46 years.  Longer than Stalin.  Steny Hoyer.  45 years.  Longer than Mao.  Mitch McConnell.  42 years.  5x more than Napoleon.  Nancy Pelosi.  39 years.  Longer than Henry VIII.  Maxine Waters.  35 years.  Longer than Mussolini.  Bernie Sanders.  35 years.  Triple Hitler’s entire reign.  Trump.  5 years and 3 months.  Won the popular vote and the electoral vote.  But Trump is the king.”

Online and in the streets, leftists call for violence against anyone who disagrees with them.  They bully young conservatives.  They target Republicans at their places of business.  They dox ICE agents.  They vandalize churches.  The corporate news media almost entirely ignore these threats to Americans.  Democrat politicians are rarely asked whether they condone such intimidation and violence, but when they are asked, Democrat officeholders go out of their way to paint the aggressors as “victims” and the victims as “aggressors.”  In this upside-down world, Democrats can commit all kinds of crimes and never be punished, while Republicans are prosecuted for made-up crimes.

This two-tiered “justice” in the United States is leading to disaster.  It is no longer possible for the non-leftist half of the country to ignore the fact that leftists commit crimes with impunity, while abusing the court system to target conservatives.  The Trump administration must find some way to hold accountable those who have caused the most harm, while restoring balance and impartiality to the “justice” system.  So far, little has changed.  

The Russia Collusion Hoax nearly took down a sitting president.  Hillary Clinton and her campaign team fabricated a dossier to frame Donald Trump as a Russian agent.  Barack Obama, John Brennan, James Comey, and so many other major players within the American Intelligence Community conspired to push rank disinformation upon the American people that would somehow justify the fact that the FBI and CIA were spying on the Trump campaign (and every other 2016 Republican primary candidate, for that matter).  We endured unethical lawyer Andrew Weissmann’s two-plus-years investigation of President Trump, and the whole thing was a scam meant to cover up Deep State crimes.  The corporate news media played their role as propagandists by treating the fake scandal as the most important story in the world.  To this day, the country is completely divided over the Russia Hoax.  Democrats have been brainwashed to believe both that the Russian Federation got Trump elected and that Trump secretly works for Vladimir Putin.  When close to half the country has been indoctrinated to believe such outrageous lies, someone important must go to jail!  Instead no-one has been held accountable.

Similarly, non-leftists watched Democrats and their allies burn down cities during 2020’s Black Lives Matter riots.  Leftists caused billions of dollars in property damage, and several dozen people were killed.  Nevertheless, Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats raised money to bail out anybody arrested.  The corporate news media ignored all the violence and destruction and instead framed the country’s costliest riots as some glorious “victory” for civil rights.  

Six months later, however, every American who showed up in D.C. to protest 2020’s election fraud was treated as a violent criminal.  Establishment politicians and corporate news propagandists immediately framed the three-hour frolic through the Capitol as an “insurrection.”  The FBI spent the next two years raiding the homes of Americans with no criminal records.  Prosecutors and judges shamelessly conspired to depict the election protest as an organized attempt to “overthrow the government,” even though none of the protesters carried firearms.  Nancy Pelosi convened a congressional show trial to drum up charges of “sedition” and “treason” against President Trump and his MAGA voters.  Only Trump voters were killed on January 6.  A Capitol Police officer shot and killed unarmed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt.  Nevertheless, politicians (including installed “president” Joe Biden) and news propagandists continue to lie to the public by claiming that J6 protesters “murdered” police officers that day.  Congress even put up a plaque honoring the same Capitol Police who felt the need to kill unarmed women.

Tina Peters sits in jail for fighting election fraud in Colorado.  Social media platforms still censor conservative voices.  A leftist assassinated Charlie Kirk.  Other leftists have repeatedly tried to assassinate President Trump.  And leftists continue to call us “fascists.”  

Until leftist criminals who promote violence against the rest of us are held accountable, America will continue to descend into madness.  Until prominent Democrats are prosecuted for serious crimes, two-tiered “justice” will remain.  President Trump takes his constitutional oath seriously.  It is the Democrat Party that is filled with lawless, bloodthirsty kings.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/03/democrat_kings_want_our_heads.html

FDA Issues Alert on Liver Injuries Linked to Vasculitis Drug, Following Withdrawal Request

 US regulators issued a new alert about liver injury, including fatal cases, linked to avacopan (Tavneos), a medicine for a rare autoimmune disease that the agency had already asked to be voluntarily removed from the market.

The FDA on March 31 issued a public notice about serious postmarketing cases of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) associated with avacopan. The drug’s manufacturer, Amgen, announced in January that it intended to continue to market this drug even though the FDA requested a voluntary withdrawal of avacopan. Separately, European regulators in January announced a safety review of the drug.

In the new alert, the FDA recommended patients talk to their healthcare professional about safety risks associated with avacopan and discuss whether to continue therapy or switch to alternative treatments. In 2021, FDA staff expressed deep concern about liver risk even while approving avacopan for a serious and sometimes fatal autoimmune condition, severe active antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis. The FDA required a special safety study focused on liver risk as part of this approval.

The FDA’s alert urges people taking avacopan to contact their clinicians immediately if they develop any signs or symptoms of liver injury, including nausea, vomiting, unusual itching, light-colored stools, yellowing of skin or eyes, dark urine, swelling in the stomach or abdomen, or pain in the right upper abdomen.

The FDA also advised clinicians who have patients taking avacopan to conduct liver panel testing every 2 weeks in the first month of treatment, monthly for the next 5 months, and thereafter as clinically indicated. 

The FDA said avacopan should be discontinued promptly and alternative treatments should be considered if alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) is greater than three times the upper limit of normal or alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is greater than twice the upper limit of normal, as well as if a patient presents with evidence of symptomatic cholestasis such as jaundice or pruritus. If liver test abnormalities or symptoms of liver injury do not improve, patients should be referred to a hepatologist for further evaluation.

The FDA told clinicians to consult the American College of Rheumatology and Vasculitis Foundation’s 2021 treatment guidelines for ANCA-associated vasculitis for more information.

Amgen told Medscape Medical News in a March 31 email that the company remains confident that avacopan is an “important and effective” medicine for severe ANCA-associated vasculitis “based on robust clinical data and real-world evidence demonstrating the effectiveness and favorable benefit-risk profile.” 

The company said it remains committed to keeping the drug on the market. Amgen also said that in 2024 it submitted a proposed update to the FDA to add vanishing bile duct syndrome (VBDS) to avacopan’s label, a request that Amgen said is still pending.

The FDA’s March 31 alert says that the agency identified 76 cases of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) “with reasonable evidence of a causal association with avacopan use.” These come from reviews of postmarketing data, medical literature, and the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System, which is now called the FDA Adverse Event Monitoring System.

Of these 76 cases, 74 reported a serious outcome, including 54 hospitalizations and eight deaths, the FDA said. 

Sixty cases provided laboratory information to determine the initial pattern of liver injury, the FDA said. The majority (n = 38) had a cholestatic or mixed pattern often marked by substantial elevations in ALP and total bilirubin, the FDA said. VBDS confirmed by biopsy occurred in seven patients, all of whom were hospitalized and three of whom died. A total of 73 cases provided time from avacopan initiation to DILI onset, and the median time to onset was 46 days (range, 22-140 days). Most cases (n = 66) were reported from Japan, followed by the United States (n = 5), Europe (n = 4), and Canada (n = 1).

"The FDA's Drug Safety Communication about avacopan highlighting the eight fatal cases of drug-induced liver injury is important, but insufficient," Robert Steinbrook, MD, Health Research Group Director at the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen, told Medscape Medical News when asked for comment on the FDA's action.

"If the FDA in January 2026 requested that the drug be voluntarily withdrawn the drug from the US market, as Amgen has disclosed, why is the agency not making this request publicly, and pushing back against the company for not having already withdrawn the drug?" Steinbrook asked. "Why does the prescribing information for avacopan not include a boxed warning for the risk of fatal liver disease? These are urgent questions for the FDA to answer."

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/fda-issues-alert-liver-injuries-linked-vasculitis-drug-2026a10009tr

RFK Jr. Says Hospitals Must Serve Healthier Food

 by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. health officials on March 30 informed hospitals they must provide patients with more nutritious food.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stated in a memorandum to hospitals across the country that they must comply with certain conditions to receive federal funding, including making sure that menus and diets meet the nutritional needs of patients.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Washington on Jan. 29, 2026. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Officials noted the January release of new dietary guidelines, which emphasize limiting ultra-processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugar-laden products in favor of whole foods such as whole milk and meat.

Hospitals “should review and revise food and nutrition service policies, standard menus, therapeutic diet protocols, and food procurement practices to align with the [guidelines], which support contemporary evidence on diet quality and health outcomes,” the letter stated.

A good diet for a patient might feature steel-cut oats with berries and nuts for breakfast, grilled salmon with quinoa and roasted vegetables for lunch, and a lentil-based entree with a side salad later in the day, according to the document.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at an event in Florida that was held in part to coincide with the memo, said that it was “essentially a federal mandate” that would help incentivize hospitals to serve better food.

“The food at hospitals is so uniformingly, appallingly bad that it is now a pejorative,” he said. “If you tell somebody that this tastes like hospital food, it’s not a compliment.”

CMS is a division of Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of CMS, said in a statement that “hospitals are meant to heal—but too often, the food they serve holds patients back.”

“It’s time for hospitals to prioritize real, nutrient-dense food, cut ultra-processed options, and align meals with evidence-based medical needs.”

Oz and Kennedy said that revamping menus would lead to faster recovery and lower readmission rates for patients.

The event also included the announcement that Nicklaus Children’s Hospital had committed to sourcing 5 percent of its food from local farmers in Florida.

The hospital will look to add 1 percent to that percentage each year moving forward.

“This means that kids getting cancer treatment will eat real protein, from the producers here in Florida,” said Hannah Anderson, director of the Healthy America campaign from the America First Policy Institute, which hosted the event.

“This means that kids getting treatment for debilitating diseases will get whole milk. And this means that the kids who are fighting infection are getting the vitamin C and vitamin A from food that’s grown right here in Florida.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/rfk-jr-says-hospitals-must-serve-healthier-food

Another Greek Tanker Sneaks Through Strait Of Hormuz

 Another Greek-controlled oil tanker has crossed the Strait of Hormuz, despite Iran's declaration that only "friendly" vessels will be allowed to make the transit, marking the fourth such voyage since hostilities in the Middle East began.

The suezmax Pola, which switched off its tracking system in the Persian Gulf on March 10, was detected again on Monday by the Automatic Identification System: it was located several thousand miles away. 

The ship was sailing in the eastern Indian Ocean near the maritime corridor off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Its reappearance obviously confirms the tanker successfully crossed the Strait of Hormuz.  The tanker, laden with roughly 1 million barrels of crude, is en route to Thailand, according to data from intelligence firm Kpler.

The Pola is the fourth vessel managed by Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd. to make the passage through Hormuz with its transponder switched off since its effective closure. The firm also sent the oil tankers Shenlong, Smyrni and Marathi through the narrow waterway earlier this month.

While Iran continues to bar “hostile” entities from the strategic waterway, several Asian countries, including Thailand, have secured bilateral agreements to allow passage through the Strait for some tankers and cargo ships. However, Greece is not among the countries publicly viewed by Tehran as "friendly."

Still, risks to shipping in the Persian Gulf remain high, with Iran hitting a fully laden Kuwaiti tanker off Dubai in a drone strike last night.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/another-greek-tanker-sneaks-through-strait-hormuz

Trial Breathes New Life Into Neurotrophins as Target in Osteoarthritis

 

• Osteoarthritis (OA) pain is currently treated with analgesics of only limited efficacy and that come with significant adverse effects when used for long periods.
• Pain pathways mediated by neurotrophin molecules have emerged as potential drug targets in OA.
• This phase II trial, testing a fusion protein that binds a neurotrophin receptor to downregulate this pathway, found that it provided significantly greater relief of OA pain than did placebo infusions.

An investigational infusion drug provided more pain relief for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee than did placebo in a 17-week, phase II clinical trial, researchers said.

Pain scores as rated with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) fell by half in patients receiving the agent, called LEVI-04, at various doses, according to Philip Conaghan, MBBS, PhD, of the University of Leeds in England, and colleagues.

As is often the case in pain-drug trials, WOMAC scores (rated 0-10 for pain) also improved substantially in the placebo group. Still, between-group differences at week 17 were statistically significant at all LEVI-04 dosage levels, Conaghan's team reported in The Lancet:

• LEVI-04 0.3 mg/kg vs placebo: -0.51 (95% CI -0.96 to -0.07)
• LEVI-04 1.0 mg/kg vs placebo: -0.62 (95% CI -1.07 to -0.17)
• LEVI-04 2.0 mg/kg vs placebo: -0.79 (95% CI -1.24 to -0.35)

And importantly, no patients appeared to develop rapidly progressing OA, an adverse effect that sank another once-promising drug targeting the same pathways several years ago.

That led Tonia Vincent, PhD, of the University of Oxford in England, to express cautious optimism in an accompanying editorial.

"These results are very encouraging," she wrote, "and provide hope that neurotrophin targeting in osteoarthritis pain still has a chance to succeed when all hope appeared to have been lost."

That was an allusion to tanezumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting nerve growth factor (NGF), a member of the broader neurotrophin family, which Eli Lilly and Pfizer brought to the FDA in 2020, only to have it shot down by an agency advisory committee. Clinical holds were placed on the drug's phase II and phase III trials after a few patients developed rapidly progressing OA; while they eventually were completed, the FDA and its European counterpart determined that tanezumab's benefits (compared with existing analgesics) weren't great enough to outweigh the extra risks.

That was thought to spell the end of drugs targeting neurotrophin pathways, but the British firm Levicept pressed ahead with its differently designed product LEVI-04. Conaghan and colleagues described it as "a fusion protein comprising two extracellular domains of the human p75NTR coupled to the fragment crystallizable component of human immunoglobulin G1, acting as a stable analogue of the endogenous neurotrophin binding protein, p75NTR." The latter acts as a receptor for NGF and other neurotrophins. But while NGF has a range of effects beyond pain signalling, including regulatory roles in bone and cartilage metabolism, LEVI-04's effects are more narrowly focused on pain transmission than those of anti-NGF antibodies like tanezumab, the authors explained.

Study Details

Conaghan and colleagues randomized 518 patients from four European countries and Hong Kong with knee OA in equal numbers to receive infusions of placebo or LEVI-04 at one of three doses, given monthly through week 16. WOMAC scores for pain, function, and stiffness were calculated at weeks 5 (after two doses) and week 17 (four doses). Radiographic analyses were performed at baseline and week 20; adverse effects were tracked to week 30.

Mean patient age was about 64 and a little over half the sample were women. WOMAC pain scores in the target knee at baseline averaged 5.74-5.82 in the four study arms; scores in the contralateral knee were about 2 points lower. Half the sample had joint degeneration at baseline rated as Kellgren-Lawrence grade 3 in the target knee, and about 30% were at grade 4.

Mean WOMAC pain scores declined by 2.18-2.43 points as of week 5 in the three LEVI-04 arms, compared with a 1.57-point decrease with placebo (all P<0.05). By week 17, the change from baseline stood at -2.77 to -3.05 with the active drug, versus -2.26 in the placebo group.

Similar results were seen for WOMAC function and stiffness scores, all greater with LEVI-04 though with a still-substantial improvement compared with placebo.

Treatment-emergent adverse events occurred at similar rates in all four study arms, and nothing stood out as clearly more common with LEVI-04 at any dose. A few cases of rapidly progressing OA were seen -- two with the middle dose, one with the high dose, and one in the placebo group -- but these only reflected joint-space narrowing without actual destruction.

Still, in her editorial, Vincent noted that 4 months of dosing is not enough for adequate judgment on the risk for rapidly progressing OA. "[T]his was a short study and the study team selected their patient population carefully. For instance, they excluded those with changes on joint imaging that appeared, from retrospective analyses of the anti-NGF trials, to be associated with increased risk of rapidly progressive osteoarthritis, such as large bone cysts."

This was not necessarily a study flaw, she added, but "may be a pragmatic approach worth considering for all new analgesic trials in osteoarthritis." As well, the underlying cause of sudden rapid OA progression isn't well known but could actually stem from effective pain relief, encouraging patients to resume high-load activities that their joint tissues can no longer withstand, Vincent offered.

Another question for future studies is whether the degree of pain relief seen in the trial is clinically significant. In 2020, another study led by Conaghan addressed the question of what degree of WOMAC pain score change is meaningful for patients. It indicated that scores must improve by at least 0.8 points to be clinically meaningful.

In the current study, this standard was met easily when looking only at change from baseline in the three LEVI-04 dosage groups, but it never reached it when compared with placebo.

Levicept has not yet started a phase III trial, but has announced plans to do so.

Disclosures

The study was funded by Levicept; several co-authors were its employees.

Conaghan and other academic authors reported relationships with numerous pharmaceutical companies including Levicept.

Vincent reported relationships with GSK, Zoetis, Novartis, UCB, Fidia, Biosplice, Pfizer, and Galapagos.

Primary Source

The Lancet

Source Reference: Conaghan PG, et al "Efficacy and safety of LEVI-04 in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial" Lancet 2026; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)00131-5.

Secondary Source

The Lancet

Source Reference: Vincent TL "New hope for neurotrophin targeting in osteoarthritis pain?" Lancet 2026; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)00301-6.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/rheumatology/arthritis/120566

ImmunityBio $100 m financing, including $75 m non-dilutive

ImmunityBio announces $100 million financing, including $75 million non-dilutive funding

• Financing will support global expansion and advancement of ImmunityBio's immunotherapy pipeline.

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=IBRX&p=d

Palvella Phase 3 rapamycin trial in microcystic lymphatic malformations positive results, backs 1st-line use

 

• Palvella plans an H2 2026 NDA filing for QTORIN rapamycin in microcystic lymphatic malformations.
• Positive Phase III CELVA results for QTORIN rapamycin were disclosed during the company's Q4 2025 earnings call.
• Non-GAAP EPS $-1.08 declined 4% YoY in Q4 2025, missing analyst EPS estimates for the quarter.
• Q4 2025 revenue was $0, beating analyst revenue estimates for the quarter.
• Pro forma cash of about $274 million is calculated after a February equity raise.
• Company reported full-year 2025 results alongside its cash update and QTORIN rapamycin regulatory plans.

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=PVLA&p=d