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The law firm Wisner Baum is known for its successful litigation against Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer and the cancer-linked H2 blocker Zantac. It was recently cleared to bring a RICO lawsuit (”Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) claiming that Eli Lilly and Takeda engaged in a decade-long conspiracy through mail and wire fraud to conceal the risk of bladder cancer linked to their drug Actos. The trial is set for November 30, 2026.

We spoke with R. Brent Wisner, the firm’s managing partner and lead trial attorney, about the trial’s implications.

MR:. Before we talk about your RICO suit, please tell us who Takeda is and what the drug Actos, pioglitazone, is.

RBW: Takeda was originally a chemical company. They wanted to break into pharmaceuticals...and have become one of the biggest ones in Asia by a lot--they’re huge. They made a lot of money off of Covid vaccines.

What was defined at Nuremberg as the supreme international crime (one country attacking another one) is depicted by Trump and even the supposedly anti-Trump corporate media as some sort of law-enforcement. Bombing is liberating. Kidnapping is capturing. Murdering people on boats is “impeding the flow of drugs.”

Smedley Butler,in his book “War is a racket”, described his experience at using the military to steal other countries resources. The American Empire attacks Venezuela in order to steal it's oil, we know that Chevron, and individuals working for Chevron, will benefit. Having always believed that the cost of the theft is borne by US taxpayers, with little benefit, I asked Chat Gpt to analyze. And the answer is:

When U.S. firms like Chevron gain access to Venezuelan oil, how—if at all—do U.S. consumers benefit?

Short answer

U.S. consumer benefits are indirect, limited, and often marginal. Most gains accrue to corporations, shareholders, and specific sectors—not to everyday consumers in a clear or proportional way.

Below is a clear breakdown.

1. Potential consumer benefits (in theory)

A. Slight downward pressure on fuel prices

If Venezuelan oil enters global markets:

It adds to global supply

There is a peculiar kind of sociopathy required to wake up, order an overnight package, and decide that the same model should be applied to human beings. Yet, this is exactly the "business" I.C.E Director Todd Lyons proposed during a “Border Security Expo” in Phoenix: a hub-and-spoke network of mega-warehouses where the "product" is a human being.

Todd Lyons stood at that podium back in April and talked about moving human beings from Point A to Point B in forty-eight hours like he was pitching a logistics contract. Internal documents — leaked, obviously, because nobody’s proud enough to put their name on this in the light of day — outline their plan for a “feeder system.”

Even when you begin to think that it can’t get any worse with Donald J. Trump as President of the United States the Orangeman does something that is so stupid and so reflective of a man who thinks only about himself that it makes one’s shudder in disbelief. Last week included some completely bizarre performances that could lead to nuclear war while also falsely promoting that our leader is a “man of peace.” That is in spite of the fact that it has become hard to imagine that Trump can even pronounce the word “peace” without an interpreter or the five letter word flashing up in boldface on his teleprompter screen. Let’s start with several recent developments about which there can be no real debate, though motive and expectations can be reasonably disputed. Consider for a moment the performance of a man who knows little beyond how to curse and harangue those who disagree with him as well as any skill beyond how to scribble a version of his own name in large letters with a marker pen.

According to Amnesty International, USA, 248 brave and courageous journalists have been killed for documenting the atrocities in Gaza. Make no mistake: The deliberate targeting and killing of journalists by the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) constitutes war crimes under international humanitarian law. 

No, those journalists are not members of Hamas as Israel frequently claims. That's a malicious lie. Israel's war minister's ban on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip remains in place because their entry would endanger Israeli soldiers. 

However, two of the world’s leading news networks, CNN and the BBC, have revealed the inner workings of those outlets’ newsrooms from October 7 onward, alleging pro-Israel bias in coverage, systematic double standards, and frequent violations of journalistic principles. In several cases, they accused senior newsroom figures of failing to hold Israeli officials to account and of interfering in reporting to downplay Israeli atrocities. In one instance at CNN, false Israeli propaganda was put on air despite advance warnings from staff members. Source: Al Jazeera, October 5, 2024

When 43 y/o Mohammad Faraj from the pan-Arab media outlet Al Mayadeen made a family trip for the holidays to visit his family on December 12 in Jordan with his Lebanese wife Rania Abi Jema, he was arrested more than a week ago upon arriving at Amman’s airport from Beirut without any publicly stated legal grounds.

His wife is also a journalist employed by Al Mayadeen TV and is being held at the General Intelligence Department without legal representation or to establish the reason for his detention and was unable to see him. Faraj was also denied family visits - without legal representation or to establish the reason for his detention, according to the Committee to Protect Journalist.

The detention of Mohammad Faraj is a serious violation of human rights and a direct attack on freedom of the press, which seeks to silence voices committed to the truth and to the struggles of the peoples. The freedom of Mohammad Faraj is an imperative that cannot wait and for this reason, the Network of Intellectuals, Artists, and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity denounces his disappearance.