>>These activities were funded by the very Israeli government that has been targeted by the BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) movement to which Carter has pledged support.

I doubt it. TANSTAAFL. The key point is that Big Pharma cannot conduct its own trials on humans. It needs to incentivize reputable physicians and facilities to conduct the trials and publish the required papers in the peer reviewed journals. It needs to select practitioners who will be fiercely independent despite being paid for and won't be perceived as shills. Bill made the point a while back about pharma inducements for facilities and physicians: billions of dollars worth, often misinterpreted as bribes to use a particular drug but overwhelmingly for funding of trials such as these. There was a time when University facilities might have done it for the love of it, but the world and Universities are mercenary these days.

>>Now, back to the original point, which I'm afraid some have missed. The original complaint was Trump palling around with IRA terrorists decades ago, implying that Trump is a hypocrite for his stated position in light of the recent terrorist attack on U..S. soil.

Can you name the IRA terrorist he palled around with? Or do you mean that he attended a Sinn Féin (Irish Political Party) fundraising dinner in New York to raise funds and support for the peace process. Sinn Féin is often accused of being linked to the IRA (which it denied) so therefore Trump is in bed with terrorists? If it's relevant, it was Bill Clinton who decided to grant Gerry Adams the visa he needed to attend the fateful dinner while George Bush and Edward Kennedy both refused to meet with him and then Trump shook hands and joked with him at the dinner.... and then Clinton got an international award for his contribution to Irish Peace but Trump is condemned. Oh, and you'll be delighted to learn that your good buddy Michael Moore attended the same dinner. ;-)

Anyway, seems to me that the partisan MSM is so desperate to stab those in the other camp that they're dredging up non sequiturs that are eagerly believed by the intended audience. Says more about their respect for the US public than anything else IMHO.