By: Carey Wedler/ANTIMEDIA A power hungry president has kicked a power player out of office, and the mainstream media is having a field day. Headlines have obsessively focused on Pres. Trump's termination of FBI Director James Comey and the implications that come with it, drawing comparisons to Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal and questioning Pres. Trump's decision to fire the man who was leading an investigation into the president's own alleged misconduct.

While the drama currently unfolding will certainly have profound implications for the present and future, the theatrics playing out on telescreens around the country are hardly representative of the bigger picture in the United States. As millions of Americans fix their eyes and minds on the ongoing developments, other stories are lurking behind the curtain — and reveal far more about the struggles we face.

Though they have received some coverage from corporate and establishment outlets, these stories are being forced out of the conversation by round-the-clock coverage of political figureheads warring in Washington.

Here are five to follow:

1. The Pentagon is seeking a troop increase in Afghanistan after 16 years of repeating that exact mistake — The last time Anti-Media put together a list of stories falling by the wayside amid a media feeding frenzy — that time, it was Trump's decision to bomb Syria — an increase of troops in Afghanistan made the cut. Unfortunately, it's a recurring development. As various mainstream outlets reported — with little traction — the Trump administration is considering sending as many as 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Though options are still being considered – and even Trump and the likes of Condoleezza Rice have pushed for a different strategy — the potential increase amounts to business as usual for an empire mired in endless war with a country still plagued by the very same terrorists the United States vowed to eradicate sixteen years ago when the invasion first commenced. There are currently over 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, making a spike of several thousand troops significant and a sign of the military-industrial establishment's continued hold over American foreign policy.

2. FDA-approved drugs come with rampant safety hazards — According to an analysis published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 32% of drugs deemed 'safe' by the Food and Drug Administration were later flagged as potentially harmful. According to the study, which examined 222 novel therapeutics approved between 2001 and 2010, postmarket safety events included the agency either recalling drugs, issuing additional box warnings, or publishing  "safety communications" for them. These after-the-fact safety actions were common among biologic and psychiatric drugs, as well as drugs granted expedited approval by the FDA.

Ultimately, this is unsurprising considering the agency is run by pharmaceutical insiders, the industry provides funding directly to the agency, and the agency often uses studies sponsored by drug companies to make its determinations. What continues to be surprising — however often the disparity is raised — is that same agency's refusal to consider cannabis a potential medical treatment, even as it approves synthetic pharmaceutical versions of the exact same substance.