Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Mark Lowcock of the United Nations gave an impassioned and apocalyptic speech on Thursday warning that 4 million Yemenis who had been receiving aid no longer are, because of a shortfall in donor contributions, and the country could be on the cusp of mass starvation. There already is widespread malnutrition […]
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Inequality
Election 2020 sees record $11 billion in campaign spending, mostly from a handful of super-rich donors
By Richard Briffault | – Total spending in the 2020 federal elections is projected to set a new record of almost US$11 billion by November. When adjusted for inflation, that’s over 50% higher than 2016 election spending. This year’s federal election spending – for the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives – is […]
Can Trump’s Plan to Steal your Social Security, Medicare be Stopped?
Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans promoting the backlash against the federal government seek to return to an earlier, supposedly golden era in American history. By privatizing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while further lowering taxes on the top 1 percent income bracket, […]
Call for Fox Media News Monopoly to be Broken up: Rupert Murdoch an “arrogant cancer on … democracy” – Rudd
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has called for the break up of his country’s media monopolies (almost all major media are owned by just two corporations). One of the two media monopolies he was slamming is Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp. In its incarnation as Fox News, the same company has […]
Biggest Irony of 21st Century: Was GOP Elite sickened at Barrett fête while Plotting to end Americans’ Health Care?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the twenty-first century’s biggest irony so far, last Saturday’s ceremony for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court may have been a coronavirus superspreader event among the Republican Party elite. So suggests Oliver O’Connell at The Independent. It is an irony because that gathering was a […]
Did Trump Throw Kurds under the Bus for Turkey because of his Istanbul Revenue Stream?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The New York Times reported, in the scoop of the decade, that Trump has $420 million in loans and other obligations coming due in the next four years, and that most of his core businesses hemorrhage money, so that he has no way to pay them back. In the past […]
Why Trump/DeSantis Herd Immunity (‘Let’s Kill Grandma’) Strategy won’t Work: Only about 9% of Americans have Covid-19 Antibodies
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Taking his cue from Trump, Florida governor and grandma-killer Ron DeSantis announced on Friday the complete reopening of Florida, unleashing crowds in restaurants and bars. He won’t allow city governments like Miami’s to fine residents who won’t wear masks or establishments that do not honor social distancing. He says he […]
Stop Profiteering on Misery: Private Prisons must be ended Now
Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – Every state should follow California’s outstanding example by ending the obscene system of private prisons and privately-run immigration detention facilities. California will phase out the use of these for-profit, private detention facilities by 2028. The state prohibited renewing contracts or signing new contracts with a private prison company […]
In Praise of Public Debt
Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Even as California burns, the states of the Gulf of Mexico brace for another hurricane, a global pandemic rages, an influential segment of DC political opinion wants the populace to focus on the national debt. Employing arguments that go back at least as far as Andrew Mellon, […]