Plutocracy

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Be thankful for small favors. When the Covid-19 depression hit like a brick, almost no one advocated austerity as a cure. For the first time since Richard Nixon proclaimed that we are all Keynesians, budget deficits and a burgeoning national debt were accepted as crucial to mitigate […]

Inequality

Defund the Bloated U.S. Military

contributors

By Eric Stoner | – ( The Progressive) – The bold call by Black Lives Matter activists to defund police has profoundly reshaped the national conversation, but it is only the start of the movement’s sweeping vision for public safety. To reduce our reliance on policing and prisons, racial justice leaders are urging that resources […]

Employment

The 1%’s attack on Unemployment Benefits is a Sign of our Broken Democracy

Inequality.org

By Adam Shah | – ( Inequality.org ) – Members of the One Percent, such as former restaurateur Andrew Puzder, have urged Congress to not renew the $600 a week unemployment supplement Congress enacted as part of the CARES Act. They argue, in Puzder’s words, that “this $600 per week bonus is discouraging work” for […]

Donald Trump

How Trump broke America: Economy plummets historic 33%, Covid Deaths at 1500/ day, and 40 mn could lose Homes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s refusal last winter to pull out all the stops to mount an effective national coronavirus response has broken the legs of America. On Wednesday, over 1500 coronavirus deaths were reported nationwide, a tally not seen since May. Over 150,000 Americans have died of the disease, and the prospect is […]

Epidemics

The Virus That’s Really Killing Americans? Greed and Corporate Profiteering

Jim Hightower

( Otherwords.org ) – Health care giants are taking COVID-19 relief money while cutting jobs and paying CEOs millions. By Jim Hightower | July 29, 2020 The holy mantra of health professionals was coined about 2,500 years ago by the Greek physician Hippocrates: “Do no harm.” Of course, that was before corporate healthcare took charge […]

Inequality

A Jubilee Moment? Time to Stop Bankrolling War and the Wealthy

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com) – The word jubilee comes from the Hebrew “yovel,” meaning a “trumpet blast of liberty.” It was said that, on the day of liberation, the sound of a ram’s horn would ring through the land. These days, I hear the sound of that horn while walking with my kids through the streets of […]

Epidemics

Taxpayers are Funding Coronavirus Vaccines, but Big Pharma will Profit

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The business press is full of stories about the race for a Covid—19 vaccine. The corporations that succeed in cracking the biological mystery stand to make billions, and the success of the vaccine will likely “open up” the economy. What receives less attention, however, is the question […]

Pentagon

Amid the Covid-19 Recession, you can’t Afford the Bloated Pentagon Budget but Corporations Can

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Imagine that as a member of Congress you are a strong advocate of urban public transit facilities. You have succeeded in prying from Congress funding for construction and maintenance of systems throughout midsized cities once almost exclusively dependent on the private auto for their transportation needs. You […]

Climate Crisis

Baghdad Bob on the Potomac: Trump’s Hoaxes, from “Disappearing” Covid-19 to Climate to Russiagate

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Authoritarian regimes breed lies like rotting meat breeds maggots, and as Trump marches the United States into an imperial presidency beyond accountability, his rate of lying has become astronomical. If I just read ten a day, it would take me five and a half years just to read all 20,000 […]