Epidemics

1918 flu pandemic killed 12 million Indians, and British overlords’ indifference strengthened the anti-colonial movement

By Maura Chhun | – In India, during the 1918 influenza pandemic, a staggering 12 to 13 million people died, the vast majority between the months of September and December. According to an eyewitness, “There was none to remove the dead bodies and the jackals made a feast.” At the time of the pandemic, India […]

Donald Trump

With Trump gross Incompetence, Bookstores moving Post-Apocalyptic Fiction into Current Events Section

John Feffer

(Tomdispatch.com) – In retrospect, it’s no surprise that, after the election of Donald Trump in 2016, dystopian fiction enjoyed a spike in popularity. However, novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which soared on Amazon, would prove more horror stories than roadmaps. Like so many ominous sounds from a dark basement, […]

Epidemics

The Wealthy also Cushioned themselves at Expense of Poor in Era of Black Death, as Boccaccio’s Decameron Shows

The Conversation

By Kathryn McKinley | – The coronavirus can infect anyone, but recent reporting has shown your socioeconomic status can play a big role, with a combination of job security, access to health care and mobility widening the gap in infection and mortality rates between rich and poor. The wealthy work remotely and flee to resorts […]

Donald Trump

Trumpism was Always the Tyrannical Tantrum of a Stubborn 5-Year-Old, but Now it will Kill People; Lots of People

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trumpism is a form of fascism, of course, but at its core is a whiny rebellion against the achievements of human and civil rights since the 1960s. Do the new norms after the Civil Rights Movement stop people from saying in public that African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians and women […]

Donald Trump

Trump Bankrupting WHO during Pandemic, Hurting Vaccine Coordination and Killing People in Global South

The Conversation

By Adam Kamradt-Scott | – US President Donald Trump has announced the US is cutting its funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) – a decision that will have major implications for the global health response to the coronavirus pandemic. The US contributes more than US$400 million to the WHO per year, though it is […]

Donald Trump

Trump Kneecapped World Health Organization amid Pandemic; Jimmy Carter used it in bid to Wipe out Guinea Worm

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In another petty, destructive and self-serving tirade, Trump announced Tuesday that he is halting US funding for the World Health Organization. He attempted to shift blame for his do-nothing response to the building coronavirus pandemic in late January and February and much of March to the WHO. The organization did […]

Epidemics

Real Security: Wasted Pentagon Trillions that We Could have Spent on Health Care and Pandemic Preparedness

Tom Engelhardt

It is not like we’ve won any wars since 1945, anyway

Authoritarianism

How Saudis and other Authoritarian Middle East Governments are using Covid-19 to Crack down More on Civil Liberties

Global Voices

By Khalid Ibrahim, Gulf Center for Human Rights | – ( Globalvoices.org) – Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain Alhathloul is one of many human rights defenders who remain in jail in the Middle East, despite multiple calls to release them amid COVID-19 fears. Photo credit: Loujain Al-Hathloul via OTRS system / CC BY-SA. COVID-19 cases […]

Donald Trump

If Trump fires Dr. Fauci and installs a Barr-like Toady, what ever will become of us?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – When Jake Tapper repeatedly pressed Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday to say whether earlier social distancing measures, say in February rather than March, would have saved lives, Fauci allowed for the possibility. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and heads up the Trump […]