Health

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Roughly 1,264,000 US soldiers have died in all the wars this country has ever fought. A new simulation by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School predicts that if all the states completely reopened today and all Americans ceased all social distancing measures, a million people would die in this country […]

Donald Trump

Unionize! Trump has coerced Workers at Covid-19 Hot Spot Meat Packing Plants into Front Lines

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Me. (Special to Informed Comment) – Should we be surprised that Smithfield[s pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was a hotspot for the Covid19 virus? No, and here is another no brainer. There are many such hotspots among meat processing plants around the US. How we handle such facts will affect […]

Epidemics

Russia: Could the Coronavirus Crisis Loosen Vladimir Putin’s Grip on Power?

Nikola Mikovic

Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – The COVID-19 pandemic has already opened the gates for a huge global economic crisis. Russia will not be spared, and its economy is expected to suffer at least until the world oil market stabilizes. How will that affect Vladimir Putin’s popularity? The geographically largest country in the world already […]

Epidemics

Beware the Pentagon’s Pandemic Profiteers: Hasn’t the Military-Industrial Complex Taken Enough of Our Money?

Tomdispatch

By Mandy Smithberger | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – At this moment of unprecedented crisis, you might think that those not overcome by the economic and mortal consequences of the coronavirus would be asking, “What can we do to help?” A few companies have indeed pivoted to making masks and ventilators for an overwhelmed medical […]

Epidemics

Our real Pandemic is burgeoning Inequality

Jim Hightower

( Otherwords.org) – The forces of greed shoved working families to the edge — all it took was a virus to push them over. By Jim Hightower | April 29, 2020 In this horrible time of economic collapse, it is truly touching to see so many corporate chieftains reaching out in solidarity with the hard-hit […]

Donald Trump

Like Twenty-One 9/11s: Our 2020 Pandemic is “The Trump Virus”, just as 1918’s was “Spanish Flu”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The “Spanish Flu” did not originate in Spain, but Spain had been neutral in WW I and so the Spanish press was uncensored, since the government was not worried about public morale during hostilities. The most lurid accounts of the disease, which was unusually lethal and went on to kill […]

Epidemics

In Age of Pandemic, is Mismanagement driving Saudi Arabia toward Bankruptcy?

Middle East Monitor

By Motasem A Dalloul | @abujomaaGaza | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – On 6 March, the OPEC+ cartel failed to agree on a cut in oil production in the light of reduced demand due to the coronavirus pandemic affecting almost every country in the world. All of this came in the middle of […]

China

The Coronavirus and Geo-Politics: Trump’s Xenophobia and Weapons of the Weak

Abdullah al-Ahsan

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment) – The coronavirus pandemic is not over yet and anyone hardly knows when and how it will end, but many observers of international affairs are already expressing their views on the subject. The current situation is very worrisome and everyone wants to get out of it as soon as possible. […]

Donald Trump

Why are white supremacists protesting to ‘reopen’ the US economy?

The Conversation

By Shannon Reid and Matthew Valasik | – A series of protests, primarily in state capitals, are demanding the end of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Among the protesters are people who express concern about their jobs or the economy as a whole. But there are also far-right conspiracy theorists, white supremacists like Proud Boys and citizens’ […]