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 […]
Archives for May 2020
Beware the Pentagon’s Pandemic Profiteers: Hasn’t the Military-Industrial Complex Taken Enough of Our Money?
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 […]
Israel Teeters on Brink, as Protests erupt against Indicted Netanyahu forming Gov’t, and Supreme Court prepares to Rule on his Eligibility
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Thousands of Israelis gathered again at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to protest the formation of a new national unity government by indicted prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his rival, Benny Gantz. The disciplined protesters maintained social distance from one another to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Smaller […]
A Complete Waste of Money’: Fossil Fuel Industry Takes At Least $50 Million in Covid Aid Despite Financial Struggles Long Before Outbreak
By Julia Conley, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – “We need to be getting checks directly to workers, including in the fossil fuel industry—not hoping money ‘trickles down’ through corrupt companies that consistently prioritize their CEOs.” “The idea that oil workers are getting a paycheck is great,” 350.org co-founder Jamie Henn said. “The worry is […]
How Trump’s ICE sentenced an Acquitted Iranian Academic to Months-long Detention without Trial, and to Covid-19
By Yeganeh Torbati | – (ProPublica) – As the coronavirus spread this spring, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials shuttled Sirous Asgari between detention sites and eventually housed him in a central Louisiana prison, where he recently tested positive for the virus. Now, a federal magistrate judge has recommended that he be kept behind bars because […]
Our real Pandemic is burgeoning Inequality
( 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 […]
Like Twenty-One 9/11s: Our 2020 Pandemic is “The Trump Virus”, just as 1918’s was “Spanish Flu”
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 […]
In Age of Pandemic, is Mismanagement driving Saudi Arabia toward Bankruptcy?
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 […]
Threat to Sea Life: Scientists find 1.9 mn. pieces of Microplastic from our Clothing on 3 Sq. ft. of Deep Ocean Floor
By Ian Kane and Michael Clare | – What if the “great ocean garbage patches” were just the tip of the iceberg? While more than ten million tonnes of plastic waste enters the sea each year, we actually see just 1% of it – the portion that floats on the ocean surface. What happens to […]