Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US reported its six millionth coronavirus case, and deaths are headed toward 200,000. It is hard to explain just how bad the US death rate under Trump from the novel coronavirus is. Reuters: “U.S. coronavirus cases top 6 million” It isn’t only that it is worse than other industrialized […]
Archives for August 2020
Trump is fomenting a Second Civil War in America, not happy that his side lost the first one
I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to argue that Don the Con Trump has re-ignited a second Civil War in America; considering that armed vigilantes have responded to his prompting with shows of armed force at multiple state capitals and city halls, and now murdered good American citizens as a response to his perverse call to […]
Rotten in Denmark: The Centers for Disease Control stopped Recommending Testing and Tracing
Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Centers for Disease Control guidelines on testing in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic have once again become a subject of attention and controversy. CNN summarizes the change: “The CDC, changing its Covid-19 testing guidelines, no longer recommends testing for most people without symptoms, even if they’ve […]
Why the Israel-UAE Deal Isn’t About Peace at All
By Phyllis Bennis | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – In some ways, the U.S.-brokered plan for mutual recognition between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is big news. For more than a quarter of a century, only two Middle Eastern countries — Egypt and Jordan — had officially recognized Israel. None of the […]
Chadwick Boseman’s Wakanda: Afro-Futurism is in the Present
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Chadwick Boseman’s tragic death at the all too young age of 43 from colorectal cancer has been weighing on me the past couple of days. I am a fan. But I also am battling cancer, and I think I understand his incredible productivity in his last years, as he knew […]
Gaza was Already Israel’s Open Air Prison, Bombed and Blockaded, and now Covid-19 and Lockdown
By Mohammed Rafik: ( Middle East Monitor ) – Life has shut down in the Gaza Strip with an unexpected number of coronavirus infections within a single-family outside the quarantine zones. A number of deaths have also been reported and a full curfew was announced on Monday. In the middle of all of this, Israel […]
Burning Oil Strengthens Hurricanes like Laura, which sow Environmental Catastrophe when they Strike Petroleum Facilities like Lousiana’s
By John Pardue | – Hurricane Laura plowed through the heart of Louisiana’s oil and chemical industries as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving a chlorine plant on fire and the potential for more hazardous damage in its wake. The burning BioLab facility sent dark smoke and chlorine gas into the air over the small […]
Trump’s Postmaster General Should Be Returned to Sender before Democracy Dies
By James E. Varner| – ( Otherwords.org) – President Trump’s postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, recently testified before Congress about major slowdowns in mail delivery under his watch. As a 20-year postal veteran, I had only one reaction: DeJoy needs to be Returned to Sender. DeJoy, a Trump fundraiser who owns millions worth of stock in […]
Iraqi Shiite Militias 1, Trump 0: US Forced to Reduce its Presence by 1/3
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqis aren’t sure what to make of the report on Friday in the Wall Street Journal that the US military will reduce its troop presence by a third by November. The numbers will fall from 5200 to 3500 this fall. Athir Shar’ in Kitabat suspects that even the withdrawal aims […]