2020

Medicare for All: Covid-19 shows when it Comes to Health, the Government is your friend, the Private Sector sees you as an ATM

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment) – To protect and enhance high profits by opposing improved Medicare for All, the private health insurance industry has used scare and fear tactics ever since ‘Obamacare’, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was enacted in March, 2010. The U.S. health insurance industry lobbied Congress hard at that time to […]

Epidemics

Unprotected Nurses of the World, Unite; You have nothing to Lose but your Corporate Chains

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Many pundits have correctly recognized Covis19’s role in exposing extreme class, race, and gender inequalities in this society and the vulnerabilities they foster. This virus also exposes the grave injustices that characterize many American workplaces, where many Americans spend nearly a third of the prime years of […]

Climate Crisis

Is Covid-19 Killing the Coal Industry in Egypt and around the World? In the Meantime, Solar Shines

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Simon Nicholas at South Africa’s Business Live reports that the proposed huge new Hamrawein coal-fueled power plant in Egypt has been shelved. There are now no new coal plants planned in Egypt, which is pivoting toward renewables after years of mainly relying on fossil fuels. One cause for the demise […]

Democratic Socialism

The Rich wanted to Strangle a Tiny Gov’t in a Bathtub to avoid Taxes; Now it Turns out We need a Competent State

Jim Hightower

( Otherwords.org) – Amazingly, America has become a nation of socialists, asking in dismay: “Where’s the government?” These are not born-again Bernie Sanders activists, but people of all political stripes (including previously apolitical multitudes) who are now clamoring for big government intervention in their lives. Nothing like a spreading coronavirus pandemic to bring home the […]

Donald Trump

Trump is Using Saudi Arabia to Prop up his Big Oil Donors, and that should Worry Us

Thembisa Fakude

( Middle East Monitor ) – When Saudi Arabia approached members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its affiliates recently to cut oil production in an attempt to cushion the impact of the falling oil prices as a result of Covid-19, Russia rejected the proposal. The subsequent spat between Moscow and Riyadh […]

Climate Crisis

After Trillions invested in Security after 9/11, Coronavirus Shows we’re not Up to Security Threat of Climate Emergency

The Conversation

By Kate Guy | – How might a single threat, even one deemed unlikely, spiral into an evolving global crisis which challenges the foundations of global security, economic stability and democratic governance, all in the matter of a few weeks? My research on threats to national security, governance and geopolitics has focused on exactly this […]

Donald Trump

“Unhinged” Trump Calls on his Mussolini-Style Black Shirts to Attack Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s tweets on Friday, “Liberate Michigan,” and “Liberate Minnesota,” and “Liberate Virginia” were clearly intended to incite his armed, conspiracy-minded, militant followers on the far right against those elected state governments, which intend to buck him on reopening the economy on May 1. The possibility of Trump-inspired violence against Governor […]

China

Will the Middle East be the Epicenter of the Looming US – China Cold War?

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | @Nasimbythedocks | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Calls for China to be held to account for the spread of the coronavirus Covid-19 have the potential to push Washington and Beijing into a new Cold War. If this happens, the Middle East will find itself at the centre of events […]

Colonialism

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

The Conversation

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 […]

Archives for 2020