Inequality

Congress’ Relief Package was for Small Business, but pro-Trump Millionaires Grabbed up the Lion’s Share

( Otherwords.org ) – Thanks to a specially carved loophole, one multi-millionaire claimed 339 times more than the average small business received. By Jim Hightower | May 20, 2020 Monty Bennett was just another faceless right-wing millionaire on the long list of high-dollar donors to Donald Trump — until he suddenly surfaced in April as […]

Epidemics

As 27 Million Lose Job-based Health Insurance, Imagine if there were No Obamacare

The Conversation

By Simon F. Haeder | – The loss of 31 million jobs due to coronvirus has an added downside: 27 million have lost job-based health insurance. The worst may still lie ahead. One study estimated that 25 to 43 million people could lose coverage from their employer. The situation for many Americans feels dramatic. Fortunately, […]

Donald Trump

Why Unemployment under Trump is way worse than even the Depression-Era Numbers Suggest

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Friday May 8 unemployment statistics were as dire as many had expected. The US Department of Labor released an unemployment rate for April of 14.7%, the worst since the Great Depression and far surpassing the worst days of the Great Recession. In light of these numbers it […]

Education

Neoliberalism starved our Classrooms of Resources for 50 Years, and then Covid-19 Budget Cuts Hit

Tomdispatch

By Belle Chesler | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Do you hear that silence? That’s the absence of footsteps echoing through our nation’s public school hallways. It’s the silence of teaching in a virtual space populated with students on mute who lack a physical presence. It’s the crushing silence of those who are now missing, who […]

Epidemics

The Middle East was beset by Terrorism; now it Faces Coronavirus and Economic Freefall

Inequality.org

By Colin Powers| – ( Inequality.org ) – As acutely as COVID-19 and related policy responses are widening inequality in the United States, the pandemic’s biased effects threaten to be even more pronounced in many parts of the global south. This certainly appears to be the case for the non-Gulf countries of the Middle East […]

Donald Trump

Other Countries get Testing, Contact Tracing and Open Economies: We get President Lysol and Malign Neglect

Tomdispatch

By Ann Jones | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Donald Trump is not a president. He can’t even play one on TV. He’s a corrupt and dangerous braggart with ill-concealed aspirations for a Crown and, with an election coming up, he’s been monopolizing prime time every day, spouting self-congratulation and misinformation. (No, don’t inject that […]

Epidemics

Is Big Pharma more Interested in Profiteering than Protecting us from Coronavirus?

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – April 12, 1955 stands out as the brightest day in the history of vaccine development and public health when news of the discovery by Jonas Salk of a vaccine for the polio virus was made public. The most venerated medical scientist of the 20th century, Jonas Salk, M.D., […]

Epidemics

Stop Calling them Heroes if You won’t give Essential Workers Sick Leave and Health Care like Every Other Industrialized Country

Juan Cole

By Paul F. Clark | – The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the degree to which we depend on the work of others. This is particularly true of essential workers like truck drivers, grocery store employees and hospital nurses who are ensuring the rest of us stay safe and are able to get the supplies, food […]

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 […]