Plutocracy

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – President Trump, facing the prospect of possibly the worst electoral environment ever to face an incumbent president, is borrowing a page from the last Republican administration, the one that ended with a sitting president so universally reviled that he decided to skip his own party’s nominating convention. America’s 45th […]

Epidemics

Inequality and the Coronavirus: Or How to Destroy American Society From the Top Down

Tomdispatch

By Liz Theoharis | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – My mom contracted polio when she was 14. She survived and learned to walk again, but my life was deeply affected by that virus. Today, as our larger society attempts to self-distance and self-isolate, my family has texted about the polio quarantine my mom was put under: […]

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 […]

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 […]

Donald Trump

With Trump gross Incompetence, Bookstores moving Post-Apocalyptic Fiction into Current Events Section

John Feffer

(Tomdispatch.com) – In retrospect, it’s no surprise that, after the election of Donald Trump in 2016, dystopian fiction enjoyed a spike in popularity. However, novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which soared on Amazon, would prove more horror stories than roadmaps. Like so many ominous sounds from a dark basement, […]

Donald Trump

With Rich Cushioned and Millions losing Jobs, let’s Dump “Heroic Job Creators” vs. “Moochers” Myth

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – Republican Presidents Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Donald Trump and the 2020 GOP all have promoted the myth about heroic job creators vs. despicable moochers. Their toxic and misleading ideology is based on discredited supply side, trickle-down, voodoo economics that have consistently failed […]

Donald Trump

The Ultimate Stress Test: America as revealed by the Coronavirus Pandemic

Rajan Menon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) virus, which causes Covid-19, seemed to emerge from deepest history, from the Black Death of the 14th century and the “Spanish Flu” of 1918. In just months, it has infected more than 1.5 million people and claimed more than 88,000 lives. The virus continues to […]

Donald Trump

How Trump is making the Coming Great Recession even more Massive

Reese Erlich

San Francisco (48hills.org) – The current recession was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. But after 11 years of economic boom, a capitalist bust was inevitable. And it’s being made worse by the Trump Administration’s blunders. Meanwhile socialist China, despite very real problems, is effectively combating the pandemic and starting an economic recovery. Here in the […]