Epidemics

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 […]

Epidemics

In Age of Pandemic, is Mismanagement driving Saudi Arabia toward Bankruptcy?

Middle East Monitor

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 […]

China

The Coronavirus and Geo-Politics: Trump’s Xenophobia and Weapons of the Weak

Abdullah al-Ahsan

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment) – The coronavirus pandemic is not over yet and anyone hardly knows when and how it will end, but many observers of international affairs are already expressing their views on the subject. The current situation is very worrisome and everyone wants to get out of it as soon as possible. […]

Donald Trump

Why are white supremacists protesting to ‘reopen’ the US economy?

The Conversation

By Shannon Reid and Matthew Valasik | – A series of protests, primarily in state capitals, are demanding the end of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Among the protesters are people who express concern about their jobs or the economy as a whole. But there are also far-right conspiracy theorists, white supremacists like Proud Boys and citizens’ […]

Donald Trump

Stop Saying more have died from Coronavirus than in Vietnam: US War Killed a Million There

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The rash of headlines blaring that the coronavirus has now killed more than died in the Vietnam War betrays an incredible amnesia and national tunnel vision that takes the breath away. Implicitly, these comparisons are with the 58,220 US military personnel who died fighting in Vietnam. But somehow the over […]

Epidemics

How the Corporate Food System Is Making the Coronavirus Crisis Worse

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Walden Bello | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The global food system has been very much front and center in the COVID-19 story. Everyone, of course, is aware that hunger is closely tracking the virus as its wreaks havoc in both the global North and global South. Indeed, one can say that, […]

Donald Trump

To Stop America’s downward Spiral into the Great GOP Depression, Save the States!

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Me. (Special to Informed Comment) – Congress recently juiced up its Paycheck Protection Program with another 310 million dollar authorization. Much of the discussion centered around what businesses qualified for this assistance and whether and when Congress might be asked to provide more. Too little attention focused on larger and more immediately pressing […]

Donald Trump

The US is no Longer the World’s Science Leader: Trump Fiddled While South Korea, Germany, China Swung into Actions

Dilip Hiro

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Historically, in hyper-crises, local and global systems can change fundamentally. Before the coronavirus pandemic hit first China and then the rest of the globe, the question of whether the American imperial era might be faltering was already on the table, amid that country’s endless wars and with the world’s most capricious […]

Donald Trump

How the Tiny ‘Reopen’ protest movement was Astroturfed and boosted by Fake Grassroots Tactics

The Conversation

By Marc Ambinder | – Many Americans have been under strict stay-at-home orders, or at least advisories, for more than a month. People are frustrated and depressed, but have complied with what they’ve been asked to endure because they trust that state and local public health officials are telling the truth about the coronavirus pandemic. […]