Health

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Asked recently what he might do differently in managing the Covid19 pandemic the president responded, “Not much.” Little does he recognize or acknowledge the successes of and lessons to be learned from countries he has contemptuously labeled “shitholes.” What is lost to public health from this scorn […]

Democratic Party

The Nightmare That Joe Could Inherit

Rajan Menon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Donald Trump isn’t just inside the heads of his Trumpster base; he’s long been a consuming obsession among those yearning for his defeat in November. With barely more than a week to go before the election of our lifetime, those given to nail biting as a response to anxiety have by […]

Health Care

‘There Is No Insulin’: Desperate Iranians Tweet Calls For Life-Saving Drug

Golnaz Esfandiari

(RFE/RL) – Tens of thousands of diabetics in Iran are said to be facing shortages of insulin, with many such patients and their loved ones complaining that the problem could have life-threatening consequences. Some Iranians have taken to social media to protest the scarcity of insulin pens and highlight their plight or that of loved […]

Climate Crisis

Pandemic Pivot: The Pandemic is a Wake-up Call for Truly Global Action

John Feffer

(Foreign Policy in Focus ) – If the current pandemic is a test of the global emergency response system, the international community is flunking big time. It has done just about everything wrong, from the failure to contain the virus early on to the lack of effective coordination thereafter. As the predicted second wave begins […]

Donald Trump

Is it an accident that Iran and the US, two Theocracies, are Coronavirus Basket Cases?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The coronavirus statistics in both Iran and the United States are horrible. The US has the worst record on dealing with the pandemic in the industrialized world. One clue to why the two countries are doing so badly with regard to basic public health strategy may lie in the importance […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Health Insurance Plan benefits the 1% and Harms all the Rest of Us

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) –Considered a serious danger to the wealth of private corporations and individuals, the highly class-conscious corporate-run, profiteering U.S. business community seeks to contain and reduce the political power of the 99%. Toward this goal, President Trump and the GOP are attempting to terminate Obamacare (ACA) including health plan subsidies […]

China

China grows nearly 5%; Will historians look back at Trump’s disastrous Pandemic Response as the Moment Beijing Overtook the US?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even if Trump loses, he can go on screwing up the country for two and a half months thereafter, and it will take years to undo the damage he has done. Pandemics are the sort of thing you want to nip in the bud. If you let them go to […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Body Count in Historical Perspective: Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths on his Hands

Al Carroll

Alexandria, Va. (Special to Informed Comment) – Many presidential biographies are somewhere between pseudo profound and pure fluff, arguing presidents be judged by Hollywood-like silliness like “presidential bearing” and “leadership qualities.” In 2014, I wrote Presidents’ Body Counts, my book arguing presidents be judged based on their human rights records. How many lived or died […]

Donald Trump

America is Complicit, as Yemen Spirals toward Mass Starvation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Mark Lowcock of the United Nations gave an impassioned and apocalyptic speech on Thursday warning that 4 million Yemenis who had been receiving aid no longer are, because of a shortfall in donor contributions, and the country could be on the cusp of mass starvation. There already is widespread malnutrition […]