Health

By Georgios Samaras | – In recent years, far-right political parties in Europe have capitalised on crises to build their support bases. Many have made it to positions of power as a result of these efforts. The financial crisis of 2008, the refugee crisis that began in 2014 and the ongoing debate around climate change […]

Authoritarianism

The Worst Possible Leader in a Pandemic: Trump’s Authoritarianism is all about Him

Jill Richardson

( Otherwords.org ) – The Trump administration is apparently undertaking its latest effort to make 2020 more of a Kafkaesque nightmare than it already is. Yes, we’ve got murder hornets and a swarm of flying ants that can be seen from space over in Ireland, but maybe the scariest plague of the year is the […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey: how President Erdoğan is using coronavirus to clamp down further on dissent

The Conversation

By Balki Begumhan Bayhan | – Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has always made use of crises to consolidate its power. The coronavirus has been no exception. The regime has cracked down on opposition and attempted to undermine its effectiveness, while endeavouring to legitimise the rule of the […]

Epidemics

Essential Work suddenly Valued during Pandemic: Why does it Pay so Little, Cost so Much?

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In two weeks, my partner and I were supposed to leave San Francisco for Reno, Nevada, where we’d be spending the next three months focused on the 2020 presidential election. As we did in 2018, we’d be working with UNITE-HERE, the hospitality industry union, only this time on the campaign to […]

Health Care

Can we afford Medicare for All? The Truth is, we can’t afford not to have it

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida — In the US, 30 million people have no health insurance, and the per capita cost of health care is far higher than it is in other countries. On top of this, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences have caused the greatest losses in health insurance enrollment in U.S. history: 5.4 […]

Epidemics

Taxpayers are Funding Coronavirus Vaccines, but Big Pharma will Profit

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The business press is full of stories about the race for a Covid—19 vaccine. The corporations that succeed in cracking the biological mystery stand to make billions, and the success of the vaccine will likely “open up” the economy. What receives less attention, however, is the question […]

Epidemics

Cut the Pentagon 10 Percent, Invest in Public Health

OtherWords

By Lindsay Koshgarian ( Otherwords.org ) – It feels like the world is falling apart. But with a pandemic raging and an eviction crisis looming, the Senate is preparing to spend three quarters of a trillion dollars… not on public health or housing, but on the Pentagon. The United States may be going down, but […]

Donald Trump

Hospitals Are Suddenly Short of Young Doctors — Because of Trump’s Visa Ban

ProPublica

By Dara Lind | – ( ProPublica) – As hospitals across the United States brace for a difficult six months — with the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic still raging and concerns about a second wave in the fall — some are acutely short-staffed because of an ill-timed change to immigration policy and its […]

China

GOP Death Cult Forbids Mandatory Masks, Keeping US in Crisis, as China Grows 3.2%

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Georgia governor Brian Kemp, one of the worst and most corrupt people in the world, is attempting to prevent municipalities in Georgia from fining people for refusing to wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He is suing Atlanta over it. The question is not whether his obstructionism […]