Health

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Scientists know the story of Typhoid Mary, an immigrant from Ireland to the US in the late 19th century. She had typhoid, but refused to admit it, and was hired as a maid, and by 1907 some 3,000 New Yorkers had typhoid, and she was the super-spreader. Typhoid Mary rejected […]

Epidemics

Yemen’s health system is collapsing as coronavirus spreads, UN warns

Brian Whitaker

(Al-Bab.com) – Yemen is desperately short of medical supplies, though some are still getting through. Photo:

Donald Trump

The Ostrich Policy: Trump ready to Kill Hundreds of Thousands to avoid bad Coronavirus Optics for Election

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump and Pence on Monday were busy trying to spread the Big Lie that the only reason the US coronavirus numbers are spiking is increased testing. Trump is embarrassed because our situation is so dire, and it is in some large part his fault. More and more of it will […]

Democratic Socialism

What Corporations Fear: Best Recovery from Covid-19 Depression is Universal Income and Federal School Funding

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – I am betting that before November 2020 Congress will pass and the President will sign another major relief package. More interesting will be the debate on the measure. That debate already says a lot about the underlying anxieties that grip both parties and their aspirations for the […]

Climate Crisis

How the Coronavirus could be a Climate Game Changer if it shifts 30% of Jobs Online

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – The coronavirus pandemic has boosted digitalisation because it forced many people to do without business trips, work remotely and shop online, which offers new opportunities for climate protection, according to analysis commissioned by Germany’s environment ministry. “We are experiencing a break with many routines we […]

Constitution

Could America’s Covid and Race Crises Weaken the Union the way Chernobyl Broke up the USSR?

Matthew Lenoe

Rochester, NY (Special to Informed Comment) – An unforeseen health disaster with rapidly propagating domestic and international consequences strikes a superpower already wallowing in heavy seas. Overwhelmed by the surge, the ship of state floods, and begins to break up. The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in April 1986, and the subsequent disintegration of the USSR […]

Donald Trump

OK, Boomer: The Trump Administration’s Generational Lies Deepen America’s Fissures

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – These days, teaching graduating college seniors has me, as the Brits would say in the London Underground, “minding the gap.” In my case, however, it’s not the gap between the platform and the train I’m thinking of, but a couple of others: those between U.S. citizens and our government, as well […]

Epidemics

Ever Spiralling Inequality in America, not Trump, Caused our Crisis; but He’s making it Worse

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Class of 2020, wherever you are, I had planned to address you on this graduation day. But how can I? Yes, I know that former President Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Tom Hanks all took part in elaborate online graduation ceremonies, offering commentary, advice, and encouragement in our now campus-less world, but […]