Tomgram: William Astore, Living Through Coronavirus Hard Times

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

I often imagine somehow summoning my mother and father (who died in 1977 and 1983) back to this planet of ours. I’m curious to know what they would make of the almost unimaginable world we now live in — not that they didn’t live through their own threatening, topsy-turvy global moments. Both were only in their twenties when the Great Depression hit. Unfortunately, read more

Vigil for Peace in Yemen – a New Norm

March 27, 2020

For the past three years, several dozen New Yorkers have gathered each Saturday at Union Square, at 11:00 a.m. to vigil for peace in Yemen.

Now, however, due to the coronavirus, the vigil for peace is radically altered. Last week, in recognition of the city’s coming shelter in place program, participants were asked to hold individual vigils at their respective homes on the subsequent Saturday mornings. Normally, during the public vigils, one or more participants would provide updates read more

Is Coronavirus a bioweapon?

The Washington Post’s article opposing such a conclusion admits the following: The lab in Wuhan “was researching coronaviruses transmitted by bats.” And “[a]n annual State Department report released last year said China had engaged ‘in biological activities with potential dual-use applications.’” And that at least one expert worried about potential outbreaks from that lab. And that other experts had discussed the possibility of Coronavirus being a bioweapon but found no proof.

Francis read more

US at a critical juncture: Facing Two Epidemics, Covid-19 and Soaring Joblessness

By Dave Lindorff

The Senate and the White House have finally managed to negotiate a record $2-trillion stimulus aid package to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. But the money may well be too little too late.

Once approved, the bill will go to the House of Representatives for likely approval there after which it will go to the president’s desk for signing.

American and global stock market reaction has so far been lackluster.

The problem is that the once virtuous circle of increasing read more

The World’s Major Military and Economic Powers Find Happiness Elusive

Long before the advent of the coronavirus pandemic left people around the world desperate for survival, a popular assumption emerged that national governments are also supposed to promote the happiness and well-being of their citizens.  This idea was expressed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed that governments are instituted to secure humanity’s “unalienable rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

What are we to think, then, when we find that read more

Oleaginous Kakistocracy: A Good Time to Abolish Pipelines

A moment in which U.S. politicians are openly talking about the need to sacrifice lives to a disease in the name of profit may be a good moment for recognizing the evil motivations of the same politicians when it comes to foreign policy.

Congress members did not, no matter what Joe Biden says, vote for war on Iraq in order to avoid war on Iraq. Nor did they make a mistake or a miscalculation. Nor does it make the slightest difference how successful they read more

Tomgram: Engelhardt, “The Skies Are Emptying Out”

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

A Planet of Missing Beauties
In Memoriam
By Tom Engelhardt

The other morning, walking at the edge of a local park, I caught sight of a beautiful red cardinal, the first bird I ever saw some 63 years ago.

Actually, to make that sentence accurate, I should probably have put either “first” or “ever saw” in quotation marks. After all, I was already 12 years old and, even read more

Epidemic Epistle: A Triage Crisis is Coming, and It’s Personal

By Dave Lindorff

(This is the first article in what will be a series called “Epidemic Epistle: A CORVID-19 Crisis Chronicle by Dave & Gary Lindorff” running in ThisCantBeHappening.net)

Philadelphia — Im sitting here self-quarantined with my family in our 1738 stone farmhouse just north of Philadelphia. Its an ancient building that Im sure has known its share of epidemics over the centuries, including typhus and the deadly 1918 Spanish Flu.

Right read more