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
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
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
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
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 — I’m sitting here self-quarantined with my family in our 1738 stone farmhouse just north of Philadelphia. It’s an ancient building that I’m sure has known its share of epidemics over the centuries, including typhus and the deadly 1918 Spanish Flu.
Right
Talk Nation Radio: Branko Marcetic on Joe Biden and Other Disasters
This week on Talk Nation Radio, we’re talking about Joe Biden, whether he can be found, and why anyone would want to find him anyway. Our guest is Branko Marcetic, author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden, and of numerous articles for Jacobin at JacobinMag.com.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download from LetsTryDemocracy, or from Internet Archive.
Pacifica stations can also download from Audioport.
Syndicated by Pacifica
Tomgram: Andrea Mazzarino, The Perfect Military Wife I’m Not (But Who Is?)
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Though my father served in World War II (an experience he would seldom talk about), I was never in a war myself, nor has the rest of my family been. Nothing strange there. It’s typical, in fact, of American life since the draft was abolished in
Speaking Truth to Empire
Speaking Truth to Empire on KFCF 88.1 FM independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, California. Dan Yaseen interviews Jeff J. Brown; he is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy, which consists of “44 Days Backpacking in China”, “China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations” and “China Is Communist, Dammit!-Dawn
Do You Support the Health Workers?
U.S. politics has for three-quarters of a century been shaped by the question “Do you support the troops?” The understood meaning of the question has been “Do you want members of the military to live or do you wish them dead?” The effective meaning of the question has been “Do you want unlimited unaccountable spending on weaponry and endless wars or are you an evil traitor?”
Such a question cannot be answered or undone, but it can be replaced with a different question.
What if we were