A blog about a criminal enterprise
By Ron Ridenour
Entering into the debate on the pages of TCHB, namely pieces by Laurie Dobson (April 9) and Dave Lindorff (April 11), let me start by defining what social democracy is and is not.
Social democracy is not socialism. It is various reforms for improving workers lives so that they will not overthrow capitalism. The Nordic Model grew out of this Great Compromise between social democratic-led trade unions and wealthy property owners a century ago. In
By Dave Lindorff
Two hugely important people were taken down by COVID-19 this past week. Both have left a legacy, the importance of which cannot be ignored.
John Prine
The first struck down last week is one of the greatest modern songwriters of my lifetime, John Prine. One of my favorite musicians, Prine was a humble, funny and extremely deep and sometimes powerfully political folk musician who had the remarkable ability to infuse his songs with all those characteristics
By Laurie Dobson
As people come to grips with the announcement today that Bernie Sanders has suspended, i.e. dropped out of, his campaign, a myriad of collective feelings will have to run their inevitable course.
My first reactions are that I feel profoundly let down. In the middle of Holy Week, for God’s sake! While the virus is peaking and people are losing things right and left, how does it help that he does this now?
Bernie has always had terrible timing, a consequence
By Dave Lindorff
Thursday morning the bottom fell out of the US economy, as the US Department of Labor reported that an unprecedented 6.6 million more workers in the US had been laid off and had filed claims for unemployment compensation payments with their state Unemployment Offices last week. That stunning news followed the already shocking news from last week that 3.3 million workers had lost their jobs and had filed for benefits the week before. This means that over
By Ron Ridenour
Copenhagen — “A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of” Covid-19. For Marx and Engels writing the Communist Manifesto, in 1848, that spectre was communism, their political system of choice. This flaring ghost they described frightened the capitalist class, which endeavored to exorcise its breath.
The contemporary specter (thesis-see note) is a new corona virus, code named COVID-19. The spectre of communism lurks for a rebirth as the capitalist
By Dave Lindorff
Over the course of just a couple of days last week, the backbone of the US Navy’s Pacific fleet was just been shut down for the next month. The enemy that managed to cause this sudden surprise unilateral disarmament of the mighty US Navy’s Pacific Fleet was not Russian or Chinese cyber hackers or a sneak attack by some foreign enemy. Rather, it was just a tiny virus, COVID-19, that infected one crew member on each of two $13-billion Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers.
The
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
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
Dave Lindorff
Maple Glen, PA — I’m writing this article from my home in Montgomery County, PA, a large suburban, exurban and rural county of 900,000 people which is kind of wrapped around three sides of the city of Philadelphia. At the moment, we are in “lock down,” after PA Gov. Tom Wolf announced that MontCo is the “epicenter of the pandemic.”
Gov. Wolf yesterday ordered all elementary and secondary schools in the county closed effective today for at least the next several weeks,
By David Lindorff
Bernie Sanders just gave the speech of his life — one that everyone planning to vote in the Democratic primaries ahead should watch before making an decision between Sanders and Joe Biden. In fact, look at the Sanders video, and then read about the press conference Biden held and his anemic proposed response Biden offered to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sanders in this video looks like a president, and sounds like FDR addressing the savage Great