USA
-
The Inevitable Coronavirus Censorship Crisis is Here
We’ve become incapable of talking calmly about possible solutions because we’ve lost the ability to decouple scientific or policy discussions, or simple issues of fact, from a political argument. Reporting on the Covid-19 crisis has become the latest in a line of moral manias with Donald Trump in the middle. Continue reading
-
The scarring
Optimism reigns in global stock markets, particularly in the US. After falling around 30% when the lockdowns to contain COVID-19 virus pandemic were imposed, the US stock market has jumped back 30% in April. Why? Well, for two reasons. The first is that the US Federal Reserve has intervened to inject humungous amounts of credit… Continue reading
-
United States Imposed Economic Sanctions: The Big Heist
Since the start of the great recession in 2008 the U.S. has become increasingly dependent on the use of unilateral economic sanctions to achieve its policy objectives against its declared targets. Presently, sanctions impact one-third of humanity in 39 countries. Economic sanctions not only cause untold death and devastation to a given country by denying… Continue reading
-
Why It’s Ugly To Criticize Trump For Dodging The Vietnam Draft
There’s a popular tweet going around saying “Do you know what the 58,220 American Dead from the Vietnam War will have in common with the 58,220 American dead expected this midweek? Donald Trump refused to fight for either one of them.” The tweet has thousands of shares and made it to the front page of Reddit today. Liberals love… Continue reading
-
How the poor die in New York
Van Dyke I is a series of 22 hulking brick apartment blocks in Brownsville, the poorest part of Brooklyn, New York. At least 10 people have died there from COVID-19, including a mother and son whose bodies were discovered only after neighbours reported the smell to city officials. There are no tributes to them, no… Continue reading
-
When war looms, protect the truth at all cost
The tone and content of the accusations levelled by the imperialists at China has changed. From blaming China to now holding it responsible and demanding reparations, not for the deaths of its citizens, but as is the capitalist way, for their financial losses. The nature of these aggressive demands could lead to war. The purpose… Continue reading
-
USA: Exceptionalistic Claptrap
Their fundamental assumptions about the U.S. is that it is exceptional only in its warmongering and cruelty. Poll after poll have shown that “the world” does not have a widely positive picture of the U.S. It instead sees it as the greatest threat Continue reading
-
What Did U.S. Intel Really Know About the ‘Chinese’ Virus?
Hybrid War 2.0 on China, a bipartisan U.S. operation, is already reaching fever pitch. Its 24/7 full spectrum infowar arm blames China for everything coronavirus-related – doubling as a diversionist tactic against any informed criticism of woeful American unpreparedness. Continue reading
-
Trump’s Shameful Blame Game
The neoliberal Council on Foreign Relations through its journal Foreign Affairs has amped up its criticisms of China. United States president Donald Trump and American officials have orchestrated a gambit to deflect unwanted attention from the miserable US response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the souring US economy. The Trump administration has directed its invective… Continue reading
-
The New Anti-China Campaign Is Built On Lies
To avoid self-examination of the failures that let the U.S. exceed the covid-19 casualty numbers of every other nation the powers that be decided to blame someone else. Continue reading
-
US Hospitals Getting Paid More to Label Cause of Death as ‘Coronavirus’
“Right now Medicare is determining that if you have a COVID-19 admission to the hospital you get $13,000. If that COVID-19 patient goes on a ventilator you get $39,000, three times as much. Nobody can tell me after 35 years in the world of medicine that sometimes those kinds of things impact on what we… Continue reading
-
USA: Capitalism & Racism + Covid-19 = Murder
April 11 — The Covid-19 pandemic is devastating New York City. Eighty refrigerator trucks are serving as mobile morgues to store the bodies. As of April 10, 92,384 people have been infected. Inmates in the Rikers Island prison are being offered $6 per hour to dig mass graves on Hart’s Island off the Bronx. That’s… Continue reading
-
Covid-19 confronts American exceptionalism By M.K. Bhadrakumar
One doesn’t know whether the US President Donald Trump ever got around to reading a Greek tragedy. Oedipus at Colonus, the drama by Sophocles written toward the very end of his life in 406 BC could be a good starter for its contemporary relevance. Continue reading
-
U.S. sanctions abort delivery of Covid-19 aid from Alibaba chief to Cuba
Cuba has slammed the U.S.’ “criminal blockade” of the country after the embargo stood in the way of the delivery of Covid-19 test kits and ventilators donated by Chinese e-commerce tycoon Jack Ma. Continue reading
-
Russia quizzes US on coronavirus’ parentage By M.K. Bhadrakumar
All through the recent weeks since US President Donald Trump coined the epithet “China virus” to rename Coronavirus, Moscow kept a deafening silence. Finally, on Sunday, March 29, Moscow broke that silence. That the first Russian statement came at the level of the Russian foreign ministry makes this particularly significant. Continue reading
-
How Do We Get Out Of This One
Yesterday, March 31, 2020, Donald Trump’s “task force” projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths resulting from infection with the covid 19 virus in the United States. Their “chief” who loves to characterize awkward questions as “nasty,” had no trouble accepting that bit of nastiness. Continue reading
-
Amid coronavirus crisis, China demonstrates that an alternative to the US-led, neoliberal order is possible
For nearly four decades the United States and its Western allies have proclaimed to the world that “there is no alternative” to neoliberalism, maligning the state and public sector as inefficient and unproductive. If the 2008 financial crisis loosened this myth’s stranglehold on notions of what is possible, the current coronavirus pandemic has shattered it. Continue reading
-
US is at a critical juncture, facing TWO EPIDEMICS: Covid-19 & soaring joblessness
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. Continue reading
-
Propaganda around the origin of Covid-19
The CIA is waging a campaign, which it portrays as “re-information,” claiming that Covid-19 originated in China while, at the same time, Russia is seeking to expose it as a US plot. Continue reading
-
Business as Usual: Coronavirus, Iran and US Sanctions
Never discount the importance of venality in international relations. While pandemics should provide the glue for a unified front in response – we keep being told of fighting this horrendous “invisible enemy” – it’s business as usual in other respects. The United States, with a disparate, confused medical system that risks being overwhelmed, remains committed… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 