The pandemic driven lockdowns have triggered worldwide growth of unemployment, hunger, homelessness and poverty. The speed of economic descent in world economy is extraordinary. The world is sleep walking into greater economic depression of the century and its impacts will reverberate for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led economic crisis has been used by ruling and non-ruling classes to reconfigured the[Read More...]
NPR issued a depressing report yesterday: States Are Broke And Many Are Eyeing Massive Cuts. One of the sticking points in coming to an agreement over the pandemic rescue package is that the already passed House bill, the $3 trillion HEROES Act, contains around a trillion dollars for state and local governments.
In his interview with Stuart Stevens published yesterday by the New Yorker-- on the occasion of the release of his new book, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump-- Isaac Chotiner asked the former GOP political operative (and now, Lincoln Project #NeverTrumpers), how he came to see that the Republican Party wasn't polluted by Trump but that the Republican Party was polluted by itself.
If you're a regular DWT reader, you probably wonder, at least some of the time, how prevelent is mental illness among Trump supporters. Most people think rabid Trumpists are just stupid, but there is a big difference between mental illness and low IQs. Yesterday, USA Today published a report by Kelly Tyko about the Arizona woman, Melissa Rein Lively, who, earlier this month filmed herself tearing down a mask display at a Target in Scottsdale.
Lambchop by Nancy OhanianDoesn't it seem like the GOP actually wants to inflict misery on the working class? It seems that way because it is that way. McConnell purposely let the eviction moratorium and enhanced unemployment benefits expire before allowing even a discussion in the Senate about what to do to alleviate Trump's COVID-economy.
The Covid-19 spell has left governments, markets, and civil society wobbling through disruptions and damage. The ambiguity that envelops not only the evolution of the disease but also its impact makes it a challenging and complex task for policymakers to devise a suitable policy response. The pandemic has brought to the forefront some key ethical questions that we must explore.[Read More...]
The Senate Republicans-- Mitch McConnell and his cronies-- have decided to let the 4 month long moratorium on evictions during the pandemic lapse-- despite the fact that the pandemic is raging worse than ever. Friday saw +78,009 new one-day cases and 1,141 one day COVID deaths. The pandemic is out of control in Florida, southern California, Texas and Georgia and rapidly and dangerously rising in smaller states like Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Wisconsin, Arkansas...
Cone of Shame by Nancy OhanianOn the Senate floor yesterday, Elizabeth Warren reminded her colleagues that the country is "just days away from a housing crisis that could be prevented if Mitch McConnell stopped stalling and the Senate act. This is about our health, our economy, and our values. Forcing thousands of people out of their homes during a pandemic will make a public health crisis worse.
Portland? Who's next?My first trip to Turkey was in 1969-- and it was love at first sight. I drove a VW camper van from London to Istanbul, stayed a few weeks and then drove the entire width of the country-- to Ankara and Kirikkale (then a small village, now a sprawling city) in the middle of the country, along the Black Sea to Samsun and Tabzon, down into the "wild east" city of Ezurum and then to Iran.
