COVID-19 Could Be Catastrophic for Us: Notes From Gaza
I have to admit that when I heard there was a new virus spreading through China a few months ago, I didn’t pay much attention. After all, China is far away. It’s a country with advanced medical and...
View ArticleA Q & A on the GOP’s Call for Elder Sacrifice
The second highest office-holder of the great state of Texas, Republican Lieutenant General Dan Patrick, recently proclaimed on Fox News that lots of senior citizens would be willing — or should be,...
View ArticleThe Virus That May Bring us Together
A country paralyzed. A booming economy about to crash. Citizens afraid of an enemy they can’t see, hear or smell. The coronavirus has captured the world. Life as we have known it has stopped abruptly....
View ArticleWorst Case Scenario: Healthcare Workers Need Masks, ASAP
Imagine a country where health care workers lack the equipment necessary to prevent coronavirus infection while treating people suffering from this terrible new disease. Other countries are sending...
View ArticleHomegrown Crisis Response: Who Grows Your Food?
The best COVID 19 response that I’ve heard to date came from Jessica. Asked if she was prepared for the chaos, she said her cupboards contained a reasonable amount of food, but most importantly, she...
View ArticleDeveloping a Vaccine Against War
What if the vaccine that’s eventually developed is so large in scope it includes the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Pope Francis? I revisit Guterres’ words of a week ago: The fury...
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Reflections on a Glass of Homemade Cider
Tonight I opened up a treasure: a bottle of cider made by a friend in Santa Fe. This gentleman had in fact gifted me with several-to-many bottles, all of which I have been—yes—hoarding since I...
View ArticleWe Need a Lot More Transparency From the CDC
“COVID-19 is a White man’s disease. It doesn’t seem to infect Black people,” posited Jane, a community leader in New Haven, Connecticut, who had come to the U.S. as a refugee from Africa many years...
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The Relative Generosity of the Economic Rescue Package: Boeing vs. Public...
The media have been engaged big time in the numbers without context game, throwing out really big numbers faster than anyone can catch them. (For the biggest, the overall size of the stimulus, given...
View ArticleIn the New Dystopia
It is difficult to neatly encapsulate the shift that has occurred in our collective perception and experience over the last several weeks. That all semblance of ‘certainty’ and ‘normalcy’ has...
View ArticlePrayers, Piffle and Privation in the Time of Pandemic
“Go corona! Corona go!” Ramdas Athawale, a minister in the state government of India, chanted this phrase again and again at a prayer meeting at the Gateway of India. Among those invited to participate...
View ArticleIncarceration, Detention, and Covid-19
Recently I sat in on a livestreamed town hall sponsored by the school of public health at a large university in my state. The town hall’s purpose was to answer viewers’ questions about Covid-19: how to...
View ArticleCapitalism is the Virus!
The U.S. Senate’s March 25, $2 trillion 97-0, COVID-19 corporate bailout vote gifted the ruling rich an amount never exceeded in world history. The overwhelming portion went directly to the coffers of...
View ArticleWould Dying for the Economy Help Anybody?
Let me start this essay with an important caveat: I, for one, wish this question would not be raised. I find it morally reprehensible to even entertain the idea that sacrificing the lives of the...
View ArticleFear and Loathing in Coronaville Volume 2: Panic On the Streets of Tehran
There’s panic on the streets of Bellefonte, panic on the streets of Lancaster, I wonder to myself, could life ever be sane again? Barely two weeks into Pennsylvania’s largely mandatory shutdown and I’m...
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Capitalism vs. Humanity
From today’s perspective of Covid-19 mass death, the virtues of left-wing policies like Medicare for All are abundantly clear. Especially at the capitalist core, where, in the U.S., a stripped down,...
View ArticleCovid-19 Attacks the Down-and-Out in Ultra-Unequal South Africa
It’s hard to imagine a more worrying place to watch Covid-19 hit a society than Johannesburg, South Africa. This is, after all, the world’s most unequal major city, serving as economic headquarters for...
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Permanent Pandemic on Public Lands: Welfare Sheep Ranchers and Their Enablers...
Photo: USFWS. “Clinical signs can include nasal discharge, coughing, respiratory distress, exercise intolerance, and general depression but animals are often found dead … Depending on what pathogens...
View ArticleCorona and What Then?
Berlin, like many of your hometowns, is a ghost city. Except for those offering groceries, medicines or medical care, everything is shut tight. Luckily, no-one here has to stay inside, we can stroll...
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Is the Pandemic Patriarchal?
Newsflash, The New York Times, March 31, 2020: As the coronavirus pandemic brings the world to a juddering halt and anxious citizens demand action, leaders across the globe are invoking executive...
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