STEVE ALMOND—In a 1906 address at Carnegie Hall entitled “Taxes and Morals,” Mark Twain lambasted plutocrats who advertised their piety while lying about their incomes. “I know all those people,” Twain noted. “I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.” He said that word—criminal—knowing that many of these folks were seated in the gallery before him. Twain had this to say about the patriotism of his day: “The Patriot did not know just how or when or where he got his opinions, neither did he care, so long as he was with what seemed the majority—which was the main thing, the safe thing, the comfortable thing.”

PETER KOENIG—In some European countries, covid-unrest already clearly visible, i.e., Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Spain – and of course, in the very Germany. Civil and societal unrest is also boiling hot in France, currently one of the most repressive regimes in the western world.

RAMIN MAZAHERI—The largest divide in the United States is not urban/rural, White/Black, sexual, nor the male/female divide recently brought to the fore by #MeToo. It is not even a Democrat/Republican divide, because every outsider sees that these two groups are fundamentally united on so very many issues when accurately placed on the global (not merely domestic) political spectrum. The most obvious chasm is between nation’s leader class (political, media, economic, and cultural) and the nation’s masses.

CORY MORNINGSTAR—While bricks and mortar small business were, and continue to be crushed, while those in the informal sectors that comprise the Global South and South Asia starve, the world’s wealthiest (made so by the exploitation and theft of labour, coupled with the rapacious plunder of the planet) became richer than they could have ever possibly imagined. In Canada, the 20 richest people watched their fortunes grow by $37 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic. This broke the record set in 2019. In the US, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his net worth grow by $13 billion – the largest intraday jump in net worth in history while Elon Musk’s net worth increased threefold to 75 billion. They are not alone. Thus far, the world’s richest people increased their wealth by a staggering USD 813 billion during the pandemic.

STEVEN SAHIOUNIE—As much as the Caribbean is considered an “American lake”, the South China Sea is being configured as a “Chinese lake”. As a matter of national security, the South China Sea is absolutely crucial for the Maritime Silk Road. Moreover, China will never accept being encircled and/or “patrolled” by a foreign power in its maritime borders. The ultimate aim is to expel the US Navy from the South China Sea. The US Navy and the Pentagon know very well, after gaming it extensively, that a military confrontation with China – in the South China Sea or Taiwan – will never be a cakewalk and may result in a serious imperial humiliation. In a nutshell, Cold War 2.0 will remain – in different levels, way more rhetorical and heavy on propaganda than yielding military facts on the ground.     

JON. COOK—Assange faces a terrifying new kind of extraordinary rendition – one conducted not covertly by US security services but in the full glare of publicity and, if the London court approves, with the consent of the British judiciary. If extradition is authorised, a precedent will be set that allows the US to seize and jail any journalist who exposes its crimes. Inevitably, that will have a severe chilling effect on all journalists investigating the world’s only super-power. It will not only be the death of journalism’s already enfeebled role as a watchdog on power but a death blow against our societies’ commitment to the principles of freedom and openness.