BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES

PHIL BUTLER-The connective tissue of America is about to be put under coronavirus stress, whether or not every citizen comes down with the bug, every man, woman, and child will be affected. A $1200 loan from Uncle Sam is not going to help. And yes, the stimulus checks are a loan from the world central banks. The stock market rallied on the announcement of the stimulus package by the government, but the U.S. passing China in the number of cases is already pushing the Dow Jones back down as of Friday, March 27. And once the “lag” numbers start coming in, when Easter rolls over families because of the employment situation, and as more families are touched by the death toll, the situation is NOT going to get better anytime soon.

MoA—On Sunday March 15 at 1:50 am Netanyahoo announced that the courts would be closed for public health reasons. His trial has been moved to late May. He also ordered the internal security service to secretly track the cellphone data of those suspected of possible infections. His Health Ministry prohibited any gathering of more than 10 people and instructed the parliament to also follow that rule.

Maybe out of pride, or lingering loyalty, Jimmy Dore is belatedly filing a video in which he still struggles to find excuses for Tulsi’s actions. We all feel betrayed, Jimmy. But, as YouTube commenter so aptly says, you must stop “twisting like a pretzel to defend her.” Another viewer, equally spot on (Donna Gray) adds,  “At least Tulsi has shown her true colours. Jimmy you need to let her go. Give yourself 48 hours to grieve and get back into jag off mode.”  They are all right, of course. Painfully right, even if this latest slap in the face for many of those who held minimum hope of relief via the existing setup did not come entirely as a surprise.

UMAIR HAQUE—Nobody asked: who was going to pay for those tests? How long would it take? Would what passes for “insurance” [in the USA] even cover it? What happened if you tested positive? Why couldn’t people just go to their nearest doctor’s office…and get tested? Or their nearest hospital? For free? Why rely on a bizarre coterie of corporations, mostly owned by hedge funds, to provide the public good of healthcare…during a literal global pandemic? What the? The answer, of course, to all those questions, is: capitalism.

MATTHEW HOH—The intersection of the US government and the Afghan drug lords, men who compose large and influential elements within the Afghan government and military, is nothing new to anyone who understands how the US has aligned with criminal and drug interests for close to two centuries now. Beginning with the infamous China Trade in the first half of the 19th century, which spawned some of the wealthiest and politically active dynastic families in the US, through the use of European mafia and drug gangs post WWII, through the wars in SE Asia, US government, intelligence and military involvement with organized crime and drugs has been the overwhelming rule, rather than the exception.