From the Guardian, April 18, 2020 Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, said while the world’s attention is focused on the covid-19 epidemic, Beijing has taken “yet another step towards burying one-country, two-system” and the arrests show that “Beijing is determined to throttle Hong Kong”. He said the liaison office’s claim that it … [Read more…]
At about 04:30 AM this morning, I woke while dreaming that I was watching Joe Biden’s inauguration speech on TV. Biden was speaking of the need for a green new-deal and infrastructure initiative to put America back to where it should be and increase employment. It was the most pleasant dream I’ve had in many … [Read more…]
Published in the Hill, Saturday April 11, 2020 While the number of cases in hard-hit areas like New York, New Orleans and Detroit may slump, the virus will find new fuel in other areas. On Thursday, at least a dozen states reported their highest one-day case counts. They included both states like Massachusetts, Minnesota and … [Read more…]
Last time I shaved off my beard was in 2009, just after I was fired during the recession. Then I did it just to see what was under the facial hair, as part of the ritual of self-examination during a fit of depression. This time I cut it off slowly to make sure my face … [Read more…]
NYT Magazine – Jessica Lustig – March 24, 2020 What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick With Coronavirus Well written essay with no hype …
Jeremy Marre, Documentarian of World Music, Is Dead at 76 New York Times By Jon Pareles March 23, 2020 Jeremy Marre, an English filmmaker who documented music from across the world with hardheaded clarity, died on March 15 at a hospital in London, where he had lived. He was 76.
by Chris McGreal, Thu 19 Mar 2020 A system based on corporate pursuit of profit sets the US apart from other countries, fleecing the poor to give to the rich. The couple concluded that the medical industry is at the heart of two key drivers in making those deaths an American phenomenon. “One fact is … [Read more…]
Analysis of 35 leading investment banks shows financing of more than $2.66tn for fossil fuel industries since the Paris agreement Kirsch said: “This makes it crystal clear that banks are failing miserably when it comes to responding to the urgency of the climate crisis. As the toll of death and destruction from unprecedented floods, droughts, … [Read more…]
From the Columbia Journalism Review, Preserving a ‘national memory’ of an outbreak by Betsy Joles, 03/03/2020. “We actually have really good journalism in China,” Shen says. “It’s just those who are working very hard to get the stories out, they’re usually not recognized.”
As my students often remind me, news tends to be behind paywalls, while fake news is free. Global health expert Jonathan D Quick, of Duke University in North Carolina