Global

While humans stand on the brink of precipitating our own extinction, with the prospects of now averting this remote – see ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’ – virtually everyone remains unaware of the critical nature of our plight. Moreover, the ongoing human death toll from the activities that are generating this crisis numbers in the many millions each year while the number of species driven to extinction is estimated at 200 per day.

In contrast, a virus that is killing a very small proportion of the minuscule number it has infected is causing panic in many countries around the world, devastating the travel and tourism industries while emptying supermarket shelves of food and that apparently most vital of commodities: toilet paper.

Section 1: On Friday, October 1, every registered voter in America will be mailed a paper ballot, as coordinated by the individual state and local election boards.  

Section 2: Monday, October 12, every state will open geographically diverse certified voting centers throughout the state in order to ensure a safe, easy, and transparent election process. 

Section 3: The addresses of the voting centers will be widely published on the internet and in local newspapers, magazines, and other print, television, radio and social media.

Section 4: The voting centers will be large, and located in safe, well-known, well-lit, easily accessible locations, with ample parking and certified handicapped access.

In the midst of this terrible Pandemic, three absolutely essential items must be made immediately available to all Americans:  masks, testing and ventilators.

Congress must drop all other business—-including its in-fighting over a multi-trillion economic stimulus package—-and do everything in its power to make these three things immediately available to all Americans. 

The masks of course must first go to all First Responders, along with gloves, protective clothing and whatever else is needed to guarantee the safety of our doctors, nurses and other health professionals.  It’s wrong on all fronts to expect these brave citizens to put their lives at risk while treating others.

The testing must be made universally available with no charge.  Only a tiny percentage of our population knows with any certainty if they have this disease.  Early detection and treatment are exponentially more effective than waiting even a day or two. 

Every day now we’re waking up into an extreme real-life nightmare, while responses are still routinely lagging far behind what’s at stake. Urgency is reality. The horrific momentum of the coronavirus is personal, social and political. In those realms, a baseline formula is “passivity = death.” The imperative is to do vastly better.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Fear of the coronavirus is rapidly making
Thailand less attractive for tourists, potentially boring for
residents, and possibly dangerous for white people.

Places where people "rub up against each other" will be closed, Prime
Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced on March 17.

Earlier, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's media blamed "dirty"
Caucasian tourists for infecting Thailand with COVID-19.

More than 600 people -- mostly Thais -- have been infected. Many of
them recovered, and one person died because of the coronavirus.

Officials announced the closure of all schools nationwide and, in and
around Bangkok, entertainment venues such as bars, massage parlors,
and sports stadiums from March 18-31.

Concerts, some Buddhist gatherings, horse racing and other mass events
have also been cancelled.

Shopping malls, restaurants, markets, and offices remain open but need
to sanitize people's hands or take other health precautions.

Thailand's April 13-15 Songkran new year holiday has also been
postponed indefinitely.

U.S. politics has for three-quarters of a century been shaped by the question “Do you support the troops?” The understood meaning of the question has been “Do you want members of the military to live or do you wish them dead?” The effective meaning of the question has been “Do you want unlimited unaccountable spending on weaponry and endless wars or are you an evil traitor?”

Such a question cannot be answered or undone, but it can be replaced with a different question.

What if we were to ask this question: Do you support the health workers? The understood meaning could be: Do you think that doctors and nurses and emergency medical technicians and health workers by whatever names should live or do you wish them dead? Are you grateful for their service? Do you believe they should have the sort of armor or protective clothing and equipment their colleagues in China have? Do you think they should have the tests and treatments they need to accomplish their mission, and that people should follow their guidance?

A dictator is a single individual who possesses such extreme power over a government that some people refer to it as “absolute power.” There are degrees of dictatorship, or — if you prefer — individuals who are partially dictators or somewhat dictatorial. Oppressive governments that restrict liberties, deny participation, and abuse human rights overlap considerably, but not entirely, with dictatorships. Because there are more studies and rankings of oppressive governments than of dictatorships, and because the problem is the oppression, not who does it, I’m going to look for a moment at some lists of oppressive governments, before turning to the subject of the dictators who run many of them.

In 2017, Rich Whitney wrote an article for Truthout.org called “U.S. Provides Military Assistance to 73 Percent of World’s Dictatorships.”