Opinion

A photograph purporting to show Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in tears, having lost all hope over the coronavirus toll in his country, made its way around cyberspace earlier this week. It turned out the photo wasn't of Conte, but of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and he wasn't crying about losses due to coronavirus in his own country, but remembering a knife attack he suffered in 2018 during a speech he gave last year.

The one extremely thin silver lining of the current crisis and the economic collapse that has followed is that it provides indisputable proof that workers, not CEOs, are the engine of the American economy. If we are on the verge of another Great Depression, as seems likely, that didn't happen because the occupants of the C-suite are working from home, but because millions of ordinary working people can't show up for work in public-facing jobs that keep this country running.The Senate reacted to this by passing a $2 trillion stimulus that expands unemployment benefits, will send a check to most American households, and — since Republicans are running the show — $500 billion in industry bailout money. This bill may mute some of the worst economic effects of this crisis, but there's a real threat that this will just be a repeat of the 2007-8 economic crash and stimulus, in which corporations and the wealthiest Americans recovered nicely but the rest of the nation never really regained its economic footing.

In February of 2017, in the very early days of the Trump administration, Steve Bannon, then the White House strategic adviser, appeared at the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Committee and described the new administration's three "lines of thought." The first had to do with sovereignty or "America First." The second was what he called "economic nationalism" ( Trump's trade war). And the third he called "the deconstruction of the administrative state."

Donald Trump has given the Democrats a gift — if they are brave enough to use it.

In a new piece for CNN, media critic Brian Stelter pointed out an astute observation about the coronavirus crisis. While President Donald Trump holds daily briefings on the administration's response, the American media is hampered in its ability to expose the real extent and cost of the crisis.

Scientists and health experts largely agree on the steps needed to fight COVID-19, the rapidly spreading new coronavirus: Widespread testing, if possible. Widespread and often stringent social distancing protocols in communities where it's taken root, to slow the spread. Hygienic practices like frequent hand-washing and sterilizing commonly touched surfaces. Protective gear, like masks in medical settings, to keep health care professionals from catching it and spreading it.

Societies gripped by cataclysmic wars, depressions, or pandemics can become acutely sensitive to power and privilege.

We just witnessed one of the clearest examples of a profound structural advantage for the GOP.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wasted ten precious days advancing a relief package laden with "poison pill" measures that according to the polls, were broadly opposed by Democrats, Republican and independents alike, and blocking provisions sponsored by Democrats that were popular across party lines.

Dr. Justin Frank literally wrote the book on Donald Trump’s mind and behavior. In “Trump on the Couch,” Frank tracks Trump’s life from childhood to adulthood and reveals a man who is mentally unfit in many ways — from his intelligence, values, emotions and temperament down to the deepest parts of the psyche — to be president of the United States of America.

As the true scope of the coronavirus crisis came into view, Donald Trump decided to cast himself as a "wartime president" standing up against an "invisible enemy": Covid-19. But it seems he has grown tired of this new shtick; he told the country on Tuesday that he could see a "light at the end of the tunnel" and that he hopes to recommend people who have been socially isolating to halt the spread of the virus to start returning to work by Easter, even though no public health expert is recommending this.

You have to feel sorry for President Trump. He's under a lot of pressure and he got some very bad news this week. Sure, the coronavirus pandemic is racing through the American population like an out-of-control locomotive. And yes, massive numbers of Americans have abruptly lost their incomes. But this week the crisis came home to Trump himself. He had to face the fact that he personally stands to lose a fortune as his hotels and resorts, here and abroad, are shut down and he and his family are hemorrhaging money.

Donald Trump, reality-TV phony to his core, clearly believes all he needs to do to erase his almost unfathomable levels of failure that have led to the coronavirus crisis is to play-act being a resolute leader on the teevee. Having spent weeks denying, minimizing and outright lying about the coronavirus threat, Trump now seizes live airtime every day to preen about what a strong and capable leader he is — and also to present himself as the biggest victim of this crisis, even as people die and millions find their jobs are threatened — even as he does nothing consequential but tweet, lie and boost his own ego.

There’s much we don’t yet know about COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. We don’t know how long the pandemic will last, when a vaccine will be developed, or how many lives antiviral medications can save. But there’s one thing we know for sure: U.S. taxpayers have already paid for the research and testing of the most promising treatments.