EXCERPT from … “GOP ‘Plot to Gut Social Security Behind Closed Doors’ Gains Steam in Senate Covid-19 Talks” ‘Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, said in an emailed statement to Common Dreams that “at a time when current Republican policy is to let seniors die of Covid-19 by the tens of thousands without…
Editor’s Note: Although none of us in the last few generations has lived through a global pandemic, there’s something familiar in the mood of it that makes me want to sum up my life, assess it as if I’ve been here before, in proximity to death, as if it’s my last chance, which I…
Editor’s Note: In critical cases of COVID-19, the elderly have the best chance of survival by means of a ventilator. What’s particularly frightening in the current pandemic in the US is the inadequate number of hospital beds as well as ventilators. The following article about a stopgap treatment option for the critically ill, using…
By Tom Engelhardt Reprinted from TomDispatch.com As I turn 75, there’s no simpler way to put it than this: I’m an old man on a new planet — and, in case it isn’t instantly obvious, that’s not good news on either score. I still have a memory of being a camp counselor in upstate New…
[Reprint of an article I first published in January of 2011] By Don Pelton 5:30 AM, the first day of the new year, still dark out. I peer out the bedroom window and see a small circle of new snow glistening in the light from the motion-detector on the well house, probably set off…