Lawmakers in Washington agreed to a new $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package yesterday. The bill, like the previous CARES Act, appears to include huge new tax breaks for corporations and the very wealthy. However, of most note to average Americans is the means-tested check of up to $600 plus $600 per child that Republicans and…

Many prophetic scenes depicted in a series of Mayan codices written in the early days of the Spanish colony, and translated and compiled in El Libro de los Libros del Chilam Balam, describe a world foreign to its original authors. But, one which was barreling down on them and their civilization even as the Mayan…

The enormous economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to fundamentally alter the structure of society, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if using the crisis to implement near-permanent austerity measures across the world. 76 of the 91 loans it has negotiated with 81 nations since the beginning of the worldwide pandemic…

A new report from the World Bank estimates that the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world will increase by between 88 and 150 million by 2021, thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. This represents an increase in the number, calculated as those living on less than $1.90 per day, for the…

Broadcasting over Facebook Live this past Sunday, public relations specialist and Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Public Affairs, Michael Caputo, painted a dramatic picture of threats and coercion by federal officials, left-wing “hit squads” who are “being trained all over the country” to prevent another Trump presidency and the deterioration of his own…

To the dismay of many Americans, Congress and the Senate adjourned until September, meaning that any coronavirus relief package is still, at least, many weeks away. As a result, a growing number of Americans are calling for a general strike, the topic trending on social media this weekend. The Senate will not return until September…

ADEN, YEMEN — Southern Yemen’s port city of Aden is quickly becoming the new epicenter of the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The streets of the city are awash in garbage and many have become mosquitoes-filled swamps, the result of historic floods that ravaged the city earlier this year. City officials have done little to address what…

A new poll published yesterday by the Pew Research Center found that Americans rate their government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as better than China’s. This is despite the United States having 20 times the number of infections and deaths as the Asian nation, the epicenter of the outbreak. Unlike Chinese authorities, the Trump administration…

A former Big Pharma executive and a four-star General have just been appointed by President Trump to lead a “Manhattan project-style effort to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.” The effort, called Operation Warp Speed, has set a goal to create 300 million doses of a non-existent vaccine by January. Moncef Slaoui, who used…

WASHINGTON DC (The Last American Vagabond) — Last Friday, a group of Democratic Senators “demanded” that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Robert Kadlec, “accurately disclose all his personal, financial and political ties in light of new reporting that he had failed to do so previously”…

The economy has crashed. A nationwide pandemic that has (officially) claimed some 84,000 Americans has also resulted in an estimated 36 million filing for unemployment insurance and millions frequenting food banks for the first time. Yet business is booming for one unlikely industry; weapons manufacturers are busier than ever and are even advertising for tens…

The coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown it has precipitated is having a profound effect on the economy of the United States and the rest of the world. Roberto Azevedo, Director-General of the World Trade Organization warned that his projections predict an economic downturn and job losses more severe than those of the great financial crash…