Before COVID hit, China hoarded protective gear. But two can play that game

COVID-19 has a proven antiviral remedy called Remdesivir, but buying up three months’ worth of the drug’s global supplies has put the United States in the crosshairs of international criticism, making America look both heartless and hypocritical.

Just a few months ago, Western nations were calling out China for actively promoting profiteers snatching up global supplies of protective PPE medical gear. China directed an army of market marauders to take big bites out of other countries’ economies and medical infrastructures in order to leave them vulnerable, if not for dead.

Masks, gowns, ventilators were bought and shipped back to the People’s Republic just before the pandemic hit the rest of the world. China then turned around either to sell PPE for enormous profit or slowly dole it out for diplomatic gain with plagued nations. READ MORE

China’s prying eyes may shut down U.S. universities’ academic freedoms

During the height of the 1950s Red Scare, when there were Communists under every bed and spies in every closet, America saw threats to its national security everywhere. Justifiably, there were purges of those who really sought to sneak state secrets to the Soviets. War plans and bomb-making schematics were the most important of those confidential documents. Accusations abounded; not everyone was guilty.

Fast forward to 2020, and the new Red Scare is Beijing, not Moscow. The fear is that China’s long reach is not only touching but grabbing some of America’s dominant industries, institutions, plans and, of course, people. Scientists and researchers are in the crosshairs. Dr. Charles M. Lieber, the Harvard professor who recently was arrested by U.S. officials for allegedly sending research to China — and lying about it to American authorities — pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. READ MORE

America’s greatest strength puts its weaknesses on display around the world

In 2001, New York and Washington, D.C., were attacked, and the world responded by saying, “We are all Americans.” The greatest ever military coalition formed to come to America’s defense. Nations — including Cuba, Iran, Libya, and North Korea — condemned the terrorist attacks. Countries rallied to express sympathy and send material support.

That was then.

In 2020, the United States is facing an attack by the invisible COVID-19 virus and has a shaky economy in a self-induced coma. And, now, nationwide protests are highlighting racial injustice, with peaceful gatherings to rightly mourn George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis.

But during this time of crisis, all of a sudden, the rest of the world no longer identifies with America. In fact, populations across the globe are looking at the United States as a pariah state. George Floyd protests are breaking out in foreign capitals worldwide, emotionally flavored with strong anti-Trump sentiments. Adversarial nations and leaders are gleefully enjoying the momentary comeuppance and trying to rub salt in this nation’s open wounds. READ MORE

In fight for Libya, Russia and Turkey keep a 19th-century war on the front burner

Russia and Turkey just escalated their two-front war over which country will be the big dog in the Middle East. The two rivals have been at this game for a couple of centuries, but it just got a lot more serious this week when Russia introduced jet fighters into the Libyan civil war.

Coronavirus may have shut down Texas beauty parlors and Louisiana bars, stopped international travel and cleared streets across the globe, but hasn’t brought war to a halt. Rather, Russia and Turkey are in the midst of a multifront proxy escalation in both Libya and Syria.

Russians have long memories. They recall when Imperial Russia fought Ottoman Turkey in the bloody Crimean War. Ottoman Muslim forces fought Christian Tsarist troops on the Black Sea peninsula, where more fighters fell to the Asiatic cholera epidemic than on the battlefield.

Turkey won. Russia today, however, once again occupies Crimea. The 19th-century Crimean War was the crucible in which were forged Russo-Turkish antagonisms and their 21st-century imperial dreams. READ MORE

Reimagining Capitalism In A World on Fire

Free market capitalism is one of humanity's greatest inventions and the greatest source of prosperity the world has ever seen. This success, however, has resulted in the destruction of our environment and a concentration of wealth at the top. Right now, it's hard to picture a world where capitalism, environmentalism and equity can work together—but what if it could? Join Rebecca Henderson of Harvard Business School for a discussion about how we can reimagine capitalism in a way that aligns with our moral and ethical values. Henderson will discuss how it is both possible and profitable to move beyond an obsessive focus on shareholder value to solve global problems like income inequality, climate change, and the COVID pandemic. How can capitalism drive systemic change worldwide?

America needs modern, toothless monarchs who cut ribbons and not much else

Three co-equal branches of government was a fine idea when America was in its post-revolutionary fervor, having just rejected the vilified royal sovereign King George III of mighty England. 

If the Broadway musical “Hamilton” did not make you laugh at the diminished and divorced-from-reality kingly figure, then any number of modern-day royals will remind you of the insulated nature of a dying and dated institution hanging by a fragile golden thread. In most countries where a monarchy endures, however, the royals’ level of engagement, authority and power are threadbare.

That’s why in the age of Donald Trump, the United States needs to welcome back a king. An updated, modern-day American monarchy with all the royal trappings and none of the real juice. Someone like militarily-bedecked King Philippe of Belgium, for example. This respectable modern royal is a powerless pussycat compared to 19th century despotic King Leopold II of the Belgians. READ MORE

Let’s get to the meat of the matter — after COVID-19, we have to change the way we eat

COVID-19 has changed everything, highlighting one of the meatier issues during this crisis: the politics of beef production and export. From ranches to feedlots, slaughterhouses to global markets, beef is now one of the most important products under threat in a high-stakes international food-supply game. 

Meat supplies are so important, in fact, that President Trump intervened to order meatpacking plants stay in operation.

Meat consumption makes up a big part of Americans’ protein intake — with milk and dairy being the most important. Anything that threatens its availability on the market or dramatically raises its price is of national concern. Recent shortages and store limits on meat purchases have further raised the alarm. Supply and demand are strained. READ MORE

If it’s not one thing, then it’s a swarm of Murder Hornets

Just when you thought it was safe to go outdoors again — with face coverings, of course — news of a lethal, stinging insect could scare people back inside. The Asian giant hornet has just shown up in our beehives and on our doorsteps.

Airlines are going bust, vacations getting canceled and study-abroad programs marooning college kids in other countries, but that doesn’t mean all overseas travel has stopped. Microscopic viruses and big, bad invasive species are still roaming the world, finding new homes on distant shores. 

When it comes to nature, there is no justice, only reckoning. READ MORE

A COVID-19 pause on mass protests won’t shield inept or authoritarian leaders forever

Teenagers around the country have a very specific plan for what they will do when they are released from COVID confinement: party!

Around the world, however, the decriminalization and return of mass gatherings likely will lead to something else: demonstrations!

Governments and regimes everywhere are going to face a greater test of their resilience and staying power once masses of people are freed from public-health fears and able to express their dissent. Demonstrators who were a prominent feature in the streets of Hong Kong or on France’s highways have all been forced to curtail their collective protest activities. Instead of gathering in person, they are cowering from pestilence. READ MORE

Rumors of a leader’s death keep everyone guessing — and that’s the point

Remember where you were when you first heard “Paul is dead?” Boomers easily recall the day their beloved mop-top Beatle was missing, declared dead and gone. It was a traumatic moment for many who saw the signs, found the clues and believed the hype. Paul McCartney had clearly passed away.

It was a déjà vu moment this week when international rumors took flight and premature reports came in declaring the near death of Kim Jong Un. North Korea’s dictatorial ruler and modern mop-top leader was said to have gone through a medical procedure that rendered him at death’s door. As of this writing, these rumors have not been confirmed. What is confirmed is that Kim Jong Un is no Paul McCartney. 

In fact, Kim more likely resembles Fidel Castro.

Castro was regularly rumored to be dead. It became a featured meme. James Cason, who later became Coral Gables mayor, served as head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana between 2002 and 2005 and once said that Castro “must have died 20 times since the time I went to Cuba.”

Sensational rumors are started and popularly circulated for many reasons. Self-started rumors, for example, are often launched for publicity purposes, as with Morton Downey Jr. or Jussie Smollett. READ MORE

‘Thank you, America, for fueling the Chinese Dream’

It’s nearly graduation time around the country, which can only mean one thing: Boring commencement speeches to indifferent students.

The “Coronavirus Commencements” will be different, however, because graduates will not go through a public processional of pomp and circumstance. They also won’t dine with grandparents who traveled great distances to get to the ceremony. Travel curtailed, campuses closed, bookstores stuck with unsold “Class of 2020” swag. Graduation speakers will stay home to deliver their laugh lines and sage advice as webcammed words of wisdom.

Into this breach, let’s invite an atypical commencement speaker to give a universal graduation speech that can be simulcast to every U.S. institution of higher learning. Who should that person be? The guy who paid for more undergraduates’ educations in America than any other single individual: China’s “Core” leader and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping. READ MORE

Coronavirus already has changed us for good — and, perhaps, for the better

Is human activity mainly responsible for global climate change? If so, we have just launched an unintentional worldwide experiment to see what happens when productive human activity comes to a screeching halt.

Given the downturn of economic productivity and a shelter-in-place reality for much of the world’s population, the negative effects are likely to outweigh anything positive. As we struggle to find any silver lining in the crisis, we might look to the dramatic reduction of belching factory smokestacks and fuming exhaust pipes. Mother Earth might suddenly and unexpectedly get a much needed and well-deserved rest.

All kinds of bad are happening as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The volatile stock market eats up 401k account balances. Jobs are lost. Social inequality is broadly exposed. Hospital beds are filled. People are dying.

What’s worse is that we are only beginning to feel the painful and lethal effects of this pandemic. There is no way to sugarcoat this. READ MORE

In Hungary, coronavirus crisis is the perfect time to throw democracy under the bus

In the 1949 film “The Third Man,” set in post-war Vienna, the Austrian capital is a bombed-out city where Orson Welles’ character, Harry Lime, makes a killing on the black market for medical supplies. Lime steals military stocks of penicillin, dilutes the antibiotic and sells it to unsuspecting patients who die from the watered-down drug. 

Profiting in desperate times is immoral and unjustifiable. 

It is also common.

While most people are conscientious, showing strangers compassion, love and selflessness, craven examples abound of certain individuals profiting from the COVID-19 crisis, and others, by hoarding, price gouging or simply leveraging market forces. The $138 bottle of hand sanitizer is the poster child product of this lockdown moment.

Money motivates the unscrupulous and greedy. Power is the other potent aphrodisiac. In its pursuit, power hungry leaders fan the flames of popular fears and exploit nativist anger.

Money and power are a killer combo.

Across the world, from Ankara to Beijing, Caracas to Moscow, powerful (and newly rich) leaders see the current crisis as a way to build themselves an unassailable permanent political role. Case in point? Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán now rules by decree. READ MORE

Honor the heroes of the war against coronavirus with a national monument

Vegas is surreal on any given day. A place of fake pharaonic pyramids, Imperial Roman palaces, Venetian canals, an Eiffel Tower. 

Surreal. 

In the middle of the Las Vegas Strip is the New York-New York hotel-casino complex, with a faux cityscape — a scaled-down skyline. In front of the Statue of Liberty, a faux harbor floats a replica of the New York Fire Department’s fire boat #2 that was spontaneously turned into a living monument to New York 9/11 firefighters.

First responders and citizens garlanded this model city with flowers, firefighter T-shirts, images of the fallen, loving notes. This makeshift 9/11 firefighter memorial told the world that we will never forget the bravery and sacrifice of the first responders who rushed through ash choked streets and into burning buildings to save our souls.

At this moment, we have a new set of heroes putting down their lives to save us from an invisible viral scourge: doctors and nurses. They are on the front lines fighting the coronavirus, intubating patients and working against all odds without sufficient protective gear and medical equipment. 

Naturally, we voluntarily need to stave off the illness and protect our potential saviors — wash your hands!

We also need a way to honor these individuals for their bravery and sacrifice. It’s time to design and fund a meaningful monument to the nation’s medical practitioners. READ MORE

Coronavirus failures are our bad. We’d been warned it was coming for decades

Two years ago, the stock market was on a one-way trajectory: Up. 

In 2018, we watched how bioengineering advances and a technology called CRISPR held the promise of personalized medicine and cures. People lived longer, healthier lives.

That year also was the 100-year anniversary of the globally devastating Spanish Flu pandemic. That silent viral scourge killed more people than World War I. The Spanish Flu took between 50 million and 100 million lives worldwide.

World War I’s occupations, trench warfare, shooting and bombing, and the starvation that followed, killed 20 million. The war’s casualties split nearly evenly between military and civilian deaths; Americans and Europeans. READ MORE