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It’s axiomatic that political discourse in the U.S. is becoming more and more extreme. There’s even talk of a coup. In textbook coups, martial law is declared. The internet and phones go dead. The opposition is jailed or killed. This is how we think of authoritarian regimes beginning. Yet Steven Levitsky says, “Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders.” He lays out a four-part test for identifying authoritarian leaders: rejecting democratic institutions, denying the legitimacy of political opponents, tolerating or encouraging violence and curtailing civil liberties. He notes, “With the exception of Richard Nixon, no major-party presidential candidate met even one of these four criteria over the last century. Donald Trump met all of them.” If we are not careful polarization can kill democracy.

Legal battles for gender equality didn’t begin with the Women’s Movement of the 1960s. But it laid the groundwork for the historic 1972 Supreme Court decision that made gender discrimination unconstitutional. That case was successfully argued by then-38-year old Brooklyn-born attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It set precedent for another ruling a few years later that men should also be eligible for their wives’ survivor benefits. She won five out of the six gender discrimination cases she argued before the Supreme Court.

The world is at a crossroads. The COVID-19 pandemic, with hundreds of thousands dead across the globe and counting, has triggered a disastrous economic situation for millions. At some point, we will be in a post-pandemic world. What will it look like? More of the same old same old? Or can we imagine a different world? Where the planet and its people are nurtured and protected and there are no longer huge concentrations of wealth and grotesque inequalities. Can pressure from the streets break the iron grip of capitalism and create lasting structural change and a green new deal? Yanis Varoufakis says, “We can do it.”

Remember the popular TV series - The X-Files? FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully doggedly investigate unexplained, mind-bending cases known as "X-Files." The show’s signature line was, “The Truth is Out There.” We probably need Mulder and Scully back on the job examining recent comments from the current president about “thugs wearing black uniforms” boarding planes. “They are people controlling the streets. People that you’ve never heard of. People who are,” the president said, “in the dark shadows.” Whoa. Dark shadows? What’s going on here? Seems like something out of the discredited QAnon or InfoWars conspiracy websites has somehow gotten into the president’s head. The deep state is behind all his woes. Maybe the famous FDR line: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” should be amended to the only thing we have to fear is everything.

Talk about an odd couple. The 45th president and the Christian right. For the president, renowned for his wayward ways, the support from some of the mega-churches and their high priests form a key part of his base. According to a Pew poll, over 80% of white evangelicals said they will vote for the current occupant of the Oval Office. The Christian right looks the other way when confronted with the facts. For them, it’s all about opposing same-sex marriage and abortion, funding religious-based schools, ensuring right-wing judges are appointed, and embracing nationalism, militarism and imperialism. There is enough hypocrisy to fill many bookshelves. Just see Jerry Falwell, Jr. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith.

Representative John Lewis of Georgia, an icon of the struggle for civil rights, social justice and equality died in mid-July. He was called the “conscience of the Congress.” His passing evoked memories of the March on Washington and the bridge in Selma. And attention on the struggles today:  the new Jim Crow, the Black Lives Matter movement and the widespread demonstrations protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. In the tradition of his mentor Dr. King, John Lewis was dedicated to civil disobedience and non-violence. His words inspire us to engagement and peaceful resistance. When he gave the commencement address to Boston University graduates in 2018, he said, “My philosophy is simple. When you see something that is not fair, not right, not just, then you have a moral obligation to say something; to do something, stand up, speak out.”

The great African American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois in his 1903 classic book, The Souls of Black Folk, wrote, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” Well, here we are in the 21st century and the color line and racial injustice remain front and center. Some white people have acknowledged racism as a major issue. Others when challenged are defensive and uncomfortable. The murder of George Floyd brought out multi-racial demonstrations against police violence and racial injustice. Monuments, statues and other symbols of oppression are toppled and Confederate flags are lowered. These are the first steps in a reckoning that is long overdue.

A famous Russian revolutionary once said, “'There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” The pandemic certainly feels that way. We are in limbo. The uncertainty is bewildering. What can we expect? What must we do?  There are no clear answers. Dr. Stephen Bezruchka presents a novel view of the novel virus.  What if we are a cancer on this planet?  The human species fits the definition of a cancer. We have practiced cancer denial and are paying the price with the world's largest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. We need to honor and respect Gaia, our beloved and besieged planet.  The recent global protests present the opportunity to collectively treat the human species cancer and hope for a remission. We need a new perspective on our life on Earth. Let the healing begin.

The drugs and war nexus is an old story involving not just criminal gangs but states. Just go back to the U.S. wars in Vietnam and Laos in the 1960s and 70s or in Central America in the 1980s or more recently in Afghanistan to see the connections. Alliances with drug dealers and cartels were part of Washington’s playbook albeit mostly secret. Covert operations need covert funding and drugs are always a handy cash crop. Culturally, the topic always attracts attention. There have been Hollywood movies from Clear and Present Dancer to Kill the Messenger, as well as TV shows and novels. Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium, amphetamine, and cocaine intersect with the history of conflict. Drugs and war have become addicted to each other.

The news about the pandemic goes from bad to worse. The term another grim milestone in the number of infections and deaths has become almost commonplace. But at some point, hopefully not too far away, the crisis will pass. Where will we be? The world will surely be different. There is so much uncertainty. Kim Stanley Robinson, the well-known science fiction writer, says, "The future isn’t cast into one inevitable course. On the contrary, we could cause the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth’s history, or we could create a prosperous civilization, sustainable over the long haul. Either is possible starting from now.”