This week’s mini-Super Tuesday primary races resulted in yet another big series of wins for former Vice President Joe Biden who swept to victory in Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, and even Michigan. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who was hoping to carry Michigan, won in North Dakota and is so far tied with Biden in Washington with results too close to call. Mr. Biden on Tuesday evening struck a sober tone during his victory speech thanking Mr. Sanders. Media commentators speculated that Biden’s speech was, “all aimed at convincing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that the time had come to end his primary challenge.” Meanwhile Sanders, who is now trailing Biden by more than a hundred delegates gave a speech on Wednesday addressing the future of his historic campaign indicating he would remain in the race and lamenting the fact that while voters backed his ideas, they chose Biden for reasons of “electability.”

Exit polls from Michigan in particular suggest that those rural white voters who were won over by Sanders 4 years ago when Hillary Clinton was running, chose Biden this time. Meanwhile exit polls across the 20 states that have voted in primaries so far have shown Democratic voters overwhelmingly support a single payer health care system – a system that Biden has already confirmed earlier this week he would veto as President. High ranking Democratic lawmaker James Clyburn whose endorsement ahead of the South Carolina primary revived Biden’s campaign, has called on Sanders to suspend his run saying, “People will say things that you cannot overcome.” Clyburn is suggesting that attacks on Biden now could hurt him in the general election. But Biden may be his own worst enemy. On Tuesday got into a heated argument with a pro-Trump auto worker from Michigan who challenged him on his position on guns. Mr. Biden immediately lost his temper and told the worker, “you’re full of shit.”

In other election news, former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang endorsed Biden. In his statement of support he confirmed Sanders’s view that the choice of Biden is one around a perception of electability, saying, “The math says Joe is our prohibitive nominee.” Meanwhile fifty former employees of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s campaign have endorsed Sanders for President, even as Warren herself has steadfastly refused to take a stand. The mass endorsement was made in a letter that read, “We, the undersigned former employees and fellows of Warren for President, are ready to get back in the fight for a just and progressive future. We know that we need a bold, ambitious policy agenda for working families, marginalized communities, and our planet.” Both Biden and Sanders hav...

FEATURING DR. PHILIP VERHOEF – In an interview on MSNBC, Democratic Party frontrunner Joe Biden claimed that as President he would veto a bill establishing Medicare for All if it were to pass Congress. Seemingly out of touch with voters who overwhelmingly demand a national health program and cite healthcare as a top election issue, Biden spouted the same objections to expanding Medicare as health insurance industry proponents have. Biden’s tone deafness is particularly jarring in in the face of the current coronavirus crisis where the US’s wholly inadequate health system is proving deadly.

Dr. Phil Verhoef, Board Member of Physicians for a National Health Program.

FEATURING ANNE KIM – Newsweek magazine recently published a cover story by Sam Hill entitled, “OK, Millennial: Boomers Are the Greatest Generation in History,” that claimed, “Millennials seem to think their challenges are greater than those any other generation has faced. Not really.” Hill wrote, “The Great Recession? Nothing compared with the Great Depression …The wealth gap? Today it’s actually pretty close to historical averages…Student loans? Student loan debt is $1.6 trillion. Over the next 30 years, boomers will pass down $68 trillion as part of the “Great Wealth Transfer.” That should cover it for many borrowers…” 

The article’s snide tone dismissed the concerns of American youth who are speaking out about the injustices they face in a world that has increasingly abandoned them to falling wages and economic insecurity, gun violence, climate change, and more. 

Now a new book lays out in great detail just how deep the crisis facing American youth is.

Anne Kim, Director of Domestic and Social Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor to Washington Monthly. She is the author of Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection.

President Donald Trump is meeting with Senators from his own party on Tuesday to present a proposal for economic relief after the stock market fell. The rapid spread of the coronavirus, Covid-19, through the nation has caused market jitters and appears to have put the President off balance. Trump’s plan includes proposing a payroll tax cut for Americans and a bailout of the travel industry. According to the Washington Post, “His proposal caught many lawmakers by surprise.” The stock market rebounded on Tuesday after a massive fall on Monday and oil prices have also begun to recover. 

Meanwhile Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence gave a press conference on Monday in the White House briefing room about the spread of the coronavirus and the disembarking of a cruise ship in California. Mr. Trump stood silently next to Pence for a time but then walked out as reporters asked him about being tested for the virus leaving the Vice President to respond. Another reporter raised the fact that Trump has been in contact with several Congressmen who personally interacted with an individual at the CPAC conference now known to have the virus. The two Congressmen in question are Matt Gaetz and Doug Collins who have now self-quarantined after interacting with an infected person and then the President. Also under a self-imposed quarantine is Trump’s new Acting Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Congressman Paul Gosar, and Senator Ted Cruz. A total of 7 lawmakers have announced they may have been exposed. So far none are reporting any symptoms.

In other news related to the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new set of guidelines aimed at older Americans saying people over 60 should avoid travel and stock up on supplies. A spokesperson said, “As the trajectory of the outbreak continues, many people in the U.S. will at some point in time this year or next be exposed to this virus, and there’s a good chance many will become sick…The reason to stock up now is to kind of stick close to home.” She added, “The highest risk is those who are older and with underlying health conditions.” Colleges and Universities across the country are canceling in-person classes including at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Rice, Stanford and UC Berkeley. In New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has deployed the national guard to New Rochelle, a town north of New York City, to contain the virus. Justifying his decision to reporters Cuomo said, “This is unique in the United States of America, we haven’t seen this anywhere else. Think about it, New Rochelle has double the cases of New York City.” And internationally, the quarantine in the hard-hit nation of Italy was expanded from a large part of the country to the entire nation. According to AP, “Italy now has more coronavirus cases than anywhere but China, registering 9,172 infections with 463 deaths.” Meanwhile

FEATURING JEFF COHEN – Polls leading up to the next wave of primary races shows a massive bump for former Vice President Joe Biden whose flagging campaign seemingly rose from the dead just about a week ago. It is a miraculous political turnaround for a man who has only now begun winning primary races over the course of many attempts running for President. His campaign, buoyed by multiple well-timed endorsements have pushed him past Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who was leading in most major polls ten days ago.

Voters in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington will vote on Tuesday March 10th with 352 delegates up for grabs between them. Sanders, who represents the younger and progressive wing of the party currently has 573 delegates while Biden, seen as the safe, establishment choice, leads with 664 delegates. But Biden has shown deep vulnerabilities to challenging President Donald Trump in the general election. 

Jeff Cohen, media critic, writer and retired journalism professor at Ithaca College. He founded the media watch group FAIR, as well as the group Rootsaction.org.

FEATURING AMIE WILLIAMS – Tens of thousands of refugees fleeing war and violence from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere are trapped near the Turkish border with Greece after recent changes by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr. Erdogan recently changed his policy of keeping refugees from heading to Europe. He now faces accusations of using the desperate fleeing mass of people as political pawns as his own forces are targeted in northern Syria by Russian forces. Erdogan this week heads to Brussels to discuss the refugee crisis with European leaders. 

Inside Greece, there have been mass protests especially on the island of Lesbos, against the building of new camps for refugees. And, disturbing reports recently emerged of Greek forces stripping male refugees down to their underwear and beating them.  

For more information visit  areusyrious.com and https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com.

Amie Williams, journalist, filmmaker and Executive Director and Co-Founder of Global Girl Media.

A massive slide in stock values on Monday triggered a halt on trading as the S&P 500 fell by 7 percentage points within 5 minutes of the market opening. Already that economic indicator had fallen 12 points from its peak in February. According to the New York Times, “The drop on Monday was the worst for stocks in the United States since August 2011, when a congressional fight over the debt ceiling pushed the United States to the brink of defaulting on its debt.” Although stock prices have fallen, they have done so after months of growth, leaving current prices at levels similar to last summer. The stock market jitters are largely linked to the rapid spread of the coronavirus around the world where quarantines and stockpiling have hampered distribution, labor markets, supply lines, and transportation. Oil companies appear to be the most impacted at the moment. Globally there has been a similar outlook with Associated Press reporting that, “The main stock indexes in Britain and Germany were down by almost 7%. Japan’s benchmark closed down 5.1% while Australia’s lost 7.3% and the Shanghai market in China was off 3%.”

Worst affected by the coronavirus spread is Italy where more than 7,000 infections are reported and 366 have died. More than 16 million people are officially under quarantine. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expanded the quarantine to Lombardy in northern Italy where the disease has had the greatest impact. So far it is the largest Covid-19-related quarantine outside China. One resident of Milan told the New York Times, “We are the new Wuhan,” referring to the Chinese city where the virus is thought to have originated. More than 2 dozen prisons have seen inmate riots over fears of the coronavirus spreading in close quarters. There was even a mass escape of inmates at one prison. Italy’s stock market did not even open as expected and when it did prices had fallen 11%. In China, the virus spread appears to have slowed down relative to the rest of the world. The Wall Street Journal reported that confirmed cases outside China tripled over the past week. Chinese authorities have been touting the effectiveness of their top-down virus prevention measures. Meanwhile over the weekend a hotel in the Chinese city of Quanzhou that had been used to house people under observation for coronavirus infections, collapsed killing 10 and trapping 23. 

Here in the US, the cruise ship that was docked off the coast of California has been allowed to disembark in Oakland. The LA Times explained that, “Of the 2,500 passengers aboard the ship, those in need of immediate medical care or those with preexisting medical conditions will get off the ship first on Monday followed by California residents.” Aside from passengers there are more than 1,000 crew members, mostly non-Americans, who will be quarantined on board the ship. Another cru...

FEATURING MARGARET KLEIN SALAMON – Twenty-two people have been killed in and around Nashville, Tennessee just ahead of Super Tuesday, in a massive tornado that represents the kind of extreme climate that’s becoming the norm. But we have a President who has not only ignored climate change but adopted policies that make it worse. Very few political candidates on the ballot for the Democratic Presidential nomination have made climate change a central part of their platform. Still, the climate is a greater part of the political conversation that ever before and that is thanks to the hard work of grassroots activists and organizations.

Margaret Klein Salamon, Founding Director of  The Climate Mobilization.

FEATURING ZIA PUIG – Mass protests led by graduate students on strike at the University of California in Santa Cruz have dominated their campus. The grad students are demanding that the University pay them Cost of Living Adjustments or COLA. Graduate assistants first went on a “grade strike” in December which turned into a full-blown strike this year. UC Santa Cruz then fired about 80 students involved in the strike, further escalating the situation. The school campus has been forced to shut down and cancel classes, police have been brought in, and faculty and undergraduate students have been striking in solidarity.

Zia Puig, Fired PhD Student from UC Santa Cruz in Feminist Studies with Designated Emphases in Astronomy and Astrophysics & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. She worked as the Graduate Coordinator at The Disability Resource Center.

FEATURING LAWRENCE O. GOSTIN – New cases of the coronavirus continue to be announced every day in the US even as President Donald Trump’s administration downplays the risk of the disease. After initially asking for less than $3 billion in emergency funding to combat the spread of the virus, Trump signed an $8.3 billion package passed by Congress. But the President has shown a stunning ignorance of even the seasonal flu, insisted that Democrats were weaponizing news of the virus to undermine his presidency, and made unrealistic promises that a vaccine would be delivered within months to the American public.

Lawrence O. Gostin is a University Professor, Georgetown University where he directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He is also the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law where he has served in numerous high-level capacities. He also co-chairs the Lancet Commission on Global Health Law and served on two global commissions to report on the lessons learned from the 2015 West Africa Ebola epidemic.