In the midst of the worst pandemic since 1918, one only growing ever more severe as cases, hospitalizations, and deaths rise precipitously, if you haven’t lost your job or had your hours and wages cut back severely, if you can cover your rent or make your mortgage payments, you may not have noticed …..but more than 14 million American households are currently at risk of eviction and have an estimated $25 billion in rental debt, according to a report by Stout, a global investment bank and advisory firm. And 4.9 million of them are likely to receive eviction notices in January after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium expires on December 31.”

It’s a fact of American life that millions more Americans will potentially be left homeless in a raging pandemic. This, in turn, only guarantees yet more Covid-19 victims from among evictees living in nightmarish, crowded quarters of one sort or another or simply finding themselves out on the streets of American cities in winter. It’s hard even to take in if it’s not happening to you (and maybe even if it is). In fact, behind all the pandemic and vaccine stories now filling the media lie any number of nightmarish tales that were already common in a country of raging inequality before the coronavirus landed on our shores, but that are now intensifying in ways that should be (but aren’t) headlines everywhere. (Tomgram, 15 Dec 2020, edited)

My comment: The United States was once a beacon of democracy and the rule of law. Now the very health and lives of poor people are under threat owing to pathetic games and messed up priorities of our so-called “leaders”. Those responsible should be deeply ashamed. This isn’t governance, it is game-playing and yah-booing.