Fake Facebook pages used to push protests at state capitals
John Wojcik | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-21
A wealthy family of extreme right wingers, armed with plenty of money and social media skills, is behind the hundreds of Facebook groups, including the five largest of those groups, opposing stay-at-home orders designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The Facebook groups, which have hundreds of thousands of members, are being used to …
peoplesworld.org/article/fake-facebook-pages-used-to-push-protests-at-state-capitals/

Video: COVID-19: Closing Down the Economy Is Not the Solution
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-21
Millions of people have lost their jobs, and their lifelong savings. In developing countries, poverty and despair prevail. | While the lockdown is presented to public opinion as the sole means to resolving a global public health crisis, its devastating economic …
globalresearch.ca/video-covid-19-closing-down-the-economy-is-not-the-solution/5710221

NYC Immigrant Communities Fight Hunger, Exploitation & Invisibility Through Mutual Aid
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-21
We look at how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting undocumented people here in New York City, where the coronavirus has hit immigrant communities the hardest, even as the numbers of daily deaths statewide has declined in recent days. As reports of widespread poverty and hunger continue in the immigrant communities, people are also organizing and helping each other through mutual aid despite extraordinarily difficult circumstances. We are joined by Juan Carlos Ruiz, Lutheran pastor at Good Shepherd Church in Brooklyn and co-founder of the national New Sanctuary Movement and the New Sanctuary Coalition here in Ne…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/21/migrants_in_queens

Unemployment explosion reveals class conflict
John Catalinotto | workers.org | 2020-04-21
April 19

'Exercising my rights is terrorism?' The View's Joy Behar ripped online after she calls armed lockdown protesters 'terrorists'
rt.com | 2020-04-20
The View's Joy Behar was told to check her privilege after she labeled protesters who brought arms to anti-lockdown rallies "terrorists." Her comment has sparked outrage both online and from a co-host. | Behar has received a swift pushback from fellow host Meghan McCain, after she took a swipe at protesters who turned up at rallies across several US states to call for the lifting of the restrictive lockdown measures that have dealt a heavy blow to the American economy, driving the unemployment rates to record highs. | "These people are being egged on by right-wing media and people like Alex Jones and Rush Limb…
rt.com/usa/486387-protest-lockdown-behar-terrrorists/

'Exercising my rights is terrorism?' The View's Joy Behar ripped online after she calls armed lockdown protesters 'terrorists'
rt.com | 2020-04-20
The View's Joy Behar was told to check her privilege after she labeled protesters who brought arms to anti-lockdown rallies "terrorists." Her comment has sparked outrage both online and from a co-host. | Behar has received a swift pushback from fellow host Meghan McCain, after she took a swipe at protesters who turned up at rallies across several US states to call for the lifting of the restrictive lockdown measures that have dealt a heavy blow to the American economy, driving the unemployment rates to record highs. | "These people are being egged on by right-wing media and people like Alex Jones and Rush Limb…
rt.com/usa/486387-protest-lockdown-behar-terrrorists/

A Universal Basic Income is Essential and Will Work
Ellen Brown | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
According to an April 6 article on CNBC.com, Spain is slated to become the first country in Europe to introduce a universal basic income (UBI) on a long-term basis. Spain's Minister for Economic Affairs has announced plans to roll out a UBI "as soon as possible," with the goal of providing a nationwide basic wage…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/a-universal-basic-income-is-essential-and-will-work/

US must improve COVID-19 strategy to keep tens of millions from falling into poverty, urges rights expert
news.un.org | 2020-04-17
The United States must take urgent additional steps to prevent tens of millions of middle-class Americans hit by the COVID-19 pandemic from being "plunged into poverty", according to an independent UN human rights expert.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/04/1061982

Trump Cuts Funds for World Health Org as Oxfam Warns Pandemic Could Push Half a Billion into Poverty
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-15
As the confirmed cases of coronavirus surpass 2 million around the world, President Donald Trump says he will cut U.S. support for the World Health Organization. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet medical journal, called it a "crime against humanity." Oxfam America said the cuts slash "any hopes for the responsible international cooperation and solidarity that is critical to save lives and restore the global economy." This comes as a new Oxfam report estimates the pandemic's economic fallout could push more than half a billion more people into poverty. We get response from Paul O'Brien, vice president…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/15/oxfam_coronavirus

GOP Tax Cuts in Coronavirus Relief Bill Give 82% of Benefits to Millionaires and Billionaires
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-15
A new report suggests that a tax cut quietly inserted into the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act will add almost $170 billion to the deficit over the next ten years and overwhelmingly benefit the ultra-wealthy.
mintpressnews.com/82-percent-benefits-coronavirus-relief-fund-go-to-millionaires-billionaires/266674/

Essential or Expendable? Farmworkers Condemn Lack of Protection and Economic Help During Pandemic
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-14
As the coronavirus sweeps through the United States, the country's 2.5 million farmworkers are continuing to go to work every day, often facing crowded and unsanitary conditions without personal protective equipment, for poverty wages. We speak with Gerardo Reyes Chávez, a farmworker leader with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who describes the conditions farmworkers in Florida are facing and how they are calling on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to protect farmworkers during the COVID-19 crisis, and with Mónica Ramírez, president and founder of Justice for Migrant Women and co-founder of the National Farmwork…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/14/us_farmworkers_coronavirus

SPLC condemns attack on Alabama synagogue
splcenter.org | 2020-04-11
The Southern Poverty Law Center condemns the antisemitic attacks that took place during Passover at the Etz Chayim Synagogue in Huntsville, Alabama.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/10/splc-condemns-attack-alabama-synagogue

"Exposing U.S. Racism in a Stark New Way": COVID-19 Kills Disproportionate Number of Black Americans
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-09
We speak with family physician and epidemiologist Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones about how the coronavirus is taking a devastating toll on black Americans, who are disproportionately dying from the virus across the country as a result of entrenched racial inequality. Black Americans are more likely to have chronic health problems and less likely to have insurance. They also make up significant numbers of frontline workers that are still going to work amid the pandemic. Jones is the former president of the American Public Health Association. Her recent piece for Newsweek magazine is headlined "Coronavirus Disease Discri…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/9/camara_phyllis_jones_coronavirus_race_disparities

The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery played key role in launching SPLC's legal battle against Ku Klux Klan
splcenter.org | 2020-03-30
The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, who died on Friday at 98 years old, was a longtime friend of the Southern Poverty Law Center and played a leading role in the SPLC's first lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan in 1980.
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/30/rev-dr-joseph-e-lowery-played-key-role-launching-splcs-legal-battle-against-ku-klux-klan

Why is Alliance Defending Freedom a Hate Group?
splcenter.org | 2020-04-08
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) first listed Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) as an anti-LGBTQ hate group in 2016.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/10/why-alliance-defending-freedom-hate-group