A Grim New Normal Ahead? Worse than Orwell's 1984. Unprecedented Global Poverty and Human Misery
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-05-07
Will historians one day look back at unfolding events related to today's public health crisis and economic collapse as a post-coronavirus new normal that's grimly different from what preceded it? | Do ongoing events mark the beginning of an unacceptable dystopian …
globalresearch.ca/grim-new-normal/5712116

Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: Fighting Loneliness During COVID-19 and Beyond
The Commonwealth Club | indybay.org | 2020-05-07
Online via livestream…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/04/18832821.php

Book Talk: 'The Women Reshaping Congress' w/ author Jennifer Steinhauer
The Commonwealth Club | indybay.org | 2020-05-07
Online via livestream…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/06/18832852.php

Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College
The Commonwealth Club | indybay.org | 2020-05-07
Online via Livestream…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/04/18832820.php

Trump economy faces long-term disaster as jobs data looms
graham | truepublica.org.uk | 2020-05-07
The staggering economic pain, perhaps the worst since the 1930s, of the American economy in the time of coronavirus will be graphically underscored in two new rounds of unemployment data that are due on Thursday and Friday. The figures will show Americans who have and will lose their livelihoods as common victims of the most cruel public health crisis …
truepublica.org.uk/newsbits/trump-economy-faces-long-term-disaster-as-jobs-data-looms/

US unemployment expected to pass 33 MILLION, marking worst economic downturn since Great Depression
rt.com | 2020-05-07
Another three million Americans are expected to have filed for unemployment benefits during the week ending May 2, which brings the total claims over the seven weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown to 33 million. | Some 3.839 million initial jobless claims have been registered in the past week. Florida saw the highest number of initial filings, at an estimated 432,000 on an unadjusted basis, from 507,000 in the week prior. | California reported 328,000 claims

Bank of England: Unemployment to double
graham | truepublica.org.uk | 2020-05-07
The Bank of England has warned the British economy could shrink by 14% this year and unemployment more than double by next spring as the coronavirus causes the deepest recession in modern history. Leaving interest rates on hold at a record low of 0.1% as the economic crisis unfolds, the central bank said economic activity across …
truepublica.org.uk/newsbits/bank-of-england-unemployment-to-double/

Senior UN official calls for universal basic income to tackle growing inequality
news.un.org | 2020-05-06
The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a health crisis, but it is also proving to be an economic disaster for huge numbers of people worldwide. A senior UN official with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) is calling for countries to provide citizens with a universal basic income, to help the millions who have lost their jobs, because of measures to curb the virus, combined with increasing levels of inequality.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/05/1063312

CPUSA launches Spring Fund Appeal: "Building for a better world"
Lawrence Albrecht | peoplesworld.org | 2020-05-06
NEW YORK–"Millions are standing up for universal health care and basic safety on the job. Millions are demanding necessities like food, housing, and unemployment insurance, and defending democracy," said Communist Party USA co-chair Rossana Cambron at the launch of the oganization's Spring Fund Appeal on May Day. "The CPUSA is a vital part of this …
peoplesworld.org/article/cpusa-launches-spring-fund-appeal-building-for-a-better-world/

Mass Unemployment Amid the Pandemic Is an Indictment of Capitalism
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-05-06
Today's headlines scream at us about the trauma, pain and loss from an historic explosion of capitalist unemployment. Unemployment always stood as a mocking indictment of capitalism. Unemployment also threatens capitalism. This system rewards employers with profits from the waged labor of employees. Yet it fails to keep them working and thereby undermines its profits. Worse, that failure recurs quite regularly

Hundreds protest coronavirus lockdown at Massachusetts State House after reopening delayed for two weeks (PHOTOS & VIDEOS)
rt.com | 2020-05-05
Scores of protesters hit the streets to demand Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker streamline the reopening of non-essential businesses, delayed due to the lack of progress in slowing down the spread of Covid-19. | Hundreds of demonstrators filled the streets around the Massachusetts State House in Boston on Monday for what event organizers dubbed a "Liberty Rally," voicing outrage over Baker's decision to extend the state's lockdown another two weeks to May 18, further putting off the reopening of nonessential businesses as hundreds of thousands of residents file for unemployment. | "Let my people go", "We a…
rt.com/usa/487773-massachusetts-state-house-lockdown-protest/

[Perspectives] Society and the slow burn of inequality
Michael Marmot | thelancet.com | 2020-05-02
On June 14, 2017, Grenfell Tower, a high-rise housing block in the Royal London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, UK, went up in flames. 72 people died, among the poorest and most marginalised in society. A dramatic conflagration such as this could teach us two kinds of lessons, if we were but open to receiving them. This event exposed underlying problems in society and it showed us that we have to do things differently. In the case of Grenfell, the underlying societal problem was deep-seated and enduring social inequalities and resultant health inequalities.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30940-5/fulltext?rss=yes

COVID-19 impact could be 'disastrously high' in poverty-stricken Malawi
news.un.org | 2020-05-02
In Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, with a fragile health system, the UN is bracing for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which, it is feared, could be severe.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/05/1063062

Corporate Looting as 'Rescue Plan,' Robber Barons as 'Saviors'
Joshua Cho | fair.org | 2020-05-01
Framing a massive corporate bailout as a "rescue package" (NPR, 3/27/20) was a PR coup. | For a perfect illustration of how corporate media function as ruling class propaganda, watch how they spin a titanic upward redistribution of wealth as a "rescue plan" for the US economy, and paint a robber baron like US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as…
fair.org/home/corporate-looting-as-rescue-plan-robber-barons-as-saviors/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=corporate-looting-as-rescue-plan-robber-barons-as-saviors

Economist Thomas Piketty: Coronavirus Pandemic Has Exposed the "Violence of Social Inequality"
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-30
As nearly 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment in just six weeks and millions worldwide face hunger and poverty, we look at the global economic catastrophe triggered by the pandemic and its impact on the most vulnerable. As the World Food Programme warns of a massive spike in global hunger and more than 100 million people in cities worldwide could fall into poverty, can this crisis be a catalyst for change? We ask French economist Thomas Piketty. His 2014 internationally best-selling book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," looked at economic inequality and the necessity of wealth taxes. His new b…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/30/thomas_piketty

Headlines for April 30, 2020
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-30
Jared Kushner Hails "Great Success Story" as U.S. Deaths Top 60,000, Dozens of Decomposing Bodies Found in Trucks Outside Brooklyn Funeral Home, President Trump Claims Coronavirus Will Be "Eradicated" from U.S. | , FDA to Approve Emergency Use of Remdesivir After the Drug Shows Promise Treating COVID-19, More Than 30 Million U.S. Workers File Unemployment Claims in Just Six Weeks, International Labour Organization Warns Pandemic Threatens Livelihoods of 1.6 Billion, South Korea Reports No New Domestic Coronavirus Cases , U.K. Now Has Europe's Second-Highest COVID-19 Death Toll | , Femicides and Domestic Violence…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/30/headlines

U.S. Organizations React to Global Military Spending Report
Jeff Jurgens | peaceaction.org | 2020-04-30
Joint Statement: U.S. organizations react to global military spending report April 27, 2020 Our diverse group of 39 think-tanks, non-profits, faith-based organizations, and advocacy groups based in the United States find the exorbitant amount of money spent on militaries worldwide to be an irresponsible and harmful use of global wealth. The Global Military Expenditures Report …
peaceaction.org/2020/04/30/u-s-organizations-react-to-global-military-spending-report/

Five Years After Freddie Gray's Death: The Resistance Makes Change, The Government Doesn't
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-30
The people at the core of the resistance after Freddie Gray's death are changing lives and building community five years later, while the government has done little to address poverty and isolation in the poorest Black communities of…
therealnews.com/stories/five-years-after-freddie-grays-death-the-resistance-makes-change-the-government-doesnt

How Workers Can Win in the Age of COVID-19
Sarah Jaffe | progressive.org | 2020-04-30
With thirty million people filing for unemployment, a new project helps organizers fight for the common good.
progressive.org/dispatches/how-workers-can-win-jaffe-200430/

How We Should Spell Relief
Adam Briones | progressive.org | 2020-04-27
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States was already suffering from a pandemic of inequality.
progressive.org/op-eds/how-we-should-spell-relief-briones-200427/

After 'Encouraging' Results From Finnish UBI Experiment, Experts Say the Time for Such a Bold Idea Is Now
Andrea Germanos, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2020-05-06
"If there isn't a minimum income floor to fall back on when this kind of massive shock hits, people literally have no options." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/ubi-finland-covid.jpg …
commondreams.org/news/2020/05/06/after-encouraging-results-finnish-ubi-experiment-experts-say-time-such-bold-idea-now?cd-origin=rss

Bank of England sees worst slump in 300 years as coronavirus bites
yenisafak.com | 2020-05-07
The Bank of England said Britain could be headed for its biggest economic slump in over 300 years due to the coronavirus lockdown and kept the door open on Thursday for more stimulus next month.In what it called an 'illustrative scenario' rather than a standard forecast, the BoE said Britain's economy might be on course to shrink by 25% in the three months to June and unemployment could more than double to 9% of the workforce.In 2020 as a whole, output risked shrinking by 14% – the biggest plunge since a 'Great Frost' in 1709 – despite the huge stimulus provided so far by the BoE's rock-bottom interest rates and…
yenisafak.com/en/economy/bank-of-england-sees-worst-slump-in-300-years-as-coronavirus-bites-3518902