2020-05-12: News Headlines

Dave Welsh (2020-05-12). Survival of our public postal service threatened. workers.org Fifty years ago, wildcatting postal workers shut down the U.S. mail for a week in the 1970 Great Postal Strike over poverty-level wages. President Nixon tried to use Army and National Guard soldiers to break the strike — without success. The strike resulted in creation of an independent U.S. Postal . . . |

Beau Peters (2020-05-12). Shelter-in-Place and Internet Inequality: What's the Connection? dissidentvoice.org Photo Source: Unsplash As most of the world is forced to stay home, internet and technology play essential roles in almost every aspect of the population's shelter-at-home lives. The internet keeps loved ones communicating and in touch, informs people of what's going on in the world, connects students to their teachers and professors, and provides …

RT (2020-05-12). No HEROES here: Democrats seek tax breaks for rich donors & lobbyists in $3 TRILLION Covid-19 wishlist bill. rt.com House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's proposed $3 trillion coronavirus aid bill contains massive tax breaks for wealthy Democrat donors and lobbyists but precious little for working Americans, and has an odd preoccupation with cannabis. | Dubbed the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, the

RT (2020-05-12). Norway dipping into its massive piggy bank to battle Covid-19 crisis. rt.com Norway is set to withdraw $41 billion from its sovereign wealth fund to cushion the blow to the economy from the coronavirus crisis that has resulted in falling oil prices and the highest unemployment in the country in 75 years. | Known officially as the Government Pension Fund, it is the world's biggest wealth fund, worth over $1 trillion. The government announced on Tuesday that it will have to sharply increase spending from the fund, to avoid "sharper downturn and to help healthy companies through the crisis." | According to the Finance Ministry's mid-year fiscal review, the revised budget calls for the use…

John Buell (2020-05-12). Why Unemployment under Trump is way worse than Numbers Suggest. zcomm.org "If the protesters really wanted to protect workers, wouldn't they be demanding laws that replaced lost wages? Other developed countries have passed exactly those sorts of measures, putting their economies into a holding pattern as the pandemic passes."

ISDBICC (2020-05-12). [Research Paper] Mapping of variations in child stunting, wasting and underweight within the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 2000—2017. thelancet.com CGF indicators have improved in India, but there are substantial variations between the districts in their magnitude and rate of decline, and the inequality between districts has increased in a large proportion of the states. The poor correlation between the national surveys for CGF estimates highlights the need to standardise collection of anthropometric data in India. The district-level trends in this report provide a useful reference for targeting the efforts under NNM to reduce CGF across India and meet the Indian and global targets.

The People's Collective (2020-05-12). Essential For Survival: The Need Of Global Solidarity. indybay.org People are dying, every day. Many people are dying too early. People are dying through war, poverty, disease, lack of healthcare or lack of food. People are dying of starvation. Now, in the year 2020, a new disease is spreading around the globe, killing hundreds of thousands and affecting everybody's life.

Project Censored (2020-05-12). The Censorship of Inequality in the Covid-19 Era: How Corporate and Market-Based Metrics Rule the News, and Why it Matters. projectcensored.org By Anthony DiMaggio The old adage that "the more things change the more they stay the same" seems particularly appropriate to media coverage in the Covid-19 crisis. Old patterns of media…

The Commonwealth Club (2020-05-12). Nuclear Weapons: Stopping the War That No One Wants (livestream). indybay.org Online via livestream…

Joseph Woss (2020-05-12). The welfare state – anchor of stability in the crisis. indybay.org Work, income and wealth must be distributed more fairly, and a number of "rules of the game" in our society must be changed. The upheaval forced by the crisis will hopefully force even hard-boiled defenders of the existing to rethink – if only because otherwise dramatic distribution conflicts threaten.

The Commonwealth Club (2020-05-12). What Does Politics Demand of Black Women? w/ Rep. Barbara Lee & others (livestream). indybay.org Online via livestream…

Dean Baker (2020-05-12). Pandemic Causes Loss of 20,500,000 Jobs, Unemployment at 14.7 Percent. zcomm.org The good news here is the large percentage of workers who expect to be called back by their employer, but the steps by the government to contain the pandemic and support the recovery are less encouraging…

Dr. Jack Rasmus (2020-05-12). Low-Balling the Unemployed in the Era of the 2020 Great Recession. globalresearch.ca This past Friday, May 8, the US Labor Dept. released its latest jobless figures. The official report was 20 million more unemployed and an unemployment rate of 14.7%. | Both mainstream and progressive media reported the numbers: 20 million more jobless …

Dean Baker (2020-05-12). The Pandemic's Catastrophic Hit to the Labor Market. counterpunch.org Temporary layoffs make up 78.3 percent of unemployment. As expected, the April jobs report showed a catastrophic hit to the labor market stemming from the pandemic. The economy lost another 20,500,000 jobs in April after losing 870,000 jobs in March. This is an order of magnitude higher than any previous two-month decline on record. The

WSWS (2020-05-12). As unemployment soars to Depression-era levels, Canada's unions endorse reckless back-to-work drive. wsws.org Nearly 7.6 million workers—equivalent to one-third of the country's total labour force—have applied for the federal government's meagre, temporary Canadian Emergency Response Benefit.

Richard D. Wolff (2020-05-11). Mass Unemployment Is a Failure of Capitalism. counterpunch.org The difficulties caused to workers by record unemployment during the pandemic are a product of capitalism. Most of the time, employers decide to hire or fire workers depending on which choice maximizes employers' profits. Profit, not the full employment of workers nor of means of production, is "the bottom line" of capitalism and thus of capitalists. That is how the system works. Capitalists are rewarded when their profits are high and punished when they are not. It's nothing personal; it's just business.

Mark Gruenberg (2020-05-11). Trumka proposes universal federal jobs payments. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON —Sticking to a here-and-now solution to coronavirus-caused joblessness, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka proposed the federal government guarantee paid employment — by actually shelling out the money — for all workers. Employers would be a pass-through, nothing more. In a 13-minute speech posted on the federation's Facebook page, Trumka said that with unemployment at highs …

Peoples Dispatch (2020-05-11). 6 months after the civic-military coup in Bolivia, Evo Morales denounces setbacks. peoplesdispatch.org Former Bolivian President Evo Morales pointed out that "fascism and racism have been reborn" in Bolivia and that "the de-facto government itself is promoting inequality"

RT (2020-05-10). Elon Musk resorts to insults in RUSSIAN to defend capitalism. rt.com As Elon Musk sues Californian authorities for stopping a Tesla factory from reopening, he has found a somewhat novel way of dealing with his critics — dismissing them with short Russian insults. | The target of Musk's Cyrillic ire is Robert Reich, an economist and labor secretary under the Clinton administration. A well-known proponent of fairer distribution of wealth, Reich shared a story about the Tesla CEO's plans for legal action in the Golden State with the comment: "Elon Musk threatens to take away people's jobs unless he's allowed to risk their health. Capitalism at its worst." | Elon Musk threate…

Vincent Tsai and Camden Goetz (2020-05-10). New York pandemic spending favors wealthy over workers. liberationnews.org New York politicians have recently barreled forward with plans for massive cuts to public spending.

Dean Baker (2020-05-09). White Unemployment Rose More than Black Unemployment and No One Notices. cepr.net One of the most striking items in a very striking employment report yesterday is that white unemployment has actually risen slightly more than black unemployment in this crisis. White unemployment has risen from 3.1 percent in February to 14.2 percent in April, a rise of 11.1 percentage points. Black unemployment rose from 5.8 percent to …

Fight Back (2020-05-09). Minnesota: Advance a People's Agenda! fightbacknews.org Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Coalition to Advance a People's Agenda. | Working and oppressed people are facing the biggest crisis we've experienced in generations. The government's disastrous mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with deepening unemployment and economic collapse are throwing millions of working people into crisis. So far the government is doing what they usually do

Fight Back (2020-05-09). Unemployment highest since the Great Depression. fightbacknews.org San José, CA – On Friday, May 8, the U.S. Department of Labor released their monthly Employment Report for the month of April. The report said that the official unemployment rate soared from 4.4% in March to 14.7% in April, a jump of more than 10% in just one month. This is the highest monthly unemployment rate on records going back to 1948, and the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s when unemployment peaked at about 25%. | As usual, oppressed nationality workers (African American, Chicano and Latino, and Asian American) were hardest hit. The unemployment rate for Chicanos and Latinos hit a record high…

Staff (2020-05-08). Headlines for May 8, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Pass 75,000 as Trump Sidelines Top Medical Experts, Trump to Be Tested for Coronavirus Daily After Valet Tests Positive, Vigil at White House Honors 88 Who Died from "Trump's Abhorrent Failure to Protect Nurses", U.S. Unemployment Claims Soar to 33.3 Million Amid Pandemic | , Democrats Promise "Rooseveltian" Coronavirus Relief Bill | , Mitch McConnell Prioritizes Judicial Confirmations as Senate Returns Amid Pandemic | , Data Shows 35 of 40 People Arrested in NY for Social Distancing Violations Are Black | , Texas Stops Jailing Lockdown Violators; Nebraska Ends Reporting on Meat Plant COVI…

Lawrence Wittner (2020-05-08). Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, America's Billionaires Thrive and Prosper. zcomm.org Although most Americans currently face hard times, with unemployment surging to the levels of the Great Depression and enormous numbers of people sick or dying from the coronavirus pandemic, the nation's super-rich remain a notable exception. Financially, they are doing remarkably well. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, between March 18 and April 28,

Staff (2020-05-07). Headlines for May 7, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 73,400 as 41 States Begin Reopening | , White House Shelves Guidelines on Reopening, as Experts Warn U.S. Failing to Stem COVID-19 Deaths, Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. Children Going Hungry as Unemployment Surges to Great Depression Levels, State Budget Cuts Loom as Trump Rails Against "Blue State Bailouts" | , United Nations Seeks $6.7 Billion for Coronavirus Aid to Poor Countries | , EU Warns Pandemic Economic Recession Will Be Worst in History | , Closing Ceremony of Spanish Coronavirus Field Hospital Marred by Tightly Packed Crowds, Venezuelan TV Airs Video of Arrested U.S. Mercenary Co…

Jeff Jurgens (2020-04-30). U.S. Organizations React to Global Military Spending Report. peaceaction.org 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 …

Susan Price (2020-05-12). Tax-havened companies bailed out while poverty doubles amidst pandemic. greenleft.org.au

Zero Hedge (2020-05-11). Pompeo Likens Iran To Nazis On 2nd Anniversary Of US Nuclear Deal Exit. iranian.com Perhaps attempting to ensure the anti-Iran 'maximum pressure' campaign remains front and center, even in the midst of a pandemic and historic unemployment, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has resorted to the one of the most common — and we might note laziest — labels for America's 'enemies'. In official statements Saturday, and on the same day Russia and …

sputniknews (2020-05-12). Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Holds Press Conference After CIS Foreign Ministers' Meeting – Video. sputniknews.com The regular meeting of foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) took place on Tuesday via teleconference amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Sarah Jaffe (2020-04-30). How Workers Can Win in the Age of COVID-19. progressive.org With thirty million people filing for unemployment, a new project helps organizers fight for the common good.

Jonathan Bate (2020-04-14). [Perspectives] The worst is not, so long as we can say "this is the worst" thelancet.com "There have been as many plagues as wars in history", the doctor observes, "yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise". Even after a few scattered deaths, "the danger still remained fantastically unreal." "It's impossible it should be the plague, everyone knows it has vanished from the West", says one character early in the novel, as first the rats and then the people begin to die. "Yes, everyone knew that", replies the doctor, "except the dead". The infection comes to a town that is obsessed with business, a place where the sole object seems to be the pursuit of wealth.