So Long to American Exceptionalism
Karen Greenberg | commondreams.org | 2020-05-18
The virus has put the realities of wealth inequality, health insecurity, and poor work conditions under a high-powered microscope. (Photo: Shutterstock) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/whitehouse_2_1_0.jpeg …
commondreams.org/views/2020/05/18/so-long-american-exceptionalism?cd-origin=rss
[Commentary] The imperative for universal healthcare to curtail the COVID-19 outbreak in the USA
Alison P. Galvani, Alyssa S. Parpia, Abhishek Pandey, Charlotte Zimmer, James G. Kahn, Meagan C. Fitzpatrick | thelancet.com | 2020-05-17
The COVID-19 outbreak in the United States is growing steeply and spreading widely. As of March 26, national incidence surpassed every other country, and as of April 28 has reported over a million cases. The COVID-19 crisis is exposing the systemic frailties in our healthcare system. More than 78 million people in America do not have access to adequate health insurance [1]. Given that health insurance in the US is typically provided by employers, millions more are at risk of losing their healthcare coverage as unemployment surges.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30124-3/fulltext?rss=yes
Wisconsin FRSO condemns state Supreme Court ruling that ends 'safer-at-home'
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-05-16
Milwaukee, WI – Ryan Hamann, a Wisconsin Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) leader stated, "The Wisconsin Supreme Court – meeting virtually, I might add – voted 4-3 to strike down the 'safer-at-home' order. While this is disappointing, it is not a surprise. The judicial system, much like the government, is intricately tied to the wealthy business owners and their anti-people agenda. What it proves is that the ruling class in this state is willing to sacrifice the lives of the working class just to maintain a higher rate of profit." | Hamann continued, "Governor Evers' order itself was fairl…
fightbacknews.org/2020/5/16/wisconsin-frso-condemns-state-supreme-court-ruling-ends-safer-home
It's time for a basic, guaranteed income for all
Stewart Lansley | thecanary.co | 2020-05-16
The pandemic crisis has laid bare the multiple flaws in the British system of social support. With the economy shrinking and unemployment soaring, the government has been forced to support falling incomes through wage subsidies and the easing of Universal Credit rules. While these are welcome, millions are missing out, opening up a new divide between those protected by government measures and those who are not. But there is another way to support everyone.
thecanary.co/feature/2020/05/16/its-time-for-a-basic-guaranteed-income-for-all/
U.S. jobless rate broke depression-era record–but most media missed it
Eds. | mronline.org | 2020-05-16
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' eagerly awaited Friday morning Official Unemployment Rate report for April–what editors generally call the BLS's "headline" rate of unemployment–was definitely headline-worthy.
mronline.org/2020/05/16/u-s-jobless-rate-broke-depression-era-record-but-most-media-missed-it/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=u-s-jobless-rate-broke-depression-era-record-but-most-media-missed-it
Study: Coronavirus Has a Been a Massive Boon for America's Billionaires
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-05-15
A new study found that in the past eight weeks alone, the country's super wealthy have added a further $368.8 billion to their already enormous fortunes.
mintpressnews.com/study-coronavirus-billionaires-wealth-jeff-bezos/267604/
Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, America's Billionaires Thrive and Prosper
Lawrence Wittner | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-05-15
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, …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/05/amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic-americas-billionaires-thrive-and-prosper/
Millions of migrants across Russia, Central Asia, 'teetering on the brink', as UN launches urgent appeal
news.un.org | 2020-05-15
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched an urgent $7 million appeal on Thursday, to ease the impact of COVID-19 on migrant communities in five Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation, where the pandemic is pushing a growing number of migrant workers into poverty.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/05/1064182
Back to work, or else: Trump administration tells states to pull unemployment benefits
Mark Gruenberg | peoplesworld.org | 2020-05-15
WASHINGTON–GOP President Donald Trump's Labor Secretary, Eugene Scalia, and his #2 who runs the agency that oversees jobless benefits want employers to report–and states to bar benefits from–workers who fear returning to their old jobs because their employers won't protect them against the coronavirus. The memo, from John Pallasch, a GOP operative, an advocate for …
peoplesworld.org/article/back-to-work-or-else-trump-administration-tells-states-to-pull-unemployment-benefits/
Almost 3 million more applied for Unemployment Insurance last week
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-05-15
San José, CA – On Thursday, May 14, the Labor Department reported more bad news, saying that almost 3 million people applied for unemployment insurance in the previous week ending May 9. This means that over the last eight weeks more than 36 million people applied after losing jobs and income. Another 3.5 million are collecting the federal government's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, which goes to the self-employed. This brings the total number of recently unemployed people to about 40 million. | This report was worse than mainstream economists expected, with a drop of only 200,000 from the week before,…
fightbacknews.org/2020/5/15/almost-3-million-more-applied-unemployment-insurance-last-week
The Fed Hasn't Spent a Dime Yet for Main Street Versus $735 Billion for Wall Street
Pam Martens, Russ Martens | counterpunch.org | 2020-05-15
The stimulus bill known as the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. Among its many features (such as direct checks to struggling Americans and enhancing unemployment compensation by $600 per week for four months to unemployed workers so they could pay…
counterpunch.org/2020/05/15/the-fed-hasnt-spent-a-dime-yet-for-main-street-versus-735-billion-for-wall-street/
War and Plagues: Military Spending During a Pandemic
Conn Hallinan | counterpunch.org | 2020-05-15
Welcome to the world of the hypersonic weapons, devices that are not only superfluous, but which will almost certainly not work, They will, however, cost enormous amounts of money. At a time when countries across the globe are facing economic chaos, financial deficits and unemployment at Great Depression levels, arms manufacturers are set to cash in big.
counterpunch.org/2020/05/15/war-and-plagues-military-spending-during-a-pandemic/
Workers and COVID-19: Access to healthcare, now 'a matter of life and death'
news.un.org | 2020-05-14
The spread of COVID-19 in developing countries has exposed gaps in social protection coverage which could compromise recovery plans, expose millions of people to poverty and affect global readiness to cope with similar crises, according to two policy briefs issued Thursday by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/05/1064112
ideas that are lying around
Trudy Hess | peoplesparty.org | 2020-05-14
| LYING AROUND … | During a crisis, when people are disoriented, afraid and focused on survival, it is much easier to push through horrific policies that will punish working and poor people with austerity, further privatize our commons, and transfer wealth from the bottom to the top. | But Friedman's legacy didn't end with his own work. We see the Shock Doctrine playbook everywhere in US policy. | We saw it in the "rebuilding" of Iraq, the responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Maria, and of course,…
peoplesparty.org/ideas-that-are-lying-around/
U.S. pandemic unemployment grows again, but so does the number of billionaires
PAI | peoplesworld.org | 2020-05-14
WASHINGTON–Some 2.981 million more people filed for jobless benefits in the week ending May 7, the Labor Department said Thursday, bringing total unemployment insurance claims since the coronavirus pandemic-caused shutdowns began to 36.5 million. Progressive analysts at the Economic Policy Institute predict jobless figures will only get worse, especially for low-wage workers, women workers, and …
peoplesworld.org/article/u-s-pandemic-unemployment-grows-again-but-so-does-the-number-of-billionaires/
US Jobless Rate Broke Depression-Era Record–but Most Media Missed It
Dave Lindorff | fair.org | 2020-05-13
The New York Times (5/9/20) featured a chart of job losses that stretched all the way down the front page. | The Bureau of Labor Statistics' eagerly awaited Friday morning Official Unemployment Rate report for April–what editors generally call the BLS's "headline" rate of unemployment –was definitely headline-worthy. This was especially evident in the next day's New York Times (5/9/20), which ran a bar chart of historic unemployment going back to 1946 across the top of the front page, and then a long red bar down the right-hand column of the entire page showing job losses for April. | It was a drama…
fair.org/home/us-jobless-rate-broke-depression-era-record-but-most-media-missed-it/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=us-jobless-rate-broke-depression-era-record-but-most-media-missed-it
American Weapons Manufacturers Are Thriving Even as the US Economy Suffers
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-05-13
The economy has crashed. A nationwide pandemic that has (officially) claimed some 84,000 Americans has also resulted in an estimated 36 million filing for unemployment insurance and millions frequenting food banks for the first time. Yet business is booming for one unlikely industry; weapons manufacturers are busier than ever and are even advertising for tens of thousan…
mintpressnews.com/american-weapons-manufacturers-thriving-even-as-us-economy-suffers/267510/
COVID-19 threatens to undo global health progress
news.un.org | 2020-05-13
While more people are living longer and healthier lives, the rate of progress is too slow to realize global efforts to stamp out poverty and inequality by 2030, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/05/1064022
Trump Budget Winners and Losers
H. Patricia Hynes | zcomm.org | 2020-05-13
Thanks to this tax cut–the rich get richer: 72 percent of the tax cuts were directed to the wealthiest 20 percent of households…
zcomm.org/zmagazine/trump-budget-winners-and-losers/
[Research Paper] Mapping of variations in child stunting, wasting and underweight within the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 2000–2017
ISDBICC | thelancet.com | 2020-05-12
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.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30061-4/fulltext?rss=yes
The Censorship of Inequality in the Covid-19 Era: How Corporate and Market-Based Metrics Rule the News, and Why it Matters
Project Censored | projectcensored.org | 2020-05-12
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…
projectcensored.org/the-censorship-of-inequality-in-the-covid-19-era-how-corporate-and-market-based-metrics-rule-the-news-and-why-it-matters/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-censorship-of-inequality-in-the-covid-19-era-how-corporate-and-market-based-metrics-rule-the-news-and-why-it-matters
New York pandemic spending favors wealthy over workers
Vincent Tsai and Camden Goetz | liberationnews.org | 2020-05-10
New York politicians have recently barreled forward with plans for massive cuts to public spending.
liberationnews.org/new-york-pandemic-spending-favors-wealthy-over-workers/
Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, America's Billionaires Thrive and Prosper
Lawrence Wittner | zcomm.org | 2020-05-08
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, Read…
zcomm.org/zblogs/amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic-americas-billionaires-thrive-and-prosper/
SEIU pushes through sellout contract after blocking strike by Illinois nursing home workers
wsws.org | 2020-05-18
The Service Employees International Union pushed through a deal with poverty wages and no guarantee of health and safety measures as the deadly coronavirus continues its rampage.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/18/nurs-m18.html
The Heat: Countries face economic fallout from COVID-19
Anand Naidoo | america.cgtn.com | 2020-05-12
In the United States the latest government figures show 20.5 million people lost their jobs in April, raising the unemployment rate to 14.7%. Both are post-World War II records. The European Union is now forecasting the worst economic outlook since the Great Depression. While …
america.cgtn.com/2020/05/12/the-heat-countries-face-economic-fallout-from-covid-19
The Heat: COVID19-U.S. Economy & Mexico battles coronavirus
Anand Naidoo | america.cgtn.com | 2020-05-05
Unemployment claims move past 30 million in the United States as its economy shrinks and Mexico battles the coronavirus pandemic.
america.cgtn.com/2020/05/05/the-heat-covid19-u-s-economy-mexico-battles-coronavirus
Venezuela calls on UK government to 'abandon coup-mongering plans' after The Canary's investigation
John McEvoy | thecanary.co | 2020-05-16
Following an investigation by The Canary, the Venezuelan government has formally called on the UK to "abandon Washington's coup-mongering plans and any destabilizing initiative". | Venezuela Reconstruction Unit: | On 13 May, The Canary revealed the existence of a specialist unit within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) dedicated to the 'reconstruction' of Venezuela. Files obtained un…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2020/05/16/venezuela-calls-on-uk-government-to-abandon-coup-mongering-plans-after-the-canarys-investigation/
Halting Bigotry in Its Tracks: History of Prejudice & Racism Against Asians (webinar)
The Commonwealth Club | indybay.org | 2020-05-18
Online via livestream…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/17/18833102.php
Coronavirus Pandemic Prompts Global Mental Health Crisis as Millions Feel Alone, Anxious & Depressed
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-05-14
Is the coronavirus pandemic generating a mental illness crisis? Millions face isolation, poverty and anxiety. We speak with psychology professor and author Andrew Solomon, as the United Nations calls on governments to put mental health "front and center" in their response to the crisis.
www.democracynow.org/2020/5/14/andrew_solomon
Tax-havened companies bailed out while poverty doubles amid pandemic
Susan Price | greenleft.org.au | 2020-05-12
Economy Astrid PaulssonIssue 1265 Sweden COVID-19 extreme poverty tax havensMay 12, 2020In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the world is…
greenleft.org.au/content/tax-havened-companies-bailed-out-while-poverty-doubles-amid-pandemic
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/
The Heat: Economic impact of COVID-19 in the U.S
Anand Naidoo | america.cgtn.com | 2020-04-24
More than 26 million Americans have now filed for unemployment, the highest number since the Great Depression.
america.cgtn.com/2020/04/24/the-heat-economic-impact-of-covid-19-in-the-u-s