2020-06-12: News Headlines

Ron Jacobs (2020-06-12). Fighting For Our Future, Fighting Back Against Austerity. counterpunch.org Like many other cities across the US both big and small, Burlington, Vermont's economy has been hit hard by the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic. Because much of its economy depends on restaurants, bars, pubs and entertainment, the unemployment is higher than it has been in decades. As a result, tax revenues are down and

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-06-12). In the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Towards A New World Order? The Global Debt Crisis and the Privatization of the State. globalresearch.ca This is the true picture of what is happening. Poverty is Worldwide. While famines are erupting in Third World countries, closer to home, in the richest country on earth, "millions of desperate Americans wait in long crowded lines for handouts"

Fight Back (2020-06-12). The time is now to join a revolutionary organization: Join Freedom Road Socialist Organization. fightbacknews.org If you have been out in the streets this past few weeks, the odds are good that you've been thinking about the difference between the kind of change this system has to offer, and the kind of change this country needs. Capitalism is failed system that thrives on exploitation, inequality and oppression. The reactionary and racist Trump administration has made the pandemic worse. The unfolding economic crisis we are experiencing is the worst since the 1930s. Monopoly capitalism is a dying system and we need to help finish it off. And that is exactly what Freedom Road Socialist Organization is working for. | Freedom…

VINS (2020-06-11). Alternatives to Policing—The Case for Public Health and Community Development Investments. projectcensored.org By Amber Yang As outrage sparks over police brutality, systemic racism, and socio-economic inequality, activists are calling to defund police. Despite other calls for anti-bias training, civilian review processes, and…

WSWS (2020-06-11). Fed to keep interest rates near zero indefinitely. wsws.org The Fed forecast the US economy would contract by 6.5 percent this year and unemployment would be 9.3 percent with the decline in second quarter GDP "likely to be the most severe on record."

WSWS (2020-06-11). Millions of Ukrainian migrant workers forced to search for employment in Europe under unsafe conditions. wsws.org Despite little health or legal protections, Ukraine's migrant workers are being forced to search for work in Europe's farms and factories to avoid unemployment and social destitution.

W. T. Whitney, Jr. (2020-06-10). Economic collapse and unemployment councils—then and now. mronline.org Hunger, homelessness, and evictions were features of the Great Depression in the United States. Jobs disappeared and working conditions deteriorated. Some "250,000 teenagers were on the road." And how many others? By 1933 one third of farm families had lost their farms. Unemployment that year was 25 percent. The lives of working people were devastated.

W. T. Whitney, Jr. (2020-06-10). Economic collapse and unemployment councils — then and now. mronline.org Hunger, homelessness, and evictions were features of the Great Depression in the United States. Jobs disappeared and working conditions deteriorated. Some "250,000 teenagers were on the road." And how many others? By 1933 one third of farm families had lost their farms. Unemployment that year was 25 percent. The lives of working people were devastated.

Martin Hart-Landsberg (2020-06-10). The economy: we are still in big trouble. mronline.org The announcement by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the federal unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent in May, from 14.7 percent in April, took most analysts by surprise. The economy added 2.5 million jobs in May, the first increase in employment since February. Most economists had predicted further job losses and a rise in …

teleSUR (2020-06-10). US Navy to Bar Confederate Flags From Ships, Aircraft, Bases. telesurenglish.net The United States Navy is working to ban the Confederate battle flag from all public spaces on Navy installations, ships, and aircraft it was announced Tuesday, as the military and the country grapples with questions about racial inequality. | RELATED: | The Navy made the move amid protests across the U.S. and other countries sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed on May 25 after four white police…

Adriaan Alsema (2020-06-10). Colombia's finance minister open to universal basic income, but fails to see urgency. colombiareports.com Colombia's finance minister promised Congress on Tuesday he would look into the possibility of implementing a universal basic emergency income in response to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus….

Dean Baker (2020-06-10). Ending Emergency Unemployment Insurance Supplements. cepr.net The Republicans have been working hard to ensure that the $600 weekly supplement to unemployment insurance benefits, which was put in place as part of the pandemic rescue package, is not extended beyond the current July 31 cutoff. They argue that we need people to return to work. They do have a point. The supplement …

Mnar Muhawesh (2020-06-09). Podcast: Pandemic Profiteering — How Billionaires Are Looting American Taxpayers. thealtworld.com In this segment of Mintcast, journalist and author Alan MacLeod discusses how COVID-19 became a boon for the ultra-wealthy and allowed America's billionaires to accrue more wealth in just three weeks of lockdown than they made in total prior to 1980. | Welcome to

Philip Giraldi (2020-06-09). Militarized Police a Gift from Israel? thealtworld.com Training of American police in brutal tactics revealed | The killing of black man George Floyd by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has produced the highest level of national unrest seen in the United States since the 1960s. Tens of thousands of protesters are demonstrating against racism and perceived police brutality. As it also comes at a time of coronavirus pandemic and record unemployment, it has the potential to change the U.S. in fundamental ways. The core issue is that many on the left, as well as some on the right, see America's police as something like an "occupying force," increasingly sel…

Richard Eskow (2020-06-09). Big Bank CEOs Want to 'Listen' to Black Communities. They Should Return Their Stolen Wealth Instead. commondreams.org A massive group of protesters sit on the ground at Foley Square in a show of peaceful protest while they listen to a speaker. Protesters took to the streets across America after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer Derek Chauvin that was kneeling on his neck during his arrest as he pleaded that he couldn't breathe. (Photo: Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/black_lives_wall_street.png

Jack Delaney (2020-06-09). We Need a Universal Basic Income Now and After COVID-19. zcomm.org In easing pandemic uncertainty and promoting a post-pandemic recovery, a permanent UBI with large investments in social programs will increase solidarity, ease poverty and stabilize a volatile market that's headed toward depression…

news.un (2020-06-09). New UN report highlights link between gender, climate and security. news.un.org Even as countries buckle under the devastating social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they must consider the links between gender inequality and crisis, particularly in communities affected by climate change and conflict.

Cutler D. (2020-06-09). How Will COVID-19 Affect the Health Care Economy? jamanetwork.com Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created an economic crisis alongside a health care crisis. During the 2 weeks ending on March 28, nearly 10 million people filed for unemployment insurance, dwarfing any previous monthly numbers. Estimates suggest that the US economy will contract by 10% to 25% during the second quarter. The US has entered a COVID-19 recession.

Staff (2020-06-12). Headlines for June 12, 2020. democracynow.org India Coronavirus Cases Surge Amid Global Rise in COVID-19, Graves on Copacabana Beach Mark 40,000 COVID-19 Deaths in Brazil, Guatemala City Hospitals Near Collapse Amid Surge in Coronavirus Patients, Oregon Pauses Lifting of Coronavirus Lockdown as Cases Hit New High, Another 1.5 Million U.S. Workers Filed Unemployment Claims Last Week, One Minneapolis Officer Charged in George Floyd's Killing Released on Bond, Minneapolis Police Chief Suspends Union Talks Following George Floyd's Killing, Austin City Council Votes to Reinvest Police Funds, Restrict Police Use of Force, Texas Grand Jury to Hear Case of Austin Of…

RT (2020-06-11). Country band Lady Antebellum joins woke mob, apologizes and changes name because… slavery. rt.com US country music band Lady Antebellum have changed their name after "personal reflection" and conversations with their "closest black friends" amid widespread protests over the death of George Floyd. | The Grammy-winning group announced the change through social media on Thursday, with a long statement from members Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood. They will now be called Lady A. | "We've watched and listened more than ever these last few weeks, and our hearts have been stirred with conviction, our eyes opened wide to the injustices, inequality and biases black women and men have always faced and…

sputniknews (2020-06-10). COVID-19 Hospitalizations Rise in Several States, While Millions of Americans Remain Uninsured. sputniknews.com On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Margaret Flowers, physician and co-editor of Popular Resistance.

yenisafak (2020-06-10). HBO Max pulls 'Gone with the Wind' over racist portrayals. yenisafak.com HBO Max has removed war epic film "Gone with the Wind" from its recently launched streaming service over its depiction of slavery, parent WarnerMedia said on Wednesday, joining other media companies that have pulled controversial TV shows as demand for racial sensitivity increases across the country.The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police triggered protests in the United States against racial inequality, while also forcing companies to check deep-seated racism prevalent in popular shows and films that are deemed insensitive.ViacomCBS Inc did not renew "Cops" and Netflix Inc pulled "Little Bri…

_____ (2020-06-10). Defund The Police, Then Abolish It. popularresistance.org The United States' powder keg of racial capitalism, searing inequality and violent policing, compounded by the state's ruinously indifferent response to a global pandemic and a sputtering economy, has finally exploded. Mass protest has shaken the country, with more than 40 cities instituting curfews and 23 states calling in a total of 17,000 National Guard troops to stamp out the uprisings. | The eruption of righteous fury pulsating around the US represents a historic moment not seen since America's last mass urban rebellions, the "long hot summer" of 1967 and the 1968 uprisings following Martin Luther King Jr.'s…