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Common Dreams

News & Views | 3/18/20

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(L-R) Gail Boudreaux, CEO of Anthem, US Vice President Mike Pence, US President Donald Trump, David Wichmann, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, and others listen to an attendee speak to the press after a meeting about the coronavirus, COVID-19 with members of the insurance industry in the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 10, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

by Wendell Potter
Remember: For-profit insurers are in the business to make a profit. Period.

News...


Nancy Pelosi speaking at the Ireland Funds 28th National Gala dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. on March 11, 2020.

by Eoin Higgins, staff writer
"This is a total failure of Democratic Party leadership."



by Julia Conley, staff writer
"How evil and heartless can this government get?" peace activist Medea Benjamin demanded to know on Wednesday after the State Department announced it would impose new sanctions on Iran as the country faces one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world.


Canadian climate activists participated in Powershift: Young and Rising—a massive youth climate convergence in Ottawa in February 2019.

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
A burgeoning chorus of climate campaigners and experts is urging political leaders to learn from how governments handle the coronavirus outbreak and, as the pandemic subsides, to seize the opportunity to both revive the world's economy and battle the climate emergency by implementing a global Green New Deal.


Workers leave Fiat Chrysler Warren Truck Assembly on March 18, 2020 after the Detroit three automakers agreed to UAW demands to shut down all North America plants as a precaution against coronavirus.

by Eoin Higgins, staff writer
"Today's action is the prudent thing to do."


Vermont senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders campaigns at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. (Photo: Preston Ehrler/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

by Jon Queally, staff writer
"While our campaign has won the battle of ideas, we are losing the battle over electability to Joe Biden."



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"We're not doing no-strings-attached bailouts that enrich shareholders or pay CEO bonuses. Period."


U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leaves a press conference at the State Department in Washington D.C, on March 17, 2020.

by Andrea Germanos, staff writer
"If there remained any doubt that the Trump administration's hostility towards the court is fundamentally punitive and callous in nature, these doubts have now been dispelled."


Agricultural workers work in Salinas, California.

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
While images of barren grocery store shelves grab headlines and circulate on social media as people worldwide stock up on staples to get through the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, farmers in the United States are warning that the Trump administration's decision to limit seasonal workers from Mexico could soon lead to labor and food shortages.


Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Ramaioli with templates they used to 3-D print life-saving valves for ventilators to help those stricken with severe coronavirus complications.

by Eoin Higgins, staff writer
"There were people whose lives were in danger, and we acted. Period."


U.S. President Donald Trump is flanked by Vice President Mike Pence while speaking during a news briefing on the latest development of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House March 18, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump announced on Twitter that the U.S. and Canada will close their border to non-essential traffic to try and stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

by Jon Queally, staff writer
"This pattern of conflating race with a specific disease is a constant thread in American history."

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This uncontacted indigenous group in the Brazilian Amazon is clearly hostile to the helicopter hovering overhead. Photo credit: TravelingMan on VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND.

by Sue Branford
As the coronavirus spreads around the globe—with more than 300 known cases already in Brazil and members of President Bolsonaro's staff infected—an evangelical Christian organization has purchased a helicopter with plans to contact and convert isolated indigenous groups in the remote Western Amazon.


All measures to fight the coronavirus should automatically continue until the economy no longer needs them. (Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

by Elise Gould, Heidi Shierholz
The bill has some glaring exclusions.


During the COVID-19 coronavirus emergency, tourists on the quay of the port of Naples are checked with a thermo scanner by Civil Protection personnel, dressed in overalls and masks to protect themselves. (Photo: Marco Cantile/LightRocket via Getty Images)

by John Buell
Klein showed how corporate elites worldwide have repeatedly and brutally used "the public’s disorientation following a collective shock—wars, coups, terrorist attacks, market crashes or natural disasters—to push through radical pro-corporate measures."


MetroCard and ticket vending machines, and handrails, will be disinfected daily. (Photo: Patrick Cashin / MTA New York City Transit, Wikimedia Commons)

by Jeremy Brecher
If government won’t mobilize the people to fight for our lives and health, healthcare workers can take the lead.


In deeply unequal societies like our own, a wealthy few can exploit such catastrophes to make themselves even wealthier. (Photo: Shutterstock)

by Sam Pizzigati, Sarah Anderson
Powerful interests used the Great Recession to hardwire more inequality into our system. This time, let’s do the opposite.


Former Vice President Joe Biden greets guests during a campaign stop at the RiverCenter on October 16, 2019 in Davenport, Iowa. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

by Kenneth Peres
So what can be done at this point?

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