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Common Dreams

News & Views | 5/8/20

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by Julia Conley, staff writer
Ohio officials are encouraging employers to report what they've designated "Covid-19 fraud" as the state begins reopening some industries. Workers who refuse to report to work in light of the pandemic can be reported via a government website and have their unemployment benefits taken away.

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Attorney General William Barr arrives with President Donald J. Trump to speak with members of the coronavirus task force during a briefing in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Wednesday, April 01, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

by Jon Queally, staff writer
"The American people deserve to know the full extent of the politicization of the Department of Justice. They deserve a Department that is guided by the facts and the law, and not by the President’s political interests."



by Julia Conley, staff writer
While a record 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs in April and one-third of people were unable to pay their rent or mortgage, the stock market enjoyed its strongest month since 1987.



by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
Greenpeace on Friday warned of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's attacks on environmental law in his country as new data showed that deforestation has "skyrocketed" in the Amazon rainforest this year, particularly in Indigenous territories.


The official U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April 2020, according to a report released Friday by the federal government.

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
Just a day after announcing that about 33.5 million Americans have filed jobless claims since mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic has caused lockdowns worldwide, the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday revealed the nation's official unemployment rate hit 14.7% last month—its highest level since the Great Depression.



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"We can't afford to allow big corporations to further consolidate power in this moment of crisis."


U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Thursday night said that "history is written by the winners" during an interview with CBS News. (Photo: Screenshot/CBS News)

by Jon Queally, staff writer
"The head of the American justice system now saying publicly that there is no good or bad except what the strongest want," said another critic. "The definition of autocracy."


Dr. Richard Bright, deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response for Health and Human Services, speaks during a House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 8, 2018. (Photo: Toya Sarno Jordan/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

by Jon Queally, staff writer
"This country is in an unprecedented health crisis and needs the expertise of Dr. Bright to lead the nation’s efforts to combat Covid-19," said whistleblower's lawyers.



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"Trump wants to close his eyes and pretend that sending people back to work right now will magically solve all our problems. But every day that he refuses to lead on the public health crisis killing thousands of Americans daily is adding years to our economic recovery."


U.S. Attorney General William Barr

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
Fresh demands for the resignation or impeachment of U.S. Attorney General William Barr have started stacking up since the Department of Justice on Thursday dropped its case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, which critics have condemned as a decision designed to politically benefit President Donald Trump.



by Julia Conley, staff writer
Suggesting he needed lessons during his presidency on how to avoid an impeachment, President Donald Trump told "Fox and Friends" on Friday that he had "learned a lot from Richard Nixon," the only U.S. president to resign from the office. 

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April’s unemployment rate is still an underestimate of the actual number of unemployed workers. It would be higher if all the people who lost their jobs had actually remained in the labor force. (Photo: Witthaya Prasongsin/iStock/Getty Images)

by Elise Gould
It’s as if all the jobs in all of the states beginning with the letter "M" simply disappeared in the last month. That's all the jobs in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, and Montana combined.


We must go deeper in organizing and uniting people around a visionary and far-reaching agenda that calls for us to reorganize society around the needs and demands of the poor. (Photo: Poor People's Campaign/Twitter)

by Rev Dr Liz Theoharis
Leaders are using the lie of scarcity to place the burden of the crisis on the poor while billionaires are becoming even richer and large corporations are getting bailouts.


The obvious answer to the problem of how to preserve democracy in a pandemic is to expand voting by mail. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

by David Cole
If state legislatures fail to allow people to vote by mail during a pandemic, they will effectively deny them their right to vote.


Healthcare workers wave to thank people for taking part in a cars parade outside the Eatonville Care Center in Toronto, Canada, on April 28, 2020 (Picture by Zou Zheng/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images.)

by Catherine Xhardez
The awareness that threats do not stop at borders and that migration is essential, might open avenues for a renewed debate on migration.


The governor should keep in mind that a more diversified food system, one with more small farms and local processing facilities, rather than one in a constant state of consolidation, is much more resilient and less susceptible to the weaknesses that we see occurring due to this pandemic. (Photo: Hero Images/Getty Images)

by Jim Goodman
Our food system is not set up to handle a global crisis.


To accept the alternative—the killing was planned and unprovoked—is to expose the murder to be a product of a racist society. (Photo: Ahmaud Arbery/Family photo)

by Christian Christensen
The presumption of normality (let alone decency) is a luxury of privilege.

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