A weekly roundup of progressive headlines, opinion, and analysis

Browser View | 6/13/20
Common Dreams

Your Week in Review



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"It's not just Covid care that's unaffordable. Patients with heart disease, asthma, and diabetes need protection too. Medicare for All is the long-term answer."


Demonstrators march down Pennsylvania Avenue near the Trump International Hotel during a protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. Protests in cities throughout the country have been been held after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

by Kymone Freeman, Nancy J. Altman
People are rising up nationwide in massive protests seeking to finally eradicate the systemic forces that led to George Floyd's torture and death.


Fundamental policing reforms, writes Jesse Jackson, would begin with ending the “qualified immunity” of police, curbing the militarization of police forces, transferring funds and functions to social agencies, imposing residency requirements and finally making lynching a hate crime. (Photo: Natasha Moustache/Getty Images)

by Jesse Jackson
What has been missing is will, not ideas. And now, as the demonstrations reveal, Americans—black and white, young and old—are demanding change.


Protesters march on Hiawatha Avenue while decrying the killing of George Floyd on May 26, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a video taken by a bystander was posted on social media showing Floyd's neck being pinned to the ground by an officer as he repeatedly said, "I can’t breathe." (Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

by Jon Queally & Jessica Corbett
"Our only hope for our collective liberation," writes Michelle Alexander, "is a politics of deep solidarity rooted in love."


People wait in line to vote in Georgia's Primary Election on June 9, 2020 in Atlanta. Georgia, West Virginia, South Carolina, North Dakota, and Nevada held primaries Tuesday amid the coronavirus pandemic.

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer
Reports of hourslong lines, issues with voting machines, and not enough poll workers in Georgia Tuesday led advocates to warn that problems with the state's primary election foreshadow what could happen nationwide in November's general election.


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)

by Richard Eskow
There's a whole lot of Wall Street listening going on, but not much doing.


Members of the National Guard join police on the fourth day of protests on May 29, 2020 in Minneapolis. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

by Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J.S. Davies
For too long, we have let cynical politicians and business leaders divide and rule us, funding police and the Pentagon over real human needs, pitting us against each other at home and leading us off to wars against our neighbors abroad.


Medical workers take in patients at a special coronavirus intake area at Maimonides Medical Center on April 6, 2020 in New York City. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

by Dean E. Robinson
Though it won't solve all our problems, expanding Medicare to all people is an essential demand if we want to advance health equity in the United States.


"To contain the virus and relaunch the economy, everyone needs health care," write Archer and Potter. "But without employer-sponsored health insurance and a paycheck, many workers are no longer able to afford the care they need. During a pandemic, that puts all of us in danger." (Photo: Paul Becker / Becker1999 / flickr / cc)

by Diane Archer, Wendell Potter
Congress must act decisively to guarantee health care to everyone in the country. It should do so on moral grounds, it should do so on public health grounds, and it should do so to help ensure our economy gets back on track and stays back on track.


An activist with a mask of U.S. President Donald Trump marches with a model of a nuclear rocket during a demonstration against nuclear weapons on November 18, 2017 in Berlin.

by Andrea Germanos, staff writer
"When Americans say that they want and need tests, they weren't talking about the nuclear kind."

Share this newsletter with a friend
Donate

If you value this work and want to keep independent, progressive media strong please join us. Make a tax-deductible donation or consider becoming a sustaining member today.

Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams, PO Box 443, Portland, ME 04112, USA

Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. EIN: 20-3368194 | Unsubscribe