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News & Views | 12/30/19

Feature...


In the coming year, those of us in the US will face one of the most important elections of our lifetimes. (Photo: Creative Commons)

by Medea Benjamin
Remembering some of the gains in the difficult year of 2019 can help inspire us for the critical struggles ahead.

News...



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"Trump is the most corrupt president in history, and here's the latest example of how that corruption helps giant corporations."



by Julia Conley, staff writer
Based on thousands of conversations with West Virginians from all walks of life about their top concerns, community organizer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stephen Smith on Sunday released his proposal for the first state-level wealth tax in the nation.


A map showing Turkish and Libyan territorial waters in the Mediterranean.

by Eoin Higgins, staff writer
The country's main opposition opposes the move and warned on Monday that the conflict could spread across the region.

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by Julia Conley, staff writer
In Monday's episode of the BBC's "Today" radio program, climate leader Greta Thunberg offered advice to young people wanting to take action to help solve the climate crisis and met for the first time with natural historian Sir David Attenborough.


Demonstrators against the Queens County Democratic Party's secretive endorsement process on Monday forced a delay in choosing a candidate.

by Eoin Higgins, staff writer
Backers of the 2020 bids of Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were "united behind a transparent inclusive process."



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"Jane and I send our love and support to our Jewish brothers and sisters during this difficult time."



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"Thousands of miles away from its own border, the United States is causing bloodshed and destruction against the people of Iraq and Syria in the name of defending itself."



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"That's unconstitutional. If they had a real legal justification, they wouldn't resort to such absurd claims."



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"We consider it as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty."


Digging for water in the Ewaso Ngiro river basin in central Kenya on April 4, 2017.

by Common Dreams staff
Changes in groundwater flows due to climate change could have a very long legacy. This could be described as an environmental time bomb

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Views...


Just because firms and rich people play by the rules of the markets, this does not lead to the conclusion that the results are just. (And, of course, they often don’t play by the rules!) (Photo: Ars Electronica / Flickr)

by Arthur MacEwan
Taxes can redistribute income, but relying on taxes means we are accepting the way the system works—the way markets operate—to create inequality in the first place.


Rattled by the weight of 2018’s climate science, and with a newfound awareness of the price we are paying for decades of inaction, people around the world rose up by the millions in 2019 to demand a crisis-level response to climate change. (Photo: Paddy O Sullivan/Unsplash)

by Erika Spanger-Siegfried
Together we’ve felt grief as bad news mounted, rage as monied interests blocked the world’s efforts to save itself and, as climate denial made a political comeback at home, we’ve felt at times like the mythical Cassandra, cursed to tell the truth and never be believed.


"Over the past 16 years, Israel’s army has killed on average 11 children a month." (Photo: Alberto Hugo Rojas/flickr/cc)

by Yumna Patel
While the political situation often seems bleak and hopeless, these Palestinians, these changemakers, continue to try to make a difference, no matter how big or small, in the hopes that they can do better for their community.


What’s needed is a commitment to a green economy as sweeping as anything this nation has ever seen. (Photo: EuroNews/Twitter)

by Bill Lueders
If we work hard and stay focused, 2020 can be the year we make huge gains.


Whereas the young are climate heroes, Australia’s Prime Minister is a coward, a climate denier who loves coal. (Photo: South Bend Voice/cc/flickr)

by Andy Rowell
The next decade will define our collective future. We have no time to waste.


We can regain our global image as champion of human rights, which is currently undone. (Photo: 8list)

by Leslie Gregory, Dr. Tom H. Hastings
There is a trend across much of the world toward the strongman ruler, the Trump/Putin/Erdogan/Duterte/Jong-un model, but that is reversible. Nothing about this is permanent or inevitable. We always have a choice.

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