Monthly Archives: March 2020

‘Do F-35s Fight Pandemics?’ Amid Covid-19 Outbreak, Lawmakers Pushing For Even More Useless Pentagon Spending

“Infuriating doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

By Eoin Higgins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-20-2020

Lawmakers are calling for more F-35s in response to the coronavirus outbreak. (Photo: Forsvarsdepartementet/flickr/cc)

As the federal government develops strategies for how to deal with the coronavirus outbreak that has already significantly damaged the U.S. economy and killed over 100 Americans, a group of lawmakers are urging Congress approve the purchasing of 19 more F-35 fighters than the Pentagon requested as part of the battle against the disease, enraging progressives.

“Infuriating doesn’t even begin to describe it,” tweeted Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, on Friday. Continue reading

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‘Now Make It National’: Vermont and Minnesota Classify Grocery Store Staff as Emergency Personnel

“If your job is so ‘essential’ that you can’t get off for a killer global pandemic, you deserve $15 an hour and a union.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-19-2020

Photo: Piqsels

Demands for nationwide protections for grocery store workers grew Thursday after officials in Minnesota and Vermont officially designated such employees as emergency workers who are essential to the U.S. population’s wellbeing as the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the country.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, added grocery store workers to those protected under the state’s “Care for Children of Families of Emergency Workers” order, requiring schools in the state to provide childcare for the employees. Previously, only hospital staff, nurses, and other public health and disaster workers qualified as emergency personnel under the directive. Continue reading

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Two Siblings Play Classical Music on the Porch for Their Self-Quarantined Neighbor

“It was one of those moments where you feel like you’re a part of something incredible.”

By John Vibes  Published 3-18-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

Over the past two months, people all over the world have been on lockdown due to the CoViD-19 pandemic. In Wuhan, China, the initial epicenter of the outbreak, residents of the city began singing and cheering from their windows and balconies as a way of comforting one another.

Videos from January that captured these moments were shared widely across the internet and people in other countries decided to continue this tradition as the quarantine reached their neighborhoods. Continue reading

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Closing polling places is the 21st century’s version of a poll tax

Californians wait in line to vote on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020. AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu

Joshua F.J. Inwood, Pennsylvania State University and Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee

Delays and long lines at polling places during recent presidential primary elections – such as voters in Texas experienced – represent the latest version of decades-long policies that have sought to reduce the political power of African Americans in the U.S.

Following the Civil War and the extension of the vote to African Americans, state governments worked to block black people, as well as poor whites, from voting. One way they tried to accomplish this goal was through poll taxes – an amount of money each voter had to pay before being allowed to vote. Continue reading

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With Nation Focused on Coronavirus, Rights Groups Warn Senate Against Handing Trump ‘Terrifying’ Spy Powers

“It’s unthinkable to extend these spying powers to the same agencies that have so often sidestepped safeguards and ignored Americans’ fundamental privacy rights.”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-16-2020

Protesters carried signs at a march against mass surveillance on Oct. 26, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: EFF/Flickr/cc)

Ahead of a vote that could take place in the Senate as soon as Monday evening, civil liberties groups and federal lawmakers critical of mass surveillance spoke out against House-approved legislation that would reauthorize “abusive” and “dangerous” U.S. government spying powers that expired Sunday.

The Democrat-held House was widely criticized last week for passing the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act (H.R. 6172), a bipartisan compromise negotiated by leaders in the lower chamber that includes the reauthorization of Section 215 powers that Congress established under the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001, which federal agencies have used to justify the collection of Americans’ phone records. Continue reading

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Toilet Paper Wars and the Shithouse of Capitalism

By Simon Springer  Published 3-15-2020 by Common Dreams

Toilet paper shelves at a Costco in Maine. Photo: Amanda Hill/Twitter

The run on toilet paper has brought the failings of capitalism front and center to the bathroom of every house across Australia, a trend that has now spread to other countries. We are witnessing, in real-time and with stunning consequence, the stone-cold fact that markets are an ineffective mediator of resources, prone to the worst vagaries of herd mentality. Perceived impending shortages of toilet paper owing to the spread of COVID-19 set off widespread panic. We might be inclined to laugh at the implausibility of the whole scenario, but whether the situation is real or imagined is beside the point. The truth, which in this case may appear stranger than fiction, is that markets operate in the sweet spot between scarcity and fear. Continue reading

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From border security to climate change, national emergency declarations raise hard questions about presidential power

Global Climate Strike NYC in New York, Sept. 20, 2019. Rainmaker Photo/MediaPunch /IPX via AP Photo

Daniel Farber, University of California, Berkeley

As wildfires, storms and other climate-driven disasters grow larger and more damaging, climate change is a major concern for many Democratic voters, who are in the midst of a primary fight that has come down to two major candidates: Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Both candidates say climate change would be one of their top priorities as president – but there’s an important difference between their approaches.

Sanders has pledged to declare climate change a national emergency and use executive power to lead “a ten-year, nationwide mobilization” to remake the U.S. economy. Continue reading

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The US Navy is Developing Autonomous Submarines That Can Kill on Their Own

What could possibly go wrong?

By Aaron Kesel. Published 3-10-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The U.S. Navy is secretly developing armed robot submarines that are controlled by onboard artificial intelligence (AI) which could potentially kill without explicit human control.

The Office of Naval Research is involved with the development of an AI system called CLAWS, which the agency describes in budget documents as an autonomous undersea weapon system for clandestine use. CLAWS will “increase mission areas into kinetic effects,” they write. Continue reading

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US Reportedly Bombs Iran-Backed Militias Just as House Passes Resolution to Prevent Unauthorized War

“Yet again, U.S. and Iranian-backed forces appear to be exchanging fire in Iraq, despite the American people’s desires to avoid yet another war of choice in the Middle East.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-12-2020

A protester holds a sign calling for ”No War With Iran” at a rally organized by MoveOn.org and other groups on January 9, 2020.. Photo: Pinterest

The United States on Wednesday reportedly launched deadly airstrikes against Iran-backed militias on the border of Syria and Iraq just after the House of Representatives passed a War Powers Resolution aimed at preventing President Donald Trump from launching an unauthorized war with Iran.

Reports of U.S. airstrikes came after two Americans and one British soldier were killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on Camp Taji, an Iraqi base north of Baghdad that houses U.S. troops. Continue reading

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Greta Thunberg Urges Strikers to ‘Unite Behind Science’ and Join #DigitalStrike for ‘Best Interest of Our Common Society’

“Keep your numbers low but your spirits high and let’s take one week at the time.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-11-2020

Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist, guest-edited the BBC’s “Today” radio program on Monday, discussing the climate crisis and meeting broadcaster Sir David Attenborough for the first time. (Photo: Anders Hellberg/Effekt)

Because of the coronavirus outbreak spreading around the globe, climate action leader Greta Thunberg called on her supporters to observe a #DigitalStrike instead of attending in-person weekly climate protests this Friday.

Thunberg has based her #FridaysForFuture climate strike movement on a demand for governments to “unite behind the science” put forward by experts in order to drastically reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the climate crisis. The teen climate activist issued a similar call to her supporters as she asked them to help reduce the spread of the virus. Continue reading

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