FEATURING CHRIS SMALLS – This Friday May 1st, workers in numerous sectors of American society will be protesting for their rights. Appropriately May Day is the day workers all over the world express their labor rights – a day that has historic origins in the United States. 

This year, given the harrowing new chapter in US and world history brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, workers – especially those considered essential – are demanding that they be treated with dignity even as they are required to risk their lives for low pay to serve the public. 

Follow Chris Smalls on Twitter @Shut_downAmazon.

Chris Smalls, former Amazon warehouse worker who was fired for speaking out.

FEATURING ADAM COHEN – The United States Supreme Court is supposed to be the ultimate arbiter of the constitution and of justice in the nation. And for decades, it often made rulings that pushed the nation closer to its stated ideals, one ruling at a time. Until President Richard Nixon came along and appointed four conservative justices in the span of just three years. Since then my guest Adam Cohen argues that the Supreme Court has been a leading force of inequality in the US. Now, with President Trump and his accomplice Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, that rightward shift of the Supreme Court remains stronger than ever. 

Adam Cohen, was a member of the New York Times editorial board and senior writer for Time magazine. His earlier book is Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck and Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America. His latest book is Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America.

President Donald Trump on Monday evening reappeared at his White House press briefings on the coronavirus after a brief hiatus related to his widely ridiculed disinfectant treatment suggestion. He unveiled a plan to reopen the US economy that included doubling the number of tests that US had been processing. According to the Washington Post, “An administration official said the federal government aimed to give states the ability to test at least 2 percent of their populations per month, though the president did not use that figure and it was not in his written plan.” A reporter asked Vice President Mike Pence why he had said more than a month ago that there would be ramped up widespread testing but Mr. Pence claimed the reporter and public misunderstood his claim. This was the reporter’s follow up question and Pence’s answer. In fact the Trump administration has not had a federal plan to combat the disease and has been relying on states to deal with the crisis on their own. The plan to test only 2% of the population is seen as wholly inadequate by most experts. The New York Times spoke with Paul Romer, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from New York University who has recommended that 50 percent of the population be tested each week. According to Romer, testing 2 percent “is not enough to test everyone in health care even once, let alone to keep retesting them every day, which is what it would take to keep those who do get infected from going on shift and infecting their colleagues.”

During Monday’s press briefing Trump also told state governors to “seriously consider and maybe get going” on reopening schools. He said, “Some of you might start thinking about school openings, because a lot of people are wanting to have school openings. It’s not a big subject, young children have done very well in this disaster that we’ve all gone through.” His statement appeared to imply that children are less likely to develop symptoms if they get infected from Covid-19 but he also displayed ignorance over the fact that children could spread the infection. In his opening remarks Trump lamented the avoidable deaths from the virus. Trump did not take any responsibility for these Covid-19 deaths even though US intelligence agencies warned him more than a dozen times during the “President’s Daily Brief” in January and February as per a new report published in the Washington Post. 

The World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus has warned against easing quarantines and lockdowns saying that there was still evidence that the virus was not under control and is likely being underestimated given the limited number of tests being conducted. Meanwhile the US House Foreign Affairs Committee has launched an investigation into the Trump administration’s decision to block WHO’s funding. Committee chair Eliot Engel said, “cutting the WHO’s funding while the world confronts the COVID-19 tra...

FEATURING PETER MAYBARDUK – While the world has come together to develop organized responses to the coronavirus, including cooperation on testing, the production and distribution of protective equipment, an exploration of best treatments, and most importantly vaccine development, the US under President Donald Trump has stood aloof. 

Reports abound of the Trump administration swooping in to seize equipment and choosing to go it alone on vaccine development. Trump’s withdrawal of US funding for the World Health Organization in particular is emblematic of the dangerous nationalism that the US is expressing. And US pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms are eyeing monopolies and flirting with price gouging. At a time when global cooperation is the best defense against a pandemic, Public Citizen has released a set of principles for “global access, innovation and cooperation.”

Read the principles HERE.

Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen’s Global access to Medicines Director.

FEATURING MARK NOWAK AND CHRISTINE YVETTE LEWIS – Poetry and pandemics may not be synonymous with one another but in times of crisis, art plays an outsize role. Now, a new initiative that engages working people, including those considered “essential workers” to express their frustrations and give voice to their hopes and desires, has been gaining traction. A project called #coronavirushaiku by the Worker Writers School has become popular with domestic workers, street vendors, taxi drivers, migrant workers and more. 

Mark Nowak, Founding Director of the Worker Writers School and author of the new book Social Poetics. Christine Yvette Lewis, Secretary Cultural Coordinator at Domestic Workers United.

Global cases of Covid-19 infection hit nearly 3 million this week as infections in the United States alone accounted for almost one third that number. Yet, several states in the US have begun easing restrictions that were put in place to curb the spread of the virus, many of them Republican-led states. But the move contradicts the caution that public health officials are continuing to urge. On Sunday, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, which has been the hardest hit by far, announced an outline of how the state could begin reopening after May 15th. He said, “The numbers are on the decline: Everything we have done is working…There’s no doubt that we’ve gone at this point through the worst. And as long as we act prudently going forward, the worst should be over.” Cuomo’s plan is cautious compared to states like Georgia’s and involves reopening some “low-risk” businesses by mid-May. Meanwhile the Washington Post reported on Monday that researchers with the Yale School of Public Health analyzed federal data on mortality rates in the US and concluded that there were tens of thousands of “excess deaths” in the US in the early weeks of the pandemic than attributed to either Covid-19 or other causes. The conclusion supports other research suggesting that the virus already had a stronger foothold in the US far earlier than thought. 

Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force contradicted expectations saying that there would have to be some form of social distancing that will remain in place for months. But Vice President Mike Pence announced, “we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us” by Memorial Day weekend. The Washington Post explained that, “It was the latest instance of conflicting signals coming not just from state and federal leaders but also from within the Trump administration in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic.” Beachgoers in liberal California are also taking matters into their own hands. Tens of thousands of people flocked to beaches in Orange County and elsewhere to escape a heat wave that started on Friday. Gov. Gavin Newsom urged people to respect state-wide orders that remain in place. 

 President Trump continued to face a backlash from his bizarre comments last week in which he suggested in front of reporters that doctors research the use of sunlight and disinfectants administered internally as a means of virus treatments. He later claimed his comments were directed at reporters as a form of sarcasm but according to The Hill, “Poison control centers in a number of states have reported a rise in calls about exposure to household cleaners.” New York City’s poison control center saw double the number of cases of disinfectant ingestion compared to a year ago. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, warned Trump saying, “I think when misinformation comes out,

FEATURING LINDSAY KOSHGARIAN – As the world is consumed with the coronavirus, carbon emissions have finally dropped as a result of massive lockdowns and quarantines. But the pause in emissions is likely temporary. A new report makes the link between militarism and the climate. 

The report, No Warming, No War, says, “The military itself…is a huge polluter — and is often deployed to sustain the very extractive industries that destabilize our climate. This climate chaos, in turn, leads to massive displacement, militarized borders, and the prospect of further conflict.” 

The authors add, “True climate solutions, we argue, must have antimilitarism at their core.” 

Read the report ‘No Warming, No War,’ HERE.

Lindsay Koshgarian, Research Director at National Priorities Project, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. She is one of the authors of No Warming, No War: How Militarism Fuels the Climate Crisis – and Vice Versa.

FEATURING BETSY LEONAR-WRIGHT – About one in ten working Americans has a job in the non-profit sector. In fact the non-profit sector is the third largest in the US, after retail and manufacturing. According to CNN, “although the federal government and the press are focused on the plight of the big industries — airlines, hotels, cruise ships — nonprofits employ more people than many of these industries.”

It is no wonder that non-profits have been hit extraordinarily hard by the coronavirus crisis. Fundraisers have been canceled, cultural events postponed, and donations have precipitously dropped. But aside from being eligible to apply for loans from the flawed Paycheck Protection Program there is no relief for non-profits.  

Read the report ‘Staffing the Mission: Improving Jobs in the Nonprofit Sector,’ HERE.

Betsy Leondar-Wright, assistant professor of sociology at Lasell College and Board President of Class Action. Her books include The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the US Racial Wealth Divide and Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists. She has authored a new booklet on non-profits called Staffing the Mission: Improving Jobs in the Nonprofit Sector.

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a fourth Coronavirus-related economic stimulus package to the tune of $484 billion. The measure, which the Senate passed earlier this week, was won by a vote of 388 to 5. Many Democrats denounced the inadequacy of the financial help even as they voted for it with Congressman Richard Neal saying, ““We are all painfully aware that the American people are worried about their health, their jobs, the economy and what life will look like after the emergency subsides…That’s why we fought to increase funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.” He added, “But I want to be clear, this does not come close to addressing the staggering needs of the American family.” New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who was among the five lawmakers voting no, made an impassioned plea for more support on the House floor. President Trump on Friday signed the bill into law. Meanwhile a new poll by Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that, “Forty-six percent of all Americans say their household has experienced some form of income loss from layoffs, reduced hours, unpaid leave or salary reductions,” and yet, “78% believe those former jobs will definitely or probably return.” 

Meanwhile President Trump stunned the nation on Thursday evening during his Covid-19  press briefing by suggesting that scientists study tanning and ingesting disinfectant as ways to treat the virus. PLAY VIDEO. Shock and horror at Trump’s bizarre suggestions broke out in media outlets and social media platforms. One health policy expert on NBC called Trump’s suggestion to use disinfectant as a treatment as, “irresponsible,” and “dangerous,” and added, “It’s a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves.” The company that manufactures Lysol went as far as releasing a statement saying, “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).”

Previously Trump had for weeks enthusiastically touted another unproven treatment of a set of drugs called hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 until studies showed that it increased mortality rates in patients rather than curing them. Now, Trump’s own Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning against the drug saying it was dangerous. The Wall Street Journal reports that thousands of Covid-19 patients are signing up for clinical trials testing the drug and, “thousands more patients are taking the unproven pills as part of their treatment.” Trump has now mysteriously stopped mentioning the medication.

The impact of coronavirus in the US continues to run deep as

FEATURING CHUCK COLLINS – While tens of millions of Americans lose their livelihoods and struggle to put food on the table during the coronavirus pandemic, billionaires are laughing all the way to the bank. Since the start of this year alone, the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos saw his wealth increase by a whopping $25 billion, bringing his total net worth to $143.1 billion. 

Now, a new report sheds much needed light on how the wealthy in America have become wealthier as the rest of us have become poorer. It’s published by the Institute for Policy Studies and the title says it all: “Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes, and Pandemic Profiteers.”

Chuck Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has written a number of books including 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It, and Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good. He is the lead author of a new report, “Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes, and Pandemic Profiteers.”