Common Dreams

Wow. Just like the "stable genius" and "very innocent man" predicted, it turns out "even Mother Teresa could not beat these charges" - 'cause she too evidently had Michael Cohen pay off an adult film star she banged - which is why a blessed jury of regular Americans found Trump guilty of all 34 charges in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the 2016 election so we wouldn't know what an utter scumbag he is. Now, of course, we do. A good day.

In a letter to Senators Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse, senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito rejected their calls for his recusal from cases involving January 6th. Durbin and Whitehouse urged Chief Justice John Roberts to act following reports that symbols supporting the January 6th insurrection were displayed at Alito’s homes in Virginia and New Jersey.

This morning, the jury in the Trump trial began deliberations on the criminal case. In response, Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY issued the following statement:

A new report released today, Trading Away Our Climate: How Corporations Use Trade and Investment Agreements to Undermine Action on Climate Change, highlights how fossil fuel companies worldwide threaten climate progress through outdated trade agreements that favor corporate interests over the public good. The report scrutinizes trade and investment agreements containing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions as significant obstacles to lowering emissions and achieving a just clean energy transition. Читать дальше...

In response to further delays to the pandemic treaty, Tim Bierley, campaigner at Global Justice Now said:

"Further delays in pandemic treaty negotiations are the direct result of rich countries - including the UK - frustrating the process at every step. During the Covid-19 pandemic we saw vaccine apartheid play out on the global stage, with over a million people dying from a lack of access to vaccines. Instead of pushing for clear and binding commitments to ensure this gross injustice is never repeated... Читать дальше...

Corporations, trade groups, and other organizations sent more than 3,400 lobbyists to lobby the federal government on artificial intelligence-related issues in 2023, twice as many as the previous year, a Public Citizen report released today reveals. The vast majority of these lobbyists were hired by corporations or corporate-aligned trade groups.

“Corporate lobbyists running amok in the halls of Congress and the halls of power are aiming to set our AI future,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. Читать дальше...

With "one supreme act" of dying unquestioning in the name of war, said James Garfield on 1868's first Memorial Day, the fallen showed "the highest virtues of men." It's unclear if he'd include in that noble fellowship the forsaken children and women of Gaza who burned to death in their tents in Rafah after a gruesome attack Israel later blithely deemed "a mishap." Goddamn. One more time to Bibi and his ilk, the "fungus that grows on the rot": "There is no glory in war."

Negotiators of a proposed World Health Organization pandemic accord have been unable to reach consensus ahead of a self-imposed deadline of next week’s World Health Assembly. Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program, issued the following statement:

Win Without War Executive Director Sara Haghdoosti released the following statement responding to reports that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may agree to join House Speaker Mike Johnson in inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress.

Oxfam welcomes the ICJ’s order as a critical intervention to stop Israel’s military onslaught on Rafah, which has displaced more than 800,000 people, and an affirmation of the right to life of the Palestinian people.