Author: Common Dreams

Here is the strange thing in an ever-stranger world: I was born in July 1944 in the midst of a devastating world war. That war ended in August 1945 with the atomic obliteration of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by the most devastating bombs in history up to that moment, given the sweet code names “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.” I was the littlest of boys at the time. More than three-quarters of a century has passed since, on September 2, 1945, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu signed the Instrument of Surrender on the...

Black History month, intended to be a celebration and affirmation of Black history, has often been appropriated as a PR opportunity for corporations. Last summer, amid uprisings protesting police murders of innocent Black people and record approval of the Black Lives Matter movement, the corporate scramble to appear on the “right” side of history has extended far beyond the bounds of just one month. The tobacco industry is no exception. Despite trying to pitch itself as a partner to Black-led organizations, Big Tobacco has targeted Black communities for generations with multi-billion dollar marketing campaigns and a plethora of deadly...

After deliberating for just over 10 hours, the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin found the former Minneapolis police officer guilty for the murder of unarmed Black man George Floyd last May. Chauvin was charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was found guilty on all counts. His sentencing is scheduled in eight weeks. The verdict by the 12 jurors, six white and six Black or multiracial, followed three weeks of testimony by dozens of witnesses and hours of video footage of Floyd’s final minutes of life. Chauvin, who invoked the Fifth Amendment, did...

“Get out of the car! Get out of the car NOW!” The officer, the mad man with a badge, probably shouted those words 50 times at the driver, Second Lt. Caron Nazario, at a gas station in Windsor, Virginia, all the while holding a gun a foot from his face. Nazario, who is Black and Latino, had just been pulled over for not having a rear license plate – he did have one. And of course the cops had their guns drawn. The incident happened last December, but the crazy video has only recently been made public. While it...

After spending much of his decades-long career raking in corporate cash and combating efforts to limit money in politics, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on April 5 suddenly claimed to be deeply concerned by the political influence of “powerful and wealthy people” who have spoken out against the Georgia state GOP’s sweeping assault on voting rights. In a statement, the Kentucky Republican warned corporations that they will face unspecified “consequences” if they “become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order,” a far-fetched portrayal of corporate America’s largely tepid and belated response...