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A rendering from weapons company Northrop Grumman shows what the B-21 Raider bomber, set to be unveiled on December 2, 2022, could look like. (Image: Northrop Grumman)
Millions of Americans Lack Adequate Health Coverage, But the Pentagon Has a New Nuclear Bomber to Flaunt
"This ominous death machine, with its price tag of $750 million a pop, brings huge profits to Northrop Grumman but takes our society one more step down the road of spiritual death," peace activist Medea Benjamin said of the new B-21 Raider.
Dec 02, 2022
Peace and economic justice advocates responded to the imminent unveiling Friday of the United States Air Force's new $750 million-per-plane nuclear bomber by reiterating accusations of misplaced priorities in a nation where tens of millions of people live in poverty and lack adequate healthcare coverage.
Military-industrial complex giant Northrop Grumman is set to introduce its B-21 Raider on Friday. The B-21, whose development was 30 years in the making and whose total project cost is expected to exceed $200 billion, is tapped to replace the aging B-2 Spirit.
"One thing the world definitely does not need is another stealth bomber," Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, told Common Dreams.
\u201cToday is the day! We are thrilled to partner with the United States Air Force to reveal the B-21 Raider tonight. Tune in at 4:35 pm Pacific to watch the live event: https://t.co/U2Who6wi3f\n\n#DefiningPossible #RiseoftheRaider\u201d— Northrop Grumman (@Northrop Grumman) 1669989601
"This ominous death machine, with its price tag of $750 million a pop, brings huge profits to Northrop Grumman but takes our society one more step down the road of spiritual death," Benjamin added, referring to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 anti-war speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," in which the civil rights leader called the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
Noting the B-21's impending introduction, Canadian professor Christopher Stonebanks tweeted on Wednesday: "Hey, how's the good old USA doing on free healthcare, eliminating poverty, and accessible education for all? What? Oh, I see. They have a new stealth bomber. OK. And their citizens are good with that trade-off?"
\u201cThe projected $847B ask for the 2023 Pentagon budget is $45B more than Biden even requested.\n\nSome human needs that $45B *alone* could fund for a year:\n\ud83e\ude7a 401,735 registered nurses, or\n\ud83c\udfd9\ufe0f 5.35M public housing units, or\n\ud83d\udee0\ufe0f 1.03M jobs at $15/hr, or\n\u2600\ufe0f Solar energy for 128.11M homes\u201d— Institute for Policy Studies (@Institute for Policy Studies) 1670008899
The Pentagon, which recently failed its fifth consecutive annual audit, is slated to get $847 billion in 2023 after Congress rubber-stamps the next National Defense Authorization Act, possibly as soon as this month. That's more than the combined military spending of China, India, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea, according to the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
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Peace and economic justice advocates responded to the imminent unveiling Friday of the United States Air Force's new $750 million-per-plane nuclear bomber by reiterating accusations of misplaced priorities in a nation where tens of millions of people live in poverty and lack adequate healthcare coverage.
Military-industrial complex giant Northrop Grumman is set to introduce its B-21 Raider on Friday. The B-21, whose development was 30 years in the making and whose total project cost is expected to exceed $200 billion, is tapped to replace the aging B-2 Spirit.
"One thing the world definitely does not need is another stealth bomber," Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, told Common Dreams.
\u201cToday is the day! We are thrilled to partner with the United States Air Force to reveal the B-21 Raider tonight. Tune in at 4:35 pm Pacific to watch the live event: https://t.co/U2Who6wi3f\n\n#DefiningPossible #RiseoftheRaider\u201d— Northrop Grumman (@Northrop Grumman) 1669989601
"This ominous death machine, with its price tag of $750 million a pop, brings huge profits to Northrop Grumman but takes our society one more step down the road of spiritual death," Benjamin added, referring to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 anti-war speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," in which the civil rights leader called the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
Noting the B-21's impending introduction, Canadian professor Christopher Stonebanks tweeted on Wednesday: "Hey, how's the good old USA doing on free healthcare, eliminating poverty, and accessible education for all? What? Oh, I see. They have a new stealth bomber. OK. And their citizens are good with that trade-off?"
\u201cThe projected $847B ask for the 2023 Pentagon budget is $45B more than Biden even requested.\n\nSome human needs that $45B *alone* could fund for a year:\n\ud83e\ude7a 401,735 registered nurses, or\n\ud83c\udfd9\ufe0f 5.35M public housing units, or\n\ud83d\udee0\ufe0f 1.03M jobs at $15/hr, or\n\u2600\ufe0f Solar energy for 128.11M homes\u201d— Institute for Policy Studies (@Institute for Policy Studies) 1670008899
The Pentagon, which recently failed its fifth consecutive annual audit, is slated to get $847 billion in 2023 after Congress rubber-stamps the next National Defense Authorization Act, possibly as soon as this month. That's more than the combined military spending of China, India, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea, according to the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
From Your Site Articles
Peace and economic justice advocates responded to the imminent unveiling Friday of the United States Air Force's new $750 million-per-plane nuclear bomber by reiterating accusations of misplaced priorities in a nation where tens of millions of people live in poverty and lack adequate healthcare coverage.
Military-industrial complex giant Northrop Grumman is set to introduce its B-21 Raider on Friday. The B-21, whose development was 30 years in the making and whose total project cost is expected to exceed $200 billion, is tapped to replace the aging B-2 Spirit.
"One thing the world definitely does not need is another stealth bomber," Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink, told Common Dreams.
\u201cToday is the day! We are thrilled to partner with the United States Air Force to reveal the B-21 Raider tonight. Tune in at 4:35 pm Pacific to watch the live event: https://t.co/U2Who6wi3f\n\n#DefiningPossible #RiseoftheRaider\u201d— Northrop Grumman (@Northrop Grumman) 1669989601
"This ominous death machine, with its price tag of $750 million a pop, brings huge profits to Northrop Grumman but takes our society one more step down the road of spiritual death," Benjamin added, referring to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 anti-war speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," in which the civil rights leader called the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."
Noting the B-21's impending introduction, Canadian professor Christopher Stonebanks tweeted on Wednesday: "Hey, how's the good old USA doing on free healthcare, eliminating poverty, and accessible education for all? What? Oh, I see. They have a new stealth bomber. OK. And their citizens are good with that trade-off?"
\u201cThe projected $847B ask for the 2023 Pentagon budget is $45B more than Biden even requested.\n\nSome human needs that $45B *alone* could fund for a year:\n\ud83e\ude7a 401,735 registered nurses, or\n\ud83c\udfd9\ufe0f 5.35M public housing units, or\n\ud83d\udee0\ufe0f 1.03M jobs at $15/hr, or\n\u2600\ufe0f Solar energy for 128.11M homes\u201d— Institute for Policy Studies (@Institute for Policy Studies) 1670008899
The Pentagon, which recently failed its fifth consecutive annual audit, is slated to get $847 billion in 2023 after Congress rubber-stamps the next National Defense Authorization Act, possibly as soon as this month. That's more than the combined military spending of China, India, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea, according to the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
From Your Site Articles
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LATEST NEWS
Mahmoud Khalil Team Files FOIA Request to Expose Trump Collusion With Anti-Palestinian 'Agents of Repression'
One attorney for the targeted U.S. resident accused the doxxing groups of "weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights."
May 29, 2025
Mahmoud Khalil's legal team on Thursday demanded records from the federal government to expose the Trump administration's "collusion with anti-Palestinian doxxing groups" that have worked to get people including their client deported from the United States.
“For years, these anti-Palestinian doxxing groups have served as agents of repression, weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights," said Ayla Kadah, an attorney and justice fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), one of the groups representing Khalil, in a statement.
"Now, evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them as they escalate their crusade to target noncitizens for detention and deportation, with Mahmoud Khalil serving as their latest target," Kadah continued. "Mahmoud deserves answers, and so does the public."
"Evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them as they escalate their crusade to target noncitizens for detention and deportation."
Khalil is a legal permanent resident of Palestinian origin and a former Columbia University student organizer who has been in federal immigration custody since being accosted by plainclothes agents with his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, outside their New York City apartment in March. Abdalla, a U.S. citizen, gave birth to their son while her husband remained detained in Louisiana.
So far, the Trump administration has maintained its effort to deport Khalil over his on-campus activism against Israel's U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip, claiming that despite his green card, he can be removed from the country because U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has "reasonable grounds to believe that Khalil's presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences."
CCR sent the 15-page records request to the U.S. departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Justice, and State, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The group also publicly released the document, which states that "Khalil has long been targeted by anti-Palestinian organizations, including individuals and groups who have sought his deportation or later taken credit for his arrest and detention."
"Days prior to his arrest by ICE, he sought Columbia University protection from these hostile groups, seeing that the groups were calling for the federal government to effectuate his deportation," notes the Freedom of Information Act filing. "In this FOIA request, Khalil seeks information that would illuminate the reported origins of his targeting and the bases of the Rubio determination."
"Specifically, he seeks information that would document and expose the reported collaboration between federal officials and private, anti-Palestinian organizations who have identified, doxxed, and reported him and others for purposes of securing the deportation of student activists advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights," the document says.
The filing lists "the most prominent groups" subject to the FOIA request—Betar USA, CAMERA, Canary Mission, Capital Research Center, Columbia Alumni for Israel, Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus, Middle East Forum, and Shirion Collective—and details their targeting of Khalil, his university, and other individuals dealing similar cases, including Badar Khan Suri, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Rümeysa Öztürk, who have all been released from ICE custody recently.
"The correlation is clear, and not a coincidence: To date, not a single reported visa revocation and detention of an individual based on pro-Palestine activism occurred absent prior doxxing by one of these groups."
"Patterns of arrests and detention by ICE and DHS strongly suggest that these federal agencies are acting at the encouragement of the groups," the document says. "The groups also appear to be coordinating amongst themselves and amplifying each other's efforts to solicit federal agencies to punish individuals for protesting for Palestinian rights."
"These groups often take credit for ICE and DHS's adverse actions against those they have identified or reported, further corroborating the connection between the groups' targeting and the agencies' punitive actions," the filing adds. "The correlation is clear, and not a coincidence: To date, not a single reported visa revocation and detention of an individual based on pro-Palestine activism occurred absent prior doxxing by one of these groups."
The filing was first reported by Zeteo. A State Department spokesperson told the outlet, "Given our commitment to and responsibility for national security, the department uses all available tools to receive and review concerning information when considering visa revocations about possible ineligibilities."
CCR's request for records came a day after U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey ruled that Rubio likely violated constitutional law in his attempt to use Section 1227 of the U.S. Code to deport Khalil. Despite this, the judge declined to release Khalil on bail or to move him to a facility in New Jersey, closer to his family.
In response to Wednesday's ruling, Khalil's legal team said that "we will work as quickly as possible to provide the court the additional information it requested supporting our effort to free Mahmoud or otherwise return him to his wife and newborn son."
Swiss Glacier Collapse That Buried Village Likely a 'Direct Result of Our Warming Climate'
"What happened to Birch Glacier is what we would expect from rising temperatures in the Alps and elsewhere," one scientist said.
May 29, 2025
Thawing permafrost exacerbated by human-caused global heating is the likely culprit behind a massive glacier collapse that buried nearly the entire Swiss town of Blatten, one scientist said Thursday while warning of the likelihood of similar disasters in the future.
The alpine hamlet of 300 inhabitants—who were evacuated earlier amid warning signs of disaster—was almost completely wiped out on Wednesday after the Birch Glacier, located in the Lötschental Valley in northern Switzerland, collapsed. The glacial avalanche, laden with boulders and other debris, cascaded down the mountainside and into the village, obliterating everything in its path. Local officials said around 90% of Blatten was buried.
"We've lost our village," Blatten Mayor Matthias Bellwald told reporters. "The village is under rubble. We will rebuild."
before and after today’s glacier collapse that buried 90% of blatten, switzerland
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— ian bremmer ( @ianbremmer.com) May 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
While there are no verified casualties from the disaster, one 64-year-old man has been reported missing.
Mathieu Morlighem, a glaciologist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told ABC News that permafrost thaw under and along the sidewalls surrounding the glacier likely caused the collapse.
"What happened to Birch Glacier is what we would expect from rising temperatures in the Alps and elsewhere," he explained. "I think we can expect more events like this in the future."
As ABC News reported:
Glaciers in Switzerland have lost almost 40% of their volume since 2000, and the loss is accelerating, according to the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research. Record-high summer temperatures in 2022 and 2023 caused a 10% glacial ice loss in the country.
Experts warn that Switzerland's glaciers could disappear completely by 2100 due to the climate emergency.
As Common Dreams reported in March, the crisis is planetary and is predicted to adversely affect nearly 2 billion people who depend upon glaciers for agricultural irrigation and drinking water.
"Most of the world's glaciers, including those in mountains, are melting at an accelerated rate worldwide," a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization report published earlier this year warned. "Combined with accelerating permafrost thaw, declining snow cover, and more erratic snowfall patterns... this will have significant and irreversible impacts on local, regional, and global hydrology, including water availability."
The Swiss collapse happened a day before Thursday's opening of the
High-Level International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation in Tajikistan, which aims to "highlight the vital role of glaciers in maintaining global ecological balance and addressing water-related challenges."
Democratic Voters Choose Fighting Corporate Power Over Neoliberal Abundance 'Scam': Poll
"At a moment when U.S. democracy is threatened by MAGA authoritarianism and deep inequality, doubling down on private-sector solutions while ignoring redistributive policy is a dangerous distraction," said one critic.
May 29, 2025
Democratic voters overwhelmingly prefer a populist program that takes on oligarchy and corporate power over the so-called "abundance agenda" that's all the rage among many liberals as party leaders examine why they lost the White House and Congress in 2024 and strategize about how to win them back.
That's according to a new Demand Progress poll of 1,200 registered voters "to test the resonance of the 'abundance agenda' being promoted as a potential policy and political refocus for the Democratic Party."
"What these voters want is clear: a populist agenda that takes on corporate power and corruption."
The poll revealed that 55.6% of all surveyed voters said they were somewhat or much more likely "to vote for a candidate for Congress or president who made the populist argument," compared with 43.5% who said they were likelier to cast their ballot for a candidate promoting the abundance agenda.
Among Democratic respondents, 32.6% said they were somewhat or much likelier to vote for abundance candidates, compared with 40.6% of Independents and 58.8% of Republicans. Conversely, 72.5% of surveyed Democrats, 55.4% of Independents, and 39.6% of Republicans expressed a preference for candidates with populist messaging.
"To get out of the political wilderness, and win over not just Democrats but also Independent and moderate voters, policymakers need to loudly state their case for helping middle- and working-class Americans," Demand Progress corporate power program director Emily Peterson-Cassin said in a statement Thursday.
Our poll got some notable responses last night! We went out of our way to generously characterize abundance using language from that camp but they responded by nitpicking and moving the goal posts. Check out our poll to see for yourself why abundance is an electoral loser.
[image or embed]
— Demand Progress (@demandprogress.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 4:38 AM
"What these voters want is clear: a populist agenda that takes on corporate power and corruption," Peterson-Cassin added. "The stakes are too high for Democrats to fixate on a message that only appeals to a minority of independent and Democratic voters."
Inspired by San Francisco's YIMBY—or "yes-in-my-backyard"—movement to build as much market-rate housing as possible with scant consideration for the fact that only relatively wealthy people like themselves can afford to live there, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson earlier this year published Abundance, which topped the Times' nonfiction bestseller list.
Klein and Thompson assert that well-meaning but excessive regulation in Democrat-controlled cities is thwarting progress, and that U.S. liberals' focus on blocking bad economic development has come at the expense of good development over the past half-century. They cite environmental and zoning regulations, as well as burdensome requirements attached to public infrastructure projects and housing construction, as some of the barriers to development.
The Demand Progress poll found that Republicans were much more likely to have a positive view of candidates embracing the abundance agenda. However, the movement has been gaining traction among centrist and even left-of-center Democrats in cities like San Francisco, where the Abundance Network, a YIMBY nonprofit, has become a major player in city politics and has bankrolled a tech-backed takeover of the local Democratic Party, as Mission Local's Joe Rivano Barros and others have detailed.
Leftist critics have pulled no punches in calling out the abundance agenda as neoliberalism dressed in progressive clothes.
"The abundance movement is a scam," Brandee Marckmann of the progressive San Francisco Education Alliance told
Common Dreams on Thursday. "It's a rebranded Trumpian movement that punches down on working-class families. The only abundance these guys want is for themselves, and they want to line their pockets through political schemes that steal money from our public schools, public housing, and public transportation."
The “abundance agenda” promoted by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is gaining traction among center-left Democrats, but it’s largely a rebranding of deregulation and market-first policies -- more Rockefeller Republican than progressive.
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— The Phoenix Project ( @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social) April 18, 2025 at 1:46 PM
As Phoenix Project, a grassroots San Francisco group fighting dark money in politics, recently noted, "Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance helped rebrand Reagan-era economics for a new generation, but behind the gloss lies a familiar web of tech, real estate, and right-wing influence."
"At a moment when U.S. democracy is threatened by MAGA authoritarianism and deep inequality, doubling down on private-sector solutions while ignoring redistributive policy is a dangerous distraction," the group added.
Pointing to the Demand Progress poll, The Lever's Veronica Riccobene wrote Thursday that "Democratic voters know who their real enemy is."
"A majority believe the 'big problem' in America is that corporations and their executives have too much economic and political power," she said. "It's not surprising, considering Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) are pulling huge crowds on their 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour, even in deep-red states."
"Meanwhile, fewer Democratic voters believe the country's big problem is regulatory bottlenecking, a core argument of the neoliberal 'abundance' movement," Riccobene added.
The “abundance” agenda will not make sense to the average American because yall can’t even explain it clearly on here. Fight to guarantee people healthcare, housing, education, and living wages. It’s that simple.
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner.bsky.social) May 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM
As progressive political strategist Dan Cohen said in response to the new poll, "The voters are demonstrating that they understand the problem with quite a traditional view of American politics and economics: that there is too much power and influence in corporate hands and everyday Americans aren't getting their fair share."
"Democrats would be wise to listen to the voters and respond directly to those views with their rhetoric and actions," he added.
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