Consolidation of US hospitals and medicine into fewer, bigger companies is causing big harm to US medical care, and Covid-19 makes the effects plain.

Proposing a constitutional amendment to abolish forcing prisoners to work for little or no pay.

This practice continues in some US states, and it is still an incentive to put more people in prison. When you read about forced labor in Xinjiang, China, keep in mind that the evil exists here too.

Sanders opposes the bipartisan Covid-19 relief plan because it fails to provide any immediate relief for Americans that need it.

Even the downtrodden can fall into narrow-minded localism. This article describes efforts by indigenous tribes in Minnesota to block a tar sands pipeline whose only use would be to increase oil extraction and hasten global climate disaster. But the article does not mention that danger — only the possibility of polluting the local rivers.

Polluting additional rivers is bad, but civilization could survive that. Civilization may not survive global heating disaster, and there is no room in the world's climate budget for more oil extraction anywhere in the world.

Whatever their motivation, I hope those tribes win their battle to block the pipeline, but presenting this as a purely local problem will fail to build awareness about the larger, global issue that threatens every one of us.

One good thing about the military spending bill that Congress is working on is that it would prohibit federal forces from patrolling American cities without identifying themselves.

Another good thing, which is why the wrecker threatens to veto it, is that it would require renaming of the US military bases named after traitors who fought for the Confederacy and to prolong slavery.

What the bill fails to do is cut military spending and redirect American productivity towards strengthening the American people (providing food, shelter, education and medical care), and making US industry less concentrated and thus more resilient.

Military strength is not the most crucial part of making a country that is great and strong.