Daily News Digest March 21, 2024
Images of the Day:
The United States and the World 
Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
Capitalism as a Failed System: World Capitalism Has Been Aware of the Comming Catastrophe of Global Warming Over 5 Decades Ago and Did Nothing!: Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter Capitalism Does Not, and Never Has, Worked for the Masses! In Its Death Agony, Capitalism Is Traveling About The World Like The Four Horsemen of the The Apocalypse, Spreading Racism, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The very future of Humanity Is Now At stake!
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, andThe Iron Heel! For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel! Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone! Globaly, With the Current Gaza War, The Right of Assembly is Under Attack! Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World!
Always Remember: That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he Established, in writing, the United States Capitalist Austerity Program. — The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%, Only the 1% Voted For Austerity! The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1%, Who Profit From Austerity!! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.! Socialism Means True Democracy, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!
Quotes of the Day:
Karl Marx was one of the first to oppose the colonial oppression of the world’s masses. He did not mince his words in, this chapter of Capital, he wrote: The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement, and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalized the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. … The treatment of the aborigines was, naturally, most frightful in plantation-colonies destined for export trade only, such as the West Indies, and in rich and well-populated countries, such as Mexico and India, that were given over to plunder. But even in the colonies properly so called, the Christian character of primitive accumulation did not belie itself. Those sober virtuosi of Protestantism, the Puritans of New England, in 1703, by decrees of their assembly set a premium of £40 on every Indian scalp and every captured red-skin: in 1720 a premium of £100 on every scalp; in 1744, after Massachusetts-Bay had proclaimed a certain tribe as rebels, the following prices: for a male scalp of 12 years and upwards £100 (new currency), for a male prisoner £105, for women and children prisoners £50, for scalps of women and children £50. Some decades later, the colonial system took its revenge on the descendants of the pious pilgrim fathers, who had grown seditious in the meantime. At English instigation and for English pay they were tomahawked by red-skins. The British Parliament proclaimed bloodhounds and scalping as “means that God and Nature had given into its hand.” . . . If money … comes into the world with a congenital blood-stain on one cheek, capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt. — Capital”, Volume One, Part VIII, Chapter 31, (the) “Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist
Pocasts/Videos of the Day:
Biden’s Sanctions Against Israeli Settlers Ignores State’s Role in West Bank Violence: Shane Bauer
United States:
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich. Tax the Rich! — They Can Afford ford To Pay! Both Parties Support U.S. Capitalism’s Wars! (The Only War the Democrats Opposed was the Civil War!)
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both. — Louis D. Brandeis Quotes
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. MLK, Beyond Vietnam
The Bloated Pentagon Budget Is Our Path to Ruin Today’s generation of “leaders” seems not yet to have had their fill of war, hate, and oppression. That tragic fact — not China, not Russia, not any foreign power — is now the greatest threat to this country’s “national security.”
New Federal Rules for Native Remains and Artifacts Give Power to Tribes The rules apply to public universities and museums, as well as private institutions that have received federal funds.
The 2024 Implications of US Involvement in Ukraine and Gaza America’s leadership in the world is being undermined and its domestic political cohesion is being fractured. This era’s wars in Ukraine and Gaza are having a more dramatic impact both on global alignments and US politics than the wars in Vietnam and Iraq had in their respective eras. And this is happening without any American troops directly engaged in either conflict.
U.S. Armed and Funded Palestinian Genocide:
The New York Times No Longer Prints ‘All the News Fit to Print’: It’s Journalistic Malpractice To Say Gazans Are Starving Without Saying Israel Is Starving Them The editors of The New York Times know exactly what they’re doing packaging a story about Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinian civilians like it’s a troubling prediction about the weather. The mass media are printing some amazingly depraved headlines about a new UN-backed report on starvation in Gaza from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, who says half the enclave’s population is now at the highest-possible threat level for starvation. The New York Times has a real corker out titled “Famine Is Projected for Northern Gaza, Experts Say”, subtitled “A global authority on food security said that in the coming months, as many as 1.1 million people in Gaza could face the severest levels of hunger.” A casual news consumer could get multiple paragraphs into this article assuming that people in a place called Gaza are suffering from some kind of famine caused by natural events, like a drought or something. Not until paragraph four would they encounter the word “Israeli”, and not until paragraph five would they encounter the line “Israeli’s bombardment and a near-total blockade.”
Canadian Parliament Resolution Calls for Ending Arms Exports to Israel Canada exported an estimated $28.5 million worth of military equipment to Israel in the three months after October 7.
Environment:
Fund Climate! — Not Genocide! One of Many Ways to Begin to End Global Warming: Expose ‘Greenwashing’ — Tax the Polluters 100%! After World War II Rosa Luxenburg Coined the Slogan: ‘S0cialism or Barbaism’! Now the Slogan Should Be: ‘Ecosocialism or Ecocide’!
Capitalism’s Wars for Oil: When Bodies Start Stacking Up From Climate Change-Related Disasters, Will These Monsters be Held to Account?
World’s Top Fossil-Fuel Bosses Deride Efforts to Move Away From Oil and Gas Executives at Texas summit claim clean-energy transition is failing and say world should ‘abandon the fantasy’ of fossil-fuel phaseout The bosses of the world’s leading oil and gas companies have poured scorn on efforts to move away from fossil fuels, complaining that a “visibly failing” transition to clean energy was being pushed forward at an “unrealistic pace”. The oil executives, gathered at the industry’s annual Cera Week conference in Houston, Texas, have taken turns this week to denounce calls for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, despite widespread acknowledgment within the industry, as well as scientists and governments, of the need to radically reduce planet-heating emissions to avoid the worst effects of the climate.
Mexico Brings Science to a Trade Fight Over GMO Corn While Mexico incorporates peer-reviewed science to challenge the propaganda of industrial agriculture interests, American stances ignore it.
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
US Supreme Court Lets Texas Enforce ‘Unconstitutional and Extreme’ Border Law “Allowing this law to be implemented as the case makes its way through the legal process needlessly puts people’s lives at risk,” said one campaigner. “We remain committed to the fight to permanently overturn S.B. 4.”
Labor:
The Partnership With the 1% and the Trade Union During Woldwar II:
If the organized workers become fully conscious of their combined power and learn to use it in their own interests, no power inside this country or outside could stand up against them. Instead of the bosses dictating terms to the workers, they could, as they should, dictate terms to the bosses. Even today, in scattered strike situations, detachments of workers demonstrate their invincibility. They sweep forward against the bosses, against administration “troubleshooters,” against military men, and even against their own top leaders, to win their demands. The employers feel the enormous power of the workers and often assess it more accurately than the workers or their leaders. The bosses know that, by themselves, they cannot curb labor nor deny its demands. From all sides now the employers are summoning allies to their aid: government officials, defense commissioners, arbitrators, preachers of patriotism, army officers and, most important of all today, their lieutenants in the ranks of labor itself: Green, Hillman, Murray, Tobin, Lewis, and their staffs. The function of these labor lieutenants and their policy of class collaboration is to lower the self-confidence of organized labor, to underestimate its strength, to keep it from independent class action, and to weaken its will to struggle and to win. — Fourth International, January 1941, American Labor and the War
Economy:
Shadow Government Statistics New Weekly Commentary March 18, 2024
Catch-Up, Part I
- No Booming Economy, No Contained Inflation
- Preliminary March 2024 Consumer Sentiment Faltered Anew for the Third Straight Month, Still Holding Shy by 24.3% (-24.3%) of Ever Recovering Its February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Peak
- Despite Heavily Hyped, Improving CPI Inflation, Both the Headline CPI and ShadowStats-Alternate CPI, and the PPI Goods Annual Inflation Notched Higher in February 2024
- Annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation Increased 3.2% in February Up from 3.1% in January, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
- Corrected for BLS Inflation-Muting Gimmicks Since 1982, and Consistent With Prior Historical CPI Reporting, the ShadowStats-Alternate CPI February 2024
- Annual Inflation Notched Higher to 11.0%, from 10.9%
- Sensitive to Rising Inflation, the Price of Gold Also Has Firmed
- In the Four Years Since the February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Trough,
- Headline February 2024 CPI-U Inflation Gained 20.0%, While the Corrected ShadowStats Alternate CPI Gained 60.7% Over the Same Period (See the Manual Inflation Calculator on Page 8)
- February 2020 Employment and Unemployment Reporting Also Suggested Deteriorating Conditions, With Rising Unemployment and a Falling Labor Force Participation Rate
- February 2024 U.3, U.6 and the ShadowStats-Alternate Unemployment Rates All Notched to Their Highest Levels in Twenty-Two Months or More February 2024 Annual Payroll Growth Stalled at 1.8% for a Second Month, Down from a Major Near-Term Peak of 5.3% in February 2022, Below 2.0% for the Fifth Straight Month, Since October 2023
- Such Remain More Consistent With Faltering or Slowing Monthly Economic Growth, than With the Booming Quarterly Headline GDP Activity
- Stalling Year-to-Year Growth in Monthly Economic Activity and Related Employment Should Be Repeated in this Week’s Pending Industrial Production and Real Retail Sales
INFLATION
Overview of Last Week’s Headline Reporting of the February 2024 Consumer and Producer Price Indices. Updated February 2024 CPI and Inflation Calculator. Historic Gold Prices Year-to-Year Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation Increased by 3.2% in February 2024, Up from 3.1% in January, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) The Rising Price of Gold Has Moved a Bit Closer to Reflecting the Higher Underlying Inflation Reality and Systemic Instability, Which Increasingly Should Surface in Headline CPI and ShadowStats Alternate CPI Details Corrected for the BLS’s Inflation-Muting Gimmicks Since 1982, and Consistent With Prior Historical CPI Reporting, the ShadowStats-Alternate CPI Annual Inflation Notched Higher to 11.0%, from 10.9% in February 2024. In the Four Years Since the February 2020 Pre-Pandemic Trough, Headline February 2024 CPI-U Inflation Gained 20.0%, While the Corrected ShadowStats Alternate CPI Gained 60.7% Over the Same Period. (See the Manual Inflation Calculator on Page 8). 
FEBRUARY 2023 UNEMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYMENT
During Spring Bank Panic of 2023, Liquidity Advances from FHLBs Topped Those of Q4 2008, when Wall Street Was in Collapse According to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and using a graph from the St. Louis Fed above, the liquidity crisis among banks in the spring of last year was far more dramatic than has been acknowledged by banking regulators. According to the data, during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008 when Wall Street was in a state of collapse), banks had borrowed a total of $790 billion in advances from Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs). But during the bank panic in the spring of last year, those FHLB advances topped the Q4 2008 number, registering $804 billion as of March 31, 2023.
World:
Protesters Condemn Javier Milei’s Austerity Regime Amid Social and Economic Crises In Argentina, protesters in Buenos Aires were met with riot police and tear gas Monday as they marched in a union-led rally to protest mounting food insecurity and far-right President Javier Milei’s massive cuts to social spending. This is union leader Hugo Godoy. Hugo Godoy: “Today, we came back to march together to demand the government once again respond to this worsening situation of the food crisis that over 6 million Argentinians suffer from. The government doesn’t even have an inch of humanity to guarantee food provisions to soup kitchens. It’s as if they enjoy the people’s pain.”
Capitalism’s Unending Rape of the Colonial/Semicolonial World!: How to Resist the Expanding Global Land Grab The International Conference on Global Land Grabbing in Bogotá this week is a step towards strengthening alliances across social justice movements The length of the journey from the sun-scorched Malian lowlands to Colombia’s sprawling high-altitude capital wasn’t lost on Ibrahima Coulibaly, a longtime leader of the National Coordination of Peasant Organizations of Mali. He is one of 500 activists, academics, and policymakers from 69 countries converging in Bogotá this week to take stock of the state of global land grabbing and define tactics for the way forward. “We have been engaged in the fight against land grabbing in our community for many years,” offered Coulibaly. “And it is equally important for us to articulate our struggles at the international level to carry out the political work necessary to see change.”
Education, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who, pass universal healthcare for themselves, but cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare