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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 Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
Daily News Digest April 9, 2018
Images of the Day:
A Healthy Economy?: Shadow Government Statistics Unemployment Rate is 21.7% Alternate Unemployment Charts
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
Quotes of the Day:
You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry.Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. — Martin Luther King, Fifty Years After King’s Famous Anti-War Speech, America Is Again Debating Guns Versus Butter
Michael Bennett’s dubious felony charge and Stephon Clark’s murder demonstrate that Black Lives [do] Matter, because they all too often aren’t treated that way. It’s not that white or police lives don’t matter, but the latter are caked into the U.S.’s societal and legal structure. The justice system and societal norms take white and polices lives matteringas a given. Racial bias and deference to the police explains how Bennett can be charged with felony while district attorneys fail to indict police for killing unarmed black men. Bennett’s charge is a clear attempt to take down one of the NFL’s most prominent activist leaders involved in kneeling during the national anthem. Must this be the price to pay for exercising First Amendment rights? Is death the price to pay for being a young black man outside one’s grandmother’s house at night? — By Black [In]Justice in March: Michael Bennett’s Felony Charge and the Killing of Stephon Clark
No foreign country broke relations with Britain, or the United States, or Israel, or any other countries using targeted assassination as a policy. So this pretense that Russia has killed someone even without any evidence or with any trial is implausible on the very surface.So, the question is why are they doing this with Russia? Why are they imposing sanctions and mounting a great publicity campaign? And I think the answer has to lie in looking at why are they doing this now. Timing is the key. So let’s step back a minute and note what seems to be out of the ordinary in the British and US and NATO reaction. For starters the sanctions are supposed to be part of a diplomatic game plan designed to counter the presumed benefits to Russia. When the United States and Britain imposed banking factions they said this is to show you that if you think you can gain we’re going to make you lose even more than you gain. What’s bizarre here is that what gives Russia’s benefit in killing an ex-British spy who has been returned to the West in a spy trade and according to the reports wanted to go back to Russia. Nobody suggested any benefit to Russia at all and obviously there isn’t any. Therefor the sanctions are independent of any benefit and hence the poisonings. And regard to the poisonings themselves, the basis of Western law is a presumption of innocence and reliance on evidence. No judgment without evidence is supposed to be given. Otherwise it’s a rush to judgment or a “He Said, She Said” affair. And the second principle of Western law is that both sides get to present their case. But in the Skripel affair, which is now being called Skipel Gate, there is no opportunity for Russia to present its case. The Russians have not been given samples of the poison that could exonerate them. They haven’t even been admitted to see Mr. Skripal, although he’s a Russian citizen, or his daughter. who’s now awake and recovering. The British will not even let Skripel’s relatives come to Britain. So, the reaction is so out of proportion that obviously there’s a disconnect. This is a double standard and there’s a pre-existing prejudice here. So, I think instead of retaliation there seems to be a pre-determined strategy of attack on Russia and an attempt to isolate its economy. — Michael Hudson, The Economics Behind the Skripal Poisoning
Videos of the Day:
The Battle Hymn of The Republic – Modified for RelevanceThe right to representative democracy is done. It is money that’s selecting all the candidates who run. It is money buying policies that impact everyone, and we fell for the con.
U.S.:
War Deaths, and TaxesAre the federal taxes coming out of your wages and due this week killing you? Sadly what’s rhetorical for US tax payers is gravely literal for people of eight countries currently on the shooting end of the US budget. This year at least 47% of federal income taxes goes to the military (27%, or $857 billion, for today’s bombings and occupations, weapons, procurement, personnel, retiree pay & healthcare, Energy Dept. nuclear weapons, Homeland Security, etc.); and 20%, or $644 billion, for past military bills (veterans’ benefits — $197 billion; and 80% of the interest on the national debt — $447 billion). by John Laforge
Environment:
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Black [In]Justice in March: Michael Bennett’s Felony Charge and the Killing of Stephon ClarkIt’s been a trying second half of March for black men facing the U.S. justice system. On March 18th, 22-year old father of two was killed by police in his grandmother’s yard, after police responded to a vandalism complaint. As further information unraveled, including the police’s mutingof their body camera following the shooting and an autopsy report that found Clark had been mostly shot in the back,protests have swelled. A second event that has not garnered as much media attention has also come to light: the felonycharge against political activist and professional football player Michael Bennett, for allegedly injuring an elderly woman. All evidence seems to suggest that this is an unabashed effort to undermine the political activist through legal recourse. by Peter Crowley
Civil Rights/ Black Liberation:
Another MLK Anniversary, Another Gaza Massacre Ignored by the Black Political Class“…you will search in vain for a statement condemning this or the previous Israeli massacres in Gaza from the Congressional Black Caucus or for the most part, its individual members…” On Good Friday 30,000 Palestinians staged a peaceful and nonviolent march to a spot next to the infamous Israeli apartheid wall for a series of picnics and protests which they called the Great March of Return. “Return” refers to their righteous ambition to go back to the lands from which the US armed and financed apartheid state of Israel has dispossessed them. From a fortified position on the other side of the wall, Israeli soldiers of the so-called Israeli Defense Force opened fire upon the peaceful unarmed crowd with lethal weapons, injuring somewhere between 700 and 1,000 Palestinians and murdering 17. In a Twitter post that was soon taken down, the IDF proclaimed that soldiers defended themselves against a terrorist mob, and that they knew where every bullet landed. Israeli authorities have announced there will be no investigation of possible wrongdoing. As in Ferguson or Sacramento, the settler state’s enforcers enjoy immunity and impunity. Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor
Labor:
Economy:
Trump’s Remarks Send Dow Futures Plunging 360 Points Last NightIf you have ever watched the past Chairs of the Federal Reserve give their semi-annual testimony before the U.S. House and Senate, you are aware of how carefully they parse their words to avoid rattling the stock or bond markets. That’s how people in high places in government with insider information behave. But now we have Rambo in the Oval Office, randomly throwing grenades into already wildly fluctuating markets. This leads foreign investors as well as U.S. investors to question if they want their life savings to be invested in this carnival barker-like circus. Bloomberg News underscores this reality with an article todayabout a $60 billion money manager who is considering selling all of his U.S. assets because of the political risk. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Facebook and JPMorgan Chase: Case Studies in Exploitive MonetizationLast week the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, gave a harsh critique on how Facebook is making its money. Cook told an MSNBC Town Hall: “The truth is we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer, if our customer was our product. We’ve elected not to do that.” Cook has good reason to believe that Facebook has “monetized” its customers. After a whistleblower from the data mining company, Cambridge Analytica, exposed that Facebook had allowed the private information on 50 million Facebook users to be exploited for micro-targeting on behalf of the Trump presidential campaign, the company has come under withering criticism. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
Brazil: Lula’s imprisonment – crisis at the top, resistance, and our tasksThe judiciary continues its abuses of power. The Federal Supreme Court denied Lula’s request for habeas corpus, and on the following day, before new appeals were filed to the Regional Federal Court of the 4th Region, judge Sérgio Moro ordered Lula’s arrest. The rejection of habeas corpuscomes after the precedent set by Supreme Court ruling in 2016, authorizing the enforcement of the sentence upon conviction on the second instance. [In Lula’s case this means that while he can still appeal against the court ruling to a higher court, he will start serving the jail sentence while he appeals] The constitution states that “no one shall be held guilty until a final conviction sentence is passed.” The text is very clear, but for the distinguished judges of the Supreme Court, everything is relative—at its core this is a political question. By Esquerda Marxista
Pakistan: Pashtun movement (PTM) shakes the status quo!A new Pashtun movement has erupted in Pakistan, mobilizing hundreds-of-thousands of people across the country, with tens-of-thousands attending its public meetings. The state apparatus and the entire ruling class, including all establishment political parties, are trembling at the sight of this huge movement, which erupted from the most backward areas of the country – where it was least expected. By Adam Pal
Germany rejects Puigdemont extradition for rebellion: a blow to the Spanish regimeYesterday, the Spanish regime’s strategy of repression against the Catalan independence movement suffered a serious blow, when a German court in Schleswig-Holstein decided there were no grounds to extradite Catalan President Carles Puigdemont for rebellion. Additionally, a series of decisions by the Belgian justice system further undermined the position of the Spanish regime. By Jorge Martin
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.