June 20 2024
US economy slowing?; military draft; TikTok; 10 commandments in school; Putin in Pyongyang
1 Do slowing retail sales indicates economic slowdown?
2 Facing massive recruitment shortfall, Congress debates draft
3 Government opens new front in battle against TikTok
4 CULTURE WARS LA requires 10 commands to be displayed in schools
5 BATTLE FOR EURASIA Russia, North Korea sign defense pact
6/20/1898 US seizes the island of Guam
see ad astra on x @greg_loving
1 Do slowing retail sales indicates economic slowdown?
A top US Federal Reserve official has said price cuts at big retailers and weaker sales suggest that a slowdown in consumer spending has “finally” begun, increasing the chances that the central bank will lower interest rates this year. Adriana Kugler, a Fed governor, said retailers were being forced to lower prices to hang on to cost-conscious consumers, a trend that made her more optimistic that inflation was on course to hit the Fed’s 2 per cent goal. A report released on Tuesday showing retail sales in May rose by just 0.1 per cent “may be another signal that the long-expected deceleration in consumer spending may finally be upon us”, Kugler said at an event at the Peterson Institute think-tank in Washington on Tuesday. “If the economy evolves as I am expecting, it will likely become appropriate to ease [monetary] policy at some point later this year,” she added.
Article Source: FT
Ed note: Fed rate cuts = slowing economy
2 Facing massive recruitment shortfall, Congress debates draft
The United States military has not activated a draft in more than 50 years, but Congress is weighing proposals to update mandatory conscription, including by expanding it to women for the first time and automatically registering those eligible to be called up. The proposals making their way through the House and Senate stand a slim chance of becoming law, and none would reinstate the draft compelling service right away. But the debate over potential changes reflects how lawmakers are rethinking the draft at a time when readiness issues have risen to the fore and as the Pentagon is facing recruitment challenges amid a raft of risks and conflicts around the world.
Article Source: NYT
Ed note: being associated with reinstating the draft will be political kryptonite
3 Government opens new front in battle against TikTok
The Federal Trade Commission said it had “uncovered reason to believe” that TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance “are violating or are about to violate the law” in a complaint referred to the US justice department for further action. The FTC first began investigating TikTok over a possible violation of a law governing the online privacy of children several years ago. It said on Tuesday that it had also begun investigating potential breaches of the FTC Act, which outlaws “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” by businesses. “Our investigation found reason to believe that TikTok is violating or about to violate the FTC Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,” FTC chair Lina Khan wrote on X, the social media platform. In its statement, the FTC added that while it did not typically make public its decisions to refer complaints, it had determined that doing so was “in the public interest” in this case.
Article Source: FT
4 CULTURE WARS Louisiana requires 10 commands to be displayed in schools
Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation on Wednesday requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in Louisiana, making the state the only one with such a mandate and reigniting the debate over how porous the boundary between church and state should be. Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, vowed a legal fight against the law they deemed “blatantly unconstitutional.” But it is a battle that proponents are prepared, and in many ways, eager, to take on.
Article Source: NYT
5 BATTLE FOR EURASIA Russia, North Korea sign defense pact
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, revived a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge between their nations on Wednesday, as the Kremlin deepened its security relationship with North Korea and vowed solidarity in challenging the United States. Neither Russia nor North Korea immediately released the text of the new treaty. But Mr. Putin, speaking at a joint briefing in Pyongyang after the two leaders signed the document, said the pact called for the nations to aid one another in the event of “aggression” against either country. Mr. Kim claimed the new “treaty” elevated the two countries’ relations to an “alliance.” Mr. Putin did not say whether the new agreement would require immediate and full-fledged military intervention in the event of an attack, as the now-defunct 1961 treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang specified during the days of the Cold War. The pledge of mutual assistance is likely to further alarm Washington and its allies. It could presage not only deeper support by North Korea for Russia’s war in Ukraine but also greater support from Moscow in aiding Mr. Kim’s quest for better-functioning nuclear weapons, missiles, submarines and satellites — a development that would increase anxiety among America’s Asian allies, especially South Korea.
Any transfer of arms or military technology to or from North Korea is prohibited by U.N. sanctions that Russia blessed. Mr. Putin, however, said on Wednesday that it was time to review those sanctions, calling “the very practice of sanctions strangulation” and a tool of Western hegemony.
The new agreement was one of the most visible rewards Mr. Kim has extracted from Moscow in return for the dozens of ballistic missiles and over 11,000 shipping containers of munitions that Washington has said North Korea provided in recent months to meet Mr. Putin’s urgent needs on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Article Source: NYT
6/20/1898 On the way to the Philippines to fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy seizes the island of Guam
Sources
1. https://www.ft.com/content/93caec3b-052a-4358-8b7b-9ab24e28ceae?accessToken=zwAGGzGMds-AkdOTyuw7BSpDWNOLe5qyTijOrg.MEYCIQCxI1z4E96HYI6FgKdjsSpWR4VoPcfm7vVmQjjbO3pW7QIhAIjSvEkKw7IzbssatZyoY6NQTuYt73Jy9tr9f6AT6Muh&sharetype=gift&token=933edc53-d7ef-4a4c-9914-23006077662a
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/us/politics/military-draft-women.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
3. https://on.ft.com/45D4CT9
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/us/louisiana-ten-commandments-classrooms.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/world/asia/putin-meets-kim-north-korea.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
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