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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.
Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.
Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.
Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.
Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.
Republicans in disarray!
Damn right I heard that as a threat.
I was promised a recession.
The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.
A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires
Tick tock motherfuckers!
Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.
We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
It’s the corruption, stupid.
I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.
… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact
Black Jesus loves a paper trail.
Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.
zzyzx
Yeah but we’d have have a -43% unemployment rate if it weren’t for Obama!
rlrr
Mitt has a sad.
chopper
clearly, obama has made the economy worse.
Baud
I thought God was supposed to hate Democrats.
Seriously, I’m happy for the people able to find work, and I hope this helps prevent Americans from making a tragic mistake in November.
Yutsano
@chopper: That must be true. Willard has said so several times over now.
Dave
But if Mitt were president we would have good job reports AND rocket-powered unicorns. So why should I be happy about this?
Baud
By the way, I find Steve Benan’s chart on jobless claims to be devastating. I don’t know why I haven’t seen it anywhere else.
dmsilev
@Yutsano: That’s OK. By next week, Romney will be accusing Obama of creating too many jobs.
rlrr
@Baud:
In 2010 a common phrase in all Republican advertising was “Job killing stimulus.”
rlrr
@dmsilev:
Some believe we need high unemployment to keep wages down…
cmorenc
@Baud:
We’re going to be fighting against a richly financed disinformation Wurlitzer spewing out grossly misleading distortions, outright lies, and distracting shiny objects at a furious rate and volume that will challenge our best efforts to expose, debunk, and communicate truthfully correct information to the electorate. Fortunately, one thing we have going for us is that the GOP has so far created such a voluminous stream of self-inflicted blunders (and so has their prohibitively likely POTUS candidate) that even Frank Luntz is unlikely to be able to summon enough black magic to counteract and misleadingly distract the public’s attention with. In other words, the GOP has far worse, more challenging message problems than the Dems do going into this election, quite the opposite of what the conventional wisdom was only six months ago.
Patricia Kayden
We’re moving in the right direction.
slippy
This election season is going to be nuts. I expect the racism, hate, vilification, and racism to be insane.
Did I mention that I expect to see a lot of racism and bigotry this year? Because the facts are in, and it’s now unavoidable: Republicans SUCK at governing. And they’ve got no ideas, and no excuses anymore.
So it’s going to be racism, all day long.
jo6pac
@cmorenc: Thank you, the numbers don’t lie and the only reason they’re this good is thousand in states dropped off because they no longer giving extensions because the UI doesn’t meet the cook the book numbers. Remember that wonderful bill signed to give extensions well it did the opposite, thanks to demodogs and repugs sold out Main Street again
Keith G
This is very good news indeed. I am so glad President Obama is finally catching some breaks after some very tough years.
It is also good news that a fire bomb attack on an office of the texas state legislator has no relationship to partisan politics. Now, will a frontpager and many commenters who filled space here with the fevered imaginings and outrageous criticisms recant now and be more careful next time?
Earl
THIS.
amk
@Baud: That’s a great graf. Even teh stppoid should be able to get it.
Earl
Sorry about the blockquote cutoff, Slippy.
Thanks for the line!
daveNYC
@cmorenc:
On the plus side though, an improving economy and money in the bank account does tend to make people happier about the way things are going. That should make it (slightly) more difficult for the BS factory to do its work.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think the best part of the election will be conservatives twisting themselves into pretzels over supporting Mittens. After all, a weather vane like Mitt is a worthy centurion to bring about the Right’s Dream of making the poor and the elderly starve to death.
Legalize
Which is why The Frothy Mixture is telling us that the election is not about the economy. It’s about teh Freedum!!!! And the mouth-breathers nod in agreement.
Cacti
So which of our concern trolls will be the first to tell us that this is actually terrible news?
Yutsano
@Cacti: It’s good news for John McCain. I’m sure Halperin will be along to tell us why here at any moment.
But yeah, I’m dying for the U-3/U-6 discussions again. Sigh.
japa21
@Legalize: But it would sound so much better if Gibson were doing those speeches.
Tom Q
@Cacti: See comment 14.
Cat Lady
@Baud:
I just put it on my Book of Faces page to deliberately piss off my two wingnut friends. I’m SO sick of their “Obama sucks every day in every way” relentless bullshit.
libarbarian
Statistical noise
Someguy
Sorry, but this Kool Aid tastes like ass.
341k new jobless claims vs. 221k new jobs according to the same Dept. of Labor report.
Is it concern trolling to point out that despite the slightly falling jobless claims and a steady unemployment rate, this still means that 120k jobs were vaporized out of the workforce?
Martin
Anything under 350,000 is pretty much ‘normal’. It almost never goes below 300K, so this really is pretty much right where we want to be – so don’t be disappointed if they’re only going down by a few thousand or even up a little here and there.
This doesn’t say anything about whether we’re adding jobs or not, but it means we’re not losing them in notable numbers, pretty much anywhere. Basically, we’ve plugged the hole in the boat. Now we just need to keep bailing.
Cacti
@Someguy:
I’m sorry late entrant. Commenter 14 has already taken the “concern troll is concerned” prize.
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@Keith G: source please
xian
read yesterday too about how public-sector job creation benefited Bush’s economy and how the opposite is a drag on Obama’s.
Martin
@Someguy:
No, but it does mean you’re stupid.
The two numbers measure completely different things. First, the unemployment numbers are for first filers for benefits. More people than that left jobs – either voluntarily or they were fired for cause, which makes you ineligible for unemployment. The 341K is layoffs only. People also retire. Or die. There’s a lot more people leaving jobs than just that number.
The 221K is new jobs – in addition to the existing number of unfilled jobs. Plus there are new entrants to the workforce and there are those currently on unemployment (previous new filers) that need to be added to the losses above to understand what the job demand is.
The unemployment rate measures yet something else – it’s a survey, so it’s how many people are are receiving unemployment benefits, and those that are not, who want jobs, so it includes new entrants, it accounts for retirees – basically anyone looking for a job who doesn’t have one. If it’s flat, then the rate of job openings is at least matching the rate of job losses + changes in the workforce. Since we know that the attachment rate is going up, that tells us there’s a net increase in the number of available jobs each month.
BenA
I think it’s also fair to point out that the employment picture is improving DESPITE state governments downsizing at a rapid rate AND steadily increasing oil prices.
Felinious Wench
@Martin:
I have grown to really enjoy your combination of snark with factual explanations of why the snark, backed up with data. You’re a commentator I always read because I learn something from your posts.
So, golf clap. You add to the community.
Tone In DC
@Martin:
Thanks for dropping some knowledge on the blog. I like it.
ETA: I see Felonious Wench beat me to it.
feebog
@ Martin:
Second the motion from FW. Well stated and factually correct. Just imagine where we would be if Obama’s rather modest second stimulus bill had passed. Despite Republican obstructionism, things are turning around.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@feebog:
It sorta did pass, largely under the radar in the form of any number of add on stim dollars piggy backed onto other legislation. And keeping the Bush tax cuts for the middle class in place for the short term, probably saved the day by not taking out of the economy, those money’s left in MC paychecks to be spent immediately as stim. But most everyone, including many liberal/progressives have been only focusing on the original stimulus, and it’s shortcomings with short term stim dollars, and it’s heaviness on longer term R And D moneys, that likely have ramped up some of the manufacturing job market, we are seeing.
Obama really is a keynesian, in the broader sense of that theory, but unlike others in the Ivory Tower wringing their hands over the original stimulus bill, has had to practice Keynesian policy in the face of overwhelming oppo from the wingnuts, and some from his own party. To get more fed money spent into the economy as stimulus/ It’s called governing, and it is a complicated challenge in this nutty country.
Msskwesq
I am encouraged to see these numbers, but it doesn’t take the sting out of my 26 year old daughters 2nd layoff since she graduated from college. Her new layoff happened at a very successful investment firm that invests big union and other big Corp retirement funds. They replaced a division of workers with computer software. Damn technology is going to kill more jobs than NAFTA. In my own career as an attorney, I’ve seen technology kill lots of jobs including court reporters and court clerks.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Msskwesq:
I don’t think the effects of advances in automation in this recession has been getting enough attention, or enough study. And it’s a long-term trend that’s not going away.
I was talking about this with a Republican pharmacist acquaintance not too long ago. His response was generally along the lines of well, it doesn’t effect us. Then I pointed out to him that his pharmacy already uses machines to dispense the pills and to check for cross-reactions between meds. His job will probably be automatable by 2020 (he didn’t take too kindly to that, but couldn’t really disagree).
And my own job goes away once computers are able to program themselves, probably less than a decade after that. If I’m very lucky, maybe they’ll keep me around to write their requirements documents for them until I retire.
The Clinton plan was for American workers to climb up the value chain to keep ahead of foreign workers (at first) and machines (eventually), but in the face of automation, that’s like climbing up a tree to try and get away from a mountain lion– it only delays the inevitable.
And none of our alleged Serious People are capable of comprehending these impending changes, much less dealing with them.
Wee Bey
@Martin:
Bless you.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
Comment in moderation. I bet the word that rhymes with “farmacy” had something to do with it….
Joseph Nobles
Not to indulge Keith G.’s hijack attempt too much, but he’s right. The state senator’s office was firebombed by a homeless man concerned about being Tasered once and his discovery of an alien species.
My mistake. That’s a link to a story about a Planned Parenthood of North Texas office being firebombed last July. Here’s the link about the homeless man.