December’s jobs report (+252k, unemployment rate down to 5.6%, +50k upward revisions in Oct/Nov jobs) means 2014’s 2.9 million jobs are the best yearly job gains since 1999. The only icky stuff is November’s six cent gain in hourly wages led to a five-cent drop in December, meaning wages are still not keeping up with job growth for now.
Still, it’s a good report for the most part.
Open thread otherwise, including the craziness in Paris.
RP
Key similarity between 2014 and 1999: San Antonio Spurs won the NBA championship.
Elizabelle
630 comments on DougJ’s bad music thread from yesterday, and still open for comments. Is that a recent record?
Elizabelle
Need to read up on President Obama’s community college proposal, but sounds like a great idea.
Hope the money doesn’t disappear in the GOP throwing everything they can at homeland security, in case we become Paris.
srv
The books are cooked.
dedc79
@Elizabelle: Someone should make a spotify playlist/mix out of all the nominees.
srv
The Erick explains why gays are just like the Charlie Hebdo terrorists.
gene108
@Elizabelle:
What’s the body count in Paris?
Six dead, 12 wounded?
That wouldn’t even make it past the local news in the USA. It is so unremarkable here.
Though, on second thoughtm the fact Muslims are doing it and not lone-white-American-males may make headlines.
Betty Cracker
According to the press round-up at Vox, the deli hostage-takers are threatening to kill hostages if the cops storm the holed-up Charlie Hebdo killers, who also have at least one hostage. Also, Paris authorities have ordered the closure of businesses in the Jewish section because they don’t know if there are other terrorists associated with the hostage takers. Holy shit.
JPL
@gene108: A Muslim holding one hostage would require 24 hour coverage by the cable channels.
Mike in NC
Saw a clip of the Turtleman taking credit for job growth. Seriously.
Seanly
@gene108:
I think the body count is around 14 or 15 over the last few days. 12 at the magazine including the police officer + 2 other police officers in other incidents.
Word is now that the hostage takers at the Jewish market want the brothers released. Not to be flippant about it, but not a good negotiating tactic since they aren’t in custody yet.
Elizabelle
@gene108: Prezactly. It’s scary people with guns.
Not good guys with guns and whocoodanode? (Has there been much forward coverage of the brilliant nuclear scientist killed by her own kid at WalMart in Idaho with her gun from her own purse? I’ve not noticed much…)
? Martin
@Elizabelle:
It’s not a bad idea, but it doesn’t make sense to me mainly because the community college system needs a re-think and would need a huge capital infusion in order to accommodate a larger and broader student body.
If we’re thinking of free community college to prepare kids for a 4 year school, that’s almost pointless because there’s no more capacity in the 4 year school system. Students will have no place to go. If we’re thinking of free community college for trades, the system isn’t set up for that right now. The plan will simply overwhelm the community colleges and make it even harder for the kids trying to use them as stepping stones to a 4 year school. We need a bigger/better vision for higher education and a clear role and vision for practical training and trades.
I’m also concerned that states would simply transfer capital budgets to student subsidies. Honestly, I’d rather see the feds invest in leveling the playing field in K-12, providing social programs and infrastructure to areas with low opportunities to learn. If you break kids before they get out of high school, giving them a free ride to college doesn’t help. Ultimately free community college will benefit middle class white kids trying to save a buck more than it will help low-income students. Free tuition doesn’t help much when you have to work two jobs just to pay rent and buy groceries, or where the cost of getting to class is far above the cost of class itself.
mdblanche
There are reports that the grocery hostage taker is demanding the release of the other hostage takers and Jewish businesses have been recommended to close. I have a bad feeling this isn’t going to end well.
mdblanche
And noqb they might be assaulting the print shop.
Iowa Old Lady
@Elizabelle: At the moment, they’re threatening to defund Homeland Security. They will have to do their patented against-it-before-we-were-for-it pivot.
Elizabelle
Watching “Not Fade Away”, in a desultory fashion. It’s (Sopranos’ creator) David Chase movie with James Gandolfini.
Always pang of loss when see JG.
Story about kids who form a band in the 1960s; good soundtrack. Music rights must have been considerable. Good period detail. JFK to California in late 60s.
Will watch the movie with more attention next time. It’s welcome relief from wall to wall cable about Paris.
Hadn’t heard of it when it came out. Did any of you?
JPL
CBSnews and France 24 both have live feeds about the situation in France.
mdblanche
@mdblanche: The way it’s going down doesn’t sound good. Like the terrorists forced their hand.
Elizabelle
Ah. We know it’s 1968; RFK posters up on wall in background. Like the cinematography. Don’t know any of the actors, but maybe you would, if you watched The Sopranos or other shows.
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: They won’t have to do anything. Fox viewers have a problem with their short term memory. They have problems with long term memory, too.
JPL
It appears that the police are moving into both locations.
Liberty60
Re: The jobs report- I blame Obama.
Wait, what- its good news? NVM, I credit the GOP. Job creators are pre-emptively overjoyed that social-ism is defeated and America once again triumphs.
JPL
Some hostages are seen to be escaping from the market. The brothers are dead.
Elizabelle
Well that was a movie to see again. Great music.
Way better than anything on yesterday’s bad music thread. Howling Wolf and Itchy Koo park and Rolling Stones and film ended with the Sex Pistols doing The Modern Lovers’ Roadrunner. Now closing credits with a Dylan song I’ve never heard, but it’s good.
Steven Van Zandt was music producer; they did spend a lot on it (maybe $2 million on music alone). Helps to be well-heeled going in.
Think I’d read that Charles Burnett’s incredible “Killer of Sheep” was not released for years, because the music he used was too expensive to obtain rights on the budget he had when he made it.
Betty Cracker
@JPL: What’s your news source?
JPL
Now they are saying six hostages in the market are dead.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: https://twitter.com/AFP?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2Flive%2F2015%2Fjan%2F09%2Fcharlie-hebdo-manhunt-kouachi-terrorist-links-live-updates&tw_i=553541676229472256&tw_p=tweetembed
France 24 online
Betty Cracker
@JPL: Thanks.
Elizabelle
It’s good to see police doing their job, instead of turning their backs and whingeing.
? Martin
@mdblanche:
If you have a situation where other hostage takers are effectively arriving as reinforcements, then yes, they probably feel they need to act before there’s a 3rd incident.
Elizabelle
@? Martin: Won’t it help kids who want to do an associate’s degree too? That can get you started; finish the four-year later.
Agree that PreK-12 needs funding — and will we ever get away from local funding? — but don’t make primary education the enemy of higher ed.
It’s appalling we even have to choose.
JPL
The situation is so fluid that at this point it really is difficult to sort out the truth.
Elizabelle
@? Martin:
Was any of it encroaching darkness that also encouraged police to act? (Wasn’t watching in real time…)
Suicide by SWAT.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: BBC says the two brothers are dead and the hostage is alive.
Betty Cracker
The Agence France-Presse Twitter feed (thanks, JPL) says the Charlie Hebdo killers came out firing at the cops, who then killed them. I hope the cops can take the remaining suspects alive; they’d likely have useful info.
mdblanche
@JPL: The problem for the GOP is that they’re threatening to defund DHS over the president’s immigration order. If there’s one thing their base never forgets, it’s all the scary brown people they’re supposed to fear. And now they’re stuck having to let one group of scary brown people or the other off the hook.
Tenar Darell
@mdblanche: I don’t get it; what’s the endgame? Isn’t this completely counterproductive to what they say they want? If DHS shuts down, there’ll be no enforcement.
gene108
@Mike in NC:
What’s interesting is they give Tip O’Neil and House Democrats no credit for the economic recovery of the 1980’s.
It’s as if Reagan mysteriously willed his agenda into law….
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: They already believe that the 2008 financial crisis happened because the market predicted that Obama was going to be elected. Space and time are as nothing when it comes to partisan/economic causality.
lamh36
Lawrence ODonnells segment last night on Selma was really great. He really brought great focus and got to the point the people like me and I think, the director are coming from in regards to the “historical integrity” critique.
I going to 2 movies this wknd…Taken and Selma. Taken because I plan to drag my nephew to Selma and I figured I’d give him something he wants to see just for sitting in show with me.
kdaug
@lamh36: Thanks.
satby
@? Martin:
Well put, and thank you! I see this all over Michigassippi, young people going to community college for pre-prerequisits because their schools graduated them with barely 8th grade skills. And then they can train for the thousands of jobs that AREN’T available here anyway.
Edited to add, jobs aren’t here anyway partly because the population locally doesn’t support the creation of the jobs here. Yeah, some may want to leave for better opportunities, but many want to stay where they grew up too. Most of the kids leave.
sparrow
@? Martin: Not commenting on the proposal, because I haven’t read it, but there is a pipeline from community college to “real university” that works for a lot of kids. Some of my boyfriend’s best students are kids that come from really poor/rough backgrounds and would have failed out of the big U classes if they hadn’t gone through a gentler intro via community college first.
lurker dean
LOL
Desus Nice @desusnice 17h17 hours ago
“MORE LIKE COMMIE UNITY COLLEGE”
*changes avatar to an american flag*
*adds #BENEGHAZI to bio*
hoodie
@satby: Second that. My wife teaches at an elementary with a large economically underprivileged population, mostly AA and Hispanic. A lot of the kids are developmentally delayed simply because they have not had the type of enrichment that upper and middle class kids do, e.g., no experience building things, exploring the outdoors, etc. A lot of their lives are extremely transient, e.g., frequent relocation due to evictions, job losses, etc., and there are nowhere near the resources needed to give them an instructional environment that makes up for that. Added to that, a lot of the kids have ADHD or other issues and disrupt the opportunity for a lot of the other kids to learn. Free community college is a lower priority IMO.
Mike in dc
5.6 is good. The all time low is 1.2…in 1944, at the height of our war effort. Then 2.5…during the Korean War. The lowest recent rate was 3.8, during the last year of Clinton. If we get anywhere near 4 percent before Obama leaves office, that would be amazing, all things considered.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@lamh36:
If you listen to NPR, Terry Gross had a great interview with the director of “Selma” on Fresh Air. I know Gross isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I really like that she makes a point of reading the book or watching the movie before she interviews people. She clearly loved “Selma” — she was asking the director questions about specific scenes that she had liked.
slag
I think this post massively undervalues the wage problem we’re still having. Wages are not an “icky stuff” footnote. They desperately need to be addressed in a serious fashion.