Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Monthly Jobs Numbers are Relatively Decent

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176,000 jobs added to the non-farm payroll in April, which is somewhat better than natural growth in the labor force, and additionally, the adjustments to February and March added 100,000 to the NFP.

It should be noted thought, that this really is only a bit better than treading water:

The American economy continues to add jobs in proportion to population growth. Nothing less, nothing more.

 The share of American adults with jobs has barely changed since 2010, hovering between 58.2 percent and 58.7 percent. This employment-to-population ratio stood at 58.6 percent in April. That is about four percentage points lower than the employment rate before the recession, a difference of roughly 10 million jobs. In other words, the United States economy is not getting any closer to recreating the jobs lost during the recession.

And here is the scary quote:

Furthermore, the projections were wrong. Participation has actually risen among people older than 55. The decline is entirely driven by younger dropouts.

So, better, but our economy still sucks wet farts from dead pigeons.

In a Rare Bit of Honesty

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Roy Roberts the retiring emergency manager appointed to run the Detroit public schools, has admitted that he was told to destroy the school district when he was selected:

Roberts also told those gathered that when he arrived at DPS, he was told to “blow up” the district and dismantle it, [Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith] Johnson said.

“Blow it up — those were his exact words,” Detroit School Board member Tawanna Simpson confirmed.

Only the article at the Freep has been sanitized and that quote is gone.  One wonders why. 

The above paragraph is still referenced in the comments.

You can still find a similar quote at the story from The Detroit News, as well as some more of the editing funnies engaged in by the Detroit Free Press in this Electablog post, which has Roberts acknowledges his statement, but claims that it wasn’t Governor Rick Snyder who told him this.

Yeah, sure.

It’s Jobless Thursday!!!!

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Good news everyone!

The initial jobless claim numbers came out today, and the numbers are pretty good:

Initial jobless claims — a rough gauge of layoffs — sank by 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 324,000 in the week ended April 27, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the lowest level since January 2008.

………

Meanwhile, the four-week average of new claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell by 16,000 to 342,250. That’s the smallest amount in six weeks.

The number of people already receiving benefits, known as continuing claims, rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.02 million in the week ended April 20. Most states typically offer 26 weeks of unemployment pay.

Decent numbers.

Confusopolies are Obamacare’s Achilles Heel

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At the heart of healthcare reform, it is the insurance exchanges, and your average consumer lacks the sophistication necessary to see how the insurance companies will f%$# them until it is too late:

One of the big reasons I’m so pessimistic about the new health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act is the principle behind them. The idea is that everyone will be well- informed dedicated shoppers who will know how to select the best plan to fit their needs, which will reduce cost for everyone. Aflac’s 2013 WorkForces Report shows how deeply misguided this assumption is in reality.

Two numbers from the report really stick out. The survey found 54 percent of workers would prefer not to be more in control over their health insurance expenses and options because they will not have the time or knowledge to effectively manage it. This is completely understandable. Selecting the best insurance plan requires not only significant knowledge about every component of insurance, but also the ability to accurately predict the likelihood of future medical needs.

One thing that you can be sure of is that the insurance companies will do their level best to confuse customers so that they will make a decision that will increase their profits.

As John Maynard Keynes noted, “Capitalism is the theory that the worst people, acting from their worst motives, will somehow produce the most good.”

The health insurance industry is one of the best examples of this, and the health insurance reform plan requires us to rely on their good will.

Pleasant dreams.

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

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Unemployment in the Euro Zone has hit a record high, and there is still no sign of inflation:

The latest eurozone unemployment data, due at 10am BST, is expected to show the region’s jobless rate has risen to a new record high of 12.1% in March (from 12% last month).

Italy’s unemployment rate is also forecast to increase, showing the challenges facing its new government as it strives to drag the country back to growth.

And in Spain, new GDP data will doubtless confirm that the country’s economy contracted again in the first three months of 2013 (economists expect a fall of 0.5%).

………

Eurostat also reported this morning that inflation across the Eurozone has fallen to just 1.2% in April. That’s a sharp fall on March’s 1.7%, and a much smaller rise in the cost of living than analysts had expected.

That makes it more likely that the European Central Bank will bow to pressure and cut interest rates at its next monthly meeting on Thursday.

Austerity is not working.

Fed Stays Course

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So their quantitative easing program continues unabated:

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that its economic stimulus campaign would press forward at the same pace it has maintained since December, putting to rest for now any suggestion that it was leaning toward doing less.

The Fed emphasized that it was ready to increase or decrease its efforts to spur growth and reduce unemployment as necessary, a more balanced position than it took earlier in the year, reflecting the reality that a strong winter has once again yielded to a disappointing spring.

It was the first time that the Fed had explicitly mentioned the possibility of doing more in a policy statement, although officials, including the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, have made the point repeatedly in public remarks.

………

The Fed maintained a relatively sunny economic outlook in its statement, released after a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee. It said that the economy was expanding at a “moderate pace” and that the labor market had shown “some improvement.” It added, however, that federal spending cuts were “restraining economic growth,” an implicit critique of the rest of the government.

That language was stronger than the Fed had used in previous assessments of the economic impact of fiscal policy. Fed officials have repeatedly expressed frustration that fiscal policy is working at cross-purposes with their own monetary policy. The statement also noted that the pace of inflation had slackened, a potential sign of economic weakness. Bringing the annual rate of inflation closer to its target of 2 percent has been a primary goal of the Fed’s four-year-old stimulus campaign, but the statement expressed little concern about the recent deceleration to a pace of only about half that level.

Yeah, calling out the entire deficit fetish in DC is a good thing too.

I still think that Bernanke’s mental exercise, dropping massive quantities of cash from helicopters, is the way to go.

EU Bans Neonicotinoid Pesticides

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They are cioncerned that these pesticides are causing colony collapse disorder:

Environmentalists hailed a “victory for bees” today after the European Union voted for a ban on the nerve-agent pesticides blamed for the dramatic decline global bee populations.

Despite fierce lobbying by the chemicals industry and opposition by countries including Britain, 15 of the 27 member states voted for a two-year restriction on neonicotinoid insecticides. That gave the European Commission the support it needed to push through an EU-wide ban on using three neonicotinoids on crops attractive to bees.

Tonio Borg, the EC’s top health official, said they planned to implement the landmark ban from December. “I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem and contribute over €22bn annually to European agriculture, are protected,” he said.

Britain was among eight nations which voted against the motion, despite a petition signed by 300,000 people presented to Downing Street last week by fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett. The Independent has also campaigned to save Britain’s bee population.

Four nations abstained from the moratorium, which will restrict the use of imidacloprid and clothianidin, made by Germany’s Bayer, and thiamethoxam, made by the Swiss company, Syngenta. The ban on use on flowering crops will remain in place throughout the EU for two years unless compelling scientific evidence to the contrary becomes available.

More than 30 separate scientific studies have found a link between the neonicotinoids, which attack insects’ nerve systems, and falling bee numbers. The proposal by European Commission – the EU’s legislative body – to ban the insecticides was based on a study by the European Food Safety Authority, which found in January that the pesticides did pose a risk to bees’ health.

The argument against this is that the evidence is not sufficiently conclusive.

Hopefully, the two year ban should provide some good data, though the Wiki indicates that the pesticide can persist in the environment for more than two years.

Quote of the Day

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The Republican congressional delegation — particularly the members of the House — are completely creatures of the base. They are former state legislators and state senators who got elected to those offices espousing ideas that likely were further out there than the ones they’re spouting now. In large part, they were raised within the base’s political structures, both inside and outside of government. They are the product of a closed information society, with its own history and its own science and its own truth. To borrow a line from Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail, the Republican members of the House are the fking base, motherfker. They’re not asking for permission to do the right thing, and they’re certainly not waiting for this president to provide it. They’re not posing. They are not doing what they’re told. They’re doing what they believe.

Charlie Pierce on why Barack Obama will not find common ground with the Republicans in Congress

(emphasis mine)

You know this, and I know this, but Barack Obama is unwilling to recognize reality.

Jon Stewart Has a Comedygasm

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Jon Stewart was positively ecstatic last night about the whole ricin mailer thing (see video).

You remember, how Paul Kevin Curtis, the Elvis impersonator, was framed for mailing poisoned letters to President Obama and Senator Wiker? Well they have now fingered an enemy of his, Everett Dutschke, for the deed, and he is a Wayne Newton impersonator.

Remember what the Chinese say about living in interesting times?

Well, for Jon Stewart, this makes his job pretty easy.

Why am I not Surprised?

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The New York Times has revealed that they delivered big sacks of cash to Afghan President Hamid Karzai:

President Hamid Karzai acknowledged Monday that the Central Intelligence Agency has been dropping off bags of cash at his office for a decade, saying the money was used for “various purposes” and expressing gratitude to the United States for making the payments.

 Mr. Karzai described the sums delivered by the C.I.A. as a “small amount,” though he offered few other details. But former and current advisers of the Afghan leader have said the C.I.A. cash deliveries have totaled tens of millions of dollars over the past decade and have been used to pay off warlords, lawmakers and others whose support the Afghan leader depends upon.

 The payments are not universally supported in the United States government. American diplomats and soldiers expressed dismay on Monday about the C.I.A.’s cash deliveries, which some said fueled corruption. They spoke privately because the C.I.A. effort is classified.

Others were not so restrained. “We’ve all suspected it,” said Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah and a critic of the war effort in Afghanistan. “But for President Karzai to admit it out loud brings us into a bizarro world.”

Mr. Karzai’s comments, made at a news conference in Helsinki, Finland, where he is traveling, were not without precedent. When it emerged in 2010 that one of his top aides was taking bags of cash from Iran, Mr. Karzai readily confirmed those reports and expressed gratitude for the money. Iran cut off its payments last year after Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership deal with the United States over Iran’s objections.

I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

I’m so not surprised that this was the guy that George W. Bush and his evil minions™ chose to run the country.

They wanted someone whom they could buy.

Unfortunately, they also found someone who doesn’t stay bought.

This is Repulsive

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Norristown, PA has a policy of trying to evict victims of domestic violence:

Gosh. Norristown, Pennsylvania seems like it must be a real nice place to live what with its strict schoolmarm rule against “disorderly behavior.” In order to be fair, however, the rule applies not only to those who perpetrate “disorderly behavior” but also to those who might happen to be victims of it. Best legal system in the world! Watch and learn, America: The Norristown police notified a woman whose boyfriend assaulted her that she was being evicted for the crime of disturbing the peace by being assaulted too many times.

From the ACLU:

Last year in Norristown, Pa., Lakisha Briggs’ boyfriend physically assaulted her, and the police arrested him. But in a cruel turn of events, a police officer then told Ms. Briggs, “You are on three strikes. We’re gonna have your landlord evict you.”

Yes, that’s right. The police threatened Ms. Briggs with eviction because she had received their assistance for domestic violence. Under Norristown’s “disorderly behavior ordinance,” the city penalizes landlords and tenants when the police respond to three instances of “disorderly behavior” within a four-month period. The ordinance specifically includes “domestic disturbances” as disorderly behavior that triggers enforcement of the law.

Oh, well, that certainly makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, the poor police officers wouldn’t want to be dragged away from their donuts and coffee just because some broad got in a fight with her man because he didn’t load the dishwasher right or something, and then she called the 5-O on him just ’cause bitches, man, sometimes they’re like that.

After her first “strike,” Ms. Briggs was terrified of calling the police. She did not want to do anything to risk losing her home. So even when her now ex-boyfriend attacked her with a brick, she did not call. And later, when he stabbed her in the neck, she was still too afraid to reach out. But both times, someone else did call the police. Based on these “strikes,” the city pressured her landlord to evict.

Seriously.  How about arresting her psycho ex-boyfriend?

BTW, if you go the the ACLU link you will find that Norristown is not alone in this.

Any number of municipalities have a policy of punishing the victim, because it is inconvenient.

Live in Obedient Fear, Citizen

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It turns out that the interrogation of  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not merely involve not notifying him of his Miranda rights.  It may also have involved ignoring specific requests for a lawyer:

Since Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody just over a week ago, the hue and cry in the public and media discussion has centered on “Miranda” rights and to what extent the “public safety exception” thereto should come into play. That discussion has been almost uniformly wrongheaded. I will return to this shortly, but for now wish to point out something that appears to have mostly escaped notice of the media and legal commentariat – Tsarnaev repeatedly tried to invoke his right to counsel.

 Tucked in the body of this Los Angeles Times report is the startling revelation of Tsarnaev’s attempt to invoke:

A senior congressional aide said Tsarnaev had asked several times for a lawyer, but that request was ignored since he was being questioned under the public safety exemption to the Miranda rule. The exemption allows defendants to be questioned about imminent threats, such as whether other plots are in the works or other plotters are on the loose.

Assuming the accuracy of this report, the news of Tsarnaev repeatedly attempting to invoke right to counsel is critically important because now not only is the 5th Amendment right to silence in play, but so too is the right to counsel under both the 5th and 6th Amendments. While the two rights are commonly, and mistakenly, thought of as one in the same due to the conflation in the language of the Miranda warnings, they are actually somewhat distinct rights and principles. In fact, there is no explicit right to counsel set out in the Fifth at all, it is a creature of implication manufactured by the Supreme Court, while the Sixth Amendment does have an explicit right to counsel, but it putatively only attaches after charging, and is charge specific. Both are critical to consideration of the Tsarnaev case; what follows is a long, but necessary, discussion of why.

………

The primacy, and fundamental nature of the right to custodial interrogation counsel, however, was confirmed in the 1981 decision of Edwards v. Arizona, where the court held suspects have the right under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to have counsel present during custodial interrogation, as declared in Miranda, and that right cannot be invaded absent a clear and valid waiver. While it is true, under Berghuis v. Thompkins, a suspect must affirmatively invoke his right to counsel as opposed to simply standing silent, there is no authority for interrogators to simply ignore and frustrate, over an extended period, a suspect’s express request for counsel as appears to have occurred in Tsarnaev’s case.

You can be pretty sure that if the reports are accurate that Holder, and probably Obama, were aware of his request for counsel within minutes of his first request.

This is repulsive. 

These sorts of tactics are reminiscent of a police state.

Dropped from My Blogroll

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Matthew Yglesias has been dropped from my blogroll.

He just wrote an article saying that it’s OK that all those people died in Bangladesh, it’s a choice made by “rational actors” to trade safety for jobs:

I think that’s wrong. Bangladesh may or may not need tougher workplace safety rules, but it’s entirely appropriate for Bangladesh to have different—and, indeed, lower—workplace safety standards than the United States.

The reason is that while having a safe job is good, money is also good.

Shades of Larry Summers suggesting that we ship toxic waste to Africa because they need the money.

The workers did not have a choice about safety. They knew that they, and their families, would face starvation if they got fired for not going into an unsafe building. The choice was made by their evil bosses.

This is a constant theme of his writing, and I am no interested in his faux liberal bullsh%$.

While there are people on my blogroll with who I profoundly disagree with because they provide insight into foreign view points.

Retired Maryland Republican hatchet man Joe Steffen, and Russian/Orthodox Christian Nationalist Stanislav Mishin are two such examples on my blogroll.

His view, which can best be described by the phrase, “Even the liberal The New Republic.”

It’s all about self-entitled white guys who never have to wonder about where their next meal is coming from play the Michael Kinsley counter-intuitive idiocy game in an attempt to prove how smart they are.

It’s dull, it’s predictable, it’s bereft of any real insight, and it’s off my regular reading list.

Awwww!!! Rick Perry’ Feelings are Hurt!!!!

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Texas’ Business Climate in a Nutshell

So, following the fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people, Sacramento Bee cartoonist Jack Ohman accurately depicted the political-industrial of Texas, and Governor Rick Perry demanded an apology, and his butt boy/Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst demanded that he be fired.

It really does amaze me just how much the “Real Men” of the Republican Party whine like little bitches when someone makes a reasoned critique of their policies.

It’s more than wimpy, it’s stupid.

No one but a few people in central California would have known about this cartoon if he hadn’t made an issue of it, but he just couldn’t let it slide.

I should thank him.  I never would have seen the cartoon but for his foot in his mouth.