Month: April 2016

CUTTING THROUGH BLS BULLSHIT

The BLS just reported their monthly seasonally adjusted, birth death adjusted, bullshit guess of employment, designed to keep the sheeple in the dark. Amazingly, it wasn’t too bad or too good. The MSM says it was just right. The ongoing mantra is the job market has been strong and growing for years. Meanwhile, consumers don’t have money to spend. Maybe it’s the 2.3% annual wage increases when their living expenses go up by 5% or more.

Here are a few data points you won’t see on CNBC:

  • The establishment survey says 215,000 jobs were added in March. The good old birth death adjustment threw 65,000 new phantom jobs into that calculation for all the new small businesses opening up. Anyone with half a brain knows there have been more small businesses closing than opening for the last 4 years. The plus 65,000 is more likely minus 65,000. That would change the headline. Wouldn’t it?
  • The household survey shows 246,000 more people employed. What you won’t hear on CNBC is that it also shows 151,000 more people unemployed. It seems 206,000 people who were supposedly not in the labor force in February are suddenly back in. I thought the MSM said it was Boomers retiring creating the surge in people not in the labor force. I guess that was another false storyline.
  • Now for the good stuff. Table A-9 reveals the true health of this booming employment market. Of the 246,000 newly employed Americans, very few of the jobs were good paying secure positions, with benefits.
  • The number of self-employed people jumped by 194,000. So, selling shit on Ebay and Amway sales are propelling the job surge. Sounds promising.
  • The number of multiple job holders surged by 127,000 in March. So, Americans need to work two $7.50 an hour Obama jobs to make ends meet. This is truly a sign of a booming jobs market.
  • The number of employed men between the ages of 35 and 54 (prime earning years for men) dropped by 76,000 in March. It is lower than it was in January. When there are less bread winners working, the jobs recovery mantra is a fraud.
  • In a sure sign of a strong growing productive economy, 29,000 more manufacturing jobs disappeared for good. I’m sure China and Vietnam  appreciate the new manufacturing jobs sent their way.

  • At least the 26,000 newly unemployed, formerly well paid Americans, were able to get a waiter job at TGI Fridays, as the number of waiters and bartenders jumped by another 25,000. Our transition from a savings based producing society into a debt based consumption society is nearly complete. Thank you Obama.

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Lock Out the Establishment in Cleveland!

Guest Post by Patrick Buchanan

Lock Out the Establishment in Cleveland!

The Wisconsin primary could be an axle-breaking speed bump on Donald Trump’s road to the nomination.

Ted Cruz, now the last hope to derail Trump of a desperate Beltway elite that lately loathed him, has taken the lead in the Badger State.

Millions in attack ads are being dumped on the Donald’s head by super PACs of GOP candidates, past and present. Gov. Scott Walker has endorsed Cruz. Conservative talk radio is piling on Trump.

And the Donald just had the worst two weeks of his campaign.

There was that unseemly exchange with Cruz about their wives. Then came the pulling of the woman reporter’s arm by campaign chief Corey Lewandowski, an atrocity being likened by the media to the burning of Joan of Arc.

Then there was Trump’s suggestion, instantly withdrawn, that if abortion is outlawed, then women who undergo abortions may face some punishment.

This gaffe told us nothing we did not know. New to elective politics, Trump is less familiar with the ideological and issues terrain than those who live there. But the outrage of the elites is all fakery.

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The Clinton Investigation Enters a Dangerous Phase

Hat tip Francis Marion

Guest Post by Andrew Napolitano

The FBI investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failure to protect state secrets contained in her emails has entered its penultimate phase, and it is a dangerous one for her and her aides.

Federal law enforcement sources have let it be known that federal prosecutors and the FBI have completed their examination of raw data in the case. After the FBI acquires raw data — for example, the nature and number of the state secrets in the emails Clinton failed to protect or the regular, consistent, systematic nature of that failure — prosecutors and agents proceed to draw rational inferences from that data.

Then they proceed to corroborate those inferences, looking for other sources to support or even to contradict them. With one exception, all of this work has been done with neutral sources of evidence — documents, email metadata, government records and technical experts.

The exception is Bryan Pagliano, the one member of Clinton’s inner circle who, with either a written promise of non-prosecution or an order of immunity from a federal judge, began to cooperate with federal prosecutors last fall.

Here is what he told the feds.

Continue reading “The Clinton Investigation Enters a Dangerous Phase”

BUGOUT QOTD

Submitted by Raven

If you have ever considered bugging out, what considerations and locations have you contemplated?  No need to divulge any personal plans here.  I’m just looking to check my thinking.

Two recurring locations occur for me:

Ocean or waterfront (preferably ocean) with a good clean water source?

Mountain hideaway?

Or ideally, both.

Lately I’ve wondered about whether a hunter-gatherer philosophy to survival might be best.

Hearty resourceful neighbors and more than an average tank full of gas away from cities are also important.

Will need to grow, produce or hunt for food and clothing. Need trees for energy and shelter.

I like the idea of northern coastal areas.  Mountainous in many places, resilient people, less populated, natural homesteaders.  Short growing season is a big negative.  But there are ways to cope.

I’ve thought about going south, but it just doesn’t feel “healthy” for some reason.  Too hot and buggy.  Too many diseases and crop pestilence.  Too conducive to losing ones cool too easily in my mind.  The cool northern air feels fresher, cleaner to me, and the cold weather will keep people in doors more often.

Hope you’re all well.


QUOTES OF THE DAY

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”

Thomas Paine

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Thomas Paine

“Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”

Thomas Paine

“Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.”

Thomas Paine

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
Thomas Paine