Individual-1, a joke or a threat? (talk Trump)

[DRSB]

"U.S. adds whopping 312,000 jobs in December"
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live-u-j ... on-brknews

[Svartalf]

how many of those were strictly seasonal Xmas jobs in commerce?

[DRSB]

how many of those were strictly seasonal Xmas jobs in commerce?

Good point as the unemployment rate actually rose:

The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% in December.

[Forty Two]

I don't know, you tell me. In December 2017, the job gains were +148,000. In December 2016, it was 156,000. So, this year it's 312,000, which far exceeded predictions of 176,000. It's been well over a decade since December added 300,000+ jobs. I can't even find the last year in which that occurred. Maybe somebody can look it up. It may be one of the biggest ever Decembers.

Wages jumped 3.2 percent from a year ago and 0.4 percent over the previous month. The year-over-year increase is tied with October for the best since April 2009.

The employment situation is so good that with 312,000 jobs ADDED in December, unemployment rose to 3.9% because so many more people joined the labor force and are looking for work (and expecting to find it).

Here's hoping for a solid 2019!

[Forty Two]

how many of those were strictly seasonal Xmas jobs in commerce?

Good point as the unemployment rate actually rose:

The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% in December.

That's because so many more people joined the workforce.

We have a record number of people in the workforce, with wonderfully low unemployment rate. The fact that unemployment rate ticked up a bit from 3.7 to 3.8 during a month that saw massive job gains at 312,000, means the work force expanded greatly, which indicates that more people are out there looking for work.

Unemployment is calculated by measuring the percentage of the workforce who are unemployed. To be in the workforce, you have to be ready, willing and able to work, which is measured by the survey which asks if people have looked for work in the weeks prior to the survey. Unemployment "rate" can go down if the workforce shrinks - i.e. if people stop looking for work, go back to school, etc., the number of people considered in the workforce drops.

[DRSB]

This is the ILO-standard, which is good. In Switzerland, the government reports only the registered persons on unemployment benefits and disregards all the others whose entitlement has finished which renders the unemployment numbers fake news. It is good to look behind the nominal figure to understand what is being reported.

[Forty Two]

This is the ILO-standard, which is good. In Switzerland, the government reports only the registered persons on unemployment benefits and disregards all the others whose entitlement has finished which renders the unemployment numbers fake news. It is good to look behind the nominal figure to understand what is being reported.

The 3.9% number for unemployment is not based on persons registered for unemployment. One need not apply for unemployment to be considered unemployed, and one can have expired benefits and still be in the workforce.

People are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. The labor force is made up of the employed and the unemployed (as defined in the previous sentence). The remainder—those who have no job and are not looking for one—are counted as not in the labor force.

So, when X thousand people enter the workforce (those were previously not looking for work, and they start looking for work, they increase the number of people considered "unemployed" because they are now in the workforce). I.e., the rate did not go up because of people losing their jobs. It went up because of people re-joining the workforce, which is a good thing.

[Scot Dutchy]

America cant produce statistics. It has no clue about any part of American society.
Unemployment figures; "now lets see. How many do you want?"
Independent sources outside of government (Trump's) influence says there is a massive floating population of people that dont count. They are not registered anywhere. Plenty are not even registered at birth.
Of course 42 will never agree to that. The USA is in many ways a third world country.
42 dont bother replying I will never read it because you talk crap.

[Cunt]

Cunt, you do know that children raised in orphanages turn out different from those with parents, right? Months of holding in cells has an impact.

Tero, you do know that children raised in the US turn out different from those raised in Mexico, right?

Look, someone is trying to vilify the President, and anyone who does a government job. I think it's fucking disgusting. If you won't take a job in law enforcement, your criticisms of their practices sound naive and ill-considered.

You said that Trump was torturing children, then showed a photo of children being cared for in a shelter, before (presumably) being sent back to their home country. Would you think it was better if they just tossed them over the wall?

Where is he torturing children? If he isn't doing it, then you are just showing how easily led you are. Being willing to accuse someone of that kind of awful crime, with no evidence, is maybe how you roll every day, but I doubt it. You can only treat strangers this way. Your neigbours, friends and children wouldn't take it.

Cunt, you do know that children raised in orphanages turn out different from those with parents, right? Months of holding in cells has an impact.

Yeah, but it's the parents fault -- they made the government do it by being dumb and getting caught -- so it doesn't count.

I don't know what they did, but their parents likely tried to invade a country without going through proper immigration channels.

I get the idea that you want open borders, but the fact is, if you want a border to be secure at all, it is going to mean that some people aren't allowed to cross it, and will be sent out of the country when found.

Blaming Trump for that is like blaming a lock company for not allowing home invaders into your home.

Videos Show Migrant Children Being Slapped, Dragged At Since-Shuttered Arizona Shelter
The Hacienda Del Sol shelter, run by the embattled Southwest Key Programs, was shut down by the federal government in October.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5c28 ... Y9PdaTxYKQ

Only a cunt would defend this.

But I'm not defending abuse, simply defending the right of a country do enforce border security.

You would like to make it about abuse, but you can't even acknowledge that open borders are your goal. Fuck, open your front door, and stop locking people out of your house. They might need shelter, and you probably have a lot of room behind that lock.

and yes, Scot Duchy, there are lots of illegal aliens in the US, who do not show up on various registries. They DO, however, show up at hospitals, shelters, jails, jobs, and the Western Union office (to ship money back home)

So why is it surprising that lots of people are not registered? Isn't that the whole point of sanctuary cities? They won't make anyone answer citizenship questions?

[L'Emmerdeur]

The Wall Street Journal has noted that Trump's comments on Afghanistan were 'a slander' against the allies of the US. Moreover, his version of history in regard to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is completely inaccurate.

Mr. Trump ridiculed other nations’ commitment of troops to fight alongside America’s in Afghanistan. He said, “They tell me a hundred times, ‘Oh, we sent you soldiers. We sent you soldiers.’”

This mockery is a slander against every ally that has supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan with troops who fought and often died. The United Kingdom has had more than 450 killed fighting in Afghanistan.

As reprehensible was Mr. Trump’s utterly false narrative of the Soviet Union’s involvement there in the 1980s. He said: “The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there.”

Right to be there? We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with three divisions in December 1979 to prop up a fellow communist government.

The invasion was condemned throughout the non-communist world. The Soviets justified the invasion as an extension of the Brezhnev Doctrine, asserting their right to prevent countries from leaving the communist sphere. They stayed until 1989.

[Link to Twitter which contains further link to the WSJ piece]

Others have noted that Trump's version of history precisely aligns with one being put forward by United Russia (Putin's political party) in conjunction with the Communist party in Russia.

To the casual observer, President Trump's strange mini-lecture on the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan during his televised Cabinet meeting Wednesday may as well have been an outtake from Drunk History. "The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia," Trump said, falsely. "They were right to be there."

"To appreciate the shock value of Trump's words, it's necessary to dust off some Cold War history," David Frum writes in The Atlantic, and he does, briefly explaining why the Soviets really invaded in 1979 and how nobody in America — from either party — subscribes to the "Soviet-Putinist propaganda" Trump spouted Wednesday. "Putin-style glorification of the Soviet regime is entering the mind of the president, inspiring his words and — who knows — perhaps shaping his actions," Frum warned. "How that propaganda is reaching him — by which channels, via which persons — seems an important if not urgent question."

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had the same question Thursday night, and she began by noting other instances of Trump surfacing bizarre Kremlin-aligned disinformation about Belarus and Montenegro. "The only place on Earth articulating that is the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin," she said. "Where did he get that from? Who planted that in his ear?"

"There is nowhere in America — nowhere — where President Trump might have picked up this idea" that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was "right" or in response to terrorism, Maddow said. "But there is one place not in America." Next month, Putin's United Russia party will vote to formally and retroactively rehabilitate the decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as justified due to terrorism. "That is the only place in nature where that idea even exists," she said. "Someone is stovepiping this stuff into the president's ears so it pops out of his mouth at the most unexpected times. What do we do with that?"

I think it's reasonable to question both how and why Trump is regurgitating United Russia disinformation.

[Cunt]

I think it's reasonable to question both how and why there is a steady narrative about Russia being communist, evil and all that. I don't know all of Russia, but the people I know seem to have a decent life, in a country which looks much like mine, among people who seem like...regular people.

I mean, if I only listened to the racist media, I would have (DID have!) a different opinion on russia, but I've opened other channels, and found nice things.

For example, did you know that the largest stone ever moved by modern man was for a memorial in St. Petersberg? It's the base for this statue of Peter the Great, installed by Catherine the Great.

[Scot Dutchy]

Just the start of something exiting:

Pelosi remains defiant on wall funding as Trump seeks fresh talks

Nancy Pelosi: ‘A wall is an immorality’
Trump: ‘You can call it a barrier … call it whatever you want’


As a partial US government shutdown hit the two-week mark on Friday, Donald Trump once again invited congressional leaders to meet him at the White House, amid an impasse over his demands for taxpayers’ money for a border wall, and Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives.

The president has invited leaders from both parties back to the White House just two days after a meeting on border security in the Situation Room did not resolve matters, and a day after Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the House and Democrats passed legislation to reopen the government.

The meeting is scheduled for 11.30am in Washington.

He better retire to the golf course and let adults do the talking.

[Tero]

Well, nevertheless, despite your mansplaining, Trump is an asshole.

[Cunt]

ANY time now...he'll be out of there!

Just like the second coming of Jesus...no specific timeline, or description of what 'out of there' really means, but it'll be ANY time now!

That'll show all those voters!

Tero, your willingness to spout bullshit in support of your 'Orange-man-bad' mantra is making you sound exactly like an NPC.

[DRSB]

I think it's reasonable to question both how and why there is a steady narrative about Russia being communist, evil and all that. I don't know all of Russia, but the people I know seem to have a decent life, in a country which looks much like mine, among people who seem like...regular people.

I mean, if I only listened to the racist media, I would have (DID have!) a different opinion on russia, but I've opened other channels, and found nice things.

For example, did you know that the largest stone ever moved by modern man was for a memorial in St. Petersberg? It's the base for this statue of Peter the Great, installed by Catherine the Great.

It is still the cold war narrative. Of course there are lovely highly educated people in Russia. Wierd thing how I am starting to bond with Immanuel over Russia!