WTF Community

Day 470

General Discussion
#1

Updated 5/4/2018 12:18 PM PDT

1/ A federal judge criticized Robert Mueller's criminal case in Virginia against Paul Manafort, and questioned whether Mueller exceeded his prosecutorial powers. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis said he believes that Mueller's motivation is to oust Trump from office, adding that "we don't want anyone in this country with unfettered power." Ellis also charged that lawyers from the special counsel's office "don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud," but rather "getting information Mr. Manafort can give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump and lead to his prosecution or impeachment." (Reuters / Washington Post / CNN / ABC News)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/05/04/day-470/
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#2

WTF, come on, this isn’t about political postering, it’s about holding Russia responsible for their interference in our election process. This is a FBI counter-intelligence investigation, for crying out loud!

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#3

This was wonderful:

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#4

This is how it all starts America! The dictator appoints judges who do not adjudicate the law - they dictate the emporer’s wishes. Since when does a judge opinionated himself on a case before the case is completed by both sides. In conclusion of his verdict, he can say why he ruled in a certain way - but this is fascism in it highest use. All this judge did was quote Trump.
OH YA - Trump appointed him!
Read the facts on how Hitler controlled the courts-and thus controlled Germany.

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#6

The unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%, falling below 4% for the first time since 2000. (CNN Money)

These stupid unemployment statistics have been raising my ire since Trump first started bragging that he’s creating so many jobs & getting so many people back to work. Why hasn’t anybody pointed out that the unemployment rate is based on the total available workforce and the number of claims for unemployment benefits?

_“Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. This category includes retired persons, students, those taking care of children or other family members, and others who are neither working nor seeking work.” ~ Bureau of Labor Statistics

Of course the rate is down now. Trump’s immigration storm troopers are arresting & deporting people at an ever-increasing rate. Shoving tens or hundreds of thousands of people out of the country, and out of the available workforce, could drastically reduce the unemployment rate very quickly.

Probably thousands more are afraid of being detained and/or deported so they are not filing for the unemployment benefits they have paid for through previous work.

In fact, I’d bet more people are NOT working for the same reason, hiding from arrest & deportation, and living any way they can.

In addition, many people have simply been out of work for so long that they are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits so - no eligibility, no filing - lower rate created. Others have simply given up - same result.

Statistics are easy to create. And stupid people are easy to fool. That’s why Trump, in his own words, loves uneducated people.

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#8

My only comment here is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has been calculating the “unemployment rate” pretty consistently for a long time. Therefore, even though it may be flawed in how it counts unemployed people, it has been consistently flawed. This means that we can learn something from the trend, if not from the “headline” number itself.
Also, I would direct you to the BLS U-6 measurement of unemployment, that perhaps more accurately expresses your concerns. It is currently at 8.1%, down from 17.1% in March of 2010. It’s trend is also down over that timeframe (total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers where “marginally attached workers” is defined as those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule.)
My last comment is that these trends are probably pretty systemic and long term, and at this point only partly attributable to the current administration and its policies. Rest assured, however, when these numbers do turn (as they always do in a cyclic economy) the current administration will distance themselves from these numbers like ticks leaving a dead dog!
Here is the link for the April BLS “Employment Situation” report for further details: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

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#9

This is hyperbolic and that’s not how math works.

There are 257,272,000 people in the U.S., 161,527,000 participating in the labor force, 155,181,000 working, and 6,346,000 people unemployed in April. The employment participation rate has been steady since Trump took office (see the link @ScouterKnotts shared), as has the labor force.

To push the April 2018 unemployment rate (3.9%) to where it was in April 2017 (4.4%), you’d need about 800,000 additional people to be unemployed.

ICE removed approximately 226,000 people from the U.S. in 2017 (Reuters).

So, sure, statistics are easy to create, but just making convenient shit up is even easier. Your math doesn’t add up. Check the facts next time.

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#10

Oh, wow! Honestly, I wasn’t trying to make anything up. Re-reading my post, it does look like an exaggeration - or an assumption. And, I’ve gotta say, you are way more educated on the subject than I am - I didn’t even try to follow your math/statistics, but I believe you! I just get so angry about Trump taking credit for everything, blaming others for everything, bad, and pushing his “truth” that I replied without thinking enough about it.

I guess I also have some holdover bitterness from my younger days when I couldn’t find a job but couldn’t get unemployment either, and was trying to raise two children on the $30 a week my ex-husband paid (when he felt like it) in child support.

Sorry, it won’t happen again.

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#11

No, actually I’m not. I simply took 10 minutes to read the data, because the assertion didn’t pass the smell test. :poop:

#12

Whew! This is the last time I spout off without thinking it through! Great clarification, even if I couldn’t wade my ancient brain through it completely.

I really, really don’t want to do the same Trump & his administration do with (to) the truth. Mea culpa.

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#15

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#16
#5

Maybe it’s just me, but I think the one trying for “unfettered power” is the ass-hole POTUS. Judge Ellis’
words really gives me the creeps…he sounds like he’s been paid off, sure hope I’m wrong! :exploding_head:

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#13

The future face of the REPUBLICAN judiciary… me thinks.

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#7

Ease up on the smugness