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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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NAFTA hardly changed. All he did was succeed in torpedoing TPS which would have resulted in much more trade. instead we have a trade war costing literally billions in damages already. An accomplishment, maybe if you consider renaming it from Nafta to USMCA a win.
Hardly a list of accomplishments
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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He has created a major accomplishment with unemployment as low as the early seventies,too bad wages don’t bring much more than they did in that era.
And,hey,he has given the top 10% the wealth distribution they deserve,you know,Socialism for the wealthy,Rugged individualism for the poor.
Speaking of Bernie ,from his Senate position ,he pressured Amazon into raising its wages and is working on others to do the same.
But,you all got your partisan Judge.
Yes,he is doing us all well.
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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More serfs for the wealthy land barons. That is how ‘Merica will be great again.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 7, 2018 - 05:07pm PT
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The best judge money can buy. A "rich" American tradition.
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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Jim,as a Canadien,you have the same voting power as anyone in California or New York.
But ,you knew that.
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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From a Daily Show writer:
A Congressional staff member has been arrested for doxing GOP Senators' information.
A Senator's wife received a graphic text message with video of a beheading shortly after he voted to confirm Kavanaugh.
Lefties in the national spotlight are encouraging and applauding harassment.
Yesterday, someone tweeted:
When are leaders on the left going to quit fostering this kind of behavior???
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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So Edward T, if the Dems are encouraging harassment are the Republicans encouraging attempted rape on 15 yr. old girls?
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EdwardT
Trad climber
Retired
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Fat Dad
Oct 8, 2018 - 06:50am PT
So Edward T, if the Dems are encouraging harassment are the Republicans encouraging attempted rape on 15 yr. old girls?
I don't think so. But they do seem attached to antiquated notions of due process and innocent until proven guilty.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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He has created a major accomplishment with unemployment as low as the early seventies,too bad wages don’t bring much more than they did in that era.
The “unemployment rate” as a measure of economic health is extremely misleading these days, because it excludes all the people who gave up looking for a job. This group has ballooned in recent years for several key reasons that we ignore at our peril:
 automation in the workplace
shifting of job mix to require more intelligence and skills, but our lack of investment in education does not provide enough qualified workers
So our politicians can give a pat on the back “economy is great!” But I see about 10x the homeless tents next to freeways and abandoned lots and people living in their cars parked in city parking lots than I did just 5 years ago. Seriously.
Here is why the wages aren’t going up: there are tons of unemployed people who would contribute to our economy if they had a chance, who are sitting on the sidelines, who are “employed” but paying most of their Uber income to make car payments and refill gas and buy new tires, and oh yeah one kid fell off his bike and broke an arm so there goes
6 month of savings and hope the landlord doesn’t increase rent or we’re in the street.
I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing the lower rates in the 60s occurred before the increase of women in the workplace. If that’s the case, we are presently looking at historical lows in terms of labor participation rate, indicating how many people feel hopeless about their job prospects. If I were a leader, I would be very concerned about this number.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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The “unemployment rate” as a measure of economic health is extremely misleading these days,
The same metrics have been used for a good 30 years so it is a relatively consistent measure.
The economy itself is so much different that a difference of 4% in the labor participation rate is
not much more than a rounding error. And maybe those people should have reconsidered
dropping out of high school, or getting that art history degree? Face it, we have a nation of
fat, ignorant, ill-educated, and lazy slobs who don’t know how to work but think they’re entitled
to the good life. All empires crumble. Consider yourself fortunate to see this one going.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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I can’t disagree with you about art history and many other majors...
Liberal arts degrees are for people with rich parents or a strong commitment to the ascetic lifestyle.
But people get pretty worked up over a few percentage points difference in unemployment, and labor participation rates should be considered at the same time.
Also, with the gig economy, we need a way to separate our under-employed:
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#concepts
Interesting historical measures I’d like to see:
How much of the labor force is in full time jobs?
How much of the labor force works 40+ hrs/wk in multiple jobs with no employer benefit plans?
How much of the labor force works less than 40 hrs/wk and seeking additional employment?
How many work less than 40 hrs/wk and gave up looking for more?
How many earn less than minimum wage working for Uber/Lyft and similar? (After accounting for expenses)
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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"...antiquated notions of due process and innocent until proven guilty."
Do you believe that due process occurred in this case? That the FBI investigation was adequate?
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10b4me
Social climber
Lida Junction
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Nut Again, thanks for this.
The “unemployment rate” as a measure of economic health is extremely misleading these days, because it excludes all the people who gave up looking for a job. This group has ballooned in recent years for several key reasons that we ignore at our peril:
automation in the workplace
shifting of job mix to require more intelligence and skills, but our lack of investment in education does not provide enough qualified workers I agree, and it is also why I don't look at the stock market as a barometer of the economy. The stock market is pure speculative.
So our politicians can give a pat on the back “economy is great!” But I see about 10x the homeless tents next to freeways and abandoned lots and people living in their cars parked in city parking lots than I did just 5 years ago. Seriously.
Here is why the wages aren’t going up: there are tons of unemployed people who would contribute to our economy if they had a chance, who are sitting on the sidelines, who are “employed” but paying most of their Uber income to make car payments and refill gas and buy new tires, and oh yeah one kid fell off his bike and broke an arm so there goes
6 month of savings and hope the landlord doesn’t increase rent or we’re in the street.
exactly, most new jobs are in the service industry.
I am retired, so I really don't have a dog in the fight.
One day last week I decided to go to the Griffith Park Observatory. I figured that there would be very few people on a thursday morning. As I am driving up the road I start seeing signs about traffic delays. I get to the parking lot, and managed to find a parking spot. There were easily two hundred people there, and not a school bus in sight. I said to myself, don't these people work?
One other thing that you mentioned upthread is automation. I just heard about a robot that is doing room service in one of the Vegas hotels.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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McConnell: Conservative revamp of the courts isn't done yet
The Senate majority leader calls the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh a 'seminal moment' for the conservative movement.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/06/kavanaugh-confirmation-mcconnell-877474
By BURGESS EVERETT and JOHN BRESNAHAN 10/06/2018 02:36 PM EDT
Mitch McConnell isn’t done with his “project” to revamp the nation’s courts.
Hours before the Senate was set to approve Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the Senate majority leader said in an interview Saturday that he plans confirmations of more lifetime justices before the November election. The Kentucky Republican plans to meet with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) about a package of nominees — and Schumer’s response could determine when or whether Schumer’s vulnerable members will be able to go home and campaign for their seats.
“There are still tools that I have available, that’s why I canceled the August recess. And that’s something I’ll discuss with Sen. Schumer before we leave for the election,” McConnell said in a telephone interview, as he began an extended victory lap on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. He said “of course” more judges will be confirmed before Nov. 6, though Democrats may now be under enormous pressure to block as many judges as they can after the deflating loss on Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh’s ascension to the high court marks the 69th judicial confirmation of Donald Trump’s presidency under McConnell’s stewardship of the Senate. There are more than 30 lifetime District and Circuit court nominees ready for floor action in the Senate that McConnell could try to confirm before the election, though under Senate rules Democrats could delay them and would likely be able to narrow that list if the two parties try to strike a confirmation deal.
“I felt strongly that really all the way through the process, that in fairness to Judge Kavanaugh, he deserved a vote. You know, to leave him hanging after what they’d done to him was not fair to him or the country,” McConnell said. “And I’m glad that it ended up being a situation where he was, in my view, exonerated, and is going to be on the Supreme Court.”
'Fairness to Judge Kavanaugh.' Apparently, fairness only matters to McConnell when it's in his party's interests. Otherwise, Merrick Garland deserved no such 'fairness' or a vote.
This kind of politicization of the court is not in the country's best interests, no matter which side of the aisle you are on. It is only going to result in an extreme reaction from the left (if they get their sh#t together), and an imbalanced, biased judicial system. That will be McConnell's legacy to America.
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Trump
climber
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Thanks NutAgain.
So looks like the labor participation rate was highest at the beginning of the century, and then started creeping down, and looks like it’s stabilized in the last few years. In response to you saying what you would be concerned about if you were leader, what were the leaders doing during most of the fall of that statistic, and what would you have done differently during that time period?
With respect to women’s participation in the workforce, in 1950 it was 33.9%, in 1966 it had risen to 40.3%. It looks like that 6.4% increase in women’s participation in the labor force didn’t make any difference in the total workforce participation (i.e. the total labor workforce participation in 1950 and 1968 were about the same, despite the 6.4% increase in women’s participation).
In 1978 women’s labor workforce participation was 50.0% and in 2016 women’s labor workforce participation was 56.7%, but, again, it looks like that 6.7% increase in women’s participation in the workforce didn’t affect the total workforce participation (i.e. total workforce participation for 1978 was about the same as for 2016).
I’m not quite following the inference you made based on your lack of knowledge of women’s participation in the workforce, that we’re currently looking at historical low numbers of participation rate, and your anecdotal reasoning behind your inference about the reason for that “historically low” participation rate. Doesn’t the chart you posted show that workforce participation was lower from 1950 to 1978 (a time when women’s participation in the workforce was 50.0%)?
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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I don't think so. But they do seem attached to antiquated notions of due process and innocent until proven guilty. apogee kind of beat me to the punch when rebutting this bogus argument. First, this was not a criminal trial; it was a job interview. Second, if the Republicans were interested in due process, as you claim, why did they limit the scope of the FBI's investigation? The short answer for the intellectually challenged or disingenuous on the right is that they weren't interested in due process, just confirming the appointment. Third, if there is such a strong interest in due process on the right, why the ongoing chants of "lock her up"?
I'd ask this question of folks like Edward T but I know there is no credible response to it: what have you gained by Kavanaugh's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court (other than gaining something that the Dems opposed)? I have yet to hear a single substantive reply to this question.
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Don Paul
Social climber
Washington DC
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Kavanaugh is a psychopath, even if he didn't rape anyone in high school. The people who want more Kavanaughs on the SCOTUS are fanatics. It's nearly impossible for calm, rational people to even get a word in.
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