Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report

This is not a terribly big shock to me; just look who is in the White House. This administration and Government is rife with corruption. I believe if this Government released the true numbers of unemployment in this Country; this stock market would crash and there would be a run on the banks of epic proportions.

The Story:

In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington.

The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.

And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.

Just two years before the presidential election, the Census Bureau had caught an employee fabricating data that went into the unemployment report, which is one of the most closely watched measures of the economy.

And a knowledgeable source says the deception went beyond that one employee — that it escalated at the time President Obama was seeking reelection in 2012 and continues today.

“He’s not the only one,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous for now but is willing to talk with the Labor Department and Congress if asked.

The Census employee caught faking the results is Julius Buckmon, according to confidential Census documents obtained by The Post. Buckmon told me in an interview this past weekend that he was told to make up information by higher-ups at Census.

Ironically, it was Labor’s demanding standards that left the door open to manipulation.

Labor requires Census to achieve a 90 percent success rate on its interviews — meaning it needed to reach 9 out of 10 households targeted and report back on their jobs status.

Census currently has six regions from which surveys are conducted. The New York and Philadelphia regions, I’m told, had been coming up short of the 90 percent.

via Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report | New York Post.

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Updated with Video: Republicans and Democrats on the hill stand against the Trans Pacific Partnership

Update: Here is video on the subject regarding a leak by Wikileaks on the text of this monstrous thing: (H/T Democracy Now)

For once there is something that the President is trying to get accomplished, that the Democrats and Republicans in Congress are actually standing against. For once, this is a very good thing.

This comes via Mother Jones:

The Obama administration is nearing the end of negotiations on the biggest free trade deal in US history, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The stakes are high: The pact affects the United States and 11 other countries, domestic policy areas ranging from intellectual property rights to product safety and environmental regulations, and $26 trillion in annual economic output. But in order to secure the deal, President Barack Obama says he wants Congress to grant him permission to sign the final trade agreement, which Congress has not yet seen, without congressional input. A coalition of about 174 conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats in the House signaled this week they would likely vote against giving those trade powers to the president.

The US trade representative Michael Froman and Obama want to finalize the TPP by the end of the year and are pushing Congress to pass legislation soon that grants the president something called fast-track authority, which would allow him to sign the final trade agreement without Congress making any amendments to the pact. If Obama gets what he wants, Congress may not even be able to read the final version of the massive trade deal in its entirety until after lawmakers have signed away their rights to influence it. At that point, the two chambers will only be allowed an up-or-down vote to implement the international pact into domestic law. The administration says fast-track authority will assure other countries that the deal the United States has committed to after three years of negotiations won’t be dismantled by American lawmakers who dislike some of the provisions. No major trade agreement has been finalized without it.

[…]

Many conservative Republicans—usually fans of free trade—feel the same way. “For two hundred years of our nation’s history, Congress led our nation’s trade policy,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and 22 Republicans in the House wrote in a letter sent to the president Tuesday. “However, recent presidents have seized Congress’ constitutional trade authority and also ‘diplomatically legislated’…using…’Fast Track.’”

“Conservatives have shown themselves to instinctively oppose anything coming out of the Obama White House. So their opposition is not surprising,” Adam Hersh, a trade expert at the liberal Center for American Progress, says in an email. But he adds that the Democratic opposition is new. “We’re seeing the culmination of dissatisfaction with persistent poor trading outcomes for the US economy” such as job outsourcing, he says, and the feeling that Congress has been “kept in the dark.

Rod Dreher, of whom I owe the hat tip to for reporting this story on his blog says:

Trust him? No. It’s not about Obama personally; Congress gave fast-track authority to Bill Clinton, and to George W. Bush. But the House Democrats who oppose this — and the overwhelming majority of the opponents are Dems — say. Establishment Republicans tend to support fast-track authority, but some Tea Partiers are standing with the Dems.

[….]

I’m willing to hear the counterarguments, but in general, I’m not in favor of giving this or any president the authority to approve something so enormous and consequential without Congress even seeing it. I could be wrong, but it seems that we’ve had enough trusting political and business elites always to operate in the best interests of the American people.

I feel the same way; this is not about Obama personally. However, it is about policies that undermine the sovereignty of the United States of America and literally it is about policies that put the screws to the American worker. We have enough “free trade” deals in this Country as it is; and they are quite literally draining this Country of its GDP. People want to know why there are no jobs in this Country? This is why! Because crony capitalists and the political elites who protect them; would rather manufacture products overseas on the cheap, instead of giving an American worker a living wage.

This is something that we have to stop and reverse at all costs, if we are ever going to be able to put America back as the manufacturing mecca that it once was.

September Jobs report is proof of stagnation

(H/T of credit goes to Ed Morrissey who’s report on this subject is most excellent.)

From the Bureau of Labor:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 148,000 in September, and the unemployment rate
was little changed at 7.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Employment increased in construction, wholesale trade, and transportation and warehousing.
[….]
In September, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more)
was little changed at 4.1 million. These individuals accounted for 36.9 percent of the
unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed has declined by 725,000 over the past
year. (See table A-12.)

Both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.2 percent, and the employment-
population ratio at 58.6 percent, were unchanged in September. Over the year, the labor
force participation rate has declined by 0.4 percentage point, while the employment-
population ratio has changed little. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to
as involuntary part-time workers) was unchanged at 7.9 million in September. These
individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they
were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

In September, 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, down from
2.5 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals
were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a
job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they
had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 852,000 discouraged workers in September,
essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)
Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe
no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 million persons marginally attached
to the labor force in September had not searched for work for reasons such as school
attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Ed Morrissey as always, provides some excellent analysis:

The jobless rate declined to 7.2%, but that’s not coming from an employment explosion. In order to keep up with population growth, the US economy has to add around 150K jobs net each month, which means we did slightly worse than tread water in September. Both the U-3 and the U-6 number declined in this case by a tenth of a point, with U-6 now at 13.6%. Before the Great Recession really got into high gear in the fall of 2008, U-6 was at 10.8%, and it was at 14.2% when Barack Obama took office.

This month, 136,000 people left the workforce in the population survey, which is almost the same number as the net jobs added in the establishment survey. The number of employed in the same population survey only increased 133,000. It’s a real demonstration of the continuing stagnation, and another indication of the decreasing value of the jobless rate as an economic indicator.

The business friendly media saw this and called it the following (Via CNBC):

Today’s blistering jobs report has quickly reminded America that our economic problems are getting worse, despite talking point reassurances from Federal Reserve officials,” said Todd Schoenberger, managing partner at LandColt Capital.

The report likely will do little to move the needle on monetary policy.

Most market-watchers now expect the Federal Reserve to continue its $85 billion a month bond-buying program until well into 2014. Consensus sentiment is now that the central bank won’t even start easing back on, or “tapering,” the purchases until the spring.

“You would think by now you would be consistently creating over a couple hundred-thousand jobs a month, at least,” said Brad Levitt, senior economist for Oppenheimer Funds. “The Fed wants to see over 200,000 jobs a month on a consistent basis before a change of policy.”

[….]

In short, the demand isn’t there and the money to pay additional workers isn’t there,” Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis for the Conference Board, said in a statement. “Both job and income growth remain stuck in neutral.”

Okay, now it is time for me to rant a little here; after all the domain name here, and the former name of this blog was “Thoughts and Rantings” at one point. Now before I begin; please keep in mind that I have never been much of a partisan blogger. I have my political convictions and all, but I am not, nor have I ever been a “Republican” blogger. I am a Paleoconservative, a Pat Buchanan type. Basically, when it comes to matters like this here, Free Trade, and somewhat wall street —- I am still pretty much a populist, not a progressive populist, but still very much a populist.

You see my friends, this here is what you get when you put in a Neoconservative President for eight years, who puts America into a war. This is what happens when you put in neoconservatives in congress that spend like drunken sailors. This is what happens when Democrats come in, take over congress and promise the moon and the stars and proceed to do absolutely nothing! What did they do? Continued the damned spending, just like the Republicans did under Dennis Hastert.

All the Democrats did, when they were campaigning, was carp on about ending the war, not once did they ever say anything about the jobs situation. Then, finally, after they won the election, and routed out the Republicans; did they change anything? Did they stop the war? Did they even bother to slow down spending, did they bring the fed’s printing of money under control? Did they try to lighten the burden of taxes to the big and small businesses, did they try to clear some of the idiotic regulations for small businesses, so that job growth could actually happen? Hell no, they didn’t!

Now look what we have to show for it, Republicans and Democrats. A pure crap-hole for an economy! As for those job numbers; those numbers are a damn farce. When you add in the people, like myself, who have basically given up on trying to look for work, and have been out of the workforce for longer than say, six months; the numbers are much, much, higher. Some say, if you factor in ALL unemployed people, the number is as high as 30%. I believe if the United States Government would actually stop trying to fake the damned numbers on unemployment, and take a real damned survey; the numbers would be shocking and would plunge Wall Street into a full on panic.

The bottom line: The United States of America’s economy and jobs situation is an absolute disaster; and the United States Government continues under this neo-liberal Presidential administration to cover up the fact that America’s unemployment problem is extremely severe. Just like the previous neoconservative President did. The solution to this problem is to end the free trade deals, and get the federal reserve under control. This is when real economic reforms can begin.

Others:

Great opinion piece on the Federal Reserve Bank by George Will

I highly suggest that you read it.

Quote:

Because Ben Bernanke’s public persona is as mild as milk, the transformation in American governance in which he has participated is imperfectly understood and hence insufficiently deplored. The change is dramatized by two recent developments.

One was the campaigning by several constituencies for and against what supposedly were the two leading candidates — Larry Summers and Janet Yellen — to replace Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Fed can no longer be considered separated from politics.

[….]

The Fed has become the model of applied progressivism, under which power flows to clever regulators who operate independent of political control. The Fed is, however, a creation of Congress, which may not forever refrain from putting a bridle and snaffle on a Fed that increasingly allocates credit, wealth and opportunity.

via George Will: The Fed has become a creature of politics – The Washington Post.

There are some of us, who believe that we should end the fed and go back to the gold standard. I happen to be one of those people.

Jobs? What Jobs?!?!

(H/T Insty)

Saith Megan McArdle:

The unemployment rate has fallen, but keep the cork in the champagne bottles: it’s falling because people are just giving up looking for work. The share of the population that is either working, or looking for work, has fallen to a 35-year low. The economy created just 169,000 jobs last month, barely more than we need to keep up with population growth. It’s nowhere near enough to absorb the people who have been out of work for months or years — what Karl Marx called the reserve army of the unemployed. No wonder fast-food workers are demonstrating for higher wages; jobs designed as supplementary income for kids, or housewives, are now being taken by breadwinners who can’t find anything else.. . .

Here’s the really bad news: The weak economy may be accelerating the rate at which older workers exit the labor market. Thanks to changes in Social Security benefits (and the entry of women into the workforce), labor force participation rates among those over 55 have been trending upwards since the 1990s. But since the recession, that progress has plateaued. Older workers are actually less likely to be out of work than their younger counterparts (probably in part because they’re clinging to jobs in order to make up big losses in their retirement accounts). But if they do end up out of work, they have a much more difficult time finding new jobs.

That doesn’t just bode ill for the present; it also promises lower growth for the future. There is no ray of sunshine to be found in this jobs report. The best thing you can say about it is that it wasn’t worse.

Fun part is, we got three more years of this crap. 🙄

Of course, it’s pretty damned hard to get even get a job; when you have racist blacks accusing whites of racism and making up stories to get you fired —– and have companies afraid of lawsuits. Something that I know all about. 😡

Unions are not happy with Obamacare

I knew this was coming, this is why I was against the idea of Government-run healthcare insurance in this first place. AFL-CIO boss is supposedly working on it, but I don’t expect much.

Here’s the quote of the day from The Hill:

“We are disappointed that the non-profit health plans offered by unions have not been given the same consideration as the Catholic Church, big business and Capitol Hill staffers,” Unite Here President D. Taylor told The Hill. …

“The Democrats have completely given the store away to the for-profit industry,” Taylor said. “Without any question, we have a scenario set up that ObamaCare has turned all the money over to the for-profit plans and the non-profit plans will fade away.”

“With open enrollment set to begin on October 1, time is of the essence, so we are working hard every day to find a solution to protect our members’ healthcare,” said Tim Schlittner, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). …

“The administration has found resolutions for a whole variety of issues and the fact that their biggest supporters will be put at the mercy of the for-profit insurance industry will leave a very bad, bad taste,” Taylor said. “You can’t blame the Republicans on this one. This is a Democratic bill through and through.”

You see now why I was so against Obamacare? Makes sense doesn’t it?

Ouch indeed. But, that’s what they get for supporting and endorsing a President based solely upon skin color. This ought to also be an eye-opener for the organized labor movement as well; that the Democratic Party is really no longer their friend and that the Democratic Party is not looking out for their best interests anymore. It has been this way since the Clinton era and it is still that way. The old American worker first Democratic Party has given away to the internationalist Democrats who see the United States the lens of the world and could honestly care less about the American worker.

Case in point: You don’t see President Obama at these fast food strike rallies do you? No. and you won’t either. President Obama could honestly care less about those people. They were there for him to vote for him and now that Obama is in his second term. He could honestly care less about them at all. I mean, in all honesty the strikes are quite dumb and the unions are only targeting the corporate stores in the mostly minority neighborhoods.

None of the McDonald’s stores in my neighborhood here in Lincoln Park have been targeted at all. Want to know why? Because they are franchise stores and if McDonald’s corporate decided to start paying corporate store employees $15.00 an hour; the franchise stores would NOT have to follow suit. Why? Because they are iindependently owned. McDonald’s corporate does not set wages, the Independent owners do. Unless it is a corporate owned store and there are not too many of them in this area.

So, unless the Government raises the minimum wage in this country, which I happen to feel should be abolished; these protestors, who are being supported by the labor unions —– are pissing in the wind.

(H/T Hotair.com who says, “Ouch.”)

It is official: I leave for 9 weeks of training for new job

I wrote about this the other day, but it is now official.

On the 15’th of this month, I will be shipping off to Indianapolis, Indiana for 9 weeks (!) of training to become an over the road truck driver.

I know, it sounds like forever, but really, it is simply 3 weeks in Indy for classroom and maneuvers practice. Then it’s off with a trainer for 6 weeks of simply driving with a trainer. I will be doing, hopefully most of the 48 states and maybe Canada.

I will be taking the laptop and checking in via wifi at the truck stops each night. I also, once I go solo, will be buying a phone, trucker gps, and a decent freezer cooler. Once get the phone, I will be posting video updates here and over on the youtube channel that I created. I am also thinking of creating a separate blog dedicated solely to trucking. I have a name and a URL for that picked out; stay tuned for further updates on that one.

It feels so good to be finally doing the right thing with my career and more than anything else; getting back to work — after 9 years of being unemployed. 😀

A Thinking Americanist EXCLUSIVE: UAW gearing for a major battle with Detroit’s big 3 automakers

This is an exclusive scoop right here on Thinking Americanist. You will not read this anywhere else, and I am giving this scoop, because I believe people have a right to know.

I was at the union hall today with my Father, today was the retirees meeting and I received some information from someone who is very much in the know of what is going on internally with the UAW and it’s goings on.

Basically, what my source told me is this: The UAW is gearing up for a major protracted battle with the big three when it comes to contracts and benefits for the active and retirees with GM and the other two major automakers. Basically, it boils down to this here; as we all know the big three went through some financial hardships a few years ago. Well, now the hardships are over and the big three are now selling vehicles again and doing rather well for themselves.

What is happening is this here; every time the UAW approaches the big three and asks them about restoring the previous benefits, they are giving the attitude of, “You guys ought to be glad we are still in business and did not just file for bankruptcy and cut you all out of the loop.” Well, needless to say, that is not going to work for the UAW and its members.

So, as you can very well imagine the UAW is gearing up for a majorly huge battle for better contracts and the restoring of the former benefits and they are also going to push for all these new workers to get wages on par with the workers who have been there for years. The stuff I heard was that the UAW is prepared to walk out and strike to get what they want and they are not afraid to make it a long-term thing either.

I will refrain from my normal commentary on stuff like this; because quite simply; I just want to give you all the facts of what I heard.

However, I do have an open message to the UAW: I hope you all know that what it is that you are doing; and please, whatever you do, do not do what the union that represented Hostess employees did. That was nothing more than unmitigated foolishness. My Father worked for General Motors for 31 years, and for him to lose his pension over something, like a union’s obstante stupidity is inexcusable. Please, choose wisely.

Another Republican talking point about Obama’s healthcare law proven wrong

This is good news for people like me, who will soon be working for a living again, and will most likely need help from this new healthcare law.

The Story:

One of these days, a dire prediction about Obamacare will come true. Today isn’t it.

The Administration on Thursday released new information about the “Federally Facilitated Marketplaces.” Under Obamacare, every state must have an exchange—a place where people without employer-sponsored insurance can find insurance. Some states are running their own exchanges. Others are asking the federal government to do most, or all of, the work. Those federal-run exchanges are the FFMs.

To be successful, exchanges must have enough plans to generate some competition. The whole idea of the exchanges is to let people shop around, seeking the best combination of benefits, service, and prices—just as they might shop for a car, an accountant, or any other good or service. Yes, that’s probably more of a conservative idea than a liberal one. But, for competition to take place, insurers must participate. And conservatives have predicted the insurers would stay away, because of Obamacare’s supposedly onerous regulations and a fear that the whole system is doomed to collapse.

Even liberals like me have worried how the insurers might act—and, sure enough, some carriers really do seem wary. But plenty aren’t. On Thursday, the administration announced it expects the FFMs to have more than sufficient competition. At least one new insurer will be offering plans in about three-fourths of the FFMs, according to the administration, and 90 percent of “target enrollees” (people the administration is hoping will use the exchanges) will be able to choose from at least five different insurers. Given the poor state of competition that exists in many states today, the administration says, that’s a big improvement.

The data is preliminary and sketchy—and the improvement may not be as dramatic as the administration made it sound. “I would characterize it as modest plan competition,” Caroline Pearson, vice president for health reform at Avalere Helath, told Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post. “In most markets, there seems to be a bit more choice than what’s available in the market today. But we’re certainly not seeing a wild influx of plans into the market.”

via Obamacare Insurance Options: Looks like exchanges will have plenty | New Republic.

Believe me when I tell you, I am not a huge fan of President Obama and I was not too keen on the idea of “Obamacare.” However, I will tell you this, if anyone knows all about the cost of rising healthcare in this Country — It would be me. I had to cancel my health insurance that I was getting through the COBRA program. It just kept going up and finally, I simply decided to stop putting out that kind of money; and this was back when I was working full-time as a straight truck driver.

Needless to say, I am glad to hear that the Republicans might just be wrong on this little issue here. 😀

Oh, and by the way, I have some pretty darned good reasons for feeling this way too. 😡

Others: News Desk, The Plum Line and Wonkblog

Video: Migrant Farm Workers fired because they didn’t want to burn alive

More of that abusive crony capitalism that I detest…..

The Video:

The Story via NBC LA (H/T to Raw Story)

More than a dozen farm workers in Southern California were out of a job after walking out of the fields last week, forced indoors because of heavy smoke from a massive wildfire burning nearby.

“Oh, yeah, the smoke was very bad. That’s no doubt about that,” said Lauro Barrajas, of the United Farm Workers.

As the blaze, dubbed the Springs Fire, continued to grow in Camarillo May 2, farm workers 11 miles south in Oxnard said they started to feel the effects of the smoke in the strawberry fields.

The ashes were falling on top of us, one of them explained, adding “it was hard to breathe.”

Air quality in the region was at dangerously poor levels and 15 workers at Crisalida Farms decided they could not handle it any longer. They left, even though their foreman warned them they would not have a job when they returned.

When they went back to the fields May 3, the farm fired them.

Barrajas, who is a representative of the UFW, said the workers contacted him for help, even though they were not members of the union.

Union representatives met with the farm’s upper management and applied a union rule.

“No worker shall work under conditions where they feel his life or health is in danger,” Barrajas said.

In a statement to Telemundo, the farm representative said the workers left without permission while orders still needed to be filled. The company offered to pay them for the hours they’d worked.

Later, the company settled with the union and offered to rehire all 15 workers. But only one worker returned.

This is why I believe illegal immigration should be stopped. Because of stuff like this here, it is abusive and exploitative for Farm Owners to force workers to stay in a field with fire that close to them.

Furthermore, I believe it says a good deal about the Farm Workers Union to step in, even though these guys were not even union members and come to their defense. I believe it also says a good deal about the farm itself, when the workers say, “No thanks!” when offered their jobs back. Again, I believe this is one of the biggest reasons why the illegal immigration problem in this Country must be stopped. Because of stuff like this here.

I end this, with a word from one of the workers:

One worker said while it hurts to lose work, one’s health is more important.

Indeed, it is and I commend these workers for standing up against abusive employers and I commend the Farmer Workers Union for standing up for them — that is the American way.

I have often written on this blog about the good and bad of the Unions. This is the case of the good side of the labor movement.

Others: Crooks and Liars and The Informer