Tag Archives: doctype

James Mattis Doesn’t Really Fit In With the Trump Administration

Mother Jones

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From our Secretary of Defense earlier this evening:

Oh snap. Do you have any more shade you’d like to throw at your boss?

He seems to have a firm grasp of who he works for, anyway.

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James Mattis Doesn’t Really Fit In With the Trump Administration

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Job Creation Has Been on a Downward Slide For More Than Two Years

Mother Jones

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For some reason I was prompted to create this chart yesterday:

There’s a ton of noise in this series, but nonetheless the fitted trendline is fairly clear. Net new job creation1 has been on a steady downward slide for more than two years, declining from an average of 140 in 2015 to 100 in 2016 to 70 so far this year. I don’t know how meaningful this is, but it doesn’t really seem like a good thing, does it?

1We need 90,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth. Thus, net new job creation is the number of new jobs minus 90,000.

Source: 

Job Creation Has Been on a Downward Slide For More Than Two Years

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It’s No Mystery That Donald Trump Isn’t Paying Much Attention to Immigration

Mother Jones

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From the Washington Post:

Lawmakers baffled that immigration getting short shrift in Washington

Meh. Trump never cared much about immigration. It was just a campaign tool, and he practically admitted as much at one point. That’s not to say he won’t try to get something done about it, but it’s never likely to be a huge issue for him. And without him putting a lot of energy behind it, it won’t go anywhere. There are too many Republican members of Congress who are opposed to highly punitive immigration rules.

Eventually the immigration hawks will learn the same thing as everyone else: it’s all just one long con. Trump doesn’t care about policy. Not immigration, not taxes, not abortion, not health care, not ISIS. He has vague inclinations on all these things, but that’s all. He’s mainly driven by whatever can keep him in the spotlight for the next week or two.

That’s probably the real reason he pulled out of the Paris climate accord. If he stays in, he gets nothing. If he pulls out, he gets a week or two of attention. It was an easy choice.

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It’s No Mystery That Donald Trump Isn’t Paying Much Attention to Immigration

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Corporate America Is Doing Great

Mother Jones

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If you’re wondering why the stock market is doing so well lately, here’s the answer:

Earnings at U.S. companies grew at the fastest pace in nearly six years in the first quarter, the latest boon to a bull market that has stretched into its ninth year.

With nearly all companies in the S&P 500 having reported results, aggregate earnings for the first quarter are on track to grow 13.6% from the year-earlier period….Beyond the jump in growth, many investors have been encouraged by signs that the quality of the results is improving. That contrasts with recent years, when investors worried that corporate share buybacks and ultralow interest rates were juicing stock gains in the absence of business improvement.

It’s not Trumpmania, it’s just old-fashioned earnings growth. More people are buying stuff and companies are making more money. It’s simple.

How long will this last? I don’t know any more than anyone else, but my guess is that the current expansion has another year to go. I’m starting to see signs of an economy that’s getting a little too exuberant, and I suspect that 2018 is going to be a mild recession year. Please note that this prediction is worth every cent you paid for it.

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Corporate America Is Doing Great

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Industrial Production Is Not Really "Surging"

Mother Jones

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Donald Trump is bragging today that industrial production “surged” in April. And sure enough, it was up 1.7 percent compared to last year. That’s not bad. But you know what else increased since last year? The population of the United States. Here’s the industrial production index from the Federal Reserve adjusted for population growth:

That tiny blip at the end represents the surge. So don’t get too excited. Per capita industrial production in the US has been roughly flat for the past four years and nothing that Trump has done so far—or is likely to do—has much chance of changing that dramatically.

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Industrial Production Is Not Really "Surging"

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Miscellaneous Photo Stuff

Mother Jones

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You can do quick and easy fun stuff with color in Photoshop with the White Balance tool and Replace Color tool. For the former, just click the eyedropper randomly on the image and see what happens. For the latter, choose a color randomly and then change the hue to see what you get. If you feel like screwing around with weird tints and colors, this is a very simple way of doing it. We can all be Andy Warhol for 15 minutes.

Remember my photo of the chopsticks a couple of weeks ago? Here’s what it looks like with various combinations of color manipulation. The original image is at the top, followed by half a dozen false-color images.

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Miscellaneous Photo Stuff

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Does Donald Trump Know the Difference Between Health Insurance and Life Insurance?

Mother Jones

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I say this with no snark whatsoever: can someone tell me WTF Donald Trump is talking about here?

You’re going to have absolute guaranteed coverage. You’re going to have it if you’re a person going in…don’t forget, this was not supposed to be the way insurance works. Insurance is, you’re 20 years old, you just graduated from college, and you start paying $15 a month for the rest of your life and by the time you’re 70, and you really need it, you’re still paying the same amount and that’s really insurance.

But I believe it’s very important to have this. Because one thing Obamacare did, is it gave that and it was a concept that people hadn’t heard of. And now I don’t want to end it. I don’t want to end it for somebody that…first of all I don’t want to end it for the people that already have it. And I don’t want to end it for somebody that hasn’t been buying insurance for all of his life where he has a guarantee that for all of his life he’s been buying the insurance and he can buy it inexpensively when he turns 65 or 70 years old. So we put in a tremendous amount and we’re…you know, for the pre-existing conditions. We are going to have a great pool for pre-existing conditions.

What exactly is it that’s “really insurance”? What is “very important to have”? What is the “concept that people hadn’t heard of”? What is it that Trump doesn’t “want to end”? Why does Trump think people need the ability to “buy it inexpensively” after they turn 65?

The only thing I can think of is that Trump is talking about life insurance, not health insurance. That doesn’t fit entirely, but it fits enough that the rest of it could be chalked up to Trump’s usual simplemindedness along with his 50s-era understanding of pretty much everything. Any other ideas?

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Does Donald Trump Know the Difference Between Health Insurance and Life Insurance?

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We Need a Good Word for "Moderately Unlikely"

Mother Jones

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Here’s some genuinely useful information: what people think you’re saying when you tell them how likely something is. Here’s the approximate ranking:

90% — Almost certainly, highly likely
80% — Very good chance
70% — Probably, probable, likely, we believe
60% — Better than even
50% — About even
40% — ??
30% — ??
25% — Probably not, we doubt
20% — Unlikely, improbable, little chance
10% — Chances are slight
0% — Highly unlikely, almost no chance

There are no real surprises here except for one: apparently we don’t have a common word to express moderate doubt. The entire space between 25 percent and 50 percent is empty. Why do you suppose that is?1

1The most obvious answer is that the researchers just didn’t happen to include the right phrases in their study, but that’s boring. I would like to see some more creative suggestions.

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We Need a Good Word for "Moderately Unlikely"

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Friday Cat Blogging – 5 May 2017

Mother Jones

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Today’s homage to Donald Trump is part of my relentless quest to bring my readers the finest possible blogging experience. Here’s how far I’m willing to go: yesterday I drove out to one of Irvine’s leading fast food emporiums and bought a taco bowl. $5.79! I brought it home, got out my camera, and introduced it to the cats. It was so disgusting they immediately ran away and wouldn’t come back. Eventually it fell apart.

So then I went to one of Irvine’s leading supermarkets and bought a box of tostada shells. $4.99! I filled one up with cat food and then added a dollop of sour cream for that authentic south-of-the-border flavor. Hilbert still wasn’t having any. Luckily, Hopper was intrigued by the sour cream. She jumped up and started licking it, and thanks to the burst mode on my camera I got 40 or 50 shots of this. Within minutes my homage was finished. Enjoy!

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Friday Cat Blogging – 5 May 2017

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Happy 100 Day Trumpiversary, Everyone. Here Are His First 100 Days in 100 Seconds.

Mother Jones

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Small crowds. Millions march. “Alternative facts.” Hiring freeze. Pipelines revived. Tiny desk. Bannon unleashed.

And that was just the first week.

After that? Well, lots of golf. How have the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency played out in the news? Mother Jones put together a definitive day-by-day guide. Judge for yourselves.

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Happy 100 Day Trumpiversary, Everyone. Here Are His First 100 Days in 100 Seconds.

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