CNN, the Censorship News Network

Déjà Vu Boo Boo, 'cause they're not journalists but advocates

AP deletes tweet on Trump's 'animals' comment: 'It wasn't made clear he was speaking' about MS-13

Suddenly Trump is channeling Bart Simpson on immigrants: Our country is full so turn around

Trump to Illegal Immigrants: The Country Is Full, So Turn Around:

I say, and this is our new statement, the system is full. We can't take you anymore. Whether it is asylum or anything you want, illegal immigration, we can't take you anymore. Our country is full. Our area is full. The sector is full. We can't take you anymore. Sorry, can't happen. So turn around, that's the way it is.

The context of the full remarks appears to be making the case that Border Patrol can and should stop following procedures under these new, extraordinary circumstances, but without real presidential backup apart from these words I think it highly unlikely that anyone will take the risk of acting independently. The president needs to intervene in an unconventional, convincing manner, and so far this looks like just more talk with no action of that kind likely to follow.

Could mean trouble ahead: Layoffs in 1Q2019 almost as high as in 1Q2008

Average hourly earnings are up 3.4% two quarters in a row for 80% of workers, but still fall short of pre-Great Recession highs

The longest previous expansions of full-time jobs each lasted six years, this one has finished seven and may be over without achieving Reagan-era levels

Ann Coulter shows her hubris here, opining about unemployment which she understands little better than Rush Limbaugh

Yes, there was an effort in 2010 and 2011 to track Americans unemployed "260 weeks or longer", but that is irrelevant to the unemployment rate, which has declined so much because so many are no longer counted in the labor force, that's all. That would include the long term "unemployed", who aren't really unemployed because those people get kicked out of the labor force according to the definitions used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

You may not like that. You may not agree with that. But that's what happens. If you haven't looked for work in 4 weeks but have in the last year, you'll still be in the labor force, but after a year you are out if you've given up looking. And presto, when millions can't find work in this shrunken economy, they drop out by not looking any longer, so the labor force shrinks, and thus fewer people get counted as unemployed. It's as simple as that.

A better way to look at it is, How many people have full time jobs?

Since 1968 the average percent of the civilian noninstitutional population employed full time at peaks has been 51.2%. At troughs it has been 48.6%. In February 2019 49.9% had full time jobs.

At 51.2% in February 2019 instead of at 49.9%, however, we'd have about 3.46 million more working full time than we actually have.

That's what is wrong with the Trump economy inherited from Obama.

There remains no economic driver for a jobs boom.

Ann is still right, however. Why on earth would you import more people to America in a situation of labor slack like this?

It's insane, and perverse. It does active harm to people already here who can't find full time work.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump hasn't got a clue about this.

Like I said, we are well and truly screwed.

Trump withdraws threat to close the border, which will only create a bigger surge at the border

The quintessential boomer parent who doesn't know how to say No, doesn't really want to say No, and actually means Yes when he does say No.

What a disaster this guy is. The kids are already running wild, and it will only get worse.

Obamacare in the news: Bernie calls it a failure

Trump capitulates on border closure (ONE YEAR!), Ann Coulter was right when she called him a wimp

Ann Coulter takes victory lap after Trump backs down from border closure:

Trump recently scaled back his threat to close the border, saying that Mexico now has a year to get illegal crossings under control before Trump takes drastic action.

 

Incompetent Trump: Republicans will always support pre-existing conditions!

He means coverage for pre-existing conditions, not the conditions.

I think.

And over at Drudge they're having "tempter" tantrums

Incompetent CNBC: "MacKenzie shared that her and ex-husband completed the process"

That's how they talk around here in west Michigan. Not supposed to happen in New York.

LOL Incompetent WOOD Radio 1300 in Grand Rapids has run Wednesday's weather report today at 1230pm, 100pm and just now at 130pm

And then "Want to hear it again?" they advertize right after that.

Can't make this stuff up, but hey, it's the station of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity in Grand Rapids.

Wednesday's weather report was better anyway, sunny and windy. Today it's cloudy and less windy. I like how they help me remember yesterday.

Update 203pm: We're tracking a sunny but very windy Wednesday!

Update 232pm: We're tracking a sunny but very windy Wednesday!

Update 303pm: Fixed it! Chucky took over the microphone from Megan at 230pm and didn't like the tape he was hearing! "Hey, this is Thursday! Why are we playing yesterday's weather?"

Hillary scored the popular vote in two elections and is 0-2

England swings . . .

England swings like a pair of tits do
Boobies on buildings, two by two
Elizabeth Hurley the Tower of Pig Pen
The rosy-red cheeks of embarrassed children

Stacey Abrams, who knows a thing or two about being petty and uninterested in stability, still hasn't conceded in Georgia, and Ralph Northam is still governor in VA

Climate update for Grand Rapids, MI, March 2019

Max temp 61 / Mean 66

Min temp 8 / Mean 7

Av temp 32.2 / Mean 34

Precip 2.23 / Mean 2.45

Snow 7.9 / Mean 9.1

Snow to date 76.4 / Mean 63.7

Heating degree days 1006 / Mean 955

HDD to date 5910 / Mean 5849

So, it's been 20% snowier than the mean and 1% colder by HDD.

Even when correcting himself Rush is wrong: Beto won election to the Texas House and quit after a year

Democrats Are Ignoring Their Frontrunner [Bernie]:

Oh. I erred, folks. I said Beto O’Rourke had never won an election. He did. He won an election to the Texas House and then quit after a year to run against Cruz in the Senate. What I meant to say was that Beto O’Rourke’s biggest life achievement is losing to Ted Cruz in the Senate race, not that he’s never won an election. Because he has.

Beto was elected to the US House three times, in 2012, 2014 and 2016, representing TX-16.

John Gray: The possibility that millions value some things more than economic gain is not considered by the British political classes

Sounds oddly familiar.

Brexit has left the British political class trapped by its own history:

Persistently denying respect to Leave voters in this way can only bring to Britain the dangerous populism that is steadily marching across the European continent.