All-Purpose NuILX thread for American Politics

xpost to self

SHUT UP!

JohnFugelsang -- The US added 120,000 last month, or 870,000 more jobs than George W Bush's last month in office....

be careful not to cherry pick data though - criticizing others when they do it (e.g., climate change deniers) means you have to be extra cautious not to do it yourself!

also not to be all negative nancy on the 'improving' unemployment rate, but isn't a lot of that driven by the peculiar way we calculate unemployment? as nyt says: "The jobless rate fell partly because more workers got jobs, but also because about 315,000 workers dropped out of the labor force, and the jobless rate counts only people who are actively looking for work. Even so, the country still has a backlog of more than 13 million unemployed workers, whose periods of unemployment averaged an all-time high of 40.9 weeks."

anyway, 8.6% is better than 9.6%

but your point is right. that's why i mentioned, in the initial post, that the overall picture still isn't good. not a counter to "cherry-picking," per se, but an acknowledgement that the data-points i mention aren't conversation-ending.

this really isn't politics, but it's notable that the newest unemployment figures are much better. it's still a bad picture -- 8.6% unemployment -- but it's trending in the right direction, and since there's no shortage of coverage when the news is bad, it should be noted when the news is good.

Lots of people have stopped looking for jobs too.

cross post

that's very true. in fact, analysts figure the rate will climb again next month, because drop-outs will again begin looking for jobs.

but still, it's positive news.

On a more positive note, the Labor Department revised upward the job growth in September and October by 72,000 jobs. Job creation in the last three months thus averaged 143,000 a month. That’s almost double the monthly average from May to August, but even at that pace, the unemployment rate won’t come down fast anytime soon.

The latest jobs report comes on the heels of other data suggesting a strengthening of the economy. Consumer spending, manufacturing and exports, and business investment and confidence all have edged higher since summer -- despite significant concerns about the European debt crisis, the still-moribund American housing market, government cutbacks and political paralysis in Washington.

Other indicators also show hints of improvement in the job market. The National Federation of Independent Business, a lobbying group for small firms, said its survey of members in November showed that the average number of workers per firm rose and that plans to create new jobs nearly doubled.

“Overall, the employment indicators delivered a significant positive signal, still at weak levels but a meaningful movement forward,” said William Dunkelberg, the group’s chief economist.

LAT.

and here's the answer to my earlier question

amsteinhp Sam Stein -- per @jonathanweisman, there has been 759,000 govt jobs lost since Nov 2010. That's 2,079 jobs lost every day over a year

that's a lot of jobs. haven't seen figures on what the unemployment rate would be if we hadn't lost those jobs.

I see three Facebook pals have already posted "Unemployment down! YES WE CAN!" type updates.

robot see, robot do

Republicans in the Senate rejected both the Democrat and Republican proposals on extending the payroll tax cut

zraklein Ezra Klein -- Bad news deep in the jobs report: most sectors down. The boost came from retail sales, so it might just be temp. holiday hiring.

In this Greenwald piece on the military detention bill, I was most struck by the Senate Dems' "rotating villain" tactic:

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/01/congress_endorsing_military_detention_a_new_aumf/singleton/

there's no sandbox New Yorker thread but george packer at the end of his (great) profile of libertarian billionaire peter thiel goes in on his subject

Yes, really enjoyed that piece.

Packer's been v. good lately -- see also his O.W.S. piece this week.

the end is almost fitzgeraldesque, honestly

Oh, and here he does a neat little compare-contrast of the two articles.

K3vin, can I ask you a question? What are you doing going to school for pharmacology? Are you just savvier than the rest of us aimless liberal-arts grads?

the end is almost fitzgeraldesque, honestly

― k3vin k., Friday, December 2, 2011 6:21 PM (1 minute ago

now that i think of it, the tone of the piece owes even more to 'gatsby' than i realized: his sketches of his characters are such that we can't help but like them even though we recognize the abject emptiness and meaninglessness of their pursuits, but in the final few paragraphs he absolutely stomps on everything they stand for with some memorable prose

K3vin, can I ask you a question? What are you doing going to school for pharmacology? Are you just savvier than the rest of us aimless liberal-arts grads?

― dyao think i'm sexy (jaymc), Friday, December 2, 2011 6:23 PM (4 minutes ago)

ha, is this a compliment? i have very little idea what i want to do with my life and probably wish i was in med school instead tbh

& just for the sake of the .xls it's pharmacy, not pharmacology; i'll receive a professional doctorate rather than a research doctorate

I guess I just think of you as a pretty sharp and passionate guy when it comes to politics, music, and writing, so it's weird to me that you're enrolled in the professional sciences. Not that you can't be genuinely interested in all of it, but I don't know many people for whom that's the case, so I wondered if maybe the pharmacy degree was a way of assuring yourself a reliable income.

Sorry if that's getting too personal or whatever.

k3vin, go to law school.

law is a spiritually fulfilling career.

tbh I prefer k3vin making real money as a pharmacist than as a liberal arts major. The world needs more literate pharmacists and doctors.

I guess I just think of you as a pretty sharp and passionate guy when it comes to politics, music, and writing, so it's weird to me that you're enrolled in the professional sciences. Not that you can't be genuinely interested in all of it, but I don't know many people for whom that's the case, so I wondered if maybe the pharmacy degree was a way of assuring yourself a reliable income.

― dyao think i'm sexy (jaymc), Friday, December 2, 2011 6:39 PM (21 minutes ago)

Sorry if that's getting too personal or whatever.

― dyao think i'm sexy (jaymc), Friday, December 2, 2011 6:45 PM (15 minutes ago)

not at all, and i'm very flattered. it's pretty safe to say that i wanted/want to be a healthcare professional of some sort, though i find myself more drawn to the public health side of things as i've progressed through school. i do wish more of my classmates cared/made time for stuff like literature and public policy (avoiding the word 'politics' but the two inevitably go hand in hand) but i do have a few friends there i can shoot the shit with about that kind of stuff, and that's also what i have ilx for. (coincidentally i was just bemoaning this in an email last night to a friend, one of the the smartest people i know, who works as a pharmacist at a refugee clinic in thailand. hopefully i'll work there temporarily after i graduate as well.) i have taken the occasional undergrad english class to force myself to leisure read and keep my writing skills somewhat sharp, which i've enjoyed doing.

anyway i'm much younger than most of the people who post here regularly and say more than my fair share of dumb things, and consider most of the regular posters here much smarter than me. ilx has made me think about things much differently for sure. don't let the confidence i can affect at times deceive you, ha

sorry for derail

You're one of my favorite posters.

alfred that means a lot, and the respect is reciprocated

consider most of the regular posters here much smarter than me.

you may consider it that way, but it's not so.

you guys are too kind

science sucks

i believe you're looking for the GOP thread!

http://rlv.zcache.com/someone_please_give_president_obama_blowjob_magnet-p147550112145114485qjy4_400.jpg

i believe you're looking for the GOP thread!

― k3vin k., Friday, December 2, 2011 6:48 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

:)

I like k3vin k too!

guys i'm not on a ledge or anything!

becoming a pharmacist is a defensible choice and an excellent career. you can remain a politics/music nerd too!

yes but all pharmacists are far-right republicans.

that is always 100% true in all cases, because my one pharmacist friend is one of those and owns a large gun

healthcare professionals are scum

actually he's not far right, but his gun is p big

proof.

Med school is rad. Especially 4th year of med school. All I have done this week is interviews and hangin' out in Midwestern hotel rooms (some of which are comped).

Also during an interview today I got asked the "if you could change one thing about medicine, what would it be" question, and I was feelin' a lil political and said "I would like to get for-profit corporations out of all sectors of medicine." It seemed to be well-received, even!

lol. you could have said "single-payer," or "public option," or maybe "repeal obamacare"!

actually maybe "public option, no wait! . . . repeal obamacare and end its death-panels" would have worked nicely.