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October 22, 2004

A Little Afternoon Cowbell

Too late to influence the election, but it's nice to know the economy is getting healthier.

WASHINGTON - The number of new people signing up for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, offering a dose of encouraging news that the recovery in the labor market may be strengthening a bit.
The Labor Department (news - web sites) reported Thursday that new filings for unemployment insurance declined by a seasonally adjusted 25,000 to 329,000 for the week ending Oct. 16. That marked the lowest level since early September. In the prior week, claims had climbed by 16,000.

The latest snapshot of the layoffs climate was better than economists were expecting. They were forecasting claims to total in the 345,000 range.

The more stable, four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week fluctuations, decreased by 5,500 last week to 348,250, the best showing since late September.

Thanks to Mark.

And highlights from the Joint Economic Committee's latest report on state employment:

* Over the past year (since September 2003), the unemployment rate has fallen in 46 states. 36 states have unemployment rates at or below the national unemployment rate of 5.4 percent.
* Non-farm payroll employment has increased in 47 states over the past year. The largest over-the-year gains in employment occurred in Florida (+125,500), Texas (+123,700), California (+121,900), Virginia (+81,900), and New Jersey (+68,800).

* In 2004, 49 states have added new payroll jobs.

* Non-farm payroll employment increased in 33 states in September. The states with the largest payroll job gains during September were Kansas (+12,400), New Jersey (+12,000), Missouri (+10,400), Nevada (+6,700), and Texas (+6,500).

posted by Ace at 12:59 PM

Comments

Yes, but Florida and NJ were the only Swing states with significant employment gains. Perhaps because of the high numbers of very wealthy people there.

Not Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, NH, Maine.

Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy may have caused a local boost in states where most of the tax cuts went to - but not elsewhere. Wealth is not only concentrated in the few in America, but it is also geographically concentrated, curiously for Bush -in Democratic "Blue" bastions like CT, Massachusetts, LA, San Francisco, NYC, Seattle.

Posted by: Cedarford on October 22, 2004 02:31 PM

Considering the size of the NJ economy, I wonder if them being up there with CA in terms of jobs gain is creating some "street cred" for Bush.

Posted by: fat kid on October 22, 2004 02:35 PM

Why, it's not curious at all, Cedarford - it's long been understood that liberal states such as those you mention are full of rich, reactionary oligarchical hypocrites. And that's why they overwhelmingly support Kerry - he's one of them.

P.S. - Don't tell "the wealthy," but Bush must have diverted a fairly good chunk of "their" tax cut to solidly middle-class folks like me. And along with my wife and me, all of the contractors working on my house right now (and their solidly middle-class families) thank him.

Posted by: Rocketeer on October 22, 2004 02:37 PM

Perhaps because of the high numbers of very wealthy people there.

Numbers, not conjectures my friend. I need definitions for "high numbers of very wealthy people".

Posted by: fat kid on October 22, 2004 02:37 PM

Actually Maine has some very high income individuals, they dont call it "vacationland" for nothin. There are more vacation homes there than full-time residents or some stupid statistic like that. Of course we all know only super-poor people have second (and third) homes. But you know, I wouldn't want to by the fly in Cedarford's ointment. Heh.

Posted by: fat kid on October 22, 2004 02:41 PM

fat kid - Numbers, not conjectures my friend. I need definitions for "high numbers of very wealthy people".

Well, isn't it nice that you "need", fat kid!

If you look at US census maps, you will see wonderful geographical distinctions on concentration of wealth. Not much is shown in "flyover country". Most of the money Dubya borrowed from the Saudis and Chinese to fund his tax cuts went to Kerry Blue state well off folk.
Yeah, snicker...."IT'S THEIR MONEY"!! (So why did we borrow the funds to pay them from foreign countries?)

Rocketeer -

Paraphrasing..."Well, I'm not rich but I'm happy as a pig rolling in shit since Dubya's tax cuts let me buy a satellite dish for my double-wide!"

32.5% of the borrowed Chinese, Saudi, and French money went to the Richest 1%. 80% of the foreign loan money went to the top 10%.

Glad you are doing well on scraps.

Ever read Dickens?

Love that Porter family. Once they chased off the dogs, they dined well for years on the scraps thrown out of Lord Albrighton's manor. And, within their perspective, the Porters were quite happy with their lot. Stale bread, sour wine, and half-gnawed bones made a spendid stew.

Posted by: Cedarford on October 22, 2004 11:17 PM

Cedarford,

What's it like, going through life as a condescending little shit?

Ever read Thucydides?

Love those Athenians, talking to to Melians. "Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must."

Enjoy four more years out of power, punk.

Posted by: Rocketeer on October 23, 2004 08:56 AM

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Top Headlines

This isn't Christmas Eve fare, and I thought about waiting until the 26th to post it, but supposedly an amateur detective has solved the Zodiac killer mystery. And the horrific Black Dahlia killing. He says it's the same person! I always thought of them as very far apart in time but I think Black Dahlia was mid-fifties (nope, 1947) mid and the Zodiac murders began in 1968 so it's possible it's the same killer.

The killer, if it's the same man, would have been in his 20s when he killed the Black Dahlia and his 40s when he did the Zodiac murders. Possible.

A little caveat: I saw someone snark on Reddit, "The Zodiac case gets solved more often than Wordle." There are a ton of coincidences here, supposedly, like a Zodiac cipher being solved by the name "Elizabeth." Elizabeth Short was the name of the so-called Black Dahlia.

If you don't know about the Black Dahlia, don't look it up. Just accept that it's grisly on the level of Jack the Ripper.

Yes, the named suspect resembles the police sketch of Zodiac.

Here's a podcast with the amateur sleuth who claims he cracked the Zodiac.
Daily Mail article.
Link to get around the LA Times' paywall for their article.

Podcast: The great Trump fleet? The economy is solid, Somalia's corrosive effect on America, Merry Christmas, and more!

The "Donroe Doctrine:" Trump means to end the terrorist-supporting Ghost Fleet of oil tankers used to fund Iran's Qods Force and Hezballah. He might just happen to dethrone Maduro in the process.

Former Republican liberal Ben Sasse announces that he has stage IV metastasized pancreatic cancer: "I'm gonna die"
It's not just a "death sentence," as he says, but a rapidly coming one. I hope he can put his affairs in order and make sure his family is in a good as a position as they can be.

Ernst Lubitsch's filmography definitively ranked, by TJM.

Have an ICEy Christmas!

Brown killer takes the coward's way out. Naturally.
Still not identified, for some reason.
Per Fox 25 Boston, the killer was a non-citizen permanent legal resident
It continues to be strange that the police are so protective of his identity.

Podcast: Will Ukraine be a flashpoint for a Korean conflict, Trump's intemperate Reiner comments, it's the economy stupid! the Monroe/Trump Doctrine, Bondi, Brown, MIT, and more!

Mike Rowe for Secretary of Labor [CBD]

Great bad guy actor Peter Greene dies at 60 [CBD]

Fearful French cancel NYE concert on Champs-Élysées as migrant violence grows
The time is now! France must fight for its culture! [CBD]

Gov. Tim Walz has been diagnosed with a terrible medical condition. [Mis. Hum]

Megyn Kelly finally calls out Candace Owens
Whoops, I meant she bravely attacks Sydney Sweeney for "bending the knee." (Sweeney put out a very empty PR statement saying "I'm against hate." Whoop-de-doo.)
Megyn Kelly claims she doesn't want to call people out on the right when asked about Candace Owens but then has no compunctions at all about calling people out on the right.
As long as they're not Candace Owens. Strangely, she seems blind and deaf to anything Candace Owens says. That's why this woman calls her "Megyn Keller."
She's now asking her pay-pigs in Pakistan how they think she should address the Candace Owens situation, and if they think this is really all about Israel and the Jews.

The World Must Stop Ignoring What Iranians Already Know: The Regime Is on the Brink
Isn't it pretty to think so? [CBD]

Podcast: Pete Hegseth is everything the left hates...and we love! Illinois is the next flashpoint for federal supremacy with regard to our borders, Trump's communication leaves something to be desired, and more!

I have happily forgotten what Milo Yiannopoulos sounds like, but I still enjoyed this impression from from Ami Kozak.

More revelations about the least-sexy broken relationship in media history
I'd wanted to review Parts 2, 3, and 4 of Ryan Lizza's revenge posts about Olivia Nuzzi, but they're all paywalled. I thought about briefly subscribing to get at them, but then I read this in Part 2:

Remember the bamboo from Part 1?

Do I ever! It's all I remember!

Well, bamboo is actually a type of grass, and underground, it's all connected in a sprawling network, just like the parts of this story I never wanted to tell. I wish I hadn't been put in this position, that I didn't have to write about any of this, that I didn't have to subject myself or my loved ones to embarrassment and further loss of privacy.

We're back to the fucking bamboo. Guys, I don't think I can pay for bamboo ruminations.
I think he added that because he was embarrassed about all the bamboo imagery from Part 1. He's justifying his twin obsessions: His ex, and bamboo. Which is not a tree but a kind of grass, he'll have you know.

Olivia Nuzzi's crappy Sex and the City fanfic book isn't selling, says CNN (and CNN seems pretty pleased about that)

On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi's story seemed more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked into a "New & Notable" rack next to the escalator, below Malala Yousafzai's "Finding My Way." Not many had sold so far, a store employee said.

A few blocks uptown, at a branch of the local independent chain McNally Jackson Books, a few volumes lay on a table of new and noteworthy nonfiction near the front of the store. No one was lining up to get them, or even browsing. Bookseller Alex Howe told CNN around 3 p.m. that though the store had procured "several dozen" copies, not a single one had yet sold -- a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in media and publishing work in the area.

"We ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door," Howe said. "I'm not sure where we're gonna put them because right now, supply is outpacing demand." (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the store.)

She trashes Ryan Lizza for his "Revenge Porn" here. Emily Jashinsky says that when the Bulwark's gay grifter Tim Miller asked why she didn't report on the (alleged) use of ketamine by RFKJr., she broke down in tears and asked to end the interview.

Canada Euthanized a Record 16.4K People Last Year
Aktion T4, now with Poutine! [CBD]

Trump's DOT Drops the Hammer: Thousands of CDL Trainers Shut Down
This is how it is done. [CBD]