BREAKING: As usual, CNN does it again!

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2017

The Washington Post tries to cover:
Does CNN ever stop making these costly errors?

At New York Magazine,
Benjamin Hart seems to be mad at Donald J. Trump for cashing in on this latest blunder. He doesn't seem to be annoyed with CNN for its latest own-goal.

We first heard about this blunder in this transplendently murky news report in today's Washington Post. As we tried to puzzle out what had happened, we were struck by the way Rosalind Helderman was covering for CNN.

What happens within the mainstream press corps stays within the mainstream press corps! Having said that, does CNN ever stop delivering these gifts to Donald J. Trump?

50 comments:

  1. From the article: "According to a network spokesperson, the two well-regarded reporters who made the mistake were fed false information by a source, and the error was corrected."

    The attempt to discredit journalists by offering them false information, that is later revealed to be untrue, is ongoing. This is what took down Dan Rather. Right wing schemes attempting this are revealed regularly.

    We don't need to jump on the bandwagon and excoriate CNN for getting trapped this way. They should of course be more careful -- I'm sure they understand that. But it isn't as if they are being sloppy. There are ongoing real attempts to undermine the credibility of the press by feeding it false info.

    When Trump complains, he is carrying out the end-stage of an orchestrated attempt to undermine our public news sources. It is part of how a fascist government undermines public opposition -- by discrediting all sources not under government control. By confusing people about what is true and what is not true. Trump is not an innocent bystander being wrongly accused. He is the beneficiary of these attempts to discredit CNN and other news sources.

    But my question is why Somerby is actively helping the right to attack CNN and our other media, instead of pointing out how this game is being played? Once again we see Somerby helping Trump, not supporting efforts by liberals and our resistance to maintain a free press that tells the truth to readers.

    Somerby is on the wrong side yet again. Why can't he get this right?

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    1. How many other anonymous sources based journalism is similarly "fake news"? How would we know if there is no other source of information?

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    2. When a newspaper doesn't report a source, that doesn't mean they don't know who the actual source is. These so-called anonymous sources are not actually anonymous to the journalists. They are vetted and often they are composites of multiple sources.

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Maybe this will change your mind. It’s right in line with Bob’s analytical critiques.

      https://theintercept.com/2017/12/09/the-u-s-media-yesterday-suffered-its-most-humiliating-debacle-in-ages-now-refuses-all-transparency-over-what-happened/

      Cheers,
      Leroy

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    5. The Intercept is not a credible news source. They have spent the entire year mocking the Russian investigation. To date they have still not published a single word about the Flynn conviction.

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  2. Bob has the wrong link for the WaPo story. I suspect the correct link is https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/12/08/cnn-just-armed-trump-with-new-ammunition-to-launch-another-fake-news-attack/?utm_term=.b480c7efe08a

    The headline shows that WaPo's main focus is Trump's attack on CNN, rather than CNN's serious mistake. The lede says CNN made a "1-digit mistake". That formulation makes it sound like the mistake was no big deal. Several paragraphs later, the article eventually does explain what CNN did wrong and why it was serious.

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  3. "Does CNN ever stop making these costly errors?"

    What do you want from them? Their usual 'unnamed sources' 'reported', they published. Just another day of goebbelsian propaganda.

    The important thing is exactly that it doesn't stop: it needs to be repeated endlessly and intensified constantly. And they're doing it well.

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  4. Amidst the hundreds (thousands) of stories and facts appearing every day, it isn't surprising that a mistake creeps in occasionally. What's the ratio of incorrect to correct at CNN? We have no idea. It isn't quite valid to make a statement like "Does CNN ever stop making these costly errors?" based on this one example. And rather than take Somerby's word, which implies that they always or frequently do this, I would need to see some sort of evidence. People who say "always" or "never/ever" tend to be engaging in hyperbole. And Somerby *never* corrects the errors he makes. (!)
    Human beings aren't perfect. As long as the error is corrected, and the media outlet strives for accuracy, what more can you ask?
    Trump will use anything, true or false, as a weapon against his enemies. Somerby demands perfection from his rather small list of media outlets, and rarely mentions others. And some of those others may have an agenda that is reflected in their "misreporting." ("Moore accuser forges signature" anyone?)... Although we can't be sure.
    We can't disagree with the possibility that it seems as though Somerby may be in Trump's camp when he calls out the evil msm for being fake news, and then tells us to watch TPN (Trump Propaganda Network), or rather Fox News. Or it's entirely possible that Somerby doesn't agree.

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  5. I hate to quote this much, but this is from David Frum's latest series of tweets. Needless to say, it's a slightly different take on things than Somerby.
    "It's true: in piercing the dense thicket of lies told by Trump and his circle to conceal their deep wrongdoing, some media organizations have sometimes made promptly corrected errors.
    2) Revealing and confirming truth in the face of orchestrated and shameless official deception is difficult, and errors of fact and emphasis are inevitable.
    3) I'm trying to think of a single important mistake by a non-Fox news organization that wasn't caught & corrected within at least 24 hours. This last correction took only about 2 hours.
    4) Where the error originated in reportorial carelessness, non-Fox news organizations have actually sanctioned or even fired those making the errors.
    5) "Non Fox" an important caveat. Whereas at WashPo, NYT, CNN etc it's a rare day when a reporter makes a hurtful mistake; at Fox it's big news when Shep Smith is allowed to tell the truth.
    6) But we should never lose sight: when non-Fox reporters slip in their work, the work itself is trying to inform the public about the doings of the most systematical untruthful administration in American history.
    7) Considering the ferocity of the deception they confront, non-Fox media organizations have made impressively few errors. They know what is at stake, and how any mistake will be weaponized by bad faith actors - not least pro-Trump pseudo-news organizations
    8) Never forget, though, that the media are not the protagonist in the drama. The protagonists are the officials engaged in the deception, headed by the president himself.
    9) In the unequal contest between deception and those seeking to ascertain the truth, it is the deceivers who hold the power of the state.
    10) To paraphrase FDR: Better the occasional faults of those who seek truth than the consistent deceptions of those frozen in corruption and collusion"

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  6. More fake news from the Washington Post, just reported

    WaPo writer apologizes to President Trump for posting ‘phony photo of empty arena’

    https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2017/12/09/wapo-writer-apologizes-to-president-trump-for-posting-phony-photo-of-empty-arena/

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    1. When is a tweet a newspaper article?

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    2. You have a point, gravymeister. The mistake was Dave Weigel's personally, not the newspaper's. However, Weigel is a prominent reporter for WaPo, so his mistake embarrasses his newspaper.

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    3. Comrade DinC, you have no shame. You support a lying sack of shit who embarrasses the entire country every single day.

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    4. You're right Comrade DinC. There are a lot more people fucked up in the head and sympathetic to authoritarian fascism like you living in the Florida panhandle than the media is willing to acknowledge.

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    5. No energy should be wasted trying to secure the hearts and minds of the Cult of the Tiki Torches, as evidenced by the special edition False Equivalency Twister game David is playing. Disingenuous to their cores, David and his ilk will scour the web to find minute mistakes and misdemeanors by any outsider in order to try to fool their own impressionable minds and the minds of swing voters that these teeny transgressions will somehow counterbalance their burnt-orange demi-god’s atrocities. David, don’t kid yourself, Kid. Your strawmen are stickmen. Not good, hefty, clever (even though brainless) strawmen like Ray Bolger; no, your strawmen are stickmen, made of frozen streams of Moscow whore piss. You’ve reached the dark side. Can’t wait to see hilarity ensue if Mr. Moore goes to Washington. Watching Kentucky’s Yertle the Turtle and Wisconsin’s Eddie Munster squirm and dodge will be good clean fun. Watching you regurgitate Breitbart’s silly spin, not so comical.

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    6. Well written, Dude. I agree that Donald Trump is a repulsive human being. Moore is entirely disgusting. However, IMHO that doesn't excuse sloppy and biased reporting by our media. When I was young, we could trust the New York Times. Now there's no media that I trust.

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    7. David,

      In all seriousness, these men are creeps and an embarrassment to our country. As I've said before, conservative principles are defensible, Trump is not. It is an understatement to say that the the media are untrustworthy. Thanks for your reasonable response.

      I hope you and yours are and remain well.

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    8. Also, despite Trump's bad personal character, he has been an effective President for the American people. By comparison, Barack Obama George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter are personal paragons, but they were not effective Presidents for the American people.

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    9. I wouldn’t call an occasional mistake by the media sloppiness or bias. It goes with the territory.

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    10. 12:44, Well said.

      David, Your distillation of nearly 21 years our country’s history into a couple of sentences is concise but highly reductionist. Many reasonable people would disagree with your conclusions. I get it, you want our country to succeed; hopefully, not just for yourself but for our grandchildren and future generations. As a fellow old man, I offer that we have the luxury of looking past our own wants and getting a bit of satisfaction from leaving this sphere in as good a shape as possible (see Ebenezer after scared straight by four ghosts, Marley included). I can only see Trump uniting us against—not behind—him. Our future is in the hands of first, the R congress, and soon enough, swing voters and Millennials. I’ll save my sarcasm about these groups (which contain millions of decent people) and hope for the best. Moore is a grotesque side show. And although actual abusers should be shown the door, this circle-jerk-random-under-the-bussing taking place in the holy halls of congress is a sideshow too.

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    11. ...an effective President for the American people...

      bwahahaha!!

      He has squandered his entire first year ineffectually trying to repeal ACA and blaming everyone else for his manifest ignorance and incompetence and laziness.

      He is destroying our State Department piece by piece.

      He is gutting and undermining the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as we speak and is currently engaged in passing a billion dollar tax for himself and his cabinet while mendaciously casting it as a middle class tax cut. And in his spare time when he's not charging the taxpayers to watch him play golf at his golf clubs, he is gutting environmental regulations.

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    12. Isis defeated in Iraq. Booming economy. Peace and prosperity look like success to the American people.


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    13. Exactly. The economy is booming so much, we're giving a massive tax break to corporations.
      Let's keep our eye on David's ball. Thanks to Trump, Universal Healthcare for each and every citizen is easily within reach. The money's there. Trump and his fellow Republicans are about to rain the benefits of the booming economy to the people. Suck it, libtards!
      We should probably up the Social Security benefits while we're at it.
      Kudos David, for calling it when everyone said you were mistaken.

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    14. DinC you are such a dishonest lying sack of shit and a broken record. The economy is not "booming". The stock market is up continuing on the same fucking trajectory as it was under Obama. It's funny how you always seem to leave out GWBush in your list of prior presidents. When Obama took over the Dow was 6000. 8 years later it was nearly 20000 when he left. How the fuck do you figure trump is responsible when he hasn't passed a single fucking piece of legislation that has any impact on the economy?

      Peace and prosperity? Fuck you David, he's pushing a tax cut that will further exacerbate the already hideous income inequality that he was supposed to address. Where the fuck is his trillion dollar infrastructure plan? It aint happening now once this tax scam bill is passed and the deficit starts going back up. Oh yeah, another thing Clinton and Obama managed to do was address the deficit. where the fuck is your mythical peace DinC? What happened to those 4 guys in Niger? How come we haven't had 9 congressional investigations yet?

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    15. mm, Thanks for bringing up deregulation in your earlier post. David and the lamppost both know Trump is too lazy to perform due diligence, too ready to please his fellow oligarchs, and too motivated by vindictiveness to have weighed the benefits and consequences of his slash-and-burn deregulation executive actions. He knows that some regulations are cumbersome blockades of efficiency and progress and some are necessary protectors of our economy, environment and the health and safety of our fellow citizens. He knows that Trump plainly does not care enough to discriminate between the two. It’s a matter of character to demand due diligence of oneself in these decisions. David conveniently compartmentalizes Trump’s supposed successes away from his character, which he has admitted on numerous occasions is abysmal. Character or lack thereof does permeate everything a president does.

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    16. It’s a matter of character to demand due diligence of oneself in these decisions. David conveniently compartmentalizes Trump’s supposed successes away from his character,

      Excellent point. It is very dishonest for DinC to pretend that the president lying to the American people almost every time he opens his mouth is just a "personal" character flaw and has no impact on the way her governs.

      According to DinC, the "repulsive" Donald Trump, who is campaigning now for the "entirely disgusting" Moore in Alabama, is doing a great job.

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  7. mm - the economy is growing a lot faster than it did under Obama.

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    1. The G.O.P. Is Rotting


      The rot afflicting the G.O.P. is comprehensive — moral, intellectual, political and reputational. More and more former Republicans wake up every day and realize: “I’m homeless. I’m politically homeless.”


      Not our friendly lying sack of shit troll, DinC. He's happy as a clam watching this vulgar abomination attack our FBI and committing obstruction of justice in broad daylight. Yeah, cause that 3% growth the last quarter was just so fucking awesome, you know.

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  8. mm -- since you attribute Trump's fabulous economy to the prior President, you should also attribute the economic recovery beginning in 2009 to Bush. :)

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    1. DavidinCal,
      Should we phase-in Universal Healthcare, while phasing-out Obamacare, or just "flip the switch" to Universal Healthcare tomorrow?

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    2. A classic example of false equivalence.

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    3. No you damn fool. I attribute the economic recovery under Obama to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) introduced in January 2009 right after Obama hit the ground running trying to right the ship that Bush ran aground, and passed in Feb 2009, with not a single republican Congressman voting for it and only 3 republican senators voting for it. Because they're fucking ignorant ghouls. The recovery under Obama didn't start the minute he took office as you've been idiotically trying to claim credit to trump for upward trajectory that Obama launched.

      What comparable piece of economic legislation did "that Donald Trump [is] a repulsive human being" pass that entitles you to take credit for the economy that Obama left him?


      Obama took office during the worst recession since the Great Depression, when the economy was losing 750,000 jobs a month and already had lost a record 9 percent of GDP. He completed his two terms with the largest annual gain in the value of the dollar, the biggest annual decrease in household debt as a percentage of disposable income, and the largest annual increases in car sales and hourly wages. His presidency coincided with the second-highest annual gain in home equity and trailed only the Clinton period in deficit reduction as a percentage of GDP. While non-farm payrolls under Obama had a slower annual increase than they did under Jimmy Carter, Clinton and Ronald Reagan, they rose for 75 consecutive months, the longest streak since February 1939.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-19/ranking-the-obama-economy

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    4. "Because they're fucking ignorant ghouls."
      They hate the people in this country. Did you see the massive tax cut they're giving corporations (who are already sitting on piles of cash), so they can steal their social security while screaming about deficits?
      Calling them "fucking ignorant ghouls" is being far too kind to them.

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    5. "Obama took office during the worst recession since the Great Depression, when the economy was losing 750,000 jobs a month and already had lost a record 9 percent of GDP."
      "...with not a single republican Congressman voting for it and only 3 republican senators voting for it."

      That reminds me. "Liberals want Saddam to win, because they hate America."

      It's always projection with Conservatives.

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  9. AnonymousDecember 10, 2017 at 9:26 PM -- Are you aware that President Obama also proposed cutting the corporate income tax?
    Obama proposes lowering corporate tax rate to 28 percent
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-to-propose-lowering-corporate-tax-rate-to-28-percent/2012/02/22/gIQA1sjdSR_story.html?utm_term=.a18f50d8d4d2

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    1. 1. 28% is not equal to 20% for those of you who are not bean counters like Comrade DinC.

      2. If anyone wants to see what a truly dishonest lying sack of shit DinC is, read through the article he cites above to get the "rest of the story".

      The plan would lower the nation’s corporate tax rate to 28 percent. At the same time, Obama wants to boost overall revenue from corporate taxation by banning numerous deductions and loopholes that save companies tens of billions of dollars a year on their tax bills.

      For those of you keeping score, the current tax bill being pushed by tRump does nothing to the massive amount of special deductions and special loopholes for business, which even Romney and candidate tRump agreed would have to be eliminated. See, that was where the fucking "simplification" of the tax code was supposed to come in. That now is down the memory hole, another broken promise from the flimflam man traitor tRump, our LYING SACK OF SHIT PRESIDENT.

      Despite those disagreements, Republicans and Democrats have shown support for a tax strategy that reduces rates across the board while eliminating special-interest loopholes.

      Not only are they now not eliminating those special-interest loopholes, I believe the tax plan being pushed by our head of state pussygrabber actually adds a few new ones.

      Of course what lying sack of shit DinC neglects to mention is that the tax plan proposed by Obama wouldn't have added to national debt $1.5 trillion, it was aimed at increasing tax revenue from business.

      Obama wants to boost overall revenue from corporate taxation


      The current U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent is one of the highest in the world, but the abundance of loopholes and deductions enable many businesses to pay far less than that — or nothing at all. Companies in the United States pay almost half the taxes that companies in other rich countries pay, compared with the size of the economy, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

      Keep that in mind when you repeatedly hear the lying GOP repeatedly tell you that businesses are paying too much in taxes.

      But don't listen to me, listen to Stephen Moore, one of tRump's tax advisers during the campaign.

      **********************
      Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who was a Trump campaign adviser, said the Republican tax bill represented "death to Democrats."

      •Moore said the repeal of the state and local tax deduction, new taxes on universities, and the repeal of the so-called individual mandate in particular targeted liberals.
      ***************



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    2. D in C. Many economists recommended reducing the corporate tax rate, along with eliminating deductions, subsidies, depletion allowances, offshore banking, etc. Obama did not advocate major tax cuts to wealthy individuals, families, or proprietors, as the Republicans have. Do I dare say you are being disingenuous?

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    3. mm
      You posted while I was composing. I yield.

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    4. The more the merrier, gravymeister.

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  10. gravymeister -- I don't think I was being disingenuous. There has been a worldwide competition to reduce corporate income tax. The worldwide average corporate tax rate has declined since 2003 from 30 percent to 22.5 percent. Our level of 35% + state income tax in some cases puts the US at a big disadvantage. It's by far the highest in the world. Regardless of what's done to other taxes, it's clearly good to reduce the corporate income tax rate.

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    1. "...it's clearly good to reduce the corporate income tax rate."

      In exchange for what, you typically shitty Conservative negotiator? If corporate tax rates are a burden for any business, they already have a solution. They can reduce their corporate tax rate to zero, by un-incorporating.
      Of course they don't, because they want to get all the government benefits of being incorporated, but they don't want to pay for them.
      The biggest welfare queens on the planet wear suits and work on Wall Street.
      -------
      In the meantime, it's clearly good (and affordable) to provide Universal Healthcare to everyone from cradle to grave, while doubling Social Security benefits. The deficit hawks can take it up with Trump and the Republican Congress, who are basking in the economic boom Trump gave us.

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  11. The average tax rate worldwide seems to be 29% for 2017. Our level, 35%, is comparable to quite a few other countries. It is not "by far the highest in the world". That would be United Arab Emirates at 55%.

    These nominal tax rates do not reflect the actual or effective tax burden or corporations due to other taxes imposed and the ability to evade taxes via loopholes.

    See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates

    It is unclear to me why it would be "clearly good to reduce the corporate tax rate." If the corporate tax rate is reduced, corporations do not invest the money in their business but instead use the money to buy back stock and reward managers. Instead, government is starved and essential services cannot be funded. That is already happening and will be worse with the new tax bill.

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    1. The question for DavidinCal is, do Republicans just hate the citizens of the United States of America, or are they just really, really shitty negotiators, who forgot to put any force mechanism in the bill requiring corporations to reinvest their tax savings?
      I'm going with the former.

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    2. AnonymousDecember 11, 2017 at 12:26 PM -- I don't think you're a racist. You just don't understand how important jobs are, especially to black Americans. Policies leading to job creation are vital.

      E.g., a lot of jobs were created last month. Just in November, "groups that have lagged in recent years also show major improvements. For instance, the jobless rate for African Americans dropped from 8% to 7.3%, while for Hispanics it fell from 5.7% to 4.7%. For Asians it stayed at an ultralow 3%."

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    3. Where's the mechanism in the Tax Reform Bill requiring re-investment of the tax savings? What are the thresholds of re-investment? What are the penalties for those corporations which do not meet this (missing) threshold? Have any corporations amended their corporate charters, stating they will answer to the citizens--and not the board of directors?
      Is this all just "hope" that the tax savings will be re-invested and lead to lower unemployment and higher wages?
      Finally, am I supposed to believe the Republican Congress is just a bunch of bad businessmen, who forgot to add any force mechanisms at all, or (more likely), this was a massive giveaway to the Establishment, but who knows, maybe something good will come of it for the people.
      ---
      BTW, David, I totally think you are a racist. I've read your screeds against BLM, and realize (like a lot of Conservatives) your problem with Universal Healthcare is that some black person might benefit from it.

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    4. Since President Donald Trump took office, the unemployment rate has slowly edged down to 4.1 percent in October.

      In the nine months beginning in February, the economy has added 163,000 jobs per month on average. In the three years before Trump took office, job growth was higher (250,000 per month in 2014, 226,000 per month in 2015 and 187,000 per month in 2016).




      “That’s what we’d expect at this stage of the recovery,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed, “with now seven years of job growth” since the recession ended. (Indeed is an underwriter for Marketplace).

      The Labor Department’s monthly employment reports have been volatile this fall, with hurricanes causing job creation to plummet to 18,000 in September and then rebound to 261,000 in October.

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    5. Goddammit David! Stop with your crocodile tears about Black unemployment and Black Teenage unemployment. You shame yourself pretending you give a shit.

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