This is shameless sleaze:
They just revised down the estimated job gains in both August & September by a combined 112,000
Remember last month when I said the jobs report from Biden-Harris were fakes used by media to give them positive headlines?
I told you so!
👇 https://t.co/IOByFmJxpj— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 1, 2024
It's one thing when this nonsense comes from a crank or a fanatic. Every party has 'em. But it's now almost conventional wisdom among Republicans that the BLS is deliberately overstating job growth in order to make Joe Biden look good. It's both stupid and dangerous.
The BLS always reports three values for job estimates: an advance value, a revised value, and a final value. Sometimes the final value is higher than the advance value, sometimes it's lower. It all depends on the data.
The economy has been unusually volatile as it recovers from the pandemic, and revisions have been a bit higher than usual. But they plainly don't favor anyone in particular. Rubio should be ashamed of himself for promoting this crackpottery.¹
¹Needless to say, he won't be. The MAGA era has given every Republican a license to lie.
The quackery coming from Rubio the last four years is something to behold. It is astonishing to see the lies coming from his mouth from someone who post a different Bible verse in his site everyday. If Tuberville is our dumbest senator, then Rubio is our most dishonest.
Rubio (and Cruz, for that matter) have surprised me quite a bit. I had figured that, after Trump beat them in 2016, insulted them personally, and insulted their families, they would have quietly gutted Trump every chance they got, somewhat like McCain did to Bush. After all, I fully expect that both Rubio and Cruz spent Jan. 2017-2021 inwardly seething about the orange-faced clown who stole what would otherwise have been "their" presidency.
But did they? No. They genuflect and bow and scrape and even when given guilt-free opportunities to wreck Trump forever (say, voting with the solid senate majority to convict on Trump's second impeachment), they chicken out.
Absolute cowards.
It is not just, or even mainly, cowardice.
It is the total lack of integrity which is the main issue with the Republican party in general, and Rubio and Cruz specifically.
Their ongoing jobs depend on genuflection. Their long term prospects depend on the whims of Trump and his coalition. Not everyone has the courage of conviction when their company decides to go way off the rails, they've got mortgages and private schools to pay for on the taxpayer dime (not to mention the need for access to insider information to inform investment strategy).
It's a calculation on maintaining the lifestyle they've grown accustomed to.
"Their ongoing jobs depend on genuflection"
Yeah, maybe now, in November 2024. But not in 2017. And certainly not in February 2021. My point is that I'd have thought that even unscrupulous self-interested assholes like Cruz would have seen Trump as an enemy/obstacle to be eliminated when it was safe and strategic to act. But they didn't act even then. So again, I say: cowards.
Youngkin of Virginia gives Little Rubio a run for his money.
Just now? Four short years ago, everyone understood that elections take days to finalize and outcomes can change as ballots are counted. Everyone, that is, except a narcissistic idiot whose crackpot belief -- that updates to vote tallies are evidence of cheating -- became gospel truth.
And I am sure Marco will tells us the numbers in TFG's Presidency were spot on. Or were they manipulated, also?
It's the political media who have given Republicans license to lie.
And voters.
Voters could "say" we don't vote for gross liars, but they don't (at least not enough of them).
Remember seeing a interview from UK TV of Donald Rumsfeld; he trotted out a line and the interviewer contradicted him by citing facts. And Rumsfeld was like M. le Duc being corrected by his groom--astonished after years of canine obeisance by US newsmen.
Scott Pelley got that reaction from Moms For Liberty when he did the same thing.,
Classic clueless Republican:
https://youtu.be/WFYRkzznsc0?si=5KQRPQKt3U8-pS3f
It's now normal to expect this dishonesty from the Party of Trump. He is literally practicing Goebbels' Big Lie tactic. It's probably only a matter of time before the Democrats start doing it , too. I don't mean to imply that Dems are currently blameless in playing this game, but how long can they go on winning the popular vote and then having to stand in the corner while someone else gets inaugurated? How long will they "go high" while half the country believes they are lying, cheating scumbags? What have we got left once both sides are wrestling in the slime?
We are all worried about the damage Donald Trump will do to the nation -- to democracy itself -- but he has already wrecked citizen faith in election integrity while simultaneously ending the rule of law. Everything that's to come follows from that.
"But it's now almost conventional wisdom among Republicans that the BLS is deliberately overstating job growth in order to make Joe Biden look good. It's both stupid and dangerous."
A lot less stupid and dangerous than what Trump has in mind as an end point. History will need to be recalibrated.
We forget that they are incentived to behave this way, there are few if any consequences for their actions. If you want truthful people or at least people that can feel some shame and then act to change their behavior, start at the breakfast table – there no helping the current crop.
When you talk about the politicians, the only cure is voters that don't vote for shameless liars. Until then, there will always enough shameless liars to take advantage.
Voilà !
Yup. The feedback loop here is paramount. When I see all the hand wringing about Trump and the MAGA it is as if the voters are mere spectators with no input into the outcome.
T-3 and counting….
Labeling it "crackpottery" rather than willful lying is being too generous.
Its been like this for several years now. Welcome to the shitshow.
Laurence Tribe asks a great question,
https://x.com/tribelaw/status/1852794046336708674
I would put a finer point on this and tell Trump voters: "Look if you're in a swing state like California or New York or Massachusetts you better get out and vote but in most states your vote will really mean nothing."
"It's one thing when this nonsense comes from a crank or a fanatic"
With the MAGA GOP, those cranks and fanatics are also Senators, House Members, Cabinet members, appointed Judges (including SCOTUS), and also, the fucking President.
Good luck in 2025 and beyond!
Without bad faith…..
Republicans would have no arguments at all…
Forbes, for some reason, has gone whole hog on Bitcoin crackpottery.