Month: September 2019

Worse than a Crime, It’s a Mistake

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This Business Will get out of Control. It Will get out of Control and we’ll be Lucky to Live Through It.

Just when you thought that the political opportunism of Benyamin Netanyahu could not get any more short sighted and destructive, he is promising to annex most of the West Bank as a campaign promise:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Tuesday that he would move swiftly to annex nearly a third of the occupied West Bank if voters returned him to power in the election next week, seizing what he called a historic opportunity from a sympathetic White House to give Israel “secure, permanent borders.”

His plan to annex territory along the Jordan River would reshape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and would reduce any future Palestinian state to an enclave encircled by Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu’s rivals on the left and right largely greeted the announcement, made in the heat of a campaign in which he is battling for survival, as a transparent political ploy.

Mr. Netanyahu said he planned to annex all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and that he would move immediately after forming a new government to annex the Jordan Valley, a strategic and fertile strip of territory along the border with Jordan that runs from Beit Shean in northern Israel to the shores of the Dead Sea.

He said he wanted to capitalize on what he called the “unique, one-off opportunity” afforded him by the Trump administration, which has expressed openness to Israeli annexation of at least parts of the West Bank.

“We haven’t had such an opportunity since the Six Day War, and I doubt we’ll have another opportunity in the next 50 years,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan. “Give me the power to guarantee Israel’s security. Give me the power to determine Israel’s borders.”

Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war. Most of the world considers it occupied territory and Israeli settlements or annexations there to be illegal.Mr. Netanyahu, who is in a dead heat or slightly behind in the polls against Benny Gantz, a centrist former army chief of staff, has tried mightily to shift the focus of the election from the corruption cases against him to his strong suit: national security.

………

This time, Mr. Netanyahu boasted that thanks to “my personal relationship with President Trump, I will be able to annex all the settlements in the heart of our homeland.”

Assuming that Netanyahu isn’t lying, and Netanyahu lies like the rest of us breath, the end game for this strategy seems to be the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

Not good.

Completely Not a Surprise

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Somehow or other, WeWork took a fairly standard real estate play, leasing long, and renting short, and, by adding Kombucha,* managed to sell itself as a high tech unicorn.

Now that the WeWork IPO is collapsing under the weight of mathematics and allegations of self dealing, maybe we should seriously consider a little more scrutiny of both the business plans and the business practices of startup companies:

Historically low interest rates and quantitative easing are supposed to encourage investors to take more risks, but even in this climate there are limits. WeWork is hitting one as investors conclude they’re wary of investing in Shanghai-on-the-Hudson.

That’s the main lesson of the slow-rolling deflation of the public-market listing of WeWork parent We Co., scheduled for this month but under threat of postponement. The company filed its paperwork last month hoping to achieve a valuation of $47 billion. Investors haven’t stopped laughing.

The skepticism is due in part to We’s attempts to pretend it’s a technology company that will “elevate the world’s consciousness.” It’s a real-estate company that leases office space for long terms and rents it to small businesses for short terms. Technophilia is a market staple. But We faces established—and old-fashioned—direct competitors such as IWG, owner of Regus business centers, which has traded publicly for years, is profitable unlike We, and sets a benchmark for realistic returns.

The bigger cause for We’s woes is the corporate-governance risk investors have decided they’re not willing to stomach. In this regard We resembles a Chinese more than American company, and investors have noticed.

Take WeWork’s name. The IPO listing documents revealed that company founder Adam Neumann had vested trademarks related to the “We” name in a separate company and then sold those rights to We Co. in exchange for shares worth nearly $6 million.

American investors squawked, but this sort of arrangement is almost routine in China. In one famous case, Chinese entrepreneur Huang Guangyu, jailed in 2010 for 14 years on questionable charges of illegal business dealings, held onto some of the logos and other intellectual property of his electronics retailing company and used them to establish a competing chain of stores from his jail cell. We Co. has since reversed its deal with Mr. Neumann.

Another symptom of this China syndrome is We’s extensive web of transactions with related parties. The company disclosed in its IPO filing that it leases four buildings that are owned by Mr. Neumann, and it also reportedly hired an executive’s parents to broker another of its leases. Then there’s the personal control, with Mr. Neumann’s wife Rebekah designated to pick his successor in the event injury or death prevents him from running the company. This again is characteristic of China, or a South Korean chaebol, where the goal is to keep the company all in the family.

Seriously, where are the prosecutions?

*As Anna Russell would say, “I’m not making this up, you know.”

The Worst Member of the Trump Administration

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I know that this is a target rich environment, but Wilbur Ross, who just threatened to fire people at NOAA for reporting the weather accurately, is high up on any list:

The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at the federal scientific agency responsible for weather forecasts last Friday after the agency’s Birmingham office contradicted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, disavowing the National Weather Service’s position that Alabama was not at risk. The reversal caused widespread anger within the agency and drew accusations from the scientific community that the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA, had been bent to political purposes.

NOAA’s statement on Friday is now being examined by the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times, and employees have been asked to preserve their files. NOAA is a division of the Commerce Department.

………

The Commerce Department disputed the account on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur L. Ross Jr. “Secretary Ross did not threaten to fire any NOAA staff over forecasting and public statements about Hurricane Dorian,” the department said in a statement issued by a spokesman.

………

The accusations against Mr. Ross are the latest developments in a political imbroglio that began more than a week ago, when Dorian was bearing down on the Bahamas and Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter that Alabama would be hit “harder than anticipated.” A few minutes later, the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Ala., posted on Twitter that “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama.”

………

Mr. Ross, the commerce secretary, intervened two days later, early last Friday, according to the three people familiar with his actions. Mr. Ross phoned Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA, from Greece where the secretary was traveling for meetings and instructed Dr. Jacobs to fix the agency’s perceived contradiction of the president.

Dr. Jacobs objected to the demand and was told that the political staff at NOAA would be fired if the situation was not fixed, according to the three individuals, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the episode.

………

Craig N. McLean, NOAA’s acting chief scientist, sent an email to staff members Monday notifying the agency that he was looking into “potential violations” in the agency’s decision to ultimately back Mr. Trump’s statements rather than those of its own scientists. He called the agency’s action “a danger to public health and safety.”

………

Richard Hirn, general counsel for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, said what made the NOAA episode extraordinary, though, was that it was not part of an overarching policy dispute on a contentious topic like climate change. “This is just to cover up an embarrassing mistake the president made,” he said.

Mr. Hirn, who said he has worked with the agency through six administrations, added that, “Never before has anybody tried to politicize the weather in all the administrations I’ve worked with.”

Seriously, impeach Ross, and then go after Donald Trump.

F%$# that, just impeach Trump.

Uber And Lyft Cheat Their Drivers

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In July, an Uber driver we’ll call Dave—his name has been changed here to protect his identity—picked up a fare in a trendy neighborhood of a major U.S. metropolitan area. It was rush hour and surge pricing was in effect due to increased demand, meaning that Dave would be paid almost twice the regular fare.

Even though the trip was only five miles, it lasted for more than half an hour because his passengers scheduled a stop at Taco Bell for dinner. Dave knew sitting at the restaurant waiting for his fares to get a Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch or whatever would cost him money; he was earning only 21 cents a minute when the meter was running, compared to 60 cents per mile. With surge pricing in effect, it would be far more lucrative to keep moving and picking up new fares than sitting in a parking lot.

But Dave, who was granted anonymity out of fear of being deactivated by the ride-hail giant for speaking to the press, had no real choice but to wait. The passenger had requested the stop through the app, so refusing to make it would have been contentious both with the customer and with Uber. The exact number varies by city, but drivers must maintain a high rating in order to work on their platform. And there’s widespread belief among drivers that the Uber algorithm punishes drivers for cancelling trips.

Ultimately, the rider paid $65 for the half-hour trip, according to a receipt viewed by Jalopnik. But Dave made only $15 (the fares have been rounded to anonymize the transaction).

Uber kept the rest, meaning the multibillion-dollar corporation kept more than 75 percent of the fare, more than triple the average so-called “take-rate” it claims in financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Had he known in advance how much he would have been paid for the ride relative to what the rider paid, Dave said he never would have accepted the fare.

“This is robbery,” Dave told Jalopnik over email. “This business is out of control.”

………

Jalopnik asked drivers to send us fare receipts showing a breakdown of how much the rider paid for the trip, how much of that fare Uber or Lyft kept, and what the driver earned.

………

Of all the fares Jalopnik examined, Uber kept 35 percent of the revenue, while Lyft kept 38 percent. These numbers are roughly in line with a previous study by Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute which concluded Uber’s take rate to be roughly one-third, or 33 percent.

………

Those take rates are 10.6 percent and 8.5 percent higher than Uber and Lyft’s publicly reported figures, respectively.

………

“This is really fascinating and troubling,” said Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of the Open Markets Institute, a nonprofit studying corporate concentration and monopoly power, when briefed on Jalopnik’s findings. Vaheesan went on to say the findings “support the argument that their business model is built on large scale labor exploitation.”

Don’t support Uber or Lyft, and if you live in California, contact your legislator to support the legislation classifying gig economy employees as employees.

It seems that all of the “gig economy” business plans are centered on cheating someone or other.

The Right Thing to Do

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Cuellar is a simply awful Democrat in a reliably Democratic district. and it’s about time for someone to take him down:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Monday endorsed Jessica Cisneros, a Democratic primary challenger to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

“The people of Texas’ 28th district are ready for systematic change and deserve a Democrat that will be on the side of working people; not the side of big money and obstructionist Republicans,” Warren, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, said in a statement.

“I believe Jessica Cisneros is that fighter. As an immigration lawyer and daughter of small business owners growing up on the border, Jessica knows our diversity is our strength and that when progressives are unapologetic about our values and who we’re in this battle for, we win. It’s time Texans had a champion in Congress who does just that. I’m proud to support Jessica.”

Cisneros launched her campaign in June and was immediately endorsed by Justice Democrats, the group that helped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in her primary bid against 10-term incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.).

………

Cuellar’s campaign manager Colin Strother also slammed Warren’s endorsement.

“Elizabeth Warren is at 10 percent in Texas and has as much of a chance of being elected president as our opponent does being elected to Congress,” Strother told The Hill.

He said that both Warren and Cisneros have “backward policies that would hurt Texas,” calling the Green New Deal a “scam” and saying that “Medicare For All” would cause Texans to lose coverage.

“I don’t think the district will get on board with this socialist agenda,” Strother said, before calling Warren and Cisneros Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) “knockoffs.”
In her launch video, Cisneros, an immigration and human rights attorney, criticized Cuellar for a conservative voting record. She said Cuellar had voted with President Trump 70 percent of the time in the 115th Congress.

Cuellar was one of three Democrats to side with Republicans on “Kate’s law,” a measure to expand maximum sentences for people who attempt to reenter the country after having been deported, and legislation to strip federal funding from “sanctuary” jurisdictions that do not fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

He also opposes abortion and has voted against allowing federal funds to be used for the practice.

………

Texas’s 28th Congressional District went for Hillary Clinton by 20 points in the 2016 presidential election and is rated solidly Democratic by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

The only reason for the DCCC to support a corporatist New Democrat in a district this safe (20%+ Dem) is to make sure that there are enough people fellating the big banks, the private prison industry, and the NRA to ensure that there is critical mass in the House sufficient to prevent any real reforms.

Remember That Ratf%$# Judge in Boston?

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You know, the one who refused to accept the prosecutors decision not to prosecute and threw a defense attorney in jail for quoting precedent?

Well the Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts’ highest court, took all of about 25 minutes to overturn him:

A Supreme Judicial Court justice sided with Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins on Monday, vacating the decision of a lower court judge to arraign a counter-protester of the so-called “Straight Pride” parade earlier this month.

Justice Frank Gaziano wrote that Boston Municipal Court Judge Richard Sinnott had “no authority” to reject a prosecutor’s entry of “nolle prosequi” — a decision not to prosecute the case — when arraigning defendant Roderick Webber.

Sinnott also rejected several motions to dismiss cases against counter-protesters arrested at the Aug. 31 parade and rally.

Rollins argued last week that Sinnott overstepped his constitutional authority in refusing her request to drop charges against some counter-protesters charged with minor infractions, like disorderly conduct. In his decision, Gaziano agreed.

“The prosecutor’s sole authority to determine which cases to prosecute, and when not to pursue a prosecution, has been affirmed repeatedly by this court since the beginning of the nineteenth century,” Gaziano wrote.

In total, judges rejected motions to dismiss in seven related cases; Rollins said her office will now re-review those cases in light of the decision. 

In addition to dropping charges, as  DA Rollins originally intended, I think that she should file a complaint with the judicial review board, because this guy is completely nuts.

Linkage

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The first turbine powered ship:

More Bad News for Boeing

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Europe’s aviation safety agency, which is conducting its own independent review of Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX, is not satisfied with a key detail of Boeing’s fix to the jet. It wants Boeing to do more to improve the integrity of the sensors that failed on the two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing 346 people.

And it’s demanding that Boeing demonstrate in flight tests the stability of the MAX during extreme maneuvers, not only with Boeing’s newly updated flight-control system but also with that system switched off.

………

Boeing has publicly said it hopes for FAA clearance for the MAX in October so that it can return to passenger service in the U.S. this year.

Typically, overseas regulators follow the FAA’s lead. But after the MAX crashes revealed shortcomings in the FAA’s certification process, that’s no longer certain.

One of Ky’s slides cited a letter EASA sent to the FAA on April 1, less than three weeks after the MAX was grounded, that laid out four conditions for it to allow the MAX to return to service.
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The first condition stipulated is, “Design changes proposed by Boeing are EASA approved (no delegation to FAA).”

The second is that EASA complete an “additional and broader independent review” of the aircraft, beyond the specific design changes to the flight-control system that went haywire on the crash flights.

………

Although Boeing has updated MCAS so that it now takes input from both Angle of Attack sensors on the MAX instead of only one, and won’t operate if they disagree, Ky indicated EASA finds this insufficient.

I would note that in order to meet the EU requirements, Boeing will have to make physical changes to the aircraft to change its aerodynamics, which is exactly what they were trying avoid through the MCAS system in the first place.

Boeing is in a world of hurt in the best case scenario.

More Problems for Boeing

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The already beyond schedule 777X aircraft has experienced another setback, with a cargo door blowing off during static testing.

I’m beginning to think that they they really don’t know how to build airplanes any more:

Boeing’s new widebody jet, the 777X, suffered a setback Thursday afternoon during a high-pressure stress test on the ground when one of the airplane’s cargo doors exploded outward.

One 777X employee working in a nearby bay at Boeing’s Everett plant said he heard “a loud boom and the ground shook.”

The accident happened to what’s called the “static test airplane,” one of the two airplanes in any new jet program that are built for ground testing only and will never fly. It was during the final test that must be passed as part of the airplane’s certification by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The failure of the door will require careful analysis to find out why it happened, and it may mean Boeing will have to replace the door and repeat the test.

The 777X program is already delayed due to a problem with development of the GE-9X engine that will power it. In July, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg revealed on a quarterly earnings call that the first 777X intended to fly, which rolled out of the Everett factory in March, will not make it into the air until next year.

This ground test failure is another blow.

………

The massively larger wings of the 777X are also carbon composite, with a folding tip, and during Thursday’s test those must have flexed in a similarly impressive way to those of the 787. This time, however, though the wings did not give way; it was one of the doors that failed — an outcome that is definitely not supposed to happen.

Boeing is no longer an aircraft manufacturer, it’s a hedge fund pretending to be an aircraft manufacturer.

As the Brexit Turns

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The French Foreign Minister has announced that the EU is not likely to approve another extension to Brexit, which makes the whole back and forth in Parliament about requiring Boris Johnson to ask for an extension to some degree moot:

France’s foreign minister said on Sunday that, as things stand, the European Union would not grant Britain an extension beyond Oct. 31 to negotiate its exit from the bloc.

“It’s very worrying. The British must tell us what they want,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.

Asked if an extension beyond Oct. 31 was possible, Le Drian said not under current conditions. “We are not going to do (extend) this every three months,” he said.

BoJo may win for losing.

No Political Interference Here………

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Ford, Honda, BMW, and VW agreed to make cars that meet California’s air quality standards.

The Trump administration is trying to strip California of its rule-making authority, and roll back fuel economy and air quality standards.

Now the DoJ has launched an antitrust investigation into the auto-makers’ agreement, because ……… Attorney General Robert Barr is a corrupt partisan rat-f%$#, I guess?

The Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into four auto makers that forged a deal with California on vehicle-emissions standards, escalating the conflict between the Trump administration and Sacramento over environmental regulations.

Justice Department lawyers are seeking to determine whether Ford Motor Co. , Honda Motor Co. , BMW AG and Volkswagen AG broke federal competition law by agreeing with California to follow tailpipe-emissions standards beyond those proposed by the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the probe.

California officials, joined by Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists, branded the probe a political hit orchestrated by a White House angry over any attempt to subvert its authority.

“This investigation is nothing but an attempt by the Trump Administration to retaliate against these companies and stoke fear in others,” said U.S. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

………

President Trump has sought to roll back Obama-era mandates intended to reduce the auto industry’s contribution to climate change. California regulators have said they are willing to ease mandates, but they don’t want to go as far as the proposals from the Trump administration, which has said it wants to eliminate all upcoming increases in efficiency requirements.

The administration is challenging the legal authority that has given the state de facto control over environmental regulations for roughly a third of the U.S. car market.

The Justice Department sent letters to each of the companies within the past two weeks to alert them of the department’s interest and to request information, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. The department in the letters said no conclusions have been reached, but also said the deal may have antitrust implications, the person said.

On Friday, top lawyers at the Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to California’s top air regulator, Mary Nichols. It urged her to dissociate the state from the four auto makers, saying the commitment may result in undefined legal consequences.

This stinks worse than Trump’s golf game.

The Promise of 5G

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We already know that the new frequencies intended for 5G have issues with range and penetration, but I had no idea that these issues are bad enough that you cannot cover a football stadium:

Verizon yesterday announced that its 5G service is available in 13 NFL stadiums but said the network is only able to cover “parts” of the seating areas. Verizon 5G signals will also be sparse or non-existent when fans walk through concourses and other areas in and around each stadium.

The rollout of 5G is more complicated than the rollout of 4G was because 5G relies heavily on millimeter-wave signals that don’t travel far and are easily blocked by walls and other obstacles. While Verizon is trying to build excitement around 5G, its announcement for availability in NFL stadiums carried several caveats.

“Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband service will be available in areas of the [13] stadiums,” Verizon said. “Service will be concentrated in parts of the seating areas but could be available in other locations in and around the stadium as well.”

Notice the phrase “could be available” in that last sentence. Verizon isn’t promising any 5G coverage outside the seating areas, and the seating-area coverage will only be available in some sections.

There are some properties of 5G that are not dependent on using millimeter wave signals, like reduced latency, which makes a big difference for gamers, but none are game changers.

Thanks, Mark

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Hundreds of millions of phone numbers linked to Facebook accounts have been found online.

The exposed server contained more than 419 million records over several databases on users across geographies, including 133 million records on U.S.-based Facebook users, 18 million records of users in the U.K., and another with more than 50 million records on users in Vietnam.

But because the server wasn’t protected with a password, anyone could find and access the database.

Each record contained a user’s unique Facebook ID and the phone number listed on the account. A user’s Facebook ID is typically a long, unique and public number associated with their account, which can be easily used to discern an account’s username.

………

Some of the records also had the user’s name, gender and location by country.

Seriously, f%$# Zuck.

Karma, Neh?

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California authorities issued an arrest warrant for blundering conservative operative Jacob Wohl, who is now due to be arraigned on a felony charge next month, court records show.

As The Daily Beast first reported earlier on Wednesday, Wohl and a former business partner were both wanted on a warrant signed in Riverside County on Aug. 19.

The warrant was recalled after Wohl—best known for a spree of bizarre, half-baked political schemes—appeared in court on Wednesday. He was released on his own recognizance until his Oct. 24 arraignment on a charge of unlawful sale of securities, prosecutors said.

The allegation that Wohl and Johnson unlawfully sold securities centers on one of Wohl’s financial companies, Montgomery Assets. A warrant application filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office notes that the three-year statute of limitations on the case was set to expire at the end of August 2019, meaning prosecutors had to file by the end of last month if they wanted to pursue charges.

“In 2016 Jacob Wohl and Matthew Johnson represented themselves as members of a company called Montgomery Assets,” the warrant application reads. “On July 27, 2016 through August 27, 2016 Jacob Wohl and Matthew Johnson offered for sale unqualified securities in violation of California Corporations Code 25110 which has a three year statute of limitations and must be tolled by the issuance of an arrest warrant.”

………

In November 2018, Wohl teamed up with Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman for a spectacularly failed attempt to concoct a bogus sexual assault smear against then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The pair also attempted to fake a similar allegation against Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, which flopped after The Daily Beast obtained audio of Wohl and Burkman trying to pressure a potential “victim” into making a false allegation against Buttigieg.

In February, Wohl faked a death threat against himself, then reported the bogus crime to Minneapolis police. This summer, a phone number associated with Wohl was used to threaten a former GOP campaign worker, although Wohl denied involvement in the incident.

Moo Devin, Moo

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After suing parody twitter accounts, including one to claiming to be his non-existent cow, Devin Nunez then sued his own constituents for saying mean things about him.

Well, now it has finally occurred to the distinguished gentleman that suing voters in his own district for defamation is a stupid idea:

The campaign for Devin Nunes on Tuesday dropped its lawsuit against the people who accused the Republican congressman of being a “fake farmer” and tried to get his ballot designation removed.

The campaign filed the lawsuit last month in Tulare County Superior Court, alleging the group conspired with “dark money” groups to injure the campaign.

Brian Whelan, a local attorney representing Nunes’ constituents, said in a news release his clients “prevailed and won without having had to square off.” He represents retired farmer Paul Buxman, librarian Hope Nisly and Daniel O’Connell, an agrarian scholar.

Nunes’ lawsuit was an attack on his clients’ rights to free speech and to petition the government, Whelan said.

“Mr. Nunes made a statement that these important rights were to be disregarded when applied to the very powerful,” Whelan said.

It appears though that this not mean that Nunes is done with filing dumb-ass lawsuits for what is basic first amendment protected political activity:

The Daily Caller reported that Nunes filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against two defendants: Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm behind the Steele dossier that outlines alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia; and the Campaign for Accountability, which filed ethics complaints against Nunes.

Kapetan declined to elaborate on what the new evidence is, but he said the investigation conducted by the Nunes campaign may be forwarded to the Department of Justice.

Whelan noted his clients are not named in the new lawsuit. He said that if there was new evidence, the Nunes campaign wouldn’t have dismissed the lawsuit against his clients.

Nunes also is suing social media giant Twitter, the people behind two parody Twitter accounts and McClatchy, The Bee’s parent company.

I expect some sanctions at the end of this for Nunes being a vexatious litigant.

Not Great

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The latest job creation stats are out, and it’s kind of grim:

Hiring cooled in August, the latest in a long line of data released this summer that indicates President Trump’s trade war is starting to bite into an economy that could be on the verge of entering a rough patch.

The U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in August, the Labor Department said Friday, below expectations of 160,000 job gains. The numbers were padded in part because the government hired a large number of temporary workers for the 2020 Census.

The hiring slowdown comes as broader economic growth has softened this year. The manufacturing sector is in a recession, and businesses have curtailed spending, largely as a result of headwinds from abroad and Trump’s trade policy whiplash.

This is a “murky” time for the economy with “significant risks,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said Friday during remarks in Switzerland.

………

So far this year, job gains have averaged 143,000 a month, a noticeable downgrade from last year, when job gains averaged 192,000 a month, according to Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute.

………

The job market still looks strong with more job openings than unemployed people. Wages grew at an annual pace of 3.2 percent in August, well above inflation and a slightly better-than-expected pace. The number of hours that U.S. employees are working also rose, typically a sign that companies are asking workers to stay later.

The U.S. economy has been growing for more than a decade now, and the gains appear to be reaching more people. The African American unemployment rate fell to an all-time low of 5.5 percent in August, and the labor force participation rate edged up to 63.2 percent, one of the highest rates in recent years as more people are finding jobs.

Note that this is still a lower labor force participation rate is still about 3% lower than before the great recession.

And while rising wages is a good thing, it should also be noted that job creation numbers were revised down for June and July.

A lot of the experts are putting these weak numbers to the trade war, but the Trump tax cuts have also contributing to an explosion of stock buybacks, as opposed to investments in new plant and equipment.

Ivanka’s Two Cones of Shame

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Ivanka is such a disgrace she has to wear TWO cones of shame. pic.twitter.com/ug3SnJcoPN

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) September 4, 2019

It’s an “Up” Reference

Ivanka Trump went to Columbia and had a wardrobe malfunction caused by the forces of nature.

This warning should be taken seriously:

Ivanka wanted to wear something that would show off her toned biceps and shoulders. The wind had other ideas.

That’s a $1650 dress, by the way.

The elements are conspiring against you.

Time to go.

Finally

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The government’s position is that they have a list, and it can be used to make your life miserable, and you have no recourse, because the government won’t even admit that you are on the list, and they will refuse to tell you why.

Federal Judge Anthony Trenga response is that Franz Kafka did not write the Constitution:

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a federal government database that compiles people deemed to be “known or suspected terrorists” violates the rights of American citizens who are on the watchlist, calling into question the constitutionality of a major tool the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security use for screening potential terrorism suspects.

Being on the watchlist can restrict people from traveling or entering the country, subject them to greater scrutiny at airports and by the police, and deny them government benefits and contracts. In a 32-page opinion, Judge Anthony J. Trenga of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said the standard for inclusion in the database was too vague.

“The court concludes that the risk of erroneous deprivation of plaintiffs’ travel-related and reputational liberty interests is high, and the currently existing procedural safeguards are not sufficient to address that risk,” Judge Trenga wrote.

[Read the ruling.]

As of 2017, about 1.2 million people were on the watchlist, which is maintained by the F.B.I.’s Terrorist Screening Center. Although a vast majority of them were foreigners abroad, about 4,600 were American citizens who are protected by the Constitution.

………

The judge agreed that the current procedures were inadequate to protect their rights, granting the plaintiffs summary judgment. But he stopped short of saying what should happen next, asking the Justice Department and the lawyers for the plaintiffs to submit briefings on the difficult question of “what kind of remedy can be fashioned to adequately protect a citizen’s constitutional rights while not unduly compromising public safety or national security.”

………

Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, declined to comment. But in court, government lawyers had argued that the case should instead be dismissed. Among other things, Justice Department lawyers asserted that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the case, and they urged Judge Trenga to defer to the executive branch’s decisions because combating terrorism was a national security matter.

………

Files released by the F.B.I. in 2011 under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the F.B.I. was permitted to include people on the watchlist even if they had been acquitted of terrorism-related offenses or the charges are dropped.

Judge Trenga was appointed in 2008 by President George W. Bush.

I have no doubt that there will be an appeal, and I REALLY hope that the US loses.