Tom of Temecula
Tom of Temecula's JournalBooming labor market poised to reach remarkable milestone for low unemployment
The booming labor market is expected to extend a remarkable milestone in April, matching the last longest period of low unemployment on record. Economists predict that the April jobs report, to be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday morning, will show the unemployment rate holding at 3.8 percent, marking the 27th consecutive month of unemployment below 4 percent.
This would match a low-unemployment period between 1967 to 1970, and close in on the longest period on record, between 1951 to 1953. “The labor market right now is in a very sweet spot,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. “Employers are unwilling to let go of workers due to persistently strong aggregate demand.”
The labor market has been booming so far in 2024, a reversal of last year’s gradual cool-down, even as high interest rates continue to weigh on parts of the economy. The economy churned out about 30 percent more jobs on average each month in the first quarter of 2024 than the final quarter of last year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Average hourly wage growth also accelerated in the first quarter of the year.
Economists say employers had been expecting lower interest rates later this year, which can spur economic growth, so they have been making anticipatory hires in areas of the labor market that retracted notably after the coronavirus pandemic, such as tech, transportation and financial services.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/booming-labor-market-poised-to-reach-milestone-for-low-employment/ar-AA1o5cty
Michael Cohen's Tweets Mocking Donald Trump Draw Laughs From Courtroom
Whoops. A gag order hearing during Donald Trump’s first criminal trial in New York went a bit sideways Thursday morning, as Trump attorney Todd Blanche entered into the record a series of tweets mocking his client ― drawing laughs from the courtroom.
Blanche was attempting to persuade Judge Juan Merchan that Trump should be able to defend himself from such attacks, even if they’re made by witnesses in the former president’s hush money case. But the argument didn’t quite land.
One series of tweets from former Trump fixer Michael Cohen repeatedly employed a nickname for Trump, “Von ShitzInPantz,” which Blanche read aloud for those in attendance — including his client. Blanche also said that Cohen had retweeted an edited image of Trump as a pudgy, bright orange superhero named “Super Victim,” with the image sparking laughter in the courtroom.
“Everyone can say what they want in this case except President Trump,” Blanche asserted. Not buying the argument, Merchan fired back: “They’re not defendants in this case. That’s a very significant issue you’re overlooking.”
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1786033918379962428
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cohen-trump-nickname-von-shitzinpantz_n_6633f048e4b0fc2b9528c8fa
Boebert complains about 'very disrespectful' protesters who chanted 'Beetlejuice' at her
When Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) joined Reps. James Comer (R-Kentucky), Byron Donalds (R-Florida) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) on a visit to George Washington University, campus protesters had a unique chant especially for her.
The Daily Beast recently reported that Boebert's visit to the campus — where students have set up an encampment to demand their school divest its endowment from corporations with business ties to Israel — prompted protesters to chant "Beetlejuice" at her. The chant is a reference to a 2023 incident in which the Colorado congresswoman was kicked out of a Denver theater for vaping and openly groping her date during a performance of Beetlejuice: The Musical.
"It’s time that Mayor [Muriel] Bowser gets aggressive in keeping safety here on this campus and the surrounding perimeter," Boebert said, adding that the protesters were being "very disrespectful."
https://www.alternet.org/boebert-complains-protesters/
After Large Rallies, Trump Is Greeted at Courthouse by a Single Fan
On a day off from court, Donald J. Trump on Wednesday flew to Michigan and Wisconsin for campaign rallies in front of thousands of supporters. On Thursday, he returned to a Lower Manhattan courthouse, where a single supporter stood outside waving a Trump 2024 flag.
“I don’t feel lonely because my heart is with Trump,” said the flag-holder, Lily Qi, 62, of Wilmington, Del., as she stood in the park across from the New York City Criminal Court. She had ridden a train to New York City and is staying with friends, saying that she could not afford a hotel room on her office-cleaner salary. Born and raised in China, Ms. Qi said she had attended a dozen Trump rallies.
At around 9 a.m. on Thursday, she stood alone at Collect Pond Park but was soon joined by two demonstrators in T-shirts featuring a cartoon of Mr. Trump in jail. They are “troublemakers,” she said.
One of the protesters, Barrett Cobb, carried a sign that read “Jail Trump.” “I’m extremely upset they haven’t put him in jail yet,” said Ms. Cobb, a classical musician who lives in Manhattan.
https://dnyuz.com/2024/05/02/after-large-rallies-trump-is-greeted-at-courthouse-by-a-single-fan/
Elon Musk Promises to Lift X Ban on Neo-Nazi Leader
Controversial billionaire and X owner, Elon Musk, vowed to allow avowed neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes back onto his platform on Thursday. Fuentes, the leader of the so-called Groyper Army, has been banned from the platform since 2021 and is infamous for his violent and bigoted rhetoric.
Fuentes has long been active on the far-right in American politics and in the past has hosted a conference meant to be counter-programming to CPAC, which included speeches by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ).
Fuentes also dined with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort days after the former president announced his 2024 presidential campaign as a guest of anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West. Fuentes and West also later appeared on Alex Jones’s InfoWars where West declared his affinity for Hitler, a regular talking point of Fuentes – who has denied the Holocaust and called for non-Christians to be executed.
Fuentes is known for fusing violent imagery into his neo-Nazi tirades. In January, he vowed to kill if Trump asked him to. “I am a soldier for Donald Trump. I am part of, I serve at the personal pleasure of Donald Trump, my supreme leader. I am part of the paramilitary wing of the Trump movement. I am part of the Revolutionary Guard. I do not answer to the Pentagon. I do not answer to the civilian government. I answer. I am the pretorian guard of Donald Trump. If Donald Trump ordered me to do an extrajudicial killing, I would perform it,” Fuentes said.
https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1783872445692215405
https://www.mediaite.com/news/elon-musk-promises-to-lift-x-ban-on-neo-nazi-leader/
'I hate that': Trump veers off into rant about being called 'unpopular'
Former President Donald Trump went on a rant Wednesday after saying he had been called "unpopular" in media reports. During a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Trump's reaction to his 'unpopular' portrayal in media reports was palpable. "You know what bugs me?" the former president asked. "When they say, we have two very unpopular candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. They're very unpopular. He's unpopular."
"I'm not unpopular," he insisted. "I'm like at 94% approval in the Republican Party. I'm not unpopular. They're fake news. I hate that. It's terrible."
The former president appeared at the Wisconsin rally amid an ongoing criminal court trial in New York City where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to an adult film star.
Experts say that trial raises multiple optics problems for the presumptive Republican nominee amid his 2024 presidential reelection campaign. "The optics of it aren't great," his former press secretary Sarah Matthews said Tuesday. "This was an [alleged] affair he had with a porn star shortly after his wife gave birth to their child."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-unpopular/
Trump's 'outright psychopathy' on display in his new email meltdowns
Concurrent with Donald Trump's hush money trial finishing up its second week of prosecution testimony, the former president's emails to his supporters are becoming increasingly over-the-top and shrill, leading to speculation he is not only having donation problems but also the pressures of his legal problems are getting to him. As noted by Salon's Chauncey DeVega who has been reporting on the former president's diminishing mental state and possible psychological problems, there is a growing vibe of panic in Trump's emails as evidenced by a recent one that blared: "All hell breaks loose in 24 hours!" and another declaring he is being held "hostage."
According to DeVega's report, the strident tone in the emails begging for donations are demonstrating an increasing spiral in victimhood as he sits day after day in a Manhattan courtroom while facing the possibility of jail time if convicted on just one of the 34 felony counts he is charged with related to paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
"With the beginning of Trump’s first criminal trial in New York, his emails have only become more extreme – and will only continue to – as the 2024 election and potentially three other criminal trials are closing in on him," he wrote before pointing to the recent Trump email that stated: "Friend, in 24 hours, the hearing on my GAG ORDER will begin. I COULD BE THROWN IN JAIL AT THAT VERY MOMENT! This is what the Hate-America Deep State has always dreamed of. STAND WITH TRUMP I won’t be able to campaign. I will be muzzled and silent. And Democrats will have free rein to destroy our country."
That led DeVega to argued that, "Of course, Donald Trump is lying. There is no substantive evidence to support his fabulist conspiratorial delusions-fantasies of persecution and other harm. The corrupt ex-president is in no way a victim, except perhaps of his own apparent sociopathy if not outright psychopathy, and other parts of his obviously diseased mind."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mental-state-2668130889/
RFK Jr. is all over conservative media. Trump's camp is concerned.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s increasingly frequent appearances on conservative media platforms are beginning to raise alarms at Mar-a-Lago. It’s another sign of the rising threat that Kennedy, the independent presidential candidate, poses to Trump. In recent months, Kennedy has become a regular on Fox News and Newsmax, and he is now a staple on the conservative podcast circuit — being interviewed by the likes of Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck and Megyn Kelly. While railing against President Joe Biden, Kennedy is actively courting an audience with the young listeners of bro podcasters and conservative-coded YouTubers that skew anti-“woke.”
That’s squarely on Trump’s turf, not Biden’s. “It is concerning and beyond logic,” said Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, “that there are some conservative platforms that continue to give a voice to someone that has called the NRA a terrorist group, who believes in eliminating gas powered engines, believes in a 70% tax bracket and generally subscribes to the same school of thought as Karl Marx.”
Though Kennedy has been popular with conservative media since he initially launched his candidacy as a Democrat, his frequent appearances on Trump-aligned platforms now come as he runs as an independent candidate who could cut into Trump’s support. The former president this past weekend went on multiple tirades about Kennedy on his Truth Social site, declaring him a “Democrat ‘Plant’” and “far more LIBERAL than anyone running as a Democrat.” And he said “A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE.”
“They see an opening, they see a robust ecosystem on the right that they can pull votes from,” said Matt Gorman, a former communications adviser for Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential campaign, referring to Kennedy. “I think sometimes, Republicans tend to lull ourselves into believing, ‘Oh, he’s just taking votes from Biden.’ No, he’s going after everybody.” Kennedy has also taken on championing one of Trump’s top policy issues: closing the U.S. border. That’s in addition to questioning the legitimacy of the charges brought against rioters at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, a cohort who Trump has praised and suggested he would pardon.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/01/rfk-jr-trump-2024-elections-00155425
Graham reveals potential phone hack involving someone impersonating Schumer
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that the FBI took possession of his phone after someone attempted to trick the South Carolina Republican into thinking he was communicating with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer.
Mr. Graham revealed the potential hack in remarks at the Hill & Valley Forum on Capitol Hill, which is a gathering of top tech and government officials meeting in Washington to discuss artificial intelligence security. Asked about spies targeting Silicon Valley and how AI labs should prepare themselves, Mr. Graham said people should be concerned and relayed his own brush with apparent hackers.
“My phone is in the hands of the FBI now,” Mr. Graham said at the forum. “So I get a message, I think, from Schumer, it ain’t from Schumer, and next thing you know, my phone’s, I don’t know what. Anything you can create apparently can be hacked.”
Mr. Graham did not identify who he suspected was responsible. Taylor Reidy, Mr. Graham‘s spokeswoman, said the Senate’s Sergeant at Arms was investigating. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/may/1/sen-lindsey-graham-reveals-potential-phone-hack-in/
Trump lawyers scramble as trial witnesses blow up Michael Cohen strategy
Former top Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann claimed Tuesday that the witnesses being called in the Donald Trump hush money trial are confirming every detail of Michael Cohen's story — with bombshell accuracy. Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, Weissmann said testimony from David Pecker, the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, was "so powerful I think we have to recalibrate the lens [through which] we were thinking about this case."
The assumption from legal analysts has been that Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen would be the prosecution's star witness, with documents and information that could confirm his ex-boss's involvement in hush money payments paid to coverup a potentially damaging sexual relationship with adult movie star Stormy Daniels.
Instead, Weissmann said, Pecker has proven to be the big witness — and subsequent witnesses backed up everything he testified about. "This case is made very much without Michael Cohen," said Weissmann. "I mean, this is so corroborated, and it is not just that you have David Pecker and now [ex-attorney for Stormy Daniels] Keith Davidson."
He called the witnesses' stories "hand and glove," fitting together "so perfectly." "It is completely corroborated, particularly with respect to Mr. Davidson, by so many texts and email exchanges and the written documents," said Weissmann. Davidson served as the attorney who negotiated the deal for Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and was working with Daniels on her story as well. Both women attempted to sell the National Enquirer details of sexual relationships with Trump.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-trial-witnesses-confirm-cohen/
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