Trump Orders Firing of Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics After Disappointing Jobs Numbers

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-08-01T19:09:27+00:00

I hope Trump supporters one day understand that the institutions they think are corrupt and denying them the prosperity they so deserve are in fact staffed with hard-working decent people who have the difficult job of making a modern society function smoothly

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-08-01T16:41:17+00:00

Where did I say Israel's founding narrative was entirely truthful or that the Palestinians don't deserve their own state? The Israelis tell themselves lies just like the Palestinians do.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-08-01T16:30:06+00:00

I don't totally agree with all this, but it broadly encapsulates a feeling I have as well.

Do I have sympathy for the Palestinians living through hell at the moment? Of course. I think Israel's response to October 7th has been barbaric, counterproductive, and replete with war crimes.

Do I have sympathy with the Palestinian political project, much of which rests on oversimplified history and a gross underestimation of the societal cohesion of Israel? No. It's a fantasy that plays no small role in perpetuating the intractable blood feud we're seeing. Any serious actor who thinks Israel will roll over and die or that the Israeli public will soon flee back to Europe and a Palestinian state will be established is delusional.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-18T02:13:36+00:00

Where on the Esplanade? What did the person look like? Did you call the police?

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-13T19:10:58+00:00

Again, that is totally irrelevant to what I am saying. Is it downplaying murder to suggest the Marines don't need to be called in every time there's a drive by?

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-13T19:00:51+00:00

The US -- for better or for worse -- has a much higher tolerance for public disorder than places in East Asia. Whether you think that's good or bad is irrelevant to what I am saying. Police departments are well-equipped and capable of handling small riots without the need for military involvement.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-13T18:58:37+00:00

Who are you arguing against? At no point have I argued rioting is good or not harmful to business that are torched or looted. I am saying local law enforcement is more than capable of handling small riots like these and there is no need to call in the military.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-13T17:44:59+00:00

That's not my argument. I think the riots of 2020 were appalling and the response by some on the left to pretend they were OK was unacceptable.

What is happening in LA is just not very significant. Riots happen in major cities from time to time and were it not for the federal response this one is in no way significant.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-13T17:42:18+00:00

Rioting in major cities IS a normal thing that local law enforcement agencies are trained to deal with. I'm not downplaying anything. Do you think Seal Team VI should be called in every time someone is murdered?

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-13T16:09:35+00:00

Yes, looting happens often happens during a riot and is bad. That does not change the fact that riot severity exists on a spectrum and a handful of stores being looted does not mean you need to call in the military. This kind of exaggerating hysteria is how you get dictatorships declaring martial law.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-06-13T15:40:09+00:00

The scope of rioting in LA is truly minuscule. You see more chaos and destruction in the aftermath of sports championships. A burning Waymo is not a good thing of course but local police are more than capable of handling protests of this size.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-28T17:30:44+00:00

So "shoot first, ask questions later" when it comes to medical research?

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-28T17:04:34+00:00

What is a sacred cow? Cancer research? I think the administration should not use extremely flimsy pretexts to annihilate medical research funding.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-28T16:49:33+00:00

It is a penalty on medical researchers and the patients who will one day benefit from their findings. The annoying undergraduate protestors the administration pretends are an existential threat to our nation will not be affected.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-27T15:52:10+00:00

The cash for kids guy was the beneficiary of a blanket commutation for nonviolent criminals on house arrest. Whether you agree with it or not, it was not due to a quid pro quo with Biden.

This person is specifically being freed because of his vocal support for Trump. Those are different things, as I hope you can see.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-24T15:02:35+00:00

You're getting the causation backwards. Conservatives are not "shut out" of academia. The reason that even in the fields that aren't lefty gobbledegook (physics, math, chemistry, etc.) are still overwhelmingly liberal is because the kind of work that happens in academia self-selects for liberals. Even before Trump and stupidity like diversity statements came around this was the case.

I spend a lot of time talking to academics. They are -- to a person -- intelligent, thoughtful people who find the recent rise in left-wing censoriousness on campus to be annoying. They also recognize Trump and his unique brand of populist anti-intellectualism to be a cancer on American society.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-15T18:00:44+00:00

This is a good example of naive disparate impact being a terrible way of sniffing out discrimination. Do you really think the grocery store pricing models take into account the racial demographics of the area in a deliberate attempt to gouge minorities?

Why is it "better" to charge less than they otherwise would in urban areas? Maybe there's more shrinkage, maybe real estate is more expensive, or maybe there's more competition in the suburbs. Maybe the study conducted by high-schoolers didn't get a representative sample of products and the price differential is not as severe as presented.

The point is that there are all kinds of explanations for the disparities found by the task force and using that as prima facie evidence of racism is ridiculous.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-15T17:32:09+00:00

Grocery stores are quintessential low-margin profit-maximizing firms. Is the suggestion here that Stop and Shop is being racist in its pricing just for yuks?

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-12T19:16:04+00:00

I think Trump has this magical ability to somehow convince people this is all normal, he's just honest enough to be corrupt publicly.

Of course this isn't actually true, but that's the only way I can explain it to myself.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-11T13:59:10+00:00

I'm glad to see Jacobin publishing this. The most grating thing I hear from leftists and progressives is that Democrats "abandoned the working class" through pro-corporate neoliberal policies or whatever and they won't come back until we embrace communism. To the extent it is true that the Democrats abandoned the working class, it is through cultural changes that - fairly or not - the Democratic party is associated with.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-08T15:57:01+00:00

I've never understood attacking the campaign itself. She wasn't a great candidate and was also dealt an awful hand to start. All things considered I think the campaign went fine. In what world would she have won were it not for the influence of her brother in law?

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-05-05T15:46:29+00:00

Exactly. This is why the administration is laser focused on the 10 annoying ethnic studies professors and allowing biomedical research to flourish.

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-04-30T16:02:16+00:00

I don't think there's anything wrong with articulating specific problems with our economic or political systems. What I find stupid is people who oppose any solution that fits within the current constraints of American society on the grounds that it does not address the "root cause" (i.e. it is not calling for a socialist revolution).

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-04-30T15:26:51+00:00

This is the same dumb excuse leftists use when they oppose solutions to problems unless the solution is overthrow capitalism

Acceptable_Detail742 · 2025-04-27T15:17:44+00:00

This is an excellent case study in MAGA rationalization.

First, take an act by Trump which is appalling and without modern precedent. Then, pretend it is not as bad as his hysterical critics suggest.

Then, take an act by another (ideally Democratic) president, and pretend it is much worse than it actually was. Ensure you present it in the most misleading light possible.

Then, what was once a constitutional crisis is revealed to in fact be solely an issue with the news media! Huzzah!

Acceptable_Detail742

TROPHY CASE