Month: July 2018

June jobs report and the Trump vs. The World Trade War

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The June jobs report released today may be the apex of job growth after 93 consecutive months of job creation — the longest streak on record — because today marks the official start of the Trump vs. The World Trade War. As Trump’s trade war starts, China vows retaliation:

The United States imposed the first duties on $34 billion in Chinese goods early Friday, officially launching a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Moments later, the Chinese side fired back, accusing the United States of violating WTO rules setting off “the largest trade war in economic history to date.”

Cadet bone spurs says Trade Wars Are ‘Good, and Easy to Win’, but history says otherwise. “Trade wars are never won. Trade wars are lost by both sides,” Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska has warned. “[I]t will kill American jobs — that’s what every trade war ultimately does. So much losing.” More about this later in the post.

Steve Benen has the June jobs report. Job growth remains steady, but jobless rate ticks higher:

Ahead of this morning’s new jobs report, most projections pointed to totals of roughly 200,000 new jobs last month. Those projections turned out to be correct.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that the economy added 213,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate inched a little higher, climbing from 3.8% to 4%.

JuneJobs

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Citizen Initiatives filed – now comes the challenges to keep them off the ballot

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Thursday was the filing deadline for citizens initiatives. Several hot-button initiatives were filed. If they survive signature verification and the inevitable lawsuits from well-funded special interest opponents, this year’s fall campaign will be dominated by a flood of “dark money” negative advertisements from corporate special interests and the Chambers of Commerce. Their privileged plutocrat attitude is that “We own this state! Who are the unwashed masses to tell us what we can do? You will obey!”

The AP reports, Arizona ballot initiatives focus on energy, school funding:

Thursday was the deadline for proposed ballot initiatives to file the hundreds of thousands signatures necessary to put a question on the ballot. Three groups of organizers trucked boxes full of petitions to the state Capitol.

The signatures still have to processed and verified. The Arizona Secretary of State’s office has 20 days to complete petition processing. Then counties have 15 days to verify signatures, followed by another three days for the Secretary of State to determine if the initiative qualifies.

Followed by the inevitable lawsuits from well-funded special interest opponents.

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A job for the Blues Brothers: ‘I hate Illinois Nazis’

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Illinois Republicans selected Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier and actual Nazi to appear on the November ballot as the GOP candidate against Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District (one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, who narrowly won his primary over a progressive candidate, Marie Newman, who had the backing of progressive groups as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders).

Arthur Jones has become campaign fodder for Democrats as they seek to defeat Gov. Bruce Rauner. And some Republicans even fear the taint from Jones‘ extremist views poses a threat to the party up and down the ticket. ‘I snookered them’: Illinois Nazi candidate creates GOP dumpster fire:

Jones, who told POLITICO he’s running to counter a “two-party, Jew-party, queer-party system,” laughed when he was informed the GOP was unable to put up a candidate against him.

“They didn’t put up a third-party candidate?” Jones asked when reached by phone Thursday. “That’s great! That’s fantastic!

“I snookered them,” he said of state Republicans. “I played by the rules, what can I say?”

Illinois Republican Party spokesman Aaron DeGroot said the party instead plans to recruit and support a write-in candidate for the general election.

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The swampiest of the swamp creatures, Scott Pruitt, finally resigns

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BREAKING NEWS: The swampiest of the swamp creatures in the Trump cabinet, EPA director Scott Pruitt, finally resigned today. In any other administration he would have been fired months ago, but he is a favorite of lawless Tea-Publicans, so he was allowed to continue his graft and corruption. Embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt resigns:

Scott Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general who relentlessly pursued President Trump’s promises of deregulation at the Environmental Protection Agency, resigned Thursday after a cascade of controversies over his lavish spending, ethical lapses and controversial management decisions finally eroded the president’s confidence in one of his most ardent Cabinet members.

Pruitt … weathered a litany of ethics scandals in recent months, including questions about taxpayer-funded first-class travel, a discounted condo rental from a D.C. lobbyist and the installation of a $43,000 soundproof phone booth in his office.

But revelations about his behavior continued to mount, including reports that he repeatedly enlisted subordinates to help him search for housing, book personal travel and even help search for a six-figure job for his wife. That quest included setting up a call with Chick-fil-A executives, in which he discussed her becoming a franchisee, as well as outreach to a conservative judicial group that eventually hired Marlyn Pruitt.

In recent weeks, an exodus of trusted staffers left Pruitt increasingly isolated, and some once-loyal Republican lawmakers wearied of defending him. Investigators on Capitol Hill had summoned current and former EPA aides for interviews, as part of the more than dozen federal inquiries into Pruitt’s spending and management of the agency.

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Update on candidate petition challenges

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After having spent the past two weeks in Texas, to paraphrase an old Mac Davis song, “happiness is seeing Texas in my rearview mirror.” By the time we crossed the Arizona line we were singing “Gotta see the Lights Of Tucson” by Jim Campbell. Good times.

There’s a lot to catch up on. There were apparently many more candidate petition challenges than were reported in the local news media.

52 lawsuits were filed in June to try to eliminate candidates over accusations that they don’t meet eligibility requirements (I’m pretty sure this must be some kind of record). So far, at least 20 aspiring officeholders have been knocked off the ballot. Which candidates got knocked off the 2018 ballot?

Katie Hobbs, the Democratic leader in the Arizona Senate, no longer faces any opponents on the primary ballot to be her party’s nominee for Arizona secretary of state.

Hobbs’ supporters succeeded in forcing two opponents out of the Democratic primary: Mark Robert Gordon and Leslie Pico. Chad Campbell, a former state lawmaker and Hobbs ally, pushed lawsuits arguing both didn’t submit enough signatures.

Rep. Brenda Barton was running against incumbent Sen. Sylvia Allen in the GOP contest for state Senate in Legislative District 6. This was going to be a “clash of the Titans” of batshit crazy wingnuts, but alas we will be denied this spectacle. Barton was forced to drop out following accusations that many of her signatures were invalid. So Sen. Allen remains the queen of batshit crazy.

Mark Syms, the husband of Tea Party Queen Rep. Maria Syms, running as an independent for state Senate in District 28 in a grudge match against Sen. Kate Brophy McGee. He was removed from the ballot after a judge ruled evidence “strongly suggests” his petitions contain many forged voter signatures. He is appealing.

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