The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the December jobs report today [DATA HERE] showing 223,000 jobs gained in December ’22.

Most of the job growth was in the “leisure and hospitality” sector (+67,000), healthcare (+55,000), construction (+28,000) and social assistance (+20,000).  Additionally, average hourly earnings rose by 0.3%, with a year-over-year measure of wage growth at 4.6%.

At this point in the history of our economic pretending game, we are well aware the employment numbers are heavily manipulated in order to support the government policymaking that is destroying the same workforce they claim to represent.   It’s all a ruse, just look around your community and you will see what I am talking about.

The financial pundits, Wall Street, government policy makers and various individuals and economic gaslighters are concerned that worker wage growth could drive inflation.  This is one of the most aggravating aspects to reviewing the majority of economic punditry. [Example:]

This knuckleheaded narrative engineer from the New York Times/Atlantic even has the audacity to say, “let prices continue to fall to target,” as if there is a single item at any price that is dropping.  His spin is a good example of gaslighting just from the use of the statement “price inflation is falling back towards where we want it.”

Price inflation is not price.  ‘Price inflation’ is the rate of increase.  There’s a BIG DIFFERENCE between “inflation falling back” and prices dropping. Inflation falling back is merely a lessening of the rate of price increase.  The price does not drop, and never will.

This reality is why it is infuriating to see government policymakers and pundits decry wage growth as a bad thing that might cause inflation.

(more…)

Our dear friend Sharon always reminds us, “Those whose motives are based on deception, will always find an audience willing to be deceived.”  That, my friends, is the current status of the Republican party watchers and one of the primary reasons this little corner of the internet, The Last Refuge, was formed.

We accept things as they are, not as we would wish them to be and never as we would pretend them to be.   Pretending is an endless quest akin to convincing. Those who operate in the world of political pretense expend an exhaustive amount of energy in constant vigilance against those who speak plain truths.

The House of Representatives has adjourned until 10pm tonight, when another vote will be taken, as outlined by the design of the Kevin McCarthy supporters.

Why adjourn?  Why return at 10:00pm on a Friday evening?  Simply, because the McCarthy team is counting on several House members (mostly Democrats) not being in attendance for the quorum, facilitating a lower threshold of the vote to achieve a majority.

435/434 members present = 218 votes needed
433/432 members present = 217 votes needed
431/430 members present = 216 votes needed
429/428 members present = 215 votes needed
etc.

(more…)

The twelfth ballot round ended up with Kevin McCarthy receiving 214 votes of support, fourteen more than previous ballot rounds.  McCarthy needs 218 votes to succeed (if all members are present).

The following group of 14 Republicans changed their vote to support Kevin McCarthy on the 12th ballot:

Rep. Dan Bishop (N.C.), Rep.-elect Josh Brecheen (Okla.), Rep. Michael Cloud (Texas), Rep. Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Rep. Byron Donalds (Fla.), Rep. Paul Gosar (Ariz.),Rep.-elect Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Rep. Mary Miller (Ill.), Rep. Ralph Norman (S.C.), Rep.-elect Andy Ogles (Tenn.), Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Rep.-elect Keith Self (Texas), and Rep. Victoria Spartz (IN) all voted to support Kevin McCarthy.

The Holdouts are:

Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep.-elect Eli Crane (Ariz.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Rep. Bob Good (Va.), Rep. Andy Harris (Md.) and Rep. Matt Rosendale (Mont.)

aka “The Magnificent Seven”

(more…)

Day #4 of the House effort to elect a new speaker will continue today with no one asking why only 20 members want to change the rules.  The rules are problematic for 20+ members who have refused to vote through eleven ballots for McCarthy, which begs the question.  Why do 200 republicans accept giving McCarthy all the power to determine legislative business?

The House returns to session for what is expected to be McCarthy’s 12th attempt to win the gavel. According to Politico, “the GOP leader and his leadership team convened a conference call Friday morning to update members on the status of negotiations, hours after he appeared to gather some momentum late Thursday by hashing out specific concessions to hardline members of the GOP conference — offers that his allies were hopeful would move votes in his direction.

But enormous uncertainty lingered Friday morning, as members of the freedom Caucus had yet to commit their support to McCarthy and a handful of other holdouts continued to signal their opposition to him. Absences on the GOP side of the aisle could scramble things further, with McCarthy backer Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) predicting at least three during Friday’s likely balloting.  WATCH:

.

(more…)

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

.

(more…)

During his opening monologue tonight, Fox News host Tucker Carlson outlines the attacks against those opposing Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker.

Tucker Carlson asks why the visibility of democracy in action ends up with DC insiders claiming the American political structure is going to collapse just because Kevin McCarthy is not being anointed as House Speaker.   Those in opposition to McCarthy are deemed as Russian operatives, domestic terrorists and corrupt sketchy voices belonging to various shady patriotic movements that have threatened the domestic tranquility of the nation.   WATCH:

.

(more…)

Representative Matt Rosendale (R-MT) railed against Congress’s “broken system” as he nominated Byron Donalds for the 9th round of voting in the race for Speaker of the House on Thursday.

During his remarks, Rosendale outlined the power dynamic and rules system, what he calls “the nasty little secret, put into place by prior leadership that has corrupted the institution and made the voices of individual members irrelevant to the activity within the lower chamber.  Rosendale outlines how changing these rules and the power dynamic of the few is what the protest against Kevin McCarthy is all about.  WATCH:

.

(more…)

The eleventh round of votes for a House Speaker ended the same way as the ten before it.

Ballot round #11 fails. No majority speaker elected.

Rather than attempting to continue voting amid a landscape of futility, and without Kevin McCarthy accepting defeat in his life quest to be Speaker of The House, the chamber voted to adjourn.

Initially a voice vote on the adjournment failed, the democrats won and wanted to force the republicans to continue.  However, an electronic accounting of the yeas and nays resulted in a majority decision to adjourn until noon tomorrow, Friday, January 6th.

The backroom bartering and negotiations will now commence; drinks will be had, promises will be made, votes will be purchased, and perhaps a successful path toward a republican speaker will be found.  On the upside, for the past three days no taxpayer monies have been spent.

(more…)

That slow grinding creak you hear in the background; that’s the U.S. economic engine running without oil and beginning that slowdown phase just before it stutters and stalls completely.  Alas, the pretending continues…

As noted by the Wall Street Journal, an economic gaslighting institution with a central mission to maintain pretenses, “business surveys show U.S. factory activity declined in December, the Institute for Supply Management and S&P Global both said this week. Separately, S&P Global said Thursday that U.S. services-sector businesses reported a decline in output for the third month running in December.” This comes as “U.S. imports dropped more, by 6.4% on the month, as Americans cut back on holiday-related purchases, including items from other countries such as computers and autos.”

Keep in mind, November retail sales—which included consumer spending at stores, online and at restaurants—fell 0.6% from the prior month for their biggest decline of 2022, according to the Commerce Department. Manufacturing output declined in November as well, the Fed reported, while U.S. home sales fell for a record 10th straight month.

Into this mix of economic metrics, driven by a collapse in disposable consumer income and high energy prices, now we begin to see the number one business expense being curtailed.

(Market Watch) […] Amazon.com Inc layoffs will affect more than 18,000 employees, the highest reduction tally revealed in the past year at a major technology company as the industry pares back amid economic uncertainty.

(more…)