Unemployment Dips to 4.9%

The American economy’s jobs machine cooled in January but still performed well enough to push unemployment to an eight-year low of 4.9%, and deliver some much-needed wage gains for ordinary workers.  However we are only now getting back to employment levels of nine or ten years ago under Bush.  But of course we have the lowest labor participation since Jimmy Carter, so don't celebrate too soon.  It means there are still a lot of people getting some form of government aid.  If I had my choice I'd rather look at governor's budget statements from January of 2007 than today because the states as a whole were a lot more dinancially solvent then.  How say you?  The Labor Department said Friday that payrolls rose by 151,000 in January, a falloff from the year-end sprint that helped make 2015 the second-best year for job creation since the late 1990s.  Analysts said that the slowdown might push the Federal Reserve to postpone another interest rate increase when it meets next month, but signs of a tighter labor market suggested that policy makers would be looking closely at incoming data.  “We are likely to have to two rate hikes this year, probably in June and December,” said Diane Swonk, an independent economist in Chicago, “but the wage gains are important, so March can’t be ruled out.”  Given the big jump in payrolls late last year, as well as much colder weather last month after the warmest December on record, some payback in January was to be expected.

RINGO AND FRIENDS    updated version rel January 31st 2016

Choose Love   (Ringo)

It’s Going To Be A Great Day (Paul)

Snookeroo (Ringo)

I Don’t Want to Know (Julian Lennon)

Back Off, Boogaloo  (Ringo)

Early 1970  (Ringo)

Good Night Vienna (radio version) Ringo

Ooh-Wee!  (Ringo)

Postcards from Paradise (Ringo)

The No No Song (Ringo) 

Bye-Bye Love (George)

Night And Day (Ringo)

In Spite of all the Heartache (Paul – updated version)

Elizabeth Reigns Over Me (Ringo)

Bless You (John)

Instant Amnesia (Ringo)

Don’t Go Where the Road Don’t Go (Ringo)

Stripping this album down to one disk has been under consideration since at least November.  January 31st is "backwards day" and it's also that among the Romulans.  It began actually in the sixties among southern California Romulans as a confluence of two things.  January 31st was "Senior ditch day" in 1966, where things are "different".  Also at Glature Falls Ice Rink right after ice reconditioning at the beginning of the second half of public skate they would have "backward direction skate" or clockwise.  From the local Romulans around here the tradition of "backwards day" spread to the Romulans at large.  "Postcards" was used again as a tribute to David Bowie, and the track is reminicent of Bowie.  

One of the world’s biggest multinational trade deals, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has been signed by 12 member nations in New Zealand and will now undergo a two-year ratification period in which at least six countries must approve the final text for the deal to be implemented. The Trans-Pacific Partnership encompasses 12 Pacific Rim nations, including the United States, and 40 percent of the world’s economy. Opponents say it will benefit corporations at the expense of health, the environment, free speech and labor rights. Activists have kicked off a worldwide series of protests around the signing of the trade pact, including a nonviolent blockade of the convention center in Auckland where the signing took place.

The founder and lead singer of Earth, Wind and Fire died yesterday in LA at age 74 yesterday.  This is the fifth rock group this year to suffer the loss of a key member, and four of them have been in the ZAC Tarot Card deck, though Earth, Wind, and Fire was just added a couple of weeks ago.   Motorhead was the group perhaps I didn’t mention that lost a member, along with the Jefferson Airplane, the Eagles, and David Bowie.   I watched a brief fairwell video.   So do deaths run in fives now?

It was Fridays with John Fugelsang.  They are still doing Bernie bashing on that show.  It seems rampant now among liberal talk show hosts.  There was a Democratic debate last night they haven’t talked about except there was a headline that Bernie Sanders messed up on Foreign policy.  There is a rumor that Hillary is on the board of Monsanto corp, which apparently is not the case.  But rather than simply defend Clinton they attack Bernie in the process.  This was the debate that initially Bernie did not want to attend.  Hillary said last night, “I have never changed a vote on account of any donation that I have received”, and I have a bridge in New Jersey I want to sell you.   Hillary Clinton last night was angry and defensive to the max.  She would not answer a specific policy issue raised by Bernie but invariably launched into a defensive personal attack against Bernie.  Actually she changed her vote on bankruptsy from what her position had been in the Clinton administration when her husband vetoed an almost identical bankruptsy bill.  But when Hillary got into the Senate where it was politics as usual and we know the results.  There is a poll now that shows that Hillary Clinton is only ahead two points nationally over Hillary.  This poll has revealed a steady gain of Bernie Sanders.  I think Hillary is going to get the shalacking of her life next Tuesday in New Hampshire.  

 Then at ten to three I turned on the Prescription Drug hearings and the majority and the “ranking member” Elijah Cummings spoke.  Both were pro consumer and anti drug company.  This smirking guy who was being interviewed was from the drug company who jacked up the price of a key drug four thousand percent.  What they do is buy up generic drug companies and jack up all the prices to boost profits.  It's the Gordon Gecko philosophy on full display.  It's called 'If there's money in it- - jump in and throw your Capitalist weight around and don't lose a chance to boost profits and screw the consumer.  I think this guy up on the stand was some kind of spaced out socopath or something  A pharmacist from Georgia also spoke up who was sympathetic to the consumer and our needs.  They jumped around so much on Days of our Lives today but it would seem that Kayla has been found.  I had two cups of iced tea in the afternoon outing.  I missed the morning outing entirely.  Bill went to the doctor at nine and had another E K G test.