BLS's jobs numbers are BS; SC grows bigly (08-14-2025--Hour2)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links. Become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. I did not have time to get to this couple of days ago. I meant to, but I didn't. It's been like about a week, mainly because I run my mouth about stuff and then I lose track of time. So anyway, my apologies. But Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What was her name, it's a weird kind of a name, Erica mecintarfer, mckentfarr, mcinturfer. Anyway, fired her after the BLS put out some numbers and Trump was like, these are rigged, and he fired her. Outrage ensued. Now let me fast forward to yesterday, where NBC News has the big scoop of the week here that the newly appointed chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because the last one just got fired, so the new one. E J. Antony, an economist from the Heritage Foundation nominated by Trump. NBC News is the first to report that Antony was among the crowd outside the capital on January sixth, and the White House says he was a bystander who actually just wandered over after seeing cover John the news. But January sixth, EJN. Toni appears in numerous videos posted on social media of the crowd on the Capitol grounds. All right, well, the footage shows Antony, Antony, Antonai and Tonai. I don't know, I don't know how he pronounces it, but the footage shows UH that him approximately an hour after the mob removed police barricades. And the footage also shows that UH shows him leaving the grounds as people entered the Capitol, but does not show him entering the building. Dang it, Wow, so close we almost had him. A White House official said yesterday that Antoni was in Washington on j six for it in person meetings with his then employer at an office that just blocks away from the Capitol, and that he did not cross any barricades. He did not participate in any demonstrations, and actually none of the footage shows Antony crossing any barricades or doing any demonstrating. Quote, these pictures show EJ Antony a bystander to the events of January sixth, observing and then leaving the Capital area. That's according to an emailed statement from the White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers, EJ was in town for meetings and did his wrong and defamatory to suggest EJ engaged in anything inappropriate or illegal. So what I mean the point here is to put him at the site the day of Jay six That's the point, right, He's guilty. Trump fired the former BLS head Erica mcintarfer earlier this month, suggesting without evidence that she had By the way, you can always tell reporters always throw that without evidence in order to convey their opinion, which is that they don't believe what Trump is saying is true. Okay, that he suggested without evidence that she had rigged jobs reports for political purposes. The President then said he would nominate Antony, a frequent guest on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast. Oh that's it here, it is right there. Guilty. Do not approve him. Antony said in an interview with Fox News on August fourth, before his nomination that the agency should suspend issuing the monthly job report, instead publishing quarterly data at least until the reports are more accurate. So when Trump says that these reports are rigged, are they so? Issues and Insights so website Issuesinsights dot com. Their editorial board took a look at how bad the BLS is at doing its job in coming up with these numbers, they say. In this editorial, we pointed out last week glaring mistakes that the BLS had made in recent years and asked whether its foul ups were driven by politics or inaptitude. The issue came to a head after Trump fired the previous head of the BLS in the wake of its massive revisions to the two previous months jobs reports, in which it admitted to overcounting the number of jobs created by more than a quarter million. Trump responded by saying the numbers were rigged. The press naturally rushed to defend the bureaucrats, saying that revisions are normal and there's nothing to get worked up about here. The BLS routinely revises its initial monthly job's estimate which is based on a survey of one hundred thousand employers. Right, So they make these revisions over the next two months as more data comes in. It's no big deal. So is that true? Issues and Insights decided to find out, and they went back and reviewed the monthly jobs data going back to two thousand to nine. Our conclusion, its initial jobs reports have been absolutely and completely unreliable for years, often wildly optimistic or wildly pessimistic, regardless of who was president, So malice or incompetence. In this case, it appears in competence. In the one hundred and ninety nine months examined, the BLS's initial estimate of jobs gained or jobs lost missed the mark by an average of forty nine point six percent, So they are either overcounting or undercounting by fifty percent. On average. Only fifteen times out of one hundred and ninety nine months did its initial estimate come within three percent of being correct. They conclude their analysis. They say, in the private sector, an organization that was as consistently and wildly wrong as the BLS would have been out of business a long time ago. In Washington. A catastrophic failure like this usually results, though in a bigger budget. At least until now, we hope Congress confirms Antoni and that he cleans up the place. Trump is right that we deserve honest and accurate jobs numbers. Right, So again Trump's comments aside, he has identified a problem, which is the compilation and reporting of these numbers. They're not accurate and becaust so many things in the marketplace react to these job reports. You gotta be better. And obviously the last chief of the BLS could not make it better. She could not fix it if she even knew that there was something to be fixed. And Tony, he has come in the door saying, we're getting rid of the monthly reports until we can figure out what the hell is going on. We're going to do quarterly reports and that's going to be accurate data, which to me seems like a more prudent path to pursue. But what do I know. I'm just a little old radio host. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why, Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. This from Queens City News. A new study released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis or the BA, or as I call it, the b A show South Caro Carolina as the top state in the nation for economic growth and among the highest in personal income growth. So far, this year, South Carolina the top state in economic growth. The data from the BA said the state's growth domestic product. That's not growth, it's GDP, it's gross domestic product. There but typo, I guess anyway that it went up by one point seven percent at an annual rate, and that is number one in the nation. So give it up South Cacolaca. Good job everybody with the growth and the growing and the gross production. Yes, I think North Carolina came in at like zero point eight. The study also found that construction, real estate, rental, and leasing were the driving forces in the state's growth. So construction, real estate, rental, and leasing. That's from Queen City News. Meanwhile, the gross national debt has hit a record thirty seven trillion dollars. Good job, everybody. Let's give it up for Congress on that one. Yes, taking on way more dead than will ever be able to pay back. That's fantastic. Maya McGinnis, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which I think at this point they need to just pack it in. It's not working. Whatever they're doing, nobody's listening to them, right. They're literally set up. It's the Committee for a Responsible Federal budget, and we are now hit. We have now hit thirty seven trillion in the gross national debt, she said. It's yet another stunning reminder of the terrible state of federal finances. Spending and revenue are woefully out of balance, to the tune of nearly two trillion dollars a year and rising, and instead of addressing this imbalanced Congress keeps choosing to make things worse. The reality is that we would have hit thirty seven trillion dollars in debt months ago if the administration had not employed a series of temporary measures to avoid hitting the debt limit before it could be raised. But instead of using the need to increase the debt limit as an opportunity to enact debt reducing fiscal reforms, No, No, that be crazy. Instead, Congress and the President authorized four trillion dollars more in borrowing to accompany the five trillion dollar debt limit increase. The debt. Current debt is now one hundred percent of our economy. We are on course to spend one trillion dollars this year just on the interest on the debt. It's now the second largest item in the budget. It has surpassed all the spending and it has surpassed medicare. Hopefully, She says, this milestone is enough to wake up policymakers to the reality that we need to do something and we need to do it quickly, which I know they won't. They won't. If they do anything, it will be to spend more money. That's that would be my expectation, spend more money positive development here. Though. The Department of Homeland Security previously estimated that there are eleven million illegal immigrants in the US as of January twenty twenty two, which I think that is an undercount. I think it's probably close to double that. DHS Secretary Christy Noam says in less than two hundred days, one point six million illegal immigrants have left the United States population six million. She said, this is massive. In two hundred days, one point six million, She says, this means safer streets, taxpayer savings, pressure off the schools and hospital services, better job opportunities for Americans. Right. This is one of the things that people never take into account when discussing the economy. And we mentioned we were talking yesterday about the housing crisis. You know, when you have twenty million people come across the border illegally, and they require services, and you know, like and I'm not talking like government services even, I'm just saying services like they get injured, they go to the hospital, or they you know, are driving on roads. They need housing. Right, all of these things have an impact on the level of supply that's available for the native born populations demand. So oh, I've said this before, Like if you're talking about, oh my gosh, there aren't enough houses being built and we don't know enough housing, I know a way we can free up like probably ten to fifteen million housing units, right, I mean, you're going to see more supply of housing when people who are not supposed to be here leave. So people are self deporting, which I'm old enough to remember when a guy named Mitt Romney I believe was his name, he said self deportation would be part of the solution to the illegal immigration crisis. This was back in twenty twelve, and people were aghast, Oh my gosh, self deportation, how dary? What a racist? And all of this. Other people laughed it off, dismissed, Oh, he doesn't know what he's talking about. What's he going to say next? That Russia's a major geopolitical folk come on mitt and no, it turns out, yeah, if you make things unattractive enough unappealing to stay, people will make the rational choice to leave, just like when you make it super attractive to come, the rational choice is to come. Right. People respond to incentives. Rational people make these decisions to make the voyage, make the journey, put themselves at risk and in danger to come to America because they believe that they get here, they will have economic opportunity, and they will eventually get amnesty, they will get all of these benefits and services. Right, They'll want a better life for themselves and their kids and all of that, all of it. Right. Again, you don't have to pick. It's not a false choice here, right. It's not either everybody's coming because they want to commit crimes or everybody's coming for economic opportunity. It's both. There are people that come for a whole host of different reasons, right, And if it becomes untenable for them to stay, if they are worried about being deported, if they are worried about, you know, having to live in the shadows and all of that, then the rational choice would be I'm going to remove myself from the situation. If you're a criminal, you may be thinking, Hm, I don't want to get shipped to l Salvador, so I'm gonna go ahead and go back home. Right. Those are rational responses. That's what happens when you create these incentives, and guys like you know, Tom Holman and Donald Trump and me like I've recognized this from twenty plus years ago when the illegal immigration crisis first really started boiling over, when George W. Bush then tried to float his path to citizenship, his amnesty plan and got so much blowback, cost him you know, seats in the Republican House and Senate. So and then the issue wasn't taken up again until Obama came in and gave you know, Dreamer status to all of the deferred action on childhood arrivals, the DHAKA kids. So, but this is what happens. When you enforce the laws, Then people don't feel comfortable staying and they will go back to the better situation. Here's a great idea. 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The funding cost increases faster than tax revenue can keep up. By default, the social programs are the deficit money in the federal budget. Yeah, pretty much. And what social Security expected to be insolvent in about ten years. And I did see some polling. Gallup found that young, young voters are interested in reforming Social Security, which has always been the case because like I've grown up as a gen xer, I've grown up knowing that Social Security is probably not going to be there for me. So I've been pouring money into four one k Ira that sort of thing, because I have zero expectation that any of that Social Security money is going to be there for me. If it is fantastic, but I'm not counting on it, So I just look at it as an additional tax that has taken from me to fund the retiree now, which is it's a wealth transfer to a generation that's actually much wealthier than I am. And that's what Social Security is. People think that there's some sort of an account that your money goes into, and it's like, oh, that's a lock box. Famously Al Gore's lock box speech, it's not a lock box, it's not an account. It's a Ponzi scheme. It's being used to fund the people who are in it now. And it's great if you get the funding because you got into the program early, but those who come in late never get their money back out. That's why Ponzi schemes are illegal unless the government runs it right, exactly right. This might also have something to do with it. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Booty Gig failed to replace outdated air traffic control systems while in office with his agency, instead shelling out tens of billions of dollars on a dei agenda that, according to federal spending records and airline industry insiders. In one meeting, Bootagig, who is said to be eyeing a twenty twenty eight presidential run which he can't win. He can't. Pete cannot win, Mayor Pete can't win because of the photo of him eating that that cinnabon. Right, those aren't chicken wings. People, people thought those were chicken wings. They weren't. It was a cinnabon he had. He had cut up a cinnabon into chicken wing sized portions and then ate it ate each of the portions as if it was a chicken wing with both hands, like using his you know, pointer finger, middle finger and thumb, grabs both ends of the of the bun and eats it and then and and has this really like maniacal expression on his face as he's chowing down. I mean, it's it's it's almost worse, I said, almost. It's almost worse than running for mayor of New York and using a knife and a fork to cut your pizza like that is disqualifying. So anyway, in one meeting, Booty Gig told industry executives that air traffic control upgrades would just allow them to fly more planes, and so why would that be in his interest? Yeah, upgrades will make it more efficient and it'll make it safer, right, rather than running on these old computer systems and stuff. Anyway, What his department was really interested in, though, was handing out hundreds of diversity, equity and inclusion grants totaling more than eighty billion dollars over four years. That's at least half of the dot's entire budget for a typical fiscal year. This is a piece at The New York Post by John Christensen. Bootajage spent his time in Joe Biden's cabinet blaming the airlines for their delays and vilifying the industry as a whole, while denying his department's dei adjenda led to any air traffic control staffing shortages or was maintaining an ailing safety system that hasn't been updated since the Carter administration. That's according to sources who spoke to the Post, and that the flying public has paid the price. As one who has flown in the last five years, I can confirm it stinks. Chris Meagher, a spokesman for Booty gig rejected both claims and pointed to increased air traffic controller hiring under the former Transportation as a Big Former Transportation Big, as well as software changes to improve efficiency at airport runways, new flight routes projected to cut up to one hundred hours off travel time annually, and the development of communications technology to decrease flight delays. Biden's infrastructure law also gave five billion to improve air traffic facilities, towers, and power systems. So Meager says, suggest the guy's name is Meager, which is so on brand. That's that's a Dickensian name for you, Meager said. Quote suggesting that Secretary Booty Judge chose not to pursue air traffic control modernization is absurd. He also said Biden's budget request for fiscal year twenty five included another eight billion in funding that Congressional Republicans blocked. The DOTS Bureau of Transportation statistics shows that most flight cancelations were caused by weather. Fifty four percent of cancelations caused by weather. That's why I always fly in the mornings. Shoot, I should not have said that I always fly in the afternoons. I meant to say, that's what I meant to say. You should fly in everybody. You all should fly in the afternoons because there's more thunderstorms in the afternoons. And once you have some thunderstorms that you know, pop up over Atlanta or Chicago or something, and it just sends the ripple effect throughout the whole Eastern seaboard and then everything gets screwed up. Whereas a little more than one third of cancelations were attributable to air carriers, just eleven percent due to failures in the National Aviation System. Airline industry officials acknowledged that carrier delays persisted coming out of COVID, but they argued that much of the infrastructure laws funding went to maintenance of facilities and equipment, not modernization. They said hiring has improved in recent years, but there was still a high dropout rate and surging retirements from veteran air traffic controllers. Eighty billion dollars for DEI some bang up work, booty jig. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past, while transation generations. They help us process the meaning of life. And our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Mark has sent a Pete mail. He says, Pete, I think the word is not milestone. The term is actually millstone, as in we've got a millstone of debt around our economic next. That's either one, yeah, either one. It's like tomato tomato. It's a you know, fort Forte. Either way, I'm fine with. Okay, this is Spaulding, welcome to the program. Are you getting the recording equipment set up? What's happening? Hello, Spalding? Are you gonna do this again? This is day two? Whatever? Yeah, you need to fix one of your inputs or something, dude, because like you're not hearing. We're not hearing you come down the line. I just hear your door closing. And this is day two. He called in with a different name yesterday and I think this is Chester, but that's not as really either. Oh there you are. You're here, okay, yeah, yes, you are alive on the air, just as a heads up in case you weren't, because like I've been talking to you for a little bit now, and so I just wanted to make you aware you're live on the air. I'm multitasking, I got you. Do you know anyone that has traffic twenty thousand children? And if you did, would you boast how well you get along with them? I do not know anybody that has trafficked twenty thousand children that I know of. I mean, that is a disclaimer I have to throw in there because somebody could be doing that and I may not know that. Well, let's say you did. Would Well, if I knew somebody was trafficking kids, if I knew that, I would probably turn them into police. Yeah, wouldn't you do that too, Chester, wouldn't you do that too? Of course? Yeah? So can I ask a couple questions for you? Why do you call in with a different name every day? Why not? No, I'm just asking why are you doing I'm not telling you you can't do it. I'm just curious why you change your name? I have schizophrenia, I have different. Yeah, why would I feel like you're making light of people with serious mental health disorders that I don't. I think that's kind of offensive. But like you would know, there's obviously a reason why you choose a different name. And I'm just curious why you would do that. And I don't believe you when you say you're schizophrenic. I'm curious why, Like, what's the purpose of that? What does it say about Trump? You don't want to answer my question? I answered your question. I answered your question. Why can't you answer my question? Why? Why? Like, what's the what's the benefit of doing that? Why not just use like your real name or the same name like what you are you are you afraid of Like I'm not going to take the call or something. No, I just use different names, right, why? Different stations? Right? Why? I call lots of different. Oh, you call lots of different stations. And then do you take all of these? Do you take the cat loves calls? Right? So? And then as I understand it, then you take the audio and you put it onto like a YouTube channel or something. Sometimes. Yeah, right, what's the name of your channel? I'd love to be able to check it out. Uh, the the seminar caller minar. Oh, that's a hat tip to Rush Limbaugh there, the seminar caller. Very good. Okay, so, hey, would would you ever like me to be a guest on your YouTube show? I know, thanks? Why not? I don't have a show. What do you mean you don't have a show. You just take these audio clips and put them up there. Do you get a lot of traffic? Yeah? I just I just call these, you know, silly maga hosts. You're like a quasi maga host, well, full blown maga host. Well I don't even know what that means. But so so the point is what you put the the YouTube videos up there? I'm assuming it's just audio only. Do you get good traffic? I know, because no YouTube shadow bands me. Why would they shadow band you. Because Seb Gorka contacted YouTube and reported me for using his content. Oh oh, that's a good idea. Actually, I'd even considered that, because you are actually taking a broadcast and using it for monetization. Can we can we discuss Donnie? No, I was just kind of curious as to like, what the rationale is? What, like, what's your motivation for calling in? So now I know? So I appreciate you going through that with me. So now I know you're not actually interested in any kind of a discussion of any kind. You're interested in making content. No, you're not. You're making You're interested in making some content for a YouTube channel that nobody sees as. A longtime Republican. I'm appalled at what the Republican parties become and that people like you go along with it. And that people I've never dude, I haven't been a Republican in twenty five years. Oh well, then you're an authoritarian. I'm a a I'm a libertarian, and that makes me an authoritarian that you So here's so how often do you actually listen to the show and the things that I am saying, Uh, not frequently. See, So how do you think you have the authority or any kind of Uh, I don't know basis or evidence to support this opinion that you've just expressed. I don't. You're an out liar because most time and those shows are like Brett. Most shows are like Brett winnable, and they all spew out the same nonsense. I really don't need to listen to the shows to know what they're going to talk about. But you obviously you do because you thought I did the same thing as Brett, and so I would submit you probably don't know about Brett's show, because I would submit you don't listen to his show either. You just have an assumption about what he might say or what he might think about. Brett quite the boot licker. Right, So yeah, So all the whole point here again is to not have a discussion. It's to create content for your rarely seeing if ever YouTube channel which now we know the name of it, which is the Seminar Caller, which is an insult to you, by the way, But I know you want to I understand like you're going to make it your own kind of deal. That's fine, so very enlightening. But here's the thing, Like, there's really no point in me continuing to talk to you anymore because I'm not interested in helping you make content. When I offered to help you make content, you declined. So now I'm not going to allow you to use my show for you to make content either. So fair is fair? Right, If you're not going to let me on your show, I probably shouldn't let you on mine, right, I mean, isn't that fair? I think so? Spalding everybody or what did he go by yesterday? To remember what he called in yesterday? As it's the same thing, because like, yeah, he says he's multitasking, but I suspect he's setting up the recording equipment. That's been my suspicion and it was confirmed, and yeah, so Chester is what he originally called in. And he always has the same sorts of comments about Donald Trump. But he doesn't even know what I think about Donald Trump on any given issue, or doesn't listen to the show. But he thinks he knows my opinions about things because he doesn't listen, which makes total sense. And I really believe you that you're a Republican. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.