September 2, 2023

Saturday, September 2, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

New York Times. - Employers added 187,000 jobs in August, and unemployment rose to 3.8%.

The United States added 187,000 jobs in August but the unemployment rate jumped unexpectedly, reflecting the impact of high interest rates and the U.S. economy’s gradual cooling from the boom that followed pandemic lockdowns.

The data, reported Friday by the Labor Department, is the latest indication that while hiring has weakened, there is no sign of an imminent recession that would result in widespread joblessness.

The unemployment rate, at 3.8 percent, is still low, but the rise from 3.5 percent in July was notable. The job growth figures for June and July were revised down by a combined 110,000 jobs, contributing to a picture slightly weaker than it previously appeared.

“The good news is, it’s a normal that favors workers more than we’re used to over the past 25 years,” said Justin Bloesch, an assistant professor of economics at Cornell University. Moreover, he noted, stability has its own benefits: People are more likely to be part of the work force if they feel confident they’ll be able to stay there awhile.

One is a mensch. One is not.

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Kamala is always busy.

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The GOP Field seeking the Presidency.

Karl Rove characterizes a Trump wannabe as a Con. Karl Rove’s look at Vivek Ra­maswamy.

Vivek Ramaswamy, Political Performance Artist

He has no government experience, but plenty of conspiratorial demagoguery to sell.

A par­tic­u­larly low point of last week’s GOP pres­i­den­tial de­bate came at around the 39-minute mark, when an un­usu­ally glib, shal­low, over­bear­ing, smooth-talk­ing biotech en­trepreneur pro­claimed him­self “the only per­son on the stage who isn’t bought and paid for.” That’s when most Amer­i­cans, and most Re­pub­li­cans, got their first real look at Vivek Ra­maswamy.

The can­di­date of­fered no proof for his charge. He didn’t care that his op­po­nents have more than 123 years of pub­lic ser­vice among them, serv­ing as vice pres­i­dent, gov­er­nor, sen­a­tor, rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Drug En­force­ment Agency ad­min­is­tra-tor, un­der­sec­re­tary of home­land se­cu­rity, U.S. at­tor­ney, state leg­is­la­tor, county coun­cil mem­ber and com­bat vet­eran.

Mr. Ra­maswamy’s pub­lic ser­vice? None.

That’s ironic given that at 18 he asked the Rev. Al Sharp­ton, a can­di­date for the 2004 De­mo­c­ra­tic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion, at an MSNBC fo­rum: “Of all the De­mo­c­ra­tic can­di­dates out there, why should I vote for the one with the least po­lit­i­cal ex­pe­ri­ence?” Add to the mix that Mr. Ra­maswamy was ev­i­dently so un­in­ter­ested in the na­tion’s di­rec­tion that he couldn’t be both­ered to vote in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 pres­iden­tial elec­tions.

Mr. Ra­maswamy’s “bought and paid for” com­ment was part of a pat­tern of dem­a­goguery. He reg­u­larly ap­peals to vot­ers’ con­spir­a­to­r­ial in­stincts.

Dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with the Atlantic’s John Hen­drick­son, he said, “I think it is le­git­i­mate to say how many po­lice, how many fed­eral agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Tow­ers. Maybe the an­swer is zero. It prob­a­bly is zero for all I know, right? I have no rea­son to think it was any­thing other than zero. But if we’re do­ing a com­pre­hen­sive as­sess­ment of what hap­pened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 com­mis­sion, ab­so­lutely that should be an an­swer the pub­lic knows the an­swer to.” Mr. Ra­maswamy later claimed he was mis­quoted. That is a lie; his grotesque com­ments are on tape.

We know ex­actly who was on those planes. Their names are memo­ri­al­ized at the Na­tional Sep­tember 11 Memo­r­ial and Mu­seum and solemnly read each year in a cer­e­mony at Ground Zero. A dis­tin­guished com­mis­sion is­sued a re­port on 9/11, which found that Is­lamic fa­nat­ics at­tacked Amer­ica. Why would Mr. Ra­maswamy sug­gest oth­er­wise? Does he think there’s some­thing to be gained from dis­re­spect­ing the law-en­force­ment of­fi­cers who were vic­tims of the at­tacks rather than blam­ing their ter­ror­ist per­pe­tra­tors?

Mr. Ra­maswamy is quick to dis­re­gard the truth when it’s po­lit­i­cally ex­pe­di­ent.

Dis­cussing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capi­tol ri­ots with Tucker Carl­son at the Iowa Fam­ily Lead­er­ship Sum­mit in July, the GOP hope­ful said, “What caused Jan­uary 6th is per­va­sive cen­sor­ship.” When “you tell peo­ple they can­not scream,” he ex­plained, “that is when they tear things down.”

It didn’t mat­ter to Mr. Ramaswamy that Pres­i­dent Trump’s stolen-elec­tion claims got their day in court and couldn’t be proved. Or that the mili­tia mem­bers, Proud Boys and an out­right mob Mr. Trump whipped up on the Capi­tol steps weren’t merely try­ing to scream. They beat po­lice of­fi­cers bloody try­ing to stop a joint ses­sion of Con­gress. How weird for a per­son seek­ing to rep­re­sent a party that once cham­pi­oned law and or­der to ex­cuse this sort of be­hav­ior.

There’s more. Dur­ing a New Hamp­shire Q&A in June, a voter claimed the Fed­eral Re­serve “is il­le­gally tak­ing money out the back door, not through the proper chan­nels, or adding ze­roes to bank ac­counts to the me­dia or maybe your po­lit­i­cal op­po-nents.” He asked Mr. Ramaswamy, “How are you go­ing to stop that il­le­gal un­der-the-ta­ble spend­ing of money from the Fed­eral Re­serve?”

With a sign be­hind him em­bla­zoned with the word “Truth,” Mr. Ra­maswamy in­dulged the crank rather than set him straight. “You’re cor­rect to point out what very few peo­ple are aware of. Ab­so­lutely, that hap­pens.”

No, it doesn’t.

It’s easy to dis­miss Mr. Ra­maswamy as a present-day Pro­fes­sor Harold Hill, the con man in “The Mu­sic Man” with a ready smile and rapid pat­ter skin­ning the cit­i­zens of River City. But Hill wanted only to sell band uni­forms and mu­si­cal in­stru­ments. Mr. Ra­maswamy wants to con­trol Amer­i­ca’s nu­clear codes—or per­haps to oc­cupy a com­fort­able seat in Mr. Trump’s cab­i­net.

He is a per­for­mance artist who says out­ra­geous things, smears his op­po­nents and ap­peals to the dark parts of the Amer­i­can psy­che. There’s al­ready a GOP can­di­date who does all those things, and worse. Re­pub­li­cans de­serve a choice, not an echo. (Wall Street Journal).

Tim Scott isn’t married — and that makes GOP donors wary.

Top GOP donors and their allies privately are pushing Sen. Tim Scott's team for more detail about his bachelor status before deciding how much to support him in the presidential campaign, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

Why it matters: Many of the donors are in the market for a viable alternative to former President Trump — but still aren't sure about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who's running second to Trump in GOP polls. Scott, 57, is among those trying to woo such fundraisers.

• The U.S. hasn't elected an unmarried person as president in 139 years. It's typical for candidates to trot out their families to try to enhance their appeal to voters.

• Scott's reluctance to say much about his private life has raised concerns among some conservative Republican donors, according to the sources, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.

Driving the news: Responding to this reporting, a senior official for Scott's campaign told Axios the South Carolina senator will be discussing the issue in the coming weeks.

• During an interview with Axios in May, Scott said he had a girlfriend but kept her identity private.

• "The fact that half of America's adult population is single for the first time, to suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor of whether you're a good president or not — it sounds like we're living in 1963 and not 2023," Scott said then.

• He also spun being single as a potential plus.

• "I probably have more time, more energy, and more latitude to do the job," he said, adding that even so, "my girlfriend wants to see me when I come home."

Zoom in: Potential donors who've asked Scott's campaign about his personal life have been told much the same thing. But for some, it has only fueled their curiosity and apprehension, the sources said.

• "[New Jersey Sen.] Cory Booker went through the same thing running for president in 2020 and it seems to not have been a problem for him — but maybe that's more normal for Democrats," said one source familiar with the sentiment among GOP donors.

• The same person told Axios that some donors have questions, but it's not a majority. "I'm surprised it doesn't come up more," the source said.

Between the lines: In his first five weeks as a candidate, Scott spent about $800,000 more than he raised, according to campaign finance disclosures.

• Scott can continue that spending for a while, however — he transferred $22 million from his Senate campaign account at the outset of his presidential campaign.

• As of July, he had $21 million on hand — second only to Trump among Republican presidential candidates.

• Scott has had at least one megadonor in his corner — Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who is set to donate an eight-figure sum to a pro-Scott super PAC, according to Puck News.

• Scott has bet big on doing well in the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, and has emphasized his faith in courting the state's large number of evangelicals.

  • In a recent poll by The Des Moines Register and NBC News, Scott was running third in the GOP primary among Iowa evangelicals at 7%, behind Trump (47%) and DeSantis (20%).

  • Trump's strength in Iowa suggests that the state's conservative Republican voters aren't necessarily doctrinaire about a candidate's private life, given his three marriages and alleged affairs.

  • DeSantis' campaign has pointedly emphasized his family. His wife, Casey, and their young children often are at events and in ads.

  Scott spokesperson Nathan Brand told Axios: "Tim Scott's optimistic, positive message continues to resonate with Iowa and New Hampshire voters who are focused on issues impacting their families."

  Zoom out: The U.S. has not elected a bachelor to be president since Grover Cleveland in 1884, but there have been other single candidates recently.

  • When Booker ran for president, he was dating actress Rosario Dawson.

  • Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) ran for president in 1992, 14 years after his divorce. But unlike Booker, he didn't date while campaigning because he thought it would be a distraction.

  • "People do not know who Bob Kerrey is, and I don't want them to be reading stories about who it is that I'm dating and trying to figure out who I am," he told The New York Times then.

  • There have been two bachelor presidents — Cleveland and James Buchanan. Cleveland married while in office; Buchanan was a lifelong bachelor.

    (Axios).

Nikki Haley calls US Senate ‘most privileged nursing home in the country.’

The US Senate is “the most privileged nursing home in the country”, the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said.

The former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations, 51, was speaking to Fox News a day after the Republican leader in the Senate, 81-year-old Mitch McConnell, suffered a second freeze in a month, this time while speaking to reporters in Kentucky.

“What I will say is, right now, the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country,” Haley said. “I mean, Mitch McConnell has done some great things, and he deserves credit. But you have to know when to leave.”

On Thursday, the congressional physician said McConnell was clear to work, perhaps while suffering the after-effects of concussion, sustained in a fall in March, or dehydration. Other falls have been reported, including a “face plant” at a Washington airport, but McConnell has said he will complete his current six-year term, his seventh, which ends in 2026. (The Guardian).
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A small, additional note on a member of the Supreme Court. Alito.

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Already a victory. The man who shot Ralph Yarl will be charged.

White man who shot Ralph Yarl, black teen who went to the wrong house, judge rules.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge ruled Thursday that the 84-year-old white homeowner who shot a Black teenager after he mistakenly went to the man’s house must stand trial.

Clay County Judge Louis Angles issued the ruling after a dozen witnesses spoke at a preliminary hearing, including Ralph Yarl, the teenager who was shot by Andrew Lester on April 13 when Yarl went to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers.

Lester, a retired aircraft mechanic, is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He previously pleaded not guilty in the shooting that shocked the country and renewed national debates about gun policies and race in America. His next court date is an arraignment, scheduled for Sept. 20.

Yarl spoke softly as he testified that he was sent to pick up his twin siblings but had no phone — he’d lost it at school. The house he intended to go to was just blocks from his own home, but he had the street wrong.

Yarl said he rang the bell and the wait for someone to answer for what seemed “longer than normal.”

As the inner door opened, Yarl said he reached out to grab the storm door.

“I assume these are my brothers’ friends’ parents,” he said.

Instead, it was Lester, who told him, “Don’t come here ever again,” Yarl recalled. He said he was shot in the head, the impact knocking him to the ground, and was then shot in the arm.

Lester’s attorney, Steve Salmon, said in closing arguments that Lester was acting in self-defense, terrified by the stranger who knocked on his door as he settled into bed for the night.

“With his age and physical infirmity, he is unable to defend himself,” Salmon said, describing Lester as distraught after the shooting.

“A terrible event occurred, but it is not criminal,” Salmon said.

To make the self-defense case, Salmon focused heavily on the teen grabbing for the storm door, questioning the fact that Yarl initially said he hadn’t. Yarl responded that the first interview with law enforcement happened on the same day he underwent neurological surgery.

The shot to his head left a bullet embedded in his skull, testified Dr. Jo Ling Goh, a pediatric neurosurgeon who treated Yarl. It did not penetrate his brain, however.

District Attorney Zachary Thompson said although Missouri law offers protections for people defending themselves, “You do not have the right to shoot an unarmed kid through a door.”

Kansas City Officer Larry Dunaway described Lester as “an elderly guy who was scared” after the shooting. Another officer, James Gale, said Lester was clearly worried.

“He said he hoped he didn’t kill anybody,” Gale testified.

He said surveillance cameras would have allowed Lester to see Yarl pull up to his house. Crime scene workers testified surveillance cameras broadcast views from the front door and driveway onto monitors in Lester’s bedroom, although the footage wasn’t recorded.

Salmon told reporters after the hearing that he doesn’t think Lester watched the monitors, although he said he never asked him.

A handful of people wearing shirts that said “Justice for Ralph” were in the courtroom. Others wore shirts that read: “Ringing a doorbell is not a crime.”

Yarl continues to heal from the traumatic brain injury he suffered but was able to complete an engineering internship this summer and just started his senior year in high school. The 17-year-old is planning to major in engineering when he graduates, with several college visits planned for the fall.

Lester told authorities he shot Yarl through the door without warning because he was “scared to death” he was about to be robbed.

Initially turned away while seeking help at neighboring homes, Yarl stumbled to the street. Neighbor Carol Conrad testified that she was offering words of comfort through her window — a dispatcher had warned neighbors should stay inside. At one point, he yelled, “I’ve been shot.”

When Yarl crumpled to the ground, three neighbors rushed to help. Jodi Dovel testified there was a trail of blood, which pooled under his head. But Yarl was able to talk, telling her he went to ring the doorbell and was shot.

“I thought. ‘Oh no, he went to the wrong house,’” Dovel said.

Lester also called 911. On the recording played in court, he could be heard telling a dispatcher, “I shot him. He was at my door trying to get in and I shot him.”

Missouri is one of about 30 states with “stand your ground” laws that allow people to respond with physical force when they are threatened.

Salmon has said Lester’s home was egged and spray-painted after the shooting. He said Lester has sought law enforcement assistance when traveling, and his wife had to be moved from her nursing home.

Yarl’s father, Paul Yarl, said during a break that he was moved hearing the neighbors testify. Some of the details were new to him. He said his son has mainly recovered physically but still struggles psychologically. He relives the night and has bad dreams.

“It was horrible. Blood. Shooting. Nobody wanted to come until police arrived,” he said.

He said he was not frustrated with the bystanders.

“I’m more frustrated with the shooter,” Paul Yarl said. “He started it. He didn’t want to talk to the boy. He just shot the boy. And now he tries to play the fear card and he’s afraid. He should be afraid, he is going to kill somebody. Come on, now.”

Race was discussed little at the hearing, other than one neighbor saying Yarl didn’t have a history of making racist remarks. Thompson, the prosecutor, said simply that he is focused on proving what is required by the law and that doesn’t involve a racial component.

But Faith Spoonmore, Yarl’s aunt, looked into the afternoon sun when asked if race was an element of the shooting. “Is it sunny outside?” she asked.

Support for Yarl and his family poured in over the past few months. A GoFundMe set up on the family’s behalf raised nearly $3.5 million. (Associated Press)

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One more thing.

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