DL Open Thread: Saturday, August 2, 2025

Trump Hates The Jobs Numbers, Fires The Statistician.  Seems like pretty much everybody but Trump likes her:

“I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s [Harris’] chances of Victory,” Trump wrote.

“We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” he added.

The stunning move came the same day that the BLS reported a gain of just 73,000 nonfarm jobs in July, below market expectations. In addition, the bureau revised the two previous months down sharply, cutting a combined 258,000 from the prior counts, putting the three-month growth rate at a paltry 35,000. It was the biggest two-month downward revision since April 2020, the early days of the Covid crisis.

Prior to Friday’s report, Trump repeatedly has championed the strength of the labor market. After the June numbers had been released initially, the White House put out a statement calling it a “June Boom.”

William Beach, a 2017 Trump appointee and McEntarfer’s immediate predecessor at BLS, also sharply criticized her firing.

“The totally groundless firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, my successor as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at BLS, sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau,” Beach posted on X.

“This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system,” Beach added in a statement. “The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.”

No Human Rights For The Deported At Salvadoran Prison:

When Jerce Reyes Barrios first got to el Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), he tried to keep track of how much time had passed. He reminded himself that nothing was forever. Even trapped without charge inside a Salvadoran prison infamous for brutal conditions and indefinite detention, he believed he would, someday, somehow, go home.

But as days turned into weeks, and then months, the time passed more slowly. In between routine beatings from guards, he read the Bible, the only book permitted to detainees. He asked God to give him as much patience as Job, whose faith is tested through a series of horrible disasters. Eventually, Reyes Barrios stopped counting the days.

“The only thing I can say is human rights don’t exist there,” Reyes Barrios told HuffPost on Tuesday. There were “beatings all the time,” he said. “If you didn’t eat, they would hit you. If you took a shower when it wasn’t time, they would beat you. If you spoke roughly to them, they would beat you.”

Reyes Barrios is one of 252 Venezuelans who migrated to the U.S., wound up in immigration detention, and were flown by the Trump administration in March to CECOT for indefinite detention without charge, under a multimillion-dollar deal between the U.S. and Salvadoran governments. Most of the men had no criminal history, but U.S. officials claimed, with scant evidence, that they were linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Reyes Barrios, a 36-year-old professional soccer player and coach, was accused of gang affiliation on the basis of seemingly no more than a Real Madrid-inspired tattoo and a “rock-and-roll” hand signal that immigration officials found on social media. Being banished to one of the most notorious prisons in the world over a tattoo and common hand gesture encapsulated the cruelty and arbitrariness of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, and made Reyes Barrios one of the more well-known people detained at CECOT.

Hey, there are no human rights at Alligator Alcatraz.  Why should El Salvador be any different?  Where is the outcry from our congressional delegation?  Somebody, anybody?

Microsoft Used Chinese Engineers, Products Hacked By State-Sponsored Chinese.  Coincidence?:

Last month, Microsoft announced that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had exploited vulnerabilities in SharePoint, the company’s widely used collaboration software, to access the computer systems of hundreds of companies and government agencies, including the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

The company did not include in its announcement, however, that support for SharePoint is handled by a China-based engineering team that has been responsible for maintaining the software for years.

Microsoft said the China-based team “is supervised by a US-based engineer and subject to all security requirements and manager code review. Work is already underway to shift this work to another location.”

It’s unclear if Microsoft’s China-based staff had any role in the SharePoint hack. But experts have said allowing China-based personnel to perform technical support and maintenance on U.S. government systems can pose major security risks. Laws in China grant the country’s officials broad authority to collect data, and experts say it is difficult for any Chinese citizen or company to meaningfully resist a direct request from security forces or law enforcement. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has deemed China the “most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. Government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks.”

Don’t think you need me to connect the dots.

Dog Bites (Emaciated) Man (Woman And Child).  Jewish American Groups Speak Out:

On Sunday, the American Jewish Committee, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization, released a statement affirming that it stands with Israel in what it described as “its justified war to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages”. At the same time, the group called for Israel to take steps to alleviate civilian suffering.

“We urge Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the UN, and all responsible parties involved in aid distribution to increase cooperation and coordination in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” The GHF is an Israel- and US-backed aid group that has attracted condemnation for the killings of hundreds of civilians seeking food at the hands of Israeli forces and private contractors.

The Reform movement in North America, which represents the largest Jewish denomination in the US, also issued a lengthy statement: “Neither escalating military pressure nor restricting humanitarian aid has brought Israel closer to securing a hostage deal or ending the war,” it read.

“Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Israel’s destruction, but Israel must not sacrifice its own moral standing in return. Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the ‘total victory’ over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law.”

The Rabbinical Assembly, a New York-based association of conservative rabbis, said last week that they were “increasingly concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza” and called for “urgent action to alleviate civilian suffering and ensure aid delivery”.

“Even as we believe Hamas could end this suffering immediately through the release of the hostages and care for its civilian population, the Israeli government must do everything in its power to ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need,” it added. “The Jewish tradition calls upon us to ensure the provision of food, water, and medical supplies as a top priority.”

This reminds me.  To our Congressioal Delegation:  When you accept campaign contributions from AIPAC, you are accepting money from those who have Palestinian blood on their hands.  Hope I’m not being too subtle.  You can try to justify it any way you want, but there’s no justification for enabling genocide. Return the money. Now.

Finally!:

After two years of anticipation, Delaware’s recreational marijuana market launches its first wave of retail dispensaries.

Friday, August 1, marks the first day of recreational marijuana sales in the First State with 12 medical dispensaries now also selling adult-use products.

Only two medical dispensaries in the state are not converting due to operating within municipalities that have banned recreational sales, which includes Fresh Cannabis operations in Milford and Seaford.

Delaware’s Marijuana Commissioner Josh Sanderlin was the first recreational customer at Thrive Cannabis Dispensary in Wilmington, formerly known as First State Compassion.

“I think right now people are excited to have access to it; it’s not in the shadows anymore. You don’t have to risk jail time for purchasing cannabis anymore, and you can get high-quality safe products,” he said.

Gov. Meyer deserves credit for replacing Carney’s Cop who served as the Marijuana Czar with someone committed to getting the businesses up and running.

What do you want to talk about?