Discussion: Spicer: We Still Think Unemployment Percentage Can Be 'Manipulated'

STOP the group speak. You’re embarrassing yourself. “I talked to the President prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly,” Spicer responded. “They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.” BS. Trump can’t ‘think’ himself out of a paper bag. He doesn’t understand unemployment. He doesn’t know how it’s measured. He doesn’t know how it’s ALWAYS been measured. He does not have a degree from Wharton. That is another lie. NOTHING was manipulated. It is not ‘straightened out’ now. You have done jack sht to the math.

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Sean Spicer said the President continues to believe

Beliefs are Real Alt-Facts.

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So Slimey Spice says the numbers can be manipulated. But we’re supposed to believe that Obama manipulated the numbers, but Trump hasn’t and won’t? Because the Trumpsters are so honest and ethical.

Do they ever even listen to themselves?

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Yes- and the earth is flat, humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth 3,000 years ago and the Pyramids were built to hold grain.

The moon is made of green cheese. The tooth fairy exists. Santa Claus is real and lives at the north pole.

We can go on and on. This guy trims jig-saw puzzle pieces to make 'em fit.

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All part of a well-orchestrated campaign to erode all institutions that can offer a non-approved version of the truth.

It’s not crazy at all.

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Ahhhhhhh. From your statement, MelissaMcSpice, we can extrapolate that the recent good jobs numbers have been manipulated to look better since HairFuror has infested the WH–?

Conservatives tend to think in black-white scenarios, so if a projection or forecast is off, even if it was within the standard error of the estimate, it is an abject failure. This is what enables them to diss the CBO. The CBO’s projection for ACA coverage was pretty good, even allowing for contingencies like Repug Gov.s refusing to establish state exchanges. But Repugs pounce on the discrepancies so, even if the contingencies can be documented and explained, the CBO is a yuuuge failure. This is akin to the “God of the Gaps” [1]of the creationists. Not only do the Repugs reject facts, they also reject the power of consilience[2] itself. This is why we can’t have nice things. The nihilism and denialsm are systemic.

[1]“God of the gaps” is a term used to describe observations of theological perspectives in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God’s existence. The term was invented by Christian theologians not to discredit theism but rather to point out the fallacy of relying on teleological arguments for God’s existence.[1] Some use the phrase as a criticism of theological positions, to mean that God is used as a spurious explanation for anything not currently explained by science.
[2]In science and history, consilience (also convergence of evidence or concordance of evidence) refers to the principle that evidence from independent, unrelated sources can “converge” to strong conclusions. That is, when multiple sources of evidence are in agreement, the conclusion can be very strong even when none of the individual sources of evidence is significantly so on its own. Most established scientific knowledge is supported by a convergence of evidence: if not, the evidence is comparatively weak, and there will not likely be a strong scientific consensus.

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And HERE Comes SPICER!!! Spicer is lying like A Tremendous Machine!!!

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That’s a very unsophisticated and if I can get away with it very American way to use those numbers. The stats should be given some qualitative not just quantitative review. It doesn’t matter if it 4.5 or 7.5 as long as the values are true to trends. If UE is going down and the numbers are going down you’ve got a good metric. The numbers may be spot on or translated up or down. But as long as they move with what they’re measuring and move in the same way as that measured they’re good data.

I get the feeling the Trump administration is trying to prep us for some long hard times to come.

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Here’s the tell:

Spicer says it can be manipulated. Ergo, in a few months, it WILL be manipulated. Even if it means the folks who administer these numbers have to be fired. It WILL be manipulated.

The way the BLS calculates unemployment has been the same for decades.

The White House has no say in the matter.

The BLS uses the same metric for its work regardless of who’s president.

And there was no change to the numbers when Trump became President.

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“To look at a number and say we have 4.7 or 4.8 or 5.9 percent unemployment is not necessarily an accurate reflection of how many people are actually working, seeking work or want to work. And if you know how they conduct those surveys, there’s a lot of times where people, whether they’re older or younger, or because of how long they’ve been searching for work, are not considered statistically viable anymore, and they’re quashed away,” Spicer said. “How you look at the percentage of people working can sometimes be a a manipulated number. The number of people that are added to the rolls every month is a much more accurate understanding of what’s happening in the economy.”

Which IIRC was exactly what the Cheney Admin did during the Bush recession.

Projection.

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Well then is just behooves the Trumpanists to show their new and extremely vetted formula for their outcomes, now doesn’t? Who wouldn’t be excited to see Spiceboi with a Powerpoint presentation?

And with that, more time is wasted. Gone forever. And behind the curtain Steve Bannon laughs his fat ass off.

IOW: “Doesn’t everyone massage the numbers to make themselves look good and the other side look bad! What’s wrong with you idiots in the press?”

They don’t need to. They discredit the institution that can tell the truth and then continue lying. It’s easy.