#168 In which we stop the presses—No, wait a minute. Start the—No. Wait a minute—

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed slowing job growth and rising long-term unemployment. Gains in the health care sector were offset by losses in, among other places, the federal government, i.e., all those positions Trump has been eliminating. You’ll recall that the last time the bureau issued bad numbers, Trump fired the commissioner in charge. At the moment there’s no one to fire aside from some poor acting commissioner, but presumably soon there will be a new permanent commissioner in place. The new guy, of course, is kind of anti BLS—aren’t all Trump appointees opposed to whatever organization they’ve been appointed to lead?—and certainly against monthly jobs reports. And his old Twitter account that “featured sexually degrading attacks on Kamala Harris, derogatory remarks about gay people, conspiracy theories, and crude insults aimed at critics of Trump” [CNN] makes him sound like a good fit for the elite company he’ll soon be keeping. No doubt his first day on the job will be marked by the elimination of reporting anything Trump doesn’t want to hear.

No news is good news, right?