This Is An Open Thread
Morning, Peeps.
Boss is taking a couple of days break, so I will see what parts of the Shitshow pop up for you today and tomorrow.
It’s Thursday, June 2 …
| Thursday, July 2 2026 |
| 8:00 AM The President participates in Executive Time The White House Closed Press |
| 9:00 AM In-Town Pool Call Time In-Town Pool |
| 10:30 AM The President participates in a Policy Meeting Oval Office Closed Press |
| 11:00 AM The President receives his Intelligence Briefing The White House Closed Press |
| 1:30 PM The President participates in a Policy Meeting Oval Office Closed Press |
| 2:30 PM The President participates in a Policy Meeting The White House Closed Press |
| 4:00 PM The President participates in a Pre-Tape Interview Oval Office Closed Press |
| 6:00 PM The President participates in a Policy Meeting Oval Office Closed Press |
The Destroyer …
Just a quick note: the grove he's seemingly proposing to have cut down is not the famous one along the Tidal Basin, but another grove that's actually larger and located along the road that borders East Potomac Park. This is the bike path I mentioned above. https://t.co/zyinNMeMcQ pic.twitter.com/VzvgpICT8c
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) July 1, 2026
The Destroyer and his Demons …
Not sure who put this old tweet of mine back into my mentions, but my feeling is that it’s truer than ever, especially regarding Trump‘s corruption. https://t.co/PryR6W6ts3
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 1, 2026
New footage shows Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins addressing a nonexistent crowd at the Great American State Fair pic.twitter.com/AJ7uXvbwK4
— Rachel Bitecofer 🗽🦆 (@RachelBitecofer) July 1, 2026
🚨 HUGE ongoing surge of ICE arrests, with ICE directing 80% of all officers to go out into the field and round people up, aiming to hit 2,000 arrests a day; which would be more than during the Minneapolis surge.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) July 2, 2026
This may be why the nun in Texas got briefly picked up. https://t.co/afvShOqsVX pic.twitter.com/xhL0fvSdvq
The king of Lies and Stupidity …
JFC. No, the US did not put “999 Billion Dollars” into NATO from 2014-2025. The US puts about $800 MILLION per year to NATO, which is less than 0.1% of US total military yearly spending, which is ~$850-900 Billion per year. Over the last 11 years, 2014-2025, the amount the US contributed to NATO was ~$8.11 billion. FFS.
Numbers (as much as they can be trusted now days) Day ..
Ben’s links:
Data: www.bls.gov/news.release…
Full coverage: www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07…
Charts! Starting with the big picture: Job growth slowed in June (and April/May were revised down), but the pickup in hiring this year remains intact. #NumbersDay
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) July 2, 2026 at 8:32 AM
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Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent in June, but wage growth has been slowing. We'll get updated inflation data in a couple weeks, but it will likely show that wages continued to fall in real terms. (Though that could begin to reverse now that oil prices are coming down.)
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) July 2, 2026 at 8:32 AM
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The unemployment rate edged down to 4.2 percent, and has now been at or under 4.5 percent for 56 straight months, the longest streak since the 1960s. (h/t @talsmith.bsky.social for flagging that one)
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) July 2, 2026 at 8:32 AM
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But the household survey was weak in general. The prime-age (25-54) employment rate dropped sharply. Really odd move that looks like a data quirk of some kind — it's the largest one-month drop since 2009, outside of the pandemic plunge.
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) July 2, 2026 at 8:32 AM
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Big e-pop drop was mostly among men. (No, I have no theories.)
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) July 2, 2026 at 8:43 AM
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Is A.I. killing white-collar jobs? Another month of data, another month of mixed signals. New story out from me today on why this is all so hard to measure: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/b…
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) July 2, 2026 at 9:03 AM
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This Is An Open Thread