Consider just three items in the news today and how they underscore the dystopia the Malignant Fascist has driven America into:
Company announcements of layoffs in the United States surged in October as AI continued to disrupt the labor market.
Announced job cuts last month climbed by more than 153,000, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday, up 175% from the same month a year earlier and the highest October increase since 2003. Layoff announcements surpassed more than a million in first 10 months of this year, an increase of 65% compared to the same period last year.
“This is the highest total for October in over 20 years, and the highest total for a single month in the fourth quarter since 2008. Like in 2003, a disruptive technology is changing the landscape,” the report said.
The outplacement and executive coaching firm said America’s labor market continued to normalize after a pandemic-era boom, but also cited “AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs” as key factors putting companies under pressure. [snip]
It’s also been complicated to assess the labor market’s health because of the government shutdown, which has now become the longest on record: Official economic statistics have been suspended since the beginning of October, including the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report, which includes the unemployment rate and monthly payroll growth numbers.
The September jobs report, which was scheduled for October 3, hasn’t been released and there will not be an October jobs report this month; it was originally scheduled for Friday. That has made it difficult for economic policymakers, such as Federal Reserve officials, to make important decisions... (our emphasis)
Trump's Tariffs Nightmare Worsens
The Supreme Court on Wednesday contemplated the process for paying back billions in tariffs the Trump administration has collected, should the justices rule those duties are illegal.
“How would this work? It seems to me like this could be a mess,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked Neal Katyal, the lead counsel representing a group of small-business plaintiffs. Those businesses, along with a dozen Democratic-led states, have challenged the duties Trump imposed on dozens of countries under a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, in a consolidated set of cases that has speedily worked its way through the federal court system.
Katyal told the court that only the businesses directly involved in the case before the Supreme Court would automatically be entitled to refunds should the tariffs be struck down, noting that others would likely have to challenge the duties through a separate process to protest duties that have been paid. [snip]
Three courts have already ruled against Trump’s use of the emergency law to raise duties on individual countries, and justices from both the conservative and liberal wings of the court expressed skepticism Wednesday that the president’s tariff gambit is legal. [snip]
Trade and customs experts have repeatedly described any potential repayment process as a logistical “nightmare” for both the federal government and the companies seeking compensation.
Repaying the tariffs would require identifying which companies are owed money and determining how to administer payments months after the duties were collected, at levels far exceeding what Customs typically handles. Many companies also outsource their customs paperwork, meaning refunds could first go to third-party brokers and require additional approvals before reaching the businesses that paid the tariffs... (our emphasis)
Federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and took his car with a child in the back seat and drove off from the scene of a raid in Los Angeles, advocates and family said Wednesday.
On a video provided by immigrant advocates, masked and armed agents are seen arresting a man by his car in a parking lot while his 1-year-old daughter is strapped into a car seat in the back. After the man is led away, agents are seen getting into the front of the car and driving off with the girl still inside.
The man is a U.S. citizen who was at the scene of a federal immigration raid at a Home Depot store in Los Angeles, said Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. The firm, which handles immigration cases, was contacted by community members for help reuniting the family, but isn't representing the man because he is American, she said.
“It was a dangerous act to have armed men get in a car with that child and remove her from the situation,” Toczylowski said, adding relatives picked up the child later that day from federal offices in Los Angeles. “They should have followed protocols that had the best interest of that child in mind.”...
It's still morning and that's just scratching the surface. Getting these incompetent, malevolent monsters out of power can't come too soon (and it will come).
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