Imposing his tacky stamp on the country and forcing us to stare

My Sunday movie was Folktales, which I saw this afternoon at the Detroit Film Theater. The title is accurate, but one couldn’t guess the true nature of the story from it. This is a documentary of a school year at the Pasvik Folk High School in Norway. It is very close to the body of water that separates Norway from Russia (yeah, Norway wraps over the top of Sweden and Finland to have a border with Russia). This is north of the Arctic Circle, definitely quite far north. A folk high school has been an alternate type of school in Norway for at least 100 years. It is for students who seem to have trouble making the transition from child to adult (and is not about reforming kids with a criminal background). The students are taught how to care for dogs and ride the sleds they pull, how to camp and survive in the cold climate in winter, how to hunt (thankfully, we aren’t taken on a hunting expedition), plus a good grounding in Norwegian folk tales. Occasionally a narrator tells us about the god Odin and the gifts the three Norns (Fates) give out during a person’s lifetime. We follow three students through the year – Hege, who recently lost her father and likes to go clubbing, Bjørn Tore (I conclude this is a double first name) who can’t seem to make friends, and Romain, who lacks confidence and can’t seem to complete anything. At the start the students (about 45 of them) use their phones a lot (yes, good reception in the wilderness because there is a Norwegian military base nearby). The common language is English because many of the students are not from Norway, like Romain from the Netherlands. There are lessons in Norwegian. They are introduced to the dogs and seem to choose their primary dog with a personality similar to their own – shy Romain chooses a shy dog. After the two month long wintery night begins (though I was confused by daylight scenes in this section of the film) the students are sent out for a two-night wilderness camp. Each student must pitch their own tent, build their own fire, and gather and cook their own food. The teachers check up on them. The teachers have a discussion with Romain, who doesn’t think he can do what the exercise requires. At the end of the two months there is a ceremony to welcome back the sun. At the end of the year there is less cell phone use – real life is much more interesting – and most of the talking has switched to Norwegian. And the students have grown up a bit. The film was directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. They’ve done several other documentaries. Ewing was at the theater and answered questions afterward. Once they decided to do a documentary on this subject they looked for a suitable school. They spent a couple months in discussion with the school staff. Over the summer and into the first few weeks of school they talked to all the students to get an idea which ones to focus on. Most students gave respectable but bland answers. Hege, Bjørn Tore, and Romain gave interesting answers, showing they were aware of how much growing up they needed to do. The crew also followed a couple more students, just in case, but their stories were not included in the final film. The camera crew got some cool shots of the running dogs from the dog’s point of view, though Ewing said those cameras wouldn’t stay in place for very long. Ewing also said they did not ask the students to recreate a scene (or the students quickly rejected the idea, wanting real life, not reality TV). So if the camera missed an important moment, they missed it. I quite enjoyed this one. Emily Singer of Daily Kos discussed the jobs report that came out on Friday.

The U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced, missing forecasters' already measly expectations of 110,000 jobs. But even more troubling is that BLS revised down the previous two jobs reports by an eye-popping 253,000 jobs, saying that just 19,000 jobs were added in June and 14,000 added in May. That makes the last three jobs reports the weakest since the anomaly of the COVID-19 crisis. Not taking the COVID-19 months into account, this was the worst three consecutive months for job creation since 2010 and the aftermath of the Great Recession.

The only sectors of the economy that grew were healthcare and social assistance. The numbers would have been negative without their strong showing. Some of the sectors that lost jobs were manufacturing, mining, trade, professional and business services, and government. The big thing that happened four months ago was the announcement of tariffs. Some are in effect, others contributing to tariff confusion. And just before this report came out more tariffs were announced. Singer also reported that in response to the tariffs, the Fed announcing no interest rate reduction because inflation is still a bit too high, and the bad jobs report the stock market dropped. Democrats blame the nasty guy, Republicans praise him. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that Fox Business spun the bad jobs report and stock market drop as not a big deal. The small job growth is bad. The market drop is bad. This is worse: Singer reported:

In a move you'd expect from a tinpot dictator and not the leader of the world's most esteemed democracy, President Donald Trump on Friday fired the commissioner of labor statistics after the latest jobs report showed his tariffs are paralyzing the labor market.

Dr. Erika McEntarfer was the commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She was confirmed to a four-year term in January 2024.

The fact that Trump would fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics—which calculates critical data that policymakers and investors alike use to make business and legislative decisions and ensure economic stability—will now call into question the accuracy of further reports. “BLS puts out the jobs reports, CPI inflation, productivity and employment cost index, among other key statistics. This is basically unprecedented and will raise concerns about US data integrity going forward,” Navy Federal Credit Union Chief Economist Heather Long wrote in a post on X.

McEntarfer was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 86-8. That included a vote by the vice nasty when he was still a senator – he thought she was at least competent. Various economists praised McEntarfer as devoted to the truth in statistics. They also decried the nasty guy’s interference. Some noted that when Argentina and Greece faked economic data small problems turned into big ones. Condemnation also came from Democrats.

“This is how dictators behave,” Rep. Yvette Clark (D-NY) wrote in a post on X. “Do not believe a word Donald Trump or his administration have to say on the state of the economy. They’ve given up every chance at our trust—and they clearly think they don’t need it.”

Einenkel reported the nasty guy claimed the bad report “was fabricated by bad actors in the Bureau of Labor Statistics in order to make him look bad.” I’m sure this is part distraction and part an attempt to feed a giant ego. Lisa Needham of Kos reported the White House released plans for a ballroom as an addition to the White House. Projected cost is $200 million and plans include a lot of gold to go with the crystal chandeliers and marble floors. Yup, tacky. The nasty guy says the cost will be covered by himself and private donors, his gift to the country. Needham says that “private donor” part means this is yet another way to bribe him. Donate to his ballroom and favors await. The nasty guy said that all the presidents over that last 150 years wanted a ballroom but they couldn’t get it done. But he knows ballrooms and will be the one to do it. No thought that all the presidents in the last 150 years (or more than 200 – the White House was built before the War of 1812) felt they didn’t need a ballroom because such a place would be inappropriate for the head of a democracy.

The desire to gold-plate the White House, to fritter away time on building projects and the like, highlights how un-serious Trump is. Yes, he’s deeply serious about using the government to destroy everything he hates, but he’s got people for that now—a whole Cabinet full. But he can’t help but fixate on imposing his tacky stamp on the country and forcing us to stare. It’s the same impulse behind the birthday military parade and apparently pressuring the Smithsonian to remove references to his two impeachments. His need for adulation—and gold leaf, apparently—is bottomless.

This afternoon NPR host Sarah McCammon talked about the ballroom with Edward Lengel, former Chief Historian of the White House Historical Association. The transcript isn’t out yet so I won’t cover as many points as I might with it. Lengel laid out some of the changes made by previous presidents (Truman’s changes were extensive). These predecessors worked with the agency that essentially owns and controls this public asset (the National Park Service?). Highly doubtful the nasty guy consulted them. Yes, the White House needs a bigger space to hold events. The East Room isn’t big enough for many, leading to guests spreading out through the public rooms. But, Lengel said, the description put out by the White House is of a space suitable for a palace, not for a democracy. The size of this thing means it will be difficult to undo. In Saturday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet by Justin Wolfers:

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire. It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

Tweets from Diane Swonk:

Employment stalls out in July with huge downward revisions to previous months. We only saw 85K jobs per month year to date, down from 168K average in 2024. The three legs of job gains since mid 2023 - state & local, healthcare & social assistance & leisure & hospitality are down to one. Health care & social assistance, buoyed by aging demographics as opposed to a strong economy accounted for all of the job gains in July. That is not a stable place to be.

Cliff Schecter of Blue Amp talking about “A republic… if you can keep it.”

We’re sure working on the not keeping it part. As you may have seen, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting—home to PBS, NPR, some of the only independent journalism still funded by our government and not in indentured servitude to quarterly profit statements and shareholder value—announced it will shut down operations in the face of Trump’s devastating funding cuts. “A republic, if we can keep it.” This, of course, is what authoritarians do. They gut the referees. They destroy any free and independent reporting. They leave you with nothing but mooks and Morlocks taking in Murdoch propaganda and a Musk algorithm. And we’re watching it happen in real time. Today. You think this is just about PBS? Well, it wasn’t just about USAID, Paul Weiss, Paramount or Columbia University. No. It’s about every remaining institution not bowing to Trump or filling his pockets, not enriching the oligarchs who support him or willing to be a megaphone for his fascism.

A tweet by Stephen Andrew of Kos:

Is Trump under the delusion that BLS comm just "decrees" employment data? Or maybe he's mistakenly thinking that the chair of FOMC simply "decrees" the fed funds rate? BC that's not how it works. Trump cld hold both positions & he wld not be able to decree the rate or the data.

Dworkin added:

He's under the delusion that his employees are supposed to lie for him to make him look good at all times. Like the way he uses his caddy to cheat at golf.

In the comments exlrrp displayed an image (probably generated by AI) titled “Donald Antoinette Trump” for his need to build a ballroom costing $200 million. You’ll need to find that image yourself and sorry if it doesn’t stick around long. A bit below that is a meme saying, “From now on, all jobs numbers will be coming from the guy who says he’s 6’3 and weighs 215.” A tweet by Andrew Leyden:

White House announces $200 million “State Ballroom” addition with construction slated to start next month. 90,000 square feet will fit 650 people. Renovations will also take place in the East Wing.

Governor Newsom Press Office replaced the image of White House Press Secretary with a Victorian era Madam and added the words:

While all the Districts pay extra for groceries and everyday goods, the White House is excited to announce that the Capitol is creating a grand ballroom for opulent parties! May the odds be ever in your favor!!!

I’m not sure what the Capitol has to do with it. And one more meme posted by exlrrp and written by Ron Filipkowski:

We are pleased to report from the new MAGA patriotic Bureau of Labor Statistics that thanks to Leader Trump employment is up 10 million jobs for the month of August.

In today’s roundup Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman discussing the firing of BLS head Erika McEntarfer.

People who don’t follow these things closely may not realize how important the Bureau of Labor Statistics is. But it’s our prime source of short-term information about economic developments. The BLS conducts a monthly survey of households that is, among other things, how we estimate unemployment. It conducts another survey, of employers, which is where we get estimates of payroll growth like the one above. A third survey, of prices, is the basis for the Consumer Price Index, and supplies the basic data for other inflation measures too. The BLS isn’t always right, nor should you expect it to be. It’s trying to track a complex economy, and sometimes it revises its past estimates — as it did this morning. But it is extremely professional, rigorously nonpartisan, and everyone in the business considers it the gold standard for economic data. Or maybe I should say “it was” rather than “it is”. I have to admit that I expected Trump’s corruption of economic data to be insidious and take place gradually. Instead he just fired the head of the BLS because he didn’t like the numbers it reported — a clear signal to the remaining staff not to report bad news.

Greg Sargent of *The New Republic* discussing a memo he obtained.

The memo lays out the need to persuade top Pentagon officials to get much more serious about using the military to combat illegal immigration—and not just at the border. It suggests that DHS is anticipating many more uses of the military in urban centers, noting that L.A.-style operations may be needed “for years to come.” And it likens the threat posed by transnational gangs and cartels to having “Al Qaeda or ISIS cells and fighters operating freely inside America,” hinting at a ramped-up militarized posture inside the interior. “The memo is alarming, because it speaks to the intent to use the military within the United States at a level not seen since Japanese internment,” Carrie Lee, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told me. “The military is the most powerful, coercive tool our country has. We don’t want the military doing law enforcement. It absolutely undermines the rule of law.” The memo was authored by Philip Hegseth—the younger brother of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—who is a senior adviser to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and DHS liaison officer to the Defense Department. As such it also sheds light on Hegseth the Younger’s role, which has been the subject of media speculation labeling him an obscure but influential figure in his brother’s MAGA orbit.

Posted in the comments is an image someone (or perhaps AI) created of the ballroom of the designated size next to the White House. The ballroom as shown is as large or larger than the main section of the White House. It is described as over two acres or the size of an empty Costco store. While the size comparison might be accurate, this image shows the ballroom replacing the West Wing, while the plans are for it replacing or near the East Wing, where the offices of the First Lady are (though I suspect Melania doesn’t use hers much).