john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 10/06/2026www.youtube.com/watch?v=nExf...youtube.comThe Truth About the Jobs Report Nobody Wants to HearYouTube video by Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers 000
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 04/04/2026And what that will look like (not what you're seeing out the window right now). www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFb_...youtube.comThe Iran oil shock is about to hitYouTube video by Max Fisher 030
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 14/03/2026That probably goes for any other Iranian islands in the Gulf, since islands make excellent defensible positions. Just a wild guess. 010
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 14/03/2026And then they'll seek to remake Kharg Island into another permanent American military base on foreign soil, like Okinawa or Guantanamo Bay. 110
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Yes, Iran is 600,000 square miles and 90 million people, but Trump and his cronies are indifferent to most of it. They do covet its oil -- and now that they've seen it in action, they'll covet Iran's power to control the movement of oil through the Straight of Hormuz. 200
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Does Trump care if this actually succeeds in preventing attacks on ships or making Dubai safe again to carry on as a world-class destination for tourism and global commerce? Probably not much. 100
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 14/03/2026A wild guess: The small expeditionary force of marines being sent to the Persian Gulf will be used to seize Kharg Island. With that in hand, Trump et al will send Special Forces "operators" to the Iranian coast to raid missile launch and drone boat redoubts. 100
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 14/03/2026The 'time is a flat circle' award of US military propaganda: William Westmoreland and his body counts, Pete Hegseth and his target strikes. 020
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 13/03/20261) So is it better to own things than hold cash, since all our cash is going to soon be worth a lot less? 2) Is it better to run to the limits on all our fixed interest rate debt lines, since we'll be able to pay it back with money only worth a pittance of what it was when we spent it? 021
Reposted by johnMelissa Sweet @melissasweetdr.bsky.social · 01/03/2026www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...abc.net.auMajor Gulf airports damaged as airlines suspend flightsAustralia's airports peak body has warned of "significant disruptions" to global aviation in coming days after the Middle East erupted into conflict and flights to the region were cancelled. 087
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 01/03/2026...marine insurers have halted coverage for any voyages in the area, leaving transporters exposed to massive risk premiums or outright refusal. 010
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 01/03/2026Many survivors attempted to return home only to discover their belongings had been stolen and their properties vandalized or sold, effectively erasing their existence from their neighborhoods. www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/artic...nationalgeographic.comWhy you should visit the three remaining Japantowns in the U.S.Dozens of communities were destroyed after tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were forced from their homes during World War II. But culture and history still run deep through these neighborhoods. 031
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 01/03/2026The economic persecution being enacted against Iranian heritage communities and businesses and Iranian communities throughout the US in the coming months could bring the same annihilation to them as those visited on US Japantowns in WWII. 010
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 01/03/2026If you visit Japantown in San Francisco, there's a memorial with a placard that explains that Japantowns were once as prevalent in American cities as Chinatowns, but that they were mostly destroyed in WWII by government policies targeting Japanese Americans. 110
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 28/02/2026Ignore the fear-hype headline. Good info here: How contemporary military action meets the financial system, how it effects Iranian students (up to 10,000) and thousands more with Iranian surnames or any tangential financial contact with Iran. Price of oil on Monday? www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGiS...youtube.comWar Alert: US-Iran Clash Triggers Global Bank PanicYouTube video by MARKET & HISTORY 110
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 21/01/2026Kitchen staff got leftover cake to take home to the families. Put away the guillotines. 000
Reposted by johnElizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 21/01/2026Basically Trump’s Davos speech is just a thousand Twitter comments in a trench coat. 21634104
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 21/01/2026It's always a good time for a fox in the snow, rendered lovely (corrected from lovingly, but I suspect lovingly is true too). 031
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 21/01/2026He says something and all I hear is the rapey subtext: "I bought you an expensive dinner and now you won't put out? No I won't unlock the car door." 010
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 21/01/2026The Guardian knows how to write about Donald Trump: "Trump is now banging on about how green energy is a fraud." Also ➡️: "And lurching into language popularised by England’s football fans, Trump tells WEF..." He's the human personification of a fucking lurch. www.theguardian.com/business/liv...theguardian.comDavos live: Trump rules out taking Greenland by force but calls for ‘immediate negotiations’Rolling coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the US president is addressing world leaders 021
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 12/01/2026Upside: Pay back your expensive debt with newly cheap money. When dollars are only worth 25 cents of what they were when you took out the loan, well, fuck those guys. 020
Reposted by johnellenahzulu.bsky.social @ellenahzulu.bsky.social · 10/01/2026BP/ICE aren't cops or soldiers. They're federal govt. CIVIL enforcement agents vested with limited policing powers for the purpose of enforcing customs & immigration laws Harassment of, attacks on & kidnapping of citizens isn't their purpose nor charge. Neither are street executions for disrespect 0141
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 06/01/2026Gift link wapo.st/3Z3WrN3wapo.stEmails outline potential cuts affecting thousands of FEMA disaster respondersAny FEMA terminations are likely to come in waves, according to three people familiar with the plans. 042
Reposted by johnSkye @simplyskye.bsky.social · 29/12/2025USPS quietly changed its postmark rules — mail is no longer dated when you drop it off. The “official” date is when it hits automated sorting — sometimes days later Which could have major implications for mail in voting — it’s a clever way to disenfranchise voters that’s going largely overlooked 29170764766
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Gift link www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...wsj.comFed Chair Jerome Powell Says U.S. May Be Drastically Overstating Jobs NumbersPowell said that Fed staffers believe federal data could be overstating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month—which suggests the jobs market might be shrinking. 032
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 09/12/2025"This is swing voters responding to chaos. This is the suburbs recoiling. This is not the MAGA base defecting." Yep. cmarmitage.substack.com/p/stop-waiti...cmarmitage.substack.comStop Waiting for Trump to DieUS Fascism doesn't end with him. 030
Reposted by johnCeleste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 05/11/2025"Many of them, he said, held legal status, but were unable to immediately produce their documentation to the agents. “Some people left their property, their work permits in their lockers here,” [their boss] said. “I could bring it to them and get them released. But I don’t know where they are.”" 5263159
Reposted by johnBen Chrisinger @bchrisinger.bsky.social · 04/11/2025By today, nearly 11 million SNAP participants should have received *full* benefits for November. They haven't. By Friday, this jumps to about 20 million. (estimated using state participation data and issuance schedules from USDA FNS) 🥗 🛟 🩺📊 #econsky 4268132
Reposted by johnDistill Social @distillsocial.bsky.social · 04/11/2025Scott Jennings melted down on CNN over Zohran Mamdani’s likely win — ranting about “socialists” and tossing out a bizarre new slur, “Islamo-Marxist” Then David Hogg calmly torched the whole charade: “People are tired of being lectured by men with Rolexes on CNN about affordability in this country.” 571227366
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 04/11/2025Gift link “Aristopopulism” wapo.st/3Jsvgrlwapo.stThe secretive donor circle that lifted JD Vance is now re-writing MAGA’s futureChris Buskirk put tech elites in power in Trump’s Washington. His efforts are grounded in a controversial theory — an ‘aristocracy’ is needed to move the country forward. 032
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 03/11/2025Gift link “As we’re seeing our world warm and water vapor in the atmosphere increase … it activates something that doesn’t look like anything most humans have seen before.” wapo.st/4oklfvhwapo.stDeadly rivers in the skyA new Washington Post investigation reveals where climate change has supercharged the movement of moisture through the skies. 062
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 27/10/2025"The inflation report was delayed due to the government shutdown and the White House said there will likely be no report next month..." www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsA3...youtube.comWhat happens when no one trusts a country’s economic dataYouTube video by PBS NewsHour 020
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 23/10/2025From August. The trouble with Argentina. www.npr.org/2025/08/13/n...npr.orgArgentina is an example of what happens when a country manipulates inflation dataTrump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics head. In Argentina, the government manipulated the inflation rate. Economists went rogue to calculate the real rate, and people lost trust in the numbers. 010
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 23/10/2025$40 billion isn't enough. Trump will have to keep pouring US tax dollars into Argentina to keep it afloat. www.digitaljournal.com/business/arg...digitaljournal.comArgentina's central bank intervenes to halt run on pesoArgentina's central bank said Tuesday it had sold $45.5 million dollars on the foreign exchange market to try and halt a run on the peso days ahead of 020
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 23/10/2025Gift link www.wsj.com/politics/pol...wsj.comThe Five Funding Cliffs Approaching as Shutdown Pain BuildsThe coming end of many federal paychecks and food benefits is set to put pressure on stuck lawmakers. 021
Reposted by johnRoosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 22/10/2025“You don’t have to squint hard to see that extreme weather events are […] affecting labor markets, supply chains, insurance markets, and inflation dynamics in ways that are pronounced, prolonged, and pervasive.” Senior Fellow Sarah Bloom Raskin, in @bloomberg.com 2115
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 22/10/2025... www.wsj.com/economy/cent...wsj.comFed Lost Access to Private Jobs Data Ahead of Government ShutdownPayroll processing firm ADP ended its data-sharing with the central bank after a speech highlighted the already-public collaboration. 111
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 15/10/2025“These individuals have a heightened risk of long-term health complications...their classification as having obesity is clinically appropriate.” I get it, but a public policy hater reads this and thinks: We can eliminate hunger by declaring everyone obese. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...theguardian.comAlmost 70% of US adults would be deemed obese based on new definition, study findsMedical experts have called for new way to more accurately measure obesity, although definition has yet to be adopted 000
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2025Scanning through a fair number of reports this morning, editors didn't even think it was newsworthy to address concerns about immediate toxic hazards. Weirdly, only the right-wing NY Post and CBS, where a Trump overseer has been installed, reported on air quality and safety measures for residents. 010
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2025Under a regime of massive, ideological-driven deregulation it's reasonable to expect we'll see more, probably many more, toxic industrial disasters at factories, processing facilities, and on surface streets and interstates -- and along every other mode of transport. www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/n...cbsnews.comLarge fire erupts at Los Angeles-area Chevron refinery in El SegundoOfficials say a large fire at a Chevron refinery in El Segundo, in Los Angeles County, has been contained and there are no reports of injuries. 130
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2025www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...nbcnews.comPolice chiefs sound alarm over 'disturbing rise in rhetoric,' cite rising political threatsA leading police organization called for the prosecution of "individuals, including elected and public figures, who incite violence or contribute to a climate that fosters targeted attacks." 120
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2025The value of U.S. beef sent to China fell to just $8.1 million in July and $9.5 million in August, Chinese trade data showed, compared to $118 million and $125 million in the same months a year earlier. 010
Reposted by johnLJ Pemberton @ljabouttown.bsky.social · 01/10/2025Nails why accusations of hypocrisy never land with MAGA: “But the real secret is locating the animating impulse behind contemporary fascist sexuality: Hedonism for me, puritanism for thee.” 2486
john @johnamitchell.bsky.social · 01/10/2025Will the real Victor Davis Hanson (lol) please stand up? 020
