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Saturday, August 2, 2025

Trump boots revision-prone Bureau of Labor Statistics chief and the left howls bloody murder

 


By Monica Showalter

When workers can't or won't do their jobs properly, it's up to management to fire their keisters out of there and get someone else who will.

Which is what happened with the much-howled-about firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics chief Erika McEntarfer by President Trump.

How many times was data manipulated, and then 'revised' with perfect timing for Democrats by this Biden-appointed "economist"?

It turns out it was a lot, as Trump described.

How could anyone trust data from this person after a record like that, which at a minimum, amounts to incompetence, not knowing how to properly collect consistent, reliable data? Can you imagine making a trade on Wall Street based on data this subject to revision? Over and over again? What is the point of collecting this data if it's so malleable and unreliable that all it gets is revised?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects its data on employment through its household surveys, and makes various projections from it. Such a method is pretty easy to manipulate -- call this guy, ignore that guy, etc. -- given its fluid nature. Only a truly objective and consistent data effort can make the data worthwhile. But BLS hasn't bothered -- it's happy to release and revise, over and over again, and by the wildest of coincidences, Democrats benefit.

So not surprisingly, Democrats are howling 'danger to democracy,' 'fascism,' 'corruption' and all that with this firing, as if there hadn't been red flags even before Trump became president:

 

They all traffic in the baseline idea that BLS data was a fount of objectivity instead of a revision-plagued mess run by an incompetent that never got it right the first time, but always managed to time the initial release of the data to the advantage of Democrats and the disadvantage of Republicans, before, oops, the big revisions.

Some erroneously report that Trump fired this woman over the last bad data revision because he didn't like it, but that's nonsense. He said in his tweet that he was tired of the constant revisions, signalling someone who doesn't know how to do her job at best and a political operative at worst.

Here's the most pin-headed leftist howl, from a New York Times correspondent who claims Trump is just like the radical leftwing Kirchner Krew who turned Argentina an inflation-wracked hellhole through massive government spending and crony shovelouts, triggering the election of radical conservative libertarian Javier Milei who's often compared to President Trump. 

Umm, Trump isn't anything like the Kirchners. He's more like Milei, actually.

In any case, I doubt she had much criticism for the Kirchners until Milei won the last election by surprise. The Kirchners spouted all the leftist establishment truisms about global warming, feminism, endless spending, criminal coddling, and every other fashionable idea to the left, and cultivated a cozy relationship with Venezuela's Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez. I sure don't remember any critical stories. 

Worse still, she seems to think bad data is what caused Argentina's hyperinflation. Actually, endless money-printing did and nobody in Argentina needed official statistics to know that.

Some think it's a good case for an investigation, given the many coincidences showing advantageous data for Democrats at politically critical times, and disadvantageous data for Republicans for the same reasons.

The bottom line here is that Trump is right to get rid of this person and put someone more trustworthy and knowledgable in her place. This data isn't just subject for headline news or Wall Street trades.

The Federal Reserve actually makes decisions on interest rates based on this always revised (and likely manipulated) data. It shouldn't, but in its wokesterly world, it does. And despite multiple revisions, it still does, which suggests complicity with the BLS numbers gaming.

It should be looking at M2 and only M2 for inflation data that should set interest rates but it doesn't. And that creates these kinds of problems:

With the left yelling bloody murder about this change of personnel, and the Trump administration not budging, it should probably put the Federal Reserve on notice, too, that it's next in line for a personnel change; it's not as untouchable and politically powerful as it thinks it is. With the Fed taking in bad data and running at a historic loss, unable to make a profit, that can't come soon enough.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/08/trump_boots_revision_prone_bureau_of_labor_statistics_chief_and_the_left_cries_bloody_murder.html

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Heart imaging software provider Heartflow sets terms for $200 million IPO

Heartflow, which offers imaging and diagnostics software for evaluating coronary artery disease, announced terms for its IPO on Friday.

The Mountain View, CA-based company plans to raise $200 million by offering 12.5 million shares at a price range of $15 to $17. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Heartflow would command a fully diluted market value of $1.4 billion.

Heartflow offers a non-invasive solution for diagnosing and managing coronary artery disease (CAD). As of March 31, 2025, the Heartflow Platform has been used to assess CAD in more than 400,000 patients, including 132,000 in 2024 alone. The novel platform leverages AI and advanced computational fluid dynamics to create a personalized 3D model of a patient's heart and deliver actionable insights on blood flow, stenosis, plaque volume, and plaque composition.

Heartflow was founded in 2007 and booked $136 million in revenue for the 12 months ended March 31, 2025. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol HTFL. J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Piper Sandler are the joint bookrunners on the deal. It is expected to price during the week of August 4, 2025.

Relevant Profile: HTFL


https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/News/112491/Heart-imaging-software-provider-Heartflow-sets-terms-for-$200-million-IPO
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TikTok can shape America’s next generation and Beijing knows it

 If Washington doesn’t act urgently, content pushed by TikTok and consumed by young Americans will result in future U.S. leaders unwittingly parroting China’s talking points, advocating warped views and, most dangerously, acting in ways that are in Beijing’s interests but undermine U.S. national security.  

There is admittedly no “smoking gun,” but TikTok represents a highly plausible vector of intelligence collection. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent firm, claims it is committed to U.S. national security, but is legally bound to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party. 

The People’s Republic of China almost certainly uses TikTok, at a minimum, as a collection platform to monitor public opinion. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and TikTok agreed in January 2023 to maintain all U.S. data within the U.S., but there are concerning reports of leaks.  

With 170 million U.S. users, TikTok provides Beijing with real-time, granular insight into American public opinion. That real-time data collection would prove enormously useful, for instance, in assessing U.S. willingness to fight in a hypothetical conflict over Taiwan.  

But the challenge from TikTok with America’s youth is not just collection, but influence. Early evidence suggests this is already underway. 

A Rutgers study found TikTok suppressed unfavorable accounts of sensitive topics, including Tibet, Tiananmen Square, Uyghur rights and Xinjiang. “Heavy” users expressed elevated positive attitudes toward China’s human rights record and greater interest in traveling to China.

Given that the company’s black box algorithm thwarts independent verification, we likely have seen only the tip of the iceberg of Beijing’s efforts to sway the U.S. public. 

The algorithm could convulse U.S. domestic politics by sowing discord and highlighting divisions, an outcome that serves Beijing’s interest in undermining U.S. cohesion and painting D.C. as an unreliable partner.

Indeed, rather than bolstering one candidate or another, TikTok may act as an anti-incumbent tool. 

In the 2024 election, TikTok contributed to President Biden’s low approval ratings, according to one Democratic strategist. In that election, President Trump’s support among 18-29-year-olds, which disproportionately comprises TikTok’s user base, rose by seven points from 2020. 

And yet, by April, only three months into office, Trump’s support among young people has declined markedly — by up to 27 points. 

While there are admittedly many variables at play, TikTok can amplify alienation and short-term sentiment swings. Whatever one’s politics, it’s dangerous for China to retain levers that can subtly shape American public opinion, especially by amplifying dissatisfaction.  

It’s worth noting that as Beijing uses tools to manipulate the U.S. public, especially its youth, it’s taking meaningful steps to protect its own young people.

Douyin, the version of TikTok used in China and also owned by ByteDance, is required by authorities to enforce a “youth mode,” limiting users under 14 to app usage for just 40 minutes a day. It also locks them out between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily. 

The contrast is stark: China exports attention-fracturing content while shielding its own youth from it.

China’s use of TikTok may allow it to influence mass and elite opinion. And in fact, TikTok may be uniquely effective at influencing elite views, by enabling microtargeting.

Given TikTok’s effectiveness and deniability, as well as Beijing’s determination to supplant the United States, Chinese security services are likely tweaking TikTok’s algorithms to micro-target key users.

Chinese security services can directly shape TikTok’s algorithm — rather than merely exploit one built by others — giving it a deniable, end-to-end influence over what users see. 

Crucially, any elite-focused information operation via TikTok would be even more difficult to detect in the unclassified domain than efforts to shape mass public opinion because of how narrow and precise the targeting would be. 

For far too long, U.S. leaders on both sides of the aisle have failed to take action against the platform.

And the reported decision by President Trump to tell U.S. companies they can ignore the law barring American companies from engaging with TikTok represents a new and immediate danger to U.S. national and economic security. 

At a minimum, it is imperative to ensure the U.S. is not allowing companies or individuals to engage with TikTok so long as its algorithm is controlled by a Beijing-linked company.

But U.S. policymakers need to go even further and consider, for example, more ambitious measures such as national limits on short-video screen time for minors. 

The status quo is incomprehensible and dangerous: Young Americans are being asked to unwittingly face off against an algorithm that may be a tool of Chinese intelligence services.

Allowing this dynamic to persist risks eroding the cognitive, civic and strategic foundations of American leadership. 

Jonathan Panikoff is a senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center and the former director of the Investment Security Group, overseeing the intelligence community’s CFIUS efforts at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Joseph Webster is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and editor of the independent China-Russia Report. 

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5432077-tiktok-china-influence-us/

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Boris Johnson blasts Starmer for backing Palestinian state

 Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday slammed the current UK leader for threatening to recognize Palestinian statehood amid the ongoing war in Gaza, calling the move “ridiculous.”

Johnson signaled Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s commitment — largely following France’s lead — was aimed toward capturing voters’ attention, not promoting a ceasefire.

“It’s nothing to do with promoting peace in the Middle East. Is nothing to do with advancing a two-state solution,” the former leader of the UK’s Conservative Party said in an appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”

“It’s everything to do with the continual oscillation of the Labor prime minister between his own two states, a state of paralyzed inaction and a state of panic about what’s going on in the Labor Party,” he told host Leland Vittert.

Johnson continued, “The problem in the Labor Party, the governing party in our country, is that they’re terrified of losing the votes of the Muslim community. It’s nothing to do with helping the Palestinians. It’s about managing his own party.”

The former leader, who resigned from his role in 2022 amid a scandal during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union in 2020, criticized broader efforts to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

“You’re not supposed to recognize a state unless it has clearly defined boundaries, plainly the state of Palestine does not. And it [must] have a government [that] is capable of controlling those borders and part of the government of the putative state of Palestine is the psychotic Islamic fascist terrorist group Hamas,” Johnson said.

He also described Palestinian statehood as a “big reward” for little accomplishment.

More calls for a two-state solution have cropped up in recent weeks, as humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip remain dire. The United Nations and other groups have pointed to reports of mass starvation and the blocking of aid into the region as cause for concern.

The Israeli government has denied such claims and said Hamas is promoting a deadly rhetoric to shame leaders. But Starmer and other nations have flocked to the frontlines, promising aid through air drops and medical treatments for the vulnerable as violence in the region continues nearly two years after Hamas’s initial Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Democratic lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), have pressed the Trump administration to follow in the footsteps of the UK and France — as peace talks have stalled. The U.S. has not agreed to recognize Palestine as a state and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pushed back on such calls.

The administration has also significantly reduced assistance efforts in the Middle East, including the closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and withdrawal from the United Nations Food Program.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5433729-boris-johnson-keir-starmer-palestinian-state/

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Florida GOP, DeSantis may follow Texas’s lead

 Florida Republicans are increasingly pushing to redraw the state’s congressional lines following a similar move by the Texas GOP.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Wednesday he is “very seriously” looking at asking the state Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map, arguing the 2020 census is flawed.

Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.) came out in favor of redistricting in a post on social platform X, writing that “Texas can do it, the Free State of Florida can do it 10X better.”

Florida Republicans say they were already headed in this direction following a state Supreme Court decision that upheld a congressional map supported by DeSantis and state Republicans.

But the plan is gaining even more traction in the wake of Texas Republicans’ unveiling of a new congressional map.

“It’s picking up steam,” Florida GOP Chair Evan Power told The Hill. “We were probably heading there with the court decision, but Texas made it top news.” 

Florida has seen an uptick in population growth following the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

The state has also become solidly Republican over the past decade, with Republicans growing their representation in Congress and once-Democratic strongholds like Miami-Dade and Osceola counties flipping from blue to red. 

A number of Democratic-held congressional seats could be impacted if redistricting were to take place, including those held in south Florida by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jared Moskowitz and Lois Frankel. Rep. Kathy Castor (D) in the Tampa area and Rep. Darren Soto (D) outside of Orlando have also been floated as possible targets. 

Florida Republicans already hold a 20 to 8 advantage over Democrats in the congressional delegation. 

Republicans were boosted last month when the state’s Supreme Court ruled to uphold a congressional map that blocked a challenge to the elimination of a majority-Black congressional district in the north of the state that previously was represented by former Rep. Al Lawson (D). The area that comprised the former congressional district is now divided among three Republican lawmakers.

But DeSantis is not stopping there.

The governor has argued that Florida got a “raw deal” in the 2020 census when the state only gained one congressional seat. The governor said last month he had relayed his concerns to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick after he was sworn in earlier this year and that the Trump administration could be pursuing redoing the census.

Additionally, the governor said he believes Florida’s Fair District amendments, which a majority of voters approved of in 2010, could conflict with the U.S. Constitution. The amendments say that districts cannot be drawn in a way that hinders minorities voting for their choice of elected representatives. 

“There’s a lot of people who believe that the Fair District Amendments is unconstitutional, because what it does is, it mandates having race predominate,” DeSantis said this week. “Whereas, neutrality should really be the constitutional standard.” 

Patronis also said in his X post that he believes the Fair District Amendments are unconstitutional “because it violates freedom of speech AND elections are a states rights issue.”

“Time to add more conservatives to Congress, so we can better deliver on President Trump’s agenda, finally win the war against woke, cut government waste, and create an economy that moves our country into a new age of prosperity,” Patronis said. 

Republicans argue that DeSantis and the state’s Republicans could be setting an example for other red states to follow. 

“DeSantis here sees an opportunity to be a trailblazer for the Republican Party in this sense in that he could be setting up a pilot program that Texas and some of the other states can actually follow,” a Florida Republican strategist said. 

“Let’s not disillusion ourselves, if he pulls this off, he will be a fan favorite of one person who sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” the strategist added, referring to Trump. 

So far, Republicans in the Florida state Legislature have remained publicly quiet about the prospect of pursuing redistricting. This year’s state legislative session was extended from 60 days to 105 days and saw tensions emerge between DeSantis and members of his own party. 

State Rep. Alex Andrade, a vocal Republican critic of DeSantis, said he has not spoken to his colleagues about redistricting. The state lawmaker noted he would support the effort only if the census was redone. 

“I get the partisan argument,” Andrade told The Hill. “I understand we could make hay right now and benefit Republicans but at some point do I care more about my party or the Constitution?”

“If the census were redone, I’d jump all over it,” he said. 

Florida Democrats warn that a move by DeSantis and the state’s Republicans would set a negative precedent.

“It would mean that the governor and the state legislative branch would completely capitulate under Donald Trump,” state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D) said. “It’s not supposed to be that the president gets to act like a king and say ‘do this on my behalf.’” 

In a Facebook video posted by Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Soto accused Republicans of wanting to cheat in the election.

“They want to pick their voters rather than voters picking their representatives,” he said. “You’ll see us do whatever we can in the courts to make sure that the Fair Districts Amendments are enforced.” 

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Madison Andrus dismissed the effort from Florida Republicans as “a bold-faced attempt to save their flailing midterm performance by rigging the game.” 

The effort comes as the nationwide redistricting war heats up and both parties seek to gain seats ahead of next year’s midterm elections. 

In addition to Republicans in Texas and potentially Florida taking a look at redistricting, Democrats in states like California and New Jersey are also exploring their options. 

“There’s an opportunity and if it better reflects the makeup of a state whether that’s Texas or Florida, or to Gavin Newsom’s point even California, then you should do it,” a national Republican strategist said. 

“These redistricting efforts, if they comply with the law and meet all of the various federal thresholds to get mapped through, if you do that and do it quickly, you’re going to increase the likelihood that the president and Republicans in Washington and going to be able to keep pushing things forward,” the strategist continued. 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5432996-florida-republicans-redrawing-congressional-lines/

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Sunday talks: Zeldin, Oz, Greer, Hassett

 NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday”: Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin

ABC’s “This Week”: Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Doctors Without Borders USA CEO Avril Benoît. 

CNN’s “State of the Union”: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. 

CBS’ “Face the Nation”: New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D); U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz; Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman. 

NBC’s “Meet the Press”: White House national economic adviser Kevin Hassett and Sen. Alex Padilla (D). 

Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday”: Hassett; Gaza Humanitarian Foundation executive chairman Johnnie Moore;  father of co-pilot killed in DCA collision Tim Lilley and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). 

Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/5433910-sunday-shows-preview-trump-economy-tariffs/


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