Thursday, August 26, 2021

JOBLESS NUMBERS RISE - JOE BIDEN SAYS OPEN BORDERS AND IMPORTING 'CHEAP' LABOR FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD WILL KEEP WALL STREET CRONIES HAPPY AND GENEROUS TO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

In July, the latest available report, Yuma Sector agents apprehended nearly 18,000 migrants. Of those, officials classified 5,320 as Single Adults, 8,649 Family Unit Aliens, and 811 as Unaccompanied Alien Children.

Jobless Claims Rise for First Time in Five Weeks

President Joe Biden speaks during an event on clean cars and trucks, on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
2:06

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits climbed higher for the first time in five weeks, highlighting how the pace of economic growth appears to have slowed in August.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial claims rose to 353,000 from a slight upwardly revised 349,000 a week earlier.

Although the economy was growing rapidly in the second quarter of the year, data from July and particularly August appear to indicate the economy slowing by more than expected in the second half of the year. That looks to be an response to the resurgence of the coronavirus thanks to the highly contagious delta variant and prices moving sharply higher, triggering a precautionary saving response by consumers and lowering demand for leisure services.

The government reports continuing claims with a two-week delay. For the week ending on August 14, there were 2,862,000 continuing claims, a decrease of only 3,000 from the previous week. The lack of progress at bringing down continuing claims may be due to enhancements to unemployment benefits from the federal government—which include the ability to collect benefits for far longer than usual and an extra $300 per month—discouraging the jobless from seeking or accepting work.

Rising delta infections may also be causing some Americans to hesitate to return to work. Others may be holding back from taking jobs out of fear that schools may not reopen or close again.

Recently, employers are also likely holding back at expanding payrolls giving the uncertainty about what demand will look like this fall.

There were 10.1 million unfilled jobs at the end of June and reent surveys show that many businesses say they are having trouble hiring qualified workers.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending August 7 were in Puerto Rico, Illinois, New Jersey, California, District of Columbia, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Nevada, and the Virgin Islands.

Biden’s Economy: More New Homes for the Wealthy, Fewer New Homes for Everyone Else

President Joe Biden speaks about prescription drug prices and his "Build Back Better" agenda from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
4:16

The U.S. is building new homes at a faster pace than expected but it is not building many inexpensive homes that could be purchased by first-time buyers or Americans with modest incomes.

Sales of new homes rose one percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 708,000, data from the Census Bureau showed Tuesday. The monthly rise would have been bigger were it not for the fact that June was revised up from a rate of 676,000 to 701,000.

Sales had fallen in February, April, May, and June as prices soared to record levels, builders faced surging lumber prices, and the labor supply grew scarce.

Home prices continue to skyrocket. The median price of a new home sold in July rose to $390,500, up 18.4 percent from a year ago, The average sales price in July hit a record $446,000, up 17.6 percent from a year ago.

Far fewer of the new homes being sold are on the less pricey end of the market. Back in 2019, homes priced at $399,000 or less made up 67.7 percent of sales. Last month, that had dropped to just 50.5 percent.

BOCA RATON, FL (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Homes priced under $150,000 accounted for 1.9 percent of the market in 2019. Last month, they were so low that the government did not even assign them a number. Houses in the $150,000 to $199,000 range were 7.6 percent of the 2019 market. Last month, just 1.5 percent. Houses in the $200,000 to $299,000 range went from 33.2 percent to 22 percent.

The more expensive houses increasingly make up a larger share of the market. The $400,000 to $499,000 range grew from 13.9 percent to 22 percent. The $500,000 to $749,000 range went from 13.2 percent to 17.5 percent. More expensive houses were 5 percent of the 2019 market and 7.9 percent of the July 2021 market.

Bill McBride of the Calculated Risk blog explains the transformation of the market in recent years:

During the housing bust, the builders had to build smaller and less expensive homes to compete with all the distressed sales.  When housing started to recovery – with limited finished lots in recovering areas – builders moved to higher price points to maximize profits.

Then the average and median house prices mostly moved sideways since 2017 due to home builders offering more lower priced homes.  Prices picked up during the pandemic, and really picked up recently.

The market is nowhere near as frenzied as it was a year ago. New home sales are 27.2 percent below the pace set in the summer of 2020, when families fled cities after schools closed and office work went remote. Sales crested at a rate of 993,000 units in January.

The number of new homes for sale at the end of July rise to 367,000, up 5.5 percent June and 26.1 percent higher than a year ago.

The months of supply increased in July to 6.2 months from 6.0 months in June, a bit higher than average but in line with what realtors consider a balanced market. The longest inventory ever was 12.1 months in 2009. The lowest was 3.5 months in October of last year.

In the heart of Miami, among the towering skyscrapers that rise above the Bay of Biscayne, the eye-catching new luxury condo building by late star architect Zaha Hadid dominates the skyline. The unique curved “exoskeleton” design of the One Thousand Museum building has created buzz. The futuristic building is the only residential space in downtown Miami with a helipad.  (Photo by Eva Marie UZCATEGUI / AFP) (Photo by EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images)

But unless the trend toward more expensive houses changes, that will do little the help first-time buyers or those looking for less expensive homes.

The market for new homes is a fraction of the overall housing market but it has an outsized economic impact because home building is labor and material intensive, employing workers with a full range of skill and experience levels. And new homes need to be outfitted with appliances, driving up demand for durable goods.

 

Polls: Few Democrats See Migration, Amnesty as Top Problem

TIJUANA, MEXICO - APRIL 29: Members of a caravan of Central Americans who spent weeks traveling across Mexico walk from Mexico to the U.S. side of the border to ask authorities for asylum on April 29, 2018 in Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico. More than 300 immigrants, the remnants of …
David McNew/Getty Images
7:21

Just 1.4 percent of Democrats rate immigration as a top problem for government, even as Mark Zuckerberg’s astroturf empire is still pushing Congress to pass a massive, wealth-shifting amnesty.

Just four out of 285 Democrats polled in August said “immigration” is a top problem, according to an August 24 statement from Gallup.

Forty-one percent of Democrats rated coronavirus as the top problem, 10 percent cited “the government,” 6 percent cited the economy, and 5 percent cited “race relations.”

In contrast, Gallup showed that 23 percent of Republicans offered immigration as the answer to the question, “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?”

An August Ipsos poll for Reuters showed that only 5 percent of Democrats and 9 percent of independents described “immigration” as the most important problem facing America. The poll of 1,002 was conducted August 18-19. In contrast, “environment and climate” was picked by 13 percent of Democrats and 9 percent of independents.

Meanwhile, pro-migration advocates are pushing Congress to pass four large amnesties — for at least 8 million people — within the pending budget reconciliation bill.

This push is being led by Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us network of coastal investors who stand to gain from more cheap labor, government-aided consumers, and high-occupancy renters.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for the 8th annual Breakthrough Prize awards ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California on November 3, 2019. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for the 8th annual Breakthrough Prize awards ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California on November 3, 2019. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The investors’ push is filled out by donor-fundedprogressive-run groups, such as United We Dream, and is aided by other business groups, such as the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

For example, FWD.us president Todd Schulte tweeted a link to an August 20 article in RollCall.com, touting the use of reconciliation to pass the amnesties via a very narrow majority vote:

Facing the prospect of death by filibuster once again — bills legalizing Dreamers have been filibustered five times in the last 15 years — Democrats have unified around a plan to pass these measures through budget reconciliation. This should not be controversial …

Opponents of the immigration measures, however, are already baldly asserting that such reforms cannot be advanced through reconciliation.

The progressives are touting donor-funded polls that show apparently strong support for amnesties. But the carefully selected questions sideline jobs and wages, play up claimed virtues of migrants, and still get only minority “strong” support for amnesty. For example, in July, the investor-backed Data for Progress group got only 34 percent strong support — and only 14 percent strong opposition — for this skewed question:

Do you support or oppose legislation that would create an earned path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, people who are contributing and working here legally due to war or natural disaster in their home countries, and farmworkers and other essential workers?  [Emphasis added]

Democrats know their amnesties are unpopular but are counting on passivity by the TV networks and the GOP leadership to reassure Democratic legislators in swing districts. For example, an August-recess memo released by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee completely ignored the pending amnesty, saying:

This research shows that Democrats have an effective message regarding their legislative agenda and accomplishments, including: cutting taxes, growing jobs through investments in infrastructure and lowering health care costs.

In March, Zuckerberg’s group released a polling memo that admitted the public is very uncomfortable about the impact of migration on jobs and amnesty:

It is better to focus on all of the aforementioned sympathetic details of those affected [by an amnesty] than to make economic arguments, including arguments about wages or demand for labor. As we have seen in the past, talking about immigrants doing jobs Americans won’t do is not a helpful frame, and other economic arguments are less effective than what is recommended above.

The FWD.us memo urges Democrats to focus voters’ attention on what they claim are deserving migrants, such as illegals who took Americans’ jobs in economic sectors that are deemed essential:

• Reminding voters of the criteria for citizenship also boosts support and adds to the public’s comfort with granting citizenship. Some of the more popular criteria for citizenship inclusion are being regularly employed and paying taxes, having a spouse or child who has served in the military, living in America for many years, and being in danger upon a return to their home country.

• Adapting family separation messaging to the debate over citizenship is our most resonant message. Voters strongly support Biden’s action to end family separation policy at the border, and in testing a variety of messages in support of citizenship, the item below tests best: “It is cruel and wrong to deport people who have family roots in the United States, and work, pay taxes, and contribute to our communities. We must stop separating families and allow hardworking immigrants to gain legal status and a pathway to citizenship so that we keep families together.”

In contrast, a job-centered poll by the Federation for American Immigration Reform produced very different results in June:

Across all 10 battleground states, voter opinion was fairly consistent on key issues related to immigration amidst the current health and economic crises:

By about margins of 2 to 1, voters support “reductions in immigration and guest workers admissions” during the crisis.

Strong majorities of voters in all ten states believe that “limiting admission of new immigrants and guest workers will improve the chances of laid-off American workers being rehired.”

In all ten states, some 75% to 80% of voters believe that it is prudent to “slow the admission of foreign nationals until we can provide thorough health screening to everyone entering the country.”

By majorities of about 2 to 1, voters prioritize reducing overall immigration and strengthening immigration enforcement and border security, over increasing immigration, granting amnesty to illegal aliens, and decriminalizing illegal immigration.

The long-standing federal policy of extraction migration pulls many workers, consumers, and renters from poor countries for use in the U.S. economy. The economic policy inflates the labor supply and boosts consumer spending, so aiding companies and investors.

The migration is deeply unpopular because it damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities, cuts their wages, raises their rents, curbs their productivity, shrinks their political clout, widens regional wealth gaps, and wrecks their democratic, equality-promoting civic culture.

For many years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates.

This opposition is multiracialcross-sexnon-racistclass-basedbipartisan,  rationalpersistent, and recognizes the solidarity Americans owe to each other.


10 Migrants Found in Fake Border Patrol Vehicle in Arizona

Fake Border Patrol vehicle seized by Tucson Station agents in a failed human smuggling incident. (Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Tucson Sector)
Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Tucson Sector
2:26

Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents found 10 migrants being smuggled in a fake Border Patrol SUV. The driver also wore a cloned uniform.

Agents assigned to the Tucson Station made an unusual arrest this week when they foiled a human smuggling attempt featuring a fake Border Patrol vehicle, Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin tweeted.

The driver of what appeared to be a Border Patrol SUV wore a uniform to appear as a federal agent, the chief stated. Inside, agents found 10 migrants plus the driver.

Agents took all 11 people into custody.

In December 2015, Laredo Sector agents apprehended a human smuggler using a fake Border Patrol SUV to move 12 migrants into the U.S., Breitbart Texas reported.

The incident happened on Interstate 35 at mile marker 65 near the town of Cotulla, nearly 70 miles into Texas. A Border Patrol agent became suspicious of the cloned vehicle while he was following it, Border Patrol Agent Hector Garza told Breitbart Texas while acting in his capacity as president of the National Border Patrol Council, Local 2455. After stopping the suspicious vehicle, the driver was arrested and the agent found 12 migrants stuffed inside the Chevy Tahoe painted with Border Patrol markings.

In August 2018, human smugglers again attempted to use a fake vehicle to move their human cargo. This time, the smugglers attempted to get through the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint utilizing a fake EMS unit.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

1100 Migrants Apprehended After ‘Breaching Old Barrier,’ Says Border Patrol

Yuma Sector agents apprehend 1,100 migrants. (Photo: U.S. Border Patrol)
Photo: U.S. Border Patrol
2:50

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended about 1,100 migrants over the weekend who illegally crossed the border from Mexico. Officials report the migrants “breached the old primary fence.”

Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Chris Clem tweeted border security surveillance video screenshots showing multiple groups of migrants staging to cross outdated border barrier technology in southwest Arizona. During the weekend, agents apprehended approximately 1,100 migrants after they made their way into the U.S.

In a separate incident on Monday, Yuma Sector agents received a call for help from a 50-year-old woman who became overheated after entering the Imperial Sand Dunes area. A CBP Air and Marine Operation aircrew with onboard BORSTAR and air interdiction agents found the woman and provided medical assistance to the overheated woman.

In July, the latest available report, Yuma Sector agents apprehended nearly 18,000 migrants. Of those, officials classified 5,320 as Single Adults, 8,649 Family Unit Aliens, and 811 as Unaccompanied Alien Children.

Most significantly was the increase in apprehension of family units. The apprehension of the nearly 9,000 migrants represents an increase of 8,909 percent over the previous July.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

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