Wednesday, December 17, 2025
With Poor Job Growth The November Unemployment Rate Rises To 4.6%
The Trump administration did not issue a Labor Department report for October (using the shutdown as an excuse to avoid it). But the November report was released a week late on Tuesday, and it was not a good one. The economy produced only about 64,000 new jobs (far below what a good economy produces), and the unemployment rate rose by 0.2% over September to a high of 4.6% (the highest rate in nearly four years).
Here are the relevant statistics for November:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE:
171,571,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
7,831,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
4.6%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:
Adult men...............4.1%
Adult women...............4.1%
Teens (16-19)...............16.3%
Whites...............3.9%
Blacks...............8.3%
Hispanics...............5.0%
Asians...............3.6%
No HS diploma...............6.8%
HS graduate...............4.4%
Some college...............3.5%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.9%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted):
1,825,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official+marginally-attached):
9,656,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
5.6%
Two Mass Shootings Miles Apart _ The Gov. Reactions Were Also Miles Apart
The following is part of a post by Dan Rather:
Over the weekend, two senseless shootings were separated by 10,000 miles. During both, innocent people were murdered, but the reaction of the countries’ leaders was as far apart as the deadly incidents.
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
On Saturday afternoon, a man gained access to an engineering building at Brown University and opened fire on a group of students reviewing for an upcoming exam. According to people in the first-floor classroom, the gunman entered wearing a face mask and carrying a rifle, yelled something and started shooting students arrayed in the stadium-style seating. Two students were killed; nine were injured. . . .
Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
On the other side of the world, just 11 hours later, a deadly mass shooting unfolded on a beach in Australia. As hundreds gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, two men positioned themselves on an elevated footbridge above the beachside party. Then they opened fire on the crowd. . . .
Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister, said, “The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws … People can be radicalized over a period of time. Licenses should not be in perpetuity.” His proposal could include limiting the number and type of firearms an individual can own.
Donald Trump’s reaction to the Brown University shooting was not quite as strong. “All we can do right now is pray,” he told reporters on Air Force One. . . .
The president restored gun rights to felons, closed the White House office of gun violence protection, and canceled funding for mental health and community anti-gun violence programs.
Australia, which has some of the world’s strictest gun control measures, had two mass shootings in almost three decades. The United States, with some of the least restrictive gun laws, has had hundreds, perhaps even thousands (depending on the reporting organization and the criteria they use), in the same time period. . . .
Regardless of the number, if you want to prevent mass killings, it is clear that the only way to do so is to control who can own guns.
And if you think for a second that new gun laws will be proposed in this country after Saturday’s shooting, let alone passed into law, think again. We have a three-word phrase that has benignly become the go-to from anti-gun control politicians, “thoughts and prayers” — which has as much chance of making things better as saying “good luck.”
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Poll Shows People Are Unhappy With The Trump Economy
The charts above are from the NBC News Decision Desk Poll -- done between November 20th and December 8th of a nationwide sample of 20,252 adults, with a 1.9 point margin of error.
Mother Of Caroline Leavitt's Nephew Speaks Out About Her ICE Arrest
The following post is by Kyla Guilfoil and Antonia Hylton at MS NOW:
Bruna Ferreira, the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, spent 26 days in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. Six days after her release, Ferreira spoke to MS NOW’s Antonia Hylton about the experience.
“I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes, if I didn’t hear it with my own two ears,” she said. “It’s not civil.”
While being held at an ICE detention center in southern Louisiana, she shared the space with pregnant women and women who had been seeking medical attention for weeks, Ferreira said. “The only thing that I can think of is I’m so lucky that I’m healthy,” she said.
Inside, the detention center was freezing, and she and other detainees were only allowed outside for brief periods. “It’s just inhumane. It’s cruel. I can’t understand how people don’t see that this is a problem, especially because I’ve been a law-abiding citizen my entire life,” Ferreira said.
The 33-year-old was arrested by federal agents in Massachusetts on Nov. 12 while driving to pick up her son from school.
Ferreira’s attorney, Todd Pomerleau, told MS NOW that she was barricaded by masked and armed agents in five vehicles who surrounded her car and repeatedly asked, “Are you Bruna?”
Ferreira said that at first she didn’t believe the Leavitt family was involved in her arrest. Now she’s not so sure. “It wasn’t an accident. How would they know her name, if it’s a random traffic stop?” Pomerleau said.
“The more that I look at all of the coincidences, you know, like how they knew that I was leaving to pick up Michael from school, how they knew my address,” Ferreira told Hylton, “how can someone know where I am, exactly where I’m going? You know, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called Ferreira “a criminal illegal alien” in a statement to MS NOW last Tuesday, adding that in 1999 she overstayed a tourist visa that required her to leave the U.S.
The statement claimed that a “Biden-appointed judge” granted Ferreira bond and that her deportation proceedings will continue, adding, “She will have periodic mandatory check-ins with ICE law enforcement to ensure she is abiding by the terms of her release.”
Ferreira told MS NOW that she came into the country legally on a visa from Brazil at just 6 years old to live with her parents. In 2012, she received temporary Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status under the program enacted during the Obama administration that allows undocumented young people to receive temporary relief from deportation and to work. Since then, Ferreira said she has been working toward obtaining full legal citizenship.
DHS also alleged that in addition to violating immigration laws, Ferreira had a “previous arrest for battery.”
Pomerleau told MS NOW that the department is referring to an incident when 16-year-old Ferreira got into a fight with another girl outside a Dunkin’ Donuts. She received a summons to juvenile court over the incident, but the case was dismissed and she was never arrested.
In Massachusetts, such cases are protected by privacy laws and include confidential proceedings, Pomerleau said. He told MS NOW that he believes the incident must have been leaked to DHS, as the records are not accessible to the public. “As a lawyer, I can’t even access these records,” Pomerleau said.
“They’re claiming she’s a criminal, yet she’s never been arrested for anything other than this illegal, unconstitutional arrest on November the 12th,” Pomerleau said.
Ferreira said that she still doesn’t feel free since her release from the nearly monthlong detention, telling MS NOW that “even when I’m back at home and I’m sleeping, I still feel like, you know, it’s not real, that I’m still in there.”
“It’s exhausting,” she added.
Ferreira said that she believes the American immigration system is impossible even for those who seek to follow its guidelines as precisely as possible.
“The system is broken. You know, if they ask you to do something, you do it; and then if you don’t, you know — you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s very hard to understand what they want from you,” Ferreira said.
Ferreira said she still has not seen her 11-year-old son. She shares custody of the boy with his father, Michael Leavitt, who is her ex-fiancé and the press secretary’s brother. “I have been able to FaceTime him, but I have not been able to do what I had envisioned, which was go and surprise him and give him a hug,” Ferreira said.
Question: Is this just the Leavitt family's sneaky (and cruel) way to end shared custody?
Monday, December 15, 2025
The U.S. Still Averages More Than A Mass Shooting For Every Day Of The Year
There are two mass shootings in the news. One was at Brown University in Rhode Island and the other was in Australia. Both were deplorable, and neither should have happened. But the shooting in Australia was a rare occurrence because they have reasonable gun laws. The U.S. mass shooting wasn't rare at all. The U.S. is still averaging more than one mass shooting for every day of the year. That's not acceptable, but it will continue as long as Republicans have enough power in Congress to block any attempt to pass reasonable and constitutional gun laws.
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Results Of The YouGov Poll About The Christmas Holiday
These charts are from the YouGov Poll -- done between December 1st and 5th of a nationwide sample of 2,236 adults, with about a 4 point margin of error.
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