Exhibits A And B

 

About 213,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week

The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed that 213,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on November 16th. Here is the official Labor Department statement: 

In the week ending November 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 213,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 217,000 to 219,000. The 4-week moving average was 217,750, a decrease of 3,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 221,000 to 221,500.

No Shortage Of Turkeys

Political Cartoon is by Dave Granlund at davegranlund.com.
 

Will GOP Senators Do The Vetting Of Nominees That Trump Failed To Do?

It is obvious that Trump, unlike past presidents, is bypassing the vetting process in picking his governmental nominees. If the nominees had been vetted by the FBI, we wouldn't have had the likes of Matt Gaetz (sex abuser and congressional bomb-thrower), Pete Hegseth (sex abuser with white supremacy and christian nationalist leanings), Tulsi Gabbard (Russian sympathizer and possible Russian mole), and Robert Kennedy (who prefers conspiracy theories to actual science).

Matt Gaetz has now withdrawn his name from consideration. Trump will still nominate a sycophantic yes-man to be Attorney General, but at least it won't be someone with the ugly baggage that Gaetz had.

The question now is what will GOP senators do about the other three incompetents nominated by Trump? Will they properly vet them? Do they have the political courage to oppose any of them? Or will they bend to Trump's will and approve all of them?

I suspect they will approve them all - trying to use the Gaetz withdrawal as cover. It seems that some senators had told Gaetz that his troublesome past would be exposed.

But Gaetz is not the only problem. None of the other three should be approved either - especially Tulsi Gabbard, who would endanger U.S. intelligence activities (and those of other countries who share their intelligence with this country).

GOP senators now have a choice. They can uphold their constitutional duty of oversight and reject one or more of these three nominees. Or they can bend the knee to Trump and approve them. If they do the latter, it will give Trump the authoritarian power he is seeking. It will mean Trump has the power to do what he wants, no matter how ridiculous, without any effective congressional oversight.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see four GOP senators with the backbone to oppose Trump - even a little bit. Even the few who have done some grumbling in the past have wound up supporting him.

Trump thinks he owns both houses of Congress right now. I think he's probably right.  

Doing The Trump Dance On Morning Joe

Political Cartoon is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.
 

Trump Could Damage The Economy By Sabotaging The Federal Reserve

 

Johnson Is Lying About Immigrants To Support Trump's Massive Deportation Plan

 

Public Disapproves Of Trump Prosecuting His Political Enemies

 

This chart reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between November 17th and 19th of a nationwide sample of 1,595 adults (including 1,435 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.4 points, and for registered voters is 3.3 points.

They're Not Even Pretending Anymore

Political Cartoon is by John Darkow in the Columbia Missourian.
 

Public Approval Of Trump Nominees: Gaetz / Hegseth / Gabbard

 

The charts above reflect the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between November 17th and 19th of a nationwide sample of 1,595 adults (including 1,435 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points for adults, and 3.3 points for registered voters.

It's Not Just Turkeys In Trouble This Year

Political Cartoon is by Joe Heller at hellertoon.com.
 

These Two Trump Picks Are Totally Unacceptable (Even To Many Right-Wingers)

If I said I approved of Trump's picks for his cabinet, I would be lying. I think he's made a lot of bad picks - picks that will damage the country. Pete Hegseth will damage our military, Lee Zeldin with damage our environment. Linda McMahon will damage our education system. Howard Lutnick is a tariff supporter, which will increase inflation. Robert Kennedy, Jr. will do harm to this nation'a health. And Marco Rubio will happily go along with Trump's denigration of our allies and kowtowing to dictators.

Having said that, I do believe any president has the right to make his own nominations - even a narcissistic right-wing radical. And he has the right to pick nominees who agree with him.

But Trump has made two picks that are unacceptable even to many right-wingers - Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard. Note in the image above that The New York Post (owned by Rupert Murdoch who also owns Fox News) is opposed to both of these picks.

Gaetz is a known sex abuser (including under-age girls) with the morals of an alley cat. He is far more interested in retribution (for both Trump and himself) than in justice. It would be a national embarrassment to install him as Attorney General.

Gabbard is well known for being a Russian sympathizer and for passing on Russian propaganda. The whole world should shudder at the thought of her heading the U.S. intelligence network.

The Senate has an advice and consent responsibility to approve or disapprove of presidential picks. They should deny these two picks!

It will not hurt Trump to deny him these two picks. He will just nominate others with his political bent, and they will be approved. But hopefully, they will not be immoral sex abusers or a danger to our intelligence agencies.

Trump Loves To Pick Those With Sexual Assault Allegations

Political Cartoon is by Matt Wuerker at Politico.com.
 

Texas GOP Is Injecting Christianity Into Texas Elementary Schools