About 221,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week

The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed about 221,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on November 2nd. Here is the official Labor Department statement:

In the week ending November 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 221,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 216,000 to 218,000. The 4-week moving average was 227,250, a decrease of 9,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 236,500 to 237,000.

Election Scream

Political Cartoon is by Steve Greenberg at steve@greenberg-art.com.
 

Trump Did Get A Mandate From Voters - But Not The One He Thinks

“This is a moment like nobody’s ever seen before. Frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country. America has given us a powerful and unprecedented mandate.”

Those were Donald Trump's words on election night.

He is wrong about the first part of that statement. His victory is not the greatest in U.S. history. In fact, past presidents outperformed Trump's victory several times in the past - Thomas Jefferson (1804), Abraham Lincoln (1864), Franklin Roosevelt (1936), Lyndon Johnson (1964), Richard Nixon (1972), and Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984) all had much bigger victories. Those were blowout victories. Trump's was not.

But he is right about the last part of his statement. The voters did give him a mandate. It was a mandate from working Americans. It was a mandate to make their lives better by increasing wages and decreasing inflation.

In the last few decades, workers have been left behind. While the rich have done well - becoming the super-rich in many cases - workers have seen their wages stagnate and fall far behind inflation. They are struggling to make ends meet and desperate for someone to make things better for them.

Unfortunately, I don't think Trump realizes that is his true mandate.

Trump thinks he has a mandate to extend his tax cuts, which gave massive cuts to the rich and almost nothing to anyone else. The rich got 82% of those cuts, while the rest of Americans divided the remaining 18%. That will not make life better for workers.

Trump thinks he has a mandate to deport millions of immigrants. Those deportations will not help workers. The jobs they have are now (and always have been) open to citizens. The problem is citizens don't want, and would not be helped by those jobs becoming even more oped.

Trump thinks he has a mandate to stop his own criminal trials and use the Justice Department to go after his political opponents. That will not help workers.

Trump thinks he has a mandate to stop progress on climate change, and actually do away with the regulations already in place. That won't help workers. It would hurt the workers in the clean energy industries.

Trump thinks he has a mandate to make sure reproductive rights are not restored to women. That won't help workers. It will make sure women continue to die because doctors are afraid to give them reproductive health care.

Trump thinks he has a mandate to stop programs that help minority groups (nonwhites, LGBTQ people, etc.). That won't help workers. It will hurt the workers in those groups.

I understand the desperation of workers. They have been ignored for far too long. But they have placed their trust in a man who never worked a day in his life and doesn't understand the plight of workers. A man who doesn't care about workers or the mandate they gave him. 

Emotional Rollercoaster

 

Political Cartoon is by Elizabeth Pritchett in The Washington Post.

Sadly, This IS Who We Are!

 

I Had Hoped This Wasn't True - I Was Wrong!

 

The Winners And Losers Of The 2024 Election

 

My list of the winners and losers of this election:

WINNERS

Donald Trump - He not only gets to be president again, but can use the office to kill the criminal charges filed against him, and can use the office to make himself much richer (thanks to the immunity granted him by the Supreme Court).

MAGA Republicans - With Trump in the White House and control over Congress, they can pursue their horrid agenda unhindered.

Vladimir Putin - With his favorite fanboy back in office, Putin will have a much easier time conducting war against Ukraine, and might even see the sanctions against his country lifted.

The Super-Rich - They will now get more massive tax breaks.

Evangelicals - With their control over Trump and the MAGA-controlled Congress, they will find it much easier to impose their brand of religion on the rest of the country.

Wall Street / Financial institutions - They will not only get tax breaks, but will be able to get financial regulations lifted.

LOSERS

Democrats / Other Trump opponents - Trump has threatened to use the Justice Department to punish them. He tired to do that in his last administration, but was stopped by rational Republicans. There will be no rational Republicans in his new administration.

Mainstream Media - Trump hates media criticism, and will use his power to silence them. This is another group he is likely to use the Justice Department against.

Ukraine - With Trump on Russia's side, Ukraine will find it much harder to defend their democracy. Trump may even cut off military and financial aid to them.

Western Allies (NATO) - Trump wanted to withdraw from NATO in his first term and his sycophants may let him do it this time. Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on these trading partners.

Constitution / Rule of Law - Trump, thanks to the Supreme Court immunity ruling, can do anything he wants, even things that are illegal or unconstitutional.

Individual rights - Voting rights are sure to be restricted even more as the Republicans design rules that will help them retain power in the future. Reproductive rights will not improve in the next few years, and a nationwide abortion ban could be imposed. Women will continue to die. There is also likely to be a roll back of LGBTQ rights.

Low-wage workers - There will be no raise of the minimum wage, and the power to unionize will be curtailed.

Consumers - There will be fewer regulations to protect consumers from price-gouging, and the Consumer Protection Bureau is likely to be voted out of existence by the Republicans.

Democracy - Trump wants to establish an authoritarian presidency. The current Supreme Court and incoming MAGA Congress will allow him to do it.

Patriarchy 47 - Equality 0

Political Cartoon is by R.J. Matson at Cagle.com.

 

Voters Showed An Astounding Economic Ignorance

Exit polls showed that voters (especially those voting for Trump) thought Trump could fix the economy. They were particularly fond of his promise to fix inflation. They could not have been more wrong.

Trump has no policy proposals that would either fix the economy or reduce inflation. In fact, the opposite is true. Most economists agree that Trump proposals would actually make the economy worse (and maybe even wreck it) and increase inflation.

Two policies - mass deportation and stiff tariffs - will cause inflation to rise precipitously. 

Many industries depend on the immigrants to do jobs that Americans don't want (low-paying, dirty, and sometimes dangerous jobs). Deporting the immigrants with these jobs will hurt those industries - causing them to increase prices and make inflation even worse.

The tariffs on other nation's imports into this countries will act as a national sales tax - increasing the cost of these goods for consumers. And consumers couldn't avoid paying this new "tax", because there are many goods that are no longer produced in the United States. This will increase inflation - not lower it.

This is true of the cost of groceries. About 40% of vegetable and 60% of fruits sold in our supermarkets are imported. Consumers will have no choice but to pay the higher taxes.

Add this to the fact that Trump (and his Republican cohorts) would not raise the minimum wage (which would put upward pressure on all wages) - forcing many full-time workers to continue to live in poverty.

The rich will make out like bandits under Trump, because he wants to give them more massive tax cuts. But the working and middle classes will be hurt by the Trump agenda. 

The amount of economic ignorance his voters displayed by voting for him is amazing!

Misogyny Kills The Cinderella Dream

Political Cartoon is by Frederick Deligne at Cagle.com.
 

There Will Be No Guardrails This Time

Trump did some awful things in his first term, but he was prevented from doing his worst. He was prevented by GOP appointees who believed in the Constitution and the rule of law. He was prevented by Democratic control of part of Congress. And he was prevented by the court system.

In his coming second term, none of those guardrails will exist.

Trump learned from his first term. In the second, he will not surround himself with those who believe in the Constitution or rule of law. He will nominate only sycophants, who will do anything he wants - even things that are illegal, morally reprehensible, or damaging to our economy and democracy.

Congress will not stop him. MAGA Republicans now control the Senate, and it looks like they will also control the House of Representatives.

The courts will not stop him. The Supreme Court has ruled that he can do anything he wants (even break the law) because he has immunity.

Trump has told us what he wants to do. And he can now do all those horrible things because there is no one to stop him!

Republicans Celebrate

Political Cartoon is by Clay Jones at claytoonz.com.
 

U.S. Voters Re-Elect The "Worst President Ever" (And His MAGA Helpers)

 

Voting

Political Cartoon is by Adam Zyglis in The Buffalo News.