Foreign-born workers account for all net labor force participation and employment gains since July. Manufacturing adds 101,000 jobs since December 2025, leaving net gain of 8,000 under Trump. Median and average unemployment spells are longest in about a decade excluding the pandemic. Information and finance remain weakest in AI-exposed industries.
The Federal Aviation Administration still uses computers that require floppy disks. But those are finally on the way out within the next few years. Yes, it's still 2026, and yes, you read that right: The FAA -- the agency responsible for overseeing aviation safety in the US -- is finally getting rid of four systems dating back to the 1980s that remain in use at more than 400 facilities around the country, the agency announced on Thursday.
President Trump said Saturday that he is ordering the Department of Justice to "look into" what he describes as threats by Democrats to impeach senior Republican figures, calling them "extortion at the highest level." read more
The attorney general defended the surveillance technology and dismissed privacy concerns as "misinformation."
"I guess I'll become Mr Veto," Trump told the New York Post's Pod Force One podcast in an interview excerpt released on Sunday. read more
Probably more than you may want to read ...
Why Was the Electoral College Created? (October 2025)
www.history.com
...At the time of the Philadelphia convention, no other country in the world directly elected its chief executive, so the delegates were wading into uncharted territory. Further complicating the task was a deep-rooted distrust of executive power. After all, the fledgling nation had just fought its way out from under a tyrannical king and overreaching colonial governors. They didn't want another despot on their hands.
One group of delegates felt strongly that Congress shouldn't have anything to do with picking the president. Too much opportunity for chummy corruption between the executive and legislative branches.
Another camp was dead set against letting the people elect the president by a straight popular vote. First, they thought 18th-century voters lacked the resources to be fully informed about the candidates, especially in rural outposts. Second, they feared a headstrong "democratic mob" steering the country astray. And third, a populist president appealing directly to the people could command dangerous amounts of power.
Out of those drawn-out debates came a compromise based on the idea of electoral intermediaries. These intermediaries wouldn't be picked by Congress or elected by the people. Instead, the states would each appoint independent "electors" who would cast the actual ballots for the presidency.
Slavery and the Three-Fifths Compromise
But determining exactly how many electors to assign to each state was another sticking point. Here the divide was between slave-owning and non-slave-owning states. It was the same issue that plagued the distribution of seats in the House of Representatives: should or shouldn't the Founders include slaves in counting a state's population?
In 1787, roughly 40 percent of people living in the Southern states were enslaved Black people, who couldn't vote. James Madison from Virginia"where enslaved people accounted for 60 percent of the population"knew that either a direct presidential election, or one with electors divvied up according to free white residents only, wouldn't fly in the South.
"The right of suffrage was much more diffusive [i.e., extensive] in the Northern than the Southern States," said Madison, "and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes."
The result was the controversial "three-fifths compromise," in which three-fifths of the enslaved Black population would be counted toward allocating representatives and electors and calculating federal taxes. The compromise ensured that Southern states would ratify the Constitution and gave Virginia, home to more than 200,000 slaves, a quarter (12) of the total electoral votes required to win the presidency (46). ...
@#6 ... plays for "the team" ...
That may be a major understatement regarding AG Blanche's view towards Pres Trump.
To wit ...
'I love you, sir': Todd Blanche, devoted Trump enforcer, tapped to do his bidding full time (June 2026)
www.theguardian.com
Wait, what?
I had read this ...
Iran's Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated -- and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News (June 25, 2025)
www.whitehouse.gov
... The world is far safer after President Donald J. Trump's highly successful, decisive precision strikes against the Iranian regime's key nuclear facilities.[emphasis theirs]
Take it from those who actually know:
President Trump: "Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term! The white structure shown is deeply imbedded into the rock, with even its roof well below ground level, and completely shielded from flame. The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!" ...
From the sub-summary...
Gulf states fear fiercer Iran retaliation if US strikes again
www.stripes.com
... Gulf states fear that another U.S.-Israeli attack on a better-prepared Iran could unleash an even more destructive war across the region, leaving them to pick up the pieces.
"We find ourselves drawn within a crisis that we worked diplomatically very hard to try to avert," Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to UAE's president, told the IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on Sunday. "We are clearly seeking a political off-ramp."
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. and Israel would "finish the job" in Iran. ...
When I saw this thread, I wondered how it may be related to another comment I have posted ...
To wit ...
U.S. Appeals Court Strikes Down North Carolina's Voter ID Law (2016)
www.npr.org
...The appeals court noted that the North Carolina Legislature "requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices" -- then, data in hand, "enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans."[emphasis mine]
The changes to the voting process "target African Americans with almost surgical precision," the circuit court wrote, and "impose cures for problems that did not exist."
The appeals court suggested that the motivation was fundamentally political -- a Republican legislature attempting to secure its power by blocking votes from a population likely to vote for Democrats....
And, kudos to the Trump admin for starting to bring the FCC into the 21st century.
Next step, hire more air traffic controllers so that those currently employed can have time off to relieve their stress.
Don't try to fire , hire instead.
Elon Musk's DOGE Tried to Fire Air Traffic Controllers: Report (March 2025)
www.newsweek.com
... Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was accused by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy of attempting to fire air traffic controllers despite the series of recent plane crashes, according to The New York Times.
The heated exchange reportedly occurred Thursday when President Donald Trump called his Cabinet into the Oval Office to clarify the scope of Musk's authority within the administration. Trump emphasized that Cabinet secretaries, not Musk, hold ultimate responsibility for staffing and policy decisions in their respective agencies.
This account is based on interviews with five people with knowledge of the events. ...
... and Pres W. Bush ...
Bush takes blame for GOP election losses (November 2006)
www.cnn.com
... President Bush on Wednesday took responsibility for his party's losses on Election Night and said he is willing to work with congressional Democrats on the major issues during the last two years of his presidency.
"I'm obviously disappointed with the outcome of the election and, as the head of the Republican Party, I share a large part of the responsibility," Bush said during a East Room news conference at the White House.
"I told my party's leaders that it is now our duty to put the elections behind us and work together with the Democrats and independents on the great issues facing this country." (Read a transcript of Bush's comments)
On Tuesday, Democrats picked up at least 28 seats in the House of Representatives, giving them control of the chamber for the first time since the Republican sweep in the 1994 midterm elections. (Full story)
Bush said he had called Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to become the first female speaker of the House when the new Congress begins in January, and the Senate's Democratic leader, Harry Reid, and congratulated them on their success Tuesday night. ...
@#60
How is each state represented in the Electoral College?
usafacts.org
... One way to think about electoral representation is to consider how many people each electoral vote represents, based on a state's population. According to 2023 population estimates, one electoral vote in Wyoming accounts for around 194,000 people, while a vote in Texas, Florida or California accounts for over 700,000. ...
@#7
And, fwiw ...
Perhaps that ~first one~ was the result of a lie told to him by Sec Def Hegseth, who told Pres Trump what he wanted to hear?
Wish I knew ...