September Employment Numbers, Finally – The Labor Department’s September jobs report, delayed six weeks due to the government shutdown, reveals that 190,000 jobs were added two months ago as the unemployment rate inched up by 0.1 points over August to 4.4%. The report shows job gains in health care, food services and drinking places, and social assistance. Transportation, warehousing and federal government employment was down. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]
THURSDAY 11/20/25
Comey Case Calamity – The Justice Department’s Trump-directed indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is in serious trouble after US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff established that the full grand jury did not see original indictments. In federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday Nachmanoff asked US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, the insurance lawyer who replaced an attorney who refused to indict Comey, whether or not the full grand jury were present when the indictment was filed September 25, according to Politico.
Comey was charged with lying to, and obstructing, Congress.
“The foreperson and another grand juror was also present,” Halligan replied, confirming that the full grand jury was not present. Nachmanoff “just wanted to make sure” the indictment had never been seen by the full grand jury. --TL
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WEDNESDAY 11/19/25
‘HUGE’ Announcement – That’s wording and capitalization from whitehouse.gov following the black tie-red carpet greeting of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Tuesday, in which President Trump designated Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally. It doesn’t hurt that bin Salman pledged $1 trillion in Saudi investment to the US, which also will supply his country with F-35 fighter jets.
On Khashoggi’s killing … Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal 2018 killing and dismemberment of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a CIA assessment, but President Trump was having none of that at their gilded White House meeting Tuesday.
At the White House press conference, an ABC (“fake-” said the president) News reporter asked bin Salman about the murder of Khashoggi, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. Trump broke in with this:
“As far as this gentleman is concerned, he’s done a phenomenal job. You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happened, but he knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
Bin Salman called the killing of someone who was expressing his opinions "painful" (without taking any responsibility) and assured reporters at the presser that it won't happen again.
“There’s no justification to murder my husband,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi responded publicly. Khashoggi’s widow has requested a meeting with bin Salman while he is in the US. A spokesman for the crown prince told NPR’s Morning Edition Wednesday that bin Salman does not have the time for it.
Other guests … They include Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the latter significant because he owns The Washington Post for which Khashoggi wrote, before the Amazon founder made its editorial board more Trump-friendly, and the former of interest because of his infamous falling-out with the president late last spring.
It should not come as a surprise that the Tesla CEO would attend a presidential black- tie dinner, in part because Musk remains tight with Vice President Vance and Trump’s sons, but also because Trump is most certainly in awe that the World’s Richest Life Form™ has a Tesla contract that could make him the World’s First Trillionaire.
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Five Seats Taken from Texas GOP – Texas cannot use its shiny new mid-decade congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections, a three-judge panel that includes a Trump appointee ruled Tuesday, per The Texas Tribune. Republicans had hoped the map would give the GOP 30 of 38 congressional seats, up from 25.
President Trump had requested the mid-term redistricting made possible by the Texas legislature’s Republican majority, to assure a GOP congressional majority after the midterms.
Texas Republicans’ remaining hope is an overturn by the US Supreme Court. Meanwhile, California has secured, for now, a five-seat Democratic Party gain after a November off-year election ballot measure.
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On the Resolute Desk – The House Tuesday afternoon passed 427-1 a bill compelling Justice Department release of its files of the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, CQ Roll Call reports. The Senate later approved the discharge petition by unanimous consent on a motion from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and delivered it to the White House for President Trump’s signature.
After months downplaying the Epstein Files as a “Democratic hoax” (despite implicating former President Clinton and his treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, along with other Democrats) Trump has said he would sign the discharge petition. Schumer is waiting.
Sole “no” vote in the House came from Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA).
“If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” Higgins said.
Records related to the investigation of Epstein and his associate/ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell will be released within 30 days of Trump’s signature, except for materials related to ongoing investigations, according to Roll Call, and advocates warn that the way officials choose to comply with those restrictions could result in the release of fewer files than they hope.
Meanwhile … Summers, a Harvard University economics professor and former president says he will step down from the Open AI board, according to The Wall Street Journal. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa