FRIDAY 10/3/25
No Jobs Report Today – Is the president, who fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer August 1 over poor (+22,000) July job growth numbers relieved the partial government shutdown has cancelled First Friday’s scheduled jobs report for September? Your answer might depend on your opinion of President Trump.
Early this week just before the shutdown, Trump withdrew his controversial nominee, Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni, to replace McEntarfer. Under McEntarfer and pretty much forever prior to that, the BLS chief would not see the actual jobs numbers, as well as Consumer Price Index numbers until the morning they are released.
September’s CPI are/were scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Eastern, October 15.
Moody Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi told NPR Friday that the jobs and especially CPI numbers have been less reliable, anyway, since the administration’s federal employment cuts implemented by Elon Musk’s DOGE last spring.
“We don’t have the same number of folks collecting data,” Zandi told Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep. “I trust the data, but the quality no doubt is eroding.”
Economists were expecting a slight rebound in payroll numbers, meaning more than 22,000 jobs created in September, but still significantly weaker than a year ago, according to the crowd-sourced financial news service Seeking Alpha.
“The unemployment rate is expected to stay at 4.3%,” according to its report. Hiring Lab economist Allison Shrivastava described the current labor market as “stagnant,” and while Wall Street has been on a bull-market high since Trump retook the White House – largely due to a booming tech/artificial intelligence sector – the widely used three-month average of BLS numbers show a steady decline over the last year.
The three-month average for August was +29,000 jobs (per Seeking Alpha), down from +55,000 for the three months as of June and way down from +82,000 three-month average for August 2024.
Meanwhile … The shutdown extends into next week with no hope for a fourth Senate vote on the budget Friday. The House returns to Capitol Hill next Tuesday, CQ Roll Call reports.
Senate roll calls have been 55-45 so far, with 60 votes needed. Two Democrats plus Sen. Angus King (I-ME) have joined Republicans voting for it, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has consistently joined Democrats in voting against it.
Democrats want extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies to be added to the continuing resolution. Republicans insist there is plenty of time to renegotiate ACA subsidies during after a CR reopens the government and are opposed to extending such subsidies to undocumented immigrants. Democrats call the GOP argument that federal subsidies would go to immigrants “misinformation.”
Who’s to blame? … NBC News’ Political Desk put together this helpful roundup of recent polls: Who is responsible for the partial government shutdown?
•An October 1 Washington Post poll says 47% blame Trump and the GOP, while 30% blame Democrats.
•A late-September New York Times/Sienna poll says 33% blame both sides, while 26% blame Trump and 19% blame Democrats. Another 21% were “unsure.”
•A late-September Marist/PBS News/NPR poll says 38% blame Republicans, 27% blame Democrats, 31% blame both and 5% blame neither.
•A late-September Morning Consult poll says 45% blame Republicans, 32% blame Democrats, 16% have no opinion and 7% blame “other.”
So far, it seems, the tradition of blaming the party and/or president in office is being upheld. –TL
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THURSDAY 10/2/25
A Different Kind of Shutdown – President Trump called the partial government shutdown an “unprecedented opportunity” in a Thursday morning Truth Social post, according to The New York Times.
The president was to meet with White House budget director Russel T. Vought “to determine which of the many Democratic Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut.”
The Senate took a second vote on a continuing resolution to temporarily extend the 2025 fiscal year budget weeks into the 2026 fiscal year, but it was five votes short again. The Senate is off for Yom Kippur, but Republicans expect to vote again over the weekend, according to the NYT.
“If this thing drags on for a few days, or, God forbid, another few weeks, we are going to have to lay people off,” Vice President JD Vance told a press conference Wednesday. “We’re going to have to save money in some places so that essential services don’t get turned off in other places.”
In the past, federal employees affected by such shutdowns have been furloughed only to return to their positions with backpay, according to Federal News Network, which notes that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated as many as 750,000 federal workers could be furloughed, at a cost of $400 million per day in future compensation.
•••
Carrot for College Credit – The White House has invited nine colleges and universities to sign a “compact” affirming conservative values in exchange for access to federal funding advantages, The Wall Street Journal scoops in an exclusive news story Thursday.
“Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” a 10-point memorandum to the colleges, would require them to ban the use of race or sex in hiring and academics and seeks to create a “more welcoming” environment for conservatives, according to the scoop. It would require the institutions to freeze tuition for five years, cap international enrollment at 15%, require applicants to take the SAT or a similar admissions test, and “quell” grade inflation.
“Our hope is that a lot of schools see this is highly reasonable,” May Mailman, senior White House official for special projects told the WSJ.
The nine initial schools invited to the special funding deal by the White House are:
•Vanderbilt University
•Dartmouth College
•University of Pennsylvania
•University of Southern California
•Massachusetts Institute of Technology
•University of Texas at Austin
•University of Arizona
•Brown University
•University of Virginia
•••
Committee for 1A Redux – Actor Jane Fonda has revived the Committee for the First Amendment in “defense of our constitutional rights,” reports NPR’s All Things Considered.
“The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia and the entertainment industry,” according to the organization, which counts 550 members including John Legend, Ben Stiller, Whoopi Goldberg, Billie Eilish and Spike Lee.
Jane Fonda’s father, actor Henry Fonda, was one of the early members of the Committee for the First Amendment established in the 1940s in response to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
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‘Disturbing’ Book Bans – Pen America’s latest report on book bans counts nearly 23,000 cases in 45 states and 451 public school districts since 2021, calling it “disturbing normalization.” It says, “persistent attacks” conflate LGBTQ+ identities as “sexually explicit,” and “no read” lists prohibit specific titles statewide.
Pen America counted these as the top five banned books:
•Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange with 23 bans.
•Sold by Patricia McCormick and Breathless by Jennifer Niven, with 20 bans each.
•Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, with 19 bans.
•A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Mass, with 18 bans. –TL
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WEDNESDAY 10/1/25
No Deal – With Democrats blaming Republicans and Republicans blaming Democrats for a shutdown that could lead to layoff of as many as 750,000 federal workers, the Senate fell five votes short of the 60 needed to approve the seven-week continuing resolution that would have avoided a partial government shutdown while the two sides negotiate appropriations for the new fiscal year, according to CQ Roll Call. Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and John Fetterman (PA), along with independent Sen. Angus King (ME), who caucuses with Democrats, voted for the failed CR while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who maintains firm opposition to continuing resolutions voted “no” with most Democrats.
Democratic New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan were talked out of joining “yay” votes after huddling with Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Patty Murray (D-WA), Roll Call notes.
Earlier Tuesday Senate Republicans voted down Democrats’ preferred four-week extension that would have included $1 trillion in health care spending over 10 years and prohibition on the Trump administration of further recissions of funding already appropriated.
In a memorandum shared with Politico last week, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans for mass firings under a federal shutdown.
Medicare, Social Security, military operations, federal law enforcement, the US Postal Service and airport security screeners and air traffic control are among the federal government functions that are not affected by the shutdown, according to USA Today.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will not issue its September jobs report due Friday, October 3, nor its Consumer Price Index for last month, scheduled for Wednesday, October 15, so long as the federal government is under its partial shutdown, however.
•••
Short of a Loyalty Oath? – If the gathering of US military generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia Tuesday was not meant to be a loyalty pledge to President Trump, what was it?
Trump spoke for more than an hour, telling the high ranking gathering “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room,” USA Today reports. “Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future. But you just feel nice and loose, okay?”
Referring to the type of military occupation Trump has imposed on Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and now on Portland, Oregon, the president said; “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for the military.”
The gathering also was a chance for War Secretary Pete Hegseth to play the eponymous World War II general depicted by George C. Scott in the opening scene of Patton, with a giant US flag behind him as he issued a similar warning to the senior officers.
“If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said.
Hegseth spoke of weeding out political correctness in the US military, including DEI policies, while dismissing military attorneys, firing top generals and getting rid of transgender troops.
“You might say we’re ending the war on warriors,” he said. –TL
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...Got Deals?...
TUESDAY 9/30/25
No Deal – The US appears headed for another government shutdown, first since the 22-day Trump 45 extravaganza in 2018. Congressional leaders left a meeting with President Trump Monday with no agreement to keep the government open past midnight Tuesday, CQ Roll Call reports.
Republicans want a “clean” seven-week funding extension as passed by the House September 19, then blocked by Democrats in the Senate (needed 60 votes).
Democrats want a stopgap to include extension of enhanced tax credits for health insurance purchased on government exchanges – part of the Affordable “Obama”-Care Act – set to expire at the end of the year. They also want protections against further White House recissions on previous appropriations.
•••
What’s the Deal? – Some 800 US military generals and admirals from around the world descend on Quantico, Virginia, Tuesday, where War Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to make a speech about the “warrior ethos” and maybe require a loyalty oath, according to USA Today, which reports the gathering could cost the government millions of dollars and require “unprecedented security.”
That’s troubling … “Loyalty oath?” Trump also is scheduled to attend. Does he plan to claim the US military for himself, just like the Justice Department?
•••
Here’s the Deal – The peace deal unveiled by President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference at which they took no reporters’ questions Monday, proposes demilitarization of Gaza, decommission of the military capability of Hamas and an Israeli military perimeter surrounding the area “for the foreseeable future,” Netanyahu said. Gaza will have a peaceful civilian government “run by neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
All Israeli hostages, living and dead, would have to be released within 72 hours of acceptance of the deal, Netanyahu said.
“It’s called ‘peace in the Middle East,’” Trump said, claiming, in another bid for the Nobel, what he described as possibly one of the “great days ever” that could achieve “eternal peace.”
On the question of whether Hamas will accept such a deal, Netanyahu conjured his inner-Brendan Carr: “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way,” the Israeli PM said.
This is a deal … Trump during the presser called out his son-in-law, Jered Kushner, as being instrumental in the peace deal. At the same time, Kushner’s Affinity Partners, with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Silver Lake made the biggest acquisition of a public company, ever, by purchasing electronic game publisher EA, for $55 billion. [Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund “invested” $2 billion in Kushner’s Affinity Partners at the end of the first Trump administration.]
This means EA, publisher of Madden, FC, College Football and Battlefield 6 among others further “game-washes” and “sports-washes” Saudi Arabia’s image as a human rights abuser and alleged murderer of Washington Post columnist Adnan Khashoggi in October 2018, notes Endless Mode, a games and anime news website. –TL
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MONDAY 9/29/25
Gaza Peace Plan Meeting at White House – In the week following recognition of a Palestinian state by virtually all United Nations’ members but the US and Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House for the fourth time since Donald J. Trump retook the presidency, to discuss Trump’s latest Gaza peace plan, The Guardian reports. The US laid out the 21-point peace plan along with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Egypt at the UN last week.
“We’re getting a very good response because Bibi [Netanyahu] wants to make the deal too,” Trump said. “Everybody wants to make the deal,” which, he says, is designed to be more not just about Gaza, but rather a broader Middle East peace.
But Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel is not ready to consider the “two-state solution” any time soon – ever, really.
Writes Amir Tibon in an analysis for Haaretz, “Trump must prove he can rein in Netanyahu” and “convince Hamas and the world that Benjamin Netanyahu takes order from him. …” Not the other way around.
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Portlandia Marshall Law? – Portland, Oregon and not Chicago or New Orleans is next in the list of Democratic Party-led cities President Trump is ready to commandeer, after Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Trump cites Portlanders’ attacks on Immigration and Custom Enforcement facilities in the city.
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack from Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump Truth Socialed. “I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
But first, Memphis … The Memphis Safe Task Force, with members of the National Guard, Highway Patrol Officers and FBI, Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services personnel protecting such tourist stops as Elvis Presley’s Graceland, Beale Street and the Memphis Pyramid is set to commence Monday, with the support of Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee, according to the Commercial Appeal.
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Tariff the Flicks? – CNN reports that President Trump has revived his plan to tariff “any and all movies that are made outside the United States” by 100%, according to another Truth Social post. Trump first previewed such a tariff last May. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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FRIDAY 9/26/25
Retribution Time – Some eight years after then- and current President Trump fired the FBI director for investigating potential Russian ties to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has indicted the former director, James Comey on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding, per The New York Times. Comey had testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020.
The one and one-half page indictment was signed only by former Trump defense attorney Lindsey Halligan, who was appointed to run the Eastern District this month to replace interim US attorney Erik Siebert after he resigned under pressure from the president because he found insufficient evidence to indict New York Attorney Gen. Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud.
Court records indicate the grand jury declined to indict Comey on a second false statement charge, according to the NYT.
Reaction … Comey said in an Instagram post he is innocent and welcomed the opportunity to vindicate himself in a trial. “We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either,” Comey said. He added a reference to his daughter, Maurene, who was fired in July after 10 years as a federal prosecutor in the Manhattan office, saying:
“Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she’s right, but I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not either.”
Maureen Comey in September filed suit against the Justice Department for her firing.
Trump Truth Socialed: “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” after James Comey’s indictment was announced.
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Trucking Tariffs – And pharmaceuticals and furniture. President Trump Truth Socialed Thursday he would impose a 100% tariff on “any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Heavy trucks imported to the US would be tariffed at 25%.
Daimler Truck North America assembles some Freightliners in Mexico. and Traton Group, also based in Germany, assembles its International heavy-duty trucks in Mexico, as well.
Trump is also imposing a 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and other such products, and 30% on upholstered furniture, the WSJ reports.
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Hegseth Summons Military Leaders – Defense Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has called a “mystery meeting” of the US military’s top officers, including hundreds of generals and admirals, to Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, The Associated Press reports. Hegseth gave no reason for the gathering of one-star or higher senior commanders and their advisors. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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FRIDAY 9/26/25