Unemployment Drops to 4.6 Percent

4.6%

“U.S. employers hired at a steady clip in November while the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in nine years, signs of enduring labor-market growth that will likely leave Federal Reserve officials on track to raise interest rates later this month,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 178,000 in November from the prior month, the Labor Department said. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% from 4.9% in October as some people found jobs while others dropped out of the workforce. At 4.6%, the rate is the lowest since August 2007. Economists expected 180,000 new jobs and a jobless rate of 4.9% in November.”

CNN Political Commentator Declares the ‘End of Facts’

There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore of facts. … One thing that has been interesting this entire campaign season to watch is that people that say facts are facts, they’re not really facts. Everybody has a way, it’s kind of like looking at ratings or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true.

— Donald Trump supporter and CNN political commentator Scottie Nell Hughes, declaring the end of facts in an interview on The Diane Rehm Show, the Washington Post reports.

Donald Voter Lost Her Home To His Treasury Nominee

Teena Colebrook regrets voting for Donald because of his pick for Treasury secretary
Teena Colebrook regrets voting for Donald because of his pick for Treasury secretary

art-cabinet-of-deplorables-workTeena Colebrook, one of the few Californians who voted for Donald, is already deeply regretting her vote. She and others have contacted the Associated Press to express their horror of Donald’s pick for secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, whose former bank, OneWest, foreclosed on them unfairly, they say, after financial meltdown in 2008.

OneWest, a bank formerly owned by a group of investors headed by Mnuchin, had foreclosed on her Los Angeles-area home in the aftermath of the Great Recession, stripping her of the two units she rented as a primary source of income.

“I just wish that I had not voted,” said Colebrook, 59. “I have no faith in our government anymore at all. They all promise you the world at the end of a stick and take it away once they get in.”

Less than a month after his presidential win, Trump’s populist appeal has started to clash with a Cabinet of billionaires and millionaires that he believes can energize economic growth…

But the prospect of Mnuchin leading the Treasury Department prompted Colebrook and other OneWest borrowers who say they unfairly faced foreclosure to contact The Associated Press. Colebrook wishes she could meet with Trump to explain why she feels betrayed by his Cabinet selection after believing that his presidency could restore the balance of power to everyday people.

“He doesn’t want the truth,” she said. “He’s now backing his buddies.”

Trump’s Cabinet of Deplorables Looks Like One Ted Cruz Would Have Picked

If personnel is policy, most of Trump’s cabinet picks suggest he’ll govern more like a traditional, conservative Republican than a populist, big government or anti-establishment GOPer. Yes, senior advisor Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, his pick for National Security Advisor, are controversial and potential bomb-throwers. But, the rest of his choice thus far are for more conventional. In fact, his cabinet picks thus far don’t look a whole lot different from those a President Ted Cruz would have chosen.

Amy Walter