The U.S. Economy, Job Creation and The Unemployment Rate for May 2025.

 The U.S. Labor Department announced that the U.S. economy added 139,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate came in at 4.2%, same as April.  It was the 52nd month of positive job growth for the economy.  The department also announced job creation for March and April were 95,000 fewer than first announced.  We can now compare the first 5 months of the Biden and Trump administration.

In Trump's first 5 months in office, 743,000 jobs were created, including the department's adjustments.  Unemployment when Trump took office was 4%.  It was 4.2% in May, an increase of 0.2%.  In Biden's first five months in office 2,124,000 jobs were created.  The unemployment rate when he took office was 6.3% and in May it was 5.8%, down 0.5%.  The numbers favor Biden even though he had to deal with the mess Trump left him concerning COVID and Trump's economic recession.  Trump came to office in January 2025 and inherited a resilient economy and low unemployment.

The Labor Department noted in it's report the  U.S. economy and job market have proved to be resilient in recent years considering inflation and the fact that the Federal Reserve raised interest rates 11 times in 2022 and2023 which was predicted to cause an economic recession that never took place. Those words by the department are a way of describing just how good the U.S. economy was under President Biden and how broad based the economy really was.  And consumer spending stayed strong during Biden's term in office.  And the readers of PolitiDose commentary knew how well the economy would perform under President Biden.

Now, under the Trump administration, the economy is in a chaotic period of the Trump tariff fiasco, his legislation passing through the GOP controlled congress and their extreme position on every issue.  To top it off, there is Trump's appointment of unfit clowns to important positions to run government will little by little doom the economy.  It was all predicted in PolitiDose commentary in  December 2024 and January 2025.  

President Trump has now been President for 53 months and as of May 2025 is still 2 million jobs in negative territory.  The people can expect the rest of Trump's second term to be chaotic and toxic.  Thanks to the media's incapability in dealing with Trump, the White House will continue to be out of control under the management of a sick leader.  And when another economic recession takes place on Trump's watch, you will have read it first here in PolitiDose, your daily dose of political Commentary.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio  

The U.S. Judicial System Is Standing Strong Against Trump's Autocratic Rule Concerning Immigration and Trade Tariffs

 President Trump's attempt to ignore his responsibility to follow the constitution with his assault on immigration and trade tariffs are being rejected by U. S. Judges for Trump's failure to abide by constitutional requirements.  In multiple suits against Trump's orders, some judges presiding over the cases used strong language to describe how flagrant Trump's actions violated the constitution.

Trump's actions to the rejections follow the same pattern of lashing out at the judges with personal attacks.  He did so on Memorial Day over his social media when he personally attacked them and others using foul language.  (Obviously showing a mental problem).  Trump's own party of clowns and cowards won't stop him and continue to kiss his ring.  The democratic party does not have the votes to stop him but have been part of several suits against him and oppose his policies.

So, it is left to the courts to bring Trump under control and enforce the constitution and the democratic process to ensure that the President is held accountable for his violations. At this time and place, the courts are the last stand against Kingship.  The timing works out well to minimize the damage already done by a mentally unfit President who respects no one and has violated his oath of office many times over.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The Mental Acuity and Acumen of President Biden Brings Out The Worst In America's Media and The Negative Voices Belatedly.

 President Joe Biden was the first sitting President since Lyndon B. Johnson to announce he would not seek re-election to a second term after announcing he would run for re-election.  The President's decision to not seek re-election was predicted and published in a PolitiDose commentary dated July 15, 2022 (34 months ago) and titled, "Why President Biden Will Not Seek Re-election."  Now we find the media "circus" and the negative voices showing their ignorance over recent reports of President Biden's so called mental decline and others running the federal government for him and are clamoring for retribution, taking a page out of Trump and the GOP's play book.

The "circus" is trying its best to change the subject because they are trying to cover up the chaotic governing by Trump and his mental state of mind that is causing real problems.  The words Trump used yesterday on Memorial Day in his Truth Social address to attack judges was mentally incompetent for a President.  And he uses those mentally incompetent words almost daily to personally attack some one.  When it comes to mental Acuity and Acumen, President Biden has the numbers and record to back up he was better prepared than Trump at governing.

President Biden's Cabinet and other appointees to high positions that carried out his policies and agenda were well qualified for those positions.  The millionaires and billionaires that Trump appointed to those same positions were not only not qualified, they were appointed for one reason and that was to kiss Trump's ring.  President Biden's economy was never chaotic, addressed the mess Trump left him and handled COVID, the loss of 2.7 million jobs and a economic recession.  Trump's governing is chaotic, says his tariffs may cause a recession but that is OK and the people should accept it.  

President Biden was mentally tough in supporting Ukraine when Russia invaded that country.  Supported Ukraine with words and military aid, united our NATO allies to rally around Ukraine and established a solid front.  Biden's mental acuity and acumen showed Presidential leadership concerning the war.  The Trump mental attitude was he would end the war on day one, did no such thing, acted mentally unbalanced when he blew up his meeting with Ukraine's leader, withdrew from the peace talks and then said he was through with the process and demonstrated how Putin fooled him every step of the way.

So now, the media "circus" has decided to do a hatchet job on President Biden's mental health after the fact while accepting Trump's mental behavior as being the norm for Presidential behavior.  They, like the GOP have allowed Trump to corrupt their own industry and news cycle of reporting.  They are willing to overlook the accomplishments of President Biden term in office and stay silent on Trump's criminal record.  

This writer predicted in all, what would take place during the Biden Presidency, how the negative voices would be out every day to try and damage the Biden administration and what would take place in a Trump #2 Presidency.  And it has all come true in PolitiDose commentary.  The final truth remains, the Biden Presidency was a time of governing with a SANE attitude and policies.  That form of governing has escaped the Trump era.  

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Donald Trump, The Convicted Criminal Claims and Uses "Due Process" for Himself, But Wants The Supreme Court To Deny "Due Process" To Others.

 When Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election to Joe Biden, he claimed the election was stolen via alleged fraud.  He then used "Due Process" and filed dozens of law suits claiming fraud which the Judges rejected on the basis of being filed without any evidence or proof.  Trump also used "Due Process" to file many court motions to have multiple indictments against him discharged.  He used "Due Process" with the state court of New York that brought him to trial over felony charges that he was found guilty of.  He used "Due Process" three times to have the Supreme Court move his state trial to a federal trial and one time to dismiss his criminal conviction based on immunity, which is still under consideration. 

But now, Donald Trump, the convicted criminal wants the Supreme Court to disregard the constitutional granted "Due Process" to immigrants so they can be deported under any conditions.  In other words, immigrants are not due to "Due Process" to hear their cases, but Trump was able to use his "Due Process."  What "Due Process" would show in a hearing is if immigrants are really gang members or criminals and Trump wants none of that because he has already been caught in lying about that.  The court is simply saying deporting immigrants can be done in a legal way if the evidence supports it.

Trump's opposition to the U.S. constitution runs deep and supports his thirst for Kingship.  That thirst can be seen in his policies that disregard law and order and ICE's tactics of covering their faces with masks when they make arrests to hide their identity.  

The U.S. Courts and especially the U.S. Supreme Court offers the best legal way to control Trump's destruction of democracy, the constitution, law and order and everything good America the Beautiful stands for.  It is their time in history to step up, carry out their responsibilities and deny Trump's thirst to destroy over 250 years of America's great history.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

   

The U.S. Economy, Job Creation and The Unemployment Rate for April 2025.

 The U.S. Labor Department reported the economy added 177,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate came in at 4.2%, same as in March.  It was the 51st month of positive job growth.  The Department also reported the job numbers for February and March were revised down by 58,000 lobs.  Such corrections by the Department takes place in every administration due to updating the numbers.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced later that the first quarter (Jan-March) GDP came in at a negative -0.3%.  The previous GDP of the last quarter of 2024 (Oct-Dec) came in at a positive gain of 2.4%.  So, now we can report the official numbers for the first quarter of 2025 and the first four months (Jan-Apr) of 2025 to the same period under the Biden administration in 2021.

In Trump's first quarter (Jan-Mar) 2025 the GDP came in at a negative -0.3%.  Unemployment was up from 4% when he took office to 4.2% at the end of March.  In Biden's first quarter of 2021 the GDP came in at a positive 6.3%.  Unemployment decreased from 6.3% when he took office to 6% at the end of March.  

In Trump's first four months in office, (Jan-Apr) 641,000 jobs were created.  During Biden's first four months, (Jan-Apr) 2021 1,565,000 jobs were created.  The official records of job creation can be check and one will find the same level of disproportion in favor of the democratic party for the past 80 plus years.  That is why the GOP's poor performance can be predicted in advance like PolitiDose commentary has done for the past 10 years.  The general media has yet to understand the numbers and still run with the GOP's standard lies of the democratic party being job killers.  

President Biden's numbers are even better when one takes into consideration the economic and fiscal mess Trump left Biden to cope with.  On the other hand, Trump took over an economy that stayed on track for four years and delivered to Trump as the WSJ reported, a strong economy with the lowest sustained unemployment in the 3% range since the 1960's.  

PolitiDose commentary in December 2024 and January 2025 predicted how the economy under Trump's second term would resemble the failures of the past.  And when it takes place, you will have read it here first in PolitiDose, your daily dose of political commentary.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Note:  The Federal Reserve reported that the personal consumer inflation rate for the first quarter 2025 was 3.6%.  It was 2.4% for the same quarter in 2021 and was 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

President Biden's Green Initiative Still Alive In The Republican State of Louisiana.

 Everyone knows that President Trump is opposed to President Biden's policy of moving the country away from fossil fuels to green energy over a period of time.  And that Trump, since being elected President once again, opposes "wind farms" and has actually cancelled some "wind farms" in federal waters that had already received permits.  

Now we find in a report in the New Orleans Times Picayune of 4/21 that at least five utility based land "wind farm" projects are in the development stage in several Louisiana Parishes despite Trump's anti "wind farm" attitude.  Louisiana voters supported Trump and his agenda by a wide margin in the last three Presidential elections and Louisiana's GOP party have been his ditto heads.

The business community realized long ago that green energy and the move away from fossil fuels defines the future and green energy continues to increase its share of total energy production world wide.  It is a natural approach to economic expansion, new opportunities, new jobs, a new revenue base for city, state and the federal government.  It also gives Louisiana an opportunity to expand their economy over a larger base.  And to top it off, land "wind farms" does not damage farmland.  

Louisiana, the state of Trump and the GOP should step back and embrace the change of green energy as the future of both the State and Country.  The benefits are many, especially to the health of its people.  Industry should continue to push their quest for green energy projects to move the state and the country forward.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Journalist Catherine Rampell Gives Her Best Shot In Trying To Compare Trump's Position On Tariffs To That Of The Democratic Party And Fails The Test.

 In her opinion column of April 16 published in the New Orleans Times Picayune titled, "Democrats pulling their punches on Trump's trade war" is nothing more than the new NORM the media has accepted in dealing with Trump and his party's extreme agenda.  Rampell thinks the democrats should be talking about Trump's trade tariffs in a different way than they are doing.  It is a mirror image of those who now  say the democratic party should have warned the voters what Trump would do if elected.  Hillary Clinton  and the party actually began doing that during the 2016 Presidential campaign and has been doing so ever since.

The democratic party and their approach to trade and tariffs have never been chaotic like Trump and his party support nor personal attacks against their trading partners.  The economy, taking everything into consideration has always been better on the democratic watch than on Trumps and the GOP watch so the democratic trade policies have also been much better.  In fact, for the past 100 years the country and its people have done better economically on the democratic watch,  The Biden administration, which Rampell mentioned supported tariffs and the economy did better on his watch than it did during Trump's first term even though Trump gave huge tax cuts to those who needed them the least.

So what was the point of Rampell's column?  Trade is only one part of the economic picture and Trump has once again isolated the issue from reality.  Is it the new NORM accepted by the media to accept Trump and the GOP agenda and then trying to drag the democratic party into the issue?  Journalists have yet to learn how to handle Trump and his party, the lies, misinformation, the personal attacks, corruption and most of all the fact that trump is a convicted criminal.  

The bottom line on the economy is it is composed of many issues, trade and tariffs being only one of the issues.  All of the issues come together to make up a working economy and the democratic party is best at doing so because they govern by and with plans and policy.  The GOP fails because they govern with an extreme ideology and cannot put all the various parts together for a working economy.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

The U.S. Economy, Job Creation and the Unemployment Rate for March 2025.

 The U.S. Labor Department reported the economy added 228,000 jobs in March and that the unemployment rate came in at 4.2%, it was 4.1% in February.  It was the 50th straight month of positive job growth since President Biden's first full month in office in February 2021.  As a comparison to Trump's numbers for March, for the same period in Biden's term, 770,000 jobs were created in March of 2021.

Also announced was that March inflation came in at 0.2% over February and for the 12 month period ending in March, inflation increased 2.4% annually.  That indicates most of the lower inflation took place on President Biden's watch since Trump was in  office only 2 full months during that period of time.  In fact, from May thru December, a period of 8 months inflation increased between 0.1% - 0.2%.

Now in President Trump's 3rd full month in office, chaos is running rampant on the economy because Trump's extreme policies and his unfit appointees in the cabinet and other important positions to dismantle the federal government and democracy.  To top it off, America has a convicted criminal as President who tells the country and its people they have to pay the price for his own corruption.  PolitiDose had it right in its past commentary when it stated just why Trump appointed billionaires and millionaires to run his government.  

This commentary written by Joe  Lorio

The State of Louisiana Politic: The Republican Party Fall To A New Low.

 Louisiana GOP Governor Jeff Landry and those GOP members in congress who represent the state knew the bad news for Louisiana was coming but still pledged their support for Trump's cuts in federal support for the state.  They also knew that Trump's cabinet and other high level appointees of billionaires and millionaires were unqualified for their positions and were appointed to dismantle the federal government on day one without even having one study to justify the cuts and the firings.  They also knew of Trump's planned tariffs and the chaos it would bring to the economy.  They also knew he was a convicted criminal on 32 felony counts, a serial liar, sexual abuser and fraudster.

The Times Picayune published a story in its edition dated April 9 that "FEMA ends storms grants program" that involves millions of dollars that are at stake for the state.  Louisiana's U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy said he would call FEMA and explain what the program means to Louisiana.  Then in an April 12 article we learned that funding for Muesums and Libraries are being cut of cultural funding because NEH is repurposing its funding elsewhere.  Were all of those cuts supposed to be new news to Trump's dismantling of the federal government?  This writer thinks not.  Then in another article of April 18 by Mark Ballard we read where Louisiana U.S. Senator John Kennedy is working with Trump to defund PBS and NPR.  

All of that and the chaos that has infected the Trump administration were also known before it came to pass by the 60% in Louisiana who voted for Trump in the November 2024 Presidential election.  They knew because of Trump's first term and what he campaigned on.  Many even wrote on social media that they were voting for the Criminal.  

Louisiana's representation in Congress along with the GOP in general gave up on their oath of office and allowed Trump to do what he wants.  They know it is congress who has the authority on tariffs, not the President but they just looked the other way, just like they are doing on funding cuts and the resulting chaos.  So the Trump administration is starting out like past GOP administrations where the future will end up looking like the failed past.  And Louisiana's GOP representation in congress will continue to be cowards and afraid to stand up to the Criminal.  

This commentary written by Jor Lorio  

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Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and The GOP Controlled State Legislature Fumbles the Teacher's Pay Raises.

 It did not have to be that way.  The annual $2,000 stipends for teachers and $1,000 stipends for school support staff were set to expire at the end of the school year. Those stipends were in effect the last two school years.  Last year the state legislature failed to address the issue before they expired so that funding could continue.  Instead, the Governor wanted the funding to be a part of his 4 amendment changes to the constitution that voters soundly defeated at the ballot box on March 29.   

Now the Governor and the legislature has to find the funds to continue the teachers support for the next school year and beyond and there is a scramble to do so.  The regular legislative session is scheduled to start next week and Landry has already ordered a hiring freeze and stand still budget.  So, where will the new funding come from to continue the teacher's stipends?  According to reports, Louisiana teachers earn $5,000 less than the regional average and $15,000 less than the national average.  

This writer believes teacher's pay should be funded by the legislature and its process and not the constitution.  It is a fiscal issue and fiscal issues are the responsibility of the legislative process because that is where revenue and expenses are determined and plans and policy are made to fund government both short and long term.  When there are no plans for the budget process, there are no budget solutions.  The Governor and legislature goofed big time by not taking up the teacher's issue in last year's regular session and finding a way to fund it.

The legislature under former democratic Governor John B. Edwards faced the need to handle the $2 billion state budget deficit the Jindal administration left them with and proceeded to balance the budget and create surpluses.  With the proper leadership the legislature can handle the teacher's issue with sound policy to find the resources to do so.  

The problems that the GOP has are man made, they govern by ideology on the issues and never solve the problem because of that.  Governor Landry is a Trump ditto head and after the amendments were defeated he was quoted blaming the defeat on "the far left liberals."  Every one knows it is Trump who blames every one else for his own created problems.  Of course, common sense tells us that the majority of those who voted against the amendments were Trump supporters.

The ball is now in the Governor's court of leadership.  Let us see how he and the legislature handle the issue.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio