“Trump is... ignorant of his own ignorance.”

U.S. Jobless Claims Drop to Lowest Level Since 1973

Bloomberg News

You gotta hate those "failed" Obama policies,
right a**holes?

Jobless claims unexpectedly decreased to the lowest level since 1973, indicating the U.S. labor market remains a pillar of support in the world’s largest economy.

New applications for unemployment benefits fell by 6,000 to 247,000 in the week ended April 16, data from the Labor Department showed Thursday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 265,000 claims. The number of Americans already on benefit rolls declined to a more than 15-year low.

Prisoner Swap With Iran

Jason Rezaian

Iran has released four imprisoned U.S. citizens, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, as part of a swap, the office of Tehran’s prosecutor announced Saturday, according to Iranian news media.

The other released prisoners include Amir Hekmat, a former U.S. Marine, and Saeed Abedni, a pastor, and a fourth unnamed American. All four are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens. Rezaian has been held since 2014.

According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, the four were ordered released in exchange for seven Iranian-Americans held in the United States on sanctions-related charges.

MSNBC is reporting that a fifth American, not directly related to the other four, is also being released.

Before Muslims It Was Catholics

Ken O'Brien

Since Donald Trump put forth his proposal that Muslim immigration into the U.S. be put on indefinite hiatus, much has been said about it being a unique and unprecedented watershed in American political history.

Never before, it is repeatedly claimed, has religion been a basis for restricting access to the liberties enjoyed by other immigrants.

The reality, however, is that it is not all that different than the experience of Catholics over the past 200 years.

A wave of anti-immigrant sentiment occurred after the huge migration of Irish Catholics into the U.S. during the potato famine of the mid-19th century.  Continued immigration caused the Roman Catholic population to grow rapidly even in this hostile environment. In 1784 there were only 30,000 Catholics in America but by 1820 this number grew to over 300,000. Petitions from the northeastern states to Congress, asked Congress to pass laws limiting the new immigrants’ right to vote. 

Prison Profiteers

by Chris Hedges from Truthdig

If, as Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” then we are a nation of barbarians. Our vast network of federal and state prisons, with some 2.3 million inmates, rivals the gulags of totalitarian states. Once you disappear behind prison walls you become prey. Rape. Torture. Beatings. Prolonged isolation. Sensory deprivation. Racial profiling. Chain gangs. Forced labor. Rancid food. Children imprisoned as adults. Prisoners forced to take medications to induce lethargy. Inadequate heating and ventilation. Poor health care. Draconian sentences for nonviolent crimes. Endemic violence. 

Biggest GDP Growth in More Than a Decade

Ken O’Brien

Real gross domestic product -- the value of the production of goods and services in the United   States, adjusted for price changes -- increased at an annual rate of 5.0 percent in the third quarter of 2014, according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The number marks the strongest pace of U.S. economic growth since the third quarter of 2003. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also traded above 18000 for the first time on Tuesday. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 4.6 percent. 

New Studies Show Mixed Results Internationally For U.S. Elementary Education

Ken O’Brien

Following several years of dismal reports on the declining state of American education in the international arena, a new set of studies show mixed signs of progress among elementary school students.

On the bright side, substantial progress has been made in reading levels among fourth graders.

On the other hand, little if any progress has been achieved in science or mathematics at both the fourth grade and eighth grade levels.