People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim. ― Ann Landers

Welcome to “Thursday Numbers!” In case you’re a first-time visitor, this is the weekly column where I take a look at the numbers that are in the news (in descending order) and provide commentary sometimes sprinkled with sarcasm and humor.

This week’s topics include the Montana U.S. Senate race, Kathleen Williams, George Floyd, unemployment, USA deaths from coronavirus, 2020 Census, Trump’s disapproval rating, White House staffers & coronavirus, Pence interrupts, Pence’s fly, and much more!

75,000,000

With four weeks until Election Day, Montana’s U.S. Senate race has likely broken the record for spending on a single campaign in Montana, well north of $75 million. (KTVH.com)

Nobody should be surprised at this.

2,300,000

Democratic Montana U.S. House candidate Kathleen Williams reported Monday that she raised $2.3 million in campaign funds for three past three months – nearly doubling her total for the entire campaign. (MTN News)

I think Williams has a very good chance of winning this race…

1,000,000

The former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, has been released from a correctional facility after posting a $1 million bond, according to court records. (Reuters)

840,000

In the week ending October 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 840,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 12,000 from 837,000 to 849,000.
The 4-week moving average was 857,000, a decrease of 13,250 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 3,000 from 867,250 to 870,250. (DOL)

211,844

That is how many people have died in the United States from coronavirus, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 211,844 deaths and 7,551,428 cases across the country so far. The first death in the US was reported on February 29. (John Hopkins)

Last Thursday, there were 206,963 deaths.

99.1

That is Montana’s overall response rate for the 2020 Census. The self-response was 60.2%. The non-response follow-up enumerated 38.9% for a total of 99.1% enumerated. (Census)

Fill out your Census forms, people!

53.3

That is President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating according to the FiveThirtyEight blog. His approval rating is just 43.4%. (FiveThirtyEight)

Last week Trump’s disapproval rating was 52.9%.

34

The coronavirus outbreak has infected “34 White House staffers and other contacts” in recent days, according to an internal government memo, an indication that the disease has spread among more people than previously known in the seat of American government. (ABC News)

The Trump administration has mismanaged this pandemic from the beginning.

10

In the Vice Presidential debate, Vice President Mike Pence vocally interrupted U.S. Senator Kamala Harris 10 times, while Harris interrupted Pence five times. Pence also spoke for three more minutes, controlling 38 minutes and 2 seconds of time, compared to Harris’ 35 minutes and 20 seconds. (CBS News)

Pence was the ass in the debate.

2

A huge fly landed on Vice President Mike Pence’s head during the debate Wednesday night, staying there for more than two minutes. (The Sun)

Someone tweeted that the fly probably now has coronavirus. I tweeted that flies like shit.  🙂

## PLEASE VOTE ##