If you see someone crying, ask if it’s because of their haircut. – Unknown

Welcome to “Thursday Numbers!” In case you are 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 unemployment claims, Montana voters, USA deaths from coronavirus, Garfield & Glacier County Montana, Mercer & Grundy County Missouri, belief in Biden’s win, Trump’s Official Election Defense Fund, Trump’s lawsuits, a few minutes for veterans, and much more!

709,000

In the week ending November 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 709,000, a decrease of 48,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 6,000 from 751,000 to
757,000. The 4-week moving average was 755,250, a decrease of 33,250 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 1,500 from 787,000 to 788,500. (DOL)

*Note: On Thursdays, my column is not published until right after 6:30 a.m. (Montana time), so I can post the latest unemployment numbers.

612,047

That’s how many people voted in Montana, which is a record. (MT SOS)

Voting by mail works!

241,808

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 241,808 deaths and 10,404,354 cases across the country so far. The first death in the USA was reported on February 29. (Johns Hopkins)

Last Thursday, there were 233,734 deaths.

94

That’s the percentage of people in Garfield County, Montana, who voted for Donald Trump. I believe that is tops in Montana. (MT SOS)

86.6

My birth county in Missouri (Mercer County) shows 86.6 percent of their voters voted for Donald Trump. I believe that is tops in Missouri. Grundy County, where I graduated from high school, comes in at 80.8%. (NBC News)

I suspect many of these folks also believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya…

No wonder I lost so many Facebook friends during this election season…

79

The Reuters/Ipsos national opinion survey, which ran from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday, found that 79% of U.S. adults believe Biden won the White House. Another 13% said the election has not yet been decided, 3% said Trump won and 5% said they do not know. (Reuters)

I think the 3% who still think Trump won are sending me emails and posting conspiracies on Facebook…

64

That’s the percentage of people in Glacier County, Montana, who voted for Joe Biden. I believe that is tops in Montana. (MT SOS)

25-30

Since the election was called for Joe Biden, I have received 25-30 emails per day from the Trump campaign asking for donations for the Official Election Defense Fund.

The AP reports about the fine print on the emails:

But the fine print indicates much of the money donated to support that effort since Election Day has instead paid down campaign debt, replenished the Republican National Committee, and, more recently, helped get Save America, a new political action committee Trump founded, off the ground. The unusual way the Trump campaign is divvying up the contributions has drawn scrutiny from election watchdogs, who say Trump and his family are poised to financially benefit from the arrangement.

His supporters are just dumb enough not to read the fine print…

12

In the past week alone, the Trump campaign blitzed state and federal courts with roughly a dozen new lawsuits, most attempting to halt the vote-counting process or disqualify tranches of ballots. (Time)

Most experts say he has no case.

10

Donald Trump spent 10 minutes in public Wednesday honoring America’s war veterans — a veneer of normalcy for a White House that’s frozen by a defeated president mulling his options, mostly forgoing the mechanics of governing and blocking his inevitable successor. (AP)

He’s such a sore loser. He should concede…

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