Well, we made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat baby no surrender
Like soldiers on the winter’s night with a vow to defend
No retreat baby no surrender

-No Surrender (Bruce Springsteen)

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 in the news (in descending order) and provide commentary sometimes sprinkled with sarcasm and humor.

This week’s topics include national debt, unemployment, USA deaths from coronavirus, fully immunized Montanans, permanently banned, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, porcelain bowl, Dr. Seuss, QAnon, January 6 response, plus much more!

28,000,000,000,000

The national debt went past $28 trillion this week. (Debt Clock)

Click HERE for an explanation of what being 28 trillion dollars in debt looks like.

745,000

In the week ending February 27, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 745,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 6,000 from 730,000 to
736,000. The 4-week moving average was 790,750, a decrease of 16,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 250 from 807,750 to 807,500. (DOL)

*Note: On Thursdays, this column is published right after 6:30 a.m. (Montana time), so I can post the latest unemployment numbers.

518,459

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 518,459 deaths and 28,761,702 cases across the country so far. The first death in the USA was reported on February 29, 2020. (Johns Hopkins)

Last week the death total was 505,899.

94,766

That’s how many Montanans have been fully immunized for COVID-19. (SOURCE)

Last week the number of fully immunized Montanans was 73,259.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Montana’s estimated population in July 2019 was 1,068,778.

That’s just a small percentage of Montanans who are fully immunized. We should all be wearing masks until we have a higher percentage of fully immunized Montanans.

48

A hunter (Iniki Vike Kapu) from Colorado Springs has been permanently banned from hunting in 48 states, including Colorado, after he pleaded guilty to several poaching charges across the state. Kapu was accused of killing 12 deer, 2 turkeys, and a bighorn sheep ram across three Colorado counties. (AP)

They should take his man card, too.

38

Multiple sexual harassment claims and the New York state nursing home scandal appear to have caught up with Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), according to one new poll. In a just-released survey from Emerson College, the New York governor’s approval ratings are underwater — checking in at 38 percent favorable and 48 percent unfavorable. The same outfit showed 71 percent of New Yorkers backing Gov. Cuomo for his work on the coronavirus pandemic in April of 2020. (Mediaite)

Although the investigation is not complete, I doubt he will be the governor much longer.

35

A small porcelain bowl bought for $35 at a Connecticut yard sale turned out to be a rare, 15th-century Chinese artifact worth between $300,000 and $500,000 that is about to go up for auction at Sotheby’s. (AP)

It looks like it would be a great bowl for cereal or oatmeal…

6

Six Dr. Seuss books — including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and “If I Ran the Zoo” — will stop being published because of racist and insensitive imagery, the business that preserves and protects the author’s legacy said Tuesday. (AP)

The AP said that Dr. Seuss Enterprises told them, “These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”

I can’t disagree with those reasons, although some are pretty upset about the move.

4

I brought this up last week, but here’s a reminder that today (March 4, 2021) is the next big day for the QAnon folks. Newsweek reports that supporters of the radical conspiracy now believe that March 4 will be the day that Trump will still somehow be sworn in as president, seemingly undeterred by the January 20 ceremony, after which Biden entered the White House, and all their other predictions since late 2017 having failed. (Newsweek)

Let’s be safe out there…

3:19

The head of the DC National Guard told Congress Wednesday he was “stunned” as senior military leaders refused desperate pleas to send in troops to quell the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. Even after the Capitol had been breached, Pentagon officials in the Trump administration held off on sending in reinforcements for three hours and 19 minutes while citing a concern about “optics,” DC National Guard commanding general William Walker told the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. (BuzzfeedNews.com)

Shameful.

## WEAR A MASK TODAY ##