IN AN ENCOURAGING SIGN for the economy, the Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment benefits dipped to 881,000, the lowest level since mid-March.  Forecasters had projected 950,000 jobless claims.

NY GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, who thought President Trump was great before thinking he wasn’t, came unhinged Wednesday night threatening physical harm upon the president if he visits New York City again.

“(Trump) better have an army if he thinks he going to walk down the street in New York.  He can’t have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City,” said Cuomo.

If I were the president, I would learn where Governor Cuomo’s schedule would place him in the city on a particular day, and as he arrived there, I would drive up in an unmarked car, walk up the guv and introduce himself … ‘I’m President Trump, I used to live here when it was really safe.’  One can imagine, can’t he?

Cuomo’s rant came in the wake of the president calling for cutting off funds to Democrat-run cities that aren’t standing up to riots and violence, a move that may not pass legal muster.

HAVE YOU HEARD about the Ipsos Mori poll conducted for the World Economic Forum?  A survey of nearly 20,000 adults across 27 countries found that 26 percent of the respondents would not get a Covid-19 vaccine if it were available.

Sixty percent of Americans were worried about potential side effects, while 37 percent didn’t believe it would be effective, and 20 percent said they were against vaccines in general. Nineteen percent added that they felt they were not enough at risk to get a vaccine.

WHILE WATCHING the impressive lineup of minorities and law enforcement representatives endorse President Trump during the Republican convention, I imagined them representing the administration on a presidential committee established to develop police reform legislation.  Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron, former football standout Herschel Walker, and the recently pardoned Alice Marie Johnson top the list.

As I pondered a meeting that could finally bring about that “conversation” people say is needed to calm the relationship between the police and minorities, questions arose. 

Who would the Democrats bring to the table?  Thoughts of the theatrics of Al Sharpton, Benjamin Crump, attorney for George Floyd, Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor, Colin Kaepernick and Patrisse Cullors, a founder of Black Lives Matter come to mind.  Would a representative of Antifa be permitted to participate?

Would such a meeting be possible with the excessive force trials currently underway?  No. And it certainly could not take place prior to the election, but the president could propose such a meeting to unite in 2021.

WHILE ON THE SUBJECT of the use of force by police on people of color, you will recall that I recently stated that if an individual is stopped for questioning or arrest, he or she, should simply obey the police officer’s instructions to avoid that use of force.

Challenging the Arizona Republic’s failure to include statistics showing the use of force when the subject resisted arrest in its feature on the supposed disproportionate use of force on people of color, was the topic of letter to the editor by Kathleen Lewis of Paradise Valley, Arizona  

‘In determining whether the use of force is applied in a racially discriminatory manner, the relevant denominator is not total arrests, but arrests made while the subject is resisting arrest,“ Lewis wrote.

NEW YORK TIMES COLUMNIST PAUL KRUGMAN, says complaints about rising crime rates in big Democrat-run cities like New York amounted to blathering about a “nonexistent crisis” simply because he was able to go on his morning run in this neighborhood without being accosted by “black-clad” anarchists.

Writing @paulkrugman, he said, “I went for a belated NYC run this morning, and am sorry to report that I saw very few black-clad anarchists.  Also, the city is not yet in flames.  Anyway, important to realize that claims of urban anarchy are almost entirely fantasy.”  Recall that it was Krugman who predicted a global recession if Trump was victorious in 2016.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.