We’ve all seen the increasingly-optimistic reports and unemployment numbers at historic lows, but most Americans still don’t feel good about the economy. Democrats should do whatever they can to address the reasons why ahead of 2024.
 

• The U.S. economy seems to have averted a recession and inflation has cooled rapidly. Manufacturing and construction sectors are booming. Several metrics such as real-wage growth and prime-age employment have rebounded to pre-2008 financial crisis highs. But the general consensus from national surveys remains that these positive developments have not reached the American public. A July CBS News survey reported that nearly three times as many Americans described themselves as falling behind economically as those who say they’re getting ahead. 
   

• Sixty-five percent of Americans view the economy as bad, even as a majority also understands that the job market is good. A CNN poll from the same period similarly showed a three-to-one ratio of people expressing negative opinions about the economy over positive ones. The disconnect is multifaceted. First, public sentiment about the economy isn’t a perfect reflection of the numbers in federal jobs reports, but rather a subjective (often emotional) judgment derived from many complicated and competing factors. Widespread feelings of financial precarity can persist long after an economic downturn has reversed. 
   

• Second, when inflation falls, prices don’t necessarily always follow suit. Instead, falling inflation means price increases have plateaued at new, higher levels. That can create a sticker-shock effect, even for the national majority whose wages have outpaced inflation for months. The average American is still spending more of their paycheck at the grocery store relative to past years, and while gas and energy costs fell earlier in the year, those declines have also plateaued because of the ongoing heatwave. Perhaps the most significant factor of all, interest rates are now higher than many Americans have seen in their lifetimes.

So where does that leave Democrats heading into 2024?
 

• President Biden’s Build Back Better Act, as it was initially written, sought to reduce the costs of childcare (which account in most cases for one-fifth of household budgets for the majority of parents), housing, and simply having a family through the expanded Child Tax Credit, but Republicans (and our least favorite Democrats) blocked all of those things. Most of the extremely successful pandemic-era social safety-net expansion measures have expired. Biden could use his 2024 campaign to underscore a “Finish the Job” message in order to rile up the Democratic base, in the hope of taking back the House, building a more definitive majority in the Senate, and completing Build Back Better. Because if you can believe it, Republicans are champing at the bit to not only pass tax cuts for the rich for the millionth time, but to reverse everything Democrats actually passed in Congress in Biden’s first two years. 
   

• Stocks took a dive on Tuesday after Moody’s Financial Services downgraded the credit ratings of 10 small-to-midsize banks, citing increasing financial risks and strains that could dampen their profitability. The credit-ratings agency also warned that it is watching some of the nation’s largest banks for potential downgrades. This cautious new approach comes on the heels of the banking crisis that began in March with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, followed shortly thereafter by Signature Bank and First Republic Bank. Those high interest rates have decreased the value of many investments banks made when rates were at historic lows.

President Biden will have a hard time winning if he can’t convince most Americans of the manifestly true fact that he’s been a better steward of the economy than Donald Trump. That’s why Republicans are working just as hard to convince people the economy is terrible as to convince everyone that public school makes you gay. 

In what can only be described as a Black Mirror episode coming to life, Pod Save the World hosts Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor are demystifying recent headlines about the disappearance of China’s foreign minister Qin Gang - including a nearly complete scrub from the Foreign Ministry’s website. 


Catch these new episodes of Pod Save The World right now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Florida has spent years on the front lines of conservative backlash against the teaching of accurate curriculum in public schools. Now, the Florida Department of Education went one step further off the deep-end by approving the use of the education platform “PragerU” (a right-wing propaganda mill that falsely bills itself as a university) for use in classrooms in the coming school year as “supplemental curriculum.” PragerU advertises itself as an alternative to progressive “indoctrination” and produces undisguised agitprop videos with titles like, “Was the Civil War About Slavery?” and “The Inconvenient Truth About the Democratic Party.” Yep, just regular-old history, just calling balls and strikes!

Some of the “PragerU Kids” lessons quickly began circulating online, showcasing an utterly fictitious spin on American History, in which a cartoon Frederick Douglas takes a not-so-subtle dig at Black Lives Matter activists and says he disagrees with 19th century abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison because of his “refus[ing] all compromises” on slavery. This latest insult to education comes on the heels of Florida’s new history curriculum, which teaches that Black people benefited from slavery because they learned useful skills in bondage. PragerU Kids also features videos about climate change (blanketed in denialism, if you can believe!) and titles like “How to be a rational patriot” (I’m going to have a stroke) and “How to embrace your femininity.” The College Board is also currently battling Florida over Advanced Placement Psychology courses because they include lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Judge Tanya Chutkan has been given an extra security detail because she’s presiding over a criminal trial of disgraced former president Donald Trump, and everyone tasked with holding him accountable faces immediate, serious security threats. 

Speaking of which, Chutkan has set a hearing for Friday to discuss the parameters of a protective order that will prohibit Trump and his legal team from publicly discussing evidence in that criminal case.

A group of White boaters attacked a Black dock employee at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, AL, inciting a massive brawl that led to multiple arrests; the city’s mayor called for justice to be served to the “reckless individuals” who attacked “a man who was doing his job.”

The teenage cousin of the gunman in the fatal Robb Elementary School mass shooting was arrested on Monday after he tried to purchase an AR-15, and was allegedly planning to carry out a similar mass shooting at a local school. 

Residents of Ocean City, NJ, backed by an outside group opposed to renewable energy (do we smell fossil-fuel industry dark money?) are fiercely opposing a wind-energy project off the coast of the Garden State that could power over 500,000 homes. 

Ron DeSantis fired his presidential campaign manager, the latest staff shakeup showing that everything’s going great over at DeSantis HQ. 

A new study of major financial firms shows that workplaces could lose employees en masse if they impose strict return-to-office mandates. 

Rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the 2020 shooting of hip-hop megastar Megan Thee Stallion.

Thousands of Los Angeles municipal workers, including sanitation workers, lifeguards, and traffic officers, walked off the job on Tuesday as part of a 23-hour strike seeking higher wages and an end to alleged unfair labor practices. Picket lines began before dawn at Los Angeles International Airport and other locations around the city. Later that morning, a large rally was held at City Hall. More than 11,000 LA city workers are on strike. The Service Employees International Union said its members voted to authorize the one-day walkout because the city has failed to bargain in good faith and has engaged in nefarious labor practices restricting the rights of employees and the unions. Many city workers say they’re paid so little they cannot afford to live near their jobs, forcing some to commute as far as 100 miles. Hot Strike Summer continues!

Friends of the pod, political junkies, and everyone gearing up for the 2024 Presidential election - wouldn’t it be nice to have a Trump-free day? Well, too bad! There are no days off in politics.

Lucky for you – INI launches a new card game, Never Has Trump Ever to bring humor and laughter to U.S. current events – specifically the words, actions and most notably, tweets, from our former dumb-ass President, while also raising awareness and advocating for important issues like Gender and Racial
Equality, Climate Change, The Me-Too Movement, etc.

The concept of the game is like Never Have I Ever, but with a Trump twist. Rather than admitting to things you have or have not done, players are voting on “Trumpisms” and whether President Donald Trump has or has not said or done the phrase on the card. Guess “Right” and reap the rewards, guess “Wrong” and pay the price.

Never Has Trump Ever is for 2-8 players, ages 17+, and takes 30-45 minutes to play (can be played as a drinking game, ages 21+), in fact, we encourage it.

This card game is perfect for anti-Trump activists, civic buffs, political enthusiasts, and that ONE lingering friend who can’t seem to read the fu%#ing room and needs a [not so] friendly reminder of how insane our former and hopefully NEVER AGAIN president Donald Trump is.

Make your voice heard and stop Trump's return at the ballot box! Buy this game for $29.95 and Get 20% off using code 20CROOKED on Amazon.com

Early vote counts in Ohio show that Issue 1—a ballot measure to raise the vote threshold to amend the state constitution from a simple majority to 60 percent—is headed for major failure, a potentially-huge victory for abortion advocates ahead of the November ballot question on abortion.
 

Citing huge demand, Montgomery County, MD, is planning to create five new skate parks. The people demand public spaces to shred!!

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court reinstated the Biden Administration’s regulations on “ghost guns.” 

Arizona for Abortion Access is filing proposed language for a constitutional amendment with Arizona’s secretary of state’s office on Tuesday, the first step to putting an abortion-rights question on the ballot in November 2024.