[MUSIC] Hey everybody, it is Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024. You're listening to the Mo News podcast. I'm Moshe Wannoonu. And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. And we read all the news and read between the lines. See you on half, too, on this holiday week. A belated, happy Canada Day to all of you who celebrated yesterday. Sorry, we missed that on the calendar. Just ahead of our July 4th, Jill. But July 2nd, a big day, some former presidents, we call it Independence Day. I'll tell you about that later on in the state in history. John Adams insisted that July 2nd was actually our Independence Day. I'll tell you why. >> Okay, cool, so we're going to take July 2nd off. Is that- >> Well, John Adams would have had you do that. In fact, John Adams refused to celebrate July 4th. That's how insistent he was that July 2nd should be our Independence Day. >> That, John Adams. Okay, let's get to some headlines here. >> Very huge ruling from the Supreme Court on presidential immunity, what it means for Donald Trump's criminal case, and the future of the presidency. After all of the chatter about replacing Joe Biden on the ballot, the Democratic National Committee, actually is now looking to move up the date. So they can lock him in as the nominee later this month. >> And all that chatter, everybody, he's our guy. In business news, Boeing is looking to get bigger, again, agreeing to buy spirit aero systems, one of its longtime suppliers. >> Yeah, it comes as we've told you about both those companies lately and their safety records. >> A lawsuit filed in US court against Iran, North Korea, and Syria over their connection to Hamas and the attacks on October 7. And NATO could be looking to establish a post in Kyiv as it looks to quote Trump-proof Ukraine aid. A check on the state of the economy, halfway into 2024. This is your chance, Moshe. We're halfway there, or we're tapped out, we did that yesterday. >> We did that yesterday, I'm not gonna test our listeners patience with our singing abilities. >> Well, speaking of patience, the TSA breaks the record for the most people screened on a single day. So if you're traveling in the next week, airlines are warning you to, you know it. >> You know the phrase. >> Pack your patience. >> Carry on, or frankly this week, you need to check baggage size amount of patience. >> And Moshe has on this day in history. >> The aforementioned John Adams and his insistence on July 2nd, and some Walmart history on this day. >> Okay, and a mega ruling that we've been waiting for for several months, the Supreme Court on Monday dropped their major presidential immunity decision by a six to three majority along partisan lines. The court ruled for the first time that former presidents do in fact, have broad immunity from criminal prosecution. The court creating a standard of official presidential acts versus unofficial private acts, and they effectively fall into three buckets. So according to this ruling, presidents have absolute immunity for core constitutional acts, so they cannot be prosecuted for them. Then there are official acts that are not in the constitution. So you might be prosecuted for them, but you do start with presumptive immunity. And then there are the unofficial private acts that a president takes while in office, which are not part of the job. And according to this ruling, a president or a former president can be prosecuted for them. So after laying out this framework, the decision as to what's official and what is unofficial, will now be decided by a trial judge to undertake an intensive factual review to separate official and unofficial conduct when it comes to the president's cases. So the court's conservative majority, including the three justices appointed by Trump, effectively narrowing the criminal case against him. And this has long-term ramifications, expanding presidential authority, and also immediate implications for former presidents Trump's criminal cases. The ruling effectively extends the delay in the Washington criminal case against Donald Trump. That's the one in which he was charged with plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. Given that the lower courts are now going to have to rule on what is official, versus what's an unofficial act, and those rulings will then face appeals that could end up back at the Supreme Court, that ends any prospect that the former president could be tried before the November election. Why that is important? Well, if Trump wins, he will be able to completely end the federal cases against him as president, meaning that the case on election interference may never be heard. Now, Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Contangi Brown, Jackson, they dissented this decision. They wrote, quote, "The majority reshapes the institution of the presidency and makes a mockery of the principle that no man is above the law." So, Amayor, writing, "With fear for our democracy, I dissent." Yes, that was her final line, Jill. And typically, the way they end the census with respectfully, she didn't throw the respectfully in there, so them fighting words. But a lot of people taking note of her last line there, with fear for our democracy. That's right. So, the Court's three liberal justices forcefully dissenting with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, saying that the conservative majority gives former President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more. The majority opinion responded to that by saying that they split the difference between what Trump asked for, which was total immunity, and what prosecutors were saying, which was no immunity. And they said the dissent strikes, quote, "a tone of chilling doom that is not accurate." Biden campaign officials said the court, quote, "Just handed Donald Trump the keys to the dictatorship." The Supreme Court just gave Trump a permission slip to assassinate and jail whoever he wanted to gain power. Trump's legal team celebrated. They say the federal government's cases against Trump just got blown up because of this. A Trump attorney said that President Trump and all presidents after Trump should celebrate this ruling, if a president is handcuffed, they are not going to be able to do their jobs in an effective way. Oh, Moshe, what do you make of it? It is a lot to digest here. There's a lot to digest. There are implications here. There is hyperbolic statements here. In particular, we were getting a lot of questions on Instagram yesterday being like, wait, so a president could just do anything? They can just start killing people into porting, you know, random Americans. I was like, no, no, no, no. This has to do with official acts versus unofficial acts. And ultimately here, nowhere in the Constitution doesn't say that the president can go around murdering people. And so there's a lot of nuance in this decision. And I think if people rightfully emotionally reacted to all of this, and this certainly does have a significant impact when it comes to Trump's criminal cases and executive authority, a couple of observations here. Number one, Jill, this is what we weren't hoping for, which was a partisan ruling. You know, I think I've said a couple of times on this podcast. I was anticipating that the court would find a way to all agree, be at least eight to zero, because Clarence Thomas sort of does his own thing, or, frankly, even nine to zero as they were earlier this year when they ruled that Trump can remain on the ballot. You remember that case out of Colorado and several other states trying to kick them off the ballots. And so they ruled unanimously there that he gets to remain on the ballot. So it's sort of anticipating the opposite here, a potential ruling slightly against Trump in a unanimous fashion. So they were not able to do that, six to three ruling, conservatives versus liberals. In some past cases, the court has found a way to be unanimous. They ruled unanimous in a lawsuit involving President Clinton back in the day, as well as Nixon's tape recordings during Watergate. And so this is where we're at on six to three. You mentioned this three bucket standard, constitutional acts, official acts, and unofficial acts. Now notable as part of this is in the ruling, they said, that official acts cannot be used as evidence for prosecuting unofficial acts. And by the way, this sort of reinforces to all of us that we should not be electing presidents that we think might commit crimes, number one, because it's remarkable to me that we've gone 250 years as a country. And we're now still distinguishing, you know, if a president was to be prosecuted, how we would prosecute them because of how rare this situation is, because the way they set it up in the constitution is there's impeachment. If a president commits a crime, they've seen it is so egregious. You have impeachment and then conviction and you kick them out. No real thought was given to prosecuting a president after they leave the presidency. That sort of came up during Nixon and now comes up again during Trump. So the scenario here on unofficial official that people lay out is if a president talked to a secretary of state and said, I'm going to kill somebody. And then they go on to kill somebody. The murder itself is an unofficial act is not a presidential. It's not covered by the presidency or the constitution that a president can go and commit a crime like that in a personal capacity. But interestingly, that conversation with his cabinet member that would go to intent, that could be covered under this official standard. And so that's what people are saying here is that the court has made it more difficult to prosecute a president because of what can fall under official acts. And a scenario that people brought up in the last day is like, well, how would Watergate have unfolded this way? Richard Nixon famously saying, if the president does it, it's not illegal. And he was mocked for that statement 40 plus years ago. But the courts are saying here that Nixon's partially right, that there are certain things a president can do that the president cannot be prosecuted for. And so in the case of Nixon, while he was engaged in various conspiracy, obstruction of justice, et cetera, some of those conversations happened with advisors, et cetera, that might be covered under this official acts thing. So the amount of evidence you would have available to prosecute Nixon might have been limited. Now, of course, that never came to be the full investigation never came to be because Gerald Ford is a replacement would pardon him. But just trying to cite these examples to give a case where this standard has made it more challenging to prosecute presidents after they leave office because of the larger scope of things that could be covered under official acts. And by the way, it's not just Trump here. This covers from President Obama, Bush, Clinton, harder, Biden when he leaves office, which notably, you know, people around Trump are looking to prosecute Biden. Well, this might help Trump now, but this also helped Biden in the scenario where they try to go after Biden. Okay. So back to Trump here, there are major implications for his cases. The New York criminal case, we know is over, but what's left are the federal cases and the Georgia case. So how does this ruling from the Supreme Court impact the rest of the cases that he now faces? Right. So he's got three cases, two federal, one state in Georgia. This case came out of the January 6 case, the election interference case, the attempt to overturn the election. And so this has the most implications for that case, that federal case. Now it goes back to the lower court judge in DC, time to shut down the judge has to now determine what's official, what's unofficial, what's left of the special counsel's case here, and what basically is booted, what evidence can the special counsel, Jack Smith, no longer use. And this could be a lengthy process. In fact, the Supreme Court makes a point several times their decision show to say, this won't just be determined by a lower court. This is appealable. This is appealable. This is appealable, which means whatever is deemed official, unofficial can go back up through the court system and back to the Supreme Court, which in the decision, the majority of the decision yesterday they go, we don't have to rule on this right now. We just have to give you the standard. Get back to the lower court and bring it back to us someday. What does this mean for the case? Well, Jack Smith wanted to get this case done this year, because there was a chance from President Trump could be reelected in November upon becoming president. He takes over the Justice Department and he can say bye bye to this case and the classified records case, which is the other federal case here, Jill, that's a case that could be impacted by this. We're still trying to read into this because so much of this is left to the judges. That's the case out of Florida where he took home several hundred classified documents. The Trump team has been arguing that he did that while he was still technically president, official act as far as they're concerned when he flew down to Florida. Now, some of the crimes he's accused of, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying related to all of that, that happened after he was president. Now, this ruling complicates that case. That's a case out of Florida where the judge incidentally is a Trump appointee who's been ruling in favor of Trump a number of times so far in this case. So potentially good news for him in the classified records case, which by the way is also federal case, which if he becomes president again, he can boot that case out as well. So those two cases might never see the light of day. We might never know whether he's guilty of either of those cases because they might never see trial. And then you have the Georgia state case, this is another election interference case. Now, while is a state case, the former president will use this ruling to argue, I was acting in an official capacity when I asked Georgia to find me more votes. When I put together a counter slate of electors in Georgia. Now, again, a judge could say no, but then of course that's appealable. So effectively here, there's a lot of potential roadblocks here in these Trump cases. So you do see a lot of concern here on the left and ultimately while they were hoping that these trials would take place before the election. So voters could have that in mind and the results of those cases in mind when they go to vote in November, those cases definitely not happening yet. Now, Trump not totally out of the woods, but certainly in a better place today than he was before this ruling came out 24 hours ago. So it's summer time and we're looking to max out on being outdoors and given the heat, avoid more of it in the kitchen. Some of the many reasons why we are loving factor meals this season, factor delivers you chef crafted, never frozen meals that are ready to eat in just two minutes with 35 different meals and more than 60 add-ons to choose from every week. You will always have new flavors to explore delivered right to your doorstep. They go straight in the fridge and then you can heat them up and have a delicious meal. They've got everything from breakfast to dinner, options like filet mignon shrimp and black and salmon. So no shopping, prepping, cooking or cleaning up and they've got a special deal for the Monews community. Head over to factor meals.com/monews5050 and use that code Monews50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. That is code Monews50@factor meals.com/monews50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. And we're always talking about health trends, food trends here on the podcast. How hard is to get all your nutrition, all your vitamins? One way to get all the important ones, AG1 powder is just one scoop with a glass of water in the morning, easy and quick. You're replacing multiple health supplements here like multivitamins, digestive aids, which is one simple scoop. You're getting vitamin C in zinc for immune health. You're getting folate, magnesium for stress support. It really allows you to cover your nutritional bases in just about 60 seconds. With your first purchase of AG1, mode news listeners are getting a free one-year supply of vitamin D as well as five free travel packs of AG1. You can visit drinkagone.com/monews to take advantage of this offer and you can get a discounted monthly subscription or just try it one time for just one month. Again, the website drinkagone.com/monews that is drinkagthenumberone.com/monews for this special deal. All right. Time now for the speed read from Bloomberg. The Democratic National Committee is considering formally nominating President Biden as early as mid July, so in a couple of weeks from now, to ensure that the president is on the November ballots. They hope it will help stamp out intra-party chatter of replacing him after last week's board debate performance. A potential date provided in nomination is July 21st when the Democratic Convention's credentials committee meets virtually. Democrats would already plan to nominate before their August convention in order to ensure that he appears on the ballot in Ohio, which had an August 7 deadline for candidates to be certified. So August 7th was going to be the date, now it might only be three weeks away. In the days since his rough debate performance, Biden's allies and the White House have struck a defiant tone angrily dismissing calls for the oldest president in US history to end his reelection bid. The incumbent president won about 99% of his parties pledged delegates during the 2024 primary contest, giving him great sway over the party establishment. Yeah, we told you about this yesterday that ultimately, if there is to be a person not named Joe Biden running the Democratic ballot this year, Joe Biden would have to step down himself and it does not appear to be the case. And then a hostile takeover would require several thousand people, Jill, many of them loyal to Joe Biden to somehow flip on him. So this move up significant, if it happens, either way, you're looking at July 21st or August 7th to lock in Joe Biden as the next Democratic nominee becomes much harder once he's locked in that way. Also when it comes to whose name is on the ballot, there could be legal issues, et cetera. Told you, yes, you're the families on board here, among the loudest voices, Hunter Biden, his son, Jill Biden, his wife, she told Vogue that the family will not let those 90 minutes to find the four years he's been president, we will continue to fight. Do you pierce here, Jill, in recent stories, Jill Wagner, that Jill Biden really appears to be the person really pushing here. I mean, we knew that she held the strings here. We've talked about it on previous podcasts, we've got interviews about this. But Jill Biden, ultimately, up to her, it appears, and she is gung-ho that Joe should be president for another four and a half years. Very interesting timing, Moshe, on that Vogue piece. I finished about half of it. I plan to finish the rest of it as soon as I can. Of course, they went back and asked her about the debate performance. But yes, she really does appear to be pulling the strings here. Yeah, don't mess with someone named Jill, they have a strong head on their shoulders. Anyway, it comes as there still is behind-the-scenes talk, emphasis on behind-the-scenes. She wants to go out there and go out against the president. In particular, I was struck by this Politico piece that came out in the last 24 hours. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who is widely talked about as somebody who's a future presidential candidate or even this year, she actually made a point of calling the Biden campaign chair, Jennifer O'Malley-Dillon, over the weekend, and she wanted to convey a very clear message. This is the Michigan governor. She hates the way her name is being floated out there, and she is definitely not behind the chatter that she wants by now and she should be the nominee. This is the issue you see she's facing, Gavin Newsom is facing. Everyone whose name is circulated, they want to show their loyalty to the current president, but behind-the-scenes, they're all freaking out a little bit. Members of the party worried that the polling post-debate are going to show a collapse here. Politico also reported that Gretchen Whitmer said in the conversations with the Biden campaign that things are looking pretty bad for the Biden campaign in Michigan right now and they are going to have a very difficult time winning it. The challenge for these names that are circulating, the next gen Democrats, is that every elected Democrat is rallying behind Biden. You cannot come out against him publicly or it'll be viewed as self-interested treachery. If he loses, they'll blame those people saying you're the ones who are throwing arrows at your own guy. We're going to make sure you never become the nominee of this party and Biden has a lot of officials around him that are younger than him and will be around for a while. They don't want to be blamed if Biden loses. That said, these Democratic governors deeply frustrated according to Politico that there is this generation full of talent, ambition, younger people who believe they can beat Trump, but they're not going to be given the opportunity. So far they're anxiously sitting on the sidelines and calling the Biden campaign being like, I'm totally not throwing you into the bus right now. >> And then hanging up the phone, turning to their spouses and being like, my God, get this guy, please step down. The people who are talking are the pundits and I was watching this interview with James Carville in case you're not- >> We should note, James Carville, the rage in Cajun hasn't been involved in a campaign since the 90s, since he was a bill Clinton guy. >> Yes, since he coined it's the economy stupid. >> It's the economy stupid like he's sort of peaked in 92. But since then he's been on TV for the last 30 years. >> But he tells it like it is. >> Yeah, he's fun to watch James, yes. >> And he was just like, the people have spoken. They think he is too old. Like they are ready for the torch to be handed and passed to the next generation. Why won't they do it? >> By the way, I should note James Carville checked his aides, Jill. He's younger than Joe Biden. He's 79. >> He's a spry 79 that James Carville. >> Well, and it's funny, a friend of mine messaged me and said, what about Hillary Clinton? Would she ever run again? And my first inclination was to think she's too old, she wouldn't want to run again. And then obviously of course, there are so many implications, she already lost to Trump. She has a lot of negatives against her. She doesn't even want it anymore. >> Well, first of all, I just agreed that- >> Oh, she probably does. >> Hillary Clinton will go to her grave wanting to be president, Jill. But if there's anyone who has negatives as high as Trump in Biden's country, it is one Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is 76 years old, younger than both Trump and Biden. >> Exactly, but in my mind, my first thing was like she's too old to run for president. >> Yeah. >> And anyway, the James Carville interview was just, he was fired up as he tends to be. And I think he was expressing the sentiments of a lot of Americans right now. >> Again, people keep asking, it's a collective action problem. No Democrat wants to come out there and speak out against the leader of their party. Unless they all do it, hold hands and jump in a circle together saying, he must go. And one of the reasons the Biden team planned this debate so early was one, they were hoping for a great debate where they could change momentum early enough. But two, in case things went south, they'd have time to recover. And so it appears here that it's the latter, that they've been trying to tamp down on all this chatter that the only people willing to speak candidly here are sort of the four. If you have former in your name, former Senator, former governor, former campaign manager, those are the people who are speaking out. Anyone who's current or has ambitions in the future, they're scared of speaking out publicly against the leader of their party. And so it appears at this juncture after a pretty perilous a couple days there that Joe Biden is in it to win it, his family is in it to win it. We still don't have a good sense of how Americans think after that debate. But based on the initial CBS poll we told you about yesterday, it appears for the most part Americans already thought he wasn't cognitively there, now just a slight higher number believe that. But this is a game of inches in this presidential election. So we'll see what that means. >> Well, when the next debates at 2 PM, we'll know why. >> September 10th, 2 PM, a matinee. >> I love it, it's perfect for me. >> All right, in business news from The New York Times Boeing saying on Monday that it agreed to buy a major supplier spirit aero systems, it ends in nearly two decade experiment in outsourcing production of major components of its commercial planes, including the body of the 737 max and parts of other planes. In buying spirit, Boeing hopes to solve quality problems that have plagued the supplier in recent years. And while it already has significant influence over spirit, Boeing will more easily be able to monitor and change production practices by owning the business. Boeing has taken internal steps to improve quality as well after a harrowing incident in which a panel blew out of one of its planes on a flight in January. >> Yeah, a reminder that panel was installed by spirit aero systems, then taken apart by Boeing at their factory and then put back in with missing bolts, I have a feeling that if this goes down, Jill Spirit Airlines will have to re-explain to people over and over again, that they are not owned by Boeing, the spirit aero systems. Same name, different company. Boeing here, as you mentioned, had this strategy several decades ago of selling off parts that included what would become spirit aero systems about 20 years ago. This outsourcing drive, now they're flipping it. They both had quality control issues, they're increasing inspections. So now, this deal expected to be valued at about $4.7 billion in stock. It is subject to regulatory approval, and Boeing is certainly receiving a lot of scrutiny right now by regulators, by the federal government. And it does come, we reported this on the Instagram account yesterday, that Boeing right now is facing a potential plea deal. The Justice Department offering a deal for Boeing to say yes to, in the next week, it relates to a fraud case related to the 737 MAX, those planes, two of them were involved in crashes a couple years ago, they killed more than 340 people. This is a guilty plea, has to do with two employees that withheld information from the FAA, the terms here, a fine of a couple hundred million dollars, new investment in safety improvements, three years of scrutiny, but some people who aren't happy about this are the families of the victims of those plane crashes, who are frustrated that the federal government keeps making deals here with Boeing, not letting them pursue their own litigation. From the Associated Press, victims of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, sued Iran, Syria, and North Korea on Monday, saying that their government supplied the militants with money, weapons, and the know-how that were needed to carry out the assault that precipitated Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York, it is seeking at least $4 billion in damages for quote, "a coordination of extra judicial killings, hostage-takings, and related horrors for which the defendants provided material support and resources." So you might not be surprised to find out that these countries rarely abide by court rulings against them in the US, again, Syria, North Korea, Iran could care less about court rulings in the US. But one of the goals here is that if the lawsuit is successful, they could seek compensation from a fund created by Congress that allows American victims of terrorism to receive payouts. All three countries, Syria, Iran, North Korea, on a list that the US government has for countries that support terrorism. And so there's this fund that comes from seized assets, fines, other penalties leveled against those that do business with state sponsors of terrorism. So the government goes after companies that do business with countries like Iran, North Korea, they get money from them, great, it's fun, and the families would have access to those funds. Back in the region, while we're talking about Hamas, there's a story out of the Wall Street Journal in the last day, that the Israelis are now seeing increasing evidence that Hamas and Islamic Jihad and other terror groups are prepared for a very long insurgency now in Gaza. The terrorists fired one of the largest barrages of missiles towards Israel on Monday, while Israeli forces reengaged with Hamas fighters in Gaza City in a neighborhood they had previously invaded and that Hamas, somehow some fighters, crept back in there. So it shows that the conflict here is becoming a potential war of attrition as what's left of the terror battalions, Israel says it's destroyed all of them at this point, but there's individual fighters left from some of those battalions that are still able to wage an insurgency. And so they are able to fire rockets, mortars, and so while the vast majority of the capabilities are gone, they can't wage anything like October 7th. Again, these individual fighters can still engage in attacks. So the analysts here say that Israel is at risk of sinking into a long-term conflict with Hamas. Not dissimilar from what we've seen before the war, but despite Israeli pledges that they would destroy Hamas, though in recent months they've acknowledged they can't ever completely destroy Hamas. They can just take out the majority of their capabilities. It's why, you know, many in Israel, the majority of the government, etc., cease fire as a longer-term solution here. And that's something, Joe, that came up in a documentary that I released last week. I don't know if everyone in the pod has gotten a chance to see it. We promoted it over on Instagram. We have a link in the show notes, but a 40-minute watch from a visit I made to the region several months ago, really diving into the question of what comes next, what comes after the war, what happens to the Israelis, the Palestinians, what's the future governance of Gaza, and how Gaza gets rebuilt again and the future of Hamas. All of that captured in the documentary after the war. From the Wall Street Journal, NATO will station a senior civilian official in Kyiv among a raft of new measures designed to shore up long-term support for Ukraine that are expected to be announced at the summit in Washington next week. The steps seek to help Ukraine's prospects to eventually join the alliance without offering it membership. Dubbed NATO security assistance and training for Ukraine, the operation will be staffed by nearly 700 U.S. and other allied personnel from across the 32-country alliance. It will take over much of a mission that has been run by the American military. So, the former U.S. Ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying a big reason for the change is to "Trumpproof the assistance effort to Ukraine, rather than having Washington in charge of managing the training and assistance, NATO will now be in charge. So even if the U.S. reduces or withdraws support for the effort, it won't be eliminated." This is a term you're hearing more and more here, especially on the NATO front with concerns. Trump has said pretty explicitly that he's done supporting Ukraine. He wants to end the war immediately. The thought is that he basically will concede to Putin and the territory that Putin has taken so far. So, a lot of folks at NATO concerned. Trump is also talking about pulling out of NATO, so they're trying to create new programs that, again, "Trumpproof" and, frankly, also help them with potential other far-right parties across Europe that are getting support, that are also not fans of giving more aid to Ukraine. Some are closer to Putin. And so, NATO is figuring all of this out. Jill, you and I will be in Washington next week, where the NATO summit, the 75th anniversary NATO summit since it was formed, all 32 leaders will be in Washington. So, we'll be down there covering that behind the scenes. We'll be a really major focus there. And so, looking forward to getting a sense of what's next and what they're up to on this issue and others next week. To business news, Axios has a state of the economy halfway into 2024. The good and the bad. The economic soft landing seems to have stuck, which means no recession. Although inflation has also been frustratingly persistent and interest rate cuts that many were hoping for by now will be slower to arrive. And that is where the U.S. economy stands as we pass the midpoint of 2024, a series of elevated inflation numbers in the first three months of the year scared of the Fed. And it now looks like only one or two rate cuts are on the way this year down from three that were the consensus six months ago. But the job market has kept shugging along and the financial markets have taken the diminished rate cut outlook in stride. So, yeah, the side market doing incredibly well, Jill, though it's focused on generative AI, you know, Nvidia and a few of those stocks that are really lifting up the market, the S&P 500 is up 15% for the year. So that's the bucket of those huge companies that give you a better sense of the state of the economy. You mentioned unemployment. It has risen slightly ever so slightly over the last six months up from 3.7% to 4% in May. Still it record lows when it comes to decades, just not as low as it was in December. The number of job openings have been falling. And so you see that unemployment rates slightly tick up. Inflation remains stubbornly above 3%. They would really like it to be back at 2%. And of course, the Fed hasn't lowered interest rates yet. Jill, one statistic economist, are looking at lower income Americans appear to be particularly stretched right now. It's showing up in a lot of reporting when it comes to consumer facing companies, higher credit card delinquency. And that's concerning to some folks who are watching that, you know, people are sort of stretched beyond their means right now. And from the Washington Post, we end with a summer travel story, Moshe. It might be time again for everyone to pack the most important thing. Your children, diapers, diapers are really important for us. They're patients, Moshe, pack their patients, pack your patients, everyone, local news. So I always love this, Jill. This time of year, the Mo News community notices on their local news when a reporter says pack your patients and they send me clips. So definitely be on the lookout folks, send me those clips, I'll post them. I saw one a couple of days ago, but I missed, like I couldn't get my phone out in time and I couldn't rewind it. Guess what? There'll definitely be another one because it's all this mandatory and local news to use the expression, take your patients at least five times a year. So if history is any indication, we are about to enter the time of year with the most delays caused by extreme weather, as well as some of the busiest flying days ever recorded. The TSA recently broke a single day record by screening close to 3 million passengers and it expects to see more than 32 million passengers over the 10-day period that runs until next Monday. July was hit hardest by extreme weather last year, about 8,000 delays. July was the worst month of the year for delays in six of the past eight years. Between June and August of last year, there were nearly 20,000 delays because of extreme weather, which is more than the number of those delays in the six least affected months combined. Yeah. It's hard to avoid summer travel, given everyone's schedules, but if you can avoid it, you can typically avoid delays. So we have a couple tips for you. We've shared this before. If you can go by ground, great. If you need to go by air or go direct and then take the earliest flight of the day, you can find the chance of bad weather is lower in the morning. Planes are already usually waiting at the airport, so the risk of delay is limited and if something goes wrong, you have the chance of catching a later flight. Also, if you know before heading to the airport that your flight will be delayed, a still played safe, still show up early, it'll give you some more options. There's also flight tracking sites like FlightAware and FlightRadar24. Why are those great? Because they allow you to type in your flight number and you can see what plane you're set to take and where that plane is, and you can track that plane from its original location. So like that plane looks like it's stuck in Boston or having some other issues, get me on another flight. So again, those are FlightRadar24 and FlightAware. As far as refunds, we still need to call and ask for them. We've talked to you on this podcast before that there's these new rules going into place, but they won't be in place until October for automatic refunds. So if you're looking for refunds for delays or cancellations, you still privy to the various airline policies before the federal policy takes a precedence in October, so make sure to read in there. There's a bunch of good Instagram accounts too that you can follow that give you guidance on what to say and how to ask for credit and money back from the various airlines. All right, now time for on this day in history, while all of us in America will be celebrating Independence Day on July 4th, as we always do. It was actually July 2nd on this day in 1776 that the Continental Congress voted for independence. So the written declaration of independence wasn't ready yet. They were still putting the final touches on it, but they voted for independence on this day on July 2nd, it would take them two more days to edit the documents until they were ready on July 4th. And that's when John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress started signing it and everyone else started signing it. And then we should note the US wouldn't actually achieve independence till seven years later till 1783 with the defeat of the British. That said, John Adams writes his wife a letter on July 3rd, 1776, and he says, "The second day of July will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival." Well, unfortunately for John Adams, a variety of things, but July 4th is that day. And in fact, he would live on for a while after 1776, after his presidency, and he refused to attend July 4th parties for any celebrations of July 4th because he was insistent that July 2nd should be the Independence Day because that's when they voted on it, till his death chill. John Adams. I like his passion, I respect it. You ever see the series on HBO, Paul Giamatti playing John Adams? I know. He's a perfect John Adams. I mean, it's based on the McCullough book, but if you're not ready for several hundred page biography of John Adams, there's the HBO series, I highly recommend it. Fast forward in other presidential history, on this day in 1964, Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law on this day. It prohibits discrimination and segregation based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. On this day in 1962, in business news, the first Walmart opens up in Rogers, Arkansas. Sam Walton opens what would become the largest retail sales chain in the United States. In book news, on this day, Stephen Hawking, the physicist, broke the publishing records in 1992 when his book A Brief History of Time remained the nonfiction bestseller for three and a half years. It sold more than three million copies in 22 different languages, going from Stephen Hawking to Vanell Ice as we do on this podcast. We've got range. On this day in 1990, Ice Baby comes out, Jill, that song turns 34 years old this year. And we are the Men in Black 1997, Men in Black, Will Smith, Timely Jones, Opens in theaters on this day. All right, Mosh, thank you for the walk down memory lane. And thank you all for listening to the Monuse Podcast. If you like what you hear, please share this with your friends, it will help us grow. Follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode and review us in the App Store. Special promotion this week for Monuse Premium. We're doing coverage exclusively this week on our premium Instagram account. It goes all year long. That's where we do weekend news is where we do deep dives, video Q&A's. There's a premium pod where you get various episodes first, including this week. You'll get another one. On the 15 lines, women are told it were. So look out for that later today on the premium pod. Right now we have a promo going on. The code is stay informed. One word stay informed over at mode.news/premium. The code is stay informed. You'll get me months off the annual deal. Join the masses over at mode news premium. It's a way to support us here. Everyone's doing it, Moshe. It's like the skincare. There you go. It's the new skincare. It's like seven year olds at Sephora. You have to join. You have to join to be cool. All right, everyone. We will be back with one more daily podcast this week before the holiday. So make sure you tune in then. And thanks for listening. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Mo News podcast. [MUSIC]
