Mother Teresa is responsible for one of my favorite quotes of all time “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
it is so easy to get overwhelmed with all that needs doing and with the desires of our egos to make giant moves that are noticed by others. But it is really the accumulation of small things, done with great love, that makes this world a better place.
And that is something all of us can do.
I was reminded of that quote when I saw this post:
now onto the good news!
The Economy is Strong
The end of year analyses are rolling in and they are full of good news of Bidenomics WORKING for the American people!
It was a good year for the economy
As 2023 comes to a close, it is a good time to take stock of the progress made and the work that lies ahead. Over the last year, economic growth has been strong, while inflation has declined by two thirds, and unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years. Supply chains have been rebuilt, and productivity is up. American workers are finishing the year in a stronger position than before the pandemic—with wages and wealth up by more than inflation and strong employment thanks in part to the President’s Bidenomics agenda. But many Americans continue to face challenges, and there is more work to do to lower costs for American families, which is the President’s top economic priority.
Prices fell last month for the first time since April 2020
After three-plus years of prices steadily — and sometimes sharply — increasing month after month after month, they fell in November.
Last month, for the first time since April 2020, prices fell on a monthly basis, according to a closely watched report released Friday by the Commerce Department.
US inflation slowed further in November, and consumer spending continued to outpace expectations, lending further credence to the idea that the US Federal Reserve could stick its “soft landing” of bringing down inflation with a barrage of interest rate hikes while not throttling the economy into a recession.
November’s Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, a comprehensive measure of prices US households pay for goods and services, declined 0.1% from the month before, bringing the annual inflation rate to 2.6%.
It’s the first time the headline PCE index decreased on a monthly basis since the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Annually, it’s a marked improvement from a 2.9% rate in October and the 40-year high of 7.1% notched in June 2022.
A year ago, the consensus forecast expected inflation to fall to roughly where it is today at the expense of a large increase in unemployment and slowdown in growth. President Biden did not agree such a sacrifice would be necessary.
CPI inflation is running at 3.1% over the last year—similar to the decades prior to the global financial crisis—and down two thirds from its peak. Core inflation has fallen to 3.4% over the last three months. At the same time, employment and growth have far exceeded expectations, with the unemployment rate remaining below 4% for 22 months in a row, and the economy growing by 3.0% over the last four quarters.
The rebuilding of supply chains, a large increase in Americans participating in the labor force, and a boost to productivity have enabled robust growth and employment to continue, while inflation moderated.
All told, workers’ wages are higher than before the pandemic, adjusting for inflation
Wages are up by more than inflation over the last year and relative to before the pandemic, making the average worker’s net take home pay better than it was nearly four years ago. For middle- and lower income workers—the “production non-supervisory” workers who make up 80% of the workforce—real wages are up 1.2% over the last year and 2.7% since before the pandemic, with wages for those workers having returned to their pre-pandemic trend.
How are household balance sheets doing?
Real wages aren’t the only metric by which American economic well-being has improved. The latest Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) reported that real median household net worth is 37% higher than before the pandemic—the largest percentage gain in wealth in the history of the survey. Households in the lower half of the income distribution saw the largest gains, with particularly large gains for Black and Hispanic households. According to the Conference Board, job satisfaction has also reached its highest level in 36 years.
President Biden’s economic plan has helped enable American households to pay down debt and lower their debt payments, especially for credit card and student loan debt. Median debt payments as a share of income fell to the lowest level in the history of the SCF. This progress comes as the share of households without health insurance fell to a record low of 7.8% this year. Business ownership also reached new records: the business ownership rate rose 9% since 2019,with particularly strong gains for Hispanic and Black households.
Growth was stronger than expected a year ago.
Defying pessimistic forecasts, US economic growth has progressed at a significant pace over the course of 2023. Last December, the private consensus for real economic growth as measured by the Blue Chip Economic Forecast was negative 0.1% for the year. The latest Blue Chip projection for 2023 growth, incorporating all available data to date, is positive 2.6%, driven by strength in consumer spending, a revival in manufacturing structures investment and increased state and local government purchases. The level of US real GDP in 2023 even exceeded some pre-pandemic forecasts, including that of the Congressional Budget Office and the International Monetary Fund. Sound household balance sheets and a strong labor market are the primary drivers of US consumer expenditures, which continue to grow at a pace close to the average among prior expansions.
Manufacturing investment reached historic highs.
In 2023 Q3, real (inflation-adjusted) private manufacturing construction investment reached its highest level on record since 1958. Likewise, manufacturing construction contributed the most to year-on-year real GDP growth on record. A major factor in this historic manufacturing boom has been the Inflation Reduction Act.
Job gains continued at a very strong pace in 2023, although down from the torrid rates seen in 2021 and 2022 immediately following the pandemic recession. Monthly nonfarm payrolls grew by 232,000 per month on average in 2023, 55,000 more jobs per month than the average pace in 2018 and 2019. As a result, total job gains achieved under the Biden administration reached 14.1 million through November 2023. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has, to date, stayed below 4% for 22 straight months, a run not seen in more than 50 years. This is especially remarkable given the fall in inflation.
Inflation decelerated throughout the year
After peaking in summer 2022, inflation has been on a downward trend for a year and a half thanks to a retreat of food, energy, and goods inflation. Inflation in the services sector—which heavily depends on wages as labor is the most important cost in the production of services— has decelerated more slowly and in lockstep with a gradual moderation of wage inflation. Meanwhile, market data on new leases suggest that housing price pressures should continue to ease.
As CEA has highlighted, the rise and subsequent fall of inflation during the pandemic was overwhelmingly linked to supply-side forces, including the unsnarling of global supply chains and the rise in prime-age labor force participation. Our analysis finds that the unsnarling of supply chains, either by themselves or in tandem with cooling demand, explain 80 percent of the disinflation that has occurred thus far. In fact, one of the most important economic developments of the year was the achievement of significantly lower inflation without a substantial rise in the unemployment rate.
Real wages grew and wage inequality fell.
Real wages began to grow in 2023 as inflation fell from its 2022 peak and workers received robust nominal wage gains. In the year ending in November, real wages grew by about 0.8 percent for all workers and 1.1 percent for the 80% of workers who are production and non-supervisory workers. Further, wage inequality fell. The ratio of wages at the 90th percentile compared to the 10th percentile fell by nearly 6 percent over the year. One reason to continue to be optimistic about this trend in 2024 is the historic union activity and wins in 2023. Strong unions help grow the economy by reducing inequality and raising incomes.
Women and Black Americans made historic gains in the labor market.
The year 2023 saw the highest rate of prime-age women participating in the labor force on record since 1948. The previous high of 77.3 percent in April 2000 has been surpassed in each of the last eight months. The record labor force participation of this group has served to boost incomes of American households and keep consumer spending strong.
In 2023, the economy achieved the smallest gap on record between the employment rates for Black versus white American workers, averaging–0.7 percentage point. The strong economy fostered by President Biden’s economic policies reduced some long-running inequities in the labor market and squeezed this gap to its lowest level on record.
Consumer sentiment improved in 2023.
With more work to do on lowering costs, consumer sentiment has further room to grow. However, 2023 saw momentum in the recovery of consumer attitudes. One way to see this is by tracking the same workers over time in the University of Michigan Survey of Consumer Sentiment. Figure 10 shows the difference between the share of respondents who report higher sentiment than they did six months prior and those who report lower sentiment over the same period. Values greater than zero indicate that more respondents are reporting improved sentiment over the period versus a decline in sentiment. Throughout 2023, the net share of respondents reporting higher sentiment than they had 6 months prior reached between 10-20 percentage points, a level of momentum historically associated with robust economic growth.
U.S. economy grows at blockbuster pace in third quarter
The U.S. economy grew by an annualized rate of 4.9 percent in the third quarter, the strongest pace since 2021, as spending — by families, businesses and the government — accelerated, even in the face of fast-rising borrowing costs.
Democrats are doing great things
The new North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman, in her mid-20s, didn’t only believe in running everywhere. Anderson Clayton gave the candidates running in the toughest districts a name:
“Champion candidates!”
Because, as she says, by running in those tough districts, these heroes are championing the Democratic cause and values. And from my standpoint, they’re championing democracy itself.
Now that is how you show that you value running in these tough districts—which means you value running everywhere.
Well, Chairwoman Clayton got to work finding those champion candidates, in a state that’s seen a non-stop attack on democracy as brutal as any state. (Half the major cases involving gerrymandering seem to come out of North Carolina, including Rucho itself).
Chairwoman Clayton has been tirelessly circling the state recruiting ever since, and yesterday was the filing deadline.
And…WOW did she succeed!
Only two years ago, North Carolina Democrats didn’t field a candidate in 29 statehouse districts. That left about 40% of Republican members without opposition. And THAT is an unacceptably high number of politicians feeling zero accountability to the people—exerting power with no democracy.
Democrats are now in ALL but 2 of 170 races!!!
And all 50 Senate districts have a Democratic candidate—in 2022, 15 seats went unopposed! From 15 to zero!
“North Carolina Democrats have reversed the narrative…Chided for absences across more than 25% the General Assembly races in 2022, Friday's final half-day of election filing for the 2024 cycle brought a resounding end to the fortnight.”
And then there’s Texas, which has been ground zero of extremism for years—including the last few weeks of inhumane and cruel treatment of Kate Cox.
It’s no longer acceptable for those inflicting all that extremism to face no accountability for doing so. Which is why I was thrilled to hear of great recruiting success in Texas as well.
Through a new effort called Lone Star Rising, the Texas Democratic Party recruited far more aggressively than before.
As a result, they are contesting every statewide office, every Supreme Court seat up, every court of appeals seat, every state school board seat, and every state senate seat up.
They will have a candidate running in 84% of the statehouse seats—a 42% reduction from 2022 in the number of seats not contested by Democrats candidates.
Great work, Texas Dems!
The Arkansas Democratic Party is also getting in on the act, setting a record for how many candidates they recruited to run for the Arkansas statehouse next year.
The difference in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas next year versus 2022 because so many candidates are stepping up.
Every one of these candidates will be holding incumbents accountable for extremism.
Every one (in Texas) will be talking about what happened to Kate Cox and the Supreme Court’s decision on her case.
Most people think the U.S. crime rate is rising. They're wrong.
Almost 80 percent of Americans, and 92 percent of Republicans, think crime has gone up. It actually fell in 2023.
Crime in the United States has declined significantly over the last year, according to new FBI data that contradicts a widespread national perception that law-breaking and violence are on the rise.
The FBI data, which compares crime rates in the third quarter of 2023 to the same period last year, found that violent crime dropped 8%, while property crime fell 6.3% to what would be its lowest level since 1961, according to criminologist Jeff Asher, who analyzed the FBI numbers.
Murder plummeted in the United States in 2023 at one of the fastest rates of decline ever recorded, Asher found, and every category of major crime except auto theft declined.
Asher maintains a separate database of murder in big cities which found that murder is down 12.7 percent this year, after rising during the pandemic.
Detroit is on pace to have the fewest murders since 1966, Asher found, while Baltimore and St Louis are on track to post the fewest murders in each city in nearly a decade. A few cities, including Memphis and Washington DC, are still seeing increases in their murder rates, but they are outliers.
and this from Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State (Democrat)
Tonight feels like a good time to tell you all that, for me, the absolute lowest moment in the post election battle we endured to protect Michigan’s accurate and legitimate election results in 2020 was not when armed protestors stormed my home.
It was the night of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers meeting.
I distinctly remember coming home that evening feeling completely defeated. We knew about the pressure not to certify (though until tonight I did not know about the recording). We were prepared to go to court to successfully ensure certification at the local and state level - and we were confident we’d win in court.
But blocking certification in Wayne County and pushing this to the courts would still delay and create enough doubt and uncertainty to enable the Trump campaign to push Pennsylvania, which was certifying the next week, to delay as well.
And we knew other dominos would fall after that.
How could we overcome the pressure of the then-President of the United States on local and state officials? Were the facts and law not enough?
Well, then something I’ll never forget happened.
Hundreds - hundreds (!) - of citizens showed up to the meeting of the Wayne County Canvassing Board to remind them of their duty under the law to ensure their votes counted.
Their voices mattered. Their votes mattered.
In my view that turned the tide.
Citizens and election officials in Wayne County and statewide didn’t flinch, stood firm, and demanded their votes be certified as required under the law.
And in the end, the Wayne County Canvassing board fulfilled their legal duty, followed the law and certified the election.
What started as the lowest moment of the post election melee became the most inspiring. The voters won. Facts and the rule of law carried the day. Democracy prevailed.
Bad News for Bad Guys
How the Mom and Daughter Who Doomed Rudy Will Haunt Trump
So far, Donald Trump has escaped being held accountable for the racist threats and abuse suffered by a pair of Georgia poll workers as a result of his refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
That should soon change
The wrongs inflicted on Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss are part of the federal conspiracy and obstruction case against Trump.
And the two resolutely decent public servants are also named as victims in the state RICO indictment brought against Trump and 18 co-conspirators by Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis.
In the criminal cases, the stakes will be one thing that even Trump dreads more than losing money: prison. And in the view of a prominent Georgia defense lawyer turned law professor, the mother/daughter duo will make the RICO case against Trump stronger just by being there.
The Colorado Supreme Court made history Tuesday with an unprecedented, freeze-in-your-tracks ruling that former President Donald Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run in 2024 because the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office covers his conduct on January 6, 2021.
Trump engaged in insurrection, court says
The ‘insurrectionist ban’ does apply to Trump
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the majority wrote. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
Judge again turns over Rep. Perry’s phone records to DOJ Jan. 6 probe
A federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department access to nearly 1,700 records recovered from the cellphone of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) in a long-running legal battle in the criminal investigation of former president Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The NRA Is at Rock Bottom—And 15 Years of Tax Filings Tell the Story
Few political groups in U.S. history have seen a collapse as swift and dramatic as the National Rifle Association.
Over the last several years, the NRA has experienced a public implosion, as the group loses members and revenue amid serious accusations of mismanagement and corruption. And according to the latest NRA tax returns obtained by The Daily Beast, the reputational and organizational damage is rolling on with seemingly no end in sight.
Trump recorded pressuring Wayne County canvassers not to certify 2020 vote
Then-President Donald Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to recordings reviewed by The Detroit News and revealed publicly for the first time.
McDaniel, a Michigan native and the leader of the Republican Party nationally, said at another point in the call, "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. ... We will get you attorneys."
To which Trump added: "We'll take care of that."
On the Lighter Side
What can you to save democracy?
We here at the GNR have set up a fundraising ActBlue account where you can donate and have it evenly distributed between 24 races that will be key to winning the House in 24!
Go ahead and donate at this link:
The 24 in 24! Win Back the House!
More worried about keeping tfg out of the WH? You could:
Donate to re-elect Joe Biden!
Looking for something else? Maybe something that doesn’t involve donating? GREAT! Here are some other ideas:
- Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- Get involved with Postcards to voters! Influence voters in key areas from the comfort of your own home!
- The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
- Volunteer with Black Votes Matter at this link. They have on the ground work in 10 states and people from other states can write postcards, phone bank, fundraise, and text.
- Sign up at Democracy Docket to stay informed about the fight against voter suppression and the fight for voter rights.
So pick just one and get to it!
I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you 💓💚💛🧡✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿✊❤️🧡💛💚