The Joe Cunningham Show airs 3-4 p.m. every weekday on NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL. The daily show notes offer you a look into the topics of the day and the links to the top stories and Joe's own writings on the state of politics in Louisiana and around the country. Follow Joe on Twitter at @JoePCunningham and Like the Joe Cunningham Show on Facebook. You can also subscribe to the Joe Cuningham Show podcast on AppleSpotifyStitcher, or Amazon.

BREAKING: Louisiana's Abortion Ban Can Go Into Effect

Japanese Prime Minister Assassinated

The longest-serving Prime Minister in modern Japanese history was assassinated. Shinzo Abe was a beloved figure in Japanese politics, and was out giving stump speeches and possibly preparing for a political comeback. Abe had great working relationships with American presidents on both sides of our political spectrum. He dressed up as Super Mario during one Olympic ceremony as part of the announcement that Tokyo would host the next games.

However... far too many reporters are out there completely ignorant of the fact that American politics do not equate with politics elsewhere. Here's a now-deleted NPR tweet breaking the news.

A ridiculous tweet meant to be "other" Abe in Americans' eyes. By contrast, here's what NPR wrote about Fidel Castro upon his death.

The Coming Economic Collapse

Employers Adding Jobs In May Pushes Unemployment Rate Down To 3.8 Percent
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A solid jobs report today has a lot of people hopeful that perhaps a recession isn't coming after all. However, there is even more bad economic news you aren't hearing as much about.

Europe’s fertilizer plants, steel mills, and chemical manufacturers were the first to succumb. Massive paper mills, soybean processors, and electronics factories in Asia went dark.

Now soaring natural gas and electricity prices are starting to hit the US industrial complex.

On June 22, 600 workers at the second-largest aluminum mill in America, accounting for 20% of US supply, learned they were losing their jobs because the plant can’t afford an electricity tab that’s tripled in a matter of months. Century Aluminum Co. says it’ll idle the Hawesville, Kentucky, mill for as long as a year, taking out the biggest of its three US sites. A shutdown like this can take a month as workers carefully swirl the molten metal into storage so it doesn’t solidify in pipes and vessels and turn the entire facility into a useless brick. Restarting takes another six to nine months. For this reason, owners don’t halt operations unless they’ve exhausted all other options.

It's true that the jobs report was better than expected, but the workforce participation rate is still showing a lot of people simply aren't taking part in the job market, so expectations that we've staved off a recession may be premature. Other factors worth paying attention to include housing affordability, which has dropped to its lowest level since 2006.

Headlines Of The Day

  • New Data Shows Pretty Much No One Trusts the Media Anymore (RedState)
  • WWE’s Vince McMahon Agreed to Pay $12 Million in Hush Money to Four Women (WSJ)
  • Be Grateful for Crypto’s Well-Timed Meltdown (Bloomberg)
  • Pete goes Pure Michigan (Politico)
  • 'Diary of a Psychopath': The last days of Andrew Cuomo (HotAir)

Tweet Of The Day

Money Tight? Have a Phenomenal Staycation in Louisiana

You can travel only an hour or two a find a new place to visit, explore and be able to spend time with your family.

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