The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

For all of the “pain at the pump” stories, the answer is that wages and salaries have kept pace with inflation since Biden took office—and by this measure, most Americans are much better off than before the pandemic hit in 2020, and before he took office in 2021.  [snip]

The math may sound complex, but in fact it’s simple: In June 2022, the average working American earned $74,643 in wages and salaries, compared to $74,624 in January 2021 and $70,274 in February 2020. Even with 9.5 million more people working, the average working person earned as much in June, after inflation, as when Biden took office. And compared to just before the pandemic, when employment was comparable to today, the average person earns 6.2 percent even after inflation. The answer to Reagan’s question is “Yes” on wages and salaries as well as jobs, a remarkable achievement given the pandemic.  [snip]

Under Biden, Americans are better off in other ways, too. The Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University reports that the poverty rate, which reached 16.1 percent in December 2020, fell sharply under Biden to 14.1 percent by May 2022. It’s the same story on health care coverage: The Department of Health and Human Services reported that from late 2020 to early 2022, the percentage of uninsured Americans fell from 14.5 percent to 11.8 percent among adults (ages 18 to 64) and from 6.4 percent to 3.7 percent among children, both record lows.

If not for the pandemic and the policies required to address it, inflation would be modest—and but for the inflation, Biden would have one of the best records of any postwar president (at least thus far).

The bad:

“That is against the law, and now they’re gonna pay the price for it,” [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis declared of 20 Floridians — almost all from Democratic strongholds such as Broward County, where his campaign-rally-style announcement was staged, or Miami-Dade — accused of casting ballots despite a law barring them because they’d been convicted of murder or sexual assault.

But the event and its stench of “law and order” intimidation revealed so much more through what was left unsaid. Such as the fact that DeSantis’ Office of Election Crimes and Security — like so much that the Florida governor does, a dangerous escalation of the GOP’s long-running war on voting rights into straight-up authoritarian territory — has spent $3.9 million in taxpayer dollars to find alleged fraud in less than 0.0002% of the 11 million votes cast in the Sunshine State. The outlay is about $195,000 for each allegation.  [snip]

There are two very important things going on here — and neither of them is a real-world problem around “election integrity.” Most immediately, DeSantis — favored for re-election in November, but hardly a lock in a state he won by just 32,000 votes in 2018 — clearly seeks a chilling effect that would frighten thousands of voters who are unsure of their eligibility and now may stay home rather than risk getting arrested.

The broader implication is even more frightening. The time for mincing words is over. This is the latest and most alarming manifestation of a now barely hidden fascism by the head of America’s third-largest state, and one of the handful of serious contenders for the White House. DeSantis’ push for voter suppression and the increasingly paramilitaristic vibe of his public appearances prove the Floridian is the one we’ve been warning about: A post-Trump Republican taking a war on democracy to an even more dangerous place, minus the buffoonish narcissism of the 45th president.

The ugly:

"Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate. This is such an affront to honor and to leadership. He should spend more time (and money!) helping them get elected, and less time helping his crazy wife and family get rich on China!"  (The Malignant Loser on his loser social media platform on August 20.)

Republicans in disarray!  A pox on both of them, of course, but the stench of the Malignant Loser's racist/ misogynist dog whistle, referring to his former Secretary of Transportation, makes this especially ugly.  Maybe he's anticipating her testimony before the January 6 committee to be yet another damning assessment of his incompetence and treasonous behavior?