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Month: June 2023

Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?

You can’t make this stuff up.

A good piece from Mark Sumner at DKos on some of the weirdness coming out of the Ukraine war these days:

On Tuesday, Wagner Group CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin sat down for an interview with pro-Russian military blogger Konstantin Dolgov. Over the course of the discussion, the mercenary leader continued his barbed criticism of Russia’s military leadership, disparaged the sad state of the Russian army, and even seemed to suggest that a general revolt against the government of Vladimir Putin was right around the corner.

In the wake of that widely viewed interview, Dolgov was fired from his position at a Russian propaganda network, but Prigozhin … goes on. In what may be one of the most inexplicable chapters of Russia’s labyrinthine political system, Prigozhin still hasn’t had a stairwell accident, an unfortunate illness, or a visit to an open window despite months of increasingly blatant disdain for everyone and everything involved with Putin’s personal war on Ukraine.

Of all the things that Prigozhin said in the interview, the most painful and impactful to Putin and his long-term plans may not be that Russians might soon tire of sending their sons to die in muddy ditches, without decent training or equipment, while the offspring of the oligarchs frolic in Paris. The biggest was simply this: By the measures that Putin himself put up, the invasion of Ukraine is an absolute failure.

On the day that Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine, Putin set two straightforward goals in a speech to the Russian people: “de-Nazifying” and “demilitarizing” Ukraine. Essentially, that meant bringing down the Ukrainian government and destroying the Ukrainian military.

Even after the crushing defeat in the Battle of Kyiv, the second defeat in the Kharkiv counteroffensive, and the inability to hold onto the city of Kherson, Putin has continued to push these two goals. When it comes to everything that has happened or might happen in his illegal invasion, these are the two measures Putin built for himself, and has returned to again and again.

That’s what makes this the most critical moment of the interview with Prigozhin.

Prigozhin admits that Putin’s invasion hasn’t just failed, it has done the opposite of what Putin declared its central purpose. The Ukrainian government is by every measure stronger than it was when the war began, both in domestic popular support, and perhaps more importantly, in the international arena. Zelenskyy is the new Churchill. The Ukrainian military, warts and all, is now a symbol for strength, resilience, and bravery that has no modern rival.

“I don’t know,” said Prigozhin. “It’s like the Greeks during the period of Greece’s prosperity. Like the Romans were during …” At that point Dolgov cuts him off, but the point is made.

Which brings up the second measure of Russian failure, one that Prigozhin returns to several times in the interview. Putin hasn’t just been ineffectual in the effort to crush the Ukrainian military, his invasion has made that military much, much stronger. In fact, says Prigozhin, the Ukrainian military is now one of the strongest in the world.

“If at the start of the special operation they had 500 tanks, hypothetically speaking,” said the Wagner leader, “now they have 5,000 tanks. If 20,000 men were able to fight before, now it’s 400,000. … F*ck knows how, but we’ve militarized Ukraine.”

Putin has managed to turn Zelenskyy into a hero, the Ukrainian people into a symbol for everything good, and the Ukrainian military into one of the strongest in the world. At this rate, other nations might actually start to consider if they want to be invaded next.

It’s not just Prigozhin and it’s not just bloggers who are starting to realize how badly this whole thing has gone for Russia. Even on state-sanctioned propaganda television, the questions are getting a little uncomfortable.

“I have a question about the strategic defeat of America that you mentioned as our goal. Of course it sounds impressive, most of our viewers will like it. … But I have a feeling, you’ll probably disagree, but after fifteen months of fighting, when we have not only failed to crush Ukraine, but also could not move the front from Donetsk, well, it’s a little early to talk about America’s strategic defeat.”

The response—which includes a parable about learning to jump a two-meter bar by just jumping a two-meter bar—ends with a “Go for it, comrades!” and an insistence that being unable to wrest a kilometer away from Ukraine doesn’t mean they can’t conquer the whole United States. It’s every bit as nonsensical as it sounds.

Just where can the Russian military go to find any respect in this world? Well, comrade, there is always Fox News.

If you can get past the first minute, which DeSantis devotes to attacking the “woke” American military, you can finally reach that ray of hope on which Putin must currently hang his future dreams. DeSantis calls the illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine “what’s going on in Eastern Europe.” Then says he wants a “settlement,” says he worries about “a wider war,” and the only time he says the word “Ukraine” is when expressing how he doesn’t want to get involved there.

Right now, as most of the world waits for Ukraine’s next move, Putin has one hope—the Republican counteroffensive against democracy.

I don’t know what to say about this. But this war is something else.

The Chris Christie show is coming to town

He didn’t have much luck doing that with Trump, however, and was soon out of the race. Yesterday he announced that he was going to give it another shot although it’s highly unlikely he will get past the starting gate. But it would be nice if he could get his message out to at least a few people who have never heard any of it before.

Some highlights of his announcement:

I don’t know if he has any credibility with Republicans but he might have some with GOP leaning Independents. And maybe his words will somehow make it into the fever swamp, you never know.

Trump, by the way, responded in kind:

“It’ll be so easy…”

In fact, it should be ready in two weeks

Ah memories:

“My first day in office, I am going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability,” said Trump on Oct. 25, 2016 a day after he St. Augustine speech, in Sanford, Florida. “You’re going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost. And it’s going to be so easy.”

Fast forward to 2020:

Trump began teasing his own replacement plan during his first presidential bid, five years ago. Back then, he pledged to swap out the Affordable Care Act for “something terrific,” details TBD.

Over subsequent months and years, Trump boasted about the benefits of his plan. It would be cheaper yet somehow also more generous than Obamacare. It would be “so easy,” even though “nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” It would “take care of everybody,” even as it took literal care away from many.

Trump proclaimed the GOP will become “the party of healthcare,” but a conservative replacement to Obamacare would probably look something like…Obamacare. (Video: Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post)

This plan was always “two weeks” away — coincidentally the timeline promised for most every Trump announcement,including thoseabout wiretapping, infrastructure and Melania Trump’s immigration history.

As the fortnights passed, suspense grew. Finally, an announcement came this week: This Godot-like plan, this girlfriend-who-lives-in-Canada of public policies — it exists!

“I have it all ready,” Trump said at a town hall Tuesday, “and it’s a much better plan for you, and it’s a much better plan.”

Alas, Trump remains unable to share this “much better plan” with the public. Or, it seems, anyone within his administration.

Tens of millions of our fellow Americans believe that this clown had “great policies” and really delivered for the American people. That’ s the part I will never understand. Are they just stupid or (generously) uninformed about what he really did during his term? Is it just a way for them to rationalize their loyalty to an imbecile whose show they enjoy watching? Maybe it’s his overwhelming shamelessness that confuses them?

I honestly don’t know, but it will never stop shocking me that this was president and that all these people want him to do it again.

About those leaks

In case you were wondering about all the “leaks” we’ve been getting from the Mar-a-Lago case — and Trump’s lawyers screaming bloody murder that Jack Smith himself is doing the leaking , here’s an explainer from TPM:

The short answer is that the sources of the flurry of stories we’ve seen are witnesses in the case or, more precisely, their lawyers. Trump World figures, in responding and reacting to some of the disclosures, have divulged some new information, too, but that’s been less revealing of the underlying facts than of potential defenses they might use and the public narrative they want to create.

None of the big reveals about the MAL evidence from the last few weeks bear much sign of having come from Smith, the FBI, or DOJ more broadly.

Kurt Eichenwald, the veteran investigative reporter, had a good thread on the dynamics:

As a flood of details of the Trump MaraLago case come out, Trump, commentators etc say Smith’s team is leaking. As someone who has covered these kinds of cases many times, that is almost certainly not true. And the fact that this much is coming out is a bad sign for Trump as investigations near their close, there are scores of people who know what is going on.

Every witness has a lawyer, and all the lawyers speak to each other to make sure that their clients have not made an error in their testimony to the grand jury. Reporters always havestanding relationships with the lawyers and usually with the witnesses. We all know that, at some point, all of the lawyers will know everything and most of the witnesses will know that they are not in danger of indictment, and this is when everyone starts talking.with some exceptions, the reporters usually have establish relationships within the DOJ or independent counsel’s office, but they rarely will say anything other than to wave you off if your article is completely wrong.

They will let you be vaguely wrong, which is why you need strong relationships with everyone with contact to the investigation. Reporters are not simply sitting there waiting to lap up information from the prosecutors or FBI. With one exception, it never happens. The exception: Ken Starr and the Lewinsky investigation. 

Ken Starr personally leaked like a sieve. He even publicly admitted that in a tape recorded interview with Steven Brill, which was published in a now-defunct magazine called Content. Brett Kavenaugh on the Starr team also personally leaked (and now he is a SCOTUS justice) reporters did a horrible job during the Lewinsky investigation for that very reason.

They were easily manipulated because they thought they were getting the straight dope, but Starr & Co. were using them to put pressure on other potential witnesses by often making it seem like they knew more than they actually did. Bill Clinton disgusted Starr and his team – something reflected in the absurd, near-pornographic report they put out which had all the “impeach impeach!!!” recommendations that Mueller properly refused to do, recognizing that the decision to impeach was for Congress, not for him.

Starr exercised no such respect for the role that had become the traditional position for special prosecutors. And remember – Starr was appointed by a court *after* the previous Special prosecutor, Bob Fisk(fiske) concluded that there was nothing to the Whitewater case. Starr started from scratch, found nothing, and then pursued the Lewinsky case like it was the crime of the century.

So, bottom line: The vast amount of info coming out now indicates Smith is reaching the end of the investigation. There is literally no motivation any prosecutor would have at this stage to leak – not even a partisan like Ken Starr. And the lawyers/witnesses know pretty much the whole case, and near the end is when they all start blabbing.

Sounds right to me.

This is why they want to fold the FBI Director in contempt?

You’ve got to be joking.

Philip Bump unravels the looney tunes James Comer and Chuck Grassley jihad against Chris Wray for failing to “turn over” a document they’ve already seen. It’s a complicated story and it’s very, very stupid so take a deep breath:

Over the course of 2019, President Donald Trump and his allies were focused on the electoral threat posed by former vice president Joe Biden, the candidate leading in polling for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani thought he had a useful angle to that end: an allegation from a former Ukrainian official that Biden had leveraged American funding to benefit a company for which Hunter Biden, the vice president’s son, worked. That official, Viktor Shokin, met with Giuliani, then Trump’s attorney, to allege that the vice president had pressured Ukraine to fire him to block a probe into the energy company Burisma.

The claim didn’t withstand scrutiny. Shokin’s ouster was a multinational effort predicated on the prosecutor’s failure to address corruption. Biden’s insistence that the United States would withhold loan guarantees if Shokin retained his position was not because Biden wanted to end a probe into Burisma; there was no such probe by any independent account. If anything, his ouster was a function of his not investigating companies such as Burisma.

Giuliani was undeterred. Even after House Democrats had begun an impeachment inquiry into the Trump-Giuliani effort to force the Ukrainian government to announce an investigation into Biden, Giuliani continued to try to gin up allegations. He traveled to Ukraine in late 2019, where he conferred with various Ukrainian actors, including one later sanctioned for his ties to the Russian government.

In early 2020, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) revealed that he’d advised the former mayor to turn over any findings from his efforts to the Justice Department. Attorney General William P. Barr, at that point still a stalwart defender of Trump’s, told Graham “that they’ve created a process that Rudy could give information, and they would see if it’s verified,” the senator revealed on CBS that February.

“The Department of Justice has the obligation to have an open door to anybody who wishes to provide us information that they think is relevant,” Barr said when asked about Graham’s comments the next day. “I did say to Senator Graham, we have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from the Ukraine.”

“There are a lot of agendas in the Ukraine,” he added. “There are a lot of crosscurrents, and we can’t take anything we receive from the Ukraine at face value.”

Barr might have been wary in part because Giuliani had turned over a packet of material to the State Department the previous year, a pastiche of timelines, unverified allegations from Shokin and others, and various other things. It wasn’t just material from Ukraine that was dubious — it was unquestionably also material from Ukraine routed through Giuliani. By that point, the Trump White House had been warned specifically that Russian intelligence wanted to use Giuliani as a pass-through for misinformation to the president.

In December 2020, the New York Times reported that, at the time he offered hesitation on trusting information from Ukraine, Barr and the FBI had already been in contact with Giuliani. Barr had assigned U.S. Attorney Scott Brady to vet Giuliani’s information and, in late January 2020, Giuliani and Brady met in Pittsburgh along with Giuliani’s attorney Robert Costello and aides to Brady to discuss what the Times described as “explosive information about Hunter Biden that he had gathered from people in Ukraine and elsewhere.”

“Mr. Costello had several ensuing conversations with Mr. Brady’s office, including as recently as this summer, about the Bidens,” the Times reported, referring to summer 2020. “Mr. Costello and Mr. Giuliani also recommended a handful of potential witnesses in the United States and Ukraine for the F.B.I. to interview, but Mr. Costello said the F.B.I. never followed through.”

That may not have been true. A month ago, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) announced that they were demanding that the FBI turn over a document cataloguing an interview with a confidential source alleging a “criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” That was their formulation, one offered after they had learned of the document and, perhaps, after having read what it contained (as each has since admitted doing).

Over the ensuing 30-plus days, Comer in particular has been making repeated appearances on right-wing media outlets to chastise the FBI for failing to turn over the document. It’s a weird area of focus, certainly, given that he already knows what the document alleges and could therefore simply conduct his own probe of the claims. But given the hostility to the bureau that has been so useful for Trump to stoke, Comer and other Republicans have instead made the focus of their ire the FBI’s failure to hand over the document without redactions. Comer has threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in contempt.

The FBI’s response to this pressure has been to note that releasing unvetted interviews with sources is both a good way to share potentially false information and to put at risk both that specific informant and the confidence other informants might have in the confidentiality of their information. But the bureau agreed to privately show the document to committee leaders with some redactions. A document, remember, that Comer says he has already read.

That viewing occurred Monday. Comer’s takeaway? Wray must be held in contempt. The show goes on.

He did address the document, though, which Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, has now seen for the first time. Comer argued that the briefing revealed that the document “has not been disproven” and that it is “currently being used in an ongoing investigation,” a probe he thought was centered in Delaware.

“Americans have lost trust in the FBI’s ability to enforce the law impartially and demand answers, transparency and accountability,” Comer insisted, which is a bit like Trump complaining that no one trusts mail ballots anymore.

Comer’s comments, mostly read from a prepared statement, were followed by Raskin’s. The document, he said, was part of the Giuliani-to-Barr-to-Brady pipeline. A team was formed to look into the allegations included in the document that he and Comer reviewed, and spent the summer of 2020 doing so.

“As I understand it, in August [the team] determined that there was no grounds to escalate from an initial assessment to a preliminary investigation,” Raskin said. What’s more, he added, “they decided that there was no grounds to escalate this up to the investigative prosecutorial chain.”

It’s not clear exactly how the Giuliani information led to the use of a confidential source. Comer insisted repeatedly that this source was highly credible, though that of course doesn’t transfer to the secondhand information they were told — which may well have simply been what Giuliani heard in the first place. It’s also not clear what is at the center of the allegations, though Raskin’s comments about Ukraine and Brady suggest a strong likelihood that they (one again) center on Hunter Biden’s work with Burisma.

Neither Comer nor Raskin was specific about the claims. Comer’s insistence that the document is part of an ongoing investigation in Delaware suggests that, if he’s correct, it’s probably part of the known Hunter Biden probe. (When the Times wrote about Brady’s role in December 2020, it noted that the Delaware team was frustrated at running parallel investigations.)

But that admission from Comer also undercuts his central political case. He insisted that the document was part of an ongoing investigation to heighten its importance — but that then undercuts the idea he needs answers on what happened with it. He admitted last week he’d already seen it, undermining the urgency of the FBI providing it. What’s more, if the FBI is using the information as part of an investigation, that bolsters the bureau’s argument for not releasing it.

We don’t know much more than we did a month ago, with a few exceptions. First, that it is linked to Giuliani’s endlessly dubious claims. Second, that the broad strokes of this probe have been known for more than a year without any hint of the president being targeted. And third, that Comer’s own rationales for putting pressure on the FBI have only gotten weaker.

This is so pathetic I can’t believe we even have to think about it. But we do because these people have power and they are using it.

Capitalism goes “woke”

Careful where you point that thing

It’s all fun and games until someone loses their beach house or their life’s savings (Axios):

Decisions by two major insurers to stop offering new homeowner’s policies in California highlight the growing portion of America that’s becoming close to uninsurable.

Why it matters: The threat of climate change-related disasters is a large factor driving up consumer costs and putting insurers out of business in parts of California, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere.

  • It is also bedeviling regulators. “I never thought I would see in my lifetime houses that are flat-out uninsurable,” says Robb Lanham, chief sales officer for insurance brokerage HUB Private Client, which works with about 500 insurers.

Driving the news: The recent moves by State Farm and Allstate to stop offering new homeowner insurance policies in California have kicked off a national conversation on insuring risk in an increasingly perilous climate.

Insurability in an age of climate change is a 50-state problem. It’s just growing more actute in California, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Louisiana and New York “as insurers are being forced to re-assess their risk tolerance as climate change leads to more common and severe extreme weather events, says Steve Bowen, chief science officer at Gallagher Re.”

Rates in Florida “are expected to rise about 43% to nearly $6,000 in 2023,” according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Worth noting: When homes become uninsurable, it makes it difficult to get a mortgage on the property.

  • In some cases, insurers are revising the types of policies they offer by including deductibles that are a percentage of the home’s value, instead of a flat amount.
  • Lanham says the risk of rising rates is that it’ll make areas unaffordable for certain residents and will trigger migration, causing coastal residents to move inland, for example.

No problem. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican state legislators will just madate that “woke” insurers offer coverage anyway. Because Florida is where capitalism goes to die.

Trump : toast

Can we just get on with it?

We keep getting teased that Donald Trump will soon be wearing an ankle bracelet over charges in one or another of the criminal investigations pending against him. So far, nada.

Seriously, are we going to have to go Ralph Kramden on Jack Smith’s Ed Norton? (A very old cultural reference, sorry.)

Again Monday, nada. CBS News:

Attorneys representing former President Donald Trump — John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan — met with special counsel Jack Smith and federal prosecutors at the Justice Department at around 10 a.m. Monday, according to two people familiar with the matter. 

The meeting took place weeks after Trump’s lawyers had requested a meeting with top federal law enforcement officials. The attorneys for the former president spent just under two hours inside the Main Justice building and declined to comment on their meeting as they left.  

Trump himself, increasingly anxious under his Swords of Dumbocles, is freaking out in all caps on Truth Social, as Digby noted Monday. Most notably, over Smith’s investigation into the classifieds documents Trump squirreled away at Mar-a-Lago when he left the White House.

In classic fashion, Trump denies any wrongdoing and whatabouts six classified documents Joe Biden retained inside his home and others in his garage after his vice presidency. Those Biden voluntarily turned over to the FBI when they were discovered. Plus, additional Biden papers “mostly from his years in the Senate, which are housed at the University of Delaware, his alma mater — and which the FBI has indeed been allowed to examine,” Eugene Robinson notes.

Any president or vice president might “inadvertently end up with a few documents that should have gone to the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act,” muses Robinson. But:

What is hard to understand — and, to my mind, illegal — is for a departing president to deliberately take thousands of documents that belong to the American people, including some classified at the highest top-secret level, and then spend over a year obstructing efforts by the Archives and Justice Department to retrieve those papers.

Now, if you or I had done that we’d already be wearing an ankle bracelet unless we were behind bars. Does anyone think otherwise?

According to a 2021 recording obtained by special counsel Jack Smith and first reported by CNN, Trump bragged to guests at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club about having a secret document relating to Iran. According to news reports, Trump expressed a desire to share the information with others but acknowledged he shouldn’t do so because the document was classified.

If the tape is as advertised, Smith may have no other choice than to issue a felony indictment, if not several. Smith’s other ongoing investigation is about Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection for which multiple Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been convicted of sedition.

Trump : toast, former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks commented Monday evening with a pin.

Robinson cautions against gleefulness:

Do not be joyful at the prospect. It is sad that a former president might soon face federal charges of mishandling classified information — or worse. It is sad that a former president already faces state charges of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to an adult-film star. It is tragic that a former president might soon face more state and federal charges for trying to overturn the result of a presidential election.

May justice be done, without fear or favor. And may the nation never again entrust such power and responsibility to such a small, craven, supremely unworthy man.

But lest Americans’ faith in equal justice erode any further, can we just get on with it?!

A feel-good story for troubled times

From twitter:

In one of the most notable moments in sports history, Kenyan runner Abel Mutai was just a few feet from the finish line, but became confused with the signage and stopped thinking he had completed the race.

A Spanish athlete, Ivan Fernandez, was right behind him, and after realizing what was happening, he started shouting at the Kenyan for him to continue running; but Mutai didn’t understand his Spanish. Fernandez eventually caught up to him and instead of passing him, he pushed him to victory.

A journalist asked Ivan, “Why did you do that?”

Ivan replied, “My dream is that someday we can have a kind of community life where we push and help each other to win.”

The journalist insisted “But why did you let the Kenyan win?”

Ivan replied, “I didn’t let him win, he was going to win.”

The journalist insisted again, “But you could have won!”

Ivan looked at him & replied, “But what would be the merit of my victory? What would be the honor of that medal? What would my Mom think of that?”

Values are transmitted from generation to generation. What values are we teaching our children? Let us not teach our kids the wrong ways to WIN.

Values like this are in short supply because they require that a person cares about integrity. It’s in short supply lately.

Yet another gap in the tape

Rosemary Woods demonstrating how she accidentally erased the 18 minutes…

Lol:

Right. Sure. That happened.

Maybe, just maybe, the media has something to do with this?

Most of the country thinks the economy is in the ditch. It isn’t.

Americans are not happy with the economy. Which is weird, given that it is doing just fine.

It’s hard to see what could turn sentiment around. That’s largely because of Fed chair Jerome Powell, who doesn’t want and won’t allow some kind of economic boom — he thinks the economy is running too hot already.

 The U.S. economy continues to defy the odds. The May employment report, released on Friday morning, marked the 14th straight month that more jobs were created than economists expected.

It’s all a far cry from the misery in other countries like the U.K. — with sky-high inflation — or Germany, which is now officially in a recession.

By the numbers: The U.S. economy has created more than 4 million new jobs in the past 12 months.

GDP continues to grow, and is up more than 5% from its pre-pandemic peak, even after accounting for inflation.

The average U.S. employee now makes $33.44 per hour, a raise of more than 17.5% since pre-pandemic.

The stock market is up 10% so far this year, and we’re not even halfway done.

Americans, however, don’t buy it. They’re broadly happy with their own personal finances, but a majority consistently thinks (erroneously) that we’re in a recession, and just 18% think the national economy is in good shape, per the Fed’s most recent Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking.

Part of the problem is higher consumer prices. Inflation might be coming down rapidly, but even if it goes all the way to zero prices will still be much higher than Americans became accustomed to.

The highly visible congressional dysfunction surrounding the debt ceiling, and all the associated rhetoric about the unsustainability of the national debt, can only have had negative effects in terms of Americans’ attitude to their national economy.

More broadly, some of the feverishness of the pandemic years is beginning to wear off. What remains is a highly disconcerting “New Not Normal.”

 The Federal Reserve has been hiking interest rates aggressively to try to cool down the economy and get inflation under control. Any hint of further exuberance will be met by even more rate hikes.

The Fed has no mandate to deliver a booming economy; its job is to just reduce inflation while keeping employment high. So far it seems to be succeeding, albeit more slowly than many would have preferred.

Sure, prices are higher than they were before the pandemic but wages are higher too so everyone should be able to adjust. I think this is just mass PTSD from the Trump years and he pandemic. The uncertainty about the election isn’t helping either.

But honestly, the media could help a little bit here by dispensing with the gloom and doom which isn’t called for. The economy is doing quite well and if they would report the good news without all the caveats, like “jobs and wages are up and inflation is down but child care is still hard to find” people might just get the word. But so far, they just seem stuck on the narrative and can’t get out of it.