Are you better off than four years ago?

Any undecideds in your life about the election on Tuesday? Polls and pros are saying the only thing keeping a lot of voters on the fence is they think things were just swell under Donald Trump’s presidency.

Here’s an elevator pitch to wake them up, courtesy of Reuters:

In 2020 under Donald Trump’s presidency we had:

350,000 COVID dead

A plunging GDP

A shrinking economy

Unprecedented federal deficits

Lower average incomes

Higher unemployment

Higher inflation (6.2% — it’s now 2.4%)

— Reuters: “Trump wants to compare now to four years ago. Here’s what it looks like“

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

74 thoughts on “Are you better off than four years ago?”

  2. but a joyless future haunts us this halloween in David Horsey’s The specter of a second Trump term | The Seattle Times

    Fighting to get to sleep Sunday night, my mind was kept agitated into the wee hours by a waking nightmare that has afflicted a great many people in the Seattle area and across the country as Election Day draws near: the prospect that Donald Trump will be president again.
    Trump’s first four years provided an unceasing barrage of gobsmacking stupidity, criminal incitement, outrageous amorality and vast narcissism. Lying in the dark contemplating the reality that we might all be heading into that dismal chaos again, a feeling of dread would not leave me because I understood a second time around will be much worse.
    Karl Marx is quoted as saying, “History repeats itself; the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” In the case of Trump, it works the other way around.
    Much of his first term was filled with comic absurdity as the orange-faced clown blundered and blustered his way through a series of preposterous antics on the national and world stage. Over the four years of his exile in Mar-a-Lago, though, Trump’s buffoonery has taken on a much darker aspect. He has steered into dank depths that, until now, have only been plumbed by the neo-fascists and white supremacists on the dark web. And he seems to have taken half the country into the gloom with him.
    Trump’s more grim and unhinged persona and increasingly incendiary talk have received an enthusiastic response from a huge share of the American electorate. At his massive rally at Madison Square Garden last weekend, Trump declared, “For the past nine years we have been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on Earth.” And the crowd roared in agreement.
    Mind you, Trump was not referring to Vladimir Putin with his comment, nor the ayatollahs in Iran or the autocrats in China and North Korea. No, those “sinister and corrupt forces” Trump describes are Democrats, journalists, immigrants, the various prosecutors who have attempted to hold him to account for his various misdeeds and various other American citizens who do not happen to be straight and white. In Trump’s eyes, and in the perception of his devoted followers, such people are not “real Americans,” they are the enemy.
    Trump has reawakened the worst angels of our nature — misogyny, bigotry, intolerance and xenophobia — and the force of that reawakening might just sweep him back into power for another nightmarish four years. 

  3. VP Kamala Harris drew 75,000 people to a speech designed to draw contrast with her opponent, Elon Musk wants to inseminate the world and gather his family on a compound in Texas, and Stephen gets interrupted by a problematic Yankees fan.

     

  4. click here for kimmel’s

    The Yankees avoided a sweep last night against the Dodgers in the World Series, two fans tried to grab the ball out of Mookie Betts’ glove during a play on the right field line, election day is coming up and according to a new poll from CNN only 30% of the voters think if Trump loses he will concede, he is already claiming that Pennsylvania is cheating, he was in Allentown PA where he treated his admirers to the old “my crowd big, her crowd small” routine despite Kamala holding a 75,000 person rally in DC, he took to Truth Social claiming that her speech was terrible, President Biden had a hiccup when talking about the comedian who called Puerto Rico “garbage” at the Trump Rally on Sunday, Donald had a very comical take on it in response, a lot of people (including Trump’s own running mate) have compared him to Hitler and he is spinning out about it, Melania has found herself having to answer questions about it, Biden held a family Halloween celebration at the White House, and since Trump has been talking about immigrants attacking “Black jobs” we went out onto Hollywood Blvd to ask Black pedestrians what a “Black job” is.

     

  5. Attribution: Halloween Trick or treater calendar Election Day by Christopher Weyant, The Boston Globe, MA

  6. Just in case it is not covered well, yesterday the clown campaign made another example of stupid tricks for stupid people.  Someone thought it would be great to put sfb in a reflective vest and do a version of a presser. Follow that up with the orange idiot in a garbage truck driving in circles. 
     
    What was the best part of such a clown show?  He almost fell over while trying to open the door when his little fingers could not grasp the the outside door handle to open it.  It looked like he was “drunk” or incapacitated. 
     
    Whoever thinks it is good publicity to dress stupid up in vests is really winning.  It is like there is no rational thinker left in the campaign to say “NO”.   This follows the french fry disaster, he could not scoop fries up and fill a cup, and then hung out the window looking like the neighborhood scold ready to yell “get off my lawn”. 

  7. Dumbass really rocked that vest didn’t he?  Really showed off that slim figure, like the McDonald’s apron. 🙄 Who thought that was a good idea?

  9. Financially, no.   I spend a substantial amount of money more per month now.  This does not include a recent purchase of a new (not reman) GM V8 engine for my boat.   2019 the long block engine sold for $3,400.  Last month, I paid $6,000 (or junk the boat) for the new engine plus labor cost.  

    I find the cost of groceries stunning and cannot imagine the cost for a family of five.  As Craig knows I live alone and am thankful for that.  Do I live on credit cards; no, absolutely not?  

    As all well know, President Clinton’s election staff repeatedly remarked “…it’s about the economy stupid…;” or words to that effect.  

    This election is mostly about the economy and abortion that is in shambles for many.   The abortion issue is a  major factor for many women.  I cannot get pregnant so abortion is none of my business nor is it the business of any man.  It is the personal business of a woman only.

    My opinion: The election will be about the “haves” and “have nots.”  The haves can afford the rate of inflation and the have-nots cannot.  And then, there are those who would not be “caught dead” switching their party vote.  (And, that ain’t me.)   

    I think James Carville (sp?) coined the “stupid” comment.

    So Hi Craig and David.  I so miss all our visits with Carolyn, you, David, and your parents sitting on the screened porch in Orlando and absorbing adult beverages.  And, the great times in DC.
    Mike

  10. Save the GOP- Vote Blue Up & Down Ballot 🤝 🇺🇸 

    (the only two decent guys left in the GOP are Mitt Romney and John McCain, and Romney is retiring 🙃)

  12. One way to explain how important body autonomy is to a woman is as follows: 

    It is simple to prevent all unwanted pregnancies and make sure that the only abortion would be a medical emergency.

    Mandate at puberty that all males have a vasectomy that can only be reversed with they are financially secure and mature enough in a stable relationship to father a child.  This judgement will be made by the government.  

  13. We are better off under Joe than when whats-his-face scuttled out of town on Inauguration Day leaving death and destruction in his wake.
    It wasn’t just “unproductive” old people who died of Covid and complications, but large numbers of young heads-of-household and breadwinners, their productivity is missing from today’s economy. 
    Missing from the above list is the corruption of our justice system and the complicity of our Congress in its degradation. 

  14. All my Texans have voted! And voted Blue!! Four years ago, none of them voted (some were too young.) 

  15. Craig -It would be good to point out the why to each of those points.  Covid didn’t cause it. Corporate greed caused it, and tRUMPsky’s enabling of corporate greed.

    Oh, and Adolf’s refusal to follow science and best practices until we could get a vaccine to everyone (which President Biden did; he promised vaccines in local pharmacies by the third week of April, and there they were).

    Folks are misremembering things, but they are clear on the rent increases and exorbitant food prices.  

    They remember suddenly having stimulus checks (thank you, Pelosi and company), and the extra $600/ week on top of state unemployment.   They also remember landlords and grocers taking advantage of knowing folks had more cash.   

    That said, everyone should stock up on non-perishables in case dumbass’s tariffs impact those  prices, too, in a worst-case scenario. 

    Everyone is tired of corporate greed, they just need to be reminded of why it is allowed to exist:  Corporations are welfare queens.

  16. Go, Ivy!!

    Not sure I had any success. When the evening news pointed out Biden’s “garbage” gaff, I got an earful. When I pointed out Adolf called Democrats “scum,” they said, “well, it’s just a lot of mudslinging.”

  17. The war begins… Trump’s trained thugs are going to disrupt ballot counting and intimidate election workers everywhere they can.
    MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, Oct 31 (Reuters) – The moment election workers in the Milwaukee area started counting mail-in votes, activists backing Donald Trump’s claim that his 2020 defeat was fraudulent began challenging every ballot. The observers raised a litany of complaints as poll staff read the absentee names and addresses aloud, as required in the state of Wisconsin, according to local election officials who said the activists were seeking to intimidate the volunteers.

     

  19. gassing protesters to hold a Bible upside-down

    hey remember when there wasn’t even a vaccine and the trump staff was so cavalier and irresponsible about covid that the septuagenarian President contacted it way before most responsible people did and then did so poorly that he needed experimental treatments from the best doctors?

    Enough Already. Harris/Walz 2024 🇺🇸

  20. Blue, as Texans are wont to say, you can drag a horse to water but you can’t shove his face in it. 

  21. While mail-in ballots may be convenient, I felt safer going and having my ballot encased in the machine.
    Reading absentee names out loud?  Are those folks going to be tracked down and harassed, or worse?   What happened to votes being private?
    Election interference by MAGAts, hmmm.  Can they be charged with anything? Are they actually following rules or are they being dangerous a-holes?    

    https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/31/texas-2024-election-results-counting-process/

    “When will Texas election results come in? Here’s how the process unfolds”

    Hope there’s a lot of dark purple, at the very least.

  25. Poobah, she does have Walz going to PA, but yeah, I take the point. Not sure whether she’s stalking Dumbass or vice versa in WI, which in my view is the key to the election.

  29. Why is he sitting in the passenger seat? Did that truck move an inch? He should be hanging off the back of the truck and jumping off to pick up cans along the way. He’s a Garbage Man, alright. 

  30. Big deal. The Economist is as conservative as Wall Street Journal, which will be an interesting one when it comes.

    “Presidents do not have to be saints and we hope that a second Trump presidency would avoid disaster. But Mr Trump poses an unacceptable risk to America and the world. If The Economist had a vote, we would cast it for Ms Harris.’

  32. Ivy – it was at airport in Wisconsin.  The garbage was driven around in a circle.  So much to consider, first is he could not open the door and almost fell down, needed help climbing in the cab, and looked so far out in space as to be lost in a different universe – again.  Granted there is something nice about sitting in a truck looking down at the rest of the world, but most of us don’t float away.  There are more pointing out it looks like he has the after effects of a stroke, incapacitated or drugged now, but not physically all there. Mentally he never was.

  33. Blue Bronc, I always preached to my kids any honest work is respectable, even collecting trash. I am proud to have cleaners and trash collectors on my family tree. 
    None of Plumpty’s work has ever been honest or respectable. He taints everything he touches. 

  34. Plumpty should hang on garbage trucks often so others can’t tell the trash smell from him. 

  35. The ballot box is supposed to be private. Just like the bedroom and the bathroom. If a woman wants to let a man in there, it’s her choice, not his business. 

    Kids and pets is another matter. Every Mom knows when she’s in the bathroom it’s like Grand Central Station.

  39. In regard to the question of the day. 
    Almost all of the problems that people are worried about peaked in 2022, which means they were a result of policies of the previous administration. It is kind of amazing, inflation, crime, border crossings once Biden’s policies started to take effect, they all trended down. The curve when charted all look the same. Yes, we are better off under Biden’s policies than Trump’s.
    Recently read an article that pointed out that millennials are doing better on average than their parents at the same age. The American dream is still alive.
    Jack

  42. Oh yeah, sure…4 years ago my wife was battling Covid19 which she died from mere hours after Joe Biden was sworn in.  Not good, that disease/pandemic scene. It was horrific.  
     

    Closing in…L. O’Donnell showed the printed words of Biden’s remark…when you read it, it clearly shows he was talking about Hinchcliffe the unknown insult comedian. People just don’t understand grammar and punctuation anymore. So it’s down to Bucks County, PA and the state total votes of Michigan. Wisconsin turned favorably for Harris; will it hold ? Harris must win Pennsylvania or trump wins. North Carolina is gone. Harris in Texas the other day to rally women with a giant one-topic speech was not a great usage of time…I thought she was there to bolster Allred, but she just mentioned him once. No fu(l<ing way Harris wins Texas, what was she thinking? The clip of Trump nearly tumbling as he reached for that garbage truck door was pitiful. Of course they should have driven the bastard straight to the landfill. O for the driver of the garbage truck to be Paulie Walnuts with Chrissy Moltisanti manning the dump lever.

  43. On this nice fall afternoon I am sitting here enjoying the sunshine, light breeze and warm air.  In the dark, sort of.  What brought about the lack of inside lighting is the tree service company hired to trim branches off trees so those would not break off and rip down the power lines, did just that.  Big branch took down the power lines.  Power company, with great optimism, predicts only another ninety minutes until the lines are restrung and tested. 
     
    I do have a back up, actual several backups, in my arsenal of power.  Batteries, lots of batteries that I can just reroute a few power cables to and I will have lights, internet, and computers.  My exploration of battery backups could have a nice result this evening if the outage estimate time is off.

  45. People don’t understand logic anymore either. Things that used to be taught in grammar school. Why do you think it was called grammar school? Nuns used to teach parts of speech and sentence diagramming. 

  46. My daughter voted for Joe and Doug Jones. Doug lost and Joe won but my daughter didn’t make it to Inauguration Day. She would’ve loved Amanda Gorman. Covid was cruel and still is. 

  48. What does this mean??? Trump just now at NM rally:

    “I love the Hispanic people. They’re warm people. Sometimes too warm, if you want to know the truth”

  49. Will he ever figure out anytime before he’s dead that his so-called jokes are not jokes and not funny?

  50. A narcissist’s sense of humor is largely based in making fun of others, whereas EI humor is more balanced.

    A narcissist can dish it out but they cannot take it, but a person with EI is able to laugh at themselves. 

    Narcissistic humor often crosses the line into bullying, yet a person with EI rarely hurts others with humor.

    A narcissist laughs at people, but a person with EI usually laughs with people.

    EI = Emotional Intelligence
     
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/peaceful-parenting/202410/the-funny-narcissist

  51. Hmmm, if Taylor Swift has no concert on Monday, would she go to her home state of PA with Harris?  Gracie Abrams did a Harris rally, and Gracie opens for Taylor?  Hmmmm.

  52. BB – Has Adolf had a stroke?  That leg really looked off when he was trying to open the door of the garbage truck.

    Imagine that campaign.   Doubling down on garbage.  Morons.

    ps – All of the talk about taking away women’s right to vote isn’t just talk. It’s the wishful thinking and hateful/fearful intention of the bro hive mind.

  53. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/31/tech/google-fines-russia/index.html

    “Google reportedly owes the Kremlin more than 2 undecillion rubles — a 2 followed by 36 zeroes — after refusing to pay fines that are now accruing for blocking pro-Russian channels on YouTube.”

    “The virtually unpronounceable penalty amounts to $20 decillion — or around $20 billion trillion trillion. That dwarfs the size of the global economy.”
     
    Pfffft and ha! Putin can kick rocks. 
     
     

  54. He hasn’t lifted anything heavier than a hamberder in fornever, so he likely had no clue the door would require muscle power to open. 

  55. He’s used to people opening and holding doors for him. He has never opened a door for a lady including his wives and probably not even his children.  

  56. JD Vance just told Joe Rogan White “upper and middle-class children are incentivized to identify as transgender to gain admission to elite colleges”

  58. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/31/politics/vance-transgender-college-admissions/index.html

    “Vance also described a conversation he had with a “very conservative” woman from Mississippi while at the Paris Air Show on a congressional delegation trip about how she believed Paris was more conservative than some United States cities and her experience seeing a man’s genitalia in a miniskirt.”

    ~Right~ This is one of those imaginary folks tRUMPsky references as starting every supposed quote with “Sir.”

  60. Someone pointed this out today:
    In 2020 the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
    In 202o the Dodgers won the World Series.
    In 2020 Trump lost the election.
    In 2024 the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
    In 2024 the Dodgers won the World Series.
    In 2024 Trump….

  61. We are not able to identify why sfb was walking with a dragging leg, or why his tiny little hands missed the door handle, then he almost fell, then he tried again to grasp a big door handle, finally getting it. There are a lot of people in the media who travel that are saying the stroke word.  Others using the high word.  Others the dementia word. And, others saying he is an idiot who would push the door that opens out.
     
    Power came back on. Yay. Too bad there was a spike that wiped out on of components of my intranet system.  Not good.  Took me over three hours to get part of the intranet working, but I still do not have wired internet.  I am thinking the cable modem is now a wi-fi only system.  More troubleshooting tomorrow.  Better speed than my T-Mobile hotspot.

  62. D Vance just told Joe Rogan White “upper and middle-class children are incentivized

    pleas tell me Yale grad JD used the non-word “incentivized” 😆 

    Rogan + Vance = a whole lotta meathead

  63. Wall Street Journal doesn’t endorse but trashes Trump:

    “Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the election was appalling, and for many Americans is disqualifying for a second term. We thought he shouldn’t win the nomination again. Mr. Trump also surrounds himself with grifters and provocateurs who flatter him, and many have new prominence in Trump World as his son Don Jr. gains influence. Think Tucker Carlson instead of son-in-law Jared Kushner. This could lead to destructive policy directions. Mike Pence’s influence on policy and personnel would be missed.”

  64. It’s happening.

    Polls show Harris with big early-vote lead [The Washington Post]

    Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be banking a significant lead heading into Election Day.

    Nationally, Harris leads Trump by between 19 and 29 points among those who say they’ve already voted.

    free link..
    https://wapo.st/4eXeKKl

  65. How did Steve Bannon not get a haircut and a shave? They let you do whatever you want in jail now?

  66. Polls from Marist, CNN, Fox News and USA Today-Suffolk University show that her leads among those who say they’ve already cast ballots look like this:
        Arizona: 9-12 points
        Georgia: 7-10 points
        Michigan: 26-39 points
        North Carolina: 2-6 points
        Pennsylvania: 17-35 points
        Wisconsin: 22-60 points

  67. kinda tired of everyone’s predictions and conclusions based on bad or conflicting data
     
    We’ll know in a week, just have to wait

    (i’m getting earfuls from every direction, not just here, everyone is a political scientist all of a sudden)

  68. NEW: The Trump campaign has paused its premature celebration and fallen into sweat mode, as early-voting numbers indicate more women are turning up than men in must-win PA & operatives are bringing out the briefcases for lawfare. “They’re going so crazy here” — Tara Palmer, PuckNews.. https://puck.news/inside-mar-a-lago-pennsylavania-anxiety-chief-of-staff-games-czar-rfk-jr/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic_social_palmeri&utm_campaign=1&utm_content=inside-mar-a-lago-pennsylavania-anxiety-chief-of-staff-games-czar-rfk-jr

  69. Well, i was looking for a reason to get less political, the fact that 90% of online political media is just meaningless opinion pieces is helping to that end 👎

    “The Hill” might be the shittiest of the bunch, slanted trash

    i’m fortunate to not have any real trumpers in my extended family, so my sympathies to those of you that do 🤗

    i was the mot entertaining of right-of-center political philosophy in my family UNTIL the GOP nominated the most irresponsible buffoon conceivable, i can’t in good conscience vote conservative until that influence is expunged from the party

  71. Wait, what? He had a childhood friend??? Who TF was that? 

    By now, you’ve most certainly heard about the most shocking comments from the rally at the Garden—the comic who joked about Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”; the childhood friend of Trump’s who called Harris “the Antichrist,” while wielding a crucifix before the audience like some medieval Crusader…

    https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/garbage-time-at-the-2024-finish-line?
     

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