Kevin Drum 🕸

This was all over social media last night: Michigan State apologized Saturday night for playing a pregame trivia video that showed an image of Adolf Hitler on the Spartan Stadium scoreboard before its game against Michigan, which the Spartans lost 49-0. The image of Hitler’s face flashed on the screen alongside a trivia question asking ...continue reading "Adolf Hitler was born in Austria"

The US government, the Associated Press, and the Wall Street Journal have all now concluded that the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza was hit not by an Israeli bomb but by an errant Hamas rocket meant for Israel. It also turns out that the hospital building itself is largely intact and the death toll is ...continue reading "It was a Hamas rocket that exploded at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza"

Armond White, National Review's culture critic, doesn't like the movie version of Taylor Swift's Eras tour. In fact, he doesn't like Taylor Swift. That's fair enough. She's not everyone's cup of tea, especially if you aren't part of her young-white-women demographic—which White decidedly isn't. But what on earth is this supposed to mean? The Eras ...continue reading "Taylor Swift and post-Obama mind control"

I keep hearing demands for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, mainly from the pro-Palestinian left. Generally speaking there's nothing wrong with this. As Churchill said, jaw-jaw is better than war-war. But is there any reason at all to think that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire? I mean, neither would Israel, but the demand ...continue reading "Does Hamas want a ceasefire?"

From New Scientist: A radio wave has hit Earth after travelling through space for 8 billion years. @AlexWilkins22 says it's the oldest fast radio burst ever detected, with enough energy to microwave a bowl of popcorn twice the size of our Sun 🍿☀️ I'm fascinated by the analogies science writers use. You know, the moon ...continue reading "How many H-bombs does it take to pop a sun-sized bowl of popcorn? One? A thousand?"

What with the House in chaos, there hasn't been much action on the "Biden crime family" front these days. But today the House Oversight Committee released BOMBSHELL evidence that Joe Biden received $200,000 from his brother James in 2018. This came ON THE SAME DAY that James Biden received $200,000 from a hospital company he ...continue reading "Biden crime family clown show still screening in a tweet near you"

The New York Times printed excerpts from a focus group of Trump leaners today—though I have to say that the participants mostly struck me as more than just leaning. Maybe they weren't all MAGAnauts, but they were pretty devoted to Trump. In any case, the whole thing is worth reading for the smh value, but ...continue reading "Trump voters and what they believe"

You know what I'd like? I'd like a qualified linguist with a good ear to listen to a Joe Biden speech and report back. A couple of weeks ago I spent some time doing this, and Biden's problem is that his speech really does sound a little slurred at times. My amateur conclusion was that ...continue reading "Calling all linguists"

Here is the story of my grandfather (on my mother's side). Yes, it has a point: My grandfather was born in 1900. He was 14 when World War I broke out and 17 when America entered the fighting. He was 18 when the Spanish flu pandemic swept the world. He was 20 when the Palmer ...continue reading "The life and times of my grandfather"

While we were in Colorado our cats were lounging around at my sister's house. So instead of catblogging today we have dogblogging. This is Freckles, a furry dachshund who belongs to our friend Susan in Durango. Freckles is shy and only truly feels safe curled up with Susan, which is exactly what she's doing in ...continue reading "Friday Dog Blogging – 20 October 2023"

This is weird: The eight House Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy made their colleagues an offer today: Vote Jim Jordan for speaker and punish us https://t.co/aTJC3HlUBO — POLITICO (@politico) October 20, 2023 "Punish us"? Seriously? Is this some kind of masochistic Republican ritual just now coming to light? I have no idea why ...continue reading "House rebels say, “Punish us.”"

The FBI has released final crime figures for 2022. Murder was down 7%: Because of changes in the FBI's methodology, it's still not clear if the 2020-22 numbers are all comparable to each other. Nevertheless, the trend is pretty clear, and it's one I've noted before: violent crime was basically stable while homicide spiked up. ...continue reading "FBI says murder was down 7% in 2022"

Just like yesterday, good news comes in pairs. Kenneth Chesebro has pleaded guilty to illegally conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. He was the guy who came up with the fake electors scheme, and his plea deal requires him to face only a single felony charge instead of the original seven. He ...continue reading "Another Georgia defendant goes down"

Third time's the charm? Nope. Jim Jordan has gone from 200 votes to 199 to 194. I really don't think Speaker of the House is in his future. Surely it's time for Plan D?

Apparently Jon Stewart's show on Apple TV+ has been canceled because he intended to talk about China: The New York Times reports that along with concerns about some of the guests booked to be on The Problem With Jon Stewart, Stewart’s intended discussions of artificial intelligence and China were a major concern for Apple. Though ...continue reading "Apple cancels Jon Stewart over China"

CVS is getting ahead of the curve: CVS Health is pulling some of the most common decongestants from its shelves and will no longer sell them, after advisers to U.S. health regulators recently determined that an ingredient doesn’t work. The products contain oral phenylephrine, an almost-century-old ingredient in versions of decongestants and over-the-counter pills, syrups ...continue reading "Public service announcement: Phenylephrine nasal sprays work fine"

On average, how much do women earn compared to men? It depends. Here's the data for Q3 of this year from the BLS: This doesn't account for educational levels, experience, or type of job. It's just the raw overall numbers.

On Monday I showed you Chimney Rock silhouetted against Saturday's eclipse. Today I'll show you a more conventional view. In fact, I'll show you two Chimney Rocks. The top one is south of Cortez; the bottom one is an official national monument southwest of Pagosa Springs.

Here's a current headline in Politico: The text of the piece generally is OK, but what's with the consistent theme that Democrats are holding the strings here? They can't do anything until Republicans ask, and so far Republicans have flatly refused to entertain any kind of deal. A better headline would be: Republicans dither about ...continue reading "Democrats are not the ones preventing a deal to elect a Speaker"

Yesterday I mentioned that sales of new homes had fallen over the past couple of years. Today the Wall Street Journal passes along the news that existing home sales have plummeted as well: Home sales fell in September to the lowest rate in 13 years, showing the corner of the economy most weakened by high ...continue reading "Home sales drop to lowest rate in over a decade"