Kevin Drum 🕸

The New York Times ventured out to the UAW picket line over the weekend in order to figure out why so many union workers don't think very highly of Joe Biden. Most of it was just the usual blather, but for some reason my curiosity was piqued by a guy who works at the Jeep ...continue reading "Electricity prices are up in Toledo. That’s bad news for Joe Biden"

Here are the number of workers who have gone on strike during each month since the start of 2000 through August of 2023: Generally speaking, years with a lot of workers on strike include one or two big strikes, not a whole bunch of smaller ones. A variety of industries are involved when you look ...continue reading "Raw data: Workers on strike"

I was out in the desert on Saturday night on my third attempt to photograph the Wizard Nebula, aka NGC 7380, an emission nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. On the first attempt my battery pack ran out of juice and I only got two hours of exposures. The second time I had a complete ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Donald Trump appeared on Meet the Press yesterday to deliver his usual word salad and outright lies on a variety of subjects. Here are some excerpts from his musings on abortion: five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months five, six, seven, eight, nine months four and five and six months. you're going ...continue reading "Donald Trump wants to soften Republican opposition to abortion"

Sometimes I like to highlight deceitful charts. Other times I highlight misleading ones. It's rare to find a chart that's completely useless, but that's what the Wall Street Journal has on its front page today: What is this even supposed to mean? How can you interpret it unless you know what percentage of jobs come ...continue reading "Public sector jobs are lagging way behind the private sector"

Atrios today: Calling those programs "AI" is only slightly less stupid than thinking a link to an ape.jpg is worth millions. I think it's losing — by giving it too much credibility — to get into arguments about why it isn't in any sense "artificial intelligence." But it isn't! Everyone knows it isn't! It's funny ...continue reading "ChatGPT is not AI"

LA Times columnist Mark Barabak recently tooled up to Bakersfield, the deep-red heart of Kevin McCarthy's congressional district, to find out what his constituents thought about impeaching Joe Biden. Here's a sampling: “We as conservatives need to fight back. You have to keep the enemy off balance at all times.” Biden has “made a mockery ...continue reading "Impeach Biden? Sure, the SOB deserves it."

The wingnut caucus in the House has proposed a short-term spending bill that would cut outlays by "1%." But it's not really that: The 1 percent cut is an average for the federal budget. The Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs would not receive any cuts, while other government agencies would have their ...continue reading "House lunatics want to cut everyone’s budget 8% for one month"

Oh come on: As if neanderthals didn't already get enough abuse from homo bigbrainius.

Pretty soon, everybody in the world is going to be suing oil companies: The state of California has sued five of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, alleging that they engaged in a “decades-long campaign of deception” about climate change and the risks posed by fossil fuels that has forced the state ...continue reading "California joins the oil company lawsuit parade"

It's all over, and only two Republicans in the Texas Senate voted to convict Ken Paxton on any of the charges against him. The other 17 Republicans all voted to acquit on every charge. The evidence against Paxton was open-and-shut, and the charges were clearly serious enough to be impeachable. But tribal loyalty and intense ...continue reading "Paxton survives impeachment"

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, is almost comically corrupt. He's so corrupt that even though the legislature is controlled by his fellow Republicans, he's being impeached. The Texas Senate is voting on impeachment as I type this, and so far Paxton has survived on eight out of 16 counts. Only a couple of Republicans ...continue reading "Texas Senate voting now on Ken Paxton impeachment"

Maybe someone can finally get Donald Trump to shut up: Special counsel Jack Smith is asking a judge to issue a gag order against former President Donald Trump, prohibiting him from attacking prosecutors, the judge or potential witnesses who may testify in his federal criminal trial stemming from his effort to subvert the 2020 election. ...continue reading "Prosecutor asks for Trump gag order"

Here is the average hourly wage for auto workers over the past 30 years: The view of the auto workers is that back when the industry was in trouble they made a lot of concessions on pay to keep the companies in business. Adjusted for inflation, auto workers today make about $12 per hour less ...continue reading "Raw data: Hourly pay in the auto industry"

Last week we got a closeup of Hilbert, so this week it's Charlie's turn. He was walking back and forth on the fence when I took this.

The UAW—my former union!—isn't happy with Joe "Mr. Union" Biden: Shawn Fain, the head of the United Auto Workers, has privately expressed his frustration with Joe Biden, wanting the president and other Democratic lawmakers to come out more aggressively in support of his union, which launched a strike Friday against the so-called Big Three automakers. ...continue reading "Can Joe Biden really do anything about the auto strike?"

Nick Kristof wrote yesterday about the huge rise in single-parent households over the past 60 years, especially among Black families. This has been a subject of public discussion ever since the famous Moynihan Report was issued in 1965, which detailed the "pathology" of Black family life in the wake of hundreds of years of brutal ...continue reading "Were collapsing earnings responsible for the breakup of the Black family?"

As expected, the DOJ special counsel indicted Hunter Biden today on charges of lying about his drug use when he purchased a handgun in 2018: I was a fed'l l prosecutor for 20+ yrs. & did quite a few ATF cases, esp early on. I was also a supervisor for about 5 yrs, so I ...continue reading "DOJ caves in to Republican backlash over Hunter Biden"

The redoubtable Wall Street Journal opinion page says that Bidenomics is a crock. The Census Bureau just released its estimate of annual income for 2022, and after adjusting for inflation it's fallen from the previous year: The Census Exposes Bidenomics Its annual report shows how inflation has gutted real household incomes. ....Middle-class Americans who think ...continue reading "Average earnings today are about the same as just before the pandemic"

This is the Los Angeles skyline at dusk seen from Angeles Crest Highway. About a third of the way from the right-hand border you can see downtown with Catalina Island behind it.