Kevin Drum 🕸

These two stories both ran on the same day. First is the Wall Street Journal: Pay for new hires is starting to shrivel after years of hefty salary bumps, requiring workers to reset what financial gains to expect from switching to a new job. Wages, especially for people who changed jobs, climbed in recent years ...continue reading "Wages for new hires are either way up or way down"

Just in case anyone could use a refresher, here are the most recent six "scandals" that have preoccupied Republicans during the last two Democratic administrations: Benghazi IRS tea party targeting Hillary's email Durham investigation Afghanistan withdrawal Hunter Biden And here's how they turned out: Benghazi (2012-14): There was no "stand down" order and no denial ...continue reading "Republican scandals: A brief refresher"

I just got back from my 6th COVID vaccination. It's all for the best, since my last one was a year ago, but that's not why I got it. I got it because it turns out the CAR-T procedure wiped out all my existing immunities. I only found this out a couple of weeks ago, ...continue reading "I have returned to infanthood"

Bags o' cotton candy for sale on the Balboa peninsula. "Please Don't Squeeze!"

There are two ways of looking at the Hunter Biden tax 'n gun case: The whistleblower view: Hunter was involved in some serious criminal acts but prosecutors let him off easy due to political pressure (i.e., the White House quietly pushing them to back off). The prosecutor view: No ordinary person would be criminally charged ...continue reading "Maybe Hunter Biden didn’t do anything wrong?"

The Wall Street Journal says auto prices are unsustainable, leading to a surge of delinquencies. I'm not so sure of that. First up, here's the average monthly payment on a new car over the past few years. This takes into account both the rising price of cars and rising interest rates: That doesn't look so ...continue reading "Auto loans aren’t looking out of control these days"

June's drop in Southwest border crossings is no more. In July we were back up to 183,000: Of these, CBP reports that 132,000 were illegal crossings and 51,000 were requests for asylum. Both are up from June.

The Washington Post reports that President Biden's response to the Maui wildfire is being "scrutinized." But why? Although it's true that Biden's public remarks have been limited, Hawaii's governor sings his praises and the response on the ground has been great: “I’ve never seen such dedication in a president, who within six hours dedicated his ...continue reading "Breaking news: Republicans criticize President Biden"

Apparently grocery stores have been jammed all day here in Southern California, with lines literally snaking out the door. It turns out that people are stocking up in order to make it through the 18 hours of rain we're expecting tomorrow. This is happening all over, including places that are in zero danger of flooding—which ...continue reading "The apocalypse is coming"

The Wall Street Journal reports that China's fertility rate dropped to 1.09 last year: Fertility is down nearly everywhere, but China is in a class by itself. For some reason, starting in 2018 Chinese families simply decided they didn't want children. Fertility has dropped by nearly half over the past five years, an unprecedented decline ...continue reading "Chart of the day: Chinese families have given up on children"

As of 2:30 pm, Hurricane Hilary is hundreds of miles away and the skies are calm here in Southern California. Sadly, my planned astrophotography mission still has to be aborted with extreme prejudice, as you can see from this up-to-the-minute picture of the sky.

I am reminded this morning of the odd contempt that conservatives have for renewable power—There's no sun at night! The wind doesn't always blow!—paired with their seemingly inexhaustible love of nuclear power, which survives even $17 billion overruns on $14 billion nuclear plants. I myself have mixed views on nuclear. On the one hand, new ...continue reading "Why do conservatives hate renewable energy?"

Huh: According to a survey of 7,100 American teens last year conducted by investment bank Piper Sandler, 87% of teens currently have an iPhone, and 87% plan on sticking with the brand for their next phone. But the stigma regarding Android phones is mostly an American phenomenon, at least to the degree to which it ...continue reading "Gen Z is in love with iPhones"

Wisconsin has one of the most egregiously gerrymandered state legislative maps in the country. In 2022 Republicans captured 64% of Wisconsin's Assembly seats even though they won only 47% of the vote. In April Democrats won an election that gave them a majority on the state Supreme Court, and they have now filed petitions to ...continue reading "Republican justice unhappy at taking what she used to dish out"

Last week you saw Charlie peering at Hilbert from a distant hedge. This week you get a closeup of Charlie in the hedge. He was having lots of fun that day, leaping out of the hedge and startling Hilbert, and then circling back to the hedge to do it again. Hilbert just wandered around the ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 18 August 2023"

Apparently a Category 4 hurricane is headed toward sunny little Irvine. That's something new and exciting. It's true that I've been desperately pining away for cooler weather since June, but this sure wasn't what I had in mind. Also, I was hoping to restart my astrophotography this weekend, but I'm pretty sure a hurricane will ...continue reading "A hurricane in Southern California?"

A new Washington Post "analysis" informs us that the Senate and Electoral College are biased in favor of small red states. Also that political polarization has increased and trust in government has decreased. This is not exactly big news. But at least it's all true. On the other hand, there's been a lot of substantial ...continue reading "The country is pretty normal these days"

I got new test results back today and my M-protein level continues to drop—which means my cancer load is also dropping: I don't know what this means. I stuck the trendline in just for the hell of it, but I doubt that it means much of anything at this point. That said, lower is always ...continue reading "Health update"

The New York Times writes today not about the student debt woes of Millennials, but the student debt woes of Gen Xers: As of the first quarter of this year, members of Generation X held about a quarter of the nation’s outstanding $1.6 trillion in student loan debt — to the tune of nearly $49,000 ...continue reading "Gen X student debt is mostly about highly paid graduate professionals"

This is the town of Buckhorn, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles. No, I'd never heard of it either until I had stared at a map for a while to figure out what I'd taken a picture of on takeoff out of LAX headed to Rome. It's not actually a city, merely a "populated ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"