Kevin Drum 🕸

America's latest independent prosecutor fiasco continues to roll along.¹ Trump fans are desperately hoping that US Attorney John Durham will prove that Russiagate was a Democratic ratfuck from the start, but Durham has now failed to prove even the trivial nano-charge that he finally brought against a guy nobody's heard of. That guy is Michael ...continue reading "John Durham got what he deserved yesterday"

President Biden has approved a program of student loan cancellation up to $10,000. Matt Yglesias isn't happy about it: The student loan cancelation issue is white collar nonprofit workers making the transition from class-in-itself to class-for-itself. — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 28, 2022 I get Matt's irritation about this. It really is a triumph of ...continue reading "It’s time to hold states accountable for student debt"

Let's get back to some straight-up tourist stuff, shall we? This, of course, is Notre Dame cathedral photographed late in the afternoon, and from the front it looks like it's never been damaged at all. But perspective isn't everything: I photoshopped out both a big, ugly crane and a big, ugly fence that runs along ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

I am one of those terrible liberals who has long-since given up on gun control and mass shootings. The pro-gun sentiment in America—even if it's not a majority—is far too strong to permit any meaningful firearm legislation. Combine that with a pro-gun Supreme Court and I'm unable to see even the slim possibility of any ...continue reading "Why I’ve given up on gun regulation"

On the flight over we passed near a thunderstorm that was pretty spectacular. I figure it to have been somewhere in the very northern reaches of the Great Plains, maybe even a little way into Canada. As usual with things like this, I never quite caught an image of the very best lightning bursts, but ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

I am thousands of miles away from the land of mass shootings, about to head out with Marian and a picnic lunch for a beautiful afternoon walking along the Coulee Verte, an elevated park similar but larger than New York's Highline Park. But don't think I'm not thinking of you. I've been collecting Republican proposals ...continue reading "Republicans have ideas about our mass shooting problem"

Ha ha ha: At least 25 companies that merged with special-purpose acquisition companies between 2020 and 2021 have issued so-called going-concern warnings in recent months, according to research firm Audit Analytics. ....The companies with warnings amount to more than 10% of the 232 companies that listed through SPACs in that period....That percentage is roughly double ...continue reading "Time to sack the SPACs?"

Atrios has a question for me: How's your self-driving car, Kevin? Yeah, yeah. I'm not giving up on self-driving cars, but it's true that things haven't been going as swimmingly as I'd thought they might. It turns out to be a hard problem! Then again, my old friend Atrios is stuck in Philadelphia. I'm in ...continue reading "OK, sure, but . . ."

These are the first two cats we came across in France. They were roaming around in a field in the town of La Roche-Guyon and they appeared to be housemates. The black cat was a little shy, but the Siamese was friendly enough, though pretty occupied with hunting-related program activities while I was busy taking ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 27 May 2022"

The latest housing forecast from Fannie Mae takes note of the tremendous jump in average monthly payments for homebuyers in 2022: As a result, their forecast for mortgage originations has declined: That totals $2.7 trillion for 2022, and Fannie now projects that 2023 will see only $2.25 trillion in mortgage originations.

This is (duh) the Cluny La Sorbonne metro station in the Latin Quarter. The photo features a homeless man sleeping on a bench side by side with a student reveling to his earbuds. These are probably the two most common sights in the Latin Quarter.

A couple of months ago I mentioned "Far UV" as a possible solution to COVID-19, so I was interested to see it mentioned prominently in a recent tweet thread from an expert. In general, the thread was about which engineering (not social) measures are worthwhile and which aren't. To summarize super briefly, his advice is: ...continue reading "Civil engineering—both high and low tech—can help fight COVID-19"

This is some  French countryside a few hours before sunset. It's mainly notable because I took it through the window of a bus. The combination of a polarizing filter to remove reflections and Photoshop to restore white balance makes the window disappear completely. Pretty cool clouds, eh?

FiveThirtyEight recently asked a panel of 2,000 Americans what issues worried them the most. The answer was inflation, which is pretty predictable these days. But I'm more interested in how much Republicans and Democrats disagree about things. In the case of inflation, 42% of Democrats thought it was a top worry while 65% of Republicans ...continue reading "What do Americans disagree about the most?"

I was right! Yesterday's photo was indeed a picture of Église Saint-Sauveur du Petit-Andely, a 13th century gothic church in the town of Les Andelys that was (probably) built by Richard the Lion Hearted. It turns out that Les Andelys was Tuesday's stop, so I got to see a lot more of it while trying ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Every year since 2013 the Fed has released a report called "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households." Every year one of the questions is, "Could you cover a $400 emergency expense using cash?" Every year the media breathlessly reports the answer with no context and no comparison to previous years. It is simply a totem showing ...continue reading "Raw data: How many households can afford a $400 emergency?"

Glenn Greenwald has a question: What do you think might explain this? pic.twitter.com/ImHHEXv0xh — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 24, 2022 Glenn is obviously implying that Biden is either stupid or senile. But that's just trash talk. It's worth taking this question seriously. First of all, Biden has always had a reputation as a bit of ...continue reading "Joe Biden finally got tired of the thin fiction of “strategic ambiguity”"

Would you like to hear my latest bitching about something tech related? Of course you would! Here it is. When I'm traveling, I can always receive email but I can never send email—at least, not on a regular email client. I can open up Cox Communication's web app and do it that way, but it's ...continue reading "Technology griping session #486"

One of the things about cruising down a river is that you never know exactly where you are. I shot this picture on Sunday morning at sunrise, and I think it's the Église Saint-Sauveur du Petit-Andely. I may find out for sure on our way back. But for now that's my best guess.

I'm on vacation cruising down the Seine, so my threshold for commenting on dumb stuff is higher than usual. What's more, the proximate cause of my latest annoyance is the Wall Street Journal editorial page—which is sort of like saying I'm annoyed by cancer. I mean, I am annoyed by having cancer, but I'm annoyed ...continue reading "Hillary didn’t do it"