Kevin Drum 🕸

The Associated Press reports that about 1.7 million voters switched to a different political party in 2021: Over the last year, roughly two-thirds of the 1.7 million voters who changed their party affiliation shifted to the Republican Party. In all, more than 1 million people became Republicans compared to about 630,000 who became Democrats. Why ...continue reading "The Republican Party is picking off Democrats"

The modern Republican Party has two main branches. The first is the social conservative branch, which cares about abortion, guns, sex, and so forth. The second is the business branch, which cares mostly about things like taxes and regulations. Likewise, there are two main branches of conservative legal theory. The first is originalism, which says ...continue reading "Liberals talk pretty one day. I hope."

Last night I wrote that liberals need to forcefully address the question of whether a fetus is a human life that deserves the same legal protections as any other human life. Primarily this is because it's the ground on which abortion opponents stand, so it can't be ignored. But it's also key to Alito's decision ...continue reading "Sam Alito and the meaning of life"

Supreme Court precedent has been clear for many years about prayer in public schools: You can't do it in any way that effectively coerces students into participating. Coaches who lead team prayers on the field are very much included in this. Until now. So pray away, coaches. It's a new day in Supreme Court land.

Just to add to my previous notes, I've read a whole lot of pieces this weekend about how terrible Sam Alito's opinion in Dobbs is; about the misogyny of conservatives; about their ignorance of history; about the Court's lack of democratic legitimacy; about all the other rights that are certain to fall now that Roe ...continue reading "Liberals really suck at defending abortion"

I've long had the notion that center-right voters mostly give Republicans a pass for their rhetoric. Sure, Rs say they want to abolish Social Security, ban abortion, overturn the 2020 election, deport every immigrant, and so forth, but they're just pandering to their lunatic wing. It's the price of entry to the GOP tent, but ...continue reading "For moderates, the end of abortion rights should be a wake-up call"

Here in my little patch of Southern California there's been a noticeable recent uptick in mask wearing. But most of that uptick consists of people wearing their masks below their noses, which makes the mask entirely useless. I wonder what's going on. Have people forgotten that masks have to be pulled up above their noses? ...continue reading "If you wear a mask, wear it above your nose"

In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, some conservatives are talking about passing a national ban on abortion. But I don't think they can do that. The Constitution gives Congress the power to enact laws concerning certain enumerated topics: bankruptcy, immigration, terrorism, espionage, taxes, counterfeiting, and so on. Generally speaking, however, criminal law is reserved ...continue reading "Conservatives can’t pass a national ban on abortion"

Gathered from a variety of sources, here's a list of corporations that have promised to assist employees who live in states affected by the Supreme Court's eradication of abortion rights. The type of assistance varies, but generally includes travel costs and sometimes additional help. If you're wondering what you can do right now to fight ...continue reading "Here’s a list of corporations who have promised abortion assistance"

Here's a quick look at the federal judiciary as of today: Aside from the Supreme Court, it's pretty close to 50-50 even after Mitch McConnell's four-year demolition derby. By the time Joe Biden's first term comes to an end Democrats will probably control a majority of the seats at all levels of the judiciary except ...continue reading "Some thoughts on the judiciary"

This is Charlie posing next to our new drapes. They are still tied up at the bottom because, apparently, we need to "set the pleats." This sounds ridiculous to me, but Marian knew all about this concept and accepted it without question. So set them we will.

On Monday I wanted to find out if the price of gasoline had gone up or down, so I headed over to the EIA site. But there were problems: Hmmm. Here is Tuesday: We are experiencing network issues, so our release of gasoline and diesel fuel prices will be delayed today. We will provide updates ...continue reading "What’s going on at the Energy Information Administration?"

A couple of weeks ago I said that gun regulation would never pass, but here we are: a bipartisan gun bill has passed the Senate and will pass the House today. It will then become law whenever President Biden decides to schedule a bill signing ceremony. So Sen. Chris Murphy proved me wrong after all. ...continue reading "Our little gun bill is set to become law"

The FDA has ordered Juul to take its vaping devices off the market due to "insufficient and conflicting data" about the safety of its e-liquid pods. This has prompted another round of arguing about whether or not vaping is, on net, a public safety improvement, especially among teens. But I think the data is in ...continue reading "Vaping leads to higher teen nicotine use"

I got aimlessly directed to the latest Fox News poll this morning, and as I was browsing through it I came across its results for the generic congressional ballot ("Would you vote for the R or D candidate in your district?"). Here it is: For some reason I was under the impression that Democrats were ...continue reading "Dems are behind right now, but not by much"

This is sunrise on the Seine, somewhere near Les Andelys. For some reason—probably jet lag, I suppose—I was up every morning during our Seine cruise and spent my time on the sun deck taking pictures and watching the crew. There were never more than one or two other passengers there. Just not an early-rising bunch, ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Today is ATUS day, the day when the BLS releases the latest numbers from the American Time Use Survey. I was looking forward to comparing 2021 with 2020, but I forgot that ATUS had been suspended in 2020 due to COVID. Still, we have charts. Here's one for the percentage of people who worked at ...continue reading "Charts of the day: How we spent our time in 2021"

In the New York Times today, Jessica Grose interviews Linda Villarosa about the maternal mortality rate. It's worth a read, but first I'd like to reacquaint you with the basic statistics. First, here are the latest US maternal mortality rates by race: And here's the US maternal mortality rate over time: Everything here is nuts. ...continue reading "The maternal mortality rate has skyrocketed over the past three years"

This is a Louisiana egret resting in a bed of daisies that match his beak. Apparently this egret has an excellent color sense.

Over at Vox, Rachel Cohen asks: Should you keep abortion pills at home, just in case? With Roe on the brink, more experts are talking about advance provision of mifepristone and misoprostol. Medication abortion, or taking a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, is an increasingly common method for ending pregnancies in the United ...continue reading "Yes, most women should keep abortion pills at home, just in case"