Kevin Drum 🕸

Things are heating up in Taiwan: The U.S. is markedly increasing the number of troops deployed to Taiwan, more than quadrupling the current number to bolster a training program for the island’s military amid a rising threat from China. The U.S. plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the island in the coming ...continue reading "US ramps up troop presence in Taiwan"

Joe Biden announced strict new rules today for asylum seekers who enter the country illegally: Under the new rules, the US would generally deny asylum to migrants who show up at the US southern border without first seeking protection in a country they passed through....Exceptions will be made for people with an “acute medical emergency”, ...continue reading "Raw data: Asylum seeking in the United States"

This is sunset a couple of days ago near Palm Springs. I suppose those are the San Jacinto Mountains at the bottom, though I can't say for sure.

Bret Stephens today: The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous. “There is just no evidence that ...continue reading "Are masks useless?"

Clarkesworld is a well-regarded publisher of science fiction short stories. They accept submissions from anyone, and like every such publisher they occasionally receive plagiarized stories. The authors of these stories are banned from further submissions. This usually amounts to just a handful of bans each month. Lately, though, that number has skyrocketed: Starting in November, ...continue reading "Chatbots are taking over (a part of) the world"

I was thinking about choke points the other day. This is a term used by military strategists which refers to a narrow passage that hinders troop movements. The Strait of Hormuz is a choke point. The Fulda Gap is a choke point. But I was thinking more about commodities that are choke points because only ...continue reading "What are the choke points of the modern economy?"

Oh ffs. Marjorie Taylor Greene wants a "national divorce"? I thought these guys were supposed to be the patriots? And if they can't have their divorce, there's this: In case you were wondering if the devastating messages, revealed in the Dominion suit, had any impact… Hannity said tonight that he supports MTG’s batshit idea of ...continue reading "Hannity breaks new ground in voter suppression: Now it’s for white people too"

At lunch today I was talking with a friend about Nikki Haley. I suggested she needed something to differentiate herself, something that would grab people's attention and make her more than just another minor league candidate taking on Donald Trump. Little did I know that apparently she's already decided that slagging old people will be ...continue reading "Nikki Haley: I’m the candidate who wants old people to go away"

Kevin McCarthy has decided to entrust the investigation into the events of January 6 to everyone's favorite TV lunatic: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has provided exclusive access to a trove of U.S. Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has played down the deadly violence ...continue reading "McKevin turns over congressional video trove to . . . Tucker Carlson. That is not a typo."

I was out in the desert last night trying to squeeze in an astrophotography session while the moon was still down but before the weather turned bad. The moon played its role nicely, but the weather didn't. The weather report had said the sky would be clear except for a couple of hours around 6 ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Today the Supreme Court heard arguments in Gonzales vs. Google. It's really Gonzales vs. YouTube, but since Google owns YouTube it gets pride of place in the lawsuit. Long story short, the question is whether YouTube should be held liable for hosting content from Islamic State—i.e., ISIS. The Gonzales family says that YouTube's algorithms promoted ...continue reading "Leave Section 230 alone"

Perhaps eventually John Maynard Keynes will finally be right about the four-day workweek. A pilot program in Britain among 61 companies turned out to be popular with workers—hardly a surprise—but was also popular with management: Companies that participated could adopt different methods to “meaningfully” shorten their employees’ workweeks — from giving them one day a ...continue reading "Hooray for the four-day workweek"

The latest cause célèbre among the political chattering class is the bowdlerization of Roald Dahl's books to remove a few words here and there that are no longer considered suitable for polite company: The thrilling nastiness that children love about Dahl isn’t completely expunged, but the range of things he can be nasty about is ...continue reading "Oh, go ahead and revise Roald Dahl’s books for modern children"

This is "The Three Shades," in the Rodin Museum in Paris. My question is why it was installed so that the Eiffel Tower is sticking up through the middle shade. The placement is obviously deliberate, but why? Is it meant to convey something? Did it just seem funny to someone? Or what?

According to Trans Legislation Tracker, there are currently more than 300 bills pending in state legislatures that attack transgender health and well-being in one way or another. Some are directed at trans girls in high school sports. Some are directed at K-12 curricula. Some are directed at banning or regulating gender-affirming care among trans children ...continue reading "The progressive trans war is reaching a fever pitch"

Some stats about ChatGPT: ChatGPT crossed one million users within a week of its launch. In the first month of its launch, ChatGPT had more than 57 million monthly users. ChatGPT crossed the 100 million users milestone in January 2023. 13 million individual active users visited ChatGPT per day as of January 2023. This doesn't ...continue reading "ChatGPT is going to get very good very fast"

John McWhorter writes this week about the changes made by the College Board to the African American Studies AP test between its original draft and the final curriculum outline: The board claimed that the changes were responses to “the input of professors” and “longstanding A.P. principles.” I am unconvinced, to say the least, especially given ...continue reading "Here’s a clearer take on whether Florida affected the African American Studies AP test"

A couple of years ago I became pretty skeptical of the panic over social media. No matter how obvious the harms of social media might seem, especially to us oldsters, the evidence just wasn't there. This became especially obvious to me in late 2021 when the media wildly misreported the leaked Instagram survey of teen ...continue reading "Yet another look at social media and teen depression"

This is Charlie examining some dead leaves hanging from the underside of a little teak table in our backyard. I believe he finally had to eat one before being convinced that they were really pretty yucky.

Here's the growth rate of outstanding credit card balances in the United States: Growth has been steadily accelerating over the past eight quarters, which suggests that consumers are keeping up their high spending levels only by relying on plastic. That can't continue unless wages start to grow significantly, something the Fed is determined to prevent. ...continue reading "Raw data: Total outstanding credit card balance"