Kevin Drum 🕸

It sure seems like it these days, doesn't it?

According to the latest numbers from the BLS, here are the cities where pay has increased the most over the past year: Both the biggest and smallest pay increases seem to be scattered pretty equally around the country, so no interesting conclusions about this spring to mind. I will say that only in the yellow ...continue reading "Map of the day: Here are the cities where pay has increased the most"

Well fuck you, Mark Zuckerburg: Facebook and Instagram have begun promptly removing posts that offer abortion pills to women who may not be able to access them after a Supreme Court decision that stripped away constitutional protections for the procedure. ....Almost immediately, Facebook and Instagram began removing some of these posts, just as millions across ...continue reading "Facebook and Instagram decide that abortion is too icky"

In his opinion in Dobbs, Sam Alito took great pains to say that nothing in it threatened any other rights. This was primarily because abortion kills an unborn child, which makes it unique. Clarence Thomas disagreed, but he's always disagreed and no one joined him. So the question is, was Alito sincere, or was it ...continue reading "What will the Supreme Court do next?"

It's time to tell you the final chapter of my drone story. The reason I got the drone is because height is the photographer's best friend. At ground level, the perspective is lousy and there are always things in the way: trees, buildings, power lines, and so forth. The best perspective, oddly, is often from ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Over at National Review, Michael Brendan Dougherty says he's surprised that progressive anger over the Dobbs decision has been relatively modest: There were some loud marches through major cities over the weekend, but hardly the wave of riots, vandalism, and sacrilege promised by the group Jane’s Revenge. I think many of us prepared for our ...continue reading "Have progressives been pretty muted about abortion?"

A few days ago I showed you this chart: This points to one of the most interesting ways of fighting the Supreme Court's abortion decision. Abortion pills are approved by the FDA—a federal agency—and are nearly as safe as aspirin. A lot of experts think that it's impossible for a state to ban the use ...continue reading "We can fight the Supreme Court with abortion pills"

As usual, California leads the way: On Monday, the Democratic-controlled Legislature gave final approval to a measure that would put [abortion] before the state’s voters, in the latest countermeasure aimed at the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Senate Constitutional Amendment 10 by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) would, ...continue reading "California will vote on abortion in November"

The chart below shows core inflation for both the US and Europe: For the US I used the PCE price index excluding energy and food. For Europe I used Eurostat's HICP index excluding energy and unprocessed food. Since these are core inflation rates, they are unaffected by differences in oil spikes, Ukrainian food blockades, and ...continue reading "Raw data: The economic response to the pandemic, US vs. Europe"

Since court expansion is in the news, here's a quick historical note about "The Switch in Time That Saved Nine." When FDR took office and began putting together the New Deal, he he knew that his presidency faced a Supreme Court with a solid conservative majority. In particular, it featured the "Four Horsemen," a clique ...continue reading "The myth of FDR’s court packing scheme"

The New York Time informs me that the latest craze among our youth is the "0.5 selfie"—so named because you tap 0.5 on your smartphone to engage wide angle mode and produce a distorted picture. But that's nothing. Behold the old-school 0.2 selfie. No smartphone required.

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"