Kevin Drum 🕸

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"

This is probably not worth anyone's time, but it annoyed me so I'm going to make you all suffer through it. In New York, Ross Barkan provides a potted summary of the infant formula shortage and ends up with this: Though off the table for now, more radical solutions should be considered too. Why not ...continue reading "No, let’s not nationalize the infant formula market"

This is Hilbert in his favorite place: Marian's arms. However, my sister says he's adapted extremely well to her arms and her brushing technique. Purr, purr.

I felt a little bad for making my Rome "Where am I" picture so hard, so I decided to make yesterday's a little easier. The fragment in the top right of the picture is indeed the Eiffel Tower. Here's a better picture: This was taken from Pont Mirabeau while I was puttering around at night ...continue reading "Yes, Paris is the correct answer"

I get the irony and everything, but it is possible to have opposed the Iraq War while supporting the Ukraine War, which is a case of Ukrainians fighting back against an unprovoked invasion. Right? For that matter, it's entirely possible to have supported both. Or opposed both. The only combination that would make me shake ...continue reading "Oppose bad wars, not all wars"

We're on vacation again! This is our first big vacation in five years thanks to this and that and, of course, COVID-19. But everything has gone swimmingly so far on this one. The flight was on time; our driver met us punctually at the airport; the weather is good (a little warm for me, but ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

The BLS released its annual report on foreign-born workers today, so let's celebrate by taking a look at the unemployment rate of native vs. foreign-born workers: As you can see, foreign-born workers generally have a slightly lower unemployment rate than native-born workers, but during the pandemic they lost their jobs in large numbers and their ...continue reading "Raw data: The unemployment rate of native vs. foreign-born workers"

Here's a squirrel poking its head above the grass to see if there's anything worth seeing. It was taken along Laguna Canyon Road.

Well, it's happened: Finland and Sweden formally applied for NATO membership on Wednesday, a move that, if approved, would fundamentally transform the security landscape of Northern Europe and give the alliance a valuable edge against Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. We can all thank Vladimir Putin, geopolitical master strategist, for this.

This is a Sara Orangetip butterfly, which got bumped from Monday's schedule by our lunar eclipse. So here she is now in all her orange-tipped glory. I've posted a picture of this butterfly before, but this is a much better shot. It's sharp enough that you can see the little black dots on its head.

Consider two ways of saying a similar thing: According to the Census Bureau, people of color make up an increasing share of the US population. This will most likely benefit liberals, who will certainly try to take political advantage of it. Not only are non-white folks having more children than white people, but liberals are ...continue reading "Two statements"

Consumers continue to spend, spend, spend: Retail spending in April wasn't quite as great at the Wall Street Journal says, since they naturally didn't bother adjusting for inflation, but it was still pretty good. Spending in April was up 7% over March on an annualized basis, even though the trendline remains far above the pre-pandemic ...continue reading "Retail spending was up 7% in April"

The problems with Abbott's infant formula plant in Sturgis just get mysteriouser and mysteriouser. The New York Times reports that Abbott has finally agreed with the FDA to reopen the Sturgis plant: The agreement stems from a U.S. Department of Justice complaint and consent decree with the company and three of its executives. Those court ...continue reading "It sure looks like Abbott is the bad guy in the Abbott infant formula scandal"

Good news today. Last month I started a new chemo regimen and my M-protein level has already started to turn around: This is only a small drop, but what matters is that my M-protein levels have been slowly rising for over a year and now they're headed in the other direction. In other good news, ...continue reading "Health update"

I was planning to skip last night's lunar eclipse because I've already got plenty of pictures of lunar eclipses. But then when the time came, naturally I had to go outside to see it. And then I had to take some pictures. So here it is, about 90% full, which is all we got in ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Generally speaking, infants are fed formula only during their first year. So at any given time, the number of infants of "formula age" equals the total number of babies born in the previous twelve months. Here's what that looks like: The number of live births had been trending downward for years and then dropped more ...continue reading "Raw data: Live births in the US"

Here's a chart of COVID-19 deaths that has long puzzled me: This shows COVID deaths, so it's fairly reliable. What it shows is that, generally, the US has been about average compared to other similar countries except for three specific periods: Summer 2020 Autumn 2021 Winter 2022 In two cases, we have spikes that were ...continue reading "There are three puzzling eras in the US COVID-19 timeline"

The baby formula disaster is certainly peculiar. Apparently the FDA reported potentially dangerous manufacturing practices at Abbott's Sturgis plant as far back as September. But nobody did anything, and another FDA visit in February provoked the formula recall: In February, the FDA warned parents not to use certain popular powdered infant formulas manufactured at Abbott's ...continue reading "The baby formula shortage is . . . peculiar"

The Wall Street Journal has an update for us. A month ago they reported that average pay for CEOs of large companies had increased to $14.2 million last year. But now we have final figures: The median pay package for chief executives of the biggest U.S. companies reached $14.7 million in 2021, setting a sixth-straight ...continue reading "CEO pay is up 78% over the past decade"