Kevin Drum 🕸

This is the famous I.M. Pei pyramid, built as a new main entrance for the Louvre in 1988. You've seen it a thousand times before, so what makes my version different? First, there's the moon in the background. Second, I took the photo, not some other hack. Enjoy!

Because the Supreme Court is likely to overrule Roe v. Wade this summer, Josh Marshall says it makes sense for Democrats to turn the 2022 midterms into a referendum over abortion. But only if they can make it into a serious issue: You can’t make an election into a referendum on an issue if you ...continue reading "Democrats can’t promise to restore abortion rights this fall"

I've been yelling at CNN all evening, demanding that they stop building up fake suspense about Boris Johnson's no-confidence vote in Parliament. There was no way his party was going to chuck him out. Which they didn't. But I admit it was closer than I counted on—though this hardly matters to a guy like BoJo. ...continue reading "BoJo wins landslide leadership mandate"

CNN may be abandoning its BREAKING NEWS heritage, but this blog isn't. On Sunday I didn't have any plans and Marian was off doing some stuff I wasn't interested in, so I went out and puttered around semi-aimlessly. But after only five minutes, I reached Madeleine and discovered that thousands of runners had invaded my ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

SCENE 1 ACTING UNDER AN ONEROUS TESTING MANDATE FROM THEIR TYRANNICAL LEFT-WING GOVERNMENT, KEVIN AND MARIAN ENTER PHARMACIE 217 IN THE 18TH ARRONDISSEMENT OF PARIS. ALL DIALOG IS BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS. CLERK: Bonjour. KEVIN: Bonjour! Do you offer rapid COVID-19 tests for travel? CLERK: Yes indeed. Just scan this QCR code with your phone ...continue reading "A COVID-19 parable in three scenes"

A bipartisan group of senators is currently negotiating a possible response to the Uvalde massacre that would include: A slight enhancement of the federal instant background check to include juvenile records. "A system of incentives, grants and federal standards for states that create their own red-flag laws." Do you see why I'm so skeptical about ...continue reading "The Senate’s response to Uvalde is plodding along meaninglessly"

I have been diligently looking for cats in Paris but with no success. I haven't spotted even a cat in a window. But! This morning, while we were waiting for one of those one-hour Seine boat tours, I was watching a couple of dogs play with each other in the Square du Vert-Galant. The little ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 3 June 2022"

I understand if you're a little jaded about the January 6 insurrection. I mean, we've already seen more than enough evidence that Republicans were initially appalled by the whole thing and only later decided to pretend it was a big nothingburger that Democrats were ginning up for partisan reasons. But CNN has gotten hold of ...continue reading "On January 6, Trump’s chief of staff was overwhelmed with panicky text messages"

After spending literally decades trying to get access to Alaskan wilderness areas, it turns out that oil companies don't really want it after all. This is from the Anchorage Daily News on Thursday: Another oil company backs out of leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . The only oil company that bought a single ...continue reading "So far, ANWR has been a bust"

I've seen a lot of stuff like this since yesterday: I am a bit stunned that more journalists aren't outraged and stunned by the Heard/Depp verdict. In addition to being a disaster for domestic abuse survivors, it is a disaster for a publication's ability to tell truth to power. — Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) June 2, ...continue reading "Does the Johnny Depp victory spell the end of #MeToo?"

The American economy gained 390,000 jobs last month. We need 90,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth, which means that net job growth clocked in at 300,000 jobs. The headline unemployment rate remained absolutely flat at 3.62%. As usual these days, nearly all of the job gains were in the service sector. ...continue reading "Chart of the day: Net new jobs in May"

Our apartment is right near Église Saint-Augustin de Paris, but like many large churches its rose window is partly covered by its organ. However, this was no problem: The window is symmetrical, so I cut out a pie-shaped piece from the top, inverted it, and plopped it into the space blocked by the organ at ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

I managed to make it two weeks in good health, but today my lucky streak ended. I woke up with a cold and a terrible sore throat and stayed in most of the day. In other news, my cell phone got pickpocketed on the metro. I'm mad about this less because the phone itself was ...continue reading "So how’s the vacation going?"

Just another street scene in Paris.

Did I wake up on Mars today? Last September Texas passed a law that allowed the government to enforce speech codes on private companies like Facebook and Twitter. These companies would be required to host speech they didn't want, a bit of state coercion so wildly unconstitutional it was a wonder the ghost of James ...continue reading "The Supreme Court’s conservatives take a dive on the First Amendment"

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"