Kevin Drum 🕸

Well, partially. After four weeks of adjustments to my bionic lenses, they are as good as they're going to get. Yesterday was Phase One of locking them permanently into place, and next week will be Phase Two. At that point, the whole process will be done and I'll have fully adjusted artificial lenses in both ...continue reading "I am locked down"

Today I have remarkable photographic news. It starts pretty slow. Monday was dex day, so I decided to go out and look for the Milky Way again. I took it a little more seriously this time, driving out to Joshua Tree for some good night sky, but in the event I stopped a little short ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

The LA Times writes about homelessness today: The Los Angeles mayoral primary has seen candidates throwing big numbers around concerning how much shelter they’d like to see built for homeless people. Rick Caruso wants 30,000 new beds in his first year in office, Rep. Karen Bass says 15,000 new beds in hers and Councilman Joe ...continue reading "Here’s my plan to address homelessness in Los Angeles"

For what it's worth, you should ignore all the folks talking about how badly Roe v. Wade was written. I've read plenty of commentary on this, and even liberal scholars mostly agree that Blackmun did a lousy job. But it doesn't matter. The opinion could have been written by John Marshall himself and no one ...continue reading "Nobody cares how badly Roe was written"

There's not a ton of state-by-state polling on abortion, but when Roe v. Wade is overturned and control of abortion law is returned to the states this is suddenly going to become very important. Here is a Pew survey from 2014 that asks whether abortion should be legal or illegal in "most or all" cases. ...continue reading "Raw data: Views on abortion by state"

This is a lovely yellow alstroemeria hiding in the shadows in our front yard. It is apparently commonly known as a Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas, which I didn't know until about half a minute ago. I'm learning more about flowers every day.

As I was trying to think of something else besides Roe v. Wade, it occurred to me this afternoon to wonder how long the Ukraine war was likely to last. We fought the Soviet Union as proxies in Vietnam for about a decade. We fought them as proxies in Afghanistan for five or six years. ...continue reading "How long will we fight the Russians in Ukraine?"

From the Wall Street Journal: Job openings and the number of times workers quit reached the highest levels on record in March, as a shortage of available workers continued to pressure the U.S. labor market. Sure, this is true, and the BLS press release even said so. But who cares? Quits always go up when ...continue reading "People are quitting their jobs at totally normal rates"

Why does my local medical center have an outline of a cannabis leaf on its floor?

I imagine that this week is going to be abortion always and everywhere unless a meteor hits Kyiv or something. However, even though you might not be in the mood for good news about Justice Alito's latest tactical nuke on the progressive movement, there is a small bit of good news in his opinion that ...continue reading "A (tiny bit) of good news about Samuel Alito’s decision overturning abortion rights"

According to Politico, a draft Supreme Court ruling has been leaked that overrules Roe v. Wade completely. If this turns out to be a final opinion, I find it fitting that it was written by the Court's worst member, Samuel Alito; and affirmed by its most crotchety ideologue, Clarence Thomas, along with its three Trump ...continue reading "Court leak spells end to constitutional right to abortion"

I have no idea why I did this. I was just curious what the latest American Time Use Survey¹ showed about the difference in activities between working-age men and women. [Clarification: That is, this chart shows how many more minutes men spend on each activity compared to women.] Here it is: On average, working-age men ...continue reading "Raw data: How working-age people spend their time"

White backlash. One of the most powerful cultural forces throughout American history is white backlash. It is intense, self-righteous, often brutal, and absolutely inevitable. Anyone in the civil rights activism biz is an idiot if they don't understand this and have a plan to deal with it. Sex education. Conservatives have always been conservative about ...continue reading "Three random things"

Believe it or not, I've been meaning to take this picture for years. I've just never had my camera handy at night when I've driven past it. But a few weeks ago, on a dex night, I was puttering around at 3 am and finally got my picture. There's just something about the sharp lines ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Data here.

Last weekend I wrote a long, chart-laden post that summarized the evidence about housing in the US. I received some criticism that seemed reasonable, so I figured I'd address them here. Anne Paulson suggested that I shouldn't compare housing growth to population growth because housing is an adult thing. If a family has more children, ...continue reading "Housing update"

It's been a bit of a slow blogging week around here. On Monday I had a four-hour infusion. On Tuesday I met with my oncologist and then had a long lunch with a friend. On Wednesday I had my fourth—and hopefully last—eye adjustment. Thursday was crash day. Friday was also crash day. And then Saturday ...continue reading "Only in death does Trump part"

It's getting late, and Charlie is waiting for Marian to wake up so they can go upstairs to bed. It didn't take long.

Here is the Wall Street Journal today: Worker Pay and Benefits Grow at Record Pace, Pressuring Inflation Compensation for American workers grew rapidly in the first quarter, as a tight labor market put more money in workers’ pockets while also keeping pressure on inflation. Business and government employers spent 4.5% more on worker costs in ...continue reading "Worker pay and benefits plummet at record pace. Yes: plummet."

OK, I have to ask one more time. Suppose President Biden cancels all student debt. What happens next? It just starts piling up again for new students? State universities are forced to cut tuition and fees dramatically? The federal government starts massively subsidizing all university education? Or do we just hold a student debt jubilee ...continue reading "What happens after we cancel student debt?"