Kevin Drum 🕸

Here's a headline in the Los Angeles Times today: Southern California electric bills are soaring. Here’s why, and how to save money There have been anecdotal reports that, for some consumers, bills have skyrocketed, even by hundreds of dollars. And Californians are looking for answers. ....In California, the driving force behind rate hikes is utilities ...continue reading "Why oh why are electric bills so high in LA?"

This is a Fly River turtle at the Los Angeles Zoo, also known as a pig-nosed turtle for obvious reasons.

I just got back from a visit to City of Hope, and it turns out I have no choices to make after all. My prostate cancer makes me ineligible for clinical trials, so my best option is an FDA-approved bispecific treatment called Talvey, or talquetamab: TALVEY™ is a bispecific T-cell engaging antibody that binds to ...continue reading "Health update"

Donald Trump is hellbent on punting abortion 100% to the states so that he himself doesn't have to take a stand on it. On Monday he extended this even further in an interview with Caitlin Huey-Burns of CBS News: As president, would you enforce the Comstock Act, which could prohibit the sale of, or the ...continue reading "Trump: Forget about the Comstock Act"

Blecch: My M-protein level has now increased from zero to 0.51 in just three months. When the CAR-T decided to stop working, my multiple myeloma didn't just saunter back, it roared back. Tomorrow I see a doctor about possibly participating in a clinical trial. Afterwards, I'll have to decide whether to take a chance on ...continue reading "Health update"

I don't subscribe to or read any of the morning political newsletters because I've never felt the need to be told what's important and what isn't. I'll make up my own mind, thank you very much. But this afternoon I happened to get referred to Politico's "West Wing Playbook," where I came across the following ...continue reading "BREAKING: Lynn got backsies in line (but not really)"

From longtime Biden aide Anita Dunn on how The Godfather can teach youngsters about the uses of power: Some very invaluable lessons in it that I just thought people should carry forward and the most surprising — and very upsetting — thing was how many people on this staff had never seen the movie. It's ...continue reading "Quote of the day: Don Corleone’s lessons for politics"

I believe this area of the Mojave Desert is zoned for single-family homes, but it looks like a pair of enterprising critters have decided to build a duplex anyway. They probably did this before SB9 got struck down.

Last Wednesday night Kamala Harris offered some proposals to fight price gouging. They've gotten pretty bad reviews in the press, so I was curious to read what she actually said. Not paraphrases from reporters or speculation about what she "probably" meant from columnists. Just what she actually said. That turned out to be surprisingly hard! ...continue reading "Harris’s price gouging proposal looks pretty modest"

In the Washington Post today, David Lynch writes about the economic problems of Erie, Pennsylvania, a "left behind" community that's been devastated by the decline of the Rust Belt. And make no mistake: Erie is a very poor area, with low incomes and high poverty rates. And yet, there's something interesting about it: At its ...continue reading "The comeback of Erie, Pennsylvania"

The Washington Post reports that Kamala Harris has a "slight" lead over Donald Trump in its latest poll: Harris stands at 49 percent to Trump’s 45 percent among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup.... Given the margin of error in this poll, which tests only national support, Harris’s lead among registered voters is not considered ...continue reading "Harris continues polling ahead of Trump"

Oh great. It's no longer possible to download the Barnes & Noble Nook app, which means there's no way to install it on my new tablet. This in turn means that the ~100 books I have on Nook are now gone. Pffft. I will never be able to read them again. Three cheers for the ...continue reading "No more Nook"

Quick question: how's the performance of the blog these days? Normal? A little sluggish? Lightning fast? Infuriatingly slow? Just curious. I'm just wondering how my hosting company is doing lately. UPDATE: OK, thanks. The reason I asked, obviously, is that performance lately has been abysmal and I was hoping against hope that it was just ...continue reading "How’s the blog doing?"

Donald Trump, economic genius: Trump: A tariff is a tax on a foreign country. A lot of people like to say it’s a tax on us. No… It’s is a tax that doesn’t affect our country. pic.twitter.com/NNyNthZbKg — Acyn (@Acyn) August 17, 2024 This brings up the eternal question: Is he lying or is he ...continue reading "Donald Trump: Liar or moron?"

This week I learned how to do something new. I have in mind an astrophotography target for next month—or maybe later in winter—that's far too big to fit in my telescope. The only way to capture it is by creating a mosaic: several separate images that are then stitched together. My software does this via ...continue reading "North America in the sky"

I noted the other day that the Fed has had no effect on inflation. However, the Fed is really good at one thing: making interest rates go up. When the Fed cranks up the reserve rate, interest rates do indeed go up. And the housing market naturally craters: Housing starts went down another 100,000 in ...continue reading "The housing market continues to crumble"

I want to let you all in on a secret. You know the economic plans from Trump and Harris—tariffs, price gouging, no tax on tips, 3 million new houses, etc.? None of it is going to happen. It's just empty, meaningless campaign talk. Now you know.

Dylan Matthews says that a sign of aging is that he's become more concerned about the national debt. Maybe. But I was old back in 2010 and I'm old now, and I agree that this is all due to the fact that things have changed: The 2024 economy is not the 2011 economy. Interest rates ...continue reading "Our national debt problem really is simple"

Did Tim Walz force Minnesota schools to put tampons in boys' bathrooms? Daniel Dale says no: All 15 of the districts that responded Friday to a CNN survey of 25 districts, including the Minneapolis and St. Paul districts in the state’s two most populous cities, said they comply with the law without providing tampons in ...continue reading "Nope, no tampons in boys’ bathrooms"