Kevin Drum 🕸

Good news! Remember all those Republicans who said their personal finances got worse as soon as Joe Biden was elected? They're suddenly all better: In just the past two weeks, the share of Republicans who say their personal finances are worse than a year ago has plummeted by 14 percentage points. Apparently our long national ...continue reading "Republican finances have suddenly recovered"

This is a throwaway sentence in a CNN story about problems with the Stellantis vehicle lineup: Chrysler, once the company’s core brand, is essentially down to one model, the Pacifica minivan, arguably the weakest segment of the US market. It turns out this isn't quite fair. It's true that the Voyager minivan is just a ...continue reading "Chrysler is down to one car"

This is muddy old Santiago Creek after a rainstorm last year that tossed a little bit of snow onto our local mountains. Even with the rain it's unusual to get a sky so clear all the way to the horizon around here. Even when there's no smog, there's always haze.

According to the Census Bureau's latest estimate, total revenue for childcare establishments increased 6.1% in the second quarter of the year. Not bad. Here's a long-term look at childcare adjusted for the population of 0-4 year-olds: Childcare seems to be doing nicely even after the pandemic subsidies went away. However, families are paying a price: ...continue reading "Raw data: Childcare after the pandemic"

Did you know that housing prices increased as much under Trump as they have under Biden? They did: If you adjust for inflation the increase is bigger under Trump than Biden. Unexpected, perhaps, but true.

In what's become a routine fixture of Republican legislators faced with the horror of a Democratic governor taking office, North Carolina legislators have rushed through a bill that strips the incoming governor of various powers. This one is a particular beauty: Under another section of the bill, the governor must fill any vacancies on the ...continue reading "North Carolina creates permanent Republican Supreme Court"

Here's the thing. There are places where I think the trans movement goes overboard, either by promoting extreme niche issues (biological boys in girls sports) or by dismissing inconvenient science too cavalierly (puberty blockers). But then a trans woman gets elected to Congress and Republicans respond in their usual repellent way by loudly banning trans ...continue reading "Mike Johnson can go fuck himself"

Eggs again? The Washington Post reports that yet another chicken plague is tanking supply: Eggs have vanished from many U.S. grocery shelves in recent weeks, sparking consumer fears that a shortage could coincide with the holiday season. Egg production in the U.S. dropped 2.6 percent in October from a year ago and is projected to ...continue reading "Nothing gets between Americans and their eggs"

Double the cancers, double the health updates! Here's the latest test result for multiple myeloma: Cosmically speaking, 0.40 isn't super great, but it's not bad and it's down from two months ago. This means it's unfortunate that I can't tolerate the Talvey, since it produced a pretty noticeable improvement after only one dose. Hopefully the ...continue reading "Health update"

Ezra Klein sez: Donald Trump had exactly one, you-gotta-hand-it-to-him, that was an insanely successful policy that saved countless lives and we should do it again and again: Operation Warp Speed. And it's the only policy from his first term he has completely disowned and is now salting the… — Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) November 20, 2024 ...continue reading "Three great modern myths"

Here is Look #1: On a national level, there's nothing to see. Housing is historically plentiful. Here's Look #2: This is new building activity, and nationally it once again looks OK. But building has nearly ground to a halt in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, and Washington DC. There ...continue reading "Two looks at the housing crisis"

Here's another Milky Way picture. It's not a great one, taken at the tail end of the season and requiring a lot of processing to get rid of some weird coloring. But lots of stars! I'll be trying again with my new camera, but not for another six months or so. For the time being ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

In 2022 Republicans won 50.6% of the total vote for the House of Representatives. With most of the votes counted in 2024, Republicans have won 50.7% of the vote. I dunno. This is perhaps not really a huge mandate for change for the Republican Party?

Elon Musk has successfully focused the discourse on the size of the federal workforce, and now there are bad numbers floating around on all sides. Conservatives like to show partial numbers that are hugely inflated by growth at the Department of Homeland Security. Liberals show numbers that include only salaried workers. The real number covers ...continue reading "Raw data: The real number of federal workers"

Here's my latest PSA result: Hum de hum. Anything under 4 is fine, but today's result is up from the last one. I don't like that. I've got a visit with the prostate doc next week, and I'll ask if this is anything to be concerned about.

Here's something esoteric that I didn't know: Even as overall productivity has risen 34% (since 1987), capital productivity has declined 15%. And it's not just the US: Capital productivity has plummeted across all rich countries. In the food and construction sectors it's down more than 50%. In other sectors it's down 30%, and only in ...continue reading "Raw data: Capital productivity in rich countries"

Yesterday Trump chose former MTV "Real World" host and current Fox host Sean Duffy to be his Transportation Secretary. Today it's this: Not counting himself, this makes three TV hosts in Trump's cabinet (Hegseth, Duffy, Oz) plus a bevy of other folks with proven chops on Fox. At least Trump is consistent about what he ...continue reading "Trump chooses quack TV doctor to run Medicare"

This is crazy: Roughly speaking, families in the "upper income" third earn $150,000 or more. And yet 59% of Republicans who make this much say they're working class. A third of Democrats do too. Where does this come from? I could sort of understand it if these were people who were raised working class and ...continue reading "We are all working class now"

A street scene in Santa Ana. Or a sidewalk scene, anyway.

Two internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been cut, and one current guess is that it was done by a Chinese vessel at the behest of Russia. But why cut an obscure cable between Sweden and Lithuania? Rod Thornton, an expert at King's College London, explains: “It’s cutting a cable that isn’t going to ...continue reading "Who cut Sweden’s lifeline to Lithuania?"