Kevin Drum 🕸

Today the Washington Post presents us with the Top Ten RFK Jr. Conspiracy Theories. This is great service journalism, but it's too damn long for those of us with busy lives. So as a further service, here is Shorter RFK Jr, a brief compilation of just the conspiracy theories themselves: Kennedy has falsely linked vaccines ...continue reading "Top ten RFK Jr. conspiracy theories, now in handy index card format"

Elon Musk, as is his wont, casually endorsed a tweet last night saying there were now 83 levels from top to bottom in the federal bureaucracy. ZOMG! Is that true? No. This is based on a study by Paul Light of Brookings, and if either Musk or the original poster had bothered to read past ...continue reading "Would you like to be an associate assistant deputy assistant secretary?"

From the Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump is considering naming Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow to a senior economic policy role in his administration.... possibly the Treasury. You heard it here first.

Retail sales continued to hold up in October, rising at an annual rate of 1.3% after adjusting for inflation: Retail has been pretty flat for the past year, but it's still above its pre-pandemic trend. There's no sign of weakness yet.

Here it is: the distilled wisdom of 66 years on planet Earth. The list is numbered so you can mock them in comments more easily. Enjoy. Crime didn't skyrocket in the '70s and '80s because of drugs or poverty or family breakdown. It skyrocketed because of an increase in lead poisoning that had begun decades ...continue reading "Pearls of wisdom, all for you"

How has the incidence of cancer risen over the past half century? Not the death rate from cancer, which has gone down because of better treatments, but the actual number of new cancers. Here it is: Between 1975 and 2020, cancer has risen by about 20% in women but only 5% in men. However, men ...continue reading "Raw data: A cautionary tale"

Yesterday I happened to come across a tweet bemoaning the state of reading among fourth graders. Pretty standard stuff. But as things so often do, it got me curious. Here are reading proficiency scores for fourth graders over the past 50 years: I'm showing this for white kids so it isn't affected by demographic changes ...continue reading "Raw data: Miscellaneous student reading scores"

Former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins is Trump's pick to head the VA. Collins is a hardline abortion opponent; opposes Obamacare; thinks climate change is a hoax; opposes gay marriage; signed onto a lawsuit contesting the 2020 election; and. . . . . .has no experience even remotely related to the VA. However, he has two ...continue reading "Collins for VA! No, not that Collins…"

So it's officially RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services—which includes the CDC, NIH, FDA, the Surgeon General etc. But it could have been worse, right? Trump could have nominated Martin Shkreli. Or he could have staged a competition: whoever silences Dr. Fauci with extreme prejudice gets to be HHS secretary.¹ We're still waiting on ...continue reading "RFK Jr. will head HHS. Sure! Of course he will."

This is a Joshua tree at sunset.

Matt Gaetz is getting all the attention as the Trump appointee most likely to be turned down by the Senate, but what about Tulsi Gabbard? Fair or not, she's widely considered to be practically a Russian asset. Will the Senate seriously consider her for the nation's top intelligence job even so? And who's next in ...continue reading "Will the Senate confirm Tulsi Gabbard?"

We've all been inundated lately with the news that America's teens are in terrible shape. Addicted to social media. Lonely. Depressed, anxious, and suicidal. Fragile. But did you also know this? Marijuana is still fairly widespread, but every other drug is down to practically nothing since 2000. Cocaine, heroin, meth, ecstasy, inhalants, sedatives—you name it ...continue reading "Raw data: Drug use among teens has plummeted"

How's your Swedish? Does it help if I tell you that fobi is Swedish for phobia? Not really? Fine: Swedish tabloid Expressen revealed Wednesday that government officials have been ensuring in advance that all places frequented by Gender Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg are free of bananas — due to the minister’s strong phobia of the ...continue reading "Fear of bananas is big news in Stockholm"

Over at New York, Kevin Dugan asks the question on everyone's mind: Why has DJT stock tanked over the past week? Shouldn't it have gone up after Donald Trump won? Instead it's plummeted 25% since the election: Dugan notes that there's been some insider selling, and also that DJT might be suffering due to the ...continue reading "I’ve been rethinking Truth Social"

US air travel has continued to grow steadily since the end of the pandemic: Of the 87 million passengers in August, 75 million were domestic and 12 million were international.

There is still much discourse about Donald Trump bypassing the Senate confirmation process via recess appointments. And I still don't get it. Neither house can adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other, and the Supreme Court says you need to be adjourned at least ten days for it to count ...continue reading "This whole recess appointment meme is nuts"

According to the Washington Post, "live commerce" allows users to buy products in real time, "typically advertised by hosts during live video events on platforms such as TikTok Shop and Instagram Live." And it's booming! Global sales on these platforms hit $918.9 million last year, according to a Verified Market Research study, and are projected ...continue reading "Live commerce is surging! Or maybe not."

Since I'm beating dead horses this week, let's continue. When Congress passed the various COVID rescue bills, it resulted in massive deficits in 2020-21, which drove up the money supply. How much? This much: The red shaded area is the excess above the normal growth of M2 money supply, and provides a good proxy for ...continue reading "I’m not sure the inflation horse is dead, so let’s beat it some more"

Fine. I give up. I thought Pete Hegseth for SecDef was about as unqualified an appointment as you could get. Obviously I was wrong: "Provocative" indeed. But wait! That's not even the craziest pick today: Gabbard, as far as I know, has exactly zero background in intelligence. Matt Gaetz may be under investigation for sexual ...continue reading "Trump is choosing the most telegenic cabinet in history"

I pass this sign every time I return from an astrophotography session in the desert. There are two of them, both misspelled, and I keep wondering if they're ever going to be replaced. The odd thing is that the signs on the eastbound side of the freeway are spelled correctly. Go figure.