Kevin Drum 🕸

Israeli TV says that Benjamin Netanyahu was off the reservation when he publicly accused the US of withholding weapons: Channels 13 and 12 said a clandestine meeting held before Netanyahu’s Tuesday video statement — which accused Washington of withholding arms shipments to Israel, calling it “inconceivable” — included National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic ...continue reading "What’s going on with Benjamin Netanyahu?"

SpaceX launched its first 50 Falcon 9 rockets in a little under seven years. Today we have a new record holder for the quickest to 50: Until today I had never heard of Rocket Labs, the company that makes the Electron rocket. And in fairness, there's a big difference between Electron and SpaceX's Falcon 9: ...continue reading "We have a new record holder for the fastest company to launch 50 rockets"

The Border Patrol chose today to randomly release numbers for May, and it turns out that.......nothing has changed: CBP recorded 171,000 crossings in May, down a bit from April. Of those, 118,000 were illegal crossings and 53,000 were asylum requests, mostly scheduled via the CBP One app. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says that illegal crossings ...continue reading "Illegal border crossings down slightly in May"

Sunset in Ontario. That's California, not Canada.

Alex Tabarrok points me today to a Washington Times story about rural broadband: Residents in rural America are eager to access high-speed internet under a $42.5 billion federal modernization program, but not a single home or business has been connected to new broadband networks nearly three years after President Biden signed the funding into law, ...continue reading "Rural broadband is rolling out on schedule"

Hezbollah has been shooting rockets into northern Israel on a daily basis ever since the Gaza war started. An American envoy recently told Lebanon to rein in Hezbollah or face retaliation from Israel, and Atrios is unhappy about this: I know for some the only de-escalation tool they know is threats, but I submit there ...continue reading "US warns Hezbollah of possible Israeli retaliation"

The Supreme Court is apparently bound and determined to leave its most controversial cases until the very last week of the term. That would be next Thursday, when we'll finally get rulings on Trump's immunity, Chevron deference, and more. This week all we got was a boring tax case that no one cares much about. ...continue reading "Supreme Court sides with liberals in minor tax case"

Housing starts were down in May, continuing a trend since the construction peak of early 2022: It's not as if housing starts have collapsed: they're now at the same level as they were right before the pandemic, following a decade-long rise after the housing bust of 2006-09. This slowdown is one of the things that ...continue reading "Housing starts continue their downward trend in May"

From Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli military: This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear — it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public. Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people — whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong. This ...continue reading "Quote of the day: Hamas ain’t going away"

In the Wall Street Journal today, former judge Michael McConnell tries to explain to us Democrats why Republicans are sticking with Donald Trump despite all the court cases against him. First he argues that the New York hush money case was bogus. Fair enough. It's an arguable point. But he also says this: Many Republicans ...continue reading "Trump is being prosecuted because . . . he broke a lot of laws"

Louisiana has decided that all schools in the state should display the Ten Commandments: The law gives schools until Jan. 1 to display the Ten Commandments — religious and ethical directives outlined in the Bible — on “a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches” in every classroom. The ...continue reading "Thou shalt display the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments — if you’re a school in Louisiana"

I continue to be completely befuddled by the scope of the food problems in Gaza. For starters, here are the UN's overall numbers: This suggests that 330,000 Gazans are experiencing acute malnutrition and at least 220 are currently dying of malnutrition every day. This comes to nearly 30,000 people dead of malnutrition since January. How ...continue reading "Are people starving in Gaza? How many?"

Sea lions mesmerize me. This one was swimming loops in its pool, and it's hard to imagine anything more aerodynamic when they pull in their front flippers and glide underwater before surfacing. I could watch all day. NOTE: Yes, hydrodynamic is the proper term. But outside of a fluid dynamics class who's ever heard of ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

The Washington Post reports that Iran is expanding uranium enrichment at its Fordow nuclear facility: Fordow had ceased making enriched uranium entirely under the terms of the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Iran resumed making the nuclear fuel there shortly after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018. Is anyone ever going ...continue reading "How close are we to a nuclear Middle East?"

Retail sales were up slightly in May, but the trend is very definitely down over the past couple of years: Retail sales per capita have declined 5% since the start of 2022. But here's more context: So what's really going on? Are shoppers running out of money and buying less? Or simply reverting to their ...continue reading "Are retail sales down, or just returning to their old levels?"

As part of an angry response to a New York Times explainer on getting aid to Gaza, Alec Karakatsanis says this: For example, "humanitarian aid" pier in Gaza wasn't a cynical fraud to cover for genocide (a PR ploy by U.S. to keep sending weapons that was then itself used in one of Israel's great ...continue reading "Genocide and the floating pier"

Normally presidential candidates try to play down their prospects before a debate. That way they have a better chance of "beating expectations." Does this work? I've always had my doubts. But we're about to get a destruction test of the theory from Joe Biden—though not from the candidate himself. From his opponent. Donald Trump has ...continue reading "Some early thoughts about next week’s debate"

It's commonplace these days to say that the US doesn't know how to build things anymore. I want to push back mildly on this. Here is manufacturing: Manufacturing production has flattened, but it hasn't declined. We make more stuff today than we did 20 years ago. Here's construction: This is everything: houses, factories, roads, etc. ...continue reading "America still knows how to build stuff"

Apropos of nothing in particular, here's a list of the richest non-OPEC countries in continental Africa (no islands): I was curious to see if the few countries that had never been European colonies did any better than the rest. It doesn't look like it. In fact, aside from oil, the main thing to look at ...continue reading "Raw data: Wealth in Africa"

Along the Höllgasse Artists Alley in Passau, the local artists have painted a center stripe of the cobblestones in bright, primary colors. By chance, the annual painting took place the day before we were there, so the cobblestones were nice and shiny for us.