Kevin Drum 🕸

Total compensation for workers—wages plus benefits—rose in Q1: Total comp came to $46.14 per hour. Wages and salaries clocked in at $31.72. This is good news all around. Compensation was up 2.6% at an annualized rate, which is good for workers. But it's slowed down from 3.8% over the past year, which is good news ...continue reading "Average compensation rose in Q1"

What did we learn from the COVID-19 pandemic? What should we be doing now to prepare for the next pandemic? Which measures (aside from vaccination) were most effective? We still don't know for sure, but there's enough evidence to make educated guesses about a lot of interventions. I did this same exercise last year and ...continue reading "The lessons of COVID"

The FTC went after Adobe today for "deceiving consumers by hiding the early termination fee for its most popular subscription plan." This might be a tough one to win. Here is Adobe's online order form: This is very similar to the page shown in the government's complaint. It could certainly provide more information, but it's ...continue reading "The FTC might have a hard time making its case against Adobe"

When I was out at Palomar astronomizing a couple of weeks ago, I set up my camera to do some Milky Way photography. I didn't have any special equipment. Just my camera and a tripod, which limited my exposure time to about 15 seconds and also limited the number of frames I could stack.¹ Nonetheless, ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Our kids are at risk: The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced on Monday that he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that using the platforms might damage adolescents’ mental health. Every surgeon general wants to replicate the greatest all-time success in the history of surgeon generalcy: the ...continue reading "Warning: This blog may damage your mental health"

Ryan Delk wondered over the weekend why modern safety tech, like blind spot detection and lane departure warnings, haven't had any effect on traffic death rates. Here's my guess using an annotated version of his chart: The safety features that have worked are the ones that keep you safe even if you get into a ...continue reading "Why did auto fatalities stop declining?"

MAGA conspiracy theories are legion, and it's hard to find comparable things from progressives. But I found one over the weekend, and it's rare enough that I want to share it: Every word of this is correct. Trump did have a phone call with Putin on July 31 (and in person a month earlier on ...continue reading "Finally, a completely bogus lefty conspiracy theory"

The New York Times writes today about Black farmers who are upset that they've seen few results from programs designed to help them: The promise of the debt relief program was dashed after groups representing white farmers filed lawsuits to block it, arguing that the federal government was engaging in reverse discrimination by awarding money ...continue reading "MAGA chaos is helping . . . MAGA"

Give or take a bit, 10 million Americans currently use Ozempic or a similar drug to lose weight.

Donald Trump has recently mused about reviving mandatory military service; replacing the income tax with tariffs; and the relative merits of drowning vs. electrocution. This is nutty stuff but it doesn't seem to bother any of his supporters. Why? My guess is that the answer is twofold: (a) they don't think he's serious, and (b) ...continue reading "Out-of-the-box thinking from Donald Trump"

Nick Kristof wants to know what's wrong with liberalism on the West Coast: Centrist voters can reasonably ask: Why put liberals in charge nationally when the places where they have greatest control are plagued by homelessness, crime and dysfunction? Without being too much of a Pollyanna, I think Kristof is being misled by the problems ...continue reading "Liberals have run the West Coast just fine"

Reuters has uncovered a rather remarkable story of American disinformation during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It starts in 2019, when the Trump administration decided to free the Pentagon from its normal tedious restrictions on psyops. In the case of Russia and China, it ruled, the military no longer needed approval from local ...continue reading "The military under Trump ran anti-vaccine psyops worldwide"

Here are some headlines in the New York Times from the past year: Beloved Ostrich Dies at Kansas Zoo After Swallowing Worker’s Keys Beloved ’90s TV Show Finally Comes to Streaming A Beloved Artist Supplants a Corporation on a Concert Hall Marquee London Bids Farewell, for Now, to a Beloved, Overstuffed Walrus ‘Oh No, They’re ...continue reading "Beloved newspaper has a headline problem"

The Department of Justice, headed by Merrick B. Garland, has told House Republicans—who held Merrick B. Garland in contempt two days ago—that it will not be pursuing charges against Merrick B. Garland, who is their boss. I'm glad that's all cleared up.

Here is Hilbert looking professorial against a background of, um, scholarly books. Note that, as usual, he's in my red chair. In the late afternoon he likes to jump up on me when I'm sitting in it and demand belly rubs. But if I get up, he instantly claims the chair for himself and stretches ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 14 June 2024"

The Supreme Court ruled today that a "bump stock" does not convert a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun and is therefore legal. The key question is whether a rifle with a bump stock fires continuously or needs to be separately engaged for each round fired. As a result, the entire argument depends on a ...continue reading "Just what is a “single function” of a gun’s trigger?"

Donald Trump says one of his recent speeches was rewritten by an AI program: “I had a speech rewritten by AI out there, one of the top people,” Trump said. “He said, ‘Oh, you’re gonna make a speech? Yeah?’ He goes, click, click, click, and like, 15 seconds later, he shows me my speech that’s ...continue reading "Trump says AI wrote one of his speeches"

Here's the latest meme on the right: Crime is not down. Crime reporting is. pic.twitter.com/9NBgNI1LXk — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 13, 2024 Sigh. Are you interested in a deep-in-the-weeds explanation of how crime is reported and summarized in the US? Sure, why not. For many years the FBI used a crime-reporting system called SRS. But ...continue reading "Crime is really and truly down in 2024"

Over at National Review, Luther Ray Abel jokingly says that Illinois has the ugliest flag in creation. But: The second-most-hideous ensign, the so-called Pride flag, deserves more consideration because of its actively chimeric nature. The multivarious sexual and racial political interests represented in its horizontal bar and leftward-marching chevron were recently unveiled at a NASA ...continue reading "Why do conservatives hate inclusiveness?"

The radiation treatments for my prostate cancer will begin on July 1 and continue every weekday through August 7. That's it. That's the update. POSTSCRIPT: And I get tattoos! For real. A series of dots on my groin that help guide the radiation beam. ANOTHER POSTSCRIPT: My pre-treatment testosterone level is 375, right in the ...continue reading "Health update"