Kevin Drum 🕸

More from the focus group: This is a master class in getting things wrong: Inflation in California has been lower than the rest of the country. According to the USDA, the price of bacon in California under Joe Biden has gone up about 18%, from $5.38 to $6.37. Much of that is due to Proposition ...continue reading "California math"

Behold Ben, a 42-year-old white guy from Texas, explaining to a focus group why he's moving away from Trump: As far as porn stars go for affairs, he could have set a better example for who to have an affair with.... There are so many wonderful porn stars out there.... But I want a president ...continue reading "The best reason ever to vote for Joe Biden"

The New York Times reports that RFK Jr. is unlikely to qualify for the presidential debate later this month. However: In at least one respect, Mr. Kennedy has reason for optimism. Recent polling has positioned Mr. Kennedy closer to qualifying for the debate stage than any third-party candidate in more than three decades. Mr. Kennedy ...continue reading "RFK Jr. has less support than he thinks"

Sometimes astronomy night just doesn't work out. I went out to the desert on Sunday with the intention of photographing the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex—which is basically a nebula but for some reason isn't called one. It's very colorful, and also huge, far too big to capture with my telescope. So I planned to use ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

From the Washington Post: More than 300 House lawmakers were reimbursed at least $5.2 million for food and lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new, taxpayer-funded program that does not require them to provide receipts. ....Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the program’s overall top spender, was reimbursed for nearly $30,000 in ...continue reading "Matt Gaetz is the top user of new congressional honor system"

I was poking around yesterday's update on construction spending and I noticed something odd. Total spending on construction has increased pretty steadily for the past decade. However, the number of construction workers took a big hit during the pandemic and never recovered to its previous trend: This means that construction workers today are considerably more ...continue reading "Have construction workers really become more productive since the pandemic?"

Job openings dropped yet again in April, this time by a whopping 300,000. The long-term trend continues to be perplexing: Just before the pandemic the total employment level was 48.1%. Today it's 48.0%. In other words, exactly the same. But in the interval job openings skyrocketed and are still considerably higher than in January 2020. ...continue reading "In April, job openings are down but hires are up"

President Biden plans to sign an executive order that would effectively close the border to asylum seekers. Atrios isn't impressed: This will solve an undefinable problem and satisfy all the people who have good faith concerns! I don't get this. Even if you oppose Biden's plan, it's pretty obvious what problem he's trying to solve: ...continue reading "Biden’s border plan probably won’t work"

Today is a huge relief: My doctor called to tell me that my PET scan results were, in his words, "clean." Here's the report: The first sentence means the scan found strong evidence of prostate cancer in my prostate. The second sentence means it didn't find it anywhere else. It hasn't metastasized. There's no cancer ...continue reading "Health update"

This poor tree has been the target of so many woodpeckers that it's practically falling apart. This is something of a metaphor for human beings and nearly everything we touch, but at least we're not the only ones. Just the only ones who should know better.

A week ago I mentioned there was now a huge discrepancy between UN and Israeli figures for aid getting into Gaza. The UN acknowledged that it wasn't counting commercial shipments, but that hardly seemed like enough to account for the difference. But maybe it is. This is from the Guardian: In May, the Israeli military ...continue reading "How close to famine is Gaza?"

Is my memory shot? The Washington Post has a piece today about social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether it was really necessary. This is apparently going to be a key point in tomorrow's congressional hearings featuring Anthony Fauci. It takes ten paragraphs before the Post provides a straightforward answer: "Experts agree that social ...continue reading "The rise and fall of the six-foot rule"

Dr Pepper is now the #2 soda brand in the US: Huh. I didn't realize that Pepsi had plummeted so badly. I wonder why? The other thing this chart reminds me of is my longtime puzzlement that consumption of diet sodas is so far behind their sugary cousins. I know they don't taste the same, ...continue reading "Dr Pepper is now #2"

I see that we're back to playing an old favorite game: Trump on Fox & Friends vows to entirely cut the department of education, cut the department of interior, and also do big cuts to "environment agencies," which he says are "so bad for us." pic.twitter.com/mu8klKJo6z — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 2, 2024 Wait. The ...continue reading "Trump wants to get rid of the Interior Department"

The Wall Street Journal reports today on a multi-million dollar pickleball scandal. That's it. That's the post. Pickleball. Surprisingly, Donald Trump has nothing to do with it.

I've seen a lot of commentary about the Trump trial vaguely suggesting that it popped up out of nowhere from a partisan DA with an axe to grind and a dubious legal theory he invented just for the occasion. This is not true. It is true that the legal theory behind Trump's prosecution was novel, ...continue reading "A timeline of the Trump hush money investigation"

And now for something completely different. The Washington Post today has a piece about what they got when they asked AI image apps to produce pictures of beautiful women. They basically got this: This is presented as problematic because it reinforces stereotypes of what's beautiful in a woman. But this should come as precisely no ...continue reading "BREAKING: AI confirms Western ideals of beauty"

Last Friday I committed to some real live catblogging this week. Promise made, promise kept. Hilbert is giving me a squinty look because I'm scratching his back and he wants me to keep it up. Although you can't hear it, he was purring his little heart out while I was taking this picture.

Donald Trump has: Been convicted of covering up an affair with a porn star. Been caught on tape bragging about grabbing pussies. Lied about President Obama wiretapping him. Tried to extort the president of Ukraine into digging up dirt on a political opponent. Worked tirelessly to illegally overthrow an election he lost. Promised to pardon ...continue reading "Conservatives like Trump because of his character"

Here's the latest on EV sales: There's not much question that sales have flattened out. There's been essentially no growth for the past 12 months. This is due to weak sales both at Tesla and among all other EV automakers.