Kevin Drum 🕸

I see that Donald Trump's Truth Social reported financial results today for the first quarter of the year. Total revenue clocked in at $770,000 (yes, thousand): Results were announced after the market closed, and in after-hours trading no one seems to care. The stock price is still hovering around $49, about where it ended the ...continue reading "Truth Social posts terrible Q1 results"

This is the Jesuit Church in Vienna. It's a fine example of Baroque architecture, but that's not why I visited. I was attracted by the remarkable—and photogenic—use of color inside. The fake marble comes in hues of green, rose, and yellow, set off by gold leaf everywhere. It's not really what I would associate with ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

In the Washington Post today, Nick Mourtoupalas writes about something that hasn't gotten much attention: Joe Biden has appointed more non-white judges than any president in history. But to really see how dramatic Biden's tenure has been, you need to look at his annual appointment rate: Biden is appointing non-white judges at more than twice ...continue reading "87% of Biden’s new judges haven’t been white men"

From the Washington Post: The top U.S. general in Afghanistan during the American military’s 2021 withdrawal repeatedly warned Washington that security would get “very bad, very fast” after troops departed, but the Biden administration still failed to grasp the danger in keeping its embassy open with only nominal protection, he told lawmakers investigating the war’s ...continue reading "Everybody understood that withdrawing from Afghanistan was dangerous"

The Washington Post reports today that consumer sentiment softened this month. That's true enough. But they also say this: That pessimism is altering consumers’ spending habits. McDonald’s, Home Depot, Under Armour and Starbucks all recently reported disappointing earnings, as people cut back on fast food, kitchen renovations, sneakers and afternoon lattes. ....Employers are adding fewer ...continue reading "The Washington Post is very, very wrong about the economy"

I've taken many pictures of Vienna, most of which will never get their day in the sun in the coveted competition to be named Lunchtime Photo. So here's a whole bunch of them: some that just amused me, others that are interesting but not photographically exceptional. For example, parking in Vienna can be tight: Sometimes ...continue reading "A trip to Vienna"

President Biden really really needs to meet with the press and make a casual remark that he thinks Donald Trump will decline to testify at his trial because he has a loose mouth and it would be too dangerous for him. Nothing overdone, mind you. Not "He's too much of a coward to testify." Just ...continue reading "Biden should suggest Trump stay out of the briar patch"

A couple of days ago at lunch I bought a Coke Zero and really struggled to remove the cap. One of the pieces that holds it on hadn't been perforated and it took a serious yank to finally pull it loose. Meh. Bad luck. But later in the day I bought a carton of milk. ...continue reading "Should you recycle bottle caps? Yes!"

Our trip has been completely cat free. Not even a glimpse. But I still have some catblogging for you. On the top is "Katzen und Fische," which I assume needs no translation. It's a 1781 painting by Martin Ferdinand Quadal in the Belvedere Museum. At the bottom, courtesy of my sister, is a picture of ...continue reading "17 Mai 2024 – Freitag Katzenblogging"

Tyler Cowen points today to a new paper that investigates whether economists tend to talk their own book. That is, do they generally come to conclusions that fit their political leanings? The answer, unsurprisingly, is yes, and I doubt that we need to bother with any more research on this subject. Tyler particularly directs our ...continue reading "Even conservative economists agree: We should have higher taxes on the rich"

Today we went out to visit some museums and we had to wait two minutes for our subway train to show up. Two minutes! It's outrageous. Yesterday there was a three-minute wait for our tram and then a four-minute wait on the way home. Do they think we have nothing but time on our hands? ...continue reading "Our lengthy wait for Vienna public transit"

President Biden has already turned over to Congress the transcript of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur. But he's claimed executive privilege to hold on to the tape recordings. The Wall Street Journal is outraged: The privilege claim is bogus on two grounds.... Oh for chrissake. There's no need to read any further. Of ...continue reading "Yes, of course Biden’s claim of executive privilege is bogus"

You remember Daniel Perry, don't you? He's the guy in Texas who developed a hatred of Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020 and wrote to friends about how he planned to kill a few of them. Eventually he did. He deliberately drove his car into a crowd of BLM protesters, claimed that one of them ...continue reading "Texas governor pardons racist murderer"

The New York Times tells us today that social media is rife with testimonials from women saying they've quit using birth control pills because of all the side effects. However, in a development that should shock no one, an analysis of actual data shows exactly the opposite: Usage has been steadily trending upward in the ...continue reading "Never trust social media for anything more important than new dance trends"

Do you like pictures of butterflies? I sure hope so, because on Wednesday we visited Vienna's Schmetterling Haus and I spent some time collecting photos of the (alleged) 400 species of butterflies they boast. The star of the show was the blue morpho, because they're big, bright, blue, and flying around by the dozens. The ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

For the fourth month in a row, illegal border crossings remained steady at a high but non-catastrophic rate: Total encounters in April came to 180,000, of which 41,000 were migrants who made appointments for asylum through CBP's mobile app. The number apprehended crossing illegally was 129,000.

Busy day today! The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of liberals again: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a broad challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reversing a lower-court ruling that would have undermined the watchdog agency created by Congress 12 years ago. The CFPB case is one of several the Supreme Court ...continue reading "Supreme Court spanks the Fifth Circuit yet again"

A new study is getting a bit of attention for its startling claim that Facebook use is associated with more votes for Donald Trump. Maybe so, but take a look at the key chart: This chart shows the results of deactivating Facebook and Instagram six weeks before the 2020 election for several thousand users. Note ...continue reading "Does Facebook use really turn you into a MAGA voter?"

I know you will be shocked by this headline in the Wall Street Journal today: This is pretty plainly code for "never," since Hamas will never be entirely defeated and Netanyahu has no intention of ending the Gaza war or agreeing to any kind of political plan for Gaza in the future. Instead, it will ...continue reading "Netanyahu doesn’t want the Gaza war to end"

Today brings yet more evidence that the Supreme Court is not quite the conservative steamroller we often make it out to be: The Supreme Court restored a congressional voting map in Louisiana on Wednesday that includes an additional majority-Black district, handing a victory to African American voters and Democrats less than six months before the ...continue reading "Supreme Court backs Democrats in Louisiana"