Kevin Drum 🕸

How many people were apprehended trying to cross the border illegally in December? We don't know yet because CBP hasn't yet released its monthly update. Why? Literally on January 1st there were news reports saying that border apprehensions reached a record 300,000 in December. This was based on "internal government data," which isn't really a ...continue reading "Why are border statistics so haphazard?"

A couple of years ago I tossed out a perfectly good printer. It was an HP, and I had signed up for their Instant Ink "subscription" service, which allows you to print a set number of pages for a flat monthly fee. This caused some problems, so I canceled it. But that bricked my printer ...continue reading "Fuck you, HP"

We have some sensible news out of the Supreme Court today: The Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration on Monday and cleared the way for border patrol agents to remove razor wire Texas officials installed along a busy stretch of the southern border until the legality of the barriers is resolved in court. I ...continue reading "Supreme Court hands down a sensible ruling on the border"

Here are a few charts that I created for no real reason. I was just fiddling around. The first shows real GDP per worker hour: I tossed in a few big inventions just to drive home the point that practically nothing affects the growth rate of productivity more than a tiny bit. However, it's not ...continue reading "Three random charts about US economic growth"

Here's another one of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. This one is called Cliff Palace, and you can see a tour group at center right. But I didn't have a reservation and probably couldn't have made the hike down there anyway. So a long distance view at midday is all I got.

Kevin Morris, a wealthy friend of Hunter Biden, was recently forced to testify behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee, led by serial liar and attack dog James Comer. As usual, after Morris finished his testimony Comer immediately released an absurdly deceitful "readout" of his testimony. Both Philip Bump and Steve Benen have reported ...continue reading "James Comer is a big fat liar"

I know I'm tiresome on this point, but this is your regular reminder that the stock market did not, in fact, break any records today—regardless of what the Wall Street Journal mindlessly regurgitates. Here is the S&P 500: The S&P 500 peaked in late 2021, fell throughout 2022, and has not yet made up that ...continue reading "The stock market continued to not set new records today"

Atrios today: You can't expect people to get excited about modest improvements, even if they are improvements. One can accept the very real constraints of our political system — even, perhaps, understand them — while also wondering why it is the apparent outer limit of what Biden wants. I don't get this. Biden took office ...continue reading "Joe Biden has pushed for pretty big changes"

The Republican primary is now officially a two-person race: Trump vs. Nikki Haley. But Trump is ahead by 15 points in the New Hampshire polls and by 30+ points in South Carolina and Nevada. It's Trump vs. Biden in November, just like it's been all along. Assuming nobody drops dead, of course.

Over the past year, for no good reason aside from chronic tiredness, I've been reading less and instead watching a lot of old and new TV. Here's what I've watched in (very) rough order from best to worst. The shows in the bottom half of the list mostly suffered from getting a little tiresome toward ...continue reading "My TV watching over the past year"

The New York Times has some pretty maps today showing how shipping through the Suez Canal is diverting around the Cape of Good Hope. They also have a chart showing how much this costs: That doesn't look like an especially huge increase to me, but the chart was sourced to Freightos Data so I clicked ...continue reading "Raw data: The cost of ocean freight shipping"

In an essay about a hometown friend of his who recently passed away, Nick Kristof says, "There isn’t a good term for the bundle of pathologies that have afflicted working-class Americans like Bill." Then, to drive home the point that working-class Americans are in trouble, he adds this: One gauge of how many Americans are ...continue reading "American workers make more than they did in 1969"

For some reason, lefty sports fans have taken to blaming the demise of Sports Illustrated on greed run amok. And sure, owners of companies tend to be greedy. But SI's circulation peaked 30 years ago and has been declining ever since. In 2018 it went biweekly and in 2020 it went monthly. Total annual circulation ...continue reading "Why Sports Illustrated failed"

Today Donald Trump talked tough on fentanyl: To stop the deadly drugs that are poisoning our people, I will deploy the U.S. Navy to impose a full fentanyl blockade on the waters of our region.…The drug cartels are waging war on America, and we will destroy those cartels! Let's roll the tape. Here are fentanyl ...continue reading "Here is Trump’s track record on fentanyl"

Paul Krugman today: For people who say that Americans care about the level of prices, not the inflation rate, note that cumulative inflation under Biden so far is close to the number under Reagan. Which is why Reagan lost the 84 election in a landslide. Oh, wait pic.twitter.com/KhThKZOZ3A — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 20, 2024 ...continue reading "Why doesn’t Joe Biden get credit for taming inflation?"

It's a continuing curiosity that, generally speaking, it seems like the greatest fear of illegal immigration comes from states that are nowhere near the southern border. It turns out that Pew Research has state-by-state figures, so I went ahead and plotted it: The four border states are California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Their population ...continue reading "Raw data: Illegal immigrant population in border states"

Um.... Wow while rambling about January 6th, a confused Trump blames Nikki Haley for January 6th and says she was in charge of security for the Capitol pic.twitter.com/uw6FzJsqD9 — Acyn (@Acyn) January 20, 2024 Trump is really losing it these days. As in, really losing it.

CNN says today that, yeah, inflation has "slowed sharply," but that could change any day now: The risk that inflation could spike again is growing as disruption to one of the world’s main trade routes persists. ....“I do think that there is a level of complacency in the financial markets in respect of the inflation ...continue reading "No, problems in the Red Sea won’t reignite inflation"

The LA Times tells us today that we all forgot our social skills during the pandemic: As companies increasingly recall workers to the office, employees and managers alike are finding that the pandemic made us all a little rusty with in-person conduct. Co-workers are too loud at their desks. People are on their phones during ...continue reading "The pandemic did not rob us of social skills"

What a bunch of fucking idiots: House Republicans wrapped up impeachment hearings against Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, on Thursday.... Republicans are moving ahead without evidence that Mr. Mayorkas has committed high crimes or misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment, effectively seeking to remove him for immigration policies they argue have imperiled the ...continue reading "Republicans are drooling over hope of Homeland Security impeachment"