Kevin Drum 🕸

You know what I'd like? I'd like a qualified linguist with a good ear to listen to a Joe Biden speech and report back. A couple of weeks ago I spent some time doing this, and Biden's problem is that his speech really does sound a little slurred at times. My amateur conclusion was that ...continue reading "Calling all linguists"

Here is the story of my grandfather (on my mother's side). Yes, it has a point: My grandfather was born in 1900. He was 14 when World War I broke out and 17 when America entered the fighting. He was 18 when the Spanish flu pandemic swept the world. He was 20 when the Palmer ...continue reading "The life and times of my grandfather"

While we were in Colorado our cats were lounging around at my sister's house. So instead of catblogging today we have dogblogging. This is Freckles, a furry dachshund who belongs to our friend Susan in Durango. Freckles is shy and only truly feels safe curled up with Susan, which is exactly what she's doing in ...continue reading "Friday Dog Blogging – 20 October 2023"

This is weird: The eight House Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy made their colleagues an offer today: Vote Jim Jordan for speaker and punish us https://t.co/aTJC3HlUBO — POLITICO (@politico) October 20, 2023 "Punish us"? Seriously? Is this some kind of masochistic Republican ritual just now coming to light? I have no idea why ...continue reading "House rebels say, “Punish us.”"

The FBI has released final crime figures for 2022. Murder was down 7%: Because of changes in the FBI's methodology, it's still not clear if the 2020-22 numbers are all comparable to each other. Nevertheless, the trend is pretty clear, and it's one I've noted before: violent crime was basically stable while homicide spiked up. ...continue reading "FBI says murder was down 7% in 2022"

Just like yesterday, good news comes in pairs. Kenneth Chesebro has pleaded guilty to illegally conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. He was the guy who came up with the fake electors scheme, and his plea deal requires him to face only a single felony charge instead of the original seven. He ...continue reading "Another Georgia defendant goes down"

Third time's the charm? Nope. Jim Jordan has gone from 200 votes to 199 to 194. I really don't think Speaker of the House is in his future. Surely it's time for Plan D?

Apparently Jon Stewart's show on Apple TV+ has been canceled because he intended to talk about China: The New York Times reports that along with concerns about some of the guests booked to be on The Problem With Jon Stewart, Stewart’s intended discussions of artificial intelligence and China were a major concern for Apple. Though ...continue reading "Apple cancels Jon Stewart over China"

CVS is getting ahead of the curve: CVS Health is pulling some of the most common decongestants from its shelves and will no longer sell them, after advisers to U.S. health regulators recently determined that an ingredient doesn’t work. The products contain oral phenylephrine, an almost-century-old ingredient in versions of decongestants and over-the-counter pills, syrups ...continue reading "Public service announcement: Phenylephrine nasal sprays work fine"

On average, how much do women earn compared to men? It depends. Here's the data for Q3 of this year from the BLS: This doesn't account for educational levels, experience, or type of job. It's just the raw overall numbers.

On Monday I showed you Chimney Rock silhouetted against Saturday's eclipse. Today I'll show you a more conventional view. In fact, I'll show you two Chimney Rocks. The top one is south of Cortez; the bottom one is an official national monument southwest of Pagosa Springs.

Here's a current headline in Politico: The text of the piece generally is OK, but what's with the consistent theme that Democrats are holding the strings here? They can't do anything until Republicans ask, and so far Republicans have flatly refused to entertain any kind of deal. A better headline would be: Republicans dither about ...continue reading "Democrats are not the ones preventing a deal to elect a Speaker"

Yesterday I mentioned that sales of new homes had fallen over the past couple of years. Today the Wall Street Journal passes along the news that existing home sales have plummeted as well: Home sales fell in September to the lowest rate in 13 years, showing the corner of the economy most weakened by high ...continue reading "Home sales drop to lowest rate in over a decade"

Today is full of good news. First Jim Jordan threw in the towel and now crackpot lawyer Sidney Powell has done the same: Sidney K. Powell, a member of Donald J. Trump’s legal team after he lost the 2020 election, pleaded guilty on Thursday morning to six misdemeanor counts instead of facing a criminal trial ...continue reading "Sidney “Release the Kraken” Powell pleads guilty to election conspiracy"

I see that Jim Jordan has decided not to become a three-time loser, instead ending his run for Speaker of the House. What a wuss. Kevin McCarthy was willing to endure 14 rounds of humiliation before he finally became Speaker. So what now? It's not too late to go back to McCarthy. Maybe a few ...continue reading "Jim Jordan is out"

The COVID pause on student loan repayment is over. With 28 million borrowers now having to make payments again, will this slash consumption and take the US economy down with it? Probably not. The New York Fed analyzed some recent survey results and concluded that the impact would be minimal: On average, borrowers expect to ...continue reading "Student loan resumption will only barely affect the economy"

Matt Darling is puzzled: "In recent years, however, homeownership has become unavailable to more people than ever before, including white-collar workers and even members of the managerial classes." ??? https://t.co/jmByEZ0eXt pic.twitter.com/XVpsjhyAjK — Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ (@besttrousers) October 18, 2023 It's true that the overall homeownership rate hasn't changed much recently, which might cause you to ...continue reading "Homes have gotten pretty expensive these days"

Jim Jordan, in an apparent attempt to bolster his tax cut bona fides, has suggested he would support raising the cap on the state and local tax deduction. This would cut taxes by about $50 billion, mostly for the affluent, but even some Republicans are unimpressed: Senate Finance GOPer Tillis called this “the worst possible ...continue reading "Surprise! Jim Jordan is not a fiscal conservative."

This is a white wagtail, photographed in Giverny while I was avoiding the crowds at Monet's cottage.

I don't remember: have I posted this chart before? I guess it can't hurt to post it again: There are technical differences between the CPI and PCE measures of inflation, but they mostly only show up over long stretches of time. Over short periods, as you can see, they're generally quite close. Except during the ...continue reading "Why did CPI and PCE inflation diverge during the pandemic?"