Kevin Drum 🕸

The press is finally starting to ask the most obvious question in the world: This is from the Washington Post, and it follows a major story on the same theme last week in the New York Times. The taboo is finally lifting.

Walgreens announced today that it planned to close 1200 stores. In case you think this is due to a recent wave of shoplifting, check this out: Walgreens stock has been sliding for a decade, losing 90% of its value. This started shortly after they acquired the British chain Boots, which they've had difficulty integrating. Shoplifting ...continue reading "Walgreens is closing stores to restore profitability"

After a couple of people fainted at Donald Trump's town hall tonight, he got flustered and decided to give up and just play a bunch of his musical faves instead of continuing: “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear ...continue reading "Trump stares vacantly, swaying to music, for half an hour at town hall"

The Wall Street Journal reports that fertility rates are down and countries around the world are desperately trying to bribe young adults to have more babies: Imagine if having children came with more than $150,000 in cheap loans, a subsidized minivan and a lifetime exemption from income taxes.... These are among the benefits—along with cheap ...continue reading "Everyone wants more babies—except for women of childbearing age"

Conservatives are in endless denial about their own movement: Agree https://t.co/8ffWCEruGx — Eli Lake (@EliLake) October 14, 2024 The "planted disinfo" in question is a nutbag conspiracy theory from a Twitter troll called Black Insurrectionist. He's the guy who last month circulated an obviously fake claim from a "whistleblower" that the ABC presidential debate had ...continue reading "Conservatives are in denial"

In the current issue of Texas Monthly Jack Herrera has a top notch story about illegal immigration in Texas. After a portrait of a Honduran migrant who's chased away from home by rising gang violence and is desperate to land a construction job in the US, he writes about the main reason for the recent ...continue reading "In Texas, no one really opposes illegal immigration"

I'm going to keep trying with the comet, but it's just too faint to capture well. I took this one at the Huntington Beach pier, just before the comet dropped below some developing fog and disappeared. This is a composite picture since I needed a long exposure for the comet but a shorter exposure for ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Kamala Harris introduced an economic plan today designed to help Black men, but as you might expect it's really a laundry list of stuff that will be available to anyone. She's just pitching it as aimed at Black men. Anyway, this buries the lede: Under the plan, Ms. Harris also pledges to legalize marijuana nationally ...continue reading "Kamala Harris promises to legalize marijuana"

Here is the Atlanta Fed's latest projection for real GDP growth in Q3: Donald Trump beat 3% growth only five times before COVID hit. Joe Biden beat it seven times in his first three years. This will be his ninth overall. Likewise, GDP grew a total of 8.2% during Trump's first three years and 7.1% ...continue reading "GDP growth is roaring ahead"

The Washington Post has heroically scoured campaign finance reports to figure out what politicos of different parties like to eat: Fast food in general appears to be a Republican thing: Overall, GOP campaigns outspent Democrats about 18-to-1 at fast-food joints of all stripes. As best I can tell, Republicans outspent Democrats about 2:1 on food ...continue reading "Fast food: Is it a Republican thing?"

This is nuts: The new round of October polling from the Senate Leadership Fund shows all but one Republican candidate running behind Donald Trump in battleground states. Trump is more popular than conventional Republicans. Republican voters actively prefer a lying, ignorant, whining, vengeful racist to an ordinary person with conservative views. I guess we already ...continue reading "In battleground states, Trump is running ahead of other Republicans"

I've posted this before, but I feel like putting it up again for all the folks who think illegal immigrants are taking away all the jobs: In 2021-22 there was a huge demand for workers, and that really did produce a rise in illegal immigration. But this was only because the high demand was still ...continue reading "Nobody’s jobs were taken away by illegal immigrants"

Atrios thinks it's weird that there isn't more discourse over the possibility of war with Iran. I get that, although since the discourse would be dominated by hawks (it always is) the ongoing silence might not be such a bad thing. Part of the reason, I think, is that "war with Iran," if it comes, ...continue reading "Why is everyone so quiet about war with Iran?"

But I have no taste buds and no interest in food. I eat a couple of small meals a day because I have to, and I snack a little bit during the day. I'd put my intake at about 800 calories or so, which is fine in the short run but obviously not sustainable in ...continue reading "I’m hungry"

Hey, look! It's comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS: I couldn't see it on Saturday with the naked eye, and most of my test pictures didn't show it either. The exposure had to be just right. But it will be a little higher tonight—and therefore in darker skies—which makes it more visible. Tomorrow will probably be even ...continue reading "Go see the comet tonight!"

Is MAGA Nation still obsessing over weather control? Here's an update: It looks like MAGA is moving on to newer and better conspiracy theories. Weather control isn't holding up compared to Al Pacino, although it's doing better than poor Geoffrey Hinton, who got a day or two in the sun and then plunged back into ...continue reading "Weather control: An update"

As time goes by, it becomes ever clearer why we suffered our recent bout of inflation. It's pretty straightforward: The pandemic caused supply to decline. The CARES Act, passed immediately after the pandemic started, kept demand high. That's it. If supply goes down and demand goes up, you get inflation. When supply recovers, inflation goes ...continue reading "Inflation = Pandemic + CARES Act"

Here's a story you probably never expected to see: Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced charges against three young people who they say robbed a string of banks across Northern California last year by using Instagram to recruit women to walk into financial institutions and pass the tellers notes demanding money. ....The indictment says Jones and ...continue reading "Would you answer an Instagram appeal for bank robbers?"

Beginning around 2000, universities began to consistently add more women than men to their ranks of new assistant professorships: As a result, in 2013 women began to outnumber men: As of 2022, women held 54.4% of all assistant professorships. Note that is an average. The numbers obviously vary tremendously among different academic fields.

This is remarkable. Four-star generals are not typically ones to lob around the word fascist. But Milley did. Retired General Mark Milley to Bob Woodward about Trump: "I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he's a total fascist." https://t.co/fGQZ3t2YRu — Axios (@axios) October ...continue reading "Gen. Mark Milley: Trump is a fascist"