Kevin Drum 🕸

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"

Yesterday we toured Schönbrunn Palace, and when we got to the ballroom our guide asked if we knew how long imperial balls lasted in the age of Maria Theresa. The obvious answer is "a few hours," with the exact length variable. But here's how things went: Short silence, then someone pipes up. "24 hours." "Three ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

A trio of academic researchers are concerned that most Americans don't know how pregnancies are dated. It turns out I didn't know either. I've always assumed that pregnancy is dated from conception and lasts about 39 weeks. Nope. Pregnancies are dated from the start of the mother's last menstrual period, which is usually about two ...continue reading "A 6-week abortion ban is really a 4-week abortion ban"

Via Stefan Schubert, here's an interesting chart: The sudden increase in the 1860s is likely due to the invention of reliable guns, which made assassinations a lot easier. But what's up with the big increase starting in the '50s and then dropping away in the early 2000s? Why were there a record number of assassinations ...continue reading "Assassinations have plunged over the past two decades. Why?"

I've made this point before, but it's worth making again: inflation at the grocery story has been very, very low for over a year. Here is monthly inflation in groceries: Over the past 12 months, inflation in groceries has averaged 1.1%, way below the normal rate. The press ran about a million pieces when food ...continue reading "Food prices are down, wages are up"

Because of time zone challenges and my slothful ways, I don't normally post about new inflation figures until well after the rest of the world. My slothful ways aren't likely to change anytime soon, but today you all get the benefit of my being six time zones ahead of the BLS. So here are April's ...continue reading "Inflation settles down in April"