Kevin Drum

This is the BlackBerry building in Irvine, more formally known as 400 Spectrum Center. Along with its twin it's the tallest building in Orange County, topping out at a breathtaking 323 feet. That's a full 12% of the height of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building!

It's also clad in some kind of special glass that makes it take on the color of its surroundings. It doesn't disappear or anything, but it often blends in surprisingly well. It's hard to get a good picture of it thanks to the tight surroundings, but a few days ago I had the rare pleasure of being a passenger while Marian drove and I got this shot out the window of her car while we were tooling home on the 405. It was a very hazy day, and while the building is obviously quite visible, you can see that it's also taken on some of the day's haziness.

I am confused. This is hardly a rare occurrence, so let me explain.

Thirty years ago we held a great debate about welfare, with Bill Clinton running on a platform of "ending welfare as we know it." In 1996 he did just that, eliminating the old AFDC program that handed out money without limit to parents with kids, regardless of whether or not they worked. It was replaced by TANF, which combined incentives to work with a time limit for receiving benefits.

Fast forward to 2021 and Mitt Romney has proposed consolidating several current federal benefits in favor of a single new one. TANF would go away entirely; the EITC would be reduced; and the childcare tax credit would be eliminated. In their place would be a simple monthly check sent to anyone with children. The checks amount to $350 per month for young children and $250 per month for kids over age 5.

This is a universal program, so it includes everyone—regardless of whether they have jobs. This means that if you're a single mother of two who doesn't work—the hated target of the 1996 welfare reform—you would receive about $7,200 per year with no strings attached. Adjusted for inflation, this is more than the average AFDC payment for a family of three in 1995.
And that's if you have two children. If you're one of the even more hated "welfare moms" with a brood of four kids, you'd receive upwards of $15,000 per year. There's no time limit on these payments and no incentives to get a job. In fact, by reducing the EITC and the childcare tax credit, Romney's plan reduces the incentive to find a job.

What am I missing here? Am I misinterpreting Romney's plan? Or has enough time gone by since 1995 that even Republicans are no longer upset at the idea of no-strings welfare payments with no time limits?

I would like to propose that we abandon several commonly-used political words. It's not because these words are beyond the pale; it's because they have lost all meaning in popular discourse. In non-scholarly settings, no one truly knows what they mean. Here are four examples:

Neoliberal. It doesn't help that there are two established versions of this word to begin with: the Washington Consensus version and the Charles Peters version. It hardly matters, though, since almost no one in popular conversation knows either one. Instead, it's become little more than a vague accusation made against liberals who have insufficiently leftist economic opinions.

Socialism. It's hard to think of any serious definition of socialism that doesn't include state ownership of major industries like banking, steelmaking, oil extraction, and so forth. It doesn't mean that the government merely gives money to people for things like housing and medical care. That's social democracy. Republicans have always papered over this distinction, trying to tar virtually every liberal program as socialist. More recently, though, even progressives seem confused about this point.
Fascist. Even among scholars there's disagreement about exactly what fascism is. Among everyone else, it seems to mean nothing more than some kind of meanspirited attitude trumpeted by a Republican politician. That's really not very helpful. Not every hardcore conservative represents the second coming of Mussolini.

Cancel culture. There are at least two different versions of this. The first is used by progressives against other progressives and is basically an offshoot of callout culture. The goal is to shame the victim into apologizing and changing his tune. The second version is used by progressives against conservatives and represents no kind of "culture" at all. It's merely routine political disagreement. Occasionally it goes farther than it should and becomes a rallying cry on Fox News. But it's only the first version—a purely internecine spat among progressives—that has any real meaning.

Last week I put up a chart showing weekend vaccination rates in the US. Here it is again for the weekend just ended:

This is the same chart as last time with the same trendline. All I've done is add seven more days of data.

As you can see, we have suddenly plateaued. There was no growth at all in the number of vaccinations given. Is this because it was a holiday weekend? Or because we've reached the limit of how many doses are available? Maybe next week will provide some answers.

Here’s the officially reported coronavirus death toll through February 14. The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

From the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. workers have failed to return to the office in greater numbers this month, frustrating hopes that the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines and falling infection rates would start to lure employees back and help revitalize city economies.

I'm just spitballing here, but maybe this is because the vast bulk of vaccinations have gone to people over age 65?

I bought a new chair a few months ago and it finally arrived last week. When we set it up, however, it looked lonely. So we hauled in the teal chair that had been exiled to the living room and set it up next to the new one. What I ended up with looks like a perfect set for an interview show:

All I need now are some good lights; professional microphones; a nice camera; interesting guests willing to come to Irvine; and some decent interviewing skills.

In other words, no interview YouTube channel for me. But if I ever change my mind, I'm all set.

Here’s the officially reported coronavirus death toll through February 13. The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

Wait. What's this? Lunchtime photos on a weekend?

Quite so. I was up all night on Friday, so I decided to putter around and look for pictures. Eventually I puttered into Santa Ana, and at the corner of 17th and Flower there was some kind of massive auto pileup. Judging from the number of ambulances and fire trucks clogging the street, it seems like several vehicles must have been involved, which is a little odd since it was 2 am. The streets were all pretty deserted.

Anyway, this gave me a chance to play cub photojournalist, so I did. Here are a few images of the aftermath.

Holy shit! I didn't bother googling the URL for my blog before I registered it, and it turns out that jabberwocking has an . . . unsavory definition:

I sure hope this is just some random addition to the Urban Dictionary, not actually a common use of this word.