The Post ran an article suggesting the past two pandemic years amount to a “memory hole” — that everything is blurring together for many of us and the pandemic seems to be “forever ending and always beginning.”
Truly life has felt suspended for many of us, and in many ways it is. We seem stuck on that day in March 2020 when most of the country — and the world — went into lockdown — a status previously reserved for those caught in a mass shooting episode while the gunman was being located by authorities.
But this time the assailant is an elusive virus that cannot ever really be captured or exterminated. It just rolls on and on through the unvaccinated among us, mutating and colonizing inside new bodies before continuing its relentless migration around the globe and back again.
On the other hand, my memory apparently is excellent, according to the judgement of others, but then again just the other day I was convinced it was February. — it took my digital devices to rid me of that notion.
Meanwhile, as we continue to wait for that possibly mythical moment when this pandemic will be behind us, the slow erosion to our political system continues, with new voting restrictions in many states, throwing the integrity of the 2022 and 2024 elections into doubt.
It doesn’t feel like only one year ago Biden that was sworn in, or since Amanda Gorman delivered her awesome poem. Her words still ring out: “But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.”
I’d like to believe in Gorman’s positive vision. But it feels like many years since she said that.
As for the pandemic, it definitely is still ending and beginning for me. Yesterday there were two more positive tests in my household, which means an extension of the lockdown and deepening of my isolation and depression.
As for that memory hole, you know what you can do with the past two years.
FRIDAY’s HEADLINES:
Greetings from the pandemic memory hole, where the last two years are one big blur — The pandemic that is forever ending and always beginning. Some people are losing their memories, if not their minds. (WP)
In Rebuke to Trump, Supreme Court Allows Release of Jan. 6 Files — The House committee investigating the riot received hundreds of pages of documents from the former president’s White House within hours of the ruling. (NYT)
Oath Keepers Cached Weapons for Capitol Attack, U.S. Says (WSJ)
Why America is dangerously polarised — and Europe is not (Financial Times)
Eric Trump and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg invoked their Fifth Amendment rights more than 500 times when questioned by the New York attorney general’s office for its investigation into the company’s finances, according to a court filing. The office argues that these instances demonstrate that the men were aware of potential criminal liability. [HuffPost]
Europe considers new COVID-19 strategy: accepting the virus (AP)
The European Union threatened "massive" economic sanctions if Moscow attacks Ukraine, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rallied allies ahead of last-ditch crisis talks with Russia aimed at preventing war. We explain how Western sanctions might target Russia, and look at how a Russian troop buildup has sparked an unintended NATO renewal. (Reuters)
Parent-activists, seeking control over education, are taking over school boards (WP)
The yearlong quest to pass voting rights legislation has ended in the Senate. It was a bitter disappointment for Democrats, who argued its passage was all that stood in the way of a new era of voter suppression laws in Republican-led states. [HuffPost]
After a day of debate, the voting rights bill is blocked in the Senate. — Without the votes to change Senate rules, Democrats had no avenue for overcoming a Republican filibuster against legislation intended to offset new state voting restrictions. (NYT)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasted Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) after they sided with Republicans against changing Senate filibuster rules, dooming Democrats’ efforts to pass voting rights legislation. “They have forced us to have five months of discussions that have gone absolutely nowhere. I think it’s up to the people in their own states,” Sanders said, when asked whether he supported efforts to primary the two conservatives. [HuffPost]
Biden approval hits new low at one-year mark: AP-NORC poll (AP)
Build Back Smaller: Biden gets real on the economy (Politico)
In Peru, Courts ‘Used Like Whips’ to Silence Journalists — The author of a book about a powerful politician has been sentenced to two years in prison. Media advocates say the case is part of a trend in which the courts are being used to punish critics. (NYT)
‘China will be China’: Why journalists are taking burner phones to the Beijing Olympics (WP)
US Senate committee advances bill to tame Big Tech’s power (Financial Times)
What the Metaverse Has to Do With Microsoft’s Deal for Activision (WSJ)
U.S. Federal Reserve officials, having plotted what seemed a clear battle plan against high inflation, must now contend with fresh signs the coronavirus is again slowing the economy as well as markets conspiring to tighten financial conditions faster than Fed policymakers may have hoped. (Reuters)
CIA finds no ‘worldwide campaign’ by any foreign power behind mysterious Havana syndrome (WP)
Forty percent of all seaborne imports to the United States come through either the Port of Los Angeles or the Port of Long Beach. And a majority of those goods eventually end up on a train. (Cal Today)
Twitter is bucking the remote work trend, opting to expand its office space in downtown San Francisco. (SFC)
The museum at the end of the world reopens for business (BBC)
Computer Not Looking Forward To Having To Replace Man's Repetitive, Mindless Job (The Onion)
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