Friday Night Music

This area is prone to droughts, but both nights I went out with friends this week brought unexpected, welcome rains. So much for weather apps. But hello to a new superstition about the rain dance.

Friday night was the chance to celebrate a young friend’s 36th birthday and also to see a bunch of people I used to work with before retiring four years ago.

The journalism community is a small one in the Bay Area, unlike New York or L.A. But a slew of talented journalists live and work here, and this was a rare chance for me to see several at one time. They are collectively, after all, our best chance against the wave of disinformation and conspiracy theories sweeping over the nation like an atmospheric river.

We sat outside in a covered booth at a place near the Oakland/Berkeley border; at one point the conversation turned to why people like us do this kind of work anyway. It’s not like anybody gets rich doing honest journalism and the risks and stresses of the craft are more closely associated with anxiety attacks and high blood pressure than the flashy awards they give us from time to time.

There is very little glamorous about the actual work.

These days it’s a profession in steep decline; jobs are scarce and the competition for them fierce. Most media companies sooner or later announce another round of layoffs; job security is a constant concern.

But none of this dampened the spirits of our merry little band of story-tellers Friday night. At some point we noticed that it was raining softly outside our booth. We could tell this from the music of the passing traffic. 

We ate bar food — onion rings and loaded fries; those who drink sipped their drinks. We traded our stories and tips like journalists always do. We celebrated our lovely young colleague’s birthday.

Eventually the rain lifted and the fog came in at the higher altitudes. We said our goodbyes and went our own ways into the night. But the music of the rain dance remained.

HEADLINES:

• A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending. (WP)

• Federal judge rejects Trump's immunity claims in 2020 election interference case (NPR)

• House expels GOP Rep. George Santos over ethics violations (CNN)

• Trump can be held civilly liable in Jan. 6 riot, judges rule (WP)

• Newsom camp: Hannity, DeSantis cheated. They dispute the charges. (Politico)

• DeSantis’ Campaign May Have Flunked Its Final Test After Newsom Debate (DailyBeast)

• Gavin Newsom 2028? The Calif. governor’s early moves offer a potential glimpse. (WP)

• Biden Administration to Require Replacing of Lead Pipes Within 10 Years (NYT)

• Israel-Hamas war combat resumes in Gaza as Israelis accuse the Palestinian group of violating cease-fire (CBS)

• Israel-Hamas war live: more than 100 killed in Gaza since ceasefire expired, Hamas claims (Guardian)

• Zelenskyy says ‘new phase of war’ has begun, Hungary to back EU ‘strategic partnership’ (CNBC)

• The Israel-Hamas war could divert attention from Ukraine, Zelenskyy says (AP)

• Turkey’s exports of military-linked goods to Russia soar (Financial Times)

• Trailblazer Elon Musk pushes a profane new frontier (Reuters)

• Lucid dream startup says engineers can write code in their sleep. Work may never be the same (Fortune)

• Massive exoplanet orbiting small star upends planet formation theories (CNN)

• The Murky Shoplifting Narrative — Perceptions of an increase in retail theft are fueling changes to policy and the experience of shopping. (Atlantic)

• Why psychedelics produce some of the most meaningful experiences in people’s lives (Vox)

• U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders at the COP28climate summit to plan for a future without fossil fuels, saying there was no other way to rein in global warming. (Reuters)

• Henry Kissinger: China mourns 'a most valued old friend' (BBC)

• Henry Kissinger's puzzling connection to disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes (BusinessInsider)

• Henry Kissinger, the Hypocrite (NYT)

• The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI (New Yorker)

• A year ago, it was just ChatGPT — now LLMs are everywhere (VentureBeat)

• How OpenAI's ChatGPT has changed the world in just a year (Engadget)

• 22 Golden Bachelor Contestants Announce Pregnancies (The Onion)