Democrats won a huge victory in New York last night that may portend good things this election year. Republicans, meanwhile, were busy impeaching the homeland security secretary in a meaningless display of political tomfoolery. The difference in the parties could not be more stark.
***
Way back before the pandemic, when I lived alone in a flat in San Francisco, I used to stockpile reserves of canned foods, bottled water, candles, pain meds and emergency supplies.
The ostensible reason I did this was for earthquake preparedness, but really I just liked to have extra stuff around, figuring it might turn out to be useful someday somehow.
Then Covid came along and everybody became aware of how quickly basic supplies could fly off the shelves — something people in hurricane country have known forever.
When I moved in with my daughter and her family in March 2020, I brought along some stuff deemed useful — toilet paper, coffee filters, canned soups — because I had it on-hand and she wanted it.
And since then we’ve all become familiar with supply chain shortages and how minor perturbations in shipping or trucking lanes can create big distribution problems in the store closest to you.
Anyway, this is all a long-winded way of noting that the era of pandemic panic buying has now officially been replaced by the era of survivalist buying in preparation for global war. As the Times reports, “Bunkers, survival guides and iodine pills are flying off the shelves.”
So that’s progress I guess. Or as one guy put it to me recently. “You know, I was just thinking we were over with that one darned thing (Covid) when this new one (nuclear war) came along.”
Yep. Life seems to be working that way these days, sort of like we’re all living in some old Bod Dylan song.
Well, you can visit my bomb shelter if I can visit yours…I said that.
(This is from 2022.)
HEADLINES:
House Republicans impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas (CNBC)
Democrat Tom Suozzi edges out GOP in closely watched New York House race )(Politico)
No One Is Prepared for a New Era of Global Migration (Atlantic)
How San Francisco staged a surprising comeback (Economist)
Supreme Court Gives Prosecutors a Week to Respond in Trump Immunity Case (NYT)
A former US Army general says Trump wants the US to abandon NATO because he's a 'mafia type' that 'hates alliances' (Business Insider)
How Donald Trump reduced the GOP to groveling sycophants (Salon)
Israel Gaza: Ceasefire talks resume as Rafah under fire (BBC)
France has delivered a written proposal to Beirut aimed at ending hostilities with Israel and settling the disputed Lebanon-Israel frontier. (Reuters)
Senate approves Ukraine, Israel foreign aid package (CBS)
Winter Storm Lorraine Live Updates: Hundreds Of Flights Canceled, Major School Closures (Weather.com)
Climate experts sound alarm over thriving plant life at Greenland ice sheet (Guardian)
Six months in, journalist-owned tech publication 404 Media is profitable (Nieman)
Inside the Last Days of the Local Paper (TNR)
Early Adopters of Microsoft’s AI Bot Wonder If It’s Worth the Money (WSJ)
OpenAI CEO warns that 'societal misalignments' could make artificial intelligence dangerous (WP)
Google’s Gemini assistant is a fantastic and frustrating glimpse of the AI future (Verge)
Google Gemini could become your invisible AI friend soon thanks to headphones support (TechRadar)
OpenAI's Eve humanoids make impressive progress in autonomous work (New Atlas)
Carlson Was Drafted Into The Russian Infantry: You show up on Russian soil, you leave with a rifle in your hand. (The Onion)
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