Erie
So I went up to Erie Wednesday for my final scheduled trip. It’d been a few days since the last snow and the streets were mostly—only mostly—clear. Erie has been having and apparently routinely has trouble getting residents to comply with winter odd-even parking regulations to make room for snow plows to come through,[1] and clearly, this was still a problem on some streets. A suburban area southwest of Erie, not far from my motel, was in desperate need of further plowing even where I saw no cars parked. And snow is piled high everywhere.[2] But all in all, the driving was much easier than on my last trip.
One passenger said the snow is exceptional this year.
The roads here are beginning to show some damage from the ravages of winter and I was using my car’s “trail mode” for rough roads much more than on previous trips. But they are still much better than in Pittsburgh where deep potholes have appeared early this year. Keeping this in perspective, in Pittsburgh, I commonly use trail mode and am often wondering when to shut it off.
The money was consistent with what I expect for this time of year and what I’ve been earning in Pittsburgh. February is the absolute worst month in this business and really, this was the point, to see Erie at its worst.
I did see more signs of support for Donald Trump. But still only a few. Such flags and banners remain ubiquitous around Pittsburgh.
It began snowing again Thursday, not enough to affect traction, but toward evening, enough to see a thin layer on many roads. When around 7 pm, I dropped a passenger off at a hotel right by I-79 and right by a Giant Eagle, I called it a night. Giant Eagle grocery stores reliably have restrooms and many—including this one—have Daiya cheese sticks that are a nice boost for a drive home.
Then it was music and radar cruise control—which with automatic lane guidance is the closest my car comes to self-driving—for the ride home.
I think I should make one more trip in March, just to see what the roads are like at the peak of pothole season, but it is already clear to me that I probably would suffer little loss of income and would probably be putting my car at much less risk from pothole damage if I were to move here.
Right now my thinking is that I’m just not financially ready for another move. And if I’m buying a house, this will probably be the house I’ll die in—that’s something to think about long and carefully.
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Ashley Parker et al., “‘He never stopped ripping things up’: Inside Trump’s relentless document destruction habits,” Washington Post, February 5, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/05/trump-ripping-documents/
Jacqueline Alemany et al., “National Archives had to retrieve Trump White House records from Mar-a-Lago,” Washington Post, February 7, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/07/trump-records-mar-a-lago/
Peter Stone, “Trump’s incendiary Texas speech may have deepened his legal troubles, experts say,” Guardian February 7, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/donald-trump-incendiary-speech-texas-legal-troubles-experts
Michael Tomasky, “The Republican Party Can’t Be Saved,” New Republic, February 7, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/165301/republicans-violence-normal-political-discourse
Josh Dawsey and Felicia Sonmez, “‘Legitimate political discourse’: Three words about Jan. 6 spark rift among Republicans,” Washington Post, February 8, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/08/gop-legitimate-political-discourse/
Jonathan Weisman and Annie Karni, “McConnell Denounces R.N.C. Censure of Jan. 6 Panel Members,” New York Times, February 8, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/republicans-censure-mcconnell.html
Matt Zapotosky et al., “National Archives asks Justice Dept. to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records,” Washington Post, February 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/09/trump-archives-justice-department/
Jacqueline Alemany, “House Oversight asks Archives for information about Trump’s handling of White House records,” Washington Post, February 10, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/10/house-oversight-asks-archives-information-about-trumps-handling-white-house-records/
Gig economy
Bezzle
Laura Forman, “Rideshare Recovery Still Lacks an ETA,” Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/rideshare-recovery-still-lacks-an-eta-11644452051
COVID-19 Pandemic
Doctors and charlatans
Renatta Signorini, “Hospital leaders hopeful as covid cases decline, staffing remains an issue,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 9, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/hospital-leaders-hopeful-as-covid-cases-decline-but-staffing-remains-an-issue/
Supply chain
David Dayen and Rakeen Mabud, “How We Broke the Supply Chain,” American Prospect, January 31, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/how-we-broke-the-supply-chain-intro/
Esther Eriksson von Allmen, “Medical Emergency,” American Prospect, February 1, 2022, https://prospect.org/health/medical-emergency-supply-chain/
Robert Kuttner, “China: Epicenter of the Supply Chain Crisis,” American Prospect, February 1, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/china-epicenter-of-the-supply-chain-crisis/
Amir Khafagy, “The Hidden Costs of Containerization,” American Prospect, February 2, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/hidden-costs-of-containerization/
Ella Fanger, “Labor Fight Brews on the Docks,” American Prospect, February 3, 2022, https://prospect.org/labor/labor-fight-brews-on-the-docks/
Alexander Sammon, “We Were Warned About the Ports,” American Prospect, February 3, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/we-were-warned-about-the-ports/
Matthew Jinoo Buck, “How America’s Supply Chains Got Railroaded,” American Prospect, February 4, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/how-americas-supply-chains-got-railroaded/
Harold Meyerson, “Why Trucking Can’t Deliver the Goods,” American Prospect, February 7, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/why-trucking-cant-deliver-the-goods/
Jarod Facundo, “Not Even a Superhero Could Fix Global Supply Chains,” American Prospect, February 8, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/not-even-a-superhero-could-fix-global-supply-chains/
Gabrielle Gurley, “The Warehouse Space Race,” American Prospect, February 8, 2022, https://prospect.org/economy/warehouse-space-race/
Lee Harris, “Frackers Restrict the Flow and Raise the Price,” American Prospect, February 10, 2022, https://prospect.org/environment/frackers-restrict-the-flow-and-raise-the-price/
Pittsburgh
Infrastructure
Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh City Council divided on creating infrastructure committee in wake of bridge collapse,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 10, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-city-council-divided-on-creating-infrastructure-committee-in-wake-of-bridge-collapse/
Ukraine
Julia Ioffe has an interview with “Andrey Sushentsov, a prominent Russian political scientist, about how Putin views the West—and what the Ukraine crisis is really about.” There’s not much logic in his position. Mostly it reinforces[3] my view that Vladimir Putin is an idiot.[4] That is, right up to the end where Ioffe asks about sanctions. Not only, it seems, do they not work, but they in fact are counterproductive.[5]
Julia Ioffe, “War and Peace: The View from Moscow,” Puck News, February 10, 2022, https://puck.news/war-and-peace-the-view-from-moscow/
- [1]Anna Ashcraft, “City of Erie declares snow emergency,” YourErie.com, February 4, 2022,https://www.yourerie.com/news/breaking-news/city-of-erie-declares-snow-emergency-2/; Kevin Flowers, “Owners of buried vehicles face tickets, towing as city of Erie plows ahead to clear snow,” Erie Times-News, February 9, 2022, https://www.goerie.com/story/news/local/2022/02/09/city-erie-pa-vehicle-owners-face-tickets-towing-snow-buried-cars/6693992001/; Ethan Kibbe, “Frustration Continues Over Illegal Parking Concerns,” Erie News Now, January 31, 2022, ↩
- [2]Elspeth Mizner, “Erie Residents Frustrated Over High Snow Mounds in City,” Erie News Now, February 7, 2022, https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/45822804/erie-residents-frustrated-over-high-snow-mounds-in-city↩
- [3]Julia Ioffe, “War and Peace: The View from Moscow,” Puck News, February 10, 2022, https://puck.news/war-and-peace-the-view-from-moscow/↩
- [4]David Benfell, “Vladimir Putin is a fool,” Not Housebroken, January 25, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/01/24/vladimir-putin-is-a-fool/↩
- [5]Julia Ioffe, “War and Peace: The View from Moscow,” Puck News, February 10, 2022, https://puck.news/war-and-peace-the-view-from-moscow/↩