The Post-Partisan Emporium

  A Bridge Too Far Infrastructure as metaphor RADIO FAR SIDE Unless you’ve been sleeping under a bridge, then you’ve heard that a container ship lost power on March 26th, and drifted into a support pylon on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore harbor, which set off a catastrophic collapse of the bridge, port traffic, and one of the city’s primary commuter routes. Baltimore was founded by a 1632 charter from Charles I, to Cecil Calvert, Baron Baltimore of Ireland. The name Baltimore comes from the Irish " Baile an Tí Mhóir ," meaning “city of the Big House,” and “big house” is a term used by slaves on the plantations for the main residence, or the master’s house. It is also a common slang term for a prison, or similarly to a central or primary government structure. Wait, it gets better. This event couldn’t be more packed with symbolism if David Lynch had directed the scene. A Singapore-registered container vessel named  “MV Dali”  appears to have succumbed to tainted fuel

The New-Normaling of Blackouts Jon Sanders On Christmas Eve, 2022, in North Carolina, something happened that had never happened before in living memory. People across the state were alerted by their power company, Duke Energy, that there would be  rolling blackouts  in the aftermath of a severe (but “ not exceedingly rare ”) winter wind storm. At least  12 other states  received similar and previously unheard-of warnings. Before, rolling blackouts were a California problem, then they also became a Texas problem. Blackouts are spreading faster than even  Imperial College London modelers  would find believable. Duke was  still warning  North Carolina customers of potential blackouts two days later on Monday the 26th, when people would be returning to work. At this point there was nothing unusual at all in the weather, except that it was colder than normal. The only thing unusual was Duke’s warning, in combination with its  thanking customers  for conserving enough energy to avoid blacko

Should You Move While You Can, Or When You Must? Charles Hugh Smith This gives an extreme advantage to those few who move first, long before they must. The financial advantage for first movers is equally extreme. Moving is a difficult decision, so we hesitate. But when the window to do so closes, it's too late.  We always think we have all the time in the world to ponder, calculate and explore, and then things change and the options we once had are gone for good. Moving to a new locale is difficult for those of us who are well-established in the place we call home.  Add in a house we love, jobs/work, kids in school, a parent living with us and all the emotional attachments to friends, extended family, colleagues and favorite haunts, and for many (and likely most) people, moving is out of the question. Many of us have fond memories of moving when we were in our late teens or early 20s--everything we owned fit in the backseat and trunk of a beaten up old car, and off we went. Once yo