My year as a subsistence farmer: Even I faced a supply chain crisis
Today's leading column asks an interesting question: Can you really leave the supply chain? I think many Americans are frustrated with empty shelves and long wait times for goods, myself included. I moved to New York City in August, and I was finally able to get a couch this month. But Kelly Maher, an urban farmer in Colorado, has been mainly living off of her land since the beginning of the pandemic. Even she has faced supply chain issues.
My year as a subsistence farmer: Even I faced a supply chain crisis
By Kelly Maher
All it takes is a few minutes perusing social media to find a photo of empty store shelves. The asserted cause of such voids can vary from the political leadership to the rise of omicron, weather, labor, transportation disruptions, or even corporate greed.
Consumers across the country wonder, what would it take to exit the global supply chain? Is opting out even a choice?
In late October last year, there were almost two weeks where our large big-box grocery store had no cow milk on the shelves. Luckily, the dairy cases were fully stocked, and I am completely serious about this, with Fireball-flavored eggnog. So, if families got desperate, at least there was an alternative. "Happy Halloween. Please enjoy this glass of Fireball Eggnog."
Supply chain issues nationwide persist into the new year.
Today's Editorial Cartoon
Jan. 6 investigators are turning up the heat on the Trumps
By Carli Pierson
The House Jan. 6 committee is now asking former President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka to cooperate with its investigation into the violent insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol last year.
It is a truth stranger than fiction.
Things just went from bad to worse for Ivanka Trump and her father. In addition to an ongoing criminal probe by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote in a Twitter thread last week that they have found ample evidence to support civil charges: "We have uncovered significant evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations on multiple properties to obtain economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions for years."
Biden had a rocky year. But it's just the first quarter.
By Paul Brandus
There’s not enough space here to describe in detail the rough first years of presidents. In modern times, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton stumbled out of the gate, and Donald Trump, don’t get me started.
Perhaps the worst first year, though, was President Herbert Hoover’s. In October 1929, just seven months into his presidency, Black Thursday, the stock market crash that's seen as the beginning of the Great Depression, occurred. And for good measure, much of the West Wing and Oval Office was destroyed in a Christmas Eve fire. It was a metaphor for the rest of Hoover’s disastrous one term.
Columns you might've missed from this weekend
- COVID idiocy has been unmasked. I'm not playing any longer.
- How potholders got me thinking about racism, my father and the whitewashing of US history
- Why Americans should care about Russian aggression against Ukraine
- My young clients face a mental health crisis. Here's one tip to help.
Columns on qualified immunity
We are doing a series examining the issue of qualified immunity. For more on the series read here.
- 'I had seen that smirk before': Vestiges of slavery still haunt our legal system
- Ending qualified immunity won't ruin cops' finances. It will better protect the public.
- When police are out of line, they should face remedial action. But don't end qualified immunity.
- Ending qualified immunity could cost lives, livelihoods
This newsletter was compiled by Jaden Amos.