Russian Hackers Drive up Gas Prices? Communists in Colorado Hate...Anne Frank?! The Texas Tiger Problem, Baltimore's Crime Crisis Destroys the Local Economy (The Five for 05/11/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Lots to get to today…so let’s dive in.
[one]
One of the most consequential events of 2021 isn’t even making the front page of most websites.
Over the weekend, a major fuel pipeline was shut down, allegedly by Russian hacker group Darkside. This move could push gas prices even higher.
The federal government issued a rare emergency declaration on Sunday after a cyberattack on a major U.S. pipeline choked the transportation of oil to the eastern U.S.
The Colonial Pipeline, responsible for the country’s largest fuel pipeline, shut down all its operations Friday after hackers broke into some of its networks. All four of its main lines remain offline.
The emergency declaration from the Department of Transportation aims to ramp up alternative transportation routes for oil and gas. It lifts regulations on drivers carrying fuel in 17 states across the South and eastern United States, as well as the District of Columbia, allowing them to drive between fuel distributors and local gas stations on more overtime hours and less sleep than federal restrictions normally allow. The U.S. is already dealing with a shortage of tanker truck drivers.
The U.S. fact that the U.S. has the largest, most powerful military in the world mean a lot when the attacks on American freedom come in the form of hackers disrupting infrastructure. Cyber espionage is increasing, and this latest attack comes on the heels of the 2020 Solar Winds hack that hit government organizations as well as Microsoft. Recently, hackers have shut off electricity in Ukraine and disabled a Saudi oil refinery.
One final piece of “good news” (sarcasm). The U.S. is facing a greater shortage of truck drivers than at any point in the history of our nation. If you want to make $14,000 per week, head to Texas with a CDL (that’s over $700K annually—although you do need two years of experience). So, this “emergency order” to move fuel via truck may not cure the gas shortage, because we don't have enough truckers.
[two]
An aging building in Baltimore’s Pigtown neighborhood collapsed in January for no clear reason, according to the Baltimore Sun. It’s just one sign of a city in rapid decay.
After the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015, the city of Baltimore stopped policing for low level crimes (such as drug possession, prostitution, low level traffic violations), which was in part a response to the too strict “zero tolerance” policy that had led to legitimate police harassment of citizens over very minor issues.
After Gray’s death the pendulum swung the other way. Too far, it seems. Violence in general (and murder in particular) have skyrocketed. The cost of dealing with crime have caused private business and public investment alike to dry up.
The subsequent regression has been swift and demoralizing. Redevelopment continues in some parts of town, but nearly four years after Freddie Gray’s death, the surge in crime has once again become the context of daily life in the city, as it was in the early 1990s. I have grown accustomed to scanning the briefs column in The Baltimore Sun in the morning for news of the latest homicides; to taking note of the location of the latest killings as I drive around town for my baseball coaching and volunteering obligations. In 2017, the church I attend started naming the victims of the violence at Sunday services and hanging a purple ribbon for each on a long cord outside. By year’s end, the ribbons crowded for space, like shirts on a tenement clothesline.
The violence and disorder have fed broader setbacks. Gov. Larry Hogan canceled a $2.9 billion rail transit line for West Baltimore, defending the disinvestment in the troubled neighborhood partly by noting that the state had spent $14 million responding to the riots. Target closed its store in West Baltimore, a blow to a part of town short of retail options.
The lack of retail and transit options lowers home ownership (and occupancy) rates, which means less tax tax payers contributing dollars the city government can turn things around.
Once a major manufacturing hub that boasted a population of nearly a million in 1960, Baltimore faced a long, slow decline that’s now accelerating to a more obvious crisis.
There isn’t enough room to tell the story here, but The Nation’s coverage of Baltimore’s history, particularly the pre-Civil-rights policies of open racism in education and real estate, is worth your time to understand how deep poverty has taken hold.
The real question is…what now?
Major metropolitan areas, from Seattle to Oklahoma City to Pittsburgh have all experienced dramatic rebirth after bottoming out economically…but the solution tends to be tailored to each local geography, population and economy vs. a one-sized-fits-all “fix an American city” plan.
(Quick recap: Seattle attracted tech, Pittsburgh built up healthcare and Oklahoma City recruited a variety of corporations to relocate/expand, which revved up the local economic engines).
If other American cities can come back, it stands to reason Baltimore can as well, but no one has stepped forward and proposed a plan on how to do so yet.
[three]
Cell phone video of a tiger prowling a Houston subdivision.
Not sure how your Mother’s Day went, but I bet it wasn’t “get inside because a hungry tiger is roaming the suburbs” bad. That’s exactly what happened in Houston over the weekend.
No, the Houston Zoo didn’t forget to patch a hold in a fence, the apex predator was being kept as a “pet” and escaped.
As reported in 2019, while tigers are not allowed in the City of Houston, they are legal in the surrounding unincorporated Harris County if their owners register the animals and follow a strict set of rules, including holding $100,000 in animal insurance and keeping the tiger secured at least 1000 feet from another home, school, or child care facility.
Texas law allows private ownership of tigers and other “dangerous wild animals”, as long as applicants register with their local animal control or sheriff, provide a paperwork copy to the state, and follow caging requirements.
This is the rare moment when I’m going to stand up and scream for more government regulation.
Keeping a tiger 1,000 feet from a school doesn’t matter a whole heck of a lot when the 680 lb beast in your backyard will roam roughly 40 miles per day if and when it escapes.
If you’re thinking “maybe this is an isolated incident,” tigers escaping is a rare occurrence (so far). But with more tigers in Texas than left in the wild, it’s worth asking the question of whether or not we’re dealing with a ticking time bomb. Growing up on a farm taught me that all livestock get out eventually…but there’s a huge difference in your hogs wandering onto the gravel road and a jungle cat with 1,000+ pounds of bite force that can tear off an arm or leg in a single chomp romping through the local playground.
Humans and tigers living this close together isn’t good for man or beast. I’m not going to pretend to have a solution for how we deal with the 5,000+ tigers being kept privately in Texas alone (often in unethical conditions), but housing these creatures in the suburbs (even unincorporated ones) may end very badly.
[four]
A separatist group calling themselves Black Hammer have organized to create a Communist city in Colorado. By itself, that’s one of those things I’d normally shrug at and simply reply “well, let me know how that goes.” Cities tend to need…jobs…infrastructure…plumbing and electricity…roads to other cities..and lots of other things that Black Hammer can’t possibly create in the Colorado wilderness (full story here). The effort to build a city has raised $65,000 via crowdsourcing at the time of this writing, which doesn’t buy much, as far as building-a-Communist-city-from-scratch efforts go. (Hat tip: Marcus, for bringing this story to my attention).
But the (extremely odd) movement has taken a turn to embracing open anti-Semitism in the last week.
When pressed as to why a group of Communists were burning…the diary of a fifteen year old girl brutally executed by the Nazis the group replied:
The group accused Anne’s father, Otto, of participating in genocide. Considering Otto sold spices to butchers and grocery stores and lived his entire life in central Europe as a civilian, I’m not sure what they’re basing this insane conspiracy theory on.
The Franks were German Jews who relocated from Frankfort to Amsterdam. Neither one of these places are Belgium, the nation of King Leopold II, who is mentioned in the above tweet. Also, the king died 20 years before Anne was born (in a different country, to a middle class family that had no ties to royals of any nation), but I’m trying very hard not to get sucked into the mad rantings of a group of anti-Semitic commies…so we’ll just leave it at “these claims have no basis in fact.”
Later, Black Hammer referred to Anne Frank as a “bleach demon.” It’s unclear what exactly BH holds against Anne personally, as she’s widely held as one of the great heroes of the 20th century for recording the details of her short, tragic life before dying due for no other reason than her ethnicity.
I have been looking at locations for a family hiking trip somewhere in the southwest sometime in the next year. Considering my wife is half Jewish and our daughter is 1/4 Jewish, it’s safe to say we’re going to steer clear of anywhere near Communist City, Colorado. Anti-Semitism is clearly alive and well in the U.S. While I’m a strong supporter of free speech (yes, the Constitution protects crazy, disgusting speech such as this), as a citizen and as a parent, I’m concerned that this story is being largely ignored.
On the flip side…as a kid who grew up in farming, I can’t WAIT to see the group try to grow their own food in the mountains of Colorado. If you’ve ever been to the mountains and noticed a lack of crops up there, that’s because it’s really hard to make plants grow out of rock. And the Communists are about to learn that first hand as I look on with tear filled laughter.
[five]
The push for the mass adoption of electric vehicles could result in the extinction of plant species in Nevada, and more grave environmental consequences around the world as companies mine more aggressively for lithium, an essential element in electric and hybrid vehicle batteries.
CNN reports:
The push for lithium stems from the electric vehicle craze that's unfolded in the last year. States such as California and Washington have said they'll phase out gasoline cars. Tesla has become the world's most valuable automaker. Automakers like VW and GM have begun to invest billions to transition to electric cars and trucks. Electric vehicles are a cornerstone of President Biden's infrastructure plan, with a $174 billion investment.
Electric vehicles can't happen without lithium — and a lot of it. Lithium is a critical mineral in the batteries that power electric vehicles. The world will need to mine 42 times as much lithium as was mined in 2020 if we will meet the climate goals set by the Paris Agreement, according to the International Energy Agency. Existing mines and projects under construction will meet only half the demand for lithium in 2030, the agency said.
[epilogue]
“Edgar Harrell and James W. Smith who both died this past week. The men were 2 of the last 7 survivors of the sinking of USS Indianapolis in 1945. After the Indy was sunk, the men had to endure 4 days of exposure and shark attacks. Only 316 of the crew of 1,195 survived.” -U.S. Naval Institute