Good morning, RVA! It's 56 °F, and the chance for rain begins tonight and heads on through weekend. You can expect highs in the upper 60s today as we wait for warmer weather next week.
Water cooler
Whittney Evans at VPM reports on a weird and troubling exchange on The Fighting Joe Morrissey Show, a radio show hosted by State Senator Joe Morrissey of which I was completely unaware. Here's a lengthy quote from the piece: "The producer asked Morrissey during the live radio show whether he is for or against the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. 'Any state bill that’s passed, you have to have exceptions. I’m also very much of a libertarian, and I do not like government telling us what to do,' Morrissey said. 'I’m much more in favor of a strong state government, as I think are most people.' 'So in a roundabout way of saying, you’re for overturning Roe v. Wade?' the producer asks. The question, suggesting Morrissey didn’t clearly state his position on the issue, caused Morrissey to get agitated. 'Don’t ever tell me what a roundabout way I’m doing. Do you understand that?' Morrissey shouts before going to commercial break. Once off the air, a now-deleted Facebook live video shows the heated verbal altercation continue inside the studio. At one point, a woman in the studio tries to restrain Morrissey." I have no idea what to make of these remarks and what they portend, but a lot of Virginia's hopes for maintain access to abortion rest on Sen. Joe Morrissey. Should Morrissey defect and side with Republicans on banning abortion, the two-seat Democratic Brick Wall in the State Senate quickly becomes a 20-20 tie, which would be broken by the Republican Lt. Governor. It's incredibly stressful to have the rights of millions of Virginians depend on such a chaotic individual.
Meanwhile, in totally unsurprising news, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a federal abortion rights bill on a 49-51 vote. Jennifer Shutt at the Virginia Mercury has the details. 100% of Republicans, plus, of course, Joe Manchin, voted against the bill, but given the insurmountable filibuster hurdle, it was never even close.
The RTD's Lyndon German reports on the ever-rising cost of gasoline, and includes some nice charts and graphs. I Googled around a bit and found this interesting site looking at historical, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices since, basically, the invention of the automobile. We've still got a bit to go before gas prices reach all-time highs, but we're definitely in the ballpark. I've asked readers before at what point gas would become expensive enough to shift folks' driving habits and the near universal response was, to paraphrase, "infinity, I can't or won't change the amount I drive and will make budget cuts elsewhere." That's dark commentary on the state of our transportation system, if you ask me—especially considering the audience of this newsletter! Anyway, two easy things that I think the state (or federal!) government could do to respond to this increase in costs: 1) Encourage more remote work, and 2) Create subsidies for folks to purchase e-bikes. The former is clearly a non-starter with Virginia's Governor, who just revoked all state employees' telework agreements, the latter though...I'm kind of surprised that I haven't heard Virginia's Democrats start kicking around this idea.
Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury reports on a new required training for state employees that includes this bit: "Most of all, every one of us is made in the image of our creator...Since the first settlers arrived a little more than 400 years ago, we have been an imperfect people on the course to a more perfect union. At times, we’ve truly failed to live up to our ideals, but we all want to do what is right and what is morally just, even if we fall short. What is seared in our heart by a loving, almighty creator is not a desire for power or conquest, not a love of self or personal advancement, rather it’s a belief that life is worth living when we serve a greater cause than self." Inappropriate religious messaging and weird colonialism! This sort of thing, the Evangelical Christianization of our public spaces, is a standard part of the Republican playbook in other parts of our country. I think maybe folks are shocked that we're seeing it in Virginia, but this is what you should expect from a Republican governor who wants to run for president and needs to compete with the DeSantises and Abbotts out there.
Via /r/rva, this picture of how they get repair crews underneath a bridge freaks me out. No thanks (but thank you for your service).
This morning's longread
103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known
Some of these are sooooo good, like: "The biggest lie we tell ourselves is 'I dont need to write this down because I will remember it.'" Honestly, that right there is probably the biggest reason why I've never shared a list of 103 pieces of my own personal wisdom—certainly not because it'd just be full of things like "Hands: what do you even do with them when you're at live music!"
Today is my birthday. I turn 70. I’ve learned a few things so far that might be helpful to others. For the past few years, I’ve jotted down bits of unsolicited advice each year and much to my surprise I have more to add this year. So here is my birthday gift to you all: 103 bits of wisdom I wish I had known when I was young.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.
