As I write this, we’re just beginning to come out of (another) “mini-collapse”: that of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown/hack. Roughly half of the gas supplied to the Southeast (from at least New Jersey, down to Florida, and into the Gulf states) was halted due to an intrusion into the company’s network. This, of course, was only possible because their security was a bit lax.
Now, I could go on for a bit about how that’s emblematic of “pure Capitalism”–how they had no real financial incentive to keep their security up-to-par, so they didn’t. But I won’t–similar (and similarly bad) choices are made by lots of companies all the time. Is it pure Capitalism? Unregulated? Late-stage? Probably so, yeah.
The bigger issue, though, really is people’s reactions to the “gas shortage.” As with toilet paper and hand sanitizer last year, they’re hoarding. And this time, frankly, being stupid about it. (Seriously, who stores tens of gallons of gasoline in storage bins in their trunk? Or, worse yet, in plastic bags? Beyond just that they’re “not approved containers;” they’re almost guaranteed to absolutely saturate the area with fumes just looking for a spark…)
Multiple multiple pundits and wags in various places have pointed out that these are the same folks who hoarded TP and sanitizer. The overlap with the group of people who “won’t live in fear!!1!” is immense. And cognitive dissonance is a bitch, when you won’t acknowledge it.
So, I’m keeping this short, so I can do a little day drinking, and shake my head at the number of absolute dolts out there, making things worse for everybody else. As was the case last year, if folks weren’t hoarding the supplies, there’d be enough to go around. And, unlike the case last year, it’s not really a supply issue, so much as a distribution or delivery one. And that’s one that will work itself out somewhat in a few days. Oh, it won’t be “fixed” for a month or so, to the extent that we can fix it. But the situation isn’t dire–or, at the least, it shouldn’t be.
I’ll be back with more happiness and light next time. Cheers, everybody!
leftwingsurvivalist 
The word I’m hearing now is that it wasn’t anything operational that was compromised at Colonial, it was just that the wouldn’t have been able to bill properly. So, the company made the decision to halt gas to half the country because they might have temporarily lost money. Sure sounds like some healthy free-market competition could energize the situation, I’ll wait here for McConnell to introduce anti-trust litigation.