• Secrecy and spin: How Florida’s governor misled the public on the COVID-19 pandemic Throughout the COVID-19 crisis in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration engaged in a pattern of spin and concealment that misled the public on the gravest health threat the state has ever faced. The administration suppressed unfavorable facts, dispensed dangerous misinformation, dismissed public health professionals, and promoted the views of scientific dissenters who supported the governor’s approach to the disease. The DeSantis administration’s approach to managing COVID-19 information carries costs. It supports a climate in which people proudly disdain masks, engage in dangerous group activities that could spread the disease, and brush aside information that conflicts with their political views. (Sun Sentinel)
• After The US Election, Key People Are Leaving Facebook And Torching The Company In Departure Notes “With so many internal forces propping up the production of hateful and violent content, the task of stopping hate and violence on Facebook starts to feel even more sisyphean than it already is,” the employee wrote in their “badge post,” a traditional farewell note for any departing Facebook employee. “It also makes it embarrassing to work here.” (Buzzfeed)
• Death Came for the Dakotas As of Friday afternoon, South Dakota led the country in the average daily number of recent Covid-associated deaths per capita, with three for every 100,000 people, according to a New York Times database. North Dakota was second, with 1.5. More than 40 percent of South Dakota’s 1,033 Covid-related deaths to that point occurred in November, according to statistics from the Covid Tracking Project, and the same was true of North Dakota’s 983 deaths. (New York Times) see also 1 In Every 800 North Dakota Residents Now Dead From Covid Just two weeks after joining the growing list of states where at least one in every 1,000 residents has died from coronavirus-linked causes, North Dakota’s grim statistic has escalated: as of Tuesday, one in every 800 North Dakotans has been claimed by Covid-19. (Forbes)
• America’s Sordid History of Exclusionary Zoning When the move became known, all hell broke loose, and America embarked on a century-long effort to keep minorities out of “nice” white neighborhoods. That effort has been largely successful; segregated housing patterns predominate to this day, and minority populations have been stymied in their desire to achieve the American dream of affordable housing and homeownership. (Counselors of Real Estate)
• Microwave weapons may be behind mysterious illness afflicting US officials abroad “Directed” radio frequency energy was the most plausible explanation for mysterious and debilitating neurological symptoms experienced by dozens of American diplomats and intelligence operatives in Cuba, China, and other countries starting in late 2016. The State Department report gives weight to theories that the illnesses are the results of deliberate attacks — which some members of the intelligence community suspect may have been carried out by Russia. (Vox)
• The Children of Pornhub Yet there’s another side of the company: Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags. A search for “girls under18” (no space) or “14yo” leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos. Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are. (New York Times)
• We’ll Be Stuck With Trump’s Postmaster General for a While One of President Donald Trump’s most controversial officials is very likely to keep his job under the Biden administration: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Over the summer, the former logistics executive and major Trump donor was at the center of a national firestorm when his cost-cutting measures contributed to a sudden degradation of mail service, which voter advocates feared would disenfranchise people relying on mail-in ballots during the pandemic. (Slate)
• Suspected Chinese spy targeted California politicians A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a yearlong investigation. (Axios)
• How a high-stakes gambler set authorities on the trail of accused Canadian spy Cameron Ortis A high-stakes American gambler who is an FBI informant and goes by the nickname Robin Hood 702 played a key role in a series of events that eventually led the RCMP to charge their head of intelligence, Cameron Ortis, with leaking secrets. (CBC News)
• A Political Obituary for Donald Trump “America under Trump became less free, less equal, more divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader. It also became more delusional. No number from Trump’s years in power will be more lastingly destructive than his 25,000 false or misleading statements. Super-spread by social media and cable news, they contaminated the minds of tens of millions of people. Trump’s lies will linger for years, poisoning the atmosphere like radioactive dust.” (The Atlantic)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Mike Swell, head of Global Fixed Income at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). Swell is responsible for co-leading the global team of portfolio managers that oversee more than $700 billion in multi-sector bond portfolios.
The People’s Business? US Senator Perdue of Georgia is a very busy day trader
Source: Senate Stock Watcher
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