Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• A premeditated lie lit the fire Trump’s refusal to believe the election results was premeditated. He had heard about the “red mirage” — the likelihood that early vote counts would tip more Republican than the final tallies — and he decided to exploit it. “Jared, you call the Murdochs! Jason, you call Sammon and Hemmer!” (Axios) see also Among the Insurrectionists The Capitol was breached by Trump supporters who had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power. A chronicle of an attack foretold. (New Yorker)
• ‘Our souls are dead’: how I survived a Chinese ‘re-education’ camp for Uighurs After 10 years living in France, I returned to China to sign some papers and I was locked up. For the next two years, I was systematically dehumanised, humiliated and brainwashed (The Guardian)
• What Was Donald Trump’s Twitter? “I’m going to be very restrained, if I use it at all,” Donald Trump told us in 2016. Something else happened. (New York Times)
• 6 Months After Leaving the Hospital, Covid Survivors Still Face Lingering Health Issues A large study of patients from a Wuhan, China, hospital showed that a half-year later, three-quarters were struggling with problems like fatigue, depression and diminished lung function. (New York Times)
• A ‘first family’ that warped America (Financial Times) As the Trumps head to Florida, their influence is likely to continue in White House exile.
• State Capitols Brace for Right-Wing Violence The FBI warns that pro-Trump protests are planned at U.S. statehouses before the presidential inauguration. Long targets of far-right militias, capitol buildings now face new security fears. (Bloomberg)
• Most House Republicans Did What the Rioters Wanted The most dangerous thing that happened Wednesday occurred after the mob dispersed. (The Atlantic)
• New York Post to Staff: Stay Away From CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and Washington Post The NY tabloid goes all in on alternative facts, pandering to a base of conspiracy-fueled extremists. The Murdoch media media empire has enabled the worst instincts of the President, including the insurrection to overturn the election, morphing into the pamphleteer of the alt right. (New York Times)
• The End of the GOP The United States is a nation founded in revolution — that’s what treason is called when you win — with a long history of resistance, sometimes violent, to duly constituted authority. The danger in the permanently revolutionary American ethic is that every Timothy McVeigh or Cliven Bundy thinks he is Paul Revere (National Review)
• Records show fervent Trump fans fueled US Capitol takeover They came from across America, summoned by President Donald Trump to march on Washington in support of his false claim that the November election was stolen and to stop the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the victor. (AP) see also The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists Forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee explains the outgoing president’s pathological appeal and how to wean people from it (Scientific American)
• Wealthy bankers and businessmen plotted to overthrow FDR. A retired general foiled it. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s elimination of the gold standard in April 1933 infuriated some of the country’s wealthiest men. Titans of banking and business worried that if U.S. currency wasn’t backed by gold, inflation could skyrocket and make their millions worthless. Why, they could end up as poor as most everyone else was during the Great Depression. So, according to the sworn congressional testimony of a retired general, they decided to overthrow the government and install a dictator who was more business friendly. (Washington Post)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Adam Karr, portfolio manager at Orbis Investments and head of the US division. The firm, which manages $37B in assets, has a unique fee approach, where they only pay if they outperform, and refund fees when they underperform.
Fund Managers Donated $1 Million to GOP Election Deniers
Source: Bloomberg
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