Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• After the Riot It’s been 100 days since the attack on the Capitol, and those who were inside still struggle with their memories. (NBC News) see also 17 requests for backup in 78 minutes A reconstruction shows how failures of planning and preparation left police at the Capitol severely disadvantaged on Jan. 6 D.C. Police requested backup at least 17 times in 78 minutes during Capitol riot (Washington Post)
• Blue States Are Failing Their Students by Not Reopening Schools. Here’s How They Got It So Wrong What began as needed and understandable caution with the onset of COVID-19 has long since veered into the irresponsible. Democratic governors, leaders of the largest teachers’ unions and many local Democratic elected officials — a cadre that regales in the blood sport of attacking Trumpism for being anti-science — have consistently disregarded the overwhelming scientific evidence that opening full-time is doable and safe for most schools. (Time)
• The rise of domestic extremism in America Domestic terrorism incidents have soared to new highs in the United States, driven chiefly by white-supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right, according to a Washington Post analysis of data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Data shows a surge in homegrown attacks not seen in a quarter-century (Washington Post)
• Unused Vaccines Are Piling Up Across U.S. as Some Regions Resist Even in states where inoculation campaigns have been mostly successful, vaccine gaps remain (Bloomberg)
• ‘A Failure of Texas-Size Proportions’—State Struggles to Overhaul Its Power Market February storm exposed flaws in laissez-faire electricity system; fixes promise to be complex and costly (Wall Street Journal)
• A 23-Year-Old Coder Kept QAnon Online When No One Else Would Nick Lim provides tech support to the U.S. networks of White nationalists and conspiracy theorists banned by the likes of Amazon. (Businessweek)
• DeSantis wants voters’ signatures to match. Would his pass the test? If the Florida governor gets his way, mail-in ballot signatures would have to match the most recent signature on file with the state. His own signature history shows how autographs evolve. (Tampa Bay Times)
• Feeding Hate With Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods Focus on conflict. Feed the algorithm. Make sure whatever you produce reinforces a narrative. Don’t worry if it is true.(New York Times)
• POISONED Part 1: THE FACTORY Florida’s only lead smelter exposed hundreds of workers to high lead levels Hundreds of workers at a Tampa lead smelter have been exposed to dangerous levels of the neurotoxin. The consequences have been profound. (Tampa Bay Times)
• The government finally connects the line from Trump’s campaign to Russian intelligence What is instead revealed is that the government’s concern about the Trump campaign’s links to Russia — links that extended to other members of Trump’s team — was in this case warranted. It’s not surprising that this link should be demonstrated. It just took awhile for the line to be drawn as clearly as it was Thursday morning. (Washington Post) see also The Treasonous Pardon of Paul Manafort Amid a raft of indefensibly unscrupulous pardons issued hours after the resignation of the attorney general, that of Paul Manafort stands as the worst of the worst. It will go down in the annals of American history as among the most corrupt and self-serving actions taken by a chief executive. (The Bulwark)
• 21 Notorious Scott Rudin Stories He had burned through 119 assistants in five years (some workers estimated the number would be 250 or more if it included those fired during their two-week trial periods). From his pushing people out of moving cars to engaging in a bitter feud with Harvey Weinstein, here are 21 tales about Rudin that helped build his unpleasant reputation. (Vulture)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Rob Arnott, founder and chairman of Research Affiliates. The firm created & patented a methodology for basing indexes on fundamental metrics instead of market cap weighting, and its strategies runs over $160 billion in assets. Arnott is the author of over 100 academic papers, and is the co-author of the book “The Fundamental Index: A Better Way to Invest.”
Half of All Republicans Still Believe Lie That Capitol Insurrection Was Non-Violent
Source: Ipsos via Rolling Stone
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