Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• Greenwashed: Electric Pickup Trucks Are Dirtier Than You Think Building an electric truck makes far more emissions than a gas one. So where’s the break-even point when they both hit the road? We decided to find out. (The Drive)
• Meet the Billionaire and Rising GOP Mega-Donor Who’s Gaming the Tax System Susquehanna founder and TikTok investor Jeff Yass has avoided $1 billion in taxes while largely escaping public scrutiny. He’s now pouring his money into campaigns to cut taxes and support election deniers.(ProPublica)
• The Biden Administration Screwed Over the Solar-Panel Industry But solar companies subsequently paused hundreds of in-development power projects, the New York Times reported in April, leading states like Indiana—facing rising energy costs because of inflation and the war in Ukraine—to kickstart coal plants that were to be phased out in favor of renewable energy. (Slate)
• Bitcoin Is A Hideous Monstrosity Made Out Of Computers And Greed That Must Be Destroyed Before It Devours The World, Part I “The cryptocurrency murderer’s row just want your money and they will fuck you any which way they can to get it. Steal from you, manipulate you with rigged games you can’t win, dump shitcoins with a value proposition significantly lower than $0 on you at exorbitant prices so that they can cash out while you take incredible losses — these are not the side effects of their business models. These are their business models.” (Medium)
• The Unintended Consequence of Trying to Give Black Marijuana Entrepreneurs a Head Start: The city’s effort to create a cannabis industry that mirrors — and benefits — its majority Black population has led to lawsuits and a collapsing marketplace. Meanwhile, the rest of the state thrives. (Politico)
• Officers in Uvalde were ready with guns, shields and tools — but not clear orders: “If there’s kids in there, we need to go in”: Officers in Uvalde were ready with guns, shields and tools — but not clear orders. (Texas Tribune)
• Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt: 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt (NPR)
• Modern ‘redlining’ is pushing some Texans out of their homes: Ten years ago, a multibillion-dollar push by the city to incentivize development in San Antonio’s urban core yielded explosive investment along its enchanting riverway — a realization of former mayor Julián Castro’s “Decade of Downtown” campaign. The leveraging of taxpayer dollars for private development was wildly successful — and critics say, destructive — in the city’s economically segregated inner-core neighborhoods, which have its oldest housing stock and most vulnerable residents. (Washington Post) see also Texas Republicans want to secede? Good riddance. Good riddance. (Washington Post)
• Far-Right Anti-Vaxxers Aren’t Just Influencing Americans In the United States, the proliferation of disinformation about COVID vaccines and treatments has been widely publicized, and most of these myths come from a few powerful influencers. Last year, the anti-extremism group Center for Countering Digital Hate found that 65 percent of vaccine disinformation on Facebook and Twitter came from just 12 people, including the activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the natural lifestyle influencer Joseph Mercola. The target audience is in bastions of American conservatism—in rural communities, among evangelical Christians, and among Trump voters. (Slate)
• Sobering Lessons in Untying the Knot of a Homeless Crisis: Portland’s homeless problem now extends well beyond the downtown core, creating a crisis of conscience for this fiercely liberal city that for years has been among America’s most generous in investing in homeless support services. Tents and tarps increasingly crowd the sidewalks and parks of Portland’s leafy suburban neighborhoods. And the sewage and trash from unsanctioned RV encampments pollute the watersheds of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. (KHN)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Jonathan Miller, discussing real estate, home sales, rentals, and whether cities are dead or not. Miller is the CEO and co-founder of Miller Samuel, whose data and analytics on real estate have become the standard for the residential real estate appraisal and brokerage industry.
Summer started with an oppressive heat wave. Get used to it.
Source: Vox
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