Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• A Record of Pure, Predatory Sadism: Officials in Israel screened footage of the Hamas attack for the press: “What we shared with you, you should know it,” one official said. (The Atlantic) see also First, Hamas Took Hostages. Then, It Took Over Their Social Media. They entered the home; they asked for their cellphones and their IDs. That was the first thing they asked for. Taking cellphones, unlocked them, opening up Facebook, and then beginning the Facebook livestreams of kidnap, torture, murder & rape. (Slate)
• New Normal or No Normal? How Economists Got It Wrong for 3 Years. Economists first underestimated inflation, then underestimated consumers and the labor market. The key question is why. (New York Times)
• Ex-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows granted immunity, tells special counsel he warned Trump about 2020 claims: Sources Meadows said Trump was “dishonest” on election night, according to sources. (ABC News)
• How Hackers Swindled Vegas: And walked away with one of the biggest ransom payments in history. (Slate)
• The exam that broke society: Keju, China’s incredibly difficult civil service test, strengthened the state at the cost of freedom and creativity. (Aeon)
• ‘How Much Blood Is Your Fun Worth?’ I saw the gun-violence epidemic—and my relationship to it as a gun owner—as an abstraction. Then a mass shooting happened in the little city where I work. (The Atlantic)
• The West Antarctic ice sheet faces ‘unavoidable’ melting, a warning for sea level rise. Accelerating ice losses are all but “unavoidable” this century in vulnerable West Antarctic ice shelves as waters warm around them, according to new research. And the analysis could mean scientists were too conservative in predicting about one to three feet of sea level rise by 2100. (Washington Post) see also The Scientists Watching Their Life’s Work Disappear: Some are stubborn optimists. Others struggle with despair. Their faces show the weight they carry as they witness the impact of climate change. (New York Times)
• Chicago police officers with ties to extremist Oath Keepers stay on the force. Some have troubling records. An investigation by WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found allegations of excessive force, improper searches and racist comments on the job. (Chicago Sun Times)
• The People Who Broke the House: To help make sense of this dark farce, it is useful to dig into the warring factions that have already destroyed the speaker dreams of multiple colleagues. Boiling down the action so far: A tiny gaggle of eight Republicans, mostly hard-right extremists, took down Kevin McCarthy… A coalition of moderates, institutionalists and members who just can’t stomach Mr. Jordan struck back, voting him down again and again and again — and again. (New York Times) see also ChrstoFascism? Here’s Why Mike Johnson Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump: The former president only cares about himself. The new Speaker of the House actually wants to make America a Christian theocracy. (Daily Beast)
• Clarence Thomas’ Problems Just Got Worse: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appears to be facing growing problems following a new report by Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee about the financing for his luxury motor home. Thomas, the present Court’s longest-serving member and most senior conservative failed to repay most if not all of a $267,230 loan from a wealthy friend, according to the committee. (Newsweek)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Michael Carmen, who is the Co-Head of Private Markets at Wellington Management. He manages a diversified portfolio of late-stage growth equity in technology, consumer, health care, and financial services sectors. Wellington is one of the world’s top 20 asset managers, was founded in 1933, and runs $1.2 trillion in client assets.
More Americans say they support political violence ahead of the 2024 election
Source: NPR
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