RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
January 3 to January 9, 2021 U.S. Capitol Mayhem: A Reader Inside the Capitol Stormed by a Pro-Trump Mob Wall Street Journal
The Rioters Who Stormed the Capitol New York Times
Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks. Police Weren't Ready. ProPublica
Behind the Strategic Failure of the Capitol Police Politico Magazine
The Four-Hour Insurrection Washington Post
FBI Mugs of Those Sought in Capitol Mayhem FBI.gov
Photos of 'Persons of Interest' Sought in Capitol Riot DC Metro Police
Trump Permanently Suspended From Twitter, Capping Online Revolt NYT
Simon & Schuster Cancels Plans for Senator Hawley's Book NYT
The Trump Officials Who Resigned Over Capitol Violence NYT In one of the most far-reaching social policy moves in the corporate world, the National Association of Realtors has adopted a sweeping ethics policy that polices all communication by its 1.4 million members, 24/7, private and professional, written and spoken, online and off. John Murawski reports for RealClearInvestigations that some are celebrating the prohibition on "hate speech and harassing speech," but others fear the terms are so vague that they signal a further expansion of "cancel culture." Murawski also reports: - The organization, the nation's largest trade group, has the authority to fine - and potentially expel - real estate agents for violating the new speech code.
- Both Realtors and members of the public can file complaints.
- The prohibition is not intended to penalize expressions of religious belief or public policy, but the ban's vagueness could be an invitation to censor controversial political opinions, especially on race and gender.
- Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law: "What we're talking about is a new blacklist."
- Thousands of complaints could be filed this year.
- A leader of the organization cited a string of troubling incidents as well as the moral debt the real estate industry owes for perpetuating redlining and other exclusionary practices.
- Some observers foresee a domino effect. "If this is good for real estate agents, why not attorneys, why not doctors?" said Robert Föehl, a professor of business ethics and business law at Ohio University.
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series High-Tech Key Carelessness Has Car Thefts Soaring
New York Times
After years of declines, this article reports, car thefts appear to be surging in cities and suburbs across the country. The spree, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, does not appear to be the work of sophisticated crime rings, the police say. Instead, this new wave of car thefts seems to stem from a combination of simple carelessness and the same technological advancement that once made stealing cars nearly impossible: the key fob. The problem: too many people are leaving their fobs sitting in their cup holders. Police say forgotten fobs and keyless technology have contributed to soaring stolen car cases that are no longer tied to chop shops and resale lots. In Hartford, the police have traced the surge to teenagers joyriding in from the suburbs. In Los Angeles, stolen cars reappear so frequently that the police believe thieves are using them like Ubers. And in New York City, a related but different problem has emerged as more drivers leave their cars running to make pit stops and deliveries during the pandemic; more than half of the 6,858 vehicles stolen there in 2020 were running when they were swiped. Lying Boston Cops Get Away With It
Boston Globe
Boston police lie so often in court that the practice has a name - "testilying." This article, the fifth in an occasional series on police corruption, reports that the problem has plagued the Boston Police Department for decades. A Boston Globe review of internal affairs cases from January 2010 to August 2020 shows the department received 191 total allegations of untruthfulness in that period. In about half of those cases, the department confirmed the allegations and sustained the untruthfulness charges, while other investigations are still pending. And yet in other cases, the department did not know about - and did not look into - allegations of lying by an officer. While state police reforms that were recently approved are meant to improve police accountability, they do not directly address untruthfulness. Today, the article reports, some officers continue to struggle with telling the truth, whether in court or everyday police matters, and the department has no mechanism to monitor officer testimony or truthfulness. Quite often, records show, internal affairs investigators are reluctant to call a lie a lie. Race-Focused Radicalism in San Diego Schools
City Journal
This article reports on the growing radicalization of the San Diego Unified School District. In recent months the district has announced mandatory diversity training for teachers, added a new "ethnic studies" curriculum focused on racial grievance, and even abolished the requirement to turn in homework on time - all in the name of becoming, in the words of school board member Richard Barrera, "an anti-racist school district." One teacher training program featured an address by Bettina Love, a critical race theorist, who reportedly claimed that public schools "don't see [blacks] as human," are guilty of systemic "anti-Blackness," and "spirit murder babies." Reporter Christopher F. Rufo writes that the concept of "spirit murder" is at the heart of Love's teachings. In a recent article in Education Week, Love wrote that public schools are guilty of "the spirit murdering of Black and Brown children," which she defined as "a death that is built on racism and intended to reduce, humiliate, and destroy people of color." Wall Street Eyes Billions in the Colorado River's Water
New York Times
There is plenty of water in the Western United States, this article reports; it's just in the wrong places. Government has long channeled water from sparsely populated rural areas to big cities such as Los Angeles and Phoenix. But in recent years a proliferation of private investors has descended upon isolated communities, scouring the driest terrain in the United States to buy coveted water rights. To proponents of open markets, water is underpriced and consequently overused. In theory, a market-based approach discourages wasteful low-value water uses, especially in agriculture, which consumes more than 70 percent of the water in the Southwest, and creates incentives for private enterprise to become involved. Investors and the environment may benefit, but water will almost certainly be more expensive. Critics say water is too essential to be seen as just another commodity. They fear that traders could exploit volatility, whether due to drought or failing infrastructure, to price gouge consumers. As investor interest mounts, leaders of Southwestern states are gathering this month to decide the future of the Colorado River. The negotiations have the potential to redefine rules that for the last century have governed one of the most valuable economic resources in the United States. NYT Reporter Withheld Pentagon Papers Backstory Until Death
New York Times
A double deception led to one of the biggest stories in 20th century journalism: the publication of the government's secret history of the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst who had been a contributor to the secret history while working for the Rand Corporation, illicitly copied the massive report, hoping that making it public would hasten an end to a war he had come passionately to oppose. He shared it with Neil Sheehan of the New York Times - but told him he could read but not copy it. He assumed an article would be published shortly. But, Janny Scott reports: Over the next two months, [Sheehan] strung Mr. Ellsberg along. He told him that his editors were deliberating about how best to present the material, and he professed to have been sidetracked by other assignments. In fact, he was holed up in a hotel room in midtown Manhattan with the documents and a rapidly expanding team of Times editors and reporters working feverishly toward publication. … The publication of the first installment of the Pentagon papers on June 13, 1971, blindsided Mr. Ellsberg. … There was no contact between the two men for six months. Shortly before Christmas 1971, Mr. Sheehan said, they ran into each other in Manhattan. In a brief conversation, he said, he told Mr. Ellsberg what he had done. "So you stole it, like I did," he recalled Mr. Ellsberg saying. "No, Dan, I didn't steal it," Mr. Sheehan said he had answered. "And neither did you. Those papers are the property of the people of the United States. They paid for them with their national treasure and the blood of their sons, and they have a right to it." Sheehan, who died this week, related the story in 2015 but asked the Times not to print it until after his death. The Times honored his request. Coronavirus Investigations Did the Coronavirus Escape From a Lab?
New York Magazine
This 12,000-word article by acclaimed writer Nicholson Baker details why he has concluded that COVID-19 came from a Chinese lab "perhaps as part of a scientist's well-intentioned but risky effort to create a broad-spectrum vaccine. SARS-2 was not designed as a biological weapon. But it was, I think, designed." Baker says there is still no direct evidence that the virus came from an experimental mishap, or that it was transmitted directly from a bat to a human. But he writes: I think it's worth offering some historical context for our yearlong medical nightmare. We need to hear from the people who for years have contended that certain types of virus experimentation might lead to a disastrous pandemic like this one. And we need to stop hunting for new exotic diseases in the wild, shipping them back to laboratories, and hot-wiring their genomes to prove how dangerous to human life they might become. Other Coronavirus Investigations As Outbreak Turns Year Old, How Virus Overwhelms Hospitals Wall St Journal
How Eight Covid-19 Vaccines Work New York Times
'Relapses Left and Right': Taking On Addiction in Pandemic New York Times
Weed and 7 Benadryl: Insomniac Covid Docs Daily Beast |
