Linked List: April 11, 2018

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Rick Wilson on Paul Ryan: ‘He Behaved as if He Was Some Deferential Junior VP at a Trump Resort’ ★

Longtime Republican political strategist Rick Wilson, hitting the nail on the head in his column at The Daily Beast on the sudden retirement of Paul Ryan:

Ryan and his caucus hoped to run on the tax cut, the economy, and infrastructure. All of these messages now will be swept aside. Ryan owns his share of the blame; too often, he behaved as if he was some deferential junior VP at a Trump resort and not the leader of the House of Representatives in a co-equal branch of government. The idea, popular among the House leadership, that a diet of ass-kissing and deference would make Trump into a normal President who didn’t need the political equivalent of Depends was always a strategic mistake.

Ryan is now paying the price. The rest of his caucus will pay in the fall.

Fast Company: ‘Apple Now Runs on 100 Percent Green Energy, and Here’s How It Got There’ ★

Speaking of Lisa Jackson, Mark Sullivan has a detailed feature for Fast Company on Apple’s announcement that the company now runs on 100 percent green energy, and its push to get its suppliers there, too:

I asked Jackson to describe how Apple goes about persuading a supplier to switch to renewable energy, and she was blunt. The conversation, she says, might go something like “Hey this is something that’s becoming increasingly important to us, so get a leg up on the person that’s going to try to get this business away from you. Clean up your power act now.”

At the moment, this conversation involves a healthy dose of education. “What we say is that we’ll be there with you,” Jackson recounts. “We’ll help you scout deals, we’ll help you evaluate whether they’re real, we’ll help you know what to negotiate for, because most of these folks, they’re trying to make a part, and so what we can do for them is be sort of their in-house consulting firm.” But she adds that there will likely come a time where Apple will require suppliers to run their businesses on clean energy as a condition of a business relationship.

Even now, a Greenpeace report from last year noted, Apple is unique among big tech companies for tracking information about its suppliers’ green-energy progress. “Apple has thus far been fairly aggressive in pursuing its 2020 goal to deploy 4GW of renewable energy in its supply chain,” Greenpeace says in the report, “and has made significant progress with its suppliers as well.”

Scott Pruitt’s Idea to Update an E.P.A. Keepsake: Less E.P.A., More Pruitt ★

Lisa Friedman and Kenneth P. Vogel, reporting for The New York Times on the latest from the egomaniacal self-aggrandizing branch of the Trump kakistocracy:

When Scott Pruitt wanted to refashion the Environmental Protection Agency’s “challenge coin” — a type of souvenir medallion with military origins that has become a status symbol among civilians — he proposed an unusual design: Make it bigger, and delete the E.P.A. logo.

Mr. Pruitt instead wanted the coin to feature some combination of symbols more reflective of himself and the Trump administration. Among the possibilities: a buffalo, to evoke Mr. Pruitt’s native Oklahoma, and a Bible verse to reflect his faith.

Other ideas included using the Great Seal of the United States — a design similar to the presidential seal — and putting Mr. Pruitt’s name around the rim in large letters, according to Ronald Slotkin, a career E.P.A. employee who retired this year, and two people familiar with the proposals who asked to remain anonymous because they said they feared retribution.

Wanting his own name in large letters around a bigger coin — sounds like something I’ve heard before.

Another person who was involved in the debate said that Mr. Pruitt had expressed disapproval of the agency’s seal, a round flower with four leaves. He felt it looked like a marijuana leaf.

Hard to believe this clown now holds the job formerly held by Lisa Jackson.

Vin Scully Announces That the 2020 All-Star Game Will Be Played at Dodger Stadium ★

This is how you make an announcement. Wow.

Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes’s Desperate Letter to Shareholders ★

Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, accused of outright fraud by the SEC, in a letter to shareholders regarding the company’s impending default on a $100 million loan:

The most viable option that we have identified to forestall a near-term sale or a potential default under our credit agreement is further investment by one or more of you. In light of where we are, this is no easy ask. However, given your support of the company over the years, we wanted to provide this opportunity before we proceed too far down the current path.

Good luck with that. (And I thought Mark Zuckerberg was having a rough week.)