2021
February
16
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

February 16, 2021
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

A former editor of mine once argued that “infrastructure” is the most boring word in journalism – guaranteed to induce drowsiness within 10 seconds. Today, the people of Texas begged to differ as they faced power blackouts amid historic cold. Parents of students waiting to go back to aging public school buildings also might disagree.

Infrastructure seems to matter only when it fails. From roads to school buildings to the energy grid, American infrastructure is overstretched. Why is this so hard to fix? One answer is that it was never easy. Seeking to catch up to England, Alexander Hamilton proposed a bold plan to improve America’s roads and canals. Congress ignored it. That was 1791. Likewise, some states today want to keep the government small and out of the way of business. That can lead to lapses in oversight, as in Texas, the only state with a privatized power grid.

The Texas grid “has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” one analyst told the Houston Chronicle. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.”

Meanwhile, states embracing larger government, such as California, are thinking differently than they did in the 1950s. They’re spending less on things than people, from public sector employees to the poor. Big public works projects also often run afoul of the environment.

Put simply, Americans are putting other things first. But when voters care, localities are finding innovative ways to raise money to do things, like with bond measures from Maine to Seattle. Which, perhaps, gives some hope to Texans and public school parents.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Jay Reeves/AP
Michael Foster of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union holds a sign outside an Amazon facility where labor is trying to organize workers on Feb. 9, 2021. For Amazon, a successful effort could motivate other workers to organize. But a contract could take years, and Amazon has a history of crushing labor organizing.
Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
Iranians attend a rally marking the 42nd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 10, 2021. The anniversary was an occasion for politicking between bitter political rivals over the possible return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters/File
Photographs of Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and NRA President Lt Col Oliver North stand above attendees of the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 27, 2019.

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Reuters
The World Trade Organization's new director general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, takes part in an online meeting in Potomac, Maryland.

A Christian Science Perspective

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A message of love

Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/AP
Dan Bryant and his wife, Anna, huddle by the fire with sons Benny and Sam (12 weeks old), along with their dog Joey, also wearing two doggie sweaters, with power out and temperatures dropping inside their home after a winter storm in Garland, Texas, on Feb. 15, 2021. The storm brought snow and freezing temperatures, along with power outrages that left more than 4 million Texans without power.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow when our Harry Bruinius looks at how liberal strains of Christianity and their “social gospel” appear to be gaining political momentum after being eclipsed for decades by conservative voices.

And please note that an error led to the Friday edition of the Daily being sent without the audio version. If you’d like to hear it, please go back to Friday’s edition. The link now works.

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2021
February
16
Tuesday
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