Category Archives: National Vanguard

American white nationalist, neo-Nazi organisation

National Vanguard is an American white nationalist, neo-Nazi organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded in 2005 by Kevin Alfred Strom and former members of the National Alliance.[1]

The group was founded by former and expelled members of the National Alliance.[2] The National Alliance's 5-man Executive Committee, a think-tank created by Erich Gliebe five months earlier to explore new ideas, issued a formal declaration called "A Time for Leadership."[3] The declaration decried then-Chairman Erich Gliebe's dissolution of the National Alliance Board of Directors and his reducing of its composition to include merely himself and COO Shaun Walker. It called for a reconstitution of the Board of Directors, and the merger of the Board with the Executive Committee in both membership and function. Gliebe and Walker rejected the declaration.

In response, Gliebe and Walker claimed that Kevin Strom was not performing his job well as editor of the National Alliance's magazine, which was sometimes months late. There was a pay dispute where Kevin Strom claimed that Shaun Walker was not paying Strom his full salary, which became a public dispute within Internet chatrooms. This pay dispute and other internal conflicts created an atmosphere of factional personality conflicts which grew for 6 months until they erupted.

There were no legal options to take, so in April 2005 "National Vanguard" was formally organized by some former National Alliance Unit Coordinators and five members of the Executive Committee.[4]

The main issues cited for the split with the National Alliance were over the creation of an expanded Board of Directors, prompt and professional publishing of a news-magazine and open accounting of all funds collected. The new organization picked Kevin Alfred Strom as its new leader, but a Board of Directors was not created. Within 8 months half of all National Vanguard members had either resigned or formed another new group. Most of the key leaders who planned the initial coup from the National Alliance group quit the National Vanguard within 15 months, but without all the open Internet airing of "internal laundry." In January 2007 Strom was arrested by the FBI and Federal Marshals for child pornography related charges. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography (although he maintains that the possession was inadvertent[5]) and was sentenced to 23 months in prison.[6]

As of May 2015, National Vanguard maintains an active website featuring daily articles and updates.[1][7]

Since the reorganization of National Vanguard, the group has been focused upon unit meetings and the distribution of fliers. A boycott against the hardware chain The Home Depot was started because of its stance on illegal immigrants. Units in Florida, Nevada, and New Jersey appear to be the most active. Members are attempting to form a new political party in Nevada: the White People's Party.[8] One plank in the party's platform calls for "the White Race" to be placed on the endangered species list since "all relevant laws are working against the continued existence of Whites."[9]

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the US Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, a National Vanguard First Response Team was organized to help white families in Alabama and Mississippi on September 20, 2005. Their decision to help only white victims has been described as reprehensible.[10]

In 2005, National Vanguard showcased the pop-music duo Prussian Blue, twin sisters from Bakersfield, California, Lynx and Lamb Gaede, whom the organization hoped would "be breaking new ground... creating an entire genre of pro-White music" that will cross over to mainstream audiences.[11][12] Their mother, April, is a writer and activist for National Vanguard.[citation needed]

Critical

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National Vanguard (American organization) - Wikipedia

Formed in 2005 by longtime activist Kevin Strom, National Vanguard was a breakaway group from the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the most dominant neo-Nazi group from the 1970s until 2002, when its founder died. National Vanguard was increasing its membership and its prestige in white supremacist circles before the arrest and imprisonment of its leader, Kevin Strom, in 2007 for child pornography and witness tampering, after which the group fell apart.

"Despite the scientific fact of race, powerful forces are eager to downplay or even deny that fact while at the same time attempting to obliterate all racial, ethnic and cultural differences worldwide, with the goal of uniting humanity' into one global, anonymous mass. Open borders, outsourcing,' and the growth of corporate and governmental globalism are all elements in the systematic destruction of human, biological and cultural diversity." National Vanguard website

"Jewish interests hold a massive amount of power, far beyond what one would expect based on their population numbers. Jews dominate the mass media, which shapes opinion and cultural values, and have a strong hand in the political scene at all levels. [Jews] have pushed for pluralist' and ultimately mixed-race societies. Jews in such societies feel safer in asserting themselves, since instead of standing out in stark contrast to their host populations, they become merely one of many racial minorities. This is the primary reason that Jewish interest groups have been at the forefront of nearly all the negative changes which have taken place in the White world during the last 100 years." National Vanguard website

"[National Vanguard] is simply recognizing facts when we point out that no civilization has ever survived racial mixing let alone on the scale which has engulfed the U.S. since the 1960s. Considering economic factors, the chaos being created by Zionist-inspired U.S. meddling in the affairs of other nations, and the certainty that multiracialism is a death sentence for any society that attempts it, it is inevitable that at some point the distribution of power and authority in America and the rest of the White world will change dramatically. We want to lay the groundwork for a healthy White nation to emerge from the chaos ahead." National Vanguard website

National Vanguard (NV) was the creation of Kevin Alfred Strom, a 20-year veteran of the white supremacist movement. Strom had long played a key but subservient role to William Pierce, founder of the National Alliance until recently the most important neo-Nazi group in the country and then to Erich Gliebe, who was anointed over Strom as Pierce's successor. The elevation of Gliebe came even though it was Strom, not Gliebe, who had created and hosted the Alliance's well-known weekly radio show, "American Dissident Voices"; Strom who convinced Pierce to venture into the white power music business; and Strom who edited the Alliance's flagship publication, National Vanguard, in his role as the group's second in-house "intellectual," after Pierce.

In the spring of 2005, Strom and other disgruntled Alliance principals were summarily expelled from that group after they tried but failed to overthrow or curtail the power of the Alliance's current leaders. Almost immediately after he was ejected, Strom formed National Vanguard, lifting the name from the Alliance magazine he had edited for years and taking hundreds of other Alliance members with him. The Alliance's old Tampa, Fla., unit, which converted en masse into an NV chapter loyal to Strom, organized a Summer Solstice Festival that same year.

In its first three months, NV set up 15 chapters, even as the Alliance's membership rolls continued to decline. Strom received clear support from other movement leaders, including leading white supremacists David Dukeand Don Black, operator of the infamous Stormfront.orghate site. NV units from Boston to Denver rented billboards and bombarded Internet message boards with propaganda, winning both attention and publicity. Disillusioned and angry over Gliebe's perceived failures as a chairman, several Alliance unit coordinators defected to NV with their entire chapters. High-profile former Alliance member April Gaede, whose young twin daughters were then a popular act in white power music, also signed on with Strom. Performing white supremacist folk songs under the name Prussian Blue, Gaede's daughters Lynx and Lamb shared a stage with Strom at the Tampa gathering.

Though his critics lampooned his supposedly feminine mannerisms by nicknaming him "Weenie," Strom's intellectual persona gave him a veneer of respectability that stood in sharp contrast to the thuggish image of most of the white supremacist world. But then something unexpected and, for a time, unexplained happened. In July 2006, Strom abruptly announced he was taking a leave of absence as chief of National Vanguard because of "family and health matters." He acknowledged having "made mistakes, some of them serious ones," but didn't elaborate.

Strom's public woes began on Jan. 4, 2007, when federal agents arrested him near his home in Stanardsville, Va (where he had moved from Charlottesville after separating from his wife, Elisha). He was charged with possessing and receiving child pornography, enticing a minor to perform sex acts and intimidating a witness, sending shock waves through the white supremacist world. In March 2007, facing ubiquitous movement criticism, Strom officially disbanded NV.

Strom ended up facing two separate trials. Charges against Strom for possession of child pornography were separated out for a later trial. In the first trial, held in October, Strom prevailed. U.S. District Judge Norman Moon ruled Strom's numerous legal complaints against his wife did not amount to intimidation. And the judge found that while Strom had followed and anonymously sent many gifts to a 10-year-old girl, he had not actually tried to have sex with her. The judge did note that there was "overwhelming evidence he was sexually drawn to this child."

In January 2008, Strom faced a second federal trial on possession of child pornography. Strom struck a deal at a plea hearing with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. In exchange, multiple counts of receiving child porn were dismissed. During his sentencing on April 21, 2008, Strom claimed the child porn came from an online forum he'd visited and that he had not intentionally downloaded it onto his computer. Strom, who had already served more than one year in prison, asked Judge Moon not to give him further time. "Mr. Strom, you pled guilty to charges that now you're saying you're innocent [of]," Moon responded. "I prefer people plead not guilty than put it on me." Moon, who called Strom's guilty plea "extremely serious," then sentenced him to 23 months in jail.

National Vanguard fell apart in late March of 2007, apparently unable to survive the imprisonment and public humiliation of Strom. But as early as September of 2006, four months before Strom's arrest, rebellious elements within NV already had attempted to move the headquarters to Sacramento, Calif. Early in 2007, the state of Virginia liquidated the group's legal parent, making it impossible, according to the Sacramento insurrectionists, to access the group's bank accounts.

A March 2007 posting on the NV website proposed that readers "interested in pro-European-American activism" sign on with NV's replacement, European Americans United (EAU), which supports white separatism and is against "Third World immigration," and that they keep abreast of the news at the group's Western Voices World News site. To avoid the kind of collapse that happened to NV, a board of directors, instead of one person, runs EAU, and all directors must prove they have no criminal background. Paeans to neo-Nazi leaders like the late National Alliance founder William Pierce are to be replaced with calls to white nationalism in hopes of building a broader movement.

Strom was freed from prison in Sept. 2008 and has not returned to the movement.

Read more:

National Vanguard | Southern Poverty Law Center

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HIV-positive patients who are adherent with antiretroviral medications are achieving undetectable or very low levels of HIV viremia and living longer. In response, clinical care is continually adapting to the dramatically altered natural history of disease.

Today, the cutting edge of clinical care overlaps with primary care. The clinical vanguard addresses the medical vulnerabilities of patients with HIV, seeking to eliminate preventable morbidity and premature death. Among this clinical vanguard is the screening for and prevention of anal cancer. With the increased longevity of people living with HIV and the nearly universal exposure to human papilloma virus (HPV), there is now potential for progression to mucosal cellular dysplasia and eventual malignancy.

We know that prevention is possible because of the example of cervical cancer, the etiology of which is exposure to oncogenic serotypes of HPV (16 and 18 are most common). Screenings for cervical cancer (regular clinical examinations and Pap smears) and treatments to eliminate high-grade dysplasia have decreased the incidence rate by over 50% since the 1970s. Vaccination against HPV has been available since 2006 and offers the prospect of preventing HPV-associated malignancies, including head and neck cancer, in future decades.

However, rates of anal cancer are increasing. The CDC estimates that about 4700 new cases of HPV-associated anal cancers are diagnosed in women and about 2300 are diagnosed in men each year in the United States. Anal cancer rates in individuals with HIV have increased in the era of effective antiretrovirals and greater longevity. The highest rates, at 95 per 100,000, are in HIV-positive men who have sex with men. Very similar rates were noted in a more recent study that found increased risk with advancing age and in those with an AIDS diagnosis.

The New York State AIDS Institute Clinical Guidelines Program recommends screening for anal dysplasia in all patients with HIV. A proactive approach similar to cervical cancer screening is appropriate and includes measures easily implemented by all clinicians:

History: Assess for rectal symptoms, anal pain, discharge, and lumps.

Physical exam: Assess for presence of perianal lesions; perform a thorough digital rectal exam.

Anal Pap test for anal cytology: Insert a Dacron swab moistened with tap water about 3 inches into the anal canal, applying pressure to lateral anal walls and rotating the swab. Then remove and place the swab into liquid cytology solution, shake vigorously for a full 30 seconds, and assess for any dysplasia (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, low-grade intraepithelial lesion, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance), which would warrant further evaluation by high-resolution anoscopy (HRA).

HRA for anal dysplasia corresponds to colposcopy for cervical dysplasia. The ability to treat and eliminate high-risk precursor lesions interrupts the progression to malignancy. The efficacy of this strategy is being evaluated in a National Institutes of Health prospective trial called the Anchor Study. The epidemiology of HPV; the clinical horror of witnessing the painful, preventable deaths of young patients with well-controlled HIV due to anal cancer; and the example of controlling cervical cancer have motivated my practice to assure comprehensive care for our patients.

Unfortunately, establishing HRA in one's practice is challenging. Barriers to practice include the expense of required equipment and the absence of consensus on specific products. In addition, hands-on precepting to ease newcomers to competence is not generally available. Considerable skill is required for complete visualization of the anal transformative zone in the folds of the anal canal, and recognizing high-risk lesions requires study and accumulated experience. The International Anal Neoplasia Society is a useful resource that also offers a training course. We are invited to train ourselves, and to rely on the eventual feedback of biopsy results and the forbearance of our early patients.

The expanding scope of our medical practices must shift to meet the evolving needs of the growing population of virologically suppressed patients who are living longer. HIV care involves curing life-threatening opportunistic infections, encouraging antiretroviral adherence, and providing comprehensive care which now includes preventing anal cancer.

Bruce E. Hirsch, MD, is an infectious disease specialist.

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The Vanguard of HIV Care: Don't Forget This Screening - Medscape

By the time a womanreported Kalan Haywood Sr.to police for sexual assault in the summer of 2019, hehad become a well-known leader in Milwaukee'sBlack community. Hisreal estate development firm, The Haywood Group, got $9 million in taxpayer-backedloans thatyear one of them after police opened an investigation into the rape complaint against him.

Haywood planned to use the money for a boutique hotel, the Ikon,on the city's north side. It would be the first hotel built by a Black developer in Milwaukeeone of the most segregated cities in the nation and it would be located in a neighborhood largely populated by poor Black residents. Rocky Marcoux, then the city development commissioner, talked about the significance of those factors when the Common Council approved Haywood's firstloanfor the Ikon.

"The folks you'll see working on this building are going to look like the people in this community," Marcouxtold council members. "That means a lot, not only to the people who live here but to the rest of Milwaukee as we try to advance men and women of color in the development (and)construction trades, and … (in)actually sharing in the success of what's happening downtown and in other parts of the city."

The terms called for Haywoods LLC to repay the moneyover 20 years, with the first payment due in fall 2021. One of the aldermen who voted against the loansaid the city was potentially "throwing money away" because Haywood hadn'tprovided enoughevidence of how he would repay it. The city had sued him in small claims court several times previously, and he'd failed to pay his taxes on time more than once.

Developer Kalan Haywood Sr.'s early plans for the Ikon hotel on the site of a former Sears store called for apartments and offices on land next door.Engberg Anderson Architects

Once the loan was approved, city officials had an incentive to help Haywood succeed. If he failed, it could cost Milwaukeetaxpayers millions.

Manual section breakGraphic by Erin Caughey

Haywood has sold his life story as making the most of a second chance.

Raised by his grandmother in Brewers Hill, Haywood graduated from Riverside High School. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee but hungout in the streets when he wasn't in class.

At 21, Haywood was arrested for possession of cocaine and carrying a concealed weapon. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. After his release, he has said, he went back to his old life and was shot multiple times.

Kalan Haywood Sr., shown here in 2005, started his first real estate development company, Vanguard Group, in 2000.Milwaukee Journal Sentinel files

I still get asked constantly about my case from 1995, Haywood told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2019. Every deal I do. Every single deal. Well, I did that. It's my fault. Im willing to explain it every time.

He credited a mentor with helping him go straight.

At first, Haywood focused on flipping neglected houses.In 2000, he started his first real estate development firm, Vanguard Group LLC, and turned his sights toretail properties, including a Walgreens store in the 2800 block of N. King Drive.

He also led an effort to convertthe historic Germania Building downtown from offices into apartments with help from the city $1.5 million.

Haywood doesnt mention a 2006 criminal case when he tells his redemption story. That year, he was charged with pistol-whipping a girlfriend.

According to the criminal complaint, Haywood punched the womanin the head approximately 10 times in front of her 8-year-old daughter.

Haywood yelled, Bitch, I love you! as he then slammed her head with a gun, the complaint says. She needed eight stitches.

Two felony chargeswere dismissed when the woman failed to show up for a court hearing.

Victims often are unwilling to testify against abusers for a variety of reasons: fear, stigma, losing custody of shared children, being deprived of housing or financial support, or religious or family pressure. Because of this, Wisconsin law permits evidence-based prosecution. This method allows the district attorney to make a case by presenting other proof, such as photographs of injuries and testimony from police officers or health care providers.

But the womanwho accused Haywood in 2006 didnt just refuse to testify. Two years after the charges were filed, Haywood's attorney, M. Nicol Padway, produced a sworn statement signed by the woman, which said she did not want to go forward.

Padway was a former member of the powerful civilian Fire and Police Commission.During a seven-year tenure on the board that ended in 1994, Padway said, he made it a point not to represent criminal defendants in Milwaukee cases.

The next time Haywood retained a lawyer with ties to the commission, he turned to Steven DeVougas, its chairman, whom he hired as a real estate lawyer in 2017.

Later, thepolice detective who questionedHaywood about a rape allegation would sayhe didn't know DeVougasworked on criminal matters.

The attorney replied: "I do it all."

The Milwaukee Police Department has long facedcriticism for lax discipline of problemofficers, butthere's plenty of blame to go around.

While chiefs havethe authority to fire cops for misconduct, they don't always use it. Even when they do, boththe Fire and Police Commission andthe courts have the authority tooverrule them. One basis is fairness. If other officers have racked up similarviolationsbut kept their jobs, a terminationmay not hold up. As a result, the department's history of letting bad cops slidemakes it harder to hold today's force accountable.

Two of the officers responsible for investigating Jane Doe's sexual assault complaint against Haywood had narrowly avoided being fired.

One was lead investigator Zachary Thoms,whose promotion to detective wasdenied by the Fire and Police Commission after he was involved in one of the worst and most expensive scandals in the Police Department's history.

Between 2007 and 2012, officers in District 5 on the city's north side performed dozens of illegal strip and cavity searchesmost on Black men. Four white officers were criminally convicted as a result.The city has paid out more than $5 million in legal claims to dozens of victims. Because the city is self-insured, that money all came from taxpayers.

Thoms avoided criminal charges after he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. He told them he and another officer who was later convicted of multiplefeloniesand sent to prisonhadcoerced a suspect to try to defecate into a cardboard box in the hopes he would expel drugs.

Nonewere found.

Milwaukee Police Officer Zachary Thoms testified at a 2013 inquest into the death of Derek Williams in police custody.Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Another man had accused Thoms of reaching into his pants and retrieving a plastic bag of drugs from his anus in 2011, but those claims were dismissed by a federal judge.

Thoms'deal with the Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office also expressly included a promise he would not be disciplined by the Police Department.

Such agreements are "very rare," Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern said at the time, but this one was necessary to obtain convictions against Thoms' four fellow officers.

His attorney, Brendan Matthews, said Thoms deserved credit for telling the truth.

"It was messed up," Matthews said at the time. "But how many times do people see messed up things in their lives and they don't do anything about it? I know police officers are held to a different standard, but at the end of the day, they're just people."

Thoms' cooperation in the strip search investigation, which came in 2014, marked the second time hespoke up against other cops amid misconduct claims. A year earlier, he testified during an inquest into the death of Derek Williams, who died after gasping for breath and begging for help in the back of a squad car. Five other officers and two sergeants refused to testify, citing the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

When Jane Doe filed her report, Thoms boss in Sensitive Crimes was John Corbett, another cop with a troubled history.

In November 2010, Corbett was arrested after he got drunk and let his 13-year-old daughter drive his car. Hewas convicted of a criminal misdemeanor andserved 30 days on work release, doing his job as a police sergeant by day and sleeping in the jail. He alsowas suspended from the department for 60 days.

After he got sober, Corbett was promoted twice, once by Edward Flynn and again by Alfonso Morales, who took over as chief in February 2018. Both times, the Fire and Police Commission approved. One of the board members said they were impressed with Corbett's efforts in recovery, which included earning a master's degree and providing private substance abuse counseling tolaw enforcement.

Doe never anticipatedthat her rape complaintwouldget tangled up with the police chief's efforts to raise money.But because of Haywood's connections, it did.

Creating a newnonprofit, the Milwaukee Police Foundation, was among Morales earliest goals as chief. It was inspired by the St. Louis Police Foundation, whichcollected nearly $2.5 million in 2018to payfortraining and equipmentsuchas ballistic vests andsurveillance cameras.

In Milwaukee, Morales had grander plans. He wanted to raise tens of millions for a new regional police training facility, and he putLt. Erik Gulbrandson in charge of making it happen.

A volunteer attorney registeredthe new nonprofit with the state in April 2019. The next steps wererecruiting board members and soliciting donations.

Butthe fundraisinggot off to a slow start.

According to its tax returnfor 2019, the foundation took in just $12,050 that year, including $5,000 from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and $5,000 from a board member who ran a construction company. The documentlists spending of $153 on analysis fees and $1,172 for an MPD meet and greet.

The foundation's conflict of interest policy lays outwhat to do if a board member becomes financially involved in its operations.

It doesnt say what should happen if someone who makes a large donation ends up arrested or if one of the board members is accused of a crime.

Haywood's law enforcement connections didn't end with DeVougas and the Fire and Police Commission. Haywood was also longtime friends with Raymond Banks, an assistant chief of police. The three of them, the Fire and Police Commission's executive director later said, "appeared to be close."

Morales invited Haywood to join the Milwaukee Police Foundation's board at the suggestion of Banks, whom Moraleshad promoted despite a sexual harassment complaint by a Black female officer.

Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales, center, speaks to a Common Council committee in 2018. Assistant chiefs Raymond Banks, left, and Michael Brunson, right, look on.Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Banks denied the woman's allegations.In a conversation with Morales, Banks said his interactions with herwere not sexual in any manner and it was not his intent to make her feel uncomfortable, the chief wrote in a memo to the Fire and Police Commission.

The commission, chaired by DeVougas,approved Banks' promotionwith little discussion in April 2018, a month after the police union representing Banks' accuserhad hand-delivered her harassment claim to commission staff.

In that complaint and another to internal affairs, the woman said Banks had tormented her for years, making sexual comments, calling her at home to proposition her and barging into her office uninvited.

The woman made the report reluctantly, worriedit could harm her career. As it turned out, she was right. Sheinitially took medical leave, saying she was tootraumatized by Banks conduct to continue working. Later, Morales fired her.

According to a notification presented to the Fire and Police Commission in 2019, he did so for "non-disciplinary fitness reasons."After the vote to affirm the woman's firing, DeVougas told a reporter that, in general, those reasons could be anything other than misconduct.

"It could be for health reasons, it could be for personal reasons," he said at the time. "It's kind of a catch-all."

Asked if the public might consider that explanation vague, DeVougas said he didn't know "if that necessarily involves the public purview."

City officials later approved a taxpayer-funded legal settlementof $16,500 with the woman.

Haywood's membership on the Milwaukee Police Foundation's board was slated to become official at the group's August 2019 meeting. Not long before that, Morales chief of staff gave him some troubling news: A woman had recently filed a sexual assault complaint against Haywood.

July 30, 2019Zachary Thoms presents Jane Does case to Assistant District Attorney Abbey Marzick.

Early August 2019Chief of Staff Nick DeSiato learns from Marzick, who he was married to at the time, that Kalan Haywood Sr. is under investigation. Because he knows Haywood is being considered for a spot on the Milwaukee Police Foundation board, DeSiato tells Lt. Erik Gulbrandson, who is coordinating the creation of the foundation.

Aug. 6, 2019Thoms starts his vacation, which is scheduled to last through Aug. 13.

Read the full timeline of events in the Abuse of Trust series

Morales wanted more information. If Haywood was named to the board amid a rape investigation, the optics could turn out to be very bad.

The lieutenant spearheading the project called Corbett, the sensitive crimes captain, and asked him for answers.

Corbett said the case was awaiting a charging decision by the district attorneys office. A search warrant remained outstanding and Haywood still needed to be questioned.

Corbett later got another call. This time, it was the chief himself.

Morales explained Haywoods connection to the Milwaukee Police Foundation's board and indicated he wanted to keep the case moving, Corbett later recalled. It was the first and only time he got a call from Morales about a specific case.

Morales defended his actions in an interview with the Journal Sentinel last summer.

I dont want to get myself caught up in saying something I shouldnt be saying, he said. Its not my job to let somebody know Hey, youre under investigation. I have to find out what my boundaries are.

Corbett arranged for Detective Steve Wells to question Haywood in the hours before the foundation's board meeting on Aug. 13, 2019.

Both Thoms, the lead investigator,and the assistant district attorneyassigned to the casewere on vacation. Neither agreed with the timing. Haywood had no idea he was under investigation, which was to their advantage. If he found out too soon, he could hide evidence or otherwise compromise the case.

Although Morales later said he didn't have a problem with Haywood being interviewed under those circumstances, several national experts told the Journal Sentinel it was a questionable choice.

When the prosecutor and the lead investigator are still planning the investigation and theres still information they want to get, I would defer to them, said Ronal Serpas, who has led the police departments in New Orleans and Nashville and serves on the national Council on Criminal Justice.

He added: A poorly timed interview could tip off the suspect before you know what you might find.

The prosecutor wanted Corbett to explain things to the victim, so he got on a call with both of them. Doe begged that her name not be disclosed to Haywood, saying she was afraid of what he might do.

She says Corbett assured her it wouldnt.

But his promise was quickly broken.

How we reported this story

In reporting this story, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Ashley Luthern and Gina Barton conducted dozens of interviewsand reviewed numerous records, including police reports and videos and court files.

The Milwaukee Police Department declined to release its case file on the sexual assault investigation, citing an exemption to the states public records law for open cases. From an anonymous source, Luthern and Barton received nine pages of a 44-page incident report dated July 23, 2019. The report includes summaries of statements made to Investigator Zachary Thoms by a woman, identified publicly only as Jane Doe, who accused Kalan Haywood Sr. of sexual assault. The source also provided reporters with a DVD containing a video recording of Haywood being questioned by Detective Steve Wells on Aug. 13, 2019.

The reporters reviewed the full report of Mel Johnson, a retired assistant U.S. attorney hired by the Fire and Police Commission after the Journal Sentinel's initial coverage of the allegations against Haywood.Johnson was tasked with investigatingthe source of the leak and determining whether it was appropriate for police to interview Haywood at Sojourner Family Peace Center, which houses a shelter and the Police Department's Sensitive Crimes Division. Johnson also looked into the actions of Steven DeVougas, an attorney who was serving as chair of the commission when he accompanied Haywood to the interview. Johnsons report largely consists of summaries of his interviews with those involved in the case. It also includes a letter from DeVougas attorney citing his reasons for refusing to meet with Johnson, police emails and emails between Johnson and Jack Enea, attorney for the Milwaukee Police Foundation.

Luthern, Barton and other Journal Sentinel reporters attended numerous meetings of the Fire and Police Commission and the Common Council where the Haywood investigation was discussed. The reporters attended some of the meetings in person and others via live stream due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also reviewed archival footage of past meetings.

Haywood and DeVougas answered reporters questions during an on-the-record interview that lasted nearly three hours in December 2019. Haywood repeatedly denied sexually assaulting anyone. DeVougas contended he had done nothing wrong in accompanying Haywood, who employed him as a real estate lawyer, to the police interview.

Doe declined to speak with reporters. Descriptions of her experiences and feelings, including her description of a reported sexual assault, come from police reports, a civil suit she filed and a summary of her interview with Johnson. Reporters also spoke with her attorneys.

Details and quotes in scenes were obtained through interviews with those present or from police reports, court records, transcripts, archived news reports, video recordings or audio recordings.

Details of Haywood's upbringing and early career come from a 2008 article in the Milwaukee Business Journal. Information about being shot after his release from prison and a mentor turning his life around was contained in news coverage of remarks he made while serving on a 2014 panel about mass incarceration convened by the Helen Bader Foundation.

Additional information in this installment comes from campaign finance reports; from the Haywood Groups most recent annual report, filed in 2017; and from tax records for the Milwaukee Police Foundation.

Informationabout the city's small claims suits against Haywood and his failure to pay taxes on time comes from online court records and state regulatory documents.

The accuserin the dismissed 2006 case against Haywood did not respond to telephone calls or to a certified letter.

The description of the exchange between a detective and DeVougas about the types of law he practices was taken from video of a conversation between DeVougas and Haywood before Wells entered the room to question him.

Luthern was the Journal Sentinels public safety reporter during the administrations of both Edward Flynn and Alfonso Morales.Bartonserved as the Journal Sentinel's criminal justice investigative reporter for 15 years, beginning in2006.

Barton was first to report on the death of Derek Williams in police custody. She and colleagues covered the inquest into Williams death as well as the investigation into strip and cavity searches by Milwaukee police, which began in 2012. Barton first reported on now-retired Captain John Corbett's misdemeanor conviction as part of a 2011investigation into police who had been disciplined for violating laws and ordinances. She first reported on sexual harassment allegations against now retired Assistant Chief Raymond Banks in 2018. She interviewed M. Nicol Padway, Haywoods former attorney who had served on the Fire and Police Commission, in 2019.

Banks, Corbett, Lt. Erik Gulbrandson and Morales former chief of staff, Nick DeSiato, did not respond to emails requesting interviews for this story. Thoms referred a reporter to the Police Department's spokesman, who would not approve an interview withhim or withWells. Information about Banks recommendation of Haywood for the foundation board comes from Johnsons report and from an interview with Morales. Information about Thoms cooperation in the strip search investigation comes from deposition transcripts and from Barton's2014 interview with attorney Brendan Matthews, who represented him at the time.

Former Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney Abbey Marzick, initially assigned to Jane Doe's case, declined to comment.

Abuse of Trust was reported and written byAshley Luthern and Gina Barton.

Illustrations by Lou Saldivar.

Originally posted here:

A new accusation shook Milwaukee's Police Department, but the turmoil started long ago - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Promotions, hirings and happenings for business people in Northeast Florida. Send items to [emailprotected]

Goodwill Industries of North Florida named Jacksonville Transportation Authority CEO Nathaniel P. Ford Sr. as chair of its board of directors.

It also named six members to the board:

Edward Brownlee, president, Brownlee Global LLC.

Shantel Davis, vice president and group manager of Southeast Sales with The Greenbrier Companies.

Orville Orv Dothage, senior manager, Northrop Grumman Aerospace.

Scott Mattson, partner, Assurance Dimensions.

Isabelle Renault, president and CEO, St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce.

Kerri Stewart, vice president of business analytics and strategic initiatives, Miller Electric Company.

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens board of trustees appointed four new members. They will serve a three-year term.

Atiya Abdelmalik is a speaker and the author of A Life Worth Saving: A Nurses Journey from Sickness to Healing.

Yared Alula serves as vice president and assistant general counsel of the PGA Tour.

Howard Dodson Jr. recently served as the director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and Howard University Libraries.

Nathanial P. Ford. Sr. is CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority.

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors installed its 2021 officers:

President: Missi Howell, The Legends of Real Estate

President-elect: Mark Rosener, Watson Realty Corp.

Treasurer: Diana Galavis, Watson Realty Corp.

Secretary: Rory Dubin, EXIT Real Estate Gallery.

NEFAR also announced the winners of its 2020 Awards Program:

Realtor of the Year: Michael Hodges, First Place Management.

Affiliate/Business Partner of the Year: Lee Osborne, Osborne & Sheffield Title Services

Circle of Honor: Sherry Davidson, Davidson Realty.

Golden R: Terrell Newberry, Century 21 First Coast.

Newcomer of the Year: Cherrae (Rae) Laws, Farrell International Realty.

Property Manager of the Year: Philip Scarborough, Elite Realty Group.

Gov. Ron DeSantis made several area appointments.

To the Florida Commission on Ethics:

Former Florida Rep. Travis Cummings, of Fleming Island, is the vice president of benefits at The Bailey Group.

To the Florida Commission on Community Service, also known as Volunteer Florida:

Brea Kratzert Todd, of Jacksonville Beach, is the vice president of business development for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Sharon Funk, of Ponte Vedra, has volunteered with area nonprofits.

Amanda Mandy Morrow, of Ponte Vedra Beach, is a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty.

Maria Sullivan, of Ponte Vedra Beach, is a former program assistant with The Sontag Foundation.

To the St. Johns River State College District board of trustees:

Wendell Davis, of Fleming Island, is a retired executive vice president of Watson Realty Corp and a former Clay County commissioner. He has served on the board since 2014.

Judson Sapp, of Orange Park, is the owner of W.J. Sapp & Son, a railroad contractor business he started in 1970.

To the Florida Commission on Human Relations:

Pamela Payne, of Jacksonville, is the vice president of Northern Florida Recruiting and Consulting Services. Previously, she was a director and supervisor with Duval County Public Schools.

To the Florida Board of Physical Therapy:

Andrew Koenig, of Jacksonville Beach, is the center manager at Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital and a licensed physical therapist.

The Stellar design, engineering, construction, refrigeration and mechanical services firm announced that Robert Brodsky has rejoined as the new divisional vice president of its Thermal & Roofing Division and Gabe Crafton was promoted from assistant general counsel to chief legal officer. He will assume responsibility for all corporate legal proceedings.

The Fiorentino Group named Davis Bean as a principal with the government relations and business development firm. Bean creates strategies to assist clients with appropriations, agriculture, local governmental matters, economic development and education issues.

Chris Greco, Anthony Brooks and Christopher Herb, formerly of Sawgrass Asset Management in Jacksonville Beach, are opening an office in Ponte Vedra Beach for Waycross Partners LLC, which is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Waycross said it hired Greco as CEO, principal and director of institutional sales. Brooks is a portfolio strategist and Herb joined as its director of marketing and communications.

Cantrell & Morgan promoted Sean McGill to director of brokerage.

The National Utility Contractors Associations board inducted Lauren Atwell as chairman. Atwell is the chief operating officer of Jacksonville-based Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors Inc. He has been part of the companys executive team since 2014. Petticoat-Schmitt specializes in clearing and grading for underground utility, roadway, and water and wastewater treatment plant construction.

Elizabeth R. Ondriezek, P.A, has added mediation services pertaining to family law issues, contested guardianship and adoption. She has practiced marital and family law for more than 20 years.

The Bolles School announced Ed Martin has joined as leadership gift officer for the school. He previously was chief philanthropy officer for the Old North State Council, an independent nonprofit operation of Boy Scouts of America, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The North Florida TPO board elected its executive team through December. Jacksonville City Council member Sam Newby will be chair, replacing St. Johns Commissioner Jim Johns. Clay County Commissioner Wayne Bolla was elected vice chair replacing Jacksonville Beach Mayor Charlie Latham, who was term limited. Commissioner Mike Cole from the Nassau County Ocean, Highway and Port Authority was elected treasurer,

In addition, Reuben Franklin, St. Augustine public works director, was elected chairman of the renamed Technical Advisory Committee replacing Robert Companion in Nassau County. Lynn Rutowski, city manager of Keystone Heights, was elected vice chair.

The Citizens Advisory Committee elected Bo Norton, a Clay County resident, as chair replacing Austin Chapman, a St. Johns County resident. John Stack, a Nassau County resident, was elected vice chair.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta appointed Bill Lazar, executive director of St. Johns Housing Partnership in St. Augustine, to its Affordable Housing Advisory Council. The council helps FHLBank Atlanta fulfill its community lending and affordable housing mission and works closely with the FHLBank Atlanta board of directors and management to ensure the community lending and housing finance needs of communities within the banks district are met. Lazar has worked with nonprofit affordable housing programs for 30 years.

Downtown Vision, Downtown Jacksonvilles nonprofit Business Improvement District, presented its sixth annual #DTJax Award winners.

Downtown Ambassador of the Year: Johnny Duckett.

Downtown Project of the Year: Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center, Jacksonville Transportation Authority.

Downtowner of the Year: Jessica Santiago, ArtRepublic

Small Business of the Year: Manifest Distilling

Downtown Achievement Award: Maria Hane, former president of the Museum of Science & History.

DVI also recognized its first executive director, Terry Lorince, who served in the position for 14 years.

Link:

People on the Move: Goodwill Industries names board; NEFAR installs its 2021 officers - Jacksonville Daily Record

At this point, 2020 needs no introduction. In a single year, the Covid-19 pandemic claimed millions of lives around the world and wiped out trillions of dollars from the global economy. It changed the way most people work and live, and has left a lasting imprint on virtually every industryincluding the asset management firms that collectively oversee about $29 trillion in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

If ever there was a year for active managers to prove their mettle, it was last year. Granted, investors who rode it out in an index fund would have done just fine: The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (ticker: VOO) returned 18% in 2020. But it was a wild year for many active fundsespecially the more than two dozen stock funds that returned at least 100% in what is almost certainly a first in the history of the industry.

Record-setting returns helped propel many of the top-ranked fund families up the leaderboard in this years Barrons Fund Family Ranking, based on data from Refinitiv Lipper. But that wasnt the case for every company. In fact, the No. 1-ranked fund family, Manning & Napier, credits its strong performance to asset allocation. The runner-up, Guggenheim Investments, took its spot thanks to a bold call on the bond market.

The next two firms, No. 3-ranked Vanguard and Fidelity Investments at No. 4, are both massive fund complexes but quite different when it comes to their actively managed stock funds: Vanguard relies primarily on outside advisors, while Fidelity has one of the largest in-house research teams in the business.

Rounding out the top five, No. 5-ranked Morgan Stanley Investment Managementwhich debuted on our ranking in 2019 at No. 47made its mark in 2020 thanks largely to its Counterpoint Global team, which ushered five different funds to returns exceeding 100% for the year.

See previous years rankings:

As has been the case for the past two decades, Barrons Fund Family Ranking looks at the one-year relative performance of fund firms that offer a diversified lineup of actively managed mutual funds and ETFs. The ranking eliminates index funds, so results are based on firms skill in active management. The ranking itself is purely quantitative, yet behind the fund tickers and track records are individuals. They all have their own stories of relocating to home offices and contending with different strokes of personal disruptionduring the worst market selloff in history and one of the fastest recoveries on record.

To qualify for this ranking, firms must offer at least three active mutual funds or actively run ETFs in Lippers general U.S. stock category; one in world equity; and one mixed-asset, such as a balanced or allocation fund. They also need to offer at least two taxable bond funds and one national tax-exempt bond fund. All funds must have a track record of at least one year. While the ranking excludes index funds, it does include actively managed ETFs and smart beta ETFs, which are run passively but built on active investment strategies.

All told, just 53 asset managers out of the 822 in Lippers database met our criteria for 2020. The list varies from year to year, as firms merge, get acquired, or add or drop funds. After liquidating its mixed-asset funds, Aberdeen Standard Management dropped off this years ranking. Legg Mason is another notable firm thats no longer on the list; Franklin Templeton acquired the firm in 2020. Many other large fund managers are consistently absent because they dont check all of the boxes in the categories we consider. Notable names in this category include Janus Henderson, Dodge & Cox, and Charles Schwab Investment Management.

Active investing comes in many forms, but human decision-making is always part of the process, whether it entails picking individual stocks and bonds, creating and improving factor-based models, or making big-picture calls that affect multiple portfolios.

The first thing that went right for us was asset allocation, says Ebrahim Busheri, director of investments at Manning & Napier. The 50-year-old Rochester, N.Y., firm was an early adopter of asset-allocation funds and began offering life-cycle strategies in 1988, decades before the industry embraced them. Heading into the March selloff, the firms multi-asset portfoliosincluding four Pro-Blend fundsunderweighted equities, not because Busheri and his colleagues predicted the pandemic, but because they thought it was the late stages of the economic cycle and that valuations had gotten ahead of themselves.

When markets plummeted 34% in late February and March, the managers quickly changed course. We are truly an active manager, and when theres volatility, theres the potential to benefit. says Busheri.

The firms largest allocation fund, the $695 million Manning & Napier Pro-Blend Extended Term (MNBAX), went from a 46% allocation to stocks in February to 59% by the end of March. The fund returned 17.6% in 2020, better than 96% of its Lipper peers, and with less risk than the market. The funds maximum drawdown during the selloff last spring was 19%.

While allocation decisions set the tone, performance was also a function of security-specific decisions. We tend to grow our own talent, says Busheri, who joined the firm after getting his M.B.A. at the University of Rochester. Its easier to implement a specific strategy when you train analysts to think that way from day one.

On the equity side, the firm categorizes holdings into three main buckets: profile companies are growth stocks with sustainable competitive advantages; hurdle rate companies are out-of-favor cyclical companies; and bankable deals are companies whose parts are greater than their market value. During the selloff last spring, Manning & Napier managers focused primarily on buying or adding to their positions in profile companies such as Amazon.com (AMZN), PayPal Holdings (PYPL), and ServiceNow (NOW).

See Barrons Best Fund Families of 2020 rankings below. Scroll down to read the rest of the article.

*Total assets reflect the funds included in the survey. **Victory Capital acquired USAA in July of 2019, but the fund families are ranked separately. (To view all the columns in the table, please use the scroll bar located at the bottom of the table.)

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

To view all the columns in the table, please use the scroll bar located at the bottom of the table.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

To view all the columns in the table, please use the scroll bar located at the bottom of the table.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

To view all the columns in the table, please use the scroll bar located at the bottom of the table.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

To view all the columns in the table, please use the scroll bar located at the bottom of the table.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

To view all the columns in the table, please use the scroll bar located at the bottom of the table.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

Though stocks dominated the headlines, some of the biggest dislocations last March were in the bond market. Heading into 2020, Anne Walsh, chief investment officer of fixed income at No. 2-ranked Guggenheim Investments, and her colleagues battened down the hatches, thinking that most bonds were priced to perfection. Then came the coronavirus, and things pivoted almost overnight, she says, recounting how redemptions in riskier corporate bonds exacerbated losses for managers who were forced to sell. Meanwhile, companies issued new bondswith significantly higher yields than a couple of months priorto raise capital to weather the crisis. This opened the door for Guggenheim to go shopping.

After lagging behind its benchmark in 2019, the $25 billion Guggenheim Total Return Bond fund (GIBIX) returned more than 15% in 2020, and beat nearly all of its Lipper peers. Likewise, the $6 billion Guggenheim Macro Opportunities fund (GIOIX) returned 11.6% to rank at the top of its peer group.

Guggenheim offers a diverse lineup of funds, but most of its $246 billion in assets under management are in fixed income. Guggenheim is adept at turning market dislocations in its favor. It cleaned up after the 2008-09 financial crisis, and in 2014, following the taper tantrum, the Total Return Bond fund returned 8.3%outpacing most of its peers.

Still, last year was its own story, namely because things snapped back so quickly, says Walsh. The company tries to minimize behavioral biases that often lead to second-guessing through its organizational structure. Guggenheims 214 fixed-income investment professionals, who are based primarily in Santa Monica, Calif., and New York, work in four groups, each focused on macroeconomics, portfolio construction, security analysis, and portfolio management.

The market has bounced back, but Walsh and her colleagues say there is still room for yields on riskier bonds to move closer to their risk-free equivalents. Nothing moves in a straight line, but generally speaking, the trend is toward tighter spreads, she says.

This years No. 3 spot goes to Vanguard. The $7.1 trillion manager is best known as a powerhouse in index investing, but its $1.7 trillion in actively managed fundssplit evenly between equity and fixed incomemakes it one of the largest active investors in the world. Vanguard doesnt do much stock-picking in-house; most of the firms active equity funds are managed by outside advisors, as has been the case since John Bogle founded Vanguard to handle the administrative functions of his previous employer, Wellington Management.

Working with subadvisors allows Vanguard to seek out the best talent in any given area and keep costs low, says Kaitlyn Caughlin, who is a principal and head of Vanguards Portfolio Review Department, charged with developing and maintaining funds managed in-house and by roughly two dozen outside firms.

In the case of the $71 billion Vanguard International Growth fund (VWILX), subadvisors Schroder Investment Management and Baillie Gifford delivered a nearly 60% return in 2020, thanks to long-term positions in top performers like Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), Tencent Holdings (TCEHY), and Tesla (TSLA).

Wellington Managements Don Kilbride has run the $45 billion Vanguard Dividend Growth fund (VDIGX) since 2006 with a philosophy that rising dividends are both a byproduct and harbinger of high-quality companies that can compound returns, even in tough environments. Top holdings such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Nike (NKE), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) contributed to the funds 12% return last year, better than 85% of its Lipper peers.

The $48 billion Vanguard Windsor II fund (VWNAX) also helped Vanguards overall standing. It returned 14.5% in 2020 to edge out most of its large-value peersthough some of its larger holdings, such Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOGL), arent prototypical value stocks. Its considered a value manager, but certainly not in the way we think of value, says Daniel Wiener, chairman of Adviser Investments and senior editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors.

Last year, 83% of the firms active fixed-income fundsmost of which are managed in-houseoutperformed their respective benchmarks. That includes the $74 billion Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade (VFSUX) and $37 billion Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade (VFIDX) funds, which were up more than 5% and 10%, respectively, in 2020, putting them in the top decile of their Lipper peers. Smart investment decisions drive performance, but low feesas in an average asset-weighted expense ratio for Vanguard actively managed bond funds of 0.11%are part of the equation. In a low-yield fixed-income environment, ultralow expenses win the day, Wiener says.

Whereas Vanguard outsources most of its fundamental equity research, No. 4-ranked Fidelity has one of the largest in-house research departments in the businesshundreds of equity and credit analysts collectively calling the shots on most of its $2.5 trillion in actively managed assets. In a typical year, Fidelitys research team has more than 13,000 face-to-face meetings with companiesa process that went virtual in a matter of days last spring.

Tim Cohen, co-head of equity, says that he and his colleagues look forward to the time when they can kick the tires in real life. For now, there are positives. As active managers, we benefit from change, Cohen says, noting that collectively, Fidelitys equity funds outperformed their benchmarks by 8.9 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the virtual world makes it possible to defy physics. For all its downside, there was at least one upside in 2020: I was able to be in a few places at one time, says Sonu Kalra, manager of the $40 billion Fidelity Blue Chip Growth (FBGRX). For example, I could attend health care, tech, and consumer conferencesvirtuallyall on the same day. Thats not possible if you have to travel to California, New York, and Florida.

Because Barrons rankings are asset-weighted, a firm tends to rank high when its larger funds post strong relative performance. That was the case for Kalras fund, which returned 62% in 2020, better than 98% of its peers. The same was true of the $45 billion Fidelity Growth Company (FDGRX) which returned 68%. Though it returned more than 32% last year, Fidelitys $132 billion Contrafund (FCNTX) landed in the bottom third of its peer group, detracting from the firms overall score. Contrafunds 2020 problem, in short, according to manager Will Danoffs letter to shareholders: too much Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) and not enough Apple.

On the fixed-income side, many of Fidelitys bigger contributors are part of Fidelitys Strategic Advisers series. The funds arent available directly to retail investors or through financial advisors, but they are included in the ranking because they are the basis of a growing segment of separately managed accounts, which are available primarily through individual and workplace retirement plans.

Finally, No. 5-ranked Morgan Stanley Investment Management made its first appearance in the ranking in 2019 and climbed the ranksin a big wayin 2020. The asset management arm of Morgan Stanley has no central investment research office or chief investment officer calling the shots. Rather, more than 20 autonomous teams specializing in a wide range of public and private markets manage $781 billion in assets.

In 2020, Morgan Stanley announced that it would acquire Eaton Vance (No. 48) in a deal expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. Given that there is little overlap in focus areas Eaton Vance brings deep expertise in municipal bonds and owns Calvert Research & Management, a leader in sustainable investingit isnt expected to dramatically change how Morgan Stanley teams manage money.

We have a lot of diverse views, and typically, smaller decision-making groups tend to succeed, says Dennis Lynch, head of the Counterpoint Global team, which manages about $150 billion in 19 growth-oriented strategies. And talk about succeeding: Five of the mutual funds managed by Lynchs team returned more than 100% in 2020. Relative underperformance in 2019 (Morgan Stanley ranked 47th last year) helped to slingshot results in 2020. Many of our companies were underappreciated coming into 2020, Lynch says. And many benefited from quicker [Covid spurred] adoption of secular trends already in their favor.

The $20 billion Morgan Stanley Institutional Growth (MSEQX) returned 115%. Like many top performers in 2020, it was an early investor in companies that benefited from the sudden shift to all things digital. Zoom Video Communications (ZM) and Shopify (SHOP) were two outsize contributors last year. Similar themes played out in the teams other funds, including Morgan Stanley Insight (CPOAX) and Morgan Stanley Discovery (MPEGX), which were up 116% and 142%, respectively, as well as small-cap growth fund Morgan Stanley Inception (MFLLX) and world stock fund Morgan Stanley Global Endurance (MSJSX).

Lynch says that Counterpoint Global doesnt invest in themes, but the team does spend a lot of time thinking about the impacts of secular trends. Five members of the team are in charge of researching disruptive changeareas that range from, say, artificial intelligence to gene editing. The team has long had a book club, and now that Zoom is ubiquitous, it has started inviting authors to join the online discussions. Recent guests include David Epstein, author of Range, and Abigail Marsh, author of The Fear Factor.

Carving out time to think about big ideas is important for long-term returns, says Lynch, but so is making sure that everyone is on the same page.

*Victory Capital acquired USAA in July of 2019, but the fund families are ranked separately.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

*Victory Capital acquired USAA in July of 2019, but the fund families are ranked separately.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

All mutual and exchange-traded funds are required to report their returns (to regulators as well as in advertising and marketing material) after fees are deducted, to better reflect what investors would actually experience. But our aim is to measure manager skill, independent of expenses beyond annual management fees. Thats why we calculate returns before any 12b-1 fees are deducted. Similarly, fund loads, or sales charges, arent included in our calculation of returns.

Each funds performance is measured against all of the other funds in its Refinitiv Lipper category, with a percentile ranking of 100 being the highest and one the lowest. This result is then weighted by asset size, relative to the fund familys other assets in its general classification. If a familys biggest funds do well, that boosts its overall ranking; poor performance in its biggest funds hurts a firms ranking.

To be included in the ranking, a firm must have at least three funds in the general equity category, one world equity, one mixed equity (such as a balanced or target-date fund), two taxable bond funds, and one national tax-exempt bond fund.

Single-sector and country equity funds are factored into the rankings as general equity. We exclude all passive index funds, including pure index, enhanced index, and index-based, but include actively managed ETFs and so-called smart-beta ETFs, which are passively managed but created from active strategies.

Finally, the score is multiplied by the weighting of its general classification, as determined by the entire Lipper universe of funds. The category weightings for the one-year results in 2020 were general equity, 35.6%; mixed asset, 20.7%; world equity, 17.3%; taxable bond, 21.9%; and tax-exempt bond, 4.8%.

The category weightings for the five-year results were general equity, 36.2%; mixed asset, 20.9%; world equity, 16.9%; taxable bond, 21.6%; and tax-exempt bond, 4.4%. For the 10-year list, they were general equity, 37.5%; mixed asset, 19.5%; world equity, 17.3; taxable bond, 20.8%; and tax-exempt bond, 4.8%.

The scoring: Say a fund in the general U.S. equity category has $500 million in assets, accounting for half of the firms assets in that category, and its performance lands it in the 75th percentile for the category. The first calculation would be 75 times 0.5, which comes to 37.5. That score is then multiplied by 35.6%, general equitys overall weighting in Lippers universe. So it would be 37.5 times 0.356, which equals 13.35. Similar calculations are done for each fund in our study. Then the numbers are added for each category and overall. The shop with the highest total score wins. The same process is repeated to determine the five- and 10-year rankings.

Email: editors@barrons.com

Read the rest here:

Barrons Best Fund Families of 2020 - Barron's

Eighteen months ago, Malcolm was at the vanguard of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.

Full of bravado and often clad in black, the 21-year-old oversaw a group of 60 combative front-liners who embraced confrontational tactics against the police while demanding greater democracy in the former British colony.

Today, he is applying for asylum in the United Kingdom, and separated from his family in Hong Kong where he feels he can longer visit. Malcom believes if he returns to the Chinese city he could be arrested under a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong last June, which scaled up penalties against dissent to include punishments as severe as life imprisonment.

Since then, nearly 100 activists have been arrested under the new law. When Hong Kong police apprehended a protester friend of Malcolm's in October, he booked a red-eye flight to London. Malcolm asked CNN not to use his real name, for fear that his family -- who remain in Hong Kong -- could face repercussions.

The British government has called the security law a clear violation of the "one country, two systems" policy meant to ensure Hong Kong's autonomy from Beijing until 2047. In its wake, the UK has opened a six-year pathway to British citizenship for holders of British National (Overseas) passports (BN(O)), a special visa category created for Hong Kong nationals before the 1997 transfer of power.

The visa does not account for the most vulnerable Hong Kongers: young pro-democracy protesters, like Malcolm, who were born after 1997 and are therefore not eligible. But it is nonetheless remarkable in its scope -- in a city of 7.5 million people, 5.2 million Hong Kongers and their dependents are eligible for it.

It's also remarkable for another reason: it has been pioneered by the same British politicians who engineered the UK's break from the European Union, in part, to curb immigration.

It sets a markedly different tone for the Conservative government, and its cheerleaders in the British press, who have spent the past decade pushing anti-immigrant policies. And critics say it is predicated on a flawed idea of Hong Kongers as a "model minority" who will need no support to settle into a new life in the UK.

The UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016 following a campaign dominated by anti-immigration rhetoric -- much of it emanating from the same politicians who are now running the government.

In one campaign missive, pro-Brexit lawmakers Boris Johnson, Priti Patel, and Michael Gove stoked fears that rising numbers of southern European immigrants would "put further strain on schools and hospitals," and that "class sizes will rise and waiting lists will lengthen if we don't tackle free movement."

Yet last June, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the visa pathway for millions of Hong Kongers, describing the offer as being "one of the biggest changes in our visa system in history." The same politicians and media houses that warned darkly of an influx of foreigners during the Brexit campaign raised few objections this time around.

Last month, Priti Patel, now the Home Secretary, said she looked forward to welcoming Hong Kongers "to our great country." Yet in 2016, Patel campaigned against what she described as "uncontrolled migration" from the EU, and last year she is reported to have considered plans to send those seeking asylum in the UK to two Atlantic islands more than 4,000 miles away.

Welcoming Hong Kongers has become one of the few issues in British politics that commands bipartisan support, uniting opposition Labour, Green Party and Scottish National Party members with the hawkish, anti-China wing of the Conservative party.

The British government's shift in attitude could echo a change in public opinion -- migration concerns in the UK appear to have softened considerably in recent years. The jury is out as to why public attitudes have shifted, but it has coincided with immigration dropping off the agenda as a political issue in the past few years.

There is also a feeling of colonial "indebtedness" to the people of Hong Kong, says Jonathan Portes, a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King's College London.

Some of Brexit's biggest backers are championing the scheme "in a pretty explicit break with the approach of [Margaret] Thatcher in the run up to 1997," Portes said, explaining that the late UK Prime Minister "wanted to limit, as much as possible, the number of Hong Kong Chinese who came here, because of her wider anti-immigration views."

Defending Hong Kong against the creep of authoritarianism has also become a moral issue in the UK, which has hardened its attitude towards China in the past year. The UK has barred Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from playing a part in the country's 5G network, and has been vocal in its criticism of Beijing for human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang region.

Perhaps one of the reasons the Hong Kong visa scheme has been so lauded is that its recipients are also being sold to the British public by hardline Brexiteers as a caricatured model minority, say critics.

Hong Kong nationals "wouldn't cost our taxpayers a penny... [they] would bring their own wealth," Conservative peer Daniel Hannan wrote in the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper. "And once they arrived, they would generate economic activity for the surrounding region, just as they did in their home city."

The Home Office estimates that up to 153,700 BN(O) holders will arrive in the country this year -- and estimates they could bring 2.9 billion ($4.1 bn) into the economy over five years.

Yet the reality might not be so clear cut.

Hong Kong has one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world, but it is also one of the most economically unequal places on the planet, where one in five people are estimated to be living in poverty.

A family of two adults and two children will have to pay as much as 12,000 ($16,600) in immigration-related fees and have more than 3,100 in the bank in savings, according to the UK Home Office, and that doesn't include flights.

The language barrier (forms will need to be completed in English), and having to demonstrate the ability to accommodate and support themselves for at least six months, are also likely to put some off.

"60% of the people in Hong Kong live in public housing estates and they would find it harder [compared to Hong Kong's white-collar workers] to settle in a foreign country," Chan added.

Nor is it straightforward for those who are able to scrape the funds together, campaigners say. A study by civil society group Hong Kongers in Britain found that the majority of people planning to take up the visa are highly educated and financially able to support themselves through the move. Yet their main concerns about the move are finding accommodation, living costs, finding a job, and integrating into British society. More than a quarter of those surveyed worried about having trouble communicating in English.

Another challenge is the support that awaits them when they arrive in the UK.

The UK does not have a formal national integration program for immigrants. And there is no nationwide integration plan for the Hong Kongers who emigrate under the new scheme, according to Fred Wong, who works with Hong Kong ARC, a civil society group which offers Hong Kongers legal and mental health support. Wong asked CNN not to use his real name because he still has family in Hong Kong and fears for their safety.

Some of the 40 Hong Kongers who Wong is currently helping in the UK have yet to finish university or high school, while around half have never held down a job before and are struggling to get on the ladder in the UK. The UK government has no provisions to help them find jobs, set up bank accounts, or access mental health support, Wong said.

"Most of them suffer from PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], which could be a reason or excuse [to why] they are not progressing," Wong said. His group has been organizing free psychological consultations and talks on how to overcome insomnia, nightmares and stress, as many of the Hong Kongers Fred helps have had trouble sleeping since fleeing the territory.

The model minority narrative means that the UK government is "unprepared, and maybe a bit oblivious to the amount of support that's needed," Wong said.

"The UK government is working alongside civil society groups, local authorities and others to support the effective integration of BN(O) status holders and their families who choose to make our United Kingdom their home," UKs Minister for Future Borders and Immigration, Kevin Foster, told CNN in a statement.

Polls show that the majority of British voters support the BN(O) scheme, but attitudes could shift as an estimated 300,000 BN(O) holders arrive in the next five years, Tanja Bueltmann, a professor of migration and diaspora at the University of Strathclyde, told CNN.

"The [ BN(O) scheme] is genuinely well meaning, but the provision around it is not very good," she explained -- something that raises questions over how many Hong Kongers will make the move in the end.

The other worry is Hong Kongers will face racially aggravated violence at a time of increasing xenophobia against people of East Asian appearance in the UK. Figures from London's Metropolitan Police showed that people who self-identified as Chinese, and whose ethnic appearance was recorded as "Oriental," experienced a five-fold increase in racist crimes between January 2020 and March 2020. Polling done in June found that three quarters of people of Chinese ethnicity in the UK had experienced being called a racial slur.

During an October debate on racism against the Chinese and East Asian community in Parliament, Scottish National Party lawmaker David Linden said some of his constituents "described the attacks against them, with restaurants and take-outs being vandalized and boycotted and victims being punched, spat at and coughed on in the street and even verbally abused and blamed for the coronavirus pandemic."

London-based Hong Kong Watch and 10 other civil society groups wrote to the government in January expressing concern about the lack of a "meaningful plan in place to ensure that the new arrivals properly integrate ... local authorities do not have specific policies, strategies or the creative bandwidth to welcome and integrate Hong Kong arrivals into their communities."

"The government must learn the lessons from past failures and take pre-emptive action now," their letter read.

In the meantime, up to 350 Hong Kong dissidents between the ages of 18 and 24 are believed to be currently "stuck in limbo" in the UK, according to Wong from Hong Kong ARC. Being born after 1997, they are not eligible for the BN(O) scheme.

Some are in the country on tourist visas, biding their time until the UK government creates a policy that considers them, or until Canada begins its planned work-visa pathway for young Hong Kong dissidents. Australia has offered a pathway for permanent residency for Hong Kong students and skilled workers currently in the country.

But pandemic-related travel restrictions, as well as a lack of funds, mean many have had to rely on the generosity of civil society groups for a stipend, food and even accommodation.

Others, like Malcolm, have already applied for political asylum in the UK. The process can take more than a year. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work or open a bank account while their claim is being processed; they will be charged higher international fees if they attend a UK university.

And campaigners say there is no guarantee that pleas for asylum will be granted. According to the Refugee Council, in the year to September 2020, only 49% of initial decisions by the Home Office resulted in a grant of asylum or other form of protection.

Many asylum-seekers instead have to rely on asylum appeals through the courts to provide them with refugee status.

"The pro-democracy protests would not have existed without them [young activists], and without the protests there would not have been the BN(O) scheme -- but they're the ones who are being left behind," said Chan.

Malcolm says he is luckier than most, having a sizeable inheritance to survive on, and a network of contacts that helped find him accommodation outside London. He hopes to apply for college once he gains asylum, but in the meantime has started to financially support around 20 dissidents in the UK and Hong Kong. He says that the British government has not done enough to help his generation.

Hong Konger Sze, who asked CNN not to use her full name because her family still lives in Hong Kong, quit her job as a high school geography teacher and came to the UK in October on holiday to visit some friends.

At the end of her two-week trip, Sze decided to stay. She told CNN she plans to apply for BN(O) visa at the end of this month and is living off her savings in a flat she rents with a friend in North London in the meantime. Sze has been looking into roles as a geography teaching assistant or tutor as her Hong Kong teaching qualifications are recognized in the UK. When asked if her halting English will be a liability, Sze says "practice makes perfect."

The 28-year-old said China's incursion into everyday life in Hong Kong had influenced her decision to stay, as had the fact that being in the UK means she has the "freedom to do what I want and even protest every week," without fear of political retribution.

It would be intolerable to live in Hong Kong now, especially since teachers have been compelled to "teach students about the [national] security law," she said.

Sze has settled into London life: She already has strong opinions on the snail's pace of London buses and is counting the days to when lockdown ends and she can go shopping on Oxford Street.

While it can be hard to find the authentic Cantonese cuisine she grew up eating in Hong Kong, Sze marvels at how much cheaper food is at British supermarkets.

"The food quality is better, the price is cheaper and the rent is cheaper," she told CNN.

Sze cannot get a job until her BN(O) visa is approved, but she is optimistic that the UK's coronavirus-induced economic slump will not get in the way of her finding work. "I am open to any [job] option -- it really depends on how much savings I have," she said.

But her biggest concern is the fate of fellow dissidents going through the asylum process, and whether her compatriots who move to the UK will give up the fight for independence back home.

"Hong Kongers should never give up, no matter if they've left Hong Kong or not," she said.

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Why Britain's anti-immigration politicians are opening the doors to thousands of Hong Kongers - KCTV Kansas City

Is Xi Jinping more Hitlerian or Stalinist in his view of Chinese socialism? The answer to that question is important because it bears on the policy choices Chinas adversaries will need to make.

George Kennan, the godfather of Americas policy of containment of the Soviet Union, made clear in his 1946 long telegram that Adolf Hitlers vision of national socialist modernity wasnt a force that could be contained; the reason was that Hitler had a timetable according to which the Third Reich was to achieve global domination and his strategy could be thwarted only by annihilating Nazism by means of total war. The Soviet Union, in contrast, could be contained through Western domestic resilience and a resolve to counter territorial revanchism. That was because Joseph Stalin had in mind no specific time by which the world would need to reach the communist phase of development.

Precisely where Xi Jinping sits on the spectrum of totalitarianism is a matter of dispute. Elements of Xis ideology are notably Hitlerian. His ambition to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation introduces a nationalist character to the Chinese Communist Partys understanding of socialism. Unifying China and Taiwan is one revanchist mission driving Xis great rejuvenation, but revanchism is only one part of the nationalism Xi has begun to emphasise in CCP ideologymilitarism and capitalism are the others. Writing in the CCPs premier theoretical journal, Seeking Truth (), staff from Chinas National Defense University argue that a rich nation and a strong military are two cornerstones of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Chinese socialism seems not to be driven by the Marxian desire to secure a path to communism, but by the militarist ambition for armed strength and the capitalist will for material prosperity. Xis new era for Chinese socialism undermines traditional Marxism-Leninism, which views those nationalist forces with contempt.

Does it matter whether Chinese socialism becomes more nationalist than Marxist under Xi? According to Hitler, the distinction between national socialism and Marxian socialism was of paramount importance. Socialism is the science of dealing with the common weal. Communism is not Socialism. Marxism is not Socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning, Hitler declared in a 1923 interview with George Sylvester Viereck. To Hitler, Marxisms rejection of both the legitimacy of the nation-state and the capitalist forces of production was a fundamental error. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it is patriotic, Hitler said. His embrace of nationalism and of capitalism had important implications for the Third Reich. Our socialism is national, he argued. We demand the fulfilment of the just claims of the productive classes by the state on the basis of race solidarity. To us state and race are one.

Hitlers distinction between national and Marxian socialism has important implications for the CCP under Xi. The party has allowed China to undergo capitalist industrialisation since Deng Xiaoping, having repudiated Maoist collectivisation, but remained committed to a strong supervisory state. The political economy Xi has inherited is thus similar to the economic structure Hitler presided over in the Third Reich. The problem for the CCP, however, is that Chinas state-supervised yet market-oriented economy necessarily repudiates any notion of socialism being driven by Marxism. To a political party that supposedly follows traditional Marxism-Leninism, that contradiction constitutes an existential threat. The way to negate it, for Xi, is to unify state and race by integrating nationalist notions of Chinas great rejuvenation into CCP ideology. Chinas economic model has forced Xi to take a leaf out of Hitlers book.

The CCP can never disclose the national socialist forces behind Xis vision for China. Leninism remains crucial to the partys identity as a revolutionary agent for historical change, while Stalinism remains critical to the CCPs organisation as a vanguard party securing a path to communism. As Xi said to the partys 18th National Congress in 2012, To dismiss the history of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Communist Party, to dismiss Lenin and Stalin, and to dismiss everything else is to engage in historic nihilism, and undermines the [CCPs] organisations on all levels. Xi cant acknowledge the national socialist character that his ideology has taken on, lest he be accused of undermining the legacies of Lenin and Stalin.

Nor can he repudiate the legacies of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Many commentators note that Xis response to his family being sent to labour camps during the Cultural Revolution was to become redder than red. That experience drilled into Xi a deep respect for Mao as the inheritor of Stalins legacy and as the father of the CCP. But the unique position Deng occupies in CCP historiography is also relevant. As the cadre who introduced market-oriented reforms at the Third Plenum of 1978, Deng kicked China out of agrarian feudalism and pushed the country closer to the communist phase of development. Xi can repudiate neither Mao nor Deng, lest he be accused of the very historical nihilism he says he abhors.

How might Xi interpret his own place in CCP history? Lenin and Stalin may have been the worlds first true socialists, but the early leaders of the CCP believed that socialism had to be indigenised in China. Mao and Deng, being true Marxist-Leninists, saw that process of indigenisation as a necessary by-product of Chinas relative lack of social development. For Mao, the nationalisation of socialism was a necessary part of winning a revolution in Chinas largely agrarian society. For Deng, nationalising socialism was but the petit bourgeois result of capitalist industrialisation. Xi, however, views leadership in terms of a sacred bloodline and believes nationalism to be essentially ethnic. He probably sees the nationalisation of socialism as his personal mission on behalf of the Chinese nation.

National socialist images of a sacred bloodline have now become a feature of CCP ideology. Su Jingzhuang (), from the Central Party School, recently wrote an article on Xi Jinping thought in the Study Times (), arguing: Red genes are a genetic factor that has taken root in the body of our party and flows through the blood vessels of CCP cadres; they [form] the spiritual lineage of the Chinese races coexistence and co-prosperity, and [they are] a core political advantage in realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The national socialist mission of unifying race, party, nation and state seems to have taken on singular import for the CCP, while its Leninist role of securing a path to communism has been subordinated. Nationalism is no longer a necessary step on the road to communism, but the driving force behind Chinese socialism.

Under Xi, the CCP has proven all too willing to incorporate aspects of Hitlerian national socialism into its mode of governance. Carl Schmitt, known as the crown jurist of national socialism, has been cited by legal advisers to Chinas leadership to rationalise the CCPs imposition of a new national security law on Hong Kong last year. Schmitts central argument was that the sovereign, as someone who decides on exceptions to rules, has a necessary power to suspend civil liberties. That the CCP is now incorporating Schmitts fascist jurisprudence into its legal regime indicates that Chinas ruling elite has been influenced not only by the ideological elements of national socialism but also by Nazisms governmental aspects.

How long Chinese socialism will continue to nationalise under Xi remains an open question. But one thing has become clear: the CCPs role in securing Chinas path to communism is being subordinated to Xis vision for Chinas nationalist resurgence. The likeliest result of this phenomenon is a less patient, more erratic and risk-hungry foreign policy. Indeed, the prominence of Beijings wolf warrior diplomats and the CCPs track record of economic coercion are good indicators that Chinese foreign policy is already taking on that distinctly Hitlerian quality. Yet, the CCP itself remains steeped in Marxism-Leninism and retains a deep respect for Joseph Stalin. Ironically, it may be those Stalinist traditions that could save the world from a Xi Jinping who has started to flirt with the Hitlerian ideas that drove Nazi Germany.

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Xi Jinping's conception of socialism | The Strategist - The Strategist

People wish to be settled, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote. Only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. This tension between stability and uprooting, between the illusory consolations of home and the risky lure of the open road, lies at the heart of Nomadland, Chlo Zhaos expansive and intimate third feature.

Based on Jessica Bruders lively, thoroughly reported book of the same name, Nomadland stars Frances McDormand as Fern, a fictional former resident of a formerly real place. The movie begins with the end of Empire, Nev., a company town that officially went out of existence in late 2010, after the local gypsum mine and the Sheetrock factory shut down. Fern, a widow, takes to the highway in a white van that she christens with the name Vanguard and customizes with a sleeping alcove, a cooking area and a storage space for the few keepsakes from her previous life. Fern and Vanguard join a rolling, dispersed tribe a subculture and a literal movement of itinerant Americans and their vehicles, an unsettled nation within the boundaries of the U.S.A.

Bruders book, unfolding in the wake of the Great Recession, emphasizes the economic upheaval and social dislocation that drive people like Fern middle-aged and older; middle-class, more or less out onto the road. Reeling from unemployment, broken marriages, lost pensions and collapsing home values, they work long hours in Amazon warehouses during the winter holidays and poorly paid stints at national parks in the summer months. They are footloose but also desperate, squeezed by rising inequality and a frayed safety net.

Zhao smooths away some of this social criticism, focusing on the practical particulars of vagabond life and the personal qualities resilience, solidarity, thrift of its adherents. Except for McDormand and a few others, nearly all of the people in Nomadland are playing versions of themselves, having made the slightly magical transition from nonfiction page to nondocumentary screen. They include Bob Wells, the magnificently bearded mentor to legions of van dwellers, who summons them to an annual conclave part cultural festival, part self-help seminar in Quartzsite, Ariz.; Swankie, an intrepid kayaker, problem solver and nature lover; and Linda May, a central figure in Bruders book who nearly steals the movie as Ferns best friend.

Friendship and solitude are the poles between which Zhaos film oscillates. It has a loose, episodic structure, and a mood of understated toughness that matches the ethos it explores. Zhao, who edited Nomadland in addition to writing and directing, sometimes lingers over majestic Western landscapes and sometimes cuts quickly from one detail to the next. As in The Rider, her 2018 film about a rodeo cowboy in South Dakota, shes attentive to the interplay between human emotion and geography, to the way space, light and wind reveal character.

She captures the busyness and the tedium of Ferns days long hours behind the wheel or at a job; disruptions caused by weather, interpersonal conflict or vehicle trouble without rushing or dragging. Nomadland is patient, compassionate and open, motivated by an impulse to wander and observe rather than to judge or explain.

Fern, we eventually discover, has a sister (Melissa Smith), who helps her out of a jam and praises her as the bravest and most honest member of their family. We believe those words because they also apply to McDormand, whose grit, empathy and discipline have never been so powerfully evident. I dont mean to suggest that this is an awards-soliciting display of acting technique, a movie stars bravura impersonation of an ordinary person. Quite the opposite. A lot of what McDormand does is listen, giving moral and emotional support to the nonprofessional actors as they tell their stories. Her skill and sensitivity help persuade you that what you are seeing isnt just realistic, but true.

Which brings me, somewhat reluctantly, to David Strathairn, who plays a fellow wanderer named Dave. Hes a soft-spoken, silver-haired fellow who catches Ferns eye and gently tries to win her affection. His attempts to be helpful are clumsy and not always well judged he offers her a bag of licorice sticks when what she wants is a pack of cigarettes and although Fern likes him pretty well, her feelings are decidedly mixed.

Mine too. Straitharn is a wonderful actor and an intriguing, nontoxic masculine presence, but the fact that you know that as soon as you see him is a bit of a problem. Our first glimpse of Dave, coming into focus behind a box of can openers at an impromptu swap meet, is close to a spoiler. The vast horizon of Ferns story suddenly threatens to contract into a plot. He promises or threatens that a familiar narrative will overtake both Fern and the movie.

To some degree, Nomadland wishes to be settled wants not necessarily to domesticate its heroine, but at least to bend her journey into a more-or-less predictable arc. At the same time, and in a fine Emersonian spirit, the movie rebels against its own conventional impulses, gravitating toward an idea of experience that is more complicated, more open-ended, more contradictory than what most American movies are willing to permit.

Zhaos vision of the West includes breathtaking rock formations, ancient forests and wide desert vistas and also iced-over parking lots, litter-strewn campsites and cavernous, soulless workplaces. Against the backdrop of the Badlands or an Amazon fulfillment center, an individual can shrink down to almost nothing. The nomad existence is at once an acknowledgment of human impermanence and a protest against it.

Fern and her friends are united as much by the experience of loss as by the spirit of adventure. So many of the stories they share are tinged with grief. Its hard to describe the mixture of sadness, wonder and gratitude that you feel in their company in Ferns company, and through her eyes and ears. Its like discovering a new country, one you may want to visit more than once.

NomadlandRated R. Living rough, and talking that way too. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters and on Hulu. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.

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Nomadland Review: The Unsettled Americans - The New York Times