Good morning, everyone.

More rain in the forecast here in Nashville this morning.

Watching last night's council meeting, I was reminded of this quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: "Democratic institutions are quarantine arrangements to combat that ancient pestilence, lust for tyranny: as such they are very useful and very boring." Nowhere is this more apparent than at a Metro Council meeting where members talk of sewerlines, of property easements, and of rezoning 0.29 acre tracts of land.

The only thing that perks your ears is when a civilian steps forward to voice their opinion on some bill floating through the chamber. It is here, in these moments, when the spring of Democracy bubbles forth from the Earth.

Thanks for reading.

Nashville

🏘 FROM THE COUNCIL

Metro Council meetings are a stark reminder of where the creativity and energy come from in Nashville and every other American city: the people.

During last-night's council meeting, the two big ticket items were the Trainspotainment ordinance seeking to regulate the increasingly footloose party bus industry, and Joy Styles efforts to reinstate a city-wide indoor mask mandate.

The transpotainment ordinance, described by council member Freddie O'Connell as an attempt at "regulating an unregulated industry in Nashville", passed unanimously to a final reading at the next council meeting in two weeks.

As for the indoor mask mandate, Joy Styles chose to defer the ordinance indefinitely which effectively pulls it off the agenda going forward. An audible sigh of relief could be heard around the chamber as a rowdy group of onlookers in the back loudly applauded, a response to the last council meeting in which the Council Members themselves—in a display of righteous and holy political grand-standing—applauded after it passed second reading.

Styles, as one of the more proactive, flamboyant council members, deserves an introduction to our readers. We detailed some of her antics in a profile. The more you know.

DEVELOPMENT

• Neuhoff secures $312.7M construction loan after beginning site work (Biz Journal)
• KKR pays $21.14M for airport-area property (Post)
• Broadstone Sobro, A New Multi-family Development In Nashville (Now Next)
• Water Valley, town straight out of the early 1900s, for sale in Tennessee for $725,000 (Channel 5)
• Pancake Pantry to take SoBro hotel building space (Post)
• MDHA committee assesses mixed-use project plan (Post)

HEADLINES

• NES Board Approves Changes To The Schedule Of Fees & Charges (Now Next)
• New video shows wet street in Waverly turns into a river in three minutes (WSMV)
• Potential gubernatorial candidate Ogles: ‘We are not Nashville’ (TNJ)
• Sinkhole opens up on WeGo Star tracks (WSMV)
• TWRA officials face pushback over plans to raze old-growth forests in White County (Lookout)

National

🕊 OF MARKET MANIPULATION & MONOPOLY MONEY

Elizabeth Warren—high in the saddle of her high horse—called on the SEC to investigate Federal Reserve officials' trading activity. It'd be a shame if the SEC also turned its investigation towards legislators on the hill as well. What's stopping Warren from investigating her colleagues? Nancy Pelosi, the modern-day Warren Buffet, continues to rake in record returns. Share the wealth, Nancy! Show some spine, Liz!

🚀 "I HEAR YOUR ROCKET IS BIGGER THAN MINE!"

Elon Musk took a jab at Jeff Bezos last week after Bezos' Blue Origin sued the US government after they lost out on a deal to SpaceX, saying, "You cannot sue your way to the Moon, no matter how good your lawyers are."

• Speaking of suing and getting sued, a jury ruled that Tesla must pay a former employee $130 million dollars in damages for a hostile and *gasps* racist work environment. Sounds like our man finally got his big break.
• Meanwhile, at Blue Origin... Employees at Bezos' rocket factory are leaving en masse prompting one employee to describe the phenomenon as a "talent exodus". That's dramatic language.
• Despite all the mud-slinging... Tesla, despite global supply shortages and delays, managed to set a record for the number of vehicles delivered in the third quarter.

🦄 WOKE-ACRACY

• Green for thee, but not for me. And in another instance of corporate malfeasance that pays, companies like Apple, GM, and Netflix continue to parrot support for "green" initiatives—especially Biden's $3.5T Bingo Bill—while simultaneously working to undermine them. Corporations are people too.
• NYC public libraries nix late fees, eliminate past overdue fines in push for equity Presumably, late fees discriminate against those who can't return their books on time.

Entertainment

THINGS TO DO

You can view our full weekly event calendar here.

Tonight
🎤 Freddie Gibbs w/ Tim Gent @ The Basement East, 8p (Info)
🌇 Dayglow @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $25 (Info)

COMING THIS WEEK

🎥🤵 No Time To Die Opens tomorrow‌‌
The new James Bond flick and Daniel Craig's last as Brittain's finest MI6 agent sees 007's tranquil retirement in Jamaica interrupted by an old CIA agent asking a favor.

🎥🐑 Lamb Opens tomorrow‌‌
The new flick from A24 follows a childless couple who discover a strange and unnatural newborn in their sheep barn. They decide to raise her as their own, but sinister forces are determined to return the creature to the wilderness that birthed her.

COVID Gutter

Trends and news concerning everyone's favorite viral pandemic.

💉 Read our primer on monoclonal antibodies which have proven to be a potent and effective defense against the worst COVID can muster (Read)

HEADLINES

• Southwest Airlines to Require Covid-19 Vaccines for Employees (WSJ)
• Why monoclonal antibodies are expensive and hard to make in the fight against COVID-19. (Tennessean)
• Covid ‘was spreading virulently in Wuhan’ as early as summer 2019, report suggests (Telegraph)
• Study shows Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness declines after six months (The Hill)
• New York's largest private health care provider fired 1,400 employees who refused the vaccine (Fox News)

Around the Web

🇺🇸 Angelo Codevilla, Whose Writings Anticipated Trumpism, Dies at 78 A hawkish conservative, he believed that America was hamstrung at home and abroad by a progressive ruling class.

📼 Ghana Pop Art Movie posters are difficult to get hold of in Ghana, so they paint their own. Some hilarious recreations

🦠 The Myth That Democracies Bungled the Pandemic The argument that authoritarian governments outperform democracies in a crisis has found new life during the coronavirus pandemic. The data tell a different story.

Political Theater Highlight Reel

1. Attorney General Merrick Garland has instructed the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose critical race theory in public schools, citing "threats."
2. Facebook calls for new "standard rules" for the Internet after the "whistleblower" hearing.
3. Capitol police pull man out of suspicious SUV parked in front of Supreme Court
4. COVID-19 variants substantially more dangerous than native strain, Canadian study finds

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Have a great Wednesday