No. 119: It's Not What You Think

Good morning, everyone.

Looks like it's going to rain on and off throughout the day here in Nashville. Below, we air some of Tennesse's newly dirtied laundry involving two state senators committing fraud of various shape and dimension, take a look at the property-crime spike in San Francisco, and make fun of some Woke lunacy.

It's a great day to be alive. Don't let the wet, cold weather get you down.

Thanks for reading.

Muck Rack: Airing out TN's dirty laundry

Indictments galore for Tennessee’s political class. Here’s the verdict on Sen. Katrina Robinson (D - district 33) and the skinny on Sen. Brian Kelsey’s (R-district 31) recent federal indictment.

Tennessee State Senator Katrina Robinson was convicted of four counts of wire fraud on September 30th. Robinson still faces more federal charges for wire fraud and money laundering alongside Katie Ayers and Brooke Boudreaux. Given the recent verdict, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally expressed that Senator Robinson should step down from her duties as a public servant but the Senator maintains her innocence and directed her attorneys to request a new trial. In defiance, Robinson also turned heads by showing up to special session last week.  Her sentencing is scheduled for January and the counts of wire fraud can rack up to twenty years imprisonment.

Onto State Senator Brian Kelsey. Last Friday, Kelsey was charged with five counts of campaign finance conspiracy. The Senator claims that the accusations of unlawfully funneling money into his 2016 campaign are nothing but a “political witch hunt” and that the Biden administration is targeting him. Kelsey recently stepped down from his Senate Education Committee chair position while he faces these Federal charges.

The Tennessee Democratic Party and Shelby County Democratic Party used Kelsey’s indictment as an opportunity to point out the corruption and greed that exists in the Republican party by releasing an official statement following the breaking news. Kelsey has been summoned and must appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge on or before November 5th.

HEADLINES

• Here’s 3 ways you can give input on the first draft of Nashville’s council and school district maps (WPLN)

DEVELOPMENT

• Studio company announces $100M investment in Hendersonville (Main Street)
• Auto supplier to create 170 new jobs with $18M investment in Spring Hill facility (Post)
• A New Mixed-Use District On West Trinity Lane (Now Next)
• West End corridor commercial building listed for $1.5M (Post)
• Real estate investor pitches 'The Riverside,' a $2.5B waterfront development in North Nashville (Biz Journal)
• East Nashville property eyed for project sells for $2.35M (Post)
• Developer eyes $2.5B project for Cumberland River (Post)

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

You've likely seen the videos and headlines about shoplifting in San Francisco. It's been labeled an epidemic of sorts as Walgreens announces the closure of 4 stores in the city due to costs accrued from the crime spike. What's causing the spike? It's not as complicated as you'd think. Back in 2014, the state passed Proposition 47 which reduced theft of under $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor. For perspective, in NYC, thefts of that amount are punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Even in Oregon, the Progressive Mecca, perpetrators risk up to a year in jail and a $6,250 fine.

Take this in step with controversial San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin's 2020 decision not to punish so called "quality of life" crimes such as public urination, prostitution, camping, drug use, etc., and it's easy to see how the city has become a haven for low-level, petty crime.

As the DA has successfully reduced the number of arrests, the amount of property-crime and hard drug use has skyrocketed. Supporters of the initiative point to the city's sinking shoplifting cases over the past twenty years—a trend that seems on the upswing—while pointing out that theft under $50 has decreased by half and theft of items over $50 has increased nearly eight-fold. Apologists use this statistic to beg the question of whether the SFPD is operating in "good faith" or if they are "fiddling with the numbers" to make their case—a baseless accusation.

Most supporters of Boudin's lazy take on crime ignore the effect of lockdowns and Chesa Boudin's "quality of life" initiative in exacerbating a ten-year-old proposition. No other city in the state has witnessed such an increase despite Prop. 47 applying to them as well. This recent wave is unique to San Francisco. A journalist, writing out of Chicago, even goes so far as to say "It's not happening, but if it was, Walgreens deserves it" because of a case in which Walgreens shorted warehouse employees by not including check-in and check-out times in their hourly pay. The tactic of denying an action's existence, but excusing it if it did, in theory, happen is a classic strategy drawn out of the Progressive playbook and documented well by Michael Anton who Progressives in support of the soft on crime to the point of neglect initiatives would dismiss as reactionary or worse racist.

Chesa Boudin and Mayor London Breed refuse to face the reality that property crime in the city is turning away residents and businesses. There hasn't been an honest attempt to ask if maybe Proposition 47 combined with Boudin's public urination permissions contributes to shoplifting or whether shoplifting exists at all. All the city's leaders can muster in response is "Is it really that bad?"

🦄 WOKE-ACRACY

• Kyrie Irving and Dave Chappelle are being used as Black ‘pawns’ on a white chessboard (Deadspin) Journalist pitching his editor: "With all due respect, sir, is there anything more unlikely than a black man who thinks for himself? He must be brainwashed by the white people."
• Non-mainstream news sites erode people’s interest in politics, study finds (Neiman Lab) A headline states observations from a survey sent to 524 people in Austria as a "fact".
• State Department Issues First Gender-Neutral Passport (NRO) "Preferred pronouns? Oh, yes. Majesty/Majesties, please."
• The Plug aims to offer rigorous reporting on Black and brown tech (Nieman Lab) Notice that "brown" is not capitalized, but "Black" is.

HEADLINES

• Joe Biden’s Great Big Tobacco-Tax Hike (NRO)
• Paid leave on chopping block as Dems beg Manchin to reconsider (NY Post)

THINGS TO DO

The Frist Art Museum has an exhibit celebrating ascendant Art Deco art from the 1920s and 1930s running until January.

Tonight
🎭 Nate Bargatze @ Ryman Auditorium, 7p, Info
🎸 The Hives @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $30, Info
🎸 Shannon and the Clams w/ Thelma and the Sleaze @ The Basement East, 8p, $16.50, Info

REVIEW: The Many Saints of Newark

Thoughts and news concerning everyone's favorite viral pandemic.

INFORMATION

• A "haiku" thread on Twitter wandering through theories on the origin of the coronavirus (@mattwridley)
• The COVID Retirement Boom (St. Louis FRB)

HEADLINES

• More Than 3 Million Americans Retired Early Due to COVID-19 (Epoch Times)
• Merck’s Covid-19 Pill Licensed to U.N.-Backed Nonprofit to Increase Global Supplies (WSJ)
• California In-N-Out Shut Down Permanently for Refusing to Check Customers’ Vaccination Status (Epoch Times)
• NYPD Officer Union Files Lawsuit Against City Over Vaccine Mandate (NBC)

Around the Web

✹ Astronomy Photographer of the Year From amazing aurorae to glittering galaxies, each year Astronomy Photographer of the Year celebrates the world's greatest space photography.

♛ B.J. Novak’s Face Is on Products Worldwide. He’s Not Sure Why. Someone put his image into the public domain, and now the actor and writer appears on an eclectic mix of products from China to Uruguay.

☤ I Have Been Through This Before Don’t wear a mask; you must wear a mask. Buy a pulse oximeter. Stock up on Tylenol, vitamin D, Pepcid. Whisper so you don’t spit. Stand six feet from others—no, 10. Wear gloves. Wear two masks! Open the windows. Close the schools. The dizzying madness of COVID, and the reliance on gurulike experts, has been eerily familiar.

Political Theater Highlight Reel

1. NBC News Reporter Defends Alec Baldwin Movie Set Safety Protocols: ‘Just About Everybody Was Wearing Masks’
2. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot booed at annual fundraiser for first union to endorse her 2019 runoff campaign
3. 📹 An Actual Dinosaur at the United Nations warns humanity of "climate disaster".

Words of Wisdom

The greater the number of owners, the less respect for common property. People are much more careful of their personal possessions than of those owned communally; they exercise care over common property only in so far as they are personally affected.

Aristotle, Politiká. Book II.