No. 145: Is it in the end all just words?
Good morning, everyone.
Below, we take a look at District Attorney Glenn Funk's new challenger, Sara Beth Myers, peer into the emergence of French political pundit turned politician, Éric Zemmour, and much more. If you want to win some tickets, checkout our ticket giveaways below.
In other red-blooded news, if you haven't seen our Pierce Brosnan Shrine scroll to the bottom of this email to cleanse your palate of the politics. You can follow us on Twitter (@realpamphleteer), LinkedIn (@realpamphleteer), or Instagram (@realpamphleteer) for additional content.
Thanks for reading.
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☑ ON THE BALLOT 2022: DAVIDSON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
The Davidson County District Attorney General position turns up on the ballot every 8 years — the longest term for the position in the country. Most other states have a 4 year term for the position, so the upcoming 2022 DA election is a significant one.
Though hardly thought of as a political position, District Attorneys play a significant role in the governance of a state. What does the Davidson County District Attorney General do? They prosecute criminal defendants on the behalf of Davidson County.
The reason the position of DA as an elected official is so significant is because the implementation of laws passed by the state is executed at the DA’s discretion. The DA decides whether to prosecute people charged with crimes. They impact the law by setting the severity of punishment for certain crimes. It is also worth noting that the DA has the power to investigate allegations of law enforcement misconduct and has the power to ask a special prosecutor or another agency to investigate law enforcement misconduct.
NOTEWORTHY
Read this interesting article written by a local politician on the ballot of the upcoming 2022 5th District Congressional seat, Robby Startbuck. Starbuck points out how George Soros has bankrolled DA campaigns across the country and the significance of that strategy.
The current District Attorney General’s office is occupied by Glenn Funk. Funk is a Democrat and has served as DA for one term. Though previously thought of as a shoe-in for reelection, Funk found himself in hot water this past year due to how he handled a police shooting known as the Delke case. The Delke case was a high profile case in Tennessee because it involved a law enforcement officer who has now admitted in open court to wrongly shooting Daniel Hambrick, a Black man who was fleeing him, in the back. Funk arranged a plea deal with the officer’s defense that resulted in a 3 year jail sentence, a disappointing outcome in the eyes of many of Funk’s constituents.
THE CHALLENGERS
Two candidates have officially thrown their hat in the ring for the upcoming election for the District Attorney General of Davidson County. Though Danielle Nellis was the first challenger to announce that she will be on the ballot for the DA Democratic primary, it’s a recently announced candidate who has Nashville buzzing.
In walked Sara Beth Myers, and she came out of the gate with a campaign that pulls no punches. “Glenn Funk has been very focused on making headlines instead of making change,” one of many criticisms made by Myers during a sitdown interview with WSMV’s Carley Gordon.
BIO: SARA BETH MYERS
- Undergraduate at Duke; Master’s from Yale; Law Degree from Vanderbilt
- Former Federal Prosecutor; Former Assistant State Attorney General
- Started the non-profit “AWAKE” which advocates on the behalf of women and children in TN.
- Board Member for Thistle Farms in Nashville
- Focused on child trafficking issues, domestic violence, equality disparities for women and children, and child abuse.
- Came out with a strong stance stating she will not be afraid to prosecute police officers.
- Will not pursue charges for low-level marijuana cases or any case that would violate a person's civil rights, including the trans bathroom bill.
- Will not pursue the death penalty in any cases.
HEADLINES
- 🗺 Metro Council District Proposal Map (nashville.gov) You can review and submit comments on the latest version of metro council and school board maps until 3 PM today.
- Metro Health director calls Rittenhouse verdict ‘injustice,’ offers employees counseling (Main Street) Days after Kenosha, Wisconsin, teenager Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted, Metro Public Health Director Dr. Gill Wright decried the verdict as “injustice” and encouraged employees disturbed by the results of the trial to seek counseling available to Metro employees.
- Clearcutting plans in state wilderness area gets legal approval despite local opposition (Lookout) A controversial plan by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials to clearcut forest in a popular hunting, hiking and recreation area in order to create habitat for Northern bobwhite quail has gotten a legal go-ahead, despite opposition from residents and local leaders in White County.
- Tennessee set to begin pilot program process aimed at spending massive reserve for needy families (Tennessean) The state prepares to unload nearly a billion dollars amassed by TNAF over the years without disbursing to families.
DEVELOPMENT
- SomeraRoad makes progress on Paseo South Gulch adaptive reuse (Biz Journal)
- New details released for Main Street mixed-use project (Post)
- See How This Development Will Transform Church Street In Midtown Nashville (Now Next)
- 12South commercial properties offered for sale (Post)
❃ FRANCE'S POPULISM FLOWERS
After Zemmour's barn burner of a speech announcing his candidacy for Presidency of France received the 18+ moniker on YouTube which, for better or worse, is the stamp of approval for many. Since beginning his campaign, Zemmour has delivered another powerful speech in front of 15,000 Frenchman. The number is notable if only because France is approximately 1/5 the size of the US, and Donald Trump rallies typically attracted around the same number.
In the speech, Zemmour invoked the name of his new party, Reconquête, which fits his theme of reconquering the nation for the French people and plays off its affiliation with the Spanish expulsion of Muslims in the 15th-century.
Some excerpts from his speech:
“They call me racist. But I am the only one not to confuse the defense of one’s own with the hatred of others.”
“The preservation of our heritage is not the enemy of modernity – it is in fact the condition of its existence.”
“School must rediscover its primary objective: transmission of knowledge, not reducing inequality. It must no longer seek to be the most inclusive possible, but rather rediscover the belief in merit and effort.”
He then goes on to lay out the Three Pillars of his campaign:
- Achieve zero immigration with only a handful of individuals granted asylum each year.
- Abolish social aid for non-European foreigners, end birthright citizenship, and make the conditions for citizenship more strict.
- Remove every illegal immigrant from French soil.
As a palliative, he offers any and all Muslims the opportunity to assimilate to the French way of life.
France has no concept of free speech and Zemmour has been convicted twice in the past for "hate speech". His rhetoric will receive Trumpian treatment in the press in addition to credible legal assaults. A hint of things to come came soon after Zemmour completed his speech when a man in the crowd assaulted Zemmour, grabbing him by the neck.
It's arguable that the Woke Revolution began in France with the French Revolution of 1789 — something we briefly discussed yesterday. If any nation in the West has the gall to attempt to put the genie back, it seems appropriate that it would come from the nation that let it out.
DETRITUS
- Rod Dreher rewrote Zemmour's announcement speech as if spoken by an American politician (Read)
♜ FROM THE ARCHIVES
Has the "Science" changed since 2007 making diversity our strength?
Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.
The downside of diversity
New York Times, August 5, 2007
⚔︎ MISSIVES
- 🦠 NYC will begin implementing strict vaccine mandates in three-weeks to try and get ahead of the Omicron variant. Despite there being no deaths reported from the variant, Mayor De Blasio mandated all private businesses require vaccination — without a testing option — and extended proof of vaccination in public venues to 5-11-year-olds. As a reminder, children under the age of 18 are at zero risk from Covid and vaccines do not prevent spread.
- US officials express concern over Russia's intent to invade Ukraine. Putin has long contended that Ukraine is part of Russia and an invasion could potentially destabilize the region and provide China with an idea of how the US and NATO would respond to their invasion of Taiwan. To that end, Putin and Biden have a video call scheduled for today.
- The Chinese plan to build a military base on Africa’s Atlantic Coast alarming American security officials. The new base would sit just 6 miles from the nearest largest American base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier, which houses 4,500 troops.
I’ve sifted through the hordes of imposters calling themselves “artists” to bring you some worthwhile shows in Nashville this week.
THINGS TO DO
View the full calendar here.
⭐ Cheekwood’s Christmas lights exhibit is running until January 9.
🖼 At the Frist, Medieval Bologna: Art for a University City is running until January 30 and American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918–1939 until January 2.
TONIGHT
😳 Open Mic @ The East Room, 8:30p, Free, Info
Around the Web
💲 Most expensive sales in 2021 Online book retailer recounts their most expensive sales of the year ranging from $37K A.E. Matthews pencil drawings to a first-edition version of Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham & David Dodd.
✚ Is it in the end all just words? Covid dissident and Pamphleteer favorite, @eugyppius, offers some thoughts on how we escape the neurotic tyranny of the arising health regime.
⌘ The Supply Chain’s Inconvenient Truth To truly understand the Supply Chain, one must understand the container. But the container—and the Supply Chain for that matter—are counterintuitive in our postmodern, post-industrial world.
Political Theater Highlight Reel
- Lou Bega sang Mambo No. 5 at a concert in support of Polish troops defending the eastern border amid a migration crisis
- Austrian citizens — more than 40,000 of them — march against COVID lockdowns in Vienna