No. 192: At least it ain't California...
⁂ Nashville's Alt-Daily ⁂ Tickets · Criminal · At least it ain't California · Housing Prices · Much More!
Good morning, everyone.
If you're wondering how the threat of tyranny morphs into actual tyranny, look North and notice how, instead of violently removing truckers in the Freedom Convoy, the Canadian government has resorted to "non-violent" measures like freezing bank accounts and canceling the insurance policies of those they deem a threat.
As the specter of frozen accounts lingers, the even larger threat of a bank run looms as Canadians, uncertain how broadly Canadian authorities will cast their net, try to get a hold of their money before it's too late. "De-banking" is not a phenomenon confined to Canada and this particular moment, though. Just this week, Minnesota Bank & Trust cut ties with Trump supporter and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell citing him as a "reputation risk". Before Lindell, there have been many other Americans deemed vaguely as "reputation risks" or something similar in order to justify refusing them basic financial services.
This is the world we live in: a world of Big Government and Big Banks colluding to further their financial interests, domestically or abroad, rights and laws be damned. Any person or organization who threatens this arrangement and seeks to operate outside its boundaries is automatically deemed a threat. As we've watched the definition of who is a threat expand from one person — Big Bad Orange Man Donald Trump — to parents at school board meetings to people who choose to forgo a vaccine, it's clear that what and who threatens this arrangement only widens given sufficient time. At some point, it could include you for something as benign as eating steak instead of whatever state-approved, plant-based slop the state approves.
At the root of the issue is nation's control of the money supply. With state-controlled fiat currencies untethered from anything except blind faith in their value and reliant on nations for their production, leaders can apply all kinds of pressure to their citizens. The issue with state-issued fiat is that once people stop buying the sales pitch, the value of these currencies dissolves as quickly as it emerged.
Charlie Munger recently stated that over the next 100 years, the surest bet is that fiat currencies will go to zero. Munger is essentially expressing a belief that the modern nation will collapse, and in its place, something altogether new and inconceivable will arise. A material expression of this belief is the emergence of Bitcoin (and not any other cryptocurrency, more on this later). Implemented correctly by its users and adopted as a form of payment by vendors, Bitcoin offers us an alternative way to transact that doesn't rely on state-controlled banks and financial services.
In the case of the Freedom Convoy, were Bitcoin accepted at grocery stores or other private businesses, the protestors could hold their money as Bitcoin and transact freely without worrying about government interference. Such a world is still outside our grasp, but as fiat currencies continue to inflate and governments begin to use banks to quell dissent, it seems inevitable that another medium of exchange will emerge. It's likely to be Bitcoin. In a positive development in this direction, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced that the state will begin accepting tax payments in Bitcoin by the summer.
Today, we look at some bills related to criminal justice floating through the chambers, praise God that we don't live in California, and look at some elements of inflation. Don't forget to checkout our ticket giveaway below.
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⚯ THE LAW OF THE LAND
THIS WEEK IN THE HOUSE CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE
HB1833 by Hall. (SB2012 by Bell.) An interesting bill to tackle the unauthorized disposal of car tires. Apparently, harsher illegal tire disposal penalties in Georgia have made Briley County a dumping ground for tires.This bill strengthens Tennessee’s law bumping up the penalties and this bill will move forward in committee.
HB1834 by Hall. (SB2103 by Bell.) This bill is in regards to DUI Offenses. If a parent of a child is killed by a drunk driver, the defendant would have the responsibility to provide child support. The idea is to alleviate the fiscal burden from tax payers and instead put it on the criminal. This bill continues onto committee.
HB1767 by Gillespie. (SB1988 by Rose.) This bill is in regards to the portion of sentencing served by a person convicted of aggravated assault or aggravated robbery. These offenses can result in 8-30 years. This bill would make sure that at least 85 percent of the sentence imposed by the court is served. This bill continues onto committee.
HB1025 by Lamberth. (*SB0908 by Stevens.) This is a dense bill meant to change the parole system. The bill would eliminate the unpredictability of parole boards in determining early release from prisons and would instead introduce a work release system that could help accurately project release dates. These release dates would be determined by inmate behavior and participation in programs. The objective is to more accurately and efficiently help the system project sentence lengths. It rewards inmates who work towards re-acclimation into society. It also allows a more accurate way for inmates and their families to anticipate their goal for release from prison. Video available here.
THIS WEEK IN THE HOUSE CIVIL JUSTICE COMMITTEE
HB1832 by Lamberth. (SB2011 by Bell.) It’s always a scramble to get the judicial redistricting maps together so this bill would establish an advisory task force to recommend a proposed statewide judicial redistricting plan every 10 years. The bill continues onto committee.
HB1866 by Casada. (*SB1806 by White.) This bill provides that a person who doesn’t pay their child support obligation for three years or more will lose their custody or visitation rights with respect to that child. There was a really interesting bipartisan conversation surrounding parenting, fatherlessness, and other parenting factors in the home regarding the upbringing of children that took place while discussing HB1866. Video available here.
HEADLINES
- Out-of-towners can outspend local buyers (Post) In 2021, the average buyer moving to Nashville had a $736,900 budget, compared to an average budget of $573,400 for local buyers. That 28.5-percent gap was the largest among the cities analyzed by Redfin.
- Legislator takes aim at Tennessee transplant congressional candidates with new bill (Tennessean) Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, has sponsored a bill that would hold primary candidates in U.S. House and Senate races to the same residency requirements state lawmakers must meet. Niceley's legislation passed out of committee on Tuesday on a bipartisan vote.
- Districts’ school board races set to get underway as filing deadline nears (Homepage) A wide-open election season for six seats on the Williamson County Board of Education soon begins as filing deadline for interested candidates is set for noon Thursday.
- Tenn. bill could cover all education costs for minority students pursuing teaching careers (Channel 5) The Minority Teaching Fellows Program is intended to encourage talented minority Tennesseans to enter the teaching field in Tennessee. The award is $5,000 per year for students who pursue a teacher certification at an eligible Tennessee college or university.
NEW AIRLINES
- Canadian low-fare airline announces service to Nashville (Main Street) Canadian low-fare airline Swoop announced Tuesday it will expand its presence in the United States by adding non-stop flights to Nashville as well as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
- Nashville International Airport lands new airline (Post) Houston-based Avelo Airlines announced Wednesday it will begin serving Nashville — its first Tennessee destination — with nonstop service to Southern Connecticut starting in May.
DEVELOPMENT
- 📸 Check out plans for the massive new Ford plant in West Tennessee (TNJ)
- Live entertainment and dining club opens in Edgehill (NBJ)
- Work starts on development next to ballpark (Post)
- Image released for planned Edgehill project (Post)
- Sean Brock Announces Name and Details of New Restaurant Above Audrey (Scene)
- Work Starts On The 28-Story Mixed-Use Tower At Gulch Union In Nashville (Now Next)
- Lebanon developer gears up for more housing with $31M construction loan (NBJ)
⏎ BE THANKFUL YOU DON'T LIVE IN CALIFORNIA...
Crime and homelessness in California continue to creep up and woefully inadequate leaders from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to Governor Gavin Newsom flail around trying to throw bones to voters whilst traipsing around town, scorning the COVID policies that they themselves put into place. Admirable stuff. This is what real leadership looks like. Just be thankful you don't live there.
SOME RECENT NOTES & HEADLINES
- Masks for thee, but not for me! The California indoor mask mandate ends today, except for criminals in prisons and students in schools. We treat those groups the same in my state. How does your state play it? (@ScottAdamsSays)
- We love the working class! By 2035, 55% of delivery vans and large pickups, 75% of commercial trucks such as garbage trucks and 40% of the big rigs sold in California must be emissions-free. (Cal Matters)
- Big Pharma is Daddy! Members of the California legislature introduced a bill that would punish doctors for spreading COVID "misinformation" which, according to the bill, simply means conveying any information that might make it less likely for a patient to choose to vaccinate (CA Legislature)
- Where's the water? The first two months of 2022 are shaping up to be the driest January and February in California history, prompting state officials to warn of dire water conditions ahead. Of course, the ever ominous and vague "climate change" is to blame. Or, is California's drought due to 99% of all almonds, 99% of all walnuts, 98% of all pistachios, 95% of all broccoli, 92% of all strawberries, 91% of all grapes, and 90% of all tomatoes in the US being grown in the state? (JPR)
⤴ PRICES KEEP GOING UP
Homes are more expensive than they've ever been with no signs of getting any cheaper. This past week, the average mortgage was $453,000 — a new record — as rates climbed to 4.05% from 3.83% over the previous week. As the Fed threatens to raise rates to combat inflation, refinancing applications have dropped precipitously. Application volume was down 9% for the week and was 54% lower than the same week one year ago.
The argument over whether inflation is "here" continues in the pages of your favorite corporate media outlets with varying degrees of caution and even some declarations that inflation is good, actually. The items that have seen inflation hit most heavily seem to express something about the government priorities and the policies that led us here. Used cars (+40.5%), gasoline (+40%), rental cars (+29.3%), and household energy (+14.7%) are among the most inflated assets.
As for anecdotal evidence, this writer's milkman — yes, he still buys milk from a milkman, some things never grow old and die — raised the price of a gallon of milk by $1 for the first time ever due to supply shortages of the plastic milk jugs he uses. Milk is typically a deflationary asset as it takes in few inputs. For the past 20 years, the price of a gallon of milk has hovered between $3.00 and $3.50. Since the pandemic, the price has steadily crept up towards $4/gallon.
Source: The average size of a new mortgage just set a record
CNBC, February 16th, 2022, Read Online
◐ ONLY IN AMERICA ◑
- 📜 U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. has introduced a Senate resolution to end the COVID-19 national state of emergency currently in effect under the National Emergencies Act (NEA), which allows the President to make available robust powers to deal with crises other than war or natural disaster.
- 🌉 San Francisco residents overwhelmingly voted to oust three of the city’s progressive school-board members on Tuesday. It was the culmination of a year-long effort to reform the board, which has been accused of prioritizing social-justice politics over reopening schools and managing the district’s troubled finances during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- 💨 Sen. Marsha Blackburn lifted a hold on a stopgap bill needed to avoid a partial government shutdown this weekend after she won a commitment from the Biden administration that it wouldn’t fund pipes for smoking illicit substances through a substance-abuse program.
⚔︎ MISSIVES ⚔︎
- 🎾 Tennis star Novak Djokovic says he won't be getting vaccinated against COVID-19, even if it means he can't play in Grand Slam tournaments this year. But Djokovic also says that his decision is entirely personal and that he shouldn't be lumped in with anti-vaccination activists.
- 🇷🇺 Russia is continuing its military buildup around Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s secretary-general said, and Kyiv put its forces on alert even as Moscow announced that it had begun drawing down some of its troops and released footage of tanks and armored personnel carriers departing Crimea.
- 🇺🇦 Ukraine says they are suffering from the largest cyber attack they’ve ever experienced. Viktor Zhora, head of the State Special Communications Service said that they cannot confirm that Russian hackers stand behind the attack on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure networks.
- 📲 Google plans to adopt new privacy restrictions to curtail tracking across apps on Android smartphones, following Apple Inc. in putting restraints on an advertising industry that has covertly collected data across billions of mobile devices.
THINGS TO DO
View the full calendar here.
🖌 At the Cheekwood, Spanning the Atlantic, The Arts and Crafts Movement, an international trend in the decorative arts that originated in the British Isles during the 19th century.
TONIGHT
⏳ Antique Show @ The Fairgrounds, 10a, Free, Info
🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info
🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info
+ Best honky tonk in Nashville
🎻 Hogslop String Band @ 3rd and Lindsley, 8p, $15, Info
+ Rowdy bluegrass
➤ The Pamphleteer will attend
Get ‘em while you can
🎸 Tedeschi Trucks Band (Feb 22, 23, 25, 26) @ The Ryman, 7p, $40+, Info for the 22nd, 23rd, 25th, and 26th
🔆 Jordan Peterson (03/22) @ The Ryman, 7:30p, $40+, Info
🎸 Buddy Guy (03/26) @ The Ryman, 7:30p, $80, Info
🐷 Primus a Farewell to Kings tour (05/09) @ The Ryman, 7:30p, $55+, Info
🌕 Full Moon Cemetery Lantern Tour @ Montgomery Bell State Park, 7:30, $10, Info
NEW THIS WEEK
Edward Landstreet
FROM THE ARCHIVE
Doc Paracelsus
William Harwood
Jerod Ra’Del Hollyfield
Edward Landstreet
Around the Web
⊙ The Cuban Nipple Crisis "Alright, you're freaking us out now. Why are you highlighting this."
⌱ Did the New York Times spy on its workers? It champions unions while secretly undermining them
⇡ Peckinpah’s Convoy Honors the Lost Art of Dissent The 1978 cult film predicted the rebellion against Covid tyranny.
Political Theater Highlight Reel
- NYC Mayor Eric Adams accuses White journalists of unfair coverage, says he may stop taking questions from them
- CDC Chief: No change to mask rules yet, but ‘we anticipate’ new guidance in late Feb. or early March
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Words of Wisdom
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
PJ O'Rourke