No. 225: Lightyears From Reality
⁂ Nashville's Alt-Daily ⁂ Night at the Council · Population Change · Stick Shifts · O-Bummer-Care · Much More!
Good morning, everyone.
COVID-19 still lingers in the background, ready to pounce. Headlines fly across our desk occasionally like yesterday when Eric Adams announced he would continue requiring toddlers between the ages of two and five to wear masks in schools because there's no vaccine available for them yet, but rarely does the news warrant anything but scorn or mockery. Eric Adams is obviously a reckless dolt. This should be clear by now.
I've been to weddings the past two weekends, and at each one, the specter of someone harmed by receiving a booster shot hung heavy. In the first, a young man died after receiving the booster, and in the second, one had to have his spleen removed after having a serious allergic reaction. Maybe I'm particularly political or something, but this news inflamed me to no end and only vindicated the attitude The Pamphleteer has expressed towards mandatory vaccination of the invulnerable and the other hellish nightmares emerging from the new health branch of modern governments.
Locally, here in Nashville, when reporting on population changes on a county-by-county basis over the past year, our new corporate media presence, Axios — thank God we have another half-ass left-wing rag to lecture us — when talking about what could cause the changes doesn't even point to COVID deaths specifically, but instead to "increased mortality because of the pandemic."
Of course, we know that alcohol and fentanyl killed more Americans under the age of 65 than COVID, but neither "cause of death" is as profitable to cure as COVID-19, nor worthy of mention. Are we to understand that we're going to categorize the sudden spike in murder and deaths of despair as general "pandemic deaths" which make the best case for how broken the US government's response to COVID was? Of course we are. The American government is not a serious institution.
In encouraging news, Meta — Facebook's parent company — no longer will require its employees to receive the booster in order to lure workers back to the office. That's about the most tacit admission you'll get that the booster campaign was highly unpopular, and ultimately, for those at close to zero risk, something on the level of a crime against humanity. How one can continue to trust media outlets who have papered over these facts — presumably in an effort to keep that Pfizer position buoyed by fake optimism — is beyond me. And to then believe that these same outlets now report truthfully on Russia-Ukraine.
It's not "different this time."
Onward.
Today, we look at tonight's Metro Council meeting, population changes in Tennessee over the past year, lament the demise of the stick shift in America, and shed some light on the Affordable Care Act that brings Obama back to the White House for the first time in five years.
You can follow us on Twitter (@realpamphleteer), LinkedIn (@realpamphleteer), or Instagram (@realpamphleteer) for additional content.
Thanks for reading.
Jerod Hollyfield looks at the recent spat between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney, noting that Disney always chooses the cost-effective route when it comes to its political activism.
The Pamphleteer
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- Review: Jackass Forever (Read)
❍ TONIGHT AT THE METRO COUNCIL
Livestream at 6:30 pm tonight (More Info)
BL2022-1173 & BL2022-1174
These two bills involve gasoline stabilization negotiations for the Metropolitan area. The ordinances allow for a competitive search “to engage financial institutions as counterparties to a master agreement.” We will report back about the discussion on the floor tomorrow.
BL2022-1114 & BL2022-1115
These two bills apply to LPRs (license plate readers) and limit their use. If passed, information collected by LPRs cannot be used to assist with immigration enforcement.
RS2022-1471
Lights out Nashville — a resolution to protect the birds. This resolution urges residents and businesses to turn out non-essential lights at night during migratory periods in spring and fall for birds in Nashville.
↪ POPULATION CHANGE IN TENNESSEE
HEADLINES
- A Middle Tennessee agency prepares to resettle another wave of Afghan refugees (WPLN) Middle Tennessee has received hundreds of people fleeing Afghanistan since last October, and even more Afghans are on the way. One local agency is expecting to welcome nearly 100 additional Afghan refugees by the fall.
- Senate Set To Vote On Act To Stop Illegal Aliens From Voting In TN (TCN) The bill expressly prohibits non-United States citizens from voting in federal, state, or local elections in this state; prohibits local governments from granting non-citizens the right to vote in local elections; prescribes various other mechanisms for ensuring the integrity of elections in this state.
- Luke Bryan helps break ground at Williamson Medical Center's $200 million expansion (Tennessean) The project will be the largest renovation to date for the hospital, which has been at its current home on Carothers Parkway since 1986.
DEVELOPMENT
- Music Row building sells for $1.54M (Post)
- East Bank warehouse seemingly has buyer (Post)
- Nations commercial building sells for $2.46M (Post)
- Historic Metro property to see $3M in upgrades (Post)
- Legacy South to bring more housing to East Nashville with new development (NBJ)
- Plans Filed For The 69-Acre ‘Riverside’ Development In North Nashville (Now Next)
𖼥 O-BUMMER-CARE REUNION
Barrack Obama returns to the White House for the first time since he left office to promote the dumpster fire that is the Affordable Care Act which Biden hopes to throw some more gasoline on. How's that been going for everyone?
As investor Charlie Biello put it:
The average family health insurance premium in the US has more than tripled since the "affordable" care act was signed into law back in 2010. The biggest beneficiaries: health insurers. United Health Group (the largest US insurer) is up 1,750% vs. a 389% gain for the S&P 500 since the ACA was written into law.
In other words, not well. Unless you're a UHG shareholder. Maybe the gains you've gotten from their meteoric rise will help blunt the bruise of the medical bills.
➫ CAR FACTS FOR THE DAY
According to a recent article in the WSJ:
- 80% of cars sold in Europe are stick shifts
- Only around 18% of American drivers can handle a manual transmission
- In 1980, some 35% of cars produced in the U.S. were manuals
- Today that figure is closer to 1%, and only 3.7% of Carmax sales are for stick shifts
In short, Americans do not like their stick shifts even if manual transmissions have proven to reduce fuel consumption by reducing the weight of the vehicle and, according to some, lead to safer drivers by enhancing the attention required to drive.
Source: The Dying Art of Driving a Stick Shift
WSJ, 27 March 2022, Read Online
⚔︎ MISSIVES ⚔︎
- 🏛 A US Senate panel has deadlocked in a vote to approve Kentanji Jackson, but she is set to be confirmed anyway later this week. The Senate judiciary committee, which like the full chamber is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, voted 11-11 on Monday on whether to back her nomination.
- 💸 Senators are looking to close a deal this coming week to reappropriate roughly $10 billion to pay for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines, with lawmakers saying they need to act quickly ahead of a possible resurgence of the pandemic.
- 📊 Elon Musk disclosed a 9% stake in Twitter Inc., turning one of the social-media company’s most famous users into its largest shareholder. The surprise move sent Twitter’s stock up 27% Monday, its largest one-day percentage gain on record.
- 🛢 New vehicles sold in the United States will have to travel an average of at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026 under new rules unveiled Friday by the government. The new requirements increase gas mileage by 8 percent per year for model years 2024 and 2025 and 10 percent in the 2026 model year.
- 💉 Facebook parent Meta Platforms will stop insisting that employees have Covid booster shots in order to come to its facilities in the U.S., a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Friday.
THINGS TO DO
View the full calendar here.
🎙 Hannah Juanita is playing two-steppin' music every Friday in April at Bobby's Idle Hour.
TONIGHT
🍻 Beacon Center Young Professionals Happy Hour @ Fairfield Inn, 5:30p, Free, Info
🚘 Stones River Car Club Meeting @ SRCC Clubhouse Murfreesboro, 6p, Free, Info
+ Dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and maintenance of automobiles. Everyone with a love for cars is welcome.
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ American Legion Post 82, 5p, Free, Info
+ Two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
🎺 Todd Day Wait @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info
+ Honky Tonk Tuesday afterparty, down the street
GET ‘EM WHILE YOU CAN
🎸 Jerry Cantrell (4/17) @ The Ryman, $35, 7p, Info
🌊 The Brian Jonestown Massacre (5/5) @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $25, Info
🎻 Billy Strings (5/6 – 5/8) @ The Ryman, $39.50+, 8:30, Info for 5/6, 5/7, 5/8
🐷 Primus: a Farewell to Kings tour & Battles (5/9) @ The Ryman, 7:30p, $55+, Info
🥁 Gogol Bordello (5/21) @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $33, Info
FROM THE ARCHIVE
The Pamphleteer
William Harwood
Megan Lee Podsiedlik
Jerod Ra’Del Hollyfield
Around the Web
✸ Groomer Fragility Call a spade a spade.
↯ Seven Worst-Case Scenarios From the War in Ukraine Most conflicts end quickly, but this one looks increasingly like it won’t. The repercussions could range from global stagflation to World War III.
⤽ We Need a Popular Front to Overthrow Corporate Rule. Small Businesses Are Key.
Political Theater Highlight Reel
- Volodymyr Zelensky delivers video message at Grammys, urges audience to ‘fill the silence with your music’
- Bill Maher: ‘Left-wing media buried’ Hunter Biden laptop report
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Words of Wisdom
“The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!”
Fydor Dostoevsky