No. 283: Plagiarize This

Good morning, everyone.

As William Harwood wrote two weeks ago, John Hardin has since started his quest to traverse the Appalachian Trail in record time. Achilles International Nashville is hosting a "Guess-When-John-Stops-Running" game wherein contestants can guess whenabouts John will complete the AT. You must issue a donation to Achilles in order to enter, but the winner of the contest will win two tickets to an Edible Nashville farm or creek dinner.

The deadline for the contest is midnight on June 30th, so be sure to get your guesses in before then. You can also follow John's progress on Facebook.

As John gets closer to the finish line in roughly 33 days, we'll be issuing dispatches directly from the trail to capture the drama as John mounts what can only be described as a superhuman effort over rough and rugged terrain, clocking upwards of 50 miles a day for 40 days straight. That's further than I travel by car on a daily basis.

Onward.

Today, we look at the looming vaccine mandate for the Army National Guard and how that will affect enlisted Tennesseans, gander at reactions to the RNC coming to town, and learn about a Nashvillian who has made the rounds in the press recently for plagiarism.

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𝓧 MANDATES IN THE NATIONAL GUARD

The Army National Guard is coming up on their vaccination deadline this week and unvaccinated Tennessee soldiers have been preparing to hand in their gear as the date looms. As nothing on the federal or state level has changed, the mission seems to remain: get inoculated or be terminated by June 30th.

THE MANDATE

The vaccination requirement comes from the DoD. The roughly 330,000 strong Army National Guard is the largest branch in the U.S. Military and was given the longest deadline in the military to vaccinate. While other branches have gone through this process, National Guard soldiers and reservists were given until June 30th of this year by the order of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

VACCINE RESISTANCE

About 40,000 active soldiers across the country are preparing for termination as they have not received the vaccination. This number does not include reservists or those who put in for early retirement to avoid vaccination and accounts for upwards of 13% of the Army National Guard nationally.

Here in Tennessee, the number of terminated soldiers will be around 10% of the Tennessee National Guard. As the deadline approached, the commander of the Tennessee Army Guard’s medical readiness command, Col. Keith Evans, held meetings to prepare those facing dismissal. While soldiers will not be dishonorably discharged, the termination will cut careers short. Benefits earned will be based on their service up until this forced discharge.

COMMANDER IN CHIEF

Soldiers and Tennesseans have called upon Governor Bill Lee to take action. As the Commander in Chief of the Tennessee National Guard, the chain of command stops with him in the state. While active in Tennessee, vaccination status has not affected unvaccinated soldiers but there is a snag when Guardsmen and women are sent outside of Tennessee. If soldiers are not vaccinated and deployed elsewhere by the National Guard, the soldiers will not be paid or able to report for duty after the June 30th date.

GUARD FREEDOM RALLY

This Wednesday, supporters are rallying at Legislative Plaza at 11:30 a.m.. The group has asked for Governor Bill Lee to be present and to take immediate action as Commander in Chief. As reported by the Tennessee Star, their demands are as follows:

1. Governor Bill Lee must publicly condemn the firings of Tennessee National Guard members who are scheduled to be terminated due to their refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine and pledge to do everything in his power to help those members.
2. Governor Lee must immediately order Tennessee National Guard Major General Holmes to halt the discharge of these honorable men and women.
3. Governor Bill Lee must ask Attorney General Herb Slatery to file suit on behalf of the Tennessee National Guard members and coordinate with other state AGs to file an emergency injunction against the Department of Defense, forcing them to reverse adverse actions against any National Guardsman for refusal to vaccinate.

WILL ANYTHING HAPPEN?

It is hard to tell if we will hear anything from the Governor. Up to this point, he has remained silent on the subject. We have, however, seen Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida propose a military budget in order to hire all the terminated Army National Guard soldiers and place them in Florida’s State Guard. Tennessee also has a state guard, but it is a volunteer guard and would not offer a living to terminated National Guard members.

❍ STATEMENTS ON THE RNC COMING TO NASHVILLE

Tennessee Democrats, in anticipation of the RNC coming to the Music City Convention Center, have begun to express their distaste for the idea.

Here's a sample:

This is a GOP that regularly sticks it to #Nashville every chance they get, though it is the economic engine of this state. This is a GOP currently celebrating women’s inequality, fostering blatant racism and anti-Semitism, and ignoring children being murdered in classrooms. (@JRClemmons)

Nice. Got 'em.

“I think we need to be more open and accepting. Maybe (having the RNC) turns the tide –  maybe people see it and go ‘I think I’m a Republican but I’m not a white nationalist.'” (Bob Freeman)

Wow. What if? Big think there, Bob.

“My focus is that since the 1968 convention, this is the highest risk of violence with the convention since the ’60s. With planned coordinated white supremacists showing up , the overall tenor of the country – even if we get repaid for all expenses, why would we invite that into our front yard?” (Bob Mendes)

Are these white supremacists in the room with you now?

The draft agreement to host the 2024 RNC will be up for the first reading by the Metro Council on July 5th. You can expect a lot of haggling between Gov. Lee, Mayor Cooper, and the Councilmembers leading up to the vote.

HEADLINES

• How the new Nashville stadium plan is a centerpiece for Nashville's imagined future (Tennessean) Metro will foot a fraction of the cost, about $700 million, using revenue bonds to be repaid with future tax proceeds from the project.
• Beacon Center Files Brief in Tennessee Supreme Court in Support of Attorney Denied Admission to State Bar (Star) According to Beacon, the Tennessee Bar denied Panasci admission because she went “to the wrong law school.”
• TN House Leadership Urges Lee To Block Health Dept From Distributing, Promoting, Recommending COVID Vaccine For Kids Under 5 (TCN) The letter states “We are facing troubling directives from the federal government that require unwavering conservative leadership on behalf of our most vulnerable Tennesseans.”
• Only Two Tennessee Counties Saw Unemployment Rates Above Five Percent in May (Star) Perry County and Bledsoe County were the only two counties in the state with unemployment rates above 5% for the month of May, according to TDLWD data.

POLITICS

• Tensions escalate in Nashville over whether to host 2024 GOP convention (NBC News) The mayor’s office has expressed concern about the potential volatility such an event could bring in a “post-Jan. 6 environment,” two sources said.
• Nashville DA says he won't prosecute abortion cases, but power may be limited (Channel 5) In late 2021, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law that says Tennessee's state attorney general can ask for a special prosecutor if a DA categorically refuses to enforce certain types of laws — in this case, laws against abortion.

DEVELOPMENT

• East Nashville Calypso Café space lands tenant (Post)
• Entertainment venue eyed for Chestnut Hill (Post)
• Hotel prepped for apparent apartment conversion (Post)
• Distiller eyes WillCo self-storage project (Post)
• West Coast company makes first Nashville apartment buy (Post)
• 412-Unit Development Will Expand Access To Greenways + Parks In Bellevue, Nashville (Now Next)

𖼥 A NASHVILLIAN PLAGIARIZES AND PAYS THE PRICE

Kevin Kruse is a terminally online professor of history at Princeton University, former Nashvillian, and graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy ('90). Know for his massive and nauseatingly long Twitter threads, that he'll often preface with pseudo-nonchalance like "I have real work to do, but...", Kruse has made a name for himself contextualizing the news of the day, albeit in the language of wokeness and intersectionality. He's part of the 1619 Project whose goal is to reformulate US history entirely around the issue of slavery.

At press time, Kruse had tweeted 58.7k times since the creation of his account in February 2015. That's roughly 21 tweets per day for nearly 7.5 years. But, on June 14th of this year, Kruse stopped tweeting. So, why did Kruse, the perennially online, so-called "attack dog of history" pull back from the platform that lent him his fame and fortune?

This story starts right here in Nashville where Kruse, as a student at Montgomery Bell Academy (this writer's alma mater), developed a fascination with critiquing and analyzing American conservatism through the lens of race. A cursory look at Kruse's work reveals easily his obsession with sussing out "hidden" instances of racism, particularly in the more white, religious, suburban parts of the nation. His dissertation at Cornell explored racial disparities in Atlanta and provided the backing for claims such as "segregation caused your traffic jam."

Kruse has made a career of this kind of jocular historical revisionism, but it all came crashing down earlier this month when it was found that Kruse blatantly plagiarized significant portions of his dissertation which has arguably lent him his entire career and forms the bedrock of his worldview. The situation is rich with irony. Kruse, back in 2017, criticized a Trump appointee for the same crime—albeit in a much milder form—going so far as to say, "We'd expel a student who pulled this." Kruse's transgression is much more serious than the Trump appointee's. Even the opening paragraph introducing the dissertation is suspect.

At Montgomery Bell Academy, where Kruse and I both went to high school, one of the more forward elements of the school is its adherence to an honor system. You sign each and every assignment, "On my honor, as a gentleman, I have neither given nor received aid on this work." Among the first lessons the school imparts is what qualifies as plagiarism, how to adequately cite sources, and generally, how to be something like a miniature scholar without being dishonest. The pledge is based upon Princeton's very own honor code where Kruse now teaches!

Kruse's disdain for his upbringing is clearly expressed by his scholarship. That he failed to heed its lessons should come as no surprise then. Since the accusations have circulated, Kruse has vacated Twitter, either waiting for the storm to pass or watching as the Sword of Damocles finally does him in.

↘ GRAPH OF THE DAY: THE WORK DAY WANES

⚔ MISSIVES ⚔

• 🇦🇹 Austria announced that their vaccine mandate will be retired after 31 August. The announcement follows the decision in March to suspend the promised fines for the unvaccinated, which were said to be “disproportionate” given the mildness of Omicron.
• 🏈 In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Joe Kennedy, an assistant football coach for a Washington state high school who was fired by his district for praying on the field after games.
• 🧩 Former Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) has launched the group “Our Nation’s Future” with support from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) with the goal of helping one million green card-holders gain naturalized American citizenship within the next four years.
• ⚱️ The UK, US, Canada and Japan will ban imports of Russian gold in an effort to hit Moscow's ability to fund the war in Ukraine. Gold exports were worth £12.6bn ($15.4bn) to Russia in 2021.
• 🌉 The U.S. and allies on Sunday laid out plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects in developing countries in an attempt to challenge autocracies and address a similar program by China.

THINGS TO DO

You can view our full calendar here.

🍺 The Pamphleteer hosts Bar Hours on the third Thursday of every month at Lucky's 3 Star Bar from 6-8 PM. The first ten guests get drinks on the company tab.

🎪 Check out our favorite driving distance festivals this summer.

👨🏻‍🌾 The Pamphleteer farmer's market guide.

👂 Listen to The Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of the bands featured in this week's calendar.

⚔️ Knights in Armor at the Frist starting July 1st: European arms and armor from the renowned collection of the Museo Stibbert in Florence, Italy.

TONIGHT

🎩  History Class @ Bold Patriot Brewing, 5p, Info

🎸 Harry Fontana @ American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info

🎸 Guthrie Trapp @ The Underdog, 8p, Free, Info

🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info

🎹 Jazz Jam @ The Villager, 11p, Free, Info

ON THE RADAR

🎹 Steely Dan @ First Bank Amphitheater, (7/13), $34+, Info

🏜 Hiatus Kaiyote @ Marathon Music Works, (8/14), $35+, Info

🐂 Professional Bull Riding @ Bridgestone, (8/19-21), $20+ Info

🐖 Roger Waters @ Bridgestone, (8/27), $39, Info

🎹 Stereolab @ Marathon Music Works, (9/6), $35, Info

🎸 My Morning Jacket @ Ascend Amphitheater, (9/23), $22.88, Info

⚔️ HELMET @ Marathon Music Works, (9/24), $35, Info

🎸 Smashing Pumpkins @ Bridgestone Arena, (10/10), $133+, Info

🎸 The Doobie Brothers @ Bridgestone Arena, (10/12), $43+, Info

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