No. 295: Climate Change Is Real, The Solutions Are Fake

Good morning, everyone.

Two days ago, Nashvillian Margaret Renkl wrote a New York Times column titled “Dear Liberals: Come On Down!” She writes, "Changing what happens in red states is the surest way to change what happens in Congress, but railing on social media from your blue state won’t change a thing down here."

Margaret, we tried this in 2008. And it culminated in a Proper Bagel and some hipster coffee shops. All in all, a net win, but today's market is flush.

Later, she theorizes that "the South's shooting themselves in the foot as they merrily slash rights, ignore the unignorable realities of a heating planet, and attempt to create a Christian theocracy." The smart kids, she posits, who grow up under this regime will leave much like Black people left the South during Jim Crow.

She continues: "During the Jim Crow era, Black people left the American South in such numbers that we now refer to their exodus as the Great Migration. Six million Americans fled to escape virulent racist violence and economic suppression." She adds that the South has "perfected the art of voter suppression" and supports that dastardly thing known as "school choice." Curiously absent from her appeal is any mention of abortion except vaguely in reference to the "loss of rights."

I guess she hasn't looked at the most recent census numbers because the present Great Migration is away from liberal states like California, New York, and Illinois and into red states like Tennessee, Texas, and Florida.

Even though she doesn't mention it, the core issue for Renkl still appears to be abortion. That, after all, is the only thing one could compare to a Jim Crow-era loss of rights in a manner still consistent with the liberal worldview. Kamala Harris, for example, recently compared the overturn of Roe to slavery.

In the interest of keeping her metaphors consistent, shouldn't Renkl suggest her readers leave Tennessee and not move into the maw of the beast? Those suffering under the aegis of Tennessee's repressive laws are supposed to be the Black people in this story, right? Or, wait, is she talking about Black people? Or, is this a 4-D chess move to seed the state with liberals and 'turn the tide' before it's too late? It's genuinely hard to tell.

What's generally true is that the majority of the performative opposition to abortion-at-will comes from wealthy, white, liberal women who probably won't get or don't need abortions because they are too old, married, or morally against it themselves despite their protestations.

What's funny is that people are doing as Renkl suggested despite—or because of—all the supposedly negative qualities of the South she lists. If Tennessee's laws are laying the groundwork for the new Jim Crow, why is everyone moving here?

Contradictions aside, the trade-off for her readers is admittedly a good one. Move to a red state where taxes are lower, the government is generally less corrupt, and things are more affordable while you rekindle the nostalgia of your "fight the patriarchy" past.

Then, maybe your children can martyr themselves for the cause, suffering righteously and piously in a state that won't allow abortions and requires you to show your ID when you vote. Your children can then pick up the torch the Black people dropped in the 60s on their way out of the South and follow in their footsteps by moving North to join them in a seance against the South which will turn a deeper shade of red in their absence and the process will repeat itself.

A new Margaret Renkl will emerge calling for sophisticated, urban liberals to “save the South from itself, again” and these readers will martyr themselves by adopting posh living conditions in enemy territory while they champion the rights of a woman to marry her dog or a 5-year-old to remove his genitals without asking his parents. Their children will leave after suffering under the aegis of a state where women can’t marry their dog, and they’ll pick up the torch of the previous generation and move North.

On and on and on.

The Revolution must continue.

Onward.

Today, we look at last night's Metro Council meeting, consider how ridiculous climate hysteria is, and look at a map that will blow your mind.

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Thanks for reading.

❍ LAST NIGHT IN THE METRO COUNCIL

It was a refreshingly brief Metro City Council Meeting last night, but it looks like the council will make up for it with a lively first meeting in August. Here are a few important things that happened on the floor.

ROE V. WADE RESOLUTION: PASSED

The first hot ticket item on the agenda dealt with the recent Roe v. Wade ruling.  A coalition of Council Members presented the Metro Council with a resolution regarding the Metropolitan Employment Benefits Board. The resolution allows the Benefit Board to assess whether businesses in the Metropolitan area are providing transportation, accommodation, and related costs for abortions. It also empowers the board with the ability to initiate any processes necessary to extend that coverage. The resolution overwhelmingly passed with one abstention.

Holding “vote yes” signs in the audience were ten people silently advocating for passage of the resolution. Council Members also took to the floor, getting their thoughts on the record regarding the recent ruling.

After one Council Member referred to the Supreme Court as illegitimate (we are having a hard time identifying the CM, but will update the article when video of the meeting is available), CMs Porterfield and Murphy clarified that speaking about women’s reproductive health included trans men, non-binaries, and “whoever has a uterus.”

The wheels on this abortion-related legislation were initially put in motion when the Office of Mayor John Cooper contacted the Metropolitan Human Resources Department and requested an assessment of the current benefits available to Metro employees.

ROE V. WADE BILL: PASSED

Council Member Bob Mendes doubled down and put some teeth into this reactionary resolution by presenting a bill that passed on first reading last night. The bill makes an adjustment to Nashville’s Do Better Bill creating additional requirements for Metro businesses. If passed into law, the city will be able to withhold tax breaks and cash grants from businesses that do not provide their employees with any of these new medical provisions decided upon by the Benefits Board. This could include the coverage of transportation and other accommodations to gain access to out-of-state abortion clinics.

“The Do Better Bill requires information to be reported by companies who voluntarily seek an economic development award from the city,”  says Council Member Mendes. “The pending bill would add one more item of information to be in the report. I don’t see any constitutional issues with asking for information from companies who voluntarily choose to ask the city to give them tax dollars for economic development.”

A FEW MORE ITEMS

• A bill on second reading, which ensures that the data collected by License Plate Readers in Metro intersections will be excluded from assisting with immigration enforcement, was accidentally placed on the agenda. It was taken off during last night’s meeting and will be heard at the first meeting in August.
• A proposed rules change to make it easier for Council Members to suspend the rules during meetings was withdrawn.
• The bill that would create a new Nashville Entertainment Commission was deferred indefinitely, but CM Styles plans to bring the bill back to life at the next meeting and open up the conversation to the community with a request for a public hearing.

HEADLINES

• Attorney admits Nashville criminal justice advocate vandalized jail, hid guns (Tennessean) Friedmann, a Nashville criminal justice advocate, was charged with felony vandalism in connection with what Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall called a "deliberate, evil" plan to hide tools and weapons to assist in a "massive escape."
• Asurion laying off hundreds of employees (NBJ) Asurion ranks among the 20 largest employers in Greater Nashville, with just more than 4,000 local workers. That reported headcount is a decline of about 600 from a couple of years ago.
• Metro rushing to fill 240 teacher vacancies weeks before school starts (WPLN) The public school director over hirings in Metro Nashville says 70% of the people who showed up to a recent hiring fair walked away with a recommendation for hire, which will fill 130 of the vacancies.

POLITICS

• Kurt Winstead, Beth Harwell lead in donations in Tennessee district 5 race (Tennessean) Kurt Winstead slightly outpaced his top rivals in campaign donations for Tennessee's 5th congressional district race, while Andy Ogles received over half a million dollars in support from political action committees outside of the state.
• How much will Ogles’ late disclosures cost him? (TNJ) We had a look at the FEC website to figure out what sort of penalty Ogles will face for his tardiness, and it appears he will have to pony up a minimum of $5,242 based on the fundraising levels he announced shortly after joining the race.
• Democratic Rep. Torrey Harris charged with domestic assault, theft (TNJ) Harris was arrested on Sunday in Nashville after an ex-boyfriend told police the lawmaker had scratched his arm while trying to prevent him from leaving his apartment.

DEVELOPMENT

• 📈 Nashville market sees jump in new home listings (Post)
• Progress made on Belmont building (Post)
• MDHA approves plan for Dickerson project (Post)
• Berry Hill site eyed for mixed-use building sells for $16.1M (Post)
• Plan altered for Sprocket Rocket site in SoBro (Post)
• Woodfield Dickerson Pike Will Bring 286-Units To The Growing East Nashville Corridor (Now Next)
• The Brand New Donelson Branch Library Moves Closer To Starting Construction (Now Next)

✦ PENDING A CLIMATE EMERGENCY

In light of the theatrics around the heat wave in the UK and in anticipation of Biden declaring a National Climate Emergency, it's worth considering whether what we're experiencing is really that abnormal. As we like to say around here, "Climate change is real, it's the solutions that are fake." We are pro-conservation and anti-hysteria over here at The Pamphleteer.

SOME INSANITY

Notice how weather channels have made their maps much more sinister and dangerous looking. Here's an example from the UK. Look closely at the temperatures expressed on the map.

And here's another one from Norway that Reuters hilariously fact-checked to say that it did not disprove climate change.

CNN even did a whole dog and pony show about what a theoretical 2050 weather forecast could look like—complete with a crimson red United Kingdom presumably engulfed entirely in flames.

SOME SANITY

Ed West penned a wonderful and short essay on this called 'Return to Real Weather.' In it, West details how, at present, you cannot grow grapes to produce wine in Britain because it's simply not warm enough.

However, evidence shows that the Brits were able to produce wine back in the 12th century. West elaborates:

It was once widely believed that climate remained relatively stable over recorded history, civilisational lifespans being too brief to see such grand changes. But while looking into medieval chroniclers, Lamb was struck by the numerous references to vineyards in England, some as far as the midlands. As long as anyone had ever remembered, the country had been too cold to grow wine, except in tiny pockets of Sussex which occasionally produced almost-drinkable white.

William of Malmesbury, living in the 12th century, observed of his native Wiltshire that ‘in this region the vines are thicker, the grapes more plentiful and their flavour more delightful than in any other part of England. Those who drink this wine do not have to contort their lips because of the sharp and unpleasant taste, indeed it is little inferior to French wine in sweetness.’ How could that have been?

Lamb concluded that Europe must have been considerably warmer during the Middle Ages, and in 1965 produced his great study outlining the theory of the Medieval Warm Period; this posited that Europe was at its hottest in the High Middle Ages (1000-1300) and then became unusually cool between 1500 and 1700.

The whole article is worth a read, but this choice passage is a good example of how all the climate does is change. Questions of conservation should be divorced entirely from the temperature of the Earth.

Additionally, Twitter user @wrathofgnon posts a picture showing recorded flood levels etched into the sides of buildings going back to the 15th century in Austria. where flood levels vastly exceed those experienced today in the region.

✺ CHART OF THE DAY: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

⚔ MISSIVES ⚔

• 🤡 U.S. President Joe Biden will issue executive orders on Wednesday aimed at addressing the climate crisis, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
• 🇨🇳 China’s holdings of U.S. debt have fallen below $1 trillion for the first time in 12 years amid rising interest rates that have made Treasurys potentially less attractive.
• 🇷🇺 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would fulfill its commitments to supply natural gas to Europe but warned that flows via the Nord Stream pipeline could be curbed soon if sanctions prevent additional maintenance on its components.
• 💽 A bipartisan bill subsidizing domestic semiconductor production cleared its first procedural hurdle on Tuesday in a 64-34 vote, even as the details of the legislation were still being worked out.
• 👥 The House passed a bill that would provide protection for same-sex and interracial marriage under federal law, with Democratic lawmakers saying the recent Supreme Court ruling ending abortion rights could endanger other precedents.
• 📉 Residential construction in the U.S. slowed for the second straight month in June, as both housing starts and the number of building permits issued declined.
• 💸 Left-wing Democrat mega donor George Soros has donated $1 million to help Beto O’Rourke’s efforts to unseat Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, filings show.

THINGS TO DO

View our full calendar here.

🍺 The Pamphleteer hosts Bar Hours on the third Thursday of every month (this Thursday) 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.

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

🎼 Listen to the Pamphleteer's Picks, our playlist of bands playing in Nashville each week.

TONIGHT

🎻 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info

🎸 Drugdog & Stoop Kids @ The Basement East, 8p, $10, Info

🎸 Heavy the Mountain & Horseburner @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $10, Info
+ Doom metal

🍸 Electric relaxation @ Bar Sovereign, 9p, Free, Info

ON THE RADAR

🏜 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

🎻 Gustav Holst's The Planets @ Schermerhorn (9/29-10/2), Info

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

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

🌶 The Gypsy Kings @ The Ryman (11/1), $39.50, Info

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Words of Wisdom

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