No. 328: What Right to Work Actually Means

📰 Here's what we're talking about today:

Nashville We discuss what Right to Work is and isn't.
Elsewhere Davis looks at an unhinged story from an influential media advisor.
And More We preview an upcoming six-part series on outlaw country artists.

Good morning, everyone.

There's a Metro Council meeting tonight. If you're looking for our preview of what's on the docket, consult last Friday's newsletter. One thing that we'll be looking into in the coming days is the new requirement that companies in Nashville that apply for economic and community development incentive grants and PILOT taxes fund out-of-state abortions for their employees. The question remains who exactly this requirement will affect and what companies will have issues getting into compliance.

There are rumors swirling that the Tennessee GOP is planning to crack down on Metro Council for their refusal to accommodate the RNC. It seems likely a strong-arm bill like this would also incur their wrath.

Onward.

You can follow us on Twitter (@realpamphleteer), Facebook (@realpamphleteer), or Instagram (@realpamphleteer) for additional content.

Also, be sure to check out our podcast. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for reading.

✹ WHAT RIGHT-TO-WORK ACTUALLY MEANS

Coming off of Labor Day weekend, let’s look at Tennessee’s right-to-work law.

Tennessee right-to-work laws have been on the books since 1947 and state legislators are making moves to add them to the Tennessee constitution. So, what is right-to-work?

RIGHT TO WORK

Ron Shultis of the Beacon Center joined us on The Pamphleteer Podcast and explained, “Right-to-work is very simple. You cannot be punished or fired for choosing to join a union or choosing not to join a union… What a lot of people confuse it with is at-will employment which is, you can be fired at any time for any reason.” Tennessee does have at-will employment, but the issue is unrelated to right-to-work legislation.

VOTE YES ON ONE CAMPAIGN

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives led the charge in passing 2021's Protecting the Right to Organize Act. The act protects unionization and has led to the disintegration of right-to-work laws in certain states that get in the way of unionization efforts. This Federal legislation energized state efforts to protect their right-to-work laws, including Tennessee.

To codify Tennessee’s right-to-work legislation in the state constitution, legislators put the issue on this year's ballot. Governor Lee, Lieutenant Governor McNally, and House Speaker Sexton have come in full support of the effort and are backing the “Vote Yes on 1” campaign. As indicated, the campaign calls on Tennesseans to vote yes on amendment one this November.

Listen to Davis Hunt’s full interview with Beacon Center’s Ron Shultis as they discuss sandbox laws, right to work, and more on The Pamphleteer podcast. (Listen Now)

HEADLINES

⭐️ Flashback to the 1996 Titans stadium referendum (Axios) In stark contrast to the current debate in which elected officials will decide whether to finance a $2 billion stadium for the Titans, the power rested with Nashville voters in 1996.
100 Oaks movie theater evacuated Saturday night after chaos breaks out (Channel 5) Police arrived on the scene as people were evacuating the building following an incident at the theater at 100 Oaks in Nashville.
The TBI won’t be backing off cannabis even as some prosecutors ignore state law (WPLN) Nashville’s district attorney stopped pursuing people with less than half of an ounce of marijuana two years ago. Shelby County has effectively done the same thing. But the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, David Rausch, isn’t going with the flow on marijuana.
Tennessee set to approve six new taxpayer-funded, million-dollar economic incentive grants (Center Square) Tennessee is scheduled to send million-dollar incentives to six more companies for expanding or moving their operations to the state.

POLITICS

Proposed Metro Ordinance Would Eliminate Parking Requirements (Scene) A new ordinance proposed by Metro Councilmember Colby Sledge aims to eliminate minimum parking requirements in much of Nashville. The current zoning code requires new developments to allot funding and space to a certain number of parking spaces based on the type of structure.
Judge Phil Smith dies at 62 (Post) Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Phil Smith died in his sleep Saturday night, according to judicial officials. He was 62.

DEVELOPMENT

Ground breaks for Midtown apartment building (Post)
East Nashville retail building slated to be sold (Post)
Local development company eyes east side ed campus (Post)
Lipscomb pays $1.95M for three properties (Post)
Local investor pays $3M for Green Hills retail property (Post)

❍ INSANE STORIES: ON FAKE NEWS

Neiman Lab, which only five years ago was a useful source of information on the media industry, has since turned its gaze towards issues that broadly fall under the umbrella of wokeness. I note this only because Neiman Lab is a highly respected institution in the broader media ecosystem with ties to every large media outlet in the United States. By observing what they focus on, we can get a sense of what direction media organizations are headed.

One such story headlined 'Vaccinating people against fake news' discusses efforts to help bolster readers' resistance to misinformation. It's one of the more insane articles I've read in a while. Here's a taste:

Researchers are also proposing and testing other, related strategies, including inoculating students in classroom settings, having people cook up their own conspiracy theories, and creating online classes that teach how to identify common fake-news tactics.

The persistent use of "inoculation" and "vaccination" in the article is unsettling, but it gets worse:

The inoculation messages warned people of impending attempts to persuade them, causing them to recognize that they might be vulnerable. The brain is wired to mount a defense against apparent threats, even cognitive ones; when challenged, people therefore seek fresh ways to protect their beliefs, much as they’d fight back if someone attacked them in a bar. Threat is a critical component of inoculation, says Josh Compton, a Dartmouth speech professor who specializes in inoculation theory. “Once we experience threat, we are motivated to think up counterarguments folks might raise and how we’ll respond,” he says.

So how exactly do they "innoculate" people against fake news? Through games that deliver them talking points of course!

To evaluate whether the games are truly effective, Roozenbeek and Van der Linden surveyed about 14,000 people before and after they played Bad News. After playing the game to the end, people were better overall at spotting falsehoods, rating the reliability of fake tweets and news reports about 20 percent lower than they had before. The effects lasted for more than two months.

Imagine a future in which you have to play a game of this variety that provides you with talking points and counterarguments on contentious political issues. It's tied in with the curriculum at some schools. "Fake News Awareness" seminars pop up with touring speakers who come to schools to host these sessions where computer programs dictate talking points to students under the guise of "inoculation against disinformation." In Finland, they've already begun doing this:

Finland is the first country to try inoculating people against fake news on a national scale. As Russian fake news began making its way across the border into Finland in 2014, the Finnish government developed a digital literacy course for state-run elementary and high schools.

My strategy is simple when it comes to assessing information online. I don't invest emotional energy in any of it. To me, it's all fake until I can determine otherwise. For example, I don't believe a single bit of news about the Russia-Ukraine war which is why we rarely bring attention to it here.

Source: Vaccinating people against fake news
Nieman Lab, 1 September 2022, Read Online

✔︎ FROM THE ARCHIVE: WHAT KIND OF HUSBAND?

From the September 13, 1937, Nashville Banner as relayed to us by the Nashville Retrospect:

A young woman asks If you were a girl picking out a husband, what particular characteristics would you look for in him?

Well, first of all, I should make a general survey of his personality and background. I would never marry a man, not even if he were Prince Charming himself, who was temperamental and who had to be handled with gloves. Nor would I marry a high-tempered man nor a jealous man who would keep me walking on eggs and holding my breath lest I do something unwittingly that would bring on an explosion.

Nor would I marry a weak-kneed, flabby drunkard, nor a lazy, ne’er-do-well who depended on marriage being a sort of galvanic battery that would shock him into action. Also on my taboo list of those with whom I would not march to the altar would be the rich playboy who had never done a day’s work in his life nor earned a dollar; the only son whose mamma has raised him a pet and waited on him hand and foot all of his life and who would expect his wife to pinch-hit for Mother. All these would be out. That would leave just the common or garden variety of men and the things that I should ask of them would be just the common or garden variety of virtues.

Source: Man’s Disposition Makes or Mars Wife’s Happiness
Nashville Retrospect, Read Online

➫ CHART OF THE DAY: NO HOME UNDER $300K

⚔ MISSIVES ⚔

☄️ In a few weeks, Nasa controllers will deliberately crash their $330m Dart robot spacecraft into an asteroid. The half-tonne probe will be travelling at more than four miles a second when it strikes its target, Dimorphos, and will be destroyed.
📄 A federal judge in Florida ordered the appointment of a special master to review documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, a move that temporarily blocks the government from using the materials for a criminal investigation.
💰 President Biden’s plan to cancel student debt and modify payments for millions of Americans could cost as much as $1 trillion, according to budget analysts, challenging the administration’s efforts to scale down the federal deficit.
🇷🇺 Russia’s gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will not resume in full until the “collective west” lifts sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has said.
🇬🇧 Britain’s Conservative Party announced on Monday that its members had chosen Liz Truss to replace Boris Johnson as leader, turning to a hawkish diplomat, party stalwart and free-market champion to govern a country facing the gravest economic crisis in a generation.
🇩🇪 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition agreed on a relief plan worth about 65 billion euros ($65 billion) to help millions of households struggling with soaring prices amid Europe’s harshest energy crunch in decades.
🇨🇳 China's top legislator Li Zhanshu will attend the seventh Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok this week, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, becoming the most senior Chinese official to visit Russia since the Ukraine war began.
💸 The leader of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been accused by former colleagues of stealing more than $10 million in donations from the organization for personal use, according to a lawsuit filed in court this week.

THINGS TO DO

View our full calendar here.

🍺 The Pamphleteer hosts Bar Hours on the third Thursday of every month (the next meeting is September 15th) 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.

🎭 Shakespeare in the park is every Thursday through Sunday from August 18th till September 11th.

🎡 The Nashville Fair is running ever day from the 9th to the 18th at the fairgrounds.

TONIGHT

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

🎺 Jazz in the Park @ Church Street Park, 5p, Free, Info

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

💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 7p, Free, Info

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

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

ON THE RADAR

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

🎙 Amyl & The Sniffers @ Brooklyn Bowl, (9/20), $26, Info
+ Aussie punk

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

⚔️ HELMET @ Marathon Music Works, (9/24), $35, Info
+ 90's alternative metal band from NY, a Pamphleteer favorite

🏜 ZZ Top & Beck @ First Bank Amphitheater, (9/27), $49+, Info

👾 Flamingosis @ Basement East (9/29), $20, Info

🎻 Gustav Holst's The Planets @ Schermerhorn (9/29-10/2), Info
+ Early 1900's orchestral suite, each movement is named after a planet

🕺 Remi Wolf @ Brooklyn Bowl (10/6), $30, Info
+ Young talented funk/pop/hip-hop singer, one of the few

🎸 Yes @ Ryman (10/11), $60, Info

🎻 Mozart & Tchaikovsky@ Schermerhorn, (10/28-29), $25+, Info

🎸 Smashing Pumpkins @ Bridgestone Arena, (10/10), $133+, Info
+ 90's alt-rock from Chicago

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

🎺 Too Many Zooz @ Basement East, (10/31), $20, Info

🌶 The Gypsy Kings @ The Ryman (11/1), $39.50, Info
+ The roving band of flamenco guitarists

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