Today's Takes: Friday, August 27

Good morning, everyone.

Jerod Hollyfield penned a wonderful tribute to Phil Valentine that you can read below. We were big fans of Phil Valentine and supported everything he did at Supertalk 99.7.

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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Headlines

📰 Today's Front Pages

• Reuters: U.S. on alert for more ISIS attacks after 85 killed in Kabul airport carnage (Read)
• New York Times: Afghanistan Live Updates: Flights Resume at Kabul Airport After Deadly Attacks (Read)
• Wall Street Journal: Kabul Airport Attack Kills 13 U.S. Service Members, at Least 90 Afghans (Read)
• Fox News: President Biden says he was 'instructed' to call on reporters from list at presser following Kabul attacks (Read)
• CNN: US presses on with evacuation from Afghanistan after deadly Kabul airport attack (Read)
• NPR: What We Know About ISIS-K, The Group Behind The Kabul Attacks (Read)
• Breitbart: Trump: Biden Afghanistan Failure Is ‘Single Most Embarrassing Moment in the History of Our Country’ (Read)
• HuffPost: Kabul Airport Attack Kills 60 Afghans, 13 US Troops (Read)

🏛 From the Hill

• Feds report most rental assistance has still not gone out (AP)
  • "States and localities have only distributed 11% of the tens of billions of dollars in federal rental assistance"
• Biden blames ISIS, vows revenge for Kabul airport bombing, but sticks to withdrawal deadline (NYP)
• Democrats Propose a Border Tax Based on Countries’ Greenhouse Gas Emissions (NYT)

🗺 From the Frontier

• Explosion Erupts Outside Kabul Airport, Pentagon Says (NR)
• U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan allies to evacuate (Politico)
  • Makes you long for simpler times when Giraldo Rivera got kicked out of Iraq for disclosing the location of a US Army base.
• The economic case for letting in as many refugees as possible (Vox)
  • "Evidence in the US shows that 'after 6 years in the country, these refugees work at higher rates than natives. ... Researchers estimate that refugees pay $21,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits over their first 20 years in the US.'"
  • Translation: Our economy is suffering, so we should import some cheap labor for our generous oligarchs to replace the pesky, native workers who demand annoying things like "rights". Keep pumping that fentanyl into Middle America and we'll call it the New Middle East in five years except, like, the good Middle East. You know, like Woke Taliban, basically.

🧱 New Regime Just Dropped

• Taliban Leader Says Music Will Be Banned in Public Again in Afghanistan (Newsweek)
• Taliban vow to tackle CLIMATE CHANGE: Terror group sets out its eco credentials (Daily Mail)
  • ...presumably by taking Afghanistan back to the Middle Ages.
  • Not as far from the American/European solution as you think.

👥 Where Are All the People?

• New jobless claims edge higher amid Delta variant concerns (NY Post)
• A pizzeria in Alabama has offered to 'literally hire anyone' in a sign the labor shortage continues to hit restaurants hard (Business Insider)
• Ford CEO: Up to 20% of factory workers are out on some days (CNN)
• 3 Chick-fil-A restaurants in Alabama have closed their dining rooms because they can't find enough staff. One called it a 'hiring crisis.' (Business Insider)
• The ‘Great Resignation’ is likely to continue, as 55% of Americans anticipate looking for a new job (CNBC)

‼️ I Can't Believe It's Not __

• The Secret Bias Hidden in Mortgage-Approval Algorithms (The Markup)
  • President GWB tried to right this wrong in 2002 by proclaiming he wanted to see 5.5 million more minority homeowners by 2010.
  • He told his federal regulators not to worry so much about traditional credit standards regarding down payments and documentation of income.
  • The lax lending protocols encouraged by the White House culminated in the 2008 housing crisis that we've all come to know and love.
• The New Chief Chaplain at Harvard? An Atheist. (NYT)
  • “We don’t look to a god for answers,” Mr. Epstein said. “We are each other’s answers.”
  • The Reddit atheists have broken into the wild. Another word for this is navel-gazing.
• This 12-year-old coder is set to earn over $400,000 after about 2 months selling NFTs (CNBC)
  • *jumps out window*
• Belgian Woman Banned from Zoo After 4-Year 'Affair' with Chimpanzee (People)
  • "An animal that is too focused on people is less respected by its peers. We want Chita to be a chimpanzee as much as possible," the spokesperson for the facility added.

🦄 Woke-acracy

• Notre Dame defends leprechaun mascot, ranked college football's 4th-most offensive in survey (Yahoo News)
• Comedy Central Deletes ‘Diversity Day’ Episode Of ‘The Office’ (Outkick)
  • Comedy Central doesn't think its viewers are smart enough to tell the difference between a "racism" and a "joke".
• Nick Kristof and the Holy War on Pornhub (New Republic)
• American Antifa: A woman's journey from Girl Scout to anarchist street warrior (Reuters)
  • Reuters running covering fire for antifa activists with saccharine profiles.
• Critical Race Capitalism (City Journal)
  • More reporting from Chris Rufo on the virus of anti-white critical race theory

👺 Devil Wears Sneakers

• Lil Nas X calls out the double standard of Tony Hawk’s blood-infused skateboard (eTalk)
  • Guy threw the race card.
  • No, bro. People reacted aggressively to your "blood, satan" shoes because you were incanting the devil.

Original Essays

Phil Valentine should probably have taken the vaccine. Though his family has released little information about his medical history after he passed last Saturday at 61, his age and the health issues that come with senior status put him in a vulnerable position. To establishment press outlets and their imitators, Uncle Phil was getting his just desserts. The Wrap called Valentine an anti-vaxxer though he spent four hours a day five days a week for nine months detailing how government and media entities ignored documented vaccine risk and effectiveness issues. Rolling Stone deemed him a “vaccine skeptic” for rightfully pointing out that COVID poses a small risk to most of the population. The Daily Beast accused him of mocking vaccines on air when he claimed he had a low chance of dying from COVID and was more concerned about heart-related side effects. The mantras of liberal political junkies and micro-influencers that the radio host should die or suffer irreparable harm reached such a fever pitch that The Tennessean devoted an article to admonishing such discourse. Valentine was once again capturing national attention as the press gloated about his hospitalization and eventual death, failing to note the irony of publicizing an outlying example to express the danger of a disease with a 99.7% survival rate. In the end, Phil was right. He did have a low chance of dying from COVID. Yet, in the days before that off chance became a reality for the Valentine family, Phil demonstrated for a final time the trait that made him such a behemoth of talk radio both in Nashville and in national syndication: his advocation of personal responsibility.

Continue reading...

In case you missed it

• Masked Dereliction by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• Total Recall: California’s September election by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• Entourage's Last Stand by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' and the Evergreen Ills of American Politics by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)

Nashville News

• TDH official says child COVID cases are 'exponentially increasing,' urges vaccinations, mask-wearing (Channel 5)
  • This is what happens when you lock children up for a year then let them free again in the middle of a global pandemic. This too shall pass.
• 'We're pricing average Nashvillians out of homeownership.' Concern grows about soaring prices (Channel 5)
• Bus driver shortage reaches crisis level across the nation (Channel 5)
• Waverly area storms are once-in-a-thousand-years event (Tennessean $)

Nashville Schools

• Tennessee governor says no again as some school leaders clamor for remote learning (Chalkbeat)
• MNPS Pushes Back Against Critical Race Theory Law With Resolution (Scene)
• Tennessee High School Sports Not Mandating Masks (Star)
• Metro Nashville Public Schools’ Plan for Final Round of COVID-19 Relief Funding (Scene)
  • "Metro Nashville Public Schools on Tuesday released the detailed breakdown of its plans for spending $276 million in the third and final round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds"

Nashville Development

• Highwoods Properties closes on 43-acre Ovation development site (Biz Journal)
• River North-area warehouse sells for $3.5M (Post)
• Ex-Taco Mamacita space lands American cuisine restaurant (Post)
• Florida real estate company sells Brentwood building for $8.65M (Homepage)
• Pension fund acquires Cool Springs retail center for almost $25M (Post)
• Green Hills church site offered for sale (Post)
• TN nursing homes report largest employment drop in history (Homepage)

Tennessee Flood

Nashville Life

🌴 The 3rd Annual Deep Tropics Music, Arts, & Style Festival takes place today and tomorrow in Bicentennial State Park and at other venues ranging from the Back Corner to the Brooklyn Bowl. Will appeal to EDM fans (Info)

Friday, 8/27
🎸 Blue Öyster Cult @ Assembly Food Hall, 7p, $35 (Info)
💀 Daniel Donato: Cosmic Country and Western Songs @ Brooklyn Bowl, 7p, $15 (Info)

Saturday, 8/28
🏈 Preseason: Tennessee Titans v Chicago Bears @ Nissan Stadium, 6p (Info)
🪕 Cornelia Fort Pickin' Party @ Cornelia Fort Airpark, 7p, $18 (Info)
🎥 Fast Times at Ridgemont Hight @ Belcourt, 9:10p, $11 (Info)

Sunday, 8/29
🎊  Flea & Farmer's Market Sundays @ Plaza Mariachi, 9a-5p (Info)
🎸  The White Buffalo @ Exit/In, 8p, $25 (Inf0)

COVID Gutter

More dystopian depravity from New Zealand where girl boss czar Jacinda Ardern pushed through a hyper-polarizing abortion bill despite widespread public opposition. This is the same chick who locked down the entire country over one COVID-19 case and insists against all prior evidence that Zero-COVID is still the correct strategy. New Zealand has no standing on the world stage. The country has more sheep than people. But, Ardern's leadership ensures that it functions as a kind of lab to see how draconian and corruptable a country's leadership can become before people revolt. As we're confronted with leaders who insist they are doing what is best for the world but continue to lean into the most depraved, sickly measures to carry out their "visions", it's no wonder people crave straightforward, authoritarian leaders who will not cloak their initiatives in flowery language.

Headlines

• Europe mulls new ban on US travelers in blow to tourism revival (Independent)
• Paying for Their Own Safety (Inside Higher Ed)
  • Want students to mask up in class? The University of Texas at Austin has an idea: offer students nonacademic incentives of up to $50 to do so. The caveat? The university isn’t paying for any of it.
• Rejecting Covid Inquiry, China Peddles Conspiracy Theories Blaming the U.S. (NYT)
• A dedicated regional quarantine facility will be built at Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba in Australia (Twitter)
  • Things are about to get much worse in Australia.
• More freedoms for fully vaccinated in NSW: What you need to know (9News Aus)
  • "Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the vaccination milestone of six million reached this week would allow for a small renewal in freedoms for residents with the jab."
  • You can have a little bit of freedom, as a treat.

Information

• Is there a Link Between Vaccination Rates and Opening Up International Air Travel? (OAG)

Resistance

• No Proof of Vaccination or Negative COVID Test Required for Kanye's Soldier Field Event (NBC Chicago)
• French Citizens Boycott Vaxx Passports by Eating Right In Front of Nearly Empty, vaxx-Only Bars & Restaurants. (@the_typical_liberal)

Around the Web

🛩 ’Why Am I Not Rich & Famous?’ the Delusion of Our Times (Read)

🗿 Geological analysis explains durability of Stonehenge megaliths (Read)

For All the Lovebirds Out There

Have a great weekend!