Today's Takes: Monday, August 2

After the media hit factory reset following Biden's victory, all bets are off. The theater kids have run amock. The January 6th probe looks like "Russia-gate" version two. A return to default settings means the Russia Probe didn't happen, nor did any previous media gaff. This one is for real. Seriously. No, like, for real.

To some, the January 6th "insurrection" stands as something akin to the Storming of the Bastille—the new, "no, for real this time" foil to the shining light of capital-D Democracy. Never mind those pesky summer race riots. Those were about something and you're not racist, are you?

It's ultimately not important what the event is, as long as it is effective in bludgeoning anyone who questions whether D.C. politicians are doing a good job or not. Nancy Pelosi? She's a saint! She's standing at the gates of hell warding off the demons of shallow Republicans who will surely grab your children by the heel and throw them into a ball pit of burning fire.

What is clear is that leaders crafted the hearing to deliver gut-wrenching viral clips to float around social media. The clips amount to a "See, I told you!"

Headlines

🏛 From the Hill

• ‘Industrial Policy’ Is Back: The West Dusts Off Old Idea to Counter China (WSJ)
• A Look at What the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Would Do (NY Times)
• Republicans Top Democrats in Passing State Voting Laws, Often Adding Limits (WSJ)

⬇️ Issues That Will Destroy or Define Us

• U.S. Threatens to Sue Texas Over Its Latest Challenge to Federal Immigration Authority (WSJ)
• Already Distorting Jan. 6, G.O.P. Now Concocts Entire Counternarrative (NY Times)
  • A stunningly unaware portrait of "Orange Man Bad" Democrats' belief that they stand against authoritarianism.
  • "It’s about the same sort of post-truth world. You can just repeat a lie over and over and, because there’s so little trust, people will believe it."
• The U.S. Is Girding for a New Culture War (Bloomberg)

💫 Sign of the Times

• Why So Many Millennials Are Obsessed With Dogs (Atlantic)
• Navy Charges Sailor With Starting Fire on USS Bonhomme Richard Ship (WSJ)
  • If the identity of the sailor was politically useful, this would probably be bigger news.

🍯 Land of Milk & Honey

• Fed’s Daly says ‘a little inflation’ is good after an era of low price pressures (Market Watch)
  • You can have a little inflation, as a treat
• California unemployment claims jump to highest level since reopening ()
  • "California workers filed 67,400 initial claims for unemployment during the week that ended on July 24, an increase of 10,900 from the previous week, the U.S, Labor Department reported Thursday."
  • "The 67,400 jobless in California filings equated to 19.6% of all the unemployment claims that were filed in the United States last week."
  • "California lost 2.71 million jobs during those two brutal months of employment setbacks — but from May 2020 through June 2021 the state has regained only 1.47 million of the vanished jobs."
  • "That means California has recouped only 54% of its lost jobs. In contrast, the United States has regained nearly 70% it the jobs lost nationwide."

🤡 Nothing Really Matters, Anyone Can See...

• State’s new ‘thought leader’ on equity focused on ‘long game:’ Moving Illinois from diversity to equity (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Woke Florida students REFUSE to cheer for Team USA saying they 'don't like being American' and prefer to root 'for individuals' (Daily Mail)
• The Left Has A Pedophilia Problem, And It’s Out In The Open (Federalist)

Original Essays

🖊 Losing Christopher Hitchens: Journalism’s intellectual giant died ten years ago. Our civic discourse will never recover. (Read)

In case you missed it

• Entourage's Last Stand by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' and the Evergreen Ills of American Politics by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• Avuncular Tom by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
• The Man Who Sued the World by Megan Lee Podsiedlik (Read)

Nashville Politics

• Cooper joins mayors calling for pathway to citizenship for 'Dreamers' (Main Street)

Nashville News

• Hungry? Here's what's new and open for Nashville's restaurant scene in July (Tennessean)
• How the FBI manipulated the University of Tennessee to find a Chinese spy who didn't exist (Tennessean)
• Former lawman finds niche in leather goods (Main Street)

Nashville Development

• East side dive bar's future in question (Post)
• Mill Creek Residential unveils plans for 28-story Gulch tower (Biz Journal)
• Germantown Neuhoff project secures half of needed equity with new investor (Biz Journal)
• MDHA to vote on design of curved skyscraper eyed for SoBro (Post)
• Equity partner added to Neuhoff project in Germantown (Post)
• East Davidson County slated for two projects (Post)
• Images released for building eyed for The Gulch (Post)
• 17-lot commercial park discussed by Spring Hill planners (Post)
• Jefferson Street soul food restaurant expanding into Tennessee Tower (Biz Journal)

COVID Gutter

We've got the skinny on the new variants following the Pfizer and Moderna price hike announcement. Viruses pay, you know, if you play your cards right. We can all appreciate some free market action. They've got vaccines to shill and fear to advertise. So you're going to need to get jabs every week for the rest of your life if you want to protect yourself from the triple-mutant, death-ray version of coronavirus that was found by a band of pirates on a remote island in Bangladesh, and reportedly, makes you go blind if you don't get the... checks notes Pfizer vaccine. So jab and keep on jabbin' until you die of heart disease. At least it wasn't SARS-CoV-2, right?

Information

• Coronavirus: 'Double mutant' Covid variant found in India (BBC)
  • Super, double mutant rainbow all the way across the sky beaming death rays into your home by hijacking satellite TV signals
• CDC Says New Mask Guidelines Informed by Cape Cod Outbreak (WSJ)
• C.D.C. Internal Report Calls Delta Variant as Contagious as Chickenpox (NY Times)
• https://www.rt.com/news/530759-sweden-delta-masks-zero-covid-deaths/))

Politics

• Australian soldiers to help with virus checks as PM sets plan to freedom (Reuters)
  • This is not authoritarian at all.
• Mask-free Sweden nears zero daily Covid deaths as chief epidemiologist warns against ‘far-reaching conclusions’ about Delta strain (RT)
  • White supremacy?
• Unvaccinated US swimmer in hot water over maskless interview (NY Post)
  • After the cameras stopped recording, a burning crucifix—an expression of the Science God's displeasure with heresy.

One Great Read

🇺🇸 David French and the Conservative Case for Hereditary Bloodguilt by Michael Anton (Read)

Good to Know

🥬 How to Keep Your Produce Fresh for Weeks (Hint: It’s Not Always in the Fridge) (Read)

Something to Watch

Have a great Monday