Today's Takes: Thursday, July 8

Good morning, everyone. The photo above is from the cover of a Joel Salatin book that I suggest everyone purchase and put on their shelf.

Thanks for reading

Headlines

🗳 Eric Adams wins Democratic primary in NYC’s mayoral race (AP)

After a hotly contested, confusing recount that drew the attention of the entire nation, the tally vindicated Eric Adams. Adams ran a strong anti-crime campaign reminiscent of David Dinkins' campaign at the height of the NYC crack epidemic. As violence surges around the country in the wake of BLM's racial reckoning, it's a positive sign that NYC chose a mayor with awareness of the difficulties of policing and acknowledges that the problems start at a community level.

📰 TODAY IN: General Headlines

  • Bitcoin Fraud Concerns Draw Scrutiny From Regulators (WSJ)
  • Trump to sue Facebook, Twitter CEOs (The Hill)
  • UFC Inks $175 Million Crypto Deal, Its Largest Sponsorship Ever (Sportico)
  • Student-Loan Holders Get Piecemeal Relief From Biden Administration (WSJ)

🤡 TODAY IN: Clown World News

  • Riot Leader Had ‘Fully Constructed U.S. Capitol Lego Set’ at Home, FBI Says (Daily Beast)
  • Pornography literacy classes are supposed to teach students how to critically assess what they see on the screen. But when a sex-positive educator taught her curriculum at two elite New York City schools recently, some parents were outraged. (NY Times)
    • Sex-positive used to be called prostitution or something like that

🦠 TODAY IN: Covid Tracker

Reposting our recap of the stats of Covid which haven't changed. It is easy to lose track of this stuff (Read)

  • Australia’s largest city Sydney locks down for third week (AP)
    • ...despite only 27 new cases.
    • Lockdowns still don't have an effect on rates of fatal infection
  • Delta Covid-19 Variant Gains Ground Among the Unvaccinated (WSJ)
    • ...hospitalizations continue to fall.
    • The Delta variant is more contagious, but significantly less deadly
  • Lambda COVID variant: All you need to know about the new UK coronavirus strain (Science Focus)
    • It's still early, but lambda accounts for a large share of cases in Peru
    • New strains are identified by an increase in transmissibility and/or severity
    • It is exceedingly rare (meaning unobserved in nature) that a virus gains both transmissibility and severity

Original Reads

🇺🇸 Jerod Hollyfield published an excellent piece on the classic American film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington by Frank Capra. The film expresses a classically American politics that we would do good to reflect upon (Read)

In case you missed it

  • Avuncular Tom by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
  • The Man Who Sued the World by Megan Lee Podsiedlik (Read)
  • Tenured Negligence by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)
  • Critical Race Theory for Dummies by The Pamphleteer (Read)

Nashville Politics

  • Election commission seeks to settle one lawsuit (Main Street)
  • Davidson Election Commission chair says he was fired from law firm due to vote over anti-tax hike referendum (Tennessean)
    • Jim DeLanis, chairman of Davidson County Election Commission, told The Tennessean Tuesday he was fired from his private job last week after 40 years of employment.
    • The reason, he said, was because he voted as the commission chair to appeal a judge's decision deeming the controversial anti-tax hike referendum invalid.
  • North Nashville community to weigh in on how to spend infrastructure funding for neighborhood (Channel 5)

Nashville News

  • Owner of Spring Hill company charged in alleged $86 million Medicare fraud scheme (Homepage)
  • Does This Weekend's Fireworks Fiasco Reveal Nashville's True Priorities? (Scene)
    • Betsy Phillips does a good job pointing out how egregiously the city has begun to bend over backward to cater to tourists
    • Governor Lee's "free tickets" to tourists announcement yesterday underscores this point even more

Nashville Development

  • Gulch site eyed for mixed-use tower (Post)
  • Crown Bakeries continues expansion run with bagel manufacturer (Post)
  • Las Vegas ramen franchise looks to cement itself in Nashville community (Biz Journal)
  • Just months after opening, Fifth + Broadway has 'far exceeded our expectations' (Biz Journal)
  • Retirement tech company establishing U.S. headquarters in Nashville (Post)

One Good Read

🎭 Why Saving Comedy Is So Crucial To Saving America (Read)

Something to Watch

🪀 Chuck Hoberman's toys will be familiar to you. The Harvard based designer has produced some of the more iconic what-exactly-is-this-thing widgets that have littered playrooms for the past 30 years

Something to look at

🎇 Flowers of Fire: Illustrations from Japanese Fireworks Catalogues (ca. 1880s) (Link)

Stat of the Day

🥬 Calcium, magnesium, and iron in cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, and spinach dropped 80–90% between 1914 and 2018. All the more reason to grow your own or get tight with a farmer. Stay out of grocery stores. (Read)

Have a great Thursday