Today's Takes: Tuesday, August 10

As if on command, the entire media ecosphere spontaneously erupted about the sudden, imminent danger of climate change in response to a new climate report. Headlines rang out across the fruited plain:

• U.N. sounds 'deafening' warning on climate change (Reuters)
• IPCC report is 'code red for humanity' (BBC)
• A Hotter Future Is Certain, Climate Panel Warns. But How Hot Is Up to Us. (NYT)
• Time to get serious about climate change. On a warming planet, no one is safe. (UNEP)

No, seriously, this time. Yeah, like, for real though. Better get out that disposable grocery bag before the Earth swallows us all up!

Some speculate that authorities are priming the pump for "climate lockdowns". A climate lockdown might look something like an air quality warning accompanied by restrictions on vehicular traffic. Leaders would have you believe that things have never been worse, or else, they will get worse if you don't unplug your Tesla. To beat the dead horse, climate hysteria is not about the climate. It is about control and money.

There are definitely well-intentioned people bent on saving the Earth, be it from a virus or climate change. But, intentions do not decide where an action sits in the moral balance. "Lockdown" is interchangeable with "the transfer of wealth and power away from the many to the few". Whether or not a lockdown is well-intended is irrelevant. The material effect of shuttering people and businesses is as stated. The same can be said of the aggressive Green New Deal measures sought by the Biden administration: well-intended, but materially destructive.

When reflecting on the endless, decades-long parade of "prophetic" warnings of imminent destruction, one is reminded of a little-documented moment in 2019 wherein Glacier National Park removed signs saying that glaciers would be gone by 2020. More recently, we can reflect on a 15th-century building in Austria documenting flood levels through the centuries that barely registered this year's flooding. Michael Schellenberger did a long Twitter thread detailing how hysteria around climate change is insanely overblown. Deaths from climate-related disasters barely register in comparison to just 70 years ago. The world has never been safer and becomes increasingly "green" by the year. Does spreading the fear benefit anyone but the few who stand to profit from it?

Taken in stride with the steady drumbeat of COVID-19 hysteria, it appears the regime wants you to know that your primary duties, at the expense of all else, are:

1. To stop the planet from changing temperature
2. To stop the virus from spreading

Herculean enemies that Gods and Kings throughout the ages have failed to defeat, but you, fair citizen, with your disposable mask and battery-charged car can do it. Together we can finally vanquish nature and display mastery over her with our piece of cloth and little toy cars.

We have a choice about whether or not to live in fear. No one can decide that for us. Unwarranted hysteria should be laughed at and mocked until it is no longer socially acceptable. Human flourishing is good. Etc.

Headlines

📰 General News

• Senate Democrats Outline $3.5 Trillion Antipoverty, Climate Plan (WSJ)
• Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Put Governors on Notice Because They Are a ‘Point of Influence’ for the Chinese Communist Party (Star)
• Gold as an Inflation Hedge: What the Past 50 Years Teaches Us (WSJ)
• Lyft And Uber Prices Are High. Wait Times Are Long And Drivers Are Scarce (NPR)

⛅️ A More Exciting Future, For Sure

• Biden’s Electric-Car Ambitions Face Real-World Roadblocks (WSJ)
  • “Possibly the biggest hurdle ahead is consumer acceptance,” said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst at auto-data firm Edmunds. “What will it take for Americans to be willing to change their car ownership habits to go electric?”
  • You will buy an electric car and like it!

🦄 Woke-acracy

• Raising the bar at the highest level is what they do. They’ve done it consistently for over 25 years. (Nike)
  • According to this Nike ad, antiquity is "just the patriarchy" and we need to make way for a new dynasty run by gay women of color who make Alexander the Great appear like Alexander the "OK"
  • Those are actual words from the ad above.
• Bragging about not bathing your kids is a blatant act of white privilege (Mic)
  • In response to Kristen Bell and Ashton Kutcher expressing their lax bathing habits
  • I forget, is White Privilege the same thing as Hollywood Celebrity?
• Texas Dems Secure Restraining Order to Prevent Arrests as They Return to State (National Review)
  • You'd forgotten about those plump, coddled Texas Democrats hadn't you?
• Nasdaq’s Board-Diversity Proposal Wins SEC Approval (WSJ)
  • If you're ever up for a board position, just say you're gay or something.

Original Essays

🖊 Anthony Bourdain and Documentary Artifice: Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain stirred controversy for manufacturing voiceover of its late subject. Documentary film has more pressing issues. (Read)

In case you missed it

• Losing Christopher Hitchens 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)
• Avuncular Tom by Jerod Hollyfield (Read)

Nashville News

• Big Machine Music City Grand Prix wows 100k fans (WSMV)
• Landlords, courts anticipate wave of eviction cases with moratorium expired in Tennessee (Tennessean)

Nashville Development

• Midtown apartment building sells for $57.9M (Post)
• Illinois developer eyeing Edgehill project makes first local buy (Post)
• The 3,500+ Units In The Wedgewood-Houston Pipeline In Nashville (NowNext)
• Nashville Designers To Begin Developing Streetscape Proposals For Second Avenue (WPLN)
• FirstBank lays out growth plans for Birmingham market (Biz Journal)
• TechnologyAdvice has purchased Louisville-based TechRepublic (Biz Journal)
• Flexible rental company spends $57.9M on Midtown apartments (Biz Journal)
• Gulch site potentially eyed for redevelopment (Post)
• Madison senior living building sells for $6.84M (Post)

Nashville Life

📅 Check out our suggestions for THINGS TO DO this week (Info)

🎸 Tonight, you can swing by the O.G. Basement for a free concert with country, crooner Emily Rose (Info)

New Spots

• Tomacco Taco + Tequila coming to Germantown (Post)
• Ohio-based taco chain opening first Nashville location at Capitol View development this month (Biz Journal)

COVID Gutter

Top Biden officials are growing frustrated with the lack of internal visibility into data being collected by the CDC, particularly as they try to deal with Delta's spread. Much of the issue is due to the decentralized nature of America's health care system. Throughout history, pandemics, disasters, and wars tend to portend the centralization of power in the hands of fewer and fewer people. As we've observed, COVID-19 has been no different. The difficulty White House officials have gathering data portends a more aggressive move to centralize America's health care system culminating in universal health care for all citizens.

Headlines

• Why did Lollapalooza go forward in a pandemic? It’s about the money (Chicago Sun-Times)
  • Despite the concern, Lollapalooza appears to have zero of the characteristics of a super-spreader event sending health officials back into their caves to figure out which fear spigot to turn to next.
• U.S. judge says Florida can't ban cruise ship's 'vaccine passport' program (Reuters)
  • A blowback to DeSantis' attempts to ban cruise ships from requiring vaccination
• The Case Against Masks for Children (WSJ)
• In France, police patrol the street asking for proof of vaccination (Twitter)
• Military to Make COVID Vaccine Mandatory for All Troops (National Review)

One Good Read

🗽 A long, thorough read from Angelo Codevill at the Claremont Institute titled 'Abolish FISA, Reform FBI, & Break Up CIA' (Read)

State of the Nation

🇺🇸 The U.S. ranks 20th on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom (Read)

Something to See

Have a great Tuesday