Today's Takes: Tuesday, August 3

Good morning, everyone.

If you have thoughts, comments, insults, compliments, funny memes, jokes, or just need to vent, you can respond directly to this email or reach out to us at info@pamphleteer.co. With your permission, we'll publish the best responses we receive.

If this is your first time, you can sign up here.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Headlines

🏛 On the Hill

Future president? Kamala Harris now 'underwater' as sinking popularity alarms Democrats (Telegraph)
- "Kamala Harris has become the most unpopular US vice president six months into an administration since at least the 1970s, according to polls."
- "An Economist/YouGov poll found 41 percent of voters aged 18-29 had an "unfavourable" view of Ms Harris, with only 36 per cent viewing her "favourably." Ms Harris is also struggling with Hispanic voters, possibly due to her role leading US border policy."
Biden's Approval Drops in Latest Poll as Post-Inauguration Honeymoon 'Officially Over' (Newsweek)

🏗 Infrastructure As Usual

$1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Pours Money Into Long-Delayed Needs (NY Times)
- The agreement provides $110 billion to bridges and roads, $39 billion to public transit, and $65 billion for expanding access to broadband, among other investments beyond currently projected spending.
Cryptocurrency in the infrastructure bill: The industry won last-minute concessions. (NY Times)
Climate in the infrastructure bill: A substantial investment in resilience. (NY Times)
- "For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would get an additional $11.6 billion in construction funds for projects like flood control and river dredging. The Forest Service would get billions of dollars to remove flammable vegetation from the lands it manages, in efforts to make wildfires less damaging."
- "Other funding would go toward new approaches. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would get $492 million to map and forecast inland and coastal flooding, including “next-generation water modeling activities.” NOAA would also get $50 million to predict, model and forecast wildfires."

🏭 Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

Behind the Rise of U.S. Solar Power, a Mountain of Chinese Coal (WSJ)
- "Chinese factories supply more than three-quarters of the world’s polysilicon, an essential component in most solar panels."
- "Producing a solar panel in China creates around twice as much carbon dioxide as making it in Europe"

🍁 Blame Canada

Should British Columbia change its name? As we reckon with history, some say it's time (CBC)

🌱 Dogfood Recipes

Beyond Meat Boss Backs Tax On Items Having Adverse Effect On Society: ‘Not Just Meat’ (Plant News)
- Beyond Meat boss needs some help selling his dog food burgers
Potato milk is a thing now. You can't buy it in the US, but people are making the sustainable drink themselves at home. (Business Insider)
- How do you milk a potato? Sounds more like potato water
Could you live without bacon? Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect (USA Today)
- "At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules."

🎥 Media on Media

To end this public health crisis, journalists need to humble themselves (Present Age)
- Or apologize like this German news network did (Watch)

Original Essays

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

Nashville Politics

Gov. Bill Lee extends state of emergency through August (Homepage)
Stand Up Nashville declines to disclose donors (Lookout)
- Jim Cooper's congressional challenger, Odessa Kelly, heads the non-profit

Nashville News

Tennessee’s decline in pandemic TCAP scores shows a dramatic reversal of previous gains (Chalkbeat)
Nashville whistleblower gets $28.5M in fraud settlement (Post)

Nashville Development

Chestnut Hill properties sell for $3.1M (Post)
Green Hills office building sells for $16.7M (Post)
The New 400-Unit, Mixed-Use Development Proposed for South Gulch In Nashville (Now Next)
Raising Cane’s Restaurant Planned for White Bridge Pike In West Nashville (Now Next)
Edley’s announces fall 2022 opening for Franklin location (Post)
New images released for apartment building eyed for Lion’s Head (Post)
Bridgestone to buy fleet management platform for $391M (Post)
FedEx Ground to expand Nashville operations with 1,100 new jobs (Biz Journal)
Edley’s Bar-B-Que to open Franklin location in Berry Farms neighborhood (Biz Journal)

COVID Gutter

Information

U.S. students fell 4 to 5 months behind during pandemic (Axios)
Canada has ordered more than 400 million COVID-19 vaccine shots (CBC)
- The population of Canada is 37.9 million

Politics

Anthony Fauci Warns on Covid-19 That ‘Things Are Going to Get Worse’ (WSJ)
Covid-19 Vaccine Health Pass Fuels French Protests (WSJ)
To Fight Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit an ‘Influencer Army’ (NY Times)
- Ah, yes. The trusty influencer coalition
Vax for cash: Newsom offers big bucks for Californians who get their shots (CalMatters)
De Blasio Urges New Yorkers to Mask Indoors But Stops Short of Reviving Mandate (National Review)
Border Surge, Delta Variant Complicate Biden’s Immigration Agenda (WSJ)

One Good Read

🏙 The Battle for Cities: Don’t expect a post-pandemic return to ‘normal’ for America’s biggest urban areas, where the quality of life has been declining for years (Read)

In Case You Were Wondering...

💰 See how much cities around the nation will offer you to move to their city. Rutherford County, Tennessee will pay you $10,000 (Read)

Good to Know

🦓 37 Comparisons Of The Sizes Of Prehistoric Animal Ancestors And Their Modern Relatives (Link)