Today's Takes: Tuesday, July 13

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Headlines

📰 TODAY IN: General Headlines

• Trump, DeSantis lead CPAC straw poll (The Hill)
  • Trump held a commanding lead, with 70 percent of those who responded to the survey saying they would vote for him in the Republican primary if it were held today. DeSantis came in second with 21 percent.
  • But when polling the 2024 Republican primary ballot without Trump, DeSantis led the pack with 68 percent of the vote.
• White House goes off on vaccine fear mongers (Politico)
  • Biden allied groups, including the DNC, plan to engage fact-checkers and work with SMS carriers to "dispel misinformation" about vaccines that is sent over social media and text messages
  • Biden reportedly muttered the chorus to Toby Keith's "How Do You Like Me Now" to aids as he gave his stamp of approval to monitor text messages fulfilling a lifelong dream: "I couldn’t make you love me / But I always dreamed about / Livin' in your cellphone / How do you like me now?!"
• “White audiences who will pay” is still metro newspapers’ survival strategy (Nieman Lab)
  • “We don’t write for white subscribers, but it ends up being white people who read us,” a Midwestern news executive told an audience earlier this year.
  • God forbid someone write for the generous white subscribers!
• Lawmakers to Determine Fate of Infrastructure, Antipoverty Plans (WSJ)
  • Moderate Democrats push for $4 trillion in spending while Democrats like Bernie Sanders push for $6 trillion
  • Rumor has it they will light $1 trillion on fire as an offering to Big Black and Big Gay to atone for the white supremacist origins of the US dollar
• Texas House Democrats flee the state in move that could block voting restrictions bill, bring Legislature to a halt (Texas Tribune)
  • A picture from their chartered, private flight prompted many to ask whether any Texas Democrats were men
  • ...and others to celebrate the end of the TSA's federal mask mandate
• F.D.A. Attaches Warning of Rare Nerve Syndrome to Johnson & Johnson Vaccine (NY Times)
  • Are they liable for any negatives side effects of their vaccine? Of course not!
• How Dollar Tree Sells Nearly Everything for $1, Even When Inflation Lurks (WSJ)
  • Soon to be renamed the Two Dollar Tree.

🌎 TODAY IN: Unrest Across the Globe

• Cuban Protests Demand Freedom, Food, Covid-19 Vaccines (WSJ)
• South Africa deploys army to quell deadly unrest linked to Zuma jailing (NBC)

🦠 TODAY IN: COVID Tracker

• United CEO: My guess is airline mask mandate will expire in September (The Hill)
  • The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) enforces the measure
• July 19: Boris Johnson offers freedom day with health warning (The Times)
  • Despite the evidence that the Delta variant is significantly less deadly (see the "Graph of the Day" at bottom of email), Johnson limps his nation towards freedom like a retired circus elephant

🐓 TODAY IN: A Sampling of Sad Vox Headlines

• The pandemic has made small talk even more painful (Vox)
• Crowds might be anxiety-inducing after Covid-19. Here’s how to manage it. (Vox)
• We shouldn’t go back to “normal.” Normal wasn’t good enough. (Vox)
• How to fight fear and anxiety when quarantine ends (Vox)

🗺 TODAY IN: "...because of climate change."

• U.S. West scorches under heat wave, Death Valley reaches 130 degrees (Reuters)
• Lightning strikes kill 76 people in India; some victims were taking selfies (CBS)
• Paratrooper whose parachute failed to open survives after crashing into house (Guardian)
  • Wait, sorry, wrong section.

📇 TODAY IN: Media Tactics

• The Ascension of Bernie Sanders (NY Times)
  • Maureen Dowd does a dust-up profile of Bernie Sanders that makes him out to be a humorless scrooge
  • Remember how easily Bernie folded to the demands of the DNC towards the end of the 2020 Presidential campaign after running on a platform predicated on his antipathy towards them?
  • It's likely the glowing profile is an attempt to bolster enthusiasm for his $6 trillion dollar rid-the-planet-of-all-pain-and-evil budget
• How to Manufacture a Moral Panic (NY Mag)
  • Sub-heading: Christopher Rufo helped incite an uproar over racism education with dramatic, dodgy reporting.
  • Au contraire mon frère. Chris Rufo's reporting is based entirely on releasing primary source material which is the basis of sound, ethical reporting
• After $5.1M book deal, Cuomo calls pandemic ‘tremendous personal benefit’ (NY Post)
  • Cuomo's hubris would be admirable if it wasn't so tone-deaf

Nashville Politics

• Gov. Lee responds to critics of free airfare program (TNJ)
• Tennessee lawmaker introduces bill to put marijuana legalization on the ballot in 2022 (WBIR)
• Monthly advance child tax credit payments start this week (WBIR)
• Tennessee Supreme Court Says It Won’t Hear Nashville Referendum Case Early (WPLN)

Nashville News

• Controversial plan to expand Middle Point Landfill rejected (Lookout)
• 18 arrested in Spring Hill human trafficking operation (WSMV)
• John England and The Western Swingers celebrate 20 years on Lower Broadway (Tennessean)
• ⛳️ Tee up our guide to Nashville’s public golf courses (Main Street)

Nashville Development

• Fall construction start planned for 9-acre Neuhoff project in Germantown (Biz Journal)
• Gallatin homebuilder pays $2.4M+ for west side properties (Post)
• New York trust drops $10.4 million on Bellevue shopping center (Biz Journal)
• Developer reveals new renderings as site work begins near Marathon Village (Biz Journal)
• 📸 Look inside Broadway Bowl and Bull, the new bowling alley and arcade at Nashville Underground (Tennessean)

One Good Read

☕️ Michael Pollan, the renowned author of the Omnivore's Dilemma, discusses caffeine (Read)

And the Study Says...

🥩 Declining testosterone levels across Western populations has received much press over the years. The hormone is crucial for men and boy's health.

• Supplementing testosterone significantly reduces heart attacks and strokes in men with unnaturally low levels of the hormone (Read)
• Men with low testosterone levels have a much higher risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 (Read)

Graph of the Day

Have a great Tuesday