Today's Takes: Tuesday, July 6

Welcome back and hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day weekend.

Headlines

🎇 A grim Independence Day weekend in Chicago was marred by violence, with at least 95 people shot (Chicago Tribune)

Chicago has a strange way of celebrating Independence Day. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who looks like the villain of a horror movie, won't face the reality that crime in her city is climbing following BLM's summer of "racial reckoning." We're not surprised though. This is the same woman who, just five days ago, claimed that 99% of criticism leveled at her was "racist" or "sexist". Dealing directly with the problem of climbing murder rates in Chicago would require acknowledging that nearly all of the shootings are black-on-black crimes and in the high Church of Liberalism, no one is responsible for their own actions. Lightfoot, whose interest in helping her own community appears as paper-thin as a cheap lottery ticket, cares only for her own little roost atop a growing dung pile.

🔥 House Approves Creation of Select Committee to Probe Jan. 6 Attack (WSJ)

The war against the American people by the American elites gets its legs. The Babylon Bee has a good joke about this one: "'You'll Never Beat The Government With Just Guns,' Says Party That Also Believes Government Was Almost Toppled By Unarmed Mob On January 6". There is nothing the regime hates more than anything traditionally American, be it ideals or people.

🛌 These Chinese Millennials Are ‘Chilling,’ and Beijing Isn’t Happy (NY Times)

Chinese millennials have adopted the recent Western habit of forgoing children, family, and the standard accoutrements of a responsible life in favor of wanderlust and resort jobs. The CCP has begun to crack down on the behavior, viewing it as corrosive to Chinese prosperity—another element of Chinese politics distinct from Western/American politics. It begs the question. What lifestyle does the United States government support and encourage?

🚼 Why So Many Young Men in South Korea Hate Feminism (Foreign Policy)

South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world and its young, 20-something men have taken a strong, right-wing, conservative turn that people have lambasted as "anti-feminist" and driven by "aggressive misogyny and a distorted worship of supposed meritocracy". Such an interpretation can only arise from the assumption that feminism is objectively good, even in its most extreme forms. The conservative turn of South Korean youth should be read as an immune system response against the deteriorating forces of anti-natalist/anti-masculine feminist tendencies in the country.

📰 TODAY IN: General News

• Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Election Rules (WSJ)
• Didi shares fall after China announces cybersecurity review just days after IPO (CNBC)
• Security in Afghanistan Is Decaying, U.S. General Says as Forces Leave (NY Times)
• California Recall Election for Gov. Gavin Newsom Set for September (WSJ)

🤡 TODAY IN: Non-sensical News

• Gun deaths surge in Iowa ahead of loosened handgun restrictions (The Hill)
  • I guess the market had already priced in the gun violence.
• Sam Altman Wants to Scan Your Eyeball in Exchange for Cryptocurrency (Bloomberg)

Original Reads

🇺🇸 On Friday, 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

• Breaking Down the Metro Nashville Public Schools Budget (Scene)
• Tennessee shuts down shelter for migrant youth after employee charged with sexual battery (Tennessean)

Nashville News

• ‘There’s No Shortage,’ Say Tennessee Hospitality Workers. They Believe The Industry Must Change. (WPLN)
  • We've got to rearrange society to cater to Johnny who doesn't like working in restaurants
• A Historic Nashville Music Venue—Now Open—Is Fighting to Survive. ‘Everything Has Changed.’ (WSJ)
• 'Gallatin Flower Lady' forced to move her urban wildflower garden (Channel 5)

Nashville Development

• Logan’s owner to buy J. Alexander’s (Post)
• Faux beach business established in SoBro (Post)
• Downtown skyscraper plaza eyed for update (Post)
• Tortilla machine maker pays $3.6M+ for Midtown building (Post)
• Demolition sought for historic downtown 2nd Avenue buildings (Tennessean)
• Midtown office tower sells for $76.5M (Post)
• Top-tier automotive supplier Martinrea International expanding Middle Tennessee plant (Biz Journal)
• 90-year-old Green Hills estate listed for $4.8 million (Biz Journal)

One Good Read

🧰 How to Work Hard by Paul Graham (Read)

Lizard People

🎭 In this clip, Louis CK (remember him?) asks Donald Rumsfeld if he is a "lizard person" among other questions like "would you trade Texas for France" and Rumsfeld, well... (Listen)

Surveillance States

📸 Cities in the world ordered by surveillance camera density:

1. Seoul
2. Paris
3. Boston
4. NYC
5. Baltimore
6. San Francisco
7. Tokyo
8. London
9. Chicago
10. Philadelphia

Have a great Tuesday