Today's Takes: Wednesday, July 14

On the heels of yesterday's announcement that inflation surged to 5.4%—the highest since 2008—let's review the media's attitude as regards inflation over the past couple of months:

March 21, 2021: You're crazy! Inflation is a right-wing conspiracy (Read)
June 10, 2021: It's going to be fine! Inflation is only transitory (Read)
July 8, 2021: Calm down, nutbag! Inflation is actually good (Read)
July 11, 2021: Fine. You got us. Inflation is here to stay (Read)

Glad we're all on the same page.

Today's Headlines

📰 General Headlines

Global Vaccine Effort Leans on China to Overcome Setbacks (Bloomberg)
- WHO purchased 110 million doses of the Chinese vaccine Sinophram.
- Sinophram prevents hospitalization only 79% of the time and has not been proven to help people over 60 or with co-morbidities. It is the least effective vaccine available.
- Look away!
Governor vows to arrest Democrats who fled Texas to block voting restrictions (Guardian)
- In response to Rep. James Talarico's cringe tweet celebrating the endeavor: Dude grabbed a case of Miller Lite and jumped on a private plane and thinks he's crossing the Delaware with George Washington (@ComfortablySmug)
- Texas passed the legislation anyway (National Review)
Google Fined $593 Million in France Over Treatment of News Publishers (WSJ)
Biden Labels GOP Voting Laws Greatest Threat to American Democracy Since Civil War (National Review)
- Biden, of course, plays the villain in this telling: protector of the welfare state, harvester of souls and votes.
Elon Musk Defends SolarCity Deal, Says of Being Tesla Boss: ‘I Rather Hate It’ (WSJ)
- Follow your passion, kids
Gavin Newsom's Team Forgot to List Him As a Democrat on Recall Ballot (Newsweek)
- You love to see it

🛑 Sign of the Times

Witnesses have told authorities that the George Floyd mural was struck by lightning before it collapsed. (Twitter)
- Thou shalt have no other gods before Me
- Climate change?
Italy’s young voters are drifting to the Right (Unherd)
- Can you believe that kids want their government to love their nation?
‘We Don’t Need Another Michelangelo’: In Italy, It’s Robots’ Turn to Sculpt (NY Times)
- Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time. But now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time.
17 million gallons of sewage spills into ocean; beaches between El Segundo, Dockweiler closed (Fox LA)
- The virgin beaches of El Segundo!

👁 Woke America

How to teach gay issues in 1st grade? (LA Times)
- No longer a question of "should we"
- Only pedophiles would be comfortable teaching this stuff to first-graders
Library Apologizes For Hosting ‘Rainbow Dildo Butt Monkey’ To Entertain Children (Daily Caller)
- Surprisingly, this headline accurately depicts the incident
A group of mostly Black families in Oakland gather to protest against gun violence in their community (Twitter)
- If black people were protesting a racist barista at Starbucks it would be played on a loop on CNN. Because they’re protesting shootings in their community you have to rely on independent media. (Richard Hanania)
Facebook Promotes Videos Of Transgender Couple Pushing Their Newborn To Suck A Man’s Chest (Federalist)
- That's not how it works, bro
5 ways your workplace isn’t accommodating to fat people (Fast Company)
- At the Pamphleteer, we have small doors specifically to scare away fat people because they say things like this

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)

Nashville Politics

Twenty-One Tennessee Teachers Vow to Defy State Law and Teach Critical Race Theory (Star)
Fired chief vaccine officer’s husband ran against erstwhile Lee ally Casada (TNJ)
Senator Marsha Blackburn voices support for Cuban protests (Channel 5)
After National Guard trip, governor says nation needs new Southern border strategy (Lookout)

Nashville News

Nashville Predators' goaltender Pekka Rinne to retire from NHL (Channel 5)
Tennessee farmer wins injunction against USDA in loan forgiveness dispute (Center Square)

Nashville Development

Third Man Records Opens Blue Room Bar (Scene)
Developer lands $62.2M loan for Marathon project (Post)
Developer pays $2.4M for Germantown parcel (Post)
Nashville Riverfront docks expanding options for on-water commercial vendors (Main Street)

One Good Read

🎸 Cody Jinks Exemplifies Country Populism’s Successful Revolt Against The Nashville Machine (Read)

Moments from the Recent Past

👀 As you consider whether the FBI played a part in the 1/6 protest, consider the recent history of the FBI's maneuvers in the US:

Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI 'entrapment' questioned (Read)
Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and ISIS Are Such Grave Threats? (Read)

Hollywood's Creative Crisis in One Video

🎞 Maybe one of the reasons Hollywood accepts all these diversity mandates is that this will open up a new market: remaking or remixing almost every hit movie to correct the lack of racial diversity in the original (Watch)

Words of Wisdom

In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.

― Theodore Dalrymple