A new Tennessee Star Poll of likely Democrat primary voters in Davidson County shows that former Nashville Mayor “Karl Marx” Dean leads State Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley) by 68 points, 79 percent to 11 percent.
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As experts comb through the newly-released, heavily redadcted FISA application to surveil former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, John Hinderaker at PowerLineBlog noticed four key takeaways. First, he notes, the application – which was renewed several times by the Obama-Holder-Lynch Department of Justice – strongly suggests Page is a Russian agent actively engaged in criminal activity. However, to date, Page has never been charged with a crime. Secondly, the government describes Christopher Steel and the origin of the dossier in a way that Hinderaker generously calls “misleading at best.” The application says: US-based law firm had hired the identified US person to condict research regarding Candidate #1’s ties to Russia (the identified US person and Source #1 have a long-staning relationship). The identified US person hired Source #1 to conduct this research. The identified US person never advised Source #1 as to the motivation behind the research into Candidate #1’s ties to Russia. The FBI speculates that the identified US person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1’s campaign. Legend: Identified US person = Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS Source #1 = Christopher Steele Candidate #1 = Donald Trump Hinderaker explains: The…
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by Grace Carr Tennessee Democratic senatorial candidate Phil Bredesen has wavered on issues from abortion to campaign financing throughout his political career, leaving some critical about what he will offer to Tennesseans if elected in November. “Tennesseans can’t get a straight answer out of Phil Bredesen,” National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) spokesman Michael McAdams told The Daily Caller News Foundation Monday. “The only thing voters can count on is when push comes to shove, Phil Bredesen is going to be in the pocket of Chuck Schumer and will be a rubber stamp for Democrats’ radical agenda of open borders and higher taxes.” New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer is the Democratic Party’s minority leader, after replacing Harry Reid in November 2016. Bredesen, Tennessee’s former governor, has expressed opposition to abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), giving a flat “no” to the agency’s destruction, according to the Times Free Press on July 10. Despite his claims that he doesn’t support abolishing the agency, he accepted $5,000 from Empire PAC, an affiliated PAC of New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand has been one of the leading voices calling for the abolition of ICE. “I don’t think ICE today is working as intended … it has become a deportation…
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Oops! Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) has made another stupid statement. Cohen told PJ Media that “survival” is the greatest challenge for Jewish and African-American communities in the Trump Administration era. “As far as tolerance and human rights, civil rights, voting rights they’re all not on the front burner,” he said. “If they are, they’re working against them. And that’s something Jews and African-Americans share is a desire to have human rights span the franchise, be tolerant, diverse and then that’s just not on the agenda with this administration. So it can be a difficult time.” The congressman was one of several making statements against President Donald Trump during an interview after a recent breakfast for black and Jewish members of Congress. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) said the African-American and Jewish communities should work together to “push back” on President Trump and his agenda. She said the Jewish and African-American communities have a “natural alliance” because of slavery and the Holocaust. It has been a month filled with a string of stupid statements coming from the far left Democrat from Memphis who began the year by calling for the impeachment of President Trump–for no good reason other than he had the…
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by Kalena Bruce Last month, the Trump administration took a concrete step to lower skyrocketing health care costs for middle-class families like mine. The Department of Labor issued a final rule expanding association health plans, which allow small businesses like my farm to band together with others to negotiate bulk rates on health care costs. Association health plans are not new, but they have been nearly regulated out of existence over the last decade by state regulations and Obamacare. For instance, Obamacare required small businesses buying coverage through association health plans to offer “essential health benefits,” which are expensive and often include unnecessary frills like obesity screening and drug rehab. This puts small business plans at a competitive disadvantage with those of their big business competitors, which don’t have to comply with essential health benefits and many other onerous Obamacare regulations. The result: The number of small businesses offering health insurance for their employees fell by about one-quarter between 2010 and 2017. For my family of three, I now pay $700 a month in premiums, not including the deductible and copays, for Spartan coverage. These cost increases eat a portion of my revenue that would otherwise be reinvested into my business. Hardest hit have…
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Randy Boyd set off a chain reaction when he cancelled Sunday night’s GOP gubernatorial candidate primary debate in Knoxville. Now, one reporter says the cancellation was due to a “pricey steakhouse dinner,” as first reported at TNJ: On the Hill. Boyd had cited an unspecified scheduling conflict as his reason to miss the final debate of the primary election. Beth Harwell and Diane Black soon bowed out. Shelby County Republican and fellow diner Naser Fazullah posted pictures of Boyd, and company out at Folk’s Folly Prime Steak House in Memphis. Yelp gives Folk’s Folly a four-dollar-sign rating, a sign of an expensive restaurant. The price range is cited as $31-$60. A 14-ounce, fully trimmed filet mignon costs $52, according to the restaurant’s menu. The meal may have been more expensive than Boyd intended. Bill Lee took advantage of the cancelled debate to hold a townhall meeting in Knoxville. A poll released Monday shows Lee in the lead. The poll of 500 registered Republican voters conducted between July 18 and July 21 puts Lee in first place with 26 percent, followed by Randy Boyd in second with 20 percent. But wait! It turns out there may be a few problems…
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by Chris White The Washington Post asked locals at a southern Baptist church in Alabama why they voted for President Donald Trump despite that the former reality TV star’s conduct. Their answer was short and to the point. Members of the First Baptist church of Luverne, Alabama say former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president was a no-go for them, according to a report Saturday from WaPo. “She hates me,” Terry Drew, a member of the church, said of Clinton, who lost Alabama by almost 700,000 votes. “She has contempt for people like me, and Clay, and people who love God and believe in the Second Amendment. I think if she had her way it would be a dangerous country for the likes of me,” he said, referring to people like the church’s pastor, Clay Crum. Trump has demonstrated a willingness to hang tough with Christians, Drew said. Drew weighed Trump’s character with what he thought is Clinton’s willingness to destroy his way of life. The choice was clear, he told WaPo reporters, who attended one of Crum’s sermons to get a lay of the land. Trump’s “going to stick to me,” while Clinton will look the other…
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by State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) With just a little more than a week left in this election, the polling is clear: Bill Lee is leading Randy Boyd and Diane Black. It’s why they are both spending millions to attack him. And I can’t help but shake this feeling of déjà vu that we have been here before. Over the next 10 days, we’ll see the worst of politics. We’ll see what we saw in 2016: An outsider threatening the traditional power structure of the PACs and lobbyists, and that very same power structure doing everything they can to attack Bill’s business and take his words out of context to frame him as something he’s not. When you see the attack ads from the politicians in this race, remember, this isn’t a new strategy, it’s the exact same playbook they launched on President Trump. And it’s coming from the same insiders that attacked our President and continue to undermine him. For years, too many voters have bought into a system that elects people not based on results, but based on words. We’ve seen our members of Congress vote to raise the debt ceiling and fund Planned Parenthood, then tell…
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When it was obvious in 2010 that we had influenced our first big election, do you recall feeling powerful, that we could shake things up? Then within another year, disgusted and disheartened because our victorious candidates seldom represented our wishes? They did it to us again, didn’t they? No. Here’s how we did it to ourselves.
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An old and wise saying challenges us to: “Believe nothing you hear, half of what you read, and some of what you see.” It is critical to examine issues from all angles, rejecting gossip, mistruths, bias or information not supported or misinterpreted. Put what you see or read into proper context to make sure what you think you are seeing is factual.
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by Dr. Carol M. Swain Christian conservatives dividing their votes between Diane Black and Bill Lee will play a decisive role in electing the next governor of Tennessee. With four candidates in the Republican race (Randy Boyd and Beth Harwell are the others) for a primary that does not include a runoff, the winner will be the person who gets the most votes, period. That person could well be Randy Boyd. Boyd is poised to benefit from the perennial divisions among conservatives and from crossover votes from Democrats voting in the open primary. It behooves us to take a closer look at the man who might be the state’s next chief executive. Without question, Boyd is the most fascinating candidate in Tennessee’s 2018 GOP gubernatorial race. He is a youngish, fiftyish man of the world with a big vision for change. Boyd wants to use government to eradicate poverty and open up opportunities for all Tennesseans, using education and jobs as the great equalizers they can and should be. Boyd’s vision is utopian, and his heart seems compassionate and optimistic about the possibilities of what government can and should do. Who in their right mind would be against new…
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by Chuck Ross Twelve audio files recorded by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen were handed over to federal prosecutors on Friday, according to a document filed Monday in federal court. Barbara S. Jones, who is serving as special master in a review of documents seized from Cohen in an April 9 FBI raid, said in the court filing that the 12 recordings were provided to the government as part of its investigation into Cohen’s financial dealings. “On July 20, 2018, the parties withdrew their designations of ‘privileged’ as to 12 audio items that were under consideration by the Special Master. Based upon those de-designations, the Special Master released the 12 items to the Government that day,” Jones wrote. Jones, a former federal judge, is reviewing the hundreds of thousands of documents seized in the raids to see what can be released to the government and what is protected by attorney-client privilege. Cohen recorded a conversation he had with President Donald Trump in 2016 about possible payments to a media company for a story about Karen McDougal, the Playboy playmate who claims to have had an affair with Trump in 2006, The New York Times reported Friday. It is unclear whether the…
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Dear Tennessee Star, We all witnessed an historic change in American politics with the election of Donald Trump as President in November of 2016. A man who never held a political office of any kind defeated all the primary candidates of the Republican A-Team. A group so strong that the late Charles Krauthammer stated there was never a better group of candidates assembled in any prior election. The Republican Party was certainly confident that one of their establishment candidates would rise to the top with ease. Their first but not last choice of course was Jeb Bush. They backed Jeb with all the considerable money and connections they possessed. In any prior election cycle it would have been all over but the music for the remainder of the Republican candidates. What we all learned however is that 2016 was no normal election cycle. The movers and shakers of the political world had somehow lost both their bark and their bite. Even the media elites could not resurrect the campaign of “low energy Jeb,” as one of the candidates called him. Of course today you know I refer to Donald Trump who won the primary and went on to win…
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The blockbuster poll released on Monday that shows Williamson County businessman Bill Lee leading the Republican gubernatorial primary for the first time was conducted by a firm that has ties to consultants to the Lee campaign, new documents reveal. When Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee announced his candidacy in April, 2017 he indicated that Blake Harris and Jordan Gehrke would be serving as general consultants for his campaign. The Tennessee Star has learned that Lee’s campaign team, and vendors, have direct ties to JMC Analytics and Polling, the polling firm that claims Bill Lee is leading in the Governor’s race. The Lee campaign did not disclose their connections to the polling firm as they have promoted the results of the supposedly independent poll, which calls into question the accuracy of the polling data. “JMC Analytics and Polling independently conducted this poll for the Tennessee Republican primary for Governor,” the polling firm asserted in a statement on Monday when it released the poll showing Bill Lee leading the Tennessee Republican gubernatorial primary, just one week and three days before the August 2 primary election. Lee faces Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd, Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06), and Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) in…
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