Day: August 27, 2018

President Trump Announces New Trade Deal Pending With Mexico, Stock Market Jumps Up

Tennessee Star Staff
Donald Trump

President Donald Trump’s Monday morning announcement of a pending new trade deal with Mexico generated new intraday record highs in the stock markets. Details of the negotiated arrangement are expected to be released soon. Most trade experts believe that a bilateral deal with Mexico increases pressure on Canada to make a deal with the U.S. as well. Renegotiation of NAFTA was one of Trump’s campaign promises. Trump announced the tentative agreement with Mexico from the Oval Office with with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto joining by telephone. “It’s a big day for trade. It’s a big day for our country,” Trump told reporters assembled for the announcement. The deal could lead to an overhaul of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), though Trump indicated the new trade deal would have a new name. Trump said he wanted to get rid of the name “NAFTA” because it has bad connotations. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump often railed against the trade pact as “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere.” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill, a former U.S. trade official in the Bush and Clinton Administrations, said the deal still needs some work — and Congressional approval — before…

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Tim Burchett and Eddie Smith Campaign at the Battle of Broadway in Knoxville

Tennessee Star Staff

When one of the biggest rivalries in Knoxville takes to the football field you can expect the event to attract a few political candidates catching the action while trying to scoop up a few votes in the process. Thursday night Fulton and Central swapped hits in the annual BATTLE OF BROADWAY, and Republican Congressional candidate (and County Mayor for a few more days) Tim Burchett and Republican State Representative Eddie Smith were on the sidelines. The home team Central Bobcats lost to the visiting Fulton Falcons 18-9. Both Burchett and Smith are hoping to avoid the same fate in their November 6 general election matchups. Burchett is facing off against liberal Democrat Renee Hoyos in the heavily Republican 2nd Congressional District. Hoyos has been endorsed by the left wing group Indivisible that is seeing to create a “blue wave” across the country. The anti-Trump group is funded by far left progressives and has ties to George Soros. Another anti-Trump groups, Women’s March, has also endorsed Hoyos. The two recently appeared on Knoxville’s WBIR Inside Tennessee political show. There are several issues that separate the two, from increased border security and a wall on the U.S. – Mexico border (Burchett for; Hoyos against),…

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Dick Durbin Immediately Politicizes Jacksonville Mass Shooting, Attacks NRA

Tennessee Star Staff

by Peter Hasson Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin didn’t wait for all the facts about the mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday before politicizing the tragedy and using it to attack the National Rifle Association (NRA). Three people including the shooter died in Sunday’s mass shooting, which took place at a qualifying event for the Madden 19 video game tournament — a gun-free zone. Before it was known how the shooter acquired his gun and what — if any — legislative changes would have prevented him from acquiring it, Durbin pointed a finger at the NRA. “I’m heartbroken for Jacksonville. No community should have to suffer from such senseless gun violence,” he wrote on Twitter. “When will Congress have the courage to stand up to the NRA and pass meaningful reforms to help prevent these shootings in America?” Durbin’s fellow Illinois Democrat, Rep. Robin Kelly, similarly used Sunday’s shooting to attack Republicans and the NRA. “This must not become routine. @SpeakerRyan and @HouseGOP take action now,” Kelly wrote on Twitter. “Reject @NRA money. Take action on gun reform legislation. Now. #NeverAgain Not. One More.” The Democratic National Committee repeatedly fundraised off of the Parkland school shooting in February that…

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Commentary: If Republicans Care About Winning in 2018 They’ll Play Follow the Leader

Tennessee Star Staff
Donald Trump

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Here’s a little quiz for you: what do West Virginia, Montana, Missouri, Florida, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio have in common? It’s an easy one for close watchers of the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, since all of these are states President Donald Trump won in 2016 and now feature Democrat incumbent senators running for (their lives and) Trump on immigration. Much has been made about the GOP’s golden opportunity to gain seats this year in states where large numbers of “deplorables” make up the voting population. Time will tell whether Republicans take advantage of the very favorable map. It should also be noted Democrats see Arizona and Nevada as possible pick-up chances for their side, considering the Grand Canyon State contains a sizeable Hispanic population (assumed by the media to be anti-Trump) and incumbent Sen. Jeff Flake is “retiring,” leaving his seat open. Right next door in the Silver State (which Hillary Clinton stole thanks to the presence of huge casino worker unions) where incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller is widely seen as a wishy-washy RINO who doesn’t inspire many people. We’ll see. Additionally there’s currently a tight race in Tennessee with…

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Media Bias: Baltimore Sun Columnist Says Press Should Assume Donald Trump Is Always Lying

Tennessee Star Staff

by Nick Givas Baltimore Sun media critic David Zurawik called President Donald Trump a liar on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday and said the press should just assume he’s always being dishonest. “Now we’ve got a president who says I cannot tell a truth about anything, just check me out. Fact check. So in my piece I said, look, I write commentary so I have more latitude, but I’m done with it … is it a lie, what’s his intent?” Zurawik said. “Who could know intent with this man? He lies every minute, he changes his story second to second.” Zurawik said it would be easier to operate under the assumption that Trump is lying and then go back to perform a reverse fact check to search for kernels of truth. “We should just say he’s lying, folks. Start from that premise. He’s a liar. Okay. If you can prove he’s not telling a lie, great. We should fact-check him backwards maybe, see if anything he’s telling us is true,” Zurawik said. “I think we’ve wrestled with it long enough for 18 months that we can call him a liar without being self-conscious and nervous about it, even by some of…

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Two Interim Judges Named As Scandal Brings Down The Entire West Virginia Supreme Court

Tennessee Star Staff
West Virginia Supreme Court

by Kevin Daley   Gov. Jim Justice appointed U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and former House of Delegates Speaker Tim Armstead to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. The state Supreme Court is in the grips of a sprawling public corruption scandal, as three justices on the five-member panel have been impeached, while the other two resigned. Jenkins and Armstead will both serve interim terms, and seek a full term on the court in the November elections. GOP Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia appointed two candidates to interim terms on the state Supreme Court, after the resignation of two justices and the impeachment of three more left the state’s highest judicial tribunal embattled and shorthanded. The governor selected U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, a Republican representing the southern swath of the state in Congress, and former House of Delegates Speaker Tim Armstead for the positions. “We’ve lost some level of confidence and some level of trust,” Justice said at a Saturday press conference, in reference to the high court. “And on a nationwide basis it’s cast a black eye. What we need to do more than anything is repair, move on and show the nation how committed we are as…

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Home Care Workers Support Trump Regulation Limiting Unions’ Dues Collecting

Tennessee Star Staff
senior citizen health care

By Richard McCarty   For years, some blue states have been automatically deducting union dues from the checks of Medicaid caregivers. Many of these caregivers are relatives or friends of the person they care for and did not wish to join a union. The main beneficiary of this dues skim is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Under Obama, a rule was implemented to authorize this scheme. Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a rule that would rescind the Obama-Era regulation. If the proposed rule takes effect, only deductions specifically permitted by law, such as court-ordered wage garnishments or child support payments, will be allowed. Of course, any caregivers who wish to join or remain in a union will still be able to do so; they will just need to make arrangements to pay their dues. Although it might seem to be an obscure or unimportant issue, there is a lot at stake here. For example, it has been estimated that SEIU collects $200 million a year by skimming dues from 500,000 caregivers. As part of the rule-making process, CMS requested comments on the proposed rule, and over 6,000 comments were submitted during the month-long…

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Commentary: 40 Years Of Congress Not Proposing Any Constitutional Amendments Does Not Mean That Changes To The Constitution Are Not Wanted

Gregory Watson

August 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the very last time that Congress proposed an amendment to the United States Constitution. It was on August 22, 1978, that the 95th Congress offered to the state legislatures for ratification a constitutional amendment that–had it been ratified by the required number of states within its 7-year deadline on August 22, 1985–would have granted to Washington, D.C. two United States Senators and however many members of the United States House of Representatives the District of Columbia’s population would have warranted. But the lack of action by Congress over the past four decades in proposing constitutional amendments certainly has not meant that there is no desire among Americans to change the federal Constitution. Gaining momentum during that same decade of the 1970s was a movement within the state legislatures to trigger the calling of an “Article V Convention” whereby state lawmakers may largely–but not entirely–bypass a recalcitrant Congress and push for a federal constitutional amendment that, perhaps, Congress might understandably prefer to suppress.  In this particular case, that would be an amendment requiring the federal budget to be in balance. Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides in pertinent part:  “The Congress…on the application…

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Cohen Attorney Backtracks on Claim That Trump Had Advance Knowledge of Russian Hacking

Tennessee Star Staff

by Chuck Ross Lanny Davis says he does not know whether President Trump had advance knowledge of Russian hacks of Democrats Earlier this week, Davis said that his client, Michael Cohen, had information linking Trump to the hacks Now he claims that he merely had an ‘instinct’ about what Trump knew Lanny Davis, an attorney for Michael Cohen, is backtracking from his stunning claim earlier this week that President Trump had advance knowledge of Russian hacking efforts. During interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday, Davis laid out a grave allegation against Trump, saying that Cohen had information that would be of interest to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, including about Russian hacking of Democrats’ emails. In an interview Tuesday with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Davis said that Cohen, a former lawyer for Trump, has “knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on.” An in an interview on Wednesday, Davis said that his client “has information that would be of interest to Mr. Mueller in his probe of a conspiracy to corrupt American democracy, very similar to the indictment of the 12 Russians.” Davis’ allegations, if accurate,…

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Democrat Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall Endorses Democrat Senate Candidate Phil Bredesen As Crime in City Increases

Tennessee Star Staff
Phil Bredesen, Darron Hall

In yet another display of the partisan support that Phil Bredesen, Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate, has generated, Nashville’s Democrat Sheriff Daron Hall has tweeted his endorsement of his party’s nominee. As a law enforcement official I can tell you…we need a person who will deal with this issue….@PhilBredesen is that person… https://t.co/GXHGg4Bhp8 — Daron Hall (@DaronHall7) August 25, 2018 Davidson County, where Hall recently won reelection in August, was carried by Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a 60-34% margin while Trump carried the entire state by a 61-35% margin. Davidson County was one of only three of Tennessee’s 95 counties to vote for Clinton over Trump. Tennessee Star political editor Steve Gill points out that a Democrat elected official in what is arguably the most heavily Democratic county in the state, other than Memphis/Shelby County, endorsing a Democrat is not exactly a “profile in courage.” Phil Bredesen is former Mayor of Nashville and should carry it handily so the impact of the Hall tweet outside the county lines will be limited, Gill adds. “As Tennesseans see the violent crime rate in Nashville continue to spiral out of control, and with even more murders happening just this…

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