Day: August 30, 2018

Steve Cohen Blocks Critics on Twitter

Chris Butler
Steve Cohen

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, is prone to fits of hyperbole and spastic verbal outbursts, mostly directed at Republican politicians, seemingly the bane of his existence. There’s that time he warned of a massive outbreak of Ebola if Republicans didn’t expand Medicaid in Tennessee. There’s that time he compared Republicans to Nazi propagandists Joseph Goebbels. Heck, most recently he said Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn should kill herself. But Cohen evidently can’t handle what he throws out, even when what he gets back is sarcasm — and nowhere near the verbal overkill he’s delinquent of. This, according to Twitchy.com this week. Cohen blocked the account of Twitter user Sean Spicier, a parody account and a play on the name of President Donald Trump’s former White House communications front man Sean Spicer. “Our favorite parody account and yours, @Sean_Spicier, seems to have gotten himself blocked by the one and only Rep. Steve Cohen,” the website reported. “Granted, Cohen blocks anyone with a pulse who disagrees with him even slightly but part of us would like to think the representative who wanted to award Peter Strzok the Purple Heart for ****-talking Trump thought for just a moment Spicer himself was busting on…

Read the full story

Keith Ellison’s Smear Campaign Against His Opponent Continues While He Avoids Accusations

Anthony Gockowski
Keith Ellison

Keith Ellison’s campaign for Minnesota attorney general is smearing Republican opponent Doug Wardlow for previously working for an organization labeled an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). “Wardlow has proudly worked for an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled an anti-LGBTQ ‘hate group,’ testified against allowing trans students to use the restroom of their choice, and called the United States Supreme Court’s decision legalizing marriage equality a ‘totalitarian impulse,’” Ellison’s team wrote in an August 27 Facebook post. The SPLC, however, often smears “good people with false charges of bigotry,” as Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen recently wrote, saying the organization has “lost all credibility.” In fact, SPLC was sued earlier this year by former Islamic radical Maajid Nawaz for including him in its “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” The SPLC eventually reached a settlement with Nawaz, and was forced to make a public apology. Nonetheless, liberals like Ellison continue to push the SPLC’s characterization of conservatives as “extremists,” with the former Democratic congressman questioning his opponent’s views on “civil rights laws.” “On the anniversary of the March on Washington, Minnesotans deserve to know if Wardlow would enforce the civil rights laws Rev. Dr. Martin King…

Read the full story

Koch Network Launches Massive Ad Campaign to Bring Down Dem Senate Candidates in Key States, Including Tennessee

Anthony Gockowski
Phil Bredesen

The Koch Network is preparing to launch a multi-million dollar ad campaign across three swing-states in the hopes of bringing down key Democrats in the midterm elections. Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a Koch-backed group, announced Wednesday that it would spend $820,000 in Wisconsin, $2.1 million in Missouri, and another $2 million in Tennessee, according to CNBC. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who has already faced $5 million in attack ads thus far, is outed for opposing the GOP tax bill and backing a $1.3 trillion spending bill in AFP’s latest ad. “For Tammy Baldwin, it’s higher taxes and more spending. Higher sales taxes, higher income taxes, higher energy taxes, voting for $1.3 trillion in spending. We can’t afford Tammy Baldwin,” the ad states, praising Baldwin’s Republican opponent Leah Vukmir. In Tennessee, the Koch network is going after former governor Phil Bredesen, who is now seeking a Senate seat, for spending $9 million on remodeling the governor’s mansion at the expense of taxpayers. “While we struggled through a recession, Bredesen wasted 9 million taxpayer dollars upgrading his governor’s mansion, $4 million on a party cave, gilded bathrooms, and a kitchen worth two Tennessee homes,” the ad states. “Phil Bredesen lived the…

Read the full story

TV and Film Producers Who Cheat Tennessee Taxpayers Might Go to Jail

Chris Butler
tv film production

A federal appeals court just ruled that states that hand out TV and film credits — as Tennessee does — can prosecute people who lie or mislead to get those corporate welfare benefits. Tennessee gave out millions of dollars in incentives to the fictionalized TV drama “Nashville” and more than $300,000 in incentives to the Robin Williams film “Boulevard.” That movie, filmed in Nashville in 2013, was about a man who starts a relationship with a male prostitute. According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled film and TV tax credits are property and thus subject to federal mail and wire fraud laws. That means states can better monitor fraud involving TV and film tax credits. The case, United States vs. Hoffman, involved film and TV tax credits in Louisiana. The court ruled “the fraudulent issuance of those credits would deplete the state treasury, meaning Louisiana had a property interest in the tax credits and could prosecute for fraud in relation thereto,” according to Bloomberg. Members of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a Nashville-based free market think tank, have spoken out against those tax credits for years. Beacon spokesman Mark Cunningham told The Tennessee Star…

Read the full story

Commentary: Trump Kills NAFTA

Admin
Donald Trump

by CHQ Staff   President Donald Trump has fulfilled another campaign promise and effectively killed the never “free” North American Free Trade Agreement by concluding a separate preliminary United States–Mexico Trade Agreement that modernizes and rebalances the trade relationship between the two countries. According to a White House news release this is the first time that a modern United States trade agreement has been renegotiated. In a live telephone conversation with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, President Trump said, “…they used to call it NAFTA.  We’re going to call it the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement, and we’ll get rid of the name NAFTA.  It has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by NAFTA for many years.  And now it’s a really good deal for both countries, and we look very much forward to it.” Defying the critics who said that Trump was alienating Mexico, President Peña Nieto said through an interpreter, “And I’m really grateful, Mr. President.  I want to say that you — I greatly recognize and acknowledge your political will and your participation in this.” President Peña Nieto also noted, “I think this is something very positive for the United States and Mexico. …

Read the full story

Special Counsel Robert Mueller Used Hillary Clinton’s ‘Enemies List’ Disguised As an Intelligence Document

Admin
Robert Mueller

By Robert Romano   When you get right down to it, almost every person being targeted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller or targeted by the Justice Department in 2016 and 2017 via the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court was named in the Christopher Steele dossier, which was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC. It was Hillary Clinton’s enemies list, dressed up as an intelligence document, that attempted to make the case that then-candidate Donald Trump and his campaign were Russian agents. It was then used to obtain FISA warrants against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. George Papadopoulos was also named and stands out as somebody who was not explicitly named by Steele, at least in the version of the dossier that was published by Buzzfeed (we have yet to see the rest of Steele’s work product). But let’s look at who did appear in the Steele dossier. Donald Trump. Michael Cohen. Carter Page. Paul Manafort. Michael Flynn. All are now targets of the Justice Department and the special counsel. But none have been accused by the Department of assisting Russia with hacking the DNC and John Podesta emails and putting them on Wikileaks — Steele’s central…

Read the full story

Open Borders Bring a Higher Risk of Disease

Admin
chest x-ray

by Walter Williams   The Immigration and Nationality Act mandates that all immigrants and refugees undergo a medical screening examination to determine whether they have an inadmissible health condition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has technical instructions for medical examination of prospective immigrants in their home countries before they are permitted to enter the U.S. They are screened for communicable and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, polio, measles, mumps, and HIV. They are also tested for syphilis, gonorrhea, and other sexually transmitted diseases. The CDC also has medical screening guidelines for refugees. These screenings are usually performed 30 to 90 days after refugees arrive in the United States. But what about people who enter our country illegally? The CDC specifically cites the possibility of the cross-border movement of HIV, measles, pertussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, tuberculosis, shigellosis, and syphilis. Chris Cabrera, a Border Patrol agent in South Texas, warned: “What’s coming over into the U.S. could harm everyone. We are starting to see scabies, chickenpox, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections, and different viruses.” Some of the youngsters illegally entering our country are known to be carrying lice and suffering from various illnesses. Because there have been…

Read the full story

1990 Federal Law Will Cost Gallatin Taxpayers $5.5 Million

Chris Butler

Gallatin officials will spend $5.5 million of taxpayer money to satisfy the requirements of the nearly 30-year-old federal Americans With Disabilities Act. JamiAnn Hannah, risk manager for the city attorney’s office, told The Tennessee Star taxpayers will pay for the changes “because it’s the right thing to do.” She also said if it doesn’t get done then the city stands to lose a substantial chunk of state and federal grant money. Hannah said she wasn’t a Gallatin employee in 1990, when the law went into effect. She said she doesn’t know why city officials didn’t work back then to comply. When asked, Hannah said the changes are not urgent and that she and other city officials help the disabled, regardless of government mandates. “I haven’t had any complaints per se (about compliance with the law). No one has come in and said ‘That cabinet is too high. I can’t see anything that is going on.’ We always accommodate, and that is one of the things we continue to strive to do and do currently,” Hannah said. “If I can’t see someone because there is a counter in my way then I will move that counter, I will go to that…

Read the full story

Bredesen Lived the Life, Tennesseans Paid the Bill, Ad Says

Jason M. Reynolds
Phil Bredesen

Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee (AFP-TN) on Wednesday announced a new seven-figure investment in television and digital advertisements highlighting Phil Bredesen’s record as a big spender and supporter of higher taxes. Americans for Prosperity is spending $2 million on the new ad that is hitting the airwaves statewide today. The ad is available to view here. The ad exposes the Democrat’s support of higher taxes and out-of-control spending while governor. Bredesen is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bob Corker, who is retiring. AFP-TN announced it has mobilized its activists and launched grassroots activities in support of U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is running for the Senate seat on the Republican ticket. AFP-Tennessee State Director Tori Venable said, “Phil Bredesen’s rhetoric of fiscal responsibility won’t fool Tennesseans; his record speaks for itself. During his time in office, Bredesen supported tax and fee increases that hurt Tennesseans while times were tough and our economy was in a tailspin. And despite Bredesen’s claims to be fiscally responsible, there’s nothing responsible about lavishing nearly $9 million taxpayer dollars on a renovation to the governor’s mansion. Tennesseans don’t want a senator who says one thing and then does another, but that is what they’ll get…

Read the full story