Day: October 8, 2018

Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson Endorses Bill Lee for Governor

Jason M. Reynolds

The leader of Tennessee’s largest school district is supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee, education news website Chalkbeat reported. Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said Lee would be “open-minded and solutions-oriented” on issues important to him such as “improving testing, raising teacher pay, supporting students’ social and emotional needs and adopting multiple strategies to improve public education in Tennessee.” Hopson’s endorsement is his first. Memphis reliably votes Democrat in an otherwise Republican state. However, Hopson has in recent years reached out to Republican lawmakers. He has disagreed with the Tennessee Department of Education over whether to pause the flawed TNReady testing. Lee, a businessman and farmer, touted Hopson’s support during a debate last week against his opponent Karl Dean, a Democrat and former Nashville mayor. Lee praised the Innovation Zone, a school improvement program in Shelby County Schools that has boosted test scores for students at chronically low-performing schools in impoverished neighborhoods. Hopson said Lee reached out to him to meet about a year and a half ago when Lee was considering running for governor. “We routinely discussed faith, family, government and education issues,” Hopson told Chalkbeat. “I appreciated the thoughtful and humble way that he sought my input.”…

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Taylor Swift, Who Moved to New York City in 2014 After Purchasing $20 Million Condo, Endorses ‘Fibber Phil’ Bredesen

Jason M. Reynolds

Pop superstar Taylor Swift has a political crush on Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, having used Instagram to endorse both Democrats in their races. The New York Daily News reported her saying: In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love. Democratic former Governor Bredesen is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Bob Corker (R-TN). U.S. Representative Cooper (D-TN-07) is running for re-election in Nashville, where he has served since 2003. If…

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Nashville’s November Ballot Legislation Can Undermine Tennessee’s New Anti-Sanctuary City Law

Chris Alto

On November 6th, Davidson County voters will decide whether to accept “Amendment #1” and establish a $1.5 million civilian board to oversee the city’s police department. The proposed legislation would establish a Community Oversight Board (COB) with very broad disciplinary authority over the Metro Nashville Police Department. If the charter amendment is approved by voters, an unelected board of community activists will also be authorized to recommend policy changes for the police department and other “agencies involved in public safety and the administration of justice.” Broad and vague language vesting the COB with input into law enforcement policy may well result in  undermining Tennessee’s enhanced anti-sanctuary city law passed by the state General Assembly session during the last session. Notably, per Amendment #1, a Davidson County resident’s illegal immigration status does not disqualify an illegal alien from serving on the board. Asked to review Amendment #1 posted on the Davidson County Election Commission website, Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR) confirmed to The Tennessee Star that: there is nothing in the language that would preclude illegal aliens from serving on the review board. We find it highly objectionable that people whose very presence in the community…

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Commentary: Decisive Political Victory is the Only Way to End This Cold Civil War

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Tennessee Star

by Ryan Williams   As even NeverTrump Republicans are coming around – grudgingly, and with caveats, of course – to recognizing the stakes in our ongoing domestic political fights, it is perhaps impolite to note: Some of us drew these conclusions quite a long time ago. The last two weeks of psychodrama in the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight should count as strong – if not ironclad – evidence of the soundness of my colleague Michael Anton’s prediction in September 2016 about the trajectory and style of Democratic Party rule in the coming years. He wrote that such rule, should it come, “will be coupled with a level of vindictive persecution against resistance and dissent. We see this already in the censorship practiced by the Davoisie’s social media enablers; in the shameless propaganda tidal wave of the mainstream media; and in the personal destruction campaigns—operated through the former and aided by the latter—of the Social Justice Warriors…” Plenty has been written about the absurdity of running a republic by way of whisper campaigns, uncorroborated smears, and malicious innuendo. There is no need to rehash the mistreatment—some of it irrevocably damaging—of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. What’s important to remember is that this will now be the new norm of nomination battles. It…

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Commentary: The U.S. Constitution Narrowly Prevailed Over Mob Rule And Character-Assassination

Gregory Watson

On October 6, 2018, now-Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was formally confirmed by the U.S. Senate — in a rare Saturday session — with a slender vote of 50 yeas and 48 nays in the 100-member body. Both of Tennessee’s Senators, Republicans Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, cast their votes in favor of Kavanaugh joining the highest court in the land. The last time that someone gained membership onto the High Court by such a close margin was on May 12, 1881, when Thomas Stanley Matthews (nominated by President James Garfield) squeaked by with 24 yeas and 23 nays in the Senate.  Matthews went on to distinguish himself on the Court as a foe of racial discrimination when he wrote the Opinion in the 1886 case of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, striking down the City of San Francisco’s then-policies of restricting the ability of Chinese immigrants in that city — and placing extraneous procedural obstacles in their path — to establish businesses there, thus infringing upon the federal Constitution’s 14th Amendment. A short time after this past Saturday’s 50-48 vote, Chief Justice John Roberts administered the official oath to Kavanaugh as the 114th Justice of the Supreme Court, thereby…

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In Cuba, Healthcare Is a Right and Their Doctors are Rebelling: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

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by Joseph Sunde   “You are trained in Cuba and our education is free. Health care is free, but at what price? You wind up paying for it your whole life.” –Dr. Yaili Jiménez Gutierrez In 2013, the World Health Organization brokered a deal through which Cuba would export doctors to Brazil to serve in its poorest and most remote areas. Yet as Brazil began to reap the benefits of improved care and decreased mortality rates, the Cuban doctors began to see their home’s regime in a new light. “When you leave Cuba for the first time, you discover many things that you had been blind to,” says Yaili Jiménez Gutierrez, one of the program’s doctors, in a New York Times profile. “There comes a time when you get tired of being a slave.” The Cuban doctors began noticing the disparity in their government’s “take” from the Brazilian government — nearly four times their own salary — as well as the higher wages and greater freedoms enjoyed by their fellow “export doctors” from other participating countries. “We began to see that the conditions for the other doctors were totally different,” Jiménez explains. “They could be with their family, bring their kids. The salaries were…

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Cory Gardner’s Family Members Doxxed, Wife Sent Graphic Video of Beheading

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by Jason Hopkins   Several family members of Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner have had their names and home addresses made public, and Gardner’s wife has received a “gruesome” video of a beheading. A spokesman for Gardner has confirmed to The Daily Caller News Foundation that his family has been doxxed and graphic footage of a beheading was sent via text message to his wife. The Colorado senator — who has invoked furor from liberal activists for voting in favor of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — first revealed the doxxing to Fox News. Amid Kavanaugh furor & threats to mbrs, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) tells Fox that his wife received a text with a video attachment showing a gruesome beheading. Someone has has also released the names of and addresses of his family members. — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 7, 2018 “The tweet is accurate,” Gardner press secretary Casey Contres said to TheDCNF on Sunday, also suggesting that his office may go into further detail at a later time. Gardner is not the first Republican senator to be doxxed amid the Kavanaugh nomination frenzy. Jackson A. Cosko, 27, a congressional staffer who most recently worked for Democratic Rep. Sheila…

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‘Don’t Screw Us Over,’ Ohio Workers Warn Candidates

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by Ramon Taylor   Brandy Corwin likes that she can now wear makeup and nice clothes to work. That is because she is no longer working on the assembly line at the General Motors plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. “I was laid off multiple times, and having a family, you can’t rely on that,” she said. For the past five months, Corwin, 28, has been working at Credit Adjustments, Inc. (CAI), a debt collection agency headquartered in her hometown of Defiance, Ohio, an hour outside the city of Toledo. Corwin was a third-generation manufacturing worker and thought the assembly line was her fate. But now, she no longer has to work overtime and weekends to make ends meet. “I finally have a good work-to-home life balance,” she said, “and I didn’t have that before.” Her two children “love seeing me come home dressed up,” Corwin said. “My son, he compliments me all the time: Wow, Mommy, your hair looks really nice,’ or ‘Wow, Mom, I love your dress,’ because I’m not walking home in dirty jeans and steel-toe boots.” CAI opened its first area call center in downtown Toledo last January, providing 60 new job opportunities, with the goal of adding…

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Analysis: Kavanaugh Fight Sharpens the Stakes for Midterms

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voters polling place

The bitter battle over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court has exacerbated the nation’s political divide and left many Americans emotionally raw. It’s also given new definition to the high stakes of November’s election. Until now, the fight for control of Congress has largely been viewed as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s first two years in office. But the turmoil surrounding Kavanaugh has transformed the midterms into something bigger than Trump, with implications that could endure long after his presidency. The election is suddenly layered with charged cultural questions about the scarcity of women in political power, the handling of sexual assault allegations, and shifting power dynamics that have left some white men uneasy about their place in American life. Both parties contend the new contours of the race will energize their supporters in the election’s final stretch. Both may be right. Republicans, however, may benefit most in the short term. Until now, party leaders, Trump included, have struggled to rev up GOP voters, even with a strong economy to campaign on. The president’s middling job approval rating and independent voters’ disdain for his constant personal attacks have been a drag on GOP candidates, particularly in the more…

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Nashville Oversight Board Might Drive Away Police, Steve Glover Warns

Chris Butler
Steve Glover

If Nashville voters say yes to a referendum to create a community oversight board over police then, long-term, many officers will feel less valued and they will resign, said Metro Nashville Council member Steve Glover. “They (the officers) will leave us. They will say bye. They already have a hard-enough job,” Glover told The Tennessee Star. “I’m not just talking about police. I am talking about first responders. Everyone. They will say bye because we apparently don’t appreciate them. I do appreciate them, but if we keep pushing and pushing and pushing as we are doing now then this is a dangerous place to go.” As reported, this proposed oversight board, assuming the referendum passes, would have 11 members. Seven of those members would come from any part of Davidson County. The remaining four would come from Nashville’s economically distressed communities. Board members could only recommend what the police chief should do, said Theeda Murphy, spokeswoman for Community Oversight Now, which pushed for the referendum. “The board will not discipline anybody,” Murphy told The Star. “Every avenue of due process already available will still be available.” Metro Nashville Council members get to decide who serves, Murphy said. Murphy said she…

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Courts Suspend Trial Lawyer’s License Trying to Extort Billions From Chevron

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by Tim Pearce   The D.C. Court of Appeals stripped Steven R. Donziger of his license to practice law in D.C. Sept. 14, leaving him unable to practice law anywhere in the U.S., Legal News Line reports. Donziger led a lawsuit against the oil and gas company Chevron for allegedly causing environmental and social harm to the Amazon region of Ecuador. Donziger previously lost his license to practice law in New York after the New York Supreme Court suspended it in July. He had only been licensed to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C., so he has effectively been banned from practicing law in the U.S., according to Legal News Line. “Because Judge [Lewis A. Kaplan’s] findings constitute uncontroverted evidence of serious professional misconduct which immediately threatens the public interest, respondent should be immediately suspended,” the New York Appellate Division of the Supreme Court wrote in its decision to suspend Donziger, Legal News Line reported. After an Ecuador court issued an $18 billion judgement against Chevron in February 2011, Donziger appeared that he would win the case. The judgement was later reduced to $9.5 billion, then a U.S. district court in New York nullified the judgement due to fraudulent and illegal activities by Donziger, according to…

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Four Big Threats Vice President Mike Pence Says China Poses to US

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Mike Pence

by Fred Lucas   The Chinese have attempted to spy on some 30 U.S. companies, the White House says, also warning that Beijing is meddling with U.S. elections. Those are among the reasons Vice President Mike Pence amplified the Trump administration’s assertion that it will no longer play nice with the Chinese communist regime. “Beijing is employing a whole-of-government approach, using political, economic, and military tools, as well as propaganda, to advance its influence and benefit its interests in the United States,” Pence said Thursday, speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington. While much of the media coverage of Pence’s remarks focused on election meddling, the vice president also discussed cybersecurity and Beijing’s increasing militarism, and called for American companies to be on guard in dealing with China. Here are four key threats Chinese policies pose to the U.S., according to the vice president. 1. Cyber-espionage Chinese spies found vulnerabilities in the U.S. technology supply chain to infiltrate computer networks of nearly 30 U.S. companies, including Apple and Amazon, as well as banks and federal contractors, Bloomberg Businessweek first reported Thursday, the same day Pence took China to task. The federal contractors included companies that have worked with the Central Intelligence Agency…

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Poll: Marsha Blackburn Now Leads ‘Fibber Phil’ Bredesen by 8 Points

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) leads Phil Bredesen in the U.S. Senate race by eight points, 50 percent to 42 percent, CBS News reported in a new Battleground Tracker poll. CBS says that in this race and several others where Democrats hope to win upset Senate victories, they are “having at best mixed results so far.” Those other states are Texas and Arizona. Democrats are having better luck in typically blue New Jersey. [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cbs-poll.pdf” title=”cbs poll”] These races have been nationalized, CBS said. By more than two to one, registered voters say national issues outweigh local ones. Voters say their vote is mainly about the country’s direction. Majorities of each candidate’s voters say they aim to put their party in control. Those who say they support either Blackburn or Democratic former Governor Bredesen say their level of support is “very strong” (62 percent) vs. “strong” (24 percent). Voters feel relatively more satisfied about the country’s direction in Texas and Tennessee — where the Republicans lead and where President Trump is more popular — compared to voters in New Jersey and Arizona, where the president’s approval rating is under 50 percent. Trump looms large in each of these contests. In…

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