Day: November 8, 2018

Phil Bredesen Supporters Threaten on Twitter to Leave Tennessee

Chris Butler

Some of Phil Bredesen’s most ardent supporters are so furious over his election loss Tuesday they’re threatening to pack up and leave Tennessee forever, according to public posts they’ve made on social media. According to those posts, some of them are sounding the alarm to progressive thinkers all around the country and warning them never to move to the Volunteer State. Some of them were quite candid over their disgust with Marsha Blackburn and the people who voted for her. If you voted for Blackburn, more than a few of them said, then your mother most likely works in a profession of ill repute — but that’s just the polite version of what they actually said. Their exact quotes on the matter are unsuitable for print and do not meet The Tennessee Star’s content standards. These angry people also like to use the F-word — a lot. The Star, however, will only embed the family-friendly posts. To politely paraphrase what Twitter user “thedarthsarah,” said in her (very) early morning tweet, she wants to leave the state — now. Facebook user Mia Sagara, meanwhile, said she’s on her way out, because Bredesen lost. “I’ve never had any kind of + expectations…

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Audit Blasts Tennessee State Veterans’ Home As Unsafe

Chris Butler

The folks who run the Tennessee State Veterans’ Home and its four facilities didn’t do enough background checks before hiring staff members, according to a new report from the Tennessee Comptrollers’ office. They also didn’t do enough to address residents’ complaints, and they failed to report illegal conduct at the facility, auditors went on to say. These were among only a few of the findings Comptrollers reported in a lengthy and detailed audit. The TSVH have four locations for veterans in Clarksville, Humboldt, Knoxville, and Murfreesboro. In an email, TSVH Executive Director Ed Harries told The Tennessee Star he and other administrators have an action plan to do better. Regardless, Comptrollers said there is a lot of room for improvement. “Our audit work revealed that during the period January 1, 2015, through June 1, 2018, Tennessee State Veterans’ Homes Board management did not notify our office of at least three instances of possible unlawful conduct regarding administrative matters in a reasonable amount of time,” Comptrollers wrote. Auditors, though, did not specify what types of illegal conduct took place. TSVH officials also did not check all employees for criminal backgrounds. They did not check them for abuse registry or sex offender…

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Despite Opposition From Some Democrats, Pelosi Likely to Be House Speaker Again

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by Fred Lucas   During the 2018 election campaign cycle, nearly 60 Democratic House candidates and incumbents said they would not vote for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California to become speaker again if their party retakes control of the House. Dozens of other Democratic candidates declined to give a definitive answer when asked if they supported making Pelosi speaker again. Nevertheless, most analyst predicted she would take the speaker’s gavel in January if party control flips. “I think there is a 10 percent chance she’s in trouble,” said Tom Del Beccaro, former chairman of the California Republican Party. “She is a prodigious fundraiser and will keep her leadership.” As of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, with results still being counted, Democrats had gained three more seats than the 23 they needed to regain control of the House for the first time since 2010. (In the Senate, Republicans had picked up four seats–in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota–to increase their majority.) Pelosi served as the first female speaker of the House for four years after Democrats captured the House of Representatives in 2006, until Republicans took it back in the 2010 midterm elections. But she has been an unpopular figure with…

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State Department Cancels Next Round of North Korea Talks Without Explanation

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by Will Racke   An upcoming round of high-level talks between the U.S. and North Korea has been postponed, the Department of State announced early Wednesday morning. “The meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, which had been scheduled for Thursday in New York, will now take place at a later date,” department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement. “We will reconvene when our respective schedules permit, she added. Ongoing conversations continue to take place.” Nauert did not provide a specific reason for the cancellation of Thursday’s meeting, which had been touted as a warm-up for a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in early 2019. Just days ago, Pompeo said he expected to achieve “some real progress” on nuclear disarmament during the meeting with Kim Yong Chol. “I’m confident that we’ll advance the ball again this week when I’m in New York City,” he said Sunday on CBS’s Face The Nation. Instead, the ongoing nuclear talks appear to have hit another snag over major differences in how to proceed with the denuclearization process. North Korea has demanded that any moves it makes toward dismantling its…

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Commentary: 2018’s Split Decision Goes to Donald Trump and His Senate Republicans

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   “Donald Trump is the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election.” The call didn’t come from any news desk – or even a professional paid prognosticator like Karl Rove – but you can’t help but predict the president, when faced with the soon to be over-the-top antics of a Democrat House majority, will enjoy making the best case ever for his reelection to the White House in two years. Why? As a minority, House Democrats hid behind the GOP majority’s procedural moves and establishment-controlled direction of legislation. But under the glare of impending Democrat control they can no longer cower in the background lofting rhetorical grenades at Republican members while ducking back into their caves to try and weather the return flak storm. Fox called the House for Democrats around 9:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, taking much of the drama out of the evening where the lower chamber was concerned. It was a curious forecast considering polls hadn’t even closed on the west coast – but the experts know best, right? Meanwhile, Republicans increased their margins big-time in the senate. Fairly early on Indiana went for GOP challenger Mike Braun over liberal pretender Democrat Senator…

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No ‘Green Wave’ This Election as Voters Reject Climate Change Ballot Measures

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by Michael Bastasch   Not only did a Democratic “blue wave” fail to materialize on Tuesday night, the “green wave” of major global warming and energy-related ballot measures largely failed to get voter approval as well. Voters in Arizona, Colorado and Washington rejected measures aimed at fighting global warming, despite two of those states being in Democratic hands. The “Green New Deal” pundits gushed over in Washington state went down in flames, with voters overwhelmingly rejecting a state ballot measure to tax carbon dioxide emissions, despite its support from Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. Washingtonians voted against the carbon tax initiative 56 percent to 43 percent, according to state election officials. “The voters have spoken,” Tom Pyle, president of the free market American Energy Alliance, said in an emailed statement. “It’s time to listen to them and focus on policies that expand the availability, affordability, and reliability of energy, rather than on policies that makes energy more scarce, more expensive, and less reliable,” said Pyle, a former Trump transition team leader opposed to carbon taxes. Environmentalists argue the oil industry’s $30 million cash influx into the ballot measure campaign tipped the scales, compared to the more than $15 million spent by…

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Democrats’ Progressive Superstars Lost Most of Their Races

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by Joe Simonson   Despite Democrats winning more than enough seats needed to take back the House of Representatives, nearly every candidate running on the far left of who garnered some of the most media attention lost their races Tuesday night. Starting in Florida, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum was narrowly defeated by the solid right-winger Ron DeSantis for governor. Gillum, who ran on expanding Medicaid and raising taxes, faced accusations of being a “socialist” whose heated campaign drew comparisons to the likes of former President Barack Obama. [ RELATED: Andrew Gillum Concedes In Florida Gubernatorial Race ] Stacey Abrams, who received help from high-profile celebrities like Oprah, seems like she could fail to wrestle away the Georgia governor’s mansion from Republicans. Similarly to the race in Florida, Georgia Republicans wrestled with accusations of racism in a fight that received an inordinate amount of media attention. President Donald Trump called Abrams “one of the most extreme, far-left politicians in the country.” Yet, perhaps no candidate received more attention than Beto O’Rourke, who once said he had no problem impeaching the president and once called for the legalization of all narcotics. But the high-profile coverage and tens of millions of dollars in out-of-state…

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Facebook, Google Tools Reveal New Political Ad Tactics

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  Public databases that shine a light on online political ads – launched by Facebook and Google before Tuesday’s U.S. elections – offer the public the first broad view of how quickly the companies yank advertisements that break their rules. The databases also provided campaigns unprecedented insight into opponents’ online marketing, enabling them to capitalize on weaknesses, political strategists told Reuters. Facebook and Google, owned by Alphabet, introduced the databases this year to give details on some political ads bought on their services, a response to U.S. prosecutors’ allegations that Russian agents who deceptively interfered in the 2016 election purchased ads from the companies. Russia denies the charges. American security experts said the Russians changed tactics this year. Reuters found that Facebook and Google took down 436 ads from May through October related to 34 U.S. House of Representatives contests declared competitive last month by RealClearPolitics, which tracks political opinion polls. Of the 258 removed ads with start and end dates, ads remained on Google an average of eight days and Facebook 15 days, according to data Reuters collected from the databases. Based on ranges in the databases, the 436 ads were displayed up to 20.5 million times and cost…

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Commentary: No Wall, No House, No Surprise

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by Natalia Castro   Republicans would have loved to win the House last night, but unfortunately, they did not deserve it, as they lost at least 26 seats and more likely 30 or so. After failing to solve our countries immigration problem time and time again, it should not be surprising that voters were not enthused to head to the polls on Tuesday. Now with a Democratic House ready to take power in 2019, the lame duck is now perhaps the last chance to get the wall built and if Republicans want a chance in 2020 this must be their focus. President Donald Trump requested $25 billion to fund a defensive wall along the U.S. Southern border. In his first two years in office, with a Republican majority in Congress, only $1.6 billion has been allocated to fund this wall. While Trump has optimistically called this a “down payment” with full funding coming in the near future, that funding has yet to materialize — and the Republican voters knew it. The truth is, House Republicans had ample opportunity to prove to the American people that building the wall is not just a rallying cry, but an actual policy objective. Republicans…

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Republicans Retain Super Majority In The Tennessee General Assembly

Laura Baigert

While there will be plenty of new faces as the Tennessee legislature enters into its 111th general assembly, the total number of seats held by Republicans is reduced by one, but still carries the super majority status of both chambers through a volatile mid-term election. All 99 seats in the State House of Representatives, consisting of 74 Republicans and 25 Democrats, were up for election during Tuesday’s mid-term elections. There were a total of 24 House seats vacated prior to the primaries, several of whom ran for other elected positions at the local, state or national level. Additionally and quite remarkably, two House Committee Chairmen, Barry Doss (R-Leoma) and Tim Wirgau (R-Buchanan) were defeated in the August Republican primaries by first-time conservative candidates Clay Doggett (R-Pulaski) and Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) in Districts 70 and 75, respectively.  Both Doss and Wirgau voted for the gas tax increasing IMPROVE Act, which was a major factor in both races. It’s not as though Republicans didn’t have a fight on their hands, since just eight House Republican candidates went unchallenged by a Democrat in Tuesday’s elections, while nine had to battle both a Democrat and an Independent opponent. Meanwhile, House Democratic candidates got off…

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