Day: November 27, 2018

OFF THE RECORD: Will Governor Bill Lee Hire Any Conservative Republicans For His Administration?

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When the Bill Lee Transition team was announced with Democrat Butch Eley chairing the effort, many conservative Republicans who worked hard to elect Governor Lee raised their eyebrows; particularly in view of his substantial donation to Democrat Senate candidate Phil Bredesen earlier this year, who was defeated handily by Marsha Blackburn on November 6. Now Eley has been named as Lee’s Chief Operating Officer. The fact that Democrat businessman Stuart McWhorter was also named as a key leader in the transition effort (and has now been tapped as Lee’s Commissioner of Finance and Administration) is also sparking concerns.  McWhorter has given campaign donations recently to Republicans, including perpetual Trump critic Bob Corker, but has consistently donated to Democrats in the past.  He has certainly not been an active proponent of conservative candidates in Tennessee. Two of Haslam’s Commissioners, Mental Health and Human Services, will be retained. Danielle Barnes, who will continue as Commissioner of Human Services joined the department under Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen in 2004. Marie Williams, who is current Commissioner of Mental Health, was elevated to Deputy Commissioner in the Department by Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen in 2011. Other Haslam Commissioners are also expected to keep their jobs…

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General Motors Will Cut 14,000 Jobs, But Spring Hill, Tennessee Plant Employment Expected to Remain Steady

Chris Butler

General Motors sucked up a lot of state and federal taxpayer dollars because of lobbyists who promised big returns on the governments’ investments — most importantly, saving jobs. But as we found out Monday, those promises could only go so far. Tennessee will do OK. As The Tennessean reported, General Motors will add a third vehicle to its production lineup at its Spring Hill plant next year. But as CNBC and countless other news outlets reported Monday, GM will stop production at several plants in the United States and Canada next year. Company officials also announced they will cut more than 14,000 jobs in a massive restructuring that will cost up to $3.8 billion. U.S. President Donald Trump was none too pleased upon hearing the news. “You know, the United States saved General Motors,” Trump told reporters Monday. As The Tennessee Watchdog reported in 2013, GM accepted a $50 billion federal bailout in 2009. According to Reuters, the U.S. government lost $11.2 billion on the bailout, more than the $10.3 billion the U.S. Treasury Department estimated it would. As Tennessee Watchdog reported, GM aggressively lobbied states, including Tennessee, for taxpayer dollars. At the time, GM spokesman Greg Martin defended the…

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Cyndi Miller Commentary: Tennessee Election Laws Make Fraud Legal in the Form of Cross-Over Primary Voting

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by Cyndi Miller   Primaries are not for everyone. They are for the members of each party to nominate who will represent their party in the general elections – the candidates that best represent the beliefs and platform of that particular political party. Should the members of the Rotary Club allow the members of the Lion’s Club to participate in the election of the Rotary Club President? Should just anyone in that city, whether or not they are a member of either club, be allowed to vote? Of course not! Democrats and Independents should not be allowed to vote in Republican primaries. Likewise, Republicans and Independents should not be allowed to vote in Democrat primaries. Does this really happen in Tennessee? Yes! For instance, in Williamson County, Democrat candidates for the State House of Representatives and County Commission “crossed over”, voting in the May Republican Primary election. These Democrats didn’t even vote for themselves in their own primaries! Tennessee law states that only “bona fide” members of a party should participate in that party’s primary.  The voter effectively signs a pledge of loyalty to that party when they request a ballot for that party. Clearly, a candidate running as a Democrat…

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China Orders Probe After Scientist Claims First Gene-Edited Babies

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  Chinese health and medical ethics authorities started an investigation on Monday into claims by a scientist who released videos on YouTube saying he had altered the genes of twins born earlier this month, creating the first gene edited babies. The Southern University of Science and Technology in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where the scientist, He Jiankui, holds an associate professorship, said it had been unaware of the research project and that He had been on leave without pay since February. He Jiankui defended what he claimed to have achieved, saying he had performed the gene editing to help protect the babies from future infection with the AIDS virus. But his university said it was a “serious violation of academic ethics and standards” and scientists around the world condemned it as monstrous and dangerous. The university issued a statement after He said in five videos posted on Monday that he used a gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the genes of twin girls. China’s National Health Commission said it was “highly concerned” and had ordered provincial health officials “to immediately investigate and clarify the matter”. “We have to be responsible for the people’s health and will act…

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Top Line Claim In Newest Climate Report Relies on Research Tied to Major Dem Donors

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by Michael Bastasch   It’s been repeated throughout the media — future global warming could wipe-out one-tenth of the U.S. economy by 2100. It’s a top line finding of a major government climate report, but it’s based on a study funded by groups affiliated with two major Democratic donors. The oft-repeated claim also stemmed from a global warming projection that’s come under increased scrutiny from experts, including one who called it “outlandish.” The federal government released the second volume of the National Climate Assessment (NCA) Friday. The federal report issued dire warnings, including from “ice sheet disintegration on accelerated sea level rise, leading to widespread effects on coastal development lasting thousands of years.” The report also claims that “global greenhouse gas emissions is expected to cause substantial net damage to the U.S. economy throughout this century,” including a 10 percent hit to gross domestic product (GDP) in one extreme scenario. However, NCA’s dire prediction of a 10 percent hit to U.S. GDP comes from a 2017 study supported by the charitable foundations founded by major Democratic donors. The study was also funded by other organizations, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Skoll Global Threats Fund.…

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Commentary: Far Left Judges Starting a New Civil War

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by George Rasley   The ongoing insurrection against the duly elected government of the United States isn’t being led by the violent Far Left thugs of Antifa, nor is it being led by the political thuggery of power-hungry Democrats on Capitol Hill and in their corrupt urban strongholds – it is being led by black-robed revolutionaries working from federal courthouses, especially in the California-centered Ninth Circuit. The latest raid on the constitutionalist forces was led by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar who preemptively prohibited the president from declining to process the asylum claims of aliens who enter the United States illegally. The Mexican government says it is aiding more than 5,600 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala on the U.S. border — 2,610 in Tijuana and 2,995 in Mexicali. Judge Tigar, appointed by President Barack Obama, issued a 37-page ruling that appears to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld President Trump’s Executive Order barring travelers from a list of majority-Muslim nations.  (You can read the ruling issuing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) through this link courtesy of The Washington Post.) According to The Washington Post, four Far-Left advocacy groups — the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Al Otro…

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Jerome Corsi Says He Will Reject Plea Offer From Mueller’s Team

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by Chuck Ross   Jerome Corsi, a right-wing author and associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone’s, said Monday that he will reject a plea offer from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office in the Russia probe. Corsi told One America News Network (OANN) and NBC News that he will reject the offer to plead guilty to perjury regarding his testimony about WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. “The Mueller team offered me a plea bargain … it does not mean I’ve agreed. From what they’ve offered, I can tell you it’s unacceptable,” Corsi told OANN. “I will not sign a statement in front of a federal judge that says that I intentionally and willfully lied to the special counselor, because I did not.” “They wanted me to testify that … I was the conduit to WikiLeaks and Assange for Roger Stone, who in turn had a conduit to the campaign,” he continued. “And it just isn’t so.” Corsi, who testified before a federal grand jury on Sept. 21 and on Nov. 9, revealed to reporters on Friday that he was in plea discussions with the special counsel’s office. On Nov. 12, Corsi announced that he expected to be indicted, though he denied…

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Steve Gill Commentary: Is a Tennessee Foundation a Key to Resolving Debt and Trade Issues with China?

Steve Gill

by Steve Gill   The ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China has occupied much of the business media’s focus in recent months. But an “old” debt battle between the two countries that has escaped notice by most political and business leaders in both countries has recently drawn the attention of President Donald Trump — and his top economic advisors. At the centerpiece of this issue is a little known Foundation based in Lewisburg, Tennessee that represents the holders of the debts owed by China. One of the cards held by China in the trade war is their nearly $1.2 trillion in U.S Treasury bonds that, if sold suddenly and at a discount, could be used as a weapon to cripple the American economy.  But what if the U.S. simply washed away the nearly $1.2 trillion in debt owed TO China by applying it against the bond debt owed BY China? Jonna Bianco, a Tennessee cattle-rancher and President of the American Bondholders Foundation (ABF), represents more than 20,000 owners of bonds issued by Chinese governments before the Communist revolution in 1949.  The ABF claims that American citizens are owed more than $2 Trillion by China. Today’s China is the…

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US Abortions Hit Lowest Number Ever Since Roe V. Wade

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by Grace Carr   The United States saw the lowest number of abortions ever reported between 2014 and 2015 since 1973’s Roe V. Wade legalized abortion, according to a Wednesday report. Between 2014 and 2015, the total number of reported abortions decreased two percent, falling to a rate of 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years, according to a Wednesday Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance report. A total of 638,169 abortions were reported in that year, according to the CDC. The report contains the most recent nationally representative data on abortion in the U.S. Between 2006 and 2015, the total number of reported abortions also decreased 24 percent, according to the report. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of reported abortions decreased by 19,280 per year. The number of reported abortions also fell between 2011 and 2015, decreasing by 23,087 per year, according to Wednesday’s report. White and black women accounted for the largest percentages of all abortions between 2014 and 2015, according to the report. Just over 14 percent of all women who obtained abortions in that year were married, while 85.7 percent were unmarried, according to the report. California, Maryland, and New Hampshire do not publicly report…

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Commentary: The Costs of Presidential Candor

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by Victor Davis Hanson   Predictably, Donald Trump was attacked both by the establishment and the media as “crude,” “in-presidential,” and “gratuitous” for a recent series of blunt and graphic statements on a variety of current policies. Oddly, the implied charge this time around was not that Trump makes up stuff, but that he said things that were factual but should not be spoken. Trump’s tweets and ex tempore editorials may have been indiscreet and politically unwise, but they were also mostly accurate assessments. That paradox revisits the perennial question that is the hallmark of the Trump presidency of what exactly is presidential crudity and what are the liabilities of presidential candor? Concerning the catastrophic California Camp Fire (150,000 acres) and the Woolsey conflagration (100,000 acres), which in turn followed prior devastating California fires in spring and summer of 2018 (perhaps charring 1 million acres in all), Trump tweeted: “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” Certainly, while flames…

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Supreme Court Open to Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple

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  U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared open to letting a lawsuit proceed against Apple Inc that accused it of breaking federal antitrust laws by monopolizing the market for iPhone software applications and causing consumers to overpay. The nine justices heard an hour of arguments in an appeal by the Cupertino, California-based technology company of a lower court’s decision to revive the proposed class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in California in 2011 by a group of iPhone users seeking monetary damages. The lawsuit said Apple violated federal antitrust laws by requiring apps to be sold through the company’s App Store and then taking a 30 percent commission from the purchases. The case may hinge on how the justices will apply one of its past decisions to the claims against Apple. That 1977 ruling limited damages for anti-competitive conduct to those directly overcharged rather than indirect victims who paid an overcharge passed on by others. Apple was backed by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration. Some liberal and conservative justices sharply questioned an attorney for Apple and U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who argued on behalf of the administration on the company’s side, over their argument that the consumers were…

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Tennessee House Democrats Elect State Rep. Camper of Memphis as Minority Leader

Jason M. Reynolds

State Rep. Karen Camper (D-TN-87) has been elected by the Tennessee House  Democratic Caucus to be the House minority leader for the 111th General Assembly. The Tennessee Journal On the Hill reported the election Monday. The Memphis politician is the first black to be elected the House’s Democratic leader. Democrats made the pick Sunday in leadership elections before the upcoming legislation session that begins in January, WREG reported, citing the Associated Press. Camper replaces former Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley, who left the state Legislature in an unsuccessful gubernatorial run. Camper will be the Democrats’ nominee for speaker. She has served in the House since 2008. Camper defeated State Reps. Bo Mitchell (D-TN-50) of Nashville and Johnny Shaw (D-TN-80) of Bolivar for the job. “I am honored by the faith the caucus has shown in me and I pledge to bring the type of aggressive leadership needed to advance legislation that promotes the Democratic agenda, such as quality health care and economic opportunities for all Tennesseans,” she said in a statement. State Rep. Mike Stewart (D-TN-52) of Nashville was unopposed in his re-election campaign as Democratic caucus chair. Democrats hold 26 of 99 seats in the Tennessee House of…

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