Day: February 1, 2019

General Assembly to Consider Bill That Seeks to Restore Founders’ Intent for Electing U.S. Senators in Tennessee

Laura Baigert

A bill to be considered by the 111th Tennessee General Assembly will take a major step toward restoring the founding fathers’ intent for how U.S. senators would be elected in the state, which was circumvented by the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The bill, sponsored by Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) in the Senate and Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville) in the House, as SB 0027 and HB 0021, respectively, changes the nomination process for candidates for U. S. Senate. As Senator Niceley explained when he presented a similar bill to the Senate State and Local Government Committee of the 110th Tennessee General Assembly, “Our founding fathers wanted the U.S. House of Representatives to be elected directly by the people. They wanted the U.S. Senate to be elected by the state legislatures. That’s why they called it the states’ house and the people’s house.” Election by state legislatures is how U.S. Senators came into office for more than a century, until the passage of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1913. As Senator Niceley put it, the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed in a wave of Progressivism. Senator Niceley also made the point in his 2018 presentation of…

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UPDATE: NAACP Calls on Virginia Governor Northam to Resign After His Admission He Is In Med School Yearbook Photo: Is He in Black Face or KKK Robe?

Anthony Gockowski

UPDATE: Late Friday, the NAACP called on Northam to resign as Virginia Governor in this tweet: Black face in any manner is always racist and never okay. No matter the party affiliation, we can not stand for such behavior, which is why the @NAACP is calling for the resignation of Virginia Governor @RalphNortham — Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) February 2, 2019 Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, released a statement Friday evening confirming the authenticity of a photo unearthed by conservative news outlet Big League Politics and confirmed by the medical school he was attending at the time, that shows Northam dressed in either blackface or a KKK robe. In his statement, Northam said he is “deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now.” “This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service,” he said. “But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment.” “I recognize that it will take time and serious effort to heal the…

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Commentary: Can Democrats #Resist Their Own Ruling Class in 2020?

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Hill-a-reeee! Hill-a-reeee! Hill-a-reeee! Upon hearing this you might assume you’re comatose and slowly waking to the sounds of a nightmarish 2016 Hillary Clinton “With Her!” rally, but it’s definitely not three years ago and rumors are flying – once again – that the Democrat maven is seriously pondering a third (and hopefully final!) try at the presidency next year…all because of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his stupid witch hunt investigation. Diana Stancy Correll reported on the fantasy sequence at The Washington Examiner over the weekend, “Although no campaign is underway yet, CNN senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny said on CNN’s ‘Inside Politics’ Sunday that Clinton has started to discuss a third potential presidential bid. “’So Hillary Clinton is telling people that she’s not closing the doors to the idea of running in 2020,’ Zeleny said. ‘Let’s just let that sink in.’ “Zeleny said that three people told him that as recently as this week, Clinton was telling people that she hadn’t definitively decided against running in 2020, especially given recent indictments of those close to President Trump, including his longtime adviser Roger Stone… [and] Clinton would likely capitalize on the fact that she…

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Knoxville Parents Whose Son Allegedly Killed in Crash by Illegal Immigrant Will Join Sen. Blackburn, Rep. Burchett at State of the Union

Jason M. Reynolds

A Knoxville Fire Department captain whose son was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant in an automobile crash will join U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) at the State of the Union address Tuesday. Blackburn said in a statement Thursday that KFD Capt. DJ Corcoran, father of the late PIerce Corcoran, will be her guest. She tweeted, “It is an honor to join with @timburchett to bring DJ and Wendy Corcoran as our guests to the State of the Union. #JusticeForPierce” It is an honor to join with @timburchett to bring DJ and Wendy Corcoran as our guests to the State of the Union. #JusticeForPierce pic.twitter.com/gsMyRSi8En — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) January 31, 2019 U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) is bringing Wendy Corcoran, Pierce’s mother, as his guest. Blackburn met with the Corcoran family in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 16, according to a tweet. This afternoon, I met with the Corcorans, whose son and brother Pierce was tragically killed two weeks ago by an illegal alien. My prayers are with #AngelFamilies across this country. No family should ever have to experience such a tragedy. #JusticeForPierce pic.twitter.com/dP4e9RDkiq — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) January 16, 2019 Blackburn said in a statement, “The tragedy…

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Tennessee State Senator Katrina Robinson Blasts Conservatives, Says They Are Indifferent to Middle Class Needs

Chris Butler

State Sen. Katrina Robinson, D-Memphis, reportedly said she, as a Democrat, has a responsibility to make Tennessee more politically progressive. Vanderbilt’s official student newspaper, The Hustler, profiled Robinson in an article Thursday, presented in a question-and-answer format. “Sometimes conservatives will not push legislation that affects the everyday, middle class, working family, single moms, recent college grads with student loan debt, you won’t see a lot of that from the conservative side, and so it is our issue and our position as Democratic senators to champion those issues,” Robinson reportedly told the paper. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill, however, said he took issue with Robinson’s remarks. “Conservatives are not working to keep our borders open so that illegal aliens can freely enter our country where they have a propensity to rape, molest, and kill children, or bring in deadly drugs that are destroying lives, or simply unfairly compete for the jobs that entry level workers and single moms need to survive,” Gill said. Conservatives, Gill went on to say, are also not the ones forcing inner city children into the worst – yet most highly-funded – schools in America while denying those children safer and more effective schooling options. “Democrats force…

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Commentary: A Subreddit Is Teaching People How to Actually Challenge Ideas Civilly

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by Brittany Hunter   Civil discourse is dead – or so one might think given the current state of affairs in this country. It doesn’t matter what political views you hold, one thing every single American can agree on is that as a society, we have become incapable of having meaningful conversations about controversial – or seemingly controversial – topics. We live in a country where First Amendment rights to free speech and free expression have given us the wonderful privilege of being exposed to a wide range of different viewpoints on a regular basis. The only caveat to this, aside from the government occasionally suppressing speech, is that in order to take advantage of this privilege, you have to be willing to listen to others with whom you may disagree. And this is where Americans come up short. It would appear that many are no longer capable of listening to the other side. If anyone doubts this is true, simply log in to Twitter and read one controversial or political thread. You just might lose your faith in humanity in the process. Instead of deliberating and breaking down a topic to its finer points, most people have resorted to…

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Chicago Police Say ‘Empire’ Actor Refuses to Turn Over Phone Records During Alleged ‘MAGA’ Attack

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by Neetu Chandak   The Chicago Police Department (CPD) said “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett and his music manager are not handing over phone records of a conversation that occurred Tuesday morning during an alleged attack. “Update on the ‘Empire’ Smollett case: The victim and his manager reported that they were talking on their cell phones to each other but CPD has been unable to independently verify this because they refused to turn over their cell phones,” CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a Thursday statement obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Smollett claimed two men beat him up, tied a noose around his neck, said racial and homophobic slurs and threw an unknown chemical substance on him Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. Brandon Z. Moore, Smollett’s music manager, said he heard some of the attack while on the phone with Smollett, according to Variety. “I heard that clearly,” Moore said. “I heard the scuffle and I heard the racial slur.” TMZ reported Tuesday the attackers were white men wearing ski masks who poured bleach on Smollett and screamed: “This is MAGA (Make America Great Again) country.” Smollett reportedly had a fractured rib as well. Police said the actor did…

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Apple Busts Facebook for App That Tracks Phone and Web Use

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Apple says Facebook can no longer distribute an app that paid users, including teenagers, to extensively track their phone and web use. In doing so, Apple closed off Facebook’s efforts to sidestep Apple’s app store and its tighter rules on privacy. The tech blog TechCrunch reported late Tuesday that Facebook paid people about $20 a month to install and use the Facebook Research app. While Facebook says this was done with permission, the company has a history of defining “permission” loosely and obscuring what data it collects. “I don’t think they make it very clear to users precisely what level of access they were granting when they gave permission,” mobile app security researcher Will Strafach said Wednesday. “There is simply no way the users understood this.” He said Facebook’s claim that users understood the scope of data collection was “muddying the waters.” Facebook says fewer than five percent of the app’s users were teens and they had parental permission. Nonetheless, the revelation is yet another blemish on Facebook’s track record on privacy and could invite further regulatory scrutiny. And it comes less than a week after court documents revealed that Facebook allowed children to rack up huge bills on digital…

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DHS Created a Fake School in Michigan to Identify Illegal Immigrants

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The Department of Homeland Security set up a fake university in Michigan to snare student immigrants in the United States who were without proper authorization, according to federal indictments unsealed Wednesday. Eight people were arrested and indicted for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harboring aliens for profit. The indictment said the defendants helped at least 600 “foreign citizens to illegally remain, re-enter and work in the United States and actively recruited them to enroll in a fraudulent school as part of a ‘pay to stay’ scheme.” The story was first reported by the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News. The indictments allege that the defendants “conspired with each other and others to fraudulently facilitate hundreds of foreign nationals in illegally remaining and working in the United States by actively recruiting them to enroll into a metro Detroit private university that, unbeknownst to the conspirators, was operated by HSI (Homeland Security Investigation) special agents as part of an undercover operation” for the past two years. The University of Farmington website says it “traces its lineage back to the early 1950s …” It is “approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) to enroll international…

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Sen. Blackburn Urges President Trump to Protect Kurdish Allies as America Looks to Leave Syria

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) on Thursday sent a letter urging President Donald Trump to protect the United States’ Kurdish partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Blackburn posted a copy of the letter on Twitter, tweeting, “This morning, I joined @SenDuckworth in writing a letter to the president to express the importance of protecting our Kurdish friends as the administration plans its withdrawal of American troops from Syria.” “The protection of our Kurdish friends and allies is in the national security interest of the United States,” said Blackburn. “The Kurds have been a reliable partner in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and we must not abandon them now.” Nashville is home to the largest Kurdish population of any city in the United States, Blackburn said. The letter comes as the administration considers a withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Syria. Blackburn and Duckworth are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The White House officially announced Dec. 19 that nearly 2,000 U.S. troops would leave Syria, Townhall reported. “Five years ago, ISIS was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate. These…

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Dems Panicked Trump’s Venezuela Policy Will Be Popular with Their Voters

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by Tim Pearce   Florida Democrats are praising President Donald Trump’s strong stance against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro while growing increasingly uneasy about Trump’s growing appeal with their base, Politico reports. Trump recognized Venezuelan opposition party leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s rightful president after Maduro declared victory in an election seen as illegitimate by many foreign leaders. The Trump administration is taking steps to weaken the Maduro regime, including slapping sanctions on Venezuelan oil Monday, a blow to the government’s main source of revenue. Trump followed up with a Wednesday phone call with Guaidó, reiterating his support for the opposition leader. Guaidó is under intense pressure by Maduro’s regime and the Venezuelan Supreme Court. He has been barred from leaving his country and is under a possible criminal investigation for anti-government activities. U.S. support for Guaidó is playing well with Florida’s significant Hispanic population, many of which are from or have connections in Latin American countries. “It’s been very frustrating,” Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo (pictured above) of Miami told Politico. “Trump is doing the right thing, and I’m not going to criticize Trump for doing the right thing because you lose credibility.” Taddeo immigrated from Colombia and represents…

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Democrats Reject GOP Proposal to Deny Raises to Federal Workers Disciplined for Sexual Misconduct

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by Jason Hopkins   House Democrats defeated a Republican-led provision to deny raises to federal employees who have been disciplined for sexual misconduct. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to give civilian federal employees a 2.6 percent pay raise this year. However, Democrats successfully blocked a GOP provision that would have withheld raises for employees penalized for sexual misconduct. “During calendar year 2019, no increase in pay as authorized under this Act may be provided to any Federal employee who has been disciplined for sexual misconduct under chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code, or any other provision of law,” read the text of the provision. The proposal, despite receiving support from 189 Republicans and 17 Democrats, was ultimately defeated by a vote of 216-206. “As Washington Democrats continue their ill-advised push for unilateral pay raises for federal employees, regardless of their performance, Republicans continue to ask Democrats to amend their legislation,” Erin Perrine, a spokeswoman for House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, said in a statement provided to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Currently this bill treats victims the same as their harassers. That makes no sense.” Among the Democratic lawmakers who voted against the proposal…

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Minnesota Republicans Stand Against ‘Barbaric’ Pro-Abortion Bills

Anthony Gockowski

Minnesota’s Republican legislators called a press conference Thursday in the lobby of the Minnesota Capitol to oppose the radical pro-abortion measures being passed across the country. As was widely reported, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) signed the Reproductive Rights Act into law last week, clearing the way for abortions up to the moment of birth. In Virginia, State Del. Kathy Tran introduced The Repeal Act, a similar bill that would appeal restrictions on third-trimester abortions. Discussing Tran’s legislation on WTOP, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) hinted that the bill could allow for letting newborn infants die. “So in this particular example if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother,” Northam said. It’s unclear precisely what Northam was suggesting, but many took it to mean that The Repeal Act would legalize what is essentially infanticide. With a Democratic governor and a new Democratic House majority, Minnesota’s Republicans made it clear Thursday that they would oppose any similar legislation in the…

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National Energy Company, FirstEnergy, is Attempting to Stick Ohioans with Billion Dollar Cleanup Bill

Andrew Shirley

Ohio Taxpayers could be stuck with a $1 billion nuclear cleanup bill if one national energy company has its way. The U.S Department of Justice, along with the “U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Office of the Ohio Attorney General, acting on behalf of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection,” are all jointly fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen. FirstEnergy, one of the nation’s largest investor-owned utilities, maintains the subsidiary; FirstEnergy Solutions (FES). That subsidiary actively managed three nuclear power plants, three coal plants, two natural gas plants, and three wind plants. A majority of these plants are based on Ohio with nuclear plants in Oak Harbor and Perry, a gas plant on Lorain, and a wind plant in Blue Creek. While only one of the coal plants is located in Ohio, in Stratton, the other two rest just outside Ohio’s borders in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. As a result, they too employ many Ohioans. In March, FES announced that all three nuclear power plants would be shuttered within the next five years, laying off 2,300 workers. After attempting, and failing,…

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Issues Order to Get Rid of Common Core

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by Neetu Chandak   Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday he will get rid of Common Core in the state and wants to have parents and teachers help implement a revised set of standards in 2020. “Common Core has failed teachers, parents, and our children,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter Thursday. “That’s why I am issuing an Executive Order to eliminate Common Core in Florida. We will streamline standardized testing, make civics a priority in schools and increase the literacy rate.” Common Core has failed teachers, parents, and our children. That’s why I am issuing an Executive Order to eliminate Common Core in Florida. We will streamline standardized testing, make civics a priority in schools and increase the literacy rate. pic.twitter.com/dp5mnabiit — Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 31, 2019 Common Core aimed to establish high academic standards in K-12 English and math. Critics of Common Core said it was too rigid, confusing teaching methods for parents and takes away control from locals, according to Fox 13. DeSantis wants to implement a new plan, with the input of parents and teachers, in 2020. “I told you I was going to do something about this,” DeSantis said at a press conference, WFTV reported.…

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Omar, Tlaib and Progressive Allies Call for DHS Funding Cuts: ‘Not Another Dollar’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and three fellow congresswomen are urging their Democratic colleagues to cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because of its alleged abuses on the southern border. Omar was joined by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07) in issuing the letter – addressed “Dear Colleagues.” The letter, obtained by The Daily Beast Thursday, targets congressional Democrats working on a bipartisan conference committee convened in an attempt to reach a deal on border security. “The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with critical functions. However, under the auspice of the Trump Administration, a number of agencies housed at DHS have abused their authority and the fidelity of public resources,” the letter states. “Funds are being reallocated internally not to make our nation safer, but to build desert camps to inhumanely house infants and to prosecute immigrants who are part of the fabric of our community.” The letter goes on to request that “our colleagues at the negotiating table” adhere to “the following guidelines critical to protecting families and children and restoring Americans’ faith in government.” “Cut, do not increase funding,” the January 29 letter says. “A Republican controlled Congress has already…

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DFL State Senator Wants to Bring Plastic Straw Ban to Minnesota

Anthony Gockowski

Minnesota State Sen. John Marty (D-Roseville) introduced a bill Thursday that would make the distribution of “single-use plastic straws” by restaurants a “petty misdemeanor.” “A restaurant must not provide a single-use plastic straw to a customer unless the customer requests a straw or selects a straw from a self-service dispenser,” Senate File (SF) 756 stipulates. “Nothing in this section precludes a restaurant from providing customers with non-plastic straws as an alternative to single-use plastic straws, including but not limited to straws made from paper, sugar cane, or bamboo,” the bill adds. If passed, violation of the bill would result in a “petty misdemeanor” for non-compliant restaurants. The bill would apply to any restaurant that “operates from a location for more than 21 days annually,” excluding food carts and mobile food units. SF 754 currently has three DFL co-sponsors, including State Sens. Foung Hawj (D-St. Paul), Steve Cwodzinski (D-Eden Prairie), and Jim Carlson (D-Eagan). It was referred Thursday to the Commerce and Consumer Protection Finance and Policy Committee for a hearing. As City Pages notes, the conversation surrounding a plastic-straw ban began in Minnesota in 2018 when individual businesses started implementing bans. The iconic music venue First Avenue and 7th St.…

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Electrolux of Memphis, which Took More Than $100 Million in Corporate Welfare, Calls it Quits

Chris Butler

Electrolux officials announced Thursday they are shutting down their Memphis plant sometime next year, even though they took more than $100 million in corporate welfare from the city, county, and state governments eight years ago. The Memphis Electrolux plant employs about 530 people, all of whom will likely lose their jobs when the plant closes, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. In a press release, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, said the “Swedish appliance maker failed to live up to its job-creation promise.” “I’m very disappointed that the employees of Electrolux learned today that Memphis’ economic development investment in one company’s future apparently won’t pay off,” Cohen said. “The company’s abandonment of Memphis will mean potential financial hardship for its employees and suppliers, and should result in more careful review of promises made by corporations about local job creation in the future.” Electrolux officials plan to consolidate all U.S. cooking manufacturing into an expanded facility in Springfield, Tennessee, according to The Commercial Appeal. The article not did specify why Electrolux officials are pulling out of Memphis, but it did cite unnamed company officials complaining about “challenges they face in today’s global economy.” Tennessee officials announced in 2011 that Electrolux would…

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