Cameron Sexton Radio Spots Promote Republican Legislative Accomplishments

  State Representative Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) is promoting the legislative accomplishments of the Republican Administration and legislative supermajorities with a new pair of radio ads. Many of the successful legislative items, from tax cuts to school safety to job creation were lost in the shuffle when scandals involving House Speaker Glen Casada and his top staffers captivated the media as the Session ended. Sexton ran similar spots intended to advance the agenda of the Republican supermajority in the House earlier in the year. As Caucus Chair he has said that part of his role is policy, not just politics, and the ads during Session and in advance of a Special Session in August are an important way to fulfill that role. Sexton is seeking the nomination for House Speaker in a Republican Caucus meeting scheduled for later this week. The winner of that election, which requires at least 37 votes in the 73 Member Caucus, is expected to succeed House Speaker Glen Casada following his resignation on August 2. The full House will vote on a new Speaker on August 23 during the Special Session called by Governor Bill Lee. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill says the ads are…

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Commentary: Can President Trump’s New Asylum Rules Stem the Illegal Tide?

by Rachel Bovard   Illegal immigration numbers remain at levels triple that of previous years, and Congress continues to bicker, foot stomp, other otherwise ignore the problem. In the face of this, the Trump Administration released its latest attempt to bring the border crisis under control. Under new rules issued last week, migrants will now be required to seek asylum in at least one country they pass through on their way north. In other words, to qualify for asylum in the United States, Hondurans and Salvadorans would first have to apply for – and be denied – asylum in Guatemala or Mexico. The response from critics was predictable. “These new regulations are illegal and flout our asylum laws,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted on Tuesday. In a press release, the ACLU stated that the “Trump Administration is trying to unilaterally reverse our country’s legal and moral commitment to protect those fleeing danger,” right after they vowed to file a lawsuit to fight the change. U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, described the regulations as “xenophobic and racist.” None of them, however, acknowledged a key feature of the new rules: they put the United States in compliance with exactly the way…

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Forgotten Founder Pelatiah Webster: America’s First Economist

by Lawrence Reed   Everybody knows who America’s first president was, but can you identify the country’s first economist? If any man or woman deserves that description, it is surely the one who wrote this and so much more: I propose . . . to take off every restraint and limitation from our commerce. Let trade be as free as air. Let every man make the most of his goods in his own way and then he will be satisfied. His name was Pelatiah Webster. Largely forgotten today, he was regarded as “the American Adam Smith” after his death in 1795 at the age of 68. His wisdom, especially on trade and money matters, deserves a renewed appreciation today. Webster was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1726. Twenty years later, he graduated from Yale and became a minister in Massachusetts. By 1755, however, the lure of entrepreneurial opportunities took him to the business world of Pennsylvania. He was an almost instant success as a merchant, amassing a small fortune in the process. His reputation as an authority on matters of trade, finance, and currency was unmatched by anyone in the 13 colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. The…

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Former DHS Chief Janet Napalitano Turned University of California President Trashes Immigration Agency She Once Oversaw

by Celine Ryan   University of California System President Janet Napolitano denounced large-scale immigration enforcement on Sunday, claiming that such efforts “are designed to strike fear in our immigrant communities” and adding that “the University of California will not be a willing participant in them.” “We will continue to stand by the privacy and civil rights of our undocumented community,” Napolitano, former President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security Secretary, which oversees ICE, said, further promising that UC police would not help federal immigration officers investigate or make arrests in federal immigration law cases. UC spokeswoman Claire Doan declined to comment further on the matter, saying that Napolitano’s statement “speaks for itself.” Former Vice President and 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden is under criticism from the Left because, like under the Trump administration, mass deportations of illegal immigrants also occurred under the Obama administration, in which Napolitano also served. Politico estimated that up to 3 million individuals were deported during the Obama administration. Many individual universities within the system issued their own statements. Mirroring Napolitano, UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland claimed in her own statement that this type of immigration enforcement is “orchestrated to strike fear in immigrant communities.”  Leland’s statement went on to provide a list…

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Report: US May Set Refugee Cap at Zero for Coming Year

Tennessee Star

by Victoria Macchi   The Trump administration is considering more dramatic cuts to the U.S. refugee program, with one official suggesting the White House not allow any refugees into the country in the coming fiscal year. In a Politico report released Thursday, government officials from several federal agencies attended a meeting last week and discussed several options that included a ceiling of 10,000 — well below the current refugee ceiling of 30,000, which is already an all-time low for the program. The U.S. resettled 23,190 refugees since the beginning of fiscal 2019 last October. With 2½ months remaining until the count resets, the U.S. is on track to fall short of this year’s cap, according to U.S. State Department data. Since the so-called “refugee ceiling” is an upper limit, and not a quota, the government is not required to meet the annual admissions number. Multiple figures Scott Arbeiter, president of World Relief, one of the primary refugee resettlement nongovernmental organizations in the U.S., said he has heard multiple figures proposed for the coming fiscal year, all well below the program’s historical annual threshold of around 60,000 to 70,000. In President Barack Obama’s last year two years in office, his administration made…

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Trump on ‘The Squad:’ They Are Not Capable of Loving Our Country

by Chris White   President Donald Trump said Sunday he doesn’t believe congresswomen in the “Squad” are capable of being patriotic Americans, adding that they are “destroying” the Democratic Party. “I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said,” Trump said in a Sunday morning tweet. “They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!” I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2019 His comments come after Trump’s July 15 Twitter rant in which he asked “why don’t they go back” of “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen,” seemingly referring to members of the “Squad” as well. Republicans including Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Texas Rep. Will Hurd criticized Trump for his remarks. The president has been dealing with the fallout from those comments ever since. House Speaker…

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Britain Drafts Plans to Sanction Iran Over Tanker Heist

by Jamie Dettmer   British officials are drawing up plans to target Iran with sanctions for its seizing of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait off Hormuz, and it may urge European Union countries to reimpose sanctions that were lifted in 2016 as part of Tehran’s agreement to curb its nuclear program. The British government is under strong pressure from lawmakers to act decisively in the sharply escalating diplomatic quarrel between the two countries, but there’s growing domestic criticism in the House of Commons about the lack of naval protection for British tankers in the Strait. The outgoing British Prime Minister, Theresa May, is being blamed by some parliamentarians and military officials for failing to agree to a system of joint naval patrols the U.S. was urging Britain and other European navies to establish with American forces. Downing Street took the view that if Britain joined an American-proposed “coalition off navies” it would be seen as endorsing President Donald Trump’s hard-line, sanctions-led approach to Iran, say British and U.S. officials. British defense minister Tobias Ellwood told British broadcasters Sunday that Downing Street is is looking at imposing sanctions against Iran over the seizing of the British-flagged and Swedish-owned Stena Impero and its…

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Commentary: Hollywood’s ‘Fierce Resistance’ Kowtows to China’s Censors in ‘Top Gun 2’

by Thaddeus G. McCotter   Hollywood, the cultural epicenter of the “resistance” to the faux totalitarianism attributed to President Trump, has a vastly different approach to the real totalitarianism of Communist China: capitulation and self-censorship. As noted by Mark MacKinnon, the senior international correspondent for The Globe and Mail, the sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun” – which, after 33 years of intermittent thought, the creative geniuses behind the project have christened with the inspired title “Top Gun: Maverick” – has the rare quality of being a nostalgia trip that performs the deft, duplicitous trick of including a bitter dose of revisionist history. “There’s a new Top Gun movie coming out. And Maverick is wearing the same leather jacket – only this time it’s Communist Party of China-approved, so the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches are gone . . . ” Why did Hollywood change the patch and stuff the Japanese and Taiwanese flags down the memory hole? “‘Mystery’ solved,” MacKinnon reports. “China’s Tencent Pictures is one of the main producers of Top Gun: Maverick.”   In agreement is Alan Tonelson, the founder of RealityChek, which is “a blog covering economics, national security, tech, and their intersections”: “i.e., Hollywood Values . . . the…

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Steve Cohen of Memphis Compares Republicans to Nazis Yet Again

  U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat representing Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, reportedly warned that U.S. Republican President Donald Trump’s recent rally in North Carolina was on par with Nazism. Cohn reportedly made these remarks on an MSNBC interview this past week. Cohen took issue with Trump’s criticism of U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, representing Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District. “It was more reminiscent of Germany during the beginnings of the Hitler regime. People yelling send her back. That was un-American,” The Washington Times quoted Cohen as saying. “Republicans should stand up and let people know they are for the security of all Americans, for all American citizens, and nobody should be sent back. Nobody should be encouraged to be sent back.” As The Tennessee Star has reported, these are not the only hyperbolic remarks Cohen has made this year. This calendar year alone, Cohen has already expressed his delight over the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives no longer requiring people to say “so help me God” under oath. At the time of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in France earlier this year, Cohen used the occasion to say Trump is “torching the entire structure of government.” Among other outbursts, Cohen has also: • Said the…

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House Republicans Want Nellie Ohr’s Oppo Research of Trump’s Family: Report

by Chuck Ross   House Republicans are reportedly seeking documents from former Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr related to her research into President Donald Trump’s family, including his wife and children. During a congressional interview Oct. 19, 2018, Ohr said while she worked for Fusion GPS, the firm behind the infamous Steele dossier, she compiled open-source research on the travels and business activities of Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Trump’s wife, Melania. “I was asked to research Trump’s family broadly in connection with any — any Russian connections,” Ohr told a Republican staffer during her interview. “Were you doing independent research based off of each family member?” the staffer asked. “I did some,” said Ohr, a Russia linguist. “As I recall, I did some research on all of them, but not into much depth.” Asked about her research into Trump Jr., Ohr said “I looked into some of his travels” in order to “see whether they were involved in dealings and transactions with people who had had suspicious pasts.” House Republicans are requesting Ohr’s investigative files, according to Fox News, citing two sources familiar with the matter. They want to know how the information on Trump’s family was used in the Fusion…

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Georgia Residents Are Allegedly Robbing Tennessee Taxpayers Through TennCare Fraud

  People from Georgia are robbing the taxpayers of Tennessee by taking TennCare benefits to which, legally, they are not entitled. This, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, which said authorities are investigating 16 people in Georgia for receiving benefits from Tennessee’s Medicaid program. Those 16 Georgians likely couldn’t get health care coverage in their home state, the paper went on to say. This is currently the largest number of such cases originating from any state, the paper quoted Tennessee’s Office of the Inspector General as saying. “The impact’s huge,” Tennessee Inspector General Kim Harmon reportedly said. “I was just looking at some of our numbers — per person, the average annual cost per enrollee is $4,062 per month. That means that Tennessee taxpayers are funding 30 percent of that.” TennCare recipients must notify the state if they move, and they must periodically renew their status and state where they live, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. But the out-of-state cases of TennCare aren’t just coming out of Georgia. As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Tennessee officials announced they indicted five Alabama residents on charges of passing themselves off as Tennessee residents so they could qualify for TennCare. All…

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