Watching a Government Shutdown. What a Shit-show!

For a fill list of the 35 Republicans
who voted against the Trump-favored
CR bill, follow this link. 

by Rod Williams, Dec. 20, 2024- I have been carefully watching the drama in Washington concerning the effort to avoid a government shutdown. What a shit-show! I don't usually resort to vulgarity in these post on my blog but that is the term that comes to mind and expresses my disgust. 

Also, I am amazed at the ignorance of so many in discussing this issue. I saw one to the chicks on The View rail against this "omnibus spending bill." I had to turn it off. This is not that. What is before congress is a continuing resolution to keep the government running for a short time. If one does not know what they are talking about, one shouldn't be so indignant and outraged in expressing one's view. Also, there were others who I watched who were opinionated but equally uninformed or were purposely misleading. And it wasn't one-sided. The Fox News host totally avoided explaining how we got to this point. He pointed out how bad the CR was, but did not explain how we got such a bad deal. 

These are facts that are hard to dispute. Republicans have a majority. If Republicans would stick together, they could pass a clean continuing resolution without Democrat support. By "clean" I mean not loaded down with a lot of new spending and policy stuff.  However, there are about a dozen to fifteen Republicans who will not vote for any continuing resolution. They also will never vote to raise the debt limit. They want to return to regular order and pass appropriation bills on time the way it supposed to be done, and they oppose increased deficits. One could say they are principled. However, they are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. These dozen to fifteen members as a group, call themselves the "Freedom Caucus." 

So, since the speaker cannot count on all of his members to stick together and since he only has a seven-vote margin, he must get Dems to support the bill in sufficient number to make up for the Republicans he cannot get to support the bill. That comes with a price. The Dems want something for their support, so they load the bill with wasteful spending bobbles like a pay hike for members of Congress. The reason the bill was not a clean CR is because the leader had no choice but to deal with Democrats.  Nancy Pelosi never had this problem. Getting Republicans on the same page is like herding cats.

The first CR was a bad bill and was derailed by Elon Musk who said of those voting for the bill, "Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried."  Well, that is dumb. The people who should be primaried are the 15 or so Republicans who left leadership with no choice but to negotiate with Democrats.

Musk and Trump further complicated matters by insisting that there be a provision in the bill to raise the debt limit now. I am Okay with that really, as it is going to be raised later anyway. However, this complicated the process because the Freedom Caucus oppose increasing the debt limit. 

When a second CR was presented without all of the Dems wasteful spending in it but with the extended debt limit (the bill Trump wanted) it failed 174-235. Included in voting against the Trump supported version of the CR were 35 Republicans! To make it even weirder, the Republicans who voted against Trump's wishes are the most Trumpy of Republicans. This is nuts! 

I don't know how this will play out. It looks like we will have a shut down and more than that it looks like the new congress will come in with a weakened speaker who will lose his job. Crazy! Maybe Trump and Musk can pull this off. Maybe, behind the scenes, Trump, Musk, and JD are working to get the Freedom Caucus to get in line. I hope so. I will be impressed if we avoid a shutdown, then on the other hand, maybe Trump and Musk want a shutdown. None of this makes any sense. I think it signifies the chaos we will see for the next four years. 

Republicans are going to prove they can't govern, and Trump hasn't even taken office. Maybe, they don't want to govern. Maybe they want chaos. 

Guess which of our Tennessee delegation voted against the Trump-favored CR? 

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'A Light in The Attic' by Shel Silverstein Removed from Knox County Public School Libraries. This is a Shame.

by Rod Williams, Dec. 18, 2024 - Last week, the Williamson County School Board voted to remove three books from the school's libraries and restrict one to high school students and one to 11th and 12th grade students. One of the books removed was Where the Crawdads Sing. That book has sold over 18 million copies making it one of the best-selling books of all time. It spent over 150 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list. I have read the book and last week I posted on this site my view of the work and why I thought it did not deserve to be removed. 

Where the Crawdads Sing is one of some 1100 books removed from school libraries in Tennessee recently.  In July 2022, a state law went into effect dubbed the “Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022” which mandated that all materials in school libraries had to be “suitable for age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials and must be suitable for, and consistent with, the educational mission of the school.” The law also provided a mechanism for removing books that were not deemed age appropriate. Since that law went into effect in Tennessee, over 1100 books have been removed from school libraries. Maybe a few of them were inappropriate, I don't know, but I suspect most did not deserve to be removed. 

One of the books removed from the Knox County School Library was the book Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. I am well acquainted with that book. That book and another by the same author, Where the Sidewalk Ends, were books beloved by my daughter when she was a child. From about the age of 5 to about 8, I read to her from these two books a lot. They are clever, funny, and insightful. They are illustrated poetry books for children, but they are so clever that adults can enjoy them too.  

Both the text and the illustration of these two books are by Silverstein. Silverstein is a multitalented American writer, cartoonist, musician and grammy-winning song writer. You may know him as the writer of the Johnny Cash hit song, A Boy Named Sue. He also wrote a bunch of other country songs, several for Bobby Bare. 

I have such fond memories of reading those books to my daughter and so does she. Now, my five-year-old grandson enjoys the books. It is a shame that other children will be denied the joy of discovering these delightful books. 

Among other books removed from the Knox County Schools libraries is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I read the book as a young adult. I don't remember much about it, but I remember it was a powerful book. The book is a serious anti-war novel. It deals with adult topics, but high school seniors are almost adults. While they can't buy alcohol, at age 18 they can vote, get married, drive a car, enter into contracts, must register for the draft, and can voluntarily join the military and die in real wars. We don't need to protect high school students from the complexity and reality of the world. They are not that fragile. We can't keep them kids. Let them read!

While I agree in theory that a school library should strive to stock its shelves with age-appropriate materials, I am concerned that we have set up a process for allowing the most puritanical and vocal to determine what books are in the library.

When I think back about my own childhood and education, I ask myself it I would have wanted by dad to have the power to determine what books were in the school library. The answer is a resounding "No."  I loved my father and he was a good man, but he thought all alcohol consumption was a sin and would have opposed any book that mentioned anyone having a mug of beer or a glass of wine. If dad would have been picking library books, any book in which a couple danced would have been banned. He believed the earth to be no more the 6,000 years old and he would have banned any book that denied the biblical creation story. If he would have gotten to pick the school library books, we would have had a small library. 

Moms for Liberty is the organization leading the effort to purge what they consider inappropriate books from school libraries. I have known some Moms members and have attended a couple of their meetings. I agree with them on some things. I agree when they resist normalizing and celebrating transgenderism and when they push back against critical race theory indoctrination. However, they are working to remove books from school libraries that do not deserve to be removed, and I do not trust their judgment. There needs to be pushback.

The most puritanical and vocal should not get to determine what books are in our public school libraries. 

A partial list of books removed from the Knox County Public School library system. 

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Who's Afraid of 'Where the Crawdads Sing'

Click to see the Amazon info. 

by Rod Williams, Dec. 13, 2024- On Monday of this week the Williamson County school board met in a special session to vote on five books in the library system to determine whether the five books were “appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access to books in WCS libraries." Also, the Board was to determine if each book was “consistent with the educational mission of WCS.” The Board was then to vote to remove the book or restrict access. 

The five book in question, and the decisions on them, were:

• “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer, which was removed from schools
• “Field Guide to the American Teenager” by Ben Philippe, which was restricted to 11th- and 12th-grade students only
• “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, which was restricted to high school students only
• “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, which was removed from schools
• “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Della Owens, which was removed from schools

The removal is made possible by the Age Appropriate Act which makes it mandatory for “school libraries and classrooms to maintain a list of materials in the library collection, to have a policy to screen reading materials for ‘age appropriateness’ and to remove materials that do not meet the criteria established.

Moms for Liberty organized the effort to remove books

I am only familiar with one of the five books in question and that is Where the Crawdads Sing. I read the book a couple years ago or so. Actually, I was not impressed. If was a pleasurable enough leisure time read, but I did not think it was a great piece of literature. I found it kind of contrived and forced. But, what do I know? The book has sold over 18 million copies making it one of the best-selling books of all time. It spent over 150 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list. While I didn't love the book, I certainly do not remember it as a dirty or erotic or a sexually arousing book. Yes, it delt with real life circumstances but it was not lascivious. 

No child is going to seek the book out for sexual arousal. They are not going to pass it around and giggle about it.  If I had a child that read this book, I would be glad they loved reading. If they have the reading level to read the book, they have the maturity level to read it.  If you have a child who does not live under a rock or under lock and key or who is not prohibiting from associating with other kids, they are going to be exposed to mush worse on TV, or rap lyrics, or TikTok, or from their peers. This is just not that bad. 

By removing the book from school libraries, it prohibits every child in the county school system from having access to the book. Rather than banning books for everyone, maybe schools should maintain of list of children that are prohibited from accessing certain books and parents be allowed to add their child's name to the list.

I am not sure that inappropriate books in school libraries was ever a serious problem. This looks more like a solution in search of a problem. There might have been a librarian somewhere who did not use proper judgement in which books they selected for the library. However, it seems there should be another way of dealing with this than allowing the most vocal and puritanical of parents to pressure school boards to remove books. 

Moms for Liberty turned out parents to advocate for removal of the books in question. Maybe the solution to this problem is for a Moms for Literacy group to form to show up and speak up for books like Where the Crawdads Sing to counter the Mons for Liberty which wants to remove the book. Moms for Liberty organizes to defeat school board members who are not responsive to their demands. There needs to be pushback. 

This was distributed by Moms for Liberty highlighting the bad parts. This is all they could find in the first 133 pages.  To see more, follow this link.

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Tip # 18 from The Rod Williams School of Drunk Driving: Avoid Sobriety Checkpoints.

by Rod Williams, Dec 9, 2024 - The Nashville.gov website today posted a notice that there would be a sobriety checkpoint on 8th Ave on the night of December 18. I live right off of 8th Ave and at this point have no plans for that date but if I were going to go out and if I was going to have more than one drink, I would play it safe and avoid 8th Ave. Avoiding sobriety checkpoints is tip number 18 from the Tips from the Rod Williams School For Drunk Driving.

Tips from The Rod Williams School of Drunk Driving

(1) Don't Drive drunk. That is the number one tip: don't do it. Getting arrested for drunk driving is only one reason not to drive drunk.  The most important reason is you could kill yourself or someone else.  If you are lucky and don't kill someone else or yourself, getting arrested for drunk driving could cost you your job, your election, your social standing, custody of your children or visitation rights, a lot of money, and maybe your marriage.

If you overindulge, there are alternatives to driving drunk. If you do get drunk, Uber or Lyft or get a hotel room or call a friend or family member and ask them to come get you. If at a friend's house and you have had too much to drink, stay the night.  

Lyft and Uber are affordable, fast, and convenient.  By now, most people who live an active life have probably used one of these services. If you have not used one of the services however, the way they work is that you page a ride using your phone. To do that you must first download an app. Don't wait until you're drunk to try to download the app. Here is a link to the Uber app.

(2) Pick the designated driver before you start drinking.  If you are not going to rely on a commercial service such as a cab or Uber, and you know you are going to be drinking and you are going with other people, then have a designated driver. I prefer being the designated drinker, but someone needs to be the designated driver.
 
Despite the above advice, I know there will be times when a person will have had too much to drink and not think they are too drunk to drive but will have had a sufficient amount of adult beverage that they could register drunk even though they don’t think they are drunk. I myself have probably driven many times when I would have registered drunk had I been stopped. I am not by any means advocating driving drunk, but if you are possibly driving impaired, I am providing these below tips to help you increase your chances of getting home safely without getting arrested.

(3) Know that you don’t have to be “drunk” to register DUI. You do not have to be sloppy, falling down drunk to register as DUI. If you think you should not drive, then by all means don’t. See the above tips. Often you will not know if you are drunk or not, so unless you know exactly how much you have had to drink and whether or not that would constitute drunk driving, then assume you are technically drunk. You do not have to appear intoxicated or have any of the symptoms that we think of as “drunk” to have a Blood Alcohol Content that legally makes you guilty of Driving Under the Influence. If you drink and you drive, you have probably driven “drunk.”

(4) Track your consumption and don’t have “one for the road.” That is what often happens. If during the evening you are having dinner with friends and you have a pre-dinner cocktail and wine with dinner and an after-dinner liquor with coffee, and a champagne toast, you might register drunk. Try to keep your alcohol consumption to a level that falls below the BAC limit.

On occasion, but not as often as I would like and certainly not as often as when I younger, I like to go to Lower Broadway to listen to live music and party. If I have 8, 12-ounce beers in a four-hour period I should have a BAC of about .068, however, if I have 9 beers in four hours that means I have a BAC of .085 and am legally drunk. “One for the road” could put me over the limit. Actually, I almost never have eight drinks in a four-hour period, but it has happened. 

A female can drink less than a male and a slender person can drink less than a heavy person. For a 115-pound female, three glasses of wine in two hours is drunk. Don’t try to keep up with the other people in your party. Know your limit. Skip a round. Drink slower. Some people assume that wine is less inebriating than tequila shots. That is not so. A 12-ounce beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1 ounce of 100-proof distilled spirits have the same impact on an individual's BAC level.

Here is a calculator that will give you guidance on how much alcohol you can consume and an estimate of BAC. Please be aware that this is only a guide. If you are drinking on an empty stomach, your BAC may be higher than indicated in the calculator.

(5) You'r not a kid anymore. As you age, your reaction times can slow down, and you can lose the ability to effectively divide your attention between multiple activities. Aging tends to result in a reduction of strength, coordination, and flexibility. Face it, there are some things you cannot do as well when you are old as you could when you were young, drinking is one of them.  You may not be safely able to drink as much and drive as you could when you were younger.

(6)  Point your car in the direction of home.  Plan your trip. A good car should be able to find its way home, with a little help.  Avoid places where the police might see you. Plan your trip home so you do not have to circle a block and be concerned about traffic lights and stop signs. The less exposed one is to the police the less chance one has of getting caught. It is worth parking four or five blocks away from where you are going to reduce your exposure.

(7) Be aware that you are impaired. If you didn’t keep track of how much you drank then assume you are may have had enough to register drunk and use your best drunk-driving skills. "Thinking" skills, like perceiving and evaluating risks, or processing information are not easily visible to outside observers, but they are the first skills to be adversely affected by alcohol. Be aware of this.

(8) Stop the Party. You are having a good time. You are joking and singing and laughing. You hate to end the party, but if there is any chance that you are driving with an elevated BAC, then stop the party. 

Say, “OK folks, we need to straighten up. I need your help in getting us home.” Don’t sing or engage in distracting conversation. Turn off the radio. Don’t talk on the cell phone. Give driving your undivided attention. 

Don’t let anyone in the car have an open container. You may be perfectly capable of driving, but if a drunk passenger is yelling out the window, the police may stop the car and give you a drunk driving test. The moment you get in the car the party is over.

(9) Check the checklist. Have a mental checklist. You don’t want to get stopped because you failed to use your turn signal. I was once stopped by the police on lower Broadway and forced to take a Breathalyzer. I knew I had only had two beers in a two-hour period, so I was not concerned. The reason they stopped me is that I had not turned on my headlights as I pulled out into the street. This was in a previous car, years ago when headlights did not turn on automatically. The downtown area is well lit and this was just an oversight. The police are looking for excuses to stop you; don’t give them one. Seat belts? Check. Adjust the mirror? Check. Turn off the radio? Check. Turn on the headlights? Check.

(10)  One crime at a time! Do not commit other crimes while driving drunk. If stopped for suspicion of drunk driving, don't compound your problems by being arrested for drunk driving and something else.  Don't smoke dope while driving drunk. Don't get arrested for drunk driving and for speeding, or possession of a controlled substance, or contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or soliciting prostitution.

(11) Concentrate; pay attention. Be aware of your driving. Don’t relax. Keep both hands on the wheel. Don’t be distracted. Don't answer the phone. If you feel you must answer the phone, safely pull off the road. Don't even engage in conversation.  Make sure you do not weave. Are you staying within the lines? Drive just below the speed limit. Don’t tailgate. Pay attention to the car in front of you. If they put on their brakes, notice it. If you are approaching an intersection with a traffic light, pay close attention. Plan that traffic light stop. Don’t run a yellow light.


(12) Use your co-pilot. Ask the person in the passenger's seat to help you drive. Ask them to tell you if you weave or tailgate or go too fast. Make them pay attention to your driving.

(13) If you may be drunk, refuse the Breathalyzer test. Unless you are certain that you have had less than the number of drinks it would take to raise your BAC level to the .08 level, then common wisdom holds that it is a good idea to refuse the breathalyzer test. It generally is more difficult to convict a driver of drunk driving if no chemical tests are taken.

(14) Don't sleep it off in the car.  Should you find yourself drunk and think a nap will revive you or that you may just spend the night in your car, don't do it. Even if you are not driving, if you are in your car drunk, you can be charged with DUI.  See the guidelines above about alternatives to driving drunk. If you can't take a ride-share or call a friend, and you do end up drunk, it would be better to sleep it off in a doorway or park bench than in your car. 

(15) Tell the officer you have foot drop. If in doubt as to whether or not you can walk a straight line, don't do it. Some people can't walk a straight line even sober. Tell the officer you have foot drop, or a bad hip or have other conditions that keeps you from walking a straight line. It might work.

Rep. Bill Beck

(16) Use your influence to get the charge thrown out. Be a State Representative or other person (link) with important friends in high places who can get a judge to throw out the charge based on lack of probable cause for making the stop. Despite the police seeing you drive with wheels over the lane line and observing the smell of alcohol, slurred speech, and inability to walk straight and despite the arresting officer saying you were "absolutely hammered," the judge may rule the arresting officer did not have probable cause for making the stop.

(17) Avoid Sobriety Checkpoints. The city post where they will be conducting sobriety checkpoints, and the news media often reports it. If you know you will be drinking and driving, find out if there will be a sobriety check point where you will be traveling and avoid that route. To check where the sobriety checkpoints will be follow this link and look for announcements. 

(18) Pray. It can't hurt.

This is a tip suggested by one of the students of the Rod Williams School for Drunk Driving and I am incorporating it into the curriculum.

(19) If you are seeing double, close one eye. 

From now through January 1, 2025 there will be more parties and more excuses to drink and more drunk drivers on the road. Drive careful, don't drive drunk and stay safe. 

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I Can Say Some Good Things About Donald Trump

by Rod Williams, Dec. 14, 2024- As anyone who reads this blog or follows me on Facebook knows, I have been very critical and concerned about Donald Trump. I have been "negative." With justification, I think, but I am not going to reiterate by concern at this time. Today I am going to be positive.

A dear friend of mine the other day told me I was too negative.  This is from a person who did not vote for Trump herself but does not think he will be near as bad as I do. She said to me, "You're too negative. Surely there are some things he may do that you would agree with. Give him a chance."

I thought about it. I overwhelmingly think the bad outweighs the good when it comes to Trump, but I thought I would try to be positive and look on the bright side.  After all we are stuck with him, so here goes. These are things Trump has said he would do, or he has done where I agree with Donald Trump. On some of them, I applaud him.

Trump says he might end daylight savings time. That would make a lot of people happy. I don't know anyone who likes it. Why are we stuck with it? If Donald trump can end Daylight Savings Time, I will be pleased.

Trump has said to be considering privatizing the post office. Yes! That is something I have long advocated. The only mail I ever get is fundraiser appeals and advertisement. I have not written a letter in years.  I pay bills by automatic draft. When I don't talk on the phone with someone, I communicate by Facebook messenger, text, and email. There may be some people who would miss the post office, but they would adjust. Anyway, it would probably not just disappear overnight. Fed Ex or Amazon might buy it.

Trump will likely end the insanity of the federal government forcing states to allow men to play women's sports and putting men in women's prisons. 

Trump will likely end some of the sillier aspects of wokeism. I expect a single individual will no longer be referred to with the plural pronouns of "they/them."  I suspect government communications can refer to "mothers" instead of "birthing parents." I expect this to spill over into the larger culture. 

Under a Trump administration, I doubt our embassies around the world will fly the gay pride flag. 

Trump will take a hard line on Iran. Biden reversed Trumps hardline policy on Iran when he came into office and allowed Iran to benefit from billions in oil revenue and reduced sanctions. Now, thinks to Isreal, Iran is weak. I expect Trump to reinstate his tough on Iran policies and keep Iran in check.  

Trump has vowed to slash the size of the federal government through a new government agency run by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They are to find inefficiencies, waste, and fraud. Something similar has been tried before. You may remember the Grace Commission under Reagan. It is hard to root out waste and reform is resisted. People like efficiency in theory but not when it threatens jobs and money spend in their state. Also, the majority of the budget is untouchable consisting of interest on the debt, Medicare, and Social Security.  So, it is a hard job to actually affect any significant savings, but some improved efficiency is better than none. And, Musk and Ramaswamy are thinking big.  "We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright," Ramaswamy told Fox News last month. "We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government." Last year, when he was running for president, Ramaswamy pledged to immediately fire 50% of "federal bureaucrats." I don't know that it can be done, but I support this effort. I'm kind of excited about it. 

He gives hope, pride, and encouragement to liars, mediocre, and weird people everywhere. If people like Robert F. Kennedy andPete Hegseth  and Kash Patel and Kari Lake can rise to the level of success to serve in a president's cabinet or other important post in the federal government then weird and unqualified people and liars everywhere can have a hope for success.

He may cause liberals to rediscover an appreciation for political norms necessary for the functioning of a democratic republic. I am speaking of things like appreciating the filibuster and opposing packing the supreme court. It has been Democrats who have favored ending the filibuster and ramming things through with a simple majority and it has been Democrats who have talked about packing the Court. Now, I would bet they don't want to see those "reforms" take place. Of course, the downside of what I suspect will be a positive development is that Republican may now favor those things.

Trump will secure the border. Biden made a huge mistake in May 2023, when he lifted Title 42, the emergency health order Trump had put in place to block migrants from entering the country to seek asylum. Biden’s decision allowed millions of migrants to stay in the country while their asylum cases slowly moved through the courts. Biden oversaw the largest immigration surge in U.S. History.  I expect Trump's get-tough approach will drastically discourage illegal border crossings.

Trump will deport the undesirables.  There are illegal aliens who are criminals here and people who have deportation orders who have not turned themselves in. I am concerned about Trump's mass deportation plan. However, Trump has said he will start with the criminals and recent arrivals. Mass deportation takes a lot of funding for manpower and retention facilities and travel cost. Congress has to appropriate the money, and it takes time to do the mass deportation, so I don't think mass deportation will occur. However, he will probably deport a few hundred thousand or a million people who should be deported.

Trump will lessen the risk of a terrorist attack on American soil. Among the illegal aliens are people from many nations including from countries that wish us ill. Known people on the terrorist watch list have been caught at the southern border, and we don't know who is among the gotaways. Border security will make us more secure.

Trump says he will legalize the dreamers. I think he may actually do it. Maybe, he really does believe it is the right thing to do. Maybe, he thinks it will soften his image and counter the bad press certainly to arise from deportation. It is an issue that has evaded resolution for a long time. Trump may make it happen.

Trump showed that the backlash to Dobbs was overstated. No antiabortion senator or governor has lost an election since the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.  Many thought the overturning of Roe would result in Democrat sweeping victories. Trump kept that from happening.

Trump gave people hope. He said he would bring down groceries prices and people care about that and are hopeful. He also said he could raise tariffs and export millions of laborers. A lot of those laborers are farm laborers, and a lot of our food is imported, so the hope of lower grocery prices is probably a false hope, but a false hope is still hope.

Trump badly crippled or ended identity politics. Trump made inroads in groups that normally vote Democrat. Dems put people into different buckets and appeal to them as Blacks, Latinx, gay, women, Asian and any other group they could think of, by telling them they are victims. Trump broke that.  About the only group where Democrats dominated were among college-educated, wealthy elites, and single women.  Trump made inroads among Blacks and won 21% of the male Black voters. He lost Latinos by just 5% and Asian Americans by just 15%, and Trump won “other” minorities such as Arab Americans, Native Americans, and others.  He also made inroads into gays, giving them speaking roles at the convention while keeping in his coalition Christain fundamentalist This is quite an accomplishment and bodes well for the future of the Republican Party. 

Trump's presidency may reduce crime. Most crimes are violation of state laws, not federal laws and a president is limited in how much impact he may have on crime. However, Trump's threat to use the US military to police crime ridden cities may cause local governments to improve policing themselves. Trump can use the power of grants to states and cities to cause them to take a tougher stance on crime. Also, by sitting the right tone and using the bully pulpit, blue city mayors may abandon some of their soft on crime policies. We have already seen that no one is advocating "defund the police" (well, almost no one, we still have Ginny Welsch). Metro Nashville has started enforcing traffic laws again. The woke policies that led to more crime are already fading. Trump will set the tone that makes getting tough on crime popular. 

There, I have said some nice things about Donald J. Trump. Don't expect me to make this a habit. 

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Tennessee panel still waiting to hear first book appeal under 2022 school library law

 By Marta W. Aldrich, Chalkbeat, December 11, 2024 - Two years after Tennessee lawmakers made it
possible to ban books from school libraries statewide, not a single book challenge has been heard, let alone approved.

And no complaints are waiting to be considered, either. 

... But only three appeals have been filed with a commission that this year hired its first full-time staff at an annual cost of $500,000, in part to manage anticipated book appeals. All three appeals were withdrawn within a month.

.... Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature passed Gov. Bill Lee’s school library law in 2022 to establish a local review process to make sure books and materials are “appropriate for the age and maturity levels” of the students who can access them.

A few months later, lawmakers approved a second measure creating an appeals system so that book complaints can go before the state’s existing textbook commission if the complainant isn’t satisfied with a decision by a local board or charter school. That law gave the commission unprecedented authority to ban certain books statewide, or to restrict them to certain grade levels in all Tennessee schools.

... at least 1,100 books were removed locally during the first few months of the academic year, according to a statewide survey of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians. Hundreds more have been pulled since the survey was conducted. Leaders with the librarians group believe those numbers are conservative. (read it all)

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The Disgruntled Republican's End-of-Year Giving Guide and Thoughts on Giving.

by Rod Williams, Dec 3, 2024- I recently completed by end-of-year giving and was not near as generous this year.  I am not sure why, exactly. I just wasn't feeling it. 

With the reelection of Donald Trump and seeing the kind of people he is appointing to cabinet positions, I am convinced he will be as much of an authoritarian as I feared he would be. I think that helping thwart this march toward authoritarianism is the most important use I could make of my money, but I don't really know where it is best to spend it. 

I do not want any of the money I may contribute going to promote progressive wokeism. I want to support organizations, for example, that will oppose cruel mass deportation and care for left behind orphans, but not organizations that support refusing to turn over criminal aliens to ICE. I want to use my funds to oppose Trumpism and yet not help Wokeism. 

I want to support organizations that will help fund opposition to Justice Department persecution of the "enemies within."  If Trump's Justice Department goes after Mitt Romney or Liz Channey or other of his critics, I want to contribute to an organization that will defend them in court. I guess I am keeping my powder dry, so to speak, to have the money available to contribute when the crises arrive, and I am hoping organizations will spring up to meet the challenge.

In addition to wanting my money available to thwart Trumpism, I want to promote the ideas of liberty and free markets. I feel this is more important than ever. Several organizations that use to do this have abandoned traditional American conservatism and have become nationalist-populist and part of the Trump cult of personality. I think it is important to fund the organizations that continue to promote free market ideas, constitutionalism, and liberty. Liberty is now threatened from the Trumpian right and the progressive woke left. Those promoting liberty need to be supported. 

I don't make a distinction between supporting the cause of freedom and charitable giving. To my way of thinking, there is no better use of my money than in helping to conserve the American Founding.  I want to leave the world a better place than I found it and I want future generations to know the blessings of liberty, justice, a free-market economy, and a world not dominated by authoritarian and totalitarian tyrants.  I believe freedom is the greatest gift we can leave our descendants.  

Below I am listing the organizations I support but in addition to the list below, I have a couple individuals who I financially help. If you have a family member or an acquaintance who you could help, that may be where your charity should begin. If people helped other people directly there would be less demand for the welfare state. Personal giving like this creates a community bond and you know if the recipient is deserving. Often churches help fellow church members in this way. I am not a member of a faith community but think that supporting one's local church can be a good way to give.

Unfortunately, sometimes charity does more harm than it does good, both foreign and domestic charity. A good documentary that makes this point is Poverty Inc. Before giving, I ask myself if this organization just perpetuates dependency, or does it respond to a crisis, or support actions that really help people long-term. Sometimes it is hard to know.  

When I give, I want to make sure I am not being scammed and that the organization I support does more than just perpetuate the organization. A lot or organizations spend more money raising money than they do funding their goal. A good source for checking on an organization's efficiency is Charity Navigator and Charity Watch.

Another thing I consider when giving is that I don't want to support and encourage bad behaviors. I never give money to beggars holding signs on the side of the road. In addition to encouraging bad behavior, they may be trying to scam you. I don't want homeless people freezing on the streets, so I support organizations like The Salvation Army and The Nashville Rescue Mission but do not support panhandling. 

I also do not contribute money to organizations that insult my values. For several years, I gave money to an organization that saves places of natural beauty in Tennessee and preserves critical habitats.  I still think they do a worthwhile job doing what they do. However, in one of their email communications a couple years ago, they went off-topic and expressed their support for Black Lives Matter and pledged a commitment to equity and diversity, and social justice.  I support tolerance, equality, and non-discrimination but not modern woke concepts of social justice and equity. I marked them off of my giving list. There was also another organization I stopped supporting for the same reason. I am not going to support any organization whose values I do not share. 

In addition to supporting certain organizations, I think in this age of misinformation, and attacks on the press that it is important to support journalism, and I subscribe to much more than I can possibly read.  I subscribe to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. I also subscribe to The Tennessean, but it is not much of a newspaper, but I do not want our city not to have a daily newspaper.

I also subscribe to National Review and a couple other conservative journals that have not succumbed to Trumpism. In addition, I am a paid subscriber to The Bulwark and The Dispatch. I get more than enough of their free stuff on YouTube and newsletters, but I want to support them. Both of these could be described as never-Trumper Republican publications. Not all analysis can fit on in a meme or be expressed in 280 characters. Good analysis and opinion journalism needs to be supported. 

If we don't support journalism the truth will suffer, and corruption will flourish. While there are thousands of blogs and podcast and pundits, journalism needs boots on the ground. We need more than just opinions; we need facts. I think subscribing to newspapers is a contribution to a better world and preserving freedom.

If you are looking for a place to give, please consider the following.

Rod's End-of-Year Giving List

The Beacon Center is my favorite non-profit and gets the largest single chunk of my charitable giving.  It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and independent organization dedicated to providing expert empirical research and timely free-market solutions to public policy issues in Tennessee.  Time and time again, Tennessee is recognized for being one of the most fiscally responsible and economically free states in the union.  Much of the credit for these honors is due to the work of the Beacon Center.  The Beacon Center has worked to ensure the Right to Work by pushing to overturn professional licensure laws that serve no purpose but to keep out the competition. They have worked to prevent local government from banning work-from-home opportunities like recording studios in homes in Music City. They have stopped local government from forcing homeowners to build public sidewalks when they remodel their home. Beacon is responsible for enshrining the protection against being forced to join a union in the State constitution.  Beacon gets much of the credit for the advancement of educational choice in Tennessee.  Beacon produces the annual "Pork Report," highlighting the most egregious examples of government waste in Tennessee.

Republican Accountability PAC is an organization of Republicans who had voted for Trump previously but could not support his reelection after his attempted coup and were alarmed at his talk of suspending the Constitution. During the recent election the PAC created ads to expose Trump's authoritarian tendencies and will remain active in trying to stop Trump's march toward authoritarianism. 

Nashville Rescue Mission: A Christ-centered community committed to helping the hungry, homeless, and hurting by providing programs and services that focus on a person’s entire life-physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social. We are devoted to restoring the whole person through a Christian approach that helps the homeless and addicted learn how much God loves them and gain the biblical insight they need to lead a productive life in and for Christ.

Guests are cared for in a safe, supportive environment where they can find refuge and rest. Once their basic and immediate needs are addressed, case managers work one-on-one with each person to identify next steps, including healthcare and treatment options with a goal of helping them change unhealthy patterns of behavior.

Nashville Rescue Mission’s Emergency Services Include: FOOD, SHELTER, CLOTHING, HOT SHOWERS AND PERSONAL HYGIENE, COURTYARDS/DAY ROOMS, CASE MANAGEMENT TRANSFORMATIVE PROGRAMS, EDUCATION/TRAINING.

The Mercatus Center: A research center at George Mason University that advances knowledge about how markets solve problems and help us lead happier, healthier, and richer lives. For more than 40 years, Mercatus has supported leading talent and scholarship in the mainline economics tradition, applying rigorous research to real-world concerns. Through our continuing efforts to bridge the gap between theory and practice, we strive to realize a world where markets operate at their full potential to increase abundance, civility, and well-being. Your gift to the Mercatus Center ensures free-market ideas are championed in public policy, the academy, and the broader public discourse. 100% of your donation supports educating tomorrow's academic leaders as well as generating peer-reviewed research on today's most pressing issues.

Doctors without borders: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cares for people affected by conflict, disease outbreaks, natural and human-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee opened its doors in 1978 with commitment from several community leaders. The purpose of the organization was to provide a central distribution center for companies, groups, and individuals who wished to help provide food for hungry people in Middle Tennessee. During my years of working for a non-profit agency, we were a Second Harvest outlet.  This organization provides food to needy people, mostly bread, that would otherwise be thrown away.

The Fund for American Studies: (TFAS) is a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit that is changing the world by developing leaders for a free society. Our transformational programs teach the principles of limited government, free-market economics and honorable leadership to students and young professionals in America and around the world.

By offering a portfolio of more than 20 different academic programs, fellowships and seminars, the TFAS Journey helps cultivate future leaders from high school, all the way through to their university studies and professional careers. 

Today, there are more than 42,000 TFAS alumni making the difference in their communities and throughout the world by championing the values essential to the preservation and success of a free society.

The Salvation Army has Been Serving Nashville For Over 125 Years Through Much Needed Social Services And Programs. A 90-bed Adult Alcohol and Rehabilitation Center for men was opened in 1900 and served the community for over 100 years. In 1940, The Salvation Army built and opened the “Red Shield” Community Center – rebuilt in 1984 as the Magness-Potter Community Center which offered Army-administered youth and adult leisure activity programs. Now, the community center houses the United Way-sponsored Family Resource Center, the Red Shield Kids Club after-school and summer day camp programs, the Life Skills Learning Center, the Second Harvest Food Pantry, and the Emergency Services Program.  In 1980, the Area Command facility was moved from Demonbreun to Dickerson Pike, receiving the name the “Center of Hope”, and opened a 75-person transient shelter, an emergency shelter for men, and a day and night child care center serving homeless and other families in urgent need. Today, the Center of Hope and the Magness-Potter Community Center, along with the three worship centers, serve Nashville by being strategically placed in the neediest areas of the community. Our services are provided to all of Davidson County, as well as Cheatham, Dickson, Hickman, Williamson, and Sumner Counties. Your donation will directly impact your community.

The Salvation Army has been many things over the years as communities’ needs have changed over the years, but today, the focus of the Nashville Salvation Army is to fight poverty and prevent homelessness in our community through a myriad of comprehensive programs designed to bring a holistic approach to the individual’s or family’s need.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes. 

Institute for Justice: IJ is a nonprofit, public interest law firm. Our mission is to end widespread abuses of government power and secure the constitutional rights that allow all Americans to pursue their dreams. Donations to the Institute for Justice enable us to represent our clients at no cost to them—and to stand with them no matter how long their cases take. And when we win for our clients, we secure precedent that protects the rights of all Americans. IJ’s work is powered by nearly 10,000 supporters from across the country who believe in the Constitution and its ideals. 70% of our funding comes from individuals like you. Please join our fight for freedom and justice today. 

IJ has been involved in several high-profile fights over the years in Nashville. IJ defended a small music studio owner from efforts of the city to take her property by condemnation for no other purpose than to provide room for expansion of a bigger neighbor.  In the pre-ride-share days of Uber and Lyft, IJ defended an innovative entrepreneur who wanted to provide cheaper limo rides. IJ has defended homeowners who wanted to work from home.

The American Enterprise Institute is a public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world. The work of our scholars and staff advances ideas rooted in our belief in democracy, free enterprise, American strength and global leadership, solidarity with those at the periphery of our society, and a pluralistic, entrepreneurial culture.

The Center Square. The disappearance and decline of journalism concern me.  Nashville went from two daily papers to one newspaper that is only a shadow of its formal self.  While there are lots of people, like me, blogging and sharing opinions, without staff they can seldom break stories.  Journalism needs paid boots on the ground. News, especially local news, most often comes down to shootings, car wrecks, sports, and reposted press releases.  There are far too few outlets looking for scandals and corruption.  The watchdog of democracy has died.

The Center Square is conservative but without the rancor, sensationalism, and conspiratorial mindset of what defines many so-called conservative news sources today. 

"The Center Square was launched in May 2019 to fulfill the need for high-quality statehouse and statewide news across the United States. The focus of our work is state- and local-level government and economic reporting. A taxpayer sensibility distinguishes our work from other coverage of state and local issues. As a result of this approach, our readers are better informed about the focus of state and local government and its cost to the citizens whose tax dollars fund governmental decisions.

The Center Square is staffed by editors and reporters with extensive professional journalism experience. We engage readers with essential news, data and analysis – delivered with velocity, frequency and consistency. We distribute our journalism through three main channels at no cost to our partners or readers: a newswire service to legacy publishers and broadcasters. The Center Square is a project of the 501(c)(3) Franklin News Foundation, headquartered in Chicago."

Pre-Born! is an organizations that partner with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, several states where abortion is still legal have become key destinations for vulnerable women seeking abortions. Planned Parenthood is working to place mobile abortion units on the borders of states where abortion is illegal. 

Pre-Born provide ultrasound equipment to pro-life pregnancy crisis centers.  Data shows that when an expectant mother sees an ultrasound image of her baby and hears the heartbeat, she most often decides to keep the child. 

National Review Institute. Your support ensures that NRI will continue to preserve and promote the legacy of William F. Buckley Jr. and advance the conservative principles he championed: limited government, free markets, individual liberty, personal responsibility, a strong national defense, and the rule of law. As the Republican Party and other conservative organization abandon their core values, it is more important than ever that these ideas be promoted. 

Foundation of Economic Freedom. FEE's mission is to inspire, educate, and connect future leaders with the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society. These principles include: individual liberty, free-market economics, entrepreneurship, private property, high moral character, and limited government. Here are some highlights from 2021: We broke a world record for the largest online economics lecture. We made 95 mainstream media appearances. Our videos received 11 MILLION views and over 1.8 MILLION shares. On TikTok, we went from reaching 65,000 people to over 2 MILLION in just seven months! We reached over 83 MILLION Gen Z online.

Americans for Prosperity Tennessee: AFP’s grassroots, policy, government affairs, communications, political, and education and training capabilities make us the best organization to change the policy landscape in America.

The Pamphleteer: The Pamphleteer is an arts, culture, and politics publication based in Nashville, TN. Corporate and progressive media dominate the landscape in the state of Tennessee. The word "independent"—typically associated with legacy brands such as the Nashville Scene—means less and less as time goes on. Many of the perspectives from local media outlets you read come from an almost identical perspective, inseparable from the tone and tenor of politics at the federal level. The Pamphleteer seeks to reinvigorate local discourse by offering fresh, regional perspectives on local topics. It is our hope that through our work, we can challenge readers to engage more earnestly in local politics and motivate leaders to reach higher and farther in their efforts to make Nashville a world-class city.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization committed to educating the public on issues with significant fiscal policy impact. Our bipartisan leadership comprises some of the nation's leading budget experts, including many past heads of the House and Senate Budget Committees, the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Government Accountability Office. 

As an independent source of objective policy analysis, we regularly engage policymakers of both parties and help them develop and analyze proposals to improve the country’s fiscal and economic condition. These efforts have reinforced the Committee’s role as an authoritative voice for fiscal responsibility and an educational resource for policymakers and the general public. We are also a trusted budget watchdog that assists journalists across the country in understanding fiscal developments in Washington.

In 2023, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget sought to educate and engage the public, policymakers, and the media about the major fiscal issues facing our nation from the debt ceiling negotiations and passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to the looming insolvency of our nation’s trust funds. We also launched US Budget 2024, which seeks to bring transparency and accountability to the presidential campaign by analyzing the total cost and savings from each major candidate’s policy agenda.

American Interprise Institute: The American Enterprise Institute is a public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world. The work of our scholars and staff advances ideas rooted in our belief in democracy, free enterprise, American strength and global leadership, solidarity with those at the periphery of our society, and a pluralistic, entrepreneurial culture.  

I am going to wrap this up but other organizations to which I contribute, and you may want to consider include these:

• The Hoover Institute
• Insititute for Humane Studies
• CATO Institute
• American Institute for Economic Research
• National Association of Scholars

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