Senator Marsha Blackburn pushes back against creation of the Ministry of Truth. Calls on Mayorkas to disband the board, questions its authority

by Rod Williams, May 7, 2022 - I am very concerned about the Biden administration's creation of a Ministry of Truth. Free speech is already under attack. Conservatives are banned and shadow banned from social media, they are banned from speaking on college campuses, and corporate power is used to silence dissident conservative voices. 

 In academia, government, sports and in the professions and places of employment people are being forced to kowtow to the thought police and pretend that a person with a penis is really a "she," and all other kinds of nonsense. 

In several states, liberals tried to keep conservatives off the ballot, claiming they had engaged in insurrection.  In the case of Marjorie Taylor Green, they succeeded in having a trial to that effect. While she won, such actions have a chilling effect on free speech. The particulars against Ms Green include that she had called for people to attend a protest by calling it a "1776 moment."  If that type of speech is insurrection, I have been guilty. 

Liberals are winning the war to destroy free speech. Cancel culture and political correctness are undermining it already. Now, the government is creating something called the "Disinformation Governance Board." That should seed a chill down the spin of everyone who loves freedom. 

Marsha Blackburn is pushing back against this Orwellian development and has called for the Director of Homeland Security to disband the board.  Rather than tell you what she has said, I am posting the letter she wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The highlighting and underlining are mine.

I commend Senator Blackburn for her stand and effort to protect our freedom of speech. 

The liberal establishment press, nor liberal pundits, nor Democrat elected officials have expressed concern over the establishment of an official Ministry of Truth.  They should ask themselves this: When Donald Trump is reelected, and he very well may be, would they want Donald Trump to be appointing the director and giving direction to the board? 

One should not want their teem to have powers which some day they would not want the other teem to have. 

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What’s Really Going On with These Food-Facility Fires? Nothing. It is a figment of Tucker Carlson's warped imagination.

by Rod Williams, May 6, 2022- What’s Really Going On with These Food-Facility Fires? Nothing. It is a figment of Tucker Carlson's warped imagination. I was perplexed when I started seeing Facebook posts about sabotage of food processing plants. Due to a health condition that is keeping me homebound for a while, I have not been able to socialize with fellow Republicans as I normally do, so I don't know if this conspiracy theory nonsense is gaining traction with everyday average Republicans or not. Based on a conversation with a fellow active Republican and from Facebook post, it apparently is. 

After seeing more references to this supposed plot to destroy America's food processing infrastructure, I learned the primary source of this was Tucker Carlson. Carlson is the most popular news pundit in America and has the top-rated show on Fox News.

If you are a National Review subscriber you can read all about this latest nuttiness and see the evidence that debunks it at this link.  If not, let me summarize and post excerpts of the most interesting facts.

In a typical year, there may be one or no planes crashing into food-processing plants. This year there have been two. Only two.

In one of the crashes, the only person killed was the pilot and damage was minimal.

In the other, in Covington Georgia firefighters responded to a plane crash that killed two people at the General Mills food processing plant. The small plane crashed apparently after taking off from the runway of the Covington Municipal Airport. Six tractor-trailers were damaged as a result of the crash. Both occupants of the plane died.

There have been several fires at food processing plants and the article lists them. One was a fire at a butcher shop in Center Conway, New Hampshire, and another was a soybean-processing tank that caught fire at the Perdue Farms plant in Chesapeake, Va.

In none of the cases were there indications that it was a terrorist attack or arson was the cause. There are a lot of fires at all kinds of places on any one day. Food processing plants are not overrepresented. 

The article says that as of 2017, the U.S. had 36,486 food- and beverage-processing establishments. Few have had fires or other damage. I would bet that I could equally build a case that Black chruches are the target of arsonists, or gay nightclubs, or Boy Scott camps or used car dealers. 

Near me. I have a Mrs. Grissom's plant, a coca-cola bottling plant, a bakery on 8th Avenue called Baked on 8th, and another bakery in Wedgewood-Houston. There are several craft breweries and distlleries in Wedgewood-Houston. Do I need to build a bomb shelter? Should I move?

Here are a couple excerpts from the article: 

If you were a terrorist or foreign agent attempting to choke off the American food-distribution network . . . would you start with an obscure potato-chip maker in Oregon? Then move on to the source of Hot Pockets in Arkansas? Then move on to a soybean-processing tank in Virginia? Are these the right targets if you’re trying to cripple America?

If you hated America and had the ability to crash two planes into separate targets . . . wouldn’t you pick something a little more high-profile? The last guys did!

This fear-mongering that some nefarious group or the U.S. government is attempting to destroy America's food infrastructure is pure unadulterated nonsense. It reminds me of a few years ago when conservatives were up in arms about Agenda 21 and everything from bike lanes to shady sidewalks to reintroducing wolves into the wild was seen as part of this massive plot to kill most of the world's population in the interest of saving the planet.  

I used to think that Republicans were the more sane and sober political party. Not anymore. Republicans put the Democrats to shame in being gullible in believing nutty stuff. 

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Congratulations to Davidson County Republican candidates.

 Congratulations to the following candidates for their victories in the May 3rd Primary Election.

Todd Pembroke

Todd Pembroke, Republican Candidate, School District 2,

Todd Pembroke Campaign: Phone: 615-218-7626. 

Email: Todd@ToddPembroke.com. 

\Web Page: ToddPembroke.com

Kelli Phillips

Kelli Phillips, Republican Candidate, School District 4 and

Kelli Phillips Campaign: Phone: 773-495-3766,  

Email: KelliPhillips4Schools22@yahoo.com, 

Web Page: Facebook.com/KelliPhillips4SchoolBoard

Brian Horowitz

Brian A. Horowitz, Republican Candidate, General Sessions Judge, Division IX

Brian Horowitz Campaign: Phone: 615-795-3300.

 Email: Team@ElectBrianHorowitz.com, 

Now is the time for Republicans to do everything we can to support these three candidates with our financial support, and our time assistance by helping with door knocking and phone calling.

We need a massive Republican vote turnout for the August 4th County General Election.

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***TOMORROW***Bellevue Breakfast Club - May 7, 2022

From Lonnie Spivak:

Greetings Breakfast Club Members

Because of a scheduled event at Plantation Pub, we will have a new location for May, but after our meeting you can run over to the Plantation Pub and take part in their annual crawfish boil.

If you missed last month's meeting, you missed a good one, and I expect the same for May. I'm sure most of you know our next speaker, former Speaker of the Tennessee House, Beth Harwell. For eight years Beth helped guide Tennessee to a position of strength and prosperity. There is certainly no doubt, Beth is a bona fide republican. Please plan to attend at our temporary location, Saturday, May 7th on the enclosed patio at Corner Pub in the Woods, located at 8058 Highway 100, Nashville, TN 37221.

The doors will open at 8:30 am, and will get things started around 8:45 am. Breakfast will be served as usually, and the $5 fee will go to support the server for showing up early for our group. Huge shout-out to they guys at Plantation Pub and Corner Pub for helping us keep the first Saturday tradition alive.

Hope to see you there.

Lonnie

 ABOUT BETH HARWELL  www.BethHarwell.com

Beth has called Tennessee home since moving to Nashville to attend Lipscomb University for college. Following graduation, she moved on to Vanderbilt University for her PhD. Beth currently serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Middle Tennessee State University. After having fallen in love with Nashville and her husband, Sam, Beth started her own family, raising three children: Allie, Sam, and Tucker.

She began as an assistant professor of political science at Belmont University in 1986, but because of her love for service and her community, Beth made the decision to run for the 56th legislative district. While she lost her first run, she came back again two years later to win the seat.

In her time as the State Representative of the 56th District, Beth worked her way up from the Chairwoman of the House Commerce Committee to House Republican Caucus Whip, eventually becoming the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House in Tennessee and the entire Southeast.

Under her leadership, Tennessee cut more taxes in her eight-year tenure than any other time in Tennessee history including the eliminating the Hall Income Tax, repealing the Death Tax, and reducing the state sales tax on food. She also led the fight to reform the state pension program which brought Tennessee into the Top 5 states to fund state pensions.

Beth has impacted Tennessee’s education system in numerous ways, always maintaining a legislative focus on innovative education policy. In 2009, she passed landmark education reform legislation by making charter schools accessible to families all over the state. In addition, she pushed passage of legislation to direct additional funds for improvement of training for daycare workers.

In 2019, Beth was appointed by President Donald Trump to serve on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which covers Tennessee and surrounding states, it is a federally owned electric utility corporation.

Beth served as chair of the state Republican Party from 2001 to 2004. During that time, she was instrumental in the Republicans taking control of the State Senate for the first time in 105 years

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America is one of only five countries that allows for elective, late-term abortions in the third trimester?

 

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Starbuck files lawsuit to be added to Tennessee's 5th Congressional Republican ballot

Robby Starbuck

By Jon Styf | The Center Square, May 3, 2022 -  Former Republican 5th Congressional District candidate Robby Starbuck has filed suit in federal court stating that he should be placed back on the ballot for the Aug. 4 Republican primary.

The suit claims that the Tennessee Republican Party did not follow its own bylaws, incorrectly held a private meeting and then came to a conclusion that Starbuck, Morgan Ortagus and Baxter Lee were removed from the ballot.

It also claims that at least one member of the voting board voted against both Starbuck and Ortagus based upon a new residency law passed in the state and not based upon the party's bylaws.

"The abrupt removal of Mr. Starbuck and Ms. Ortagus from the 5th District Republican race clears the way for Beth Harwell, former Chair of the TRP and former speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives," according to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

The defendant names on the suit are Tennessee GOP chair Scott Golden, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins.

Starbuck’s suit says that he was told he was removed by a 13-3 vote because he lacked Republican "bona fides" and that he had not voted in the required three of four past Republican primaries. But the bylaws actually allow for letters attesting to a candidates Republican bona fides to take the place of that voting.

"On a call on April 19, 2022, after the vote, Defendant Golden told Mr. Starbuck that no candidate had ever provided so many vouching letters and still been removed from the ballot," the suit stated. "Indeed, he would discover that some Republicans had been permitted to compete in primary elections with neither a qualifying voting record, nor vouching letters."

Starbuck said that one member of the committee stated that she voted against Starbuck not on the basis of his voting record but due to a new state law that became law without Gov. Bill Lee’s signature that requires party primary candidates to have lived in the state for three years before running.

Hargett, through a spokesperson, said that law would not impact this primary because it became law after the filing deadline.

"On information and belief, subcommittee member Angie McClanahan has stated that her vote to end Mr. Starbuck’s candidacy was specifically not based on his voting record," the suit states. "Instead, she has informed others that her vote was based solely on a state law, referring to Tennessee’s new — and inapplicable — residency law, to disqualify Mr. Starbuck."

Three Tennessee residents filed suit against the law on behalf of Ortagus.

Starbuck’s suit states that he moved to Williamson County in Dec. 2018 and has been working with Republican candidates since, saying he has "raised and spent over $100,000 in reliance on the TRP’s rules in its Bylaws" already on his campaign.

Starbuck’s suit also claims that the Republican Party violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act when it voted to terminate his candidacy. Starbuck states in the suit that he was, at first, told the vote would occur at a public meeting, later that he could participate via Zoom and then later told he could not participate at all.

Starbuck also held that the ruling is against the qualifications clause of the U.S. Constitution because it adds "substantive qualifications for federal office that are not in the Constitution."

Starbuck claims he has submitted evidence from hundreds of Tennessee voters, Republican leaders and politicians backing his Republican bona fides.

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Robby Starbuck, barred from Republican primary ballot, sues GOP and the state. Morgan Ortagus, the Trump-backed candidate who was also blocked from the primary ballot, is not challenging the decision.

Read all about it: link.

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Heritage Foundation does a sloppy job explaining, "Why Tennessee’s New Residency Requirement for Congressional Candidates Is Blatantly Unconstitutional."

by Rod Williams, May 1, 2022- The Heritage Foundation is one of the policy thank-tanks that I have long supported.  Generally, I find their analysis and policy positions well-reasoned. I seldom disagree with Heritage and am often enlighted and educated.  

Resently Heritage posted an essay by  Hans A. von Spakovsky  entitled, "Why Tennessee’s New Residency Requirement for Congressional Candidates Is Blatantly Unconstitutional."  In it, he explains that the Constitution lays out the qualifications for those running for Congress and that states may not add additional requirements. 

I don't doubt he is right, as far as he goes.  However, I think this is a sloppy piece of work. During the consideration of the bill, this issue addressed by Mr. Spaakovsky was discussed. Those who sponsored the bill argued that by passing the bill, they were not adding new requirements to run for Congress; they were adding requirements to seek the nomination of a political party in a primary election.  Those denied the opportunity to run in a primary due to the new residency requirement may still run as an independent. 

Maybe that reasoning is faulty. I am not convinced that the argument will hold water. In any event, Mr. Spakovky should have addressed that argument. He just ignored it.

I am not sure the new law will be challenged in court. Primarily, because for the upcoming election the law is not in effect.  Governor Bill Lee did not sign the law and it became law without his signature. While waiting for it to become law, the qualifying deadline came and went. Laws cannot be retroactive. So, if the law is legal, and unless it is challenged it will be assumed to be legal, it will not apply to the upcoming primary but to the next primary for Congressional candidates. The law is keeping no one off the ballot.

Also, it should be noted that the candidates the law was aimed at keeping off the ballot, are at this time not on the ballot. They are not off of the ballot because of the new law, but because the Tennessee Republican Party Executive Committee ruled they were not eligible.  The ineligibility was for the same residency reason as the law.  Parties get to decide who can run under their label. The Executive Committee's decision was not based on law but on party policy.

For the record, I do not think candidates Morgan Ortegas and Robbie Starbuck should have been kicked off the ballot. If Fifth Congressional primary voting Republicans think that these candidates do not merit becoming the party's candidate let that be determined at the ballot box.  At the same time, I do not demonize the members of the Executive Committee as RINO's, liberals, insiders, the swamp, or thugs as some Republicans have done.  I respectfully disagree with the decision of the Executive Committee.

At this point, I do not know what recourse the removed candidates have. My Spakovky sheds no light on this issue. 

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Metro taxpayers to pay for sex-change operations for Metro employees.

 by Rod Williams, April 28, 2022- In his state of the Metro Address yesterday, Mayor John Cooper said, "We are pushing for gender-affirming health coverage for Metro employees." What does this mean?

Gender-affirming is the new woke-speak for treating people with gender dysphoria but with an understanding that what is needed is to conform one's body to the sexual identity in one's mind. 

Gender dysphoria is the current medical term for what was called gender identity disorder up until 2013 when it was deemed that gender dysphoria was less stigmatizing than gender identity disorder. Gender dysphoria is when a person, for instance, born a male thinks he is really a female trapped in a man's body. Gender dysphoria is described as the distress a person feels due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. 

By using the term "gender-affirming," that implies that the gender a person thinks he is is the person's real gender. Gender-affirming health coverage would apparently include hormone treatment and surgical treatment. In other words, metro taxpayers will be paying for sex-change operations for Metro employees. 

If Mayor Cooper's statement means anything other than that he needs to clarify it. 

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