Update. “Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act” petitions submitted.

by Rod Williams - The petition to put the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act referendum on the December ballot has been turned in to the election commission.   

If passed, the Act would roll back Nashville’s 34% property tax increase and limit Metro Council's ability to raise property taxes.  If passed, tax increases would be limited to 2% annually, without voter approval. Any effort to raise taxes by more than 2% would have to go on the ballot for approval by the voters. 

Other things the Act would do are:

• Block the the city from giving away land valued at $5 million or more without the support of 31 council members;
• Require a voter referendum for any bonds totaling more than $15 million for city projects, excluding schools, libraries, healthcare buildings and public safety projects;
• Have any Nashville pro sports facilities or related commercial development “revert to the people” if no games are played for more than 24 months; and 
• Require any groups receiving $250,000 or more in public funds to be subject to open record laws.

The group submitted petitions with over 20,000 signatures. I do not know the minimum number that is required to get the petition on the ballot but the signatures will be carefully vetted by the Election Commission to see if they are valid signatures.  

Local attorney Jim Roberts is the person who drafted the Taxpayers Protection Act and led the effort to get it on the ballot.  Congratulations Jim! And, Thank you. 

I summarized this report from an article published in the Tennessean. That article says the referendum will be on the December 5th ballot.  I checked the Election Commission Calendar and they show no election scheduled for December 5th. Someone who is reliably informed told me there was some reason the question could not be on the November 3th ballot but they did not know the reason but there would be a special election on December 5th for this referendum. Being the only thing on the ballot should greatly enhance the chances of this passing.  On November 3rd a lot of casual low-information progressive voters will be voting and they greatly out number conservative voters in Davidson County and would probably vote against lower taxes.  They will not be motivated enough to go to the polls in a special election to vote against lower taxes, however and those opposed to the 37% tax hike are motivated. Assuming enough of the signatures are valid to meet the threshold, this is going to a vote and will pass!

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Why do schools not want parents to know what they are teaching children?

Why do schools not want parents to know what they are teaching children?  Could it be because they are indoctrinating them in an socialist-loving, America-hating ideology?  

Rutherford County sent a letter to parents asking them to sign an agreement that they would not observe what goes on in their child's virtual classroom. They have backed off of this policy somewhat since this was met with an uproar.  Now they say parents can observe, with permission of the teacher. However, they still prohibit parents from taping the classroom activity. 

I have been slow reaching this conclusion, but I think it is time to give up on public schools as they are now constituted.  Parents who can afford to do so need to pull their kids out of public schools and sent them to a good private school. Parents who have the time and talent to do so should consider home schooling.  We need to demand more school choice in the form of charter schools and vouchers. We need to elect conservatives to local school boards across America.  Citizens need to take advantage of the right to review textbooks and need to be involved in the textbook selection process.  We need a new conservative public interest non-profit legal organization to protect the interest of parents and students. 

Parents need to be loud and clear and let government know that children belong to the parents, not the state.  

If you missed this story when it first went public a few days ago, here it is:

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My spontaneous response to the first night of the Republican Convention.

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The Tennessee Star reports members of the Tennessee Republican Party Executive Committee are receiving death threats.

by Rod Williams, 8/26/2020 - The Tennessee Star reports that several members of the Tennessee Republican Party Executive Committee have received death threat letters.  Among those identified as receiving the letters are members Betty Fain, Bobby Wood, Rob Ailey, and Matthew Coleman.  Woods says the letter he received says of Republicans, ‘We will kill you all."

I first reported that members of the Republican Executive Committee were receiving these death threat letters on August 21st in a post titled Republican State Executive Committee members getting death threats, targets of vandalism. In that post I reported that Terri Richman Nicholson, Tennessee State Republican Committeewoman for District 17, had her car badly keyed while parked outside the local Republican Party headquarters. 

Members of the State Executive Committee and other prominent Republicans need to be aware of the increased threat of violence from radicals.  Radicals have become emboldened. We have witnessed innocent people being pulled from their cars and beaten in cities across America.  Churches that lean conservative are being vandalized. While I hate to give in to intimidation, now may not be a good time to wear a MAGA hat out in public.  Perhaps one ought to think twice before putting a political yard sign in one's yard or a bumper sticker on one's car that identifies oneself as Republican.  

If you live in a county that is overwhelmingly Republican or a rural area or even a typical suburban area you may be perfectly safe expressing your political preference.  If you live in the more urbanized areas of Davidson County, it may be prudent to keep a low profile. I live in an area of white, educated, liberals and almost every block for miles around will have one or more "Black Lives Matter" signs.  I would not feel safe walking in my neighborhood wearing a Trump tee-shirt.  Even non-radical liberals have adopted an attitude of intolerance for different points of view and have been complicity silent of the violence sweeping America. It has become acceptable to silence conservative voices and violence against Trump supporters is considered justified. 

In the Star article Betty Fain says she has recently bought a gun, partially motivated by the death threat letter and the general civil unrest in America.  I have recently taken steps to increase my personal security.  Be prudent, stay safe, stay aware and be ready to defend yourself if you must. 

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Conservative group sues Gov. Bill Lee over 'unconstitutional' efforts to stop coronavirus spread

by Rod Williams, 8/25/2020 - Ever since the advent of the Coronavirus and the use of government authority to combat it, questions have been raised about the limits and source of the authority for a governor or mayor to impose restrictions such as stay-at-home orders and mask mandates.  It is pretty clear that a mayor or local Directors of Health get their authority from the State.  However, that does not determine if the State authority is legitimate. 

The state legislature has explored this topic.  They asked for a legal opinion from the State AG who said the State authority being exercised by the governor  was legal. Not satisfied with this answer, the State legislature held public hearings and called in other impressive legal minds to answer the question. 

Former US Attorney General  and Dean of Belmont law school Alberto Gonzales told the State Legislature what the State was doing  was legal. William Koch, a former Tennessee Supreme Court justice and current dean of the Nashville School of Law also said it was legal. 

Today a conservative groups has filed a law suit to determine if the Governor is exceeding his authority by his Executive Orders to combat the pandemic.  My limited research has caused me to think he has the authority to do what he is doing, but clarity would not hurt.  I am not a lawyer but it looks like some the authority to order a quarantine may apply to quarantining sick people, not healthy people.  I hope that is addressed. 

Equally of concern to me as the question of the legitimacy of government power to combat the virus, is the question of the selective application of that power. Why are churches closed and strip clubs open?  Why can 10,000 people sit down in the street on lower Broadway in a protest and the police not issue citations because the group is larger than 25 people and because many are not wearing mask, yet a tourist walking down lower Broadway gets a ticket? Selective enforcement is an opportunity to allow speech by those with whom you agree and silence those with whom you do not. 

For more on this latest development, see the below links: 

 The Tennessean: Conservative group sues Gov. Bill Lee over 'unconstitutional' efforts to stop coronavirus spread

WSMV:  Group alleges Gov. Lee exceeds authority with executive orders in lawsuit

The Center Square: Grassroots Tennessee group sues Lee over constitutionality of emergency powers

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Don't fear voting in person in November. If you are going to vote by absentee, don't wait too late.

by Rod Williams -  In an editorial today in The Tennessean, David Plazas explains that Tennessee is one of 46 states that received a letter from the U.S. Postal Service warning that absentee/mail-in ballots may not be delivered by the deadline. They must arrive by the time polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day or they will not be counted. 

There may be some people who think they are voting absentee in a timely manner who are not going to have their vote counted because it will not be retuned by the deadline.   The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the Nov. 3 presidential election is Oct. 27. If people wait until the deadline to request the ballot, it is doubtful it can be mailed to the person requesting the ballot, they can fill out the ballot and it can be returned to the election commission by Election Day. If you wait until the deadline to request your ballot, you have waited too late. 

I voted in the recent primary and it was a easy and the Covid-19 precautions were the best I have seen anywhere.  I closely observed. Poll officials would not let anyone enter without a mask. The poll officials themselves had on mask and paper disposable gowns and disposable gloves.  The floors everywhere were marked so one knew where to stand so there was no danger of getting within six feet of another person. Crowd control was maintained so their was no bunching up waiting in the polling place.  I have been lots of places where when someone asked a question and the person asking was having difficulted hearing through the gabble of a mask, the speaker would pull down their mask and repeat themselves.  I did not see that happen.  

When one approached the poll official to request the ballot, the poll officials did not touch the identification of the voter.  If was placed on a piece of paper by the voter, the poll official then pulled the paper to himself, looked at the Id then pushed the paper back to the voter.  Little cocktail straws were used by the voter to make their selection on the screen.  Voters did not touch anything.  Then the voter took their ballot and placed it in the ballot box touching noting but their own ballot.  I was impressed. 

The only place where I could see there might be problem is if people are waiting outside in long lines.  Poll officials would have a hard time enforcing social distancing outside the door of the polling place.  If one goes during slack times, that should not be a problem and more than likely people will observe the social distancing while in line.  During early voting, I was working the polls trying to get signatures for the petition to recall the mayor.  At Howard School, there were lines of people outside the polling place but they were orderly and masked and maintaining their distance. 

If you are maintaining strict quarantine and just too fearful to go vote and you live in Tennessee don't worry about it.  Your vote is not going to affect the outcome of the election.  If we had popular election of the president, then that would be a different story. If we lived in a battleground state, that would be a different story, but we know Tennessee is not in play.  Tennessee has eleven electoral votes and they are not proportionately distributed; the winner gets them all.  Tennessee will vote for Donald Trump. If you are just too fearful to go vote, don't do it and don't feel bad about it. It is just not that important to the outcome.  

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This is why people distrust the mainstream media.

by Rod Williams - The distrust of the media is overwhelming among those on the right.  It is so pervasive that simple facts are often not accepted.  Sometimes I will post some commentary on Facebook about some item in the news and link to the story and instead of getting a reasoned comment in response, the facts about which I am opining are simply dismissed with comments such as "consider the source," or "you need new sources," or just "fake news."  Other times what I have posted is simply dismissed with a "Washington Post?" or "Huffpost?" 

The other day I had a dismissive reply of "Wkrn? Seriously?" to something I posted.  The story was carried in any number of sources and the facts and quotes were not in doubt.  There was even video of the President saying the thing about which I opined about.  One may disagree about how one interprets what he said.  I may respect your opinion even if we don't agree but to dismiss the whole topic because it was carried by WKRN is just irrational. 

Sometimes it seems the only acceptable source for those on the right is Brietbart News and locally Tennessee Star.  Of course if Rush or Hannity said it,  it  is gospel. Even Fox News is being called into question as a reliable source for some on the right.  Of course those on the left dismiss anything covered by Fox News as simply propaganda and I doubt they will even read the story. 

This is disheartening.  I certainly think the mainstream news has a liberal bent. We know that most reporters are liberal.  Studies of campaign contribution from journalist and content analysis have demonstrated this bias again and again.  However, that does not mean that a liberal journalist cannot get the facts right in reporting. Trained journalist normally get the who, when, what, and sometimes the why right even if they have liberal opinions.  Even if the liberal bias slips into a story, it is better to  be informed rather than uninformed. I don't think even liberal journalist just make stuff up.

It seems there is a lack of critical thinking across the spectrum and critical reading skills.  If a news story confirms ones biases then it is believed; if it does not, it is dismissed.  Critical thinking has been replaced by the shortcut of asking is this publication on my side or the other side. There also seem to be an attitude that my mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts and don't make me think.

Having said all of the above however, there are reasons why the media is so distrusted.  The attached snippet is from a story appearing the Monday August 24th USA Today about who the speakers would be at the Republican convention. If that is all you knew about this story you would think that peaceful protestors where strolling down a residential street and these people came out on their porch to threaten them.  There is more to the story. 

The protestors had invaded a gated community.  The entry was posted "private property," and  "no trespassing." The protestors  forced open the gate and in the process damaged it. The were not on a public street. The roads in a gated community are private property and everything within the boundary of a gated community is private property.  Obviously, one does not have the right to protest on  someone else's private property.  The mob had already trespassed and damaged property. A mob of at least 100 had broke into the couple's gated community and came rushing toward their house, causing the couple to fear for their lives.  The McClosky's were taking reasonable precautions to protect their property and maybe their lives. They had every reason to be reasonably afraid of being in imminent danger.   

It is reporting like this snippet from USA Today that causes many people to have an almost kneejerk reaction of rejection of almost everything reported by a mainstream press. 

For video of the episode described follow this link. For more see these links: here, here, here. 

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Radicals target Mt. Juliet church in politically motivated vandalism attack.

A church was the target of politically motivated vandalism in Mt Juliet yesterday.  Progressive activist are becoming more bold in their effort to silence opinions that do not conform to the new liberal orthodoxy.  Death threats and  intimidation are on the increase.  When politically correct shaming and cancel culture does not bring about compliance, the next step is vandalism.  This is a hate crime.  To read the Tennessean's report on the story, follow this link. 

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Sen. Blackburn among speakers at GOP convention

Senator Blackburn is scheduled to speak Wednesday night. This will be the fourth time she has spoke at a Republican convention. The convention will stream live all week on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch and Amazon Prime. For more on this story follow this link.

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