by Vivian Jones, The Tennessean, Feb. 7, 2024- Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney called on Tennessee Republicans to reject former President Donald Trump as they head to the polls this year, denouncing his flouting of the U.S. Constitution as antithetical to the sustenance of the American republic.
“There’s a really clear choice,” Cheney said. “You cannot be both for Donald Trump and for the Constitution.” .....
On Tuesday, she spoke in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jon Meacham as a guest of The Rogers Center and the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy. ... Cheney roundly criticized the Republican frontrunner as anti-Constitutional and unconservative, ...
“The president is not above the law. The president cannot deploy the military to seize voting machines and rerun the election in swing states as Mike Flynn suggested Donald Trump do,” Cheney said. “If a president refuses to abide by and enforce the rulings of our courts, that immediately unravels the system – immediately – and we know Donald Trump will do that.”
... “I think every Republican donor who’s giving him money needs to be held accountable for the fact that they’re giving money to someone who has said publicly he thinks we can terminate the Constitution,” Cheney said. “He did attempt to overturn an election. He’s been found liable for sexual assault and now has to pay $83.3 million for that. This is a really depraved individual.”
... Cheney urged fellow Republicans to move beyond obsessive loyalty to Trump, and work to build the future of the Republican Party on a foundation of truly conservative principles: a strong national defense, low taxes, limited government, and genuine fidelity to the U.S. Constitution – something she describes as “the most conservative of all conservative values.”
“Many of the policies that Trump is today advocating are not conservative, and not Republican,” she said, questioning how “the party of Reagan” came to be “leading the charge to lose the war in Ukraine.” (read more)
There have been several ordinances recently filed in the Metro Council that would significantly change existing Zoning law. The bills (BL2024 181-188) have been filed by Council Members Quin Evans-Segall (At-Large) and Rollin Horton (District 20).
CM Evans-Segall has asked that Neighbor 2 Neighbor facilitate a community meeting with residents / neighborhood leaders and other neighborhood stakeholders to discuss their proposal and hear community feedback.
We have scheduled the virtual meeting for Thursday, February 22nd at 7:30 pm. This community meeting is open to the public.
Neighbor 2 Neighbor has agreed to facilitate the meeting. We do not take stances on proposed legislation, but always seek to provide a forum where residents / neighborhood leaders and other neighborhood stakeholders can hear directly from the legislator(s), ask questions, and provide feedback.
The format for this community meeting will be as follows:
Welcome and Introductions (5-10 minutes)
Legislation and Background by CM Quin Evans-Segall (15 minutes)
Questions of Clarification by Participants (10-15 minutes)
Feedback from Participants (30-45 minutes)
We invite anyone who is interested in learning more about the proposed legislation and/or providing constructive feedback to sign up for the session below:
by Rod Williams, Feb. 9, 2024- I am surprised and dismayed and sometimes disgusted by the type of people who have become Trumpinista candidates, high-profile political activists, and pundits.
First of all, I am continuously amazed that it is Republicans who are the party of American weakness abroad and pandering to tyrants. I am also surprised to see Republicans more concerned with lambasting Bud Light beer rather and addressing the coming insolvency of Social Security. Durning my lifetime, it was the Republican Party that was the party of sober reflection and rational policy proposals. The Republicans were the adults in the room. Not so much anymore.
Beyond policy however, there is something else that has shocked me about the change in the Republican Party, or at least the Trump wing of the party, and for all practical purposes the party only has one wing. Ever since Trump came on the political scene, we have seen an explosion of Republican nut-jobs, con-artists, and carnival-barkers, charlatans, and moral degenerates. What is it that makes these kinds of people the face of the Republican Party? I guess when the head of the Party is found civilly liable for rape, has had numerous bankruptcies, has engaged in shady business practices, and faces 91 criminal charges, then that kind of sends the green light that kindred spirits are welcome as Republican leaders.
Not all of this new breed of Republican candidates and leaders are bad people. Some are just light-weight showmen. Dr. Oz comes to mind. Others inflate their resume and give one reason to question their honesty, like our own Andy Ogles. There seems to be a lot of these. And then, there are those who are the moral hypocrites and deviants.
Take the case of Gabrielle Hanson who ran as God's ordained candidate in the race for mayor of Franklin, yet had a record of facilitating prostitution, had affiliation with known Nazis, whose husband had marched in a gay Pride parade wearing nothing but American flag motif Speedos, and had several other things that would cause one to question her sincerity and morality.
And then there is the case of Scott Presler. Donald Trump is pushing to oust Ronna McDaniel as chair of the Republican Party and replace her with Presler. Presler was a co-founder of Gays for Trump during the 2016 election. I don't think that he is gay should disqualify him. In fact, Republicans should be more welcoming to gays. It we agree on economic and foreign policy, then we are on the same side, regardless of what you do in the bedroom. However, Presler didn't keep his sex in the bedroom and engaged in sexual activity inside a Virginia Beach office the RNC shared with the state party, and posted explicit pictures of the encounter on Craigslist.
And then there is the case of Bridget Ziegler. She is the co-founder of Mom's for Liberty the organization that tries to ban age-inappropriate books from school libraries, fights the teaching of Critical Race Theory and otherwise pushes back against the liberal dominance of public schools. She is a school board member of the Sarasota School District and is half of a Florida Republican power couple. Her husband, until recently, was Chair of the Florida Republican Party. They also have other positions of responsibility in government and the conservative movement. It turns out that they are swingers and engaged in a threesome with a woman who ended up accusing Christain Ziegler of rape. The above video explains of lot of this saga.
One can oppose teaching kindergarteners about homosexuality and oppose indoctrination derived from Critical Race Theory and still be a swinger, I guess. Still, for head an organization that is rallying the most religious among us to be led by a swinger, strikes me as hypocrisy.
From Megan Podsiedlik, The Pamphleteer, Feb 8, 2024- Reminiscent of the meetings of old, the council did not adjourn until midnight last night, largely due to the two-hour, pre-budget public hearing period and the fifteen items council members pulled off the consent calendar to discuss.
A cast of characters both new and recurring came forward to speak. Several artists and board members asked for investments in equitable arts funding. MNPS workers pled the council to fulfill school funding requests. And of course, activists and nonprofit affiliates showed up to advocate for community policing programs to eliminate the cycle of “cops, courts, and cages.”
O’CONNELL CONFOUNDS BIKE BRIGADE
“I am one of the bike people,” said Nashville Triathlon Club board member Chris Ashton, who showed up to advocate for “increased funding for sidewalks, bike lanes, greenways and non-driving kinds of infrastructure.” Ashton brought up the mayor’s proposed budget, which slashes the Vision Zero budget in half and cuts sidewalk funding from “$60 million to $10 million.” “I don’t understand this,” he said, echoing the confusion many of O’Connell’s most avid supporters feel.
Considering O’Connell ran on transit reform and strongly advocated for a more walkable, bikeable Nashville during his time in council, cutting the budgets of pivotal initiatives supporting that vision is a curious move. During January 30th’s media roundtable, the mayor did mention that he plans to announce the “reconstitution of the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee.” Perhaps we’ll understand his motives after WeGo and NDOT’s fiscal analysis concerning a transit referendum.
A LESSON IN EQUITY
Taking a different approach, Pastor Davie Tucker of District 6 offered some words of wisdom to the council during the public hearing: “Budgets are a direct representation of your stewardship of public funds…. Budgets expose your values. Budgets are moral documents. Budgets can also be the reflection of the influence of special interests juxtaposed against the common good.”
He went on to speak about equity, a topic that has recently taken center stage within Metro Government. “Many folk even now say that ‘if you want to achieve equity, we need more funding,’” said Tucker. “That is categorically false. Equity is not predicated on more money. Equity is predicated on two things: number one, acknowledging the inequities that exist. And number two, redistributing the funds you have to address those inequities. Don’t convolute the word.”
CHARTER SCHOOL RESENTMENT?
A very tired, somewhat confused, and mildly impatient council wrapped up their meeting with a final vote on a lease agreement between Metro and Cameron College Prep. Councilmember Russ Bradford stood in opposition to the agreement. “I think everyone understands where I stand on charter schools,” he said. “How they constantly underperform traditional zoned public schools.” He pointed to Cameron’s low score on “equity and other factors” before concluding, “I really don’t think we should be sending any more of our hard-earned tax dollars to a school that is not really performing any better than our zoned schools.”
Bill sponsor Councilmember Terry Vo then took the floor to defend her bill. “The lease was confirmed unanimously by the Metro Nashville school board,” said Vo. “And I do want to confirm that Cameron was named a level five, which is the highest rating in the TVAAS (Tennessee Value Added Assessment System)… for the past three years.”
The council approved the leasing agreement with 26 yeses, three noes from council members Russ Bradford, Delishia Porterfield, and Ginny Welsch, and one abstention by Zulfat Suara.
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Rod' additional Comment: The bills on First Reading which would liberalize Metro's zoning and allow greater housing density were all deferred.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Feb. 8, 2024-Interest on the debt is the fastest growing part of the budget. Net interest payments will exceed both defense and Medicare spending this year, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, according to new projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That will make interest the second largest government expenditure.
Net interest has been exploding over the past few years, with payments rising from $223 billion in 2015 to $352 billion in 2021 before nearly doubling to $659 billion in 2023. In 2024, CBO projects net interest will total $870 billion, a near-record 3.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Spending on interest already topped the Medicaid budget and all spending on children last year. At a projected $870 billion, interest will surpass total spending on national defense ($822 billion) in 2024 and grow well beyond the defense budget over time. Interest costs will also slightly exceed net Medicare spending ($851 billion) this year and remain in line with Medicare costs in future years. That would make interest the second largest line item in the budget after Social Security.
The massive runup in net interest is due to a combination of higher interest rates and higher debt. With most Treasury yields paying between 4.0 and 5.5 percent, interest rates are the highest they have been since 2007. And by 2028, debt is projected to reach a record 106 percent of GDP, exceeding its previous record set just after World War II.
As a result of high rates on growing debt, interest payments are projected to exceed $1 trillion annually by 2026 and grow to $1.6 trillion by 2034. Over the next decade, interest will total $12.4 trillion. Interest costs would exceed $15 trillion – an additional $3 trillion – if rates are just 1 percentage point above projections.
Although Medicare will overtake interest once again in 2028, the fact that both are growing so quickly should sound the alarm in regard to rising health care costs and growing debt.
Thoughtful deficit reduction can help to reduce interest costs, both by lowering debt and putting downward pressure on interest rates. Absent such action, debt will represent a growing threat to our economy, our health care system, and our national security.
Their cynicism over Ukraine weakens America and makes the world less safe
The Economist, Feb. 7th 2024 - Politicians often put winning the next election above solving problems. Yet this week Republicans in the House of Representatives went a step further and sabotaged their own policy priorities to hurt President Joe Biden. Their cynicism makes America weaker, and gives comfort to its enemies.
For the past couple of years Republicans have made much of the chaos at the southern border, with good reason. There were 302,000 attempts by irregular migrants to cross in December alone. Knowing that Democrats wanted to pass a bill to supply Ukraine with fresh military aid, the House leadership paired the two issues, thinking that by doing so they could drive a harder bargain on immigration. A bipartisan group of senators went away and worked on a border compromise, the results of which are broadly in line with what Republicans had sought. ...
Rather than take this win, the House leadership then turned around and rejected the thing they had previously asked for. It is no mystery why they did this: Donald Trump wants to win votes by playing up the border chaos. ...
That is bad enough, but the damage Republicans have done goes far beyond America’s own shores. By killing the border bill, they have also set back the cause of Ukraine, which urgently needs more cash and kit to defend itself against invading Russians. Ukrainian soldiers cannot wait while some alternative funding idea percolates through a congressional committee. They need ammunition now.
... If Uncle Sam fails to stand behind a democratic ally defending itself against an unprovoked invasion by a tyrant who is also the West’s most belligerent geopolitical foe, what good are American security guarantees in the Baltics or Taiwan or the Middle East? (Read More)
By The Editorial Board, Feb. 5, 2024 - Do Republicans want to better secure the U.S. border, or do they want to keep what has become an open sore festering for another year as an election issue? That’s the choice presented to Congress this week with the rollout of the Senate’s bipartisan border security bill, and we’ll soon learn what the GOP really wants.
By any honest reckoning, this is the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades. Previous immigration talks have involved trading security measures for legalizing more immigration. There is little of the latter in this bill—nothing for nearly all of the Dreamers who were brought here illegally as children, no general pathway to citizenship or green cards for most illegal immigrants already in the U.S.
This is almost entirely a border security bill, and its provisions include long-time GOP priorities that the party’s restrictionists could never have passed only a few months ago. .... If Republicans pass up this rare chance at border reform, they may not get a better one. (Read More)
Feb. 6, 2023 - At least 11 Senate Republicans have come out against the bill, arguing it does not go far enough on border security measures. Here they are: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ted Cruz of Texas, Steve Daines of Montana, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Rick Scott of Florida, and J.D. Vance of Ohio. (link)
As the author of A Disgruntled Republican I often post items which I think may be of interest to the conservative, Republican, libertarian or the greater community. Posting of a press release or an announcement of an event does not necessarily indicate an endorsement. Rod
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