Category: TN Politicians

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The TN Muslim Advisory Council Organized to Protect Political Islam From an Anti-Terrorism Bill

Objectively analyzed and sourced from the Koran, Hadith and Sira, The Center for the Study of Political Islam International (CSPII) notes that jihad is a “major part of Islamic doctrine”, “a crucial part of Political Islam” and is targeted to “strive against kafirs (non-Muslims).” https://www.cspii.org/methodology/research-reports/jihad/

Additionally, CSPII notes that there at least five forms of jihad, including “violent jihad.”

The dictates of political Islam are found in Islamic Sharia law a legal code based on three texts—the Koran, Sira (the life of Mohammed) and Hadith (the traditions of Mohammed). As summarized by CSPII, “[t]he vision of jihad is found in the Koran, the strategy is found in the Sira and the tactics are

found in the Hadith. The entire doctrine found in the Trilogy of Koran, Sira and Hadith is codified in the Sharia law.”

Political Islam, is easily understood as the parts Islam directed outward to the kafir which is expressed in a variety and in ever expanding ways. An example of non-violent jihad was the dismissal of a university art professor who showed an image of a 14th century painting of Mohammed. Her contract was not renewed because of the offense experienced by Muslim students. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/art-professor-sues-firing-showing-prophet-muhammad-images-rcna66250

Consider also the emerging pattern of publicly funded schools and universities complying with demands for halal food offerings which is much more advanced in Europe. The UK MEND organization (Muslim Development and Engagement) promotes halal in schools as a means to “nurtur[e] Muslim identities in schools”. 

Then there is the other kind of jihad – the violent type.

Memphis native Carlos Bledsoe, aka, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad and jihad

An example of political Islam’s “violent jihad” backdrop to Tennessee’s 2011 anti-terrorism legislation, was the 2009, self-described jihad terrorism at the Little Rock Arkansas Army recruiting center committed by Memphis native Carlos Bledsoe, aka, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad.

And the connection between Bledsoe’s jihad and the Tennessee Muslim Advisory Council? Short answer –  a naieve and weak-kneed governor bought a contrived sob story about an anti-terrorism bill alleged to have made following Islamic sharia law, a felony. Haslam fell for all of it and then did whatever he could to appease and validate the fiction this grouop continues to perpetuate.

How valid is this advisory council if it was founded on highly questionable grounds? Good question for Tennessee’s next governor. It’s a pretty good bet that the Syrian and Iraqi refugees that Marsha wanted to import in unlimited numbers, would want an Islamic advocacy group.

As you read about what happened under governor Bill Haslam’s leadership, consider that a Marsha Blackburn administration would likely have produced the same result.

Using a smear campaign about the 2011, anti-terrorism bill, a group calling themselves the TN American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) organized that same year. They were abetted in secret behind closed doors with the support and assistance from Governor Haslam’s Dept. of Safety and Homeland Security. Indeed, it was heralded and congratulated by its then Director failed gubernatorial candidate, Bill Gibbons.

In short order the arrangement evolved into a partnership between AMAC and the state’s Office of Homeland Security. While AMAC lobbied against the anti-terrorism legislation they were also training law enforcement and safety personnel. At the same time, four of the sitting AMAC members formed another organization for the specific purpose of lobbying at the capitol.

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While rallying against the anti-terrorism bill, the director of AMAC’s lobbying organization brought in Hamas-linked CAIR to assist in their efforts.  

No matter that three years prior to CAIR’s first (but not last) involvement in Tennessee politics, CAIR failed to have its unindicted co-conspirator status in the Holy Land Foundation case removed. CAIR was named based on evidence of its ties to Hamas, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization. Presiding federal judge Solis confirmed CAIR’s unindicted co-conspirator status and ruled that the government had introduced extensive evidence tying CAIR to Hamas.

Metro Council member Zulfat Suara served as AMAC’s leader from shortly after they organized until 2019, when she ran for her first Metro Council term. Sabina Mohyuddin, a founding and sustaining member of AMAC who lobbied against the anti-terrorism bill, took over the leadership after Suara; Mohyuddin currently carries the title of Executive Director while Suara served as Treasurer, only recently leaving the AMAC board. 

Mohyuddin loves to repeat the patently inaccurate characerization of the 2011 anti-terrorism legislation as the “anti-sharia” bill. Never mind that the legislation at the center of this story specifically stated that it did not apply to the peaceful practice of any religion. The written legislative findings also made clear that the sole target was political Islam and not the protected religious worship of Islam. Still not good enough for the Islamists. Could it be because of that thing they call jihad? Or is it sharia law? Or is it political Islam? Or is it all three?

If she read the bill and didn’t understand it or didn’t read it but misrepresents it anyway, either way, it puts her credibility and her organization on very shaky ground.

What they created around the anti-terrorism bill has been one of AMAC and Sabina Mohyuddin’s favorite tactics to support their objectives grounded in political Islam.

Why the 2011 anti-terrorism legislation?

After 9/11, most states, including Tennessee, passed anti-terrorism laws to ensure that cases by-passed by the federal government could be prosecuted in state courts. For example, the Oklahoma City bombing relied on a state statute for punishment. A New York case involving two men who purchased hand grenades and other weaponry planning to blow up a large Manhattan synagogue, were arrested and charged by the FBI but were prosecuted by the state under its anti-terrorism statute.

The Little Rock Arkansas jihad terrorism case, the backdrop of the 2011 Tennessee legislation, was prosecuted by the state of Arkansas, not by the federal authorities.

With documented incidences of homegrown terrorism occurring betwen 2001 – 2011, there was legitimate concern that there was no lawful mechanism that would enable state and local law enforcement to intervene before acts of terrorism were committed by being able to reach those who plan, finance and also help others who commit acts of terrorism. So Tennessee put together a bill modeled after federal legislation that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld as constitutionally sound.

Against national news of terrorist acts, in 2009, the newly minted convert Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, aka, Memphis native Carlos Bledsoe, committed his own self-described jihad terrorist attack: 

“By his own account, he was preparing for jihad.” 

“Muhammad [Bledsoe name change after conversion], said he’d have killed more soldiers had more been in the parking lot. He told the detective he wasn’t guilty of murder, that the shooting was an act of jihad. Muhammad also told police there were at least six Molotov cocktails in a milk crate in the bed of his truck – green and clear bottles filled with gasoline and oil and duct taped.”

“And compared to what I had planned originally it was like a grain of sand,” Muhammad wrote about the attack. “One crusader dead, one wounded, 15 terrorized, big deal. Nidal Malik (Hasan, the accused Fort Hood shooter) is the real Islamic warrior, and my plan A was on that scale.”

“I knew this would end with the enemies of Allah killing me. But the good thing is – Martyrs don’t die! Allah says, “Don’t think of those who are killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Rather they are alive with their Lord and they have their provision!” (Qur’an 3:169) And that’s what I believe. The jihad lives on. May Allah accept my jihadi operations and grant me what he promises all of the … (martyrs) Ameen.”

https://archive.knoxnews.com/news/state/muslim-who-shot-soldier-in-arkansas-says-he-wanted-to-cause-more-death-ep-407169853-358338211.html

Despite specific language in the 2011 bill protecting and exempting “the peaceful practice of any religion and in particularly the practice of Islam”, Mohyuddin and her fellow travellers, abetted by a highly compromised Tennessean reporter, launched a smear campaign claiming that the bill was an attempt to punish the practice of Islamic sharia law.

Mohyuddin went so far as to insinuate that the legislation would make practicing Islam a felony.

What the codified Tennessee law actually says is that it is a felony for anyone to knowingly help a designated entity with money, advice or any other aid. It also retained the language protecting the peaceful practice of any religion.

But cowardly leadership amended the critical state’s Attorney General designation authority out of the 2011 anti-terrorism bill; this would have enabled the AG to designate entities committed to carrying out terrorist acts in the state that threaten the security and safety of Tennesseans.

Fast forward to recent news from Florida. Where Tennessee’s cowardly leadership failed, Florida and Texas took action grounded in facts and documented reality.

Last week, Governor DeSantis used Florida’s terrorism designation law to designate CAIR and Antifa as domestic terror groups. On July 7, 2026, CAIR lost again when a federal judge denied their motion to stop being designated as a terrorist organization in Florida.

In addition to evidence produced in the Holy Land Foundation trial tying CAIR to Hamas (see above), it should not be forgotten that in 1994, CAIR’s national director Nihad Awad publicly declared his support for the Hamas terrorist organization.

AMAC’s former long-standing leader Zulfat Suara has expressed interest in serving as Davidson County’s next (most likely Mamdani style) mayor. Reading the contrived origins of her organization, it’s drift into attacking Zionism and endorsing the blatant falsehood of Israel committing genocide in Gaza, along with her support for known Jew-haters and the heinous self-described socialist Bernie Sanders https://dailyrollcall.com/metro-councilman-jacob-kupins-favs-tn-rep-aftyn-behn-metro-council-member-zulfat-suara/, it matters more than ever who Tennessee elects as its next governor.

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Another TN GOP Immigration Bill That Does a lot of NOTHING

 

It may be that the only thing SB2158/HB2774 does is show how worried Ferrell Haile is about winning his primary election.

The fake conservative Haile has a strong primary opponent who has the added bonus of being endorsed by the proven conservative John Rich.

So because Haile has voted to reward illegal aliens with the state public benefits of in-state tuition (the 2015 bill that passed the Senate but failed in House by a single vote), and the more recent reward of commercial and professional licenses, he now has to pretend that he really is opposed to endorsing Biden’s agenda on illegal immigration.

Haile’s SB2158 is going to require all the state agencies which btw, are funded by the legislature’s appropriations, to tell the legislature how much illegal immigration costs the state.

Does this mean that the legislature plans to send Biden a bill?

But Haile’s real hypocrisy or the fact that he really doesn’t know squat when he votes on immigration related bills and just does follows the marching order from Randy McNally, Jack Johnson, the NFIB or the Chamber, is exposed in his new bill.

Haile’s new bill would add yet another definition of “illegal alien” to the Tennessee Code. The bill says:

(g) As used in this section: (1) “Illegal alien” means an alien as defined in 8 U.S.C. § 101(a)(3), who is present in the United States without lawful immigration status and therefore subject to removal pursuant to federal law. An alien granted parole under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5), temporary protected status, deferred action, deferred enforced departure, or similar exercise of administrative grace or prosecutorial discretion is not deemed to have lawful immigration status;

These are the very same “illegal alien[s]” that in 2022, Haile voted to give them state public benefits.

For example, “deferred action” in Haile’s definition applies to DACA recipients. The DACA and temporary protected status folks were the two groups of illegal aliens who Shane Reeves told the Senate were the intended beneficiaries of his 2022 commercial and professional licensing bill.

Never mind that Reeve’s bill, now law, rewards many other groups who have no lawful immigration status because his law applies to any illegal alien who has work authorization.

Haile’s definition of illegal alien also includes the migrants granted “parole” by the Biden administration’s gross abuse of the discretionary parole authority. In fact, Tennessee AG Skrmetti joined Tennessee to a multi-state lawsuit challenging Biden’s action to bring hundreds of thousands more illegal aliens into the U.S. using parole. https://klp.wnv.mybluehost.me/tn-ag-makes-weak-showing-in-multi-state-lawsuit-challenging-biden-new-parole-program/

What Haile and his cronies may not be prepared for though is the dollars and cents response likely to be generated by the very emboldened pro-illegal immigration groups in Tennessee. Just watch the response from TIRRC and their counterparts like Catholic Charities of TN which the legislature gifted with $7.3 million dollars to help them expand into new Tennessee territory. https://klp.wnv.mybluehost.me/tn-state-funds-catholic-charities-infrastructure-for-refugee-resettlement/

As far back as 2016, pro-legal and illegal advocacy groups like the Republican heavy Partnership for a New American Economy (later shorted to New American Economy), were churning out state reports to show how much money the legal immigrants and the “undocumented”, aka, migrants without lawful immigration status, were generating for state coffers.

For example, the 2016 NAE Tennessee report says that over 10,000 “undocumented entrepreneurs” generated $244.3 million dollars and overall in 2014, Tennessee’s “undocumented immigrants” earned $2.1 billion dollars, paying the tidy sum of $71.1 million dollars in state and local taxes, “leaving them with $1.8 B in spending power.”

Now of course this report says nothing about the remittance money that diverts a large portion of that discretionary cash. Has anyone’s state legislator ever mentioned the $625 million in 2020 and $748 million in 2021, that permanently left Tennessee’s economy in overseas remittances?

The American Immigration Council (AIC) which advocates for legalizing illegal aliens, issued its own report regarding “immigrants” in Tennessee. Their report claims that the subset of “undocumented” have paid $267.1 million in taxes with $104.2 million going to state and local taxes leaving these same households with $2.5 billion in spending power.

Of course what’s not clear from any of these reports is how much of the “spending power” is recycled public assistance which illegal aliens who have U.S. born children are able to access along with tax breaks like the child tax credit.

On the House side, freshman legislator Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) is carrying HB2774, the companion bill to Haile’s bill.

McCalmon’s bill has a bunch of co-sponsors including several, who, like Haile, voted in 2022, to give illegal aliens the state public benefit of commercial and professional licenses. Just like Haile, House members Rebecca Alexander, Michele Carringer, Bud Hulsey, Iris Rudder and Clark Boyd, are now supporting a bill in which they effectively admit that the same groups they call out as “illegal aliens” and who they think cost the state money, are the very same ones they rewarded in 2022.

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OH (Ferrell) Haile NOOOOOOO!

Haile is another uber liberal Republican running for re-election to his state Senate seat. He should be sweating because he has an uber CONSERVATIVE  primary challenger in Chris Spencer who is endorsed by the uber CONSERVATIVE John Rich along with other known solid conservatives.

YAY, YAY, AND MORE YAY!

And Haile should be very worried because he cannot either hide, deny or justify his terrible, anti-conservative vote record.

Incentivizing illegal immigration and rewarding state public benefits to people who have no lawful immigration status – Ferrell Haile is as bad as the blue state governor of Massachusetts whose program of “tuition equity” will give college financial aid to illegal aliens or the GOP leadership in the U.S. Senate whose leaked draft border deal with the White House would continue releasing illegal border crossers, providing them with work permits and the continued abuse of granting parole which Tennessee AG Skrmetti has sued to stop.

Tennessee’s Haile is just as bad as his Senate comrade Becky Duncan Massey. 

Haile is just another uber liberal Republican who boasts about being “recognized with a perfect voting record for supporting small businesses by the National Federation of Independent Business organization.”

NFIB, along with the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce were among the lobbyists pushing the Shane Reeves bill awarding the state public benefit of commercial and professional licenses for anyone with federal work authorization even if they have no lawful immigration status.

Haile’s “perfect [NFIB] voting record” included voting YES for SB2464, the bill signed into law by Bill Lee. This may be the single worst bill passed by Republicans which abets the disastrous and destructive immigration policies and practices of the Biden administration.

One year after Haile was crowned “champion of commerce” by the TN Chamber of Commerce, he voted YES for the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce supported bill (SB612), giving the state public benefit of in-state tuition to students without lawful immigration status.

Anti-parent vaccine bill – it gets even worse for Haile. In 2020, Haile answered some of Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection questions including this one:

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
His response – “Truth, honesty, and integrity”.

So “truth, honesty and integrity” must be the reason that Haile, as vice-chair of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, voted YES for the Richard Briggs HPV vaccine bill that would have authorized and expanded the options for healthcare providers to not just treat minors for STDs, but to provide “treatment to a minor to prevent STDs, without the knowledge or consent of the parents or legal guardians of the minor.”

The treatment to prevent STDs was exposed in the House to include giving the HPV vaccine to a minor without parental knowledge or consent.

Don’t for one minute forget that Becky Massey, another member of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, also voted for this bill.

This bill alone, should be the one the ends the political careers of both Massey and Haile.

All together now – Haile NO!

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A Conservative is Running Against Bill Lee’s Endorsed Liberal Republican State Sen. Becky Duncan Massey

Becky Duncan Massey has voted to reward illegal aliens and against parental rights – keep reading.

On August 1, 2024, conservative candidate Monica Irvine https://monicairvine.com/ is planning to primary the lefty Republican state Sen. Becky Duncan Massey.

Coming from a long line of Tennessee politicians, Duncan Massey’s first run for the state senate, was more like inheriting her political due. Of course Duncan Massey pretends that her tight connections with the ELITES of East Tennessee (EETs) haven’t figured into her own election wins.

Why would the common man think that being connected to the Haslams, didn’t matter? Surely it didn’t make a difference in Duncan Massey’s name recognition that her father John Duncan was Knoxville’s mayor for five years, followed by a 23-year stint (1965-1988), in the U.S. House of Representatives, and then have that seat inherited and occupied by Massey’s brother for another ten years.

First elected in 2011, Duncan Massey serves as the senator for District 6 which covers Knoxville and Knox County.

2011 is the same year that Bill Haslam was elected governor. And to no great surprise about how the EETs operate, he was endorsed by Becky’s dad, then sitting Congressman, John Duncan. Haslam named Duncan as an honorary campaign co-chair.

This past October, Massey announced that she will run for re-election to the Tennessee State Senate. The next month and right on cue, Bill Lee reportedly headlined a fundraiser for her.

Of course Bill Lee wants more lefty Republicans like himself but to no great surprise, there is likely an even more important quid pro quo at work.

Guess who now chairs the Senate Transportation Committee?

In 2017, Duncan Massey was just a member of the Senate Transportation Committee. That was the year of Bill Haslam’s “IMPROVE Act” which only passed with legislator sleight of hand in both the House and Senate.

Haslam’s gift to Tennesseans was a 7 cents per gallon tax increase on gasoline and a 12 cents per diesel gallon tax increase.

Predictably, Duncan Massey was a YES vote all the way, including the shenanigans in the Senate committee.

Now Massey is the Chair of the Senate Transportation & Safety Committee and again, predictably, helped push through Bill Lee’s “Transportation Modernization Act”. This $$$ pet project of Lee’s includes the “choice” toll lanes so you can pay more to use the roads you are already taxed to pay for, to get to work on time. And to help put Tennessee on the globalist map, “choice lanes” will use public-private partnerships.  

Elitist Liberal Massey has a history of troubling votes

In 2015, Massey voted to give the state public benefit of in-state college tuition to illegal aliens like DACA recipients. Massey was a YES vote in the Senate. (SB612). Republicans were just as bad in the House but failed to pass it on the floor by a single vote.

Haslam was a BIG supporter of wanting to reward people without any lawful immigration status (like DACA), with state public benefits. While multiple other in-state tuition bills floundered over the years, there is little doubt that when given the opportunity, Massey would have been a YES vote.

Predictably, Massey was a YES vote on the Shane Reeves commercial and professional licensing bill rewarding anyone with unlawful immigration status and work authorization, with access to this state public benefit (SB2464). This may be the single worst bill passed by Republicans which abets the disastrous and destructive immigration policies and practices of the Biden administration.

But the vote that by all rights should ring the death knell of Massey’s political career, was her YES vote in 2022 as a member of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, for Richard Briggs’ HPV vaccine bill (SB148). This bill could be a case study in legislator duplicity and disdain for the people who put them in office.

This bill would have authorized and expanded the options for healthcare provides to not just treat minors for STDs, but to provide “treatment to a minor to prevent STDs, without the knowledge or consent of the parents or legal guardians of the minor.”

The treatment to prevent STDs was exposed in the House to include giving the HPV vaccine to a minor without parental knowledge or consent.

Massey, McNally, Briggs

SB148 was of course filed as a caption bill because the actual language and intent of the bill was so heinous that had it been publicly known from the time it was filed, it would most likely have failed in the Senate committee. As it was, once the actual language and intent of the bill was revealed in the House, it was stopped.

Massey and Briggs both promote themselves as “conservatives”.

Massey’s website claims she reflects “family values” and “your values” which could be true if you support rewarding illegal immigration and eroding a parent/guardian’s rights to protect and care for their minor children.

In the House, Bob Ramsey was the HPV vaccine bill sponsor and it was rumored that this bill helped kill his political career which started when he was first elected to the general assembly in 2009.

Massey was first elected in 2011 – the HPV vaccine bill should also end her political career.

In July 2023, Massey reported having just under $500,000 in her campaign fund. And yet Bill Lee still needed to endorse and help fundraise for her???? Makes absolutely no sense unless Massey has plans beyond the state Senate.

Nothing changes unless the players in the General Assembly change. Send Monica Irvine a few bucks and help her oust the ELITIST liberal Becky Duncan Massey.

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TGA House Democrat Says It’s Not Necessarily the Guns…

In an April interview, titled “America has a God, Not a Gun Problem” Tennessee General Assembly House member Joe Towns, a Democrat from Memphis, sounds like he either hasn’t read or doesn’t agree with the ideological talking points being used by the Justins and other members of the House Democrat Caucus when it comes to what they call “gun violence”.

As the interview moves along from the expulsion of the two Justins, Rep. Towns says:

“Those issues that they’re talking about everybody’s concerned with those issues. Truly people don’t know what the hell to do. Folks don’t know how to stop people and it’s not necessarily guns that’s doing the hurt and the harm in our community. What you have in this country is a heart problem.”

Towns says the “heart problem” is about hate and all the terrible things that come from it.

Regarding violent crime in Memphis, Rep.Towns believes that “most of the killing is being done by children today, 13, 16, 18, 20” and refers to “recent statistics that show that most violent crime is being committed by juveniles.”

And he again emphasizes that “it’s not just one thing, it’s not just guns”.

Rep.Joe Towns (D-Memphis)

In the case of Nikki Goeser’s murdered husband, it was a person with mental illness.

During Thursday’s floor session, Majority Leader William Lamberth, sponsor of HB7003, explained that his bill would allow for lifetime orders of protection from felons convicted of violent crimes which would now include aggravated stalking.

Lamberth referenced Nikki Goeser’s situation to explain why his bill should become law.

Nikki’s husband was murdered in front of her in a Nashville restaurant. At the time, the law did not allow concealed carry permit holders to bring their firearm into an establishment serving alcohol. “While [Nikki] obeyed the law, Ben’s murderer did not. [The murderer] had no permit to carry, and he brought a gun into a gun-free zone.” https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/nikki-goeser-my-husband-was-shot-dead-in-a-gun-free-zone-now-his-imprisoned-killer-sends-me-love-letters

While in prison, the man who murdered Nikki’s husband Ben, continued to stalk her by writing letters from prison and yet, earned an early prison release because of “good behavior credits”. In July, he received an additional sentence in federal court for stalking, tacking on an additional year of prison time.

Rep. Carringer (R-Knoxville) stood to voice support for Lamberth’s bill while also thanking Nikki who is her constituent, for her efforts with bills like HB7003.

Rep. Joe Towns also stood in support of Nikki and passionately described his disgust about what happened to her and her husband. Towns said he knew Nikki and worked with her at the capitol where she was on staff; he clearly thought highly of her and his sincerity about what happened to her should not be questioned.

Towns described seeing Nikki’s “broken-heartedness after her husband was murdered” and as he continued, he became visibly worked up, saying it is:

…unconscionable, unthinkable to have to deal with a sap-sucker harassing you after something like that. What I think is happening today is you’re saving two lives because in some situations in neighborhoods, if you’re stalking my sister or my mother you won’t need the police – okay, because there are some of us that would so something to you about messing with our families. So you savin’ two lives by doing this [bill]. You can take that anyway you want to I don’t care how you take it. I’m just letting you know what the facts are okay with me and mine. Don’t mess with me and mine….it’s unconscionable and unpardonable to terrorize a woman after you murder somebody in their family. The police are slow there are some people who’ll get to you before the police get to you…

Rep. Towns sounded like he was in favor of using “street justice” which The Free Dictionary defines as “the punishment given by members of the public to people regarded as criminals or wrongdoers”.

So, “it’s not just guns”.

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Justin Jones – His Credibility On Everything Should Be Questioned

‘“As someone who went to Divinity School, as someone who served as a Methodist minister, I want to lift up that revolutionary brown skin Palestinian named Jesus who engaged in ‘good trouble,’” Jones said.” https://www.toddstarnes.com/opinion/tenn-lawmaker-compares-himself-to-brown-skin-palestinian-named-jesus/

To know the race-hustling, anti-white and Jew-hating fellow travelers in Jones’ inner circle, puts his appropriation of Jesus in a context more in line with how a failed divinity student takes the divinity out of Christ to serve a personal and twisted political agenda.

For starters, the fact is, Jesus Christ was a Jew.

Next fact – Jesus was not a Palestinian because there was no Palestine during his time. But Jones labeling Jesus as such tells us its about Jones’ politics and his alliances. As Robert Spencer factually and politically explains https://pjmedia.com/culture/robert-spencer/2021/01/01/bbc-says-jesus-was-a-black-palestinian-n1297980:

Jesus was not a “Palestinian,” as there was no Palestine during his time. It wasn’t until one hundred years later, in AD 134, that the Romans expelled the Jews from Judea after the Bar Kokhba revolt and renamed the region Palestine. The Romans had plucked this name from the Bible as a taunt to the Jews they were expelling — it was the name of the Israelites’ ancient enemies, the Philistines, who had disappeared from history centuries before. Never did the term “Palestinian” refer to anything but a region — not to a people or an ethnicity.

To call Jesus a “Palestinian” is, of course, to identify him with the poor, outcast, and oppressed, who are, in the BBC’s mythology, the victims of the Israeli war machine. The idea of Palestinian victimhood is, like the Black Jesus, largely a media creation. To portray Jesus as one of these Palestinian victims is an attempt simultaneously to cast the Palestinians as innocent and sinless, suffering on the cross erected for them by the Israelis, waging an entirely justified campaign of “resistance” that will result in their national resurrection, and to give the world a woke Jesus, who is cool with terrorism because the one being fought is the oppressor, and who is best served not by acts of piety and charity, but by locking arms with Linda Sarsour and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and sticking it to The Man. The White Man, of course.

This fits perfectly for Jones for many reasons including his linking arms and agenda with racist and Jew-hating comrades like Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, Zulfat Suara and Ash-Lee Henderson.

In fact, it was none other than Linda Sarsour, one of the most vocal pro-BLM Islamist Jew-haters in the country, who organized and helped lead the Nashville rally shortly after Jones was properly expelled from the Tennessee House chamber.

Sarsour began her relationship with Tennessee back in 2016, with a first invitation from the TN American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC). At that time, Zulfat Suara was AMAC’s chairman; she has recently been re-elected for a second term as an at-large Metro Nashville council member.

At the time Zulfat hosted Sarsour as a speaker, Sarsour was already known for her record of anti-Israel activism including refusing to say that Israel has a right to exist and refusing to condemn notorious antisemite Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan, a man who has praised Hitler and who calls Jews “termites.”

Just five months after bringing Sarsour to Tennessee, Sarsour’s new organization MPower Change, named Zulfat one of The MPower 100 – Muslim Social Justice Leaders Building Power Across the United States. The MPower Change organization received funding from Soros’s Open Society Foundation funneled through fiscal sponsor Neo Philanthropy. MPower Change also received funding through Soros’s Proteus Fund. Both AMAC and the TN Immigrant &  Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) have also received Soros funding funneled through the Proteus Fund. 

Zulfat also has a besties relationship with Justin Jones, who is a supporter of AMAC. Zulfat endorsed Jones in 2022, for the state legislature, because she “has known [him] for a long time”, including perhaps through the “Our Revolution” Nashville chapter.

In 2019, Jones and Zulfat were comrades endorsed by “Our Revolution”. Jones was a failed  candidate for Congress while Zulfat won a Nashville Metro Council seat.

Our Revolution and the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) often collaborate to help fellow comrades win elections.  OR is very active in Tennessee with a Nashville/Mid TN chapter and the Memphis for All chapter.

Our Revolution has previously endorsed Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and state House representative Gloria Johnson who now says she plans to challenge Marsha Blackburn for the U.S. Senate. Scroll through the OR website’s endorsed candidates to get a better feel for what this organization is really about.

In 2019, OR’s 6 endorsed candidates for the Metro Nashville City Council, which included Zulfat Suara, all won their races. Suara subsequently served as one of Bernie Sanders’ Tennessee 2020 presidential campaign co-chairs. Coincidentally, like Bernie Sanders, the now wealthy “democratic socialist” who owns multiple properties approaching $2 million dollars, Zulfat and her husband also appear to own multiple properties valued at almost $1.5 million dollars which includes a residence valued at over $700,000.

The same year that Zulfat was campaigning for Jones to win a seat in the Tennessee General Assembly, he joined her and Linda Sarsour at AMAC’s 10 year anniversary celebration.

Fast forward to 2023, when Zulfat and Sarsour linked arms in Nashville to support Jones’ racist-charging platform return to the Tennessee General Assembly. Not to be outdone, Zulfat had her photo taken escorting Jones back into the capitol building.

Sarsour’s return to organize a rally for Jones was under the banner of her new Until Freedom group which she co-founded with her equally loathsome running buddy Tamika Mallory.

Until Freedom organization

Until Freedom, a self-described “national protest group”, was founded by Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, Mysonne Linen, and attorney Angelo Pinto.

Tamika Mallory who was Sarsour’s organizing D.C. Women’s March partner, of course tagged along to get her photo op with Jones, as did Mysonne Linen.

Three peas in a pod, Mallory and Mysonne like Sarsour, admire and defend extreme Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan, a man who apparently was also a friend of Barack Obama.

According to Mysonne, who organized alongside Farrakhan, “…the difference between David Duke and Louis Farrakhan: ‘David duke is a racist who imposed his will to harm and negatively affect blacks, farakhan has a view of Jews based on the pain and harm that he can prove they’ve inflicted on blacks for hundreds of years! See the difference?’”

And it appears that the Until Freedom fourth wheel Angelo Pinto is also in the Farrakhan fan club.

Tamika had earlier connections to Tennessee. In 2018, both Tamika and Ash-Lee Henderson co- director of the Highlander Center, got to know each other as they traveled on a Jew-hating mission hosted by the intensely anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-democracy, Center for Constitutional Rights which to no surprise, receives funding from George Soros.

Mysonne was also with Tamika and Ash-Lee on the Israel-bashing trip during which they celebrated spending time with the Afro-Palestinian, grenade planting terrorist Ali Jiddah, a former member of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

That same year while Zulfat was leading AMAC, Ash-Lee was a speaker at AMAC’s 2018 program titled, “Linking Liberation Struggles: Challenging anti-Black Racism, Zionism and Islamophobia”.

AMAC attacks Zionism

Salaried agitators Ash-Lee’s Highlander Center and Until Freedom were coalition members encouraging women in 2022, to take a day off from work, school and their other daily activities to support the #Day Without Us protest over reproductive rights.

What does it mean when the color of your skin is the single lens through which you define yourself?

In practical terms it makes Justin Jones a Racist with a capital “R” and no different than the other race hustlers he hangs with. But most importantly, the constant beat of racism!!!! is the mortar that holds their political and electoral coalition together.

Indeed, without a consistent backdrop of racism real or not, Jones and his running buddies have nothing with which to claim victim status and imagined moral superiority.

No doubt that Jones could identify with Al Sharpton who interviewed Jones because Sharpton has a “long history of bigotry that includes anti-white racism, antisemitism, and demonization of law enforcement.” Condemning the racist and anti-Semitic views of the Reverend Al Sharpton (a 2000 Congressional resolution).

Jones was active with Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in Nashville. “The incident, which was captured on video, showed Jones, along with fellow activist Jeneisha Harris, walking atop a police car as dozens of rowdy and seemingly uncontrollable protesters surrounded them”.

During the same protest Jones tossed a traffic cone at a driver because “good trouble for his good reason” must mean that rules don’t apply to him.

The following month in June 2020, as a continuation of BLM’s protest and demands, Jones, with support from fellow activist Jeneisha Harris, launched a “non-violent” protest on the capitol’s legislative plaza.

It is doubtful that Jones included the parting of ways with Jeneisha Harris who sometime during the sixty-two day protest, accused Jones of covering up two sexual assaults by a homeless man committed against two women protesters. https://thepostmillennial.com/woke-tennessee-rep-justin-jones-accused-of-covering-up-sexual-assaults-by-homeless-man#google_vignette

“She [Jeneisha] explained that Jones, “Nashville’s favorite activist,” witnessed the attack, but when the group suggested that it should be reported, he said the women had to stay silent “because it would change the narrative of why they’re actually protesting,” and that, “the incident would overpower the advocacy.”’

Jeneisha went on to call Jones a “fake activist” among other labels.

Jones is now selling his book on Amazon recounting this sixty-two day event.

Anti-white Christian nationalist Rev. William Barber, who seems enamored with Jones, wrote the forward to Jones’ book. Barber says he has had a “yearslong relationship” with Jones who in turn refers to Barber as “a sort of godfather… mentor, spiritual father’ and a ‘model of faith and justice since 2013”. Jones in turn says he has been heavily influenced by Barber who has his own issues with Israel and Jews.

Barber has been noted to “regularly refer[s] to Jesus as ‘a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew’ and who in 2018 falsely accused Israel of ‘targeting’ Palestinian children ‘simply because they want freedom”.

Sociology professors Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry explain Christian nationalism in their book “Taking America Back for God,” and they agree with Barber that there’s a white Christian nationalism (the worst), and a Black Christian nationalism which is progressive and wants to uplift the downtrodden and marginalized in our country.

Justin Jones – it should matter that he isn’t credible

Jones has leveled all kinds of baseless attacks on his Republican colleagues in the state House falsely labeling his expulsion for his extreme violation of House rules, as a “racist vote” taken under the Speaker’s “white supremacist system”.

This is precisely the commentary expected from Jones who surrounds himself with others who like himself, hate Republicans, white people, Jews, Christians who don’t agree with or think like them. Jones will also turn on his fellow activists when it doesn’t serve his political agenda.

Attempting to invoke the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jones and his “Tennessee 3” comrades spoke in Memphis with the Lorraine Motel as the backdrop where MLK’s assassination occurred. (The Lorraine Motel is part of the National Civil Rights Museum).

Unlike Jones, MLK is known for making two defining statements reflecting his position on Israel and Jews. In response to a student at Harvard in 1968 who attacked Zionism, MLK responded: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”

And unlike MLK, Jones has embraced a circle of comrades who vocally and politically engage in Jew-hatred. These same pushers of antisemitic anti-Zionism, like Jones, are all in with BLM, a core component of the umbrella group Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL) for black activist organizations. Tennessee’s Ash-Lee Henderson served on the policy leadership team of the M4BL).

Based in black liberation theology, the M4BL policy platforms include one (“Cut Military Expenditures” now linked to the M4BL policy platform on invest-divest), which claims that Israel is an apartheid state, is “complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people”, that homes of Palestinians and land “are routinely bulldozed to make way for illegal Israeli settlements”, and that “Israeli soldiers also regularly arrest and detain Palestinians as young as 4 years old without due process. Everyday, Palestinians are forced to walk through military checkpoints along the US funded apartheid wall.”

Memphis Rev. Earle J. Fisher, Ph.D., author of Black Liberation Theology and the Movement for Black Lives: A Match Made in Heaven. This Memphis pastor “thinks Pearson and Jones represent an opportunity for Black churches in particular to rekindle their flame related to social justice and liberation.”

It’s the same black liberation theology that drives the antisemitism of Jones’ comrades Sarsour, Mallory, Mysonne and Barber.

And it’s the same black liberation theology that draws Jones to these like-minded and which Jones relies on to compare himself to that “revolutionary brown skin Palestinian named Jesus”.

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Did They Mean It?

As most people probably know, our state legislators and the governor take an oath to uphold both the Tennessee and US Constitution. Per Article X, Section 1 of the Tennessee Constitution:

Every person who shall be chosen or appointed to any office of trust or profit under this Constitution, or any law made in pursuance thereof , shall, before entering on the duties thereof, take an oath to support the Constitution of this State, and of the United States, and an oath of office.

I ______________do solemnly swear that, as a member of this, the One Hundred Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, I will faithfully support the Constitution of this State and of the United States, and I do solemnly affirm that as a member of this General Assembly, I will, in all appointments, vote without favor, affection, partiality, or prejudice; and that I will not propose or assent to any bill, vote or resolution, which shall appear to me injurious to the people, or consent to any act or thing, whatever, that shall have a tendency to lessen or abridge their rights and privileges, as declared by the Constitution of this State. So help me God.

The Governor takes the following oath:

I,________________, do solemnly swear that as Governor of the State of Tennessee, I will support the Constitution of the State of Tennessee and the Constitution of the United States, and that I will perform with fidelity and faithfully execute the duties of the office of Governor to which I have been elected and which I am about to assume, to the best of my skill and ability. So help me God.

So they are to defend the rights of their constituents in accordance with both state and federal constitutions. And while people can and do have different understandings on what the constitutions mean, recent history tells us that the vast majority of  Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly claim to  believe in the  10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the clearly implied idea of nullification of unconstitutional federal actions.

The proof that they claim to believe in that is found in the vote of HJR9005/SJR9005 as amended in late October of 2021 (www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/112/Bill/SJR9005.pdf.) Note: The Senate adopted House Amendment 9023 and that is the language passed.). Most of the current members were in the legislature then.

This resolution was sponsored by House Speaker Cameron Sexton and LT Governor Randy McNally. Looking at the record posted on the state site, almost all Republican senators and representatives present that day voted for the resolution. Both resolutions had numerous co-sponsors. The only recorded “no” votes came from liberal Democrats. However, Governor Lee refused to sign the resolution.

This resolution was in response to federal overreach during the government-created COVID crisis.

Some of the issues cited were presidential executive orders mandating COVID-19 vaccinations of federal contractors and subcontractors, forcing healthcare workers to get vaccinated if the their facility treated MEDICARE or MEDICAID patients, and attempting to force OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to require routine testing for employers with more than 100 people, to name a few.

The response in the resolution is clearly based on the Federalism upon which our nation was founded.

Here are just a few examples:

WHEREAS, federalism is described and analyzed in Bond v. United States, 564 U.S. 211 (2011), in which the United States Supreme Court declared that the federal system rests on the insight that “freedom is enhanced by the creation of two governments, not one”; and

 

WHEREAS, the Court further stated that this freedom is enhanced “first by protecting the integrity of the [two] governments themselves, and second by protecting the people, from whom all governmental powers are derived”; and

 

WHEREAS, federalism serves “to grant and delimit the prerogatives and responsibilities of the States and the National Government vis-a-vis one another . . . [and] preserves the integrity, dignity, and residual sovereignty of the States”; and

 

WHEREAS, this federal balance “ensure[s] that States function as political entities in their own right”; and

 

WHEREAS, “[b]y denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power. When government acts in excess of its lawful powers, that liberty is at stake”; and

 

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012), further analyzed federalism and the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

 

WHEREAS, the Court acknowledged that a government’s “police power” is the general power of governing, possessed by the states but not by the federal government as the federal government only possesses enumerated powers listed in the United States Constitution; and

 

WHEREAS, the Constitution’s express conferral of some powers for the federal government makes clear that it does not grant others, and the federal government can exercise only the powers granted to it; and

 

WHEREAS, the independent power of the states serves as a check on the power of the federal government; by denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power; and

 

WHEREAS, the announced executive orders and COVID-19 Action Plan are attempts by the federal government to coerce the State of Tennessee and its citizens in violation of both the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution; and

 

WHEREAS, each member of the General Assembly has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of Tennessee and the Constitution of the United States; and

 

WHEREAS, if the federal government intends to overreach its authority to the point that it assumes the traditional constitutional role of a state legislative body, it is only fitting and proper that the very existence, as well as the depth and breadth, of this federal power be condemned and challenged not just in a court of law, but also through actions of the General Assembly to nullify such federal overreach; now, therefore

Before we cover what the legislature resolved to do, it’s important to note some key points the established up to this point in the resolution.

 

The authority of the federal government is limited to the enumerated powers listed in the US Constitution. (That is true even though the federal government regularly exceed their legitimate powers.)

 

The independent power of the states was designed to serve as a check on the power of the federal government.

 

That check on power is not limited to public condemnation and court challenges where one branch of the federal government gets to decide the limits of power of another branch of the federal government over the state(s) “but also through actions of the General Assembly to nullify such federal overreach”.

 

Yes, they used the “N” word, nullify – a word of which we should all cheer the use, and even more so, real action by our state against federal overreach.

 

They identified the actions that were a violation of the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions – in this case, executive orders and the COVID Action Plan.

 

Last but not least, they stated “each member of the General Assembly has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of Tennessee and the Constitution of the United States”.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE CONCURRING, that the State of Tennessee condemns any attempt by the federal government to penalize citizens of this State in an effort to enforce an unconstitutional mandate regarding COVID-19 vaccinations or other COVID-related restrictions and requirements.

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that it is the right of the Tennessee General Assembly to enact such legislation as it deems necessary to nullify actions taken by the federal government regarding COVID-19 when those actions violate the United States Constitution.

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Tennessee General Assembly urges the Attorney General and Reporter of the State of Tennessee to initiate or intervene in one or more civil actions on behalf of the State of Tennessee or, in the alternative, seek appropriate relief in a federal court of competent jurisdiction regarding COVID-19 mandates issued by the federal government, and any actions taken by the federal government, including the President of the United States, the head of any department or agency, or any other employee of the executive branch of the federal government, in violation of federal law or as prohibited by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, or any other statutory or constitutional provisions of the United States or the State of Tennessee, with respect to the implementation or enforcement in this State of any provision of the federal government’s mandate that requires citizens of this State to either receive a COVID-19 vaccination or submit to routine testing.

 

The key point made in the resolution is that it is the right of the Tennessee General Assembly to enact such legislation as it deems necessary to nullify actions taken by the federal government when those actions violate the United States Constitution. In this case, the violations were due to policies and actions related to COVID-19.

The resolution also urges the attorney general to take legal action on behalf of the state.It references the 10th Amendment, which states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectfully, or to the people.”

While this resolution deals with COVID-19, the violation of rights and abuse of power could be any policy or practice by the federal government that violates the Constitution according to our state legislature.

Now, nearly 18 months later, the legislature has the opportunity – and many, including this writer, would say the duty – to enact legislation that establishes processes to nullify federal action when needed.

HB0726/SB1092 (https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0726 ) by Rep. Hulsey and Sen. Bowling does just that. The legislation creates more than one method of nullifying federal actions that violate the Constitution. It can be used to nullify federal overreach in the future and or to deal with ongoing actions that are unconstitutional. It, however, does not identify any specific federal action to nullify. It is a tool, a mechanism that every sovereign state should have ready to utilize when needed.

Furthermore, the intent of the legislation aligns perfectly with the resolution previously passed by both houses of our General Assembly. Unfortunately, Governor Lee not only refused to sign the resolution, he is on record as opposing HB0726/SB1092.

Apparently Lee cares more about federal funding than upholding his oath to the Constitution. Lee’s actions are contrary to his claim to support the 10th Amendment when he was running for office.

I encourage everyone to listen to Rep. Hulsey’s outstanding presentation of the bill:

https://tnga.granicus.com/player/clip/27847?view_id=703&meta_id=706387&redirect=true&h=3c323134229cac50d9f77b88e54976de

Though resolutions have no teeth in and of themselves, they are intended to declare the belief, desire and intent of the legislature.

Our legislators have sworn an oath to uphold both the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions. Many willingly signed the resolution clearly and accurately stating the limits of federal power, and the duty of the state legislature to intervene when the federal government exceeds that power. They have declared, and rightfully so, nullification as a legitimate and required remedy.

The importance of this legislation cannot be overstated. If it fails, our state is likely condemned to even more federal overreach and coercion. If it succeeds, then it is more likely that other states will be inspired by the Volunteer State and pass similar legislation.

Restoring our country requires returning to the limited government designed and intended by the Founders. DC will never fix DC. It is too far gone and corrupt. Only the states can restore our Republic and protect our rights.

Those who supported the resolution in October of 2021 sent the right message. We will soon know if they meant it.

What you can do!

The senate version of this legislation SB1092 is scheduled for the Senate State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday, March 14th. It has to get through this committee.

Please call the following committee members on Monday and ask them to support this legislation. Be polite. If there is no answer, leave a message. The committee hearing begins at 10:30 in Senate Hearing RM1.

Chairman  Sen. Richard Briggs     615-741-1766

Vice Chair Sen. Page Walley         615-741-2368

2nd Vice Chair Sen. Mark Pody   615-741-2421

Sen. Ed Jackson 615-741-1810

Sen. Adam Lowe               615-741-1946

Sen. John Stevens            615-741-4576

Sen. Ken Yeager 615-741-1449

HB0726 will be in the State Government Committee on Wednesday, March 15th . The committee hearing begins at 10:30 in House Hearing RM 1.

Please call on Tuesday or early that morning.

Chairman Rep. Kelly Keisling        615-741-6852

Vice Chair Rep. Rick Eldridge       615-741-6877

Rep. Rebecca Alexander 615-741-2251

Rep. Rush Bricken            615-741-7448

Rep. Ed Butler    615-741-1260

Rep. Michelle Carringer 615-741-172

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Tennessee’s Elected GOP Are Redefining the Word “Conservative”

Too many of the Tennessee General Assembly’s GOP are redefining the “conservative” label similar to how leftists have changed the definition of terms like “woman”, “recession”, and “illegal alien.”  

Three bills from the 2022 legislative session, one of which became law, leave little doubt that “what is to be conserved”, is instead, being trashed.

First is the professional and commercial licensing bill for illegal aliens (SB2464/HB2309), which was sponsored by Senator Shane Reeves who has characterized his bill as “consistent with conservative principles” and as a “conservative immigration and poverty solution”.  

Second is one of the HPV vaccine bills (SB2026/HB2032) which was sponsored by Senator Bill Powers whose campaign website promised that he would “use common sense and conservative values to make our state even greater.”

Note:  HPV stands for human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease which can cause genital warts and certain genital and cervical cancers. The CDC advises that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection. 

Third is the other HPV vaccine bill (SB148/HB946) sponsored by Senator Dr. Richard Briggs, who is promoting himself as a conservative in his recent facebook campaign ad. 

Each of these bills began as caption bills and all three were championed by a significant number of Republicans.

Backgound: what is a caption bill?

The Legislature’s website defines “caption” as a “[b]rief description of a bill’s contents appearing on a bill and the bill’s jacket. A bill’s content cannot be any broader than its caption.”

The critical part of the caption is the reference to the part of the state code to be amended. Whatever content is filled in below this heading often doesn’t relate to the language filed later as the “amendment to rewrite the bill”. This new language presented to a committee is what is intended to be the substance of the bill.

The problem for those who value transparency in government operations is that the amendment which “rewrites the bill”, i.e., the actual language of the bill, is not available for public review until after this amendment is adopted by the committee and subsequently posted on the legislature’s website.

This was precisely the case with all three bills referenced above. Each bill used bogus language such as filing or not filing an annual report or changing the number of days from 30 to 45.

Sometimes caption bills help legislators meet the bill filing deadline as a placeholder while bill language is still in process. Strategically using caption bills, however, to conceal a bill’s controversial subject-matter has been a long-standing practice by legislators. The caption bill satisfies the bill filing deadline and can shield the sponsor and their intended bill from potential bill-killing push-back. It also provides legislators time to gather support from their colleagues.

With this background and technical details addressed, consider the three following bills.  

The Reeves licensing bill for illegal aliens

Senator Reeves’ illegal alien benefit caption bill stated:         

Once the amendment to “rewrite the bill” was introduced and adopted by the committee, individuals with illegal immigration status who have a temporary federal work permit, were deemed eligible for the state public benefit of commercial and professional licenses. 

Individuals with illegal immigration status who choose to make Tennessee their home can now apply for business licenses and become, for example, licensed teachers and lawyers.

Along with all Democrats present, 35 House and 15 Senate Republicans voted to pass this bill. 

The Briggs and Powers HPV vaccine bills

Senators Briggs and Powers’ HPV vaccine caption bills stated:

Once the amendment to rewrite each bill was filed and introduced in committee, these bills taken together authorized dentists and other licensed healthcare providers to administer the HPV vaccine to minors without parental knowledge or consent. Once the intent of these bills became known (and the likely negative public reaction), Powers added consent from the parent or legal guardian to his bill before a dentist could administer the vaccine. 

The Briggs bill, however, authorizing certain licensed healthcare providers to give the HPV vaccine to a minor without consent from a parent or legal guardian was not changed.

Both bills passed the Senate Health Committee. Both bills passed the House Health subcommittee but were ultimately stopped from moving forward by the House bill sponsor, ie, “taken off notice”.

Both Briggs and Powers were co-sponsors of Reeves’ licensing bill and Reeves as a member of the Senate Health Committee voted for both HPV bills.

As to the HPV vaccine bills, do generally understood conservative values which Senator Powers promised would guide him, support the state invading a parent’s right to manage their child’s healthcare? Does a self-described conservative like Senator Briggs believe it is good statecraft to give healthcare providers greater rights than parents or legal guardians, to make certain healthcare decisions for minors? Regarding the licensing bill, does Senator Reeves believe that it is a conservative principle or “solution” to ignore the law and reward illegal immigration? 

When GOP legislators Richard Briggs calls himself a conservative and Bill Powers and Shane Reeves sell their bills as reflecting some element of conservative thinking, they seem to have another definition of “conservative” from the one I and many other Tennesseans share. These legislators need to find a different word to justify their actions because I’m not giving up my conservative principles and values.

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TN GOP State Legislators Do Most of Left’s Work on Illegal Immigration… 

With the exception of SB2245/HB2128, this year’s crop of GOP sponsored immigration bills show Republican legislators caving to the left’s agenda on illegal immigration.

SB2245/HB2128, sponsored by long-proven conservative Sen. Joey Hensley and Rep. John Crawford, in a nutshell, bars non-U.S. citizens including illegal aliens and lawful permanent residents (LPR, aka, green card holders), from voting in a federal, state or local election. Different categories of LPRs are eligible to adjust their immigration status to citizen. For example, refugees who are legally admitted to the U.S, through the overseas refugee program, are required to adjust their immigration status to LPR after one year and are then eligible four years later, to try and pass the citizenship test.

The bill also prohibits a local jurisdiction from granting a non-U.S. citizen the right to vote. All House Democrats voted in favor of the bill while all Senate Democrats voted against it.

Beyond this one bill, thanks to the GOP, the left is high-fiving itself all the way to the border.

SB2783/HB2868 sponsored by Republicans Sen. Bo Watson and Rep. Ryan Williams. Both legislators served on the summer’s misnamed Joint Study Committee on Refugees which was convened in response to the discovery of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) arrivals to Tennessee. 

When it became public that the UAC arrivals, who enter the country illegally, were being housed in a federally-contracted facility in Chattanooga, legislative leadership felt compelled to spring into action! Adopting the love language of the left which refers to UACs as “refugees”, Tennessee’s leadership convened the Joint Study Committee on Refugees. 

As defined in federal law, UACs have “no lawful immigration status in the United States”. 

Were they confused by Congressman Mark Green’s bill which treated UACs as refugees? This was one of the very few times they should have listened to pro-refugee Bill Lee who, believe it or not, understands that UACs are not refugees – “[when] the Times Free Press asked specifically about the migrant children, the governor said the Times Free Press was conflating unaccompanied minors with refugees. “‘These are unaccompanied, illegal immigrant children,” Lee responded during the Monday news conference. “Those are two entirely separate issues.’”

Nevertheless, both Watson (who cheered on Green’s bill) and Williams, sponsored SB2783/HB2868, a bill initially intended to reopen a state office on refugee resettlement to track UAC arrivals. The bill was subsequently amended to remove the reopening of a state office and instead, to simply have after-the-fact arrival information sent to different legislative committees.

While presenting his bill, Rep. Williams repeatedly told his colleagues what a great job Catholic Charities is doing with the state’s refugee resettlement program and that the NGO is a “great partner to the state”.

After the GOP fortified Catholic Charities of Tennessee with the largest dump of money the non-profit has ever received, the rave reviews sound more like a justification for a questionable decision.

In November 2020, the state handed over $7.3 million dollars of taxpayer money to Catholic Charities to spread their infrastructure into ten new counties without any restrictions on also spreading their refugee resettlement activities.

 

Bottom line of the Watson-Williams bill is the knowing when illegal aliens arrive – that’s it.

SB2729/HB2711 sponsored by Republicans Sen. Dawn White and Rep. Dan Howell, the co-chairs of the misnamed Joint Study Committee on Refugees.

In direct contradistinction of quick steps taken in Florida with DeSantis’ emergency order to “ban the issuance or renewal of all state licenses to companies or NGOs that provide services to UACs” in his state, Tennessee legislators are actively creating a new category of state agency for UACs called the non-traditional child care agency (NCCA). As described by Rep. Howell, this initiative is intended to enable the state to better provide for the “safety and welfare” of the UACs because according to Howell, the “federal government says states have to”.

Howell was honest about the fact that UACs have no lawful immigration status, but lamented that his new child care license is “all that we can do” in the face of federal jurisdiction over immigration. Trying to soften the blow, committee chairman Andrew Farmer reminded everyone that the federal government has “exclusive jurisdiction even though we are a sovereign state”. 

DeSantis clearly disagrees, because his administration followed up his emergency order with new rules that retains the bar on licenses for facilities housing UACs sent to Florida in the absence of a cooperative agreement between the state and the federal government.

Howell’s bill would limit the number of UACs housed in a dormitory style facility like the one in Chattanooga, limit the number of facilities across Tennessee and the facility owner would have to pay the state for each child. Importantly, Howell, the bill supporters and the Joint Study Committee members are leaving Bethany Christian Services’ (BCS) license untouched even though BCS, a federal contractor, testified that they provide transitional foster care services to UACs in Tennessee. In other words, they admitted that they facilitate illegal immigration in Tennessee.

Sen. White presented the Senate companion bill without ever mentioning that the new non-traditional child care agency was being created specifically for UACs. 

The House and Senate bills are going to their respective Finance Committees; the House Finance Subcommittee passed it but placed it behind the budget.

Probably the most intelligent comment to come out of any committee on this bill was made by Democrat House member Mike Stewart. He made the point that if employers were thrown in jail for hiring “undocumented” workers, this could all come to a screeching halt. Stewart is right in mocking GOP concern about illegal alien kids given the GOP’s willingness to bend at the knee of NFIB and the TN Chamber who want to keep cheap labor flowing to the state as evidenced by the next bill on E-verify.

SB1780/HB1853 sponsored by Sen. Jon Lundberg and Rep. Clark Boyd. The bill was pretty much the amendment approved by the TN Chamber and the small business lobby NFIB, during the last legislative session when Rep. Griffey wanted to require all Tennessee employers regardless of the number of employees, to use E-verify (the Employment Eligibility Verification) program. 

Unable to pass his bill, Griffey folded and accepted the meaningless 25 employee threshold, but the bill never advanced in the Senate that year.

The Chamber/NFIB 25 employee amendment now being sponsored as a bill by Rep. Boyd was amended in the Senate by Lundberg to raise the employee threshold to 35 or more employees. Lundberg was also forced (by a committee Democrat), to confirm that illegal immigrant workers can receive workers compensation albeit not at the same level as work authorized employees. Some make a credible argument that Tennessee law builds in an incentive to hire illegal immigrant workers.

After the House passed the 25 employee threshold bill, it backed down, re-voted and agreed to accept the Senate’s 35 employee threshold. Does the Tennessee GOP value legal workers? The concerns and devaluing of hard-working legal immigrants and U.S. citizens is secondary to GOP appeasement of the business community. Never mind their own conflicts of interest and their willingness to abet the destructive agenda of the left.

It is difficult to understand the GOP resistance to mandating use of E-Verify program for all businesses. E-Verify is a FREE federal database which checks the social security numbers of newly hired employees against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records to help ensure that the new employee is eligible to work in the U.S.

When Tennessee first passed its E-Verify law in 2011, businesses with 6 or more employees were required within one year to begin using it. In 2016, the General Assembly caved to special interest lobbyists and raised the employee threshold to 50 employees.

Consider that the highest number of UACs released into the U.S. are reported as boys ages 15 – 17+ except there are plenty of credible reports that the working age “boys” are actually adults lying about their age. Add to this factor, the reports documenting 67,000 illegal alien essential workers in Tennessee and the Metro Nashville government report of 31,000 illegal aliens living and working in Davidson County. Both reports are likely under estimating the numbers in light of the Biden open border policies.

SB2730/HB2712 sponsored by Sen. Dawn White and Rep. Dan Howell. This is another “now we’ll know after it happens” bill.  This bill reflects particulars learned during the summer hearing mostly related to statutory limitations on the Department of Children’s Services as to how they issued the license to the facility in Chattanooga and then dealt with the license after discovery of criminal behavior by certain staff at the facility and the incident of a resident running away from the facility.

The “child” who left the facility was discovered to have somehow made it back to his country of origin.

While the bill allows under certain circumstances for revocation of a DCS license, most of the bill is more about filing reports. The bill does require a license applicant to disclose any agreement they may have with third parties to provide residential child care services. This does not mean nor does the bill provide that a license can be denied to an applicant who has a federal contract to provide services to UACs. 

Neither of the Howell-White bills reflect any concern that UAC arrivals are part of a human smuggling operation. Rather, the bills work to accommodate the practice. Nor do the bills reflect any concern that U.S. HHS data from 2018 – 2019 shows that 79% of sponsors to whom UAC are released, were “without status” meaning that they were present in the U.S. illegally.

Bottom line in Tennessee on UAC arrivals is we will accommodate because as Howell stated, the “federal government says states have to”.

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TN’s Dems Hate Jews & Repubs Join Them in Hating Parents

Not a shocker that NO Tennessee state House Democrats voted to support the bill against the antisemitic boycott of Israeli businesses with whom Tennessee does millions of dollars of trade. But Democrats were doing what they always do – walk in lockstep with their leaders in D.C. and supporting the Biden administration’s real push on Israel. And if there is any question about where the Democrats stand on Israel, both the Iran nuclear deal and the Biden blaming Israel for his policy on Ukraine, the veil is lifted on Biden’s long-known hatred of all things Jews and Israel/ 

But when it comes to parent rights in Tennessee, we are starting to see that Tennessee’s GOP, many of whom like to wave their allegedly conservative principles, sidled over to the Democrats’ overt disrespect for parents’ relationship with their own children. Never forget that it is Biden’s Justice Department that labelled parents concerned with their children’s education, “domestic terrorists“.

The Tennessee House vote for and against Israel

On Monday in Tennessee’s General Assembly, Rep. Ryan Williams presented his Israel anti-boycott bill on the House floor. Two Democrats abstained and the rest voted NO. All Republicans who were present voted to pass the bill. Earlier in the Senate, Democrat Heidi Campbell whose district includes a large swath of Jews, voted against the bill.

It’s no secret that the DNC platform is anti-Israel so it should be no surprise that the Biden administration is following it.

Biden’s ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, Obama’s former deputy secretary of state, has confirmed that he doesn’t believe Jews should live in Jerusalem, is against Jews living in Judea and Samaria an area of Israel he has refused to visit just like his refusal to view the tunnels used by Hamas terrorists to murder Israeli civilians. Nides insists on calling the Islamic terrorist “pay to slay” program as “martyr” payments which just happens to violate the U.S. Taylor Force law. Then there is the desire of the Biden administration to reopen the U.S. Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem. 

On this last point, early last year, Sen. Bill Hagerty introduced a bill which passed the Senate, that would keep Israel’s capital city Jerusalem from being divided by the Biden administration’s push for a Palestinian consulate which has been vigorously opposed by Israel’s government. According to Hagerty, Biden’s plan, violates the U.S. “Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995”, which his bill upholds and which passed the Senate. Senate Republicans continue to fight Biden’s antagonistic Secretary of State Anthony Blinken who wants to reopen the Palestinian consulate in the western part of Jerusalem, deliberately infringing on Israeli sovereignty and deliberately attempting to redivide Israel’s capital.

Add to this that the U.S. State Department has announced a grant which will reward $1 million of taxpayer money for anti-Israel NGOs to report alleged human rights abuses by Israel. Forget China, Cuba, Russia, Iran, shari adherent countries, and Biden’s other favored Marxist friends.

Biden and those who speak for him or rather, work to excuse whatever comes out of his mouth, only serve to prove that his anti-Israel/anti-Jew animus is real. There simply is no way to justify his and the DNC’s alliance with aggressive Jew haters like Linda Sarsour (who btw, is also embraced by the Tennessee AMAC), and Al Sharpton. 

Tennessee legislative subcommittee joins Democrats and refuses to recognize parental rights

On Tuesday, the House Health Subcommittee chaired by one of the worst legislators the GOP has to offer, in a show of collegial disrespect, refused to allow Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver to present her bill on parental rights to the subcommittee. 

Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro), offered a motion to hear the bill while not a single Republican would provide a “second” to allow Rep. Weaver to present her bill. Demonstrating the epitome of cancelling the voice of their legislator colleague and Tennessee parents, not a single other Republican spoke up. Of course, the lone Democrat on the subcommittee did what was expected of him and remained silent as well.

Proving once again his “worst GOP legislator” bona fides, subcommittee chairman Bob Ramsey ignored the fact that it is not against the rules for the chair to “second” the motion and allow the bill to be heard.

Except for Rep. Byrd, this offensive move by the subcommittee members is too obvious in its intent to be ignored. None of these cowards want to record a NO vote against parents and probably hoped that it would go unnoticed. That is how stupid they think Tennessee voters are.

Well, Rep. Weaver who is among the minority of clear-headed and conservatively principled serving legislators and she is not quietly going along with what she described as the “feckless men” (ie, careless and irresponsible) on the subcommittee.

As reported by the TNStar,, Weaver said that her bill “was the same in principle to one that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed in 2021.”

“Florida’s HB 241 included legislative findings that it is a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education and care of the minor children and that important information relating to their minor child’s health, well-being and education while in the custody of the school district should not be withheld from the parent.”

Weaver’s bill is even more critical for Tennessee given that despite a law passed last year by the legislature, CRT is still being taught in Tennessee schools. 

It’s no surprise that Bill Lee and his milquetoast administration made it known that they were opposed to the bill. 

Any wonder conservative transplants to Tennessee are shocked when they discover that the conservative grassroots base is actually only reflected in a teeny-tiny minority in the General Assembly and entirely absent in the governor’s office?

One of the “feckless men” of the subcommittee Bob Ramsey, has a primary challenger. We don’t know Bryan Richey, but on paper he sounds good and the fact is, that parents in his district who care about their kids can’t possibly do worse than Bob Ramsey. If Ramsey manages to hide his long record of gross missteps and grosser voting record from his district and is sent back to Nashville, he should not be rewarded with chairing any subcommittee or committee; let Speaker Sexton know how you feel.

If conservatives in Tennessee want to take back the GOP, they had better start letting their representatives know what they think.

Messages of support to Rep. Weaver can be sent to rep.terri.lynn.weaver@capitol.tn.gov

Messages to Speaker Sexton can be sent to speaker.cameron.sexton@capitol.tn.gov