TODAY’S HOLLER: Burchett’s Anti-Science Fearmongering, Lee’s Unemployment Nightmares
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After voting with Republicans on a series of key issues including the Heartbeat Bill, LGBT rights, and School Vouchers, the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee recently voted to remove Rep. John Deberry (D- Memphis) from the ballot as a Democrat.
It was a controversial decision, but one celebrated by many Democrats who felt that despite his lengthy service, if Deberry was going to consistently side with Republicans he was no longer worthy of having the “D” by his name on the ballot.
This was not the first time this had happened – Republicans had stripped the “R” from one of their own a few years back, and recently at the last minute to ensure Glen Casada didn’t have a primary in Williamson County, claiming her Republican “Bona Fides” weren’t strong enough,
(NOTE: They never even talked to her. We did. She is plenty conservative and had voted for many Republicans.)
Because of the timing of the decision, Deberry would not have time to file to run as an independent.
Now, Senator Ferrell Haile and Rep. Tom Leatherwood, both Republicans, have a bill that seeks to change that.
The bill would extend the deadline to file as an independent for Republicans and Democrats alike if the parties decide to strip the letter from an incumbent.
We caught up with Senator Haile yesterday. He made it clear the bill would be retroactive – meaning it WOULD enable Deberry to run as an independent in the upcoming election – and was forthcoming about the fact that that was exactly the bill’s intent: To help his “personal friend” Rep. Deberry.
This is how our conversation went:
HOLLER: We heard a rumor you have a bill to extend the deadline to allow Rep. Deberry to run as an independent. Is there any truth to that?
SENATOR HAILE: “Well it’s not just Rep. Deberry. This would apply both to Democrat & Republican parties. That if they disallow someone who’s an incumbent after the filing deadline, this would allow the individual to file as an independent to run.”
HOLLER: And is it retroactive? Would it apply to Rep. Deberry?
SENATOR HAILE: “It would. 2020 going forward.”
HOLLER: Is it only for incumbents?
SENATOR HAILE: “That’s the way it’s written right now. If they don’t want him to run as their party, fine… but give that person a chance to get on the ballot.”
HOLLER: Recently in Williamson County a Republican filed to run against Ex-Speaker Casada and was kicked off the ballot because of her “Republican Bona Fides”, so this has happened before…
SENATOR HAILE: “If I’m not mistaken the timing on that was before the filing deadline.”
HOLLER: It was like the day before.
SENATOR HAILE: “Right, so she could’ve gone out and gotten 25 signatures.”
HOLLER: I guess what I’m saying is this seems to be mainly relevant to this Deberry situation.
SENATOR HAILE: “John Deberry is a personal friend of mine. And I just don’t like to see personal friends treated wrongly. And there’s an opportunity to give him an opportunity to be on the ballot. If he gets defeated, fine… but lets give the man an opportunity.”
HOLLER: So it’s fair to say this is about the Deberry situation then?
SENATOR HAILE: It’s about this, and going forward.
Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington) out of Shelby County will be carrying it in the house.
You can Holler at either Haile and Leatherwood at those links.
Mark D. Harmon is a professor of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tennessee
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From the Not-So-Farfetched File…
RACHEL MADDOW: Good evening, and welcome to MSNBC’s Election Night 2020 coverage.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We still have two hours to go before voting locations close on the East Coast, but we do have public opinion polling to give us some fascinating insights into the electorate.
MADDOW: For that we go to Steve Kornacki at the big board.
KORNACKI: That’s right, Rachel and Brian. We’ve been able to use what data experts call common reference points to link standard election polls to all sorts of other Big Data information. Let’s start with comparisons to 2016.
Donald Trump is down ten points among pick-up truck drivers, but up two points among drivers of vehicles with slogans or female images on mud flaps. Joe Biden’s commuting habits seem to be paying off for him. He is winning three-to-one among people who’ve ever traveled by train, two-to-one among those who as a child had model trains. He’s also winning big among those who ever watched Soul Train, or can sing at least some of the words to “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
MADDOW: You have other information about Georgia as well?
KORNACKI: Yes, we discovered that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, known for his botched response to coronavirus, is now less popular than the virus itself.
WILLIAMS: But he’s not on the ballot this time around.
KORNACKI: That’s right, but our numbers indicate he would lose a recall effort by roughly twelve to one.
MADDOW: Any other big surprises?
KORNACKI: Yes, going back to 2016 comparisons, turnout overall could be up by as much as ten percentage points. Those who think it’s okay to cast a third-party protest vote is down 93 percent.
WILLIAMS: I understand you also have social media data.
KORNACKI: Oh, large amounts of social media data. Trump and Biden overall are dead even among Facebook and Twitter users-with Trump holding a strong lead among first-time users from foreign domains.
Looking at just Twitter users, Trump leads among those with spelling and grammatical errors in their posts, and with those who use multiple exclamation points, or who link to conspiracy sites. Biden leads only among those who link to established news and information sites. And to draw users into reading such content, these people may have used growth services like Upleap or buzzoid to ensure that they can boost the number of followers that they have to their account. Trump and Biden may also do this if they get given the chance.
We have even more on tweets. Song birds that tweet daily are breaking big for Biden. Parrots are tilting toward Trump. We’re pretty sure Big Bird, and most of Sesame Street-excepting Oscar the Grouch-will be going for Biden. Trump, by the way, scores well among vultures and all creatures who feed on dead flesh.
MADDOW: Wow, that’s a broad database.
KORNACKI: Yes, it is. We even have foreign data. Biden is doing much better than Trump with Americans living in France, those who ever have visited France, and among French people who wish they could vote in this election. Trump leads only among those who can’t find France on a map.
WILLIAMS: You also have some other data you’ve told us is hard to categorize.
KORNACKI: Correct. Trump is down ten points among those who use “summer” as a verb, but he’s up five points among residents of mobile homes who have thought about bleaching their lungs or admit to snorting Lysol.
We can’t give away too much, but I can say all indications are this election night will please a lot of people who shop on Thursdays, post photos of children, and drive automatic transmissions.
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Mark D. Harmon, a professor of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tennessee, is an award-winning freelance columnist.
Congressman Steve Cohen joined us LIVE!
Check out the podcast here, and some clips below.
WATCH: “Trump is a NARCISSISTIC, SOCIOPATHIC, GRIFTING, LYING, MISOGYNIST, ADULTERATING CRIMINAL. And when he leaves office he should be prosecuted.” @RepCohen did NOT hold back. ??
PODCAST ON ITUNES: https://t.co/ucbYJx6jnO pic.twitter.com/Ys1q6w8T9R
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 14, 2020
CLIP: “Tennessee giving up OVER $1 BILLION A YEAR not EXPANDING MEDICAID is a CRIME… and #MedicareForAll would help us a lot.”
– the firey @RepCohen telling it like it is. ?? (cc: @GovBillLee)
FULL INTERVIEW: https://t.co/DHgS13qHNC
PODCAST: https://t.co/ucbYJx6jnO pic.twitter.com/mXxqZiKOKY— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 13, 2020
The following is commentary from Daniel Stone, who was recently terminated by Dollar General.
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My name is Daniel Stone. On April 27th I was terminated from my role at Dollar General Corporate for organizing essential coworkers.
This termination came after months of efforts to organize & connect with my fellow coworkers in stores, distribution centers and elsewhere.
As the pandemic began to assert itself across all corners of the economy, I focused intently on how my company would act on behalf of my coworkers. Ultimately, as my emails asking about hazard pay, PPE and more for these coworkers were met with generic corporate responses, myself & others began to act.
We have created a movement of Dollar General workers & that will not end with my termination.
The company tried to silence one voice, but in reality, the voices only get louder.
My actions began in March when I sent emails to Kathy Reardon, the Chief People Officer, asking about the CEO’s COVID-19 video that was emailed to all of us. In those emails, I asked about Paid Sick Leave & more for our fellow associates. Her response was ultimately unhelpful to the plights of the workers, but she did mention her gratitude for Employees like me.
I totally feel that gratitude now.
I continued my efforts, emailing Kathy, but she stopped responding. It became clear to me that the Chief People Officer’s concerns did not include the People in office, store and elsewhere.
I shifted my efforts to Human Resources shortly after that, since I figured that maybe I had a better shot of convincing HR to hear my coworkers grievances and perhaps they could then enact change. That was not the case.
In Mid-March, when Corporate dished out bonuses for white-collar workers, including me, and they were in the thousands while our fellow associates in stores were given bonuses of $300, $200 & $100 (before tax!) it became even clearer — This company will do whatever they need to to protect their rich investors while quite literally sending people to contract this virus, all for breadcrumbs.
One of my emails was to Nichole Wheeler, HR Manager, in which I asked her if Corporate Employees could work in stores on weekends. As I had gone in stores to get groceries for my own household, I had spoken to coworkers about the concerns they shared and decided to ask HR about this possibility.
HR shot that idea down and this was a turning point for me.
Dollar General was comfortable sending workers across the chain in for work everyday during a pandemic, with degrading wages & little to no protection against the virus, but we as corporate workers were not allowed to show solidarity with our coworkers?
It’s shameful.
After other correspondences with Nichole it became evident that the company was not interested in engaging with me & my coworkers. Stories of workers being unable to feed their children, pregnant women scared to work during this virus, hours being cut despite a temporary, laughable, one-dollar raise for Part-Time workers and so many more.
These stories are what led me to engage in protected concerted activity with my coworkers & the support of UFCW 655 in Missouri.
Workers are tired of asking companies for their empathy, now, we demand fairness.
On ~4/13/20, Corporate Employees who were still working in the building, few of which were in mine, could have access to 5 wired masks a week. On ~4/20/20, multiple workers had confirmed that Dollar General was sending them literal t-shirt cutouts as masks.
Across Georgia, Arkansas, Pennsylvania & elsewhere my coworkers were being subjected to this virus, with low pay as it is, and now they’ve been sent T-Shirts to protect themselves and their families? This was insulting, not to mention completely ineffective.
A company making billions in profits, that could afford to pay their executive team nearly $24 million dollar in total compensation in 2019 couldn’t even give workers on the ground the basic respect of a mask.
Eventually, my efforts came to a head on 4/27/20 when I was terminated for what the company cited was bad blood towards the company as well as negative emails.
I’m still not sure how asking about hazard pay, PPE & whether or not corporate workers, who are coworkers with people in stores, can go in in our free time to help, is negative – but that’s for their conscience to debate, not mine.
Myself & others inside that building know the treatment that our fellow associates are experiencing and for that we organized. At the time of writing this, across all platforms, we have recruited 300+ DG employees to join this movement. From March to my termination in April we reached out to numerous people with the same message of organizing to force Dollar General to recognize our plights.
When one of us is unable to feed our child, we speak up.
When one of us is seeing their hourly wage go from $7.25 to $8.25 but their hours go from 30 to 12, we speak up.
I am hurt to be away from my team at Dollar General, and hope they’re doing well, but myself & others could not sit by while fellow associates are being abused and their bodies being crushed to dust for the good of a company that would replace them tomorrow if they could save a penny.
Workers are tired of asking companies for their empathy. Now, we demand fairness.
In closing, I want to request that if you have spare funds during this pandemic that you give something to a Workers Rights advocacy group, a Union, anything that you feel can advance the cause of Workers Rights. In this country, corporations rely on campaign financing as well as a general Anti-Worker sentiment that we have to change.
Additionally, I want to give a quick shoutout to a few people who have taught me how to organize, how to know what my/others rights are as a worker, and who gave me personally the courage to keep going:
Billy Myers — Organizing Director, UFCW 655
Ashley Bachelder — Interim Co-Director, Workers Dignity/Dignidad Obrera
Vonda McDaniel — President, CLC Nashville Lori — DG Associate/Coworker
Judd Legum — Popular Info
All Coworkers and Associates of Dollar General who continue fighting for the respect, protection & wages they deserve.
Please contact me at [email protected] or DM me on Twitter for any questions.
Thank you for reading.
TODAY’S HOLLER:
“OBAMAGATE” EXPOSED: At his press conference yesterday a REPORTER asked Trump: “You appeared to accuse Obama of a crime yesterday. What did he do?”
TRUMP’s response: “You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody.”
TRANSLATION: “OBAMAGATE”, currently trending because of right wing desperation, is bullshit. ?
They want us to believe Obama is going to prison, but it’s Trump’s capos who are in prison, convicted, or having their charges dropped because of pure corruption. Non-Facebook Link
–MEMPHIS ELECTION COMMISSION QUESTIONS: The MEMPHIS Election Commission needs to be watched. Election administrator Linda Phillips has conflicts of interest with their voter registration software company, including her sons working there. This is in addition to their lawyer sharing office space with the lobbyist for the touch screen voting machine company they just awarded another contract to, even though touch screens take 3x longer, and they recently *miscounted* black votes. Voter suppression in minority-heavy areas continues.
OBAMA RIPS TRUMP’S RESPONSE: OBAMA calls Trump’s Pandemic Response “a CHAOTIC DISASTER”, adding “when that mindset of what’s in it for me and to heck with everybody else is operationalized inside our government.” Boy is he right. And boy do we miss him. Non-Facebook Link
–A CONTACT TRACING SHORTAGE is being reported in TN, where we have just 25% of the recommended amount of contact tracers – 1,500 people short for the critical disease mitigation effort. Rep. Mike Stewart is right… with so many unemployed, this is a win-win way to put folks to work.
-A BULLSEYE ? target was placed at NASHVILLE NAACP President Keith Caldwell’s house. He says the responding officer “shrugged” & said the target was “pretty cool.” Unacceptable… Racists sure are feeling emboldened lately.
-An unreleased White House report has VIRUS RATES SPIKING IN THE HEARTLAND — “10 top areas recorded surges of 72.4% or greater over 7-day period… They include Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas and Central City, Kentucky… and NASHVILLE, TN.”
-Yesterday TRUMP had the nerve to say “We have met the moment, and we have prevailed.”Most cases in the world. Most deaths in the world. 80,000+ dead Americans and their loved ones would likely disagree. ??
-SEARING new Biden ad?: “We have an economic crisis because we have a public health crisis… and we have a public health crisis because Trump refused to act…Trump didn’t build a great economy. His failure to lead destroyed one.” ??Non-Facebook Link
-And here’s another ad where Biden sets the record straight. ??Obama-Biden built a response pandemic apparatus. Trump tore it apart. HE WILL NOT REWRITE HISTORY. Non-Facebook Link
-WASH POST EDITORIAL BOARD: “WHISTLEBLOWER paints shocking picture of White House Bungling COVID Response”
–BROOKINGS: “As states reopen, COVID-19 is spreading into even more Trump counties”
-This is Katie Miller, Pence’s press secretary, who just tested positive for COVID-19, at the healthcare facility where Pence just *heroically* delivered masks. The ONLY ONE not wearing a mask. ??
-We took the liberty of fixing this for Trump:
-UC BERKELEY STUDY: a simple solution to help us emerge from this nightmarish lockdown? ALWAYS social distance in public and, most importantly, wear a mask… There is no excuse not to mask up at this point. It’s not brave, it’s selfish. ?
-It didn’t have to be this way.
-4 Americans Died At BENGHAZI — Hillary faced hours upon hours of interrogation. 80,000 Americans are dead. Worst outbreak on ? — yet Trump won’t let the task force answer questions? What is he hiding? ?? ?? SHARE THIS
-RESIGN, BARR: “Nearly 2000 former Justice Department officials have signed onto a letter calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign over his improper intervention in the criminal case of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.”
–CARTOON OF THE DAY: Obama’s Crime, revealed! #Obamagate
-Tennessee says absentee ballots are now available “for those eligible”, but this isn’t good enough. We should all be “eligible” to not have to risk our lives to vote. Holler at Hargett: 615-741-2819 ☎️
-California will send ALL voters mail-in ballots for the November election. THIS is what states that actually want people to vote and believe in democracy do during a deadly pandemic. We’re at the bottom in voter turnout by design. Voter suppression is real. ???
-Suddenly Marsha and the Republicans pretend to care about the debt again, right as folks need help and they know a Dem may be in charge soon? REMINDER: Blackburn voted to blow a $2 TRILLION HOLE in the deficit to hand a tax cut to corporations and the wealthy even before the virus. Spare us. ?
-Chris Hayes said it best…
-HOLLER GRAPHIC OF THE DAY: Tennessee is #1 in MEDICAL BANKRUPTCIES… #1 in RURAL HOSPITAL CLOSURES per capita… We lose $1 BILLION EVERY YEAR we don’t EXPAND MEDICAID… Not expanding Medicaid is POLICY MURDER.
-Senator Lamar Alexander called the DOJ’s anti-Obamacare lawsuit that would rip coverage from millions “REALLY FLIMSY” ??
-The President of the United States shared a video which concluded there had been a “silent coup” attempted against him. This guy is reckless and dangerous in so many different ways.
-Cool news—TODAY at 11AM CST we’ll have Congressman Steve Cohen LIVE! Join on Twitter & Facebook. (Follow/Like our page to get reminded when we go live)
Don’t forget to FOLLER the new MEMPHIS HOLLER and the KNOXVILLE HOLLER if you’re in those areas! And please consider CHIPPING IN MONTHLY to help us keep GROWING THROUGHOUT THE STATE… make it $10 and we’ll send you a holler hat!
We hope you all had a beautiful Mother’s Day.
(note your address on PayPal and which color you want when you chip in)
The Great Rosanne Cash joined us live on the holler… and it turns out she’s a holler follerer!
Check out the interview.
Listen to the podcast.
And watch this amazing clip where she says nice things about us!
WATCH: The Great @RosanneCash says “FOLLER THE HOLLER!”
SUBSCRIBE/CHIP IN: https://t.co/PKM30YAUU9 pic.twitter.com/8rm5X82sRc
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 8, 2020
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is already being sued by the NAACP & The Equity Alliance, groups seeking safer voting-by-mail for all during a pandemic.
Currently Tennessee only allows those over 60 and people who meet certain requirements to vote absentee.
Now Hargett has been hit with ANOTHER lawsuit at the state level, this time by a bipartisan group of voters, including a pastor.
You can read the lawsuit from Hunter Demster, Earle J. Fisher, Julia Hiltonsmith, Allison Donald, Ginger Bullard, and Jeff Bullard HERE.
Under “Nature of The Suit” it reads:
“Plaintiffs contend that, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis and the uncertain but growing population distribution of the novel coronavirus (the “Virus”), restricting Tennesseans’ vote-by-mail access to voters over sixty years of age, or who otherwise meet one of the other absentee- ballot qualifications enumerated under Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-6-201, would impose impermissibly burdensome conditions on the Individual Plaintiffs and others’ right to vote under the Tennessee Constitution.
Furthermore, enforcing these restrictions during the pandemic would constitute one or more unlawful classifications of Tennesseans, violating of the Equal Protection Clause of the Tennessee Constitution. In the alternative, Plaintiffs contend that the only constitutionally compliant construction of certain Tennessee statutory language allows for a Tennessee-licensed physician to certify the entire population of a county “medically unable to vote” because of the danger posed by the pandemic.
Plaintiffs’ claims sound strictly under Tennessee state law. They assert no claims arising under or substantially related to federal law.
Tennessee is at the bottom in voter turnout. Hargett was recently torched by a federal judge for his voter registration criminalization bill.
WATCH: We had a lengthy discussion with @sectrehargett about what’s next for his voter registration criminalization bill, which he pushed after 90,000 black Tennesseans registered to vote – but was just BLOCKED & TORCHED ? by a federal judge.
Just kidding, he ran from us. ? pic.twitter.com/zZoEYLGkJW
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 14, 2020
This all reeks of calculated voter suppression. Holler at Hargett to let him know we need vote-by-mail for all:
Lee says we’re in a “downward trend”, the data, Vandy experts, and Fox’s Chris Wallace disagree.
If you’ve been following us for any amount of time hopefully you have some context on this, but just in case, here’s a quick rundown of how we got to this point…
Governor Lee made public school-harming private school vouchers his #1 priority coming into office.
Not fixing our public schools, which get an “F” for funding. Not fixing health care, which has us at #1 in Medical bankruptcies & rural hospital closures per capita, which could easily be addressed by expanding medicaid and accepting the $1 BILLION of OUR OWN TAX DOLLARS earmarked for us every year.
Nope. Vouchers.
Lee wants to see MILLIONS of public school funds steered to private (often religious/Christian) schools. To get it passed, he had the help of Trump Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, who is on record saying her agenda is to “Advance God’s Kingdom” by raiding the public school war chest in America, and disgraced former speaker Glen Casada, who held the tie vote open for 35 minutes until he finally coerced Rep. Jason Zachary of Knoxville into flipping his vote and selling out Tennessee’s public schools.
To be clear, NONE of the rural reps wanted vouchers for their own districts. They only wanted to impose them on Nashville and Memphis and their more diverse student bodies… even though many admitted they wouldn’t want that done to their districts.
The rollout was equally problematic. The Tennessee Dept. of Education handed out an expensive no-bid contract for more than the amount that was allocated to the program, and Lee intentionally sped up the rollout an extra year for no apparent reason other than impatience. Many Republican representatives began to regret their votes for the bill, including TN GOP House Caucus leader Jeremy Faison.
There were also rumors of an FBI investigation, the offering of military promotions, the list goes on… which brings us to last night, when the program was finally declared “unconstitutional” by a court after Shelby & Davidson counties sued.
Another L for Lee.
It isn’t over. There will be challenges. But Lee’s losing streak in the courts continues, a natural extension of a radical right agenda in a GOP supermajority state where the only backstop the constitution has is the judicial branch. Thankfully, for now, it seems to be holding up.
HERE WERE SOME REACTIONS:
Great news. Let’s hope this is the beginning of the end for this failed policy. https://t.co/h7Sg5uakvH
— Mike Stewart (@RepMikeStewart) May 5, 2020
Vouchers = bad policy, bad politics, bad budgeting, and now bad law.
Hopefully, we can now re-direct the voucher funding to something constitutional that the state actually needs. https://t.co/z8dNuK5DSK
— Jeff Yarbro (@yarbro) May 5, 2020
#BREAKING: Chancellor Anne C. Martin has ruled that the Tennessee #ESA/school voucher law is UNCONSTITUTIONAL as it is “in violation of the Home Rule Amendment.”
— Senator Brenda Gilmore (@SenatorGilmore) May 5, 2020
This gem sums up the whole voucher charade. It’s simply a scheme to funnel ? away from public schools by Lee and Schwinn.
??? https://t.co/io7vHEeyQV— Amber Rountree (@Dr_Rountree) May 5, 2020
Of course, not everyone is thrilled. Senator Brian Kelsey makes it clear there will be appeals.
While Metro may have won the first round on ESAs, there are two rounds left to help our schools, parents, and students. Thankfully, Chancellor Martin is allowing us to appeal her order right away, and we will do so all the way to the state Supreme Court! @MariahTimms
— Brian Kelsey (@BrianKelsey) May 5, 2020