Below is video of Sevier County Commissioner Warren Hurst’s homophobic, bigoted outburst at their meeting Monday night. Only one person got up and left. The rest laughed.
Homophobia aside, it’s amazing that a white man sitting on a panel of white men can feel like white men are losing rights.
Hurst stood by his words afterwards, according to WLVT. Sevier County is where Dolly Parton hails from.
NEW: “We got a QUEER running for President… the white man has very few rights.”
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-19-at-9.00.37-AM.png5821040Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-19 14:50:402019-09-19 14:50:40VIDEO: Promise Sawyers of Nashville Proudly Rocks Her Afro In the Face of Bullying | TN Holler
“We appreciate the support. We’re in it for the long haul. We’re gonna fight the good fight.”
Striking UAW Local 1853 workers in Spring Hill, TN say the middle class is disappearing, it’s the haves and have-nots… and GM wants to keep it that way.
Yesterday some were arrested on the picket lines for “disorderly conduct”, including UAW president Tim Stannard. They are out of jail, but the DA says he will be pressing charges.
Meanwhile GM has CUT OFF the health benefits of the striking workers, another reminder that health care should be a RIGHT in this country, not a privilege bestowed upon us by the wealthy who can dangle our lives in front of us.
Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles was out there saying he wants their health coverage restored, but it’s worth remembering Ogles was a leader of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-backed organization that helped block Medicaid expansion in Tennessee, keeping 300,000 without coverage. Suddenly he cares about folks being able to see doctors?
About Maury mayor @AndyOgles — he’s the former state director for Americans For Prosperity, Koch-backed org that helped block Medicaid expansion: https://t.co/oYiL2EHon1
We’re #1 in medical bankruptcies & rural hospital closures. He suddenly cares if folks have health coverage? https://t.co/Qw6Grrb8OU
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-17-at-9.05.43-AM.png6521166Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-19 14:15:102019-09-19 14:15:10VIDEO: From the Front Lines of the UAW Strike In Spring Hill
A member of the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee and elected official in East Tennessee has resigned after a hate speech-filled video of he and his wife aired on YouTube. (Warning: This video contains obscenities.)
Bill Fannon, mayor of Tazewell in East Tennessee, resigned from his District 8 seat following posting of the video which showed him evicting tenants from an apartment owned by the Fannons. The video is filled with obscene language and features Fannon and his wife, Kat, insulting and threatening teenage renters and their mother.
“Wait till the cops get here and I’m going to let him know about you and then I’m going to knock your teeth into the back of your g–damn head,” Fannon says to one of his tenants, a 17-year-old boy.
His wife, Kat Fannon, calls the boy a “queer” and says “I wouldn’t touch you: I might get something,” while calling a young woman shown in the video a “whore” and “poor trash.”
In the two minute video, the Fannons say the teens didn’t pay rent, while the renters in turn say the couple didn’t make necessary repairs to the property.
Usually, in the circumstance that a tenant hasn’t paid their rent, they are issued a Late Rent Notice (see a template at https://www.american-apartment-owners-association.org/property-management/landlord-forms/notice-to-pay-rent-or-quit/) which advises them that they are in violation of the rental agreement. This means the tenant has two choices; either pay the past due amount of rent by a specific date or vacate the premises and surrender possession of the rental.
Another TNDP Executive Committeenmember, Robin Smith, former mayor of Decherd and committee member from District 16, resigned after being indicted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on charges he allegedly stole money from misdemeanor probationers under his supervision and used it for his own use.
Members of the TNDP Executive Committee said they were notified about both Smith’s and Fannon’s resignations via e-mail Sept. 9.
The resignations bring the total number of vacancies on the TNDP Executive Committee to eight.
Robin Smith, former Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee Member and former mayor of Decherd was indicted by the TBI.
(Editor’s note: Tennessee Holler co-founder, Holly McCall, ran against Mary Mancini for chair in January 2019.)
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Federal court just BLOCKED Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s “SCHEME” to criminalize voter registration after the Tennessee Black Voter Project registered 90,000. Tequila Johnson of The Equity Alliance tells us they were told to turn in every form, and she wasn’t allowed to testify.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-16-at-11.18.12-AM.png510906Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-16 16:49:162019-09-16 16:49:16VIDEO: Tequila Johnson On Sec. Hargett's Voter Reg Criminalization Bill
Watch Zulfat Suara react to her history-making win, saying she’s proud of her diverse support-base which she takes as a mandate for the council to help create a “NASHVILLE FOR ALL”.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-13-at-7.06.44-AM.png6281110Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-13 12:11:032019-09-13 12:11:03NEW VIDEO: "FOUR YEARS OF Z!" Nashville Elects First Muslim Zulfat Suara, Makes History
Today a federal court has blocked the unprecedented Tennessee law passed this past session that restricts voter registration drives, subjecting people to unprecedented civil and even criminal penalties simply for turning in insufficient voter registration forms.
The bill was pushed through the Tennessee legislature by Secretary of State Tre Hargett after the Tennessee Black Voter Project registered over 90,000 people in 2018.
A judge had just struck down Hargett’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by voter registration groups earlier this week, undressing the bill as a naked attempt to suppress the vote. READ OUR POST about that HERE, where we went into the back story of the ugly law. In that ruling, Judge Trauger echoed many of the criticisms levied against the bill when it was being debated in the legislature.
This was a big win for the voting rights groups.
BREAKING: Federal court has blocked #TN law restricting voter registration drives. Huge victory for our clients and huge thanks to this amazing team of lawyers @CampaignLegal@aclutn@ACLU@fairelections
Here’s the federal court’s opinion in its entirety. A win for democracy. Hopefully it will hold.
“[T]hat voting is the ‘political right . . . preservative of all rights,’ is not just a comforting aphorism; it reflects … that, in the American system of governance, every decision to grant, preserve, or take away a right can be traced … back to an election.”
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/img_5392.png10722048Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-12 15:24:342019-09-12 15:24:34BLOCKED! Sec. Hargett's Voter Registration Criminalization Bill Blocked By Federal Court
“You’ve been able to effectively train your people to believe I don’t care about myself, my baby, my community, and as long as you can keep that going there will never be an opportunity for white Tennesseans to believe they have something in common with black Tennesseans.”
And below you can watch Cherisse read the full testimony she tried to give during the #TNAbortionBan Senate committee hearings before Senator Mike Bell cut her off. He let a man who said he “remembers being born” go on much longer.
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-4.03.17-PM.png5861038Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-10 21:06:082019-09-10 22:13:03VIDEO: Cherisse Scott Fires Back At Senator Kerry Roberts
In the aftermath of his opposition to higher education becoming national news, Senator Kerry Roberts called his heated, triggered rant a “joke” and “hyperbole”… but here’s his pal Senator Mark Pody saying the same things DURING A DEBATE.
Sure seems to be what they actually believe. Why run from it?
FLASHBACK: Watch TN GOP Senator @mark_pody tell the same “joke” about abolishing state-backed higher education during his campaign against @ElectMaryAlice.
Is this “hyperbole” too, @kerryeroberts? Sure seems to be what y’all believe. Why lie??
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-11.27.06-AM.png456810Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-10 16:28:342019-09-10 16:28:34FLASHBACK: Senator Pody Also Wondered If We Should Do Away With State-Backed Higher Ed
Watch a group of immigrants in Nashville turn out to vote for immigrants running for office in Nashville.
Election Day is September 12th!
https://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-10.18.18-AM.png472830Staffhttps://tnholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TN-Hollerv5-300x172.pngStaff2019-09-10 16:01:152019-09-10 16:01:15VIDEO: "HATE WILL NEVER WIN" - TIRRC Votes Day of Action On Immigration