I get why I am not beloved in Nashville as I call out their bullshit. I wrote my overwhelming sadness about my efforts to get along here in my blog piece, Dear Nashville. But truth like facts are things the South sweeps it under the rug along with their immense class based racist system that places people of color in a strange passive aggressive co-dependency that has worked for over a Century. By keeping people immersed in the past by not actively talking about the past and moving into the present it seems to have an amazing ability to freeze time. I have said repeatedly Nashville is a 1953 town trapped in a 2017 present.
Nashville the aka "city of now" struggles with what that means. It means actually 2008 as that is when the real estate market was at its peak and then crash crash boom boom. The media insatiably discusses all property deals with lavish attention when they occur, such as the headquarters of LifeWay (one of the top 10 employers in the area, yes a Christian publishing company) and The Tennessean/USA Today headquarters being sold for millions; however, when the deal recently fell through it was not even reported in its own paper. I read it in the business journal printed in really really small print.
The bragging about the May Hosiery company building sold that is next door and the announcement we were getting a major tenant that was the La Roux food emporium from NOLA within a year to 18 months. That year mark has hit and unless they pull permits and get moving the 18 month mark will pass. Odd given that they kicked out the artists renting space there and now have big banners out front notifying that leasing space available. Not a word updating anyone regarding that future. But meanwhile the adjacent buildings that have been empty and pending tenants still sit empty and the future apartment projects which kicked out all the lower income tenants are also finally being open to a hearing regarding the project. This is the second one now for the same space. And the neighborhood "activist" group does nothing to inform residents/businesses of any current plans. I find them culling multiple sources in order to know what is going on in my own neighborhood.
Then we have the city itself. The supposed liberal bastion in the sea of red. I will gracefully say yes and there are probably liberals in Memphis, Chattanooga and where there are people anywhere. I lived in Seattle and to say that it was a blue state ignored the eastern section of the state that was not. It is largely agrarian and so it is under populated and largely of migrants who may or may not be documented or even citizens so the heavily populated western half dominate the political arena until you actually go to the State legislature and find otherwise. That said, yes pot is legal and it is in Colorado a state with a very similar composition and yet it took much longer in California and that is a large state with really only two pocket of liberalism, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Again they are heavily populated and they suck the air out of the room to the point one realizes that some of the most powerful representatives in Congress are in fact California REPUBLICANS.
But Washington and California as well as Oregon and the Southwest corridor - including Arizona as well as the Sunbelt states are rising in population overall. After years of stagnant migration people are moving in the United States and they are moving there. Gee I thought Nashville was number one! No, Nashville did not even make the top 25 on the U.S. Census list. Shh don't tell anyone.
Who is moving here? Most of the transplants I meet are from within Tennessee itself as this is where there are jobs. The rest are from the 5 corners, Kentucky, Virginia and some from Indiana and Ohio. The reality is people go where there are jobs and there are plenty of low end service jobs and largely medical ones (until that crashingly ends with ACA) and some manufacturing ones just outside the Nashville corridor. If this city was so great we would have higher percentage of educated professionals, higher wages and well less bullshit. That is not going to happen. You come here and realize that regardless of what happens here it stays here and then is promptly overridden, ignored or made illegal thanks to the oppressive regressive State Legislature. This is a State that did not benefit the actual people of Tennessee with regards to the ACA but the business and colleges made out like gangbusters. Remember access is not the same as availability. So no we don't have any expansion of Medicaid and our health problems demonstrate that as there was only one provider on the Health.gov site as the other major providers, Blue Cross/Blue Shield pulled out, further limiting choices and availability.
We are one of the ground zero red states in school choice for quite some time. If it really worked again that number of educated would rise. Well we have graduated them from high schools but the ones who make it to college 40% are in need of remedial education. So instead of realizing we just pushed them out Tennessee has made those courses actual credit worthy classes that go towards their degree/certificate. So instead of 80 credits in college courses that expand skills or knowledge some of them are actually basic classes that are for reading/writing and math. And that does what exactly? It enables kids to get through college and falsely elevate the college "completion" rates. Gosh could I get the same towards a Ph.D? Well this is the State that rejected a woman's Master's Degree from Harvard so she could be a school principal. We could use her here as she is from here but how dare she go to the Ivy League! But this may also explain all these inflated Ph.d's I encounter here. They are like candies passed out to anyone stupid enough to spend the money on a degree where the salary rates are the lowest in the Country for educators. Sure makes sense. But then we also have Nashville School of the Law which only enables graduates to practice law in where? Tennessee. However, after 5 years they are welcome to try to pass the bar in other states. Good luck with that one. I would love to see those numbers of those who do.
So as we wait for more Mae Beavers exciting new religious oppressive discriminatory laws, while also pending the notion of running for Governor (I for one can't wait!!) the issue is not the law but how much it will cost the State. Not that the Supreme Court settled the matter and that is in fact utterly discriminatory, no it is about money. This is the point I have said repeatedly it is always about money here, anything or anyone else is collateral damage.
'Natural Marriage' bill could cost Tennessee over $9B
Kirk A. Bado , USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee 8:48 a.m. CT March 23, 2017
Legally recognizing only marriages between a man and a woman could cost the state over $9 billion, according to the Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act's extensive fiscal note.
Sponsored by Rep. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, and Sen. Mae Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet, the bill states that it is the policy of Tennessee to defend only “natural marriage between one man and one woman regardless of any court decision to the contrary.”
This is a direct contrast to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legally recognizes same-sex marriages across the nation.
“The bill will result in marriages of same-sex couples being null and void in Tennessee, whether married in Tennessee or in another state; and will also result in same-sex married couples being denied services offered to different-sex married couples,” the fiscal note concludes.
This means that over $7 billion in federal funds to TennCare could be jeopardized if the health service organization denies coverage to same-sex couples that would otherwise be eligible under federal law. Additionally, over $2 billion in funds from the Department of Human Services would also be at risk.
The $9 billion price tag does not include the decrease in state and local revenue on marriage licenses or loss of business, nor does it include legal fees that the state would incur from any lawsuits stemming from the new law.
"I'm a fiscal conservative, I want to fight for every single dollar we have up here, but I'm not going to be bullied by potential threats by the federal government," Pody said.
The Wilson County lawmakers are familiar with wading into contentious social issues.
Both Beavers and Pody were sponsors of the controversial “bathroom bill” which could have put over $1 billion in federal funds at risk as well. The bill, which would have required students in public schools to use the bathroom corresponding with the sex listed on their birth certificate, failed died for the session in a Senate committee on Wednesday.
Earlier this session, the lawmakers were both run out of their own news conference announcing their controversial bills by protesters. Beavers is also mulling a run for governor as a conservative option after the news surfaced that gubernatorial candidate Sen. Mark Green, R-Clarksville, is under strong consideration to be named secretary of the Army.
LGBT rights advocates have condemned the marriage bill as another example of the "slate of hate," the state legislature has proposed this session.
"We have watched again and again as lawmakers propose legislation that sends the clear message that LGBT Tennesseans are less than — that they and their families deserve fewer rights than others," Hedy Weinberg, the executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, said at a news conference earlier this month.
The bill will be heard in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee on Tuesday.
The bathroom bill that the Beav had tried to pass took a pisser and died. So come to Nashville and pee wherever you want! But get high, no.
House approves bill to block Nashville, Memphis marijuana laws
Joel Ebert , USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee March 23, 2017 |
Nashville’s Metro Council made history Tuesday by approving the city’s first measure to allow lesser civil penalties for people caught with small amounts of marijuana.
The House of Representatives approved a bill on Thursday that would nullify the partial marijuana decriminalization laws approved in Nashville and Memphis last year.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. William Lamberth, R-Cottontown, would repeal any local law that is inconsistent with penalties in state statues pertaining to drug control and narcotics. The bill would also prevent local governments from creating their own sanctions.
The legislation was introduced in response to ordinances passed by city councils in Memphis and Nashville.
The local laws gave police in Nashville and Memphis the discretion to hand out lighter civil citations for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Nashville's lighter civil citation had been issued only 39 times for possession of small amounts of marijuana since the law's adoption, according to Metro police spokesman Don Aaron, compared to 963 state citations.
Last year, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery said the Memphis and Nashville ordinances violated state statute.
The House voted 65-28 in favor of the bill.
Six Republicans, including House Speaker Beth Harwell, who is weighing a bid for governor, were among the dissenting votes.
Much of the chamber's debate centered on arguments about local control, with several Democrats saying the state should not be making decisions that overrule local governments.
Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, said during the 2017 legislative session there’s been an “onslaught” of efforts by lawmakers to dictate to local governments what they can do.
“The individuals that were elected by those cities, by those communities, by those voters know what’s best at the local level," he said.
Aside from the discussion about local control, others, including Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, and Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, said the matter should not be settled by lawmakers but in the court system.
Lamberth pushed back against many of the arguments he faced, saying his legislation was merely an effort to provide uniformity across the state while also working to curb any potential discrimination.
Lamberth has frequently argued that the local ordinances could let police officers to issue citations unfairly to certain people while letting others walk away.
"Lady justice is blind sir, and Nashville took that blind off and insisted that their officer choose on the side of the road what penalties should be meted out. That is a decision for a judge under our law and that ordinance set back criminal justice a hundred years," he said.
Although most Republicans voted in favor of the legislation, a few, including Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, openly criticized the measure. Faison, who has advocated for medical marijuana legislation, said because of inaction by federal and state lawmakers, local governments have been forced to make changes to marijuana laws.
"We have informed lawmakers that we are opposed to this piece of legislation and we are disappointed that the House voted to approve it today," said Sean Braisted, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's press secretary. "We will continue to monitor its progress in the state Senate."
Metro councilman Dave Rosenberg, who sponsored Nashville’s marijuana ordinance, characterized the chamber's action as an overreach and disregard of local authority.
“The majority in the Tennessee House abandoned the principles of limited government and local control and ignored the will of the people of Nashville, instead yielding to the archaic Nixon-era hysteria of a small group of legislators who live outside of Nashville.”
Rosenberg said there’s likely little Metro can do to keep the city’s decriminalization ordinance in tact if the state bill is signed into law by Haslam.
“Honestly, I think this is within the state’s rights to stomp on our throats like this, and there’s not a lot we can do about it.”
The Senate delayed voting on its version of the bill until Monday.
This is how it works in a deep red sea state. In Washington there were many cities that enacted laws regarding the use of Marijuana and that debate will always be an ongoing one until it won't. Either the lobbying groups that really run legislation fund an opposition issue or a victim group finds a way to coerce a Legislator, as in the case of MADD, don't drive drunk but high is not their area of import, this issue is now simply a matter of law. And other states are now finding out the same. Do I think pot will ever be legal in any red sea state? Youhavegottobefuckingkiddingme
I live in a bubble. I am exhausted trying and that I would have to become like these people in order to fit in clearly an idiot.
He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away. ~Raymond Hull
