It should be titled "The Right to Work for Less" Amendment:

"Right to Work states have more workers who lack insurance and the laws undermine unions, and unions already have a small presence in Tennessee, with only 4.6% of workers belonging to a union or trade association, according to the brief published by the NCSL.

There is a great deal of money involved in the campaign for Amendment 1. Unions, including the Tennessee AFL-CIO, oppose it. Advocates include Haslam and Lee, both of whom are affiliated with family businesses that employ thousands of workers. The pair launched the ‘Vote Yes on 1’ campaign in August with a joint video.

The leadership council for ‘Vote Yes on 1’ includes U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, and the leaders of two large trade groups. "

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This is horrendous. There is only one reason the evening news doesn't lead with the trial of violent insurrectionists' attempt to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States in order to keep Trump in power...They are OK with it!

Senators were 'crying' and in 'shock' on January 6, an FBI agent testified at the Oath Keepers trial

More toons

Gov. Lee is a religious whacko. That's one of the nicer things people that know him say about him. Lee is hell bent on ruining our schools. Thank you, Kent Calfee, for standing up.

The House chairman of the Joint Government Operations Subcommittee on Tuesday criticized the authority of a state commission to overrule local school boards that turn down charter school applications.

Rep. Kent Calfee, a Kingston Republican who is stepping down from the Legislature this fall, spoke out against the ability of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to turn back the decisions of elected school boards. Calfee has three school boards in his East Tennessee district.

“They make decisions, they’re elected by the people, and I trust ’em. I don’t always agree with them, but I trust ’em,” Calfee said after the Tuesday meeting. “And I don’t like when an appointed committee can override our elected officials because, as Republicans, we’re supposed to favor the local people, and that’s just not doing that.”

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Lee looking for out-of-state troopers again

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A headline in the New York Times today read: “Factory Jobs Are Booming Like It’s the 1970s.” The story explained that more money in the hands of consumers thanks to federal stimulus spending, along with a new skepticism of stretched supply lines, has created a rebound in American manufacturing.

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This is the trial of the leader of armed forces who attempted to overthrow the United States Government at the direction of the losing candidate. You would think it would lead the news every night. Why isn't it?

Three of Rhodes’ Oath Keepers followers have pleaded guilty to the charge and are likely to testify against him at trial. Would you believe that this guy is a Yale Law School graduate?

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The centrality of this ethos of eliminationist violence—its celebration and cultivation, the training and preparation for it, the essential role it played in organizing events designed to provide opportunities for it directed against their concocted enemies—is what not only distinguishes the Proud Boys from ordinary street gangs and brawlers, but defines them unmistakably as neofascists—that is, a modern iteration of fascist organizing replicating its essential elements. As historian Robert O. Paxton puts it, a central “mobilizing passion” of fascism is “the beauty of violence and the efficacy of will, when they are devoted to the group's success.”

McInnes, Campbell explains, always put this ethos front and center of the Proud Boys’ raison d’etre: “Fighting solves everything,” he told his talk-show audience during its early stages of formation. “We need more violence from the Trump people.” He celebrated it on his show: “Remember violence? Remember how fun it was? Remember fighting? There’s no happier man than a guy that just won a fight.”

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More

Fast walkers had a 30% lower risk of developing dementia, a 25% lower risk of developing cancer or heart disease and a 35% overall lower risk of premature death.

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“The pattern of fraud that was used by Mr. Trump and the Trump organization for their own financial benefit was astounding,” James said.

Forced to testify in the investigation last month, Trump refused to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 440 times. In a civil trial, jurors can draw negative inferences from a witness taking the Fifth. Last month, James rejected an offer from the Trump Organization to settle the case.

The suit seeks to recover the profits from the scheme, to ban the Trumps from engaging in real estate transactions for five years, and to prohibit Trump or his children from running any business licensed in New York state. James also filed a criminal referral to federal prosecutors and a tax fraud referral to the IRS.

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The result, argue Blevins and others, is that what began as a democratic power experiment morphed into a monopoly. "What they don't think they can do is get competitive," Blevins told the assembled power companies. "So if you don't want to get competitive and you're a monopoly, what you do is lock your customers in forever." In his view, TVA abandoned its original mandate of providing cheap electricity and failed to adequately focus on environmental programs in favor of netting billions in annual revenues and paying out enormous executive bonuses.

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...three of the migrants Florida governor Ron DeSantis flew from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard filed a class action lawsuit against DeSantis, secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation Jared W. Purdue, the state of Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation, and others, for planning and executing “a premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme” to exploit vulnerable migrants—in this country legally—“for the sole purpose of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests.”

That and much more from Heather Cox Richardson:

Letters From an American

“The Cumberland Fossil Plant is one of the dirtiest power plants in the nation, and its retirement is long overdue. But instead of using the retirement as an opportunity to transition toward a clean energy future, TVA is planning to double-down on dirty fossil fuels of the past by replacing the aging plant with a new “natural gas” plant and pipeline,” said SELC director Amanda Garcia.

Our greatest opportunity is grid tied roof top solar, something that TVA hates because they can't charge us for it.

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Autumn 2022

Thursday

Sep 22 8:03 pm

“The Rule of Law means that the law treats each of us alike: there is not one rule for friends, another for foes; one rule for the powerful, another for the powerless; a rule for the rich, another for the poor; or different rules, depending upon one’s race or ethnicity or country of origin."

Merrick Garland is looking rather Presidential as he continues to investigate the Russian spy formerly known as President Trump. Lots happening:

Letter from an American

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Show Malcolm some love!

paypal.me/GypsyEyesMusic

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Billionaires, some of them...OK a few...well two so far, are trying to save Planet Earth and America by spending some of their money doing good and righteous things. These good deeds will fail.

Want to save the Earth? Found and support a national news network with the goal of telling the truth and calling out crooks and liars. You know, like CNN used to be before it was bought by a right-wing billionaire with the purpose of silencing critics of the thieves and traitors in the GOP.

Here's the inside baseball look at the destruction of journalism in America.

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more

On Democracy Day, newsrooms draw attention to a crisis in the U.S. system of government

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The Biden Administration was masterfully involved in negotiating the Railroad Worker's contract with the Railroads. It keeps goods and services flowing in our economy. But...

Democrats are the worst marketers. The worst! They are running around talking about how Biden worked for an equitable solution that works for Railroads Workers AND the Railroads. This is totally accurate but so misses the point. We are just over a month from Halloween and the start of the greatest driver of the American Economy. Democrats should be shouting at the top of their lungs...

"Biden Saved Christmas!"

Even in TN GOP corruption is being kicked down the road with unprecedented grants of delays in court trials of legislative corruption.

Nationally it is a malignant disease:

The turning of the courts into a tool for partisan advantage has been part of the Republican project since 1986, when Reagan’s attorney general Edwin Meese vowed to “institutionalize the Reagan revolution so it can’t be set aside no matter what happens in future presidential elections.” That partisan use of the courts inspired then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to help Trump replace about 30% of the federal bench and to swing the Supreme Court to the far right with three new justices.

This article by Heather Cox Richardson

What you are seeing

"If he had any good qualities, he kept them well hidden"

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A retired New York Police Department officer was sentenced on Thursday to a record-setting 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters.

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Two major operations are underway in America.

The Biden administration has brough out a plan to rebuild the American economy in a way to serve everyone who is not a billionaire. It tackles inflation and global warming at the same time. Economists love it. Fascist Trumpers hate it because it is good for ALL Americans.

Trump is being destroyed in court except where he has appointed an unqualified and corrupt judge, such as Judge Aileen Cannon, who refused (unheard of in major cases) to allow legions of judicial friend of the court briefs by learned judges and officials and ruled that the FBI could not continue to review vital top secret nuclear documents Trump stole to evaluate the damage done to American security interests. There is no reason for Trump to have stolen the documents except to sell them or allow them to be seen by Russian spies.

The damage Trump has done and Republicans continue to do to America is unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is that Republicans know it and continue to allow it.

Dr. Richardson lays it out better than I can:

Dr Heather Cox Richardson

Even more Toons at Juanita's Place