Health Board Hijinks
A couple of County Commissioners have taken the position favored by County Mayor Glenn Jacobs that is less “Republican” than “Libertarian.” Commissioners Justin Biggs and Kyle Ward are pushing along a resolution that backs up some of the regulations passed by the Knox County Board of Health, including the mandatory wearing of masks and the 11 p.m. closing time for establishments selling alcohol. Just how meaningful all of it is remains to be seen. Democrats and leftists don’t occupy the moral high ground because Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon did absolutely nothing to enforce the law as hundreds of UT students congregated at bars along the Strip and inside the Old City. That isn’t a rumor or speculation on my part; there was a gallery of 26 pictures showing the vibrant night life enjoyed by mainly UT students after the 10 p.m. curfew, all happening inside the city limits of Knoxville.
The City of Knoxville did not enforce the 10 p.m. closing time, although Kincannon has lately said the 11 p.m. closing time will be enforced. Kincannon had chastised Glenn Jacobs for pushing the reopening of businesses, saying there was no prize for being the first to open. Well, Indya, there probably isn’t a prize for allowing UT students to run around the Strip and in the Old City without socially distancing and not wearing masks. Yet Democrats have tried to gasp in horror Bill Hagerty, the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, has been spotted on a boat without wearing a mask! Egad! Look up the series of 26 pictures taken by Knoxville News-Sentinel photographers, every one taken after the 10 p.m. curfew imposed by the Knox County Board of Health. Not a mask in sight, nor does anyone seem to be socially distancing, but Bill Hagerty was spotted on a boat with like four other people not wearing a mask. Now Indya says she and the city folks will enforce the 11 p.m. closing time. Maybe it was the hour difference; maybe finally Nanny Indya thinks all good boys and girls ought to be in bed after 11 p.m.
The resolution sponsored by Commissioners Biggs and Ward would follow the guidelines established by the State of Tennessee. The fact Indya Kincannon and the City of Knoxville never bothered to enforce the 10 p.m. curfew or seemed to care whether hundreds of students wore masks or socially distanced themselves certainly doesn’t impede the progress of the Biggs-Ward Resolution. If it passes, Indya is as much responsible as anyone.
All those establishments selling on-premises alcohol, as far as I know, are located within the limits of the City of Knoxville. If Mayor Kincannon and her crowd, or the city council, aren’t going to enforce the law, what difference does it make if the county commissioners adopt the Tennessee Pledge? Again, it never would have happened if Kincannon and her administration had enforced the restrictions approved by the health department in the first place.
RBG’s Last Wish
One of the most preposterous things I’ve seen in my lifetime is the mainstream media and Democrats whining the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s last wish was to be replaced by someone nominated by a president other than Donald Trump.
The mainstream media, which is largely an auxiliary of the Democratic Party, has lavished praise upon RBG as if she were some sort of religious icon, if the left actually believed in religion. Let me amend that statement; the left does seem to believe in religion, just not the Christian religion. Certainly, the media is losing its collective mind with USA Today referring to the late justice as a “superhero.”
That notion we should delay the appointment of a justice simply because it was Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s last wish borders on insanity. It’s merely the media and Democrats hoping to avoid another Supreme Court justice appointed by President Donald Trump. The Left in America is doing its best to try and erase history and this country, but here are some facts you might like to know. There are 29 instances in American history when there has been a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court during an election year. Fully 22 different presidents have nominated someone to fill the vacancies caused by death or resignation by justices of the Supreme Court, which occurred either prior to the election or in the lame duck period following the election. Nineteen of the 22 presidents who nominated a successor did so when their political party controlled the United States Senate. All but one were confirmed, the exception being President Lyndon Johnson’s nomination of Justice Abe Fortas to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1968. Democrats enjoyed a healthy majority in the Senate and there was a bipartisan call to delay a vote. The last president to nominate someone to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court while running for reelection was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. Democrats significantly outnumbered Republicans in the Senate and it took the Senate only 11 days to report the nomination of Frank Murphy and confirm him.
Woodrow Wilson got two nominees confirmed to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court in 1916, a year in which he was running for reelection. Both John Clarke and Louis Brandeis were confirmed by a Senate controlled by Democrats. Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were all Democrats.
Of course that fact — or any other fact for that matter — makes little difference to the left or the leftist news media. The important thing is pushing the narrative and it is no surprise the New York Times and the Washington Post are pushing the silly idea, along with the South China Morning Post, which published an editorial crying the dying wish of Ginsburg just had to be granted.
Would the media and the Democrats respect a passing conservative justice’s last wish to be replaced by someone nominated by a conservative president? Of course not.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was adored by leftists not because she was a superlative justice of the Supreme Court, but rather because she believed the U. S. Supreme Court was another legislative body to rubber stamp a left wing agenda. Ginsburg was also worshipped by the left for openly criticizing candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Supreme Court justices have traditionally never involved themselves in elections or politics.
Leftists seem to have forgotten their horror when Justice Ginsburg joined with the five conservative justices in decisions which allowed the Trump administration to speed up the deportation of those seeking asylum in the United States, as well as that allowing the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Leftists just about had conniption fits about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline decision because it was to run underneath the Appalachian Trail. Of course that was yesterday and this is today and things have changed. Now the dear, departed Ruth is a Goddess of Liberalism and perfect in every way.
Ginsburg had plenty of time to step down from the high court during the administration of Barack Obama, but she intended to let President Hillary Clinton appoint her successor. The kink in that particular plan was there was no President Hillary Clinton. The “Notorious R.B.G.” notoriously miscalculated, which was nobody’s fault but her own.
Protesters In Portland Threaten Home Owners For Flying Flag
The New York Times just reported a story telling how Terrance Moses, a Black man, witnessed protesters marched through his ordinarily quiet residential street when the yelling and screaming started. The offensive object: an American flag. The protesters demanded the home owner take down the flag, some of them screaming, “How dare you fly the American flag?” That quote was from Mr. Moses who repeated it to the Times reporter. More chilling was what Terrance Moses said next: “They said take it down. They wouldn’t leave. They said they’re going to come back and burn the house down.”
Terrance Moses was one of the neighbors who gathered to block the protesters and told them to leave. The head of a non-profit, which provides help and support to homeless folks, Mr. Moses said, “We don’t go around terrorizing folks to try and force them to do something they don’t want to do. I’m a veteran. I’m for these liberties.”
It’s easy to see why these people hate the word “patriotism.”
There are also reports it took police an hour and a half to respond to calls about a boy being attacked by a knife-wielding assailant. Wonder why? Law enforcement hasn’t been allowed to do its job in Portland and cops have taken repeated verbal abuse from officials who have promoted an agenda allowing rioters to do as they please.
TN House Majority Leader Challenged
William Lamberth, Majority Leader in the Tennessee House of Representatives, is being challenged by Rep. Andrew Farmer of Sevierville. The Republican Caucus in the House will elect the Majority Leader sometime after the fall elections. The Republicans are expected to have a large majority in the House and both Lamberth and Farmer have been members since winning election in 2012. Both are also attorneys.
