Democracy in Tennessee
- Thread starter RxCowboy
- Start date
Okstatekerr
Sheriff
Not saying that that whole deal was racially motivated but it's kind of suspect that of the 3 members that were up for expulsion the only one that didn't get expelled was the white woman.
I'll do bad takes for $500, Alex.
OSUinTX
Looks like you are away
Not saying one way or the other, but she stayed put by a single vote. Out of context though as I have no idea by what margin the others were rousted.
Stillwater Townie
Deputy
But what if she was black and didn't pick up the bullhorn?
There's no way to know for sure, but my guess is that she wouldn't have been voted out.
They didn't want to have to deal with a Karen
One of the two ousted members has already been appointed as the interim replacement for himself until the special election which he is definitely running in….maybe unopposed and definitely with his campaign coffers filled to the brim.
Same thing is going to happened with the other one shortly.
This nonsense power play of political theater isn’t going as planned…at all. In fact, it is backfiring atrociously.
Same thing is going to happened with the other one shortly.
This nonsense power play of political theater isn’t going as planned…at all. In fact, it is backfiring atrociously.
This isn't about nonsense power plays - unless one considers 3 members of the Legislature leading a mob to inturrupt business qualifies as one.
This is about deflecting that a transsexual with (apparently) full premeditation shot up a Christian school and killed 6. And yet, we still have not seen the manifesto - the "motive is unclear".
This is about deflecting that a transsexual with (apparently) full premeditation shot up a Christian school and killed 6. And yet, we still have not seen the manifesto - the "motive is unclear".
Thoughts and prayers, but gun rights are in the Constitution.
Am I doing it right?
I’m all for focusing on ways to stop gun violence, but your alarm and focus this time, amongst the 1000s previously, is that the shooter was transsexual seems really weird to me.
Exaggerate much?
First, I didn't say anything about "gun rights".
And I have no alarm. you are drawing conclusions from thin air. So, again, my POINT was (which you totally ignored and hijacked) was that (In my opinion) all this noise that even brought Kamala to the Tennessee capitol is just deflection away from the shooter. What is a little weird is how many shooters recently have identified as "non-binary". If it had been a right wing shooter that left a manifesto, I'm pretty sure it would have been pasted on every screen.
Inventing things in order to throw out personal insults is not a good look, JD. People can certainly have differing opinions, but using insults to make one's point simply doesn't get the job done.
1. I didn't insult you in any shape, way, manner or form. That's you looking to be a victim.
2. "The noise"...as you describe it....is about gun violence. Pretty dismissive characterization of debate/protests about a very serious subject, but oh well. "The noise" would be and has been and is being made regardless of the demographic of the shooter. We know this to be true, because what you call "noise" (focus and debate and demonstration regarding gun violence) has occurred in the past regardless of the demographic.
3. So the people making "noise" this time....the same people that have made the same "noise" in the past when the shooter wasn't transgender or non-binary...are doing it this time TOO and are suddenly now doing it to distract from the fact that they shooter has identified as "non-binary". That's a REALLY weird position to me. In fact, it reveals to me that the only person REALLY focused on the demographic of the shooter in this discussion board right now with regards to gun violence/gun control debate/discussions is you. The focus of the gun violence/gun control "noise" has always been focused on....the violence....the gunns....regardless of demographic of individual shooters.
You seem to think the gun violence "noise" would be going differently or would be non-existent if the shooter this time was a white, cisgender, male. How it would be different, hasn't been made clear by you. I think that is a patently absurd argument to make.
Once again, you make your argument by putting words in my mouth - that I never uttered. You tell me what I "seem to think", and then attack it. That is a Strawman, JD.
Shout from your pulpit about gun control all you want - but guns don't kill people - people kill people. All I want is a robust examination into the "why" - but it's all about the guns, apparently. We cannot take a look at what motivated the shooter - absolutely not. We cannot for one minute think that it could be policies and societal factors that have cause the spike in mass shootings. We cannot consider that a person on heavy testosterone treatments could be a danger - it's the guns. Just the guns.
If "your alarm and focus this time, amongst the 1000 previously" is not a gross exaggeration and an insult, I don't know what is. I have never ever been a victim or played the victim. There you go again - attacking the poster. I merely was pointing out that your penchant for condescending satire is a poor debate tool. It still is.
I'm here offering opinions in a forum. I have no problems with disagreement, and I don't erect strawmen to support my point.
Not a strawman. I quoted your statements.
An you DON'T know what an insult is if you think what you quoted IS an insult.
Your argument that the goal of the "noise" regarding this particular shooting is to distract from focusing on a supposedly valid concern of whether there is something particular with the allegedly non-binary shooter that makes them more prone to mass shootings when the "noise" has been made 1000s or times in prior mass shootings NOT involving allegedly non-binary shooters is frankly nothing short of ridiculously inane.
Such a proposition is LUDICROUS.
Last edited:
This trope is so poorly thought out, but it sounds catchy so it is repeated. Let’s try it with anything else that is regulated.
Cocaine doesn’t kill people - people kill people.
Pesticides don’t kill people - people kill people.
Lack of seatbelt safety doesn’t kill people - people kill people.
Semi trucks don’t kill people - people kill people.
Biological weapons don’t kill people - people kill people.
Regulations are put in place to manage public health, safety, and our rights. They are levers that lawmakers possess to mitigate the risks that some people (through carelessness or malice) can pose to others. If we could fix every issue by addressing the human factors alone, then—theoretically—we wouldn’t need restrictions on any of the things above.
My daughter works in the Texas legislature. Last night, they had families of the Uvalde victims speak during a committee hearing regarding raising the age requirement for buying a gun to 21. She called me in tears afterwards. It was heart-wrenching. Perhaps she should have told them, “Guns don’t kill people - people kill people.” I’m sure that would have been an epiphany to them.
Tennessee state GOP lawmaker resigns over ethics complaint
Tennessee state GOP lawmaker resigns over ethics complaint
State Rep. Scotty Campbell voted to expel the "Tennessee Three" about a week after an ethics committee found that he had violated workplace discrimination policy.
www.cbsnews.com
A state lawmaker in Tennessee resigned suddenly for an ethics violation that became public Thursday, two weeks after he joined fellow Republicans in expelling two Black Democratic legislators for protesting in support of gun control on the state House floor.
Rep. Scotty Campbell, vice chair of the House Republican Caucus, violated the Legislature's workplace discrimination and harassment policy. The brief Ethics Subcommittee findings document from late March did not provide specifics and said no more information would be released.
Campbell's resignation came hours after Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF-TV confronted him about sexual harassment allegations involving legislative interns.
Campbell declined to provide a detailed account of what happened. Asked by WTVF-TV on Thursday about the ethics panel's decision, Campbell said, "I had consensual, adult conversations with two adults off property."
"If I choose to talk to any intern in the future, it will be recorded," Campbell said.
About six hours after the broadcaster questioned him, the Mountain City lawmaker issued his resignation effective immediately, according to a letter to fellow legislators.
"I resign from the Tennessee House of Representatives. Effective immediately," the letter read.
WTVF-TV was first to report on the finding by the Ethics Subcommittee, which issued its decision in a document dated March 29 addressed to Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
"I can't determine exactly when we saw it (the letter)," Sexton told reporters Thursday. "But, the determination was the subcommittee. The speaker has no role in putting out any kind of corrective action. That comes from the subcommittee."
Campbell stayed in office following the ethics finding, and on April 6 voted to expel Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. They have since been reinstated. Campbell also voted to expel Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson, who was spared expulsion by one vote.
Jones, Pearson and Johnson were targeted for expulsion for the March 30 protest at the front of the House floor in which hundreds of demonstrators packed the Capitol to call for passage of gun-control measures.
Johnson called Campbell's ethics violation "horrendous" in a tweet Thursday afternoon.
"Yet if you talk without permission, you get expulsion resolutions," she added.
Campbell's departure comes in the waning hours of a monthslong legislative session. GOP legislative leaders are trying to finish their work by the end of the week.
In 2019, lawmakers were under pressure to expel former Republican Rep. David Byrd after he faced accusations of sexual misconduct dating to when he was a high school basketball coach three decades ago.
At the time, Sexton said it was up to Byrd to decide whether he should continue in the Legislature. Byrd decided not to run for reelection in 2022.
Former Democratic Rep. Rick Staples of Knoxville, meanwhile, resigned a leadership position in 2019 after the same ethics panel found he had violated the Legislature's sexual harassment policy.
Often, expulsions have centered on a criminal conviction. Tennessee's state law and Constitution disqualify convicted felons from holding public office.
State lawmakers last ousted a House member in 2016 when the chamber voted 70-2 to remove Republican Rep. Jeremy Durham after an attorney general's investigation detailed allegations of improper sexual contact with at least 22 women during his four years in office.
In 2017, a Republican House lawmaker resigned while facing allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with a woman at a legislative event. Before he stepped down, then-Rep. Mark Lovell denied the allegations. Instead, he said the elected position was more demanding than he expected and he needed time for his business interests and family.
Meanwhile, former Republican Rep. Glen Casada became speaker in 2019 and resigned after months on the job, amid revelations that he and his then-chief of staff had exchanged sexually explicit text messages about women years earlier. But he remained in his seat and won reelection as a lawmaker in 2020, then didn't seek reelection in 2022. The former chief of staff lost his legislative job in the texting scandal.
Perfectly fine with 21 age limit so long as that also raises selective arms service from 18 to 21.
This month alone, I’ve seen on videos, Sudanese kill each other with bats and rocks. An Australian teen sever the jugular vein of an opponent. A video of an American: shooting customers in a convenience store, shooting at her coworker at a residential retirement community, being stabbed at Coney Island by a group of teens, tased by cops and killed for being high, run over a cop in broad daylight in NYC, cornered by cops and decide to shoot it out at just 16 years old and another defend his property from 4 teens trying to steal it.
People are the problem. Guns make them more dangerous. Cars make them more dangerous. Knives make them more dangerous. Drugs make them more dangerous. Sticks and stones make them more dangerous.
Why can’t both sides be right?
Just browsing the regular sites for stats and this one seems ok. It’s a year old though.
Kind of eye opening. Goes from1970 to January 2022.
www.campussafetymagazine.com
This month alone, I’ve seen on videos, Sudanese kill each other with bats and rocks. An Australian teen sever the jugular vein of an opponent. A video of an American: shooting customers in a convenience store, shooting at her coworker at a residential retirement community, being stabbed at Coney Island by a group of teens, tased by cops and killed for being high, run over a cop in broad daylight in NYC, cornered by cops and decide to shoot it out at just 16 years old and another defend his property from 4 teens trying to steal it.
People are the problem. Guns make them more dangerous. Cars make them more dangerous. Knives make them more dangerous. Drugs make them more dangerous. Sticks and stones make them more dangerous.
Why can’t both sides be right?
Just browsing the regular sites for stats and this one seems ok. It’s a year old though.
Kind of eye opening. Goes from1970 to January 2022.
51 Years of Data: K-12 School Shooting Statistics Everyone Should Know
In 2018, there were 82 school shooting incidents, the highest there have ever been since 1970. Now, read the rest of the K-12 school shooting statistics.
www.campussafetymagazine.com
Former Maryland basketball star Len Bias famously died from a cocaine overdose after partying after being drafted in the NBA.
I worked for several years part-time at a small rural hospital in Oklahoma every other weekend. Part of my duties was to inventory the narcotics. We had a single bottle of pharmaceutical grade cocaine. Pharmaceutical grade cocaine is used, somewhat ironically, for ear nose and throat surgery. It was never opened because no one at the hospital did ENT surgery any more. It had been ordered when they had a local ENT surgeon who had either left or retired and it was no longer needed. It sat there until it expired. I inventoried it every other weekend. It killed no one. It harmed no one. No one was ever threatened by it. It collected dust.
Len Bias killed Len Bias with his cocaine use. Cocaine was the instrument of death, but Len Bias was the agent of death. Any other understanding is simply wrong. Untouched cocaine kills no one. The vast majority of guns fired are fired at inanimate objects at gun ranges. Comparatively few are fired at living beings, and even fewer make kill shots. But it is people who fire them. Just like that bottle of pharmaceutical grade cocaine, the guns that sit in my safe and in the drawer in my nightstand do not threaten anyone.
You tried for a reductio ad absurdum here, but failed miserably. In every case these are instruments of death in the hands of people who are the agents of death, just as guns are. A semi-truck doesn't kill anyone if it sits idling in a parking lot. Pesticides don't kill anything sitting in the container in the garage. Seat belts save lives when used properly by people. Biological weapons only kill when they are employed by people. We've already covered cocaine.
Guns are instruments of death. People are the killers or agents of death. You think about the military, police, government agencies, civilians who train at gun ranges and the vast majority of rounds fired are at inanimate objects. Comparatively few are fired at living beings and even fewer make kill shots. There have only been a couple of times in my life where I have fired a gun at a living being and I did not enjoy it at all and never will again except in self-defense. I keep my guns in two places, a safe and my nightstand. They threaten no one on a daily basis. They will never threaten anyone unless someone is threatening me. You cannot convince me that any law restricting me from having my guns will make anyone anywhere else any safer because it simply will not.
