According to a brand-new record from Oxfam, half the globe’s populace is dropping in the direction of severe hardship as a result of inequality, climbing inflation as well as COVID-19. The US-NATO proxy battle with Russia has actually sped up the disaster by interfering with supply chains as well as creating lacks of necessary items as well as solutions, while increasing the danger of nuclear battle.
Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, talks throughout a dispute on college coupon regulations Wednesday, Might 1, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Mass demos are emerging all over the world in action to the worldwide elites’ drive to enforce the complete problem of the capitalist situation on the functioning course. The main action is to scapegoat as well as damn those made penniless by the money-mad gentility as well as the facility events that do its bidding process. One of the most susceptible as well as poverty-stricken areas of the functioning course—immigrants getting away imperialist-backed tyrannies as well as the scaries of battle, the jobless, the homeless—are amongst the very first to be targeted for state-sanctioned suppression.
This is the context in which Tennessee, where one in 6 citizens resides in hardship, made being homeless prohibited recently. On the eve of the flow of the costs that outlaws the state’s most susceptible citizens, fascism raised its head when State Legislator Frank S. Niceley, a Republican politician, mentioned Adolf Hitler as an instance of expect the unhoused, that currently encounter penalties, confiscation of their valuables as well as prison time for resting outdoors.
Throughout his April 13 speech on the Tennessee Us senate flooring, Perfectly introduced that he was mosting likely to provide his associates “a little background on being homeless.” He continued thusly:
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In 19 as well as 10, Hitler made a decision to survive on the roads for some time. So for 2 years, Hitler survived the roads as well as exercised his oratory as well as his body movement as well as just how to get in touch with the masses, and afterwards took place to lead a life that’s obtained him right into background publications.
The legislator after that tried to stabilize his Hitler mythos with an artless nod to background by including:
So, a great deal of these individuals—it’s not a stumbling block. They can appear of this, these homeless camps, as well as lead an efficient life. Or in Hitler’s situation, an extremely ineffective life.
While the legislator’s comments made nationwide information, Tennessee legislators have actually been just about quiet on Perfectly’s fascistic moralizing. Autonomous State Agent Gloria Johnson seems the only lawmaker to speak up concerning the event. A lot more worried with the optics of open appreciation for Hitler by a state legislator than the specter of fascism towering above the state Capitol, Rep. Johnson tweeted: “I’m mosting likely to need to say sorry to deep space for this man … not a solitary day passes without TN GOP shaming the heck out of our state.”
The political pearl grasping of Johnson symbolizes the Autonomous action to fascist unsupported claims as well as physical violence in current United States background. While fanning the fires of identification national politics with one hand, the Democrats cover their eyes with the various other for worry of informing the masses as well as threatening the social as well as political order that produces being homeless as well as allows the development of fascism.
The Tennessee press was in a similar way tongue-tied. Neighborhood tv information networks covered the tale in big city locations, however Gannett-owned papers in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville as well as Chattanooga have actually not reported on Legislator Perfectly’s speech.
Wednesday’s remarks were not Legislator Perfectly’s very first public conjuration of the “favorable” tradition of fascists as well as counterrevolutionaries.
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Last October, after Tennessee granted Ford Electric motor Business a $900 million motivation to develop an electrical auto plant near Memphis, the legislator crowed: “The Civil Battle is still going, the South is winning.” Perfectly particularly referenced the state’s background of “best to function legislations” as well as reduced earnings, while unconditionally concealing Tennessee’s ignominious past as component of the slave-owners’ disobedience.
The legislator’s “background lesson” is the 2nd olive branch to fascism by conservative extremists in Tennessee this year. In January, Art Spiegelman’s visuals unique concerning the Holocaust was eliminated from the 8th quality educational program in an institution area in East Tennessee. The college board hypocritically mentioned nakedness as well as specific scenes of physical violence as the factor for eliminating guide. However this was a clear pretense.
The board enforced the order in infraction of its very own treatments, which state that a publication cannot be eliminated from the educational program till a panel has actually examined its web content. Rather, the board got rid of guide after one college board participant, recognized for his severe conservative liberal sights on education and learning, brought guide to the board’s interest.
Tennessee’s brand-new anti-homeless legislation, SB 1610, broadens the stipulations of a previous legislation restricting outdoor camping on state-owned residential property to enforce a restriction on outdoor camping on all public residential property. The modified legislation makes outdoor camping on public residential property an offense culpable by a $50 penalty, social work as well as prison.
The large bulk of the unhoused are entrusted no option however to damage the legislation. They are bad guys through their absence of real estate.
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In a meeting with a neighborhood information electrical outlet, the supervisor of Homeless as well as Helpful Real Estate in Chattanooga, Sam Wolfe, claimed: “If each and every single individual experiencing being homeless in our area appeared to sanctuaries… the truth is that there’s not nearly enough areas for them.”
Plainly, the objective of the costs is at fault the homeless for their circumstances instead of the capitalist system, which approves half a million Americans living without a roofing over their heads as the expense of operating.
Scapegoating the susceptible is a trademark of a culture in sheer decrease, as exhibited by the increase of fascism in Germany throughout the financial anxiety of the 1930s as well as its homicidal mistreatment of the Jews. Regulations like SB1610 remember the Nazi regulations that removed Jews of German citizenship as well as proclaimed them a different as well as substandard race. By outlawing the homeless, Tennessee legislators are unconditionally branding them as “untermenschen,” a substandard type as well as public hazard finest delegated the authorities to deal with.
Such steps show the anxiety of a gentility that feels itself besieged by an increasing trend of functioning course resistance. It has absolutely nothing to provide in action to needs for suitable earnings, living as well as functioning problems. It sets out, incorporating suppression with ideological backwardness as well as dirt.
The functioning course is the mass social pressure that can quit fascism in its tracks by beginning purposely when traveling of socialist transformation.
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Employees of all races, sexes, as well as races should require an end to battle, an end to the pandemic, as well as an end to problems that enable any type of male, female or kid to live without sanctuary.
The Tennessee Titans have question marks at multiple position groups on defense ahead of the 2024 season, and the defensive line is one of them.
Not only did Tennessee lose Denico Autry, who was their best pass-rusher last season, they didn’t adequately replace him, whether that be with a draft pick or a free-agent signing.
Tennessee did sign Sebastian Joseph-Day and draft T’Vondre Sweat to help Jeffery Simmons out, but they are interior defenders, not edge rushers.
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Adding to that, neither one is guaranteed to make a big impact. Joseph-Day is on his fourth team in six seasons and Sweat is a total wild card because he’s a rookie.
Along the edge, the Titans have Harold Landry and Arden Key, but the depth behind those two is non-existent, barring someone coming out of nowhere to step up. Key is best suited as a rotational player, also.
As a result of all the question marks, Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson ranked the Titans’ defensive line as the No. 21 unit in the NFL, which actually isn’t terrible considering the circumstances.
Here’s what he wrote:
Jeffery Simmons is an outstanding player on the interior, but he lacks the help around him. Arden Key and Harold Landry are solid players who will rack up pressures but aren’t true difference-makers, each posting a PFF grade under 70.0 in 2023.
Mammoth rookie defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat is an exciting prospect, as his tape flashes special potential, but he is still an unknown.
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The good news is, the Titans have ample cap space to add upfront if they want (they should).
Unfortunately, the interior defensive line market is extremely thin, as you’d expect at this time of year. However, there are still some good edge rushers out there, like Emmanuel Ogbah, Yannick Ngakoue and Carl Lawson.
Any of those three would be a welcomed addition and an upgrade for Tennessee.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Applications are now open for a Tennessee grant designed to improve the safety of places of worship across the state. The Houses of Worship State Security Grant provides up to $100,000 for churches, synagogues, mosques, or temples to hire security personnel.
Michael Mann, a security consultant based in Middle Tennessee, is actively assisting local churches in applying for these funds. Mann, who also manages security at Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, has already answered several emails from local churches seeking guidance on the application process.
“Houses of worship — very specifically on Sundays, Wednesdays, and then some other days during the week — house a lot of people, so it’s a highly-occupied facility,” Mann said. “We do see crime, like vandalism, we see arson, we see domestic disputes, and unfortunately, sometimes there are active assailant events.”
The grant aims to help houses of worship hire off-duty police officers or security guards through licensed security services in Tennessee. Mann said he has helped at least 15 churches navigate the application process for a similar federal grant.
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“The application specifically addresses or asks questions about any threats that your church or house of worship has had in the past two years,” Mann said. “Specifically, it’s going to ask things like terrorist attacks, violent crimes, manmade or natural disasters, etcetera. It’s going to also ask about vulnerabilities, and then the consequences of those vulnerabilities.”
Incidents such as a threatening phone call that led to the evacuation of a church near Chattanooga last weekend underscore the importance of these security measures. In December, Congregation Micah in Brentwood reported a threat emailed to them and other Jewish organizations to Metro Police.
“This kind of got big for us about 10 years ago, for churches. But the synagogues and Jewish houses of worship have been considering this for a while,” Mann said.
Mann said that places of worship do not have to wait for grant funds to take preventative actions.
“The ability for someone to see that you have some sort of security presence – it doesn’t have to be in uniform. It can be somebody in plainclothes,” Mann said, adding, “That is the number one deterrent.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s top election office has sent letters to more than 14,000 registered voters asking them to prove their citizenship, a move that alarmed voting rights advocates as possible intimidation.
The letters, dated June 13, warned that it is illegal in Tennessee for noncitizens to vote and provided instructions on how to update voter information. The list was developed after comparing voter rolls with data from the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security, said Doug Kufner, spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, in a statement Tuesday.
Kufner described the data from the state’s homeland security department as a “snapshot” of a person’s first interaction with that agency. Some may not have been U.S. citizens when they obtained a driver’s license or ID card but have since been naturalized and “likely did not update their records,” he said.
“Accurate voter rolls are a vital component to ensuring election integrity, and Tennessee law makes it clear that only eligible voters are allowed to participate in Tennessee elections,” Kufner said.
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The letter does not, however, reveal what would happen to those who do not update their records — including whether people who fail to respond will be purged from the voter rolls. Kufner did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on if voters were at risk of being removed.
Instead, the letter contains warnings that illegal voting is a felony and carries penalties of up to two years in prison.
Voting rights advocates began raising the alarm after photos of the letter started circulating on social media. Democrats have long criticized the Secretary of State’s office for its stances on voting issues in the Republican-dominant state.
“The fact legal citizens of the United States and residents of Tennessee are being accused of not being eligible to vote is an affront to democracy,” said state Rep. Jason Powell, a Democrat from Nashville, in a statement. “These fine Tennesseans are being burdened with re-proving their own voter eligibility and threatened with imprisonment in a scare tactic reminiscent of Jim Crow laws.”
Powel and fellow Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons on Tuesday urged Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate the issue.
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Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat from Knoxville, said she was informed that one of the letter recipients included a “respected scientist in Oak Ridge” who had become a citizen and registered to vote in 2022.
“Maybe the state should verify citizenship with the federal government before sending threatening/intimidating letters to new citizens,” Johnson posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Other leaders encouraged those who received a letter to reach out to the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee for possible legal resources.
The effort bears some resemblance to the rollout of a sweeping Texas voting law passed in 2021, in which thousands of Texans — including some U.S. citizens — received letters saying they have been flagged as potential noncitizens who could be kicked off voting rolls.
Texas officials had just settled a lawsuit in 2019 after a prior search for ineligible voters flagged nearly 100,000 registered voters but wrongly captured naturalized citizens. A federal judge who halted the search the month after it began noted that only about 80 people to that point had been identified as potentially ineligible to vote.
