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News from Tennessee:

At least 27 members of Nashville’s 40-seat Metro Council said they plan to reappoint expelled former Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and send him back to the Tennessee House of Representatives.

That would give him more than the simple majority he would need to reclaim his seat.

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Love this: "As Elie Mystal, the justice reporter for The Nation magazine put it, “people have learned more today about what Critical Race Theory is and what it describes than they will ever learn in any book banned by a Republican legislature.”

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While I strongly and consistently agree with the essence of where you are generally coming from, I am finally going to say that while often brilliant and, in turn, amusing and “feel good” entertaining, some of what you offer weakens your overall position. You are a great firebrand of the enlightened side of the struggle raging in America today, I definitely give you that, and that’s why I subscribe and that’s why I know it would be a treat to meet and converse in person with you, but I humbly submit that you could dial some of your rhetoric down a bit to better and broader effect. Bottom line, just for instance, your characterization of a lot of uneducated white Southerners doesn’t really help or strengthen your point. Try toning that stuff down a bit….imho.

I’ve just read Heather’s latest Letter From An American, and Robert Hubbell’s abbreviated Today’s Edition and all three of you are, as ever, brilliantly right on target, but with all due respect, their commentary is ultimately more effective.

IMHO.

One last thing, I don’t have words enough to sufficiently or highly enough recommend a documentary film that has just been made available for streaming; it’s called Refuge and it’s on Amazon Prime and elsewhere. Incredible story, beautifully told, of how a hard core white nationalist, meth-addicted, KKK southerner got turned around and has rededicated his life to helping his former peers, um, see the Light. I cannot possibly recommend this highly enough.

Anyway, I greatly admire what you are doing and I know that it would be WAY engaging to meet and hang with you, but I do think that at this hopefully pivotal time in our national experiment you might strategically dial down some of your messaging just a bit. Thanks…….and here’s hoping that you are doing OK given your recent great loss.

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Apr 7, 2023·edited Apr 7, 2023Author

Peter: those comments are based on several years around enough of them that I think I have a "statistically-valid sample." Come over here and meet a few! You'll be amazed that they really are like that. :-)

PS - the opportunity to meet Robert and me personally is going to happen this summer. More info when things are firmed up.

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TC, yes, you are a brilliant firebrand! Everything you said was on the money. I am a southern raised girl who spent about 35 in northwest Ohio and southern Michigan. I learned during that time that hate and prejudice abounds EVERYWHERE! There's quite a lot of darkness in the hearts of folks in the very, very white states like Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, etc. Those people think they are not prejudiced because they have virtually no interaction with anyone who isn't like them.

I agree with all that you wrote. I have lived among those folks my entire life. The actions of the Tennessee legislators showed everyone so much more about themselves than about the three protesting representatives. The legislators acted the way they did because they rigged the election system and they could. In a previous century, if they had cheated like this at cards, somebody would've shot them!

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Thanks much Jenn. You're entirely right about the North. It's why the South was able to "win" after the war.

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Thanks for your response. Listen, I know that you are right in that regard, I really do….I’ve “been there” and known more than a few. I fully take your point. But I also stick by my humble, strategic suggestion. I love and am intrigued by the p.s. BTW, the only reason I’m back on here now was that I felt like I should add (if possible) the word “brilliant” in front of my use of “firebrand” so it’s nice to find this from you. Do check out that film……just amazing!

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They won't let me give you 100 likes for "brilliant firebrand" Peter, but thanks very much.

I think, unlike Robert (who I know - we're neighbors it turns out, sorta (2 miles away) - and perhaps HCR, I think I have had more direct experience with the Southern "lumpenproletariat" than they have.

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TC has the balls to say what so many won’t. I was a Southern raised girl, and have lived in the South all of my life, but having worked in places that were more “civilized.” What he says is more true than any want to admit or say out loud. In my own family, the males are ignorant but not stupid, for the most part; of course, it’s more complicated than that, but the entitlement of fools is a way of life. I have made excuses all my life and I’m sick of it. Call out the ingrained ignorance, even if you love them. Especially if you love them. And don’t forget the “Christians,” that’s where the white Jesus rules…

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Apr 7, 2023Liked by TCinLA

I appreciate you and your support of TC’s calling out the truth. His words are pink tea compared to what was swirling in the minds of the white power mongers in the Tennessee legislature. Honestly, I don’t believe most Americans understand Southern coded language.

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I'm also a white female in the south (VA south enough? Under Youngkin it sure seems like it should be) but I too would caution against painting in too broad strokes. Many of my white male family and friends are at least as liberal as Mr. TC, and many are quite exceptionally intelligent.

I'd suggest the sample from the enlisted troops may have been skewed as to educational level, original intellectual capacity, and thus opportunity. The sample from the news is often skewed by who gets attention which means the privileged and leadership.

None of that is to say that educational deficiencies and deliberate distortions, and carefully nurtured cultural resentments and perceived competitions haven't resulted in a green house for racist and other repulsive views, but in many places if gerrymandering, hand selected election officials, ID laws and other hurdles to truer democracy can be removed, we would probably discover we had more white male allies than we can currently detect.

There are certainly some pretty awful and intensely red areas in various northern states as well. We have to focus on the underlying causes, the mechanics, and common causes.

All that said, I acknowledge I am in a particularly blue region of VA and thus my own anecdotal evidence is also skewed.

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If the South ever got truly liberated, if the skewed systems of politics, education and commerce were ever even slightly unskewed, what I call The Other South would definitely emerge. The "Official South" has known that since 1865 - since before the civil war - which is why they have skewed things as they have. Founding the KKK in 1866 wasn't an act of strength; it was an act of desperation on the part of those who knew they were losing. Unfortunately, those in the North didn't care, and Northern racism allowed them to ultimately abandon The Other South just as it was gaining enough strength to overcome the Confederacy. During the civil war, the main domestic problem Southern government had to deal with was the fact that one out of three Southern males who served were in the Union, that there were regions of the South where a Confederate took his life in his hands to appear in public.

It's a little-known fact that the states of the Deep South - Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana had to take multiple votes for Secession due to the opposition of the non-slaveholding people; those votes ultimately won only after the opponents were expelled (and several killed) from the legislatures (shades of yesterday!). Throughout the South, the Confederacy and their war were known as the "rich man's war." The fact that slave holders were exempt from the draft led to resistance to service by the white working class throughout the South, who clearly saw themselves as "cannonfodder" for Ol' Massa.

Unfortunately, after The Other South was abandoned, the Official South was able to undo almost everything. Interestingly, Philadelphia, Mississippi, site of the murders of Goodman Schwerner and Cheney in 1964 was the "capital" of "north Alabama" the heart of anti-Confederate resistance in 1864. The ancestors of the KKK killers of 1964 had believed the opposite 100 years earlier. But the white racism had worked on the poor southern whites.

I think I have just come up with the topic for this weekend's long post.

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Cool! I shall look forward to it.

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“Founding the KKK in 1866 wasn't an act of strength; it was an act of desperation on the part of those who knew they were losing.”

When I moved to Florida decades ago I was told( and am still told) we are not the (official) South. Sadly,I beg to differ…

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My sweet mama used to say that some folks needed someone to look down on. The rich planters looked down on everyone--merchants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, small farmers, poor whites, and of course, the enslaved people. The poor whites had only people of color to look down on, even though their economic interests were most closely paralleled to people of color.

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founding

Somewhere way back, I read that southern plantation owners brought something like mail order brides who were members of deposed Russian (?)monarchy and accustomed to living off serf labor, because they were blond, aristocratic, couldn't speak English, and were desperate to get out of a bad situation. Sorry to be so vague, but I'm old and read this a long time ago. Does this ring bells, or sound familiar to anyone here?

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👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋

Thanks for this important reckoning, Jeri.

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Jeri, you are spot on.

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Justin Pearson is the voice of the Republic of the United States of America. The Tennessee Republican Party is the voice of the Industrial Empire of the United States. My ship was sent to Vietnam by the Empire. I’m haunted by the spirits of the people I killed in Vietnam. They are my spirits.

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You have all that exactly right, Alex. Welcome home, brother. Those spirits helped you become the guy who just wrote this.

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Thanks bro.

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Confederacy indeed. A prime example of how Critical Race Theory is not a theory--it’s a fact of American life.

Tonight, with your and Prof. Richardson’s posts, I finally learned what I suspected but that I hadn’t read in any of the media posts on the TN legislature--that the representatives targeted for ouster were black. At least two of them. The. MSM hasn’t highlighted it. Correct me if I’m wrong. Maybe I overlooked it. But I get the impression that the manufactured sense of decorum isn’t limited to the TN GQP.

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Well, MSNBC sure picked it up.

(Ed McMahon voice - to your last): "You are correct, sir!"

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Yes, Lawrence O'Donnell focused on it tonight, relating to when he was young and heard MLK speeches on TV. He thought it important to play the video of speeches so that young people can hear and help go viral.

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I was born and raised in upstate NY until I was 19. Yankee blue to

mt blood and bone still.

I've lived throughout the south a lot of my earlier life, due to military postings. My first introduction to racism was in S.

Carolina with Whites Only sign on

a bathroom door. The signs are

visually gone now, but not verbally or socially.

I have lived in Arkansas now, after a few years in California,

for 12 years. My family was transferred here and I came along.

My grandchildren are all grown now, raised here. They are true

Arkansans to their bones. Frankly, I'm not sure what they

are. I know 2 have AR15s and 1

an MP4(?) or is it a 5? They all

have a series of handguns.

They're not openly racist, but

racist in beliefs they are. Big

trucks, big guns, baseball and

beer. Shooting up possums

and alligators, hunting. These

are the topics of discussion.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders fans. Ugh.

With Covid running through the

family, not just once, I haven't

seen and have rarely heard from

any of them in over 2 years now.

My daughter keeps me filled in

on what they're doing and saying.

I'm pretty outspoken. Always have been and am too old to

change now. They don't like

that about me. They've told my

daughter I should be like other

grandmas here. Huh? Mild and

meek, seen and not heard. Baking cookies.

Although, I guess I need to watch my "tone" and "sentiment" when writing. If I've offended anyone here with my T & S, tough shite.🤣

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You keep right on here, Grandma. :-)

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Welcome to the grandmas who are not mild & meek - I dont bake cookies anymore. I think since we both read & comment here on TC's blog - tone & sentiment isnt a biggie!

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I’m one of those grandmas

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founding

A nephew of mine has degenerated like that; it's depressing to think a decendent of intelligent, caring ancestors have spawned such a swamp creature. I avoid mine too, watch from a distance and hope they have a traumatic moment and see the Light. Meanwhile I'm weighing in on equality for all. The rest of the family is ok, thank God.

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I moved back to Atlanta in 2018 after living in Seattle for 25 years. I was - and still am- appalled how little has changed, how so many folks are still stuck in their racist misogynistic mindset, frantically trying to turn back time before they die. All under the guise of “god and country”. If not for family, I would never have come back here. Looking forward to the day I can leave again.

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From Seattle to Atlanta? I have no actual experience with either city only what I've read & heard - but boy, sounds like a pretty darn extreme change!

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Big time culture shock! Feels like I moved back to the south of 1940.

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Thank you, TC, for posting Justin Pearson's magnificent speech on the floor of the Tennessee legislature. Watching the CSPAN clip of Pearson speaking, it is so clear that he is the heir of Dr. Martin Luther King, in his dignity, his eloquence, and his passion for justice. The Republicans in that body who expelled Justin Pearson along with Justin Johnson yesterday have given the movement for justice and gun control in Tennessee and nationwide the leader who will deliver their karma and their downfall.

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Yes indeed. I was so strongly reminded of King and others from the 60s, listening to him.

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exactly what I couldn't help thinking...

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That is indeed an amazing and impassioned speech.

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A year or so ago I drove from Sarasota, Florida across the state to Boca Raton. I had sold an item a day or so beforehand and thought I would have to deal with less crowding in the Arcadia post office. Arcadia is a farming community in the interior of the state.

When I got to the post office, a black female postal worker worked with me. She was not just polite but almost elaborately so, repeatedly calling me "sir" and using every courtesy in the book. It was so elaborate it bordered on being comical. A little later I was in the old downtown visiting antique stores and bumped into a black person, who immediately went into nearly as elaborate courtesies with me to apologize for his bumping into me (he didn't, it was I who did). It made me think that interior Florida was still the unreconstructed South, and the black residents had to be elaborately courteous to whites not just to live life, but as a matter of survival.

This is the world those two state representatives in Tennessee had to live in. I can't imagine it.

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Your analysis is "right on" Andy.

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I’m currently visiting in North Carolina and having the same experience. It’s heartbreaking and I cannot imagine how exhausting and frustrating it must be to feel you must live that way. Time to kick butt, people.

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Apr 7, 2023Liked by TCinLA

Thank you TC for your insightful, based-on-experience, unvarnished commentary on the unjustifiable ousting of Justin Pearson and Justin Jones from the Tennessee legislature. These courageous, committed, brilliant young men are history and hope combined. I am grateful for their passion and commitment to justice. Thanks again for highlighting yesterday’s moment in the history of Civil Rights.

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I've never lived in the south but have visited multiple times. The most memorable visit was about 20 years ago for the wedding of a dear friend's daughter. White bride, black groom - guess how many times the Catholic church they were to be married in "lost their paperwork." We found ourselves, at the last minute, sweating out the ceremony on a beachfront in >90º temps with a newly sworn in justice of the peace performing the ceremony. Thoroughly disgusted to see nothing has changed.

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The "new south" in action.

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I thought we in Wisconsin held the record for the most gerrymandered state. Maybe we still rank "among" the most?

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Apr 7, 2023·edited Apr 7, 2023Author

You're #2 - in a close contest.

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The Reconstruction South has risen just enough to get its tiny little head decapitated.

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That was exactly what happened, and continues. But it keeps trying to rise.

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Apr 7, 2023·edited Apr 8, 2023Liked by TCinLA

Similar to Justin Pearson being expelled for rules that were not made easily accessible (and irrelevant because the session was in recess), I am reminded of the owner of Madison Square Garden, James Dolan, who ejects any lawyer who works for a firm which has a client in litigation against any company he owns, an amorphous set of entities spun off from his main conglomerate. There are reportedly 90 law firms on the list and not every new lawyer in those firms knows the entities. Facial recognition software is used and, no matter if you’ve paid perhaps hundreds of dollars for your ticket, you’re expelled. This has included a mother who was separated from her children and forced to wait outside in the rain for two hours.

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Scumbaggery is everywhere.

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this is one of the craziest things I've ever heard.

facial recognition software feewls like one of those "technological breakthroughs" that America is so fond of embracing passionately without a moment's thought. obviously, it has some potential for positive applications and plenty for more negative ones.

and guess which one seems to be winning...

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founding

James Dolan.

Add it to the sh*t list.

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Scumbaggery, and buttholery, indeed!

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You've given me a new vulgarity!! "Buttholery" indeed. Is that antecedent to "Butthurt" or does it follow being "Butthurt"? I really need to know this vital information. More vulgar than my favorite, "asshattery" and I like that.

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Once again you have surpassed yourself in excellence! Bravo!!

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