I was literally just sitting here thinking “Too bad I can’t write about the craziness in Tennessee where the state legislature kicked out two members and now they’ll probably just get reappointed anyway, since it has nothing to do with stadiums.” And then:
FOX13 also learned that Memphis could lose funding for some major projects if [Rep. Justin] Pearson is re-appointed. According to Shelby County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon, leaders in Nashville threatened to withhold millions of dollars in state funding for projects in the Memphis area if commissioners were to reappoint Pearson.
“We are also being threatened by the state to take away funding, needed funding to run our schools, to run our municipalities,” Sugarmon told FOX13. “You know, and so, for example, FedExForum, the promised $350 million, they’re talking about snatching that away.”
So, okay, to recap:
- On March 27, a shooter killed six people at a parochial school in Nashville.
- On March 30, a large group of protestors, including a large contingent of students, entered the public galleries of the Tennessee state capitol and sang “This Little Light of Mine” and “All You Need Is Love,” because apparently nobody has written any good peace songs since the 1960s.
- State Rep. Justin Pearson tried to talk about gun control during discussion of an unrelated bill, and house leaders called for a recess, during which Pearson and state Rep. Justin Jones joined in chants of “Gun control now!”
- On April 6, Republican house leaders introduced resolutions to expel Pearson, Jones, and state Rep. Gloria Johnson for behavior that “reflects adversely upon the integrity and dignity” of the chamber. (Previous behavior not considered worthy of disciplinary action included one legislator who peed on a fellow legislator’s chair.) Pearson and Jones were both expelled, while Johnson was spared by one vote; asked why, she said, “I think it’s pretty clear. I’m a 60-year-old White woman, and they are two young Black men.”
- With Pearson and Jones kicked out of the state house, it was up to Memphis and Nashville, which elected them in the first place, to pick replacements. Both the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and the Nashville Metropolitan Council are expected to reinstate Pearson and Jones.
- Shelby County commissioner Sugarmon and Pearson both said they’d been told that state legislative leaders would take away state funds for local projects in Memphis and Nashville if Pearson and Jones were reinstated, with Sugarmon specifically mentioning $350 million for Memphis Grizzlies arena upgrades and Liberty Bowl stadium upgrades.
- Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, who was behind the expulsions and who compared the gun control protests to the armed attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, issued a statement saying, “The governor has proposed $350 million for the Memphis stadiums in the budget; the speaker has been and will continue to be supportive of these projects. The House hasn’t entered into budget negotiations with the Senate at this time. He is hopeful the funding will remain in when the final budget is presented on both floors.”
All of this is, of course, bonkers. And while it’s not entirely clear who exactly is threatening what around the Memphis sports subsidies — not to mention the $500 million state Tennessee Titans subsidy that is currently on the table, since the Titans play in Nashville — the mere possibility that somehow protests over a school shooting may lead to pro sports owners losing state cash because of a throwdown over whether elected officials can be reappointed by elected bodies after being unelected by other elected bodies is, well, I already said “bonkers,” but it applies to this part, too. The Shelby County Commission meets to discuss Pearson’s reappointment on Wednesday at 1:30 pm CT; this should be fascinating to watch for anyone with an interest in sports, democracy, or peeing on the furniture.
If they reinstate those guys, then they will have to reinstate others that break house rules. Those guys are representatives, not activists. Seriously, a bullhorn? Then the lady brings race i to the conversation, why did she say that? I think she should be expelled to, just for that comment. Is she trying to divide us more? That guy agot up the school, the fun didn’t do it. You are taking one thing, and calling it something else. I call that “bonkers”.
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Scram
If they reinstate those guys, then they will have to reinstate others that break house rules. Those guys are representatives, not activists. Seriously, a bullhorn? Then the lady brings race into the conversation, why did she say that? I think she should be expelled too, just for that comment. Is she trying to divide us more? That guy shot up the school, the gun didn’t do it. You are taking one thing, and calling it something else. I call that “bonkers”.
“That lady” didn’t bring race into the conversation. She simply pointed out that two black men and one white woman were charged with the same offense under the so-called house rules. The two black men were expelled, she wasn’t.
It was the folks who voted to expel the black men but did not vote to expel the white woman for EXACTLY THE SAME ALLEGED OFFENSE who “brought race into” the conversation.
“Be a shame if something happened to that nice stadium you got there.”
Que Monty Python skit…..
In a weird way, the Tennessee House’s apparent entrenched racism could actually work FOR the taxpayers in this extremely limited (and yet still appalling) way.
The fact that they are what they clearly are… could, at least potentially, end up meaning that Tennessee taxpayers don’t have to pay for unnecessary stadium upgrades.
I’m speechless.
I don’t think it will actually work out that way, of course. They’ll pile more money on Amy Adams and whomever owns the Grizzlies these days (still Heisley family?)…
That was my thought too.
Good out of bad.
A guy can dream…..
The Supreme Court may soon overturn the federal ban on mifeprestone on the grounds that it would interfere with the inalienable rights of pharmaceutical companies. It’s a big year for strange bedfellows.
Robert Pera bought the Grizzlies from Heisley et al in 2012:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pera
Time flies, right?
District 86 is FedEx Arena-adjacent but not inclusive. Liberty Bowl and the various MidSouth Coliseum proposals are also not in 86. Nonetheless, Shelby County commissioners make this call, a very different composition of representatives than any body in Memphis, and they might pause in a way that Nashville Metro (in their own death match with the state lege right now) did not. Thank goodness we’re already post-irony.
Tennessee “the racist state”
“On March 27, a shooter”
A shooter, huh? Nothing else remarkable or noteworthy about this individual, just ‘a shooter’. I have a feeling if they were on the conservative side of the political spectrum there would be more to say about this person.
There’s been zero reporting about the political beliefs of the Nashville shooter, so far as I can tell.
You have to understand that the shooter was transgender. It’s the one time conservative ghouls actually give a damn about *why* someone would shoot up a place instead of going “eh, shit happens”.
I do know that the shooter was trans, and I got the dog whistle in the comment above. But last I checked, you could be both trans and right-wing (if you wanted), so “if they were on the conservative side” doesn’t really make sense.
The thing is, right now, it doesn’t matter if someone is a transgender conservative. The social climate in right-wing circles at the moment argues that all transgenders are bad, even the ones who oppose transgender policies, and want to jump to conclusions.