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The Tennessee Conservative with Brandon Lewis covers the stories that mainstream media ignores. Join us for interviews you won't hear on the nightly news, and for the Big 7 Weekly Digest!
What's going on guys? Brandon Lewis here with the TennCon big seven weekend update, news curated specifically for conservatives who actually know what's going on in their state and local government, I'm glad to be with you.
Let's get right into the headlines. Governor Lee launches plan for 20,000 K through 12 ESAs across Tennessee and boy are the Democrats unhappy. Christian school in Memphis promotes Gender Sexuality Alliance Club to students and keeps parents in the dark. Bradley County student battles cancer while parents battle school district. Slavery and racism blamed for climate change in the south, Tennessee to create inventory of climate offenders. Tennessee House Resolution joined other states in calling for congressional term limits. Proposed bill would prevent teachers from displaying Pride flags in Tennessee classrooms. Over 14,000 including children and a Democrat Senate hopeful attended TriPride Festival which included drag shows, and much more guys.
We are in the middle of our year-end fundraising drive, we deliver so much value for so little money and we impact our political process so greatly that I would like to encourage you to please please please go to TennesseeConservativeNews.com/support hit that support button help us finish strong this year. We're about to be reporting on some of the most important issues we've ever reported on especially as we head into this legislative session and we need your help to keep the reporting going. As you know, Brandon Lewis does not take a dime out of the Tennessee Conservative News, but we do have to pay our reporters. We have to pay our subscription fees for various software services and vendors. And we always like to keep enough operational income in the kitty just in case something should go awry. So your money is very direct, goes straight to the cause straight to the source. It's not wasted in administrative overhead. There is no administrative overhead. We are a confederacy of conservatives who simply tell you what's going on because God knows the corporately funded mainstream media never will. So go to TennesseeConservativeNews.com hit that support button or mail us your checks to PO Box 625 Signal Mountain Tennessee 37377. Do go to Twitter, Gettr, Truth, MeWe, Rumble and other places. We have not been shadow banned. Subscribe and follow our content. And if you would like to subscribe to our newsletter for whatever reason, you're not on there. Go to TennesseeConservativeNews.com, hit the subscribe button and or text News to 423-205-5600. That's 423-205-5600 and it will opt you in.
First story here, bringing up lots of turmoil in Tennessee. The Twitter wars are epic right now. Here's the headline. Governor Lee launches plan for 20,000 K through 12 ESAs across Tennessee.
Bill Lee began his push for a statewide educational savings account plan that will include 20,000 ESAs in the first year and unlimited numbers of ESAs after that, it will include 10,000 ESAs worth an estimated $7,075 each for the 2024-2025 school year for students at 300% of the federal poverty level, who have a disability, or who are eligible for the current ESA pilot in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties along with 10,000 more universal ESAs. The cost of the 20,000 initial ESAs will be 141.5 million of state funds in the first year and that funding rather is likely to increase in subsequent years.
Funding for the ESA program will come separately from the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, the state's K through 12 educational funding formula House Speaker Cameron Sexton said. But it was not clear if the TSA funding attached to students based on enrollment will be removed from a public school they did not attend. I believe it should be. Earlier on Tuesday, Tennessee Democratic party leaders voiced their opposition to the bill, saying it will further drain resources from public schools.
They made the announcement with Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders in attendance, calling it part of "conservative education revolution" to have statewide ESAs. ESA groups such as Beacon Center, Americans for Prosperity, and American Federation for Children applauded the ESA proposal. I did a lengthy video on Twitter about this very specific topic.
Democrats hate this proposal because they know government schools are epically failing. There's no accountability. The test scores have been in the crapper.
Teachers are unhappy. There's woke indoctrination. It's just bad all the way around. We have watched the Tennessee Republican Party majority underneath the RINO leadership of Sexton and McNally and Lee do virtually nothing about the awful state of education.
I think because Lee has delivered on so few of his campaign promises and his record during COVID is a disaster, it is a stain on Tennessee's state history and he is the author of it, I think this is him trying to get his legacy through something redeeming with his administration, aside from his monumental accomplishments in doling out corporate welfare in the billions to his woke corporate friends, is to try to push this through.
Democrats don't want any taxpayers to have any educational choices. They are there to support the indoctrination camps and the government job factories. Republicans don't really like it either because most Republicans in the House and Senate in Tennessee are really just old Southern Democrats that happened to have ran as Republicans and they are worried about the teachers unions.
They are worried about the teachers not voting for them back in their districts because these are some of the largest employers, especially in rural districts and even in urban ones.
And finally, conservatives are worried and I can understand the worries and I have them myself that this is just going to lead to increased government spending, that the influence of the government because there is a voucher and not a no strings attached tax rebate will corrupt our good schools, the private schools, the homeschool cooperatives because government tends to ruin what it touches and as it interferes with things. It takes something that is good and often makes it much worse than if the government had never been involved.
So as we report on this I am personally very optimistic. I'm a huge school choice proponent, I want some of my tax dollars back, I've spent 20 years paying in, I've seen zero benefit from it and I think it would be a great testament to conservative principles if we, before my daughter graduates from school, if I could see some kind of recompense for all of the investments and none of the return that we've received.
There are kids stuck right now guys in these failing government schools and urban and rural districts all over who have no alternatives, no escape and you hear all kinds of terrible arguments about this,
$7,000 is not going to get people into a private school, maybe not all private schools, but my daughter's private school that she presently goes to, a little Christian school is less than $7,000 a year so for us it would be a godsend, it would be tremendously helpful and for the kids stuck in a failing inner city school, kids of color, people of low income, I mean they're going to have opportunities, and trust me, I mean if you put 10 kids in a classroom that's $70,000, there's a teacher that is going to be more than happy to teach those kids for $70,000 a year especially if there's not a bunch of government red tape.
Another thing you hear constantly is that these private schools and these schools receiving tax dollars or people really just getting their tax money back that there won't be the same kind of oversight that there won't be the same kind of reporting that is required from public schools, but here's the issue. All the oversight and reporting in the world in government schools now has made absolutely zero difference in outcomes. It's not the reporting in the accountability. It's the entire incentive structure in public education which is non existent because it is a government ran forced monopoly and government ran monopolies don't have to perform, don't have to compete, don't have to deliver, and as a result when you don't have to do something you rarely do and they haven't, so we will keep you posted on the good, bad, and ugly on this as it comes through the Transom.
Next story. Christian school in Memphis promotes Gender Sexuality Alliance Club to keep students and parents in the dark. They're not telling folks a whole lot about it First story, even the most diligent and involved parents can't possibly know everything especially when their child school is omitting information and encouraging students to hide things from their parents. It's a good sign you need to pull your kid out of a school, it's when the school is trying to hide things from you the tuition-paying parent. St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis.
Well, I heard Episcopal in Memphis. There are some Episcopal schools and organizations in Tennessee that hold to the truths in the Bible. But there are some that that have just completely strayed from it.
I mean you cannot find a pro homosexuality promiscuity passage in the Bible to my knowledge You can find a lot of them that say if you do this the outcomes for the culture, for your salvation and for you as an individual are just not going to be very good, so Episcopal churches and schools like this that that push this heretical unsound doctrine I can't even believe they exist.
But I guess there's a place for everybody that wants to be told what they want to hear instead of what's in scripture, back to the story. St. Mary's Episcopal School for girls in Memphis is one of the many schools promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through the creation of affinity clubs. According to our source, parents were never properly notified of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club's existence at the school. The school also did not inform parents that the GSA would be making announcements and inviting students to join during chapel. During worship.
I would think that would be remarkably offensive to God, this is amazing stuff on with the story, or that parents would not be notified if their minor child joined the GSA.
In order to join the GSA students must be in at least ninth grade. However, students as young as sixth grade attend the chapel meetings where this GSA is promoted. Could you imagine sending your kid into a church service and this going on?
One parent was shocked to find out her daughter was involved with the GSA when she discovered an email regarding an off-campus non-school sanctioned event for adults up to 25 years old sent to her minor child by a teacher at St. Mary's. What could go wrong having your minor child hang out with a bunch of folks that are 25 years old that are into this? Probably nothing.
The parent enrolled her daughter at St. Mary's when she was three years old before these clubs existed and during that time she had come to expect a certain level of communication from the school. According to our source GSA meetings are intentionally held on campus during lunch or free periods so as to not alert parents and avoid any transportation or scheduling issues.
Up until her involvement with the GSA the student had excelled academically however after realizing she had been used for an agenda there was a time frame of recovery for her academic grade understandably didn't do as well.
The student's mother said "We can thank the school for using her inexperience and for not holding up their end of the contract to keep her safe." That sounds like a den of vipers. St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls in Memphis. I don't think I would have my daughter there.
Next story is not really a story but rather my encouragement for you to check out the Mill Creek View podcast with my buddy Steve Abramowitz. Recently just did a big earth shattering interview with Dinesh DeSousa.
Now listen, old Steve is kicking my tail part in the interview's department. He's out there getting it done. You need to tune in anywhere that he's on Rumble, free speech platforms, anywhere you get your podcasts on iTunes and Spotify. It's a great fantastic interview. He also did a recent interview with a musician and author Mason Douglas.
And if you're interested in getting caught up in the sunshine state because it might not be the last mad to flee down there as RINOs takeover at Tennessee. There's Mill Creek View podcast in Florida hosted by Julie Baer of Conservative Ladies of America.
So make sure that you go look for Mill Creek View Tennessee. Put Tennessee on the end. I want you to keep up with Tennessee stuff. All the other stuff is secondary. Mill Creek View Tennessee podcast. Go check my friend Steve out.
Next story. Bradley County student battles cancer while parents battle school district. As a second grader from Bradley County fights kidney cancer her parents are fighting for their daughter's right to continue her education through her time of treatment. The child's parents have filed a lawsuit against the school district because Waterville Elementary School will not allow the child to do her schooling from home as she finishes her treatment. The government schools. The parents were informed that if their daughter did not return to school in the month of November, then she would be withdrawn from school. The child's course of treatment will not be complete until January as the family awaits a decision in the lawsuit. Little girl continues with her chemo and radiation treatments. Her parents now have the added concern of their child's education on top of the medical needs.
Shame on the folks at Waterville Elementary for not trying to help this kid out. This is why we need educational options.
I could not imagine our small Christian school, a very tight -knit community, hearing about a child who had cancer in their community and to do something like that. It would be unheard of. This whole sense of control and entitlement that school administrators have because they are the only show in town, because there are no consequences for their actions or performance, show itself in situations like this. That's why we need school choice.
Next story, slavery and racism blamed for climate change, or as I like to call it, the weather in the South and Tennessee to create an inventory of climate offenders. How dumb do you have to be? But I guess if you've got folks dogmatically believing stuff, why not put slavery and racism in the weather? I mean, it's all this perfectly malleable amorphous blob of nonsense that you could stick on any subject and scream global warming or racism to try to compel your fellow people to give up their money or their freedoms or their property or make them feel bad and to politically control them.
I can't believe folks buy into this. Boy. Slavery and racism are being blamed for climate change in the South according to the fifth national climate assessment and Tennessee will create an inventory of its biggest climate offenders after having been allocated 3 million in grants from the EPA. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation had until November 30th to submit an initial inventory of sources of climate pollution and the public had until Wednesday the 29th to provide feedback in the survey.
However, TDAC took down the survey early and within minutes after we published this article. Why? Why would they do that? The state's inventory process, which will rely heavily on EPA data, will look at transportation, electricity, land use, forestry, agricultural waste, wastewater among other categories. Why is our Republican controlled state government pushing a climate change agenda through this?
Why is our publicly funded conservative state government handing billions of dollars to woke for motor company to try to build electric vehicles when its division is losing billions of dollars a year?
I don't know. Probably because our leadership isn’t really conservative. Back to the story. TDEC will be in charge of creating the inventory, the first task in a two -step process, and then be followed up by the drafting of a plan aimed at cutting pollution throughout the state. Both actions to be divvied up over four years will be a first for the state and are being funded through the Climate Pollution Reduction Planning Grant established by the Inflation Reduction Act, which reduced absolutely no inflation. It made the inflation worse. Only the Democrats could come up with something called the Inflation Reduction Act that actually increases inflation and then get the mainstream media in Tennessee, people like Philip Williams and News Channel 5, to tell you that the Reduction Inflation Act actually worked and to cover up and to carry the water for a failing administration.
Right now they're on a huge campaign against school choice trying to convince parents and kids that it's not in their best interest to have educational options but instead to just be stuck in failing corporate schools.
Oh sorry corporate schools, government schools, I mean that's almost synonymous with the influence. Boy, where are you gonna get this news if you don't get it from us?
According to the climate assessment quote centuries of political and land use decisions have threatened the landscape and the people with few prospering at the expense of many. That sounds like good sound research.
These decisions according to the document were shaped by quote a long history of systemic and structural racial discrimination and aggression. Bill Lee, Cameron Sexton, Randy McNally, who's on the committee in the legislature for TDEC and why are we are we going down this liberal rat hole, and have continued to negatively affect the preparedness of southeastern communities to face climate change threats.
We don't have any climate change threats. It's the damned weather. It's the weather. The earth has been changing temperature since the dawn of time.
We have had ice ages. We have had hot periods that aren't as frequent. We have changes in the ionosphere. We have solar flares. The earth moves around in outer space.
The temperature changes and always has. Pointing to the weather. We gotta do something about the weather. We can't even predict the weather. Bunch of idiots.
Quote the instructions rather the institutions rather of slavery and intergenerational ownership of individuals as property, Jim Crow segregation and housing discriminations have resulted in many black indigenous and people of color communities living in neighborhoods. They're disproportionately exposed to environmental risk with fewer resources to address them compared to majority white counties states the climate assessment.
TDEC is not talking about any plan of action yet but director of policy and planning team Jennifer Treble has said that TDEC will be considering both voluntary and mandatory actions to promote clean electricity weatherization and energy efficiency.
All comes down from the top people.
Next story, Tennessee House Resolution joins other states and calls for congressional term limits. According to Pew Research Center, 87% and overwhelmingly majority of Americans favor term limits for members of Congress considering the members of Congress have yet to impose these limits on themselves no matter how many times the issues have been raised.
The states are resorting to an alternative method to achieve the same in Article V, Article V convention to propose a constitutional amendment. Last general session representative Chris Todd filed House Joint Resolution 5 to be considered in the 113th General Assembly.
The resolution would add Tennessee to a list of six other states and counting, calling for a single topic limited Article V convention for proposing an amendment to the constitution for term limits on Congress.
Single topic resolutions like the one presented by Representative Todd have a distinct advantage of pressuring Congress into opposing term limits themselves when the number of states on board with calling the convention approaches the number of 34 mark the inevitable inevitability of a convention may force Congress to act on their own power or run the risk of having states act on their behalf.
Representative Todd's resolution was carried to the Tennessee House by an overwhelmingly favorable vote of 67 to 27. The next challenge is getting the resolution to pass the Tennessee Senate where Senator Richard Briggs is the lead sponsor of the legislation and also happens to be the chair for the Senate State and Local Committee where the resolution currently sits.
Its next step is to make it through the committee and then have passed on to the Senate for a vote. Guys, I already said it. I'll say it again.
Don't make me twist your arm. It is the Christmas season. Be generous. I, the heart of human kindness, Brandon Lewis and remarkably generous with my time to this publication.
Forgoing all kinds of financial benefits that would be my... mine if I spent the time, energy, effort, and resources in my paying business that makes good money. But instead, because I care about the direction of our state, I care about the future of your kids and grandkids, I drag my keister in here and do the work for free. So me asking you to make a bigger than usual donation to our publication in the month of December in my humble opinion is not too much to ask.
Okay, I'm not even going to charge you for the guilt trip I'm putting you on right now, okay? Need your money. Mail it to PO Box 625, PO Box 625, Signal Mountain Tennessee 37377, or go to TennesseeConservativeNews.com/support, and when you give any amount, now this may come out backwards, okay?
We're not going to send you this bumper sticker backwards, but I don't know what's up with the camera. Don't California my Tennessee, a stop feeding the RINOs bumper sticker will send that no matter what you give. And we'll also send you this directory of your state reps and state senators so you can let them know we need school choice.
Our government schools are failing us. And if you give $50 or more, which I hope you will, I hope you will at least. We had somebody just recently send in $1,000 just online. We had somebody else do $250. If that is in your wheelhouse, occasionally we've had some people just send in three grand, four grand, five grand. I cannot believe it. It is humbling.
All that money goes straight into operations, okay? And subscriber acquisition. We got to let more conservatives know what's really going on the state. So if you give one of those big old checks, or if you get $50 or more, or a recurring donation of 10 bucks or more, come on, 10 bucks a month, we need those monthly contributions desperately. It is the backbone. It is the foundation of our funding. We will send you this proud Tennessee conservative tumbler just in time for the holidays. Just in time for the holidays. Give it as a gift. Keep it. You can put a little wire hanger here and just hang it as a Christmas ornament. It has a variety of issues. If you turn it upside down, it can be a stand for a very small Christmas tree. I mean it's just they’re options. They're unlimited, okay? And we also send you this proud Tennessee conservative koozie.
But the biggest benefit that you get when you support Tennessee's only conservative news alternative is to allay your guilty conscience because if conservatives and Christians continue to set on the sidelines of media, culture and politics, we're going to be doomed so get in there and give.
Next story. Proposed bill would prevent teachers from displaying Pride fags, flags in Tennessee classrooms, Pride flags in Tennessee classrooms that was a misspeak and I'm not going to go back and record it. Rerecord it rather. New legislation has been introduced that would prohibit school districts and public charter schools in the state from displaying any flags other than the US flag and the Tennessee state flag.
House Bill 1605 is sponsored by Representative Gino Bulso and co-sponsored by Representative Jake McCalmon. McCalmon. I think that's how you pronounce that name.
This is one of many pieces of legislation both proposed and recent that again point to this very simple fact. Our government education system is so corrupt, broken and insidious. With left-leaning indoctrination, your kids are not safe there. The fact that we have to even pass laws about this stuff in schools funded primarily by conservative tax dollars when those schools can't even teach a third of kids hardly to read, write and do arithmetic properly and the rest are being left behind and graduated as functionally illiterate.
The fact that we have to tinker with this kind of stuff is just a clear indication that school choice choice is needed. The proposed legislation comes after parents in Williamson County appealed to their school board for a similar policy last month.
Parents who are upset over the displaying of the gay Pride flags in classrooms argue that classrooms should be neutral areas and should not have any symbols that are aligned with the primary purpose of the class which is education not indoctrination.
Superintendent Jason Goldman stated it would be a violation of their first amendment rights for district employees to force them to remove those flags from their classrooms.
It's a job. When you have a job and you work for an employer, if they say I don't want that Tennessee flag hanging up in your office, take it down, you should take it down, right? Go find someplace else to work.
However, others say that case law shows that those rights are only protected when individuals are acting as private citizens and aren't in the role as a public employee. Never take the word of government employee who talks to you about the law. Rarely do they know the law. No pending action has been taken by the Williamson County School Board to update policies currently as far as we know but the new legislation proposed by the two Williamson County representatives would instead bring about a statewide mandate against the display of any potentially offensive flags in all public classrooms.
Next story. Over 14 ,000 including children and Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful attend tri-pride festival which included drag shows.
According to the organizers of tri-pride festival over 14,000 people, children included, attended the event held in Johnson City, Tennessee in September with Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful Gloria Johnson, I think her nickname is Scooter, in attendance as one of the two parade grand marshals. The event opened to all ages. Featured live performances including drag shows, food trucks, a kid's zone. If you can't make them, groom them. Testing for HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Hopefully they didn't put that too close to the the kid's zone.
And alcohol was also available for purchase. Sounds like family fun. Johnson, currently a Tennessee State Representative, is challenging U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn for her seat. Tri-pride returned to Johnson City this year for the first time since 2018. In 2019 it was held in Kingsport and then Bristol in 2022, next year's festival is planning to take place in Kingsport again. Lead sponsors to this event include Eastman, Hard Rock Hotel Casino in Bristol, T-Mobile, Kroger, HSN Ballad Health, TVA, TVA, your tax dollars TVA, and Starbucks, among others. Boy, you can't make this stuff up.
Guys, I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful one. I went down to my wife's family in Cartersville and then her sister and her family came over and stayed and then my in -law stayed.
I think we had Fincher family fun for about three days straight. It was lots of feasting. We had lots of feasting. Usually do not overeat, but we had so many Thanksgiving feasts, like one right after the other, and the Fincher family is full of prodigious cooks, prodigious cooks. I mean just the cookingest bunch of people. It's like 24 hours of a fellowship hall meeting at a Southern Baptist Church.
It is just like a lot of food. So I ate and ate and ate. I'm about to go to the gym. I'm recording this in the evening. We're going to try to leave in the morning. Leave in the morning, bright and early. I'm going to Clayton, Georgia to spend some time with my wife. I'm going to try to get down there early. I think we've got almost maybe a half day. We're going to spend downtown just her and I. And then we're going to hang out in a lake house with one of my my old college buddies who I have stayed in touch with for years.
We have a tradition the first weekend in December. We always get together. If you do not anchor traditions, if you do not anchor your friendship appointments on the calendar, things fall apart and I love recurring weekend or recurring date type events because every year you know exactly where it's supposed to be.
Ruby got her haircut here recently so it went from below her butt to above her butt and hopefully, hopefully that adjustment will make the combing of the hair easier and less tangly because it is a tangled mess.
I'm not responsible for combing the hair although I do occasionally have that duty. My duty in the morning is to dress the darling and wake her up from her slumber and then to cook her breakfast and brush her teeth.
That's what daddy does. Actually, what is it? Ruby was going to say something about me and she goes, "You're my daddy. You work all day. You cook breakfast and you get four or five other things." Okay, that's what she thinks about when she thinks about daddy. What else is going on? Let's see.
Let's see. I've had lots of work to be done around the house here lately. I have in an iterative fashion have constructed a wood shed out behind my garage in between two trees, one of which I failed because it was dead but I kept the top part for a post and I attached it to another tree, put some metal on it and that was done between my father -in -law, my neighbor, Mr. Lewis, and my good friend Tommy. I just chored with some buddies and we got all got out there and sawed some wood and put some screws in and the last part of it we did in the middle of the rain because we're going to get this thing done.
So now I've got a place to put the firewood for the winter. Now I just got to go collect probably about five really good dump trailer loads to fill in there and then maybe that'll keep me going for the season.
We've got the Christmas tree up, we've had it up for a while, although many of our decorations have yet to make it out of the attic, but we are planning a little get-together in our house next weekend and that is always motivating and it's a Christmas get-together.
It's always motivating to make us get the decorations out because we do love them and we love leaving them up. Guys, I hope you're having a fantastic holiday season as we move toward Christmas to celebrate the birth of the Christ child.
If you can help us with our year-end campaign, go to TennesseeConservativeNews.com/support and please also mail your checks to PO Box 625, Signal Mountain, Tennessee 37377.
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It's really filthy, polluting. Every time you burn a piece it puts a hole in the ozone at least the size of Manhattan. So make sure, make sure so that that does not befall you that you donate to the Tennessee Conservative year-end campaign.
Guys, I love you. I appreciate you very much. Thank you for all your prayer support, words of encouragement, sharing of content on social media, your checks, your credit card contributions, your monthly donations.
All of that allows us to make real measurable changes in Tennessee as it relates to the government we live under and the laws that are passed or killed.
So you are the person that is responsible for holding your government accountable and by supporting us you make a huge stride toward doing that. Take care. Merry Christmas. I'll see you next week.
Bye.