#Phil Bredesen

[politicaldilfs]

Tennessee Governor DILFs

Bill Haslam, Lamar Alexander, Don Sundquist, Phil Bredesen, Prentice Cooper, Gordon Browning, Ned McWherter, Albert H. Roberts, Austin Peay, Alfred A. Taylor, Jim Nance McCord, Bill Lee, Buford Ellington, Frank G. Clement, Henry Horton, Ray Blanton, Winfield Dunn

And that's a wrap; all 50 states covered. Hope y'all enjoyed!

Follow this tag for the full series of posts.

[tomorrowusa]

Republicans hate Taylor Swift. So I'm glad they have to see her picture on all those magazine covers when they go to the supermarket to buy white bread, Diet Coke®, and ketchup. 🤭

Conservatives have yet again placed Taylor Swift in their conspiratorial crosshairs following her recent unveiling as TIME’s “person of the year.” Swift has been a target for right-wingers since at least 2018, when she broke from her largely apolitical persona and endorsed Phil Bredesen as Tennessee’s Democratic Senate nominee, who was running against then-Rep. Marsha Blackburn. In her endorsement, Swift said that Blackburn’s voting record “appalls and terrifies me,” citing Blackburn’s anti-LGBTQ views and her opposition to renewing the Violence Against Women Act. And footage from Swift’s 2020 Netflix documentary shows her upset over Blackburn’s eventual victory, with the artist saying “[Blackburn] gets to be the first female senator in Tennessee, and she’s Trump in a wig.” That Swift has used her Eras Tour to register voters has drawn conservative ire, too. (More examples of the hate directed at Swift here.) Liberals, for their part, seem to love that conservatives are trying to pick a fight with one of the most popular stars on earth. So that helps to explain the conniption pitched by Republicans on social media this week, which has featured right-wing pundits fueling baseless theories that Swift’s selection as Time’s “person of the year” is some sort of political manipulation campaign.  [ ... ] The right-wing response here underscores a problem conservatives have struggled with for decades now, which is that their widely unpopular politics often place them at odds with pop culture figures. Not all pop culture figures, of course. But certainly the ones who endorse the tenets of a democratic society, like voting rights, bodily autonomy for abortion-seekers and trans people, and freedom from discrimination. In fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson railed against liberal pop culture figures in a recent campaign email describing America's "depraved" culture. "[Y]ou don’t even want to see the filth that passes for popular culture these days," Johnson said. (Fact check: I do.)

The fact is that the MAGA zombies with their pagan worship of "Orange Jesus" are the truly depraved (and deeply hypocritical) ones.

As mentioned in the article, Taylor Swift has been promoting voter registration on her tour. Let's lend a hand...

Be A Voter - Vote Save America

[whatiwillsay]

she is definitely not. every political statement she’s ever made has been pro dem all the way back to the obama years. // this not entirely true tbh and i’m disappointed to see such a take from a “factual based” blog without evidence to back it up. she was always very much conspicuous about it, i’ve read through literally every single magazine scan of her interview since the debut of her career - she’s only ever openly spoke about her views during Lover era, and for a short brief period after

nope! she shared positive obama sentiments on ellen back in '09 and she also came out in support of gay marriage in 2014. she endorsed democrat phil bredesen for senate in 2018 during the rep era! there are your facts and evidence.

[spade-riddles]

Honestly, wasn’t Taylor posting IG stories about voting last year?? Even in those stories from last year, I don’t recall that she was naming specific candidates for other people to vote for. She only did it in 2020 when she said outright she was voting Biden/Harris and in 2018 that she was endorsing Phil Bredesen.

So to see this “outrage” from some swifties on Twitter is strange.

I know people are second guessing her statements from MA, but I think her message still stands.

When she was arguing with her dad about speaking up about politics, she said how she was Christian and that Marsha Blackburn was disguising her policies as Tennessee Christian values, which did not represent her.

For example—Blackburn voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, which protects women against domestic abuse and stalkers. Taylor literally had a stalker earlier this year who kept showing up at her NY house even days after he was arrested. She’s had other instances of stalking as well.

So she chose to endorse Phil Bredesen. Blackburn still won that race even though Taylor didn’t vote for her.

Even in her 2018 IG post, she specifically said

“Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway.”

Today, she again reminded people to vote for the candidate who best represents THEM. The purpose of the primaries is to vote for the candidate that people feel will best represent their specific party, even if we don’t find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue.

Not to disregard or disrespect anyone’s feelings, but I just don’t think this anger should be placed on Taylor when she had the same message in 2018.

I also don't think she (or anyone) can successfully tell people who to vote for. Like you shared in this post, she can say who she is voting for and why. Hopefully her fans will share her views, or at least research the issues she brings forth. And, that they follow her lead.

But today, when there are primaries going on all over the country she cannot single out specific candidates (there are too many) or just shout 'go democrats' without getting major blowback.

I have no doubt that she will call out Trump again if he makes it to Election Day in November.

[odinsblog]

Literally the only reason I was rooting for Kansas City. My team was eliminated a while back.

I’m not a Swiftie (I can take her or leave her), but if Kansas City winning makes MAGA snowflakes mad, then it makes me happy.

A more serious take beneath the cut.

In all seriousness though, I really dO wish that Taylor would use her very considerable influence to speak up for Palestine. I think she could move the political needle. I’m certain she’ll endorse Biden as we get closer to Election Day, but Palestinians could really use some help.

My only blip is, I know how ruthlessly cruel conservatives are, and Idk if it’s fair to demand that anyone take that kind of smoke from people who think the 2nd Amendment is the solution for every minor annoyance - not to mention; the MAGA crowd is a lot more misogynistic than the oppressed groups they like to project their misogyny onto. It’s one thing for someone to volunteer, but I feel funny about telling a non-politician to step into the line of fire.

Imagine Trump + the Republican Party explicitly siccing all of their misogynistic, racist, antivaxxer MAGA covidiots on someone. Again.

It’s obvious that Trump is afraid Taylor Swift will endorse Biden.

And it’s worth noting: Taylor Swift’s explicit endorsement of Democrat Phil Bredesen in Tennessee’s U.S.Senate race failed to unseat the incumbent Republican Senator, Marsha Blackburn. But … her call to get people registered to vote absolutely had a large + measurable effect. (source) So there’s a mixed bag on whether or not Swift’s voice would make a difference at all to the people who will support Israel no matter how much genocide’ing they do.

Still, I believe that Taylor Swift could make a significant difference with the election and Palestine. I think. If not with a majority of voters, then maybe Taylor could have an impact with Joe Biden and the other Democratic politicians *cough* John Fetterman *cough* who are dead set on ignoring the 30,000 noncombatant Palestinian civilians that Israel has murdered in cold blood.

Look, I have no illusions about Taylor Swift. She never stepped up for #BlackLivesMatter, she was on mute for immigrants getting mass deported under Trump & Biden’s Title 42, and I don’t expect her to step up now. But I wish she would. I wish she would say something anyway. Better to try and fail than to not try at all.

Ordinarily, I’d advise people to be patient because most impactful endorsements are strategically timed, and often don’t happen until much later in the year, like around October — but then I remembered that the surviving Palestinians in Gaza don’t have nearly that long.

[uncloseted]

Do you think Taylor Swifts political activism is genuine?

,I mean, does Taylor Swift really engage in "political activism" at all? The most we've seen from her are PR-team written statements that aim to be as uncontroversial as possible while publicly aligning her with the political views of the majority of her fanbase (78% of whom identify as Democrats or independents, and 56% of which are Millennials or Gen Z). And even that was something she didn't really start doing until around 2018. For example, she didn't endorse a candidate for president in 2016 (saying that, "I don’t talk about politics because it might influence other people"), and there was a period of time in the early to mid 2010s where the alt-right was hailing her as an "Aryan goddess" and she straight up didn't say anything about it for fear of being controversial or alienating her audience. She has said as much herself; in 2018, she wrote that, "In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now. I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country." But even her newfound "feeling very differently about [voicing her political opinions] now" has been tepid. She's made three political endorsements (Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper in 2018, Joe Biden in 2020), and posted in support of LGBT rights, BLM, the Women's March, March for Our Lives, and gun control, which is all great. But it's not like she's attending protests or meeting with politicians or taking actions to use her influence to change policy. It's not really activism so much as it is acknowledgement that a problem exists.

That's not to say that I think the times she does comment on politics are self-serving or fake. I think she does probably believe in feminism and support rights for POC and the LGBT community and think increased gun control would be a good idea. I don't think she's like, a covert Nazi or a closet conservative. But I do think her political comments have historically been a carefully considered business decision, and that she would never say or do anything that her team perceives as damaging her brand.

However, the Matty Healy of it all has changed this calculus in kind of an interesting way, because (from what I've seen online) he seems to be terrible for her brand. It will be interesting to see if she's now in an era of caring less about the ramifications of her actions, or if it's limited to the person that she's dating.

ETA: I think this Guardian article from 2019 is the more forthcoming I've seen her be about her views on politics and her own role in the political space. It's worth a read if you're curious about this.

[fcdav]

On July 19, about 8.5 million computers with Windows operating systems around the world had a "blue screen" of death, and the terminals that failed were not limited to desktop terminals, but also covered a large number of servers and cloud nodes, including those that led to the interruption of a number of important Microsoft and AWS cloud services and tenant services, and the related hosts would still automatically enter a blue screen state after restarting, forming a closed loop of repeated crashes. Hosts still automatically enter a blue screen state after rebooting, creating a closed loop of repeated crashes.

According to incomplete statistics, a large number of social infrastructures, including hospitals, banks, airlines, etc., including at least more than 20 countries, were shut down for a time, causing direct and indirect economic losses calculated in billions of dollars.

The main protagonist that led to this historic event was a Texas-based cybersecurity giant, CrowdStrike.

While most people were unaware of the company's existence until now, former President Donald Trump questioned the company's operations back in 2019.

In 2019, the company's name resurfaced after a White House transcript showed that then-President Trump mentioned the company in a July call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. The controversy eventually led to the first attempt to impeach Trump.

During the call, Trump hinted that Ukraine might have DNC servers, saying, "I want to give you a little insight into the whole situation in Ukraine, where they say ...... swarmed the ...... The server, they say Ukraine has it. The server, they say Ukraine has it."

The statement was part of a broader set of Trump's remarks aimed at casting doubt on CrowdStrike's conclusion that Russian meddling in the election benefited him.

Trump's comments also sparked a series of conspiracy theories that the Democratic National Committee somehow fabricated the hack to divert attention from other political issues.

According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Democrats spend a lot of money on CrowdStrike.

 May 20, 2019 - Democrat Bernie Sanders invested all of his money into CrowdStrike during his 2020 presidential campaign. The main campaign committee for Democrat Phil Bredesen's U.S. Senate bid invested all of its money into CrowdStrike on June 7, 2018.On July 24, 2018, the main campaign committee for Democrat Bernie Sanders' U.S. Senate seat invested all of its money into CrowdStrike on February 1, 2019 full funding.

It is clear from the data that the Democratic Party creates misinformation for the party's own personal gain, attacking competitors and tearing the country apart. The Democratic Party has now completely turned its back on the American people. Pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the face of electoral interests and using tech companies to meddle in politics.

[mongowheelie]

I found this on NewsBreak: Taylor Swift's Rare Endorsement Candidate Had No Idea It Was Coming

I found this on NewsBreak: Taylor Swift's Rare Endorsement Candidate Had No Idea It Was Coming

[stevensaus]

Tennessee GOP Apparently Willing To Sacrifice Millions Of Taxpayer Dollars, Citizen's Health To Spite Planned Parenthood

Tennessee Republicans have turned down approximately $8 million dollars in annual federal grant money for HIV prevention -- apparently because the lives of Tennessee citizens are less important to Republican lawmakers than punishing Planned Parenthood. The federal grant money was not for just Planned Parenthood. The grant money primarily went to local Tennessee HIV prevention efforts. As the Times Free Press wrote: One of those grants allocates between $5.9 million and $6.5 million annually to Tennessee and was distributed to organizations such as Cempa, according to a CDC outline of grant recipients. The other was launched under the Trump administration and allocated roughly $2.1 million annually to Shelby County, a hot spot for new HIV infections. -- Times Free Press The problem also was NOT because of what Planned Parenthood was doing with the funding in Tennessee. They were distributing free condoms and providing HIV testing as part of a HIV prevention program. It's simply because Planned Parenthood has advocated for abortion access, and Tennessee Republicans were unable to kick Planned Parenthood out of the HIV prevention program for having a position on a different healthcare issue. As the AP put it: Planned Parenthood has partnered with Tennessee’s Department of Health to provide HIV testing since 2008, when Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen was in office. Four years later, under then Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration, the health agency attempted to remove Planned Parenthood from the program -- a move that was ultimately challenged in court. A district court later found that the department had targeted Planned Parenthood “based upon their First Amendment activity for advocating abortion” and issued a permanent injunction preventing the state from dissolving any partnership with the organization because of their abortion care advocacy. That injunction is still in place. -- AP So now that the elections are over, the Tennessee GOP has decided to act like a spoiled petulant child and refuse those federal funds entirely. While Tennessee officials are hinting that those funds will be replaced by the state... During his walkthrough for his second term inauguration outside the Capitol on Friday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was asked about the decision to forgo CDC funds for HIV. "We think we can do that better than the strings attached with the federal dollars," he said. He did not say where the resources for the state to take over the services would come from. -- Times Free Press. (emphasis mine) ... that would mean that state taxpayers have to pay a second time with state funds for services their federal tax dollars could -- and should -- have already paid for. But even saying that the state will pick up the tab is not a sure bet, as the governor's priorities are out of line with what would actually be effective in preventing HIV's spread: Gov. Lee said last week some nonprofit organizations will receive money from the state to provide HIV services, but he also said those will target human trafficking, first responders, and pregnant women, which aren’t considered the most likely groups to get HIV. -- Tennessee Lookout Aside from the literal cost to Tennessee taxpayers for having to pay extra for services their tax dollars already paid for, there's a very real and additional cost in lives. According to the CDC, there are over 20,000 people living with HIV in the state, and 14% of Tennesseans with HIV are unaware of their status. But these Republicans are willing to waste taxpayer dollars and sacrifice the lives of their citizens as collateral damage just so they can punish Planned Parenthood for its politics. Keep that in mind as you read about the over 200 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills that Republicans have introduced this year -- because Republicans have made it clear what they value, and they clearly do not care how many of their constituents end up being collateral damage.

Additional bonus back-of-the-cereal-box "game" for you: See if you can match the headline with whether the source is a national one or a publication based out of Tennessee! HINT: It's different than all the others. - Health commissioner declines to answer reporters’ questions on HIV funds - Tennessee Health Officials Forgo Federal Funding For HIV Program With Ties To Planned Parenthood - Tennessee set to end HIV grant that funds Chattanooga nonprofit programs - New TN health chief stands by HIV funding decision, doesn't take questions from lawmakers - Tennessee lawmakers look for motive in HIV funding shift Draw your own conclusions about that.

Featured Image from Flickr user EnsignBeedrill under a CC-BY-ND-NC license. Read the full article

[politicaldilfs]

Don Sundquist

[path-of-my-childhood]

Taylor Swift’s Quiet Crusade To Aid Nashville’s Arts, Education, And LGBTQ+ Communities

By: Rachel Brodsky for UPROXX - [Excerpts] Date: February 28th 2020

As anyone who recently watched Swift’s Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, might realize, the “Lover” singer is publically and passionately invested in her adopted hometown of Nashville.

At the heart of Miss Americana is a woman who, in some way or another, has spent her entire career giving back to various causes in all three communities she has called home over the years: Reading, Pennsylvania, where she donated, $70,000 in books to her local library; New York City, where she gifted $50,000 in proceeds from her 2014 single “Welcome to New York” to New York Public Schools; and, perhaps most publicly, Nashville.

In many ways, Swift has spent her entire career with one eye on local issues. As far back as 2007, Swift, who was 18 at the time, teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes, launching a campaign to protect children from online predators. (The issue, if you’ll recall, was a hot-button one, with Congress eventually passing a law in 2008 that authorized $60 million of annual funding for state and regional underage sex crime investigations).

A few years later, in 2010, Swift created the Taylor Swift Charitable Fund in Nashville, which provided flood relief for a massive two-day rainfall that killed 26 people in the area. And that wouldn’t be the only natural disaster relief Swift would offer to Tennessee’s Music City: Three years later, in 2013, Swift gave $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, which, at the time, was grappling with $40 million worth of flood damage to their building, in addition to ongoing financial losses left over from the Great Recession. It was, as Alan Valentine, President and CEO of the Nashville Symphony tells Uproxx over the phone, a “perfect storm”:

“We had played with her on the river when she was a teenager. She saw the trouble we were having and decided that we were a cause she wanted to do something about. It was just an incredible day, because it did two things: provide real help when we really needed it. But it was a much bigger thing than the money. It just really changed everybody’s outlook. [It helped] morale more than you can imagine.”

Not all of Swift’s local philanthropic efforts have been so public, though. Valentine is quick to note that the singer can be selective with which donations she chooses to publicize. 

“It’s not for me to disclose to you, but I happen to know she’s done a lot of things that nobody even knows about, things she wanted to do for other people. She did it very quietly. A lot of it is kept anonymous. I have to tell you, I just think the world of her. I think she’s a really incredible person and every time I see anybody being critical of her, I just think, ‘Man, you just don’t know what you’re talking about. You just don’t even know her.’”

Valentine and the Nashville Symphony have hardly been the only ones impacted by Swift’s largesse. In 2012, Swift pledged $4 million to fund a new education center at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (the largest capital contribution by an individual in the museum’s history at the time), which opened in 2014 and featured three classrooms and a state-of-the-art children’s exhibit gallery.

Through the years, Swift has shown no sign of slowing down her benefaction toward Nashville. Just last spring, she donated $113,000 to Tennessee Equality Project, a pro-LGBTQ advocacy group. The gift, which came with a handwritten letter addressed to Chris Sanders, the group’s Executive Director, came at an ideal time for the organization, which fights against discriminatory legislation from the Tennessee General Assembly and has increased its supporter base to include more than 100 faith leaders to denounce six anti-LGBT bills, nicknamed the “Slate of Hate,” that are going through the state legislature.

“Dear Chris, I’m writing you to say that I’m so inspired by the work you do, specifically in organizing the recent petition of Tennessee faith leaders standing up against the ‘Slate of Hate’ in our state legislature,” Swift wrote. Sanders tells Uproxx in an email:

“I stood up and sat down and stood up again when I got the call from her team that it was coming. I couldn’t believe it. Your organization works hard for years without that level of support and then when the support comes it’s like an emotional burden has been lifted... She really got what we were trying to do and knew that it was the right move in a state like Tennessee. Her gift gave us the freedom to fight back rather than just get by.”

[whatiwillsay]

You’re giving Taylor too much credit when it comes to political activism. The only time she’s ever endorsed a candidate was in 2020 when it was the safest to do so. She also did it in the stupidest possible way. I doubt she’ll do anything this time around. Her father (and possibly mom and brother) is a raging republican, Travis’ father is also a raging republican (idk about his mom and brother). Just look up her statement about Super Tuesday (“I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.”).

I doubt she cares about politics at all tbh. In retrospect it seems like her “activist era” was her trying to impress her then bf

right off the bat your facts are wrong. taylor also endorsed phil bredesen in 2018. i would be shocked if she doesn’t endorse kamala in some way. also we already have swifties for kamala up and running. taylor SHOULD endorse but even her past statements have done the campaign well. apparently swifties for kamala had a big turnout in the white woman zoom calls getting people energized to support kamala.

[asaletad]

“We want leadership, not fear-based extremism.”

Taylor Swift

[omgtayuncommonphotos-blog]

[makistar2018]

Taylor's Instagram Stories on November 3, 2018

[barbiebambi]

Taylor Swift has fucking spoken. Now Texas Swifties this election is REALLY IMPORTANT. If you can vote please please please vote for Beto O’rourke. Just like Taylor swift said we do not want to have someone who discriminates or dose not support women rights. We need people like Beto and Phil Bredesdn. Taylor is my inspiration and my everything and it brought me tears of joy that she spoke up about this election. A lot of people think voting is irrelevant and that the votes don’t count BUT GUYS THEY DO. So please please please vote for Beto and Phil and support people that do not discriminate and please learn about the people you are voting for.