Current Events > TN lawmakers punish Memphis for removing Confederate statues

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://apnews.com/17ec9774415240b0a7b1ec41d923eb3c

The Republican-dominated House in Tennessee voted Tuesday to punish the city of Memphis for removing Confederate monuments by taking $250,000 away from the city that would have been used for a bicentennial celebration next year.

The retaliation came in the form of passage of a last-minute amendment attached to the House appropriations bill that triggered heated debate on the House floor and stinging rebukes from lawmakers from Memphis.

Rep. Antonio Parkinson began to call the amendment vile and racist before being cut off by boos from fellow lawmakers.

You can boo all you want but lets call it for what it is, the Memphis representative said.

Last year the city of Memphis, which is majority black, was able to find a legal loophole to get rid of two Confederate statues and a bust by selling city parks to a nonprofit, which swiftly removed the monuments. Taken away under cover of darkness were statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was a general in the confederacy, a slave owner and a leader in the Ku Klux Klan. A bust of a Confederate soldier was also removed.

Parkinson, who is African-American, said he was sick of how fellow lawmakers revered Forrest as if he was God, as if he was an idol.

You remove money from a city because we removed your God from our grounds, Parkinson said.

A Republican lawmaker from Chattanooga who grew up in Memphis told fellow lawmakers that he loved the city but this was about obeying at least the spirit of a law to protect historical monuments.

And the law was very clear, and they got smart lawyers to figure out how to wiggle around the law, and I think thats what the issue is, said Rep. Gerald McCormick.

The amendment that stripped the money away from Memphis was sponsored by Matthew Hill, a Republican from Jonesborough.

Another Republican lawmaker said removing the monuments was erasing history, he said thats what ISIS does and it was a bad action that deserved punishment.

Today is a demonstration that bad actions have bad consequences, and my only regret about this is its not in the tune of millions of dollars, Rep. Andy Holt, of Dresden, said of the punishment.

Another Memphis Democrat called the move to take away the money unchristian, hateful and unkind, and she said she was tired of lawmakers treating her city as if it wasnt part of the state.

I know some of you all would be happy if we gave the doggone part of the state to Arkansas, Rep. Raumesh Akbari, said. Arkansas would gladly take us. But Ill tell you something: I dont support this, and I think if you do it youre being ugly. Its not fair. Memphis is a part of Tennessee. I didnt even realize how much yall disliked Memphis till I got to this Legislature.

The amendment passed along with the $37.5 million budget.

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The totally-not-racist party of small government strikes again!
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But muh huritage.
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This is very strange to me. Weren't the Confederates Democrats? Why are all these Republicans lining up to honor them, while Democrats seek to remove their statues?

Really makes you think
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Fucked up. Fuck Tennessee
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Abraham Lincoln: "The south shall be forgiven!! ...until 2018, when I want people to revise history and forget about what happened here."
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Phantom_Nook posted...

The totally-not-racist party of small government strikes again!

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Caution999 posted...

Abraham Lincoln: "The south shall be forgiven!! ...until 2018, when I want people to revise history and forget about what happened here."

Pathetic
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The party that voted against slavery? Democrats
The party that voted against African American rights? Democrats
The guy who killed Lincoln? A Democrat
The guy who killed MLK Jr? A Democrat
The guy who founded the KKK? A Democrat
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Caution999 posted...

Abraham Lincoln: "The south shall be forgiven!! ...until 2018, when I want people to revise history and forget about what happened here."

Removing the statues isn't revising history. Putting the statues up in the first place is revising history, by pretending Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest deserve to be honored in any capacity.
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Fair, next
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Caution999 posted...

The party that voted against slavery? Democrats
The party that voted against African American rights? Democrats
The guy who killed Lincoln? A Democrat
The guy who killed MLK Jr? A Democrat
The guy who founded the KKK? A Democrat

Correct, conservatives did all of those things.
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Caution999 posted...

Abraham Lincoln: "The south shall be forgiven!! ...until 2018, when I want people to revise history and forget about what happened here."

The statues are revisionist history. They were explicitly created to further a myth about the Confederacy and those who led it.
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I don't understand why people think removing statues is erasing history.
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Caution999 posted...

Abraham Lincoln: "The south shall be forgiven!! ...until 2018, when I want people to revise history and forget about what happened here."

No one knows Hitler existed. I mean, without statues of him in Germany, everyone forgot about WWII! True shame!
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Bill Clinton won SEVERAL south states in the early 90s, proving the infamous party switch didn't happen.
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Caution999 posted...

Abraham Lincoln: "The south shall be forgiven!! ...until 2018, when I want people to revise history and forget about what happened here."

re-read your post, see how removing Confederate monuments has nothing to do with whether the South was forgiven, or not.
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Caution999 posted...

Bill Clinton won SEVERAL south states in the early 90s, proving the infamous party switch didn't happen.

And Reagan literally repealed some of the Civil Rights laws
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Caution999 posted...

The guy who founded the KKK? A Democrat

Tennessee Republicans prevented Memphis Democrats from moving his statue

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/tennessee/2016/10/21/nathan-bedford-forrest-wont-be-moved/92510072/
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Donomark posted...

No one knows Hitler existed.

Who? Sounds important, if only there was a statue of him somewhere.
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Literally one guy switched parties in the mid 60s and somehow that means both parties switched.

Get a hold of yourself, here. Doesn't add up.
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Some additional context.

The funds had been negotiated by Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis) to match city and Shelby County planned expenditures to celebrate both entities' bicentennial in 2019. But Rep. Matthew Hill (R-Jonesborough) and Rep. Steve McDaniel (R-Parker's Crossroads) introduced a last-minute amendment to strip the money. They cited the city's decision to sell two parks to a nonprofit so they could then remove statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis, along with one of a generic Confederate solider, without getting the approval of the Tennessee Historical Commission as required by a law McDaniel pushed a few years ago. (The city had tried and failed to get such approval earlier in 2017.)

"If you recall, back in December, Memphis did something that removed historical markers in the city. It was the city of Memphis that did this, and it was full knowing it was not the will of the legislature," McDaniel said.

Memphis broke the law by removing those statues without getting proper permission. I don't really take issue with the state fining them for that. It's not like the $250K that was earmarked for a festival is really that big of a deal.
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CableZL posted...

I don't understand why people think removing statues is erasing history.

What is removing the statue accomplishing if not to "erase" history.
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John_Galt posted...

Fair, next

i will say the same when dem-run states start passing laws to defund the offices of republican politicians, statewide

if teachers can pay for supplies so can republicans

this sorta petty shit has consequences

The Admiral posted...

Memphis broke the law by removing those statues without getting proper permission.

as i understand it, they didn't break the law: they found a loophole to the law, and took it. the law required approval for removing the statues, not for selling the park.

because the state can't legally fine them, they instead defunded a feel-good project as a 'fuck you' response. such activity demands a response; not responding in kind incentivizes this behavior.

such is likely the viewpoint of the TN GOP as well.
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the GOP only likes "smart" legal maneuvering to get around big gubmint when they do it
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Caution going the Admiral route
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Caution999 posted...

Bill Clinton won SEVERAL south states in the early 90s, proving the infamous party switch didn't happen.

Is this the fucking narrative now? One election where a southern governor won five southern states suddenly proves that the Dixiecrat stuff of decades prior didn't happen?

Get yourself to Teavana, son, because that's some weak.
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Caution999 posted...

Literally one guy switched parties in the mid 60s and somehow that means both parties switched.

Get a hold of yourself, here. Doesn't add up.

What's your theory on how the electoral map went from

to

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E32005 posted...

Caution going the Admiral route

Nice to see you keeping that streak alive
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E32005 posted...

Caution going the Admiral route

Caution was liberalFAQs. Let's not pretend his current behavior is new.
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Nothing changed in the south except family lifestyle. Family morals. Family values. The idea that you can protect your family with a firearm, and have the ability to protect your life should the situation occur.

What party supports that? That's, in part, why they are red today.
The Republican party supports more...family values today.
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HypnoCoosh posted...

CableZL posted...

I don't understand why people think removing statues is erasing history.

What is removing the statue accomplishing if not to "erase" history.

It's ending honor being given to men that don't deserve to be honored.
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Caution999 posted...

The Republican party supports more...family values today.

Yup, that's why they elected a man that raped his ex wife and cheated on his current wife with a pornstar.
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HypnoCoosh posted...

CableZL posted...

I don't understand why people think removing statues is erasing history.

What is removing the statue accomplishing if not to "erase" history.

It doesn't erase anything. It belongs in a museum. As is, it's functioning as public commemoration.
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And you voted for a woman who deleted 33,000 emails, and who's husband has been accused of rape. AND got oral sex in the oval office.
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Caution999 posted...

The Republican party supports more...family values today.

"Family Values"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/400-current-events/76490433
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Why are people going out of their way to remove these statues? Hurt feefees?
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Caution999 posted...

And you voted for a woman who deleted 33,000 emails, and who's husband has been accused of rape. AND got oral sex in the oval office.

sounds like he voted for the family values candidate, what with her being against rape and all, and her opponent being pro-rape
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CyricZ posted...

Is this the fucking narrative now? One election where a southern governor won five southern states suddenly proves that the Dixiecrat stuff of decades prior didn't happen?

yeah it is kind of silly
although to be fair to caution, you don't get much of what happened from looking at the maps, either

I mean clearly LBJ vs Goldwater shows 'the southern strategy' so to speak

But so many of the elections in the next two decades are one-sided -- Nixon wins every where except the south in 68, then wins every where in 72. In 76 you have a different southern democratic governor, and he wins more than just 5 southern states, he wins all of them (basically)

Then its Reagan twice and Bush once, all three elections where the GOP wins nationwide

it really isn't clear if you just look at the state-level results of presidential elections. I bet if we looked at the composition of the house it would be more telling though
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Good. They needed to answer for what they did to them.
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Caution999 posted...

And you voted for a woman who deleted 33,000 emails, and who's husband has been accused of rape. AND got oral sex in the oval office.

Deflections because you have no defense.
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Balrog0 posted...

it really isn't clear if you just look at the state-level results of presidential elections. I bet if we looked at the composition of the house it would be more telling though

ding ding ding
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I know he didn't mean it, but the ellipsis added before "family values" is both hilarious and sinister.
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Tmaster148 posted...

Caution999 posted...

The Republican party supports more...family values today.

"Family Values"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/400-current-events/76490433

So you believe EVERYbody in the GOP is like this one guy?

You're demonizing the other side by making us all the same. Congrats.
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From 1880 (the first post-reconstruction election) to 1960, there were 21 presidential elections
The five Deep South states of LA, AL, MS, GA, and SC voted for the Democrat 97/105 times. I don't have exact figures on Senatorial elections (it'd be a pain to count, mainly), but I imagine they're similar

From 1964-1996, the same states voted for the Democrat 9/45 times, only when the candidate was himself a Southerner

Since 2000, Democrats are 0 for 25 in those states. Their only current Democratic senator in them is Doug Jones, whose election was more about his opponent than anything else.
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DarkChozoGhost posted...

Caution999 posted...

And you voted for a woman who deleted 33,000 emails, and who's husband has been accused of rape. AND got oral sex in the oval office.

Deflections because you have no defense.

You're a hypocrite. Bill has been accused of rape. He also cheated on Hillary. But that's OK because he has a (D) next to his name.
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Caution999 posted...

The party that voted against slavery? Democrats
The party that voted against African American rights? Democrats
The guy who killed Lincoln? A Democrat
The guy who killed MLK Jr? A Democrat
The guy who founded the KKK? A Democrat

Dont hit people with facts.
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What a fucking meltdown. Can we just not have one today, LiberalFAQs?
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Caution999 posted...

DarkChozoGhost posted...

Caution999 posted...

And you voted for a woman who deleted 33,000 emails, and who's husband has been accused of rape. AND got oral sex in the oval office.

Deflections because you have no defense.

You're a hypocrite. Bill has been accused of rape. He also cheated on Hillary. But that's OK because he has a (D) next to his name.

Who said that's ok? You literally voted for Trump despite knowing that he raped his ex wife. You're the hypocrite
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Antifar posted...

Doug Jones, whose election was more about his opponent trying to rape little girls

lets be clear about what roy moore is and what anyone who supported roy moore is
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