Publisher’s Positions
According To Sentinel, The City Can Do No Wrong
The Knoxville News Sentinel is now whining about the $60 million “pedestrian” bridge along South Knoxville’s waterfront as it tries to wail about waste and overspending in government. Of course, the Sentinel is apparently opposed to any effort by DOGE to root out waste, abuse and fraud and appears to be horrified that the current administration may not provide the federal money to build the bridge. We have one pedestrian bridge, not by design, but as it cannot now accommodate any kind of motor vehicle into downtown. The folks writing about these topics weren’t born when the people of South Knoxville were promised something far different for the waterfront than a walking bridge to accommodate the Vol Navy on game day and just why city taxpayers should fund the project for the University of Tennessee has never been adequately explained. The pedestrian bridge is a prime example of wasting taxpayer money well into the millions, but as the City of Knoxville is run by far-left Democrats, the Sentinel, to my knowledge, doesn’t seem to believe the city has ever wasted or misspent a single dime of taxpayer money.
The City of Knoxville seems to raise property taxes every three years, one reason being to fund its overly generous pension system. For instance, Victor Ashe receives a very nice pension from his 16 years as mayor of Knoxville, and he has assigned his pension rights to his daughter. Theoretically, a pension can run for 60 or 70 years, all funded by the taxpayers inside the city. Keep in mind, the last tax hike by Indya Kincannon and the Knoxville City Council was a whopping 40% after it had been raised just three years earlier.
Now the Sentinel sings a song of misery because the city administration applied for a federal grant for a bridge that was never needed and certainly not wanted by the people of South Knoxville as best as I can tell. The University, under its current trajectory, is growing like Topsy as it has removed something like $9 million from the property tax rolls in South Knoxville, and who will make up that difference? City taxpayers, of course. People who get up and go to work every day.
The song of the long whine of the Sentinel surrounds the fact that grant writers in the City of Knoxville government, all highly paid, filled the proposal full of Diversity Equity Inclusion and the virtue signaling required of the Left, which has not a thing to do with good governance, except in the wee minds of fellow Leftists. When the proposal was written, Joe Biden was in office, and clearly the city administration never anticipated that the people of America would elect Donald Trump. Just what does a bridge have to do with DEI in the first place? The very idea that a bridge has anything to do with DEI is stupid. Would the lights go out at dusk if a White or Asian person walked across? Would music play if a Muslim walked across? Will the bridge sound off and lecture on DEI as students skip across it? Will it play appropriate music for those disembarking from their yachts and large vessels as they march to Neyland Stadium across the street on game day? The very idea that a bridge, any bridge, has anything to do with DEI makes about as much sense as the City of Knoxville proclaiming the bridge’s pronouns are “they” and “them.” But then, to hear the Knoxville News Sentinel tell it, the City of Knoxville has never wasted a penny of taxpayer money. I don’t recall any recent stories critical of how the City of Knoxville spends tax dollars, especially after showing repeatedly their idea of fiscal management is to come back to the taxpayers every three years to try and get more. Most people who live inside the city now pay more in city property taxes than they do for the county, simply for garbage pickup and fewer services. Indya Kincannon rolled back services to the people of Knoxville while boosting taxes 40% when she issued an edict that the Knoxville Police Department would no longer come to traffic accidents and make a report unless there was a personal injury. Intelligent folks now ask 911 to send a sheriff’s deputy.
Whether it’s a $1.7 million sculpture some consultant thinks is “art,” the City of Knoxville has amply demonstrated in recent times it doesn’t even pretend to live within its means and continues to spend more and more. The Sentinel skipped right past another story of the City of Knoxville paying a California-based group $519,750 to manage “violence interruption” locally. We all know how well California is governed. These are the same people who watched while sucking their thumbs as Los Angeles neighborhoods burned because there was no water in the fire hydrants, but the city government believes experts from California, where crime is so rampant chain stores of several varieties have closed their doors. What do people who refuse to prosecute crimes know about interrupting violence?
The city council is being asked to hire the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform to help curb crime. Here’s a wild notion: what about simply letting the police do their job and let the district attorney prosecute criminals? Yet the Sentinel hasn’t uttered a peep or questioned how a single dollar of taxpayers’ money is being spent, much less wasted.
A Congressman Should Not Be Bullied
The notion that Congressman Tim Burchett should have a “town hall” meeting for a bunch of malcontents and leftists to scream at him for an hour or two is absurd. There is no congressman in the country more readily accessible than Tim Burchett. The variety and wideness of his acquaintanceship are nothing short of astounding. Burchett routinely holds virtual town hall meetings, inviting literally thousands of participants from across the Second Congressional District. What the leftist media and activists want is a visual to put online of supposedly unhappy constituents shrieking about Trump and Republicans. It is to give the appearance that somehow the gathered cranks and kooks are the majority of the public. That poll was held recently and Congressman Burchett was reelected with something like 70% of the vote.
Sane people have countless opportunities to visit with Tim Burchett at any number of public appearances and they can always email, write a letter or telephone or even participate in the virtual town halls. But then, that doesn’t allow for the kind of spectacle the paid activists want.
There Oughta Be a Law
Jake Tapper and a co-author have come out with a book detailing the scandal involved in the attempt by the Biden administration and the compliant news media to cover up Joe Biden’s all too noticeable mental decline. Of course, Jake Tapper himself was one of those who chewed out Lara Trump for suggesting Biden was anything but sharp as a tack. Tapper’s attempt to cash in on what he strenuously denied should be in the Guinness Book of Hypocrisy. Evidently, CNN and Tapper didn’t know any journalists who were supposed to get to the bottom of such things. Now he is writing about the White House lying, the Biden administration was lying about the state of Joe Biden’s mental decomposition. Let’s remember the leftist mainstream news outlets were calling people “Nazis” who questioned Biden’s mental acuity. They ALL lied to the American public.
There oughta be a law that Tapper can’t make money on something he not only did NOT report, but denied before it became so obvious even a moron could see and hear it.
From The Desk Of Rep. Tim Burchett:
On Friday, U.S. Congressman Tim Burchett announced that he will be introducing legislation to codify President Trump’s Executive Orders. Since his inauguration, President Trump has slashed regulatory red tape, prioritized fiscal conservatism, and effectively closed the Southern Border.
“President Trump has done his part in acting on the mandate from the American people. It’s past time for Congress to take action,” said Representative Burchett.
“I am taking charge to ensure Congress carries out President Trump’s agenda. Thats why I’ll be introducing a series of single-issue bills to support the President and Congressional Republicans’ promise to the American people.”
The first series of bills will enforce DOGE cuts, slash harmful red tape, eliminate foreign influence in our schools, and unleash American energy.
