U.S. Rep. Burchett held a small rally at Cotton Eyed Joes Saturday, March 22, 2025. Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs was also a speaker.

Here are a few snippets from his talk. It is rumored there were about 70 people in attendance. As usual, he did get them to laugh.

"We will never tax ourselves into prosperity.

Outside of Christianity, the number one thing that's taken this world out of despair is capitalism.
You should never allow Washington the decision to do with more of your money than they have already.
They need to take less of it.
...
We've got a lot of corruption in DC.
...
We ought to outlaw stock trades among members of Congress.
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It's corruption.
...
The war pimps at the Pentagon will never get enough of your money.
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We are on the cusp of doing something great in this country.
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Bill Clinton was winning the White House. And I remember thinking, "in what world could we elect a draft dodger as President of the United States?"

[He fails to say that the current President could be labeled a draft dodger.]
[President Donald Trump acknowledged to advisors that he made up a fake injury to avoid military service, because “I wasn’t going to Vietnam,” his former lawyer told lawmakers during testimony on Wednesday.]

Until recently, every state required physicians from abroad to complete a residency program in the U.S. before obtaining a full medical license.

Apparently there is a doctor shortage and some states are dropping this requirement for some doctors with international training.

About 26% of doctors who practice in the U.S. were born elsewhere, according to the Migration Policy Institute. They need federal visas to live in the U.S., plus state licenses to practice medicine.

Proponents of the new laws say qualified doctors shouldn’t have to spend years completing a second residency training. Opponents worry about patient safety and doubt the licensing change will ease the doctor shortage.

“It’s a really poor answer to the doctor shortage,” said Barbara Parker [registered nurse and former Republican lawmaker in Arizona], who voted against the legislation last year.

“This is driven by corporate greed,” she said.

In April 2023, Tennessee, through SB 1451 that aimed to mitigate the state’s physician shortage, drastically reduced these barriers and became the first state in the nation to allow IMGs who are licensed in another country to be provisionally licensed and practice in the U.S. without requiring completion of a U.S.-based residency. Applicants must be certified by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), pass US licensing exams (USMLE Step 1 and Step 2), and have completed at least a three-year residency program at an accredited international program. They must then practice under the supervision of a Tennessee-licensed physician for two years before receiving an unrestricted license.

You can look up your physician in the State of Tennessee Dept of Health License Verification website. I usually only enter the first name, last name, state and Medical Doctor for profession.

I can't say I like this trend.

What was the 2024 election about? How did the Republicans win? Eggs? High prices? Inflation? Immigration?

"Nashville Democrats, Rep. Aftyn Behn and Sen. Heidi Campbell, are rolling out the “Pot for Potholes Act,” an effort to legalize and tax recreational marijuana and use the tax revenue for highway, bridge and mass transit projects."

It's cute, but is it really beneficial to the citizens of Tennessee?

Dana Milbank, Washington Post, "Don’t know much about history? I’m here for you, Elon Musk. ‘Due process’ might sound technical, but it was elemental to our founding".

"The man President Donald Trump put in charge of taking a chain saw to federal agencies showed once again this week that he lacks even a rudimentary understanding of the government he is dismembering."
...
"Musk, growing up in apartheid-era South Africa, probably wasn’t taught to revere constitutional democracy. But what’s the excuse of his colleagues in the Trump administration?"
...
"Judges, in preliminary rulings, have already blocked the administration more than 50 times."
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"There’s an obvious reason Trump is getting swatted down so often: He’s breaking the law. Instead of changing course, the administration is now trying to discredit the courts — and the rule of law. "

Milbank knows his stuff. He's done a great job of breaking down the past two months of the current presidency. You have to wonder if he aggregates all of this himself or does he have a staff? Surprising that Bezos continues to keep paying him.

Organizers for the "Empty Chair Town Hall" event said they invited Burchett, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and Republican Senator Bill Hagerty but none appeared for the event. State Democratic Representatives Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) and Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) appeared at it.

The event was "meant to give the Knox County community a chance to vent frustrations over recent decisions by the Trump administration and the region's federal lawmakers."

... "at least 300 people were estimated to have participated. It was held Friday, March, 21, 2025, at 6 p.m. at the Deane Hill Recreation Center."

United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a new interview this week, "Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this months. My mother-in-law is 94, she wouldn't call up and complain. She just wouldn't. She would think something got messed up and she'd get it next month," he said. "A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining."

This comes a couple of days after Lutnick advises Americans to buy Tesla stock.

Maybe his isn't a lie. Maybe his is just blatant stupidity. There are very few people I know who would not complain if they didn't receive their Social Security check. I am one of them.

President Donald Trump turned the South Lawn of the White House into a temporary Tesla showroom Tuesday [March 11, 2025] in a conspicuous favor to his adviser Elon Musk, the car company’s billionaire CEO.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s televised pitch for investors to buy Tesla shares has taken the intermingling of public and private interests into unprecedented territory.
...
Richard Painter, who served as chief ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush, says public officials who participated in the event violated standards of conduct that bar federal workers from advancing private interests in their official capacities.

Those rules were again cast aside when Lutnick appeared on Fox to heap further praise on Tesla and its founder.

This administration will stop at nothing to advance there personal funds.

In 2025, the March equinox happens on March 20 at 5:01 A.M. EDT. This falls on a Thursday and is the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere.

Love how the flowers come busting out in Spring. March is a tough month. We're teased with beautiful weather then it chills back down with clouds and wind. That's ok. East Tennessee is a pretty nice place to live.

Scrubbing African Americans, Women, Native Americans from the Dept. of Defense/Pentagon webpages.

A DOD official said Jacki Robinson army service was scrubbed from the Pentagon's webpage in efforts to remove diversity, equity and inclusion content. Others that were unpublished, including content honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the Enola Gay, the Navajo Code Talkers, history-making female fighter pilots and the Marines at Iwo Jima...

"A DOD official told ABC News that the Robinson webpage, among other content recently removed from Pentagon websites, was "mistakenly removed" due to the search terms used to scrub DEI terms from platforms."

Did they fire too many people thus unable to do the job correctly? Is there a correct way to scrub DEI terms? What is a DEI term? Woman?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip.

Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” Mr. Kennedy said recently on Fox News.
...
Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, also has voiced support for the notion.
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... if H5N1 were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Dr. Hansen said.

Alas, we are a confederacy of dunces.

Canadian "leisure bookings to U.S. cities dropped 40 percent in February over last February, with one in five customers canceling U.S. trips over the previous three months."
...
"Flair Airlines recently announced it would end flights to Nashville".
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Air Canada has also said it would reduce flights to Arizona, Florida, and Las Vegas starting this month, while WestJet told the Canadian Press that it had seen bookings shift from the U.S. to places like Mexico and the Caribbean. Sunwing Airlines has dropped all of its U.S. flights while Air Transat has reduced service to the country, the outlet reported."

Tennessee doesn't care. We have MAGA tourism.

After a recent change by the Trump administration, the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.

A General Services Administration "memo explains that it is making changes prompted by President Trump's executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion, which repealed an executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 regarding federal contractors and nondiscrimination."

Dumber than dirt? Have no clue?

A new greenspace has been created in Alcoa at the Midland shopping center. It is being offered as a venue for entertainment, arts and crafts fairs, etc.

What a great idea. More greenspace, less pavement. I hope it is a success.

A gentleman in Seattle, WA, was declared dead by DOGE. As a result of the DOGE declaration, the Social Security Administration stopped his payments and took back $5,201 in payments he received for December and January.

They actually contacted his bank and forced the bank to take back the automatic deposit money from the man's bank account and return it to the Federal government.

No one at the bank, Social Security, or DOGE tried to contact the man to see if he was alive. They just arbitrarily determined he was dead.

Would you be able to survive (e.g. pay your rent/house payment, buy groceries, gas) if you no longer received your Social Security payment? Especially if you didn't receive it for 3 months? It took the 82 year old gentleman a month or so to set the record straight. Do you have your birth certificate, your marriage license (if applicable), your identification, your Social Security paperwork? Are you ready to fight the Federal government over whether your are dead or alive? Are you even able to do it when you are 82 years old?

(About 1.5 hrs)

20 Trump Supporters Just Took On 1 Progressive, And The Video Is Going Viral For Breaking People's Minds

"This was one of the most heartbreaking and embarrassing demonstrations of the decline of American education."

In March 2004, Seder became co-host of Air America Radio's The Majority Report, alongside Janeane Garofalo until July 2006

In November 2010, Seder began an independent online podcast, called The Seder Channel (later renamed The Majority Report w/Sam Seder). The live talk-show format closely matches the previous Air America program, with politically oriented commentary by Seder and co-hosts, and interviews with various guests

We started listening to Sam Seder when he was on Air America. He is one of the most entertaining progressive commentators in talk media.

From Dana Milbank, Washington Post,

It’s no small feat to tank the $29 trillion U.S. economy in just seven weeks, but Donald Trump appears to be on the cusp of pulling it off. Plunging stock markets have lost some $4 trillion, Americans’ retirement accounts are shriveling, the president’s trade war is set to raise prices on everything from cars to avocados, and recession alarms are blinking red.

But this week, Trump took action to ease the fears of jittery Americans. He told them to buy Teslas.

Then there is Michelle Singletary, also with the Washington Post,
How to prepare for a recession before it’s too late.

We're in for a bumpy ride.

What’s Next? A Strategic Poker Chips Reserve? A Digital Pokemon Stockpile?

The crypto industry spent $119 million getting Donald Trump elected, and it's already gotten its money’s worth — even before this newest scam.

Here on real world earth, we’re lucky enough to get the worst of both worlds, the inane and the corrupt, with President Donald Trump creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve as well as a Digital Asset Stockpile ― to hoard cryptocurrencies that are even more volatile and sketchy than Bitcoin.

I was listening on the radio to a rep from Goldman Sachs yesterday. The question was asked as to how much do they advise their clients to invest in crypto. None, said the Goldman Sachs rep. Crypto has no real value. I hope those who really can't afford to lose an asset to not change that out for crypto/bitcoin.

As part of the city’s revised downtown parking plan, all parking meters in the downtown area are expected to be removed...There are three ways to pay. Drivers can download the ParkMobile app, scan the QR code on the nearest parking sign or text ‘park’ to 77223. Cards and coins will no longer be accepted for on-street parking...
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Surface lots will be converted to the new system throughout March and April while all parking garages are expected to be converted by late 2025.

I recently parked several times using the meters in the Fort Sanders area. The meter would not work with my credit card but I was able to put in coin. I found it convenient.

I'm not fond of having to use my smartphone and credit on my smartphone. So many ways to get hacked. I do like that you don't have to use an app, you can scan or text. I already have a separate credit card to buy gas and online purchases. Now, it's like I want a separate cellphone and credit card to park.

Twenty Democratic attorneys general have sued the Trump administration in federal court and filed for a temporary restraining order against nearly two dozen federal agencies, arguing that the mass layoffs of thousands of federal probationary employees in recent weeks were conducted illegally.

Included in the lawsuit are Maryland, Minnesota, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.

This is a separate lawsuit from the one 19 state attorney generals sued over Treasury data on 2/8/2025.

This is also separate from the lawsuit filed by 22 states over cuts Medical Research Funding (NIH). (2/11/2025)

And, separately, there is the lawsuit where 14 states sue over Musk's unconstitutional power. (2/13/2025)

We are in a crisis. Many thanks to the states standing up for the American people. What will it finally take to end this destruction of the U.S. government?