Bruce Barry
@brucebarry
Emeritus prof at Vanderbilt U, columnist for @TennesseeLookout.com, civil libertarian, nonrecovering chocoholic, fond of parrhesia tempered with aporia, avid indoorsman.
Employee ought to file a federal First Amendment lawsuit which would probably be successful. We've already seen multiple plaintiff-friendly settlements in Tennessee for this nonsense of policing protected Charlie Kirk-related speech by public employees.
An impossibly dense premise in @thetennesean.bsky.social op-ed by Rep. Sabi Kumar. When they cracked Nashville into three rural-dominated districts we ended up not with three House members serving us but with three having no real ties here, none of whom could give a shit about the city.
Reports are TN GOP will next redistrict state leg because supermajority not enough. Could they draw maps to make House 99-0 and senate 33-0? Took me 30 minutes using online mapping tool to make this state senate map slicing and dicing Middle TN. Why wouldn't they try it? What would stop them?
Agree with @jamellebouie.net. I offered an alternative take on his 'legacy' in my column in late 2020 on the occasion of Lamar's retirement from the Senate. tennesseelookout.com/2020/12/08/c...
Does NES (which is to say we rate payers) compensate their tree-butchering contractors by the hour? This 3-big-truck crew has been idling by my house for the last hour and a half doing nothing. Do we really need more ways to question NES competence than we already have?
The map shown on Senate Judiciary Committee agenda has a close-up of Davidson county. Here is my attempt to roughly translate it to actual county map to see approximate boundaries (inset is the proposed GOP close-up).
Sadly a shady maple that has lorded over our front yard for far longer than the quarter century we've lived here came down today. It has been in palliative care for the last few years and the ice storm of 2026 put it in hospice. Time to pull the plug. Fare thee well big tree.
TN-7 Congressman Chucklehead Van Epps is "proud to announce" that his choice of district office locations willfully ignores the county with the largest number of constituents - because why even bother pretending you rep Nashville or give the slightest shit about it?
The @nashvilledot.bsky.social residential storm-related debris collection op hit our street this morning and it is impressive in scale. Well done NDOT and thanks.
There's a chart at the NES homepage showing when power is expected back by zip code. Doesn't say when use of a spellchecker will be back.
It's curious that @aftynbehn.bsky.social's announcement today that she won't run again in TN-7 tells of plans for the "less than $200K in remaining funds" when her FEC disclosure earlier this month showed her campaign account with $465K cash on hand and zero debts or obligations left.
It's old hat to call the @thetennesean.bsky.social feckless but they have outdone themselves with a story two months ahead that it's "almost time" to move clocks ahead.
Tell me this line of Matt Van Epps's TV spot, "I know what to do to terrorists, so these woke wannabes in Washington better take cover," is not a call for violence against political foes. (Or does he believe that one debates policy with terrorists?) Jarring cluelessness especially after yesterday.
Update: Van Epps adds cable buy (Fox + ESPN) and pro-Van Epps PAC with begins airing on ch 2, 4, 5 plus cable (Fox + Newsmax). The PAC buy includes a spot during each of next two Titans game, each costing a cool 21 large.
Hey @axios.com Nashville if you have obtained this document why doesn't your story link to it? Reporting on it is short form and sketchy. Let's see the full document.
"Top headline" @thetennesean.bsky.social feeds is an advance preview of something that happened yesterday. Some days I can't believe I pay actual money to subscribe to this stupefying level of incompetence. Come to think of it most days.
Startling to see these WSJ stories - two cities not so long ago the object of much urban growth + vibe envy, both now bleeding talent and mojo. There's a cautionary tale in here for Nashville no doubt...