Nashville Reporter Only Sees Racism In Moving To A Christianity-Friendly Small Town

As Venezuelan gang soldiers set up shop in Tennessee, a Nashville reporter directs ire at a handful of American families who’ve moved in.

Violent Venezuelan gang infiltrates every major city in Tennessee



The vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has infiltrated every major city in Tennessee, according to state officials.

TDA has been tied to criminal activity across the United States, including apartment takeovers in Aurora, Colorado, and violent crimes in New York City and Dallas, Texas. Thus far, the gang has primarily, but not exclusively, focused on expanding its presence in sanctuary jurisdictions, where local law enforcement agencies are forbidden to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

'They will not hesitate to attack their opponents in public and in broad daylight.'

During a budget meeting this week, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director David Rausch warned Governor Bill Lee (R) that TDA has recently become a growing threat in the state.

According to Rausch, the gang started to appear in Tennessee two years ago, but its influence has substantially expanded over the past few months. He noted that TDA is active in Memphis and Nashville.

"We first saw them a couple years ago where we uncovered a group here in a human trafficking operation," Rausch explained. "We recognized a number of the members here trafficking females that they had abducted from Venezuela and brought them here."

The bureau successfully captured several individuals involved in the illicit operation, but "many of them fled" out of Tennessee, Rausch said.

"Now what we are seeing is they are back. They are back in all of our major cities," he declared.

When TDA arrives in a new area, it starts by running trafficking operations, then expands into other criminal activities, including organized retail theft and drug trafficking, Rausch told Lee.

He expressed concerns about TDA's brazenness and its targeting of cartel members.

"They will, and they have taken on the cartel head-on, and they're very violent in their efforts," Rausch continued. "They will not hesitate to attack their opponents in public and in broad daylight."

"Recently, there was a video that they shot where they shot an individual, a cartel member, 31 times. Broad daylight, on video, and posted it to social media," he stated.

Rausch did not share how many TDA gang members he believes are in the state but noted that "they're in numbers here."

According to Straight Arrow News, the Knoxville Police Department is unaware of any TDA activity in the area.

The Department of Homeland Security has reportedly identified more than 600 individuals in the U.S. with ties to TDA, Blaze News previously reported. The federal government has confirmed the gang's activity in at least 15 states, and it may have expanded to another eight.

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Nashville Pastor Ray Ortlund's endorsement of Harris goes really, really badly: 'I should have foreseen it'



Pastor Ray Ortlund of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, caught hell over the weekend for endorsing Kamala Harris. After trying to defend the statement, the Renewal Ministries president ultimately took down the social media post with the endorsement, claiming it had been "misinterpreted."

"Never Trump. This time Harris. Always Jesus," Ortlund wrote on Threads.

Self-identified conservative David French of the New York Times — who recently did his best to characterize a vote for Harris as the way to "save conservatism" — responded to Ortlund, "This is the way."

Other Christians were less understanding and quickly piled on.

William Wolfe, founder and executive director for the Center for Baptist Leadership, wrote that Ortlund, Russell Moore's pastor, is the "quintessential 'Big Eva' pastor [a]nd now he's using the name of Christ to endorse a pro-abortion, pro-trans communist."

Extra to supporting taxpayer-funded sex changes for illegal aliens, Harris has committed to codifying abortion as a federal right and has personally targeted a pro-life activist for exposing the trafficking of butchered babies' remains.

'The Democratic platform and the Bible cannot co-exist without one subverting the other.'

Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) noted that Ortlund endorsed a ticket that supports "kidnapping the children of parents who oppose child genital mutilation[;] Tampons in boys' bathrooms[;] Child murder up to birth and beyond[;] Covid snitch lines[;] Communism[;] And much more."

Some critics shared a video of Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, announcing protections for those who would subject minors to sex-change mutilations — something President Donald Trump has vowed to criminalize.

"If you claim to be an evangelical but plan to back the most liberal Senator and the most progressive platform in U.S. history — both of which blatantly contradict fundamental biblical principles of creation order and justice — then you have no right to lecture others about sticking to principles and voting with integrity," wrote Andrew T. Walker, associate professor of Christian ethics and public theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. "The Democratic platform and the Bible cannot co-exist without one subverting the other."

'My fault.'

Megan Basham, author of "Shepherds for Sale," noted that "it's understandable that some Christians feel they cannot back Trump. It is not understandable to back Harris. Don't confuse Ortlund with principled third party voters or abstainers. This is indefensible."

When asked how he could vote for Harris and Walz, especially in light of their pro-abortion agenda, Ortlund responded, "Abortion is a horrible evil. But the evils on the other side have risen to levels that jeopardize the foundational rule of law in our country. I am thinking long-term and voting for us to have a chance at national renewal in the future."

The pastor's defense prompted more criticism.

"If Pastor Ortlund is truly concerned about not jeopardizing the rule of law in America, one has to wonder where he has been during the past nearly four years," wrote John G. West, vice president of the Discovery Institute.

After alluding to Democratic lawfare, the Biden-Harris administration's encouragement of censorship on social media, prosecutions of peaceful pro-life protesters, and the "refusal to enforce laws already on the books," West noted, "This [is] only a short list of what has been happening. But Ortlund assures us that in order to protect the rule of law we must vote for the same people responsible for these things."

Sunday evening, Ortlund deleted his endorsement, writing, "I have deleted a post from earlier today because it was being misinterpreted. I should have foreseen it. My fault."

When pressed on how it was being interpreted, the pastor suggested that answering that question "could risk reversing [his] decision to delete."

Amidst the backlash, Ortlund was met with numerous comments on Threads thanking him for his Harris endorsement, several of which he signaled appreciation for.

French and Ortlund — both of whom are involved in Redeeming Babel's "After Party" course for churches — are not alone in thinking that voting for Trump is un-Christian.

Blaze News previously reported that Texas state Rep. James Talarico — a pro-abortion Democrat with a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood Texas Votes who regards the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms as "deeply un-Christian" — told MSNBC's Katie Phang Saturday that "too many Christians have forgotten all about Jesus and now worship at the feet of Donald Trump — a business cheat, a pathological liar, a serial adulterer, a twice-impeached insurrectionist, a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist."

"I guess it's hate the sin, elect the sinner. That seems to be the new motto of too many Christians in this country," added Talarico.

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H/T: The Christian Post

Provisions: United Record Pressing



United Record Pressing

Category: Vinyl record pressing
Founders: Ozell Simpkins, John Dunn, and Joe Talbot
Founded: 1949
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Current CEO: Mark Michaels
Representative products:Vinyl pressings, customized vinyl pressings, and reissue pressings, in a range of colors and templates

At a glance:

  • Founded as Southern Plastics in 1949, the year that the smaller 45 rpm record format first appeared, United Record Pressing is now the oldest and largest vinyl record pressing plant in America.
  • It has since grown to become one of the largest and most prominent record pressing plants in the world, churning out roughly 80,000 records a day.
  • United Record Pressing has innovated the art of making vinyl records.
  • The company has pressed some incredibly important albums and singles, from a diverse range of music legends including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift, Hank Williams Jr., Tammy Wynette, Kanye West, Adele, Mumford & Sons, the Black Keys, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Antebellum, and Dolly Parton.
  • It also pressed the Beatles’ “Please Please Me”/ “From Me to You,” the band’s first single made in America.
  • United Record Pressing is also known for its community engagement: At a time when the South was segregated, United Record Pressing welcomed black musicians and industry executives.
  • It survived the industry drought.
  • Demand for vinyl exploded during COVID-19 lockdowns.
  • In 2023, the United Record Pressing saw a $10 million expansion that added 200 jobs to the company.

In their own words: CEO Mark Michaels

Seventy-five-plus years of history gives you a lot of gas in your tank in terms of pride. You don’t make the first Beatles record in America, you don’t make all these Motown records, you don’t accumulate all this history and know-how and not have something special. And I never want to lose that.

There's a whole generation that never really got to experience music as art. They may value the portability (of downloads), but they still want to have an experience.

Never in a million years did I think it would, as a market and as an industry, become what it’s become today.

The vinyl revival has been incredible to witness. At United Record Pressing, we’re dedicated to meeting the growing demand with the highest standards of quality and precision. It’s an exciting time for both music lovers and the industry.

United Record Pressing is and always has been a Tennessee-based company with over 74 years of rich history here. We are excited to be making this investment in our expansion in Middle Tennessee and are very appreciative of the important support we have received.

I bought the company in 2007. I’ve got an enormous passion for music, so that was a happy coincidence. But that wasn’t why I bought it. I thought it was a good deal, and I wanted to build a small, niche business. I didn’t think vinyl was going to go away, but I didn’t think it was going to have the explosive growth that it has had over the past decade.

Manifesto Reveals Trans-Identifying Nashville Shooter’s Disdain For Christianity, Obsession With Racial Politics

The 2023 Nashville school shooter responsible for the deaths of half a dozen Christians expressed disdain for Christianity and her parents’ biblical beliefs, according to a copy of her long-hidden manifesto released on Tuesday. Obtained and published by The Tennessee Star, the 90-page journal documents the mental breakdown of Audrey Hale leading up to her […]

FACT CHECK: Do These Mugshots Show Members Of The Nashville March?

A post shared on social media  claims that mugshots were released of members of the July 6 march in Nashville.   Post by @bluequeenresists1 View on Threads   Verdict: False The image dates back to when members of the Patriot Front who were arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in June 2022. Fact Check: The Republican National Convention in […]

Judge who ordered newspaper man to court for exposing trans shooter's manifesto didn't want to hear his defense



Michael Patrick Leahy, the CEO of Star News Digital Media and the editor of the Tennessee Star, drew the ire of a low-level Democratic judge for publishing documents the FBI wanted suppressed or possibly even destroyed: the suicide note and deranged writings of the radical transvestite who murdered three children and three adults last year in a Nashville Christian school.

After Stacy Cameron, a reporter for a local Fox News affiliate, effectively snitched on the Tennessee Star for doing what mainstream media outlets refused to do, Judge l'Ashea Myles of the Tennessee 20th Judicial District Chancery Court ordered Leahy to court for a show cause hearing.

The stated aim of the hearing was "to determine why the alleged publication of certain purported documents by Petitioners Star Digital Media and Michael Leahy, as the Editor-in-Chief, does not violate the Orders of this Court subjecting them to contempt proceedings and sanctions."

The suggestion was that by allegedly publishing writings under the judge's in-camera review, Leahy and the Tennessee Star's parent company may have interfered with their lawsuit seeking the full release of the trans killer's writing by the Metro Nashville Police Department.

According to Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker, who was in the courtroom Monday, it quickly became clear that Myles "wished she had not called the hearing."

"It seemed like she was trying to get out of it," said Baker. "She initiated something that was over her head, over her pay grade — something that was out of bounds with the law."

While the hearing was supposed to be centered on Leahy, neither he nor his counsel Daniel Horwitz were able to get out more than a few words. Instead, Myles appeared keen on leaning on the other parties present to express their grievances and concerns, effectively filibustering her own proceeding by proxy.

"The judge allowed everybody else to speak except for the one guy the hearing was called for," said Baker. "Michael Leahy's attorney — every time he got up, which was twice, she interrupted him and cut him off mid-stream. She told him that she was not going to hear any arguments today in regards to the case."

"She actually said these words: 'Your arguments are not yet ripe,'" continued Baker.

The Star indicated that Myles reimagined the purpose of the hearing to get a feeling for the "landscape" of the situation.

While Baker will detail some of the more absurd and shocking aspects of the hearing in a forthcoming piece for Blaze News, he has nevertheless made clear it was a gong show.

"What in the hell did I just witness?" Baker said Monday on "The Michael Patrick Leahy Show." "As soon as the court adjourned ... I went, 'What the you-know-what?'"

"She wanted to understand everybody's position. She reiterated over and over again that she wasn't the investigator: 'I'm just the judge. I'm not the prosecutor. I'm just the judge and I'm just here to get understanding.’ And she did wrap it up at the end and said, 'Okay, now I understand.' When court was adjourned ... I said, 'Does she understand what an airhead she is?'" said Baker.

Baker suggested to Blaze News that Myles likely realized in the days leading up to the show cause hearing "she had made a mistake" and didn't want the matter to end up going to an appeals court.

"She set the wheels in motion, then realized, 'I blew it here. I should not have done this,'" continued Baker. "She was covering her ass."

On his show Monday, Leahy reflected on the outcome of the show cause hearing, saying, "She didn't allow me to show cause nor did she allow my lawyer to show cause why I shouldn't be held in contempt. She changed the purpose of the meeting."

While none of the attorneys who spoke at the hearing Monday reportedly argued that Leahy broke the law, the newspaper man indicated she may still assign a special prosecutor to go after him for publishing the shooter's journal.

"So let me give you the bottom line on all this. I thought there'd be two outcomes or possibilities. Either [Myles] was going to set up a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute us, or she was going to take it under advisement and then issue an order later," said Leahy. "So that's what she did. She said, 'I'm going to take all of this under advisement and I'll issue an order.' She didn't say when. If that order is to set up a special prosecutor, I will still be in legal jeopardy. That's my take on it."

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Judge Puts Freedom Of Press On Trial In Nashville Trans Shooter ‘Manifesto’ Battle

Editor Michael Patrick Leahy says he will go to jail before revealing the source of the documents, and the judge just might oblige.

Hotel abruptly cancels pro-Israel event over 'credible threats' — but police chief quickly sets the record straight



A Nashville hotel is being accused of religious discrimination after abruptly canceling a pro-Israel event.

The Israel Summit — a "gathering of pro-Israel supporters who unconditionally support Israel’s right to be sovereign in the entirety of the land of Israel, including Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip," according to the event website — was scheduled to take place at the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel next week, May 20–22.

'In the end, the Sonesta Hotel made a corporate decision to cancel.'

But last Friday, a representative for the hotel abruptly canceled the event.

The representative told HaYovel, a Christian organization that is coordinating the event, in an email dated May 10:

We have received credible threats regarding the safety of your group, our guests and employees, our hotel and sister property, and to businesses in our neighborhood. Those threats were confirmed by law enforcement officials in the last 24 hours. Consequently, we are invoking our rights under the force majeure clause of the contract and unfortunately are canceling the event that was scheduled for May 20-22, including canceling any guestroom reservations associated with the event. We are sincerely sorry.

On Monday, the First Liberty Institute sent Sonesta a letter accusing the hotel of "unlawful religious discrimination in a place of public accommodation."

By canceling the contract, Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel at First Liberty, said Sonesta violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Tennessee Human Rights Act.

The problem, according to Sasser, is the alleged threats "were anti-semitic and anti-Israel in nature and in line with the hateful rhetoric currently seen on some of America’s college campuses" and not sufficient legal justification to cancel the contract under its force majeure clause.

"It is un-American — and illegal — to cancel a gathering due to religious beliefs and quite frankly it is morally wrong," Sasser said in a statement. "The Sonesta and others cannot surrender to terror in violation of federal and Tennessee law. If this hotel chain surrenders to pro-Hamas, terrorist beliefs, where does it stop? The hotel must make the choice of standing with American ideals or pro-Hamas terrorists. We hope the hotel will quickly reverse its decision."

Moreover, Nashville Police Chief John Drake confirmed the hotel did not receive threats per se. Rather, the hotel was inundated with "external messages" demanding they cancel the pro-Israel event.

"The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department did not advocate, in any shape or form, for the cancellation of the conference at the Sonesta Hotel. Any inference to the contrary is false," Drake said in an email seen by Blaze News.

"Equally false is the assertion in an online article that this police department voiced concerns about persons being in physical danger. In fact, members of the police department did, indeed, meet with hotel management at its request to talk about the conference," Drake explained. "We let it be known that we were absolutely prepared to help the hotel create a safety and security plan, as we would with any of our city’s hotels, and offer additional support if needed."

"At the same time, I am aware that the Sonesta was receiving a number of external messages urging that it not host the event. In the end, the Sonesta Hotel made a corporate decision to cancel. This police department was in no way a party to that decision," he clarified.

Palestine Hurra Collective Nashville — an activist group "dedicated to the total liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea" — is the group behind those messages, according to the Jewish News Syndicate.

Last week, Palestine Hurra instructed its supporters to bombard the general manager of the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel with messages demanding they cancel the pro-Israel event, even drafting a script for supporters to recite via phone or email.

The post claimed that event organizers and attendees were gathering to "celebrate the death of civilians and recruit new Zionists."

"Call relentlessly until this event is shut down!" the post demanded.

It appears the pressure campaign worked — at least for now. But organizers have no plans to cancel the event.

"We will move forward with this event at a different venue and show these thugs that they will not be rewarded for their unconstitutional, hateful actions," HaYovel said. "Now, more than ever, it is important that America stands unconditionally with Israel and that we publicly show that we cannot be intimidated by pro-Hamas thugs."

Dave Ramsey, whose business is located in the Nashville area, has reportedly offered to host the summit.

Blaze News reached out to a representative for Sonesta, but multiple messages were not returned.

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Nashville police officer fired for appearing in sexual OnlyFans video with fake traffic stop



A Nashville police officer has been fired for appearing in a sexual OnlyFans video featuring a fake traffic stop.

Officer Sean Herman – a 3-year veteran of the Metro Nashville Police Department – was fired on Thursday.

"That was one of the most outrageous, disrespectful acts that a person here could do and, by disrespectful, I mean to all the MNPD employees and this agency," said Don Aaron – spokesperson for the Metro Nashville Police Department.

The Metro Nashville Police Department was notified on Wednesday that Officer Herman allegedly appeared in an OnlyFans video titled: "Can't believe he didn't arrest me."

The video – hosted on the adult-oriented subscription online platform – shows a woman being pulled over by the officer. The cop's police cruiser is seen in the sexual video.

The woman is in the driver's seat with a man in the passenger seat. The man in the passenger seat tells the woman that she deserved to get pulled over because she was driving too fast.

A police officer then approaches the woman's car window and tells her that she was speeding. During the fake traffic stop, he identifies himself as "Officer Johnson of PD."

When the cop asks the woman for her license and registration, she says that she doesn't have the correct documents. She tells the cop, "I'm not going to get a ticket…I’m going to show him my t**s." She then pulls down her top to expose her breasts.

"Ma’am, it’s 2024. I can see t***s on the internet any time,” the officer replies in the video.

The woman responds, "Well, what if you touched them?"

WTVF reported that the woman invited the "officer to grope her breasts, which he does while she is seen grabbing his crotch."

The video does not show the police officer's face. However, when the officer reaches into the car to grope the woman, there's a short glimpse of what appears to be a Metro Nashville Police Department patch on the shoulder of his uniform.

"Had we not seen that patch, I don’t know if we’d be having this conversation right now," WTVF investigative reporter Levi Ismail said in an Instagram video.

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