August 8, 2025 • 21 mins
This episode I'm giving updates on the school board debacle, what I think about the Texas dems fighting back, and updates on Elon Musk's many projects in TN. For more content follow me on Facebook and Instagram @TheLawAccordingtoAmber
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram. Same
name the Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all. Welcome
(00:31):
to another episode of the Law according to Amber. This
week's were going to get into some local politics. So
I know a lot of folks, especially if you'rer Memphids,
have been hearing about the school board drama and I
want to touch on that a little bit. I also
want to touch on what's happening in Texas with three
district thing and then also give some updates about XAI.
(00:53):
So we're going to jump around a little bit, but
for the most part, this is an update the you
in type of episode. So the school board, which of
course is like one of the most hated bodies government
in mephis was pushing back against the County Commission because
due to US state law the representatory Harris passed during
(01:16):
the last session, it would remove the bill that he
passed will remove stagger elections and also gives school board
members term limits, which most people were not against the
term limits or honestly the staggered elections either. I think
a lot of folks really did want term limits because
school board is one of the only officers actually that
don't have term limits, So I mean, I think for
(01:38):
most people it was kind of a logical thing. I
did tell a few people who asked me about it
that I think that when we're really gonna talk about
who makes decisions that considering the previous governmental bodies that
had term limits added to them were the city Council
and the County Commission, and that was done by a vote,
(01:59):
I do think it's more fair to let people decide
versus like the state legislature. And I understand that they're
there to represent us, like that's who we vote for,
but realistically those elections have extremely low and I mean
extremely low turnouts, so most people who actually live here
in Memphis aren't voting for them. And we've seen a
(02:19):
history of the state legislature really just using their power
to circumvent what we want to do in Memphis mainly,
but in a few other cities too, but mainly in Memphis,
So I mean, I get it. But I also think
that it does take a little bit of power away
from people, and I think that's something we should consider.
(02:41):
But because Torri passed that state law, then it allowed
for county or do whatever governmental body that oversees the
school board to make those changes. Now, some other places,
their school boards already had term limits, so I mean,
it really was only a big change happening in Memphis,
(03:02):
and the bill said that they made change it, so
it did not require the change. So the Shelby County
Commission then had to pass a resolution to honor what
was in the bill, saying they did want to adopt
those changes that they passed in their state law. But
the issue is that one of the provisions from the
bill would remove staggered elections, meaning currently, if you're on
(03:25):
the school board, five of you run and then four
years later, five other folks run. That way, there's never
anyone on the board that's completely brand new, like there's
always at least one person on there who's been there before.
And on one hand, I can also see the pros
of that, right, there's some institutional knowledge there, some experience,
and sometimes people who are fresh and new on the
(03:48):
school board want that they want to hear from folks
who have been there before. But I also can see
the cons which is that kind of what was happening
in our school system right now currently. So before this
bill eving passed, this all stemmed from the superintendent, Marie Fagin's,
being removed from her step. So the community did not
(04:10):
want her removed, the school board did want to remove her,
And all of this also stems from people in the
city of Memphis who had contracts with the school board
who lost those contracts when Marie Fagin's came on as superintendent.
Mind you, there was an entire community plan that the
community and parents came up with that the school board
(04:32):
said they would follow for the superintendent search, and then
they didn't follow it. And I can't help but just
throw that dig in and say that, honestly, the search
probably would have turned out completely different, but actually followed
the process that the community wanted, but they didn't follow
that process from jump, the school board kind of was
just doing what they wanted to do. They picked this
new superintendent, Marie Fagins. She comes in and basically cleans
(04:54):
house like most of the people in the school board
in the school district were and these cushy jobs but
are not really doing anything, and we have all these
different teacher shortages, like so many of our schools don't
have enough teachers. And so she said, well, actually we're
going on a move these cushy jobs that you're not
really doing anything in and you need to go back
(05:14):
and teach in the classroom, which I think is a
smart move that she made. We got folks who have
teaching licenses, we have vacancies, we need to feel they
can go fulfill them versus just sitting in here in
this desk making eighty K plus a year not doing nothing.
Like I thought that was a great decision that she
made there. But this also angered a lot of people
(05:36):
who had contracts in the city. For example, Pure Power,
which had a contract with the city in Memphis. I mean,
I mean hundreds of millions of dollars, like, I mean,
huge contracts with the city, and she cans with them.
And I thought that she also did the right thing
there too, because Peer Power didn't have any data to
show that they actually were doing anything impactful if we
(05:56):
ran realistic and our school system, especially our school board,
has had a history of lining the pockets of their
friends or lining the pockets of these nonprofits who are
staying there there to do this work for kids. But
if they're doing such impactful work, why are we still
in the bottom in so many categories? Why are our
schools still struggling so much? If you say that at
(06:18):
your nonprofit, your goal is to help folks with reading
and math intervention services, but the reading and math intervention
services ain't showing no results in these schools, what are
we fulfilling your contract for? What is the point? And
Marie Fagan's was like, yeah, we're not gonna keep We're
not going to keep renewing these which a lot of
folks felt like was the right choice, including me. I
(06:40):
really think that one of the biggest issues in our
school system is that there's so much mismanagement of funds,
including continued contracts with folks who have not proven that
they actually getting the job done. And this new superintendent
was not going for it. And I've heard all the
rumors about her being mean or you know, being difficult,
but I mean, most black women leaders are, if we're
(07:02):
being realistic, most of them are very much as my
mom would say, ball busters, such an old school term,
but like they just not taking no shit, and I
think that people didn't like her personality. And they also
hear people complaining about not getting their contraction new and
they were complaining to their school board member friends, and
(07:24):
they were like, all right, let's remove this lady with
these different random bs reasons. Now, I mean, the process
of how they removed her was also fucked up, and
that's also another reason why she sued them. So during
this whole process, because they did this botched removal of her,
the state came in and said, well, we're going to
(07:46):
take over the school district and we're also going to
pass all these different bills to put term limits in
place and remove staggered elections as a way to like
basically get rid of everyone. Because if they removed the
staggered elections, that means everyone is on the school board
has to run for reelection next year during the twenty
twenty six county elections. But here's also the issue with that.
Because five new members were elected, four of which were
(08:09):
brand new, but five of them were just elected last year,
their term would be shortened, and the Tennessee constitution doesn't
allow for terms to be shortened from elected officials. So
there was also a roadblock. But none of this also,
like I said, would have happened if they had not
removed Marie Faguez in such a fucked up way. And
(08:31):
part of the lawsuit because I've been reading the notes
and watching something about that too. Part of the reason
why she's probably gonna win this lawsuit I'm calling it now.
She's probably gonna win that. I mean, honestly, she's gonna win.
She didn't win that lawsuit because they violated the Open
Meetings Act. They being the school board, violated the Open
Meetings Act multiple times. There are multiple times that two
(08:52):
of the board members, the chair and the vice chare
met with DJ Malone talking about a calm strategy. There
were text messages of plans. All of this violates the
Open Meetings Act. If there's two or more people, meaning
the chair or the vice chair or two other school
were members, any of them two or more and there's
not a public notice of a meeting, that violates the
(09:14):
Open Meetings Act. And basically, in court, doctor Marie Fagan's
attorney proved that they had planned ahead of time how
they were going to get her out, so much so
that they had DJ Malone sending a bio and information
about the interim superintendent they were going to appoint to
(09:35):
a lawyer to get it approved ahead of time. So
you can't say you didn't know you were going to
remove her, because it's very obvious you knew you were
going to remove her because you were getting an interim
already approved ahead of time. So now she's probably gonna
honestly get her job back because the only remedy here
for them violating the Open Meetings Act is that she
get her job back. And then after she gets her
(09:57):
job back, they'll have to go through the whole process
again and from mo Her and I honestly think the
bad persson from that too will make it really hard
where they might not remove her. Who knows, You really
never know what these people. But yeah, so that's the
update on that. And now let's get into this Texas
redistricting situation, because I mean, there's just so much to
talk about here. I think that one thing about Texas
(10:19):
and the Texas GOLP, they show every time that they
are literally riding Trump's ass to the wheels falls off,
and because the presidency so far has been trash, they
can already see the future and see that they're not
gonna win again, like the GOLP sucks, and no one
likes them at this point, and so they're really feeling
(10:41):
like they're at risk of losing their seats, and so
to make sure that that doesn't happen, they're trying to
jerryman or the hell out of Texas right now. I'm
talking like the way I saw them districts cracked and packed.
And I also hating people say that, but I do
get the term because you can see it and when
you look at the map. But the way they were
cracked and packed, like literally cut up and packed on
top of each other was insane. And one of the
(11:03):
maps I saw it had district thirty three and then
under the district thirty which is actually Jasin Cracketts District.
But the fact that they were super duper small and
thirty was under thirty three was insane. And then next
to that across from them is like twelve. Like even
the tho way the numbers were were like insane, like
they were moving these numbers all around to kind of
(11:23):
create this whole new very racist, very like Republican districts
that are super conservative as a way to help them
keep their seats, and thankfully, the Texas Democrats weren't going,
and they fleed the fucking state. And I so I
had heard about breaking quorum, and I was like, yeah,
this is exactly what they need to do for a
(11:45):
few days now. But I didn't understand why they had
to flee the state. But I did a little research. AKA,
I asked my friends in our group chat, and they
had to flee the state to Illinois because one they
have to go to a Democrat friendly state and JB. Pritzer,
who's like a billionaire, is the governor of Illinois, so
he flew them there on a private plane. I said, ooh,
(12:07):
must be nice. Shot, must be nice. And they have
to stay there because if they're in the state of Texas,
the governor can send like the state troopers or police
to them to arrest them, put air quotes around that
arrest them and compel them to show up for the
session to vote. And if they go there, then of
(12:29):
course it's going to pass because they don't have majority.
But if they break korum, they can't meet it all.
And so that was the whole reason why they're breaking korm.
But you know, of course the Dems have to be
all fucking dramatic, so they didn't all film different videos.
I'm a boat. I'm fleeing the state. I gotta flee
the state because it's the only I should I have
da da da dah, which I get it, like, yeah,
(12:49):
tell us what's going on. But the drama, they can
say the drama shack. The drama was like not attracted
to me, but you know, it's whatever. So they flee
the state. They ain't Illinois and not coming back cause
that's the only way to break corn and make sure
they can't vote on this horrible bill. And I mean,
I'm fucking with you. I agree, like that's what they
should be doing. You should not let them pass this
(13:10):
horrible legislation. And this is the only way to prevent that.
So you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.
So they're out in Illinois until further notice. I guess,
all right, let's get into some XAI updates, because I
know I'm talked a little bit about that on here,
and a lot has happened in the last month or so.
So after the air permit hearing and them listening to
(13:33):
all the comments and the Health Department making a decision,
they approved the air permit for Xai to use fifteen
methane gas turbines. Now I do wanna just rewind and
remind y'all that on the property were thirty five methane
gas turbines and on two separate occasions, the Southern Environmental
Law Center flew planes overhead to see what they were
(13:54):
using using a like ultra violet heat sensor, and they
were able to see they were using way more than fifteen.
And this is before the permit was approved. So even
when the I'm sure the Hell departments are like, they're
not not that they're not on the internet, and I
know also ceocs that they were communicating with them and
sending them things, so they knew that they were using
(14:16):
more turbines than they were supposed to be using, and
they still approve their permit because they're trifling. In that time,
the NAACP, in partnership with the Southern Environments a Law Center,
has filed a lawsuit or an intend to suit rather
to Xai, stating that they are violating the Clean Air Acts,
specifically stating there violating the Clean Air Acts because the
(14:37):
amount of methane gas turbines they're using would make them
a major polluter based off the amount of emissions and
the Southern Environments are LOS Center used actual emission data
from Xai to show that they're using more than what
would be AUNT will be allotted for fifteen methane gas
servines because they're using more, and that then makes them
a major polluter, which then is in violation of the
(14:59):
Clean Air Act. They're also arguing that because Xai is
using methane gas turbines, those are not considered non road engines,
which is an exemption that XAI has applied for, and
they're arguing that they wouldn't qualify for that exemption. Now
they have sixty days to respond to that. That happened
almost a month ago, so they still have a little
(15:19):
bit of time Xai does to respond to that. When
I last checked last week, they haven't heard back from them.
They haven't met, so we'll see what happens, because I
feel like XAI also isn't gonna meet with them because
they're trifling. So now they have appealed the air permit.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, Young Gitted and Green and
MCAP have appealed the air permit that the Health Department
(15:42):
approved and so now we're waiting to see when that
hearing will be set because they have to set that
here and within thirty days it's been out of notice
and it's been almost three weeks now, so that should
be coming out soon. And in the meantime, we're still
continuing to talk with folks about, you know, why XAI
is so bad and how they're poisoning the air. And
the mayor has written an ordinance to take tax revenue
(16:05):
from the XAI project and put it directly back into
three and one or nine community, which is Westwood and
Box Down where the XAI project is now. The ordinance
basically says that twenty five percent of the tax revenue
will go towards the community, the specific Westwood community. I
don't think that twenty five percent enough. I also don't
think that this kind of ordnance is what communities should support.
(16:27):
I think that community benefits agreements are more binding because
they're legally binding, and it's easier to hold them accountable
to that versus an ordinance, because I mean, I've just seen,
as someone who has passed ordinances in the city council before,
I've seen how hard it is to hold them accountable.
To them and that the city council will pass stuff
in the moment because of the feeling pressure from the community.
(16:49):
But then after that what happens not much, And unless
you have an active accountability campaign, they not gonna really
do nothing. And so I just don't trust it. I mean,
this whole entire AXAI process has been and messi and
so I just don't trust that they're gonna actually do
what they're supposed to do and follow it. I also
don't think twenty five percent is enough. I think it
actually be more like sixty sixty five percent because the
(17:11):
amount of pollution that AXAI is put into the air
is a lot, and we still don't know the health
effects from it, because that really doesn't show up until
you know, years from now, Like it takes everything takes time.
For example, the army depot, there was an army depot here.
They had like radiation and taxes of chemicals in the
soil that no one knew about, and they build homes
on top of it, and then ten twenty years later
(17:32):
people are all getting the same types of brain cancer
or lung cancer, and they're like, well, this is so random,
But they all lived in that area and so over time,
those toxins can cause these catastrophic diseases and outcomes, and
we could be preventing that right now. One by I
should an't XAI down, but if you're gonna have an ordinance,
it should at least provide a substantial the majority amount
(17:55):
to the community actually, and I feel like communities will
feel more empowered with the Community Benefits Agreement because that's
who decides what goes in, is the community, not the
mayor's office or the city council. And I think with
the project like this that we don't want here quite obviously,
the community really needs to be brought in on everything,
because they haven't been brought in on anything so far
(18:18):
because the way the Chamber of Commerce have made sure
to help XAI circumvent every public process. And so I
think it's really important that they're deciding what they want
in a community Benefits agreement and then they're the ones
talking with AXAI to get those things. But that still
doesn't mean we don't still keep pushing to shut XAI down.
I think that if someone's going to be here, they've
(18:38):
been here a year now, they need to be contributed
to the community. But also they need to go. And
so I think that it's fine to have a CBA
with a company while they're here, and we'll still run
a very active campaign to get them up out of here.
I think that that's totally fine, because what I don't think,
you know, it's fair, is that you come in and
(19:00):
you pollute our air and then we don't get any
kind of remedies from that, and then we eventually get
you to shut down, we're still left with nothing but
air pollution and health issues. Like it's just no, it's
not okay. So that's where we are with ASAI. They're
also you know, there's this huge story that came out
(19:20):
this past week about Elon Musk and the boring company
building a Tesla tunnel in Nashville, which was insane. And
there's other cities that have Tesla tunnels Las Vegas, for example,
and they suck, they don't work well. There's there was
no community input on this either. None of the elected
officials were even invited to the announcement, and the governor,
(19:42):
of course, was just so excited to announce the project.
No one, he ain't got no Tesla, no one. Elin
doesn't even fuck with him like that. He's just a
groupie who excited to get a little attention. It's really
desperate and lame. But either way, they announced that this week,
and of course themmunity is pissed, but also they're already
pushing back against it as well. And I think that
(20:04):
one thing Elon Musk is learning here is that you're
not gonna get the fuck over on us. Like the
elected officials here might have been okay with it, our
mayors might have been okay with it, and the emails
of job you might be okay with it, and TVA
might be okay with it, but the community is not
okay with it. And so we'll never stop fighting against ASAI.
And the community is not okay with a tunnel a
testa tunnel in Nashville, and they're not gonna stop fighting either,
(20:25):
Like that's just not gonna happen. And I think he's
slowly over time realizing that, like, oh, they're fucking serious,
Like yeah, we're very serious, Like bro be for real.
So those are the updates. So there's you know, stuff
happening in Texas, stuff happening here in Nashville. But at
(20:47):
the end of the day, we live to fight another day.
So it's up. I hope y'all enjoyed this episode of
The Lockc'd into Amber. It's always be sure to follow
me on Facebook and Instagram's same name, The Law Acurdin' Ember.
All Right, y'all, please
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law Cording to Amber, as well as Instagram. Same
name the Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all. Welcome
(00:31):
to another episode of the Law according to Amber. This
week's were going to get into some local politics. So
I know a lot of folks, especially if you'rer Memphids,
have been hearing about the school board drama and I
want to touch on that a little bit. I also
want to touch on what's happening in Texas with three
district thing and then also give some updates about XAI.
(00:53):
So we're going to jump around a little bit, but
for the most part, this is an update the you
in type of episode. So the school board, which of
course is like one of the most hated bodies government
in mephis was pushing back against the County Commission because
due to US state law the representatory Harris passed during
(01:16):
the last session, it would remove the bill that he
passed will remove stagger elections and also gives school board
members term limits, which most people were not against the
term limits or honestly the staggered elections either. I think
a lot of folks really did want term limits because
school board is one of the only officers actually that
don't have term limits, So I mean, I think for
(01:38):
most people it was kind of a logical thing. I
did tell a few people who asked me about it
that I think that when we're really gonna talk about
who makes decisions that considering the previous governmental bodies that
had term limits added to them were the city Council
and the County Commission, and that was done by a vote,
(01:59):
I do think it's more fair to let people decide
versus like the state legislature. And I understand that they're
there to represent us, like that's who we vote for,
but realistically those elections have extremely low and I mean
extremely low turnouts, so most people who actually live here
in Memphis aren't voting for them. And we've seen a
(02:19):
history of the state legislature really just using their power
to circumvent what we want to do in Memphis mainly,
but in a few other cities too, but mainly in Memphis,
So I mean, I get it. But I also think
that it does take a little bit of power away
from people, and I think that's something we should consider.
(02:41):
But because Torri passed that state law, then it allowed
for county or do whatever governmental body that oversees the
school board to make those changes. Now, some other places,
their school boards already had term limits, so I mean,
it really was only a big change happening in Memphis,
(03:02):
and the bill said that they made change it, so
it did not require the change. So the Shelby County
Commission then had to pass a resolution to honor what
was in the bill, saying they did want to adopt
those changes that they passed in their state law. But
the issue is that one of the provisions from the
bill would remove staggered elections, meaning currently, if you're on
(03:25):
the school board, five of you run and then four
years later, five other folks run. That way, there's never
anyone on the board that's completely brand new, like there's
always at least one person on there who's been there before.
And on one hand, I can also see the pros
of that, right, there's some institutional knowledge there, some experience,
and sometimes people who are fresh and new on the
(03:48):
school board want that they want to hear from folks
who have been there before. But I also can see
the cons which is that kind of what was happening
in our school system right now currently. So before this
bill eving passed, this all stemmed from the superintendent, Marie Fagin's,
being removed from her step. So the community did not
(04:10):
want her removed, the school board did want to remove her,
And all of this also stems from people in the
city of Memphis who had contracts with the school board
who lost those contracts when Marie Fagin's came on as superintendent.
Mind you, there was an entire community plan that the
community and parents came up with that the school board
(04:32):
said they would follow for the superintendent search, and then
they didn't follow it. And I can't help but just
throw that dig in and say that, honestly, the search
probably would have turned out completely different, but actually followed
the process that the community wanted, but they didn't follow
that process from jump, the school board kind of was
just doing what they wanted to do. They picked this
new superintendent, Marie Fagins. She comes in and basically cleans
(04:54):
house like most of the people in the school board
in the school district were and these cushy jobs but
are not really doing anything, and we have all these
different teacher shortages, like so many of our schools don't
have enough teachers. And so she said, well, actually we're
going on a move these cushy jobs that you're not
really doing anything in and you need to go back
(05:14):
and teach in the classroom, which I think is a
smart move that she made. We got folks who have
teaching licenses, we have vacancies, we need to feel they
can go fulfill them versus just sitting in here in
this desk making eighty K plus a year not doing nothing.
Like I thought that was a great decision that she
made there. But this also angered a lot of people
(05:36):
who had contracts in the city. For example, Pure Power,
which had a contract with the city in Memphis. I mean,
I mean hundreds of millions of dollars, like, I mean,
huge contracts with the city, and she cans with them.
And I thought that she also did the right thing
there too, because Peer Power didn't have any data to
show that they actually were doing anything impactful if we
(05:56):
ran realistic and our school system, especially our school board,
has had a history of lining the pockets of their
friends or lining the pockets of these nonprofits who are
staying there there to do this work for kids. But
if they're doing such impactful work, why are we still
in the bottom in so many categories? Why are our
schools still struggling so much? If you say that at
(06:18):
your nonprofit, your goal is to help folks with reading
and math intervention services, but the reading and math intervention
services ain't showing no results in these schools, what are
we fulfilling your contract for? What is the point? And
Marie Fagan's was like, yeah, we're not gonna keep We're
not going to keep renewing these which a lot of
folks felt like was the right choice, including me. I
(06:40):
really think that one of the biggest issues in our
school system is that there's so much mismanagement of funds,
including continued contracts with folks who have not proven that
they actually getting the job done. And this new superintendent
was not going for it. And I've heard all the
rumors about her being mean or you know, being difficult,
but I mean, most black women leaders are, if we're
(07:02):
being realistic, most of them are very much as my
mom would say, ball busters, such an old school term,
but like they just not taking no shit, and I
think that people didn't like her personality. And they also
hear people complaining about not getting their contraction new and
they were complaining to their school board member friends, and
(07:24):
they were like, all right, let's remove this lady with
these different random bs reasons. Now, I mean, the process
of how they removed her was also fucked up, and
that's also another reason why she sued them. So during
this whole process, because they did this botched removal of her,
the state came in and said, well, we're going to
(07:46):
take over the school district and we're also going to
pass all these different bills to put term limits in
place and remove staggered elections as a way to like
basically get rid of everyone. Because if they removed the
staggered elections, that means everyone is on the school board
has to run for reelection next year during the twenty
twenty six county elections. But here's also the issue with that.
Because five new members were elected, four of which were
(08:09):
brand new, but five of them were just elected last year,
their term would be shortened, and the Tennessee constitution doesn't
allow for terms to be shortened from elected officials. So
there was also a roadblock. But none of this also,
like I said, would have happened if they had not
removed Marie Faguez in such a fucked up way. And
(08:31):
part of the lawsuit because I've been reading the notes
and watching something about that too. Part of the reason
why she's probably gonna win this lawsuit I'm calling it now.
She's probably gonna win that. I mean, honestly, she's gonna win.
She didn't win that lawsuit because they violated the Open
Meetings Act. They being the school board, violated the Open
Meetings Act multiple times. There are multiple times that two
(08:52):
of the board members, the chair and the vice chare
met with DJ Malone talking about a calm strategy. There
were text messages of plans. All of this violates the
Open Meetings Act. If there's two or more people, meaning
the chair or the vice chair or two other school
were members, any of them two or more and there's
not a public notice of a meeting, that violates the
(09:14):
Open Meetings Act. And basically, in court, doctor Marie Fagan's
attorney proved that they had planned ahead of time how
they were going to get her out, so much so
that they had DJ Malone sending a bio and information
about the interim superintendent they were going to appoint to
(09:35):
a lawyer to get it approved ahead of time. So
you can't say you didn't know you were going to
remove her, because it's very obvious you knew you were
going to remove her because you were getting an interim
already approved ahead of time. So now she's probably gonna
honestly get her job back because the only remedy here
for them violating the Open Meetings Act is that she
get her job back. And then after she gets her
(09:57):
job back, they'll have to go through the whole process
again and from mo Her and I honestly think the
bad persson from that too will make it really hard
where they might not remove her. Who knows, You really
never know what these people. But yeah, so that's the
update on that. And now let's get into this Texas
redistricting situation, because I mean, there's just so much to
talk about here. I think that one thing about Texas
(10:19):
and the Texas GOLP, they show every time that they
are literally riding Trump's ass to the wheels falls off,
and because the presidency so far has been trash, they
can already see the future and see that they're not
gonna win again, like the GOLP sucks, and no one
likes them at this point, and so they're really feeling
(10:41):
like they're at risk of losing their seats, and so
to make sure that that doesn't happen, they're trying to
jerryman or the hell out of Texas right now. I'm
talking like the way I saw them districts cracked and packed.
And I also hating people say that, but I do
get the term because you can see it and when
you look at the map. But the way they were
cracked and packed, like literally cut up and packed on
top of each other was insane. And one of the
(11:03):
maps I saw it had district thirty three and then
under the district thirty which is actually Jasin Cracketts District.
But the fact that they were super duper small and
thirty was under thirty three was insane. And then next
to that across from them is like twelve. Like even
the tho way the numbers were were like insane, like
they were moving these numbers all around to kind of
(11:23):
create this whole new very racist, very like Republican districts
that are super conservative as a way to help them
keep their seats, and thankfully, the Texas Democrats weren't going,
and they fleed the fucking state. And I so I
had heard about breaking quorum, and I was like, yeah,
this is exactly what they need to do for a
(11:45):
few days now. But I didn't understand why they had
to flee the state. But I did a little research. AKA,
I asked my friends in our group chat, and they
had to flee the state to Illinois because one they
have to go to a Democrat friendly state and JB. Pritzer,
who's like a billionaire, is the governor of Illinois, so
he flew them there on a private plane. I said, ooh,
(12:07):
must be nice. Shot, must be nice. And they have
to stay there because if they're in the state of Texas,
the governor can send like the state troopers or police
to them to arrest them, put air quotes around that
arrest them and compel them to show up for the
session to vote. And if they go there, then of
(12:29):
course it's going to pass because they don't have majority.
But if they break korum, they can't meet it all.
And so that was the whole reason why they're breaking korm.
But you know, of course the Dems have to be
all fucking dramatic, so they didn't all film different videos.
I'm a boat. I'm fleeing the state. I gotta flee
the state because it's the only I should I have
da da da dah, which I get it, like, yeah,
(12:49):
tell us what's going on. But the drama, they can
say the drama shack. The drama was like not attracted
to me, but you know, it's whatever. So they flee
the state. They ain't Illinois and not coming back cause
that's the only way to break corn and make sure
they can't vote on this horrible bill. And I mean,
I'm fucking with you. I agree, like that's what they
should be doing. You should not let them pass this
(13:10):
horrible legislation. And this is the only way to prevent that.
So you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.
So they're out in Illinois until further notice. I guess,
all right, let's get into some XAI updates, because I
know I'm talked a little bit about that on here,
and a lot has happened in the last month or so.
So after the air permit hearing and them listening to
(13:33):
all the comments and the Health Department making a decision,
they approved the air permit for Xai to use fifteen
methane gas turbines. Now I do wanna just rewind and
remind y'all that on the property were thirty five methane
gas turbines and on two separate occasions, the Southern Environmental
Law Center flew planes overhead to see what they were
(13:54):
using using a like ultra violet heat sensor, and they
were able to see they were using way more than fifteen.
And this is before the permit was approved. So even
when the I'm sure the Hell departments are like, they're
not not that they're not on the internet, and I
know also ceocs that they were communicating with them and
sending them things, so they knew that they were using
(14:16):
more turbines than they were supposed to be using, and
they still approve their permit because they're trifling. In that time,
the NAACP, in partnership with the Southern Environments a Law Center,
has filed a lawsuit or an intend to suit rather
to Xai, stating that they are violating the Clean Air Acts,
specifically stating there violating the Clean Air Acts because the
(14:37):
amount of methane gas turbines they're using would make them
a major polluter based off the amount of emissions and
the Southern Environments are LOS Center used actual emission data
from Xai to show that they're using more than what
would be AUNT will be allotted for fifteen methane gas
servines because they're using more, and that then makes them
a major polluter, which then is in violation of the
(14:59):
Clean Air Act. They're also arguing that because Xai is
using methane gas turbines, those are not considered non road engines,
which is an exemption that XAI has applied for, and
they're arguing that they wouldn't qualify for that exemption. Now
they have sixty days to respond to that. That happened
almost a month ago, so they still have a little
(15:19):
bit of time Xai does to respond to that. When
I last checked last week, they haven't heard back from them.
They haven't met, so we'll see what happens, because I
feel like XAI also isn't gonna meet with them because
they're trifling. So now they have appealed the air permit.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, Young Gitted and Green and
MCAP have appealed the air permit that the Health Department
(15:42):
approved and so now we're waiting to see when that
hearing will be set because they have to set that
here and within thirty days it's been out of notice
and it's been almost three weeks now, so that should
be coming out soon. And in the meantime, we're still
continuing to talk with folks about, you know, why XAI
is so bad and how they're poisoning the air. And
the mayor has written an ordinance to take tax revenue
(16:05):
from the XAI project and put it directly back into
three and one or nine community, which is Westwood and
Box Down where the XAI project is now. The ordinance
basically says that twenty five percent of the tax revenue
will go towards the community, the specific Westwood community. I
don't think that twenty five percent enough. I also don't
think that this kind of ordnance is what communities should support.
(16:27):
I think that community benefits agreements are more binding because
they're legally binding, and it's easier to hold them accountable
to that versus an ordinance, because I mean, I've just seen,
as someone who has passed ordinances in the city council before,
I've seen how hard it is to hold them accountable.
To them and that the city council will pass stuff
in the moment because of the feeling pressure from the community.
(16:49):
But then after that what happens not much, And unless
you have an active accountability campaign, they not gonna really
do nothing. And so I just don't trust it. I mean,
this whole entire AXAI process has been and messi and
so I just don't trust that they're gonna actually do
what they're supposed to do and follow it. I also
don't think twenty five percent is enough. I think it
actually be more like sixty sixty five percent because the
(17:11):
amount of pollution that AXAI is put into the air
is a lot, and we still don't know the health
effects from it, because that really doesn't show up until
you know, years from now, Like it takes everything takes time.
For example, the army depot, there was an army depot here.
They had like radiation and taxes of chemicals in the
soil that no one knew about, and they build homes
on top of it, and then ten twenty years later
(17:32):
people are all getting the same types of brain cancer
or lung cancer, and they're like, well, this is so random,
But they all lived in that area and so over time,
those toxins can cause these catastrophic diseases and outcomes, and
we could be preventing that right now. One by I
should an't XAI down, but if you're gonna have an ordinance,
it should at least provide a substantial the majority amount
(17:55):
to the community actually, and I feel like communities will
feel more empowered with the Community Benefits Agreement because that's
who decides what goes in, is the community, not the
mayor's office or the city council. And I think with
the project like this that we don't want here quite obviously,
the community really needs to be brought in on everything,
because they haven't been brought in on anything so far
(18:18):
because the way the Chamber of Commerce have made sure
to help XAI circumvent every public process. And so I
think it's really important that they're deciding what they want
in a community Benefits agreement and then they're the ones
talking with AXAI to get those things. But that still
doesn't mean we don't still keep pushing to shut XAI down.
I think that if someone's going to be here, they've
(18:38):
been here a year now, they need to be contributed
to the community. But also they need to go. And
so I think that it's fine to have a CBA
with a company while they're here, and we'll still run
a very active campaign to get them up out of here.
I think that that's totally fine, because what I don't think,
you know, it's fair, is that you come in and
(19:00):
you pollute our air and then we don't get any
kind of remedies from that, and then we eventually get
you to shut down, we're still left with nothing but
air pollution and health issues. Like it's just no, it's
not okay. So that's where we are with ASAI. They're
also you know, there's this huge story that came out
(19:20):
this past week about Elon Musk and the boring company
building a Tesla tunnel in Nashville, which was insane. And
there's other cities that have Tesla tunnels Las Vegas, for example,
and they suck, they don't work well. There's there was
no community input on this either. None of the elected
officials were even invited to the announcement, and the governor,
(19:42):
of course, was just so excited to announce the project.
No one, he ain't got no Tesla, no one. Elin
doesn't even fuck with him like that. He's just a
groupie who excited to get a little attention. It's really
desperate and lame. But either way, they announced that this week,
and of course themmunity is pissed, but also they're already
pushing back against it as well. And I think that
(20:04):
one thing Elon Musk is learning here is that you're
not gonna get the fuck over on us. Like the
elected officials here might have been okay with it, our
mayors might have been okay with it, and the emails
of job you might be okay with it, and TVA
might be okay with it, but the community is not
okay with it. And so we'll never stop fighting against ASAI.
And the community is not okay with a tunnel a
testa tunnel in Nashville, and they're not gonna stop fighting either,
(20:25):
Like that's just not gonna happen. And I think he's
slowly over time realizing that, like, oh, they're fucking serious,
Like yeah, we're very serious, Like bro be for real.
So those are the updates. So there's you know, stuff
happening in Texas, stuff happening here in Nashville. But at
(20:47):
the end of the day, we live to fight another day.
So it's up. I hope y'all enjoyed this episode of
The Lockc'd into Amber. It's always be sure to follow
me on Facebook and Instagram's same name, The Law Acurdin' Ember.
All Right, y'all, please
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