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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 15h

Tennessee Dems are running congressional candidates with sufficient $ and visibility, but messaging seems lackluster. Is it enough to rely on surfing a national blue wave to victory? My new column up today at @tennesseelookout.com. tennesseelookout.com/2026/10/08/r...

tennesseelookout.com

Commentary: Running on empty: Tennessee Democrats pinning high hopes on uninspired campaigns • Tennessee Lookout

Tennessee Democrats are running congressional candidates with solid money and high profiles, but lackluster messaging.

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BriteHeart @briteheart.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Why was U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn unwilling to share a debate stage with her Republican primary opponents for governor, and why will she continue to duck debates with general election opponent Democrat Jerri Green this fall? @brucebarry.bsky.social has some thoughts. @tennesseelookout.com

tennesseelookout.com

Walks like a duck: The real reasons Marsha Blackburn won’t debate her opponents • Tennessee Lookout

Columnist Bruce Barry writes that U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn won't debate her Democratic gubernatorial opponent to prevent missteps.

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Tennessee Lookout @tennesseelookout.com · 24/08/2026

COMMENTARY: Why is U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn unwilling to debate her opponents? The stock answer is there’s no need to, but perhaps her strategists are working about their candidate making missteps, writes columnist @brucebarry.bsky.social.

tennesseelookout.com

Walks like a duck: The real reasons Marsha Blackburn won’t debate her opponents • Tennessee Lookout

Columnist Bruce Barry writes that U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn won't debate her Democratic gubernatorial opponent to prevent missteps.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

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.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Guessing Marsha doesn't know of this.

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Tennessee Lookout @tennesseelookout.com · 13/07/2026

COMMENTARY: "How fitting it was that (University of Tennessee professor) Tamar Shirinian landed on the happy side of a nearly $2 million legal settlement just as the country was celebrating its 250th." Columnist @brucebarry.bsky.social on freedom of speech and UT.

tennesseelookout.com

Speechless in Knoxville • Tennessee Lookout

The University of Tennessee settled a lawsuit filed by a professor after she was fired for social media posts when Charlie Kirk was killed.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Dispatch from the Dept. of Takes One to Know One.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

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.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

After killing TN's only Dem congressional seat last month, GOP said it will seek next year to redraw state senate and house districts for partisan gain. Will they go for 33-0 and 99-0? Could they? My latest column up this week at @tennesseelookout.com. tennesseelookout.com/2026/06/16/w...

tennesseelookout.com

Will Tennessee Republicans’ next move be to purge Democrats entirely? • Tennessee Lookout

Tennessee Republicans could redistrict state House and Senate seats as early as the next legislative session.

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Tennessee Lookout @tennesseelookout.com · 16/06/2026

COMMENTARY: Tennessee Republicans used the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais to redraw the state’s congressional maps. What’s to stop them for redistricting the state House and Senate in attempt to cut all Democratic seats out? From columnist @brucebarry.bsky.social

tennesseelookout.com

Will Tennessee Republicans’ next move be to purge Democrats entirely? • Tennessee Lookout

Tennessee Republicans could redistrict state House and Senate seats as early as the next legislative session.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

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?

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Tennessee Lookout @tennesseelookout.com · 31/05/2026

Commentary of the week: "Starbucks is having difficulty making the case to some workers who may prefer to give up their jobs rather than face exile to the Volunteer State," writes columnist @brucebarry.bsky.social of the coffee giant's corporate relocation to Nashville.

tennesseelookout.com

Restless in Seattle • Tennessee Lookout

Starbucks will open a corporate office in Nashville but transplants from Seattle will find a city vastly different from the one they leave.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Federal law requires background checks for gun sales by licensed dealers, yes, but sales by unlicensed sellers (e.g. gun shows or online) are not regulated federally; laws vary by state. WA requires a background check for an unlicensed sale. TN does not. That is the distinction I was pointing to.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Glad you liked the piece. The word is as intended, the dialectical slang version of partner.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Allow me to offer some guidance for Starbucks HQ workers out in Seattle who are pondering relocation to Tennessee. My new column up today at @tennesseelookout.com. tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/26/r...

tennesseelookout.com

Restless in Seattle • Tennessee Lookout

Starbucks will open a corporate office in Nashville but transplants from Seattle will find a city vastly different from the one they leave.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Moral of the story, and a good one: ignore the First Amendment, get sued, lose (or settle when your lawyers tell you you will lose), pay lots of money to the person whose rights you stupidly ignored. Hey Perry County voters - maybe choose less of a moron to be sheriff?

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

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...

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Agree. I offered an alternative view of his 'legacy' in my column written back in late 2020 on the occasion of his retirement from the Senate. tennesseelookout.com/2020/12/08/c...

tennesseelookout.com

Column: Go home, Lamar. • Tennessee Lookout

After 18 years in the U.S. Senate, Lamar Alexander exits with complicity in a monstrous assault on American democracy and decency.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Granted, a crew idling is a crew not overzealously decimating the tree canopy, but the economics are a bit puzzling.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

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?

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

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).

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

With enthusiasm for Nashville's direction souring and 2027 Metro elections looming it's a good time for Freddie O’Connell to decide what kind of mayor he wants to be and use Wednesday's State of Metro speech to share it. My new column at @tennesseelookout.com. tennesseelookout.com/2026/04/27/t...

tennesseelookout.com

Time for a change? Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s challenge in final year of his term • Tennessee Lookout

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell will give the State of Metro address, and it presents some potential challenges for the first-term mayor.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

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.

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Tennessee Lookout @tennesseelookout.com · 23/02/2026

Commentary: Doing the people’s business through legislation that offends sanity, dignity and democracy, not to mention the U.S. Constitution, is pretty much business as usual for the chuckleheads who drive the trains up there at the Tennessee legislature, writes columnist @brucebarry.bsky.social.

tennesseelookout.com

The Tennessee Legislature gets up in your spiritual business • Tennessee Lookout

Rep. Gino Bulso, a Brentwood Republican, is one of several Tennessee lawmakers pushing religion bills in the legislative sesison.

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BriteHeart @briteheart.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Looking at the data, it appears we don’t actually have a Christian nationalist state; we have a Christian nationalist state government revealing itself yet again (as on guns, healthcare, and other issues) as seriously out of touch with Tennesseans. - @brucebarry.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

tennesseelookout.com

The Tennessee Legislature gets up in your spiritual business • Tennessee Lookout

Rep. Gino Bulso, a Brentwood Republican, is one of several Tennessee lawmakers pushing religion bills in the legislative sesison.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

"Silence is not neutrality; it is permission." Scalding argument in WaPo op-ed last week calling out appeasement masquerading as institutional neutrality by univ leaders like Diermeier at @Vanderbilt.edu.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

State campaign finance disclosure filed last week shows Dem @jerrigreen4tn.bsky.social in her gub bid raised $125K spent $91K and has a paltry $34K on hand. Green deserves kudos for stepping into the arena when no one else has but c'mon @tndems.bsky.social this won't cut it.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

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?

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

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.

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Tennessee Lookout @tennesseelookout.com · 04/02/2026

Commentary: Columnist @brucebarry.bsky.social on the Nashville Electric Service power outages and communication (or lack thereof) from the agency as hundreds of thousands were left without power following Winter Storm Fern.

tennesseelookout.com

The Tennessee big chill • Tennessee Lookout

Nashville Electric Service officials failed to adequately plan for a predicted winter storm and to communicate with customers during outages.

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Sara Meissner @meiss5.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

I was wondering what the 2 week temperatures were after the 1994 Nashville ice storm and wow!

Two week temperatures after the 1994 Nashville ice storm. Exceedingly higher than the current 2026 ice storm.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Dispatch from the Dept. of Some Things Never Change.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

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.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

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.

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Bruce Barry @brucebarry.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

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.

headline: "It's almost time to 'spring forward.'"

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