The State of Protest

Good afternoon, everyone. Today, we assess the state of protest in the country, mourn the death of former state lawmaker Frank Niceley, look at the investigation into the mayor’s efforts to thwart federal law enforcement efforts, peer into Nashville’s past, and present our weekly film rundown. First time reading? Sign up here.,

Correction The graphic for our forthcoming Bar Hours incorrectly showed Wednesday, 6/24 as the date. It should have read Wednesday, 6/25. If you’d like to attend, RSVP here.

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No Kings wasn't an altruistic groundswell. It was an act of self-preservation that brought the Left into an era of "Capitalist Magical Realism."

From Jerod Hollyfield

The tractors left Wilson County’s fairground a year ago, a convoy on a sunny morning ride through Lebanon’s main drag. Their owners, all residents of Tucker’s Crossroads, had gathered there at dawn. The planning commission in the Metro Nashville exurbs was voting to rezone the community to make way for an industrial complex owned by the family of quixotic billionaire and former presidential candidate Ross Perot. Those multigenerational farmers and their families in attendance made one thing clear to the press in attendance: they weren’t really protestors; they’d just reached their breaking point. And, at least for now, they prevailed.

I spent last Saturday thinking about the people of Tucker’s Crossroads and their grassroots tractor parade. In the nation’s big cities and towns just a tad too big for Jason Aldean, the No Kings protests were whipping up the expected fervor. Geriatrics mingled with creatively pierced and tatted future Libs of TikTok stars, their smug smiles plastered across their faces as they admired the banal puns on their signs. On social media, they crowed about the alleged 5 million people that participated (half the number, one should note, that turned up for Marvel’s Thunderbolts during an opening weekend last May that cemented it as a box-office dud).

Throughout the weekend, I followed along as Boomer conservatives singled out the basement dwellers who needed to get a better job than civic unrest on the Facebook pages of countless milquetoast TDS victims. Then, I saw the retort that perfectly encapsulated the weekend: “I was there,” a state university administrator named Ashleigh said. “I spoke to a current K-12 teacher, a non-profit director, and a lawyer. None of us were paid. We’re patriots who care about the future of our country.”

At least superficially, Ashleigh was right. No payments from a dark money group accompanied by cutesy emojis likely altered her Venmo balance. No one palmed her a wad of cash in a back alley. The groups that have bussed college kids into events like this since time immemorial were in their seasonal mid-June HR bottleneck.

In truth, Ashleigh was also fighting for her way of life. The lawyers, NGO managers, and government employees could care less about democracy, autocracy, or the state of the union. Their protest was an act of self-preservation. But, unlike the farmers who begrudgingly adopted the artifice of protest, they hide beyond their lofty ideals, a smokescreen for a form of dubious personal enrichment that the government has protected–until now.

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🖋️ Edited by Davis Hunt and Kaitlyn McDonald.

🌾 Frank Niceley Passes Former Tennessee lawmaker Frank Niceley died of a heart attack yesterday while driving his tractor on his Riverplains Farm in Jefferson County. First elected to the House in 1988, the 78-year-old farmer-businessman built a reputation as “the unofficial historian of the Senate,” championing causes dear to rural constituents such as legalizing hemp cultivation and loosening restrictions on farmers, while also pushing measures that curbed local vaccine mandates.

Admirers, including Sen. Paul Bailey, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, praised his unwavering convictions and colorful “Frankisms,” noting that “you could always count on what he told you to be the way it was.”

Niceley’s opposition to Gov. Bill Lee’s private-school voucher plan helped an outside-funded challenger unseat him in the 2024 GOP primary. We interviewed Nicelely in September of last year following his loss. Niceley mused at the time that “it’s an honor to think [he was] powerful enough that it took two million dollars from who knows where” to beat him. “Nobody likes to get beat,” he concluded, “but it’s not all bad being out of politics. I get to farm with two hands instead of one.”

A true Tennessee original and a singular, fiercely independent personality, Niceley was a favorite at The Pamphleteer. He will be sorely missed. DAVIS HUNT

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📑 O'Connell Hands Over the Documents The Tennessean obtained records related to the federal probe on Mayor Freddie O’Connell and his alleged efforts to interfere with federal agents’ work to enforce immigration laws. On May 30th, the Congressional Committee for Homeland Security and the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the mayor’s office requesting the submission by June 13th of all documents and communications referring or relating to ICE enforcement actions, the arrest of criminal aliens in the City of Nashville and Davidson County, and the amendment of Executive Order 30.

O’Connell issued the amendment a year ago, specifically requiring city departments to report communications with federal immigration officials to the mayor’s office. Cited as a key reason for the investigation, the letter stated that it was an action aimed at “thwarting the work of federal immigration officials.” O’Connell told the media at a press conference on May 30th that his office intended to “appropriately respond” to the requests listed in the letter, and that he was “not particularly concerned” about the investigation uncovering any wrongdoing.

The city did not fulfill the request for the information until late in the day on June 16th. Of the 119 PDF files submitted, 62 were email chains between the mayor’s office and city departments attempting to determine who would be responsible for reporting communications with federal immigration officials. 51 were emails sent “in direct compliance with Executive Order 30”, according to the Tennessean, and include descriptions of the individuals in charge of reporting.

The rest of the documents include a timeline of the Nashville ICE operation compiled by Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz, an invitation from the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition to join a virtual meeting, a script for O’Connel from the press conference held on May 30, the agenda for a meeting between the Mayor’s Office and partner agencies in the community, and a presentation for departments outlining how to comply with Executive Order 30.

At a press conference on Wednesday, O'Connel was questioned on whether or not he thought publicly releasing the names of federal agents put them in danger, as the names in the original documents were not redacted. Because the names of the agents are on public record, he said that he would not personally consider the action doxxing, and that it is a far bigger concern that “unmarked, unidentifiable, masked people [are] whisking people into vehicles.” KAITLYN MCDONALD

DEVELOPMENT

Gap Announces $58 Million Investment In Gallatin Facility (Now Next)
East Trinity Property Hits The Market In East Nashville (Now Next)
Canopy By Hilton Now Open In The Nashville Gulch (Now Next)
Veterans services-focused nonprofit buys West Nashville property (Post)

✹ A VISION OF NASHVILLE PAST

When I was young, Nashville was a modest city with two economies. Insurance companies created wealth by selling burial policies door to door to poor people. Record companies corralled porch pickers into vocal groups and recorded them for those same poor people. WSM radio — a marketing arm of an insurance company — which stood for “We Sell Millions” of insurance policies, broadcast this hillbilly music all over the country.

And they came to Nashville. The real cowboys and their wives sojourned to mecca, Lower Broadway. A real Nashvillian — other than the musicians — didn’t visit Lower Broadway, didn’t appreciate it. The business community dismissed the whole country music thing, preferring Duke Ellington. But the cowboys came in boots and plaid shirts from Missouri, Montana, and Canada spitting tobacco on the floor of the Ryman Auditorium. They came with their calloused hands and wrinkled farm wives to drink and two-step, sleeping in Days Inns and arriving in their muddy trucks.

The musicians that entertained them in every honky tonk were not aspirational but exasperated. They had fallen through the cracks of life and lived off tips and 85-cent Busch. Though skilled in many cases, the musicians were not in it for the career but for the tips and cheap beer. I recall as a college student asking to play drums at “The Wheel,” offering a small tip as incentive. The drummer, leaving for the evening, left me there to support the ruffians out front until I had to return to my West Nashville home. The 85-cent beer fit my college student’s budget. The amusement was priceless.

Broadway was never “nice”, but it fell into disrepair in later years. I remember peep shows shrouded in red velvet dotted mid-block. Without ID, my giggling friends and I entered one of these seedy joints and were escorted back to a room with a plexiglass divider between the struggling hussy and the customer. There was a little drawer on a hinge where you put a few dollars and pushed the money to the other side. The “entertainer” was then to shed her clothes and do a little dance. It was horrifying of course, but part of the redneck underbelly of Nashville. The Baptists must have seethed because eventually, developers made a move to level Lower Broadway – including the Ryman.

That’s when someone stepped up to save the old buildings and the old Church. Without Lower Broadway, Nashville might be just another Southern city. Close your eyes and imagine the town without the 17 million annual visitors. Ahhhhh. I like it. TOM LANDSTREET

✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: June 20-26

The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming titles, check out the 2025 Film Guide.

28 Years Later (Dir. Danny Boyle) The long-awaited third entry of Boyle and Alex Garland’s fast zombie franchise has a killer trailer (RIP Teletubbies fans) and an enviable cast led by Cillian Murphy, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, and Jodie Comer. Reviews are also currently higher than the director’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. Now playing in theaters.

Art Is For Everybody (Dir.Miranda Yousef) Much-maligned 90s Christian painter Thomas Kinkade gets the doc treatment, and, somehow, the result is a generous tribute to populism that challenges perceptions of art. Now playing at the Belcourt.

Elio (Dirs. Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina) Pixar’s latest follows a young boy mistaken for Earth’s ambassador on an alien planet after he is accidentally beamed into space. Now playing in theaters.

Nashville: A City on Film/Altman at 100 The Belcourt turned 100 this year. So did the late Robert Altman. To celebrate, Nashville’s arthouse has curated a selection of films shot in Nashville from Harmony Korine’s Gummo to the little-seen Girl from Tobacco Row to Ernest Scared Stupid. The tribute to the 70s film icon features a lineup including Thieves Like Us, The Player, and California Split.

See the full list