THE MORNING RANT: Local Tennessee News of National Importance – 6/23/2025

Much like the Powerline guys reporting on Minnesota stories that have national significance, I’d like to report on a few things going on here in Tennessee that have importance beyond the state.

President Trump Fires Another Climate Cultist from TVA’s Board

Donald Trump has just fired another radical left-wing climate cultist from the Board of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the utility which provides electricity to seven states in the South. This is the 3rd radical ecovangelist appointed by Joe Biden that Trump has removed from TVA’s board.

“President Trump fires third TVA board member since March” [WATE Knoxville – 6/11/2025]

Beth Geer was appointed in 2023 by President Biden (or more likely by his handlers) and her tenure on the TVA board was supposed to go through 2026.

How radical is she? Very radical, as documented in this story from the Chattanooga newspaper a few days ago:

"I believe that carbon pollution is a public health emergency," Geer said. "When the health and safety of our communities, children and grandchildren are at stake, we must act ... and we must move quicker to address the climate crisis."

Geer, who chaired the board committee in charge of executive pay incentives, celebrated at a meeting in November a new payout incentive based on how quickly TVA expands renewable energy.

"We need to go further, faster on our renewable energy goals," Geer said in May 2024. "We hear you, we see you, we are working on it. I just want to say that out loud."

"One item that was very important to me as we develop goals this year was to ensure that we are, in fact, incentivizing management to increase carbon free resources."

Those of us who rely on the TVA for electricity dodged a bullet with Donald Trump’s election.

And by the way, the “true conservatives” at National Review and the rest of Conservative, Inc. got their way when Joe Biden was “elected” President in 2020. Biden then stuffed TVA’s board with radical anti-carbonists. In 2024, National Review and Conservative, Inc. again worked to defeat Donald Trump (to “save conservatism”) and thereby elect Kamala Harris. She would have not only kept Biden’s TVA appointees, but added more “net zero” zealots to it.

Donald Trump flushing the climate communists out of the TVA is actual, real-life conservatism in action. Meanwhile, as I scan National Review and their Twitter feeds, I see that Dan and Charlie et al are having the vapors over Donald Trump’s handling of Tik Tok, which violates some sacred penumbra of “true conservatism,” yet they were perfectly willing to let Biden and Kamala inflict the left’s decarbonization agenda on residents of the Tennessee Valley. If that is “principled conservatism,” please give me Donald Trump’s unprincipled version instead.

Parking Garage Fire in Nashville Causes Structural Damage

There is an emerging trend of parking garage fires that are so intense that they cause structural damage to the building itself. Just a month ago I wrote about the massive fire at a garage at Jacksonville’s airport. It was so intense that it caused a partial collapse of the structure. The vehicle that started the Jacksonville fire is was a BMW, but the ATF has still not confirmed if it was an EV / plug-in hybrid. I have my suspicions.

Just a few days ago, there was another massive fire at a public parking garage in Nashville. It too was so intense that it caused a partial collapse of the structure. In fact, the damage is so extensive that the adjacent downtown library has been closed for at least a month due to damage.

“Nashville Public Library to close for nearly a month after garage fire” [Tennessean – 6/16/2025]

The cause is still being determined, but the intensity of the fire gives a clue. Also, much of the fleet where the fire started belonged to a left-wing public agency committed to all the sustainable, green nonsense that is associated with promoting EVs.

The garage, owned by the Nashville Department of Transportation and operated by the Nashville Downtown Partnership, provided access to the Downtown library branch and the Renaissance Hotel on Commerce Street.

Fire crews responded to the garage at about 1:30 a.m. to find multiple upper floors of the structure in flames. Many of the Downtown Partnership's vehicles were parked on the top floor. A ramp between the fourth and fifth floors collapsed and several beams on the same floor were damaged, officials said.

I continue to follow both of these garage fires. I’ll let you know if/when it is confirmed that these were ignited by EVs.

Radical, Left-Wing, Bureaucratic Waste at the University of Tennessee

An employee at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, specifically a person with the job title “Content Strategy Manager for UT Knoxville’s Division of Student Life,” is publicly likening Donald Trump’s policies to the Holocaust, stating that, “the events happening in the US are identical to what happened in 1930s Germany.”

Deep-red Tennessee is using Tennessee tax dollars (and student tuition) to pay this woman’s salary so that she can have a platform to make those slanderous charges.

Several elected officials have contacted the university’s President, Randy Boyd, advising him he’d better sit on that zoo faculty of his.

A better message to send to President Boyd would be for the legislature to cut the university’s budget while freezing tuition. So long as the payroll includes a Content Strategy Manager for the Division of Student Life who accuses the U.S. of being Nazi Germany, there is plenty of room for belt tightening at the University of Tennessee.

My Latest Piece at The Blaze – “Philanthropaths”

My latest piece at The Blaze has been published, “Meet the ‘philanthropaths’ spending billions to kill the American dream.” It discusses the existential threat we face from sociopathic billionaires (“philanthropaths”) who are using their fortunes as a weapon to tear down western civilization.

So yes, I’m more open to separating sociopathic billionaires from their wealth than I once was. I still believe in economic liberty. But liberty doesn’t mean allowing radicalized aristocrats to fund our destruction.

It’s behind a paywall, but if you’re a Blaze subscriber, I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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