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Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Is Trump Trying to Lose the Midterms
Republicans fall into two bad camps regarding Trump: they either are true believers and support the authoritarian agenda or they are cowards who will not dare cross him. We need to elect Democrats in order to stop Trump. Even some Republicans who I suspect are pre-Trump traditional conservatives will not do what they know is the right thing to do, so they are useless.
All of the above being said, there are limits to how far I can go in supporting Democrats. While I would gladly welcome Chaz Molder's defeat of Andy Ogles, I could not vote for Aftyn Behn, however. In that recent 7th Congressional District race, I voted for Matt Van Eppes. I will not vote for a Socialist. To vote for a DSA is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. I know sometimes it is a tough choice to make, and anyone concerned about Trump's authoritarian agenda has to make the decision of where to draw the line for themselves.
Back to the subject of this post. It seems Trump is doing all he can to ensure Republicans lose the midterm. The war in Iran is going badly, and gas prices are elevated and fluctuate day to day. With the election less than 100 days away, and people doing summer traveling, and gas prices being something people care about and are aware of, gas prices do not bode well for a Republican victory. If Trump had built support for the war among Congress and our allies and sold the need for this war to the American people, people might be more forgiving of the pain caused by the war and see it as a necessary sacrifice, but Trump went it alone and did not bring the country along with him. He alone will get the blame for the rising gas prices.
Also, Trump will not stay on message and tout the good things, or arguably good things, Republicans are doing, such as some things in the Big Beautiful Bill or the recently passed Housing Bill. He can't brag about the Housing bill because he refused to sign it. It passed despite Trump. I had reservations about that bill myself, but it could be bragging rights for Republicans if Trump had championed it. Instead of talking about economic issues, he can't stop talking about the "stolen" 2020 elections or engaging in his insult humor, attacking critics and reporters. Maybe it's just me, because I never did like it, but I think his schtick is getting old. Even if the base eats it up, when he is talking about the stolen election or insulting reporters, he is not focused on the economy. Also, when Trump's name is not on the ballot, many people who voted for Trump don't vote. He should be trying to make sure those people make it to the polls. He isn't.
The worst way Trump is sabotaging the GOP before the midterms is by going on another tariff rampage. While the diehard Trumpinistas believe anything Trump says even if it makes no sense, most Americans know that a tariff is paid for by the consumers. A tariff is the equivalent of a sales tax, and most Americans know it.
Here is what National Review had to say on the topic:
Trump Sabotages the Economy, Right Before the Midterms
by Jim Geraghty, National Review, July 28, 2026 - ... By obsessively hiking tariffs at every opportunity, President Trump has put every Republican running for office this year in a much tougher spot than they had to be — to say nothing of how his policies have made all kinds of goods more expensive than they had to be. It is one of the most astonishingly self-destructive moves any president has ever made in economic policy, and no matter how much the evidence piles up, the president insists the tariffs are working great, and that America is enjoying a “golden age.”
Incumbent Republicans, you could have been running for reelection in a roaring economy, but a president addicted to tariffs wouldn’t let you. ... 60 percent of U.S. adults say Trump’s policies have made the economy worse, while just 20 percent say Trump’s policies have made the economy better. ...
... Since taking office, the Trump administration has collected $445 billion in tariff revenue, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Where do you think all that money is coming from? If you said, “foreign countries,” you’re wrong.
... The New York Fed found “about three-quarters of businesses facing tariff-induced cost increases in both the manufacturing and service sectors passed along at least some of these higher costs to their customers by raising prices. Almost a third of manufacturers and about 45 percent of service firms reported fully passing along all tariff-related cost increases, while 45 percent of manufacturers and a third of service firms said they passed along some but not all of the cost increase.”
... tariffs are a big factor in the cost of living, which is a big factor in Americans’ perceptions of the economy, which are a big reason why Trump’s job approval rating is around 40 percent, which is a big reason why Republicans are in trouble in the upcoming midterm elections. (read it all)
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Saturday, July 25, 2026
Former Gov. Bill Haslam Endorses Hatcher in 5th District Republican Primary
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| Bill Haslam |
Haslam announced his endorsement this week, praising Hatcher's leadership and approach to public service.
"Charlie Hatcher is authentic and will be a leader on day one in Congress," Haslam said in a statement. "His commonsense approach to getting back to the basics of what made our country great is refreshing. I am honored to stand with Charlie Hatcher." (link)
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Ogles on the Ropes in Tennessee
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| Rep. Andy Ogles |
Ogles faces a stiff challenge from Charlie Hatcher, a dairy farmer and the state’s longtime agriculture commissioner. The incumbent has posted paltry fundraising and is running in a newly redrawn district, leaving him particularly vulnerable.
... “The local sheriff said Ogles lied about his work in child sex trafficking,” a narrator says in the spot. “And his phone was even seized by the FBI, and he’s still under investigation.” (Read more)
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Former Gov. Phil Bredesen Endorces Chaz Molder for Congress in TN-5
... “Chaz Molder will be a great Congressman. I admire the way that he has handled himself as Mayor —focused on results, not theatrics. That's what has made him so successful at delivering results as Mayor," said Bredesen, who was governor from 2003-2011. "I'm ready for the Congress to ditch the theatrics and start doing something about the real challenges that face Tennesseans.
... Molder has since continued to significantly out-fundraise both of his potential Republican opponents. He's raised nearly $2 million since declaring his candidacy last year, according to federal election commission data, and had $1.566 million cash on hand on June 30. (more)
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Friday, July 24, 2026
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him
Trump's "True Believers" will justify this. If they do not justify it, then they will dismiss it as "fake news." Or they will accuse those who are concerned about it of having TDS. You can also expect to hear it dismissed because it was reported by The New York Times. Anything not reported on Fox News or one of the other Trumpian networks or Trumpian podcasters is simply dismissed. When they cannot justify an action of Trump's, they simply refuse to believe it. If they can't justify it or dismiss it, they say, "What about Biden" or Hillary or Obama. This is not justified, nor can it be dismissed, and other presidents have not acted the way. This is not normal for a democracy.
Below are excerpts from the story published in the New York Times.
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him
By Tony Romm and Brad Plumer, The New York Times, July 24, 2026 - When the Trump administration canceled more than $7.5 billion in Biden-era federal grants for clean energy projects in October, it framed the move as an urgent corrective to protect taxpayer funds from waste.
But it wasn’t true.
In little-noticed court documents, federal officials acknowledged this month that they had terminated the funding “based solely” on political criteria, targeting projects in states that were represented by Democrats and had voted for Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee, in the 2024 election. (read more)
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Thursday, July 23, 2026
If You Are Politically Homeless, Join Me for This Gathering on July 23th at TailGate Brewery
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| The July Meeting of Junto, Middle Tennessee |
by Rod Williams, July 12, 2026 - If you are exiled from the Republican party and do not feel at home in a Republican Party that has been hijacked by populist, grifters, con men, insurrectionists, nut-jobs, and white nationalists, political life can be quite lonely. That is me. I am a never-Trumper but I certainly do not feel at home in the Democrat Party. I am a classical liberal who still believes in limited government, the Constitution, and free enterprise. My values have not changed; the Republican Party has changed. If this also describes you, I encourage you to join me on Thursday, July 23, 2026, at TailGate Brewery Music Row at 6PM for a meeting of Junto Middle Tennessee.
Junto, which means "group" or "together", is informally associated with The Dispatch, an international online news organization started by Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes in 2019. Our particular Junto gathers thoughtful citizens who are somewhat politically homeless as they look around and see an erosion of classically liberal values in our two-party system. We gather, in-person, to engage in respectful discussion to connect and learn from each other.
Visit the Junto Facebook page to learn more or just show up.
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Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Tennessee Owed Millions After Companies Fail to Deliver in Cash-for-Jobs Program
by Johnny Edwards and Kim Jarrett, The Center Square, July 22, 2026 - Millions of taxpayer dollars have slipped through Tennessee’s fingers in an economic development program that pays huge cash grants to private companies promising new jobs, an investigation by The Center Square found.
The state has recourse when those promises fall flat and has clawed back $92 million from companies that failed to deliver on pledged job numbers, but more than $20 million remains uncollected, state data shows. Recouping funds takes years and can be futile if companies dissolve, file for bankruptcy, or wage battle through protracted litigation.
In an interview last month, Economic and Community Development Commissioner and Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter characterized clawbacks as "rare" within the state’s FastTrack grants program.
But the state's own tracking spreadsheet, obtained by The Center Square through a public records request, shows Tennessee's economic arm has spent years chasing money back from dozens of companies that fell short of their job pledges. McWhorter's department has pursued 71 companies since 2016. In total, the 71 had been handed $169 million in grants through Tennessee’s FastTrack program, aiming to create more than 24,000 jobs combined.
Actual jobs created by the companies: About 7,400.
Under FastTrack, employers who create at least half of the jobs they promised can keep part of their grant money, so not all the money doled out to underperforming companies can be recovered. The spreadsheet shows the state has managed to recoup $92.4 million from 55 companies and is still fighting for more.
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| Novonix, Chattanooga |
The department gave Novonix 45 days to return the money. Novonix did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
"The real question that I think most people are interested in is, do you enforce the clawback provision?" McWhorter told The Center Square. "And the answer is yes, we do. It’s not something that anyone enjoys doing. It’s not a conversation that people enjoy having."
Justin Owen, president and CEO of the Beacon Center of Tennessee and a fierce critic of FastTrack, said government shouldn't be using tax money to pick business winners and losers in the first place.
"This is part of the problem with corporate welfare," said Owen, whose Nashville-based nonprofit advocates for market-based policies and helped push a 2013 law mandating clawback agreements for all companies receiving economic development grants.
"Markets are notoriously messy, obviously, and companies fluctuate," he said. "They hire people, they lay people off. That's just part of the way it works, and today's winner may be tomorrow’s loser."
Failures and disappointments
Including Novonix, 18 companies accused of failing to live up to jobs promises owe the state $20.1 million, including $8.8 million still owed in judgments obtained against eight companies that fought back in court, according to the state’s data.
The sum also includes $6.1 million that's tied up in litigation and owed by five companies, the state says. One of those companies is SmileDirectClub, a Nashville-headquartered teledentistry company that sold teeth aligners and faced class-action lawsuits alleging false advertising and damage to teeth. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2023, but not before receiving almost half of a total $10.05 million awarded FastTrack grant.
The SmileDirectClub bankruptcy is just one in a long list of disappointments contained in the state’s internal spreadsheet, obtained earlier this month through a request filed under the Tennessee Open Records Act. The Center Square has been examining corporate accountability under FastTrack, in light of a controversial $30 million grant awarded to Starbucks this year for its new southeast corporate office in Nashville, and sought specific information about which companies have been asked to return funds and how much has been paid back.
Among the failures:
The state has a judgment against Textile Corporation of America, which obtained a $3 million grant in 2017 to build a manufacturing plant in Pikeville, promising to create 1,000 jobs. The company created zero jobs, with the owners, twin brothers Karim and Rahim Sadruddin, pleading guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors said the scheme involved fake invoices, falsified records, and misspent funds.
The brothers were sentenced to 50 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution. So far the company has paid back around $1 million of that FastTrack money, the state data shows.
The state awarded $4 million to MIA (Made in America) Seating in 2013, but Economic and Community Development says it created only 82 of 510 promised jobs at an ergonomic office chairs and seating plant in Clinton. The project was later moved to Union City.
The company fought the state in court, lost, and has yet to make any payments on a $3.4 million judgment obtained in 2024, the state's spreadsheet reports. Daily interest is accumulating. The Center Square reached out to a company representative about this story but did not receive a response.
Other funds handed over to private enterprise may be gone for good. A 2024 audit by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury examined clawbacks and found $7.9 million in taxpayer money declared uncollectible from seven companies that went bankrupt or dissolved. The audit did not identify the companies, so it's not clear if the figure overlaps with companies included on the state's spreadsheet.
$92 million collected
FastTrack launched in 2012 and is the state's main apparatus for sweetening development deals—and edging out competing states—by making cash payments directly to companies. The program draws from general funds, meaning every Tennessean helps pay for the grants through sales taxes.
Data posted on Economic and Community Development’s website, tracking grants from 2018 to present, shows nearly $767 million awarded to about 585 companies in that timeframe. That would be $100 per Tennessee resident. But it's unclear how much of that money was actually paid out, and how much may have been returned without a clawback process.
Of the $92.4 million collected from 55 companies, 35 of them created less than half of the jobs they promised. Thirteen of those created no jobs at all, and out of those, four finished their contracts with fewer jobs than they started, giving them negative jobs numbers, according to the state data.
Owen, of the Beacon Center, said FastTrack needlessly entangles taxpayer money into companies' hiring decisions.
"Companies aren't coming here and expanding here because we're giving them handouts," Owen said. "They're coming here and expanding here because of our policies, because of our tax structure and those types of things. That's what we should be doubling down on."
State Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, said Tennessee needs FastTrack grants, though. They're one of the few tools for growing the tax base in a state with no income tax, he said.
"Whenever we add a job, we're adding a sales taxpayer," Williams said. "So when you look at it from an incentives basis, yes, we're distributing well-fought-for dollars from our citizens into these businesses. But the goal here is to look at … what do we think our return on that investment is going to be through those utilization taxes that we have, because we have no income tax?"
Sliding scale for clawbacks
Under the accountability agreements that companies sign with the state, clawbacks are calculated on a sliding scale according to how much a company comes up short. According to a template contract provided by McWhorter's staff, a company that creates less than 90% of its pledged new jobs must repay a proportional amount of the grant award while a company that creates less than 50% must repay the entire grant.
McWhorter told The Center Square the accountability agreements give companies years to meet their jobs goals, so clawbacks take as long or longer, "five, six, seven, eight years in some cases."
He said the risk of a deal going bad factors into how the state vets companies before awarding grants.
"Things don’t go as planned most of the time, but you want to align with companies that can figure that out," McWhorter said. "They have the deep pockets to pivot, they can weather storms. Because what we don't want is a company that doesn't have the ability to do that, and then they're saying, 'Hey, we're out of resources. We can't do anything about it. And guess what, we're out of money."
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Henry Walker Appointed to the Arts Commission. Congratulations!
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| Henry Walker |
Henry M. Walker is a Nashville-based partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, focusing on state utility regulation and energy law, with a career that includes 13 years as General Counsel for the Tennessee Public Utility Commission. He is also an art collector, an art connoisseur, and patron of the arts.
Before joining Bradley in 2013, Walker served 13 years as General Counsel for the Tennessee Public Utility Commission. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and as Assistant District Attorney General in Nashville. He was named “Lawyer of the Year” for Energy Law in Nashville by Best Lawyers in 2012 and 2015.
He is vice president of his neighborhood association, Senior Warden at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, and serves on boards including Tennessee History for Kids, Tennessee State Museum Foundation, and East Nashville Hope Exchange.
If you remember the old Teddy Barts Roundtable, you may know Henry as a regular on that program, and he has also been a journalist with The Nashville Scene.
For many years, the Arts Commission has been plagued with controversy. I don't know why anyone would want to serve on the dysfunctional Arts Commission, but I am glad good people are willing to do so. You may recall that other prominent people, including philanthropist Will Cheek and former Judge Carol McCoy served on the Arts Commission and either resigned or were forced out.
I wish Henry all the best as he navigates the challenges of the Arts Commission. Thank you for your willingness to serve in this challenging position.
For more on the Arts Commission, see the following:
Metro Council Ensures the Chaos at the Arts Commision Continues
Ethics Complaint filed against Carol McCoy by Arts Commission Employee, dismissed.
More Weird stuff at the Arts Commission. New Interim Director job offered while Director is still Sick from Racism and cannot Defend himself Because that would be Work.
Ethics Complaint filed against Carol McCoy by Arts Commission Employee, dismissed.When will Metro Arts 2023 grant recipients be paid? We don't know. 2024 Grant Reviews put on Hold.
Metro Finance steps in to take over agency’s finances as embattled director Daniel Singh looks for new job out of stateMetro Arts Commission, sicker by the day. Will Cheek to Resign amid Death Threats.
Metro Arts Commision still Crazy after all These Years. Racism causes Director to take Sick Leave.
Things are still a mess at the Metro Arts Commission. Metro Arts launches initiative to 'return land, money, and resources' to 'Indigenous, African, and Asian peoples'
Metro Arts Commision still Crazy after all These Years. Racism causes Director to take Sick Leave.
Things are still a mess at the Metro Arts Commission. Metro Arts launches initiative to 'return land, money, and resources' to 'Indigenous, African, and Asian peoples'
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