Tennessee Valley Authority gets a Trump-style reckoning



President Donald Trump has made the Tennessee Valley Authority a key front in his America First energy agenda. With the authority to appoint and remove TVA directors, Trump hasn’t hesitated to fire those who promote globalist “green” schemes that ignore the needs of the region’s residents.

This month, Trump ousted two Biden-appointed directors, including the board’s chairman. Their offense: trying to turn the TVA into a vehicle for the radical left’s anti-carbon agenda.

The future of reliable energy across the Tennessee Valley — and much of the South — still hangs in the balance.

Trump took similar action during his first term, firing several directors, including a previous chairman, after they approved outsourcing 146 American tech jobs to foreign workers on H-1B visas.

These firings are critical to ensuring that the Tennessee Valley Authority continues to produce abundant and reliable energy for the seven states it serves.

A call for reform

Last month, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) published a joint letter voicing their concerns about the agency’s distracted leadership. They stressed the need for the energy provider to expand nuclear projects, especially small modular reactors, which utilize existing fission technology on a smaller, more deployable scale than the massive projects of decades past.

As to the incapable leadership of the existing Tennessee Valley Authority board, the senators wrote:

As it stands now, TVA and its leadership can’t carry the weight of this moment. The presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed TVA Board of Directors lacks the talent, experience, and gravitas to meet a challenge that clearly requires visionary industrial leaders. The group looks more like a collection of political operatives than visionary industrial leaders. The current TVA board focused on the diversity of its executives ahead of job creation for hungry workers in the region it is supposed to serve.

Shortly thereafter, Trump fired two of the agency’s six current directors.

A critical purge

Trump fired Michelle Moore on March 27, followed by TVA board Chairman Joe Ritch on April 1. Both were Biden-appointed green energy enthusiasts bent on turning the Tennessee Valley Authority into a utopian solar-and-battery experiment.

Had they succeeded, the consequences for the region’s energy reliability would have been disastrous.

Moore founded and runs Groundswell, a “sustainable energy” company whose mission statement boasts a “people-centric approach to developing community solar projects.” I’m not sure what that means — but I know I’d rather depend on coal, natural gas, or nuclear power than on some feel-good solar scheme when temperatures plunge below freezing.

Ritch, originally appointed to the TVA board by President Obama, returned under Biden’s nomination to serve as chairman. In his Senate confirmation statement, Ritch promoted transitioning the agency away from its current mix of coal, nuclear, hydro, and gas toward unreliable green alternatives — convinced, somehow, that it would help the environment and boost the economy.

A historic blunder

This utopian obsession with “sustainable energy” isn’t just naïve — it’s deadly. In December 2023, a hard freeze struck the Tennessee Valley Authority’s service area. The cold snap wasn’t historically extreme, but the consequences were.

For the first time in TVA history, the agency failed to produce enough electricity to meet demand. Rolling blackouts swept the region. Why? Because the TVA lacked enough baseline reliable energy. On those near-zero nights, solar energy produced exactly zero kilowatts.

That’s the future TVA customers would face under the fantasy energy plans pushed by climate zealots like Michelle Moore and Joe Ritch: blackouts in the dead of winter and no backup.

TVA leadership has failed in other ways too — most notably by outsourcing American jobs. In 2020, CEO Jeff Lyash tried to replace over 100 U.S. tech workers with foreign nationals on H-1B visas. While gutting working-class jobs, Lyash collected nearly $8 million a year, making him the highest-paid federal employee. One longtime worker said employees were expected to train their foreign replacements before being shown the door.

Trump responded immediately. While he couldn’t fire Lyash, he could — and did — remove board members who refused to act. When the board wouldn’t fire Lyash or cut his pay, Trump fired them instead.

Soon after, Lyash ended the outsourcing plan. Following Trump’s 2024 election win, Lyash saw the writing on the wall and resigned.

Protections are still needed

The Tennessee Valley Authority remains vital to the economic strength of the upper South. Trump’s removal of Obama-Biden-era appointees has played a key role in preserving the agency’s reliability and focus. But the threat isn’t gone.

The TVA’s service states — especially Tennessee — face a serious vulnerability: Any future Democrat president could again install green energy ideologues, fire current directors, and impose Green New Deal policies. The result? An energy-starved Tennessee Valley plagued by blackouts and foolish political experiments.

Trump’s stand against the radicalization of TVA energy policy deserves recognition. His pushback has protected millions of residents from rolling blackouts and economic self-sabotage. But the fight isn’t finished.

The future of reliable energy across the Tennessee Valley — and much of the South — still hangs in the balance. The region cannot afford to treat Trump’s changes as a lasting victory.

Asked about his health, McConnell says that he is 'fine'



When asked about his health during an interview on "Face the Nation," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who had two bizarre freezing episodes caught on camera earlier this year, first in July and then again in August, said that he is "fine."

"I'm fine," McConnell told Margaret Brennan. "I'm in good shape, completely recovered, and back on the job."

— (@)

The 81-year-old lawmaker, who has previously said that he will finish his Senate term, has been in office for well over three decades and will have been in the Senate for more than four decades by the end of his current term.

"I have consulted with Leader McConnell and conferred with his neurology team. After evaluating yesterday's incident, I have informed Leader McConnell that he is medically clear to continue with his schedule as planned. Occasional lightheadedness is not uncommon in concussion recovery and can also be expected as a result of dehydration," attending physician to Congress Brian Monahan noted after McConnell's August freezing episode.

"My examination of you following your August 30, 2023 brief episode included several medical evaluations: brain MRI imaging, EEG study and consultations with several neurologists for a comprehensive neurology assessment," Monahan later communicated in another note regarding McConnell. "There is no evidence that you have a seizure disorder or that you experienced a stroke, TIA or movement disorder such as Parkinson's disease. There are no changes recommended in treatment protocols as you continue recovery from your March 2023 fall."

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Mitch McConnell's latest freeze-up sheds light on a MUCH BIGGER issue



We talk a lot about politics on here, but when it comes to Sen. Mitch McConnell, politics need to be set aside.

Back in July, McConnell froze mid-speech at a news conference, and unfortunately, it wasn’t a one-time incident.

This past Wednesday in Covington, Kentucky, McConnell froze again when reporters asked him whether he was planning on running for re-election.

Like him or not, the man clearly has glaring health concerns that should prevent him from serving.

“This is not about politics. It's about our country,” says Glenn Beck. “For the love of Pete, resign.”

“The man is clearly suffering,” adds Stu Burguiere.

But Mitch McConnell’s unfortunate situation sheds light on a much bigger issue.

“It shows you the power of the machine,” says Glenn. “They'd rather have somebody like him who's no longer capable of doing it themselves because then they can just do what they want.”

But the reality is that term limits are “among the most popular policy proposals in our discourse— we're talking about 80% support across the board,” says Stu.

And Republicans are not the only ones who are pushing for policies that will prevent Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein-like situations from happening; Democrats and Independents are as well.

Unfortunately, with the way things are currently set up, “Mitch McConnell could run today, and they'd still vote him in,” says Glenn.


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'This is insane': Elon Musk calls for constitutional amendment after bizarre McConnell episode



In response to a tweet that featured video footage of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's freezing episode on Wednesday, Elon Musk called for a constitutional amendment.

McConnell suddenly stopped speaking mid-sentence on Wednesday and proceeded to stand silently at the podium for a protracted period of time. McConnell later said he was fine but did not explain what had happened to him.

An aide from the senator's office reportedly indicated that the lawmaker "felt lightheaded and stepped away for a moment. He came back to handle Q and A, which as everyone observed was sharp."

When sharing a video of McConnell's bizarre episode, a social media account wrote, "The highest positions of our government, on both sides of the aisle, are held by people who genuinely belong in a nursing home. How are we allowing this to happen?"

Musk responded by writing, "We need a constitutional amendment. This is insane."

— (@)

While Musk did not explain exactly what kind of constitutional amendment he was advocating for, shortly before his tweet he had responded to a post in which Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon wrote, "Why do we have minimum age requirements to serve in government, but no upper age limits? I'm not sure where the cutoff should be, but it seems clear 80 is too old."

"Maybe also some kind of basic test like 'what is your job and what year is it?'" Musk replied.

— (@)

Musk has previously suggested that people should not be allowed to seek political office unless they're younger than 70 years old.

"Let's set an age limit after which you can’t run for political office, perhaps a number just below 70," he tweeted in 2021.

"I think the legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69," he opined in a tweet last year.

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