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Wednesday, September 03, 2025
Executive Director of Tennessee Stands, Gary Humble, to Challenge Jack Johnson for Tennessee State Senate Seat
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| Gary Humble |
For more than five years, Gary has poured his heart into leading Tennessee Stands. Together with thousands of you across the state, he has helped build a movement that refuses to accept politics as usual. From challenging unconstitutional mandates, to publishing Liberty’s Handbook, to releasing our annual Legislative Report Card, Gary has consistently worked to make sure the voices of everyday Tennesseans are heard in Nashville.
This won’t be Gary’s first time stepping into the arena. In 2022, he came within just 786 votes of unseating Johnson — proof that when citizens stand together, the establishment can be challenged. That close race sent a clear message: Tennesseans are ready for leaders who will serve the people, not the political class.
“Over the last two election cycles, I’ve seen firsthand the growing desire for leadership that serves the people rather than entrenched political interests,” Gary shared in his announcement. “This campaign is about liberty, accountability, and giving Tennesseans a true voice in their state government.”
As Executive Director of Tennessee Stands, Gary has never shied away from standing firm on principle. His decision to run for Senate reflects exactly why this movement exists: to ensure that the people of Tennessee are not just spoken for, but are empowered to speak for themselves.
Gary’s campaign is not just about one man or one Senate seat. It’s about restoring the voice of the people in Tennessee. For too long, career politicians have treated our seats of government like lifetime appointments, serving themselves and special interests instead of the people who elected them. That era must end.
Gary is calling on citizens across Tennessee to rise up, take ownership of their citizenship, and join this fight by stepping forward to run for office. Whether it’s the city council, the school board, the county commission, or the State General Assembly, conservatives must answer the call to serve. Tennessee needs men and women of conviction, everyday Tennesseans with courage, who will challenge entrenched power and bring true accountability back to our government.
This is not a spectator sport. The time has come for a new generation of leaders, citizens who will not shrink back, but who will boldly step into the arena and stand for liberty.
The Republican primary for Senate District 27 will be held in August 2026. Learn more about Gary’s campaign at garyhumbleforsenate.com.
-The Tennessee Stands Team
Rod's Comment: Just to be clear, my reposting of an announcement does not constitute an endorsement. If I could vote in that senate district, I would be voting for Jack Johnson.
Johnson is a smart, thoughtful, hard-working, orthodox conservative, with common sense and practicality. Humble is a super-Maga, Bible-thumping, conspiracy theorist, rabble rouser. He says he fully supports the Make America Healthy (MAHA) agenda. He opposes Tennessee's school choice program. He opposes laws requiring school children to be vaccinated against communicable diseases. He supports the long-discredited doctrine of nullification. He is a kook. Unfortunately, a kook like Humble appeals to many Republican voters today. As hard as it is to believe, someone like Gary Humble actually has a chance of winning an election against a man like Jack Johnson.
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Tuesday, September 02, 2025
America’s Coming Crash
by Kenneth S. Rogoff, Foreign Policy, September/October 2025- For much of the past quarter century, the rest of the world has looked in wonder at the United States’ ability to borrow its way out of trouble. Again and again, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the government has used debt more vigorously than almost any other country to fight wars, global recessions, pandemics, and financial crises.
Even as U.S. public debt rapidly climbed from one plateau to the next—net debt is now nearing 100 percent of national income—creditors at home and abroad showed no signs of debt fatigue. For years after the 2008–9 global financial crisis, interest rates on Treasury debt were ultralow, and a great many economists came to believe that they would remain so into the distant future. Thus, running government deficits—fresh borrowing—seemed a veritable free lunch. Even though debt-to-income levels jumped radically after each crisis, there was no apparent need to save up for the next one. Given the dollar’s reputation as the world’s premier safe and liquid asset, global bond market investors would always be happy to digest another huge pile of dollar debt, especially in a crisis situation in which uncertainty was high and safe assets were in short supply.
become far less submissive, and long-term interest rates have risen sharply on ten- and 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds. For a big debtor like the United States—the gross U.S. debt is now nearly $37 trillion, roughly as large as that of all the other major advanced economies combined—these higher rates can really hurt. When the average rate paid rises by one percent, that translates to $370 billion more in annual interest payments the government must make. In fiscal year 2024, the United States spent $850 billion on defense—more than any other country—but it spent an even larger sum, $880 billion, on interest payments. As of May 2025, all the major credit-rating agencies had downgraded U.S. debt, and there is a growing perception among banks and foreign governments that hold trillions of dollars in U.S. debt that the country’s fiscal policy may be going off the rails. The increasing unlikelihood that the ultralow borrowing rates of the 2010s will come back any time soon has made the situation all the more dangerous.
... President Donald Trump’s efforts to place the blame for high rates on the Federal Reserve Board are deeply misleading.... If the Trump administration (or any other administration) moves to undermine the Fed’s independence, that would ultimately raise government borrowing costs, not lower them. ... with the United States taking on such extraordinary levels of debt, the dollar no longer looks unassailable, particularly amid other uncertainty about U.S. policy. In the near term, global central banks and foreign investors may decide to limit their total holdings of U.S. dollars. Over the medium and longer term, the dollar could lose market share to the Chinese yuan, the euro, and even cryptocurrency. Either way, foreign demand for U.S. debt will shrink, putting further upward pressure on U.S. interest rates and making the math of digging out of the debt hole still more daunting. ... the possibility of a once-in-a-century U.S. debt crisis no longer seems far-fetched.
... Trump administration’s economic policies are an accelerant, rather than the fundamental cause, of the United States’ debt problem.
...the United States could default outright (in the legal sense) on its debt. ... the United States can print dollars rather than refuse to honor its debt, a far simpler option is to use high inflation to achieve a partial default. ...a truly massive bout of hyperinflation, such as what happened in Germany after World War I, would effectively wipe government debt off the books, it would wipe out the rest of the economy, as well. ... One way to manage the effects of inflation is to use it in conjunction with financial repression. .... the Federal Reserve can also issue its own stablecoin, or central bank digital currency.
... For too long, the status quo approach in Washington has been to ignore the massive debt problem and hope that a return to miraculous levels of growth and low interest rates will take care of it. But the United States is approaching the point at which the national debt could undermine not only the country’s economic stability but also the things that have sustained its global power for so many decades, including the military spending that it has leveraged in many ways to maintain the dollar’s formidable influence over the global financial system since World War II. ...
The United States may avoid a debt crisis, and Trumpian and progressive economists who count on growth dividends ultimately outweighing the interest costs of higher debt may turn out to be right. But the debt policy that both the Republican and the Democratic Parties have engaged in over the first quarter of the twenty-first century amounts to a huge wager on long odds, especially if the country wants to remain a dominant power for the rest of this century and beyond. Given the current trajectory of deficits, it has become much more difficult to sustain the belief that no matter how high U.S. debt gets, it will have no effect on the country’s capacity to fight financial crises, pandemics, climate events, and wars. And it will certainly be a drag on the country’s growth.
It is impossible to predict how and when a U.S. debt problem may erupt and what the consequences will be: unpalatable austerity, high inflation, financial repression, partial default, or a mix of these. There are strong reasons to assume that inflation will have a pronounced part, as it did during the 1970s. Regardless, a debt crisis will be destabilizing for the United States, the global economy, and the dollar’s reserve status. Left unchecked, it could erode the country’s position in the world. (link)
Rod's Comment
This is an important article. You may find it at the above link. It is behind a paywall, but one may read one free article every so often from Foreign Policy. In my excerpts from the article above, the highlighting is mine.
While I am deeply concerned about Trump's authoritarian tendencies and disregard for our constitutional liberties, I am equally concerned about Trump's management of the economy. Of course, as the article states, the financial crisis we are likely to soon face was decades in the making. Trump, however, seems to be ignorant of economics and surrounds himself with people who will only tell him what he wants to hear. His tariff policy, his increase in the national debt, and his threat to the independence of the Federal Reserve could exacerbate an already dangerous situation.
I hope that we are lucky throughout the remainder of Trump's term and we are spared a crisis that pushes the US over the financial cliff. I don't know that we will be. Things happen. If we are lucky, then perhaps some sanity can return to economic policy. That would require Democrats not pushing for greater and greater spending and Republicans accepting that not all tax cuts contribute to greater economic growth. Tax cuts can contribute to growth, true, but tax cuts should be recognized as a tool in the toolbox, not an article of faith.
If we do survive the remainder of Trump's term without a financial disaster, then either a moderate Democratic administration or a normal Republican administration could return us to sound economic policy. My fear, however, is that the successor to Donald Trump, if a Republican, will continue the economic policies of Trump, or that a progressive Democrat of the AOC/Bernie Sanders school will get elected and pursue economic policies not much different from those of Donald Trump. Many of the more progressive Democrats subscribe to Modern Monetary Theory, which says debt and deficits simply don't matter. With either a Trump clone or a Sanders/AOC-type successor to Trump, we are screwed.
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Governor’s Race: Endorsements
Though John Rose hasn’t had as active an endorsement rollout as Blackburn so far, there’s still a long way to go and some suspect that he could land support from President Donald Trump. That said, Trump says he likes both Senator Marsha Blackburn and Representative John Rose and will remain neutral—for now. The president said he’ll likely be forced to endorse one or the other eventually. As far as the executive branch in Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee says that he won’t be weighing in at all.
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TN07 Republican Candidate Debate, Monday, Sept 15.
Join us as we host your TN07 special election Republican primary candidates for an evening of debate and discussion. Hear from the candidates where they stand on the issues and why they should be the Republican nominee for the 7th Congressional District special election in December.
Fox News & 99.7 WWTN commentator Brian Wilson has been invited to moderate the debate on behalf of the party.
The debate will be held at the Franklin Community of Faith Church of the Nazarene (506 Jordan Rd, Franklin) at 7:00 PM on September 15 (doors open at 6:15 PM). This is a free event.
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Gino Bluso, Candidate for TN-07 Congressional Seat, Guest Speaker at Bellevue Breakfast Club
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| State Representative Gino Bulso |
The event takes place at The Plantation Pub, 8321 Sawyer Brown Rd., Nashville, TN 37221.
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Trump is on a Losing Streak; I Hope it Continues.
In addition to thinking that our constitutional democratic republic can ultimately withstand the strain of a Trump presidency, Trump is on a losing streak. There are specific developments to be pleased about that happened recently:
Trump administration use of National Guard in L.A. violated law, judge rules
In a Serious Challenge to Trumps One-man Rule, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs.
Judge Blocks Deportation of Hundreds of Unaccompanied Children as Flights Were Ready to Take Off
Of course, some of these court rulings may be overturned on appeal. Also, Congress could choose to rubber-stamp the Trump Tariffs, making them legal. For now however, Trump is on a losing streak. Celebrate it. Be of good cheer.
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Monday, September 01, 2025
Celebrating the Decline of Big Labor!
Those numbers are all the more remarkable because they come after four years of the Biden administration doing everything it could to boost organized labor. Biden called himself the “most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration,” and he was probably right, at least since Franklin Roosevelt.
The Biden administration bailed out union pension funds with tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. It mandated union labor for infrastructure projects and baked union-favorable provisions into the CHIPS Act. It backed the “buy American” rules, prevailing wage rules, and protectionism that unions love. Biden’s NLRB appointees backed unions at every opportunity. And Biden himself was the first president to walk a picket line, joining UAW workers in Michigan in 2023.
Biden inherited a record-low union membership rate of 10.3 percent in 2021. It set a new record low in 2022 of 10.1 percent, then another in 2023 at 10 percent, and then another in 2024 at 9.9 percent. No other president has set a new record low every year he was in office since Ronald Reagan — impressive!
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Happy Labor Day. Here's a Song for the Working Man
by Rod Williams, Sept 1, 2025- I just don't get Labor Day. Unlike other days that are rooted in our Christian faith, like Christmas or Easter, or rooted in patriotism like Independence Day or Presidents Day or Veterans Day, or celebrate the start of the new year, Labor Day seems like it really has no link to any theme or important event. To me, working is sort of like eating and sleeping; it is just something you do. We could just as easily celebrate Sleeping Day.
Also, it is not clear what is being honored by Labor Day. Is it unionism? I don't think it is only supporters of unions who get to celebrate Labor Day. Only 9.9% of the labor force is in unions and most of those are government workers.
Only 62.2% of the labor force is working. Of course, in many homes, women manage a household and homeschool, and care for aging parents, and these women are not counted in the labor force. In these traditional households, their holding down the fort at home makes it possible for the man to work harder and make more money and adds value to society. On Labor Day, are we also celebrating the labor of these women? Is Labor Day for them? Also, if you work in management or own the company, is Labor Day for you? Is management also being honored on Labor Day?
Actually, Labor Day is a celebration of the American labor union movement and is dedicated to achievements of workers, so working or not, working informally or formally, in management or labor, I guess we can all celebrate the union movement. Since most workers are not part of a union, it seems kind of strange that we have a day set aside to celebrate the union movement. One reason we have Labor Day, is so we don't celebrate the international labor day of May 1, which was a big celebration in the Communist world and is still a day to rally the workers of the world.
I don't mind getting a paid holiday on September 1, it is a long time between July 4th and Veterans day of November 11th, so whatever the excuse for the holiday, I will take it. On October 13 is Columbus day and it used to be a big holiday, but most people do not get Columbus Day off anymore and political correctness has downplayed Columbus Day. If it was up to me, I would give up Labor Day and take Columbus Day, but since that is probably not going to happen, I will keep celebrating Labor Day.
One thing I find missing from Labor Day is ways to celebrate it. Thanksgiving has pilgrims and Indians and turkey, and the 4th of July has fireworks and flags, and Easter has eggs and Easter bunnies and Christmas is the big blowout in decorations and symbols and songs, but there are few Labor Day symbols or Labor Day songs.
Merle Haggard has a great song for Labor Day. Here is a song for the working man:
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Sunday, August 31, 2025
In a Serious Challenge to Trumps One-man Rule, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Trump Tariffs.
by Rod Williams, Aug. 31, 2025- On Friday, those of us who still believe in following the Constitution and are concerned about Trump's increasingly authoritarian rule had a victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court decision that had ruled that most of the Trump Tariffs were illegal.
The power of the purse belongs to Congress. The Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to set tariffs. This is what it says:
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; . . .
Trump imposed his tariffs under a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The Court ruled that the president overstepped his authority under that act. This is significant. So far, Trump has been hesitant to directly defy a court ruling. He has played games with the court, sort of complying or delaying compliance, but he has avoided clear defiance. This may be the crisis that has been coming. If Trump defies the Court, we can then say without hyperbole that we are living under an authoritarian government.
Tariffs, along with mass deportation, have been the signature issues of Trump's second term. So much effort has been expended on tariff policy that I do not see the President quietly backing down and returning to previous tariff levels.
One possible way out of this for Trump is for Congress to pass a bill approving the tariffs. So far, the Republican majority has voted in lockstep to give the President anything he wants, and I guess they could do that with tariffs. However, I suspect there are still some orthodox conservative free-traders in Congress who would have a hard time voting for Trump Tariffs. I am not sure there are enough real conservatives left in Congress to make a difference, but voting for Trump tariffs would be a direct repudiation of things they have long believed. This would require more ideological pretzel-twisting than voting for an unqualified cabinet pick, for instance. Also, various trade groups would be lobbying Congress hard for a carve-out for their industry. Everyone from wine retailers to computer chip makers to pharmacists to auto manufacturers would ask for special consideration. If Congress does not act to make the tariffs legal, Trump might could use a different emergency power to impose some of the same tariffs and thus comply without changing policy.
If Congress does not act to make the tariffs legal, I assume this go to the Supreme Court. Since the vote from the Court of Appeals was a 7-4 vote, there must be valid arguments that the President did not overstep his authority. After all, one could reason, Congress could vote to curtail the President's power to set tariffs, or Congress could clarify what constitutes an emergency, and Congress has not done so. Congress has acquiesced. So, there seems to be a case justifying Trump's authority to set tariffs. So, conceivably, Trump could win a case before the Supreme Court on this issue.
In my view, for decades, Congress has given too much power to the executive branch by giving the President broad power to declare an emergency and act unilaterally, and by passing vague laws and leaving it up to executive agencies to fill in the blanks. Congress set the table for a president with authoritarian impulses to feast. Congress should take back those powers. Unfortunately, with a Republican boot-licking majority Congress with no backbone, Congress is not about to reclaim its legitimate power. Often, the Courts feel they should not intervene to fix something that is a political issue with a legislative fix. We will see what happens.
A lot rides on how this is resolved. This issue deserves to be watched closely. This is the most significant challenge to Trump's authority yet. Below are articles from two trusted sources that explain more about this issue:
By Louise Radnofsky, Jess Bravin, and Gavin Bade, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 29, 2025 - A federal appeals court late Friday struck down the Trump administration’s signature tariffs, finding that the president had gone too far in his use of emergency powers to rewrite U.S. trade policy.
...Trump railed against the decision in a post on Truth Social. “ALL TARIFFS ARE STILL IN EFFECT! Today a Highly Partisan Appeals Court incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed, but they know the United States of America will win in the end,” he wrote. .... The levies voided by the decision include baseline tariffs of 10% on virtually all countries, as well as steeper tariffs on countries the administration considers bad actors on trade—and an additional set of tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico.
.... In ruling against Trump, the appeals court majority, in an unsigned opinion, said Ieepa “bestows significant authority on the President to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax.” Nowhere in the statute does the term “tariff” or synonyms like “tax” and “duty” appear, the court observed.
When “Congress intends to delegate to the President the authority to impose tariffs, it does so explicitly,” the court said. “This is no surprise, as the core Congressional power to impose taxes such as tariffs is vested exclusively in the legislative branch by the Constitution.”
.... The court didn’t break along partisan lines; judges appointed by presidents of both parties were on each side. (read more)
Divided Federal Circuit Gets It Right on Trump's Unlawful Tariffs
By Dan McLaughlin, National Review, Aug. 31, 2025- .... Tariffs are taxes; they are also trade policy and foreign policy. As such, they implicate a vast array of competing interests in our economy. They also need to be predictable in order that businesses can plan around them. These are all sound reasons why Congress, not the president, decided tariff questions for most of our history, dating back to the Tariff Act of 1789 and the McKinley Tariff of 1890. It’s why Article I, Section 8 begins its enumeration of the powers of the legislative branch by stating that “Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” — while Article II, listing the powers of the president, says nothing about taxes, tariffs, or foreign trade. As a result, as our editorial laid out in May when the first decisions came down on court challenges to the tariffs, Trump has only those powers in the tariff area that Congress has properly delegated to him by statute.
The bulk of Trump’s headline-grabbing tariffs (the global 10 percent tariff, the country-by-country “Liberation Day” tariffs, and the specifically drug-trade-related tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China in spite of our existing trade agreements with those countries) were justified by the administration by invoking emergency tariff powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). The three judges of the CIT found unanimously, with good reason, that the worldwide and retaliatory tariffs “lack any identifiable limits” and are “unbounded . . . by any limitation in duration or scope” and thus did not fit IEEPA’s statutory definition of an emergency tariff. ...
Trump supporters have argued that Congress has delegated broad authorities to the president to set tariffs under a variety of statutes. But each such delegation has different conditions and limitations; what matters is that these tariffs have been justified and defended in court as national emergencies under IEEPA. The courts have been unpersuaded that we live in a state of permanent national emergency that is global in scope and decades-long in duration, requiring swift executive action on the theory that Congress could never assemble in time to address the issue.
As the court noted, it’s not even obvious that the statutory language delegates any tariff power at all. Consider what the statute empowers the president to do: (read more)
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