Commentary: There Is Something Rotten in the State of Tennessee

by Thomas H. Jones

 

Staffers of former Governor Bill Haslam have sold their souls to BlackRock, a giant global corporation hell-bent on controlling every penny on earth and using their power to force us all to obey their woke ESG decrees. This is an outrage that must be addressed. 

As Attorney General Skrmetti’s lawsuit against BlackRock progresses, BlackRock is fighting back. But other than making cringy ads starring a man in a cowboy hat in an absurd attempt to convince the people of Tennessee to trust them, BlackRock is also playing the swamp game. 

BlackRock has engaged the services of lobbying firm Stones River Group (SRG) to protect their interests. Specifically, BlackRock hired SRG president and principal, Mark Cate, who served as Gov. Haslam’s former chief of staff and top advisor, and SRG principal Chris Gobble, who served as legislative and policy director for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and “worked closely with Governor Bill Haslam’s office.”

A former conservative staffer choosing to serve BlackRock for some money is an unforgivable betrayal. BlackRock stands for the woke global elite and against the interests of regular Americans. They seek to strangle American energy, throwing millions of people out of work, raising the cost of living for everyone, and endangering our nation’s national security. 

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has even has publicly lauded rising energy prices, in a shocking display of elitist insensitivity to the pain felt by millions of Americans.

But their agenda doesn’t stop with “Net-Zero.” BlackRock also seeks to implement a mass social experiment of racial Marxism. BlackRock seeks to impose diversity quotes on every business in America, blocking opportunity for millions simply for being the wrong skin-color, and creating a crisis of competence, where companies are staffed by unqualified employees in the name of achieving the left’s notions of “social justice.” Indeed, BlackRock’s agenda represents an extreme movement to reshape the American economy. 

Yes, Every Kid

As a former leader in the gas and oil industry, former Gov. Bill Haslam knows well the dangers BlackRock represents. For his own staffers to be selling their souls, offering to use the contacts, networks, and experience they gained working for the former Governor to serve BlackRock’s interests is something Bill Haslam cannot ignore. 

According to the US Department of Energy, Tennessee had 209,951 citizens employed in the energy sector as of 2022. Every single one of those jobs are threatened by BlackRock’s leftist agenda. 

Once again, the people of Tennessee look to the leadership of Bill Haslam to set this right. We believe that if the former governor were to call for his former staff to stop serving BlackRock, they would be forced to heed his call. 

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Thomas H. Jones is the founder of the American Accountability Foundation, a non-profit government oversight and research organization.
Photo “Exterior of BlackRock” by Americasroof. CC BY-SA 3.0.

 

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