The Western NC September 27th Flood

 

"While most of the images are coming out of Asheville, Boone, and more populated areas, there are hundreds of small communities off narrow, winding roads that are difficult to reach in good times. I fear for those people and wonder how long it will take to reach them."

--Thomas Mills 

Many roads on creeks have simply ceased to exist for long stretches. Big trees are down everywhere, many still across one or more lanes of traffic. Untold numbers of people cut off and without electricity. Some are considered "missing" only in the sense that friends and families can't reach them and haven't heard a word about how they're faring. Cell service, Internet connection, WiFi went dead for thousands, and is still spotty.

I know of people in a rented house on Winkler's Creek who watched a mudslide come down the mountainside from an upslope development that had clear-cut. Big timbers, riding on the cushion of moving mud, slammed into their house, knocked it off the foundation. They had to break a window to get out.

The rescue people and the restore-electricity people and particularly the water department in Boone and the people cutting trees off roads have been saviors, often self-sacrificing and always dedicated to the tasks. Quiet heroism. The volunteer spirit is alive and robust and downright inspiring.

Yesterday, Jon-Dalton George, the 25-year-old Mayor Pro-Tem of Boone, was wading through mud to knock on every door in a flooded-out trailer park, doing wellness checks, and coming back where necessary with water and other supplies. Another young man, a student at AppState, joined many others who showed up at a staging area for volunteers in the recovery and offered his help. He got teamed up with Councilman George, door-knocking trailer parks.

This disaster should occasion an honest assessment of modern development in narrow Appalachian valleys in the context of climate change which brings bigger storms and more sudden water. The historic development all along what is known locally as Kraut Creek in Boone, the whole Blowing Rock Rd. corridor, is historically and morphologically a natural floodway that has been culverted and covered over with asphalt and concrete. In the new reality, we can't keep the lid on that creek without more major damage. It's gonna happen again.

Boone, Friday Sept. 27, 2024

 

Carolina Forward Indicts the NC Judiciary

 

A powerful and necessary reality check on just how partisan and corrupted by power politics the North Carolina judiciary has become, laid bare in this instance by the RFK Jr. legal saga of getting on and then getting off the November ballot. An unsigned posting on Carolina Forward succinctly lays out the indictment of our highest courts:

From beginning to end, the sordid affair of the Kennedy campaign in North Carolina revealed just how weak the rule of law has become in our state, compared to the raw exercise of partisan political power.

Robert Kennedy Jr. was allowed, in multiple instances, to evade, ignore and manipulate North Carolina state law, and was permitted to do so by Republican political actors – specifically judges – seeking to give Donald Trump an electoral boost. The laws of the State of North Carolina had very little impact on what the Kennedy campaign did; only the whims of opinion polling made a difference. That is not a sound system of election administration. While the NC State Board of Elections generally made the correct calls under the law, our state’s politicized judicial system failed to uphold the supremacy of those laws, and opted instead for their own circumstantial partisan interest.

We don’t know yet who will win in November. But at least in this case, the people of North Carolina lost.

 

When the Enemies of Democracy Are Judges

 

"The order didn’t give the legal reasoning to grant the GOP’s requests."

--Gary D. Robertson, reporting for AP 

As I predicted last week (wasn't it?), the Republican-heavy Court of Appeals has reversed the Wake County Superior Court judge who refused to stop the usage of UNC-Chapel Hill's brand new ID system, the "UNC One Card," as the approved NC ID for voting. The One Card meets all the standards of what a valid photo ID must contain, as written in the Republican law -- that was the ruling of the State Board of Elections (SBOE) which the Wake judge was upholding. 

But according to the NCGOP, the very notion of "digital ID" was a red flag, like "digital" identity -- flashed via hand-held phone -- was a new witchcraft for voter fraud. The Republicans actually chose to argue against the One Card that it just wasn't fair to all the other universities, which were forced to use physical, laminated plastic cards containing a photo -- letting Chapel Hill alone get away with this flashing of a cell phone to vote. Especially if the device was in the hands of a young voter. Why, Good Lard, with the UNC system you'll have ineligible voters by the billions casting ballots through electronic manipulation. That was the argument that caused three appellate judges to reverse the Superior Court. 

Oh yes, we're familiar with the Robinson Calculation, that someone nefarious is somehow and somewhere faking things on-line to make conservatives -- Robinson particularly -- look like frauds, because A.I. and gawd-knows-what-else can manipulate a computer to delete whole identities and steal votes and write bad checks, and they're doing it all the time to benefit Democrats. 

The Democratic National Committee and a UNC student group who joined the case defending the use of the One Card said the SBOE rightly determined that the digital ID met the requirements set in state law. The DNC attorneys wrote that preventing its use could confuse or even disenfranchise up to 40,000 people who work or attend the school so close to the election.

The NC Court of Appeals has an 11-4 Republican majority. The ruling discussed here. unanimous among three judges whose names are being kept secret for some reason -- just incidentally also "didn't give the legal reasoning to grant the GOP's requests." Three separate judges, eyeing each other across a conference table in Raleigh, agreed to do a favor for the NCGOP and rule that the Chapel Hill system did not constitute a valid photo ID. Is it not remarkable they won't put their names to this decision? For reasons we can immediately and accurately guess, if I were guessing. 

There's a Silver Lining: Students and permanent employees can still obtain a physical ID card instead -- conveniently at Chapel Hill locations and at no charge for those who received a digital ID but want the physical card for voting. There has got to be a major informational push on that campus to tell students where to go to get the other ID.

Sad News, For All Who Love Their Conspiracies

 

Kyle Ingram, in the News&Observer:

RALEIGH After the North Carolina State Board of Elections announced Thursday that it had removed nearly 750,000 registrations from the voter rolls, misinformation spread on social media regarding the scope and circumstances of this decision. 

“They’re trying to steal this election,” one X user wrote. 

“I’m sure it’s one big, giant, coincidence that NC is doing this a month before Election Day,” another wrote. 

Others fretted that the removal was a ploy by the Republican Party to influence the outcome of the election in a battleground state. The truth, however, is that this was a routine process carried out over the course of nearly two years by a state agency with bipartisan oversight. 

“Eligible voters do not need to worry that they were removed from the system,” Pat Gannon, a spokesperson for the board, said. “However, election officials always encourage voters to check their registration through the state board’s voter search tool.”

Thomas Mills Dismantles Senator Thom Tillis

 

From the title -- "Some Hot Tillis-on-Robinson Action" -- to the last paragraph, which is bitter, the bitter end, this piece of writing makes a master class in Swiftian sarcasm, that form of irony that tears flesh, or seeks to. Political commentator and long-time Democratic operative Thomas Mills takes down Sen. Thom Tillis as a hypocrite in epaulets, a self-described "SERIOUS PERSON" who theatrically sez he upholds Truth and the American Way, but who turns out substantial as cardboard. That "SERIOUS PERSON" mainly shows up, says Mills, "when Republicans are about to do something bad or stupid. He puffs up, issues muscular declarations, and promptly folds like a cheap tent." 

Mills has the receipts on those "folds," times when the senator announced a policy principal he would not breach and then breached it. Like when he wrote an editorial opposing Trump's declaration of emergency at the border -- the better to divert Federal funds to his wall -- and then promptly repented, after a dose of fury from MAGA loyalists who'll crucify anybody who offends Trump. Tillis had to swallow a lot more than his tongue to take it all back. He's abandoned his stated principles on immigration compromise more than once. It's the Tillis straddle: feint to the left with condemnation of a clown like Mark Robinson and then to the right with continued obeisance to El Hefe: 

Tillis doubles down on his support for Donald Trump who is now focused on fleecing his supporters by selling commemorative coins and $100,000 Trump watches. That’s what you call Republican coalition building. The grifter wing of the party is taking advantage of the rube wing and everybody is happy. That is some serious, principled shit.

 Sen. Tillis, according to Mills, is pure show but with muddled intentions: 

While other [Republican] candidates are trying to avoid talking about Nude Africa, Tillis is delivering vague ultimatums that sound tough, just like his op-ed and principled support of the immigration bill he voted against. Just follow his lead. Let reporters and others know about your grave concerns and hint at skepticism about Robinson’s denials.

With "SERIOUS PERSON" (always ALL CAPS) Mills puts a verbal duncecap on Sen. Tillis, mocking his occasional and sudden eruptions of principle even while sticking with a party "full of tinfoil hats, snake oil salesmen, and rubes." 

Sen. Tillis seeks reporters' ears to sound-bite strategically like a maverick in a party that despises mavericks. He suffered a censure by the NCGOP, yet he's become something of a bridge-builder behind the scenes in the Senate. Somehow, he persists, even after his privates hit the top rail of the fence he's been straddling, maybe largely because Trump hasn't sicced his dogs on him. (Remember what Trump did to independent John McCain and to Liz Cheney and to several others.)

Did I say the end of Mills's piece is bitter? He makes a point of speaking directly to Mark Robinson about Sen. Tillis's very recent ultimatum that Robinson either disproves "the CNN lies" or steps down: 

Hang in there, Mark. Don’t let the haters and the RINOs get you down .... Just grit it out, because even if you lose, you can run against Thom Tillis in 2026.

You know what I think? I think Thom Tillis would love to be a Democrat and actually hates being a Republican, especially right now when the Party-under-Trump appears to be sitting in an airless booth pleasuring itself with peculiar fantasies.

She's Always Enjoyed the Shadow of Big Men

 

Virginia Foxx had to request that photo, of course. He didn't have a clue who she was.

The Lawyer Mark Robinson Hired

 

Jesse R. Binnall

Mark Robinson announced on Tuesday that he has hired Jesse R. Binnall, a well known trumpist litigator and a partner in the Binnall Law Group of Alexandria, Va., to find out who in the world who isn't Mark Robinson was posting outrageous comments on porn sites under Robinson's own screen name Minisoldr.

According to The Daily Beast, Binnall represented Trump after the 2020 election in his failed attempt to overturn the electoral vote in Nevada, and he also was "one of several lawyers Trump hired to represent him in his failed racketeering lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. In January 2023, a judge in Florida ordered the case thrown out and fined Trump and another attorney, Alina Habba, $1 million for filing a frivolous lawsuit." Binnall has (so far) escaped any sanctions imposed by judges and bar associations, unlike many of the other lawyers who've worked for Trump. According to the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Binnall has been previously paid at least $4.2 million by the Trump campaign. "Even after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Binnall continued to spread false claims of voter fraud."

Binnall was one of several lawyers who represented retired Gen. Michael Flynn when he withdrew his guilty plea for lying to the FBI, ABC News reported. Flynn was eventually pardoned by then-President Trump that December [of 2020]."

In other words, Binnall may be exactly what Robinson needs, someone adept at pointing the finger elsewhere.

Mo Green Takes the Gloves Off

 

About time. We don't need this pleasant-faced insurrectionist running North Carolina's schools.

BREAKING: Half of Robinson's Lt. Gov. Staff Quits

 

Bryan Anderson is now reporting that half of Mark Robinson's staff assigned to the Lieutenant Governor's office has now quit, including his chief of staff.

A Thumbs-Up That Will Live in Infamy

 

This billboard is going up in some NC locations, two in Mint Hill alone, where Trump is scheduled to make an appearance today at a -- wait for it -- plumbing supply business.

Does It Take a Know-Nothing Party To Invite This Pariah?

 

Mark Robinson has stopped listing events on his website. The invitation below is reportedly being sent out by the Ashe GOP, of which our former House Rep. Jonathan Jordan is an impotent member.

Sometimes, A Double-Negative Is an Escape Hatch Sufficient To The Day

REPORTER: Do you believe Mark Robinson that those were not his posts?

 JD VANCE: I don't not believe him.

--https://x.com/atrupar/status/1837856354779746322

Meanwhile, Vance's fellow Republican Senator Ted Budd told CBS17, “The comments reported in the article are disgusting. Mark Robinson says they are not from him. He needs to prove that to the voters.” 

"He needs to prove it's not him."

After the CNN bombshell last Thursday, WNCN reported that Rep. Virginia Foxx, GOP candidate for Labor Commissioner Luke Farley, and GOP congressional candidate for NC 01 Laurie Buckhout were all busily scrubbing their social media of any pictures of them posing with Mark Robinson, or other vestiges of his actual existence in their individual lives.

When Thom Tillis Looks Like a Statesman, It Can't Be Good for the NCGOP

 

CNN Capitol Hill reporter Manu Raju got Thom Tillis on the record about Mark Robinson, and Tillis went further than he's gone before. Meanwhile, the NCGOP issued a statement (posted earlier) defending Robinson and his "quirks of personality." Here's Raju's tweet:

Thom Tillis, the senior NC GOP senator, told me that Mark Robinson needs to provide evidence by Friday refuting the damaging information about his posts on a porn site — or the party needs to “move on” and focus on Trump and down-ticket races. 

“If Mr. Robinson doesn't put forth facts as part of a lawsuit that would discredit the sources by this week, then we've got to move on. We've got an election that's 40 days away, and we've got to move on,” he said, suggesting endorsements should be rescinded. 

(Trump has yet to rescind endorsement.) 

Asked Tillis if he thinks Robinson can win, and he said: “I supported a primary opponent against Mr. Robinson because I didn't think he could win the race then, and I was working with far less information than I'm in possession of now. And I'm hoping he discredits that information.”

I'm hoping. How forlorn is that? 

NCGOP Takes Another Shot at Stopping the Youth Vote

 

The whole world is going paperless, and only the NCGOP professes in court that they can't possibly believe that the digital world actually works. Instead of a physical card, encased in plastic and featuring a photo, UNC-Chapel Hill has gone wholly digital with student IDs. Any student can present their phone as proof of identity, with a photo and other identifying details that any fool can see is legitimate. (Why, begorra, you have long been able to flash your phone to get on an international flight.) Other universities not to mention businesses and agencies, are bound to follow the trend, and more paperless IDs will become common.

But the GOP sued in Wake Superior Court the week of Sept. 9th to halt the use of the mobile UNC One Card as legal identity. Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory denied the Republicans a temporary restraining order on Thurs., Sept. 19, and for not the first time, the haters of the young got rooked in court.

Unclear whether the GOP intends to appeal, but sure, it will, and its chances of getting judges on the side of disenfranchisement up the ladder remains strong in this tyrannized state.

Mark Robinson Expected at Blue Ridge Diner

Sizable crowd -- judging from the number of cars there -- already gathered at the Blue Ridge Diner about 15 minutes before candidate Mark Robinson's expected arrival time of 2:30. Very full parking lot (which isn't that extensive, but still).

This morning Thomas Mills characterized the cult-like MAGA following that will vote for Robinson no matter what.

Over in Republicanland, the rank and file seems largely ignorant of Mark Robinson’s escapades at the Nude Africa porn site. Those who know about it, believe it’s another media hit piece. An online activist demanded that GOP elected officials issue statements of support for Robinson or else, though none are forthcoming....

North Carolina Republican candidates and elected officials are distancing themselves .... And they are hoping their MAGA base won’t notice. They’re not an inquisitive bunch, easy marks. They’ve been trained to believe lies and readily embrace batshit crazy conspiracy theories. Maybe they’ll believe that Robinson is a victim of an AI smear campaign....

Watching the cult turn out for Robinson is giving new significance to the descriptive term "low information" voters. 

Pouring Gasoline on a Dumpster Fire

 

Jack Burkman, from Wikipedia

Thomas Mills is reporting this morning on his Substack column:

If rumors are true, the Mark Robinson campaign is about to get even more fun. Jack Burkman, who Wikipedia describes as a “conspiracy theorist, fraudster, convicted felon, and conservative lobbyist,” claims he is now Robinson’s campaign manager. Burkman is a disbarred lawyer who was found guilty of intimidating voters. He’s like a low-rent Roger Stone with less scruples and better suits. He’ll bring gasoline to the dumpster fire and squeeze as much money as possible out of the saps still supporting Robinson.

 

Robinson's Entire Campaign Staff Quits

 

As of this morning, Mark Robinson had only two PR people and one bodyguard still working for him. These others had already resigned by Sunday afternoon:

Conrad Pogorzelski III, who was Robinson’s general consultant and senior advisor. He has been known as the main person behind Robinson’s campaign

Chris Rodriguez, Robinson’s campaign manager

Heather Whillier, Robinson’s finance director

Jason Rizk, deputy campaign manager

Patrick Riley, Robinson’s director of operations

John Kontoulas and Jackson Lohrer, political directors 

The Continued Destruction of Public Education in NC. Why the GOP Super-Majority Must Be Broken in 2024

 

An important veto last Friday (Sept. 20th) by Governor Cooper of NCGOP legislation that allocates several hundred million more dollars to an expanded private school voucher program, money that can absolutely be handed out equally to the rich and privileged, who hardly need taxpayer money to afford school for their offspring. It's an astounding piece of legislation demonstrating the ethereal wishes of a group of people who have been dismantling public support for public education for years and who as a collective actually supports the ambitions of Michele Morrow, who would gut public education for the Lord, as Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Of course, the Republicans in the GA can and will override Cooper's veto, because they have super-majorities in each chamber, but super-majorities of only one vote, so Democrats have their best chance in years to break that super-majority and earn the right to uphold the vetoes of our next Democratic governor. (You don't need to be reminded, of course, that the famous super-majority-making Tricia Cotham, who became turncoat, is currently in a death-match with Democrat Nicole Sidman for her House seat. Cotham''s district was obligingly gerrymandered to alleviate her vast unpopularity with both Democrats and independents, but was the gerrymandering sufficient to save her? Maybe not, in a blue wave.)

Last Friday Cooper also vetoed a strong-armed measure to force sheriffs to cooperate with Federal immigration enforcement officers and turn over any arrestees who might be undocumented to ICE's tender mercies. The Trump mentality of "make 'em feel the whip" quickly invaded some Federal agencies more than others.

This year has felt right for a political change of hue, a blue wave that could wipe out super-majorities, if not whole careers. The atmosphere has grown tremblingly pregnant ever since Joe stepped aside and Kamala took over the crusade, and for that selfless and no doubt incredibly painful self-sacrifice, President Biden deserves and no doubt in my mind will have the lasting kudos of history.

Bureau of the Disappeared

 

Robinson, Trump, with Hal Weatherman,
Republican candidate for Lt. Gov.

Last Wednesday, the day before CNN dropped its story on blabbermouth Mark Robinson's habit of sharing all sorts of opinions unrelated to naked flesh on a porn site, operatives in the NCGOP already knew something bad was coming, so Robinson was nowhere in sight -- nor apparently in memory -- at J.D. Vance's rally in Raleigh. By Friday, with the uproar over Robinson's extracurricular activities making headlines nationwide, Robinson was also not present at Trump's rally in Wilmington. Not only was former Trump BFF Robinson not present, Trump didn't even remember his name while he introduced Ted Budd and Dan Bishop.

According to the Facebook page for the Fayetteville Motor Speedway, Robinson was scheduled for an appearance there Saturday evening. That post garnered six approving comments, none of which seemed to know a thing about the news or didn't give a flip. The crowd revealed in video shot by the Fayetteville Observer seemed both sparse and uninspired, and I couldn't help noting that Robinson spoke to the bleachers from behind a very high metal fence. He looked imprisoned by it.

Meanwhile, Sen. Thom Tillis pressed his thumb into Robinson's sorest muscle, suggesting that if the CNN report was untrue -- as Robinson has alleged -- then Robinson should sue the network. Tillis then made it pretty clear that he for one believed the report: Robinson "owes it to President Trump and every Republican to take accountability for his actions and put the future of NC & our party before himself" -- by dropping out of the race. Ouch.

WFAE columnist Tommy Tomlinson made a not unreasonable -- actually logical -- psychological assessment of why Robinson would use a porn site message board for shocking comments:

He says and does all these outrageous things in the desperate hope that someone will notice.

How lonely and removed from society do you have to be to be a regular commenter on a porn site’s message board?

How much do you need to be seen to call yourself a “black NAZI” or comment that you wish for the return of slavery?

Robinson doesn’t have a following like Trump does. All he has is absolute control of Trump’s shirt. And I suspect even Trump’s people are in the process of getting rid of him.

From what Robinson has said and written, he had a difficult childhood, including a stint in foster care. I don’t know if that’s what left him with such a deep desire for attention. For voters, it probably doesn’t matter.

But I wonder what he thinks now about the day that changed his life.

In 2018, as a private citizen, he gave an impassioned pro-gun speech at a Greensboro City Council meeting. That speech went viral, and he was invited to so many speaking engagements that he quit his job. Just two years later, he was elected lieutenant governor. Suddenly, everyone was paying attention to Mark Robinson.

And now, one election cycle later, his private life has been exposed, his reputation is in tatters and his political career is, more than likely, over.

Sometimes the worst day of your life is the day you get what you want.

 

NCGOP Sez It's Just a Personality Thing (That Clears Everything Up!)

 

CNN Got the Goods on Mark Robinson

 

It's more than definitive: CNN slapped the table with the receipts. Read the lengthy investigation yourownself, if you doubt.

Robinson in his preemptive video production yesterday, hoping to get ahead of the story, tried to suggest that some clever liberal operative used A.I. to fake everything, and had the forethought to do it a decade ago because said operative knew that one day Mark Robinson would be running for governor as a version of The Scourge of God. That's one howler of a defense.

We can now add to Robinson's other descriptive nouns both "Black Nazi" and self-confessed creep ("perv").

You've finally out-done yourselves, NCGOP!

NCGOP Is Guilty of Election Interference

 

By Lee Franklin

It is hard to describe just how infuriating it has been as a Democrat from North Carolina to listen to Trumpist Republicans drone on about “election interference” and “rigged” elections.

Anyone who has paid attention to North Carolina since 2010 could point to countless examples of our hyper-partisan, extremist, Republican-controlled General Assembly restricting the rights of North Carolinians to participate in their own elections. Whether it was some of the most egregious gerrymandering in the country, changes to the laws governing state and county boards of elections, making judicial races partisan, or the implementation of oppressive voter ID laws, the North Carolina Republican Party has expended every resource possible to help themselves win elections.

With that in mind, it's obvious that the Trumpist obsession with “election integrity” is meant to undermine the very system it claims to protect. In the most classic Trump fashion, faced with legitimate accusations of attempting to subvert the will of the people, the Republicans have turned the criticism against those who are most desperate for fair elections.

And so it should have come as no surprise that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempt to remove himself from the North Carolina ballot would be another episode in the long history of North Carolina Republican-led voter suppression.

Chief Justice Paul Newby

Thanks to the 4-3 ruling by the North Carolina Supreme Court, Kenndey will be removed from the ballot at the expense of North Carolinians’ right to vote. By the Court's ruling that RFK has a right to be removed even after ballots have begun to be printed, the North Carolina Board of Elections will be forced to delay early mail-in voting to allow county boards of elections to redesign and print new ballots. This decision directly contradicts state law, which one of the North Carolina Supreme Court’s Republican majority even stated when he sided with the only two Democrats on the court in dissent.

To the Republicans and Trumpists out there complaining about election interference, what is election interference? Is it changing the rules at the last second? Is it allowing courts to disregard laws to benefit one candidate over another? Is it allowing partisanship to leak into processes that should be non-partisan?

I’m sure they would find a way to weasel out of this obvious point, but I’ll make it anyway. The Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly changed the rules of judicial elections to make them partisan, favoring Republican candidates. The newly partisan and therefore now Republican-controlled Supreme Court, ruled that the State Board of Elections must violate state law to remove RFK from the ballot, reducing early voting. All to the benefit of Donald Trump.

It doesn’t take a genius, but it may take an honest person, to recognize that the North Carolina Republican Party is guilty of election interference. In the face of this attack, North Carolinians must once again defend their right to vote at the ballot box. It's not fair, but it's our only option.

Lee Franklin is a former field director for the Watauga County Democratic Party. He works in Washington, D.C., as college campus coordinator for Earth Day.

BREAKING: Republican Establishment Trying To Force Robinson Out of the Race?

 

The fact that Carolina Journal published this is pretty darn consequential, considering that Carolina Journal represents the Art Pope/Civitas machine.

North Carolina Republicans are bracing Thursday morning as word spreads about a damning news story looming regarding Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

Sources with direct knowledge have spoken with Carolina Journal on the condition of anonymity and said that Robinson is under pressure from staff and members of the Trump campaign to withdraw from the governor’s race due to the nature of the story, which they say involves activity on adult websites in 2000s.

According to sources, Robinson has resisted withdrawing and privately denies the story.

In an email to Carolina Journal shortly after this story posted, Michael Lonergan, communications director for the Mark Robinson for Governor campaign wrote, “Whomever your sources are here, it is complete fiction.”

Thursday evening is the state deadline to withdraw from the race. The deadline to remove Robinson’s name from the ballot already has passed. There are just four weeks to go until early voting, and absentee ballots are due to go in the mail Friday.

According to the sources, the campaign of Attorney General Josh Stein, Robinson’s opponent in the race for North Carolina’s Executive Mansion, leaked the story to CNN and local Raleigh news outlet, WRAL. It is expected to hit airwaves later on Thursday.

Also according to the anonymous source, earlier this week leaders in the Trump campaign privately told Robinson that he was not welcome at rallies for Trump or vice presidential candidate JD Vance. He was slated to speak at the Vance appearance on Wednesday, but his office announced that Robinson had tested positive for COVID.

 

Thom Tillis Ducks Vote on IVF Protections

 

On Tuesday, U.S. Senate Republicans blocked debate on the Right to IVF Act (S. 4555), once again proving how beholden they are to extreme MAGA ideology on reproductive freedom for women. NC Senator Thom Tillis had somewhere else to be and missed the vote. WTF?

Kamala Harris said on social media after Tuesday's vote that Senate Republicans "made clear—again—that they will not protect access to the fertility treatments many couples need to fulfill their dream of having a child."

Mr. Tillis is fast becoming the biggest straddle monkey on Capitol Hill -- denouncing extreme Trumpism one day and bailing on actually help the many women who are his actual constituents.

No Debate Between Josh Stein and Mark Robinson

 

Bryan Anderson is reporting this morning that Josh Stein turned Mark Robinson down flat for a debate, once Robinson had a (panicked) change of heart and more or less demanded that Stein debate him, probably because Robinson is trailing Stein about 10 points in the polls. A debate would give Robinson much greater exposure than his usual hang-outs in churches and good-ole-boy eatin joints.

“I’m challenging you to a debate right now, Josh Stein,” Robinson said in a video posted on X. “Come on down. Let’s do this mano a mano and let’s get it done.”

Hours later, Stein’s campaign announced there’d be no debate with Robinson.

“A debate would only serve to legitimize him and provide a platform for his vile and dangerous rhetoric, and we won’t be part of that,” said Kate Frauenfelder, a Stein spokeswoman.

Stein’s apparent change of heart might reflect a growing body of polls showing him leading Robinson by about 10 percentage points.

Gary Pearce, a retired Democratic political operative, said he’d advise Stein not to debate Robinson.

“I don’t think [debates] matter much, don’t think that many people watch, don’t think undecided voters are watching it, and I don’t think you ought to give a platform to people who lie and spew hate and bigotry,” Pearce said.

Thomas Mills had also posted just this morning that Stein need not throw Robinson a "lifeline" by debating him. 

Laura Loomer Can't Spell 'Tillis'

 

Laura Loomer, the radical Right spider woman whom Donald Trump has adopted as his newest mascot, has drawn the criticism of fellow conservative Republicans. Two days after Loomer wrote on Twitter that if Vice President Kamala Harris, whose mother was Indian American, won the election, the White House would “smell like curry,” Trump chose her to ride on his plane to the Philadelphia debate with Harris and then took her the next day to the 9/11 memorials in New York City and Shanksville. Loomer has previously claimed that 9/11 was "an inside job."

Twitter banned her a few years ago for her dangerous hate speech, especially targeting Muslims. Sen. Lindsey Graham (bless his heart!) sez she's "just really toxic," and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green has also condemned her rhetoric, writing that Ms. Loomer’s post about curry was “appalling and extremely racist” and said it “does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA.” Debatable point, but when Marjorie Taylor Green thinks you're too extreme, the MAGA world is really tilting on its axis.

Sen. Thom Tillis can't stand her either, adding to his running tally of putting yards of distance between himself and trumpism. This past Friday Tillis posted on Twitter this withering takedown: “Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans. A DNC plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning re-election. Enough.”

Loomer always responds to any criticism, especially from fellow conservatives. She fired back at Tillis — whose name she consistently misspelled — in a lengthy post two-and-a-half hours later, labeling him a “RINO who attacked President Trump after January 6 and called for all of the January 6 political prisoners to remain in jail. Thom Thillis IS the DNC Plant he accuses me of being.”

She continued: “Let’s examine the facts, shall we? Last year, Thom Thillis was CENSURED by the North Carolina GOP because they accused him of working against Donald Trump and didn’t like Thillis’s weak stance on immigration. Thillis challenged President Donald Trump's immigration policies and supported a measure that provided funds for red flag laws.”

I'm sure that stung like a yellow jacket, especially her inability to spell his name correctly.

Thom Tillis Serves Weak Tea

 

Tillis stood out as the rare Republican who openly criticized Trump for not doing real debate preparations, evident from his lack of ready-to-use quips to criticize Harris for the Biden administration’s handling of the border and inflation, issues on which voters tend to favor Republicans.

--Paul Kane, WashPost 

“I believe that we missed a lot of opportunities last night,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said on Wednesday, using that we as a way of not mentioning loser Trump by name.

Tillis recalled how, after trailing the unfortunate Cal Cunningham for a good portion of his 2020 reelection bid, he worked with senior aides who came up with a line that they made Tillis rehearse over and over again.

“If you will say that 11 times, I’ll buy you a steak dinner,” his debate coach said, according to Tillis. He uttered the line 11 times and narrowly won reelection.

“I got the steak dinner,” he recalled, but Tillis didn't tell reporter Kane what the line was. I've tried to find it and wonder if he's referring to this from his Sept. 14, 2020, debate with Cunningham: "Cal has said anything he could to get elected." That's the closest thing to a quip I've found, and it's pretty weak tea.

“When you do not heed the advice of experts in politics, you’re probably going to go into dangerous waters,” Tillis said, without actually quoting Trump's memorable pratfall, "They eat dogs!"

When Trumpists Get To Be Election Officials

 

Linda Rebuck, a Republican member of the Henderson County Board of Elections, has been reprimanded by the executive director of the state Board of Elections for spreading “sensationalistic and inflammatory" supposed activities that "will undermine voter confidence with no facts to back them up.”

Rebuck sent an email to Republican members of the General Assembly alleging -- wait for it -- a “concerted effort to turn Henderson County blue,” and if she had stopped with that, she wouldn't be in trouble, because isn't that what all campaigns are about, trying to get people to vote for "my side"? (No, she'd still be in trouble, because BOE members aren't supposed to be openly partisan for either side.) But Rebuck, in her official capacity as an elections official, went much further, alleging that workers in the Henderson County Board of Elections were improperly allowing questionable people to register without proper identification -- either their NC driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Not true. We know from our own work with voter registration in Watauga County that the very rare person who has neither an NC driver's license nor a Social Security number must register provisionally until they can prove their identity:

If a registrant [says] they have neither identification number, then they will be sent a “request for identification” letter and be required to show an ID before they vote.

Trumpists love their fantasies of voter fraud because they have trouble accepting reality, as Kamala Harris suggested to Trump Tuesday night, but it's fairly unconscionable for a member of a local Board of Elections to be this ignorant of state procedures.

The Debate Last Night

 

 

Being Young Isn’t Enough – We Have to Be Courageous

By Jon-Dalton George 

“Young gets it done!” I said grinning ear to ear in a Boone Town Council meeting. We had just gotten a big infrastructure win that I was proud to play a part in. It’s been awhile since that meeting, but one of the folks in attendance still brings that phrase up when he sees me about town. "Young gets it done!"

If you’re under the age of 30 and you’ve attended any sort of political gathering or meeting, you’ve likely heard some variation of “It’s so good to see young people! You're the generation that will save us!”

It’s a sweet sentiment, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t inspire me at times to do more, trying to deliver on the lofty political and organizing expectations placed on an entire generation. 

When I was running for political office at the ripe age of 22, folks took notice. And while a few skeptics had some unfair criticism because I hadn’t had enough revolutions around the sun, others cheered me on, even without knowing much about me or my platform. Young people across the state continue to grab positions of power, win elected office, and more. But, unfortunately, being young doesn’t automatically mean that you’re the perfect person to step up.

Here’s the thing: I’m so confident in young people that I think we have every capability of being as terrible as previous generations. The trappings of politics impacts everyone, regardless of age, and young people can make the same missteps generations before them did. Trust me, I’ve seen egoism, nepotism, infighting, selfishness, and more among my peers. The allure of some of these eternal political traps have snuck into my mind at times too, so this is not meant as a critical piece of writing, but a cautionary one. 

The reality is, any aspiring public servant that’s seeking elected office for themselves will only continue to add to the problems of our political landscape. 

That’s not to say that there’s no truth in the message that this generation has the potential to save our political process. Young folks in the political arena have the ability to look at our political history to learn how our political system hit such a snag. On how we’ve ended up in a place where we need saving to begin with. 

So the task before our generation, as we work to create better communities, is to challenge the way things have always been done. To find our own voice, not to emulate what a “politician” looks like. 

As both a young elected official and a person from a working-poor background in rural North Carolina, I’ve heard both messages — One, that young people will save us, that we alone can right the direction of our nation. The other, that anyone in political power will not care for those seen as less than, that to wait to be saved by those in power is to be resigned to defeat. And in all honesty, I think that the second message has a lot more going for it to justify its sentiment. 

I’m always conscious of this dynamic and I truly hope to be a small part in that cultural shift. to alter that latter message and belief and to be one of the “young ones who get it done.” 

To end positively, I’ve had conversations with young electeds and power holders across the state who seem keenly aware of the trappings of politics, who work hard to defeat those negative cultural forces and keep the danger of ego in check, who understand well the plate they’re stepping up to when entering this world. 

Anderson Clayon, the Chair of the NC Democratic Party, is another excellent example. And while some may see her and seek to emulate her, they miss the point. Her power comes from the fact that she’s herself. She’s taking on politics authentically and with courage. I think we’d do well to learn from that as much as we learn from her youth.

Jon-Dalton George is Mayor Pro-Tem of Boone and works for the Endangered Species Coalition.

The Republican Judges Are Hiding

 

The Court of Appeals ruling that delayed the mailing of absentee ballots in North Carolina, because RFK Jr., who had fought like hell to get on the ballot and is now fighting like hell to get off the ballot to please Donald Trump, was signed only by the clerk of the court. The names of the three judges who reached this unprecedented decision have been hidden:

The names of Court of Appeals judges ruling on petitions are confidential for 90 days, according to the clerk of court, so they won’t become public before the election. (NandO)

They're so proud of their dispensing of justice!

Is this not more evidence of judicial corruption? Or let's be charitable and call it outright hyper partisanship wearing black robes.

The RFK Jr. Saga, and the NC Judges Who Coddle Him

 

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Friday blocked the state from sending out absentee ballots as it considers a lawsuit from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is seeking to be removed from the state’s presidential ballot. 

In an order released Friday, the court granted Kennedy’s petition to stay a decision from a lower court on Thursday, which had denied his request to be removed from the ballot. 

“This cause is remanded to the Superior Court of Wake County for entry of order directing the State Board of Elections to disseminate ballots without the name of petitioner Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. appearing as a candidate for President of the United States,” the order said. 

The court’s decision will force the state to miss its Sept. 6 deadline for sending out absentee ballots. The state board has directed county boards of elections not to send out any ballots today and hold them until further notice.

When's the Last Time You Got a Primer on Sauce Tomatoes From a State-Wide Candidate?

 

Love it that a candidate for statewide office takes the time to educate me about "sauce tomatoes," a much more profitable crop for farmers than tobacco but not grown in bulk here because there are no processing plants for them. Sarah Taber just might be the first truly educated Commissioner of Agriculture in our state's history. Let's make that happen!

Why We Fight

 

By Jack Yordy

When COVID hit, I needed friendship and community more than ever. I sought these in the only safe place at the time, online, and I found it. I met people through playing games and common interests, and we formed our own little diverse queer community, my first LGBTQ+ friends. In 2022, when we were all vaccinated and ready to return to life outside of isolation, my online friends and I met in Chicago, and there they became my real friends. (For their privacy, I’ve changed their names.) 

Last weekend, I went to see them for the fifth time. I was picked up from the airport by James. He’s not very politically-oriented, but every time we get together we go to the bar and talk politics. I always look forward to those chats. He’s from California originally, and he used to enjoy hearing about the ridiculousness that goes on in red states. Last year he moved to Florida with his boyfriend, and he confided in me over a drink, “Man, it kind of feels like we’re always under attack now.”

On the second day, when everyone had arrived, we all went to the pool together. Corey was excited to go. He’s transgender and is self conscious about his body, but he’s also one of the bravest and most badass people I’ve known. He doesn’t like to embrace people he doesn’t know well, but he always says to me, “Alright, bring it in buddy!” He gives the best hugs. 

On Monday, I said my goodbyes in one of our hotel rooms. I walked out the door toward the elevators, and Sam yelled through the door, “Jack, no.” He ran down the hall and nearly tackled me. Half jokingly, he said, “Don’t leave, bro! When will I get to see you again?” Sam is the most carefree, hilarious, playful dude you’ll ever meet, but if you asked him what he wants to do with his life, he’d tell you he wants to raise kids with his future husband and spend time with his family and friends. I held onto him for a few extra moments before I had to go. 

On the flight home, I thought about what I’d do when I returned to school and work. I remembered the election. I remembered Project 2025, the rise of the far right, and the hateful, genocidal rhetoric being thrown at trans people. I remembered what James said about feeling unsafe and attacked. I remembered that Corey, who needs to take testosterone for the rest of his life, lives in a state where gender-affirming care for adults is at risk of being banned. I remembered Sam’s gentleness. The sadness I felt from leaving them dissipated into determination. 

That weekend was not just a fun vacation with friends. For me, it was a reminder of just how important the work I’m doing is, how important this election is. It’s the difference between enjoying my time with my friends and helping them prepare escape plans in case things go bad, putting together lists of essentials and making sure there’s somewhere for them to stay in a nearby blue state. It’s the difference between worrying about what games we’re going to play next week and worrying that they can’t get the healthcare they need. It’s the difference between missing them because I love them and missing them because they’re dead.

In Donald Trump’s America we are not welcome. James can’t feel safe with his boyfriend in their new home. Corey can’t get the life-saving healthcare he needs. Sam can’t have the life he wants. That’s why I fight. I want to feel safe, I want to be safe, I want to live happily, and I want that for my friends too. Fight with us. 

Jack Yordy is deputy operations director for the Watauga County Democratic Party and president of the AppState College Democrats.

A Half-Million Dollar Kegger in Chapel Hill

 

The last thing any university president should want is an apolitical campus.

--Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan College

I believe the last thing President Roth will get this fall is an apolitical campus. You need to be careful what you wish for. The confrontation between young people who see the state of Israel as murderous jingoists beating down people of color and others who blame every bad thing in the Middle East on the Palestinians themselves, whether they've taken up arms with Hamas or not -- that is an unwinnable pissing contest that has roiled many university campuses (to Virginia Foxx's great delight, since she's nothing if she's not an opportunist for easy targets).

The confrontation on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus on Tuesday, April 30th, between pro-Palestinian demonstrators who took down the American flag and mainly a group of frat boys trying to keep the flag up off the ground caused me to feel several things simultaneously. I resent the implication that patriotism is on the face of it genocidal or racist or anti-human or imperialistic. Granted, patriotism in the hands of an authoritarian despot can be twisted into all those adjectives, but taking down the American flag and replacing it with a Palestinian one is not a good look for a protest movement that wants to highlight the suffering of millions and push back against a militaristic government that knows no restraint. On the other hand, the elevation of a symbol over human beings strikes me as a peculiar kind of idolatry. Didn't the Golden Calf teach us anything? I don't much cotton to people turning my flag into a personal cult image covering a whole smorgasbord of cultural grievances.

The frat boys at Chapel Hill naturally got instantly famous with the Fox News universe and got themselves invited to and celebrated at the Republican National Convention for the patriotism that the Right insists is the only patriotism that counts, and if you don't agree you're clearly an enemy of the people. The frat boys received the blessing of Donald Trump. And soon after that, a conservative operative began a GoFundMe page for the frat boys, hoping to raise $15,000 for what the organizer called a reward for upstanding behavior, a beer party. Instead of $15,000, the GoFundMe site raised a half million dollars.

So yesterday they actually held that "rager" at the American Legion in Chapel Hill, an invitation only, beer-soaked "triumph of the bro-hemians" and a showcase for Lee Greenwood ("God Bless the USA," which established that Republicans owned patriotism and no one else need apply) and other mainly country musical acts. They called it "Flagstock 2024." Blowing that kind of money on Labor Day was a sufficient kind of desecration in itself.

"Invitation only." You heard that, right? 

All of the university’s fraternities and sororities, as well as the campus ROTC, were invited to the event, with 10 “core” fraternities that had members at the flagpole on April 30 invited to be VIP guests. A June update to the GoFundMe originally identified six fraternities as part of that group: Pi Kappa Phi, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Gamma Delta and Zeta Beta Tau.

A dissenting voice came from Brendan Rosenblum, a member of Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, who was among the frat boys who held the flag up in April. Rosenblum, who did not attend "Flagstock 2024," told the News&Observer that he "views the event and the rhetoric that has surrounded it in a more somber way. While others may view the pro-Palestinian protesters as “a mob” ... Rosenblum sees them as his fellow students, and views the events of April 30 as a failure from multiple groups to foster civil discourse about the war in Gaza." “I think we were there that day to try to, you know, represent our beliefs,” Rosenblum said. “But also, everyone was there because they cared about an issue, and whether or not I agree with them, it doesn’t matter.”

Rosenblum captures what the spirit of a university education is supposed to embody, an attempt to inhabit other viewpoints with understanding and a modicum of sympathy. That is the sort of "politics" I think the Wesleyan president was talking about.