The One, The Only, The Essential Governor of California

 

Davy Crockett Also Surrendered at the Alamo

 

Kate Rogers, The Alamo Trust

What happened to the Republican woman appointed to oversee the historic renovation of the Alamo in San Antonio:

Kate Rogers didn’t know it at the time, but Oct. 13 would mark the beginning of the end of her four-year tenure leading the $550 million renovation of the Alamo.

On that day, two posts appeared on the X account of the famous San Antonio historic site. One celebrated Columbus Day. The other, which has since been deleted, celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday ​recognized by President Joe Biden in 2021 that honors Indigenous populations in the United States.

Yep. You saw it coming, right? Prominent Republicans immediately yelled "Woke!" -- parroting Donald Jethro Trump and his war on the Smithsonian for telling historical truth -- and started calling for Kate Rogers' head on a pike. The Texas Land Commissioner, a fellow Republican with jurisdiction over the Alamo, announced an investigation of her. Facing an emergency board meeting, Rogers admitted she didn't write nor post those tweets, but she offered to resign anyway. She was baffled and non-plussed by the uproar because those tweets were wholly innocent pro forma recognitions of national holidays -- probably posted by an intern. But to prove their trumpist brainwashing, the majority on her board needed to roll somebody's head out the door, so they chose to fire the Communications Director rather than accept Rogers' resignation.

According to the WashPost, eight days later Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a known bully, had gotten hold of Rogers' 2023 Ed.D. dissertation, which unpacked the ways that museums can influence how history is taught in schools. Lt. Gov. Patrick called Rogers directly, read aloud to her a short passage from page 80 of her dissertation, and demanded her immediate resignation. The passage Patrick read to her:

“Personally, I would love to see the Alamo become a beacon for historical reconciliation and a place that brings people together versus tearing them apart, but politically that may not be possible at this time.”

You see the blistering idiocy of Patrick for demanding that someone resign for speaking the actual stark truth: "politically may not be possible at this time." 

At first Rogers refused Patrick. The lieutenant governor, who loves to bully people he perceives as vulnerable, immediately went public on how crypto-liberal the woman boss at the Alamo really was, calling out the dogs to hound this woman out of office. And Rogers quickly caved. Now she's suing. Earlier this week she sued Patrick, the land commissioner, and the board of The Alamo Trust in federal court in the Western Dist. of Texas for wrongful termination.

I'd probably tag her as a country-club Republican, moderate and sensible and imminently practical, which makes her highly effective and also unwelcome in MAGAland. Her long history of executive management of corporate organizing and image-building gave her access to the highest circles of the Texas Republican establishment, and her treatment at the hands of Dan Patrick may become a rallying point for moderate conservatives. Her Linked In profile:

Motivated executive with experience in campaign development, change management, public relations, advertising and communications. Winner of multiple Addy and other industry awards. Established reputation as a change agent with consistent results, with a knack for building a high performance team focused on strong innovation.

There's That Familiar Smell, the Odor of Rank Opportunism

 

Apparently there's a discharge petition being pushed by Republican loose cannon Anna Paulina Luna of Florida to get a bill banning stock trading by members of Congress to the floor of the House for a vote, and it would surely pass. Freshman hustler Tim Moore is on a stock-manipulating spree (see details below for how his wealth has suddenly ballooned to almost $7 million). Moore's stock greediness is trailed not far behind by Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (also see below), whose own stock trades were formerly said to outpace your average Congressperson. But Moore has far exceeded her. (Moore, who an eye blink ago was the self-serving Speaker of the NC House, carved out for himself a congressional District 14 added by the last Census, a safe seat to launch him on DeeCee where he could become even richer, ever shadier.)

Editorial Board, in the Raleigh News & Observer:

It should be obvious why members of Congress shouldn’t be allowed to trade stocks, but if more evidence is needed, consider the investing gusto of U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, a Republican representing North Carolina’s 14th District.

Moore, the former North Carolina House speaker from 2015 to 2025, is a U.S. House freshman, but he’s already surpassed all other members of the state’s congressional delegation in buying and selling stocks. 

A recent report by The News & Observer’s Washington correspondent Danielle Battaglia detailed Moore’s frequent trades. Between his taking office in January and mid-September, Moore made more than 150 trades. That was five times the trading activity of the next closest member in the delegation, Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, who made just over 30 trades in the same period. 

Good-government advocates have long called for a ban on members of Congress from owning or trading stocks. The members have security clearances, receive confidential briefings and have contacts in financial circles that create a situation ripe for insider trading. 

There was nothing about Moore’s trades that showed he acted on information unavailable to the public. However, his trades included investments in companies that could be affected by government actions on health care and tariffs. Even if a member’s trades are above board, the ownership of stock itself can affect how or whether the member votes.

Fortune magazine reported in June that Moore made hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of personal stock purchases shortly before and after President Donald Trump’s announcement of worldwide tariffs rattled the stock market in April. Moore failed to disclose the trades by a deadline required under the federal Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, but he did submit a report within a 30-day grace period....

It stinks, doesn't it? That odor of opportunism running amok under the guise of public service.

'Principled' Crankiness About Universal Health Care

 

Republican Senate Majority Leader
John Thune

Alexander H. Jones, at New Branchhead gives us a good read on the state of North Carolina politics one day after the opening of candidate-filing. Among other things, he predicts that the sitting Republican US Senate will not extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies, which will be an act of auto-asphyxiation for Republican prospects next year. Why would they set themselves up like that? Because "Republicans deeply, fervently, and genuinely despise the Affordable Care Act and the concept of universal healthcare."

Republicans have a principled, bedrock opposition to universal healthcare. They viscerally resent the idea of providing care to people who can’t access it because they think that would mean rewarding slothful and gluttonous people who refuse to take care of themselves. If you have, say, severe OCD and did nothing to deserve it…sorry. They believe that healthcare is a consumer commodity that must be earned by remunerative work and good lifestyle decisions. It just viscerally rankles them to provide coverage to the uninsured.

And it goes beyond their angry and cranky fixation on personal responsibility. (“If you want something, work for it!”) Most American conservatives take deep pride in the fact that the United States does not have a universal healthcare system like the programs that people in every other advanced industrialized country, especially Western Europe, take for granted. They see it as American Exceptionalism, a tribute to the country’s pioneer legacy of individual freedom. “Barack Obama wants to make us more like the rest of the world,” complained Marco Rubio. Cutting your medications and giving blood to make the money you need for a doctor’s appointment are the American way.

That seems fair. How Jones characterizes the GOP matches what I consistently hear from trolling conservatives on WataugaWatch -- the ones who express a cold-blooded meanness about class and race. That's become standard rhetoric under the pall of Trump. It's possibly quite lethal for their future prospects. If Jones's conclusion is right, then there really may be such a thing as a suicide impulse, powerful and irresistible. Failing to extend Obamacare subsidies will have immeasurable impact on the prospects of Republican rule going forward:

...I do not think Republicans are likely to, after 15 years of bitter and often histrionic opposition, give a man -- some of their constituents accused of being the Anti-Christ -- the satisfaction of seeing the core of his greatest accomplishment survive another Republican majority.

If he's right, well then, they're cooked.

Virginia Foxx Always Draws a Primary

 

Don't know what it is about Congresswoman Virginia Foxx that so displeases other Republicans, but there are always obscure members of her own party looking to oust her. None of them ever come close. This year (so far) it's a guy named Steve Girard, who lives in Jefferson in Ashe County. He has a website placeholder, https://stevegirardforcongress.com/, but there's no information on it (also uses a photo of an anonymous city which I don't think is anywhere in the 5th Congressional District). He has a bit more, including photos of himself, on a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579207871401. Foxx has actually not filed for reelection yet, but she will.

Democrats in Watauga County will have a primary for County Commission in District 2 between Ray Russell and newcomer David Luther. No Republican has filed yet in that district.

The Boycott of Chuck Edwards' Fast Food

 

According to reporting by George Fabe Russell for the Hendersonville Times-News, a coalition of activist groups are so upset with Congressman Chuck Edwards (CD11) over his vote for the Big Beautiful Bill and his subsequent shrugging off of the pain of thousands thrown off SNAP food benefits -- so upset that they're taking aim at his solar plexus, his profit from seven McDonald's he owns in Hendersonville, Brevard, and Canton. A coalition called the Asheville Fights Back Network plans picketing and boycott of the McDonald’s on 4 Seasons Boulevard in Hendersonville today and again on Sunday, according to a Nov. 24 news release. The Asheville Fights Back Network is made up of Indivisible Asheville, the Western Circle of the NC Poor People’s Campaign, Good Trouble WNC, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and a marching protest band called Brass Your Heart. This coalition has a sound and a flavor!

“He’s making money off of us while he’s withholding food stamps. He voted to cut SNAP, he voted to cut the health insurance subsidies, he voted to spend so much money on chasing down immigrants,” NC Poor People’s Campaign leader Leslie Boyd said, announcing the economic boycott. Another rep from the Poor People's Campaign pointed out that the cuts to SNAP and the ending of Affordable Care Act subsidies would affect 40% of Edwards’ constituents, in a district still recovering from Helene. “We see what’s happening in Washington right now as an emergency. People are going to go hungry. People are going to go without healthcare. It's a crisis in the making,” said an organizer of the boycott. 

Reps of Asheville Fights Back have met with Edwards and have come away concluding that a well-to-do businessman just can't wrap his head around the realities of poverty and helplessness -- the real impact of cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill. (According to one of the leaders of the protest, “One thing about Chuck Edwards, he does keep his doors open.” He's also held some town halls that got contentious. That's brave and admirable of a Rep.) The economic boycott of his business is meant to hurt, to get his mind a little more focused on the human cost of his partisanship in blindly following the party line.

Fake News

 

In Thomas Mills's piece today, "The Republican Dumpster Fire," he composes an excellent cataloguing on the trumpists best recent dummkopf moves I especially took note of this one:

"X, formerly known as Twitter, released a new version with a location feature that shows where accounts are located and, low and behold, some of the largest MAGA influencers are actually in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Russia. Some accounts have as many as 1 million followers." 

To which Max Berger on BSky commented:

“If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?”

The trail of influence-peddling and civil war agitation began with a big infusion of cash. But they're outed every which way from Sunday! If people are even paying attention. Surely some are.

Michael Behrent's Burnt Sugar

I recently read on an Art Pope-sponsored website a long essay by AppState history professor Michael Behrent, who also until recently served as the Democratic Chair of the Watauga County Board of Elections. (He says he's no longer a registered Democrat.) Behrent begins his essay hypothesizing about something that only a bonehead first-year teacher would try, "overt campaigning in the classroom." While I certainly agree that overt political campaigning in the classroom is wrong, Behrent makes a dark and sinister suggestion that "some political organizations have found workarounds to avoid these prohibitions, allowing them to promote their interests in taxpayer-funded educational contexts."

That's the heart of Behrent's argument -- nefarious "workarounds" are subverting the will of the General Assembly.

"Workarounds"

That word needs unpacking. Behrent seems to be implying that "overt campaigning" is in fact happening regularly, especially on the campus of AppState. His main piece of evidence ... well, I'll let him tell it:

On Wednesday, August 27, I received an email that seemed to have been blind copied to other Appalachian State faculty, as well. It was sent from an App State email address to my App State email address. The sender identified himself as a student “volunteer” for the Watauga County Voting Rights Task Force, which he described as “a local nonpartisan organization fighting for every person’s ability and right to vote” (italics in original). The student noted, “We do not engage with candidates or political issues.” He requested permission to visit my class—and those of other faculty to whom the email was sent—to discuss how to register to vote. The email said: “We understand your time is limited, so we only ask for five minutes at the beginning or end of your class. If you would like to invite one of our representatives for a brief presentation, please respond with the location, and preferred date and time for our visit.”

Behrent makes a big deal out of that email and its student author, but I don't see any "overt campaigning" in it. The Watauga County Voting Rights Task Force (WCVRTF) has always presented voter registrations as a strictly non-partisan, informational activity to ensure proper registrations that will count on E-Day. The Task Force registers everyone, of whatever party. The greater bulk of their registrations are "Unaffiliated," with a few Democrats, a few Republicans, and some Libertarians. What's wrong with that? And what's wrong with that student's emailed and open request, to legally and ethically and according to IRS rules do non-partisan voter registration in a classroom? Show me the "overt campaigning." To equate voter registration efforts with partisan campaigning is ridiculous on its face.

Behrent takes a leap of several furlongs, alleging that the "workarounds" are discoverable in that poor student's associations with other people. It's quite the Easter egg of guilt -- that the several people who started the WCVRTF are -- or were -- also active in the Democratic Party. And Behrent is right about that, but so what? The Voting Rights Task Force was originally a committee in the Party, focused on voter registration. The committee eventually spun itself off from the Party as a separate non-profit, barred by IRS rules from "overt campaigning." The Task Force promotes ballot-access for every voter and defends the provisional ballot, and has gone to bat for the rights of legally registered voters who go to the wrong precinct on election day. The Task Force won a lawsuit restoring the polling place in the AppState Student Union. More recently it went to court again and won a case to give due process to voters whose legitimate voter registration forms had clerical errors which disenfranchised them. The Task Force is also a co-plaintiff with NC Common Cause, seeking to overturn the Ralph Hise gerrymander of Watauga's CoCommish and school board districts.

Bottomline: A person can be legally, ethically, morally involved in more than one org at a time (or else the world is going to be short a lot of the volunteers who actually make things happen). Nowhere does Behrent offer a single instance of a classroom breach, when "overt campaigning" occurred, or of any actual breaking of the rules. Not one. It's all innuendo and those suspicious associations. Democrats doing democratic things while wearing different hats and following different rules. Behrent build a straw horse, imagining a bunch of political activists who (he says) give away their game on the WCVRTF website by quoting liberal icon Lyndon Johnson on the supreme importance of the vote, while editing the original quote to eliminate the word man. (The Pope universe loves this kind of "outing" of liberal stupidities, and Behrent makes hay out of it.)

Behrent's guilt-by-association tour eventually gets to my own household, to PamsPicks.net, and the whole progressive nest of plugged-in citizens who sometimes do voter registration for the WCVRTF and then sometimes do activities for the Democratic Party and who know how to keep things separate. For the record, PamsPicks.net is not published as an arm of the Task Force nor of the Democratic Party. It's an independent source of information and candidate endorsements that often infuriates Democrats as much as Republicans. Behrent gets this right: 

“Pam’s Picks” is the brainchild of a Watauga County activist, who for years has regularly provided extensive information about local, state, and national candidates in addition to making endorsements in most races. “Pam’s Picks” typically includes a marked-up sample ballot with her endorsements noted, which voters may take with them to the polls. A January 2023 article from The Appalachian, the App State student newspaper, quotes the author of “Pam’s Picks”: “I am a progressive Watauga resident and have long held interest in local politics and issues.” The same article notes that, in the 2020 Democratic primary, a candidate who received less than 10 percent statewide called the author of “Pam’s Picks,” puzzled that he had won Watauga. “Pam” explained: “Well, I got your story out.”

So what's Behrent's beef? That an independent woman -- not ever a Democratic Party officer but a self-starting volunteer who has quite separately built a following for her "Picks," because she does thorough research on every candidate of whatever party, offering background facts and social media links, and endorses according to her admittedly "progressive" political values. What's his problem with that?

His essay smells like burnt sugar.

Impressive Dem Candidate in an Impossible R+9 House District

 

Mark Pless, disgruntled

The prospects for flipping the NC House Dist. 118 look pretty unlikely on paper, though one well qualified and impressive Democrat, former District Court Judge Danny Davis, is making the run anyway against Republican incumbent Mark Pless, who's already won reelection to this Madison/Haywood district twice. I wrote about Pless's being in hot water with his own party back in June:

NC House Rep. Mark Pless (Dist. 118, Haywood and Madison) has earned a reputation for putting his thumb in the eye of local government. He gets yelled at (but he could give a shit). Because he's safe (he assumes) in his heavily Republican district. He's never had a primary, and he never gets less than 60% of the vote against weak Democratic challengers. No primary until now.

Like Senator Ralph Hise, Pless likes to mess with "local bills" which can't be vetoed and which always represent some get-even move against local officials who have offended him or one of his buddies.

For example, last February, Pless filed a bill that would have stripped the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority of its ability to collect the county’s 4% room occupancy tax, effectively dismantling the organization. What actually passed upped the room tax to 6% and cut municipal officials out of membership on the board -- sticking it to Waynesville, Maggie Valley, and Lake Junaluska.

In April 2025 Pless introduced two bills that would eliminate county control of ambulance services statewide and change certification standards. Paramedics, medical technicians, and emergency service directors -- not to mention county commissioners -- got loud in their opposition. And Rep. Pless was photographed not taking the criticism gracefully.

Pless has particularly been at war with Waynesville town government. He tried back in 2022 to get a bill through that would make all town elections in Haywood County partisan, but that failed in the Senate. He later backed a trio of candidates to beat the incumbents and take control, but every last one of Pless's guys lost.

House Dist. 118 comes up on Civitas's "Partisan Index" for 2026 as R+9, "likely Republican," and Dave's Redistricting cites the partisan divide as 60% Republican, 37.8% Democratic, and only 2% "other." That's pretty dismal.

Judge Danny Davis

But Judge Davis seems undeterred, and he's got an impressive resume and an economics message. According to his press release, he's a gol-durned native of the district, graduated from Tuscola High School in Haywood and then Western Carolina University before earning a law degree from Campbell. Like many young lawyers, he served as an assistant district attorney before spending 27 years as a district court judge. According to his press release published in the Smoky Mountain News, "Since retiring from the bench — aside from brief stints as an emergency judge — he’s spent time serving as a court mediator and chairman of the Haywood County Board of Elections."

His campaign theme:

“[The] standard of living has been eroded over the last couple of decades because pro-wealth policies have led to stagnated wages while the cost of housing, healthcare, rent, child care and education have skyrocketed,” Davis said in the release. “Small businesses, which are the backbone of this country, are also struggling to pay their employees and provide good benefits for them. This has resulted in working men, women, couples and couples with children especially those under 50 having difficulty staying afloat to the point that they are angry and frustrated and don’t believe the system works for them.”

It may be an added liability (in what is already a long-shot campaign) that Davis has run for office twice before and lost, though he came "within a fraction of one percent" of winning the House district seat in 2012. Open question: Why did he wait 14 years to try again, after the voters almost gave it to him?

Can Trump's Flying Monkeys Conceal the Bad Parts in the Epstein Files?

Didn't you kind of assume -- as I did -- that if Trump was suddenly willing to sign on to the release of the Epstein files, he must have gotten assurances from Pam Bondi and others that those files would be scrubbed of the stuff about him? Didn't that thought cross your mind?

I was somewhat relieved of that particular creeping suspicion by something Jay Kuo published on his Substack column, The Status Kuo:

The “Epstein Files” isn’t some centralized database. They comprise a host of electronic and physical evidence collected by the FBI, held under seal by the courts, used in civil proceedings, and held by third parties. The core investigative files, gathered by the FBI, are subject to strict chain-of-custody controls, meaning they have electronic timestamps, evidentiary IDs, digital authentications and audit trails. That’s very hard to mess with, at least not without someone noticing.

The Epstein files are also not centrally located, but rather exist in multiple forms across multiple facilities, often sealed by court order. And there are working copies out there, as well as logs of who has what.

I very much doubt Kash Patel—who can’t even avoid headlines for using the FBI jet to visit his girlfriend—could tamper with gigabytes of cryptographically encoded, read-only data without triggering alarms and landing in prison. Anyone asked to assist in such an endeavor knows the chances of being caught are quite high, while the chance of succeeding is low.

So while it’s understandable for folks to raise the alarm about the Epstein files being messed with before they are produced, my real concern is over-redaction or withholding of key items, not actual evidence tampering.

 

How To Confront ICE in North Carolina

 

Fantasyland for MAGA

 

The Behn-Van Epps Special Election in Tennessee

 

A special election for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District will happen on December 2nd, pitting Democrat Aftyn Behn against Trump-endorsed Matt Van Epps, in a district that Trump carried by 22 points last year. But things have happened in the meantime that seem to make the Republicans nervous. Like Trump's economy ain't been so nice to his MAGA base in the 7th CD. A Trump-aligned super PAC, MAGA Inc., spent more than $15,000 calling voters to shore up support for  Van Epps. The Cook Political Report moved the district from "solid Republican" to "lean Republican."

I haven't done any research on Behn, but I did see the 30-sec spot her campaign produced:

Operation Charlotte's Web

 

“Get the hell out of my yard, assholes.”

--Charlotte, NC, homeowner Rheba Hamilton, driving off Customs & Border Protection officers who had accosted two landscapers hanging Christmas lights on her property

Trump's goon squads descended on Charlotte's Hispanic neighborhoods on Saturday, and The Assembly has an early account of some of the confrontations and counter-demonstrations.

Also a partial political reason behind the invasion of masked, beefy men who seem to enjoy their work roughing up people, breaking car windows, and disrupting commercial life: The Sheriff of Mecklenburg County, Garry McFadden was "one of five sheriff candidates, all Black Democrats in urban North Carolina counties, who won office in 2018 after campaign pledges to end cooperation with federal immigration enforcement."

Add to that clear provocation for putting a Black sheriff in his place the grotesque, on-camera killing of Iryna Zarutska last August by a deranged Black man on the city’s light rail, and you've got the perfect set of symbols for armed racial profiling.

Stay strong, Charlotte.

Trump Found Another Way to Hurt North Carolina

 

Renewable energy is a growing industry in North Carolina’s economy. The state has over 7,300 jobs in the solar sector and ranks fifth in the U.S. for total installed solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

--NandO Business News

Trump gives big love to oil and gas tycoons, and he parrots their attack lines against solar and wind. In the first month of his 2nd term, Trump's Department of the Interior suspended all clean energy development. Last August Trump called solar energy "THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY." His Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, at the same time Trump was mashing keys on Truth Social, announced that his department would rescind “all programs building solar panels on our farmland.” Yeah, we get the picture.

Trump has been told that somehow the generation of energy from direct sunlight and wind drives oil and gas prices up, along with electricity -- ridiculous notions that are easily disproven. Like with every other stupid notion that lodges inside his brainpan, Trump has been relentless. He deliberately placed high tariffs on almost all materials needed to build large-scale solar projects, and the Big Beautiful Turd passed last July by the Republicans in Congress eliminated all tax credits for wind and solar energy. 

Trump can nail the shriveled and bloody skin of Pine Gate Renewables in Asheville, a leading solar energy development firm, to his trophy wall (dammit!). Pine Gate Renewables is closing its Asheville plant and laying off more than 78% of its workforce, some 223 people in Buncombe, as it files for bankruptcy. According to the NandO, Pine Gate has 107 projects with three gigawatts of power capacity, which could power over 2.3 million homes. Pine Gate also has over 130 projects in development, which would have over 30 gigawatts of capacity if completed. If in this case means never. In paperwork filed with the state, Pine Gate blamed its dissolution on Trump.

“With respect to the renewable energy industry, legislative and regulatory challenges have significantly slowed solar power development,” the company's filing with the state said. “In combination, these forces have put extreme pressure on Pine Gate’s liquidity and overall financial position.”

Berger-Hall to Josh Stein: "Pound Sand"

 

Photo Galen Bacharier, NC Newsline

Reportedly, in its last enacted budget Republican state lawmakers shorted the Medicaid program by around $319 million for the current fiscal year. As a result, Josh Stein's Health and Human Services (HHS) has resorted to cutting Medicaid reimbursements 3% to most hospitals and clinics (and up to 10-12% to "specialty providers"). Primary care doctors, dentists, community care clinics, nursing homes are all dependent on Medicaid funding. 

On Nov. 6, Governor Stein called a special session of the General Assembly for Nov. 17 to deal with that funding crisis. The state constitution gives the governor the power to summon lawmakers back to Raleigh to deal with emergencies (and you see where parsing that word will end up in court, right?). At a news conference, Stein said legislators had “failed North Carolina and the people of North Carolina” by not addressing the Medicaid shortfall during their October session -- which was largely devoted to once again redrawing the state’s congressional districts to add an extra Republican to Trump's tote board.

Yesterday, in a joint letter to Stein, House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate boss Phil Berger said they would not convene a session on Nov. 17, and claimed that Stein’s call for a special session "is constitutionally invalid and politically motivated."

Politically motivated. I certainly hope so!

Both chambers of the General Assembly are controlled completely by the GOP. Same party, but two equally immovable factions, fighting over the lucre. Leaders in both chambers have acknowledged the underfunding of Medicaid, and both chambers have written their own budget solutions in separate versions of a bill that was supposed to be blended and amended into a single unified budget law months ago. That didn't happen. There is no budget. North Carolina is now alone among all the fifty other states in the absence of one.

Berger-Hall

Can Berger-Hall just refuse to convene? You know it'll be litigated, and it'll be nobody's surprise when the current NC Supreme Court under Chief Justice Paul Newby rules for the General Assembly. Newby's going to love Berger-Hall's argument that Governor Stein's HHS made premature cuts to reimbursements as a means of exerting political pressure on the General Assembly. 

Josh Stein fired back at Berger-Hall: "The Republican majority has made the time to damage our democracy with their gerrymander. But when it comes time to protect people’s health care? When it comes time to enact a comprehensive budget? They’re on vacation, and they’ll see us next year. All while North Carolina families pay the price."

As far as I'm concerned, of course it's political, and it gives Stein the upper-hand here, the high ground, the advantage, because he is taking extraordinary action to stave off major damage to health care in North Carolina, while Berger-Hall just look like jerks, self-serving and out of touch with reality. So rather than asking, "Can they do that-- just refuse to come when summoned?" I should be asking the other question, "Why would they want to do that?" Because refusing to deal with the shortage of money that goes to help a whole community of need just helps build the bad, bad Republican brand of failing its own struggling MAGA base. 

So Much Depends on the Recruiter

 

He’s a former Catholic who supports abortion rights; he has been a hunter since he was 12 but advocates gun-safety legislation. He’s a decorated warrior who’s wary of war; and perhaps most important, he sympathizes with some of Trump’s supporters but thinks the president threatens American democracy.

--Description of Rep. Jason Crow (Colo., 6th CD) 

Representative Crow makes a strong impression. He can flat-out stare down a camera. He projects granite -- integrity that ain't messing around, a high intelligence, a b.s. detection system unimpressed by status, wealth, or pure cussedness. Crow earned that mensch character growing up in a working-class family. His grandfather was a bricklayer. Jason himself did construction to afford college, joined the National Guard and ROTC programs for the same reason -- financial need. But we know, intelligence will out! 

His service in the National Guard moved to active duty as a private after 9/11. He quickly became an officer, a paratrooper, and a Ranger — "perhaps the pinnacle of the U.S. Army," said David Ignatius, who knows Crow well. Crow was deployed to Iraq in 2003 with the fabled 82nd Airborne Division. There's no denying the congressman's smarts, or his gumption. Ignatius:

After Iraq, Crow joined the Joint Special Operations Command, perhaps the nation’s most elite combat team, composed of Army Rangers and Delta Force operators and Navy SEALs. He deployed with JSOC twice to Afghanistan as a member of the Joint Strike Force assigned to capture or kill “high-value targets” in al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Much of his work involved intelligence missions against the Haqqani network along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

After his service in the Army, he went to law school in Denver, and was heavily recruited by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to run for Congress in Colorado's 6th Congressional District, a slice of real estate that had never before elected a Democrat. He rose to prominence in the House as quickly as he had in the Army. He was named a House manager for Trump's first impeachment, and I remember his manner on TV as riveting. Early this year Crow was named a co-chair of the DCCC's candidate recruitment, in charge of making the Blue Wave of 2026. I can't imagine a better man for that job.

Crow showed off his first class of recruits recently at a training session in Washington: "The gathering ... was a snapshot of how Crow thinks the party can return to its working-class, pro-defense roots — while also mobilizing young voters seeking change. The group ... included a farmer, a part-time waitress, an emergency room doctor and a half-dozen veterans." Crow stood before them dressed in jeans, boots, and an open-necked shirt. He urged them to campaign next year as if they were running for mayor: "Be local, be authentic, don’t listen too much to campaign consultants, and be ready to separate from an often-unpopular national Democratic Party brand." (We all have our own lists of shit we wish never to hear from another Democratic candidate. Fill in the blanks yosef.)

Crow told Ernest Luning at Colorado Politics how brutally honest he was when pitching a run to a possible candidate: "Listen, this is not going to be easy. This is going to be really hard. It might be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done. But you know, I’m not asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy for our country. I’m asking you to step up and throw your hat in the ring for a race. Your country needs you.”

Indivisible's 2026 Primary Plan

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.

--Will Rogers

I've always been a "party man," a partisan Democrat out to elect Democrats at every level of public life. I've always dreaded primaries, because some divisions refuse to heal. So I've been "establishment" in that sense. But I'm also pretty quick to react to behavior that violates my essential political values, and I'm just as likely to say, "Go ahead and rock that boat!" I've helped win a primary or two, and I've also helped lose a few. I actually know in more detail than I'll ever divulge exactly what Will Rogers was talking about.

But the utter blindness on the part of seven Democratic senators and one independent senator to the recent effectiveness of stiffened spines on the progressive side -- last Tuesday's national landslide hello! -- sent me into a downward spiraling invention of new obscene phrases to express my anger and my growing disdain for the party establishment, that somewhat mythical creature, wherever on earth they congregated to decide to once again cave.

So it doesn't bother me a bit to see the progressive rump org "Indivisible" fill in the void where the Democratic Party looks tired and feckless. Indivisible is on the ground everywhere, including an active chapter in Watauga County, where they organized local "No Kings" rallies attended by thousands. Indivisible is calling for primaries against the Democratic deaf, dumb, and blind -- whoever they are, at whatever level on the ballot. That is not going to be welcome news for my party's establishment, especially the progressive strategists who scold us if we wanted shed of Joe Manchin. Their argument: A rogue conservative Democrat is still better than any trump Republican. (Yeah, probably ... but still. See what I mean about "some divisions refuse to heal.")

Wikipedia on Indivisible:

Indivisible is a progressive movement and organization in the United States initiated in 2016 as a reaction to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. The movement began with the online publication of a handbook written by congressional staffers with suggestions for peacefully but effectively resisting the move to the right in the executive branch of the United States government under the Trump administration that was widely anticipated and feared by progressives. According to American urban policy analyst Peter Dreier, the goal of Indivisible is to "save American democracy" and "resume the project of creating a humane America that is more like social democracy than corporate plutocracy."

Indivisible's founders, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, were included in Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2019. 

Indivisible's 2026 Primary Plan (ALL-CAPS included)

WE HAVE BEEN FAILED BY DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP, AGAIN.

After the largest mass protest in U.S. history, after a historically successful election for Democrats, and while poll after poll shows that Republicans have the weaker hand in the shutdown fight, Democrats in the Senate have chosen to surrender. As minority leader, Chuck Schumer has demonstrated that he has no strategy, no savvy, and no spine. By allowing his caucus to cave to the will of the regime, he has proven that Democratic leadership is defined by fecklessness in the face of authoritarianism.

 

THAT’S WHY INDIVISIBLE WILL BE LAUNCHING THE LARGEST PRIMARY PROGRAM IN OUR HISTORY, GUIDED BY A GRASSROOTS NETWORK THAT IS PISSED OFF.

We must turn the page on this era of cowardice. We must nominate and elect Democratic candidates who have an actual backbone. And we must ensure that the kind of failed leadership we see from Senator Schumer does not doom a future Democratic majority.

THIS COUNTRY NEEDS DEMOCRATS TO FIGHT LIKE AN ACTUAL OPPOSITION PARTY TO AN AUTHORITARIAN REGIME.

We need them to fight like lives depend on it, because they literally do. Republicans are working to strip away healthcare and food assistance from millions of Americans; they are enabling a would-be king to undermine our democracy; and they cheer on the invasion of our cities and kidnapping of our neighbors. And too many elected Democrats are content to watch from the sidelines as they do it—or worse, abet this machine of corruption and abuse.

IN 2026, WE SAY: NO MORE.

If a Democratic candidate isn’t willing to leave it all on the field, it’s time for them to get out of the way or be pushed out of the way. If a Democratic candidate is flirting with the forces that elevated Trump and helped him consolidate power, they have no place in the future of this party.

THE INDIVISIBLE BASE IS READY TO FIGHT FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WE DESERVE.

Right now, we’re talking with our grassroots network to understand where they want to see this fight go. Indivisible groups are the leaders of this movement, and they are not backing down. Decisions on primaries will be guided by them. Victories over the status quo will be powered by them. And our new leaders will be accountable to them.

BECAUSE INDIVISIBLE UNDERSTANDS THE CLOCK IS TICKING, AND WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR DEAD WEIGHT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. IT’S TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE.

When They're About To Take Away Your Only Method for Surviving the Trump Years

 

"Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

--H. L. Mencken

Effing Republicans in Congress! 

[Credit: The Hill]

The hemp industry is scrambling to stave off what representatives are saying could be an extinction-level event engineered by Republicans in Congress.

The Senate late Monday passed a funding package that would reopen the government and fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Tucked into the funding bill is a provision that would re-criminalize many of the intoxicating hemp-derived products that were legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) waged a last-minute fight to try to keep the provision out, threatening to drag out the process of debating the underlying bill until he got a vote on an amendment to strip the language.

He got the vote on Monday; Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were the only Republicans who voted in favor.

“The bill, as it now stands, overrides the regulatory frameworks of several states, cancels the collective decisions of hemp consumers and destroys the livelihoods of hemp farmers,” Paul said on the floor ahead of the vote. “And it couldn’t come at a worse time for America’s farmers. Times are tough for our farmers.”

The provision “prevents the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products,” according to a Senate Appropriations Committee summary....

No MAGA Left Behind

Mark Meadows

President Donald Trump has pardoned a long list of his political allies for their support or involvement in alleged plans to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to the Department of Justice’s Pardon Attorney, Ed Martin.

The individuals listed in a proclamation, which Martin posted on X late Sunday, include high-profile figures like Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and the president’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, among dozens of others.

“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” read the document, which gives the date of November 7 in its text and the president appears to have signed.

It includes a “full, complete, and unconditional pardon” for those named, including some of the president’s co-defendants who were charged in Georgia for trying to subvert Trump’s 2020 election defeat

[CNN]

Just a Few Months Distant -- The Most Important Republican Primary Race

 

Paul Specht just published on the WRAL site a very long and thorough introduction to everything Berger v. Page, the Republican primary next March which will determine whether The Notorious Phil Berger keeps his job as President Pro Tempore of the NC Senate or Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page ousts his ass once and for all. I would have to say that I'm rooting for the sheriff.

Apparently, the real prospect that the All Powerful Berger could be beat by a popular and upstanding opponent has apparently induced "third-party groups to set up websites and social media accounts to attack Page, while also launching ads that promote Berger," according to Specht. It's gotten personal and nasty, enough so that the Chair of the Rockingham County Republican Party, Diane Parnell, remarked to Specht, “I’ve never seen it this ugly.”

So we who have known the dirt on Berger for years are now learning dirt on Page, and for my money this is the worst revelation to come out of the Berger attack-dogs:

A dozen people have died in [the Rockingham Co.] jail since 2021, according to the Greensboro News & Record. Some of those deaths were by suicide. The family of one of the victims sued the county, claiming deputies were informed of their son’s mental issues but failed to take the proper precautions to ensure his safety. The family agreed to drop the lawsuit after a settlement. Last year, the county’s insurer informed commissioners that they would no longer cover the Rockingham County jail — a development covered by multiple media outlets.

County officials said their insurer, Travelers Insurance, dropped their detention center from its coverage because jail staff failed to report several incidents to the company.

That jail sounds like a black hole, administered by an authoritarian with limited fellow-feeling -- regardless of the sheriff's protestations to Specht that all those deaths -- 12 in the last 4 years! -- are nothing to do with conditions at the jail.

Political Notes -- "Fuck It" Edition

 

Kate Barr, the "Can't Win but Fuck It!" political influencer who has made a second career out of encouraging Democratic candidates to file in districts they can't possibly win -- as an act of revolutionary defiance against Republican gerrymandering -- has announced a new tactic: Can't win as a Democrat? File as a Republican and run a primary against the pasty-assed Tim Moore in Congressional District 14, a safe seat he mapped for himself when he was running the House. It was specifically and quite publicly drawn for him, a lucrative landing pad after Speaker of the NCHouse (which was also a notoriously lucrative perch for Moore -- and don't make me go look up all the investigative pieces exposing his corruption).

Barr told the WashPost, “My message is really about fairness. And it’s consistent with when I ran for state senate district 37 in ‘24,” she said. “We need fair maps. We deserve fair elections. We, as voters, should be able to hold our elected leaders accountable. And it is wrong that we can’t.”

Dave Boliek, the rubberstamp
for suppression of the vote in NC

On Friday, reporter Bryan Anderson broke the news that Paul Cox, General Counsel to the State Board of Elections, resigned his job, citing the highly partisan nature of the new board under Republican control. Guys as extreme as Francis X. DeLuca, former president of the Civitas Institute, and Robert Rucho, former Republican state senator with too many axes to grind, and their new boss, State Auditor Dave Boliek, a former reactionary Democrat with much to prove to his new Republican masters, not to mention the ineffable Dallas Woodhouse, appointed by Boliek to "oversee" county boards of elections -- all of that became too much for a lawyer with professional integrity which was itself based on an understanding that the administration of elections cannot become a partisan battleground, which would violate the statutory mandate of the Board of Elections. Ever since the Berger/Moore General Assembly took the Board of Elections away from Gov. Stein and gave it to the newly minted MAGA Republican Dave Boliek, we've always known what was afoot and what was indubitably ahead of us, ahead of anyone who wants to insure the voting rights and ballot access of all citizens. Paul Cox set a flare over the ice berg's drift.

In January of 2024, an Avery County man named William J. Barthel attended a special meeting of the Avery County Commish, stood at the back of the room so he wouldn't obstruct anybody's sightline, and unfurled a banner which made crude comments about the Commish's clerk, Cindy Turbyfill. The sheriff's department immediately descended on Barthel, told him to take the banner down; he refused; the commish chair told him he had to leave. At which point Barthel, who had been totally silent up to that point, asked "Why do I have to leave?" I'm exercising my constitutional rights. He was uncooperative which led to his handcuffing outside the courtroom. He was charged with disrupting an official meeting and with resisting arrest. After being convicted in Avery District Court, he appealed to the Superior Court and got a two-day trial with a jury before Judge Gavenus. Again, he was convicted, sentenced to 30 days, suspended for 18 months of supervised probation. 

Cohen v. California (1971)
ruled that this banner was free speech

A panel of the NC Court of Appeals just reversed all of that: "[Barthel] argues that the First Amendment protects his silent display of a crude banner criticizing [Cindy Turbyfill] at a board meeting. We agree. The First Amendment shielded his right to stand silently at the back of the boardroom with his vulgar banner during the public comment period. Because his arrest was unlawful, Defendant had the right to resist it without using excessive force. He used reasonable force. We therefore vacate both convictions." Republican Judge Donna Stroud wrote the opinion. Chief Judge Chris Dillon and Judge Fred Gore, two other Republicans, concurred.

I'm deliberately not reprinting here what Barthel's banner said (let alone his highly-offensive-to-many T-shirt), but if you click the link in the previous paragraph, you can read it for yourself in the Appeals Court order. I laughed out loud. And then I had to start googling. The court identified Turbyfill as a commissioner. She's not. She's clerk to the board and also assistant county manager. There's obviously a juicy story behind Barthel's grudge against her. Maybe someone in Avery who reads here will enlighten us.

This Photo = 1,000 Words

 

The back turned on suffering. WTF

Repulsion

 

Trump and his acolytes in Congress can live under a delusion of their massive popularity and stride around like Caesar and his guards, but voters who get to decide these things are largely repulsed.

--Matt Bai

Did repulsion ever win an election? It sure as hell seems to have lost one last Tuesday.

I'm not even thinking of the marquee races in NYCity, Virginia, and New Jersey. Reports from North Carolina of Democratic victories in the municipals -- from big cities to tiny towns -- became too numerous this morning to keep making a list. Down Home, a progressive working-class advocacy org, bragged about a very interesting success rate for Down Home-endorsed candidates in a bunch of small downs. Frankly, the details are maybe not as important as the overall message. My conclusion -- Tuesday's landslide established a shocking divergence from conventional wisdom: All politics are not local. A single national scumbag can juice all the water everywhere -- literally poison it for local Republican podunk candidates who never uttered a MAGA opinion in their lives.

Matt Bai writes ambiguously about whether the Trump effect will work just as well in 2026. Bai has his doubts (I notice a disproportionate number of editorial writers who seem obsessed with bringing down any progressive vibe!). But odds are -- on my green pitch, at least -- repulsion will still play. Because Jethro ain't gonna change. He can't. He's a prisoner of his own malignancy -- greed, lack of empathy, childish insecurity. Perhaps the Supremes will slap him down over his erratic, revenge-motivated tariff program (some commentators think a 7-2 vote against its constitutionality seems possible), but other trumpist cruelties will continue and probably escalate. Members of the NC Republican delegation in Washington, for example, are now pressuring Gov. Stein to invite Trump goon squads to occupy Charlotte.

Trump won't stop. He can't. His habitual character is embodied in his manner of talk -- irrational, distracted, rambling, ultimately incomprehensible, but still dangerous. And like a large thing with teeth, he's always trolling the waters. He bites at any provocation. (Let's strafe Nigeria y'all!) A meaningful congressional Republican uprising against him -- which former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake was calling for this morning in the WashPost -- seems unlikely, given Mike Johnson's playing slobber-mouth in the House. Senator Thune, leading the Republicans in the Senate, isn't about to eliminate the filibuster, and that refusal to give Trump what he wants -- even desperately needs -- will be one small step for mankind. But I don't expect any giant steps away from trumpism to follow it. I'd love to be surprised.

So I'm feeling uncommonly optimistic, and it's making me woozy. Some reports have crossed my desk showing that some Republican gerrymanders may be more properly called "dummymanders," when a redrawing of the map backfires spectacularly. I'm hearing about Republican +5 districts flipping, and I think that upset potential only grows into and through 2026. I'm going to be examining partisan rankings like never before. Of course, the exploitation of our collective revulsion will depend on having credible candidates. And, obviously, voters just declared themselves enthusiastic about all types of Democrats, from avowed socialists, Muslims, atheists, and also safe middle-roaders like Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherill. We need candidates on the 2026 ballot in all General Assembly districts, and I think it doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot whether they're electrifying or rarely inspirational, for opposition and resistance are winning the day.

Blue Wave 2025

 

Virginia. Led by Abigail Spanberger at the top of the ticket (first woman to break that glass ceiling), Democrats swept the contests for all three statewide offices (including the first Muslim as Lt. Gov.) and also expanded their power in the Virginia House of Delegates — undoing GOP gains under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who energized Republicans with a seismic victory in 2021 that some hoped would be the start of a longer-term movement. Nope.

New Jersey. Democrat Mikie Sherrill beat her Republican opponent by at least 13 points.

California. Gov. Gavin Newsom put Prop 50 to the voters: "Do you agree that we should redistrict our congressional seats to fight back against the Texas partisan gerrymander." The people answered -- not just "yes" but "hell yes! Give us five more Democratic seats!"

Georgia. Two Democrats flipped seats on the state’s Public Service Commission, the first non-federal statewide wins for Democrats in nearly two decades.

Mississippi. Democrats flipped a pair of Republican-held state Senate seats, cracking the GOP supermajority.

New York City. More than 2 million votes were cast in the mayor's race, the highest turnout for city elections since 1969, and the Muslim "Democratic socialist" won with just over 50% of the vote to 41.6% for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent.

Pennsylvania. Voters granted new 10-year terms to three Democratic justices on the state Supreme Court. The three ran without opponents, just a yes or no vote on retaining their seats. 

Ohio. J.D. Vance’s half-brother, Cory Bowman, whom Vance had endorsed as certified MAGA, lost bigly in his bid to unseat the Democratic mayor of Cincinnati.

North Carolina. Still gathering the facts, but it looks like Democrats did very well in the municipals across the state. Boone elected the youngest mayor in North Carolina, Jon-Dalton George. More later.

 

Don't know who did this, but some images that show up on social media sort of beg for archiving.

Paul Newby; Or, Why North Carolina's Judicial System Is So Politically Corrupt

 

Some amazing and thorough investigative journalism by Doug Bock Clark in ProPublica, who spills all kinds of beans about North Carolina's Chief Justice Paul Newby. Did I say thorough! Clark and his team interviewed over 70 people who know Newby professionally or personally, including former North Carolina justices and judges, lawmakers, longtime friends and family members. "Many requested anonymity, saying they feared that he or his proxies would retaliate against them through the courts’ oversight system, the state bar association or the influence he wields more broadly. We reviewed court documents, ethics disclosure forms, Newby’s calendars, Supreme Court minutes, and a portion of his emails obtained via public records requests. We also drew on Newby’s own words from dozens of hours of recordings of speeches he’s made on the campaign trail and to conservative political groups, as well as interviews he’s given to right-wing and Christian media outlets."

The ProPublica reporters attempted numerous times to interview Newby and others in the judiciary, and what they got in one notable case is a promise of trumpian retribution if they didn't stop their digging. "When ProPublica emailed questions to Newby’s daughter, head of finance for the NCGOP, the North Carolina Republican Party’s communications director, Matt Mercer, responded, writing that ProPublica was waging a 'jihad' against 'NC Republicans,' which would 'not be met with dignifying any comments whatsoever .... I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration and I’m sure they would be interested in this matter,” Mercer said in his email. “I would strongly suggest dropping this story.”

Day-um!

1. Beware a Judge "On a Mission From God." Newby has said repeatedly that he believes God has called him to lead the court and once described his mission as delivering “biblical justice, equal justice, for all.” (We remember "biblical justice." It involved a good deal of stoning and summary executions.) Newby told the modest little story that back in 2004, when he made his first run for a seat on the Supremes, “I had a sense in my heart that God was saying maybe I should run.” He's got a rigid and uncompromising fundy streak. He speaks openly about how faith has shaped his administration of the courts, which included squashing diversity efforts and purging LGBTQ aides and assistants. "He’s packed higher and lower courts with former clerks and mentees whom he’s cultivated at his Bible study, prayer breakfasts and similar events." Before Newby squeaked out his win over Cheri Beasley in 2020 (by a margin of 401 votes), his wife Macon, a pretty accomplished conservative political activist in her own right, wrote to friends, asking for their prayers: “Paul, as a believer in Christ Jesus, is clothed in the righteousness of Christ alone,” her note said. “Because of that, he has direct access to Almighty God to cry out for wisdom in seeking for the Court to render justice.”

"His tendency to see people as either with him or against God has at times led to conflicts with political allies, associates and even relatives. That includes two of his four [adopted] children, from whom he’s distanced over issues of politics and sexuality."

2. Little Ruthless Dictator. In February 2023, with the newly installed 5-2 Republican majority on the Supreme Court barely sworn in (Republican judge candidates had swept the Nov. 2022 elections), Justice Phil Berger Jr., Newby’s right-hand man and "presumed heir on the court," circulated a draft of a special order Newby was engineering. He fully intended to do something unprecedented and highly controversial, rehear and reverse a case that had been decided just weeks before -- the outlawing of partisan gerrymandering that the previous Supreme Court, dominated by Democrats, had just ruled (giving North Carolina an independent redistricting plan that led to a 7-7 split in its Congressional delegation). Newby intended to overturn that, which he did, because he rules absolutely the other Republicans on the Court. He made the decision to rehear the case and then demanded that the other judges agree without debate and via email their assent to him in 24 hours. By email. No in-person judicial conference to consider such a momentous and clearly partisan move to invalidate the previous court's finding. Within the hour, the court’s Republicans all caved. "Its two liberal justices, consigned to irrelevance, worked through the night with their clerks to complete a dissent by the deadline." Newby then wrote a majority opinion declaring that partisan gerrymandering was legal and that the Democrat-led court had unconstitutionally infringed on the legislature’s prerogative to create electoral maps.

3. Newby's"Climate of Fear." What puts the "petty" in "petty little dictator"? Vindictiveness. Newby's power as chief justice allows him to promote or demote judges on lower courts. He decides who serves as their chiefs and who holds prestigious committee posts. Newby demoted or forced into retirement as many as nine senior judges with little public explanation; all were Democrats or moderate Republicans, and had clashed personally with Newby or his allies. Among the most notable was Donna Stroud, the Republican chief judge of the Court of Appeals, whom Newby removed after she was reported to have hired a clerk favored by Democrats over one favored by a fellow Republican justice. Newby replaced Stroud with a close ally, Chris Dillon. In 2022, after the Judicial Standards Commission’s longtime director clashed with Dillon about limiting judges’ political activity, she was ousted. Her replacement, Brittany Pinkham, swiftly led two investigations into alleged misconduct by Democratic Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, who had spoken publicly about Newby’s actions to end initiatives to address a lack of diversity in the court system. Newby had personally encouraged at least one of the investigations into Earls. 

Neither investigation resulted in sanctions, but judges said that, in combination with the firings and demotions, the probes conveyed a chilling message that Newby would punish those who crossed him. Several judges said they were intimidated to the point that it shaped how they did their jobs. Some said they or others had felt pressured to participate in prayers that Newby conducted at courthouses or conferences.

Judges and court staffers “are afraid of speaking out,” said Mary Ann Tally, a judge who retired near the beginning of Newby’s tenure as chief justice when she hit the statutory retirement age. Tally, a Democrat, said other judges had told her they were “afraid of Newby retaliating against them or that they would end up in front of the Judicial Standards Commission.” ProPublica spoke to more than 20 current or former judges who expressed fear that Newby or his allies might seek to harm their judicial or legal careers.

4. The Adoption Business. When Newby and his wife went looking for a fourth child to adopt, they found a pregnant teenager willing to have her baby and give it to the Newbys for adoption. "The child’s birth mother, Melodie Barnes, had split from her boyfriend after getting pregnant and, with the help of a Christian anti-abortion network, moved to Oregon, which then allowed mothers to put babies up for adoption without their fathers’ consent. Barnes’ ex disputed the adoption, obtaining a restraining order to halt the process. According to news reports, the Newbys and their lawyer were notified of this before the birth, but went forward anyway. They took custody just after the baby was born. Two weeks later, when a court ordered the Newbys to return the child to her father, they instead sought to give the baby to Barnes, someone who shared their evangelical beliefs. Soon after that attempt, a court order compelled Barnes to give the baby to her father." Eventually, the Newby's successfully adopted another baby girl.

The Newbys went on to start two adoption agencies, including Amazing Grace Adoptions, whose mission was to place children in Christian homes and save babies from abortion. In late 2021, Newby wrote an opinion in an adoption case involving Amazing Grace Adoptions. After he and his wife founded that agency, he had gone on to serve on the agency’s board of directors and touted his connection to it during his 2004 Supreme Court campaign. Yet he did not recuse himself from this case nor admit he had what looked like a potential conflict of interest. He did, however, rule in Amazing Grace's favor.

5. The Dark Money Nexus.  In his first reelection campaign in 2012, he was running against a Democrat with legendary connections, Sam J. Ervin IV. Ervin was said to be leading in the polls. He was relying on the $240,000 granted by NC's pioneering public financing system (long ago killed by the Republican General Assembly), while in the closing days of the campaign Newby's bank account grew $2 million from dark money contributions. "The cash funded waves of ads supporting Newby and blasting Ervin. TVs across the state blared what became known as the 'banjo ad,' in which a country singer twanged that Newby would bring 'justice tough but fair.' ”

6. Stealth Political Lobbying.  After the Red Wave of 2010 (the Tea Party election), Newby became a constant influence on Republican legislation coming out of the General Assembly. "His backchannel conversations with General Assembly members were 'openly known' among court and legislative insiders, one former lawmaker said." At Newby's behest, in 2013 the legislature did away with public financing for judicial candidates, making them reliant on private contributions and dark money groups. Legislators also passed another measure Newby favored, making investigations by the courts’ internal watchdog, the Judicial Standards Commission, secret and giving Newby himself veto power on sanctions and on whether cases became public. For Newby, it was revenge, for he himself had drawn the commission’s scrutiny for engaging in activities that undermined his impartiality, including attending a rally against same-sex marriage in his first year on the bench. With his new powers, Newby quashed disciplinary actions against two Republican judges who had admitted to egregious breaches of the state’s judicial code. The decisions to quash the discipline remained secret until ProPublica reported them. In 2016, Republican lawmakers handed Newby a third victory when they began phasing out nonpartisan judicial elections, making them all partisan contests.

7. When You're On a Mission From God, The Rules Don't Apply To You.  George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School spent about $14,000 to cover expenses for Newby and three of his Republican colleagues (Phil Berger Jr. was among them) to fly to Honolulu for a weeklong judicial conference held at The Royal Hawaiian Resort, a pricey beachfront hotel known as the “Pink Palace of the Pacific.” "The four NC judges went to lectures on conservative legal principles in the mornings, then enjoyed local attractions, from hot-tubbing to hiking, the rest of the day, according to a ProPublica reporter who was at the event. On the final evening, they attended an outdoor banquet lit by tiki torches that featured a whole roasted luau pig. Only one of the four — Berger — disclosed the trip in their annual judicial ethics forms, though the form directs judges to report gifts of over $500. Newby didn’t respond to questions from ProPublica about the trip or why he didn’t report it. The rules for judicial behavior also state that judges “may not personally make financial contributions” to candidates seeking elected office, but campaign finance data shows that Newby is among more than a dozen judges and judicial candidates who have ignored this prohibition. He’s made four such donations since 2008, including one in 2022, when he was chief justice." According to the Center for Public Integrity, he ruled at least six times in cases involving Duke Energy or its subsidiaries while he and his wife held stock in the company, always siding with it.