We're currently at the 6-month mark in the NC State Bureau of Investigation's probe of accusations against Meadows -- that he voted absentee in 2020 using a Macon County address where he had apparently never set foot.
The Macon County Board of Elections removed Meadows from their voter rolls in April.
Perhaps Budd's putting his name to a proposed law that will take away the rights of women is a calculation to stir up the enthusiasm of his base voters. Whether or not there's something weak about the enthusiasm of Republican voters that needs stirring up, Budd has probably confirmed to sane women voters -- especially young ones -- that he's not to be allowed near the law-making apparatus of the federal government.
The FBI arrested Darris Moody on September 7. She's charged under the Interstate Communications Act, which prohibits the interstate transmission of "any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another." The judge let her out on an unsecured $25,000 bond, much to the alarm of the federal prosecutor. ("Interstate transmission" -- apparently Mrs. Moody included a few Washington, D.C., fax numbers and maybe some in Tennessee as well.)
Say you want to use the English language to put the fear of an angry right-wing God into the hearts and heads of a few elected officials. Where do you begin and what do you write? Luckily for you (and for Darris Moody), there's a whole website, “The People’s Bureau of Investigation,” which gave Mrs. Moody her templates and samples of "the peoples arrest warrants," fancied up in quasi-legal language. The website contains instructions on how anyone, anywhere, can “serve” the fill-in-the-blanks “writs,” and for every one served, the website promises compensation of $2,000. From whom the money will come remains unclear (but thank God there's a profit motive behind this craziness, although Darris Moody complained to a reporter that she had gotten nary a check for her good work).
Reporter Cory Vaillancourt of the Smoky Mountain News has been all over this story. In fact, it was Vaillancourt who pursued leads and uncovered the identity of Darris Moody, actually talking to her for an hour on the phone. The interview must have been a doozy:
Moody lives in a world of red pills and blue pills — not actual pills, but rather internet parlance for truth and ignorance, respectively. During a 50-minute phone conversation, she checked off nearly every single box on a long list of QAnon-style conspiracy theories.
She’s concerned about socialism, communism, chemtrails, weather modification and satanic pedophile cults that traffic children for their organs.
She believes that COVID-19 is a psy-op, that the vaccine is a bioweapon and that masks are a tactic of the deep state, worn to obscure the very image of God.
She bandies about faerie-tale talking points from self-proclaimed “sovereign citizens.”
She claims that upon birth Americans are transformed or absorbed into a corporate entity and then are bonded, insured and controlled by the New World Order.
She espouses support for Christian nationalism, maritime admiralty law and the so-called constitutional sheriffs movement.
She promotes the idea that actor Tom Hanks is somehow part of it all, and that President Joe Biden isn’t “the real Biden” but has instead been replaced by a body double.
“Anybody can go look at pictures of him,” Moody said. “It ain’t the real one.”
Of course, she learned all this on the internet.
Vaillancourt published his investigation on September 7th under the headline, "Author of threatening writs revealed, but still no action from law enforcement" -- emphasizing "no action" because Vaillancourt had asked sheriffs in particular why they had not taken steps to stop the letters. Literally, hours after that article appeared in the Smoky Mountain News, the FBI moved on Mrs. Moody. Maybe local law enforcement can be excused because they knew the Feds were on it. Anyway, the Feds were.
Indebted once again to Jane Porter and her IndyWeek newsletter:
Okay, the prospects of a Black man becoming governor of Arkansas -- even a Black man who holds a doctorate in urban planning while also pastoring Christian churches -- may not strike you as existing in the realm of possibility, at least it's an uplifting sign that the Democratic Party of the South ain't your granddaddy's political party.
Chris Jones won the Democratic primary for governor in Arkansas back in May, He faces professional liar Sarah Huckabee Sanders, daughter of a former governor and mouthpiece of a former president, running on the Republican side. The only polling I've seen doesn't look encouraging for Jones, but people have been attracted to the introductory video that Frank Eaton, of the D.C. ad firm of Putnam Partners, made for Jones in June and which has gone seriously viral. Frank Eaton, who gained fame in North Carolina more than a decade ago helping the Democrats and guaranteeing that Pat McCrory's tenure would be one term only, continues to turn out stunning work.
Carolina Forward is entering the ad wars RE keeping abortion rights safe in North Carolina. And they're raising money to get the ad seen statewide. Use the link to contribute.
The department did not contest appointing a special master to sift through documents and photographs not marked as classified. Nor did it challenge Judge Cannon’s order preventing investigators from working with those files until they were cleared by the special master, although it said it disagreed with that part of her decision, too.
Instead, prosecutors asked Judge Cannon to grant them immediate access only to the classified material, arguing that her ruling had been based on concerns about Mr. Trump’s personal materials — including medical and financial records — that were swept up in the search.
“The classification markings establish on the face of the documents that they are government records, not plaintiff’s personal records,” they said.
Prosecutors added that Mr. Trump has no right to have classified government documents returned to him and there is no plausible claim that any are subject to attorney-client privilege.
Prof. Feldman
The latest DOJ filing very skillfully shows how legal argument and process can make it hard, though certainly not impossible, for judges to simply do whatever they want. 1/
There are some unspoken layers to DOJ’s central position, which is that documents marked classified are both the ones most needed for criminal investigation and least arguably covered by any assertion by Trump of atty-client or executive privilege. 2/
DOJ tells the judge that if [she] puts off imposing the special master process with regard to the classified documents, DOJ will refrain from appealing the judge’s overall ruling. 3/
This allows the judge to walk back from most problematic parts of her arguments and their most unwise implications without requiring her to accept that she is wrong about everything she said. That’s smart advocacy. Judges are human and don’t want to admit to being all wrong. 4/
Even cannier, DOJ is telling the judge they won’t put her in the position of possibly being told by appellate she’s all wrong if she adjusts her treatment of the seized classified documents. 5/
By carefully explaining why law as applied to current facts favors judge allowing DOJ to use classified documents right now, DOJ has previewed for the judge arguments it will make on appeal, so judge can see how persuasive they may well be. 6/
Suppose, though, that Judge Cannon is so wedded to delaying the criminal investigation she refuses DOJ’s motion to allow immediate use of classified documents for that purpose. She could simply deny DOJ motion without explanation or by giving weak reasons. 7/
DOJ will still have gained. Its motion gives appellate court a heads up on potential timing of the appeal and lets appellate court see how it can, if it wants, overturn Cannon re classified docs while giving Trump every chance to get back personal records. 8/
DOJ alerting higher courts that upholding Cannon would mean courts having to say outright that a former president can assert executive privilege against incumbent to stop present executive from investigating theft of classified documents related to national security. 9/
No matter how much Trump-appointed appellate judges or right Supreme Court justices might want to shield Trump from criminal prosecution, that’s a pretty difficult conclusion for them to have to commit to. 10/
Ideally, would be better if DOJ did not have to expend time and resources on dealing with Cannon’s misguided decision to impose special master and enjoin use of seized documents for criminal investigation. 11/
It is especially valuable at this moment in American history, for DOJ to be showing how legal argument and process can be used to hinder judges from simply insisting on an outcome the judge would like to order. 12/12
Carolina Forward has published the most useful "State of the Race for the North Carolina Legislature." In it, they draw my attention back to House District 103. It's a must-win for the Republicans if the Republicans have any assurance of getting back to their super-majority (when they can run rough-shod over Gov. Cooper). I wrote about the Democratic primary in HD103 back in April -- which first-time candidate Laura Budd went on to win. But I never looked at the Republican. And if this district is as crucial as Carolina Forward says it is, then I need to catch up.
NC House District 103 in Mecklenburg County (Matthews and Mint Hill) was won in the 2018 Blue Wave by former Gov. Jim Hunt's daughter Rachel, and she won reelection there in 2020. This year she's leaving the seat to run for the NC Senate in an overlapping district. The House district has also been redrawn, and Dave's Redistricting rates it 49.9% Democratic v. 47.6% Republican. The Republican in the race, Bill Brawley, was the former incumbent whom Rachel Hunt beat in 2018 (and again in 2020). He's determined to get back to Raleigh this year and thinks a Red Wave will get him there.
Laura Budd (D)
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| Laura Budd (in red), with her family |
Guest post by Dalton George
Still, as time goes on, it seems like a quick local fix to the housing crisis is nearly impossible. While some published articles (like the one in the recent NC Business Magazine) provide a prescription of extending town services out of town, allowing development with little regulation (and in turn creating a potential disaster for our natural environment — see The Cottages), most data doesn’t really support that. See Oregon, where once they eliminated those pesky zoning laws, rental rates actually increased.
Even more troubling, housing can be framed as a NIMBY v. YIMBY choice (Not In My Back Yard v. Yes In My Back Yard) that introduces a level of polarization to an issue that otherwise typically should create some unity. While I don’t strongly identify with either NIMBY or YIMBY, I can say this — We desperately need more housing, but I have never been a fan of giving the keys to developers and expecting them to do the right thing. Boone has been bitten in the ass by this countless times.
Then we have our Congresswoman, Virginia Foxx, writing an Op-Ed damning local regulations and championing the cause of the YIMBY, all while never participating in any of the housing movements in her district. I could write a whole piece criticizing her, but she’s been in Congress since before I was born, so her inability to improve the district she represents speaks for itself.
I’ve said it a few times, to little effect, but Boone has tried already to deal with some of these issues, so some solutions are already in place that we can utilize. I’ve continued to reexamine our minimum housing code for the safety of tenants and have introduced an agenda item for breaking up the discrimination happening in student rentals, which would open the market in an impactful way (the only items related to housing affordability/safety since the Air-BNB regulation in December of 2021). Boone even recently tried to adopt a penny for affordable housing on every hundred dollars of valuation, though we ultimately compromised by moving the revenue equivalent from our general fund.
In April of 2020, the Town Council introduced a resolution detailing some of the very problems newer housing groups have identified. It gained some traction, resulting in a response from the state’s Attorney General. However, our two state representatives, and ever passionate-about-housing-Congresswoman, did nothing. Here are the items that Boone asked our reps to take action on:
The $800 per apartment in non-refundable fees to pursue credit checks on tenants and their parents, while potentially not using that money for a credit check.
Landlords not publishing or disclosing certain rental charges and non-refundable fees imposed until the tenant applies for housing.
Fines on tenants, which are not disclosed or directly included in the leases in some multi-family complexes, that make tenants abide by rules and regulations made by the management, which they can freely alter.
Renting by the bedroom, but requiring each tenant to guarantee full rent for an entire four-bedroom apartment, even though the tenant may not have any prior relationship with other tenants.
Tenants not being properly or effectively advised of the chance for a property to flood, or of the landlord’s refusal to take responsibility for flood damages until after the loss.
Landlords regularly deducting amounts from security deposits that represent charges for normal wear and tear.
Landlords using leases that are so complex people untrained in the law can’t decipher the many predatory and one-sided provisions.
New pushes like the Watauga Housing Trust provide some of the first local initiatives for affordability. Still, a housing trust model is but one piece of a much larger puzzle. Inclusionary zoning is a prospect for the Town, though the lack of clear mechanisms to hold developers legally accountable poses a problem, further worsened when you realize most inclusionary zoning programs only force affordability for a limited number of years.
The heart of our housing issue is simple — rampant greed in an economic system that encourages it — and since housing activists are working in that framework, we’re already playing against a stacked deck.
Ultimately, we keep trying, and in Watauga that’s thanks to a robust community of passionate activists, but as we watch nearly every other city in North Carolina deal with housing issues, one must wonder if it’s time to hold state legislators accountable.
Dalton George is a member of the Boone Town Council.
