Resistence Is Futile

 

“Once a gaming debate begins, it does not end until there is success for the gaming industry. It may take two years. It may take 20 years, as it did in Pennsylvania. But eventually the economic and marketing forces will prevail.”

--Joseph Weinert, Spectrum Gaming Group, quoted by Ned Barnett

Ah! The inevitability. The ineffable inevitability.

Barnett was editorializing in the News and Observer that it was a good thing that commercial, non-Indian-run casino gambling did not make it into Phil Berger's state budget. Good. But get ready, Barnett warned, 'cause the whole push will return -- Berger has too much at stake to just give up, there's money flying, and the prediction of Mr. Weinert quoted above does resemble our inevitability.

When it does arrive, in two years or 20, it will put plenty of money in certain pockets, pay minimum to the low level staff who actually make these places run, and further corrupt our already remarkably corrupt politics. “As commercial casinos and other gambling options have become more widespread, their ability to spur regional economic development has become more limited.” The thousands of jobs that Berger-Moore forecast as a casino benefit are just helium balloons.

Hope Is a Kid in High School

 

Wow.

This 17-year-old Huntersville senior Eric Willoughby has had his face all over Twitter for days, but I just got around to watching the actual video footage of his speech in front of the NC House & Senate Redistricting committees last Wednesday in Raleigh. Just wow. Kid lays it out there and ends with a threat: "We're watching you, and young people like me are fed up!" Words to that effect.

And that's exactly why the NCGOP needs to handicap, inconvenience, and otherwise hobble the voting power of young people. Those conservative mamas didn't raise no fools.

Mark Robinson Won't Risk a Debate (Sez Mark Walker)

 

Mark Robinson

In an interview with WFAE political reporter Steve Harrison, Republican candidate for governor Mark Walker pulled a stiletto and jabbed at his rival Mark Robinson for being waaay out of the Republican mainstream, out there beyond where reality delivers the mail. Harrison quotes Walker:

Walker said he doesn’t expect Robinson to participate in any debates before the March primary because his campaign team “won’t put him on the stage and let him trip all over himself.”

He cast Robinson as unprincipled on issues like abortion: “Who knows where he is today? I don’t know if that is a script he is trying to follow.”

He suggested Robinson as governor would be a rubber-stamp for GOP Senate leader Phil Berger: “There is a reason Phil Berger never stood with Pat McCrory. There is a reason he never stood with Dan Forest. Yet he is the first one up the steps with Mark Robinson’s campaign announcement.”

Walker continued: “The question is, why? I think that’s one of the reasons why Robinson hasn’t said anything the last few months about anything Phil Berger is trying to do” [like get gambling casinos into the state budget].

Robinson in fact came out saying he had been against gambling casinos since the beginning but only said so after gambling casinos were no longer an issue, causing even fellow Republicans to laugh behind his back at the obvious pusillanimity of that convenient conversion.

“My prediction is he will never take foot on the debate stage,” Walker said. “One, he is not familiar with the policies. Number two, there is so much that he can’t answer for when it comes to his background.”

By "background," he meant personal problems such as unpaid taxes....

...Walker criticized Robinson and other Republicans for having what he said is a “lack of sensitivity” on the issue. That includes, he said, Robinson’s comments that abortion is “murder.”

Robinson is now downplaying his past comments on abortion....

“Most of us don’t believe the Civil Rights Act was a communist plot [as Robinson has claimed],” Walker said. “When you are defending Harvey Weinstein. And when you say it’s Illuminati that went after Bill Cosby, I’m thinking, ‘My gosh. This is so far out of reality.’ ”

It all comes down to who will represent the "Republican brand" in North Carolina. We're kind of counting on it not being Mark Walker.

Campaign To Turn Sheriffs Comes To Cherokee County

 

A national right-wing group which thinks sheriffs are agents of originalist power who don't have to enforce certain laws if they don't believe in them -- the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) -- brought their founder and star philosopher of originalist doctrine, Richard Mark, a former Arizona sheriff, to the town of Murphy in Cherokee County to proselytize North Carolina sheriffs to his brand of macho -- the belief that local county sheriffs are the last lines of defense against the Federal government itself, that they're more powerful than the president. Only two NC county sheriffs showed up, the sheriff of Cherokee County, Dustin Smith (who brought a half-dozen deputies with him), and the sheriff of Yadkin attended, with about 75 other people. (According to reporter Jessica Pishko, everyone paid $70 for the privilege of hearing Sheriff Mack. Mack also offers a 6-week online class for $195.)

Dustin Smith,
Sheriff of Cherokee County

According to reporter Pishko, this crowd is still steamed primarily about having to wear masks during the pandemic. And about gun laws:

Mack was the sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, from 1988 to 1996, but rose to national attention in 1994 as a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging part of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act requiring local law enforcement to conduct background checks.

Mack formed CSPOA in 2011 and was quickly tight with Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the militia group Oath Keepers, now serving 18 years in prison.

Mack’s effort grew out of a movement known as Posse Comitatus—or “power of the county” in Latin—founded by William Potter Gale in the 1970s. Gale’s group attracted white, Christian men who formed “posses” that subjected public officials to “treason trials.” In 1983, one of the group’s leaders killed two federal marshals and a deputy sheriff in Arkansas, which largely ended the movement.

[Another outbreak of "posse comitatus" in neighboring Haywood County in 2022 led to the eventual conviction of Darris Moody for threatening public officials. She's now serving time in a Federal prison.]

The local Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith, who came in for much praise for taking the Richard Mack training course on how sheriffs should think of themselves, is only two years into his first term. He was elected in 2022 with no Democratic opposition, and since his election he has been, according to Pishko, a lightning rod for controversy. There's evidence that he's a liar.  Last June, a botched raid on a totally bogus tip led to an innocent man's being shot multiple times, but Sheriff Smith claimed he wasn't present at the raid, distancing himself from the victim's lawsuit. However, video footage showed that Smith had been there during the raid, which the Smoky Mountain News also confirmed via public records. Meanwhile, Smith wants to bulldoze the Cherokee County Commission into giving him a SWAT unit. 

Citizens Turn Out To Oppose Gerrymandering

 

Part of the crowd at the hearing in Hickory
on Tuesday

A big crowd turned out in Hickory early this week to voice their opposition to gerrymandering. Sen. Ralph Hise, chair of the Redistricting Committee in the Senate, gave speakers only two minutes to express themselves, and there were many people wanting to express themselves, so the hearing went on for two hours. According to the Hickory Daily Record, only one speaker expressed approval for partisan gerrymandering while everyone else said they hate what's about to happen. 

Of course, Ralph Hise and the rest of them don't care what you think, though they went through the motions of listening because the law demands it. The Hickory hearing on Monday was one of only three public hearings the two redistricting committees scheduled. So what difference do the citizens make? Hise admitted that the maps are already being drawn. The last public hearing happened last night in Raleigh, with the biggest crowd of people yet who are fed up with partisan gerrymandering. That hearing went on for three hours.

In April, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled partisan gerrymandering permissible under the state constitution, reversing the previous Democratic court. Chief Justice Paul Newby and Justice Phil Berger Jr. and the rest of the five partisan justices ... just trying to be helpful.

“These hearings are nothing more than shams,” Watauga County resident Ben Henderson said. “Holding these hearings with such little notice so that voters have no time to prepare, in only three locations in the state so that citizens must travel great distances to have their voices heard and at a time of day when most working people are unable to attend, is an affront to every citizen of this state.”

The Great Johnston County School Board Mess of 2023

 

Michelle Antoine

It all started with the election of Michelle Antoine to the Johnston County Board of Education in November 2022. Antoine is the mother of eight children, a once fit outdoor enthusiast, a Southern Baptist, and a crusading social warrior. She confesses her activities against Critical Race Theory with this "influencer brag" on her website: "[I] wrote historical, current, and informational speeches and delivered presentations across the state of North Carolina. Included topics: Critical Race Theory; Gender Theory; Law, History, and Racism in School Segregation in North Carolina...." (I bet that last one contained some scorching information.) 

Antoine ran with the backing of a conservative group calling itself Citizen Advocates For Accountable Government (CAAG -- rhymes with "gag"). CAAG had been aggressively accusing the existing Johnston school board with financial irregularities in the summer of 2022 leading up to Antoine's election, propagandizing for N.C. State Auditor Beth Wood "to come and take a close look at the finances of the Johnston County schools."

With her election, Antoine joined another notorious so-'n'-so already on the school board, Ronald Johnson, who had been indicted for extortion and other crimes in April 2023. He was also censured by the full school board (Antoine dissenting) and fired from his job with the Smithfield police department (for cause). With Johnson still sitting on the board under indictment and with his case pending, he sued the rest of the school board -- excepting Antoine -- in a Federal suit in June alleging civil rights violations. "Johnson says he’s a sexual assault victim. He claims he’s a victim of a conspiracy to remove him from political office and deprive him of a livelihood" (T. Keung Hui).

Another character enters the fray. Also elected to the school board in the elections of 2022, a man named Terry Tippett, who was actually the top vote-getter. He has no love apparently for either Michelle Antoine or Ronald Johnson, which all came to a head on Monday -- two days ago.

It gets complicated. Antoine had sued the school board back on September 12 and talked a judge into sealing the complaint because it contained information that could irreparably hurt Antoine. Antoine actually got a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the school board's getting a report from its attorneys about a grievance that had been filed against Antoine, which she alleged was defamatory. But meanwhile, the school board successfully got the case moved to Federal court, and the TRO ran out last Sunday, so on Monday the rest of the school board scheduled a special meeting to hear the official report on a grievance against Antoine which had been investigated by the attorneys. Antoine dropped her lawsuit before the Monday meeting, perhaps hopeful that the facts could stay hidden. They didn't.

All hell broke loose at the Monday special meeting. Ronald Johnson and Terry Tippett almost came to blows. There was actual physical movement toward one another (you can see the video evidence about Tippett's standing up here). Michelle Antoine had her mike cut off. She decried the "kangaroo court" that she believed she was the holy victim of. Terry Tippett called Antoine “the most uninformed person, the most disrespectful person, the most unprofessional person I’ve ever seen sit on the board of education or any board.” 

It's the trumpist brand, isn't it? that Antoine brought with her election. There are Michelle Antoines in many counties, hell-bent on disruption and destruction.

The Arrogance of Phil Berger

 

The most powerful man in the General Assembly, Phil Berger, makes a useful poster child for the damage the Raleigh bunch is doing to democracy in North Carolina. But rarely do we get insight into his character from a member of his own Republican Party. Mike Clampitt (Dist. 119, in the southwest mtns) put out a public newsletter to his constituents following the disastrous meeting Clampitt's House Freedom Caucus had with Berger shortly before Berger gave up on getting casino gambling into the state budget. The Freedom Caucus was his main hitch, as House Republicans wouldn't go along.

Here's Clampitt's description of the meeting between Freedom Caucus and Berger:

Mr. Berger ... stated that he was giving an information meeting and was not interested in debate, questions, or amendments. This meeting lasted an hour, and it was very disturbing the way I and my colleagues were talked down to, bullied, disrespected, intimidated, and threatened that if we did not agree to have this included in the budget ... that the entire budget process would be reset." (Hat-tip Chris Cooper)

"Budget process ... reset," meaning that every Republican House member's preferred pork project would be in jeopardy -- a threat indeed!

The fact that the threats and intimidation didn't work this time provides its own lesson about authoritarian control, that if enough people band together, their strength is greater than one.

The One Thing

 

The Bastards in Raleigh

 

They're turning North Carolina into a shithole state.

Ray Pickett, House Dist. 93

Meanwhile, I'm trying to control the acid reaction to them now coursing through my own body politic. The big boys in Raleigh, last seen grubbing for even more unseemly power in the new state budget, put a heavy tax on our last nerve. They only want control of the voting process, control of the judiciary, control of the classroom, and control of their own nasty secrets. (The best run-down on all the bad stuff in the budget was written by Jeffrey Billman for The Assembly -- which is well worth subscribing to. NC Newsline also has excellent cumulative coverage.) I could have cried, "Told ya so!"

I knew when they caved to the governor on expanding Medicaid coverage but tied its expansion to the passage of a new budget -- didn't you know they would deliver a portmanteau of abominables in that budget? Of course you knew it, or else you're a spring flower unaware of coming frost or don't have a clue about the character of these "conservatives" because you didn't believe such cruelty and contempt for democracy could actually exist in modern American human beings. Especially the ones who say they follow Jesus.

Gov. Cooper surely knew and apparently resigned himself to the inevitable horrors the Republicans would visit on representative government. He wanted Medicaid expansion. He's getting it, with tons of stuff he didn't want -- none of us wanted! -- and letting it become law without his signature. Because, you know, Tricia Cotham (plus five other Democrats who haven't switched parties -- four Black and one white -- who also voted for this waste-dump of ideology run amuck).

Ralph Hise, Senate Dist. 47

In my House District 93, Rep. Ray Pickett voted for it. He's just a drone anyway. Under his brand name, he votes for whatever the brand wants. He must be defeated for reelection. Democrat Ben Massey will make the run in 2024. Winning will depend on whether the citizens of District 93 really do prefer pay-to-play, petty vindictiveness, and the scolding laws of men who don't trust women.

In my Senate District 47, Sen. Ralph Hise is the actual author of much mischief (including double-bunking himself with Sen. Deanna Ballard in 2022, to get rid of her). He's already mucho powerful and doesn't mind bending rules to benefit himself further. As Chair of both Appropriations/Base Budget and Redistricting and Elections, Hise has his foot on our necks. Without any doubt, he will run for reelection. So far there's no Democrat willing to carry the flag against him. Both this Senate district and House District 93 were gerrymandered to make them unwinnable by Democrats. How about Democrats and Unaffiliateds together?

NB: Of course all House and Senate districts are up for another round of partisan redistricting (promised for next month, as close as possible to the December filing period for 2024, so that Democrats have less time to recruit and field candidates). Supreme Court Chief Paul Newby decided partisan gerrymandering is the true American way. As I said, they own the highest court and they've taken new steps in the budget to create and control their own Superior Court judges. Holy crap!