Fight for $15? We may be about to lose $7.25 per hour

Supreme Court could make filing wage-theft claims much more difficult:

On Monday, the day that kicks off the Supreme Court’s new term, the justices will hear arguments in three consolidated cases with far-reaching implications for wage-earners. The cases—Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris, and National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.—are all about whether employers have the right to compel workers go through onerous individual arbitration proceedings in order to bring labor law claims. If the justices answer that question in the affirmative, then the affected workers will—as a practical matter—find it nearly impossible to win back pay in cases involving wage law violations.

This feels eerily similar to what has been going on in the healthcare debate. While many Democrats have been pushing adamantly for Universal healthcare or Medicare for all, fantastic ideas that have little chance of being implemented, Republicans have been scheming to repeal the ACA and deeply slash funding for Medicaid. Truthfully, we've been lucky as hell the GOP has failed to do these things (so far). By the same token, while we've been arguing over whether a moderate increase in the minimum wage (actually, $11 per hour is like a 45% increase) is a "lame" effort, and any Democrat that doesn't shoot for at least $15 per hour is a corporate stooge (or something), Republicans have been helping companies pay workers like $3-$4 per hour. And now the Gorsuch-tainted Supremes are about to give those companies a free hand in stealing from their own workers:

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Saturday News: "Fixing" something that isn't broken

COURTS COMMISSION PUSHES BACK AT BURR'S JUDICIAL GERRYMANDERING BILL: Judges who work in the court system and see the tangle of child custody cases, divorces, low-level crimes and complicated murder cases issued a common refrain on Friday as a 30-member Courts Commission reviewed a plan to overhaul election districts for judges and district attorneys across North Carolina. “If it ain’t broke, please don’t come and try and fix us,” Susan Dotson-Smith, a district court judge in Buncombe County, said. The Courts Commission was established by state law in the 1960s to evaluate proposed changes to the court system and advise the General Assembly on such issues. Comprised of members from all branches of government as well as from the public, the commission serves largely as an adviser to the lawmakers and has no independent authority of its own.
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Grand Theft Auto: Private contractors "misplace" hundreds of seized vehicles

Rep. David Lewis got a lot more 'splainin' to do, Lucy:

Private contractors responsible for towing, storing and auctioning off cars seized from impaired drivers and people accused of fleeing police cannot account for 234 vehicles, valued at nearly $634,000, according to a state audit report released this week.

Under a state program, vehicles operated by drivers who were arrested for repeat driving-while-impaired offenses or speeding to elude arrest were to be seized, maintained, stored, and sold by two contractors.

You know, aside from the apparent corruption and pay-to-play politics exposed here, I have a big problem with the seizure of private property associated with *all* criminal activity, but especially something as mundane as traffic offenses, even those as disgusting as drinking and driving. The criminal justice system is punitive and costly enough as it is, and government taking private property just seems excessive, and probably unconstitutional. But that's just me. Here's the pay-to-play part:

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Mark Walker’s truth

If it weren’t for Mitch McConnell, Mark Walker would be having the worst week in Washington. McConnell’s week has been rough because of events caused by forces bigger than him like the failure of another repeal-and-replace bill and the loss of his chosen candidate in the Alabama Senate primary runoff. Walker’s week has been bad […]
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US DOJ argues LGBT employees can be fired for having sex when off work

Republicans sticking their noses into bedrooms, again:

Why does President Donald Trump care about what gay people do in the bedroom? The question came up this week, when a lawyer for Trump's Department of Justice argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect LGBTQ Americans from being fired because of their sexual orientation—a complete reversal of the government's position on such matters under previous presidents.

The agency inserted itself, even though the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had already sided with Zarda, arguing that LGBTQ employees are protected by Title VII of the landmark Civil Rights law.

Bolding mine, because that is a critical aspect of this issue. The DOJ should be defending the rights of citizens treated unfairly, or prosecuting those who violate Statutes designed to protect those citizens. But instead, the DOJ is acting like a private defense lawyer for a company who engaged in workplace discrimination. Exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. And even worse, this is not just an isolated incident, it's part of a pattern of legal assaults on LGBT rights:

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Friday News: Comrade Trump

RUSSIAN MEDIA OUTLET RT SPENT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ON TWEETS DURING ELECTION: The disclosures are the first in what Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has said appears to be the “tip of the iceberg” in Russia’s use of social media to carry out a broad cyber offensive aimed at helping Donald Trump win the White House. U.S. intelligence agencies said in a declassified report in January that Russia Today and Sputnik, another Russian broadcast outlet tied to the Kremlin, were central players in a propaganda attack aimed at damaging Trump’s heavily favored Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the race. The House and Senate Intelligence Committees and a Justice Department Special Counsel are conducting parallel investigations into the extent of the Russian operation and whether Trump’s presidential campaign may have collaborated with it.
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Senate race in Alabama epitome of good vs. evil

But it's also (very likely) a lost cause for Democrats:

Democrats have not seriously contested an Alabama Senate race since 1996, but they think they have a credible candidate in Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan who bombed a black church in Birmingham in 1963, killing four girls. Several progressive groups think they have a clearer shot at winning the general election in December than they would have if Sen. Luther Strange, the establishment candidate who lost resoundingly to Moore on Tuesday, had won.

Just to give you an idea of how steep this hill is to climb: The last Democratic Senator from Alabama is Richard Shelby, and that boll weevil flipped to Republican to keep his ass in office some 23 years ago. What's my point? When this effort does fail, before all the progressive purists start bashing the DSCC and the DNC (and probably when they get around to it Hillary for some reason), they need to take a step back and understand that some Red states are just impossible to crack:

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Budget-busting tax cuts for the rich

Republicans in Washington are about to undertake tax reform. As we in North Carolina know, that means a massive tax cut for the rich and massive budget cuts for programs that help the rest of us. The GOP will, of course, call it a middle-class tax cut, but that will be a lie. The vast […]
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White Supremacists cancel plans for Charlotte rally

Alternate headline: "The first snowflakes of the season melt before they land."

In light of safety concerns, we'll no longer be holding an event in Marshall Park. This was agreed upon by both organizers and guests.

— Anticom (@anticomofficial) September 28, 2017

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Thursday News: GenX nightmare continues

CHEMOURS ORDERED TO SUPPLY BOTTLED WATER TO MORE LOCAL RESIDENTS: State regulators told the chemical company under fire for releasing GenX into the Cape Fear River to supply more nearby residents with bottled water after tests showed elevated levels of the unregulated chemical in their water. The state Department of Environmental Quality and Chemours, the chemical firm that spun off from DuPont in 2015, began testing residential wells near the company's Bladen County plant for GenX and other related fluorinated compounds earlier this month. That sampling has so far shown that 19 wells have concentrations of GenX in their water above the state's health threshold of 140 parts per trillion.
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After dark

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McConnell’s very bad week

Yesterday, Mitch McConnell had the worst week in Washington and it’s only Wednesday. First, Graham-Cassidy, the latest bill to repeal Obamacare, died when Maine Senator Susan Collins announce she wouldn’t support it. Then, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker announced he would retire, giving Republicans another seat to defend in 2018. And last night, McConnell’s choice to […]
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Justice denied: New judicial maps decimate District and Superior Court judges

As usual, NC Policy Watch is right on top of this mess:

The team at NC Policy Watch thought it important to remove the blinders so that legislators will have a chance to make an informed decision on HB 717, and their constituents will have a chance to analyze the maps before deciding whether or not to show up for public comment. Accordingly, we have prepared the maps that appear below.

All three maps reflect the most up-to-date proposed districts in HB 717 (released at 11:58 p.m. Monday) – prosecutorial, district court and superior court – and indicate the districts in which all current incumbents would have to run for office based on their addresses of residence.

As I've mentioned before, I am not the most adept at evaluating redistricting maps. But you don't have to be a political topographer to know that when you see 2-3 blue dots within the same borders only one of those dots is going to survive. There will be a handful of Republican judges removed by this idiotic proposal, but (unless I'm reading it wrong) a couple of dozen Democratic judges swept out of the system. Aside from being a partisan pogrom, it will also cripple NC's Court system, which is already hard-pressed to handle its current caseload.

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Coal Ash Wednesday: Forcing Duke Energy's hand on flood map disclosure

Apparently their battalion of lawyers are already too busy to fight this:

Duke Energy last week said it would soon publish inundation maps and emergency contact information related to safety planning for coal ash storage facilities on its website, reversing its previous policy of not publishing the information.

Earthjustice had announced its intention to sue Duke Energy in Kentucky in order to compel the utility to disclose critical information the environmental group argued was required by federal law. While the utility company initially refused to release the information, it later released a statement saying it was "revisiting the issue" and had determined the data should be made available to the public.

I don't care if they claim a "burning bush" told them to release the information, as long as it gets published. Another issue they need to "revisit" is their continued knee-jerk reaction to releasing or admitting anything that might generate some bad PR. The constant framing and denialism does absolutely nothing to engender confidence in their professionalism or technical capabilities, it actually does the opposite. But reprogramming corporate drones is apparently not in their toolbox.

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Wednesday News: ACA is safe, for now

LATEST GOP EFFORT TO REPEAL AND REPLACE OBAMACARE FAILS TO GARNER SUFFICIENT VOTES: "Obamacare" lives on. Senate Republicans, short of votes, abandoned their latest and possibly final attempt to kill the health care law Tuesday, just ahead of a critical end-of-the-week deadline. The repeal-and-replace bill's authors promised to try again at a later date, while President Donald Trump railed against "certain so-called Republicans" who opposed the GOP effort. But for now, Trump and fellow Republicans who vowed for seven years to abolish President Barack Obama's law will leave it standing and turn their attention to overhauling the nation's tax code instead.
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Tuesday News: Repeal and replace Walker

Tuesday Twitter roundup

Here we go again:

Ok people: 24 hr to figur out NEW MAPS' impact on NC judges #fairmaps @LWVNCarolina @EJSbrocco @BrennanCenter #ncpol @TWW_NC @InsightusOrg https://t.co/032K9dkmst

— Jennifer Bremer (@JBremerDevt) September 26, 2017

He doesn't know it yet, but there's a special place in hell for Justin Burr.

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Our 51st State is in serious trouble

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Like 1968

The division in this country right now seems similar to the division that led to the election of Richard Nixon in 1968. Back then, we faced a backlash from social progress and social legislation that inflamed passions of both the right and left. Today, instead of passing Civil Rights and Great Society legislation, we elected […]
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Monday News: Isolationism

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RENEWS AND EXPANDS TRAVEL BAN TO EIGHT COUNTRIES: Travelers from eight countries will face restrictions on entry to the U.S, ranging from a total ban to more targeted restrictions, under a new proclamation signed by President Donald Trump Sunday. The new rules, which will impact the citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, will go into effect on October 18. Officials stressed that valid visas would not be revoked as a result of the proclamation. Some countries will face full bans. Others are more tailored, such as restrictions impacting Venezuela, which will only apply to certain government officials and their families. Trump's controversial ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority countries expires Sunday, 90 days after it went into effect.
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Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

IN OUR DEMOCRACY VOTING IS A DUTY, NOT OPPORTUNITY OR PRIVILEGE: It makes you wonder why the leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly work so hard at making it more difficult for people to vote. While many of their legislative efforts have been thwarted by the courts, North Carolina’s voters seem to be helping legislators along even without the bad laws. Look at the miserable voter participation in last month’s local elections in Mecklenburg County. Turnout in the election, which included a hotly-contested primary for Charlotte mayor, couldn’t even get 8 percent of the voters to the polls, only 43,434 of 544,908 eligible voters participated. Let’s be clear. Voting matters. It makes a difference. It is no cliché, nor mere homily to say that people have fought, given their lives, to keep or gain the right to vote. That sacrifice should not be casually ignored.
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White Supremacy, by any other name

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Saturday News: Kicking the can down the road

HISTORICAL COMMISSION POSTPONES DECISION ON MOVING CONFEDERATE STATUES: The state commission considering the fate of Confederate monuments on Capitol Square put off until April a decision on whether the statues should be moved to a Civil War battlefield. The NC Historical Commission voted 9-1 Friday to postpone action on the request to move the monuments 46 miles to Bentonfield Battlefield in Johnston County because members wanted more time to gather legal options on a 2015 monuments law and issues related to relocation. The commission voted to appoint a committee to collect legal interpretations of the 2015 law from the UNC School of Government, NCCU law school, Wake Forest law school, Campbell law school, the state Justice Department and any other “appropriate sources.”
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Autumn

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Monumental cynism

Yesterday, the Republicans leaders of the legislature told the State Historical Commission to deny Governor Roy Cooper’s request to move Confederate monuments from the grounds of the state Capitol to the Bentonville Battlefield. Their request makes two things clear: The law they passed was meant to protect the monuments, not establish an orderly process for […]
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Gerrymandering update: Court explains why it didn't order Special Election

There is much truth in this:

The court initially ordered a remedial special election but on appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed its ruling and ordered that the panel make further considerations about the remedy. At the end of July, the panel denied the request for a special election and issued a timeline for lawmakers to redraw the gerrymandered maps. The 48-page unanimous opinion released Tuesday explains why the judges denied the plaintiffs request.

“Notwithstanding these weighty considerations favoring a special election, we nonetheless conclude such an election would not be in the interest of Plaintiffs and the people of North Carolina,” it states. “The compressed and overlapping schedule such an election would entail is likely to confuse voters, raise barriers to participation, and depress turnout, and therefore would not offer the vigorously contested election needed to return to the people of North Carolina their sovereignty.”

Late last year I knew we were in a race against time, and if the issue wasn't dealt with quickly enough by the courts, those same courts would be hard-pressed to require a Special Election. It's tempting to be angry about the delaying tactics used by the GOP to stretch this thing out, but that won't accomplish much. I don't want to step on any toes, but something else that won't accomplish much are creating our own maps to counter the Republican ones:

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Friday News: A couple of nitwits

BURR AND TILLIS SUPPORT BILL THAT WOULD COST NC BILLIONS: The new bill also converts federal funding for traditional Medicaid from an open-ended program to a capped one. About 2 million North Carolinians use Medicaid; more than half are children. The insurance also covers some of their parents, the elderly and the disabled. The federal government pays about two-thirds of the cost, with the state picking up the rest. The proposed legislation faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate, which must pass it by Sept. 30 to take advantage of a procedural move that allows it to pass with just 51 votes. North Carolina Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis plan to vote for the legislation. Both voted for a repeal-and-replace plan the Senate rejected this summer. The bill would result in North Carolina receiving $8.1 billion less from 2020 to 2026 than under the current law, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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Friday fracking video

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The power of the purse: UNC students boycott campus stores over Silent Sam

When the institution lets you down, let down the institution:

Student organizers seeking the removal of a Confederate soldier statue at North Carolina’s flagship public university have embarked on a monthlong boycott of commercial goods on campus.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the boycott launched Monday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a social media push follows marches, sit-ins, noise demonstrations and a lawyer’s letter last week pressing the school to remove the statue nicknamed “Silent Sam.” The boycott encompasses the Student Stores, the main dining hall, cafes, a snack stand, a bagel shop, Wendy’s, Starbucks and parking garages, and will end Oct. 18.

Whenever something like this occurs, you can't help but wonder about people who are already living on the margins losing their jobs. That being said, the students are very limited in the activities they can engage in to get rid of this anachronistic symbol of oppression. Don't forget, the General Assembly just passed a law to shield right-wing provocateurs on campus, threatening students with disciplinary action if they speak their minds in opposition. But that "bottling up" of the anger and frustration doesn't make it go away, it does just the opposite. The UNC administration should be glad a boycott is how they choose to vent that.

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Thursday News: Show us the maps

McHenry: End Social Security and Medicare

Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry said out loud what most Republican only say in private. He wants to end Social Security and Medicare. He told Charlotte Observer political reporter Jim Morrill, “I would rather have complete control of the social safety net given to the states.” That would end Social Security and Medicare. Most Republicans would […]
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Rip Van Holding attracts several Democratic opponents for Congressional seat

Hopefully he'll have more time to push his trash out to the road after November 2018:

On Tuesday, Raleigh businessman Ken Romley became the fourth Democrat to announce his candidacy in a district represented by Republican George Holding. The 2nd district includes much of north, south and west Wake County along with parts of Johnston, Franklin, Harnett and Nash counties.

A day before Romley’s announcement, Linda Coleman, a former Wake County commissioner and N.C. House legislator, confirmed she would join Holly Springs vodka distillery owner Sam Searcy and Johnston County veteran and transgender woman Wendy Ella May in the race to unseat Holding, a third-term congressman from Raleigh.

And now is the part where I extol the virtues of having a knock-down, drag-out Primary between four (or more) energetic Democratic candidates before moving on to the General Election campaign against a well-heeled and zero-energy Republican incumbent. I'll have to get back with you on all that extolling...

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Wednesday News: The cost of bigotry

ART POPE'S CIVITAS FORCED TO SELL OFF ANTI-SEMITIC WEBSITE: The conservative Civitas Institute announced Tuesday that it will no longer operate a news website that came under fire last week for promoting an anti-Semitic blog post about N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein. Carolina Plott Hound, a Drudge Report-style website that collects and posts links to news and conservative commentary from a variety of sources, promoted as its lead headline a blog arguing that Stein joined a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA because he “is acting in accordance with the worldview and ethnic interests of his own particular group – i.e., those within contemporary Judaism. Stein is a reform Jew. Those from within his own ethnic group want the Christian majority with roots in western countries to be numerically diluted.”
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Bernie is not the right fit for party leader

The rollout of Bernie Sanders’ single payer bill marked the closest he’s gotten to being the official leader of the Democratic Party. The ascent of Sanders has been growing for a while, as he’s risen in prominence and quietly prepared for another White House run. Now he’s close to arriving. Bernie fans will cheer this […]
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The whip comes down: Paul Manafort will be indicted by Mueller

MAJOR BREAKING NEWS via THE NEW YORK TIMES: Special Counsel Mueller Will Indict Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort https://t.co/BfCW5yfbvX

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 19, 2017

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The GOP road to Medicare for All

Republicans are again trying to repeal Obamacare. This time, they don’t know how much the effort will cost or what the impact will be. We only know that a lot of people will lose insurance coverage and that premiums will almost certainly rise for those who keep it. It’s a politically risky move that could […]
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Tuesday News: Stacking the courts

NC GOP CONVENES COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL GERRYMANDERING TODAY: A House committee discussing redrawing voting districts for trial court judges and district attorneys holds its second meeting Tuesday. A wholesale redraw hasn't occurred in more than 60 years. Republicans say redistricting would create fairer districts. Democrats argue it's a pretense for GOP gerrymandering. Any House-approved redistricting would still have to clear the Senate. It also would be subject to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto stamp. One idea floated among Republicans would link approval of new maps to a proposed constitutional amendment sought by some senators to change the way the state chooses judges, which today is through partisan elections.
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Tuesday Twitter roundup

The attacks against Obamacare aren't over yet:

Cassidy-Graham is as bad as previous health bills. Let's tell NC Senators we want better! Tillis: (202) 224-6342 Burr: (202) 224-3154 #ncpol http://pic.twitter.com/J0Is6dZylb

— Kevin Rogers (@kevinjohnrogers) September 18, 2017

Make the calls. It probably won't sway these two very much, but you never know.

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The original Fake News

A few years after the invasion of Iraq, I was talking to an acquaintance outside a bar in Chapel Hill. We had engaged in brief conversations over the years, but never discussed politics. When the subject turned to how poorly the war was going, I said we should never have invaded. He looked at me […]
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Theatre of the absurd: Make all voters pass a Federal gun background check

Kris Kobach's voter suppression train is going off the rails:

A gun researcher who says the federal gun background check system doesn't work has a new idea for preventing voter fraud at polling places: Make every voter pass a federal gun background check.

John Lott, an independent researcher and Fox News commentator, is best known for his book “More Guns, Less Crime,” which argues that increases in gun ownership are associated with drops in crime (most mainstream criminologists reject this view).

Dude is certifiable, and yet he has been invited to the next Commission meeting to put forward this foolish and very likely unconstitutional proposal. It's another in a growing list of cases where the Congress would normally feel compelled to step in and reign back Executive overreach, if it was anybody other than Donald Trump engaging in it. While this gun-check thing is an absurd idea, and wouldn't make it past the first judge tasked to evaluate it, the ramifications of the Commission's willingness to even entertain the idea are the real danger:

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Monday News: Preying on the weak

DALE FOLWELL GOES AFTER DISABLED RETIREES TO COLLECT OVER-PAYMENTS: Carla Shuford thought a call from the state treasurer’s office telling her to look for an important letter was a hoax, but the reality hit her the next day with a notice that the state had been putting too much in her disability checks for more than 10 years, and now it planned to collect. She is one of 60 former state employees who have to return money because audits found mistakes in their disability payments. “You’re picking on the most vulnerable people,” she said. “You know they don’t have the wherewithal to fight.” State Treasurer Dale Folwell said the office is required by law to get back money when it pays out too much. “We’re sorry for this lady’s disability,” he said. “This is something our administration didn’t do. We discovered it and now we have the responsibility to fix it.”
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Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

LEGISLATURE NEEDS TO END GOVERNING BY WHIM, DECREE AND AMBUSH: Unfortunately the autocratic behavior of legislative leaders is now reflected by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors – who are appointed by the legislature – in its latest effort to tell UNC President Margaret Spellings how to organize her office. Again, all done without any prior consultation with those most impacted. Again and again, the current legislative leaders preach that government should be operated like a business. But no well run business operates – or survives – the way Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore try to run the state. Their primary motivations are settling fictitious scores with Democrats like Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein. They must change and be more deliberative and open. If not, even the most severe gerrymandering won’t blind voters to the malfeasance on display over the last nine years.
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Exploring the rise of Unaffiliated voters in NC

Fiercely independent or simply tired of the drama?

North Carolina political scientists, activists and strategists said in interviews there are political and societal reasons for the shift. Having no affiliation also can be attractive because these voters can choose to participate in either the Democratic or Republican primary — so candidates from the parties must keep learning how to win their support.

The bitter political atmosphere within the two-party system is a likely cause for the shift, said Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College politics professor studying registration trends. Forty percent of the registered voters known as millennials — those born since 1981 — are unaffiliated and the largest bloc among their age group, according to Bitzer’s research. “Being children of political polarization, maybe this is a clear sign that they are not willing to associate with either party,” Bitzer said, noting these voters aren’t necessarily moderates: “Being unaffiliated does not mean you’re not partisan.”

But it does mean expecting candidates to figure out what you want, in the absence of any defining trait, is somewhere between unwise and disingenuous. I will accept the Democratic Party hasn't always communicated a clear and concise message about what we stand for, but I also believe many new voters are afraid to align themselves with anything, for fear of ending up on the "losing" side. What we need to do (as always) is better articulate the dangers of GOP policies while also formulating and highlighting genuine alternatives to those policies. Because without the beef, it's just an insult sandwich that nobody wants to continue eating.

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Saturday News: Free-market bigotry

CIVITAS AFFILIATED WEBSITE LINKS TO ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACK ON AG JOSH STEIN: The conservative Civitas Institute is facing criticism for its website linking to an article that says Attorney General Josh Stein’s stance on immigration is due to his Jewish faith. The article Plott Hound promoted as its lead headline says Stein joined a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA because he “is acting in accordance with the worldview and ethnic interests of his own particular group – i.e., those within contemporary Judaism. Stein is a reform Jew. Those from within his own ethnic group want the Christian majority with roots in western countries to be numerically diluted.” DACA is the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has protected immigrants brought into the country illegally as children.
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One size doesn’t fit all

There’s a narrative that runs through conservative social media that claims Democrats don’t understand how to win elections anymore. While it might be overstated, it has serious merit. Democrats understand policy but don’t understand much of the electorate. They latch onto policy prescriptions when they should be listening better to the people who vote. The […]
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Postcards from Saturn: A tribute to Cassini

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A new wave of voter suppression tactics brewing in Trump administration

And propaganda will ride the crest of that wave:

A member of President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was pushing fake news before its second meeting was even able to kick off on Tuesday afternoon.

In an op-ed published by Breitbart just ahead of the meeting, Kris Kobach, the commission’s vice chairman, again asserted a debunked claim that more than 5,000 people in New Hampshire cast illegal votes during last year’s election. His suggestion that there was rampant voter fraud in the region was swiftly rebuked by the state’s secretary of state, Bill Gardner, who said New Hampshire’s election results were “real and valid.”

Mark my words, this is going to lead to another Constitutional crisis, and we can't expect Congress to lift a finger to intervene on this one. The GOP leadership has too much of a conflict of interest going on to protect the voting rights of minorities, even if (and it's a big "if") they were so inclined to do so. It also makes the current lawsuit by Cooper to reclaim majority control over election boards even more important, because whatever policy is produced at the Federal level will need to be interpreted and applied at the state and local level. Eyes open, folks.

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Friday News: Snowflake almost melts

GOP REP MIKE CLAMPITT CALLED RACIST DURING TOWN HALL: One woman called the Republican from Bryson City a racist, The Mountaineer reported. The woman, Mary Jane Curry, confronted Clampitt about his views on displaying the Confederate flag at the Canton Labor Day Parade, even breaking out a photo of Clampitt standing with men holding the flags and one of them wearing a Confederate uniform, according to The Mountaineer. Clampitt maintained that he condemns racism, and that the Confederate flag “has not always been associated with that.” He went on to tell a story of how years ago as a fire captain in Charlotte he denied one of his superior’s demands to unfairly discipline a black firefighter, according to the Smoky Mountain News. That led another woman, Doreen Carroll, to tell Clampitt, “There is nothing you can say that is going to convince me you’re not racist.” But Carroll’s remark led Clampitt to take a deep breath and left him on the verge of tears, the Smoky Mountain News reported.
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Friday fracking video

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Stanford research on utility companies' growing opposition to Solar power

The future of our planet literally hangs in the balance:

As installed solar prices fell in the period after 2009, the utility industry maintained the view that these small installations posed no threat to their businesses. Then, the industry made an abrupt about face with the publication of an important briefing paper in 2013. In January of that year, the Edison Electric Institute, the industry association for investor owned electric utilities released a briefing paper entitled “Disruptive Challenges” that focused on the key economic challenges facing the retail electricity sector. In it, a dark future for the industry was outlined: how flat electricity sales, the rapidly falling cost of distributed solar power, and rising rates necessary to replace existing grid infrastructure create a unique set of challenges for the power sector.

The paper was all the more unusual because it was released for public consumption. Most EEI publications are released only to member utilities for internal consumption.

And the likely reason it was released for public consumption was to (more easily) provide talking points for all the other industry-related "think tanks" and right-wing nutters opposed to both renewable energy and climate change science. We're in the middle of this crisis right now, folks, and it's important to understand this is a national battle and not just more Duke Energy shenanigans. And this is especially relevant for many of my environmentalist friends who were eager to make compromises to get the recent energy bill passed, that included more freedom for Duke Energy to "negotiate" rates they pay to Solar farms. It's a long one, so try to stay with me:

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Trump’s pivot to the middle–or wherever

Donald Trump is having the best few weeks of his presidency. Given his demeanor, it probably won’t last but he’s getting good news and good press. As president, he’ll get credit for some economic news that should go to Obama, but he’s also going to get credit for cutting deals that reach across the aisle. […]
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Duke Energy to Josh Stein: You don't need to see those documents

The sheer arrogance of the all-powerful utility is astounding:

“It’s real easy to give money away when it’s not your money,” Clark said, referring to Duke representative David McNeill’s prior comments about the company’s spending on local charities. “If you’re gonna make the money, then suck it up and solve that problem.” The problem Clark is referencing to is what’s been done with past coal ash spills in the state. According to the Associated Press, Duke Energy wants an extra $477 million a year, with an 11 percent return on a measure commonly described as potential profit margin.

The schedule, which included the Richmond County meeting along with ones in Raleigh, Asheville, Snow Hill and Wilmington, was released the same day that Duke Energy said it doesn’t want to turn over documents about its coal ash management requested by Attorney General Josh Stein, who is monitoring the company’s rate request.

There could be any number of reasons why Duke Energy doesn't want legal scrutiny of those documents, from inflation of the actual costs in order to line their pockets or other activities that may fall afoul of state statutes. But there can't be any "good" reasons for them to withhold these documents, and their lame efforts at public relations are not improving their position:

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Thursday News: Head in the sand

COASTAL REAL ESTATE BROKERS CONTINUE TO FIGHT SEA LEVEL RISE WARNINGS: All along the coast of the southeast United States, the real estate industry confronts a hurricane. Not the kind that swirls in the Atlantic, but a storm of scientific information about sea-level rise that threatens the most lucrative, commission-boosting properties. These studies warn that Florida, the Carolinas and other southeastern states face the nation’s fastest-growing rates of sea level rise and coastal erosion — as much as 3 feet by the year 2100, depending on how quickly Antarctic ice sheets melt. “This is very concerning,” said Willo Kelly, who represents both the Outer Banks Home Builders Association and the Outer Banks Association of Realtors and led a six-year battle against state sea-level-rise mapping in North Carolina. “There’s a fear that some think tank is going to come in here and tell us what to do.”
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After dark

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Making the repulsive sympathetic

It takes a special kind of stupid to make Ann Coulter and Steve Bannon sympathetic characters, but that’s what protesters at the University of California at Berkley are about to do. Coulter and Bannon are planning to join right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannapolous at “Free Speech Week” the last week in September. Left-wing groups, who shut […]
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NC's uninsured rate drops substantially thanks to ACA

And no thanks to the Obama-hating GOP:

North Carolina experienced another drop in the number of individuals without health insurance to a record low of 10.4 percent in 2016, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Since the federal Affordable Care Act went into full effect in 2014, the share of people without insurance in North Carolina has dropped from 15.6 percent.

However, the rate could be significantly lower if the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved expanding Medicaid coverage to more than 500,000 of the 1.04 million North Carolinians who still lack health insurance.

That 5% is huge, close to a half-million people. People who are much less likely now to be forced to either ignore health problems or be plunged into financially-crippling medical debt. I've mentioned this before, but several years ago, when I first left the Army, I managed a discount furniture store North of Durham. We used a couple of finance companies to help people borrow money for new furniture, but at least half of those who applied were turned down because of unpaid medical bills. I'm talking some 40-50 families every week, whose credit was so bad even high interest loans were off the table. Medical debt doesn't just impact the bottom 20%, it threatens the entire middle class. But people like this guy just don't care:

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Wednesday News: New Queen in Queen City

Living in the sequel to a bad movie

Watching the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress is like watching a bad sequel to North Carolina 2013. Back then, Republicans roared into Raleigh with full control of state government. They had voting rights, immigrants, gun control, LGBT rights, and access to abortion in their sites. Today, Trump and the GOP in Washington have the […]
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Cooper makes a wise move on monuments

Roy Cooper goes to work everyday surrounded by rebels. Bronze ones, anyway. On September 8, the governor filed a request to move these tributes to treason. This was one of the wisest moves of he has made. As I’ve written before, the monuments should go. Not mere artifacts, these statues confer a sense of honor […]
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Tuesday News: Fighting disaster with more disaster

REPUBLICAN HURRICANE RELIEF WILL LIKELY CUT INTO OTHER PROGRAMS: Repairing the damage from Hurricanes Irma and Harvey could cost hundreds of billions of dollars at a time when Republicans in Congress are reluctant to spend much on anything, particularly without a way to pay for it. It could make passing disaster relief funding in the future a politically toxic exercise, even in the era of unified GOP government. Lawmakers last week sent legislation to the president’s desk providing more than $15 billion in storm relief funds, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency said should be sufficient to provide disaster relief for at least a few months. The measure may postpone the next debate over how much Congress should spend, but it doesn’t remove the possibility of a bitter political battle, with the administration expected to ask for as many as four emergency funding requests. “There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘We’re running out of money so we’ll fill up the coffers,’ and coming back to the appropriations process later” to find offsets, Sanford explained. “It doesn’t have to be perfectly timed.”
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Tuesday Twitter roundup

If you live in Charlotte and forgot to early vote in the Primary, today is the day:

Hey #clt! You can vote from now until 7:30pm tonight! You MUST vote at your designated polling location >>> https://t.co/806CtwBKbn #ncpol

— Equality NC (@equalitync) September 12, 2017

It will be interesting to see the overall turnout numbers for this Primary, which will (very likely) determine who the next Mayor of Charlotte is. And I'd like to give a special shout out to Betsy's mom Patsy Kinsey, who has two Primary challengers to face off to keep her seat. Fingers crossed...

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Municipal segregation: African-American community sues for the right to vote

They've been knocking at the door for decades, but nobody answers:

A predominantly black unincorporated community is suing an adjacent North Carolina town after a decades-long fight for annexation. The Winston-Salem Journal reports the 73-household Walnut Tree Community Association and four individuals filed a lawsuit Thursday against the predominantly white town of Walnut Cove, alleging racial discrimination.

K&L Gates Law Firm, which represents the plaintiffs, says the lawsuit is an attempt to accelerate annexation so Walnut Tree community members can participate in town elections and receive the benefits and services available to town residents, including reduced water-sewer service rates. The town rejected a formal petition for annexation in January. K&L Gates says repeated denials of annexation since the 1970s violate the North Carolina Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.

There is so much wrong with this situation I don't know where to start. The community was originally formed with Federal loan assistance, designed to help more African-Americans become homeowners. And most of them originally lived in Town, meaning they had the right to vote in municipal elections before they bought their new house. They didn't intentionally give up the right to vote to secure a home loan, they were under the impression their new community would become part of the Town:

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Dismantling a legacy of progress

Republicans have been bad for North Carolina, especially its reputation. For decades, the state was seen as a bastion of moderation that attracted industry, housed a world-class public university system, balanced development and environmental responsibility, and welcomed people openly. That perception began to change rapidly when the GOP took control of the legislature in 2011. […]
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Monday News: Powerless

Thoughts on the Great War for equality in America

Stolen from my Facebook page:

People's eyes tend to gloss over when I start talking about history. I'm sure part of that comes from how I present the subject, as I tend to bounce around like I'm riding a time machine to point out how later developments undermined or enhanced notable historical events. Guilty as charged. But I feel it's important to not view these events as "closed" chapters, because that almost always leads to false assumptions.

Take the Civil War, for example: That event (or series of) should be viewed as merely a battle in a centuries-long war for racial equality, in not just our country, but the entire Northern Hemisphere, to be completely accurate. And that war continues to this day.

Just a side note, but intrinsically related: Just a few hours after my recent Op-Ed about erecting a monument to a former slave who was lynched in downtown Graham was published, I was contacted by a local playwright about forming a committee to pursue this goal. We met Wednesday and were joined by a local historian and a member of the clergy deeply interested in racial equality, and we are determined to make this happen. I'll keep you posted. Back to the boring lecture:

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Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

STANDING STRONG FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS BEST SCHOOL CHOICE: As the General Assembly sends money to big business and the wealthy, it deprives public schools by diverting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to private schools through a voucher scheme. By the end of this decade, at the current rate, North Carolina will spend more on private school vouchers than on textbooks and digital resources for 1.5 million public school students. In the last century, public education has transformed North Carolina into a beacon of opportunity. Public schools have made – and can continue to make -- a dramatic impact on generations of families. But we must make a choice: Instead of sitting quietly through the systematic dismantling of public schools, we should stand strong for the heart and soul of our state—a thriving public education system.
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40th Anniversary of NC's Mountain to Sea Trail

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Saturday News: Take a hike, boys

UNC Board of Governors crumbling under ideological discord

And big surprise, Tom Fetzer is right in the middle of it:

In a stunning and contentious session, a faction of the UNC Board of Governors moved Thursday for substantive changes in the university system, including lowering tuition and fees at the campuses, reorganizing the staff of UNC President Margaret Spellings and moving the UNC system headquarters out of Chapel Hill.

The meeting followed a scathing letter to Spellings and Board Chairman Lou Bissette that was reported by The News & Observer on Thursday. The Aug. 22 letter, signed by 15 members, took Spellings and Bissette to task for a lack of communication to the members before they sent a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper about security and plans for Silent Sam, the Confederate statue on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Some board members said they had never seen and wouldn’t have signed the letter written by new member Tom Fetzer.

If you find that second paragraph somewhat confusing, it doesn't mean your cognitive skills are waning. Two different letters are elevated to "subjects" in the narrative, making the letter referenced in the final sentence somewhat of a mystery. Tom Fetzer wrote the second letter, which is the first one mentioned in the paragraph. And he was complaining about the first letter written, which is the second one referenced in the paragraph. Does that help? Yeah, not so much. Basically this "renegade" group, which is apparently a majority of the Board, are pissed off they didn't get a chance to defend Silent Sam and/or accuse Roy Cooper of being the 2nd gunman on the grassy knoll in the letter Spellings sent to the Governor, and they feel it made them appear "weak." And it's that last part that should worry people the most, because if this vastly Republican body decides to really flex its muscles and make a show of power, the effects on the UNC System could be devastating. In addition to Fetzer, there are a couple more individuals who signed his letter that bear close watching:

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I’m ready to serve

Note: Ryan Watts is a client of PoliticsNC. That said, Thomas Mills fully supports this statement and Ryan’s candidacy.   I’m running for Congress. After years of watching the ineptitude in Washington, I have to take a stand. Our country can’t afford the division and dysfunction that defines our politics. If we don’t fix it, […]
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Friday News: Standing up for rapists

BETSY DEVOS TO ROLL BACK TITLE IX PROTECTIONS FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED: The Trump administration intends to rewrite the Obama administration’s directive on handling campus-based sexual assaults, saying the system has failed both victims and the accused, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Thursday. Her stance sets the stage for a dramatic reversal of how Title IX, the 1972 law that bars discrimination based on sex in education, is enforced. "Through intimidation and coercion, the failed system has clearly pushed schools to overreach. With the heavy hand of Washington tipping the balance of her scale, the sad reality is that Lady Justice is not blind on campuses today…," DeVos said. "Every survivor of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously. Every student accused of sexual misconduct must know that guilt is not predetermined."
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Traditional, white, Republican seeks same for discreet voting

Republicans are a party of white people. They have been for the past 50 years though they’re loath to admit it. What’s different now is that instead denying it, candidates are embracing it. Donald Trump owes his presidency to thinly veiled appeals to racists and white supremacist groups feel empowered by his leadership. Now, in […]
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County Commissioners' prayer case may be headed to US Supreme Court

Please bow your head while you read this:

On Wednesday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 9-6 count, ruled that prayer practices by Jackson County, Michigan, commissioners do not violate the U.S. Constitution. The court said the commissioners in Michigan adopted a religion-neutral practice. Writing for the majority, Judge Richard Griffin said there is no evidence the board adopted its prayer practices with discriminatory intent.

The ruling does not directly affect Rowan County’s lawsuit. However, in what’s known as a circuit split, Wednesday’s decision could increase the chances that one or both cases will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

I wish they would just outlaw this and be done with it. I find myself in an increasingly uncomfortable position, because of my involvement in my Town's government. First of all, I serve on the Planning Board at the pleasure of the Board of Aldermen. I take that responsibility very seriously, and actively opposing them or the Mayor over a procedural issue is not something I'd care to do. There's too many things I want to accomplish, and we need each other's trust and support to do that. Second, I have run for office and (very likely) will do so again in the near future, and getting on the wrong side of local church leaders is an express ticket to failure at the ballot box. So I've got personal principles on one side and political realities on the other, and I feel like they're squeezing me. And that alone should be proof enough that prayer and (good) government don't mix.

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Thursday News: Go Josh!

NC'S ATTORNEY GENERAL JOINS LAWSUIT AGAINST TRUMP FOR DACA REPEAL: North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has joined a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s plans to rescind the executive order that protected young immigrants from deportation even if they did not have documentation authorizing them to live in the United States. “Ending DACA isn’t just cruel to Dreamers, against our American values, and the wrong thing to do for our nation’s economy, it also violates our Constitution,” Stein said in a statement shortly after the lawsuit was filed in the federal Eastern District of New York. “I will do everything in my power to restore DACA for the tens of thousands of young people in North Carolina who rely on it – including fighting for them in court.”
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Demand Futility Isn't Dead For Derivative Actions Against Non-Profit Corporations

You probably thought that you would never again have to argue that a demand on a corporation's board of directors before filing a derivative action should be excused because it would have been futile. 

That's because the North Carolina Legislature amended NC corporate law in 1995 to make clear that a demand on the corporation to take action is an essential prerequisite to the filing of a derivative action.  Section §55-7-42 of the General Statutes, as amended twelve years ago, says that a shareholder "may not commence a derivative proceeding" without having made a written demand "upon the corporation to take suitable action."  In other words, there is no excuse for not making a pre-filing demand.

But demand futility was alive and directly before the Business Court last week in Finley v. Brown, 2017 NCBC 78.

It's easy to forget that there is an entire set of statutes that apply to non-profit corporations (Chapter 55A of the North Carolina General Statutes) than to "business corporations" (Chapter 55 of the North Carolina General Statutes).  The lawsuit in Finley involved a non-profit corporation: the Finley Foundation.

Before the Legislature amended the demand requirement in Chapter 55 in 1995, the parallel provision regarding demand applicable to non-profit corporations (N.C. Gen. Stat. §55A-7-40) was virtually identical to its "business corporation" partner.  That unamended statute applicable to non-profit corporations says that:

(b) The complaint shall allege with particularity the efforts, if any, made by the plaintiff to obtain the action the plaintiff desires from the directors or comparable authority and the reasons for the plaintiff's failure to obtain the action or for not making the effort.

The North Carolina appellate courts had made it pretty clear, before the amendment, that a demand on a business corporation before filing a derivative action could be excused if it would have been futile.  Op. ¶¶26-27 (citing Norman v. Nash Johnson & Sons’ Farms, Inc., 140 N.C. App. 390, 409, 537 S.E.2d 248, 261 (2000); Roney v. Joyner, 86 N.C. App. 81, 84, 356 S.E.2d 401, 403 (1987); Seaboard Air Line R.R. v. Atl.Coast Line R.R., 240 N.C. 495, 515, 82 S.E.2d 771, 785 (1954)).

So, looking at the "old" law applicable to for-profit corporations, Business Court Judge Bledsoe ruled that the Plaintiff had established that a pre-lawsuit demand would have been futile.

This Plaintiff, a board member of the Finley Foundation did a pretty good job of showing why it would have been futile to make a demand on the four Foundation directors he was suing.

He was attacking them for violating their fiduciary duties, saying that they had "grossly mismanaged the Foundation, and unjustly enriched themselves . . . , by, among other things, failing to prudently manage the assets of the Foundation, incurring unnecessary expenses, paying themselves excessive compensation, and dishonoring Mr. Finley’s intent as the donor of charitable gifts to the Foundation."  Op. ¶12.

Given that the Defendants were direct participants in the conduct that Plaintiff Finley was complaining of, especially in controlling their allegedly "excessive compensation," Judge Bledsoe agreed that the Plaintiff had pled enough to establish that a demand on them to take action would have been futile.

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Carl Ford stakes claim to newly-created Senate District

Republicans are not waiting around to see what the courts decide:

If the new maps hold up in federal court, which found that existing maps include racial gerrymanders, Ford would not have to face an incumbent in the 2018 election or a special election, if the court orders one. There is no incumbent legislator in the newly drawn 33rd District. Sen. Cathy Dunn, a Republican from Davidson County, currently represents the 33rd District, but she was placed in a different district in the new maps, which were approved last week by the N.C. General Assembly.

“I am excited to see what the future will bring for Rowan and Stanly counties, and I look forward to being a part of that,” Ford said in his news release. “I take the opportunity to represent more people very serious and bathed this decision with lots of thought and prayer.”

Might not be politically astute for me to say it, but I don't care what the damn demographics are in this new District: Anybody who "bathes" a decision in prayer needs to be challenged for that seat. That's some serious Theocratical BS right there, more like something that would have come out of Cotton Mathers' mouth in 1692 than a lawmaker in the 21st Century. Sheesh.

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National poll reflects North Carolina divisions

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll looks at how and why the country is so divided. The findings clearly reflect the reality here in North Carolina. The fault lines fall mainly between rural and urban dwellers and educated and less-educated citizens. Globalization plays a major role in the divisions and highlights the discrepancies of views […]
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Gerrymandering is the result of poor campaigning, not the cause

This may seem like a harsh assessment, but denying it won't help:

It comforts some Democrats to believe that gerrymandering and voter suppression are behind this debacle. That’s a rationalization, not an explanation: You can’t gerrymander Senate seats and governorships, and before Republicans could use such tactics, they had to win control of state legislatures in the first place. The GOP gains in these areas have come partly from a concerted effort, more than a dozen years old, to invest money and effort in winning these races. This is slow, unglamorous work, but it is paying off. By contrast, Democrats are more than eager to attend fundraisers for the next bright, shiny presidential contender or hot special-election candidate. Organizing to win back the North Carolina legislature? Not so much.

We've got roughly 13 months before the 2018 Election, in which *all* the General Assembly seats will be up for grabs, and all 13 US Congressional seats will be contested. The last time around, we set our sights on one narrow goal, to pick up a handful of seats in the NC House to undo the GOP's Veto-proof majority. That failed. Miserably. But now I'm hearing the same thing for 2018. And somehow, if we do that this time, this will give us the momentum to take back both houses in 2020. But the problem is, those 2020 district races will have the same partisan demographics that are in place for 2018. What's going to change in that two-year span to bring about this magical result? A couple of truisms: If it's impossible now, it will be impossible in 2020. By the same token, if it will be possible in 2020, then it is possible for 2018.

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Wednesday News: A long time coming

DEQ FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST CHEMOURS FOR CONTAMINATING CAPE FEAR RIVER: The plant in question is now owned by Chemours, a spin-off of DuPont, which previously owned the plant. State lawmakers and others have accused both companies of secretly dumping pollutants into the Cape Fear River from the plant, located south of Fayetteville, for nearly 40 years. The lawsuit filed Tuesday against Chemours by Cooper’s environmental department seeks “to address environmental contamination caused by Chemours’ release of certain chemical manufacturing byproducts” into the Cape Fear River from its Fayetteville Works plant, the state’s lawyers wrote.
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Time for the courts to draw fair maps

Ever the bullshit artist, Phil Berger defended his party’s latest cartographic travesty with a rant. It was a long, partisan diatribe, replete with misrepresentations and given in totally bad faith. In its disingenuousness, the Senator’s piece reflected the spirit in which his party draws districts. They clearly will not craft them with the public in […]
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The hole in the middle

The country is most likely going through a major political alignment that will reshape American politics for another generation or so. We’ve been here many times before. Almost 40 years ago, Reagan’s conservative revolution ended the New Deal and Great Society era that, itself, changed voting patterns and alliances for 50 years in the middle […]
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Tuesday News: And a child shall lead them

PATRICK MCHENRY TAKES TIME OFF FROM POLITICAL GRAFT TO WHIP FELLOW REPUBLICANS: It is Rep. Patrick McHenry’s job to corner, count and cajole his fractious Republican colleagues into a cohesive – or, at least, cohesive enough – voting bloc to pass legislation. The 41-year-old McHenry, in his seventh term in the House, is the acting majority whip, forced into the job when close friend Steve Scalise was seriously injured in a politically motivated shooting at a congressional baseball practice earlier this year. He serves as vice chairman of the Financial Services Committee, a role that nets him outsized donations for his safe district. Between his campaign and his political action committee, McHenry brought in nearly $5 million during the 2016 cycle. More than $1.6 million came from the securities and investment, insurance, commercial bank and real estate industries, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
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Tuesday Twitter roundup

A very important question:

Six out of 10 Americans approve of labor unions. So why is membership dwindling? #ncpol https://t.co/J4M2Hw4TP6

— Michael Sexton (@jmsexton_) September 4, 2017

No doubt the biggest systemic cause for this is "right to work" laws, which have blanketed over half the country. But an earlier action by Ronald Reagan when he broke the air traffic controllers' union may have set it all in motion:

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Happy Labor Day from NC's AFL-CIO

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New GOP campaign tactic: "Vote for me, I'm White!"

Monday News: Soft targets

TRUMP SEEKS TO BOLSTER HIS POLL NUMBERS BY UNDOING DACA PROGRAM: President Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will end protections for young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children, but with a six-month delay, people familiar with the plans said. The delay in the formal dismantling of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, would be intended to give Congress time to decide whether it wants to address the status of the so-called Dreamers legislation, according to two people familiar with the president's thinking. But it was not immediately clear how the six-month delay would work in practice and what would happen to people who currently have work permits under the program, or whose permits expire during the six-month stretch.
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Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

CIVIL RIGHTS CENTER MISSION CENTRAL TO UNC'S BEST TRADITIONS: Frankly, while I’ve found our nation’s private sector has made great strides in civil rights, the same has not been true for the public sector, where many citizens – especially those with the fewest resources to advocate for their interests –suffer daily injustices at the hands of too many elected officials and government bureaucrats. This isn’t to suggest that most government workers aren’t dedicated to serving the public, but that all citizens have the right -- through fact-finding and the courts -- to determine if discriminatory practices exist within the very agencies we support with our tax dollars. It is certainly reasonable to review the work of the Center to assure it is in accord with N.C. State Bar requirements. However, it would be unwise to cease work that meets such a pressing need and provides important and positive contributions for all North Carolinians.
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Weekend Open Thread: Fake news edition

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President of Duke Energy to elderly ratepayers: Take colder showers

And Meck Commissioner Pat Cotham wasn't having any of it:

When Duke Energy’s top executive in North Carolina defended the company’s case for a rate hike this week, he sounded “out of touch” with struggling families, says Mecklenburg County Commissioner Pat Cotham.

“The NC Duke Energy President bragged about how they were more efficient and installing smart meters so we could track our electric usage on our phones,” Cotham wrote. “But most struggling people and seniors don't have smart phones or access to the internet ... Then he said it.....poor people can take colder showers.”

He's more than just a little out of touch. Everything is relative, and it never ceases to amaze me when wealthy people make value judgments about what things cost. He actually said $18 a month "wasn't that much" of an increase. For him, that's only a couple of cocktails at his favorite lounge. But for a lot of other people, that's groceries for 3-4 days. What may be even more astounding, but it's not mentioned in the Char-O piece: Fountain said if customers are worried about their bills spiking up, they could "prepay" them. What? Aside from the fact that creative financing won't reduce the total dollars due from the customer, that program is complicated as hell, and most people would end up having their power disconnected here and there because their account zeroed out and they didn't immediately fix it. And one of those here or there's might happen when it's 22 degrees outside. As "options" go, that's pretty much useless. Just like the rest of Duke Energy's rationalizations.

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Saturday News: Hasta la vista, jerkwad

REP CHRIS MILLIS, WHO WANTED TO IMPEACH ELAINE MARSHALL, IS RESIGNING FROM NCGA: “My resignation is solely based on my need to be with my family more often and has nothing to do with any other assumptions that individuals may want to manufacture,” Millis wrote. Wayne Goodwin, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement that Millis belittled public servants for the sake of partisan politics. Representative Millis has attacked, belittled, and dragged through the mud hardworking public servants, including Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, for no reason other than partisan politics,” Goodwin said. “He’s pushed far-right policies that have made our state less safe, and we look forward to competing for his seat and bringing fresh representation to Pender and Columbus counties.”
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Adding insult to injury: Toxic pollution from Harvey off the charts

Every time a natural disaster occurs, this crap is soon to follow:

Damage from Hurricane Harvey may have released as much as 2 million pounds of potentially hazardous airborne pollutants from oil refineries and other facilities in the Houston area, according to regulatory filings submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

In some cases, the estimated amounts released vastly exceed legal limits — but the state agency can't confirm how many contaminants have been released because air-quality monitoring stations throughout the area were shut down prior to Harvey's landfall.

We're not just talking about gasoline-related issues; the location of these refineries also means Houston is a hub for all petrochemical byproducts, from various plastics to a smorgasbord of industrial chemicals. The word "nasty" doesn't even come close. And when you're talking about air(borne) pollutants, even a few thousand pounds is a lot of dangerous particles. 2 million pounds? That's catastrophe-level stuff. Just one of the culprits is Benzene, and it's likely making an appearance in several Houston neighborhoods:

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Driving a wedge between the base and the people who determine elections

For the first time in history, the percentage of Americans lacking health insurance dropped below 9% thanks to Obamacare. Twenty million more people have insurance than did before the Affordable Care Act. The program is more popular than ever and far more popular than Donald Trump. So what’s Trump do? He cuts $90 million from […]
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Friday News: Puppet irony

JLF'S MARTINEZ GETS CALLED OUT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE DENIALISM DURING "FAKE NEWS" FORUM: Toward the end of the forum, an audience member suggested that journalism that simply builds a story around quotes from people with two opposing views without digging deeply into their words can result in an inaccurate report, especially when science is involved. Another audience member echoed that, and suggested stories about climate change fell into a similar category. To that, Martinez responded that the science was not clear on that issue. Audience members reacted with vocal criticism – prompting Martinez to say the reaction showed an unwillingness to listen to opposing opinions. Some in the audience then responded with another phrase that has taken off on social media during the presidency of Trump – “alternative facts,” several called out to Martinez.
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Friday fracking video

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GOP coercion: Give us our plastic bags and we'll give you GENX funding

Playing political games during a public health crisis:

The state's plastic bag ban, in effect since 2009 on the barrier islands and peninsulas of Dare, Currituck and Hyde counties, would be repealed under the House Bill 56. House Minority Leader Darren Jackson accused Republicans of "playing games" by tying the repeal to what essentially amounts to emergency clean water funding.

Jackson, D-Wake, asked Republican bill negotiators in committee why GenX couldn't have its own bill. Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said Senate negotiators wanted the issues joined. "It's the vehicle we used," said McElraft, who helped work out the final language. "That's the privilege that we have here, to use any vehicle we want."

No, the privilege you have is being trusted by the people to do the right thing, but it's actions like this that betray that trust. You are basically using the fear and angst of Wilmington-area citizens as an "opportunity" to get something else you want, and it doesn't get much more disgusting than that. And while we're on the subject of disgust, the penny-pinching behind this so-called "funding" should enrage those citizens:

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Thursday News: Enshrining bigotry

EVANGELICAL LEADERS SIGN ANTI-GAY "MANIFESTO" THAT LAMENTS DECLINE OF WESTERN CULTURE: The president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest and several faculty members have signed a statement from conservative evangelicals saying same-sex attraction and identifying as transgender are sinful and that supporting either is immoral. The 14-article manifesto, called “the Nashville Statement” for the city where it was ratified, was released late Tuesday by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, an evangelical coalition formed in 1987. More than 150 people had signed the document when it was put online Tuesday, including Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Richard Land, president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Matthews. Through the day Wednesday, it garnered more signatures.
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