Thursday, 30 November 2017

UNC Board of Governors contemplating move out of Chapel Hill

Apparently they're afraid of those notorious Liberal Cooties:

At both the October committee meeting and November’s full board meeting, members discussed a perception that having the general administration staff in Chapel Hill confuses the UNC system and UNC-Chapel Hill. It also makes it look as though the Chapel Hill campus is superior to the other schools, they said.

“That’s a very minor part of this, but it’s still a consideration,” Kotis admits. “Are we the Board of Governors for the UNC Chapel Hill or the UNC system? What does it say about the link between UNCGA and Chapel Hill? Is it the favorite school? It’s like having your house near one kid’s house but not the other.”

Dude, it's the Flagship University. It was the first public University chartered by the NC Legislature in 1789, and the first public University in the *entire country* operating when it opened its doors in 1795. By contrast, it wasn't until 1931 that a "Board of Trustees" was formed to oversee the combination of three state-chartered universities (UNC-CH, UNC-G, NC State), and the BOG itself didn't materialize until 40 years after that. So yes, UNC Chapel Hill is the natural location for such a body. But this move may have a lot more to do with having an antsy real estate developer on the Board than even ideological considerations:


http://ift.tt/2isIGqP

Thursday News: Globally unpopular

trumporange.jpg

LONDON MAYOR CALLS FOR CANCELLING TRUMP VISIT OVER ANTI-MUSLIM EXTREMISM: The mayor of London on Thursday added his voice to mounting calls for President Donald Trump's state visit to the U.K. to be canceled over his retweets of a British far-right group. Sadiq Khan said Trump has promoted "a vile, extremist group" and an official visit by him to Britain "would not be welcomed." Trump's retweeting of anti-Muslim videos from far-right fringe group Britain First has been widely condemned in Britain. Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said the president was wrong to have done it. In response, Trump urged May to focus on "the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom," rather than on him.
http://ift.tt/2i4H8Q1


http://ift.tt/2iqMkBE

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Brad Woodhouse may have been additional target in James O'Keefe's botched sting

Leroy Gibbs' Rule 39: There is no such thing as coincidence:

Woodhouse said he recognized Phillips’s name and image in a Washington Post story Monday that described how she falsely told reporters that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager. Phillips appears to work with Project Veritas, an organization that uses deceptive tactics and secretly records conversations in an effort to embarrass members of the mainstream media and left-leaning groups.

“I was stunned,” Woodhouse said Tuesday night. “It took a little while to sink in and then it was like, ‘Really? Are you kidding me?’ ” James O’Keefe, the Project Veritas founder, declined to answer questions about whether he dispatched Phillips to rent from Woodhouse. Phillips did not respond to inquiries.

And before you ask, it's because O'Keefe is an idiot. He always tries to go for a straight flush when a King-high two pair will usually win the hand. Okay, that's a little obscure, what I mean is: He can't help but add clever (he thinks) little twists to his plots, that make the cons much harder to pull off, but game-winning zingers if he does. In this case, he (thought) he could make the entire sexual harassment movement look like a Democratic plot, by tying Brad to this one false accusation. And the sad thing is, close to 1/3 of American citizens would probably believe that nonsense.


http://ift.tt/2Am81JV

Wednesday News: Going out with a fizzle and barely audible pop

napoleon.jpg

SOON TO BE EX-CIVITAS LEADER DE LUCA WHINES ABOUT GIVING TUESDAY: The Civitas Institute, a Raleigh think tank, distributed a fundraising email Monday night that urges people to carefully consider the motivation for their donations on “Giving Tuesday,” the Tuesday after Thanksgiving during which companies and nonprofits encourage people to donate to charitable causes. Francis De Luca, outgoing president of Civitas, in the email criticizes the “guilt” associated with what he called a “leftist idea.” “The phrase ‘give-back’ comes from the leftist idea that individuals can’t achieve success on their own; that successful people must have taken advantage of others to get where they are; and that they have an obligation to ‘return’ some of their wealth to those they took it from,” he continued. “The Left has used this idea as a fundraising tactic for decades.”
http://ift.tt/2zNnXWc


http://ift.tt/2ijSIdA

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

Debunking yet another right-wing conspiracy theory

There are no such thing as ghost voters:

Los Angeles County’s registrar of voters, Dean Logan, explained to the Bee that the names on the inactive voter list are kept as a “fail-safe” so as to not disenfranchise or discourage voters. Combining “inactive voter” and “active voter” lists could result in a higher total number of registered voters that Judicial Watch says raises suspicions.

Logan and Gail Pellerin, the Santa Cruz County registrar of voters, told the Los Angeles Times that very few people on the “inactive voter” list actually show up to vote. As few as 12 people, out of 44,172 people on Santa Cruz County’s inactive list, showed up to vote in November, Pellerin said.

Deeply embedded in North Carolina's voter database are three (3) registration files for yours truly. I have seen them pulled up on a screen during an early voting session. One is from when I was stationed at Ft. Bragg back in the 1980's, another when I was still a (confused) Republican, and my current registration as a Democrat. The two older ones are "inactive" files, and mean absolutely nothing in the scheme of things. It's not a conspiracy to subvert democracy, and it's not even a "weakness that could be exploited" in the system. But efforts to purge voter rolls very likely is a conspiracy:


http://ift.tt/2zNFspn

Tuesday News: Don't feed the trolls

Tuesday Twitter roundup

One of the biggest swindles in history is happening right in front of our noses:

The @GOP wants to jack up 1.2 million NC’ers taxes.

That means that thousands of Craven County residents will see their tax bills go up, all so the @GOP can give away even more $$$ to billionaires like trump and his Wall Street buddies.#TrumpTaxScam #ncpol @NCDemParty https://t.co/b77bM4Thyf

— Craven County Dems (@CravenDemocrats) November 28, 2017

I honestly don't really care if my taxes go up or down, my main concern is the likelihood they will target Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security disability to balance their twisted books. Putting lives at risk just so the wealthy can afford a second yacht makes me want to break something.


http://ift.tt/2zNFfm5