Republican Of The Year Nominee #3: Governors' Edition

2016 In Review: America Off The Rails, Part 7


You bet, Maine's Paulie No-Brains is a contender!

by Noah

It’s not easy to pick the primo nominees for Republican Of The Year. For this installment of America Off The Rails, I’ve decided to narrow the field to just republican governors. Still, so many choices, so little time! It’s daunting. Where does one start? How does one judge?

Do we go by racism? No. Too easy and too all-encompassing. It’s difficult to get far enough to be a republican candidate for anything if you haven’t at least exhibited some sort of racism to polish your republican credentials somewhere along the way. At this point, I don’t think they even accept your application unless you’ve shown that you might someday strike a match to burn a cross.

So, how do we decide? Environmental policy? Wage and labor issues? Voting rights? LGBTQ stance? Immigration? Misogyny? Demeanor? Obvious insanity? Do the knuckles touch the ground? Chances are any republican governor has nearly all if not all of these bases covered, really covered!

My solution to this dilemma is to just play a game of word association with myself. I’ll type out a name of a republikook governor, any one of whom is a nominee for Republican Of The Year in his own right, who “served” in 2016, and see what instantly pops into my mind -- what about that goon leaps to the forefront of my mind as soon as I picture his or her visage or think of their name?

So, here goes!


CHRIS CHRISTIE, New Jersey

[Click on any cartoon to enlarge]

Ewwwee, this is a bad start. I’m from NJ. This is personally embarrassing. He even grew up in the town next door to the one I’m from, and I don’t remember anything that bad -- bad as Chris Christie.

Nah, he’s bad, but he’s not the worst. He’s just a dumb loudmouth bully type who should have been punched hard in the face in the fifth grade and sent home crying pathetically to his mommy. Because no one did that, we all have to suffer years later. Wasn’t it hideous to watch him chasing Trump around, trying to affix his fat lips permanently to Trump’s fat ass? Damn. And that expression on poor, sad Mrs. Christie’s face, forced to stand onstage with hubby and Trumpie as she watched. She chose . . . poorly.


SCOTT WALKER, Wisconsin



Not bad, ROTY-wise. Definitely a possibility. Scotty, you’ve done the voter-suppression thing to the max. You’ve earned praise from fellow repugs as you brought your state’s Argentina of America tendencies to the forefront. You’re a fine example of how to install a fascist government. Because of that, republicans consider you presidential material. Scott, you are the envy of republicans everywhere.

Not bad at all, Scott. Good try, but no. You’re a loser. Sad. Let’s move on.


PAT McCRORY, North Carolina



Oh, if you’re a republican, he’s good. Great grades on voter suppression. Previous career as a defense lawyer for a company that ignored environmental laws and dumped huge amounts of coal ash into once pristine rivers.

Screw those kayakers! Screw the fishermen! Screw the fish! Screw the water birds. And once in office, he kept right on defending the polluters.

He’s true to what he is: a total jackass! Oh and let’s not forget that bathroom bill, the one that messed up his reelection.

McCrory really has that republican obsession with urination down. But is he as good as --


MIKE PENCE, Indiana



In July, I posted ("With The Selection Of Mike Pence For VP, Republicans Have Now Checked All The Hate Boxes") how you put the finishing touch on the Trump ticket with your virulent homophobia. I mentioned how republicans were mighty concerned about Trump being a little weak in that area. But you, Mike Pence, you are the man! You came to the rescue and joined the ticket. Dare I say, your presence put Trump over the top?

But it wasn’t just that. Your KKK index is through the roof. Your brand of fake Christianity is second to none. That little “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” was pure inspiration to fellow sociopaths like McCrory. When it comes to being pro-discrimination, you, sir, are an asshole among assholes. No wonder Comrade Trump picked you! Good thing, too, because you are so bonkers even Indiana was sick of your act.


SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas



Sammy! You’ve done well! You’ve turned your state into a laboratory for republican-tax-policy wet dreams. You killed regulations in Kansas. You rejected those wicked federal Medicaid subsidies that would have given Kansas citizens better and cheaper healthcare. You privatized Medicaid. You’ve created Conservative Utopia!

You famously said:

My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, "See, we've got a different way, and it works."

You’ve done it better than anybody! You’ve slashed taxes like nobody’s business. Mitch McConnell adores you and says what you’ve done in your state is what he wants to do for the whole country!

And now your state is now bankrupt beyond any sane person’s nightmares. Congratulations! Mission accomplished! A couple of F-5 tornados would barely be noticed now! Well done!

It gets even better for you. Rumor has it that Comrade Trump wants to make you his secretary of agriculture. You’re on the way up. Fuck that little girl Dorothy. Screw her pooch! The Wicked Witch’s got nothin’ on you!


PAUL LePAGE, Maine



Paulie No-Brains, I hear you are one of 17 siblings! My god, are they like you? Are they out running loose? Are they all tragically multiplying and polluting the human gene pool forever and ever? Why haven’t your parents been arrested for crimes against humanity?

Even Politico, a news organization founded by Reagan and Bush types, has recently had to publicly wonder if you’re playing with a full deck.

But really, what republican anywhere is playing with a full deck? And oh, the irony when you said:

We need Mainers to understand our government is corrupt . . . The Maine people have to demand better from our elected officials.

And you’ve sure got that 19th-century racist thing going when you say things like:

The traffickers. These aren’t people who take drugs. These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys that come from Connecticut and New York. They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.

Ah, the old fear of miscegenation and dilution of white bloodlines! Sounds just like republican role model David Duke! Frankly, it also seems like a state that would elect you and even reelect you could actually use the introduction of some new genetic material. Just sayin’.

Yeah, you’re stone crazy, Paul LePage! But, ya haven’t poisoned or killed anybody, yet. You try. You’re a lot of talk, but you're up against a guy who is a real republican action figure --


RICK SNYDER, Michigan



We have a winner! Ricky, baby, you’ve really got the fascism thing down! You got a bill passed that even allows you to remove local governing bodies, just like you were running Bolivia!

Fortune Magazine recently even gave you position #1 as worst leader in the world! Too bad we haven’t landed on Mars yet, or that too would be within your grasp!

Like all republicans, you dream of a day when you can deprive all but the rich of healthcare and watch people die. But what really sets you apart? Well, that whole “Let them drink lead” concept you and your crew came up with clinches it. This is a masterstroke. No one else thought of that!

Sure, any republican would love to cut someone’s chemo treatments short and send them on their way to the funeral home. Any psycho like Paul “Crazy Eyes” Ryan would love to deprive a less-than-wealthy American of the chance to have a brain tumor removed. But you, Rick Snyder, are special! “Let them drink lead”! You poisoned the people you swore to serve! Lead in the drinking water, that’s genius! I can see your next campaign bumper sticker:

“GAS LEAKS FOR ALL!”

Or how about:

“EVERY TOWN A BHOPAL!”

It’s even better that so many of your victims in Flint are minorities! You thought of everything! And it doesn’t necessarily kill them, it may just make them suffer for their whole lives! Brilliant! Lead poisoning is the republican gift that keeps on giving. It lasts a lifetime!

You are a god, Rick Snyder! You win, hands down! Bin Laden would love to shake your hand!

2016 IN REVIEW: AMERICA OFF THE RAILS

Here it is, Noah's completed Year in Review for 2016:

Part 1, "Profiles in Cowardice: The Electoral College" (12/23/2016)
Part 2, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #1: Newt Gingrich" (12/27/2016)
Part 3, "The Trumpf Inauguration Committee Finds The Perfect Inauguration Entertainment At Last!" (12/29/2016)
Part 4, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #2: R-R-Reince Priebus" (1/2/2017)
Part 5, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (1)" (1/4/2017)
Part 6, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (2)" (1/5/2017)
Part 7, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #3: Governors' Edition" (1/9/2017)
Part 8, "Trump -- The Art And Acts Of The Emboldened: The Rise In Hate Crimes Under The Influence Of Comrade T" (1/10/2017)
Part 9, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #4: It's A Sad Thing When Cousins Marry Edition" (1/11/2017)
Part 10, "Republican Person Of The Year Nominee #5 -- And Winner!" (1/12/2017)
Part 11, "Comrade Trump: Inauguration Entertainment Update!" (1/15/2017)
Part 12, "A DWT Exclusive: We Have The First Draft Of Comrade Trump's Inauguration Speech!" (1/16/2017)

#

Re. the belated concession of NC Gov. "Puppet Pat" McCrory: Good riddance to bad rubbish

Puppet Pat: Not smiling so much anymore?

by Ken

So North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, known to DWT readers as "Puppet Pat," has thrown in the towel on his failed reelection, after dragging the proceedings out with a series of crackpot accusations about election fraud -- only to see his margin of defeat hold fast as limited recounts began.

And it was by no means a given that Puppet Pat and the NC GOP would accept the election result. In the above-referenced NYT report on the governor's belated concession to NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, Richard Fausset notes:

The sealing of Mr. Cooper’s victory — he leads by just over 10,000 votes in the unofficial state tally — brings a modicum of relief to Democrats here. Many of them had feared a post-Election Day power play by North Carolina’s Republicans, who control the state’s General Assembly, where the Republicans in recent years have enacted aggressive gerrymandering plans and a law curtailing voter access that have been struck down by the federal courts. Some feared that the Republicans would take advantage of a law that allows contested elections to be settled by a vote of the legislature.

So, not gonna happen. Thank goodness for small favors.

My first response to the earlier news that Puppet Pat's lie-fueled demand for a recount wasn't going so well was: Is there really no price to be paid for pols' lying? Of course I had the president-elect in my thoughts as well, and judging by his example, the answer is "What're you, nuts? Of course not!" As long as the pol is telling the right kind of lies, which usually means the hard-core right-wing kind, they're not only tolerated but encouraged.

But with Puppet Pat, there's a wrinkle. His unexpected defeat -- running far behind, in the statewide vote count, both presidential candidate Donald Trump and reelected turdheap Sen. Richard Burr -- is routinely attributed to the mean-spirited "bathroom bill" he reluctantly signed, and I have no reason to doubt this. A certain number of NC voters seem to have cottoned to the fact that some forms of bigotry have become bad for business. Great!

However, when I hear Puppet Pat's name and reign referred to, alluded to in this snippet from the NYT account:

As a mayor of Charlotte, Mr. McCrory was known as a moderate and pragmatist, a reputation that attracted many Democrats to his 2012 campaign. But the legislature pushed, and he generally supported an ambitious conservative agenda, rolling back the state’s generous ballot-access rules. The legislature also passed expanded rights for gun owners, a private-school voucher plan, new abortion regulations and a tax overhaul that opponents criticized for favoring the wealthy.

What I think of is a terrific post our Noah wrote back in December 2013, "A tale of two Popes -- the one in the Vatican, who takes Jesus' words to heart, and the one in North Carolina." I'm going to take the liberty of reprising the start of that post:

There are two Popes in the news lately. Both represent organizations that claim to speak for Jesus Christ. One's name is Pope Francis, leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis is the better-known of the two, and his actions befuddle and anger U.S. Republicans. The other's name is Art Pope. Art Pope is the North Carolina Republican Party's pope.

Unlike many past Popes, Francis seems to take the reported actions and words of Jesus to heart and uses his own words and actions to lead his organization toward the betterment of humanity. Art Pope plays for the other side.

While Pope Francis seeks to aid the poor and the powerless, even leaving the Vatican at night dressed as an ordinary priest to comfort the homeless, Art Pope's mission is to exploit the poor and the powerless to gain more power, even seeking to expand the numbers of poor in his state. Art Pope is a mini-me to the Koch Brothers. He has a lot of money but not Koch Brothers Kash, so for now he has been content to buy just one state out of 50.

As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

-- Jesus, as quoted in the Book of Matthew, 25:31-46

Art Pope preaches a very different gospel. He has used his material goods to elect and buy the best and truest form of Republican government he can. The end result has been a takeover of North Carolina by political perps that is as extreme as any since the days of segregation. But the agenda that Art Pope pushes is not based solely on race. Women, senior citizens, Hispanics, and students are all targets of this pope.

It is oligarchist Art Pope who has financed an insane asylum that serves as the North Carolina legislature and governor's office. He is now even Gov. Pat McCrory's budget director, all but officially making the governor his hand puppet.

In 2010, 75 percent of all the outside money that came into North Carolina's legislative elections came from groups backed by Art Pope. His candidates won 80 percent of those races. Pope's money then financed a 2012 election that was so successful for Republicans that it ended in this being the first time since 1870 that the Repug Party controlled the governorship and both houses of the state legislature, the General Assembly. Without Art Pope putting his money behind his agenda, there is no feo-fascist Gov. "Puppet Pat" McCrory; there are no attacks on the teachers of North Carolina (right down to removing money for instructional supplies).

In fact, Puppet Pat seems to think that education should exist only to train people for jobs -- vocational training for worker bees, as it were. Puppet Pat wants Pope's legislature to pass laws that would provide funds to universities "not based on how many butts in seats but how many of those butts can get jobs." Apparently McCrory never learned that education deals with the brains in your head. His stated outlook reveals that education is not about expanding the mind or improving society and moving it forward. As for the promised jobs, they haven't materialized, as his policies continue to damage the state economy.

Without people like Puppet Pat who are so willing to do the bidding of the money men, there is no chronic union-busting; there are no attacks on the voting rights of legal North Carolina citizens; there is no well-orchestrated attack on democracy itself. He is his state's Scott Walker. To Art Pope, just as to the Walker-backing Koch Brothers, there are the privileged few and "the least of these," with nothing in between: lords and serfs. It's a push back to the past -- way back. . . .

So all in all my response to Puppet Pat's graceless concession is: Good riddance to bad rubbish.

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What Do Voters In North Carolina Want?

Not these two

Elon University released a general election poll that should make Democrats sit up and take notice. Short version of the hypothetical North Carolina match-ups:

• Hillary beats Trump- 45.1% to 38.9%
• Bernie beats Trump- 50.8% to 37.7%

• Cruz beats Hillary- 43.8% to 41.2%
• Bernie beats Cruz- 49.3% to 38.8%

Democrats have to be crazy to ignore independents (over 40% of the general election electorate) by nominating Hillary Cruz, who independents just hate, not just in North Carolina, but everywhere. There is some good news for Democrats in other sections of the poll. First of all, Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) is increasing his lead over GOP bigot, Governor Pat McCrory. Cooper is now leading McCrory 48.2-41.5% in the gubernatorial race, probably because independents are embarrassed over the anti-gay legislation and the backlash from around the country. A plurality of North Carolina voters approve of marriage equality.

In the Senate race, Deborah Ross (D) is closing in on incumbent Richard Burr (R). He now leads her 36.9-32.7% with lots of independent voters still undecided, although as North Carolina voters start identifying Burr as obstructing President Obama's supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland. Burr's approval rating is only 29%-- with a 41% disapproval rating. They report that "This is the lowest approval rating ever recorded by the Elon Poll, either among registered voters or residents of North Carolina. Although Burr has served as U.S. Senator since 2005, twenty-nine percent of registered voters still said they didn't know or were unsure of the Senator's performance."

A couple of other bits worth keeping in mind start with massive disapproval of Congress 80.8% to just 8.7% who approve. The state legislature isn't faring too well, either. His disapproval is 48.7%, while just 31.3% approve. This could be a good year for Democrats to take back a couple of districts in North Carolina but the DCCC has written the state off entirely and isn't backing a single candidate, although Robert Pittenger, Patrick McHenry, George Holding, Mark Walker and Renee Ellmers could all be vulnerable with Bernie on top of the Democratic ticket and with Trump or Cruz on top of the Republican ticket. Obviously, if the Republicans run a relatively normal candidate and the Democrats are foolish enough to run Clinton, the Democrats would have no chance to take back any congressional seats.

A tale of two Popes -- the one in the Vatican, who takes Jesus' words to heart, and the one in North Carolina

As I confirmed during my December visit, there is evidence of backlash against North Carolina oligarchist "Puppet Master" Art Pope's way-far-right agenda.

by Noah

There are two Popes in the news lately. Both represent organizations that claim to speak for Jesus Christ. One's name is Pope Francis, leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis is the better-known of the two, and his actions befuddle and anger U.S. Republicans. The other's name is Art Pope. Art Pope is the North Carolina Republican Party's pope.

Unlike many past Popes, Francis seems to take the reported actions and words of Jesus to heart and uses his own words and actions to lead his organization toward the betterment of humanity. Art Pope plays for the other side.

While Pope Francis seeks to aid the poor and the powerless, even leaving the Vatican at night dressed as an ordinary priest to comfort the homeless, Art Pope's mission is to exploit the poor and the powerless to gain more power, even seeking to expand the numbers of poor in his state. Art Pope is a mini-me to the Koch Brothers. He has a lot of money but not Koch Brothers Kash, so for now he has been content to buy just one state out of 50.

As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

-- Jesus, as quoted in the Book of Matthew, 25:31-46

Art Pope preaches a very different gospel. He has used his material goods to elect and buy the best and truest form of Republican government he can. The end result has been a takeover of North Carolina by political perps that is as extreme as any since the days of segregation. But the agenda that Art Pope pushes is not based solelyon race. Women, senior citizens, Hispanics, and students are all targets of this pope.

It is oligarchist Art Pope who has financed an insane asylum that serves as the North Carolina legislature and governor's office. He is now even Gov. Pat McCrory's budget director, all but officially making the governor his hand puppet.

In 2010, 75 percent of all the outside money that came into North Carolina's legislative elections came from groups backed by Art Pope. His candidates won 80 percent of those races. Pope's money then financed a 2012 election that was so successful for Republicans that it ended in this being the first time since 1870 that the Repug Party controlled the governorship and both houses of the state legislature, the General Assembly. Without Art Pope putting his money behind his agenda, there is no feo-fascist Gov. "Puppet Pat" McCrory; there are no attacks on the teachers of North Carolina (right down to removing money for instructional supplies).

In fact, Puppet Pat seems to think that education should exist only to train people for jobs -- vocational training for worker bees, as it were. Puppet Pat wants Pope's legislature to pass laws that would provide funds to universities "not based on how many butts in seats but how many of those butts can get jobs." Apparently McCrory never learned that education deals with the brains in your head. His stated outlook reveals that education is not about expanding the mind or improving society and moving it forward. As for the promised jobs, they haven't materialized, as his policies continue to damage the state economy.

Without people like Puppet Pat who are so willing to do the bidding of the money men, there is no chronic union-busting; there are no attacks on the voting rights of legal North Carolina citizens; there is no well-orchestrated attack on democracy itself. He is his state's Scott Walker. To Art Pope, just as to the Walker-backing Koch Brothers, there are the privileged few and "the least of these," with nothing in between: lords and serfs. It's a push back to the past -- way back.

Thanks to Art Pope and his government-by-court-jester, Puppet Pat has been able to cut unemployment benefits in North Carolina by 35 percent and the number of weeks of eligibility from 26 down to 20, the result being that 170,000 citizens of his state are prevented from federal emergency extended benefits. That move alone has removed a sizable amount of money that would have gone into the state's economy. (The demonstrators in the photo are State Sen. Earline Parmon [right] and Democratic activist Mary Dickinson, who's planning a run for the NC House from District 74, the Winston-Salem area. We'll hear from Senator Parmon below.)

Puppet Pat then proudly boasts that he has balanced the budget of the state unemployment fund three years ahead of schedule. Talk about balancing the budget on the backs of the middle and working classes! This is Republican class warfare at its best (worst). Under Pope's direction, Puppet Pat has also gleefully signed a bill from Pope's legislature that opts the state out of the expanded Obamacare Medicaid provision. That heinous act alone has denied health-care coverage to 500,000 people in North Carolina. What would Jesus do?

The Art Pope-financed agenda has also resulted in the repeal of the Racial Justice Act, a law that enabled inmates on death row to challenge their death sentence based on questions about whether they even got a fair trial.

Then there is the matter of trying to vote in North Carolina. As a direct result of a Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court deciding to do away with key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (a goal of the Republican Party and other racist entities for decades), North Carolina has let its freak flag fly by passing some of the most restrictive voting regulations since the Jim Crow era.

NC House Bill 589 not only contains exceptionally strict photo ID requirements, it eliminates seven days of early voting, eliminates same-day voter registration, and, most egregiously, prohibits the counting of provisional ballots that are cast in the right county but wrong precinct. I don't know about you, but I've lived in the same place for 30+ years but my precinct number has changed a few times along the way. The potential for foul-ups is always there, especially when polling places move.

"Puppet Master" Art Pope and Gov. "Puppet Pat" McCrory

Most importantly, the provisional-ballot game is the most un-American game in American electoral politics. It works like this: If you are challenged at your voting place, whether it's because your registration name doesn't exactly match the name on your driver's license, electric bill, passport, birth certificate, or now Voter ID card or because some A-hole doesn't like something about the way you look, you are not allowed to go into the booth or vote with a voting machine. Instead, you are handed a "provisional ballot." Are you so trusting and naïve that you think your provisional ballot actually gets counted? OK, sometimes they do get counted, usually after the election results are certified. I bet you never heard about that one from David Gregory, Wolf Blitzer, or any of the game-show-host rejects at Fox.

In an effort to prevent students from voting because they tend to vote Democratic, polling places have been moved far from campuses. Also, previously students and others were allowed to register to vote well in advance of their 18th birthday. What happens when your birthday falls on or a bit before Election Day? Answer: You can't vote. When asked how this new obstacle to voting would prevent voter fraud, McCrory replied cynically: "I don't know enough. I'm sorry. I haven't seen that part of the bill." Nice.

There has also now been at least one attempt by Republicans to tell a man named Montravius King (right), who just happens to be African-American, that he can't even run for his local City Council. Oh, would Jesse Helms have loved that one! Welcome to Art Pope's North Carolina. We'll even tell you if you can run for office against us. Sound like 1950s Russia?

Can a return to the good ol' boy Jim Crow days of certain citizens being forced to guess the number of jelly beans in the jar or naming the starting lineup of the 1940 Detroit Tigers before they can touch the voting-machine screen be far behind?

Need you ask about Puppet Pat's position on abortion? Not only has he signed state legislation designed to limit access to abortion after saying he would not do so when he campaigned, he decided to rub it in the faces of women who protested outside his office by personally handing them a plate of chocolate-chip cookies. In other words, "Get back in the kitchen, bitches."

The Backlash

I've often thought that history swings like a pendulum. In this case, North Carolina has swung so far to the right that a backlash was inevitable. Buyer's remorse is growing. That can only help the Democrats in the coming midterm elections. Even some voters who voted Repug in 2012 are disappointed in things like the new voter-suppression legislation in their state. It seems they thought it would be "others" that suffered once Republicans took over. They never dreamed how big that group of "others" was and that it could possibly include anyone who isn't a member of the upper strata. According to a recent PPP poll, Puppet Pat's approval rating is down to 38 percent, and 53 percent of state residents disapprove of the state House and Senate Repugs.

There are other signs that the pendulum is starting to swing back because of the force of how hard Puppet Pat and the Art Pope agenda have pushed the state to the extreme right. Civil disobedience, in the form of what are called Moral Mondays protests, have made the news in recent months. Those who participate in the Moral Mondays actions meet at the state house in Raleigh on Mondays to protest the actions of the lunatic asylum inside. Then they enter the building peacefully and are arrested. Many local progressive religious groups are involved and, in fact local religious leaders such as William Barber II, the head of the North Carolina chapter of the dreaded NAACP are greatly involved in the organization of the protests. I like to think that, perhaps, the other pope, Pope Francis, might even smile about Moral Mondays. The concept is even spreading to other states, like New York.

[Click to enlarge]

Now the protests are branching out with smaller protests targeting specific retail stores -- stores that are owned by Puppet Master Pope. Among the stores owned by Art Pope are the Roses, Maxway, and Super Dollar chains. These stores, located in low-income and African-American neighborhoods, offer low-income citizens cheap goods at dirt- cheap prices. It's the "dollar store" concept. Sounds great. Great bargains on everything from batteries, toothpaste, and dish soap to items that even the slave-labor countries of Republican dreams might be embarrassed about. You get the picture. There's no question that stores like these can be helpful to a very tight budget in the short run. The evil lies in what Art Pope does with the profits.

$40 million linked to Art Pope's stores has gone to political donations and far-right-wing groups like the cynically named Americans for Prosperity. In other words, Pope uses his stores, whose low, low everyday prices appeal to poor people, to elect politicians sho will pass legislation to keep them poor or make them even more poor. You get the feeling that if people like Pope and McCrory could house the citizens of North Carolina in super-size Roach Motels, they would. Then they would tell them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. It's the republican way, after all. Check out the Art Pope Exposed website.

On December 14th, I went to a demonstration


It was one of several demonstrations in the state that day. It was a brutally cold and rainy day. Even sleet hit the umbrellas of the 20 or so protesters who braved the weather. It's a start, and there will be more. That's a measure of the passions involved. The fact that there were seven police cars in attendance to keep an eye on such an "unruly crowd" was a measure of Art Pope's power over the local authorities. Paranoia strikes deep. It should.

Demonstration participants included State Sen. Earline Parmon, Rep. Evelyn Terry, and 2014 NC 74 candidate for the State House Mary Dickinson. Said Parmon:

We want people who shop at Art Pope's stores to understand how he uses the profits to support causes that hurt working-class and minority people, whether it is refusing to expand Medicaid coverage, voter-restriction laws, tax reform that foremost benefits the wealthy, disqualifying North Carolina from federal jobless benefits or cutting back on public education spending.

Art Pope recently responded to such protests in a letter to State NAACP President William Barber II, saying in part that he was --

shocked that you and your allies would demand any public official to support your political positions, by threatening a business which is not part of state government.

"Not part of state government"? Really? When the profits go to purchase the state government? Nice try, Puppet Master Pope. You don't mind it at all when poor people shop at your stores, just when they might dare to try and vote against you and your toys in the state house. Tell you what: When you die, you can be Pope in Hell, toasting like a little marshmallow on a stick. Hopefully that will be before you have the chance to create Hell in North Carolina. Meanwhile the real Pope might remind you:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers. . . .

-- the Book of Matthew, 21:12

The display window of Maxway, one of Art Pope's stores. Note the contrast of the Christmas wreath on the door -- mixed message of enticement, welcome, and bars. Pope's Maxway was the only store in the neighborhood that I noticed having bars on the windows, including a pawn shop right next door. Is this some sort of weird Pope conceptual-art piece?

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North Carolina Republicans Ramp Up The GOP War Against Women

Above, Rachel Maddow reports on the anti-Choice sneak attack in North Carolina this week. The Republicans in the legislature don't like seeing Texas and Ohio Republicans getting ahead of them in the right-wing anti-women jihad. Most interesting though (at the 4:55 point in the video) was a clip from an election debate when now-Governor Pat McCrory publicly pledged to sign no new abortion restrictions if he were elected. "None," he responded when Laura Leslie, the WRAL Capitol Bureau Chief, asked him point blank, "If you're elected governor what further restrictions on abortion would you agree to sign?" He didn't hem or haw... he just said "none" and set his jaw in place. I guess we can start parsing words like "further," "restrictions," "agree" and "none." After all, Obamabots are trying to redefine the meaning of the word "coup" now that their military puppets have kicked out the legitimately elected president of Egypt, legally obligating Obama to cut off military aid.

Meanwhile, North Carolina singer-songwriter Kitschy de Coeur explains she "wrote this little song today after sitting in the debates for HB 695, which was slipped in to a bill last minute and will severely limit womens' access to reproductive health clinics." Very eloquent:

Does Anyone Think The Republican Party Is The Same As A Garden Variety Fascist Party? Consider North Carolina

Just how the GOP, financed by wealthy fascist Art Pope, took over the entire North Carolina state government and immediately turned to subverting democracy and cementing their own power, is a well-known story, at least in circles where people care about such things. And barely a day passes without the Republican extremists in the legislature and the Republican extremist governor working their asses off-- on behalf of consolidating and retaining power. This week, for example, the House, largely along party-lines, passed a controversial voter ID law meant to disenfranchise African-Americans, poor people and students. Most North Carolina voters oppose it, but ALEC and Pope insist. In fact, ALEC and Pope insist on a lot of things-- and the North Carolina Republican Party is delivering for them:

With no remaining checks to Republican rule in North Carolina, the state has now become a haven for some of the most ideological-- and ill-considered-- tea party fantasies dressed up as legislation. Here are just a few of the bills being pushed in the house (and the senate) that Art Pope built:

• Voter Suppression : It’s a sad commentary on the state of American politics that once Republicans take over a state, they almost immediately begin enacting laws to make it harder for Democratic-leaning groups to cast a ballot. North Carolina Republicans, however, have embraced voter suppression with unusual enthusiasm. They’ve introduced voter ID, a common GOP method of reducing turnout among minorities, low-income voters and students. They’ve introduced Florida-like restrictions on early voting, cutting early voting hours and eliminating voting the Sunday before election day in order to thwart voting drives at African-American churches. And they want to punish parents whose children vote from their college addresses.

• Reverse Robin Hood: A GOP bill in the North Carolina Senate would eliminate all individual and corporate income taxes, and largely replace it with higher sales taxes. Sales taxes disproportionately burden lower-income taxpayers, because they spend a larger percentage of their income on basic needs. It is also far more difficult to create a progressive sales tax than to enact a progressive income tax code that places a lesser tax burden on those who can least afford it. As a result, a similar tax plan in Louisiana would raise taxes on 80 percent of residents, while giving Louisianans in the top 1 percent of income earners an average tax cut of $25,423.

• Shutting Down Abortion Clinics: Another bill in the state senate would add new restrictions to abortion clinics in an attempt to force them to close their doors. Among other things, the bill requires doctors to have admitting privileges in a hospital located within 30 miles of the clinic, an unnecessary restriction that serves little purpose other than to limit the pool of doctors available to clinics.

• Anti-Worker Constitutional Amendment: A so-called “right-to-work” law, which depresses worker wages by cutting back unions’ ability to collectively bargain for wages and benefits, is already the law in North Carolina, effectively cutting both union and non-union wages by $1,500 a year. Nevertheless, 34 Republican lawmakers (and one Democrat) sponsored a state constitutional amendment that would lock this anti-worker policy into the state Constitution. The same amendment would strip public sector workers of their right to collectively bargain, and lock in policies making it easier for companies to pressure their workers against unionizing to boot.

• Subsidizing Home Schooling: Eight Republican lawmakers sponsored a bill giving families a $1,250 per semester tax subsidy if they home school their children.

• Judges For Sale: A pair of bills in the state senate would eliminate the state’s successful public financing system for judicial elections. Prior to this system’s enactment in 2004, “73 percent of campaign funds for judicial candidates came from attorneys and special interest groups,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice’s Alicia Bannon. Now, it’s 14 percent. So public financing was successful in rolling back moneyed interest groups’ ability to buy and sell judges through campaign donations, and these GOP bills would throw judicial elections back to the old ways.

• State Sponsored Religion: Eleven Republicans, including the state’s House Majority Leader, backed a resolution proclaiming that the Constitution “does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional,” and then decreeing that North Carolina could establish its own state religion. On the bright side, state house Speaker Thom Tillis announced that he would not advance this resolution after it was widely panned.

Back to that polling for a moment, though:

• Only 6% of voters support allowing legislators to start receiving gifts from lobbyists again, while 88% are opposed. There's pretty strong bipartisan agreement that that's a bad idea with independents (4/93), Democrats (5/87), and Republicans (8/86) all firmly against it.

• Only 25% of voters support a proposal to forbid parents from claiming college students registered to vote away from home as dependents on their state taxes, compared to 57% who are opposed. This is another one where the Republican legislators supporting the measure are out of touch with actual Republican voters- only 26% support it with 56% opposed, not that different from the numbers among Democrats which are 22% supportive and 61% opposed.

• Just 33% of voters support cutting the early voting period by a week, while 59% are opposed. Republicans do narrowly support this idea (51/42), but Democrats (22/70) and independents (28/62) are heavily opposed to it.

• Only 22% of voters support eliminating the state's renewable energy standards, while 39% are against that idea. Republican voters (29/25) only narrowly support eliminating the standard while Democrats (13/47) and independents (28/41) are pretty firmly against it.

• Only 28% of voters support a proposal to make it a crime for law enforcement officers to enforce federal gun laws on North Carolina manufactured fire arms, while 42% are opposed. Democrats (33/41), Republicans (24/41), and independents (26/46) all think that one's a bad idea.

• The only high profile Republican initiative we polled that has much traction with voters is the one to make Christianity the official state religion. 42% support that to 45% who are opposed and while much of that support is because a majority of Republicans favor it (53/33) it actually has 41% support from Democrats too, much more appeal across party lines than any of these other proposals. Despite the decent level of support for Christianity as the state religion, only 16% of voters agree with the state legislator who labeled a prayer to Allah as an act of terrorism last week, although that does go up to 25% among Republicans.

The GOP is becoming increasingly unpopular as a governing party in the state. The Democratic Party is in complete turmoil, riven with dissension, and nearly moribund as a functional organization-- which allows McCrory to keep goin' for the gold. Friday evening, just as the State Board of Elections was investigating how he and other Republicans were able to subvert democracy to seize power last year, he announced he had fired the whole Board and his replacements-- 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats-- would take over this week.

The move puts the progress of the board’s investigation into campaign contributions from an indicted sweepstakes software company owner in question.

Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, last week asked the board to investigate more than 60 campaign contributions totaling more than $230,000. Some of the contributions went to McCrory, House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger.

A majority of sitting board members said they were interested in investigating, according to an Associated Press story. But on Friday night, Chairman Larry Leake said it would be inappropriate for members on their last day in office to talk about the investigation or give staff any direction. The board has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

“It might be presumptuous for us to attempt to do anything with a new board coming on May 1,” Leake said. “It makes no sense for our board to attempt to direct the conduct of our office when we are in fact exiting out the door.”

...Two of the governor’s GOP appointees said they didn’t know how the board would proceed with the sweepstakes inquiry.

...Charles Winfree, a Republican who has served on the board for 12 years, said he would encourage the new members to pursue the investigation. “Based on what I’ve been told by the staff, it appears to me that there is enough to warrant an investigation,” he said. “Certainly the practice of the contributors needs to be examined.”

Hall said he was “nervous” about the 100 percent turnover on the elections board, but hoped the new members would approach the questions objectively.

“I think there were veterans, both Republicans and Democrats, on the Board of Elections that have been objective in reviewing complaints against both parties and I’ve admired their ability to get the facts even when they don’t agree with my personal opinions,” he said. “I hope the new group will also be very professional and fulfill the responsibilities to be above partisan biases and search for the truth.”

Hall asked the board to investigate three issues related to contributions from Chase Burns, the Oklahoma-based owner of International Internet Technologies, as well as other donations connected to the sweepstakes industry. Burns’ company supplies the software that Internet sweepstakes cafes use to run their games.

Checks for Burns’ contributions were written from a trust account that Florida investigators said received millions in illegal proceeds from Burns’ business customers. Hall wants to know whether Burns used a business account or an account that was part of an illegal business operation to make campaign contributions.

Campaign disclosure reports erroneously list Burns as an attorney with Moore & Van Allen, according to Hall’s complaint. Moore & Van Allen is a legal and lobbying firm that represented Burns’ company and also employed McCrory until days before he took office.

The five-member State Board of Elections, which for years has had three Democrats and two Republicans, has been aggressive in recent years in investigating campaign finance law violations. It investigated former House Speaker Jim Black, and former state Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, among others. Both were Democrats who ended up sentenced to federal prison. But Republicans were critical of the board for limiting the inquiry into Perdue’s undisclosed campaign flights.

The North Carolina Pope

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