What do you think about the idea of planting two or three million #bluewaveflags in yards, flower pots and window boxes all across America? In bulk they'll cost around five cents each.
It’s not easy to forget the photos of masked Wisconsin voters standing in large lines waiting to cast a ballot in the middle of a pandemic. Residents there risked their health and lives to make their voices heard; they chose democracy in the face of uncertainty, and now, the rest of the nation has a chance to learn from them.
One big lesson that I hope the NC GOP learned from that fiasco is this: You screw around with the election process to try and protect one (or several) of your candidates, and the people are liable to punish you for it. With Jill Karofsky's win over uber-conservative Daniel Kelly, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is now 4-3 conservative, perched on the edge of a flip to Liberal control. The fact that very Court was poised to purge 200,000 voters from the rolls with Kelly's backing likely played a role also, as well as the Court's decision to force the election itself. Back to NC and the things we need to do to help voters:
CARL FORD PUSHES FOR BIGGER RALLIES, SPONSORS ANTI-COOPER BILL: In a May 6 interview with Sen. Carl Ford, R-Rowan, ReOpenNC founder Ashley Smith credited Ford with helping to inspire her to start the group and asked him whether the rallies are working to put pressure on Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to speed up the reopening process. Ford said the rallies are helping, "but I'd like to see us have 10,000 or 20,000 in Raleigh. That would really get the message across." Ford is one of three primary sponsors of a Senate bill that would dismiss criminal penalties for any business owner who violates the governor's emergency closure orders and protect business owners who have to be licensed from any potential disciplinary action by the relevant licensing authority. "I’m sure there’ll be a long and very exciting debate, including the Democrats trying to talk through their masks," Ford told Smith. https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/state-lawmaker-calls-for-larger-reopen-rallies-in-raleigh/19088906/
The Postal Service’s board of governors confirmed late Wednesday that Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman who is currently in charge of fundraising for the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, will serve as the new postmaster general.
The action will install a stalwart Trump ally to lead the Postal Service, which he has railed against for years, and probably move him closer than ever before to forcing the service to renegotiate its terms with companies and its own union workforce.
If DeJoy was genuinely interested in supporting and improving the Postal Service, the very first thing he would do is lobby the Senate to amend the stupid law that requires them to fully fund decades-worth of retirement benefits. The main reason that was enacted is so Republicans could wail and gnash their teeth about the post office's financial woes (which they caused). It's the classic GOP "Break it and then complain about it being broken" approach to governing, which we see all the time here in NC. We will see if he is prepared to do the job right, or help Trump attack Jeff Bezos:
BURR'S BROTHER-IN-LAW ALSO DUMPED STOCKS IN FEBRUARY: Sen. Richard Burr was not the only member of his family to sell off a significant portion of his stock holdings in February, ahead of the market crash spurred by coronavirus fears. On the same day Burr sold, his brother-in-law also dumped tens of thousands of dollars worth of shares. The market fell by more than 30% in the subsequent month. Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, who has a post on the National Mediation Board, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies — including several that have been hit particularly hard in the market swoon and economic downturn. A person who picked up Fauth’s phone on Wednesday hung up when asked if Fauth and Burr had discussed the sales in advance. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article242556081.html
Dan Forest is getting desperate as he sees his gubernatorial ambitions withering. Polling tells the story. Roy Cooper is handling himself admirably, taking a cautious-but-flexible approach to the Trump Pandemic. Dandy's "one-size-fits-all" criticism has fallen dead flat because it's simply not true. The upshot? Cooper leads Dandy 52% to 32%.
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Thom Tillis trails Cal Cunningham by 43% to 34%.
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