Welcome back to the Left of Old North. I'm your
host, Adrian. And I'm CJ. Also your host. I feel
like you forget to say that sometimes. Yeah.
We're both hosts. Yeah, I probably do, yeah.
We're co -hosts. Yes. We're in this together,
for better or worse. In sickness and in health,
till death or gerrymandering do us part. Oh,
no. Yeah, we're going to get split along voting
lines. You're probably wondering, especially
if you've listened to the show before, why we're
uploading a random episode on a Friday. And the
reason is because we talked this week and there
is just too much stuff to fit into half an episode
on Monday. Because we've got a very special guest
that we interviewed. Do we want to go ahead and
say who it was or are we keeping that a mystery?
Yeah, let's go and do it. Tease it a little bit.
Yeah, so we actually got Chris Cooper, the professor
from WCU who recently published Anatomy of a
Purple State. He's a very influential political
scholar and pundit here in North Carolina. We
were extremely excited and lucky to get him on
the podcast and he had a lot of great stuff.
He imparted his wisdom upon us, I think is the
best way to put it. There was too much stuff
that happened. We were like, there's no way we're
going to fit this into 30 minutes, either before
or after our interview with him. So we've got
to do another one. We just have to. Yeah. We
owe it to you, dear listeners. We do. The people
need to know. They thirst for knowledge. Specifically
from us. Yeah, and if they continue to not get
SNAP benefits, they're going to be hungry for
a lot more, unfortunately. And part of the reason
is because just earlier today, the NC General
Assembly passed its budget, or at least the House
did, and nearly every single Democratic amendment
was shot down. And CJ, what were some of those
amendments? One of the ones that stands out to
me the most is Universal school lunch, free school
lunch. And it was just, you know, shot down.
I cannot remember which Republican had the honor,
I guess, of asking his colleagues to vote no.
But essentially what he said was, yeah, we don't
want to take away, we cannot afford to take away
from our voucher program to fund free school
lunch. I'm sorry, you were talking about the...
what like billion dollar voucher program you've
got going, you can't afford to take that away
to give to hungry kids. Now, Adrian, I could
be wrong, but you know, we're, we're both fathers
and while we don't, our kids aren't quite in
like school yet. I think we, I believe we're,
we will be correct in saying that, you know,
hungry kids don't learn. It's yeah. That's not
a stretch at all. And as, as somebody with a
kid, Dude, can we not just give them school lunches?
That is something I want my tax dollars to go
to. You know what I don't want my tax dollars
going towards? What? Rich kids in Durham, Raleigh,
and Charlotte, they get to go to a private Christian
school on their parents' dime. Oh wait, it's
not even their parents' dime anymore. Courtesy
of the taxpayer. But like, I mean, and they better
not hope that they're going to a very Orthodox
Christian school and then later come out as gay.
Cause apparently in States like Tennessee, just
to the West of us, they, yeah, they held somebody's
graduation certificate because this girl came
out as gay. Yes. This girl came out as gay right
before, or I think, yeah, I think it was right
before graduation and they withheld her, her
graduation. They withheld her diploma. Oh, my
God. Yeah. So not a far stretch of the imagination
to think that that might happen here. But anyway,
that's a big aside. Not happening in this state,
but it could happen here is my point. Yeah. Well,
like, I watched these amendments get voted on,
right? And I counted it. What did I text you?
It was like 45 or something like that, amendments.
Yeah. Only three passed. One of them was Republican,
one of the other two were Dems. And the rest
got voted down, or a few of them were tabled.
I can't remember which ones, but I remember listening
to them and being like, oh, they're not even
going to allow a vote on that. I think one of
them was going to help veterans in some way.
I can't remember what it was exactly. But the
Republicans are like, yeah, we're just going
to table that one for now. Yeah. So we don't
have to vote against it. Yeah. Why have an actual
discussion about it when you can just shoot it
down? Exactly. Especially if it's from a Democrat,
right? Might as well just throw it out straight
into the trash bin. Exactly. Exactly. Like, my
thing is. Their ability to do that, to just shoot
all these down, to not have that conversation,
to not have to have that conversation, is a result
or a symptom, however you want to phrase it really,
of a broken system. Our democracy here in North
Carolina is not a healthy one at all. No. And
it allows for behavior like we saw in the House
yesterday. Right, but if you were to pay attention
to anything that the North Carolina GOP is talking
about, everything's hunky -dory. Everything's
great, in fact. And according to the NC House
Press Twitter account, which has just been spewing
a bunch of Republican propaganda, I mean... To
the masses, I guess, of 17 bots that like it.
But the point is that one of the claims that
they made, one of the claims that they made,
CJ, was that North Carolina is number one in
starting teacher pay. So, I will say, I think
they raised it to starting teacher pay went from
$40 ,000 to $50 ,000, right? Now, that was not
quite what Governor Stein was asking for. He
was asking for, I think it was like... 10 .2
% raise. This was a 8 .2 % or 8 .4 % raise. And
here's the thing. $40 ,000 and $50 ,000, obviously
that is an increase. Right. But the bar is in
hell as far as I'm concerned as far as what teacher
pay should be. It should not be $50 ,000. In
my opinion, it should be $60 ,000. It should
be $70 ,000. To quote the West Wing, which I
know you love, Adrian, public education should
be incredibly expensive, but also free, just
like national defense. That's a good line. Yeah.
Thank you, Aaron Sorkin. But, like, no, it's
absolutely insane. 48 -50. Cool. Big whoop. You
should be doing more. No, I completely... Yeah.
But here we are. And the thing is, the Senate,
from what I understand, they agreed to a teacher
raise of, I think, 2 %? Mm -hmm. So now that
this bill has passed the House, it has to go...
Well, it's passed the House. The two chambers
have to essentially fight and compromise on this.
Yeah, so... You've got Phil Berger on one side
and Destin Hall on another. Phil Berger is kind
of notoriously an asshole. The Senate, I would
argue, is more to the right than the House is.
So dumb it down a little bit for me because I
may have missed a detail there. The cuts, or
excuse me, the raises for this starting teacher
pay are going to be higher from what the House
is trying to pass than what the Senate would
potentially want. Yes, yes. The House said, hey,
we'll give an 8 % raise. The Senate was like,
hey, we'll give a 2 % raise. So, I don't know,
hopefully they'll land on 6%. I mean... If they
had it their way, it probably just, if they could
really get away with it, it would be 0%. I mean,
we have to give credit to them at least trying
to get it up. Yeah. But again, like you said,
the bar is in hell. We have, at the same time
that these teachers are going to get paid a little
bit more, we still don't even get beyond the
top half of the country. in starting teacher
pay. We're barely over the highest amount for
any other state in the southeast. And it has
been, we have already lost so many teachers because
of how low the pay was here that it almost doesn't
matter if you raise the pay now because what
really needs to be happening is that the pay
needs to be substantially higher and you need
to actually have better working conditions for
teachers. in the state but they're not going
to do that because i mean why do that when you
can just spend money on voucher programs exactly
i am good lord it's a lot it's a lot yeah and
we and by the way we haven't even scratched the
surface of this bill this is just like the three
bigger things yeah i think they've also thrown
in like Bringing back the tax -free weekend for,
you know, back to school shopping, essentially,
here in North Carolina, which I remember, like,
growing up, like, my mom, my stepdad would be
like, okay, cool, we'll go get your stuff on
this date. Yeah. Like, this weekend. And I remember
going to, like, Walmart and seeing the, you know,
school supply aisles just packed with people.
You know, parents just... It was like Black Friday,
but for school supplies. Just grabbing stuff
off shelves, like trying to take advantage of
the tax -free weekend. You had teachers in there
because, you know, they're not adequately supplied.
You know, like shanking people just to get like
an extra box of colored pencils. Well, you're
shanking them with the box of colored pencils
that you just got. Yeah. I mean, it's handy.
Anyway, we're getting way off track now. Sorry.
What, what we really need to pivot to, because
again, we gotta, we gotta run through this. There
is too much stuff to cover. Um, we, we, we now
need to pivot to the federal budget because if,
if today wasn't enough of a kick in the ass,
we also got to see the one big, beautiful bill
pass in the house. CJ's like, he's giving me
this, this death look of like, I can't take much
for this bourbon. We can't show that on, on YouTube.
Um, the, the federal budget passed today and
the wee hours of the morning, it was an all nighter
by the way, by one vote. And we're not, this
isn't breaking news. I mean, this has been all
over social media at this point, but I think
what we really need to acknowledge and what I've
only seen a few people talking about is Why it
was only by one vote. Yeah. When I say this business
is being off to no end, I can't emphasize how
much. I also have to say, it feels like walking
on eggshells a little bit sometimes to talk about
this. Yeah, it does, but it needs to be talked
about because it is a problem at this point.
Currently, there are three vacant Democratic
seats in Congress. There is no urgency to fill
them. And the reason why there are three vacant
Democratic seats are because three Dems have
died this year alone. Six in the last two years.
Yeah. And the most recent of which was just,
what, two days ago? Actually, it may have been
yesterday. I can't remember which. No, it was
two days ago. Jerry Connolly. Yeah, Jerry Connolly,
who I think we maybe talked about on the pod
a few episodes ago. We did mention him briefly
when we were talking about them. We mentioned
the gerontocracy. and all that, and the fact
that he's in his mid -70s, the man has throat
cancer, and because it was his turn, now he needs
to be in charge of the Oversight Committee, which
is one of the most important committees that
anybody in a minority party can ever hope to
be in charge of. Because unlike most committees,
the minority party is in charge of the Oversight
Committee. That's an important distinction, because
I don't think a lot of people who pay attention
to the periphery of politics really understand
that this is huge. This is what keeps the majority
party in check. At least somewhat. Well, to the
best of their ability, yeah. But it is a great
way for Democrats to communicate, because all
those... Those snippy conversations that you
see in the committee chamber halls, all those
viral clips that you see of Jasmine Crockett
going off on Marjorie Taylor Greene, that happened
in the oversight committee. And Jerry Connolly
not too long ago announced that he was stepping
down from the chairmanship, right? Yeah. And,
you know, essentially cited his health because
he had advanced throat cancer. And also mentioned
that he was going to be retiring. Right. And
sure enough, a couple of days ago, he passed
away and that this isn't to say, you know, this
isn't to like walk on his grave or, you know,
try to, you know, speak ill of the dead. You
know, he was a great public servant, you know,
like I, even if they're on the other side of
the aisle, for the most part, at least they have
a great respect for someone who is willing to
put themselves out there, put themselves out
in the. public eye and open them up to that level
of just incredible scrutiny you know yeah i have
a tremendous respect for that but the fact is
he was put into that position because nancy pelosi
from a hospital bed in germany was whipping votes
to get him in there because as you said it was
his turn But that speaks to, this speaks to a
larger problem. And it is just the age of Congress.
Not that it matters, but I thought she was in
Switzerland. Or Luxembourg or something. It doesn't
matter. I don't remember. But yes. Hospital bed.
There you go. Yeah. But like, this doesn't say
we need to have like term limits or anything
like that. I'm really starting to come around
on the idea of age limits. And it's, it's simple
because we cannot allow this type of thing to
happen. Right. You know, there's people will
get in there and they'll stay in there for, you
know, years and years and years, decades, literal
decades. And as I've said before, long enough
for someone to be born, turn 18, be able to vote
for them. and then have their own kid that kid
grows up turns 18 and is still able to vote for
that exact same congressperson that is insane
you know what it's even the case here in the
state house i cannot remember her name i was
listening to her speak but one of the republicans
on the in the state house i looked her up she's
like 80 oh my gosh she's been there for 19 terms
so just call it 40 years Literally half her life
has been spent in the state house. That is actually
wild. But to bring it back to the federal stuff,
we cannot allow our unwillingness, and by our
I mean Dems, our unwillingness to ruffle feathers
and piss off someone. Allow our unwillingness
to do that, to allow or to let bad policy pass
because of that. Right. Yeah, because if we had
had one of these Democrats in office, like alive,
and that's, again, death is inevitable, but it
is also not something you can predict. all the
time right yeah somebody might have cancer but
that doesn't necessarily mean that you know exactly
when they're going to die so you can't blame
for that and my my biggest problem is that like
we we do have such an issue where on the left
we've had so many members of the democratic party
in recent years pass away from various different
circumstances and when it happens Republicans
will always take advantage of that. And that's
not limited to Congress people either. I mean,
let's look back at the reason that Amy Coney
Barrett is on the Supreme Court. It's because
Justice Ginsburg just did not leave the Supreme
Court when she could have, when she probably
should have. And again, respect to her. But at
the same time, we need to know when it's time
to pass the torch. Because passing the torch
is essential. And politics is not a marathon.
Politics is a baton race. And each baton, each
passing of the baton might be a marathon, but
you have to be prepared to pass it on. Because
if you don't... Then there's nobody to pass it
to and you're rudderless. And you're, are you
seriously going to tell me that in the 30 years
that you've been in Congress, you haven't found
one single person that you have mentored enough
that you are ready to pass the baton onto them.
You give them your endorsement and you use all
of your power, all of your connections, all of
your money to get them elected. It is about ego
to some of these people. It absolutely is. And
those are the kinds of people that we need to
be. primarying and getting out of office because
not that we disrespect you, not that we hate
your policies. It's time. Hang up the, hang it
up. And that's at least partly where, you know,
the whole David Hogg thing comes into play. Yeah.
His desire to marry us on these folks, you know,
and I'm not saying again, you know, did he roll
that idea out the best? Probably not. but no
and i think we've agreed on that yeah it doesn't
change the fact that we do need to take action
we truly do and again i want to emphasize for
like the third or fourth time it's not because
you're old necessarily it's just but it becomes
harder when you're older you know it does you
were talking about you know this is a baton race
you know When you get to a certain point, there's
someone there to take the baton. What happens?
You drop the baton, and the Republican Party
snatches it up. That's a great way to put it.
Yeah, it's absolutely true. Because a really
good example is also Raul Grijalva in Texas,
who died last year. And because the governor
in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, who, you know,
anyway, I'm not going to get into that. He has
the power to call special elections, and he is
refusing to. He's not going to do it. He's going
to wait until November. Which means that anybody
that is in Texas's 13th district right now does
not have a representative. Just has nobody in
Congress advocating for them. You can go a couple
months like that. Almost a full year? That's
insane. And here's the last part of this, because
we do need to move on again. Probably the most
high -profile example of this right now, and
probably the most unfortunate because of just
how devastating it is for him and his family.
Joe Biden was recently diagnosed with prostate
cancer. Aggressive prostate cancer. Stage four.
Stage four. And, you know, we saw people online
saying, you know, we hope he recovers, which
is a it's it's a sweet sentiment. But if you
know anything about cancer and if you know anything
about prostate cancer in particular. Look, he's
80. It doesn't look good. It doesn't look good.
He's he's he's not long for this world. And they
know that. They are very well aware of that.
When one party is held together with retirement
home duct tape, it becomes a problem. And we've
said many times, sometimes jokingly, sometimes
seriously, that Congress is not a nursing home.
This is what we mean. Now, Joe Biden was not
in Congress, but he was, or I mean, Joe Biden
was president, but he was in Congress for almost
40 years. Yeah, that's right. The upper echelons
of power for 40 years, and then he became president
and he served his time. He's done. But we saw
the end result of that long stretch of power
right there at the end of his. time in public
office it was visible and and all this is coming
to light now all the democratic operatives that
we knew the whole time please don't blame us
they're they're all coming out in full force
you know jake tapper just released a book yeah
that's right so but here's the last part i'm
going to say because we didn't even really touch
on the bill 800 almost 800 billion dollars to
cuts in medicaid the largest in u .s history
And we're slashing funding for essential programs
across the board. There's going to be giant tax
cuts for the ultra rich. No tax on tips was something
that was put into this bill. And as if that's
supposed to be some kind of consolation. And
it's like a crouton on a salad, right? We are
fighting and praising scraps being given to us
from the table. And the rest of it is being withheld
from us. It's like somebody gave us the turkey
stuffing and said that that's good enough, and
then they threw the turkey in the trash. In this
next segment, because of this bill being passed,
and we didn't really get to a whole lot of it,
but there's a lot in this bill. This is one of
the biggest spending bills that has ever been
passed. I mean, there's a reason that they called
it one big, beautiful bill. I prefer to call
it a big, stupid, ugly bill, but that's just
me. So we're going to call our senators tonight.
on air and leave them a message because that's
what everybody needs to be doing. There is not
much else that we can do before this bill gets
to the Senate because they're going to be the
last line of defense. While I am not holding
my breath, I'm going to be completely candid
and honest with everybody. While I'm not holding
my breath that Ted Budd or Tom Tillis is actually
going to vote against this bill, it's time to
put up or shut up. We really need to mobilize
and make sure that people are actually taking
part in the process and taking power where we
can. Because if you're not and you're just sitting
on your thumbs at home and thinking, well, there's
not anything I can really do anyway. I don't
actually have any power. Yeah, but you can make
a phone call. Yeah. You can make a phone call.
We're going to make two phone calls right now.
So we can either rock, paper, scissors for it,
or you're the older out of the two of us, so
I think you could take the senior senator, Mr.
Tom Tillis himself. Jesus Christ, okay. He's
only older by like, what, a year and a half,
I think? Something like that, yeah. And I do
want to say before we do, Adrian and I do have
a script that's been put together. If people
are curious about it, we can send to you somehow.
Just let us know. We will post it online along
with the clip of us doing this so that hopefully
that will motivate some people to actually get
on board. And they're going to try to move this
quick. So we don't have a whole lot of time to
actually get it out and make calls. So take the
opportunity and do it today. What I'm going to
do is I'm going to call, I'm going to put on
speaker so y 'all can hear. Hopefully it comes
through on the audio here, and we'll go from
there. Hello, this is Tom Tillis, Senator from
the great state of North Carolina. This is the
office of United States Senator Ted Ball. I'm
sorry we missed your call. If you'd like to leave
a detailed comment for me or a member of my staff
about legislation, please press 1. Wait while
I transfer your call. Hi, my name is Clayton
Robinson. I am a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Hello, my name is Adrian. I'm a resident of Clayton,
North Carolina. And I'm calling to express outrage
over your support for the federal budget. And
I'm just calling to express outrage over your
support for a federal budget. That includes nearly
$800 billion in cuts to Medicaid. That includes
nearly $800 billion. and cuts to medicaid what
is wrong with you to call it one big beautiful
bill is insulting this is the largest attack
on health care for working families in american
history and it passed by just one vote in the
house three democratic seats remain vacant because
of recent deaths that's not fiscal responsibility
like you claim to be that's not fiscal responsibility
that's exploitation of a broken system On top
of that, this budget slashes funding for essential
services, deregulates big pharma, and gives massive
tax breaks to the wealthy. But you want me to
believe that no tax on tips is some kind of a
working class win? It is honest to God insulting.
How dare you? Here in North Carolina, we're headed
into hurricane season with FEMA underfunded and
rural forestry services cut down to the bone.
Our state is more vulnerable than ever, and instead
of protecting us, you sold us out to billionaires.
I'm asking you directly, do you believe the people
of North Carolina deserve health care, disaster
preparedness, and dignity? Or just scraps and
sound bites? Because your vote will make it crystal
clear where your priorities lie. Your vote will
make it crystal clear where your priorities lie.
I urge you to vote no on this upcoming bill in
the Senate. And I urge you, urge you to vote
no. We are watching, and we will remember. There
we go. Beautiful. I tried to make myself sound
a little bit more flustered, but no. Yeah. Well,
and, and, you know, honestly, like I didn't have
to play it up that much because it is, it is,
we are right to be pissed. Don't let anybody
tell you that you are somehow undeserving of
your anger and your anxiety about this. Because
you should be pissed. You have every right to
be. You have every right to rant and rave about
a system, a government. Elected body, I should
say, of government that obviously does not give
a shit about you. It's the most patriotic thing
you can do. Exactly. And you can start by calling
your senators. So go ahead. We're going to allow
you to pause the podcast right now. We're going
to read out their phone numbers so you can give
them a call right now or you can go to their
website. They have emails there. So what was
Tom Tillis' phone number? So Tom Tillis' number
was 202 -224 -6342. Say it again. 202 -224 -6342.
And Ted Budd was... And what about good old Bud?
Sorry. And Ted Budd was 202 -224 -3154. That's
202 -224 -3154. Call now, because democracy is
at stake. And we... The next 10 minutes. Call
in the next 10 minutes if you actually want to
save a starving child. Anyway, the starving child
being the kids that... aren't going to get school
lunches so it's it's cool that you were laughing
about that cj very very cool man that was more
of a oh dear god just trying to get you canceled
it'll happen one of the one of these episodes
it's going to happen oh i'm sure i'm waiting
for it um a couple of things that we are honestly
got pissed about with this stuff is with this
bill you know pharmaceutical industry has been
deregulated Taxes on the wealthy, you know, just
untouched. They are just getting away scot -free
with paying little to no taxes. While you, me,
everyone listening to this, who makes I think
it's less than $175 ,000, has their tax burden
go up. Workers are, you know, with this no tax
on tip thing, just fed, you know, good vibes
and good luck. And then just get a nice kick
in the ass out the door. Yeah. And I mean, aside
from just the material problems, we're going
to experience some serious environmental problems,
both in our cities and in our forests. Just like
North Carolina is known for the western half
of the state being this beautiful landscape of
forestry. And right now, part of what they're
doing is they're cutting the essential services
for forests. And with hurricane season coming,
this is going to be essential. We're going to
cover that a little bit more, but Western North
Carolina is still vulnerable. Helene's damage
is still very, very much affecting that part
of the state. Especially in that Buncombe County
area. And they're trying desperately right now
to keep tourism and to keep hospitality, the
big industries out there, alive. Because that's
people's livelihood. It is. All this stuff is
bundled together. We are an ecosystem. And in
a capitalist system, when you don't take care
of people, when you don't take care of your environment,
eventually the system will come crashing down
around you. Like a house of cards. I went to
Asheville earlier this month for a friend's wedding.
And I just, Adrian, I just want an audience listening,
I guess. I just want to paint you a little bit
of a picture of what I saw, right? So we were
staying in a hotel probably about five minutes
from Biltmore Village, right? So for those of
y 'all who had never been to Asheville or at
least Biltmore Village, it's this area of Asheville
done up super elegant, super swanky because it's
right off the property of the Biltmore House
estate, right? And so it was all built to have
a very, like, high -brow, high -end sort of look,
right? They're famous for having a two -story
McDonald's with a player piano in it. But my
wife and I stayed probably about five minutes
from Biltmore Village. And obviously there's
like a little stoplight outside of our hotel.
And we turned right at the stoplight out of the
parking lot and went down five minutes and got
to the village. Five minutes the other way, you
start getting to a place like Arden, like these
little kind of smaller offshoots of Asheville.
Arden, mostly like untouched, right? My wife
had one of her grandmas lives in that area. They
lost power for a few days, right? Yeah. Take
a right at that stop when you get to the village,
five minutes down the road. So like maybe 10
minute difference between these two areas. They
are still rebuilding. The buildings there, some
of them just completely boarded up. You know,
weeds growing up around them. Looks like they've
been untouched. You know, they're done. They're
gone. Right. Other buildings, you know, at one
point I remember stopping at a stoplight and
just kind of looking inside one of them. And
they were down to the studs. I'm like, well,
that seems a little bit... weird for for repairs
you think they just you know maybe replace the
drywall or something like that and i got to think
about no they've got mold yeah that was my first
thought as well you look at the outside of the
buildings and all of them if you don't know what
you're looking at for a second once it hits you
it can be jarring all the buildings on the outside
have these marks and it's the water line Oh,
my gosh. It was how high the floodwaters got.
Some of them were past the windows, above the
windows. And, you know, we were, what, seven
months or so removed from the hurricane. They're
still rebuilding. They're still repairing. And,
like Adrian said, they need tourism now more
than ever. especially like downtown Nashville,
you know, these are stores that rely on tourism.
The entire Western North Carolina area relies
on tourism. Yeah. You know, they've got the,
it's an, it's not exactly a wealthy area. So,
but like you've got the leaf peepers in the fall,
right. Which is when Helene hit and destroy their
economy or destroy their tourist season, I should
say. Yeah. And you look around and there are
still a bunch of trees down. And obviously there's
only X amount of workers available. There's X
amount of funds available. Because the federal
government is not doing shit for the area. The
most help we're going to have at this point in
Western North Carolina is from the General Assembly.
But you look around and you see all these trees
down. I see kindling. Yeah, that's a good point.
Because, I mean, it's not like it stayed wet,
right? Right, exactly. It dries. And all it takes
is one rogue lightning strike from Summer Storm
or one careless person putting out their cigarette.
It can all go up. And again... Which does more
damage. And again, this area known for its dense
forestry. Yeah. And they're old forests, too.
That's another thing. It's not any of this new
growth stuff. These mountains and these forests
have been here for millennia. They are millions
of years old. They are literally older than bones.
Vulnerable is putting it lightly. If tourists
won't come and businesses won't stay, then What's
left for people out there? It becomes a lot harder
to live. And like you said, if fires actually
come, they're not going to wait for us to decide
what to do in the General Assembly. It's just
going to roll through. Mother Nature doesn't
give a shit about politics. Sure doesn't. And
I wish we were being hyperbolic here. Like, with
climate change and with the inability to attack
it anymore, because we're past the point of no
return. This isn't my opinion. This is what ecologists
and climate scientists say. We're past the point
where we can really do anything meaningful to
address climate change. The world is just kind
of... screwed now what we can do is mitigate
it right we can we can do some damage control
meanwhile meanwhile we're we're we're far more
concerned about not giving school lunches to
children we're far more concerned about making
sure that doge can go and cut essential services
that are you know too expensive for the federal
or this for the state government to be in charge
of and actually That's something that happened
this week, too. Not to go off on a tangent, I
mean, this is something we're going to talk about,
but I think it's relevant, is that just today,
as we're recording this, we were blessed with
Brad Briner, the treasurer, being given power
over North Carolina's version of Doge, which
you said was called Dave, right? So, yeah. If
anybody's seen Smiling Friends, the show from
Adult Swim I'm immediately thinking of Dave World
so yeah this is it's off the cuff I'm sorry but
go watch the show it's funny and I when I think
about what Dave is going to do to this state
that it's like trying to pick off just a little
bit more chicken off of a chicken wing that has
already been just like every single piece has
been taken this analogy is a little weird i get
what i get what you're saying i just pulled up
an article from wunc which is npr essentially
yeah so it's called the dave act which stands
for Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency.
It would be led by the auditor, Dave Bulyuk,
who we've talked about a couple times on here.
But essentially, if the bill became law, all
state agencies would submit reports by October
1st justifying their existence and explaining
any vacancies that have gone unfilled for at
least six months. Bulyuk said, my commitment
is to do this in a nonpartisan way that's data
-centric. Blah, blah, blah. I'm going to skip
down a little bit. There we go. Dave would be
required to recommend positions for elimination
as well as state offices or agencies that should
be dissolved. Those findings would be due in
a report to the General Assembly by December
31st. Interesting. Okay, so I was wrong. Sorry.
I am mixing up two different things. So Brad
Briner was given... They passed a bill to strip
investment control from the state treasurer and
hand it to a political board, which is appointed
by legislative leadership. So... That's where
you can trust them. Right. So again, okay, I
said this months ago, maybe not on this podcast,
but I said this months ago, that everything they're
doing is they're just trying to consolidate all
power in the General Assembly. That's it. They
want to take it away from the courts, both appellate
and supreme. They want to take power away from
the governor's office, which we've already seen
them do that multiple times. They want to take
power away from the council of state. They want
all the power to be firmly concentrated in the
hands of the legislature. Why? Because if all
of the power is there, then they can... It's
not an autocracy anymore. Right? It's... Something
worse, almost. Now there's just this faceless
conglomerate, this faceless body of people deciding
together to make things happen for the state
so that they can retain power for themselves.
The legislature also has the ability to cut up
its own maps. which is part of why our state
is gerrymandered to hell in the state at the
state level. I mean, not just at the state level,
obviously, but go, go look at our state house
and state Senate maps. Like really go take a
look at them and tell me that that's fair. Just
want to take a second to talk about, you know,
taking action again. Yeah. Cause let's be honest,
this one's been a downer and we're sorry about
that. I wish that was, this was a bonus episode.
We could have done a bonus episode on like Alison
Riggs winning. But like, yeah, like this is stuff
that needs to be talked about. And that the fact
is politics is not always, or even mostly or
partly sunshine rainbows. This is a truth in
this, what people need to know. Yeah. But what
can we do to like stop it? Sorry. I was just
going to say, if we start the sunshine and rainbows
party, then maybe, because that's what we need.
Maybe we need another third party. Then, then
things will. I may be revealing my hand a little
bit. Anyway, what can we do? One of the big things
is to stop gerrymandering, right? Now, how can
you, the average person, do that? Are you a judge?
Are you some federal appointee? No, no. What
you can do is, and we've already done part of
this, we've elected Alison Riggs, right? Yeah.
I'm getting this from a... Kate Barr's Can't
Win Victory Fund, her Instagram. In 26 of next
year, we can elect Anita Earls to the Supreme
Court re -elector, I guess. And then in 28, we
can elect two Democratic judges, take her courts
back, and actually draw bare maps. Yeah, and
the reason he says two, three are up for election.
Is it likely that we'll win all three? Probably
not. Is it likely that we'll win? any of them
that remains to be seen, but that, that depends
on you. That entirely depends on you and how
involved you are willing to get. Anyway, sorry.
I just want to take a second and talk about an
action that you yourself can take. Yeah. Yeah.
And I think, I think people need to hear that
because like too often we feel as though there's
so much going on. And we talked a little bit
about this in the last episode with our prelude,
to Wiley Nichols interview that you need to stop
doom scrolling and you need to actually get action,
you know, be in the arena, actually make some
and participate. And I'm not talking about donating.
I'm not talking about getting involved in like
the party structure, but doing like five simple
things throughout the election cycle, throughout
the year, hell just go to a school board meeting.
That's more than most people will ever do in
their entire lives. Go to a city council meeting.
Sit in on one of your county commissioner board
meetings. Most of them are live streamed now
anyways. Because they know that most people can't
make those. They hold them on like a weeknight
at 6 in the afternoon. Look, Raleigh City Council...
Some of their most important meetings are like
2 a .m. or not 2 a .m., 2 p .m. on a Tuesday.
I was about to say 2 a .m. is like some schizophrenics.
2 p .m., 2 p .m. Yeah, nobody's going to be able
to make that. Yeah, exactly. We should probably
try to bring this back. But, you know, like Adrian
was saying earlier, the stuff with, you know,
Boyack and the Dave Act and all that stuff, it
is a power grab, right? And to kind of go back
a few more minutes, talking about Western North
Carolina, we should point out that, as we are
recording this, it is May 22nd, right? Hurricane
season begins June 1st, right? Because of things
like doge cuts, FEMA is underfunded. NOAA, which
is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
which is essentially the National Weather Service,
is underfunded. In North Carolina, especially
rural and coastal regions, are exposed and unprotected.
North Carolina coasts get hit by hurricanes a
lot. A lot. And part of it is just because of
where we are just kind of geographically, how
hurricanes that start off the coast of Africa
kind of make their way with the ocean currents
and all that. It's a bunch of nerdy... meteorological
stuff that I love, but I won't get into them.
But, like, you know, we need to actually figure
out where our priorities lie. Or, well, by we,
I mean the General Assembly, the Republicans
especially. Are our priorities empowering ourselves,
stripping away power from others, or is it actually
getting off our ass and fucking protecting the
people of North Carolina, protecting the people
who are going to be the most vulnerable? because
they are exposed by these cuts yeah and and i
brought up tennessee earlier for a different
reason but if you are aware of like weather patterns
and things like that if you follow any any of
that even tangentially there was recently a really
bad hurricane or not hurricane a really bad tornado
that yeah that killed a bunch of people because
there was no warning why was there no warning
Because of exactly what CJ was just talking about.
So don't think that when June comes around and
hurricane season starts up, you can't depend
on getting updates from either the state or federal
government to actually protect you in the case
of an emergency. And that's scary. That's scary
for a lot of people. And I don't mean to frighten
anybody by saying that, but like, this is what
it's come to. This is where we're at right now.
Yeah, no, it is. And I just want to point out,
because I've heard this argument made a couple
of times, like, oh, well, I'll just check the
weather app on my phone. Where do you think Apple,
where do you think the Weather Channel app, where
do you think WRAL's weather app, where do you
think these apps... get their information. They
get it from the National Weather Service. They
get it from NOAA. If these places are underfunded,
this data is either going to be harder to get,
it's going to be more expensive to get, which
then they'll have to somehow pass on to you,
which you may not be able to afford. It's the
data they get might be delayed and outdated by
the time it gets to you. Yeah. This is a problem.
This is a serious problem. The stuff in Tennessee,
the tornadoes, they get warnings eventually,
but way after they needed them. In a situation
like a tornado. Yeah, not when it mattered, right?
Every second accounts. It truly does. It's not
hyperbole. It does. nws national weather service
center there was essentially shut down overnight
because they didn't have the funding to keep
people on overnight yeah which again nerdy meteorological
stuff tornadoes that happen at night are a lot
more deadly and a lot more destructive at least
in the cost of lives in those that occur in daytime
because you know what people are asleep at night
yeah go figure and and you know and yeah and
we talk about political storms happening all
over the state all over the country but like
those are immaterial compared to what is coming
literally from our our our oceans and from middle
america this is very real stuff and so if you're
angry and you should be Like we said, that's
good. You need to stay mad. And we also need
to get loud, which is why we're once again at
the end of this episode asking you to put down
the phone that you're watching this or listen
to this on. Go and call your legislators right
now. You also should support local organizing.
That means getting involved with. random NGOs
that may be supporting you in your county. Get
involved with your county party if you want to.
We're not urging anybody to get involved directly
with the Democratic Party, but there are plenty
of other groups that are doing a lot of great
work that you can get involved with. Indivisible
is one that comes to mind. And those are not
just liberals and leftists getting involved in
that. There's Republicans there too. I've met
a few of them at some of those events. And you
can also tag us and DM us with things that you're
concerned about. Hit us up with news stories.
Hit us up with people that you want us to talk
to or talk about. And also, hit us up with people
you want primaried. Because if we get to the
point, CJ and I were talking about this a little
bit, if we get to the point where we are able
to actually have a bunch of candidates on to
talk to them, this is the kind of stuff that
we're going to bring up. and we got a little
bit of criticism for our Wiley Nickel episode,
and I just want to say off the bat, also, I needed
to make an edit. At the beginning of the episode,
I said Chuck Hubbard, and I meant Chuck Edwards.
I said maybe he could run for Chuck Hubbard's
seat, and I meant Chuck Edwards. I was like,
dang it, two Western North Carolina guys named
Chuck, and I messed it up. Anyway, I needed to
make... A bit of an apology, almost, of sorts,
because some people noticed that we could have
gone a little bit harder on Why the Nickel. Point
taken. And we will do our best to continue to
hold people's feet to the fire on certain things.
But we're also going to be respectful of people
that come on our podcast, especially when we're
interviewing them. We want to make sure that
they get their message out. We trust fans of
the show and people that are going to listen
to this in the future. To be able to discern
for themselves what they believe in. We're not
here to platform only progressives. I even said
to somebody online, like, hell, I'll interview
Republicans on here. If they're willing to take
the smoke, we'll do it. We'll do it. That might
be a little bit of a roast session. I might not
be able to help myself, honestly. You know, they'll
gain one ounce of respect from me. if they can
actually sit there and take it and not get all
emotional about it. But all that said, this is
our pledge to you, the listeners out there, that
as the podcast continues to grow, as our advocacy
efforts and our involvement, both in our respective
fields, continues to gain more experience, we
aim to get better and better as time goes on.
and making sure that you stay at the cutting
edge of North Carolina politics. And you can
certainly do that by following us everywhere
that we have a podcast and everywhere that we're
on online. We're on all the socials, pretty much
all the socials. And you can follow us on Substack
now. We post the podcast there. And we also have
a bunch of links to our Patreon if you want to
support the show. So please, we would love it
if you get involved and stay on the left of Old
North with us. Stay safe out there, and thanks
for tuning in.