WEBVTT 00:00:05.379 --> 00:00:09.199 Welcome back to the Left of Old North. I'm your 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:12.259 host, Adrian. And I'm your other host, CJ. And 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:17.940 today, it is Pride Month. Woo! So for all my 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:21.179 ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between 00:00:21.179 --> 00:00:25.519 or outside of that, however you identify yourself, 00:00:25.699 --> 00:00:27.879 thank you for tuning in and listening. Again, 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:32.439 my name is Adrian. He, him pronouns. And CJ, 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.909 as far as I know, is he, him as well. yes nice 00:00:35.909 --> 00:00:39.170 yes so it is june 1st when we're recording this 00:00:39.170 --> 00:00:41.850 when we release it'll be june 2nd and across 00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:44.609 the country cities are raising rainbow flags 00:00:44.609 --> 00:00:49.289 holding parades and spotlighting lgbtq plus stories 00:00:49.289 --> 00:00:53.429 and companies are changing their logos as as 00:00:53.429 --> 00:00:56.950 they do every year and you know i i sometimes 00:00:56.950 --> 00:00:59.649 flip -flop between being like scrolling through 00:00:59.649 --> 00:01:01.789 my timeline and thinking oh that's nice they 00:01:01.789 --> 00:01:05.420 they changed their logo and when i see like raytheon 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:09.280 do it i've become a little bit less enthused 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:13.560 but naturally the terminally online when they're 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:16.359 not sucking up to elon musk are working in droves 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:19.260 to make pride especially hostile for queer people 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:22.819 online and in north carolina it's only getting 00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:25.260 harder to pretend that visibility is enough so 00:01:25.260 --> 00:01:28.900 here at left of old north for us pride month 00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:32.180 is about resistance just as much as it's about 00:01:32.180 --> 00:01:37.219 celebration. So let's be real. Are we ready to 00:01:37.219 --> 00:01:40.959 get real, CJ? I think so. I hope so. The NCGOP 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:46.019 has spent the last few years, and I use the term 00:01:46.019 --> 00:01:49.659 the last few years very liberally, turning our 00:01:49.659 --> 00:01:53.459 state into a testing ground for anti -gay legislation. 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:58.789 Would you say that's true? Oh, yeah. Yeah. especially 00:01:58.789 --> 00:02:03.189 especially against the trans youth we we just 00:02:03.189 --> 00:02:08.930 have to go back to uh 2016 hp2 yeah and we almost 00:02:08.930 --> 00:02:11.710 got a whole redux of that yeah we almost did 00:02:11.710 --> 00:02:14.750 uh this go -round uh luckily luckily the new 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:16.469 version of it died which i think we mentioned 00:02:16.469 --> 00:02:19.430 a few episodes back but new version of it died 00:02:19.430 --> 00:02:22.949 but still the fact that it was even introduced 00:02:22.949 --> 00:02:25.889 in the first place again you know says a lot 00:02:25.889 --> 00:02:30.310 i mean It's been nine years since HB2. You would 00:02:30.310 --> 00:02:34.289 think, or at least would hope, right, that we 00:02:34.289 --> 00:02:38.650 as a state, as a society, you know, having the 00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:40.849 legislative body that we do, you would hope and 00:02:40.849 --> 00:02:44.009 think that maybe we would maybe progress a little 00:02:44.009 --> 00:02:47.310 bit. But alas, here we are. We have, you know, 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:54.669 still just absolute, disgusting anti -LGBT legislation 00:02:54.669 --> 00:02:57.520 coming out of the General Assembly. Yep. For 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:00.020 every progress, there is regress, unfortunately. 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:04.500 So while corporations are slapping rainbows on 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:07.479 their logos, Republicans in Raleigh continue 00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:11.719 to slap bills on Phil Berger and Destin Hall's 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:15.860 desks and ask them to demonize queer people in 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:18.409 criminalized care. and that's not stopping anytime 00:03:18.409 --> 00:03:23.530 soon oh no not at all not at all and in the last 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:25.509 few years right because i mentioned the last 00:03:25.509 --> 00:03:28.469 few years uh we we just i just want to run down 00:03:28.469 --> 00:03:31.770 a couple of the things that republicans have 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:36.669 done to attack the gay community republicans 00:03:36.669 --> 00:03:39.930 passed a sweeping slate of anti -trans laws in 00:03:39.930 --> 00:03:43.189 2023 banning gender -affirming care for minors 00:03:43.189 --> 00:03:46.620 and a don't say gay style law that restricted 00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:49.139 what educators could say about gender and sexuality 00:03:49.139 --> 00:03:53.699 hb 574 which was the so -called fairness in women's 00:03:53.699 --> 00:03:57.439 sport act and and again they don't care about 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.680 fairness in women's sports that's not the point 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.460 they banned trans girls from competing in school 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:05.560 sports despite zero evidence of it being an actual 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:09.400 issue in north carolina so yeah taxpayer dollars 00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:12.210 at work everybody Living in North Carolina and 00:04:12.210 --> 00:04:14.009 growing up in a small town, I know all about 00:04:14.009 --> 00:04:17.209 the small town network of communication, let's 00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:19.269 say. One person on one side of town says something, 00:04:19.370 --> 00:04:21.329 someone else on the other side knows about it 00:04:21.329 --> 00:04:24.069 in 30 minutes. My understanding, at least, is 00:04:24.069 --> 00:04:30.370 the, it was HB 574, the anti -trans youth, or 00:04:30.370 --> 00:04:35.209 anti -trans athletes bill. Yeah. My understanding 00:04:35.209 --> 00:04:37.839 is that... What happened was, like, there was 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:39.899 a volleyball match, like a high school volleyball 00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:43.500 match. A person got, like, knocked down. She 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:47.000 got pissed, started making all these wild -ass 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.319 accusations, and it blew up. All because, like, 00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:53.480 one person got mad. That was it. At least that's 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:56.560 my understanding of it. Yeah. That sounds about 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:01.939 right. Now, this is such a non -issue, right? 00:05:02.589 --> 00:05:04.790 on both a state level and a national level because 00:05:04.790 --> 00:05:06.949 we see this conversation happening on a national 00:05:06.949 --> 00:05:09.629 scale as well someone put it like this you know 00:05:09.629 --> 00:05:12.430 you know i mean like trick like how they put 00:05:12.430 --> 00:05:15.529 it then we're like trans athletes competing like 00:05:15.529 --> 00:05:17.670 high school sports right now it's like less than 00:05:17.670 --> 00:05:20.949 there were kids that elon has you know yeah that's 00:05:20.949 --> 00:05:23.850 how it's that's that's very true obviously don't 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:26.389 know the exact number but it's i don't think 00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:28.620 elon knows the exact number of kids he has I 00:05:28.620 --> 00:05:30.139 don't think he knows what planet he's on. He's 00:05:30.139 --> 00:05:32.220 too high on ketamine all the damn time, pissing 00:05:32.220 --> 00:05:34.100 himself, apparently, and getting cucked by Stephen 00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:36.379 Miller. Oh, shit. No, I think it's the other 00:05:36.379 --> 00:05:38.379 way around. I think Stephen Miller is getting 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:40.639 cucked. Oh, yeah, it is. That's right, right. 00:05:40.699 --> 00:05:44.060 Okay, fucking Stephen Miller. He's getting clocked 00:05:44.060 --> 00:05:46.439 by him, that's for sure. So, bringing it back. 00:05:46.660 --> 00:05:48.519 We'll see if this stays in the episode or not. 00:05:48.779 --> 00:05:52.220 Yeah. But... No, it will. It will. That's going 00:05:52.220 --> 00:05:57.300 to be a TikTok. Anyway, so, like I said, HB574. 00:05:58.089 --> 00:06:00.889 It is such a non -issue. But as we've said before, 00:06:00.949 --> 00:06:03.930 Republicans know their regular policies can't 00:06:03.930 --> 00:06:07.269 pass or aren't popular. So they have to focus 00:06:07.269 --> 00:06:10.189 on those kind of cultural issues. And what happens 00:06:10.189 --> 00:06:14.189 in that is the people who tend to be knocked 00:06:14.189 --> 00:06:16.730 down the most in general just continue to be 00:06:16.730 --> 00:06:21.529 piled on. Right. And used as scapegoats and used 00:06:21.529 --> 00:06:24.529 to create the fear of the other, essentially. 00:06:25.069 --> 00:06:28.879 And like with... senate bill 49 the don't say 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:32.439 uh gay bill right so this is what it says it 00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:34.839 says it targets lgbtq plus youth by limiting 00:06:34.839 --> 00:06:36.879 instruction on gender identity and sexuality 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:40.360 in k -4 classrooms and requiring schools to inform 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:42.160 parents about changes to a student's name or 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:45.759 pronouns right bans curriculum on gender identity 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:47.399 sexual activity or sexuality in kindergarten 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:50.439 through fourth grade okay I could be wrong. I 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.079 don't remember hearing a lot about sex in K -4th 00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:54.920 grade to begin with, but that's just a whole 00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:59.680 other thing. But, like, you know, this also filters 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.199 down simply to say, you know, to, you know, a 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:06.920 teacher saying, hey, or a male teacher saying, 00:07:07.019 --> 00:07:10.699 hey, my husband and I went and did this the other 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:13.319 day. Or, you know, a female teacher saying, my 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:16.740 wife and I, or whatever. You know, it has... 00:07:17.129 --> 00:07:19.189 these consequences, you know, this law, this 00:07:19.189 --> 00:07:23.870 law can be violated super easily in the most 00:07:23.870 --> 00:07:28.509 innocuous sort of way. Right. But also one thing 00:07:28.509 --> 00:07:32.170 that bothers me immensely about that bill and, 00:07:32.209 --> 00:07:34.069 you know, other bills like it throughout the 00:07:34.069 --> 00:07:38.149 country is it turns teachers in this sense into 00:07:38.149 --> 00:07:42.009 mandatory reporters. Yes. Obviously, you know, 00:07:42.009 --> 00:07:46.639 everyone deserves to be loved. and accepted for 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.759 who they are, regardless of gender identity, 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:53.980 regardless of sexual orientation, all that. But 00:07:53.980 --> 00:07:58.240 you are forcing teachers to out students, students 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:02.759 who might not be in a safe environment. Yeah. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:05.100 That's dangerous. You say you care about the 00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:06.879 students, you care about the kids, but then you 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:10.180 go and risk them being in a dangerous situation 00:08:10.180 --> 00:08:13.649 by outing them. Right. And on the flip side of 00:08:13.649 --> 00:08:18.009 that, it is targeted erasure of a person's sexual 00:08:18.009 --> 00:08:20.470 identity just because you're explicitly saying, 00:08:20.569 --> 00:08:23.370 I have a husband or I have a wife and you are 00:08:23.370 --> 00:08:25.990 of the same sex. But it's literally no different 00:08:25.990 --> 00:08:28.329 if there is a same -sex couple and they mention 00:08:28.329 --> 00:08:32.149 their husbands or their wives. It is entirely 00:08:32.149 --> 00:08:35.529 the same. And if conservatives are so worried 00:08:35.529 --> 00:08:38.009 about their kids asking questions, then they're 00:08:38.009 --> 00:08:40.700 going to really need to explain to them. Why 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:48.080 Stephen Miller is getting... That cannot stay 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:50.000 in the episode. I'm going to have to cut that 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:55.519 out. Anyway. If conservatives are so concerned 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:58.639 about kids asking questions in the classroom, 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:00.919 they're kind of missing the point of what school 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:05.700 is. I mean, not only is it about education, but 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:07.740 it's about socializing with your peers. Like 00:09:07.740 --> 00:09:12.039 they want, at some point, and this may be a little 00:09:12.039 --> 00:09:16.120 bit too like 1984 brained, but do they just want 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.799 everybody to have like blinders? Would they prefer 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:21.360 for all kids to just be in cubicles and like 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:23.419 have an iPad with their teacher's face on it? 00:09:23.460 --> 00:09:25.159 And the teacher isn't actually a real teacher. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:29.379 It's just an AI teacher. And then like the curriculum, 00:09:29.379 --> 00:09:31.700 I'm not trying to give them any ideas here. But 00:09:31.700 --> 00:09:34.980 we're already pretty close to that. And despite 00:09:34.980 --> 00:09:36.759 the fact that they want to tout that they're 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:39.440 raising teacher pay, the fact of the matter is 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:41.679 that we have already lost a lot of great teachers 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:45.399 in this state specifically because of these types 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.279 of bills. And if we want to go even harsher, 00:09:48.419 --> 00:09:50.779 yeah, conservative lawmakers have floated even 00:09:50.779 --> 00:09:53.659 harsher measures like forcing teachers to out 00:09:53.659 --> 00:09:58.220 trans gay youth to parents. And they've already 00:09:58.220 --> 00:10:02.960 done that to a certain extent. it seems innocuous 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:05.559 right if there's a name change it's like well 00:10:05.559 --> 00:10:07.980 wouldn't you want your parents to know that's 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:10.379 not the point though and you know that it's not 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:13.460 because one of the only reasons that a teenager 00:10:13.460 --> 00:10:16.440 would change their name is because they want 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:19.899 to be referred to as something else rather than 00:10:19.899 --> 00:10:23.860 their gender assigned at birth name right exactly 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:26.879 it's bills like this are dangerous and some of 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:31.279 them are you know gussied up they're like disguised 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:35.000 to, you know, look innocuous. Well, they're trapdoors, 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:39.200 right? Yeah. The intent behind them, though, 00:10:39.299 --> 00:10:43.440 is a sinister one. Yeah. It really is. And what 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:47.320 I mean by trapdoors is it's a way to bait people 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:51.019 on the other side of the issue to support, you 00:10:51.019 --> 00:10:54.779 know, by proxy, support something that is inherently 00:10:54.779 --> 00:10:59.840 bad, right? A good example would be, oh, so you 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:05.179 are pro -philia because you support this bill. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:08.460 And it could be anything. Democrats do it too. 00:11:08.779 --> 00:11:11.799 There have been many instances of that where 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:14.919 parties will create trap doors within bills so 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:17.460 that if you are supporting this thing that you 00:11:17.460 --> 00:11:20.820 are obviously morally wrong in some cases, it's 00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:25.379 just politics, baby. That is what these bills 00:11:25.379 --> 00:11:28.220 are, because then you can just pull the rug out 00:11:28.220 --> 00:11:30.320 and be like, yeah, but that means that you're 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:33.139 sexualizing children. And then it becomes an 00:11:33.139 --> 00:11:35.419 issue that they can run off of in the next cycle. 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:39.100 Yeah, it does. It forces you into a situation 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:43.340 where you have to explain. And in politics, if 00:11:43.340 --> 00:11:45.919 you are constantly explaining, you are losing. 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:50.919 Yeah, exactly. And unfortunately, it's a sort 00:11:50.919 --> 00:11:55.100 that cuts both ways. Right. This is why this 00:11:55.100 --> 00:11:57.600 is part of why Mark Robinson lost his bid for 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:01.379 governor, because he had so many, so many clips 00:12:01.379 --> 00:12:07.240 of him just being outright anti -gay, like could 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:12.379 not defend it. Anti -gay calling LGBTQ plus people 00:12:12.379 --> 00:12:15.759 filth, the scum of the earth. I may be paraphrasing 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:18.909 a little bit, but that is the gist of it. And 00:12:18.909 --> 00:12:21.889 those clips were played over and over and over 00:12:21.889 --> 00:12:24.570 and over again. So at some point, you're going 00:12:24.570 --> 00:12:29.190 to be embarrassed. Everybody has a friend or 00:12:29.190 --> 00:12:33.789 a loved one or a co -worker that's gay or that's 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:37.070 trans or bi. Maybe not everybody has one that's 00:12:37.070 --> 00:12:39.409 trans, but everybody has somebody that they know 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:42.909 tangentially within their lives, within their 00:12:42.909 --> 00:12:46.720 circle. that falls in this category so it becomes 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:49.799 something that's really difficult to tell yourself 00:12:49.799 --> 00:12:52.240 like i'm okay with voting this for this person 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:56.080 when he keeps talking about stuff like that it 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.259 tanked him both in polling and at the end of 00:12:59.259 --> 00:13:02.539 the year with the election but the problem is 00:13:02.539 --> 00:13:05.759 that that's one guy and the legislature is stacked 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:09.000 with extremists that are more interested in targeting 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.809 kids than fixing real issues more interested 00:13:11.809 --> 00:13:14.649 in targeting trans people and drag shows than 00:13:14.649 --> 00:13:17.629 they are in fixing the damage wrought by Hurricane 00:13:17.629 --> 00:13:19.990 Helene in Western North Carolina, which we can 00:13:19.990 --> 00:13:22.509 talk about in a minute because we'll get to that. 00:13:22.789 --> 00:13:25.970 People are, you know, the trans community is 00:13:25.970 --> 00:13:29.610 demonized, but you're more likely to be assaulted 00:13:29.610 --> 00:13:32.950 by some straight white Christian male than you 00:13:32.950 --> 00:13:36.110 are someone who's trans. I mean, it's true. And 00:13:36.110 --> 00:13:39.730 this isn't all to say this Pride episode. this 00:13:39.730 --> 00:13:41.870 right at the beginning of pride month is meant 00:13:41.870 --> 00:13:43.629 to be like well look at all the bad things that 00:13:43.629 --> 00:13:45.649 have happened because all the bad things that 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:48.889 have happened to gay and queer people and trans 00:13:48.889 --> 00:13:52.990 people in the past it's to show that celebrating 00:13:52.990 --> 00:13:56.470 pride celebrating this month of june is more 00:13:56.470 --> 00:13:59.549 than just celebration it is about bonding together 00:13:59.549 --> 00:14:03.129 continuing to organize continuing to educate 00:14:03.129 --> 00:14:07.870 both ourselves and each other and To fight back. 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:11.450 Yes. I do want to point out, you know, the fact 00:14:11.450 --> 00:14:15.009 that some Republicans like to try and make this 00:14:15.009 --> 00:14:18.330 into a, oh, well, you know, there weren't any, 00:14:18.409 --> 00:14:22.269 you know, gay people when I was growing up. No, 00:14:22.269 --> 00:14:26.129 there were. Queer people have always existed. 00:14:26.330 --> 00:14:29.309 And they always will. It's like, yeah, man. Because 00:14:29.309 --> 00:14:34.629 if they were, they'd be ostracized. Yeah. And 00:14:34.629 --> 00:14:38.370 I mean. Some were, despite, you know, some of 00:14:38.370 --> 00:14:40.309 the things that they've done. One of the first 00:14:40.309 --> 00:14:43.070 people that comes to mind is Alan Turing. Yes. 00:14:43.269 --> 00:14:47.029 You know, he was a mathematician who essentially 00:14:47.029 --> 00:14:52.169 broke the German code machine in World War II. 00:14:52.370 --> 00:14:56.570 And then what happened? He was, you know, I think 00:14:56.570 --> 00:14:59.049 chemically castrated. He was chemically castrated. 00:14:59.269 --> 00:15:04.710 Yeah, chemically castrated. ostracized from society 00:15:04.710 --> 00:15:08.590 despite saving thousands upon thousands upon 00:15:08.590 --> 00:15:14.210 thousands of lives with his work. These are our 00:15:14.210 --> 00:15:16.450 friends. They're our neighbors. They're people 00:15:16.450 --> 00:15:19.629 that we work with. And there are kids that are 00:15:19.629 --> 00:15:23.169 born right now that are going to be gay or trans, 00:15:23.409 --> 00:15:29.730 bisexual, lesbians. It happens. We're here to 00:15:29.730 --> 00:15:34.919 let you know that As long as there is a fight, 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:40.919 we will be in it. And so this month, we are going 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:43.500 to be interviewing some people. We're going to 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:47.220 be digging into the history of LGBTQ plus issues 00:15:47.220 --> 00:15:50.019 in North Carolina. We're going to be talking 00:15:50.019 --> 00:15:53.399 to some folks who are a lot more educated on 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:55.879 these subjects than we are and asking them some 00:15:55.879 --> 00:15:58.700 questions. And I hope you'll stick around with 00:15:58.700 --> 00:16:01.789 us. Um, before we move on to our next topic, 00:16:01.929 --> 00:16:06.809 just want to say that if you have anything that 00:16:06.809 --> 00:16:10.529 you'd like to express to us, make sure to email 00:16:10.529 --> 00:16:12.710 us, send us a message on any of our socials. 00:16:12.710 --> 00:16:14.769 We're at left of old North on pretty much everything. 00:16:15.529 --> 00:16:19.389 We'd love to hear from you and have a very, very, 00:16:19.470 --> 00:16:23.649 very happy pride month. So, you know, we just 00:16:23.649 --> 00:16:26.309 talked about a lot of bad bills that the general 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:31.049 assembly has had in the past. But that doesn't 00:16:31.049 --> 00:16:33.490 say there is any shortage of bad bills coming 00:16:33.490 --> 00:16:35.990 down the pipeline. And we'll get to one specific 00:16:35.990 --> 00:16:39.110 one here in just a moment. But first, I just 00:16:39.110 --> 00:16:41.149 want to talk about, you know, as we are recording 00:16:41.149 --> 00:16:43.409 this, as we mentioned earlier, it is June 1st. 00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:46.809 So it's a Sunday. And this past week, the General 00:16:46.809 --> 00:16:50.250 Assembly has been on a break, right? Just a little 00:16:50.250 --> 00:16:51.929 legislative break. Essentially, what they did 00:16:51.929 --> 00:16:54.980 was they said, hey. We got our two biggest bills 00:16:54.980 --> 00:16:58.139 this session. We voted on them. We've sent them 00:16:58.139 --> 00:17:00.980 over to the Senate. So we're going to peace out 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:04.000 for a week. And those two big bills were Hurricane 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:08.539 Helene relief, which I've gone through literally 00:17:08.539 --> 00:17:10.700 every page of that, and it's actually a pretty 00:17:10.700 --> 00:17:13.819 good bill, not going to lie. It's surprisingly 00:17:13.819 --> 00:17:17.720 not sketch. Kudos to Republicans for doing something 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:21.279 right. Not too many of them, though. Yeah, true. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:25.740 And the other is the budget for the next two 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:29.339 years. The next two years are called the biennium, 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.099 so the next biennium's budget. They voted on 00:17:32.099 --> 00:17:34.299 it, and they sent it over to the Senate, and 00:17:34.299 --> 00:17:38.319 word on the street, so to say, is that Phil Berger 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:41.660 really has no interest in passing a budget. Really? 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:46.059 Right. Yeah. So he, it's Phil Berger we're talking 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:49.460 about. You know, he's not the most small -D democratic 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:53.599 person, let's say. Sure, yeah. He is very much 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:56.720 a person who, he would rather stall the budget 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:59.960 and use the previous by Indian's budget. He would 00:17:59.960 --> 00:18:04.539 rather do that and, you know, enrich his, you 00:18:04.539 --> 00:18:08.400 know, handful of, you know, rich friends than 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:12.230 help the entire state of North Carolina. That's 00:18:12.230 --> 00:18:15.369 the kind of person he is. He is willing to put 00:18:15.369 --> 00:18:19.569 his one singular person needs before the entire 00:18:19.569 --> 00:18:24.150 state. Now, I would ask why, but it's almost 00:18:24.150 --> 00:18:28.369 self -evident why. He is like this villain out 00:18:28.369 --> 00:18:35.390 of some 1980s kids movie. He's pulling up a bag 00:18:35.390 --> 00:18:38.029 of cash and taking candy from a baby. That's 00:18:38.029 --> 00:18:41.450 the type of person he is. Of course. He's the 00:18:41.450 --> 00:18:46.509 Burgermeister. He's Phil Burger, Burgermeister 00:18:46.509 --> 00:18:50.329 from Santa Claus. Oh, that's good. That is good. 00:18:50.450 --> 00:18:54.970 I like that. So, part of me does wonder if one 00:18:54.970 --> 00:18:56.930 of the reasons he doesn't want to pass the budget 00:18:56.930 --> 00:19:00.329 is because, one, he just doesn't want to put 00:19:00.329 --> 00:19:02.049 in the work. He doesn't want to put in that effort 00:19:02.049 --> 00:19:05.089 because he has to negotiate with House, essentially. 00:19:05.210 --> 00:19:07.809 They have to kind of find a middle ground. And 00:19:07.809 --> 00:19:10.250 if we look at stuff like, say, teacher pay that 00:19:10.250 --> 00:19:12.910 the House passed versus what the Senate was looking 00:19:12.910 --> 00:19:16.529 at, the House was doing like an 8 .2 % raise 00:19:16.529 --> 00:19:18.609 in teacher pay, I think. The Senate was like 00:19:18.609 --> 00:19:21.329 2%. Yeah, it was like four times the amount. 00:19:21.490 --> 00:19:24.910 Yeah. Yeah. So part of me just wonders if he's 00:19:24.910 --> 00:19:27.769 like, well, there's not going to be any middle 00:19:27.769 --> 00:19:30.910 ground here, so fuck off. That's great. Now I'm 00:19:30.910 --> 00:19:33.750 going to have to blur that. Thanks for making 00:19:33.750 --> 00:19:35.470 more work for me. You're welcome. You're welcome. 00:19:35.549 --> 00:19:39.150 Anything I can do to help. So, who knows the 00:19:39.150 --> 00:19:41.930 absolute true reason? I mean, like you said, 00:19:42.009 --> 00:19:43.769 I think it's kind of self -evident at this point. 00:19:43.789 --> 00:19:46.690 It really is. I mean, what other conclusion could 00:19:46.690 --> 00:19:49.569 you draw? What other conclusion could you draw, 00:19:49.690 --> 00:19:52.430 you know? Yeah, true. But it is a disservice 00:19:52.430 --> 00:19:54.650 to the people of North Carolina. It really is. 00:19:55.069 --> 00:19:57.230 You know, the people of North Carolina, or at 00:19:57.230 --> 00:19:59.869 least his district, voted him in to represent 00:19:59.869 --> 00:20:04.190 their interest in work for them. Yeah. Right? 00:20:04.750 --> 00:20:07.990 Supposedly. Allegedly. He doesn't care. Why should 00:20:07.990 --> 00:20:11.309 he? The Senate has a super majority. Why should 00:20:11.309 --> 00:20:14.349 they have to do shit? Yeah. It's the same reason 00:20:14.349 --> 00:20:17.950 why some of these GOP lawmakers are just straight 00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:20.190 up not showing up to their town halls. It's going 00:20:20.190 --> 00:20:22.289 to be interesting to see what happens. It really 00:20:22.289 --> 00:20:26.250 is. But, I mean, if this is the route that he 00:20:26.250 --> 00:20:30.009 goes, then it is a slap in the face to literally 00:20:30.009 --> 00:20:34.569 every North Carolinian. It truly is. Yeah. I 00:20:34.569 --> 00:20:37.440 mean... So here's the thing that I'm concerned 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:41.779 about, too, is we know that this Hurricane Helene 00:20:41.779 --> 00:20:45.539 Part 2 bill, that's separate from the budget. 00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:49.720 Yes. Is there any kind of resistance that is 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:53.559 going to be seen from when it comes through the 00:20:53.559 --> 00:20:55.859 House to when it goes to the Senate? Not that 00:20:55.859 --> 00:20:58.980 I know of, not that I've heard of, not that I 00:20:58.980 --> 00:21:02.019 suspect, actually, because this, the Helene bill, 00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:04.759 like I said, it actually seems... legitimate 00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:07.599 you know that's that's not what i'm worried about 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:10.279 i'm saying that like if phil burger is such a 00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:14.680 penny pincher is this is this has uh as you just 00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:17.980 mentioned it is a quality bill and that already 00:21:17.980 --> 00:21:21.539 makes it much more suspect for me that it's going 00:21:21.539 --> 00:21:24.119 to actually pass the north carolina senate that's 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:26.359 fair i i do think it will ultimately because 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:28.920 i mean i don't think there's gonna be any choice 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:32.160 additional a from dc is not coming it's literally 00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:34.319 all on the general assembly at this point. That's 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:37.200 it. Yeah. That's just the facts. Yeah. Trump 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:39.720 is not going to come and save us. Trump said, 00:21:39.779 --> 00:21:43.180 North Carolina, you know, you're on your own. 00:21:43.319 --> 00:21:46.480 Yeah. So it's up to us. That's all it is. It's 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:50.079 up to us. And so I do think it's interesting. 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:52.640 And maybe this is just being grasped on straws. 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:55.619 It might be. I do think it is interesting that 00:21:55.619 --> 00:21:58.839 they did do this as two separate bills. And part 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:01.180 of me wonders if they did it in hopes that, you 00:22:01.180 --> 00:22:03.259 know, we less likely be voted down because if 00:22:03.259 --> 00:22:05.940 it was the whole stuff was worked into the budget, 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:08.539 then there is always a chance of it just not 00:22:08.539 --> 00:22:11.039 being passed at all. Like what you said. I think 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:13.920 that that's part of it for sure. I mean, just 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:18.259 like you were saying, it is entirely possible 00:22:18.259 --> 00:22:21.119 that this bill will pass through, but if they're 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:23.720 already penny pinching over little things like 00:22:23.720 --> 00:22:27.859 teacher pay. like road repair like all these 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:29.799 tiny little things that they're like we're probably 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:32.519 not even going to pass a budget because it doesn't 00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:34.619 include provisions for this it doesn't give more 00:22:34.619 --> 00:22:38.480 tax breaks to corporations it's not giving um 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:41.019 wasn't there something in there about how like 00:22:41.019 --> 00:22:43.279 they want to give more tax incentives to duke 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:46.599 energy yeah there was Something about that, yeah. 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:50.819 And the point being that Duke Energy fleeces 00:22:50.819 --> 00:22:53.140 its customers because it's basically a monopoly 00:22:53.140 --> 00:22:58.819 out here. And we have experienced markups over 00:22:58.819 --> 00:23:01.539 and over and over again in energy bills because 00:23:01.539 --> 00:23:05.059 we don't really have anywhere else to turn to. 00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:08.720 There's not a competitor out here, even though 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:11.559 it is a private corporation. But anyway, my point 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:15.990 being that... Yeah, entirely possible that they 00:23:15.990 --> 00:23:18.509 split up this bill on purpose because they knew 00:23:18.509 --> 00:23:22.069 Destin Hall would pass it, even if Phil Berger 00:23:22.069 --> 00:23:25.990 won't. Or, on the flip side, the House Republicans 00:23:25.990 --> 00:23:28.670 talked and they were like, look, we have a better 00:23:28.670 --> 00:23:31.529 chance of this passing if it's not even in this 00:23:31.529 --> 00:23:33.890 bill. Like, let's not make it an omnibus spending 00:23:33.890 --> 00:23:35.869 bill. Let's make it something different. Not 00:23:35.869 --> 00:23:39.750 omnibus, but let's not make it a catch -all spending 00:23:39.750 --> 00:23:42.779 bill. Let's make it something more like... We're 00:23:42.779 --> 00:23:46.099 spending for this, and this is ancillary spending 00:23:46.099 --> 00:23:51.160 specifically for Helene. And if that is the case, 00:23:51.319 --> 00:23:54.119 I think that has very interesting implications 00:23:54.119 --> 00:23:57.779 on House Republicans' views of Senate Republicans. 00:23:58.279 --> 00:24:02.859 I must say, I think it's pretty fair -ish to 00:24:02.859 --> 00:24:04.799 say that the Senate Republicans are definitely 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:06.380 more conservative than the House Republicans. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:09.440 Not to say that the House Republicans are any 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:15.059 Marxist type of thing. Not at all. But they're 00:24:15.059 --> 00:24:17.240 obviously definitely way too far to the right. 00:24:17.740 --> 00:24:20.500 But I think the Senate is definitely a couple 00:24:20.500 --> 00:24:24.619 of notches further. Interesting. We need to grade 00:24:24.619 --> 00:24:27.119 some of these people on a scale. Do like a Locke 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:29.880 Foundation kind of thing. And just look at each 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:33.039 individual. All, what, 200 and some odd members 00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:36.160 of the General Assembly here in North Carolina. 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:40.099 Rank them. Coming up on a future episode. You 00:24:40.099 --> 00:24:45.099 know, people have suggested to us to put some 00:24:45.099 --> 00:24:49.559 kind of collaborative tool out there. That might 00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:51.640 be something that we should look at doing. It's 00:24:51.640 --> 00:24:54.119 like, hey, you don't know who your representative 00:24:54.119 --> 00:24:57.960 is? Do you want the biased version of that? Well, 00:24:58.140 --> 00:25:00.940 here you go. Oh, let's see. Your representative 00:25:00.940 --> 00:25:05.180 is blah, blah, blah. Oh, so sorry. Cue the sad 00:25:05.180 --> 00:25:13.769 bright music. sorry you got phil burger so all 00:25:13.769 --> 00:25:16.170 this to say it's gonna be interesting to see 00:25:16.170 --> 00:25:18.890 what happens but you know those are definitely 00:25:18.890 --> 00:25:21.950 the two big bills that i think everyone is going 00:25:21.950 --> 00:25:25.009 to be focused on yeah and because they are focused 00:25:25.009 --> 00:25:29.769 on that that allows some other bills to kind 00:25:29.769 --> 00:25:32.609 of sneak through a little bit yeah and one i 00:25:32.609 --> 00:25:36.400 think that we really need to talk about is house 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:41.039 bill 127 so this is a big one strap yourselves 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:44.400 in folks yeah if you look it up on the general 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:46.720 assembly's website the name of the bill is a 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:49.599 voter registration drive form all right i am 00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:53.160 going to try and quickly go through this bill 00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:55.839 summary that the unc school government put together 00:25:55.839 --> 00:26:01.380 but it's not great so essentially requires the 00:26:01.380 --> 00:26:03.500 State Board of Elections to develop a sample 00:26:03.500 --> 00:26:06.779 voter registration form, right, to be used for 00:26:06.779 --> 00:26:09.579 organized voter registration drives. And that 00:26:09.579 --> 00:26:12.720 form should look clearly distinguishable from 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:16.339 an actual voter registration application form, 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:20.000 right? The disclaimer saying that is not an actual 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.819 registration form for voting purposes, right? 00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:26.450 Already confused. include information on where 00:26:26.450 --> 00:26:28.769 you can obtain an actual voter registration form, 00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:32.390 where to return that actual registration form, 00:26:32.549 --> 00:26:35.109 how to register online with a list of important 00:26:35.109 --> 00:26:36.890 days, including the deadline for registration 00:26:36.890 --> 00:26:38.809 and vote, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to 00:26:38.809 --> 00:26:41.049 skip ahead to the most important thing, right? 00:26:41.809 --> 00:26:47.759 So what this does, ultimately, is... It prevents 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:51.220 organized voter registration drives offering 00:26:51.220 --> 00:26:53.460 the voter registration form, like the actual 00:26:53.460 --> 00:26:58.180 official form. And it says that violation of 00:26:58.180 --> 00:27:03.000 that is a Class 2 misdemeanor. So just kind of 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:04.980 giving you an idea of what that is in North Carolina. 00:27:05.539 --> 00:27:10.960 You know, it is up to like a $1 ,000 fine. It's 00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:13.579 trying to find where it says, I think you have 00:27:13.579 --> 00:27:16.680 to do usually like 75 hours of community service 00:27:16.680 --> 00:27:20.440 for a dismissal, that kind of thing, right? Some 00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:23.960 other class two misdemeanors in North Carolina 00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:27.519 includes disorderly conduct, a failure to report 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:33.279 an accident, false police reports, trespassing, 00:27:33.380 --> 00:27:38.079 harassing phone calls, resistant officers, street 00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:42.670 racing. Things like that, right? Jeez. But in 00:27:42.670 --> 00:27:44.369 the grand scheme of things, it might not seem, 00:27:44.430 --> 00:27:47.789 you know, that bad, so to say. Right. But the 00:27:47.789 --> 00:27:52.589 fact is they are trying to criminalize voter 00:27:52.589 --> 00:27:55.750 registration drives. Now, here in North Carolina, 00:27:55.849 --> 00:27:59.109 you can be registered to vote when you go to 00:27:59.109 --> 00:28:02.609 the DMV, for example, right? Whenever you renew 00:28:02.609 --> 00:28:05.250 your driver's license or you, you know, get your 00:28:05.250 --> 00:28:07.250 driver's license for the first time or whatever, 00:28:07.490 --> 00:28:10.039 you know. You can renew it. So that is one way 00:28:10.039 --> 00:28:12.859 that people do. Some people will just straight 00:28:12.859 --> 00:28:15.019 up go to the board of elections and say, hey, 00:28:15.099 --> 00:28:18.299 I just moved here. Let me sign up. But a lot 00:28:18.299 --> 00:28:21.079 of people, a lot of people registered to vote 00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.720 through better registration drives. And this 00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:25.319 is going to be a little anecdotal right here. 00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:28.500 Exactly. This is going to be anecdotal, but I'm 00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:31.559 wearing my iHeartApps shirt, right? When I was 00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:34.920 at App State... Folks, this will not be the first 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:37.700 nor the last time that CJ... Brings up that he 00:28:37.700 --> 00:28:41.480 went to App State. It has a point. So when I 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:43.240 was at App and was working with them talking 00:28:43.240 --> 00:28:46.400 to them, they were notorious for their voter 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:48.900 registration drives, right? I mean, between like 00:28:48.900 --> 00:28:54.039 August and October, they regularly register like 00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:58.039 1 ,500 new voters. Oh, wow. It's an insane number. 00:28:58.660 --> 00:29:00.740 It's always an insane number. It's impressive. 00:29:01.309 --> 00:29:03.829 And it's, you know, freshmen coming in and whatnot, 00:29:04.009 --> 00:29:06.549 you know, who want to register to vote for the 00:29:06.549 --> 00:29:08.470 first time. Again, that's kind of anecdotal, 00:29:08.490 --> 00:29:10.789 but the point is, like, these registration drives 00:29:10.789 --> 00:29:14.410 have a lot of people sign up. Yeah. And what 00:29:14.410 --> 00:29:17.130 this bill does is it criminalizes that. Not only 00:29:17.130 --> 00:29:20.430 that, but if you are having a voter registration 00:29:20.430 --> 00:29:22.670 drive, it's not allowing you to actually sign 00:29:22.670 --> 00:29:25.690 people up. It's telling you, hey, you can only 00:29:25.690 --> 00:29:28.150 give out information about how to register to 00:29:28.150 --> 00:29:32.019 vote, which purposefully... creates unnecessary 00:29:32.019 --> 00:29:35.720 confusion. Purposefully creates unnecessary confusion. 00:29:36.660 --> 00:29:41.059 But it also desensitizes that person from taking 00:29:41.059 --> 00:29:45.000 that next step and registering. Yeah. You might 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:46.980 have some random person go, hey, yeah, no, I 00:29:46.980 --> 00:29:48.519 want to register a vote. I've never done this 00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:51.640 before. What all do I need to do? Oh, well, you 00:29:51.640 --> 00:29:53.859 see this voter registration sheet. That's what 00:29:53.859 --> 00:29:55.920 it will look like. Here you go. Here's information 00:29:55.920 --> 00:29:58.220 you need. And they'll think, oh, well, this is 00:29:58.220 --> 00:30:00.339 what I need to fill out, and that's it. Or they'll 00:30:00.339 --> 00:30:02.960 be like, oh, well, I'll do it later, toss it 00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:05.500 aside, and it never happens. This is very much 00:30:05.500 --> 00:30:08.440 a dangerous bill. I'm very much a voting rights 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:10.980 person. Oh, wow. That's a bold stance of you. 00:30:11.460 --> 00:30:14.579 I know, right? In this day and age, apparently 00:30:14.579 --> 00:30:19.539 being pro -voting is like a crazy weird lib. 00:30:19.740 --> 00:30:25.299 You want people to vote? Ew. How dare I? I think 00:30:25.299 --> 00:30:29.079 I will say one of the newest, actually, I think 00:30:29.079 --> 00:30:32.519 the newest member of the state house, Phil Rubin 00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:36.460 did a video about this bill the other day. Sure 00:30:36.460 --> 00:30:40.500 did. This bill is going to be heard in the election 00:30:40.500 --> 00:30:43.160 committee, election law, like house standing 00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:47.960 committee on Tuesday, the third at 10 AM. Right. 00:30:48.079 --> 00:30:52.950 Yep. And he said, you know, his video. There 00:30:52.950 --> 00:30:56.549 is reason to suspect that at the very last minute, 00:30:56.630 --> 00:30:58.769 they are going to drop a new version of the bill 00:30:58.769 --> 00:31:02.130 and that it could potentially be worse. So who 00:31:02.130 --> 00:31:03.829 knows what that's going to look like if it happens. 00:31:04.170 --> 00:31:08.930 But even as is, this is a dangerous bill. I can 00:31:08.930 --> 00:31:10.490 only imagine what a worse version of this is 00:31:10.490 --> 00:31:13.089 going to look like. I mean, I can imagine, but 00:31:13.089 --> 00:31:16.490 we'll have to wait and see, unfortunately. And 00:31:16.490 --> 00:31:20.049 in the meantime, what can we do to like, what 00:31:20.049 --> 00:31:22.859 kind of action can we even take? to try and fight 00:31:22.859 --> 00:31:26.539 against this. Honestly, you know, this sounds, 00:31:26.539 --> 00:31:29.920 you know, cliche, but it's true. Call your representative, 00:31:30.140 --> 00:31:32.880 right? Because if this gets out of committee, 00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:35.140 then it's going to go to the floor from votes 00:31:35.140 --> 00:31:39.440 and whatnot. Call your, a member and keep on 00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:42.240 calling, call them, email them, write them, show 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:44.839 up to the general assembly building, you know, 00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:49.019 make sure that people know that this shit cannot 00:31:49.019 --> 00:31:52.720 stand. Make sure that they know, that you think 00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:55.700 this is a dangerous bill that make sure they 00:31:55.700 --> 00:31:58.519 know that you believe that we should be making 00:31:58.519 --> 00:32:00.980 it easier for people to register to vote not 00:32:00.980 --> 00:32:04.420 harder yeah and and if you have somebody in your 00:32:04.420 --> 00:32:07.819 orbit that is a republican or that supports this 00:32:07.819 --> 00:32:10.480 kind of push remind them that volunteer driven 00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:15.019 voter registration drives are a lot of the time 00:32:15.019 --> 00:32:18.859 done by churches and local civic groups that 00:32:18.859 --> 00:32:23.460 are non -partisan This should be a non -partisan 00:32:23.460 --> 00:32:27.160 issue. Actually, this should just be a non -issue. 00:32:27.319 --> 00:32:29.579 You should be allowed to help people register 00:32:29.579 --> 00:32:33.960 to vote. The fact that they want to criminalize 00:32:33.960 --> 00:32:39.799 that, I would be shocked if some third party 00:32:39.799 --> 00:32:43.619 here in North Carolina does not sue to try and 00:32:43.619 --> 00:32:47.769 bring this to court. Because this, to me... someone 00:32:47.769 --> 00:32:51.529 who is not at all qualified to judge these things 00:32:51.529 --> 00:32:55.609 but to me as somebody who has looked at a lot 00:32:55.609 --> 00:32:57.990 of election law and has looked at a lot of supreme 00:32:57.990 --> 00:33:01.049 court cases this seems right up the alley of 00:33:01.049 --> 00:33:03.210 something that should be challenged in court 00:33:03.210 --> 00:33:07.670 that hey you can't stop people from being able 00:33:07.670 --> 00:33:10.269 to register other people to vote there is no 00:33:10.269 --> 00:33:14.119 law that says that people can't there's nothing 00:33:14.119 --> 00:33:16.359 in the constitution that says that people cannot 00:33:16.359 --> 00:33:19.680 assist other people in voting they're not doing 00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:22.500 anything illegal but you want to make it illegal 00:33:22.500 --> 00:33:26.880 this should be challenged in court and i think 00:33:26.880 --> 00:33:29.319 what what you said i think is a better first 00:33:29.319 --> 00:33:32.519 step to to rely upon which is we need to call 00:33:32.519 --> 00:33:35.059 our representatives we need to let them know 00:33:35.059 --> 00:33:38.940 that this shit cannot stand and if it does if 00:33:38.940 --> 00:33:41.640 it does make it out of committee You can be rest 00:33:41.640 --> 00:33:46.420 assured that we will be, if not part of the organization 00:33:46.420 --> 00:33:49.460 of getting people to the Capitol to stand in 00:33:49.460 --> 00:33:52.420 the gallery and shout our frustration, then... 00:33:52.839 --> 00:33:56.539 we will certainly be there. Yes. And one other 00:33:56.539 --> 00:33:58.500 thing I want to suggest that people do, I know 00:33:58.500 --> 00:34:00.519 I said call your representative, right? I want 00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:03.440 y 'all to also call the sponsors of the bill 00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:05.160 itself, even if they're not your representative. 00:34:05.359 --> 00:34:08.820 I want you to make sure they know how bad this 00:34:08.820 --> 00:34:11.860 bill is. They know how bad this bill is, but 00:34:11.860 --> 00:34:15.460 they need to hear it from you as well. And so 00:34:15.460 --> 00:34:18.539 just so y 'all know who all is involved, we have 00:34:18.539 --> 00:34:22.840 Donnie Loftus, we have Jonathan Allman. We have 00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:26.780 Hugh Blackwell. Where are these guys at? What 00:34:26.780 --> 00:34:32.960 counties? We've got Burke County. We've got Gaston. 00:34:32.980 --> 00:34:36.880 We've got Cabarrus. Let's see. Who else is there? 00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:40.860 There's Echevarria, who is, let me find it again. 00:34:41.059 --> 00:34:45.280 He is Cabarrus as well. And he's also a freshman. 00:34:45.460 --> 00:34:49.260 He's a freshman member. And then we have your 00:34:49.260 --> 00:34:53.599 bestie, Adrian, Bill Ward. Every fucking time. 00:34:53.820 --> 00:34:56.800 Any bad bills that you're going to see go through 00:34:56.800 --> 00:34:59.719 the House, I can guarantee that he will be tangentially 00:34:59.719 --> 00:35:02.300 related. Just making sure I have all the information 00:35:02.300 --> 00:35:06.139 for y 'all. Bill Ward, he's Camden, Gates, Hertford, 00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:10.000 and Pascotank. But, like, all these sponsors, 00:35:10.420 --> 00:35:13.300 again, they know what's in this bill. They know 00:35:13.300 --> 00:35:17.119 it's a bad bill. They will, if it gets out of 00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:18.539 the community, if it gets to the floor, they 00:35:18.539 --> 00:35:22.420 will defend it and say, try to spin it as, It's, 00:35:22.420 --> 00:35:25.420 you know, some sort of big win for democracy. 00:35:25.420 --> 00:35:28.039 It is something that is going to only empower 00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:30.900 the voters or some absolute fucking bullshit 00:35:30.900 --> 00:35:32.800 excuse. You know how they're going to spin it, 00:35:32.820 --> 00:35:35.179 which is that we're preventing voter fraud. Which, 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:39.420 okay, okay, okay, okay. Voter fraud, voter fraud 00:35:39.420 --> 00:35:45.159 is such a fucking rarity. It shouldn't even be 00:35:45.159 --> 00:35:48.989 a blip on the fucking radar. do we need secure 00:35:48.989 --> 00:35:51.909 elections yes of course we do of course we do 00:35:51.909 --> 00:35:56.210 voter fraud happens so rarely and in such low 00:35:56.210 --> 00:35:59.449 numbers there was a study that came out through 00:35:59.449 --> 00:36:01.949 uh i think it was washington's or it was in washington 00:36:01.949 --> 00:36:04.630 state in 2020 they found that over an eight -year 00:36:04.630 --> 00:36:08.170 period out of 4 .5 million votes only 14 cases 00:36:08.170 --> 00:36:10.050 popped up where there's a case of possible voter 00:36:10.050 --> 00:36:12.849 fraud right that was insane right it's simply 00:36:12.849 --> 00:36:17.090 just it doesn't happen on the scale that republicans 00:36:17.719 --> 00:36:21.059 are talking about much like the trans issue it 00:36:21.059 --> 00:36:23.719 just simply does not happen on the scale that 00:36:23.719 --> 00:36:27.219 they are trying to paint it as right but they 00:36:27.219 --> 00:36:30.679 are able to paint like that because they know 00:36:30.679 --> 00:36:33.460 that people are you know so busy with their lives 00:36:33.460 --> 00:36:36.199 that they might not necessarily know what the 00:36:36.199 --> 00:36:38.679 actual numbers are yeah they paint it that way 00:36:38.679 --> 00:36:40.719 because they know it makes a good sound bite 00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:44.170 and it's fear You're able to control the narrative 00:36:44.170 --> 00:36:48.010 by fear. Fear that some dark entity is taking 00:36:48.010 --> 00:36:51.070 over our elections. That people who aren't actually 00:36:51.070 --> 00:36:54.510 real are voting. Dead people are voting. Millions 00:36:54.510 --> 00:36:56.570 of immigrants are voting. And not only are they 00:36:56.570 --> 00:36:59.989 voting, they're turning your kids trans. And 00:36:59.989 --> 00:37:02.369 then they're going to compete in sports and beat 00:37:02.369 --> 00:37:06.130 girls in swimming. And it's like, all of this 00:37:06.130 --> 00:37:10.110 ties together. It's different issues. We managed 00:37:10.110 --> 00:37:13.449 to tie a nice little... bow around both of the 00:37:13.449 --> 00:37:16.849 topics that we talked about today. But all that 00:37:16.849 --> 00:37:19.210 being said, there's a lot of action to be taken 00:37:19.210 --> 00:37:23.409 on both of these fronts. So above all else, we 00:37:23.409 --> 00:37:25.849 are action -oriented on this show. Call your 00:37:25.849 --> 00:37:28.670 legislators. Call your state senators. Call your 00:37:28.670 --> 00:37:32.730 county commissioners. Seriously, there are tons 00:37:32.730 --> 00:37:37.130 of... ways that county commissioners and city 00:37:37.130 --> 00:37:40.230 councils can actually get involved and make sure 00:37:40.230 --> 00:37:43.889 to plant their flag, so to speak, plant their 00:37:43.889 --> 00:37:46.949 big gay flag and let people know that they support 00:37:46.949 --> 00:37:50.690 the LGBTQ community. In fact, one of the first 00:37:50.690 --> 00:37:55.250 towns, one of the first cities in my county this 00:37:55.250 --> 00:38:00.650 week is going to be declaring a pride. support 00:38:00.650 --> 00:38:04.289 statement a declaration of pride that it's the 00:38:04.289 --> 00:38:05.849 first time that's ever happened in this county 00:38:05.849 --> 00:38:08.570 ever and that's a step in the right direction 00:38:08.570 --> 00:38:12.050 if i if i may say so myself but it's planning 00:38:12.050 --> 00:38:16.550 a flag nonetheless go to community meetings you 00:38:16.550 --> 00:38:19.210 know go to like your state board of elections 00:38:19.210 --> 00:38:21.469 meeting or not state board county board of elections 00:38:21.469 --> 00:38:24.309 meetings you know get involved on a micro level 00:38:24.309 --> 00:38:27.460 if you can Just be in the room, if anything. 00:38:27.820 --> 00:38:31.159 Yeah. You know, by you being in the room, it 00:38:31.159 --> 00:38:34.179 shows that the people who are doing the work 00:38:34.179 --> 00:38:37.619 there, it shows them that they are not doing 00:38:37.619 --> 00:38:41.559 it without witnesses. Yeah. People say they want 00:38:41.559 --> 00:38:44.260 to be in the room where it happens. And in some 00:38:44.260 --> 00:38:46.739 rooms, it is incredibly easy to get in there. 00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:49.639 So get in there. What are you waiting for? And 00:38:49.639 --> 00:38:52.400 I hope that while you're doing that, You continue 00:38:52.400 --> 00:38:56.260 to listen to us on this podcast, Left of Old 00:38:56.260 --> 00:38:58.619 North. Also, we're going to be posting a lot 00:38:58.619 --> 00:39:03.380 more on our sub stack. We've got a lot of newsletter 00:39:03.380 --> 00:39:06.820 type stuff coming down the pipeline. Let us know 00:39:06.820 --> 00:39:10.139 if you want to see more video, if you want to 00:39:10.139 --> 00:39:12.360 see more of our TikTok. Yes, we do have a TikTok. 00:39:12.519 --> 00:39:14.440 If you haven't checked it already, you should. 00:39:14.559 --> 00:39:18.079 We are also on all socials as Left of Old North. 00:39:19.069 --> 00:39:21.929 So make sure to go and follow us. If you cannot 00:39:21.929 --> 00:39:27.570 make an actionable action within this week, make 00:39:27.570 --> 00:39:29.150 sure to go and follow us. So you stay in the 00:39:29.150 --> 00:39:32.449 loop and you can always reach out to us and ask 00:39:32.449 --> 00:39:34.889 questions. We're more than happy to get involved 00:39:34.889 --> 00:39:37.309 and engage with you. So if you want to reach 00:39:37.309 --> 00:39:40.190 out to us, left of old north at gmail .com. Yeah. 00:39:40.550 --> 00:39:43.670 Send us an email. Say, Hey, say what's up and 00:39:43.670 --> 00:39:46.170 let us know if you're going to stay with us here 00:39:46.170 --> 00:39:48.599 on the left of old north. Thank you, everybody.