Oopsie:
Hayes and three business associates have been charged in a scheme to pay the commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Insurance at least $1.5 million in exchange for making staff changes and other things that would benefit their businesses.
(And FWIW, the insurance commissioner is also a Republican and was the one who ratted them out).
I have a feeling this is going to get bigger.
I hope all these motherfuckers go down.
Seriously, both parties have been corrupt in NC, but at this point the Republican party is starting to look like 1920s Chicago.
Updating this thread since we had our cute, little, special-election primary last week. And the winner is………… NOT Stoney Rushing, thank god. The Republican primary was won handily by The *Honorable *Dan Bishop.
Here is a snippet of the *values *that Mr. Bishop brings to the race.
“The things they say”. Yeah? Like what? What specifically do you find scary?
“Bad things. Scary things. Things against nature. Need I go on?”
Gerrymander archvillain’s files show that the NCGA lied to courts when they claimed they couldn’t draw neww maps in time for a special election:
Seriously, there should be some people serving time.
Should be; aye. But will anyone? I doubt it. And will all the things done by the illegitimate legislature(s) be undone, or will they stand until another legislature can un-do them? I bet they stand until they are undone. So the perps win. In almost every resultant scenario, the perps win.
When you look it that way, it kind of becomes more of a question of “why the fuck doesn’t everyone just do it this way?”
This just showed up on the AP: Feds to finally examine 2016 NC poll books for hacking
Even if it was poll worker error, that still doesn’t let them off the hook. Who was in charge of training the poll workers? Did they all get the same training? Were they all using the same system? Who decided which poll workers were at what polling places? Were the errors equally easy to make for all voters?
Update: I want to be gracious in victory, especially the provisional victory we just achieved, so I won’t say in your face, NCGA douchebags. That would be crass.
Berger is the one who said he wouldn’t appeal the ruling. I’d lay about 90% odds that he has a shitty trick ready for the occasion, something like, “Show up at the redistricting with a map all ready to submit, knowing it’ll get rejected, and plan to tie that new map up in appeals until it’s too late to have a new map ready for 2020.”
But the court has said that the redistricting must happen only through public meetings, and that all computer screens used in the process must be visible to the public, and that they have two weeks. They sound thoroughly sick of the Republicans’ tricks, and I hope they’ll shoot down any stupid new trick Berger tries before he knows what’s happening.
Oh, man. Here’s a PDF of the actual court requirements. They are not fucking around. Read 'em if you want to see what a pissed off panel of judges sounds like.
I saw this today too. And I agree with everything you said.
As others have pointed out, we’ve had years of misrule because of the 2011 (and later 2017) maps, gerrymandering a supermajority. We’re not getting those years back, not getting back all the terrible decisions made by an illegitimate government during them. I’ve got a certain element of, “I want my father back you sonofabitch!” thinking going on.
But we gotta move forward. And this provides a glimmer of hope.
Bad news is hope is rare, good news is it don’t take much.
Dang! The snark starts in the table of contents!
This shit has been dragging on for YEARS. These judges sound done.
Oh! An update on the OP’s mention of Jen Mangrum. She lost her race against Berger, but last Friday I attended a local Meet and Greet for her as she’s running for state superintendent. The weasel we currently have is mired in about half a dozen different scandals and is deeply unpopular; I think she stands a pretty good chance of being our next superintendent.
More hope.
Heck, weren’t they already court-ordered to re-draw the maps before 2018, which requirement they handily dealt with by simply ignoring it?
IIRC, they redrew the maps in a super-shitty way (in 2017); these were the maps challenged by this lawsuit. This court grabbed those maps, spat on them, ripped them into pieces, and stomped up and down on them.
Can the court order that elections not be held? :dubious:
I’m at once aghast that this has continued on so long and dubious that anything will change. The GOP long ago came to understand the power of inactivity and I suspect they’ll continue to rely on inertia to combat any move towards justice.
Huge thanks to LHOD for keeping the thread alive; if we don’t know about it we can’t care about it.
The court ordered they have the right to reschedule elections if the new maps are not approved in time.
Chronos, they ordered that if the General Assembly doesn’t have new maps in 2 weeks, they have the authority to institute a special Referee to begin the process of drawing new maps by the court. That process is to begin already, such that if the General Assembly does not comply in two weeks, the court will take steps on their own to replace the maps. Ignoring them is not an option.
Yes, these judges are definitely pissed off.
I didn’t understand all the lingo about BVAP and Gingles factors, except that it has something to do with racial makeup of districts and ensuring there are districts that Blacks can get elected in.