PROPOSED LAW AIMS AT GOP PARTISAN ADVANTAGE, NOT ELECTION INTEGRITY: In their never-ending quest for ways – legitimate or not, legal or not -- to tilt elections in their favor, legislative leaders want a law to prohibit counting of the votes of SOME people who cast ballots by or on Election Day. Why discriminate against people who cast legitimate ballots but happen to use the mail? Because it seems in the past few elections they happen to have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. We would venture not too wildly, if voting by mail yielded heavy GOP support there’d be an extended grace period f ..read more

The pursuit of truth is a rocky road: “Police stage ‘chilling’ raid on Marion County newspaper” was the headline on a story by the nonprofit Kansas Reflector that same afternoon. “Chilling” was Meyer’s word. The editor fretted to the growing crowd of journalists covering the saga that the Record would struggle to put out its next issue without its equipment — but he also crystallized the larger threat posed by the raid. “It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues,” Meyer told the Reflector in the hours after the raid, as well as “a chilling effect on people giving us in ..read more

ELECTIONS BILLS IMPOSE SOLUTIONS WHERE THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS: Inspiration for this legislation – if not the actual structure and drafting – has been linked to networks of activist election deniers led by Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who has played a key role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts, based on unfounded and false claims, to overturn the 2020 election. With Senate Bill 747, approved Tuesday by the House Elections Committee, voters and election workers could have partisan “observers” stalking polling places, gazing over voters’ shoulders as they mark ballots and engaging polling ..read more

ACTIVATE MEDICAID EXPANSION NOW. LIVES REALLY ARE HANGING IN THE BALANCE: Last March, Gov. Roy Cooper, with state legislative leaders beaming beside him, signed the bill expanding Medicaid to more than 600,000 North Carolinians with the expectation that it would become effective no later than early July. It now seems possible that Medicaid expansion might not happen, if at all, before December. This is an unacceptable delay and the legislature can easily act quickly to take care of it. In just the four months since Medicaid Expansion was signed into law – but not made effective – as many as ..read more

LEGISLATORS, DO YOUR JOBS. STOP LOOKING TO USURP GOVERNOR'S AUTHORITY: North Carolinians elected Roy Cooper to be the state’s chief executive officer. As North Carolina’s Constitution makes clear: “The executive power of the State shall be vested in the Governor.” It is the governor’s job to run the state in accordance with the State Constitution and laws passed by the General Assembly. It is not the job of the legislature to administer the laws it passes. If the laws are in accord with the state and federal constitutions – and that’s the job of the courts to determine – it is the job of th ..read more

The nightmare we just can't wake up from: Presidents since 1965 have been afforded lifetime protection. Since then, only Richard M. Nixon has waived it, as a cost-saving move for taxpayers 11 years after his resignation. But unless he follows Nixon’s example, Trump could force politically and logistically complex questions over whether officials should detail agents to protect a former American president behind bars, leave it to prison authorities to keep him safe, or secure him under some type of home confinement, former U.S. officials said. Trump doesn't have the integrity or quality of ..read more

GUESS WHO'S HOLDING TRUMP ACCOUNTABLE? REGULAR AMERICAN JURORS: The ordinary, anonymous Americans who constitute the three grand juries which, to date, have charged or are expected to charge a vulgar simpleton who was cloaked in enormous power as president have heeded Franklin’s call to keep their republic intact. They are doing their part in corralling an unrepentant scoundrel who yearns to exercise the privileges and prerogatives of an omnipotent monarch. This is an essential act of citizenship that has required enlightened Americans to reject – sometimes at great risk and usually with lit ..read more

The dangers of state-sponsored religion: The 26-second video shows the group of men – some appearing to be as young as 15 – groping and sexually attacking the women belonging to the ethnic Kuki-Zo tribe, and escorting them towards an empty field. At least one of the women, aged 21, was gang raped, according to the first information report (FIR) filed by the survivors. The police complaint says the other woman was 42. The incident happened on May 4, a day after deadly ethnic riots broke out between the mainly Hindu Meitei and predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribes in the remote state in Indi ..read more

LEGISLATORS NEED TO FOCUS ON THEIR JOBS, NOT ENCROACH ON GOVERNOR COOPER'S: In the last election state Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, received 54,717 votes to get re-elected in his very heavily Republican-leaning district. He was elected to be a one of 50 members of the state Senate in the legislative branch of North Carolina government. In that same election House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, received 23,333 votes to get re-elected in his heavily Republican-leaning district. He was elected to be one of 120 members of the state House of Representatives in the legislative branch of govern ..read more

CAN BIDEN CHANGE THE ECONOMIC NARRATIVE? Alternative measures of core inflation that exclude shelter by and large show a clear pattern of disinflation; inflation is still running higher than it was before the pandemic, but it has come down a lot. If you really work at it, it’s still possible to be pessimistic about the inflation outlook, but it’s getting harder and harder. The good news about inflation, and about the economy as a whole, does look real. But are people noticing this improvement? Traditional measures of economic sentiment have become problematic in recent years. Ask people how ..read more