In order to (I presume) accurately quote a late Senator one word in this article will violate my PG rating.

Today’s will be another article of the catch up variety. There is a lot to cover much of which if history is a guide I’ll never get to.

I Waited Too Long Already

Here is an old one that never seems to make the cut so I want to start with it today. In May North Carolina Appeals Court Judge John M. Taylor drove his state owned SUV onto a closed lane eventually hopping the curb and nearly hitting one of the assembled Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

In June the charges were dropped despite the existence of a 12 minute videotape of the incident. Taylor is, no surprise a Republican, has a reputation as a racist (also no surprise).

You connect the dots. I’d suggest holding your nose while you do so.

A University System On The Decline?

Arguably, (and I agree with the assumption), North Carolina has the best state university system in the South. The Chapel Hill campus is the flagship. After a long delay caused by the influence of a right wing donor they finally included tenure in a job offer to Nikole Hannah-Jones. Tenure had been part of the package to all her (unlike her, white) predecessors in that slot.

In what can only be called a twofer Jones declined the offer and along with Ta-Nehisi Coates is headed to Howard University to run a newly established Center for Journalism and Democracy. I haven’t followed Jones’ career for long but my regular readers know of my well deserved respect for Coates. In my opinion, and I have a lot of company, he is one of the brightest people in America. Both have world class resumes and one thing they share in common is being MacArthur Genius Grant Award recipients.

This is not the first time right wing money has interfered with the NC system. Art Pope manipulated the state legislature into reducing funding for NC State’s Economics Department only to then donate money with a controlling string attached.

Sounds to me like Howard is on the way up and UNC-Chapel Hill on the way down.

A Good Judge Of Character

The late John McCain spoke like a gentleman in public but had the reputation of swearing like the sailor he once was in private. A former close aide was recently asked what McCain thought of former President Trump. The aide replied that McCain tried to think of Trump as little as possible and regarded him as, “An asshole and an idiot.” I’d say that was and still is a pretty accurate appraisal.

Remember this is the same John McCain who (probably at political peril) took a microphone from a lady at a rally in order to defend the character of his then opponent Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

I disagreed with McCain a lot on policy but never questioned his character. Sounds to me like he was a pretty good judge of the character of others too.

DC Follows New York

The District of Columbia has “suspended” the law license of Rudy Giuliani following the actions of New York State. Without getting too far into the weeds the suspension was technical in that Giuliani’s DC license was inactive but now he doesn’t have the option of reactivating it.

I really don’t know how much lawyering Rudy is doing these days. It appears his business has morphed more into that of a con man and wannabe influence peddler.

They Must Still Be Raising Money

The “audit”, (I do prefer the term fraudit), in Arizona still continues. In fact they are changing venues again. Republicans in other states are trying to get fraudits going in their states too. No thinking person will accept the results of these operations which I’m certain will uncover massive voter fraud proving Trump really won while not changing the results of the down ballot races that enabled many current Republican office holders to be elected. Funny how that works.

These fraudits are part of the Big Lie which is obviously making a lot of money for a certain few. They’ll stop when the gullible stop donating. How more obvious does it have to get that it is all a scam?

South Dakota National Guard To The Southern Border

South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noam is sending a contingent of the South Dakota National Guard to Texas in response to Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s request for help in controlling the southern border. Looking at a map I have a problem determining why the southern border would be a high priority for the governor of South Dakota.

The venture is supposedly being funded by an out-of-state donor. Could Noam’s national political ambitions be in play here?

The Administration That Keeps Giving – Scandals Anyway

I think I can squeeze one more in before I go.

Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has been linked to a sweetheart deal with agricultural giant Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM). It seems that a company controlled by Perdue “suddenly” closed a deal to acquire a plant and significant land at a bargain price from ADM shortly after Trump nominated Perdue to the Secretary of Agriculture slot. Subsequently Perdue moved the ownership of the acquisition in such a manner as to make it unnecessary to disclose the transaction to the federal government.

Perdue’s reputation preceded him into the office and it wasn’t one of a boy scout. To my recollection only the Grant administration rivals Trump’s for scandals. The biggest difference seems to be that Grant made poor hiring decision but was personally clean. You complete my thought.

OK, that’s enough (and perhaps too much) for today.

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