Welcome the GOP Gestapo. North Carolina Republicans Are Creating a ‘Secret Police Force’ The euphemistically named “Gov Ops” is a civil liberties disaster waiting to happen. https://www.thedailybeast.com/north-carolina-republicans-are-creating-a-secret-police-force Republican state legislators In North Carolina are establishing a new investigative body that Democratic critics have aptly compared to a “secret police force.” This new entity, formally known as the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations, or “Gov Ops” for short, will be chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R). It grants the state the authority to investigate various matters, including “possible instances of misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, mismanagement, waste, abuse, or illegal conduct.” Gov Ops, a product of North Carolina’s most recent state budget, was established via a comprehensive bill passed in late September. Despite Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s refusal to sign the legislation, the Republican majority in the state legislature pushed it through just 10 days later, thanks to their veto-proof majority and the state’s laws restricting the governor’s ability to make line-item vetoes. Gov Ops is slated to take effect next week. Any way you slice it, Gov Ops seems like a recipe for government overreach and abuse. If you find yourself under investigation by Gov Ops, you won’t be allowed to publicly discuss any alleged constitutional violations or misconduct by the investigators. All communications with committee personnel would be treated as “confidential.” Shockingly, you’d also be denied the right to seek legal counsel regarding your rights if Gov Ops were to search your property without a warrant, irrespective of whether it’s in a public or private space. Nora Benavidez, a senior counsel with the nonprofit advocacy group Free Press, told The Daily Beast, “This is a question for the courts ultimately. But the powers granted to the Gov Ops appear to give them overreaching investigative authority, which invokes constitutionality questions.” A critical aspect of Gov Ops development lies in the language within the statute itself. The key phrase, as highlighted by Republican state legislators, is the investigation of “possible instances of misfeasance.” It’s unsettling that North Carolina’s Republican state legislators are poised to wield unchecked partisan authority, devoid of any form of accountability, to determine what qualifies as “possible instances of misfeasance.” This newfound investigative power threatens to have far-reaching repercussions on fundamental civil liberties, particularly those closely intertwined with the state legislature—such as voting rights and abortion. Consider the 2020 election aftermath. Following the election’s conclusion, several North Carolina Republican lawmakers—mirroring Trump and other far-right figures nationwide—demanded access to voting machines, relying on dubious sources and unfounded claims of voter fraud. Initially, North Carolina Republicans asserted that they would work with police to obtain warrants for such inspections. However, with the advent of Gov Ops, committee leaders could now allege “possible instances of misfeasance,” eliminating the need for a warrant and keeping the public in the dark. With the 2024 election looming, Republicans in the state legislature will redraw voting maps after the new conservative majority on the state’s Supreme Court legalized partisan gerrymandering. (The Princeton Gerrymandering Project called North Carolina one of the most gerrymandered states in the country.) The redistricting process in the state has been grueling; since 2011, six different versions of maps have been drawn. The process has been conducted mainly behind closed doors, and North Carolinians continue to express frustration over how they’ve been locked out of the process. A provision of Gov Ops will likely permit lawmakers drawing the maps to bypass public records requests: “lawmakers responding to public records requests will have no obligation to share any drafts or materials that guided their redistricting decisions.” Now, let’s look at abortion. During a legislative hearing, state Sen. Graig Meyer (D) asked lawmakers, in a hypothetical scenario, if Gov Ops could access personal health records (like ultrasounds) that are required by the state to receive abortion pills. Sen. Meyer found that Gov Ops, with its widespread ability to investigate with zero oversight, could release information like this “to the public in a hearing” if it wanted to. Benavidez explained,“At the end of the day, Gov Ops actions and requests for information are all protected as confidential, adding a layer of opacity which means people in North Carolina will have largely no idea what the Gov Ops entity is really doing.” The consolidation of power by Republicans in North Carolina through Gov Ops is not just a cause for concern; it is a stark warning sign. The ability of state legislators to wield unchecked authority—shielded from the scrutiny of the voters they are obliged to serve—strikes at the heart of democratic principles. Transparency and accountability are not optional in a democracy; they are its lifeblood. When the process of drawing voting maps becomes cloaked in secrecy, when mechanisms to hold our elected officials accountable are dismantled, we risk losing our most cherished rights to our legislators, who should be our staunchest defenders. Government powers like Gov Ops can potentially erode the very foundations of our democracy—which can’t work if politicians refuse to work for the people and have any accountability.
It's time for you to build a hidden (secret) cellar beneath your kitchen to hide Jews, Hispanics, Blacks, Native Americans, Asians, and Canadians hiding from the GOP Gestapo. https://www.wral.com/story/governme...ers-raise-alarms-brushed-off-by-gop/21060509/ Simply, is this really all about NC budget issues ??? wrbtrader
Additionally... Using New Veto-Proof Supermajority, North Carolina Republicans Enact Two Laws Drastically Altering Elections https://www.democracydocket.com/new...nact-two-laws-drastically-altering-elections/ On Tuesday, Oct. 10, with its new veto-proof supermajority, the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of two voting and election laws, Senate Bill 747 and Senate Bill 749. The first is a broad voter suppression law that will alter a variety of critical election policies, while the latter pushes through a controversial — and previously found to be unconstitutional — restructuring of the state’s election boards. Cooper has warned the laws will act in tandem to suppress voters across the state, just as Republican lawmakers intended. Ahead of the enactment, a bipartisan group of election officials urged legislators to reconsider S.B. 747 and S.B. 749 as the changes would “harm rather than protect the integrity of [North Carolina] elections.” S.B. 747 would have invalidated more than 13,000 votes if it had been in effect during the 2020 presidential election. The voter suppression law will ban private grants for election administration, launch a pilot program for signature verification and move up the deadline to receive mail-in ballots from three days after Election Day to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Multiple Democratic state representatives cited concerns about the shortening of the mail-in ballot return window, from three days after Election Day to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. According to the numbers presented by state Rep. Joe John (D) during floor remarks, if this rule had been in place during the 2020 election, “3,819 Democratic North Carolina citizens and voters, an almost equal 3,759 Republican citizens and voters and, strikingly, 5,929 unaffiliated citizens and voters” would not have had their ballots counted. That’s 13,507 votes tossed out. North Carolina Rep. Cynthia Ball (D) noted to Democracy Docket last month that it was hard to pinpoint S.B. 747’s most concerning provision “as they interact and compound each other.” From the increased likelihood of voter intimidation in polling places due to the expansion of partisan poll observer freedoms to the new burdens placed on county boards of elections across the state in tandem with the banning of outside funding for elections, Ball hypothesized that North Carolinians are likely to encounter longer lines at polling locations, even during early voting. She will prioritize educating her constituents about the changes in every way she can since Republicans shot down her proposed amendment to the bill, which would have allocated $2 million in voter education. Others argue that young and old voters alike will be caught in the onslaught of changes. Coming from rural Watauga County, Boone Town Councilmember Dalton George told Democracy Docket that he was concerned about the same-day registration changes that could negatively impact Boone’s large student population, who commonly utilize the convenient practice and who are sometimes “unaware of continued changes in election laws.” George also raised issues with the signature verification pilot program, which he sees affecting the “elderly population” as their signatures change. Another state lawmaker, Rep. Pricey Harrison (D), is also worried about the signature matching requirement, which is promised to roll out across the whole state if the pilot is successful in the 10 designated counties. Specifically, she predicted in a statement to Democracy Docket, that success for the Republicans means, “seniors, the disabled, and, predominantly, those of color will have their ballots thrown out.” Like George, Harrison noted that changes to same-day registration will have “a disparate impact on students, people from low-income communities, and homeless or transient individuals, all of whom may have barriers to responding to the one postcard that would get mailed to verify their address.” Nonpartisan policy organization Carolina Forward reminded Democracy Docket that all of the provisions that advocates are rightfully concerned about are addressing the “thoroughly debunked myth” of “rampant voter fraud” in the state. More specifically, “After [the] ‘dragnet style’ subpoenas of dozens of counties looking for evidence, investigators found only 41 voters, out of more than 5 million votes cast, who illegally cast votes in 2016 – all of them by simple mistake, not intentional fraud. This mirrors Trump’s own ‘voter integrity commission,’ which folded quietly in 2018 without finding any evidence of significant fraud.” The goal of Republicans and S.B. 747 is clear to those who oppose it. In a comment to Democracy Docket, the Young Democrats of North Carolina posit that the conservative lawmakers “aim to further restrict voting in North Carolina under the guise of election integrity… Republicans claim to be the party of freedom, but with every step they continue to strip freedoms away from North Carolinians.” The majority of the bill will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. It is estimated the new law will cost North Carolinians nearly $6 million. The power-grabbing in S.B. 749 has been opposed at every level: from the current governor to the North Carolina Supreme Court and the majority of voters. The power-grab law will remove the governor’s power to appoint election board members to the state board, granting it to the North Carolina Legislature instead. Additionally, the state boards will have an even number of Democrats and Republicans, departing from the current system that allows the party that holds the governor’s office (currently Democrats) to appoint a majority of state board members. Similarly, the bill will also change the composition of the state’s 100 county election boards to be four-member bipartisan boards appointed by lawmakers, making stalemates in decision-making more likely. Since 2017, Cooper has raised the alarm on the Republicans’ attempts to restructure election boards across the state. He sued Republican lawmakers after they passed two bills that removed the power to oversee elections from the governor and placed it in the hands of legislators, just as S.B. 749 does. In January 2018, the North Carolina Supreme Court found that the power-grabbing legislation violated the state constitution’s separation-of-powers provisions as the two laws “imping[ed] upon the Governor’s ability to faithfully execute the laws.” Not to be easily deterred, the conservative lawmakers tried again to restructure the election boards, this time via a constitutional amendment in the fall of 2018. Voters resoundingly rejected the amendment by 62%. Ahead of the 2018 election, all living former governors of the state (three Democrats and two Republicans) came together publicly and urged North Carolinians to vote against the amendment with former Gov. Jim Martin (R) asserting, “This is not about partisan politics. It’s about power politics, and it must be stopped.” Reactions to the third and current attempt to restructure North Carolina’s election boards have been just as strong. As amendments to the bill were debated on Sept. 12 in a committee meeting, Democratic lawmakers raised numerous flags about the lack of a tie-breaking mechanism — a deadlock at the county board level will result in dramatic cuts to early voting locations and hours since the state’s statute requires just one early voting site in each county, regardless of population. All attempts to amend the bill to avoid this were unsuccessful. During the same committee meeting last month, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall (D), who has held the role since 1996 and won re-election all six times, railed against the transfer of the state election board to the secretary of state’s department. She argued the transfer “will disrupt years of progress” as the department is already on the brink of crisis due to chronic underfunding. Her concerns, backed by nearly three decades of experience, were ignored. Mark Swallow, a former elections official and a member of Democracy Out Loud, also voiced his concern during the meeting. Referring to S.B. 749 as a “travesty,” he called out the Republican lawmakers for manufacturing gridlock, “You’re setting a booby trap of our elections process forever.” During last month’s meeting, the only member of the public to praise S.B. 749 was Jim Womack, leader of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team, a chapter of an organization run by former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell. Womack also publicly lobbied North Carolina lawmakers as they considered amendments to the larger voter suppression bill, S.B. 747, and lauded the provision that now allows voters to challenge mail-in ballots in their entire county. S.B. 749 will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024 — just ahead of the primaries. Read S.B. 747 here. Read the breakdown of S.B. 747 here. Read S.B. 749 here. Read more about S.B. 749 here.
you should not be surprised you voted and celebrated these policies in GWB when you decided disenfranchising the opposition was the correct path of action.
GWB trading is more like HIV trading as in one breath he supports and the next decries to not be too noticed by the immune system as it were of either side. All the while multiplying threads.. Dogbert 101 office politics stuff.
Other parts of the NC GOP power grab... Cooper sues NC lawmakers, claiming 'blatantly unconstitutional legislative power grab' It's not the first time GOP leaders have sought to reduce the Democratic governor's power, nor the first time he's sued them over it. Even before Cooper had been sworn into office, in the days following his first gubernatorial win in late 2016, the legislature began chipping away at the power of the governor's office. https://www.wral.com/story/cooper-s...nstitutional-legislative-power-grab/21090572/ North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is suing state Republican lawmakers, claiming a new law they passed Tuesday is a "blatantly unconstitutional legislative power grab." It's not the first time GOP leaders have sought to reduce the Democratic governor's power, nor the first time he's sued them over it. Even before Cooper had been sworn into office, in the days following his first gubernatorial win in late 2016, the legislature began chipping away at the power of the governor's office. The latest effort is SB 512, which takes away the governor's ability to appoint dozens of members of state boards and commissions dealing with education, public health, transportation, the environment and more. Instead, the law gives that power to the leadership of the state General Assembly. “This law is a blatantly unconstitutional legislative power grab,” Cooper said in announcing his lawsuit. “Over the years, the North Carolina Supreme Court has repeatedly held in bipartisan decisions that the legislature cannot seize executive power like this no matter what political parties control which offices. The efforts of Republican legislators to destroy the checks and balances in our constitution are bad for people and bad for our democracy.” Spokespeople for the top state legislative leaders didn't respond to a request for comment about Cooper's lawsuit, but Republican lawmakers earlier on Tuesday defended the law as their attempt to increase accountability. “It does not make sense for these boards to be made up of appointments by one individual," said Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, who added that while governors are elected every four years, the legislature is elected every two years — hypothetically giving voters more options to vote out the party in power if they're upset with how things are going. But Democrats said that makes no sense since the governor is elected statewide, yet each individual legislator represents only a small sliver of North Carolina. Since the state Senate has 50 districts and the House has 120 districts, that means each individual lawmaker represents, at most, just 2% of the population. "How can the public know who to hold accountable for these decisions going forward?" Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, said during Tuesday's vote. "And even if the public is able to determine the legislative appointees are causing mischief, it is virtually impossible to hold us accountable as a body." Mayfield also noted that while elections for governor tend to be highly competitive, the same is not true of elections for the state legislature. In many recent years, only a small number of the state's 170 legislative districts have been competitive. And Mayfield predicted it's about to get even less competitive at the legislature. GOP lawmakers are in the process of drawing new district maps for themselves, to be used in 2024 and beyond, with new guidance from the GOP majority on the state Supreme Court that politically motivated gerrymandering doesn't violate the state constitution. "The General Assembly might be the least accountable branch of government in our state at this point, given how secure most of our seats are, how few of us have primaries, and how even fewer of us have any meaningful challengers in general elections," Mayfield said. Those new maps are expected to be shown to the public next week, GOP lawmakers said Tuesday.
OK so like the West Bank the people of NC are becoming indistinguishable from the terrorist they supported. Point well made. Anyway, my wife has been annoying me with some "sounds of weather" track on the Echo Dot with storms and shit but she has never lived anywhere with actual severe weather. I woke up twice last night confused thinking the roof was coming off. I made a routine to play this sound of a tortoise eating food when she asks Alexa for her storm sounds. Of course it is storm sounds for the first three minutes. Priorities. Maybe an aircraft carrier can lob a few hundred missiles at NC?