scharrison's blog

If it keeps on raining, the levee's going to break

Submitted by scharrison on

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And when the levee breaks, I'll have no place to stay:

North Carolina carries a little-understood risk of flooding as climate change makes rainstorms more intense — the state has the country's second-largest collection of dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition built in places where a failure could kill people.

An investigation by The Associated Press identified 168 high-hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition in North Carolina. That trailed only Georgia among the 44 states and Puerto Rico that provided full information in response to the AP's public records requests. Nationally, the AP found at least 1,680 high hazard dams that are rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition.

Ten percent. One in ten of the nation's high hazard dams are located in North Carolina. And when you look at the profile of Atlantic Coast states, NC is a natural target of hurricanes moving up that coast. Flooding is going to be the single biggest threat to our communities in the coming decades, and we must begin addressing that now.

Virginia Foxx has been a no-show at Impeachment hearings

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Because you don't need to learn anything when your mind's made up:

Two North Carolina lawmakers sit on the committees with access. However, one of them has so far not attended any of the secure testimony: Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th District.

“Several depositions have been scheduled when Congress is not in session and other events have been scheduled in North Carolina. Others have had their time changed, conflicting with other responsibilities in Washington, including my work as Republican Leader on the Education and Labor Committee,” she wrote.

I won't say she is dumber than a box of rocks, but she's pretty damn close. She just admitted that depositions have been held when Congress was in session and not in session, meaning she had ample opportunity to attend at least one of these hearings. By trying to cover her ass with this catch-all statement, she accomplished the opposite. And this Tweet from late September shows she is nothing more than a hypocrite:

Nut-job Tim D'Annunzio ran Facebook ads outing alleged whistleblower

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Part of Trump's idiotic propaganda machine:

A North Carolina businessman and failed congressional candidate, Tim D’Annunzio, gained as many as 200,000 impressions on a pair of ads that provided the supposed name of the whistleblower. He promoted the posts using a personal page titled “Message,” targeting “people who are Christian-related, who have Christian interests,” he said in an interview.

D’Annunzio said he first came across the name of the supposed whistleblower in a Gateway Pundit article. “And then it started to pop up in other places, where it’s obvious he’s the guy,” he said.

Those of you who are not long-time BlueNC readers may not be aware of this dude, but here's a quote from his failed Congressional effort back in 2010:

Elizabeth Warren will be in Triangle and Triad today & tomorrow

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Fighting her way to the top took skill and energy:

The Massachusetts senator is holding a town hall-style meeting Thursday evening at Raleigh's Broughton High School. Earlier in the day the public can attend a Warren interview on the North Carolina A&T State University campus in Greensboro. On Friday morning, she'll participate in a Raleigh forum assembled by groups focused on issues important to the Latino community.

These are Warren's first campaign events in North Carolina, which is expected to be a presidential battleground state next November. North Carolina's presidential primary is one of many scheduled for March 3 and is just three days after the key Democratic primary in South Carolina.

Understand, this is not an endorsement. BlueNC readers come from across the spectrum, from blueish dogs to Che Guevara t-shirt wearing radical leftists, and all points in-between. I wouldn't dream of trying to sway you folks one way or another, because you're smarter than the average bear. But I am getting tired as hell of reading about how she can't get elected because of this or that personality trait. I mean, come on. Trump is a silver-spoon-sucking narcissistic fuckwit of epic proportions. Apparently our ideas of "likeability" are terminally flawed. Here's more on this nonsense:

Notes from a failed Municipal campaign

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I'm still licking my wounds after a second failed attempt to win a seat on our Town's Board of Aldermen, so it might have been wiser to wait until some of the bitterness fades to talk about it. But if I were one of those "wise course" people, I probably would have won. And therein lies the crux of the problem: Honesty and a genuine desire to inform the voting public might sound like a winning approach, but the average voter uses reductive reasoning in choosing candidates. They're often not looking for reasons "why" to vote for you. they're looking for reasons "why not" to choose your name on the ballot. Follow me below the fold, if you can stomach it:

Tuesday Twitter roundup

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Make sure and vote today, folks:

I don't normally agree with Republican operatives like the above, but this sales tax is both regressive and tone-deaf. Tens of thousands in Charlotte are living in poverty with little hope of climbing out, and boosting the arts and culture while that persists is a disconnect from reality.

40 years after the Klan-Nazi massacre in Greensboro

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And it's still hard to fathom:

“After the smoke cleared, it was silence,” Clapp would later tell the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which would examine what happened that day and issue a report. “There was a stillness in the air. We knew people were dead.”

Four decades later, many of the wounds from that infamous day — later designated the “Greensboro Massacre” by the North Carolina Historical Society — haven’t healed for those involved and may not in the aftermath of a tragedy that made headlines around the world. Some people continue to blame the victims. Some continue to blame the police.

I remember that day clearly. I watched it happen via news cameras that were on the scene, and it was horrific. One CWP member was chased into a corner of a building, and shot several times from about four feet away. Here's a list of those who died:

Part-time Congressman, full-time Jerk

Submitted by scharrison on

If any new employee missed this much work in the private sector, he'd be fired with a vengeance:

From Sep 2019 to Oct 2019, Bishop missed 26 of 78 roll call votes, which is 33.3%. This is much worse than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving.

After the embarrassing catastrophe that was the NC-09 Fraudfest, mainstream media should be watching Bishop like a hawk. By the time he missed his 10th appearance, it should have been plastered all over the front pages. But instead, we get crickets. I expect to see this covered by the middle of next week, and if it isn't, I might let Evil Steve loose on the Internet...

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