NCGA

Hat tip to Action NC for Tweeting this story:

Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans - nearly 1 in 2 - have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

Of course, the Free Market corporate lackies think this is a great way to reshape the country:

Trying to tie the Governor's hands over Pre-K funding:

Perdue wants to restore $30 million to the Pre-K program by using money that hasn't yet been earmarked for other programs and by taking millions of dollars out of the state's Emergency Fund. But Republican lawmakers argue it's an inappropriate use of emergency fund money. They point out the legislature already approved the budget over the governor's veto.

While granting her Budgetary carte blanche to solve their poor handling of the Medicaid issue:

If your agenda includes gutting education, controlling women and increasing poverty, you're gonna miss this clown.

And of course my Sheriff was front and center advising them what to do:

Alamance Sheriff Terry Johnson says his county’s participation in the federal 287(g) program has helped his deputies arrest and arrange for the deportation of nearly 1,800 illegal immigrants over the past five years. “We deal with criminals who happen to be illegal aliens,” Johnson said.

What he didn't say, probably because no public comments were allowed, which is also probably why there's no mention of it in this news story (it still should have been referenced): The Sheriff and his office have been under investigation by the US DOJ for more than a year for racial profiling:

That was just one month ago, when Dollar, Tillis and Berger promised everybody no cuts to Medicaid would be forthcoming. This is now:

You might get a "jury of your peers", if you're white, that is:

Implicit in the Racial Justice Act is that the makeup of juries can be manipulated to skew verdicts, and advocates of the historic law have provided numbers they contend show sweeping patterns of racial disparities. In Wake County, qualified African-American jurors were struck at 2.5 times the rate of all other jurors, and in Cumberland County, they were struck at 2.6 times the rate, according to the Michigan State University researchers.

For those who can't quite grasp how our system would allow this, here's a personal anecdote that may help you understand:

For those who have followed the threads of influence linking ALEC, the Koch brothers, Art Pope, and the NC General Assembly, this Tweet speaks volumes:

TerryStoops Terry Stoops
I am hanging with @AFPNC MT Learning about new ideas in school design at #alec with #ncga in phoenix #edreform #edtech #charters 1 Dec

Popping the cap on charter schools in the last session was merely the priming of the pump. The education destroyers reformers can be expected to attempt even more devastating changes next go-round: