ONE IN FIVE AMERICANS BELIEVE COVID VACCINES HAVE MICROCHIPS: Around 20% of Americans believe the government uses COVID vaccines to microchip people, according to a recent poll. An Economist/YouGov survey conducted July 10-13 based on a sample size of 1,500 adults found that 15% of respondents said it was “probably true” that vaccines contain microchips while 5% said it was “definitely true.” The poll found that believers of the conspiracy theory tend to be white men without a college degree. Twenty percent of white men without a college degree said the theory was “probably true” compared to 17% of white women without a college degree, and 16% of all Black and Hispanic respondents. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said in a Friday briefing that more than 97% of people who are getting hospitalized with COVID are unvaccinated, CNN reported.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article252883663.html

RACISM DOES EXIST, AND THE PUSH TO BAN DISCUSSING IT IS PROOF: The message state Senate leader Phil Berger sent on Wednesday was clear. It was NOT about accurately and completely teaching American history to North Carolina’s school children. It was about perpetuating the white supremacist myth that racism doesn’t exist in today’s America. Even more, anyone who entertains a discussion about it – not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing – is anti-American and in violation of teaching standards that he seeks to impose. Perhaps most astonishing is that Berger and fellow legislative leaders have perpetuated policies that have been defined by federal courts as racist. The federal Court of Appeals in 2016, said provisions in the legislature’s voter ID law “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” That is intent. That is a clear definition of racism.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-racism-does-exist-latest-push-to-ban-discussing-it-is-proof/19775031/

BERGERMOORE DODGE QUESTIONS ABOUT UNC CHANCELLOR REPLACEMENT: “I have questions about the many decisions that have been made at the Chapel Hill campus. It is something that is up to someone else to make decisions as to what needs to be done about that,” Berger said. Asked again if he had confidence, Berger said: “I am not charged with the responsibility of the day to day management of any individual campus in the system, so whether I have confidence or not really has very little to do with the whole situation,” he said. Later that day, asked if Guskiewicz should stay at UNC, Moore repeated that he likes him, but stopped short of saying yes or no. Um, no. It wasn't Guskiewicz who gave confederate fetishists $2.5 million dollars to squirrel away Silent Sam, it was Republicans appointed by BergerMoore. Look in a mirror.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article252792288.html

REPUBLICANS PUSH VOTER SUPPRESSION BILLS IN LEGISLATURE: Senate Bills 326, 724 and 725 target absentee voting access and private election donations. The bills have similar provisions to other laws being introduced in legislatures of at least 48 states. Senate Bill 326 would shorten the deadline for counties to receive valid mail-in absentee ballots. The current law states that absentee ballots can be received up to 5 p.m. three days after an election, if the ballots are postmarked on or before the day of an election. Under SB 326, absentee ballots would have to be received by 5 p.m. on election day to be counted. “I think we got 14,500 ballots received and counted after election night,” Newton noted in an interview with WITN News. “That breeds suspicion in the mind of some North Carolinians. What could go wrong with 14,500 votes coming in after election night?” Literally everybody has waited 4-5 days (if not more) to receive something important in the mail. The only thing going through their minds is what Republicans put there, so stop it.
https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2021/07/duke-university-north-carolina-ncga-voting-laws-republ...

TRUITT'S JOB IS TO STAND WITH SCHOOL CHILDREN, NOT POLITICAL PATRONS: As an independently elected statewide leader her focus should be, regardless of partisan leanings, on North Carolina’s public-school students, the concerns of their parents, the necessary instructional resources, welfare and working conditions of classroom teachers and support for educational staff and administrators. If that were the case, her reaction late last month to the Senate’s budget would have been very different. She would have accurately noted – instead of ignored -- that the Senate’s spending plan falls far short of the true and desperate needs of public schools. The Senate’s spending plan continues a documented legacy of neglect. Legislative leaders don’t need any more cheerleaders. But the school children of North Carolina do. Truitt must stand up for the public schools – the students, teachers, staff and administrators -- she was elected to lead.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-truitt-s-job-is-to-stand-with-school-children-not-political-patrons/1...