They say if you look up to the stars on a clear night, you can still see Prince's guitar suspended in the sky, from when he threw it at the end of his solo
Solos on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, ranked:
3. Clapton (the original) 2. Prince 1. Paul Gilbert is a god among men
NC Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell is set to start speaking to a House committee any moment now (audio and video at ncleg.gov/LegislativeCal…)
She's there to give a recap of 2020 and a look ahead to the near future #ncpol#ncga
Yesterday the @NCSBE voted to recommend moving back a bunch of elections this year, as well as the 2022 primaries, due to problems the federal government is having with the Census (since we need to redistrict everything, ASAP). @_lucysherman wrote about it newsobserver.com/news/politics-…
Some background: Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson was reprimanded by the U.S. DOJ in 2012 for numerous constitutional violations + an "egregious pattern of racial profiling." He was then re-elected twice, in 2014 and 2018, after no one ran against him justice.gov/opa/pr/justice…
However, later on in 2016, the DOJ and Alamance County reached a settlement over this issue. The DOJ dropped legal action in exchange for the sheriff agreeing for his deputies to undergo bias training and more justice.gov/crt/file/88640…
Lots of attention paid to Trump/Biden and Tillis/Cunningham of course, but control of the state legislature is up for grabs this year too. Here's a good @ludkmr primer on which races to watch in the NC Senate carolinapublicpress.org/39140/nc-senat…#ncpol#ncga
And here's a story I wrote, 364 days ago, on how if Biden and Trump run at a virtual 50-50 tie here, Republicans will likely hold onto the state legislature. Democrats likely need a substantial Biden win here to take back the #NCGAnewsobserver.com/news/politics-…
Story today from @_lucysherman on the record Republicans are running on now--after a decade in power, following a century of Democratic control
(although of course the Democratic Party of most of the 20th Century looks a lot like the GOP of today) newsobserver.com/news/politics-…
My article goes into a few possible reasons for this--from them growing up in an age of social media misinformation, and a president who often seems at war himself with the electoral process, to a pretty overwhelming sense that the Electoral College means their votes don't matter
In fact, while younger voters are more likely to think we should get rid of the Electoral College, the poll found less than 1/3 of NC voters *of all ages* like the Electoral College.
A majority (51%) said we should switch to a popular vote, and the other 20% weren't sure #ncpol
Adding one piece of historical context here: The massacre happened in early November, just after the election, because a pre-election campaign of voter suppression and intimidation was deemed by political and business leaders to have not been successful enough #ncpol
And it worked. After killing a bunch of people and forcing the elected town council to resign at gunpoint, the mob leader appointed himself mayor, and nobody did anything about it
Fired NC cop: “We are just going to go out and start slaughtering them f—— ni—–. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.”
That cop was on the force for years, and was fired less than 24 hours after a new chief took over. Wonder what has gotten hushed up before? portcitydaily.com/local-news/202…
He also talked about killing a black magistrate judge, as well as a black cop he worked alongside. And later got to fantasizing about a second Civil War.
None of the cops he talked to reported him. He just forgot that he was recording himself, and got caught in a routine audit
Wilmington is in New Hanover County, where an off-duty sheriff deputy recently led an armed mob in neighboring Pender County that allegedly broke into the home of a black teen they (wrongfully) believed was involved with a missing girl wect.com/2020/05/08/pen…