Wakeup 08-27-17

Rick opened by opining that the “main stream” media and Hollywood are responsible for the divide in our country, and explained how “cord cutting” is reducing their cash flow.  Cable and satellite providers forward some of the monies subscribers pay them to each of the channels the subscriber can get (regardless of whether the subscriber ever watches that particular channel or not).

Next, Hal gave us the facts about, and we discussed the fact that on Monday the Craven County Schools requested that the Board of Commissioners give them a sizeable amount of money for them to lease I-Pads for every student and teacher in kindergarten through 12th grade.  Several interesting things emerged.  The amount of the request was never mentioned (it was in the online agenda).  The money was to come from the county’s “capital account” (taxpayer monies set aside for bricks and mortar projects) even though it’s to be an on going annual expense.  (This kind of thing is happening in Beaufort County, too.)  And the I-Pads are to be provided for kindergartners and first and second graders in spite of the fact that CCTA members who were on Kim Fink’s Public Education Committee and attended all of the Academic Standards Review Commission hearings in Raleigh heard an early childhood development specialist who testified say that beginning to use electronic devices too early retards the development of a child’s motor skills and is counter productive in the early grades.

We also got into a discussion of the place of real books in addition to electronics which led to a brief mention of the effects of an EMP event and how the likes of North Korea (among others) would love to cause such a thing in America.

Hal mentioned the feed-back we’ve gotten from Scott Harrellson (Craven’s Public Health Director – I think that’s the right title) on our website about what we’ve said about the Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers (FQHCs) in Craven, and he read Mr. Harrellson’s full statement.  Then, by way of contrast, he talked about what Mr. Harrellson said when he was selling the idea of the first FQHC in Craven.  (He was able to do that because he’d saved a hard copy of the power-point Mr. Harrellson used at the time.)

We next got into what the General Assembly is up to, and this includes hearings on new General Assembly districts (NC House and Senate) conducted in locations around the state this past Tuesday (8-22-17).  Hal and I participated in the one held in Washington, NC.  There were a total of 7 locations including one at the Legislative Building in Raleigh, and all locations were tied together via cameras and video.  Rep. David Lewis conducted all the meetings from the Raleigh location, but there were members of the General Assembly and Sargents-at-Arms in each location.  All citizens who signed up had an opportunity to talk.  It began by 2 or 3 people speaking in one location, then moving to the next location, and the next, etc.  Before it was over, it was obvious that not everyone would get to speak using that format, so the connections were shut down, and each location finished as an individual meeting.  Representative Michael Speciale, Senator Norman Sanderson, and Senator Harry Brown were in the Washington location.  Although there were a sizeable number of Republicans in attendance, citizens who spoke seemed to be predominantly members of the NAACP and Democrats who were upset about gerrymandering.  Republicans offered varied suggestions.  Hal’s and my “hot button” was the fact that two truly conservative Representatives (Pittman and Ford) have been double-bunked in Cabarrus County while a much less conservative Representative will have a district all to herself in the same county, AND there is a third district in the same county as well.  Also, Senator Bill Cook (another conservative) will have a new district which is thought to be inhospitable to him.

We talked about “crowd sourcing” (do another duckduckgo search) and how that is developing a large body of information about the subjects that wikileaks leaked.  We didn’t so much discuss the pros and cons of wikileaks actions as what having that information in the public realm has lead/is leading to because of the crowd sourcing approach.  Mary mentioned that both The Daily Caller and Gateway Pundit have good information online on the topic, too.

The last 5 minutes or so is an interview Rick did with Jerry Schill, Chairman of the God & Country Christian Alliance, one of their meetings Rick attended which featured Deborah Dewart (author of Death of a Christian Nation), and the Christian Alliance’s upcoming God & Country Banquet to be held starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Havelock Convention Center on September 18 featuring Judge Paul Newby as the keynote speaker.  Tickets are $20.

Wakeup Call
Wakeup Call
Wakeup 08-27-17
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