I am tired of writing about the bully that we’ve installed in the White House.  It’s only by means of words that his dissimulation can be revealed to be  darkness, a grim future which his lies hold for all of us.  I’ll continue to have my say until he and his supporters are out of office.  Perhaps he will stand trial on account of his many actions violating his oath to uphold the constitution.

I was born and raised in North Carolina.  To look back on my upbringing, I have much to be grateful for.  Once I had a quiet sense of pride at being a North Carolinian.  For the past few years though, I would comment that the South is a good place to be from.  I had no desire to return.  This was uttered in response to the Bible toting, scripture quoting, self important, moralistic, hyper-religiosity that is ubiquitous in the South.  We are all ‘basic issue’ human beings and religion confers no advantage other than some personal comfort the believer derives.

The other hot-button for me is the de-funding of education that has occurred over the years in North Carolina, since the conservatives have taken control of the State House.  Ignorance is dangerous, dehumanizing, and it is shameful when elected officials are reluctant to generously fund education.  So, over the past twenty years or so, I have been satisfied to live outside of Chicago, with no desire to return to North Carolina.

Several days ago however, I felt a burst of pride, a return of satisfaction at the news that Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina, put the health and well being of his citizens ahead of the anticipated largess falling to the Charlotte area with plans to hold the renomination convention for President Donald Trump in late August.

In a series of communication exchanges between the RNC officials, the President, and Governor Cooper, as well as the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services head, Dr. Mandy Cohen there appear to have been three items of impasse. The deal breakers were:

• crowd limits in the Spectrum Arena
• Social distancing
• wearing masks

The RNC would not guarantee these CDC guidelines would be followed.   Essentially the President did not want to see signs of the pandemic in his renomination audience.

Yesterday with my cell phone news feed I found an audio report of the phone call between President Trump and Governor Roy Cooper (a Democrat).  Listening to the President’s voice delivering a stream of flattery, wheedling, cajoling, repeating over and over how much “he loved  North Carolina,” I felt disgust.  Never mind his intent to hold in late August what would be a covid-19 “super-spreader event” in Charlotte.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services noted that while the state is in phase II of opening, increasing numbers of people are hospitalized with covid-19 and a large number of coronavirus cases are in Mecklenburg County.

The Republicans are taking their festival to Jacksonville, Florida.  That’s good news for North Carolina.

I couldn’t have felt more proud.

---

Also to be noted, how in good conscience would a governor endorse a renomination soiree of a candidate who aggressively advocates measures considered dangerous, authoritarian (anti-democratic), socially divisive, and morally repulsive by the governors own party?

• race baiting
• personally ordering our military into Washington DC
  
• continuing concentration of wealth, and inequality
• opening public lands to private development
• stance of hostility toward long standing allies
• disdain for treaties and trade agreements