Our elected leadership, of which some appear to have been “purchased” by entrenched special interests through campaign donations, and some City government employees, regularly act to retard potential profitability in order to support “chosen” for-profit businesses who provide “grants” or campaign contributions in exchange for monopolistic government contracts like Mike Barber's First Tee of the Triad and Zack Matheny's DGI. Legislated benefits like free streets and sweet real estate deals are unavailable to the non-wheel greasing general public, but only to those who have funded the campaigns of the inexpensive stooges who fork over taxpayer owned resources to their masters.
As we wait for City Council to decide which 'necessary' infrastructure debt is to be voted on in the upcoming election, at least $55 million in debt voted on by Council justified with bullshit math which Margaret Moffett, Susan Ladd, Allen Johnson, Doug Clark and Steven Doyle at the News and Record didn't bother to investigate, directly lined the pockets of Council campaign contributors, which has never been reported and most likely will not be, as it would be counter to Warren Buffett's broader interests for a local paper he owns to point out what Warren does best.
Disappointment may follow expectations of Greensboro’s News and Record, that used to be our paper of record and the Rhino Times, our most 'conservative' weekly, now owned by HB2 supporter Roy Carroll, defending free market capitalism and support for local for-profit small businesses against Greensboro's bought and paid for fascistic government intervention for the upper crust.
The News and Record and the Rhino's 'editorial boards' appear to be indifferent to the entrepreneurial spirit that made America a great country. John Hammer has his head so far up Roy's ass he can't hear the behind the door insults he justifiably receives for betraying his profession by selling out and shilling propaganda for profit paid for by his reader's tax payments.
Many may be coming to realize that an oligarchy of a majority of Greensboro’s elected leadership, elite business interests, news executives and top city and county employees have set upon the course of transferring wealth out of the hands of taxpayers and small unconnected businesses to a select chosen few, while the overwhelming majority of the population remains unaware, because Margaret Moffett, Susan Ladd, Allen Johnson, Doug Clark and Steven Doyle won't do or are prevented from doing their jobs.
How else could the News and Record not point out local bigs like Roy who funded the legislators who voted for HB2? They all seem to be on the same team when it comes to shielding local elites from public scrutiny. That's how public corruption is allowed to happen.
Oligarchy
A form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons
or in a dominant class or clique;
Government by the few.
Dictionary.com
The following is from Roy Carroll's Rhino Times, written by John Hammer, who defended HB2 for Roy, who contributed to a bunch of the legislators who voted for it without being held to account via multiple acts of journalistic cowardice by Margaret Moffett, Susan Ladd, Allen Johnson, Doug Clark and Steven Doyle at the News and Record.
Some of this needs to be copy and pasted before Roy and John take it off the Rhino site, like they did with the local net worth article, and after John went under, and after the News and Record did the same on multiples of occasions within five years or so;
"...In cities that have passed laws similar to those in Charlotte, men have been apprehended for hanging out in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. Their defense was that they identified as women...
Except Pat McCrory couldn't come up with any when asked about it on national TV,
making North Carolina look bad, costing us jobs and economic growth,
and John Hammer and Roy Carroll were with Pat on the subject until they went silent
after it become clear Roy Carroll and friends hurt our City and state with their actions
...It’s hard to believe that the fact that men should use the men’s restroom and women should use the women’s restroom is controversial... Who knew that men had a fundamental right to go in the bathrooms and locker rooms designated for women?
...One aspect of the ordinance that the Charlotte City Council seemed to ignore is the fact that men are frequently arrested for drilling holes in the walls of public bathrooms and peeping at women.
...If these men are willing to risk arrest by drilling peepholes and peering through them, do people actually believe they would hesitate to claim they are transgender in order to have access to a woman’s bathroom?
If a man says that he identifies as a woman, who is to say that he doesn’t? Before Bruce Jenner had surgery and became Caitlyn Jenner, he certainly looked nothing like a woman, but he says he identified as a woman.
...State Rep. Jon Hardister of Greensboro brought up an aspect of HB 2 that has received little press. Hardister said, “Charlotte overstepped its authority."
The High Point Market, better known as the furniture market, is ignoring an old adage, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” The furniture market receives $1.2 million for marketing and $1.2 million for transportation from the state each year.
In the state budget passed last year, state Sen. Trudy Wade, who represents High Point, fought hard for the furniture market and got the allocation raised by $544,000 per year to the present level.
John Hammer threatened the Furniture Market for Roy Carroll
to advance support for HB2 and the legislators Roy funded who voted for it
which the News and Record won't report via cowardice
By joining the onslaught of opposition to HB 2, the furniture market may have put that funding in jeopardy...
http://rhinotimes.com/Content/Default/One-Click-Reading/Article/NC-Restrooms-Same-As-They-Ever-Were/-3/6/1126
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More from John and Roy;
Most of what I’ve read in the mainstream media about the whole bathroom brouhaha has been either wrong or based on faulty information.
...the majority of people agree with HB2, whether they know it or not.
...The debate has little to do with transgender people using one restroom or shower or the other. That’s a smokescreen. The issue is what is set out in the Charlotte ordinance – whether our society wants to have gender-neutral facilities or facilities segregated by biological sex.
Not really
Charlotte’s ordinance required all bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, saunas, everything except maybe OB-GYN examination rooms, to be gender neutral.
Not really
...The reason the opponents of HB2 are trying to make it sound like transgender people are being discriminated against is political. The people out protesting may believe the issue is about transgender people, but it appears the folks calling the shots want gender-neutral bathrooms. They want all of us to act like there is no difference between men and women – wake up one day and be a woman and the next day be a man. There is the problem of biological differences, but they ignore the fact that men and women are physically different.
http://www.rhinotimes.com/Content/Default/Columns/Article/Weekly-Hammer-May-19/-3/7/1214
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016; A few questions for the City of Charlotte concerning HB2
http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-few-questions-for-city-of-charlotte.html
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More from John and Roy, which the News and Record didn't have the guts to call them out on;
"...The law treats all people the same.
No it doesn't and it's not enforceable
What HB2 establishes is that in North Carolina people are required to use the restroom that corresponds with their biological sex. The Charlotte ordinance – which Charlotte did not have the authority to pass...
Not really, otherwise the state could have just sued Charlotte,
but they didn't
Since transgender is not defined, this would have allowed men to use the women’s restroom and women to use the men’s restroom. In effect, all restrooms and locker rooms would be gender neutral.
Not true
Blatant lie not identified by the News and Record
HB2 allows any business including the High Point furniture market to have gender-neutral restrooms if they so desire. The decision is left up to the owner of the business.
,,,Vaughan allowed state Rep. John Blust, who is a candidate in the Republican primary for the 13th Congressional District, to speak first and gave him some additional time to explain what the state statute he voted for did.
Blust said that the topic was one that he was almost embarrassed to talk about in public, but that the state had been forced to regulate the behavior of people in bathrooms. He said, “it seems common sense that everyone use the bathroom based on their anatomy.” Blust said, “Charlotte did not have the statutory authority to do what it did.”
Not really
...Blust was allowed to start again and said, “As the parent of a young daughter, I’m not willing to have her, her classmates, teammates and friends, go into the girls locker room and undress in front of someone with the male anatomy.”
Which wouldn't happen in real life,
just like it doesn't happen now in real life
...The legislators held public hearings and heard everyone who signed up to speak on the bill before it was passed.
Bullshit, and John Hammer and Roy Carroll know it,
and so does Margaret Moffett, Susan Ladd,
Allen Johnson, Doug Clark and Steven Doyle at the News and Record,
who committed journalistic malpractice by not pointing it out,
meaning they are just as at fault as John, Roy, Art Pope etc...
for the economic mess our state has found itself to be in
...Chris Hardin, a candidate in the Republican primary for the 6th Congressional District, got shouted down by opponents to HB2 several times. He said the law was not about discrimination but about common sense. He said that allowing the Charlotte ordinance to stand would have had a detrimental effect on law enforcement.
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And again from John Hammer and Roy Carroll, which wasn't reported by the News and Record;
"Rep. John Blust of Greensboro, a candidate for the 13th Congressional District seat, said nobody in Raleigh was talking about HB2. He said, “I haven’t said anything about changing or repealing anything.”
Really?
Blust said that he was completely misquoted in the article and what he had actually said was that he hadn’t heard anyone say anything about amending the bill so he couldn’t comment on it.
...Blust said, “I don’t even like to show a blink of an eye over this.”...
Rep. Jon Hardister from Greensboro, who is quoted extensively in the article, said the quotes were technically accurate but taken out of context. He said, “I was surprised when I saw the article, not because of my quotes but because of the way they were presented.”
...A constitutional amendment would make the law requiring separate bathrooms for men and women more powerful.
Sen. Trudy Wade of Greensboro said, “We have not discussed changing anything at all.”
Rep. Harry Warren from Salisbury, who, like Blust, is a candidate in the 13th Congressional District race, said, “I’m not in favor of going back at all on HB2.”
Apparently not anymore after these folks turned our state
into a national discrace
State Sen. Andrew Brock, also running for Congress in the 13th District, said, “HB2 is a great bill.”
Hardister said, “I’m not working with anyone to repeal the bill or to amend it, but discussions are taking place and there could be changes.”
Hardister said he thought it was possible the portion of the bill that made it more difficult to sue over discrimination in state court could be amended.
Hardister said that one of his complaints about the coverage of the bill in the N&R is that it made it sound like protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community had been repealed, which he said was misleading because “LGBT was not a protected class before HB2.” He noted that the legislature had not made LGBT a protected class...
Jon Hardister was all in until Art Pope, John Hood and Pat McCrory
What the law does do is make it clear that local jurisdictions can’t create their own protected classes but that the decision on protected classes will be made at the state level."
http://www.rhinotimes.com/Content/Default/City/Article/More-HB2-Misrepresentations/-3/18/1195
