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Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to

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this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon

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to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you

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want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,

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I daily show prep with all the links, become a patron,

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go to dpeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the

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subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your

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smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for

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your support. And it's Tuesday. It's twelve noon, and that

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means we chat with Andrew Dunn. He is a contributor

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over at the Charlotte Observer and he also is the

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publisher of long Leaf Politics longleafpol dot com. Andrew, how

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are you today?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing good, trying to stay cool out of the sun.

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Speaker 1: Have you got one of the Duke's smart meters on

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your house? Are they? Are they throttling your AC?

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Speaker 2: They try it. They keep trying to make me sign

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up for that, but I'm not gonna do it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I said new They're like, oh, but you could

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you pay a little bit less every month? Like yeah,

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and then when I really need it, I'm not going

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to have the AC. So smart man, so okay, let's

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talk a little bit at a couple of pieces you've got.

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This is first over at Long Leave Politics, and I

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did go read this story at WRAL that you kind

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of us to sort of pivot into a discussion about

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stewardship by elected officials. But the WRAL story was about

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apparently the sad state of the Hawkins Hartness House, which

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is where the Lieutenant governor works out of. And I

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remember I used to have Dan Forrest when he was

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Lieutenant governor on the show. I'd have him on like

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every other week, and I remember him talking about this

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effort that he and his wife Alice did to like

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solicit a bunch of private donations and fix up this

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house because it was just it was just grimy and

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dirty and in disrepair. And so he did all of

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that work. And so now I guess the WRL story

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is it like it's all kind of reverted back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, basically, I mean, so I used to work for

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Dan Forest back when he was running for governor. So

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I had the privilege of going to this house, the

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Hawkins Hartness House, a number of times. It's right there

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in downtown Raleigh, old Victorian era mansion, not really a mansion,

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but a bigger house. And basically when Dan took office

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in twenty twelve, he described it as a dump that

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you know, it just hadn't been kept up. So yeah,

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he and Alice raised a bunch of money from private donations,

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fixed it up, really turned it into this kind of

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crown jewel for the state, and he had this vision

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that it would be, you know, this asset that would

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be passed down to future lieutenant governors. But yeah, but

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the WRL story found is that when Rachel Hunt took over,

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it was mostly empty. You know, a lot of the

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furnishings that Dan and Alice had collected were kind of

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in the basement, broken or deteriorating, and uh, it was

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not handed off in the way that that former Lieutenant

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Governor Forrest had envisioned. You know, it's not a scandal

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or anything, but it kind of made me think about

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how different people view public service, you know, whether it's

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a stepping stone or it's or it's a charge that

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that they're that they have responsibility for.

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Speaker 1: Right that you're you are a temporary placeholder. You're just

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supposed to be a steward for the office and for

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you know, the people and literally like the furniture, and

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so I'm assuming that this stuff was handed off to

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Mark Robinson in fair condition or you know, the place

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was furnished, I assume. But then and then when I

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was reading through the w r L piece, I couldn't

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really figure out like what exactly, like how did all

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of this stuff happen? They kind of just chalked it

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up to, oh, you know, people just kind of lost

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track of this stuff. But the question I kept asking

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was if they got all of these donations from the

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private sector, like did they get did those donations go back?

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And then would why would the state take those furnishings

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and move them to some other facilities, Like shouldn't those

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things have remained? But also if I made a loan

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of furniture to the Hawkins Heart and his house, then

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should I be able to get it back when that

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Lieutenant governor leaves? I just I was left with a

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lot of questions From the WRIL.

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Speaker 2: Story, Yeah, it was written really convoluted, and the author

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of the piece actually went on X and said that

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he didn't want to get hit with a libel suit

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and that's why he left it real vague and didn't

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play the blame game, but I think it's safe to

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say that Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson when he left office,

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he did not have the same perspective of wanting to

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hand down something nice to his successor as Dan did.

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Speaker 1: And I think the RWRIL story pointed out that Rachel

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Hunt had made some pretty nasty comments about Mark Robinson,

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so maybe that had something to do with it. I

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don't know, but in sort of a related you write

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a lot about Dan Forest over these three pieces. I

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noticed he shows up in all three of your recent

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pieces to a long Leave Politics and the News or yeah,

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one of the Charlotte Observer News and Observer, but the

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next one is at long Leave Politics, and you talk

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about this epiphany you have. I guess while listening to

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Hometown Holler, which is a lefty podcast, I guess I

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have not heard of it, but they apparently. One of

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the co hosts says, we go from a kind of

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milk toast bland country club dad like Dan Forrest as

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our lieutenant governor, to I'm a black Nazi Mark Robinson,

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like whoh, somebody looking at our state in twenty ten

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would look at our state government twenty twenty five and

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if they hadn't lived in the interim, would be like

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what am I smoking? And this rubs you the wrong

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way as it did me, but probably more so you

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because you worked for Dan and you remember what the

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media did to Dan and what the left did to

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Dan Forest when he was lieutenant governor.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And it's funny, Yeah, it just kind of

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worked out that way. A bunch of my pieces mentioned

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Lieutenant Governor Forrest. I haven't written about him in years.

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You know, obviously look back fondly on those days working

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in that job. But yeah, I mean the way that

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WRL and any progressive, liberal leaning publication treated Forrest was

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was really out of box, you know. It was they

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were using the scary music, the you know, the dark

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photo editing and said that North Carolina had never had

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a candidate this extreme. Really just treated him like this

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completely you know, unconventional, scary, dangerous person. And you know,

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it's just funny to hear the strange New respect is

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a phrase that I like to call that people that

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Democrats have for Republicans after they're no longer.

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Speaker 1: Running for office, Right, well, those are the best Republicans

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among Democrats. But but you also talk about how you

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And I mentioned this too the other day when I

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saw Thomas Mills's piece, this very piece that you read

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as well. Only one party promotes violence and it's not

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the Democrats, was his argument. And it's just it's so

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it so illustrates the blind spot that people have for

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their own team, because they will forgive all transgressions if

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it's you know, if it's a fighter on their side,

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because you know, in the culture war, you can't you

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can't suffer any losses of casualties or anything. You need

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everybody in the fight. And so it's like there's this

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blind spot that they cannot see the violence that is

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being fetishized on the left, and it does. It absolutely

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is also on the right. I mentioned that as well,

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and then you tied it to the Age of acrimony,

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which I was not aware of. What is the age

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of acrimony?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the Age of Acrimony is a term used

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for post reconstruction politics. We're talking eighteen seventy to about

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nineteen hundred, and there was a historian who wrote a

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great book called The Age of Acrimony where basically talked

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about how politics in those days really super high turnout.

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It was kind of a focal point of public life.

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Everybody had to pick a team, and the debates were

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extremely raucous and very violent too. To be honest, I

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read that book and was just shocked by how crazy

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things would get. You know, this was before the secret ballot,

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So how actually voting was done was everybody would gather

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in the you know, the center of town and you know,

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bring their own sheet of paper and it was all

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who you know who who you could round up from

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the saloons to go cast their ballots. So, you know,

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people forget Obviously, nobody alive today was around to remember that.

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But we always talk about how we're in unprecedented times

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and it's worth bringing a little bit of historical perspective

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that actually, you know, things are pretty pretty tame compared

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to some periods in our history.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we will leave it there. There's another piece that

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we did not get to, which is on jet zero,

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but we can bring that up next week. Let me

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chat with you. Thanks, Andrew, I appreciate the time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: All right. That's Andrew Dunn. You can read his work

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at long leaf pol dot com Longleaf Politics. He's also

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a contributing columnist over at the Charlotte Observer. Here's a

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So Andrew Dunn's piece over Longleave Politics, where he's talking

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about the Age of Acrimony, he writes, in the decades

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after the Civil War, American politics entered what historian John

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Grinspan called the Age of acrimony. Voter turnout was sky high,

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reaching eighty two percent in eighteen seventy six, but as

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interest swored, so did violence. Campaigns blurred into mass spectacle.

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Riots and assassinations were common. By the way, there's also

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uh North Carolina has a rich history on this score.

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I believe they were called the red Shirts. They went

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around committing all sorts of violence on behalf of the

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Democrat party machine against Republicans and black people. You had

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the you know, the Wilmington Coup that Democrats along with

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the news and observers publisher you know, fomented against the

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Republican fusion government that was elected in Wilmington overthrow that government.

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You know, then began, you know, taking over all of

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the offices and implemented Jim Crow laws across the state.

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So we have our we we have examples of this

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in North Carolina history as well. Riots and assassinations were common.

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People did not just argue, they brawled literally. Eventually that

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fever broke. But the medicine wasn't always pleasant. Americans did

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not find common ground. It ended when political leaders chose

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order over participation. Nationally, I think about that order over participation, right,

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This is one of the things also where you hear,

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you know, on the left is a oh, we need

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to you know, get were voters to the polls. You know,

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that's what democracy is all about. But you end up

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with a lot of people that don't actually have a

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very good, let's say, a sense of things that are

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now being you know, not just engaged in the political process,

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but they are consumed by it and they may not

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have the mental balance, the grounding to participate in policy

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discussions and such.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: Nationally, political reform had some positives, privatizing voting which means

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like secret ballots, reducing the power of political machines, and

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intellectualizing campaigning, but it also involved voting restrictions and cutting

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the public out of the process. In North Carolina, lowering

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the temperature meant overthrowing multi racial governments and replacing them

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with one party Democrat rule. Civility returned, but it came

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at a price. He says. We are watching the age

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of acrimony return. Now. The noise is back, and so

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is the distrust. Sadly, so is the violence. A good

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example of this was the attacks on Tesla. Right, you

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had leftists who until about you know, forty seconds prior,

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we're loving them some electric vehicles and we're touting, you know,

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all of the the miracles of Gaya Earth and how

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she's so fragile she needs to be protected from you know,

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gas guzzling SUVs and the like. That we all have

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to mind the rare earth minerals creating even more pollution

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in order to you know, create these electric batteries, make

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the make the vehicles. And then of course the one

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who you know, mass produced these things and built this

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American car company, Elon Musk. He had some double plus

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on good thoughts about poly and governance and who might

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be a better leader for the country, Donald Trump or

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Joe Biden, and that that is an unforgivable sin to

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the leftist, to the point where they now had to

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sacrifice the ever so fragile Gaya Earth on the altar

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of their left wing politics, because again, the issue is

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never the issue. The issue is always the revolution. So

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the issue isn't climate change, never was, It's the revolution.

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It's to tear down Western civilization and the institutions where

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those stores of value reside. So they had to tear

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it down. So if we have to, you know, send

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a bunch of toxic plumes of smoke into your local area,

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well so be it. It's all in service of defeating

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you know, literally the next Hitler Donald the Orange. Well,

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Elon Musk was collateral damage in all of that, and

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the left they can hold aground, no doubt about it.

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And last night at the Charlotte City Council meeting that

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grudge was on full display, where the city decided we're

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not going to give Elon Musk any business. We're going

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to cut him from our list of approved vendors. And

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their cover story was safety or something safety of the vehicles. Yeah,

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they never actually articulated any actual reasons. They just they

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just wanted Tesla cut from the list. All right, if

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you're listening to this show, you know I try to

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keep up with all sorts of current events, and I

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know you do too. And you've probably heard me say

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get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's

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how you detect media bias, which is why I've been

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so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's

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a website and it combines news from around the world

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in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information.

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You could check it out at check dot dot news

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slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too.

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I started using ground News a few months ago and

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more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate

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because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered

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and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which

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stories get ignored by the left and the right. See

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00:17:19,799 --> 00:17:24,880
for yourself check dot ground dot news slash pete. Subscribe

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00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:27,759
through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription.

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00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:30,839
I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to

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00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,359
every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast,

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00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:36,759
but it also supports ground News as they make the

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media landscape more transparent. Meanwhile, the Charlotte City Council is

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punishing tech sector political foes. Oh I'm sorry, No, this

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is all about safety concerns. Safety concerns right the Charlotte

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City Council last night. They do their meetings up in

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this room. I think it's room two sixty seven. I

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spend many an hour there. I probably spend thousands of

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hours in that room covering city council, County Commission, transit meetings,

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all sorts of stuff when I was a reporter for

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WBT News. And this is usually where they you know,

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they go over like a couple of items in depth,

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and they pull some stuff for discussion, stuff that doesn't

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ever really make it into the full blown meeting that

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occurs at seven o'clock. This is their dinner meeting. So

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they all sit around, they get some presentations, they eat

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their dinner, and then they go downstairs to the big chamber.

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So that's where this meeting occurred, was in this room

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upstairs at City Hall. And they have a thing called

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the consent agenda, where it's usually like, you know, thirty

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or forty items that are quote non controversial, they're not expensive,

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and so they just throw them all into the consent agenda. Now,

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if a council member wants to pull an item off

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of the consent agenda and discuss it, they can do so.

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But every anything else in that consent agenda just gets

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approved all at once with one motion, So you don't

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have to vote on thirty or forty different items. Right.

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It's just a way to speed up the meetings. Anyway,

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One of the items that was in the consent agenda

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was a list. It was approval of a list of

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vendors that the city could use to purchase electric vehicles. Okay,

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and on that list was Tesla and so before so,

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while they're in this meeting, council Member Lawana Mayfield, Democrat,

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pulls this item out of the consent agenda and says

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she wants to remove Tesla from the list. Just Tesla.

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Ed Driggs, Republican. He expressed concern about this.

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Speaker 3: I think I understand why that's being suggested. I have

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a concern though, that the reasons for removing Tesla do

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not have to do with the quality of the product,

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and this is part of a cooperative contract. I think

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we just set a dangerous precedent if we have reasons

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that aren't related to the cost and the performance of

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purchased items for excluding them. We already have Tesla's in

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the fleet, and I don't know what the impact is

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of not allowing for the possibility of adding a Tesla.

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I do think also it'd be helpful, mister manager, if

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you would explain a little bit what this is. We're

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not buying both these things, so our approval of this

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creates the possibility of transactions with each of these partners,

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but there aren't amounts assignable to each of them. Is

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that right correct? I mean, I doubt that Tesla is

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a big piece of this, but I just again have

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a concern about the precedent that we set if we

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start letting considerations like the owner in this case and.

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Speaker 1: His activity.

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Speaker 3: Take precedence over our responsibility to the public for simply

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getting the best equipment we can at the best price

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that we can and integrating that with the fleet that

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we have. So I will not be supporting the motion,

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and I really encourage you that we not go down

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that road.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So what they're talking about, what Mayfield is talking about,

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is boycotting basically Tesla. They're refusing the City of Charlotte

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is refusing to do business with Tesla. That's what the

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practical impact of this motion was. Last night here was

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Mayfield's I don't even want to call it explanation.

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Speaker 4: So one, it has been proven that this particular product

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has had multiple challenges with the quality of the design

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as well as the health and safety, and there are

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multiple lawsuits that are around the nation regarding the quality

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of this vehicle. Not to mention at the Poor City

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Council has the ability to one of three things a

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pool denied defer. So what I am asking, in light

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of all of the multiple between B and C, other

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businesses and opportunities that we have through our cooperative agreement,

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that I don't think that it would necessarily be advantageous

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for us to use tax dollars to purchase into a

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particular product when we have seen multiple accounts of that

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product being an unsafe product. We do have some of

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those products within our fleet, which is fine, but also

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many years ago there was a very narrow feel of

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selection when it comes to electric vehicles. Today that is

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not the case. We have multiple other products and providers

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out there that also have much have different pricing that

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will probably be more comparable to what we're looking for.

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As our city continues to grow. So it is not

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about just the particular owner of this product. It is

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the fact that this product has been in multiple lawsuits

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because of safety issues, and there are multiple concerns.

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Speaker 1: Are you aware of all of the safety concerns around

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00:23:34,079 --> 00:23:36,839
Tesla's I did a quick search. They actually are very

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highly rated, very you know. Stories are powerful. They help

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us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect

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00:23:45,039 --> 00:23:47,960
us to the people of our past while transcending generations.

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They help us process the meaning of life. And our

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stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories

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with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill,

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North Carolina. It was the first company need to provide

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this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high

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quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented

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and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all

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of the details with you to create a perfect project.

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family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told

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through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They

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dot com. So Charlotte City Council votes last night to

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remove Tesla from a list of companies from which the

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city would purchase electric vehicles. This is a boycott. That's

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what this is. That's what they did. Here is the

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response after Lawana Mayfield. Councilmember Mayfield said, Oh, it's because

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of poor quality and that they're unsafe, and there are

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lawsuits against Tesla, Okay, and there are. It's a car manufacturer,

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they have lawsuits against them all the time. Here's Ed Drakes.

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Speaker 3: This body did not choose any of the names on

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this list. We did not go down there. We did

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not review all of their safety records. We didn't look

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at the data. This was proposed by professionals who look

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at these things and identify suitable parties for a contract.

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Tesla's had some lawsuits. If you look at the history

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and the automotive industry of recalls and other lawsuits, you'd

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have to rule out GM Ford Toyota, just about every

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major manufacturer. So let's be objective here. The reason this

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has been isolated out of this long list is political.

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It has to do with the owner, the majority owner

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of the Tesla company. And I am responding to your no, no,

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I'm talking, it's my turning. I'm speaking. I am rebutting

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the specific suggestion that there are safety reasons why this

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body should decide not to include Tesla on the list.

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I think that's a fair response to what you said.

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And once again, we then put ourselves in a position

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where we would need to be able to say, for

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Amic Equipment, Capital, Chevrolet, Deacon Jones, that they are safe

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and reputable, that they are the best people. We are

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not identifying the names on this list. You are singling

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out one name on this list for political reasons, and

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you don't have enough data about Tesla compared to other

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car companies to suggest that they shouldn't be here. And

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I just object again to trying to disguise this is

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anything other than a politically motivated desire not to have

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that name on this list.

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Speaker 1: He is correct, Mayor.

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Speaker 4: I am going to respond to that, because, first of all,

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he is not a mind reader nor does he know

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00:27:05,039 --> 00:27:08,000
the research that I have done on the other companies,

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which I tend to do quite a bit of my

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research before I bring something forward.

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Speaker 1: But she did not bring any of that research forward.

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She did not make any kind of a case, did

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not present any kind of data, no comparative analysis, just

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00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:25,079
some vague concerns about quality and safety and oh there

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are lawsuits. That's it. This was not a rational, logical,

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well researched proposal from her, which indicates that ed Drag's

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is exactly correct.

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Speaker 4: Yet, even if it was political, of which I have

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never had a challenge to say what is is? So

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if it was mainly or predominantly political, for me, I

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would have clearly said that because unlike some people, I

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don't have a problem calling that out.

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Speaker 1: So only if it was mainly or predominantly political. So

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00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,799
she's not actually denying that there is a smidge a

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teens ween see little bit of politics in this move? Huh.

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Or here's another thought. Maybe she's afraid of getting sued

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by Elon Musk. Guy's got a lot of money, right,

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00:28:15,839 --> 00:28:19,519
You're gonna sue him. You're for discrimination because like you.

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That's what he would argue, is that he got cut

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from this list because of his politics, or maybe, as

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I saw on this message, maybe it's because he's an

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African American. He might have a discrimination suit because he's

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from South Africa and he's an American citizen. Now I

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don't think he would sue over this, but let's all

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be clear. This is a boycott of Elon Musk by

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the city of Charlotte. That's what happened. All right. That'll

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do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.

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00:28:53,559 --> 00:28:55,720
I could not do the show without your support and

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00:28:55,759 --> 00:28:58,480
the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast,

469
00:28:58,839 --> 00:29:00,880
so if you'd like, please for them too and tell

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00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:02,640
them you heard it here. You can also become a

471
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:07,319
patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again,

472
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:10,160
thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything

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00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:11,519
while I'm gone.