Speaker 1: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to
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smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. And it's Tuesday. It's noon, and that means
we chat with Andrew Dunn. He is a contributing columnist
over at the Charlotte Observer and the publisher of long
Leaf Politics. That website is longleafpol dot com. Andrew, how
are you, sir?
Speaker 2: I'm fantastic and great to be back with you. My
whole week last week was thrown off because I wasn't
on your show.
Speaker 1: Just really depressed and just lamenting the loss of this
nine minute chat. I understand, I understand, I thinking about
you two. All right, So let's let's talk burger and shrimp.
What do you say talking about Phil Berger and his challenger,
Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. Phil Berger is the leader
of the North Carolina Senate Republican and has been in
that position for many years now and is arguably the
most powerful politician in the state. But he's got this challenger,
Sam Paige, and he's actually polling pretty well against Burger
in his Rockingham County district. So what does Burger and shrimp,
specifically shrimp trolling have to do with each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, let's unpack that a little bit. You know,
as we head toward the March third primary, which seems
like it's far off, but it's really not all that
far off, you know, especially a lot of campaigns are
starting to ramp up right around now. In that primary
election is the most interesting race in the state of
North Carolina by far. You know, You've got Phil Berger,
who longest tenured leader of the state Senate, and then
you've got his challenger, Sheriff Sam Page of Rockingham County,
who's been in office just as long as Berger has,
but as sheriff in Rockingham County. You know, and in
my columns, I like to look for little revealing moments
that people might overlook, but that tell us something about
North Carolina politics. So when I saw Sheriff Sam Page
kind of out front and center when the shrimp trawlers
were in Raleigh. It made me think, you know, what's
going on here? What does what does the Rockingham County,
which is not close to the ocean, there's a sheriff
they're at, you know, have anything to do with that.
Just for a little background for your listeners if they're
not up to speed on shrimp trawling, there was a
provision in some bill somewhere that was going to prevent
small you know, fishermen essentially from trawling for shrimp and
inland waterways. You know, there's a lot of most other
states have already done that, but North Carolina had hasn't
you know. There's good arguments on both sides for you know,
environmental concerns versus you know, livelihoods. I don't really have
a position on it either way. But Senator Berger was
in favor of restricting the shrimp trawling in the inland waterways,
and so here comes Sam Page, of course, taking the
opposite position. He is very much in favor of the
shrimp trawlers and protecting their way of life. And it
made me question, well, is this something that Sheriff Page
really feels passionately about or is he mostly just trying
to cast himself as the as the anti Phil Burger.
Speaker 1: So, and as I understand it too, the shrimpers are
at odds with other fishermen I guess specifically like the
sports fishermen or something, because when they trawl for shrimp
with the nets, they catch a lot of other fish
and stuff, and so there's like a depletion, I think.
And yeah, so this has been going on for a
long time. This fight's been going on for a long time.
And there was a big well and a bunch of people,
a bunch of the shrimp trawlers showed up, and they
successfully got it removed from that bill. So the shrimp
trawling will continue in the inland waterways. So when you
looked at this issue, you saw Sam Page there and
you thought, okay, is he really a big, you know,
proponent of the trawling. What did you determine and is
he is he a big shrimp trawling kind of guy
or is he staking out positions just in opposition to
Phil Berger on stuff?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well that's what I what I called him, That's
what I was trying to suss out. And you know,
he actually had a pretty good answer for for why
he you know, he was talking about the agricultural heritage
and was telling me about how head of the Sheriff's
Association he's been, you know, involved in in statewide issues
for a long period of time. And I buy all that,
but I do think at you know, the core of
it is he wanted another posi to be contrary to Burger,
which which I understand from a campaign perspective. You know,
when you're going against an incumbent, and especially one is
powerful and well known as Senator Phil Berger, you want
to draw those distinctions. It's not always easy in a primary, right,
so I totally get that. But you know what I
argued in my column is it's easy to get carried
away with that right, you know, if you it's easy
to pick the wrong issue to just reflectively, you know,
go against your opponent and just kind of a caution
throwing a caution flag out there that you know, if
he wants to be taken seriously as a candidate, he's
got to be really judicious and you know where he
plants his.
Speaker 1: Flag, right, and this started with his position. In fact,
that's what got him. I think a lot of attention
was the casino measure that Phil Berger tried to slip
through the legislature a couple of years ago. I guess
it was. And he came out as one of the
biggest opponents of the casino that was actually slated for
Rockingham County. He was like, we don't need that here.
He got a lot of publicity off of that. But
then he also has come out he's taking positions on
chemical company immunity, you say, and the raw milk crackdown,
and all of those were in opposition to Burger. But
if that's all, if that's all he's going to be,
that's not enough, you say, to what to get past
him in a primary?
Speaker 2: I mean it may be. I mean, I there's a
lot going on, a lot of rumblings in Rockingham County
about people just kind of wanting some new blood and
sheriff same page is just as well known as as
Senator Berger is in Rockingham County. Maybe it's enough, but
it sure makes them easy to attack as an unserious
challenger if if he's not really dedicated to these positions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was a yeah, that was an op
ed over at the Charlotte Observe or Candidate tries risky
approach and bid too topple North Carolina's most powerful lawmaker.
Over at your site, long Leaf Politics, you had some
words about Tom Tillis's interview that he did with CNN
the other day, and you say that he gave one
of his most spirited, confident defenses of his conservative record,
But then you say he also he made clear, if
slightly condescending, an argument for the value of governing experience.
You say he was feisty, he was focused, but then
you also said that you got to be willing to
explain yourself without sneering at the people you're trying to lead,
and that too often he shades into disdain for people. Okay,
So is that how you think? And by the way,
I agree. I think that's one of the Tom Tillis's
liabilities is that he comes across as these very things,
even if I don't know if he's trying to be
or if that's just sort of the way he naturally speaks.
So is this sort of like a style issue for you?
Speaker 2: I think so. I do think if you're representing the people,
it's important to be out in front of them, And
you know, I just I haven't seen on him. Maybe
you have. I haven't seen Senator Tillis in North Carolina
nearly as much as I would I expect to for
a senior senator from North Carolina. You know, my overall
point was, you know, everything that he said in that
interview was accurate. You know, he was defending his conservative
you know, values and what he's done for the state.
And he certainly has done a lot for the state
in terms of moving in a conservative direction. But I question,
you know, why do that on CNN after you've dropped out, Like,
why not go to the North Carolina GOP convention and
make that case? You know, why not be at Lincoln
Reagan Day dinners around the state making that case. I
think people would be willing to hear it. And yeah,
I think he'd still get some heckels and whatnot. But
you know, when I was a full time reporter, I
was interviewing the school superintendent of Charlotte Mecknenberg Schools and
I was a little nervous, you know, I was young then.
I was nervous about asking him some hard questions. And
the superintendent told me, he said, hey, this is a
full contact position. I know what I signed up for.
I knew I was going to get hard questions, so
fire away. And I just thought that was you know,
more people should have that approach if they're in positions
of leadership. You've got to be willing to take the
hard questions with grace and with confidence.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and I'll tell you the only time I
ever heard from his office usually was when he was
running for reelection or election to reach out to Hey,
can we get on the show or anything like that.
That was the only time I ever really heard from
his office as well, saying goes for Mark Robinson. As
a matter of fact, you have a piece about him
at the Charlotte Observer that he is Apparently he's lost
one hundred pounds and he sounds like he's gearing up
for a comeback. He went on a podcast and is
I guess, is he starting his own podcast too? Is
that what I read in here?
Speaker 2: He said, he was, I haven't seen it yet. You know,
I'll certainly listen, but I haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 1: All right, So he he says that, well, you're right
that he blamed his blowout loss in last year's governor's
race on consultants, the media cowards who abandoned him. I
guess his Republican colleagues. Those are the people who wouldn't
and the people that would not let Mark be Mark.
And so, in other words, he blamed everybody else but himself.
And then he said, I was a lot smarter than
most of the people who worked on my campaign, which
I don't know. I don't know if you're gonna win
a lot of people to your campaign, if you are
going to run again by trashing everybody that helped get
you elected the first two times.
Speaker 2: No, it certainly doesn't speak well of former Lieutenant Governor
Robinson to have that sort of reaction. I mean, the
reality is his implosion was completely his own fault. And
I honestly think that voters, the American people, are very
willing to be forgiving if you ask for forgiveness and
act like you need forgiveness. And you know, I don't
think that Robinson is going to run for the US
Senate seat, but I do see a scenario in which
he runs for a House seat, which is what everybody
was telling him to do, you know, a couple of
years ago, and he rejected that. I think he would
have avoided a lot of pain if he had taken
that advice. But it's just really disappointing to see someone
in such a you know, a position of prominence fail
to be self reflective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you wrote, I thought you had a couple of
really good lines in this piece. Robinson didn't lose because
the party abandoned him. The party abandoned him because he
can't win. And that people love you when you are
useful to them. Robinson should have learned that, but he didn't. Yeah,
that's one of the things in politics. Like you may
not like that aspect of it, but that is absolutely true.
If you are you. Yeah, if you can't deliver for
people as an elected leader, then there isn't really a
lot of value that you're bringing to the table.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's you know, that's why
a lot of people think politics is a dirty business.
In a lot of ways, it is, and but that's
the reality of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Andrew Dunn. I appreciate the time as always, sir,
and we'll talk with you next week, same time.
Speaker 2: Great, looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Thanks, man, appreciate it. That's Andrew Dunn. He is a
contributing columnist over at The Charlotte Observer as well as
the publisher of long Leaf Politics, which is long leafpol
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So North Carolina Attorney General Jeff aka Baby Jesus Jackson
joined two dozen states in suing the Trump administration because
that's what Democrats elected him to do. They want him
to sue Trump on everything. This time it is for
withholding not necessarily yet like rejecting it or or canceling
it or whatever, but withholding at this point almost seven
billion dollars in federal education funding in a federal lawsuit
filed yesterday in US District Court up in Rhode Island,
where there are so many conservative judges that I'm sure
they'll get a fair hearing up there. The twenty four
mostly Democratic led states accused the US Department of Education
and Office of Management and Budget or OMB, of unconstitutionally
withholding six point eight billion dollars that had been authorized
by Congress. This story at The Observer by T Kung
Hui quote. Jackson said, the decision to withhold the money
is costing North Carolina schools one hundred and sixty five
million dollars in needed funding as teachers and students prepare
for the new school year. The money was supposed to
be given out by July one. What is this all about?
If you had to take a guess, why do you
think the Trump administration might be withholding one hundred and
sixty five million dollars to North Carolina school systems? What
do you think that's about? Care to take a guess? Well,
if you said DEI initiatives or divisive topics or stuff
related to illegal immigration, you would be correct. Congratulations, give
yourself a gold star. Now, I don't think they talked
about any of that at their press conference. They were
just talking about how, you know Trump hates children? All right,
if you're listening to this show, you know I try
to keep up with all sorts of current events, and
I know you do too. And you've probably heard me
say get your news from multiple sources. Why, Well, because
it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've
been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and
it's a website. And it combines news from around the
world in one place so you can compare coverage and
verify information. You could check it out at check dot ground,
dot news slash pete. I put the link in the
podcast description too. I started using ground News a few
months ago and more recently chose to work with them
as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how
stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature
shows you which stories get ignored by the left and
the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news
slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen
percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to
get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not
only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News
as they make the media landscape more transparent. The Charlotte
Observer reporting that the North Carolina Attorney General aka Baby Jesus.
That is not my nickname for him, although I do
use it, But that's the nickname that he was given
by his colleagues when he was in the North Carolina
General Assembly because like he was, you know, he simply
showed up and everybody treated him like he was this
savior and he could do no wrong and whatever. So
that's what they called him. So I just figure, well
they would know him best, so I'm going to, you know,
use the moniker. It's probably a term of endearment. They
really love him, like Jesus. So Jeff Jackson does this
press conference along with a bunch of others and including
Superintendent Moe Green, formerly of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District.
He was the former lawyer for the board. And then
he went up to Greensboro, i want to say, and
he was the superintendent up there, and now he is
in charge of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction,
and so he was there and he said that the
withholding of funds makes up about ten percent of the
entire federal funding for the state. Okay, so recognize what
that means. The vast majority of the state spending is
K twelve education, along with community colleges and the university system.
But education is the number one priority, top priority in
the budget has been for as long as as long
as I've ever looked at a budget, almost thirty years,
it's been number one, probably always has been. So what
they're talking about, excuse me, what they're talking about is
this ten percent of federal funding? So one hundred and
sixty five million dollars is ten percent statewide of all
federal money that right now is frozen. On June thirtieth,
the Department of Education told States that nationwide there was
six point eight billion that was being withheld for programs
such as teacher training. Oh my gosh, the teachers have
to be trained, trained in what? Trained in?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: I feel like that's an important question to be answered,
because if you're training teachers like Charlotte Mecklenburg schools did
by bringing in Ibram x Kendy to teach all of
the teachers how not to be or how to be
anti racist, and you make them all read a book,
and then you have them in for like I think
they paid him something like thirty thousand dollars or something
for a ten minute interview with Sonya Gant on a
zoom call. Yeah, like maybe these types of divisive topics
that the state has sought to root out, and at
the federal level they are attempting to root out these
DEI critical race theory, queer theory, right, these different neo
Marxist pedagogies. Then I think, yeah, then that is something
that the state or the national Education Department is what
it should be looking to root out. And this is
what the President ran on and one on and he
promised to do this. They want to look at what
you're using this money for. So it's not just simply
teacher training, it's what kind of training you're giving the teachers.
Then there's after school programs and summer programs. And I
would ask here such as right like what kinds of
programs are you running? Are you doing privileged walks or
something after school? Like what exactly are these programs? That's
what they want to look at. And the final category
services for migrant students and English learners. Migrant students and
thanks to the media participating in the corruption of our
language in order to make us all stupider in our
discussions of important issues, when they say migrant students, they
mean illegal immigrants. That's what the US Department of Education
wants clarity on what are you funding? What is this
money being used for, because we now the new administration
do not want you to be using this money for
these things. The delay and possible loss of the funding
has cost panic for schools across the country. It could
cost Charlotte Mecklenberg School System twelve million dollars twelve million.
Do you know how big Charlotte Mecklinberg School's budget is.
I want to say it's about two billion. Maybe I forget.
I know it cleared a billion years ago, so it's
somewhere between one and two billion. Republican President yeah. Republican
President Donald Trump's administration has questioned how some of these
six point eight billion dollars is being used. The Office
of Management and Budget or OMB, pointed to New York
schools that had used money for English language instruction to
promote organizations that advocate for immigrants in the country illegally.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: That's why they put a freeze on the funding. They
were made aware that you're using these funds for things
that you should not be using these funds. You ask
for funding, and you're like, oh, we're going to use
it for you know, promotion of the English language or
instruction in the English language, and then you turn around
and hand it off to some you know, pro illegal
immigrant nonprofit. So no, you don't get to do that.
Washington State used money to direct immigrants without legal status
once again corrupted language illegal aliens. Okay, Washington State used
the money to direct illegal aliens towards scholarships that the
Trump administration says we're intended for American students. Are we
at the point in the debate where it's not happening. No, no,
we can't be there because we just have now evidence
that it does happen. So now we're at the second
level in the argument where they say, Okay, fine, it's happening,
but it's not a lot. They do this on everything,
particularly like the trends in sports, vote fraud. Right, it's
the same pattern, voter ID whatever, it's the same pattern.
It's not happening. And then okay, maybe it's happening, but
it's not a lot. It doesn't affect anything. And it's like, okay,
find it may have influenced some particular races or something
or instances, but it's not widespread. You know. Stories are powerful.
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dot com. So kudos you know credit where it is
due to the Charlotte Observer Raleigh News and Observer reporter
t Qonghuei, who did put in this story. A response
from the Administration and the Office of Management Budget as
to why the funding has been frozen while a review
is done because the administration has identified some problems, shall
we say, with the way the funds this six point
eight billion dollars is being used in various states and
school districts. Right, I mentioned the New York schools funneling
money that was supposed to be for English language instruction
instead using it to promote organizations that advocate for illegal
immigrants or as they say in the story, immigrants in
the country illegally, which that just flies in the face
by the way of like all journalism and training, which is,
you use as few words as possible to tell the story,
because the more you can edit it down, the more
information you can put in the story. Whether you're print
where you're constrained by you know, word counts and column inches,
you're radio constrained by time, TV constrained by time. So
you want to tell the story few words as possible.
And so rather than say illegal immigrants, they've constructed all
of these longer ways to say immigrants in the country
illegally or immigrants without legal status, all to sanitize the
issue and to conflate two different groups of people, two
different categories. What else did they find, Oh, grant funds
were used for a seminar on queer resistance in the arts.
So yeah, they want to take a look at the funds.
They want to know what you're spending it on. Many
of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize
a radical left wing agenda, the OMB said. In a
statement to the Associated Press, the administration said that it
had not made any final decisions about whether to withhold
or release individual grants, but school leaders fear they may
not get the six point eight billion because Trump's twenty
twenty six budget proposal called for Congress to zero out
all of the programs under review. So that's why North
Caro North Carolina taxpayers now are going to be joining
a lawsuit and having to pay to litigate something that
hasn't even been decided. Back in February, the Education Department
canceled six hundred million dollars in teacher training grants, ninety
million of that was earmarked for North Carolina, on the
grounds that they were being used to promote devisive ideologies.
Then in April, the Education Department announced that it was
canceling a billion dollars in school mental health grants. The
Trump administration again cited the promotion of DEI. Trump is
also pursuing a plan to dismantle the Department of Education,
and actually yesterday the Supreme Court allowed him to go
ahead with the plan to layoff some fourteen hundred Education
Department employees. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined in
seven of the thirty eight lawsuits so far filed by
Democrat attorneys generals against the Trump administration. So that's what
our attorney general is focusing his time on. By the way,
maybe completely unrelated here this story the other day, actually
a couple weeks ago, out of real clear politics, out
of Carl'sbad, California. If I was living in Carlsbad, I
would name my kids Carl I mean, if they were bad. Anyway,
parents are demanding answers after a self described science of
BDSM expert from a clinic providing transsurgeries, as well as
representatives from organizations that help facilitate gender transitions. We're all
scheduled to speak at a California high school during a
recent week of events supporting LGBTQ students LGBTQ students, and
that opens the door for BDSM. Do you know BDSM
is you got kids in the car, may just want
to turn the volume down for like just two seconds,
maybe three seconds. That's it, okay, ready, go. BDSM stands
for bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism. Okay, and we're back
so BDSM. They brought in some self described BDSM expert.
Parents learned that this individual meta Beach, who lists his
pronouns as They then planned to speak as part of
the Gender Sexuality Alliance Club's ally week. After looking into
his business websites and social media accounts, which contained at
least one photo of Beach engaged in BDSM and listed
workshops that he has led called kink one oh one
and examining self injurious behavior, erotic play, and body modification.
Several concerned parents contacted the high school and the superintendent's office,
not happy. A bunch of bigots, right, all right, that'll
do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.
I could not do the show without your support and
the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast,
so if you'd like, please support them too and tell
them you heard it here. You can also become a
patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again,
thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.