Comments | Eastern NC Now

Read my post carefully...extremist on both sides. Anyone wanting communism in the US is an extremist. I would not vote for them. However, they are allowed to make their pitch as we are allowed to reject it at the ballot box.

I understand some of you are still butthurt over the GF murder. The reaction scared you. But it needed to happen. Left or right, the police do not get a pass for murdering citizens in the street. (J6 - A. Babbitt doesn't count because she was not in the street, but unlawfully rioting in the capitol building)

Commented: Monday, August 24th, 2026 @ 3:06 pm By: big Bob

When the chairman of the DSA openly boasts of his objectives that "our goal is communism" we need to believe him.

The poster boy for political violence here and in Europe is ANTIFA, and we must remember that ANTIFA started as the armed wing of the German Communist Party during the Weimar period. When it was recreated after the war, they only modified their logo to include anarchism along with communism.

Commented: Monday, August 24th, 2026 @ 1:47 pm By: John Steed

Well Big Bob ... the Democratic Socialists and their accessories, the Non Patriot Left, cheating copiously by enough in the 2020 presidential election to elect the Vegetable President, also caught the patriots of this Republic by a very big surprise as well.

"J6," while literally uncalled for, was a very small price to pay for that level of widespread cheating for this incredibly Non Patriot President to serve ... as a vegetable.

You can rant and rave about "J6" ad nauseum, but the institutional corruption of election cheating, en masse, in that 2020 General Election had, and still has the unambiguous power to piss off good people.

Commented: Monday, August 24th, 2026 @ 12:58 pm By: Stan Deatherage

That's disingenuous Stan.
The left stands against authoritarianism and fascism and believes we all have the same rights and responsibilities. However, I will say, neither the far right nor far left can run the country well. Both make good points now and again, but neither can govern effectively.

If Trump applies pressure to cancel or disrupt the states from holding elections, the country will burn down. Both sides will suffer greatly. I hope there are enough current leaders to stand up and let the people speak at the polls, regardless of the outcome.

Commented: Monday, August 24th, 2026 @ 12:09 pm By: big Bob

That is true, however I think it’s a real possibility. Plans are in the works. Options being discussed. J6 caught most by surprise. It will look different this time but goal is the same. Retain power against the will of the voter.

Commented: Monday, August 24th, 2026 @ 9:03 am By: big Bob

I wouldn't lump everyone together. In America ,there is plenty of violence to go around. Armed by republican gun laws we can easily point to either side. Subtract out the lunatics, we see that people on the left fight for justice. On the right, white supremacy.

Commented: Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 @ 2:47 pm By: big Bob

Mr. Rader: Interesting. These Beaufort County factions are pretty intricate. So, you are saying the main opposition to you in in District Six was organized teacher-union oriented teachers with help from Carolyn and Randy Walker.

Alternately, I've had numerous reports about the Washington Walkers as well as with additional antics from other elements of the local non-conservative GOP working against Mr. Hickman in School District Two. All of these that I know about were from outside of District Two. One of those particularly disgusting entities seem to specialize in dirty tricks, and they go after all the native conservatives, including you. A central character in this group seems to be under the protection of the present-day party chair. Granted this boorish segment probably doesn't command a lot of votes - They're mainly just a meanspirited aggravation.

Rino Hunter: I agree about what the real problem of the local GOP is - opportunists running as fake Republicans because they cannot win as Democrats. Maybe I differ with you a little in that I think some of the internal party factions are playing a strong role in the opportunistic fake Republican scenario. It appears to many of us that these "fake" suspect Republicans are being catered to by the present local Republican leadership while most Conservatives, with few exceptions, are being constantly harassed and treated as the number one enemy.

Thank you for providing a list of local Republican candidates with actual GOP credibility. Also, thank you for correctly including Stan Deatherage in your list. With that I'm wondering, is there anyone that can rein the Party Chairman in during this election season? Her constant public attacks on a Republican candidate make her guilty of party disloyalty regardless of whether the weak as water Executive Committee acts or not. In fact, as a body this committee occupies the role of accomplice as things currently stand. A blank Beaufort County Republican Party page on Facebook would be appropriate at this point.

If by some miracle the local GOP survives enough to conduct a productive convention, they must come up with new leadership that is willing to treat all factions fairly and with respect and hopefully deal intelligently with the opportunists making us look like idiots. They must also NOT make a mockery of the Plan of Organization and basic meeting practices.

Commented: Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 @ 7:19 pm By: Van Zant

Traditional mechanical electric and water meters are very robust. They usually last decades, and very rarely have to be replaced. They are also proven to be safe. The computer assisted smart meters are not as robust. They break easier and sooner, but they cost more. Some of them have also been shown to be bigger fire risks.

Why should utility customers be gouged to pay for replacing meters that have no need to be replaced, which will not last as long and may be fire hazards? This is insanity and a financial boondoggle.

It has been said that a previous regime bought these meters and has had them in a warehouse. If so, it is far better to just sell them to someone else to put the money in the budget. Instead they want to spend money to take out perfectly good meters and replace them with these new meters. That is VERY VERY wasteful spending.

These meters should also never be crammed down the throat of any utility customer. If the customer has a working meter and does not want one of these things, they should be able to just say NO.

Commented: Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 @ 3:09 pm By: John Steed

Hooray for Florida. Our local schools need to do that.

Commented: Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 @ 7:46 am By: Bubba

When it comes to Democrats trying to pass themselves off as fake Republicans to win election, do not forget Carolyn and Randy Walker, who both switched parties on paper to get elected, then governed like the Democrats they always had been. Randy Walker once ran unsuccessfully for county commission as a Democrat before he switched and tried it as a fake Republican. Once in office, he has governed as the Democrat he has always really been. Opportunists is indeed an accurate term for these political chameleons.

Commented: Saturday, August 22nd, 2026 @ 7:15 pm By: Conservative Voter

VZ, the real problem of the local GOP is opportunists, many ex-Democrats suddenly wanting to run as fake "Republicans" because they cannot win as Democrats. That is an even bigger problem that internal factions within the party.

On the school board, Monica Davis has been a Democrat most of the time she has lived in Beaufort County and only recently switched to "Republican". She has also been a card carrying member of NC's liberal teachers union. The new member for Bath is also a teachers union member and I am told has never shown up for anything in the Republican Party. Then you have our opportunist NC House nominee, the water boy for Big Ag, Darin Armstrong, who was a longtime Marc Basnight Democrat and even a major contributor to Basnight's campaigns. Those candidates all coordinated together along with sheriff challenger Kerry Cox and county commission candidate John Edwards. Of the lot of them, only Cox has ever shown his face at a GOP function before running for office and Cox was forced to resign from the county GOP executive committee for party disloyalty when he publicly supported a Democrat candidate for sheriff in 2022.

Another last minute ex-Democrat who did a last minute switch to run under false colors as a Republican was Frankie Waters. As a commissioner, he has always been an ally of the actual Democrats serving on the commission. His "Republican" identity has always been a fake facade.

Looking at our county and legislative ticket in November, the only "Republican" candidates who have an actual background in the GOP are Senator Bob Brinson, Commissioner Stan Deatherage, Commission candidate Ashley Woolard, Sheriff Scott Hammonds and school board members Charles Hickman and Terry Williams. The others are all opportunists and mostly warmed over Democrats..

Commented: Saturday, August 22nd, 2026 @ 6:00 pm By: Rino Hunter

Van Zant: Now that the ruling of Louisiana vs Callais, by the U.S. Supreme Court, is judging permanent, precedent setting clarification regarding our 14th Amendment's guarantees; which may now automatically stipulate that Beaufort County's school board is out of constitutional compliance with that Amendment's guarantee that voting citizens may NOT be afforded "Equal Protection Under Our Laws" here in Beaufort County, and furthermore, it should be immediately prudent that Beaufort County change their election method for school board members.

Commented: Saturday, August 22nd, 2026 @ 3:16 pm By: Stan Deatherage