Comments by Steven P. Rader | Eastern North Carolina Now

Here is who really NEEDS term limits; the Speaker of the NC House and the President Pro Tem of the Senate. There is way too much power concentrated in those offices to the detriment of individual legislators and their constituents. Has Perry introducted any legislation on that? No, he hasn't.

For a century, there was a honor system in the NC House of one term Speakers, which prevented a concentration of power. Then Democrat Liston Ramsey decided he was going to be Speaker for life and in the process became an obnoxious dictator. A group of conservative and good government Democrats led by Joe Mavretic joined with Republicans to oust Ramsey and elect Mavretic as speaker. Unfortunately, our last two GOP Speakers have turned out to be Ramsey wannabees, and that is not good for the state or the GOP.

In the Senate, there was no concentration of power because Senate power was divided between the Lieutenant Governor and the President Pro Tem. When Jim Gardner was elected as a GOP Lt. Governor, the Democrats stripped him of most of his legislative power and concentrated it in President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, who became another little dictator. Unfortunately, Republicans have followed in Basnight's footsteps and kept too much power concentrated.

Term limits on these offices, even if only two or three terms, would do a lot to end this concentration of power.

Commented: Wednesday, September 27th, 2023 @ 9:13 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Trump has been a much stronger friend of Israel than any recent Democrat president. As usual, BObbie is full of it, spouting nothing but false gibberish from the far left narrative.

Commented: Tuesday, September 26th, 2023 @ 4:16 pm By: Steven P. Rader

The GAdsden flag was carried by American colonists fighting for freedom and independence from the UK during the Revolutionary War. It represents the principles of our founding fathers, which unfortunately triggers some of todays Marxists. It was not used by anyone in the War Between the States.

And Bob, the Confederate Battle Flag was carried by anti-communist protesters in East Germany and elsewhere in eastern Europe during the fall of communism as a symbol of freedom against a tyrannical government. Indeed, the only time in my life I have ever heard the song "Dixie" played on the radio, I was in Prague, Czech Republic after the fall of the communists. Confederate symbolism was synonimous with freedom in that part of the world.

Commented: Sunday, September 24th, 2023 @ 11:37 am By: Steven P. Rader

Orwellian Newspeak of the far left. Insertion of that term "assigned" makes it sound random and arbitrary, which it is not. Gender is biologically determined, and in most cases doctors have already observed it on the ultrasounds well before birth and already know what it is prior to birth. It is a politicized anti-science term.

But the real issue here is what is our school board going to do to stop this proseletizing of our students for deviant lifestyles?

Commented: Wednesday, September 20th, 2023 @ 10:39 am By: Steven P. Rader

Some months ago, there were lots of parent complaints about an athletic form from a state organization that used the ideological and incorrect term "gender assigned at birth". Of course, no one "assigns" gender at birth because gender is established biologically at conception, and is most often observed long before birth on ultrasound images. That term is just politically made up nonsense. Beaufort County Schools said they complained to the organization that prepared the forms, but I have not heard if it went any farther than that.

That incident should have put the schools on notice that parents object to this kind of thing, but what is being reported by Education First Alliance is far more sinister as it is actually seeking to indoctrinate children into radical gender ideology. It is critical to get to the bottom of this and put a stop to it.

The experts in this area tell us that for most children who experience gender confusion, it is a temporary problem that they naturally grow out of. Attempts to prevent their natural progression to a healthy knowledge of and respect for their factual gender are a threat to these children's future. While some kids will not grow out of it, and reasonable accomdation should be made for them, school policy should concentrate on what is most beneficial for the majority of gender confused children, and that is NOT "gender unicorns".

Commented: Tuesday, September 19th, 2023 @ 10:18 am By: Steven P. Rader

There are lots of shady things in the city's "stormwater utility", beginning with its revenues being used for other things in the budget than were set out in the resolution that created the "stormwater utility". This Frankenstein monster needs a major challenge, either administratively or in the courts.

One scam attached to it a couple of years ago was billing owners of multi-family properties at the commercial rate for their outbuildings and driveways, but not the house or apartment building. These properties already pay more than if the same building was single family because of dividing the billings and then imposing minimums. This unfair and unequal situtation is made even worse by then piling on with falsely calling the outbuidlings and driveway "commercial" which give them a higher rate and imposes yet another minimum. When the main building is not commercial, it is arbitrary and capricious to call the driveway and outbuildings "commerical". The city is blatantly ripping off property owners who fall into this category and they need to be held to account for this outright fraud.

This outrage even applies to a building that is zoned residential and occupied by a single family but on the tax records shows as "multi-family". It is not applied to residential property that is zoned commercial, or to residential property where people conduct business out of the homes. The whole system is arbitrary and capricious and ripe for a major challenge to bring it down.

There are also other ways in which the system as set up in Washington fails to comply with the state stature in ways that massively overcharge some and undercharge others. The system needs a challenge as it is arbitrary and capricious in many ways.

What is also needed is a very thorough accounting of what has been done with the money collected under it.

Commented: Wednesday, September 13th, 2023 @ 8:25 am By: Steven P. Rader

This is a really good analysis of where the western world finds ourselves, both in Europe and America. The "woke" movement does indeed follow the concepts laid down by the Stalinists decades ago and want to crush individual freedom. Where the Stalinists sought to create the "New Soviet Man" the wokesters are after the DEI person, and it is the same thing. The subject of this interview was once an active Communist apparatchik, so he can see the paralells better than most.

Commented: Friday, September 8th, 2023 @ 5:35 pm By: Steven P. Rader

X (Twitter) has lately been cancelling the accounts of European Idententarian (nationalist) sites, after its new CEO met with EU censors. That is bad enough, but the EU now wants to force plattorms to censor Americans posting on American-based sites, and that is outrageous.

What needs to be set up is a way to sue the EU when they censor Americans. The problem is that foreign countries (and probably the EU) have sovereign immunity to suits by individuals. Howver, states and countries can sue the EU. What should work is for a state government to set up a Free Speech Omsbudsman, who would be empowered to sue in the name of the state on behalf of state citizens who were censored. Juries shoudl be allowed to impose punitive damages.

Commented: Tuesday, September 5th, 2023 @ 11:27 am By: Steven P. Rader

After the 2000 election, a bi-partisan majority felt there were deficiencies in US elections, and a bi-partisan naitonal commission headed by former Democrat US President Jimmy Carter was set up to recommend measures to improve it. Since then, the Democrats have gone the opposite direction of Carter's recommendations and made things worse. They have used control of states where they were in the majority to do that and in other states have tried to use the courts to do so. As a result, the flawed 2020 election made 2000 look pristine.

For example, photo voter ID is an international gold standard for election integrity, used in every developed country in the world on a national basis EXCEPT the US. Democrats have fought that tooth and nail here in the courts. We are just now finally getting a watered down version of it in North Carolina after years of trying. Many lesser developed countries also use photo voter ID, and indeed it was used in all eight of the foreign elections where I served as an international election observer.

Then there are mail-in ballots which Jimmy Carter twenty years ago identified as being particularly prone to voter fraud. Instead of tightening them up as Jimmy Carter recommended, the Democrats have gone loosey-goosey with them, making voter fraud much easier. Indeed, a few Democrat controlled states have gone ALL mail-in ballots. None of the foreign elections where I served as an international election observer allowed any mail-in ballots at all.

There are other examples where the Democrats have gone the opposite direction from the Carter Commission's recommendations, and in doing so, they have made our elections less secure.

The biggest red flag in 2020 was kicking Republican election observers out of the ballot counting rooms in mulitiple key big urban counties in swing states. In none of the eight foreign elections where I was an international election observer was there ever even a hint of kicking out party election observers or civil society election observers. That is something that would be expected in a Third World police state.

Commented: Friday, September 1st, 2023 @ 11:56 am By: Steven P. Rader

It a battle of the wits, you are totally unarmed, Bob. All you can do is rehash generalities fed to you by your extreme left talking points, and many of those are bogus. You do not discuss specifics on anything, because those are way over your head. Do some research of your own and you might learn something to be able to discuss things intelligently for a change.

The United States Constitution gives states the authority to determine election rules and as a result there are wide variations among the states. For example, a few states are all mail-in while others have very limited mail-in provisions. Mail-in ballots are some of the most problematic on fraud, as none other than Jimmy Carter pointed out. Procedures to verify initial registrations and to remove ineligible voters also vary widely and can have major impact on the quality of elections. The corrupt practice of ballot harvesting is illegal some places, legal in others, and in a gray area in still others. The list could go on.

There is also the quality of administratioon of election laws, and that also varies widely, even within a state where the very same election laws are in place. When the corrupt Tammany Hall machine was rigging elections in New York City, that did not mean that elections were rigged everywhere else in the state, for example.

Commented: Thursday, August 31st, 2023 @ 11:31 am By: Steven P. Rader

Bob, you clearly know nothing about elections except the talking points of the extreme left which you are a member of, and those are very often bogus. That is why you are quick to jump to the usual label of the extreme left for anything that does not fit their narrative, which is "conspricacy theory".

On the other hand, I have dealt with elections in many different roles, from serving as the chief lawyer for a statewide political party for five years, to serving as an international election observer in eight foreign elections, including being chief of the observation mission, training on NC election law, and being appointed by Molodova's Central Election Commission as a member of its Working Group on Campaign FInance Reform.

There were lots of red flags in the US 2020 election that should have been thoroughly investigated but were not. Without such an investigation, there is no way to tell if the election were honest or if it were fraudulent. Those who claim either are making political statements unsupported by fact.

Commented: Wednesday, August 30th, 2023 @ 12:09 pm By: Steven P. Rader

You are badly mistaken on the actual facts, Bob. Election procedures vary widely in the United States because our Constitution gives control of elections to the states and not the national government. Within states, there are areas that are well run and honest and those that are not. At the height of Mayor Daley's corrupt Chicago political machine, elections in downstate Illinois rural counties were honest and aboveboard.

After the 2000 election, a national commission was set up, chaired by Democrat former President Jimmy Carter to make recommendations on election security and ballot integrity. One of the recommendations of Carter's commission was that mail-in ballots provided a lot more opportunity for fraud than casting ballots at the polls on election day. They suggested that to the extent that mail-in ballots were used, it should be minimized.

So what did the Democrats push hard for in 2020, led by partisan Democrat lawyer Marc Elias? More mail-in ballots, the very thing Jimmy Carter said were most prone to fraud.

Having election observers present is a key to honest elections. But what did the Democrats do in 2020? In key counties in multiple states they either kicked or tricked Republican elections observers out of the counting rooms, or in some cases seated them so far away that it was impossible for them to observe the count. That is simply not something that is done when one is running an honest and aboveboard election.

Commented: Tuesday, August 29th, 2023 @ 4:45 pm By: Steven P. Rader

According to the information dug out by the New York Post, those meetings with top members of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's staff at the White HOuse were with the White House Counsel's office, and that does carry a strong stench of abuse of power for election interference.

Commented: Monday, August 28th, 2023 @ 4:21 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Most Confederate soldiers were like my great grandfather and my great great grandfather. They did not own slaves and slavery had nothing to do with why they enlisted to defend their country from foreign invasion. Less than ten percent of white southerners owned slaves in 1861.

It was only later in the war that the north decided to try to make slavery their excuse for invading the south. In March 1861, the US Congress, totally controlled by the north as the first seven southern states had already seceded and withdrawn, adopted by the required super majority the Corwin Amendment to the US Constitution, which would have enshrined slavery in the Constitution and made it impossible to abolish without a furhter amendment to the Constitution, and promulgated it to the states for ratification. Lincoln specifically endorsed the Corwin Amendment in his first Inaugural Address. Even after the north decided to say the war was supposedly about slavery, they admitted yet another slave state, West Virginia, to the union to join the four other slave states that adhered to the northern governnment.

Tearing down historic monuments is what Chairman Mao Tse-Tung did in his "cultural revolution" in Communist China. Those who advocate the same thing in the US or Europe can legitimately be called Maoists. That includes you, Bob. It certainly includes BLM.

Commented: Friday, August 25th, 2023 @ 8:30 am By: Steven P. Rader

One of those reports came from the Special Counsel invetigating the Trump / Russia hoax and the other from the Inspector General of the Justice Department (inspector generals are independent of agency bosses). I think either of those officials, both of whom conducted ezxtensive investigations to prepare the reports, know a heck of a lot more on this subject than an internet troll,

Commented: Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 @ 6:35 pm By: Steven P. Rader

While the Jan. 6 set up does have some paralells with the Reichstag fire and the Nazis, an even closer playbook for the Democrats was the so-called Twitter Revolution and the Communists in Chisinau, Moldova in 2009. The Democrats in the US are a lot better in the blame game than the Communists, and they seemed to have learned some lessons in demagoguery there, but Americans are starting to see through it.

I was working in Moldova when the Twitter Revolution went down, and my office was only three blocks from where it happened. When I first heard they were going to hold the Jan. 6 protest, I immediately thought of the way the Twitter Revolution had been manipulated by the Communists.

The cause of the two events was the same, an election that reeked of fraud, and a protest over that election. The Twitter Revolution was so named because students used Twitter to get a crowd together to protest the Communist government in front of the Presidency building. The first night was peaceful, and leaders of the pro-western parties addressed the student protesters.

The next morning, the crowd was much larger with high school students joining the university students, and was peaceful in the morning. In early afternoon, a group showed up all at once with big canvas sacks full of rocks. They used the rocks to break their way into the Presidency and led the ransacking, depending on mob mentality to get students to join in. After destroying the first two floors of the Presidency, they moved across the street and ransacked the Parliament building. It was later discovered that most of this group of agitators who suddently showed up were Communist activists from rural parts of the country where they would be less likely to be recognized. The rest were criminals let out of jail on condition they participate in the attack.

The Communists went into full blame game mode. Their media control was like that of the Democrats in the US, One nationwide TV network was government run and the other had been illegally taken from Romania's TVR1, and given to a Communist money man. The news told only the Communist narrative. The government run channel, Moldova Uno, put together a "documentary" that was really a propaganda piece entitled "Attack on Moldova" and ran it repeatedly. It interspersed video of pro-western party leaders addressing the peaceful crowd with shots of the ransacking of the two buildings the next day.

Fortunately, this had a happy ending for the country, if not for the students who were beaten and a few killed by the Communist police. The Communists had not cheated quite enough and although they had a majority to elect a prime minister, they lacked by one seat the super majority needed to elect a president. The new election required by the Constitution allowed the pro-western parties to counter the frauds of the first election, and defeat the Communists, ending the last communist government in Europe. I have confidence that American voters, like those in Moldova will see through the fake blame game where J6 is a dead ringer for the Twitter Revolution.

The Communists cheating had fallen one seat short of a presidential super majaoity, so while they could elect a prime minister they could not elect a president, so the parliamentary election had to be re-run.

Commented: Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 @ 1:12 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Many NC Republicans beleive that Unaffiliated voters in the primary push the nomination to the left, not the right because it allows the Democrats to play in GOP primaries by temporarily switching to Unaffiliated, and there is anecdotal evidence that this goes on to some degree. When John McCain,a moderate, won the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, his victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina were what put him in the pole position. Both of those states are open primaries, and exit polls showed that if only Republicans had been voting in the primary, McCain would have lost both states and probably not been the nominee.

The complicating factor is that looking at voting behavior, about two thirds of Unaffiliated voters here in Beaufort County, and probably almost that many statewide, vote straight ticket Republican in the general election. Many of them are conservatives who are put out with the establishment wing of the party, but there are other electments there, too. I was on the state GOP executive committee when we voted to open our primary to Unaffiliated voters. The theory was that if we did, they would get used to voting Republican and would re-registerer as Republicans, but that has not been happening. There are two other blocks of Unaffiliated voters, those who usually vote straight ticket Democrat in the general election, which is the smallest group of Unaffiliateds by voting behavior, and those who cast split tickets. If there was a way we could exclude the latter two groups and allow those who typically vote straight Republican in the general election to vote in our primary, that would be ideal, but as a practical matter there is no way to do that.

Commented: Friday, August 4th, 2023 @ 7:13 am By: Steven P. Rader