#Senator Steinburg

[sarcasticcynic]

Since the 2020 election, North Carolina Republican Senator Bob Steinburg has been pushing the “Big Lie” conspiracy theory that Biden somehow stole it:

“In past conversations, Steinburg has said China, the CIA, the FBI and potentially a blackmail campaign against U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts are or may be involved in a long-planned coup that culminated in the November elections.”

Once all legal challenges (plus one attempted coup) failed and Biden was formally inaugurated, Steinburg finally acknowledged that Biden is president and it’s time to move on.

“Today Lady Liberty sheds a tear as Biden’s faux call for unity falls upon deaf ears at his swearing in to the Presidency.

“Our new President is sadly a crook and at least 75 million (likely more) Americans agree. This election was stolen- no one- no one will ever convince me otherwise. Where Biden and the Democrats want to take our country is frightening, beginning with their silencing of free speech, opening up our borders and further bankrupting our nation fiscally and morally. I’m sorry, Biden and Harris can not and will not ever unite us and certainly NEVER heal us. The Constitution is in grave peril and Lady Liberty is shedding more than a tear on this day.”

Or not.

Quick fact check:

“At least 75 million (likely more) Americans agree”: In reality, post-election polls show that most voters--60% in November, 61% in December, and 65% in January--believe the results of the 2020 election are accurate. Less than one-third still believe the “Big Lie,” and the vast majority of those are Republicans.

“Their silencing of free speech”: Steinburg’s post kinda disproves his own claim, no? Freedom of speech is just that, the right to speak. It doesn’t require others to listen to or believe your speech; it doesn’t include the right to preclude others from criticizing your speech; and it doesn’t insulate you from any other (non-governmental) consequences of your speech. Economic boycotts, for example. Or private platforms refusing to give you a free megaphone to broadcast your speech to a worldwide audience.

“Opening up our borders”: Trump’s vanity wall was useless, so stopping its construction doesn’t open up a damn thing.

“Bankrupting our nation fiscally”: When President Obama took office in 2009, the federal deficit was over $1.4 trillion. In Obama’s last year in office, 2016, the deficit was down to $587 billion. Under Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate, the deficit increased every single year; by Trump’s last year in office, 2020, it was at an all-time high of $3.1 trillion, more than double the previous record. Who’s bankrupting our nation, again?

One might hope Steinburg’s Republican colleagues would disapprove of, or at least disagree with, his continued false claims. One would be disappointed.

“WRAL News reached out via email Thursday morning to the other 27 Republicans in the state Senate, seeking to determine how widespread these beliefs may be. None responded beyond a statement from Senate ... leadership. ‘Sen. Steinburg is an elected member of the North Carolina legislature and can and does speak his mind. We are not in the business of policing the speech of other members, who are responsible only to the voters who elected them.’ ...

“When emails to rank-and-file Republican senators didn’t elicit responses, WRAL called seven directly. One took the call, none returned messages. ‘As far as I know, everybody in America can still have their own opinion,’ [Sen. Warren] Daniel said, ‘and Sen. Steinburg can have his.’”

[ingridb1148]

“State Sen. Bob Steinburg (R) reportedly called for the president to invoke the act and declare the results of the 2020 invalid...must declare a national emergency" and adding that "Trump should also invoke the Insurrection Act."

in case you didn’t know, republicans don’t want your vote to count. they don’t even want you to vote.

where is joe mccarthy when you need him.

[candy--heart]

Bob Steinburg says he expects heat over his stance that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

[insurancepolicypro]

Opinion | Message From a Proud Island: ‘We Want Your Assist’

I found that on Friday the 13th, one week after the storm, Gov. Roy Cooper’s workplace delivered a request for a declaration of catastrophe for public help and infrastructure to the White Home. Representatives from Senator Thom Tillis’s workplace assured me that the senator urged the president to signal it that day. On Saturday, Sept. 21, eight days after the request was despatched to the president, our newly sworn-in congressman, Greg Murphy, got here to the island and introduced that President Trump had simply signed the FEMA declaration. Our state senator, Bob Steinburg, posted on his social media accounts that very same hour that the president had signed the doc. These social media posts have now been deleted.

On that very same day, Governor Cooper adopted up the request for the Public Help Program for infrastructure restoration with a request to the White Home for help with people and households. Two days later, he got here for his second go to to the island since Dorian. His first go to was the day after the storm. The governor sat on the porch of my dwelling for 45 minutes, listening to the tales of native island matriarchs. He introduced with him the state secretaries of well being and human companies, environmental high quality, public security, the emergency administration director, the chief officer of the Division of Transportation and the brigadier basic of the Nationwide Guard, all of whom toured my dwelling, which is on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations, and had virtually three ft of water inside. Beneath a mulberry tree, the governor advised me that the information from Senator Steinburg and Congressman Murphy was unfaithful. The declarations of catastrophe had not been signed by the president.

5 days after the storm, I remembered the seaside. I put on neoprene sleeves after I swim, to carry on my prosthetic legs, however the day earlier than one other amputee on the island had misplaced his sleeve to the flood and I gave him certainly one of mine. The ocean was calm, and so I took the possibility. I swam for half an hour, however arising out of the sand ledge, a wave knocked me over and sucked my prosthetic leg off. Mates combed the seaside till sunset with out luck. Our native newspaper put it out on social media that if anybody noticed my leg to please return it to the FireMart. My leg washed up on the seaside the following day, found by my favourite bartender. For the previous couple of days, my leg has been the butt, so to talk, of the joke for my group, giving them one thing to snort at, one thing to distract them from the purgatory wherein we at the moment are dwelling. Ocracokers know that humor is the helpmate of hope. The story of my leg can be giving us hope. The ocean taketh and the ocean giveth again.

I’m a proud resident of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, United States of America. I don’t consider in divisiveness. Most survivors of disasters will let you know that there isn’t a higher trainer of equality. And whereas Ocracoke is robust and proud, and has been for over 300 years, we’ve been knocked to our knees by this one, and we’d like our fellow People and our leaders to step in and expedite assist instantly. We could have two legs to face on, however we’d like greater than that proper now.

Kelley Shinn is a author at work on a memoir.

Now in print: “About Us: Essays From The New York Occasions Incapacity Collection,” edited by Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, printed by Liveright.

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from insurancepolicypro http://insurancepolicypro.com/?p=1545

[albemarletradewinds]

Special to the Albemarle Tradewinds

When most folks think about those who represent them in Washington, D.C. or in Raleigh, some envision their elected officials out of touch. I get it. In many cases they are. The federal government has grown to become so behemoth it often seems out of control and unresponsive to the needs of the citizenry. Each district in the U.S. House of Representatives consists of almost 700,000 individuals. You want to talk with your representative? It can be a daunting challenge.

In the North Carolina General Assembly, I represent about 82,000 individuals in my House District; Senate District 1 has an additional 100,000 persons. While these numbers are large and will continue to grow as our state experiences significant increases in population, one likely could have a greater opportunity to personally interact with his or her state representative, especially if that representative considers constituent service important. I do! With me and my office, it is job 1.

When I first ran for the House in 2010 I did so in part because of my strong desire to serve. I was frustrated by seldom hearing from my representative, and if I did it was via mail or email. Was anyone really listening? I said to myself, “If I ever had the opportunity to serve in the legislature, I would do all I could to personally connect with those who reached out to me and my office for help.

I got that chance when I was first elected to the state House in 2012. Being a new legislator presented many issues and challenges and a steep learning curve. You don’t just step into a legislative seat and hit the ground running. You must stop, look, listen and learn. There are committee meetings, caucus meetings, legislative sessions, phone calls to return, letters to answer along with emails and texts. It is also imperative to learn the myriad of proper protocols including House and Senate rules of operation. There are duties to perform and events to attend, at home and in Raleigh. Legislators have a full plate.

While writing a bill of major import and then doing all you can to shepherd it to passage is a fulfilling and rewarding experience, it cannot, in my view, hold a candle to helping a constituent work through an issue where few or no apparent doors appear open. It is difficult for a constituent to try and navigate through unchartered, seemingly unnavigable and sadly all too often, the unfriendly waters of a government bureaucracy. The most satisfying aspect of being an elected representative is to help charter the course to get those problems or issues resolved. It is most important that a representative be there for their constituents when they need them most. Nothing is more important to me than this.

In almost six years of representing the citizens of North Carolina House District 1, I have received many requests for help. Some are related to things like getting a road fixed, stop signs or stop lights placed, securing a historic marker or other issues related to committees I may serve on like Agriculture, which I co-chair.

Then there is the prison crisis that was thrust upon us after the five murders of state employees last year. Four of those deaths occurred in Pasquotank County and one occurred in neighboring Bertie County. A National Correctional Institute report confirmed what many have suspected for years: our prisons are in crisis and in absolute need of reform from top to bottom. I am doing everything I can to ensure that reform is put on the front burner of the legislature and thoroughly addressed before another life is needlessly and tragically lost.

But then there are other issues that constituents need help with; the ones no one ever hears about but are every bit equally as important to those that are going through them. The young boy whose mother is a teacher who was in a horrible accident and is told that the Moms health insurance won’t pay for the specialized care he will need in Atlanta if he is to have any chance at a near complete recovery. The gentleman who called me and told me he had two weeks to live and wanted another chance at life. Could I get him into an experimental program at Duke that might extend his life? The mom who was being transferred to North Carolina but was told her special needs foster child could not accompany her because of red tape with another state. These are but three of many examples I could cite that our office has worked to successfully resolve for the folks we faithfully serve.

Serving in the legislature continues to be an honor and a privilege. I hope voters in this upcoming primary will allow me to continue to serve northeastern North Carolina in the Senate next year. Service to others is a gift from God. The General Assembly allows me to help others in ways I could never have imagined. Thank you for allowing me to serve you, the wonderful folks who call northeastern North Carolina home.

[albemarletradewinds]

Many of us who live in rural North Carolina understand the importance of our state prisons to our economy. Most are located here. They employ a significant number of people responsible for keeping us safe by maintaining security within these facilities. In fact, hardly a day goes by when we don’t see a correction officer at the grocery store, or waiting in line at the drugstore to have a prescription filled. Some are friends and neighbors we know, while others can only be identified by the patch on the sleeves of their gray or blue shirts. Other than a friendly hello or nod, we hardly gave them another thought, until April 26, 2017. That was the day that 29-year-old correction officer Sergeant Megan Callahan was brutally murdered by an inmate at the Bertie Correctional Institute.

Megan was a more than competent correction officer who loved her job. Her cold-blooded murder stunned everyone. When her family came to Raleigh, where Megan was honored by the state House and Senate, I said on the House floor that I truly hoped and prayed that her death would lead to reforms that would help reduce the chance of something like this ever happening again. Most assumed that would indeed be the case. As we learned six short months later, it wasn’t.

On October 12, 2017 at the Pasquotank Correctional Institute, a prison breakout attempt resulted in the ultimate deaths of four more correction employees by inmates. The victims: Veronica Darden, Justin Smith, Wendy Shannon and Geoffrey Howe. I suggested a legislative commission be established that would review prison management and conditions from top to bottom, including the operations of Correction Enterprises. The next day the Department of Corrections stated they were going to have an independent investigation conducted at both Bertie and Pasquotank. In my view, too little too late. Any investigation needs to be system wide. The problems are systemic.

For the last many months I have been speaking with corrections personnel from many of the 55 correction facilities across the state. They have been sharing information with me about what amounts to a “Secret Society” that exists within a closed circle of management. It protects the misdeeds of those in power from ever being reported. This includes inmates. Employees at lower levels are told by management that, “Not a word will be spoken about what goes on within these walls or it will be trouble for you; even your job!”

There is little or no trust by correction officers in management. Correction officers and other prison staff are beyond frustrated by the continuing downward spiral within the system including the lack of adequate security and support for them to do their jobs properly as well as a lack of training for newly recruited officers. They are being forced to put up with rampant gang activity. In addition, on almost any confrontation between a correction officer and an inmate, allegedly management sides with inmates. Officers are disrespected and demoralized, while putting their lives on the line every day. And for what? Seasoned personnel know much of what is wrong within the system. They see it every day. The problem is no one in management listens, or seems to even care. As for those who will talk; they realize it will likely mean their jobs. This should no longer be tolerated. The folks on the inside are fed up! Unless things change for the better and soon, we will continue to see more correction officers heading for the exits and their exits to date have been unprecedented.

The Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety, of which I am a member, is scheduled to meet again in Raleigh on March 15 on the sixth floor of the Legislative Office from 1-5 PM. We will be discussing the recent 78-page NIC (National Institute of Corrections) report, a damning indictment of the Pasquotank Correctional Institute’s safety procedures or lack thereof on October 12th, 2017, the day the murders occurred. Representative Ted Davis, chairman, has invited someone from NIC to present its findings in detail to the committee and to answer all questions posed.

I am in hopes that this will begin to further expand the discussion as to how we can begin to really fix our prison system which, in my view, remains clearly out of control. I am hopeful a complete investigation, including recommendations for overall reform by a subcommittee will be forthcoming. There are still hundreds of questions that remain unanswered that will likely require bringing employees out of the shadows, by subpoena if necessary, to tell us what they know. Only then will we learn for certain if this “Secret Society” exists, and the extent to which their existence is contributing to the continuing downward spiral of our state prison system.

Representative Bob Steinburg

North Carolina House District 1