Driven to serve

By Steve Woodward

Maniacal Democrats backed by a compliant, corrupt media have made character assassination commonplace, targeting fellow Americans with defamatory smears across a decade of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Donald Trump and many in his orbit have faced baseless accusations, criminal charges and even jail time. But targeting of MAGA conservatives is not limited to the national stage. 

In North Carolina, former state treasurer Dale Folwell dedicated his career as a conservative public servant to exposing reckless spending and deceptive practices in and outside of government. During eight years as treasurer, Folwell hammered at what he called the state’s healthcare cartels and their lack of transparency.

He reduced state debt by 60 percent and cut $650 million in Wall Street management fees charged to the pension plan he managed, the ninth largest in the nation. Under Folwell, that pension grew by 43 percent in eight years to $127 billion by the end of 2024. 

Folwell was a highly visible official. He traveled the state continuously, a tireless steward protecting taxpayer dollars. Folwell’s choice for overnight stays was always EconoLodge.

During his final months as treasurer, Folwell was forced to defend his use of state vehicles. An investigation was launched amid claims he did not keep accurate travel logs. But earlier this week, a Wake County District Attorney found no cause to bring charges and closed the investigation. Of course, the DA issued no apology for conducting a witch hunt.

In fact, the man who never stopped looking for ways to save money – our money – was forced to reimburse the state more than $6,000 in bogus travel fees. 

Democrats intended to make Folwell pay the price of a tainted reputation. They failed.

Forgotten

By Steve Woodward

So-called celebrity Paris Hilton lost her Malibu, California, home amid a series of recent wildfires around greater Los Angeles. I read about it while visiting The Hollywood Reporter web site. Others enduring a similar fate, the site reports, include comedian Billy Crystal, and actors Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Ricki Lake and Mandy Moore, to name a few. Various talent agents, producers and directors also saw their homes reduced to ashes.

The Wall Street Journal reports that billionaires such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and shopping mall mogul Herb Simon are among owners of more than 12,000 structures incinerated by various wildfires.

Breathlessly, the Journal reminds its readers that many of southern California’s wealthy elite “are scrambling to find both short- and long-term housing.” A luxury real estate agent says the aftermath of the fires is “really frightening for these people.” Another says open houses for leased properties are “drawing 50 to 60 people at once, many in tears.”

Recently, I read the names of other Americans who’ve lost their homes and need temporary shelter. Vickie Revis. Kathy Varvel. Kristen Hicks. Richard Neeb. Jody Henderson. 

I found their names in news stories posted at the Asheville Citizen Times website. They are not celebrities. They are not famous. They reside in western North Carolina. Their residences after flood waters raged through on September 27 are motel rooms, campers and mobile homes. They don’t have talent agents. They are not contacting luxury real estate agents. 

“The need is so great,” says Jason Ward in Swannanoa, nearly four months after a hurricane that came ashore along Florida’s west coast roared into North Carolina’s high country. “We have people in campers. It’s a nightmare situation.” (WarRoom.org, January 15, 2025)

Between 121,000 and 132,000 homes in western NC were estimated to have been damaged by the storm. At least 104 fatalities have been confirmed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, more widely known as a four-letter word, FEMA, long ago abandoned the region. FEMA checks have allowed many in need to live in motel rooms but those funds gradually are being cut off. With severe cold and winter conditions settling, a FEMA spokesperson matter of factly told a Citizen Times reporter that 3,500 people would lose temporary housing in motels as of January 9. With a storm in the forecast, FEMA showed its compassion  by extending the deadline — by ONE DAY.

Paris Hilton’s foundation raised more than $800,000 soon after the wildfires. That’s great. Not everyone who lost a home around L.A. is wealthy and self-sufficient. In the Carolina mountains, a wealth of tireless compassion is all the folks can count on. 

“It’s neighbors helping neighbors,” said Jason Seidel in Marion. “The only thing we get is what we provide for ourselves.” (WarRoom.org, January 15, 2025)  

Josh Stein, yet another Democrat occupying the North Carolina Governor’s mansion, actually said this during his inaugural remarks: “We must overcome the unprecedented storm that ravaged our state and everyday struggles that impact our neighbors. And we will.”

He did not say why efforts to overcome were not pursued by his predecessor, Governor Roy Cooper. On January 2, Stein announced an executive order to expedite the construction of 1,000 temporary housing units. He did not say why Cooper failed to enact a similar executive order in October, November or December.

The Hollywood Reporter describes victims of recent wildfires as “climate refugees”, an absurd attempt to blame “climate change” while ignoring the root cause of the fires — Gov. Gavin Newsom and other elected officials bowing to rigid environmentalism.  

Out in California, Pacific Palisades and Malibu are bathed in brilliant sunshine that illuminates utter devastation. Celebrities and tycoons who lost homes have sought lodging in famous places like the Beverly Hills Hotel, paying thousands of dollars a night, and consoling themselves over glasses of wine in the iconic Polo Lounge. 

Back in North Carolina, in Waynesville, temperatures are dropping and snow is falling. People displaced from homes by the floods are living in 50 donated campers in an a community they call their Haven on a Hill. To make a cup of coffee every morning, gas is pumped by hand out of canisters and transferred to generators that power appliances and provide modest heating.

We’ll never forget the early days after the floods. We’ll never forget the many citizens who donated emergency supplies and the pilots who formed a volunteer Air Force to deliver them into North Carolina’s western counties. But in January 2025 we must heed the call of duty again. The crisis has not ended. In fact, it has barely subsided. What to do?

Start here:
Haven On The Hill (Waynesville, NC) 
Facebook account Click here
Appalachian United Initiative Click here
Valley Strong Disaster Relief Click here
Project Your Home Click here

MAGA 2.0

By Steve Woodward

Corrupt media, fellow deranged Leftists (do not ever again call them Liberals, an extinct ideological species since the Age of Obama) and fake Republicans are getting off to a rough start. They were deflecting suicidal tendencies on January 6, 2025, by revisiting the “horror” and “devastation” of January 6, 2021.

In 2025, Donald Trump’s election has been certified. The margin of victory was too big to rig. Thus, Vice President Kamala Harris was obligated to stand in the chamber of the U.S. Senate and read aloud the verdict of November 5, 2024, and the symbolism was beautiful. Harris might as well have been standing in the gallows. Her political future is best symbolized by a lifeless corpse adorned in a pant suit, dangling from a rope. 

Conversely, I have vivid memories of the 6 January 2021, and cherish all of them except for the bone numbing winds that gusted across the Capitol Mall that day. I was physically in Washington on 6 January 2021. (Come and get me). But patriots show up when duty calls. Always. Our nation would not exist if brave soldiers had surrendered to severe weather across the brutal years of the Revolutionary War. Yet, today, snowflake Leftists literally hide when forecasters predict … snowflakes.

Exhibit A. Here is how Josh Stein is demonstrating leadership amid the opening days of his rein as Governor of North Carolina:

“We regret to inform you that the inaugural ceremony, block party, and Executive Mansion open house originally scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday, January 11 and 12th, will be cancelled due to inclement weather and approaching winter storms across the state.

“Governor Stein and the Committee thank you for your interest in attending the events, and they were looking forward to celebrating this weekend with you all. But as with any storm, safety has to be paramount. (Emphasis added)

Democrats, as usual, have no sense of irony. They are bailing out amid a tepid forecast that might suggest wearing an overcoat even after these many months during which they’ve asked citizens of western North Carolina to be patient after incomprehensible surges of water transformed their communities into uninhabitable swamps. 

Let this sink in: Newly elected Democrats Josh Stein, Rachel Hunt (Lt. Governor), and Jeff Jackson (Attorney General) are afraid to assemble in Raleigh this Saturday to join other newly elected Council of State officers (including Republicans Dave Boliek and Luke Farley) because someone might fail to navigate a small patch of ice. But they have yet to grasp, or respond to, what life is like when your home and much of the infrastructure that supports its has been decimated by a real weather event — the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in late September 2024 that will linger well into 2025 and beyond.

The ascendency of MAGA in 2025 is not only about the return of Donald Trump to the White House and his coming role as the 47th President of the United States. It is the beginning of an era of reckoning that will demand accountability among Republicans at every level of government, from the halls of power to grass roots assemblies.

Thus, as we go forth, not only will our movement inflict pain and scrutiny on Stein and his Democrat snowflakes. This also marks the beginning of a time of reckoning for our elected Republicans, and to be clear, here is the roll call that your author will ruthlessly hold to account: RINO Sen. Thom Tillis (photo nearby). Sen. Ted Budd. Rep. Richard Hudson. NC Sen. Tom McInnis. NC Rep. Neal Jackson. The North Carolina Republican Party, specifically chair Jason Simmons. The North Carolina Supreme Court. The Moore County Board of Commissioners. The Moore County Board of Education, specifically chair Robin Calcutt and vice chair Shannon Davis. The Moore County Republican Party, specifically its divisive chair and vice chair, Tom Beddow and Bill Demastus, who have alienated untold numbers of donors and volunteers across the past four years, and who soon will be unseated.

Steve Bannon said it best. No longer is it Republicans versus Democrats. It is the Global elitist Left and compliant establishment Republicans against whom we will and must wage war on behalf of MAGA populist-nationalists. 

Winter is coming for those committed to transforming the United States into a Marxist empire and, also, for weak Republicans who have merely pretended to support the overdue upheaval that ensues on January 20, 2025, at one minute after 12 noon. Enjoy shivering in the icy shadows of irrelevance. 

Carrboro’s power play

By Steve Woodward

We probably should have seen this coming. Amid the steady, predictable demise of misguided policies imposing “diversity, equity and inclusion” on education, large corporations, small businesses, law enforcement and the U.S. military industrial complex, virtue signalers were becoming desperate. They needed to find another hill on which to DIE absent DEI.

If, in fact, DEI is destined to fail in its mission to cripple for-profit entities and elevate individuals into positions of power and influence because of their skin color or gender identity, another destructive path had to be identified. 

And now we are learning that it runs through North Carolina. Last week, underwritten by an obscure environmental activism operation with an ominous name (NC WARN, aka, Waste Awareness and Reduction Network), the municipality of Carrboro filed a lawsuit against Charlotte-based Duke Energy, a dominant coal generated electricity provider and natural gas holding company. According to the Duke Energy website the company provides services to 8.4 million customers in Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina, and provides natural gas service to 1.7 million customers across five states.

The complaint filed December 4, 2024, in Orange County (N.C.) superior court “seeks compensation for the damages that it has incurred, and will incur in the future, as the proximate result of Defendant Duke Energy Corporation’s knowing deception campaign concerning the causes and dangers posed by the climate crisis”.

NC WARN’s attorney, Matt Quinn, told The Washington Post that the town has hired consultants to assess the cost of climate-induced damages, and expects it may be up to $60 million.

Good luck covering the consultants’ fees. The suit’s filing is littered with the climate cult’s tired, baseless claims connected by hedgy words such as “may” and “likely”. 

Naturally, the petulant mayor of Carrboro, Barbara Foushee, and her band of hysterical municipal “leaders”, many of whom are indoctrinates of the University of North Carolina in nearby Chapel Hill, have completely overlooked the irony of going after Duke Energy for the sin of providing reliable energy to the town, county and state for decades.

Electricity literally lifted Carrboro out of obscurity. It was incorporated in 1911 but did not take on its present name until two years later. In 1913, one Julian Shakespeare Carr, owner of the town’s grist mill, made a generous offer to deliver electricity and expand the mill. At the time, nobody cared that Carr was a well-established white supremacist who supported the Ku Klux Klan, opposed the 15th Amendment that gave black men the right to vote, and bought the News and Observer newspaper to provide a platform to advance his views with the help of editor Josephus Daniels, a fellow, virulent white supremacist.

(Editor’s note: Daniels? Sounds familiar, huh? His grandson, Frank Daniels Jr., was publisher of the N&O for 26 years, retired and subsequently purchased The Pilot of Southern Pines in 1996. Daniels’ ancestors still own the publication to this day, and while they denounce their white supremacist DNA, we wonder what old Josephus would think of their rabid endorsement of a drag queen show in the local theater in 2022). 

The Carrboro climate zealots not only are blind to irony but also are lousy at optics. The mayor unveiled the lawsuit by staging a highly rehearsed press event in a well illuminated room with panels of electric lighting in the ceiling and a large flat panel monitor bearing Carrboro’s funky green (of course) town logo. They might have gathered outdoors as a nod to “Mother Earth”. Instead, they flipped on the lights to underscore the implausibility of life without electrical power.

One of the tenets of the lawsuit is that Duke Energy has consistently deceived citizens “into believing that climate science was in dispute, that climate change was not real, that humans were not causing the climate crisis, that climate change did not present an urgent risk to the Earth and public, that fossil fuels were not causing the climate crisis, that fossil fuels were necessary, and other such mistaken beliefs.”

The lawsuit pins all of the looming threats facing the people of Carrboro to one entity, Duke Energy, although it is undisputed that the United States has a much lower, and persistently declining, carbon “footprint” compared to other developed nations, namely China, India and Russia. But the disingenuousness does not end there.

Climate risk data analyst First Street assesses risk factors in municipalities across a spectrum ranging from flooding, fire, wind, air quality and heat. First Street chronicles one major flooding event in Carrboro, in September 2018. Ninety-seven properties were impacted. Overall, reports First Street: “The city of Carrboro has minor risk from flooding. There are 640 properties in Carrboro at risk of flooding over the next 30 years(emphasis added). This represents 11.7% of all properties in Carrboro.”

There’s more:

  • This year 11.3% of properties in Carrboro have risk of flooding. In 30 years 11.6% of properties in Carrboro will have risk of flooding, First Street projects.
  • “Dangerously hot days and heatwaves may occur more often,” First Street acknowledges. Yet, the projections do not exactly strike end-of-the-world fear in a normal person who knows better than to run a marathon in 100-plus degrees. 
  • Thirty years ago, Carrboro experienced 11 “dangerously” hot days (100+), compared to 23 such extreme days in 2024. Based on its projection model, First Street sees a possibility that Carrboro will contend with 41 sweltering days in 2054. Assuming this is accurate, Carrboro’s extreme heat days might increase at a rate of 0.6 days per year. Or not. (Across the ages, climate “changes” in both directions but that’s not a fact the climate cultists acknowledge).

Mayor Foushee was asked by a WRAL TV reporter about the timing of the lawsuit targeting Duke Energy. 

“Why not now?” said the town’s first black woman mayor (photo nearby). “The opportunity presented itself. … When you talk about righting wrongs, or facing injustices, someone has to step out and give it voice and take action.”

Based on Carrboro’s crime data, one is left to ponder as to whether the mayor is using climate as a diversion from more pressing issues. According to NeighborhoodScout.com, the crime rate in Carrboro is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Carrboro is 1 in 50. Based on FBI crime data, Carrboro is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to North Carolina, Carrboro has a crime rate that is higher than 66% of the state’s cities and towns of all sizes.

Perhaps Carrboro’s esteemed leaders are counting on the town’s propensity toward violence to further engage Duke Energy in the battle to save the planet. Who knows what a combination of fear mongering and climate religiosity might accomplish?

A former television meteorologist in San Francisco, Brian Sussman, elaborates on this frequent confluence in a new book, “Climate Cult” (PostHill Press, May 2024) 

Sussman was run out of the weather forecasting profession because he challenged “global warming” as long ago as 1996. Sussman’s book presents a road map toward exposing and defeating the war on life, liberty and property waged by the climate tyrants.

“The premise of climate change has become similar to a system of ecclesiastic belief, based on pseudo-facts and science, while manifesting traditional religious elements of guilt, revelation, repentance, devotion, and duty. … Leaders of the cult preach dreams of a new world, a pristine environment, a calmed climate, a manageable population, and universal salvation through sustainable development, which, in turn, will expunge the world of social injustice and inequity.

“This cult has its own prophets and evangelists dedicated to converting the masses through the cataclysmic messaging of fear. … Guilt is repressed through acknowledgment of (indulgence)and the subsequent pursuit of a frugal existence and reduced carbon footprint; these are all paths of self-righteousness and outward virtue.”

Duke Energy pledges carbon-zero emissions from electrical power generation by 2050. But what if the cultists decide that’s not soon enough? What if a well-educated graduate with multiple degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill or Duke University decides that Duke Energy executives have evaded responsibility for killing the planet for far too long? What if Carrboro’s lawsuit advances through the court system and stalls? 

That person wouldn’t think of making the ultimate sacrifice, would he? That person would never contemplate shooting a Duke Energy executive in cold blood on a city street, would he?

Trump ascends

By Steve Woodward

There is a Santa Claus, after all. His name is Jack Smith. Rather than jolly, he is a petulant, tormented “special counsel” who was tasked with sending Donald Trump to prison for a long time. Smith, and his enabler, Attorney General Merrick Garland, had it all figured out. Almost. They missed one detail. They never imagined Trump’s resurgence as a presidential candidate in 2024. They never thought he would win. Again.

Framing the Thanksgiving season as the start of the most wonderful time of the year is, suddenly, more than just a recitation of an old lyric. Smith has made it so by dropping, suddenly, baseless criminal cases against Trump. The highest profile was a four-count case purporting that Trump and his allies sought to “overturn” the 2020 presidential election results. An even more flimsy case also was halted — the one alleging Trump improperly retained classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago residence (though he had every right to possess them).  

Smith was unapologetic even as his pirate ship sunk into the murky waters of irrelevance. “This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant,” Smith insisted in a statement after the November 25, 2024, announcement. He would have us believe that Trump was doomed if not for those pesky elections results earlier this month. 

This, of course, ignores more significant defeats Smith absorbed at the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court throughout the arduous process. A July 1 SCOTUS ruling was the kill shot. “The court issued its landmark opinion in Trump v. U.S., which gutted the J6 case by concluding most of the conduct cited in the indictment represented official acts protected by presidential immunity,” writes independent reporter Julie Kelly. 

“Even if Trump had lost the election,” Kelly continues, “the J6 indictment would not have survived another immunity test before the Supreme Court.”

If Smith is Santa, assign head elf status to New York Judge Juan Marchan, who recently delayed indefinitely the sentencing of Trump in connection with 34 so-called felony convictions Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg manufactured last summer. Like Smith, Marchan faced the reality that the persistent “lawfare” gig is up. It’s over, folks. Trump dodged a real bullet and now has been spared this unprecedented judicial firing squad.  

Our American legal system is not as fungible as those who sought to exploit it had presumed. This year we can ignore seasonal advertising campaigns to ignite our Christmas “spirit”. Instead, in this historic season, we can embrace something much more inspiring than a TV ad showcasing a Mercedes-Benz topped by a giant red bow covered by fake snow. 

Look no further than the pollsters. They have pivoted from swing state prognostication on Trump vs. Harris to polls seeking to gauge the “national mood”. Even some Democrats are feeling giddy, and admitting it. 

A recent CBS News/YouGov poll (November 19-22, 2024) instructs us that more than half of Americans (55%) feel happy or satisfied about Trump’s win. Even more revealing is this: Among Democrats surveyed in the same poll, 56% said they are motivated to support Trump or, at least, are not motivated either way (to support or oppose his policies). What is left unsaid is the likely conclusion that these Americans can’t imagine Trump will not deliver measurable improvements easily surpassing the Biden-Harris dumpster fire.

YouGov conducted a separate poll (November 17-19), through which we have learned that 57 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 hold a favorable view of Trump. That is staggering optimism coming from a bracket of young people who have been educated to regret their nation’s founding and condemn its inherent racism and inequality. In fact, the further we are removed from Election Day’s verdict, the more that palpable optimism is building among the youngsters. Trump’s favorability increased by 19 points compared to YouGov’s poll posing the same question between November 9 and 12.

I encountered a young man who is part of the 18-29 demographic after he arrived in Pinehurst for Thanksgiving week. He attends an elite East Coast university where woke anti-semites have protested to demand a “free Palestine”. But none of that was on his mind when our paths crossed.

Without prompting this came out: “I’m so happy that we have a new president,” he said. 

So much for college kids being swept up by a Harris-Walz wave of joy. It’s beautiful to behold. College students rejected them. Black men abandoned them. Hispanic voters will be taken for granted by Democrats no longer. Consider that in 2020 about one-third of Hispanic Catholics voted for Trump. He saw their support surge to 53% in this election, according to CNN exit polling.

A concerted effort by Ralph Reed and his Faith and Freedom Coalition to inspire Christian voters to cast ballots for Trump — a new survey released earlier this year revealed that 51% of “people of faith” planned to sit out the election (decline to vote) — delivered results, too.

From ReligiousNews.com: Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets found that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics said they voted for Trump. Among white voters, 81% of those identified as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76% in 2020.

While cable TV’s arrogant chattering class panics, as its ratings and relevance plunge toward an abyss, cultural commentator Bill Maher suggests acknowledging that the American people brutally rejected the narrative that MSNBC and CNN have repeated, first to protect a mentally declining Joe Biden, and ultimately to help people decipher Harris-Walz “messaging”.   

“(Trump) is not who I would choose to administer the colonic, but it’s not like the bureaucracy isn’t bloated,” Maher said. “It’s not like the debt isn’t $36 trillion. It’s not like there aren’t thousands of regulations that do stop people from living lives that they could live better and don’t do anything. There is woke in the military. Whatever they’re going after … I’m not going to pre-hate anything.” 

The pre-hating of Trump’s cabinet appointees already is under way. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, as it turns out, was pre-hated by Republicans who remain deeply skeptical of the MAGA movement (at their peril) even more than the media knives that were out for Gaetz. Don’t be surprised if the next act in this saga is a Gaetz boomerang that destroys these Swamp creatures, including South Dakota Sen. John Thune — the new Republican majority leader — who was fine with Merrick Garland for AG in 2021 but would not stomach Gaetz. (Thune has an ally, North Carolina RINO Sen. Thom Tillis).

Eventually, Trump will have his cabinet of disrupters and change agents, and the Leviathan will be tamed. The ascension of MAGA will not be deterred as it was during the first Trump administration. But even more glorious to behold will be the comeuppance imposed on the Jack Smiths, the Braggs, the Merchans, and the frothing D.C. judges who have maniacally jailed American citizens who entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to defend what our founders and American soldiers died for.

As legal scholar Mike Davis observes, the Conspiracy Against Rights clause of the federal code can (must) be used to charge these judges with felonies for violating the Constitutional rights of Americans. 

“These judges are culpable,” Davis said during a November 25, 2024, appear on Steve Bannon’s War Room program. 

If there is a thread of justice left in this world, these January 6 judges soon will occupy the same cells vacated after Trump pardons the patriots who sat in them and were vilified because they refused to back down in the face of a massive fraud plot in 2020. They arrived at the U.S. Capitol with a viable request: Delay certification and audit the small number of states in which massive shifts in vote totals occurred between the evening of November 3, 2020, and the following morning after which, in the case of Pennsylvania, poll workers were sent home in large numbers.

Meanwhile, the snowflakes at The Atlantic are melting down and turning on their own, placing blame for Jack Smith’s demise on AG Garland, owed to his habit of being “obsessive about proceduralism” (following the rules) because this “attention to detail meant the system failed to do the basic work of holding (Trump) accountable (for) … serious crimes.”

But what the fierce defenders of Trump Derangement Syndrome never will understand is that the 2024 election outcome never was about these sham lawsuits and court cases. They occupy a smoldering pile of discarded ploys and narratives also littered by masks, social distancing and needles that dispensed dangerous mRNA serums. 

Playwright David Mamet seizes on why voters rejected all of it and embraced Trump’s MAGA revolution. He expresses it beautifully.

“The horror of the past four years—the appeasement of terror, the slavish support of our enemies, the abandonment of the state of Israel, the assaults on free speech—seemed to me the descent into chaos which has been the end of every world power,” Mamet wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.

“Rome, Greece, Nineveh and Tyre, Babylon, Nazi Germany—all were eventually returned to dust. … The Old Testament is a record of decline of those civilizations which fall away from God; and promises that a return to his precepts will restore his grace. We know that one day America, as all things, will go one with Nineveh and Tyre. But not today.”

Not in our time. America’s comeback begins now. See ya, Kamala. Good luck, Jack Smith.